Guys... I'm sorry I took a long time again, but Taoris is really hard for me to write. Since I ship Krisyeol like crazy.

Still, I ended up enjoying this oneshot. 

I also hope everyone who reads it will feel better!

Especially my friend GritzKauerholt who looks a little down (judging by her status). 

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Chapter 7: Taoris 

Tao was used to saying ‘no’.

Which was stupid really cause he was the young and naïve friend and Kris was the older, mature brother-like figure. So it would only be natural for Tao to be reckless and create trouble for the elder.

Instead of that, Kris, was the one causing problems with his behavior. Kris, who succeeded at everything (whether that was studies or relationships), somehow managed to throw his sensible manners away when it came to Tao and practically wreck havoc just to get his way.

His way towards Tao’s heart, that is. 

The dark-haired boy shuddered at the thought.

‘Let’s date’ Kris had said one day, three months ago. And he was damn serious, judging by the way he pursed his lips together and narrowed his eyes just a tiny bit to observe Tao closely.

He was serious, like he didn’t just ask his childhood friend to be his boyfriend right in the middle of a joint family dinner, of all times.

Kris’ mother had looked like someone just slapped her across the face and Tao’s own father made a shrieking sound that wasn’t even human, before excusing himself and stumbling to another room of the house -one without guys asking his son out in it, possibly- where he could continue crying out like a strangled whale. 

And that was only the beginning.

You’d think, like Tao had thought, that after experiencing the shame of coming out in front of his parents and his friend’s parents, Kris would give up on asking for dates and ridiculous things like that.

However, far from finished, the older guy made it his purpose in life to keep asking Tao out in the most embarrassing of ways.

On the first month of school, he decorated Tao’s desk with roses and wrote ‘Will you go out with me?’ with a red marker on top of it. It took Tao exactly two and a half hours of detention (Teacher Park didn’t seem to have a sensitivity for romance, Kris had whined earning himself and Tao an extra lengthy apology letter) to clean the desk from the red paint.

Only a couple days later there were love letters stuffed inside Tao’s locker. And in a moment that passed in slow motion according to the younger boy, the locker opened and the letters flew out of it and all around the busy hallway and into the hands of random students. On top of that, Sehun, Tao’s ex best friend, was kind enough to chant a very detailed poem about his abs for the whole school to hear afterwards.

Then there was the time Kris wrote an essay about future plan where he explicitly stated how he planned to make Tao his wifey. The worst part was that Kris was actually good with words and Teacher Choi wasn’t at all homophopic, so aforementioned essay ended up published in the school newspaper. When Tao tried to argue the usefulness of such an article, Teacher Choi pointed out that it was perfect for the entertainment section.

Tao wasn’t all that entertained.

Nor was he entertained when B1A4’s ‘Beautiful Target’ was blasting through the school with Kris announcing in voiceover that this song was dedicated to his wifey, Tao. That was when Tao started doing yoga again to calm his nerves.

However, in retrospect, it might have been a bad idea, because Kris found out soon and joined the class as well. The younger boy discovered that the expression ‘red as a tomato’ was not exaggerated at all, the moment Kris (standing in extended dog pose, no less) explained to the instructor that he and his boyfriend wanted to get a little more flexible and bendy. Tao thought he wanted to cry from embarrassment.

He actually did cry, two weeks later, during lunchtime, right in front of all his cool and manly upperclassmen from the wushu club. Kris had prepared a lunchbox for him and against his better judgment Tao decided to try and eat it just to make the older guy stop nagging. As it turned out, Kris was a big fan of spices and at the same time a horrible cook. So Tao ended up breathing fire and crying his eyes out while Kris was awkwardly telling his wushu friends how he was clearly touched because no one had ever made him lunch before.

“What is WRONG with you?” Tao snapped after three whole months of pure torture, in the middle of a busy street in Hongdae, as he was trying to unwrap himself from a red string that was long enough to create a small cocoon around the boy’s body. Kris had suddenly jumped from behind him and began wrapping the string around him, calling it the red string of destiny that was going to bring them together.

“I’m tying you down so you can’t run away from our destiny anymore.” Kris answered seriously.

“Okay, no. No. No.” This was just too much for Tao. “You need to stop this.”

“Stop tying you?” The older guy raised an eyebrow almost playfully.

“Yes! I mean… no. You need to stop all of this. All the asking out and the confessing and the flowers and the songs and the general ridiculousness.” It was not fair. Why did Tao need to be the one to show restraint here?

Kris used to be the serious hyung who looked after Tao and Tao was the person who still cried watching ‘Kung Fu Panda’ at the age of seventeen. And the younger liked it that way. He liked tickling Kris and having Kris nudge him away and mutter that he was too old to tickle people. He liked guilt-tripping Kris into doing his History projects. He liked forcing Kris to try on strange hats at the department stores and secretly take pictures of it while the other was grimacing in disgust. Tao liked having Kris babysit him.

