Robin and Baekhyun woke up to a nice, cold Friday. Despite the light snow, the weather in seoul was warm and nice. However they were warned by their teachers and twitter updates that the weather in Busan would not be so kind. Lately there’s been some kind of terrible snow storm that blew over Busan. Since this was surprising and completely unexpected, the students were making a huge deal out of it by bringing excessively thick clothes. Robin and Baekhyun somehow agreed that this was silly. Instead, they brought what they felt were enough for a typical winter; coat, windbreaker etc.

Trying to load a bunch of 80+ students into the train proved to be more difficult that expected. It was well over 4p.m when they set off for busan. The journey was expected to be about 2.5 hours with possible delays due to the snow storm. The school had basically booked out the entire train and had instructed the students to sit with their project partners in each separated cabin. Robin was naturally, and happily seated with Luhan along with the other group, Baekhyun and D.O. For some reason Baekhyun had been incredibly insistent on sharing the cabin with them. He claimed that the view from the cabin was more comfortable to his eyes that’s why he had to sit with them. Robin squinted her eyes at him in suspicion, wondering what was up in his sleeves.

The first hour went by rather productively, with four of them discussing about the projects and what they information they would set out to find when they’ve arrived at Busan later. But then as the train slowly moved on, the sky had also turned dark. When it eventually turned pitch black, no one was officially in the mood to be talking about school work. Robin thought it was a good idea at first because then she’d have the chance to talk to Luhan casually and getting to know him better since she’s never had the chance. What better way than to do so when you’re stuck with in a comfy, warm train cabin for the next 1.5 hours together?

But as soon as D.O mentioned that they should stop discussing the project, Luhan and him both took out their ipods, plugged in their earphones and practice singing diligently. Maybe there were trainees. It was likely because they both sounded heavenly.

“ Not practicing singing?” Baekhyun asked. Luhan had moved to sit beside D.O which made Baekhyun moved over to her side. She was looking out at the window, increasingly there were more and more snow piling on the sides of the view. The storm was really bad, and scary. The only form of comfort she had was the warmth of the cabin and the yellow dim glow of the lights.

“ Nah. There’s nothing to practice yet.”

“ What do you mean?”

“ Mrs.Kim told me the other day that I’m a candidate for her last trainee. But I lack a “broken heart” and i’m not good at expressing emotions when I’m singing.” Robin shrugged. And pulled a sulky face at Baekhyun. Luhan and D.O had gotten up and left the cabin temporarily, perhaps to find a quieter room to practice.

Baekhyun looked back at her, somehow right now he looked less playful. He seemed concerned and there was something so gentle in his eyes that made her feel comforted inside.

 “ First off, congrats on that,” Baekhyun said, removing his hands from his pocket and grabbed her hand for a handshake. Robin laughed, shook his hands and drew her hands back into her own coat jacket.

“ And it’s not that difficult to have a broken heart, I’m speaking this from experience because I’ve broken my finger before and it didn’t take much effort.” Baekhyun joked.

“ I’m being serious here.” Robin hit him lightly on his arms.

“ Alright alright.. Anything else that she said?”

“ Um. Something about putting myself out there to enjoy life and experience pain, fun, adventure, something like that..” she trailed off. The train was getting a little bumpy.

Baekhyun nodded as he listened. “ Sounds like you need to go skinny dipping,”

Robin turned and glared at him, in both amusement and shock. He smiled cheekily. “ ..Or to a party”

“ I think I’ll have to pass the skinny dipping one. Party definitely sounds better.”

“ But what if it was a skinny dippy party?”

Robin pretended to think. “ Would Leonardo dicaprio be there?”

“ Likely”

“ Then yes. I would go, definitely.” Robin nodded.

Baekhyun laughed and lightly nudged her with his elbows, which matched the bumpy jerk of the train and sent her sliding across the seat and left her right cheek pressed hard against the window.

“ Oh !” Baekhyun laughed, then immediately pulled her back by the arm. Robin kicked him lightly and they both laughed.

Then their cabin door pulled open. It was a smiley Luhan.

“ What did I miss?”, he’d asked with his sparking eyes.

“ Ah, nothing. Nothing. We were just talking about..” Robin tried to explain herself without sounding weird.

“ our favourite dipping sauce. Mine’s mayo, You?”, Baekhyun asked Luhan, who seemed surprised by the random question.

Luhan shrugged. “ I don’t have one frankly.”

Robin stifled a laugh. Baekhyun was ridiculous. It was impossible to be bored around him.

“What about you?” Luhan turned to Robin.

“ Me? Oh hmm..”

“ Ketchup! She would sell her vital organs for a ketchup dip.” Baekhyun chirped in. Which was well, true.

