Paper Hearts: a TaoHun fanfic

Confession

He held him tightly.

Whispering a quieter serenade than a distant songbird was the cool and dry breeze trickling from a tiny crack in the window. The room was painted blue with dark shadows, but welcomed a touch of silver through translucent curtains. A completely different world from the crisp white and pale sunlight of the day surrounded Tao and Sehun. They accepted the darkness like the long and intoxicatingly sweet kisses they gave each other.

Sehun closed his eyes.

The deepening day catalysed their romance. It wasn’t long before casually talking turned into Tao leaning onto Sehun’s forehead; Sehun listening to his breath as Tao revealed his plans for the future; their hands intertwining and swinging back and forth; their lips getting close enough to kiss; their clothes joining the carpeted floor with Sehun’s dirty laundry. As it got darker, they got closer to the truth; they said and did everything they ever wanted to say and do.

Tao absorbed the warmth of his skin.

In the almost pitch-black box, moonlight somehow skimmed the surface of their faces. Sehun’s was pale and clear. His expression softened. His low, sinister eyebrows relaxed. His lips curled into a blissful smile.

Sehun clung to him for dear life.

The only source of warmth in the raw autumn air was the man fondling the back of his head. Pressing his lips against Tao’s felt like the only right thing to do. He was guided in the blinding blackness by the warmth of this person’s every touch, which felt almost as gut-twisting and surreal as the words I love you.

On a slowly rocking boat, they drifted away to the serenade.

--

“I hate rainy days,” Kris announced to the world, his head pressed against the window.

Tao tapped aggressively at the keys, spewing out the sloppy last 200 words of his report.

“How can anyone like an ugly, gray day like this? Rainy days are so depressing. Plans are always cancelled… Your clothes get ruined...” He drew a frowning face on the pane.

“Well,” Tao muttered. He held the thought while his eyes squinted at his computer screen in deep focus. Then his tensed shoulders fell and he turned to Kris. “For people like me, it’s a good excuse to stay inside and not have to see anyone.”

Kris exhaled. “Is that how you spent the past three years without me?”

Tao chuckled. Realizing he didn’t know how to end his report, he shut his laptop and pushed it aside. He moved from the edge of his small bed to the opposite corner, where Kris knelt. He was taken aback at how much his friend still looked like the gangly, naive elementary school boy he once was. Not much had changed aside from his height shooting up and his face thinning out. Kris’s deep brown eyes stayed curiously fixed on the shaking trees outside the window of Tao’s room. The view was even more unpleasant than usual with the dismally murky sky casting its shadow of gloom all over campus.

“I hated those years. Let’s never talk about them again.”

“Seriously?” Kris finally turned his head, looking incredulous. He waited to see if Tao was joking.

Tao’s eyebrows collapsed into a frown.

“You really missed me that much?” Kris smiled and poked his friend’s cheek. “You little nerd. I missed you too.”

“Did you?”

“Of course! What, do you think I enjoyed going to the arcade all by myself every Friday?”