The first thing that Taemin did upon waking up was checking his phone to see if Minho had replied to his messages. He knew better than to expect such things, but the curiosity outweighed his ego that he had to swallow the last bits of his pride and open their chatroom. And of course, expectantly, the chat was still the same as how he left it the night before - the one that was void of Minho’s responses and only meekly decorated by Taemin’s pathetic text bubbles, very much ignored pointedly. 

“Dickhead,” groaning in utter disappointment, Taemin shoved himself up and out to the bathroom to get ready. If Minho didn’t want to talk, fine. If he didn’t want to explain anything virtually, fine. Whatever. Losers existed, right? It wasn’t Minho’s fault that he didn’t realise he was being one.

A big loser at that. Huge L on the forehead.

“I will find you,” Taemin pulled his hair up in a loose ponytail and stared at his reflection in the mirror, acknowledging his look for the day. “This resort isn’t so big anyway. I might get lost in some nooks and corners because I’m a mess like that, but I’m going to get out of it just fine and I will find you, Minho.”

Only with unwavering enthusiasm, the tenor of his trip changed. No work for today, that was obvious. He managed to fish Kibum with small details of someone so incredibly hot wanting to sleep with him the other day, yet he conditioned his best friend to persuade Jinki into granting him a one-day off without excuses for him to know the full story. Taemin might not be the sneakiest human to ever grace the Earth, but he definitely knew his way around things, especially rules. If you know how to work with your words and intelligence, rules will bend, too. And Minho was about to be the same.

His first destination was the lobby. More often than not, usually in the late afternoon, Minho was seen talking with Lea at the front desk and, honestly? It felt fishy at first witnessing their close interaction during office hours after knowing that Minho barely stood so close to other staff. (Yeah, Taemin watched him from afar. So what?) With Lea, though, they teased each other a lot and laughed very often together. Their relationship resembled that of siblings, but Taemin wouldn’t know that. He didn’t want to question it either. He’d had enough of funny speculations to nearly punch Minho’s jaw the other day.

But today, strangely, he wasn’t there. Lea was alone, so Taemin decided to give it a shot and ask her, making it look like one of his several staple activities instead.

“Sir Taemin!”

“Hi,” Taemin scratched his nape and smiled. “You don’t have to call me that, you know. Just Taemin would be fine.”

She shook her head in clear disapproval, “Nope. My brother taught me to be respectful towards the guests. That’s the standard nickname for everyone here.”

“But what if the guests themselves want to break out of the formalities?” He asked, playing with the rings on his fingers and being fairly reluctant to string his words together. “As… friends?”

Unlike the bumpy start with Minho, his relationship with Lea had been that smooth since the beginning. The first day he came to the resort, she was the one who offered to tour Taemin around even if it wasn’t listed in her job descriptions. When asked why, she only shrugged and said, “You seem sweet and kind. I love helping kind people like you.”

Sweet and kind. 

Nobody had ever associated Taemin with those adjectives. The last time it happened, they came from the new intern kid, Jonghyun. He was struggling to host the excel test online, body shaking like a frail leaf in fear that Jinki would explode in rage if he failed to conduct it successfully. Good thing Taemin was nearby to salvage the problem, took over the session and demonstrated the process from A to Z tirelessly just so Jonghyun could do it on his own next time. For Taemin, the first for everything was always scary. He’d been there, so he knew how it felt. It was normal. It was okay.

But that was only it. Coming from a complete stranger like Lea, it just hit differently. Taemin’s heart felt warm the whole time they talked, enjoying the privilege of not having to be careful about avoiding each other’s triggers and stuff, yet they never established a friendship. Never stood a chance to do it properly.

“Friends?” Lea widened her eyes in bewilderment like she couldn’t believe her own ears. Her orbs were so big that it reminded Taemin of Minho’s, but he pushed the thought out of his head quickly and nodded, partially distracted by the picture of the said man in his mind.

“Friends,” he parroted. “Only if you want, of course.”

“I do!”

