They arrived at the hotel and Key thought he dropped his jaw on the ground. If someone asked him how he imagined heaven, he'd probably have described this place. White and soft sand, water as clear as glass and the perfect combination of warm sunlight on his skin with fresh wind; it was a flawless masterpiece of nature.

"Welcome to Maldives, Mister Lee and Mister Kim," greeted the man in the black suit. The nameplate said Da-something, but Key couldn't read it without his glasses.

"Have you been here before, Taemin?" Jonghyun asked. Key shook his head.

"No, it has been a while since my last time abroad." He thought of his last and only time flying to a foreign county. He was 16 and traveled to London all by himself to look for his mother. After almost two months he was literally carried home by his father's employees. Since then he had never had the chance to go aboard again. He still remembered the fight with his father when he got home. They fought a lot, and that one of the worst.

"Give me the ing passport." Key heard his father clearly.

"No. What do you want with it?" he asked.

"I'll burn that ." Key clenched his teeth. His dad meant it. He would throw his passport into the fire without hesitation.

"You don't have the right to do that. If you don't look for mother, I'll do it. I don't give a about what you want."

"What mother? She left you when you were five. You can't even remember her."

"She left you. Not me. Because she couldn't bear with you anymore. It's all because of you, I am motherless. you!" Key yelled.

"Shut up, ungrateful brat." His father pried the passport out of his hands and threw it into the burning fireplace.

After that, Key had tried many times to make a new passport, but it never worked out. He had no idea how his father did it, but that didn't astonish him. After all, money could buy anything.

"I have never been here either. This is a beautiful location, isn't it?" Jonghyun asked.

"Yes, it's incredible," Key answered. In order to stay at this heaven-like place, he'd gratefully play Lee Taemin for a bit longer.

The hotel manager led them to their villa which was above the crystal ocean. While Jonghyun and the hotel manager were talking about what should be for lunch, Key took off his shirt with lightning speed and jumped into the water. He let out a loud cry. The water was colder than he'd expected, but that was definitely the refreshment he needed.

It stunned Jonghyun. "Taemin" showed no sign of fatigue, but he himself was dead tired. Yet somehow "Taemin" infected him with his energy and before he knew it, he leaped in the water. After their little fun, Jonghyun called the reception to ask them to serve the food. In the meantime, Key took a bath. After a while, Jonghyun noticed Key still hadn't come out. He worried and knocked on the door.

"Taemin, is everything ok?" No one answered.

"Taemin?" Still not a word. Jonghyun sensed something was off.

"I'm coming in," he said and opened the door. He couldn't help but smile as he found the younger boy asleep in the bathtub.

"Taemin," he gently shook Key's shoulder. "Sleep on the bed."

Still, there wasn't a reaction. All of Jonghyun's attempts to wake Key up were unsuccessful. In the end, he wiped Key dry and carried the boy to the king size bed. His face felt like it was burning. He hadn't expected to see all of his husband so soon. He covered Key with the blanket and turned down the air conditioner so that Key wouldn't catch a cold. He must have been really tired. Well, after two flights and a wedding? No surprise. He was only human.

Jonghyun thought "Taemin" looked a bit more mature for his age. But he had to admit it, his husband was pretty y.

When Key opened his eyes, it was already dark. The sound of the waves was steady and relaxing. He tried to go back to sleep, but he was now wide awake. He sat up and the cover fell down from his chest. At that moment he realized he was from head to toe unclothed. Now he remembered. Wasn't he taking a bath?

He gasped. Kim Jonghyun, if that ert did something to him, he'd feed him to the shark.

"But I'm not feeling weird," he thought. "And I'm alone."

Key dressed and left the room to find a sleeping Jonghyun on the sofa.

"Did he bring the me to bed and go sleep on the couch, even though the bed was that big?" Key wondered.

"He must be straight. Yeah, surely straight. What a waste." He came to the decision while looking closely at Jonghyun's face.

"He is truly handsome."

Just then he noticed the elder boy was sweating and he seemed to be having a restless sleep. Why did he turn down the air conditioner? Key searched for the remote and set the temperature to 23°C. After that, he went back to the bedroom and closed the door slowly. He watched television and to his surprise, Korean television programs were available. The news was on TV. Key couldn't believe his eyes as he saw a picture of Jonghyun on the flat screen. The reporter was talking about a Minister, who was one of the leading proponents of same- marriage.

Key couldn't believe his ears. He had already had a hunch that Jonghyun's family was some hot shot, but Korean Minister of Public Administration and Security? That was beyond his imagination. How did people say it again? "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong?"

