If I Could Make You Stop And Take A Look At Me [1/3]
Pairing: Sehun/Kai
Side pairings: Baekhyun/Tao, past!Baekhyun/Sehun, minor!Junmyeon/Eunji
Rating: PG-13
Warning(s): none (I promise, it’s a happy ending.)
Summary: Oh Sehun usually goes after and gets what he wants, but to do that he has to know what he wants.
Word Count: 16,386
This is crossposted from here!
Jongin chewed at his thumb, cuticle caught between his front teeth as his left hand hovered over the touch pad; waiting for him to be sure he wanted to click send. Really, he didn’t know why it was taking him so long; it had been three years since he’d last seen Kyungsoo and, despite the fact that he’d known Lu Han longer, he still hadn’t managed to get his two best friends to meet each other. This summer job was the perfect opportunity; Lu Han always came on Jongin’s first cruise of the season, just to hang around, and Jongin had enough seniority on staff now to throw his weight around and set aside four jobs for Kyungsoo and his friends from his university (it didn’t hurt that the staff supervisor was Chanyeol, either).
“On now, Schoolboys’ Secrets: Full Moon. Up next, Alien Landing. After that, United Forces, all on today’s schedule for Planet X, on Soul Motion Network.”
Jongin whipped his head towards the television as the voice over began and then up at the clock. Teeth pulling at his thumb pad he muttered around the digit, “Schoolboys’ Secrets is on? When did it get to be six o’clock?” He hesitated once more before hitting send and slamming the laptop shut, then moving from his desk to the couch to watch his show. He settled in as the opening strains of the theme song played, shoving the heavy foreboding in his stomach deep down inside him. It was just Kyungsoo and a few of his classmates; what could possibly happen?
+
Sehun slid into the room and tossed his bag over the couch carelessly.
“Oof! Geez, Sehun watch out for the people who live with you huh?”
Sehun moved back to lean over the back of the couch and shove his bag out of Baekhyun’s lap and onto the floor with small smile and a tilt of his head.
“Sorry! I didn’t see you there-”
“Of course you didn’t; you didn’t even look!” Baekhyun followed his younger housemate into the kitchen, determined to have Sehun as an audience until he felt like he’d vented enough. “And why are you home so early? I thought you had a date tonight with Soojung, your girlfriend? Or did you break up with her already- was it a boyfriend you were out with?” Baekhyun paused to watch as Sehun pulled a pudding cup out of the fridge, his throat drying a bit when Sehun’s small, pink tongue darted out to lick the lid. He coughed once, “Junmyeon would be so disappointed in you for eating that. You’re going to ruin your appetite for the dinner he’s bringing.”
“I’m a grown man, Baek, I’ll eat whatever I food I paid for whenever I like. You know I eat like a horse anyway.” Sehun tossed away the lid and leaned nonchalantly against the counter, spoon in one hand and cup in the other. “And it was a girlfriend, but you got the wrong girl. I was with Sulli; Soojung and I ended it two weeks ago, and my last boyfriend was a month and a half ago.” Sehun paused to dig into his pudding cup and then licked it all away from the spoon as if it were a hard candy and not a liquid. Baekhyun reminded himself to breathe and pointedly did not think of the three months during his sophomore year when he’d been the sole recipient of that tongue. “I’m home early because Sulli and I broke up.”
“Sehun, I will never understand how your list of ex’s is longer than the list of people I’ve dated, and yet you remain Mr. Congeniality. Why does everyone continue to love you?”
“Because, I’m a kind, warm-hearted, ball of sunshine and treat people as good friends even when I’m casually dating them. They all know I don’t do long term things before I agree to take them out anyhow.” Sehun scooped out the last of his pudding and tossed the cup before pushing away from the counter to step towards Baekhyun. “If there’s any mystery at all, it’s how the only steady boyfriend I ever had still enjoys my company so much that he’s my housemate, even after our tragic parting.”Baekhyun snorted at that and pushed Sehun away. “Shut up, we broke up with each other on the same night at the same party because we both wanted to hook up with someone else. There were no grudges to be had there, no love lost.”
“Mmm. So were you just gonna stare at my mouth all evening or are we headed to your room?”
Baekhyun opened his mouth to question why it had to be his bed when the door to Kyungsoo’s bedroom slammed open.
“My friend emailed me! We’re in, we’ve got jobs this summer; there’s positions for all four of us on the cruise ship.” He made his way out, laptop balanced precariously in one hand and a fistful of papers on LifeTree Cruise Liners in the other. “Is Junmyeon here yet?”
“Nope!” Baekhyun popped the p as he took the papers and moved to sit on the couch with Kyungsoo, the sexual tension from before evaporated with the ease that only comes from being close friends with a clear understanding. Sehun slid down on the other side of Kyungsoo to look at the website. He half listened as Kyungsoo raved about the staff perks and the types of jobs they’d get to do, the majority of his attention focused on the staff group photo on the monitor. His eyes skimmed over a number of cute boys and pretty girls smiling in their bright white shorts and forest green polos- plenty of opportunities to occupy himself, plenty of chances for fun. His eye caught on one grinning boy: his eyes were curved into crescents and his mouth was open wide as if he’d been laughing, full lips stretched in mirth. Sehun smirked. This summer is definitely going to be fun.
+
On the other side of Korea, Jongin stood during a commercial break to get a glass of water when his stomach jerked duly. His mind wandered to all the times he’d sat on the phone, listening to Lu Han cooing his hopes for his Angel Pup to have a whirlwind summer romance. Jongin thought he did well enough ignoring Lu Han’s prodding, and yet he found his stomach clenching, as if full of butterflies. He scolded himself for letting the slight man affect him unaware. Then he scolded himself again for letting Lu Han continue call him Angel Pup; he wasn’t five and in need of a small nine year old’s bandaids and kisses anymore.
Lu Han tried to say that he only kept up the nickname because he’d switched schools just after it caught on and he hadn’t had time to get sick of it, but in all honesty, that was 16 years ago. If anything, Lu Han still saw him as cute little child he had to keep and protect. And apparently shove ideas of torrid love affairs upon. The corner of the room suddenly illuminated, and Jongin made his way over to see a text message from Kyungsoo.
thanks again 4ur help! Baekhyun, Junmyeon, and Sehunnie can’t wait to meet u!! :D
Jongin’s stomach did not jump again at that last name. He didn’t even know a Sehun. He fired off a quick “You’re Welcome” and settled back in to finish the rest of Schoolboys’ Secrets, ready to see which character was about to be unmasked as the villain and if anyone else would discover the main character’s secret.
+
“-and don’t forget: no matter how loud, how obnoxious, how drunk the cruise goers get, it is all of your jobs to keep them happy and more importantly, keep them safe. They all paid for the vacation of their dreams, and we here at LifeTree Cruises hand out dreams easy as…?”
“EASY AS PICKING FRUIT FROM A TREE!”
Chanyeol clapped his hands twice at the eager response from the staff before sending them forth to prepare for the vacationers due to arrive any moment. He grinned into the summer breeze as the ship bobbed with the waves at the dock, not startled at all when a sudden presence appeared at his elbow.
“You know, that call and response thing doesn’t make much sense.”
“Shut up, Jongin.”
“Really, I see what you were going for there but getting into trees for fruit is usually pretty hard. There’s nothing easy about picking peaches. Have you ever picked a peach, Chanyeol?”
“Jongin, you are the most bratty friend I have ever actually enjoyed being around. I hope Lu Han arrives in the first wave of clients so you can feel what I feel right now.”
Chanyeol smiled as he spoke, calm and serene. He’d missed the younger boy and his unclever quips throughout the year and was looking forward to the coming summer months. There’d be more time for casual bonding now that Jongin’d been promoted in rank and had his own team of happy workers to boss around. Speaking of-
“I didn’t see any unfamiliar faces at this morning’s briefing. Where are your friends?”
Jongin turned to face the ocean, leaning into the railing and sliding along it until he was in the shade of a nearby deck umbrella. “On the way. They got caught up in the tourist traffic.” He looked up at Chanyeol, squinting to see him against the sun. “Sorry about that, boss. Don’t worry, I’ll coach them myself when they get here.”
