- (1/1)

“Tao, will you be walking home with us after school today?”Tao looked up from his half finished school work and shook his head, “Sorry I have to work after school in the library today.”“Oh yeah.” Sehun tapped Tao's head, “You work there to get community service hours or something. No fair. That's so easy. I had to pick weeds in the hot summer sun every day for a month to get my hours! You know how much that damaged my back?! I couldn't dance for three days when I finished!” Sehun complained, swishing three fingers in front of his friend's face to emphasize the fact.“Hey, not my fault. You chose that activity.” Tao sighed, returning back to his school work. He wouldn't have much time to finish it when he got home so he had to go fast.“Yeah, whatever. Anyway, when do you finish up this library work anyway? I miss walking home with you.” Sehun asked, sitting down in the empty desk next to Tao's and scooting it towards him.“This is my last week.” Tao smiled, completing his work by writing his name on the top of the sheet.“Really?! Good.” Sehun pat Tao's back and a second later the bell rung signaling the end of lunch.The students quickly shuffled back into the classroom and took their seats. Tao let his eyes wander before finally falling on the head of short black hair that belonged to Kris.Kris was a good guy. He really was. He didn't talk back to teachers, he got good grades and was polite to pretty much everybody. His only flaw was he could be really quiet at times and distance himself from most of his friendly classmates. Sometimes Tao thought Kris was trying a little too hard to be cool, but what could he do? Kris never caused him any trouble.-The clicking of the mouse echoed through the barely occupied library. Tao continued to scan the pile of returned books next to him. Scanning with a beep, hovering over an 'okay' button with a click and throwing the books into a cart with a thump. The process was not interrupted until a student came up with a question regarding what area books on the French Revolution were located or to check one out.Tao was nearly half way through the pile of books when a shadow loomed over him and a boy cleared his throat. “Yes? Can I help you?” Tao politely asked, throwing the book he had been scanning into the cart.“Do you have a pencil I can borrow?” The male student asked.“Of course.” Tao opened the stationary drawer next to him and handed the boy a perfectly sharpened, unused, number two pencil. “Please return it when you're finished.”“I will. Thank you.” The boy's large lips formed into a smile before he grabbed the pencil and returned back to the table he had been working at.-Tao leaned back into his chair with a sigh and rubbed his tired eyes. He glanced up at the clock and noticed it was rapidly approaching 6 pm. He shut off the computer and scanned the library. It was completely empty, save for the boy who had borrowed the pencil earlier. He was hunched over his paper, and the scratching of his pencil against the paper was the only thing that could be heard.Tao hated to interrupt the boy but the library did close at six, and the exhausted boy wanted to go home and eat dinner. “Excuse me.” Tao lightly tapped the boy on the shoulder and he turned around with a jolt. “The library will be closing soon.”“Oh, really?” The boy looked surprised. “I'm just finishing up my work. Can you give me another minute, please?”“Sure, no problem.” Tao smiled before returning to the large librarian's desk to gather his things.“Here's the pencil I borrowed.” The student handed it back to Tao before he returned it to it's original drawer.“Thank you.”“Um, you wouldn't happen to be in Kris Wu's class, would you?” The boy asked.“I am. Why?”The boy smiled, “My name is Taemin. I'm a close friend of Kris and a grade below you. It's nice to meet you.” He held out an outstretched hand.“It's nice to meet you, Taemin. I'm Tao.” Tao shook his hand. “Do you need anything from me?”“Yeah!” Taemin dug into his backpack and pulled out a red envelope, thrusting it towards Tao. “It's Kris's birthday this weekend and it would be really great if all his friends and classmates showed up to surprise him.”The other timidly accepted the invitation, “A party?” Tao barely knew Kris.“Mmmhm!” Taemin smiled once more with his plump lips. “He doesn't like to celebrate his birthday that much, so it would be really great if you could come and show him how much you care.”“I guess that wouldn't be so bad.” He shrugged.“Great! All the information is there.” Taemin pointed to the invitation. “I'll see you on Saturday!” He waved before exiting the library.Well it has been a while since I've been invited to a party. He's my classmate. What's the worse that could happen?