Private Lessons

Jongdae had always admired Zitao’s ability in martial arts. Ever since they had met in high school, he had been meaning to ask the Chinese boy to teach him. He never had the chance to then, because they weren’t particularly close, but now that they were in University together, and they’d gotten closer (thanks to Lu Han and Minseok), Jongdae took up the chance to ask Zitao if he could maybe possibly teach him some martial arts moves. It took a bit of time to find a good time to ask though. Zitao was talking about a martial arts tournament he had wanted to enter. What a perfect opportunity to ask.

“Hey, uh, speaking of martial arts…” Jongdae said awkwardly. Zitao’s eyes were all over him now. As if he already knew, what Jongdae was going to ask. “I was wondering…if you would give me a couple private lessons…”

“Finally you ask!” Zitao exclaimed. “I’ve been wanting to teach you wushu for a while, but I didn’t know if you wanted to. Of course I’ll teach you.”

“Really…?” Jongdae asked, wondering whether Zitao was joking as he always did.

“Yes, really you idiot.” Zitao said. “Do you really think I’d refuse to teach someone a sport I enjoy?”

“You’re Korean sure has been getting better…” Jongdae muttered under his breath.

“Thank you.” Zitao responded with a grin.

“You’re welcome…I guess.” Jongdae said.

“Anyways, when are you free?” Zitao asked. “How does Saturday sound?”

“Sure. I don’t do much anyways.” Jongdae replied.

“I know you don’t.” Zitao said with a smirk. “You just sit on the couch and watch television on weekends. This is the perfect way to get you out of the house on weekends.”

“You sure know me well, don’t you…?” Jongdae muttered dryly. “But thanks.”

Saturday arrived quicker than Jongdae expected. On the other hand, maybe it was because Jongdae was very interested to get started. Now, Jongdae found himself waiting for Zitao to pick him up and take him to the martial arts studio (dojo?) and teach him the ways of wushu (someone’s been watching too many martial arts movies; he can almost imagine Zitao calling him young grasshopper).

“What are you laughing about?” Zitao’s voice snapped Jongdae out of his amusing thoughts.

“It’s nothing…” Jongdae replied, a smile still playing on his face.

“Is it something about me?” Zitao asked, suddenly feeling subconscious. “Do I look weird?”

“No, no.” Jongdae denied. “You look fine. Better than ever.”

“Okay, good.” Zitao said, suddenly pleased. “Let’s go. Follow me.”

“We’re walking?” Jongdae questioned. “Jeez, I thought we were maybe gonna take a taxi or something.”

“Walking is good exercise.” Zitao said. He took Jongdae by the shoulders and pushed him forward. “Now move it, Lazy .”

Jongdae sighed and let the taller push him towards their destination. He didn’t really mind the skinship, since they were pretty much best friends now and that is what best friends did, right? They were nothing more than close friends…right? Well…maybe he did like Zitao slightly. However, he’d always convinced himself that he wasn’t gay. That he liked women not men. Moreover, maybe he did mind that Zitao was holding his shoulders. Maybe he was slightly nervous. Why does any of that matter? All Jongdae cares about is learning martial arts. Maybe.

They arrive at their destination and Zitao leads (more like pushes) Jongdae into one of the rooms, where two people already were. Jongdae was confused, but the two men bowed at Zitao, to which Zitao bowed back at, also forcing Jongdae down by putting his arm around his waist and pushing his torso down. Jongdae winced slightly.

“Ouch.” He muttered through gritted teeth. “Are you trying to break my back?”

Zitao stood up straight and looked Jongdae over. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to use that much strength on you. Are you alright?”

By then, Jongdae was already standing up straight, rubbing his back slightly. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

“Here, lie down.” Zitao said. “You can’t do martial arts with a sore back.”

Jongdae gave Zitao a questioning look. “But—”

“Just trust me.” Zitao said. “You do trust me, right?”

“Of course!” Jongdae exclaimed.

“Then lie down.” Zitao commanded lightly. “On your stomach.”

Jongdae sighed and did as his friend said. He felt uncomfortable lying on his stomach. Especially in front of complete strangers. Nevertheless, Jongdae didn’t want to refuse to Zitao, so he just lied there awkwardly. Zitao came up behind him and put his knees on either side of him, which made Jongdae jump a little bit. In the end, Zitao ended up giving Jongdae a back massage, which felt surprisingly good. After a while, Zitao’s weight lifted and a hand appeared in front of Jongdae’s face. Jongdae took the hand and the taller helped him up.

“Now how does your back feel?” Zitao asked.

