Tao watched as the rain descended onto the ground from the window in a corner of the restaurant that he was in, waiting. Juxtapositing the expressions of the people outside in the rain, the atmosphere in the restaurant were lively. Tao always liked to watch people, and often create scenarios in his head of what they were talking about; it was a childhood hobby that he liked to do when he was often told to wait around. This is what helped Tao get through those lonely days.

Tao's eyes wandered around the restaurant, briefly examining the people’s faces. Their expressions of happiness and love. His eyes though, lingered upon one stranger’s face. He was tall and lean with sharp features, he seemed too perfect in Tao’s eyes that he believed that this tall stranger must not be real, just a fragment of his imagination. At first glance, this person seemed cold and miserable but this gets wiped away by his sweet smile; his smile was different, it was warm, sweet and comforting. The stranger seemed to have noticed Tao’s gaze as he looked towards Tao, making Tao’s heart skip a beat. Averting his eyes, Tao couldn’t help but feel as if the stranger was still staring.

Tao started to uncomfortably fiddle with the neatly folded tissue paper that sat on his table, he has been waiting for more than an hour now yet no one came; not even a single relative of his. Upset, Tao tried to prevent his tears from falling down but the arrival of his cake made this even harder for him. His lips trembled and his grip tightened upon the heavily creased tissue paper. “Sir, is nobody coming?” the waitress said as she set his cake down the table. Tao looked down and slowly shook his head. The waitress was nice enough and gave Tao an encouraging pat on the back and a reassuring smile. “They’ll come soon”

How soon would it be? When the cake has melted? When the food has rotten? When everyone has left or perhaps when Tao has aged another year? Tao has had bitter thoughts, but he couldn’t help it. Every year it was always like this, they would make up an excuse and leave Tao all alone for his special day. He was tired of this, tired of waiting, tired of making preparations; just tired of everything. He wonders why he makes the effort to do it every year yet the same thing just happens; he ends up celebrating it by himself.

Tao began to cry, his tears, falling down on his lap just like the rain outside. He looked down and scrunched up his face, trying to stop his tears from falling. He hated this; he hated the fact that even the littlest things could make him cry. "Are you okay?" Tao heard a deep voice, his accent was slurred, possibly not a Korean person. He looked up and saw the tall and blonde stranger. "I'm fine" Tao replied as he looked up, sniffling and wiping his tears. The stranger chuckled. Tao, who was quite offended tilted his head and gave the stranger a questioning look. "You don't look like it,” the stranger said, flashing Tao a smile. It was that smile again, that lovely warm smile. "Mind if I sit here?" he continued, not even waiting for Tao's reply as he sat opposite Tao. Tao sniffed once again and nodded at the stranger, he looked even more perfect up close. "Uh, I don't know you but happy birthday" the stranger said. This line made Tao cry even more, his tears were now flowing uncontrollably and his sobs were even louder, earning a few glances towards their table. He was probably crying like a kid now, but he didn’t care because for once someone actually greeted him on his birthday.

The stranger was now flustered, he didn’t know what he said or did that made Tao cry even more. “Ayo Kris! Why did you-“ Tao heard another deep voice approaching their table. “Whoa, Kris why is he crying? What did you do?” he said with a quite uneasy expression. Tao couldn’t see his face properly but he was sure that this other stranger has frizzy hair, almost as if he had been electrocuted. “I don’t know man, he was just sitting alone, so I figured that I should come and sit with him since you guys were really loud.” The other stranger, whom Tao learnt as Kris explained to the frizzy haired boy. “But why is he crying like this?” the other stranger said, pointing at the still weeping Tao.  “I greeted him happy birthday” Kris said, turning to the frizzy haired boy with a blank expression. The frizzy haired boy just simply nodded and left the table; Tao was slightly confused and blinked at Kris. But then a noisy bunch of 10 people, including the frizzy haired boy came and sat around Tao. He could hear different tones of “Happy Birthday”, “He’s so cute” , “Kris you made him cry” and occasionally some “When can we eat the cake?” his previous lonely and miserable table was now filled with joy and laugher. His crying has now stopped and he flashed Kris a thankful smile, Kris flashed him a knowing smile.

His birthday “party” was now over and the rain stopped, he might not have celebrated it with the people that he originally wanted to. But he was able to make 11 friends due to it. As they left the restaurant, Tao gave each one a bow and a simple “Thank you”. The last one that he had to approach was Kris,he gave Tao a smile as he greeted him happy birthday once again. “Hey,uh,I was wondering whether,uh,I could get your number perhaps ,uh just in case we want to contact you again and stuff” Kris said, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck. Tao happily obliged and wrote his number down on a piece of paper and said goodbye to Kris and his other newly found friends, making his way home with a wide smile on his face.

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It's shorter than I expected orz

Sorry,my writing skills are also a bit rusty so please forgive me.

But please comment and tell me what you think

^^

Also,feel free to give me some suggestions for my next story or a pairing suggestion?

Perhaps a sequel?