Their first planned stop was Gyeonju National Park, which they had left for straight after breakfast. The breakfast they served at the motel hadn’t been much to write home about anyway, and Baekhyun had filmed Dae pulling a very displeased face after she had taken her first bite, which in turn had made him laugh until he had been close to tears.

It wasn’t until Baekhyun had taken his own bite that he realised why exactly she had pulled that face, and they both decided to throw away what they had put on their trays and set off early. They breakfast they ended up having existed entirely out of the food they had had in the car.

Which was also how Baekhyun ended up with energy for three, with all the mochi he had managed to chew down over the span of an half an hour. He was throwing his head side to side along to the song that was playing, and Dae chuckled as she softly hummed along with him, never loud enough to be heard over Baekhyun’s voice.  

The drive to Gyeonju wouldn’t take that long, which was pleasant, because after a day of driving, Dae wanted nothing more than to do something a little more active. And she would be, because Baekhyun had found a great hiking route past all the noteworthy sights of Geonju National Park. A hike that could last up to six dreadfully long hours.

“Don’t worry, we’re skipping the second half. The things I really want to see are in the first half of the hike,” Baekhyun assured her as he flipped through the map he had put together for the trip, knowing they were close to their destination, “also, we can take plenty of breaks and if you really get bored we can finish early, go back to the car and just move on to our next stop.”

Dae cackled at that and threw her head back against the headrest of the driver’s seat, “honestly, Baek, if someone is going to give up it’s you. Walking for hours, being focused on everything around you and being quiet for such a long time, it is doomed to fail.”

Baekhyun huffed in reply, evidently not agreeing with her statement, but he grab the bait the way Dae had expected him to. “True as that may be, I really want to see these sights. It’s the only historical national park we have. Gyeonju was the capital city during the Silla dynasty, so there are some really impressive old structures to be seen.”

Dae raised her eyebrows in amusement, grinning at her friend for a second, “it sounds like you just read a Wikipedia page out loud.” She had only been joking up so far, but she decided she had enough, “but okay. I guess you’ll show me a surprising side of yourself today, then.”

“Of course,” Baekhyun confirmed, “I can assure you that this trip will be full of surprises. Just you wait and see.” The way he said it, like he knew exactly what he was talking about, made Dae slightly suspicious, but knowing Baekhyun, there was no point in asking.

~

“Are you ready, Dae?” Baekhyun asked once he had whipped out his camera and had pointed it at her from a short distance away. He was now clad in way too large shorts that looked absolutely ridiculous on him, as well as a simple t-shirt and an ped jacket, layered so he could take things off in case he was too warm.

Underneath his shorts he wore walking shoes that made his feet look two sizes bigger, they were shoes Dae hadn’t ever seen before either, but she knew that if she started laughing she would get it back twice as hard, especially because she didn’t look any better.

They were dressed in a pretty similar style and exactly the same colours too, making them match each other quite well, but somehow these outfits seemed to fit men a bit more than women. Because whereas Baekhyun wore a nice snapback to keep his face out of the sun, Dae was wearing a large sunhat with a large rim.

She hadn’t had anything else at home to fit for such a hike, but Baekhyun seemed to like her outfit regardless of whether it was a mismatch. “You look dashing in those shorts along with that hat,” he joked, sending a big grin her way as he came closer with his stupid camera. Dae posed, pretending to be a very theatrical model. As she did, she threw her head back far enough to have her hat fall off, making Baekhyun burst out into laughter.

“This is a sign,” Dae yelped as she bent over and picked it back up, “I’m sure to make a damn fool of myself, Baek. I hope you are ready, because you’ll be the one needing to save my idiot whenever I trip or do something else incredibly stupid. We’re such a mess together, why did we think this was a good idea at all?”

She knew she was exaggerating, but Baekhyun liked being dramatic too, and considering her whining only made him smile wider, it was worth making a fool of herself. “I’ll save you. I’ll be your king of the jungle. You know, because prince on the white horse doesn’t quite fit here,” he commented, leaving Dae to laugh as well.