"... and it makes Korea the first Asian country to legalize same- marriage. Is it really a coincidence that his only son married a billionaire's heir eight months after that?" The reporter interviewed the pedestrians.

"He obviously used the government and his voters for his own purpose."

"Why should we recast a law, if we don't make use of it? What's the matter if his son marries now or a few years later?"

"Are only straight people allowed to fight for gay marriage?"

"I was against this from the beginning on. This is unnatural. It should never have been allowed. I have never believed a word of that Minister anyway."

"His son is not the only one to profit by this law. It'll make a lot of Koreans happy, so I don't see any problem here."

"His action is unprofessional. You really can't trust a politician."

"I married my girlfriend the same day it was legalized. No one reported about it."

"I hope he has another son who works as a teacher too because we can be paid better. Can another politician be personally implicated too?"

Key turned off the TV and reached for his phone. He looked for "Lee Taemin". He would never have thought that the boy from the airport was a billionaire's heir. Everything about him was ordinary. He hadn't impressed Key very much. He found out that Taemin was kidnapped when he was nine, and since then, the Lees had hidden him from the public. Therefore, nobody knew how he looked like. At the Minister's request, the media wasn't allowed at the wedding in order to keep his identity a secret further on.

"Well, that explains why no one said anything about me being Taemin."

Indeed, Key couldn't find much more information about Lee Taemin. Most of the search results were about his kidnapping and some conspiracy theory. A few claimed he was killed at that time while a few assured they were his neighbor, his classmate or his girlfriend.

Key felt a ton of pressure on his chest disappear. If that was all the world knew about Lee Taemin, it shouldn't be difficult to pretend he was that boy for a couple of days. What was the worst that could happen? He wanted to know if Jonghyun was better informed about the man he married. At that moment, he remembered their conversation on the plane.

"Instead of making each other's lives miserable, can we live together in peace? I'll treat you with respect and it'll be a privilege if you fall in love with me; but if not, all I want is for us to be friends." That was what Jonghyun had said.

Never would Key admit it, but he was touched by the other man's "cheesy" words. Never before had somebody said such lovely words to him. All the men he grew up with talked with their fists and if they ever opened their mouth, all that came out was swearing. Was it common for people in Jonghyun's world to be such gentlemen? What a lucky boy that Lee Taemin was. Key wondered if Choi Minho was like that too?

"I bet not," he mumbled.

---

Onew parked the car in front of a warehouse which was located nearby the Han River. They were in an isolated area, not one of those with playgrounds, parks or restaurants or any others places where sane people would go to. This location would only be chosen by someone who didn’t want any neighbor.

“Taemin, you know you don’t have to do this, right? I can…”

“No,” Taemin interrupted. “Let me at least try something before you risk blowing your cover.”

“I have a very bad feeling about this.” Onew admitted.

“Please hyung, we agreed that as long as I’m staying, I’ll help you with …well this. I don’t want to be a puppet being protected in some glass cabinet.”

“Fine, but if things get dangerous, I’ll call Mr. Snow.”

“Ok,” Taemin nodded. ‘Mr. Snow’ was their code word for the police. To be explicit it had been the name of Taemin’s plush bear which had worn a British police uniform.

Onew watched the younger boy walking towards the entrance and sighed. He hated feeling so powerless. If Minho could have trusted him more, he could inside that warehouse instead Taemin. Despite all the worries, he had to acknowledge it was a great performance how the boy persuaded the boss.

“Get out of my sight unless you want this in your neck,” Minho shouted, pointing the pen in his hand at Taemin.

“I just want to talk to him for … 10 minutes.” The younger boy begged. “Please?”

“Oh, so you think you can make someone talk in only 10 minutes, while I couldn’t in the last six hours?”

“No,” Taemin corrected the elder boy. “I mean it was your people because most of the time, you’re just giving order and therefore…”

Taemin looked down at the floor while trying to figure out what to say next. Just then he had a brainstorm. He pulled his shoulder blades down and raised his chin.

“Yes, I mean you guys really take time with a traitor. We, the Black Lotus, would have gotten the information long ago already.” The younger boy bragged the way he thought Kim Kibum would and rolled his eyes in addition to provoke the person he shouldn’t provoke the most. 

“Fine,” Minho hissed. “I’ll give you 10 minutes, but only on one condition.”

“A condition?” Taemin augured ill.

“If you failed,” Minho leant closer and whispered to Taemin’s ears. “I can do anything I want to you.”

“Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it.” Taemin repeated that sentence while shaking his head. At least Minho promised him not to kill Mr. Hong if he succeeded. Onew told him that the Red Devils stole a truckload from them and it was an inside job. They believe Mr. Hong was the traitor and he knew where it was now. Onew said if the police knew about the hideout, they could arrest them. It didn’t matter who was in possession of the drugs, in any case it would be a big win for the police.

Taemin took a deep breath and entered the depot. The hall appeared bigger from the inside. Walking pass six giant shelves, Taemin found Mister Hong – the traitor - chained to a chair. His face was covered with blood and bruises. His nose was broken. Taemin was positive there was a tooth on the floor. About 50 meters away, two men in their thirties were eating black noodle, talking about the new Iphone. Taemin cleared his throat.  

“Hello, I would like to talk to Mr. Hong alone… Oh, I mean I am-”

“Boss,” greeted the two. “Good evening!”

“Please, call me Tae … Kibum, I mean just call me Kibum.” Taemin paused for a tiny moment and as the other men didn’t react, he asked again.

“Can I talk to him? Now?”

“Of course. But are you sure you can handle this on your own?”

Taemin stared at them, thinking of what to say. Yet within a second, they apologized and left.

“Were they afraid of me?” He thought. “Can’t be.”

He grabbed a chair and sat down, opposite the traitor. Mr. Hong lift up his eyes to the young boy and laughed with contempt.

“They send me a kid? How old are you, little boy? Have you ever done this before? Can you even break a bone with those girly hands?”

“I’m not here to hurt you. I just want to talk.”

“And what’s next? A tea party? Do you seriously think you can make me talk? What can you do to me that they haven’t tried already?”

“Well, for example I can tell you I know where your daughter is.” Taemin said, leaning forwards. Hearing that, the smirk on Mr. Hong’s face faded.

“Do your homework, brat. I don’t have any children.”

“Well rumor has it you have a pregnant fiancée who disappeared twenty-three years ago. A few months later she was seen at a delivery ward in China.” Taemin told the elder man.

“If you’ve heard of that already, you should have known she was cheated on me. The baby is not mine.”      

“I know. But I couldn’t believe someone, who beat his brother-in-law half to death for cheating, would let his unfaithful girlfriend go so easily.  Then I thought you have no idea where she and the baby are. But you knew that very well, didn’t you? At least for the last seven years?”

“What ing are you talking about?”

“I’ talking about your unusual long list of trips.” Mr. Hong pursed his lips. Even though he was not showing it, but Taemin felt relief when he saw the man’s reaction. He got his weak point.

“Congratulations you found out that a middleman travels a lot. But don’t freak out when I tell you, Santa isn’t real and traveling is my job.”

“That’s true. It’s nothing off with you traveling so much. But why would you have such weird flying schedules. Let’s see, instead of a direct flight to Lisbon, why would you make 2 stops in Beijing and Amsterdam? What else? Stops in Guangzhou and Wuhan on your way to Moscow? And…”

“I didn’t meet anyone there.”

“No, you didn’t. It was never about where you go but about the flight, am I right. You always choose China Southern Airlines.” As Taemin saw Mr. Hong’s face turned pale, he knew he got him.

“And you know what? I found something really interesting when I checked the crews. There was one flight attendant whose name appears way too often. If I don’t miscalculate, then she is 23, right? That’d be a pretty coincidence, don’t you think?”

“I swear by God, if you lay a finger on her, I’ll kill you.” Mr. Hong screamed at Taemin. He couldn’t keep his poker face anymore.

“I don’t want to hurt her either. All you need to do is to tell me where the Red Devils hide the truck and I won’t mention your daughter to Minho.”

“Do I look like an idiot who would believe that?”  

“Would you risk that?”

“Go to hell.”

______________________

It was almost midnight as Taemin returned. He assumed Minho was watching the late-night news; since the television was on. Yet there was nobody in the living room. The reporter was talking about Kim Jonghyun’s wedding. Taemin wondered if they knew it was canceled. He flinched as he felt someone’s breathing on his hair. Taemin turned around and all of sudden, Minho was right in front of him, barely a step away.

“You’re still up?” He asked, backing up slowly, yet Minho grabbed his shirt, pulling him forwards again. 

“I was waiting for you.” The physical closeness made it impossible not to notice the alcoholic scent.

“Are you drunk?”

“Only one glass. It helps me think better.”

“What were you thinking about?”

“I was thinking about what to do to your pretty face,” Minho answered as his fingers caressed Taemin’s cheek.  The younger boy didn’t avoid eye contact but handed Minho a page from his notebook.

“Here, what you wanted.” He said