Joshua would be lying if he told you that everything in his life was perfect. Naturally, coming from a rich family has multiple benefits, but somehow Joshua wasn’t satisfied. His money (it was his parents money since they just threw it at him) didn’t bring him happiness, having a new and updated version of different things didn’t make Joshua feel better about himself. He wanted to meet real people with real emotions; real feelings, rather than another person who made a personality out of their wealth. Maybe what the man needed was a trip where the only person he brought along was himself. Which is why he was ecstatic after finding out about his family trip to Japan for Christmas. Not only had Joshua never been to Japan but he was in love with the country, it had been a big dream of his to travel and explore the vast landscape.

The wintertime was Joshua’s favorite time of the year (mainly because of his birthday). He loved the snow, the peppermint, the cold weather, and the presents; there was nothing bad the man could say about the season (but he loved it the most since he was born a few days after Christmas). After being told that they were staying overseas for the holidays, Joshua had already begun packing his winter clothes.

Oh, he hoped for the best adventures. He wasn’t going to spend time with his parents.

It was a week before Christmas when Joshua and his family arrived in Tokyo. It was rather cold and a blanket of snow covered the land, however, that excited the young man even more. This trip was going to be so memorable. After the family collected their bags from baggage claim they started to head to the hotel, admiring the view of the city from the van. Joshua was so infatuated that he couldn’t stop admiring the beautiful landscape.

“What’s on your mind?” asked his younger sibling, she nudged his side in hopes of getting his attention.

“Tokyo is so pretty,” Joshua says, keeping his eyes fixated on the scenery, “I wish I could stay here forever.”

His sister let out a little snort, “you’re a weeb.” Joshua indeed was a weeb. He loved watching Japanese animation, it was his guilty pleasure. Not many people knew he enjoyed them. When they arrived at the hotel, Joshua was left in charge of keeping himself and his younger siblings in their rooms. The perks of being the eldest son were that you could persuade the parents to get a room to yourself; luckily his younger siblings were mature enough to fend for themselves. After an annoying fifteen minutes of getting his brothers and sisters to calm down, Joshua could finally escape to his private room.

“Finally,” the man let out a sigh and face planted onto the bed, “some peace and quiet.”

He laid on his bed for a good ten minutes before he decided it would be great to head into the city for some alone time. He quickly changed into some new clothes since he didn’t want to stay in his gross airplane attire. The night before traveling, Joshua had let some old friends know that he would be in town for the next two and a half weeks if they wanted to meet up and get some lunch. He was going to meet Jihoon and Soonyoung at a cafe nearby and then let them show him around the area in hopes of buying early Christmas gifts.

Without telling his parents or siblings, Joshua left his room, ready for the day ahead of him. He was going to use this free time to actually be alone. That’s right, no more family drama for Joshua Hong. As the man exited the elevator, he noticed that the hotel lobby was packed with people checking in for the holidays. He wasn’t too surprised, his parents had a hard time booking rooms for them. The lobby was decorated in beautiful Christmas ornaments and such, it was hard not to admire them. Joshua admired them so much he wasn’t paying attention to the young man bumping himself and a tray of water onto the other man.

“I am terribly sorry, sir,” apologized the worker, he sincerely felt guilty for his actions.

Joshua let out a low groan as he gained his consciousness back, “please watch where you are going.”

“I understand,” confessed the man, “it was completely my fault. Please let me help you clean up my mess, sir.” Running off and then returning with a towel, the employee dabbed the cloth all over the wet fabric of Joshua’s shirt and jacket. Luckily, the liquid was only water.

Realizing that he may have been too harsh, Joshua stepped away and kneeled down to help pick up the cups of spilled water that were displayed all around them.

“Sir, there’s no need for you—”

“Well I can’t sit back and let you clean up my mess,” Joshua says putting all the cups onto the tray that originally crashed into him. He stood back up and exchanged the tray with the worker, “here you go, please try and make sure this never happens again.

Speechless, the other man gives Joshua a nod and bows.

“By the way,” he begins to say before he was on his way, “what’s your name?”

“Seokmin, sir,”

And just like that, the two part their ways very quickly. Joshua leaves the hotel and Seokmin heads to somewhere in the building to put away his mess; both men continued to think about the strange interaction.

‘Well, he was sorta cute,’ thought Joshua, who was a hopeless romantic. To put it simply, Joshua didn’t have a high body count. Back in senior year of high school, let’s say he “hopped” around with the girls and boys of his grade to create something exciting (since nothing ever happened in his life). Sure enough, everyone began to talk about what a heartthrob Joshua had become. However, he has since put that past him.

He meets Jihoon and Soonyoung at a small café that was five minutes away from the hotel. The duo moved to Japan around a year ago and, like Joshua, fell in love with the country. They all ordered coffee and snacks to nibble and sip on as they caught up.

“I assume your parents haven’t changed,” Jihoon interrogated Joshua as he reached for his cup of coffee.

Sighing, the older man nodded, “still boring and demanding.”

“Have you told them yet?” asked Soonyoung.

“Soonyoung that’s a little rude to ask,” murmured Jihoon with a slight glare.

