Kyungsoo sat on his bed, a frown on his face as he petted Max who was dozing off in his lap. He was in his boxers and a T-shirt, plain white socks covering his toes. A few feet away on the bed laid Jake and Molly, Jongin's own dogs who moved in not so long ago, their owner busy finishing up his shower in the bathroom that was connected to their bedroom.

Meanwhile, Kyungsoo kept a steady on Max's fur as his mouth sat in a frown, frustrated lines making their way across his forehead. This has been bothering him for quite sometime. The TV was on and a pointless late night comedy show was playing but Kyungsoo wasn't paying an ounce of attention to it.

A few minutes later, he heard the shower turn off and a sigh being released through the slightly opened door. Before long, Jongin stepped through the threshold, dressed in a loose tank top and pajama pants hanging low on his hips. He shook some water out of his hair as he shut the bathroom light off and made his way into the bedroom. Jongin's silently prided himself on knowing people's emotions or thoughts based on their looks to an extent, so when he spotted Kyungsoo on the bed, his face hard as stone and expression deep in thought, he was immediately unnerved.

"What's the matter, babe?" he asked.

"Nothing."

"It's not nothing. You got that look on your face." Jongin moved to sit down next to his husband. The dogs stirred. Molly got up and returned to her master, nuzzling in his chest. Jongin patted and rubbed her back affectionately before turning back at Kyungsoo.

The elder sighed. "You're going to think I'm being stupid."

"I think you're stupid a lot of the times but I still love you," Jongin said and looked down laughing when Kyungsoo gave him the death glare and threw his hand out quickly, threatening to hit his side. A few years back, a comment like that probably would've set Kyungsoo off and send him out for blood and Jongin would've been the first one to go. Now, after being together for so long, Kyungsoo's threats no longer seem as daunting and the farthest he could ever kick Jongin away is to the sofa in the living which was almost as comfortable as their bed. Almost.

Kyungsoo didn't hold the glare for long. He looked down at Max. "I just-- I just feel like I don't belong here, you know?"

Jongin's eyebrows scrunch together in confusion. He says, "No, I don't know. Enlighten me, please."

"I was thinking," Kyungsoo began, "almost all my friends are celebrities and I'm always around them but I can never really relate to what they do or what they go through. Sometimes I feel like I can't even relate to you!"

Jongin was taken aback. "But we're married," he said dumbly.

"Yes, Jongin, I know that," Kyungsoo snapped. "What I mean is that I don't belong in the same group of people as you and most of our other friends. I'm not a celebrity or anything like that. Trust me, I'm content with my life and everything that I have but I just wish that I felt like I belonged here with you and everyone else."

By then, Jongin was more than a little lost. He could tell Kyungsoo sometimes felt inferior to his friends but this was the first time he voiced his thoughts out loud.

Not knowing what else to say at the moment, he acted the way he thought was best. "Alright um, how about this? Start from the beginning because I know these thoughts don't just appear in your head. What put them there?"

Kyungsoo sighed again. "Do you really want to know?" he asked.

He watched as Jongin moved closer and crossed his legs. "We've got time," he says in a soft voice. He grinned at Kyungsoo and nudged his thigh. "Tell me. Husbands are here to help."

The elder rolled his eyes and began his story.

~~~~~~

Kyungsoo twirled the pasta around his fork aimlessly as he sat at the outdoor eatery with Baekhyun. He was joining the singer for lunch after Baekhyun had just returned home the day before from a surprise trip to Italy courtesy of Chanyeol who wanted to get out of the country and he wanted to bring his husband with him. Baekhyun's body guards were meandering across the street. They kept their distance as to give the two men some privacy but they stayed close enough just in case something happened to the singer.

"How was Sicily?" Kyungsoo asked, cradling a cheek in his hand.

Baekhyun pursed his lips. "It was the same as always. We took a yacht around the coast of Italy also. It was quite lovely actually."

"How many times have you been there?"

"Too many times. Both for shows and for regular trips. I do enjoy it everytime though." He took a bite of a breadstick. After chewing and swallowing, he asks, "Want to know what else Chanyeol and I got done?"

Kyungsoo nodded his head. "What?"

Baekhyun held out his left hand, his forever graceful, pale fingers still looking like they've never worked a day in their life. At first Kyungsoo didn't notice anything new until a sparkle caught his eye. Looking closer, he eyed Baekhyun's wedding band, the trinity ring gleaming in the sunlight but now their wasn't just gold. Embedded into the gold were small diamonds, each one tiny in size but probably large in price.

"You got diamonds now?" he asked jokingly.

Baekhyun nodded, retracting his hand. "Chanyeol did it for our anniversary. His ring has diamonds in it now too and looks great. He went all the way to Florida to get them custom done."

"Ah," Kyungsoo muttered, not sure what to say anymore.

