“You’re just underwater, and nobody bothers you. I like the silence of it, I guess.

I like the freedom”

– Dale Lahodik

“Are we there yet?” the youngest of EXO-M was starting to complain and whine after half an hour of non-stop walking on a straight path.

“We’ve only just begun,” Sehun replied a little testily. He couldn’t believe what a big baby the panda was being. “This is nothing compared to what is coming.”

“And what is coming?” XiuMin wanted to know.

“We still have to climb uphill.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Chen muttered, sweat pouring from his face. He wiped it away with the back of his hand. “How long will it take for us to get there?”

“Probably two hours,” Baekhyun estimated roughly.

“What?!” EXO-M screeched. Well, five of them screeched. Only Kris bellowed. They could not believe that they were wasting a perfectly good day just to walk for a measly two hours just to get to the waterfall — not like they had anything better to do, since they were stranded on an island, but, well . . . two hours is a long time.

“It’s a good morning exercise,” Chanyeol shrugged nonchalantly, grinning. He waved a hand around in the air. “And we’ve only got five more minutes before we reach the bottom of the hill. It’s not long from here now.”

“We can rest there,” Suho suggested.

“But I’m tired,” Tao whined.

“We told you yesterday that it was going to be a long walk,” Sehun snapped. “If you weren’t looking forward to it, then why did you say yes in the first place? You might as well turn around now and go back.”

Luhan narrowed his eyes, Tao frowned, Kris glowered at him. The three of them were about to say something to Sehun, who was ready to retaliate, when Sohee placed a hand on Sehun’s shoulders and smiled softly, shaking her head.

Sehun sighed and nodded reluctantly. “Sorry,” he muttered to Tao and kept walking. He brushed against him so he wouldn’t feel irritated.

Sohee caught up with him and struck a conversation with him, doing whatever she could to distract him. Jongin joined as well and soon Sehun had forgotten the issue.

Everyone continued to walk and five minutes later, just like Chanyeol had said, they had reached the bottom of the hill. Tao immediately flopped down to his feet while the others all bent over, trying to catch their breaths.

Sehun furrowed his eyebrows at them and was about to taunt them for being so unfit when Sohee glanced up toward the sky and he paused, watching her. A smile subconsciously played on his face as he watched her silliness.

Luhan frowned, witnessing the whole scene.

“We’ll rest for ten minutes, and then carry on,” Kris said to Suho, who nodded. Kris knew that if they rest for a bit longer, the others would eventually get lazy and would not want to continue the hike.

“Ten minutes of break, everyone!” Suho called out as the entire group came to a halt. “Drink up if you need to.”

“Wait, wait, what?” Tao protested, flabbergasted. “We’ve walked for half an hour and we only get ten minutes break? Where’s the justice?!”

His leader only gave him a stern look and he slumped his shoulders. Sehun snickered and walked away. Tao stuck his tongue out behind his back.

Luhan wiped a bead of sweat away from his forehead and turned over to glance at Sohee, who was sweating but didn’t look tired. He admired her, for her fitness. He went over to her and smiled. “I take it you’re used to this?” he asked.

She laughed and Luhan swore it sounded like bells to him. “To be honest, not really,” she admitted. “I’m more used to other means of getting up to that waterfall.” She smiled at him, using her hand to fan herself.

Before he could even ask what she meant, Sohee excused herself and went over to her brother to ask how he was doing, leaving him to frown in bemusement.

Sehun, who was tired of walking, turned to Suho. “Hyung, can we go up our way?” he asked, knowing that Suho would understand what he meant.

Suho blinked, understanding. “But the others —”

“No offense,” Sehun interrupted him, lowering his voice so the others wouldn’t hear, “but it’s not really fair that the rest of us had to be held back down like. And besides, if we go ahead, we can set everything up so by the time the others catch up, everything is ready for them to eat and such.”

“We can’t just leave the others behind —”

“So one of us guides them upward,” Sehun shrugged, not really seeing the problem. “I know, the road’s long and winded and you can easily get lost here.”

Baekhyun came up to them, hearing the entire conversation. It put a frown on his face. As much as he wanted to go ahead with Sehun’s idea, there was also a flaw in the plan and being the rational and logical one in EXO-K, he was sure to be able to point it out. “Well, obviously that person is going to be hyung, isn’t it?” he asked. “Have you thought that if we leave him behind, it wouldn’t be fair because then he would be held back?”

Sehun’s heart sank as he realized that he had, in fact, not thought about that. Of course it would be Suho who would end up guiding the others the way up. He hung his head. “Mianhae,” he muttered.

