Jaehwan kept bouncing up and down next to Hakyeon while a member of the student government was explaining the rules of the treasure hunt to them, talking about maps and paths and colourful envelopes hidden in the forest, but Jaehwan was deaf to all of those things. Earlier during his speech, the student government representative mentioned that the prize would be “something invaluably sweet”, which, to Jaehwan, meant a huge chocolate cake, or a piñata filled with chocolate bars and sour candy and lollipops, or maybe a giant box of assorted doughnuts (with delicious vanilla glaze and raspberry filling and sprinkled with popping candy). The list of mouth-watering possibilities was endless and Jaehwan’s stomach rumbled loudly at the thought of them.

“I’d like you to form groups of four,” the guy said and Jaehwan stopped bouncing.

“Let’s just hope he ed up the maths and we can stay alone,” Jaehwan told Hakyeon, but the noisy crowd started moving on the clearing like one giant body and two figures appeared in front of them. “Oh, no. Quick! Let’s hide!”

“Are you insane?!” Hakyeon hissed. “I’ve been trying to get close to Jung Taekwoon for months; I’m not going to run away from him!”

Jaehwan mewled pathetically as Sanghyuk, with that -eating grin on his face and a hand on the shoulder of a rather reluctant Taekwoon led the older towards Jaehwan and Hakyeon.

“Guess the four of us have to be in a team,” Sanghyuk singsonged.

Jaehwan, who had previously tried to hide behind Hakyeon’s back, stuck his head out now, trying to look for other available people, but they were the only ones remaining without a group. He wanted to head- Hakyeon from behind so badly.

Jaehwan watched Hakyeon take one of the five different maps from the student government representative, and folded is arms in front of his chest, walking sulkily behind Hakyeon, Taekwoon and Sanghyuk, keeping some distance from them and kicking away stray pebbles. As if mirroring Jaehwan’s sombre mood, the sky suddenly became overcast.

“What’s up, Jaehwan-ah?” Sanghyuk asked, dropping behind to walk with Jaehwan.

“How dare you call me that,” Jaehwan grumbled, the quiet sound of a faraway thunder emphasizing the murderous look he sent Sanghyuk. “And don’t talk to me.”

“Sorry, I got tired of third-wheeling over there,” he pointed at Hakyeon who chuckled obnoxiously at whatever Taekwoon had or had not said, leaning on Taekwoon’s arm.

Jaehwan was not going to give in to Sanghyuk so easily, so he stopped walking which Sanghyuk only noticed after more than two metres. When Sanghyuk turned around with an eyebrow cocked questioningly, Jaehwan pursed his lips.

“Go ahead,” he said. “I’ll go after you; just go.”

“Jaehwan, come on,” Sanghyuk rolled his eyes. “Do you really hate me that much?”

But Jaehwan didn’t reply. Instead, he looked up at the now steel-grey sky from where cold raindrops kept falling, landing on Jaehwan’s hair and face.

“It’s raining,” he stated the obvious, and the thunder that followed his words seemed to shake the earth under his feet. Up above the dry, half-dead branches of the trees, a lightning bolt crossed the sky.

“We need to get back to the clearing!” Sanghyuk yelled through the sound of the heavy rain falling on the leaf litter.

Jaehwan turned around—he looked left and looked right and looked behind himself, but Hakyeon and Taekwoon and with them the map were nowhere to be found. The wind violently ruffled his wet hair.

“And which way did we come from?” Jaehwan asked, another thunder resounding through the forest. He decided it was best if they found the map, so he bellowed from the top of his lungs, “Hakyeon! Taekwoon! Where are you?!”

Panic started rising in him when neither Hakyeon, nor Taekwoon answered, and he heard an awful cracking noise as if a tree got broken into half. He jogged up to Sanghyuk who was fiddling with his phone under the lapel of his jacket.

“What the hell are you doing?” Jaehwan asked, trying to curl in on himself to become as small as possible. The less the surface the less rain would get on him. He’d also have less of a chance of being struck by lightning. Science was a beautiful magic.

