The Rejected

Scene 15: What happened after

The scent of the bitterness of coffee beans and sweetness of newly baked cupcakes surrounds you as you wait for Tao´s shift at the coffee shop to end. Your cup of coffee is almost empty but you savor the last drops of your favorite drink as you wait patiently.  

You glance towards Tao, and regard him as he silently works behind the cashier. Some of the costumers stare at his face with fear or curiosity, since even though he wears a mask some bruises can be seen. Although Tao showed up for work with a swollen and bruised face, his boss didn´t fire him since he does work hard. It seems like the middle-aged coffee shop owner likes Tao, and it makes you happy inside.

You turn to look at the people passing by through the window. Although the fight is over, the boys are far from being the friends they once were.  They won´t try to kill each other if they run into each other on the streets anymore, and that´s an improvement. A chuckle leaves your lips as you remember how awkward they all acted when meeting up for the first time after the battle. The one who was hurt the most, not physically but mentally, was probably Suho.

Suho said that once he got the taste of being in charge, and that others were looking up to him and praising his good work, he couldn´t stop asking for more of just that. He apologized for crossing the line, by bowing his head down to the other 11 young men and even to you. It surprised you, but you simply smiled at him.

Kris also apologized, saying that he ran away when he realized just how serious the gang war was starting to get. Although he thought he had no choice at that time, he said he didn´t want to abandon all of them when they needed him the most. He didn´t know how to leave the war without being seen as a traitor. He just left and things escalated.

Although there were still hard feelings among them, they tried to understand each other, and stand in each others´ shoes. After that, it felt like the heavy atmosphere looming over you faded, but awkwardness and embarrassment remains.

You´re glad you decided to trust them.

A pleased smile lingers on your lips as you absent-mindly stares out into space. You jump in your chair as Tao suddenly touches your shoulders from behind. A surprised yelp leaves you, as your heart seems to stop beating in your chest. A sweet laughter emerges from his lips, which are hidden behind the mask. You turn around to give him a nasty stare.

“You scared me!” You hold your hand over your heart.

Although you can´t see his grin, it´s clear that he´s enjoying your startled face since those dark eyes of his are smiling. As your surprise slowly fades, and your heart starts beating again, you return his smile and get up from your chair. Tao glances at you, as if he´s making sure you´re not upset with him, before he runs his fingers down from your elbow to your hand before he intertwines your fingers as he takes your hand in his. Although your heart stood still just a moment ago, it´s racing like crazy now. You can feel Tao´s coworkers’ eyes on you as he pulls you with him towards the exit. Your face turns hot in embarrassment, but it´s all due to happiness.

You and Tao have been dating for about a week now.

You still remember how you woke up sometime after midnight only to see Lay, Chen, Xiumin, Luhan and Tao´s swollen and bruised sleeping faces. Wide-eyed, you got up from the sofa only to realize someone put their jacket over you when you were sleeping. Tao´s jacket. You brought it to your face in embarrassment, and his scent mixed with dust, sweat and blood washed over you. It scared you, and you spend your first minutes awake checking the guys´ conditions.  Relief washed over you as you realized they´ve been beaten, but were relatively fine.  

You sat down on the floor, and rested against the sofa with a relived expression on your face. The fact that they were all back, not too severely hurt, made you think that the fight ended well. However, it also made you worry about the other team. You wanted to ask them about it, but they were all out off it so you decided against it.

In that moment, someone uttered your name gently.  Eyes moved to the source of sound, Tao that was lying on the floor, slowly.   His fringe covered his eyes as he laid there looking at you with a pleased smile on his dry lips.

“Tao.” You answered breathlessly.

For some reason, he tried to push himself up from the floor, but when he hissed in pain you bolted to his side.  You don´t remember how, but after that Tao´s head was in your lap, as you touched his hair. He laughed, almost as if he was embarrassed over being so hurt in your presence.

“It´s not funny…” You murmured quietly. “I was worried sick.”

Tao´s smile faded a bit as he tilted his head back to look up at you. His eyes watched you intensively, as he told you what happened earlier. Your pale face turned healthy looking upon hearing that no one was severely hurt.  

“You were that worried…?” He asked, as he reached up to touch your hair.

You nodded your head, making a “mmm” sound as you felt how your tears started to build up. Tao´s eyes widened at the sight, and he touched the skin on your neck gently.

“It was so hard to stay back when you… when I knew you were fighting. I knew I´d be in the way if I went and all I could do was to trust you… I felt so helpless…I never want to feel that way…again!”

“You won´t.” Tao pulled your face closer. You remember his breath on your face, and how it made your heart race as he kissed you. A feathery light touch of the lips. “You won´t.” He repeated, and kissed your lower lip a second time.

You smiled through your tears at his sweet words. Tao wiped those tears away with his thumbs.

“Date me.” He said.

Although both of you confessed, his words surprised you greatly back then. He looked at you with such a serious expression and wouldn´t look away. When you didn´t answer, when you were just staring back at him, he said it again: “Date me.”

You laugh to yourself at the memory. A blush covers your face when you realized that to Tao, you probably just started laughing out of the blue. You hold his arm close to you as you walk, and you laugh a bit more.

“You´ve been spacing out…” Tao comments in a gentle voice, as he looks at you.

You smile up at him reassuringly. A chuckle leaves his lips at this, and he rolls his eyes at you. The two of you are heading over to Tao´s place to watch some movies together. This kind of date has started to become a habit for the two of you. It´s relaxed and comfortable. As you reach his small apartment, you take of your shoes and jacket as you enter.

“I rented some of the newer movies… let´s pick one.” Tao says.

You regard him silently as he takes of his shoes and jacket, but he doesn´t take of his mask. You understand that he has to wear it to cover up his bruises at work or outside to avoid scaring people or unwanted attention, but you don´t want him to hide when you´re alone with him.

“Can´t you take that off…your mask?” You ask out of the blue.

Tao´s eyes widen at your request. Although you can´t see it, you think he´s a bit shy about it. “Why… all of a sudden…?” Tao murmurs as he takes it off, not looking at you.

“I want to see your face.”You tell him honestly, with a smile.

Tao´s face is still bruised, and there are cuts left. It looks a lot better than it did a week ago though.  He gives you a small grin, and then cringes as cheek seems to heart. He laughs awkwardly as he touches his neck. Then, he walks into his apartment and shows you the movies he got.  Action, horror, and a comedy. It´ll be an interesting night.

For some reason, as you look up at Tao after glancing down at the movies, your heart skips a beat. He must have been looking at you for a while. Eye lashes flutter as he blinks, as you meet his eye. Oh…he´s kind of close. You realize. The urge to kiss him grows stronger. It seems like Tao is thinking something along those lines as well, because he touches your arm gently as he moves in closer. Although your heart is beating like crazy, you can´t let this moment go. You have to stand on the tip of your toes to kiss him, since he´s taller than you. You can feel how he inhales deeply just before your lips touch. It feels nice, and butterflies seem to invade your stomach. When you´re about to lose your balance, Tao wraps his arms around you to keep you steady and to pull closer to him as he continues, and takes over the kiss. You put your hands on his shoulders shyly. As the kiss ends, you look at each other.

“Ah, right… the movie…” Tao murmurs after a long silence.

You laugh.

The End

AN: Thank you for reading this far and I hope you enjoyed “The Rejected”. Although I had some thoughts on making this a longer story, I decided against it, because I know the quality wouldn´t have been very good. Thank you for all your comments and support! I´ll do my best to perfect my English and I hope my grammar and spelling mistakes didn´t make it too hard to read.

I´m planning on starting more EXO fanfics in the future, so if you´re interested, stay tuned.