Suho laughed softly and ruffled his hair. “It’s fine, we’ll just take turns guiding them up, then,” he suggested. He turned to Baekhyun. “You and I both know that it’s going to be up to us, and Kyungsoo and Sohee to lead them up. I’m sure Chanyeol and Jongin wouldn’t want to.” He glanced at Sehun. “And neither will him.”

“I would,” he protested feebly.

“Right, I’m sure you’re dying to guide them up,” Baekhyun said sarcastically, “especially that guy.” He nodded toward Luhan, who was staring wistfully at Sohee’s back as she talked to her brother, and Suho grinned. They turned back to Sehun and saw that he was glowering at Luhan before he noticed that they were smiling at him.

Sehun’s face turned crimson and he averted his eyes, refusing to make any eye contact. He desperately tried to catch Sohee’s eyes but failed miserably as Luhan blocked her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, hyung,” he mumbled under his breath.

“Sure.”

“Hyung,” Sehun whined.

Suho and Baekhyun laughed and the leader turned to the others. “Okay, um, Chanyeol, Kyungsoo, Sohee, Jongin,” he called out and they looked up.

“Deh?” they said together in perfect unison.

He gave them a lopsided grin. “We’ll meet you up there,” he told them, pointing upward with his index finger. “Last one there has to set everything up, okay?”

They hesitated. “Are you sure about that?”

He nodded, eyesmiling at the bunch of them. “I need one of you the scout around, though,” he went on. “We need to know if it’s safe to go up there.”

“What do you mean?” Yixing asked. “Why wouldn’t it be safe to go up there?”

“There are animals wandering around the jungle,” Kyungsoo explained, “like snakes, tigers, elephants, and such.” He stuck a finger out at each count.

“Tigers?!” Tao’s eyes lit up. “Cool!”

“They’ll coolly eat you if you get too close,” Chanyeol replied with a straight face. Then he made a face, holding his hands up like claws. “Rawr!”

Sohee laughed at his silliness. “But, Suho Oppa, are you sure it’s okay to leave you here with them and go up?” She glanced over at XiuMin who was looking at her. She trusted Suho. It’s the jungle animals she didn’t trust. Well, not all of them.

“I’m sure,” Suho reassured her. “Now, go. The whole lot of you.”

Chanyeol, Jongin, Kyungsoo, Sehun and Sohee glanced at each other before their faces broke into grins. Kyungsoo grabbed the picnic basket. “Last one at the top, holding the basket is the rotten egg!” they yelled and scattered, disappearing from sight just as Kyungsoo tossed the basket to Chanyeol.

“What is going —?” Kris looked up, blinking, and realized that five people were missing. He glanced around. “Where did they go?”

“They have their own way of climbing up this hill to the waterfall,” Baekhyun explained. He had decided he would stay back and help Suho.

“How?” XiuMin was curious to know.

“By vines, swinging from trees to trees,” Suho replied casually. When he heard a faint bird call, he motioned for everyone to continue on their hike.

“Like Tarzan?” Tao said in awe, staring after them longingly. “Wah, I want to know how to swing from trees to trees too! It sounds like a lot of fun!”

“Everything sounds like fun to you,” Chen muttered, trudging his feet upward.

“I heard that!”

As the group made their way up, they could occasionally see the others swinging by, their game abandoned, to see if they were okay before heading further upward. EXO-M, who were really not used to walking this much, were getting really tired, their feet ached, and they had to stop a couple of times to rest before they could move on. The sun was already up and shining down on them.

Finally they heard the sound of the water flowing and their energy had been reignited, anxious to get to the waterfall where they could finally reach. But all of a sudden, when the water sound was almost deafening, Suho stopped and turned to everyone behind him.

“What’s the matter?” Kris asked.

Suho grinned. “Welcome to the waterfall,” he said before he pushed a leaf down, revealing the torrent of water flowing down from the rocks.

“Wah,” everyone went, awe-struck by the sight.

Then they heard a shrill of laughter and saw Chanyeol grumbling to himself as he unpacked everything while the others were having a time of their lives in the water. Even the ever-so-helpful Sohee, who was just sitting by the edge of a rock, dipping her feet into the cool water, abandoned him.

“So, who won?” Suho asked Chanyeol as they set their stuff next to him and flopped down on the rock they were standing on.

“Jongin,” Chanyeol muttered, his voice almost audible. “And, well, obviously, you can see who lost the race.” He did not look happy.

Baekhyun laughed. “I would’ve thought that you’d be first into the water, seeing as your long limbs could make you move fast,” he teased.

“They gave me a handicap and they made sure they weren’t anywhere near me for me to pass the basket to,” Chanyeol complained. He knew that if he had the basket, he would have to be careful with the food; he couldn’t simply toss it around.

