Before the Bell Rings
BEFORE THE BELL RINGS (EXO Cheese Challenge Day 15)
LuTao
G | 919 words
Luhan wiped his forehead, huffing as he looked at the morning sun starting to peek out from behind the clouds.
As he leaned against the wall of the locker room, he inhaled and exhaled deeply to get some nice, fresh morning air before being stuck indoors all day.
Morning track practice was always rough, but there was just something about running around the field in the fresh morning air that made it…relaxing.
“Ge.”
A familiar voice interrupted Luhan’s thoughts, and he brought his head back down to a normal position to see-
“Tao.” Luhan said, pleasantly surprised.
Luhan casually stretched his arms, pushing himself off the wall to walk toward the younger man. He slinked an arm over the latter’s shoulder
“Good job today. You’re getting the high jump down. Minseok’s gonna be impressed.”
“Thanks.” Tao nonchalantly said, scratching the side of his head, before cocking his head to the side.
“Want an apple?” He piped up, pulling out a bag of apples from his bag.
Luhan rose a brow and accepted the green apple that Tao extended out.
“Luhan.” Tao started suddenly, and looked to the floor.
“Yeah?” Luhan asked as he bit into his apple.
“I…I just wanted to tell you…”
Luhan slightly tilted his head, waiting for the younger boy to finish.
“I really-”
“HEY, get to class!” A disciplinary committee member yelled after them. Luhan bowed repeatedly and shuffled along with Tao.
“Sorry, go on?” Luhan said while chewing.
Tao shook his head. “It’s nothing, ge.”
“Are you sure?” Luhan asked, pausing mid-step with slight concern. When Tao smiled and nodded reassuringly, Luhan nodded too, placing his free arm on Tao’s shoulder.
“You should tell me things more often, okay? I’m here for you.”
Tao briefly stared at Luhan before letting out a snort and Luhan instantly rolled his eyes with a smile. Totally understandable, though, considering they’ve known each other for a grand total of nine months now?
“I was trying to be nice.” Luhan elbowed Tao on his side. Tao laughed and the two continued walking in no rush to their class, backpacks slung over their shoulders.
Footsteps of students echoed around them, birds chirped cheerfully and Luhan’s heart thumped against his chest. It was hard to read Tao sometimes, and it made him slightly nervous because of it. It didn’t help that the younger man would stay quiet during meets, being completely in the zone; it was something that Luhan appreciated, but at the same time made him wish that he would be more talkative so the rest of the team didn’t think he was intimidating.
Luhan turned to Tao, opening his mouth, but instead of being able to voice out anything, the third year suddenly felt a slight pick up of the wind and a soft pressure on his lips. As quickly as it came, the lips on his mouth pulled away as well.
Luhan dropped his apple and blatantly gaped, frozen as Tao stepped back and mumbled something Luhan couldn’t hear.
“I…” Luhan blinked, trying to comprehend what had just happened, but the younger boy immediately turned to walk away.
Before Luhan could say anything more, the sound of the bells rung out.
DING….DONG….
Luhan watched Tao to see if the younger boy would leave. Tao’s actions bothered him because he didn’t know what he was supposed to do, how he was supposed to react.
DING DONG….
What was going on in Tao’s mind? And…what does Tao mean to him?
DING DONG…
“Hey.” Luhan called out over the bells, and Tao paused in his steps.
DING DONG.
Luhan stepped closer and finally grabbed Tao’s arm. Luhan could feel Tao tense, and he wondered where Tao’s confidence went, considering he went in for the kill.
“If you were just going to run away after that, then what was the point?”
Tao tried shrug nonchalantly, but his ears were bright red and he tried to slouch away from Luhan’s gaze.
“Come on, idiot.” Luhan said playfully, tugging Tao along, but somewhere along the way, Tao got out of Luhan’s grasp and jumped onto his back. Before Luhan could protest, the younger boy shouted, “GO, GE, GO.”
Luhan sputtered, but immediately grabbed for Tao’s legs and bolted, laughing. Tao started to whoop as Luhan tried his best to run across the track toward the main building.
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Later, when Luhan was writing notes during his history class, he noticed a slip of paper in his pocket. Curious, he opened it and chuckled at the scribbles on the line paper:
I really like you, ge. Please go out with me?
Luhan wondered how he missed the signs in their past nine months of knowing each other, when it actually started, and seriously how?
Luhan neatly flattened the paper and stuffed it into his folder.
Mostly, though, Luhan wondered about what he should say to him at today’s practice and where they should go afterward to. He wondered about the nuances he could discover about the younger man. He wondered if Tao enjoyed watching movies or playing video games or eating junk food or going to the mall or…?
Finally, he wondered why he never thought of doing this before and how natural this all felt.
Luhan looked at the clock.
Only 8 hours before the final bell rang for him to run to the track field, to run to Tao.