Chanyeol nodded once and handed Jongin the clip board of points to cover. “See that you do. They’re your crew. All hands on deck for the debriefing after lights out tonight.”
The moment slowed, Jongin skimming through the orientation topics he’d studied for days before coming aboard and had just heard Chanyeol expound in detail. The sound of taxis rolled through the air, engines getting louder as the drivers came to drop off hundreds of excited vacationers. The grin was evident in Chanyeol’s voice when he spoke again, elbow digging into Jongin’s side.
“Mr. Kim. It would seem that our first passenger to board is looking around for someone. Would you happen to know anything about that?”
“I have no idea what you could possibly be talking about, Mr. Park.” Jongin returned, unable to stop the slow smile spreading across his face. Chanyeol took the clipboard back and opened his mouth to retort when a loud, clear voice cut through the air.
“ANGEL PUP!”
Jongin turned towards the voice just in time to catch an armful of his favorite person in the world outside of his mother, father, and sister. “Hey Lu Han. I’ve missed you too.”
+
Kyungsoo shifted in his seat again, adjusting the seatbelt against his neck for the fourth time in ten minutes. His hands came to rest on his knees, nails scratching a rhythmless staccato beat into the denim of his jeans. He pointedly avoided looking at his watch as he searched through the bag at his feet for the worn rule book he’d brought along. Kyungsoo flipped through it quickly, eyes not taking in any of the words he’d read so many times until he caught on one sentence- Employees are expected to provide service that is refreshing, helpful, and prompt…
“How much furth-”
“Kyungsoo, I swear I am driving as fast as I can without endangering the lives of everyone on the road around us. I am telling you and have been telling you for the past hour, I will get us to the docks as soon as I can.”
Baekhyun looked over from the passenger’s seat to Sehun, taking care not to twist too far and accidentally make eye contact with the impatient man sitting behind him. Sehun shrugged at the silent question in his eyes and turned to the window with his lips pursed, not sure how to handle the situation. Kyungsoo was understandably bothered at their tardiness, and Junmyeon didn’t sound exasperated but both Baekhyun and Sehun had lived with the two long enough to tell when things were a breath away from exploding on them all. Sehun looked forward again in time to catch Baekhyun mouthing what looked like ‘sorry’. He leaned forward to ask what there was to be sorry for but had hardly shifted in his seat when Baekhyun cleared his throat loudly and then again more softly.
“I’m sure we’re all gonna have a great time working together. Sehun, please do not date the entire staff. I’d like to maybe come back next year.”
Sehun snorted. The air in the car broke as Junmyeon and Kyungsoo immediately came to his aid, chastising Baekhyun fiercely.
“Baekhyun! You know better than that, what is wrong with you?!”
“I agree with Junmyeon. Sehun’s dating habits are none of your business and nothing to laugh at or tease him about.”
“Really Baekhyun, you should be more mature than this; do I need to pull this car over?”
“Apologize, right now-”
A small cough interrupted Kyungsoo’s demands just before Sehun leaned forward to sock Baekhyun in the shoulder. Baekhyun whined at the strength behind the fist and curled in on himself, rubbing at the spot.
“Aw, I’m gonna bruise!”
“While I’m not actually bothered at all, and am rather in awe of your willingness to sacrifice yourself to Mom and Dad’s nagging to keep them from accidentally snapping each other’s necks, I felt that not hitting you for that comment would have set a precedent I’m not keen on encouraging.”
“You still could have been gentler about it!”
“Do you want me to make it up to you?”
“Wait, which one of us is “Mom”? And since when are Kyungsoo and I your parents?”
“Oh Sehun, my complaining about being in pain is not an invitation for you to cause me more pain. I promise, my lower back hurts just thinking about it, you little punk.”
“Hey, my massage skills are awesome. When have you ever left me and felt anything other than a mild discomfort?”
“I can’t really speak for Mama Junmyeon there, but let me be clear when I say I have no desire to hear any more details from your sex lives.”
The car continued on in relaxed silence for a few more minutes.
“Junmyeon, are we close yet?”
“...Tell me what makes me Mom.”
+
“…and then Minseok stopped the ball in a chest trap, and it was so cool, you have seriously no idea. And then later, he scored the winning goal off of a bicycle kick, do you understand how hard that is to do? The amount of strength he must have in his thighs, just imagine-”
“Wow, ok. Lu Han, I’d actually much rather not imagine anything at all, specifically if it has to do with your latest wet dream’s thighs.” Jongin expected the cuff to the back of the head even before he felt the air shift as Lu Han’s hand sliced through it, and gripped the rope he was winding around its holder a little tighter as he braced for impact.
“You shut up. He’s not my-” Lu Han paused, looking up from his lounge chair to contemplate Jongin’s raised eyebrow and smirk. “Ok, maybe he is my latest wet dream, but that’s not all it is, alright! I like him a lot.”
Jongin smiled and nodded, returning the majority of his attention to the rope in his hand. He’d received a text from Kyungsoo not seven minutes prior saying they’d made it to the ship. One look was all it had taken to send Zitao scurrying off to escort the group to their rooms and the uniforms awaiting them in their closets. He needed to finish putting away the last of the surplus supplies so that he’d be totally free to engage Kyungsoo, his friends, and the last of the arriving passengers.
“Hey Lu Han? What time is it now?”
“It’s about 10:15am. Right now at school I’d be in Physics. Minseok’s in my Physics class, ya know. We worked together on this terribad project; we had to build a model car with a brake, but the brake had to be adjustable.”
Jongin figured they would have about one more wave of passengers right after lunch time. If he could get through orientation fast enough, he could maybe even have Kyungsoo and his friends assist with boarding; it would be a good experience for them.
“And on the day of the presentation Professor Lee had this ramp, and he would give people random distances from the bottom of the ramp. Everyone would adjust their brake and then let it roll and it would have been a fun experience but our car sucked!”
“What? Dude, you’re great at physics, why would you not to be able to put together a toy car?”
Lu Han sat forward solemnly and grabbed at Jongin’s elbow to hold his focus before intoning, “As great as I am at math and physics, Minseok in pressed khaki slacks and a black button up is much better.” Lu Han grinned at Jongin’s mocking snort and allowed himself to be shoved away, flopping back onto the chair with arms and legs akimbo. “He looked so good, Angel Pup, you don’t understand. It’s distracting. Anyhow, our car didn’t even make it a fourth of the required distance. We got extra points regardless because our teacher let us all guess how many seconds it would take a car to come to a complete stop. We guessed three, it stopped in three, we had the smallest difference between guess and reality, so! Our write up was our saving grace; we ended up with a B.”
“I’m proud of you man. Getting good grades even amidst the haze of lust and hormones.”
“But of course, Puppy. I can’t wait for you to fall for someone too.”
“Why, so I can be as insufferable and talkative as you?”
The two grinned at each other for a moment longer before Jongin heard Zitao’s happy chattering moving towards their direction, and stood to stretch. He bounced on the balls of his feet twice and planted his fists on his hips with a grin.
“Welp, I’m off to prepare the new troops for battle! If they learn fast then I can get you to finally meet Kyungsoo. See ya later, Lu Han hyung!!”
Lu Han sat up and watched Jongin bounce over to the growing sound of voices, a fond smile on his lips. Sometimes he felt so out of touch with his younger friend, having missed so much of his life while attending the private school two cities over. Small things like this though, little mannerisms that he recognized from a much shorter-much rounder-excited Jongin, made him feel more secure and grounded. He saw a large group round the corner of the ship, three shorter men and two who were taller.
He knew Zitao pretty well from previous cruises, so he let his eyes pass over him to focus on the new boy. Lu Han took in a lean body, a flat face, a short blond haircut slicked up in the front, and warm smile directed at the smaller boys ahead of him. Lu Han watched his gaze whip over to Zitao at the Chinese boy’s shout, and then slide along Tao’s pointing arm until his gaze was directed at Jongin. As Jongin came to a stop in front of them, hugging one of the shorter boys, Lu Han saw the tall man’s eyes focus and then suddenly brighten with interest. Lu Han knew he should be focused on figuring out which one was Kyungsoo, and potentially planning to buy the boy a drink during off hours as a thank you for being with Jongin when he couldn’t, and yet- he couldn’t pull his eyes away until he’d made sense of what he was seeing.
