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prettywordsyouleft · 6 years ago

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Sanctuary

Summary: Life was too stressful and when you returned home for a break, you found yourself entering the forest you had spent most of your childhood within, looking for sanctuary.

Characters: Moonbin x reader

Genre: supernatural au / fantasy / fairy au / fluff

A/N: Another bias, another birthday! Ever since watching All Night I’ve been imagining Moonbin as an impish fairy and so I decided to write him as one!

Word count: 3823

You hadn’t visited in some time.

As a child, you had grown up near a forest and you loved walking through the land of varying hues of green, playing hide-and-seek with your siblings, and when older, simply plucking out a book from your shelf and setting off to read in a world of serenity. You often felt as if your books came to life more whenever you read within the forest and soon you believed the woods were a sanctuary from everyday life. A world of its own that you could escape into whenever the stresses of school and family were too much.

But as you moved into adulthood, you went to the city to study and got a job there too. It wasn’t as easy to go to the mystical woods anymore, and soon you were dealing with stresses like everyone else did. You lived for caffeine and you lacked sleep as most functioning humans did. You rolled out of bed and off to classes day in and out, whilst filling the night with endless part-time jobs to make sure you could pay your rent on time.

How you managed to study enough was a mystery, though the dark circles under your eyes were a tell-tale sign of what you gave up in order to most nights.

You couldn’t remember when you did anything for fun, and when you finally had a break long enough to head home, you decided to take a week’s rest. To let your mother smother you in her attentive nagging and feed you the home-cooked meals you hadn’t tasted in forever. You planned to laze about the house and do absolutely nothing, in contrast to doing absolutely everything in the city.

Being home was nostalgic. You had missed the simplicity of the countryside, and the slower pace where the sun dictated what you did with your day. And despite it shining brightly for the first two days of your time back home, you had spent it indoors, catching up on much-needed sleep, and just lazing around as you had hoped to. By the third day however, you were feeling restless. Your body was accustomed to always being on the go, and you decided to go for a run. It felt good to pound down the quiet country lane whilst listening to your music, singing out loud at points because no one was around. You took a break when you noticed an entrance to the woods beside you. It had been so long since you had entered and you hesitated for some reason, as if you didn’t have permission to wander in like the free-spirited child you had once been.

“It’s just a forest,” you told yourself, shaking your head at your nonsense and jogged into the dense greenery.

The air was different once you were in far enough and you sucked in deep breaths to truly inhale the pine scent. It felt like a home you hadn’t visited in some time. You let out a laugh, surprising yourself with how light you felt afterwards. You wandered for about an hour, mesmerised with how things had changed in some areas, and others were still the same. You found the tree you always chose as your favourite spot to lay upon as you read. You almost regretted as you sat down on it, that you hadn’t brought something to read today.

And then your smart-watch on your wrist starting beeping, sounding foreign within this environment. You looked down at it and noticed you had a missed call from your mother. It surprised you that you got signal so deep within the forest and with a sigh, you hauled yourself off the tree and back out the way you had come in, unaware of the eyes watching your departure forlornly.

The next morning you rose with renewed anticipation. You had been distracted ever since you got home yesterday, feeling compelled to turn back and go into the woods again. As you laid in bed that night, you decided you would return better prepared today.

After dressing in your active clothes, you grabbed a small backpack and filled it with items you would need. A book from your shelf was the last thing to be placed in with the assorted snacks and a drink bottle, and you put your earbuds on as you turned on some music outside your home.

You started with a run again, just like the day before, but today you ran with purpose. You didn’t stop running even when you entered the forest again, leaping over the fallen trunks and other debris as you went. If anyone were to have been watching, you imagined them to see you much like a deer frolicking, there was so much joy within your steps. And when you reached your favourite spot, you patted the tree trunk fondly before you sat down on it.

“Now, for the best part of my day,” you proclaimed to the forest, slipping your watch off your wrist and your earbuds out of your ears. Every piece of technology that had accompanied you into your sanctuary was put away in your bag. You didn’t want the outside world to interrupt you, instead, you wished to get lost in a tale you had read many times over.

It seemed fitting to read about fairies and elves in this scenery and you were instantly hooked in reading the book. You moved around at points to get comfortable again, and you spoke out your moments of questioning or laughed when it was needed. You stopped to eat your lunch, mindfully popping each part in your mouth and focusing on the texture and taste. You felt intoxicated by the freedom and the quiet. You wondered if you could forgo leaving when it was time to return to reality altogether on Sunday. There was something magical about this place and no money or a successful career could compare.

After lunch, you returned to your book, getting lost within it again. When you finished it, you were disappointed you hadn’t brought anything else with you for the day to read. You had believed you wouldn’t even get through half the book given how little you had read lately outside of textbooks. Now you were pouting, looking around yourself for something to do.

A stream of sunshine had started hitting the tree earlier on as the afternoon sun infiltrated through the canopy above. You had been enjoying basking in the sun and decided to lay back down, feeling yourself grow sleepy under its warmth.

“I’ll just take a small nap and then head back home,” you murmured out-loud, closing your eyes and drifting off into a deep slumber.

When you stirred, you weren’t on the tree anymore. The scent had changed around you and you inhaled deeply, confused by the floral fragrance that hit you immediately. You opened your eyes and blinked rapidly.

You were still near the tree but instead now rested upon a bed of flowers. At first, you were stunned that something so beautiful could exist. You stared around yourself in wonder, at the drastic change of your once monochrome of green now being various hues of pinks, purples and yellows.

And then you put rationale into the situation. You were still dreaming.

“No, you’re awake,” a voice said then, and you let out a shriek, not noticing the pink-haired person until he had spoken. He turned to look at you over his shoulder and grinned.

You had never seen someone so captivating before.

“Why thank you,” he continued, and you shook your head in confusion at how he was answering your thoughts when you hadn’t spoken out loud. He nodded once. “Ah, I’m a fairy.”

“Fairies don’t read minds, and further, you just told me I was awake. I’m definitely still dreaming,” you told him, sitting up and blinking at your clothing. Before you had been wearing your active clothes but now you adorned a simple beige dress made with thick yet comfortable cotton. You smiled. “See, I’m totally dreaming.”

“Call it as you must, but I cannot lie. Surely this book here told you that much,” he mentioned with a sly smile, holding up your novel. You soon realised that he was rummaging through your belongings and you leapt up, letting out a startled cry.

“What are you doing?!”

He folded his arms across his chest. “Going through your bag.”

“Yes, I know that but you can’t just go through my things!” You threw your hands up in exasperation. “Those are mine.”

“And this forest is mine yet you came in without asking for my permission,” he countered, giving a little shrug before holding up your earbuds in confusion. “What do these do? You had them in when you came in earlier but I couldn’t understand their purpose. Why would you want to block the sounds of the world out?”

You stared at him incredulously, trying ever so hard to ignore how handsome he was. He was still crouched by your things, yet you could tell he was tall and slender, and he had an air about him that was graceful. Although he sported candy pink hair, you felt he suited it immensely, and it brought out the golden glow of his skin. He smirked. “Yes, I know I’m beautiful, but I asked you about these things here.”

You rolled your eyes heavily and grabbed your earbuds out of his grasp. “They don’t block out sounds, they play music.”

“Music?” he repeated, frowning. “But where is the instrument?”

You giggled involuntarily. “You use your phone to play it.”

“Phone?” He glanced around himself, looking lost. “What is that?”

You reached down into the neat pile of your belongings he had made and held up the device. He took it from you and flipped it over carefully. His eyes then landed back on yours. “This is not an instrument.”

“How long have you lived here?” you asked in amusement, shaking your head at his lack of knowledge. Pulling the device out of his grip, you almost dropped it when he answered.

“Eighty years, I believe.”

“I thought you said fairies can’t lie,” you told him once recovered and he nodded.

“I can’t. Why don’t you believe me?”

“Because you look the same age as me and I’m no where near thirty yet.”

“I think I should take that as a compliment, you’re saying I look good for my age.” He completely disregarded your gaze you shot him and pointed at the phone. “How does this makes music?”

“It doesn’t make it, look let me show you and you’ll understand.” You unlocked the phone and he flinched at the small bubble sound it made and then gasped as your home screen appeared.

“Is it magic?!” You ignored his wonder and went into your music app, pressing play on the song you had been listening to before you turned it off. He flinched again as you moved an earbud close to him. Tentatively, he placed it into his ear and then noisily gasped. “How does it play this?!”

You turned it off and he blinked rapidly. “It’s what we humans use to listen to music these days.”

“Ah, you acknowledge I’m not human,” he said gleefully and you rolled your eyes again. “I get it; it’s been a long time since you visited this forest, Y/N. You’ve forgotten all about the magic that kept you coming back as a child.”

You glanced up at him, aghast. “This isn’t funny. How do you know my name?”

“Because you used to sing it out all the time as a child when you played here.”

You wanted to refute it, but there was something genuine in his chocolate brown eyes. He was smiling again at your gaze and you looked away. “I don’t know your name.”

“Moonbin.” You looked at him again at his easy introduction and then to his ears. He laughed but allowed you to further examine him as if he appreciated your continued gaze. He even angled himself so you could look at him side on. “Satisfied now?”

“So, you’re a fairy?” Moonbin nodded. “Who came to this forest eighty years ago, and has been here this whole time, yet I’ve never seen you once, why?”

“You have too,” he refuted with a melodic laugh and you wondered why it sounded familiar. He grinned. “When you played hide-and-seek as a child, you once found me instead.”

You tried to remember and gasped when you saw a child with similar pink hair within the hollow of a trunk in your memory. You snapped your focus up to his. “I wasn’t a child.”

“You looked like one.”

“My appearance changes on my mood,” he admitted. “Sometimes when I feel young at heart, I play in the forest like a child. But most of the time, I look like this. See, you think I’m handsome.”

“I think you have a bit of an ego,” you muttered and Moonbin chuckled.

“Most fairies do.”

“So how does this work then?” you wondered and he looked at you, puzzled. You wondered why he wasn’t reading your mind anymore.

“Ah, you’re not openly letting your thoughts out. Normally I can hear them as if you spoke them aloud if you’re actively thinking them. But right now, you’re only sharing your confusion at me not knowing what you’re thinking.”

He sounded too logical and your brain started to hurt. You sighed. “How did the forest suddenly fill with flowers?”

“It’s like this all the time for me,” he answered, gesturing to the beauty that surrounded you both. “It blooms year round.”

“It’s always green,” you corrected and Moonbin pouted. “So I’m asking how it’s not green for me anymore.”

“Being an adult has made you lose your wonder, Y/N.”

“Don’t remind me,” you agreed and Moonbin grinned. “And stop smiling, it’s too dazzling.”

“I’ll try my best to damper it down,” he told you in a small voice but you could tell he was pleased with how you reacted to him. “I guess, my world and your world don’t always meet up. To you, it’s green, to me it’s not.”

“How am I here?”

“You called out to me,” he answered simply as if you should’ve realised this already. You blinked slowly. You didn’t recall saying anything after resting back to nap. Moonbin groaned exasperatedly. “As you fell asleep, you wished not to return back to the city and stay here forever instead. You called out for a sanctuary and so I allowed you in here.”

“So I am dreaming.”

“But you really are not,” he confirmed, sighing at your refusal to believe him. “If you were asleep then you’d be still laying there, not talking with me.”

You went to refute him again but you felt like it was pointless. Moonbin seemed to have an answer for everything in this strange environment. He smirked. “I do.”

“Okay, so how do I leave?” you asked, bending down to retrieve your things hastily. You knew it had to be getting later in the day and your parents would be worried about you if you didn’t return home in time for dinner.

Moonbin, however, became sullen. “Why don’t you want to stay?”

“Because I have people waiting on me.”

“What about me?” he asked and you stopped moving, glancing up into his sombre expression. “I’ve been here all this time waiting for you and you only returned now. Can’t you stay a little longer? Please?”

In any other situation, you would have run away. Moonbin was a stranger. A very attractive one but still he was someone you didn’t know. The longer you stared at him, the more you felt as if your initial thought was wrong. You had seen these eyes far too many times as a child. It slowly dawned on you that he was no stranger at all to you.

“What if I return tomorrow? Will you let me in again?” you asked and Moonbin chewed on his bottom lip in hesitation. You smiled at him and gently reached out to hold onto his lower arm. He looked at your grasp and then back at your face. “I’m not saying this to escape you.”

“You remember me.”

“Kind of,” you admitted and Moonbin smiled at you so much that you thought your knees were going to give way. He gripped onto you with a laugh and shot you a wink. Your cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

“Okay, but on one condition,” he mentioned, and you looked up at him expectantly. “You allow me to walk you home.”

