Deer Luhan, With Love

38

Chapter 38 – In Which Tao Has Yet Another Terrifying Bathroom Experience

Deer Luhan,

CHANGE THE LOCKS IN YOUR GODDAMN DORM AND TEACH TAO WHAT A LOCK IS AND WHAT IT MEANS.

Leigh

I should have known I was in for trouble after Tao walked in on me making that phonecall in the bathroom.  Kris trailed me the next morning when I went out into town to buy breakfast.  I didn’t actually realise he was sneaking after me until I got down to the foyer and caught sight of him in the window reflection.

At first, I was too dazed to really do much about it – it wasn’t even close to five in the morning, and the only reason I was up was because I was absolutely starving and Xiumin and Chen had wiped out the fridge the previous day.  But when I noticed that he was still following me three or four streets later and that seeing him in the foyer windows hadn’t been a coincidence or a hallucination, I came to a halt.

His footsteps stopped immediately, and my coffee-deprived brain gave me the urge to chuckle.  It was like something out of a bad spy movie.

“I know you’re there,” I told him without turning around.  “Why are you following me?”

He didn’t reply.

“Kris,” I said.

Still nothing.  I looked back over my shoulder.

At first, the street appeared empty.  Then I noticed a black converse shoe sticking out from behind a bin.  Somebody’s legs were a little too long to keep him hidden.

Biting back a smile, I tiptoed over to the bin.  There was no sound of movement, so he probably couldn’t see me coming.

Holding my breath, I came to a halt and counted slowly to three.  Then I jumped in front of him.

“Boo!”

He flailed with a startled shriek and ended up grabbing his beanie to keep it on his head.  I doubled over laughing: it was just so ungainly.

“You scared me,” he grumbled, getting to his feet.

“Why are you following me?” I asked him.  “It’s quarter to five in the morning.”

Kris folded his arms, defensive.  “Nobody goes out at quarter to five in the morning.”

I arched an eyebrow at him.  “Then what are you doing here?”

“Following you.”

“Why?”

Kris scratched his nose, not meeting my eyes.  “Because you’re out at five in the morning.”

I resisted the urge to snap at him.  This was going in circles, and I needed coffee if I was going to develop the patience to deal with it.

“Kris, why are you awake at five in the morning?”

“I don’t know, ge.”

I sighed.

“Well, Chen was telling Tao ghost stories last night,” Kris mumbled, this time scratching the back of his neck, “so I had to calm him down, but then he ended up retelling me the ones that scared him the most and I couldn’t sleep, so I ended up in the living room because Xiumin’s snores were freaking me out more than silence was.”

I arched my other eyebrow.  This was new.

“Tao scared you sh*tless with a ghost story?”