Chapter Text
The text on the screen shakes in Jeonghan's hold. He places his phone in his lap, both hands clutched around it. No matter how much he shakes, it won't change the text's content.
His Uber driver glances at him nervously before shifting his eyes back to the road. The poor man was probably worried that Jeonghan would have a breakdown in his car. Jeonghan closes his eyes and rests his head against the closed window, uncaring of how it rattles. The assumption wasn't that far off.
He opens his eyes and looks down at his manager's text once more with a sigh. He's been dreading confronting his new reality ever since the company car picked him up from discharge and shuttled him away to a hair salon. It hasn't even been a full twenty-four hours before he's expected to continue on like he never left.
Jeonghan shudders against the onslaught of memories from the past two years and focuses back in on his future held in his hands. His fingers clutch indents on the plastic case. It's hard, but Jeonghan has to remind himself to breathe, focusing back on the words in front of him.
According to his manager, he's been afforded the choice between two options. Either he could return back to Seventeen and promote as a subunit while waiting out the other member's enlistment, or he could promote as a soloist.
There was no third option given.
He's simply expected to resume his schedule as if he was away on tour, not enlistment. Even after tours, he's usually afforded a day or two of rest before the endless cycle of dance practice and filming begins anew. The nonstop camera flashes and excited whispers of "Is that Seventeen's Jeonghan?" The constant persistent smile he's expected to produce at any given moment because after all he's an idol. And idols aren't allowed off days.
The military had tried to tramp down on it as best they could, but it never truly had its end. When he was meant to be shuffled away quietly from the public eye, his back was still heavy with expectant gazes.
The Uber driver's gentle shake was enough to knock Jeonghan out of whatever doze he managed to slip himself into. He can't help but cringe back at the sudden touch, eyes already locked on their final destination outside as he scrambles out of the car.
The airport terminal looms over him.
There was no third option but Jeonghan made himself one.
Almost on cue, Jeonghan's screen lights up from a confused text from his manager. It's promptly ignored as he powers off his phone and shoves it deep in his hoodie pocket. That message can sit next to the ones from his members that he refuses to open, the red 99+ seizing his heart in anxiety whenever he even thinks about it. His heart surges in his chest as he waves off his Uber driver, although this time it's not from anxiety. As Jeonghan pulls his face mask up high enough that no one should be able to recognize him, his heart pumps with enough adrenaline to make his hands shake once more.
This time his heart is surging with excitement. The excitement of being able to choose for himself after so long.
He booked his flight in a daze, not exactly sure where he was going, just booking the next longest flight available with his mask pulled so far up that he occasionally had to adjust it to see out. It was only when he was sat down in the airplane's cramped seats that he finally had the courage to address the others. He only bothered checking his messages once his phone was firmly in airplane mode, future read receipts be damned. Jeonghan's heart ached once more as he read his members earnest messages expressing their excitement at his return. He didn't have the heart to reply to each of his members individually, so he chose instead to send one message on the official group chat:
*I love you all so much, so please don't assume this is in any way about you. I just need a break. I hope to return to you as Seventeen's Yoon Jeonghan, but first I need to rediscover who Yoon Jeonghan is. Please don't come looking for me. I'll be back soon. 😇*
Jeonghan presses send with shaking fingers, trusting the message to send properly once they land and tasting the bitter lie on his tongue. He had no intention of returning anytime soon, especially not until he can force down his first instinct to flee. He knows he's a coward, but he simply can't face the inevitable questions they'll ask that he isn't sure he had the answers to.
It's only when his flight lands and the pilot welcomes him to the United States that Jeonghan realizes his grand plan of running might have been better with the plan part. His English was not nearly good enough to try to travel around a foreign country on his own. Sure, his English had improved over the years, especially after Seventeen's countless tours, but he never quite bothered learning the language as well as he likely should have, always content to hide behind the other members. His hubris has come back to haunt him.
He contemplates for a brief moment booking another ticket to somewhere he could better communicate, but his jet-lagged body decides against it. The entire twelve hour flight was spent jittery with adrenaline that he couldn't quite get rid of. Sleep now weighs heavy against his muscles, deciding for him. He doubts it would even matter anyways, as anywhere in Korea and Japan would likely recognize him due to their increased popularity. The USA was at least large enough that he wouldn't need to worry about being recognized outside of big cities.
At least he hopes. At the very least, Carats wouldn't know to be looking for him here.
