When the Monday Enterprise’s team arrived at the small island motel they had secured for their stay they were, to put it mildly, surprised at how rural the place was. True, there was a roof. And doors, even windows. Oh, and chickens. There were chickens and three or four scraggly dogs running around too.

“You have to be joking.” Sehun had never, in all of his twenty three years, stayed somewhere so rustic.

“Afraid not. This is the only place that would let us stay. Home sweet home kids.” Chanyeol grabbed his bag and approached the smiling Ahjumma who was welcoming her newest boarders.

“Is it clean?” Minseok said to no one in particular, because other than crowds one thing he hated was germs.

“Welcome, welcome! I hope you like cats, because they are the permanent residents of this house!” The old woman opened the door and three felines bolted out into the courtyard.

“Oh god, oh god.” Minseok held onto Kyungsoo’s arm for support, his ankle was still sore though he now didn’t think he had sprained it, probably just bruised it. He hated cats, absolutely hated them.

***

The crowd had dispersed, the next protest was set for the following day. If the hoity toity lawyer that had flown in the day before was to be believed (after a few drinks to loosen his tongue) the group would tour the proposed building site the next day with the construction company.

Luhan was about to walk back home when he caught sight of something shiny on the ground, lying near the runway. Luhan walked over to find a cell phone, face down on the pavement.

“He must have dropped it.” Luhan said to himself, retrieving the phone and putting it in his pocket. He was secretly very, very happy for this discovery, because it would probably facilitate another one on one meeting between him and that adorable evil corporate scum. Which would be another opportunity to talk about the islander’s complaints.

Luhan whistled as he walked home, enjoying the weather.

***

Shortly after the team had gotten “settled” into their humble accommodations it was time to jump on a conference call with the team back in Seoul. And that is when they discovered that their phones wouldn’t work. At all. They hadn’t expected existing internet access, but they had at least expected that their phones would still work as hotspots.  – And certainly be able to place calls. Apparently that was not the case.

“We don’t get any of those invisible signals on this side of the island.” The old woman explained, holding one of the dozen or so cats that seemed to be running around the place.

Minseok, concerned about the lack of internet access, had another concern eating at him. He couldn’t find his phone.

“Suho, can you get me my bag? I can’t find my phone.”

“Yes, hyung.” Suho answered, but Jongdae was the one to actually fetch the bag. It was usually like that, Jongdae did everything for the second oldest Kang brother.

Minseok searched through his bag, but he still couldn’t find his phone. Had he dropped it?

“Do the invisible rays hit anywhere on the island?” Kyungsoo asked the old woman, honestly shocked that there was a place in South Korea that didn’t have internet access.

“Nope.” She grinned back at him, going back to cooing at the cat in her arms.

“Hyung, how are we going to work here?” Kyungsoo asked Minseok, throwing his hands up in frustration.

“How am I going to access Instagram here?” Sehun asked, ignoring the fact that his entire point of coming on this trip was to learn more about the business.

“How am I going to play my games before bed?” Chanyeol added.

“Aish! I think I lost my phone.” Minseok gritted his teeth in annoyance, “This is turning out to be a wonderful trip.”

“I think our onsite work is going to have to be cut short.” Suho, always the calm and collected one, made the executive decision “We should still meet with the developer tomorrow but after that we are going to have to go back to Seoul if we plan on getting anything done.”

“Thank god.” Sehun smiled for the first time since he had arrived on the island, it was a good thing they would be going back to civilization soon.

“But seriously, I need to find my phone.” Minseok looked panicked.

***

Without any work to catch up on, without any kind of connectivity, everyone drifted off to play during what little time they had away from work. Minseok asked Yixing to drive him to the airport to look for his missing phone, but his phone was nowhere to be found.

Suho, with an ever loyal Jongdae tagging along, decided to take a walk. Chanyeol went to sleep, while Kyungsoo and Baekhyun decided now was a great time to get into a long and drawn out argument about the merits of certain historical figures.

Sehun was pretty sure the island had nothing in the way of clubs, decent restaurants, or civilization so he thought he would make the most of the natural features and go for a swim. Good thing he had packed his red floral bathing trunks.

Humming “Born hater” he made his way to the only beach like thing he had seen on their drive to the “hotel” – it wasn’t a sandy paradise but it was still more sand than rock, suitable for swimming. The ocean was fairly clear and looked inviting given the weather.

Stripping off his t-shirt he walked slowly towards the water. He wasn’t sure if the sea would be as warm as it looked. He was happy when he dipped a toe in and found the water to be more than agreeable. It would be a nice afternoon of swimming, it seemed.

***

 Normally at this time of the afternoon Tao would be back at his family’s fish stall, selling the day’s catch. But today he had decided not to fish, he had a protest to attend. When the said protest ended a bit more quickly than Tao had thought it would, he took the opportunity to take one of his brother’s boats out and still catch something.

