Walking through the school halls the next thing was the scariest thing I’ve done in a while. I was used to the rumors and everything but after being beaten up so bad last week I was now jumpy and nervous that at any moment Lay and his group would come out to hurt me again. I just kept a tight hold on my backpack and made sure to keep my senses aware as I walked to my locker.

            As I was opening it to get my books I felt a tap on my shoulder and nearly jumped out of my skin as I let out a small yelp. I slowly turned around as I tried to stop shaking to see who was behind me. My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw that it was Luhan. I immediately turned my back to him and went back to getting my things.

            “Tao are you ok?! I was worried that something bad happened since you haven’t been in school for a week!”

Tao slammed his locker and turned around to look at the younger boy a little upset that he dared to come up to him like he cared about him.

            “You were so worried yet you ran away and let me take the beating. You even set me up for it! And what’s the hell happened to your formalities?!” I raised my voice at him. I knew I shouldn’t be taking it out on him like this but it was his fault that I got hurt.

He lowered his head and bit on his bottom lip.

            “I’m sorry. I-I was just scared and I wanted to protect my friend Sehun. Oh and I’m actually older than you. I just pretended to be younger than you.”

            “Just like you pretended to be my friend and even kissed me. You know what, I hope you’re happy and your friend Sehun stays safe.” Was the last thing I said before walking away from the smaller boy.

            I felt bad for being so harsh on him but my still somewhat sore body told me that he deserved it. I went to my class and I soon as I walked in the rumors started.

            ‘Oh look Tao’s back.’

            ‘I heard that he beat someone up really bad and went to jail for week after being caught.’

            ‘No stupid. His dad is involved in the mafia and Tao was caught transporting some drugs for him.’

            ‘No you’re the idiot. Everyone knows his parents are dead! The drug thing might be true though.’

I just sat down in my seat and prayed for the teacher to come in soon so that they would stop talking. My prayers were answered when the teacher walked in and told the class to quiet down. Surprisingly after that there were no pieces of paper thrown at me or people kicking my chair. Class actually went by peacefully. After class I went up to the roof to eat my lunch like I always do. Except this time I took a little bit more caution and made sure no one saw me go up there. Once settled in my usual spot I started to eat and enjoy the cool spring breeze. It would almost be time for our summer break.

            As I was enjoying the weather and my lunch I felt a presence coming up on me. I quickly stood up and turned to see Luhan and someone else. I didn’t sit back down though because I didn’t know if Luhan had another trick up his sleeve. So instead I picked up my things and decided to head back inside. Luhan quickly grabbed my sleeve though.

            “Don’t leave! I just wanted to eat with you.”

            “And have me jumped again? No thanks.”

            “Alright fine. We’ll leave. You stay. Sorry for disturbing you…” He said in a saddened voice as he took his friend’s hand and started to walk away. I couldn’t stand to see him look so sad so I called him back.

            “Fine, you and your friend can stay.” I said as I sat back down in my spot. A smile came on Luhan’s face and his friend just look uninterested in everything that was going on.

            “This is Sehun by the way! He’s an exchange student from Korea that’s studying here for a year.”

            “Nice to meet you.” I said shaking his hand.

After that we ate in silence mostly well except for Luhan trying to keep starting a conversation but I would only give him one word answers. Lunch soon ended and the rest of the day went by without any confrontation. I soon found out that Lay had been suspended for doing something on Monday so he wasn’t going to be in school until Thursday which was tomorrow.

            At least I got one day of peace. I thought to myself. After school I decided to walk to Kris’ place. Until I soon remembered that I didn’t know where he lived. I also didn’t have a cell phone to call and ask him. So for a while I stood in front of the school trying to decide if I should go left or right.

            “Tao!” I heard my name being called and looked to my right to see Kris running down the sidewalk waving his arm. Once he reached me he bend over with his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath.

            “T-Tao…I made it.”

            “Why did you run?”

            “I-I remembered I never told you where I lived. I mean I know you stayed there but you never left the apartment except for when we went to your house. So I figured you wouldn’t know the way. That’s why I rushed to get here before you left.”

            “Well you were right. I was just trying to decide on if I should go left or right.”

            “We go left but before that.” Kris pulled me into an embrace and gave me a kiss. “I missed you.”

I leaned my head against his chest to avoid him seeing my blush as I said ‘I missed you too.’

            “Come let’s go.” He said as he took my hand and interlaced our fingers as we started to walk to his apartment. This time I didn’t try and pull away from his touch.

            When we got to his apartment we both took off our shoes and went to sit on the couch. Kris pulled me close to him and I enjoyed the warmth of his body.

            “So how was your day baby?” He asked as he ran his fingers through my hair.

            “It was good.”

