The Retreat | Enha multi ship

[Chapter 12]

Sunoo's eyes flicker open to the pitch black darkness of his cabin. Almost immediately, he rolls over to face the wall, since he had the window side, and pulls back the curtains slightly to see the sun had not risen yet. He lets out a little sigh, and rolls onto his back, flinching as he hears a loud creak come from the bed above him.

"Sunoo? You awake?" He hears Jungwon whisper, before the boy appears leaning over the railing, only able to be seen due to the light from his phone.

"Yeah." Sunoo whispers back, shuffling to sit himself up right. "What time is it?"

Jungwon looks down at his phone, then quickly shuts off the light, leaving them both in the dark. "Like 6- my phones about to die."

"Already?" Sunoo chuckles.

"Yeah just my luck, I'm gonna hand it in later for charging." 

There was something so peaceful about sitting in the dark on a cold February morning. Just talking to a friend without the distant sound of cars zooming by, or the rattling sound of a train track. Sunoo was brought back to the times he'd go on holiday with Sunghoon and Jake. They'd wake up way too early because of jet lag, and spend the morning talking until the sun would rise. Now he got to do that with Jungwon [minus the jet lag], and he felt quite grateful to be able to make memories with a new friend.

"Ugh I can't stay in here." Jungwon groans, while throwing his covers aside. He scoots to the bottom of his bed, and swings his legs over the side. "I'm gonna go for a walk, wanna come?"

"Sure." Sunoo agrees, considering he wasn't tired anymore. He may aswell go for walk, instead of sitting for another few hours in the dark.

The two boys clambered out of their beds as quietly as possible, in order to not disturb their other roommates. They slipped on their shoes and threw on their coats, leaving the cabin in quick succession. Neither were sure if they were even allowed to wander around on their own, but they couldn't see any reason why they wouldn't be. It's not like they planned to go into the woods and get themselves lost.

"I saw you and Jay last night looking all cute and cuddly." Sunoo teases, chuckling as Jungwon winces in embarrassment.

"You should mind your own business." Jungwon lightly snaps.

Sunoo smiles and shakes his head. "I'm just glad you two are getting along."

"Mm, me too." Jungwon hums. "We don't make it easy on ourselves."

It was a true mystery at Upper Side Academy to what Jungwon and Jay's relationship was really like. Everyone talked about it, and everyone had their own theories. 'It's a fake relationship'- some would say, 'It's only friends with benefits'- others would chime in. Sunoo thought these were all ridiculous, as it wasn't anyone else's business. However, now he was friends with Jungwon, he couldn't help but be a little curious to why their relationship seemed so complicated.

Keeping his tone soft and delicate, Sunoo asks. "Why is that?"

"Why is what?"

"You said you don't make it easy for yourselves." Sunoo explains.

Jungwon tilts his head and purses his lips in thought, before he turns to Sunoo and shrugs. "Honestly, I don't really know. We were a lot younger when we started dating, and we were both a little scared to come out, so we never really labeled anything."

"Then why don't you label it now?" Sunoo questions innocently.

Everyone made it sound so simple, and maybe it was, but Jungwon knew that no one could ever give him an answer that would magically fix things. There was still a lot he had to figure out for himself.

"God knows."

____

Waking up early was inevitable, but being forced out of your cabin to go chop wood at 6 am in your pajamas, definitely wasn't what the boys wanted from their first morning at the retreat.

Jay, Sunghoon, Riki and Jake all trudged slowly behind Dahyun, as she led them to where they needed to be, and it was safe to say they weren't very happy about it.

"'Draw of a hat' what bullshit, is my luck really that bad?" Jay grumbles, referencing Dahyun's explanation for why they had been chosen. Apparently it was all down to the random pick of a hat. Suddenly, he feels an arm sling over his shoulder, slightly knocking him forward a few steps. To no surprise, the energetic Riki was now walking beside him. 

"Listen, I hate waking up early but this is actually really cool! I'm gonna look so sick chopping that wood, like a proper...uh...proper...proper wood chopper guy!" He eventually gets out, garnering laughter from the boys around him.

"Do you mean a lumberjack?" Sunghoon asks.

Riki turns to him with a confused expression. "Who's Jack?" 

As the boys all burst into laughter again, Riki just shrugs, removing his arm from around Jay. He spins his body around, walking backwards to be able to face the boys. "Can you guys take some pics of me? I wanna flex my strength for all the baddies on insta."

"You're so fucking cringe man." Jay winces.

"Call it cringe all you like; not everyone is tied down like you. I actually enjoy having my dm's full, and there's always room for more." Riki brags, with a smug look plastered across his face.

Sunghoon shakes his head. "You're really shameless."

"Oh pipe down lover boy, that might be the first time I haven't heard you mention your precious Sunoo in a sentence." All the boys, including Sunghoon, laugh at Riki's insult. Sunghoon did have a habit of bringing up Sunoo in every conversation.

"Alright I'll stay out of it." Sunghoon puts his hands up in mock surrender. "You keep bragging about all the girls in your dm's and I'll be happy over here in my perfect relationship."

"Perfect relationship? and you say I'm bragging." Riki scoffs, eye's veering to the quietest member of their group.

Throughout this whole conversation, Jake had been walking behind them, doing nothing more than laughing [at Riki for the most part]. He still wasn't super confident talking to Jay and Riki, plus it was super early, so he wasn't really up for making conversation. Especially not about relationships, because he had absolutely zero input on that matter.

"So Jake, got your eyes on anyone at the moment?"

He got dragged into it anyway.