You nodded and together you packed up your belongings, your bag now seemed out of place against your dress. You looked at it again and then at Moonbin who grew sheepish. “It’s the dress you once wore when younger. I liked it on you, so in my world, it’s what you wear.”

“I guess that makes sense,” you replied, though you weren’t sure any of this would make sense when you stepped out of the forest. Yet for now, you were at ease in his company.

You walked side by side slowly until you reached the forest edge. You went to step out but Moonbin grabbed you, shaking his head. “I can’t leave. I’m bound to this place.”

“Bound?”

“All fairies are placed somewhere, to fulfil their duty of protecting the flora and fauna in their jurisdiction. I guess you could say I have a job. Like you.”

“Sounds like a lonely one,” you admitted and he diverted his gaze.

“There aren’t many children left in this area, and adults rarely come in.”

You felt a pang of familiarity. Although you were surrounded by people in the city, it wasn’t down to it being out of want. You were merely another person in a sea of humans there. You were only talked to if you were needed, and friends only existed to fulfil study sessions and the odd night out at the local club. You stepped back from the edge of the forest and instead turned to walk along the edge of it beside him. Moonbin smiled brightly.

Conversation was easy when you established that connection. He told you of the trees and their changes, and you told him what the city was like. He seemed in awe, much like you were of his world. Both wanting what you couldn’t have. Somewhere, perhaps when you stumbled over a tree branch, Moonbin had grabbed a hold of your hand. And he still held it within his now, swinging your linked arms loosely in the evening breeze. You liked the feeling and found yourself staring up at the tall man often, little smiles playing on his lips whenever he caught you. He was strangely addicting and you wanted to keep staring at him forever.

You could tell you were nearing your home as Moonbin’s feet began to drag. He didn’t say anything about it and you allowed the change in pace, your own feet reluctant to step out and make you decide if this was all a hazy dream or not. Eventually, you both stopped at a cluster of trees and he let out a heavy sigh. “I wish I could walk you to your door but this is as far as I can go.”

“I’m glad you walked me this far,” you told him honestly and Moonbin smiled, looking down at your still linked hands. You followed his gaze, sighing softly at the need to let go.

“I don’t want to let go either. I trust you though; I know you’ll remember me now.”

“You reckon?” you asked, not quite trusting in yourself. Moonbin nodded firmly and you smiled. “I promise I’ll come back every day until I have to leave.”

“I’d like that, Y/N.” Bending down, he plucked a purple flower from the floor bed of the forest and then tucked it behind your ear. “A little something to make sure you come back.”

You were stunned as he gently caressed your cheek before letting his hand fall away from your face and without thinking about it, you stretched up to plant your lips over his briefly. You pulled back in shock, embarrassment flooding you both. You coughed before you explained yourself. “I figured I should leave you something too.”

Moonbin raised his hands to hide his flushed cheeks. “I don’t think I’ll sleep tonight now.”

“I better go.”

“I can wait,” he assured you as you stepped back. “I’ll wait.”

“I’ll be back,” you repeated as you slowly walked backwards, not wanting to let him out of your sight. It was funny to go from wondering how you got into such a world, to not wanting to leave it at all. But when you turned to climb up onto the road, you blinked several times, feeling yourself to be coming out of a daze. Looking around yourself, you wondered where all the flowers and the calm air had gone, and when you couldn’t spot Moonbin anywhere, you were certain you had dreamed it all.

Slowly walking up to the house, you looked dejectedly at your active clothes and felt the coldness that consumed you. Had it been chilly all day? You had been warm within the forest.

“There you are, I’ve rung you twice!” your mother chortled as you stepped inside and you sighed heavily, placing a smile upon your face as you tried to shake off your lingering dream. It felt too real. Moonbin seemed so vivid within your mind still.

“Were you in the forest again?” your Dad asked as you sat at the table and you nodded, suddenly feeling exhausted. “You must have worked up an appetite wandering around in there.”

“Yes, you should have come home earlier. Look at you; you’re covered in moss on your back. And where did you find this?” She plucked something out of your hair and you gasped when you saw the purple flower, a smile crossing your face as you remembered his words. A little something to make sure you come back. You parents stared at you with concern for a moment and then continued on with their constant stream of chatter.

After dinner, you excused yourself to your room, placing down your things before taking a shower. Once ready for bed, you went over to your window where you had left the flower earlier. Picking it up, you glanced out into the night sky and over to the forest edge. You searched deep within the dense trees for something to show you that Moonbin was still out there. But you couldn’t find anything. Looking down at the flower you held though, it gave you promise that what you had experienced all afternoon wasn’t a dream at all. You smiled, staring back out to the forest again.

Somewhere in there, Moonbin was waiting for you.

And you couldn’t wait to return.

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restlessmaknae · 6 years ago

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that summer when love comes

Sungjin is assigned to be the team leader of the most mischievous kids (the so-called Stray Kids) at the annual summer camp, but he soon founds out that this year will be different from the others for a different reason.

♦ Pairing: team leader!Sungjin x team leader!OC

♦ Supporting characters: the rest of DAY6, Stray Kids and many more idol cameos

♦ Genre: comedy + fluff + no angst

♦ Words: 9.7k

♦ A/N: The ages of the supporting characters are different from their real ones. Apart from DAY6, you have to deduct 4 years from the others’ ages aka Bang Chan is 17 and Jeongin is 13. *-*

Sungjin knew that the summer camp would be difficult with almost 50 students, but he would have never thought that it would be this difficult.

He was always said to be a leader type, someone who can take responsibility for both his and his team’s actions, someone who’s always punctual and reliable and has the ability to make others listen to him. That's exactly why he was assigned to be the leader of the most mischievous kids in the 8th and 9th cabin whom everyone called the Stray Kids because they were always all over the place, messing around and pulling pranks on each other.

“Jeongin, please don't put glue on Jisung's head while he's sleeping! It's really difficult to get it off him when he wakes up.”

“I've told you, Felix, that we don't have a girl group dance cover battle this year. Wonpil decided not to renew the tradition because of the ridiculous costumes some elder students put on last year and because the girls got offended.”

“Hyunjin, I know it's hard to resist, but I kindly ask you not to steal Seungmin's clothes because your own clothes will end up in the lake just like they did last year.”

These and other similar sentences left his mouth from the moment he entered the little camp site where the wooden houses were like dots on a green canvas. The scenery was beautiful as always with overgrowing trees sheltering the area, the pleasantly cold lake offering the chance for a quick and refreshing swim, and a huge forest with multiple little animals and flowers in all colours of the rainbow. If anything, this was really the perfect venue for such an event.

No matter what, Sungjin was certain that he could handle the kids, he wasn't chosen the best team leader three years in a row for nothing. Though last year Wonpil snatched his place because the girls loved him so much that they kindly asked the organizers (aka the organizing committee who consisted of the four team leaders and Jae) to let him get the trophy just this once and seeing their cute aegyos, the guys didn't have a heart to protest.

The organizers were best friends anyway, the five of them have been a part of the summer camps ever since Jae’s uncle – Mr Park Jinyoung – was chosen as the headmaster of the high school they once went to, so helping the so-called JYP’s students out became the most exciting and adventure-filled two weeks of their summer holidays. No matter how naughty the kids were, at least they had some fun and had some pocket money for the rest of their break. Not to mention that they were still kids at heart, so taking care of children wasn't that difficult of a task for most of them.

Though Wonpil and Dowoon were usually shy when it came to youngsters, they eventually got used to their roles, and always got along well with their teams after some initial mishaps. Wonpil was with the girls from the very start as he was the most gentle and caring, plus he seemed the least likely to hurt the girls' feelings with unnecessary teasing and stupid games. Needless to say, the girls were always head over for him. Dowoon was usually the one who got the calmest, quietest group of children, this year his team consisted of Xiaojun, Hendery, Yangyang, Jaemin, Renjun, Jeno, Dino and Vernon.

“They are really nice kids, I swear. Maybe one of the chillest ones I’ve ever had,” the youngest team leader boasted with his huge, trademark grin, giving the others a thumbs-up.

Jae almost laughed straight into his face, clearly unconvinced by the truth behind Dowoon's words.

“Oh, I think they just need the right team leader to bring out the worst in them,” Jae retorted smugly, ever so proud of the fact that he didn't need to lead a team as he was the one who organized the group activities. He would have probably lost a kid or two if he was chosen to as a team leader. If not more, really.

“The girls are lovely as always,” Wonpil admitted coyly, a blush creeping onto his face. Young K couldn't stop teasing him about his teams, they really had a soft spot in his heart, small wonder he immediately cooed at Wonpil’s words. “Chaeyoung had made me a flower crown and Tzuyu invited me to bake with them tonight,” he announced proudly, his toothy smile showing.

Jae and Young K exchanged a look while Sungjin rolled his eyes.

“My boys have overheard it, and they were about to ruin your little baking, but I managed to convince them to come fishing with me instead,” Sungjin said, and the ever so innocent Wonpil was so dumbfounded, he looked like a little puppy who just got lost.

“Fishing? Are you kidding me?” Jae chortled. “That's the most Sungjin thing ever. Indeed our reliable Busan guy,” he joked as he patted the said leader's shoulder who didn't even bat an eye as he was already used to his friend's antics. He merely rolled his eyes, knowing all too well that Jae would be talking his ass off instead of doing anything for his team if he was given the role of a team leader, so he was sassy only until he didn’t have to control 8 to 12 kids all day long for two whole weeks.

“But don't forget about the karaoke night today. We'll start at 7 sharply, and we won't accept late registrations like last year,” Young K hinted as he glanced at Jae who didn't let the words affect him. He merely shrugged his shoulders.

“Kevin's team was the one who came in first place anyway. It would been a shame not to let them join us,” he pointed out, arms raised in defeat. Young K couldn't help but let out a laugh. What were rules anyway to Mr Park Jaehyung?

Sungjin shook his head with a knowing smile on his face, then he cleared his throat to regain everyone's attention.

“Alright, let's end this meeting here if no one wants to say more!” He suggested firmly, looking for any kind of disapproval in the other's eyes. He liked to have quick meetings to gather everyone and see how they were doing with the youngsters, but he didn’t like when the meetings got dragged on without anything useful to be said. They knew about the activities that were held for all of the other teams and not just their own, so there was no need to emphasise who would organize what.

“Moonbin wants to know what's for lunch today,” Young K butted in, everyone smiling at his request. The so-called Bro Brian had a really versatile group from cool kids like Chani, Hwiyoung and Taeyang, playful kids like Q, Kevin and Hwall, and sometimes whiny but very very lovable kids like Moonbin, Rocky and Sanha.

The others looked at Sungjin for an answer as everyone knew that he was the one who could have known such things. He wasn't just a team leader, he was also the so-called info man because no matter what you asked, he knew the answer to it or at least he was willing to find it out.

That’s why no one was surprised when he knew the options as if he was reading them from the menu.

“Lasagna with a banana and apple juice, or noodles with veggies and tofu, plus an apple and banana milk on the side.”

“Gluten-free?” Jae teased, a smirk evident on his face.

“Yes, both the lasagne and the noodles.” Sungjin nodded seriously, and Jae couldn’t have been more amused by him. “The banana milk is made from coconut milk, so it’s naturally lactose-free and vegan,” Sungjin announced and Young K clapped his hands like he was clapping for the president itself.

Frankly, the camp’s chefs had a hard time considering all the allergens and nutritional preferences of children, so they’ve tried their best to satisfy everyone’s needs. JYP had paid a generous amount of money for the camp anyway because the students who were there were talented and intelligent students in at least one field of life, so the two-week long camping was actually the reward for their hard work. That’s why the chefs could actually afford to make two dishes every day and offer some fresh fruit or vegetables on the side. Knowing that Sungjin liked his stomach almost as much as he liked his own group, he inquired about the daily menus first thing in the morning.

“Very nice, Sungjin, very nice!” Young K patted Sungjin's shoulder teasingly, then rose from his seat to start planning his afternoon with his own team.

“We’re going BBQ-ing anyway,” he announced before he finally left the scene and let poor Sungjin fume inside. Why would it matter what would be lunch if they were eating on their own anyway? Though Moonbin could eat a lot, so it wouldn’t have come as a surprise if he had lunch at the canteen and then one with his team at the BBQ. Who knows?

“Plus, tomorrow there’s the afternoon trip to the nearby look-out tower, don’t forget that!” Jae reminded them loudly, so that everyone could hear it. It’s not like the team leaders didn’t talk about the group activities, it was more like they forgot to bring their kids to a certain place and instead they organized programmes for their own teams.

Sungjin sat by the lake with the kids by his side, letting out a long, long sigh in disbelief. He was already worn out even if they had just started.

