“Thank you so much, Charles, for everything,” Jiyong’s mother smiled at the captain. “The ship truly is marvellous, just as expected.”

Jiyong rolled his eyes and looked down at his food again. His mother could apparently infuriate him in any situation. Jiyong knew very well his mother would rather be anywhere else than on this cruise ship. And this fake behaviour was honestly embarrassing him.

“Oh it’s my pleasure, Lilian,” the captain smiled back. “I’ve been the captain of this ship for almost ten years already and haven’t had my dear friend come on the cruise with me once. I’m only glad he could take his family along.”

“Younghwan is a very busy man,” Jiyong’s mother said.

“So I hear! I’m only glad to hear you’re doing well.”

Jiyong’s father laughed heartily.

“And I’m glad to be here,” he said. “A bit of time off will be good for us all. Don’t you think, Jiyong?”

Jiyong looked up and nodded. His mother nudged his leg under the table at that.

“Yes,” he said, getting the obvious hint.

His father and the captain fell into conversation then, talking about what kind of business Younghwan had in the UK that led them to the opportunity to take the Mediterranean cruise.

“Behave,” his mother hissed into his ear then and Jiyong closed his eyes to swallow down the boiling frustration.

He tried to stay calm but doing so proved to become more and more difficult each day. His mother had always been like this, but Jiyong was about to reach his breaking point. At first, he had been happy to hear they’re going on a cruise. Whenever they travelled with the whole family, which was pretty often, all they did was go around dealing with Kwon Younghwan business. A cruise for Jiyong sounded like freedom. What kind of business could they be doing on a fricking cruise ship, right? But Jiyong realized this family was simply destined not to have any sort of fun. He needed to accept that. He took another bite from the Greek style pork belly which was on his plate, different, yet still tasty, and for the nth time that evening, he looked up from his plate to the table across the room by the windows which for some reason had caught his attention since they had sat down over half an hour ago. Four guys were sitting there having their dinner, but also seemed to be having so much fun. Their laughter sometimes echoed all across the floor. He was sure he had caught his mother sending them deadly glances several times already. But his heart longed this so much. He looked at the wooden barrier between the vip area for the first class passengers and back to the boys at the fun-table. He then realized one of the guys at said table was quite openly staring right back at him and he quickly looked back at his plate, embarrassed that he had got caught staring. His heart was beating in his chest like crazy.

“Hey. What’s up with you?” Cam kicked Seunghyun under the table.

Seunghyun looked back at him.

“Huh?”

“You’ve been zoning out, man.”

“Ah,” he cleared his throat and took a quick bite from his garlic bread he’d been holding. “That’s the captain of the ship right there,” he nodded towards the table at the vip section.

Cam and Hyuk, who sat across from Seunghyun and Jason, turned around to gawk at the captain’s table.

“How’d you know?” Jason asked.

“Ooooh, pretty sure the lady there is sending death stares at us. You think we’re too loud?” Cam asked.

“Who the cares?” Hyuk said with his mouth full.

Seunghyun looked at Jason then.

“I saw him board the ship when we were still in Valletta,” he explained.

He looked back at the vip table then, silently chewing his mouthful. Secretly, he wasn’t admiring the captain, but the gorgeous redhead at the captain’s table had caught his attention as soon as the group entered the room. Seunghyun was pretty sure he had caught the other looking towards their table a couple of times, but now the boy was just eating, eyes cast down on his plate. But boy was he beautiful. Even his chewing mouth was pretty. Something about him made Seunghyun’s heart thump just a little faster than normal.

“Uggghhh..” Seunghyun groaned as he laid down on the bed, still fully dressed, having just gotten back to their cabin room.

“Yup. Three drinks was a wise choice for the first night,” Jason said, lying down in the bed next to him, “It’s almost midnight and we’ll be arriving to Corfu in the morning. We need the energy.”

All the guys hummed in agreement. Quietly, each of them started getting ready for bed, taking turns to use the bathroom and soon enough all of them were nicely tucked into bed. Hyuk was already asleep but the much excited Cameron was still wide awake in his bed, sighing happily.

“Jason?”

“Hmm?

“Thanks for being rich, man..”

Jason just chuckled quietly.

“Good night, Cammy.”

Seunghyun smiled as well but snuggled closer to his soft pillow and closed his eyes then. A certain beauty with bright orange hair was still stamped on the insides of his eyelids and he fell asleep with butterflies fluttering in his tummy.

Seunghyun was an early bird and he was up well before seven in the morning. He sat up in his bed and rubbed his eyes sleepily. He looked towards the small window they had then and sat up to go look outside. The light outside was a mixture of pink and orange which meant there was a beautiful sunrise. He didn’t bother changing his clothes but quickly brushed his teeth and grabbed his phone and cigarettes and hurried outside. Seunghyun ended up sitting down on a bench on a deck just in the front of the ship. It was pretty empty of people since it was still early and Seunghyun liked it just like that. He sat down on the bench sideways and lit a cigarette. The ship was heading almost directly towards the sunrise and the view was absolutely gorgeous. Seunghyun was a er for a nice view. He took a picture of it to save this to his (phone) memory. He lied down on the bench, smoking a cigarette after a cigarette and he didn’t even notice the time go by and the decks being filled with more and more people when his phone chimed in his pocket at last with a text from Jason asking where he was. Soon enough he was greeted with a pat on his shoulder and his friend plopped down on the bench beside him.

“Hey, man. How long have you been here?” he asked and let out a big yawn.

Seunghyun shrugged.

“Since seven-ish.”

