April 13th, 1912. Lee Taemin.

Lucy woke me early that morning. I asked her where Kibum was, but he was nowhere to be found. I watched her while she was preparing my outfit for the day.

“Don’t make it to fancy, please.” I asked as I remembered what I had planned to do that day. She didn’t even ask me why, and I was thankful for that. She prepared a simple pair of black trousers, a dark grey blouse and a black jacket. When she went to get my breakfast, I hurried out of bed like I did every day, making sure that I was properly dressed when she returned to fix my hair. Not that I wasn’t able to do it myself, it was just some sort of excuse for her to stay with me longer. When she was helping me in the morning, no one would come into my room, not even Jonghyun, so I usually made those precious minutes last way to long. So far, no one seemed to notice, or care.

“Here’s your tea, young master.”

“Please, Lucy… Don’t call me that. You know I don’t like it when you call me that.” She closed the door behind her and prepared my tea.

“I’m sorry, Taemin. Sir Jonghyun was walking right behind me, I didn’t want him to be suspicious of anything.” She explained. I nodded. I was blessed to have this woman as my maid; she was the only one who actually understood what I was going through, and how much I hated it. When she was done with my hair, I took a last sip of my tea before putting it back on the little plate.

“You look very handsome, young master.” She said, when I stood straight in front of another mirror. I nodded to her through the mirror, bowed to thank her and went of to the deck without finishing breakfast. I needed to get something off my chest so I could continue living without constantly having to think about it.

I arrived at the deck, and it was already pretty crowded. I wasn’t the only one who woke up early. Children were playing, business men were bragging, women were sunbathing... Then there was this one guy who caught my eye immediately. He was somehow standing out of the crowd. Maybe it was just me. Maybe it was because of what happened yesterday. Maybe it was because he was wearing the same clothes he wore yesterday. I didn’t really care. I walked towards him, but as I came closer, I got nervous. Just when I changed my mind and turned around to walk back to my suite, he looked up.

“Hello,” Minho greeted me warmly. “How are you this morning? Feeling better?”

“Why would you care?” I said without thinking. I regretted my words directly after they left my mouth. He looked at me surprised, then his expression became angry and he looked down to whatever he was doing.

“I… I’m sorry.” I said, hesitating. “I’m just… Well my situation is kind of… You know.” He didn’t reply. I sighed, not happy with the fact that he was ignoring me. “Oh I know what you’re thinking. Poor little rich boy. What does he know of being unhappy. Right?”

“You’re wrong.” He murmured, as he continued scribbling in a notebook that was lying on his lap. I moved my hands to my hips, looking at him as arrogant as possible.

“Then what were you thinking?” I hissed.

“Did you come here to at me, or to thank me?” he snapped. That got me out of my acting. I stuttered a little, thinking of what to say that would make me lead this conversation again. But I was defeated.

“You’re right…” I gave in. “I should thank you. And that’s what I came here for, so I’ll be leaving now." He looked down to his notebook without paying any attention to what I was saying. I waited for him to respond, but he didn’t, so I sat down next to him.

“I thought you were leaving?” My eyes widened in surprise as I felt my arrogance taking over again. I cleared my throat, stood straight and made sure there wasn’t any dust on my pants or jacket.

“I am.” I said.

“Well, go then. You thanked me. I heard you. What are you waiting for?” I could feel the challenge in his words, how he was daring me to stay and talk, as if he knew I wanted to do so. I looked down at his notebook.

“It’s rude not to look someone in the eyes while talking.” I said, before grabbing the notebook out of his hands. “Psh, what are you, some kind of artist?” I laughed sarcastically. Then I started looking through the pages. Most of them were drawings, some had some text in a scratchy, boyish handwriting. I blinked, surprised at how realistic the drawings were. Most of them were girls. The further I got into the notebook, the more the drawings became.

“You’re blushing.” He grinned.