Jeongin had almost poked his own eyes out with the fishing rod, Jisung had almost fell into the lake when he was chasing after Seungmin and was chased by Hyunjin while Bang Chan and Changbin were sulking like emo kids at a unicorn-themed birthday party, Woojin was daydreaming about chicken and fussing why they didn’t have a barbecue like Young K’s team, Felix was dancing to Gashina and Minho was flirting with the girls from the camp which was on the other side of the lake, flexing his muscles and showing off his award-winning smile.

After all the mess in the beginning, finally everyone was quiet, and the most enthusiastic kids even tried fishing as much as they could while the ones who were too immersed in their self-sorrow or their flirting didn’t make any mess anyway, so why bother reprimanding them? As long as no one hurt themselves or others in the process (last year, Changbin had broken a leg when Jeongin pushed him down the stairs to test if he was going to miraculously save himself from the fall or fall down for real… needless to say, what happened was the latter), it was okay. On Sungjin’s part, it was.

Six girls from the camp on the other side of the lake came to see Minho for themselves, cheering and gasping when they saw the boy in person. Even though the girls from school were pretty much neutral towards Minho (and Sungjin had no idea if it was because they didn’t care or because they had already dated him and he had dumped them all, could be both honestly), he seemed to be pretty popular amongst the other girls. At least, it was their third day at the camp, and the other camps’ females were already head over heels for him, so Sungjin could draw such a conclusion.

The team leader of the Stray Kids looked at the scene in front of his eyes, wandering why he had never been lucky with the ladies. He had some girlfriends, some really nice and lovely girls, and he had his fair share of blind dates thanks to his friends, especially Jae, who always felt the need to set him up with someone. On the other hand, there was the sixteen-year-old Minho and a smile of his was enough to attract six girls’ attention.

“Girls, I’ve told you not to go away from the team!” A firm female voice called out, showing up beside the said girls, hands on her hips, eyebrows furrowed in frustration.

She had long, jet-black hair that fell over her shoulders like a waterfall, cheeks tinted in pink from both the summer heat and the intensity of the situation and beautiful, almond-shaped, star-filled eyes. Eyes that held stars that were waiting to shine, to light up the sky and to die out as the most beautiful ones he had ever seen. Her features were defined, feminine and rounded in just the right places, and she radiated confidence that swept him off his feet. She wore the same uniform as the young girls beside her, except the fact that hers said ‘Mom Mirae’, indicating that she was (probably) like their mother figure. She was a bit shorter than Minho, yet the vibe she gave off made even the flirty boy shut up on the spot, waiting for further instructions.

“Why is it so bad that we wanted to talk to him? Just talk to him?” One of the girls whose team shirt said Yuqi whined just like a child who didn’t get to lay her hands on the dessert she had wanted.

“Not on my watch, young lady, not on my watch,” Mirae warned her, shaking her head in disbelief. Then, her features became even more solemn and she looked the girls straight into their eyes, one after another. “You’re only teenagers, you have your whole life to talk to boys!”

“Sure, then we’ll end up single like you,” a shorter girl (Soyeon according to her shirt) snorted, giving Mirae a disgusted look.

The team leader acted like she was immensely hurt when it could be seen that she was merely dancing around the edges of her patience.

“You can talk to him when we’ll have the trip to the watch-out tower tomorrow,” she explained after letting out a sigh. Then, the events took an unexpected turn, and Mirae caught sight of Sungjin watching the scene and turned to him with her whole body. “You are going there tomorrow, right?” she inquired as she raised her voice to be heard properly, tilting her head while she was waiting for his response.

Sungjin was so shocked to get caught staring that he opened and closed his mouth like a fish while he was trying to gather what was left of his pride. After a few more seconds, he finally regained his senses; he shook his head and cleared his throat.

“Yes, we’re going there too.” He nodded still dumbfounded, but he didn’t even have the chance to ask how the girls’ team leader could know about the other camp’s plans because the group of girls were already leaving the scene, reassured that they would have the chance to meet Minho the next day, too.

Sungjin watched Mirae’s fading silhouette, his brain still not catching up with the events. He knew she knew that he must have been with the boys because no other man could accompany the kids, and he was apparently the eldest. Yet, he was still surprised that she talked to him without hesitation and without even a hint of anxiety. She was born to be a leader, that was for sure.

“Our hyung is totally whipped,�� Jisung cooed gleefully when Sungjin finally looked back at the boys to see if anyone had been doing something wrong.

Even before he had the chance to protest, Jeongin was about to run after the fishing rod which got a catch and poor boy nearly fell into the lake because the fish was so adamant and so heavy. Sungjin saved him in the last minute, and instead of saying thanks, Jeongin started crying that he had missed his best catch because of their team leader.

Oh really, Sungjin started to realize that this year was definitely different from the ones before. Not just because of the mischievous kids he was assigned to look over but also because of the girls from the other camp and their confident team leader.

Sungjin was definitely looking forward to the trip to the watch-out tower, not because of anything in particular… he was just excited. He felt a bubbly feeling in his stomach, and it was so strange, so stupid to wait for the time when he could see her again. He didn’t even know her, he didn’t even know if she would want him to know her. He only knew her name because of her shirt, nothing else. What if she didn’t even want to talk to him?

“You alright, Bob?” Jae nudged the guy’s shoulder to get his attention.

Sungjin casted him a deadly glare when the blondie called him by the nickname he had given him. He really didn’t see the resemblance between the said figure and himself but oh well… Jae always saw the world differently.

“Sure.” He nodded, looking like he wasn’t distracted by the thought of a certain someone. “You sure you have the map and everything?” Sungjin asked just in case Jae didn’t prepare well enough for the trip even if it was his time to shine. The team leaders could organize activities for their teams individually, but Jae was the one who organised the activities for all of them. Some of them went pretty well but for example, last year, they did a trip to a nearby folk village and Jae ended up directing them in the opposite direction, so they ended up at a graveyard instead. Needless to say, Renjun passed out on the spot.

“Of course.” Jae shrugged his shoulders. “It’s not like it’s so far away. We can’t even get lost on our way there,” he explained ever so casually while Sungjin rolled his eyes.

“That’s exactly what you said before we walked 20 miles instead of 10, right?”

“That was a one-time thing!” Jae exclaimed, putting a hand over his heart like he was so hurt by his accusation.

“It happened twice,” Sungjin corrected him, giggling when his friend couldn’t bring up anything to deny the facts. Truth to be told, Jae was so much better at talking about plans and whatnot than actually making it a reality, that’s why half of his activities turned out to be failures. Though until the other half turned out to be a success, JYP didn’t really mind. At least, the kids could always tell their parents such amusing stories.

“Alright, is everyone here?” Jae clapped his hands together to get everyone’s attention, and when the kids calmed down a bit, he started counting who was there, and was surprised to find out that one child was missing. Later, he was informed that Moonbin had eaten too much BBQ chicken the day before, so he needed to stay at the camp with the nurse who would take care of him for the day.

After gathering together and making sure that everyone had enough food and drinks for the one-day trip, the group headed out. Sungjin was taking care of all the 9 kids he had, walking beside them to make sure that he could watch every single one of them while they were walking. Apart from the fact that Jeongin couldn’t stop pulling Seungmin’s hair, Woojin couldn’t stop whining about the BBQ chicken of Young K’s team and Felix was singing Chungha’s Why Don’t You Know on the top of his lungs repeatedly, everything went smoothly.

Though he had to admit that he was extremely puzzled when Minho came up to him to ask a question.

“Have you ever been in love?”

The straightforward question took the team leader by surprise because he would have imagined anyone else to ask the question but Minho himself. Yet, Sungjin knew that there was nothing he needed to hide about his love life, especially when a younger one was curious about it. Sungjin was also really curious when he was younger, he didn’t know what it felt like to be in love and be loved by someone other than your friends and your family, so of course Minho wanted to know the same.

Sungjin cleared his throat before he gave him an answer.

“Yes, a few times.” He nodded, thinking back to all the girlfriends he ever had. It’s not like he was so heart-broken that none of his relationships worked out in the end, yet when you are in love, you never think about the end, and that’s what makes the pain ever worse.

“What’s it like? I mean being in love?” Minho inquired with wide eyes, and even Jisung turned his head in their direction upon hearing the question.

“Well…” Sungjin chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly. How could he explain it? There was really no right word for it, everyone had to experience it to know it for themselves. Plus, he was pretty sure being in love meant different for everyone, and everyone acted differently when they were in a relationship. “You want to see the other one more and more, you want to get to know every little thing about them, whatever they do make you smile, you start remembering something you’ve done together multiple times a day and at very random moments, and suddenly you find yourself thinking about them all the time,” Sungjin concluded dreamily, earning a few snorts from the younger ones.

“Eww, gross…” Seungmin snickered, making a disgusted face.

“You’ll know when you feel it,” Sungjin continued nonchalantly, not caring about the others’ disapproving glances or eye-rolls. It was no surprise that 13 to 17-year-old kids didn’t feel like falling in love or wanting to experience the feeling. He had his first girlfriend when he was 18 years old, and he didn’t want to fall in love either. It just happened, it’s not something you can be prepared for or you can prevent.

“Thanks, Sungjin,” Minho said thankfully, patting the other guy’s shoulder. Sungjin really didn’t know why he was so grateful as he didn’t do anything extraordinary, he merely told him how he felt.

Luckily, the rest of the walking didn’t include any love-related talk, so the team leader didn’t need to feel uncharacteristically uncomfortable around the kids. They busied themselves and started playing all kinds of games anyway, so he didn’t need to interfere to calm them down or to stop them when something was getting wild. They were acting like chill kids for the first time during the first three days of the camp, and he couldn’t have been more glad.

Time went by fast since he didn’t need to supervise them so intensely, and by the time his thoughts could go back to Mirae, they were already at the watch-out tower and settled down to have a picnic. Much to Sungjin’s dismay, the girls weren’t there, neither was their team leader.

The youngsters were busy munching on their sandwiches and cookies they had gotten from Wonpil’s team, they didn’t even notice that Sungjin’s attention was completely elsewhere and not on the kids, especially when the other camp arrived at the resting area in front of the watch-out tower. Maybe he really started hallucinating things, but he could have sworn that Mirae’s eyes found his for a second, for only a tiny bit of a fraction, yet it was enough for him to completely get his hopes up. He couldn’t even tear his gaze away for the rest of the lunch, his eyes were only on the girl and her team. Though he caught sight of other groups and their team leaders too, but he was too mesmerized by the way she firmly yet caringly took care of the girls that he couldn’t concentrate on anything else.

The six girls were chattering casually, eating their little lunches while they glanced in the boys’ direction, especially Minho’s who waved back at them, earning a few excited squeals and giggles from the others. That’s when Mirae and Sungjin finally exchanged a glance, and when they did, their lips curled upwards at the same time, and they soon broke into little fists of laugher.

Sungjin turned to Minho.

“Go, talk to them! You have 15 minutes,” he told the young boy who was so taken aback that he didn’t even know what to do for the next few seconds. However, after that, it was no turning back, he jumped up and ran to the girls, sitting in the middle of the circle they had created for him.

Mirae found this moment to excuse herself and leave the scene, walking further from the lovestruck group. When she was getting closer and closer to Sungjin, the team leader got more and more nervous. What was he about to say? Was she really going to come and talk to him? Would she even remember him?

Though all his questions were answered the moment the confident female showed up beside him and pointed at the blank spot on the blanket beside him.

“Can I join?” she inquired casually to which Sungjin could only nod fervently. She hopped down beside him in the next second, her eyes darting between the face of his and the kids he was looking over.

“Are you the team leader of eight boys?” she asked in awe, her lips parted in disbelief. Well, since they didn’t have a lot of volunteers, all of their team leaders had at least nine children on their watch, so it was no surprise that he had to take care of such a large number of youngsters. On the other hand, Mirae’s question was very much reasonable considering that their camp didn’t seem to be short on volunteers. There were at least 6 team leaders apart from her.

“Nine with Minho,” Sungjin corrected her with a soft giggle, earning a same reaction from her.

“Wow, that must be difficult!”

“Oh, it’s really not that bad!” He shrugged, and even though it would have looked like he was just trying to show off, it wasn’t about anything like that. He merely got used to the silly and childish behaviours since he was a part of the organizing committee for the sixth year already. After a while, people get the hang of it and nothing seems too extreme.

“I’m Mirae, by the way,” she introduced herself with a soft smile, one that was like a breeze of the gentle spring wind after only seeing her cold demeanour. She may have looked rigid and strict when she was with the girls, but maybe they needed this amount of strictness to behave well. After all, Sungjin knew all too well that you have to use different methods with different children.