The tall boy seemed to glide to the front of the group.Where everyone else had simply spoken to Jongin, this man grasped Jongin’s hand and pulled his boss into his personal space, curled the corners of his mouth up into a dangerous smirk and then a wide grin, suddenly spoke. I’m Sehun. It’s nice to meet you. Lu Han saw Jongin answer animatedly, but his focus was on the way the tall boy’s- Sehun’s hand continued to hold onto Jongin’s with fingers tracing along the inside of his wrist; the way Sehun’s posture seemed to shift to curl around Jongin like a protective wall. Other words were exchanged, Sehun finally released Jongin’s hand, and then Jongin was leading the group away and pointing out where emergency medical kits were stored, leaving Lu Han to wonder if he’d just seen what he thought he’d just seen.
+
Kyungsoo shuffled along with his bags, toes centimeters behind Zitao’s heels, in a hurry to get to his room, get dressed, and go meet Jongin. Junmyeon and Baekhyun followed behind him, slightly more leisurely but still with purpose. Sehun brought up the rear, moving slowly to take in his surroundings. He made no effort to keep up; the worker, Zitao, was shortening his stride to accommodate his group and Sehun could catch them easily if he felt it necessary. Sehun could hear Zitao answering Junmyeon and Kyungsoo’s various questions distantly. He only focused in when he heard Baekhyun pipe up with a question of his own.
“Now tell me, Zitao is it? What are the rooming arrangements like here?”
“We workers usually sleep two or three to a room. You’re assigned your room for the first month that we run cruises and in the second month everybody shuffles around as they like.”
Baekhyun leaned forward and shifted his two duffle bags to his left side, one on the shoulder and one in his hand. “So then, how are we split up?”
The whole group slowed to a stop while Zitao popped two keys off his belt loop.
“Baekhyun and Junmyeon hyung will be in this room here with me, number 455. Our neighbors in 454 are two girls, Hyeri and Sojin. Yixing and Jongdae live in 456; you’ll see all of them around.” He passed out the keys and pointed down the hall. “Kyungsoo hyung and Sehun will be down at the end of the hall with Team Leader Kim, across the hall from Supervisor Park.”
“Wait, wait, uhm Zitao? Would Team Leader Kim by any chance maybe potentially possibly be…”
The whole group smiled at Kyungsoo’s bright eyes and happy speculation. Baekhyun and Junmyeon shared a look before they slid their suitcases into their room, ready to explore their small bunker and dress for work. Zitao watched them go with a smile before turning back to Kyungsoo.
“Yup, you two are rooming with Jongin. Hurry and go change you guys, and all of you come to me again when you’re done. I’ll take you up topside and show you to Team Leader Kim.”
Sehun followed behind Kyungsoo and Zitao to his room, his smaller friend practically vibrating in excitement. A quick glance around the room showed him a single bed that was clearly already lived in and then a set of bunk beds up against the wall. Kyungsoo turned around to glance at him and Sehun motioned him to take whichever one he liked first. Kyungsoo moved quickly for the lower bunk directly beside the single bed, shoving his suitcase beneath it and turning to the closet where Zitao was pointing out their uniforms. The bright white of a pair of shorts and dark richness of a forest green polo caught Sehun’s attention as they suddenly whipped through the air to land on his head.
“Hey! Kyungsoo, I know you’re excited but please-”
“Nope, nope, nope, no time! Get dressed and come on so I can introduce you to my friend!”
Not ten minutes later saw the group together again in matching outfits, moving as one towards the stairs to the deck. Junmyeon laughed aloud at something Baekhyun said, and Sehun was suddenly reminded of the picture from the website; he wondered if he’d see that beautiful boy while he was on this trip.
+
Sehun’s answer came much sooner than he expected. In the middle of Kyungsoo’s animated recitation of some story from school, Zitao shouted out. He pointed away from the group, and Sehun looked up to see the boy from the website standing in front of him. Not nearly as short as Sehun had expected, but still only about as tall as his own shoulder, his lean frame incredibly fit and toned. The cut of his pressed polo angled along with the gentle v of his torso, sloping down to thin hips and strong thighs. Sehun sent a thought of extreme gratitude out into the air as the boy bounced on his toes after he released Kyungsoo from an embrace, his white shorts shifting and tightening over the muscle in his legs. Kyungsoo handled introductions; as the group chorused their hellos Sehun slid forward, right hand extended.
“I’m Sehun. It’s nice to meet you.”
He felt Baekhyun’s gaze whip over to him, but the sensation of eyes boring into his skull faded into the background as Jongin grinned up into his face, handshake firm and eyes bright.
“It’s nice to meet you too! Now, all of you, follow me. I’m gonna teach you everything you need to know about the ship in two hours and 15 minutes, and then you’re all gonna assist with passenger boarding.”
Baekhyun finally turned away from Sehun at that, mouth tucked into a frown. “Are we going to be able to handle that kind of responsibility so soon? I mean, boarding passengers when I’m not totally sure how to get back to my bunker.”
“Don’t worry about that. You won’t be the only crew members working then- if you get sent to escort someone to their room a more experience worker will be with you. Besides my orientation skills are no joke,” Jongin chuckled at his own silly bravado, and Sehun decided he wanted to hear that sound again, “by the time I’m done you’ll be a pro. Not to mention, Tao will be around.”
Junmyeon leaned towards Baekhyun with a spare water bottle ready in hand, wondering if the light flush in his face was because of Jongin, because Jongin mentioned Tao, or if it was too much heat exposure. Tao inched closer to Baekhyun with a murmured I’ll help you with anything, really, just ask me that was supposedly meant for the whole group, despite him staring directly at Baekhyun as he spoke. The lack of a witty response and bright red complexion told Junmyeon it wasn’t about the heat or Jongin in the slightest.
Three hours later, Tao stood in front of Jongin on the main deck in front of the restaurant.
“After you finished training them, Junmyeon and Kyungsoo went down with Taeil and Yifan to see where we store food, Baekhyun and I went to check out the laundry room- he’s doing a load now, and… uh.”
“What’s up, Tao? There’s something else and you know I don’t bite, so go ahead, tell me.”
“Eunji stole Sehun.”
Jongin paused, turned on the balls of his feet to face away from Tao, turned back, opened his mouth to speak, turned again, and sighed. “What?”
“Eunji took Sehun. She, uh, she was freaking out because one of the chefs- he was supposed to handle breakfast but he can only cook traditional Korean breakfasts and she wanted to serve pancakes and eggs and such since there are so many foreigners on this cruise.”
“I swear Zitao, what am I going to do?!” Eunji paced, four steps left four steps right four steps left four steps right, blocking the narrow hallway and preventing Tao, Baekhyun, and Sehun from leaving. “There’s no one on the kitchen staff who can cook a western breakfast, we aren’t five star chefs who studied in France here, we’re just regular people who enjoy and are very good at making Korean food. And these people are so picky about their eggs. Like, this woman just walked up to me with a little Korean-English dictionary and I’m pretty sure she asked me if we would have eggs benedict in the morning. I don’t even know what eggs benedict are?”
Tao floundered, unsure what to say to help or at least to calm her down enough for him and the two other boys to leave. He was about to try and dash past her when Baekhyun piped up.
“Sehun knows what eggs benedict is! Sehun, what is it?”
Sehun chuckled once and cocked his head with a smirk. “It’s just an English muffin, ham or bacon, a poached egg, and some Hollandaise sauce. Not hard to make once you’ve done it once or twice.”
Eunji froze. “Tao, who are these kids?”
“New staff. This is Baekhyun, and this is Sehun.”
Eunji returned Baekhyun’s ‘nice to meet you’ and stepped closer, gripping Sehun’s biceps and narrowing her eyes. “Sehun. Can you cook pancakes?”
“Yup.”
“Waffles?”
“Yup.”
