"No, you cannot marry her!"

The cruel phrase rang again and again in the man's mind as he walked down the rocky path to where Xue Tao lived. How was he going to break this news to her?

Before he even knew it, he had already arrived at her front door. Xue Tao peeked from behind the curtains daintily, as she excitedly ran out with little steps to meet the man.

"What did they say, Yi Fan?" Xue Tao looked up at the man expectingly, her eyes bright. He had told her stories of how his parents are just, kind, and would not care about social statuses, for they were good people. But alas, he had to take all of that back.

The man, whose name is Wu Yi Fan, averted his gaze, unable to look directly into the other's eyes. Xue Tao tried to meet his eyes, but to no avail. Suddenly, she had a sinking feeling in her stomach.

Yi Fan laid a gentle hand on her shoulder, and sighed like he had never before. He took a deep breath before finally blurting out, in a small voice, "…They did not allow me to marry you."

Xue Tao could only say one word, as tears formed and threatened to fall from her eyes. "…Why…?"

------------------------------------

Kris was jolted out of bed by the sharp, shrill beep of his alarm clock. Groaning, he reached for the clock on the bedside table and turned the alarm off, cracking open one eye with difficulty to look at the time. 11:00 am. That looks about right. He had no schedules in the morning for today, so he decided to sleep in.

The dreams no longer bothered him. They had been occurring to him so much these days now, even more so in the past week, that he decided to just put up with them. He couldn't let such silly dreams shake him out of slumber every time. It seemed to be a recurring thing that would never go away, so he just had to get used to it. Besides, it was almost the end of the week anyway, and if the dreams still don't go away by the end of the weekend… He was going to really visit a dreams expert or a psychic, just as Lay had suggested.

As is his usual morning routine, he marched lazily to the kitchen to make himself some coffee. While waiting for the coffee to brew, he went to his room and combed his hair and changed out of his pyjamas into comfortable home clothes. Going back to the kitchen, which smelled of freshly brewed coffee, he saw on the whiteboard that he was supposed to meet his stylist today.

This is great, I don't have to worry about picking clothes and doing my makeup before getting out of the house later. He thought with a smile, happy that at least one burden is lifted off his shoulders. To many people, dressing up shouldn't have to be a burden; but since he is an idol, there is always the unspoken pressure for him to always look good for the fans and for the cameras.

Just as he was about to take a sip of his coffee however, his doorbell rang. Thinking that it must be Lay with the stylist, he set down his mug and went to answer the door.

And that's when the world seemed to stop around him and go by in a blur, as he didn't even notice Lay, or the van waiting at the front of the gate, or really anyone or anything else. His eyes were focused on one person and one person only, and his brain couldn't comprehend everything else that was in the background.

Words couldn't form in his brain fast enough, as he spewed out words without even thinking. "Y-you… The boy from the convenience store…"

Said boy was just as surprised to see him, but he managed to regain his composure in a snap as he bowed in front of a dazed Kris. "A-ah, yes, my name is Huang Zitao but you can just call me Tao. Nice to meet you! Uhm… how should I address you?"

Was this really fate? The events that transpired were far too connected to be just called a coincidence anymore. The fact that the boy from the convenience store happened to be his KakaoTalk friend. The fact that said KakaoTalk friend happened to be Lu Han's roommate. The fact that Lu Han's roommate is now his stylist. The fact that the boy from the convenience store, his KakaoTalk friend, and his stylist turned out to be one and the same person.

It seemed that from every angle of every situation, they were destined to meet. Fate sure did not leave any loopholes. Why else would everything be so smoothly connected like this?

Kris was brought back to reality by Lay's rather loud throat-clearing, combined with waving his hand violently in front of Kris' face. "Yo! Kris?! Are you there? What's gotten into you?"

"Huh? What?" Kris blinked and his eyes once again focused on Lay, who was standing right in front of him with his hand right in front of his face. The situation not quite registering in him, he glanced back at Tao, who was peering at him with a curious and worried look on his face.

"I'm sorry Tao, Kris seems to have just woken up. He's always out of it when he's not fully awake yet." Lay explained with an awkward laugh as he didn't realise that he just saved Kris from having to explain something awkward. Kris, his confused brain finally calming down a bit to be able to grasp the situation, laughed awkwardly.