“Better.” Jongdae replied with a reassuring smile. “Thanks.”

“No problem, hyung.” Zitao returned the smile. “Anyways, shall we start out stretching?”

“Stretching?” Jongdae inquired.

“Yes.” Zitao confirmed. “In order to not cramp up, we have to do some stretches before and after we practice.”

Jongdae groaned. “Alright fine. What first?”

“Well normally, we do some leg stretches on the ground first, but since you just got up, we’ll do some simple stretches that you would do in Phys. Ed.” Zitao said. “So first we’ll do some lunges.”

Jongdae sighed and followed Zitao’s lead. Jongdae was told (forced) by Zitao to count to ten. The two other peoples didn’t do anything. Jongdae still didn’t understand their point of being here, but ignored the urge to ask Zitao for a reason. Instead, he focused on what he was told to do, which now was balancing on one foot. Ages ago, he was taught by his P.E teacher that if you stare at a fixed point when balancing on one foot, you would be able to balance easier. A different P.E teacher also said that putting your finger in your belly button helped, but a twenty-one year old man doing that would be stupid. Jongdae fixed his gaze on Zitao’s feet (because if he stared at Zitao’s face, the younger would wonder why he was staring at him).

After a few more stretches like squats and star jumps, Jongdae was told to lie back down, but this time to go on his hands and knees in a ball pose. Jongdae did as he was told, but was slightly confused because he had never done a stretch like this before in P.E class. Then he felt hands on his rear end, causing him to jump slightly. What in the world was this stretch?

“Sorry if this is uncomfortable.” Zitao said. “But it’s the only way. Now I’m going to put pressure on your body and you’re going to be pushed down. Make sure you’re legs are parted slightly so that your body is pushed down to the ground. This is to stretch your inner thighs. You’ll stay like this for twenty seconds.”

Twenty seconds with Zitao’s hands on Jongdae’s ? Great. Jongdae felt slightly bad for the two men watching. Then again, they were probably used to it. Jongdae felt bad for himself, too. Why did he agree to this? If he had known the stretching was like this, he probably wouldn’t have wanted to do this. It was too late now.

Great, now Jongdae felt the burn. It hurt a lot. Jongdae wanted to scream…or cry. However, neither of those options were very manly. How did Zitao endure such pain? Only girls wouldn’t mind doing this. They didn’t have what men did, so it wouldn’t hurt as much. Then again, Zitao told Jongdae that he had been practicing and learning wushu most of his life. He was probably used to it by now.

“Only five more seconds, hyung.” Zitao’s voice rang in his head. “You’re doing better than Yifan-hyung ever did.” Finally, Zitao moved away from Jongdae and his bottom. He sat down next to Jongdae. “Alright, now we’ll go back to some basic P.E stretches.”

Jongdae followed whatever Zitao did. However, watching as Zitao almost touched his forehead against his knees as they grabbed their toes made Jongdae wonder just how flexible Zitao was. Jongdae sighed; his legs hurt, but the pain wasn’t over yet, apparently. He was told to lie down (again), now on his back. The two men came into play now, and suddenly Jongdae was scared. They grabbed his legs and be became terrified.

“W-what…?” he managed to stammer.

Zitao was at his head. “Sorry, hyung…I hate this exercise too. But it helps.”

Jongdae stared up at Zitao, who stared back down at him with an apologetic look. Jongdae wanted to say something, but Zitao nodded over at the two men at Jongdae’s feet. The first few seconds he felt fine. Then he felt excruciating pain shoot through is legs and groin. He winced and shut his eyes. Beside the pain, he felt Zitao’s hands sweep across his face, which made Jongdae open one eye. Before he could question, more pain caused him the groan and yell for it to stop.

“Jongdae-hyung, you’re doing fine.” Zitao said. “The point of this exercise is to see how flexible you are. Because if you can’t get your leg to a certain height when we do martial arts, there’s no point in trying.”

“Can we stop now please?” Jongdae managed to ask. “I think my legs have been stretched enough. Anymore and my pants are going to rip.”

“This is what you get for not wearing proper clothing.” Zitao said, but told the men to release him and leave.

Jongdae groaned and rolled over on his side. He wished he could just lie like that forever. His legs were killing him. What in the world made him want to learn this? Oh right; it was seeing someone so handsome doing something so delicate and amazing. Moreover, the thought of Zitao teaching him (and only him) intrigued him at first.  

“Hey, you okay?” Zitao asked, tugging on Jongdae’s arm. “It’s not like they were trying to rip your legs off.”

