Dreams of Arcadia

53

"Hyunjin... Is it really you?" I asked, sniffling, feeling his smeared face with my fingers and swallowing the thick lump that had formed in my throat.

"Yes baby... It's me..." he whispered back and for the first time, I felt his lips on mine. We had only just become a couple, half an hour before I died, hadn't even had our first kiss, when we were torn apart by misfortune. I was actually glad that he had survived, but I had missed him terribly. Far too much for the fact that we weren't supposed to miss anyone who had stayed on the other side.

"Have you been here all this time?" I asked him when he let go of me.

"I've only just arrived here... I was badly injured, in a coma and today they turned off my life support." he explained.

"Told you I wasn't the only one." came from Sunmi.

"Ouch..." Hyunjin suddenly gasped after hearing a slapping sound.

"You Jerk... instead of greeting us properly, you're scaring us here... I almost peed my pants if I were still peeing." Jisung grumbled angrily, but then allowed himself to be pulled into Hyunjin's arms without resistance.

"Cry quietly, Han... why are you such a pussy too?" giggled Hyunjin, to which Jisung only snorted.

"So, what do we do, do we take a food break here, or do we keep digging through the pudding until we find an exit?" asked Sunmi, licking her hand again.

"Let's keep going." I said, because I finally had to get out of here, I felt sticky and uncomfortable, I just wanted to wash and change and then cuddle Hyunjin.

"Come on, let's make a chain and move on. Don't worry, you scaredy-cats, I'll go at the end." he said and stood up before taking my hand in his.

"Noona goes first," Sunmi announced, grabbing Jisung's hand before he held out his other hand to me, which I groped for in the darkness. Then we walked one after the other through the narrow pool, which was only as wide as the corridor before, and after a few turns, we finally came out in a kind of changing room. We heard giggling from the showers and I was relieved to recognize the voices of Wooyoung and Yeosang, which meant that Taehyung and Jungkook must also be here.

"Guys, I'm going to find another shower and I'll see you in a bit." Sunmi informed us, walking one door down, hoping to find the ladies' locker room. When I turned around, the other two were already undressing and when I saw Hyunjin with his shirt off, I immediately turned back and seriously considered whether I should join Noona in the other locker room.

"You don't have to be so shy, baby... Why don't you leave your underpants on?" my boyfriend giggled and I took a deep breath. It wasn't that I was really shy, I always undressed in front of others without being shy, but I'd never been in a relationship before and was completely unsure of what was appropriate and what wasn't now. So I just took my clothes off completely like the other two and tried to keep my eyes just above the belt so I didn't embarrass myself with a boner.

"Woah... Guys... what do you look like?" Wooyoung shouted as we entered the collective shower, which was already billowing hot steam.

"We fight your way through the jelly." Jisung pouted before taking the shower gel from his hand and standing cheekily under the jet of water. The look Taehyung gave the younger boy was not exactly friendly. At first, Wooyoung just wanted to stand there, but Tae pulled him towards him.

"You're almost clean, don't get dirty on Han again..."