Gone To Hell | Seventeen

X.

This morning, I wasn't the last awake. I was second to last, of course, but that was only because I heard Hoshi waking up Jeonghan and got up before Jeonghan did.

Breakfast was over. Run Squad was packing up for the first trip in a couple days. Today was October 2nd, 9 days in.

I watched from my seat at the fire as Run Squad told Vernon their plans. They were heading in a different direction, going past the farm, rather than in the direction of Seoul, where we came from. They were exploring uncharted territory, which was a little worrying, but I decided to keep it off my mind because this group had already fought through some shit.

Those who were leaving got in the truck, one of two vehicles we had here. DK started the engine, but turned it off right after as Chan approached him. Instead of  straining to listen to the situation, I got up and came closer to it.

"I wanna go on the run today." Chan proposed. "I wanna get out more."

DK looked past the young man to me, then Vernon. I shrugged, unable to see what would be so bad if we switched out someone with Chan for a run.

"Alright, someone has to stay home." Vernon declared, leaving the truck passengers to go silent in a debate of who was getting left behind.

As they chose, Chan turned and walked back to somewhere, more specifically someone. At first, we were all puzzled, watching in anticipation, but my heart skipped a beat as he wrapped his arms tightly around Soyeon, planting his lips on her right cheek.

I briefly heard Soyeon mumble, "Be careful." Chan nodded, letting go and smiling reassuringly.

By the time our attention averted back to the truck, one of six passengers had exited the vehicle and stood next to it, signaling Chan to get in so they could leave. I was surprised to see that Hoshi had been the one to give in out of all people.

The truck was started again, this time heading a different direction than any of us were used to. But we all went back to normal, since today was no different than any other.

Vernon caught our attention, "Anyone wanna do another expedition on the horses?"

Seungkwan violently shook his head like he had after getting off of Lo Lo the first time we rode the horses. I thought back to that, and remembered Hoshi and I had gotten along very briefly that day. A smile grew on my face, but I forced it off as I realized why I was smiling.

"Anyone who wants to join, feel free. Follow us obvious experts to the Barn of Mystery!"

"How mysterious could the barn be? There's hay and horses, that's it."

As we walked to the 'Barn of Mystery', I noted that a good few of us stayed behind. The only members who decided to ride were Soyeon, Chaeji, Hoshi, Vernon, Jun, and myself.

Once we arrived at the horses, we began noticing that one of us would have to double up again. It resulted in an argument of who would have to ride with who, and Soyeon ruled herself out by stating that she wanted to learn, and that she couldn't learn if she wasn’t controlling the horse on her own. Jun didn’t want to touch people, Vernon was a loser and no one wanted to ride with him, and Chaeji declared that she didn’t give a shit what happened. In the end, Hoshi and I made the ultimate sacrifice of riding together, like we had the one day we got along momentarily.

Of course, Chaeji was on her favorite, Motor. Hoshi and I were on Emitt, Vernon took his precious Lo Lo, Jun took Whinnet, and Soyeon was on Halla. Vernon individually showed Soyeon what to do, while the rest of us began deciding which direction to go in. We ended up taking a path through the woods, and by taking a path, I mean we created our own and swerved through a maze of trees.