🍯 



Cicadas were welcoming the season of love with their singing as the snow-white curtains fluttered gracefully in front of the windows. The quiet sound of the ticking clock faded under the teacher's voice as she announced the groups for the next week's school trip. Between your orange fingertips was a pen spinning absentmindedly- not entirely paying attention to what Mrs.Kim was saying, your gaze was bought on the view outside and you found yourself staring and the white, fluffy clouds and how they formed into funny shapes. Closing your eyes, you could hear the faint noise of water flowing down a stream near your school. A summer trip huh? You had never put much meaning to these kinds of events, although you did have a few friends to spend the trip with- loud and crowded places had never been your favorite.

Would it be worth it to go? You wondered, well, it certainly wouldn't do any harm- but what was making you doubt was the fact that you had yet no real reason to go. You had longed for the summer break so that you could've dived into the world of another magical book, and eventually forget anything else about your own. Sitting by the slightly open window with the sun rays painting the pages and the soft breeze caressing your skin had always been one of the moments you cherished the most. To feel every word and emotion described in the novel, those were things that had given you life, energy and will to go on. Your life hadn't been an easy one and sometimes you just felt like you had to come away from it at least for a while. If there was another world where you could dream in, you had jumped into without any second thoughts. And that was why books were your salvation.

"Y/n, Sarah, Baekhyun, Jongdae, and Chanyeol are in group number 3." Your eyes suddenly snapped open at the familiar sound of your name being called, skimming with your gaze through the classroom you tried to find the people that Mrs.Kim had just assigned you with. Jongdae, Sehun, and Chanyeol were pretty easy to spot, these guys were the loudest and the overly friendliest in the whole class, not that it was necessarily a bad thing- in fact even though they weren't your cup of tea, you found yourself not getting annoyed at them as much as you used to one time. Perhaps it was the way they didn't get ahead of themselves for being popular, or maybe it was because they had many times mustered kindness to you. Probably both.

Searching further, your gaze landed on the girl at the desk next to yours- ah, she was the kind of girl who'd rock any type of outfit, even the school's dull uniform looked nice on her. Her hair was a golden shade of blonde as it gracefully curled inwards by her shoulders, it didn't seem like she had been paying any attention to the teacher either; with her gaze fixed on her perfectly healthy and manicured hand, searching for any imperfections on her nails. A beautiful and satisfied smile made it's way on her face when she decided that her nails were indeed as perfect as they could be. Sighing for yourself you directed your gaze back on the teacher, this was going to be an interesting trip.

A frown creased between your brows when you recalled the third name that your teacher had called out- feeling quite unfamiliar with it. Maybe it was because you were such a loner that you sometimes forgot about newcomers and such- but Baek... Baek what was it again? Ah, Byun Baekhyun, when you gave it thought you knew that this hadn't actually been the first time hearing it. In fact, as soon as you remembered it, your gaze automatically detached from the beautiful view of a celeste summer sky and started skimming through the classmates to acknowledge the appearance of this fairly new student. A certain platin blonde head only a few seats away caught your eyes' attention. His brown almond eyes were garnished with long and delicate eyelashes barely kissing his orangy cheeks. His hand was pressed against his cheek as he leaned into it. It wasn't in you to stare at people, but this person, he was so beautiful. His skin was light and velvety, for that matter, you'd never thought you'd ever find yourself admiring someone's hands- but Baekhyun's just had something so astonishing to them, with long and elegant fingers, not even the beauty mark placed perfectly on the corner of his thumbnail went unnoticed.

Without even noticing you had fallen in a complete trans, studying his every detail as if he was the most exciting page of your favorite book, not missing a single detail. However, he must have felt your gaze because his eye suddenly met yours- nearly giving you a heart attack. You gave a tragic attempt of looking down on your desk and started scribbling on a nonexistent paper sheet, probably even more ridiculous. The blood rushed to your face and you scowled to yourself, covering the redness of your face by pressing your palms against your cheeks.

What the heck.

                                                                                         ☀️☀️☀️

The sun's rays shining felt scorching hot against your bare arms, autobuses stood in lines and big crowds of students were waiting outside of them. Loud chatters echoed through the whole parking lot and in the air was a stuffy scent of gasoline. With a loud sigh heaving from your lips, you asked yourself if you had made the right choice by coming here. Avoiding the uncomfortable sweat and warmth was such a tempting thought that you wondered what in the world had pushed you to come here. School trips had never been anything you'd prefer over anything, and yet, there you were in the queue for the bus under the burning hot sun, grumbling but yet not doing anything about it. It wasn't obligational so you had no reason to stay in that crowd. But a tiny little voice in the back of your head had been whispering that maybe you'd miss out on something great if you'd stay at home.

