Room Service

 

The wildest night of his life, as told by yours truly, Lee Sungyeol.

 

 

Original prompt:  myungyeol are strangers in town for a film festival. the hotel messes up and double books their room, and there are no other ones available so they have to share the same room (with only one bed). what happens?

 

.

Sungyeol dumps his luggage on the bed and plops down next to it.

Face first.

The sheets on the bed are linen, and smell distinctively of lilac and Sungyeol wants them to turn into quicksand and swallow him.

For a long agonizing moment he makes noises from the back of his throat, then finally decides to quit being dramatic and sits up. 

The room isn't as spacious as the pictures on the site suggested, but Sungyeol was expecting that. It never looks like it does in the pictures.  

Despite that, the room still looks nice. There's a double bed, two armchairs and the coffee table, a closet, and in the corner, a counter, a cabinet and a sink with a mini fridge. The interior design is sleek and modern; a lot of glossy black surfaces, and pale blue lightening under the TV and on the ceiling.

It's a bit too dark for Sungyeol, but the window makes up for it, because the window takes an entire wall, and the view is amazing. The sun is setting in the horizon, splashing a variety of pink and orange between the clouds. You could practically see down-town Gwangju, already starting to shimmer down below. He bets it looks even beautiful from the upper floors, but, alas, they got stuck on the third floor.

At least they're close to the elevator.

He's exhausted.

The eight hour bus ride - if you exclude the three hour pit stop they made in Daegu between one bus and another, where Sunggyu brilliantly mixed up the bus terminals and made them go back and forth like three idiots - has taken his toll on him.

They had originally planned to go dine out once they arrive and then head right back into the grand opening of the festival, but fat chance that was happening.

But he can see how a lot of his plans are going to get cancelled, in the light of the latest events.

He takes a really large inhale.

Sungyeol decides that he should have a positive outlook on this. He got a whole room for himself!

He gets off the bed and puts his sports bag down on one of the armchair, then stars ing his shirt. Dinner is probably already being served, so the least he could do is go downstairs and binge on something sweet.

It's also hotter here than in Seoul and it's not raining, so he decides to trade his sweaty dress shirt and jeans for a nice flimsy t-shirt and a pair of shorts. He can already see himself relaxing with his tablet, dipping his legs into the pool.

He squeals internally at the mere thought.

Just when he s his pants, he hears someone shuffling near his door.

At first he assumes it's Woohyun trying to get in, but then the door opens and some guy walks in, dragging a suitcase after himself.

And it's not Woohyun.

He stops when he sees Sungyeol standing there, partly .

They stare at each other for a long moment.

"Uh, are you still cleaning or...?"

"Does it look like I'm still cleaning?" Sungyeol puts on his shirt back angrily, a bit embarrassed for getting caught half-dressed.  Once he's done, he's surprised to find the guy dragging the suitcase into the room.

"Why are you coming in...?"

"It's fine, I'll just put my stuff and go down to dinner."

Sungyeol furrows his eyebrows.  "... Put your stuff?"

"You're about to leave, right?"

"No, this is my room."

"Yeah, I get it, but it's past 7 pm, and now it's already my room."

"No—This is my room. Room 403!" He walks to the door, and opens it, point to the numbers on the door. "I just got here! You mistook your room number, so now get out."

"No, my room is room 403! See?" Myungsoo shows his key-card. Surely enough it says the exact same thing that Sungyeol's card says. "I double checked at the door."

"Then they gave you a wrong room."

"No, they gave you a wrong room, I reserved this one online."

"I reserved this one online, too—" Sungyeol takes a deep breath.

Obviously they're not going to reach any conclusion unless one of them will be sensible. "Leave your luggage here, and take your registration papers... and let's just settle this at the lobby with the staff. It's probably a misunderstanding."

The guy nods, and slight hesitation flashes on his face for a moment.

Sungyeol likes being the better man.

 

.

 

 

 

The clerk at the counter checks the computer twice, making weird humming noises. He keeps clicking and clicking, but doesn't say anything.  He calls the  manager after Sungyeol urges him with a small "well?", which makes Sungyeol understand that it's not just some tiny misunderstanding that will get solved within a minute's time.

The manager is a woman in her forties, dressed in a very tasteful suit with a pencil skirt. She listens to both of their sides, in almost unnerving patience.

Once everything is said and done, she requests their registration papers.

She checks them detail by detail in silence, once she does, she smiles a very stringy smile, and calls her higher-ups.

She moves away from them, so they won't hear the conversation.

When she returns she takes a very large inhale and explains to them as politely as she can that there has been a very big mistake in the system. She repeats over and over about how sorry the hotel is and how this had never happened before and how they will do anything to compensate them.

At some point Sungyeol barks at her to just tells them what is wrong.

She then points at a certain area in their papers, where the time and the date of the reservation had been made. Curiously enough... they have the exact same number. 17:23:39.

They clicked a button, in the exact same second.

Which is almost ridiculous.

What could possibly be the odds of that?

At this point, the guy next to him - Myungsoo is his name - freaks out a little, and Sungyeol doesn't blame him. He tells the woman that this is festival week - not to mention opening night - and that it's important to him, and there's no way he's giving up to his room.

There's like a flood of words coming out of Myungsoo, and at some point Sungyeol realizes that he's not even upset about the room, but about something else entirely, and he just needs to vent out.

He feels a little bad for the manager... It's not her fault, and after all, mistakes like that happen, right? It's not that unheard of, right?

He decides to be the rational one, for the both of them; "—So, now that we got that figured out..." He cuts into Myungsoo's words rudely, trying to ignore the glare the other directs at him. "What exactly are our options?"

As expected, even though she checks everything she can, the hotel is full capacity. She finds a day available in one room, and another day in another room somewhere during the week, which is definitely not what Sungyeol wanted; moving in and out of rooms during his vacation.

Gwangju doesn't offer as many hotels as Seoul or Busan. Sungyeol wouldn't be surprised if that's the situation right now in all the hotels, guesthouses or hostels in the city.

She promises to them that sometimes guests leave after the opening and that it's late and she'll check everything thoroughly tomorrow morning.

That leaves him with the option of asking Sunggyu and Woohyun to share a room - or... sharing a room with this Myungsoo guy for the rest of the festival.

Sungyeol decides to go with the easiest option.

 

.

 

By the time he knocks on Woohyun and Sunggyu's dorm room, it's about 9 and half.

It's quiet inside.

For a moment, Sungyeol actually thinks they went out looking for him, but that moment ends when Woohyun opens the door of the room.

He's  in  his boxers, flustered, shirt opened.

"Something important?" Woohyun urges, clearly impatient, when Sungyeol is still taking in his attire.

He's not sure what exactly he expected... just not this.

Somehow, he feels betrayed, even though he's not sure why.

You see, this was supposed to be Sungyeol's weekend.

He graduated from college sometime during the spring, and has been busting his off waiting tables during the night and taking phone calls in tech support in order to make a little fortune.

Why? Because he wanted, for once in his life, to head to some festival out of town and not worry for a second about the money. This was his last chance to live. To experience being a young adult. After this, he is going to find himself a job, 9 to 5, in a grey office, then find himself a wife he can tolerate, adopt a dog, then have a baby, then waste his life providing for them, play chess with all his ahjusshis friends in the park and have cardiac arrest at 81 years old. That's the plan, at least. But before that, he had this. This festival. This weekend.

No homework, no teachers, no parents, no girlfriend, no responsibility. Just him and his friends, watching good movies, picking up girls, and drinking good beer.

Sunggyu was more than willing to go, but Sungyeol thought it might be too awkward if it's just the two of them, so he convinced Woohyun, his best friend and college roommate, to tag along, using the keywords; 'pool', 'beer' and 'free movies' exactly in that order.

Things between Woohyun and Sunggyu had been tense lately, so he refused at first, but Sungyeol kept insisting and reminding Woohyun that they may not have a chance like this ever again.  Imagine his surprise when he opened his eyes after a sweet nap on the bus to Daegu, and Sunggyu and Woohyun were already with tongues down each other's throats.

Sungyeol always suspected Woohyun might be crushing on Sunggyu, but somehow, they never actually discussed it, since Woohyun didn't have a problem dating a gazillion of other people (sometimes at the same time) - so it didn't come off as a shock, but it didn't come off as pleasant news as well.

Ever since then, they had been holding hands together, making out in the bathroom, and Woohyun even begged Sungyeol to trade rooms (originally Sunggyu wanted to have a room all to himself).

It's not like he's jealous - in fact, he is more than happy for his friends. It's his best friend and his favorite hyung. Why would he be upset about it?

It's just this was not how he expected his dream vacation to go. At all. Picking up girls was definitely off the table.  

"Isn't it already dinner time...?" Woohyun almost itches to get back to Sunggyu and whatever the hell they were doing in there, and Sungyeol doesn't have the heart to tell him otherwise. 

They were friends for at least 4 years now, and 3 of which were spent with Woohyun giving Sunggyu longing gazes across the room. Now, they finally hooked up.

Who is he to deny them of that honey-moon phase? Especially since they came all the way here? This is literally a couples paradise.

"You actually missed it... I just wanted to make sure you didn't screw Sunggyu's brains off just yet."

Woohyun snorts and glances back. You couldn't see the bed from the angle of the door, though. "Not yet." He says. "Sorry we missed dinner."

"It's alright. I kind of fall asleep in my room and missed it too." He's not sure why he lies, perhaps he feels a bit bad for barging in.

"Oh."

"Yeah."

Woohyun rubs his head.

"Well, try not to torture him too much." Sungyeol advises and gets a disgruntled; "I heard that!" from somewhere inside, followed by; "If there's anybody torturing it's going to be me!"

Woohyun mouths; 'yeah right' and they both snicker.

"Goodnight."

"Talk to you tomorrow."

Sungyeol nibbles at his lower lip, then turns to Myungsoo, whose leaning on their... as of this moment, mutual door.

He has his hands crossed on his chest, but his expression is a bit unreadable.

"So I guess we're sharing." He finally says.

Sungyeol nods.

They both turn to the clerk from the counter that followed them up.

He's a young boy with nice hair, dressed in white pants and white shirt, on top of which he's wearing a yellow cardigan with the hotel's logo, and a name tag that says; 'Lee Sungjong'.

He taps his finger on the tablet a few times, before flashing them a smile. "Well, then. A comfortable, spacious futon is coming right up. I've allowed myself to order you dinner, since I've noticed you didn't eat yet. I'm Lee Sungjong, by the way," He fishes out a business card from his pocket and hand it to Sungyeol. "I'll be your attendant for the next few days."

"That is hardly necessary," Myungsoo glances at the business card in Sungyeol's hands, almost as if he has to make sure something before returning his gaze back to Sungjong.

"Unacceptable. The Hotel is sincerely apologetic for the situation. Our good reputation precedes us, so we want to make sure you will have the best vacation despite the circumstances. Also, feel free to order anything from our room service menu. Everything is on the house, so don't be shy. On top of it, if you need any festival reservations or sight-seeing tours, I'm just a phone-call away."

