[Fic] Possibilities
Title: Possibilities
Pairing: Zhou Mi/girl!Kyuhyun
Rating: NC-17
Genre: AU
Prompt: Exhausted from overwork, Kyuhyun goes to vacation at the beach to rest her mind and body. There, she meets a man who is able to show her the marvels of the beach, and much more.
***
Kyuhyun’s first day of vacation began with what she thought her friends might consider sulking. She never left her hotel room, except to sit on the balcony and sip tea in the evening. But Kyuhyun had called it realizing just how tired she had been, how drained, how caught up in routine, when she had basically napped the day away, waking only to eat and listlessly poke at a book. She didn’t know what to do with herself, and that was the truth. But when she woke from a full night’s sleep, it was enough to drive her to put on real clothes and leave the hotel. From her balcony, she had seen an outdoor terrace filled with tables and umbrellas, some kind of cafe adjoining the building. Maybe it was adventure that took her, but it was primarily her stomach.
A girl, college age, led her to one of the tables that looked over the beach, leaving her with tea, a menu, and the promise that her server would be with her. It took Kyuhyun only moments to decide what she wanted to eat, folding her menu and wishing she’d brought some kind of flowy skirts since the sea breezes were dancing around her ankles.
She looked up as a man approached her, dressed in the pale blue uniform shirt and khaki pants.
“Good morning! I’m Zhou Mi, and I’ll be serving you this morning. Are you ready to order?”
Kyuhyun found it impossible not to smile back.
She made her order for pancakes, and then accidentally found herself watching Zhou Mi move around the terrace. He was an attentive server, almost bobbling a plate once but the family he was serving was clearly charmed by him. A good fit, she thought. He had the personality, making people feel comfortable and relaxed. And she had to stop thinking like she was still analyzing business. That didn’t mean she was unaware of his shoulders under the blue cloth.
The food was good, but the atmosphere better, and she knew she’d be returning, another smile touching her face as Zhou Mi gave her a little wave and smile as she left.
***
“It was a good idea to get away,” Kyuhyun said, her lips pressing together when Ryeowook had the gall to laugh at her. “No, seriously. I slept most of yesterday, had breakfast near the beach and took a walk on it this afternoon. And tonight, the hotel bar is having a special selection of wines.”
“Ooh. Picking up a guy?”
It was Kyuhyun’s turn to laugh. There were enough families around, she’d probably end up picking up a married man, and that was definitely not in her plans. Still, she dressed carefully in some of the nicer clothes she’d brought, to bolster herself. She’d find a place to sit if she could, try a couple of wines, and then relax with a movie.
She had two weeks for whatever she wanted to do, and nothing else.
***
Kyuhyun liked the way dangly earrings felt against her neck, her hair pulled back into as nice of a ponytail as she could get it. A dressy sweater and her only pair of slacks, and she almost felt equal to the glass of merlot in her hand. It wasn’t something she did often, most of her wine tastings happened in her own home, dozing with a glass of wine after too many long days.
A laugh, a familiar laugh, had her turing her head. Zhou Mi, from the cafe in the morning, greeting someone with a hand on their shoulder. Gone was the blue shirt, replaced with white, open at the collar and rolled up at the sleeves. She stared just a moment long enough, and he met her eyes. She knew the moment he recognized her, his smile widening, and she smiled back. One thing she hadn’t expected was seeing someone she’d actually spoken to.
He was cute. She wasn’t interested in finding a man. He was attractive in another sense since at one point she would leave and they wouldn’t see each other again. She was supposed to be resting. It had been months - a year? two? - since she’d actually had sex.
Of course the point was moot, since he got waved away, and she went back to sipping her wine. Having conversations with herself about men who vaguely interested her, over. There was always the chance she’d see him again in the cafe, and that was for the best.
“Is anyone sitting here?”
Kyuhyun turned her head, already shaking it as she met Zhou Mi’s eyes. “No, it’s free. Zhou Mi, right?”
His smile only got brighter. “That’s right. And you…?”
“Kyuhyun.”
“Kyuhyun,” he said, slow, as though turning her name over in his mind. “It’s nice to see you again, Kyuhyun.”
And she liked the way her name sounded in his voice, on his lips. But the silence stretched, heat flooding her face as she took in his flirty words.
“If you’re here for wine, I can recommend the merlot,” she said, lifting her glass as though to demonstrate. And she cursed herself as well, because she couldn’t fathom what other reason he might be there.
“I was here for the wine,” he said, again, almost thoughtful. But as he smiled at her, she swallowed. Was. Which meant, he was there for something else instead. Or someone.
***
The number of women who were murdered in their hotel rooms by men they’d picked up in the hotel bar had to be fairly low, she thought, trying not to laugh at herself as she unlocked her room. Though were so many other dangers. He hadn’t pushed her, there was that. They’d had another glass of wine, discussing the town, drinking preferences, and airplane seat choices of all things. He’d touched her wrist, their knees brushing, and nothing more. He hadn’t leered. She knew she’d been reading the signals right when his eyes had widened, but he’d agreed to leave with her.
She tried to remember if she’d left anything embarrassing laying around in her room when she let him in. Her suitcase was closed, toiletries on the counter, but nothing on the bed or the small sofa. She hadn’t been there long enough for that. A fact she could be grateful for, if she wasn’t feeling the nerves rise up.
“They have nice rooms here,” she said, as though that weren’t obvious.
Zhou Mi was smiling, nodding in agreement and standing near the dresser, a good three feet from her. He was waiting. On her.
Instead of assuring him for some reason that she didn’t take guys back to her room often, and why that even mattered, she held out her hand. They took a step almost in time, his smile curling, almost assuring her, asking her. And with her fingers curling in his white shirt, she nearly pulled him into the kiss. Warm, his head tilting to meet hers, and she nearly shivered. There were fireworks enough, as his hands spread against her back.
Kyuhyun felt dangerous and daring, like some kind of heroine in a spy novel who seduced the handsome henchman to get information. Only there was nothing she was after, except perhaps information, and release. There was a gentle power to Zhou Mi’s movements. A strength in his arms in the way he held her. He didn’t muscle her around, didn’t make her fear he wouldn’t stop if she wanted him to stop.
His hands roamed the back of her sweater, and it was so easy to urge him, to sway forward into his body and moan into his kisses. When Zhou Mi guided her to the couch, she didn’t resist, and her moment of caution faded when he pulled her into his lap, laughing with her as her hair fell around their faces like a curtain.
“Gorgeous,” he said, letting a lock of her hair fall through his fingers. But his eyes were all for Kyuhyun.
It was not so very difficult to divine a man’s interest, and he was no different. When his hands gripped her hips, she felt his unsteady inhale at the pressure against his erection. That was nice. Both his reaction, and the feel of him. Kyuhyun felt her body throb, imagining his pants being open and her own on the floor, sinking onto him just as they were.
“Do you have a condom?”
Zhou Mi stared at her, and for a moment Kyuhyun feared she’d been too forward, misread his intentions. And then she realized the blankness of his face indicated panic.
“No,” he said, putting his hands on his pockets as though a condom would magically leap into them. “No, I wasn’t- I didn’t think-“
Kyuhyun laughed, and he began to laugh with her.
“Me either,” she said. “Me either.”
Zhou Mi kissed her, and instead of regret, it felt like promise. “I don’t mind just kissing more.”
Funny, neither did she. But that didn’t mean Kyuhyun wasn’t picturing more. She was the one who guided his hand up under the back of her sweater, sucking at his tongue and feeling him grow harder. The solid ridge of his erection rocked side to side against her, something to press against as she wanted more. It had been so long since she’d been touched by anyone else that her body was throbbing in joy and desperation. If he’d had a condom, she might have been begging him.
“Kyuhyun,” Zhou Mi said against her, and made her shudder.
Their hips moved together, perfectly countered, his hand separated from her breast by only a thin layer of lace. When her nipple was caught between his fingers, she moaned against his smiling mouth, and he caught her closer, wrapping an arm around her, and her fingers grasped his shirt, his shoulders. What started as a tiny heat grew, fueled by his harsh breaths, his touch, the desperate jitter of his hips. Kyuhyun moaned into his shoulder as the heat spilled over, leaving her gasping for long moments until his hips pressed into hers and then stilled.
And they breathed together, Zhou Mi’s hand stroking her back through her sweater, kissing her neck through her hair. Her body felt satisfied and somehow too alive at the same time. She could have wanted more, and it wasn’t the wine that spoke of it when he cradled her head and kissed her.
Out of the moment, what they had done felt stark and nearly embarrassing. Zhou Mi was a stranger to her, and what had seemed like a perk before - that he lived so far away - became something far different. He was pressing gentle kisses to her jaw, and Kyuhyun both wondered what it would be like to sleep beside him, and fought the shouting inside that told her to get him away and fast.
That couldn’t be part of it, and she pushed to the side, turning her head so she could give him a kiss. A last kiss.
And Kyuhyun tugged him to his feet, smiling as he steadied her as well.
“I think you should go,” Kyuhyun said, trying to make her voice outweigh any regret. It was her room. She did not need to apologize.
Zhou Mi looked surprised only a moment, before nodding, touching her arm.
“Yes. It was nice meeting you, Kyuhyun. Have a good evening.”
She hugged her elbows after locking the door behind him. It took a shower to wash away his taste and scent, and she curled in bed wondering what had possessed her. He’d been different. A man who worked at a cafe by the beach. Something about him had been very different.
***
Kyuhyun recognized Zhou Mi immediately, despite the sunglasses obscuring his face and the newspaper half held in front of him. She’d have recognized his mouth and the set of his shoulders out of thousands of people. She had a momentary debate with the hostess hovering beside her. Get her own table and pretend she hadn’t seen him, or talk to him. There was no “right” thing, because it was perfectly her right to have breakfast there uninhibited no matter what they’d done.
But she made her choice just before he spotted her, his mouth dropping open.
“Are you…” she asked, motioning to the empty chair across from him.
“No! Please. Have a seat.”
Kyuhyun smiled, taking the menu and settled there. Zhou Mi was polite, at least, taking off the sunglasses so they could see each other fully. The sunglasses were not cheap, nor had the shirt she’d been gripping the night before, or the one he was wearing.
“You don’t work for the cafe, do you?”
Zhou Mi’s eyes went wide, as he shook his head. “Sometimes. When I’m here, it’s nice to be able to meet customers, see how business is. This time, though, a server had unexpectedly quit so I was filling in while interviews happened. I’ve invested in it, but no. I don’t work for it.”
“Oh,” she said, her face heating as some of her arguments the night before fell away.
“I can see why you would think that, though,” Zhou Mi said, laughing, and leaning forward. “We didn’t discuss our jobs last night. I live in Seoul most of the year, with trips to Beijing or Shanghai. I come here when I’m checking up on the hotel, or on the cafe.”
The rest of her arguments disintegrated. He wasn’t some kind of a beach bum, some hot, artsy guy just getting by and enjoying life. He wasn’t a local.
“I…” she murmured. “I see.”
Kyuhyun’s order was taken, and she felt she had to address the other issue at hand, the one that felt like a subtle tension between them.
“I don’t know if you knew why I wanted you to leave.”
“I took a few guesses,” Zhou Mi said, his voice sounding amused. “Like if you weren’t comfortable with someone staying over, or maybe if it wasn’t as good as you thought it might be.”
He said the last with a fair amount of self-deprecation laced with humor, as though he were trying to get her to laugh - not just make her think he was feeling hurt or sorry for himself. But she wasn’t there to stroke his ego, no matter how much of a joke he’d meant it as.
“Those are all good points. But I came here to relax and recuperate, not have some kind of…“
She hesitated.
“Fling?” Zhou Mi asked, smiling.
That wasn’t the word Kyuhyun was going to use, but it suited she guessed. “Something like that. I enjoyed spending time with you. I didn’t know anything about you. It seemed unwise to risk… I don’t know.”
Zhou Mi hummed. “And you always do what’s wise? Is that why you’re here recuperating?”
She chuckled. “Point taken. No, I don’t always. That was me running myself into the ground in favor of work. And it had a detrimental effect on everything in my life.”
“Then how about adding a friendship?” Zhou Mi suggested. He reached and rested his hand over hers for just a moment, patting it. “The rest of my time here is going to be spent recuperating, too. So if you need a tour guide, I’m available.”
His smile only seemed to get wider as she eyed him warily. “No more need to wait tables?”
“What luck,” Zhou Mi said. “They seem to have hired a new server this morning, so my services aren’t needed.”
