The next day, you were the one to call Tao. You invited him over to hang out for a while at the condo. Just to relax. You tell him that you've had enough shopping around and such, that'd it be nice to just chat and play video games or something. You feel slightly surprised when he jumps at the idea. You tell him that he can stay for dinner since your grandparents had suggested the idea. He's your friend now, right? And we'd like to meet your friends, They had said with warm smiles. 

Tao tells you that there's some rehearsal in the morning, a.k.a. now, so you both agree that he could come in a few hours. You glance at the clock. It's only 9AM. You wonder how long he's been awake.

You sit on your bed, thinking about what to do. Maybe you weren't exactly the most productive person ever. It's hard for you to come up with things to do when you're bored.

Your grandfather sees you as he walks by your room. He asks you if you're bored. You nod your head. He smiles and says he'll teach you a Chinese game. You follow him into the kitchen/dining room. The small table that's there has a small table cloth draped over it. On it are game pieces made of a smooth material. Symbols are carved onto the white side, the other side is painted green, and there are four of each symbol. "Mahjong." Your grandfather says. And he proceeds to tell you the rules of Chinese gambling. "It's not too hard." He tells you. But it takes you about forty-five minutes to finally get the hang of it, and then your grandmother joins so that you can play a three-way game. 

Time flies by and you feel almost like a little kid again, playing games with your grandparents.  Well it's technically gambling... You think to yourself. But oh well. 

Then suddenly it's 12:30. And the doorbell rings. Your grandparents smile knowingly as you get up from the table a little too quickly. You try to walk calmly to the door and you open it slowly too. "Hi Tao!" You say as you see that he's arrived already. His newly-dyed, red hair isn't slicked up anymore Pity, you think. But it's down now, and just reaches his eyes, which stands out in comparison. Those dark, shining eyes that catches the light wherever he goes.

"Hi," He smiles at you. It's a cute little smile that warms your heart. He greets your grandparents as well (polite, as always) and they ask him if he's eaten yet. "Yes, I have. Thank you." He does a small bow here and his smile is warm and friendly.

You tell him to come in and, as he's taking off his shoes, you look at his face for a second. Something seems wrong. It takes you a while to find what it is since, to most people, it would be an insignificant difference. But you can tell. The black circles around his eyes looked darker than ever. 

"Tao.." You say his name in a barely audible whisper. But he turns to face you.

"Hm?"

"How much sleep did you get...?" You try not to sound over-worried. But some of your emotions leak out. It's evident. You know that idols work a lot of hours every day just to practice. Yet you weren't sure what to expect either.

"Oh..." He looks a little sheepish, like he's also trying to make sure you don't get too worried. "Th..Three, fours hours?" He tries to smile it off, like he's used to it.  Your eyes widen a little. Here you were, just a few hours ago, worrying about how to waste time when Tao was up in the morning working, after three hours of sleep.

Your grandmother seems to have overheard the conversation. "Why don't you sleep in the other guest room for a little while? I'm sure my granddaughter won't mind." You nod your head at this idea. 

"No, it's ok, really--" He tries to say. But you stop him.  You tell him he really should get more sleep. Even your grandmother helps you convince him.  He seems a little grateful that you pushed him to it and he gives you a cute little smile.

How adorable... You think to yourself. You show him to the guest room, which is right across yours. It's almost like a mirror of your room, with it's large bed, desk and window. But it's a little empty.  The room doesn't have personality to it. But it's a nice, clean room that reminds you a bit of summer.  You stand awkwardly for a second, then you turn to leave. You give him a smile. "Get some rest, okay? It'll be good for you."

He sighs as he sits on the bed. "You're really nice, you know?" All you do in reply is laugh and shut the door behind you. You know you can't stay in that room any longer. But you stand outside for a few seconds, feeling slightly embarrassed while doing so. You hear him walk around the room for a second or two, and then he finally settles.  You can tell he's really exhausted. You wonder how long he'll sleep for and decide that you'll try to cook dinner today, though you'll have to get help from your grandparents, of course.

After you finally walk away from the door, for a minute, you just sit on the couch. There is only one wall separating you from the sleeping form of the man you love. That was just a little bit of a problem.  Just a bit.

In fact, you were kinda nervous even though nothing could happen and you aren't the kind of person to do anything erted.  Thank goodness for my innocence... You can't help but think to yourself. It almost sounds funny when you put it that way. You probably lost a little bit of your ignorance when you entered your obsessive EXO fandom once more after meeting Tao. 

Your grandmother spots you on the couch, blanking out, and she sits down next to you to catch your attention. You straighten up a bit and you can tell that she's going to tell you something. You almost expect it to be really important, but all she does is look at you, smile, and say, "Your grandfather and I are going on a walk, okay? We need to get some groceries for dinner today. Do you need anything?"

You tell her that you're not a very experienced chef and that you'd appreciate her help for dinner today. She laughs and says that she'll gladly help you. She then stands up and says that they'll be going now.

