That night they all went to Luhan and Minseok’s rented house on the outskirts of Brasov. Chanyeol had planned to stay there anyway and Baekhyun was invited, too, but Yifan’s presence couldn’t be justified in any other way than that he didn’t want to “miss all the fun”. He had his own apartment in the city.

It was also beyond Chanyeol how he ended up on the floor, with Yifan next to him, literally fighting monsters in his sleep. Chanyeol couldn’t be sure that he wouldn’t wake up without his teeth – the moment Yifan fell asleep, he plastered himself all over Chanyeol, setting his long limbs in motion.

Chanyeol had obviously claimed the couch but Luhan and Minseok insisted that Baekhyun was a guest and thus should get it. Yifan shrugged and Baekhyun happily accepted. Unfortunately, in Chanyeol’s case the guest card wouldn’t work with his friends – they were past that stage a long time ago.

When Chanyeol woke up the next morning, he was the only one still laying down. He stretched his limbs with difficulty, the thin mattress doing nothing to relieve his overall body aching. He struggled to get to his feet, looking around to find the nearest toilet. He had only visited once, and even that before the general renovation that the guys decided on mere months later. He grabbed his toiletries and went ahead for a quick shower, the silence in the house oddly eerie.

As he was standing underneath the current, his mind drifted away to their unexpected guest. Baekhyun. Baekhyun what? He felt so stupid, he didn’t even ask his last name. What was worse, his friends took immediate liking to this young stranger, so oblivious to the most obvious things. There was no other way to explain this, unless Baekhyun really was an escaped mental patient, but somehow, Chanyeol thought it an idiotic idea.

With a firm resolution to find out just what exactly happened with their guest and his missing luggage, he put on some light clothes and went out to the garden, from where a conversation could be heard. Judging from the set up table, they must have just come back from the market.

‘I thought you would never wake up.’ Yifan greeted, staring him up and down with irony. Chanyeol smiled sheepishly.

‘I was just so tired.’

‘Next time I expect you to at least move in your sleep. Baekhyunnie here was all over you this morning-‘

‘More like climbed on top of you.’ Yifan whispered loudly enough.

‘-trying to find out whether you were still alive and breathing.’ Luhan patted the youngest’s back in consolation, completely ignoring his mean friend. There was no cure for Yifan’s wit and sharp tongue.

‘Huh?’ Chanyeol looked at the younger in confusion. His face was adorned with black frames and he had changed his clothes for a simple sweater. Judging from the size, it might or might not have been Luhan’s.

‘You didn’t move at all. I just put a small mirror to your mouth to see whether you were breathing. That’s what they always do to me at home.’ Baekhyun responded so casually that Chanyeol had to blink at the unexpected answer.

‘… They always check if you’re alive?’

‘Not always, just…’ Baekhyun’s voice became smaller and smaller, until it ceased to be heard.

It was so stupid of him to give away such details. Not only was he not technically allowed to speak of his life to strangers, but his own practices, he pondered, were probably not habitual for any other family.

It was really easy to lose his guard with these men, though. They’d only spent a couple of hours together this morning and he had never had more fun in his life. Luhan hyung lent him some clean outfit that he could wear, Yifan hyung taught him some native words and Minseok hyung insisted that he try all the local specialities. He especially liked Kürtőskalács, of which he had already eaten two large spiral-shaped pieces even before breakfast. This traditional chimney cake was supposed to be consumed during festivals and celebrations but as far as Baekhyun saw, it was sold all the time, at any major corner. Which suited him just fine.

He was so thankful to Chanyeol, too, even though it seemed that as time passed, the man who actually rescued him had more and more objections against Baek being there. Baekhyun had been disappointed many times before but this time around, he really didn’t want to be. It somehow hurt him to think that Chanyeol didn’t like him.

‘So, Baekhyun,’ the man in question cleared his throat, before turning to him. His coffee was left untouched. ‘we don’t even know your surname.’

‘It’s Byun. Byun Baekhyun. And we know that, at least those who bothered to ask.’ Luhan answered instead, warning in his eyes.

Chanyeol held a comment there, since he also saw worry on his friend’s face. He silently pleaded with him not to go over the topic again, Chanyeol just knew it. He knew that he would never win against Luhan, especially when Minseok had his back (which happened every single time) but he just had to let them know that he didn’t exactly approve of this situation.

‘Fine. Byun. Byun Baekhyun. You didn’t actually tell me what you are doing in Romania. It is not exactly a number one touristic spot chosen by Koreans.’ He took a sip of his fresh coffee, which was just what he needed to free some endorphins and make his head lighter. He was a closeted addict.

