Chapter XXIII

The low beaming rays of early morning’s sunlight perfectly radiance straight down to the ground along with sweet touches of warm breeze. The front school ground is slowly getting crowded as senior students, who are not on their usual school uniforms but comfortable casual clothing, gathered there on their own group of peers. Bags are packed with several clothes, important necessities and enough snacks for three days.The annual science camp the teachers pertaining about turns out to be a group survival camp-slash-trip, different from any other camps held before because they will actually live on a place walled with green organisms and very clean surrounding. The goal of the camp is to let the students see the beauty of nature and its importance their lives. To everyone’s relief, they will sleep inside a dorm-like building nearby instead of tents since the teachers needs to assure the student’s safety first.

One by one, students enter the school buses assigned to respective sections. The twelve boys, except for Mingyu since he’s still not arriving, are comfortably sitting on the farther seats and each couples are on their own pairs. Wonwoo, along with Junhui, Minghao and Chan sitting on the farthest seats of the bus, leans on the clear window while staring nowhere outside, earphones plugged. The bus is field with whispered gushing sounds coming from mostly the girls since Wonwoo entered, admiring his attractive appearance today compare to his sharp aura look with eyeglasses. Nevertheless in their opinion, both still makes him handsome and attractive. The mentioned young boy is not on his regular eyeglasses, has his newly trimmed hair falling softly beyond his brows and dyed with almond brown matching to his snow-like skin. He is also wearing acomfortable clothes: thin yet fluffy light pink sweater and the sleeves are effortlessly hiding the half of his hands in a cutesy way of manner, black tight jeans hugging his thin legs and a pair of plain white sneakers making him very attractive than ever. Those giggles and whispers with the mention of his name make him flustered, especially when his brother Seungcheol keeps teasing him about how handsome he is today. Seungcheol is just being supportive sibling here.

The assigned teacher does the roll call of student’s name to know if everyone is inside now until she calls a certain tall lanky boy from their section, Kim Mingyu.

“Mister Kim Mingyu?” The teacher calls out again yet no response. “For the last minute, if those late students are not here, we will leave here without─”

“I’m sorry I’m late!”

Everyone directs their gazes in front as they hear a loud voice with a loud stomp in front. For seconds, those girls from other section near the bus door start whispering and giggling, grabbing the whole attention inside. Albeit the students who sit farther from the door can’t see the person who entered seconds ago, they can hear how they keep gushing. Some students behind, as well as Wonwoo and his friends, abruptly stand up to see the cause of loud noises. At first, they can’t see that person since he’s still on the front door, talking to the teacher who blocks the sight of interest. After a small moments passed the guy, they assume it’s a boy because of his deep voice, climbs inside showing his full appearance in front of everyone. The one and only almighty Kim Mingyu.

The whispers become louder as they continue talking about the tall boy, even Wonwoo has his mouth gaped open since the Mingyu that has common and plain appearance transforms into a very attractive guy, like those visual idols they see on television and music videos. Holy moly.

The lanky boy has dyed his hair with light aqua-sapphire blue with a small highlight of light ash gray ─ courtesy of his mother’s suggestion; his father is against to it but decides to just keep quiet ─ which is a perfect combination to his tanned yet still kind of fair skin hiding his forehead and eyebrows perfectly. The said guy is wearing simple plain white shirt along with a thin fabric dark blue cardigan on top of it. He is also wearing light washed minimal ripped denim jeans and a pair of white Nike high sole shoes. What makes him more attractive is how his brownish colored bag hanging loosely on his back.

Mingyu walks his long legs forward directly to where his friends when he finally sees some of them (you can easily notice the hair of cherry blossom haired Jihoon and the blonde Soonyoung without tiptoeing, you know) while giving a shy smiles to those girls greeting him (or like trying to flirt him) showing his set of pearly white canine teeth. In that case, he doesn’t even have an ideathat he is actually the source of those whispers. Ignoring the noises, he marches until he finally arrives to his near destination.

“Looking good are we huh?” Seungcheol is first one to greet him with a whistle.

“How come you nailed that kind of hair color?!” Seungkwanexclaims, “I want to try it too!”