I know, he wanted to say, but he bit down on his tongue before he could say anything that indicated that he was stalking her. To be precise, he was examining her from head to toe the last time they met, and that’s how he took notice of the name on her shirt.

“I’m Sungjin.” He bobbed his head with an equally friendly smile, reaching his hand out and Mirae immediately shook hands with him; quickly and gently. When they both backed away a bit, a moment of silence fell upon the two of them, yet Sungjin had been meaning to ask her a question even the day before, so he didn’t want to dismiss it this time. “How did you know that we would come here today, too?”

Mirae let out a chuckle when she heard his question. Her chuckle was like a flower that was in bloom: beautiful, elegant and thriving. Sungjin knew he could listen to it without getting sick of it, without getting sick of the sight that accompanied the pleasant sound.

“We know about your schedules because we don’t want to interfere with your activities too much. We never know if our kids would get along well with yours, and we really don’t want to hear complaints that the children had to spend time with the kids from other camp just because we couldn’t take care of it,” Mirae explained thoroughly, her eyes shining with fondness.

“Honestly, we don’t know anything about your schedules,” Sungjin admitted nervously, wondering why JYP had never contacted them about the other camp’s activities. Maybe he really didn’t pay as much attention to the issue as Mirae’s superiors. Maybe they couldn’t even call it an issue since kids were bound to get along after a while, so why would have it mattered anyway?

“Until one of us knows, it’s okay,” the female voiced out reasonably, making Sungjin let out a genuine smile. He could already see why she was a team leader, she was not only confident and smart, but she could also make the younger ones listen to her. Even Young K, Wonpil and Dowoon were all different kind of leaders when it came to the kids in the camp, so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that Mirae was also totally unique.

“And will we have another event together?” Sungjin asked smoothly, secretly curious if he could see her again.

“Well, our encounter yesterday wasn’t even planned, so I think only time will tell.” She shrugged her shoulders, not even giving a proper answer to his question, but maybe she was just as smooth as Sungjin himself, and she knew exactly when and where they would meet up again.

“Alright, then don’t tell me classified information,” Sungjin joked, acting like he was so sulky, and the girl smacked him in the chest.

“You are almost as nosy as the girls.”

“I’ve just wanted to know if your girls will steal our Minho again,” he teased with a wide grin, pointing at the guy who was laughing freely with the six girls around him. He seemed to have fun with them, and even though his team leader knew that he couldn’t have fallen in love with all of the six girls, at least he had made some new friends too.

“If you are that curious, I can reassure you that we’ll steal your Minho only twice in the future,” Mirae responded with a cheeky smile.

Sungjin was aware of the fact that they could still meet more than twice (just like yesterday which was indeed unplanned), but it seemed unfair that they were so close, yet they didn’t frequently bump into each other. At least, it seemed unfair to him considering that he wanted to see her more.

“Alright, alright, that’s not too bad,” Sungjin concluded with an unfathomable facial expression, and may it be leader instinct or the fact that he didn’t check on the boys for a while, but he looked at the youngsters just in time to see when Changbin almost choked on some rucola.

“Oh gosh, Changbin, are you okay?” He ran to the boy to hit his back a few times, helping the boy to cough some more. The dark-haired kid merely nodded but he couldn’t talk for the time being because he was still caught up in the aftermath of his actions.

“Y-yeah, sure,” he managed the words out after he was over the worst part of his coughing and held onto Sungjin’s shoulder until he became himself again.

“Drink some water to help your insides going!” Sungjin suggested gently as he went back to his own water bottle to give it to the poor boy who received it thankfully. Maybe that was the first time Sungjin could earn a thankful smile from the usually closed off guy, and the fact that he could achieve something like this warmed his heart a bit. Of course, he wouldn’t have admitted it for the world, yet he was extremely thankful that he could be there for him, and he didn’t dismiss his help. For moments like this, everything that he had to endure during those two weeks was worth it.

“Thanks,” Changbin said as he let go of Sungjin’s shoulder and let out the last cough of his. When the team leader made sure that he was really okay, he retreated back to Mirae, and sat down with a sigh.

“Is he okay?” the girl inquired though she was probably not as worried as she had been if Sungjin hadn’t taken care of the boy.

“Yeah, sure.”

“You are really good with kids,” Mirae complimented casually, and it wasn’t the first time he had heard the exact same words, but it was definitely the first he felt uncharacteristically nervous because of such a compliment. Hearing it from someone like her did mean a lot to him.

“Oh well, I’m just trying my best,” he remarked gently, thinking of all the times he had managed to assist the children and prevent any mishaps. Needless to say, mishaps were likely to occur, and even if he had been their father, he couldn’t have saved them from some bruises and falls, but until everyone was happy and in one piece, it was okay. Kids recovered quickly, both from injuries and bad memories, so he wasn’t as worried about them as he had been when he first started out as a team leader.

“Alright, everyone, let’s go up that watch-out tower!” Jae announced with a clap of his hands, and Sungjin could have strangled him in that moment for ruining his moment.

“I’ll go back to my girls then,” Mirae said with a bitter smile and stood up to brush the dust off her jeans.

“Sure, see you soon then!” Sungjin waved in her direction, not knowing what else to do because he couldn’t have made her stay.

“Sooner than you think.” She winked and before he could ask what she meant by that, she was already out of his reach, taking care of her own team.

“I’m pretty sure that he’s really whipped now,” Jisung muttered under his breath, but of course Sungjin could still hear it. When he looked at the kid who was smirking from ear to ear, he wished he could swipe that smirk off his face, yet he was right after all. He was really whipped for Mirae, and they didn’t even speak a lot. What was in the air, really?

The two exchanged a few glances here and there in the next hour while they were going up and down the watch-out tower with different groups and started wrapping up their picnic in the resting area. For some odd reason, Felix couldn’t stop singing High School Musical songs the whole time, and when the high notes part came, and his voice resembled a pan that fell onto the ground, Bang Chan covered the younger’s boy mouth to shut him up but it was no use since the moment he removed his hand, he went back to Something New anyway. Sungjin shook his head at the boy’s antics, yet he couldn’t stop smiling while they were walking back to their base.

He really hoped that Mirae was right and that they would meet sooner than he would have assumed.

Two days passed and still no sign of Mirae or the kids from the other camp. As they were situated on the completely opposite sides of the lake, and for safety reasons, even those cabins were pretty far from the lake, there was no chance of them even interacting if they didn't go near the lake.

During those two days, they had a games' night when the different teams were competing against each other in almost every possible game including football, cheerleading, arm wrestling, mini archery, IQ quizzes, roleplays from famous kdramas and Activity. Then, the next day, they had a bake-off between the different cabins, and needless to say, it turned out to be a literal mess. Considering that even Sungjin's team was in two different cabins, he didn't know where to help out, and some kids looked like they had never set foot in the kitchen. Hyunjin almost turned on the mixer when Jisung's hand was still in the dough, Seungmin poured too much milk into the mixture and was surprised when it turned out odd while Woojin still couldn't let go of the BBQ idea. Bang Chan and Minho were the ones who tried their best to keep their cabins together, plus they knew a thing or two about baking, so they could save their teams from complete failure.

Young K's team was, on the other hand, a complete mess, and since the guy himself liked eating more than making food for himself, he nodded to every idea the kids had, and that's how even the two cabins had completely different cookies from the very same ingredients. Moonbin, Sanha, Rocky, Chani and Hwiyoung ended up making vanilla-raspberry muffins with star and heart shaped food decoration and even though the dough stuck to the baking paper, it was at least edible. Q, Hwall, Kevin and Taeyang made a chocolate-raspberry dough and put it on the tray with all kinds of edible decoration and called it a cake. It was a bit too sugary and a bit too artificial because of the amount of artificial colouring they put into the mixture, but the taste wasn’t so bad.

Wonpil's cabins were the best as always as the girls were really good at cooking and baking too. Even those who were not so interested in baking took part in the making, melting Wonpil's heart with their efforts. Wonpil was watching them from a safe distance, murmuring to himself how lucky he was to get a team like this.

Surprisingly, out of the boys, Dowoon's two cabins were the best ones, at least their cookies looked decent and their tastes were good, too. Plus, the way Hendery smiled throughout the whole preparation warmed everyone's heart. Though everyone knew that Dowoon would have complimented the outcome even if the boys had totally messed it up because last year he even ate a totally burnt cake just to save his team's pride. Needless to say, he had a horrible stomach ache for the rest of the day.

The two days were eventful, that's for sure, yet despite it all, Sungjin missed talking to her the most, and he had already regretted not asking for her number. That way at least he could have contacted her even if they had been on the opposite sides of the lake.

He was already starting to give up when on the third day after they met, everyone was invited for a movie night to watch Spiderman: Homecoming. It was an outside event, the movie was shown on a screen beside the lake and it shouldn't have come as a surprise that the other camp was also there since it was organized by the dude who ran the whole place including the two camp sites with the lake and the secluded forest.

When Sungjin settled down with his own kids, he caught sight of the confident team leader who had just sat down with her girls, lying down on the blanket with the six girls. Mirae was also searching for a familiar face, Sungjin was sure that she was looking for him becaseu she stopped looking around only when she caught sight of him. They both broke into a huge smile when they exchanged a look.

“You can go, you know.” Bang Chan nudged his shoulder, pointing in Mirae's direction.

Sungjin suddenly felt guilty for being so obvious that even the kids themselves realized that something must have been going on with those two. Yet, he really couldn't help it; Mirae was really charming, and the more time he spent without her, the more he wanted to see her. It was crazy that he was already missing her when he couldn’t see her for two days, yet it was the truth.

“Ah no, I can't let you be alone,” Sungjin protested right away and shook his head in disbelief. He couldn’t just leave those kids alone, they could have seriously hurt others or themselves. He always put the kids' safety first. Always.

“Come on! We are just watching a movie, nothing can go wrong,” Bang Chan reasoned, giving a slight pat on the team leader’s shoulder to prompt him to move. Sungjin knew that he was right, yet he was still very much unconvinced about the whole idea.

“You sure?” He furrowed his eyebrows, yet the 17-year-old guy nodded so hard that his head almost fell off.

“Yeah, sure. Just go!”

With a few more encouraging smiles and nudges, Sungjin was finally reassured enough to get up and walk towards Mirae and her girls. It didn't take a lot of time for the little group to realize that he was approaching them; when the wavy-haired girl squealed, so did the rest of them, and soon enough they pushed Mirae towards Sungjin.

“We don't want to see you until the end of the movie. Period,” the shortest girl (maybe she was Soyeon, Sungjin couldn't really recall her name) told their team leader who seemed so shy all of a sudden. It looked like Mirae wasn’t the boss here anymore, it was rather the teenage girl who literally told her off.

“Alright, but take care of yourself and let me know if something happens or if any of you need anything,” Mirae told them after she had recovered from the shock her own team caused her, furrowing her eyebrows worriedly.

“Yeah, sure, we will, just go! Don't make your Prince Charming wait too long,” the girls chattered cheerfully and laughed when they saw how red the two adults' faces became. They were sure not prepared for such reactions from their kids.

They silently decided to move away from the mass of people, so they decided on a little bench that wasn’t far from the scene, but it was far enough for them to at least hear each other properly.

“The kids are surely up for something,” Sungjin remarked with a soft giggle, earning a joyous laughter from the girl.

“I wonder what,” she topped his comment with a wide smile, and she was so beautiful under the sunset, Sungjin had a hard time breathing. She was painted crimson by the last rays of sunshine on the horizon and her jet-black hair seemed chest-nut brown in the midst of the colour palette that the nature has created around them. Her eyes seemed to be holding the stars that would soon move onto the night sky, shining and twirling in joy and affection. Her laugh added a mesmerizing melody to the background music that was presented by the chattering of the kids, the chirping of the birds and the sound of the scattering leaves. Everything was so picturesque, and her feminine charms added even more to the beauty of the sunset. It was crazy how beautiful she was in her own natural way; no make-up, no lipstick, only her nails were painted baby blue, but it was probably the girls’ work and not her own.

“So what have you been up to these days with the kids?” Mirae inquired and curiously titled her head. Sungjin blinked a few to get back to reality and to avoid staring at the girl so intensely. Although he was pretty sure he had already messed up the latter.

That’s how he started talking about the bake-off and the games’ night and their solely camp-related conversation soon turned into getting to know each other, about the other’s family, brothers and sisters, their university studies, dream jobs, most memorable memories when they themselves were kids at camps, family vacation stories and their favourite foods. Sungjin may have embarrassed himself once or twice but Mirae was an excellent company, she couldn’t stop laughing at his facial expressions, and her laughter was contagious. Once, even a group of children turned back to shush them because they were being loud while it was time for a confession scene, and they almost died of laughter, they tried so hard to contain their emotions.

