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The cold glass lies against his warm fingers as he takes around his view. The sound of calm waves is actually endearing in his ear. Other than that, it’s quiet around here. There are not many people as he expected. Junmyeon wonders if he should have lessened the amount of his clothing because the hot Sun is beginning to melt him. His shirt is already sticking uncomfortably on his back .

Despite wearing only a plaid button up and denim shorts, he’s been sweating buckets ever since he arrived. It's the least clothing that anyone can wear out on a day or he might as well just go bare.

The weather is pretty nice. Well, except for the fact that he is practically being baked under the hot sun but nevertheless it is a good change from the cold air he used to breathe back in Korea.

Sitting in a small bar by the beach, he wonders why he is even here. He was supposed to be in Korea, burying himself in loads of numbers and papers. That is his life of being a 25 year old accountant. But just a few days ago, his aunt had contacted him, saying he was needed in the states. Apparently, his cousin Jieun is planning to go on a trip with her girlfriends. Have he mentioned that she's only 18?

It shouldn't be a problem (or maybe it should) but her mother thinks that she needs someone to go with. Knowing her cousin, her aunt is probably right. Jieun can be quite reckless at some points. Or maybe most of the time. And Junmyeon happens to be the victim.

Why him? His ual preference might be the answer to that. The secret of him being not straight isn’t exactly unknown to his family. So his aunt thinks it’s not the worst idea to get him to keep tabs on her one and only daughter, knowing that he wouldn’t be attracted to any of those girls.

At first, he declined, thinking he wouldn’t benefit anything from this. But after some time of thinking, maybe he does need a break.

One thing people should know is that Junmyeon doesn’t live a fancy life. Nor does he have a big circle of friends that he could find comfort in. His family calls him "no fun" because of his lacking in social skills. It probably doesn’t sound that bad in his head but his family seems to think otherwise.

He almost jumped when he feels a hand on his shoulder. "I'm back!" A feminine yet deep voice appears behind him. Jieun plops her down on the chair beside him while taking off her sunglasses. The elder takes note on how her short bop hair is actually new to him. She used to have long hair gracing her innocent look. But she insisted a new look for spring break.

He’s not sure whether it is actually necessary but then again, who is Junmyeon to put a say on it. He's no-fun right?

"Have your parents arrived at Korea?" he asks, hands still caressing the glass of his lemonade. She makes a whistle sound, calling the bartender to order a drink before replying. "Yeah, they've just reached there. But that wasn’t Umma on the phone. It's actually Ashley."

Ashley.

If Junmyeon is not mistaken, she's a friend of Jieun and also happens to be the one responsible for this trip. But as Jieun mentions her name, her lip twitches. Jieun is his favourite cousin (well she is his only cousin) after all so it doesn’t take a wild guess to know damn well that Jieun is pissed.

"Sad news. The trip is off. Now you can take off that bucket hat of yours." she groans, typing furiously on her phone.

Junmyeon’s eyes widens at the revelation. "Trip’s off? What do you mean it's off?"

"Ashley found out that I was the one who told everyone about her job. Geez, why can't she find out after her trip?"

Junmyeon merely raised an eyebrow. Great. A girl fight out of sudden that ruins the whole thing. "That's your fault for ratting out your friend."

"So? She shouldn't have said something about my 'asian' eyes. She gets what she deserves." Jieun hisses in annoyance.

Heaving out a sigh, he did not flew for an ungodly hours from Korea just for a cancelled trip. Now what is he going to do with the suitcase that’s been standing beside his stool? Taking another sip of his drink, he glances at his wristwatch.

It's only noon and the air is really hot down here even if they are sitting under the shade. However, Jieun then assures him that they would still be going on a trip. If Ashley had dumped them out from the trip, then they might as well just go on their own.

"You're fine with this right?" Jieun asks for confirmation.

"With what?"

"Spending spring break with me. I mean Umma told me you need to loosen up a bit. You're half fifty. You need to spend time with someone young! Have some fun!" Junmyeon took offense on her statement but he groans because Jieun isn’t entirely wrong. In fact, she’s only spitting facts.

Honestly, he doesn't think that the both of them would click very well. They are so different from each other. Junmyeon is raised by the standard strict Asian parents. He didn’t do anything impressive during his high school days or college years. All he knew was getting good grades and just focus achieving his goal to get a job.

Contrary to his cousin who has been living in the states. Judging by her Instagram photos, she seems to live quite an enjoyable life as compare to Junmyeon when he was 18.

