The Rejected

Scene 11: The Truth

You can´t help but stare at the three men as they are glaring at each other fiercely. You´re in the middle of the fire, you realize, and you freeze up like an ice cube. You know that Kris and Tao are far from best friends, but why would the two of them react so badly upon Kai´s presence? It just doesn´t make any sense.

“Tao? What´s going on?” You ask nervously, but you don´t step back as they asked you to.

“Is he the guy you were waiting for?” Tao asks you in a deadly calm voice. You can hear how loaded with electricity it is.

“We´re going out for dinner.” Kai answers for you as he glares at the two other men.

You turn to look at Kai. Although you´ve only known him for a short time, his now angry and tense expression scares you. The image you had of him was a cute shy boy who wouldn´t hurt a fly. Were you wrong? And the tone he used to say you were doing something together held a tiny bit of possessiveness in it. Maybe he´s trying to get on Tao´s nerves?

“No you´re not.” Tao answers shortly.

“What?” You look at Tao wide-eyed. “You can´t decide that!”

You and Tao are friends, but he shouldn´t decide what you can and can´t do like that. You have your own life.

Tao doesn´t answer you, he simply stares at Kai with venom in his voice. “Kris, take her away from here.” He asks the older man suddenly.

“…What?” You breathe.

Kris nods.

“What?!” You repeat, surprise that Kris actually listened to Tao.

Kris nods again, and all of a sudden, he takes a hold of your wrist and forces you up on the back of his bike and takes off. You´re about to lose your balance in confusion, but Kris puts your arms around his waist a bit forcefully. You want to turn around and see what happens between Tao and Kai, but doing this makes Kris´ bike wobble dangerously. A surprised grunt leaves the man as he tries to regain balance. A sigh of defeat leaves your lips.

“Don´t… don´t fight!!!” You shout, as you bury your face in Kris´ back.

Your hurts from the bumpy bike ride, and your legs feel funny as Kris finally stops and let you get off. You are far away from school. You have only been here once before. Kris forces you to enter a small shop. You doesn´t put much attention on it since your thoughts are with Tao and Kai. Why did Kris suddenly decide to listen to Tao?

That´s when you realize that Kai could be the enemy Tao and the others have been fighting all this time. Kai, together with Suho and Chanyeol, are their… enemy. It makes you scared and you hope it isn´t so.

“He said they agreed to settle things after Lay and Xiumin are back… but…”You murmur as your eyes widen in fear. You get up from your chair and is about to leave.

“Wait!!” Kris grabs your elbow and forces you to sit down on a chair.

His grip hurts you, but you don´t say anything, as you find yourself sitting still. You give him a nasty stare as Kris sits down in front of you. A waiter walks by, and Kris orders for the both of you.  The boy looks at you with curiosity in his eyes: he must think you´re a couple having a love quarrel.

“I´ll keep you safe. That´s what Tao wanted.” Kris murmurs as the waiter is gone.

“But… you´re…”You can´t find your words. “What´s going on?” You eye him suspiciously. “Please, spit it out. Two of my friends might be… fighting each other...”

“You mean Tao and the others didn´t tell you?” Kris asks you after a tense silence.

The question makes your stomach turn over. There are more secrets?

“…There´s a lot of things… they won´t tell me.”You answer in a whisper.

A deep sigh leaves Kris, and it worries you. Kris usually don´t sigh, he always said that sighing is you letting your happiness leave you.

 “I thought you stayed with them, because you knew the full story…” Kris frowns at you. “Alright, I´ll tell you. I must warn you though…”

“Warn me…?” You repeat.

The dread you´re already feeling intensifies as Kris gives you one of his “you´re not going to like what I’m going to tell you” glances. It´s bad.

“After hearing what I got to say, your thoughts about Tao, Kai and… me…might change.” His voice is deeper than usual.

“…Tell me.” You say bravely although your heart is wavering, maybe it´d be best if you didn´t know?

The waiter arrives with a tray full of sweets. Just like Min does, Kris seems to think sweets can make you calm down.  Maybe Kris thinks you´ll feel better if you eat a lot of sugar when he tells you. He´s still acting as if you’re the closest of friends. It bothers you a bit. It must be about the rumor, you think you yourself, what else could it be? You suddenly get so nervous, you can´t really sit still. Maybe you´ll finally get to hear the true story.

“I made you skip class, I´m sorry.” You murmur after a while with a weak, nervous, smile.

Although the situation is quite tense, Kris laughs. “It´s fine.”