“Am not.” I replied. He continued grinning as I found myself cornered by his drawings, and how good they were. There was no way I could’ve insulted him.

“These are… pretty good…” I admitted. He looked away.

“Thanks.” He murmured.

“Really good, actually.” I whispered as I looked at a drawing of a girl who must’ve been around my age, almost completely exposed. I quickly returned the notebook. He smiled, closed it, and put it in his bag.

“So… You make money drawing people?” I asked. He nodded.

“Oh, yeah. I’m expecting to be rich very soon.” He laughed. I raised an eyebrow. “I ask a penny for every drawing, unless I’m the one asking someone. I wont make someone pay to get drawn by me. There’s a difference between models and costumers.” I was surprised at how serious the expression on his face was. He was really serious about drawing. The thought of him drawing me crossed my mind, and I felt my face go red again. I could hear him grinning.

“So, tonight huh.” I quickly changed the subject. He nodded, and stretched his arms before resting his hands behind his head.

“Yep. Should be interesting.” I didn’t know how to reply. I’d expected him to be scared, nervous. But it didn’t seem to make him feel uncomfortable at all.

“Have you ever…”

“Had a proper meal before?” He finished my sentence before I found the courage to do so. I looked down at my hands and nodded.

“Of course. I’m not that poor, you know. I’m a good survivor, and with Jinki around… He’ll make me laugh so loudly I don’t feel hungry at all. I’ve never had a fancy meal before, though, if that’s what you meant.”

“So… where do you live?” I could see the excitement in his eyes as he answered.

“Everywhere.” He whispered, pointing at the horizon.

“How?” I asked, not able to understand his world. It was so different from mine.

“Me and Jinki… we travel around. Us ending up on this ship was pure luck. I won the tickets in a game of poker.” He smiled proudly.

“What will you do when we arrive?” I asked, worried.

“God knows.”

No words could describe how much I envied him back then.  No words could describe how much I wanted to change places with him, or at least share his. No words could describe how much I wanted to just take off like he did and just live. But I knew it wasn’t possible.

He looked up at me with his inviting, chocolate brown eyes, and smiled.

“Your expression… You look like your dreaming.”

“I was,” I admitted, “just for a second.”

“Was I involved?” he smirked. I frowned, my arrogance taking over once again.

“What would make you think that you were?”

“You were still smiling when I asked you.” I looked up, expecting him to look mean and happy with himself. Instead I found him smiling, with a soft pink colour on his cheeks and his head slightly twisted to the side. He was handsome. I stood straight, flattened my jacket and made a quick bow.

“I have to go now.” I said hastily. “I’ll see you at dinner.” I left without giving him the chance to reply, feeling stupid and confused. What was I thinking? In two weeks I was going to get married to Jonghyun. I was going to safe the company and make everybody extremely happy. Everybody, except for one person. Myself.

The handsome traveler, as I had decided to call him, instead of thinking of him as poor, haunted my mind all day. Flashes of his serious face when he was drawing, flashes of the pink color that had appeared on his cheeks. I sighed heavily while Lucy straightened out my outfit for the night, still thinking about him.

“What’s going on, young master? Your mind seems so far away…” It was. My mind was far away. Far enough for me not even thinking of complaining about her calling me master.

“Oh Lucy…” I sighed. “Why did he have to save me? Why couldn’t it be somebody else?” Lucy looked at me through the mirror. She didn’t say anything, but her eyes took care of that. I could tell she felt sorry for me, and I knew that was all she could do. Feel sorry and watch me slip away. I knew just like she did that I was never going to be able to get out of this, nor was Jonghyun going to let me. I couldn’t help myself from thinking what Minho would do if he were me. I quickly let go of that thought. The thought that came in it’s place worried me. Minho in Jonghyun’s place. He would’ve let me go. He would’ve made sure that I had the freedom that I was craving for. But that was not what I was worrying about. The confusing part about it was that if it were him I was forced to be with, I wouldn’t want to run away.

/

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