The rejected

Scene 10: Caught in between

After a few days Luhan appears on your doorstep, and tells you he has something he wants to show you. Bewildered, you silently follow. He takes you to the less well-off part of town, and leads you up a pair of old stairs. It´s scary because the stairs isn´t in such a great condition.  After a few minutes of climbing, you reach the roof.

“This is our headquarters.” Luhan tells you proudly. “It´s Lay´s place but we all used it when he and Xiumin were around.”

It´s an old abandoned house on the top of an apartment complex with a great view over the city. The scenery is breath taking. You look out over the city, as you take a deep breath.

“They called me yesterday, they´ll soon get out of hospital. I´ll introduce you. They´re great.”He continues talking about Lay and Xiumin.

“Why did you show me this…?” You ask Luhan, since until now, they´ve been really secretive.

“Tao said instead of protecting you by pushing you away… he wanted to protect you by have you close to him. See this as a possible second home.” Luhan smiles warmly.

Your heart starts beating a bit faster at this. Tao is suddenly opening up a lot to you. You weren´t expecting it at all.

“He really said that…?” You ask. “Why does he go so far… ?” You´re confused.

“Isn´t that obvious?” Luhan asks, with a pair of wide, dear-like eyes. “The others are inside. I think they already ordered some pizza for us.”

Luhan takes the lead as you enter the small building. You stare at his back. What is obvious? You feel a bit nervous all of a sudden. The house is cold and tiny but also very personal. There are two old coaches, a low table, and a small kitchen in there. A one person apartment with little room.

“Good morning…” You greet them as you take off your shoes.

“Ah, morning. Take some pizza.” Tao suggests.

You sit down next to Chen, and help yourself to a piece of pepperoni pizza. It´s strange to have gone from being away from them for 2 weeks to being this… included. You thought you were a part of their group before, but now you feel really like you´ve been accepted and missed. Even Chen seems to have warmed up to you, for some reason. 

What happened when you weren’t around?

Tao starts laughing when Luhan gets pizza all over his face. His laughter makes you warm inside. It´s loud and so bright. Even Chen joins in.

Your phone starts buzzing, and you pull it out of your pocket. Eyes widen as you see who´s calling you. Tao, who noticed your expression, glances at the phone screen as well. Tao looks at your phone as if he expects you not to answer. His dark eyes widen a bit as you do. Then Tao realizes that something has indeed changed while he was gone.

“Ah, hello? Kris?” You answer.

Luhan and Chen look up as you mentions Kris´ name. Chen´s gentle expression vanishes, as he sends Tao a small glare.

“I broke up with Gina…”Kris tells you without a greeting.

Your heart turns ice-cold at this. You didn´t expect Kris to break up with Gina, because of the way he reacted when you told him about her. Your hands get a bit sweaty.

“…Y-yeah?” Your voice is trembling.

You can´t understand what´s going on and although you try to act unaffected by it your body seem to shut down.

“I made her tell me everything… I´m so sorry…”His voice echoes in your head.“Can we meet up? I need to talk with you.”

Your shoulders are tense as you and Tao walks down the street one Saturday morning. He´s silent, but you don´t notice, since your head and thoughts are speaking volumes. You´re about to meet up with Kris and you asked Tao to come with you as support. He agreed after a moment of thought, but you know he doesn´t like it.

“Are you sure you want me to come?” Tao asks you.

“I want you there.” You tell him.

You´re nervous, and your voice comes out a bit demanding. Tao doesn´t take it badly though. Somehow, Tao´s presence calms you down a great deal. Tao gives you a long glance as you say this before he put his hands in his pockets. It seems like Tao finds you wanting him there a good thing. A small smirk can be seen at the corners of his lips.

“Why did you agree to meet up with him in the first place?” Tao asks you.

“I want to hear what he has to say.”

“What if he… wants you back?” Tao asks hesitantly.

“What?” This takes you off guard.

Tao frowns. “You told him you… liked him… didn´t you? What if he…” Tao gets problem speaking all of a sudden. It´s like he doesn´t want to ask because he´s afraid of the answer.

You laugh to ease the tension in the air but also since you think the answer to his question is obvious. “He won´t. He´s in love with Gina… at least he was… and he never felt or will feel that way about me. I´ve realized that.” You smile weakly.

A silence spread and you don´t have the courage to look at Tao. You wonder why he asked you that for a moment but decide not to ponder too much about it.

