Exploring the forest

The weird fan

During the photo shoot there's allot of laughing, the guys are acting crazy and teasing each other. You're watching the whole thing together with the staffs who don't have anything to do at the moment. A couple of times you notice Junjin looking at you, it makes you blush and you quickly look elsewhere. 
After they've been at it for quite a while the photographer calls for a 15 minute break and tells the guys that after the break they'll be making the serious pictures instead of the funny ones. The guys nod and then leave the set, some walk directly to the toilet and others go outside, Junjin walks up to you "Are you still enjoying yourself?" he asks. "Of course," you answer smiling brightly "I'm having a wonderful time, it's allot of fun to watch you guys.". Junjin's eyebrows go up but he decides not to ask what exactly you mean, instead he asks "Shall we go outside for some fresh air and stretch our legs?", "Ok" and you follow him to the exit.
After about 10 minutes you go back inside for the second half of the photo shoot, the make-up artists quickly do some touch ups and the shooting continues. Even though it's supposed to be serious now, the guys are still making fun, trying to break each others concentration and making each other laugh while they shouldn't. They all look really handsome, especially Junjin of course with his intense stare, the moment he looks at you like that you break out in sweat. Back when you had only seen him looking like that in pictures and on screen, you already knew that if he ever would look directly at you like that you would probably get a heart attack, even though you aren't really faint hearted for things like that, but Junjin's stares are a whole different level. Now, even though you got to know him very well, when he gives you an intense stare it's hard to keep breathing and your heart skips a beat or two, luckily he doesn't do it to often. 

After the photo shoot is ended the Shinhwa members decide to have diner before their meeting together in the evening. When Junjin hears of the meeting he's surprised, "We have a meeting?" he asks the others shocked, Andy nods "Yes, did you forget about it?". Junjin lets out a deep breath "yeah.", then he turns towards you "I'm so sorry, i didn't think of the meeting anymore". He seems really upset, with a smile you say "It's alright, don't worry about it.". He still looks apologetic "But you have to spend the evening alone....", "It's really ok," you try to reassure him some more "I can have a good rest. Besides i wanted to explore the forest anyway, this is a good opportunity for that, i already was wondering when i would be able to go take a walk there.". He sighs "Alright then. At least you can join us for diner and you don't have to eat alone.".

After diner Junjin drives you back to the officetel, when you arrive at the parking lot you both get out of the car. You stop him before he can walk you to the door "Quickly go to the meeting, the others must be waiting for you." you tell him. Still sighing he gives in "Alright....i'll see you tomorrow again then.", he takes a step towards you and pulls you into his arms. After a few seconds he pulls back a little and softly presses his lips against yours, your cheeks turn slightly red and when he lets go you see his cheeks are also pinkish. "Have fun." he says, "You also" you can only reply, he gives another quick peck on your lips and then gets back into the car, you watch him leave the parking lot before you go upstairs to the officetel.
In the officetel you change your clothes and shoes into something more fit for a long hike, you grab your tiny back bag and put your wallet and phone in it, you also take a small bottle with water because you don't know exactly how long you'll be gone. It's still light outside, luckily it's summer and the sun doesn't go down until late in the evening giving you plenty of time for a long hike before it gets dark. You look around one more time, making sure you're not forgetting anything and you walk out of the officetel again.

You only have to cross the street to enter the gate that leads too the forest. The first part looks more like a park than a forest, with bushes of 3 to 4 meters high filled with flowers lining the path and there are plenty of other people walking, jogging and playing with their kids or dogs. But your planning on going farther away, it's quite a long walk already, but you're headed to the part where the trees are closer together and where the concrete path's turn into forest trails.
After awhile you leave most people behind, now you only see someone once in awhile, mostly they're walking their dog or jogging in the opposite direction than you're going. You're enjoying yourself more and more, the forest is beautiful and even though you've been walking for quite awhile already, you're only getting more energy from being surrounded by nature. 
While enjoying the beauty around you you suddenly notice that it's been quite some time ago since you saw another person, and that by now you're pretty deep into the forest. It's peaceful and quiet, you only hear the sound of birds high up in the trees and your own footsteps on the ground. When you look up to the top of a particular big tree you suddenly notice that the sun has started to set and twilight has set in, you didn't notice it was getting slightly darker because you were so engrossed by the forest. It surprises you that it's already this late, but it doesn't worry you, it only means you quickly have to turn back now and leave the dense forest before you can't see where to walk anymore. A bit disappointed that time went by this quickly you turn around immediately and start making your way back towards civilization. While walking back you start to feel your legs getting tired and your feet starting to hurt. You remember that you always loved that feeling of almost having to crawl back home after a decent hike, it's a good kind of tired. You have walked pretty far and you think that it's probably a good thing you have to turn back now, otherwise you might have gone further and really wouldn't be able to get back anymore, you smile to yourself. At that moment your phone beeps and when you take a look you see it's a message from Junjin 

Are you enjoying yourself? Do you like the forest? 
We're finally done with the meeting.
Love,
Junjin

You smile and reply him back.