Sungjin never knew that he could get to know so much about someone in such a short spare of time, yet since they were both quite talkative, it all went well. On top of that, they were both the types to use hand gestures while talking, small wonder Mirae once accidentally hit Sungjin’s head when she was talking about a family holiday of hers. Yet, they merely laughed it off, there was nothing to be sorry about.

It was already the end of the movie with the credits list when they realized that they would need to go back to their own groups before they would make a mess without adult supervision.

“Wait!” Sungjin yelled after Mirae before she could scamper away, leaving him in misery for another few days. “Can you… I don’t know… at least give me your phone number, so that I can contact you?” he inquired nervously, tilting his head. He usually didn’t find it hard to bring up such topics, but he was oddly anxious when it came to the ever so confident team leader.

Mirae let out a soft chuckle in response and nodded her head.

“Of course,” she gave in without hesitation and told him her number on the spot. Even when she left, Sungjin was smiling to himself at the number on his screen, not quite believing what had just happened.

He was sure one very lucky man.

“What’s good everybody?” said Jae that night, walking into the organizing committee’s cabinet like he was on the runway with such posture. Then, he pointed at his phone, wiggling his eyebrows to add to the whole ruckus. “I’m sending this song to our local lover boy, Bob the Builder!” he hollered gleefully, his trademark smile never leaving his face.

Everyone looked at him as if he had lost it; Wonpil blinked confusedly, looking like he was about to solve a Maths question with that furrowed eyebrows of his, Young K was grinning to himself even though it could be seen that he was merely there for the drama, he actually had no idea what was going on while Dowoon merely turned over and went back to sleep. Sungjin was the only one who knew exactly what the lanky guy had tried to imply, that’s why he was the only one whose face remained stern.

“I wanna know, know, know… what is love?” Jae busted from his phone, the lyrics accompanied by his stupid high school cheerleading dance. Young K snorted at the sight, covering his mouth not to make a lot of noise while Wonpil still resembled a statue.

“Mind sharing with us what’s going on?” Young K inquired as he glanced at Sungjin who let out a sigh. He knew there was no way he could hide it from the other guys, plus they were his friends after all. No matter how annoying they could be, they deserved to know the truth.

“There’s this girl who’s a team leader in the other camp and we’ve started talking.”

“And he’s also asked for her number!” Jae butted in with a knowing smirk, winking at the so-called lover boy.

“Yes, we’ve exchanged numbers, too,” Sungjin admitted as he put his hands into the air. There was really no way he could have got away with it if Jae was around. Considering that he was in charge of the group activities and didn’t supervise a group all day long, he had a lot of time to examine every single thing in the camp and to catch up with everything that was going on.

“Oh, nice one, dude!” Young K clapped his hands, cheering his friend on. Wonpil, who was lying down on the bed beside Sungjin’s, merely gave him a wide, supportive smile. He was always more serious and reserved than others, yet even his little actions meant a lot to him.

“And guess who’s managed to organize a bonfire night for both camps?” Jae asked overly enthusiastically, and even without waiting for a second, he exclaimed. “Yep, that’s right, it was me! So who’s your favourite boy, Bob?” he shouted into Sungjin’s ears when he got close to the boy.

Sungjin was more dumbfounded by the words he had said than by his actions, that’s why he didn’t push him away. Otherwise, he would have told him off right away.

“When it’s going to take place?” Wonpil spoke up for the first time since Jae’s grand entrance, yet the blonde guy couldn’t have been happier about the fact that he had decided to join in.

“This Sunday, my friend,” he answered immediately, then leaned closer to Sungjin to whisper into his ears. “Hope you’ll gonna thank me one day, buddy,” he remarked playfully, then patted Sungjin’ shoulder and continued on signing to the Twice the top of his lungs much to Dowoon’s annoyance who woke up from his peaceful sleep.

On the other hand, Sungjin couldn’t have cared less about Jae’s childish behaviour because his mind was already preoccupied with the news of the bonfire night. He immediately texted Mirae, asking if she had known about it, and she confirmed that she got to know about it during their daily meeting with the team leaders. She event sent a smiley emoji to him which warmed his heart, and his expression must have been expressive too since Young K cooed at him and Wonpil gave him a toothy smile.

“He’s so cute when he’s in love,” Young K mumbled to himself, but it was loud enough for him to hear it. Though he couldn’t deny it, instead he threw his pillow at the boy who grinned even wider after that.

Man, it was difficult to have such friends.

After that, Sungjin felt like he was a part of a modern comedy. It seemed that the whole camp knew about his feelings towards Mirae and vice versa. Not just his kids but even bratty ones such as Chani gave him glances whenever they walked past him, and girls gushed over the fact that the team leader was all heart eyes for another team leader from the other camp.

As promised, Jae managed to get the bonfire night organized without any inconveniences, and he even tried to help Sungjin out by looking over the Stray Kids himself while Sungjin was talking with Mirae, yet it ended in Seungmin’s clothes catching fire and Jeongin almost burning himself when he wanted to reach for his sausage that fell into the fire, plus Woojin was still not over the fact that he hasn’t eaten chicken for almost a week, so Jae seemed more stressed after only a few minutes with the kids from the 8th and 9th cabin than he was all his life.

Needless to say, it wasn’t the first time things got out of control when others merely tried to help them to meet up again. When Minho and the six girls tried to set them up and got a whole picnic date ready, Yuqi twisted her ankle in the morning, and Mirae had to be there for her the whole day (at least, she wanted to be there for her) until she made sure that Yuqi was doing okay, and that the other five girls would assist her whenever she needed help. Not to mention the time when Young K invited Mirae over to their cabin for a dinner, yet it turned out that Sungjin was on a night trip with his group, so she was introduced to the other guys instead, and she had the opportunity to see a very dumbfounded Jae as he was walking out of the bathroom half-naked, a toothbrush hanging from his mouth, a very shy Dowoon who didn’t know what to say to the girl, an angelic Wonpil who smiled the whole time and praised Sungjin as much as he could and an overly anxious Young K who mentally killed himself over and over again for messing things up so badly.

Though there were times when they could finally meet up, usually during sleepless nights and at the break of dawn when the kids were still sleeping, yet they gladly gave up their precious sleep just to talk a bit or to see each other a bit more. The more they met, the harder he fell for her, and he knew there was really no going back. The thought of Mirae occupied his thoughts all day long, and he waited to see her every day like a kid waits for Christmas every year. He was still a kid at heart, of course he was, yet this newfound enthusiasm really made him feel like a child, just like the ones he was watching over. Sometimes it was enough for him to know that she was doing okay, and no one fell into a trash bin in the other camp (yep, it happened once with a guy named Wong Yukhei), other times he was over the moon hearing her laughter that could light up his heart more than any firework could.

Yet, as all good things come to an end, the two-week long camp was also nearing its end very soon, and just when things were about to get serious, they already had to start packing. The goodbye was inevitable, therefore they decided to meet up personally before Sungjin and JYP’s students would leave since Mirae and the other kids came later, so they also stayed a bit more.

Sungjin was uncharacteristically nervous on the day of their departure, and when all was well and every student was on the bus that would take them back to Seoul, his eyes were searching for the oh so familiar orbs. They had agreed on meeting at 9 as the bus would take off at 9:30, so they would have some time for themselves, yet it was nearing 9:15 and the girl was nowhere to be seen. He was a bit afraid that she had forgotten about it even though he knew well that she hadn’t forgotten about anything. He had a hunch that something had happened at the camp and she couldn’t leave earlier, so when Mirae came panting and catching her breath, he knew that he was right.

“I’m so sorry, Shuhua was pranked by the girls and I needed to calm her down before she would set fire to the whole cabinet. Oh my gosh, I was so afraid that I wouldn’t get here on time,” Mirae explained so fast that Sungjin could barely get the words out.

“It’s okay, it’s really okay,” he reassured her as he put a hand on her shoulder, and merely laughed it off. Even her presence was enough to pacify his crazily beating heart. Even her voice was enough to make him feel satisfied even though they were about to say goodbye.

“I really wanted to say a proper goodbye,” Mirae admitted with a bittersweet smile, unsaid confessions and worries hiding behind her ever so lovely smile. Even if she had been running to get here, even if her hair was in a really messy bun and her clothes were still dirty from the previous night’s storm, she was so utterly beautiful.

“You know we don’t have to,” he said gently, his hand not leaving her shoulder. “We can keep talking even when the camp ends.”

“Well, after all, we live and study in the same city.” She nodded and let out a relieved sigh. Maybe she was afraid that Sungjin wouldn’t want to see her after the camp. Maybe she was afraid that he didn’t feel the same way. He couldn’t tell why she was so relieved all of a sudden, but her reaction prompted him to ask the question he had been meaning to ask for a while.

“You want to grab lunch with me when you finish here?”

Mirae froze for a second before her lips started curling upwards, eyes shining with joy. Sungjin thought that he had totally messed up everything when her eyes widened, yet it seemed that she was merely surprised about his question and not shocked.

“Sure.” She nodded enthusiastically and seeing her smile becoming wider and wider was like watching the sun rise on the horizon. “Is it a date?” she blurted out cheekily, and now it was Sungjin’s turn to get surprised.

Yet, he assumed that because she asked such a question, she actually thought of the possibility of them having a date. Which meant that he could also think that way.

“Yes, it is,” he concluded with a nod of his head.

“Then, it is,” she repeated with a wide grin and cutely scrunched her nose when her cheeks turned really red. Sungjin would have never thought that he would see the ever so confident and quite solemn team leader become so embarrassed. but he was glad that he could see yet another side of her.

“Get on, lover boy! We need to go!” Jae hollered after him, breaking their little moment into tiny little pieces.

When Sungjin rolled his eyes, Mirae slightly nudged his shoulder.

“Go!” She pointed at the bus where the kids were waiting for their scene to come to an end. Sungjin knew that they had been watching the whole thing from afar, yet he hoped that they didn’t hear a thing. “We’ll see each other soon anyway,” she promised with a sweet smile and before he could even respond to that, she gave him a quick peck on the cheeks and turned on her heel.

“Oh my gosh, she kissed him!”

“Shut up, Jeongin! That was only a kiss on the cheek!”

“I saw what I saw!”

“Then get new glasses!” Seungmin snorted and rolled his eyes at the youngest’s antics.

Needless to say, this year’s camp was full of twists and turns, but at least they were all in one piece and they had one more lover boy in the crew.

Maybe next year’s going to be even better.

48 notes · View notes

incorrectastro · 7 years ago

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Rocky: Synonyms are weird because if you invite someone to your cottage in the forest that just sounds nice and cozy, but if I invite you to my cabin in the woods you’re going to die.

Jinjin: My favorite is explaining the difference between a butt dial and a booty call

Moonbin: It’s called connotations.

MJ: Try this one on for size: “Forgive me, Father, I have sinned” or “Sorry, Daddy, I’ve been naughty”

Eunwoo: Great news! Language is now banned.

#s: malkiewicz #rocky #minhyuk #jinjin #jinwoo #moonbin #mj #myungjun #eunwoo #dongmin #astro #incorrect astro quotes #incorrect kpop quotes #incorrect quotes

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multifandom-hoes · 7 years ago

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The Witch’s Hut

Member: MoonBin // ASTRO

Genre: Horror, Adventure, Dark, Fantasy

Words: 6,7k

Once upon a time, when superstitions were held at higher stakes, on the lands where monsters and devils roamed, there was a little village so old its name was long forgotten, but by the myths that surrounded its never-ending summer, the valley was instead renamed the Witch’s Hut.

Sun blazed down on its occupants all year round, growing healthy crops and providing clean supply of water, yet just outside of the Witch’s Hut there was an eternal white blanket of winter forest. It became one more reason for the people living outside to name the village what it was.

Standing proud on the valley between two grand mountains, the people of the village had been shut out of the outside world entirely and so the superstitious belief grew and manifested into something more. It came to the point where crows cowed on the old crones’ shoulders as the old women cackled, calling themselves seers of all things and trying to make a coin or two for their living with their prophecy. It worked all the time and the eldest woman was believed to be the descendant of a real witch.

Peasants, all of them, the crones with their home-bound crows and the villagers with their stupid fear of the winter forest. What drove the superstitious belief was the fear of the outside world and what it might entail. They believed it was the mercy of the gods that gave them year long summer to enjoy and in turn, they were to be locked down in that little Witch's Hut, cut out from the world.

Yet, even as a child, the boy of ethereal beauty, with his curly brown hair and clear skin, caramel eyes and plump little lips, had never believed in a word of the old crones- never even stumbled at the sight of the crows on their shoulders as how other people had flinched and scurried off. But as his unflinching belief was strong, so were the old women’s words as they crowed along their black birds:

“Don’t go out into the forest, little boy, for the witch of winter will take you away. Out of your pretty brown locks she will sew herself a blanket to keep her warm in the winter’s frost and her long, bony fingers will stroke those sewn locks day in and day out, taking their softness to her pleasure.” The smile on their face was terrifying, yet little Moon Bin had not flinched, even as a drop of sweat slid down his brow.