Every syllable that sounds close to his name has him jumping once he gets off, head facing the floor. The airport is as much of a blur to him as it normally is, although its oddly strange not having a manager with him to smooth over the process. Jeonghan exchanges out his money out of a sudden paranoia of being tracked via his credit card and books the closest hotel from the airport before passing out straight on the bed. His real plan was meant to be future Jeonghan's problem.
Tomorrow.
Tomorrow would be when he actually makes a real plan.
The dry, dusty air of summer smothers the entire town in a thick layer of heat, but especially so at the only gas station in town. It's been quiet there for hours now, save for the drone of flies and the flicker of a single fluorescent light buzzing above. The store used to play music, but it was quickly banned upon the top 100 being deemed 'increasingly too inappropriate for polite company'.
Joshua idly flicks through one of the magazines on display, forever uninterested in the love lives of the constant rotation of celebrities. He only looks up at the sound of the bell chiming above the door, straightening his posture and already affixing his best customer service smile. It freezes in place once he notices who just walked in his door.
A man leans heavily on the glass door, actively coughing and pressing a curled fist to his chest. That's not the first thing Joshua notices though. The first thing that caught his attention was the man's green hair.
The mystery man wheezes one last time before asking something in a language Joshua only ever hears from his mother and grandmother.
The words cause a surge of nostalgia to run deep in his bones. Joshua's Korean is fairly rusty, but he's pretty sure the man just asked for a phone because his was dead. The man says something else that sounds like one of the curse words Joshua was never meant to know before swallowing thickly.
"English, sorry." The man apologizes, "Handphone?"
Joshua blinks at him for a moment in confusion before scrambling to hold out his own cell phone. "Here. I can get you a charger if you want." He replies hesitantly in Korean, the words feeling awkward on his tongue now that he's not speaking the language around his family.
The man visibly slumps in relief, taking the offered phone with shaking hands as he asks again in English, "Oh! You speak Korean?"
Joshua laughs at that and replies back in Korean, "Not as much as my grandmother would prefer."
The man snorts and taps rapidly on Joshua's phone, "You speak English. I know English enough. My English is okay."
"Ah, okay," Joshua replies back in English now, "It was nice to practice was all."
"I need practice too." The man pauses before muttering to himself in Korean, "I can't just rely on Vernon now."
"Vernon? Is that your name?" Joshua asks, causing the man to look at him directly. Joshua forces down another laugh at the sudden reveal of oversized white sunglasses obscuring most of the man's face.
"Huh? Oh my god, I'm sorry." The man scrambles to bow deeply. "My name is Yoon Jeonghan. Thank you for the handphone."
Joshua scrambles to right the man with a sudden flush, "Ah, it's okay Yoon, it's no problem. I'm Joshua by the way."
"Jeonghan."
His lips twist into a smile as Joshua scratches behind his head, "Sorry. Jeonghan. I forgot that's how names are presented."
"How old are you?" Jeonghan asks suddenly.
"Oh, uh, I just turned 29, why?"
Jeonghan claps his hands together in excitement and leans forwards, "Oh, age is same! Your birthday?"
"December 30th. Are you trying to figure out my horoscope or something?" Joshua asks, eyebrows furrowing.
Jeonghan's smile is triumphant as he declares, "Ah, I'm your hyung!"
Hyung?"
"I'm older. Ah, in English... Explanation is difficult?"
"Ah," Joshua hums, returning to his place behind the counter, "What brings you all the way here?"
Jeonghan's silent for a moment, looking back down at the phone at the change in conversation. He taps the screen several times before answering. "The story is long. Difficult to explain.
"If it's too personal, it's okay! I didn't mean to intrude. I was just trying to make small talk is all." Joshua lifts his hands with a smile, trying to diffuse the small frown on Jeonghan's face.
"Intrude?"
"Oh, uh, basically ask something you weren't okay with?" Joshua responds before repeating the word in Korean.
"Ah! 중뿔나게! No- it's-" Jeonghan sighs in frustration and switches to Korean. "My head hurts. English is far too hard to carry on conversations in." He flashes Joshua a smile. "Would you believe me if I said I was in a kpop group and I ran away?"
Joshua pauses for a moment trying to think of the few groups he knew because of his cousin gushing about them. "You mean like BTS, Blackpink, and Seventeen?"
Jeonghan looks up sharply at him and stares at Joshua as if he was waiting for something. Joshua tilts his head in confusion and anxiously drums his fingers on the counter. Did he get the names entirely wrong?