Because that way, Tao could freely test the limits of their friendship, since Kris would be there to end the games when holding hands became too dangerous. He could hug Kris, because he knew Kris would push him away and he could kiss the elder in the cheek and then get called childish by him.

For Tao, who was sure that a relationship with his childhood friend was impossible, innocent flirting was allowed, because Kris would always stop him before it went too far.

But that was in the past.

Now Kris was the childish one and, unlike Tao, he didn’t just test the limits of their friendship. If there was a line separating friendship and romance, Kris had stomped on it, crossed it and walked about a hundred miles into Tao’s safety zone.

And it was selfish, yet Tao hated it. He hated being the one to do the pushing away.

“Why do I need to stop?” Kris asked, unaware of Tao’s inner turmoil.

“B-Because it’s not right.” Tao tried to sneak a hand out of the red cocoon and failed. “We’re friends, right? Our families know each other. I’ve spent the past ten summers of my life in your summer house. You’ve seen me running around wearing only a Pokémon swimsuit and I still remember that time you got sick from eating too much crab. I know that your father wants you to be a lawyer and your mother wants you to marry a cute Chinese girl. I know that you’re proud as hell and above everything else you want to be respected. I know all that, so it’s not right…”

Somehow, it feels like the noise from the street died down, right then. The figures around them blurred- but perhaps that was because Tao was crying and he couldn’t even wiped his eyes, because stupid Kris had tied him up with a red string of fate, or whatever.

“H-Hey, Tao… Are you c-crying?” Kris had the nerve to pout cutely, like all of this wasn’t his fault.

“Yes. I am. So what?” Tao was a famous crybaby and he had been holding it back all this while, trying to do the right thing, and now he just didn’t have the strength to care anymore.

“Why are you crying?” The younger boy glared between his tears at that.

“I’m crying because you- you’re acting like a psycho and I’m sitting here, tied with red ribbons and this is completely crazy.” And maybe, just maybe, Tao was tired of pushing.

“Bad crazy, or good crazy?” Kris took a step closer, tilting his head to the side as he waited for an answer.

 “Crazy crazy.” Tao bit back, causing the other to chuckle.

“I’m sorry.” Long fingers brushed across Tao’s face, wiping off the tears with soft . “I know I went completely overboard but I honestly-”

“I told you, it’s not right!” The younger guy turned away. “Besides, I thought you knew as well, since you’ve been pushing me away every time I hugged you.” He added in a whisper.

“I pushed you away because I thought you liked girls.” Kris spoke with ease and Tao thought everything must be so simple and clear in the elder’s mind, despite the fact that his own head was spinning.

“Not because your parents would hate it, or because people would make fun of you?” Was it possible that Kris was actually that simple-minded?

“Nope.” Tao looked up to see the other shaking his head.

“And now you suddenly started asking me out because…” It was a long shot, yet Kris’ words had gotten Tao hoping and so he couldn’t help but ask.

“Sehun told me you’ve had a crush on me for three years now. And I wanted to make up for not noticing earlier.” People at their school always called Kris fierce and unapproachable. Tao was sick of hearing it, really. If all these people could see Kris, at that moment, as the taller guy leaned over Tao with eyes that were sparkling and a warm smile on his face, they would never call Kris fierce ever again.

Because, the truth only Tao could see was that Kris didn’t look fierce, he looked passionate. And he wasn’t unapproachable, he was thoughtful. And he wasn’t complicated, he was smart and simple. And even when he tried to smirk, he always ended up laughing instead.

And thinking of all the things that he had forbidden himself to think, Tao was starting to forget why it was wrong to love his childhood friend.

“Can you please untie me?” He asked the elder with a sigh.

“Why? Do you suddenly want to hug me to death?” Kris teased, playing with the ribbons all around Tao’s torso.

“No.” Tao replied slowly. “I want to beat you to death.”

“Huh?” Kris was gaping at him now. “What did I do now? I confessed didn’t I? I already explained that I don’t care what other think about us, so what am I going to get beaten up for?”

“First of all, for being completely dense and not realizing I liked you. For torturing and embarrassing me for three whole months. And also because you haven’t confessed yet. Not properly at least. And, more importantly, for tying me up with the red string of fate in the middle of Hongdae.” Tao could continue listing reasons for hours, if he wanted to.

“Well, I’m sorry for being dense and… I’m sorry for embarrassing you and…” Because for Kris everything was easy and simple, all he did was drag the bundle of red strings that was Tao towards him, wrapping his long arms around him and grinning widely. He pressed his lips on the younger boy’s mouth in a soft peck and before Tao could even dream of returning the kiss, he pulled back, stupid smile in place and practically attacked Tao’s face with more kisses that felt like feathers tickling his skin.

