Chapter 6:

It’s been 3 weeks.

Exactly 3 weeks since Taeyong confessed to Ten and it’s been 3 weeks since his life turned to hell. It’s his own fault though, for thinking the party was all a dream and not having a freaking filter for his mouth and a boundary from his heart. He has been running out of ideas why Ten could possibly run away from him.

Maybe he’s not gay and he found me liking him disgusting?

He thought but then again he’d seen how he was with Johnny and he heard from somewhere that he used to have a thing with Yugeom.

Maybe he found me too weird and just pitied me to go as far as my friend?

But Ten seemed genuine when he hung out with Taeyong, it was almost as if he liked Taeyong back.

He emptied his mind with any possible ideas but he’s just running out. In order to think of more outrageous ideas he had to drink alcohol along with it. At first Yuta was fine going along with him, through different parties, clubs and literally just anywhere with alcohol but Yuta had to prioritize his studies and he couldn’t take care of a wasted Taeyong every night when he has a thesis to work on early in the morning. He also didn’t want to tolerate the latter so he refused on going with him the 4th night. Taeyong wasn’t really much of a drinker, he only drinks when there is a party but even then he’d limit himself to only a cup or two. Situations like this however were an exception. It’s like that time when he lost him mum and he lost count of how many soju he gulped down and people he had slept with just to somewhat heal the pain. That time though Yuta was perfectly fine going with him since he had a reason to sulk around, he even made the mistake to try and kiss Yuta just to see if it will heal any pain but he didn’t, instead he vomited on Yuta’s shoes and fell on his arms. This time however, Yuta did not want to help him. He was partly bitter from the fact that Taeyong is doing this to himself because of someone he likes and it wasn’t him. He was starting to hate Ten even if he hadn’t met him yet for that reason alone.

Taeyong was sitting on a sidewalk, neat where he just vomited. He’s at another college party but these past weeks that he’s been getting wasted, he wasn’t sleeping with anyone. He didn’t find anyone attractive enough, or more likely, he didn’t find anyone more attractive than Ten. He heaved in a sigh silently as he gulped down another bottle of cheap beer. He pulled out his phone and to his dismay, Ten hasn’t replied to his text, his seemingly cocky text that he thought for sure would get the younger to talk to him again but he realized it was just stupid and he was too embarrassed to send another one.

Just then he saw someone walk by and sat next to him. The face looked familiar but he was too drunk to remember his name, he does remember his as someone’s cousin... “that’s right” he thought, he’s that bastard’s Ten’s cousin

“Hey!” Taeyong called, more like yelled to the boy who was just sitting next to him “You’re that bastar- I mean Ten’s cousin right? The Taiwanese?”

“My name’s Winwin, and no, I’m chinese.”

“Psh, same thing.” Taeyong chuckled “Where’s that cousin of yours?”

Winwin shrugged and took out his phone

“Ohh Good call him.” Taeyong then peered at Winwin’s phone thinking he’d call Ten.

“You’re pretty drunk.” Winwin stated

“Yes” Taeyong smiled “Yes, I am pretty.”

“Drunk” Winwin added but Taeyong shook his head in response. The chinese lad sighed and stood up, holding Taeyong by the arm “Come on.”

“What are you doing? No, no let go of me.” Taeyong whined as he shook his arms out of Winwin’s gripped but he wasn’t shaking it enough for the younger to let go of him. Winwin kept dragging him till they reached a convenience store locating near the universities’ dormitory.

“Stay here, I’ll get instant ramyeon.” Winwin sat Taeyong down as he scurry off to the instant ramyeon. He also bought advil and water for the older since he knows the alcohol he drank will cause him a bad hangover.

“here, eat this and when you’re done drink, some medicine.” Winwin placed the hot instant ramyeon infront of Taeyong and the advil along with some water. He sat across Taeyong and started eating his own cup of instant ramyeon.

As Taeyong was eating he fell silent, the only noise being their slurping of noodles. Winwin watched him intently but the older was too engrossed into eating the ramyeon that he didn’t bother noticing the younger’s stares, he was scared it might resemble Ten’s.

“Why were you on the streets?” Winwin decided to break the silence

“Ah” the older exclaimed after slurping the noodles “I went out to puke but then I forgot where the party was so I just stayed there silently hoping someone will come find me, and well would you look at that! YOU found me.”

The older said this quite enthusiastically but Winwin still wore an expressionless façade. Taeyong concluded that maybe the Chinese lad didn’t understand him all too well because of that language barrier.

“How about you?~” Taeyong slurred “What were you doing out in the gutter?”

“I was about to go to the convenience store because my roommate wasn’t gonna cook dinner for me and then I saw you looked familiar and needed help, turns out I’m right.”

Taeyong let out a chuckle and mumble something like “at least you bothered to see if I needed help.” But Winwin didn’t catch that.

The next day however, Taeyong woke up to an unfamiliar place. He wasn’t surprise because lately he’s been waking up at random places. This time however, he didn’t wake up on a bed next to some random person with a throbbing head, but instead he woke up on a couch and some soup served to him on a coffee table in front of that couch with little to no headache. He looked around once more until he saw a familiar chinese lad with a bowl cut.

“Ah~” Winwin exclaimed when he saw Taeyong’s woken state “You’re awake, I made you hangover soup.”

Taeyong muttered a soft “thank you” with his raspy morning voice. He was indeed thankful because he had less of a headache and he didn’t wake up out in the streets like what happened last Friday.

Winwin was explaining about how he didn’t know which dorm room was Taeyong’s so he decided to bring the older to his dorm room since his roommate was spending the weekend at home. Then he talked about what he usually does in Saturdays and his plan for this Saturday then Winwin asked him something

“Taeyong-ssi, don’t you have classes today?” Winwin asks as he sat next to the older on the sofa

“I don’t have classes on Saturdays, just have to get something at the lab but that’s it, why?”

“I don’t have classes either, but I go to this art exhibit the art department holds every Saturdays to showcase their weekly prelims, would you like to come?”

He wanted to come, besides the fact that he appreciates art immensely he might also have a chance to bump into Ten, but that’s the point. The idea of bumping into Ten excites yet scares him at the same time.

“Sure.” He decided and Winwin smiled widely

“Great! You can go back to your dorm and I’ll meet you at the lab.”

Taeyong nodded and finished his soup.

Winwin waited for him outside the lab and Taeyong was holding a brown envelope. The younger assumed it was what Taeyong mentioned he’d get from the lap.

“What did you get?” Winwin asked out of curiosity and for the sake of having something to talk about

“Uh, just x-rays of hips and waist, for my next thesis.” Taeyong replies nonchalantly like holding an envelope filled with x-rays of hips and waist is the most common