Sungyeol nods absently at him.

Myungsoo opens the door with his card, and walks it, disinterested.

He drops the card on the stand, a bit too aggressively for Sungyeol's tastes.

After all, he doesn't know the guy, and who knows... he might be a serial killer, here for find an unsuspecting prey to lure to his hotel room. Sungyeol would be perfect for a victim. His friends abandoned him, and he's already with him. In the same room. Alone.

For that reason only, Sungyeol shoves Sungjong's business card into his pocket.

There's nothing wrong with staying safe.

"Well, then... I'll be right back with your dinner." He gives him a light bow, before leaving toward the elevator.

Sungyeol closes the door after himself.

Myungsoo already managed to slip into a pair of ugly cropped sweats, even though the door of the room was opened.  He glances at Sungyeol, giving him a small, condescending glare, before heading to the mini fridge and taking a bottle of water out of there.

"So... let's just... um introduce ourselves?"

"What for?" The guy rudely replies, taking a swing from the bottle.

"For the sake of not being douches for the rest of the weekend, and trying to go through it civilly?"

He takes a long sigh, as if Sungyeol is tiring him, but nonetheless walks up to him and extends his hand; "Kim Myungsoo. Freelance Photographer. I don't take long showers and I like to have my space."

Sungyeol nods. As roomies, this kind of information should be relevant. "Lee Sungyeol." He shakes his hand; "Recently graduated Graphic Design major. I take my showers as long as I take my . And I tend to get constipated from s. Don't be an , and we'll get along fine."

Myungsoo snorts at that, and seems a bit surprised, as if he didn't expect it.

Well, nobody expects it.

Sungyeol is that tall kid with the nice face who looks like he comes from a good home and is well educated and well behaved, until he opens his mouth.

"Where are you from, Myungsoo?"

"Seoul," He answers, opening his black suitcase once more. "You?"

"Also Seoul. I'm from Yongin, originally, but when I say this to people they usually assume that's some hellhole."

"Is it?"

"Is it what?"

"A hellhole?" Myungsoo didn't bring much in his suitcase. Almost half of his belonging are camera equipment. From the expensive kind.

"It is. At this time of the year, it's humid, everybody are miserable, and sometimes you'd see demons running around with pitchforks."

"Huh. Sounds like my kind of place."

"Yeah, you'd fit right in."

Myungsoo is smirking when he glances at him; "I'm pretty sure that was an insult, but I don't know why..."

Sungyeol flashes him a smile. "I'm heading to shower."

"Nice save."

 

.

 

The shower is quick but rather satisfying. ‎

The bath is loaded with all kinds of mini bottles. There's the regular shampoo, conditioner and liquid soap, ‎but beside that, there's a million of other bottles. Facial cleanser, exfoliating soap, body milk, body ‎cream, body lotion, shower gel, bubble maker, three bath bombs and others Sungyeol just didn't bother reading. Most of them have ‎different shades and different shapes and definitely different smells - some way too strong for ‎Sungyeol's sensitive nose. ‎

Sungyeol can only guess that Woohyun is going to enjoy thoroughly rubbing each of this Harry-Potter-‎like potions all over himself. Then, he'll also take home what's left of them, and brag about it to whoever ‎is willing to lend an ear. Sunggyu, on the other hand will  grab the bottle that's closest to him, and use it ‎to wash his hair, armpits and balls.

Sungyeol snorts when he thinks of that, but then he suddenly understands that Woohyun and Sunggyu probably be too busy to care all about the bottles. He scrunches his nose as he towels himself and slips into some fresh clothes.

It's a little selfish, isn't it?

To feel a bit betrayed about what them getting together.

He decided to it up. They deserve some happiness too. Sungyeol can still go pick up people. Well - maybe not, but he could still enjoy himself.  

When he comes out of shower, Sungjong is in the room with a trolley.

One of the armchair transformed magically into a single bed with a large mattress on top of it. The sheets that had been so meticulously arranged on it are almost blindly white.

"... anything off the menu."

"Anything?" Myungsoo shifts his weight on the bed from one side and another, glancing between the pamphlet in his hands to Sungjong; "Even the 'double chocolate and ice-cream' explosion'?"

Sungjong nods, then flashes a smile to Sungyeol.

"Hope your bath was good. If you need any additional soaps, feel free to contact me." He walks up to the trolley and removes the lids on the dishes. "I allowed myself to order our Chef's specials. And also..." he bends down and fishes out a wine bottle; "Courtesy of the Manager." He says.

Myungsoo glances underneath the table; "We don't need so many wine - one would be enough—"

"Nonsense." Sungjong is a rather pushy fellow. He's already pouring the wine into the two wine glasses on the trolley. "Everything to make your stay more pleasant."

"Or you're just trying to make us drunk so we'll forget all about the incident and consider not to sue you?" Sungyeol can't help himself.

Sungjong barks out a long fake laugh. "Don't be silly— Now, if you finish, you can just put the trolley in the hallway... if not just leave it here and room service will come to take it away tomorrow morning. Would you also like me to schedule a breakfast in bed for tomorrow?"

"No, that's alright.  We'll come down to eat with the common folk." He answers - then realizes Myungsoo might actually want to have a breakfast in bed, but when he glances at him, the guy looks slightly amused at Sungyeol's comment, but he doesn't opposes.

"Anything else?"

He looks up to them expectedly.

Sungyeol clears his throat and uses a deep voice; "That would be all."

"Well, then. I wish you a good night, and a pleasant stay. You know how to contact me, if you need me."

Once the door is closed after him, Sungyeol throws the pamphlet over his shoulder and sits on the bed as ‎close to the food as possible. ‎

He already eyes the dish with the steak. He didn't even know he was so starved until presented with ‎food. ‎

Myungsoo sits next to him on the bed and picks up a fork.‎

‎"Didn't even know they still had attendants at hotels. What is this, the 18th century?" He says. ‎

Sungyeol shrugs, and aims his fork of the chunk of meat on the plate - but just as he does, his fork meets ‎Myungsoo's in a loud clink. ‎

They look up at each other, then snort. ‎

Pulling the forks apart takes a bit of an effort. "Guess we're sharing the steak as well." ‎

Myungsoo takes it upon himself to divide the steak into two perfect halves with the silver knife. ‎

While Sungyeol waits until he's done, his eyes climb up his hand on his toned arm and to his face.

Myungsoo is a handsome fellow now that he looks at him. There's this boyish charm around him.

He never actually looked at him up until now - which he finds weird - and now that he does he seems different. Not just the guy who was making a scene in the lobby. Somehow when these situations happen, you always stare but then move on with your life, without really remembering faces.

But he's going to spend the rest of the weekend sharing this little room with this guy, so he might as well remember that he was handsome.

Myungsoo's eyes suddenly meet his, and Sungyeol hurriedly looks away, almost as if he got caught doing something he shouldn't have.

They eat in silence for a few long minutes, until Sungyeol can't help it.

"So... you're a photographer, huh? Festival staff, I guess?"

He shakes his head, mouth full, then sips the wine glass that's closest to him. "I actually came for the movies. I just needed a vacation. But I guess you can say it's also work related... I'm hoping to take pictures of celebrities. That kind of thing. It's good for business."

"Kill two birds with one stone, huh? That's clever, I guess. Something someone from Yongin would do."

"Well, now you made me curious about Yongin and the kind of people that live there. I'm guessing something around 'sophisticated douche-bags'."

Sungyeol sips from his own wine; "Something like that, yes. I mean, I'm from Yongin, and I'm sophisticated."

Myungsoo nods his heads left and right, like a bobble-head.

Sungyeol snorts. The second dish beside the steak is shrimps in garlic and butter which are also quite tasty.

"What about you then?"

Sungyeol turns back to Myungsoo from trying to catch a shrimp with his fork. Count on the prestige hotel room to not provide any normal utensils like chopsticks.

"Are you here for the festival?"

"Yes. I've been planning this vacation for over two years now."

"So why didn't you attend last year?"

 "Oh." Sungyeol scratches his head; "I don't know... I think the answer to that would involve a very complicated equation made out of various variables; like questionable life decision, uneventful love life, and probably a really long string of bad grades."

Myungsoo seems amused; "Do you always talk like that?"

"Do you always talk while chewing? In some cultures it's considered rude."

He snorts; "I've always heard about witty people, but I never actually met one."

"That makes me feel like a endangered animal of some kind. Like a panda."

"You are an endangered species. Most people think they're witty, when all they do is insult everybody around them and then throw a joke once awhile."

"Who says I don't do that? Maybe I'm just studying you so I could insult you better."

"Nah, you seem to be... witty but with class." Myungsoo narrows his eyes at him, as if that might give him a chance to look into Sungyeol; "Elegantly witty."  He adds.

Sungyeol stares at him for a long while, and Myungsoo stares back.

What starts as a snort continues with an actual burst of laughter. Sungyeol grabs a hold onto the wine closest to him and takes a long sip; "I'm no good with compliments - if that's even what you were trying to do."

"You can think of it as a random observation, instead." Myungsoo takes the other cup, and gulps down half of it in one go, then resumes eating.

The shrimps are actually better than the steak. If he had to pick, meat always comes before sea-food, but just this time, sea-food are much better. Once Sungyeol takes one, they easily get addictive. Maybe it's because the wine goes better with them than it does with the steak. 

By the time he looks up, Myungsoo is already pouring himself a new cup.

He pours some for Sungyeol too, and finishes the bottle, then raises his cup.

"To bad luck." He raises his cup.

Sungyeol almost clinks it, but then draws it back; "Never drink to bad luck, that brings more bad luck. To coincidences."

Myungsoo clinks his glass and drinks, then says; "I don't believe in coincidences."

"Oh, so what is this thing of us clicking the button on the exact same second? A miracle? The work of god? Maybe, some secret underground agency whose sole purpose is making sure everybody are miserable?"

"That exactly what it is. Divine intervention. You were sent here to foil my plans by some higher-being who has a really bad sense of humor."

Sungyeol takes another sip from his glass; "The sun must be shining right out of your ."

"Didn't you see my ? It's so glorious, I wouldn't be surprised if it did."

Sungyeol laughs; "That's the most arrogant thing I've heard all day long, and believe me, I've heard some arrogant things today."

"About that," Myungsoo finishes chewing the last of his steak; "Who in his right mind travels with a couple? Or was it a last option type of thing?"

"I would say that's none of your business, but damn I can write a paper ranting about it right now, so let's just leave it at this: they weren't a couple when we left Seoul in the morning." Sungyeol cringes at the thought and takes a mouthful of wine, in order to get the memory of their sloppy kissing out of his head.

This, in turn, makes Myungsoo laugh. His laughter sounds forced, somewhat. "And after that you still believe in coincidences? This is karma. You," He points a finger at him from the hand that holds the glass; "did something to upset them." He gestures up with the finger, then picks up one of the shrimps with his hand and eats it.