“ No I wouldn’t !” Robin protested.

“ Would you trade your lungs for a lifetime supply of ketchup?”, Baekhyun shot back at her. She considered. “ Okay maybe I would.” And again, they both laughed.

Looking back and forth between Robin and Baekhyun, Luhan felt a prick inside.

 “You two seemed to know each other really well. It’s like you guys are a couple or something..” he commented, and smiled politely. Robin’s body stiffened. Oh no. Maybe he..

D.O opened the cabin door. It was great timing, because Robin had felt mighty awkward at Luhan’s comment. She didn’t know how to reply. The train jolted again, this time it was quite hard. D.O almost lost his balance but regained it.

“ What?” D.O questioned, as the three of them looked at him in attempt to escape the awkward situation.

“ What’s your favourite dipping sauce?” Baekhyun sprang into question. It was like he was the dipping sauce investigator.

“ Um. Nacho cheese.” D.O replied and took his seat beside Luhan. Then he smiled. “ I love nacho cheese.” This might be the first time Robin’s seen him smile.

Speaking of food, Robin could see through their cabin door window that people were coming down the aisle with boxes of food—chips and drinks and sandwiches. Clearly, there was a food source somewhere on this train.

“ I’m gonna get some food, do you guys want anything?” Robin said, getting up from her seat.

“ Don’t bother, the food’s all gone at our cafeteria section. But if you’re in the mood to walk further you can give it a try,” D.O said dryly, almost like he was bored. She wondered if he was always like this. A second ago he seemed pretty happy with answering about the nacho cheese.

“ Oh that’s a pity- “ Robin began before she was suddenly and violently thrown out of her balance. The train jolted, skipped, jerked and the lights went off. Loud, ear piercing screams were heard in response as the train continued to bump violently without control. Initially standing, Robin was thrown around from the wall to the door than back to the wall, at least that’s what it felt like because it was dark and she couldn’t see. Finally the train abruptly stopped with a loud thud. The force threw Robin forward into a pair of soft hands that gripped her waist – not her arms and her s succeeded in pressing against this person’s face.

“ Ouch” Baekhyun cried, although his flat tone suggested that he was not in any pain. On the contrary, he would have felt comfortable considering that his head was now pressed against Robin’s s. At once, Robin screamed and slapped Baekhyun in response. But because it was dark and she couldn’t see, she had ended up smacking his head loudly which made him shout in response.

“ What’s going on!? Are you alright?” Luhan shouted.

“ Y..Yes” Robin stammered and quickly pushed herself back to a standing position, then d her way to her seat. It was a few seconds of awkwardness and nothingness until a pair of hands grabbed both her hands.

“ Sit down you might fall again.” Baekhyun said, as he held both her hands tightly and led Robin to sit back at her seat. It was the first time they held hands and Robin felt her heart racing when she felt his warm hands holding hers. It sent those kind of tingling waves all around her body. But.. why?

It almost made her forget about what happened just a second ago until Baekhyun brought it up.

“ Hey.. sorry about.. that.” Baekhyun whispered. There were loud screams outside so only Robin heard it. She squeezed her eyes shut, face burning hot with embarrasement and gritted her teeth. “ It’s alright.”

She wanted to die officially.Like really, really just disappear forever. There’s no way she could ever face Baekhyun again. It might have been a good thing that the lights went out.

“ What was that all about?” Luhan mumbled, referring to the blackout and the train stopping.

“ I don’t know.. it’s been a pretty bumpy ride ever since we left Seoul.” Baekhyun replied.

“ Well at least now I can sleep in peace with all the lights off,” D.O said with a sleepy voice. His ability to sleep even in the most inappropriate time was admirable. He sounded so calm.

They sat in the dark quietness for a few minutes as they listened to all sorts of chaos going outside their cabin. Left and right people were shouting, screaming, screeching their lungs out. Maybe more people were accidentally molested in the blackout like Robin as well, she thought and grimaced. Then suddenly they heard Mr.Jung’s voice speaking over the sound system.

“ Settle down everyone, there is no need to panic. The train is temporarily halted due to the snow storm that has caused the tracks to be blocked with snow. Unfortunately, help and assistance can only reach us tomorrow morning as it is late. I expect that every student remain in their respective cabin and keep themselves warm throughout the night. I trust that since you are all young adults, you will be able to stay safe and take care of yourselves. The night will be over soon. Have a good rest.”

What?

