“My trigger is…”

You stared at Hyuk without blinking even once. Your throat went dry as you felt a suffocating knot inside your chest.

Hyuk’s lips formed a smirk before he stopped his hand right on your shoulder and put his thumb on your neck.

“Knife…”

“My trigger is a knife…” Hyuk repeated as he jabbed his thumb to the skin of your neck, making you flinched on your seat.

“Y-ya! It’s not funny!”

You rapidly slapped his hand away from your shoulder, later covering your neck.

Hyuk grinned from ear to ear, knowing that he had successfully teased you. “I’m just joking…”

“But it scared me!” You hit his arm playfully and the latter just mouthed you a “mianhae” with a cute pout.

“So… will you listen to my story now?”

A sigh came out from your lips as you nodded. “As long as it’s okay with you…”

Hyuk put one of his arms on the desk then leaned his head on top of it. He stared at you with soft eyes, biting his lower lip. You could see how he was being hesitant at first, but somehow tried to gain his courage back to start the story. You waited for him patiently when you realized that his gaze had suddenly turned sad.

“I killed my girlfriend…”

Like a bullet was just shot to your heart, you felt an aching pain on your chest. Completely lost for words as Hyuk continued with his story.

“I killed her with a knife…”

You were surprised. More like because you couldn’t believe that someone as soft-hearted and innocent as Hyuk had his own hands stained with blood from killing someone. Especially someone particularly close to him. But you then reckoned that none of these boys got cursed for nothing. They were turned into bunch of hapless dolls for a sin. A sin that was far from forgivable. And although mere misconducts like stealing fit someone like Hyuk better, there was no way he would be caged in a living hell hole for only-God-knows-how-many-years for only had stolen a couple of stuffs.

Hyuk’s eyes were half-closed as he stared blankly into the empty space. Pain was painted on all over his face and you were expecting him not to continue with whatever he was going to tell you, but the latter had long made up his mind to welcome you to his nightmarish past.

“I stabbed her with a knife…” He motioned his hand to his chest, piercing it with an invincible blade several times, “…Right here.”

You couldn’t help but gulp as you felt shivered ran down your spine, still doubting the fact that this impeccable young boy before you was once had enough hate polluted his heart to end a life. You wouldn’t lie that whatever you just heard, wasn’t less horrible than what you heard from Ravi. And although you tried so hard to look indifferent, Hyuk was too sharp to miss the fact that he just frightened you.

“Are you scared…?”

You clearly were. But not without you convincing yourself that the Hyuk in front of you right now was no longer the same Hyuk who mercilessly stabbed his own girlfriend in the past.

You unconsciously bit your lower lip and looked away from his stare, forcing his to curl up.

“It’s all in the past… So please, don’t be scared…”

Hyuk tried to calm you down, knowing what you were thinking. He grabbed one of your hand, slightly squeezing it as he reassured you that he wouldn’t, in any possible way, hurt you.

“W-why did you… k-kill her…?”

With voice badly trembling, you gathered what was left of your courage to ask him the ultimate question. Eager to know what kind of terrible mishap had pushed him into thinking that killing solves everything.

Hyuk gave you a dry laugh as he summoned his immoral act back. A solemn silent was what followed before he brushed his bony finger against your soft skin, drawing transparent circles on it.

“Because she didn’t listen to me…”

His rather shocking revelation made you went mute for a second. Nothing could pose as reason to kill. And now he told you that a precious life had to meet a cruel end just because she didn’t listen to him. Although creepiness was slowly climbing onto your faint heart, you still gave the young lad the chance to spill out more of his grim memory.

A couple of minutes passed until Hyuk eventually opened his mouth again.

“I used to be a possessive boyfriend…”

Your eyes perked up in surprise as he said those words, and recalling everything that you had witnessed from Hyuk on these past few months made you realized that he indeed kind of possessive with things. But you were naively assuming that he was just grabby in nature.