"Ah, pardon me. I'm still disoriented from my sleep, as Lay said… Uhh, just address me however you like. Anything is fine, really."

Tao blinked and nodded his head slowly, his lips turning up into a shy smile. "Alright, if you don't mind… Since you're older than me, would Kris-ge be fine?"

Kris-ge. Kris-ge. Somehow, that sounded like music to Kris' ears, and he didn't even know why. His heart fluttered just a bit as he heard those words roll out of the younger boy's mouth smoothly, like it was meant to be said by him.

"Yes… Yes, that's fine." Kris nodded continuously. After standing outside for a few awkward seconds, Lay cleared his throat once more.

"Kris, you might want to invite us in."

"Right! This way please." Kris stepped aside to let both of them in.

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Tao looked around the luxurious apartment in admiration. The smell of morning coffee permeated his nose as soon as he had stepped inside, and he was pleasantly surprised that the apartment was clean and somewhat well-kept. As soon as they passed the entrance hallway, to the immediate right is a spacious living room, complete with all the amenities one could ever need and want: soft couches, throw pillows, a large television, and a coffee table. To the left of the hallway directly opposite the living room were some large glass sliding doors leading to a spacious veranda outside, which had a picnic table and a couple of lounge chairs. Directly across the entrance hallway led to another spacious hallway, housing four doors which he assumed to be Kris' bedroom, bathroom, dressing room, and an extra room. And directly opposite the spacious hallway was a rather large open space, which he saw was the combined kitchen and dining room.

"Please sit down first, I'll get some coffee." Kris' gentle voice broke Tao's reverie as Kris walked past him to disappear into the kitchen. Lay flopped down on one of the large couches like this was his home, while Tao carefully sat on the opposite one-seater couch. A few minutes later, Kris came back in with three cups of coffee.

Kris sat on the other one-seater couch right beside Tao, which made Tao flinch a bit. For some reason, he didn't feel comfortable sitting right next to Kris- it wasn't that he didn't like him, nor that he made him uncomfortable. There was just this weird feeling he couldn't quite put his hand on. He decided to disregard it, though, as he thanked Kris for the coffee and took a small sip from it, while he listened to Kris' and Lay's conversation.

"So, Kris… You have a shoot for one, a live interview at five… And then rehearsals in the evening. Your comeback is seriously drawing near."

Kris merely shrugged. "Huh, busy day ahead of me…" Suddenly, he turned to Tao. "Are you going to be okay with this schedule?"

When Tao heard the schedule, he just realised that he might not be able to meet his KakaoTalk friend today after all. Working for Kris, who is a busy idol/actor, will probably leave him with significantly less free time than he had when he was just living with Lu Han. Not wanting to look bad on his first day by making up excuses, and besides this work was more important to him anyway, he nodded. "Of course I'm okay, I understand that you're a busy person. I expected the workload to be a lot, and I'm actually glad that I'm getting up and finally doing something worthwhile." He replied smoothly with a smile. He made up his mind to just send a text message to his friend later on during one of the breaks, or when he's riding in the van.

Kris then stood up from the couch, beckoning Tao to follow him. Tao complied, trailing behind Kris as he went into the spacious hallway and opened one of the doors.

"This is my dressing room." He pointed out, stepping aside to allow Tao to peek in. All kinds of clothes, from performance clothes to street clothes to normal clothes, were stored in it. In the room was also his vanity and where he stores his shoes and other things he needs. It was quite a large room. "And then here," Kris moved on to open one of the other doors, "Is my bedroom. Once you've picked out clothes for me, just lay them on my bed and I'll put it on. And then that," Kris pointed to the other room, "Is an extra room. If I have a severely tight schedule which will require me to stay out until the wee hours of the morning, which will probably be an everyday occurrence once I make my comeback, it will be your room. Any questions?"

Tao shook his head as he noted down all of the rooms in his head. "No, I'm good."