He knows the contrast of both of them. Junmyeon living a boring life while Jieun live a colouful life. But it's not like Junmyeon hates it. No. He's actually contended with his life. He got his dream job and that meant something, right?

But maybe it's his aunt’s words that kept lingering in his mind. That he should have a break and go out there to have some real fun. Junmyeon isn’t curious but he thinks why not give it a try at Jieun's ideology of fun.

"So are we going somewhere? Jieun, we don't even have a car, how are we going to go around?"

Jieun bites her cheeks for a minute. She glances around the beach to look for any familiar faces. "We just need to find anyone with a car ride."

And as if that wasn’t dangerous, Junmyeon thought. His aunt is going to flip if she finds out whatever that they are planning to do. He tried to convince Jieun that they should just ride the public transport or something but she retorts with ‘where's the fun in that?’

For the nth time, Junmyeon could only sigh.

They ended up at Subway just across the street. Junmyeon ordered his regular Meatball Marina. Frankly, that's the only thing he had ever ordered at Subway. To say that he doesn't want to try other sandwiches is not exactly correct. Maybe it is because Junmyeon doesn't find the interest to taste something else when he's already contended with his regular order. Or maybe he just really likes meatballs.

"We should go to a party." Jieun suggests while munching her food.

That doesn’t seem like a bad idea. In his 25 years of living, he only went to a quite small number of parties. It was during his college days. Some part in his brain said that he is too old for it but no one is too old for parties, right?

"Sure." He agrees. "Though I expect here to have beach parties like in the movies but there's nothing here."

The short hair chortles, dropping her sandwich. "Those parties are usually in California, silly. It's probably miles away but for once, that’s a good idea coming from you! Let's go to a beach party!"

He was about to mumble that he wasn’t suggesting it but then Jieun's eyes lit at the figure behind Junmyeon.

"Freaking Huang Zitao, is that you?!" she screeches.

Junmyeon glances behind him and he sees a tall boy who had both of his ears pierced waving at his direction. Puzzled, he looks back at Jieun but there's only an empty chair as Jieun's already out of her seat to hug the stranger.

"I see you still have trouble sleeping since those dark circles aren’t disappearing” she teases. The black hair male grunts, turns red before pinching her cheeks.

"And you still haven't change, I see."

Both of them start to talk really loudly while standing and it’s actually catching people’s attention. Junmyeon wasn’t eavesdropping but based on their conversation, Junmyeon identifies that this boy is probably someone from Jieun's school.

Since his cousin doesn’t even bother to introduce them, he clears his throat, catching both of their attention. The guy looks directly at Junmyeon and that's when he can see the guy's face clearly. And boy oh boy Junmyeon's eyes sure are lucky to be blessed with such a handsome face. Instantly, he cast his eyes downwards, feeling shy out of sudden.

"Oh right! This is Junmyeon. He's my cousin from Korea."

The boy in front of him nods in acknowledgement. "I'm Huang Zitao but just Tao is fine."

They didn't talk much afterwards. Well, he didn't talk much. Their lunch time suddenly turn into a reunion for Jieun. He learned that Tao is just a year older than Jieun which only meant Tao has just graduated high school.

Out of sudden, Jieun brought up the topic of beach party causing Junmyeon to stiffen. She asks whether there is any festival around where they could highlight their spring break.

"We're actually going to Florida. Sehun's friend told us there's a festival there. Quite far from here so that's why we're making it a trip."

Jieun clasps her hands together "Great! Can we join??!" She exclaims, ignoring Junmyeon’s alarmed look.

"Yeah, that’d be fun. I don’t see a problem with it. Oh and Yifan brought a car so we sure have a room for two more. Kevin’s here too!"

"They’re here too? Splendid!"

Junmyeon mentally grunts at the unfamiliar names. Fantastic. More strangers he has to deal with.

Before they exit the place, Junmyeon pulls Jieun by her elbow.

He's not sure about this. They're going miles away from home with someone that Junmyeon doesn't even know. And he's a tad scared.

Funny, because he's the older one but he's full of doubts. Can't blame him because he doesn't know anything about this person or his group of friends or this country as a matter of fact. Jieun snorts before assuring him that there's nothing to worry about. Her friends are all harmless.

He was about to retort, but surprisingly Tao who came out of nowhere, ruffles his hair. "Don't worry, Junmyeon. We are not criminals or mafias. And we certainly don't do drugs either, so chill." he said before smiling. The gesture itself manages to send him speechless and warms his cheeks in embarrassment. Maybe because Tao is so darn good looking that he easily gets shy.

They head out to the parking lot as Tao brings them to meet the others.