“I’m really in love with you.” He said in the boy’s ear without letting go. “I was embarrassed doing all those things too. But I really love you, so I wanted to show you that I don’t care how ridiculous I might look to other people. I would do anything to prove that I’m honest to you.”

For the first time, Tao looked back on all the stupid date proposals and confessions of the past months and realized that if he had been ashamed during those times, then Kris had probably been dying of shame since he was the one writing the letters and putting the flowers up and tying another person with red ribbons.

And the boy decided that this was punishment enough for the other guy.

Then again, maybe it wasn’t.

“Fine. I got it. You are forgiven.” Tao shrugged, doing his best to hold back the smile that was threatening to take over his face. “Now untie me.”

“If I do it, do I get a date?” Kris stared at him wide-eyed as if the answer to his question was plastered on Tao’s forehead or something.

“You are in no position to bargain right now. Untie me or I’ll kick you.” The younger boy made a fake kick to demonstrate his strength.

“Oh! Wait, don’t kick me!” For a grown man, Kris sure sounded acted a lot like a kid, Tao noted, feeling just a bit disappointed that he couldn’t use his phone to take a picture of it.

After that, the older guy agreed to free Tao from the cocoon.

“But it was supposed to be the red string of destiny that binds us together. Don’t you feel bad for cutting it?” He grumbled carrying a heap of red ribbons in his hands.

“No.” Tao shook his head as he hurried to walk ahead of the other guy.

“Will you go out on a date with me next Saturday?” Kris practically glued himself next to the boy, grabbing his hand and nudging him playfully.

 “Impossible. I have an appointment with the dentist then.” Tao lied blatantly.

“Hm. Would you rather go on a date right now instead?” The older guy batted his eyelashes in a manner that he surely knew was girlish and silly.

“No way! You’re embarrassing to be with.” And it was sort of the truth, but Tao forgot to mention that he didn’t particularly care anymore.

“Then can we grab a cup of coffee as we walk back to your place?” The taller man sounded vaguely teasing and far less worried than Tao wanted him to be.

“I don’t drink coffee.” Tao decided he was going to make him beg. “Oh! And you’re still not allowed inside my place. I don’t want you to alarm my father with your crazy talk.”

“Can’t I at least have a kiss?” Kris puckered his lips ridiculously.

The younger guy snorted. “Not unless you somehow manage to tie me with the red string of fate again.” He pointed at the heap of red ribbons with distaste. Kris muttered something about wanting to do just that but fearing for his safety, which Tao chose to ignore.

“You know, for someone who’s been obsessed with me for three years, you sure look cool about us never getting together.” That almost made Tao break into fits of laughter. Was Kris still trying to prove his feelings by acting like an idiot, or had it somehow become a habit?

“I am cool…” He commented with a smirk.

“I should have expected you’ve given up on me.” Kris nagged some more. “You didn’t even say you love me back.”

“Maybe I don’t.” Tao stuck his tongue out.

“What?! That’s it!” Kris glared dramatically as he pulled the other closer and began wrapping him with the tangled strings again. “I’m not letting you go until you admit your feelings too.”

Tao couldn’t take it anymore.

He just laid his head on the crook of his friend’s neck and laughed his heart out of his chest.

“You’re laughing.” Kris pointed out jokingly. “Does that mean you admit loving me?”

“No.” Tao shook his head, enjoying the way his nose itched from being rubbed on the elder’s soft pullover.

“But you’re still laughing.” He reasoned and Tao was pretty certain Kris was smiling over his head, because the guy knew he had already won.

“I’m laughing because this,” He motioned down at the tangled red strings that were loosely tied around his body again, “looks ridiculous.”

“Good ridiculous or bad ridiculous?” Kris breathed somewhere in Tao’s hair.

“Ridiculous ridiculous.” The boy wiggled himself a little closer to lean on the taller guy.

“And yet you love me anyway.” Tao blushed up to his ears hearing this, glad that Kris couldn’t see it.

“Maybe I do, anyway.” He confessed shyly and a loud cheer ran down his neck together with the taller guy’s hot breath.

“Then are you saying ‘yes’ to the date?” Kris stepped back and shook the boy’s shoulder expectantly.

“I might be.” Tao smirked again, but clearly Kris was rubbing off on him, cause it easily turned into a full-on smile.

“Can you stop being so vague, please?” Kris pouted again.

“I can try…”

“There! You’re doing it again!  Is this payback for my crazy behavior?”

“Depends on how you see it.”

“Come on, Tao, cut it out! You said I was forgiven, so can’t we go have fun somewhere?”

“It’s hard to answer this question…”

“No, it’s not! You just say ‘yes’.”

“I could. Then again…”

“A nod would be fine too.”

“Nods are tiresome. Can’t I just lean on you and let you guide the way?”

“You have got to be kidding me! Nods are not tiresome. Nods are the simplest- wait a second! Did you just agree to go wherever I want to go?”

“It’s possible...”