Sehun turned around, scowling. “Are you following me?”

 

Tao blinked. “I live in this area.”

 

“No, you don’t.”

 

“I just moved in on the weekend.”

 

Sehun resumed walking, the scowl permanently fixed on his face.

 

“Why aren’t you with Luhan?” Tao asked, walking up beside Sehun.

 

“We’re not joined at the hip.”

 

“But you live with him.”

 

Sehun stopped, turning to look at Tao. “Who told you that?”

 

“I guess you only walk home with him on Thursdays. That’s when you have psychology, right?”

 

“How do you know that?”

 

“I saw you walking home with him last week.”

 

“But you weren’t living here last week.”

 

“I was on my way to a friend’s house,” Tao said. “He lives two doors down from you.”

 

“So you’ll know that we’re in front of my house,” Sehun grumbled. “Now piss off and leave me alone.”

 

“How was you foreign policies lecture today?”

 

“Mind your own business,” Sehun said, walking up to his front door.

 

“I didn’t take you for a political science major, to be honest.”

 

Sehun glanced at him uneasily. “What, do you live in my house now?”

 

“I live next door, if you ever want to say hi.”

 

“I’m pretty sure I have neighbours there.”

 

“The other side.”

 

 

***

 

 

“So basically you stalked him, figured out his schedule, and somehow moved in next door to him?” Jongdae asked.

 

“Yes,” Tao said.

 

“You have issues,” Jongin said, in awe.

 

“I thought you’re an economics major?” Luhan asked Sehun, frowning.

 

“You live with Sehun?” Minseok asked Luhan.

 

Luhan shook his head, befuddled.

 

“But he said-“

 

“None of that happened,” Sehun sighed. “I’ll tell you what really did.”

 

 

***

 

 

“We’re discussing Le Fanu’s Green Tea next week. Be sure to turn up,” the professor said, voice drowned by squeaks of chairs being dragged back to their rightful places and footsteps rushing out of the small classroom.

 

Sehun shoved the idiots blocking his way and managed to reach the humanities library ahead of the crowd, but came to a halt at the entrance. Le Fanu? Was that classified under L or F? . He rushed over to a computer to access the library catalogue, ready to push the stupid thing in front of it aside.

 

But then he saw what was thoughtlessly left on the table beside the computer. Bingo. Sehun grabbed the book.

 

Tao turned to look at him, surprised by the sudden snitching. “I need that for Victorian Lit.”

 

“I need it for Gothic Lit,” Sehun said levelly.

 

Tao nodded meekly. “You can have it.”

 

Sehun paused, an idea popping up in his head. “We can study together.”

 

“I shouldn’t.”

 

“Why the hell not?”

 

“Please don’t be nice to me.”

 

Sehun frowned. “I’m not being nice, you idiot. I’ll make things miserable, just how you like it.”

 

Tao did not respond, reluctance still present on his face.

 

“Come on, it’ll be horrible,” Sehun persuaded.

 

“Where?” Tao asked after a long pause.

 

“Meet me at the bus stop at 4,” Sehun said. “We’ll go to my place.”

 

“But I have class until 6.”

 

“Not anymore.”

 

 

***

 

 

“Why do I have a really bad feeling about this?” Chanyeol said.

 

“He reminds me of that kid I used to beat up,” Sehun said.

 

“You have issues,” Jongin said.

 

“I thought you were lying at the research?” Jongdae asked Sehun.

 

“And so were you,” Luhan said to Tao.

 

“I didn’t make anything up,” Sehun said, scowling.

 

“He’s not abusing you, is he?” Minseok asked Tao.

 

“No,” Tao said, laughing. “God, no.”

 

“Have I ever told you how much I hate it when you laugh?” Sehun said to him.

 

“Yeah, it makes you want to slit my throat.”

 

“Exactly.”

 

“Oh my god,” Luhan said, horrified.

 

“I’ll tell you what actually happened,” Tao said. “For real this time.”

 

 

***

 

 

“What can I get you today…” Tao paused, smiling at the person in front of him. “Sehun?”

 

“Just a flat white, to go,” Sehun said. “I didn’t know you work at Trisha’s.”

 

“I just started today.”

 

 

***

 

 

“No,” Jongdae interrupted. “Let’s hear the real story now.”

 

“But I am trying to tell you the real story,” Tao said.

 

“Trisha’s never empty enough for you to chat with customers.”

 

“Have you been there at night, just before closing time?” Tao asked.

 

“You drink coffee at night?” Jongdae asked Sehun.

 

“I was about to pull an all-nighter at the library.”

 

Jongdae paused. “Point taken.”

 

“But Sehun’s never that pleasant,” Luhan pointed out.

 

Sehun looked at him, frowning. “Why are we friends again?”

 

“You mean that’s how you actually met him?” Luhan asked.

 

“No,” Sehun said, deliberately slowly. “I met him during the research.”

 

“Oh, for chrissakes, you know what I mean.”

 

“Let’s just listen to the rest of Tao’s story,” Minseok suggested.

 

“Well,” Tao said, “after that first time, Sehun came in pretty much everyday at around the same time.”

 

“I had my microeconomics paper due,” Sehun said.

 

“So you are an econ major,” Luhan said.

 

“And then…” Tao continued.

 

 

***

 

 

“The usual?” Tao asked.

 

“No, I think it’s time for a change,” Sehun said. “What do you recommend?”