They laughed together, as her food was set down. Spending time with him during the day, outside of a room with a bed, didn’t seem like such a dangerous thing. And that made Kyuhyun almost wary, because she wondered if she was making excuses because she wanted to spend more time with him. He had such an easy manner, a genuine kind of warmth that most men of her acquaintance were lacking. She only had to clear her throat once after falling into the trap of remembering the way he’d kissed her. Almost all of her arguments from the night before stood, but for where he lived. Even based in Seoul, she didn’t think she was ready to start into something complicated, and when she watched Zhou Mi smile after taking a drink of his coffee, she thought that anything she started with him could get really complicated.
The fact that she was still sitting with him and even debating with herself about him meant that it was already far from simple. But even knowing that, she knew nothing was without risk. And if she couldn’t throw caution aside on vacation, then there was never a time to do so. For a moment she couldn’t remember what she’d even had planned for the day, besides eating and watching the tide turn.
“I was hoping to do something this afternoon,” Kyuhyun said, twisting her fork in her hand. “Get a nice view of the beach or the water. Suggestions?”
“Do you like horses?” Zhou Mi ventured after a moment’s thought. “There’s a place that rents them for beach rides. Or there are local boats that take people out on sightseeing tours at certain times during the day. That’s the best way to go out and get a lay of the beach. There are brochures in the cafe.”
“Do you have a boat?” she asked.
“Oh. Oh, no. The only boat I was ever a captain of was one in my own bathwater.”
Kyuhyun sputtered with laughter, and Zhou Mi grinned in such obvious delight. Maybe not inviting himself along, being helpful, was a ploy to get her to trust him and invite him along out of some misguided wish to be grateful. Perhaps he was just that nice, and that aware of his boundaries and her own.
But the way Zhou Mi’s eyes went a bit wide when she countered his question and asked if he liked horses, she thought she knew the answer.
Kyuhyun listened as he called for an available time.
When she stood, he stood with her, and she look in his finely pressed slacks and expensive leather loafers. Yes, definitely not a cafe server. And they met outside her hotel at quarter to two.
***
Neither of them were experienced riders, so the horses they were given were gentle and calm. The horse nuzzled into Kyuhyun’s palm as she watched Zhou Mi and his very interesting jeans get told of the safety protocols. A guide would be with them, riding separate for most of their tour to give them time alone, but someone to help if it was needed. It made it feel more date-like, and it was. It was, with Zhou Mi in his fashionable helmet grinning at her from the horse beside hers. His was a very pale gold named Treasure, and hers mottled brown and white, rather appropriately named Spot.
The guide told them of the beach’s history, pointed out landmarks they would be passing, and left them to their own devices, riding several horse lengths ahead of them.
The sway of horse, the breeze, and sound of the ocean were all pretty relaxing, for all that she realized she was on a huge animal that had the capability of running away with her.
“You’ve ridden some before?” Kyuhyun asked.
“I’ve taken this tour once, and I’ve been riding other places, too. But there’s nothing quite like riding on the beach.”
She nodded, sighing. It wasn’t as though she could ask if he’d taken some other poor unsuspecting woman by charm, and whisked her away on an afternoon beach ride.
“My business partner is Korean,” Zhou Mi said, his voice alight with amusement. “Heechul bullied me into riding here to start with, so I could given an honest opinion to people if I liked it.”
“Does he often get you to do things you don’t want to?” she asked.
He chuckled. “Only when it doesn’t come to business. And even then, sometimes there has to be trust. Maybe listening to him got me here with you, since I knew about these rides.”
“I bet he’d like the thought of that.”
“Oh, you have no idea.”
As he laughed, Kyuhyun admired his forearms beneath his rolled-up shirtsleeves, and had to avert her eyes to instead focus on the ocean, the trees. The horse felt as though she would have walked on without Kyuhyun’s input until they were both exhausted, and it was strangely liberating. There was regret, when they turned to go back the way they had came, because it was obvious then it would be over. It felt lovely to be outside, and there was only one moment she was really afraid the horse was going to make off with her. Their guide took pictures of them with their horses, and it took only a tiny glare for Zhou Mi not to laugh at her as she got her legs back straight again for a picture on the ground as well.
“That was really nice. Now I can add that to my list of things I’ve done,” Kyuhyun said, and some of the awkwardness of before felt like it had smoothed. There were no leers, no jests, and only the light fingers Zhou Mi had pressed onto her shoulder as their picture was being taken. That he was being a gentleman shouldn’t have come as a pleasant surprise to her. Certainly he’d behaved himself the night before, and the way he’d spoken to her had been most of the reason they’d even ended up in her hotel room. His looks had obviously played a factor, too.
“I’m glad you enjoyed it,” he said, and walked back up the path with her, stopping just short of entrance to her hotel.
Yes. She had. And there was something in the back of her mind that she wanted answered, some urge to take his hand and keep walking that she couldn’t truly ignore.
“Breakfast tomorrow?” she asked, hesitating as she first stared at the door and then at him.
Zhou Mi’s lips parted, and he nodded immediately. “Same time?”
They just grinned at each other, and when Kyuhyun realized she’d more or less floated all the way to her hotel room, she couldn’t even find it in herself to be mad.
***
The care Kyuhyun took in dressing for breakfast told her a great deal, but nothing could’ve prepared her for the next three days. The fact that she forgot about the stresses that had sent her there to rest told her something else, except when they passed by in the conversation. It was so easy to talk to Zhou Mi, almost too easy, over lazy breakfasts, and boat tours, and browsing touristy souvenir shops. Their fingers tangled, at first unsure, and then with confidence, as they roamed the beaches and paths, examining tide pools and bits of shell. He bought her a huge, ugly, floppy hat and she got him ridiculous plastic sunglasses, and they were all fashionable as they dug their feet into the sand and shared a lunch just above the line of wet sand as a storm began to roll in.
“I was expecting this trip to be boring,” Kyuhyun confessed, picking at some of the lettuce in her sandwich. “I figured I would read a lot, sit in a chair and watch the ocean. Maybe get a manicure.”
“But you are getting to rest? I haven’t been dragging you around too much?”
She laughed at the way Zhou Mi considered her, as though he was helping to feed into her vices. “It was less my body that needed rest. Not having to think, getting out of routine, having fun. Sleeping! That’s a novelty.”
“That’s good. Not having to travel, for me, is nice,” Zhou Mi said, and started to put the remnants of their lunch into a bag as the wind began to pick up. “I do generally stay put for a while, but these last six months it seems like I’ve slept more in an airplane than in my own bed.”
She grinned at him. “I slept over in my office a few times.”
“No wonder you needed to get away.”
Kyuhyun socked him in the arm, and then laughed at him, at the silly sound he made as he pushed himself onto his feet. But Zhou Mi reached for her, helping her up. In one hand, she had her bag and her sandals, and in the other she kept ahold of his. He carried his own sandals and their trash. She was sure the back of her shorts were sandy, but she didn’t care. The beach was nearly deserted ahead of the storm, and he put the bag in a trash bin before they put on their sandals and they walked together to a manmade overlook. The light of the afternoon was dying as the clouds closed, the waves breaking a little faster, a little more wicked.
“I don’t think I’d want to be out there,” she said, bracing herself against another gust of wind.
“I think you’d need to protect me,” he said, squeezing her fingers.
“What, can’t swim?”
Zhou Mi snorted at her. “Not in that. Though I could pretend to protect you.”
He lifted his arms, mock roaring out at the ocean as the wind blew his clothes back against him. His eyes were twinkling when he looked back at Kyuhyun, who was standing there with a slack mouth and laughter rising up in her.
“How was that?” Zhou Mi asked, his voice so soft that she leaned in and her hat caught the wind.
He caught her hat as it tried to break away, and she held his eyes as she stepped up against him. With the hat as their shelter, his free arm curved around her. It was closer than they had been in days, feeling the warmth of him as some sweet agony. She could nearly hear his question, the way he looked at her, and her face tipped further. Her answer. The gasp against his mouth was born of emotion, unable to fathom how much she wanted just that simple embrace, and the press of his lips. How something could be both calming, and shaking her up inside, she needed to find out. She needed, and that was the truth of it, as she pressed her face into his neck and held on.
They breathed together, and she could hear him swallow.
“I wondered if it’d be as good as I remembered,” Kyuhyun said, the fingers of one hand gripping the front of his shirt.
“Oh.”
It wasn’t even a question, more an exhale of acknowledgement, or maybe even agreement as though he had wondered the same thing.
And it had been as good. There was no trickery in his kisses, nothing that made her want to recoil. It had been subtle confidence and an invitation to kiss him how she would, that he would both lead and follow. And he enfolded her in warmth, the scent of his neck and shoulder like warm clothes out of a dryer. In the air that grew even more chilly, it was welcome, but she knew it was not wholly the atmosphere that made it so welcome. It was another person holding her, and there was no substitute for that.
He started against her, and she looked up, just in time to feel what had made him react. The first drops of rain.
Zhou Mi’s smile was sheepish, and they linked hands and made a dash for the covered hotel entrance just before the sky opened up.
“That was almost an extra shower I didn’t ask for,” he laughed, flicking water off of his fingertips. “If this keeps up all night, we might have to eat inside the restaurant in the morning.”
“Maybe so,” she agreed. And especially so, seeing how hard the rain was coming down.
Zhou Mi’s fingers brushed her arm, and she met his gently pressed kiss.
“I should let you go up so you can get warm. I don’t have a jacket to give you. But I’ll be at the restaurant in the morning.”
It was meant as a goodbye for the day, the way he took back his hand, handed her her hat, and stood straight, somehow apart.
Kyuhyun thought of the way he’d held her at the overlook, the kiss they’d shared. She could have walked away, as she had the last few days, with promises of meeting up later or the next day. She thought she would have felt if he was angling for an invitation up to her room. Of course, the more time they spent together, the more likely that might eventually happen. His restraint, of itself, was attractive, and it did not feel as though it was calculated. It felt as though he was spending time with her for the enjoyment of it, never making her ask him to leave. It seemed a strange thing to deny herself something she wanted, because the man in question was perhaps too good. Kyuhyun remembered Zhou Mi’s words, their first shared breakfast, asking her if she wanted a friend. And until that day, that hug, and that kiss, he had fulfilled that offer. And he had been swept up in the situation as much as she had.
“Breakfast sounds wonderful,” she said, and he smiled at her, so utterly genuine. “But are you free this afternoon?”
Zhou Mi tilted his head even as he answered, and she took his hand to lead him in.
***
They sat on the same couch, and Zhou Mi was in the same place, only that time she was beside him. With a couple of drinks from her stash, and maybe at least one amused traded glance, they settled in to watch a movie as the storm raged outside. They were both so careful not to touch at first, like doing that would invoke memories of that night and overwrite all the fun they’d had since. Kyuhyun didn’t figure herself as a very patient person, so it wasn’t a big surprise that half an hour into the movie, she was lifting his arm and waiting for him to get the message. No fake yawn required, when she was anticipating scooting a bit closer under his arm and enjoying the benefits of a built-in pillow. She could feel the vibrations of his laughter against her cheek, teasing his fingers.
“This is definitely nicer than anything I could have thought of doing today,” he murmured, as the man on the screen was running away from whatever explosion was about to happen.
As the credits rolled, she lifted her head, and she got her wish a moment later, when he leaned in and pressed his lips against hers. And when he would have pulled away, a hand in his shirt pulled him closer, asking for another kiss, humming her appreciation when his arm slid around her waist. He kissed like a man who wanted, and there wasn’t anything sexier than that.
“I have condoms this time,” she said, rushed out before he could kiss her again, and he kissed her hard, laughing against her.
“I bought some, too. But they’re still in my room!”
Kyuhyun’s face hurt with the grin. “So that’s why you need me around.”
“Not just that,” he promised.
***
Kyuhyun felt a bit like the conquering hero with Zhou Mi shuddering, breathing harsh against her shoulder and squeezing her hand nearly too tightly. There was something kind of precious about the way he nuzzled into her, the way she could feel him relaxing, getting closer. And there was a decided goofy look on Zhou Mi’s face, as he smiled.
He pressed his lips to hers, lingering just a moment. He was still braced above her, and it felt kind of luxurious. At least, it would until his arms tired and he squashed her flat.
“Can I take you to dinner tonight?” he asked.
Every time they had met up, they had been dates, there was no denying that. But as he ran his thumb down her cheek, face soft and serious, she found herself nodding and enjoying the way he smiled and kissed her again.