~~~~~~~

"Whoa, wait." Jongin held up a hand as he interrupted Kyungsoo's story. "This is all because Baekhyun went around the coast of Italy and Chanyeol had diamonds implanted into his ring?"

"Will you please let me finish?" Kyungsoo asked. Jongin pursed his lips and gestured for Kyungsoo to continue.

~~~~~~

Kyungsoo was in the middle of his lunchbreak when his phone went off. He was having lunch at his desk again, planning on doing nothing but surf the Internet and enjoying his sandwich for a good thirty minutes.

"Hello?" he said into the reciever.

"Hey, Soo!"

"Oh, what's up, Luhan?"

He heard Luhan chuckle on the other line. "Nothing much. I was bored and wanted someone to talk to. How's work?"

"It's busy as always. I'm just on my lunch break right now. Where are you?"

"A little over 20,000 feet above the ground going at an incredibly fast speed."

"What?" Kyungsoo swallowed his food. He heard Luhan laughing.

"Oh I'm on my way to Miami. There's a party going on tonight."

"And you're just leaving today?"

"Of course! It only takes about 2-3 hours on a private jet."

"Ah, right, you can get a private jet... Are you going by yourself?"

"Nah," Luhan said. "I'm meeting Sehun and some other friends down there. Sehun just finished filming his latest movie a few days ago and so he's finally free and able to come back to me."

"Really now?"

"Yeah! I'm so excited! We'll be back in two days."

~~~~~~

"I really don't get where this is going," Jongin admitted, his hand on Molly going still as the dog fell asleep in his lap.

Kyungsoo paid him no mind. "Hey, remember when we went to go see Kris at that racetrack the other day?" he asked, completely ignoring Jongin's remark.

"Yes, why?"

~~~~~~

Kyungsoo and his friends sat in the bleachers of the racetrack, watching as Kris drifted around the curve of the track, sending up smoke and dust from his tires. He just recently bought a brand new McLaren 12c Coupe to add to his car collection and thought it might be a good idea to test it on the track.

While he was out driving, refreshments were being served to the audience. Flutes of champagne, beer cans, and other drinks were passed out along with some food. Kyungsoo watched as he sipped his champagne and how reckless and almost careless Kris seemed to be driving. He knew the older man knew what he was doing and that he'll be fine but just imagining the possible damage to his car was enough to set Kyungsoo on edge.

He leaned over to Zitao who was on his right and whispered, "Is he not worried about the car?"

Zitao glanced at him. "Kris will be fine and so what if the car is damaged?"

"Well he just bought it. I just thought he'd be a bit more careful," Kyungsoo reasoned.

Zitao surveyed the track and frowned. "His tires are definitely going to be worn out but they're replaceable along with the rest of the car."

Kyungsoo just nodded and turned away. Jongin was always so careful with his car and when he was driving but then again, Jongin wasn't the racing type. To see thousands of dollars thrown away by carelessness seemed like, and totally was, a waste.

"Oh by the way," Zitao turned back to him, a grin on his face, "I'm going to be gone next week."

"Where are you off to?"

"I'm going to London to launch my new line. The unveiling is going to be huge."

"Oh." Kyungsoo sat back. "I'm kind of disappointed I'm going to be missing it," he said, his tone only half truthful, and downed the rest of his champagne. "I need a Jack Daniels," he muttered to himself.

The sound of screeching tires was heard as Kris rounded the track again.

~~~~~~

"I-- I just couldn't get over how careless everything and everybody felt," Kyungsoo mumbled to Jongin. "It was like some of them didn't have morals." He moved closer to Jongin and began to play with the man's fingers. Jongin allowed him to thread their hands together, a small smile on his face. He was beginning to understand where this was going.

"That's what money does to people. It loosens morals and makes us think that we have control over everything," Jongin said. "Did anything else happen that bothered you?"

Kyungsoo thought for a few minutes.

~~~~~~

He was in Junmyun and Jongdae's penthouse, watching as Jongdae gathered his things and packed them into a suitcase.

"So where exactly are you guys going?" Kyungsoo asked.

Jongdae smiled. "Junmyun is planning a trip to Bali in celebration of me finishing my musical tour. We're spending a week there. Just the two of us under the sun."

"Wow. And he planned all this out just for you?"

Jongdae nodded. "Yep. All expenses have been paid forth already so we have nothing to worry about."

~~~~~~

"Their situation didn't really bother me. I felt like Jongdae deserved the trip after his musical was done. I was just really surprised that Junmyun already had things paid for."

Jongin sat and stared at him for a while, his mind formulating his next words carefully. "Hey, what about Yixing and Minseok? Neither of them are celebrities."

