nightshifts

Tao huffed, throwing his jacket onto the couch. Meanwhile Luhan was saying his goodbyes to Kris outside. Tao whined, his arms extended over the counter and his head laying facedown in emotion.

Luhan walked into the room, sighing happily. He went over to Tao and pinched his cheeks as he wallowed in self pity.

"You'll open up to him," Luhan reassured, going over to feed Sehun kimchi.

"Easy for you to say," Tao grumbled, dragging himself from the counter to the kitchen table.

He glared at the couple, watching their every movement, how manefested they were into eachother. Luhan didn't seem to notice his death glare and continued to feed Sehun, while the other stared back at Tao.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Zitao," Sehun stated innocently.

"Shut up Sehun, you know exactly what I'm talking about," Tao spat, his head dropping into his folded arms again.

"We needed someone to babysit you, remember last time we left you alone?" Luhan bit back. 

"Don't remind me," Tao groaned.

"How can I not remind you?" Luhan exclaimed, "You almost broke the statue of the deer Sehun got me as a birthday present!" Sehun sat next to his boyfriend, with a quiet 'yeah' for moral support.

"I wasn't even doing wushu," Tao mumbled.

"Not valid enough of a point," Luhan flicked Tao's head.

"Well, at least leave me with someone decent, Kris may be my boss, but he doesn't have to watch over me," Tao said in despair, whimpering.

"You can spend quality time with him," Luhan defended, bringing spoon of rice to Sehun's mouth lovingly.

___________________________________________________________________________

"Thanks Kris," Luhan yells from the minivan that is rolling out of the driveway.

Kris watches from his house door as the HunHan couple's car dissapears down his long driveway and into the night.

Tao is there, standing awkwardly at the doorstep of his house, watching them leave too. He's wearing his reading glasses and a leopard print pullover.

The wushu artist turned back to him, wide-eyed. The couple had left him Tao to take care of (Tao was 21?). Which was wierd, since most twenty one year olds don't need adult supervision. But he didn't really know Tao, and being left with him felt sort of...

creepy.

But he and Luhan were childhood friends, and he respected Luhan's relationship with Sehun.

And when he heard they needed to be alone, he was forced into babbysitting Tao and taking him to work and such.

"You can come in," Kris welcomed Tao, watching as the shorter kept as much distance to him as he could.

"Nice house," Tao mumbles nodding his head. 

"Y-uh Thanks," Kris stutters stupidly when he finds that Tao has no idea where to go in his 'nice' house of his.

"Work starts in six hours," Kris smiles half heartedly while looking at his watch.

Kris is still leading Tao around his mansion of a house while Tao hums judging every part of furniture and decoration there is. To be honest, Tao doesn't really want to go to work, he doesn't want to go to anything.

But he can't back out now.

He's at his boss's house, and is, like Kris said, staying there for six excruciating hours. Which is a pretty long time to the both of them. And Tao wonders why he needs to be babysat, since he's completely capable of being alone in a house without supervision. And Tao is 21. A twenty one year old should be considered as an adult, right?

Not in the HunHan books.

Now Tao was practically stranded here, with nothing to do but have awkward conversations with his handsome boss and stare at the expensive furnishings in wonder. At least he brung his yoga mat.

"You don't mind if I stretch a little?" Tao asked the other, who was leaning on the granite counter, staring at Tao who was rolling out his mat.

"Make yourself at home," Kris offers as he takes a bite out of an apple.

Tao lays the mat out (where'd that come from), folding the corners neatly onto the wood floor. Kris watches as Tao bend over seductively, touching his toes without bending knees. Kris is questioning his uality at this point.Now, Tao is practically Kris's prey, and Tao feels sort of uncomfortable.

"Do you mind?" Tao ask, bending backward to f ace the embarrassed Wufan.

"Oh-I-uh sorry," Kris stuttered, fumbling  with the car keys he failed to remember to put away.

Just then, a curvy woman appeared on the stairway. She had blonde hair, soft facial features, and an hourglass figure. She stopped halfway down the stairs, contemplating if she should walk in on the conversation or go back to gossiping with Jessica on the phone.

