Dong Woo took out his phone and checked the time.

It had been 20 minutes since they arrived at the mountain peak, but Yi Soo and Ji Ho still hadn’t come up.

Even considering rest breaks along the way, they should have arrived by now.

Dong Woo suddenly worried that an accident might have occurred.

Maybe they got lost or injured.

“Ha Joon, Ji Ho said he was coming up too, right?”

“Yeah. I saw him coming up behind Yi Soo earlier.”

“Really?”

“They’re probably late because of Yi Soo.”

As the hiking leader, Dong Woo had climbed at the front and wasn’t able to look after Yi Soo following behind.

He had been bothered all night that Ji Ho and Yi Soo went out together and came back late, and now they were together again?

Dong Woo recalled the image of Ji Ho tightly holding Yi Soo’s hand.

How long had Ji Ho even known Yi Soo.

There’s no way Yi Soo would do that so easily…

Dong Woo let out a frustrated sigh.

Yi Soo had said he’d just give her medicine and follow right after, so they left first.

He regretted not waiting to go together.

“I’ll try calling.”

Dong Woo found Yi Soo’s number and pressed the call button.

“Hello?”

[Dong Woo, it’s Ae Ra. Yi Soo left her phone in the room.]

“Ah.”

[Wait, aren’t you with Yi Soo?]

Ae Ra asked in a puzzled voice.

“Everyone else has come up, but Yi Soo’s not here yet so I was calling to ask where she is.”

[So Yi Soo is alone on the mountain right now?]

“…Ji Ho’s not here either.”

There was irritation mixed in his voice.

[Really? It’s good if they’re together, but if Yi Soo got lost alone it would be a big problem. And she doesn’t have her phone.]

“I’ll try calling Ji Ho.”

Dong Woo’s expression hardened as he hung up.

“Yi Soo left her phone in the room?”

“Yeah.”

“Then I’ll try calling Ji Ho.”

Ha Joon took out his phone and casually looked around.

“Oh! Dong Woo, I see Ji Ho and Yi Soo over there!”

They saw an exhausted Yi Soo struggling to climb the final stairs leading to the mountain peak.

Ji Ho was following behind her.

Yi Soo walked wobbling unsteadily, barely able to straighten her back and looking like she might collapse.

Dong Woo ran to the stairs in front of Yi Soo.

“Yi Soo, are you very tired?”

Yi Soo raised her head with a dazed expression.

Her face was flushed bright red.

Just looking at her expression, he could tell how exhausted and tired she was.

“I… really… feel like… I’m going to… collapse.”

Yi Soo spoke in a breathless voice, pausing between words.

After climbing the last step, Yi Soo sat down right on the ground.

“Huff… huff…”

Yi Soo leaned against a rock and breathed heavily with her eyes closed.

She had endured and climbed up through sheer willpower alone.

“If it’s this hard, you should have turned back halfway. Or stayed at the lodge with Ae Ra.”

Dong Woo knelt on the ground and looked at Yi Soo with concern.

“I didn’t know it would be this hard since it’s my first time hiking.”

“What are we going to do if you’re this exhausted.”

“I’ll be fine after resting a bit.”

Yi Soo smiled faintly, telling him not to worry.

Yi Soo was confused whether it was a matter of stamina or hangover.

She didn’t think her physical condition was this bad.

While everyone else had climbed up just fine and was busy looking at the view and taking pictures, she felt embarrassed struggling alone.

“Dong Woo, don’t worry about me. Go do what you need to do.”

Dong Woo had an apologetic expression, as if Yi Soo’s exhaustion was somehow his fault.

Ji Ho leisurely looked around at the view, then gazed at Dong Woo and Yi Soo from afar.

Dong Woo was kneeling beside Yi Soo with a worried expression, not knowing what to do.

‘Acting like he’s Yi Soo’s friend while doing that. And Yi Soo doesn’t even suspect it.’

Ji Ho frowned and ran his hand through his hair.

