Tao felt his heart beat a little bit faster the moment he spotted the panda hat. She was there, just as she had been every weekday for the past two weeks. Seeing that the seat behind her was unoccupied Tao plucked up his courage and sat down. He felt nervous. This was the closest he had ever been to her.

Over the past two weeks Tao had developed a huge crush on the panda hat girl. It started one day when one of the cars he usually took with the other members broke down and they had decided that some of them would just take the bus. Tao, Kris, Luhan, Xiumin and Baekhyun had been the ones to go. They kept a low profile, disguising themselves as best they could. While on the bus the others had pointed out the panda hat girl, jokingly asking if she was a distant relative of Tao’s. Tao had laughed, but the rest of the trip he found himself constantly glancing at the girl. She was a foreigner who looked to be around his age. He had kept thinking things like how beautiful her hair was and how cute she looked when she occasionally tapped her feet to the unheard music from her headphones.

The next day Tao had taken the bus again, making some excuse both for his own sake as well as the members. He hadn’t wanted to admit to himself that he didn’t mind taking longer if it meant seeing her again. Kris had joined him that time as well and this time had noticed Tao’s glances at the girl. So when he went again the next day the other members let him go alone. They a bit, of course, but no one objected. Their manager simply said that it was fine so long as he still arrived on time and avoided too much attention.

And so two weeks had passed with Tao taking the bus each day. He couldn’t explain it; seeing her simply made him feel happy. The kind of happiness that lasted throughout the whole day. And now he was sitting right behind her, so close he could have reached out and touched her. He smiled to himself as he watched the back of her head, observed her hands idly fiddling with the strap on her bag. If only he could find the courage to speak to her!

Just then the girl pulled her ipod out of her pocket and began flipping through the songs. She chose one and immediately her foot began tapping, a soft smile appearing on the faint reflection of her face in the window. Tao felt his heart jump. He could see the screen over her shoulder and he recognized the CD cover, recognized the title. The song she chose was one of his, one of theirs. It was an Exo song.

***

“So, you saw your panda hat girl again today?” Kris’ teasing voice rang out once Tao entered the room, still in a daze. His heart had been thumping harder than ever since the girl had put on one of their songs. Even after she left the bus, a few stops before he did, his mind had kept racing.

She knew who they were! She liked their music! Did she know who he was? Or was she just a casual fan who only occasionally listened to the songs? She had chosen the song though, from a long list of others. And the song had been ‘Heart Attack’. It wasn’t their most popular song so a completely casual fan was less likely to pick that one. So maybe she knew who he was after all! But what if she did know? What if he found the courage to talk to her and she would only like him because he was Tao of Exo, not Huang Zitao the guy? Or worse, what if she liked one of the other members better? What if he finally talked to her and she only asked him to introduce her to the others?

Excitement turned to worry and doubt so by the time Kris’ words reached him Tao felt thoroughly miserable.

“Hey, hey, did something happen? You look awful.” Kris lightly put his hand on Tao’s shoulder, causing him to look up.

“I… um… she listens to our music.” Tao muttered. Lay, who stood close by, smiled at him.

“So why do you look upset? Isn’t that a good thing?” Tao shrugged. He wasn’t so sure anymore.

“Come on, that’s a great thing!” D.O. piped up, “Now you have to talk to her, you can use your member status to win a date.” He winked at him and Tao blushed.

“I don’t want her to like me for that…” he mumbled.

“Aww, don’t worry Tao.” Luhan said, punching his shoulder. “I’m sure she’ll like you for your personality. But you gotta talk to her first!” The other members called out their agreements, considerably brightening up Tao’s spirit. Until he remembered one thing:

“Ah, but… my English isn’t very good.”

“English might not even be her language, man.” Kris pointed out. Tao hadn’t even thought of that. “Still, she’s likely to understand it, so you should start there.”

“Yeah, and if you’re not confident with your speaking, how about writing her a letter?” Xiumin suggested from the corner.

“Yeah, letters are romantic. Girls love romantic guys.” Luhan agreed.

Tao considered this. He had been taking the bus every day for two weeks just to spend half an hour in this girl’s presence. Wasn’t it about time he tried to communicate with her? With his spirits perked up by his hyungs determination filled Tao’s heart and he smiled.

“Kris-hyung… would you help me with my English spelling?”

***

The next day, Tao felt nervous. He was beginning to sweat as he entered the bus.

After they got back to their dorm last night Kris had helped him compose a letter to the panda hat girl. Luhan had forbidden him to take much advice about the contents, saying it had to come from Tao himself if it was to be genuine, and both Xiumin and Sehun objected when Tao asked if Kris could write it down for him, insisting he should do it in his own handwriting. But without Kris Tao didn’t think he would have managed. His hyung had been infinitely patient, reading over his drafts and fixing his grammar and spelling, making suggestions about how to phrase things in a way that sounded better.

So now, after an evening of hard work, Tao was finally going to have his first real contact with the panda hat girl. She was sitting in her usual area of the bus and, as the previous day, Tao managed to get the seat behind her. His heart began racing. He wasn’t sure he could do this. For most of the trip Tao just sat there, feeling nervous and useless, fretting over how she might react to the letter.

