"Hi, uh, so." Wooyoung desperately tries to shake off the blankness that washed over him as soon as the pretty receptionist looked up from his laptop and smiled at him. "Do you have a phone?"
A moment passes. Wooyoung wants to facepalm.
~~~
Growing...
Hey everyone, welcome back :) It feels so long every time I take two weeks for a chapter ㅜㅜ next one is coming next week Friday!
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Something is different about San today. What started as a vague feeling in the back of Wooyoung's mind manifests with each time San laughs, talks, flirts. Today, Wooyoung learns what a flirt San can be when he's in the mood. Today, San doesn't only keep their conversation effortlessly going and bridges gaps of awkward silences, but he also seems lighter around Wooyoung than ever before.
Wooyoung has enough time to mull over the changes in San's behaviour while he follows San endlessly long stairs up to what San previously dubbed a hill.
"Are we there yet?" Wooyoung can't help but ask yet again, only to get a bemused snort as an answer. "Soon—" San abruptly stops, and Wooyoung almost bumps into him as he crouches down to pick something up from the ground. A stone with a polished blue-ish surface. San turns around to show it before proceeding to hold it next to Wooyoung's head, eyes darting back and forth between Wooyoung's face and the stone.
"What?" Wooyoung hates how easily he blushes, especially under the attentive gaze of San.
"It has almost the same colour as your eyes." San laughs after a beat, like he's feeling self-conscious about the statement's romantic undertone.
"My eyes arent blue," Wooyoung counters in an attempt to defuse the uncomfortable tension, "I'm wearing contact lenses."
San rolls his eyes, the ghost of a smile still playing around his lips. "I figured." He turns around again, facing the steep slope of the mountain and many more steps to come. "We're almost there."
To Wooyoung's surprise, San turns out to be right as he chooses an overgrown trail that leads to a bench perched on an old lookout: "Here we are." Wooyoung squints against the low sun and at San, who has spread his arms as if wanting to include the whole island in his gesture.
It took them twenty minutes to climb up here—Wooyoung's smartwatch informs him that his pulse during the exercise averaged 108 beats per minute. There's a persistent stitch in Wooyoung's side that Wooyoung tries his best to overplay as he comments, "Finally."
Maybe it's not a big mountain, considering San's lookout is closer to the top than the foot of it, but Wooyoung thinks it should definitely count as one. It is high enough to give a view over most of the island.
In the distance, against the tinted orange sky, Wooyoung can make out their hotel.
"The view is worth it, though...?" San pauses. The hint of uncertainty that suddenly opens up on his face is a stark contrast to his playful gaze when he swapped his macchiato with Wooyoung's americano and deliberately brushed his fingers over Wooyoung's wrist—or the amused, smoldering stare he gave Wooyoung every time he noticed Wooyoung being transfixed by his lip piercing. Which happened more often during the past hour than Wooyoung would like to admit.
