𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐇. enhypen

thirteen

"Alrighty then." Jihye shrugs with a mischievous tenor to her voice. She notices a trail that could possibly lead towards the lake below so she begins walking backwards slowly with her hands tucked behind her back. "Last one to arrive by the lake will get eaten by a Night Howler." She wiggles her brows at them. Ignoring their mortification, or simply unbothered by it, Jihye turns around and begins skipping her way down the path towards the lower ground.

"She's kidding, right?" Jungwon tumbles out, casting an unsure glance at the only other East Kingdom native for reassurance. "There can't be any Night Howlers out here."

"If you don't want to find that out then I suggest you don't get yourself separated from the rest of the group." Sunoo quipped low enough for it to not reach Jihye's ears, otherwise she'd surely chew him out in front of everyone for saying such cryptic things. But oh how he loved watching Jungwon's reaction, his Adam's apple bobbing and his shoulders tensing in fear. With a quick chuckle, he walks after Jihye.

Taking Sunoo's words to the heart, Jungwon quickly jogs down, lulling the rest to do the same as well.

Jongseong sighs out, taking a step to follow after Sunghoon but instead of the sole of his boot coming in contact with a rough surface, he's met with the sinking sensation of mud. "Great..." He mumbles under his breath, his mood falling drastically. Shaking off his boot, he trudged to Sunghoon's side, realizing just how much muddied dirt was on the ground,

He spots Jihye way in front of them and for a second his visage contorts into an expression of disbelief. "How is she all the way over there already?" Jongseong mumbles for Sunghoon to hear.

"Because she's not complaining under her breath like you are..." Sunghoon refutes before his voice trails off. Eyes fixating on the darkened landscape below them, Jongseong's lips curl in a frown.

"I see you're starting to get your attitude back. I was starting to wonder where it went." Comes Jongseong's cheeky reply.

"I don't have an attitude." Sunghoon backfires.

Only then did Jongseong crane his head, his lips curling up and his eyes narrowing at his cousin. "Please, you get all fussy when-" His comeback dies on his tongue as Jihye's shocked yelp cuts through the air.

"Are you okay?" Synchronously, Heeseung and Sunoo call out at the same time, causing them to turn to each other in comedic surprise. Jongseong and Sunghoon search for what had caused her distress, expecting some type of beast or creature to be looming behind a tree. But upon seeing that it was only her boot was stuck in sunken mud, their shoulders slumped in relaxation.

"I only slipped, I didn't tumble to my death. There's no need to sound so concerned." Jihye responds, waving her hand dismissively while looking at her damaged boots. She lifts up her foot and shakes off the mud as best she could, an annoyed sigh escaping her throat.

"It's a bit dark down this path. I can't see all the rocks on the ground." Jihye murmurs, her hand reaching to hold onto Sunoo who now stood right by her side. He lets himself be used as a support as Jihye continues to shake her boots clean. Albeit, her actions do very little to be effective. Especially considering how deeply her foot had slipped, completely over her ankle.

"Or the filthy mud." Jongseong remarked with a frown. He had long given up calculating his steps to best avoid getting his boots dirty, stopping after the sixth time he stepped into a puddle of wet dirt. At least they weren't his favorite pair.

Out of the blue, Sunghoon speaks up. "Heeseung, why don't you cast an illumination spell for us to be able to see the path?"

Jihye subtly looks in the peripheral of her vision for Heeseung's reaction and watches as he tenses at the mention of his name. If Sunghoon was making such a request from the older boy then he must not know of Heesung's inability to use Magic. How Heesung would respond, Jihye wasn't sure.