When I walked into the coffee shop I saw a boy with aqua hair staring at me.  I tried to look away but I felt him staring at me so I quickly went to stand in line to get my Americano.  While in line I felt someone stand behind me.  I looked back to see the aqua haired boy.  He looked at me intently with his brown eyes that had dark bags under them.  Once again I tried to look away but felt extremely uncomfortable under his stare.  I turned to face him as I said, “stop staring at me, what what do you want?”  He just kept staring at me until a kid with brown hair walked up and grabbed his arm.  The brown haired boy was a lot shorter than the aqua haired boy but seemed to act older as he bowed his head to me and said, “I’m sorry I don’t know why he likes to bother you so much.”  I scoffed, “yeah I don’t know why either, but tell him to stop staring at me like that its creepy.”  The brown haired boy softly nodded and started to pull the aqua haired kid away.  As they walked away the aqua haired boy kept his eyes on me.  I turned back around to walk up to the counter and order.  As I waited the brown haired boy walked up beside me and grabbed some straws and napkins.  I looked over at him and said, “hey what’s your name?”  He looked at me a little surprised before he said, “oh um I’m Xiumin.”  I nodded and said, “I’m Kris nice to meet you.”  I then nodded my head towards the aqua haired boy and said, “and who’s he?”  Xiumin grinned and said, “oh that’s Tao.”  I nodded as I said, “whats his problem he always seems to be staring at me when I ask him something he never answers.”  Xiumin seemed to have a sad expression on his face as he said, “well… you see he can’t talk.”  I looked at Xiumin and said, “oh he’s shy or something?”  Xiumin shook his head and said, “no I mean he talk for real, he’s mute.”  I looked at Tao wide eyed as I said, “oh man I feel so bad I’ve been giving him such a hard time, I didn’t know.”  Xiumin just smiled and said, “ nah I think he was fine with it because he likes it when people treat him normal so no one actually knows he’s mute besides me and now you.”  I stared at him a little dazed before Xiumin nudged me and said, “hey your Americano is finished.”  I looked down and took my cup from his hand before I said, “hey you mind if I sit with you guys I want to apologize for being so rude before.”  Xiumin nodded and said, “uh yeah sure.”  As I started to walk towards the table where Tao sat I felt Xiumin grab my arm and pull me back a little.  He looked at me intently as he seemed to fidget before he said, “hey um Kris just don’t act differently now that you know what’s wrong with him.”  I shook my head and said, “nagh I’ll act just the same.  He smiled and said, “hahaha thanks.”  When I sat down Tao looked at me a little surprised.  I smiled and said, “hey I want to apologize for earlier you see I’ve been having a bad day so I was a little agitated.”  He waved his hand in the air making a motion like ‘don’t worry bout’ it’.  I smiled and said, “good I’m happy we’re cool now.”  Then I looked over at Xiumin and said, “so are y’all friends or something?”  Xiumin nodded his head and said, “yeah well actually neighbors.”  I grinned and said, “oh that’s cool.”  Xiumin looked Tao then back at me as he said, “so are you in high school?”  I said, “yeah I’m actually a senior this ye-.”  Before I could finish Tao placed his fingers on my bottom lip.  I jerked back a little startled and fell out of my seat.  Xiumin jumped up and pulled me back into my seat as he began to apologize.  I looked over at Tao to see him silently laughing.  I glared at him and said, “oh you think that’s so funny huh well how would you like it if someone did that to you out of nowhere.  I reached my hand forward and touched his bottom lip with the tips of my fingers.  He seemed to go rigid as he looked down at my hand.  Then his face seemed to go pink.  I cleared my throat and pulled my hand back a little embarrassed.  Xiumin looked at Tao and said, “see he liked to touch the bottom of people’s lips when they are talking because he can feel the buzz of your voice coming out of your mouth.”  Xiumin then seemed to scrunch his eyebrows together as he said, “but that’s weird because he has only ever done that to me.”  I looked back at Tao to see his head lowered but I could still see that his cheeks were still pink.  When we all finished our drinks we decided to meet again the next day in the park

. . .