“Can you make all the strange permutations of eggs that I haven’t heard of, cook western breakfast meat, make them all in large numbers, and teach others at the same time?”
“I’ve done it once before for a summer camp thing. I only had to help out for a week though.”
“Tao, what’s his job?”
“He doesn’t really have one yet; he’s on Team Leader Kim’s crew and they just finished orientation and training.”
“Sehun, my name is Team Leader Jung, and you work with me now. Tao, take Baekhyun wherever you were headed, and tell Jongin I stole his crew member out of necessity when you fill him in later.”
“But-”
“Hush Tao, it’ll be fine. You, Sehun, follow me. I need to show you the food and then take you to the kitchen.”
Jongin only shook his head before smiling at Tao. He knew what a whirlwind Eunji could be, especially when she was determined or focused. He dismissed Tao to finish helping Baekhyun with the laundry before heading off himself to tell Chanyeol about the staff change.
+
It was 11 o’clock at night when Sehun finally left the kitchen. The night shift had just woken up, had their meeting with Chanyeol, and then dispersed to their duties, leaving all of the day crew free. Sehun heard Eunji call out to meet on deck for debriefing or face her fury and sighed to himself- almost free.
“I promise I’ll be there, Team Leader Jung. Do I at least have time to go wash the smell of food off?”
“Yeah, if you hurry to your room now and no one’s in your shower. You know how to get down there?”
“Yeah, I’ll make it. Thank you, leader.” He cooed the words and got a playful slap to the shoulder for his efforts before she shoved him out the door into the hall with a grin.
“Sehun, I’m going to have to watch out for you, aren’t I? I’m off to find Jongdae and Yifan. Sit with who you like.”
He watched her go, long dark hair swinging, and hoped to himself that a certain other pretty laughing team leader and her weren’t so close that if he were to break up with one the other would become off-limits. The thought reminded him that he shared a room with said other team leader. Kyungsoo had once accidentally mentioned while drunk that his best friend Jongin was into boys. Maybe if the team leader caught an eyeful of Sehun strolling out of the bathroom freshly showered their relationship as co-workers could move in a more pleasurable direction. Sehun ducked his head at the thought and tried to bite back a grin. He really did have a small crush on Kim Jongin, as he did with all his flings, and he saw no reason that this attempt would turn out any differently than the rest.
+
“Now, if everybody’s here, we can go ahead with our first debriefing of the season, and I promise to keep it brief too! Aha, now these won’t be nightly things. I’ll put up flyers outside my bunk door with any announcements at the end of each day, and we’ll have a large proper meeting like this every Thursday night.” Chanyeol spoke to the group with barely contained enthusiasm. As he continued on, Jongin suddenly got up from where he was sitting between Shinwoo and Kyungsoo to crouch-walk over to seat himself between Sehun and Junmyeon. He turned left towards Junmyeon and Baekhyun and then right towards Sehun and Kyungsoo, flapping one hand towards himself in a motion that said “scoot in!” until the boys were gathered in a small circle around him. Tao, who’d been sitting on the far left by Baekhyun leaned closer to hear what was happening and Shinwoo looked on in interest, but they both turned back towards Chanyeol when they realized what Jongin was saying.
“Look, Chanyeol- er, Supervisor Park’s got this thing where he’ll announce something he thinks is worthy of public praising and then he’ll say “give so-and-so a clap!”” Jongin paused to look around the group. “When he does that, don’t burst into applause. Just clap once and stop. It’s called the Thunder Clap; he learned the technique back in high school. Tons of people got awards at the end of speech team season and instead of taking forever applauding everyone the entire theater gave one clap for every name called. It’s a huge time saver.”
Assured that his little band of employees wouldn’t be embarrassed on accident by doing the wrong thing, Jongin motioned them all back to their seats. He moved to stand up and head back over to Kyungsoo, but just as he began to move he was stopped by Sehun resting a hand on his mid-thigh and leaning in as if to whisper. On instinct, Jongin tilted his ear towards Sehun’s mouth and leaned closer to hear.
“Hey, stay by me? I know I’m not really on your crew anymore and I’m sure you wanna catch up with Kyungsoo, but I’d like to get to know you. Sooner rather than later, before we settle into our roles as co-workers and it becomes awkward and random for me to flirt with you.”
Jongin flushed at the straight forward sentiment and the feeling of Sehun’s breath warm against his ear. He blinked up at the sky, unaware of Sehun’s amazed gaze tracing along the cut of his jaw, over his lips, and lingering on the still-pink apple of his cheek. Out of the corner of his he saw a figure walking around by the bar on the sky deck. Though it was too dark to make out features, he knew that gait anywhere and was sure the person was Lu Han. Thinking of his friend led his mind to Lu Han’s constant needling about romance and the thought of settling down into a serious relationship made Jongin scrunch his nose in distaste. Sehun tried to bite back his giggle at the cute sight and failed, causing Jongin to look over at him, reverie broken.
“Yeah I’ll stay. And don’t worry about settling into roles you don’t like. We share a bunker still, remember?” Jongin leaned closer, tilted his chin up until his nose nearly brushed Sehun’s, and licked his lips from habit. “You’ll have all the time you need to change my mind after work.”
Sehun only grinned, pleased with the team leader’s emboldened behavior, and turned towards Chanyeol once more. Jongin faced forward himself and then leaned against Sehun’s arm, letting his head rest on the taller man’s shoulder, prompting Sehun to wind an arm around his slight waist. Sehun knew it: this was definitely going to be a fun summer.
+
In the days following, the cruise liner set sail with all of its passengers, crew, and cargo safely aboard and everyone found themselves settling into some semblance of a routine. When Kyungsoo woke up Sehun was already gone and Jongin was lacing on his shoes and heading out the door. He would run a quick shower, be dressed and out of his room in time to catch Baekhyun, Tao, and Junmyeon walking past his door, and follow them up the stairs to the cafeteria. Kyungsoo’s spoon clattered against his bowl as he pushed the last of the hot broth into his mouth, careful not to slurp so loud that he missed Jongin’s instructions for the day.
“…and Tao and Junmyeon will be running Seniors’ Shuffleboard on the lido deck from 10am till one. Baekhyun,” Jongin glanced up to see where the slighter man was seated and pivoted to face him, the pen in his hand bouncing as he gestured, “will swing by around noon after he finishes loading the laundry to let one of you eat a quick lunch. You’ll both get fifteen minutes to eat, one at a time, and when you finish you’ll return to your post and Baek will go eat.”
Jongin watched his group nod their heads, taking extra care to be sure they all expressed understanding before continuing. “Baek, today you’re in charge of washing the towels. Jongdae and Yifan are collecting them from the passengers now; after breakfast you just head down to the laundry and they’ll all be there. Kyungsoo, you’re gonna go with him. That’s all I have for this morning guys. Find me in the afternoon and I’ll send you wherever you’re needed most. Dismissed!”
Junmyeon gathered up as many bowls, utensils, and used napkins as he could before heading over to the kitchen door where Shinwoo was waiting with a trashcan and Yixing was holding a large plastic bin labeled DISHES. Tao and Baekhyun followed, each holding their own bowls and carefully walking a foot apart only to lean into each other’s space laughing and then spring back. Kyungsoo made to walk behind, a quip to tease the blossoming couple already half formed on his lips when Jongin gripped at his elbow lightly.
“Oh, hey, Jong- Team Leader Kim.” Kyungsoo caught himself in time to use the proper title, and smiled when Jongin flushed but didn’t insist he be called anything else. “What can I do for you?”
“Well, Soo, I know you don’t have lunch plans yet, and I was wondering if you’d come to the restaurant with me. I want you to finally meet Lu Han.”
“Ah yes, the elusive Lu Han, one Kim Jongin’s most beloved older brother. Sure I’ll come; I’ve been dying to meet him.”
“Great! I’ll meet you outside the laundry room at noon when you and Baek are finishing up.”