“Really? It’s after nine already. We should go have breakfast. We’ll arrive to the island soon,” Jason said, still pretty sleepy.

Seunghyun nodded and turning his head towards him he opened his mouth to say something when something caught his eye behind his friend. Bright orange hair. The people from the dinner table from last night were all right there up on the captain’s deck, talking about something. The boy was standing a bit further from the group and was leaning on the railing, looking over the sea with a calm expression.

“Yeah umm.. Let me just have another cigarette,” Seunghyun said, a bit distracted, but already put a new cigarette between his teeth.

Jason noticed the look on his friend’s face and he turned around to look towards whatever Seunghyun might’ve seen. He turned back around.

“What? Crushing on the captain again?” he asked.

“Something like that,” Seunghyun said, eyes still on the boy on the upper deck, before taking another drag from his cigarette.

Jason looked back up and after a few seconds he realized what Seunghyun had actually been staring.

“Oh…” he whispered.

At that very moment, the boy looked directly down at their direction, but realizing the guys were looking at his direction as well he quickly looked back over the sea. A few seconds later, still sensing the eyes on himself, he looked back down slowly, though. The butterflies from last night definitely returned to Seunghyun’s tummy at that. Jason slapped the back of his hand against Seunghyun’s chest and grinned at him.

“Hey I think your guy is looking back at you.”

“Shut up,” Seunghyun said but his eyes never left the boy and his lips were stretched into the widest grin.

Jiyong felt his cheeks turn red. Were these guys staring at him? He was pretty sure they were the boys from last night. He looked down at his hands gripping the cold metal railing, feeling shy.

“Jiyong. Come. We’re going to see the lifeboats,” his mother’s voice said then.

“Coming, mother,” Jiyong said and turned away from the view to the sea with a last glance at the guys on the lower deck.

“To Jason!”

Seunghyun, Cam, Jason and Hyuk were back at the bar as soon as the ship left the Corfu island that evening. Everyone was already a few drinks in.

“C’mon guys my birthday is not after another month,” he chuckled.

“Still, that’s why we’re here, right?” Seunghyun had his arm around his friend’s shoulder. “So let’s celebrate!”

Jason laughed but they all clinked their glasses together and took a sip. After putting his drink down, despite himself, Seunghyun again scanned the whole dance room and bar area for a certain mop of hair. Of course it wasn’t the first time today that Jason had noticed Seunghyun’s searching eyes.

“Haven’t seen him?” he asked, leaning closer to him to speak over the blaring music.

Seunghyun shook his head.

“Seen who?” Cam asked.

“No o-“

“Seunghyun saw a guy he wants to bang.”

“Jason!”

“Ooh really?”

“What? It’s true!” Jason shrugged.

Seunghyun sighed.

“I don’t want to just bang him, you dickhead. I just thought he looked.. really pretty,” he explained to his friends.

“He looked pretty so you want to bang him,” Hyuk said, lazily leaning on the table.

“No! Argh, whatever,” Seunghyun said, annoyed.

He drank the last of his drink and put the empty glass back on the table.

“I’ll go for a cigarette,” he said, not looking at them and just walked away.

There was a smoking room near the bar but frankly Seunghyun needed some air so he left the club and walked out to the lobby in search of the nearest area he could smoke at. He didn’t need to look around long though and he stepped out on the deck. It was a bit windy and noisy outside but still nice and fresh. Seunghyun just was about to light a cigarette when he saw him. The boy. Right there on the deck, looking out at the dark sea. Seunghyun would probably send out a celebratory cheer if his breath hadn’t got caught in his lungs. He lit the cigarette then, that being the exact thing he needed to relax now. He took a drag and took the remaining steps to the railing, being not too far from the beautiful boy with the orange hair. Seunghyun leaned against the railing as well but the boy didn’t seem to notice him. Soon, Seunghyun collected all his courage and let out a little cough.

“Hey,” he said, looking towards the boy.

The other snapped out of his thoughts then and looked towards Seunghyun as well.

“Oh.. Hello..” he said and Seunghyun noted that the boy seemed to recognize him.

“I.. I’ve been hoping to see you again tonight,” Seunghyun said, taking a step closer.

The boy stood up straighter then and gave him a questioning look.

“And why is that?” he asked.

“Well, I-.. umm.. I’ve seen you around and.. I think you have seen me too and-..”

“Yes, and?”

“Well I think you are beautiful,” Seunghyun said, looking into his eyes.

“Excuse me?” the boy asked, eyes big.

His heart was pounding from the stranger’s boldness. But he was intrigued and he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the man. Seunghyun took another step closer. The breeze was playing with the boy’s soft-looking orange hair, blowing it around and into his face. Seunghyun raised his hand up to his face and tucked away a strand of hair from the boy’s eyes, fingers lightly brushing his cheek.

“I said.. I think you’re beautiful..”

The boy’s big eyes were still on his for a second or two but then he jumped back as in realization what had just happened.

“What!? How dare you!” he shouted at him.

People around them gave them glances and Seunghyun took a quick step back.

“I’m sorry, I-..”

“Stay away from me!” the boy said and hurried away, disappearing through the door.

Seunghyun looked towards the door helplessly but didn’t dare to follow him. He clearly had ed this up big time. He let out a huge sigh and tossed his burnt out cigarette into the trash.

“..” he cursed under his breath.

Jiyong hurried back down to his rooms quickly but when he had ran down three flights of stairs already he stopped and looked up the staircase to see if the man had followed him. He didn’t see anyone. He let out a sigh then and his own reflection caught his eye in the big mirror across the lobby. He gently touched his palm to his cheek where the man had touched him not a minute ago and smiled a little.