With the rising sun peaking shyly through the clouds as backdrop, Jongin stormed into Naesae with the sombre stability of an ancient giant carrying the whole weight of the world on his sole shoulders. Seeing Jongin enter with a semiconscious Chinsun in his arms, Baekhyun and Jongdae were rendered speechless. The two best friends stared at the two exhausted figures and hurriedly helped Jongin lay Chinsun down on the bench. While doing so, Baekhyun noticed how the soles of Jongin’s shoes looked horribly worn out. It dawned upon the keen male that he had not heard the familiar roar of the motorcycle echoing along the streets. Realisation hit Baekhyun that there was no way for jongin to bring Chinsun back safely on a motorcycle if she could hardly maintain her consciousness, which meant…

“Did you walk—”

“Obviously I took a taxi back here,” Jongin quickly interrupted, having intercepted Baekhyun’s observant eyes. “Just took a while of walking around to catch a taxi since the mountain is in such an isolated area.”

“I see,” Baekhyun exhaled in relief.

“I know I have a hardheaded and crazy cousin but come on Baek,” Jongdae scoffed. “Who in their right minds would walk all the way back here after hiking down a mountain?”

Jongin immediately swallowed back the snort originally intended for Baekhyun’s assumptions. Deep inside, Jongin knew that if needed, he really would have walked all the way back to Naesae with Chinsun cradled in his embrace. If left with no other means, nothing could have stopped him from trudging through fire and snow and lava and oceans.

“Anyway,” Jongin awkwardly cleared his throat. “Before either of you go shooting off with questions, I don’t know the full story either. We’ll just have to wait until Chinsun wakes up.”

“Of course of course,” Jongdae repeated hurriedly. “Let’s just all sleep over at our’s tonight. Chinsun can sleep in your room and us three boys can all squeeze in my room what do you say? I'm sure Baek you don’t feel like going back all by yourself either.”

Jongin did not bother listening to Jongdae’s endless sentence and was already lifting Chinsun back in his arms, holding her gingerly and heading straight towards the kitchenette. Jongdae hurried after the tired male, leaving Baekhyun trailing be