The two friends separated with a smile. Jongin headed off to organize signups for a deep sea diving expedition, heart hammering in his chest at the thought that it was finally happening. Kyungsoo and Lu Han were finally going to meet.
one│ two│ three
title from Stand Out by Powerline (Tevin Cambell)
Side pairings: Baekhyun/Tao, past!Baekhyun/Sehun, minor!Junmyeon/Eunji
Rating: PG-13
Warning(s): none (I promise, it’s a happy ending.)
Summary: Oh Sehun usually goes after and gets what he wants, but to do that he has to know what he wants.
Word Count: 16,386
This is crossposted from here!
Jongin chewed at his thumb, cuticle caught between his front teeth as his left hand hovered over the touch pad; waiting for him to be sure he wanted to click send. Really, he didn’t know why it was taking him so long; it had been three years since he’d last seen Kyungsoo and, despite the fact that he’d known Lu Han longer, he still hadn’t managed to get his two best friends to meet each other. This summer job was the perfect opportunity; Lu Han always came on Jongin’s first cruise of the season, just to hang around, and Jongin had enough seniority on staff now to throw his weight around and set aside four jobs for Kyungsoo and his friends from his university (it didn’t hurt that the staff supervisor was Chanyeol, either).
“On now, Schoolboys’ Secrets: Full Moon. Up next, Alien Landing. After that, United Forces, all on today’s schedule for Planet X, on Soul Motion Network.”
Jongin whipped his head towards the television as the voice over began and then up at the clock. Teeth pulling at his thumb pad he muttered around the digit, “Schoolboys’ Secrets is on? When did it get to be six o’clock?” He hesitated once more before hitting send and slamming the laptop shut, then moving from his desk to the couch to watch his show. He settled in as the opening strains of the theme song played, shoving the heavy foreboding in his stomach deep down inside him. It was just Kyungsoo and a few of his classmates; what could possibly happen?
+
Sehun slid into the room and tossed his bag over the couch carelessly.
“Oof! Geez, Sehun watch out for the people who live with you huh?”
Sehun moved back to lean over the back of the couch and shove his bag out of Baekhyun’s lap and onto the floor with small smile and a tilt of his head.
“Sorry! I didn’t see you there-”
“Of course you didn’t; you didn’t even look!” Baekhyun followed his younger housemate into the kitchen, determined to have Sehun as an audience until he felt like he’d vented enough. “And why are you home so early? I thought you had a date tonight with Soojung, your girlfriend? Or did you break up with her already- was it a boyfriend you were out with?” Baekhyun paused to watch as Sehun pulled a pudding cup out of the fridge, his throat drying a bit when Sehun’s small, pink tongue darted out to lick the lid. He coughed once, “Junmyeon would be so disappointed in you for eating that. You’re going to ruin your appetite for the dinner he’s bringing.”
“I’m a grown man, Baek, I’ll eat whatever I food I paid for whenever I like. You know I eat like a horse anyway.” Sehun tossed away the lid and leaned nonchalantly against the counter, spoon in one hand and cup in the other. “And it was a girlfriend, but you got the wrong girl. I was with Sulli; Soojung and I ended it two weeks ago, and my last boyfriend was a month and a half ago.” Sehun paused to dig into his pudding cup and then licked it all away from the spoon as if it were a hard candy and not a liquid. Baekhyun reminded himself to breathe and pointedly did not think of the three months during his sophomore year when he’d been the sole recipient of that tongue. “I’m home early because Sulli and I broke up.”
“Sehun, I will never understand how your list of ex’s is longer than the list of people I’ve dated, and yet you remain Mr. Congeniality. Why does everyone continue to love you?”
“Because, I’m a kind, warm-hearted, ball of sunshine and treat people as good friends even when I’m casually dating them. They all know I don’t do long term things before I agree to take them out anyhow.” Sehun scooped out the last of his pudding and tossed the cup before pushing away from the counter to step towards Baekhyun. “If there’s any mystery at all, it’s how the only steady boyfriend I ever had still enjoys my company so much that he’s my housemate, even after our tragic parting.”Baekhyun snorted at that and pushed Sehun away. “Shut up, we broke up with each other on the same night at the same party because we both wanted to hook up with someone else. There were no grudges to be had there, no love lost.”
“Mmm. So were you just gonna stare at my mouth all evening or are we headed to your room?”
Baekhyun opened his mouth to question why it had to be his bed when the door to Kyungsoo’s bedroom slammed open.
“My friend emailed me! We’re in, we’ve got jobs this summer; there’s positions for all four of us on the cruise ship.” He made his way out, laptop balanced precariously in one hand and a fistful of papers on LifeTree Cruise Liners in the other. “Is Junmyeon here yet?”
“Nope!” Baekhyun popped the p as he took the papers and moved to sit on the couch with Kyungsoo, the sexual tension from before evaporated with the ease that only comes from being close friends with a clear understanding. Sehun slid down on the other side of Kyungsoo to look at the website. He half listened as Kyungsoo raved about the staff perks and the types of jobs they’d get to do, the majority of his attention focused on the staff group photo on the monitor. His eyes skimmed over a number of cute boys and pretty girls smiling in their bright white shorts and forest green polos- plenty of opportunities to occupy himself, plenty of chances for fun. His eye caught on one grinning boy: his eyes were curved into crescents and his mouth was open wide as if he’d been laughing, full lips stretched in mirth. Sehun smirked. This summer is definitely going to be fun.
+
On the other side of Korea, Jongin stood during a commercial break to get a glass of water when his stomach jerked duly. His mind wandered to all the times he’d sat on the phone, listening to Lu Han cooing his hopes for his Angel Pup to have a whirlwind summer romance. Jongin thought he did well enough ignoring Lu Han’s prodding, and yet he found his stomach clenching, as if full of butterflies. He scolded himself for letting the slight man affect him unaware. Then he scolded himself again for letting Lu Han continue call him Angel Pup; he wasn’t five and in need of a small nine year old’s bandaids and kisses anymore.
Lu Han tried to say that he only kept up the nickname because he’d switched schools just after it caught on and he hadn’t had time to get sick of it, but in all honesty, that was 16 years ago. If anything, Lu Han still saw him as cute little child he had to keep and protect. And apparently shove ideas of torrid love affairs upon. The corner of the room suddenly illuminated, and Jongin made his way over to see a text message from Kyungsoo.
thanks again 4ur help! Baekhyun, Junmyeon, and Sehunnie can’t wait to meet u!! :D
Jongin’s stomach did not jump again at that last name. He didn’t even know a Sehun. He fired off a quick “You’re Welcome” and settled back in to finish the rest of Schoolboys’ Secrets, ready to see which character was about to be unmasked as the villain and if anyone else would discover the main character’s secret.
+
“-and don’t forget: no matter how loud, how obnoxious, how drunk the cruise goers get, it is all of your jobs to keep them happy and more importantly, keep them safe. They all paid for the vacation of their dreams, and we here at LifeTree Cruises hand out dreams easy as…?”
“EASY AS PICKING FRUIT FROM A TREE!”
Chanyeol clapped his hands twice at the eager response from the staff before sending them forth to prepare for the vacationers due to arrive any moment. He grinned into the summer breeze as the ship bobbed with the waves at the dock, not startled at all when a sudden presence appeared at his elbow.
“You know, that call and response thing doesn’t make much sense.”
“Shut up, Jongin.”
“Really, I see what you were going for there but getting into trees for fruit is usually pretty hard. There’s nothing easy about picking peaches. Have you ever picked a peach, Chanyeol?”
“Jongin, you are the most bratty friend I have ever actually enjoyed being around. I hope Lu Han arrives in the first wave of clients so you can feel what I feel right now.”
Chanyeol smiled as he spoke, calm and serene. He’d missed the younger boy and his unclever quips throughout the year and was looking forward to the coming summer months. There’d be more time for casual bonding now that Jongin’d been promoted in rank and had his own team of happy workers to boss around. Speaking of-
“I didn’t see any unfamiliar faces at this morning’s briefing. Where are your friends?”
Jongin turned to face the ocean, leaning into the railing and sliding along it until he was in the shade of a nearby deck umbrella. “On the way. They got caught up in the tourist traffic.” He looked up at Chanyeol, squinting to see him against the sun. “Sorry about that, boss. Don’t worry, I’ll coach them myself when they get here.”
