Uphill
UnexpectedJeonghan pouted, "I have to get on... there?" His delicate finger pointing towards a rundown transit bus. I looked like it could hardly
carry trash let alone passengers.
Jeonghan had just graduated college, and went home to Busan for the duration of the summer. His last vacation before entering the "real
world" as his mother called it. Not to mention Jeonghan didn't feel the slightest bit ready to be an adult.
"Yes dear" his mother giggled at the childish cute face worn across Jeonghan.
Ms. Yoon thought it would be a great idea to surprise Jeonghan and send him on a week long outdoorsing trip as a graduation gift. The one
problem being, Jeonghan wasn't too fond of the outdoors; not in the slightest bit.
"You're going to have to much fun! Think of all the things you'll get to see!" Ms. Yoon chuckled pushing her son's long brown hair from
his face.
"I'd rather be sleeping" continued the pout.
"LAST CALL TO BOARD, LAST CALL TO BOARD!" The driver stepped off the bus to yell. The station was full of goodbyes from loved ones and one
by one the transit bus started to fill up.
Ms. Yoon gave her son a large hug, "It's time to go. I love you and will see you in a week okay?"
Jeonghan embraced his mother, not truly wanting to say goodbye and walked aboard the bus.
"BYE SWEETIE!"
Jeonghan hid the red flush from his face, hearing several chuckles from by-standers.
Have you ever seen the crazy clown cars? Where they fit 50 more clowns than they should into a car? Yeah... that was what the bus was like:
packed to capacity. It was overwhelming, without space to even breathe. Jeonghan guided himself through the swarm to about halfway before
he felt a large shift from underneath him and immediately grabbed the rail with his right hand. The bus had started going to their first
destination of the week, only an hour and a half north.
"I can do this" Jeonghan thought.
The young male noticed the majority of passengers having only one bag; their backpack. Jeonghan had a backpack and a messenger bag swung
across his body. He needed all his BB Cream, and skincare... didn't he? He consciously moved the bag behind slightly embarrassed of over
packing.
At this point, the bus was getting fairly loud with all of the people starting to make light conversation, and getting to know each other.
Jeonghan was never good at small talk with strangers, he was much more of a shy personality. He was not looking forward to this lonely
week. His mood was truly heading south, the bus was hot, loud and crammed, he couldn't breathe, he felt extremely uncomfortable not
knowing anyone, his heavy bag was starting to dig into his shoulder. The icing on the cake was the fact that, they were driving on a dirt
road, meaning they felt every single bump... and of course there were a lot of bumps.
The bus shifted again, this time a sudden immediately jerk sent all the standing riders forward, Jeonghan included. He lost his balance,
letting out a squeal heading face first towards the floor. He stretched out his arms to break his fall but something caught him. A strong
grasp, anchored along his waistline, and his body stopped moving. Jeonghan peeked open one eye and then the next to find himself face to
face with a man... A man maybe a year older than him, with a sharp jawline, spiky brown hair, and wearing a 'I won' kind of grin.
Jeonghan felt his face heat up.
"Caught ya" voice baritone.
"Th-Thanks..." Jeonghan looked to the ground as the man pulled him back up to regain his balance. His arms didn't leave his waist, and
things just got a lot more uncomfortable as he realized his entire body was pulled into the stranger's... muscular.... stop Jeonghan.
"Seungcheol" The man introduced.
Jeonghan couldn't avert his eyes any longer as he looked up at the slightly taller man to introduce himself.
"J-Jeonghan"
"Pretty"
Was Jeonghan's face on fire?
"Thanks f-for helping me"
"Yeah, no prob. You know if you didn't have so many bags you might not have lost your balance so easily." Seungcheol chuckled.
"B-but" Jeonghan almost sounded like he was whining, but immediately stopped when he felt the man's grasp leave his own and take both of
his bags.
"Hey don't worry, I'll carry em for you." Seungcheol's voice swelling with pride swinging both bags over his shoulder in ease.
"You don't have to do that you know, I'd be fine"
Seungcheol laughed again, "But I couldn't let such a pretty face carry all this could I?"
