Suho was sitting comfortably in front of a fireplace holding a cup of piping hot chocolate between his mitted hands. The hot drink had been far too scorching for his bare hands to hold, so the leader used his mittens to shield his skin.

 

Suho never really liked to ski, or snowboard for that matter, and tubing was absolutely out of the question. It was enough that the leader agreed to trek out to what he liked to call the “far North”, and if he was going to spend the next 3 days surrounded by snow, he’d rather do so while sitting in the warm comfort of the chalet.

 

“Hyung, the slopes are really fun! You should come tubing with us!” Jongdae said with a happy smile. The younger member ran up to Suho while still covered in snow. Jongdae brushed the snow off of his coat, and it ended up hitting Suho’s face, who furiously swatted it away.

 

“They really are,” Yixing said with a smile that revealed his dimples. “I’ve never been bathtubing before, but it’s really fun!”

 

“Tubing, Yixing,” Luhan corrected the younger Chinese member.

 

“Ah yes, tubing is incredibly fun!” Yixing chimed.

 

Suho rolled his eyes and slumped back into his loveseat. He glanced over at Minseok and Minah, who were taking a break from skiing. The young couple looked so happy, and when Minseok saw some snow on the top of her head, he brushed it off gently. He offered her a smile, and she returned it with an equally bright one.

 

‘Ah, young love,’ Suho cooed at the sight.

 

When Jongdae noticed he had snow on his back, he spun around in a circle to try and get it off of him. He hit his back and brushed the snow off, which happened to land right on Suho’s lap.

 

“Jongdae! If you’re going to ski then why can’t you be more like Minseok and Minah over there?” Suho snapped. He brushed the snow off his pants and pouted when he saw that it had left a small water stain.

 

“I didn’t go skiing though, I went tubing,” Jongdae muttered. “No need to get all huffy, hyung. What’s your issue?”

 

“My issue is that I don’t like snow,” Suho sighed.

 

“Why?” Luhan asked with a confused expression.

 

“It’s cold, and when my legs are exposed to the cold they sometimes ache,” Suho replied.

 

“Wow, are you an old man?” Kris scoffed after he entered the scene. “You’re scared of a little snow? That’s so lame. Once you learn to snowboard like a pro like moi, you ain’t scared of anything.”

 

Behind him, Chanyeol ran after the other giant waving both hands in the air. He had a cheeky smile plastered on his face as he shouted, “Kris hyung! Congrats on passing the Greens test! Let me treat you to a hot chocolate!”

 

“Chanyeol!” Kris groaned as he slapped his hand over his eyes. He avoided looking at any of the club members out of embarrassment.

 

“What?” Chanyeol asked when he finally reached the group.

 

Luhan held his stomach while he laughed. “Look at me, I’m Kris and I snowboard like a pro!”

 

“Ah quit it would you? Don’t you have better things you should be doing right now, Luhan?” Kris spat.

 

“Well, I just had a skiing date with the oh so lovely Seohyun, and my next one with angelic Yuri isn’t until 4 o’clock. Since I had some time to spare, I decided to go tubing with Jongdae and Yixing,” Luhan said with pride. He puffed his chest out and continued to boast about the various girls he had met thus far.

 

“Kris hyung doesn’t snowboard like a pro,” Chanyeol said as his face contorted into one of confusion. “He took even longer than Ahri to pass the Greens test.”

 

“Chanyeol!” Kris screamed. He grabbed onto the other student’s collar and inched their faces dangerously close to each other. “You’re one to talk! You were at the Greens for 3 hours as well! You’re not any better than I am.”

 

“Actually,” Chanyeol started as he removed Kris’s hands from him. “I passed the test on my first try. I was keeping Ahri company. She’s the one who spent 3 hours at the Greens.”

 

Ahri, who had been running after Chanyeol, caught up just in time to hear him tell everyone about her struggle to pass the beginner’s test. Her face flushed red and she immediately waved her hands in the air. “It wasn’t like 3 hours, stop over-exaggerating, Chanyeol!” she exclaimed.

 

“No, I had my phone with me and I’m sure it was 3 hours and 5 minutes exactly,” Chanyeol replied.

 

“Stop over-exaggerating!” she said through gritted teeth. Ahri glared at Chanyeol with a look that sent shivers down his spine. Chanyeol gulped and nodded his head, even though he wasn’t sure why Ahri seemed so embarrassed. After all, people learned at different paces and what did it matter if it took someone 10 minutes or 5 hours to pass the Green’s test? So long as they passed, that’s all that matters, right?