Fine, fine! Just stop. You angrily thought to yourself and crossed your arms over your chest, officially losing the inner war you were having with your own thoughts.

"Are you going to move or...?" Someone called after you and you realized that you had been standing still in the crowd although a lot of people had already started entering the busses, mumbling a quick apology you gathered yourself together and climbed the high stairs of the big vehicle. 

Everyone in the bus seemed to have someone to sit and spend the hours-long ride with, while you didn't. It would have been natural for you to feel slightly alone and sad about it, however, there was no such emotion in you, because in your bag was one of your favorite novels of all times and the eager to read it was consuming you. Getting to sit alone only meant complete peace for you and your book, in that way you could dedicate every piece of you to the beautiful words printed on the pages. 

With a content sigh, you let your back sink into the soft material of the bus seat,  enjoying the rare fact that the school had bothered to hire nice and comfortable buses for once. Not a moment went to waste and you immediately started fumbling with your bag, reaching for the so longed book. You felt the excitement buzz within you when your fingers came in contact with the familiar material of the book's cover, feeling the patterns with your fingertips.

"Is that seat taken?" The soft voice came from above and the first thought that passed your head was the fact that it had been so low that you'd almost barely heard it. You weren't familiar with it, in fact, you couldn't say you had ever heard it before. Lifting your gaze, your eyes met with two chocolate brown orbs, two dark oceans that you had indeed looked into before. The blonde boy was wearing no expression as his hands held the straps of his backpack in place by his chest. You couldn't help but slide your eyes down his body, taking notice to his extremely cute outfit- blue shorts and a white shirt in which it's collar weaved into the pattern of a sailor's uniform.

Without making him wait for too long you shook your head, signaling him to take the seat, so he did. You didn't know why the fact that he was sitting next to you made you feel a tad bit more self-conscious, so, as discreetly as possible you pulled the book out of your backpack and scooted closer to the window, feeling the need of being as far away from as possible. His scent reached your senses and the fact it smelled so good and that it was unavoidable for you to not smell it bothered you to no end. A crisp kind of scent that had a refreshing effect on your lungs, like newly washed soap, fresh and delicate. 

So unpleasantly pleasant.

It didn't take long before you shrugged it off and opened the book with eager, ready to take part in another world where you could lose yourself entirely without any worries. Your eyes met the first line of words and that was the very moment when you transitioned into the pages, living each and every sentence. You had managed to block out any sound of chatter that stayed in the background, however, there was one voice that you hadn't expected to even speak up and so the moment the boy next to you parted his lips, the magic of the book suddenly ended.

"That's a famous novel isn't it?" His voice came like a soft caress against your ears, you felt and odd throb squeeze on your heart as you didn't feel any annoyment by the fact that he had interrupted you from your religious reading like you usually would. Instead, an unfamiliar excitement bubbled in your chest as you faced him with big, enthusiastic eyes, holding the precious book to your chest.

"Yes! It's John Green's sixth novel, so awesome! Do you perhaps like any of his works?" You had no idea where the sudden sociality was coming from- but anytime anyone recognized John Green's works, this one, in particular, it never failed to wake sudden happiness and eagerness to talk about it within you. You weren't a very talkative person, but when it came to the things you loved, you felt like you could speak about them for hours and still find new things to say about them.

Baekhyun flinched slightly back at your cheerful reaction, having not seen that coming. He found it amazing how your eyes had in a matter of seconds gone from uncertain to glittering with affection and excitement towards the topic of a book. 

Pretty...He thought but immediately shooed it away.

You were hopefully waiting for his answer, feeling like you had finally found someone who shared your interests, nevertheless, you were only disappointed when he awkwardly cleared his throat and leaned against his seat, looking away from you again.

"Not really," He mumbled against his palm, back to the low and unhearable voice. Looking at you from the corner of his eyes, he could see how the shine in your eyes slowly died down and he couldn't help but feel bad about that. 

Your teeth dug deep into your lip as you detached the book from your chest and placed it back in your lap, running a soft hand over it. Had you been too excited? Had you scared him off? Squeezing your eyelids together you tried to forget the past minutes, feeling embarrassed and upset about the way you gave out yourself like that again, just because of a simple comment of a person. This hadn't been the first time you had gotten overly excited over something of the kind, and every time you regretted it.

While you were feeling remorseful in your seat, you didn't notice the flustered apple red that painted the blonde boy's cheeks.