“And… I don´t like him. Sometimes I feel like I´m not sure I even liked him in the first place.” You add opening up to Tao.

Tao smiles to himself for a fraction of a section. You grin at him.

10 minutes later, you meet up with Kris at a restaurant, and the tall man gives Tao a pretend indifferent nod of his head as a greeting. Tao however, doesn´t even acknowledge the other man´s existence. You laugh awkwardly, before you enter the place.  You order the cheapest meal on the menu and water.

“So, you wanted to meet me?” You urge him to get straight to the point.

Kris sends Tao a small glare, as if he was saying that he wanted to meet you alone, but he doesn´t comment on it.

“As I said over the phone… I broke up with Gina.”Kris continues in a tired voice.

You nod silently, giving him a sad smile. “Are you alright?”

Kris doesn´t answer but he apologizes. “I´m sorry.”

“Don´t apologize.” You answer.

“I´m sorry. How could I date a girl who sent my… best friend to the hospital….?” Kris tells you with a hesitant smile.

You feel how Tao tenses at your side. You haven´t told him about your visit to the hospital and you´re suddenly feeling guilty. You didn´t want him to find out, especially not like this. You smile awkwardly as you put your hand over Tao´s under the table. Tao glances at you, but stays silent. He looks angry.

“Kris…” Your chest hurts a bit. “A lot has happened…but I hope you didn´t break up with her just because of what I said but that you… really don´t ….want her. ”

A really tense moment pass.

“Do you… still love me?” Kris asks carefully, but suddenly.

Tao tenses once again. For some reason, this makes you squeeze his hand a bit. It might have been out of surprise. You didn´t expect Kris to ask you that.

“Don´t worry, I´m over it…” You smile at Kris reassuringly.

All you want is to make sure everything between you and Kris is alright, or at least stable. He´d probably think you liking him would be a bother. You can´t read his expression for a moment, which stuns you, and before you know it Tao is holding your hand firmly in his.

Your cheeks turn a bit red. Why is he…?

Kris and Tao seem to stare at each other for a short fraction of time.

“I suggest we… could… start off as something like friends again…?” You continue as you try to act normally. “Or at least… something more than strangers…?”

“…Yeah.” He smiles weakly, as he nods.

Tao waits until Kris is out of sight before he turns to you. You already know what he´ll ask you. You wish you could have kept it from him. Now you just feel guilty. It´s not like you lied about anything and at that point you didn´t know how much you could tell him.

“You were at the hospital?” His voice sounds a bit cold, but you think it´s because he´s worried about you.

You bite your lower lip as you nod silently.

“Why didn´t you tell me?” He asks.

A sigh leaves you. “You weren´t around and I… didn´t want to worry you when you were stressed about the fighting…and stuff.” You tell him with a shrug of your shoulders.

Tao doesn´t look happy, but he can´t say anything more. He was the one who pushed you away so he can’t blame you for not telling him about something that happened when he wasn´t there for you. Something in the way he frowns, tells you he won´t repeat his mistake. Although he looks pained, it makes you warm inside. Tao cares about you.

“What happened?”

“Gina tricked me, and I ended up spending the night at the roof of our university.” You summarize.

Tao´s eyes darkens and he inhales deeply.

“I met Lay and Xiumin there.” You add as you try to talk about something else. “I hope they´ll get out of the hospital soon.”

Tao gives you a half glare, but for some reason it seems he´s more angry with himself than with you. You give him an apologetic smile as you take a hold of his arm. You hope you can transfer some positive energy to him, as you walk arm-in-arm.

You spend your afternoons at the convenience store.  Since your parents´ business turned bad they haven´t contacted you and you haven´t talked with them. You don´t want them to worry. You´re slowly saving up money for your rent and tuition fee. This might actually work out. You smile to yourself.

Suddenly, a boy you think you´ve seen before comes to buy some groceries. He looks at you a bit shyly. His strongest feature is his plump lips. Your eyes widen a bit. It´s the guy who was with Suho.

“Kai, right?” You smile at him as you scan the products he´s buying.

His expression turns a lot brighter. “Yeah. I´m glad… you seem better.”He tells you.

You look at him with a confused expression.“Have I met you before? Well, before I ran into you at the school gate?” Suspicion grows inside of you.

“Ah, you don´t remember.” Kai seems disappointed, and the radiance of his smile fades a bit. “To be honest, I was looking for someone at your university… when I went to the roof… and found you that day.”

