"Could you be more obvious!" Changwook laughs when Jaejoong makes herself shorter by crouching and pulling the skirt of her dress around her legs. Minyoung playfully presses on her shoulders making Jaejoong squeak in pain. "Jaejoong, you can't stay like that the entire time. Those brats are going to end up teasing you for falling."

"Not if I keep this up till it's dark enough."

"The yacht has lights."

"Not if we turn them off."

Changwook looks at the man from the yacht's crew standing nearby. "Can you?" The man shakes his head with barely concealed amusement. "If you're not going to be careful then you have to face the music!" Changwook pulls her up to stand straight. "Besides I have to redo everything. They're going to tease you throughout that."

 "I don't want to again!"

"Jae..." Minyoung once again gets into big sister mode with that stern yet gentle coaxing tone. "If you take care of it now, you can still go to the beach later. We have to be careful because sea water can really infect open wounds." She’s really just parroting Changwook's speech from before but unlike him, she is more effective.

"Fine..." Jaejoong huffs as Changwook victoriously tells that crew member to keep a medical kit ready.

"Jaejooo~" Jaejoong makes a face when that stupid person with his stupid falsetto squeals that stupid nickname only because they are in Jeju. Minyoung though is more interested in why Geunseuk is alone with Yoojin.

"Aren't these two really close?" Changwook mutters to Jaejoong.

"Mom says he texts her sometimes..." Jaejoong's juicy gossip makes the three of them snigger when the two of them are closer.

"Jaejoo~ we missed you. We found a pretty seashell just like you~" Geunseuk drops a white seashell on Jaejoong's hand. But Jaejoong, peevish as she is, feels something alive and wriggly and drops the shell on the concrete gangway.

"I told you she doesn't like them..." Yoojin huffs beside him.

"Oh..." Minyoung drags that syllable suggestively, "comfortable enough to exchange information on your cousin are we?" Yoojin effectively blushes but Geunseuk is unabashed as ever. Especially when he catches sight of Jaejoong's legs. "Ah-hah! You did get hurt in the cave! No wonder Yunnie let you go with Cookie!"

"Cookie?" Changwook wonders when did he get that nickname. "And are those my shoes?" Jaejoong fruitlessly tucks one foot behind the other to hide it.

"Don't change the subject. Did you two ditch Jaeha to go on a date?" Minyoung points at the two of them who clearly have a thing going on.

"More like he ditched us!" Geunseuk snaps. "The small brat, the tall brat, the Kwon brat and Seunghyun went for ice cream without us."

"How is Seunghyun not a brat?" Minyoung nudges Changwook for that random question.

"Why are you guys standing here? Can't we go on the boat?" The crew member from earlier tells Geunseuk that they can all board it if they want. "We wanted to wait for everyon-," Changwook is cut off mid-sentence when Geunseuk puts his arm around the front of his shoulders. "Let's go. I can't wait!"

"Yah wait! Go by yourself! Min!" Changwook reaches for Minyoung, not wanting to leave her alone when she meets Joongi. But Geunseuk was relentless. "Yah! Just coz you have a girlfriend you can't forget your friends." It doesn't help that Minyoung gestures at him to go with Geunseuk. Yoojin follows them too but not before asking Jaejoong and Minyoung if they're coming.

"I'll wait for Yunho."

"I'll wait with Jae."

Yoojin doesn't see any problem with that and follows the other two. "Are you sure you want to be alone when you see Joongi-ssi?" Jaejoong asks. Minyoung makes a playful face, "what are you a ghost? I'm not alone."

Just as she says that the brat group is running down the gangway. "Hey! Where did you get all that?" Jaejoong asks about the tiger ear headband, the matching tiger print sweatshirt and the bear snack bucket Jaeha is carrying.

"We went to a zoo! And noona gave me money to find you a present. So I got you this!" Jaeha pulls out two keychains, one with a small stuffed rabbit and another with a similarly sized bear. “Do you get the reference?” Heechul punctuates with a wink. "Heehee~ I get it~." Jaejoong giggles, grabbing the keychains.

"When he said he's never been to a zoo, we had to take him there. We'll go to the beach again anyway." Seunghyun teasingly pushes Jaeha's headband earning a whine. "Where's Chang? He has to check on this Kim Catastrophe too."

"What did you do?" Jaejoong gasps, giving her little cousin a onceover for any signs of injury. "He scraped his elbow. The kid got too excited seeing those rat thingies from Madagascar."