**

“Yi Soo, you haven’t rested much yet. What should we do? We need to start heading down now.”

Dong Woo spoke worriedly, looking at Yi Soo sitting with slumped shoulders.

“Why? Can’t we stay longer?”

“Sunday train tickets to Seoul sell out 2 weeks in advance, so we all bought ours early.”

“Ah… What time is the train?”

“1:30. We need to head down now to catch it with time to spare.”

He was saying they couldn’t rest longer to make the scheduled train time.

“Okay. Then we should hurry and go.”

“I guess we should have booked a later time. I thought we’d have enough time.”

Dong Woo hesitated to leave even as he said they had to go.

Yi Soo patted Dong Woo’s shoulder with a reassuring expression.

“It’s fine. Hurry and tell everyone to get ready to go. We’ll be late at this rate. I’ll follow at the end.”

Dong Woo reluctantly stood up.

Shortly after, everyone started heading down, leaving only Ji Ho and Yi Soo behind.

“Yi Soo, are you still tired?”

Ji Ho asked, pressing down on Yi Soo’s shoulder as she tried to stand up.

“Yeah.”

“Then let’s rest more before going.”

“But we’ll miss the train if we don’t go now.”

“Give your ticket to Ha Joon and rest here fully, then ride in my car back up.”

Ji Ho sat down next to Yi Soo.

“I’m worried you might get hurt if you try going down with your legs so weak.”

Yi Soo honestly didn’t feel confident about heading down right away either.

But she hesitated, not really wanting to stay behind alone with Ji Ho and go separately.

“Or should I really carry you down on my back?”

Yi Soo shook her head with a weak laugh.

“I’ll call Ha Joon and tell him. Don’t push yourself unnecessarily, let’s do that.”

**

Ae Ra, who had been lounging alone in the room for hours, couldn’t take her eyes off the clock.

Her stomach that had felt like it would keep hurting had settled down after taking medicine and going to the bathroom a few times.

“Why is it taking so long? If I knew it would be like this, I should have just gone along later.”

It had been well over an hour since she received a message that Yi Soo had arrived safely and they would be leaving soon.

Tired of waiting, Ae Ra left the lodge and walked towards the hiking trail entrance.

She saw Dong Woo first.

“Dong Woo!”

“Why are you out here?”

“I got too bored waiting alone.”

“Is your stomach feeling better?”

“Yeah. It’s fine now.”

Just then, Ha Joon came down while talking on the phone.

“Okay. Got it. Ji Ho. I’ll let them know.”

Ha Joon hung up and came over to Dong Woo.

“Dong Woo, Yi Soo and Ji Ho said they’ll come separately and we should go ahead.”

“What?”

“Really?”

“Why?”

Everyone there asked back with one word each after hearing Ha Joon’s words.

“Yi Soo was too exhausted earlier to come down right away. He said they rested more and just started coming down a little while ago.”

“Ah.”

Dong Woo let out a short sigh like an exclamation and clenched his teeth.

‘With Ji Ho until the end…’

He felt something hot rising in his chest.

“Wow! Why is Seo Ji Ho being so nice to Yi Soo? They came up together earlier too…”

Ju Hee narrowed her eyes and pouted her lips.

“Did they plan from the start to go back separately? They went out alone last night and came back late too. Since when were they that close?”

Ju Hee tilted her head with a frown, arms crossed in front of her chest.

Ju Hee had secretly hoped to ride in Ji Ho’s car back to Seoul, so she was even more disappointed.

“Ju Hee, Yi Soo is closer to Ji Ho than you.”

Ae Ra said with a slight smile.

There was no way to ask Yi Soo directly right now, but Ae Ra was becoming more certain that her intuition wasn’t wrong.

“Ha Joon, don’t you know anything? You’re close with Ji Ho.”

“There’s nothing like that. Ji Ho’s probably just looking after Yi Soo since she had a hard time today. Ji Ho may seem cold, but he can be really caring once you get to know him.”

Ha Joon avoided Ju Hee’s gaze and played dumb.