Mingyu just smiles on his friends’ compliments and teases as he goes to the farthest seats since there’s no more beside his friends. His and Wonwoo’s gazes meet unexpectedly, causing his heart to pound loudly again because damn, Wonwoo is really hot without those eyeglasses and pink sweater! His cheeks start to burn into pink shades but immediately tries to eliminate it as he confidently continues staring at him. To his disappointment, the other boy breaks away the contact first as he redirects his gaze outside the window, resting his head on his palm but the blush on his face gets not unnoticed. The sunlight perfectly gleams on the petite boy’s face displaying his picture-perfect face feature, from his snowy skin, warm looking eyes up to his red thin lips which is very captivating to Mingyu’s honest opinion.

“Wow, my beloved five year old hearted friend has his new style.” Junhui utters with a grin (or more like teasing smile) as he shifts closely to Wonwoo.

“Thank you oldie.” Mingyu responds with his signature innocent smile as he forcefully shoves Junhui away from Wonwoo that catches him off guard before sitting next between the two mentioned boys.

Junhui crosses his arms on his chest childishly and hisses loudly as the tallest among them pats teasingly his cheeks, not arguing anymore since he’s much weaker than the other. He turns his head to see Minghao looking at him with doe eyes and unreadable expression before Chan pulls him away and changing their seats. He does nothing but to huff in annoyance before deciding to drift to his little dreamland.

On the other hand, Mingyu shifts his head in front of Wonwoo in a cute way, admiring his face more. When the latter’s gaze finally turns in the corner of his eyes looking straight at him, his cheeks become hot and his heart beats rapidly once again but nevertheless immediately smiles brightly as a form of greeting his quiet best friend with his eyes turning into crescent. He pulls away his face as the latter turns his head fully in front of him, wearing a small yet sincere smile and a bit of sprinkle shades of pink on his cheeks to Mingyu’s liking.

Wonwoounplugged the earphones, “You are late.”

“Sorry dad. I forgot to set the alarm.” Mingyu responds which earns a chuckle from the other. How much he wants to listen to his laugh forever. After minutes of talking quietly, the two falls into silence as they comfortably sit very close to each other.Wonwoo looks back again on the window while Mingyu puts his bag on his lap, hugging it as he tries to go back on his own dreamland.

The teacher gives instructions and rules of the trip. Exactly 8am, he buses starts the road trip to their destination and the students are on their own world again. The whole trip is much quieter than what the many expected. There are some students who are talking mindlessly on how much excited they are or some sort about the camp but majority of them are sleeping, listening on music with earphones plugged on and looking outside the window.

After almost two hours of journey, they finally arrive to their location of camp which is very beautiful place. Wonwoo lazily wakes Mingyu and Junhui who are leaning on each other as others slowly unloading the bus. Too tired to argue with each other because of their position, they just shrug it off before going out the bus. The senior students are all instructed to enter the front building and gather on the lodge with their respective sections so that the teachers can give the keys of their rooms. The teachers also instruct that after thirty minutes of changing or anything else they want to do, students should go down again on the lodge to start combining those already formed groups to other sections.

Wonwoo, Mingyu, Junhui and Minghao immediately go upstairs on second floor to find the assigned room to them, 316. Upon entering the room, they quickly notice the nice and homey atmosphere of the room with few frames and figurines displayed pleasantly. But the problem is that there are only three single beds inside, plus the couch on the side. Too bad.

As fast as lightning, Junhui dives in on the middle bed.“First come, first serve!” He shouts spreading his arms on the soft thing as if claiming it as his.

Mingyu curses to himself for being slow. There are only two small beds left and a very small couch, and there are still two persons beside him who need to have beds also. He looks to his left to see Minghao being uncomfortable, again and again. He can’t let Minghao sleep on the couch or else Chan will kill him for sure. He turns his head on the other side, Wonwoo. Well, he can’t let him sleep on there too. He’s too precious to sleep there.

With a defeated sighhe utters, “Fine. I’ll sleep on the couch.”

“Are you sure?” Wonwoo asks while Minghao gives him a concerned look. “Your legs don’t even fit there.”

“Don’t worry I’ll be fine.” Mingyu assures them with a genuine smile. “Now, quick. Change and let’s go down.”

