Suho told his father that the information needed for transatlantic cruising was for a college friend. Mr. Kim even offered to get out of his retirement shelter---a two-storeyed Italian-style villa on the outskirts of Seoul---to offer advice, but Suho refused. 

"He was eager," he mumbled, a sad smile on his face. "A part of me wanted to tell him the truth but..."

I nodded. "You're doing the right thing. Let's not trouble your old man too much, alright?"

Suho gave me a reassured smile and after finishing the macchiato Kyungsoo had made for the two of us, we strapped in our bags and walked out of the museum cafe when suddenly, we heard frantic footsteps behind us. 

"I've sent a truck your way," Kyungsoo said, waving his hand to stop us. "It's your ration for the trip. I've put enough food to last you guys half a year."

"How the hell did you do that?" I asked, looking back at him in shock. Kyungsoo grinned and gave a nonchalant shrug. 

"Luhan convinced the board of directors that this was a research trip that would need their funding."

"This is a research trip," Suho affirmed.

"Yes but," Kyungsoo continued, shaking his head. "No one's going to sponsor a crew headed towards the Bermuda Triangle now, would they?"

"Wait," I said, holding up my hand. Kyungsoo looked like he regretted opening his mouth. "The people funding us have no idea where we're going?"

"Nuh-uh," he replied. "Luhan's doing exactly what your grandfather did all those years ago. He's going to lie to them."

"Dammit this is not the 20th century!" I exclaimed. "How are we supposed to make up stuff in the face of technology? Those guys will be having GPS and God knows what to monitor us!"

"Not really." Suho furrowed his eyebrows at me, then smiled. "It's Luhan we're talking about. He'll figure it out."

"Speaking of Luhan," Kyungsoo asked, "where is he?"

"Waiting for us at the airport," I said, heaving a sigh and tightening the strap of my rucksack.

Kyungsoo widened his eyes. "Aren't you late then?"

I gave a half-hearted chuckle. "If I'm going to be the sacrificial lamb, I might as well have my last cup of coffee before I leave right?"

Kyungsoo hesitantly wished us all the best and asked for a four-leaf clover as a souvenir. I made a mental note to get the kid some Irish coffee as well. 

                                                            ***********************************************************

As a high-school student, I had promised myself that the first vacation from my own money would be a tour around Italy. The romance of Florence, the food of Naples and the culture of Rome --- the hidden aesthetic enthusiast within me wanted to be as rich in experience, perhaps even more, through my first trip. Instead I was on enroute to an unknown town in Ireland, headed for an unquestioningly fatal voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.

I was fond of airports and travelling but for the first time I felt morose when the plane wheels left the ground. Luhan was excited and had finished watching almost six movies in-flight but Suho had caught my expression looking out of the window, the face that reflected back growing sickly pale by the second.

“Maybe I got too excited during the preparation,” I whispered. Luhan couldn’t have heard me anyway, what with the sports commentator’s voice blasting from his earphones. But the kid had his ways, I give him that.  Suho leaned in a bit and waited for me to continue. I forced a smile that seemed more like a punctuation mark on a hopeless sentence. “Maybe I could have just worked from the back and outrightly refused to join you guys. I don’t feel good about this Suho. I absolutely don’t.”

“Are you scared of unfamiliar places?” he asked. I shook my head.

“No, nothing like that. It’s not anxiety, or whatever it is they call it. I just…” I lifted my hands to create a picture but failed. I let them drop on my lap and said, “I just wish my grandfather would stop haunting me.”

“Shakespeare said ‘what’s in a name?’” I half-heartedly laughed. “Well, it’s everything. Especially if it’s someone whose name helms some sort of expectation from you. I didn’t really notice but when I really think about it, my fingers won’t be enough to count all the times I’ve been pegged up against grandfather. We’re parallel tracks, always have been and right now, I’m doing exactly what I didn’t want to do --- be his shadow.”

Suho waited for me to finish then took a deep breath. He furrowed his eyebrows and nodded. “Well, now that you put it like that.”

“You’re horrible at pep talks.”

Suho chuckled. “Okay, okay… hold up.” He looked out the window. There was nothing to see, unless gray mist and the incoming weather cover of a dismal Irish afternoon was a sight to the man. “You’re not like your grandfather. Nothing like the man my father talked about. Now I don’t know if it’s because you tried to not be like him or maybe because you just turned out this way, you are who you are for several reasons that you’ll never understand.” He paused. “You know, it’s funny how people try hard to fit into society then complain that they’re not special. Sheeps follow the herd, you don’t hear them complaining about not getting enough grass to eat. They just follow the sheepdog, follow the shepherd, follow each other. But humans are different. We were never meant to follow each other. People have confused being for each other with being like each other. The more I look at you Baekhyun, the more I see someone who is embossed by his grandfather’s name. Your legacy is a part of who you are and maybe some of your grandfather’s knack for details went into your sculpture skills --- Luhan can’t keep his trap shut you know that.” Suho raised his hands up in peace and I sighed, giving him the cue to continue. “The point is, maybe this experience will help you figure out who you really are. You know, the more you emboss a written word, the more it looks like two words that need to be separated. Maybe this trip will be the pressure point you’ve always needed, to officially leave your grandfather behind.”

The wave of panic that I had conveniently locked away released for a while, then calmed down. Suho had said everything I didn’t want to hear from myself.

“Are you sure you and Luhan aren’t related?” I asked. Confused by the question, Suho shook his head. I shrugged. “Both of you are smooth-talkers.”

“That’s because,” Luhan intervened, winking at me while doing so, “Suho’s mom and my mom used to eat a lot of butter when they had us! Haha!”

I groaned and sunk in my seat while Suho laughed out loud and told Luhan to “get out”. 

“When we get there,” I muttered, “just wash your brain out a bit, please. God knows what all muck you got stuck in your neurons.”

Half an hour later, we reached Dublin and thanks to Suho’s face and Luhan’s words, managed to hitch a ride with an old man working as an innkeeper at Youghal, our final destination.

“It’s destiny Baekhyun,” Luhan grinned. “Just admit it.”

“So why you pretty boys be heading that way?” the innkeeper asked, his voice hanging between a light-hearted jovial tone and an air of suspicion. “Don’t you want to see the bright lights of the city? Get some bevvy?” He winked. “Some ladies?”

“His grandfather left behind something for him,” Suho said, smiling at me. “We’re just going to get it back.”

“Well, I tell you son.” The innkeeper turned around to look at me. “Your grandfather was a smart man. Nobody comes to this part of the world to get anything. If he left something behind, it must have been a bloody mistake or something bloody precious.”

“That’s exactly what it is,” I said, shifting in my seat to collapse into a nap. “A precious mistake.”