"They're lemurs Choi. You're the rat thingy!" Snaps Jiseok. He relates to King Julian on a deeply personal level okay!

"Chang, Yoojinnie and Geunseuk are on the boat. You guys should go ahead. Tell Chang to check on you first." Minyoung might not seem like it but Jaejoong knows the urgency in her tone. And she also knows the unusually quiet Changmin noticed too.

Seunghyun picks up Jaeha like a sack of potato and heads to the yacht with Heechul. Jiseok though didn't budge. "Noona you know Joongi hyung is here? He should be on his way here now," Jiseok's enthusiasm, to Jaejoong who knows the situation, is stomach-churning.

Shockingly Minyoung looks genuinely caught off guard. "Joongi Oppa? That's surprising! Isn't he usually busy to take a break?"

"Meh! He's never too busy to nag me."

"We all have one of those," Jaejoong and Jiseok exchange consolatory fist bumps. "oh right!" Minyoung gasps, "Chang forgot this thing with me. Can you give this to him? He'll need it."

Jaejoong sees Minyoung hand the sea sickness medicine to Jiseok. That was for herself that she kept with Minyoung because her bag's zipper slides open without the weight of the bear pulling it down.

"Sure... I'm going to need one myself. I'll just take one." Jiseok takes the medicine from Minyoung and heads to the yacht oblivious to how he got played.

Minyoung and Jaejoong watch him till he's out of earshot when a chilling voice speaks eerily close to them. "So you're facing him head on is it?" They flinch much to a deep, sinister laugh from Changmin. As inappropriate as the timing is, he loves being an evil prick. "You stayed back for this?" Minyoung snarls.

Changmin only smugly crosses his arms, looking down at this tiny attorney. "I was just checking if you're really staying." Minyoung sighs tiredly, "So you know too huh..."

"Hyung did tell me to find you a hotel room without telling the others. It's natural I want to know the reason why first. He helped Lee Joongi drop his things at the villa and texted me the entire story. I don't want to judge, but Damn!" Changmin softens visibly, no longer taunting or gloating, "You did good staying."

Minyoung exhales in amusement. "I know right. There's no way those guys would accept that Chang and I had to leave without telling them."

 "Of course not. From what I gather Lee Joongi and his bratty cousin have no idea what happened between you and that . We don't want to give them reason to pry. Worse still, let your family find out."

"We're lucky Yoochun isn't here. He would've tried to confront Joongi-ssi." Jaejoong's voice falters when she sees three figures walking towards the gangway. "They're here... what are we supposed to do?"

 "Act like his brother is not a douche." Changmin whispers before standing on the other side of Minyoung. The three of them take fortifying breaths as Yunho and Joongi walk closer with Seungwon behind them.

Minyoung's eyes turn to Yunho who is obviously going through a lot of mixed feelings about this. She smiles slightly, hopefully reassuring and he responds with a faint smile of his own.

Joongi doesn't notice that subtle exchange, brightening up when he sees that familiar face. "Minyoung-ah!" A part of Minyoung feels happy Joongi has a pleasant reaction to her after so many years. She doesn't expect that hug he gives her though. "It's been a while. You look great."

"Th-thanks..." Minyoung rasps, beginning to get overwhelmed by how familiar he is being. That annoying yet perceptive prick beside him sees her anxiety though.

"Lee Hoejangnim, we didn't know you already know Atty. Park," Changmin is the picture of inauthentic shock. But it serves its purpose. Joongi lets go of Minyoung and it also seems they don't know about Minyoung and Joongi's connection.

Yunho shoots Changmin a glance before stepping forward. "Lee Hoejang-" Joongi gives Yunho a pointed glare reminding him of a conversation they had moments ago, "Hyung... this is Shim Changmin, my secretary. And you already met Jaejoong."

"Of course, Jaejoong..." Minyoung sees an unusual sparkle in Joongi's eyes as soon as his gaze settles on Jaejoong and it disturbs her.

"Don't hug me too!" Jaejoong holds up a hand in front of Joongi, "You're like a humanoid boulder. It's like being hugged by a diamond."

"How did you come to that specific conclusion?" Changmin crosses his arms and narrows his eyes the way he does when Jaejoong pretends she forgot his lunch.

"Kids, no..." Yunho sighs tiredly and gestures to them to get walking. "Come on children! I don't want to miss the sunset." Minyoung hooks her arms with Changmin and Jaejoong and pulls them along.

