WITH GRACE.

24장

"next, boomerang!" dongkyu and jungwon excitedly chorused.

"NO!" i shouted and surprisingly, jay also did.

before we reached this predicament, our group went to play with the bumper cars, rode the spinning teacup and the tower drop.

the bumper cars was fun if i take out the painful collisions in the equation. sure, it was safe and fairly better than those frightening colossal rides which gave me the scare from merely staring at them. the thing about my bumper car experience was that i had a competitive company, unfortunately. they gained energy from clashing with each other. despite my numerous attempts to stay away from their chaotic shenanigans, they were always able to include me as their indirect casualty. it's also good to note that the safety belt's buckle positioned at my clavicle and the friction between it and my skin hurt and itched. aside from that, collisions made my head feel swirled and my body feel badly bruised. i did gain a few bruises here and there because of that ride. i wish i went on with sunghoon's offer to ride with him. after all, he looked unscathed despite the chaos that ensued while the other boys whined with the aftereffects of their crazy antics.

we followed the bunper car ride with the spinning teacups. this time, i sat on one gigantic teacup with my babies, heeseung and jay on another and jake and sunghoon occupied the third one. i caught jake sticking out his tongue at me before the ride started. unfortunately for him, karma backfired all too quickly. jake, jay, and jungwon screamed their lungs out. my ears almost bled to death with the sum of their scream's decibels. it may not be the adrenaline-inducing kind of ride, but the cup rotation and the entire ride turning made it scarily dizzying. i even staggered when i went out of the teacup.

after a small break, we propped ourselves on the tower drop seats in this order: jake, heeseung, dongkyu, me, sunghoon, jungwon and jay. the drop made my stomach churn reprehensibly. i joined the three j's screaming fest and together we made strangers look at us in concern. my well-kept hair was now haggard, but thank goodness i did not end up belching my insides out. jay did, however.

that is why going into an extreme ride like the boomerang or t-express was in no way alright for my fickle body. the boomerang was a gigantic structure ㅡ a disk-shaped sitting area was suspended on air, held by metal poles and it swung all over the place while the disk rotated. the sight was enough to give me goosebumps.

"why not? it looks fun?" heeseung oppa asked.

"there is no way i'm spending the rest of my rationality in that baneful ride. no way," i replied as jay nodded his head in agreement.

"no fun, eunhye. not cool, jay," jake said at the two of us.

"at least i know how to value my reputation. i've faced enough humiliation in this life, it's not good for my cool image," jay shook his head.

"jake, your legs are trembling," sunghoon pointed out, making us look at jake's shaking legs.

"w-what are you talking about? haha. i'm alright, i'm fine. let's just go!" jake replied, laughing nervously im between his words.

"you guys go, i'll wait right here," i said, finalizing my decision.

"yeah, me too," jay seconded.

"no, one of you has to go," dongkyu insisted.

in the end, jay and i played a game of rock-paper-scissors to determine the unfortunate sacrificial lamb riding with the others to the boomerang. all luck had abandoned jay, and i smiled in victory; relieved to see him lose the silly game.

"i'm staying behind with eunhye," sunghoon suddenly announced as they all got ready to go (except jay who was hesitantly walking as heeseung oppa dragged him along).

"suddenly?" heeseung oppa exclaimed.

"no can do, hyung. you're not hogging our noona again," dongkyu protested.

in the end, sunghoon went with them. dongkyu and jungwon dragged him towards the rides and that is how i ended up sitting by myself on a shaded bench. from here, i had a clear view of both the boomerang and t-express.

when the boomerang buzzed to life, i heard ear-deafening screams and pleas for salvation rang throughout the place. i laughed at the sight, realizing just how lucky i was today. jay's image is hanging by a thin thread now and i wondered how he was doing up there.

when the ride ended, i saw their silhouettes come towards me. when they got nearer, i saw one who was being supported by two others ㅡ it was jay who had his arms around sunghoon and heeseung oppa. jay hastened his steps and flumped to the neighboring bench. the poor guy was in bad shape. he looked as if he had met death face to face.

"i'm dying," jay blurted out.

"you still have the energy to blurt out words, i think you're just fine," i said.

"no. that damned ride consumed the life force out of me," he replied in a frail voice and the rest of the guys snickered.

"jay hyung, how weak," jungwon chimed in, forgetting he led the screaming from the earlier rides.

"sh-shut up," he feebly replied.

sunghoon disappeared a while ago and now he came back carrying a bottle of water in his hands. he stuffed the bottle on poor jay's hands. jay's arms were almost frozen to a ninety-degree position, just holding the bottle.

the rest went to ride more terrifying rides while jay and i contentedly stayed at the benches. honestly, i do not have any more energy to expend just with seeing how horrendous the rides were.

the guys finished riding at dusk. jungwon suggested to catch the night ferris wheel and witness the fireworks, so we had dinner first ㅡ care of jay. despite the hardships jay faced today, his heart if gold never failed to show.

fortunately, there weren't many people left tonight. the queue for the ferris wheel weren't that long. through another game of rock-paper-scissors, we decided the pairings. heeseung ended up with jungwon, jay got paired with daniel and jake, while i was stuck with sunghoon ㅡ much to jake's chagrin. jake was actually begging the two of us to adopt him and share a cart with us, but sunghoon blatantly refused.

now, the cart we were in were gradually ascending to the sky. sunghoon and i sat across each other. i knew he had been watching me since earlier, but the heights kind of spooked me and i couldn't even process anything else. i only felt my hands which tightly held on to the sides of the cart loosening their hold ㅡ sunghoon took both of them. he gently drew circles on them, marvelously calming me.

"scared?" he asked.

"aㅡa bit," the cart came to an abrupt stop and i screeched, earning his concerned gaze.

"alright, i am definitely terrified," i confessed.

"don't think of anything, not even the heights. there's only one thing you should be terrified about,"

"death?"

"death aside. you should only be terrified of falling deeper for me," he flaunted an enchanting smile, silencing me for a few moments.

"why?" i finally snapped out of my speechlessness.

"why not?"

"no, i mean ㅡ why should i fear falling for you? it's impossible not to be trapped. you're just too..." i trailed.

"too?"

"you're just too enthralling, and it doesn't help that you annoyingly stick close to me," i continued saying, my voice almost inaudible.

i heard him chuckling and it unknowingly brought a smile to my face.

at that instant, the fireworks started popping. i looked to my right where the cart's window was. the height was scary, but the view was captivating. the fireworks added beauty to the sight. i looked back to sunghoon whose face was illuminated by the pretty lights.

"beautiful," he said as he smiled and stared straight into my eyes, rendering me speechless once again.