The first time Lee Sungmin took a plane for a business trip he had forgotten his tooth brush at home. He had also forgotten the pair of lucky socks that he only wore during very special ocassion. He sat in that plane repeating a mantra to convince himself that the socks were not necessary for the success of his mission. Well, as much as meeting at the headquarter of one of his most loyal customers can be considered a mission.

Germany was particularly rainy, Sungmin recalled, and the knot on the stomach and the sweaty hands became pointless when the young and fresh business man realized how easy his job was. He basically did what he had spent the last six years doing but face to face rather than by the phone.

“It's been a pleasure meeting you, Mr. Lee.” the old man shaked his hand with the right amount of strength, he must have been doing it for many years, was the thought that came to his mind.

“A pleasure indeed. We should repeat this meeting in the future, Mr. Zeyn.” Sungmin gave the man one of his charming smiles and left the room with a brief goodbye to the rest of the team.

“I could get used to this.” the brunette laid his back against the wall of the bathtub and let his body relax under the hot water. A couple of candles coloured the bathroom in dark yellow and orange shadows, a glass of red wine rested next to his head, and the scent of vanilla made him feel sleepy.

He took a few of those minutes to think about everything he had gone through to be where he was right now. The late night shifts that he was not necessarily forced to do, but he did anyway for the sake of the company. The nasty managers that dropped to him the work they just did not bother to finish on time by themselves. The deadlines and the preasure. The times he had to apologize for little mistakes, and the many times he was congratulated for his successes. Sungmin had proved himself to be a brilliant business man and colleague. If any words could be used to describe him those were dedication and passion. And while many of his long-time friends were now getting married and thinking about children, everything that Sungmin had once dreamed of was to be exactly where he was right now.

“A big warm bathtub.” he held his wine to the ceiling with a satisfied smile drawing his face and drank the rest of it in just one shot.

It is probably important to mention that not everything that came with his new lifestyle was delightful and exciting. Most people would think that the worst part of being in constant travel is that it can make your life lonely and miserable. Those people were not wrong, but for Sungmin the worst part of it was to follow his customers there where they desired to be. One of the most important tasks to complete during his trips was to ensure that the customers would stay on business with his company for a long time period, if not a lifetime. Manipulate the customer's behavior and turn a business partner into a close friend.

That was the worst part for Lee Sungmin.

The one part that brought him to the dark and loud club where he was now, sitting on a leather couch and watching how a seventy years old man was doing his own business with a no-more-than-twenty-five years old woman who danced on his lap. Sungmin's facial expression clearly proved his own disgust, of course not without before ensuring that the old man eyes were too fixed on the woman's bouncy s to notice Sungmin's face.

“May I offer you some pretzels?” the hostess gave him another of those little bags with salty cookies that he never really liked, and Germany was being left behind for the second time in the last few months. Tokyo had been his favourite city so far, he got to make some use of the Japanese he had been studying for years, ate delicious food, drank sake and he didn't even have to share any of his customer's ert fetiches. Not that Sungmin knew there were any.

However he was specially excited for meeting Paris this time.

He kept making notes on his agenda of the planes he had been taking, the food he definitely had to eat again when visiting the countries for the second or third time, the useful words he had learnt in foreign languages such as where is the bathroom, a cold beer please or no, i don't need a e (Amsterdam really had a reputation for a reason). He had spent the whole flight listening to one of those “learn insert-language-here in only 20 lessons” recordings that Ryeowook had promised would make his life so much easier, and the only thing his brain had caught so far was Je m'apelle Sungmin. By the time the plane landed the recording had ended and his colleague was already asking him to hurry up.

He wasn't the nicest man, but Sungmin couldn't really complain about it. His name was Kim Youngwoon and he was older than Sungmin. They both were traveling together and went to see the same customers, but while Sungmin was a Billing Service Manager, Youngwoon or Kangin, how he liked to introduce himself as, was a Sales Manager. For those who were not familiar with the terms, Sungmin did the work while Kangin had the fun.

He was a proper Sales man, bright smile and confident eyes, he would pat the customer's backs like they were long time friends and would share internal jokes that Sungmin didn't catch nor tried to understand. Sungmin would review the papers, the pending issues, fix the mistakes and prepare the action plans, and Kangin would basically keep the customers happy. He would always be on the customer's side. The customer is always right was probably tattooed on his . He was demanding and a know-it-all but he had shared some beers with the younger during those nights when the work would finish earlier than expected. Summarizing, he was not that bad.

