At the End of Summer || Mark Lee (NCT)

Chapter 31. Somewhere You've Never Been

- September 12, 2018 -

Wednesday

Elizabeth's long black wavy hair was the perfect definition of "a beautiful mess."

Literally.

But I'll get back to that in a few.

After our ten-day vacation in Canada, we came back to Seoul just this Monday.

Of course, Elizabeth and I didn't go to school that day, since we got back at around 7 in the evening.

Aunt Yeoreum and Uncle Minseok fetched us at the airport, and we had a joint dinner at a restaurant in the city. Then we went home to our respective houses.

It was roughly a ten- to eleven-hour flight, and it was exhausting. Elizabeth kept sleeping on the airplane, which was a little bit of both good and bad for her. I had to wake her up every two hours and tell her to change position so she wouldn't be staying in one position for too long.

In the last three hours of our flight, she got a bit annoyed and told me not to wake her until we actually arrive.

I, on the other hand, was a bit restless. I was able to sleep for about an hour or two, roughly. But after waking up, I couldn't relax.

Dangerous thoughts kept appearing on my mind. Thoughts like what if the plane suddenly crashes and we'd be stuck in the sea, left to drown. Or what if there was a random person in the plane infected with the zombie virus and nobody knew it, then he suddenly starts attacking and biting and infecting others. Or worst, snakes.

Okay, no. The possible worst case scenario that actually kept me awake on the plane was the thought of something bad happening to Elizabeth. Like running out of oxygen, or risks of blood clotting, or plain not waking up due to fainting because of fatigue.

It was truly a time of suffering and paranoia for me. But thankfully, none of those happened. We were actually fine. Elizabeth was perfectly fine.

Which was good news, for the most part.

Both Elizabeth and I had jet lags, considering that we just had quite a long flight after not flying for eleven years (me) and ten months (her).

I was fine, though. After getting a good night's sleep on Monday night, I was up and running again. I wasn't sure about her, though. I knew she had a lower chance of recovering quickly due to her condition. I didn't bother her the next day since I wanted her to get a lot of rest. So I didn't text or call her, or did anything that would require her to look at her phone.

I just wanted her to rest.

On Tuesday, of course I still didn't go to school. I woke up late, and I had to rearrange all my clothes back to my wardrobe. I also had a lot of catching up to do with Aunt Yeoreum and Uncle Minseok.

I told them about our adventures, from the shopping and sightseeing, the trip to the beach, the dinner on Friday night, up to the hot air balloon ride. I also showed them the pictures I took, which resulted in them teasing me when they saw my pictures with her.

"You guys look really good together." Aunt Yeoreum commented, smiling widely.

"Yeah, Mark. Why haven't you asked her out on a date yet?" Uncle Minseok added in a teasing manner.

"You've been to Canada and you don't call that a date?" Aunt Yeoreum teased too.

"It's not—I—" I stuttered, my cheeks feeling warmer. "It's not a date... It's just... her bucket list item." I said, unable to hide my grin, as well as the blush on my cheeks.