“I couldn’t stand it when my girlfriend ignored my text messages. I hated it when she left my phone calls unanswered. Be it for a day or an hour… I wanted her to be mine…” Hyuk’s voice started to sound shaky as his eyes reflected more pain than before.

“Only mine…”

Your lips were sealed perfectly, not wanting to interrupt the struggling young lad. He made it clear earlier that this would be the first and the last time for you to ‘witness’ his past, and he didn’t show any signs of stopping either. For that, you patiently waited.

“I followed her everywhere… exactly like a stalker. I walked her to school as often as I scouted her back home. Forget about weekends, all I cared about was to always be with her.”

Hyuk closed his eyes in frustration, recalling how horrible his pathetic self was long ago.

“24 hours a day… Seven days a week… Four weeks in a month… 12 months in a year… forever. I wanted her to be with me… to stay beside me.”

Tears were threatening to form on Hyuk’s eyes and you quickly put your hand on top of his, sharing your strength to keep the clear warm drops from falling.

“You loved her so much, didn’t you? That’s why you acted like that…”

His eyes remained closed, but a small smile was formed on his reddened face. “Yes, I did… But my action turned out to be my sin…”

Your eyebrows instantly furrowed. “What do you mean…?”

Slowly, Hyuk opened his eyes, now staring at you. “Ravi must have told you about how our sins turned us into disgusting voodoo dolls, right?”

You answered with a simple nod and the latter chuckled.

“My sin is greed…”

Your mouth slightly parted as you tried to take in his words. His sin was greed and he used to be a possessive boyfriend. So far, everything made sense, but you still couldn’t grasp the bitter fact that sometimes being greedy could cost you another person’s life.

“I was too greedy that I lost her…”

Squeezing your hand, he let out a deep sigh. You slowly brought your free hand to his cheek and caressed it, hoping it could calm him down a little.

“I-I just…” Hyuk nearly choked in tears, but he managed to hold back. “Because I loved her so much… I didn’t want us to be separated, even just for a second. But… she took it the wrong way…”

Wrong way…?

Hyuk blew another sigh, eyes glimmering in tears, “S-she… found me annoying… and started to ignore my text messages and calls.”

He echoed out a scornful laugh, along with a teardrop that finally fell from the corner of his eyes. “I grew furious and became even more possessive… but it made the rift between us broke even wider… it made her decided to break up with me…”

Another drop of tear fell and you felt a spank inside your heart. This wasn’t even your first time watching him cries, but you sure had never seen him being this broken, being so much in pain from recalling back his story. Before, he shed his tears because you were hurt. But now, the tears were spilled because it was his turn to get hurt.

“I… I’m a bad person, am I…?”

Lifting his hanged head, you cupped his face and stared deeply into his eyes. “No… Hyuk-ah… You are not a bad person…”

Hyuk smiled miserably, “You may think so… but she didn’t.”

“No, Hyuk… You are—”

“—I killed her. I am bad.”

Hyuk completely cut you, forcing your breath to hitch.

“Even after we broke up, I still loved her with all of my heart… I still came to her house every single day, waiting for a chance to take a glimpse of her face… I followed her everywhere and never laid my eyes off her. I wanted her to always be safe… I was hoping that she would come back to me…”

“And one day she finally came over to my house…”

Hyuk began to sob quietly, could no longer hold the piling misery. He bitterly smiled while teardrops kept flowing down from his puffy eyes.

“I thought… she came to say that she wanted to start things from over again… I thought… she came because she finally understands how I really loved her… how I couldn’t live without her by my side… but…”

“…I was wrong…”

You were dead scared, yet you had been sensing this unknown feeling that gave oppressing sensation to your chest. This had happened more than once before, and it took you less than a second to realize that this was more than just your brain trying to sympathize with his feelings. It was the bond between you and the boys that had grew far too strong.

