It was no surprise to anyone in the precinct that Police Chief Jung Yunho had strong disdain for one of his officers – after all, a young Officer Kyungsoo had been partially responsible for the injury of his son. It had been a surprise however that the Chief had recently - within the last few months - promoted said employee to Special Detective, especially when the department had just begun to break open the “Big Byun Bust” – as they had ceremoniously named the large investigation that involved breaking down the Byun Syndicate across Seoul – one of the biggest cases in the department’s history.

Kyungsoo had been given a special chance to redeem his past mistakes by participating in this case, and he remembered especially the look the Chief had given him when he’d turned the files over to him personally. He’d been distrusting of Kyungsoo for obvious reasons, but he’d given him the files with the faith that the young officer wouldn’t let him down again – when Kyungsoo had first entered the department he’d been held up to high estimations because of his record at the police academy.

So considering their rocky history, it was with growing dread in the pit of his stomach and horrible anxiety that Kyungsoo entered the department the morning after his last night at club XOXO. He could not imagine what the Chief’s reaction would be when he made his report, but he knew it wasn’t likely to turn out well for him. He would be lucky if he was demoted to working files for the case at his desk.

Even though he anticipated, he could never have predicted how badly the slip would blow up at him. But by the time he had finished telling Chief Jung that Jongin had learned of his identity – sparing intimate details of course - he could tell from the other’s body language that nothing was bound to be in his favor. When the Chief closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, he prepared for the worst. However he never imagined the man would go so far.

“You’re off the case,” the Chief said when he opened his eyes.

Kyungsoo had taken a defensive position, crossing his arms and clenching his jaw shut as he waited, but at those words his jaw dropped. “You can’t be serious… Everything?”

The man across the desk from him gritted his teeth and refused eye contact. “I’m completely serious Officer Do. Now that your position has been compromised you have no more place out in the field.”

“Officer!?” Kyungsoo spat back, astonished. “I could just as well remain in the office on this case. I would understand that, but this slip is no reason to demote me from my position as detective!”

The man banged his fist harshly on his desk, rattling his stapler and knocking over his cup of pencils. “This slip as you’ve called it has possibly lost the department any ground we had over the Byuns! Besides, the only reason you were ‘promoted’ in the first place was so that the department could legally send you out into the field. So as far as I see it, you’ve proved your incompetence not only with this case, but also with your fieldwork! And this isn’t the first time either, may I remind you. There’s no reason to keep you on as Special Detective any longer when failure is the best you can do.”

Kyungsoo couldn’t help the slight wobble in his lip, but he was determined not to show how emotional the confrontation was making him. So he bit down on it and forced out a reply through his teeth. “Sir,” he choked out. “I know you may be biased against me because of our history, but your inability to control your emotion should not interfere with letting me complete my duties to this department!”

Chief Jung looked extremely taken aback for a fraction of a second, but his eyebrows quickly turned down and his face darkened with anger. Kyungsoo immediately regretted his outburst and snapped his mouth shut, eyes opening wide.

The Chief was clearly in disbelief, but had no trouble expressing his outrage by standing from his desk and pointing to his door. “Officer Do consider yourself on leave until further notice,” he spat, finger shaking in rage. “On your way out leave your case files and reports with the front desk and we’ll assign this case to someone actually capable.”

Kyungsoo opened his mouth for a brief moment to argue, but the more rational part of his brain closed it in a moment and helped him stand from his chair. With his lips shut into a tight line he nodded briefly and left the office, but his tightly closed lips were nothing compared to his eyes that stared at the Chief directly and expressed clear anger and disdain.

He stopped at his recently unused desk for about 20 minutes looking through his inbox and collecting papers and items with an expressionless face. But as he passed reception the secretary handed him an envelope in exchange for his files with a pitying expression. He read its contents as he left the precinct and a frown slowly downturned his lips. The short letter stamped with the Chief’s signature and the department’s seal suspended him from all duties without pay for two weeks, and when he returned to duty he would be recalled to his Officer’s duties in the file room – the veritable armpit of the department.

No matter how many times he read the damning lines over and over again he couldn’t feel sad about the suspension, instead as his fist slowly crumpled the paper and shoved it in his bag his anger towards the situation grew.