-Tao nervously followed the GPS on his phone, clutching a small rectangular gift wrapped in red. He had looked up Kris's address to find out how he could get there from a bus stop. Luckily, it wasn't far. His pace slowed as he realized he was wandering into a fairly wealthy neighborhood. It was overlooking a large man made lake, which everyone loved to frequent in the summer, and every vehicle had to enter it through large, black, iron gates with a gold letter in the center.13, 15, 17, 19...I need to find 27. Okay 23.... Tao's eyes scanned over the plates on each house before finally landing on a small plate which contained the number he was looking for. But when he looked up, his breath was taken away.“You've got to be kidding me.” Tao murmured, almost dropping his phone.Kris's house was the biggest on the street and as Tao walked up the driveway to the front door, he felt like he was about to meet the Queen. Maybe I should have worn a suit...With a shaky hand he pressed the large, gold covered doorbell and a beautiful chime of bells echoed throughout the house. In one elegant sweep, one of the large white doors opened revealing Taemin.“Tao! You made it. Great!” Taemin quickly dragged Tao into the house, barely giving him enough time to kick off his shoes at the entrance.Tao was shocked at the objects that littered the house. Amongst the hiding people, there were beautiful paintings, sculptures, and a huge grand piano that Tao could see his reflection in.“I-I-I brought a gift.” Tao stuttered, wondering if a copy of The Hunger Games he got for 50% off at a closing bookstore was even worthy of gracing some of the bookshelves he passed as he was dragged behind a couch.“Awesome! Jinki can you put this on the presents table?” Taemin asked, taking the gift from him and thrusting it into the hands of a much older looking boy. “Don't trip!” He called again, as Jinki shuffled into anther room.“Is Kris coming soon?” Tao asked, pulling his long legs up against his chest. The space between the couch and the wall was incredibly small and he wondered how Taemin managed to look so comfortable.The boy glanced at his watch, “Yeah. You arrived just in time. He should be arriving any time now.”As if on queue, the sound of an unlocking door was heard and soon Tao was dragged to his feet and became deaf over the huge roar of “Surprise!”Kris looked stunned at first, taking in what he was seeing before him. He blinked once. Twice. Before finally he broke into a huge gummy smile Tao didn't know Kris had. “I-I-Wow. Seriously?!” Kris laughed. “Who planned this?!”“I did!” The class president, Joonmyun bounced away from the loveseat he had been hiding behind.“I did too!” Taemin chimed.Kris couldn't stop smiling and it was then, right there, that Tao felt his heart flip flop for a second and the feeling traveled right up to his mouth which transformed into a smile. He liked seeing Kris happy.-The next few hours consisted of Tao helping himself to the delicious refreshments made by Taemin's upperclassman, Kibum (which made Tao wonder how Taemin could be friends with everyone), and socializing with some of his classmates.“Hey, have you seen Kris?” Taemin asked, interrupting Tao's bite into his tenth checkerboard cookie.“Nope. I haven't seen him since he arrived.”“Would you help me look for him, please? It's time for cake and his house is really big and I'm scared he might be with some girl having-”“Okay, okay, yeah I'll help.” Tao shook his hands in front of Taemin's face in an attempt for him to stop talking.“Thanks! When you find him, just bring him down here, okay?”“Mmmhhm. Of course.” Tao shoved the last of the cookie into his mouth and made his way up the large staircase which was crowded with kids. “Did Kris come up this way?”“Yeah.” Sehun pointed up the stairs, “Actually, he went up there a while ago and hasn't been down since.”Tao raised an eyebrow, “Was he with anyone?”Sehun shook his head, “Not that I could see.”Well at least Taemin's suspicions are false.At the top of the stairs he questioned another fellow classmate who pointed down the hall covered with doors. “He hasn't been out since.”“Thanks, Yixing.” Tao smiled before heading down the hall.Most of the doors were locked, but the ones that were unlocked appeared to be unoccupied storage or guest rooms. Finally he was reaching one of the final doors.“Kris?” Tao called in, noticing the light was on.“Who's there?” Kris's voice bellowed from further in.From the items in the huge room, Tao guessed it was Kris's room. “It's Tao. It's time for cake.” Tao tried his best to navigate around the small collection of chairs and couches before he reached the area Kris's bed was in. Kris was sitting on the edge of the bed and had a forlorn look draped upon his face.