“Thank you.” Baekhyun reached for the clean towel that Tao provided. He wiped his face after plunging his face in the water for a few minutes because he opened his eyes to remove the dust that almost made him blind. Okay, maybe he is exaggerating but that damn foreign object made his eye hurt like hell.

            “Does your eye still hurt?”

            “A bit.”

            Tao gently reached for his face and used a small flashlight to check his eye.

            “Your left eye’s still red.” Tao said. “But if you’re not feeling any other pain besides your eye, I think you’re fine now.” Tao picked up an eye drop. “This is to sooth your eye.”

            Baekhyun looked up and he lets Tao take care of him. He trusts him when it comes into taking care of him because Tao is known as an excellent doctor.

            “You’re pretty nice, aren’t you, Tao? I thought you’re just grumpy every time.” Tao doesn’t look at him after he dropped the solution to his eye. “And your hands are soft. Is it a prerequisite to doctors to have soft hands?”

            Tao still doesn’t say anything when he returned the things that he used inside the medicine cabinet. “Soft hands are worthless when you can’t even use it to any profession.”

            “You’re right. Especially to doctors like you. It’s not important if your hands are soft as cotton or as hard as a tree branch. What’s important is that you can save lives. If you’re a doctor and you can’t do that, what’s the point of having that title, right?”

            Tao became more quiet. Baekhyun noticed that Tao must have been thinking really deep at the moment. Is what he said that good that Tao is currently thinking about it that deep?    

            I’m so proud of myself!

            “You can leave.” Tao said. “Go to the clinic and let Donghae check your eye. You will be more fine if he will be the one who will take care of you.”

            “Oh, I’m fine. I’m good.” Baekhyun even patted his eye that he can’t even open earlier. “Thanks to you, I won’t get blind.”

            Tao stilled when he looked at him. Baekhyun just smiled. Now he felt much, much better. Doctors like Tao really do something magical. Like the moment when someone sees doctors, they will get well even if they aren’t even treated yet.

            Amazing!

            “Are you sure?”

            “Huh?”

            “Are you sure you’re okay now?”

            Baekhyun takes back all of the bad impression that he made on Tao. He might be a snob but Tao really had a gentle side in him, if one would allot some time to get to know him better.

            “Of course. Look.” Baekhyun batted his eyes rapidly at Tao. “See? I’m okay now. Thanks to you.”

            Baekhyun leaned towards Tao and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Well, it was supposed to land on his cheek if he didn’t move. His kiss landed on Tao’s lips instead. Because of the shock, he wasn’t able to pull away immediately and he saw through his wide eyes how Tao looked when their lips met. After a few seconds, he was able to go back to his senses and immediately distanced himself from Tao. Baekhyun covered his mouth with his hands.

            “Oh my God! I’m not doing anything bad! I don’t mean to do it! I didn’t mean—gosh!”

            Baekhyun covered his face with his hands and screamed because of so much humiliation that he is in. And when he can’t stand the situation, he stood up and said his goodbye.

            “I’m really sorry! Bye—ouch! Damn!” Baekhyun tumbled on the carpeted floor followed by a shooting pain on his foot when it got caught on the leg of the coffee table. He can see the blood flowing out of his knee. “Oh, damn! Not again!”

            The embarrassment that he felt earlier was replaced by the pain. So he went back to the couch and picked up a cotton ball to wipe the blood on his knee.

            “Can I have one? I’m sorry…”

            Baekhyun didn’t look at Tao who is standing in front of him. He just focused on his wound caused by his stupidity.

            “I’ll bring you to the clinic.”

            “No, Tao. This is just a simple scratch caused by my stupidity. I can handle this. Ouch…”

            “It might get infected.”

            “No, I can handle this.” Baekhyun blew on his wound. “I’m fine.”

            Tao sat beside him and grabbed the cotton balls. Then he put an alcohol to the cotton. Baekhyun tightly held Tao’s hand when he tried to place the cotton on his wound.

            “I beg you, if you do that, I’ll die. If you want to get back at me for kissing you, you can do it. But not like that. I’m afraid of alcohol touching my wound.”

            “I won’t kill you.”

            Tao was insulted based on his tone. That’s why Baekhyun’s hold on his hand loosened. His scream is paused when Tao wiped the dripping blood on his leg using the cotton ball rather than putting it on his wound. While Tao is cleaning his wound—with so much gentleness—Baekhyun calmed down. Tao wouldn’t hurt him. That’s what he learned while Tao is taking care of him for the second time.

            He picked up the pillow beside him and hugged it while watching Tao take care of his wound. He can’t help but stare at Tao’s face while the other man is busy cleaning his wound. He still looked adorable as ever, but there seemed to be something bothering him. It’s because Tao’s forehead is knotted and his actions are uneasy.

            “Tao?”

            “Huh?”

            When Tao looked at him, his momentarily forgot what he is doing so he accidentally touched the cotton on his wound. Baekhyun screamed loudly. Tao looked stunned as he stood up and just watched him fan his freaking stinging wound.

            “Tao, help me fan my wound! Quick! It stings!”

            But instead of following him, Tao picked up the cordless phone and called the medics from the Exo Clinic.

-----------------------------

            “Tsk! What did you do this time? You are always acting carelessly.”

