He had come that close to him.
It was fortunate for himself but unfortunate for the other.
While quietly watching him amid the rapidly successive shutter sounds, the noise eventually stopped.
It was after the bird had flown away.
“Can you actually get photos when it’s this dark?”
There was a soft glow thanks to the lanterns he had placed on various trees, but it was still night.
When Junghyun questioned whether photos could be taken in such low light, Jaehyuk approached and showed him the screen.
On the LCD display was a round bird flying through black snow flowers under a faint light.
“…A fat… bird…”
“Its feathers are puffed up because it’s winter.”
“But it’s still too round, isn’t it? Can this thing actually fly? It looks like it would roll if you poked it.”
As Junghyun muttered that it was very cute, Jaehyuk pressed a button to show the recently taken photos in reverse order.
Though the camera had auto-focused, they were good photos even taking that into account.
“…You take good photos?”
It wasn’t professional level skill, but quite impressive for an amateur.
Though they had lived together for several months, Junghyun had never even seen him take photos with his phone. Without thinking, he complimented this unexpected talent, and predictably received an arrogant response.
“This is just the basics.”
“I don’t think that’s true… If you mainly photograph wildlife and landscapes, why not bring your camera when you go surfing?”
Junghyun lamented that ocean and wave photos would look great too, but Jaehyuk drew a clear line on that point.
“Because others don’t need to know about my hiding place.”
Camping itself was his hideaway, and the photos were treasures within that hideaway.
Too precious to show or tell anyone.
Junghyun wondered if he should even know about this, but didn’t ask.
The fact that he was here meant that he too had become something precious that Jaehyuk wanted to keep hidden in his sanctuary.
“The bird is back.”
While looking at the photos, Junghyun noticed a strange presence and looked up to see that the marsh tit had flown even closer than before.
When he pointed this out, Jaehyuk picked up his camera again and pressed the shutter.
As he busily captured the small bird in photos while watching the camera’s LCD screen, his face showed a seriousness Junghyun had never seen before.
Silently, Junghyun took in the sight of his profile as he focused purely and solely on the birds.
Under the soft light, the snowy landscape was quiet and peaceful, the small bird flying in the dark sky was lovely, and the man capturing that world in photographs was the most beautiful thing in the world.
Like a miracle.
* * *
It snowed all night that day.
The snow was pouring down so heavily it seemed almost like a disaster, but it wasn’t frightening at all, and the occasional sounds of wild animals were more fascinating than startling.
It was coming down so heavily that they had to take turns going out to shake the snow off the tent from inside and outside to prevent it from collapsing, but even that was fun.
Fighting over who would go out, and getting hit by a snowball while trying to find an easier way to shake off the snow.
Even in this disaster-like situation, everything was peaceful and enjoyable.
He etched each moment into his mind.
To never forget.
* * *
“Aren’t we stranded?”
Not particularly early in the morning.
After opening the vestibule door and seeing the outside scenery, Junghyun calmly reported their current situation.
With only a slight exaggeration, the snow had piled up almost to their knees.
This was clearly a disaster situation by any measure.
“The snow plows probably won’t make it up here, right?”
Not only had snow accumulated, but despite the sunshine, the temperature had dropped sharply, suggesting the snow would freeze in this state.
So they were basically isolated.
But without any sense of tension.
“They would come if called, but it would take some time. We’re probably not the only ones in this situation.”
Jaehyuk, who lit the stove saying this sort of thing happened often, leisurely approached Junghyun’s side. After briefly checking outside, he commented with an equally tension-free tone.
“It did come down heavily.”
“This must be the heaviest snowfall of the year, right? Do we have snow chains for the car?”
“Yes.”
“Cable chains? Spider chains?”
“Both.”
“Then we can use the cable chains. I’ll snowboard down.”
Junghyun seriously considered whether a snow sled might be better at this point.
But despite his words, his expression remained utterly calm.
Though they were trapped in a forest by heavy snowfall, neither Junghyun nor Jaehyuk felt particularly threatened.
Jaehyuk was accustomed to such situations, and Junghyun was unconcerned.
Things would work out somehow.
“As for going down, let’s wait and see if the snow melts first.”
“Will it melt?”
“That I don’t know. In a pinch, we could leave the car and ski down.”
“How would we get home?”
“Remember the fork in the road when we came up?”
Thinking back, there had indeed been a fork when they entered the forest. They had taken the left path.
“Yes.”
“We came from the left, and if you go right, there’s a villa. There’s a car and snow removal equipment there.”