It was nice like that, the two of them joking and making fun of each other, nothing but smiles. She wished she could reach out and take his hand, tug him along with her, and continue to hold on as they walked down the path, but instead Baekhyun took the lead with his camera still in hand, not noticing how Dae was lost in her own thoughts.

As she followed him, walking right behind him, she watched how he took a few shots of their surroundings before he hung the camera around his neck and took out a map, an actual map that would guide them in the right direction, and started figuring out where they were.

Dae rushed over to help, knowing that Baekhyun wasn’t exactly the best when it came to directions. He could get lost anywhere, even when holding a phone which was giving him instructions about where to go. The national park was huge and it offered all kinds of tours, which meant there were a lot of paths to take, and the last thing Dae wanted was to get lost and have this take all day. It would mess up their schedule if it did.

“Let me look,” she said, their shoulders bumping together as she fell into step with him. Baekhyun held up the map in between them without saying anything, probably aware of how he wasn’t the best map reader out there, and let her look as well.

“This is where we started,” Baekhyun noted as he pointed out the red dot on the map, having been put there with a bright marker, and from there a small black line had formed a route leading in a big circle until it came back to the starting point, “and I know we were supposed to go this way because there was a board saying so, but yeah…”

Dae chuckled, taking over the map from Baekhyun’s hands for she had already spotted where they were, “leave the map to me. You just focus on taking pictures and sharing those historical facts that I saw you had prepared for this.”

Clearly feeling called out, Baekhyun huffed and turned his back on her before he grabbed a hold of his camera again. He took pictures like that for a while, but it didn’t really last long, because walking sideways was clearly awkward and uncomfortable.

Dae slowly turned her head a little, enough to look at him, as she wondered whether he was actually mad at her, but when she saw his face she noticed that there were thankfully no longer any traces of him actually being annoyed with her.

She watched him for a little while, glad he hadn’t picked up on her gaze as he was engrossed in the beautiful nature around him. He cast an eye over all the trees, his ears picking up the singing of the same birds as Dae could hear. It was like a fairy tale setting, like being on set in one of those romantic scenes from all the historical dramas that she loved to watch.

Every few seconds a patch of light shone through the deck of leaves, illuminating parts of Baekhyun’s face. An eye, his chin, his forehead. Sometimes Dae got lucky, when those gaps let through enough sunlight to lighten his whole face, making him squint his eyes at the brightness. He looked magical like that, absolutely adorable, and Dae’s heart jumped along to the skip in her step.

The serene silence lasted for barely a few minutes, and to be honest, that was more than Dae had expected. Baekhyun wasn’t known for his patience and ability to stay quiet. He always said he just didn’t like being quiet when there was so much to say. Apparently, what needed to be said now was, “let’s play a game of would you rather.”

“Really now?” Dae shot back, her lips after which she stretched her arms above her head, “do you remember what happened the last time we played that? With Chanyeol? You ended up crying because you couldn’t choose ‘cause both options were bad.”

“Well then we can keep it lighter, right?” Baekhyun suggested, “we won’t mention anything about killing anyone or anything, like Chanyeol did.” He grabbed onto Dae’s arm, tugging on her slightly as he made a whiny begging sound, which was very hard to refuse. She knew it would become a mess, that she could very easily out herself, but she couldn’t say no to Baekhyun.

“Fine, you can’t beat my awesome suggestions anyway,” Dae stuck out her tongue, feeling slightly relieved when Baekhyun let go of her arm to take a step back again. Breathing was hard enough in the warm weather, while walking across an unevenly paved path, she really didn’t need her crush to hang onto her as well.

“Of course I can, just you prepare!” Baekhyun threw back, after which he jumped forwards and stopped, facing Dae sideways as he stood in a dramatic pose, “okay! Would you rather… be a cat or be a dog?”

