High Maintenance 👑 h.zt

38

~Min-hee~

First thing she felt when she was conscious was a hand in hers. She wouldn't say she knew who, given that she felt that before she actually opened her eyes. She wasn't sure how long she'd been out, but she felt terrible, her whole body hurt. Last thing she remembered was being hit with a bat, then glass, then...nothing for quite sometime.

What would her grandma say? She'd have a cow. In her book, guys weren't supposed to hit girls, and really, that wasn't a bad book she was reading from, she could live with a free pass from being hit, because this feeling sucked.

"Tao..." She mumbled, remembering that he was supposed to come get her. She wondered if he ever did...

"Ugh! All you ever go on about is f*cking Huang ZiTao!"

Min-hee slowly opened her eyes, looking to the guy sitting next to her--Xiumin. She immediately jumped out of surprise, wanting to be anywhere but where she was now, which was apparently in a car, because she hit her head on the roof of it. She grabbed her head and writhed in pain for a moment, her head still sensitive from that hit with the bat.

"Aw, baby, you gotta be more careful, you could hurt yourself..." Xiumin said, pulling her toward him and kissing the top of her head.

Min-hee screamed, hitting him for him to let go, "Don't touch me, you freak!"

"Freak? Only in bed, sexy. Can't you just--."

"No, I can't 'just'! Where's Tao?"

Xiumin sighed, then let go of her, something Min-hee was incredibly grateful for. Xiumin pointed out the car window to an apartment building, a raggedy, sad and badly kept looking building. "He's in there. I don't think he wants to see you."

Min-hee rolled her eyes, then went past Xiumin out the open car door. Xiumin was probably just trying to getting her to stay in the car with him. Nothing in the world could have made her stay in the car with that sicko. Nothing at all.

Min-hee adjusted her glasses and went through the front door of the building, heading straight up the stairs since there wasn't an elevator. The apartment didn't have a lot of levels, the walls and floors gloomy with old wallpaper and carpet, the lighting was poor, blinking in and out in some parts of the hallway. Even with glasses, it was hard to read the name by each door.

When she found Tao's she knocked on the door, the knock making the door creak open. She peeked around the door, looking into the apartment. There were a few lights on, so she walked in, slowly, taking in everything almost by accident.

The room was bleak, bland, near empty, and lonely all at once. Tao wasn't kidding, he really did have nothing, and it hurt to realize that.

"Tao...?" She asked quietly, stepping through what would probably be considered the living room. She walked through that to what would be the bedroom, where Tao was putting a things into a suitcase, his back to her. "Tao?"

He screamed, jumping up to his feet and turning to face her, when he saw her, he cleared his throat. "Oh Hi, Min-hee..." His gaze dropped to the floor. "Are you alright?"

She nodded. "Yeah, are you?"

Tao shook his head. "No. I'm not." He took a deep breath. "I said I'd be there, and I wasn't, I said you wouldn't get hurt, and you did. My promises are bullsh*t."

Min-hee adjusted her glasses, Tao looked so sad, so bleak, just like the apartment, "It's okay, you did everything you could and--."

"And it wasn't good enough. Damn it, how many times can I screw up in a day before someone actually says it?" Tao asked, his voice getting louder, but cracking, "Why won't anyone just say it? I'm a liar, and a screw up, and a bastard, and I'm too full of myself to even realize how much anyone has done for me until they're gone..." Tears started escaping his eyes and he rubbed at them, turning away.