"Isn't there also like Text and Twice? And, oh! The letters and numbers one! I can never remember the exact name, it's like NTZ 115 or something? The one with too many members. Were you in that one?"
Jeonghan lets out a breath and looks back at the phone with a smile. Joshua's not sure what he did right, but he's glad that Jeonghan was no longer looking at him with that kind of calculating gaze. "No, I'm not a member of NCT 127."
"That's it! At least I got some of it right."
"My group actually has more members than NCT 127." Jeonghan's smile becomes a bit wider. "We have 12 members but NCT 127 only has 8 or so."
"Oh really? I'm sorry, I'm not that familiar with kpop groups. I can only remember the ones that my cousin likes. I think I went to a concert once, but I don't remember which one. I think it was their favorite group."
"Who's their favorite group? BTS?"
"Ah, no, my cousin really likes Seventeen."
Jeonghan lets out a loud giggle at that, phone clutched tightly to his chest. "Really? You went to a Seventeen concert? Do you remember any of their songs?"
"Not really? I think one was like Nice? I only remember because it got played a lot. I really liked the emotional songs."
Smiling wide, Jeonghan asks, "So did she make you pick a bias?"
Joshua laughs uncomfortably. "He tried to, but I'm sad to say I don't remember any names. I think I said the one with red hair since they stood out the most visually."
If Jeonghan showed any discomfort at his cousin being a male fan, he doesn't show it, immediately pushing past and asking, "What year was it?"
Joshua really doesn't understand Jeonghan's sudden interrogation. Maybe he's also a fan? Joshua suddenly wishes he paid more attention to his cousin's ramblings. At most he thinks he remembers that one of the members had a number for a name. Ten? He really wishes he could check their chat logs to know for sure.
"I'm really not sure." He finally settles on to Jeonghan's obvious disappointment. "You must really be a big fan."
Jeonghan visibly stiffens, leaving Joshua wondering what it was that he said this time. Jeonghan returns back to carefully tapping on the phone, carefree smile replaced with a guarded look.
"I'm friends with the members. We debuted at the same time so we naturally became close. Sorry for being so curious."
Joshua frowns to himself at the almost colder tone of Jeonghan's voice. Evidently he had struck a nerve of some sort. Once he's experienced Jeonghan's smile, he can't help but crave it instead of the distanced look he's now receiving.
It had been far too long since he's spoken to someone outside of his small town that's known him since birth, and he suddenly misses the ease of conversation him and Jeonghan held before.
"You can ask those questions," he finds himself saying. "I'm sorry that I don't know that much about Kpop. I can always ask my cousin-"
"No!" Jeonghan cries, clutching the phone tightly towards his chest. "I mean-" His face flushes pink and he flashes a fragile smile. "You don't need to ask your cousin, I can just answer any questions you had. After all, I'm friends with them."
Joshua holds his hands up in surrender. He really isn't sure why the subject seems like a touchy one now when Jeonghan seemed to express so much interest earlier. He decides that it's best to switch topics entirely.
"So, what did you need the phone for?"
"Car troubles." Jeonghan answers with a frown. "But I'm not sure what the rental car place was called."
Joshua's eyebrows shoot up. "Did they not leave a card or any way for you to call them?"
"No, I paid up front since I wasn't sure how long it would be, and they were the only ones I could find that would rent to me without an international driver's license."
Oh.
Biting the inside of his lip in thought, Joshua cautiously says, "I think they might have given you a stolen car. Rental places are meant to charge by the day."
Jeonghan freezes and looks up. He pulls up the sunglasses for the first time and Joshua is struck by just how beautiful he was. Even shocked and worried, he still managed to look ethereally beautiful. If there was any doubt in Joshua that the man was actually in a Kpop group, it had vanished in an instant.
"So you mean-" Jeonghan starts and Joshua looks away, the back of his neck feeling hot.
"Oh, uh, yeah," he stumbles, "My friend in LA had a similar problem when she came to visit."
Jeonghan groans, burying his head in his hands. "So I can't get it fixed without someone finding out it's stolen."
Personally, Joshua feels as though he would have been more worried about the car being stolen than about repairs.
"I guess it really depends on what's wrong with it?" He tries cautiously, afraid to once more tread on egg shells to upset the boy in front of him.
"How did your friend solve the issue?" Jeonghan asks, peeking his eyes out from between his fingers.
