Snippet #2717174

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. The sun shone through the glass panes onto Kris Li's eyes as he hung upside down from a pull-up bar. Sweat ran up his bare torso dripping onto the floor. He synchronized his breathing to his movements: exhale as he sat up and inhale as he let himself fall back down. It was 6:18am, and he'd been working out for an hour. He had been on this schedule since he was eight years old and he doubted anything would get him off of the schedule. He believed strongly in protocol, in tradition, in strict regularity; it was almost militaristic. If only his other band members saw things in a similar fashion. Xiao and Rem were supposed to be here with him. He was not, however, surprised by their tardiness and indeed would not be surprised if their tardiness turned to absence. On the contrary, he knew where both of them were. Rem would be waking up in about 6 hours with a pounding hangover and wondering who it is lying beside him. Xiao, had a habit of self-medicating his homesickness. He had not been to China in 8 years and missed his family terribly. He stayed in a variety of drugged states to numb his anguish. Throughout all of this, Kris stayed true to his regime. This was not to say that Kris was free of all vices, for that was far from true. However, he had much better self-control and was more suited for playing the game that all celebrities must play: the balance between the private life and the life that the world sees. This wasn't due to natural born skill, of course, he had to become an expert in the art of creating facades.

After reaching his goal and doing one more just for good measure he grabbed hold of the pull up bars and lowered himself to the ground. He was a bit light-headed from having hung upside down for so long. Swiping a towel off a nearby rung, he wiped down his torso and neck. He retrieved his shirt and his ring that he had placed aside during his workout. The ring was the only memento he had from his first and, well, only relationship. It had ended badly, but his feelings for his ex-boyfriend had not faded and deep down he knew, or hoped at least, that Kai's feelings for him had not changed either. He still held out a semblance of hope that one day they might be able to be together. Their lives simply hadn't aligned... then. Maybe one day that could change.

Both Kai and Kris were born in December. Kai had given him the ring on Kris's birthday: December 7th. Kris would never forget that night. Kris had thought that Kai had forgotten it was his birthday; he had said nothing all day and Kris wasn't about to remind him if he forgot. Because of this Kris had been a bit cold to him all day. At the end of the day when Kris got back to his room he found a single white rose laying on his pillow. The rose had been sprayed with some sort of sparkling spray and even looking at it from the doorway the glimmer was visible. It was beautiful. There was a note underneath it stating directions to a spot outside that Kai wanted to meet. It had snowed heavily the day before and the land was thick with snow, but nevertheless Kris bundled up and went to the spot that the note described. Kai was there, lying on a stretched out sheet in a quiet, peaceful, secluded area so that they would not be witnessed. A cup of hot cider had obviously been prepared for his arrival. It was then that Kai gave him the ring placed at the center of another white rose that rested on a heart-shaped mound of snow, and then that Kai had kissed him for the first time. The ring was fourteen karat white gold. The band bore miniscule beads in the center running all around it. At the top was an exquisite snowflake design with a large turquoise stone(Kai and Kris' birthstone) as the centerpiece. Twelve smaller accent stones surrounded the centerpiece set into the outer fractal designs of the snowflake. It was breathtaking. Kris felt that, though Kai was gone, he somehow would always have him close by.

As he exited the gym a couple of girls were walking in. They oogled him. Despite his wishes he flashed them a flirty smile. Kai had hated the hypocrisy of it all. That's why he had chosen to leave rather than live a lie. Kris had not been ready to make that decision.This life had been all he'd known. He didn't know how to give it up; he didn't know if he even could. He didn't want to end things with Kai, but Kai gave him an ultimatum. Kai couldn't live a life of secrets, Kris didn't know any other way and so they had split paths and they had not spoken ever since. But Kris thought about him every day.

Kris got back to his room, luckily the members of TRInity didn't have to share a room, but Xiao's crying was audible as their rooms were next to each other.

"The things that go on offstage...." Kris thought to himself, dosing of for a bit.

"Would you shut him up." Rem came bursting through the door that adjoined their rooms, one hand up at his head, the other finishing pulling his underwear on.

"Unless you've got a ticket to China don't expect that anytime soon. What do you want?"

"I need to use your phone for room service. We somehow broke the phone in my room last night and I need coffee bad. Hey, can you order? Your English is better."

"Fine, just put some pants on."

Kris ordered a coffee, black, in English. As he was doing so, Xiao came in from the next room. His face was streaked with tears.

"They're not answering my calls. Mom said I need to learn independance." Xiao stuttered, his breathes ragged.

Rem groaned. "I can't speak Mandarin this early in the morning, Kris, you deal with it."

"Sorry. It just reminds me of home." Xiao explained, switching to Korean with some trouble. "Can you..." He held out an empty syringe and a jar full of clear liquid to Kris, a pleading look in his eye. "My hands are too shaky."

"God, Xiao." Kris ran a hand through his white hair.

"Please. I-I need it."

Reluctantly, Kris filled the syringe up halfway.
"I need to get out of here." Kris said, rising to leave.

I'm not staying to babysit it!" Rem called as Kris shut the door.

At times like these, Kris liked to go to still, quiet places like the one where he had his first kiss. There was only one such place in the middle of New York: central park. It wasn't quite as still as he would have liked but it would have to do. He chose to walk instead of taking a taxi which allowed him to let off some steam before he arrived. Upon his arrival, he laid down on a collection of rocks and gazed up at the sky, trying to slow his breathing and calm his nerves. He wore a cap over his white hair and sunglasses in an attempt to disguise his identity. TRInity's concert was in three days. It had sold out less than an hour after tickets were released so there was no doubt that he had fans scattered all about him, not knowing that their idol was so close by. He sat up as a cat grazed his arm, walking past him towards a girl who was starting to pour food out for them. It paused its trek for a short scratch behind the ears then continued towards the girl with a meow that Kris supposed meant its gratitude. He smiled, lying back on the rock to look at the sky again. If only every day could be as peaceful as this.

Suddenly, a searing heat burned his finger. It was his ring. He quickly started to pull it off but the pain stopped as quickly as it had started. As soon as the pain stopped he heard a commotion just over the hill of rocks he was lying on. He jumped up and ran to the top of the hill, witnessing all the commotion below.

"What the hell?"