Chapter Text
"That bitch!"
Minkyun frantically looked around him, even though the thing that got him mad was a text message.
[I'm sorry, but I've found someone else.]
"Kyun, what happened?" Changyun asked him after the outburst. Minkyun turned his phone around and Changyun echoed him: "That bitch!"
"I know!"
Changyun and Minkyun went to yell about Minkyun's, now, ex-fiancé, while the phone was passed around. From Hyojin to Seungjun to Jaeyoung and lastly it was held by Yuto.
Everytime a new person in their group read the message they joined in on the cussing.
Minkyun felt more than let down. Humiliated. He had done everything his fiancé wanted, booked a typical Vegas wedding and even paid for everything after working his ass off. Everything was accounted for; the venue was reserved, the hotel rooms were already booked and even a surprise trip afterwards was planned.
“She just left?! What?! Where is she?” Changyun hissed.
“I don’t know!” Minkyun gave back, “she was already acting weird when we got here, but I didn’t think she would fuck off with someone else and let me know only minutes before the fucking wedding was supposed to kick off.”
It had already been too quiet so he had started getting nervous. With a whip of his body, he turned around to wander into the chapel and was met with an empty space, no staff, no music, none of her family was even present or waiting.
In his rage he went to call her but was instantly hung up on.
[My family already knows. Don't call me anymore], she texted after.
"Ooooh, alright. That's how much this meant," Minkyun bit at his phone.
“What did she say?” Hyojin asked.
Minkyun clenched his jaw in frustration as he spat his words. “That she already told everyone and that I can’t call her anymore.”
“What?! That's awful!”
“I fucking know, she could’ve told us sooner,” Minkyun waved at nothing, “so I don’t look like an ass just standing here waiting.”
"Alright, she isn't worth it. You know what? Come on Minkyun," Hyojin said and slung his arm around the taller, "she was always annoying. You know this too."
"We had our differences but this is a bit much."
"I agree. But the fact that she did this...” Hyojin gestured around him to point out the situation. “You're better than that. Someone that leaves someone the day of their wedding, gave up on marrying you long ago. She was only after your money probably."
"Yes," Changyun agreed, "it's your wedding day. Don't be so down."
Minkyun stared at him. "My whole wedding is fucking cancelled…"
"Ah, true."
"Who cares. We're in Vegas,"—Hyojin spread his arms—"let's not let that bitch ruin this whole trip."
"I like your thinking," Seungjun chimed in, "she isn't worth it Kyun. Your parents couldn't come anyway, it's just us...let's party."
Minkyun sighed. "Mom was devastated when she found out she couldn't attend the wedding. Maybe it was fate."
"Alright then!" Changyun grabbed Minkyun's wrist. "Let's drop everything at the hotel and drink those sorrows away."
After ample cheers, the evening turned blurry fast as they swapped out a wedding dinner for devil juice.
Bar after bar, shot after shot; Minkyun started to lose track of his environment. His emotions were drowned by alcohol and soon his memory left him too. He mindlessly followed the others, being shoved into clubs, kicked out of casinos or laughed at by his friends while throwing up.
After he stopped having the ability to count, he got taken to another place with bright lights and loud angelic music. He thought he had died, but a warm feeling on his lips not even half an hour later, told him he was still alive. More happened, that much he figured, but what or with whom, he had no clue.
——————————————————————-
Minkyun woke up with regret pulsating through his head. His brain abused his skull from the inside, yelling at him to make better decisions. His body was definitely punishing him for whatever he had done last night.
He didn't remember anything, but with how awful he was feeling, it couldn't have been healthy.
With a dry throat and an ocean of nausea around him, he stepped out of bed to go find the bathroom in this weird hotel room. On the way, with the help of the morning sun through sloppily closed blinds, did he figure out it was the bride's suit he had booked. At least it was comforting to know that he was in a room he was allowed to be in.
It was especially reassuring because he was naked.
Everything seemed tempting to fall asleep on, the soft carpet, the pretty sofa chairs decorating the corner or the royal bed he just stepped out of—yet he forced himself to at least find the bathroom first.