Everyone sat frozen in their seat as they digested what was going on. All thoughts were going through their head. This was scary, dangerous, exciting and completely shocking all at once. They had no idea how serious the situation was, and how long they would stuck here. Would they be safe in here? If the snow storm was enough to almost throw the train off the tracks and completely blocked it, perhaps it could also broke the windows, doors, and kill them all? It was like a scene from 2012, or the day after tomorrow.

“ Just sleep,” D.O finally broke the silence. Then they heard him yawn.

“ .. will we be alright?” Luhan asked warily. Which took Robin by surprise because she hadn’t expect him to sound even a little afraid. If it’s anything, she thought the over-thinking person she was would freak out. Yet right now, she didn’t feel anything. She’s even began to feel tired and sleepy.

“ It’ll be fine. It’s just.. snow covering the tracks. Mr Jung has said it himself that help will come tomorrow morning. Let’s just try to get some rest and save some energy for tomorrow,” Robin offered. She wondered if it would really make him feel better.

“ Yeah we’ll be fine as long as the storm doesn’t get worse and break through the windows, killing us all in our sleep,” Baekhyun joked. But even in the darkness Robin could feel it was inappropriate.

“..w..what?” Luhan gulped.

 D.O laughed and kicked what seemed to be Baekhyun’s legs. “Stop scaring him.” Baekhyun groaned and tried to hit D.O back, but only succeeded in groping Robin’s knee cap a few times.

“ Watch it, that’s my knee cap!” Robin gasped, and shook his hands off as he apologized and laughed.

Then someone took in a deep long breath. There was no telling who it was in this darkness. “ Then I guess we should just… try to sleep,” Luhan mumbled. Even when he was afraid he sounded quite cute.

“ Yup,” D.O muttered back and began shifting about his seat, trying to find the most comfortable angle where he could sleep. In the end he leaned his back against the window glass, tugged his knees up to his chest and pulled his hood over his head for warmth. Luhan was still fumbling.

Just like that they remained in another more awkward 10 minutes of silence. Luhan was drifting off slowly, as Robin still struggled to sleep as she sat upright still with her eyes shut. She didn’t dare to move for fear of making another unwanted and inappropriate body contact with Baekhyun again. It was already enough damage done for the rest of her life.

Baekhyun too, could not sleep but he knew exactly why. He stomach had began churning, burning within him. The excruciating sharp, burning pain came in tormenting waves. Then after suffering in silence, the pain made it self known. Screw the gastric problem.

Baekhyun’s stomach growled.

Robin’s ears perked up.

Growled. Baekhyun inhaled in frustration.

“ You didn’t take your medicine did you?” Robin asked. Baekhyun frowned. .

“ .. No.” He admitted weakly.

She wasn’t sure if Luhan and D.O were asleep, but they didn’t respond.

“ Didn’t you eat just now?” Robin demanded. Why would he not take care of himself, when he knew he had a gastric problem?

“ Um.. I might have forgot..”

“ You can’t just forget to eat on time you know,” Robin replied in irritation.

“ I know.. “ Baekhyun trailed off weakly. He mentally cursed himself for not eating. Now there was no way he could find food and he had to just bear with this pain till the next morning when there’s lights.

“ Do you have any torchlight?” Robin asked back.

“ I do.” Luhan replied. Oh there, he was awake. “ Are you alright Baek?”

Baekhyun grumbled. Why the hell was luhan awake? “ Yeah.. just old problem. Gastric but it’s fine really. I’ll sleep on it.”

“ Could you lend me your tourchlight then?” Robin asked, completely ignoring the ridiculous suggestion Baekhyun made about sleeping his pain away.

“ What’re you gonna do with it?” Baekyun asked. He wish he could see Robin and what she was planning.

Luhan began fumbling about his bag, taking almost 3 minutes to find his small torch light and handed it to Robin clumsily in the dark.

“ Thanks..” Robin mumbled, taking the torchlight back. “ D.O said the cafeteria at our section is emptied off right?”

“mmhmm” D.O muttered. So no one was really asleep after all. Robin tapped her feet and sighed out. Where was Baekhyun going to find food?

“ Are you suggesting that I go find food from the cafeteria?” Baekhyun asked in such a high pitched tone that maybe only dogs could hear. That was crazy. Even if they had a torch light it’s still dangerous to be wondering about the train in pitch darkness.

“ That seems like the only thing you should do.” Robin replied back flatly, as she searched her brain for any source of food on the train. Those pigs.. eating away the entire cafeteria in their train section. Then she sighed and looked out of the window. The snow was thick and falling down heavy. Then in the distance, about 500m away she saw a lighted low building. She squinted her eyes to get a closer look, then pressed her face against the window to get a clearer view. It was a convenient store!!!!

She chuckled, then looked back what she guess was the direction of Baekhyun. “ Bingo.”