Kyuhyun hated train rides. It wasn't so much the train that bothered him as it was the length of it. They always bored him, despite what he brought along to entertain himself. Not even his laptop and games could keep him occupied for the five hour train ride he was so often placed on for a business trip for work. Now, though, he wasn't just sitting on a train. He was sitting on a train so that he could get on a plane to Beijing.

But this time, he wasn't traveling for work. No, this time he was traveling for his own pleasure. It wasn't something that he did very often. The amount of money that he made at his job wasn't all that much, but he managed to get by okay. This was something that he had been saving for, though.

It had always been his dream to get out of Korea and travel to China. Sure, it wasn't all that far or different from what he was used to, but it still was out of his small apartment and something new and adventurous for him. He wasn't one much for exciting new adventures but he thought that, maybe just this once, it would be nice to get out of his comfort zone.

That being said, he wasn't exactly thrilled about the fact that he would be traveling alone. It wasn't that he was incapable of getting around on his own, he just would like the company. He had tried to recruit some of his friends, but that all claimed that they couldn't afford the trip or else they would have accompanied him.

So he ended up deciding to go alone. To take a large step out of his comfort zone and embark on adventure that only he would have. His friends would be more than happy to look at pictures and listen to his stories when he got back, but that was nothing next to what he was going to experience.

Getting to the train station was easy. He had done it so many times before. Growing up in a large city like Seoul he was accustomed to using public transportation. Once onboard he found a seat and got situated. It wasn't more than an hour ride to the airport, so he wasn't even going to bother getting his laptop out. The people passing by him were fascinating enough to watch.

Some of them had children with them, only going a short journey to a different part of the city to explore for the day. Others were businessmen, their small suitcases  lagging behind them as they strutted around in their suits. Then there were the other travels, like himself, struggling with large bags.

There was one man, however, that caught his eye in particular. He didn't fit into any of the categories that the other people had unconsciously sorted themselves into. The lone backpack was swung easily over his shoulder and he walked with an air of confidence that let everyone around him know that he knew he looked good.

And he did, Kyuhyun had to admit. The skin tight dark jeans hugged every inch of his long legs and the loose t-shirt he wore fell off his one shoulder, revealing a sharp collar bone. Kyuhyun was following him with his eyes, unable to tear them away. When the man stood beside his seat and pointed to the empty seat next to him, asking if he could sit there in heavily accented Korean, Kyuhyun was flustered. He tried to get coherent words to form in his mind, but he could hardly manage any more than a simple nod and moved hastily to put his bag on the floor at his feet.

"I'm Zhou Mi," the man introduced himself with a small smile.

"Kyuhyun."

There was silence for awhile as Zhou Mi fiddled with the zipper on his bag.

"Where are you going?" Zhou Mi asked, finally looking up from his bag to meet Kyuhyun's eye.

Kyuhyun just looked at him. His face was utterly distracting. Separately, his features should make him ugly. His nose was too big, his jaw line too sharp and his eyes were slightly crooked. Yet, somehow when they all landed themselves on his face it managed to look good. Maybe that was because of the confidence, Kyuhyun didn't know.

"I, uhm, I'm going to, er, Beijing," Kyuhyun managed to sputter out. He sounded like a complete and total idiot.

"Oh, really! Me too!" Zhou Mi exclaimed and Kyuhyun swore that if he wasn't so God damn tall the man would have jumped right to his feet.

Luckily Kyuhyun didn't have to do much more talking after that as Zhou Mi proceeded to give him what Kyuhyun thought could be his whole life story. He had been born and raised in China only to come to Korea in search of a better job, which he had found. From what Kyuhyun could gather he liked his life in Korea and had every intention to stay. Zhou Mi seemed to be perfectly happy with his life, except that his family was still back in China, which was the reason for his return.

"I would ultimately like to save enough money to pay for them to move here. I don't think my mom would go for that, though. She loves China too much," Zhou Mi explained and while Kyuhyun was indeed listening he didn't have to do much more than simply nod along as Zhou Mi spoke. That was the nice thing about chatty people, he thought: you didn't have to hold half of the conversation, only about a fourth.

The train ride went by fast with Zhou Mi talking, and before he knew it, it was time for him to get off. Well, him and Zhou Mi.

Kyuhyun's original thought was that as soon as they were off the train Zhou Mi would leave him behind to get to where he needed to go. But that wasn't the case as Zhou Mi kept by Kyuhyun and they made their way to the international terminal together.

And Zhou Mi talked all the while. Some of it was nonsense, Kyuhyun knew, but he wasn't really complaining. It was nice to have someone talking to him. When he was traveling he so often felt alone despite the fact that he was surrounded by people.

When they reached the check-in gate Kyuhyun  followed Zhou Mi into the line. He should have seen it coming, but the rapid Mandarin that came out of Zhou Mi's mouth as he spoke to the attendant caught him off guard.

The words that he was spitting out fast as lightening were mostly just noise to Kyuhyun, save a few words here and there.

When Zhou Mi was finished and he needed to check in himself he stumbled a bit. The lady behind the counter spoke Korean, but it was broken and hard to understand and his Mandarin was possibly even worse.

"Uhm, Zhou Mi?" Kyuhyun called to Zhou Mi who was waiting for him no more than a few feet away.