The water tasted extra sweet when he finally got to hydrate the desert his body had become. He wondered how the others were doing, but his mind was still a little too tired to convince him to go look for them, and he also just looked like a mess. His cheeks hollowed out from feeling sick and his eyes sunken in from lack of sleep, told him to go catch more shut-eye first, a mark on his skin told him why he might not have gotten as much, it revealed nightly activities. He grew nervous staring at the hickey on his shoulder, but decided that that was also an investigation for later.
After stepping out of the tiled room again, he closed the bathroom door, hurting his own ears with how clumsily loud he did it. A soft groan answered the loud bang of the door. The noise came from his bed. It was a small—familiar—voice.
Half of him, instantly woke up while he cautiously walked to the bed.
"...Yuto?" he tried.
"Hmm," a raspy voice responded. "...Minkyun?"
The regret in his skull instantly increased when he started to guess what happened.
Yuto of all people...
Yuto sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Fuck. My head hurts." He passed one glance at Minkyun and quickly turned the other way. "Please, wear some clothes."
Only then, did Minkyun realise again that he was nude. With a quick eye, he scanned the room for his underwear and found his clothes were scattered around. After locating at least his lower garments he turned back to Yuto.
"What happened last night?" he mumbled carefully. This whole scene was very typical but he didn't want to jump to that conclusion just yet.
"I—… I can guess a few things," Yuto muttered back, "but I don't know anything for sure either."
The fact that his eyes were still not met, made Minkyun a little uneasy, he wondered if Yuto was angry. Careful steps brought Minkyun closer, and then saw he was justified to jump to that conclusion.
Yuto had a few hickeys peppered over his neck. They were clearly visible with him still looking the other way and not having taken the blanket with him when he sat up.
Blood rushed to Minkyun’s cheeks as he stared at the others elegant neck and toned chest.
"Did we—?" he went to ask but Yuto interrupted him.
"My ass hurts so probably."
"Oh God, I'm so sorry," Minkyun breathed instantly. He sat on the bed and laid his aching head in his hands.
I really got dumped on my wedding day, got piss drunk and then slept with one of my friends...?
He didn't know if he was feeling worse about; being dumped or waking up next to Yuto—the only one of his friends he saw as somewhat innocent.
The others were all loose cannons he knew he didn't need to worry about, and if anything, Jaeyoung would take care of them, as Minkyun himself wasn't the most responsible either.
Jaeyoung was a newer asset to their friend-group, as Changyun had introduced him as his boyfriend a short few years back. However, out of all of them, Minkyun knew Yuto the least well. They had only met through Seungjun back when he was a regular at the bar Minkyun and Hyojin worked at.
Even though it had been a while now since then, he never got any alone time with Yuto. From what Minkyun had gathered through their surface-level conversations, Yuto always appeared fairly reserved and like he had the most brain cells between his temples. So how bad did yesterday get? For Yuto to end up on the other side of his bed.
He raised his head again and noticed it might not have been that they 'just slept'.
A pretty whitegold ring decorated one of his fingers, the ring he had bought for his wedding. His wedding that didn't go through…
"Yuto…" Minkyun started his sentence but he didn't even know where to begin. "Yuto, I'm sorry."
The apology got Yuto confused. "For what?"
"I don't know, but I should apologise. I don't know what has gone on nor what happened between us but…"
“But what?” Yuto interrupted, his tone a bit sharp. “It's fine,” he continued with a softer voice, “I don't mind that we... slept together… Do you?"
"No. No, that's not it."
Minkyun was a little surprised by his almost instantaneous answer, it was blurted out without thinking about it. Assessing it, he really didn't mind it, if it was any of the others he felt he would have felt a lot more weird about it, but Yuto seemed different.
"Can you… look the other way though,” Yuto’s tense lips curled into a smile, “I want to dress a little."
"Oh, sure. Of course."
Minkyun turned back and stared at the wall in front of him, feeling the bed shake as Yuto got out. With nervously sharp ears, Minkyun followed every footstep and rustling until the bathroom door closed. The shower started rushing soon after.
Minkyun, surprisingly, didn't feel as heartbroken as he would've thought. His ex-fiancé wasn't even on his mind. Maybe he even felt relieved he was stood up on.
He ran the awful things that happened between them through his mind and he nearly laughed at his past self for wanting to marry such a person.