With Yunho's lead Joongi and Seungwon follow. "Are they always like this?" Joongi doesn't explicitly say it but Yunho can tell he means Jaejoong and Changmin. "Pretty much. They fight, eat, set off fire alarms, get nearly arrested and make up."

"I meant... if they're close... but that pretty much answers my question."

"Changmin will vehemently deny that. In his words, he tolerates us blunt-brained mortals."

"Wow! How have you not fired him already?"

"Meh! You give him a pizza and he'll behave for two hours ... I've bought a lot of pizzas in ten years." Joongi gave him a consolatory pat around his shoulders.

Once they're on the boat they note it's noisy. "What's a party without Jang Geunseuk isn't it?" Joongi chuckles when said person runs over to the flybridge lounge noisily cheering behind Choi Seunghyun. The yacht sets sail by then and the party gets lively.

"Hyung!" Jiseok briskly walks over to them. Yunho excuses himself to go find Jaejoong and Minyoung. He's been anxiously waiting for a moment to talk to Minyoung alone since he saw Lee Joongi. It might be tough while they're all on a boat but he'll take his chances.

When it's the three of them, Joongi affectionately hugs his younger cousin. "God! It's been a while since I've seen you in the flesh. How is your new office?"

"It has the worst chair and there's a spider above the door," Jiseok complains halfheartedly, "what took you so long?"

"It's my fault Sajangnim," Seungwon interrupts. "I didn't see your text to meet you at the zoo until after we arrived at the beach."

"It's okay. I was lucky to meet Jung Yunho first. He helped me drop my stuff at Jang’s villa. And I've been meaning to talk to him about his cafe." Joongi's business talk makes Jiseok shakes his head. "Of course you would turn a vacation into a business meeting."

"Speaking of which..." Joongi shoots Seungwon a look. The secretary gets the hint and excuses himself to give the cousins privacy. "I met the Kim Jaejoong earlier..."

"did she think you're going to kidnap her?"

Joongi snorts, "There was a mention of kidnapping. I'd like to know more about that in detail later." Joongi looks around to make sure there's no eavesdroppers, "Yunho's assistants... are they a thing...?"

There's a long pause before Jiseok snorts. "You like her, don't you?" Joongi glares at him for his rudeness but Jiseok characteristically brushes it off, "everyone on this boat that isn't her family is in love with her. Including me, including Rachel noona. In fact, the Captain was all blushing around her five minutes ago."

"I thought you hated her..."

"Jang likes to think I'm the little kid who pulls his crush's hair." Jiseok's demeanour shifts to a more a solemn one, "But no, Jung's bratty secretary isn't dating Jaejoong," Jiseok gulps when he sees Joongi exhale subtly, "because she's with Jung Yunho."

"Wha-" Joongi doesn't get to complete his exclamation because Jiseok is dragging him to a quiet corner. "Don't overreact!" Jiseok whispers harshly, "It's obvious with how Jung is all over her!"

"But they didn't say anything."

"They don't broadcast it but they don't hide it either. You can see it if you know what to look for," the corner of Jiseok's lip raise in a smirk that even his great cousin is not immune to that wanton feeling for Kim Jaejoong. "Maybe you don't want to look for signs Kim Jaejoong is taken."

Joongi's chiselled jaw could cut glass with how hard he clenched it. Suddenly this brat is acting all high and mighty in the subject of Kim Jaejoong because he's known her longer.

"You're awfully smug for someone who tried to sell her," and just like the time he lectured him for doing that, Joongi drags Jiseok by his shirt's collar. When the make it to the bow lounge, Joongi's hold on him slackens enough for Jiseok to escape. It doesn't take much effort except looking in the front to see what has his cousin so slack.

Jaejoong is there, on that long couch, enchanting as ever while putting on a mini skit with bear and rabbit keychains for Yunho. At this point Jiseok knows his cousin is in stage two of loving Kim Jaejoong.

He's crossed stage one of getting attracted to her. Now Joongi is in that stage where he's absolutely enamoured by her. The next stage is convincing yourself to give up knowing Jaejoong is with Yunho and the final nirvana is giving up on… well… giving up and just wanting to stay close to her.

When Yunho takes that bunny and pecks Jaejoong's fingers, he knows Joongi has entered stage three if those trembling eyes are anything to go by. Well he'll just have to help his beloved hyung through it the way he did it.

"Hyung, I'm going to get myself a drink. You want one?"