The entire thing was way too funny. From the way he was standing, still like a statue with his legs and arms spread wide, to the way he had asked the question as if it was the most difficult one out there.

Dae had to purse her lips in order not to start giggling at how ridiculous it was, and to play along she crossed her arms and pretended to be thinking about it very hard. “Hmm,” she tapped her chin, pausing in front of Baekhyun, and she leaned into his space as she gave the answer she knew wouldn’t match his, “a cat.”

Baekhyun’s face fell slightly, like he had been hoping for her to say dog, “what? Really? Why? Do you not see how cute dogs are?” He finally moved, dropping his arms and stepping back so he no longer looked like he was about to do a split, “why are we even friends then?”

Dae rolled her eyes and lightly punched at Baekhyun’s arm, “I never said I don’t see how cute dogs are. If I didn’t like puppies then why would I be friends with you; the human embodiment of a pup?” She watched as Baekhyun’s eyes grew wide, quickly turning into a look of smugness, and it wasn’t until he all but purred his response that she understood why.

“Did you just say you think I’m cute?” he asked, the tone of his voice a teasing one, and as Dae realised that she had in fact, indirectly said Baekhyun was cute, she turned bright red. She knew Baekhyun was only teasing her, but she couldn’t help the blush that spread. It simply happened whenever she’d get embarrassed, and so she did the only thing she knew she could to draw away attention from it.

“Yeah sure, you’re cute. Anyway,” she spoke, stepping past him so she could continue their walk, “would you rather dance whenever you hear music or sing along to every song you hear?” It was a pretty easy one to ask, but she hadn’t exactly had plenty of time to think about, and so she was quite pleased with how the question she had come up with wasn’t complete .

Her crush caught up with her first, following her large strides with ease. It was only once they were walking next to each other again that he said, “Easy. I already sing along to most songs, so I’d choose that one.”

He wasted no time in asking his next question, as if he had prepared for this beforehand and knew exactly what to say, although that didn’t mean the difficulty of his questions was any different. These were still pretty simple.

“Would you rather be completely invisible for a day or be able to fly for a whole week?” Baekhyun asked, grinning as if he was asking something that was actually very difficult to decide.

Maybe it was for him, but Dae didn’t have to think very long, “well it would be fun to fly, but I don’t really have any desire to see anything from above. However, I do love to prank you, which means that if I were invisible, I could annoy you for a full day and you wouldn’t even know about it.”

“That’s what you’d use it for?” Baekhyun cocked an eyebrow and huffed, shaking his head as if he really couldn’t believe it. “I’d use it to watch as many attractive people as possible get . That, or I’d use it to follow someone around and find out their biggest secrets,” he explained.

“Wow,” Dae shot back, “how can you utter both a very interesting suggestion and the most ridiculous one in like, the same damn sentence.” She looked at her friend, who shrugged his shoulders as if he was simply the funniest person alive and there was no other explanation for it.

“Talking about annoying,” Dae went on after Baekhyun let a silence fall, having already thought of a new one, “would you rather be alone for the rest of your life or only be surrounded by annoying people?”

She should have known, though, that this was only an invitation to be made fun, which she realised as soon as Baekhyun started laughing uncontrollably. He slapped a hand against his thigh as he leaned over slightly, stumbling as he did, and Dae grabbed his wrist on instinct, helping him regain his balance before she quickly let go again. Baekhyun wiped at his eyes, still not looking where he was going, but thankfully nothing worse happened.

“Well, considering I already live surrounded by annoying people,” Baekhyun wheezed, “I guess I might as well continue that way, right?” He used his elbow to poke Dae’s arm and even though his loud laughter quieted down, he kept chuckling from time to time, remembering how he had made fun of her.

“Good to know you decided to go on a trip with someone you find annoying,” Dae huffed, turning the joke into an insult, but it didn’t make Baekhyun as defensive this time. He understood she was only mocking him, but he just had to go and make her blush again because of it.

