it was nearing five pm when all students on the camping terrain were enjoying their late afternoon in their own ways as they got some spare time from their teachers.
they spent their entire days on planned activities, following each one on schedule. the groups that were made got closer through the games of volleyball, football, hide and seek in specific areas of the woods, card games and even several games of tag. tiring, isn't it?
however, the intentions of mister lee seemed to work as the entire group of thirteen boys actually seemed to get along with each other pretty well. even chan, who usually whined about everything and nothing, got along with everyone in the group and laughed more than anyone has ever seen him doing before.
now when all the activities were over for the day they finally got the opportunity to take some rest. and of course, everyone decided to do that in their own ways.
soonyoung, by example, went straight back to their cabin, climbing in his bottom bed and crawling underneath the duvets. dinner would be ready in about two hours, so he could use that time for a nap.
and just when he laid down, he felt a gentle tap on his shoulder which made him turn around again, eyeing the boy who awkwardly stood next to his bed.
"can i join you..?" jihoon muttered, trying to hide his embarrassment somehow.
"come here you." soonyoung said in adoration in which jihoon climbed over him without further hesitation, laying between the taller and the wall for more guaranteed safety. soonyoung covered him with the blanket and felt how jihoon sneaked his arms around his waist and covered his face in his chest, making soonyoung let out a soft chuckle when he nuzzled his nose into jihoon's hair and tangled their legs together.
soonyoung let out a hum of satisfaction when they found the perfect position in no time. "you know it's impossible to get rid of me at this point, right?" soonyoung whispered, making sure his voice was only audible for the boy inside his arms just in case anyone would walk in on them.
"i don't even want to get rid of you. you're stuck with me now." jihoon said, confirming his words by pulling himself a little closer against soonyoung's body.
and while both the musician and dancer were drifting away to a world of dreams, hansol was dragging seungkwan back to the forest.
"hansol! for the fourth time, let go of me! i don't want to enter the woods again!" seungkwan yelled, using all his force in an attempt to escape hansol's grip. however, hansol refused to let go of him and kept pulling him towards the gigantic trees that nearly reached the clouds.
"kwan i told you, it's not that scary as last night! look! the sun is still up so there will be plenty of light to see your surroundings. and i really want to see the tree in daylight!" just when they were about to enter the woods hansol made a stop to check if seungkwan was doing okay. and to his surprise, he clearly wasn't.
hansol let go of his arm and found himself fighting the sudden urge to pull him in a warm hug in an attempt to reassure the boy. "sorry kwan.. it wasn't my intention to force you to do something you're not comfortable with. if you want we can just go back to the cabin and take a nap? or play a card game?"
seungkwan reached for the hem of his t-shirt and nervously started fidgeting the fabric with his fingers. he lowered his gaze, scared hansol might judge him based on his fear of the dark. now he knew it wasn't dark anymore, but last night had made him terrified to ever enter the woods again, no matter what circumstances nor weather.
"i mean, if you really want to go there.."
"we're not going if you don't want to kwan!" hansol repeated himself, finding seungkwan's fears more important than his interests on how the tree they hid in would look in the daylight.
"wait did i hear that correctly?" both hansol and seungkwan looked up to see seokmin had joined them as well, having jisoo standing beside him, "seungkwan it's really not like you to not go!" seokmin exclaimed, encouraging his best friend by patting him on his shoulder.
"we talked this through don't worry, if he doesn't want to go we just don't go." hansol said politely, showing his ever so friendly smile to both jisoo and seokmin.
"oh no, we're going! i wanted to see the tree in daylight anyways." seungkwan sassily said, switching moods in less than a second which left both jisoo and seokmin snickering. this was the seungkwan they all knew.
"you don't mind if we tag along, right?" jisoo asked hansol, who simply shrugged and motioned for them to follow seungkwan who already entered the forest.
seungkwan let out a relieved sigh when he saw the amount of light that lit their surroundings. strokes of sunshine peeking through the leaves, falling onto their faces and warming up their cheeks. it gave the forest a rather orange brownish glow, which was a lot warmer than the darkness they had encountered the night before.
the woods weren't as scary as he imagined them to be.
and to show that he was actually quite enjoying the peaceful atmosphere in between the trees, seungkwan turned around and swayed his arms around his body, smiling ever so brightly at hansol and completely forgetting about the other duo that was still walking behind them.
and that was when hansol realized, he had fallen madly in love with the boy with squishy cheeks and soft red hair.
his eyes seemed to sparkle with happiness and everything around seungkwan's glowing face faded away in a haze. he hadn't even noticed he stopped walking and how a smile crept its way up to his face, just standing there to admire the gorgeous angel-like boy in front of him in all his glory.
"what are you looking at? come on! let's find that tree!" hansol hadn't even noticed seungkwan was already moving forwards again.
however, he was quick to catch up and swung his arm around seungkwan's shoulder, pulling the boy all the way against his body to fill his entire system with a feeling of serotonin.
they were so occupied in their own world, they didn't even notice both jisoo and seokmin snickering about the scenario in front of them.
"i told you it would be them first!" jisoo whispered, trying to convince seokmin that he would be the one winning this bet. however, seokmin just cocked his eyebrows and gave jisoo a look of disbelieve.
"nah, i don't think so. keep on dreaming." seokmin purposely said in a tone jisoo wasn't used from him, making the older bump into his shoulder.
"oh shut up, just admit that you're about to lose to me!" jisoo fought back, smiling throughout their entire small discussion.
but somehow they didn't seem to notice that both their choices had been the wrong ones, as they kept trailing behind hansol and seungkwan, their fingers interlaced together and their shoulders connected for the entire time.
now they only had to realize that themselve.