“Hyuk-ah…”

You were about to wipe his tears away when he suddenly grabbed your hand. “She yelled at me… For her I was just a sick person, a ert… a psychotic maniac… S-she even said that I was disgusting… She said I should just die so that she could live peacefully…”

More tears burst out from your gaped eyes as you covered your mouth, silencing the sobbing. It didn’t even happened to you, yet hearing what he had went through broke your heart to two. To have his beloved treated him like a worthless piece of trash, you couldn’t even imagine how badly broken Han Sanghyuk was.  

The fragile boy was crying while laughing at the same time. For a second there, strangers might think that he was crazy, mentally ill. But he wasn’t. As he was just a hopeless boy whose love had been cruelly shattered into tiny little pieces.

“Did she even know that everyone has their own way to love someone?! I treasured her more than my own life yet she treated me like a bag of filth! She said I scared her, as if I wasn’t any less dangerous than those serial rapists out there! Being told such horrible things from someone who you’d kill yourself for— just how terrible do you think that could be!?”

He yelled at you. And you were slightly taken back by it. Yet seeing how frustrated his expression was gave no other kind of feeling but sadness.

“Hyuk-ah… Stop…”

“I-I… I still clearly remember that day when she screamed at me… I stayed quiet back then, because I was afraid that my words would hurt her… So I just stood there, watching her as he humiliated me with her hateful words…” Hyuk had his head lowered, letting out an even louder series of sobbing.

“I told myself that I’ll be okay… and when she calmed down, I was planning to apologize… because no matter how bad she despised me… I still loved her. But then… she shoved me away, telling me that she already found someone better than me… someone who loved her more than me.”

As more tears brimmed out from his orbs, dripping to his clothed laps, you cupped his face again and wiped them off.

“Don’t cry…”

“To only think that she was seeing someone else disgusted me!! She belonged to me! She was mine! Only mine!!” Hyuk began to scream in despair and you instantly jumped from your seat, hugging him tightly.

He gripped tightly on your clothes and buried his face on the crook of your neck, “And when the greediness took the last bit of my sanity… I grabbed the knife on the kitchen counter…”

You knew your clothes were now all wet, but you didn’t care. You patted his back and caressed his soft locks with your other hand, trying your best to calm him down.

“I didn’t know what I was thinking… It happened way too fast that I didn’t even remember anything… I didn’t even know if she screamed… or fought back when I stabbed her. But there was one thing for sure… I killed her.”

His grip tightened as he let out another ominous confession, “I thought it would be better for her to die… so that no one could claim her as theirs… so that I wouldn’t need to worry of getting hurt from seeing her smiling happily with someone else…”

Hyuk then hugged your waist firmly, dipping his face even deeper into you, “But then I realized… that after what I did to her…. I would never be able to see her smile anymore…”

“Hyuk…”

“So there she died… right on front of me… sprawled breathless and motionless… on a massive red pool of blood…” He continued crying like a little kid in his mother’s arms.

“She left me without saying any last words…”

With his trembling body still securely attached to yours, you sat still on your seat, continuously patting his broad back while whispering endless ‘it’s okay’ to his ears.

You finally understood everything about Hyuk. His trigger and also his so-called sin. And although you were secretly thankful that you got to take a closer look of him, you also swore to yourself that you would definitely free him and the rest of the boys from their eternal curse. You swore that you would do anything to make them smile from the bottom of their hearts again.

All that registered your ears was his pitiful crying and that made you realized that he was actually just pretending to be strong all this time. When in fact, he was just a crybaby. A cute boy with a fragilely soft heart.

After about 15 minutes, Hyuk finally stopped crying. He loosened his grip on your waist before sniffing a couple of times and finally lifted his head to face you.

You lightly pinched his pink cheeks. “Feeling better now…?”

His face slightly blushed as he wiped the remaining tears on his now swollen eyes. “Yeah… Thank you…”

You gave him a smile while patting his head, “Are you hungry? I will whip something up for you, who knows… maybe you’ll feel even better.”