Sungyeol wonders if he's already drunk - but Sungyeol can't really blame him. He didn't eat much the entire day, either, and this wine probably had a higher alcohol percentage than he expected.

Sungyeol narrows his eyes at him; "Okay, nut-job - I will stab your finger with this fork if you stick your hand one more time into the common plate - there is no them in the sky watching over you. If there were, they'd send you a terribly sweaty, balding guy who'd be more than happy to get you drunk enough to unconsciousness so he could have his way with you."

"So you're saying I got off easy?"

"You most definitely did. Starting tomorrow, you won't even see me around here, because I'll probably be sight-seeing or in the festival."

"And you don't want to have your way with me?"

Sungyeol widens his eyes at him - and in return, Myungsoo, almost comically, widens his eyes back at him, as if he's just as surprised as Sungyeol.

"Give me that," Sungyeol snatches Myungsoo's glass off his hand and finishes it in one go, which makes Myungsoo laugh. "Sorry, sorry." He holds his hands up in defense. "Just joking — but would you, hypothetically?"

"No."

"No?"

"Well... Maybe. Hypothetically— You know what, no. If we're going to share a room for a few days, we should have it free of ual-suggestions."

"I was only asking hypothetically. I would, hypothetically, love to do you too—"

"Dude, just stop—"

"Hypothetically!" He laughs; "Besides, aren't you glad we got this out of the way?"

"I think we did the opposite."

It gets quiet for a moment after that, and Myungsoo reaches out and fishes out a bottle of white wine from underneath the trolley and starts fiddling with the cork.

"Don't you think you've had enough?"

Myungsoo distributes the entire contents of the bottle between their cups and hands Sungyeol his cup. "This hotel screwed up our entire vacation. The least we should do is sip their expensive wine, prank call Count Lemon-grab-attendant—" Sungyeol snickers when he remembers Sungjong's 'unacceptable'; "—and talk about topics that really matter."

"Like what?"

"Like the hypothetical... make out... we could be having right now."

"So, you're the kind of person who hits on everything that moves when drunk? Or do you do that when you're sober, too?"

"This is actually my first time coming onto someone in such cheeky way. I'm just as surprised as you are."

"Lies."

"I'm thoroughly embarrassed, too." He confesses into his wine cup.

"Where on your face does it say that? You just look smug and... attractive and stuff."

If possible, he looks even more smug, and takes awhile to swallow the wine in his mouth.

"Tell you what," Myungsoo points a finger at him with the hand that he holds the cup in, which is a little peculiar for some reason. "We're getting to know each other, right?"

"Is that what we were doing? Because I was under the impression we were failing miserably at flirting."

Myungsoo takes another large gulp out of his drink; "So here's what I'm suggesting. Let's play Two truths and one lie. Loser prank-calls Earl-Lemongrab-super-model-person."

"His name is Sungjong."

"Yes, okay."

Sungyeol sighs; "Hmm... It's been awhile since I played this game... Let's see." He clears his throat; "I can drink up to 8 Americanos a day, once I decided it'd be cool to jump off of my balcony to my neighbors' balcony and that attempt got me seven stitches and one broken arm and lastly but not least, I am the world's deepest sleeper, not even a tank going over me can wake me up."

"This is a lot harder than I expected, and a lot less intruding and y."

Sungyeol laughs.

"Didn't you get the memo that you're supposed to expose all your ual endeavors in these games?" Myungsoo urges.

"Seeing your disappointed face is much more amusing. Raise up to the challenge or proclaim me the winner by default."

"I'll go with number 1."

Sungyeol mimics the wrong-answer sound from the back of his throat. "I'm actually a light sleeper. I wake up from dog barking half a street away."

"8 cups a day, though? Isn't that unhealthy?"

"Once I attempted to drink more, but my belly refused it, so I'm still at 8. But with proper training and stamina, I bet I can get to 10."

Myungsoo is giving him a look full of pity, so Sungyeol snickers; "Let's just say that Coffee is my passion. Your turn."

Sungyeol takes a lighter sip out of his cup, while Myungsoo finishes his. He sure as hell downs alcohol fast.

But his cheeks are already tinted pink and he keeps on blowing some air out of his mouth on his face, and it makes his bangs flutter up, which makes him look cute.

"Alright, since you were being not fun, I'm going to be not fun as well. Here goes," Myungsoo takes a large inhale, then a small, wicked smile appears on his lip; "I like sweets, I've never been in a serious relationship before, and there was a slideshow of my photographs in a rather large billboard on Time Square in NYC."

"That last one is definitely true by how damn proud you are of it but— So, you're like a famous artsy-fartsy photographer?"

He shrugs, "Just got lucky, I guess. Now you have two to guess from."

"You've definitely been in a relationship, so number two."

Myungsoo shakes his head; "Nobody ever guesses it right." He says and laughs when Sungyeol makes a weird face at him.

"I don't know what weirds me out worse... How can you not like sweets? What is wrong with you? I'm actually offended deeply by this. As a member of the sweet-tooth society, I hereby proclaim a secret oath to change your mind until this weekend is over."

"That's not going to happen. Many tried, but none succeeded." He gives his knee a small push with his hand.

Sungyeol sits up straight and huffs. "Is that a challenge?"

"It might be."

"You will regret challenging me, I tend to take provocation seriously."

Myungsoo laughs. "What are you gonna do, bind me to the bed and feed me sweets?" He waggles his eyebrows at him.

Sungyeol rolls his eyes in return; "Don't give me ideas—" He tries to get up, but somehow his legs are a bit unstable. He falls back on the bed.

Myungsoo snickers at him, to which Sungyeol returns with another attempt to stand.

With a bit of balancing, he's on his feet. He pushes the trolley a little, then turns his gaze to Myungsoo. "I am not that drunk."

"Yeah, we just had two bottles of wine and you have problem standing, but you are definitely not drunk."

The room somehow seems heavier and hotter. Sungyeol takes a loud inhale. He's not all that drunk - maybe a bit tipsy, but he can handle himself well.

"I suggest a new game."

"What sort of a game? Pretend game? Hypothetical make-out game?"

"I bet when you wake up tomorrow, beside the raging hang-over, you're going to regret coming onto me and get all awkward."

"I honestly feel like I'm on a roll here, so let me have the satisfaction. Now what game did you have in mind and does it have hypothetical make-out? Because I would like a game with an hypothetical make-out." Myungsoo grabs what's left of Sungyeol's wine, too.

"It's a daring game. I dare you to eat ice-cream."

"Not going to happen."

"Oh come on. I could use a walk; it's stifling hot in here. I saw a Baskin Robbins on the way here. They have my favorite flavor. If you taste it and still won't like sweets, then you get to dare whatever you want."

"Whatever I want." He narrows his eyes at him.

Sungyeol nods.

"You do understand that even if I like it, I'm going to pretend I don't."

"I'm going to know if you like it by the face you make, and I'm definitely not going to spend the night— sleep in the same room with a guy who doesn't like sweets."

He squints his eyes at him for another minute or so, then clicks his tongue.

Sungyeol is ready and out of the door within a moment, but Myungsoo takes his time, at first he washes his face because he feels hot, then he also relives himself. by the time he appears at the door to put on his slippers, Sungyeol feels obligated to comment; "Just how many gallons of water can your bladder store? I was standing here, thinking I'm listening to the Niagara falls."

"Har-har." Myungsoo gives him a bitter smile. "Wait— forgot my wallet." He noisily takes it off the stand, then closes the door after himself.

By the time Sungyeol ingests that he also forgot his wallet - and his key-card, for the matter, the door is slammed shut in front of them.

"I forgot my wallet, too." He says.

Myungsoo stares at him expectedly. Sungyeol stares at him back.

"Well — open the door."

"I don't have the key-card with me."

"What do you mean you don't have the key-card with you?"

"Just open it with yours—"

Myungsoo is scratching his hair. "I kind of didn't bring mine either."

"Seriously?!"

Myungsoo makes a face.

Sungyeol snorts then attempts to open the door a few times but it won't budge.  He remembers vaguely that he's been watching some movie, where one of the detectives lifted a hotel door a bit, and it easily opened. He tries to do just that, but the door won't even move from its place.

"What are you doing?" Myungsoo asks, trying his best not to laugh.

"I saw this in a movie — It should work."

"There is no way it'll work if you saw it in a movie."

Sungyeol makes a face at him, then flicks his forehead; "Hey, instead of just standing there, the least you can do is help."

"Well what the hell do you want me to do? To push the door and wait for it to budge? You do know this hotel prides himself in its security, right?"

"Do you have some cards in your wallet?"

"Yes — Wait, are we going to try to put them through the door? Did you hear what I just said? You do know it's a prestige hotel, yeah? There's no way they'd let just any card work."

"That's exactly why they'd let any card work! Because the population here is classy, nobody would even think about stealing."

Myungsoo is somewhere between amazed and frustrated, he fishes out his wallet from his pocket, then hands it to Sungyeol.

It's a gym membership card. Sungyeol puts it through the electronic lock.

"It's too small... it won't even read it. I need another one."

"Let me try." Myungsoo pushes him out of the way and tried swiping it a few times, when it doesn't work, he fishes another card.

A credit card.

A black credit card.

"Dude, you own a black visa?"

"Yes?" He tries to push it in, but it won't fit.

"Why?"

"Because I need a credit card?"

"Yeah, but that's like rich people's credit card."

Myungsoo snorts - then huffs when the card finally gets stuffed into the hole.

The little strip of light flashes red. "Told you so."

Sungyeol pushes him out of spite which makes him snort. He struggles with getting it out. "Let me," Sungyeol tries to help, but it's really stuck in there. Myungsoo puts his hand on top of Sungyeol, and tries to help him pull it out.

His hand is a bit sweaty and warm.

Sungyeol bites onto his lip, but then suddenly something snaps and both of them are sent flying onto the carpeted floor of the hallway.

For a moment Sungyeol thinks they got it out, but what he has in his hand is only half of the card.

Sungyeol stares at it in horror, then looks up to see Myungsoo staring at it horror.

When Myungsoo looks up to him, Sungyeol is already puffing his cheeks trying not to laugh.

Myungsoo shoves him, trying to seem serious about it, but there's this weird half laugh; "You broke my credit card, dickhead."

"First of all, we broke it together."

"You were the one who suggested it!"

"You didn't actually have to do it!"

Myungsoo shoves him again and Sungyeol shoves him back. They mock fight for a minute or so on the floor like two giggling idiots, probably because they're drunk, until someone finally passes by them, giving them a weird look.

 

 

.

 

They spend about 15 minutes arguing over what they're going to tell the clerk, so it won't sound as lame as it looks, but the moment they arrive at the desk, Myungsoo opens his dirty little mouth and says; "This guy shoved my visa into the keycard lock and broke it. Now we can't get into our room." To which he gets hit up his head, and then he starts giggling again; "I would also like to report abuse."

