Kihyun had known about this trip for weeks now; it was a special Christmastime treat for their graduating class to go on a short vacation up in the mountains to experience, what the flyers described as being, a ‘picturesque image of Korea during Christmas’ during the first few days of their winter break. He’d shrugged it off as being some lame normie , and certainly wasn’t planning on going until Minhyuk had casually approached him about it a few days before the sign-up deadline.

“Hey kid,” Minhyuk casually said, plopping down onto the curb outside of one of the wings of their school beside Kihyun. It was just after classes ended for the day, and Kihyun had grabbed a quick snack at the vending machine before he took off. Minhyuk leaned across Kihyun’s body, roughly grabbing the bag of chips out of Kihyun’s hands, taking several handfuls and shoving them down his throat. Kihyun side-eyed the boy, adjusting his ripped-to-hell pants before lurching towards Minhyuk, snatching the chips back with an annoyed yelp.

“The do you want?” Kihyun asked, already peeved at the boy he called his best-friend, and he’d only arrived a few seconds ago. Minhyuk laughed, happy to see Kihyun was in high spirits today. He grabbed the rumpled flyer from his back pocket, unfurling it and passing it to Kihyun.

“Let’s go on this trip,” Minhyuk said, and Kihyun immediately began grumbling, shaking his head while he passed the paper back to Minhyuk.

“Nah, I’ve seen it around school. I’m not interested, what’s there for us?” Kihyun asked, flashing his black rimmed eyes to Minhyuk, his implications clear. Minhyuk hummed in acknowledgment, but clearly had a reply prepared for this argument.

“What else are you gonna do? Besides, this is the last shindig before the break- let’s get blackout drunk and do stupid in log cabins in the mountains! C’mon, man,” Minhyuk said, waggling his eyebrows in some attempt to convince Kihyun of his plans. “We just turned 19- we can easily bring booze with us, it’s gonna be fun. Hoseok-hyung and Jooheony are coming too, along with a few other cool dudes willing to have fun,” Minhyuk continued, and Kihyun nodded his head, starting to warm up to the idea.

“Hm,” Kihyun said, humming. At the sight of Minhyuk wiggling around in some attempt to be cute, Kihyun shook his head, shoving Minhyuk with enough force to topple him over. “Okay, okay, I’ll go. Just cut that aegyo ,” Kihyun said, laughing despite his harsh words. Minhyuk giggled, and then jumped up, getting excited.

“YES! I’ll go let the others know, make sure you fill out the sign-up sheet! It’s in room A108, please, please, please make sure you do it!” Minhyuk said, immediately running off, as if all he came there to do was convince Kihyun to go on this trip, not even sparing a ‘hello, how’s it going’. Kihyun rolled his eyes, not even giving the slightly-older boy a wave as Minhyuk ran off into the distance, his thick titanium steel chains rattling off as he ran. Kihyun put his chin in his hands, but didn’t otherwise question anything, taking another bite of his chips before going to room A108 and filling out that form. I mean, what better did he have to do? 

Despite having said that he was going to tell the others, Minhyuk was actually going to tell somebody that Kihyun liked a whole lot less: Changkyun. Kihyun and Changkyun were practically sworn enemies at this point, and it seemed like their resentment had no end. There was something else too… Minhyuk had broken up with Changkyun only a few days ago, and while the feeling was mutual, it was still weird to talk to him normally. Despite how weird it would be talking to him, Minhyuk knew something about Changkyun and Kihyun’s true feelings for each other, something that led him to finding Changkyun at the tutoring center and showing him the same flyer he’d shown to Kihyun.

Walking into the familiar room, Minhyuk glanced around, getting flashbacks to when him and Changkyun were still dating, and Minhyuk would pick up Changkyun after he finished his tutoring lessons here. Changkyun would greet him with the cutest little pure smile, it made Minhyuk almost feel guilty for exclusively being interested in what was below his belt.

“Changkyunnie,” Minhyuk called out, startling Changkyun as he was about to enter his tutoring room, holding a stack of papers to teach some underclassman what appeared to be Physics. Turning around and recognizing who was calling him, Changkyun blanched, looking clearly uncomfortable with the situation. He smiled nervously, stopping in his tracks to walk over to Minhyuk, his steps short and nervous. 

“What’s up?” Changkyun asked, trying to look casual despite the awkwardness obvious on his face. Minhyuk his lip, his tongue piercing visible and making a tinge of pink rise in Changkyun’s cheeks. They weren’t dating, for a good reason, but Changkyun could still remember what that tongue was capable of— 

“You going on the senior trip?” Minhyuk asked, interrupting Changkyun’s guilty thoughts. Changkyun raised his eyebrows, curious as to why Minhyuk came all this way just to ask him a seemingly random question.

“Uh, yeah, actually. I am,” Changkyun answered, adjusting his papers and giving Minhyuk a curious look. Grinning, Minhyuk nodded, already stepping away to leave the building. Not trusting this, Changkyun stopped him, suddenly getting a bad feeling in his gut.

“Wait, is Kihyun going on the trip?” Changkyun asked, thinking that maybe the two of them were planning some criminal on the mountain. He wouldn’t put it past them, especially since Kihyun had been especially dickish to him lately. Minhyuk turned around, an interesting light sparkling in his eyes.

