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Chapter Text

None of the events that led to Jun’s forced vacations were actually Jun’s fault.

In fact, she would argue that she’s nothing more than an innocent victim in all the unfortunate chaos that unfolded that day and the way she’s been treated by her management team—a very stern meeting and a talk that sounded dangerously close to a scolding—is extremely unfair.

Despite what some would claim, Jun is perfectly capable of facing the consequences of her wrongdoings and admitting when she is at fault. That is, when the consequences are warranted and fair and not stupid shit like this.

“Fuck!” she curses as her shoe gets stuck in another crack in the road (actually, calling this half concrete, half dirt path a road is pretty generous, she thinks) and her ankle twists in an uncomfortable angle once more. If this continues, she’s really going to end up with an injury. “Fuck, fuck, fuck…”

Okay, maybe she shouldn’t have worn these expensive and disappointingly fragile designer shoes to the countryside, but she didn’t realize she would actually have to walk. Plus, it’s basically the only kind that she owns. Why would she need a pair of good walking shoes to pose on the red carpets of Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo?

Sadly, her Louboutins don’t measure up against the dusty roadways of New Mexico, the flimsy heel having completely detached itself from the body of the shoe. She sighs, curses a little bit more (fucking piece of shit!) takes off the rest of the shoe, throws it on the side of the road with anger (take that, stupid shoe) and starts walking again, doing her best to ignore the horribly uncomfortable feeling of rocks and sticks digging into her delicate sole.

It can’t be a much longer way to the ranch, right?

At least, that’s what Jun was naively hoping, but then ten minutes pass. And then twenty that turn into thirty that turn into more and Jun’s phone—which had no connection whatsoever anyway—just decides to shut down so she can’t really tell how long it’s been at all or call her mom for help. The road in front of her doesn’t seem to end, kilometers after kilometers of fields laid out under the heavy sun,

She’s sweaty, dirty, her feet hurt and for the first time in she can’t remember how long, Jun feels like crying. It pisses her off, so she curses a little more instead.

Then she hears it, the rumbly sound of a vehicle on the road coming up behind her, the first sign of life she’s encountered since she left the bus stop. She turns around to witness the largest pick-up truck she’s ever seen slow down and stop at her level.

Now, there’s really no one around, right? So Jun instinctively folds her hand into a fist, waiting to politely send the newcomer away. Jun is perfectly capable of defending herself against some old american farmer if they try anything.

But as the window rolls down, it’s not an old farmer who’s face shows up in the window frame but a very attractive young person.

They look Jun up and down with a little smile and then: “Good afternoon, miss. Is everything alright?”

“Hum, hi.” Jun lifts her big sunglasses a little further up her nose. “Do you know how far away the Red Sun Chariot Ranch is, by any chance?”

The person replies with a whistle. “The Chariot? Not far by car, but you might still be on the side of this road at sunset if you’re planning on walking there.” They throw a look down at Jun’s bare foot. “Especially with those.”

Jun pinches her lips and clenches her jaw to keep herself from swearing in front of this poor stranger. Before she can say anything, they continue.

“Perhaps this is your lucky day, because I’m headed that way as well. I’ll happily drop you there, if you need.”

It’s good Jun is wearing sunglasses because she may or may not be tearing up.

“Name’s Kim Mingyu,” the stranger says after Jun’s taken place next to them on the passenger seat. She can’t stop herself from sighing happily at her feet finally getting some relief. Then, she takes a quick glance at herself in the rearview mirror and winces. Her hair’s a mess, her makeup’s smudged and she looks…grubby. She grabs her emergency lipstick from her purse, just to fix herself a little bit.

“Oh, hum. Moon Junhee.”

She doesn’t think herself that famous that someone who looks like they’ve spent their entire life in the deep end of the Albuquerque countryside would know about her, and she doubts anyone would send paparazzis over here…but she still feels a little relieved when Mingyu’s behavior doesn’t seem to change at her giving out her korean name.

“Forgive the indiscretion, but what’s your business with the Chariot? You don’t really look like you’re from around here.”

From the corner of her eye, she can see Kim Mingyu stealing curious glances at her.

“Well, clearly I’m not. I don’t think I’d be in a random stranger’s truck if I did.”

Mingyu’s eyes widen a bit at Jun’s slightly peeved and defensive tone, looking guilty and Jun immediately feels bad. It’s not Mingyu’s fault she’s had to run away from her life for a bit, not Mingyu’s fault her bus dropped her out in the middle of nowhere.