 

Kyungsoo, Tao and Baekhyun strolled into the chalet. Baekhyun and Tao held their snowboards in one hand, while Kyungsoo carried his skis. “It feels good to know that I won that race on Black Diamond. Byun Baekhyun’s still got the movies,” Baekhyun said confidently.

 

“Only by like a mimillimimeter,” Tao sputtered.

 

“You mean a millimeter,” Kyungsoo said.

 

“Yeah, whatever,” Tao pouted. The young Chinese member spoke Korean well for the most part, but whenever he was flustered he’d often slip up and say something that didn’t make sense.

 

“Was not!” Baekhyun gawked, slightly offended that his friends were doubting his skills.

 

“We all know that if it weren’t for that small bump of snow, I’d have won the race,” Kyungsoo said with a smirk.

 

When the trio spotted the rest of the After School Club gathered around the fireplace, they ran towards them. “Wow, we got the entire crew here,” Baekhyun commented.

 

“Where’s Kai?” Tao questioned. He scanned the group and he frowned when he saw that Kai wasn’t the only one that was missing. “And Sehun and Eunji? Still on the junior slopes?”

 

“I guess so,” Jongdae replied with a shrug. “They weren’t at the tubing area, and I’ve been there all afternoon.”

 

“Well, they weren’t at the Greens either. Me, Kris hyung and Ahri have been there for like 3 and a half hours and we never saw them there,” Chanyeol replied. His explanation earned a slap in the arm from Ahri and a hard hit on the back from Kris, who both looked at the ground with a tint of red on their cheeks.

 

“Well, they never got to the intermediate slopes,” Tao said. “We went through all the slopes today, right hyungs?” Baekhyun and Kyungsoo nodded their heads in agreement.

 

“I’ve been in the chalet all day,” Suho said. “They never came by.”

 

“We thought they didn’t really like the junior slopes,” Minseok joined in on the conversation. “We saw them in the beginning, right Minah?”

 

“Yeah, that’s right. But they left, so we assumed they moved up to the intermediate slopes,” Minah explained. “They weren’t at the junior slopes in the afternoon.”

 

Suho’s eyes widened in shock and he stood up quickly, which caused some of his hot chocolate to spill out of its cup and onto Jongdae’s hand. It wasn’t incredibly hot, but it startled Jongdae and caused him to let out a yelp. Luhan chuckled in amusement and said in a teasing tone, “That’s what you get for brushing all that snow onto him. Karma is oh so sweet, isn’t it?”

 

“Where are they then?” Suho said frantically. “If they weren’t at the Greens, junior slopes, intermediate slopes, or the chalet, then where are they? I haven’t gotten a text from them all day either!”

 

Kris brought a hand over Suho’s back and rubbed it gently. “Calm down, Suho. They’re probably goofing off somewhere, building snow castles and having snowball fights or something. You know those 3, they’re always making trouble like that.”

 

Suho focused on regulating his breathing, and calmed down at Kris’s words. He sat back down and nodded his head slowly while muttering, “Yeah, you’re right. There’s nothing to be worried about.”

 

Suddenly, Sehun bolted through the doors of the chalet. With frantic eyes, he spotted the members of the After School Club and he ran after them, not even caring that he was still wearing his skis. He stopped in front of the group and was panting heavily.

 

“Look Suho, Sehun’s right here! See, there was nothing to worry about!” Luhan said with a reassuring smile.

“Yeah, you’re all right. I’m just too paranoid,” Suho chuckled nervously.

 

Sehun was still panting, and Luhan wondered why the younger student looked so out of breath. Raising a brow at him, Luhan asked, “Sehun? Is everything alright? Why are you so out of breath? You look like you just ran a marathon, man.”

 

“Kai… Eunji… snow… cabin,” Sehun sputtered in between breaths.

 

“I don’t get what you’re trying to say,” Minseok said confusedly. Minseok had never heard Sehun speak before, so the fact that he was doing so piqued his interest.

 

Sehun took a deep breath and exclaimed, “Kai and Eunji are trapped in a haunted cabin! There’s too much snow covering the cabin and they can’t get out!”

 

Suho was just about to faint.

 

.::.           .::.           .::.

