1
Authors note: I've been wanting to write this for so long, and although I'm not sure I made the theme justice, EXO-K and EXO-M are just perfect for it. Since we don't really know much about their personalities yet, I have made shit up been creative with the characterization. This is merely me humoring my writing muse. How Taohun happened? Err... They're hot together? XD
As the rating inevitably goes up for the coming parts, they are locked. Join sonyeoncheonji, then follow the links below. Comments are highly appreciated <3
2 (locked), 3 (locked), 4
It’s a little hexagon, barely three inches across. Sehun had with all certainty walked right past it if it hadn’t been glued right on top of one of their own tags; three letters made up entirely by short, straight lines, harsh and angular and crudely sprayed across the brick wall in silver spray paint; E, X and O.
He finds himself just staring at the sticker, head subconsciously tilting to the side, as if it’d make more sense for another angle. The hexagon is split with a cross, with a line is intersecting half of the rightmost rhombus, and the whole general appearance of it looks awfully familiar in some way.
-
Sehun has never seen Suho this angry. Jaw clenched, teeth grinding and upper lip pulled into a foul grimace, he paces back and forth across the basement floor and mutters to himself.
“Don’t you guys realize what this means?!” he snaps, and suddenly everybody seem highly unwilling to meet his gaze. Baekhyun is gnawing on a fingernail, Chanyeol is preoccupied with a spot on the floor, and Kyungsoo keeps shifting uneasily in his seat. Even Jongin is keeping his mouth shut.
“Not only are they encroaching upon our territory…” Suho spits out, glare flicking from one face to another, each equally unresponsive. “They’re stealing our fucking name as well?!”
Baekhyun chooses that unfortunate moment to look up; the briefest glance darting over the leader’s face, but it is nevertheless detected and Suho descends on him like a hawk.
“WE’RE THE EXO’S! EVERYBODY KNOWS IT!” he all but screams into Baekhyun’s face, causing the younger to shrink back and squeeze his eyes shut. Suho hovers over him, breathing audibly, until Jongin pulls him away with a forceful grip of his shoulders.
“Yeah, yeah.” He mutters, but not without a tight frown of his own. “But don’t take it out on us. We’ve got to go and show those bastards who they’re dealing with, right?”
He pushes Suho down into a chair, but the older doesn’t answer; only keeps grinding his teeth and glaring at his shaking hands.
“Right?” Jongin probes, a hand supportively squeezing Suho’s shoulder. “We’ll show them, won’t we?”
No response.
“Hey. Tell us what to do, boss.”
Suho finally looks up, sporting a scowl that makes even Jongin flinch. “Call Krystal.”
Half an hour later Krystal saunters in on four-inch stilettoes, casts one look at Suho and scoffs.
“Always getting your panties in a bunch.” She sneers and sinks down in an empty armchair.
“Not the time.” Jongin notifies her through gritted teeth, but is silenced by her piercing glare.
“If you call me up during Doctor Who, demanding I drop everything and come here, then it’s my fucking say what time it is.”
Jongin only rolls his eyes and slaps the sticker into her hands. “What do you know about this?”
She eyes it for a moment, before letting out a snort. “So, you finally caught on? How come you guys are always the last to find stuff out?”
Suho lets out a vague growl from his chair and Jongin hurries to speed up the interrogation. “Well, what do you know?”
“They’re from China.” Krystal shrugs, and tosses the decal back. “Came here a few months ago. Some kind of delinquency transferal system, if I recall correctly. Anyway; they were split up, and four of them ended up here.” She sets an impish grin at Suho’s face. “Apparently the name has been passed on for generations. I don’t think they’d give it up easily.”
There is another vague rumble from the chair, and Jongin scrambles to assist. “We’re the EXO’s!” he informs Krystal sternly. “Everybody knows that!”
Krystal sends him a lazy glare and shrugs again. “It’s not like you’ve patented it or anything.” The next moment she, along with the boys, startle as Suho jumps up, striding up to Krystal and pushing Jongin aside.
“The name is one thing.” He barks, towering over the girl. “But that’s no reason to intrude on our grounds. They’re deliberately trying to stir shit. Why?”
