Chapter twenty-one:

Seohyun’s POV:

[THE NEXT MORNING…]

I could hear someone knocking at my door.

UGHHHHHH.

I stumbled out of bed sleepily. Who could be there so early in the morning?

I opened the door, yawning.

Yoseob was standing there, grinning cheekily.

“YAH! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!” I cried. I was in my teddy bear pajamas, so I was pretty embarrassed to face him like that.

“Nice pajamas” He snickered. “Anyway, I’m here to wake you up!”

“You did a good job.” I grumbled, pretty grumpy that he woke me up so early.

“Anyway,” he handed me a mug. “Here’s some hot chocolate to wake you up! I made it myself!” He looked pretty proud. I couldn’t help smiling.

“Thanks Yoseob!” I accepted it.

“Aww…no Yoseobie?”

“If wanted me to call you Yoseobie you shouldn’t have woken me up!” I grumbled again.

“But I made hot chocolate, so we’re even, right?”

“Araso…YOSEOBIE. I need to wash up! See you later!” I closed the door.

Then I started grinning like an idiot, drinking Yoseob’s hot chocolate.

After breakfast, we headed to the lab again for another fun experiment. We had lunch at the lab, then Mr. Lee announced that we had high elements in the afternoon. The class cheered.

“HIGH ELEMENTS! HIGH ELEMENTS! DID YOU HEAR THAT SEOHYUN? I WANT TO TRY EVERYTHING!” Yoseob was squealing like a kid, jumping up and down excitedly.

I rolled my eyes playfully and giggled at his silliness.

At the high elements site, Professor Lee was explaining some of the safety rules. I wasn’t listening. I was too excited to care. I looked up at the high elements. There were so many stations for me to try out.

Finally, he let us off to have fun.

I made a dash for the nearest station, the rope courses.

Without waiting for anyone, I started to climb the ladder to the top of the course, and got on onto the rope slowly, making my way from one end to another.

Suddenly, I heard someone call me from below.

“SEO JOO HYUN! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Professor Lee was hollering at me.

“WHY DON’T YOU HAVE YOUR HARNESS AND HELMENT ON, LIKE I INSTRUCTED JUST NOW? THIS IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS! WHAT IF YOU FALL AND GET HURT? YOU HAVE NOTHING TO BREAK YOUR FALL!”

OH.

MY.

GOSH.

He was right.

I didn’t put on ANY safety gear.

That meant…

That if I were to fall, I would hit the ground.

Which was at least fifteen meters below.

I am such an idiot.

“TURN BACK AND GET DOWN IMMEDIATELY! AND DON’T LET GO!” Professor Lee yelled.

I didn’t know why, but I couldn’t turn back. I didn’t dare to proceed, and I didn’t dare to turn back. All I knew was that my life was in danger, and I had to hold on.

I started to cry.

What’s going to happen to me?

“SEOHYUN AH!” I heard another familiar voice call out. I looked down nervously. It was Yoseob. He was running towards my station. He had no idea how happy I was to see him.

“I’M COMING TO GET YOU!” He hollered, and strapped on his safety gear. “DON’T PANIC! I’M COMING! JUST STAY THERE, AND DON’T MOVE!”

He started to climb the ladder quickly, and got onto the platform.

He started to walk on the rope slowly, careful not to make the rope shake too violently.

He stopped right beside me, and held out his hand.

I shook my head. I didn’t dare to let my hands off the rope for even a millisecond.

“Come on, Seohyun.” He said gently. “Give me your hand, and I’ll help you down. If you fall, I’ll break your fall by holding on to you.”

I still didn’t dare.

“I…I can’t!” I cried even harder. “I’m afraid!”

“Do you trust me?” He asked me gently.

I looked into his eyes.

They were so genuine, so sincere, so full of concern.

Then I realized that I did.

I didn’t know when I started trusting him, but I knew that I did trust him.

I nodded.

“Then give me your hand. I promise nothing will happen as long as I’m here.” He smiled.

Yes, I trusted him completely.

I knew he wouldn’t let anything happen to me.

So I took a deep breath, and quickly held on to his hand tightly.

“Good, now let’s walk back.” He said, walking back slowly.

I followed him, taking tiny and careful steps.

Finally, we reached the platform. He went down the ladder first, and told me to follow suit.

I was walking down the ladder when my foot suddenly slipped and I tumbled down.

I braced myself for the impact, but none came.

Instead, I found myself in the arms of Yoseob, completely safe and uninjured.

“I told you you could trust me.” He smiled and put me down gently.

I couldn’t help it. Tears of relief streamed down my face. I gave him a huge hug.

“Seo Joo Hyun!” Professor Lee ran towards us. “Thank goodness you’re okay! Do you know what you just did was very irresponsible? And unbelievably dangerous! You’re lucky Mr. Yang was here to help you, or goodness knows what could have happened to you!”

I bowed. “I’m sorry, Professor. I wasn’t listening to your instructions and acted recklessly. You can punish me in any way you like.”

Professor Lee’s expression softened. “Seeing what you just suffered up there, I’m sure it’s punishment enough. Just don’t do something like that again, okay? Mr. Yang, could you accompany Seohyun to the rest of the high elements and make sure she doesn’t do something so foolish again? I don’t want to deprive her from the high elements, seeing how excited she was to take them.”

“I won’t let her out of my sight, Professor.” Yoseob smiled.

