01

SWEET DAMN CUPCAKES

Huang Zitao dropped onto the cold floor, his breathing ragged with sweats dripping off his face and body as he tried to catch his breath. He had been perfecting his dancing moves and wushu skills in one of the training rooms in the SM building from early morning that his body couldn't take it anymore. Once he can breathe normally and a little bit of the exhaustion had seeped away into the cold flooring, Tao slowly sat up and did a final stretch as he then stand up on his feet. Gathering his stuffs at the corner of the room and checking his cellphone, Tao smiled when he saw he had received 2 text messages and a missed call which came not half an hour ago. 

Opening the first text message, Tao smiled when he saw it was none other than his special bestfriend and EXO's maknae.

[From: HunHun <3]

Tao, where are you? You've been gone from morning and it's getting late.. I'm getting very worried. 

Tao smiled as he texted back a short reply,

[To: HunHun <3]

Don't worry Hun-ah.. I'm on my way home now. I was at the training room practicing my wushu skills.

The moment he sent the reply, Tao went off to tidy up the place and made sure everything is in place before he turned off the lights and exited the room. He had just stepped into the lifts when his cellphone beeped, signalling he had just received another text message. He opened the text message, still haven't read the other message he had received, and smiled seeing it was from Sehun again. 

[From: HunHun <3]

Oh okay.. But hurry up! I've saved your portion of dinner from the hungry Jongin and Chanyeol-hyung.

Laughing as he texted back a short 'okay', Tao opened the other message as he plugged his earpiece and smiled seeing that it was none other than his worrywart leader. Tao could imagine the look on his leader's face as he typed this message and he sighed, shaking his head gently with a small smile as he wondered why he, and the others, are forever worried about him when he's already 21. He's not the youngest but they seemed to be more worried about him than Sehun or Jongin who's the actual maknae in the whole group.

[From: Joonmama <3]

Tao-ah, where are you? Do you know its almost 9PM now? Stop your practice and come back home already.. continue your wushu practice some other time.. Do you need me to fetch you? I can always go down to fetch you.

Knowing that Joonmyeon would really stand outside of their dorm building to wait for him if he didn't say no - he done this before for a few times and he had waited in the cold for almost an hour twice because he didn't say he was waiting - Tao instantly replied, 

[To: Joonmama <3]

Hyung, it's okay.. I'm already on my way back. You don't have to wait downstairs. I'll be okay, really.

Tao continued walking, enjoying the cold air hitting his face, and he was half way home when his cellphone beeped again. Tao opened the text message and a small cute frown appeared on his face when he realised he needed to do a short u-turn because of the leader's request. Tao knew he could reject it but it didn't feels right because he's already out and it's not that far to u-turn back anyway.

[From: Joonmama <3]

Well okay then. Anyway, if you're not that tired, would you mind going to the supermarket and buy a few cans of tuna and cheese? Kyungsoo needs it to cook tomorrow.. But if you're tired, I'll get someone else to go.

Tao texted back a short 'okay i'll buy them' and u-turn back to where the supermarket is, all the while not noticing a pair of eyes that had followed him since he exited the SM building. She watched how Tao scurried off to get those things and a frozen hotdog bun as he then went off to pay. Carrying a box of sweet goodies, she saw how Tao hungrily devoured the hotdog bun like a hungry cat and a smirk found its way on her slightly wrinkled chapped lips. 'He's perfect. He's definitely the perfect one for this sweet sweet cupcakes.'

With that thought in mind, she scurried over to Tao and grabbed onto him, scaring the hell out of him for a second until he realised that it was just a middle-aged old lady fan. "Tao! Tao Tao! Here! Have this cupcakes! I made them specially for you! It's just for you!"

Despite the small smile on his lips, Tao was slightly scared by her enthusiasm. He'd been warned not to take any food given by strangers because of the poison threat Sehun received but seeing how she kept her grip tightly on him, Tao didn't know what to do. He didn't want to take the cupcakes but she was hurting him with the tight grip on his arms. That, and how she was pleading at him to take it.

"Well, some cupcakes won't hurt," Tao whispered softly and he reached out for the cupcakes, missing out the evil glint in the lady's eyes.

Once Tao took the box of 6 cupcakes, she literally hugged Tao and said, "Thank you! You have to eat it tonight! And you can't share it! I had it custom made to suit just you and so it'll only work on you! Don't share it! Thank you so much for taking this Tao! Bye bye!"