This case was his dammit. He had not spent months of his life undercover working under the mafia to let his time go to waste like this. He had not put himself at risk to simply be let go. He had not invested in learning every detail of his case simply to give it up after an unfortunate circumstance.

So no, he decided, he was simply not giving up just like that. Unfortunately for Chief Jung, handing over his files didn’t mean that they were gone from his memory. In fact, he had spent so much time pouring over the information in his private time that it seemed like the facts of the case were burned into his brain. And the Chief had never thought to ask him to delete Chanyeol’s number either, and since Chanyeol couldn’t possibly know he was off his case…

He sent a message to the large man and received a reply shortly after.

He smirked in response. The department was probably still assigning someone to replace him on the case. He was sure they didn’t have this bit of new information yet, and by the time they learned the Byun’s were visiting the States Kyungsoo would be long gone with them.

By technicality he was sure what he was doing was against regulation since he was on suspension. But if he used his own money there was no way he could get in trouble for a small vacation – even if it was coincidentally exactly where the Byun’s were going. And if he decided to meet up with an old friend who worked at the local FBI then so be it. What they did or did not discuss as friends was no one’s business, especially not Police Chief Jung’s.

---

The morning of the day after Tao called Chanyeol awoke early with a start, and with an audible groan he stared at his alarm clock in disbelief. He had only slept for three and a half hours, and his alarm clock wasn’t even set to go off yet for another hour.

Truthfully, it was a terrible anxiety and nervousness that had kept him awake so far into the night, and it was a horrible stress that had woken him early. He tossed and turned but found that sleep had easily escaped him with the light that filtered into his window, so with another groan and a sigh he rose slowly and began a somber morning routine. By the time 7:30 rolled around he had finished stuffing his small duffle bag and there was nothing left for him to do but wait.

However, in his case the stillness of his apartment and the absence of busy-work was a curse to his mind. In truth, he dreaded seeing Baekhyun again after what had happened between them at the club. He dreaded any sort of future interaction and he especially dreaded being alone with the man. How was he supposed to cope and sort out his feelings when he would be with the man 24/7 starting later this afternoon?

He couldn’t deny there was magnetism between them. The night at the club was proof enough of that. But it wasn’t like Chanyeol to act on animal instinct, and he just wasn’t sure it was like Baekhyun either – at least not in this case.

And if there really existed sentiment between them… Well, frankly he didn’t understand how it was possible. But most of all, he wasn’t sure what it would mean.

Like this, his head spun around the issues for a full hour as he lay on his bed, then abruptly his phone began to buzz on the nightstand, startling him briefly. However, the identification on his caller ID surprised him more, as it was not who he was expecting.

He answered with slight apprehension. “Mom?” he asked breathily.

“Chanyeol, honey, it’s me.”

He chuckled slightly. What a mom thing to say. “Yeah, I know. I got about as much from your caller ID.”

To his surprise, his mom wasn’t quick to reply snappily to him, but instead her tone was serious and slightly biting. “Now isn’t the time for your sarcasm. I’m calling to ask about Hani.”

Chanyeol sat up in bed, biting his lip. “What about her?”

“You know what! She called me last night crying! What do you have to say for yourself?”

Chanyeol sighed. He should have known that his own mother would be the hardest part about breaking up with Hani. His mom simply adored the younger girl and had probably been expecting her to become her future daughter-in-law.

He sighed again. “We broke up,” he said simply.

His mother sounded furious. “I understand that! But why? Why all of a sudden? You two were great together!”

“Do you want the truth?” he shot back, suddenly exasperated with the whole ordeal. “I broke up with her because I don’t love her, and I haven’t ever loved her. Look, I won’t deny that she’s a great girl. She’s just not the right… person for me. There is no future with us.”

“You don’t know that! With time you could have realized what you were together. Couples like you two aren’t normal these days.”

“Mom, you aren’t listening to me. She may have loved me but I have never felt the same way. The thing you thought was great ended up a sham and I got tired of playing that game. So I ended it.”

“Chanyeol, please be reasonable. Hani is a great girl. Your father and I both adore her. I will be so disappointed if you just leave things like this.”

He pinched the bridge of his noise in annoyance and took a few slow deep breaths while his mother continued to talk about Hani’s merits. Finally, in the middle of her speech he cut her off.

“Mom, listen. I’m leaving for a business trip today out of the country and I need to go now. We can talk about this when I get back.”