‘I wanted to come here.’ Baekhyun said. ‘I wanted to go somewhere. Anywhere. I ended up here in this place.’

‘That’s an interesting choice of words.’ Chanyeol frowned.

‘I believe that I was meant to come here for a reason. Even if to meet you. Thank you for taking me along. I think I really would have died on that street by now.’ Baekhyun looked at him seriously, speaking quietly but with so much innocent belief, that it made the other wonder briefly if the boy was really an earthly creature. He was a walking contradiction.

Chanyeol dropped his gaze, slightly embarrassed.

‘It’s no problem. I was just wondering about you. It’s not every day that I pick up strangers on the street. Especially ones like you.’

‘Like me? Does it mean you like me?’ Baekhyun smiled hopefully and Chanyeol, a man holding two university degrees, a ruthless manager when he needed to be, a man quickly approaching his thirties, simply blushed. And he never blushed.

‘What are you saying?’ He mumbled and his other friends snickered. Even though the words had no romantic connotation, the whole statement sounded so forward and old-fashioned, they couldn’t help but think of high school crushes. Baekhyun frowned.

‘So you don’t like me?’

‘I-I… That’s not what I mean. You’re nice. We’re… friends.’

‘… Friends? You’re my friend?’ Baekhyun asked wondrously, looking almost in awe. He turned to the others. ‘You are my friends, too?’

They just laughed and Yifan patted his back.

‘Of course, kid. You are among friends now.’

‘I’ve only ever had one friend. Thank you.’ His voice dropped so rapidly that it sounded like he was about to cry. Luhan quickly jumped to his feet.

‘Hey, chin up. I don’t know what kind of life you’ve had so far but we’ll make sure to create good memories for you. So don’t think about it for now, ok?’ Baekhyun swallowed the unshed tears, and smiled and nodded. ‘All right, guys, we better get going, we still need to stop by a few shops before we got lost in the woods.’

It was not easy. Baekhyun was not naïve enough to not think about the consequences of his escape. He knew his face would immediately find its way to the most important television channels and newspaper headlines. He was not disappointed.

They packed their belongings into the van and headed out. They only meant to get some more water and do some last-minute food shopping but the moment they all entered the supermarket hall, there it was. Maybe it was because Baekhyun was so used to seeing his face everywhere he was taken or allowed to go, but he immediately spotted the magazine with the newest scoop that screamed: Korean royalty lost in transfer. There was another one, right next to it, stating: Romania taking responsibility for the life of a young Asian prince. Baekhyun gulped. They were walking right towards the shelf, just a few metres away from it. But he was not ready to go yet. In fact, the more he learnt about his company, the greedier he became about the time he wanted to spend with them. He pulled his baseball cap deeper onto his forehead.

‘Can we also grill that?’ He called out nonsensically, pointing towards the vegetables laying in the other corner. The rest turned around.

‘It’s actually a good idea. Let’s take some corn. We can either grill it or boil it.’ Yifan expertly agreed and to Baekhyun’s relief, he managed to steer them away from the danger.

They quickly wrapped things up from there, having already been behind with the schedule, and did not come back to that aisle. Baekhyun let out the big breath he didn’t even know he was holding. In the car, he was prepared to come up with excuse after excuse as to why it was better not to turn on the radio but luckily for him, no one wanted to. They just talked and talked and talked; they laughed and joked, and made Baekhyun forget once again who he really was.

He was sure his mother was out of her mind by now, looking for him. His father must be furious. They both realised, most likely, that he was not kidnapped but escaped willingly. They had had too many arguments about it in the past for them not to be aware of how unhappy he was with the way he had to live. Baekbeom was still so small, he probably did not realise that something was amiss. They couldn’t have told him. Maybe he missed his older brother, but that would be all. In that moment, driving towards the wild and learning silly camp songs, Baekhyun’s true responsibilities had never weighted more on his shoulders.

‘… Is that ok?’

‘Huh?’ Baekhyun blinked at Minseok. The other repeated.

‘We’re just gonna chill for today and tomorrow we are going sight-seeing. There is a small campsite along this road, there are hardly any people around, so we won’t be interrupting anyone. Tomorrow we’re gonna head west and drive across Transfăgărășan. If we have time, we’ll stop by Sibiu, if not, we’ll leave it till the next day.’

Baekhyun nodded. He’d seen this name before in his guidebook. The famous road connected the historic regions of Transylvania and Wallachia, and some of its parts were open only during summertime. It was summertime, Baekhyun did a cheerful dance in his head. He nodded again, with more force.