Tao waved absentmindedly as he looked at the cupcakes and the lady's words finally sunk into his head as he asked, "Custom made it to suit just me and so it'll only work on me? What will work on me? What do you mean? And, why can't I share it? It's just cupcakes.." 

However, when he hears no reply nor footsteps, Tao looked up and his eyes widened to find no sign of the lady around. There was no one at all, and Tao immediately turned away and rushed back home when he felt that familiar eerie feelings creeping into him. He felt so scared and wondered if that lady was a lost ghost and had followed him home, when a sudden wave of relief washed over him when he saw Joonmyeon at the lobby. Tao instantly dashed to him and engulfed the short leader into a tight hug, surprising the older one. 

Seeing how Tao was shaking in his embrace, Joonmyeon caressed the younger one's hair gently and asked, "Hey, what happened?"

Shaking his head and sniffling down some tears, Tao said pulled away from Joonmyeon and half-lied, "N- Nothing.. Just some fangirls.."

"Fangirls?! Where?! When?! Did they attack you?! Are you hurt?!" Joonmyeon asked panickly, his eyes widened to the size of Kyungsoo's as he immediately checked on Tao to see if there's any injuries but the younger one just shook his head gently with a small smile. 

"I'm fine, hyung.. Can we go up now? I'm so tired and hungry," Tao said and Joonmyeon sighed in relief as he pursed his lips tight. 

"Alright, let's go up.. But no more practicing for you! If you want to practice, be it wushu or dance, you'll need to get 2 or 3 members to accompany you!" Joonmyeon said, waving his fingers in a motherly way towards Tao and the younger nodded with his lips pouted cutely.

And Joonmyeon's resolution wavered. He had a huge weakness for Tao's aegyo and so he immediately turned away, not wanting to take back his words because that might harm his precious panda even more. As they entered the dorm, Joonmyeon took the bags of stuffs he had asked Tao to buy and that was when he realised the box of cupcakes. But knowing about Tao's extreme sweet tooth addiction, he wasn't surprised. Seeing how they've ran out of ice creams, lollipops and gummies, he had expected Tao to bring something sweet back.

"Tao, where do you want me to put this cupcakes? The kitchen or your room?" Joonmyeon asked as he watched Tao taking off his shoes.

"Oh.. urhm.. My bed? I.. I'll eat it after I had my bath.. I.. There wasn't many left.. so yeah," Tao lied, trying his best to not sound nervous.

Hearing the slight nervousness in Tao's voice, Joonmyeon thought Tao felt bad because he didn't buy any for the other members and so he smiled and said, "Sure! Besides, the only idiot who eat sugary stuff at night amongst us is only you! So don't feel bad about it."

Tao smiled, relieved that his worry wart leader didn't suspect him at all or he might get lectured the whole night, and excused himself as he headed straight for kitchen to get a glass of water before he went to bathe. As he strutt in, Tao missed the eyes of his other members who are watching him and lusting admiring over his body him. They - namely Chanyeol, Kris, Baekhyun and Jongin - couldn't take their eyes off the younger one as he proceeded to take off his sweater, leaving only his black tank top and glorious body for their eyes to rake over. They were subtle though, they thought, eyes on their game as they sneakily turned to look at him every once in few seconds.

"Tao, you're back? Are you going to bathe now? Do you need us to accompany you?" Kris asked, asking the most obvious question.

Of course Tao needed company. He had never really bathe alone and everyone loves that part. Although they complain about it a lot on interviews and whatnots, blame it on those ing scripts, they actually loved bathing with the younger one. He would be so attentive in the shower; scrubbing their back, massaging their body and playing with their hair as he shampooed them, and his glorious body. No matter how they always convinced themselves that they're straight and into s and s, and that they're just admiring Tao's body, they couldn't lie to their hormones and that always go haywire when it comes to Huang Zitao and his oh so perfect body.

However, EXO had a fair rule when it comes to bathing with Tao. Because they knew that everyone of them love Tao and wants to bathe with him, they could only bathe with the younger one when he picks them. This was to avoid any bloodshed or argument amongst them that could break the team apart. And so yes, despite them loving Tao, they don't mind sharing Tao amongst their members because they love each other - those brotherly kind of love - dearly too. But despite saying all that, they would still feel slightly envious towards the member Tao had picked. Just like right now, how Chanyeol could barely breathe as he awaited impatiently when Tao scanned through their faces as he thought about who to go into the shower with him. Their breath hitched when Tao opened his mouth, lips grinning.  