Ha Joon felt he knew for sure why Ji Ho, who wouldn’t care about club bonding, had come on this MT.

He had been by Yi Soo’s side since last night, and while hiking wasn’t Ji Ho’s plan,

Doesn’t heaven help those who help themselves?

Yi Soo struggling so much today and not being able to come down on time might have been heaven helping Ji Ho.

**

Yi Soo’s head kept nodding off in the passenger seat.

It had truly been a long day.

Yi Soo was fighting sleep next to Ji Ho, who had been driving for an hour.

The faint scent of Ji Ho permeating the car seemed to make her body even more drowsy.

Yi Soo’s body sank heavily into the comfortable seat, covered with a soft blanket.

‘My eyes keep closing. I shouldn’t fall asleep.’

Her head kept swaying back and forth with sleepiness.

Yi Soo struggled to push up her heavy eyelids, but it was futile.

“Yi Soo, sleep comfortably.”

Ji Ho said, unable to bear watching Yi Soo try so hard not to sleep.

“I feel bad sleeping while you’re driving alone.”

Ji Ho put on a gentle piano music.

“Sleep comfortably listening to this. You’re making me more worried like that.”

After struggling for a while longer, Yi Soo finally fell asleep.

After confirming Yi Soo was asleep, Ji Ho turned the volume down low.

Yi Soo’s rhythmic breathing could be heard.

“I told you to sleep comfortably from the start.”

Ji Ho glanced at the soundly sleeping Yi Soo and chuckled.

Being Sunday afternoon, there were many cars heading into Seoul from the suburbs, so Ji Ho’s car also couldn’t speed up and kept stopping and going.

The jammed road showed no signs of clearing up.

“Mmm.”

Yi Soo woke up and stretched slightly, opening her eyes.

“We’re in Seoul.”

Familiar scenery could be seen outside the window.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah. How long did I sleep?”

“About an hour?”

“I slept a long time. I thought I just dozed off for a bit. Sorry. I just slept next to you while you were driving.”

“You can sleep more if you’re tired.”

“I already feel bad for sleeping alone, how could I sleep more. I’m not sleepy anymore anyway.”

Yi Soo was worried that Ji Ho must be very tired after driving for hours.

“Are you very tired?”

Yi Soo stared at Ji Ho, who said he was fine while looking straight ahead.

When he was silent with no expression, he looked cold, perhaps because of his sharp jawline.

Though he had an unapproachable atmosphere that made it difficult to approach easily, he could also melt people’s hearts in an instant with one charming smile.

An always relaxed and confident expression.

Broad shoulders and a toned body.

A handsome face that catches the eye.

A sweet and mellow voice.

Yi Soo couldn’t believe this man had feelings for her.

The memories from last night were still so vivid, it felt like a dream rather than reality.

It was Yi Soo’s first time experiencing these sensations.

Every moment Ji Ho’s lips touched her, indescribable sensations washed over her like waves, making it hard to think straight.

Just briefly recalling it made her heart race as if all her nerves returned to that moment.

She shook her head slightly, feeling heat rise to her face.

So much felt different after last night.

She no longer had to hide her feelings, could say she missed him, could gaze at him freely like now.

“Yi Soo, aren’t you hungry? We didn’t even eat lunch.”

As soon as Ji Ho finished speaking, Yi Soo suddenly felt hungry.

All she had eaten since morning was a few bites of ramen and water.

In contrast, she had exercised far too much.

“Should we eat dinner before going?”

“Yeah, sounds good. I’ll buy dinner this time. I need to pay you back a little for everything you’ve done for me.”

I should have bought you a meal sooner.

Why didn’t I do it until now over something so small.

“You don’t need to do that… Is there anything you want to eat?”

Ji Ho asked kindly with a smile at Yi Soo’s casual response.

“I eat everything well, so let’s go eat something you like.”

“Okay. Let’s go eat something delicious.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Ji Ho sped up.

It was the start of their first date.