Tao was torn between ogling the greatest pair of black pants he’s ever seen in his life or eye-molesting the most flawless human being to ever grace his presence.

He had dragged his best friends Baekhyun and Xiumin with him to the men’s clothing store in the mall for the third time this week alone. Ever since the new cashier began working Tao knew he was screwed three ways from Sunday. And not in a good way.

Not only was he too self-conscious to try on any of the merchandise that caught his eye due to the fact that the Godlike cashier might see, but he also looked like a creeper when he came into the store and didn’t try on a single damned thing. Multiple times a week. Thus, he began dragging his friends with him in order to lower his creeper status just slightly.

Glancing at the tall and light-haired man that worked the counter, Tao took his chance to grab the pants and sneak into the dressing room. They were just too perfect to pass up, even for his fear of embarrassment.

He wiggled out of his shoes and pants and lovingly the material of the black leather leggings. Soft as butter and y as a...y thing. Tao shook his head from the mindless thoughts and slipped into the pants, letting out a sigh as they fit him like a soft cashmere glove.

Completely forgetting about the gorgeous cashier, Tao walked out of the fitting room and went for the mirror that was so inconveniently placed just outside of the door. He turned his hips to the left and right trying to see how his usually unflattering back-end looked.

Magical. These pants were purely magical. His looked like he could bounce a full on quarter off of it. He never even knew that it could look that good!

So utterly immersed in looking at his own bum, Tao didn’t notice the cashier watching him with a curious look on his face. That is, not until Xiumin came up to him and gave him a small nudge in the shoulder and a fairly obvious eyebrow raise in his direction.

Tao quickly looked up in the mirror and made eye contact with him. Suddenly his palms were sweaty and he could feel all his blood rushing straight to his cheeks. Averting his gaze he darted back into the dressing room and laid his hand over his heart hoping that it might stop it from trying to jump straight out of his chest.

He changed back into his clothes quickly and peeked out of the door hoping to see Xiumin waiting. Not only was he relieved to see his best friend there, but the cashier had also disappeared from behind the counter. He let out a deep sigh of relief and reached his hand out to tug on Xiumin’s sleeve.

“Um, Xiumin? Would you buy this for me? I’ll pay you back when get outside!” He whispered to him, shoving the magical leather leggings into his friend’s arms.

“Tao. Fine, but just this once. You really need to be able to do at least this much when we’re here,” Xiumin replied, shaking his head at Tao before walking up to the register to comply to Tao’s request.

Letting out another deep breath, Tao grabbed his things and tried to quietly shuffle out of the store, not daring to take a quick peek back to see if the object of his affections was back at the counter.

This was starting to get ridiculous. Maybe he’d limit himself to only two visits a week.

Maybe.
 

Okay, so Tao was a liar. His pants were almost on fire and he was eyeing the telephone wire suspiciously. Total liar status.

He was already on a record fourth visit to the store within the week. As if he’d hadn’t embarrassed himself enough on the last visit, now he just looks weird. Well, weirder than before.

Letting out a sigh of resignation, Tao just acted as if he’d suddenly forgot something and inconspicuously made his way out of the store and walked towards the food court. There was a blue Icee with his name on it and he was gonna enjoy the hell out of it. Maybe even contemplate life like the sad little teenager he enjoyed portraying.

Maybe he’d wear some hipster glasses. Those are fun.

As he was contemplating on how he could be even more stereotypical, he nearly walked right past the Icee booth and had to make a quick backtrack to put himself in the line. He eyed the flavors and was almost scared that they had gotten rid of the blue flavor. Just as he was about to have an internal freak out he managed to spot it on his second skim across the flavors menu. Right there at the very bottom.

s. What if someone caused a scene all because someone was too lazy to properly place a flavor on the board? Blue is like the king of all flavors! The red of the gummy bears, the chewiest of all the cookies, the Dr. Pepper to all the Pibbs.

Once again Tao found himself having an internal ramble and almost stood there like an idiot while the bored looking cashier popped his gum and asked him how he could be helped.

“I’ll take a medium blue Icee please,” Tao mumbled and grabbed a bill from his pocket to give to the cashier. It was a quick and easy transaction and in minutes he was able to find a spot to sit and enjoy the world’s greatest beverage.

He sipped slowly on his Icee, letting the slush melt in his mouth as he began observing different people in the food court.

Almost half-way through his cup his happy mood came to a sudden halt as his eyes landed on the man he’d been practically stalking for the past week and a half.

Calming himself down, Tao was able to assess the situation and felt his heart stutter at the attractive man. He was wearing a simple white shirt and pair of jeans, something that would look ordinary on any one else, but he looked like he walked straight out of a magazine cover.

Tao sighed and allowed himself a few minutes of ogle time, glad to be able to see his crush in another setting other than behind the counter or stocking clothes. He was so busy concentrating on him that he almost didn’t even notice the very attractive woman set her sights on his man. Well, his crush. But he could pretend.

Knowing that there wasn’t really anything he could do about it, Tao was torn between watching the exchange or looking away.

Oh. Too late.

The woman with her gorgeous long hair teased with evil walked right up to him and threw her arms around his neck and leaned in for a kiss.