***
Dinner came after a brief nap, and a shower, which even together had been quick. Zhou Mi worked a mean wash cloth, and looked handsome wet. No surprise there. He’d dressed and waited patiently, flipping through one of the tourist books as she dried her hair and got ready.
“Oh, to look so nice with so little effort,” Kyuhyun said, brushing at his bangs, and getting a kiss.
“You look wonderful. But I promised you dinner.”
Yes, he had. And he wasn’t getting out of that.
Zhou Mi took her to a nicer restaurant than the one in the hotel, one she had seen further down the beach. The air was wet, but the rain had stopped, making it just right for strolling. She didn’t reach for his hand, but he kept smiling at her, and it was just as nice. And the interior of the restaurant was warm, in both colors and temperature, and they were tucked into a table along the wall, eyeballing the menu with greed. Well, she couldn’t speak for him, but she knew she was.
“I wonder if people will start gossiping if they see you around here with me too much,” Kyuhyun mused, after they’d made their order
Zhou Mi hummed, tilting his head as he thought. “I don’t know. Maybe. Since I’m staying at your hotel, too, so I don’t think there would be talk.”
“Yeah, you didn’t tell me that that first night. Why didn't you invite me to your room instead?”
“I find that women like to be near their things. Plus you’d know where all the chairs are in case you needed to brain me.”
Kyuhyun laughed. “Sounds like you gave it some thought.”
“Well, now I know that my room is only different than yours in that it has a bigger bed.”
A lift of his eyebrow told her why that was an important factor. Apparently he liked to be close, not that him cuddling her during their nap had been any indication.
Even as she wondered if she should invite him back again, if he would stay the night, he apologized that he had morning meetings and couldn’t make breakfast.
But he left her at her hotel room door with a kiss, and his phone number so they could plan lunch.
***
A week into her trip Kyuhyun realized that except for the day she’d arrived, there had not been one day they hadn’t seen each other, spent time together. Their lunch had been followed by a long walk on the beach, a lazy shower together, curled in bed together just talking as the sun had set, and eating room service in hotel robes.
But it was the way that Zhou Mi looked at her, her face free of makeup, her hair fluffed from drying after their shower, as though he saw someone amazing. He cupped her face and pulled her close and kissed her, kissed the tip of her nose, and her cheeks. He smelled of the hotel soap, the vague hint of coconut along clean, soft skin. Sometimes they dozed like that, sometimes he tugged her from the couch to the bed, their robes hitting the floor just moments apart as he kissed her. Endless kisses, and presses of skin, feeling arousal coil and stroke, humming at the stroke of his hand, the press of his mouth.
And she gasped when she came against his fingers, flushed hot with it, as he watched her, hungry, pleased.
“I like making you feel good,” Zhou Mi said, kissing her shoulder.
“Sometimes it’s not quite the same without someone inside you,” she teased, and she meant it invitation.
“I hear they make things to help with that.”
“Oh?”
Zhou Mi looked back at her, and she could almost see him thinking.
“And…you own one of those things?”
Kyuhyun smiled, letting her fingers trail down his stomach until she could grip his erection in her hand.
“Maybe. They don’t come in these exact proportions though.”
And oh, that made him laugh.
Kyuhyun lifted her hips as he pushed into her, adjusting the way they fit together. There was no resistance, but the stretch of him was everything she wanted.
“Too much?”
She kissed the tip of his nose, because he knew better, had to, just from looking in her in the eye. “You flatter yourself very well.”
“Should only be flattering you,” he huffed out, after she’d finished giggling at his laughter.
Zhou Mi slid just a fraction deeper, and she inhaled.
“You are.”
***
Kyuhyun blinked at her email dinged, frowning when she saw who it was from. It was confusing, because he was sitting less than six inches away from her. Still, she clicked into it, and then laughed at the kissy face Zhou Mi was making in the picture. Something he’d shot on his webcam while sitting right beside her.
Underneath of it was the message, “I’m sitting in bed with someone I like! ^^”
“Oh really?” she asked, looking away from the picture so she could lean her head back and look at him.
“Really,” Zhou Mi said, unable to hold back his smile.
“Should I be jealous?” she asked, and his eyebrows rose. Kyuhyun reached out a finger and ran it along the edge of his laptop. “I think she has more processing speed than I do.”
He blinked at her cutely before the implication - that he’d sent her the email saying he was in bed with his laptop - sank in. And then he laughed, rocking the bed when he got his arm around her, laughing with her as they kissed.
“Cute,” she said, patting his face.
“Cute,” Zhou Mi repeated, pinching her chin.
And they went back to their own computers, a little closer than before, his ankle over hers. Kyuhyun tried to think of a relationship where she’d been comfortable so early to split her attention, to have a man who hadn’t whined that she wasn’t paying attention to him. It was a bit like sitting with a friend, only the feelings she had for him were quite different from any she had for a friend. Zhou Mi was a man she had met while on vacation, a man who a week later had nearly become her vacation. And there was less than a week of that left. She didn’t dare ask how long he was staying, afraid of the answer even as she cursed herself for it. She still was aware of what she looked like, how she was sitting, and the way their legs looked stretched out together. She’d never had that before with a boyfriend. And that amazed her.
And it scared her.
***
Lazy afternoon in bed after lunch, a nice quick round of sex, and Kyuhyun was very pleased with herself. Zhou Mi looked nice, just from his ribs up exposed, his hair mussed and his lips well-kissed. He looked inviting, an arm just waiting for her to curl into, with the other behind his head. He welcomed her with a smile, not even a leer for all that she was naked, just a smile. Kyuhyun had just climbed back into bed after a quick bathroom break, and had just gotten her skin warmed against his again when he began to stroke her side. It was not a leisurely stroke, as though he was trying to grope her, because she knew what that felt like. It was more like a brisk touch, like a cat flicking its tail, and she raised her head.
“What’s up,” she asked.
And Zhou Mi’s eyes, almost narrowed in thought, softened.
“Do you want kids?”
The question made her pause, feeling him continue to stroke her.
She looked askance at him. “Is this your way of telling me the condom broke?”
Zhou Mi muffled his bark of startled laughter against her shoulder. “No, no. Nothing like that. I just mean, in general. Someday.”
She’d had the conversation about kids before, but never when she was in bed with a man. His forwardness, or maybe it was an appropriate place she guessed, was something she was beginning to appreciate.
“Yeah. I think I’m not ready yet. But I do want kids. A couple, I think. If the first doesn’t traumatize me. They say you forget, but sometimes I wonder.”
Right, talking about childbirth. As a man, Kyuhyun was sure he’d be thrilled, but he’d asked for it.
“A couple of kids would be nice,” he mused. “And same for me. I’m still traveling, and I’d want to be there.”
She thought in silence for a while as he kept petting her, wondering why he was asking, what had brought it to his mind.
“I really like you,” Zhou Mi said. “And… Well. That’s one thing that I guess we should know before we take it too much further.”
“And where you want to live?” Kyuhyun asked.
“I want to make a pretty permanent base in Seoul,” he said, smiling. “But I’ll want to spend time in China. Family, and just…familiar. But my base will always be Seoul. With my wife. And babies.”
The way he said it sent the tiniest chill down Kyuhyun’s spine, goosebumps along her skin. It wasn’t as though he was asking her to marry him, that he was saying she would be that wife, and that those babies would be theirs. But she could see it.
“And a dog. And hair products,” she murmured, turning closer to him.
“Kids need a dog,” he agreed, kissing her softly. And there were no more words, just traded kisses, softly wandering hands.
***
Kyuhyun was not certain if the knowledge that Zhou Mi could see their relationship extending beyond their little paradise scared her, or thrilled her. It settled her, she guessed, in that she didn’t feel that she had to snatch every moment, where not knowing when Zhou Mi would be gone would leave her empty. Or when she would have to leave him. And though Seoul wasn’t a tiny dot on the map, they would be in the same general location. When she left the beach, she would have his number, be able to meet him for lunch. But it wasn’t something they had to deal with, not yet. It had been a day full of exploring, hiking up a high hill, eating all the food in the universe, and then chasing him down the water in the bikini he’d helped her to pick out. And it was lovely to stretch out beside him on a blanket, the sun having set an hour before but the air still warm as they leaned together. They’d already showered off all the salt, pleasantly dry in the night air.
And best of all, alone. They were sheltered, out of sight and earshot from tourists, the only possible intruder being someone walking up the beach after dark. She rather liked it that way, just them and the ocean with its tug and push.
“Kyuhyun,” he said, kissing her shoulder.
“Hmm?”
Zhou Mi’s kiss had her fingers curling against his neck, tugging at his lower lip. Their lips had barely parted when he kissed her again, humming in delight as her arms slid around him, pulling him closer. Zhou Mi’s hand cupped her breast through her top, and she nearly smacked him, before realizing what he was asking as he pushed himself up on his elbow and leaned over her.
“Have you… Would you want to…”
“Oh. Really?” Kyuhyun breathed.
But Kyuhyun kissed him, her hand cupping his face, feeling the sand shift underneath of her as she pressed back and invited his kisses.
“I’ve never had sex in public,” she said, her voice quiet and the laugh even more so as he squirmed a little further over her.
“I almost did. But it was in a classroom and the discipline I’d have gotten wasn’t worth it.”
“But the possibility of getting arrested is worth it?” she asked, a little suspicious.
“Maybe I’d have done it if you’d been in the classroom with me?” Zhou Mi countered.
“I’d have talked you out of it.”
Kyuhyun could’ve talked them out of what they were doing right then, but the problem was? She didn’t want to. She’d been the one to drag him closer, feeling like a teenager on a nighttime romp. Though, as a teenager Kyuhyun had certainly never been in a situation like that. She wasn’t sure if she wanted it to be quick, running on adrenaline of fearing being caught, or slow and languid to match the pace of the water. The extra blanket they’d brought in case it got cool spread over them, hiding them even further.
She stroked Zhou Mi’s neck, her lips twitching at his sighs. And as the inside of her thigh stroked his hip, they kissed and wound together until he was all there was for her. The sound of the ocean, the blankets around them were nothing to the way he kissed her, by turn sweet and eager, urging her to meet him. The fingers stroking Kyuhyun’s side and the hand cradled around her shoulder as he braced himself above her. It was like being surrounded with want, from the sounds of his breaths and the sturdy press of his body. She wasn’t sure where the shifting of his hips or the raising of hers began and ended. She only knew the pleasure that came from the body moving with hers. Kyuhyun wanted him, and didn’t want him less the more she had him. She remembered the pleasure of his mouth, and sliding against him in the shower, and the night before when he had pressed against her back and made her shudder.
“You have a condom?” she breathed against his mouth.
“Now? Always,” he replied as though it were some sort of religious conviction.
“If you can get my-“
Zhou Mi was way ahead of her. Balanced on his knees, both his hand were on her hips and pulling down her bikini bottoms. He didn’t try to manhandle them off of her, or rip them off, but got them down far enough that when she bent her knee, he could get them over it and down her leg. It took a few quiet curses and giggles, but he did it.
And that, Kyuhyun thought just barely holding back audible laughter, meant he’d earned it, at least in her eyes.
And in only moments, with a little packet opened, the only thing above her - besides him and the blanket - were stars and clouds in the night sky.
“We should go camping,” she said abruptly, and his exploring hips stopped.
“What?”
“Camping,” she repeated. “Nature. Tromping through the forest. Making love with no cars or people. Just trees swaying, and stars, and a fire, and-“
“Bugs,” Zhou Mi added. “Tigers.”
She did laugh that time. “Good thing we’re both good at fighting those off. Though I’d like a pet. I’m allergic to cats though.”
“Mreow,” he purred for her, and made her moan as he slid inside her again. And after a moment, he whispered, “Maybe a dog?”
A chill ghosted her skin as she wound her arms around him, kissed his neck, remembering their conversation of children and pets. Maybe. Too many maybes. She just wanted to be focused on him.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Ready,” she confirmed.
And muffled sounds against his mouth, his skin as he tilted her hips and took her. Kyuhyun came almost immediately, the crest spilling over her like water over a glass and she clung to him because it wasn’t enough. She hadn’t gone high enough, high as he could take her. His tiny grunts of effort made her body clutch for him, his kissed against her neck and shoulders. When she gasped at a tiny nip, he only went faster. Smiles she could hear, see, when he was delighted in her reactions to him.
And Kyuhyun braced herself against him, the pressure and slide of him, the way he nudged down against her, kissed, her mouth, her neck. Zhou Mi’s bottom lip slid slowly out from between her teeth, his neck warm as her nails pressed into it, even has his fingers tangled with her free hand.