"Actually, Tao…" Lay suddenly piped in from the living room as he looked at Kris' schedule sheet, "You're going to have to stay over tonight. Kris' schedule won't end until 4am, because we have to go to the studio after his night rehearsals to practice his new song. I'll tell Lu Han to bring over some of your stuff, okay? He can give them to me and I can deliver them here."

"Ah, will you do that? Thank you, Lay…" Tao went to the living room and bowed slightly to Lay as he smiled shyly. Kris cleared his throat rather loudly to get Tao's attention, and then he walked to his dressing room and opened the door.

"Tao, will you choose what I will be wearing now? I want to get dressed before eating lunch and then setting out."

"Yes, of course." Tao disappeared into the dressing room to go look for suitable clothes, with Kris going into the bathroom to take a shower.

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Kris felt proud throughout the day as people gave him endless compliments about his style and his makeup. Before Tao came into his life, he was almost never complimented by anybody when it came to his clothes or the way he looked. Now, all the heads were turning as he walked down the hallway of the broadcasting station, the PDs, stylists, coordinators, and other staff throwing compliments at him as he walked by, which he humbly accepted with a smile. Of course, he never failed to acknowledge Tao, because it was thanks to his efforts that he's being complimented right now.

The staff quickly warmed up to Tao as they talked and hung out with him during breaks when he didn't have to attend to Kris while he was filming. Despite his unapproachable appearance, he is actually fairly easy to talk to, and soon he had made quite a few friends amongst the staff.

Soon, Kris' filming for one scene was over, and he had to get his makeup redone. He walked to Kris, tapping him on the shoulder with a smile.

Tao got up at once and followed Kris to his dressing room, where Lay was hanging out. He had a pen tucked behind his ear and was very serious at work when both of them went in.

"Ah, Kris! How did the filming go?" Lay asked pleasantly, looking up from his papers. Kris flopped down on one of the chairs and allowed Tao to work on his makeup.

"It went well! Chen is an amazing person to work with. He always takes his work so seriously, sometimes I think I should be learning from him rather than him learning from me. He has some serious work ethics!"

As Tao finished retouching Kris' foundation, he leaned in close to see and make sure that there weren't any other gaps or imperfections that needed to be concealed. Kris suddenly noticed the very close proximity of their faces, and his eyes widened in surprise.

Tao didn't seem to notice, as he continued to scrutinise every part of Kris' face, his eyes scanning everything over and over. That is, until their eyes met.

Again. There was that weird feeling again. Both Kris and Tao felt something… Whatever was that something, they both didn't know.

All they both knew was, that something caused both of them to jump in surprise and pull away from each other. Lay looked up from his papers with an eyebrow raised.

"What's wrong with you two?"

Yes, what is wrong with these two?

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After that little mishap, Tao quickly finished the rest of Kris' makeup, albeit a little awkwardly. Soon after, Kris was called to the shooting again, and the director called him to the side before they started.

"So Kris, this is the scene where you have to do Wushu stunts. You're up for it today?" The director asked Kris while looking over the script. Kris nodded confidently.

"Yes, I'm good! I can learn it today."

"Okay, good. We're not going to strap you to wires for now, you're just going to be learning the basics with the Wushu master and then when we shoot the scenes, he'll demonstrate to you how to move while you're on strings."

"That sounds great!"

Tao watched with fascination from the side as Kris learned Wushu from a Wushu master. He himself had been studying Wushu since he was six years old, and he never had an opportunity in Korea to ever use or practice it. He contented himself by watching Kris trying to learn, when he remembered that he had to text his KakaoTalk friend that he couldn't come meet him today.

"Hey, I can't come today. I recently just got a new job, and guess for who! It's for Kris, the famous idol of Korea!! Isn't this great? Either way, I have to follow him around everywhere so my schedule ends with his schedule, and we're going to be doing stuff until 4 am today. I guess we'll have to meet some other time. I hope that's okay with you!"

After he had sent the message, of course Kris' phone alerted him to a text message. But since his phone was in the dressing room, he didn't see the message. Tao watched Kris practice for about an hour, though he was a little bit disappointed that there was no reply. Oh well. He might be at work right now.

After a few hours, Kris had the basics down, but not quite mastered them. The director however declared that it was enough for the day. Kris went directly to the dressing room and Tao followed him.

