At first, Jinsu thought Baekhyun was taking her back to his room to tell Kyungsoo what had happened, or because whatever he’d said he wanted to show her (which was a weird thought, she had to admit, because why did he wanted to do anything for her?) was in his room, but at the top of the stairs and just beside Jinsu’s bedroom door, he halted and slid aside a panel to reveal a screen.  A few taps on that and a very large porthole opened up to darkness beyond.  He stooped to pick up some blankets Jinsu hadn’t noticed on the ground underneath the porthole and gestured for her to go through.

Jinsu hesitated, barely snapping back into reality at the blast of cold air that hit her face, and gave him an uncertain look.  She wanted to ask why they were going outside, but Baekhyun climbed through and held out a hand to her.

“You won’t slip,” he promised.  Too exhausted to try to protest, Jinsu placed her good hand in his and let him pull her through and out onto the narrow metal service walk.  He shut the porthole behind them, placing his hand over the tempered glass.  An amber light lit up as it scanned his fingerprints, then flashed green.  He removed his hand again.  Jinsu continued to look at the porthole with interest as Baekhyun turned away.  Minseok had told her that secure lockdown meant nobody who wasn’t registered on the Attayear’s systems could get in, and that presumably included the portholes, which were obviously fingerprint sensitive.  In the wake of the virus, she wondered if they were all specifically locked unless you were Baekhyun, or if anybody on the Attayear still had access to get in and out.

“Come on!” Baekhyun called, already several feet away at the base of some narrow metal stairs.  With reluctance, Jinsu turned.

There was a faint swoosh and something wet and absolutely freezing landed on her shoulder.  Yelping, Jinsu jumped in alarm, spinning around to see what it was.

“It’s just snow.”  Baekhyun had come back for her, and he reached for her hand again, the right side of his face lit up by moonlight.  “Come on.”

Jinsu eased her hand out of his grip, but she did this time follow him.  The steps went diagonally up the side of the Attayear for a little distance, and then diminished into metal rungs as wide as a person’s shoulders, taking a sharp turn and leading directly up to the top of the machine.  The slope of the Attayear was much less vertical here – Jinsu would have said it was actually tending towards horizontal – and a layer of maiden snow covered it, tapering off where the top edge of the steps met with the base of the line of rungs.  Squinting, Jinsu was pretty sure she could see the snow getting thicker further up the Attayear, but somehow the rungs remained clear.  Clear of snow, at any rate, because on closer inspection, a thin layer of frost covered the rungs closest to her, and probably the ones further up, too.  She turned to Baekhyun, who was looking up towards the top of the machine as he wound the blankets together.  It was obvious he wanted to continue on up.

“I can’t climb that,” she pointed out, raising her right hand limply for proof.  “Maybe if it was dry, but I’ll slip.”

“I know,” he said, taking advantage of the moment to drape the blankets around her neck.  “I’m carrying you.”

“But I don’t want to—”

“It’s worth it at the top.”  He smiled at her.  Without leaving her the chance to object again, he turned and hauled her up onto his back, tucking her legs over his hips.  Taken by surprise, Jinsu wrapped her arm around his neck.  He choked.

“I know you hate me, but this is really not a good place to strangle me because you can’t get back in without my fingerprints,” he said weakly.  Embarrassed, Jinsu eased up, tucking her chin over his shoulder instead in an attempt to convince herself that she had no chance of falling.

The climb was a pretty short one, but Jinsu spent most of it with her eyes closed and mulling over Baekhyun’s latest words to her.  Did he actually think she still hated him, or was he exaggerating to make a little joke?  If it had been Kyungsoo, she would have known he was joking no matter how serious his delivery – it was also a very Kyungsoo type of joke to pull.  Surely Baekhyun knew that she wouldn’t actually kill him?  He was more than capable of beating her to a pulp if she tried, anyway.

Baekhyun straightened up and came to a halt.  “Can I have those blankets?” he asked.  Jinsu listened carefully for any hints of animosity in his voice, but detected none.  She wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or worried that he might be hiding it, but handed the blankets over anyway.  Before she knew where she was, Baekhyun was lowering her gently onto the blankets, which had been spread out on the near-flat crown of the Attayear and he was sitting down himself with a contented sigh.  The ease with which he made himself comfortable – and the blankets, and suggesting it as a place to go – made it obvious that it wasn’t his first time there, as did the fact that he was busier searching in his pockets than he was looking out at the truly stunning view.

Siberia was cold, silent, and ethereally beautiful.  Tall pines extended, sometimes in small clumps and other times in much larger groups, as far as the eye could see into the darkness, fading into the shadows further back or the snow on the boughs seeming to take on a pale lilac hue closer to.  They were just above the top of the trees, which gave off the bizarre impression of being on an island in a lake composed of evergreens.  The dark underside of the branches and pine needles only highlighted the snow as the moon bathed everything in a gentle light.  It honestly felt, in such serene peace and silence, that something as small as coughing would shatter something and start an avalanche.

Jinsu looked around, feeling the chill now that she didn’t have Baekhyun’s body heat and trying to suppress a shiver, and attempted to stick her hands under her armpits.

“There we go,” said Baekhyun, grabbing hold of her right wrist before she could manage it.  “This’ll sting.”

It did.  Jinsu almost shrieked: he’d pressed something wet to the tips of her fingers, carefully wiping down as far as the second knuckle on each.  She tried to tug her hand away, but he was having none of it.

“Let me dis