"Whyyyyy?!" I heard Reiji whine. I looked up from the book I was reading (Harry Potter) and saw Reiji talking with Mr. Saotome. Beside me, Camus took off his sunglasses, and sighed dramatically. Ranmaru didn't budge an inch from the grass he was lying on, and Ai was observing the two of them as if they were interesting experiments.
"What is it now?" Ranmaru asked grumpily.
Reiji pouted, turning towards the three of us, "the president is cutting this trip short!! We're leaving tomorrow!!"
"Thank goodness, I don't know if I would be able to last another day in this sunlight," Ranmaru sighed, putting his sunglasses back on.
"Why aren't you sad?!" Reiji demanded.
"That's such a shame, but at least we got to get closer to each other," I tried with a sympathetic smile.
"I guess...." Reiji mumbled, "but I'm still so sad~"
"Why must we leave tomorrow?" Ai spoke up.
"Just ask Mr.Saotome th-" Reiji cut off in the mid-sentence, as he turned to point at the now non-existant Mr. Saotome.
"I swear, he was here just a second ago!" he exclaimed, spinning around.
"What is the reason?" Ai repeated, a little bit more impatiently this time.
"We have a scheduling conflict, apparently. I think we just got scheduled for a radio appearence tomorrow, and it's an important one he doesn't want us to miss," Reiji grumbled.
"But radio shows are fun to do," I tried again to cheer him up.
"Not as fun as staying out in the wild," Reiji frowned.
"If this is what Mr. Saotome has decided, there's no way to convince him to do something else," Ranmaru stated firmly.
"So we might as well make the best of this day!" I finished cheerfully.
Reiji sighed, but a smile was back on his face, "alright then! Let's go to that beach!"
"Beach? We didn't bring anything to swim in," Ai frowned, and for some reason he looked a bit more worried than normal.
"We're not going to there to swim, silly! We're going there to play in the sand~" Reiji sang. He grabbed the bag of sand toys (that I had just spotted), and jumped up and down, "let's get into the car!"
Camus ended up being the one driving. After making sure nothing valuable was left behind, we all piled up in the car. Just 5 minutes later, we had arrived.
"The beach~ I haven't been here since forever," Reiji gushed.
He seemed back to his normal self now.
Reiji turned, and took my wrist, "let's go, Akiko! Let's go play in the sand!"
Surprised, I followed him to where the sand was. He sat down, and started digging, "come on, we have to build the biggest sand castle ever!"
I laughed, but still sat down and started piling sand into one of the buckets. I hadn't played like this in forever, and it felt really good somehow.
"Come on, Ai, Ran-ran, Camus!" Reiji excitedly called out.
The three guys were slowly walking towards us, not nearly looking as excited nor interested as Reiji. But I couldn't help but smile when they still sat down around the sand and started building the castle.
After 10 minutes, my back started feeling sore. I paused to stretch, and looked around. There were still lots of people, but we had picked a place quite far from all of them. I guess it was to avoid getting recognized by fans.
I squined into the distance, and saw people that seemed to be standing on the water. Upon further inspection, I realized that it was just a path of rocks that led a couple of meters from shore. Those rocks looked rather small and narrow, though.
"Do you want to go?" Ai asked, right in my ear. I shuddered, and looked at him.
"Oh gosh, you surprised me," I gasped, "when did you get here?"
"You weren't paying attention," Ai replied, not really answering my question. He pointed towards the rocks, "do you want to walk on that path?"
I hesitated, but reasoned that this was probably the one time I would be able to experience something like this.
"Are you coming with me?" I asked, looking at Ai expectantly.
He hesitated slightly, before nodding.
"What about the others?" I asked, looking down at the three other guys who were busily building the castle.
"They can finish building this castle," Ai let out a rare smile, "it's not often that we get to enjoy ourselves like this."
"It's really a shame that this trip is cut short," I mumbled, as the two of us started towards the rocks.
"Even though Reiji is quite childish, I can understand why he acted that way," Ai spoke up, "we haven't done something like this ever since we debuted, I think."
"Really?" I asked in surprise.
"No, we seldom have free time," Ai explained, "and our schedules are usually very full."
"Oh," was all I could find myself to say. After a brief moment of silence, Ai sighed.
"Have you learned anything about us?" he asked.
"Yeah....I actually did. I got to know your personalities a lot better," I smiled.