After finding out that Tao went to the same school as me I seemed to notice him more and more in the hallways, but sadly I had no classes with him.  When it came lunch time I found him sitting at a table by himself.  As soon as I got my tray I hurriedly went towards the direction of the table.  When I sat down Tao looked up a little startled that someone had sat at the same table.  When he saw that it was me he instantly smiled.  After eating my pizza I opened up my container of carrots.  I looked over and noticed that Tao wasn’t eating anything.  I nudged the container of carrots towards him and said, “here you want these?”  He smiled and then nodded as he took two carrots in his hand and dunked them in ranch dressing at the same time.  He gave one carrot to me as he kept the other for himself.  He grinned and then loudly chomped on the carrot.  I laughed a little at how some of the ranch got on the corners of his mouth.  I reached my hand out and lightly wiped the ranch off the corner of his mouth with my thumb.  He seemed to shiver a little when I touched him and he quickly tried to hide his face as his cheeks began to go pink.  I then got up and threw my tray away before I went back to the table and started to pull my back pack on.  When I looked back at Tao I saw that he was struggling with one of the straps on his back pack.  I leaned forward and helped pull his arm through the strap.  He looked up at me as I adjusted the hoodie on his jacket to lay over the top of the back pack.  I then pulled my hands away and smiled down at him.  I said, “so I guess we will meet each other after school and walk down to the park to see Xiumin?”  He happily nodded and then walked away.  I couldn’t help but keep my eyes on him as he walked away all the way until he walked inside to where I couldn’t see him.  At the end of school I had gotten out later than everyone so no one was in the hallway as I walked down the stairs.  When I made my way down the stairs I saw Tao at the bottom.  I yelled out, “hey hey I’m comin’ Tao.”  As I made it to the last step I tripped and stumbled forward.  Right before I hit the ground though I felt myself being pulled back.  Tao held me right to himself so I could maintain my balance.  When I looked down at him he seemed to be blushing again.  I smiled and said, “thanks you really saved me and my face.”  He lightly let me go and I began to walk towards the door.  Just as I was about to push the door open I felt Tao grab my hand and pull me back abruptly.  When I turned around I saw his face come towards mine.  I watched in horror as his lips pressed against mine.  At first I was terrified but the longer he kept his lips against mine I felt cozy.  As I ran down the side walk I quickly caught up to him.  When I looked at him I saw that he was crying.  I grabbed him and pulled him into a hug as I said, “hey don’t cry there’s nothing to cry about.  I smiled and said, “to tell you the truth I actually enjoyed that kiss.”  He leaned a little back and looked up at me with a tiny smile.  I nodded and said, “really I did.”  I did then said, “and you wanna know something else that was my first kiss and I’m happy that it was you.”  He smiled and pointed at himself as if to say, ‘that was my first kiss too.’  I chuckled a little and said, “now come on Xiumin is probably worried about where we are at.”  As we started to walk I grabbed his hand and intertwined our fingers.  He looked at me and then down at our hands before he smiled and started to walk at a faster pace.  When we got to the park Xiumin looked at us and then looked at our intertwined fingers.  He seemed to smirk before he looked at Tao and said, “oh so that’s why you always where staring at Kris.”  I rubbed the back of my neck with my free hand a little embarrassed.  Xiumin winked at me and said, “when I saw you in the coffee shop I knew you were different from other people and that you would understand Tao.”  Tao seemed to blush a little before he softly hit Xiumin on the arm as if to tell him to keep his mouth shut.  Xiumin smiled and said, “ok so you guys wanna play basketball now?”  We looked at each other and smiled before we quickly nodded.