"Need help?" Zhou Mi asked, taking a few steps to close the gap between them and stepping up to the counter again.

"Please and thank you."

With Zhou Mi using his quick Mandarin again they managed to get checked in and make it through security. They found their way to their gate with little trouble. Zhou Mi seemed to have a good lay of the land, and even found them a nice cafe to get something to eat at.

"So what are you doing in China, anyway?" Zhou Mi asked with a half-mouth full of food.

"Just traveling, site seeing," Kyuhyun gave as half an answer.

"That's exciting! China can be so beautiful, so long as you know where to go!" Zhou Mi said excitedly and Kyuhyun felt another rant coming on.

He was right, as Zhou Mi began listing a number of places that Kyuhyun 'just had to see' while he was there.

Kyuhyun was almost grateful when he heard them announce that their flight was boarding. It meant that he had an excuse to move again. He didn't like the waiting around when he was traveling. He was supposed to be going somewhere, not sitting around. There was a bit of disappointment as he realized that the chances of him sitting next to Zhou Mi on the plane were slim to none, and he was prepared to say goodbye to the man when he caught a glimpse of Zhou Mi's ticket in his hand.

Their seats were right next to each other.

"What are the odds?" Kyuhyun said as he laughed, pointing to Zhou Mi's ticket and then his own. Zhou Mi just returned his amusement with a small smile.

Something gave Kyuhyun the feeling that their being sat next to each other wasn't luck at all. As he remembered Zhou Mi's fast Mandarin with the woman at the check-in counter, he was sure of it.

Dare he say it, he rather liked the fact that Zhou Mi had made the effort to get sat next to him. It was rather kind, especially seeing as they had just met. But to be honest, Kyuhyun would rather be next to Zhou Mi than some other stranger. Zhou Mi had already begun to feel more like a friend than a stranger.

It bugged him that Zhou Mi was quiet as they boarded the plane and searched for their seats. They found them easily, sliding their luggage into the overhead bin and getting out of the aisle quickly so that other passengers could pass by.

Zhou Mi pulled out his iPod and put his headphones in, leaving Kyuhyun a bit confused. Ever since Zhou Mi had introduced himself on the train he had done nothing but talk. Talk about himself, talk about politics, music, drama, China. The list goes on and on. But here he was, sat silent.

As the plane began to move, Zhou Mi's leg started to tap. Up and down, up and down. His hands fidgeted with his seat belt, pulling it tighter.

"Zhou Mi," Kyuhyun said, placing a hand on Zhou Mi's thigh to still the movement.

Zhou Mi took one head phone out and looked at him, giving a him a weak smile.

"Are you okay?" Kyuhyun asked. He was honestly worried, Zhou Mi was starting to look a bit pale.

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine. I just...don't like flying all that much. It's mostly the take off," Zhou Mi admitted, looking into his lap to hide his face from Kyuhyun.

Kyuhyun just chuckled. It made sense to him now why Zhou Mi had moved their seats so that they could be next to each other. He had no one else with him, so Kyuhyun was the closest thing he had to comfort for this experience.

"You'll be fine," Kyuhyun assured as he casually reached across the armrest and slipped his hand into Zhou Mi's, intertwining their fingers. The smile that Zhou Mi gave him was a little stronger now as he squeezed Kyuhyun's hand.

That didn't mean that Zhou Mi didn't let out a small yelp as the plane started to pick up speed.

 

The plane landed safely in Beijing, right on schedule. Zhou Mi had calmed down once the plane got in the air and he was sure that it was going to stay there, at least until they arrived. As they headed towards baggage claim together, Zhou Mi was back to his usual chatty self.

Kyuhyun thought that he would miss the noisy chatter when he had to say goodbye to Zhou Mi in a few minutes. That reality set in when they walked out to where families were waiting for passengers and a large group of young Chinese boys shouted Zhou Mi's name.

Kyuhyun watched as Zhou Mi ran over to them, getting embraced by them all. Kyuhyun smiled as he looked on, but he felt like he was intruding. Their travels were over and he was on his own again. He picked up his bag and began to head over to the taxi counter.

"Hey, Kyuhyun! Wait up!" Zhou Mi called and Kyuhyun turned at the sound of his name to find Zhou Mi running over to him.

"I, um, I'll be in Beijing for a few days. I'm visiting some old college friends here before I head back home to see my parents. If you, if you need anything or anyone to show you around, just give me a call, okay?" Zhou Mi stammered out as he shoved a piece of paper into Kyuhyun's hand.

Kyuhyun looked down at it. It did indeed have a phone number on it as well as Zhou Mi's name scribbled in both Chinese characters and Hangul.

"Um, thank you." Kyuhyun mumbled, a little unsure of how to react.

"Not a problem. And thanks, Kyuhyun, for everything," Zhou Mi said and gave his shoulder a squeeze before leaving to return to his waiting friends.

If Kyuhyun had been watching him he would have seen Zhou Mi's friends give him high fives and even a few fist pumps. But instead, he was staring down at the number that was in his hands.

Traveling certainly did provide new adventures of all sorts and as Kyuhyun shoved the number into his pocket, he thought he would definitely be giving Zhou Mi a call.