She proceeded down the stairs.

"Hey Kris, what is your boyfriend doing here?" Hyoyeon mocked, grabbing a slice of watermelon from the fridge.

Tao and Kris internally screamed and continued to stutter awkwardly, explaining that they were not a couple and that they were only coworkers.

Hyoyeon shrugged, "Seems a bit fishy to meeee," Her voice hightening on the last syllable.

She dumped herself onto the couch, right behind Tao's yoga session and introduced her self.

"You can call me Hyoyeon, I'm one of many kids that my parents have had (There's seven of us),  I see you've met the ," She said, motioning towards an unsuspecting Kris.

Tao stifled a laugh when Kris tried to argue that he was very popular the ladies. 

"I am no-"

Kris was cut off by his happy-go-lucky sister, "Second base doesn't count,"

Kris blushed in defeat, slinking back behind the counter.

"Tao," Zitao bowed, still in his infamous splits position.

After that, Tao was left with Hyoyeon to gossip about the new episode of Pretty Little Liars  while doing yoga while Kris was showered with a generous amount of insults by his lovely sister for six hours straight.

Sometimes Kris wishes he were an only child.

_______________________________________________________________________

A curtain of silence was drawn for Kris and Tao while on their way to work.

Despite their usual bashful ways, the tension hung in the air, thick and hot and ual. Truthfully, Tao wasn't particularly fond of his boss, he wasn't fond of the way he smirked playfully or fixed his hair constantly or waved with only two fingers.

He was a bit more than fond.

Despite his more-than-fondness he had for Wufan he said nothing and continued to listen as GDragon spit arrogant lyrics out of the dashboard of the car.

Kris stole a rushed glance at Tao.

The silence wasn't calming, or serene, as one would think. It was awkward and stuffy. And Tao had never been alone with any people other than his family, or the HunHan butts. So naturally, as a highly unsocial person would do, he shut off the rest of the world and burrowed deep into his thoughts.

While in the midst of his thoughts, it occured to him how unqualified he was for this job. He hated clubbing, he wasn't crazy about alcohol either, and he had no experiance with hair, his hair had been jet black to the point of no return. Did he mention he didn't`t like people? And Luhan must've known this, for Tao would have to socialize with even more people to get the hang of things at the hair salon/bar.

Oh, the horror of it all.

And a few agonizingly silent minutes after they arrived to the bustle of interns and workers that were preparing for the opening of 'EXOtic bar/salon'. And Tao did not forget to snicker when Kris went on about having to thought the name himself.

When Tao is escorted to Key's office, he does not know what to think when he finds the bartender, bling bling Jonghyun, propping Key against the wall and kissing sloppily. Tao pretends to not have remembered anything and hurriedly gets the out of there because frankly, he doesn't have time for it.

He abandones the couple and leaves for Kris's office, because Luna and some girl named Amber (?) are trying to get some hair gel out of  a customer named Onew's hair. The hair gel was actually swapped for glue  (Whoops)  But wasn't confirmed an acccident nor intentional. Which was sort of great for Luna and her accomplice, because now they could actually get to cut Onew's awfully long hair, so he'd look somewhat appealling to those Noonas who'd show up from time to time.

Tao scurried through the bustling hall of coworkers and hairstylist until he stopped at what he remembered to be Kris`s office. Tao stopped to read a sign above the door with the word "boss" scribbled out in blue pen and the word "face" scrawled messily below in the same ink. Tao was about to make his way into Kris`s office when a boyish figure appeared at his side.

"I'm Chen," he introduced, bowing to Tao like a noble prince. But before Tao could take his hand, a wild Kris appeared in the doorway.

"Ohhh, no no no," Kris chuckled nervously when he was met with the fact that Chen was already seducing Tao with his charming ways. Kris pushed the two away from each other, ushering Tao to retreat into his office, while telling Chen the troll to off or say goodbye to his job. After Kris has shut the door on Chen's face, he spins on his heels to find the nervous Tao leaning against his desk.