“I was so smart to give it to him at the start of the race!” Kyungsoo hollered before Jongin jumped on him, dunking him into the depths of the water.

Chen’s face paled at the sight of the water.

Luhan couldn’t help but glance over to where Sohee was and felt a pang of pain when he saw Sehun swimming up to her. He didn’t know why but the maknae of EXO-K rubbed him off in the wrong way. He didn’t like the way Sehun seemed to be scowling or having that poker face whenever he was with EXO-M, like they were a disease or something. And he certainly didn’t like the fact that he was so close to Sohee.

Sehun glanced over at him and frowned before turning to Sohee. He lifted himself up from the water and sat next to her. “You’re not going in? You’re afraid of the ocean, not the waterfall,” he pointed out.

She smiled softly. “I know, I’m just . . . admiring the view.” She looked up, squinting her eyes due to the ray of the sun blinding her eyes.

Sehun poked her head. “Don’t look up, you idiot, the sun will blind you.”

“Too late.” She looked back at him, blinking.

He shook his head and sighed but he smiled softly, kicking the water. His smile broadened as each ripple grew. He loved being in the water and he wished that Sohee would learn to love it the way he did.

He really liked being in the water. Sehun was normally a stubborn, hot-tempered person while Sohee was the peaceful and calm one. But when it comes to water, it was contradicting. Sehun liked the ocean because he felt more peaceful and calm underwater, whereas Sohee would thrash and cause a ruckus due to her fear, although she was slowly to understand the way Sehun did with the currents.

They were the polar opposite, but the same. That was one of the reason why Sehun liked being with Sohee. To him, she was the ocean, composed and gentle. And he wanted to keep her that way, which was why he always felt the compulsion to be near her so that he could protect her passive being, to be the rock she would cling onto whenever she felt like she was being swept away by the currents.

The only weird thing he never understood about her was how she was not afraid to jump 10m down to the waterfall yet would panic whenever she was out in the ocean. Sehun guessed that she could reach the bottom of the waterfall, but the ocean had the biggest depth that no human could ever reach.

It’s not that Sohee couldn’t swim; she could and she was quite a strong swimmer, too. She was just merely afraid.

“Let’s jump down,” Sohee said to Sehun after a few minutes of watching the other ten boys playing in the water. Chen was just sitting on the edge, just like they were, glancing wistfully at the others.

“You’re crazy, you know that,” he replied affectionately, smiling warmly at Sohee. “You’re so scared of the ocean, so scared to drown, but you would jump off a cliff into the fast currents of the waterfall.”

“I like the thrill I get when I jump. It’s rather exciting.” She shrugged, standing to her feet. She held her hand out to him. “Come on, you big chicken. Jump with me. It’s no fun to jump down all by yourself.”

He shook his head. “No way.” As much as he loved water, he didn’t like the idea of jumping — especially when he had to jump from very high up. “You go ahead. I’ll be cheering you on from down here . . . where I’m safe.”

She tried to do aegyo on him, which usually worked, but when it comes to jumping off the cliff (or skipping swimming lessons), it never worked. She pouted. “Please, Oppa, pleaseeee?” she pleaded unsuccessfully.

But Sehun remained adamant, though he would never admit that he was actually, in fact, starting to waver a bit.

“What’s going on?” Luhan had silently crept up to them, deciding to be a jerk and their moment. He flashed a winning smile at Sohee.

“Sehun Oppa refuses to do something with me,” she pouted.

Sehun rolled his eyes. “I’m not that crazy,” he scoffed.

Luhan took this opportunity to spend time with Sohee and automatically said, without even asking what it was, “I’ll do it with you then.”

Sohee beamed. “Really?” she squealed the same time Sehun’s eyes went wide with shock and disbelief.

Before Sehun could change his mind, before Luhan could even find out what he had just walked himself into, Sohee was already dragging him toward the waterfall where they would climb up to jump. Astounded, Sehun watched as they began to climb up.

Luhan turned toward him with a mocking smirk that seemed to be saying, “I won.”

That fumed the hatred he already had for the baby-face idiot.

XiuMin swam up to him. “Where is my sister taking Luhan?” he asked.

“They’re going to jump down from the waterfall,” he muttered sullenly, diving into the water. Whatever. He’ll go with Sohee the next time.

XiuMin’s eyes widened. “But he’s afraid of heights.”

Sehun blinked and then broke into a grin, suddenly feeling better. He couldn’t see Luhan’s face, but he could see the older boy’s hesitant to move higher. He threw his head back and laughed.

You think you’ve won, but really, you just dug your own grave.

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OMG HI so I've updated the next chapter >< hehehe poor Luhan tbh cx