                                                                                          ☀️☀️☀️

Frustratedly enough, the past happenings decided to haunt you even when you were supposed to sleep. With your forearm resting on your forehead, you stared up at the barely visible ceiling, regretting your actions, having an inner war with yourself on whether you had been too rash or if you should just stop questioning everything you did.  It didn't always have to be you, the weird one, right? Right, why couldn't that Baekhyun guy be weird as well, in the end, he had been the one showing interest and then suddenly ending the conversation so abruptly. You were glad that it was currently night and dark in the room because you had a tendency of making odd expressions and gestures with your hands when you were trying to conclude something in your head.

The warmth of the summer was almost unbearable and you wondered if you were ever going to fall asleep while you were so conscious of the fact that your skin was damp and sweaty, making you uncomfortable. 

With a sigh, you couldn't help but think that it would've been really ideal to read one of your favorite books so that you could focus on something that wasn't the weird things that you found yourself experiencing, or maybe that shoujo manga that your friend had pestered you about- no, no that would only fill your head with weird thoughts and expectations. Yeah, you could never go wrong with a book, but you were sure that your roommates wouldn't appreciate it at such an hour, so you contented yourself with recalling your favorite scenes inside your imagination.

                                                                                            ☀️ ☀️ ☀️

Half past eight in the morning and the camping's lodges were already empty, the whole park filled with students chattering while waiting in line for the necessary equipment of today's events. While you were struggling to keep your eyes from closing Chanyeol was the one standing in line, since he had given himself the role as the team leader and had with motivation offered himself to take any responsibility. You found it funny how nobody had objected. Jongdae seemed to be bonding with the beautiful Sarah and  Baekhyun was standing with them without really saying anything. Even today was an incredulously hot day and you mentally cursed yourself for not bringing a fan because the amount of fresh air that your sole hand was creating through the waves was pathetic. 

"Today we fish!" Chanyeol exclaimed once he came back with a rather big bag hanging down his shoulder, not just his lips were into a wide smile but also his eyes were two glittering crescent moons and the way he was barely holding his excitement made a soft smile twitch on your lips. The boy was so tall you could never lose him even in a big crowd and his habit of dyeing his hair into unusual colors made him stick out even more. But you didn't mind him, he was one of the popular kids and he didn't boast about it, hence, sometimes you wondered if he even was aware of it himself. You liked to observe people and every time you found yourself looking at Chanyeol he wouldn't seem to be aware of the admiring gazes directed at him and just continued being in his colorful world spreading smiles. 

"Fishing?" you repeated, Chanyeol sensed the hidden question and nodded enthusiastically, a smile never leaving his lips. "Yep, for today's dinner, at the campfire," he explained and now that he said it you found it rather smart of the teachers to plan it this way. You nodded back with a weak smile and didn't say more, the boy moved on to rest of the group and announced the same things he'd just told you. As soon as Chanyeol said the word fishing you could see a grimace flash for the shortest second on Sarahs face as she lowered her gaze to her hands and you figured out she must have been worried of her manicured fingers and nails, however, it was, she didn't voice her complaints and you found yourself liking that trait of hers, yet another nice person in this group. You had been in her same class multiple times and from what you saw she had always been someone who cared about her appearance and health, but not in an attention seeking way. She knew that she was beautiful and didn't need to say it herself for people to notice. It was her confidence, that made her even finer. 

Jongdae seemed rather surprised by the choice of events but didn't complain, you had always seen him as the very positive person of the class, not to mention overly cheerful. He eyed Chanyeols bag with some sort of approved and nodded. "never heard that one before but ik sure it can be great fun." He thought out loud, "Do you want some help with that though?" Jongdae asked, arms already extended and ready to help but Chanyeol immediately waved it away. 

"it's okay bro, we can switch later, thanks though." You were glad you had been put in a group of people who had a great relationship with each other and that had no problems with bonding with others who they didn't know. Even though you weren't a social butterfly, you found yourself appreciating people who made the situation comfortable for everyone. Your eyes pulled to the Blonde boy standing next to Jongdae and surprised yourself with the first thought flashing through your head was that he looked really good in that plain white tee and jeans shorts. It was such a simple outfit and yet it looked so much more on him and that was somehow something very interesting for you, you found yourself trying to find the right words to describe his slant and slim frame. Eyes squinted into a concentrated expression, you didn't realize the way you were very much staring at Baekhyun until his eyes suddenly met yours and you looked away at the velocity of light, heart shook in your chest at the sudden happening. You loved reading and now you had the habit to observe people just to describe them in your own writing inside of your head, but why was it you it was so hard to put this boy into words? Perhaps because of the way his gaze ga