“Kyuhyun,” Zhou Mi panted, a confession and a plea.
“Come on,” she said, and kissed him, held him, and felt him come.
Undetected, just for the thrill of it. Just for the two of them. Though, she’d insisted on her clothing all being in place right after just in case, she’d been content to have him rest his head on her shoulder and cling.
“Nature is nice,” he said, patting her thigh.
Kyuhyun would have laughed, except in that moment she agreed.
And Zhou Mi carried the blankets back up the beach, her hand solidly in his. They squabbled about what dessert to get, all the way to the hotel.
***
Kyuhyun could feel it in the way he kissed her, the tightness of his hug when he met her for lunch the next day. He’d left her nearly at dawn for a meeting, kissing her forehead and tucking her in before going to his room for a business meeting. Something was up.
“I have news,” Zhou Mi confirmed, when she looked up at him in curiosity. “So, the meeting? My business partner is in Shanghai right now, and there’s a few places he wants me to check out for us to invest in. It’s pretty urgent, since there are others interested. So, I’m flying out tonight.”
“Okay,” she said, blinking at him.
“I’m so sorry. If there was any way I could stay until the end of your vacation, I would.”
“It’s all right. I’m a big girl. And I know there are times business has to come first.”
Zhou Mi had known that, too, but there was regret in his eyes.
“Can I still take you to lunch? And if your afternoon is free, I might show you my last-minute throw-everything-in-the-suitcase routine. I promise it’d be a funny time.”
Kyuhyun grinned, feeling panic and a bit of sadness squirm through her. She’d intended to spend the time alone, and without Zhou Mi there, there was going to be a large gap in her life. But there again, she enjoyed her time alone. He’d shown her some of the things he was working on, and she knew why he had to leave.
***
Kyuhyun ended up cuddling her laptop in bed during the night, instead of him. She’d at least kept her days busy, ticking off another museum she’d wanted to see, another sight-seeing excursion, eating her lunches in a little sand nest and watching kids play through her sunglasses. The beach was still nice, it was just that she kept looking to her side as though Zhou Mi would be walking up toward her with his hand raised, or sneaking up behind her to kiss her cheek. She didn’t have anyone to lean against, and that made it feel lonely. But she was determined not to mope, and enjoy her time, so there was that.
And there was Zhou Mi’s face on her laptop screen, beaming as the connection was made. He always had oceans of information to tell her, and she laughed, curling her hand when she wanted so badly to reach and touch the little mark just there at the base of his neck.
“What do you miss most?”
“Walks on the beach,” he said after a moment, frowning lightly. “Breakfasts in bed. Seeing you laugh when I made jokes.”
She chuckled for good measure. “You mean a measly hour in the evening isn’t enough?”
“Well. How do you go from spending hours together talking and being able to touch someone, to this?”
“Some of the time I’m relieved to have my own space back, and be able to do whatever I want,” she said, resting her chin in her palm and watching as his head tilted as he listened to her. “But I had time alone even when you were here, so it just feels empty.”
Zhou Mi sighed gustily, smiling at her through the screen. “Exactly.”
“But I’ll have work when I get back to Seoul. Oh. I took a book down and read in that alcove where we had sex. It was just as nice in the daylight.”
Zhou Mi’s lips trembled. “If the reading was just as nice, I did something wrong.”
Kyuhyun flopped onto her back and laughed.
***
Kyuhyun flew home, both slightly closer to Zhou Mi in distance, and also a bit in feelings as well. Distance had a put a lingering ache in her when she thought of him, thought of how nice it had been to wake up and stare across the bed at him, or to lean against him and try to hassle him when he was making his lunch decisions.
Kyuhyun had never given credence to the way her friends had sighed dramatically over missing their boyfriends. Most of her experiences had been with being glad to get away from them. That wan’t entirely true because she’d been glad to see them, excited even, but when they’d tried to encroach for more time she’d ended up feeling like she wanted to lock them far away. She’d thought that was just how it was, that guys were great to kiss, cuddle, and have sex with, but once they reached her limit, she was through with them.
Or she just hadn’t met the right guy. Kyuhyun was having to slap her hand down from reaching for her phone to send him some silly message, or tell him about her book, or TV show, just so she could smile when he wrote something back. She missed the ease of being with him, when she didn’t feel encroached upon as they sat together doing totally different things. She missed his hugs, and the smell of his cologne, and the feeling of him smiling against her skin. She was pining, and it was awkward, and she had no idea how long it was supposed to last, because it felt amazing like some pleasantly sore muscle she wanted to touch, and terrible because she wanted it relieved.
Only her closest friends knew about his existence at all, and that had been an interesting conversation. She’d started in reverse instead of telling them the truth, that she’d nearly had a one night stand only to end up with a man in her pocket for most of her vacation. By the time she’d gotten to that part, and the obligatory first meeting in the cafe, they were utterly charmed and she was helplessly embarrassed and pleased.
“You should come back soon, you know,” Kyuhyun said, tapping her spoon against her cheek, and staring at Zhou Mi. Or the pixels of him, at least.
“Oh? Why’s that?”
Zhou Mi shouldn’t have been able to sound so charming as he teased her.
“Well, you said you’d be taking me out to dinner. I’m hungry.”
“Once we get this paperwork done, I should definitely be coming back. Another few days, and then I’ll have a better idea. Hopefully within the week. How are you holding up at work?”
“I’m not pining under my desk, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Zhou Mi raised dramatic hands to his chest. “I’m hurt. I’d think you’d be sighing at your phone’s lock screen and wishing me back by the moment.”
“Who says you’re my lock screen?” she countered, but couldn’t help the smile. Of course he was on the lock screen. It had been a picture that had been taken of them with the horses on the beach. They hadn’t even known each other so well, then, and she saw his hand on her shoulder, their smiles. They’d had such a good time.
And it made Kyuhyun a bit afraid if it’d been the location. If the stress of daily life, obligations, would make it different between them. A little. It had to. But she imagined Zhou Mi getting a knee into her routines. Meeting him for lunch on weekdays, dinners out, or a movie. Attacking him in bed during the weekend. She could take him to her favorite bookstore, and take him to any kinds of tourist places he hadn’t been.
“I-“ she started, before swallowing and reaching to touch the screen. “I can’t wait.”
She swallowed down the strangling feelings as he clucked, and proceeded to press several kisses to the camera. Which of course meant her screen was full of nothing but parts of his lips.
“Soon,” Zhou Mi promised.
***
Soon.
Soon meant a frantic search through her closets, until Kyuhyun found a dress worthy of the restaurant address he’d texted her. Had Zhou Mi not flown in in the middle of the night, Kyuhyun probably would have wanted to meet him at the airport. As it was, she woke to a lovely email and picture of him on his pillow promising he’d see her later that day.
Kyuhyun admitted to mooning delightedly, but that was it. She was either going to tackle him or go shy, and she had no idea which Kyuhyun she was going to end up being.
And the restaurant was nice, really nice. Not something out of her price range, but also not someplace she’d eat at just for so, either.
“Waiting for you,” he texted her while she was still in the taxi and on her way.
But Kyuhyun spotted Zhou Mi immediately,, the line of his legs as he scanned the traffic, his shoulders in a crisp black jacket. She almost forgot to thank the driver, too eager to get out, see that smile as he spotted her just a little closer.
And Zhou Mi took every bit of apprehension out of her when he held up his hand for a moment, keeping her from walking forward.
“I can’t believe I’m finally here. You look beautiful,” he said, taking in her heels and dress with it’s artfully angular skirt.
Kyuhyun laughed, and when his arms opened, she stepped into them, breathing deep into his collar and being totally enfolded by him.
“Oh, Kuixian, I missed you,” he whispered.
All Kyuhyun could do was nod, her throat too tight for words.
“Do I have to let you go when we eat?”
She laughed into his neck. “I think so. It could get messy otherwise. Plus I want to look at your pretty face so I know you’re really here.”
He huffed, and snuggled her, and she inhaled the familiar scent of him, unable to believe he really was there, and not some figment of her imagination.
But she took his hand, smiling at him for a long moment more, before leading him inside. It wasn’t as though they hadn’t talked, because they had. But Zhou Mi being able to reach out and touch her hand over the table when he told his stories, seeing the way he had to restrain his laughter in a public place, feeling the nudge of his knee against hers, were all so different and familiar and loved. Some maw of need in her, something that jittered and ached, had started filling.
“Heechul wants to meet you,” Zhou Mi told her. “I think he tried to smother me once, when I started talking too much about you.”
“My friends want to me you, too,” Kyuhyun said. Even if they’d seen pictures, there was nothing that compared to Zhou Mi right there, the enegry of him. For some reason they didn’t find her in the least beat objective.
“Maybe we should throw a party,” he said, smiling at her. “Especially since there are no immediate plans to leave the country again soon. We have plenty to do to keep us busy here in Seoul, now that recuperation and Shanghai is done.”
“I’m getting recuperation from my withdrawal,” she murmured into her water glass, and he waggled his eyebrows at her.
A couple of times he almost seemed to pause, reaching out for her hand and squeezing it, withdrawing into himself for a moment before smiling again, their conversation rolling as though they had been parted for five minutes instead of almost two weeks.
The night air was cooler when she followed him onto the street, ready for anything he suggested. If he wanted to wander, if he wanted to go back to her apartment, or his, she was fully inclined to agree. Pleasantly full, somehow content, she realized he was so quiet beside her, so still as they stopped just past the restaurant.
Kyuhyun inhaled as he took her hands, and sank down to one knee. The smile he sent up at her was almost sheepish. But that softened, as he squeezed her hands tighter, the light from the restaurant illuminating him.
“I can’t even pretend I don’t have a ring, because I bought one a few days after I got to Shanghai,” Zhou Mi said with a tiny laugh. “But you don’t have to take it or even give me an answer. I don’t want to chase you away by… But I needed you to know this is what I’m feeling, what I’m wanting.”
Some men were so opaque and dodgy, keeping everyone guessing with their feelings and their thoughts. Kyuhyun could understand why he must have been apprehensive, because if she didn’t feel the same, she could have been running for the hills. Maybe she should’ve, people might’ve told her to be cautious, to examine her feelings.
“Do I get to see it at least?” she asked.
“Oh, yes.” Zhou Mi stood and fumbled in his jacket pocket, drawing out a small bag, and from it a ring. It was gold, with a modest diamond flanked by what looked like little rubies. It was understated, but not dull, and Kyuhyun thought that maybe Zhou Mi understood her more than she realized.
“It’s too far away,” she said waggling her fingers.
It was almost too much to hold in the shiver, as the cool metal slid onto her finger, Zhou Mi putting it on with such precision, almost reverence, barely even breathing as he looked at her. That was more precious to her than a dozen gold rings could have been.
It was a little loose, not that Kyuhyun could tell with the way her hand squeezed and then his hand tightened around it.
Still, after a moment, he let go, looking at her hand, and then up again, as though he didn’t quite believe she was wearing it.
“I guess this would mean we’re going steady,” Kyuhyun said, smirking at him as he gaped.
“Yes. Yes, I think that’s the perfect way of putting it.” Zhou Mi squeezed his hand around hers again. “We have time to figure out all the rest.”
So when she answered yes against his lips, it was to all the possibilities.
***
Bringing Ryeowook and Changmin out for brunch had been an easy thing. Sitting with her two friends, and chatting about the week was something they’d done so many times. Only that time, she had a bit of a secret - two of them. But one of them she just happened to be wearing on her hand, anxious for one of them to spot it. It wasn’t ostentatious, but it definitely caught the light as she used that hand to keep tipping an obscene amount of sugar into her tea. She’d never be able to drink it, but it got her what she wanted.
“What is that- Kyuhyun!”
Kyuhyun smiled down at her hand, tilting it so that the ring sparkled. “Oh, this engagement ring?”
There were twin squawks from across from her, and she had to force herself not to look to see if Zhou Mi was trying to hide his grins behind his menu from across the restaurant.
“It’s the guy from the beach, isn’t it?” Ryeowook asked, catching her hand so she could get a better look at the ring.
“Actually, yeah. So, I wanted you guys to meet someone I met in a little cafe by the beach.”
It was then that Kyuhyun looked to Zhou Mi, seeing the pleased smile on his face when he stood and walked closer to them. He took her outstretched hand, his eyes only for her.
(Kyuhyun felt lucky that she wasn’t eating yet when Zhou Mi mistakenly picked up her tea cup, sipped, and nearly choked.)