            “Sungmin, don’t scold Baekhyun. Can’t you see he’s hurt?”

            “Thanks.” Baekhyun looked at his future cousin-in-law, Sunny before looking at his cousin. “Sunny-noona is concerned to me. But my own cousin is not. How dare you?” Baekhyun said at his Sungmin-hyung.

            “How dare you your face. Where did you get that wound? And why did Tao call Donghae?”

            “Ah, it’s like this.” Baekhyun softly patted his bandaged knee. “My eye had been badly hurt because of the dust that you caused at the stable earlier. And then, handsome Doctor Huang Zitao took me to his house and took care of me.”

            “So, where did the wound on your knee came from?”

            “I tripped when I kiss—” Baekhyun bit his tongue to stop himself from talking abiout that little incident. “I mean, I tripped when I… kicked my feet in the air, you know? Yeah, dude…”

            Baekhyun cleared his throat when he noticed that all of the club members in the Riders Verandah are looking at him. When he saw their faces, no one believed what he just said.

            “You’re lying.” Yesung said, the security expert of the riding club. He is also a club member.

            “So sue me. As if everyone here never lied their whole life.”           

            Kim Heechul raises his hand. “I think I heard you say you tripped when you kissed someone. Right?”

            The people reacted. But no one dared to ask him directly. Damn that Heechul! Baekhyun starts to panic.

            “What…”

            “Zitao never held any medical instrument since he lived here in the club last year.” Kangin narrated. “That’s why we are wondering what happened and how you made him take care of you.”

            “Ah… is that it?” Baekhyun sighed in relief. Whew! I thought you’re all going to interrogate me. “I don’t have an idea either. He just took me away from the outdoor stable and brought me to his home to take care of me. Which is fine, by the way. Because if it wasn’t for him, I am blind by now. Or a corpse. So don’t you ever question Tao’s kindness. He is a good person, that’s all I can say. Siwon, I have a petition to make. Let’s make a grotto for Tao—”

            “Denied.”

            “Baekhyun.”

            Baekhyun looked at his cousin. “Hyung, I’m not doing anything wrong. I swear.”

            “I know. We just want to thank you for what you did.”

            “Huh?”

            “Tao gave up his medical profession last year. We’re thinking something bad happened for him to give up something he really loves doing.”

            “He’s not telling us anything.” Eunhyuk said. “That’s why we’re not sure of anything. Though we really wanted to know. We just want to help him if we can.”        

            “Something… happened to Tao?” Baekhyun remembered Tao’s uneasiness when he is taking care of his wound. And his reaction when he shouted because of pain.

            His cousin was right. Tao was one of the most celebrated brain surgeons in the US. He read it from the magazines and medical articles on the internet. He is well known. That’s why he is one of the people who wondered why Tao appeared on the club and became a member last year. He doesn’t focused on that because he has a lot to take care of, his business to be exact. But now that he’s able to be with Tao even for a short period of time, he became curious about the young surgeon.

            “He didn’t quit the medical field completely.” Changmin said, a pediatrician and owner of some of the famous hospitals in the country. “Because he’s still a stockholder to some of our hospitals. Though he’s not wearing a doctor’s robe again. Too bad. He’s a great surgeon. We could use his talent in this country, you know.”

            “And now Baekhyun made Tao take care of him,” Shindong piped. “There might still be a chance for him to return to his beloved field. It’s such a waste if he didn’t.”

            All of them just nodded. Baekhyun disagreed with them.

            “Maybe Tao wants to take a break from being a surgeon. It’s hard to fix someone else’s brain, mind you. So we should just let Tao if he wants to be a hermit for a while or something. You even said that he didn’t actually left the medical field completely because he is still a stockholder to some of the hospitals here and he even helped me. So maybe I am right. He merely wants a break so let’s give him a break.”

            No one answered, except to the fiancés and spouses of the members.

            “Nice one, Baekhyun.” Jongdae said.

            “You got my vote.” Kyungsoo seconded.

            “So ah…” Kyuhyun said. “Who did you kiss come? I wasn’t able to hear what you said earlier.”

            “Kiss?” Chanyeol said. “As if Tao can kiss someone. He’s stiff as a rock.”

            “I agree.” Amber said. “If Baekhyun kissed Tao first, I might believe that it happened. But if Tao did, nah. The sky will bleed first before Tao could even show signs of being a ert.”

            Baekhyun secretly frowned. So I am a ert, is that it? That’s why he decided to keep mum about the issue before it goes somewhere else. But his mind refused to keep quiet. He kept thinking about Tao and the things that could have happened to him last year for him to give up his precious profession.

            Then he remembered the kiss…

            Baekhyun covered his heated cheeks with his hands. It’s so embarrassing! Good thing the people present don’t have bionic ears or something because if they did, he’s sure that they will know that he stole a kiss from the snob but golden-hearted Huang Zitao.

            Sunny-noona smiled knowingly at him. “Look at Baekhyun, he’s blushing! Sungmin, dear, your cousin has grown.”

            “He is just thinking of the kiss he gave Tao.”

            Baekhyun threw a crumpled tissue at Heechul.

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Hello everyone! So it's almost 1:30 in the morning at my place and I'm really sleepy so I'll just proofread and edit this chapter tomorrow, yeah? :) Good night! :)