The clerk is an older fellow in his 50s with glasses, and he's clearly not amused.

Sungyeol clears his throat, and tries to appear sober and leans down the desk; "Look, it was an unfortunate accident. We forgot our keycards in the room... could you please send someone to fix our door."

"Room number?"

"403."

The guy clicks a few times, then looks back at them. "That's a VIP room." He says, glancing at them, almost as if there's no way the two of them would be VIP.

"Oh... um... they had some sort of mix up with our rooms... so they upgraded us to VIP."

"We are very very very important people. Very." Myungsoo interjects, nodding his head  every time he says 'very'.

Sungyeol pinches him on the elbow so he'll stop, so Myungsoo pinches his . He slaps his hand.

The man clears his throat, to catch their attention; "What sort of a mix up...?" At this point, he seems rather wary of their situation.

"Look, I get it, we don't look like the guests you're used to. But we can't enter into our room, and we really need to... because... we have to sleep there and stuff."

"We were being adventurous and spontaneous and we were going to buy ice-cream in the middle of night and I was going to dare him to—" Myungsoo is rather talkative when drunk, apparently. Sungyeol clamps his hand to his mouth to make him stop talking.

"Can't we just go back to our—" He bites his hand and Sungyeol immediately removes it and waves it around frantically; "You dip—?! What the hell! What if you have rabies... or malaria or something? Now I'm going to have malaria!"

"You're going to suffer slight retardation - but I'm positive you'll handle it since you already have some." Myungsoo turns to the clerk, and clears his throat. "Now, listen here." His tone sounds rather authoritative. "I paid good money for this hotel and up until now I was treated like some poor homeless. Except for the wine which was sort of okay, but honestly that's just not how I pictured my dream vacation."

"You tell him," Sungyeol encourages, still nursing his bitten hand.

"Now, please, have someone open our door before I go online and mark this hotel with one star and tell everybody online about your ty service."

"Yeah, he has a black visa card!" Sungyeol assists Myungsoo with his argument. "Well... he had a black visa card..." He puts the broken piece of card onto the table, which makes Myungsoo snort in that weird little way from the back of his throat until he bites his lower lip, trying to appear serious and sober again.

The man takes a large inhale. "What name is the room registered to?"

"Kim Myungsoo."

The man crosses his hands on his chest. "That's not the name."

"Oh... then... probably Lee Sungyeol," Sungyeol tries, thinking that their names might overlap.

He furrows his eyebrows at the two of them, and Sungyeol realizes they look like two drunk idiots trying to land a free night at a hotel.

"Can I have your identifications please?"

"I don't have any! I left everything in the room..."

"What about the payment method you used?"

Obviously Myungsoo is out of the question because his credit card is in two.

"Well... actually my friend paid for the rooms... You can call him he's staying a room next to ours. Room number 405."

"I would not disturb any of our customers so late at night."

"Well maybe the room is written over my friend please check! His name is Kim Sung—"

"This is outrageous!" Myungsoo bangs on the counter, voice turning a bit high-pitched; "Just what kind of a hotel is this?!"

"Sir, calm down immediately before I call security!"

"Yeah you call security! You call them and I will shove their stinking—"

 

.

 

"Well, then." Sungyeol clears his throat. "We are not eating ice-cream."

They've been sitting on one of the benches that overlooks the hotel for five long minutes now after security shoves their sorry asses out on the street, promising to call the police if they return.

The opening must have been finished, because Sungyeol hears the sound of fireworks not too far from here, and there's crowds of people on the street, smiling, tired faces returning home for the night.

"Well, then." Myungsoo repeats after him. "Somehow the situation is funny, but I can't find myself laughing."

"I could've handled him you know. You didn't have to go all 'pressed drunk customer' on his face."

"You didn't have to break my credit card, either. Now we can't even buy accommodation someplace else."

"How much money do you have?"

Myungsoo opens his black wallet, and Sungyeol leans his head so he could see, and they bump heads.

"Could you please stop crushing into everything I do?"

"This one was on you because your head is big."

"My head is not big, your head is gigantic. Along with your ."

"Excuse me?"

"You're excused."

He chuckles; "Idiot."

"Jerk."

"I have 10,000 won."

"What can we do with 10,000 won?"

"Buy a large ice-cream cup, and some beer."

"Maybe a jjimjilbang?"

"Well... if only one of us goes in, but we don't have any towels or anything... and can't afford to buy there so what's the use..."

"How can you go around with nothing in your wallet?!"

"I was planning to take out money from the ATM tomorrow morning!" Myungsoo takes a large inhale. "I have another credit card in my camera case—"

"—But, it's in the room."

"Yes."  Myungsoo nibbles at his lower lip.

Sungyeol takes a large sigh and looks back at the hotel. You can see right away that it's not your average hotel. It has an air of prestige with it. Figures for Woohyun and Sunggyu it'd be perfect.

Sungyeol is more the kind to be fine with smaller pleasures and be satisfied with less - but Sunggyu and Woohyun dream big , buy big and go vacationing big, apparently. No wonder they suit each other.

It's alright because he has saved up especially for this.

As you look up, the architecture gets more impressive. There's this weird triangle shape; the upper floors seem larger, with balconies. Surely that's where the suites are. He heard the inner pool and the spa facilities are on the last floors, which gives people lounging there a good view of the city.

Along with that, and the price of the hotel - you'd think they'd be a bit more careful with the way they're handling their customers. As if a bunch of wine and an attendant could make their mistakes go away— "Wait a minute!" Sungyeol jumps up. "We have an attendant, right? He saw our faces, he knows we reside a hotel... so let's just call him!"

Myungsoo leans back on the bench, somewhat amused; "How are you going to do that, genius...? Do you have a phone?"

"Well... no. But I'm sure a kind soul on street would love to volunteer their phone for two handsome guys in a pinch."

"Do you know his number?"

" I put his card into my pocket—" Sungyeol shoves his hand into his pocket; "Into my other pants, of course." He plops back next to Myungsoo.

"Any other brilliant ideas?"

"I don't get what are all cocky and bitter about. We need to come up with some plausible plan to get back to our room... unless you want to spend the entire night outside?"

He clicks his tongue. "Well, what would you have me do? Rob a bank? Climb to our window and open the door from there?"

Myungsoo frowns when Sungyeol's face lights up. "No! There is no way you're going to climb to the third floor without getting noticed - besides, it's all glass. Unless you're suggesting to do it with toilet pumps—stop pretending everything I say is a brilliant idea, it's not, I was being sarcastic!"

 

.

 

 

"You know, I don't know if it's the alcohol wearing off, but you seem so much less attractive right now."

"You're just saying that because you can't actually see my face— Hey, keep steady damn it, I can't see anything!"

Myungsoo's struggling with keeping Sungyeol's weight on his shoulders.

They've been standing in some alleyway, right near the hotel's large dumpsters, right next to the walls of the hotel's grounds. From what Sungyeol can see there's an electricity closet right underneath, which is the perfect place to pass through, all he needs is to naturalize the camera that is set on watching the outside pool. As far as he can tell this was the only one - probably for the privacy of their customers.

"You're not allowed to complain, Sungyeol, you don't have my crotch touching the back of your head."

Sungyeol pulls his ear in contempt; "To think that for someone with the size of your arms, you could stand handle a weight of one skinny man—"

"Well, maybe you're not as skinny as you look!"

Sungyeol snorts, and just as he does, something in the camera he's holding snaps. It makes some noises underneath Sungyeol's hand, but the red button still glows, which means it won't move anymore and won't film them sneaking in as long as they sneak past it's range of sight.

Sungyeol fiddled with one of those before. Back when he and Woohyun were troublemakers at school. After getting caught a few times, you learn that the best way to make trouble - is to be smart.

"Well, that's it. Lift me up a bit more."

"You've got to be kidding me—" Although he says that, he still manages to lift Sungyeol up a little, until he can easily grab onto the cement of the wall and jump atop it.

It takes him awhile to turn around, and find the electricity closet to stand on. When he feels in a secure place and not about to fall off, he reaches out to Myungsoo.

He's standing there below, hesitating. "Can't you just... go find your friends and let them handle this mess? I'll wait for you here."

"You're such a ."

"And you're some sort of a criminal!"

"Quit being a wuss and climb up," Sungyeol urges.

"What is it that you said you do with your life again? Rob houses?"

Sungyeol makes a face at him, which makes him snort. "I have never been threatened with jail in my entire life."

"Come on."

Myungsoo shrugs his shoulders like a scolded child.

"Idiot, who says we're going to jail?!" Sungyeol raises his tone, then looks behind him, to see if somebody was coming for the broken camera. Usually in a fancy hotel such as this, their time slot wasn't very big. Somebody was bound to notice the camera isn't moving and come check it out.

"Well, we're kind of trespassing? Or is climbing walls and breaking cameras an everyday thing for you...?"

Sungyeol rolls his eyes, and reaches down his hands again; "We paid for this vacation, need I remind you? Are you seriously going to let the money you spent just go down the drain? We are going to find Sunggyu and he's going to fix everything. This pales in front of the messes me and Woohyun sometimes get into. But chances are he won't move his lazy until tomorrow morning. What are you going to do then?  Sleep on the bench?"

"Well... it's better than sleeping behind bars. On a dirty mat. With cockroaches. And other criminals. Just waiting for you to go to bed so they can pick pocket you."

"Yeah, I'm sure they will have so much fun with your 10,000 won. They'll party all night long with the money in your wallet!"

"I have other important stuff there!" Myungsoo argues.

"Come on, already!" Sungyeol opens and closes both of his palms a few times, in an attempt to urge him further; "The guards are going to check what's going on with the camera any minute now, you wimp."

Myungsoo reaches out reluctantly.

His palms are a little sweaty, and his hand is a bit smaller than what Sungyeol expected it to be in his. He's unexpectedly heavy - than again, Sungyeol never lifted a grown man up before.

Myungsoo tries to climb up using his feet on the bricks, but the gapes between the bricks are small and he's wearing slippers.

After a few huffing and puffing, he just gives up.

"That's it, I'm done."

"Quitter."

"Shut up."

"Loser."

"Why am I even listening to you?!"

"Because!"

"Because what?"

"Stop annoying me and climb up the god damn wall, Myungsoo, or else, I swear to god, I will go down, and I will kick your pretty little ."

Myungsoo raises an eyebrow at him, squinting his eyes as he crosses his arms on his chest.

"I am drunk and— don't test me." Sungyeol continues.

"I can't climb up! Do you expect me to fly over?"

"Okay, jump up and I'll catch you by your shorts."

"How do you see that plan working?!"

"Just do it!"

The second attempt is just as pathetic, but on the third, Sungyeol clutches onto Myungsoo's shirt, and won't let go. Sungyeol can actually hear it tearing a bit. At some point Myungsoo curses because he probably can't breathe and tries to slap his hand away, but Sungyeol catches his other hand, intertwines their finger, for a better grip, and pulls as hard as he can.

