21: Tao's friends didn't believe him when he cried that his boyfriend was a cheater. But Tao knew the truth and it would take a lot more than "Sorry, I love you," for Jongdae to earn forgiveness. Pairing!TaoChen, Sliceoflife!AU, College!AU

"Oh my god, Tao, just shut up about it! Would you?" Baekhyun was not having any of his dongsaeng's whining today because he was tired of hearing from his twin brother's boyfriend about the fact that his brother cheated. He gave Tao an appraising look and muttered, "Personally, I don't see the appeal, but Dae loves you and he would never, alright?"

Tao huffed and pouted in annoyance because Baekhyun was the third person he'd tried to talk with about his problem and no one believed him. He walked away with his arms crossed and his feet dragging, but perked up again when he caught sight of an imposingly tall figure turning a corner ahead of him. "Yifan-ge! Wu Yifan!" Tao's shouts echoed loud enough to get the desired person's attention, but they also got him a hissed "Shut up!" from Baekhyun and a glare from the librarian as Tao made his way out the open door.

Yifan turned around at the sound of his name and waved happily as Tao approached, always happy to converse with a fellow Chinese exchange student even if the expression on his face didn't seem any more lighthearted than it had been a minute earlier. "Yo! Taozi!" Yifan used Tao's Chinese nickname endearingly and swooped in for a bear hug because Koreans might not hug someone who wasn't their significant other, but he and Tao weren't from Korea and so they did. When Tao hugged him back much more enthusiastically than usual, though, Yifan frowned slightly and looked down at the slightly shorter boy. "Careful, Taozi," he commented, eyebrows raised, "someone might think you're trying to get that boyfriend of yours angry with me."

"Not at you specifically," Tao mumbled sheepishly, his pout returned. "But he's a cheater so if he sees us together and gets upset then I think he deserves it!"

"No way!" Yifan was speechless; Jongdae was head over heels for Tao and anyone with eyes could see that. "Are you sure you aren't misinterpreting the situation, Taozi?"

Tao shook his head, seeming more angry than sad about the whole situation. "You don't believe me either," he sighed dramatically as he took a step away from Yifan with a headshake and a frown.

"It's not that!" Yifan defended quickly, wondering internally which side he should choose and how bad things could get for him if he ended up on the losing side when things got ugly. "I just think that you mean a lot to Jongdae so I don't know why he'd ruin what you two have by cheating."

"Ugh!" Tao was disgusted with his friends just then because they were all his boyfriend's friends too. "You're all on his side. I can't believe this." He his heels and left Yifan standing alone in front of the library as Tao yelled back over his shoulder, "And my boyfriend decided we were worth ruining because he's freaking competitive and he wanted to win!"

Wait, what?

Tao's assessment of the situation was pretty spot on, though, because the weekend before Jongdae had, indeed, made the choice to cheat, hoping it would gain him victory. Strangely enough, minor cheating was alright with Tao--like elbowing each other in the ribs while playing MarioKart, or lying about the cards in one's hand while trying to win at Go Fish--but cheating on the Game of Life? That was unacceptable.

They'd been playing it all of Saturday afternoon and Tao had needed to pee almost since they'd started, but he was so sure he'd win that he hadn't wanted to leave until he did. Eventually, though, his ansty movements back and forth as he tried to forget the pain in his bladder caused Jongdae to throw a pillow at Tao in annoyance, and the Chinese male had finally given up his fight and used the bathroom. Things were fine until he returned--in fact, Tao felt much better actually--but then he'd walked back into the room to see Jongdae bent concentratedly over the bank as he took a little from each stack to increase his personal holdings.

"How could you!" Tao's gasp was indignant and a little hurt; he couldn't believe that Jongdae had wanted to win so badly that he was willing to make his boyfriend upset.

Jongdae looked up, face a mask of guilt shock, and when he quickly tried to cover what he'd been doing by mixing all the bank money together with one shove, he also managed to knock the board off the table and effectively end the game. Tao had been understandably angry about it all, but it had now been three days since the incident and Tao hadn't said a word to his boyfriend since.

He talked to other people, of course, because it was important to Tao's personally-developed healing process that someone understood Jongdae's true nature. When everyone ended up doubtful, though, that had just made Tao madder, so instead of finding yet another skeptic to try and convince, Tao went straight back to the source of the issue: his cheating boyfriend. Funnily enough, Jongdae actually beat Tao to it because 1) it had been three days and Jongdae missed his boyfriend, 2) Jongdae thought Tao was being silly but he was willing to apologize to Tao if the latter found it that important, and 3) Jongdae's twin brother and a few of his and Tao's mutual friends had been either calling or texting all day to find out if he really was an "unfaithful bastard" like Tao said.

