Oh Sehun stared at the view outside the window. Trees flashed past him as quickly as they came into his vision and he wished that the driver would slow down so that he could enjoy the view despite the fact that it was dark outside.

 

After the exchange between Jongin and Soojung, the tour guide had led them to a small van that fit them and their suitcases just nicely. Sehun had chosen to sit right next to the window in order to calm his racing thoughts that were unstoppable ever since his nightmare in the plane. He did not expect Luhan to sit next to him, though.

 

As for the others, Soojung sat next to the driver who looked too young to be a driver, by the way while Jinri and Jongin sat at the back of the van but they were two seats apart from each other. As for Yoona, the young woman chose to sit in the single seat and she plugged in her earphones once again.

 

Speaking of Yoona, Sehun could not help but feel guilty towards her for his rude attitude earlier. He did not mean to scowl at her but it came to him naturally. The young woman had seen his vulnerability and he hated that. That was why he was quite hostile to her.

 

He let out a small sigh. This was supposed to be his vacation but why did he not feel relaxed during his first day in Jeju Island?

 

Inside the small van was very quiet and nobody dared to break the silence. The seven of them, including the driver, did not say anything at all. Well, what were they supposed to say?

 

Unfortunately for Sehun, he had never been able to stand absolute silence. He needed to have some noise even if it was just the rustling wind. Letting out a small sigh, he was about to speak when the man next to him beat him to it.

 

“So, Jongin-sshi, how did you and Soojung know each other?” Luhan asked, turning his head behind to face the younger man.

 

“Ask her,” Jongin grumbled, indicating that he was not going to answer that question.

 

Sehun glanced at Soojung to get a glimpse of the young woman’s expression but it was too dark to see anything.

 

“Well, he’s just an idiot I met at high school who was always getting on my nerves and still is getting on my nerves,” Soojung replied airily. Her voice was not light as it had been when she was in the airport before Jongin’s presence.

 

“Excuse me,” Jongin responded through his gritted teeth, “I’m a client here.”

 

“An idiotic client, apparently,” Soojung shot back.

 

The Chinese man next to him let out a chuckle while Jinri just snorted. Yoona was oblivious to the conversation as she was listening to music. Even Sehun managed to crack a small smile.

 

“I definitely am going to complain to your company about your treatment towards your client, Jung Soojung,” Jongin threatened childishly.

 

Soojung immediately turned around and shot daggers at Jongin through her death glare. “You won’t dare,” she replied silkily. Jongin said nothing and merely shrugged mysteriously. Soojung snorted and turned to the front once again. “Go ahead and tell them. You might even want to get a refund because this trip is for people who need some space from everyone that he or she knows. You know me so it does not count.”

 

Jongin just said nothing and leaned back against his seat. Sehun could not help but feel amused by their conversation.

 

It had been a long time since he had felt genuinely amused by something.

 

 

. . .

 

 

Yoona knew that everyone in the van thought that she did not hear the conversation between Jongin and Soojung but the truth was, she had actually heard it. She had never been the type to put the music she was listening to on a loud volume when she was using her earphones, anyway. She did not want to damage her eardrums.

 

Although she did hear their argument, she could not care less about it. They could go and kill each other right now and she would not even care. It was not her business, anyway.

 

However, it took her by surprise when Sehun spoke up. She never expected him, out of all people, to start a conversation. “Since we’re going to spend the few weeks together, we might as well tell the others our age so that we know who’s older and all,” he suggested.

 

Yoona unplugged one of her earphones and looked right at Sehun, the surprise was evident on her face. Then, she quickly maintained her expression and kept her face blank. “I’m the oldest, I think,” she replied.

 

At that, Luhan smirked and Yoona could not help but raise an eyebrow at him quizzically. “I’m definitely the oldest,” he rebuked her almost triumphantly.

 

Yoona’s eyes widened and she let out a snort. “You’re the oldest? You’ve got to be kidding me!” she exclaimed out loud in disbelief. “You look far too young to be the oldest here. You’re most probably still in college.”

 

Luhan burst into mirthful laughter at her remark. “Thank you for saying that I look young. I know that I look young,” he replied in a sassy tone that made Jinri and Jongin made the gagging gesture while Sehun snorted in disbelief and Yoona just gave him a judging stare.

 

“I’m twenty-seven years old,” Luhan announced, confident that he was the oldest.

 

At that, Yoona immediately grinned. “I’m twenty-seven years old too,” she responded.

 

“When is your birthday?” he asked, raising his eyebrow.

