CHAPTER THREE:

          You woke up earlier than everyone else. Even Suho was still asleep. You checked for the time and saw that it was only 6:30 in the morning. You tried to go back to sleep but you couldn’t, so you went out of your tent to breathe in some fresh air. You stood up quietly, trying your best not to wake your boyfriend up and you got out successfully. You noticed that the bonfire is gone and that it’s getting cold and Kyungoo’s going to request for wood later when he prepares your breakfast anyway, so you decided to gather wood by yourself.

          Again, you walked your way through the woods and picked up some twigs and small branches. You stopped gathering wood when you noticed that what you were carrying was already enough. It was hard to bring all of the wood you’ve collected and you wished you waited for someone to wake up so they could accompany you. You couldn’t see where you were going and out of the blue, a rock appeared in your way and you tripped and fell on your . You noticed it was the same spot from yesterday, the spot where you almost tripped. You felt something dripping down your legs and when you looked at it, you saw blood flowing down your thighs. You saw that there was a piece of sharp wood poking through your skin and you started to freak out. You wanted so badly to get out of this place, you wanted to go back inside your tent and go back to sleep, but when you tried to stand up, you couldn’t. Your ankle hurt so much, your pobably got bruised from the fall, and your thigh wouldn’t stop bleeding. You shouted for help, desperately hoping that someone would hear you. But it was too early for anyone to wake up so you willed yourself to stand up. You didn’t bother to pick up the wood you’ve gathered that fell on the ground and tried your best to concentrate on walking your way back to the camp. Every step you took was agonizingly painful and you could feel tears rolling down your cheeks. You cursed yourself as you walked, or rather, limped back to your camp. Finally, when you arrived the camping site, you shouted for help one last time and fell on the ground. You saw them running to you and you felt your boyfriend’s strong arms carry you, bridal style. And after that, everything went blank.

          You opened your eyes and was greeted by the boys’ smiling faces. “Hey, she’s awake! She’s awake!” Chanyeol shouted, and everyone went inside your tent. You looked at your side and saw that your boyfriend was fast asleep, his hand holding yours. “Oh my god, what time is it?” you said. “It’s 4 in the afternoon,” Suho replied.
“You’ve been asleep for 9 hours.”
“Yeah, we managed to stop the bleeding on your thigh.” Kris piped in.
“But we don’t think you can walk for a while...” Sehun said.
“Are you okay, do you feel any better?” Luhan asked.
“Of course she doesn’t feel better, a piece of wood poked through her skin after all.” Sehun replied and rolled his eyes while doing so. Luhan glared at him and said something about him being so disrespectful and rude, and just like that, the both of them started bickering. Xiumin tried to stop them from fighting, he reasoned out that this wasn’t the place to argue, especially since you were just in front of them. They glared at each other for one last time and apologized to you. You just laughed it off, saying that it actually made you feel better when you saw them arguing. They looked at each other, confused expressions were evident on their faces, and that made you laugh even more. You thanked everyone and told them that you were fine. You asked if they could leave you for a while, because the crowded-ness of your tent was making you feel dizzy and they quickly went out, saying their get well soon’s one by one as they left.

          You turned to your side and saw your boyfriend stretching, his hand not letting go of yours. He softly scratched his eyes and when he finally, totally woke up, he took you into his arms and hugged you tight.

“What the hell happened to you right there? Are you okay?” He said.

“I guess I’m just really clumsy,” you replied as you scratched the back of your head. “I’m sorry for making all of you worry, especially you.” And he hugged you tighter. He didn’t let go until you both heard Kyungsoo calling everyone out for dinner. He let you finally let you go and went out of your tent.

I can’t believe I let that happen to me. You thought.

You had no idea if your plans will still push through especially since your injury drew back everyone from enjoying the trip. You couldn’t help but blame yourself, continuously telling yourself that you shouldv’e waited for someone else to wake up before you went out on your own.

But after awhile, you came up with an alternative plan and decided to call the boys.

“Okay, everyone, as you all know, I am not capable of doing much work right now... So that would mean, I can’t hike anymore.”

“Yeah, but that’s okay!” Baekhyun said. “We’ll head on back and we’ll do this again some other time.” Everyone nodded.

“No, I mean... You can just leave me here while you go up and back, I can last a day by myself. And I feel so much better now.”

“What?!” Everyone shouted in unison.

“Babe, you know we can’t just leave you like this.” Your boyfriend spoke up.

“Yeah, but... I don’t want to spoil your fun. This three days was meant to be your vacation days, this was supposed to be the time where you have fun! But you’re just worrying about me and-”

“No, you come first above all else, you know that right?” Suho cut in.

