Man in the Moon • Jisoo

24

"Where to, miss?"

"To the stars,"

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"Okay Minghao, I love forests and the night, but I don't like it when those two are combined." Gaeul half-whispers as she tries to catch up with Minghao's pace, who was dragging her by the hand deeper through the tall trees to god knows where. Heavens, she couldn't believe Minghao actually snuck into the women's dorms just to force her to sneak out with him.

Minghao shushes her, "Try to be quiet, slowpoke. The guards might hear us." Gaeul wondered if there were actually guards who wanted to patrol deep in the forest. They had escaped through the royak garden and climbed over the fence into the forest. This was not thrilling at all. Gaeul baked about ten baskets of sourdough, and she wanted to question why Minghao still had the energy to even do this.

Barefoot, the earth beneath her toes felt slightly damp and gentle on the feet, leaves and twigs crackling as they walked. Gaeul wonders if Minghao was barefoot too, since it wasn't fair if she was the only one. 

For five minutes, they walked in complete silence, letting the sounds of nocturnals and crickets greet them as they got through. Soon the earth and leaves were no longer felt underneath her feet, replaced by a grassy surface. It was dark, but Minghao must've been to this place often to be skillfull enough to walk this far in the dark.

"Careful, it's a cliff." Minghao tells her, somehow managing to find a lantern behind the several rocks situated there. Gaeul raises her eyebrow, "I come here often, alright, don't question the lantern."

As Minghao tries to light the lantern with the matches he brought, Gaeul walked further to the edge of the cliff and craned her neck, discovering that it was the blue sea underneath. There was gigantic rocks not far away from them, some formed several caves.

"That's the Mermaid Cove," The light from Minghao's lantern seemed to light up the wide space, and Gaeul could properly see what was around them, "The mermaids live there. They're forbidden to go out at night, though. The pirates are out to capture them if they do."

Gaeul nods, holding her nightgown down to avoid the wind from blowing it.

"Oh come on," Minghao clicks his tongue, disapproving the fact that the wind had blown his light off. He sighs and lies down on the grass, limbs sprawled out as he stares up at the sky. Gaeul joins him, a few inches away.

"Welcome to my hideaway." Minghao announces proudly, Gaeul's gaze following his index finger which he pointed up towards the sky, "See that? That's the Andromeda constellation. You could see Pisces on the right, and there's also supposed to be-"

"Cassiopeoa and Phoemix, I know." Gaeul cuts him off, staring up at the constellations, "I learnt about them when I was in school."

"You're quite good." He turns to look at her.

"Knowledge is key," Minghao snorts.

"So you haven't answered my question," Minghao places his hands behind his head, and turns to continue staring at the sky, "why you came here."

"It's something ridiculous, though." Gaeul replies. Minghao would laugh at her. Anybody would laugh at her. If Hoshi thought that she was insane enough for doing this, what about other people?