Adore You

Chapter 23

Third person's POV

Chaeyoung has been running along the main path for a while, going a lot further than last few times, but still no sign of Mina,

'There is a chance that she had gone off the main path.' Chaeyoung is thinking to herself, looking at the direction where it's nothing but darkness, her heart is beating fast, she's a little scared as well.

'Son Chaeyoung, you can do this! She must be so scared right now. She needs you.' With that thought, Chaeyoung braves herself and starts walking away from the main path. She walks slowly as there are many fallen branches on the ground, calling Mina's name once in a while. About ten minutes into the walk, her flashlight suddenly turns itself off. Chaeyoung tries to turn it back on many times, but it won't work, 'No...no...why run out of batteries now? Why? Damn it!'. Looks into the darkness in front of her, she is scared of all the unknowns but the love she has for Mina is above them all, 'I can't give up. Mina needs me.' She then continues to walk step by step with the only source of light is from the very little moonlight that managed to get through the woods.

Meanwhile, Mina is terrified. Alone in the dark in the middle of nowhere, she's cold, hungry and scared. She has been curled up into a ball, hugging her knees and crying nonstop. Suddenly, some small echoing can be heard, Mina tries to listen, and the echo seems to get louder and louder, 'Mina!...Minari!...Where are you?...Mina!..'. Listens closely, Mina finally recognised the voice, 'Chaeyoung, it's Chaeyoung!'

She gathers all her left over energy and shouts as loud as she could 'Chaeyoungie, I'm here! Chaeyoung, I'm over here!'

Chaeyoung heard that, she runs fast followed the direction where Mina's voice came from. At a deeper part of the hill, she heard Mina again, 'Chaeyoungie, I'm down here. I'm over here.' She's furiously searching around, then she looks down at a small cliff and there, she found Mina. She quickly slides down the slope, runs to Mina and immediately engulfs the girl into her arms, hugging her tightly, her left arm is on Mina's back, left hand reaches Mina's waist, while her right hand is on the back of Mina's head, pulling her in so close in a protective way.

'Chaeyoungie!' Mina is crying hard, her chin is on Chaeyoung's shoulder while her arms are wrapped around Chaeyoung's waist tightly,

'Thank God, I found you! I'm sorry I took so long.' Chaeyoung tells her, feeling so relieved,

'Chaeyoungie...I was...so scared!' Mina says between her sobs,

'I know, I know...it's over now. I'm here, I'm right next to you.' Chaeyoung soothes her while caressing her hair,

She notices Mina's body is shaking a little, she breaks the hug, takes her jacket off and puts it onto Mina,

'Aren't you cold Chaeyoungie?' Mina asks,

'I'm alright, as long as you are.' Chaeyoung warmly smiles at Mina. She reaches her hand over to wipe the tears on Mina's cheeks with her thumb, 'Minari, we are very far away from the main path, and my flashlight just happened to run out of batteries. The ground is filled with fallen tree branches, it will be difficult for us to walk out of here in the dark, so looks like we are gonna have to stay here for the night, are you ok with that?' She gently asks Mina,

Mina nods her head 'I'm not scared anymore, now that you are here with me.'

Chaeyoung smiles, 'Alright, I will make a little fire to keep us warm for the night.' She then proceeds to collect dry leaves and tree branches and lits them up with the lighter she got in the backpack.