Of course, there were other places in Asia that excited Sehun's spirit as much as Seoul used to, but he'd chosen this city over Manila or Shanghai or Osaka because this was the first place he'd visited after being newly single and something about this place had made his blood sing and his heart beat like it used to. Before.

 

Before he'd woken up in an empty bed, in an empty house, to a unapologetic note that simply said "I found someone who made me feel again." Before he'd told his boyfriend to just move in already since four to five nights of their week consisted of sleepovers anyway. Before they had their first date, their first kiss, their first anniversary. Before he'd even met stupid Do Kyungsoo and fallen in love with him.

 

Oh! How Sehun had missed his life before. But failed relationships are often best mended by new ones, and though Sehun had valiantly tried to convey emotionally unavailable, Huang Zitao didn't take the hint.

 

At first, Sehun thought that maybe the Chinese man didn't care that Sehun really and truly was not ready for a new relationship and that anything the two had together could legitimately be called a rebound, for Sehun at least. He'd met Tao while out clubbing after all.

 

They'd embraced the anonymity that comes when dancing with strangers, relishing the feel of two bodies pressed together and moving in tandem to the music. Afterward, Tao had walked the two of them back to his flat while a drunk Sehun ruined the feel of the evening by spilling his entire history with Kyungsoo--and homewrecker Kim Jongin--and crying his eyes out. When Sehun had woken up the next morning to find hangover soup and a note with "Sorry, work. Tao" followed by a phone number waiting by the bedside, he'd been too drowned in painful memories of Kyungsoo to think that maybe homemade Korean food in Thailand from someone who was Chinese might actually mean something important.

 

Sehun had texted a short "I'm sorry too" to the number Tao had left him. He'd meant it as a goodbye; a sort of "You're really attractive and we'd probably be good together because Thailand is a foreign country and you, at least, can speak Korean, but I just got out of a relationship and I'm not ready or looking." But Tao had taken it as an apology for Sehun's drunken behavior the night before, had replied with an "Make it up to me with dinner tonight?" and the two had been together ever since.

 

Until today.

 

Tao was newer to Southeast Asia than Sehun, so the Korean boy made it his mission to show Tao all the unique wonders that Bangkok had to offer. He'd so far taken Tao to see the royal palace via water bus, to eat curry under the shadow of the Shangri-La, to shop on the Tokyo floor of Terminal 21 while pretending neither one was missing the cities of their more northern Asia homes from which they'd both self-exiled. Tao had enjoyed seeing Thailand as Sehun did; and Sehun enjoyed spending time with Tao on non-committal, non-emotionally invested dates which were only supposed to last a few hours but most often became a few days and saw Sehun staying over at Tao's much more than the Oh boy thought he'd originally wanted.

 

Today Sehun had decided that Tao needed to experience the allure of Patpong's dark market because not to do so was missing Bangkok. So he called to ask the Chinese boy to meet him there later.

 

"Taozi," Sehun said invitingly when Tao answered the phone. "I have somewhere I want to take you tonight."

 

The man on the other end hummed in pleased agreement. "You could have just texted, you know?" Tao replied.

 

"Oh," was all Sehun said, surprised that texting Tao hadn't even occurred to him. He supposed he wanted to hear Tao's voice and told the Chinese man that. "You are my boyfriend, after all," Sehun concluded.

 

Tao clicked his tongue at the cheesiness, but Sehun knew Tao well enough by now that his boyfriend was also smiling into the phone. "Aiyo," Tao huffed out, "you didn't have to butter me up, Sehun. I would have gone anyway."

 

Sehun knew this because Tao was always more open with his feelings than Sehun was willing to be--that would not be a mistake he made again--but he just coughed to cover up the secondhand embarrassment he felt at Tao's bared emotions and his own finger-curling words from earlier. He spoke and said, "Oh! And don't eat, okay? The food is amazing and I know how you like coconut ice cream."

 

Sehun kept talking to cover the embarrassment that was still swimming in his head and painting his cheeks with blush, but now he wished he'd just stopped there. "You know, Taozi," he continued, "I like going to places with you because you're so much more adventurous with your palette than Kyungsoo ever was. He could only eat unseasoned food and only certain vegetables like--"

 

"Like broccoli and eggplant and cucumber." Tao interrupted him. "Yes, Sehun, I think that combination is weird af, but I'm aware." He paused before saying, "It might surprise you how often he appears in the stories you tell." Click.

 

Sehun knew that Tao couldn't see him even if the Chinese man hadn't hung up, but still he couldn't help but gape at the phone open mouthed for a good five minutes.

 

What just happened? Sehun asked himself, confused. He tried calling Tao back but the other man refused to answer, and when Sehun stopped by his place later, Tao had been home but refused to let him in.

 

It took Sehun a few days to realize this, but he figured he'd been so concerned about clinging to his memories of Kyungsoo that he'd missed the chance to start over with Tao and create new memories. Better memories. In making sure Tao didn't miss Bangkok, Sehun had missed Tao, and suddenly Sehun's favorite non-Seoul city was much less alive than he needed it to be.