Sincerely From You

I woke up the next morning to the light poking through the tent, stabbing me through my eyelids. Groggily stretching out my legs, it took me a minute to recall what happened last night because I didn’t remember falling asleep and clutching on a pillow that smelled so good... and what was the breathing sound I was hearing because it certainly wasn’t mine and—

Tilting my head back, the first thing I saw was the side of Luhan’s jaw. He was clearly awake and with one hand, he was occupying himself with his phone.

His eyes flicked to me as soon as he sensed movement. “So you’re finally awake.”

I sat up too fast and the blood rush got to me, sending me in a dizzy whirl. Rubbing my eyes, I noticed I was awkwardly lying diagonally and half out of my sleeping bag. This somehow resulted in me ending up on Luhan’s body. “What did you do?!” I slapped his side.

“Ow!” He pretended to hurt badly from my attack and cringed. “I didn’t do anything. You were the one that moved!”

I untangled my hair with my fingers furiously, internally scolding myself for even thinking for a second that I slept comfortably. “You ert. You could have pushed me off!”

“And then allow you to kick me for waking you up? I don’t think so.” Scratching his head and tucking his phone away with a yawn, Luhan got to his knees. I stared a hole with my glare into his back while I watched him shuffle his way to the opening of the tent where he ped the arch. He peered outside. “Hey I think everyone else is awake.”

“What?” Shrugging off my sleeping bag, I climbed out of the tent.

Every one of the other boys were out of their tents and dressed into something warmer for the unexpected absence of the sun despite the afternoon heat the day before. They were gathered around the table where food had been set up. I dug my hand in my bag to retrieve my shoes while Luhan stepped out of the tent and slipped on his.

Luhan poked his head in the tent. “Can I ask you something?”

“What?” I pulled out a pair of sneakers and figured they would do.

“What were you dreaming about last night?”

I glanced up at him from underneath the hair framing my face, not wanting him to see my fiery cheeks. My mind raced to a number of conclusions as to what I might have done in my sleep that would make Luhan ask something like that. Oh god, did I talk in my sleep and say something embarrassing? “I don’t remember.” I meticulously stepped outside and yanked on my shoes, avoiding eye contact. “Why do you ask?”

“Nothing. It’s just you weren’t moving around as much,” he said, stretching his arms and waving at Sehun who noticed us.

Was my sleeping habit really that bad? I couldn’t exactly be awake to tell myself to stop. “How much do I usually move?”

“A lot. I’m talking you kicked the wall once and you didn’t even wake up,” he explained. Luhan grinned at an idea and snatched me closer to his side to squeeze his arm around my waist. “It’s probably because you slept on a really good pillow, huh?”

I scoffed and shoved him away.

Minseok and Baekhyun were the first ones done breakfast and they decided to spend the little time they had left in the beach by daring each other to run into the cold water. I sat between Jongdae and Luhan with scrambled eggs and rice on a Styrofoam plate in front of me.

“Here’s the plan. We’ll pack up and drive back to the villa in thirty minutes.” Junmyeon rolled the sleeve of his sweatshirt to check his watch. “Kris and I are driving the vans.”

“Why thirty minutes? I want to stay a little more,” Chanyeol whined, angrily stuffing his face with rice.

“The weather’s supposed to be bad today and rain all over.” Kyungsoo looked up at the grey sky as if to prove his point.

“I heard the rain is supposed to come in the evening though.”

I waved my phone in the air. “I can check the weather right now.”

“Please do.” Kris was clasping his hands together like he was praying for the sun to miraculously show up.

Swiping my phone to unlock it and opening the weather app, I waited for some signal to reach. I noticed Luhan finish his eggs when he placed his plate aside. Leaning towards me, Luhan rested his chin on my shoulder until I could hear his every intake of air. I stared at the buffering spinning circle furiously as if it would distract me from Luhan and maybe make the page load faster. His hand was unconsciously playing with my hair on my other shoulder while he wearily waited for the results as well with his eyes directed at my phone.

I told myself he was only putting an act in front of his friends. Luhan was supposed to be my happy fiancé that was ever so in love with me after all. As soon as the results showed up, I called out the forecast. “Heavy rain from the afternoon starting at around 1:00 throughout the evening and night.”

There were groans of protest.

Yixing stood to dump his garbage. “Okay, in thirty minutes it is.”

“Lu-hyung.” Jongdae pointed a chopstick at him. “After this trip is done, am I allowed to come over to your house any time to see Sora?”

“What—?” Luhan reached over from behind me to hit Jongdae’s side. “Do you hear yourself? We’re putting a restraining order on you, I swear.”

“Wait, wait! Sora, you want to see me again though, right?” Jongdae nudged my arm, winking.

Laughing, I opened my mouth to speak, but Luhan cut in.

“Don’t answer that. Switch spots with me.” Luhan stood from his seat on the bench and shoved himself between Jongdae and I. Scooting to where Luhan originally sat without much of a choice, the others who had been watching burst into laughter.

“Geez, why do you have to be so obviously jealous?” Tao said through a mouthful.

“Look how red Luhan is.” Sehun teased, making everyone go Oooo.

Luhan reached across the table to drink from a cup of orange juice and spoke without looking up. “…I’m not.”

Jongdae bent back where he could see me. “Sora, do you want to take a walk at least?”

Luhan gulped the rest of his drink. “Actually, her and I are going to do that right now.”

I swallowed my food, staring at him oddly. “We are?”

“Yes, so let’s go.” Standing to step away from the table, Luhan took my hand and towed me along with him.

We walked in comfortable silence until the campsite was a good distance away, going the same direction on the beach as we did the day before. Luhan had still been holding my hand and I wondered if he realized we were far enough from the others that he could stop putting on the scene and pretending. His steady grip just felt so reassuring that I didn’t bother complaining.

I glanced to where I heard the waves crashing. “Are you going to pretend to be lost in the water again?”

“Hmm?” His expression changed to that of guilt as soon as he realized what I meant. He probably hadn’t expected that I talk about his ‘little’ prank again. “I won’t. I'm still really sorry about that."

“You’re lucky I forgave you.”

Luhan abruptly laughed, surprising me. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

He tightened his hand around mine, as if asking for me to only place my atten