***
Pairing: Zhou Mi/girl!Kyuhyun
Rating: NC-17
Genre: AU
Prompt: Exhausted from overwork, Kyuhyun goes to vacation at the beach to rest her mind and body. There, she meets a man who is able to show her the marvels of the beach, and much more.
***
Kyuhyun’s first day of vacation began with what she thought her friends might consider sulking. She never left her hotel room, except to sit on the balcony and sip tea in the evening. But Kyuhyun had called it realizing just how tired she had been, how drained, how caught up in routine, when she had basically napped the day away, waking only to eat and listlessly poke at a book. She didn’t know what to do with herself, and that was the truth. But when she woke from a full night’s sleep, it was enough to drive her to put on real clothes and leave the hotel. From her balcony, she had seen an outdoor terrace filled with tables and umbrellas, some kind of cafe adjoining the building. Maybe it was adventure that took her, but it was primarily her stomach.
A girl, college age, led her to one of the tables that looked over the beach, leaving her with tea, a menu, and the promise that her server would be with her. It took Kyuhyun only moments to decide what she wanted to eat, folding her menu and wishing she’d brought some kind of flowy skirts since the sea breezes were dancing around her ankles.
She looked up as a man approached her, dressed in the pale blue uniform shirt and khaki pants.
“Good morning! I’m Zhou Mi, and I’ll be serving you this morning. Are you ready to order?”
Kyuhyun found it impossible not to smile back.
She made her order for pancakes, and then accidentally found herself watching Zhou Mi move around the terrace. He was an attentive server, almost bobbling a plate once but the family he was serving was clearly charmed by him. A good fit, she thought. He had the personality, making people feel comfortable and relaxed. And she had to stop thinking like she was still analyzing business. That didn’t mean she was unaware of his shoulders under the blue cloth.
The food was good, but the atmosphere better, and she knew she’d be returning, another smile touching her face as Zhou Mi gave her a little wave and smile as she left.
***
“It was a good idea to get away,” Kyuhyun said, her lips pressing together when Ryeowook had the gall to laugh at her. “No, seriously. I slept most of yesterday, had breakfast near the beach and took a walk on it this afternoon. And tonight, the hotel bar is having a special selection of wines.”
“Ooh. Picking up a guy?”
It was Kyuhyun’s turn to laugh. There were enough families around, she’d probably end up picking up a married man, and that was definitely not in her plans. Still, she dressed carefully in some of the nicer clothes she’d brought, to bolster herself. She’d find a place to sit if she could, try a couple of wines, and then relax with a movie.
She had two weeks for whatever she wanted to do, and nothing else.
***
Kyuhyun liked the way dangly earrings felt against her neck, her hair pulled back into as nice of a ponytail as she could get it. A dressy sweater and her only pair of slacks, and she almost felt equal to the glass of merlot in her hand. It wasn’t something she did often, most of her wine tastings happened in her own home, dozing with a glass of wine after too many long days.
A laugh, a familiar laugh, had her turing her head. Zhou Mi, from the cafe in the morning, greeting someone with a hand on their shoulder. Gone was the blue shirt, replaced with white, open at the collar and rolled up at the sleeves. She stared just a moment long enough, and he met her eyes. She knew the moment he recognized her, his smile widening, and she smiled back. One thing she hadn’t expected was seeing someone she’d actually spoken to.
He was cute. She wasn’t interested in finding a man. He was attractive in another sense since at one point she would leave and they wouldn’t see each other again. She was supposed to be resting. It had been months - a year? two? - since she’d actually had sex.
Of course the point was moot, since he got waved away, and she went back to sipping her wine. Having conversations with herself about men who vaguely interested her, over. There was always the chance she’d see him again in the cafe, and that was for the best.
“Is anyone sitting here?”
Kyuhyun turned her head, already shaking it as she met Zhou Mi’s eyes. “No, it’s free. Zhou Mi, right?”
His smile only got brighter. “That’s right. And you…?”
“Kyuhyun.”
“Kyuhyun,” he said, slow, as though turning her name over in his mind. “It’s nice to see you again, Kyuhyun.”
And she liked the way her name sounded in his voice, on his lips. But the silence stretched, heat flooding her face as she took in his flirty words.
“If you’re here for wine, I can recommend the merlot,” she said, lifting her glass as though to demonstrate. And she cursed herself as well, because she couldn’t fathom what other reason he might be there.
“I was here for the wine,” he said, again, almost thoughtful. But as he smiled at her, she swallowed. Was. Which meant, he was there for something else instead. Or someone.
***
The number of women who were murdered in their hotel rooms by men they’d picked up in the hotel bar had to be fairly low, she thought, trying not to laugh at herself as she unlocked her room. Though were so many other dangers. He hadn’t pushed her, there was that. They’d had another glass of wine, discussing the town, drinking preferences, and airplane seat choices of all things. He’d touched her wrist, their knees brushing, and nothing more. He hadn’t leered. She knew she’d been reading the signals right when his eyes had widened, but he’d agreed to leave with her.
She tried to remember if she’d left anything embarrassing laying around in her room when she let him in. Her suitcase was closed, toiletries on the counter, but nothing on the bed or the small sofa. She hadn’t been there long enough for that. A fact she could be grateful for, if she wasn’t feeling the nerves rise up.
“They have nice rooms here,” she said, as though that weren’t obvious.
Zhou Mi was smiling, nodding in agreement and standing near the dresser, a good three feet from her. He was waiting. On her.
Instead of assuring him for some reason that she didn’t take guys back to her room often, and why that even mattered, she held out her hand. They took a step almost in time, his smile curling, almost assuring her, asking her. And with her fingers curling in his white shirt, she nearly pulled him into the kiss. Warm, his head tilting to meet hers, and she nearly shivered. There were fireworks enough, as his hands spread against her back.
Kyuhyun felt dangerous and daring, like some kind of heroine in a spy novel who seduced the handsome henchman to get information. Only there was nothing she was after, except perhaps information, and release. There was a gentle power to Zhou Mi’s movements. A strength in his arms in the way he held her. He didn’t muscle her around, didn’t make her fear he wouldn’t stop if she wanted him to stop.
His hands roamed the back of her sweater, and it was so easy to urge him, to sway forward into his body and moan into his kisses. When Zhou Mi guided her to the couch, she didn’t resist, and her moment of caution faded when he pulled her into his lap, laughing with her as her hair fell around their faces like a curtain.
“Gorgeous,” he said, letting a lock of her hair fall through his fingers. But his eyes were all for Kyuhyun.
It was not so very difficult to divine a man’s interest, and he was no different. When his hands gripped her hips, she felt his unsteady inhale at the pressure against his erection. That was nice. Both his reaction, and the feel of him. Kyuhyun felt her body throb, imagining his pants being open and her own on the floor, sinking onto him just as they were.
“Do you have a condom?”
Zhou Mi stared at her, and for a moment Kyuhyun feared she’d been too forward, misread his intentions. And then she realized the blankness of his face indicated panic.
“No,” he said, putting his hands on his pockets as though a condom would magically leap into them. “No, I wasn’t- I didn’t think-“
Kyuhyun laughed, and he began to laugh with her.
“Me either,” she said. “Me either.”
Zhou Mi kissed her, and instead of regret, it felt like promise. “I don’t mind just kissing more.”
Funny, neither did she. But that didn’t mean Kyuhyun wasn’t picturing more. She was the one who guided his hand up under the back of her sweater, sucking at his tongue and feeling him grow harder. The solid ridge of his erection rocked side to side against her, something to press against as she wanted more. It had been so long since she’d been touched by anyone else that her body was throbbing in joy and desperation. If he’d had a condom, she might have been begging him.
“Kyuhyun,” Zhou Mi said against her, and made her shudder.
Their hips moved together, perfectly countered, his hand separated from her breast by only a thin layer of lace. When her nipple was caught between his fingers, she moaned against his smiling mouth, and he caught her closer, wrapping an arm around her, and her fingers grasped his shirt, his shoulders. What started as a tiny heat grew, fueled by his harsh breaths, his touch, the desperate jitter of his hips. Kyuhyun moaned into his shoulder as the heat spilled over, leaving her gasping for long moments until his hips pressed into hers and then stilled.
And they breathed together, Zhou Mi’s hand stroking her back through her sweater, kissing her neck through her hair. Her body felt satisfied and somehow too alive at the same time. She could have wanted more, and it wasn’t the wine that spoke of it when he cradled her head and kissed her.
Out of the moment, what they had done felt stark and nearly embarrassing. Zhou Mi was a stranger to her, and what had seemed like a perk before - that he lived so far away - became something far different. He was pressing gentle kisses to her jaw, and Kyuhyun both wondered what it would be like to sleep beside him, and fought the shouting inside that told her to get him away and fast.
That couldn’t be part of it, and she pushed to the side, turning her head so she could give him a kiss. A last kiss.
And Kyuhyun tugged him to his feet, smiling as he steadied her as well.
“I think you should go,” Kyuhyun said, trying to make her voice outweigh any regret. It was her room. She did not need to apologize.
Zhou Mi looked surprised only a moment, before nodding, touching her arm.
“Yes. It was nice meeting you, Kyuhyun. Have a good evening.”
She hugged her elbows after locking the door behind him. It took a shower to wash away his taste and scent, and she curled in bed wondering what had possessed her. He’d been different. A man who worked at a cafe by the beach. Something about him had been very different.
***
Kyuhyun recognized Zhou Mi immediately, despite the sunglasses obscuring his face and the newspaper half held in front of him. She’d have recognized his mouth and the set of his shoulders out of thousands of people. She had a momentary debate with the hostess hovering beside her. Get her own table and pretend she hadn’t seen him, or talk to him. There was no “right” thing, because it was perfectly her right to have breakfast there uninhibited no matter what they’d done.
But she made her choice just before he spotted her, his mouth dropping open.
“Are you…” she asked, motioning to the empty chair across from him.
“No! Please. Have a seat.”
Kyuhyun smiled, taking the menu and settled there. Zhou Mi was polite, at least, taking off the sunglasses so they could see each other fully. The sunglasses were not cheap, nor had the shirt she’d been gripping the night before, or the one he was wearing.
“You don’t work for the cafe, do you?”
Zhou Mi’s eyes went wide, as he shook his head. “Sometimes. When I’m here, it’s nice to be able to meet customers, see how business is. This time, though, a server had unexpectedly quit so I was filling in while interviews happened. I’ve invested in it, but no. I don’t work for it.”
“Oh,” she said, her face heating as some of her arguments the night before fell away.
“I can see why you would think that, though,” Zhou Mi said, laughing, and leaning forward. “We didn’t discuss our jobs last night. I live in Seoul most of the year, with trips to Beijing or Shanghai. I come here when I’m checking up on the hotel, or on the cafe.”
The rest of her arguments disintegrated. He wasn’t some kind of a beach bum, some hot, artsy guy just getting by and enjoying life. He wasn’t a local.
“I…” she murmured. “I see.”
Kyuhyun’s order was taken, and she felt she had to address the other issue at hand, the one that felt like a subtle tension between them.
“I don’t know if you knew why I wanted you to leave.”
“I took a few guesses,” Zhou Mi said, his voice sounding amused. “Like if you weren’t comfortable with someone staying over, or maybe if it wasn’t as good as you thought it might be.”
He said the last with a fair amount of self-deprecation laced with humor, as though he were trying to get her to laugh - not just make her think he was feeling hurt or sorry for himself. But she wasn’t there to stroke his ego, no matter how much of a joke he’d meant it as.
“Those are all good points. But I came here to relax and recuperate, not have some kind of…“
She hesitated.
“Fling?” Zhou Mi asked, smiling.
That wasn’t the word Kyuhyun was going to use, but it suited she guessed. “Something like that. I enjoyed spending time with you. I didn’t know anything about you. It seemed unwise to risk… I don’t know.”
Zhou Mi hummed. “And you always do what’s wise? Is that why you’re here recuperating?”
She chuckled. “Point taken. No, I don’t always. That was me running myself into the ground in favor of work. And it had a detrimental effect on everything in my life.”
“Then how about adding a friendship?” Zhou Mi suggested. He reached and rested his hand over hers for just a moment, patting it. “The rest of my time here is going to be spent recuperating, too. So if you need a tour guide, I’m available.”
His smile only seemed to get wider as she eyed him warily. “No more need to wait tables?”
“What luck,” Zhou Mi said. “They seem to have hired a new server this morning, so my services aren’t needed.”