He pulls so hard, that when Myungsoo's slippers finally find a good brick to stand on, he sort of springs up, and sends Sungyeol - and himself, flying off the wall.

Thankfully they land on a batch of low decorative bushes.

Sungyeol groans. This is definitely going to hurt tomorrow. His heart is speeding up from fright, and his entire backside hurts.

He glances at Myungsoo, who - thankfully - didn't land on top of him, but landed face first on the bush.

He sputters, , before raising to his knees.

"I think I broke my hands." He says, hissing when he checks to see if everything is functioning. He got a few scratches on the back of his forearms and a bigger scratch on his chin.

"I think I broke my ." Sungyeol returns.

Myungsoo glances at him and chuckles; "Unlikely. You can't break something that doesn't exist." He stands up, slightly wincing at the pain, and offers Sungyeol his hand.

"Was that an attack on the size of my —"  Sungyeol hisses when he takes Myungsoo hand.

It hurts to move his elbow. It doesn't seem to be dislocated or broken, but just really hurts.

Myungsoo frowns at his expression and looks down to his arm.

He checks it carefully, then looks back at Sungyeol's face.

"It's fine." Sungyeol brushes him off.

"Now we also need to go to the hospital."

Sungyeol looks around.

The outdoor pool is lighted nicely. There's also the garden on which they landed, that looks well kept, with many planets and flowers.

Sungyeol looks back on the bushes they just destroyed.

"Let's go before security comes."

Myungsoo nods, eyebrows still furrowed. "I can't believe we actually did that."

They keep close to the wall, in the garden, because there might be cameras. The garden is dark where the pool lights and the lights of the street behind the wall disappear.

There's just plants, and what appears to be a romantic pergola above the cement road, overgrown by vines.

There's some seating areas, too.

"Just two criminals, wrecking havoc in a hotel!" Sungyeol giggles maliciously in return. "They're going to do a movie about us!"

"That's not going to be a very interesting movie."

"Well, it will be... if we... for example kill the rude hotel clerk."

"And the security guards."

"We should just kill everybody and barricade ourselves inside and demand stuff when the cops come in exchange for hostages—"

There's a yelp, and some rustling from nearby.

Sungyeol looks around, but can't detect anything in the darkness of the garden. Why hadn't they put some lights in here.

It's creepy. "What was that?"

"Probably whimpering guests running out of your way, since you're about to kill everybody."

Myungsoo's arm brushes his in the darkness, and Sungyeol hits him for scaring him. Myungsoo hits him back.

"Idiot."

"How would I know that you're not some sort of a spider or a cockroach?"

"You're the only cockroach here."

"Then you're the spider?"

"You can be the spider with all your long limbs."

"Then you can be the slimy, disgusting cockroach, unloved and mocked by society."

Myungsoo snorts, just as they reach glass doors. There's light inside, although the glass is darkened.

Myungsoo pushes them opened.

It's an empty dining room.

All the stands are now free of food, the tables are completely bare, and chairs stocked one upon another.

It's themed red and wooden, and looks very prestige, along with the one sided windows that lead to the outdoor pool and the garden.

Sungyeol can easily find the spot they landed on, and gulps. Good thing there's nobody here.

The lights are coming off from a far away wall.

"I wish I had my camera." Myungsoo says.

Sungyeol glances at him briefly before looking back. He's right, in a way. Somehow, during the night it looks so much more different than it could've looked during the day. Abandoned dining room.

"Come on," He instructs, upon locating the 'Staff Only' door.

"Seriously? can't we go through the normal doors—"

"And risk the people in the lobby finding us?"

Myungsoo bobs his head left and right, "Point taken."

That door leads to a long narrowed hallway, there's doorways to different areas of the hotel. Conference rooms, shady looking stairways.

At first, they go into a facility of some kind with generators inside. It's hot in there, practically stifling. Sungyeol is sure that this is the way to the service elevators, but after roaming a bit in the maze of tubes and machines and working up a sweat, they decide to turn back before they get lost. (Well, actually, Myungsoo just tells him that he's done with his and that he's sweaty and wants to go back).

Once they're back to the hallway, they just continue on it. There's scattered trays and trolleys for awhile, and then they actually hear a bit of civilization; chatter, clinking, and the smell of food.

Just as Sungyeol sniffs the air, somebody comes out into the hallway from one of the doors. He almost doesn't notice them, but when he does, he blinks.

"Uh... we got lost. Which way is to the rooms?"

The man sighs as if it's not the first time or the last, then points behind him; "There's a service elevator up there, just press on your floor number, and head out of the door that says your floor. Do not go into the service tunnels."

They both bow to him as thanks. Sungyeol tries to catch a glimpse of the kitchen, but there's no windows on the doors, and the man is already watching him, so he doesn't dare to peek inside.

Around another minute or so of walking, they eventually find the service elevators. But they don't find them alone.

A security guard is waiting for the elevator, he came from another service tunnel.

Sungyeol gulps, and Myungsoo immediately turns to bolt, but he already noticed them. Sungyeol holds him by the collar.

"We got lost!" Sungyeol immediately explains, even though the man didn't ask.

Perhaps it was unnecessary to exclaim it so loudly, and it probably doesn't look like that; they're both scratched, sweaty and there's some dirt and dried leaves on them, and Myungsoo's chin is bleeding.

The man nods slowly, though narrows his eyes at them.

Sungyeol nods back, then drags Myungsoo by the hand to the elevator.

When he tries to release his hand, Sungyeol glares at him, to which Myungsoo glares back and also gestures the way they came from.

Sungyeol feigns a cough, so he can mask the word; "."

And in return Myungsoo fakes a cough, while mattering; "Screw you." - which isn't all that very well faked, and is loud and clear.

The elevator arrives and the security guard comes in after them. He crosses his arms on his chest, and raises his chin.

Sungyeol is just standing there watching how big he is, until he opens his mouth and says; "Well?" in a low, bass voice. "What floor are you from?"

"Floor number 3." Sungyeol waits for another two seconds, until the doors finally close, and then Myungsoo tugs his t-shirt, and he steps up to the panel and presses the third floor.

He nods to the security guard.

Somehow he isn't impressed. "Are you going to us to our room? How kind of you."

He narrows his eyes further.

"This hotel, honestly, such service."

"Shut up, Sungyeol." Myungsoo takes a large inhale.

"If only you would look less suspicious in your ugly pants."

"What's wrong with my pants?"

"Nothing."

"This is all because you wanted ice-cream—" The elevator dings again and the doors open.

Sungyeol gulps and gets out, Myungsoo towing closely after him, holding painfully onto his wrist.

As they reach the door, he turns around to the security guard; "We're good from here. Thank you."

Yet again, the big guy nods.

They walk out to the carpeted, fancy hallway. It's well lighted, and smells good, and seems to have a nice AC. Sungyeol almost forgot that they were actually staying here.

"You made him even more suspicious!"

"You're such a scardy cat, Myungsoo. It's fine."

Myungsoo looks back, then immediately returns his gaze to the front; ", he's standing there. What are we going to do? We can't enter the room."

Sungyeol picks up their pace. So many rooms. 321, 319... their rooms are closer to the main elevators. "Is he following us?" He whispers back.

"I don't know, if we look back again, it'd look suspicious."

Sungyeol looks back.

He's following them, though with a very slow pace.

Myungsoo hits him up the head for looking.

Sungyeol hits him back.

"Why are you so abusive?"

"You hit me first!"

Sungyeol looks back again, the guard quickened his pace.

Sungyeol bites his lip; "Okay, there's about ten more rooms to go, we are going to run right now—"

"Then he'll definitely—"

"Yes, but if he catches us, he won't let us disturb any of the rooms and we won't be able to get Sunggyu, so just run."

"Why are you so well informed in what to do in these situations—"

Sungyeol starts running before the guard will decide to do that before them. Myungsoo's hand that was clutching onto his wrist, slips down to hold onto his hand.

They reach to Sunggyu and Woohyun's room in no time, and Sungyeol can hear the heavy running of the guard behind them.

He knocks on the door multiple times, calling for both Sunggyu and Woohyun, but the guard catches them by the back of their collars, and easily drags them away from the door.

"Sunggyu, god damn it, open the damn door!" Sungyeol tries one last time, kicking it.

Those s better didn't decide to go out on a evening walk.

The guard gives them both disapproving, long glare, before taking out his walkie-talkie; "This is 701. I got a few hooligans on third floor. Please send security chief Hoya to them to the nearest police station, over."

"Look this is our room—"

Before Myungsoo can utter another word, the door of room 405 is burst opened; "What is it Sungyeol, it's like one am..." Sunggyu is standing there in the hotel's bathrobe, but trails off when he sees the large security guard holding onto them.

"I'm sorry for the disturbance, sir. These people will be removed immediately—"

Sunggyu groans, the way he always does when Sungyeol and Woohyun get into trouble and rubs his nape; "What did you break?! You know this hotel is expensive, right? I'm not paying for you. Literally neither you and Woohyun can be trusted to stay alone! Like two children unsupervised!"

"I didn't do anything!" Woohyun returns from the room. "At least not today!"

Sungyeol makes a face; "Could you stop nagging and explain Mr. Hulk, here, that we're staying at this hotel?"

The guard looks displeased at the nickname, but pointedly waits for Sunggyu's approval. 

Sunggyu sighs; "Yeah, I vaguely remembering tagging this one along to my vacation... His room is right there." He points at Sungyeol, then nods to the left, where the room is located. The guard's grip on his shirt loosens and Sungyeol immediately runs behind Sunggyu. After that Sunggyu squints at Myungsoo, as if he really needs to remember if he brought him along as well; "Nope, this one isn't familiar."

"No, this is Myungsoo, he's with me, we're cool." Sungyeol takes Myungsoo by the hand and pulls at him, which makes the man release his clutches on him as well.

"Are you sure they're not harassing you, sir? Don't feel threatened—"

"The only thing that feels threatened right now is the amount of sleeping hours I'm not having. What did they do?" Sunggyu shows interest, either because he vaguely interested, either because he just wants to find out the damage he'll have to pay for.

Sungyeol turns around to show the security guard his tongue, which makes him scowl further at him. He haughtily looks back to the room. It's dark and there's like the light of Woohyun's phone.

He opens the lights.

Woohyun is playing something on the bed. He briefly glances at them, before going back to his game, but then what he saw registers, and he drops his phone.

"What the hell happened to you?!" He's somewhere between amazed and shocked. His wide eyes flick between Myungsoo and Sungyeol. Sungyeol looks back at Myungsoo.

Now that he sees him under the normal lamp light, his shirt looks messed up, there's both dirt and sweaty spots on it, his pants are torn on his knee. There's some blood on his neck and on his chin.

"Come on, I'll patch up your chin."

Myungsoo makes a face, and he looks like a kid who got into a fist fight.