As he rounded the northern part of the island he caught a sound on the wind. Staring off towards shore he could make out splashes, a man shouting. Tao, who for all of his bursts of occasional anger, was really a kind hearted person, knew he had to help someone in need. So he throttled the boat motor and headed for the commotion.

***

Sehun was pretty sure he was dead. Nope, he was certain. Because the only thing he could see was light and the silhouette of a man. A man who had most certainly just breathed pure bliss into him. Was this an angel? So he would go to heaven after all- even if his hyungs said otherwise!

“Are you okay?” The man asked.

“Am I going to be an angel too?” Sehun sat up, blinking his eyes he tried to focus. He wretched suddenly, throwing up a good deal of salt water. The angel patted his back roughly, helping him to throw up more.

“There there, you almost drowned back there.” Tao looked down at the man, feeling like he had seen him somewhere before. He was an attractive guy, muscular. He had an amazing too, not that Tao was looking or anything. He had that cool, distant look about him, the exact kind of look that Tao was immediately attracted to. Then it hit him. So he hit the man.

“Owww! What was that for?” Sehun rubbed his arm, red from the slap. He had come to realize he was not in heaven, he did not die, and this was no angel.

“You are one of those businessmen! The ones that want to destroy the island!” Tao jumped up, like being within two feet of Sehun would give him some sort of disease.

Sehun rolled his eyes. “Why did you save me if you were going to hit me?”

“I, um” Tao wasn’t sure how to answer, “I didn’t know who you were!”

“Listen, I don’t want to destroy your island. Can’t speak for my brothers or my parents, but I just want to get the hell back to Seoul.”

“You do?” Tao eyed the man suspiciously. “How can I trust you?”

“Um, well, I don’t even know what this island is called. I couldn’t tell you what they want to build other than a hotel of some sort – oh, and I am completely and utterly bored when it comes to business. And the only reason I had to come here is so I wouldn’t get a head start finding a-“Sehun caught himself before he revealed the silly competition he and his brothers were engaged in.

“Finding a what?” Tao asked, catching Sehun’s pause.

“Uh, a horse. My brothers and I are all getting new horses.”

“Oh! I like horses.” Tao seemed to forget his disdain for Sehun and sat back down next to him. Sehun took the time to look at his savior, really look at him. He was handsome, but unconventionally so. His skin was tan, his hair a jet black, in need of a haircut it covered up his left brow and hung a little over his eyes. Sehun suddenly had a desire to run a hand through that hair, but he snapped out of as soon as Tao started speaking again.

“I’m Tao”

“Sehun. Nice to meet you Tao.” Sehun held out a hand, which Tao promptly shook.

“So, you really don’t want to hurt the island?”

“Really. In fact, I think it is wonderful” Sehun was lying through his teeth but there was a part of him that was still not entirely sure that Tao wouldn’t throw him back in the ocean if he was honest about how much of a little backwater he found the place.

“It is nice, I love it.” Sehun noticed that Tao looked a little sad when he spoke the words.

“Do you ever think of leaving here? I mean, if you haven’t already?” Sehun asked, truly curious.

Tao looked down, suddenly very interested in his hands, “Well I would…but there isn’t much of anything I could do anywhere else. I mean, I have only ever been a fisherman. I never went to college.”

Sehun nodded, it would be hard for someone like Tao to find his way in a place like Seoul. And then the light bulb went off in Sehun’s head.

“So, um, Tao – if you had the opportunity to move to somewhere, say Seoul, would you?”

“Sure, if I knew I would have a job. Mom and Dad have my brother’s here – they wouldn’t really miss me.” Tao looked out at the sea, sadness sweeping over him because he knew that his opportunity would never come.

“What if I said you could come back to Seoul with me? I mean, if you want to?” Sehun gave his best kind smile, hoping to god it worked. Because if it did, and if he could pull it off, he was pretty sure he could convince this guy to marry him in a month. And honestly – even in this short time – he could think of a far less horrible fate than sharing a bed with a certain tan fisherman with amazing biceps. In fact he was guessing it would very interesting and pleasurable indeed.

“Really? Where would I work?” Tao’s face lit up at the offer.

“Well, you could always come work with me at my parent’s company. I mean, I work there and I don’t really do anything and still get paid so I am pretty sure you could just hang out with me all day and collect a pay check.”

“But what about the island? I can’t work for a company that is going to destroy my hometown.” Tao went back to pouting, because he could not in all good faith do that to his parents.

“Well, if you change your mind I can give you my phone number. Not that you can call me or anything apparently, but I will give you my address too. How is that?”

“Okay, but I don’t’ think it will work.” Tao stood up and walked towards the helm “Time to head back to shore.”

Tao was quit the rest of the way back, and Sehun didn’t make a peep either. But what Sehun did do is watch the man steer the boat, probably spending far too much time admiring broad shoulders and toned upper arms. Far too much time, because suddenly he was starting to think of any way possible to make Tao coming to Seoul work out.