Then it was time for the girl’s stop. Tao felt panic hit him. She was about to get off and he still hadn’t given her the letter! The bus pulled to a stop and the girl rose from her seat.

“Wait!” Halfway to the door she turned to look at him. He had stood up and spoken without thinking and was now met face to face with the girl he had begun to fall for all those days ago. Tao wished he could stare into her eyes forever. “Um… I think you dropped this.”

It was a stupid line, really, but he couldn’t think of anything else as those eyes pierced his soul, questioning why he had called out. The girl smiled at him then. “Thank you.” She said, in korean, before taking the letter from his hand and rushing out of the bus.

***

It wasn’t until she arrived at school that Elena realised the paper the boy from the bus had handed her wasn’t hers at all. She had been in too much of a hurry to think much about it, merely grabbing the paper and running out so she wouldn’t be late to class. Now that she was sitting in the classroom and could have a proper look at it she saw that the paper was a letter. A letter addressed to ‘The Beautiful Panda Hat Girl.’

Elena’s eyes widened. Was this… a love letter? To her? She couldn’t believe it, something like this had never happened to her before. In fact, in general guys hadn’t shown a terrible amount of interest in her so far in her life. She’d had a boyfriend once and been on a few dates with others so she wasn’t completely inexperienced and she knew she wasn’t ugly or anything but most guys seemed to find her a bit too much. Too much of a nerd, too obsessed with things like k-pop and other asian things they didn’t understand, too flashy clothes, too… strange. And if there were any guys who didn’t think so they had never approached her. Goodness knew she was far too nervous to approach the few she had had crushes on. Besides, most of her crushes were k-pop band members. They weren’t exactly approachable to begin with.

Elena had come to Korea as an exchange student, the final stage in her education. She had studied Korean for two years back home and for her third year was allowed to go study in Korea as a way of practicing the language. She had always wanted to live in Korea, to be closer to all the things she loved. She fully planned to move there once her year was finished, to find a job and maybe even apply for citizenship. It wasn’t that Elena disliked her home country, merely that she loved Korea a lot more. And now, only a month into her stay, adventure had struck. She felt like a character in a drama.

The boy on the bus who had handed her the letter… Elena tried hard to think back and remember his face. But it had been covered, she recalled. A hoodie pulled over a cap that cast a shade over the eyes, a scarf of some sort had covered the lower part of his face. His eyes though, Elena remembered looking into his eyes when he handed her the letter. Dark and narrow but filled with a burning passion. She remembered thinking they were beautiful and, perhaps, a little familiar.

Shaking her head Elena slowly opened the letter. It was written in English, neat handwriting filling the page. Elena couldn’t help but smile. The handwriting looked like someone unused to writing with roman characters. The letter read:

‘Dear Panda Hat Girl

I am sorry I do not know your name to put at the top. I am sure it is as beautiful as you are. Maybe you have not seen me on the bus but we have taken the same one for two weeks and during that time I have noticed you. I am sorry if this is too forward but I really want to get to know you better. Every day I see you on the bus and you look so lovely and like a very interesting person. I have found myself thinking of you even while not on the bus and seeing you makes my day happier. It would make me very happy if you wanted to get to know me too and will accept to go to dinner with me sometime. Or go see a movie or just hang out, anything you want to do is fine with me if I can see more of you.

I hope to receive an answer from you soon. I will see you on the bus.

Yours

Huang Zitao’

Elena realized she was blushing furiously. This Huang Zitao had noticed her. Not only noticed her but liked her enough to write her such a sweet letter. The letter was simply dripping with sweetness that made Elena really want to meet this guy. At home she probably would have found it creepy to receive a letter like this, the idea that someone had been observing her for two whole weeks! But now, with the letter in her hand, Elena couldn’t help but feel flattered and genuinely interested. Someone who wrote such a sweet letter couldn’t be all bad, right?

Then there was the matter of the name: Huang Zitao. The name was signed both in chinese characters and roman ones. Huang Zitao. Exo’s Tao… that was his full name. Written exactly like that in chinese as well… Elena blushed even harder thinking that. No, it was impossible! She shouldn’t get her hopes up to absurdities, this guy might be sweet and have the same name as Tao but there was no way it really was him. This wasn’t a drama show, her major crush wasn’t just going to appear in disguise and hand her a love letter.

The truth was that Exo was Elena’s favourite k-pop band and had been for a long time. As for the members; Tao was her favourite, her absolute bias. He had been from the beginning. In fact, he had been the one who made her start loving Exo. Back when her friend introduced her to the band she had shown Elena an interview so she could get to know the members. After the interview Elena could still barely tell the members apart; except for Tao. One interview was all it took for her to fall head over heals for this tall, dark, intimidating looking guy who was actually a real cutie. A guy who practiced wushu and looked extremely cool, then made a mistake and looked adorable scrambling to fix it and desperately asked for another chance. She had fallen for the coolness, the cuteness, the determined look in his eyes, how proud he had looked once he got what he was showing right. She had laughed at this cool looking guy who was still adorably unable to shower on his own. Yes, after that one interview Elena had found her ultimate bias. Other bands fell into the shadows. She had gotten to know the rest of Exo and loved all of them, but no one had replaced Tao in her heart. Even now, more than a year later, she still liked him more than any other. She had never had a single bias for so long before. The rest of the members of Exo moved up and down her bias list as frequently as she changed clothes. But Tao remained, firmly, at the top.