Yes, the forest is wonderful, i love it very much!
I'm glad to hear you're finished. I'll see you tomorrow.
Ra Young

You're not ready yet to finish the message with 'love, Ra Young' so after contemplating about it for a few seconds you decide to just leave it out. Even though you know better you're hoping he won't really notice.
By the time you leave the really dense forest behind you it's as good as dark 'This is not good' you think to yourself, you're still on the forest trails. The trees are spread out a little further apart so you're able to see the moon and the stars, but that's about it, you're still no where near the park let alone the exit. You're slowly starting to get worried about your legs getting to tired to be able to make it back or perhaps you might step into a hole you can't see and will get hurt, you're really getting anxious now about at least leaving the dark trails and being able to see more and having better ground under your feet. You really would want to sit down and take a rest, but you know that once you do that it'll only get more difficult to walk again afterwards, so you keep on walking.
Finally, after way to much time has passed, your surroundings slowly start to change again, you feel you're getting close to the park area again. But something is wrong, something was wrong since a while ago, but you didn't want to admit it to yourself. You've been walking far to long on your way back, you definitly should've been near the exit by now, but you still can't accept it, you can't admit to yourself that you might be lost. You never get lost in a forest, even though you've never been there, in a forest you always know your way! Maybe you wouldn't walk back the exact same trails, but you would always have your sense of direction, never letting you get far away from the place you want to end up at. You could easily get lost in a city, in a city all sense of direction you have in a forest is totally gone. You've been walking in circles in a small neighborhood for over 1,5 hour once, but never in a forest. 
You decide that a rest might be a good idea after all, maybe you're just to tired to think strait. While you sit down on a tree stump from a tree that has been cut down a long time ago you look around you. It doesn't seem to difficult to guess in what direction you should go, on one side is the now dark and dense forest and in the other direction it's not. So one would think that as long as you walk away from the dense forest you would end up at the edge of the forest and park. It doesn't matter if it's in front of the officetel, no matter where exactly you end up leaving the park, there will be a street and people and that means a certain way home. After a short rest you confidently start walking again, by now it's getting pretty late, you really want to go to bed and sleep.
After a while you unfortunately have to conclude that you're at an awfully familiar tree stump again, you feel tears starting to sting behind your eyes and shake your head. 'No, it must be a different one. You're just to tired to be able to distinct one tree stump from another now.' you try to convince yourself, but you're failing miserably. At your wits end you slump down on your knees next to the tree stump, you have no clue of what to do anymore, you're tired and tears are starting to fall from your eyes. You give up and decide to just sleep here for tonight, leaning against the stump feels actually pretty comfortable now, and even though it will be slightly cold you won't be freezing during summer. There is only one thing you really want to and have to do, you have to call Junjin and let him know what's going on and you want to hear his voice, you don't want to worry him, but if he finds out later he will be really mad. With trembling fingers you pull out your phone, you notice that the battery of your phone is also almost empty, you sigh 'Ofcourse, that's the one thing that would be missing right now otherwise' you sarcastically think.
It takes a while before your call is answered and you hear Junjin's surprised voice true your phone "Ra Young-ah, are you still awake? I thought you would be sleeping by now.". You take a deep breath before answering "Oohh hey Junjin, yeah, i thought i would be sleeping by now as well." you say while trying to sound cheerful, but you can't keep your voice from trembling. Hearing the tremble in your voice Junjin's suddenly fully awake "Ra Young, what's wrong? Why do you sound upset?".

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SoulDragon
I'm writting the ending...not that i'm there yet, but it suddenly popped in my head how to end this story...kinda sad feeling though.

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murasaki_xia
#1
Chapter 22: Very nice story, honestly I convert my bias to Junjin because of this story. Great job
finmin #2
Chapter 22: Nice story ^^ Every shinhwa changjo dream come true <3
championmugger #3
Chapter 1: Just started reading this! Found this via your post on tumblr and thought I'd check in ; u ; I'd be reading them in a bit but good luck on this! :D