Some minutes of changing comfortable clothes and washing their faces, they quickly exit the room and go downstairs on one of the halls assigned to their school where Mr. Lee is already explaining again the rules inside the facility and the activities that will happen today. He also explains that they will mix the groups of each sections to others since there are quite many groups present on the camp. Meaning five groups from each sections will be mixed together to form a one big group.

After mixing together, they begin introducing one by one on their own circle of groups, create their group names and simple cheer to present as teachers instructed them to do so.  It goes smooth as they expect. Everyone there is already having fun as the activities and games start. The afternoon sun shines so bright, bringing down its heat but everyone are not bothered to it because of the fresh, warm breeze of air and the shades of huge trees. They ended the first activities as everyone makes their way to the big dining area where yummy foods are already set.

Hours passed after their delightful lunch and continuation of their activity, each of students are now already holding a black plastic-potted still small trees. They will plant those on nearby forest as their help to mother earth. After easily planting the trees on their own places, they immediately proceed straight on the lake which students anticipate so much than any other activities today. The fresh water of lake is so clear that you can see under it. The water is kind of cold but still manageable to swim on it. Without consents from the teachers and the delinquents they are, students jump off the water and all you can hear is those happy screams and splash of water. The thirteen boys are once again gathered in a deeper place of lake, talking loudly about their early experiences on the camp and splashing waters to each other with huge smiles plastered on their face.

“Jihoon, why are you still on Seungcheol’s back?” Hansol asks innocently.

“His tiny feet can’t touch the ground.” Soonyoung says bluntly as he tries to style Seokmin’s already wet hair.

“Liar!” Jihoon exclaims half angrily and Jisoo and Mingyu only laughs.

“Oh really? Why don’t you just remove your small body over Seungcheol’s back?” Mingyu teases, wiggling his brows and still laughing.

“DAMN, I CAN STAND HERE WITHOUT ANY HELP!” Jihoom screams, more like a whine with a pout, in a higher octave and Seungcheol thinks his right ear is already malfunctioning. Without any hint, he foolishly detaches his arms on his lover’s neck. He tiptoes once he finally touches the ground, half of his face is already under the water beyond his nose bridge and everyone, also Seungcheol, burst into a very loud laugh.

Jihoon doesn’t aware on it for the first five seconds but the oxygen inside his body is slowly getting out of stock. His feet starts to ache so he weakly wiggles his feet and quickly jumps to risehis face off the water and clings again to Seungcheol with a small yelp of ‘Help!’ which causes a much louder roar of laughter. His lover assists him as he snakes his strong arms to bring him up, kissing him on his temple and whispering soothing words to lessen the embarrassment.

The students go off the water when the teachers tell them that dinner will be after twenty minutes. After seconds of leaving off the water, the cold rush of air immediately greets them as it contacts their skins causing them to shiver.Mingyu instantly shudders after the cold wind touches his skin lightly, blame wearing a sleeveless shirt.He gets the towel he brought as he wipes his damp hair and body before walking along the other students but he notices Wonwoo walking alone on the other side. He is kind of shivering, his both arms hugging his body protectively and tightly. Without any hesitation, Mingyu hurriedly runs towards his best friend before wrapping his towel on his skinny body.

Wonwoo yelps in surprise when he feels a thick cotton fabric but eases when he sees it’s Mingyu on his side. “It’s okay. It’s not that cold.” Wonwoo removes the towel brings it back to the taller boy politely.

Mingyu spreads the towel again and puts it on Wonwoo’s body again. This time, he assures to wrap it all over his upper body. “Don’t lie. Your lips and body is shivering.”

“How about you? You don’t feel cold?” Wonwoo tilts up with worried look. Mingyu has broad body compare to his skinny body but that doesn’t mean he can’t catch cold.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine.” Mingyu smiles an assuring one despite his voice and lips tremble unnoticeably.

“Thank you.” Wonwoo whispers as he feels his face becoming hot.

The sun already sets down hours ago, changed with the beautiful full moon dim lightsilluminating the dark sky and the surroundings. The senior students are on their own rooms since there’s no more activity tonight according to the teachers but Wonwoo finds himself roaming around the huge building looking for Mingyu who left the room without saying anything. He’s just concerned because the taller boy doesn’t answer his and Minghao’s calls, and the fact that they are on an unfamiliar place.