Potentially, it was only because of a dumb sense of responsibility, some sense of duty towards his parents, ‘to get married and have children,’ live some prestigious life that the people around him told him he should.
Ignore his true feelings and preferences and just go get settled.
Maybe after all those horrendous days of fighting did fate decide to give him a loving hand. Only for one time, to have his girlfriend leave. But it turned cruel again that same night; making him sleep with one of his friends...
The regret he was feeling wasn't because Yuto was a man. Be it male or female or other, Minkyun didn't care. Even if his parents prefered he'd end up with a woman, Minkyun rather wanted to end up with someone he loved, yet he wasn't following his own mind. He knew he didn't love his previous fiancé, he loved the idea of fulfilling others' wishes.
He tried to guess that he mostly felt regretful because it went like this between him and Yuto. Something in him had always wanted to get closer to Yuto, but he feared this would only set them apart more. Even though Yuto said he was fine with it, it might’ve just been out of politeness.
He sighed and grabbed his phone, seeing if any of the others were awake yet. He had multiple missed calls from his parents and a few unknowing congratulation texts from colleagues and acquaintances.
He quickly called his parents to explain everything to them: admitting he was stood-up on, but lying about anything that happened after—until Yuto came wandering out of the bathroom again.
"Say, is this yours?" he asked and held out the same ring Minkyun had on.
With a careful touch, Minkyun plucked it out of the other’s hand. "Well… it was meant for my fiancé."
"Oh… uhmm—"
A knock interrupted Yuto.
"Yeah?" Minkyun answered and walked to open the door.
Seungjun was standing in front of him, looking horrible; his hair untamed and his eyes tired. "Oh, you are awake?" he asked.
"Yeah, barely."
"Do you know where Yuto is? He isn't in his room. Changyun came to us but we don’t know either."
“I’m sorry for worrying you,” Yuto spoke up from the other side of the room. After opening the blinds, he walked a little closer to show himself.
“Oh, you’re here. Thank god,” Seungjun sighed and grasped his heart before clocking on. “What are you doing here, though?”
“We both have no clue,” Minkyun mumbled, “do you have any idea what went on last night?”
“Not really. I just remember a fuck load of bars, though it could also be just one, because they are all blending together.”
“Hmm…”
“I do remember Changyun dragging us around a bunch. Maybe we can find out more from him?” Seungjun suggested. He let his eyes jump between the two uneasy figures standing before him. “Did something happen between you two?”
“...Probably,” Minkyun admitted seeing Yuto grow shy as he shifted his vision next to him.
“Yuto, are you alright?” Seungjun asked with sudden concern.
The other just nodded, making Seungjun turn his expression again and cheerfully invite the two to join everyone in his and Hyojin's room when they were ready.
Their hangovers made them nauseous so they didn’t feel like sitting in the fumes of a hotel breakfast. Seungjun and Hyojin’s room seemed like the better option for a gathering place.
When the door was closed again Yuto let out a nearly inaudible sigh.
“Do you want to borrow some of my clothes?” Minkyun offered when he noticed Yuto had changed into yesterday’s clothes, since his suitcase wasn’t here.
“It’s fine, I’ll just go to my own room.”
“Hey… again, I’m-”
“Please don’t apologise again,” Yuto intercepted and walked out the door, not passing another glance in the other’s direction.
After getting himself washed up and in a proper outfit, Minkyun made his way to Hyojin and Seungjun’s room. Everyone was already there, and with Seungjun being akin to a gossip aunt, Minkyun knew everyone was already informed about where Yuto had ended up.
“Okay,” Changyun started when they all found a spot in the hotel room, “does anyone have a recollection of what happened?” he asked.
The room filled with a bunch of hungover, sheepish looks. Everyone hoped that the others would remember, but for the whole room, yesterday night was a blank.
Changyun sighed. “Okay do we have any clues?"
"None that I know of. I’m surprised enough we all just woke up in our rooms," Hyojin shrugged.
"Almost all of us," Changyun reminded before shifting his attention, “Yuto, do you remember how you got to Kyun’s room?”
Yuto scratched his lower arm. “Uhm...not really.”
“Do you know why you might've gone there?”
“I don’t remember, but we can...guess.”