***

Minseok was done, very done with this entire trip. His ankle still hurt (albeit the swelling had gone down and he could at least walk on it now), his phone was missing, and now he was completely disconnected from the central office. Tomorrow could not come soon enough. He just wanted to meet the contractors, discuss the first phase of building preparations, and get back to Seoul.

“Hyung, there is some weird guy here to see you.” Kyungsoo, who had stopped arguing with Baekhyun for enough time to answer the door to the “motel” entered Minseok’s tiny room to announce his visitor.

Strange guy? “Let him in.”

Kyungsoo beckoned the stranger in and made his way back to his debate.

Minseok was surprised to see the man that had led the protest standing in the doorway, holding Minseok’s phone.

“You dropped this.”

Minseok went to stand up and grab the phone, but the man stopped him, “You are hurt, I can hand it to you.”

“Thanks” Minseok took the phone, feeling a little bit better than before. At least he had his phone back, even if it was essentially useless.

“So- do you have a few minutes to chat?” The guy asked, sitting down before Minseok could answer him. Apparently he was not really asking a question.

“Only if you don’t scream in my face for ten minutes about saving the island.” Minseok had already heard enough.

“Well…” Luhan smiled at Minseok, “I guess you can see right through me.”

“Well, I am not sure what else you would come to talk to me about.” Minseok said matter-of-factly.

In the years since Luhan had started drifting from one cause to another he had learned how to deal with people. All sorts of people. People who hated him, people who supported him, people who could care less what he had to say. So he also knew that this was not going to be easy, having a discussion with this man. Not unless he got to know him first.

“My name is Luhan. “ He offered his hand, which Minseok shook firmly.

“Minseok.”

“Ahh, Minseok. A nice name.” Luhan tried to look warm and inviting. “What do you do Minseok?”

“Why do you care Luhan?” Minseok challenged.

Luhan swallowed, he knew the type. He would have to be beyond friendly first, “I grew up in Beijing, China but I went to high school and University in Korea. I like dedicating myself to different activist causes because I find it fulfilling. My favorite color is red, I like soccer, and I am addicted to coffee. My parents can’t believe I drift around the world from one thing to the next but I have always been a very passionate person. And I care because I thought maybe, even though we are on opposing sides, we could get to know each other.”

Minseok was quiet for a moment, before he decided to indulge the younger man. Well, he assumed he was younger than him. Besides, he was beyond bored at the moment. After tomorrow he could care less what Luhan and his protesters did – because if they disrupted construction Minseok would send out a gang of security and put an end to it.

“I am the chief of operations for Monday Enterprises, my parents own the company. I majored in design. I like soccer and coffee too.”

“Man U?” Luhan asked, trying to create some sort of connection.

“Arsenal.” Minseok answered.

“Argh. Really? At least tell me you like Americano?”

“Cappuccino.”

Luhan laughed and Minseok, much to his own chagrin, did too. He noticed that when Luhan laughed his handsome face contorted, which was kind of ugly but cute at the same time.

“Do you have any kids?” Luhan asked.

“No, do you?” Minseok was surprised he answered this question so easily. Usually he would shut himself off if strangers pried into his personal life so suddenly.

“Nope, haven’t met the right man yet.” Luhan answered.

“Ah, but you are looking?” Minseok would be lying if he claimed that a certain contest did not enter his mind at that time. He tried to shut the internal suggestion off, because in all honesty what in the hell could he be thinking – that this Luhan had anything to do with his future marriage?

“Maybe. You?”

“Maybe?” Minseok cringed inwardly. Was he, Minseok, the Kang Minseok of Monday enterprises, the Minseok who never flirted with anyone, actually flirting with this crazy protestor guy?

“Then I guess we have the same relationship goals, at least.” Luhan could feel Minseok’s guard being lowered, and he knew the man found him attractive so he seized the opportunity “You know, I can’t believe you aren’t married yet? Being rich and attractive and…”

“Why, are you interested?” Minseok raised an eyebrow. This was certainly getting interesting. If he found his own behavior abhorrent he was not sure of what to think of the fact Luhan was flirting back.

“Maybe. Are you?” Luhan had him by the balls, he knew it.

“Maybe, if you stop telling me to save your island.” Minseok smiled back. Knowing he had just effectively ended this flirting session. The look on Luhan’s face said it all.

“Well, if you ever decide to stop trying to kill this island with your greed, come see me.” Luhan leaned in close, causing Minseok to move away at the sudden proximity, “Because there are things I want to do to you that shouldn’t be said out loud.”

Minseok swallowed hard. He watched Luhan stand up and leave without another word. It took him a moment to start breathing normally again, it took him more than a few moments to calm the blood that had rushed to his groin. Who would have thought that such a baby faced social crusader was such a ert?