Chanyeol nodded once and handed Jongin the clip board of points to cover. “See that you do. They’re your crew. All hands on deck for the debriefing after lights out tonight.”
The moment slowed, Jongin skimming through the orientation topics he’d studied for days before coming aboard and had just heard Chanyeol expound in detail. The sound of taxis rolled through the air, engines getting louder as the drivers came to drop off hundreds of excited vacationers. The grin was evident in Chanyeol’s voice when he spoke again, elbow digging into Jongin’s side.
“Mr. Kim. It would seem that our first passenger to board is looking around for someone. Would you happen to know anything about that?”
“I have no idea what you could possibly be talking about, Mr. Park.” Jongin returned, unable to stop the slow smile spreading across his face. Chanyeol took the clipboard back and opened his mouth to retort when a loud, clear voice cut through the air.
“ANGEL PUP!”
Jongin turned towards the voice just in time to catch an armful of his favorite person in the world outside of his mother, father, and sister. “Hey Lu Han. I’ve missed you too.”
+
Kyungsoo shifted in his seat again, adjusting the seatbelt against his neck for the fourth time in ten minutes. His hands came to rest on his knees, nails scratching a rhythmless staccato beat into the denim of his jeans. He pointedly avoided looking at his watch as he searched through the bag at his feet for the worn rule book he’d brought along. Kyungsoo flipped through it quickly, eyes not taking in any of the words he’d read so many times until he caught on one sentence- Employees are expected to provide service that is refreshing, helpful, and prompt…
“How much furth-”
“Kyungsoo, I swear I am driving as fast as I can without endangering the lives of everyone on the road around us. I am telling you and have been telling you for the past hour, I will get us to the docks as soon as I can.”
Baekhyun looked over from the passenger’s seat to Sehun, taking care not to twist too far and accidentally make eye contact with the impatient man sitting behind him. Sehun shrugged at the silent question in his eyes and turned to the window with his lips pursed, not sure how to handle the situation. Kyungsoo was understandably bothered at their tardiness, and Junmyeon didn’t sound exasperated but both Baekhyun and Sehun had lived with the two long enough to tell when things were a breath away from exploding on them all. Sehun looked forward again in time to catch Baekhyun mouthing what looked like ‘sorry’. He leaned forward to ask what there was to be sorry for but had hardly shifted in his seat when Baekhyun cleared his throat loudly and then again more softly.
“I’m sure we’re all gonna have a great time working together. Sehun, please do not date the entire staff. I’d like to maybe come back next year.”
Sehun snorted. The air in the car broke as Junmyeon and Kyungsoo immediately came to his aid, chastising Baekhyun fiercely.
“Baekhyun! You know better than that, what is wrong with you?!”
“I agree with Junmyeon. Sehun’s dating habits are none of your business and nothing to laugh at or tease him about.”
“Really Baekhyun, you should be more mature than this; do I need to pull this car over?”
“Apologize, right now-”
A small cough interrupted Kyungsoo’s demands just before Sehun leaned forward to sock Baekhyun in the shoulder. Baekhyun whined at the strength behind the fist and curled in on himself, rubbing at the spot.
“Aw, I’m gonna bruise!”
“While I’m not actually bothered at all, and am rather in awe of your willingness to sacrifice yourself to Mom and Dad’s nagging to keep them from accidentally snapping each other’s necks, I felt that not hitting you for that comment would have set a precedent I’m not keen on encouraging.”
“You still could have been gentler about it!”
“Do you want me to make it up to you?”
“Wait, which one of us is “Mom”? And since when are Kyungsoo and I your parents?”
“Oh Sehun, my complaining about being in pain is not an invitation for you to cause me more pain. I promise, my lower back hurts just thinking about it, you little punk.”
“Hey, my massage skills are awesome. When have you ever left me and felt anything other than a mild discomfort?”
“I can’t really speak for Mama Junmyeon there, but let me be clear when I say I have no desire to hear any more details from your sex lives.”
The car continued on in relaxed silence for a few more minutes.
“Junmyeon, are we close yet?”
“...Tell me what makes me Mom.”
+
“…and then Minseok stopped the ball in a chest trap, and it was so cool, you have seriously no idea. And then later, he scored the winning goal off of a bicycle kick, do you understand how hard that is to do? The amount of strength he must have in his thighs, just imagine-”
“Wow, ok. Lu Han, I’d actually much rather not imagine anything at all, specifically if it has to do with your latest wet dream’s thighs.” Jongin expected the cuff to the back of the head even before he felt the air shift as Lu Han’s hand sliced through it, and gripped the rope he was winding around its holder a little tighter as he braced for impact.
“You shut up. He’s not my-” Lu Han paused, looking up from his lounge chair to contemplate Jongin’s raised eyebrow and smirk. “Ok, maybe he is my latest wet dream, but that’s not all it is, alright! I like him a lot.”
Jongin smiled and nodded, returning the majority of his attention to the rope in his hand. He’d received a text from Kyungsoo not seven minutes prior saying they’d made it to the ship. One look was all it had taken to send Zitao scurrying off to escort the group to their rooms and the uniforms awaiting them in their closets. He needed to finish putting away the last of the surplus supplies so that he’d be totally free to engage Kyungsoo, his friends, and the last of the arriving passengers.
“Hey Lu Han? What time is it now?”
“It’s about 10:15am. Right now at school I’d be in Physics. Minseok’s in my Physics class, ya know. We worked together on this terribad project; we had to build a model car with a brake, but the brake had to be adjustable.”
Jongin figured they would have about one more wave of passengers right after lunch time. If he could get through orientation fast enough, he could maybe even have Kyungsoo and his friends assist with boarding; it would be a good experience for them.
“And on the day of the presentation Professor Lee had this ramp, and he would give people random distances from the bottom of the ramp. Everyone would adjust their brake and then let it roll and it would have been a fun experience but our car sucked!”
“What? Dude, you’re great at physics, why would you not to be able to put together a toy car?”
Lu Han sat forward solemnly and grabbed at Jongin’s elbow to hold his focus before intoning, “As great as I am at math and physics, Minseok in pressed khaki slacks and a black button up is much better.” Lu Han grinned at Jongin’s mocking snort and allowed himself to be shoved away, flopping back onto the chair with arms and legs akimbo. “He looked so good, Angel Pup, you don’t understand. It’s distracting. Anyhow, our car didn’t even make it a fourth of the required distance. We got extra points regardless because our teacher let us all guess how many seconds it would take a car to come to a complete stop. We guessed three, it stopped in three, we had the smallest difference between guess and reality, so! Our write up was our saving grace; we ended up with a B.”
“I’m proud of you man. Getting good grades even amidst the haze of lust and hormones.”
“But of course, Puppy. I can’t wait for you to fall for someone too.”
“Why, so I can be as insufferable and talkative as you?”
The two grinned at each other for a moment longer before Jongin heard Zitao’s happy chattering moving towards their direction, and stood to stretch. He bounced on the balls of his feet twice and planted his fists on his hips with a grin.
“Welp, I’m off to prepare the new troops for battle! If they learn fast then I can get you to finally meet Kyungsoo. See ya later, Lu Han hyung!!”
Lu Han sat up and watched Jongin bounce over to the growing sound of voices, a fond smile on his lips. Sometimes he felt so out of touch with his younger friend, having missed so much of his life while attending the private school two cities over. Small things like this though, little mannerisms that he recognized from a much shorter-much rounder-excited Jongin, made him feel more secure and grounded. He saw a large group round the corner of the ship, three shorter men and two who were taller.
He knew Zitao pretty well from previous cruises, so he let his eyes pass over him to focus on the new boy. Lu Han took in a lean body, a flat face, a short blond haircut slicked up in the front, and warm smile directed at the smaller boys ahead of him. Lu Han watched his gaze whip over to Zitao at the Chinese boy’s shout, and then slide along Tao’s pointing arm until his gaze was directed at Jongin. As Jongin came to a stop in front of them, hugging one of the shorter boys, Lu Han saw the tall man’s eyes focus and then suddenly brighten with interest. Lu Han knew he should be focused on figuring out which one was Kyungsoo, and potentially planning to buy the boy a drink during off hours as a thank you for being with Jongin when he couldn’t, and yet- he couldn’t pull his eyes away until he’d made sense of what he was seeing.