“Wow… amazing…”
“Snow removal equipment is standard for villas in this area. Since snow plows don’t reach villages in deeper areas, you have to clear the snow yourself during heavy snowfall.”
“No wonder you were so calm—you had a backup plan.”
“You must have expected something too?”
“No. I was seriously thinking of snowboarding down. If there’s no snowboard, I could slide down on any waterproof fabric.”
Junghyun pulled up his hood, saying it was a natural snow slide park, so what was there to worry about? At this unexpectedly composed response, Jaehyuk smiled as if he’d known all along.
Junghyun was the type who excelled at improvisation. He had good reflexes and quick responses.
As the vestibule gradually warmed up, Jaehyuk returned to the stove and poured bottled water into a kettle.
“After having a cup of tea, we need to prepare breakfast, and for some morning exercise…”
Cutting off his sentence there, Jaehyuk took a broom that was beside him and held it out to Junghyun.
At the sudden appearance of the broom, Junghyun blinked.
“Why this?”
“Car.”
“…Car?”
“We need to clear the snow off the car.”
Whether they were going to snowboard down or ski down, they would need to open the car’s trunk, so he was telling Junghyun to clear the snow off the car.
At those words, Junghyun slowly turned his head to look for where the car had been parked, and muttered a small curse under his breath.
“Damn it…”
He had wondered why he couldn’t make out the car, but it was because the car was no longer in the shape of a car.
The tent had little snow accumulated on it, probably because Jaehyuk had gotten up several times during the night to shake off the roof, but the car was buried in white snow, reduced to nothing but a lump.
Even with snow accumulation, the shape or position of the windows should still be visible, but there was nothing of the sort.
It was just a large snow mound.
“Work hard.”
“So you’re going to cook in the warm tent while I go out and clear snow?”
“Would you rather cook?”
Having tasted the fish cake soup that Junghyun had cooked solely by instinct yesterday, Jaehyuk had issued a prohibition order, forbidding him from even approaching the pot. Since Junghyun had also decided to give up cooking after tasting his own fish cake soup, he obediently took the broom that Jaehyuk offered.
“I’ll sweep the snow.”
“Good thinking. You’re a worker optimized for simple labor.”
“I know.”
Saying he knew that better than anyone in the world, Junghyun put on his gloves while grumbling. As he finally picked up the broom, Jaehyuk threw him the car keys.
“There’s an ice scraper in the trunk box. That’ll be faster. And when the door opens, try starting the engine. If it doesn’t start, we’ll need to jump-start it.”
“You want me to jump-start it too?”
“Can you do it?”
“I’ve been driving for years.”
As Junghyun said he could certainly handle that and took one step outside the tent, his foot sank deeply into the snow.
The knee-high description was an exaggeration—the snow was piled roughly to the middle of his calves.
This was cutting it close. Worrying whether the car could actually move, he took large strides forward.
Exhaling white breath, Junghyun approached the back of the car and began sweeping the snow off with the broom.
After a while, the shape of the trunk emerged more quickly than expected. He immediately took out the car key, opened the trunk, and found the ice scraper inside.
Then he sectioned off the accumulated snow and scraped it away.
Thanks to his efforts, the car soon regained its original shape, but in exchange, the wheels were buried deeper in snow.
This car wasn’t going to move. It would be difficult to put on the chains too.
Thinking they would have to choose between a snowboard and a snow sled when descending, just as he was about to ask if Jaehyuk had a shovel, his previously silent phone vibrated.
His body flinched at the vibration.
He took off his gloves and pulled out his phone from his coat pocket, having completely forgotten its existence.
As expected, there was a trivial message on the screen.
After dismissing the message casually and putting the phone back in his pocket, he heard the sound of footsteps in the snow behind him.
Turning around at that sound, he saw Jaehyuk holding out a tumbler.
“Tea.”
“Thank you.”
As he took the tumbler, which was releasing white steam because the lid was open, Jaehyuk, who had noticed the now-clean car, sincerely expressed his admiration.
“You work well.”
“You should know that I just saw where the snow chains are. Especially the cable ones.”
“…I’ll make five packs of ramen. Eggs with your ramen?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll add three. Let’s go inside.”
“Sausages too.”
“I’ll put in all the ones we have left.”
Listening to his gentle words, as if soothing a child, Junghyun followed him toward the tent.
The dreamlike time was over.
It was time to return to reality.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
Thanks for updatess 💞💞💞