“I didn’t mean anything by it…just an observation.”

“Sorry, I’ve had kind of a rough day,” Jun offers, more as an explanation than an apology. She finishes applying the lipstick and makes a noisy kiss in the air.

Mingyu, who was not-so-discreetly observing her, starts blushing before quickly looking back at the road.

“Please don’t take it the wrong way,” Mingyu proceeds shyly. “But you, hum. You stand out, darling.”

Now, it’s Jun’s cheeks that start warming up.

She might be going insane from a heat stroke, but it feels like Mingyu’s flirting with her.

She finally allows herself to give Mingyu a good look, taking in the strong arms, tanned skin and cute nose. She doesn’t let herself linger on Mingyu’s boobs, though it is difficult not to notice them at all in Mingyu’s white t-shirt.

Well, if Mingyu was flirting with Jun, it definitely wouldn’t be so bad.

“Oh, well, you must stand out too, with that huge truck of yours.”

Mingyu’s eyebrows shoot up. Mmmh. Was that too corny? Too forward? Damn, everything’s going so badly in Jun’s life that she’s also starting to lose her game.

Oh, no. Mingyu must think Jun’s ridiculous, trying to keep somewhat of a facade while she’s completely out of her depth. She can picture what she must look like: a city girl who never dirties her hands, an eccentric fish out of the water. Why would someone like Mingyu have any interest in her. Plus, they’re in the darkest depth of New Mexico, so the chances of Mingyu not being straight are infinitesimal. Yeah, Mingyu probably, presumably, very likely is straight, right?

Mingyu bursts into laughter.

“Damn right,” Mingyu says. “Why’d you think I got it in the first place.”

“Not because the roads are shit?” Jun tries.

“Sure, that too. Never thought I’d be picking up random beautiful ladies on the side of the road, though.”

Well, Mingyu is definitely too kind, joking to lighten the mood that Jun has managed to yank into the abyss, although she does look a little mortified herself.

Cute, Jun can’t stop herself from thinking.

It isn’t long before the engines of Mingyu’s truck come to a halt. There’s a bunch of big farm buildings surrounded by fields, a house and a big wooden sign that says Welcome to the Red Chariot Sun Ranch with a cowboy painted on it.

Yeah, it has to be it.

“That’ll be your stop,” Mingyu says. “Is that all the stuff you had, by the way?” She gives Jun’s tiny purse a glance.

“The rest of my suitcases are coming later,” Jun explains. Of course she didn’t come to stay in the countryside with nothing but the clothes on her back.

She opens the car door and takes a look at the ground and the way to the building that looks the most like a house and not a barn before exhaling longingly. “I do wish I had another pair of shoes."

“Oh, right. Wait, I’ve got an idea,” before Jun can say or do anything, Mingyu’s jumped out of the truck, circled around it and made her way in front of Jun. Then she opens her arms wide like she’s about to give Jun a hug and waits. “C’mon, sweetheart, I’ll carry you so you don’t have to dirty your feet.”

Jun stares at her in disbelief for a second.

Then, Jun props herself forward, away from the seat, and into Mingyu’s strong, sexy arms, because honestly, what other choice does she have?

Now, Jun’s not a small woman by any means. And although her frame is slim, she’s very much used to towering over her petite female—and sometimes male—costars and management staff. It’s actually rare for her not to be the tallest woman in the room. But with the way Mingyu’s arms wrap around her and hold her close as she easily carries her bridal style across the yard, Jun feels almost…tiny. Delicate.

When Mingyu gently deposits her on the smooth surface of the porch in front of the front gate, she feels a little dizzy. A little hot and bothered.

“Well,” she says, her voice a little weird to her own ear. “That was…very kind of you.”

“All good now?” Mingyu asks, handing Jun her purse with a bright, honestly devastating smile.

Jun nods frantically.

“I’ll leave you to it, then.”

“Sure. Thank you for the, uh. Rides.”

“No problem, darling. I’m sure we’ll see each other very soon.”

If Jun wasn’t so exhausted that she felt like she couldn’t trust her own eyes, she would have sworn Mingyu punctuated her last sentence with a wink.

Jun flops back on top of her twin size bed and stares at the wooden boards of the ceiling in her tiny bedroom.