In his nervousness, Minkyun fiddled with the ring on his finger, which he forgot to take off before, and it made him ask: “Does anyone maybe know if we went back to the chapel?”
“The venue you booked?” Hyojin wondered.
“Yes…”
“I don’t think so. Since it was all cancelled, I don't think we could've gone.”
Minkyun looked to his right, seeing Yuto’s want to sink into the floor increase with every second Minkyun got closer to exposing what happened.
The whitegold ring twinkled in the hotel room light as Minkyun held up his hand to show it. “Yuto was wearing the other one… that’s why I asked.”
“Did you two get… married?” Changyun mumbled with wide eyes.
“Well, I don’t know,” Minkyun corrected, “but I can’t think of any other reason why we would just randomly be wearing my wedding rings…”
Hyojin sighed and rested his head in his hands. “Why couldn’t we have had at least one of us stay sober…?”
Ignoring the other’s complaint, Changyun argued to Minkyun, “that doesn't explain why he was in your room, though.”
"We…might've…'consummated our marriage' so to speak," Minkyun vagued in a mumble.
Changyun opened his mouth to speak, but decided it was better not to.
Seungjun was the only one who saw a light within this situation. “Who cares? It’s fine. Yuto is a better catch than that runaway bitch.”
“Seungjun, please,” Yuto whined to his friend, who just chuckled at him.
“But what are we going to do now?” Jaeyoung chimed in, “if you two got married, don’t you need to file for divorce and everything?”
“It’s not like that much instantly changes when married, so there is no rush to do so," Seungjun spoke up in the others' place, "we are still supposed to be in Vegas for another day and you still have your honeymoon afterwards.” He pointed at Minkyun and Yuto.
“I don’t have a wife to go on that honeymoon with, and also it’s more just a small trip, not really a ‘honeymoon’," Minkyun corrected, "but anyway, I don’t feel like going alone,” he argued softly, keeping his voice quiet to minimise any increase in headache.
“But you do have a husband,” Seungjun countered, “and it’s booked, so just go through with it.”
“Seungjun stop,” Yuto said promptly but was only met with a devilish smile from the other.
“Why?” Seungjun cooed.
“It’s fine, I’m not going to force you to go,” Minkyun laughed softly to Yuto, “do any of you want to go on it in my stead?” he offered, “it’ll be nearly free for you.”
“No, Kyun, it’s your trip,” Changyun pushed, “I know you’ve been looking forward to this.”
“Yeah, but I can always go another time.”
“As if you are in the United States that often…”
“Indeed,” Seungjun joined in, “and since Hyojin and I have to work again soon we can’t join anyway. Also I doubt Jaeyoung or Changyun have time either,” he looked a bit intensely at the couple seated on a couch in the corner and Changyun grew a sly smile.
“So, that leaves Yuto as your partner,” Seungjun concluded.
“Just ignore him,” Yuto muttered, “you don’t have to go, if you don’t want to.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to go on this trip, I just don’t want to go alone nor force you to join me,” Minkyun explained.
“I won’t say no to a trip, but I don’t have the money for it.”
“That’s fine, I paid for almost everything already anyway,” Minkyun curled his lips shyly, “and since this was my doing, I’ll cover the cost of the rest too, no problem.”
“I know you have the money but I don’t want to leech off you.”
“See, he’s a better catch than your previous women,” Seungjun grinned and Yuto shot him a glare.
“Seungjun, I swear to God, shut up," he snarled.
“It’s alright," Minkyun continued, ignoring Seungjun's meddling, "I’ll be dragging you everywhere, it’s only right for me to pay… So if you don’t mind. Would you join me?”
Yuto grew a kind smile. “Sure...I’d love to.”
“Great!” Seungjun jumped up and instantly sat down again as his hangover got mad at him, “We'll go shopping today, then?” he continued with less energy.
“Yeah, sure,” Minkyun shrugged, “I doubt you packed for a week-long trip?” he asked Yuto.
“No, I have a suit and this set of clothes,” the questioned gestured to himself, “besides that I have my camera…”
“Well, I guess that’s our mission today then,” Changyun smiled, “give Yuto something stylish for his trip.”