Joshua blinked at the two with a confused look, “told them what?” Then he realized, “oh what, that I’m bi? No, of course not!”

Jihoon scoffed, “right, because you’d, quote-unquote, “ruin the company’s core values”. I don’t get it, I’m either dumb or they’re stupid.”

“They’re stupid,” answered Joshua and Soonyoung.

Joshua took a sip of his coffee before continuing, “they don’t get me, I want to travel and explore, not become a businessman! I’m not majoring in liberal arts for no reason.”

“You should come live with us here,” Soonyoung told the older man, “you should come to live down here and open up some sort of art studio or whatever.”

“I can’t drop out of my last year of college,” Joshua sighs into his coffee and slumps back in his chair, “what should I do?”

“I say graduate and then come move here,” Jihoon suggested.

“I don’t know guys,” sighed Joshua as he took another sip of his coffee, “I do love Japan but I can’t just leave my parents without letting them know.”

Soonyoung rolled his eyes, “haven’t we been over this already? I thought we all agreed that you hated your parents.”

“I do resent them, yes—”

“Good, you should move to Japan soon and live with us then,” agreed Soonyoung and Jihoon as they nodded and clinked their coffee cups together. Joshua sighs, maybe they were right. Maybe he should leave his toxic family and never return. "Just give it some thought," said Soonyoung with a cheeky smile.

After a successful coffee meet-up, Joshua and his two friends head into the city to buy some Christmas gifts for his siblings, as well as buying himself some souvenirs. Jihoon took them to famous neighborhoods and shopping districts while Soonyoung spoiled Joshua and showed him Akihabara, Anime Heaven. Joshua nearly splurged and spent all his yen. The trio was out all day shopping and Joshua didn't have a moment to think about his family. He felt so euphoric. When the time came to part their ways, Jihoon and Soonyoung dropped their friend off at his hotel and said their goodbyes. Joshua wasn't ready to hear an earful. He was an adult, not a baby.

As he came up to the hotel room, Joshua was about to take out his keycard and unlock the door when his sister opened it forcefully. "Mom and dad have been worried sick about you!"

"Jisoo! Where have you been?!" His mother shouted from the bathroom, she was getting ready to go to dinner with her husband later that evening.

"I told you all," Joshua said calmly, "I made plans to have coffee and shop with some old friends." He heard his mother mumble under her breath about him not telling anyone that, but that wasn't his problem.

"Dad wanted to see you," muttered one of his brothers, who was slumped over the bed. Joshua groans and heads into the other room where his father was getting dressed up as well.

"You wanted to see me?" asked the young man as he sat down in one of the chairs.

"This was supposed to be a family trip, Jisoo," his father said, "yet you were gone the whole day."

The young man let out a quiet sigh as he ran his fingers through his hair, "if this is a family trip then please tell me why you and mother are going to dinner without us."

His father sighs and turns towards his son with crossed arms, "listen, please behave on this trip, that is all your mother and I want from you."

"No promises," Joshua stands up and leaves his father and then the hotel room, heading towards the bar. His parents were so damn demanding, he hated it so much. He needed to let out some stress by drinking his feelings away. Thankfully, the hotel bar was open and bustling with other tourists. The man sits down at the bar and waits to order his drink. "Could I please get a tequila sunrise?"

When Joshua looks at the bartender to order, he finds himself staring for longer than a few seconds. Wait, it was the employee from earlier.

"Promise me not to spill it?" Seokmin said with a grin as he leaned over the counter towards Joshua, "by the way, I never got your name."

"Jisoo," says Joshua. Jisoo was his Korean name, only his family and certain friends called him it.

"Jisoo, eh? What brings you here on a beautiful evening?" Seokmin began preparing Joshua's drink, he grabbed glasses and liquor from all around the bar. Joshua watched in awe as Seokmin prepared the drink for him.

"I needed to get away from my family," Joshua didn't mind opening up to a stranger (especially a cute stranger), he may never see Seokmin again for what he knows.

Nodding as he poured alcohol into Joshua's glasses, Seokmin tried his best to provide soothing words of encouragement to the other man, "perfectly understandable, sir. Sometimes I get tired of my family—and I love them!"

"You're lucky," mumbled Joshua; he sighed.

"Lucky how?" asked Seokmin.

"You probably have a sweet family to spend the holidays with, I'm stuck with snobby parents who don't pay attention to me," complained Joshua, since he had no one really to rant to.

Sliding Jisoo his drink, Seokmin gave Joshua a confused yet sad look, "that's saddening to hear, sir. If you're comfortable, I'll listen to your problems."

So for the rest of the night, Seokmin stood there, ears open, hearing what Joshua had to say about his dilemmas. Seokmin wouldn't admit this, but, he was willing to listen to the man's problems all night. Joshua talked about his siblings, his friends, old painful memories that were coming back to haunt him, and other small things that were bothering him. Joshua didn't know why he was opening up this much to a man who had spilled water on him hours before. Why was he feeling feelings of happiness around this man? Did Seokmin have something Joshua craved?

Joshua was determined to get to the bottom of this (maybe quite literally). For now, he was going to have to deal with being hungover the next morning.