Krystal frowns up at him, seemingly unfazed. “I don’t know.” She mutters. “Maybe they wanna crush you?”
Suho’s expression doesn’t change, but from his throat rises a growl so dark that Chanyeol jumps from his seat to put a hesitant hand on the leader’s shoulder. “That’s bullshit.” He says lowly. “We’d take four guys any day.”
“Yeah!” Jongin agrees briskly, putting a hand on Suho’s other shoulder. “Let’s go there and beat the shit out of them! Show them what happens when they mess with us!”
His enthusiastic grin falters as Krystal lets out a dry chuckle. “I wouldn’t, if I were you.”
“What do you mean?”
“They already destroyed three other gangs, and gained two new members. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, ey?”
The color drains from Jongin’s face, and he looks from Chanyeol to Suho, who both are staring at Krystal. Baekhyun is way beyond nails at this point; he’s gnawing on the entire finger.
“They’re both older and stronger than you. Got two big guys, but the others are no joke either. And then there’s…” she trails off, suddenly seeming a little apprehensive.
“What?” Kyungsoo asks, eyes wide.
Krystal shifts briefly in her seat. “They’ve got this really scary guy. Apparently he was some kind of MMA champion back in China. Not someone you’d want to play with; allegedly he took out half of the B.A.P’s all by himself.”
There is a long, silent pause before Jongin manages to speak up. “You’re screwing with us.” He says, voice dry and a little weak. “B.A.P? With that big, macho dude?”
Krystal shakes her head. “I’m serious.” She shuffles forward a little on the cushion, and looks into Suho’s eyes. “Don’t mess with them, okay? I saw this guy myself, he’s freaky enough even when not beating the shit out of anyone.”
“What do you mean… freaky?” Chanyeol inquires, although looking like he’d rather not know.
She writhes again, shoulders coming up in a faint shudder. “Just… All dark-eyed. Blank. Like he doesn’t care.”
-
Sehun’s first actual encounter with these other EXO’s comes a rough week later. He’s on his way to Suho’s basement one evening, when spotting a guy at the street corner ahead. He’s got short hair and a leather jacket and is notably baby-faced, but probably around the same age as Sehun himself. Just a guy on the street wouldn’t usually be much to take notice of, but this corner is special; it’s right where their territory starts, and is properly marked to show it – marks that the guy in question seems awfully interested in.
Sehun gets his suspicions confirmed as he comes closer and the guy pulls out a couple of stickers, swiftly tearing off the backside covers and smoothing them up on the wall.
“Hey!”
Calling out may not have been a smart thing to do, but Sehun can’t help himself – their tag, their name being violated like that, and he reacts instinctively. The guy startles and whips around, something dawning on his face when he sees Sehun’s frown. He shoots him a smirk before sauntering off down the road, his posture guarded but relaxed. Sehun lingers at the corner, looking after the guy and being slightly impressed that he makes it down to the next block without shooting a look back, before tearing the stickers down and heading down the alley.
Him smacking the (remains of the) decals on the table elicits a now familiar chain of reactions; Suho’s face darkens, Kyungsoo’s eyes widen, Baekhyun’s finger finds his mouth and Jongin goes off into a long rant about dignity and the importance of fighting for your values and how they should just give those mandarins a good kick in their collective Chinese ballsack.
Wits, had Suho suddenly exclaimed to interrupt one of these rants a few days ago. We may not have the muscles, but we have the brains.
Sehun had looked from Jongin to Chanyeol and somewhat begged to differ, but (for the sake of camaraderie) only nodded and agreed. Coming up with a military strategy had however turned out to be easier said than done, and soon enough Jongin would start mumbling about ballsacks again – much like now, causing Suho to exude great relief when Chanyeol stomps in to interrupt whatever genital attack Jongin’s currently mapping out.
“Well?” he inquires immediately, making Chanyeol roll his eyes and wring his jacket off.
“I got four out of six, anyway.” He says and whips his cellphone from his pocket. He slumps down in the couch and the others crowd around him.
“So, the leader.” He starts and shoots Suho the shortest glance while browsing through his phone. “Kris, or Wu Fan, according to Krystal.” He finds the right picture and magnifies it, showing a lean guy with thick eyebrows knitted into an authoritative frown. “Tall as fuck, and probably pretty strong too.”