And so, the years rolled by, each with plenty of sunshine and children playing. Moon Bin was a happy child with a loving mother, a loving father, and plenty of friends he had managed to make. Since the village was a small little thing, he was sure he knew all and more, striding down the hut-lined streets with his head held high, both as a little boy and a grown teen.

It was nearing the annual summer fest, which was usually set by the old crones themselves, since they claimed to read the cycles of the moon and listen to the whispers of the gods that told them the day of the fest. So the villagers let them do their thing while they went on harvesting the crops with even more vigour, abandoning their children to their mischief.

With more embarrassment towards the fact that he had yet to find his date rather than the fear of the old women’s prying, Moon Bin had been restless for weeks. He had someone in mind. Of course he had, and he was quite certain that the lady would agree to his offer to attend the fest together, yet his stomach had knitted tightly every time he was near her.

With his looks, those soft curly locks grown straight and silky, caramel eyes catching a shine of a youth and lips as plump and sensuous as ever, he had tried to boost his confidence, and the knowledge that he was possibly the most handsome man in the valley was certainly reassuring, but when the girl, whom he claimed he loved, was near him, the reassurance was gone in an instance and an ugly blush always managed to steer him away from her.

As he pushed and pulled himself away from her, he missed his chance entirely, to a friend of his own nonetheless. Sulking and kicking the pebbles off the road as he walked back home from yet another scouting day around the village, he had stumbled and nearly knocked one of the crones off the road leading to the winter forest. He stuttered an apology, but received no word of acknowledgment apart from the cowing of the crow as the crone spoke:

“Don’t go out into the forest, little boy, for the witch of winter will take you away. Out of your beautiful brown eyes she will make herself a midnight snack of crunchy delight, and as she devours one after another, you will be there, seeing yet unable to move since you will serve to her delight and nothing more.” He had only sighed at the old woman’s words, too used to hearing them with each crossing they made.

It was barely days to the annual fest when the intangible happened, something that had his mother almost passing out, crying in his father’s arms as she blamed their hut for not giving enough attention to the gods and now having to face their wrath. A blight had struck, as she had said, due to their paying too much attention to the crops rather than thanking for each of the day they had spent in the sun. A blight so terrible the crops were wilting too fast to be saved and now the village was running short on supplies.

A mass meeting had been called, each head of family gathered at the centre of the Witch’s Hut, conversing in loud shouts and trying to figure out as to how they were going to produce the supplies to provide for their families and keep the village going as if nothing had ever happened. They also needed to set out a new schedule exclusively for thanking the gods and asking for their mercy.

Moon Bin knew that the meeting had not went well as his father had returned pale, quite a big contrast to his usual tan physique. He did not ask questions, as it was considered inappropriate and outright disrespectful towards his parents. Howwever, his eyes had asked all the questions his mouth could not and would not say. Yet his father stayed silent and only embraced his mother, whispering something into her hair. He then patted Moonbin's head and gave a troubled smile before ascending the creaking wooden stairs, disappearing until nothing was left but his fading shadow.

As it turned out later in the week, after missing the annual fest to instead spend it praying for mercy, the crones and their crows had decided that it was the best time to send out both men and women into the winter forest to hunt, as the better of the farmers would try and save the land from the blight, tending to their gardens and producing any crop they possibly could.

The children were kept inside the village, too young to go anywhere near the winter forest and too scared to wander into it anyway. It was due to all the myths and lies they were fed, about children-eating forest that would spare no one in its stead, and yet Moon Bin had always wandered too close when his father had went hunting, had watched too attentively out of curiosity, and had been caught by the same crone that had threatened him all the time :

“Don’t go out into the forest, little boy, for the witch of winter will take you away. Out of your plump little cheeks she will make herself a bun for the settling of her raging heart, a bun so sweet a normal man would get a cavity, yet she would be delighted by it, soothed by it, and you would be there, feeling her teeth sinking into your cheek, tearing flesh from bone, and would do nothing for you could not move against her shackles.” He wondered just how wicked the witch had to be in the crone’s imagination before shaking his head and walking back to his hut to help his mother.

If his mother thought that the blight had been a curse from the gods for their lack of attention, then what happened following that must have been wrath so bad even the gods lacked such horror. A person had wandered into the winter forest and since then there was silence from him. The man, the father of the girl he liked, never returned and the terror that settled over the village was like nothing before.

Even the eternal summer seemed to freeze over, not bringing any pleasurable warmth but instead making everything tensed. His skin crawled every time he looked into the forest, and though hatred settled in his stomach, he did not join the searching party that was pulled out for the lost man. His shins were trembling in fear at even a thought of stepping anywhere close to the winter forest and the cackles of the old crones paired with the crows had finally begun to settle into his head- he had come to believe and fear them.

The search party found nothing - no footsteps, no threads on the trees, no sign of any human life besides the wandering animals that were now hunted as the villagers’ food since the crops had yet to be cured from the blight. The hope for the man was lost and together with that hope went down his funeral, with prayers towards his mourning wife and daughter, a close friend whom he adored so much it hurt to be near her.

But the days seemed to continue, time not waiting for anything but itself, and the man’s doom had been but only a whisper of promise to gods' wrath if they dared to forget their daily plead of mercy. Moon Bin had none of the peasants’ talk and stupidly refused to beg and plead for forgiveness for something he had no hand in. A stubborn fool, he was called every time he walked by the bulk of the old seers jeering in his direction with their teeth missing and blackened. He spoke nothing back. He dared not to. Since it was only the witches that seemed to go back and forth between the forest and valley without any harm done to their withered bodies and minds.

Maybe they truly were the witches, then, Moon Bin thought, or even worse, gods disguised as witches, the old crones. Knowing every step the villagers took, whether they prayed or not. Their prying nose into others’ business had always seemed less than necessary and even annoying, but now Moon Bin questioned even that- maybe it was them who made the man disappear, and yet as he lay in bed that night, about to fall asleep, somewhere from the corner of his mind he heard a soft tune accompanied by a voice of a young lady singing, smelled a delicious smell of sweets making him salivate from the lack of food he had for the past couple of months. But amidst all that goodness he heard the old crone’s voice:

“Don’t go out into the forest, little boy, for the witch of winter will take you away. Out of your beautiful little head she will peel away the scalp and then clean your skull with your own clothes, making your skull into her drinking vessel so that she will sit poised like a queen on the bones of those she captured and skinned while drinking liquid thick and red, smelling of rot and decay. You will be there, helpless and shackled, doing as how she tells you to do.”

The years passed, and together with them had risen the number of those who wandered into the forest and never returned, the winter giving their head a claim of a lifetime. The boy’s circle of friends had lessened, since the ones claimed by the winter had been young and healthy, kids of youth and happiness. Now the happiness was gone and dread settled over the village- even the crones seemed to stop their cackling. There was no more snarky remarks and toothless grins full of vileness.

Moon Bin’s mother had gone gray only in an instance of a year, the stress and mourning getting the best of her, weakening her frail body and putting her on a sick bed all together. Not only the young ones were claimed- men and women, though few, had gone missing during the years the blight had taunted the Witch’s Hut’s crops. Among the grown men was his father, gone to hunt and reported lost to the forest’s thick winds full of snow. As the last time when the father of his now lover had gone missing, Moon Bin had not joined a searching party that was thrown every time a person was claimed by the forest. He revelled in the fact that he had to care for his sickened mother, yet in reality the fear was too great for him to even move anywhere beyond the threshold of his family’s hut.

Yet he had to force his legs to move daily- day in and day out, getting out of his skin to help and keep his mother well and healthy, to try and better her health. He had to and so he did. He had joined the hunting party and with dread over his heart, he had stepped his foot into the winter.

The cold was far worse than whatever he had ever imagined as a child, biting at his feet, fingers, and nose, sending a sheen of red over his cheeks almost instantly. The cold wind did not help any bit as even his hair got coated by thin ice. As a child who grew up in eternal summer, winter seemed like death itself, but he pressed on anyway, for the sake of his mother and his lover. He pressed on and tried to see the usables through the snow; a track of paws, the droppings of some animals- anything to keep their belly full and warm.

The day seemed to move too fast to his liking and just as the winter had seemed like another antic of the old crones coupled with familiar smell of sweets and voice, he had to get back home and prepared food to take care of his mother. His plans crumbled out of his head as he approached his family’s hut, the heavy winter coat on his arm as the winter cold was replaced by the sudden summer evening heat. His lover was standing at the veranda of the crumpling hut, her skirt fluttering in the breeze and on her face he saw regret and grief of the worst kind.

He was quick to push past her, stumbled into the shadows of the second floor, and kick open the door leading to his mother’s bedroom. It was empty. Bed long gone cold, as it had seemed. His mother was gone and the terror was crawling on Moon Bin.

“Where is she?” he asked quietly, his cracking voice hard to control. The only answer he got was a hand on his shoulder before he crumpled to the floor and tears spilled over his cheeks. The only words in his head was the crooning of the oldest crone:

“Don’t go out into the forest, little boy, for the witch of winter will take away from you. Before you’ll get a chance to notice it, she will already have someone in her grasp, someone you know and love dearly, be it father, mother or lover. Out of their skin she will make herself a rug and gift it to you so you could sit on it like a good puppy you will be, unable to speak or argue, sitting on the remains of your loved ones as she sat on the throne of bones.”

There was no more search parties. The peasants of the Witch’s Hut had accepted their fate, begging for mercy daily from their gods who had long turned their backs at their forsaken valley of death. Summer no longer brought joy into Moon Bin’s eyes and the only place he had found peace had been in the winter forest, where he smelled the sweets and listened to the beautiful singing as he hunted for the sake of his lover and his unborn child.

His time spent in the forest had grew longer and longer. He dreaded returning into the village in fear of his lover being long gone, his child together with her, and him finally being all alone in the wide world. He didn’t want that and to avoid such confrontation, Moon Bin camped out in the forest.

The chanting of the seers had stopped bothering him long time ago- years ago when his mother had gone missing. His fate had left together with his mother, and though he loved his lover truly and faithfully with everything he had and possibly more, his heart had long been buried in the cold plains of the forest.

His worst fear came true, together with the rest of his family had went his mind. He set up the searching party himself and though nobody joined, Moon Bin proceeded with scouting the forest. He cared about nothing for he had lost everything anyway.

As he walked into the unwelcoming dark of the forest, the blizzard had seemed to turn against him, begging him to turn back and return into the hut, to huddle himself in warmth and a shredded heart of all he had once been. He ignored the warning of the wind and instead settled into his haunches, pushing himself farther- now stronger than ever as all hope was lost.

He wandered for hours and though he felt as if his nose had not been a part of his body anymore, his fingers so cold and numb from the frost he was sure he had lost them, he couldn’t go back either. There was no path leading back. The blizzard had buried his steps, leaving nothing behind.

His eyes swam with unshed tears of frustration, yet he held himself from crying, knowing that the contact of liquid against his skin will only make his remaining lifespan shorter, cutting him off from surviving entirely.

Moon Bin was foolish to believe he wanted death. As much a stupid peasant as he claimed everyone in the valley to be. Nobody wanted to die and he was no exception. The face of death had been a scary one, a feminine one. Huddled by black so thick it seemed to blend into the night, it made him sure he was seeing things, the cold getting into his head, but before he could close his eyes he saw the cold beauty smile with hunger.

The man’s eyes had yet to be opened when he smelled the familiar scent of sweets wafting through the air, drowning him in all that was good and peaceful before the dark times when he prowled the winter forest or when his father had gone missing. The heat of summer surrounded him as he jittered in the fluffy bed of fur.

His eyes had been flooded by light as soon as they cracked open and what greeted him was the back of his lover cooking him dinner, humming that same familiar tune he had heard when he hunted for rabbits and foxes. Moon Bin’s eyes squinted- his loved never hummed or sang, not after her father and then mother had both gone missing, not with her terrible voice.

His voice was small and raw as he spoke, “Where am I?” A meek attempt at conversation, voice trembling with pain of being used. Then the fear settled in- he had been searching for his lover in the forest, shuffling in the snow like a lost lamb divided from its pack trying to find his way back home before seeing the face of cold beauty with hungry smile in front of his face.

But as the woman turned to face him, his heart stopped, caramel eyes going wide as he took in his lover’s face, the pregnant belly nowhere in sight and only a soft, graceful, and regal smile on her small face. “You’re home, honey…” Her velvety voice purred, settling the dishes onto the table between himself and the kitchen, the stoves nearby bubbling over.