This was silly, she decided. Cute as this guy might sound, dark as his eyes had been, this was most definitely not her Tao. If she was going to give him a chance she could not go into it with such unrealistic expectations.

The teacher arrived and began the class, forcing Elena to focus her attention elsewhere. Still, for the rest of the day the stranger from the bus and his letter were on her mind.

***

“What if she doesn’t respond at all? What if she just ignores me?”

“Just relax, Tao. That’s worst case scenario, and then at least you’ll know you tried, right?” Tao was busy freaking out. Despite Luhan’s words, as well as encouragements from the other members, nervousness filled him to the core.

“Yes but… what if she’s scared of me now? What if she changes which time she takes the bus or something just to avoid seeing me?” He felt sick, “What if I never see her again because I wrote her that stupid letter?” Kris grabbed his shoulders and shook him, looking directly into his eyes.

“Calm down, will you? It’s better to have tried than to just stalk the girl, right?”

“Geez, no need to get so worked up,” Kai added, “You haven’t even talked to her yet. Maybe she’s awful, you don’t know.”

“She’s not awful!” Tao protested, feeling the need to protect his crush. “She’s sweet and…”

“And you’ll get your answer in about ten minutes when the bus gets here, so calm down!” Kai snapped, clearly having had enough of Tao’s freak out. Tao couldn’t blame him, really. He had been freaking out since yesterday.

“Just relax, Tao.” Lay said, putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Worst case, she rejects you. That’s the worst that can happen. At least you’ll know you tried.” Lay’s calm voice soothed Tao’s nerves, if only a little. “Now go to the bus stop. It would be bad if she wants to respond and you don’t show up.”

Tao nodded, trying to think positive thoughts. He fixed his scarf again in order to hide the lower part of his face and headed out.

This was just like stage fright, he told himself as he saw the bus appear round the corner. He’d been nervous about going on stage the first few times, honestly he still felt butterflies sometimes before a show. But things always turned out great and there was never anything to worry about, even when he made mistakes people just thought he was cute. So when the bus pulled to a stop in front of him Tao took a deep breath, squared his jaw and entered.

***

Meanwhile, Elena had her own nerves to worry about. Was she really going to do this? Sure, the letter was sweet but… this was a complete stranger! What if he was actually a creep? Could she really take that chance by agreeing on a date with him?

After school the day before Elena had conferred with her friends and, after some mixed opinions, they had decided that after getting a better look at him on the bus she could decide for sure. If he looked super creepy she should just ignore him. If not, she would hand him a pre-prepared letter of her own with a public location, saying she was up for lunch that weekend. Her friends would hang around the place as well so if the guy did anything weird she was sure to have backup.

Now she was sitting on the bus, staring at the door, waiting for her mysterious Huang Zitao to come in. Usually she spaced out into her music during bus trips so she had honestly never noticed the guy before he gave her the letter. She had looked for him when she entered the bus but no luck, clearly he entered after her. So now all she could do was wait. Nervously she scanned the faces of every person who entered the bus, looking for those dark eyes.

Then he was there. Hoodie, cap and scarf covering most of his face once more but it was undoubtedly the same guy. He looked around the bus, found her and their eyes met. Elena couldn’t see his mouth but something about the way his eyes lit up told her he was smiling. Those eyes, so full of emotion, stared straight into her soul and Elena realised she had already made up her mind to accept the date. A creepy guy wouldn’t have those soulful eyes. They even had slight dark circles under them, just like… no.

Elena blinked, breaking the spell. She scolded herself again for comparing him to her crush. This wasn’t him. But he was cute. Tall and slim yet strongly built. Well dressed. Definitely not creepy looking. He walked past her and sat in a free seat not far behind her, close to the doors.

For the next thirty minutes or so Elena kept finding ways of glancing back at him. She looked out the window to see him from the corner of her eye, she bent over to fix her shoe so she could look at him, she pulled out her phone and watched him in the screen’s reflection. And every time she looked at him, Huang Zitao was looking at her. Not in a creepy, intense, stalkery way. More of a nervous, admiring gaze.

When it was time for her to get off, Elena stood up, hands shaking slightly. She walked to the doors before the bus reached the stop and hesitated beside his seat. He looked up at her, she looked down at him.

“I accept.” Her voice was low, she wasn’t even sure he could hear her. As she said it she handed him her letter. Then the bus pulled to a stop and Elena exited, a furious blush creeping onto her cheeks. She was in too much of a hurry to notice Huang Zitao’s cheeks had turned scarlet as well.