Jinyoung looked up through the forest canopy and tried to gauge how much light they had left. If he could also figure out where it was coming from, he might be able to tell in which direction they should walk for their best bet at making it back to camp. But the small slivers of sky he could just make out through the trees were dimming faster than he could figure out where they were.

Jisoo trailed a few paces behind Jinyoung because she was a slower hiker than he was, but also because she was too afraid of getting stuck out in the wilderness to risk interrupting his focus. For as long as they were lost out here, she would have to depend on him. 

She watched as he jumped down from a raised tree root and walked back toward her. It was starting to get dark, but she could still make out his creased brows and the way his hair stuck to his damp forehead.

Jisoo didn’t know where they were, but they were surrounded by mossed-over trees and the ground was so covered in roots and loose stones that she wasn’t sure where the earth was. The air was still damp, but it was getting colder. Jisoo rubbed her arms. The sleeveless denim seemed like a good idea that morning, but less so now. 

She wondered if the rest of the team had noticed yet that they were gone. Her father must be so worried about her. Minho, too, she supposed.

“We’re not getting out of here tonight,” Jinyoung said with a defeated sigh. He started to look around. 

“What?” Jisoo said. Jinyoung started walking again, and she followed. “Where are you going?”

“We need shelter,” Jinyoung said, pushing aside branches and stepping over stones and shrubbery. 

“What?” Jisoo said. “No. No, no, no, we can’t spend the night out here!”

“We don’t have a choice,” he said. “It’ll be night soon, and if we keep moving around, we’ll just get even more lost. And tired. Come on, help me find a place to make shelter.”

“Jinyoung!” she said, continuing her protest. “But there’s… wolves and bears and stuff in this forest! It’s dangerous!”

“No, there aren’t,” Jinyoung said. “Thanks to overhunting, deforestation, and consumer culture, bears and wolves and wildcats have moved on from this part of the mountains. The only carnivoran wildlife left in this forest would be badgers and weasels and snakes—,”

“Snakes?” 

“But that’s why we need shelter. Someplace dry and low-key and a little off the ground…”

His voice trailed off as he noticed an odd break in the moss-covering of the trees. As his eyes adjusted to the low lighting, Jinyoung realized that they had arrived at a short cliff face, and a little ways above their heads, a break in the stone made an alcove in the wall. A natural shelter. 

“Come on, follow me,” he said, searching for a way to climb up. 

“Jinyoung, wait!” she said.

Jinyoung turned to Jisoo and was about to make another sharp comment and call her a princess, but he saw that her eyes were filled with fear. Her face was damp with perspiration and the humidity had caused her hair to turn a little frizzy. Strands of it had come loose from ponytail after running through the trees. She looked tired and profoundly shaken. His heart softened.

“You wouldn’t seriously rather be out here wandering in the darkness, right?” he asked, his voice as soft as a whisper. He held her gaze and sighed.

“I’m right here,” Jinyoung said. “I promise you’ll be fine. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Involuntarily, Jisoo blushed. He means because your dad is funding his dig, moron.

“Relax,” Jinyoung said, and then he turned back to the rocky wall. “Now, come on. Follow me, I think I found us a shelter.”

“Where?”

Jinyoung pointed to the alcove in the wall, big enough for two people to curl up and sleep in and still have room to build a fire. It was a couple feet above their heads, and the cliff face sloped a little. It would be easy to scale.

“You first,” Jinyoung said, stepping aside and instructing Jisoo to begin climbing up. She stepped forward. Her energy was beginning to drain. After running over half a mile from killer bees and then wandering around the woods for another two hours and dealing with the anxiety of being lost in the mountains, she was exhausted. She gathered what was left of her strength to grab onto the side of the rocky cliff and pull herself up. 

Once she was securely sitting in the alcove, Jinyoung let himself up. He had scooped up some dry leaves and pieces of bark and wood, then he laid them out near the edge of their makeshift shelter.

“Alright,” he muttered. “Let’s see if I still remember how to do this.”

“Do what?” Jisoo asked, catching her breath from the climb, but instead of answering Jinyoung pressed a long stick to a flat piece of bark and started drilling it with his palms. He did for a few minutes until Jisoo noticed an ember forming in the bark, which he then dropped onto the pile of dried shrubbery her scooped from the forest floor. Then, he picked the pile up and blew into it until it caught fire. 

Jisoo widened her eyes as he set the flame down at the edge of their shelter. She hated to admit it, but she was impressed. 

“How did you know to do that?” Jisoo asked. 

Jinyoung fed the small flame with sticks and twigs. “Build a fire?” Jinyoung said. “My father taught me.”

Once, when their private cook had taken the day off to attend to her daughter’s graduation, Jisoo had tried to make herself a grilled cheese sandwich. The attempt ended with a visit from the neighborhood fire chief. Jinyoung built their modest flame with such adeptness that it was almost graceful. Like a dance.

Jisoo looked at the shadows flickering across the profile of his face and once more felt prickled by an odd sense of fascination with this man. The young, rude paleoanthropologist who speaks of his work with the tenderness of a lover and breathes life into tiny campfires and promises that nothing will happen to her tonight. 

Who are you? she thought. Minho’s description of his character didn’t satisfy her.

“Move over,” Jinyoung said, shuffling backward until his shoulders hit the wall. Jisoo scooted to the right to give him space to stretch his legs. 

He sighed, and Jisoo watched as his chest rose and fell with each breath. Of course, she had noticed earlier that he was handsome, but she disliked him so much that she forbid herself from admitting it. Tousled black hair that stuck to the sweat of his brows; deep, brown, childlike eyes; a mouth with corners that tilted naturally upwards at the slightest angle. 

But it was his voice that captivated her most. His voice and his hands. Someo