Jongdae rolled over to look at Zitao with a glare. “Well it sure felt like it did. I’m not as flexible as you, dammit.”

Zitao eyed Jongdae critically for a second, but then does something that surprised Jongdae. He leaned down and kissed him. When he pulled away, Jongdae was speechless and probably as red as a tomato. Despite Jongdae’s condition, Zitao smiled pleasantly and offered a hand down to help him up.

“I hope that helped ease your pain a bit, hyung.” Zitao said.

Jongdae nervously took Zitao’s hand and was on his feet in no time. Zitao was still smiling at him happily. Jongdae cleared his throat and avoided looking at Zitao for a while. He still couldn’t get over that Zitao had kissed him. Now he wasn’t sure how he was going to focus on what Zitao was going to show him.

Maybe he should just give up. Maybe all he wanted to do was be alone with Zitao for a while. She sighed and wandered to a wall tiredly. Zitao followed him and touched his shoulder gently.

“If you don’t want to continue we can stop.” Zitao said. “But I’ve always wanted to teach someone wushu and you seem like you’d be the most interested and flexible.”

“Pah, me? Flexible?” Jongdae laughed with slight bitterness. “I can’t even touch my toes and you say I’m flexible?”

“Your vocal range is flexible…” Zitao commented.

“Sure. But what does that have anything to do with…anything?”

“I…don’t really know.” Zitao admitted. “You said you weren’t flexible. I felt the need to point out the awesome flexibility of your voice. Sorry.”

“What are you apologizing for, pabo?” Jongdae laughed slightly in amusement at the younger. “Still…I hate to say this, but I thought that this would be easier. I thought that I wouldn’t be pulled in every which direction and that you’d just show me how to kick someone in the face.”

“Unfortunately, it’s not that easy, hyung.” Zitao said. “It’s fine if you don’t want to do it, though…I don’t mind.”

Jongdae looked at Zitao, who, despite saying he didn’t mind that Jongdae didn’t want to go through with learning wushu, looked very disappointed. He sighed and hesitantly reached up to put his hand on Zitao’s cheek. The younger but taller jolted his head to meet Jongdae’s eyes, shocked and confused. Jongdae took that chance to steal a kiss from Zitao, much like the latter did to him.

He pulled back. “Well…I hope that didn’t disappoint you, Panda.”

Zitao grinned suddenly; it was a devious grin. “Why would it, hyung? I actually quite liked it. Can you do it again?”

Jongdae stared at Zitao with wide eyes. Zitao’s hands somehow made their way to Jongdae’s waist, where they nestled comfortably. Jongdae suddenly felt like he was going to faint. Or melt. Maybe both spontaneously. Zitao’s face was dangerously close to Jongdae’s by now, and Jongdae wasn’t sure how much he liked it.

“So, what do you say?” Zitao whispered. “Rather than learning wushu would you prefer doing this?”

What came out of Jongdae’s mouth was complete gibberish. Because Jongdae was entirely speechless. He did prefer to be kissing Zitao. He was a bit nervous, though. He’d always imagined and dreamed about kissing Zitao, but he’d always try to forget it. Now it was really going to happen. Jongdae bit his lip.

“I’ll take whatever that was as a yes.” Zitao laughed slightly.

Then, in the blink of an eye, Zitao was kissing Jongdae, who was struggling to not faint. He found himself kissing back, arms wrapped around Zitao’s neck as both an anchor to keep him standing and a way to deepen the kiss. Because damn, this was much better than it was in his dreams. Or maybe it was a dream. Maybe Jongdae was still lying down on the ground and is dreaming this. He’d open his eyes and see Zitao looking at him curiously…or maybe he would be ignoring Jongdae and practicing his wushu.

Yet when they pulled away and Jongdae opened his eyes, Zitao was still in front of him, holding him tenderly. Jongdae looked up at Zitao and moved his hand down to caress the taller boy’s cheek, just to be positive that Zitao was real and was standing there, holding him. Zitao leaned into the touch and uttered something in Mandarin.

“I love you.” He said in Korean. “I always have.”

Jongdae hugged Zitao gently. “I love you too, my Panda.”

Word count: 2,431

A/N: Ah, it's been a while since I've written Taochen. I wish the yeahtaochen tumblr updated more often. Seriously considering making one myself, but I'd have no clue how to work tumblr. Because I can spot Taochen moments the second they happen. I can spot any OTP moment the second it happens. 'Cause I have eyes like a hawk. Then again, I can't make gifs, so I can't really capture the moment when it happens. ;-; Enough talk. Enjoy this lameness. Baii!