"I think I shall bathe with..." Tao said, grinning, and he was about to say a name when the front door opened and someone walked in.

"Yixing-ge!" 

Returning from a long night jog, the blur unicorn had just taken off his earpiece when Tao called out his name and dragged him into the shower excitedly. It was when he caught how the other members looked at him when he realised that Tao had just picked him to bathe with and he was beyond happy, since it had been probably a month back when he last bathe with the precious panda. Chanyeol and Kris sighed sadly while Baekhyun and Jongin pouted, their eyes lingering on the closed bathroom door before they focused back on the wrestling game they were playing. Joonmyeon proceeded to put the cupcakes onto Tao's bed before he went out and rested on the sofa.

Knowing that he had to tell the other leader about Tao's incident, Joonmyeon said, "Kris, don't ever let Tao go to practice alone again."

"Huh? Why?" Kris asked, barely focused as his eyes were still focused on the game.

"Because he got attacked by some fangirls again," Joonmyeon said and all 4 pairs of eyes immediately turned to look at him seriously. 

"What?! When?!" 

"Is he okay?! Was he hurt?!" 

"I think we better check on him now!" 

"Relax, he's okay.. He's not hurt but he was slightly shaken up," Joonmyeon said and the rest of them sighed in relief and Kris nodded. 

"Alright, I'll make sure of that. It's good if we accompany him wherever he wants to go," Kris said and the others nodded in agreement.

Coming out of the toilet laughing as Yixing failed to towel dry his hair, Tao went to the kitchen to eat his supper and then bid the others goodnight as he went to his room to rest. However, as soon as he entered, Tao froze when he saw the cupcakes on his bed. He felt the same eerie chill creeping down his back and he wanted to run off to his Joonmama or Duizhang or HunHun but decided to check it out. 'It's just cupcakes.. my sweet delicious cupcakes,' Tao convinced himself as he carefully takes a few steps forward after a few minutes of standing at the doorway. He opened the box, unconsciously his lips, as he then carefully take the first small cupcake out. 

"Well, it's just a small cupcake.. What hazard can a small cupcake do?" Tao said to himself and slowly brought the cupcake to his mouth. 

As he bite into the cupcake, Tao felt some cream leaking out of the cupcake and his eyes widened - it was so good! The cupcake was so soft and the cream tasted so sweet and fruity, it was just perfect for Tao's taste. Tao took another small cupcake and another one and another one, and soon it was finished. He finished all 6 cupcakes and it was then he noticed there was a note at the bottom of the box. 

Taking the note out, Tao read out the Korean words, "Let out the inner beast. Wait, isn't that our song? I guess that's her favourite song from the whole album. But what does it have to do with the cupcakes? Let out the inner beast. Maybe I'll become stronger? Hahah!"

Laughing at his own childish ridiculousness, Tao put the empty box down by the side of his bed and slipped into his bed. As soon as he laid down, Tao sighed at the contentedly feeling of his exhausted body hitting the comfortable bed and gradually fell asleep. However, his sleep wasn't comfortable that night. He kept feeling hot and cold, and it was driving him crazy. Waking up in the middle of the night, Tao groaned when he felt his head and body throbbing and searing painfully. It was so painful as if someone had just hammered him and cut him up into pieces, or grind him with some machine. It was that painful and he couldn't take it anymore. Waking up, Tao walked to Baekhyun's bed and sat by the side as he softly shake the older guy awake to ask him for help. 

Slowly opening his eyes, Baekhyun slowly pushed himself up to a seating position and gently asked, "Hmmm.. Tao? What's wrong?"

"My head and body is hurting so much, hyung.. I can't take it. I've never felt like this before," Tao said softly, voice wea k and shaky.

Putting his hand on Tao's forehead, Baekhyun frowned and said, "You're having a fever.. and a pretty high one at that. Alright, lay down here on my bed and I'll get some medicines and cold water to help you. Come Tao Tao, be careful." 

After getting Tao into his bed, Baekhyun went to the kitchen and take some medicines, cold water and some cloths to sponge Tao. Once Tao had taken the medicines and Baekhyun was sure Tao's fever had went down by a little bit with all the cold water sponging, Baekhyun tugged Tao in the bed while he took Tao's bed. Tao drifted off to sleep a few minutes later with his head and body feeling much lighter.