He follows him into the bathroom, patting his chin, as if he doesn't understand what's the matter with his it.

"Sungyeol...?" Woohyun stands up, unsatisfied that he didn't get an answer; "What did you do...?"

Sungyeol closes the door on his face, because he knows that in a minute's time Sunggyu and Woohyun are going to overload him with questions, and he still didn't catch his breath from running and feels like crushing into the tub and going to sleep.

The first aid kit is in the first drawer underneath the sink.

It's actually quite poor. There's not much there beside a few bandages and plasters of different sizes.

Thankfully, Woohyun brought an entire bag of cosmetics, and Sungyeol takes a few cotton pads.

Myungsoo sinks on the toilet, leaning his head back. "I really want to sleep now."

"Yeah me too." He agrees, though a bit distracted by applying some of the fancy soap bottles into it. 

"Do you even know my last name?"

Sungyeol turns around to him; "What?"

"Do you know my last name?"

"Yeah, it's Kim."

Myungsoo snorts, looking onto him and has that strange lazy smile face on his face. "I am never—Aw, what the hell!" He slaps his hand off of his chin.

"Dude, it's full of dirt and god knows what were in these bushes. We need to sanitize it. My mom is a nurse. I know what I'm doing."

"How is your mom being a nurse even means— You know what, fine. I'm not asking questions anymore."

"As you should've done from the start. Could've avoided all those bad stuff we got into. Just admit me as your Lord and Sheppard."

Myungsoo snorts; "Along with all the bat- craziness that was going around tonight, we also started a new religion. Nice—"  He hisses when Sungyeol continues to dab the cotton on the bruise; the dried blood and the dirt goes right away, along with the blood. The wound isn't very big, just scratches. Sungyeol uses the back on the cotton to take off the blood that trickled on his chin. There's some on the collar of his shirt, but since his shirt is black, you can barely notice it.

His skin is smooth.

His Adam's apple moves when he swallows suddenly, and Sungyeol flicks his eyes to his.

He's staring at him, with a little arrogant smirk on his lip.

"What?"

"Nothing, Nurse Lee, please finish because I want to just wash my face and go to bed."

Sungyeol makes a face at him and goes back to his first aid kid. He notices there's a few plasters for kids, with cute colorful fish design, and shows it to Myungsoo.

"Look what I found for our brave patient!"

"Seriously?"

"Yes." Sungyeol puts it on Myungsoo's chin, careful not to cause too much pain. He stretches it, so it won't fall down from the first frown he's going to make. "There you go. All done. You should also receive a lollipop for your bravery." Sungyeol jokes, remembering how his mom always keeps a stock of these for young children.

Myungsoo pointedly stares at his crotch; "Well..."

Sungyeol turns away, somewhat embarrassed and somewhat flattered; "You are so bad at coming on to me, literally everything you do is wrong." He washes his face with some soap and water, and also his hands. He notices he also scratched the back on his hands. His shirt is full of dirt.

"Really? Everything?"

"Yeah."

"Give me some tips, I can improve myself."

"That just screams desperate." He opens the door and walks out, just in time to see Woohyun and Sunggyu arguing and then silencing upon seeing him.

Sunggyu squints his eyes at him until they disappear. "Care to explain what's going on? And who is that... in there?" He glances at Myungsoo behind him, who is just finished rinsing his face. Before Sungyeol can even finish he continues; "Are you starting to reproduce? Multiply? Because one handsome mastermind is enough for our gang. There's no new job openings."

"Hey, I'm also an evil handsome mastermind." Woohyun didn't even bother wearing pants or anything, he's just sitting there in his boxers, as close as possible to Sunggyu as he would have it, and he looks glowing.

Sungyeol doesn't remember the last time he saw Woohyun so happy.

"Shush, Woohyun, I'm talking." Sunggyu also seems to enjoy the situation because finally everything is under his control. "As I was saying, I want an explanation. Also, why is there a credit card stuck inside the door lock of your room? Where are you going to sleep? I don't think they'll send a technician any time soon, it's one thirty in the morning."

Sungyeol puts a finger inside his ear. "Quit nagging, will you? We're going to sleep here."

"We?"

"Yes, me and Myungsoo. This is Myungsoo by the way. He's an oversized cockroach."

After trying to pinch him on the arm, Myungsoo bows a little, as an introduction, but seems awkward and uncomfortable by the situation. Sungyeol doesn't blame him.

"Ah-huh." Sunggyu sighs; "How much did you have to drink?"

"Enough." Sungyeol answers.

"Why are you all in bruises and cuts, then?"

"Look, we had a really long night, we really want to sleep. I will tell you everything, in details, tomorrow, so you and Woohyun can piss your pants laughing at how ridiculous my miserable life is."

 

.

 

Opening one of the armchairs to a bed is a piece of cake, but Sungyeol realizes the original futon is actually quite small, and the mattress their attendant brought sure made it seem bigger and comfortable, but this will do.

At this point, all he wants is the survive the night. It feels like a year passed since they arrived at the register up until now.

Woohyun closes the lights, and Sungyeol plops on the pillow and takes a large inhale.

He can hear the AC working.

Myungsoo takes off his shirt, and settles right beside him. It's actually scarily close. Sungyeol can feel his breathe across the skin of his neck and it's making him uncomfortable.

Also, he smells like shrimp-in-butter-garlic.

"I wish you could brush your teeth." He whispers.

"I wish you had a turn off button." Myungsoo whispers back.

 "I do have one."

"If it's hitting you on the head with something heavy, I'd have to refuse. You know my opinion about jail."

Sungyeol pinches him under the sheet Sunggyu provided as a blanket. "No, I have another one."

Myungsoo snorts; "Where?"

Sungyeol tries not the burst out laughing because he thinks the joke is funny; "On my..." His laughter causes Myungsoo to chuckle as well; "On my lips. Turn me off with a kiss."

"Wow, okay." Myungsoo says. "I guess you're still a little drunk."

"Hey, I was trying to fail at flirting. Just like you. Didn't you get the joke?"

"I understand why you said I'm turning you off. Point taken."

Sungyeol turns to him, so he could face him instead of the ceiling. "If we are going to be friends, we are never drinking again together."

"Agreed," Myungsoo says. "But just for the record, I don't think we're not going to be friends."

"Why not?"

"Because I can tell how you're looking at me."

Sungyeol feels his cheeks tint, and a rush down his belly; "How I'm looking at you? Don't delude yourself. You're the one with the suggestive staring."

"But if I'm looking at you and you're looking at me, that should mean something."

"I am never going to kiss you because I'll forever remember the smell of shrimps—" He puts his hand on his mouth to cover his laughter again; "—Coming out of your mouth..."

"Why are you even laughing?"

"Why are you laughing?"

"Hey, keep it down or go sleep in the hallway!" Sunggyu calls out.

Sungyeol bites his lower lip.

He can vaguely see Myungsoo closing his eyes, and taking a large inhale again.

There's some shuffling from the bed beside theirs. More shuffling. A low whine.

Myungsoo opens his eyes abruptly and raises his head to check the other bed, before putting it back on the pillow.

A couple of strange sounds later, and he whispers; "Are they having ?"

Sungyeol makes a face, and calls out; "Are you guys having ? Because that is not okay while we're in the room. Even if the lights are closed. Also gives a really bad impression on a new friend."

"We are not having ! Some people actually go to bed at 2 o'clock in the morning and not giggle in the corner like two demon children!" Sunggyu sounds angry, which means he's about to snap.

"What were those noises, then...?"

"I was trying to score an high-score in my game! Alright?!" Woohyun half laughs, voice breaking in mid-sentence; "I'm almost 2 billion in. It makes weird noises sometimes." Woohyun returns.

"Is that what you were playing for the last two hours?! I thought you were having weird digestive problems!" Sunggyu sounds even more upset. "Give me that!"

Woohyun and Sunggyu fight for the iphone for over two minutes, during which Sungyeol mostly laughs into his palm.

After Sunggyu wins, he nearly screams; "Goodnight." As if to make it official that they are going to sleep.

Sungyeol tries to adjust his pillow a little, but Myungsoo is on the other side of it, so it's a bit impossible.

"Your friends seem fun."

"Wait until they get hostile. They have more misunderstandings than the script of a low-budget soap opera."

Myungsoo snorts. "Then we are a low-budget action series that has lame car-chases."

"Dude, don't compare us to them. We're definitely more classy. We're at least... like... a large-scale Hollywood movie. With a lot of unexplained explosions."

"And a really hot love scene. We should have that in our movie."

Sungyeol pushes Myungsoo, out of spite, but he almost falls over the edge of the futon; thankfully he holds onto Sungyeol's shirt just in time.

"Can you seriously stop abusing me?!" Myungsoo half whispers to which Sungyeol answers to by more muffled snickering.

"Why didn't you say I'm hogging the entire bed?" He shifts back a little.

Myungsoo scoots closer and adjusts the make-shift blanket onto his bare shoulder - but apparently he scooted way too close because when he raises his head up he almost hits Sungyeol's jaw.

"That was close."

"It was only evaded due to my insane instincts." He gloats, the hand that was touching his shirt travels down Sungyeol's waist.

Sungyeol makes a face, through he's not sure if Myungsoo sees it in the darkness.

"How come your insane instincts didn't help you climbing on a wall?" Sungyeol shifts a little and one of his legs touches Myungsoo's.

"Well, you have cold spidery legs."

Sungyeol slaps Myungsoo's hand from his waist. "And you get your big cockroach-ish paws off me."

"What was that? What did you say? I seem to have missed the 'roach' and that sounds inappropriate. Shame on you, Sungyeol."

"Oh, so now you also have selective hearing?"

"I always had selective hearing."

"And to think that I gotten to know you this past few hours! Now your true self is revealed."

"Well you already sat on my face so I guess you feel like we're really familiar—"

"No, I sat on the back of your shoulders, not on your face."

"That's not how I remember it—"

"You also have selective memory, then. You should check that."

"—So... are you two aware that we're still in the room?" Woohyun asks from his side of the room; "Not that I mind, since the conversation is interesting."

"We're aware, thank you very much." Sungyeol answers.

"Go to bed, already..." Sunggyu whines.

"Close your ears, if you don't like it."

"FYI, Sungyeol, what a strange coincidence that you hook up on the same time as I hook up with Sunggyu." Woohyun comments.

 

That really presses on all the wrong buttons, he sits up abruptly; "I'm not hooking up with anybody. I don't even know the guy."

Myungsoo clears his throat.

"While you were partying in here, I got myself a roommate, because this vacation couldn't possibly get more wrong, the hotel did a mistake and booked the room twice."

"Do you seriously want me to believe that?"

"Ugh, yes, because that's what happened...?"

"Please—"

"Actually that is what happened." Myungsoo interjects. "Then they also upgraded us to VIP as an apology."

"And FYI, Woohyun, I should be the one upset here, because last week you were buttering me up about how we're going to hook up with girls and be each other's wingmen. If I knew this is how it is going to get played out, I would've stayed home."