… Two Weeks Later …

As we sat at the lunch table Tao turned around to get up with milk in hand.  As he got up someone walked by running into him causing him to spill his milk all over the person.   I looked back to see a kid with black hair look down at his shirt covered in milk.  The black haired boy said, “YA watch where you’re going you understand.”  Tao just looked at him a little scared.  The boy raised his hand and said, “why you little.”  He then slapped Tao across the face causing him to fall down.  I immediately stood and shoved the boy into the wall as I started to punch his face continuously.  A couple of his friends came to stop me but I just pushed them to the side and continued punching.  Then Tao leaped forward between me and the boy.  He looked at me startled and I could tell he wanted me to stop.  He softly took me by the arm and pulled me out of the cafeteria towards the stairwell.  Once in the stairwell tears began to run down my face as I said, “I’m sorry I’m sorry I just couldn’t stand for someone to lay their hands on you like that, I can’t stand anyone laying their hands on you in any way.  You’re all mine!  Tao sat beside me and pulled me into his chest.  I softly hunched down and buried my face deeper and deeper into his chest as I began to shake uncontrollably.  He softly wrapped his arms around me and laid his head on the top of my back.  When my eyes were finally dried I sat up straight and looked at him.  He looked at me and smiled as he patted my head.  Then he stood up and reached his hand out towards me.  I took his out stretched hand and stood up to tower over him.  We kept our hands intertwined all the way until we left to go home.

. . .

The next day I waited patiently on the stairs for Tao, but he never came.  I then texted him but there was no reply so I texted Xiumin instead.  Xiumin quickly texted me back saying that Tao was sick so he had stayed home.  The whole day I worried about Tao so I decided I would go to the coffee shop after school and bring him a bubble tea.  When it was finally time to get out of school I jogged down to the coffee shop around the corner.  After getting the bubble tea I made my way to Tao’s house.  When I rang the doorbell Tao quickly answered.  I saw that his face was a little pale and his lips were chapped but besides that he seemed to be fine.  Holding out a bubble tea he jumped up and down a little before taking it.  As he took it from my hand our fingers brushed and I looked at his hand to see a hospital bracelet on his wrist.  When we sat down on his sofa and the tv I pointed at his hospital band and said, “are you sure you’re better now?”  he seemed to cover up the band before he nodded his head.  When he finished his bubble tea he flung himself forward as he wrapped his arms around my neck.  I smiled a little as I wrapped my arms around him and hugged his waist tightly.  We then decided to watch an old black and white movie while we fed each other chicken noodle soup.  After the movie was over I looked down at Tao’s head in my lap to see that he had fallen asleep. I pulled a blanket over him and tried to shift out from underneath him but he turned a little in his sleep and wrapped his arm around my thigh.  I shrugged and whispered, “well I guess I’ll just have to sleep here tonight.”  I smiled as I closed my eyes secretly happy that I could be so close to him longer.

. . .

The next morning when I opened my eyes I found a plate stacked high with pancakes in front of me with a note on the side.  I leaned forward and began to shove pancakes in my mouth as I read the note.

            Kris, I went for a morning jog be back soon.- Tao

            p.s. sorry I didn’t wake you to come with me you just looked too cute sleeping. Kekeke

