The smell of noodles and steak being cooked crawled up my nose as I entered Noodle Restaurant. It was fairly crowded today due to the fact that it was a weekend, but none the less, it wasn’t hard to spot the table where Tao was sitting at.

Who could miss it? There were a bunch of balloons tied to every nook and cranny on that single table alone. Not to mention the large banner plastered on the wall behind him that said, “Happy Birthday Hwayoung”.

There he was, his eyes set on me with a large smile plastered on his face.

I made my way to his table and took the seat in front of him.

“How did you do this? I mean, why did they allow you to do it?”

“It wasn’t easy, but with charms like mine it wasn’t hard to woo the manager to agree with putting up the balloons,” he stated proudly.

I wasn’t just about to believe his story so I stared at him long and hard.

At first he tried to ignore my intimidating stare, but I knew Tao and in 3, 2, 1…

“Alright, I gave the manager 5ooo won so that he’ll allow me to put up the balloons and banner,” he admitted, finally caving in.

I laughed and shook my head in amusement. Of course it was like that.

“You really bribed the manager? But we're a regular here, he should've let you do it for free.”

Tao chuckled and replied, “7ooo and he’ll have the employees sing you a birthday song.”

My jaw hung open in disbelief. “Are you serious?”

“Of course I didn’t have them do it. I know you’d be too embarrassed…” His voice trailed off as he averted his eyes somewhere else inside the restaurant mumbling something like, “Besides I didn’t have an extra 2ooo won.”

A mischievous grin stretched on his face as he stole a look from the corner of his eyes.

I picked up the napkin in the middle of the table, crumpled it and threw it at his face.

“Yah!” he exclaimed when the paper napkin made contact with his face. He laughed light-heartedly and placed it down the table.

“Do you like the dress?” he asked giving our topic a course.

I smiled and nodded my head. “Of course! It’s beautiful.”

There was no reply. Only a content gaze set upon me. I couldn’t help but widen the smile I wore, but it had suddenly faded when I remembered my schedule for today.

“Tao…” I began my voice low but loud enough for him to hear.

He looked up to meet my face with a, “Hn?”

“You remember Luhan?”

His face cringed slightly and his jaw tightened at the mere sound of my ex’s name. Though a bit rough, he still replied, “What about?”

He knew my feelings for Luhan were very strong back then since he had trouble trying to win me because I believed my heart still longed for the man that left me 4 years ago. Even when I finally accepted Tao he was still insecure with my ex-boyfriend. It’s no surprise he’ll feel uncomfortable about the topic.

Just as I was about to talk, two large bowls of noodles were placed in front of us. I was surprised and looked up at the waiter and muttered my thank you.

“I already ordered before you got here,” Tao said his demeanor completely changing into an unusually cheery one obviously avoiding the topic. “We should eat! You must be hungry!”

I was about to start talking again, but he grabbed the chopsticks and dug in a little too fast.

“Ow!” He cried out.

He stuck his tongue out and fanned it with his hand to ease the pain.

I sighed, took the pitcher of ice cold water and poured him a glass. “Relax and eat slower Tao. We’re not rushing.”

Silence followed us afterwards. It’s like I ruined the whole lunch Tao prepared for me and I feel so guilty right now. I don’t know if I should tell him about my meet up with Luhan later or skip telling him the whole story. He didn't even want to hear the mere mention of his name, but still… he’s my boyfriend and he has the right to know what I do. Especially if it included other boys… even if he was my ex-boyfriend.

“So about Luhan…” I started looking up from my noodles to check on his reaction. No expression. He was simply playing with his noodles in silence. That means I’m good to go.

“He’s back in Korea and he wanted to hang out a bit so we’re gonna do a bit of catching up later at 3.”

The words spilled out automatically without even thinking things over. My eyes automatically shut tight so I wouldn’t see Tao’s expression, but I still heard what his possible reaction might have been; the loud clang of a porcelain bowl meeting contact with Tao’s chest followed by a loud, “Ouch!”.

My eyes snapped open to check what happened only to see Tao falling over with his chair.

I stood up and reached towards him to try and prevent his fall but my timing wasn’t too great.

He fell with a loud crash on the floor pulling along the strings of the balloons around him, but of course they were too weak to hold up his weight so he ended up in a tangled mess.

“Oooh... are you okay?”

I asked scrambling over to help him up.

Everyone in the restaurant had their eyes set on us at that moment. Now I feel even guiltier for embarrassing him like this.

“Don’t be so nervous kid. I’m sure she loved your surprise,” the manager stated helping Tao with untangling himself. Since when did he get here?