Suho’s face has darkened again, and Chanyeol hurries to browse forward. “Um. And then there’s Yixing, also known as Lay. Krystal again…” he adds to nobody in particular. Lay looks older and manlier, even with his hair pulled back into a ponytail, and Baekhyun releases a faint whine towards his nails.
Jongin resolutely slaps Chanyeol on top of the head. “Yah, did you really have to show the big ones first?”
“Yeah, yeah.” Chanyeol swats at his hand. “You should like this kid, then. Guess how old he is?”
He holds up a picture of a girly-looking boy towards Jongin. “I don’t know. Fourteen?”
Chanyeol snorts. “Twenty-one. His name is Luhan, but I doubt we’ll face much trouble there. We can leave him to Baekhyun.” He lets out a cackle and earns a punch at the shoulder from the other.
“What about the fourth one?” Sehun inquires, because he thinks he knows who Chanyeol’d save for last, and he’s both curious and apprehensive about it.
“Uh.” Chanyeol says, pretty much giving it away. “Yeah.” He takes an awful long time flipping through the phone before finding the right picture.
“Is it…?” Kyungsoo asks, breathless.
“Yeah.” Chanyeol confirms shortly. They stare at the picture in silence for a good half minute before Jongin lets out a snort.
“He doesn’t look that bad.”
“What did you expect, horns and a tail?”
Jongin shrugs sheepishly, but the atmosphere has lightened up remarkably. Chanyeol’s just about to clamp the phone shut when Sehun grabs his hand and leans in for a better look.
He studies the face on the little screen; no, the guy doesn’t look that bad, but Krystal definitely had a point. There is something in the slightly narrowed eyes under dark bangs, the lip curled up into a detached smirk, that is decidedly off-putting.
“What’s his name?” Sehun asks sharply, interrupting the lighthearted chattering that has risen amongst the others; yah, then that kid Sehun ran into must be one of the unpatriotic bastards…
“Uh.” Chanyeol blinks at him for a moment. “Tao. His name is Tao.”
Sehun focuses on the picture again, but the others stay silent.
“What, Sehun-ah.” Jongin says, letting out a nervous little laugh. “You wanna take him on?”
Sehun meets Jongin’s gaze, causing his grin to falter. The other’s don’t see what he sees, he realizes. They’re not nearly as creeped out by the guy as he is.
“I don’t wanna go fucking near him.”
-
“Baekhyun’ll do it.”
“What?! Why me?!”
“Because you’re the shrimpiest. It’s gotta seem like an easy match.”
“Well, thank you so very fucking much.”
“Yeah, well, who else would do it?”
“How about the youngest?”
Sehun flinches as Baekyun’s finger whips out to point in his face, but Jongin cuts in before he can even open his mouth.
“Don’t be stupid. Sehun-ah freaks even me out when he gets his manly frown on.”
Chanyeol lets out a snort, but quickly falls silent as Baekhyun turns to him instead.
“Chanyeol can do it!” he wails, pointing.
“Y-yah, just knock it off.” Chanyeol retorts, swatting Baekyun’s hand away. “You know it’s you.”
Baekhyun glares at him for a moment, before sinking back down into his seat with flaring nostrils. “You fuckers.”
“Would you grow a pair.” Suho growls from his chair across the room. “We’ll be right behind you.” He sends a nod to Chanyeol, who rolls his eyes and leans over the table.
“Yeah, so, girlyboy and the little kid attends uni here…” he taps his ballpoint pen on the notepad on the table. “And take this route home.” He draws a line across the messy map. “So if Baekhyun comes inhere, and shakes his moneymaker well enough…” (He sends Baekyun a cheeky grin and earns a dirty look in response.) “…he should be able to lead them here, where the rest of us will be waiting.”
Sehun can’t help but to roll his eyes to himself, but it doesn’t pass undetected.
“Do you have something to say?” Suho questions sharply, causing the others to startle.
Sehun eyes him for a moment, seriously considering to back down, before shifting in his seat. “Is this really the best we can come up with? You kept speaking so nobly about wits and strategy but in the end we’re going six-on-two.” He says, measuring the older with his gaze. “Last time I checked, we didn’t do foul play.”
