“Minki…Minki…it’s time to wake up.” MinHyun said to the sleeping Ren on his lap, gently shaking to wake him up. Ren rubbed open his eyes and saw Aron an inch close to his face. “Are feeling better now, princess?” Aron smiled, patting Ren’s head. He backed off when Ren got up, still sitting at the same spot. “Aron hyung, what are you doing here?” Ren asked blankly. “Have you forgotten that you suddenly ran out of the house in tears without a single word? I was worried about you. We all were.” Aron looked concerned. “We had to look for you high and low. If not for MinHyun, I don’t think I’ve even found you yet.” Aron ruffled Ren’s hair. “I’m sorry for making you guys worried.” Ren felt guilty, looking down. “It’s ok Minki ya. Now that we know you’re safe. Don’t ever run off like that again, ok?” MinHyun gave a warm smile and Ren nodded still feeling guilty. “By the way, where’s JR and BaekHo?” MinHyun asked Aron.”I don’t know? I did send them a text message telling them where we are.” Aron took out his phone to reassure. “Then they should be here by now.” MinHyun wondered. Ren looked at both of them. In his heart, he doesn’t want JR and BaekHo to come over. It would make the situation more awkward. He doesn’t want to deal with them yet. Just then he saw 2 figures approaching them. “Speak of the devils.” Aron said after identifying the two figures. 

JR was limping and BaekHo was holding on to him. Ren saw that and immediately rushed to attend to JR, worried. “Are you ok?” Ren asked worried inspecting his leg. “I’m alright, my dear Minki.” JR flashes a smile seeing Ren being so worried about him. “Why are you smiling? Doesn’t it hurt?” Ren tried pressing his ankle. “Ouch! No, it doesn’t hurt anymore.” JR eyes never left Ren. “What do you mean it doesn’t hurt? You just said ouch just now.” Ren tried rubbing JR’s ankle to ease the pain. Ren never noticed BaekHo was standing beside him the whole time. All BaekHo could do was just stand there and watch. He felt slightly hurt but the feeling was rather… – different. He walked over to MinHyun and Aron who were still sitting under the tree. As he approaches, Aron start to question. “What happened there?” Aron points towards the direction of JR and Ren. “JR accidentally tripped while looking for Ren. He was worried about Ren until you sent us a message.” BaekHo explained. “Is he alright?” MinHyun asked. “He should be, especially now.” BaekHo’s voice got softer looking at the pair.

“It’s time to go back then. Manager hyung called me several times already.” Aron got up, sweeping of imaginary dust of his . MinHyun too except that he sat down not moving for too long and now he got cramps. “Are you alright?” BaekHo asked worriedly. “Ya, I’m fine. I just got some cramps.” MinHyun tried to exercise his legs. He leg got better and they started moving towards JR and Ren who were still in the middle of their business. “Let’s go back now. JR should get some proper treatment.” Aron tried to get JR up together with Ren. Three of them walked in front while BaekHo and MinHyun followed behind them. BaekHo kept quiet throughout the whole journey, only looking at JR and Ren. When they got back, JR was immediately taken care of by the manager and Ren who stayed by his side.

─ ─

The next morning,

It’s their second last day of vacation. Everyone was sleeping soundly until the afternoon. MinHyun was the first one to wake up followed by JR, Ren then Aron. All of them gathered at the living room, one by one. MinHyun looked around and noticed that BaekHo isn’t around. “Aron hyung, is BaekHo still sleeping?” MinHyun asked. “No, he’s not there when I woke up.” Aron just realized that BaekHo’s missing. “Don’t tell me he went somewhere again?” MinHyun and Aron were still discussing the whereabouts of BaekHo when Ren’s phone suddenly vibrates. He took up his phone from the table and saw a message sent by BaekHo.

Meet me by the beach at 2pm.

Come alone. Don’t bring anyone nor tell anyone.

I’ve prepared a bicycle for you outside.

I’ll be waiting for you. =D

Ren got up immediately after seeing the message. When he was about to head out, JR yelled out from the kitchen, “Where are you going?” Ren turned around to face JR. “Somewhere.” He replied and headed straight out. JR stood there in confusion looking at Ren who just dashed out of the house. With his injured leg, he isn’t able to catch up with Ren like that so he went to Aron and MinHyun instead. “Where is Minki going?” JR asked as he sat down beside MinHyun. “I don’t know. He just dashed straight out after looking at a message on his phone.” MinHyun explains. “By the way, do you know where BaekHo is?” Aron interject. JR looked around and to realized BaekHo’s absence. “Where did he go?” JR asked and both MinHyun and Aron shrugged their shoulder and shook their heads.

─ ─

As Ren dashed out of the house and closed the door behind him, he found a pink wheeled bicycle right at the front gate. “This must the bicycle.” He talked to himself, took the bicycle and cycled off to where BaekHo asked him to meet. When he reached the beach, he parked the bicycle under a tree and went towards the writing he saw on the sand. He looked around to find BaekHo when suddenly he got scared by someone jumping in behind him. It turns out to be BaekHo. He was laughing at the fallen Ren and Ren isn’t pleased with him. “Ya, it isn’t funny. Stop laughing.” Ren got up, annoyed. “Sorry.” BaekHo apologized while laughing. Ren was about to leave that place but BaekHo caught his wrist. “Don’t leave.” Ren turned to face him. “Let’s have some fun today.” BaekHo pulled Ren near the sea. A bunch of beach tools can be seen. “Are we going to build sandcastles?” Ren mood lifted when he saw the tools. It may be childish but he loved building sandcastles by the beach. Both of them had fun the whole day by the beach. BaekHo playfully destroyed Ren’s carefully built sandcastle and ran away. Ren tried got up to catch BaekHo. Baekho teasingly ran around Ren until he end up at the sea. Ren continuously splashes water at BaekHo not letting him to have chance to attack back. Ren got tired and BaekHo splashed back at him. Both of them swam around the swallow clear sea water with snorkeling goggles they borrowed to find fishes swimming around them. Ren and BaekHo were amazed by the wonders of the underwater world.