Tao stood up rubbing his . “I think I was more surprised with her than she was with me,” he said momentarily looking at me.

I bit my lower lip and slowly chewed on it. Was he upset that I brought up Luhan? Well, I couldn’t really blame him. Was I being selfish that on this day I divided my time between my boyfriend and my ex?

“Mianhe Tao.”

He chuckled and pinched my cheeks. “It’s fine. I was just surprised, that’s all.”

My lower lip protruded to form a small pout.

“I’m serious!”

“But your shirt…” I muttered pointing to his now stained shirt.

He blinked and looked down on his torso and realized that the noodle soup really left its mark on his shirt.

“That’s gonna leave a stain. We need to get it off fast.”

I yanked my purse from my chair and grabbed Tao’s arm.

“But I haven’t paid yet.”

The manager waved his hand and said, “It’s fine, you didn’t really need to give me money just so you can set up the balloons and banner. Besides, you guys are a usual here and since its Hwayoung’s birthday it’s on the house.”

Tao stared at the manager in disbelief and this time, was the one who grabbed my hand to lead me out of that place.

“Come back soon!” the manager yelled as we were finally out the door.

“I’m gonna get back at that geezer someday for milking 5ooo won from me.”

I laughed at him and locked arms with him as we walked back to my apartment building.

“I told you that ajhusshi couldn’t be trusted.”

“Greedy old fart.”

“I don’t think he’s that old… and I think he still likes us though, but I agree about the greedy part.”

The two of us chuckled as we went back to my apartment to clean him up while discussing some things on the way. We had also bought ice cream for dessert when we passed by his favorite ice cream parlor.

"The devil texted me earlier this morning too. He said there's dinner at the mansion later at 8."

Tao on his ice cream and held my hand. "Why do you hate Kris so much? Both your family's been friends before you were even born."

I shrugged and replied, "It's not that I hate him, it's just that he's been hell-bent in ruining my life since we were 4..."

"Because you/I blew his candles during his birthday," he chorused with me and continued, "Yeah I've heard that story before."

"Well it's not my fault! He took too long to make a wish. He said he was wishing on every candle and I was already hungry for cake."

I laughed remembering that memory. Ever since that day Kris made it a point to exact revenge on me in any way possible. He'd often take my lunchbox and replace my lunch with frogs and other insects, put water balloons in my pillows and he also put gum in my hair once. I never forgave him for that.

It got to a point where his pranks were no longer a means for revenge, but a habit just to make fun of me. It continued 'till middle school and only stopped during high school because his dad shipped him to China because his mom was there. When he got back for college he was a new person. He got worse. He was arrogant, proud and just absolutely gets on my last nerves with his petty insults. What's worst is that our parents wants us to be closer so whenever there are events they made it a point that Kris be the one to tell me and vice versa. Well, at least the pranking stopped.

"Well I like Kris." Tao admitted.

I turned to him with an incredelous look. "You only say that because he understands your Chinese!"

"Yes I do."

My cheeks puffed out as I narrowed my eyes at him. "I hate it when you two talk in Chinese. Do you bad-mouth me with him whenever you guys do that?"

"No we don't, but we do talk about you a lot." he said.

"What do you two say about me?"

"A lot," was his only reply. The smile on his face momentarily faded and it seemed like he was thinking deep of something.

"Yah." I called out nudging him to snap him out of his trance. "What's wrong with you?"

The smile returned to his face as he turned to me. "Nothing. Just thinking."

My eyebrows shot up. "What were you thinking? Tell me!!"

"No."

"Tao!!" I whined like a baby.

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

He was laughing now. Enjoying taunting me like a little kid. This went on till we were back to my apartment. Just playing like we usually do.

"Come on Tao. Just a hint?" I begged for the nth time as I closed my door.

"Hmmm..." he pondered while he took his shirt off. "No."

"Argh!!" I screamed, frustrated as he just kept on laughing.

In the midst of his laughter and the flaring of my nose, there was a knock.

"I will get back to you. We're not done yet." I warned going to the door swinging it open.

What I saw merely froze me to where I was standing.

"Hey Hwayoung! Happy birthday," he greeeted, a smile on his face and a wrapped box on his hands.

"Who's that Hwayoung?" Tao asked comming to the door to join me.

"Luhan..."

I have no frikkin' idea how I did with this chap, but it's boring. Mostly because first few chapters are intro chapters so you won't be confused through the story. It gets interesting as the story goes on though.

~ikanaide