[EXO FANFIC FOR TAO] Coincidences

Part 8

Two weeks. You're going to leave this place in two weeks. Less than two weeks even. A desparing thought, a lonely one. One that you try to keep in the back of your head, yet in your mind at the same time.

But that's not what you were thinking about as you go out to a fast food restaurant to eat lunch with EXO-M.  Definitely not. In fact, you were thinking about the different rants the members were making about the new dances they had to practice (though they wouldn't give you any details, just complaints, since they said that you were clearly a fan too). They didn't complain very often, so you let them. Definitely not for the first time, you felt like you've been friends with these people for ages. Luhan and Xiumin keep saying how tired they are, even Tao starts ranting too. It's funny and light hearted, so it makes all of you laugh as they keep telling stories and rants and jokes. The atmosphere is so relaxed. Even you tell a story about when you were really little, and the rest of the group laughs. 

You were never much of a lucky person. In fact, you'd almost come to terms with your unfortunate luck. You didn't believe much in miracles and when good things came around, you didn't take the chance. You always thought that if you accept the good things, then another bad thing will happen. But this was a miracle that you wanted.

Would misfortune be waiting around the corner?

There wasn't much chatter now, they were eating. You took a sip from the soda you had bought and looked at them for a second. Words slipped out of your mouth, "Thank you..." You sit up as you realized that you had thought out loud. They look at you and Kris says "For what?"

"I don't know." You say. "For being friends with me."

It was a cheesy moment that was much appreciated. They all smiled at you gorgeously and you look at Tao, who's sitting next to you. He shares a secret smile that seems to say you're welcome. You remember the airport. Yeah, you think to yourself. It really was because of him.

Was it okay to feel this happy?

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 The next day was probably the first day you slept in since you came to China. Probably a lie, but you slept until noon, which is a surprise.  Of course, you love sleep, but you'd had thought you'd gotten used to the time here now and had set your priorites straight. The way you think about it now was probably the more you're awake, the more things can happen, and the more things you can get done.

Today, Tao had said that he'd teach you Chinese again. He had told you that one lesson was never enough (you had laughed at that) and that he'd never checked your homework. The plan was to meet at one o'clock, so you ran out of bed and began to take the fastest shower ever. Washing, breakfast, getting everything into a small bag to take with you, you made it just in time out of the door after saying bye to your grandparents.

That small cafe, just like last time. When you stepped in, you had to remind yourself not to stop at the doorway. You loved the nostalgic and calming feeling it gave you. The girl who had served you two last time was there again and she recognizes you. She asks if you were the one with "ZiTao from EXO" from last time, and you say yes with a smile. She welcomes you and asks if you're waiting for him. Another yes from you. She smiles and says she'll gladly serve you two again. You chuckle and agree. 

She introduces herself, but doesn't give a full name. All she says is that you can call her May. She has glasses with thick black rims, and her hair is dyed a light brown-orange color. It looks good, like she could be a Kpop star. She's in high school and helps at the cafe because her parents own it. She's about the same age as you, but you're not quite sure either. She tells you that, to be honest, she wanted to meet Tao and get his autograph, but that she heard him teaching you Chinese and thought you were interesting, so she wanted to be friends with you too. You shake her hand and say "Nice to meet you too!" and that's how you made yet another friend. Confusing enough, she tells you that she doesn't want anything to do with EXO's personal life, just to be a fan, so she'll hang out with you but you don't need to invite her to anything with them. Weird... is your first impression and thought of her, but you think it's alright anyway. She gives you an email, but no phone number, and says that she'd love to hang out sometime. 

You're actually quite happy at this friendly gesture. Maybe you just wanted "girl-time" too, even though you love hanging out with EXO-M, there wasn't much you could talk to them about when it came to thoughts and feelings. 

Tao arrives not long after you ordered an iced tea and sat down at the same table as last time. His red hair is slicked up again (you can't help but think it looks gorgeous) and he has fake glasses without lenses on. It looks great on him, you think to yourself. He greets May as she says "welcome!" and sits across from you. He signals for you to hand him your panda notebook to check your homework with one eyebrow raised and a small smile. He takes the book, opens it up to the page you did your work on, and scans it quickly. Immediately, he flips it over so it's facing you, points to a character, and says "Make that line longer".

And that's how the lesson goes. He corrects all your homework with painstaking strictness and accuracy and then teaches you a few new characters. Of course, you two get distracted every once in a while. The first time was Tao saying that he's hungry. You buy him a small cake and as he reaches into his pocket to pull out money to pay you back, you stop him. Your excuse is that he's bought you too many presents already. You hold up your phone and your right hand. He glances at the keychain, the bracelet, and the ring. Then he slowly reaches over and holds the ring on your middle finger and looks straight into your eyes.

"Do you like it?" He asks you. He smiles happily at you.

"Y-yeah." You stumble on your words. "I love it! It's so cute."

At that moment, he seems to realize that he's still holding onto your hand, and pulls away quickly while muttering "sorry sorry!" and immediately gets back to the lesson. He acts as if nothing happened. There's a little feeling in your heart, warm and fuzzy. You smile a little smile.

I never want to leave him. It's still strange for you to admit it. But...you love Tao.