"You were great out there, Kris-ge. The Wushu basics are not easy to learn." Tao commented while he handed Kris his clothes, to which Kris smiled.

Kris smiled at the compliment. "Ah, well, thank you." He replied quite awkwardly. To save himself, he quickly went to check on his phone, when he saw Tao's message. He gulped a little bit, and sighed. I have to tell him tonight, or tomorrow really, or else he's never going to meet this "guy behind the screen."

Having made up his mind, Kris changed his clothes and prepared for rehearsal, which was going to last 4 more hours, and then the practice for 2 more hours after that.

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After all the schedules have been fulfilled, Lay, Kris, and Tao trudged into the van tiredly. Tao hid a yawn behind his hand, his eyes watery from the yawning and from the tiredness. Kris practically threw himself into the van, moving over to leave space for Tao before settling himself in comfortably. Lay got in and rode in the back, while Tao entered the van last and sat beside Kris.

Lay glanced over the schedule with tired eyes while trying to control his yawning, but to no avail. "I'm going to cancel your morning interview, Kris. I don't think you'd be up for that after this tiring day. I don't think I'd be up for that after this tiring day." Lay half-mumbled in between yawns. Kris merely nodded his head slowly, the words an incoherent jumble to him. He was too tired to try and understand what Lay was saying.

Tao, meanwhile, checked his phone for a reply, but there was none. Could he be angry with me because I bailed out on him? Does he think I don't want to meet him? He thought worriedly. He sent a quick text message to the other, hoping that he'd see it in the morning when he woke up.

To the surprise of both Kris and Tao, Kris' phone alerted him of a message the minute Tao had sent it.

Tao blinked, trying to comprehend the situation in the midst of his tiredness. That… could have merely been a coincidence, right? He watched as Kris reached into his pocket and read the text message.

Kris blinked a few more times, trying to read the message through his tired eyes. When he saw that it was from Tao, he suddenly sat up straight. He turned to Tao with a serious look on his face, Tao blinking in confusion.

"Look, Tao…" Kris began in a quiet voice, careful not to wake Lay who had already fallen asleep with the schedule sheet in his hands. "I'm the one you've been messaging. Remember when I said I wanted to meet you? It was because from the minute you told me you were the one working at the convenience store, the one I pulled along with me to go show me the back exit, I knew that I had to meet you. I had quite a few… apprehensions, but I really wanted to meet you. I swear, though, you becoming my stylist… that was merely a coincidence. I didn't plan for that to happen. I was incredibly surprised this morning when you showed up at my doorstep… And I… I'm probably not making any sense right now because my brain is foggy from lack of sleep, but yeah. That's it. I hope you're not uncomfortable or anything- I want us to be friends in real life too, and not just through messaging each other on our phones."

As he listened to Kris, Tao now suddenly understood and linked back all the events together in his mind. How he would message him at seemingly random times of the day. How he did not have a specific work schedule. How he messaged him about the wonderful 'coincidence' at the convenience store. How everything seemed to be connected. How he messaged him last to not be disappointed because he might not meet his expectations. How he sent him that reassurance that his personality on text is the same as his personality in real life.

Now I get it. He had been sending me subtle hints to his real identity… but I guess he was too afraid to reveal it. But had I really just been messaging the Kris all this time?! For the past few months? This is too much of a coincidence. How could I have known? What would he be doing on omegle in the first place? Why me, of all people?! Then again, what would I have done if I knew it was him?

Tao was rudely shaken out of his deep, confused thoughts when he suddenly felt a weight on his left shoulder. He turned to look, and almost gasped loudly in surprise as he saw Kris' bright blonde hair in such close proximity to his face. 

Kris was leaning on his shoulder, sound asleep.

That shouldn't be such a big deal, right?

But they barely know each other.

Tao decided to just shake it off, way too tired to think about anything relating to Kris right now. It was close to 4:30 am, and he had never stayed up this late before.

He felt a heavy weight on his eyes as he couldn't resist sleep, embracing it with open arms as his head fell to the side as well, leaning on Kris' head.