Something flares up in Suho’s glare, but his face doesn’t show anything but a subtle setting of the jaw. “This isn’t foul.” He says coldly. “We’re just going to let them know they can’t fuck with us.”
“By beating up the smallest two?”
It clearly hits a sore spot, and Suho jumps from his seat. “The fuck do you want us to do?!” he howls. “They come here; claiming our name, pawing on our turf, pissing on our fucking dignity, and we’re just gonna let it slide?”
“There are other ways to protect our dignity.”
“Like what?” Suho spits out.
Sehun shrugs, starting to feel uneasy. “Tell them to back off?”
Suho stares at him. “You wanna go over there and talk to them? Say, hey, it’d be real neat if you could fucking scram?! Well, go ahead, but I’m not paying your fucking hospital bills.” He shoots a wild look around the room. “I’m trying to look out for you guys. We take care of each other. We take care of our reputation.”
He whips back to Sehun, who’s feeling considerably less cocky now. “I know that we’re scrawny. Theyknow that we’re scrawny. And if you have a better idea I’d be very fucking happy to hear it, but I will not have us walking in and being beat to fucking pulp by two Schwarzeneggers and a friggin’ Bruce Lee!”
-
Jongin is, in a lack of a better word, giddy. He keeps bouncing on his feet, walking back and forth, constantly shrugging his shoulders loose and occasionally giving Sehun’s arm a good shove.
When Sehun starts feeling a bruise forming before they ever started fighting, he sends Jongin a stern glare.
“Will you knock it off.”
“Ah.” Jongin says, not looking the least bit guilty, “Sorry”, and gives Sehun yet another shove (although friendlier). He’s still for a rough ten seconds before starting to bounce again.
“Hey, when do you think they’re coming? They’re running a little late. You don’t think anything happened, do you? …Hey, do you?”
Sehun flinches as his bruise is poked by a stiff finger. “I hope not.” He says, trying not to picture Baekhyun lying in some alley, face a bloodied mess. “Baekhyun’s a good sprint.”
He cranes his neck over Jongin’s shoulder to catch a glimpse of the others, huddled in the alley across the street. Chanyeol’s leisurely leaned against the wall, scratching at his nose, and Kyungsoo’s on his haunches at his side. Suho, on the other hand, keeps leaning around the corner to send narrowed glances down the street. He catches Sehun’s gaze and earns him a brief shrug. Meanwhile, Jongin has started boxing with an invisible enemy, bouncing around on his feet and punching swift, hard blows into the air.
“…’ll show them…” he mutters to himself. “…can’t wait to see the look on their faces…”
Sehun ducks for a mis-aimed fist and gives Jongin’s arm a good shove as well. “For fucks’ sake, Jong. Chill. We’re not gonna induce actual damage on the guys.” He frowns at Jongin’s sheepish shrug. “You should take up some sport if you’ve got that much adrenaline in your system…” he falls silent as Jongin’s eyes suddenly widen. “…What?”
Jongin darts forward and puts a clammy hand over his mouth, and Sehun quirks a brow at him.
“Don’t you hear it?” Jongin hisses, and Sehun strains his ears. Sure enough, there is a faint flapping of feet coming from down the street; approaching at a mad speed. Within seconds the steps are upon them, soles slapping frantically against the tarmac and Sehun doesn’t even have time to tear Jongin’s hand off his face before Baekhyun flies past the alley, breath short and ragged but not showing the smallest sign of intending to slow down, even though he knows fully well where they’re hidden. Sehun sticks his head around the corner to shoot a look after him before searching for Suho’s face, but Suho’s frozen looking in the opposite direction, eyes wide and face pale and Sehun can only follow his gaze down the street, feeling something cold seeping down his own chest as well.
Lazily strolling towards their respective alleys are four lean guys, faces looking both confused and agitated and undebatably familiar. Kris towers over the rest, lips tightly pursed. At his side walks the boy with the leather jacket, head cocked and feet somewhat lagging after him. Luhan, not looking nearly as fragile in real life, trails just behind the two, but Sehun’s gaze quickly flits over to the boy on Kris’ other side; Tao. There is something fundamentally gracious over the way he walks; sneakers flicking across the tarmac almost like feline paws, his posture slightly leaned back, hands buried in jean pockets and face displaying an expression of complete and utter indifference.