He shook his head, followed with another sniff. “No… I’m all okay now… Let’s just continue with our project.”

He turned his body and grabbed his pen, but you instantly stopped him. “Han Sanghyuk!”

“How are we supposed to work when you’re being all gloomy like this!? Come on, the project can wait! Let’s just go eat something first!”

You pulled his hand and were about to snatch his pen away, but instead of fighting back, Hyuk surprisingly pulled you to him.

“Omo!”

You let out a yelp and right away learned that you already ended up sitting on his lap.

“Y-ya! Han Sanghyu—”

Your protest was cut almost immediately when you realized that his face was just inches apart from yours. His eyes were as wide as yours now, probably surprised with what he just did to you too. You held your breath back before suddenly noticed that Hyuk’s eyes had turned soft.

Oh my God… What should I do now!?

Fighting with your own mind was not helping as Hyuk just stared at your eyes deeply. You could only gulp when he leaned his face even closer, forcing you to take in his minty breaths. His gaze drifted down from your eyes right to your nose before finally stopped at your pinky lips.

You clearly saw how Hyuk’s eyelids slowly closed and you could swear your heart nearly ceased to function. With blood rushed abnormally faster, your whole body turned awfully rigid.

N-no no no! This is too unexpected—

Truth to be told, Hyuk actually experienced the same thing. His heart was beating wildly inside and words couldn’t explain how nervous he was when your agitated eyes pierced his. And with you not backing away at all, gave him enough sign that the green light was already beeping. He thought you were ready and for that he completely shut his eyes.

The butterflies in your stomach went crazy the second you felt his nose brushed against yours. Yet you couldn’t do anything and just closed your eyes tightly, waiting for the unexpected scene to happen.

The red headed-boy leaned closer, with his lips slightly parted, and—

“YO GUYS! I’M BACK! LET’S DO OUR PROJ-“

You pushed Hyuk back hard in reflex and the latter ended up falling from his chair. While Ravi stood frozen by the doorframe with eyes as big as baseballs. His jaw dropped low upon witnessing the scene played before him, followed with a hitched gasp.

“Ouchhh…” Hyuk winced in pain as his went numb after colliding with the cold wooden floor.

You instantly stood up, fixing your hair and skirt awkwardly. You eyed Ravi and actually found it funny to see him looking so shocked like that. You didn’t see his comical expression every day, but too bad this wasn’t the right time to laugh.

You formed a fake smile, “O-oh, R-ravi! Finally… y-you woke up!”

You cleared your throat while mentally hitting yourself for stuttering a lot. Slowly, you walked to the door, still with a set of fake smile perched on your face. “I-I will bring some juice so then we can continue with our… uhh-- project!”

In the next second, you were already disappeared from your room and stormed to the kitchen.

“Aishh…” Hyuk ruffled his hair desperately before pushing himself up from the floor.

Ravi’s mouth was still gawked open as he gaped at the youngest with eyes beamed wide. He glared at the blue-haired boy the moment he learned that his brother wouldn’t stop eyeing him.

“What are you looking at?!”

Ravi finally closed his mouth, now gulping hardly. “D-did you two j-just… just…”

The youngest let out a frustrated groan as he claimed a spot on the chair again, taking his pen with disappointment drawn on his scrunched face.

“If only you didn’t break in like a freaking meteor, I would be kissing her right now! Damn you, Kim Ravi—” He slightly whispered at the cursing part.

Ravi smirked promptly, feeling completely relieved that no one had claimed your lips. Yet. If there was something he could hope for, aside from having his curse lifted up, then it would be to have the honor of being your first kiss. Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only one who craved for your lips here.

“Ya, you jerk…” Ravi scoffed as he took the seat beside Hyuk.

“Forget about the others, I never thought that such an innocent brat like you could move faster than me…” Ravi shook his head in bewilderment.

