What Happens in the Bathhouse (Stays in the Bathhouse)

How Jongin and Baekhyun meet.

or:

Two awkward teenagers make the best out of a ridiculously stupid situation with their remaining 3 brain cells.

Set: When Baekhyun was 19, 3 years after he ran away from Vasileia (around half a year after he met Luhan). Jongin’s 17.

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Byun Baekhyun was having an awful day before his target went into the women’s bathhouse.

On any usual day, he would’ve waited for her to come back out. Any normal target, he would’ve done the same. There were two problems: first of all, he was pretty sure the bathhouses had an entrance to some sort of secret tunnel system, which was the sole reason she even went there in the first place. Baekhyun wasn’t so much of a terrible person that he’d follow her in with the knowledge that she wanted to use the bathhouses for the intent they were made for. Second of all, Baekhyun couldn’t be certain whether or not the Park family had spotted him, meaning that he very possibly had a lot less time than he thought he did to catch the woman, demand answers, and get out. Considering the fact that he’d slept a combined total of five hours in the past two days, he really wanted to get the mission through and pass out on any flat surface he could find. Luhan had scheduled to pick him up at the docks soon, which meant that he was even on more of a time crunch because Luhan hated tardiness.

Baekhyun slapped his cheek to fight off the fatigue. The bathhouses had at least another half hour before they opened for the night, meaning that if he snuck in, he wouldn’t be disrupting people who were actually using the bathhouse. And not cause too much havoc for intruding into the women’s section.

Sneaking in was no issue. The woman he’d been following had disappeared from sight, but Baekhyun remembered seeing her turn into the main room. There was only one exit from the main room that wasn't the windows, so if she didn’t come out, that meant the secret passages were there.

Crossing his fingers that there wasn’t going to be anybody there but his target, Baekhyun pushed open the double doors and stepped inside.

It was extremely hot in the room. The waters had already been heated and steam rose steadily into the air, the sort of heat that made him feel dangerously drowsy. Baekhyun pinched himself and scanned the room for the woman. He spotted the person in the water a moment later, but unless the woman he’d been following had chopped her hair in the last two minutes and had a much broader back, it wasn’t her.

The figure in the water turned around a second later. Baekhyun stood at the door, unsure if he was more tired or more confused.

Because of the vapour that rose from the heated baths, he couldn’t make out his features very well, but from what he could tell, it was a boy, perhaps around his age.

The lack of sleep was clearly getting to him, because Baekhyun had forgotten all about the task at hand in favour of staring at the boy in front of him. He still had half the mind to think that standing with part of his body in the hallway and part of it in the bathing room was a godawful idea, especially because he wasn’t even in the bathhouse for his gender and he definitely wasn’t keen on getting caught by any staff. Except the boy in the water also clearly wasn’t in the right bathhouse, so…

“Um,” the boy said. “Can you close the door? You’re letting the hot air out.”

Baekhyun hated orders. He’d defied his family’s, against all odds. He worked on his own terms and did what he thought was best. The only orders he genuinely took were the occasional ones from Luhan that made some remote sense. For some stupid reason, though, he pushed the door shut behind him and stepped into the room fully.

They stared at each other for a while longer.

Baekhyun jabbed his finger forward, even though he had absolutely no idea what he was pointing at. “Did you happen to see someone pass by here?”

“Who?”

“Uh…” He was clearly too exhausted to think properly. “Uh… she had long black hair, was wearing a dark green dress, and kind of tall?”

The boy looked mystified. “You’re describing a woman.”

Baekhyun was just as confused. “Yes?”

“This is the men’s bathhouse, though.”

“It’s…” He wracked his brain. “I’m sure it wasn’t. I saw the sign for the men’s bathhouse pointing in the other direction?”

“No?” He was still neck-deep in the water, but the boy waded over a bit so he was closer to the edge, looking up at Baekhyun. “I’m sure this is the men’s bathhouse. If it weren’t, why are you here as well?”

Baekhyun had never felt so ridiculously speechless. He could fight ten armed men without a weapon himself and not break a sweat. He’d run away after setting his entire family loose on him and drowned half of Vasileia so they wouldn’t catch him. He’d escaped each and every encounter with death afterwards, so why—why did it feel so awkward to answer the boy’s questions? At any rate, he seemed like a normal kid (minus the fact that he was in the wrong bathhouse, but there was no way his reason was as horrid as Baekhyun’s. It seemed to just be an innocent mistake).

“She was…my fiance.” Baekhyun tried and failed at sounding convincing. “Um, she got kind of stressed about our upcoming wedding so she ran off, and I’ve been trying to talk to her.”

“Woah.” He sat up straighter in the water. “You’re getting married? You look like you’re my age. Anyway, what was your fiance doing in the men’s bathhouse?”

“I told you, it’s not the men’s bathhouse.”

“No, I’m positive it is. I can’t be that stupid.”

Baekhyun bit back the response that maybe he actually was that stupid. Then another thought occured to Baekhyun. “Why are you here before the bathhouses are open?”

The boy shrugged. “I like it better when I’m alone, so I snuck in early. What about you?”

“Fiance,” Baekhyun supplied helpfully. “Looking for her.”

“Ah,” he replied. “That sounds like a handful. I don’t think I want to get married.”

Baekhyun squinted at him. He was inclined to agree, because he really didn’t want to get married either and he didn’t even know the name of the woman he was following. “How old are you?”

“Seventeen.”

“I’m nineteen,” he felt inclined to point out, like it was some sort of competition. “But I really mean it. I’m sure this is the women’s bathhouse, so you should probably go to the men’s before they open and you get caught.”

“If it is, so should you,” the boy pointed out. “What’s your name? I’m Jongin.”

Baekhyun wasn’t really used to people acting so friendly around him or having to act friendly to anyone. There was Yixing, but he hadn’t seen his friend for over a year. The only other person that he could let his guard down around was Luhan, but he and Luhan had never had a nice, friendly relationship. He was just nagged for everything he did. Or threatened. Jon