“So, are you going to tell me the truth about that rumor?” You ask him boldly.

For some reason, this makes Kris look like he´s in pain. It surprises you greatly, because he shouldn´t have anything to do with this rumor, shouldn´t he? A strange, uncomfortable feeling spread throughout your whole body.

“You´ve heard the rumor from Min, I assume?” Kris knows about Min´s passion for gossip.

You nod.

“It´s not far from the truth.” Kris tells you as he leans towards you over the table. “I´ll tell you my version, it might differ a bit…”

At first you wonder why Kris would know the rumor that well but you´re slowly understanding that he is a part of it. Your body turns cold with worry. He tells of the rumor, just like you heard it. They were 12 close friends at first who due to one man, according to Kris: Suho, got power hungry and they split in two rival groups.

“Suho, is a part of it?” You ask in confusion. Kris´ description of him doesn´t fit the image you have of him.  “So then, Kai and ….was it…Chanyeol…?”

“Yes.” Kris nods. “The other members are D.O, Sehun and Baekyun. I don´t think you´ve met them… right?”

“No, I haven´t….” You shake your head. Eyes are wide in disbelief.

A sense of dread fills you. You now understand that you were standing in the middle of a gang war without even knowing it. That´s why Tao acted that way when he saw Kai. One thing you don´t understand though is how two people like them, kind and caring, fight each other. All because of power and influence in the neighborhood? Suho didn´t seem like a power hungry man to you.

Kris observes you quietly with a frown on his face. “Do you remember when we were little? How I was… covered in bruises almost all the time?”

“You said you were clumsy…” The realization hits you: you´ve been so naïve. “But you´re…”

“I was the… leader, the leader of Tao and his friends.” Kris confesses in a tense voice.

Your heart stops beating for a moment as you stare at Kris, trying to grasp what he just told you. “That´s not true… because we were together… all the time... weren´t we?” You ask him.

Tao never told you, but he always disliked Kris for some reason. Kris too, always told you to stay away from them. It all makes sense now. A lot of things have been going on around you but you had no clue: and no one told you.

You feel like such a fool.

“Eat some…” Kris takes your cupcake and pushes it towards you, thinking it´ll make you feel better.

Your appetite is gone. Sadness, irritation and pain captures your whole being as you once again feel deceived by people that were supposed to trust you. You force yourself to swallow the pain, and turn somewhat indifferent when facing Kris.  You don´t want him to see how much pain you´re in at the moment.

“Why did you leave them, Kris?” You ask him coldly. Although you didn’t mean to, your voice comes out as if you´re blaming him.

His eyes widen a fraction. Kris leans back in his chair. It seems like he has a hard time explaining what happened. “…I…” He starts. “I realized how serious it all started to become.”

“Serious?” You repeat, urging him to continue.

“We were friends at first, we split up, and the others were urging us to commit crimes… “Kris explains.

“And you decided to leave your friends in it… ? As the leader why….?” You just can´t understand it.

Kris looks sad. He senses that you blame him a bit for abandoning Tao and the others when they needed him the most. Judging by Kris´ face, he must blame himself for it, too.

“Are you blaming me now?” Kris stares at you with sadness in his eyes. He must also have realized that although you´re at good terms with each other again, you´re far from the friends you used to be.  “Well, I do deserve that… I guess...”

“Kris… I´m just trying to understand…” You try to ease the atmosphere.

Kris smiles weakly as he hears this.

“I tried to convince them to stop letting Suho and the others affect them, and to stop getting in trouble, but they were all filled with the need to get revenge. They thought Suho and the rest abandoned them for power. They also started to see me as a traitor… and I couldn´t help them anymore.”

A long silence spread between you.

“Isn´t there a way to make everybody … get along again?” You sigh, breaking the silence. You realize you sound very naïve.

“It´s not that easy.” Kris sighs as well.

“Shouldn´t it be?” You get irritated.

Kris stays silent, and your frustration grows stronger.

“I´m worried about Tao and Kai. See you round.” You tell him.

Kris only answer is an “Mm...”.

Although you don´t say anything more, Kris realizes that he hurt you yet again by the fact that he has been hiding the truth from you. You though you knew everything about Kris but you didn´t. Now, you think it wasn´t that strange that he dated Gina. You also understand why Tao wanted you to stay away…

Everything is starting to make sense.

