Early Morning of Thrsday, 6th March

Seunghyun entered Jiyong’s room, treading on the mess created by sketchbooks, materials and various other items which didn’t seem to relate to each other. Carefully, he made his way to the bed and sat down. He stared at the screen of his phone, his long list of contacts made him feel nervous. Muscat was starting to feel like a never-ending dream. He had been off the grid for over a month, but now he wanted to hear it again: a voice from Seoul, something to bring him back to reality. 

“Hello?”
“Seunghyun?” A sleepy voice answered the phone.
“Dongwook, is that you?” A tint of anxiety washed over his croaky voice.
The said man immediately reacted, “is everything okay? You don’t sound very good.”
“I’m fine, I think... I mean, I need to talk to you about something, do you have time?”
“Yeah, I’m just lying in bed right now,” Dongwook, felt he needed to relieve some tension in the conversation, “so how are you, exactly? I haven’t heard your voice in a while.”
“I need you to come to Muscat.” He didn’t answer, “I think there’s something wrong with me.”
“Is this about a certain somebody who you might have feelings for and you’re not sure about it?”
Seunghyun was confused, “what?”
“I was just-uh thinking about it in my sleep.”
“You were sleeping?” he paused to think, “what time is it there?”
“What are you talking about it’s like six in the mor-” Dongwook stopped speaking.
“Are you... wait...” he laughed, “why does it sound like you’re a lot closer to me that I think?”
“We should have this conversation in person...” the other man concluded.
The perplexing situation was difficult for Seunghyun to process, “WHEN DID YOU GET HERE?”

Later that morning, The Kitchen

Mrs. Siddiqui served Jiyong eggs and toast. After filling a glass with juice, he sat down in front of the breakfast table. The windows were open and a refreshing breeze brushed his arms.
“Where did Seunghyun go?” Jiyong inquired, “did he have breakfast?”
Mrs. Siddiqui stood in front of the sink to wash the dishes. The sound of scrubbing and water filled the room as the young man ate his breakfast.
“He was in a hurry and told me that he would explain it all when he comes home from work. He was on the phone with a taxi driver as he left.”
Jiyong swallowed before speaking, “really? He was yelling on the phone this morning...” he paused, “he shouldn’t be going to work.”
“Are you working today?”
“Yeah, I have to be there at 5.”

Meanwhile at Caribou Café, Bareeq Al Shatti

Two attractive men sat opposite to each other with a coffee table between them, in the fairly empty café. One man smiled, and the other picked up his coffee, raising his sharp eyebrows. They spoke in Korean.
“So...” one started, waiting for his companion to take a sip.
The other put down his coffee and sighed, “so?”
“I-”
“You need to explain what the is happening,” he smiled. Both men exchanged smiles and started laughing.
“I’ll tell you what happened,” he chuckled, “I actually arrived a few days ago...”

Saturday 1st March 2014, Somewhere in MQ, Near the Siddiqui Household, 7pm 

The warm sunny day was over, and a cool night set in over Muscat. The warm glows of the street lamps radiated through the windows of a lonely taxi moving down the expressway from the airport. Orange squares of warm light passed over the passenger’s face as he sat by the window, admiring the tranquility of the scene outside the car. In the background, the sound of the engine in monotone diffused in to the atmosphere of a clean and quiet city.

“Well sir, this is Madinat Al Sultaan Qaboos,” the taxi driver informed the passenger.
The man in the backseat looked around, “do you accept cards?”
“No sir, I only take cash,” he replied.
The man smiled nervously, “I don’t have any cash.”

“Did he kick you out then?”
The man telling the story laughed, “of course he did.”
“Dongwook,” the other man called.
“Yes, Seunghyun?”
“You’re an idiot.”

Dongwook wondered about MQ with his suitcase, looking for the address he managed to obtain from Seunghyun’s father.
“Where do I go now?” he asked himself with a smile, “Seunghyun’s going to freak when he sees me.” Dongwook tried to cross the road in front of the white mosque, to find someone who could help him. Within seconds, as he walked across, a car turned in from around the corner and hit him. The young man was not critically injured, but suffered some intense blows from the impact of the car. He was unable to stand up immediately after the hit and tried to crawl towards the pavement. A beautiful woman stepped out of the car and helped the him to his feet. Her luscious black hair his arm as he looked in to her glittery dark eyes.
“Are you okay?” She felt extreme concern for the man in front of him, “I’m so sorry. I’ll take you to the hospital.”