“I’m trying to get us out of here, but there’s no service,” Sanghyuk said with branches crackling above their heads. “, we need to get out of here!”

“I know, but why are you yelling at me?!” Jaehwan all but screamed.

“I’m not yelling at you!” Sanghyuk shouted back. “Okay, come on.” When Jaehwan looked down at Sanghyuk’s palm held out to him as if it was a dead rat, Sanghyuk became impatient. “Come on, Jaehwan, I don’t have any diseases, I promise! Take my ing hand!”

Jaehwan took his hand, but not before stamping his feet a little. They started running in a direction Sanghyuk must have felt right, and some of the trees did seem familiar to Jaehwan until some point after which he was utterly lost. Sanghyuk, however, must have had a destination, running so fast Jaehwan felt like he was only floating behind.

Sanghyuk stopped at the edge of a frightfully unfamiliar row of rocks under which the forest floor continued a few metres lower. It was like a massive step and Jaehwan sort of expected another one to appear in the distance, leading even lower into the woods.

“We’ll need to jump,” Sanghyuk said then, letting go of Jaehwan’s hand and leaping from the edge. He landed with a small slip on the wet leaves. “Jaehwan, jump!”

“This is too high!” Jaehwan whined, shaking his head. “I’m going to break my legs!”

“You’re going to break all of your bones if you stay there and a tree falls on you!”

“What’s the chance?”

“Fifty-fifty; it either does or it does not happen, but— Jaehwan, come on!”

“I’m scared!”

Jaehwan felt hot tears stinging his eyes as the storm seemed to start raging even more wildly. He was so cold and scared and he wanted to murder Hakyeon for disappearing—he just wanted to go back to the dorm.

“I’ll catch you,” Sanghyuk said then, wiping the rain out of his eyes and pushing his fringe back to see Jaehwan. He was blinking rapidly so as not to let the rain fall into his eyes. “I’ll catch you, I promise, just jump!”

“I don’t believe you!”

“Jaehwan, I swear to—” a roaring thunder and a blinding flash, “I swear to God!”

Jaehwan took a deep breath and sat down on the edge of the rocks, his fingers turning white as he tried to grip the stone under his . He didn’t trust Sanghyuk whatsoever and he especially didn’t want to be indebted to Sanghyuk for saving his legs, but the trees around him were now cracking and breaking constantly and he wasn’t ready to die yet. So he jumped.

Jaehwan kept his eyes closed while he was falling and only opened them when he felt his body stop in mid-air, his feet still not touching the ground. He knit his brows and looked up to see Sanghyuk smirk again.

“What are you grinning at?!” Jaehwan yelled. “Put me down!”

Sanghyuk huffed, but he did as he was told and Jaehwan suddenly found himself sitting in a narrow hollow between two rocks, shaded from the downpour. Sanghyuk sat down next to him, leaning back and breathing loudly, stretching out his legs.

“This is it?” Jaehwan asked and Sanghyuk let his head loll to the side to look at Jaehwan. “Are we just going to sit here?”

Outside of their shelter a thick branch fell off one of the trees, landing on the ground with a thump.

“I am,” Sanghyuk nodded. “You’re free to go if you want.”

Jaehwan only held his own arms tighter.

“Didn’t they check the weather forecast?” Jaehwan grumbled, just to do something about the awkward atmosphere. “How long do you think this’ll last?”

“Not too long,” Sanghyuk replied.

“How do you know?”

“I just know,” Sanghyuk shrugged.

Jaehwan rolled his eyes, but didn’t say anything else.

No matter how much they hid from the rain, the cold November wind still found its way into the cavity, making Jaehwan’s teeth chatter. He pulled up his knees and hugged them, trying to warm himself up a little, but his hoodie was drenched and nothing felt warm anymore. There was some rustling then and Sanghyuk took his jacket off, laying it on Jaehwan’s shoulders.

“What are you doing?” Jaehwan asked, frowning.

“You seemed to be cold.”

