this simple love

Chapter 6

The digital clock in front of the tour bus says it’s 13:17, but that’s far by the real time because it’s dark and if all the students were able to leave the bus they could probably look at the bright stars that adorn the night sky but there’s no leaving a driving bus and they’re all way too exhausted to enjoy something as stupid as staring at stars right now anyway.

Suho is staring out of the window and watches how cars pass the bus they’re travelling with, their bright headlights prickle his tired eyes and from time to time his eyelids fall shut for a couple of minutes. Lay is sitting next to him and his head rests on the other boys shoulder, his eyes are closed and his lips are slightly parted as he dreams. Suho’s arm is getting quite stiff from the weight of Lays body pressed against him and the other boy’s arm that’s basically swirled around his as if his limb is a teddy doesn’t really help either but there’s no way he can pull it back without waking Lay up so he has decided to let it be and leaves the other boy sleeping peacefully.

One row of chairs behind Suho and Lay there are Kris and Tao, Kris’ head leans against the window but unlike Suho his eyes aren’t focused on other vehicles, instead he’s looking at Tao who’s head rests on his lap. Tao has curled his body up in the most impossible way and has somehow managed to lay on his chair, using Kris’ legs as a pillow. Kris’ long fingers brush through the younger’s hair, straightening the tangles that have formed in Tao’s soft locks with a smile on his lips.

Suho and Kris might actually be the only students to be awake right now, everyone is sleeping, their limbs sprawled all around themselves in an attempt to find a comfortable sleeping-position which is quite impossible in the small chairs of the bus that are obviously not made to fall asleep on. Everyone is exhausted from the already long drive and not even the bumps in the road can keep their eyes from closing and their minds from leading them to beautiful serene dreams.
“Good evening ladies and gentlemen,” suddenly an annoying way-too-happy sounding voice echoes through the bus, filling the air that was filled with the peaceful sound of breathing just one minute before. “Wake up, you all, good evening. I hope you all have had a nice drive with this bus and I’m asking for your attention to tell you that we’ve almost arrived.” Groans and other irritated noises come from different directions, all students that are roughly woken by woman who tries her best to keep her balance standing in the front of the moving bus.

“Wake up! Can I have your attention please,” the woman beams through the bus, gaining a death glare from Kris because her loud voice has woken up the sleeping boy on his lap. The younger blinks a couple of times with his eyes slowly realizing where he is before looking up at Kris with big questioning eyes. “It’s nothing, ignore her, go back to sleep,” the older boy whispers, his fingers still woven in Tao’s hair as he smiles slightly and closes his eyes again.

The female teacher keeps telling everyone to wake up and wishing them a ‘good evening’ even though she’s making it more a bad evening right now and Kris tries to restrain the thought of just killing the woman right there for being a complete insensitive Tao-waking . “Good, now that you’re all awake,” if Kris thought that there wasn’t something as annoying as the teachers voice he was wrong because when she starts laughing the only thing that holds him back from strangling the woman with his bare hands and opening the door to throw her dead body out of the bus is the fact that it would wake Tao again.

“Alright, can I have your attention please?” she asks once she stops laughing and Kris grits his teeth, mentally cursing the woman, “As you probably already know: my name is Mrs. Park and I’m one of the teachers that will be escorting you throughout this trip. I hope you’ve slept well but I’ve woken you up to let you know that we’ll be arriving within half an hour –” Kris harshly bites down his lip to stop himself from screaming why the she’s already waking everyone when they’ll have to drive for another thirty minutes and tries to distract himself by playing with Tao’s hair. “I will walk through the bus to give you all one of these,” Mrs. Park waves with a stack of papers and Kris can hear Suho sigh irritated in front of him, “on here are the rules for this trip, the activities that are planned and...” she stops talking for a bit as if she’s going to reveal the most exciting secret ever, “with who you’ll be sharing your room!” Kris mentally facepalms himself when she starts laughing again and rolls his eyes but at least the shuts up after that, which is a good thing in the boys opinion.
It doesn’t take long for Mrs. Park to reach the seats where Suho and Lay are sitting and she grips Lays shoulder and starts shaking his body when she notices Lay is still asleep, despite Suho’s indignant protests she goes on until Lay’s eyes open themselves and the boy hazily stares at the woman in front of him. Another loud laugher leaves Mrs. Park’s lips as she calls Lay ‘sleepy-head’ and tells him why she’s there; annoyingly tugging his right arm and Kris swears he can hear Suho’s blood boil.

“So, what are your names?” “Zhang Yixing,” Lay mumbles after Suho has called his own name, tiredness can be heard in the younger’s voice and the second after Mrs. Park has handed both of them one of her papers he puts his head back on Suho’s shoulder to sink back to sleep. “Oh, another sleepy –” Mrs. Park beams when she lays her eyes on Tao’s sleeping figure, making Kris’ eyes widen as he hushes her.

“He is asleep and I would very much appreciate it if you don’t wake him. I will wake him up when we have actually arrived and give him his paper, his name is Huang Zitao.”

The woman frowns lightly, even though Kris’ words aren’t necessarily rude the tone in his voice sure is, even as the piercing look in his eyes but she’s too tired to point it out and silently scans her papers to find both their names and handing it to Kris. The other twenty-three minutes the drive to their destiny takes go by without any other problems and Kris keeps Tao’s black locks, much to his liking Tao and him are sharing the same room with Chanyeol and Baekhyun and the woman doesn’t start talking anymore.

Once they arrive about all the students have to be woken up again and they all hazily make their way out of the bus, search for their luggage and head towards the entrance of the building they’ll be staying in. Tao, afraid he will lose sight of Kris, grabs the older boys hand and followed by a sleepy Chanyeol and Baekhyun he manages to find their room. The four boys immediately crash their exhausted bodies on the beds, they barely have the energy to change into their pyjama’s before they all sink into a deep slumber.

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The next day everyone wakes up because of the bright light the sun radiates through the unclosed curtains. Suho is the first to wake up in his room, the one he shares with Kai, Sehun and Luhan and quickly takes a shower to study the piece of paper they got yesterday in the bus.

‘9:00 – The first activity will be a tour through the village, this will be a great opportunity to get to know eachother and the place you will be staying in for the upcoming days.’
Suho frowns as he reads it, moving his eyes towards his watch that’s on the nightstand to see that his presumption is indeed right: nine o’clock was one hour and thirty-eight min