Though her face was so familiar, so missed, and the relief that flooded him was real as well, there was nothing of his lover, his wife, in that cold face of the woman in front of him. He shook his head and caught a glimpse of his surroundings in the process. He was not home. It was a wooden hut, simple and small, crammed with little toys carved out of wood, stuffed with dried garlic and flowers, herbs, skins of animals. It was not his home. “Where am I?” he asked again, his voice now a little stronger, fire burning in his eyes.

The woman only sent him a sheepish smile, pouring soup into the dishes she had laid out on the table between them. “You’re home, honey…” she had repeated, her eyes surprisingly calm at his silent accusation. Yet he knew deep down, it was not his home, not his wife, and not his village at all. He was far, far away, possibly already dead and seeing things. He didn’t know what else to believe as he stood from the bed and swayed towards the table.

The warm food looked inviting as he sat down, breathing in the smell of fresh mushroom and meat, seeing the cut potatoes floating in the soup. He stuffed himself full, asking for seconds and then thirds, casting a wary glance in the direction of the stranger bearing the face of his lover, his wife.

His hunting knives that he took with himself to the searching party were stripped from him when he had slept, he concluded after. His knife being gone from view entirely made him feel exposed and vulnerable.The small hut had no crows and no black cats, meaning the woman was no witch, he had hoped. He needed not any knife- he was safe. He tried to reassure himself, but failed to do so.

Days passed and the winter outside the hut had not seemed to relent in its blizzard. The snow was falling endlessly and the dark clouds were getting darker and darker, making Moon Bin believe that there was not only eternal winter in the forest, but also eternal night. It was that same winter that did not give him any opportunity to leave the strange, warm, and lovely smelling hut. He continued asking, day in and day out, where he was, and the answer was always the same “You’re home, honey…” in that velvety voice of his wife.

It wasn’t long before Moon Bin lost count of days, lost all grip on time. He ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner plentifully, getting back his strength that he had lost during the months of the blight in the Witch’s Hut, his real home. Sometimes, he wondered whether there were still villagers in the valley or not, picked away one by one by the witch in the forest. He shuddered to think that the witch who ate children and adults alike was the one whom he was living with, the one who bore the face of his wife.

More time passed and Moon Bin was allowed to all the little rooms of the hut in return of his own service, cleaning the steps and paths of the clearing towards the forest from the flooded snow. As he wandered around that clearing, he understood just how the woman managed to get all of that food into her small house- traps stood all around the trees, some with prey already caught, some only waiting to be stepped into. At the sight of such mundane thing, his nerves eased, yet he still questioned why he saw his wife every time he looked at the woman.

He dared not ask the woman for her name, for he knew she would answer with his wife’s. It seemed like the woman took him as a joke, nothing more and nothing less, and though it annoyed him to no end, to not get a proper answer and be mislead all the time, he dared question nothing although he was curious as to why the woman let him stay there at the first place.

He feared of being kicked out into the cold winter forest, left with no knives and no food- left to starve and became the food of the animals living in the deadly forest. So he lived, like a quiet bug listening to the woman’s singing and being fed by her delicacies. It was on such a day when he gave her his service, cleaning the steps that he heard the jingle of bells from somewhere within the forest and for once the humming and singing stopped, only the smell of sweets remained in the air and around him, reeling him back inside with hurried steps, shutting the hut’s door.

The woman barely motioned her hand towards the table, meaning for Moon Bin to settle down and keep quiet as he was trained to behave anytime the woman had visitors- which was an unusual sight. It was rare moments that a man dared approach the hut in the winter forest, but every time it had been a magnificent sight. Sleighs of red wood and oak, the material so sublime it was a miracle to even catch a sight of such a thing. They were pulled by deers, wolves, or dogs, some even by snowy white mare. The people riding were incredibly rich and full of show off, with rubies on their fingers, emeralds binding their clothes, trading wealth for information and favours. It was in time like this that Moon Bin realized that the woman allowing him to stay in her hut had indeed been a witch.

What was more queer was that the men never called her a witch, but all the different names of women he never knew, never heard of- all queens and princesses of kingdoms far beyond his valley. They called her delicate little house the `Witch’s Hut`- the same name as his valley was called, and a shiver raked down Moon Bin’s back every time he thought of the witch’s age- how old and wise must the woman be, to be sought after by kings, lords and princes.

As he sat in front of the table, munching on his breakfast, he spoke to the witch again, this time with no fear and only curiosity. “Where am I?” his voice had become stronger through the days, though talking had been awkward since there was so little conversation going on between the two of them.

She kept quiet, her back turned to him as she tended to the boiling kettles and smoked meats. As her shoulders twitched, Moon Bin braced himself for the usual answer, yet he got none of that as she spoke, no more velvet in her voice, “You’re in the Witch’s Hut, honey…”

His head fell to the side, hand unwillingly abandoning the bun in his grasp as he leaned onto his forearms. “And what is that?”

“My home, a hut of miracles and curses, a place to avoid and a place for mortals to not step a foot in.” Her voice was calm, no longer his wife’s lovely velvety voice, but an old crone's drawl, meant to terrify children and scare them into oblivion. A chill snaked down his spine as he realized the meaning of the witch’s words.

“But then---“

“One can ever only leave if granted access. You can go, if you want. Go and never return, but where will you go if your village is no more, your wife and still-born long buried in the snow and you’re all alone in the whole wide world?” Her voice turned stone cold and instead of fear, pain struck his heart.

The old crone was right, he had no one anymore. All alone left in his grief and blind wandering. He was a fool for stepping into the winter forest, and yet it was one of the two possible ways he had to die. Either die of hunger from the blight that had struck his village, or die after living a pointless life in the real Witch’s Hut. It was his world now, the witch and her hut, cleaning the steps and paths of the clearing, observing her work from afar and keeping quiet- like a dog, he realized with a shiver- like the dog he was promised to be by the oldest crone in his village, years and years ago.

Nightmares began to plague Moon Bin’s sleep, so vivid and real he had decided against sleeping altogether. He spent his nights perched on the window sill, staring into the dark of the winter and the raging blizzard that never seemed to get old. Watching the yellow eyed wolves as they prowled just outside the closed door of the Witch’s Hut. Always so close yet so far, so human yet so wild.

The energy that he had managed to get back from the good food had begun to plummet again. The breakfast’s sweets, lunch’s soups and meats, and dinner’s snacks were no longer welcomed as there was a knot of fear in his stomach. Fear of what, he could not place- maybe it was the hunger in his wife’s eyes, maybe it was the fear of abandoning all that was left and giving up to the seemingly empty threats of the old crones back in his village. He could not place himself on only one kind of fear, being surrounded by a lot.

Anxious, sleepless, and restless, Moon Bin had begun spending longer times out in the woods all over again, yet the scent of sweets never left his nose, the soft humming ringing in his head as he saw her cooking over the pots and kettles, ovens full to the brim with cooking meat. They never left him. She was the witch that the old seers had talked about. She was the reason for the blight. She was the one who marked his father, his mother, and then his wife and child. She was the demise and fall of their village, as much as she was the beginning of the summer valley.

He despised her, feared her, and worshipped her all along. Worshipped her for his fear of being eaten, of being fed to the wolves outside her hut.

He returned each evening to the same phrase out of her plump lips as a greeting, “Welcome home, honey.” He gritted his teeth in defiance- he was not home, he never would get back home, there was no home anymore- yet he nodded in solemnity and simply strode towards the bed, abandoning the dinner and pretending to sleep, listening to her soft voice carrying him to a land far away.

Yet days passed, his legs not carrying him farther away than a border of trees around the plains, where wolves howled what almost sounded like a pleadingly painful promise. But he prowled on, returning to the Witch’s Hut each day, shivering at the hungry glances of the witch and praying for his end to be a painless one. What was the point of running, he had asked himself, when there was nowhere left to run? So he had hoped to die at her hand, eaten as he had once been promised, and all that would be left of him would be his bones on which the witch would sit on. So be it. It was his final moments of strength and he was contented with them.

So it went, on the night of his nightmares, he stirred awake, yet his body could not move. Pinned by shackles of silver shimmering against the moonlight, Moon Bin cried and pleaded to all known gods to be spared, yet the witch only grinned, her hunger evident not only in her eyes but her face, her posture. It was the first time he resented his wife with everything he had, there was love no more and all he could think was to pierce one of his long lost hunting knives through the witch’s heart.

But she bit into his cheek, ripping flesh from bone as was once promised, and he felt no pain, only crumbles of bread falling along his skin and down to his neck. She bit into his fingers and he screamed in terror as she ate him as if he was made of sweets himself, the familiar scent wrapping around him like a candy, the bread of his fingers became crumbles on her plump lips and face. “What have you done to me?!” Moon Bin had screamed, thrashing around the chains, crying in terror and grief, not understanding a thing that was happening.

The witch only cackled, the face of his wife scrunching into a terrifying grimace. “One does not enter a witch’s hut without getting cursed, foolish boy. One does not eat from a witch’s table without becoming food himself.”

She had cursed him, made him food, and now she ate him. There will be nothing there left to remember, no bones, no clothes, not even a strand of hair as she would consume him whole.

And so she bit into him, one by one, tearing each finger off with a delightful hum of pleasure, and he cried silently, watching out the window as the wolves howled, greeting a little pup surrounded by furs of a coat studded with emeralds, so like the coat of the king who had visited the witch only weeks ago. Nobody stepped into the Witch’s Hut and got out of there without an access to do so- no kings, princes, and lords had ever stepped out under her command to leave. They were all fools for believing otherwise- all cursed to wander the forests.

With a terrified pang, Moon Bin realized that the howlings of those wolves outside the ring of trees and forests had indeed been pleadings, begging him to leave and save himself, and a promise- a promise that no good will come out if the boy stayed in that cursed hut of hers.

Yet he was a fool and stayed all on his own accord. Listening to his own selfish wishes, and staying by his wife’s side, getting fed by the animals of the forest, wolves of the forest- he screamed right where he was, but all that came out was a wheeze. Without a sense to realize what was happening and what was being fed to him, Moon Bin had thankfully ate the wolf meat that was presented to him, the cursed meat of humans turned into animals. Moon Bin was no longer surprised at being cursed- he deserved to be cursed.

And still the witch paid no mind to the crying and retching boy made out of sweets. She bit into him, leaving nothing but white bones behind, leaving his eyes behind- the soft caramel now looking molten from the heat of fire in the oven.

As much as she ate, the witch seemed to never lose appetite, and by the time there was nothing but bone and eyes left of Moon Bin, she relented. With her stomach full and a grin on her face of cold beauty, no longer his wife’s but somekind of vile character from a tale of monsters, she had fed his bones to the fires in the oven, making them burn bright and scalding. She put the seeing eyes into a jar of water and set it on a mantle above the ovens, letting him see but not speak- not argue against the wishes of a witch.

He was a manipulated fool, for stepping into the forest for the first time, then the second, and a third, for getting himself lost as he searched for his wife, and most importantly he was a fool for believing that the village where he was from had been long gone, because as his eyes had been left to see, he saw his best friend, the one he had lost to in the annual fest all those long years ago. He was being dragged into the hut by a wolf of grey fur, placed on the same fluffy bed where Moon Bin himself once lied, and lived through the same fate. It happened over and over again, everytime with a new familiar face.

Yet he could do nothing against the witch, only listen to her beautiful humming of a wretched song, her face taking on the face of the woman the men loved, each different and each beautiful, each a lie and a curse.

Moon Bin could only curse himself for his stupidity.

And yet to this day, rumours of a cursed man with skin as pale as snow, locks as soft as the finest silk, and eyes of the purest caramel had been the tales to scare children. It became bedtime stories for most and a joke between adults for others.

The tale of the all-seeing eyes being placed atop the mantle of the ovens was so powerful it became a whole new peasant superstition, albeit a working one - told to bring luck into one’s house.

Around some more clustered villages, on the borders of forests surrounded by eternal winters, people could only whisper of such superstitions as some swore they could still hear the cries of a man who lost everything he loved and was devoured by the witch of winter. The cries of pain and terror, of realization and shame. No one dared step foot into such forest in fear of being devoured by the gluttonous witch in her little Witch’s Hut.

And yet kids continued to go missing, adults after them. What was left of the lost were the scent of sweets flowing around the house and a lingering woman's voice singing a tale of the fallen ones, of a throne of bones atop which she sat.