They laughed together, as her food was set down. Spending time with him during the day, outside of a room with a bed, didn’t seem like such a dangerous thing. And that made Kyuhyun almost wary, because she wondered if she was making excuses because she wanted to spend more time with him. He had such an easy manner, a genuine kind of warmth that most men of her acquaintance were lacking. She only had to clear her throat once after falling into the trap of remembering the way he’d kissed her. Almost all of her arguments from the night before stood, but for where he lived. Even based in Seoul, she didn’t think she was ready to start into something complicated, and when she watched Zhou Mi smile after taking a drink of his coffee, she thought that anything she started with him could get really complicated.
The fact that she was still sitting with him and even debating with herself about him meant that it was already far from simple. But even knowing that, she knew nothing was without risk. And if she couldn’t throw caution aside on vacation, then there was never a time to do so. For a moment she couldn’t remember what she’d even had planned for the day, besides eating and watching the tide turn.
“I was hoping to do something this afternoon,” Kyuhyun said, twisting her fork in her hand. “Get a nice view of the beach or the water. Suggestions?”
“Do you like horses?” Zhou Mi ventured after a moment’s thought. “There’s a place that rents them for beach rides. Or there are local boats that take people out on sightseeing tours at certain times during the day. That’s the best way to go out and get a lay of the beach. There are brochures in the cafe.”
“Do you have a boat?” she asked.
“Oh. Oh, no. The only boat I was ever a captain of was one in my own bathwater.”
Kyuhyun sputtered with laughter, and Zhou Mi grinned in such obvious delight. Maybe not inviting himself along, being helpful, was a ploy to get her to trust him and invite him along out of some misguided wish to be grateful. Perhaps he was just that nice, and that aware of his boundaries and her own.
But the way Zhou Mi’s eyes went a bit wide when she countered his question and asked if he liked horses, she thought she knew the answer.
Kyuhyun listened as he called for an available time.
When she stood, he stood with her, and she look in his finely pressed slacks and expensive leather loafers. Yes, definitely not a cafe server. And they met outside her hotel at quarter to two.
***
Neither of them were experienced riders, so the horses they were given were gentle and calm. The horse nuzzled into Kyuhyun’s palm as she watched Zhou Mi and his very interesting jeans get told of the safety protocols. A guide would be with them, riding separate for most of their tour to give them time alone, but someone to help if it was needed. It made it feel more date-like, and it was. It was, with Zhou Mi in his fashionable helmet grinning at her from the horse beside hers. His was a very pale gold named Treasure, and hers mottled brown and white, rather appropriately named Spot.
The guide told them of the beach’s history, pointed out landmarks they would be passing, and left them to their own devices, riding several horse lengths ahead of them.
The sway of horse, the breeze, and sound of the ocean were all pretty relaxing, for all that she realized she was on a huge animal that had the capability of running away with her.
“You’ve ridden some before?” Kyuhyun asked.
“I’ve taken this tour once, and I’ve been riding other places, too. But there’s nothing quite like riding on the beach.”
She nodded, sighing. It wasn’t as though she could ask if he’d taken some other poor unsuspecting woman by charm, and whisked her away on an afternoon beach ride.
“My business partner is Korean,” Zhou Mi said, his voice alight with amusement. “Heechul bullied me into riding here to start with, so I could given an honest opinion to people if I liked it.”
“Does he often get you to do things you don’t want to?” she asked.
He chuckled. “Only when it doesn’t come to business. And even then, sometimes there has to be trust. Maybe listening to him got me here with you, since I knew about these rides.”
“I bet he’d like the thought of that.”
“Oh, you have no idea.”
As he laughed, Kyuhyun admired his forearms beneath his rolled-up shirtsleeves, and had to avert her eyes to instead focus on the ocean, the trees. The horse felt as though she would have walked on without Kyuhyun’s input until they were both exhausted, and it was strangely liberating. There was regret, when they turned to go back the way they had came, because it was obvious then it would be over. It felt lovely to be outside, and there was only one moment she was really afraid the horse was going to make off with her. Their guide took pictures of them with their horses, and it took only a tiny glare for Zhou Mi not to laugh at her as she got her legs back straight again for a picture on the ground as well.
“That was really nice. Now I can add that to my list of things I’ve done,” Kyuhyun said, and some of the awkwardness of before felt like it had smoothed. There were no leers, no jests, and only the light fingers Zhou Mi had pressed onto her shoulder as their picture was being taken. That he was being a gentleman shouldn’t have come as a pleasant surprise to her. Certainly he’d behaved himself the night before, and the way he’d spoken to her had been most of the reason they’d even ended up in her hotel room. His looks had obviously played a factor, too.
“I’m glad you enjoyed it,” he said, and walked back up the path with her, stopping just short of entrance to her hotel.
Yes. She had. And there was something in the back of her mind that she wanted answered, some urge to take his hand and keep walking that she couldn’t truly ignore.
“Breakfast tomorrow?” she asked, hesitating as she first stared at the door and then at him.
Zhou Mi’s lips parted, and he nodded immediately. “Same time?”
They just grinned at each other, and when Kyuhyun realized she’d more or less floated all the way to her hotel room, she couldn’t even find it in herself to be mad.
***
The care Kyuhyun took in dressing for breakfast told her a great deal, but nothing could’ve prepared her for the next three days. The fact that she forgot about the stresses that had sent her there to rest told her something else, except when they passed by in the conversation. It was so easy to talk to Zhou Mi, almost too easy, over lazy breakfasts, and boat tours, and browsing touristy souvenir shops. Their fingers tangled, at first unsure, and then with confidence, as they roamed the beaches and paths, examining tide pools and bits of shell. He bought her a huge, ugly, floppy hat and she got him ridiculous plastic sunglasses, and they were all fashionable as they dug their feet into the sand and shared a lunch just above the line of wet sand as a storm began to roll in.
“I was expecting this trip to be boring,” Kyuhyun confessed, picking at some of the lettuce in her sandwich. “I figured I would read a lot, sit in a chair and watch the ocean. Maybe get a manicure.”
“But you are getting to rest? I haven’t been dragging you around too much?”
She laughed at the way Zhou Mi considered her, as though he was helping to feed into her vices. “It was less my body that needed rest. Not having to think, getting out of routine, having fun. Sleeping! That’s a novelty.”
“That’s good. Not having to travel, for me, is nice,” Zhou Mi said, and started to put the remnants of their lunch into a bag as the wind began to pick up. “I do generally stay put for a while, but these last six months it seems like I’ve slept more in an airplane than in my own bed.”
She grinned at him. “I slept over in my office a few times.”
“No wonder you needed to get away.”
Kyuhyun socked him in the arm, and then laughed at him, at the silly sound he made as he pushed himself onto his feet. But Zhou Mi reached for her, helping her up. In one hand, she had her bag and her sandals, and in the other she kept ahold of his. He carried his own sandals and their trash. She was sure the back of her shorts were sandy, but she didn’t care. The beach was nearly deserted ahead of the storm, and he put the bag in a trash bin before they put on their sandals and they walked together to a manmade overlook. The light of the afternoon was dying as the clouds closed, the waves breaking a little faster, a little more wicked.
“I don’t think I’d want to be out there,” she said, bracing herself against another gust of wind.
“I think you’d need to protect me,” he said, squeezing her fingers.
“What, can’t swim?”
Zhou Mi snorted at her. “Not in that. Though I could pretend to protect you.”
He lifted his arms, mock roaring out at the ocean as the wind blew his clothes back against him. His eyes were twinkling when he looked back at Kyuhyun, who was standing there with a slack mouth and laughter rising up in her.
“How was that?” Zhou Mi asked, his voice so soft that she leaned in and her hat caught the wind.
He caught her hat as it tried to break away, and she held his eyes as she stepped up against him. With the hat as their shelter, his free arm curved around her. It was closer than they had been in days, feeling the warmth of him as some sweet agony. She could nearly hear his question, the way he looked at her, and her face tipped further. Her answer. The gasp against his mouth was born of emotion, unable to fathom how much she wanted just that simple embrace, and the press of his lips. How something could be both calming, and shaking her up inside, she needed to find out. She needed, and that was the truth of it, as she pressed her face into his neck and held on.
They breathed together, and she could hear him swallow.
“I wondered if it’d be as good as I remembered,” Kyuhyun said, the fingers of one hand gripping the front of his shirt.
“Oh.”
It wasn’t even a question, more an exhale of acknowledgement, or maybe even agreement as though he had wondered the same thing.
And it had been as good. There was no trickery in his kisses, nothing that made her want to recoil. It had been subtle confidence and an invitation to kiss him how she would, that he would both lead and follow. And he enfolded her in warmth, the scent of his neck and shoulder like warm clothes out of a dryer. In the air that grew even more chilly, it was welcome, but she knew it was not wholly the atmosphere that made it so welcome. It was another person holding her, and there was no substitute for that.
He started against her, and she looked up, just in time to feel what had made him react. The first drops of rain.
Zhou Mi’s smile was sheepish, and they linked hands and made a dash for the covered hotel entrance just before the sky opened up.
“That was almost an extra shower I didn’t ask for,” he laughed, flicking water off of his fingertips. “If this keeps up all night, we might have to eat inside the restaurant in the morning.”
“Maybe so,” she agreed. And especially so, seeing how hard the rain was coming down.
Zhou Mi’s fingers brushed her arm, and she met his gently pressed kiss.
“I should let you go up so you can get warm. I don’t have a jacket to give you. But I’ll be at the restaurant in the morning.”
It was meant as a goodbye for the day, the way he took back his hand, handed her her hat, and stood straight, somehow apart.
Kyuhyun thought of the way he’d held her at the overlook, the kiss they’d shared. She could have walked away, as she had the last few days, with promises of meeting up later or the next day. She thought she would have felt if he was angling for an invitation up to her room. Of course, the more time they spent together, the more likely that might eventually happen. His restraint, of itself, was attractive, and it did not feel as though it was calculated. It felt as though he was spending time with her for the enjoyment of it, never making her ask him to leave. It seemed a strange thing to deny herself something she wanted, because the man in question was perhaps too good. Kyuhyun remembered Zhou Mi’s words, their first shared breakfast, asking her if she wanted a friend. And until that day, that hug, and that kiss, he had fulfilled that offer. And he had been swept up in the situation as much as she had.
“Breakfast sounds wonderful,” she said, and he smiled at her, so utterly genuine. “But are you free this afternoon?”
Zhou Mi tilted his head even as he answered, and she took his hand to lead him in.
***
They sat on the same couch, and Zhou Mi was in the same place, only that time she was beside him. With a couple of drinks from her stash, and maybe at least one amused traded glance, they settled in to watch a movie as the storm raged outside. They were both so careful not to touch at first, like doing that would invoke memories of that night and overwrite all the fun they’d had since. Kyuhyun didn’t figure herself as a very patient person, so it wasn’t a big surprise that half an hour into the movie, she was lifting his arm and waiting for him to get the message. No fake yawn required, when she was anticipating scooting a bit closer under his arm and enjoying the benefits of a built-in pillow. She could feel the vibrations of his laughter against her cheek, teasing his fingers.
“This is definitely nicer than anything I could have thought of doing today,” he murmured, as the man on the screen was running away from whatever explosion was about to happen.
As the credits rolled, she lifted her head, and she got her wish a moment later, when he leaned in and pressed his lips against hers. And when he would have pulled away, a hand in his shirt pulled him closer, asking for another kiss, humming her appreciation when his arm slid around her waist. He kissed like a man who wanted, and there wasn’t anything sexier than that.
“I have condoms this time,” she said, rushed out before he could kiss her again, and he kissed her hard, laughing against her.
“I bought some, too. But they’re still in my room!”
Kyuhyun’s face hurt with the grin. “So that’s why you need me around.”
“Not just that,” he promised.
***
Kyuhyun felt a bit like the conquering hero with Zhou Mi shuddering, breathing harsh against her shoulder and squeezing her hand nearly too tightly. There was something kind of precious about the way he nuzzled into her, the way she could feel him relaxing, getting closer. And there was a decided goofy look on Zhou Mi’s face, as he smiled.
He pressed his lips to hers, lingering just a moment. He was still braced above her, and it felt kind of luxurious. At least, it would until his arms tired and he squashed her flat.
“Can I take you to dinner tonight?” he asked.
Every time they had met up, they had been dates, there was no denying that. But as he ran his thumb down her cheek, face soft and serious, she found herself nodding and enjoying the way he smiled and kissed her again.