            “Nobody bothered you today.”

I shook my head no.

            “Good. I’m glad. I don’t want you to be hurt like that ever again. Oh I almost forgot!” Kris then got up from the couch and went to get his bag. He pulled out two boxes and walked back over with them.

            “I got you something today.”

            “You don’t have to buy me things. You should save your money.”

            “I know. I was only going to get one thing but then I saw something else that I wanted you to have. Here open this first.” He said handing me the bigger box. I took the top off of it and saw a cell phone inside.

            “K-Kris! You need to return this!”

            “Nuh uh. I want you to be able to contact me if you need me. It’s prepaid but I signed you up for unlimited texting. You only have about 200 minutes though. I know it’s not a lot but…”

This time it was my turn to shut him up with a kiss. I know he was caught off guard, I mean heck I even surprised myself by doing it.

            “Kris this is more than enough. Thank you.”

            “Wow if I get a kiss for that I wonder what I’ll get for this.” He said as he handed me the smaller box. I quickly opened it wondering what it was and it was a silver charm bracelet. It only had two charms on it. One was a gold panda and the other was a gold heart with Kris’ name engraved on it.

            I felt my eyes well up with tears and they soon spilled over as I continued to stare at the bracelet. It was so pretty and I couldn’t believe he got it for me.

            “I hope those tears are happy tears.” He said as he wiped one away. I just nodded and gave him the one thing he had been asking for, for a while now. I smiled. I think I smiled the biggest smile I have in a while.

            “You’re smiling Tao! Your smile is so beautiful just like I thought it would be.” He said as he put his hands on either side of my face and pulled me into a kiss. My tears soon stopped as we continued our kiss.

            He lightly bit on my bottom lip and I figured he wanted me to open my mouth so I did. We hadn’t kissed using our tongues yet but I slowly tried to do it well. Considering the only other time I had done it was with Luhan and he mainly took the lead. Kris ended up leading though too and I had to admit that he was a way better kisser than Luhan. I was starting to get light-headed so I pulled away from the kiss to breathe.

            “What are you inhuman? Don’t you need to breathe?” I asked as I tried to catch my breath. Kris just gave me a kiss on my cheek before saying “Your kisses are all I need to survive.”

            “Stupid.” I said as I stared at the bracelet again.

            “Do you want me to put it on you?”

I nodded my head as I handed him the bracelet and stuck my wrist out. He quickly put it on and even kissed the back of my hand before lacing our fingers together. I couldn’t help but blush when he did that. I looked at the bracelet and wondered why there was a panda on it.

            “Why did you get me a panda?”

            “Because you remind me of a cute panda.”

            “Are you saying I’m fat?!” I asked teasingly.

            “You’re anything but fat. You need to gain some weight. Anyway it’s because of your cute eye bags. You must not really sleep.”

            “They’re more like birth marks. No matter how much I sleep they’re still there but if I don’t sleep they do get bigger.”

            “Well they’re cute. Maybe you should sleep less so they can get bigger.”

            “Then you won’t be able to see my eyes!”

            “Hmm…That’s true. Well you’ll still be my adorable panda even with small eye bags.”

We ended up spending some time with each other just talking and getting to know each other some more before it was time for me to go home. I didn’t want to leave Kris but we both had things to do and I couldn’t stay out all night. He walked me to the bus stop and we shared a small kiss goodbye with the promise to see each other tomorrow.

            At school the next day I was floating on a cloud after my day with Kris yesterday. The bracelet he gave me yesterday jingling slightly on my wrist. As I was going to my locker halfway through the day to get my lunch and books needed for my second half of classes I felt someone turn me around harshly and slam me into my locker. When I opened my eyes after closing them because of the pain I came face to face with Lay.

            “Well look whose back. If it isn’t the little . I’m surprised you came back after running away for almost a week.”

            “S-Stop. Let go of me.” I said trying to push him off.

            “Oh look at what we have here.” He grabbed my wrist with my bracelet on it. “Did your boyfriend give you this?” He asked as he ripped it off of my wrist hurting my wrist in the process.

            “Stop! Give that back!” I screamed trying to reach for it. I was taller than Lay but he was stronger than me and he kept one hand on my chest pushing me into the locker so that I couldn’t reach for the bracelet.

            “If you want it back meet me on the roof after school and I’ll give it back to you.” He said with a smirk on his lips as he gave me one final hard shove into the locker and walked away with my bracelet.

            Should I meet him after school? What if he beats me up again?! But he has the bracelet Kris gave to me! I can’t let Kris see that I don’t have it and it’s only been one day! I have to get it!

Ok two updates! Yay! Tao is going to meet Lay after school to get his bracelet back. Let's just hope he makes it out with less injuries then last time. 

~Lolo