Honor and Glory | ATEEZ

024

We spent the rest of the day in the cool shadows that the tall palm trees provided us.

Dozing off by the edge of the water and enjoying its soft, calming sounds as the surface broke against the rocks along the sides.

San had followed Seongwha's example and decided to take a well-deserved nap beside the darkness elemental, the previously lush green grass surrounding them now glinting brightly in the sun, covered in a thin layer of crisp white frost.

Jongho had shuffled over to the sand by the water, sitting down on the warm surface where he had begun building a series of sandcastles by sheer force of will.

He looked absentmindedly into the distance, the tops of the palm trees swaying slightly in the soft wind.

Mingi had been hell-bent on finding something to eat but had come up mostly empty-handed after a while of searching through the lush plant life of the oasis.

Now, he was working hard on creating strong gusts of wind and sending it into the trees above us in an attempt to get some of the coconuts to fall down.

Despite his admirable efforts, it hadn't seemed to work, and the redhead had flown up to grab them instead.

Yunho had willed the water to become drinkable; a skill I didn't know that he even possessed. Wooyoung was still floating around in the lake, his eyes closed as he enjoyed the cool water against his skin.

Everything seemed to be more than perfect, at the moment, though I didn't want to get my hopes up in fear that I would jinx it.

I decided to join Jongho on the sand, wanting to get away from the others for a little while.

I sat down beside him and admired his work for a couple of seconds, impressed that the earth elemental had been able to conjure up something so beautiful with nothing but his mind.

"It looks like a city," I said.

Shuffling a little closer, I realized that what had looked like a cluster of random sandcastles at first now resembled an entire city instead, with small roads connecting the houses, intricate details cut into the sand.

"Is it-?" I began, wanting to ask Jongho if he had been trying to recreate his home, District 3, but he cut me off before I got the chance to finish.

"It doesn't look like it at all," he mumbled, and I could clearly sense the tone of sadness and disappointment in his voice.

Jongho was younger than the others, I remembered.

It must've been hard for him to be washed out of his home like that, a bunch of strangers pulling him along without as much as asking him first.

"Can I try?" I asked, wanting to brighten the mood a bit.

Jongho nodded and watched me with curious eyes as I tried my best to build my own sandcastle.

The sand was either too dry or too wet, and I couldn't make it stay where I wanted it to.

It kept falling down the side of my small building, if you could even call it that, forcing me to start over again.

"Let me help," Jongho said, shuffling over to me and putting his hand on top of mine.

Immediately, the sand in front of me began to change.

The building seemed to rise on its own, towers and spires shooting up from the ground, walls growing all around the sandcastle as small indents appeared in the sides, almost like windows.

I looked down at Jongho's hand that was still resting comfortably on top of mine.

For a moment, I felt a strong desire to interlock our fingers, wanting to know how it felt to hold his hand.