The 12th Floor of Apartment E

Trial Run

Zitao takes his passport out of his mouth, so he can talk into his phone (to do that, he has to shift his phone between his ear and his shoulder since now his hand has to hold his passport). "Wait, ge," he says, stopping in the middle of the empty hall, "so you're coming at nine but Minseok-ge's on his way?"

"Yeah," Luhan says, sounding apologetic and distracted (Zitao hears numerous other voices at the other end). "I'm really sorry, but the interview got moved back so—"

"It's okay," the younger man says, smiling. "I can wait, ge, relax."

"Okay—and if you need anything, Yixing and Wufan are down in 1225, except I don't know if both of them are home yet since I haven't seen Wufan at the office all day today. Jongdae gets home the same time as Minseok so—"

"Ge," Zitao stands his suitcase near 1211 and he himself leans against the outer edge of the door frame, "I'm okay."

Luhan sighs. "You don't have your stick with you," he says. "I get worried when you don't have your stick with you."

Zitao laughs. "I'm in Korea, ge," he says. "Not a war zone."

For some reason, Luhan suddenly laughs along. "No, but you are on the twelfth floor of building E."

Wufan had dated Luhan when the reporter had went to high school in Beijing—on through when they attended university together in Korea, before they went their separate ways once Luhan returned to China but Wufan stayed in Korea. That meant that, obviously, Wufan knew about Zitao. Knew about—but didn't actually know. Wufan had been with Luhan far back in time enough to remember a skinny, little boy who needed to be picked up from wushu practice and sometimes loosely babysat.

He probably saw Huang Zitao a total of three times.

So, naturally, since Luhan doesn't talk to Wufan on a regular basis anymore (other than for work), and since Wufan only has seen Huang Zitao a total of three times back before puberty treated Zitao so kindly—naturally, Wufan doesn't realize that the (highly attractive, slender, tall, attractive, tall, attractive—attractive) person Minseok is helping move in is Huang Zitao until about three days after Wufan walks by the scene.

He realizes that that's Zitao when Luhan drops by 1225 and rubs it all over, into, and around Wufan's face.

"He's not that attractive," is all Wufan has to say, leaning against the dining table with his arms folded across his chest. "I don't think he's that attractive."

Jongdae, who is sitting at the dining table, opens his mouth to say something so Wufan kicks him in the shin before he can.

"You think he's hot," Luhan says, rolling his eyes. "You think he's really hot and he does wushu, and I know your thing for Chinese boys who can knock you around."

Wufan can sense that Jongdae is about to start laughing so he glowers down at the younger man until Jongdae sucks in his cheeks and bites his lip to keep silent. "I don't," Wufan says in Mandarin, just to spite Jongdae because nothing about this is funny, "have a thing."

Luhan doesn't seem to hear Wufan. "I'm just here to give you my full approval," he says in Korean, probably to spite Wufan for trying to seek some sort of privacy so Jongdae can't laugh or tell Yixing about it later. "And he's also younger than you," and this time Luhan does switch to Mandarin (Jongdae's face drops), "which I know is also another thing you have. Imagine him calling you ge while you—"