"Now?" You say in shock. She was going to leave you alone with a boy in the house? But she just laughs again and says yes, now!  She grabs her purse and your grandfather starts to put his shoes on.  As they leave, you tell them to take care and be careful. 

And then you're alone.

You feel that nervousness again, but you know that Tao is fast asleep.  You feel it's safe, so you escape to your room, close the door so that's it's only slightly ajar, and turn on your laptop.  You realize that you've been feeling embarrassed too often lately, but you've started to love EXO again. You took a break from EXO for a while because nothing new was happening, but now you were visiting the blogs you used to love, watching concerts and teasers again.  And your eyes were on Tao on all of them. It was a little obsessive. Probably a little creepy. But meeting Tao had changed you.

You used to be a little tougher. A little stronger. Held you head a little lower. But now you're a little girlier and a little more open. Maybe easier to reach. When you think about this and find that it's true, you feel glad for some reason. Meeting Tao made you into someone you wanted to be, was was too scared to be. Because now you felt vulnerable. Breakable, like glass, yet more delicate.  Was that so wrong?

You start watching the EXO showcase from April, 2012. It's been a long time. I wonder when their comeback will be? I bet all the other fans are too. It's a video that's an hour long and is sure to help you spend time while Tao is resting.  Luckily, there are subtitles in English since the showcase took place in Seoul and so all 12 members of EXO are speaking Korean.  You love the performance and you love all the members' stage presence. It's almost beautiful to watch.  You can't take your eyes off the screen since it's captivating, mesmerizing. The robotic dance moves of "MAMA", the smooth notes of "Angel", and the gorgeous melody of their teaser song "Baby Don't Cry".  When you see that during the showcase, Tao is performing martial arts, you pause at then end.  But then you press play again, realizing that the fangirling side of you might be going too far. The very person you see on the screen is just dozens of feet away.  You continue watching, but then pause it again. Something feels a little off.

Someone's behind you.

You turn around really slowly and there's Tao, with his elbows folded on the back of the wooden chair, head on his hands, smiling at you with a cute little smirk.  "What are you watching?"

"Tao..." You say, as you slowly shut your laptop behind you. He puts his hand on the screen, stopping you.

"That was a looooong time ago, that concert." He laughs. He doesn't seem to think you're crazy, he seems to think it's funny that you're watching all this EXO stuff.  Why did he feel so comfortable around you?  Your eyes are still on him, wondering what he's thinking. Behind you, he raises the screen again and presses play. You hear the quiet music behind you, quiet because you hadn't wanted to wake up Tao. Too late for that however.  He watches the screen, his eyes showing an expression you can't quite recognize.  "We're working on it, you know."

"On what?" You say. You're still watching him, not the screen. His eyes are reminiscing. But he's smiling too. It's a peaceful, nice smile. Full of hope.

"The comeback. Soon. I know it'll be soon." He sounds so happy.  Now he looks at you. His face is so close, just inches away and when you realize this, you feel embarrassed. "What time is it?"

You glance at the clock and is surprised at how much time has passed. "It's almost 3 o'clock..."  He stands up straight, stretches, and asks you what you have planned to do until dinner.  You ask him if he wants to go anywhere this time.

"What about to a park?"

"OK."  You get up and you both walk out of your room. Just then, your grandparents come home with several plastic bags full of groceries. You tell them that you're headed towards a park and they tell you to have fun. You smile, grab your keys and phone, and open the door.

The next three hours are wonderful. Tao tells you about a park that you'd have to take a bus to get to, and you say sure. What else is there to do?  At one point during the walk through the park, Tao is looking at a small pond and you take out your phone and try to take a picture of him. He catches you, and grins, and that's when you snap the picture. He laughs and says "Ah!" then reaches his hand out to take your phone. You laugh too as you pull it just out of reach, but then he finally gets his hand on your phone and takes it.  Instead of deleting the photo though, like you expected him to, he takes your arm and pulls you next to him.  You two pose as he takes selcas of you and him.  You feel so happy, so endlessly, infinitely happy, and it almost doesn't matter that you love him.  In this moment, he is the ideal best friend you've always wanted. 

You and Tao return to your apartment at 6 and you begin to make dinner. He even offers to help, but says that he can only cook friend rice. You laugh, me too! you say to him and he even ends up cooking with you.

Two hours later, he has to leave. You say goodbye to him and he says bye too. All goodbyes are sad, you know, but you also know that you'll see him again. 

After he leaves, you glance at your new phone background. A picture of you doing a peace sign and Tao doing bbuing-bbuing (you smile whenever you see this photo, it's just so cute). You feel really happy today but you finally think about the fact that Tao will be really busy from now on. 

Late at night, you lay in your bed still awake, feeling satisfied and lonely at the same time.  You have less than three weeks left on this trip. Soon, you'll have to leave your new friends behind. Every day was wonderful here. The more you think about it, the more lonely you feel. 

You wanted to stay here forever.