“Yeah, we’re your bestfriends and we can’t afford to leave you like this, especially in the state you are in right now.” Kris added.

You brought your hands up, signalling them to move closer. You looked into their eyes and hugged them all at once.

“Thank you, thank you so much for making me feel that you care about me. But I care about you guys just as much. So please, go on and hike without me. It’ll just take a day anyway, right? Enjoy yourselves, that’s all I want.”

“And I’ll stay here.” Your boyfriend said.

“No, you come with them too. I want you to take a rest from your studies and actually have fun with the boys.”

When you let them go, you saw them look at one another, obviously not in favor with your suggestion... But Suho just nodded at them and finally spoke up.

“Okay, if that will make you happy.”
 

The next day, you woke up with a tray of zip-locked food beside your sleeping bag and the medications you had to take for your injuries. You saw a note beside your tray and it was written:

We left early so we can come back early to you! Don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone again, I love you. I already miss you.

You felt so lucky to be blessed with such a boyfriend.

You were bored the rest of the day, of course. With nothing to do and you could barely stand up, you decided to sleep for the rest of the day. When you woke up, you noticed that it was raining hard and it was already dark outside. You slightly opened your tent and saw that there was light from afar.

They’re finally back! You said.

You looked for your umbrella and pushed yourself to stand up. It didn’t hurt that much anymore so it wasn’t hard to do so. You put on a raincoat, opened your umbrella and went outside. With a bright smile on your face you started shouting, “HEY GUYS! Hurry up! Over here!!” You waved your left hand high up in the air and you saw that they started running towards your direction.

When they finally arrived, you immediately asked them how it all went. But when you looked at their faces, you could already sense that something bad happened.

“We tried to save him... We really did.” Tao said.
 

“We were all covered in mud by then, and we were lucky enough to have gotten out of that mess. But he just...” Chanyeol couldn’t even finish his sentence.

“There was a landslide on our way back because it started raining so hard... I’m sorry, but he’s gone.”

You counted them one by one, checking if everyone was there... And that’s when you realized who they were talking about.

Your boyfriend is gone.
 

You cried your heart out and fell on your knees the moment you realized that he was gone... that he was dead. The pain you felt when you fell on the ground didn’t matter anymore because it will never amount to the pain you were feeling right now. Everyone circled around you and hugged you tight. They tried their best to comfort you but you know that their words won’t change anything. You couldn’t stop crying and shouting and asking why He had to take him away. The news you just heard was too much to handle so you tried your best to limp as fast as you can back inside your tent. You cried some more, you cried until you ran out of tears... and eventually, you fell asleep.

When you woke up the next day, you hoped that it was all just a bad dream, a nightmare. But you know for a fact that it wasn’t. You wanted to cry some more but what’s the point? It’s not like your tears will bring him back.

You went out of your tent, slowly and quietly, making sure you won’t wake anyone up. You noticed that they had forgotten to turn out the fire so you decided to sit near it, warming yourself up since it was very cold.

You couldn’t stop thinking about what happened yesterday. You couldn’t accept that it really happened because you believed that it was too out of the blue and that no one, especially your boyfriend, deserved to die that way. He had so much in store for him and you felt so bad that he won’t be able to accomplish his dreams in the future anymore. How were you supposed to tell his family? How were you supposed to explain to everyone what happened? How will you ever move on?

You cried once again, hugging your knees as you made an effort to warm yourself more. It started to rain again, the raindrops touched your skin one by one, and all of a sudden, all at once. You were soaking wet but you didn’t care. You cried harder but you doubt anyone would notice, the rain has concealed your tears for you... But then again, who else was there to see you crying?

When you finally woke up (for the nth time), you saw, from a distance, a shadow. And it was walking, or rather, limping towards you. You got scared all of a sudden but you couldn’t stand up. You were more curious than you were scared. As the shadow was finally near enough for you to guess who it was...

 

You realized that it was your boyfriend.


But that’s not possible! You told yourself.


But when he was finally in front of you, you had to rub your eyes several times to make sure that it was actually him.

You were about to say something and ask him what happened...

but he just fell down on his knees,

crying his heart out and told you,

“I’m sorry. I tried my best! I really did!!” He covered his face and cried harder.

“What happened? I thought you were...”

Then he lifted his face and saw that his face was covered with mud and scratches.
 

“There was a landslide on our way back... And I’m the only one left.”





You were terrified, right on the spot.






 

Who would you believe?