THE CEDARS [ J. Jungkook & P. Jimin | COMPLETED ]

you leave a piece of you everywhere you go,

Jimin reached up to adjust his hood, stretching it out a bit to cover more of his forehead. The rain hadn't stopped for what felt like days, but that wasn't going to stop the guys from going on the last activity of their trip. They had a mile long hike through some of the forest before getting to the cave with the guide that Jungkook had hired for the afternoon. He was a stiff older Japanese man with thick furry eyebrows, Jimin remarked quietly that they reminded him of caterpillars and this made Jungkook laugh. The guide didn't seem to understand much of their Korean, and in turn they didn't understand much of his Japanese. With a few hand signals he was able to direct them where to go and what to look at, but they lacked the history behind everything because the guide couldn't translate anything. 

Even though it was wet and there was mud under their feet, Jungkook found himself glued to Jimin the entirety of the hike to the cave that they would be exploring. The guide didn't look back at them once to see if they were following behind, so Jungkook felt more comfortable being physical with Jimin. At one point Jungkook even grabbed Jimin to quickly bring him to a halt so that he could peck him on the lips before shoving him along, leaving Jimin speechless. Little things like this began to pile up throughout the hike, even when they got to the cave.

Jungkook wanted to remove his rain jacket as soon as they were under the lip of the cave, passing his camera bag over for Jimin to hold. The guide stood near the entrance of the cave, shining his flashlight inside. It wasn't hard to navigate but there wouldn't always be standing room. The guide pulled off his backpack and took out three helmets, passing two over to Jimin. Jimin set down the camera bag to grab the helmets, waiting for Jungkook to tie his jacket around his waist before passing him one. They both adjusted their helmets on their heads, laughing at how silly the other looked. Once they were dressed appropriately they followed behind the guide, making their way into the damp cave with only flashlights to guide them through. It was a neat experience that both of them thoroughly enjoyed, the cave winding around with varying ceiling heights.

After half an hour of making their way through the cave, it opened up into a small plateau where they could finally stand comfortably. The cave continued on further, but it required a skilled guide and proper equipment. However, the small plateau offered a beautiful mosaic of vines, dripping water, and jutting rocks. Jungkook was immediately enamoured at the sight of this, reaching down to grab his camera bag but coming up empty, turning to look over to Jimin to see if he had it, but seeing him empty handed as well.

"This can't be natural," Jimin mumbled, stepping up to get a better view of the wall, touching it momentarily as some of the water seeped onto his skin. Jimin turned around to ask the guide in broken Japanese if it was man-made, but the man wasn't able to respond accurately to the question.

Jungkook sighed. "I'm gonna have to go back up, I left my camera behind."

Jimin turned to look at him, shaking his head. "There's no point, Jungkook, it'll take too long to go back and forth."

"I can't pass this up, look how beautiful it is, hyung," Jungkook said, pointing to the green wall amidst the dark grey rocks. "Besides, we took our time getting down here. I could easily do that in five minutes --- ten minutes there and back."

The guide looked at them curiously, which made Jimin awkwardly step up to speak in a hushed voice closer to Jungkook. "You're really going to leave me with this guy? He can't even tell me yes or no to a simple question. What am I supposed to do with him for ten minutes?"

Jungkook reached out to play with Jimin's belt, leaning in as though he was about to kiss him but stopping abruptly. "Ten minutes, I promise," Jungkook whispered.

With one nod of his head, Jungkook shot back up the way they came as if he had done it a million times before, disappearing out of view. Jimin sighed as he turned back to look at the guide, who was now staring at him directly. The man was wearing a face that Jimin was not familiar with, trying to identify what it was as he stepped past him to look at the vines, briefly glancing over his shoulder to look at the man again. He was still staring intently at Jimin, his hands hanging down at his sides and his face buried with some strange emotion.