Chapter 2

The early morning sun shone down on the mountains and beaches of Muscat. It was Seunghyun's first day in Oman, and he was ready to start exploring...kind of.

"HYEJUNG! YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE FOR SCHOOL!" Mrs. Siddiqui yelled from downstairs. Having left his door half open, the loud call rang in Seunghyun's ears like a fire alarm. He took a look around and watched the sunlight gleam through the curtains, and, where a gap allowed the beams of light to pass directly through the window, sparkling pieces of dust danced around in the natural spotlight. Seunghyun rolled over to sleep on his front; he stretched an arm and his hand landed on something soft, delicate and somewhat grumpy. It was Soapy, the cat. She was a long-haired chinchilla breed. Her large glittery eyes glared at Seunghyun who had touched her feet, a part of her body about which she felt sensitive. Seunghyun raised an eyebrow at the queen who was laying on his bed like it was her own.

The man dragged himself out of bed and walked into the bathroom to spend five silent minutes just staring at his bloated face. Then, he started recalling the conversations of the night before. Shivers ran down his spine when he splashed his face with the cold water in the basin. He replayed Jiyong's voice in his head, "The switch for the water heater is in my room". Before he opened the other door of the bathroom, he tried to imagine what to expect when he opened the door. He vaguely remembered the sight of Jiyong's room when he passed through it the night before. Jiyong had white curtains, a marble floor and a notably messy room in general. When Seunghyun opened the door and peeked inside, the first thing he saw was Jiyong's body sprawled on the floor next to his bed. Half of the blanket was still on the bed, indicating that he had fallen in his sleep. Seunghyun tried to stop himself from giggling too loud. The man on the floor was dressed in a baggy white sleeveless shirt with shorts - shorts so short that they probably wouldn't cover all of his bottom if he was to turn over. As Seunghyun eyed his tattoos, he wondered why he hadn't seen the ones on his arms before, considering he was in a t-shirt last night. Triggered by the sound of Seunghyun kicking a cardboard box over as he mindlessly walked around in search of the switch, Jiyong did in fact roll over and expose half his to the air, gloriously . Seunghyun's gaze immediately fixed itself onto the tattoo of a lip print on Jiyong's right cheek, which led to Seunghyun's eyes wandering elsewhere and causing him to choke on his spit. Jiyong woke up from the noises and turned to see Seunghyun standing shirtless in his room. His eyes widened and he quickly sat up, pulling his blanket up to his chest to cover up his body. To Seunghyun's surprise, Jiyong was blushing excessively.

"Uh, sorry... I was looking for the switch," Seunghyun apologised.

Jiyong cleared his throat. "It's okay," he pointed, "it's over there." Seunghyun looked around cluelessly. The truth was, he wasn't looking around at all because he was completely startled. Although Seunghyun could see that Jiyong didn't want to, he forced himself to get up and turned the switch on for him. Jiyong's smooth legs were bare and tanned, but the shorts went well past his tan lines and Seunghyun couldn't stop himself from feeling . However, he wasn't the only one feeling aroused. Jiyong was biting his lip at the fair body in front of him. Seunghyun was hot - and shirtless. He wasn't tanned or anything, which gave an look to his bare skin. One of the few things Jiyong didn't mind about this guest was that he served as a sickly sweet piece of eye candy, but that was all he was to Jiyong. On the contrary, Seunghyun was deeply intrigued by the man opposite to him. Jiyong was like a walking circus of expressions with his overly gesticulating body language and blunt words. In some instances, there were even hidden messages in his small actions that told a different story to the bigger picture. The guest enjoyed reading him like an open book.

"I'm going to wash up a bit, if that's okay," the smaller man told the other before walking into the bathroom. Naturally, Seunghyun turned his head to stare at Jiyong's again. It was starting to drive Seunghyun mad, so he quickly walked back into his room and decided to put a fresh and clean shirt on. After successfully dressing himself nicely, he walked downstairs and into the kitchen.

"Good morning," Mrs. Siddiqui greeted Seunghyun. Hyejung was sitting at the kitchen table finishing her cereal and Mrs. Siddiqui was sitting with her.

"Good morning." Seunghyun bowed his head.

Mrs. Siddiqui smiled at him and asked, "What would you like for breakfast?"

Seunghyun was surprised and didn't want to be impolite. "It's okay, you don't have to make anything."