 

“30^th May. What about yours?” Yoona replied confidently but her confidence dropped as soon as she saw Luhan’s victorious smile despite the darkness.

 

“20^th April,” he replied, smirking and Yoona let out a groan. “But it’s okay. Since we’re the same age, let’s just call each other comfortably, okay?”

 

“That’s fine.”

 

“I’m twenty-three years old,” Jinri piped up cheerfully, after a moment of silence.

 

“Same here!” three voices exclaimed simultaneously.

 

After the synchronised outburst, awkward silence filled the air as nobody knew how to react to that. Yoona turned to face the window uncomfortably and plugged in the other earphone into her ear, deciding to act like nothing happened.

 

“Let’s just talk comfortably with everyone here, okay?” the tour guide said at last, trying to clear up the awkward air but her attempt was futile. The others just hummed in response and started to do their own thing.

 

 

. . .

 

 

The silent journey to the lodge that they would be staying in for a few weeks took around an hour and a half to get there. It was located near the beach and it made the whole place seemed a lot more peaceful and beautiful. Jinri liked it a lot. She liked how the smell of breeze greeted her when she first left the van. It was so calming that she almost wanted to cry.

 

She brought out her suitcase from the van and dragged it towards the lodge. When she realised that she was the only one who had reached the front door of the lodge, she turned around and yelled, “Get your butts here, you lazy people!”

 

“For God’s sake, Choi Jinri, lower your damn voice down! It’s two in the morning!” Soojung yelled back but Jinri just laughed gleefully.

 

Jinri sat on the stairs at the front of the entrance of the lodge. She really could not believe she had managed to get away from her complicated life. She felt like everything was so surreal. Was it true that she finally was able to live her life the way she wanted to? Was it true that she had finally escaped? Was it all just a dream? She pinched herself and hissed in pain before smiling to herself. Ah, it was not a dream, after all. She was finally here.

 

Excited that she was free, she stood up and bounced gracefully on her feet. “You people are so slow!” she shouted at them but the others just gave her a face. She did not care, though. She was far too drunk on happiness to care about anything. “Take my suitcase inside and just put it in any room! I’m off to the beach!”

 

With that, she left her suitcase at the front of the entrance and walked to the beach with a bounce on her steps. She really was very happy despite the fact that it was two in the morning and she was supposed to be sleepy or sleeping, even. But then, she was used to staying up late so she did not give a damn.

 

At last, she reached the beach and she took off her shoes and socks. She rolled up the edge of her pants until it uncovered half of her shins. She placed her feet slowly on the sand. She walked slowly until she reached the part of the sand that was wet due to the sea waves. She let the water cover her feet as she walked in deeper, not caring about her wet pants. A sense of serenity began to fill her. She had never felt so free before.

  

“You might as well just swim,” a voice drawled to her almost lazily and she whipped her head around, surprised at the sudden intrusion. Kim Jongin. The young man was sitting on the sand, watching her. When he got there, Jinri was not sure, though.

 

“Nah, I’m far too lazy to change into my swimsuit and there’s no way I’m skinny-dipping,” she replied carelessly. It was then the coldness of the sea began to seep into her legs and she shivered. She got out of the sea and sat down next to Jongin. “Are you really going to get a refund?” she asked him, tilting her head to the side as a sign that she was curious.

 

At that, Jongin just laughed loudly with a glint of amusement in his eyes. Jinri did not get what was so funny about her question but she refused to ask. After some time, he finally calmed down and took a deep breath before answering her question, “No, of course not. Soojung and I may look like we despise each other’s guts but the truth is, deep down, we care a lot for each other.”

 

She thought that it was a very weird way to express their affection to each other by pretending to hate each other but she did not voice her thoughts out loud. “You two seem close,” she commented dryly instead.

 

The young man laughed again and this time, he did not say anything. He did not even affirm nor did he deny it and Jinri wondered if they were really close.

 

 

. . .

 

 

The sun rays were the ones who woke him up and he could not help but curse the sun inside his head. But when he thought about how the world would be without the sun, he inwardly apologised to the sun. Realising what he had done, Luhan immediately sat up on his bed with his eyes widened. He scoffed at himself for doing such a crazy thing – because who in the right mind would apologise to a non-living thing?

 

But then again, Luhan had never been in his right mind whenever he woke up so he decided to forgive himself for doing such a ridiculous thing.

 

He looked out of the window and admired the view. The view was exactly why he had chosen this room. Outside the window, the view of the beach greeted him. The sight was so breathtaking that he stared at it for the whole of five minutes. He stood up and pushed the window open as widely as he could. He took in a deep breath of the morning breeze and found that he really liked the smell.