This was most likely a storage room that her mom repurposed for her to have somewhere to sleep during her stay, there’s still some cardboard boxes and furniture stacked in a corner. Well, at least, Jun has her own bathroom attached to it.

Only when her mom’s voice resonates from downstairs does she realize her eyes had been shutting automatically, her body heavy and mellowed-out from exhaustion and a long, warm shower.

“Jun-ah, come down, dinner’s ready!”

“Coming!” Jun yells back, and damn, she hasn’t felt like that much of a teenager in very long.

Suddenly, she remembers her phone that has been charging on the side of the bed. She unplugs it, impatient to look at it now even though it’s barely charged enough.

First, she sends a text to Seungkwan confirming that she is alive and well but isn’t able to speak tonight.

Then, she opens Weibo, mostly out of habit, and is immediately met with news about her, articles recalling her unfortunate press conference.

She quickly closes the app, going to Instagram instead and, because it’s not like she has any self control, looking up Kim Mingyu.

Mingyu doesn’t have a lot of posts, and most of them seem to be related to the Chariot—gorgeous pictures of Mingyu going on horse rides, beautiful New Mexico desert sunsets, and a few pictures with her friends. Jun can’t stop herself from blushing at some of them, at how gorgeous Mingyu looks with her arms out, wrangling a horse or casually laughing on a night out. She has a lot of cute ones, but it’s just the default of Mingyu’s face, Jun believes, pretty eyes and cute nose that Jun has an indescribable urge to kiss.

“Junhui!”

Jun jumps at the sound of her mom’s yell, interrupting her little guilty dream of kissing Mingyu’s nose and then down to her plum pink lips.

“Coming!” Jun repeats, but this time, unlike her teenage self would have done, she does get off her butt and runs downstairs.

“Oh, I’m so glad the Kim girl found you,” Jun’s mom comments while Jun is stuffing her face with some roasted potatoes and veggies. It tastes pretty good and Jun was starving but she already misses her mala dishes. She wonders if there’s good Chinese restaurants around here, she should ask her mom once she’s done chewing.

“It was kind of her to drive you all the way over here,” her mom coos.

“Well,” Jun speaks between two bites. “She said it was on her way. But still, really nice.”

“Uh?” Jun’s mom giggles. “Not at all. She was going back home from the ranch. Mingyu’s an employee here. She worked here all day, and the Kim house is…” she makes a big wave with her arm. “...pretty far, on the other side of town.”

Oh? So Mingyu went out of her way to bring Jun home safely? That’s…an interesting fact. It doesn't give Jun some fluttery feeling in her belly.

“You’ll definitely see more of Mingyu if you stick around here for a while,” her mom says. “How long are you planning to stay, by the way?”

Jun’s brother, who hasn’t said anything to Jun since she arrived besides a mumbled greeting, looks up from the phone hidden on his knees under the table.

“I’m not sure,” Jun says, her voice sounding a little weak. She swallows. “Just…some time.”

“Oh, it’s no problem for us,” her mom rushes to clarify. “You can stay as long as you want, of course. We were just surprised when you called us, because we don’t see you a lot. Especially not here. So we wondered what happened.”

Jun hasn’t seen her mother a lot in the past 5 or 10 years, but she still can tell that this is her mom’s way of prying. She has to know why Jun is staying here, hiding here, she has to have seen the news, even if it’s not on the american ones. She must worry a little, Jun thinks, and yet, instead of asking directly if Jun’s okay, she’s got to find roundabout ways of collecting information.

Jun’s mother has always been a peculiar woman who made peculiar choices like putting Jun to work at 2 years old to act in baby food commercials or allowing Jun move out to Korea to become a trainee for an idol group when she was just a teenager, and even marrying a ranch owner and starting a new family in america where she’s spent most of her time during Jun’s adult life.

“I just need to stay here right now,” is all Jun ends up admitting. “I hope it’s okay with you and Mike.”

“Of course, of course,” her mom smiles, almost apologetically. “Who knows, maybe you’ll like it here and you’ll find a reason to come see us more often.”

Jun wakes up the next day late and disoriented. Her mom or her brother are nowhere to be found. Waking up alone like this with no schedule for the day is…unusual. It makes Jun feel antsy, anxious, like she should already be working right now, doing a fitting for some event or rehearsing her lines for a movie that doesn’t exist .

