The useless, considerate (1/1)

Everything was terrible and absolutely unacceptable. As Tao searched his recent memory to find out where *everything* went wrong, he heard Baekhyun open the door and settle back down in the driver’s seat.That’s probably where it went wrong. When he decided to trust Baekhyun with his life by getting in a car with him. Like it wasn’t an open secret amongst the EXO members that Baekhyun was a terrible driver. He had proved this by managing to puncture a car out of the blue just now. How do you even do that?Tao was stressing out, he had somewhere to be and he had to be there soon. He didn’t even know exactly where he was, in some rest area by the highway which was definitely not in the center of Seoul, the place he wanted to be. He didn’t get the chance to attend wushu events often, what with the stuffed promotion schedule for EXO’s new album. And now that he had the chance, that little shit to Baekhyun had to act helpful and instead go ahead and ruin everything.Baekhyun was calling someone, talking so fast and in Korean, Tao didn’t catch half of what he said. Tao felt like exploding with rage. He was gritting his teeth to hold it in, but he felt like just snapping and smashing that girly face of Baekhyun’s in. That’s what wushu did for him. Not many people realized, because he was shy and kept to himself and refrained from getting into fights, but Tao was incredibly good at losing his temper if he really felt someone had stepped on his toe with no good reason whatsoever. When he did his martial art, he let all that out. And now he was dangerously close to spilling all of his saved up fighting energy on Baekhyun.“So, I called Chanyeol, who was busy, so I had to call Lay instead, and he said he didn’t know if he could make it, so I tried asking Kris, and he said he could be here in, like, 40 minutes.” Baekhyun looked out his window as he spoke. Tao wanted to ask him to speak up so he could actually hear what he said, but he felt he needed to focus on keeping himself together and not becoming a murderer.“There’s only room for one though, so he’ll drive you to Seoul and come back for me when he’s dropped you off. Oh and I’ll pay him. Don’t worry.”"Wow, that’s so great of you. You’ll pay for what you fucked up. I feel so grateful now," Tao thought to himself, still gritting his teeth to the point where it actually started hurting.“I mean, I guess I should anyway but... well now you know that I will.” Baekhyun continued.Tao nodded. Thankfully, Baekhyun shut up, and they both looked silently out the front window. It was dark outside, and the cars racing by to their right was the only light provided. After Baekhyun had put away his phone, it had become very dark in the car.“Look…” Baekhyun turned to look Tao into the eyes, for the first time since they had stopped, but he didn’t continue speaking. Tao had turned his head so fast and with an expression that spelled ‘DON’T PUSH IT’, his dark eyes full of hate, that Baekhyun made a little jump in his seat.Tao carefully recomposed his features to what he hoped would resemble a friendlier expression. Baekhyun shook the surprise off and continued.“I’m really sorry. I know this means a lot to you and I was... I was trying to be nice. I didn’t have anything planned anyway. I didn’t want to ruin one of our very few free nights for you.” Baekhyun bit his lip and looked a bit like a kid who was about to start crying. Maybe he actually was sorry, Tao didn’t care.Tao had only agreed to this because Xiumin had stood him up. He didn’t know why, which was making him even madder.Something warm landed on his left thigh. Tao looked down in surprise, and saw that it was Baekhyun’s hand. Well, now he was 100 % going to slap him.But as Tao turned his head, this time slowly, to demand an explanation, all he saw was Baekhyun’s sad puppy face staring up at him. Baekhyun bit his lip in an unusually cute fashion, and Tao forgot that he was angry for a millisecond. Baekhyun lighted up a bit because of the change in Tao’s expression. Tao coldly slapped his hand off his thigh. Now Baekhyun had the look of a puppy that had gotten a toy taken away from him.“I actually wanted to talk to you about something. It’s not really important; it’s just something I feel like I have to get off my chest.”"Oh god. Why is he suddenly all confessing and honest and.. girly?" Tao thought. Not that Baekhyun being feminine was unusual or in any way bad. Tao liked androgynous boys. But Baekhyun was just so much like a child. Funny how he was also considerably older than himself.