After eating all the pancakes I sat back on the couch to let my stomach settle.  At that moment Tao came through the door.  He softly flopped onto the couch next to me.  I looked over at him and he arched his head up towards me.  I immediately knew what he wanted and leaned forward as I lightly kissed his lips but he pushed forward making the kiss deeper.  I smiled a little as he opened his mouth ever so slightly.  When I finally leaned back to catch my breath he slipped off the couch and ran to a room somewhere.  When he returned he had a paper and pencil in hand.  He laid the paper on the table in front of me and started to scribble something down.  He then turned it to me and I silently read it.  it read, ‘tonight lets go somewhere nice for dinner I have a surprise for you.’  I arched my eyebrow as I looked at him and said, “a surprise huh?”  He wiggled his shoulders a little in an excited dance as he smiled broadly.  I laughed and said, “you’re really cute you know that.”  He softly nodded and leaned forward as he quickly kissed my forehead.  As he started to stand up I softly grabbed him and pulled him back into my lap as I said, “so what do you want to do for the day until dinner?”  He seemed to think for a minute before he grabbed the sheet of paper and wrote down ‘shopping’.  I rolled my eyes and said, “fine but you have to let me dress you up in an outfit of my choice for dinner.”  He nodded and grabbed the paper again as he wrote, ‘and I get to dress you up for dinner too.’  I softly nodded and said, “fine we have a deal.”  He happily clapped his hands and grabbed my hand as we walked out the door to begin our shopping.  When it was finally dinner time I handed Tao a hoodie and sweat pants as I said, “I want you to wear this to dinner because I think you look cute in casual clothes.”  He looked at me and smiled as he took the clothes.  He then handed me the exact same outfit but in my size.  He grabbed a piece of paper and wrote out; I guess we think alike seeing as we got the same outfit for each other.  I smiled and said, “ok let’s change we don’t want to get to dinner too late.  He nodded before he grabbed the clothes and ran to the bathroom.  I helped him pull on his hoodie and lightly kissed the crown of his head before he took my hand and pulled me out the door.  We ran down the sidewalk two blocks before we were across the street from the restaurant.  I waited impatiently before the cross walk light flicked on.  I instantly walked forward not even checking for cars seeing as it was my right away anyways.  As I stepped forward I heard someone yell.  I looked back in disbelief thinking that I heard the yell from Tao but I knew that couldn’t be true since he was mute, but before I could think about it Tao leaped forward pushing me out of the way of the car that I hadn’t bothered to look for.  I hit the ground hard as I heard the screeching of car wheels and a thump.  I lifted myself on my elbows to look sideways.  When I opened my eyes I could see a tint of red on the edges of my vision from blood running down my face.  I looked back in horror to see Tao lying motionless on the ground, but his eyes were on me as his face was contorted in pain.  I looked at his legs to see that they seemed to be slightly flattened.  I stared at him and tried to get up as a crowd of people went towards him.  A couple of people came to me and tried to make me stay still as they called an ambulance, but I brushed their hands off as I tried to get up.  My leg went out under me as I was halfway standing up and I quickly fell back to the ground.  I gritted my teeth together as I started to drag myself towards Tao.  I watched as he stared at me with pain.  He reached a hand towards me as if encouraging me that I could make it to his side.  I kept dragging myself until I was close enough to pull his head on my lap.  I looked down at him tears welling in my eyes as I said, “Tao why did you have to push me out of the way you shouldn’t be on the ground like this.”  He only smiled at me but quickly bit his lip until it bled as pain overcame him again.  I took his hand in mine and his hair with my other hand.  He reached his free hand up and my face before he said, “I love you Kris.”  Then his hand dropped and his eyes slowly shut.  I looked down at him horrified not at the fact that he had talked but the fact that it was the first and last time he would talk.  His head silently lulled back his last breathe escaping him.  I looked down at his expressionless face to see a single tear roll down his cheek.  I slowly reached my hand to his face and wiped away the tear with my thumb.  Then I wrapped one arm around his shoulders and my other around his head.  I pulled him into my chest holding him close.  I held him so close that if he was still breathing he would be suffocating, but he wasn’t.  I lowered my face into his hair hopping that I could make the energy from my body pulse his and he would be here again, but no matter how much I hoped it didn’t happen.  He was no longer with me only a lifeless body of what used to be.  Nothing more nothing less.  The next day I received a letter from the funeral home.  It was a letter that was found in Tao’s jacket that was addressed to me.  It read, ‘Kris the love of my life I love you so much and that’s why I had an operation done so I could tell you that with my own voice.  Remember the day I was supposedly sick, yeah I’m sure you remember you texted me non stop just to see if I was fine. Well I wasn’t sick I was actually getting an operation done on my vocal cords to get my voice back.  That’s why you saw that I had a hospital bracelet.  Anyway so today I asked you to go to a fancy dinner with me because I wanted to surprise you with my ability to talk.  I hope that tonight will be the best night.’ Tears started to streak down my face as I thought, ‘it was actually the opposite it was the worst night because on that night I lost you.’  I love you Tao.  You will always be my Tao.  I will never love until we meet again.  I promise.