Sequel: Unholy Matrimony

You're Kinda Sexy When You Get Angry

Three

TAO

I observed as Baekhyun jumped into a shopping cart and Chanyeol began pushing him around. Kris was rolling his eyes at them as he grabbed a cart of his own. Baekhyun turned to us. “I challenge you guys to a race. A shopping cart race.”

“Only homeless people do that.” Kris scoffed. “Plus, I just want to make this as quick and painless as possible.”

“Get in the cart, Kris.” I spoke up, pointing into it. “You want to make this quick and painless, so stop arguing.”

He whimpered before getting into the cart. Once he was comfortable, I walked up to Baekhyun and Chanyeol. With that, we took off into the produce aisle, shouting insults at each other and throwing items into each other’s carts to slow each other down.

To make things more fun, I let the cart go. “What are you doing?” Kris yelled, noticing the cart start to swerve near a shelf of wine bottles at a high speed. He threw his hands over his eyes before the cart came to a complete stop about an inch away. He opened one eye and turned to me. “You’re a dick, you know that?” He snapped. I shrugged before turning the cart to meet up with Chanyeol and Baekhyun.

“Can we use sesame oil as lube?” Chanyeol picked up a bottle. “We could go all natural.”

“I read somewhere that olive oil is better… it also moisturizes!” Baekhyun exclaimed, grabbing a different bottle. “Take me to the cereal aisle.” He demanded, and Chanyeol happily complied.

Kris rubbed his eyes. “Which aisle should we start with?”

“I’ve been craving cake lately.” I replied vaguely, heading to the bakery area. He nodded and we began moving in that general direction.

“Oh my God, Tao. Wait.” He held up a hand to stop me and pointed to a little kid holding some cookies. “How amazing is that frosting design? Can we get those?”

“That’s all very nice but I’m here for the cake.”

“Please don’t make shopping difficult, too.” He pouted. “You have fucked up enough.”

I smiled and patted his head. “What color of frosting? There’s blue, green, yellow, pink….”

“Let’s get blue.” He grabbed the box and set it on his lap.

I leaned against the cart. “Now we get cake.” With that, I pushed him over to the table with some cupcakes on it. “You can choose the color.”

“Yellow.” He replied simply. “Blue and yellow look good together. I have this weird thing about having most of the items in the cart match each other.”

“I would criticize you, but I have no room to.”

“What strange things do you do?”

Instead of strange mannerisms, I immediately recalled each robbery and each bit of money I had taken. I thought of the priceless things I had “borrowed” and sold without permission. Taking a deep breath, I continued pushing the cart towards the soup aisle. Kris looked up at me, still expecting an answer. “Lots of things.” I shrugged, trying to communicate that the conversation was over. “Do I still owe you money?” I asked.

“Well, I’m not exactly sure. I am beginning to not hate you as much since our pun war. I mean, it would be nice to fix them, but…”

“You’ll have the money.” I cut him off. “It’s okay. I can get it. I owe you about 200, yes?” He nodded, obviously shocked I had decided to comply. My plan of kissing him to get him to shut up about his shoe had worked, but for once in my life, I supposed I should at least be semi-honest. Getting easy money was nothing new to me. And maybe if I did it just one more time, I would stop feeling remorse.

“Tao?” He tapped my hand and looked up at me. I glanced at him to show I had heard.

“Can I buy you dinner or something?” He mumbled timidly, as if he was reading something from a cue card.

I smirked. “Excuse me?”

“I don’t understand you at all. You won’t say anything about who exactly you are or where you come from, and to be honest, that bothers me.”

“Well, I’m not proud of who I am or where I come from.”

“You should be. Look where you are right now in your life. Living in the classiest dorms ever built at the best college ever with the best roommates ever.” He grinned. “You got here through being smart and dedicated and honest.”

“I would not use the word honest.” I sighed.

“If it helps, I’m not proud of where I come from either.” He muttered. “I didn't work at all to get here. I just got in because of my name. I’m not nearly as talented as anyone else here.” He fidgeted with the plastic box that contained his cookies.

“Listen.” I stopped the cart. “Stop complimenting me. Weren't you just calling me an asshole a few hours ago when I was using your towel?”

“That was my special foot towel though.”

“What I’m trying to say is, I am a shittier person than you think.”

“I think you’re a very shitty person, so that is saying quite a lot. But while I do think you’re a total ass, I know you’re hardworking.”

“You have no room to say that though,” My voice rose slightly. “You shouldn't be giving me any type of praise, you don’t even know me.”

He looked away for a moment and we fell quiet. After a minute had passed, he lifted his gaze back up at me. “You’re kinda sexy when you get angry.” He imitated. I rolled my eyes, laughing.

“Don’t make me happy, I’m supposed to be upset with you.” I winked, pushing the cart again. “What other things do you want?” I took a deep breath, trying to eliminate the stupid grin on my face.

“I won’t tell you until you accept my dinner offer.”

“Fine then. We don’t have to buy you anything.” I smiled, moving towards the checkout. He gasped and placed his hand on my chest to stop me.

“I like potato chips.” He gasped. I patted his head before turning the cart around. “Give me an answer. Are we on for dinner or what?”

“Sure, we’re on.” I shrugged.

“OKAY SO THIS AND THIS AND THIS AND THIS…” I heard Chanyeol’s voice coming from the aisle next to us. I left the cart and peeked over to see Chanyeol scooping boxes of condoms onto Baekhyun, who appeared to be making a fort out of them. “Do you want the flavored ones or the ones with the hot-cold lube?”

