High Maintenance 👑 h.zt

13

~Min-hee~

Min-hee could actually feel her cheeks turn red as tomatoes when Tao cried into her shirt, her stomach did absolute backflips, it didn't help that he was shirtless. But she couldn't stand there like a blushing rock, so she hugged him back. "It's alright, Tao...Maybe there's a way out." She said, though inside she was scared. Tao had gotten himself in deep, it sounded like there was some type of gang forcing him to do things for money.

Because Tao has nothing.

It was odd, that made her think of him as an even better person somehow, thinking he was rich somehow made him seem...arrogant, smug, spoiled. But without the glitter and glamour, Tao was still a beautiful bright star in a cloudy sky.

"Min-hee?" Tao asked.

She looked down, not realizing she was staring at the wall until then, just to find Tao looking up at her, a few tears still running down his cheeks. "Yeah, Tao?"

"Could you stay?" He asked, awkwardly releasing her and wiping away tears. He looked away from her, "I just...It's very empty here..."

"You mean you're lonely?" Min-hee asked with a small smile.

Tao looked back at her, surprised, "N-no! I meant that..." He stopped, frowning. "Okay, yes, fine, I'm lonely."

Tao looked up at her again, his face cute and pleading her to stay. Min-hee blushed harder, then sat next to him on the bed.

"I'll stay." She said, brushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear nervously. What would Grandma think, her hanging out with such a gorgeous boy, worse, a boy without a shirt at the current moment.

"Is that because you think I'm going to hurt you?" Tao asked, blunt, looking right into her eyes.

Maybe she did, a little. Even if he'd done all that crying, and he's probably poured his soul out to her by telling her about this, she couldn't help but feel that he must be kind of...dangerous to just go ahead and fight people for money.

Tao ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "You do, don't you?"

Min-hee shook her head. Not wanting to seem so assuming and heartless after everything that had happened, she didn't want to be fake with him, she wanted him to see she was sincere just like he was. He's such a cute panda, how could I be afraid of him? "I'm not, I'm just...shocked. Do you even...know his name? The guy you're...working for?"

When Tao bit his lip, she wished there was some other way to put it, a way that didn't seem like whoever it was owned him.

"No, I don't know his name." Tao looked away, then looked back at her and smiled. "I want to stop thinking about that for now. Can I show you something?"

Min-hee glanced at his abs. "Um..." She felt like her face was going numb she was blushing so hard. Stop staring, Min-hee! "Yeah, ok."

Tao smirked. He probably caught her staring. Then he went over to the closet and grabbed a striped long sleeve shirt and pulled that over his head.

"'Yeah, ok'." Tao said with a wink, mimicking her.

~~~

For someone who was broke, he sure had a nice car, sleek and shiny, looking like it was freshly painted, everything about it pristine and perfect. It was even better when she got in the passenger side, the seats were like freaking clouds, clouds made of pillows with a built in heater. When she got in, she just leaned back and closed her eyes. The car still smelled new.

She shook her head, trying to keep herself from falling asleep, she'd been running late for the past few days, she was surprised she hadn't collapsed yet.

"What is this?" She asked.

"Bugatti. A damn expensive French car." Tao answered, his voice slow.

Min-hee held the edge of her skirt. That might have been a sour point for him. "Maybe if we got the police, they could sort out your problem an--."

"No!" Tao glared at her, "Don't ever tell the police anything, understand? Don't tell anyone else about this either." Tao started the car engine, making the engine roar like he hadn't said anything like that, like he hadn't given her such a hard glare, like his personality hadn't switched. "I don't want to talk about that right now."

Min-hee was silent as Tao drove, they were both silent. Not talking about it wasn't going to solve the problem. Tao, you're so stupid. She understood it hurt, but she couldn't understand why he wouldn't try to solve it as soon as possible, at least give it some thought.

She stared out the window, watching everything go by in a blur of houses and grass and colors she couldn't describe, then she took off her glasses and looked at it that way, it hurt her eyes to focus, but she missed being able to see without them, before her astigmatism set in and the world became one big blur of light and color.

She couldn't even tell when the car stopped, her vision bad either way. Tao had to poke her shoulder. And when she looked at him, he was a blur too.

She put her glasses back on and caught Tao looking at her with a raised eyebrow, looking confused. "God, you're spacy." Then he got out of the car.

Min-hee pouted, getting out of the car after some difficulty with the door, because she'd never been in a car like this, she couldn't even find that handle for a second.

Outside was the ice cream shop, the one Min-hee had spilled Ice cream all over Tao in front of. Why would he bring her here? This was exactly where she'd humiliated him publicly, this was exactly why Baekhyun had rubbed a cupcake all over her.

Tao made her sit on a bench outside while he went in, and when he came back out, he had a chocolate ice cream cone. Min-hee was only confused.

He held the ice cream out for her to take, "I'm sorry."

She took the Ice cream. "Do you always apologize like this?" She said, looking away and licking the ice cream.

Tao scoffed. "Yeah, actually." Then he sat next to her on the bench. "So, will you be my friend?"

Min-hee's heart melted. For all his tough appearance, inside, he was so childish. Damn, he needed to stop making her blush so she could look him in the eye for more then a second.

"I caught you!"

Min-hee looked up, surprised, in front of her was a tall guy, his face boy-ish and a big smile across his face. He made his way over to them and sat sandwiched between her and Tao. He smiled at her, then at Tao, then he grabbed Tao's cheeks.

"Panda-a-a-a! You have to move faster then that if you want everything to feel all fluttery!" He said.

Tao smacked his hands away from his face. "Go away, Chanyeol." His voice was a growl, hardly like his melodious voice a second ago.

Chanyeol pouted, then turned to Min-hee, giving her a thumbs up, "I support his technique though, he's handling it well, considering he has a cru--."

Tao put his hands over Chanyeol's mouth. Tao's cheeks pink. Chanyeol struggled for a minute, and Min-hee scooted away, not wanting to get hit with Chanyeol's flailing arms and legs.

Eventually, Chanyeol pushed Tao away, giggling like a kid. "Panda, you're so silly! But If you want to talk business, I guess there's no helping it." He cleared his throat. "We're kind of wondering why you haven't been to work yet, we miss you over there, you know?"

Tao's eyes widened. And Min-hee double took. Was this...? Was he...some kind of messenger for...? Min-hee wanted to tackle him. And she did.

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A/N: SWAGLESSNESS RIGHT HERE! #IHaveNoSwag