What were the chances? Who would have thought, that the stranger he had learned to know as Key, when they had encountered in the airport, actually would be the son of his parents’ newfound friends?

Jonghyun wouldn’t call it fate, because he simply didn’t believe in such thing as fate. Though he had, with his 22 years behind him, lived long enough to experience episodes like this a couple of times before; where he would meet a random person and have this weird first impression feeling, as if the person would have some kind of influence on his life in the future.

An example would be the childhood friend he had to give up on when his family decided to move to America, and whom he randomly occurred again at the university, when he had gone back to Seoul to study. It turned out that they apparently were going to be studying together, so they ended up moving in together in order to save some money. And today they acted like they were best friends; like they never had had to part in the past and tell each other goodbye, as if they most likely never would meet again.

If he had had the same feeling when he had met Key, or if it was just because he found the blonde boy incredible attractive, Jonghyun couldn’t determine for sure himself, but something about the other had definitely caught his attention.

As Key had went upstairs to freshen up, Jonghyun debated with himself whether or not, he should wait for the boy to come down again, or if he should go into the living area where the others were gathered this instant. Undecidedly he pulled his phone out of his pocket and shortly went through all of his social Medias, as he usually did when he couldn’t figure better stuff to do.

Only a short time passed – shorter than Jonghyun somehow had expected for a person like Key, who appeared to be quite the fashionable type, who puts a lot of thoughts into his appearance (not that Jonghyun didn’t put thoughts into his own appearance, but Key seemed to take the topic much more serious than him) – before he heard the cracking sound of a door opening on the upper floor.

He hurried to finish whatever he was doing on his phone, while he listened with one ear as Key smoothly made his way over the hardwood floor and down the staircase. He turned the screen of the phone off before putting it back into his pocket again, perfectly timing himself with the other boy taking the last leap down the stairs and approaching him.

“Are you still standing there?” Key asked, sounding rather surprised.

“I was just checking my phone in the meantime,” Jonghyun explained with a small shrug, as he suddenly felt like he had to defend his actions. Okay, so maybe it had been a little bit awkward to wait for the other after all.

Without thinking further about it Jonghyun hastily scanned Key for changes; he had indeed styled his hair with some hair gel as promised, but he had also taken the chance to change into a white print t-shirt in the process. At least Jonghyun was convinced that he had been wearing a blue-ish colored t-shirt before he had disappeared to his room. 

“If you say so,” Key replied with a small playful tone that indicated that he maybe not believed him. Jonghyun guessed that he was just teasing him, however, so he decided not to think more about it and shrugged it off a second time.

Key then passed him, as he assumingly had decided that there was no more reason to stand in the middle of the foyer, and made his way into the living room. Jonghyun could do nothing but agree on this decision and followed him with no objection. He had already spent way too much time in that foyer, since he barely got to enter the house and to greet the family, before his bladder decided to act up and he had to borrow the restroom. And once he had finished doing his business and was making his way into the others, Key had come barging through the front door, like a madman on drugs – or more likely like a boy fearing his mother, because he was late for their agreement.

“There you are boys,” affirmed Key’s father as soon as they entered the room. “Go and greet the others, Kibum.”

Both Key and Jonghyun’s fathers were sitting at the island counter, which contributed in parting the living space and the kitchen from each other in the open living concept. They were in the middle of enjoying a small welcome drink, while both their wives were busy taking care of the dinner on the other side of the granite counter, with the assistance from Sodam, who was helping them by setting the table.

Key did as he was told and went over to Jonghyun’s father, where he politely bowed for him, as they did back home, in the South Korean culture. Jonghyun’s father acknowledged his bow with a kind smile and a discreet nod. “Hello Kibum, nice to finally meet you in person after having been told so much about you.”

“It is nice to meet you too sir,” ‘Kibum’ replied with a polite smile plastered on his face. He then went to greet Jonghyun’s mother and sister too, which happened in the same polite manner, which caused a small snigger to accidentally escape from Jonghyun’s throat, as he found it rather amusing to study, since it had definitely not been that side Key had been showing of himself when they first happened to meet.

Once Key had finished greeting his family properly, Jonghyun decided to walk over to him and extend his arm out in front of him. Key seemed rather taken aback by this; his eyes widened a bit as he looked from Jonghyun’s face, to the hand in front of him and then back to his face.

A pleased, but dumb smile spread across Jonghyun’s features, as he uncomplainingly waited for Key to accept his hand.

“I believe you never let me introduce myself earlier,” he decided to explain as nothing appeared to be happening, and the blonde’s lips shaped into a small ‘O’-shape as he apparently figured what was going on. “My name’s Jonghyun by the way.”

“Oh, so you do have a name,” Key rapidly gathered himself and backfired. He lifted his own (surprisingly soft, Jonghyun had to acknowledge that) hand to greet Jonghyun with a basic handshake. “I’m Kibum—”

Key barely got to finish his sentence before Jonghyun found himself cheeky enough to cut him off; his previous smile turning into a small smirk.

“Yeah, I have kind of figured by now, Key~” he sang jokingly, which caused Key to narrow his eyes and glare at him, but he decided not to pay attention to it and continued talking as if nothing had happened. “It is nice meeting you.”

It looked like Key was just about to open his mouth and say something in return, but Key’s mother decided to pass by just in the same moment, to announce that the dinner was now ready, so Key had to save his comment for another occasion.

The dinner had been nothing too special. Not because there had been something wrong with the food, because the food itself had been amazing: It had consisted of a national Korean cuisine, basically based on rice, vegetables, meat and tons of delicious side dishes. It had been a long time since Jonghyun had been eating so well, even though he had been living of Korean food all this time – nothing could beat a good old homemade meal in the end.