"Good, because that was the point of this trip. Mr. Saotome will be pleased," Ai replied.
I stared at him. Did he only want to talk to me because it would allow me to become a better composer, so I could write better songs for Quartet Night?
But despite that lingering doubt, I still didn't want to back off. We were nearly at the rocks, anyways.
"That.....that looks dangerous," I muttered, as we stopped at the edge of the first rock.
The rocks looked rather wet, which probably meant they were slippery. I could even see that there was some moss on the rocks. People were carelessly walking across them, most with no shoes, but none seemed very frightened.
"You should try it," Ai stated, "take off your shoes. It'll be less slippery that way."
I took off my shoes slowly, and Ai did the same. We stepped onto the first rock, and the coolness soaked into my bones.
"This path looks so long now," I muttered, gazing at the end.
"It's easy, just don't be scared. Everyone's doing it, and it's not easy to fall. You just have to be careful," Ai replied easily.
I nodded, and bit my lip resolutely. I carefully stepped onto the next rock. At this point, the paths split into two, and Ai hopped onto the other path.
"I'll meet you at the end," he called out.
I nodded, hoping I didn't look as nervous as I felt.
Ai went off, quickly hopping from one rock to the next. It looked like he was walking on solid ground. He walked with absolutely no fear, as if he was so sure of his footing.
I slowly scooted onto the next rock, beginning to regret this choice. I didn't even bring a change of clothes in case I fell, and I was pretty sure if I fell it would not be safe. There were pretty sharp rocks.
I had made it about half way through when I stopped short. The rock in front of me had a tiny ledge that was covered with moss. I looked back, but people already filled the path behind me. Why did everyone seem more brave than me?
"Come on," an unexpected voice said. I turned back to the front, and saw Ai standing there, his hand stretched towards me.
"Ai?" I said in confusion, "why are you here?"
"I got tired of waiting for you to go to the end. I stood there for 10 minutes, but you're still here," he replied with a bit of annoyance.
I smiled weakily, "I'm really scared of falling, I guess."
"Then hurry," he said, "step onto this rock. It's not that slippery."
Despite his reassurements, I couldn't help but still grip his hand tightly as I inched my way onto the rock.
"Th-thanks," I stuttered. His hands felt really warm, and I didn't want to let go, especially with the cold rock beneath my feet.
"Now the next one," Ai continued, letting go of my hand and stepping onto the next rock. He stretched his hand out again, and I held it tightly as I followed him.
We did this the whole way until we finally reached the end. There was a sign there that read Congratulations! You made it to the end! And that was about it.
"This is the only thing you get as a reward," Ai mumbled.
I shook my head, looking out into the sea, "no, the scenery is absolutely beautiful here! Look at the water. Doesn't it feel like you're actually standing on it? Even from here, it looks like the sea goes on for forever."
Ai followed my gaze, and stared silently at the sea, "you're right."
After a few moments, I was seriously starting to feel the strong wind. I started shivering.
"Are you cold?" Ai asked. He automatically hugged me, and even though this was the second time he had done that, I still stiffened in surprise.
"Are you warmer?" he asked after a while.
The truth was, I did feel warmer. Ai was always so warm to me, though he certainly didn't act like a warm person.
"W-we should go back," I stuttered, not sure exactly why I was stuttering.
"Let's go," he agreed, letting go of me. He took my hand, and we slowly made our way back to shore. His warm hand made me smile for now reason.
"Oohhh you're finally back!" Reiji exclaimed, as we walked toward the three guys.
Their sandcastle looked pretty damn impressive. It was pretty tall, and looked very majestic as well.
"You like it?" Reiji asked excitedly.
"You people were gone for a long time," Camus mumbled.
"What were you two doing?" Ranmaru asked suspiciously.
"We were taking a walk on that path of rocks," Ai replied, pointing to the rocks.
"Reeeeaally? Nothing else happened?" Reiji turned to me, wiggling his eyebrows playfully.
"No," I heard myself say, though on the inside I still felt Ai's warmth, "nothing else happened."
~~~
She's in denial now hahahahaha. Did you guys like this chappie?
Thanks as always for reading and supporting this story!!
I'm publishing a new book soon. It's going to be a fanfiction about Do Kyungsoo from EXO. If you're interested, please check it out!!
Thanks for reading. I love you guys <3
~Lillianna