She paused for a second, but then huffed a small sigh in annoyance. “Fine, but this isn’t over. When will you be back?”

“Maybe about a week.”

“Okay. Stay safe. I love you.”

“Love you too, Mom.”

Not two minutes after he’d hung up the phone and run a hand through his hair in exasperation, his cell buzzed again with an incoming call. Without looking he knew who it would be and as he answered he gathered his bag and his backpack.

“We’re out front,” came Tao’s voice low through the speaker.

He nodded to no one in particular, his stomach dropping with every step he took towards the door. “I’ll be right out.”

---

The flight left in the early afternoon, but with heavy weight on his mind the already 14 hour flight seemed to drag on into oblivion. It didn’t matter how many times they fed him back in coach or lowered the lights for people to sleep because his thoughts sprinted circles through his mind and left him exhausted yet wide awake.

Back at Incheon, Baekhyun hadn’t said a word to him besides the snarky good morning he’d given when Chanyeol had stepped into the car, but it didn’t stop Chanyeol from feeling that the shorter man’s eyes were watching him. It seemed like every time he chanced a glance at him Baekhyun would turn and catch his stare. There wasn’t anything particularly emotional about Baekhyun’s eyes at the time, but it didn’t stop him from feeling like he was being consumed.

Knowing Baekhyun was sitting just ahead in first class did him no good. The only thing separating them was a thin curtain used to divide the classes, and somehow the heavy presence between them seemed to cut through anyway. Halfway through the flight, Chanyeol took a chance on a sleep deprived whim and took a walk about the plane to stretch his long legs, but when he walked through first class he found Baekhyun asleep and curled up on his seat next to Tao. Alarming was the feeling of slight disappointment that his presence hadn’t given Baekhyun much pause. But he shrugged it off when he remembered his position with Baekhyun’s standing. Of course he would be of little relevance to the man. Baekhyun had men much better than he probably every night. The only thing that gave him slight pause was to wonder why Baekhyun had bothered to stoop down to his level at all a few days before.

But before he could complete any of his circuits of thought a voice cleared its throat and he turned to see Kris staring at him from his seat in the corner. It only took a wordless glare to send the gangly man back to his seat in coach for the remainder of the flight.

By the time they landed in Los Angeles, Chanyeol was sick to his stomach from sleep deprivation, his eyes sagged and he was plagued by a killer headache. But his affliction was hardly noticed by the rest of the small crew. As Baekhyun stretched and cracked his back, Kris was speaking to someone on the phone and simultaneously grabbing their bags from the conveyor belt at baggage claim. Chanyeol, exhausted as he was, helped Kris drag Baekhyun’s heavy bags onto their cart, and for a brief moment thought Kris had noticed his condition. But if he did, the older man turned his eyes away and continued speaking to his contact.

“You look dehydrated,” a small voice commented next to him. When Chanyeol looked up from where he was leaning Tao a small water bottle in his face. “Drink,” he commanded. “We have a long day ahead of us. A flight out tomorrow means that today is our only full day here.”

Chanyeol nodded slowly in understanding as he took the bottle to his lips. When the water hit his empty stomach he couldn’t hide a hum of contentment and thanked Tao earnestly with a large smile for his care, who turned away with a small scowl and a faint blush to his cheeks.

Tao mumbled something incoherently as he walked back over to Baekhyun’s side but it was then that Chanyeol noticed all eyes were on him. Baekhyun was watching him intently and when their eyes met Chanyeol physically felt his own smile fall from his face, but then his stomach was lurching for a whole other reason. Kris had taken a moment from his conversation to observe the interaction in passing, but his eyes briefly followed Tao back to where he stood at Baekhyun’s side before he actively began listening into the receiver again. However, his eyes locked on Chanyeol’s face with a glare that couldn’t hide a hint of confusion.

Nevertheless, a few seconds later the tall man held the phone away from his face and pointed over at the far door of the terminal. “Boss, they’re here,” he grumbled.

Chanyeol turned to follow the other’s gazes and though he didn’t know exactly who he was looking for his eyes found them with ease.

There was a man around their age – perhaps a bit older - with platinum blonde hair standing near the sliding glass doors, but what caught the attention of most people around him was the gigantic white fur coat he was sporting and his large dark sunglasses that seemed to cover half his face.

