ᴛʜᴀᴛ ꜰᴇᴇʟɪɴɢ ᴡʜᴇɴ [ᴇɴ- ᴘᴏʟʏ]

Chapter 98

The day was cut short after that. When we reached the nearest resort, the first thing they did was bring me to the in-house doctor despite my repeated denial. And since I was on Niki's back, I didn't have much of an option.

And I did feel bad for the doctor though. I knew he was sweating because of the seven pairs of eyes following every move of his. He was more than happy to declare zero injuries just to get out of the situation.

"You scared him." I said to no one in particular.

"He was being too touchy." Jake grumbled.

"He was checking for injuries." I shot back.

"Still." He said.

"And he hurt you." Jungwon said.

"No Jungwon, he didn't." I said in exasperation. "He was bandaging my arms."

"I didn't like his tone." Jay muttered.

"Not you too, Jay. He was really sweet until you threatened him to do his job properly. Because I winced at the antiseptic?"

The little sleep I had with Niki cleared my head a bit. I wanted to treat this as a nightmare and forget about it all. And most of them were willing to indulge in my wish at least outwardly. Most of them. Jay and Heeseung were visibly in a bad mood. And it continued for quite a while.

But for me, the problem at the moment was that Sunghoon and Niki refused to let me walk.

"Why would you walk right now? You're injured." Sunghoon said.

"Yeah. Either I can give you a piggyback again or sunghoon hyung can carry you. Why would you want to strain your legs?" Niki argued.

"You two, I can walk. I'm fine. And shouldn't you be happy that I am?" I asked them.

"Oh, we are happy that you're fine. But still...you know..." Niki trailed off.

"Precaution." Sunghoon finished.

It took a lot of time to persuade them, but at the end, it worked. And on top of that it felt like I had two knights guarding me. Both of them stood so close on either side of me that I had to ask Jay and Jake for help.

We had a quick lunch before the bus arrived and Jay ushered me inside.   We settled in our places like earlier. Me, Jay, Jake, and Jungwon in the back. Sunoo and Sunghoon in front of us and Niki to their opposite.

The only difference was that Heeseung sat back with us this time. He took the empty seat beside Niki. He mostly kept to himself. But he kept looking back at me every once in a while. When we made eye contact, our gazes lingered.

I wished we could be alone for a while. I didn't know what I wanted to do but this distance felt too stifling. I think the tension between us was palpable.

"Give me your phone." Jake asked.

I handed it to him with a question in my eyes.

"This morning you avoided Hindi songs. So now..."

He gave me a naughty smile and opened my music player.

"...we'll pick up where we left off."

Everyone cheered and gave their approval, much to my skepticism. What was he going to do now? I didn't have to wait long before he connected my phone to our speakers.

"We'll pick random songs and you'll tell us their meanings."

I grimaced. Shit. I could only hope they would pick something nice. Even if they don't, I can say anything right?