Chapter 16 -

As Daehyun saw me, he stood up from the sofa, shutting his book and walking toward me, his tall figure casting a shadow over me.

"You're finally here," he smiled.

"What? Why the hell..?" I asked, scratching my head.

Now why the hell would he be here? Isn't he supposed to be in cabin 3 with the other main characters? Or is my memory from the original story messed up? It's hard to remember all this. But Daehyun should have chosen the same as Jaehwa because Jaehwa chose the same as Eliam. Where in the world is Eliam anyway?!

"Now what's with that sour look when seeing me?"

"It's nothing. Who else is here?"

"Jaehwa, and he told me he was gonna bring someone else as well, making the four of us."

Well, shit. That must be Eliam too. I did not intend at all to be that poor side character/4th roommate who had to sleep through the sounds of all three of them doing… whatever they wanted to do together. Why? I specifically told Jaehwa, that bastard, to choose anything but cabin 2 when asking Eliam to join, because the closer Eliam is to me, the more chances I will mess up the entire plot, probably sending me deeper into the mess I have to fix!

Stop panicking, I told myself. You're not that important that Jaehwa and Eliam will personally stop their relationship just for the special you, Leon. That sounds stupid. What to do? It's not like I can change cabins anytime soon. As long as they have any sort of contact, it's fine; I just shouldn't get in the way. But if Eliam hugs me like he always does… then I think Jaehwa would probably not like that, so it's best to avoid Eliam too. (That sucks.)

Next complication: Daehyun. I believe that once Daehyun catches Jaehwa and Eliam having sex, that's when he starts to admire Eliam. If they don't do it together, then all my plans are down the drain.

I really felt a pang of jealousy at the thought of Eliam doing it with someone else, other than me. That's so selfish, though; it's not like I'm even dating Eliam, so I'm the real idiot here for feeling that way.

"Knock knock, is anyone home, cutie pie?" A voice behind me questioned, tapping my head and making me turn around in surprise.

"Agh! Jaehwa, what the hell?"

"You didn't even notice me coming in. Hehe," he chuckled.

I looked him up and down, not in a 'Wow, he's hot!' way, but in a 'I will kill you' kind of way. "Now tell me what the frick happened with your plan."

"Oh..! Haha, well, Eliam wouldn't even talk to me until I mentioned cabin 2. Not sure what's so special about your cabin, but hey, it worked out!" Jaehwa shrugged.

"So you invited Eliam?" Daehyun interjected from behind me. He put both hands on my shoulders, towering over me. "Are you in love with him or something? He's always with you." He lowered his tone.

"I. Am. Not!" I yelled, rushing off to the room and brushing his hands off.

I made my way to a vacant bedroom, throwing my stuff on the bed before throwing myself onto the bed as well. Maybe if I just stay here the whole trip, then everything will go according to plan.

I lay flat on my stomach, turning my head to the side, my eyes closed.

I suddenly felt a hand gently placed on my head, and I didn't react because there was way too much on my mind. The voice I had been hoping for spoke at last, after the whole morning being missing from my view.

"Thank god you're here," Eliam said, suddenly relieving the tension that had been building for a while.

I opened my eyes, greeted by his pretty and glowing appearance, his green eyes staring right into mine. I felt a warm, strange feeling from seeing him again, which I couldn't quite describe properly.

It was an hour before we had to go back to the auditorium and venture out into the mountains, but I felt that I wanted things to stay this way, with Eliam next to me. This is the damn reason why I did not want to be in the same cabin or group as him again.

"Where were you?" I asked, burying my face in the pillow again.

"I wanted to make sure we were together. That's why you were left with cabin 2 as your only option," he smiled.

"How did you...? You know what, we should probably head out now." I stood up, rubbing my eyes.

After everyone gathered back from the cabins, we were welcomed by three giant, double-decker tour buses. We tried to line up to get in, but that pretty much failed because of the massive ocean of ecstatic students trying to be the first on the bus. I was constantly pushed around in the crowd. Then, without warning, I stepped on someone's shoe, and I was on the verge of falling onto another student when Jaehwa grabbed my arm, pulling me closer to him.

"Woah, careful there, cutie," he grinned, glancing down at me.

"I am! It's just chaotic here!" I complained, pressing a finger onto his large chest as I looked up at him. "You better get with Eliam when we get to the amusement park, or I'm fleeing this earth."

"Okay, princess."

"Shut up and get on the bus already!"