Joshua hums, trying his best to remember. "I think it was a lot of paperwork and talking to the cops honestly. She had a court date and everything."
Jeonghan whines to himself, shutting his hand and eyes tightly. "My company is so going to kill me. Dispatch will have a field day."
"At least they shouldn't blame you since you were a victim of fraud."
"No, even worse. I'm never going to hear the end of it. I can hear Jihoon and Seungkwan now." Jeonghan complains, voice muffled through his hand. "At least Seungcheol will have pity on me."
"Ah, is that your manager?"
"Leader." Jeonghan corrects before stiffening once more. He sighs and drops his hands. "Seungcheol is our leader. Jihoon and Seungkwan are my... Members of my group."
"They must be worried about you then. You can call them using my phone if you need to." Joshua suggests, only for Jeonghan's face to turn guarded once more.
"It's... Complicated." Jeonghan brings up a hand to brush fingers gently across his lips. "Where's the nearest hotel? This is probably going to take a while to sort out, aish."
"Um, we don't really have one."
"No hotel? I know I was driving for a while but where even are we?"
Joshua sighs and tries his best to patiently explain how his town is so tiny that this was their only gas station for miles. "If you need to, you can stay with me." He offers.
Jeonghan bites his lip and glances between Joshua and the door as if he was planning to run. "I don't want to intrude-"
Realizing quickly how the offer might seem sketchy, Joshua flusteredly amends, "I just realized how that sounds. My dad runs the local church so we're used to helping out people in need."
Jeonghan looks unconvinced and stares intently out the gas station's door for a moment towards what Joshua can only assume is his car.
He finally lets out a sigh, the fight leaving him. "If you're an axe murderer can you at least make sure I'm not found? I don't think our group could survive that." He mutters to himself in Korean before adding on in English, "For a small time. Leave soon."
Joshua tries to shoot him his best reassuring smile as he gestures towards his phone that Jeonghan is still holding, coaxing him in English. "Could I have my phone back then? I need to call my father to tell him about the situation."
Reluctantly, Jeonghan returns the phone, his eyes never once leaving the device as Joshua grabs it and calls his father. The call rings once before going to voicemail and Joshua checks the time with a frown. His father must have been busy to decline the call immediately since it's after service hours.
It's not that long now before the end of his shift, so he goes through the familiar motions of closing up shop with very unfamiliar company. He rambles nervously about whatever comes to mind just to fill the quiet. Jeonghan only makes small noises of acknowledgement in return, making Joshua miss the easy conversation from before.
There's a part of him that feels like this was a mistake even as he finally flips the open sign and turns towards Jeonghan. He does his best to push that feeling down as he smiles and asks in English, "Ready to go?"
----
Joshua was going to kill him.
The fact is undeniable to Jeonghan as his soon to be murderer leads him back to the parking lot. At least his murderer is cute, he muses, kicking at a rock on the pavement. It was too bad the rest of his members would never know what happened to him, but he'd rather them assume he just completely vanished rather than see his body on the news.
In all honesty, with a broken- most likely stolen- rental car and a dead cellphone, it wasn't like Jeonghan had much choice but to follow. When he thinks too hard about how the car is likely stolen, he feels incredibly gullible. He was too fueled by his frenzy of escape and full of gratitude that he actually could rent a car that he never stopped to realize how shady the man's 'I know a guy' was when he asked.
He was a alone in a foreign country with a probably stolen, definitely broken car and a dead cell phone when he had admitted to the first person he saw that he was a celebrity. If he wasn't ending up as one of those kpop horror stories, he would be surprised.
He's resigned himself to his fate when he follows Joshua to his own car, and they drive to what Joshua explains as his father's place of work. Jeonghan's only hoping that someone besides his members will be the one to go through his stuff when he dies. Seungcheol would bring him back just to lecture him once he learns how much of his closet was truthfully stolen items from other members.
Jeonghan keeps a hand on the door lock as they drive, Joshua babbling away about something he's not paying the slightest bit of attention to.
Maybe if he runs fast enough, he can call someone to tell them not to touch his stuff after he's dead.
It's with a fair bit of surprise to Jeonghan that they pull up in front of a fairly modest sized church, gravel from the parking lot crunching under the tires. He hasn't been expecting a church even though Joshua said his father ran one. Truthfully he'd been expecting some shady abandoned building in the middle of the woods. He hopes he isn't here to be sacrificed as part of a cult or something. He tugs on his hair in thought and slips back on his sunglasses.