At least chivalry isn't dead...
Jeonghan felt at a constant flush, but somehow made it through the rest of the ride. He didn't know if Seuncheol was making it better or
worse, but the man kept constant conversation with Jeonghan. Like where he went to school, what was his degree is in, his family. Jeonghan
felt like Seungcheol had known pretty much all the facts about himself, while Jeonghan only got several questions from the older.
He found out the Seungcheol was indeed older than himself, only by a year. Seungcheol loved ramen, he was on vacation from his job as a
firefighter... yeah a firefighter, that explains all those stupid muscles. He also learned that Seungcheol liked music, and liked to visit
the underground rap scene in Seoul. Seungcheol was... interesting.
Eventually the bus came to a halt and the crowded bus emptied out onto the first stop Geumjeongsan, a historical mountain north of Busan.
They were dropped off at the base camping lodge. To Jeonghan's delight it wasn't outdoor camping, but indoor cabin style dorms. They were
here for the current night and the night after, after that moving to their next stop.
Jeonghan got his rooming orders with Seungcheol, somewhat happy that they were assigned to different cabins. The older however did not
allow Jeonghan to carry his own bags, forcing the younger to show him his room and make sure that he was safe.
They made there way up to the door of the cabin.
"Cabin 9" Jeonghan read and opened the door with his key. It was a one room cabin with a simple seating area and two bunk beds
towards the back, allowing four people including Jeonghan to sleep here.
"Are you gonna be okay if I leave you to go to my room?" Seungcheol asked half joking half serious.
Jeonghan rolled his eyes, "Yes, now go... I'll see you at dinner" Jeonghan's face burned for the millionth time today, "I mean ... thatI'll
bebymyselfandyoudidn'thavetoeatdinnerwithmebutifyouwantedtoeatdinnerwithmeyoucould..."
Seungcheol grinned closing the distance between the two, "Of course Angel". His grinned deepend as he dropped off the bags and walked out
of the room.
Jeonghan immediately jumped onto the first bed he saw and let out a breath he had held onto since he met Seungcheol.
"Who does he think he is?" he whispered to himself.
Just as the pretty male closed his eyes...
"HELLO?!"
Jeonghan perked up.
"Oh hi!" his voice light, and was accompanied with a friend another male.
Both males looked quite a bit younger than Jeonghan, maybe about 18 years old? The perky one was short with black messy hair, the other
had curly blonde hair, both adorable.
"Pleasure, I'm Jeonghan" Jeonghan greeted, stepping lightly off his bed.
"Hiya! I'm Dino! This is Minghao."
Curly blond Minghao smiled bowing slightly.
"It looks like we are roomies!" Dino clapped. This kid was way too cute.
"That big scary guy that just left must be our other roommate? Did you meet him?"
Seungcheol... they are talking about Seungcheol.
"Oh... no... he's just a friend." Jeonghan stuttered making something up on the spot.
The two young males looked at each other with evil smiles, up to no good of course.
"He's your boyfriend!" Dino chirped.
Jeonghan coughed, eyes bulging out of his head, "What?! No no no no!" Jeonghan's gaze hit the ground as he started to nervously grind the
toe of his shoe into the ground.
"It makes sense, that a pretty boy like you has a boyfriend like that." Minghao spoke up.
"N-no he's really not my boy...b-boyfriend"
"Then why are blushing so much?"
Damn over sensitive Jeonghan!
"I just met him okay?" Jeonghan explained. "He helped me on the bus and walked me to my room that is all!"
"Yeah sure" Minghao rolled his eyes.
"It's true!"
"Okay say we believed you" Dino started, "I still think you like him."
Jeonghan sighed loudly, and face planted back into his matress, "Just leave me alone"
"A hyungie! Don't be like that!"
The two younger boys jumped on his mattress playing with the older's hair, already acting like Jeonghan's little brothers. The two boys
obviously didn't know the meaning of personal space. It seems as if their relationship had been formed much longer than before this.
"This is going to be a long trip" Jeonghan thought.
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