About 20 minutes later, we reached the amusement park. It was quite amazing how we could get to go here as just a small part of the trip, because this is some rich people stuff, seeing how massive the park was.

I was the first to get off at the entrance, owing to the fact that the scenery surrounding it was absolutely breathtaking—nothing like my home country—and that I needed to take a quick photo of it. Since it gets saved on my SD card, I'm hoping I can keep these memories at least even when I get back to my world.

Flocks of birds were flying across the bluest lake I've ever seen, the mountains were even more colossal than the ones surrounding the cabins, with glaciers appearing to slide down the mountains and a waterfall in the distance. This was about the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen in my life, witnessing the Swiss Alps at its prime. Well, right now it went under a different name, but even if it's not the same in name or recent history, it's still the same in its geographical features.

I wasn't even done taking pictures yet when Eliam had already caught up to me from the other bus, both his arms around my neck from behind me.

"Whatcha doing, Leon?" Eliam asked sweetly, and I felt his warm breath contrasting with the cold wind in my ear.

"Oh, nothing, just… contributing to global warming."

"Come on, do you need to be sarcastic with everyone you talk to?" Eliam pouted, squeezing me in his arms tighter.

"Agh! But it's true! Because this device is made of rare earth materials, and the phone industry itself is destructive, so that means—"

"Just take a photo. Both of us," he laughed, turning us around, our backs to the scenery we were overlooking, grabbing my phone.

I tried to take it back from his slightly taller height, but he had already snapped a photo of the two of us. 

"Hey! I didn't consent to that photo!" I protested, his arms still around me.

"But you look… so pretty in this!" Eliam said apologetically, observing the image deeply.

The photo essentially captured a handsome model next to a caught-off-guard, annoyed weird cat. Definitely not pretty at all.

I grabbed the phone back from him, keeping it in my pocket. That image was now going to be with me forever, I thought. I smiled, looking off into the distance.

"Come on, let's go now. Other people are already running up to the entrance, and I am definitely not going through another gosh-darn line," I lamented, trying to shake his hand off.

The supervisor told all of us to split off into our cabin groups and just do whatever we wanted. What a responsible guy. Honestly, though, I also wouldn't bother handling 80 students.

We awkwardly sat in the park's cafeteria at an isolated table. This was the first time that all four of us—consisting of the main characters and some weird guy (me)—ever gathered together in person, so it surely was a bizarre sight to have the most popular students in one place. Not including me, though.

People were gossiping all around us, making me slightly uncomfortable. I decided I wasn't waiting for Christmas and got up.

"You know what? I'll get some food. I'll see you guys." I started walking away, wallet in hand.

"Wait, I'll buy you anything," Eliam stood, following me.

"Why—"

"I'll also tag along," Jaehwa interrupted, approaching me.

I raised an eyebrow until I remembered that he might just be approaching Eliam too.

"Why do you need to come?" Eliam questioned Jaehwa.

Jaehwa smirked, putting a hand on Eliam's shoulder. "Why not? What's your deal—agh. I mean I just want to talk to you," Jaehwa insisted, changing mid-sentence after I elbowed him to continue in the correct direction.

I figured now would be a good time to leave things to both of them and run off somewhere else so I could just eat breakfast in peace.

As I walked away, leaving Jaehwa and Eliam to argue about whatever (I'll trust Jaehwa to solve that), I saw Daehyun just calmly observing me leave. I was scared he would follow me, but he just smiled and waved. I kind of forgot he was there; he was so quiet the entire time. Maybe I'm getting way too self-centered these days.

I wandered around the theme park, admiring the massive roller coasters. I wanted to ride all of them. There was a purple one, a red one—so many! I took it back; I was really excited, but I fought against riding them. I needed to eat breakfast first, an important rule for me when doing anything energy-consuming, like walking a lot in a day.

I munched on a burger, watching the clouds move through the clear sky and inhaling the fresh air from being in the countryside. My friends back home would be so jealous; I got to go to different countries, even to a massive theme park that never existed. I'll get back to them soon anyway.

I got up, stretching. I walked back to the cafeteria. If they were still there, then I'd go with them, and if they were gone without me, then I didn't really care either. I just wanted to go on the rides already.

That was when I froze. I dropped the empty food boxes I was going to throw in the trash. The wind blew harder, and everything just went silent in my head. I just couldn't process what I was seeing.

I fell to my knees; I was in front of someone with a face I had missed so much, a face I hadn't seen in a whole month already. Of all places on this earth, what in the living daylights is Sam doing here?