Forever Snow || Seventeen [Rewriting]

✨ Chapter 9 ✨

The group of 6 boys, ranging from the ages 17 to 20, quietly followed the two boys who knew where they were going. No one spoke a word after they left their shared room in silence. Junhui's words to each of them resonated in their minds.

DK and Hansol were in front of the whole group, whispering amongst themselves. Between them and the rest of the boys was Jun. He made sure that there was distance between the two groups, only allowing Soonyoung to occasionally pass.

There was obvious tension between everyone but they all chose to ignore it for reasons of convenience. The closer they go to the library, the more the tension grew between all of them. None of them were ready to see Caratnia in all of its glory.

Vernon then took lead once they entered the library. He ran to the isle that held the entrance to the land of forever snow, Seokmin right behind him. The two of them started to look for the album that acts as the lever to open the passageway.

"Here," Seokmin says, voice hoarse from crying and screaming. "Pull this then we can go to Caratnia." Mingyu decided to push past Jun and pull down the album. They all expected a passageway to open but there was nothing.

The two youngest boys looked confused. "See, nothing happened." Mingyu says, holding up the album that easily removed off of the shelf. "I can't believe you decided to defend them after everything, hyung." Mingyu says to Jun.

Jun was about to defend himself when Vernon spoke up. "Nothing happened because it was the wrong album!" He says, screaming the last few words at Mingyu's face. Before anyone could scold him, he pulled down the right album.

Vernon was right, it was the wrong album. As he pulled on the album, the wall behind him opened, creating a loud sound- a loud creek. It looked and felt like a portal opening to a different dimension... actually, it was that.

"Let's go." Jun jabs his head towards the direction of the entrance of Caratnia. The cool air coming from the passageway made everyone who didn't believe that this place was real rethink their life choices. This was actually happening.

The further they walked into the passageway, the colder it got. Seokmin and Vernon looked over at the others with a chuckle. They look like they were about to freeze to death! They all brought coats, per request of DK, but it was still cold.

They finally saw the light by the end of the passageway. As much as Hansol wanted to run into the land of forever snow, he wanted to push his siblings to step in first to prove that it wasn't fake. By coincidence, Seungcheol was pushed forward by Soonyoung.

As he stumbled forward, his foot landed with a loud crunch from the floor. It wasn't the sound of his bones breaking but the sound of stepping onto a pile of... snow. The rest of the boys followed into the snow filled wonderland.

"We're here.." Seokmin says, his voice still filled with wonder even though it was not the first time he's been there. "COME! COME! I want you to meet Dino!" He exclaims, forgetting or just plain ignoring the tension that was surrounding them.

Before anyone could drag him along with them, Vernon took off to the other side of where they were supposed to be heading. "HANSOL!" They all exclaimed, calling out for the youngest but the boy didn't stop running.

Seokmin wanted them to meet Dino but with Vernon running off to who knows where, they had no choice but to follow him. The boy didn't slow down so neither did his brothers. They kept running but for some reason, couldn't keep up with Vernon.

The cold winter air hit Veron straight to the face. That didn't deteriorate him though from running to where he last remembers the cave being in. If he remembered correctly, the cave should be a few more kilometers away from the entrance.

Everyone's shouts sounded muffled due to the adrenaline coursing through his body. His legs started to tire but he was almost there. There's no giving up now. Finally, Vernon stopped in front of a scary looking cave, his brothers catching up to him.

"What is this?" Soonyoung couldn't help but voice out his concern. No one knew the answer, the only who knew what it was ignored it and slowly stepped closer to the entrance of the cave. "Seungkwan? Hello? Seung-"