On the other hand, Mingyu is sitting on a bench in front of the building. He wears his thick hoodie because the breeze becomes colder than he expected. His nose is getting itchy and red as he warms his palms using his breathe. He’s still not sleepy and he doesn’t know what to do in their room so he decided to take a walk around. Sitting comfortably there, he examines the perfectly carved wooden sculptures and reconstructed displays made with recycled things which amuse him so much. A couple of coughs and giggles catches again his attention, looking at his right side to see two girls shyly standing near him. Ah, he remember their faces. They are from the other section and currently with Seungkwan’s group.

“U-uh. Hello Mingyu.” The girl with black hair and on a pony tail stylegreets him shyly. “Can we sit with you? If you just don’t mind.” She chuckles nervously.

Mingyu, as gentleman as he is, nods with a huge attractive grin making them blush and giving space for the two. Turns out to be the two rapidly sit on both of his side making him squeezed uncomfortably.

“Why are you still here?” The other girl with grayish locks asks with flirty voice.

“Uh… I’m just taking some fresh air.” Mingyu answers, scratching his nape awkwardly.

The conversation continues as the two girls bombard him with many questions from school things to personal life. He becomes comfortable with them, to be honest. He answers those questions, sometimes joking with them, and in return he questions them too so that it’ll be not one-way communication to just answer those questions one by one. They started from awkward chuckles, nervous grins to those loud laughs. The two girls enjoy Mingyu’s presence. He’s not just an attractive and handsome, he’s also full of humor and gag. They keep talking until they hear loud steps andnotice a shadow in front of them.

Mingyu, as well as the two girls, turns their heads to see Wonwoostanding in front wearing already his pajama. “Won… Wonwoo.”

“Let’s go up in our room now.” Wonwoo states flatly causing the latter to flinch.

Slowly, Mingyu stands up to the two girls’ disappointment before giving a small wave to them. “Thanks for the time. See you tomorrow.”

As Mingyu and Wonwoo walks back to their room, they fall into silence. It’s not just silence but an uncomfortable one. The only thing he can hear are their footsteps, the sounds of hanging chimes outside the window and his pounding heart. He doesn’t know but Wonwoo is not in his usual mood. Is he sick?

Wonwoo finally breaks the silence as they walk upstairs, “You didn’t answer my calls.”

Mingyu quickly fishes his phone out the pocket and unlocks it. There are twelve missed calls already and many messages he even didn’t bother to read. Four from Minghao and eight from Wonwoo. He gulps nervously, “I’m sorry.”

Wonwooopens the room carefully thinkingJunhui and Minghao are already sleeping and he’s right, “It’s okay. Go inside and sleep now.” He says in a sweet voice again which makes him give goosebumps. So beautiful.

Mingyu takes almost an hour inside the bathroom because he needs to take a shower again and do some own business. After brushing his teeth and cleansing his face with face scrub product, Mingyu finallywalks out the bathroom to seeWonwoo already sleeping soundlessly on his bed tucked under the sheet. He tiptoes himself towards the smaller boy without causing any sounds. Hekneels in front of Wonwoo, looking at his peaceful face and curve-ended lips. He lifts his hair up to see his beautiful face fully before brushing his thumb on his smooth and pale cheek, stopping near his red lips. As if the time stops, he memorizes every part of his face radiated only with the dim moonlight. It’s very beautiful, like a newly blossomed red rose. Wonwoo’s eyes are closed showing more of his long eyelashes, his cheeks may be pale but the combination of pinkish blush whenever he’s shy is just perfect.Mingyu, at all times, thinks the skinny boy has angelic personality in and out and that’s how he falls in love with him more.Mingyu’s not greedy, just childish but he knows his limitations. He is not too desperate to claim Wonwoo as his to begin with but rather, he just wants to stay beside him every time (or forever if he can do), to protect him and to assure his happiness with everything, even if he will not reciprocate his feelings.

For the last time, Mingyu brushes his thumb on his slightly curved, thin red lips. He always wonders what would be the taste of it. Feeling Wonwoo’s shallow breathing, he leans forward. “I will always protect you, because I love you.” He whispers with sincerity before kissing the sleeping boy’s forehead lovingly.

[A/N] Sorry this was done weeks ago but I don't have any net connection :< please please, let me know your reactions by commenting. Don't be #ShyShyShy