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part two hundred and thirteen
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Re: wc!au - team bbh [c]; "your parents want to talk to you"
(Anonymous) 2014-07-09 04:43 pm (UTC)(link)892 words
Re: wc!au - team bbh [c]; "your parents want to talk to you"
(Anonymous) 2014-07-09 04:47 pm (UTC)(link)It’s New Years in Korea. Almost all the other students have gone back somewhere, because even though their university boosts of the large number of international students, most of the students are still from Korea and have a place to go home to that doesn’t involve way too much money and a red eye flight. And while Tao misses the salty air of Qingdao’s beaches and singing horribly at KTV with his friends, he would rather not be within twenty kilometers of his parents, which is why he’s taking winter classes to avoid going home during what’s supposed to be winter vacation anyway. Yixing meanwhile is taking winter classes so he can take the spring term off and be home with his family.
They’re sitting in the empty cafeteria with Baekhyun, who has gotten up to grab them whatever dismal amount of food they’ve prepared for the few kids still at school. Baekhyun probably could have gone home if he wanted to, but Tao has a lingering fear that he stayed to make sure Tao doesn’t get too lonely. Outside the window, the campus is dark and eerily, lit by a few flicker street lamps to help the occasional student briskly walking back to their room with a thick scarf wrapped around to cover their entire face avoid the stray patches of ice and the perilous clumps of gray snow.
Tao has no idea what business Yixing has with talking to Tao’s parents nor does he have a food to stuff his face with to avoid responding. Having walked within earshot, Baekhyun halt abruptly, eyes widening in shock as they flicker between Tao and Yixing. It’s the most awake he’s looked in the past few weeks, Tao probably would have teased if he wasn’t having an impromptu staring contest with Yixing, though admittedly none of them looked alive after just barely surviving finals. Tao also knows Baekhyun probably would make up for every hour he fell asleep drooling on his Managerial Accounting textbook by staying up another hour as if it would help.
Baekhyun gingerly places down a cup full of milk in front of Tao before taking a seat and taking a sip of his own mug of tea. Yixing meanwhile moves a few pieces of cantaloupe around on his plate with his fork. Baekhyun eyes the two of them carefully before pulling out his Econometrics textbook out and leafs through it to find the right chapter.
“I don’t even know how they even know me how they got my number or why they reached out to me and not you since they must know you’re here,” Yixing continues while crunching on his piece of fruit. “They invited me to dinner because they were in Seoul for some conference. It was awkward because they kept asking what I was to you and then gave me your father’s business card to pass along to you.”
Tao doesn’t respond and clasps his hands around the warm glass of milk. Baekhyun fidgets in his seat, absentmindedly flipping through the pages and sticking Post-It notes in random places that are just copies of the graphs, and he jumps up again to get something else to nibble on. As he passes, Baekhyun places a comforting hand on Tao’s shoulder for a brief moment and sends his a look as if to say, “Should you tell him?”
“I know you don’t get along with your parents, and I’ve never pried as to why,” Yixing starts, drawing out his words as he tries to think of what to say. “But parents always want the best for their children, even if they don’t know how to express it effectively. I think an open dialogue would help you and your family really delineate your feelings and allow you to push forward into the future without the weight of the past.”
Baekhyun scoffs as he sits back down with a milk bun. “You’re starting to sound like those bad self-help books your ex-boyfriend read,” he says between mouthfuls. Yixing sends him a withering look.
Tao thinks his parents made themselves abundantly clear about their feelings when they found out about his first boyfriend, perpetually cold faces aflame with anger as threw his out and subsequently disowned Tao. Tao has never told Yixing about the real reason he fled to Korea to live with Baekhyun, the only person he knew after almost a decade of exchanging letters through a school sponsored pen-pal program. Only Baekhyun is allowed to know the whole story.
The cafeteria is silent, drenched in Yixing’s awkward attempts to be diplomatic, save the loud, almost defiant slurp Tao makes as he attempts to chug all of his milk all in one go.
“I burned my bridges when they burned theirs,” Tao finally responds, pushing the empty cup away from him. “If they want to ‘delineate their feelings’, they can do it themselves, not through a messenger.”
Tao thinks it might have started snowing, if those are indeed flurries he sees against the pale light of the street lamp.
“We should probably head back to the dorms,” Baekhyun says, and Tao thinks he sounds like he’s whispering from across the room instead of sitting right next to him.
“Yeah,” Yixing agrees quietly. “Wouldn’t want to be caught in the storm.”
Re: wc!au - team bbh [c]; "your parents want to talk to you"
(Anonymous) 2014-07-09 08:14 pm (UTC)(link)