“You’re ing certifiable, you know that right?”

 Choi Minho finally wedged the last of his belongings in the small trailer he’d hitched to his newly restored vintage Harley and slammed the door down with a click he found oddly satisfying, and fastened the heavy-duty padlock so it would stay shut. Fortunately the hitch he’d had to install to make fastening the two together was removable and wouldn’t damage his beautiful bike, so he wouldn’t have to drag the trailer around when it wasn’t in use. He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand and looked over at a very disapproving Lee Taemin, his best friend and former business partner. They’d known each other since they were in diapers and their families moved next door to each other and had always encouraged each other’s dreams before this. Even when Minho was the stereotypical high school soccer player who had blown out his knee Taemin was there, helping him find a new dream of acting while working on his own of dancing, and eventually setting up their own two-person agency after getting screwed over by managers one too many times. 2min was now a thriving company with dozens of employees and sterling reputation in entertainment, and while Taemin continued to dance and be hands on, Minho had retired from acting, and was only at the company when his input was needed.

  Because Minho had found a new dream. He’d fallen in love with an attractive, intelligent woman with her own expanding restaurant chain, proposed, and when she said yes he bought a fixer-upper house with a large backyard in a gentrifying neighborhood and set about having it renovated, doing as much of the work himself as he could, with the help of whomever he could bribe, blackmail, or guilt-trip into helping him. His favorite room had been the nursery, added on when his fiancée told him she was pregnant. He’d found it unusual since she was on birth control and they used condoms as well, but truthfully he couldn’t have been happier. They’d planned on starting a family after they married, so if their beautiful surprise wanted to come earlier than they’d expected, well he wasn’t about to argue. He’d just finish the house and they’d marry a bit quicker is all.

  Everything was coming into place wonderfully. Minho would soon have the wife and family of his dreams, maybe adding a dog for the kids to grow up with. He and his fiancée moved into their house, the wedding was a few weeks away before she’d show too much so she could still fit in her dress with a few adjustments, and he couldn’t ask for anything more. Then he came home early one day from a meeting at 2min he couldn’t wiggle out of, and his entire dream future fell apart thanks to “the most amazing artist the world has ever seen” who “had more talent in his little finger than he ever had.”

  Truthfully, the kid was a twenty-two-year-old high school dropout whose parents had finally ordered him to get a job or get thrown out. So, he started working at one of Minho’s fiancée’s restaurants as a busboy. He was greasy-haired, sallow complected, and scrawny, rarely if ever put paint to canvas, and Minho didn’t understand why anyone would go after someone like him. Then he started hearing rumors about what the guy had in his pants, and suddenly it made a bit more sense, he guessed. He would have accepted it and married her anyway for the sake of their child, but it turned out the baby wasn’t his. It wasn’t even the busboy’s. Somehow she’d kept not just him, but half-a-dozen boyfriends/fiancés/friends with benefits/ex-husbands and a string of affairs hidden from everybody until Minho walked in on one. Then her carefully crafted plan of marrying him for his money to save her what turned out to be failing restaurants and he won’t know the baby isn’t his fell apart, and Minho had a house to sell that now physically made him sick, and a brand-new minivan he’d ordered that he was fortunately able to back out of last minute so he didn’t lose money on that. She’d paid for most of the wedding, or more like recycled as much of it as she could, and somehow Minho was able to get back the few deposits he had made. The only things he couldn’t get a refund on were his and Taemin’s suits, but they ended up having a bonfire with them shortly thereafter.

  Minho shook his head at the tainted memories that made him swear off women and wanting children and looked over at Taemin, who was standing nearby with his arms crossed and a pout on his face and was clearly waiting for a response. In some ways he envied his best friend, who figured he’d eventually settle down but had enjoyed a long string of “short-term relationships” since they’d been in middle school. He’d always been the more cautious one, seldom dating and not wanting his career to interfere with his love life. Work came first, then he’d find “the one” once he could support his family without being gone often. Well, that didn’t work out for him so once again he was trying a new dream, of being the weird semi-hermit who lived in the middle of a forest.

  “I’m only moving three hours away Minnie, and I can’t stay here. I appreciate you letting me live with you after the house sold, but the memories are still too painful. The cabin that Baekhyun I met through his online listing assured me it’ll be perfect for what I’m looking for for now. I probably won’t be gone forever, and you can always come visit whenever you want to.”

  “Are you listening to yourself? You talked to the guy once on the phone. Everything else was through texts or e-mails. You didn’t even meet when you signed the paperwork! No, if you had a brain you’d stay here til you found a more reputable way to escape for a while. Besides, what do you know about living in the country? You also never saw the place! It’s probably a half-falling down, rotting, rat-infested lean-to, if it exists at all. The pictures you saw were probably of something someone made out of tinker toys. You’ll probably be chopped up into bitesize pieces by the local ax murderer!”

  “Drama llama much? I’ll be fine. It’s not like I’m leaving the planet! I just, need something completely different.”

  “I get that, I really do. I just don’t understand why you’re running away! You’re more than welcome to stay with me, you know that. Why don’t we go on a long vacation somewhere, just the two of us? Scuba diving, hiking, bungee jumping, parasailing, whatever you want!”

  Minho shook his head with a half-smile, even as he slipped into his loose fitting (he’d lost weight since the breakup due to not really being hungry) leather jacket, and triple checked the cooler Taemin had insisted on packing full of sandwiches, fruit, snacks, and water bottles was securely fastened to the rear fender and seat so it wouldn’t fly off and the strap making sure the lid stayed closed was tight and properly locked. He wouldn’t be able to go that fast towing the trailer, but he didn’t want to risk anything flying all over the road and hitting somebody else or damaging his Harley. He’d found the bike in the window of the junky shopfront of a small scrapyard while he was aimlessly wandering further out than usual shortly after the breakup with a criminally low price tag since the owner was convinced it was only good for parts at best, and he was determined to bring it to its former glory. Taemin had rolled his eyes and said it was a waste of time, but after much googling, browsing the local library, asking questions of professional restoration workers, and trial and error, the Crimson Comet as he secretly called her was roadworthy and the cause of many a strand of drool from others who envied him.

  “That would sound nice any other time Minnie, but right now I just want some peace and quiet to think and heal. If it turns out the place does need fixing up, well it’s not like I don’t have experience now and it’s actually quite relaxing to work on a house. There’s a decent sized yard cleared out so I can have a garden if I want, and the nearest real town is supposedly only twenty minutes or so. The village nearest the cabin apparently only has a gas station, vet’s office/animal supply place, and a grocery store that also sells garden supplies. Powerlines are buried, nobody has television or internet, and cell phone reception is tricky until you learn when and where to call. I like the idea of a simpler life. Maybe I’ll write a book. Isn’t that what broken-hearted people do when they run off to try and forget? Well, I’d better get going. I will miss you Minnie, but I need to do this for me.”

  Taemin sighed and pulled Minho into a hug. “Call me regularly so I know you haven’t been eaten by cannibal ax murderers, and I hope you find what you’re looking for. I love you Choi Minho.”

  “I love you too Lee Taemin, and I will.”

  Slightly weirded out since Taemin wasn’t really the mushy, express your feelings to another man type, and Minho gave his friend one last squeeze before gently pulling away and climbing onto his Harley. He pulled on his helmet and gloves, started it up, and with one last half-smile revved the engine and headed off in pursuit of his newest dream. Hopefully this one wouldn’t end up a nightmare like the others.