HIKE

10 | honest ears

"Hyuckie! The girls team arrived." Jaemin nudged Donghyuck with his foot, who was taking another anxiety nap, only half inside the tent with his legs sticking out.

"Xiyeon got here?" Donghyuck's eyes snapped open. "Nana, help me up."

Jaemin grabbed Donghyuck's hands and started to pull him to his feet, his face straining with the effort.

"Hurry up!" Donghyuck whined.

"It's not my fault you're so heavy, you prick," Jaemin said between clenched teeth.

Donghyuck finally got to his feet and Jaemin dusted off his hands. "It's not fat, it's all muscle," Donghyuck insisted, unbothered.

"Sure, sure," Jaemin agreed, rolling his eyes. "Should we go see if they're okay?"

He nodded towards four girls who were finally making their way into the camp, looking hungry and exhausted. When he looked back to Donghyuck, the ginger boy was smiling at him knowingly.

"Stop doing that, it's creepy," Jaemin muttered, shoving Donghyuck's arm.

"C'mon, Jae," said Donghyuck, "You know I see everything."

"Okay, Sauron, calm down," Jaemin sighed. "Look, can we just go over there and talk about this later." His cheeks had adopted a slight pink tinge.

"Fine, fine," Donghyuck conceeded, still grinning at him. They started walking over to greet the girls, feeling sorry for them since everybody else had already arrived, set up their tents, showered and eaten. "So fucking whipped," Donghyuck added under his breath.

Jaemin dug him sharply in the ribs.

"Xiyeon!" Donghyuck waved and a dark-haired girl with glasses turned in their direction.

It was one of the only times Jaemin had ever seen Donghyuck run so fast.

Donghyuck sprinted the rest of the distance and Xiyeon let her heavy rucksack drop to the floor. Donghyuck wrapped his arms tightly around her, burying his face in her neck, and she hugged him even tighter, glad to have finally made it. Donghyuck pressed a kiss to Xiyeon's forehead, feeling a lot less temperemental now that she was here.

"Okay, kids, thank you." Mr Kim made his way over to welcome the girls, waving Donghyuck and Xiyeon apart. "What happened? I was about to send out a search party because you guys didn't call."

"No signal, sir," said Eunbin, one of the other girls in the group. "We got really lost, and Xiyeon fell in all of this mud and it was really, really gross..."

"Ew, you are muddy." Donghyuck wrinkled his nose at his girlfriend, getting his arm slapped in return. "Smelly."

"It's not my fault," Xiyeon objected, trying not to laugh.

"Well, if you boys help the girls set up camp, I'm sure they'd appreciate it," said Mr Kim.

"Sure," Donghyuck grinned. "But I am not touching you again until you shower, Xi."

One of the other girls gave a wide yawn, letting down a head of long brown hair, and massaging the spot a ponytail had just been. "We should probably put up the tents first," she said.

And donghyuck scoffed, because Jaemin had been gazing at her for the last five minutes. "Good idea, Nancy, we can help - right Jaemin?"

Jaemin blinked, his ears turning a very obvious shade of red. "Uh, yeah, of course," he stammered. "Let's go."

Nancy smiled quizzically at him, and led the way to a spot they wanted to pitch the tents. Jaemin followed in her footsteps, tipping his head back and tugging at his hair in frustration that he'd been so totally awkward in front of the girls. He pretended to be cool with it, and be strong and dependable instead as he helped Nancy out with the tents.