When she checks her phone, she has like, a dozen of missed calls from Seungkwan, but her stomach is also growling impatiently, so she opts for rummaging all the cupboards in her mom’s pristine kitchen and dealing with her friend’s questions later.

After a while, she settles on making herself some fried rice with some leftover rice she found in the fridge. The only problem is, she doesn’t have any eggs. She sends her mom a text.

Right. Jun forgot she’s now a fucking farmer.

She steps outside in her pajamas and realizes she doesn’t even know where the henhouse is. Before she can go back inside to send her mom another text, she notices something moving at the horizon.

Under the scorching sun, the silhouette of a horse running closer. The rider looks like they’re flying, leaving a cloud of dust in their way as they cut through the fields towards the house.

It’s like watching a movie, Jun thinks as the rider slows down and she can finally make out their traits.

Of course it’s Kim Mingyu who rides a beautiful chestnut horse like a goddess and who stops a few meters away from Jun, effortlessly hops off the horse and flashes Jun a gorgeous smile. It’s the sexiest thing Jun’s ever seen.

“‘morning, darling!” Mingyu greets, and Jun can’t stop staring at the sheen of sweat on her bare arms. Fuck. “Is everything alright?” Mingyu asks, looking slightly concerned after Jun hasn’t replied for a little bit too long.

“Sorry! Sorry, hi.” Jun says, shaking her head to try and make herself focus. “Hum, actually I was wondering, you must know where the henhouse is, right?”

One of them is staring at Jun with the most vicious eyes she’s ever seen on a living creature. The second Jun opens the flimsy wooden door, it makes an ungodly noise and starts flapping its wings around menacingly.

Jun shuts the door.

“I thought you had experience with chicks?” Mingyu comments from where she’s standing behind Jun, teasing.

Do you? Jun wants to ask. “Well, usually they’re not that big!”

Truly, these have more similarities to ostriches than hens, and they’re acting aggressive too. Looking at them, Jun feels like she understands what it must have been like to stand in front of a dinosaur.

“I’ll get them for you?” Mingyu offers once she’s done giggling at Jun’s misfortune.

Jun crosses her arms in frustration. “Fine.”

Of course, Mingyu enters the enclosure like it’s nothing, naturally stepping close to the little stall that’s covered in hay. Instead of acting protective of their nest like they did with Jun, they don’t even react to Mingyu’s presence, and she easily picks up a few beautiful eggs from under there.

“Enough for you, darling?”

“Wow. Perfect.” Jun does a little ‘perfect’ sign with her fingers. Ugh, lame. “Hey, do you like fried rice?”

Something about watching Mingyu devour a plate of Jun’s fried rice like she’s never tasted something so delicious is…extremely rewarding. And Jun has won prizes for her acting at multiple film festivals.

It might have to do with the fact that Jun feels like since she’s met her, it’s always Mingyu who has done things for her, gone out of her way to help Jun. Now it’s like she can repay her a little bit.

Or maybe it’s just that Mingyu looks extra cute when she closes her eyes and frowns because what’s in her mouth just tastes so good

“I didn’t know you could cook!” Mingyu says. “It’s delicious.”

“It’s my mom’s recipe, I’m surprised she hasn’t done it for you yet.”

“Well, it’s incredible.”

Once Mingyu’s finished her second plate and set her chopstick down on the table, she turns to Jun and asks:

“There’s a thing on Friday, not too far away.”

“A thing?”

“I don’t know if you’d be into that, but… it’s like an outdoor cinema. A drive-in.”

For some reason, Mingyu looks nervous.

“Oh, really? That sounds neat.”

“Yeah, they’re playing older movies. Fun ones.”

It really looks like she’s trying to make a point. Wait, has she found out about Jun’s acting?

“Cool,” Jun says carefully.

Mingyu lets out a long sigh. “You should come this Friday, Junhee.”

“Oh, but…” Jun frowns. “I don’t have a car. You need one for that, right?”

“Hum, I’ll drive you. If you want. And we can watch in my truck.”

Now, Jun isn’t super into the idea of watching an old movie in the desert with a bunch of other truck owners, but Mingyu gives her such an hopeful, puppy-eyed look that she really can’t see herself refusing. You know what, maybe that’ll distract her from her problems for at least an evening. Plus, she does selfishly wants to spend time with Mingyu.

“Really? That’s so sweet. Well, then, that’s a plan.”