“Jinjja daebak…”

Hyuk just laughed sarcastically at his older brother, “You better stop looking down on me, bro… You have no idea what I’m capable of…”

“Honey! Please wake me up once we’ve arrived~”

You turned your head to your left and saw how N was already trying to find a comfortable position for him to sleep. Beside him was Leo with earphones deeply plugged into his ears, sleeping soundlessly. He was actually against the idea of sitting next to the eldest, but the mighty Cha Hakyeon had been clinging onto him like a magnet the moment all of you arrived at the airport. Thus, he had no other choice but to stick with his full-time nagger wife.

“Okay…” You gave him a smile before the tanned-skin boy finally drifted to the dream land a few minutes later.

“Oh my God! Finally! World peace is here!”

Hyuk chimed and you had the urge to laugh. The youngest sat on the seat right behind N and had been complaining about how loud the eldest had become ever since he stepped his feet into the plane. He initially tried to distance himself from N and pretended that he didn’t know him, but considering how the plane is technically packed with your classmates, he knew he couldn’t step out from the “lovey dovey cousins” scenario.

“Let him yap for another couple of seconds and my head will explode into tiny bits for sure!” He angrily fetched his sleeping mask and hooked it behind his ears.

“There are only, err… 20 minutes left before we landed…” Hongbin said while glancing at his watch. “Are you sure you still want to sleep?”

Hyuk groaned in annoyance as he shoved his sleeping mask back inside his bag. Hongbin was right. There was no point of sleeping now since you would just feel even sleepier later on. And surely Hyuk didn’t want to spend his first day on the heavenly island feeling all drowsy.

“This is all N’s fault!” Hyuk furiously stated, crossing his arms while looking outside the window.

You giggled before glancing at the seat behind you. You could see that Ravi was already enjoying his time venturing the dream land with his blue head limply swayed to the side, nearly landed on Sujin’s shoulder. It amused you on how awkward those two were when they found out that they were to sit next to each other. The first 15 minutes of the flight was dead silent for the two of them. Forget about small talk, all that registered your ears was a series of forced coughs. But as soon as the sleepiness hit, those two couldn’t look even chummier than they were now.

Excitement filled your jumpy self when the pilot announced that the plane would soon reach its destination. As expected, you totally skipped last night’s sleep, all because you brain was too busy imagining how awesome this trip would be. And although family trip was the only kind of trip you ever went on, you were sure that this one would be beyond special, especially with the boys tagging behind. You would like to believe that this trip would be something that you would never forget for the rest of your life.

Your day dream met its end the second you heard a faint grunt from beside you. Turning your head, you eyed the pointy-nosed boy. His stiff body was fidgeting on his seat, clearly looked uncomfortable. With a sleeping mask patched to his face, he rigidly placed his hands on his flat stomach, tangling them together. You couldn’t really tell what kind of expression he was wearing right now, but you knew that he was greatly restless.

“Ken…” You softly called his name and he finally stopped twitching on his seat.

“You will be okay…”

You whispered as you put one of your hands onto his thigh, resulting on a weak smile to appear on his face. Even with a sleeping mask covering his eyes, he knew that you were smiling at him. And for that, he could feel his chest slightly warmed up.

“T-thank you…” He whispered back and put his hand on top of yours, squeezing it lightly.

“We’re here for you…” You brushed his copper-colored bangs off his face before slightly patted his head.

“Everything will be fine…”

As long as we keep you from the water— I mean, the sea… or the pool…

“I believe you, princess…” Ken gave you a reply as his grip on your hand tightened, wrapping your delicate fingers in his shaking palm.

“Holidaaayyyyy~~~~!!!”

Just like a five years old kid, a guy named Cha Hakyeon shouted merrily as he stepped his feet in front of a hotel’s lobby, gaining attentions from people around him. He inhaled the mild air deeply with both arms stretched in the air, totally liking the windy atmosphere.