Sehun’s tears his gaze away only when Jongin pushes past him and resolutely steps out to the middle of the street. Sehun’s eyes widen and he quickly looks over to the other alley where Kyungsoo and Chanyeol are engrossed in a desperate, hushed argument of some kind while Suho’s stare is trained on Jongin, his mouth muttering something that looks suspiciously much like fucking idiot.
“Hey!” Jongin calls out, causing the four to light up in cold smirks and exchange amused nudges. They trail to a halt a rough ten meters in front of him, Kris a few steps ahead of the others.
“Good afternoon.” He says in slightly accented korean, tilting his head and studying Jongin with casual interest.
Jongin suddenly falters slightly, and he shoots a glance to his side that almost has Sehun face-palming.Way to give them all away… He takes a deep breath before stepping out from his safe haven and striding up to Jongin’s side. From the corner of his eye he notes Suho swallowing thickly before pulling the other two out from their alley and coming up to join them. Kris smiles; a cold, detached tug of the lips that doesn’t go anywhere near his eyes.
“We ran into your friend.” He says pleasantly. “But he left awfully quick. Couldn’t even introduce himself properly.”
Sehun shoots Suho a brief glance while praying for Jongin to keep his mouth shut.
“Can’t blame him.” Jongin barks out immediately. “Having to look at your ugly snouts.”
Kris stares at him for a moment, before breaking into a low chuckle. “How hostile.” He says, shooting a look back at his friends. “Quite uncalled for, don’t you think?”
“Cut the crap.” Suho snaps, taking a step forward as well. “Don’t you keep track of your pups? They’ve been sneaking around our blocks, putting these ugly stickers all over our tags.” He nods shortly towards the boy with the leather jacket, who snorts out a little scoff.
“Your tags?” Kris repeats, pouting his lips. “Ah, we’ve been defiling those great pieces of art?”
Suho’s eyes narrow. “You’ve been nosing on our grounds.” He growls out. “We don’t appreciate it.”
“Your grounds?” the boy with the leather jacket says, brows quirked. “Since when do you get the right to an area by spraying a couple of letters on a wall?” He looks around at his friends. “Gee, guys. Let’s go pick up some paint. If we work quick enough we can own all of Seoul by bedtime.”
“You’re Korean, aren’t you?” Jongin asks, eyes narrowed. “What’s your name?”
The boy eyes him shortly, irritation creeping up his face. “I’m Xiu Min.”
Chanyeol barks out a cackle and drapes himself over Suho’s shoulder. “Xiu Min? You even got yourself a nice nickname with the betrayal of your country?”
Xiu Min purses his lips, but before he can say anything Kris lets out a cackle of his own. “Betrayal of his country?” he repeats, incredulous. “Aren’t you dramatic.”
Jongin opens his mouth to deliver a comeback, but Suho precedes him. “This town is big enough for two EXO’s.” he says, looking straight into Kris’ eyes. “But if it’s gonna work, you need to back off.”
“Back off?” Kris’ eyebrows elevate slightly.
“Yes, back off.” Suho repeats, glaring. “Stay away from us and our areas, and we’ll stay away from you.”
“Ah, but you know…” Kris says, smiling sweetly. “It’s so fun to crush little groups of boys who think too highly of themselves.”
A vague growl rises from Jongin’s throat, and before anyone can react he has lunged forward, hand risen and fisted, but he’s halted a good yard away from Kris’ face with a swift hit to the throat. He slumps down on the tarmac, coughing and groaning with Tao still looming quietly over him until Kris puts a hand on his shoulder and pulls him back.
“There, there.” He placates before switching to mandarin and giving Tao an amused smirk along with a fluid comment.
“You… bastard…” Jongin coughs out, shooting Tao a piercing glare.
“What did you fucking expect?” Kris croaks. “Either I get hurt, or you get hurt. Haven’t you even been around long enough to get used to a little pain?”
Jongin looks spitefully up his tall physique, throat once again nursing a vague rumble, and Sehun reacts instinctively; diving forward and pulling Jongin to his feet before dragging him back to the other three. Suho shoots him a grateful glance before taking another step forward.