Dongwook sat in the passenger seat of the car which hit him and watched the woman next to him drive carefully to the hospital. She had tanned olive skin and fluttering long eyelashes. He was barely able to pay attention to the words coming out of her deeply rouged lips. 
“Are you travelling somehwere?” she asked, “you don’t have a plane to catch or anything, right?”
“Yes, I mean no, I j-j-just came from the airp-port,” Dongwook embarassingly stuttered as he spoke to the beauty sitting next to him. He wasn’t able to focus on anything but her gorgeous appearance.
“Where did you fly from?”
“South Korea, it’s my first time here.”
“Then what are you doing in MQ? Shouldn’t you be looking for a hotel or is there someone you’re staying with?”
Dongwook smiled, “actually, I was supposed to surprise my friend who came to Muscat from Korea about a month ago. He is staying in this neighbourhood with some distant family friends, and I wanted to take him to the hotel I’m staying at, so that we could catch up a bit.”
“Oh,” she responded, “so what’s your friend’s name?”
“Seunghyun Choi, he’s an old friend of mine, but he doesn’t know I’m in Muscat.”
The woman abruptly stopped the car on the side of the road.
“Your friend is Seunghyun Choi? Oh my god,” she laughed, “this is such a coincidence. I’m very familiar with the family he’s staying with, I was on my way to their house earlier.”
“You know Seunghyun?”
The woman chuckled, “my name is Katrina, what’s your name?”

“Katrina hit you with her car?” Seunghyun repeated. “Wait, are you okay?”
“I’m fine, I just got a few bruises and scratches, we did so many tests at the hospital though.”

“Well, I guess I ruined your surprise visit,” Katrina started, as they left the hospital in the car.
Dongwook frowned slightly, “well that’s okay, I can just come some other time.”
“How about I plan a party for tomorrow?” she asked excitedly.
“I have to go to the desert tomorrow,” Dongwook replied, “and then I’ll be in Dubai for a few days.”
“Oh, what are you doing in Dubai?”
“I have some work to do, I’m not really supposed to tell anybody. It’s just some advertising stuff.”
“I understand...” she paused to think, “so can you come after you finish your work, or do you have other plans?”
“Actually... That sounds like a better idea, I’ll try calling my man-I mean, my-uh my secretary. I’m sure I could probably spend quite a bit of time actually. I don’t have any scheduled activities after this.”
“Activities? You can just take breaks whenever their aren’t any activities?”
Dongwook hesitated to think of an answer, “well no, but I don’t take breaks very often.”

Both men watched each other finish their coffees. Seunghyun was more concerned about the fact that his friend was hit by a car, and seemed to have forgotten the whole Katrina story.
“So how long are you staying?” Seunghyun took an almost interrogative approach. “When did you come back from Dubai? How is everything back at home?”
Dongwook laughed, “do you want to come back and have a look? I think you should wait until everyone calms down a bit, your fans are still in denial about the whole sudden death thing.”
“Wow... I forgot I died in Seoul,” Seunghyun laughed.
“You’re dead on the internet,” Dongwook corrected, “but I haven’t seen you so alive since our trainee days.”
The other man raised his eyebrows, “what do you mean?”
“You look so fresh and... human now,” he paused and smiled, “I guess that lifestyle really didn’t suit you.”
“I’m not going to stay here forever,” Seunghyun pointed out, “I guess I’ll have to come back when things are better.”
“What are you going to do? Start acting again?” Dongwook’s sarcasm made Seunghyun uncomfortable.
“I guess that’s the only thing I ever learned how to do, huh?” he sighed, “I’ve always wanted to open my own kinda thing - may be a lounge or a gallery. Something beautiful, where people can sit down and talk, spend time, drink coffee. Something that just screams Seunghyun Choi.”
“That’s what you want?”
“Yeah... I mean... I don’t know, I don’t really know what I’m doing at all to be honest.”
“You’re on a break.”
“I can’t be ‘on a break’ forever. Do you think I should open something here, in Muscat?”
There was a lengthy silence before Dongwook changed the conversation, “I heard you’re staying with a guy here, in Muscat. A cutie... who is coincidentally also Korean?”
“I wonder who told you that...” Seunghyun sighed again, “what else have you heard?”
“That you and him have spent passionate nights to