Unfortunately for both boys had the most central topic been about their returning, which had situated them in the middle of a horrible interrogation during the whole thing. The worst of it all though, had been when their parents had ended up taking over the entire conversation and had turned it into one of those – as Jonghyun would put it in plain words – ‘our son is better than your son’ kind of themes, where they had been taking turns in sharing information about each their son in order to kind of surpass each other or something.

This, of course, did not give Jonghyun many chances to interact with the blonde boy sitting in front of him, even though it had appeared to be the whole purpose about the dinner in the first place. At least that was what Jonghyun had been told, when he had asked his parents if he actually – absolutely – had to attend it.

They did, however, with the help of body language and mostly some weird face expressions, which also were a sort of communication after all, make some silent agreement about their parents being nuts.

In the end, Key had seemingly gotten enough and had ended up kicking to Jonghyun’s leg under the table, correcting his attention to the empty plate in front of him, as if asking him, if he had finished eating. Jonghyun had just sent a discreet nod in his direction then, which apparently had been the keyword for the blonde boy to politely say thank you for the dinner, before taking his plate and getting up to bring his dirty dishes out to the kitchen sink.

And when Jonghyun had parroted him and had followed him out into the kitchen, it had not taken Key much consideration, before he had asked him, if he wanted to go for a walk and get some fresh air. Or in other words: get the hell out and away.

That was how they ended up walking side by side through the Shoreline Aquatic Park, which was a wide open green area overlooking the bay, with the local lighthouse located on a small hilltop.

The sun was covering the whole horizon in warm red colors, with the promise of another sunny day ahead of them, when it would return from its usual journey around the world. It was leisurely setting in front of them, as if it had no hurries in life, even though the clock somewhere along the road already had passed half past nine.

It was probably the one thing Jonghyun hated the most about the summer season. It would not turn properly dark until around midnight time, and it would damage his sleeping habits even more than usual. Besides that he just loved the darkness; it was tranquil and it gave him space to think about his otherwise chaotic life.

The blonde boy next to him suddenly stopped and turned his body towards the enclosed waterfront – and without thinking further about a reason as to why, Jonghyun mimicked his action and went to take a look out over the bay. He was met with the view of Queen Mary: An old ocean liner, which permanently had gotten moored on the other side of the Queensway bay and today was functioning as a floating hotel as well as Art Deco museum – as he remembered after having been told by his mother so many times during his youth. 

He suddenly realized then, as they were standing there in front of the old charming ship and with the sun slowly as ever setting behind its mighty appearance, that if the situation had been different, this would have been quite a romantic scenario.

The thought made him gulp for some reason and he had to force himself not to turn his head and to look at Key at that moment.

“Do you regret returning home?” The question was sudden and unexpected, as they had been walking around in silence for the last few minutes. It had not been the usual awkward silence between two strangers, who had just met and did not know what to talk about, but an ordinary silence, which Jonghyun figured that they both enjoyed after the hectic dinner with their parents.

“Do you?” Jonghyun rebounded, eventually facing Key, even though he had been trying to avoid exactly that just a moment ago.

“Hey, that is not fair,” Key rapidly answered, swiftly turning around to face Jonghyun as well and ending up resting his hand on his hip in the small process. Something about it all made Jonghyun smile a bit. “I asked you first.” 

Jonghyun nodded in agreement; he was very much obvious to the fact that it was indeed Key who asked the question first, but then he ended up shrugging carelessly. “But you got to have a reason for asking me?” 

“…Kind of?” the reply was hesitated and Jonghyun hated Key for it, because he was not sure if it meant that Key regretted returning home, or if it meant that he kind of had a reason for asking him.

And he never got the chance to comprehend, because just as he was about to open his mouth and question the other, he was disturbed by some remote tone, which he somehow found memorable, but had a hard time to figure where was coming from. So he ended up closing his mouth and sending Key a general confused look instead of.  

“Um,” Key stated and directed his head down a tad, and even though it looked like he was trying to hide it underneath the shadows of his bangs, Jonghyun could evidently see the growing smirk on his face. “I think your pants might be ringing.”

Jonghyun felt his smile fade as realization hit him. Of course it was his phone ringing, how could he be so stupid? To his defense he was used to having it on vibration, though, so he did not hear the ringtone that often again.

“Oh, right. Of course,” he answered and cleared his voice, as he mentally face palmed himself and hurried to take the controversial phone out of his pocket so that he could get to answer the call before it was too late and he would have to call the person up again. 

“What?” the greeting was cut short as he noticed that it was just his sister calling him.

“Well hello to you too,” Sodam sarcastically claimed before continuing: “Dad told me that he told you, to ask me, if I wanted to come with you and Kibum, so why in the hell did you leave without actually asking me first?”  

“Oh he did?” Jonghyun asked innocently, but made a face, which she luckily not was able to witness, “I guess I did not hear him asking me, then?”

“He also told me that you told him that you would ask me, though,” Sodam went on in an accusing tone, “I even wanted to show you this new club, which I have told you about.”

“You can still do so,” Jonghyun stated. What was she even whining about? It was not even that late yet and the club had probably just opened for tonight anyways. “I am just not sure if Key—Kibum actually wants to go clubbing with us.”

The last bit was said with a raised voice, as he got eye contact with the mentioned blonde in front of him. It was like an invitation for the other and for Jonghyun it did not matter if he chose to accept it or not. He was not that eager after going clubbing anyway, but if Key wanted to go too, then sure, why not? – It could turn out to be fun.

Key looked like he was considering it for a moment, before eventually shrugging and saying Jonghyun’s thoughts out loud: “Sure, why not?”

Jonghyun his dry lips, as he nodded. “Send me the address, Sodam, and we will meet you there.”