“Have you called the taxi?” Kangin asked like he didn't know the answer.

“Of course I did. It will be waiting in front of exit three and it will take us to the hotel, the meeting is not until tomorrow so you can take the day free.” Sungmin checked his agenda once again and confirmed the taxi's plate number.

“Awesome. I know some cheeks in the city, if you feel like joining the fun.” white teeth in a playful smile, Kangin once again was asking like he didn't know the answer already.

“No, thank you. I will take the time for myself. Enough people met these past two weeks.”

“I guess you are right. Don't call me after ten if you change your mind though, I will be busy by then.”

“I will keep it in mind. Look, there it is.” both men placed their hand lugage on the taxi's trunk and got inside the back seat. The only tip Kangin had told him before they left Seoul was, you will earn enough money to buy new clothes when necessary, don't go around carrying a giant suitcase or you will regret it. And Sungmin felt like an idiot for not listening when he had to leave his beautiful suitcase in Beijing as he couldn't bear to carry it any longer.

“This city is pretty cool.” Kangin said out loud, but Sungmin doubted the older was talking to him. He had to agree though, the deeper they got into the city the more beautiful it became. It didn't have that strict look that Germany had, nor the blinding lights of Tokyo, or the depressing rainy days of England. In a word, Paris was enchanting.

He had only four days and he had them already planned to the second in his inmaculate and organized agenda. He held it against his chest and opened the window to breathe the scent of the city. It smelled like wet stone and perfume, sometimes like recently baked bread. He would visit museums, and tourist places for the first day. Would attend the meeting and very likely a night out under the red lights with his customers for the second. Walk the streets and eat food for the third one. And finally some shopping for the forth before boarding the plane towards Spain.

The hotel room was not different to the ones he had been staying in before. Five stars hotels full of luxury and comfort. His favourite thing was still the bathtub, and no one should dare to judge him as they had no bathtubs that big at all in Korea.

“This is one of those little perks of being part of the business world.” Sungmin rested against the door's frame, took a deep breath and prepared himself for his little adventure.

His mom had asked him to take a picture of the Eiffel Tower and send it to their family chat room on Kakao Talk. Sungjin sent a funny moving smiley as the picture that he took included his big face in front of the tower, but selcas would always be selcas and Sungmin knew his mom would be even happier if she saw his child's face next to that gorgeous place.

“Carefull not to fall down if you go up there, Minnie-ah” his brother said mocking what his mom was probably thinking. Sungmin laughed, disconnected the wifi and placed his phone back in his trousers' front pocket.

The Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, The Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe. Every one of them beautiful places that Sungmin felt he would never forget even if he had no chance to visit them ever again. However, the one thing that got him the most was the bohemian heart hidden across the streets of Montmartre. Not that Sungmin was an expert in art and poetry, but he had done his own research before arriving to the city and undoubtedly this was his favourite part.

He ate something with a fancy french name in a quiet restaurant. Chicken, cheese and salad, for what he could recognize. He used some Euros to pay his bill and checked the spare coins after going back to the street. It was not cold, his jacket and the thin scarf around his neck were enough to keep him safe from the cold of autumn. Wet streets from the rain of that same morning, lucky enough he had been inside the Louvre at the time it started, and it had already stopped by the time he came out. The wind carried the dead leaves that cracked under his feet, Sungmin breathed deeply and enjoyed the scent of the season. One thing he had noticed from his many trips was that every country has a different scent, the nature in the center of Korea, the rain in the North of England or the salty sea in the South of Spain. He knew Kangin would probably smack him in the back of his head if he mentioned how much he enjoyed those little things.