Woohyun also sits up in his bed, and also flips the blanket away from him; "Oh, no, you don't. You are such a brat. I didn't even want to come here, you dragged me into it—"

"I might have used my persuasion skills at first, but then you actually got me and yourself excited about going—"

"Obviously I was going to come, because Sunggyu is coming—"

"You said you didn't want to come because Sunggyu is coming!"

"Yes, but you knew I liked him! I liked him for over three years now! Even some of the professors at the university know that I like him."

There's a small "What?" coming from Sunggyu's side of the bed.

"You must have at least prepared yourself for the possibility of this happening." Woohyun adds.

"What?! No, I didn't — you never told me anything!"

"You are my best friend, you should've noticed on your own!"

"Great, Woohyun. I'm happy that you think I have telepathy. And you know what, yes I did notice. But even if did, it doesn't mean that I am not upset about you hooking up on the one time we actually go on a vacation, the three of us. But FYI, I am still happy for you, even though I'm upset - but honestly, you are in no position to judge me, and frankly, after I climbed up a damn wall to get to you, I except at least to go to bed in peace—"

There's a bright flash, and Sungyeol immediately covers his eyes.

When he is ready to face the room again, he understands Sunggyu just opened the lights.

He's standing there with his hands crossed on his chest.

"I do not care who wronged who, fact stands that I am trying to go asleep, and I couldn't give a rat's about what is going on here. If you can't stop your idiotic giggling with your new friend or fighting about crap - that means you too, Woohyun - you will go out of that door and won't come back. Am I clear?"

 

 

.

 

"Well that went brilliantly." Myungsoo looks disapproving when he struggles with putting his shirt back on.

They're standing once again in the hallway, after Sunggyu yelled 'come back when you sobered up'.

It's because after Sungyeol had already agreed to stay quiet, and the lights was off, Myungsoo made him laugh again.

"It's your fault."

"How am I at fault that you laugh from everything I say?" Although he says that, he looks rather accomplished.

Sungyeol takes a large sigh.

"Now what?"

He still got the silly plaster on his chin and it makes him lose all seriousness he tries to emit.

Rather than serious, he just looks tired and unsatisfied.

He already managed to achieve a messy just-out-of-bed hair and Sungyeol kills down the urge to plaster it back.

"Well?" He pushes at Sungyeol chest and the corners of his mouth curl up slightly; "I know I'm handsome... but without my beauty sleep I lose all my charm."

"What charm, Myungsoo? Beside that annoying dimple that could be considered charming, under the right light."

Myungsoo snorts.

Sungyeol nibbles at his lower lip. He feels like he spent more time in the hallway than in the room itself.

"There's loungers by the pool but it's chilly outside—There's a pool on the last floor... Maybe they have loungers there, too."

Myungsoo looks somewhat perplexed for a moment; "You're really resourceful. They should really make a movie about you. You're like Bruce Willis, except you're the terrorist."

"I'll take it as a compliment."

"You should. What if the pool is closed?"

"Like that stopped us before."

That makes Myungsoo laugh.

They make their way upstairs almost in complete silence. Myungsoo sighs as he leans on the elevator walls and continues to stare at him, eyes glazed with sleep.

Sungyeol stares back at him, not sure what he should say.

The buzz in his head is somehow dying down, and now he understand that he is at fault here. He was the one who wanted to buy ice-cream. He was partly his fault for getting kicked out of the room after they already had a bed and everything.

In fact, most of what happened tonight is his fault.

Myungsoo doesn't even know him or his friends and it probably was one heck of an awkward night for him.

Somehow he feels weird and sobered up and has a strange feeling over his chest; he and Myungsoo sort of stick together, probably because they don't know where to go in a situation like this alone.

Myungsoo pushes himself off the wall at the announcement of the elevator. 

The pool facilities are on the left, the spa is on the right. The spa is offering all sort of things, from massages to special mud bathes to cold-and-hot rooms. Sungyeol will check it out later.

Everything seems to be squeaky clean on this floor, with a mosaic of blue and white tiles on the walls.

There's a large sign against the door of the pool that says; "POOL IS CLOSED FOR TODAY." Along with pool opening hours.

"Now what?"

"Ask that again and I will slap you."

"Now what?"

Sungyeol raises his arms at him, but he's not fazed, hands in the pockets of his pants, almost as if daring Sungyeol to do it. "Jerk."

"Idiot. I adapt quickly and I've gotten used to the abuse and the pain I experience almost hourly now. If it will continue, I might actually anticipate it."

"," comes Sungyeol's dry response as he walks to the door.

"What are you doing?"

"Maybe the door is opened, but they just put the sign against it."

"Just like how the card lock can receive credit cards?"

"Shush." Sungyeol pushes against it.

It creaks loudly, but opens nonetheless.

He turns back to Myungsoo and waggles his eyes at him.

"You got to be kidding me."

"I told you. This is an hotel for posh, snobby people such as yourself. Everybody follow the rules here."

"Beside you."

"Besides me."

"Terrorist."

"Shut up."

"There's definitely cameras inside, they're going to spot us."

"Oh my god, it's 3 am and you are still a chicken."

Myungsoo makes a face at him.

"Tycoons come here with their mistresses, there's no way there will be a camera in the inside pool."

Sungyeol walks inside when he sees Myungsoo won't budge out of his place.

It's almost stifling hot inside the pool house. The lights are closed, and there's only the lights of the pool and the Jacuzzi.

First thing Sungyeol does is to walk to the large windows in the room and stare outside.

The city is partly black now - and it is definitely not Seoul that shines all night long, but it still looks beautiful. You can see the mountain range, and on the horizon, scattered lights of nearby villages.

The door squeaks again, but Sungyeol doesn't averts his gaze from the view.

Myungsoo stands next to him for a few long minutes.

"It doesn't look like Seoul at all." He says, eventually, when he feels like the silence stretched for far too long.

"That's because it's not Seoul. We're in Gwangju."

Sungyeol turns to him; "You must be fun at parties."

"I am. I'm so fun that everybody gets intimidated by me stealing the spotlight that they never invite me again."

"Is that the charms you were talking about earlier?"

Myungsoo nods eagerly; "Beside the dimple, of course."

"That dimple is more annoying than it is attractive, I'll be frank with you. It makes me want to touch it."

"Touch it, then. It's friendly."

"I feel like we're talking about an animal."

"Not every day you see a dimple as good looking as mine. This might be your last chance."

Sungyeol takes a step closer and pokes Myungsoo's cheek.

He scrunches his nose; "Yuck, it feels like I'm touching an arrogant marshmallow."

"I didn't know marshmallows come arrogant."

"Well, this one is definitely is." Sungyeol pinches his cheek and stretches it.

Myungsoo closes his eyes, making weird protesting noises from the back of throat.

Sungyeol squishes his cheeks together, moving his hands so his face will look even more deformed; "I was wrong, you're more like a really attractive muffin."

"Are you done?" He asks through clenched teeth.

Sungyeol plays with his face for another second or so, before patting on his cheeks.

Before he can retrieve his hands to himself, Myungsoo catches his wrists; "So what was that about me being really attractive?" He smirks.

Sungyeol tries to tears his hands out of his grip, but he only holds on tighter, and pushes him against the large windows that overlook the area.

"I said you're a muffin." He feigns indifference, but his heart beat is picking up.

"That's where my selective hearing comes in handy." He loosens his grip, but doesn't inches away.

"Ah, how did I forget about that... should be careful about what I say next to you. You might get the wrong idea."

"Am I... getting the wrong idea?"

Sungyeol evades him easily, and goes back next to the pool.

"I guess that's a yes." Myungsoo says after him.

"It's not a yes. And it's not a no." Sungyeol tests the water. It seems to be a few degrees lower than the room temperature and it's a refreshing change.

It's ridiculously hot, and Sungyeol almost feels like he's sitting in a jjimjilbang or a light sauna. They must heat the place up at night, so it won't take a lot of time to heat it in the mornings when it gets relatively chilly. Sungyeol removes his slippers and sits down, submerging his legs.

"That's... rather elusive." He hears Myungsoo's footsteps behind him.

Sungyeol dangles his feet in the water, biting onto the inside of his cheek for a moment or so. "Can't we just... wait for tomorrow to decide that?"

Myungsoo takes a seat beside him, slightly sighing. "Technically, it's already tomorrow."

Sungyeol glares at him; he snorts, raising his hands in defense; "Alright, alright."

"I meant after we sleep on it."

"Do you things will change  after we sleep on it?"

"Well... they might. Don't you think everything moved ridiculously fast somehow. I know you for just a few hours. Maybe tomorrow I wake up and think what a complete and utter you are."

"At least you don't think I'm a complete and utter right now."

"Maybe I do but I'm just not aware of it, because we fall off a wall together."

"And got chased by a bodyguard."

"And I got us kicked out of the room because I was giggling."

"And you broke my credit card."

"And you have a cute band-aid on your chin." Sungyeol taps it.

Myungsoo grimaces.

"Does it still hurt?"

"Not really."

"I'm sorry about all this. I feel like all of it is my fault."

Myungsoo snorts and looks back at the  dangles his legs in the water, just right next to Sungyeol's, and Sungyeol can feel the current they create; "It's not exactly how I planned the first day of my vacation — but... I think it's not that bad...? For a long while for me it's been nothing beside work, and I even came on my vacation planning to work. I got upset because of that room issue and because I missed the opening and didn't get to work. I think I just don't have anything to replace work with. I mean... I love what I do - it was my hobby in high school and it became my job... not many can say that they love going to work in the morning, but I do. And I'm grateful to that. But a change of pace isn't that bad. I think I needed to be reminded that there's something beyond the camera lens."

"You sound like an unfortunate drug commercial. I was sure you were going to end that with; 'ask your doctor now about your very own Lee Sungyeol'."

Myungsoo chuckles and pushes at his shoulder with his own. Sungyeol returns the favor. "Rather than a change of pace, I would say it was a wild roller-coaster ride." He adds.

"That's almost scarily accurate."

"Isn't it?"

He snorts; "Yeah."

"Can I ask you a question?"

Myungsoo leans back a little; "Shoot."

"So you not being ever in a relationship was a result of being a pressed workaholic?"

Myungsoo bobbles his head left and right, as if he's not sure if it is or it isn't. "I dated a few times but it was very brief. Just didn't work out, I guess."

"So why... would you think you and me would work out? Don't you think it's weird?"

"What's weird about it?"

"That we meet and we click like that? People take months to get together. Sometimes even years... Maybe there's a lot of stuff we are going to hate about each other. Maybe we're really incompatible together. Maybe we have opposite zodiac signs and should avoid each other like fire."

"I don't believe in coincidences —"

"So you've already said."

"Come on, Sungyeol. This entire night was a gigantic sequence of strange coincidences. I think that itself should serve as a sign."

"Somehow that's a bit naive and really romantic at the same time... I like that."