“Be happy,” he pointed out, “it means you’re the least annoying one of all.” After he had said it he sped up, jogging down the slope they had been walking on because in front of them, a clearing came into view. Dae was glad he ran off, for she was left speechless and shy, unable to word anything else.

“Look, we’re there! The Bulguksa temple,” Baekhyun exclaimed as he pointed at the entrance, excitedly. His face had lit up, brightened like he had just received a present or had found a treasure, and Dae smiled as she walked up to him, enjoying how eager he looked.

They paid their fees and walked inside together, Baekhyun already holding on to his camera to film everything. He lost sight of Dae, focused completely on the beauty of the temple, but she didn’t mind. That way she got to admire him and the love in his eyes, got some time to herself to imagine what it would be like to have those eyes looking at her that way.

Baekhyun was a terrific tour guide, managed to comment on a lot of things as they made their way through the temple. Like how the stairs had thirty-three steps, representing the thirty-three steps to enlightenment in Buddhism. Or how one of the two pagodas could be found on a ten won coin. He even got one out to show.

He took a ton of pictures, eventually turning his camera on Dae as well, and then, before they got to the exit again, Baekhyun tugged her closer, “come on, let’s take a selfie together before we go.” He grabbed her hand, dragging her towards the stairs, and Dae was glad she didn’t have to walk by herself because she wasn’t sure she could.

They posed together, Baekhyun with a huge grin on his face and an arm swung around Dae’s shoulder, and Dae with a timid smile as she was way too aware of that fact. Matching peace signs in place, Baekhyun snapped their shot, the two of them with the temple in the background.

The first thing they could cross off the list.

Once back outside, Dae took out the map again while Baekhyun checked some of his pictures. She heard him make pleased sounds in the background as she looked around herself. Their goal was to get back to where they had come from, but by walking through a different patch of forest.

“Baek, come on,” she called out once she had found the right way to go, waiting for the puppy to follow her. It took a whistle and another few seconds for him to catch up with her, and he walked over with his eyes still on the camera.

He was no longer clicking buttons, just watching his screen, and as he reached Dae he held it up for her to see, “look, see how cute we look,” he said innocently, showing her the picture of them together. They looked so happy, both of them, and Dae felt content knowing she had somewhat contributed to that.

“We do, don’t we?” Dae chuckled and looked at Baekhyun’s accomplished smile, making her add a, “you’re so easy to please, Baek.” She hoped she was right about it too, that once she’d get to give him the present in her backpack, he would smile that brightly too.

~

“Would you rather be deaf or blind?” Baekhyun asked once they were back to walking, after having driven the car to their next stop. Their feet had already started hurting once they had returned to their starting point, and knowing how much they’d have to walk to get to Anapji pond, they had shared a look and decided to take the car.

They still had a good while before they’d get to their destination, though, and so Baekhyun had picked up his game of ‘would you rather’ again. Dae blew out a gush of air, staring up at the sky as she did, and told him, “well look at you, finally a question I need to think about.”

“Why?” Baekhyun asked, clearly surprised by it, “I thought it would be easy. It’s easy for me. I love music too much to give up on that. No matter how beautiful the world is, it will never bring me the same emotions music can.”

As much as Dae understood that, for her it wasn’t as simple. She wasn’t as obsessed with music as Baekhyun was. For her, it was like deciding whether to see Baekhyun or hear him, and that was a bit more difficult. Which one would she not be able to live without? Which would she miss more? His smile and that sparkle in his eyes, or the sound of him calling out her name?

“I’d rather be deaf,” Dae decided eventually, “although it’s really difficult to choose.” She loved the sound of his laugh, but the idea of never being able to watch him be happy again was more difficult to accept than never hearing him sing again.

It was funny though, how much the question made her realise she had started building her life around him. Baekhyun had become her sun, such a large part of her day. She craved his warmth more than anything, and going a day without him left her in darkness. The one thing she had thought about when answering this question was based on what the world revolved around: the sun. Her sun.

