Chapter 18
993 Words
Everyone continued their way to the top. The storm continues to get stronger. It made climbing harder for Taeyong and his team.
As they continue to climb up, Doyoung notices a path heading to a cave not too far from where they are.
"Taeyong!! Look! Over there!!" He shouted pointing to the direction of the cave's opening.
Taeyong saw it and headed to the cave. Everyone followed him. As they got near to where the cave is, a huge tree fell from behind.
Johnny and Ems almost got hit by the branches but luckily no one got hurt.
"Are you guys okay?" Lucas hurriedly checked on them.
"Yes. Yes. We are okay." Johnny answered while still holding Ems' right arm.
"Let's go inside the cave." Taeyong said after coming out of the cave he just checked.
"Hyung, wait!" Jaemin said.
"Jaehyun-hyung and Ann-Noona are not here." He said while looking at the back of Johnny and Ems.
"Did you not notice them missing?" Lucas asked.
"They were just behind us." Johnny said.
They all looked at the fallen tree behind them with fear.
Ems is about to go back when they hear a loud cracking sound.
She looks to where the sound comes from. She sees another huge tree that is about to fall.
Johnny immediately pulls her and together they run to where the others are.
"Everyone! Get inside!" Taeyong shouted.
They all go inside the cave.
"What are we going to do now?" Jaemin asked.
"We need to find Jaehyun and Ann." Doyoung said.
"Did you guys not hear anything? Or know when you lose them?
Johnny said he last saw them when Jaehyun was comforting Ann. He thought that they were just behind them.
" At least we know they are okay and not under those trees." Taeyong said.
" Should we go back and look for them?" Jaemin said.
"They don't know that we'll be here in this cave." Jeno added.
"We'll stay here for now. We'll just have to wait and look out for them once they pass by. It will be dangerous if we go out now." Taeyong said.
"But what about them? It is also dangerous that they are out there." Jaemin said.
"They'll definitely pass by here before they get to the top of the cliff. We'll just have to be on the lookout." Jeno said as he put his arm on Jaemin's shoulder.
"I'll be on the lookout." Ems said.
"We'll join you Noona." Johnny and Lucas said.
"Okay. For the others, just take a rest for now. We'll wait for the storm to pass in here." Taeyong said.
Jaemin sits on one of the corners. Jeno and the remaining others followed him.
A while ago…
"Calm down. It's gone now." Jaehyun said as he comforted Ann.
Ann was so scared. She's spent numerous nights in the mountains and overcome a lot of her fears, but there's one thing she can't get used to.. thunder and lightning.
She tried her best to control her breathing and to calm down. When she's already calm, that's when she feels the arms around her.
"You okay now?" Jaehyun asked.
"Yes. Thank you." She responded.
"Let's go. We need to follow the others."
Jaehyun held her arms as he guided her to stand up, even when they were already walking.
"I can no longer see anyone ahead of us." she said.
"Let's just continue to climb up. We'll just meet them at the top." Jaehyun said.
They continued to head up to the cliff when suddenly a huge cracking sound was heard.
When they check, it is a tree that's about to fall near them. They also see another tree from a far that falls down.
Jaehyun immediately pulled Ann to go to the other side away from the falling tree.
The tree completely falls down. Blocking their way to go to the top.
Going up here seems to be not a good idea. He thought.
He continues to hold Ann on her arm as they look at the fallen tree.
"Should we go that way?" Ann said while pointing on a downhill on their left side heading to a different path to go to the top.
"Let's go."
The heavy rain continuously poured down as they slowly went down the hill.
At first Jaehyun just held Ann at her one arm, but when Ann fell down multiple times causing her to injure her left foot, Jaehyun had to hold her on her waist as she wrapped her one arm on his shoulder.
They were successful in going down the hill and now they are at the foot of a different path to go up.
"Can you still go up?" Jaehyun asked.
Ann just looked at the path going up. Her left foot still hurts and she feels like she's running out of breath because of how close she is to Jaehyun.
"Let's look for a different place to stay." Jaehyun said while looking around the area.
He then spotted an entrance of a cave.
"Look! We can go there." He said pointing to the cave entrance not too far from where they are.
Ann just nodded.
They started to walk towards the direction of the cave.
"I'll check first the inside of the cave."Jaehyun said as he guided Ann to sit on a huge stone near the entrance of the cave.
"Be careful." Ann said while looking at his face.
Jaehyun just smiled, then headed inside the cave.
A few minutes passed.
"Let's go inside." Jaehyun said as he came out of the cave.
He guided Ann to stand up and they both went inside the cave.
It is not too dark inside the cave and it's not too deep. It seems like the cave was designed to fit three to five people only.
" You can sit here and take a rest for now." Jaehyun said as he guided her to one of the corners.
- Writer