It was almost sunset when they got out of the bathroom after a refreshing shower. BaekHo brought extra clothes for himself and Ren. Ren stomach grumbled slightly when they were about to leave the shower room. BaekHo laughed at the cute Ren looking and holding his stomach. “Feeling hungry?” BaekHo stomach started grumbling too and louder than Ren’s. “I wonder who’s hungrier.” Ren’s turn to laughed at BaekHo.”Come on, let’s go get something to eat.” BaekHo leads the way and Ren followed behind. When they were about to reach the restaurant, BaekHo closes Ren’s eyes with his hands, preparing to give him a surprise. “What are you doing, BaekHo ya.” Ren got confused at BaekHo’s action, carefully walking. “You’ll know~” BaekHo slowly leads Ren to the place and took off his hands. “Surprise!” BaekHo jumped in front of Ren pointing to the set-up table. “Woah~ Did you prepare all this?” Ren was surprised looking at the decorated table with a candle that has yet to be lighted and helium balloons tied to the chairs. “Ta-da!” BaekHo presented Ren a bouquet of mixed flowers, one of each kind. Ren gave a light laugh when he saw the bouquet. “Err…sorry…I don’t know what flower you like.” BaekHo felt embarrassed. “It’s alright. It looks nice.” Ren comforted.

They both had their dinner over-looking at the beautiful sunset by the beach. Ren felt really happy and seeing Ren happy makes BaekHo happy. His smile grew wider looking at Ren carefully cutting his steak. “Let me help you with that.” BaekHo offered. “It’s ok. I can do it myself.” Ren insisted but BaekHo stubbornly took Ren’s plate and helped him to cut it into small pieces. “There you go. Enjoy.” He gave back the plate to Ren. “I said I can cut it myself.” Ren annoyed at BaekHo’s action but eats it anyway. He was glad that BaekHo did that. It was quite difficult for him to cut by himself but was too shy to ask for help since he has his pride. “Say ah~” BaekHo tried to feed Ren and he accepted it which made BaekHo even more delighted. ‘Feed me!” BaekHo said pointing to his wide-opened mouth. Ren hesitated but fed him anyways. BaekHo was being too cute like an innocent child. He couldn’t resist.

After dinner, both of them sat at the beach looking up at the starry sky. BaekHo pulled Ren closer to him. “BaekHo…” Ren started. BaekHo looked at Ren smiling. “Thank you so much for today. I had so much fun.” Ren continued. “No problem. I’m glad that you had fun.” BaekHo ruffled Ren’s hair and pulled Ren’s head to lie on his shoulders. “But…” Ren’s voice tone got serious. “Let’s no talk about ‘buts’, shall we?” BaekHo cut him off, his wide-smile toned down. Ren was about to give in to him but a feeling kept telling him to say it and so he did. “BaekHo ya…” Ren started off with a serious tone again but got off once again. “Shhh…let’s just enjoy the view.” BaekHo held onto Ren even more tightly than before, not wanting to let go of his lover.

“I’m sorry BaekHo ya. I have to say this now.” Ren tried to get off of his grip and stood up. “I’m sorry, BaekHo. I’m really sorry.” Ren started to tear up looking at BaekHo who’s still sitting at the same position. “I’m in love with JR. I didn’t know what I was doing when I started with you. I guess I was just thirsty for love. I shouldn’t have said yes. I was confused but now I’m very clear that I still love JR. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry!” Ren fell down to his knees, hands covering his face. “There, there…don’t be sorry.” BaekHo comforted, patting at Ren’s back. “But…” Ren said looking at the ground. “Shhh…I said no more ‘buts’.” BaekHo cuts him off once again, hugging the crying Ren in his arms tightly. “I know what you’re going to say. Don’t be sorry.” BaekHo kissed Ren’s forehead lightly and wiped off Ren’s tears. “You’re not mad at me?” Ren looked at BaekHo, sniffing. BaekHo shook his head. “No, of course not. Why would I be? You still look cute when you cry but I like your smiling face better.” BaekHo smiled gently. “It’s getting late. We should go back now.” BaekHo pulled Ren up. “I’m sorry BaekHo, I really am.” Ren said feeling sorry towards what he did to BaekHo. BaekHo gave a warm smile to him and they both started walking back.

A journey that may seemed long to other people but it was short to BaekHo. He had decided to let go of Ren for his sake. He doesn’t want Ren to suffer. All he wants is him to be happy and safe and he knows that JR would take very good care of him. He woke up in the early morning to prepare all this just to spend his last quality time to Ren. He wanted to make Ren happy and he did, successfully. He is going to remember this day for the rest of his life. When they got back home, he reconciled with JR, saying sorry and all about being rude to him and so on and asks him to take good care of Ren. MinHyun was proud of what BaekHo did. And so, they were happy once again with Aron starting the celebratory mood. 

A/N: And so, this marks the end of the story. Thank you guys for reading, subscribing and commenting. I love you guys! <3