The tall boy seemed to glide to the front of the group.Where everyone else had simply spoken to Jongin, this man grasped Jongin’s hand and pulled his boss into his personal space, curled the corners of his mouth up into a dangerous smirk and then a wide grin, suddenly spoke. I’m Sehun. It’s nice to meet you. Lu Han saw Jongin answer animatedly, but his focus was on the way the tall boy’s- Sehun’s hand continued to hold onto Jongin’s with fingers tracing along the inside of his wrist; the way Sehun’s posture seemed to shift to curl around Jongin like a protective wall. Other words were exchanged, Sehun finally released Jongin’s hand, and then Jongin was leading the group away and pointing out where emergency medical kits were stored, leaving Lu Han to wonder if he’d just seen what he thought he’d just seen.
+
Kyungsoo shuffled along with his bags, toes centimeters behind Zitao’s heels, in a hurry to get to his room, get dressed, and go meet Jongin. Junmyeon and Baekhyun followed behind him, slightly more leisurely but still with purpose. Sehun brought up the rear, moving slowly to take in his surroundings. He made no effort to keep up; the worker, Zitao, was shortening his stride to accommodate his group and Sehun could catch them easily if he felt it necessary. Sehun could hear Zitao answering Junmyeon and Kyungsoo’s various questions distantly. He only focused in when he heard Baekhyun pipe up with a question of his own.
“Now tell me, Zitao is it? What are the rooming arrangements like here?”
“We workers usually sleep two or three to a room. You’re assigned your room for the first month that we run cruises and in the second month everybody shuffles around as they like.”
Baekhyun leaned forward and shifted his two duffle bags to his left side, one on the shoulder and one in his hand. “So then, how are we split up?”
The whole group slowed to a stop while Zitao popped two keys off his belt loop.
“Baekhyun and Junmyeon hyung will be in this room here with me, number 455. Our neighbors in 454 are two girls, Hyeri and Sojin. Yixing and Jongdae live in 456; you’ll see all of them around.” He passed out the keys and pointed down the hall. “Kyungsoo hyung and Sehun will be down at the end of the hall with Team Leader Kim, across the hall from Supervisor Park.”
“Wait, wait, uhm Zitao? Would Team Leader Kim by any chance maybe potentially possibly be…”
The whole group smiled at Kyungsoo’s bright eyes and happy speculation. Baekhyun and Junmyeon shared a look before they slid their suitcases into their room, ready to explore their small bunker and dress for work. Zitao watched them go with a smile before turning back to Kyungsoo.
“Yup, you two are rooming with Jongin. Hurry and go change you guys, and all of you come to me again when you’re done. I’ll take you up topside and show you to Team Leader Kim.”
Sehun followed behind Kyungsoo and Zitao to his room, his smaller friend practically vibrating in excitement. A quick glance around the room showed him a single bed that was clearly already lived in and then a set of bunk beds up against the wall. Kyungsoo turned around to glance at him and Sehun motioned him to take whichever one he liked first. Kyungsoo moved quickly for the lower bunk directly beside the single bed, shoving his suitcase beneath it and turning to the closet where Zitao was pointing out their uniforms. The bright white of a pair of shorts and dark richness of a forest green polo caught Sehun’s attention as they suddenly whipped through the air to land on his head.
“Hey! Kyungsoo, I know you’re excited but please-”
“Nope, nope, nope, no time! Get dressed and come on so I can introduce you to my friend!”
Not ten minutes later saw the group together again in matching outfits, moving as one towards the stairs to the deck. Junmyeon laughed aloud at something Baekhyun said, and Sehun was suddenly reminded of the picture from the website; he wondered if he’d see that beautiful boy while he was on this trip.
+
Sehun’s answer came much sooner than he expected. In the middle of Kyungsoo’s animated recitation of some story from school, Zitao shouted out. He pointed away from the group, and Sehun looked up to see the boy from the website standing in front of him. Not nearly as short as Sehun had expected, but still only about as tall as his own shoulder, his lean frame incredibly fit and toned. The cut of his pressed polo angled along with the gentle v of his torso, sloping down to thin hips and strong thighs. Sehun sent a thought of extreme gratitude out into the air as the boy bounced on his toes after he released Kyungsoo from an embrace, his white shorts shifting and tightening over the muscle in his legs. Kyungsoo handled introductions; as the group chorused their hellos Sehun slid forward, right hand extended.
“I’m Sehun. It’s nice to meet you.”
He felt Baekhyun’s gaze whip over to him, but the sensation of eyes boring into his skull faded into the background as Jongin grinned up into his face, handshake firm and eyes bright.
“It’s nice to meet you too! Now, all of you, follow me. I’m gonna teach you everything you need to know about the ship in two hours and 15 minutes, and then you’re all gonna assist with passenger boarding.”
Baekhyun finally turned away from Sehun at that, mouth tucked into a frown. “Are we going to be able to handle that kind of responsibility so soon? I mean, boarding passengers when I’m not totally sure how to get back to my bunker.”
“Don’t worry about that. You won’t be the only crew members working then- if you get sent to escort someone to their room a more experience worker will be with you. Besides my orientation skills are no joke,” Jongin chuckled at his own silly bravado, and Sehun decided he wanted to hear that sound again, “by the time I’m done you’ll be a pro. Not to mention, Tao will be around.”
Junmyeon leaned towards Baekhyun with a spare water bottle ready in hand, wondering if the light flush in his face was because of Jongin, because Jongin mentioned Tao, or if it was too much heat exposure. Tao inched closer to Baekhyun with a murmured I’ll help you with anything, really, just ask me that was supposedly meant for the whole group, despite him staring directly at Baekhyun as he spoke. The lack of a witty response and bright red complexion told Junmyeon it wasn’t about the heat or Jongin in the slightest.
Three hours later, Tao stood in front of Jongin on the main deck in front of the restaurant.
“After you finished training them, Junmyeon and Kyungsoo went down with Taeil and Yifan to see where we store food, Baekhyun and I went to check out the laundry room- he’s doing a load now, and… uh.”
“What’s up, Tao? There’s something else and you know I don’t bite, so go ahead, tell me.”
“Eunji stole Sehun.”
Jongin paused, turned on the balls of his feet to face away from Tao, turned back, opened his mouth to speak, turned again, and sighed. “What?”
“Eunji took Sehun. She, uh, she was freaking out because one of the chefs- he was supposed to handle breakfast but he can only cook traditional Korean breakfasts and she wanted to serve pancakes and eggs and such since there are so many foreigners on this cruise.”
“I swear Zitao, what am I going to do?!” Eunji paced, four steps left four steps right four steps left four steps right, blocking the narrow hallway and preventing Tao, Baekhyun, and Sehun from leaving. “There’s no one on the kitchen staff who can cook a western breakfast, we aren’t five star chefs who studied in France here, we’re just regular people who enjoy and are very good at making Korean food. And these people are so picky about their eggs. Like, this woman just walked up to me with a little Korean-English dictionary and I’m pretty sure she asked me if we would have eggs benedict in the morning. I don’t even know what eggs benedict are?”
Tao floundered, unsure what to say to help or at least to calm her down enough for him and the two other boys to leave. He was about to try and dash past her when Baekhyun piped up.
“Sehun knows what eggs benedict is! Sehun, what is it?”
Sehun chuckled once and cocked his head with a smirk. “It’s just an English muffin, ham or bacon, a poached egg, and some Hollandaise sauce. Not hard to make once you’ve done it once or twice.”
Eunji froze. “Tao, who are these kids?”
“New staff. This is Baekhyun, and this is Sehun.”
Eunji returned Baekhyun’s ‘nice to meet you’ and stepped closer, gripping Sehun’s biceps and narrowing her eyes. “Sehun. Can you cook pancakes?”
“Yup.”
“Waffles?”
“Yup.”