“Oh.” Kris continued to glance down at his hands. He did not look like the happily surprised birthday boy a few hours ago. “I'll be down in a minute.”“Um, are you alright?” Tao asked, taking a seat next to him.Kris glanced up at him. His eyes were a little red and misty, “Yeah. I'm fine. I was just feeling a little unwell.”Tao watched as Kris's face expression softened, “Really? Do you need any medicine?”“N-No. I'll be fine. Just give me a minute.” Kris rubbed his red eyes again in a feeble attempt to rid them from the last of his tears.“Are you sure?” Tao placed a hand on his shoulder, “Why are you so upset?”“It's none of your business.” Kris muttered.“I just want to know. It's your birthday today. You should be happy, not crying.”Kris sighed and sniffled, “I told Taemin I didn't want a party...”“Yeah. Taemin told me that you never really celebrate your birthday. But Taemin cares for you a lot and he wanted to make you happy. He's a good friend.”The crying male rubbed his hands together and reached for a tissue on his nightstand, “Really?”“Yeah.” Tao smiled, rubbing Kris's back as he blew his nose. “Want to tell me why you're so upset now?”“Promise you won't judge me or tell anybody?” Kris looked at him threateningly.Tao nodded, “I won't. I promise.”“Well, you can probably tell by now but my parents are really successful. Hence the whole house thing.” Kris gestured to all the elegant items scattered around his room.Tao nodded and Kris continued, “Well I know it might sound stupid but I'm fairly unsuccessful. I'm my parents' only child and they're pretty proud of me but I feel like the shouldn't be.”“Why not?” Tao asked, genuinely confused, “You're nice to everyone and you've been at the top of the class since elementary school.”“It's easy to get good grades, Tao. I mean, it doesn't take some extreme sort of talent to do that.”“Yes it does!” He interrupted, “Trust me. Lots of people would kill for your grades.” He handed him another tissue.“Thanks.” Kris shrugged, “It's just, my mom is a musical genius. She can practically play every instrument known to man. She wrote her own symphony once. And well, my dad is super smart.”“You're super smart!”“No, Tao, you don't understand. He graduated college at the age of eighteen.”“Oh.” Tao's head drooped a little“And me? I can't play a single instrument and obviously I'm nowhere close to getting into a college right now. All I do is get good grades and be nice.”“That's rough.” Tao pat Kris's back, “But what does this have to do with your birthday?”“Nothing, I guess. It's just I feel like a failure. I'd rather not be reminded every year that I'm another year older but still haven't done anything with my life. It really brings me down.”“You have done stuff with your life!” Tao sat up from the bed in protest, “Look downstairs, Kris. Look at everyone here. They're here to celebrate your birthday. They're here because they care about you and want you to be happy on your special day.”Kris looked shocked as Tao continued, “You're still young and you have so much more of your life ahead of you. Your parents are proud of who you are now and you shouldn't doubt them. Right now, you should enjoy your youth. It only comes once, you know? Stop wasting it thinking so far into the future. You need to focus on your life now.”Kris smiled, “You really think so?”“Of course!” Tao flung his hands up in the air. “I wouldn't be saying all this stuff if I didn't mean it. Honestly, Kris. You already have perfect grades so why should you care? You'll probably get into any high ranking college of your choice if you keep it up. You really have nothing to be worried about. Just focus on what's happening now. Life is like a mountain, okay? A really steep mountain with a rocky set of stairs leading up to the top. If you just keep your eyes glued to the top, you'll trip over the uneven areas in the steps. However, if you keep your eyes focused on each step in front of you, you won't fall and before you know it, you'll be standing at the top of the mountain without a scratch on you.”Kris smiled the smile he had bore when he first opened his front door, “Thanks, Tao.” His large arms engulfed Tao's thin frame and the panda eyed boy felt his cheeks redden a bit.“No problem.” Tao smiled, “As long as I've made you happy, there's no need to thank me. People tend to forget that they're allowed to let themselves be happy.”The birthday boy grabbed Tao's hand and led him down the hall and down the stairs, smiling all the way, “So what flavor is the cake?”