“What do you want? Do you want him to be there?” Minhyuk asked mysteriously, his lips curled in a small, amused smirk. Changkyun flushed, jolting back in surprise.

“Of course I don’t, why would I want that there to ruin my trip?” Changkyun asked, but his heart started pounding, racing at the mere thought of Kihyun’s confident smirk, and hot gaze peeking from his wavy, gray hair. He turned his head, cheeks darkening the more he thought about him. “I hate him,” he added, almost as if he was trying to convince himself. Minhyuk nodded, clearly not buying it as he continued his journey out of the room.

“Whatever you say, hun,” Minhyuk breezily remarked, the glass door of the tutoring center slamming closed as he left. Changkyun pursed his lips, staring down at the floor as he processed that whirlwind. What did his ex even mean…? Seeing the time on his watch, Changkyun’s eyes widened, and he quickly bustled into the tutoring room, realizing that he was a minute late to his appointment now. Whatever this encounter meant, he could figure it out later. Right now, he had other things to attend to.

A few days later, their winter break officially began, which meant getting up and attending the bus for the senior trip at 5 AM. Kihyun and Minhyuk rode together, arriving at the meet-up spot a few minutes late, neither really caring about punctuality for this trip. Walking into the bus and noticing only a few empty seats in the front, and none in the back, Kihyun chuckled, thinking these kids were already trying to test him and this trip hadn’t even officially started yet.

Eyes flickering around the interior of the bus, Kihyun’s eyes widened, noticing that the person he least wanted to see was here on this bus with them. Clenching his jaw, Kihyun walked down the slim aisle, approaching Changkyun’s seat in the middle of the bus. Spotting his ty, pretentious stare, something broke in Kihyun, and he ‘accidentally’ kicked the side of Changkyun’s seat, reveling in the way Changkyun lurched to avoid him.

“Oops,” Kihyun half-heartedly muttered, continuing to walk down the aisle and feeling significantly better now. He should’ve probably guessed that good-boy Changkyun would be attending such a wholesome school trip, but it still put a damper on his good mood. Deciding to just let it go, Kihyun arrived at the back of the bus, lighting up as he sees his friends there. At the row beside them, Kihyun leans down, looming over the two kids that had the gall to sit in HIS seat.

“Get up,” Kihyun said, voice cruel and unrelenting. Aware of Kihyun’s reputation, the two kids scrambled up, running over to the front of the bus to avoid Kihyun’s wrath. Clapping Kihyun on the shoulder, Minhyuk started laughing, amused with his feisty friend’s antics. Jooheon and Hoseok smiled at the two boys, used to Kihyun’s temper by now.

“Glad you could join us,” Jooheon said, extending a fist for Minhyuk to bump, smiling casually at the two boys. Hoseok nodded, his cute, sweet expression tingeing with concern. 

“Yeah, you two were late!” Hoseok said, and Jooheon chuckled, wrapping his arm around Hoseok’s shoulders.

“He was worried you two had decided not to come,” Jooheon explained, the brim of his cap nuzzling against Hoseok’s hair, eyes dark in the shadow of his cap. Minhyuk giggled, and then went into a dramatic regaling of how Kihyun had overslept and forgot to pack which, according to Kihyun, was actually the complete other way around. The other two bust out into a fit of laughter, finding their bickering amusing and a welcome source of entertainment.

Soon, the bus took off, headed towards the mountains to the north of the city. The ride was pretty boring, as one would expect being cooped up in a bus with the majority of your graduating class around you. As they reached the mountains and began their upwards ascent to the cabins they would be staying at, Changkyun stared out of the window, gazing absently at the snow that was gently falling down onto the edge of the mountain. As they rounded the corner, however, his eyes widened, and he gasped, now able to see the entire surrounding land that was covered in a beautiful sheet of pure white. It was a picturesque, dreamlike winter-scape, and Changkyun felt all of his negative feelings drip away at the sight, utterly enamored with the natural beauty.

Just as he was starting to really appreciate the serenity and peace, one of the teachers at the head of the bus stands up, clearing his throat loudly enough to startle Changkyun out of his daze. 

“Alright guys, I know you’ve all been waiting on this. I’m announcing the rooming assignments for the next three days. Now, pay attention so we can make this easier when we get out,” he said, voice pleading as he said the last line. The entire bus looked up with interest as he began listing the names, the majority sounding like pretty standard pairings. Changkyun glanced over at Hyunwoo to his left, smiling gently over at the tan boy and wondering if he would get the assignment that he most wanted. 

“Im Chankgyun and Yoo Kihyun,” the teacher said, his own voice faltering slightly at the odd pairing. Changkyun’s eyes widened and he turned around in his seat, glaring over at Kihyun. The entire class stared over at the two, hushed voices whispering as they tried to figure out why two boys that clearly hated each other would want to be roomed together. Meeting Changkyun’s gaze, Kihyun frowned, clenching his jaw as he slowly shook his head. He knew he shouldn’t try to pick a fight in a moving bus, so he held himself back, saving his anger for later.

Watching the two boys boil over in rage, Minhyuk chuckled, glad that his plan worked. He smoothed down the front of his shirt, eyes flickering to look out the window.

“I think a lot of things are about to change on this mountain. If nothing else, this is going to be an interesting trip~”