 

“I’m freaking free!” he yelled outside the window to the beach, to the sun, to the whole world, really. “I really am free, oh my God!” He stretched his arms and smiled brightly to himself.

 

His phone buzzed on the bedside table, snapping him back to reality. He picked up his phone and made a face.

 

Huang Zitao is calling…

 

Luhan immediately rejected his call and cursed the younger guy inside his head. Did he not explain to him that he wanted to be alone? Why couldn’t that stupid guy with panda eyes just stop bothering him? The guy had been calling him for hours but he had rejected his call each time. He had even received hundreds of messages and voicemails but he did not bother opening any of them.

 

Suddenly, his phone vibrated, indicating that he had a new text message. He opened it immediately and groaned as soon as he read what it said.

 

Luhan hyung, stop making people worried about you and come back already.

 

If it was not Zitao pestering him, it had to be Do Kyungsoo who was the one that kept on preaching him to go home. These two guys just did not understand, did they? Well, what did they know about his life, anyway? Out of his fondness for the two guys, he sent them the same text message.

 

Leave me alone.

 

Well, it was better than no response, right?

 

At last, he decided to get out of the bed and took a bath before wearing his clothes. He went downstairs to get his breakfast but as soon as he entered the kitchen, immediate silence greeted him even though he could have sworn that he had heard people talking.

 

“Hi, Luhan oppa, did you sleep well?” Soojung asked him almost awkwardly. It was then he realised that he had interrupted a private conversation. He looked at the other person that Soojung had been conversing with and his eyes almost went out of his eye sockets as soon as he saw that it was Jongin.

 

Luhan coughed. “I slept fine, thank you for asking,” he replied and left the kitchen quickly and went to the dining room. There, the other three people were having their breakfast in silence. Luhan immediately seated himself on the chair next to Sehun. Opposite him was Jinri and next to her was Yoona. The awkwardness in the air was so obvious that Luhan felt smothered by it.

 

“Ten thousand won if Soojung and Jongin turn out to be secretly dating,” he stated nonchalantly, starting a bet.

 

At that, Jinri snickered. “Twenty thousand won if they turn out to be just friends,” she replied confidently and Luhan observed her carefully to see if she knew anything but the younger woman just smiled mysteriously.

 

“They hate each other,” Sehun pointed out incredulously. “Eight thousand won if they truly are enemies.”

 

Luhan laughed. “Nah, they’re obviously dating. They were having a private talk in the kitchen and when I entered it just now, they immediately shut their mouths,” he replied.

 

“That doesn’t mean anything,” Jinri argued. “Maybe they’re just catching up, you know?”

 

“Or they could be arguing again,” Sehun interjected immediately.

 

Luhan opened his mouth to say something before he was interrupted by Yoona. “Fifty thousand won if they actually have a love-hate relationship with each other,” the young woman announced, looking smug.

 

It was then the three of them knew that they had lost the bet but Luhan, being the prideful brat he was, immediately rebuked her, “No, they’re secretly dating. Their argument is just a disguise.”

 

“Their argument obviously shows their hatred towards each other,” Sehun protested.

 

“No, they’re just bickering like normal friends do!” Jinri rebutted wittily.

 

But Yoona just smirked before laughing at their futile attempt to defend their opinions. “I’ve won and you guys know it,” she said almost arrogantly but Luhan knew that she was just joking.

 

“But it’s not confirmed yet,” he said at last. “We shall see.”

 

“Fine, just wait and I’ll show you all that I’m right,” Jinri huffed.

 

Sehun just snorted. “They hate each other,” he stated confidently.

 

“We should ask them one day on a round of Truth or Dare,” Yoona replied, not the slightest bit intimidated by their confidence.

 

“We totally should,” Luhan replied, acting like he was sure that the two of them were secretly dating. But he had a feeling that one of the fifty thousand won notes in his wallet would be gone.

 

But then, it was not confirmed yet, right?

 

---

Author's Note: What kind of relationship do you think Soojung and Jongin have? Hahaha I'm so mean for not letting you all know yet but you will know it sooner or later as the story progresses. And yeah, they each have their own reasons as to why they are on this trip and their reasons will be revealed in the future chapters. Another question: What kind of relationship do Zitao and Kyungsoo have with Luhan? Other members from EXO, SNSD and f(x) will appear from time to time. Thank you for subscribing, reading, commenting and upvoting! Enjoy reading the next chapter! :)