***
Dinner came after a brief nap, and a shower, which even together had been quick. Zhou Mi worked a mean wash cloth, and looked handsome wet. No surprise there. He’d dressed and waited patiently, flipping through one of the tourist books as she dried her hair and got ready.
“Oh, to look so nice with so little effort,” Kyuhyun said, brushing at his bangs, and getting a kiss.
“You look wonderful. But I promised you dinner.”
Yes, he had. And he wasn’t getting out of that.
Zhou Mi took her to a nicer restaurant than the one in the hotel, one she had seen further down the beach. The air was wet, but the rain had stopped, making it just right for strolling. She didn’t reach for his hand, but he kept smiling at her, and it was just as nice. And the interior of the restaurant was warm, in both colors and temperature, and they were tucked into a table along the wall, eyeballing the menu with greed. Well, she couldn’t speak for him, but she knew she was.
“I wonder if people will start gossiping if they see you around here with me too much,” Kyuhyun mused, after they’d made their order
Zhou Mi hummed, tilting his head as he thought. “I don’t know. Maybe. Since I’m staying at your hotel, too, so I don’t think there would be talk.”
“Yeah, you didn’t tell me that that first night. Why didn't you invite me to your room instead?”
“I find that women like to be near their things. Plus you’d know where all the chairs are in case you needed to brain me.”
Kyuhyun laughed. “Sounds like you gave it some thought.”
“Well, now I know that my room is only different than yours in that it has a bigger bed.”
A lift of his eyebrow told her why that was an important factor. Apparently he liked to be close, not that him cuddling her during their nap had been any indication.
Even as she wondered if she should invite him back again, if he would stay the night, he apologized that he had morning meetings and couldn’t make breakfast.
But he left her at her hotel room door with a kiss, and his phone number so they could plan lunch.
***
A week into her trip Kyuhyun realized that except for the day she’d arrived, there had not been one day they hadn’t seen each other, spent time together. Their lunch had been followed by a long walk on the beach, a lazy shower together, curled in bed together just talking as the sun had set, and eating room service in hotel robes.
But it was the way that Zhou Mi looked at her, her face free of makeup, her hair fluffed from drying after their shower, as though he saw someone amazing. He cupped her face and pulled her close and kissed her, kissed the tip of her nose, and her cheeks. He smelled of the hotel soap, the vague hint of coconut along clean, soft skin. Sometimes they dozed like that, sometimes he tugged her from the couch to the bed, their robes hitting the floor just moments apart as he kissed her. Endless kisses, and presses of skin, feeling arousal coil and stroke, humming at the stroke of his hand, the press of his mouth.
And she gasped when she came against his fingers, flushed hot with it, as he watched her, hungry, pleased.
“I like making you feel good,” Zhou Mi said, kissing her shoulder.
“Sometimes it’s not quite the same without someone inside you,” she teased, and she meant it invitation.
“I hear they make things to help with that.”
“Oh?”
Zhou Mi looked back at her, and she could almost see him thinking.
“And…you own one of those things?”
Kyuhyun smiled, letting her fingers trail down his stomach until she could grip his erection in her hand.
“Maybe. They don’t come in these exact proportions though.”
And oh, that made him laugh.
Kyuhyun lifted her hips as he pushed into her, adjusting the way they fit together. There was no resistance, but the stretch of him was everything she wanted.
“Too much?”
She kissed the tip of his nose, because he knew better, had to, just from looking in her in the eye. “You flatter yourself very well.”
“Should only be flattering you,” he huffed out, after she’d finished giggling at his laughter.
Zhou Mi slid just a fraction deeper, and she inhaled.
“You are.”
***
Kyuhyun blinked at her email dinged, frowning when she saw who it was from. It was confusing, because he was sitting less than six inches away from her. Still, she clicked into it, and then laughed at the kissy face Zhou Mi was making in the picture. Something he’d shot on his webcam while sitting right beside her.
Underneath of it was the message, “I’m sitting in bed with someone I like! ^^”
“Oh really?” she asked, looking away from the picture so she could lean her head back and look at him.
“Really,” Zhou Mi said, unable to hold back his smile.
“Should I be jealous?” she asked, and his eyebrows rose. Kyuhyun reached out a finger and ran it along the edge of his laptop. “I think she has more processing speed than I do.”
He blinked at her cutely before the implication - that he’d sent her the email saying he was in bed with his laptop - sank in. And then he laughed, rocking the bed when he got his arm around her, laughing with her as they kissed.
“Cute,” she said, patting his face.
“Cute,” Zhou Mi repeated, pinching her chin.
And they went back to their own computers, a little closer than before, his ankle over hers. Kyuhyun tried to think of a relationship where she’d been comfortable so early to split her attention, to have a man who hadn’t whined that she wasn’t paying attention to him. It was a bit like sitting with a friend, only the feelings she had for him were quite different from any she had for a friend. Zhou Mi was a man she had met while on vacation, a man who a week later had nearly become her vacation. And there was less than a week of that left. She didn’t dare ask how long he was staying, afraid of the answer even as she cursed herself for it. She still was aware of what she looked like, how she was sitting, and the way their legs looked stretched out together. She’d never had that before with a boyfriend. And that amazed her.
And it scared her.
***
Lazy afternoon in bed after lunch, a nice quick round of sex, and Kyuhyun was very pleased with herself. Zhou Mi looked nice, just from his ribs up exposed, his hair mussed and his lips well-kissed. He looked inviting, an arm just waiting for her to curl into, with the other behind his head. He welcomed her with a smile, not even a leer for all that she was naked, just a smile. Kyuhyun had just climbed back into bed after a quick bathroom break, and had just gotten her skin warmed against his again when he began to stroke her side. It was not a leisurely stroke, as though he was trying to grope her, because she knew what that felt like. It was more like a brisk touch, like a cat flicking its tail, and she raised her head.
“What’s up,” she asked.
And Zhou Mi’s eyes, almost narrowed in thought, softened.
“Do you want kids?”
The question made her pause, feeling him continue to stroke her.
She looked askance at him. “Is this your way of telling me the condom broke?”
Zhou Mi muffled his bark of startled laughter against her shoulder. “No, no. Nothing like that. I just mean, in general. Someday.”
She’d had the conversation about kids before, but never when she was in bed with a man. His forwardness, or maybe it was an appropriate place she guessed, was something she was beginning to appreciate.
“Yeah. I think I’m not ready yet. But I do want kids. A couple, I think. If the first doesn’t traumatize me. They say you forget, but sometimes I wonder.”
Right, talking about childbirth. As a man, Kyuhyun was sure he’d be thrilled, but he’d asked for it.
“A couple of kids would be nice,” he mused. “And same for me. I’m still traveling, and I’d want to be there.”
She thought in silence for a while as he kept petting her, wondering why he was asking, what had brought it to his mind.
“I really like you,” Zhou Mi said. “And… Well. That’s one thing that I guess we should know before we take it too much further.”
“And where you want to live?” Kyuhyun asked.
“I want to make a pretty permanent base in Seoul,” he said, smiling. “But I’ll want to spend time in China. Family, and just…familiar. But my base will always be Seoul. With my wife. And babies.”
The way he said it sent the tiniest chill down Kyuhyun’s spine, goosebumps along her skin. It wasn’t as though he was asking her to marry him, that he was saying she would be that wife, and that those babies would be theirs. But she could see it.
“And a dog. And hair products,” she murmured, turning closer to him.
“Kids need a dog,” he agreed, kissing her softly. And there were no more words, just traded kisses, softly wandering hands.
***
Kyuhyun was not certain if the knowledge that Zhou Mi could see their relationship extending beyond their little paradise scared her, or thrilled her. It settled her, she guessed, in that she didn’t feel that she had to snatch every moment, where not knowing when Zhou Mi would be gone would leave her empty. Or when she would have to leave him. And though Seoul wasn’t a tiny dot on the map, they would be in the same general location. When she left the beach, she would have his number, be able to meet him for lunch. But it wasn’t something they had to deal with, not yet. It had been a day full of exploring, hiking up a high hill, eating all the food in the universe, and then chasing him down the water in the bikini he’d helped her to pick out. And it was lovely to stretch out beside him on a blanket, the sun having set an hour before but the air still warm as they leaned together. They’d already showered off all the salt, pleasantly dry in the night air.
And best of all, alone. They were sheltered, out of sight and earshot from tourists, the only possible intruder being someone walking up the beach after dark. She rather liked it that way, just them and the ocean with its tug and push.
“Kyuhyun,” he said, kissing her shoulder.
“Hmm?”
Zhou Mi’s kiss had her fingers curling against his neck, tugging at his lower lip. Their lips had barely parted when he kissed her again, humming in delight as her arms slid around him, pulling him closer. Zhou Mi’s hand cupped her breast through her top, and she nearly smacked him, before realizing what he was asking as he pushed himself up on his elbow and leaned over her.
“Have you… Would you want to…”
“Oh. Really?” Kyuhyun breathed.
But Kyuhyun kissed him, her hand cupping his face, feeling the sand shift underneath of her as she pressed back and invited his kisses.
“I’ve never had sex in public,” she said, her voice quiet and the laugh even more so as he squirmed a little further over her.
“I almost did. But it was in a classroom and the discipline I’d have gotten wasn’t worth it.”
“But the possibility of getting arrested is worth it?” she asked, a little suspicious.
“Maybe I’d have done it if you’d been in the classroom with me?” Zhou Mi countered.
“I’d have talked you out of it.”
Kyuhyun could’ve talked them out of what they were doing right then, but the problem was? She didn’t want to. She’d been the one to drag him closer, feeling like a teenager on a nighttime romp. Though, as a teenager Kyuhyun had certainly never been in a situation like that. She wasn’t sure if she wanted it to be quick, running on adrenaline of fearing being caught, or slow and languid to match the pace of the water. The extra blanket they’d brought in case it got cool spread over them, hiding them even further.
She stroked Zhou Mi’s neck, her lips twitching at his sighs. And as the inside of her thigh stroked his hip, they kissed and wound together until he was all there was for her. The sound of the ocean, the blankets around them were nothing to the way he kissed her, by turn sweet and eager, urging her to meet him. The fingers stroking Kyuhyun’s side and the hand cradled around her shoulder as he braced himself above her. It was like being surrounded with want, from the sounds of his breaths and the sturdy press of his body. She wasn’t sure where the shifting of his hips or the raising of hers began and ended. She only knew the pleasure that came from the body moving with hers. Kyuhyun wanted him, and didn’t want him less the more she had him. She remembered the pleasure of his mouth, and sliding against him in the shower, and the night before when he had pressed against her back and made her shudder.
“You have a condom?” she breathed against his mouth.
“Now? Always,” he replied as though it were some sort of religious conviction.
“If you can get my-“
Zhou Mi was way ahead of her. Balanced on his knees, both his hand were on her hips and pulling down her bikini bottoms. He didn’t try to manhandle them off of her, or rip them off, but got them down far enough that when she bent her knee, he could get them over it and down her leg. It took a few quiet curses and giggles, but he did it.
And that, Kyuhyun thought just barely holding back audible laughter, meant he’d earned it, at least in her eyes.
And in only moments, with a little packet opened, the only thing above her - besides him and the blanket - were stars and clouds in the night sky.
“We should go camping,” she said abruptly, and his exploring hips stopped.
“What?”
“Camping,” she repeated. “Nature. Tromping through the forest. Making love with no cars or people. Just trees swaying, and stars, and a fire, and-“
“Bugs,” Zhou Mi added. “Tigers.”
She did laugh that time. “Good thing we’re both good at fighting those off. Though I’d like a pet. I’m allergic to cats though.”
“Mreow,” he purred for her, and made her moan as he slid inside her again. And after a moment, he whispered, “Maybe a dog?”
A chill ghosted her skin as she wound her arms around him, kissed his neck, remembering their conversation of children and pets. Maybe. Too many maybes. She just wanted to be focused on him.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Ready,” she confirmed.
And muffled sounds against his mouth, his skin as he tilted her hips and took her. Kyuhyun came almost immediately, the crest spilling over her like water over a glass and she clung to him because it wasn’t enough. She hadn’t gone high enough, high as he could take her. His tiny grunts of effort made her body clutch for him, his kissed against her neck and shoulders. When she gasped at a tiny nip, he only went faster. Smiles she could hear, see, when he was delighted in her reactions to him.
And Kyuhyun braced herself against him, the pressure and slide of him, the way he nudged down against her, kissed, her mouth, her neck. Zhou Mi’s bottom lip slid slowly out from between her teeth, his neck warm as her nails pressed into it, even has his fingers tangled with her free hand.