However, even under it all a large smile beamed out when he noticed them walking towards him and his arms spread open in a welcoming gesture. “Baekkie!” he shouted, startling Chanyeol enough to halt him in his tracks.

To his greater surprise Baekhyun shouted back and started at a half-jog to meet the slightly taller man in the middle and was soon enveloped in his arms. “Kim Heechul!”

The blonde gave a soft ruffle of the other’s dark hair which caused Baekhyun to scowl, but even Chanyeol could sense the playfulness in his tone. As they approached the man, Heechul as he was called, greeted the others with almost equal aplomb.

“Zi Tao! Yi Fan! How nice to see you both again,” he cried and gave Kris a warm handshake, one arm still tightly wrapped around Baekhyun’s shoulders. When they’d exchanged greetings – he’d been surprised to see Kris smile back at the other man and then begin exchanging pleasantries with another bodyguard – Heechul lowered his sunglasses and assumed a serious expression, peering out at Chanyeol over the top of the dark rims. “And who is this fresh face?”

Chanyeol cleared his throat awkwardly and stood at attention, which was difficult to do with a trunk of luggage stashed askew under his arm.

He opened his mouth to introduce himself but Baekhyun answered for him. “No one you really need to know. He’s my most recent acquisition, still being field-tested.” He ended with a smirk in Chanyeol’s direction and the latter knew it was meant to irritate him with the belittlement in his statement, which it did.

“I see,” said Heechul, tone as light as Baekhyun’s. But his eyes probed between the two in an uncomfortable way that sent a small chill down Chanyeol’s spine, much like he could visibly see their tension. “Well, let’s get a move on then. I’m sure you guys are tired from your flight and there’s plenty of relaxing to be done at my place.”

Baekhyun poked Heechul in the chest, but his voice gave off a hint of warning. “I know I only have a day here but that doesn’t mean I won’t look over each and every one of your operations while I can.”

Heechul bowed with feigned politeness and then wrapped his arm around Baekhyun’s waist. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’d almost forgotten that you don’t sleep.”

Baekhyun grinned, “Well you would know better than most.”

Chanyeol couldn’t help a small grimace at the exchange. He’d been uncomfortably aware of the close proximity between the two ever since Heechul called Baekhyun’s name, but their comfortable words were confirming what he already suspected. Most alarming was the small sinking feeling in his gut that reminded him that if he gave into whatever was happening between him and Baekhyun he would be just another number in the smaller man’s book. And no matter how much he tried to convince himself that it wouldn’t matter, he knew deep down that it would bother him. All in all, Chanyeol was sentimental, and if his feelings for Baekhyun were real then being used by the man would hurt.

In hindsight, he wondered exactly when attraction began to fade into sentiment. It wasn’t that he was unaware that the two things were inevitably intertwined, he just didn’t realize when he’d started to feel something more – to want it.

A snap in front of his face dropped him back to reality when one of Heechul’s large bodyguards demanded his attention. It was the man Kris had smiled at a bit earlier and now that he had a close up view he could see similarities in their sharp features and thick downturned eyebrows. The man was not smiling at him now as he gestured for Chanyeol to give up the piece of luggage he had tucked snuggly under his arm. But he realized now that in his contemplative stupor that most of their baggage had been loaded into Heechul’s cars by the other man, and he looked around in embarrassment because with this group he was sure that they had noticed his daze.

And just as he had that thought his eyes made contact with Baekhyun’s, who raised an eyebrow in question. In response he snapped his jaw shut and turned away, breaking their silent connection. But from the corner of his eye he saw the smaller man shrug and get into the passenger seat of the sleek white car at the front of the small convoy. Heechul, in his large fur coat, stuffed himself into the driver’s side and within seconds of closing the door the vehicle had raced off and out into the airport traffic.

Chanyeol, Tao, and Kris were ushered into two larger black cars and Chanyeol was squeezed uncomfortably between two men he would easily describe as “meatheads.” There was something about the air of the car as Tao silently checked his cuticles and Kris talked lightly with the man from earlier in the front seat that told him that he should keep his mouth shut. And he did for the entire one hour ride.

Even so, he was entertained watching the city subtly become nicer and fan out into residential areas as they drove towards Malibu, and with curiosity and awe he watched as palm trees lined the paths to the beach that grew closer e