In all honesty, the sunglasses serve a dual purpose. They serve as both a tool to hide his identity and to put an extra barrier between him and the real world. Jeonghan, ironically, is terrible with new people. He's always had very few friends outside of his members and never saw the point in getting close to anyone else like Seungkwan and Mingyu did. He already had eleven other men he considered closer than family, why should he feel the need to make other friends? He's aware the sunglasses make him seem off-putting, but can't really seem to care as he follows Joshua into the dark church interior.
Past the entrance, the arches give way to the main room filled with gentle multicolored light filtering in the setting sun through stained glass windows. A man stands at the head pulpit with his head down, writing something into a book. Given the way Joshua strides purposefully towards him, Jeonghan can only assume the man to be his father.
The man looks up and smiles once he sees Joshua and drags him into a one arm embrace, slipping the pen behind an ear. "Joshua! I see your friend here never skips his vegetables to the point where he's becoming one!" His sudden laugh at his own joke echoes around the room.
Joshua smiles and gestures to Jeonghan, "Dad, this is Jeonghan. He's having car troubles so he needs a place to stay. He speaks Korean."
Joshua's father looks him over properly now and Jeonghan can see the resemblance better once his head is up. He doesn't look fully Korean the way his son does as he holds out a hand to Jeonghan and says in faltering Korean, "Hello! It's nice to meet you. My name is Pastor Hong."
Jeonghan takes the offered hand awkwardly and looks to Joshua beside him for help. Joshua in turn is no help at all, busy peering down at whatever Pastor Hong was writing.
Looking at Pastor Hong more firmly, Jeonghan replies, "Hello? It's nice to meet you as well. Your church is very pretty. I shouldn't intrude on your hospitality for very long, only enough to get my car either repaired or replaced."
Pastor Hong begins to look lost the more words he speaks, and Jeonghan begins to get the sinking feeling that Joshua did not learn his Korean from his father.
After a beat of awkward silence, Pastor Hong squared his shoulders back and laughed. It was one of those belly laughs that made the person on the receiving end more at ease. "Sorry," he apologizes in English, scratching the back of his neck with his uncapped pen, "My wife is better at Korean than I am."
Joshua hums and translates Jeonghan's words for his father, eyes still focused on the writing as he flips a page.
Pastor Hong barks out another laugh and places his hand on his son's shoulder. His eyes are sparkling with appreciation as he says, "All those summers with your grandmother paid off I see."
Smiling minisculely at the praise, Joshua's eyes never leave the book. He suddenly frowns and taps at a line saying, "What's this?" Jeonghan attempts to read what he's pointing at, but it's a difficult angle and Pastor Hong's handwriting is chicken scratch.
"Oh, that? The church is having a bake sale to help with Mary's surgery costs."
"I know, but since when did Mary need surgery? I thought she hadn't gotten the results back."
Jeonghan stares blankly as the two continue to converse in English, brain struggling to keep track of the rapid conversion. His attention instead shifts to the light coming in through the stained glass. He fiddles with his phone in his pocket, wishing desperately that he had enough battery to take a picture for Instagram.
He wouldn't say his location in the off chance that the two actually weren't about to kill him, but it should be enough information for location sleuths online to find out where he was if he needed it. People can tell your location just from a shadow on the wall, Jeonghan had seen it on TV once.
The sound of Joshua saying his name keys Jeonghan back into the conversation. During his fiddling, he seems to have pulled his phone out of his pocket and was tightly holding it. Both men were looking at him unexpectedly.
"Huh?" He asks, making a conscious effort to stay in English, "Can you say again?"
Joshua looks chastised and bows his head. Speaking in Korean he says, "I'm very sorry. We were talking in English. My father said that he has a friend who you could stay with if you were still uncomfortable being with us."
Jeonghan's skin crawls at the thought of staying with a entirely new stranger and he shakes his head. Joshua had seemed okay until his sketchy offer, and his father doesn't seem to have bad vibes. He would much rather stay with somewhat familiar faces. Besides, Pastor Hong had a familiar sort of confidence he'd seen on others like Seungcheol that told Jeonghan he was used to shouldering other's responsibilities for them.
"I'm okay, really. I need to charge my phone mostly. I can figure out the details later." He replies back in Korean, clutching his phone tightly to his chest.
Joshua jumps at this, growing pale before suddenly sprinting off. Jeonghan almost began to worry as he was left alone with Pastor Hong for several long moments before Joshua returns. When he does return, it's with three different charging cables and a power box clutched tightly in his hands that he offers with a 90 degree bow.