 

“How can you believe me, just like that? How can you have so much faith in me?”

 

“I trust you.”

 

“Trust is a very big word,” Kai scoffed, turning away from Eunji so he wouldn’t have to look at her. To her, it looked like he was pushing her away, but in reality Kai turned his head away to hide the growing smile on his face.

 

“It’s actually not,” Eunji said matter-of-factly. “There’s also confidence, assurance, and reliance. Compared to those words, ‘trust’ isn’t really that big of a word.”

 

“You know what I mean,” Kai replied with a grin.

 

“Well, I mean there’s a bunch of other synonyms too but argh for some reason I can’t-“ Eunji started. She was desperately trying to lighten the mood because if she didn’t, she knew she’d start feeling awkward. But then again, she was already being awkward.

 

“You can call me Jongin,” he told her.

 

“What?” she snapped her head to look at him and gawked.

 

“I said,” he started. Kai turned to look at her and laughed amusedly when he saw her expression. “You can call me Jongin.”

 

“B-but yo-you…”

 

“It’s not that hard of a name to pronounce, Eunji,” he said. “Say it with me. Jong-“

 

“Jong-“ she instinctively repeated after him.

 

“-in,” he finished.

 

“-in,” she repeated.

 

“See?” he said with a smile. “That wasn’t hard, was it?”

 

She stared at him before she suddenly waved her arms in the air. “Aish, I know it’s not a hard name to pronounce!”

 

“Then why did you look so confused?” he asked with a perplexed face.

 

‘It was kinda out of nowhere,’ she thought to herself. Eunji chose not to say what was on her mind though, and ended up saying, “No reason, Jongin.” It felt weird for her to say his name so nonchalantly, especially in their current situation, but she knew that he was trusting her with something important, and she was going to respect it.

 

Besides, she had never heard Sehun call him “Jongin” before, and for some reason it gave her a bubbly feeling in the stomach that she couldn’t quite ignore.

 

“Good,” he said through a smile. Jongin placed his hand on her head and started ruffling through her hair.

 

“Stop! You’re messing up my hair!” she squealed.

 

“Sorry, I can’t help it. Your hair’s always reminded me of my dog’s fur,” he replied, but didn’t stop going through her hair.

 

“And what is that supposed to mean?” Eunji grunted. “That my hair’s in knots like a dog’s fur?”

 

“Monggu has really silky smooth fur though,” he replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “It’s much smoother than yours actually.”

 

“Okay, now that was an actual insult,” she smiled and punched his shoulder lightly. She was glad to see that Kai – nay, Jongin – was in better spirits.

 

“Sorry,” he said in an apologetic tone. With a rather concerned look on his face, he added, “I didn’t really mean it.”

 

“You don’t have to get all apologetic about it,” she laughed. “I was joking.”

 

“Oh, okay,” he said with a sigh of relief. In truth, Jongin had some insecurities and he was always afraid that the façade he put up would eventually cause his friends to turn their backs on him. He never voiced these concerns out to anyone, but they haunted him constantly and it was something he knew he definitely had to work on.

 

‘Maybe she could help me with it,’ he thought to himself.

 

Eunji was starting to forget the fact that they were stuck in an abandoned cabin that was caved in by snow. She wasn’t even feeling cold anymore. In fact, her entire being felt warm.  She certainly wasn’t bored either. She enjoyed spending time with Jongin, and she was grateful for being able to learn so much about him.

 

So, when the door suddenly burst open with a snot-covered Suho running towards her, Eunji mentally groaned as the peaceful moment she had been sharing with Jongin was shattered.

 

“OHMYGOODNESSTHANKGODYOUTWOAREOKAY!” said Suho so quickly that Eunji didn’t even catch what he had said. Suho latched himself onto her and gave her a tight squeeze. Then, he ran after Jongin and embraced him tightly, crying about how he was “so happy that they were alive.”

 

The trio stepped outside, and Eunji stared in disbelief as she came face to face with what she thought was an army. Helicopters surrounded the cabin above, and there were police snowmobiles surrounding them on the ground. Men and women alike, dressed in black and navy police uniforms were busy scribbling down notes and taking pictures of her and Jongin.

 

“Hyung, what’s this?” Jongin asked.

 

“I had my family’s private police come and help me find you two, that’s what happened!” Suho exclaimed. “They were here anyway!”