"Tao baby," Jongdae breathed a sigh of relief when he opened the door to find his boyfriend standing in front of him. "You're here. I just texted and asked you to come over."

"I saw," Tao grumbled with his shoulders slouched and his eyebrows furrowed, not wanting to admit to Jongdae that Tao had been feeling so childishly petulant that he'd seen the notification of a text message but had deleted it almost immediately without reading it. "What do you want?"

Jongdae knew his boyfriend's moods to well though, and it was with great difficulty that he hid his smile, beckoning Tao inside and asking gently, "You didn't actually read my text, did you?"

There was a flash of guilt across Tao's beautifully angular face and that time Jongdae really did chuckle aloud. "You're so cute when you're angry like this, Tao baby." Jongdae knew his amusement and his words would probably make his boyfriend angrier, but that was a risk he was willing to take. Tao frowned, making his bottom lip jut out, and Jongdae really wanted to bite it but was a little worried he might get slapped if he did. Instead, he summarized, "Why is Baekhyun calling me in the middle of class to say you called me an, and I quote, "unfaithful bastard"?"

Jongdae thought he heard something that sounded a lot like "I'll kill him" from under Tao's breath, but he must have imagined it because Tao's actual words were much less violent. "I never said that," Tao clarified with a confused grimace. "I just said you cheated on me."

"Oh. Oh!" Jongdae got it now and the whole thing made him want to laugh again. "Tao baby, now all of our friends think I have another boyfriend behind your back."

Tao gaped, thinking that all their friends must be idiots if that's the kind of cheating they'd assumed he'd meant, but he was still a little mad at Jongdae so he barely bothered to defend his actions at all. "It's not my fault they misinterpreted me. And you are a cheater, so I don't understand the problem."

That's it; Jongdae had had enough of this whole situation. It had been funny at first, but Tao was still clearly fuming and Jongdae didn't like seeing his boyfriend mad at him, even if the reason was a silly one. "Tao," Jongdae snapped, "I'm going to tell you a secret, alright?"

Tao blanched and suddenly had the horrible thought that Jongdae had a secret boyfriend after all.

Jongdae, who could read his boyfriend like a book even after three days of no communication, saw the panic on Tao's face and cleared the confusion as soon as possible. "No, no, Tao baby. Stop doing that to yourself. You're the only one for me, you know that."

Jongdae's boyfriend sniffled but inched a little closer and allowed Jongdae to take his hands. "What's the secret, then?

Pulling Tao even closer and looking up into his boyfriend's eyes, Jongdae whispered, "I had a whole secret stash hidden under the board and I could have won whenever I wanted. But then you were so excited about it and even kept yourself from using the bathroom, so I wanted to see you win because I love seeing you happy about life." He paused and Tao looked dubious when Jongdae smirked suddenly. "No pun intended."

Tao rolled his eyes because Jongdae was nothing if not consistent. "But why?" Tao wanted to know. "I'm a big boy; I can handle not winning one little board game."

"That's true," Jongdae confirmed. He'd always been a believer in giving credit where it was due and Tao was one of the least petty people Jongdae knew. "But I can't handle seeing you sad, even for a little bit, and even for a silly reason." He bit his lip because that particular plan had come back to bite him in the , but he still meant every word. "I'm sorry you thought I was such a sore loser that I was willing to cheat to win."

He looked up at his boyfriend hopefully, recognizing the signs that said Tao's anger was ebbing, and pursing his lips invitingly so that Tao would take the hint.

Tao caught the hint, at the very least, but he winked down at Jongdae and shook his head. "Nope. No kisses for you. Liars don't get rewards, even if they have very good reasons."

"Yah!" Jongdae was annoyed by how much Tao was clearly enjoying this, and could only imagine the calls he'd be getting tomorrow from his twin about Tao's claim Jongdae was a dishonest idiot or something else along those lines. When he saw that his annoyance was getting him nowhere, though, Jongdae changed his tactics and tried to look cute. "Kiss me?"

Tao shook his head and stepped away from Jongdae, removing his hands so that he could grab the Game of Life from where he'd stashed it under Jongdae's sink. (Don't ask--he'd been really angry.) "Not gonna happen," Tao decreed, smiling mischeviously as he took in adorable disappointment. "If you win, though," he offered an olive branch and Jongdae literally leapt forward at the opportunity to be intimate with his boyfriend again if he could only win the game.

"I might be willing to negotiate," Tao continued with a dark chuckle after the beat when he'd allowed Jongdae to get his hopes up. Jongdae groaned audibly and tried suddenly to rush his boyfriend, hopefully taking him by surprise long enough for Jongdae to get at least one kiss in before they started playing.

Tao's arms were too long for that, though, and his wushu awareness abilities too developed, so all Jongdae achieved was a flick in the forehead and a gleeful addition from Tao. "Or maybe not."