There are two cars in front of them; a Jeep Wrangler and a Civic. Since all of them are gathered at the roofless jeep, it’s not hard to see their faces clearly.

They guy in the driver seat raises his head upon noticing them and immediately is greeted with a kiss on the lips by Tao. Junmyeon's eyes couldn't hide his astonishment as his eyes widen at the scene before him.

Sensing Junmyeon’s confusion, Jieun leans in to Junmyeon, whispering; "These two are a thing. Since high school that is."

He could only nod at the new found information. Hmm maybe he's not different after all. Part of him felt relief that the clique is not homophobic or anything. But still, he didn’t feel comfortable of anyone knowing his orientation except for his family.

At the back seat, there's another boy wearing a beanie that is busy on his phone but soon jumps out of the jeep as he notices their presence. There's another tall blond-haired guy who looks like he just came straight out from a manhwa, leaning against the car.

Just when he thought Tao is the most handsome man, this man seems to beat it. He couldn’t stop staring at the man in front of him. Those sharp features and amazing height, this man deserve to be somewhere in a magazine.

Suddenly, their eyes lock with each other and Junmyeon feels his heart dumbly skips a beat. They hold their gaze for a while until Junmyeon shyly glance down, unable to hold his blush. If he’s not wrong, before he did, he manage to spot the latter’s lips curve into a smirk.

The atmosphere became noisy as they hug Jieun one by one. Standing awkwardly there, Junmyeon couldn't feel more out of place.

"You brought a friend." The guy who was at the backseat, Kevin, nudges his chin to Junmyeon's direction.

"Ahh yes, this is my cousin, Junmyeon. A pretty one, isn’t he?"

Junmyeon elbows his cousin in embarrassment. He starts to become self-cautious when being at the centre of attention.

"He is. I guess it runs in the family. Are you two like the same age or nah?" Yifan, the guy that he had been staring, answers.

"We are!" Jieun stated simply before Junmyeon could shake his head. Junmyeon’s head spins so quickly at Jieun that it just might snap. He nervously laughs as his hand goes to subtly pinch his cousin’s back. Why is Jieun lying about his age? If anything he is far from being 18 (though he wished to be again)

What’s surprising is that they actually bought the lie. To be fair, he did receive a few compliments from his colleagues that he looked younger than his age. But he didn’t know that he could pass off as being a high school student.

Tao announces that there will be two more addition in the trip. Thank God, neither of them looks like they are against it. In fact, they welcome him which makes Junmyeon feel at ease a little.

Since everyone is so welcoming, he thought maybe he should say something. Heck he didn’t even realize he hadn't uttered a single word. "Uhmm thank you...for letting us join. We won't be a bother to you guys, I promise." He said in his rusty English.

He almost shies away when Sehun suddenly chuckles. Was his English that bad?

"You can speak in Korean if you want. We all are quite fluent in it." Sehun, Tao's boyfriend he assumed, says in a very fluent tongue.

That took him by surprise. Wait, all of them are Korean? He guessed Tao is because he could understand Junmyeon. But he didn't know that they all are.

"Before you get confused, I'm Korean but Tao and Yifan are Chinese. Kevin here is half Korean and half American." Sehun explains.

Then, another voice interjects. "Tao used to drag me to Korean class for beginners with him. Just so he could communicate with Sehun back in junior year when Sehun first moved in. So we are quite familiar with the language." Yifan snickers as Tao punches his arms lightly for revealing the not so pleasant past.

Ahhh it makes sense. Then, Junmyeon is lucky. He doesn't have to stutter his way to communicate within the group.

"In that case, thank you for letting us in." he says comfortably in Korean this time, smiling ever so brightly. He didn’t know that his crinkled eye smile is affecting someone not far from him.

"Oh please," Sehun waved his hands in dismiss. "Jieun is a good friend of ours. She may be loud but we are all used to it."

"Besides,” Tao said in a sneaky tone. “Someone is already smitten ayy” he winks. To this, Junmyeon turns his head and his eyes meets with Yifan’s. The latter immediately looks away and mutters something in Mandarin. Junmyeon has experienced enough with a few Chinese people to know that it is a curse word.

That being said, he’s just going to assume Tao is joking.

They started discussing on who's riding which car. The original plan was Tao and Kevin will ride Sehun's car. Meanwhile Jieun and him will be in Yifan's car. But this darn cousin of his kept blabbering that she wants to ride in Sehun’s with the reason of Tao's taste in music is much better than Yifan's.

Junmyeon almost chuckle at Yifan's bemused face. But with that, he