 

“Why?” he asked.

 

“I always get at least a squadron or two to follow me whenever I make overnight trips,” he shrugged. “Puts the household at peace, I guess. Seriously, the maids and butlers are such worrywarts.”

 

When Sehun spotted Eunji and Jongin emerging from the tiny, snow-covered cabin, he ran towards them. He lunged himself at Kai, and flung his shoulders over the other male’s body. Kai caught Sehun and he patted his back, telling him that they were okay.

 

Eunji watched the two in silence, and admired their friendship. She thought, ‘Sehun must have really been worried about Jongin… It’s nice to have a friend who worries that much about you.’

 

Because he looked so preoccupied with Kai, she wasn’t expecting – nor was she ready – for a tackle from Sehun. He let go of Kai and brought Eunji into a tight embrace. When she saw him hugging Jongin, Sehun had to fling his shoulders over him, and the two were practically the same in size. However, she felt tiny in his embrace. His shoulders enveloped her body like he was hugging a stuffed toy, and Eunji was starting to realize that she felt safe in his arms.

 

Sehun started shaking, and she was barely able to make out the “I’m so glad” that he muttered.

 

“Sehun, I’m fine, really,” she said nervously. She tried pushing him away because now people were starting to stare at them and she was starting to grow embarrassed. Try as she may though, he refused to let go and instead hugged her tighter.

 

“Sehun, we’re fine! Jongin and I are fine!” she reassured him with a chuckle. At the mention of Jongin’s name, Sehun flinched but he didn’t let go. Eventually, Suho had to pry him off of her.

 

“Enough hugging!” Suho lectured Sehun. “Don’t you think everyone else wants a hug from them too? You can’t have them all to yourself.”

 

Sehun pouted at Suho’s words and walked away, but not before sparing a last glance at Eunji. As soon as he left, Ahri jumped on Eunji and cried, “I was so worried! When Sehun told us the news, I was so scared but thank God you’re alright!”

 

“It’s not a big deal, really,” Eunji said with a shrug. “The cabin wasn’t that bad actually.”

 

Kai was swarmed with the other members of the After School Club, who were demanding hugs from the first year. After everyone got a hug from both Kai and Eunji, the After School Club started to make their way back to the chalet. Some chose to ride on the back of the snowmobiles (i.e. Chanyeol, Ahri and Kris because they barely just passed the Greens test. Oh pardon me, Chanyeol passed on his first try but he just wanted to keep Ahri and Kris company on the “fancy police snowmobile”).

 

Others chose to ride on the helicopter (i.e. just Suho because he wanted to return to the chalet as soon as possible because Lord knows how long he’s been outside and he was scared his arthritis was going to start up at any second).

 

The remainder of the After School Club (i.e. you do the Math because I don’t want to list everyone’s name here). Eunji took large strides in the snow with Minah at her side, who refused to let her out of her sight because she was afraid she “might disappear on her again”. A semi-disgruntled Minseok strode behind the two girls, muttering something about how this was supposed to be “his vacation with his beloved girlfriend”.

 

Kai and Sehun were walking not too up front, nor were they at the back. The two boys were somewhere in the middle of the group, casually walking next to each other without saying a word.

 

“I heard,” Sehun suddenly spoke out.

 

“About what?” Kai asked.

 

“You told her,” Sehun hummed while looking at the sky. “About Jongin, I mean.”

 

“I-it kinda just slipped out,” Jongin mumbled under his breath and scratched the back of his head nervously.

 

“Slipped out my foot,” Sehun snorted. “You planned it.”

 

“Did not.”

 

“Please, Jongin may be sweet and kind and considerate, but he’s also conniving,” Sehun said with a smirk. “I know him better than anyone.”

 

“Do you?” Jongin asked, his lips mirroring Sehun’s smirk.

 

“If you’re asking that as an opinion, then yes. If you’re asking whether or not it’s a fact, it’s also a yes,” Sehun replied smugly. “But seriously man, what were you thinking? Do you really trust Eunji that much?”

 

Jongin smiled as he stared at Eunji’s back in the distance. “Yeah, I guess I do.”

 

---

 

A/N: I was originally gonna make this mini-arc a 3-part story like the first one, but I'm having too much fun writing about them in the snow lol. (Also that feeling when you realize that they're supposed to be there for 3 days but lowkey day 1 hasn't even passed yet).

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