“Yeah, but you’re going to catch a cold like that,” Jaehwan said, motioning at Sanghyuk’s torso which was only clad in a T-shirt now.

“I’m a tough cookie, I’ll be fine.”

“Thanks,” Jaehwan mumbled.

There was silence again and it stretched on as if it was meant to contrast the storm outside. Jaehwan had to admit that no matter how much he didn’t like Sanghyuk, it would have been a lot worse if he had got lost alone. He was grateful somewhat, but he didn’t want to tell Sanghyuk just yet. On the other hand, he probably wouldn’t have got lost if it hadn’t been for Sanghyuk.

“Can I ask you a question?”

Jaehwan looked at Sanghyuk who was worrying his lower lip between his teeth, goosebumps running over his bare arms. Jaehwan nodded.

“Why are you always so hostile to me?” Sanghyuk asked and he didn’t look embarrassed or sad—his eyes were clear and curious.

“Ah,” Jaehwan groaned, “is this when we make up and become best friends and the rain stops and we see rainbows and butterflies and live happily ever after?”

Sanghyuk laughed unhappily at that and shook his head, taking a stick from the ground and drawing circles into the mud with it. “Forget it,” he said.

“Okay,” Jaehwan sighed. “I can’t say no to kids with sad puppy eyes.”

“I’m 19!” Sanghyuk exclaimed. “I’m not a kid!”

Sure, Jaehwan knew that. In fact, he had first noticed Sanghyuk wasn’t a kid when they had run into each other on the corridor while Jaehwan had been on his way to the bathroom from where Sanghyuk had just appeared and another freshman thought it would be funny to pull the fluffy white towel Sanghyuk had been wearing around his hips off him. Sanghyuk had cursed while the other guy had run off, and Jaehwan had stood there, rooted to the spot and his eyes glued to Sanghyuk’s (and later, when he had turned around to retrieve his towel, his ).

The memory still made Jaehwan flush, and it very often featured in his wet dreams.

“I know you’re a drug dealer,” Jaehwan said, ever so straightforward so he would chase the memory of Sanghyuk’s most treasured organs out of his head. “I saw you conducting your… business no less than six times in the last month.”

“Oh, yeah, I remember catching you lurking,” Sanghyuk replied rather scornfully.

“Yes, well, I needed evidence! I can’t let a criminal walk around campus, giving drugs to innocent people!”

“Why, what are you? An undercover cop?”

“And what if I am?”

“You’re being irrational,” Sanghyuk said. “God, Jaehwan, you can’t be so naïve. Has no one ever told you not to believe everything you see?”

“Hongbin told me you got into trouble with the police back in high school,” Jaehwan declared.

“When the mall security guard caught me stealing a lighter from a convenience store?” Sanghyuk raised his eyebrows.

“He didn’t know details,” Jaehwan muttered. “But still! You gave something in a plastic bag to Taekwoon at the Halloween party for which you got money from him, and then he disappeared and came back rubbing his nose like he had just snorted something.”

“That thing in the plastic bag was dry ice which he put into the punch bowl to spice up the party as one of the hosts!” Sanghyuk said indignantly. “I bought it for him from Professor Lee! And he had a cold!”

Jaehwan gaped like a fish, but couldn’t let Sanghyuk win. He felt his face heat up again and this time it wasn’t from a naughty memory.

“You gave something to a girl behind the Science building and told her not to show it to anyone,” Jaehwan continued listing Sanghyuk’s crimes. “And then you took my coffee!”

“I gave her the answer keys I’d stolen from Professor Choi,” Sanghyuk sighed. “I’m sure you still remember how hard the first year Statistics final was. My entire group would’ve failed if I hadn’t stolen the answers and she’d heard I had them, so she asked me for them.”

“Nice story,” Jaehwan said sceptically. “What about Kim Wonshik and the library? I don’t see either of you there too often.”

“Okay, I admit—”

“I knew it!”

“—that that was part of my prank on you.”

“What?”