“Can you make all the strange permutations of eggs that I haven’t heard of, cook western breakfast meat, make them all in large numbers, and teach others at the same time?”
“I’ve done it once before for a summer camp thing. I only had to help out for a week though.”
“Tao, what’s his job?”
“He doesn’t really have one yet; he’s on Team Leader Kim’s crew and they just finished orientation and training.”
“Sehun, my name is Team Leader Jung, and you work with me now. Tao, take Baekhyun wherever you were headed, and tell Jongin I stole his crew member out of necessity when you fill him in later.”
“But-”
“Hush Tao, it’ll be fine. You, Sehun, follow me. I need to show you the food and then take you to the kitchen.”
Jongin only shook his head before smiling at Tao. He knew what a whirlwind Eunji could be, especially when she was determined or focused. He dismissed Tao to finish helping Baekhyun with the laundry before heading off himself to tell Chanyeol about the staff change.
+
It was 11 o’clock at night when Sehun finally left the kitchen. The night shift had just woken up, had their meeting with Chanyeol, and then dispersed to their duties, leaving all of the day crew free. Sehun heard Eunji call out to meet on deck for debriefing or face her fury and sighed to himself- almost free.
“I promise I’ll be there, Team Leader Jung. Do I at least have time to go wash the smell of food off?”
“Yeah, if you hurry to your room now and no one’s in your shower. You know how to get down there?”
“Yeah, I’ll make it. Thank you, leader.” He cooed the words and got a playful slap to the shoulder for his efforts before she shoved him out the door into the hall with a grin.
“Sehun, I’m going to have to watch out for you, aren’t I? I’m off to find Jongdae and Yifan. Sit with who you like.”
He watched her go, long dark hair swinging, and hoped to himself that a certain other pretty laughing team leader and her weren’t so close that if he were to break up with one the other would become off-limits. The thought reminded him that he shared a room with said other team leader. Kyungsoo had once accidentally mentioned while drunk that his best friend Jongin was into boys. Maybe if the team leader caught an eyeful of Sehun strolling out of the bathroom freshly showered their relationship as co-workers could move in a more pleasurable direction. Sehun ducked his head at the thought and tried to bite back a grin. He really did have a small crush on Kim Jongin, as he did with all his flings, and he saw no reason that this attempt would turn out any differently than the rest.
+
“Now, if everybody’s here, we can go ahead with our first debriefing of the season, and I promise to keep it brief too! Aha, now these won’t be nightly things. I’ll put up flyers outside my bunk door with any announcements at the end of each day, and we’ll have a large proper meeting like this every Thursday night.” Chanyeol spoke to the group with barely contained enthusiasm. As he continued on, Jongin suddenly got up from where he was sitting between Shinwoo and Kyungsoo to crouch-walk over to seat himself between Sehun and Junmyeon. He turned left towards Junmyeon and Baekhyun and then right towards Sehun and Kyungsoo, flapping one hand towards himself in a motion that said “scoot in!” until the boys were gathered in a small circle around him. Tao, who’d been sitting on the far left by Baekhyun leaned closer to hear what was happening and Shinwoo looked on in interest, but they both turned back towards Chanyeol when they realized what Jongin was saying.
“Look, Chanyeol- er, Supervisor Park’s got this thing where he’ll announce something he thinks is worthy of public praising and then he’ll say “give so-and-so a clap!”” Jongin paused to look around the group. “When he does that, don’t burst into applause. Just clap once and stop. It’s called the Thunder Clap; he learned the technique back in high school. Tons of people got awards at the end of speech team season and instead of taking forever applauding everyone the entire theater gave one clap for every name called. It’s a huge time saver.”
Assured that his little band of employees wouldn’t be embarrassed on accident by doing the wrong thing, Jongin motioned them all back to their seats. He moved to stand up and head back over to Kyungsoo, but just as he began to move he was stopped by Sehun resting a hand on his mid-thigh and leaning in as if to whisper. On instinct, Jongin tilted his ear towards Sehun’s mouth and leaned closer to hear.
“Hey, stay by me? I know I’m not really on your crew anymore and I’m sure you wanna catch up with Kyungsoo, but I’d like to get to know you. Sooner rather than later, before we settle into our roles as co-workers and it becomes awkward and random for me to flirt with you.”
Jongin flushed at the straight forward sentiment and the feeling of Sehun’s breath warm against his ear. He blinked up at the sky, unaware of Sehun’s amazed gaze tracing along the cut of his jaw, over his lips, and lingering on the still-pink apple of his cheek. Out of the corner of his he saw a figure walking around by the bar on the sky deck. Though it was too dark to make out features, he knew that gait anywhere and was sure the person was Lu Han. Thinking of his friend led his mind to Lu Han’s constant needling about romance and the thought of settling down into a serious relationship made Jongin scrunch his nose in distaste. Sehun tried to bite back his giggle at the cute sight and failed, causing Jongin to look over at him, reverie broken.
“Yeah I’ll stay. And don’t worry about settling into roles you don’t like. We share a bunker still, remember?” Jongin leaned closer, tilted his chin up until his nose nearly brushed Sehun’s, and licked his lips from habit. “You’ll have all the time you need to change my mind after work.”
Sehun only grinned, pleased with the team leader’s emboldened behavior, and turned towards Chanyeol once more. Jongin faced forward himself and then leaned against Sehun’s arm, letting his head rest on the taller man’s shoulder, prompting Sehun to wind an arm around his slight waist. Sehun knew it: this was definitely going to be a fun summer.
+
In the days following, the cruise liner set sail with all of its passengers, crew, and cargo safely aboard and everyone found themselves settling into some semblance of a routine. When Kyungsoo woke up Sehun was already gone and Jongin was lacing on his shoes and heading out the door. He would run a quick shower, be dressed and out of his room in time to catch Baekhyun, Tao, and Junmyeon walking past his door, and follow them up the stairs to the cafeteria. Kyungsoo’s spoon clattered against his bowl as he pushed the last of the hot broth into his mouth, careful not to slurp so loud that he missed Jongin’s instructions for the day.
“…and Tao and Junmyeon will be running Seniors’ Shuffleboard on the lido deck from 10am till one. Baekhyun,” Jongin glanced up to see where the slighter man was seated and pivoted to face him, the pen in his hand bouncing as he gestured, “will swing by around noon after he finishes loading the laundry to let one of you eat a quick lunch. You’ll both get fifteen minutes to eat, one at a time, and when you finish you’ll return to your post and Baek will go eat.”
Jongin watched his group nod their heads, taking extra care to be sure they all expressed understanding before continuing. “Baek, today you’re in charge of washing the towels. Jongdae and Yifan are collecting them from the passengers now; after breakfast you just head down to the laundry and they’ll all be there. Kyungsoo, you’re gonna go with him. That’s all I have for this morning guys. Find me in the afternoon and I’ll send you wherever you’re needed most. Dismissed!”
Junmyeon gathered up as many bowls, utensils, and used napkins as he could before heading over to the kitchen door where Shinwoo was waiting with a trashcan and Yixing was holding a large plastic bin labeled DISHES. Tao and Baekhyun followed, each holding their own bowls and carefully walking a foot apart only to lean into each other’s space laughing and then spring back. Kyungsoo made to walk behind, a quip to tease the blossoming couple already half formed on his lips when Jongin gripped at his elbow lightly.
“Oh, hey, Jong- Team Leader Kim.” Kyungsoo caught himself in time to use the proper title, and smiled when Jongin flushed but didn’t insist he be called anything else. “What can I do for you?”
“Well, Soo, I know you don’t have lunch plans yet, and I was wondering if you’d come to the restaurant with me. I want you to finally meet Lu Han.”
“Ah yes, the elusive Lu Han, one Kim Jongin’s most beloved older brother. Sure I’ll come; I’ve been dying to meet him.”
“Great! I’ll meet you outside the laundry room at noon when you and Baek are finishing up.”
The two friends separated with a smile. Jongin headed off to organize signups for a deep sea diving expedition, heart hammering in his chest at the thought that it was finally happening. Kyungsoo and Lu Han were finally going to meet.
one│ two│ three
title from Stand Out by Powerline (Tevin Cambell)