THE BOOK OF EXO SHIPS

TAODAE

Sorry, didn't know what else to call this ship~

----------

Chen woke up to the warm glow of sunlight streaming through his windows, an unusually peaceful awakening for him. Birds were chirping outside his second-story window and a cicada buzzed in the heat. His arms were folded loosely across his pillow, hands behind his head in a relaxed ease. Yes this would have been a rather nice way to wake up had it not been for one thing.

He sighed. It was probably a bad thing for him to have gone to bed shirtless last night but he couldn’t help it. It was extremely hot this summer, too hot for him to bear, and he concluded that he had no choice but to go to bed without a shirt. And he sighed again as he realized, in his situation, that it wasn’t a good idea to wear only his boxers instead of his usual pajama pants. He also probably could have woken up cool too — at least, that was the intended plan. But too-warm arms wrapped around his waist, a muscled torso only covered by a thin t-shirt pressed against his side, and he could feel almost-even breaths just under his armpit. Without even looking over, he opened his mouth and spoke to the boy that clung so tightly to his chest.

"Tao, get off me."

He didn’t reply to his hyung, but Chen heard his breathing pattern shake a little and he nudged the boy’s head. “Tao, I know you heard me. Get off.”

Tao’s face contorted a little in annoyance and he groaned. “But hyung feels cool.”

"Yeah, well you don’t so get off." Tao groaned louder as Chen lifted his arm off his bare chest and went to get off the bed.The younger boy turned over onto his back and yawned loudly. Chen pulled on a pair of black sweatpants and walked over to the window. He pulled back the curtain and pushed it open.

"Hyung, is it Sunday already?" Tao squinted through the light that now flooded into their room.

"Yep." Chen glanced over and then immediately looked away. Tao’s bed was perfectly neat; untouched. "Did you…how the…when…why the hell did you sneak into my bed?"

Tao sat up and shrugged casually. He threw his elbow over his head and stretched. “You were having nightmares. It looked scary so I came over.”

Jongdae scowled. “Whatever…just…don’t do it again.”

A little whine escaped Tao’s throat. The two are college roommates. Highest grade in the class, two prodigies, two geniuses. Their room is set up like such: two beds on opposite sides of the room and two desks facing the wall on their side. They do their work at the same time, on their own respective desks, every day after classes. They always finish early, go out for dinner together, and get perfect grades nonetheless. They have the easy way up the scale of life without even trying too hard. And even though they were top of the class, they’re personalities probably couldn’t get any different.

On the outside, Chen was the mature one, only cracking jokes around the few friends he had, not including Zi Tao, his roommate, of course. He wasn’t very popular, being more quiet in the classroom than most and didn’t like to mess around when it came to school work and his future. He was gentle, he was kind, and people respected him for what the face he put up in class but they avoided him in a sense -- his silence was too hard to understand.

Tao, on the other hand, was the social butterfly of the two, always surrounded by girls and guys alike. He had the charismatic smile, the princely charm, the right movements and words and the attitude of someone who naturally fits in. Something about him -- his face, his body, his aura -- drew people in like moths to a flame and this was something Chen wished for himself. But he knew better.

In the dorms, the both of them were entirely different people. Chen was a leader, a bit cruel and strict but he cared for Tao. He cared enough to know not to be gentle on him, to not go easy on him. Tao was more childish, mischievous, and he wanted to be babied and spoiled by his hyung. In the dorms, Tao claimed Chen for himself. Jongdae was Tao's silent, mysterious prince-like hyung, his and his alone. And he did not like his things to be taken away.