CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: I realize it now

{ It never seems to stop. } * Click for BGM!

"Snowshoeing?" Hyejung stared up at Kai with a raised eyebrow. "Why, all of things, do you want to go snowshoeing?" she questioned.

Kai rolled his eyes, adjusting his toque as the brisk winter breeze blew. "Hey, come on. It's a lot of fun." he defended. "Why? Were you expecting me to take you on a romantic sleigh ride for our date instead?" 

Hyejung scoffed at Kai's playful teasing, giving his arm a punch. "Yah! Who said it was a date?!" she crossed her arms, making a face. "Yesterday you told me you just wanted to hang out with me, so that's what we're doing. Arasso?" Hyejung warned, giving Kai a firm eye.

"Hmm. It sounds like you actually want this to be a date, Hyejung." Kai smirked, inwardly pleased by Hyejung's impatient expression. 

Hyejung gripped her fist, lifting it up in a threatening fashion. "You better cut it out, Kai, or else I'm going to help you in getting into the medics." she growled. 

With a charmingly innocent face, Kai lifted his hands up, "All right, all right. Gotcha." he coolly smiled.

As Hyejung muttered a string of nonsensical things about the ridiculous Kai, the two of them walked up to the snowshoe rental shack. Once they got their proper gear, they were told to hike up higher into the mountains where the trails were located.

The pair stood for a moment, looking forward at the long, snow covered trail ahead of them. White blanketed branches draped over the path, making it difficult to clearly look up into the sky.

"Well, I guess we should get going." Kai spoke up. "Shall we?" he looked over at Hyejung, a miniscule smile on his lips.

Hyejung glanced ahead one more time before nodding. She tried to hide the hesitancy in her voice as she mumbled, "Yeah, I guess." 

They started walking side by side, their snowshoes leaving large footprints behind them. Hyejung was surprisingly rather silent as she looked down, being in deep thought.

Hyejung replayed in her mind the times where she would play in the snow with her umma as a kid. She pictured her mother and herself. They would stroll down easy-going paths where the snow had just fallen, giggling and chatting away as they pointed out sparkling particularities such as the occasional little animal scurrying up the tree.

Hyejung sighed, a visible puff right in front of her. Watching her every step with caution, the tomboy sadly thought, *Why have I been thinking about you so much, umma? Why do I feel so lonely all of a sudden?*

It didn't take long for Kai to notice Hyejung's strangely quiet demeanor. "Wow. I never seen you so careful before, Seo Hyejung." he spoke up, a light twinkle of interest in his eyes.

"Huh? I'm not being careful!" Hyejung protested, scowling. "I was just thinking."

"Well, I'm happy to know that you're brain is in good working order." Kai joked, reaching out to pat the tomboy's head. "What were you thinking about?

Hyejung twisted her lips uncomfortably, not wanting to spill that she was thinking of her passed mother. Hyejung knew that Kai still had no clue that she was an orphan, and she preferred to keep it that way before news spread. Besides, you can never know what can happen in such a populated high school like Seoul School of Fine Arts. 

Clearing , Hyejung bluffed to Kai like numerous times she did, "Er, I was just thinking about the latest TVXQ music video." she casually said, stuffing her hands in her baggy snow jacket pockets. "The dance in Humanoids is pretty badass if you ask me."

Kai's eyes glistened, his passion of dancing brewing inside of him. "Oh yeah! The moves in the chorus are the best!"

Hyejung snorted, "Are you kidding me? The beginning is jaw-dropping, dude!" she slapped Kai's arm, and he laughed.

"Oh, of course~ Because Changmin's voice in the introduction is just so ''." Kai sarcastically said, doing little parentheses motion with his fingers whilst wriggling his brows playfully.

Hyejung scoffed, making an abhorred face, "Yah, cut it out. You're slowly making me doubt your ual preference." she told Kai seriously.

"Yah! It's not what you think! I'm just stating what I hear from the fangirls!" Kai defended. "They're everywhere, you know!" he animatedly gestured his arms, making Hyejung chortle.

The two of them continued to hike through the beautiful trail, talking and laughing loudly about nothing but dancing. It was amazing on how much they both liked the passionate art. Scratch that; LOVED. 

It was now late in the afternoon, and the sun was starting to disappear for the day. The chilly winter air moderately turned into more frigid temperatures the more Hyejung and Kai hiked upwards.

Stopping in front of two different paths, Hyejung glanced over at Kai in question. "So? Which way should we go?"

Kai came up to the tomboy's side and inwardly debated as he gazed at the two paths. The left one was steep and rigid, while the right was fairly flat and smooth.

"Hmm..." Kai thought for a few moments before making his decision. "We'll take the left one. By the way it looks, it looks like it's going to take us up to the mountain a lot quicker."

Hyejung stared at Kai in disbelief, taking a quick double-take at the chosen, awfully risky-looking path. "Are you sure about that? I mean-"

Kai nodded confidently, cutting Hyejung off. "I'm sure. Don't worry, it's not like we're going to die or anything." he waved his hand.

"Fine, fine! If you say so." Hyejung held her hands up in a 'woah' motion, shrugging carelessly.

Taking a few steps forward, Kai glanced over his shoulder, "I don't think it's going to be this lofty the whole time. You can feel at ease." he grinned.

And to her mistake, Hyejung believed him. 

The two of them started hiking up, and it only took several minutes for both of them to start tiredly panting. The precipitous height of the trail seemed to be going on forever, and it soon started to snow into a fierce blizzard. 

"Y-Yah, Kai!" Hyejung called out, shivering vigorously. Although her hands were covered with protective gloves, they were severely blue and numb. "I can't feel my freaking limbs anymore! Are you sure we're going the right way?!"

Kai looked behind him and nodde