"...So that's the conclusion, then?" Jaeyoung asked, "no one knows what happened yesterday and we guess Minkyun and Yuto got married and we're just sending them on a trip?"
"Yes?" Changyun confirmed as if it was normal.
Jaeyoung raised his eyebrows in amazement. "Alright, sure. We are all not in prison, so I guess whatever happened yesterday wasn't too bad."
"Exactly," Seungjun sang, “let's all meet up downstairs in an hour, and go shopping."
They all voted yes, and got up to leave again. Minkyun saw Yuto stay behind, he seemed annoyed at Seungjun, so he figured that there was something unresolved between them. While Minkyun was curious, it wasn't his place to meddle, so he left to his room.
A heavy thud ran through his hotel room when Minkyun sat on the bed, trying to hopefully recount anything, but the thinking just made his headache worse.
While going to clean yesterday's clothes, he noticed they reeked of alcohol and other not-so-lovely smells. In an attempt to air them out somewhat, he found a clothes hanger to put everything on and hung it on a chair.
A small knock was heard on his door.
When he opened it, Changyun looked at him, a lot more refreshed than earlier.
“Is everything alright?” he asked.
Minkyun tilted his head. “Yeah, why?
“Well… because, you know, your girlfriend left you…”
“Ah, yeah, that,” Minkyun mumbled and stepped aside to let Changyun in.
Minkyun wasn’t surprised the other was here to check up, he was a childhood friend after all. No matter how aloof Changyun might act, he always had the best intentions at heart and genuinely cared.
“To be honest,” Minkyun continued, “it’s not great for my self-esteem, but I’m not as devastated as I expected. I don’t know if I still liked her, now that I look back on it.”
“Then why the fuck were you marrying her?!” Changyun questioned.
“I don’t fucking know alright,” Minkyun sighed, “given that I also just randomly married Yuto, maybe I just don’t make the smartest marriage plans.”
“Well, this sounds cruel, but I’m glad this went the way it did, then.”
Minkyun looked up. “What?”
“I don’t want you to end up with someone you don’t actually like, and Yuto is not that bad of a guy.”
“Just because we are married doesn’t mean we’re in a relationship.”
“Never thought I’d hear that sentence,” Changyun chuckled and the other joined in on laughing at the situation.
“We’ll just file for divorce after we come back from this trip,” Minkyun hummed.
“Enjoy your trip first,” Changyun advised.
“I will. Besides, I don’t know Yuto that well so it will be fun to get to know him.”
The positivity made Changyun grin and ask if the other was done already. After getting a confirmation, they both headed out to meet the others downstairs and set off into Las Vegas.
The light was blinding and they all needed a second to adjust to the vibrancy of life around them. They kept their general energy low, to tolerate the hangovers that haunted the group.
"Okay, where do we get clothes?" Seungjun wondered as they stepped out of the roman themed hotel.
"Uhm, I know there is a fairly decent shopping mall a 20 minute walk from here," Minkyun remembered and it took Hyojin a bit by surprise.
"How do you know that?"
"You know how she was," Minkyun said with a bit of a mocking tone, "shopping was her favourite hobby so I looked up some places."
"True, alright. Maybe the longer stroll will do our hangovers some good."
"Alright then," Minkyun hummed and took the lead to walk them towards the mall.
"I still can't believe you booked this hotel…" Changyun muttered as he took in the impressive yet unfitting architecture of the property.
Minkyun chuckled. "They are just very good at making things look impressive here."
He was answered with a scoff from Changyun. "I'm sure it still costs a lot."
"Maybe."
"I mean, only the sleek streets and neon make me believe this is indeed Vegas and not Rome," Changyun remarked.
Jaeyoung laughed endearingly at his boyfriend while trying to keep him from walking into things as best as possible, since Changyun had his eyes more fixated on the massive buildings surrounding them.
Eventually, they left the roman part behind and walked along more streets lined with palm trees and high buildings. Some seem to have regretted agreeing to walk the distance, while it wasn't scorching, the sun was definitely threatening, and squinting wasn’t pleasant with a headache.
Along the way, every building seemed like it had its own time period and culture; to the left of them was a place with a long wooden walkway, yet in the distance was a high orange modern style building, and on the other side of the street was a structure which rather seemed to be made out of sandstone.