And Taemin smiled easily. “Good. Now start by calling me by my name. Friends don’t need fancy honorifics.”

“Okay,” Lea giggled, her ears and cheeks reddened immediately. “Where are you going, by the way? All good looking like this. Heading out for lunch?”

“Oh. Right,” he was indulging in his sentimental behaviour for so long that he forgot his initial purpose of coming down to the lobby. Now glancing around briefly, Taemin pursed his lips and asked, voice quiet and hesitant, “Have you seen Minho today?”

There was something weird about her smile after that. It was so huge that it almost split mercilessly across her tiny face, but she toned it down and grappled the blue pen for no reason, eyes showing a different glint that accompanied her answer.

“I haven’t seen Mr Choi enough. The last time was this morning in the hospitality suite, but that was it. Also, he doesn’t have external schedules for today. He’s mostly free, I can promise you that much,” she nodded convincingly. “No meetings whatsoever.”

“I see. He’s in the resort, then?”

“Yep. Office, most likely,” she paused. “Do you want to go to his office?”

Taemin suddenly flushed crimson. Wouldn’t it be so impolite to get into someone’s office very randomly during their leisure time? They weren’t friends. That wasn’t okay.

“It’s really okay,” Lea’s voice penetrated his ear and took over his barely computing brain as if she could hear Taemin’s internal crisis. “I bet he’s waiting, too.”

And that was his final straw. Agreeing almost instantly, Taemin found himself trailing after Lea down the furthest wing of the resort, the route that he’d never taken on his own because it was considered private for the employers. Lea was the one who informed him about it on his first day, saying that guests were prohibited to even amble around the living space. But then, she was also the one who violated the rule today. Worse now because she led Taemin in there, escorting the man to trespass in her family’s personal bits of the resort.

“Are you sure this is okay? What if he gets angry and fires you on the spot or something?” Taemin was being reasonably scared now. Yes, he would do this in a heartbeat. He was a rebel, after all. Nothing scared him anymore because he’d nothing to lose here, but it might cost Lea’s career.

Yet the young lady only chuckled airily, stood in front of the door and looked Taemin in the eyes, “Can’t you tell? He’s my brother, Taemin. Everything will be okay.”

“I knew itㅡ!”

“Shhh!” She tugged his arm and widened her eyes, once again injecting woozy thoughts about Minho into Taemin’s clouded mind. “Now just get inside. No one will come here, I promise. Good luck.”

Did she just say good luck? For what, exactly? Didn’t she know that Taemin only aimed to punch Minho’s jaw for being annoying then call it a day? He needed no luck for that.

When Lea walked out of the hallway, Taemin collected his fallen confidence, sealed every piece together then topped it with an unbreakable layer of sassiness before knocking on the door gently. Once he heard a faint ‘come in’ coming from the other side of the room, he twisted the doorknob and pushed himself into the office. It was huge and classy, everything that he’d imagined the manager of a prospering resort hotel to reside in. The corners were in perpetual darkness and for some hilarious reason, the vibes screamed numbers and statistics. Taemin didn’t know why but he only shivered uncomfortably and closed the door behind his back, all ready to face his newly pronounced enemy head-on.

And there he was; resting his back against the leather chair while staring out the glass wall overlooking the beach. Minho seemed passive in his seat, his body language indicated that he was calm and undisturbed at the moment. As unbelievable as it may sound, Taemin didn’t have the heart to break the oddly peaceful silence that doused them, but Minho was not making efforts to turn around and look at him either. He had to do something to gain his attention, so he cleared his throat shortly and waited for a response.

“Lea? What is it? Just put the documents there, I will read them later.”

Lea? 

“Oi,” Taemin called out after scrunching his face, arms automatically crossed on his chest. This one, unlike the silent gesture earlier, worked. Minho stilled for a moment before wheeling around, his eyes grew twice in size. “Surprise.”

“Taemin?”

The addressed man nodded his approval, “Now that’s correct.”

“What… are you doing here?” Minho clapped once as he walked across and Taemin grunted when the lamps flickered on, eyes squinted readily to adjust to