"Thanks... I guess?"

It gets silent for a moment, but then Myungsoo clears his throat; "So... um... want to grab a coffee... sometime, tomorrow? If you're free, of course."

Sungyeol hums; "Like... a date?"

"Yeah. A date. Just without security guards chasing us."

"I have a busy schedule tomorrow... but... Let's see what we have tomorrow... Is it okay if we do it right after the ceremony of replacing our lock but before I announce my friends that they are really ty friends - because I am almost certain that will ruin my entire mood."

Myungsoo snorts; "Yeah, I think we could do that right about that time."

"Maybe we should just avoid them altogether until I feel less of an idiot, and go watch movies or something... because... well... I don't know if you heard, but there's a movie festival in town."

"A movie festival, you say? We should definitely check it out."

"OH! I just remembered, I don't think we could do this date thing tomorrow. I think we're both scheduled for filling in missing sleeping hours."

"I like how you're both handsome and smart."

"Thanks, you're also handsome..." Sungyeol trails off, pursing his lips together in a foxy smile, in an attempt to lure Myungsoo's attention to the little detail he left out.

Myungsoo squints his eyes at him, quickly catches up; "But not smart, huh? Idiot." He pushes into his shoulder, a bit too hard, and Sungyeol almost falls off.

He catches himself just on time, then pushes his shoulder back onto Myungsoo's.

Either because Myungsoo wasn't expecting it, or because he was busy chuckling or looking away, but he loses his balance and falls right into the pool, face first.

Thankfully, they're at the deep section of the pool - otherwise, he probably would've hurt himself.

When he emerges from the water, he looks like a wet kitten, and Sungyeol can't stop laughing.

At some point he know he's in trouble, and he tries to stand up, but can't because he's laughing - so he puts his leg onto Myungsoo's chest to keep him from coming closer.

That turns out to be a stupid move, because Myungsoo just drags him in, pulling his leg. He screams, for what it's worth for about a minute, while hugging the pool ladder, but Myungsoo eventually gets his way.  

The water feel nice, even though he hates bathing in his shirt.

The feeling of it sticking to his body gives him the creeps.

They splash water on each other, run around the pool, trying to push each other into the water. It's both exciting and childish, somehow, and from the amount of shrieking and cursing, he's sure someone is going to come and ruin the fun.

But he doesn't.

When they get tired, they sit on the large stairway that leads to the shallow section of the pool, half submerged into water, and watch the view of the city.

"I'm hungry," Sungyeol admits, hugging his knees to himself.

"Me too."

"I wonder what time it is."

"Mmmn." Myungsoo agrees, then leans his head on his shoulder.

Sungyeol tenses at the sudden gesture, not used to such close proximities or touch - but he guesses that Myungsoo is tired. He's also tired. His limbs feel limp, and his mind a bit foggy, almost begging to find a place to crush in - but at the same time, his heart beats restlessly and loudly inside his chest, because of Myungsoo. 

He rubs his nose on his shoulder, and somehow just stays there, breathing down his shirt for a moment, before his left hand ghosts up Sungyeol's shirt to his nape.

That makes Sungyeol shiver and his belly knots up almost as if he swallowed cement.

Myungsoo sighs softly against him, and moves some of Sungyeol's wet hair out of his nape, and kisses the bare spot.

Sungyeol closes his eyes. His breath hitches as Myungsoo plants another soft kiss up his neck.

After that he retreats, but doesn't say anything.

When Sungyeol finally dares to look at him, his eyes are a little hazy. He lifts his gaze up from his neck to his eyes, and it's a little intense and frankly, scary, but Sungyeol still leans down to kiss him.

It's a brush of lips at first, gentle and slow.

His lips taste mostly of the pool's chlorine.

He's a slow kisser, almost deliberately idle, but the fact that he wants to relish on every touch and every graze makes Sungyeol entire body shake.

Sungyeol can say that he's leading the kiss, but only slightly ever-so; there's no urge to dominate or to fight for the reins, because their lips just meld together in a hot mess, almost as if they were created for each other.

His fingers climb sluggishly underneath Sungyeol's wet shirt, pressing rather roughly into his skin.

It makes Sungyeol deepen the kiss, seem a bit more desperate, a little too eager. Myungsoo's hair is wet between his fingers, easily adjusted just to the right position, just the right angle, just the right amount.

Sungyeol can only feel the wall of the pool digging into his bag, when he's already out of breathe.

It's hard to break away from Myungsoo, and he makes it even more difficult by continuing to plant quick deep kisses down his jaw and his cheek up to his ear, pressing his body so close to Sungyeol, it almost gives him shivers.

"Couldn't wait for the first date could you...?" He says when he regains his voice.

"Nope."

Sungyeol tries to push him by the chest away, somehow embarrassed, but Myungsoo tightens his embrace and leans his head onto his shoulder.

Sungyeol isn't a sure how to deal with all this affection, but it's been a long day and they just made out. He rubs his back.

His wet shirt rides up a bit from the contact.

Myungsoo gets heavier gradually, and his grip loosens a little, and then Sungyeol makes a face; "Are you falling asleep."

It takes him over 5 seconds to reply a small 'no', which basically means 'yes'.

 

 

.

 

 

Sungyeol jolts awake from the sound of splashing water.

The sun is bright in his eyes, he raises his hand to block it.

They set the loungers right against the windows, facing away from the door. In case someone would glance in, they wouldn't notice them inside.

It's somehow a bit cooler inside the pool house, now, and he shudders since his clothes are still rather wet.

When he looks up, he scares the man swimming inside the pool.

He looks so shocked to see him, that it's almost funny.

The doors are wide open.

Which means it's roughly after 8 am.

He takes a large inhale.

It's time for breakfast. He needs food. His belly demands it.

Myungsoo is splayed all over his own lounger, and a bit on Sungyeol's too. His leg topping onto Sungyeol's. They slept facing each other after falling asleep. He doesn't actually remembers falling asleep, but he remembers he was uncomfortable, and Myungsoo kept changing his position. Apparently he's a very heavy sleeper.

It takes awhile to wake him up.

He's actually behaving really cutely and his hair is a mess, catching onto Sungyeol's hand as if to assure him that his up, but continuing sleeping.

When he finally understands Sungyeol isn't going to stop pestering, they decide it would be best to go eat, then find their attendant. He must be here somewhere, right? Or just generally try to do something about the situation.

The entire night is still rather fresh in his head, though a bit jumbled up. It seems like a far away dream, and Sungyeol has to remind himself that it actually happened, and not just something his extensive imagination provided to himself.

They're both a bit groggy and Myungsoo looks downright sick and upset. Sungyeol guesses he's more the type to sleep in. They probably slept around two or three hours, because Sungyeol remembers Myungsoo still whispering something to him when they were watching the dawn coming up.

He hopes whole-heartedly that the angry old clerk finished his shift.

Just as they exist the pool house, though, a staff member runs into them, and examines them; "Myungsoo and Sungyeol?" He asks, hopeful.

Though not really tall, he seems really approachable and friendly, which is surprising because up until now, most of the staff members were the opposite of that (well, excluding Sungjong). His hair is light colored, and instead of the normal uniform, he is wearing a bit of a more formal attire, black suit fitted with a yellow shirt underneath.

His name tag says 'Jang Dongwoo'.

Sungyeol nods reluctantly at him, feeling like they might have gotten into trouble.

The man is immediately relieved. "Oh, thank god. We thought something might have happened to you. Figures you just went on a morning swim," he laughs.

"More like nightly swim." Myungsoo comments dryly. Sungyeol snorts.

"I'm chief of staff, Jang Dongwoo. I was informed of your situation in the morning, which I am sincerely apologetic about. I'm sure you'll still find our hotel satisfactory, despite the circumstances."

"We already do." Myungsoo comments again, though Dongwoo doesn't seem to catch the sarcasm, so he continues with; "There has been... an unfortunate accident... though don't worry, the situation is under control. Someone tried to break into your room while you were away."

"What? Did they steal anything?"

"No, no, no... the situation is under control. They stuffed a broken credit card inside your cardkey lock, thinking that it might work—"

Sungyeol rubs his nose, trying to hide his smile, and Myungsoo just looks dumbfounded as Dongwoo explains all about their high security systems.

"... and now Sungjong is making sure the locksmith will install a new lock for your convenience. In the meanwhile, you can head to grab some breakfast in the cafeteria. We saved you a VIP table. Afterwards, head to the counter in the lobby and we will provide you with new cards once the process is complete, so you could go up to your room."

"Thank you."  Sungyeol can't help but to say. He wonders if they'll have to pay for the broken lock if he'll reveal that they're the ones who broke it, so he is secretly happy about this turn in events.

"You're welcome. Everything to make your stay more cozy. If you need anything at all during your stay don't hesitate to call me at the counter."

 

 

.

 

 

The first thing Myungsoo does upon entering the room is run up to the bed and jump on it, face first.

Sungyeol snorts. He takes off his slippers and his shirt, and washes his face, because somehow it feels really stretched from the pool.

When he comes out of the bathroom, Myungsoo didn't move from the position he landed on.

"Hey, I was here first, so the big bed is mine, you can take the other one."

"No, we're sharing." He sounds muffled.

"No we're not."

"Yes we are. Can't believe we got our room back." He rolls onto his back; "I feel like I'm floating on a cloud."

"I can't believe we survived the night. At some point there, I thought it's going to go on forever."

Myungsoo snorts, then raises to his elbow, and preps his head in his hand; "So... What should we do now?"

Sungyeol stares at him and he stares back before they both say; "Go to sleep." at the same time.

"That would be a perfect second date, compared to what we had yesterday."

"No, first date."

"Okay first date then..."

"Knock, knock, knock!" Somebody opens the door. "You left your door opened." Sungjong walks in. "You should be careful because we still didn't caught the culprit. Always close it until the end." Sungjong lectures.

He looks rather accomplished with himself; "I got good news. A guest had checked out in the middle of the night... all of the sudden, so we have a spare room."

"We don't want one." Myungsoo answers.

"Yes we do," Sungyeol corrects him, but then furrows his eyebrows in thought, thinking there's probably a catch somewhere; "Why did the guest leave in the middle of the night?" There was surely probably something off with the room. Usually check outs are in the morning.

"Oh..." Sungjong looks a bit troubled; "Well I think he was  a little loony in his head. He came to the desk yesterday in the middle of the night, yelling, screaming... said something along the lines that he was sitting in the garden - by the way if you still didn't visit it, you must, it is the pride and joy of our hotel - and get this, he said he saw two suspicious men jumping up the wall—" Sungjong chuckles, as if it's funny and ridiculous; "Then he said he heard them planning to murder everybody in the entire hotel. He said he heard him plotting the whole thing while hiding under a bench."

Myungsoo starts laughing; "Well, now it's official. I've got a date with a terrorist." 

 

....

 

Hope everybody enjoyed it~! Sorry it took me awhile and sorry its so long an un-beta-ed! :D