“What’s her problem?” Xiumin glanced over his shoulder after the young girl who had quietly refused Tao’s helping hand before dissolving into the crowd, leaving a frowning Tao and pissed Xiumin behind.  

“Maybe she had a bad day…” Tao turned to look over his shoulder as well, and suddenly he wasn’t there.

 Splat!

Startled, Xiumin turned around to look for his friend and found him standing in the middle of the streets in the direction they had come from.

“Zi Tao-ah!” Xiumin jogged through that growing crowd that was gathering around him, “What happen—…” Xiumin trailed off at the sight that met his eyes.  Tao was holding the shoulders of the girl that had run into him earlier(who else could be that short?), but that wasn’t what shocked the trainee; the two were covered in cake, most of it landing on the girl, with Tao having only a few splatters of frosting because of his height.

Tao kept his gaze to the apartments with a not so happy face as he answered his hyung, “I think someone threw cake from very high.” Nothing else could explain how there was barely on cake left on the platter it came with, unless the person who threw it had super strength.

The girl didn’t seem to care about the cake covering her eye, or even that it was infused in her auburn locks. Instead she was trying to clean the frosting from her cell, frantically rubbing it on the clean parts of her denim dress and leggings.

“Are you alright?” Tao asked the girl for the second time that day, removing a chunk of cake from the top of her head.  The female nodded slowly and may have thanked him for caring, but Xiumin was more interested in the index card that had been shoved into the cake prior to being thrown out the window.

  <3                     <3                         <3

<3       Happy Birthday, Freak!        <3

 <3                       <3                       <3

“Today is your birthday?” Xiumin inquired gently; the girl had been wiping the frosting off her eye, making her look like a child crying.

The girl looked up from her sleeve; lashes dry save the specks of frosting here and there, and nodded. Indeed, this day was the day she took her first breath. opened to say something until her eyes fell on the index card, and what would have been words turned into a small, halting, noise from the back of .

Tao uncharacteristically spoke up to break the growing silence.

“Why don’t you come to our place to clean up?”

 Xiumin opened his mouth to protest, but then he noticed something. Well, more like two. One was the whisperings of the crowd, the other was the girls now cake covered locket. So that’s why Tao invited her over. He exchanged glances with dark-haired boy and nodded his consent.  

The girl kept her gaze lowered as if she were embarrassed, but there was no tell-tale flush of red on her small cheeks.

“No thank—” The girl suddenly stopped talking and shuddered visibly. Something other than the warm breeze told the two men it wasn’t the cold that racked her body—and it wasn’t the way she glanced quickly to the setting sun either.

“Yes, please.”

Xiumin smirked and started going the way the girl was walking, “This way.” There were a few quick steps as the girl jogged to catch up with him. A glance backwards showed the girl close behind with her eyes focused on the ground next to him.  Tao lingered a bit behind on Xiumins other side, his phone held to his ear as he waited for the recipient to pick up.

Xiumin turned his attention from Tao when he realized he was speaking Mandarin and slowed his pace to accommodate the girls’ short legs.

“What’s your name?”  He asked. This triggered a quick sideways glance in his direction. She seemed determined not to look at them in the eye for too long.

“Lee Amira.”  Her voice was surprisingly clear for the shy demeanor she displayed—and a bit husky, as if she had been sick not too long ago.

Xiumins eyebrows knitted as he unknowingly made a fangirl-squee worthy look of confusion. That doesn’t sound like a Korean name…. Deciding the origins of her name was irrelevant at the moment; Xiumin smiled politely and introduced himself.

“I’m Kim Minseok and the tall guy over there,” He gestured with his thumb towards Tao, who now seemed to be using aegyo in mandarin to someone, “Is Huang Zi Tao,”

Amira nodded to show acknowledgment.  Silence fell around the two, the only non ambient sound being Tao speaking in excited Mandarin.  Xiumin vaguely recognized “Xie Xie” and “gege” in the conversation. Tao hung up and gave the two an excited look, deciding to hold his lips for now.

The rest of the trek to the dorm was held in an unshattered silence.

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A/N: sooo not really happy with this one :/  Tell me if i go too fast or try to put too much info in one sentence or paragraph (this is why i need a beta reader ._.)

Thanks for reading! and sorry for messing around with everything, but you might have to get used to it. i'll be messing with the title and description probably until very near the end of the story ^^;