“We have our own all-natural lube, so let’s get the flavored. The strawberry kind.”

“Won’t they taste really gross from the olive oil?” Chanyeol raised an eyebrow at him. The two sat for a moment. “Okay, whatever. We’ll think of it as a culinary adventure.”

“Guys!” I called. “Let’s go! We’ll race!”

“You’re on!” They chanted. I ran back to Kris and began sprinting towards the doors, grabbing things to toss at our rivals. Kris looked at me, squeaking helplessly. “Calm down, I got this!” I yelled, tossing a cereal box in their direction. People moved away, trying to avoid being hit. We raced to check out all of our stuff as fast as we could, screaming at each other.

“Why does everything have to be a competition?” Kris whined.

Once everything was done, we all dashed out to the car and loaded our stuff up. “I would say that was quick and painless, Kris.” I taunted as I helped him out onto the pavement.

“I would not say painless.” Chanyeol objected, pointing to a cut on his lip. “That was from you throwing that cereal box, you bastard.”

Baekhyun gasped, wiping away the blood with his shirt tail. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” He smiled, giving Baekhyun a small kiss on the forehead.

Once Kris noticed the small amount of blood on Baekhyun’s face, he leaned forward and spread it with his thumb, making a Lion King reference. I gave him a nod of approval before opening the car door.

“Oh hell no. I get shotgun.” Baekhyun ran in front of me as Chanyeol took his place in the driver’s seat. I followed Kris into the back. And that was the night Chanyeol and Baekhyun taught me what road head was.

Image

KRIS

“Are you ready to go?” I called behind me.

He stepped out of the bathroom in some semi-nice pants with a stained button-down. After looking at me for a moment, he pouted. “I don’t have anything nicer.”

“I think you look fine.”

“You’re in a suit. We could always just pick up some takeout and come back here, I don’t want you to be seen with me.”

I shook my head. “Tao.” I giggled. “Let’s just go.” I bit my lip, hoping he couldn't see me blushing. For the last couple days, I had found myself starting to actually, God forbid, become attracted to him. I needed him to fuck up again so I could get back to hating him and focusing on my life. And I seemed to have a solid plan… Take him to a place he is not used to. Watch him do something stupid and begin to lose interest. Just a few easy steps.

Once we arrived inside the restaurant, I looked over to see his eyes double in size. “You know I’m fine with just getting some takeout.” He turned to me. I gave him a small pat on the shoulder. “Why is everyone looking at me? Can you make them stop?” He whined. I chuckled as a waiter took our drink orders and Tao failed to pronounce the names of different wines on the menu.

But I found myself correcting him, helping him out. Every time he was about to make a mistake, I would prevent it. I’d stop him before he made any rude comments, I explained dishes on the menu… my elaborate ruse had failed 100%.

I officially and genuinely liked Huang Zi Tao. Fuck.

The dinner went by quickly and I honestly had not been embarrassed by him once. We talked about almost everything from movies to college apps to how we liked to cook rice. I became confident that in that one hour that we had come to know almost everything about each other.

As we walked out to the car, I noticed a napkin stuck to his shoe. I laughed, which caused him to turn to me. “What is it?” He asked nervously. I shrugged and opened the door for him and making sure he was comfortable before I walked to the driver side.

Once we reached the campus though, neither of us moved to get out. I looked over at him. “Are you okay?” I asked.

He nodded. “Just scared. Did I embarrass you? I mean, I kind of did everything wrong. Like, why was there a fancy guy in the bathroom? Was I supposed to pay him? And why were there so many pieces of silverware? Should I have talked formally to the waiter? I mean like why should I... but should I have been more polite?”

“No, you did not embarrass me. You did fine.” I whispered, feeling the warmness return to my cheeks. “Did you at least have a good time?”

“Yeah,” He glanced at me, a slight smile on his face. “It was fun.”

After taking a deep breath, I turned to him again. “I know this is gonna sound weird, but I like you.” I let it all go. Immediately I regretted it, knowing it was way too soon. But with everything I knew about him now, I was positive. Tao was not my type, but I wanted him to be.

“In what way?” He asked, his expression not changing.

I struggled to find a good analogy. “Um, the Baekhyun-Chanyeol way. No, I didn’t mean that… I mean, I like you. Enough for me to… um, you know…”

“Are you saying we should date or something?” He cut me off.

I nodded shyly. “Feel free to say no. I mean, I know I’m taking it fast… and it’s okay if you don’t feel the same. You have every right to hate me…”

“Fine. But on one condition.” He interrupted again. I nodded, trying not to look desperate. “Never put me in one of those situations again.” He beamed.

“I promise.” I smiled. “Wait, is that a yes?”

“Yep. Why don’t we go inside?” He said, taking off his seat belt. I followed him into the building. He pulled out his key and unlocked our door quietly, in order to not disturb Baekhyun and Chanyeol. At this point they were probably playing another board game.

I placed my hand on his as he went to open the door. He looked at me expectantly. I bit my lip. “Can I kiss you?” I asked quietly.

“Sure.” He turned to me, smirking. "Impress me."

I took a deep breath and moved in, pausing a few centimeters away from his lips to pull myself together. Closing my eyes, I eliminated that last bit of space between us. I trembled as he slipped one arm behind my back and tugged me closer. He then parted his lips a little bit, allowing me to prod his tongue carefully. His hand slid up to my face, and he ran his cold fingers along my jawline. I shivered and melted against him, forcing him against the wall and deepening the kiss even further.

And I didn't even think about my shoes once.
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Comment comment comment!
Those are really nice and Christmas is coming up!

Anyway, sorry this is so long...