"But you should have your breakfast. I made porridge for everyone and I'm planning to fry some eggs for Jiyong if he wakes up..." Mrs. Siddiqui animatedly made a cross face at the last part of the sentence and looked up at the ceiling.

"Oh, it's okay, I woke him up by accident." Seunghyun smiled. "I'll have some porridge, then."

Hyejung looked up at Seunghyun with bright sparkling eyes as she watched him eat.

"Annyeong~ How are you today, Hyejung-ah?" Seunghyun tried to speak in a child's voice but it didn't sound very convincing thanks to his deep manly tone. A muffled laugh came from the door and he looked up.

"Dad!" Hyejung squealed at her father standing in the doorway.

Mrs. Siddiqui looked at Jiyong and crossed her arms, "Jiyong, wear something a little more appropriate, we have a guest."

Jiyong was wearing white stockings now, with his incredibly short shorts.

"What? He's the one who walked in on me like this," he deflected the blame. "I don't think Seunghyun minds." Jiyong raised an eyebrow at said man and Seunghyun gulped down his porridge. Mrs. Siddiqui sighed and walked over to Jiyong. Hyejung walked out, after hearing her name being called by Mr. Siddiqui.

"I didn't mean him, I meant-"

"HIIII MRS. SIDDIQUI!" A young woman jumped into the room. She looked Hispanic and had a voluptuous body.

"Hello Katrina, how are you?" Mrs. Siddiqui replied.

Katrina eyed Jiyong and slapped his behind jokingly. "Ooo, Jiyong you're dressed ily," she commented suggestively. Jiyong's face twitched with irritation. Then, she noticed Seunghyun and raised her eyebrows.

Mrs. Siddiqui turned and introduced him, "This is Seunghyun, he's staying with us for a while."

"Hi, I'm Katrina - Jiyong's friend." She gave him her hand. Seunghyun got up and shook her hand with a nod. "Nice to meet you."

"I see you already have Jiyong dressing nicely for you," she said in jest with a wink.

Jiyong put his hands on his hips and pouted. "You can stop chatting him up and explain why you're here."

Seunghyun realised that they must have been close for Jiyong to talk so rudely to her.

"I'm here to say 'Hi', what's wrong with that?"

"Everything."

"Well, sorry for interrupting your perfect morning," she sneered and purposefully looked at Seunghyun.

Jiyong turned his head to the side. "Why do you always have to come to the conclusion that every guy who shows up here must be with me?"

"Well he's Korean," Katrina defensively pointed out, "and definitely your type."

Seunghyun almost choked on his breakfast. Jiyong was embarrassed and paced out of the kitchen. Katrina followed behind.

Mrs. Siddiqui began apologising, "Sorry Seunghyun, they're..."

"Close?" There was a pause and Mrs. Siddiqui sighed.

"Yes, well, they used to date," she said slowly.

"Oh, so he's bi?"

Mrs. Siddiqui turned her head to the side in thought and then sat down to answer, "Well, that was what I thought, but ever since they broke up he's only been interested in men."

"Oh," was all Seunghyun could say. He pulled a fake smile and Mrs. Siddiqui saw through it.

She sighed. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing... Well...it's just that I was thinking they must have really been in love." Seunghyun paused and got to the point, "I've...never been in love before."

Mrs. Siddiqui was immediately sympathetic, despite the awkward conversation. "It's okay Seunghyun. If you want, I'll fix you up with some girls...or boys."

"Oh, I'm not sure..." he laughed. Mrs. Siddiqui smiled.

"Well you should get ready soon. I think Jiyong has something to do in the evening so he'd want to take you round Muscat before then."

"Oh yes, I have to take a shower... I left the water heater on."

After a quick shower using Jiyong's fruit cocktail shower set, Seunghyun stepped out of the bathroom in his towel and quickly got dressed in skinny jeans and a polo shirt. It was bothersome to think he'd have to lock two doors in order to be safe whilst changing. He couldn't style his hair without any of his styling products so he let it hang free with a lazy look to it. The sides of his hair were short and the middle section was longer, leaving a fringe over his forehead.

Jiyong also took a shower, except he took about an hour longer to get ready so Seunghyun had to wait in the living room for a while. He went through his phone and realised he needed an Omani sim card to get around. A number of people from Korea had been constantly calling him, so he had taken his sim card out to avoid them.

"Are you ready? Sorry I took so long..." Jiyong asked. Seunghyun looked up and looked Jiyong over. He was wearing a long sleeved black t-shirt with brown stripes accompanied by