Kyungsoo scoffed. "Even they have big things going for them. Minseok's relocating his bar to a bigger building and he's planning his relaunch party," he said.

"Really?"

"Yeah. He wants me to be there so I can write a review and send it in to the newspaper for publicity."

Jongin furrowed his brows and said, "What publicity does he really need? Plenty of important people visit his bar all the time. Well, what about Yixing?"

Kyungsoo looked towards the curtained window and sighed inwardly. "Yixing is currently in Brazil, hanging out on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro with his model grilfriend."

"Are you serious?" Jongin asked.

Kyungsoo nodded. "He didn't let anyone know he was leaving but you can always trust him to update his Facebook and his Twitter."

"Mhmm..." Jongin thought for a moment as his thumb rubbed over Kyungsoo's affectionately. "Let me see if I got this right. You don't feel like you belong with your friends because of your financial status but you also fear for your friends morals because of how they spend their money. Am I right?"

Kyungsoo sighed out loud. "Yeah that's pretty much it," he said.

"Hmm. Well think of it like this," Jongin began. "Almost all of us came by our money honestly, with the exception of maybe Yixing because, you know, parental status and what not but we're not going to talk about that. The thing is, we've all worked for what we have and besides, you're not the only non-celebrity of the bunch. Minseok, as well as Yixing, Chanyeol, and Junmyun aren't famous on their own but by association. Also, I think we're all friends because we like each other, not because of financial reasons. To choose friends or partners because of money, now that would be immoral in my books."

The older man looked up Jongin with wide eyes. He definitely sounded wiser and older than his age sometimes. "Wow. Thanks, Jongin. I was just a bit bummed out that everyone was heading out doing something big and full of granduer and here I am still working at the newspaper. It just seems quite plain compared to everybody's else job," he said, an embarrassed smile on his face, the silliness of the conversation finally catching up to him.

Jongin's lips quirked up at the corners. "I think it's rather charming actually. Being surrounded by filthy rich people who know nothing of a simple working life becomes quite dull at some point but coming home to you is like a breath of fresh air every night."

"Leave it to you to say something like that," Kyungsoo said with a roll of his eyes. "I just hope to never see any one of my friends' names or your name in a newspaper article about how one of you is a druggie or an alcoholic or is in rehab now because of your money and whatever."

"I highly doubt any of us are going to become druggies or anything like that. The morals may be looser but not that loose." Jongin laughed briefly before settling his eyes back on Kyungsoo, his irises sparkling with mirth. "So... Did we settle your little issue?"

Kyungsoo allowed himself to smile. "Yes, I guess we did. Thank you, Jongin. I love you." He leaned over and placed a chaste kiss on Jongin's lips. The latter grinned and kissed Kyungsoo's forehead and nose lovingly.

"Hey, I think there's something else we could do to make you feel better."

Now it was Kyungsoo's turned to be confused. "What? We just resolved the situation though," he said.

"I know but I was thinking. Since everybody else is going to grand and amazing places, why can't we?"

"You're serious?" Kyungsoo asked with a cocked eyebrow.

Jongin nodded eagerly. "Totally serious, babe. Did you take any vacation days this year yet?" he asked.

"No."

"Then let's take a vacation. You've been working hard and I think it'll do you some good."

"Okay sure but where are we going to?"

Jongin smiled wider. "Belize."

"Belize?"

"Belize." Jongin confirmed and nodded. "I have to go there for work either way next month. Come with me. After I'm done with my photoshoot, we can vacation there for a week and you can relax and forget about all these thoughts on morals and money."

"That does sound really nice," Kyungsoo admitted. "Alright. I'll go talk to my boss tomorrow."

"Cool. We have a plan then. And Kyungsoo?"

"Yes?"

Jongin's voice took on a softer, more tender tone. "I love you no matter what. Rich or poor. A celebrity or a newspaper worker. Your job has no meaning to me as long as it's you and you enjoy what you do."

Kyungsoo smiled softly at him and ran his fingers gently through Jongin's hair. "Thank you, love. Come. Let's get to bed."

They sent the dogs off to their own sleeping mats before turning the lights off and crawling under the covers. They laid down facing each other, Kyungsoo's face almost pressed against Jongin's chest. Silence fell over them and Jongin was just about to let sleep take him when Kyungsoo suddenly asked, "So would you still love me if I was like, an assassin or something?"

"Yes, Soo."

"But what if you were my target?"

"Yes, Soo."

"What if I was a e?"

"Go to sleep, Soo."

~~~~~~

I started writing this weeks ago and only got around to finishing it now. Oh boy.

Well, I was aiming for this to be deep or somewhat thought provoking but it came out this way so whatever. Anyway, hope you guys liked it. As always, this will be added to the Manhattan's Elite Series.

Thank you for reading!

~Raksa <3

raksaisme.tumblr.com