Mediterranean Kiss ~ Taeten

Sunshine

After gazing out of the bar window and watching the sea pass by for what seemed like hours, Taeyong rose from his comfy seat, stretched, and headed back to his cabin. The bar he had been relaxing in, called S34, was located at the stern of the massive cruise ship on level fourteen. His cabin, located on the twelfth deck, was only a short stroll along the open air section of deck fourteen then down a couple flights of stairs and through the long hallway of level twelve to his cabin 12089, which was roughly in the center of the ship.

After three days onboard, Taeyong had gotten his bearings in navigating himself around the vast cruise ship.

As he pushed open the door that led to the deck on level fourteen he took a deep breath of the fresh sea air and closed his eyes as the gentle breeze ruffled his brown hair. When he opened them to gaze around he saw the ship buzzing with life; people from all walks of life were enjoying their cruise holiday, either basking under the sun in deck chairs, enjoying a cocktail at the bar or just admiring the beautiful view of the vast Mediterranean Sea.

The deep blue of the calm sea met with the pale blue of the sky at the horizon and looked more like a stunning painting than reality to Taeyong and he raised a hand to shelter his eyes from the orange-tinted sunshine as he admired it. He had known the Mediterranean was beautiful from the many travel programs he had watched on TV but being here in person and experiencing it first-hand was something else.

He slowly strolled past the many people relaxing in deck chairs all along the deck. Down below on deck thirteen, the pools and bars were filled to the brim with loud, happy people enjoying the cruise life, he couldn't even spot an empty seat anywhere. A trio of men were on stage singing a cheery melody in Italian, entertaining them while they drank and ate.

For Taeyong it was a whole new experience to be cruising around the Mediterranean. It was very different from South Korea in many ways, but it was fun and exciting to be somewhere new surrounded by a wealth of diverse cultures and people.

Taeyong checked his phone for the time, as looking at the sky it seemed the sun would be setting soon. It was 8:15. By 9pm the sun will have set. He decided that he would drop by his cabin, change into something fitting the theme of white for tonight, then head back up to deck fourteen to watch the sun set. He would also check next door in cabin 12087 whether his close friends and travelling companions Mark and Johnny wanted to join him.

He jogged down a flight of stairs leading down to deck thirteen then through a doorway and took the stairs down another flight in the internal staircase. Turning left into the hallway, Taeyong wandered down the long cabin hallway, counting the numbers on the doors as they went down in value.

The cream coloured walls and soft crimson carpet underfoot still disorientated him a little bit and he found he kept having to remind himself that he was indeed on a massive cruise ship. Apart from the sheer size of the place it felt like he was in a hotel building, the ship didn't even sway like other much smaller boat's he'd been on before and Taeyong put that down to the fact that being on such a large ship you couldn't notice small effect of the calm sea.

"Ah Taeyong!" A male voice called cheerily ahead of him. Taeyong looked up from counting the numbers on the cabin doors to see Ten, one of the cabin attendants waving excitedly at him.

Taeyong waved back in reply as he headed towards Ten, who seemed to be outside his cabin door.

Nicknamed Ten, when Taeyong had first met the bubbly Thai he had stared for a minute to long at the name tag pinned to his chest as he had struggled to figure out how to pronounce his name which had made Ten laugh. His real name, Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul, was a traditional Thai name which many people obviously had trouble with, therefore Ten had instructed Taeyong to call him Ten like the number, as everyone else did.

Ten was also coincidentally the attendant assigned to his own, as well as Mark and Johnny's room next door so Taeyong often met him in these hallways throughout the day.

"Hi Taeyong, how has your day been?" Ten asked with a bright smile when Taeyong stopped in front of him outside his cabin door.

"Good thanks, Ten. How about you, haven't been working too hard? Hopefully Johnny and Mark haven't made you clean up a mess in their room again?" Taeyong replied jokingly.

The first night onboard, Taeyong's two buddies next door had hit up several of the bars onboard before ordering room service, and they had made quite a mess in their cabin for poor Ten to clean up the next morning.

"Haha not at all Taeyong. I'm just happy they're enjoying themselves." Ten replied happily, as though he had not a care in the world. "What about you, it's a bit early to be heading back to your cabin isn't it?"

Taeyong raked his fingers through his hair as the smiley young man gazed at him expectantly. Taeyong had discovered that Ten's smile was quite infectious, and his brown eyes held an intense yet warm gaze. That, coupled with his looks had made Taeyong feel a little shy around Ten at first. He was handsome to say the least and it had taken him a few days to get used to it.

"I'm just heading back here to change and drag those two next door out to watch the sunset." Taeyong responded, indicating to cabin 12087 with his thumb.

"Ah wonderful! I hear the sunset will be beautiful tonight. Make sure you take some pictures to show me later!" Ten beamed.

"I will." Taeyong promised while he tried not to stare a Ten for too long.

He searched in his pocket for his cruise card to unlock his cabin but Ten got to it first, pulling out a card attached to his belt and swiping it through the lock.

"Here you are." Ten smiled helpfully, holding the door open for Taeyong.

He slipped past and felt Ten's hand brush past his shoulder. The subtle contact didn't go unnoticed by him either, and he fought internally with himself to not show any emotion.

"Thanks! I'll see you around Ten." Taeyong replied in a friendly tone before shutting his cabin door.