"I'm so deeply sorry," Joshua pants, sounding slightly winded, "I wasn't sure what exact type of phone you had and didn't want to give you the wrong one so I brought all of them."
The slight flush on Joshua's cheeks and his flustered speech almost makes Jeonghan want to coo at him. He grabs the iPhone charger and gestures with the plug, making Joshua flush a little deeper and show him to an outlet too.
Pastor Hong watches their exchange with a raised eyebrow and half smile on his mouth before declaring in English, "No pressure. You're welcome to stay if you feel up to it. We'll help in any way we can- Seonghan was it?"
"Jeonghan." Joshua corrects quickly, giving his father a look that Jeonghan almost doesn't catch, too busy trying to get enough battery to turn his phone on.
The two have a quiet hushed conversation in English that Jeonghan largely ignores in favor of the bright flash of his phone coming to life. He checks Twitter first, just to see if anyone had gotten closer in their attempts to locate him. To his fans, his location was a fun mystery he's been teasing them with during his adventures, sometimes saying he's at an entirely different location than where he's posting. To his members however, it served as proof that he was still alive and healthy.
Pausing momentarily, Jeonghan hovers his fingers over the group chat with his members that slowly keeps ticking up with notifications. It's been ever so tempting to check in on his members during his time on the road. He's had to simply content himself with reading the message previews as they pop up, too afraid that a read receipt would give him away. He wonders even now if it would be worth it to reach out. The more time he spends with Joshua and Pastor Hong, the more it sets his initial fears about them at ease, but Jeonghan feels as if he needs to at least say something to his members just in case.
His finger is hovering over the chat button hesitantly when Joshua approaches him cautiously and asks, "Have you ate?"
At just the thought of food, Jeonghan's stomach growls in protest, making Joshua let out an airy little laugh. "Not since yesterday." Jeonghan answers hesitantly.
"If you want, you can eat dinner with us." Joshua offers, equally as hesitant. "Uh, no pressure or anything!" He tracks on in flustered English, waving his hands.
Jeonghan spares one last longing look towards the chat log. If they were going to kill him and eat his organs for dinner, he wouldn't want to scar his members by not being able to do anything in his final moments. Besides, Joshua reminded him of a puppy in the way he seemed eager not to upset Jeonghan.
"Okay."
Joshua blinks, unsure of if he heard him right or not. "Okay?"
"Okay."
"Okay, wow," Joshua echoes with a laugh. "I guess I didn't expect you to agree so easily."
Jeonghan shrugs and clicks back to his home screen so Joshua couldn't read his messages. "Why not. I figured if you really were going to kill me, you probably wouldn't let me charge my phone."
Joshua mouths the word kill to himself for a moment before pulling up a dictionary on his phone and speaking the word into it. He frowns when the app parrots the word back to him in English. "Why would I kill you?"
Jeonghan fiddles with his phone held tightly in his hand as he smooths his fingers over the volume buttons. "What app was that? It probably would help me out-"
Joshua starts to look hurt now, "No, seriously, why would you think that I would hurt you?"
Feeling the guilt crawling under his skin, Jeonghan looks anywhere but Joshua. "I don't know, you offering to help felt a little like the start of a scary movie."
"Because I offered to help you?"
"Yes! No one offers to do that unless they plan to harm you!" Joshua's look has shifted less from hurt now, his mouth twitching into a smile at the corners.
"What if I saw someone that needed help and I just wanted to help them because I'm nice?"
The word he uses for nice ends up coming out as good, but Jeonghan shakes his head at it nonetheless. "No one is good unless they expect something in return. So what is it if you don't want to kill me? Money? An autograph? A shout out on twitter?"
Joshua barks out a laugh and waves his hands frantically, "No I just really wanted to help is all, I promise." To Jeonghan's horror, he dips into a straight 90 degree bow that Jeonghan is quick to pull him up from. "I promise that during your time with us, you will not be harmed in any way."
"Okay, okay! You've proved your point!" Jeonghan hisses as he glances over at Pastor Hong who's been watching the whole exchange with an unreadable expression.
Grinning fully now, Joshua holds out a hand to Jeonghan and says, "Good! Now if you would, will you please join us for dinner?"
Jeonghan lets out a long suffering sigh as he puts down his phone and takes the offered hand. It hasn't even been an hour and he gets the feeling that he might have met his match.