“I… I have this crush on you, Zitao. I’ve been wanting to tell you for some time and I want you to know that I don’t expect anything to come out of it. I just can’t keep it a secret from you anymore.”Suddenly the car felt too small for sitting comfortably. What had Baekhyun just said? He had a crush on Tao? That was ridiculous. Baekhyun didn’t get crushes on younger boys. Tao struggled to form some sort of sentence to answer Baekhyun’s confession.“You- what? I don’t.. didn’t… think, what? What do you mean you.. uh-“ Tao broke it off. He didn't like being caught off-guard, and he was still angry and now also... flattered? The two emotions mixed in his already heated bloodstream in a strange way. Earlier he felt like he needed to hit Baekhyun, but now he wasn't sure what exactly he wanted to do to the older male.“Well I suppose you wouldn’t know. I’ve mostly been spying on you from afar whenever EXO was together. I just, I don’t know, I really like you. And I know that maybe this seems like a weird time to tell you and I promise I didn’t plan this just to be able to. But now it’s out and I feel so much lighter.” Baekhyun smiled at Tao, and Tao looked out his window. He was deeply confused.“I’ll give you time to think. I don’t mind the silence.”But Tao did. He felt like it was getting a bit too hot and silent inside the car, so he stepped out to breathe fresh air. It wasn’t that much noisier outside, the cars flowing by a few hundred meters away, but it was less awkward than sitting right next to Baekhyun.“So… he likes me. How serious is he? He sounds like it’s not that serious… is this going to be awkward when EXO has to train together? It’s not like we’ve ever been BFF’s, we never really talk...” Tao’s thoughts were now circling the more important matter. Why wasn’t he angry anymore? Normally it would take something extraordinary to cool this kind of anger down, but then again, this news was kind of extraordinary.Did he like Baekhyun? He didn’t know. He guessed that he had been looking at him too, but not differently from so many other boys he’d see on the street. To be honest, he probably had thought about Baekhyun every once in a while in a locked bathroom when he’d try to shake off a certain kind of frustration. But that was more because Baekhyun was an incredibly hot person, not because he liked him. Did this mean that Baekhyun had thought about... doing things with him? All of the sudden Tao’s cheeks weren’t hot from anger.He heard the door open and close behind him. Had Baekhyun gotten out of the car? What if Tao needed more time to think? What an impatient child. Oh god, he wasn’t sad, was he? Tao couldn’t take crying. He’d usually try to sneak off and let someone else clean up the mess if someone was crying. It sounded kind of Baekhyun-y to cry about this.“Hey… it’s chilly out here, huh?”Tao turned around to see the smaller man walking towards him with a smile.“But look at the stars! Wow.” Baekhyun sounded genuinely impressed as he lifted his gaze to the sparkling sky.Tao was looking at stars with a boy he had never really considered boyfriend material.“Uh, Baekhyun, about what you said…”“Yes?”“Well, I… I really didn’t know that you… but….” Tao made the decision as he said the words “... I think I’d like to give it a try.”Baekhyun stood still beside him. Tao turned to look at him. He had expected some kind of reaction, but Baekhyun smiled the same friendly smile as before.“You’d like to try? You need to be clearer. For example, answer this. Do you like me?”“I uh.” Tao felt taken aback, for the second time that day, “Yeah, I do, I mean I’ve been thinking about you sometimes but you know, I didn’t think EXO-members were potential…”“Oh. I guess maybe they aren’t, not to all people. But to us, I reckon we would be able to keep it a secret.”A secret. That sounded intriguing to Tao.This whole situation was very odd. Tao supposed there should be awkwardness and uncomfortable silences, but all there was was open-hearted talk and a nice kind of silence in between.“I was contemplating beating you up 15 minutes ago, just so you know.”“Well you still have some time to beat me up if you want.” Baekhyun winked at Tao before he turned to walk back to the car, and Tao was left utterly confused. And kind of aroused. Was that the reaction Baekhyun had wanted? He didn’t actually want him to beat him up, did he? Or did he get off from that kind of harsh treatment…Tao pondered his possibilities for a few minutes before he went back to join Baekhyun in the car.