After about half an hour, they had arrived in front of Kris' house. The driver had to open the van door and wake Lay up, because all of them had been sleeping so soundly during the trip. Lay managed to stay awake long enough to get out of the van, and was about to wake Kris and Tao up when he saw the scene before him.

Hmmm… Seems like they're already close to each other even after just a day. Lay thought with a smile, just looking at the two, not wanting to disturb them in their peaceful state. After a few minutes, Tao opened his eyes, and as soon as he saw Lay, a blush crept to his face as he quickly shook Kris awake.

"K-Kris-ge, we're here." His eyes kept glancing back to Lay, afraid of what he might think about the whole situation. But Lay was just standing outside the van and leaning by the door, smiling.

"You guys are so cute. Seems like you're closer to Kris than I am now, Tao. He usually doesn't like leaning on people's shoulders to sleep."

"A-ah, no, I think Kris-ge was just really tired, I don't think he knew what he was doing…" Tao replied in a shy voice. Kris was just shaken out of his sleep, blissfully unaware of what had just taken place.

"Are we home?" He asked in between yawns. Tao nodded his head, and Lay laughed.

"Yes you're home, sleepyhead. Now get off the van so I can go home."

Tao and Kris both got out of the van, Kris still groggy from lack of sleep and overall tiredness. Lay got back into the van after bidding both of them goodbye, before driving off.

Kris suddenly latched on and clung to Tao, burying his head in his shoulder. Tao jumped a little bit, though making no effort to push the older man away in order to not be rude.

"K-Kris-ge! Are you alright?"

"Mmhmm. Walk me to my room." Kris mumbled sleepily, not really realising that it wasn't Lay that he was clinging to. He was so used to clinging on to Lay whenever he's too tired to walk. Tao complied, though feeling a bit uncomfortable at the contact.

After Tao had made sure that Kris was comfortable in bed, he heaved out a heavy sigh and went into his own bedroom as well. He threw himself on the bed, and though he was already incredibly tired from the day, he couldn't quite fall asleep yet.

He lay in bed, staring at the ceiling for a while, as he tried to piece together the events that transpired that day, mainly about finding out that Kris had been the guy he was messaging all these months. He still couldn't believe that such a coincidence could happen.

Oh well. This should be good, right? At least I know him somewhat. Well, I don't know. Wouldn't it be uncomfortable though? But… then again, he's a kind person. Us being uncomfortable with each other should only last a few days. Of course, we're still getting used to the situation. It will all calm down.

With positive thoughts, Tao eventually fell into a deep slumber, the tiredness finally taking over him.

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As the sound of the alarm clock once again penetrated his ears, signalling a new day, Kris stirred from his peaceful slumber and rolled over to the side of the bed, reaching out to turn off his alarm. Breathing in, he slowly sat up from bed with a smile on his face. He had a peaceful night, and the weird dream did not occur to him. Maybe he was too tired to dream last night.

He woke up in a completely good mood, though he didn't know why. He just knew that something made him happy and put him in a good mood. He yawned and stretched to ready his body, and then slowly got out of bed to wash his face. He jumped in surprise when someone knocked on the door, but then he suddenly remembered about Tao. He smiled to himself, and then answered, "Yes?"

Tao didn't open the door, but instead exclaimed from outside, "Breakfast is ready!"

"Thanks, I'll be right out!" Kris' mood shot up even more, as he went into the bathroom to wash his face, whistling.

When Kris was done, he went out of his bedroom and immediately the enticing smell of food beckoned him to the kitchen. The smile on his face grew even more when he saw Tao, for reasons he did not know. He just knew that somehow, seeing the younger boy first thing in the morning put him in a really happy mood. Kris took his place at the table, watching Tao as he prepared the food.

Tao seemed to have woken up elated as well, as he set a plate in front of Kris with a smile, before taking his place opposite Kris. They seemed to be more comfortable around each other know. "I hope you like it. This is what I usually cook for Lu Han-ge if he has time to eat breakfast. It's nothing complicated, really."

Kris almost squeaked in delight as he stared at the food on the plate: fresh pancakes with maple syrup and butter. Perfect, just the way he liked it. "This is amazing! I haven't had an opportunity to eat breakfast like this in a long time. Thanks, Tao."