You stare at him wide-eyed as you lose the ability to speak for a moment. That´s also when you notice the fact that his face is a bit bruised. The costumers behind Kai start to lend to stare at you, wondering you´re so slow. You shake your head as you force yourself to function again. You scan the items like crazy.

“…It was you?” I had no idea…How can I… repay you?” You breathe out as you take his payment.

He shakes his head as he chuckles. Your expression seems to amuse him a great deal.

“I don´t have much money on me right now…” You murmur.

“I don´t want your money… but I´d like to be your friend.” Kai smiles. “How about I treat you to dinner?”

“So I should repay my debt to you… by letting you treat me to dinner?” You frown.

“Excuse me... but I´m in a hurry…”A customer tells you in an irritated voice.

“No talking at work!” Your superior lectures you after he apologized to the irritated woman.

“Yes, I´m sorry…” You bow your head.

Kai apologizes as well for some reason, before he gives you a smile. “This is my number.” He gives you a small paper. “See you.”

What was that?!

Feeling guilty, you send Kai a message after a few days and you set up dinner plans. To be honest, you feel awkward about him treating you to dinner… but he did save you. You owe him a lot. It´d be super disrespectful if you didn´t send him a message when he asked you to. You wouldn´t be able to look him in the eye if you ran into each other. Kai told you that meeting up at Starbucks would be the best because he had something to in town do afterwards.

“Hello.” He smiles friendly, as you meet up down town.

The bruise you saw is completely gone, or covered up.

“Hi.” You answer with a shy smile.

After a while of awkward chatting over coffee, you realize you actually have things in common, and your conversation gets easier. Instead of smiling awkwardly, you laugh at what Kai tells you. He seems to be a really sweet and kind guy. The type who´d save a total stranger on a cold morning.

“I´m really thankful you found me that day.” You tell him.

“Me too.” He smiles.

School is back to normal again, and the boys are eating lunch with you and Min. It seems like Min is slowly getting used to them, and she´s quietly talking with Chen. Strangely enough, they seem to get along quite well. It makes you happy.

“So, all that happened?” Min asks.

You told her about everything that happened to you lately, and Min just stares at you with an open mouth and a pair of wide eyes. It must sound like some kind of cheesy drama to her.

“Yeah.” You breathe.

“Wow, I can’t believe Kris would do that.” Min comments. “And they used my name to…lure you…”

Luhan, Chen and Tao get uncomfortably quiet but they nod in agreement.

“Well, it´s solved now so I can finally relax.”You shrug as you lean back in your chair.

“But what about Gina?” Min asks you in a worried voice. “Do you think she´d want revenge?”

You´re not sure about that but the thought makes your stomach freeze over. Gina might blame you for making Kris break up with her but since you said you weren´t afraid of her tricks, she has actually stayed away from you. If Gina really did like Kris though, she´d probably be really sad right now.

“She won´t.” Tao answers for you protectively.

Min´s gaze moves from Tao to you, eye brows raised. You look at him as well, a bit stunned over the determination in his voice. You never asked him to protect you, but it makes you happy that he worries about you.

“Are you free after this?” Min asks you. “Coffee?”

“You could come to the coffee shop?” Tao suggests with a hopeful smile.

You think he wants to give you that free coffee as the two of you joked about and you feel a bit bad over the fact that you can´t go today.

“Ah, no. I made plans with someone.” You answer with an apologetic smile.

“Ah, too bad.” Min nods.

You get your things before you decide to leave. For some reason, Tao decides to follow you to the gates. It seems like he has something to tell you but can´t find the courage to actually tell you. You look at him silently as you try to give him space to open up.

“Oh.” A sound interrupts you.

Kris is there, walking with his bike. It seems like he have afternoon classes today. Tao´s expression darkens, and he turns even more silent. The two men nod at each other as a greeting. You smile at Kris to ease the tension. However, as you start talking, the person who you are supposed to meet arrives.

“Sorry I´m late…!” Kai comes jogging, calling your name.

You turn around with a smile, but Kai´s sudden stop and expression makes your smile vanish. It´s just like a bomb detonated. Kris, Tao and Kai stares at each other with expressions that scares the out of you.

“Stay back.” All of them tell you in a choir.

Their eyes widen for a moment, before they return to staring at each other. You can´t help but freeze as you stand there in the middle.

What´s going on?