“What an eyesore.”

N felt a whack on his shoulder and quickly glared to the flat-faced culprit who then casually walked past him. He still had the usual indifferent front set, not even giving a single damn when his victim started to throw a heap of never ending tantrums.

“Jung Leo! I’m so going to make you sleep on the sofa tonight!” N had his hands propped on his slim waist before jabbing his pointy finger to the man whom he selfishly assumed as his husband.

“No! I take my words back! You are going to sleep at the balcony!” He shouted loudly, making people around him flinched.

The eldest was fuming with a set of pouted lips branched on his face, he further raised his chin up when Leo, who now stood still on his feet, began to strode towards his angry wife.

Leo casually brought a hand to pluck the earphone off his ears. His face remained flat, even when his nose was just a few centimeters away from N’s. Silently, he leaned even closer, forcing N to swallow an anxious gulp from being stared by the untalkative boy.

“W-what…?”

Leo’s lips formed a thin line as he leaned even closer towards to the dark-skinned boy, resulting N on jerking his head back a bit with a wholly sealed lips.

“I’m not taking orders from you.” His sharp eyes stung fiercely, “And who the hell said that I’m sleeping with you?”

Leo casually ended his threat with a hard flick on the eldest’s head and the latter gasped hard upon feeling the stinging pain. After he done carving a reddish mark on N’s forehead, Leo continued threading his way to the hotel’s front door, showing no signs of feeling guilty or whatsoever.

N silently rubbed the aching spot on his forehead and had his eyes beamed widely in annoyance in the next second.

“Y-ya! I-I’ll seriously apply for divorce! You hear that, Jung Leo!? I’m divorcing you! And I’m leaving our kids to you!” N angrily scoffed while dragging his suitcase, following his soon-to-be ex-husband to the hotel.

“Geez… When will he grow up?”

The beyond dramatic scene was, of course, witnessed by you and the rest of the boys. Watching those two acting like they were some kind of couple in the verge of separation was a daily occurrence for the five of you, but what just happened before the hotel’s main lobby was far from normal for other people. Most of them stared with a horrid expression on their face, probably making weird assumptions too. While most of your female classmates were squealing, surprisingly enjoying the so-called bromance between the boys.

With head wearily shook, the youngest dragged his suitcase with his left hand, while the other one was holding yours tightly.

“In case someone asked, please tell them that I don’t know that idiot.” Hyuk pointed at the eldest who was already roaming all over the lobby, admiring the interior.

“I wonder why our mom and dad are never in a good term. I mean, can’t they at least try to get along like normal parents do?” Hongbin playfully remarked, followed with a soft laugh which sounded just as adorable as his white dimples.

“It’s because mom forced dad to marry him! It’s a one-sided love, you know! But hey… if it’s one-sided then how come that those two managed to have five kids?” Ravi suddenly chortled from behind, making you and the two tall boys looked at him.

But the one who caught your attention was not Ravi. Instead, you got your eyes instantly darted to the tall boy whom Ravi dragged together with him. He was still wearing his sleeping mask, and although it looked hell funny, you were failed to spot signs of excitement on his face.

“Are you okay?” Hongbin instantly came over to Ken and helped Ravi to assist the foreigner-like boy.

“Umm… yeah…” Ken mumbled while tightening the grip on his bag. Taking a deep breath, he shivered nearly immediately the second his ears caught the sound of the ocean waves from the beach next to the hotel.

“Ken…” You let go of Hyuk’s hand and walked to Ken, replacing Ravi’s hand on his arm with yours.

“You are going to be fine… We are here for you…”

You raised your hands to grab on the sleeping mask’s straps but Ken rapidly your wrist to stop you.

“Don’t—”

“You need to take it off… People are starting to stare weirdly at you…” Ravi commented and the latter released a sigh.

“B-but… if I took it off, I might see—”

“Put this on instead.”