#astro #astro scenarios #astro ficition #astro moonbin #moonbin #dark #fantasy #horror

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hikingdreams · 8 years ago

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#reflection #water #backpacking #getoutside #lake #mountain #camping #outdoors #hiking #trekking #backpacker #forest #trees #hike #trail #wilderness #trailrunning #bushcraft #woods #tree #wood #woodland #rocky #jinjin #moonbin #sanha #eunwoo #아스트로 #chaeunwoo #aroha http://ift.tt/2vPOOyn

#IFTTT #Instagram

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astrofireworks · 7 years ago

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5 and 7 please!

ayeee thank you!! :”) i have to clarify that my native language is actually english lol but my mother tongue is chinese so !!

5. favourite song in your native language?

as far as chinese songs go i really really adore 六色彩虹 (rainbow) by 欧得洋 wow now looking at the lyrics again binu au!!!!!! but when it comes down to singaporean versions of songs i love micappella’s mashup of 那些年 and 小幸运!! 《那些年的小幸运》 :’)

7. three words from your native language that you like the most?

askjdfhas okay your local linguistics major is here the coolest thing about chinese is that the characters are 1) basically logograms and their original forms were meant to be pictures of what they represented and 2) you can combine all sorts of different components to give you either a meaning that is a sum of all those components or a meaning that makes like 0 sense

霖 (the second half of my name!!) pronounced lín :’) it means “a lot of rain” sjdkhf but the cool thing is that there’s 雨 (rain) on the top (the little dots look like raindrops!!) and 林 (forest) at the bottom (they sort of look like trees!!) so it looks like it’s raining over a forest and y’all know i love trees so

incidentally, the second half of moonbin’s name is 彬, which is also kinda looks like some trees with rain so ayo

家, jiā, which means “home”!!! if you look closely at the inside portion it looks like a big river that has little streams branching out from it and i guess ?? that’s sort of what home is, no matter how far you go from home you can always find your way back by working upstream :’) also someone told me when i was really young that the 宀 on top of 家 is sort of a protective cap that you put over what you love (which is why it’s present in words like 宝宝, “baby”) and idk i find that hella cute

优, yōu, which means “excellent”!!! it comes from the traditional word 優, and if you look closely at its components it has:

a 亻, which is a squished version of 人 (person)

something that vaguely looks like 直 zhí (direct, honest, fair)

something else that vaguely looks like the bottom half of 爱 aì (love)

that when combined, gives the side 憂 which actually means sadness and grief (honest love = sadness??? something to think about)

but when combined with the 亻(the people aspect) the meaning changes from sadness to goodness and ??????

like wow the implication humans ?? have the capacity to turn something melancholic and full of grief into something beautiful and kind i ?? ????????? love language thank u

also the word 優 also happens to have the meanings “actor”, “kind”, “gentle”, which is nice since this is the second half of eunwoo’s name lmao

ask me “hi, I’m not from the US” questions!

#dhkafjdf i talked about 家 in my college entrance essay wheezes #also ahhhh thank you!!!!!!!!!#:')#aoi-herondale #vivi answers stuff

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jinwoostro-archive · 7 years ago

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The Lost Prince - 4

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Aka the Binu Prince au that no one asked for

The two had been travelling for what felt like an eternity.

Two moons had passed since he left the palace and the journey had somehow become harder.

Having never left the palace for more than a day in his lifetime, this entire shift made him constantly uneasy. He was a creature of habit and nothing about this fit in with his system.

The food he had packed was running scarce. He should’ve realised that the course would’ve last for a few days at all but the rolls of bread he had left was diminishing. This was one of those times where he cursed his past self, if only he brought his bow and arrow he could have hunted for food.

The Prince’s stomach growled. He slammed a hand to it and blushed fiercely. Once realising he blushed in the presence of no one…he blushed even more.

‘Really,’ he thought ‘Of all the undignified things I could’ve been cursed with.” As a child and a young teen his face was constantly stained pink, from eye contact with beautiful men and women to small slip ups. He’d flush and duck his head, a smile or frown fixated on his face.

He shook his head and hit his cheeks repeatedly, right now the priority was finding food for both himself and Bobo.

He dismounted the horse and patted Bobo’s neck, he always told him that he’d done a good job after a ride but now only a smile would suffice.

The darkness was rapidly sweeping through the grassy hills and the young Prince had 2 options. Either set up camp to protect himself and Bobo from the dangers of the night or to satisfy his hungers.

Deciding that setting up camp would be the best option he unclasped his cloak and laid on the back of his horse.

As he laid the cloak down he could hear something in the distance. It was a voice.

His movements became more slow, he unsheathed his sword from the and walked towards the voice, knees bent and in a ready fighting stance. As he got closer to the voice it seemed to be less like someone talking and more like someone...singing?

The singing voice sent his heart panging. It was a bittersweet feeling, hearing someone sing beautifully when he couldn’t do it.

He lowered his voice as he got closer to it. He could now see a silhouette of a man, from what he could make out the man was around the same height as him and had a very good build.

‘He’d be able to put up a fight then.’ He thought ’But how likely is it that he’ll show aggression?”

Thinking that it wouldn’t do any harm to introduce himself he reached out his free hand to tap the man on the shoulder and the last thing he remembered was a sharp pain on the side of his head and then nothing.

‘Get up slowly, no sudden movements.’ Was the first thing the Prince heard when he came to

A smiling handsome face was looking down at him. It was a smile that seemed pure and without lies, a smile that Eunwoo wanted to smile back at.

That was until he remembered what happened and sat up abruptly, colliding their heads together.

Both sprang away from each other, both clutching their heads, only one screaming in pain.

“You! You idiot!” He hissed through clenched teeth “I told you to no sudden movements. And what did you do? You decided to catapult your head against mine. Brilliant move.”

It seemed that his pain was forgotten and instead sarcasm took its place.

But the Prince had his hands clasped together around the back of his neck and his elbows pressed tightly against the sides of his head. He was on his knees and his back was hunched over.

The man stopped chastising him once he heard the heavy breathing coming from the hunched figure.

“Hey, um, you okay there?” He reached out a hand and rubbed the strangers back. From the little he had learned from people he saw in the streets, they usually comforted each other with close physical affection. But he didn’t think the man would appreciate a kiss to the forehead or a violent hug. He looked too delicate for it.

Instead, he put his hands just under the Prince’s elbows and lifted him up so that they were face to face.

The man’s teeth were grinded together and eyebrows knitted, it was clear he was in pain, an immense amount.

But as soon as he saw his face the pain disappeared and anger replaced his it.

Eunwoo pushed against the man with as much strength as he could, sending them both sprawling to ground.

“What is your problem?” The man huffed lifting himself up and scowling down at Eunwoo who was supporting himself up on his elbows.

“All I’ve done is try to help you and you haven’t once said ‘thank you’ or even showed you’re grateful in some way.”

Eunwoo’s angry look slowly dissipated and turned into a more confused look.

‘Who was this man? It seems as though he has no care for manners of address.’ He wasn’t used to being scolded by someone who looked the same age as him and he didn’t think he liked it.

“Even the people in the southern towns have more manners than you. The southern towns!” The man continued.

Considering the Prince had never ventured as far as the forests surrounding their palace he had no knowledge of their manners, or lack of it.

The man stood there breathing heavily while pointing a hand towards the south and staring accusatively down at Eunwoo.

It might have been a few seconds, or it might have lasted a minute. But the awkwardness and tension in the air made it feel more drawn out.

The prince let his stubbornness take over, maintaining his glare and refusing to back down. It seemed the stranger had the same streak of obstinacy because he mimicked the angry stare.

Eventually though, the man grew tired. He rubbed a hand over his face and reached out a hand to the prince.

“I’m Moonbin.” The prince made no move to respond. Moonbin sighed and tensed his arm.

“I’m. Moonbin.” He repeated, pausing between each word.

At the lack of response, he closed his palm into a fist.

“Usually, it’s considered polite manners to respond a greeting.” He squatted down so him and the prince were at eye level.

“I don’t know who you are,” he whispered. He lifted a hand and gestured at the Prince’s clothes, a slight sneer gracing his face. “But I have no care for nobles. You’re far from where you belong, and out here everyone is the same. Rank doesn’t exist. So I would suggest you to swallow your pride and talk to the commoners you deem unworthy of your time.”

He stood up, never once blinking. His face was impassive yet there was an energy buzzing around him. Like he couldn’t believe he finally did it, stood up to a bully, stood up to someone that had caused so much of his suffering.

“We may not have all your money, or all the advantageous that you have. But it doesn’t mean you’re better than us. Out here you’re like us, dirt. Common.”

The prince also stood up, drawing himself to his full height and puffing his chest. While he hated pulling out his royal status, there was little he hated besides being belittled. He opened his mouth and…silence. No words came out. No matter how much he tried to force the words out nothing came. The more he tried to force the words out the more it hurt. His already torn throat felt like it was on fire. Tears pricked at the corners of his eyes and every rational thought was telling him to stop, telling him it was doing more harm than good. But he had to. He had to speak. He couldn’t not speak.

He fell to the ground, shaking arms being the only thing supporting him. Slowly, one by one, tears fell from his unblinking eyes, landing perfectly on the dry ground. Perfect, that’s all he was known as, right?

Perfect face, perfect student, perfect prince, the epitome of perfection.

Not anymore though.

He flinched from the sudden touch. The stranger, Moonbin, had touched his arm.

“um, are you okay?” All the fire that had captured his being had been doused out and replaced with concern.

It wasn’t Moonbin’s fault, he had no connection to the witch, Eunwoo knew that, but he couldn’t help but vent his frustrations on the man.

He grabbed the hand on his arm and threw it away with as much force as he could.

Trying to turn away was unsuccessful as Moonbins hand returned to his arm and had gripped it tight.

“Why won’t you talk to me?” he said calmly.

Somehow the calm was scarier than him raising his voice. Eunwoo shook his head.

Moonbin gripped tighter and raised his voice slightly.

“Why won’t you talk to me?”

Again, Eunwoo shook his head. This time squeezing his eyes shut.

Moonbin gripped his other arm and shook him once, now seething.

“Why won’t you talk?”

Eunwoo opened his mouth and shook his head slightly.

He flitted his eyes between each of Moonbin’s eyes, as if trying to explain everything just through them.

He must have understood something because the grip on his arms relaxed slightly, and the hostile look waned.

Eunwoo freed one arm and hovered his hand over his throat, using his other hand to point at it.

Thankfully, it seemed Moonbin wasn’t dim-witted for he realised that the reason the prince didn’t say anything was not because he didn’t want to. But it was because he couldn’t.

Moonbin hit the back of his neck with his palm, letting out an awkward laugh.

“Ah, I really didn’t know. Um, hopefully? Maybe? We can put this behind us?”

Eunwoo crossed his arms, raising his brows.

“Ah what am I saying… Um, I apologise for how I acted, even though you were acting jerk.”

Eunwoo bristled, even when apologising this man trod on every one of his nerves.

He was impossible.

“Wrong thing to say?” He gave an awkward smile, face flushed pink. “How about we start over?”

Despite the way he managed to irritate him, Eunwoo strangely found his clumsy personality endearing.

Moonbin gave a smile, his features softening instantly. He stuck out a hand, and said, almost too cheerfully

“Good day, I’m Moonbin. And who might who be?”

Eunwoo couldn’t seem to stop his lips curving into a smile. He reached out and gripped Moonbin’s hand.

He mouthed ‘Eunwoo’. Even still, at the back of his head, the fact that he wouldn’t be able to speak still lingered.

“Woo-woo?” Moonbin asked, head tilted questioningly.

The prince’s mouth widened into a silent laugh and his eyes formed crescent shapes. Between laughs he managed to mouth out his name again. This time mouthing each syllable carefully and slowly.

“Ah, Eunwoo?”

He gave a joyful nod at Moonbin finally getting his name right.

“Pretty name.” Moonbin said gleefully.

That was the catalyst for Eunwoo’s reaction.

It was unexpected to say the least, someone (especially a handsome stranger) complimenting you.

So for him to start choking on air was a reasonable reaction.

“Your face is red.” Moonbin cooed. “So are your ears! Wow you’re really red. Are you feeling okay?”

He was teasing him. Alarm bells were ringing in his head. He had to do something, he had to escape otherwise he’d make a fool of himself.

Eunwoo did the only thing that he thought appropriate of someone of his royal status.

He placed his hands together, mimed going to sleep and walked towards where Bobo was resting and laid on the ground.

Pretending to sleep? That was a form of tactical retreat. Wasn’t it?

He laid there tensely for a few minutes and waited until he heard Moonbin moving to relax.

“You’re pretty cute when you blush.” He heard over the sounds of the fire crackling.

#astro #astro fanfic #eunwoo #moonbin #binu #lee dongmin #a thing i did #the lost prince #i am...so sorry for how long this took me #but hey at least we have an update right??#so i made it extra long to make up for it #hehe

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