“It’s not too late.” He growls. “If you stay away from us, there won’t have to be any more trouble.”
Kris tilts his head to the side again, lips stretched into a scornful grin. “You’re so cute.”
Jongin sputters and struggles to free himself from Sehun’s grip, and Kyungsoo swiftly grabs on to his other arm to hold him in place. Suho shoots a last glare at Kris before whipping around.
“We’re leaving.” He says darkly.
“But—!” Jongin stammers.
“Now!” Suho presses, stomping off down the road, and Sehun dares one last look back at the other’s before pulling Jongin along. Kris has pulled out a cigarette which he is in the process of lightening, Luhan and Xiu Min are already leaving in the opposite direction, but Tao is lingering, looking after Sehun and his friends. His eyes are dark under his bangs, face set in some kind of blank frown paired with a slight smirk that has a chill running down Sehun’s spine.
He whips his gaze away and trudges on, struggling to contain a highly agitated Jongin. When they’ve turned a corner Suho stops to sigh heavily and rub at his eyes.
“Could someone please call Baekhyun?”
-
To be perfectly honest, Sehun somewhat avoids the basement the coming week. The mood is foul; Suho constantly sitting muttering darkly to himself, Jongin breaking out into a loud, agitated rant at the slightest provocation and Chanyeol has chosen Baekhyun as the scapegoat for everything, causing them both to sulk and shoot sharp comments at each other when given opportunity. It is out of sheer loyalty that he doesn’t turn around at the door, but manages a full two hours before shooting Kyungsoo a tired glance and nodding towards the stairs.
They walk together for a bit before separating and thus Sehun takes a different route home than the usual one. It’s nothing he reflects much upon; surely they were all a bit on edge the first couple of days after the encounter, not really wanting to be outside alone when darkness fell, but all Sehun thinks of now is a hot bath and some TV (and possibly a quick wank) before going to sleep.
He’s taking a shortcut over an overgrown backyard when stumbling upon a tall metal fence that certainly didn’t exist the last time he was there. He snarls tiredly at it before whipping around to walk back, when noticing a person on top of a flight of stairs leading up to the second-floor apartments. Although it’s already dark, just enough light streams out from a nearby window for Sehun to recognize the guy – and for his heart to jump into his throat.
Tao eyes him carefully from his elevated position, and Sehun feels very much like the rodent prey of a large predator bird. He’s frozen in his place, and can only watch as Tao leisurely descends the stairs to stand at the entrance of the alley – effectively shutting off Sehun’s only chance of escape.
His heart is beating like crazy, and he struggles to force some air into his lungs. This is it. This is where he dies. Bye mom, bye dad, bye EXO. This is the end of Oh Sehun, butchered by the hands of a Chinese martial arts maniac… but is he going to give in to his instincts; wail, cry and crawl at his slayer’s feet, begging for mercy? No, he thinks to himself with something like obstinate horror rising in his chest. Oh Sehun is going to face his destiny like a man. Oh Sehun is going to throw the first punch.
He takes on a rigid posture and a determined expression before he resolutely strides up to Tao, raises his arm and lays a straight shot at his jaw with a dull thud.
Tao stumbles backwards at the force, head bent to the side. Slowly, slowly, does he bring up a hand to thumb at his face, before sending Sehun a dark stare from under his bangs that has Sehun’s knees buckling, and him distantly wondering if that wail-and-cry alternative might not sound all too bad after all.
The next thing he knows he’s also stumbling backwards, and at first he doesn’t realize what happened; can only watch Tao’s knuckles sinking until a sharp pain spreads from his jaw across his entire face and it dawns on him. But simultaneously, something else also spreads through his chest; a sizzling energy of some sort that clears his mind and loosens up his muscles, and suddenly he begins to understand this rush of adrenaline Jongin experiences before every fight.
He straightens his back and looks right into Tao’s hooded eyes. “That’s all you got?”
