Bridging Destinies

Chapter 39: A Reverse of Seclusion

With the morning, the sounds of birds joyfully singing woke Namjoon, and he rolled over with a light groan, gathering me into his arms as he did so. I had been long awake, having moved out of the meditative state I was in several hours earlier. Our bodies had remained in contact with each other, while our positions had moved in the night, separate, yet still touching. As he wrapped himself around me, his legs entwined with mine and his arms half tightened, as if I was his favorite stuffed toy. He hummed into my hair and moved his mouth to softly kiss my temple, "Good morning." He told me hoarsely, his voice rough with lack of use over the night.

I smiled and brought my face up to his, offering myself up to him and returned his greeting, "Good morning, too, Joonah. I think you slept well, yes?"

He gazed into my eyes and smiled softly, affection clearly shining from his dark orbs, "I did. Very well. You?" He asked, then blushed faintly, laughing quietly at his own question, "I mean, I know you don't sleep, but did you rest well?"

I moved closer to him and kissed him softly, my lips lingering on his, "I may have slept a little, but yes, I did rest well."

"Good." He said, distracted by my lips. He returned the kiss and we lingered there for a while, exploring each others' mouths and lightly running our hands over each others' bodies, our legs still entwined. After a time, we broke apart and I left a small peck on his lips, "I should make breakfast, so that we may break up camp and return to the lodgings." I suggested.

He listened to my words, considering them, but a teasing light moved into his eyes and he kissed me lightly, glancing his tongue against my lips, "Or we could wait a little more and do all of that later." He suggested as he teased my mouth open, "I don't think anyone will send a search party for us if we get back just a few hours later."

I smiled at his words and moved closer to him, as my hand moved up from his waist, to trail my fingers over his spine and along his shoulder blades. He shivered at the light touch as his eyes grew more heated. I smiled into his eyes, appreciating the man near me, I stated, "I think we could arrange our morning around your idea, Jagiya. I'm sure you may be right."

~~~

As the morning grew beyond the sunrise into its mid-ascent, reaching towards the afternoon, Namjoon and I exited the tent. I began to prepare brunch, breakfast having escaped us, and he worked at removing the contents of the tent and breaking it down. In time, brunch was done, eaten and our campsite was gone, with both of us working to pack the camping items into our rucksacks.

We hiked back to the lodgings we left from and arrived later, close to evening. When we arrived the manager met us in the driveway, having seen us from the porch of the lodgings as he was talking on his phone. He hung up abruptly and approached us hurriedly, with a relieved air. He exclaimed to Namjoon, "Yah! You are late, Kim Namjoon! I was about to call a search party!"

At his words, I looked at Namjoon and Namjoon looked back at me and in unison we both smiled widely, holding back a laugh. He set his pack down, and bowed to the manager, "I am sorry. We were delayed." He explained.

The manager brought his palm to his forehead and closed his eyes, "I'm just glad I didn't have to call Sejin. I don't like having my ass handed to me." He told Namjoon as his hand dropped, and he reached to help Namjoon with the pack he was lugging back onto his shoulder.

I spoke smoothly to the manager, sending a little push of Light to assist my words to convince him, "Well, we are safe and back. Did you have a good rest?" I asked, following up my previous persuasion with an implied concern for his health.

"Uh, yeah. We are all good here." He answered, seemingly distracted as he struggled with Namjoon's pack.

I grinned again as I watched Namjoon try to help the manager with the pack, while the manager fought both to carry the pack, but keep Namjoon from helping him. I knew that the manager wanted to prove himself, but a rucksack was easiest to carry if on the back, not dragged along the pathway, with little hops between as they half fought over who would carry it. I laughed quietly to myself as I watched, walking behind them. Namjoon's bodyguard came out and picked up the rucksack, putting it on his back, robbing both of them of their need to help the other and walked into our accommodations. It didn't bother me that none of them offered to help me, but was pleasantly surprised when Namjoon came back towards me, offering to take my pack. I laughed, deeply amused, and shook my head, "I don't need the help, but thank you for the show." I tilted my head briefly, my chin pointing in the general direction of the manager as he disappeared into the house after the bodyguard.

Namjoon laughed, embarrassed and rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah. I guess that probably did look funny." He agreed. He walked with me inside the building. I sat my pack next to his, where the bodyguard had left his pack and began to unpack my own, preparing to clean the contents, along with the packs, as most of the items inside had been rentals that we would take back with us to Seoul. Following my example, Namjoon also began to unpack his rucksack.

We set ourselves to the task and within the hour were finishing up when the manager came in, his phone in hand. He leaned over and whispered to Namjoon, while Namjoon tried to keep him from talking, "Hey, manager-nim. Not here." I pretended that I could not hear them, as I packed the rest of the items from the rucksack into a box that would be shipped separately from our other bags that would stay with us while we remained on Jeju Island.

"Okay. Well, I just wanted to let you know." The manager said and walked away mumbling to himself, "It's not like I was loud." I started to laugh as the manager walked away and glanced at Namjoon from the corner of my eye.

Namjoon looked back at me, noticing my glance and shook his head, "I'm sorry about that. I wanted it to be a surprise."

Looking at him, I turned to face him, fully, shaking my head, "It's okay, Joonah. I am sure it will still be a pleasant experience."

He seemed to pout for a moment, then ground out, "I wanted to do something romantic with you. I don't know, it's human of me, but I wanted to take you out on a date."

"So you rented a restaurant for the night and your manager arranged it all, but now I know, so it's no longer a surprise." I refrained from laughter and moved to wrap my arms around his shoulders, lacing my fingers together at the back of his neck, "But we will dress up, go out, and we will still enjoy ourselves." I told him.

Namjoon wrapped his arms around my waist, smiling at me with a nod, "Okay. I'd ask you to pretend to be surprised, but I would know better." He said, teasing me faintly, his subtle sarcasm playing in my ears, "That manager... " His words trailed off, and I laughed, kissing him quickly, both because I thought he was adorable and to distract him a little from the mood he was close to falling into.

Returning my kiss, the distraction appeared to work as Namjoon continued to kiss me, his words falling softly on my lips between kisses, "And now, how about a shower? I could use one and since I'm taking you out, we should probably get cleaned up." He kissed me again, his lips softly touching mine, "Care to join me?" He asked. I nodded, enjoying the taste of his lips and then, in tandem, we moved, our bodies breaking apart to link our hands together, as I followed him towards the bathroom where we would spend a good solid hour in each other's company.