When Minho woke up, Jisung lay cuddled close to him. Behind him lay Changbin, the hand under his T-shirt, on Minho's stomach.

Smiling, Minho closed his eyes again for a moment. It felt incredibly good to wake up between the two. Although they had, due to the fact that the bed was smaller than theirs at home, less space, but even cuddled close to each other, it was better to sleep like that than to feel alone. Not that he really felt alone with Jisung in bed, but they were now so used to sleeping together in one bed that it felt empty when Chan and Changbin were not with them.

Finally, he stretched out yawning and carefully crawled out of bed. He felt much better and more rested than the day before. Quietly buzzing, he went into the bathroom and put himself in the shower.

Although he took his time in the shower, the others were still sleeping when he came out of the bathroom with a towel around his hip.

Minho shook his head with a grin.

He hadn't noticed when Chan and Jisung had gone to bed, so he couldn't say how long the two had been awake.

He quietly crept through the bedroom and went downstairs to make coffee.

With the cup in his hand and wrapped in a wool blanket, he sat down on a bench on the terrace and waited for the sun to rise.

The morning air was cool, but that didn't really bother him.

The world around him felt so different than in Seoul, where many people were already on the road at this time to get to work on time. Where the hustle and bustle was much more ubiquitous than here in the mountains.

Minho enjoyed the silence around him very much. But at some point it got too cold with just the towel and the blanket.

Just as he went back inside and wanted to bring his cup into the kitchen, Jisung came down the stairs. So Minho directed his steps to the stairs instead of into the kitchen and pulled Jisung into his arms.

"Good morning baby," he said affectionately and buried his face in Jisung's hair.

"Good morning honey!" said Jisung and leaned against Minho.

"Would you like a coffee?" Minho, questioningly held up the cup.

Jisung nodded with a smile and cuddled up with the wool blanket that Minho gave him on the sofa, while Minho went to the kitchen to make coffee.

A short time later, he carefully placed two steaming cups on the table next to the sofa and cuddled up to Jisung under the blanket.

"Do we want to wake up Channie and Binnie?" Minho asked at some point, after they had just cuddled together for some time and drank their coffee.

"No more necessary," they heard Chan say sleepily from the stairs.

Behind him, Changbin yawning came down the stairs. Both weren't fully dressed yet.

"Well, since you have company now, I'm going to get dressed. We want to leave soon, don't we?" asked Minho with raised eyebrows.

"Hmm yeah, sure. I just need a coffee first," Chan said and yawned.

"Will you make me one too?" Changbin asked, sat down on the sofa next to Jisung and pulled the younger one into his arms.

"Hey Binnie," Jisung said with a smile and cuddled up to Changbin.

"Hey, little one, slept well?" Changbin lovingly stroked through Jisung's hair and then kissed him gently.

Jisung nodded.

The next moment, Chan came to them with the coffee, sat down next to Jisung and handed Changbin a cup.

Jisung leaned against Chan for a moment before he got up.

"I'm going to get dressed, too."

Up in the bedroom, Minho sat on the bed, still the towel around his hip.

Worried, Jisung looked at him and sat down with him instead of getting dressed.

"What's going on, honey?" he asked quietly and pulled Minho to himself.

"Now the stress starts again, isn't it?" Minho asked unhappily and buried his hand in Jisung's hair.

"Well... not right away.. but probably soon. Why?"

But instead of answering Jisung's question, he gave him a gentle push. Jisung led himself fall on the bed and pulled Minho with him.

"I don't know... it never bothered me before. I mean, we got to know each other like that. With all the work and stress around us. But we often have so little time together. And although we've been together for so long now, we've never been on vacation with each other," Minho muttered quietly.

Jisung understood him all too well. Their life was often very hectic and timed through. They had little free time and even if they were just facing a comeback and actually had enough to do, they were already preparing the comeback afterwards.

Sighing, he wrapped his arms around Minho.

"Honey, we still have our whole life ahead of us. I know it's exhausting right now, but it won't always be like that!"

And although he had actually planned to make Minho a much more romantic proposal, he jumped up briefly and ran to the closet, where he kept the ring well hidden.

Minho looked at him confused.

"Baby?" he asked uncertainly.

Jisung breathed in nervously. He had no doubt that Minho would accept the proposal, but he was terribly nervous.

Minho immediately understood what Jisung was up to when he knelt in front of him, but he couldn't say anything. He stared at him speechless and noticed tears gathering in his eyes.

"Actually, I had planned something else, but now we can probably say that we tend to do something like that out of emotional moments."

He reached for Minho's hand and looked at him lovingly. That was the moment when the tears ran down their faces.

"Lee Minho, honey, our lives have been complicated before and everything that has happened now has certainly not made it easier. But I have the feeling that we are even closer than before. I love you so much and I want to spend my whole life with you! You managed to conquer my heart in a moment when I never had expected it. And I will try to conquer yours anew every day of my life!"

Jisung took a deep breath and felt the tension fall off him.

"Min, do you want to marry me?"

Minho nodded, still speechless and pulled Jisung to him. They kissed stormily before Jisung gently pushed Minho away from himself and carefully pulled the ring out of the box.

His hand trembled slightly and the ring almost fell down.

But finally the ring stuck to Minho's fingers and he pulled Jisung back into his arms.

"I love you so much baby!" Minho murmured and kissed Jisung lovingly.

"And I love you!" Jisung whispered and gently stroked Minho's hair.

Together, they remained lying close to each other. Although they knew that they should actually get dressed, they just didn't want to let go of the other.

And so they found Chan and Changbin when they came upstairs to get dressed.

"What's going on here? I thought we wanted to go right away?" Chan asked in amazement.

Grinning, Minho stretched his hand up and while Changbin was just staring at him for a moment, Chan couldn't stop grinning.

"So much for all my tedious preparations...", smiling, he pulled Minho into his arms.

"You mystery monger!" Changbin said still perplexed, shook his head with a grin and sat down on the bed.

Chan and Jisung looked at each other with a grin and shrugged their shoulders.

"Do we still want to go? Or do we want to stay here again today?" Chan finally asked.

"Let's go! Today is our last full day and we shouldn't spend it in the house, should we?" Jisung certainly said.

Minho and Changbin nodded.

For a moment they felt how close they were to returning to all the stress and reality.

"Okay, then let's go. We can still cuddle afterwards," said Chan and pulled Minho from the bed, while Changbin did the same with Jisung.

But instead of letting Chan go immediately, Minho pulled him into his arm and leaned his head against the shoulder of the elder.

"Thank you!" he murmured softly.

Smiling, Chan stroked his back.

"With pleasure!"

Now he let go of Chan and went to the closet to get dressed.

Finally, packed with some provisions, they made their way to the waterfall.

꧁ ⸺ ♥ ⸺ ꧂