"At least, let me carry my own backpack," I tell Mina who's glaring at me but keeping her same slow trudging speed up the side of the mountain.

She currently has two heavy duffel bags in either hand and one of those camper set‐ups on her back.

In front of me, my parents walk together with their fingers interlocked. My mom's head is resting gently against my father's left shoulder. In the midst of the walk, he pauses to kiss her forehead and mumble something sweet that makes my mom giggle and playfully hit his arm. 

I don't feel the frown that's on my face until Mina nudges me and mimics my facial expression. "Oh, sorry. I... never mind." Mina continues to watch my face until we reach the peak of the mountain. 

"Here should do," my father says and starts to unpack the things he's brought. 

Mina begins to unload herself and get to helping my parents with their things, butI tapped her on the shoulder and gesture for her to follow me.

At first she's reluctant to leave since it is her duty to take care of tasks like those but she is supposed to listen to me, and me only, so she follows but not without a small sigh of frustration that I caught when she rose from her knees on the dry soil. 

"You don't need to give me that look. I know you should be back there helping unpack but I wanted to show you the view." I stand at the edge of the peak where it declines down suddenly and with one wrong step, you're dead.

One thing about our annual camping trips, the view from this cliy is absolutely outstanding; the fact that there's no trace of urbanization or infrastructure when you look out and below, it is such a refreshing thing to see from time to time—it's a nice reminder that there are still parts of Earth that have been left unscathed my man. 

"Beautiful, isn't it?" I ask and when I turn around to look at her, I take a sharp intake of breath.

The place she's standing at has a warm ray of sun coming in at such the perfect angle that it highlights her face and accentuates her beauty in a way I didn't think was possible. Her pale eyes still has the sense of sadness in them, but what stumps me is that her pupils are still dilated even with the sun shining right in on them. 

The color slowly starts to seep in to her cheeks, although I can feel that she wants to look down and hide the red decorating her face, she maintains eye contact with me and nods.

My fingers slightly spasm by my side as I try my best to retain myself from walking right up to her and cradle her face to kiss her until I can't breathe anymore. 

I jerk my head back towards the way we came as she takes her place in front of me. Each one of her steps is silent, I can tell she's quietly laughing by the way her shoulders quickly rise and fall from hearing me snap twigs and loudly crunch leaves beneath my step. 

"Oh shut up." 

The breeze against my bare arms and legs brings goosebumps to the surface of my skin, although it isn't that cold out, I'm pleasantly warmed with my feet swirling around in the clear pond water.

The thought of me being able to hold Mina and press my lips alongside the ridge of her shoulders, run my fingers through her long, silky, red hair, have her gasp for air from laughing so hard, put a smile on her face even though there are tears running down her face... 

I shake my head and stare down at my riveting reflection.

Love was always such a complex concept to fully understand. Sometimes, I think the things I feel and want for Mina are simply branches of lust. That wouldn't make sense though, since I didn't particularly imagine spreading her out on my bed after seeing her scars or when she sat on the toilet seat as I drowned myself in my ice bath after one soccer practice session—being in her presence is enough and all I will ever need. 

I rest my head atop of my knees and allow my hair to cascade down over my shoulders. Across the pond in front of me, I can see a thick, grey cloud of smoke start to rise, the barely audible cracks of wood signify that they've already started up the fire.

The thought is completely random but I'm starting to think that bringing Mina instead of Minho was a complete fault.

Who knows how long I'll be able to hold out with