They drove for a couple more hours and when they finally reached the campsite, there were only three other tents set up. None of the visitors paid much attention to the exotic foreigners, and if any recognised Baekhyun, they did not as much as blinked at the sight of the Korean prince camping in the middle of Romanian nowhere.

‘I’m hungry….’ Yifan sing-songed, setting up their barbeque equipment right away.

‘You just ate.’ Luhan pointed out sceptically.

‘A sandwich cannot compare to grilled meat, duh.’ Came the smart- reply.

They set up their own tents and unpacked the most necessary things. Baekhyun didn’t have much, camping skills included, so he just sat on the side, watching and taking photographs. At first the men protested against those surprise shots but later just let him be, as if sensing that he really wanted to capture every second of this experience. Baekhyun was indeed busy taking pictures of them, of himself, of every single thing they had brought and immediately uploading them to his dropbox. He knew that once his tail had caught up with him, his cell phone would be taken away for good.

‘Let me see it.’

‘But…’ Before he could protest, Yifan took his phone out of his hands and started playing with it.

The phone was plain, because Baekhyun only cared for a good camera to go with it. Sehun had found it for him and smuggled into the palace somehow. He was a good friend.

Yifan looked through Baekhyun’s photos and applications.

‘You… You only have one contact in your address book.’ He frowned and looked at him. Baekhyun blushed, but did his best to feign indifference, shrugging.

‘I have only one friend.’ Indeed, it was only Sehun’s number that he had in there. Sehun was the only one that Baekhyun’s parents approved of and that Baekhyun really liked. The other ones that they were trying to force him towards, Baekhyun didn’t care for at all. As a result, he never met anyone.

‘That can’t be. You have us now. I’ll give you my number and email address. When you go back to Korea, you can write to me any time, ok? Hyung will take care of you.’ Yifan said it so casually, busy typing into the device that Baekhyun had to swallow the grateful tears that were about to come out. ‘Guys?! Hey, come here. Everyone, give this kid your numbers so his phone doesn’t look like a pathetic excuse of one.’ Yifan’s words sounded so crudely humorous that Baekhyun just had to laugh, despite knowing that they held the truth.

Baekhyun observed Chanyeol as the taller diligently typed his contact details. He gave him his full name, email address and his Korean phone number. Park Chanyeol. Baekhyun couldn’t help but admire the man who apparently never did anything half-heartedly. Such sense of obligation and responsibility for others were not new to Baekhyun but the ease with which they came made him so much different from the other men present in Baekhyun’s life. Baekhyun’s father smiled only when asked or on official photographs. The same went for all the officials and teachers that lingered around their residence. They were all so stiff, executing their authority with rigor and seriousness. Something drew Baekhyun to Chanyeol, perhaps the out-going nature, perhaps the way in which he took responsibility for his actions while still remaining friendly and approachable.

‘Can I sleep in your tent tonight?’ Baekhyun asked him during dinner and the other stopped eating for a split second before swallowing the piece of sausage and quickly agreeing. Baekhyun was content that Chanyeol stopped dwelling on his presence there and just accepted him.

They had only 3 tents, one for Luhan and Minseok, one for Yifan and one for Chanyeol. While the latter two could fit an extra person, it was a question of who was going to end up sleeping with Yifan in such a confided space. Chanyeol thought to himself that it was for the best that they quickly resolved it. The newcomer was smaller in frame than he himself was, and Chanyeol’s body was well-defined while Baekhyun was simply slim. He figured that they would still be more comfortable together than either of them going to Yifan, who kicked and talked in his sleep.

It was mere practicality, Chanyeol told himself.

Baekhyun couldn’t fall asleep until very late, when the exhaustion finally took over him. He was so excited. Excited to be somewhere where nobody cared that he got dirty while picking up charcoal, nobody kept their distance by calling him ‘your highness’ left and right. He briefly thought, not without bitterness, that the other four would turn that way too, the moment they learnt the truth about him but that was exactly why it was essential that he keep them in the dark. Here he was just Baekhyun, a 23 year old tourist having fun with his new friends, not the royal heir, first in line to the throne, who was to become the head of his nation.

Chanyeol fell asleep quite quickly, but his presence was yet another reason for Baekhyun’s insomnia. He had never slept in the same bed with anyone. If his mother had ever taken him to her bed, he didn’t remember anything. He had not had any sleepovers in his life and was isolated from people at night, to minimise the risk of possible attack. But again, here he was, so close to a stranger at that. Chanyeol’s back was warm and inviting, and Baekhyun shamelessly snuggled closer to the body next to him. Even his scent was nice. Baekhyun fell asleep, not fully realising that he was being gathered by the very arms he found so comforting.