"You're welcome." Tao was satisfied that Kris seemed to like what he had prepared, as he watched him eat his meal heartily. He began to eat his own food, when Kris suddenly spoke up.

"So… I guess you're not angry with me for lying to you?"

Tao looked up from his plate, blinking in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Kris rubbed the back of his neck, a sheepish grin on his face. "Well, about the whole… KakaoTalk thing. I sort of have been lying to you for not telling you my real identity. It's just that, you were so fun to talk to that I couldn't bring myself to tell you the truth. I was afraid that you might react negatively and just stopped talking to me, and there was no way for me to know who you are or to contact you ever again to apologise if you suddenly decided to block me on KakaoTalk or something. I was going to tell you everything when we met, but then… we met in the weirdest situation. I don't know. I just hope you're not uncomfortable, and that we really can be friends in real life."

Tao was touched by Kris' words. He really wanted to be friends with him in real life? Even if he was just an ordinary boy, and Kris was like, the most famous idol in Korea ever? "No, it's fine… I understand why you had to lie. To be honest, I don't know how I would have acted either if you had told me over our messaging rather than telling me in real life. I would have probably passed you for a scammer if anything. So I'm fine with it."

"So I guess… That means we're really friends now, right?"

Tao couldn't help but smile, as he nodded. "Yes, we're really friends now."

"Great, friend!" Kris suddenly stood up from the table excitedly, giving Tao a little pat on the back when he passed him on the way to the counter. "I'm going to go make us coffee!"

After the hearty breakfast, Tao immediately went to the dressing room to prepare clothes for Kris, while Kris checked his schedule on the whiteboard. He heard his phone ring, and went to his bedroom to go see who was calling him. To his surprise, it was Lay.

"Kris, I'm calling to tell you your schedules have been canceled for today. The director isn't feeling well enough to shoot the movie today, and the broadcasting station said they're closing the studio tonight for rehearsals since there's a show they have to rush shoot."

"No problem! Just call me if anything's changed." They hanged up just in time for Tao to enter the bedroom.

"What happened?" Tao asked as he lay the clothes down on the bed. Kris suddenly slinked an arm around Tao's shoulder and smiled as he led him out of his room.

"Let's go out!"

"Huh? For what?" Tao was genuinely confused as he was pulled along, though noticeably more comfortable with the older boy now.

"Lay just canceled all my schedules for the day. So let's go and hang out to celebrate the day of our friendship!"

Tao's look changed from confusion to happiness as he nudged Kris with his elbow. "That's great and all, but first, I think it would be wise for you to put on some decent clothes and actually put on a disguise. You don't want flocks of people surrounding you and screaming and asking for an autograph or a picture or both, do you?"

"Whoops, right. Let me just take a minute then!" Kris practically bounded back into his room, leaving a happy Tao in the living room.

Tao still couldn't believe everything that was happening, all the good fortune that came. Everything turned out to be even better than he had imagined it would be, since never in his life had he even thought of meeting Kris, much less being his friend. Aside from that, he even got a job that he really enjoys! For all the bad fortune he had already experienced, they were returned tenfold in terms of good fortune. He had never felt so lucky and blessed in his life.

"Let's go!" Kris shouted enthusiastically as he bounded into the room, clothes and disguise complete. Tao got up from the couch and followed Kris out the door, both of them emanating a happy aura.

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So far, so good. No one recognised Kris, and they had been allowed to enjoy their day out as ordinary people. As they were walking down the streets of Seoul, Kris suddenly spotted something that made him excited. He grabbed Tao's hand and started to run towards it. Tao stumbled a bit in surprise, but he quickly regained his balance and composure as he ran with him.

"Kr--Jiaheng-ge! Where are we going?!" Tao had made it a point to call Kris by his real Chinese name when they're out in public, as he assumed that would draw less attention. And what he assumed was true, as people didn't even bat an eye when he shouted out his name.

"I just saw a photo booth! Let's go take pictures and stick them all over the fridge!" Kris dragged Tao inside and fed money to the machine, when the camera started flashing and started taking pictures.