Always one of the first members to wake up, Minseok walked out of his room and went straight to the kitchen to eat his breakfast. As he went pass the living room, he realised there was a lump on the sofa and so he went to check it out. Seeing the long legs dangling at the end of the sofa, Minseok knew it was either Kris or Chanyeol. But judging from the ing loud snores that were coming from this guy, Minseok confirmed him as the tall beagle. Ignoring the still sleeping guy, Minseok went to the kitchen to make his breakfast. It's not unusual to have Chanyeol sleeping outside. He would always do that after he had an argument or fight with his beagle roommate. 

Minseok was eating his own made omelette and bread when Luhan staggered out of his room and headed for the sofa, eyes half-opened when he spotted Chanyeol, "Why the heck is this tower sleeping here?! Yah! Chanyeol! Wake up! We got dance practice in 2 hours!"

Groaning as he opened his eyes, Chanyeol slowly sat up - and Luhan dropped beside him as he closed his eyes to catch a few minutes wink - said, "It's that ing Byun Baekhyun.. He snored like some huge ing cat growling ing loudly that I couldn't sleep!"

"I don't ing snore Park ing Chanyeol!" Baekhyun screeched as he heard whatever that tall tower was saying from the room.

"Then who the was it?! Umin-hyung?! It was so ing loud!" Chanyeol shouted and the said oldest guy instantly shook his head. 

"I don't snore either.. Besides, I didn't hear anything. I had my ears plugged because your snores were ing loud enough to drive me crazy," Minseok retaliated and Baekhyun roared in laughters as he walked out of the room, and Chanyeol glared him down.

"See! Its your-ing-self! Stop trying to push the blame on others idiot!" Baekhyun shouted, glaring hard at the taller guy. 

"If it was me, how could I hear myself snoring moron?!" Chanyeol shouted and Baekhyun stopped laughing as it made sense. 

"Then it was Tao? Impossible! Our panda don't snore like that!" Luhan said, his eyes fully open as he looked at s.

"Yeah, it's impossible for it to be Tao," Chanyeol said, sighing heavily, as he then shook his head and asked everyone to forget about it. 

As the time passed, the other EXO members gradually wake up and got themselves ready for another tiring round of their practice. Kris was counting down the members - because there were just too many idiots and his mind is still half alseep - and it was then he realised that EXO's panda is still not awake. Seeing how he's still eating and that Chanyeol was all ready and playing his ing game, he asked Chanyeol to go wake Tao up and the tall guy agreed, immediately sprinting up to his feet and rushing to Tao's room excitedly.

However, when he entered, his eyes widened upon hearing the loud purring sounds coming from Tao. "It's Tao.. It is Tao.. Oh my god."

Making his way towards Tao quietly, Chanyeol's lips pulled up into a soft smile when he saw how cute Tao was sleeping. With his tummy down, y slightly in the air and face hidden amongst the pillow, Chanyeol smiled as he wondered just how much cuter this panda could get. He was staring and admiring Tao when something swished pass his legs once, and then it happened again and again. Afraid of what it might be, Chanyeol carefully looked down and it was then he saw something hanging and moving underneath Tao's blanket.

"What the is that?" 

The thing seemed long, very long, and it seemed like it can't stop moving. Curious, Chanyeol carefully touched it and it swished faster, surprising Chanyeol. He touched it again, softly, and he noticed how the thing seemed to be kind of velvety underneath Tao's blanket.

"It.. It couldn't be his , could it? I don't remember his to be this long.." 

Blushing at his erted thought, Chanyeol was about to pull off Tao's blanket when the younger one flipped over and Chanyeol froze. There, on top of Tao's now revealed head, was a pair ears. A pair of huge brownish blonde cat ears and it's moving. 'It's ing moving!' Chanyeol screamed inside his head, his eyes wide and definitely bigger than Kyungsoo's as he stared at those ears. Probably feeling very hot, Tao kicked off his blanket - eyes still closed - and Chanyeol's eyes almost popped out of its socket when he saw that the long thing that touched him earlier was a tail. A ing tail. Shocked at what he'd seen and thinks that he was sleeping, Chanyeol shook his head to wake up from this dream but it's still there. Both the ing cat ears and tails are still there. He wasn't sleeping. No, he's wide awake. 

"I'm going crazy.. I'm definitely going ing crazy," Chanyeol muttered to himself, not realising someone else had entered the room.

"You've been crazy for a long time idiot. Anyway, what the hell are you doing? Why haven't you wake Tao up yet?" Baekhyun asked.

Not wanting to sound even more stupid or crazy, Chanyeol dragged Baekhyun to the side of Tao's bed and pointed to the ears and tails, and the guy widened his eyes. He carefully walked forward and touched the ears that moved underneath his touch, and he jumped back.