“I noticed you following me around,” Sanghyuk said and now he was smirking again with no trace of regret on his face. “I wanted to know how long it would take for you to confront me about acting shady—because yes, Hakyeon told Taekwoon you thought we were both shady. And if you’re curious about why Taekwoon and I hang out so often: he used to be my neighbour when we were children. We’re not friends with benefits.”

“These are bloody lies,” Jaehwan shook his head. “How should I know you’re not lying?”

“You don’t need to believe me,” Sanghyuk shrugged.

Jaehwan wanted to believe him. Sanghyuk kept looking him in the eye and Jaehwan wasn’t a very good judge of character, but he knew when someone was lying and Sanghyuk wasn’t. Maybe it was just Jaehwan being obsessed with him as Hakyeon had said; Sanghyuk was nice and Jaehwan was too eager to find something not to like about him, because liking him would have been too dangerous. He mystified Sanghyuk to the point he made himself believe Sanghyuk was the spawn of Satan, and it was so easy to feel disgusted with him while Jaehwan walked into his trap and noted down everything he found suspicious about Sanghyuk. He felt so stupid.

“Look, Jaehwan, I really like you,” Sanghyuk said, sounding honest. “And I don’t want you to hate me.”

Jaehwan’s heart fluttered in his chest like a frantic bird, the heat in his cheeks almost making him sweat. He looked up at Sanghyuk and saw something different on him: Sanghyuk wasn’t smirking but he was smiling sadly. Jaehwan really wanted to kiss him.

And so he did.

Sanghyuk’s lips were soft and warm like they were in Jaehwan’s dreams, like when Jaehwan was daydreaming about him in boring classes, about the two of them cuddling on Jaehwan’s bed. They weren’t anywhere near such a comfy surface now and it was extremely cold, but even through the shivers that ran through both of them, Jaehwan could enjoy the way Sanghyuk kissed him back, pulling him close. There was rainwater in their mouths and Sanghyuk’s wet fringe was tickling Jaehwan’s nose. He felt Sanghyuk’s arm around his waist and Jaehwan soon found himself half in Sanghyuk’s lap. He never wanted it to stop raining.

The ringing of Jaehwan’s phone made them stop abruptly. Jaehwan’s eyes widened from the realization that he was making out with Han Sanghyuk somewhere in a forest, sitting inside a rock like two cavemen. He quickly got off Sanghyuk (who looked lovely with the bridge of his fleshy nose dusted with pink) and answered the call.

“Hakyeon!” he yelled. “Where the are you?!”

“We’re on the clearing, but where are you?! And where’s Sanghyuk? Everyone came back when it started raining, but you two—”

“I hate you, Hakyeon, I—”

Sanghyuk took the phone from Jaehwan. “Hey Hakyeon, this is Sanghyuk,” he said and twisted away from Jaehwan who tried to get his phone back. “We’ll be there in a few minutes. Okay. Bye.”

“I was about to lecture him,” Jaehwan grouched.

“You can lecture him as soon as we’re out of here.” Sanghyuk took out his own phone and opened the newly working map application. “Let’s go.”

The wind outside had subsided and it wasn’t raining as awfully as it had, the clouds in the sky becoming less dark as the sunshine tried to break through them. Sanghyuk took Jaehwan’s hand and helped him up, climbing the rocks like he had been practising. Jaehwan followed him a bit clumsily. As soon as Jaehwan made it to the top of the rocks, Sanghyuk held his hand again, lacing their fingers almost shyly. He felt Sanghyuk trembling beside him as they walked in silence with Sanghyuk checking his phone every now and again.

“You know,” Sanghyuk said suddenly, “we could go grab coffee together sometime. I’ll buy you an iced coffee for the one I took from you.”

“I’m going to kick your if you buy me anything cold after we’re out of this icy hell.”

Sanghyuk laughed with his eyes crinkling and when Jaehwan wanted to let go of his hand as soon as they got to the edge of the clearing, Sanghyuk tightened his grip around his fingers.

Jaehwan felt himself smirk in the same way Sanghyuk always did.