The next day, Hongbin's roommate, Chansik opened the door to a strange man holding a six pack of beer and the biggest Pororo doll he had ever seen.

    “You must be Chansik.” Ken grinned as he walked in, handing the beer and the doll to the younger man.

    “Who… are you?” Chansik asked, cuddling the doll.

    “I'm Ken. Hongbin named me!” He grinned, “is he home?” Ken asked, “we're supposed to head out on a road trip soon.”

    “Uh… I think he's in the shower.” Chansik said, “want some tea?” He asked.

    “That would be lovely.” Ken smiled.

    Hongbin walked down the stairs in a towel while drying his hair with another one.

    “Binie, why didn't you tell me you had a boyfriend?” Chansik asked with a tiny bit of hurt in his voice.

    “What?” Hongbin abruptly stopped scrubbing at his head to look up at his roommate.  He saw Ken set his mug of tea down and stand up. To Chansik it looked as if he was going to give Hongbin a hug. He looked so happy to see the other man.

    Hongbin charged at Ken and pinned him to the wall so abruptly that he didn't notice Ken's hands on his hips right away.

    “How did you find my house?” Hongbin snarled.

    “Your address is in the papers, my adorable bunny.” He said the last part loud enough for his roommate to hear. Ken hadn't noticed that he was rubbing tiny circles in the younger man's hips with his thumbs until Hongbin made a tiny noise in his throat. The older man loosened his grip, but didn't let go altogether.

    “I took the liberty of packing you some clothes for your road trip.” Chansik said, pointing at a bag by the door.

    “Thanks" Hongbin growled, continuing to glare at Ken.

    “You should get dressed s-so I'm not tempted to ravish you in front of your charming roommate, ducky… er bunny…” Ken was trying desperately to maintain eye contact. It wasn't his job to take advantage of Hongbin. It was his job to keep him safe. Whether Hongbin knew it or not.

    “Don't keep him waiting. Unless you want to go straight to a motel. I made sure you had plenty of protection by the way.” Chansik gave an exaggerated wink.

    “I hate you.” Hongbin grumbled as he walked upstairs. The other two looked at each other and started giggling.

    Once Hongbin had closed his door, he leaned against it and took a deep breath.

“What the hell is this guy?”

    Hongbin finally came downstairs and Chansik was playing mother hen.

    “Do you have your charger? Don't get pregnant. I'm not ready to be a grandmother.”

    “Seriously, shut up now if you know what's good for you.” Hongbin said just before Ken carried him out the door with his bag on the opposite shoulder he had thrown Hongbin over.

    He sat the brunet on the trunk and stood between his legs.

    “Look. I know this whole thing is going to seem awkward, but I want to keep you safe. In order to do that, I need you to play along whenever I tell you to.” He leaned forward, causing Hongbin to lean back in order to maintain what little distance was between them.  “I'm going to need you to trust me. Don't forget that. Always.”

    Hongbin nodded warily, a little scared of Ken at the moment.

    “Let's go then!” Ken pulled him to his feet and grabbed his bag, throwing it in the back seat and unlocking the door for Hongbin.

    “We should stop by the bank and grab some money.” Hongbin said a few hours later.

    Back home, Chansik answered the door. There were two large men in suits asking for Hongbin. “You just missed him actually. They just left on a road trip.” he told them.

    Hongbin was standing at the atm. Ken was wondering what was taking so long.

    “It took my card and won't give it back.” he pouted in consternation.

    “I can get it back. Go sit in the car.” Ken said.

     A few minutes later, Ken hopped into the car, dropping a metal box into Hongbin's lap.

    “Where's my card?” He asked.

    “It's in there. I'll get it for you when we stop for the night.” Hongbin looked horrified at the piece of atm in his hand.

    “How are we going to get to Nevada when I only have $8.72?”

    “Remember how I told you to trust me?”

    “This can't be good.” Hongbin groaned with his face in his hands.

    “Just trust me. Next place we go, just grab a bunch of stuff you think we'll need and go to the register. I'll take care of the rest.”

    Ken let Hongbin off in front of the market and pulled the car off to the side. Hongbin grabbed almonds and energy drinks, road snacks and instant foods then brought them to the register. Just as the attendant rang up the last item Hongbin squeaked when an arm s around his neck.

    “Keep ringing it up and open the drawer or I cut this pretty little thing up so bad you won't recognise him.” He Hongbin's neck before putting a very sharp looking knife to his throat.

    “Please don't hurt him.” The attendant said urgently.

    “Put the money from the register in one of the bags and give it to him” Ken growled.

    The terrified man did as he was told. “Take the bag, pretty thing.” Ken said softly into Hongbin's ear. The attendant could see tears beginning to well in Hongbin's eyes.

    “Call the cops and I kill him. Got that? His blood will be on your hands.” He shouted. The attendant nodded rapidly. “Now be a good boy and sit on the floor until I've gone.” The attendant did as he was told and  Ken ran with Hongbin into the car.

    Ten minutes of driving and the shock finally wore off. Hongbin punched Ken's arm and they veered off the road.

    “You me.” He shouted.

    “Had to make it look convincing.” He said, turning off the car.

    “I'm going to have a criminal record because of you!” Hongbin whined.

    “Not if we're not caught.” He said. A police car came to a stop right behind them.  Hongbin squeaked as Ken lunged at him, sealing their lips together. There was a tap on the passenger window and Ken tried to look up, but Hongbin pulled him down for another kiss.

    The tapping became more insistent and Ken tapped at Hongbin's shoulder to get him to let go.

    Ken lifted his head and rolled down the window. “It's there a problem, sir?”

    “May I ask what you two are doing on the side of the highway?”

    “I asked my honey bunny to marry me and he said yes. I was so happy I had to kiss him.” There was that grin again.

    “How… sweet.” The cop said. He turned away momentarily before turning back to them. “You best be careful, there's a sicko taking hostages and cutting them up.”

    “We will sir.” Ken said brightly. The cop drove away and Ken sighed. “Misdirection takes up so much energy.” He whispered against Hongbin's shoulder. He went to push up and get back in the driver's seat, but Hongbin pulled him down for one more kiss.

    “Uh… sorry. I don’t know why I did that…” Hongbin mumbled awkwardly.

    Ken started driving again and the radio in an attempt to combat the awkward silence.

    They pulled into a motel and checked into a  budget room. Hongbin seemingly fell asleep right away, but Ken stared at the ceiling for a few hours. It took a few moments to realize there was the noise of someone trying to get into their hotel room. By the time they had broken into the room, Hongbin was starting to wake up… in the car… already miles away from the motel.

    “Weren't we just in a motel?” Hongbin asked groggily.

    “They found us. I had to jump out the bathroom window with you and run. Did you tell Chansik which way we were going?”

    “Uh yeah. He would have freaked out and called my mother to find us if I hadn't.”

    Ken abruptly pulled off the highway at the next exit and got onto another highway heading south.

    “What are you doing? We have to go east.”

    “You gave them a way to trap us.” Ken explained.

    “...oh. Then where are we going?”

    “We're taking the scenic route, obviously.” He pointed at a sign that said scenic route.

    “So… you have no idea where you're going.”

    “I know exactly where we're going, might take us a while. Sometimes they don't want to be found.” Ken said.

    “So basically like saying you don't know where we're going.” Hongbin teased.

    “Shut up.”