“Did we get everything?”

“Yes ge, we checked three times.” Zitao resists rolling his eyes but just barely as Yixing locks the door behind them.

“You know I forget things easily,” Yixing reminds him gently, smiling as he passes the younger the keys. “But since I have you, that should be easy now.”

“I’m your reminder?”

Yixing nods, picking up both of their bags. “Among other things.”

“Hm...wait ge!” Zitao follows after him as they head to the car, catching him by the strap of a bag. “I can carry my own bag.”

“I know.”

“It’s heavy, it has some of the clothes I wore to the recording today,” Zitao explains, still trying to get his bag away from the elder. “I should really carry it.”

“It’s fine, Zitao.”

“But ge-”

Yixing just shakes his head and Zitao lets it drop, pouting slightly. He’s not a child and can take care of himself. It’s just his bag, for goodness sake. He can handle that much on his own.

But Zitao’s not mad. Not really. He knows it’s just in Yixing’s nature to do nice things for people without a second thought-open doors for them, carry their stuff, never having a bad word to say.

Zitao admires that trait about his ge. He wants to be like that, someone very kind that others can look up to and to help them embrace their own heart.

But sometimes he can be a little too caught up in his own world for that to happen.

Not now though.

He chances a glance at the elder, seeing him search for their car in the parking lot. They had taken one of the staff’s since there was only the two of them and Yixing couldn’t remember exactly where they had parked, or even what the car looked like.

Smiling slightly, Zitao leads the way and Yixing follows gratefully, shivering a little in the cold.

“Why did we park so far away, honestly,” he complains under his breath but Zitao hears and without a thought, unwraps the scarf from around his neck and loops it around Yixing’s.

“Better?”

“You’ll get a cold, Zitao. You can’t get sick, I’m fine-”

“The car is close. And besides,” Zitao shrugs one shoulder “I’m still a little hot anyway. You need it more than me.”

Yixing doesn’t comment but merely smiles in thanks. They continue to walk in comfortable silence before arriving at the car parked in the corner of the lot.

“You have the keys, right?” Yixing looks at the rapper as he searches his own pockets, coming up empty-handed.

“Yes, I do.” Zitao fishes them from his coat pocket and swings them from a finger. “You gave them to me when we packed up everything, remember?”

Yixing shrugs as Zitao unlocks the car. “If you say so.” He tosses the bags into the trunk while Zitao settles in the passenger seat, leaning over to turn the car on and start the heat running. It’s pretty cold outside and it usually takes a while for the car to warm up, so it’s just habit to start it no matter what.

Yixing climbs in, shutting the door behind him and putting the car into reverse, glancing out the sideview mirrors as he pulls out of the space.

Zitao starts to fiddle with the radio, searching his favorite stations first to see if any of them were playing their song. Disappointedly, none were, so he settles on their usual one.

The elder lets him do what he wants. He’s never been picky about the station and usually lets others listen to anything they want, much different than the other hyungs who use their ‘driver’s pick’ privileges excessively.

“We didn’t have to pick up anything, did we? I could’ve sworn one of the others asked for something…” muses Yixing thoughtfully. Zitao looks over at him.

“Hm?”

“Oh nothing, I’m just talking to myself.”

“Do you honestly just forget everything or do you only do it because you just don’t want to remember it?” asks Zitao bluntly. He knows Yixing won’t be mad-barely anything does-and he’s honestly just curious.

Yixing just laughs, holding true to Zitao’s thoughts, and just gives him a smile. “It’s not like I want to not remember things. It gets annoying after a while, always having to be told things again.”

“I guess so.”

“There are some instances though, that I don’t want to remember things.”

“Like chores?” Zitao perks up, wrinkling his nose. “I do that all the time.” He bites at his lip; they’re not supposed to know. “Don’t tell the others that, please.”

“You should do your chores Zitao, they’re not that hard. And everyone chips in, so it’s not just you.”

“I know, but still…” Zitao continues to worry at his bottom lip, not wanting Yixing to scold him, or worse, be disappointed in him.

“I already knew that.”

“What?”

“I already knew you lied about your chores.” Yixing grins at him, dimples showing on his face. “You’re not a very good liar. I can see right through you.”

“Crap.” Zitao slumps down in his seat, covering his face with his hands. “If you can tell that, what about the others? Crap.”

Yixing doesn’t bother to mention that the whole maknae line lies about their chores and the hyungs have to end up doing them all anyway. He’s all too happy to do them anyway, so it’s not much of a big deal.

“I wouldn’t worry. By the way,” Yixing continues, seeing Zitao’s about to protest “How is your friend doing? You were able to see him in China, right?”

Zitao’s eyes light up and he starts to talk happily about his deaf friend that he had managed to spend a little time with while EXO-M was in China. Yixing is only half-listening, focused on the road, but even with little attention, Zitao continues to chatter brightly, saying how they did this or that.

The way he talks is so cheerful and tender and even without looking, Yixing can see the softness in Zitao’s eyes.

He smiles to himself. He might have a reputation of being conceited, but Zitao has one of the biggest hearts that Yixing’s ever known. Even with perfect strangers, the Chinese maknae is always cordial, making Yixing so proud of him. He’s grown a lot and that’s all Yixing can be grateful for.

“Um, ge? You just passed the dorms.”