 

“Well, our chocolate smoothie’s really popular, but if you want coffee…“ Tao paused, thinking. “The caramel latte’s pretty good.”

 

“You like sweet drinks, don’t you?”

 

“It’s not that sweet,” Tao said, smiling. “You should try it.”

 

“Two caramel lattes then,” Sehun said.

 

“Two?”

 

“You look like you need one.”

 

“You don’t have to,” Tao said quickly.

 

“I want to,” Sehun said. “The café’s closing soon, isn’t it?”

 

“Yeah, in about 20 minutes.”

 

Sehun smiled. “Do you want to go somewhere?”

 

 

***

 

 

“Why do neither of you sound like you?” Luhan asked.

 

“But it sounds realistic, doesn’t it?” Sehun said. “I’m the wholesome economics major that you think I am.”

 

“And I’m a typical strapped for cash uni student,” Tao said.

 

“That wasn’t the real story, was it?” Jongdae asked.

 

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Sehun said.

 

“Maybe we should just tell them,” Tao said.

 

Sehun paused, a pensive look crossing his features. “I’ll tell it,” he decided. “When Luhan and Minseok were busy with their lavatory romance…”

 

 

***

 

 

Sehun heard the faint click of the bathroom door lock and sighed, knowing he probably wouldn’t get any sleep that night; at least not until he knew what Luhan was doing in that bathroom. Being the blabbermouth that he was, Luhan would probably tell Minseok about him, who would tell god knows who, and somebody somewhere along that chain would tell Suho, and Sehun would be stuffed.

 

If it came down to it, he could always rat out on Luhan and still get his $300. Better yet, rat out on the idiot sleeping next to him too and get $600.

 

Sehun sat up and looked around the room. Everybody seemed sound asleep. He turned to look at Tao, who was curled up in his sleeping bag next to Sehun.

 

Well, he was bored, he couldn’t sleep and Tao was starting to piss him off, so why not?

 

Sehun wrapped his hands around Tao’s throat and gave it a good squeeze. Tao jerked awake and Sehun loosened his grip.

 

“Did you have fun lying?”

 

Tao frowned. “I’m not lying.”

 

“Are you sure you want to lie to me?” Sehun asked, tightening his hold once again.

 

Tao tugged on his arm, surprising him, before spinning them around with surprising agility.

 

“So what if I am?” Tao asked, forearm pressed onto Sehun’s neck.

 

“Okay, let’s stop this,” Sehun said, attempting to push Tao’s arm off him to no avail. “We can discuss this like reasonable people.”

 

“I know I can, but can you?” Tao asked. “You think you can just strangle me in the middle of the night and I’ll lie back and die?”

 

“Yes, because you deserve it. Isn’t that your story?”

 

Sehun tried to keep his expression impassive as Tao pressed harder on his neck, but knew he failed when he saw a slight but noticeable satisfied smile tug on Tao’s lips.

 

“Why does my lying bother you so much?” Tao asked. “I can tell that you’re lying too.”

 

“Lying doesn’t bother me, but the fact that you’re using me to make your story more credible pisses me off.”

 

“How am I using you?”

 

“Sticking to me because I presumably make you feel bad?” Sehun said. “And oh, I don’t know, what about the ‘strangle me’ bit? Didn’t like it so much when I actually did, did you?”

 

Tao chuckled. “I’m not using you.”

 

“Then what do you call what you’ve been doing?”

 

“I don’t know,” Tao said. “But I only do it because I find you interesting.”

 

“You’re using me because you find me interesting,” Sehun repeated cynically.

 

“I know you’re lying most of the time, but sometimes I’m not so sure, and that intrigues me,” Tao said. “And I think you like me.”

 

Sehun frowned. “Where did that come from?”

 

“The random things that you say and do that don’t support your story at all.”

 

“Like what?”

 

“When you told me to take my wallet back from Jongdae.”

 

“Meekness irritates me.”

 

“When you told Jongin to shut up when I was telling my story.”

 

“Jongin is a dumb piece of .”

 

“When you told me to shut up when Luhan was harassing me.”

 

“That’s because you’re annoying.”

 

“This is exactly it,” Tao said, grinning. “I have no idea if you’re lying or not.”

 

“Then you’re not that good at figuring people out,” Sehun pointed out.

 

“Do you know the liars among us?”

 

“Jongin and Luhan,” Sehun said. “Maybe Chanyeol and Kyungsoo.”

 

“Not Kyungsoo,” Tao said. “What about Minseok?”

 

“Minseok?”

 

“And Suho’s lying about something,” Tao said. “I’m not quite sure what it is.”

 

“Aren’t you just delusional?”

 

“We’ll see.”

 

 

***

 

 

“How is it possible that all that was going on in a room with eight other people, but nobody woke up?” Jongdae asked.

 

“Maybe somebody did and they went back to sleep assuming that somebody was,” Jongin paused. “You know, tumbling.”

 

“How did strangling each other lead up to you two getting together?” Luhan asked.

 

“Did that actually happen?” Tao asked.

 

“Um, you were there,” Jongdae pointed out. “You should know.”

 

“My story sounds plausible, doesn’t it?” Sehun said.

 

“I don’t think we’re ever going to know the truth,” Minseok said.

 

 

 

 

 

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a/n: only the epilogue left and then I'm done. It'll be interesting to know what people think before I start writing the epilogue though winkwink. I hope I didn't disappoint any Taohun shippers. or any of the other pairings...

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