“Why?” Baekhyun asked, wondering why they weren’t on the same page, but Dae couldn’t exactly explain it. She shrugged her shoulders, hoping that speeding up her walking a little bit would make him focus on something else. “It really doesn’t make sense to me,” Baekhyun went on though, while following in her step easily, showing her he wasn’t going to let go that easily.

Dae wouldn’t be able to let it pass without saying anything about it, and so she sighed and tried to get away with giving a very vague description, “I just enjoy the quiet more than you do. You sing all day, I am more of an observer.” She felt it was a sufficient answer, even if it was only partly true, but she couldn’t help add a more Baekhyun- like comment to make sure he really thought it was enough, “and besides, I’d rather look at you than listen to your whiny all day.”

Baekhyun huffed, letting out a loud whine, “you’re so mean. Remind me, why did I invite you on this trip again?” he raised his camera and took a picture of Dae’s offended face, hanging open slightly as she for a second worried about him being serious. When the camera lowered again, though, Baekhyun was smiling.

“Well, remind me why I agreed to come?” she stuck out her tongue and instantly hit back with her own question, “let’s see how easy you find this one then: would you rather be handsome but stupid or ugly and intelligent?”

Baekhyun tipped his head back to the sky and sighed deeply, the corners of his mouth curling upwards in a soft grin, and then he slowly turned his head sideways so he could look at Dae, “honestly, I could make a handful of jokes without even having to think of them, but I won’t. I’ll answer more seriously to show you I am a very thoughtful and intelligent person.”

Dae stared at him emotionlessly, knew that commenting at all would result in exactly the jokes that had popped into his head when she had first asked, yet she couldn’t not. It was too tempting. “Does that mean you’d rather be ugly but intelligent?” she asked.

“Oh please,” Baehyun bit, “we both know I’ll never really be intelligent. I don’t have the attention span to spend great amounts of time on one thing, I need diversity. I can remember a few things about a lot of subjects, but never too much of one thing. I’m no expert in anything,” Baekhyun shot back, his smile growing, “so I’d rather take what I can get and choose to be handsome.”

Shrugging, Dae thought he had a fair point. At least Baekhyun knew himself pretty well, even though she was sure he knew already just how handsome he was right now.

She was glad to find they were almost there, too, because Baekhyun’s ‘would you rather’s’ were slowly but surely getting more difficult to answer and the last thing she wanted was to spill something she should keep a secret. She was stepping into a danger zone by continuing this.

“Alright, tell me about what we’re about to see,” she told Baekhyun, knowing that if she suggested it, he would start telling her all he knew about it.

Apparently they were about to see a manmade pond from the era of King Munmu, which used to be the crown prince’s palace. The palace had turned into ruins, but some parts had been rebuilt to show what it used to look like.

Back in king Munmu’s time, they had constructed the pond to create some sort of exotic garden, with birds, fish and flowers that were rare. It had been large and luxurious, everything royalty could have wished for, and for that reason people still visited it today.

The place was definitely fit for royalty, even in ruins, and it wasn’t at all hard to imagine what the place would have looked like all those centuries ago. Like back then, there were Kois in the water, beautiful trees and flowers all around too, and even though they knew that it was nothing like it had been back then, it was still impressive.

After Baekhyun had spent enough time taking pictures and they had walked around for a bit, they sat down to share a bottle of water. As Dae handed it to Baekhyun, she spotted the bag with ribbons hidden away inside her backpack, and after she shot her best friend a shot, watched his calm and content face, she carefully lifted it out.

Once she had pushed her backpack out of the way, she took a hold of the bag holding her present and handed it over to Baekhyun. Her friend blinked at it in surprise as he was slowly putting the cap on the bottle of water. He set the drink down, glaring at Dae while he demanded to know, “what’s this? Don’t tell me this is a present. I very clearly told you not to get me anything, I’m pretty sure I did.”

