jaeyong ✧ skindeep

Sixteen

The sunlight blared through the windows or the car, leaving all the boys waking up early in the ride. Jaehyun, who had stayed up all night driving, had dark circles present under his eyes, leaving Johnny to volunteer and drive the van for a few hours.

Jaehyun rested on the passenger seat while everyone was occupied with something else; Taeyong and Ten were huddled behind Ten's laptop watching who-knows-what, Donghyuck was asleep curled into Mark's chest who was carding the younger's hair and what seemed as Doyoung playing an online game of solitaire.

The humming of tires accompanied the few laughs from Ten that came from the back along with Doyoung's frustrated groans as he was losing the online card game.

Eventually, Jaehyun woke up, and insisted he drive again. Jaehyun rubbed his eyes then continued driving, his voice peeking to the back of the van,"Uh, if you guys are hungry there's snacks in that blue backpack back there."

Johnny almost immediately unbuckled his seat belt and climbed over the seat to the back of the vehicle. A clear struggle between Johnny, Doyoung and Ten could be heard. The commotion causing Taeyong to crawl over to Jaehyun and the passenger seat, a sigh of relief escaping his lips. The brunette quickly smiled at Taeyong, knowing his statement had started WWIII in the back of the van.

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The aftermath of the food-torn war zone left everyone to fall silent once again, one of the few sounds being Taeyong's muffled singing to Envy Me by Calboy. His head remained faced down, his eyes fluttering closed in a wave of tiredness until the van abruptly stopped.

Jaehyun cocked the gearshift back to the park setting, everyone else in the van peeking out the colorless windows.

What once seemed like an abyss of dried, dirt roads was now an awaited sandy beach. The blue waves transitioned into a white as they rippled, the cold breeze of the ocean bringing a relief to the heat they had all faced for the past day and a half.

Quickly, everyone left the van and ran like children to the ocean, sand kicking up behind their pattering feet. The wind kicked up, causing their hair and clothes to blow with it.

Ten dropped to the sand and begun to dig with his hands. Doyoung set his hands in his jean pockets, watching Ten scatter through the sand,"What're you doing?"

The Thai pulled the sand towards him,"Digging a hold to throw Donghyuck in."

While Donghyuck and Mark were busy playing in the sand, Johnny and Jaehyun sat on the elevated portion of the sand, talking about what ever topics popped in their minds.

Taeyong crouched down at the edge of the water, the waves barely touching his toes as his hands trailed through the wet sand, his fingers selecting diminutive seashells from the ground. A soft smile crept up on his face when he unintentionally caught a sand crab. He sat back onto the sand, the crab carefully held between his palms and leaving Taeyong infatuated like a child.   

"Donghyuck, come here," Ten stood up and moved away from his finished person sized hole.

Donghyuck loosened the grip of Mark who was softly tickling his torso. He caught his breath and slightly leaning over, walked over to Ten,"Yeah?"

Doyoung quietly watched the two, almost sure of what the outcome was going to be.

"I need to tell you something," Ten said while waving his hand to signal Donghyuck to get closer to him.

The ginger played along, enthusiastically moving to Ten before dodging his incoming grasp and pushing him down into the hole. He continually clicked his tongue, a disappointed look on his face as he kneeled down to Ten,"Chittaphon, I may be dumb, but I'm not that stupid."

The unexpectedly enjoyable day was brought to a end when the sun met with the edge of the sea, the sky tinting a blue, orange, purple and pink.

Once back in the car, the boys, specifically Johnny, Ten, Mark and Donghyuck, snacked on what ever was left and passed out from exhaustion in the back of the van. Doyoung silently sat with his airpods in against the wall of the van, despite being deafly quiet, he remained wide awake.

"Have you ate anything today?" Jaehyun asked Taeyong, keeping his line of sight in front of him.

"Yeah," Taeyong easily lied.

"We should be arriving towards a more "city-ish" part tomorrow so we can all go get breakfast later."

"Hm," Taeyong laid his head back against the headrest, his eyes drifting to outside the window.

After about a hour of silence discarding the radio, Jaehyun stopped the van in what seemed the middle of nowhere. Plants surrounded the border of the dirt roads, giving some form of life in comparison to the past. Taeyong looked back up to Jaehyun, who gazed to the back of the van and then meeting their eyes.

The brunette brought his finger up to his lips and pointed to outside the window, for some reason Taeyong understanding. Both quietly unbuckled their seat belts and instead of leaving through the doors, exited out the windows.

When Taeyong regained his balance and Jaehyun walked over to the other side of the car, he questioned, his voice a whisper,"What are we doing?"

"I want to show you something." Jaehyun grabbed and tugged at Taeyong's wrist, pulling the raven haired through the forest of bushes. Eventually, they reached a barren portion, disrupting the lively scenery.

Jaehyun led Taeyong and told him to sit down. Taeyong sat about two feet away from Jaehyun, still confused about what exactly was going on.

"Look up."

Taeyong looked from Jaehyun to the sky. The dark blue sky was completely covered with an overbearing amount of stars, not one corner of the sky remained untouched, a sight one might not experience when being in a city.

Taeyong's lips unknowingly parted, the beauty of the sky was simply breathtaking to him. He brought his knees up to his chest, the reflection of the starry night sky in his large eyes.

Jaehyun gazed up, his eyes constantly traveling to Taeyong's expression. He sharply inhaled and let his sight drift to the older beside him,"Taeyong?"

Taeyong's eyes remained fixated on the sky while he replied,"Yes?"

"I think I'm falling in love with you."

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