“Thank you, Professor!” I was so happy, I even gave him a huge hug. “Thank you! I promise I’ll not do something so silly again!” I linked my hands around Yoseob’s and started running to the next station happily.

“Have fun!” Professor Lee called out.

For the next few hours, Yoseob and I had so much fun. We tried out all the high elements, and even re-took them a couple of times.

Yoseob wasn’t kidding when he said that he wouldn’t let me out of his sight. He was following me EVERYWHERE, even to the washroom. Thank goodness he still had some sense not to enter the ladies, or he’d probably be dead by now.

The day ended way too soon, and before I knew it, it was our last night in Incheon.

“Okay, students” Professor Lee announced at our surprise night activity. “We’ll now be having a scavenger hunt. In this forest, there are many things that can be found. Each pair or group will have a list, and the pair or group to find all the items on the list first wins! But you must ALWAYS stick together. This forest is pretty dangerous, especially at night, so there will be no splitting up. You have two hours. Start!”

“We’re totally going to win this thing!” Yoseob exclaimed, all hyped up.

His enthusiasm was contagious. I couldn’t help grinning back at him.

We were about to start on our hunt when Professor Lee called us back.

“Yoseob, could you stay back for awhile? I need to talk to you about something. You can join your teammates once I’m done.”

Yoseob pouted, obviously not willing to leave me alone with Dongwoon oppa, but he had no choice. So he stayed back, and Dongwoon and I headed off into the forest for our race.

“Oh! A Y-shaped twig! Yes! Five items down already! We make a great team!” I picked up the Y-shaped twig from the ground and handed it to Dongwoon, who put it into the plastic bag.

“Awesome!” He grinned, and checked it off our list, giving me a high-five.

It had been half an hour since the race started. Yoseob should be coming to find us anytime soon.

Suddenly, my shoelaces loosened. I bent down to tie them. I was horrible at tying laces, so I took a pretty long time.

I looked up.

Where was Dongwoon oppa?

“Oppa?” I called out.

There was no one near me. And Dongwoon had the flashlight, so I could barely see anything.

I was a little nervous.

“Dongwoon oppa?” I called out, louder this time. “Where are you?”

Maybe he didn’t notice me tying my shoelaces and walked ahead.

So I ran ahead, hoping to catch up to Dongwoon.

But I couldn’t see anything. No light. No nothing.

It was totally dark. I could barely see the floor, let alone anyone around me.

I decided to turn back and find my way back to the starting point when my foot slipped.

I tumbled down into the darkness.

Yoseob’s POV:

Finally, Mr. Lee finished talking to me and sent me off to find Dongwoon and Seohyun.

Ughhhhh! I bet they’re having a great time now, without me!

What if she accepted his love in my absence?

Gahhhhh!
Before I could head off into the forest, I saw Dongwoon running towards me, panting.

“Where’s Seohyun? You’re not supposed to go anywhere without her!” I demanded.

Instead of fighting back, Dongwoon looked sheepish.

“That’s the thing,” he began. “I can’t find her.”

“Excuse me?” I thought I had heard him wrongly.

“I…can’t find Seohyun. I…I lost her…”

“YOU WHAT?” My first instinct was to yell. “HOW COULD YOU LOSE SEOHYUN? DO YOU KNOW HOW DANGEROUS IT IS FOR HER TO BE WALKING AROUND THE FORESTS ALL ALONE, WITHOUT A FLASHLIGHT?”

“I…I know…” Dongwoon looked extremely guilty. “That’s why I came to find Mr. Lee. I figured he could get the whole class to search for Seohyun, so our chances of finding her would be higher…”

Professor Lee nodded. He took out his walkie-talkie.

“Hello, Mr. Lee speaking. Please alert all the students that Seo Joo Hyun is missing and tell them to search for her. The race is off. Thank you.”

“Come on! Let’s go find her!” I shot Dongwoon a look and ran into the forest as fast as I could.

Dongwoon led me to the place where he last saw Seohyun.

“I remembered seeing an item on the list. I merely ran off for awhile to get it, but when I came back, Seohyun was gone!” He explained.

“How could you have left her alone? What if she gets hurt? There are many dangerous animals lurking around this forest. Now she’s all alone, and she doesn’t even have a flashlight!”

“I know,” Dongwoon admitted. “I’m really sorry.”

There were two paths in front of us.

“Let’s go to the right.” Dongwoon said as he walked towards the right.

I shook my head.

Although the right seemed like the more logical choice, with it being brighter, I had this feeling in my gut that Seohyun had gone down the left path.

“You know what? Let’s split up.” I decided. “I’ll go left, and you’ll go right. Whoever finds Seohyun will bring her back to the starting line.”

Dongwoon nodded and headed off down the right path, while I headed down the left.

Seohyun ah, please be alright.

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So, how is it :D I was pretty satisfied with this chapter - IT WAS 1878 WORDS :D YOU GUYS CAN THANK ME BY SPAMMING NICE COMMENTS HEHEH x) I did this all for you HAHA <3 love you guys :D for commenting on EVERY CHAPTER :D 

I WOULD LIKE TO THANK FANYLOVESPINK FOR MENTIONING ME IN HER FANFIC, DESTINED TO BE (sorry idk how to tag your fanfic in this ><) (: you guys should check out that fanfic HAHA :D IUSEOB FOREVER <3 FANYLOVESPINK PLEASE UPDATE SOON :D