Dae shrugged as she dropped the bag in Baekhyun’s hands, after which she held up her arms just so he couldn’t hand it back. “It’s not like I actually listen to you all the time,” she shot back, smiling innocently, and Baekhyun stared at her for a moment before he grumbled and sighed, taking the bag.

“Besides,” Dae went on when her friend started to take off the ribbons, which he then stuck on her forehead, “it’s nothing too big. I have the same one for myself,” she said. It made Baekhyun squint his eyes at her, not trusting her to be genuine, but he couldn’t hold back the laughter for long as she sat there with the ribbon still stuck on her forehead.

Shaking his head at himself, Baekhyun cast his eyes back down, to the bag in his lap, and after he got the tape out of the way he glanced inside. Dae loved seeing his curiosity turn into understanding, and her smile matched his when Baekhyun put his hand in and retrieved the soft white fabric that was folded up inside.

As he took a hold of the shoulder, the rest of the present unfolded, taking the shape of a hoodie. Dae knew how much he loved wearing them, especially when he was cold at night, and so she had customised their own pair especially for this trip.

On the front it said ‘BBH + KD’, their initials, and on the back it said ‘the most amazing, most spectacular, most memorable’, referring to their trip, which had been named that way back when they had started planning it all. She had thought it was a great gift idea, hoped it would be something to remember this trip by, and she hoped he liked it too.

“You- you had these custom made?” Baekhyun asked as he turned the hoodie over and over, as if the words on the back would suddenly say something else, or would have disappeared completely.

He let his fingers trace their names to feel the material of the lettering, unfolded the hood properly, and then he looked up at Dae to see her response. She nodded, leaning in some to lift the sleeve, “yes, I did. I know how much you like these, and I wanted to get us something for our trip, so I have the same, but in a different size. Do you like it?”

Her voice betrayed how she was still nervous, regardless of how Baekhyun hadn’t gotten mad at her so far, and it made him blink at her in wonder. “If I like it?” he repeated her words, looking back at the hoodie, and after a second lost in thought he started shaking off his jacket, which had been hanging loosely on his shoulders, “I love it.”

He turned the hoodie over on his lap and stuck his hands into in, despite Dae’s protesting in the background. “Baek, it’s white, we still have to walk back to the car, you’ll get it all dirty,” she pointlessly argued, watching as Baekhyun got his head through the collar.

His hair was a mess and he looked really cute as he tugged the hoodie down, forgetting all about his head. “I don’t care. I’ll wash it then, and if it doesn’t get out then I’ll consider it a battleground scar, another memory to our trip,” he gave her one of those smiles that made his whole face scrunch up, and Dae was still struck by it by the time Baekhyun reached out and pulled her in a hug.

“Thank you, Dae,” he whispered as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, making her tip over far enough for her to have to grab a hold of his waist in order not to fall. She felt the heat explode in her cheeks instantly, leaving her embarrassed and shy, and like always when he hugged her, she was glad he couldn’t see her face.

“You’re welcome,” she rece he let go of her, clearing so there were no traces left of her embarrassment. She picked up the bottle of water, an excuse to hide her face from him, and forced herself to calm down as she untwisted the cap. It was just a hug, nothing special, but if it wasn’t, then why could she never stop her heart from beating out of her chest whenever she got one?

Every day she fell in love with Baekhyun all over again, finding something new to make her tumble through the air until her whole body was prickling with the sensation of a free-fall. Today, it was this exact moment that made her feel it. The moment where he hugged her and then helped her stand up, signalling it was time to head back.

Their hands lingered together for a moment, or maybe that was just her imagination, and when they walked back and Baekhyun continued their game of ‘would you rather’ by asking her, “would you rather find true love or win the lottery?”, she didn’t have to think twice about it.

“Find true love,” she said, “because nothing that can be bought by money, feels even remotely as good as being in love.

~

A/N: disclaimer!! I have never been to South Korea. Everything I write about the places they visit I based on the research I did beforehand. Of course, this is limited compared to real life experiences, so apologies if any of you see stuff that doesn't fit with reality. ^^ I try.