Seungjun and Changyun kept blabbering on about nearly everything, remarking on styles and interesting details. Hyojin mainly tried his best to keep up but seemed the least used to a hangover. Jaeyoung got bugged by Changyun a lot but kept a loving look in his eye, and Yuto was mostly silently taking pictures, sometimes he would stop for a shot and then quickly hop back to the group. Minkyun just kept the lead, looking at his phone every so often to check if they were still heading the right way.
"Wait!" Changyun yelled when they were standing next to a big screen with some familiar faces, "darling, look!'
"Huh?" Jaeyoung answered.
"That's that Marvel exhibition I showed you!"
"Oooh, yeah."
"Man, it looks cool…" Changyun gushed.
Minkyun overheard them and joined the conversation. "You can go there tomorrow, we'll need to head off"—he gestured between himself and Yuto—"but your flight is only late in the day, so it should be doable."
Changyun beamed a smile as he turned to his boyfriend. "Can we?!"
"Yeah, of course," Jaeyoung agreed and got rewarded with a kiss on the cheek.
"Do you guys want to join?" Changyun asked Seungjun and Hyojin.
"We could, if we don't find anything else to do."
"Alright," Changyun said excitedly, "but let's go to the mall for now then."
"We're already there," Minkyun pointed out, "that big building with the U.F.O thing there is the mall."
They all marveled at the decor of the shopping mall, and later, worried about the pricing of it all. Minkyun said it was fine, since this was all his doing anyway, but Yuto insisted on at least paying some of the things bought.
After wandering around, and getting lost a bunch, they finally found a few fitting shops for Yuto to get new outfits from.
With the mall being obnoxiously large, they felt it was safest to all stay together, resulting in Yuto getting dragged around by Seungjun and Changyun to find stylish clothing.
"Where are we even going?" Yuto asked Minkyun when he got handed a bunch of random items by Changyun.
"Let's keep that a surprise," Minkyun grinned.
"How do I know what to pack then?"
"Don't worry," the taller chuckled, "it won't be anything adventurous. Can you walk well on those shoes, though? They won't hurt?"
"Yepp," Yuto confirmed, tapping his feet on the ground, "I at least anticipated that today would be a lot of walking."
"Then just get clothes fit for this weather, it shouldn't get much hotter," Minkyun shrugged, "maybe a cap or something could be useful."
While being forced into multiple outfits, Yuto tried to pry information about their trip out of Minkyun. However, no matter how many attempts were made, Minkyun wouldn't budge.
“Oh...maybe a shirt with a higher collar,” Changyun observed when Yuto walked out of the fitting room with a rather large shirt, showing some of the spots along the lower side of his neck.
Growing a slight blush, Yuto hurried back behind the curtain while Changyun went to grab another shirt, failing to conceal a horrid grin.
During their shopping, Hyojin slowly seemed to be doing better again, and when the others were all done, he was hungry.
Yuto had acquired a couple of shirts, pants and other items necessary for his surprise trip and spent the rest of their time here wandering behind the group as they found their own stores to buy things from. As they slowly all got hungry, they relaxedly looked for something to eat. Although their stomachs rumbled, their headaches still pulsated, they knew their bodies wouldn’t tolerate anything heavy, so they just found something simple to fill themselves with before leaving this overcrowded building.
“What shall we do in the evening?” Hyojin asked when they walked the same route back, only this time with a lot more baggage.
The evening air was warm and soft. The sun was starting to lie low, colouring the scenery with a typical orange.
“Why not the strip? Since we don’t remember what we did there yesterday,” Minkyun suggested.
“Sure,” Hyojin affirmed, “I hope we haven’t been banned from any places.”
“How bad do you think it went?!” Seungjun asked loudly.
“We have you and Changyun with us, you know you can cause chaos.”
“Oh, let us be,” Seungjun scoffed, “I’m sure it’s fine. Let’s take a two hour break and meet here again later.”
They all hummed their agreements and went to their rooms.
The room-keeping had come by and placed everything perfectly again, making Minkyun notice the giant congratulatory bouquet on one of the tables.