Hyuk suddenly shoved black sunglasses to his chest. “At least you won’t get weird stares if you pretended to be blind.”

“Now close your eyes… I will take this thing off you…” You instructed him and aimed for the straps again before finally pulling the mask off from him.

Ken had his eyes tightly closed and gulped nervously when the sound of the waves penetrated his ears again. He could already imagine how beautiful the shore would be inside his head. Too bad he could never witness the beautiful scenery with his own eyes anymore. 

With shaky hands, Ken quickly put the sunglasses on, eyes still firmly shut.

Grabbing his hand, you squeezed it hardly, “Don’t worry, Ken… I’m right here, beside you… I’ll be your eyes for this trip.”

His lips slightly twitched, forming a brief smile before he replied you. “Thank you, princess… J-just… please don’t let me s-see that…”

“Calm down, Ken… We know what we should do. We will protect you… And yeah, I bet this will be pretty much tiring. But bear with us, okay?” Hongbin reassuringly smiled, clutching on his brother’s shoulder firmly.

He exhaled in relief as he nodded. “T-thanks, everyone… I’m counting on all of you…”

The five of you then walked inside the hotel lobby with you escorting Ken, simply because he couldn’t see anything with eyes closed. You saw how the other students had long gathered around the teacher. And it didn’t took you a long time to spot Leo and N among them, considering how those two were abnormally tall.

“Ya! Ppali! Come here!”

N hurried all of you to come over, since the teachers were about to announce the rules and the room arrangements.

“Aishh… What took you guys so long?!” N whined, locking his arms on Hyuk’s while the youngest hissed in annoyance.

“Be careful…” You whispered to Ken and ushered him to follow you.

The teachers explained that there would be two people for each room, of course, opposite staying in the same room would be out of question, but aside of that you were free to choose your roommate for the 3 days and 2 nights trip. Your classmates quickly scrambled around to find their roommate and you blinked briskly when you realized that Sujin was already in front of you, grabbing both of your hands while dragging you away from the boys.

“___! You’re with me, right?!”

Sujin asked you excitedly and you answered nearly immediately to her. “Of course, Sujin! You’ll always be my roommate whenever we are on a trip!”

“Yeayyy!” Your best friend hugged you in response and you couldn’t help but laughed upon watching her cute reaction.

Sujin released you and her eyes landed at Ken who didn’t look as excited as he usually did at school. Sujin’s lips formed a thin line and finally decided to approach Ken.

“Hey, Ken. Are you okay? Why are you wearing shades indoor? Are you… sick?”

The boys looked at each other and Ken went instantly rigid since he couldn’t tell where was Sujin standing by now. Judging from the voice, Sujin should be somewhere near him. But turning his head randomly would definitely raise Sujin’s suspicion. As he didn’t know where her exact position was. Worse, Ken couldn’t sneak a peek either, since Hyuk earlier told him that windows were all wide opened, giving each pair of eyes a clear view of the blue sea.

“N-no… I’m o-okay… It’s just—”

You quickly grabbed Ken’s hand and answered on his behalf. “Err… Something went into Ken’s eyes yesterday so… they’re kind of suffering from irritation right now… that’s why it’d better if he doesn’t take his sunglasses off for a while…”

Being such an innocent girl she was, Sujin completely believed what you said and didn’t dig deeper, “Aww, bummer… Does that mean you won’t be playing with us later at the beach as well?”

“Y-yeah… Kind o-of…” Ken awkwardly smiled before looking down, afraid that he would look at the wrong direction.

“So not fun…” Sujin blew her bangs, clearly disappointed.

“Can’t help it… I guess my luck takes a turn for the worst this time…” Ken faked a laugh while rubbing the back of his neck.

“Don’t worry, Ken! We can just play at our room tonight! Make sure to join us, okay?” Sujin grinned before grabbing your hand, pulling you away from Ken.<