“Kyuhyun,” Zhou Mi panted, a confession and a plea.
“Come on,” she said, and kissed him, held him, and felt him come.
Undetected, just for the thrill of it. Just for the two of them. Though, she’d insisted on her clothing all being in place right after just in case, she’d been content to have him rest his head on her shoulder and cling.
“Nature is nice,” he said, patting her thigh.
Kyuhyun would have laughed, except in that moment she agreed.
And Zhou Mi carried the blankets back up the beach, her hand solidly in his. They squabbled about what dessert to get, all the way to the hotel.
***
Kyuhyun could feel it in the way he kissed her, the tightness of his hug when he met her for lunch the next day. He’d left her nearly at dawn for a meeting, kissing her forehead and tucking her in before going to his room for a business meeting. Something was up.
“I have news,” Zhou Mi confirmed, when she looked up at him in curiosity. “So, the meeting? My business partner is in Shanghai right now, and there’s a few places he wants me to check out for us to invest in. It’s pretty urgent, since there are others interested. So, I’m flying out tonight.”
“Okay,” she said, blinking at him.
“I’m so sorry. If there was any way I could stay until the end of your vacation, I would.”
“It’s all right. I’m a big girl. And I know there are times business has to come first.”
Zhou Mi had known that, too, but there was regret in his eyes.
“Can I still take you to lunch? And if your afternoon is free, I might show you my last-minute throw-everything-in-the-suitcase routine. I promise it’d be a funny time.”
Kyuhyun grinned, feeling panic and a bit of sadness squirm through her. She’d intended to spend the time alone, and without Zhou Mi there, there was going to be a large gap in her life. But there again, she enjoyed her time alone. He’d shown her some of the things he was working on, and she knew why he had to leave.
***
Kyuhyun ended up cuddling her laptop in bed during the night, instead of him. She’d at least kept her days busy, ticking off another museum she’d wanted to see, another sight-seeing excursion, eating her lunches in a little sand nest and watching kids play through her sunglasses. The beach was still nice, it was just that she kept looking to her side as though Zhou Mi would be walking up toward her with his hand raised, or sneaking up behind her to kiss her cheek. She didn’t have anyone to lean against, and that made it feel lonely. But she was determined not to mope, and enjoy her time, so there was that.
And there was Zhou Mi’s face on her laptop screen, beaming as the connection was made. He always had oceans of information to tell her, and she laughed, curling her hand when she wanted so badly to reach and touch the little mark just there at the base of his neck.
“What do you miss most?”
“Walks on the beach,” he said after a moment, frowning lightly. “Breakfasts in bed. Seeing you laugh when I made jokes.”
She chuckled for good measure. “You mean a measly hour in the evening isn’t enough?”
“Well. How do you go from spending hours together talking and being able to touch someone, to this?”
“Some of the time I’m relieved to have my own space back, and be able to do whatever I want,” she said, resting her chin in her palm and watching as his head tilted as he listened to her. “But I had time alone even when you were here, so it just feels empty.”
Zhou Mi sighed gustily, smiling at her through the screen. “Exactly.”
“But I’ll have work when I get back to Seoul. Oh. I took a book down and read in that alcove where we had sex. It was just as nice in the daylight.”
Zhou Mi’s lips trembled. “If the reading was just as nice, I did something wrong.”
Kyuhyun flopped onto her back and laughed.
***
Kyuhyun flew home, both slightly closer to Zhou Mi in distance, and also a bit in feelings as well. Distance had a put a lingering ache in her when she thought of him, thought of how nice it had been to wake up and stare across the bed at him, or to lean against him and try to hassle him when he was making his lunch decisions.
Kyuhyun had never given credence to the way her friends had sighed dramatically over missing their boyfriends. Most of her experiences had been with being glad to get away from them. That wan’t entirely true because she’d been glad to see them, excited even, but when they’d tried to encroach for more time she’d ended up feeling like she wanted to lock them far away. She’d thought that was just how it was, that guys were great to kiss, cuddle, and have sex with, but once they reached her limit, she was through with them.
Or she just hadn’t met the right guy. Kyuhyun was having to slap her hand down from reaching for her phone to send him some silly message, or tell him about her book, or TV show, just so she could smile when he wrote something back. She missed the ease of being with him, when she didn’t feel encroached upon as they sat together doing totally different things. She missed his hugs, and the smell of his cologne, and the feeling of him smiling against her skin. She was pining, and it was awkward, and she had no idea how long it was supposed to last, because it felt amazing like some pleasantly sore muscle she wanted to touch, and terrible because she wanted it relieved.
Only her closest friends knew about his existence at all, and that had been an interesting conversation. She’d started in reverse instead of telling them the truth, that she’d nearly had a one night stand only to end up with a man in her pocket for most of her vacation. By the time she’d gotten to that part, and the obligatory first meeting in the cafe, they were utterly charmed and she was helplessly embarrassed and pleased.
“You should come back soon, you know,” Kyuhyun said, tapping her spoon against her cheek, and staring at Zhou Mi. Or the pixels of him, at least.
“Oh? Why’s that?”
Zhou Mi shouldn’t have been able to sound so charming as he teased her.
“Well, you said you’d be taking me out to dinner. I’m hungry.”
“Once we get this paperwork done, I should definitely be coming back. Another few days, and then I’ll have a better idea. Hopefully within the week. How are you holding up at work?”
“I’m not pining under my desk, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Zhou Mi raised dramatic hands to his chest. “I’m hurt. I’d think you’d be sighing at your phone’s lock screen and wishing me back by the moment.”
“Who says you’re my lock screen?” she countered, but couldn’t help the smile. Of course he was on the lock screen. It had been a picture that had been taken of them with the horses on the beach. They hadn’t even known each other so well, then, and she saw his hand on her shoulder, their smiles. They’d had such a good time.
And it made Kyuhyun a bit afraid if it’d been the location. If the stress of daily life, obligations, would make it different between them. A little. It had to. But she imagined Zhou Mi getting a knee into her routines. Meeting him for lunch on weekdays, dinners out, or a movie. Attacking him in bed during the weekend. She could take him to her favorite bookstore, and take him to any kinds of tourist places he hadn’t been.
“I-“ she started, before swallowing and reaching to touch the screen. “I can’t wait.”
She swallowed down the strangling feelings as he clucked, and proceeded to press several kisses to the camera. Which of course meant her screen was full of nothing but parts of his lips.
“Soon,” Zhou Mi promised.
***
Soon.
Soon meant a frantic search through her closets, until Kyuhyun found a dress worthy of the restaurant address he’d texted her. Had Zhou Mi not flown in in the middle of the night, Kyuhyun probably would have wanted to meet him at the airport. As it was, she woke to a lovely email and picture of him on his pillow promising he’d see her later that day.
Kyuhyun admitted to mooning delightedly, but that was it. She was either going to tackle him or go shy, and she had no idea which Kyuhyun she was going to end up being.
And the restaurant was nice, really nice. Not something out of her price range, but also not someplace she’d eat at just for so, either.
“Waiting for you,” he texted her while she was still in the taxi and on her way.
But Kyuhyun spotted Zhou Mi immediately,, the line of his legs as he scanned the traffic, his shoulders in a crisp black jacket. She almost forgot to thank the driver, too eager to get out, see that smile as he spotted her just a little closer.
And Zhou Mi took every bit of apprehension out of her when he held up his hand for a moment, keeping her from walking forward.
“I can’t believe I’m finally here. You look beautiful,” he said, taking in her heels and dress with it’s artfully angular skirt.
Kyuhyun laughed, and when his arms opened, she stepped into them, breathing deep into his collar and being totally enfolded by him.
“Oh, Kuixian, I missed you,” he whispered.
All Kyuhyun could do was nod, her throat too tight for words.
“Do I have to let you go when we eat?”
She laughed into his neck. “I think so. It could get messy otherwise. Plus I want to look at your pretty face so I know you’re really here.”
He huffed, and snuggled her, and she inhaled the familiar scent of him, unable to believe he really was there, and not some figment of her imagination.
But she took his hand, smiling at him for a long moment more, before leading him inside. It wasn’t as though they hadn’t talked, because they had. But Zhou Mi being able to reach out and touch her hand over the table when he told his stories, seeing the way he had to restrain his laughter in a public place, feeling the nudge of his knee against hers, were all so different and familiar and loved. Some maw of need in her, something that jittered and ached, had started filling.
“Heechul wants to meet you,” Zhou Mi told her. “I think he tried to smother me once, when I started talking too much about you.”
“My friends want to me you, too,” Kyuhyun said. Even if they’d seen pictures, there was nothing that compared to Zhou Mi right there, the enegry of him. For some reason they didn’t find her in the least beat objective.
“Maybe we should throw a party,” he said, smiling at her. “Especially since there are no immediate plans to leave the country again soon. We have plenty to do to keep us busy here in Seoul, now that recuperation and Shanghai is done.”
“I’m getting recuperation from my withdrawal,” she murmured into her water glass, and he waggled his eyebrows at her.
A couple of times he almost seemed to pause, reaching out for her hand and squeezing it, withdrawing into himself for a moment before smiling again, their conversation rolling as though they had been parted for five minutes instead of almost two weeks.
The night air was cooler when she followed him onto the street, ready for anything he suggested. If he wanted to wander, if he wanted to go back to her apartment, or his, she was fully inclined to agree. Pleasantly full, somehow content, she realized he was so quiet beside her, so still as they stopped just past the restaurant.
Kyuhyun inhaled as he took her hands, and sank down to one knee. The smile he sent up at her was almost sheepish. But that softened, as he squeezed her hands tighter, the light from the restaurant illuminating him.
“I can’t even pretend I don’t have a ring, because I bought one a few days after I got to Shanghai,” Zhou Mi said with a tiny laugh. “But you don’t have to take it or even give me an answer. I don’t want to chase you away by… But I needed you to know this is what I’m feeling, what I’m wanting.”
Some men were so opaque and dodgy, keeping everyone guessing with their feelings and their thoughts. Kyuhyun could understand why he must have been apprehensive, because if she didn’t feel the same, she could have been running for the hills. Maybe she should’ve, people might’ve told her to be cautious, to examine her feelings.
“Do I get to see it at least?” she asked.
“Oh, yes.” Zhou Mi stood and fumbled in his jacket pocket, drawing out a small bag, and from it a ring. It was gold, with a modest diamond flanked by what looked like little rubies. It was understated, but not dull, and Kyuhyun thought that maybe Zhou Mi understood her more than she realized.
“It’s too far away,” she said waggling her fingers.
It was almost too much to hold in the shiver, as the cool metal slid onto her finger, Zhou Mi putting it on with such precision, almost reverence, barely even breathing as he looked at her. That was more precious to her than a dozen gold rings could have been.
It was a little loose, not that Kyuhyun could tell with the way her hand squeezed and then his hand tightened around it.
Still, after a moment, he let go, looking at her hand, and then up again, as though he didn’t quite believe she was wearing it.
“I guess this would mean we’re going steady,” Kyuhyun said, smirking at him as he gaped.
“Yes. Yes, I think that’s the perfect way of putting it.” Zhou Mi squeezed his hand around hers again. “We have time to figure out all the rest.”
So when she answered yes against his lips, it was to all the possibilities.
***
Bringing Ryeowook and Changmin out for brunch had been an easy thing. Sitting with her two friends, and chatting about the week was something they’d done so many times. Only that time, she had a bit of a secret - two of them. But one of them she just happened to be wearing on her hand, anxious for one of them to spot it. It wasn’t ostentatious, but it definitely caught the light as she used that hand to keep tipping an obscene amount of sugar into her tea. She’d never be able to drink it, but it got her what she wanted.
“What is that- Kyuhyun!”
Kyuhyun smiled down at her hand, tilting it so that the ring sparkled. “Oh, this engagement ring?”
There were twin squawks from across from her, and she had to force herself not to look to see if Zhou Mi was trying to hide his grins behind his menu from across the restaurant.
“It’s the guy from the beach, isn’t it?” Ryeowook asked, catching her hand so she could get a better look at the ring.
“Actually, yeah. So, I wanted you guys to meet someone I met in a little cafe by the beach.”
It was then that Kyuhyun looked to Zhou Mi, seeing the pleased smile on his face when he stood and walked closer to them. He took her outstretched hand, his eyes only for her.
(Kyuhyun felt lucky that she wasn’t eating yet when Zhou Mi mistakenly picked up her tea cup, sipped, and nearly choked.)
***