Tao decided to stop watching from there and jerked his body around to look the opposite way. His heart was beating just a little faster but there was this lump in his throat that he couldn’t seem to swallow and he felt his eyes burn and get warm. He gave his head a hard shake and tried to put his emotions under control.

It’s not as if the cashier was truly Tao’s anyways. Tao didn’t even know his name. Didn’t know anything other than the fact that he was attractive and worked in a men’s clothing store.

So it shouldn’t hurt him so much that he had a girlfriend.

But it did.

Tao, being fully disgusted with himself, tossed his half full Icee in the trash and strode out of the mall. He took deep breaths as began walking down the street, still trying to control himself just until he got home and could curl up on his bed and let himself cry where no one could judge him for it.
 

Pathetic. Pathetic. Pathetic.

Tao rolled onto his back holding his pillow over his face. He didn’t used to be such a whimpy kid, especially when it came to guys, but things had changed drastically in the last year and Tao was feeling the effects.

He was upset, small tears gathering in his eyes, but was embarrassed and angry with himself for being so upset in the first place. He had become so attached to the idea of this one perfect person and it felt like he was being ripped away from a wonderful dream.

Tao’s head was pounding with a headache, the crying having not helped one bit, and he was replaying the beautiful woman scene in his head over and over.

Maybe he needed a break.

Maybe he needed ice cream.

Maybe he could watch a horror movie for once.

Tao jumped up and first went to grab some medicine for his headache before snatching a spoon and ice cream from the kitchen.

He had only one horror movie. The Grudge. Never has he made it all the way through and the only reason he even had the movie was because Baekhyun thought it would make for a fun gag gift. Not that Tao was amused. At all.

Settling himself on the couch after putting the movie in, Tao set the volume mildly low before tossing the remote across the room so he wouldn’t be tempted to turn it off.

As the movie started Tao couldn’t move his eyes away from the screen and his hand patted around the couch for his blanket. Finally getting a grip on it, Tao pulled the blanket into his lap and glanced around the room to make sure he was alone.

The paranoia had begun to set in.

Tao’s eyes widened and he took a small bite of his Rocky Road ice cream, he leaned forward and kept himself determined to finish this movie completely without covering his eyes or hiding under his blanket.

As the music began to get more dramatic and the suspense was building he leaned forward to see what would happen next, his hands already shaking. Suddenly there was a knock at his door that made him jump so abruptly that he fell right off the couch.

Tao heard the knock again as he was rubbing his hurt bum and froze as ideas flashed through his head of a jawless woman on the other side or of a little boy appearing right behind him as he opened the door.

“Tao! Tao, are you in there? I can hear your TV. Tao?” Baekhyun’s voice came through the door and Tao scrambled up and ran to open it.

“Tao? Are you okay? Why is it so dark in here?” Baekhyun made his way inside and stopped when he saw what was playing.

He turned and looked at Tao, giving him a once over, before rushing to turn the movie off. Afterwards he clicked the light on and came back to stand in front of Tao.

“What are you doing? You’re terrified of horror movies!”

“I, uh, well I guess I just needed to be distracted. It seemed like a good idea at the time,” Tao said sheepishly, hands still a little shaky from the movie. His eyes kept darting around just in case he spotted a pale hand or dark locks of hair creeping around the edges of his apartment.
Baekhyun stared at him worriedly before bringing him to the couch to sit down.

“What happened to you today? Weren’t we supposed to meet at the mall? I got there and couldn’t find you and you wouldn’t answer your phone.”

Tao immediately felt guilty for worrying his friend and let out a deep breath.

“I went to the mall for a bit but I guess I just didn’t want to be there anymore, I completely forgot that I was supposed to meet you. I’m sorry Baek,” Tao could feel himself getting emotional again and cursed his lack of control.

“Hey. What happened?” Baekhyun asked, his hand moving to rub Tao’s knee.

“I was sitting in the food court just watching people when I saw the guy. He has a girlfriend, Baek. I don’t even know his name and I just, I was so upset. Why am I so upset? I don’t even know him,” Tao’s voice cracked and Baekhyun grabbed him in a tight hug.

“You’ve been through alot lately. Maybe you need to just stay away for awhile and focus on Tao, hm? We could go to karaoke with Baozi and maybe even go camping. What do you say?”

Tao nodded and wiped his small tears off his face. He got up to make Baekhyun some tea before shyly asking if he would stay over, he was too scared to stay alone.

Baekhyun smiled and they spent the rest of the night talking about old times and future trips and Tao could feel himself forgetting how upset he was earlier.

That night Tao went to bed with a smile on his face as he laid next to Baekhyun and dreamed of fun camping trips and singing with his friends.

Word count: 2196

Omg what is that ending.

So can I just say that right after I typed that bit about the doorbell, my doorbell went off and I'm sure I was a mix of 'omgomgomg'-heartattack- and I'm sure my expression was just horrified.

But it was just people going door to door for some reason. I was too chicken to answer.

So anyways, I know it looks like a one-shot here but it will be multi-chaptered. It will probably move faster than my Baeri fic though.

Sorry if there are any spelling mistakes, I'll re-read it in a day or so. My mind is dead with Taoris feels right now and I can't properly function.

Thank you to my subscribers and I miss all the subscribers I lost due to the server change. Hopefully they find their way back ;- ; I miss you guise.

♥ - TADA -