All he gets is a lopsided smirk in response before Tao lunges on him and he just barely manages to duck for the sneaker-clad foot flying up towards his head. Sehun bounces on his feet, knees bent and eyes trained on the other’s face, and the next time he strikes he throws out his fist, landing a good blow on Tao’s shoulder before receiving a knee to the stomach in return. He takes a moment to catch his breath before going in again, throwing punch after punch and getting so excited over the ones that hit that he barely feels the pain from the ones he receives.
He lasts for a good five minutes before Tao manages to block his fist with his hand, and the very next moment grab onto his wrist. He tugs him forward, their chests bumping together briefly before curling a foot around Sehun’s ankle and he falls on his back into the gravel with a husky grunt.
Tao stomps his foot down Sehun’s chest and looms darkly over him, and as the adrenaline wears off, dread rises again in his stomach. They’re both panting, Sehun’s ribcage heaving rapidly under Tao’s shoe, and as their gazes meet, Sehun is yet again frozen; he can only lie there, infinitely vulnerable, completely at the other’s mercy, and try to read any thoughts from his eyes.
But suddenly Tao slouches, head falling forward with a heavy sigh, and Sehun only gapes at him as he removes his foot and reaches out a hand. When getting no reaction he quirks a brow, but Sehun still doesn’t move and soon Tao bends down to grab onto his hand and pull him up.
He eyes Sehun for a moment, eyes darker and blanker than ever, before cocking his head to the side. “Come.”
Sehun blinks. “…What?”
Tao shoots him another short glance before looking away, almost as if rolling his eyes. “Just come.”
He stuffs his hands into his pockets and heads for the stairs, pausing to look back once more before ascending, taking two steps at a time. Sehun blinks to himself, brain strangely empty all of a sudden, and before he knows it he has trailed after Tao and climbed the stairs as well. Tao’s waiting for him by an opened door halfway down the balcony, and Sehun can only note that he’s absolutely crazy; they’re both absolutely fucking crazy, before going inside.
It’s a small flat, and the hallway leads directly into a living room with a kitchenette in a corner, while a door at the opposite wall is opened just enough to hint a corner of a bed. The place is sparsely furnished, and mostly filled with unpacked cardboard boxes, but there is a small table with a chair by the window and a couch along the short wall. Tao slams the door shut behind them and rakes at his shoelaces before kicking the sneakers off and heading to rummage around in one of the boxes.
Sehun lingers in the hallway and feels silly. Should he be polite? Should he compliment Tao on his lovely home? Should he sit down for a cup of tea? He settles with only shaking his head to himself and kicking his shoes off as well, trailing into the apartment just as Tao emerges from the box with a green leather purse with a white cross on it. He sets it down on the table and queues up antiseptic wash, cotton wipes and a few band-aids, before beckoning Sehun closer with an offhanded cock of the head. Sehun complies, distantly wondering if this is actually happening, and Tao pushes him to lean against the table while soaking some alcohol on a tuft of cotton.
It stings, and the pungent smell of alcohol prickles in his nose as Tao gently dabs the scratch on Sehun’s chin; courtesy of his first punch. He takes his time, leaning in to examine his nicks and soaking up a new swab for every cut. When having nursed every visible wound he leans back slightly, and then hooks a finger into the collar of Sehun’s t-shirt to access a scratch on his collarbone, but Sehun startles and swats his hand away. This is getting seriously weird already, and he searches for Tao’s gaze to try to make any sense of the situation, but Tao suddenly avoids his face.
He frowns and opens his mouth to say something, just anything, but flinches briefly when the cut on his jaw stings again. A dab of the finger lets him know it started bleeding once more, but he can’t do anything about it before Tao grabs onto his hand and frowns at him for spoiling his elaborate cleaning. They share a brief glance over their linked fingers before Tao leans forward and attaches his mouth to Sehun’s chin.
“The hell…” Sehun croaks and pushes him away, but Tao’s persistent; he takes a firm grip of Sehun’s jaw and leans in again, closing his lips around the wound and sucking softly. Something stirs deep in Sehun’s belly, a vague, hot movement almost down by his crotch, but the whole situation carries such a great feeling of surreality that he doesn’t think much of it.
He doesn’t think much of it even when letting himself out of the apartment a while later, or when walking home, or when having his bath. It’s not until he’s already lying in bed that he stares up into the ceiling and asks himself; what the actual fuck happened today?
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