Remembering what it was for, he still felt a little humiliated being stood-up on. It did surprise him that even her family seemed to not care. He knew they were also staying in this hotel but he somehow hadn't encountered nor heard from them yet, and that all while he had tried his best to meet every one of her demands.
It wasn't like he was short on cash or that this was a lifelong sum of money for him, still, he felt betrayed. He got a whole wedding package at this hotel, including a limousine ride and tickets to the spa for the day after. Yet, nothing was used and he ended up black out drunk and waking up next to a friend.
At least I’ll still get a fun vacation out of it.
He laughed at his own positivity, it was a vacation with someone he didn’t know well, fun wasn’t guaranteed. He was looking forward to it nonetheless, he wondered how different Yuto would be, but got taken out of that thought with a knock on his door.
“Minkyun?” Yuto’s voice called.
“Yeah? Come in.”
The door opened and Yuto stepped in holding a few items of clothing.
“Do you have room in your suitcase?” he asked, “mine is full…”
“Oh, yeah, probably.” Minkyun stepped to his suitcase to open it and rearrange some stuff.
The tiny ring box he had mindlessly thrown in there almost fell out when he moved the contents of the suitcase. He put the box back and took out the backpack he had packed for storage during the trip.
Yuto looked a little nervous while handing over his clothes. “I know we already bought everything for this vacation,” he mumbled, “but is it really alright for me to come with you?”
Minkyun smiled at the politeness. “Of course, I’m happy that I don’t have to cancel or go alone.”
“But you booked this for your...ex, you know?”
“So?”
“You must have been looking forward to going with her, so...I don’t know…”
“To be honest, currently, I’m more looking forward to never seeing her again,” Minkyun chuckled, “but if you’re uncomfortable with it, you don’t have to go, Seungjun did kind of push you.”
Yuto quickly put his hands up. “No, no, that’s not it at all. I’m happy to join you. I’m just making sure.”
“Don’t worry about it then. Let’s just relax, alright?”
Yuto smiled. “Sure.”
“Oh, that reminds me.” Minkyun jumped up after having put all Yuto’s things into his suitcase, and went to the bouquet to grab a pass that was placed underneath it.
“What?”
“This is a couples spa pass for this hotel’s spa, but since I won’t be using it, I’ll give it to Jaeyoung and Changyun, they can use it before going to the exhibition if they want,” Minkyun explained, “so wait here, I’m going to deliver this before I forget,” he added and went into the hallway to head to the other’s hotel room.
Changyun and Jaeyoung were thankful for the gift they got but Minkyun quickly left them again to meet back with Yuto in his own room.
Minkyun spent the little time they had until they would meet up to just chat with Yuto.
Later on, they finally went to the strip again, this time promising to not go past ‘being tipsy.’ They also each established a certain budget and then promised each other to keep them to it.
The neon lights instantly attacked them as soon as they stepped outside the hotel.
Every building played its own music and it was a bit overwhelming trying to process it all while sober. They went to the nearest casino and just continued from there, not really with a big plan, just kind of taking in the culture and its people as they went into any building that seemed interesting.
While it was hard keeping Seungjun’s spending at bay, they all managed to keep their promises.
Yesterday, this street was used to drown out feelings. A weird form or revenge while drinking out of spite. But today, they just laughed, explored the city and made proper memories...which they would keep this time.
When Minkyun's back met the mattress again, he felt content. The moon shining through the curtains told them they had probably played for too long, given that he and Yuto had to leave early the next morning.
But he didn't regret anything nor felt bad towards his friends. They seemed to have had a fun time and were looking forward to their activities they planned tomorrow. The only thing that slightly bugged him, was a tiny nervous feeling, which was sparked by the preposition of the coming week. He looked forward to the vacation with Yuto, but it would be the first time they would be together, alone.
He was part of their friend-group, so it was natural to invite him to the wedding, but Minkyun had never planned anything with Yuto, solo. If anything, Seungjun was always there with him, and was often the one bringing Yuto along.
In contrast to Minkyun himself, Yuto wasn’t incredibly talkative, but then again, Minkyun always felt calm whenever the other was around him. So this could either go really well or really awkwardly, yet he was excited to be with Yuto. Minkyun was curious yet anxious about the outcome of this trip, but that would be a problem for the next day.