He had arrived to a small café, while sitting in the terrace and sipping from the cup of a hot latte, he imagined the thosand of unknown artists that once arrived to this city dreaming with a future, dreaming with life and love. The ones that died believing themselves failures, when later they turned to be geniuses, and the ones that got to enjoy their success, and it drove them crazy. Sungmin wondered if in a later future he would also become crazy with power and success. If the money, the nights out, the alcohol and the pressure would make him insane. He remembered himself only three years ago, when he was only an inocent office worker and dreamt with a bigger future. He was optimistic and persistent. Always aiming for more. Then he imagined himself in three years, where would he be? Still travelling around with Kangin on his side? No, Kangin would probably find himself a better role. Maybe one of those many business men were already offering him a place on their companies. Would he also get offers? And if so, would he leave Korea to go to a different place? Not that he disliked Korea at all, but there was nothing holding him there either. He could imagine himself in three years, with maybe his own airoplane and a fuller pocket. His own offices distributed across his favourite countries. His own company. And he could be back here, sitting on the café's terrace and having a look back to that very same today, when the wind blowed his hair back, and the smell of cigarettes mixed with the one of the rain.

Cigarettes?

And it was only then when Sungmin realized that he had been concentrated on watching the smoke of the cigarettes coming out from a pair of full parted lips. The wind was not strong enough in that corner and thick clouds of smoke floated over the man's head. He blowed it lazily, like he was making no effort at all and the smoke was following its own wanted direction. The man his lips with the tip of his tongue in a quick movement, and Sungmin repeated the exactly same move with his own tongue. He felt his eyes come dry and probably had not blinked for an insane amount of time, but his gaze was completely lost in space, and his mind had been lost in time, so it wasn't until he saw the man's teeth in a mocking and confident smile that Sungmin looked only centimeters up meeting the young man's eyes.

Sungmin quickly looked down and blinked strongly for a couple of times trying to clear his view again. Holding the cup of coffee with both hands to realize that it was ice cold. He drinked it in one sip anyway and got ready to leave as quickly as possible and get out of such an embarrasing situation. The guy must have thought he was a ert, or a stalker, or even something worse.

His mind was blank from embarrasment when the agenda fell open to his feet and the pages started blowing in the direction of the wind. He hurried to catch everything that could fly away, and found another pair of hands doing exactly the same thing, catching the ticket he bought for a musical in Venice a week ago, a receipt from a Finish restaurant he wanted to visit again and some scratched papers.

“Merci.” he said in a very bad French accent, bowing to the man in front of him.

“Anytime.” said the other in husky voice and perfect Korean. Sungmin must have looked really perplexed because the man instantly laughed. “I noticed for the hangul in here.” he waved the piece of papers he was holding in his left hand and Sungmin bowed again.

“Thank you. I am sorry for causing any troubles.” the man arched an eyebrow lightly, probably wondering if Sungmin meant the flying papers or the intense stare.

“Don't worry. It's unusual finding a Korean man around my age in places like this.” he pointed at the café with his head. “I'm Kim Jongwoon.”

“Nice to meet you Jongwoon-ssi. My name is Lee Sungmin.”

“Nice to meet you too, Sungmin-ssi. May I ask your age?”

“Thirty years old.”

“I guess you can call me hyung then, Sungmin-ah.” the sudden familiarity that the man, Kim Jongwoon, was using with him made Sungmin uneasy. But then again, he had been the one staring fixely at the man's lips only minutes ago. “Are you traveling around Europe, Sungmin-ah?” the man was looking at the tickets in his hand with curious eyes and only then Sungmin noticed he had not taken his things back from Kim Jongwoon yet.

“Yes. Well, I am in a business trip for a couple of months. Sorry I...”

“Business trip? That's interesting. Which company are you working for?” he asked before Sungmin could finish his request for retrieving his belongings.

“Ehm... a telecommunications company. May I ask...”

“Smart. I work in electronics. Sales.” he smiled again, and when Sungmin tried to stretch his arm to grab the papers Jongwoon purposely moved them away. “Ah-ah. Not so fast, Sungmin-ah.” the hint of a smile in his lips, a world of mistery in his eyes and a pen in his hand. He wrote a bunch of numbers and some scratchy words against the Finish restaurant's ticket before returning it to its original owner. “It was a nice surprise meeting you, Sungmin-ah. I hope to see you again.” Sungmin bowed to the man, who just placed both hands into the pockets of his coat and walked away. Sungmin couldn't take his eyes off the figure until it disapeared into a corner, and only then the young man looked at the piece of paper in his hand.

It had a phone number on it.

And the three digits of a hotel room.