"Sorry...About him, my father wanted him in on the business, couldn't do anything about it" Kris explained as he walked over to his desk.

He dropped himself into the seat while eyeing Tao up and down.

"So what do you need?" Kris asks and Tao replies dumbly.

"I'm sorry, what?" Tao says, returning to earth.

"Well you came here, what do you want?"

"Oh- I wanted to see what you uhm, if you needed coffee (?)" Tao answered nervously, while Kris didn't seem to buy his act.

"They're at it again aren't they?" Kris says, while loading his newly-found nerf gun, unfazed by Tao who started to inch away cautiously from the blonde.

"Time to teach those motherers not to make out in the family bussiness," Kris says, equipping his gun, and walking out the door, leaving Tao dumbfounded.

Tao doesn't bother getting up to go follow Kris because it's very obvious what is about happen, and Tao did not need to have those images in his head just yet. 

A few screams echoed through the hallways and Kris returned, sweaty, and satisfied. Tao could feel himself choke laughter as Kris muttered 'justice' under his breath as he returned to his desk.

"You can stay here for now, and heh, Key will come and get you," Kris giggled as he put away his weapon.

"What's so funny?" Tao asked raising an eyebrow, having a feeling it had something to do with him.

"No, no, heh, it's-it's nothing," Kris checks his watch, "He should be here any se-,"

Key burst through the door, tugging on his uniform, a bit red and flustered.

"I have arrived," Key stated, grabbing Tao's arm and quickly escorting him out.

"Oh my god," he said speed-walking to the staff room while pulling at his hair like a madman.

'Here' Key threw over the uniform, while Tao caught it in one hand and inspected the design. so much glitter.

"Why is this my life?" Key muttered, pretty much out of his mind. Tao stared for a bit and decided to get it over with.

Tao pulled his shirt over his head and removed his pants while he was at it while Key paced back and forth.

"Oh my god." 

"What?" Tao asked pulling his vest on.

"Oh my ing god, Zitao! You're ripped!" Key said, snapping out of his haze, flailing his arms crazily. Tao unconciously covered his exposed chest.

"My good man, if I weren't dating Joghyun, you'd be mine in minutes," Key growled, slapping Tao's . Tao felt a bit violated.

Key then realized what he said and blushed.

"You heard nothing, by the way," Key added, as the two, returned to the bar.

Tao slowly was seduced by the lights and the strobe lights and went with whatever Key directed him to do. Time went by quickly, as he passed crowds of giddy women, and various groups of men, about to claim those women. Tao was slapped on the many many times while walking around, but he could feel that it was probably either Key or some drunk passerbyer. But oh boy, how tiring was the whole concept of the 'nightshift'.

At the end of the night, and into the early hours of morning, Key and Tao slumped on barstools while Joghyun lay motionless on the floor behind the counter. Tao stared at Key who was about to fall out of his chair. Key was definitely intoxicated. A feigned sob came from his mouth.

Oh no. Zitao thought.

Don't tell me he's the emotional type of drunk. No no no no.

As if it was the best time, Key brings up a sensitive past subject for Tao (you know, the one where Jonghyun and Key swap spit) and rants out about his 'obnoxious, ty boss, Kris'.

"I don't know why he ridicules me and Jonggie,"  Key says, swaying back and forth," Ya know, he would run crotch-first into any girl he saw back in highschool," Key giggles, "All because he was on the basketball team,"

"Basketball, huh,"

"Yes, Basketball. He's... still a though" Key bursts into laughter just as Luna runs through pushing an almost-bald Onew out on a stretcher.

"I really shouldn't have taken this job.... or this shift," Tao says clicking his tongue in annoyance, turning his gaze to Kris's office,

"because nightshifts really ,"

"Yeah," Key slurs, taking another swig of the bottle,"Nightshifts ," 

Just before Tao can agree, Key faceplants onto the floor.

___________________________________________________________________________________

My well-being is nonexistent

oh dear

still waiting for those idol olympics

so gay