"Oh my god.. What the happened?" Baekhyun whispered and he felt Chanyeol shrugging his wide shoulders, and Baekhyun frowned.

He didn't know what to do but he's sure he's not going nuts. Well, if he was, he'll drag the whole group to join him in this crazy sorcery and thats what he exactly did. Without saying a word, Baekhyun pushed Chanyeol out of the room and gestured him to grab the other 9 members and they squeezed them in front of Tao's bed. 

"What the hell?! Why did you drag us here?" 

"Why haven't you wake Tao up yet? We're running late!" 

"Yah! We need to get ready or we'll be late!" 

"What happened? Why aren't you guys saying anything?"

Ignoring all the questions, Baekhyun and Chanyeol pointed to the ears and tails and said, "Look."

And once they did, their jaws dropped to the ground. Luhan, Minseok and Yixing staggered forward as they thought of the possibility of this thing thats they're witnessing, Joonmyeon almost fainted that Kris had to hold him up, and Jongdae, Jongin and Sehun paled as they saw what had happened to their precious baby Tao Tao. 

"What... Why... How the did this happened?" Kris asked as he turned to look at both Chanyeol and Baekhyun but the two shrugged. 

"When I came in, he was already like this," Chanyeol said softly. 

"Other than getting attack by the fans, did anything else happened Joonmyeon?" Kris asked the Korean leader and he just shrug weakly. 

"No.. I.. I don't know.. He just told me about the fans attack.. Did those who roomed with him know anything?" Joonmyeon asked softly. 

While Chanyeol and Minseok shook their heads, Baekhyun's eyes widened when he recalled Tao's high fever and so said, "He.. had a very high fever yesterday night. But I gave him medicines and it simmered down after half an hour or so." 

"But how can a ing high fever changed someone into a ing half animal?!" Luhan screamed, losing his mind at the ridiculousness.

Upon hearing Luhan's loud screech and some other voice hissing around him, Tao slowly opened his eyes and winced at the bright light that shone his eyes. When his eyes had adjusted to the bright light, Tao was surprised to see all s gathered around his bed. 

"Hmm? Why are you guys here? Did something happened?" Tao asked but the rest of them just stared at him with their eyes wide open. 

"Urhm... Tao... How.. How are you feeling?" Sehun asked carefully as he approached the older one but his question surprised the panda.

"I feel good.. I actually felt much better than the days before. Why?" Tao asked and he could see how the others looked at him worriedly.

"It's just that.. Well.. How do we say this?" Baekhyun said carefully, biting his lips as he looked at the rest of s.

Jongdae was about to tell him that he had grown a pair of ing cat ears and tails when Tao's eyes widened. His ear system seemed to be louder and clearer, as if he had an extra ear somewhere. And just when he was thinking about his hearing, he felt something moving and hitting his legs, and he felt some extra muscles exerted at some unknown part of his body parts. He felt that swishing thing again and this time, it seemed to match his anxious feelings. Carefully reaching down to this unknown part, Tao's eyes widened even more when he felt something moving on top of his head. He was very sure this thing moved and acted according to how he feels. 

"What.. What the hell is happening to me?" Tao whispered fearfully and Sehun sat on his bed, softly caressing his arm to calm him down. 

"We don't know.. We're hoping that you'd tell us," Joonmyeon replied softly and there he felt this things moving slowly again.

Carefully reaching up the top of his head, Tao's eyes widened when he felt a pair of tall sharp furry ears. Tao flinched away, breathing ragged as he panicked at what had grown on top of his head. Slowly reaching down to this thing that couldn't stop moving, Tao's eyes widened and almost fall out of his head when he touched a long furry thing and he jumped slightly when he saw it was a tail. 

Seeing how Tao's breathing became very ragged and eyes tearing up, Minseok said, "Tao.. Tao-ah.. It's okay.. We'll try to figu..."

And before he could finished, a loud piercing scream broke through the quiet room.

And the first chapter is done! This is just a starting chapter to show how the EXO members love Tao and all, and so I'm sorry if there's not much excitement and it bored you out. I promise to make it more fun and interesting in the upcoming chapters and so please wait for it. Anyway, do leave me some comments on what you think of this first chapter to spur me up and I'll try to update very soon. 

PS: It's not proofread. So please kindly ignore whatever errors you see. 

THANK YOU SO MUCHIE! ;D