“Why do you always sit on the couch and play video games? Go outside for once.” his mother yelled the second she stepped into the house and saw him sprawled out on the couch with a big bag of chips on his lap.

“There isn’t anything to do around here. Oh and I finished feeding the chickens, bathing the dog and cleaning the cow poop before you ask, so technically I did go outside today.” he argued back with a mouthful full of chips in his mouth.

“It’s a nice day outside. Why don’t you go hiking in the mountain nearby?”

“I don’t wanna go.”

“Kyungsoo, your eyes are gonna get fried if you keep ‘em glued to the TV all day.”

“Ugh, fine”

So he put his shoes on, grabbed his bag, headed outside and started walking. The mountain was nearby so it only took him 7 minutes to arrive, the part after was the long part. He looked at the map and saw 2 trails. The yellow trail or the red trail. Yellow would take around 35 minutes to get to the top but red only took 20 minutes. So red it was.

Despite being shorter, the trail was full of branches, leaves, rocks and random pits, making it harder to walk on. To add to everything, it was extremely steep. 10 minutes in and Kyungsoo was already out of breath. As persistent as he was, he always had to finish what he started, so this was gonna be a long walk.

After that day he thought he was done with hiking for good, but his mother saw how it kept him occupied and the fact that he was going outside and getting exercise, so she made him go again, and again, and again. Eventually, this became a routine and he went almost everyday of the week. It was torture.

Another day, another hike. Kyungsoo’s mother was nice enough to get him new trainers so it made things slighty easier but not really. He stopped before the paths started and sighed, but he continued to walk towards the red path. Just as he was about to start, Kyungsoo heard a feminine voice behind him.

“Just take the yellow path if you’re so tired. It may be longer but it’s easier to walk on.” the voice said.

He turned around and saw a girl around his age, maybe a little younger. He’d seen her a few times already while coming here. Kyungsoo stared at her with a blank expression.

“Trust me, I’ve gone both ways. I see you always go on red, looks like things haven’t changed.”

“Well it is quicker.” he replied.

“But so much more work.” she said before heading off towards yellow.

“Fine, have it your way.” Kyungsoo muttered under his breathe before following her on the yellow path. He realized half way up that she was right, yellow was longer but it wasn’t as steep and the path was so much clearer making it easier and more enjoyable to walk on. Th