Zitao really didn’t know what to think when Yifan pulls up beside him in his car that morning, asking if he wants a ride to school.

“I honestly don’t know if you listened to me yesterday, or you have a seriously horrible memory, but I told you already that I don’t want my friends to see me rolling up to school with the new teacher.” He grumbles, waving his free hand that isn’t wrapped around his tumbler full of coffee.

Yifan just grins and shrugs, “Just checking. Are you drinking coffee?”

“Yes.” Tao replies with a scowl, digging his hand into his blazer pocket and continuing his walk down the street.

But the questions don’t stop there; instead Yifan drives slowly alongside Tao, his right hand resting casually on the steering wheel, “Why is a sixteen year old drinking coffee?”

“Is that really your business?”

“It is if I’m your new neighbour and therefore unofficial guardian.”

“You’re such a creep.”

“I’ve never been called that so many times in my life as I have the past three days.”

“Could you stop driving by my side?”

Yifan laughs then, throwing his head back and allowing his lips to part in a wide smile that makes Tao’s heart flutter.

“A-aren’t teachers supposed to be early anyway? It’s almost nine.”

The elder man chuckles, “I’m the nurse, Zitao, there’s a difference.”

“You’re still old.” Tao mumbles, sipping at his coffee.

“Oh, so we’re talking about age now?” Yifan leans forward a little and the teen sees that he is wearing a beanie today.

“Are you having a bad hair day?” He asks, “What’s with the funky headgear?”

“Oh?” Yifan’s hand rests over his black beanie, “I thought it looked good.”

“Did I say it didn’t?” Tao mumbles against his cup, looking down at his feet.

“No.” The elder chuckles, flashing Tao a smile, “But I see I'm pissing you off, so I’ll get going then, let you enjoy your walk. See you in school.”

And with that, he drives away.

--

Jongin glues himself to Tao’s side when he sees him arrive at school, his face three shades paler than his usual creamy coffee colour that Tao loves so much.

“What is your problem?” The raven-haired boy asks about halfway through the day when his slightly younger friend will not budge and then starts to curl his fingers in the back of Tao’s blazer.

“Kyungsoo… He likes a girl.”

Well, Zitao is definitely not expecting that.

“What? Who?” Sehun babbles, conveniently joining their conversation at exactly the right time.

“Chanyeol’s Noona!” Jongin cries, throwing his hands over his face in despair.

“What the , man.” Sehun curses, his eyebrows shooting up into his hairline, “Yura? Park Yura? Is he insane?”

“That is mad crazy.” Tao sighs, rubbing his temples, “There’s really something wrong with that kid. He knows she’s already dating, right?”

“I don’t know! He just comes in last night when I was taking a shower with this weird look on his face and I thought, you know, maybe he wanted to mess around, but no. He drops the bombshell on me. Says it’s a ing crisis.” The tanned boy sinks against the wall by Tao's locker, hands still over his face.

“He walked in on you while you were taking a shower to tell you he likes a girl?” Sehun frowns, running his fingers through his caramel brown hair, “Has he really looked at you ? No homo, bro.”

“That was a lot of homo.” Jongin wails, shooting a glare at his best friend, "You can't just say that to me, do you understand how fragile I am?"

Tao sighs, stretching his arms above his head, “Why don’t you just… Ah, forget it.”

“What? Do what?” Jongin frowns, looking every bit the heartbroken boy he sounds like.

Tao shoots Sehun a meaningful look and the youngest of the three grins.

“Tell him how you feel?” The Chinese boy murmurs carefully as they leave the lockers and head for the cafeteria.

“I told you guys before, I don’t have feelings for him!” Jongin protests.

“Who are you trying to fool, huh?” Sehun rolls his eyes, “I’ve been your best friend for thirteen years, I know when you like someone.”

“I’ve only known you for a little while, and even I can tell.” Tao admits, a grin on his face.

“Can tell what?” Yixing joins them as they made their way to a table, a tray of food already in his hands.

“That Jongin likes Kyungsoo.” Tao speaks in Chinese, stealing a slice of apple from his friend’s lunch when they sit down.

“Oh, didn’t everyone already know that?” Yixing replies in Korean, watching as Jongin blushes a deep red.

“It’s not like we’re making fun of you, Jonginnie.” Sehun smiles, rubbing his friend’s back, “We kind of expect it. He did take you in and all.”

It had taken six months after Tao made friends with Jongin to actually figure out what had happened to him. Jongin didn’t really like to talk about it, so Tao had to ask Sehun and at first the blonde had dodged the subject, being Jongin’s very best friend he couldn’t tell a newbie such precious information.

But eventually, Tao had managed to get the story out.

As it so happened, Jongin’s family moved to Japan for his father's work when he was just about to start high school, but instead of taking him away from his friends and making his learn a whole new language, his aunt and uncle took him in.

After a while, it became clear that his relatives didn’t like how different he was from his cousins.

His parents had always encouraged him to do ballet, which he had loved since he was young, and take up art and music, but his uncle couldn’t accept it.

Sehun says that the first time Jongin got hit was a week before he turned fourteen, when he asked for ballet shoes.

Tao didn’t really need (or particularly want) to hear much more of the story to guess what had happened, but he knew that a few months later Jongin ran away and that was when Kyungsoo found him in the street.

Jongin’s parents were called and they finally found out what had happened, so it was after that when it was decided that Jongin would live with Kyungsoo and his elder brother until his parents’ work allowed them to come back to Korea.

Soon after that he transferred high school and was reunited with Sehun (since the two were separated after primary school) and life was a lot better now than he remembered it being.

Well, that was up until Kyungsoo decided to develop feelings for one Park Yura.

--

Yifan pauses to look down at Tao as the younger works over math equations, “You look stressed.”

“Math is irritating.” Tao grumbles, fingers in his hair.

He is sitting in the library for his free period, getting his homework done so he won’t have to worry about doing it later.

“Are you following me around?” He asks, “How did you know I was in here?”

Yifan shakes his head, laughing, “No, I’m just on a walk. No one is visiting me, so I’m bored.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?” The raven-haired boy’s eyebrow shoots up and his eyes turn on the elder man.

It's then that he splutters, gaze focusing completely on the dark brown locks covering Yifan’s used-to-be-blond-head.

“What?” Yifan grins, looking like there is nothing going on.

With his finger rising to point, Tao starts to stammer, “Y-your… Your h-hair…”

The elder man smiles, tilting his head to one side, “You said I’d look better brunette, right?”

And with nothing more than a wink, he's gone.

Happy New Year, everybody!
It's been so long since I updated anything, I know, but I suddenly had a huge burst of creativity today and I think it would be nice of me to welcome in the new year by actually updating!

I'm sorry it took so long, but in this chapter I included a lot more backstory to Jongin (since you may have been curious as to why he lives with Kyungsoo) and I put in a bucket of TaoRis fluff for your enjoyment too...

So I hope you can forgive me~ I'll be trying to update my other stories very, very soon.

Much love,

Tea x