"A whiskey neat would be nice..." Joongi's tone had a pitiful need that Jiseok never thought he'd find in his charismatic cousin. Looks like he has it hard. "Sure hyung. But you're going to have pace yourself. The Kims are a bit anti-alcohol. I'll tell you later."

Jiseok urges him to mingle while he goes looking for the dinette with the bar. With a few deep breaths, Joongi schools his features back to his warm and brotherly personality before coming out of his hiding place. The first thing he notices is Ji Changwook tending to a kid with a skinned arm. And he does it very well and carefully. He's so focused on cleaning that wound that he hasn't noticed an attentive audience in Joongi.

The others are busy taking pictures of the sunset to notice either. Joongi knows from experience that it's not easy to do basic first aid at the level of skill Changwook is displaying. The last time he attempted to he was in high school, trying to help Jiseok with a scrape on his knee.

He couldn't find first aid essentials but had read once that aftershave is made of the same things as disinfectant. Now that he thinks about it, he was so shameless to tell Jiseok to man up when the poor kid was screeching after Joongi poured half of his father's aftershave on his knee. The blackened patch of skin that occurred convinced Joongi that his cousin is going to lose his leg because of him. After that nightmare and a big lecture by his dad, Joongi swore never to play doctor again.

"Hyung, that hurts!" Jaeha whines though it really is not as painful as much as it's cold because of the sea breeze.

"But Dr. Naggington's technique is painless!" Jaejoong chirps while focused on attaching the teddy on her bag. "I'm making it hurt on purpose...” Changwook drawls. "Jae, you have bandaids on you?"

"I don't want Hello Kitty! Give me boring brown!" Jaeha protests immediately.

"There are bandaids right there in the kit." Jaejoong points at the medical bag a crew member placed on the table earlier.

Changwook reaches for the standard bandaids in the kit and then to the Kim cousins' surprise, flings it behind him with enough force for it to land somewhere on the floor near Seunghyun’s feet. "Nurse Fallington, the kitty bandaids please," Changwook stretches out his hand for Jaejoong to place two Hello Kitty bandaids on it with a deviously excited laugh. Somehow that evil laugh is so melodious to Joongi's ears.

Changwook slaps the bandaids on Jaeha's elbow letting that kid run off to complain to Changmin. "Okay Fallington, your turn."

"Already taken care of Naggington." Jaejoong hoists her leg on to the table to show the six Hello Kitty bandaids on her leg. "I can take care of myself."

"Don't believe her. I saw her fall twice in two minutes." Jaejoong whips her scowl in Joongi's direction. "Dammit! I forgot you were here." Announcing his presence didn't have the effect he wanted with Changwook going awkwardly silent.

Till date Joongi doesn't know why other businessfolk treat him like he's someone who would think they're beneath him. Jiseok did have that facade until recently but he tried a lot not to seem that way.

As if he doesn't see Changwook's awkwardness, Joongi coolly takes a seat on the couch, Jaejoong and Changwook on the couches on either side of him. "Changwook-ssi, could I have a bandaid too?" Joongi shows the side of his hand, "my hand got caught in my bag zipper at check-in and its bleeding."

 Changwook stares at his hand for a long while till Joongi finds it disconcerting. "Let me see that..." Changwook unceremoniously pulls Joongi's hand and plops down next to him. "Jaejoong can you get me a light?" Jaejoong promptly holds her phone's torch over Joongi's hand. "Yeah... that's a blood blister..."

"Blood what!" Joongi can't help that cracked shriek. He's never heard of something like that before and it sounds scary.

His shriek attracts the others by the railing and they abandon their photography to check. As soon as they are closer Changwook is barking orders at them. "One of you get an ice pack or ice in a towel. Whichever is possible." With Yunho's nudging, Changmin looks for a crew member to get that. Yoojin follows too wanting to help and well, she's seen these other guys back home when Jaejoong was hurt and barring Changwook, they can't be relied on in such emergencies.

"Wh-wh-wh-why ice!? What is this blood thing? I thought it was just a cut!" Jaejoong makes an amused face at Joongi's panicked stutter. Who would've thought that this man with his toughened martial artist body would freak out over a little blister! "Relax! It's like a regular blister. They go away on their own. I've had it couple of times."

"Jaejoong's right. It's fine as long as you don't let it get infected. The ice is to make sure it doesn't get worse."

On cue, Changmin returns with a stewardess wh