Chapter Three

Time flies when you’re busy doing the work you love. When Chen was still working in the corporate world, he hated every minute of it but now that he is working at the restaurant, the work hours pass by in a blur of activities. It’s tourist season and the restaurant was quite busy throughout the day.  It wasn’t until past nine in the evening when he went to his room upstairs to change his clothes.

As he tossed the keys into his desk, a certain object caught his attention at once. It was the bottle containing the letter he retrieved from the ocean a few days ago. He couldn’t quite explain the sadness that took over him the first time he read that letter. He had to read it twice to make sense of what he felt but as he went over the letter the second time, the sadness was overwhelming that he just cried. Sure he had seen and felt his fair share of sad stories in his life but the sadness emanating from that letter is a whole new kind of sad. He felt it through his bone, which is strange enough as he doesn’t even know who wrote the letter.

Based on the handwriting, he deduced that it was written by a man. And that was what caught him off guard. Men are good in suppressing their emotions and they hide their true feelings most of the time. But the letter sender just laid it out there. He poured all the love and pain he felt on that letter for the world to see, well, in this case for Chen to read.

The letter made him sad but it also made him wonder what it felt like to be in love. He wondered how it is to love as much as the letter sender and how it would feel like to receive that kind of love. For the longest time he never really allowed love to put him under its spell. Sure he liked someone before, but that like didn’t bloom into love. Now, he wondered if it was too late to feel that kind of feeling. He wondered if he wasted his time on unimportant things.

The sound of a phone ringing brought him out of his reverie. It’s the restaurant’s bartender calling. He proceeded into answering his phone.

“Chen-sshi, I’m sorry but I don’t think I can come to the restaurant tonight.” Minseok, the bartender, told him. “I’m in Seoul right now and I missed my flight back to Jeju. It’ll take another hour for the next plane to take off.”

“That’s okay, Minseok-sshi. I’ll just man the bar for tonight.”

“Thanks! I’ll be there tomorrow!” Minseok said his goodbye after.

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Chen just served a third shot of vodka to the strange man in front of him. He is not a judgemental person but he couldn’t stop himself from thinking that the man is strange, very strange. Since the man came to the bar an hour ago and sat at the stool in the corner, he didn’t utter a single word except “vodka.” When the man ordered his second and third shot, he just fixed his stare at Chen and raised his point finger. He wasn’t dumb not to figure out that it meant one shot of vodka so he just proceeded into giving the man what he wants.  He didn’t even hear the man say thanks. It was the first time he received such treatment since he started working in that place. People are generally in a good spirit when they came to the restaurant at night and people usually go there to socialize with their fellow human being. Their restaurant is not the type that got frequented by drunkards. Those types of establishments are usually found in the city. People go to that part of Jeju Island to relax and enjoy.

Oh well. It’s not his problem if the man is anti-social. He tried to be friendly but it was the man who turned down his hospitality. He was serving beer to another costumer when he heard the man at the corner stood up. The man pulled a handful of bills from his wallet and put it on the table. Chen trained his eyes on the man and he watched the man leave the bar as quietly as he came. He didn’t even bother to wait for his change.

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It was past midnight when he came out of bar duty. It was a beautiful night despite the strong wind. Strong wind is normal in Jeju, in fact it’s one of the island’s main attraction. He looked up and found stars visible in the sky. He wasn’t sleepy so he decided to walk the short distance to the shore. He was just aimlessly walking when he found a body in his path. He approached it and found out that it was the strange man at the bar earlier that night.

Hesitantly, he knelt down and shook the man’ shoulder. The man must have passed out after drinking that much vodka. Forgetting all the good values that his parent’s taught him, he decided to leave the man alone. He was still quite offended by the way the man snubbed him at the bar earlier. No one can ignore his joyfulness and get away with it, you know. He was about to turn back when a hand gripped his legs tightly, preventing him from taking a step.

He looked back to the man and found him staring up at Chen. The man wasn’t passed out at all.

Oh my god. What if this man is a killer? I’m still too young to die. That was the first thought he had.

“Can you stay with me? Will you hold me for a while?” croaked the man lying on the sand.

“Mwo?? Are you crazy?” He shouted to the man. He tried to set his legs free but the man is strong.

“No, I’m not crazy. I’m just broken hearted.”

Chen’s eyes grew wide as he slowly processed what the man just said.

With all the energy he had, he tugged on his legs but strangely it broke free too easily. The man was not holding his legs anymore but is merely looking up at him with this sad look on his eyes.

With one look on those pretty sad eyes, Chen did the craziest thing he ever did in his life. He sat down beside the man lying on the sand.

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[A/N] Kkaepsong~ I'm sorry it took so long for an update. Real life has been kind of crazy these past few days. I hope you enjoy this new update as much as I did. Baekhyun's ideal type is Chen! Our ship is sailing! Weee~