Arriving at their favorite barbeque place, Tao kept his arm attached to Kris’s while everyone joked around and chatted about various things. “I could seriously eat a whole cow…” Chanyeol said, rubbing his stomach and grinning around at the other, a small wrinkle to his nose. Baekhyun then shook his head and bopped Chanyeol over his head. “You can’t even eat a whole chicken…let alone a whole cow!” The two then started to fight about whether Chanyeol could eat a whole anything for a bit while the others simply watched or chatted amongst themselves.

When the hostess finally came to them saying there was a seat big enough ready for them, the group followed her back happily. Pulling out his phone, Kris texted a couple of the guys to tell them that they were about to be seated. Never taking his eyes off of Kris, Tao didn’t want to miss a moment of anything. Sure, every now and then he joked around with the others, but for the majority of the time he was literally glued to Kris

As they sat down, Tao sat between Kris and Sehun with Kris on the corner seat. Lay sat opposite Kris with Jongin next to him. After that, Tao watched as the others figured out who could sit where and then filled out the rest of the table. The group then ordered food and slowly the rest of the guys started trickling in. Their area of the restaurant then started getting obnoxiously loud to other people eating, however the guys didn’t care. It was Christmas and they were all together after a long day to celebrate in the best ways possible.

As the night went on though, and Kris started to open up with the other guys around Tao felt himself pulling more into himself. He was usually shier than some of the other guys, preferring to sit back and watch rather than jumping into the conversation like the others. Kris was especially talkative tonight, which made Tao smile a little. He missed Kris so much it hurt. All day had been go go go, he hadn’t really had time to sit back and think. Now with everyone chatting and eating, Tao had time to think and his thoughts weren’t fun at all.

It was so…weird…how nothing seemed to have changed. It was exactly like last year’s Christmas, yet different at the same time. Tao felt a pulling at his chest as the thoughts of ‘what next’ flooded his mind. Stuffing his face with beef though, Tao tried to fight back the emotions that tried to overtake him. Eventually conversation gravitated over to the way Tao was eating a lot without even stopping to breathe.

“Don’t choke over there Taozi” Suho said with a laugh, tossing a piece of bread at Tao who simply shook his head, a good amount of meat in his cheeks. “Imfwine” Tao said, trying to talk around the meat. The group of guys burst into laughing and Tao quickly chewed and then swallowed to repeat himself. “I’m fine!” Tao said, a small lopsided smile on his face as Kris went and pat his back and took a piece of meat off of the grill on the table and ate the still sizzling piece. Tao didn’t know how he did it. The younger male had to set his food aside a little to let it cool before eating it, and yet others were able to take it fresh off the grill to eat.

“As long as you don’t choke and die, I’ll be okay.” Sehun said, nudging Tao a little, causing Tao’s eyes to widen a little and look at Sehun. “D-don’t worry. I’m not dying any time soon…” The thought of that caused his throat to tighten some as he looked towards Kris who was happily eating still. “NO ONE is dying any time soon. Got it?” He said to them all, a look of defiance on his face. “Of course, it was just a joke!” Sehun said, his eyebrows furrowing together some before quickly stealing a piece of beef from Tao’s plate before Tao could stop him.

“YAH DON’T EAT THAT!” Tao roared at Sehun, slapping him upside the head and then cringing as Sehun spit the meat out on the table. “Eeewww not at the dinner table!” Xiumin pipped up with a laugh, pointing his chopsticks at the two. “Not anywhere!” Kyungsoo added, looking warily at his own food now.

“I wouldn’t have to spit it out if Tao didn’t turn into a possessive kid.” Sehun said, staring at the ruined piece of meat now. “I’m not possessive. I’d just been waiting for it to cool off…” Tao said with a small pout and went to eat a piece that was cooled off. “Well…you can’t say you’re not possessive, even if that’s the case.” Sehun replied only to look past Tao towards Kris. “What?” Tao asked, looking to where he was looking, only to turn back towards Sehun. “You’ve been sticking to Kris like glue all night. If that’s not possessive, I don’t know what is.” Sehun said, taking a piece of meat from the grill.

Looking down at his small collection of cooling meat, Tao didn’t confirm nor deny Sehun’s jab at possessiveness. It was true he stuck so close to Kris, but no one else knew what it felt like to have been without him for so long. To them he’d been here all along. Biting his lower lip, Tao quickly moved to get another piece of beef and chewed on it longer than usual to keep himself busy. All eyes were on him for a few seconds to see if he would respond, however Yixing quickly changed the subject to going out to a karaoke place after they were done there. Casting his eyes up towards Yixing, Tao was thankful. Now he really could use a drink.