"Woah, wait! I'm not yet ready!" The camera flashed, which resulted in it capturing Tao's surprised face. Kris had removed his disguise for a moment and had already posed, a normal smile with a cute V-sign pose. Tao was a little shy at first since he had never done this before, merely smiling as Kris started to push him to do funny faces. Once he had gotten into the flow, they both started to make funny faces and gestures at the camera, and finally ending with a picture of Kris putting his arms around Tao and Tao posing with a gentle smile.

As soon as they were finished, Kris put his disguise back on and turned to the screen to choose the pictures and whatnot. Tao leaned from behind his shoulder to look at the screen as well, and together they decided which ones to keep and how to decorate the pictures.

"Hey, let's put a heart on this one!" Kris suddenly blurted out as he pointed to the last picture they had taken. Tao felt his cheeks suddenly get warm, and when it dawned on him, he realised he was blushing. Somehow. Just blushing at that comment, for some reason he couldn't comprehend.

"Wh-what? Wh-why?" He stuttered nervously. For some reason, his heartbeat quickened in speed, and he didn't understand why he was reacting that way. What's wrong with me? That was just an innocent remark. Why am I so flustered?

"I don't know! It looks empty in the middle, and what else could we put there? It would look cute, wouldn't it?" Then it dawned on Kris as well. Why did he want to put a heart, of all things? Didn't only lovers do that, or something?

To Kris' surprise though, Tao agreed… Or somewhat agreed. "I don't know… you can put it on if you want to. I don't mind at all." Kris did, and then he printed the pictures out.

"Hey, they came out good!" Kris beamed as he showed them to Tao when he got the pictures. Tao looked over them and couldn't help but smile. He really didn't expect to get so close with Kris in such a short time- they had only known each other for a day, and they're already acting like they had been friends since forever. It felt good, to be this comfortable with someone.

They walked along and ate street food on the way, when Kris somehow sensed something telling him that he should turn right. He beckoned to Tao to come follow him, which he gladly did. There were more novelty stores and such, but at the end of the lane was a mysterious-looking shop, which Kris was curious about. Something led him here, feeling perhaps, but he felt like he needed to go there.

When he entered the store with Tao, an old man walked out from behind the door. He smiled and sat behind the counter, beckoning both Kris and Tao closer. "Come in. I have been expecting you."

"Huh? Where are we?" Tao asked, looking around the mysterious shop. There was nothing in it, except for a black table, the counter, and the door leading into the back of the shop.

"You are here to get your fortune told." The mysterious man declared confidently, staring straight into Kris' eyes like he was trying to see into his soul. Kris blinked, and shook his head.

"No, actually, I'm not… I just felt like going this way, and I happened to be curious as to what your shop is."

"Those were the bonds of fate, pulling you along and guiding you." The man said in his mysterious, matter-of-fact voice. "Everything happens for a reason, and everything that happens is a part of your destiny. The fact that you came here was no mere coincidence- it was fate trying to lead you on the right path."

"Uhm, sir, I'm really sorry to have bothered you… But I don't think so. We just took a wrong turn, is all." Kris bowed politely and was about to go out of the shop, when the man said something that stopped him in his tracks.

"You have been dreaming of a strange woman and man lately, haven't you?"

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A/N: Dear lord, I think I just snickered and smacked myself while writing this chapter. That photo booth part was really hard to write. How the heck do you describe picture poses in words!? xD And to top it off, I haven't used a photo booth in FOREVER. Forever, meaning the last time I used one was 2004 lol. So I had to research that part. >.< It was hard to describe, arrrghhh. xD The only photo booth I've used is the photo booth application on Mac. xDDDD

Anyways~ there we go. Chapter 3. Took me 2 days to write this. Chapter 4 is in the works. I'm still debating on whether I should set a day for updates, like say every Tuesday or something, so you guys would know when the new chapters are coming out. I'd really want to, but I don't even know if I'd have an opportunity to write this fic in Hungary, so I might not be able to meet the schedule >.< I'll set the schedule probably when I get back, so I can be sure that I write stuff before the deadline. That helps keep me motivated and also prevents writer's block. xD

I hope you enjoy this new chapter~ <3 Thanks for reading!