You run as fast as you can towards the university. A lot of time has passed, and you doubt they´re still there, but you need to do this. Out of breath, you reach the school gates but as you guessed they´re not there anymore. You lean over as you try to catch your breath. A couple of students look at you strangely, but you don´t care. You pull out your phone and call Luhan. He answers after some painfully long seconds.

“Luhan, is Tao with you?” You ask without a greeting.

“Uh, yeah…?” Luhan answers in a surprised voice.

“Is he alright?” You ask, holding your breath.

“Yes, why? He´s pissed off though.” Luhan answers in a clueless manner.

A deep, relieved sigh leaves you.

“What’s wrong?” He asks you.

“Ah, nothing.” You laugh, being so relieved. “Keep an eye on Tao.”

“Roger!” Luhan tells you in a cheerful voice.

You hang up and makes sure to send Kai a short text, apologizing for what happened and for not knowing about everything.

You have no clue what you´re supposed to do now. You don´t want to take sides, not when it´s about friends, but you´ve got a feeling that “staying neutral” won´t do either. A troubled sigh leaves your dry lips.

What should I do now?

Hearing the truth from Kris, has changed a lot of things, you realize. You have friends from all of the teams of the gang war and you don´t know how to act. What you know though is that none of them are bad guys and that there must be a way to reunite them as friends somehow. Now you can understand Tao, who asked you to stay away, more.

The situation is worse than you thought.

You´re about to get off work, and you locks down the store. As you shut the door behind you, you realize you´re not alone. Thinking it´s a thief you prepare yourself for a battle for a moment, but a familiar voice stops you.

“Hey…”. It´s Tao.

He stands there, leaning against the wall, clad in a leather jacket and hands in his jeans’ pockets. He looks like a delinquent, alright. You let out the breath you didn´t know you were holding in. He cracks a smile at you as he realized he scared you for a moment.

“Why you…” You pretend to be angry with him, as you hit his arm playfully.

A laugh leaves Tao´s lips. You love his laugh, it makes him look so young and innocent. Not like a gangster at all. The saying “don´t judge the book by its cover” is right after all.

“Why are you here?” You ask him.

“I´ll not let you walk home alone this late on a Saturday…Sunday morning.” Tao murmurs, stumbling over his words as if he´s a bit shy.

“Thanks.” You murmur shyly.

Tao worrying about you makes you happy inside, although you suspect he came for another reason as well: to talk about your friends. A quiet breath leaves you as the two of you starts walking towards your apartment.

Tao has been showing you more attention lately.

It doesn´t take long until you reach your apartment. Tao has yet not said anything about your friendship with Kai.  You look at him as you stand there in the doorway. You´re thinking if you should invite him in or not, but before you get the chance to say anything he starts talking.

“I want you to stay away from them.” He calls your name seriously. “This isn´t a playground.”

Your heart drops.“..They are my friends…” You murmur as you look down.

Tao looks at you with a frustrated frown, and you feel how he puts his hands on your shoulders. He shakes you a bit, as if he wants you to realize it´s best to do as he says. He looks at you intensively, and you can’t avoid his eyes.

“Stay by my side.” He whispers. “…and I´ll protect you.”

“You shouldn´t have to protect me, to do this…” You try to tell him.

You´re about to say that the situation can be solved, and they all can become friends again, but he interrupts you with another intense stare. Tao glares at you, and you turn silent. Then, he suddenly pulls you closer to him, and you let him, a bit hesitantly. With your head at his chest, he encircles you in a gentle it tight embrace. You can hear his heart beat thumping through his flesh and clothes. It´s quite rapid. It makes your face turn hot.

“Tao?” You whisper.

“Please do as I say, and stay away from them….” He murmurs into your hair.

His breath tickles. You feel torn inside. You do want to do as he tells you, because you care for him, but at the same time you don´t want Tao´s bad relationship with Kai stop you from a possible close friendship either. With a sigh, you return his hug softly. He´s so warm, and you feel safe in his arms, as he protects you from the cold. Your cheeks turn warmer as a thought crosses your mind: you don´t want him to let you go.

If you really did have to choose, you´d…pick Tao. You know that deep down, but you don´t want to.  There must be a way to reunite them as friends.

And then, something you didn´t expect happens.

Tao lets out a loud, deep breath as if he just decided on something important. Then, he utters your name painfully softly.

“Hmm?” You answer against his shoulder.

You can feel how he tenses for a brief second. “…I think I love you.” He tells you in a hesitant but serious voice.

Eyes widen and you hear how his hard skips a beat.

…or was it yours?