“Xayah, babe, I promise I won’t say anything, but can you please put me out of my misery and tell me where we are going?” Sett asks.
Xayah raises her eyebrow at her boyfriends and their matching pleading eyes. “Mieli, when has begging worked?”
“A number of times, in fact, miella,” Rakan teases.
“I can’t tell you because you’ll ruin Aphelios’ surprise.” Xayah checks the time on the phone, unsure why Aphelios is taking longer than usual. “He should be down here any minute.”
“When do I get my surprise?” asks Rakan.
Sett and Xayah speak at the same time, “next Friday.”
“Wait, really?”
“No,” they reply at the same time, in a weird show of synchronicity. That’s not really their thing, in Xayah’s opinion. Still, Sett winks at her when they do and, of course, Xayah rolls her eyes at him.
Rakan, for his part, deflates and Xayah briefly considers giving him the chocolate box she bought for him, but decides against it. She can’t fold so easily.
“I’m Phel’s boyfriend. Shouldn’t I know what we’re surprising him with?” Sett tries again.
“That’s exactly why you can’t know. You’ll see him and give him your social security number and he doesn’t even have to ask.”
“Yeah, I’m with Xayah on this one, babe,” adds Rakan.
“Why would Phel ask for my social security number, I’m sure Alune has it.”
Finally, the elevator doors open to reveal Aphelios and his sister Alune, the band’s manager. Without missing a beat, Alune turns to Rakan and Xayah, “I expect them back before 10 am, in one piece.”
“Don’t look at me, I’m not even allowed to know where we’re going. Wait, 10 am?” says Rakan immediately.
Alune arches an eyebrow, but nods and says, “Xayah, I know you’re usually the sensible one, I know I can trust you, but I can’t trust them not to be on Koreaboo’s frontpage come tomorrow morning.”
“Has anything bad been published?” Sett asks, concerned, very much the band’s leader all of a sudden.
“That’s not the point,” says Alune. “The point is that that particular website is quick to run with speculation and it has a large following. I don’t want the label to hold anything over you.”
Xayah sighs, aware that she has to intervene before her surprise gets ruined —Alune knows what they’re doing tonight, it’s part of the rules of them going out into the world: she needs to know where they’re going so she can be prepared in case of reporters. They don’t want a repeat of the night at the arcade. “Alune, I know. We’ll be fine.”
She gives them a curt nod and turns around. The elevator doors open and she steps inside with a high pitched “have fun!”
“How are we supposed to have fun after that?” asks Sett.
Xayah checks her phone one more time just as the driver messages her that he’s out front. She turns to her guys and says, “Like this.”
Then she walks out of the building confident that they will follow her.
They do.
Forty minutes away from Seoul, the Jungmisan Observatory is the closest place to the city where stargazing is possible. The light pollution in Seoul is too bad to allow for any kind of romantic evening under the stars.
Not that their evening has had the most romantic of starts since the first thirty minutes of the trip are spent with the guys trying to guess if Xayah is taking them out of the city for sexy reasons or for a triple murder.
The first one to notice the observatory is, of course, Aphelios and when he does, his gasp is heard as loud as church bells.
“What is it? Oh,” says Sett following Aphelios’ gaze.
“An observatory?” asks Rakan, tilting his head to the side. In Xayah’s opinion, he looks adorable.
“The Eta Aquarids,” whispers Aphelios.
“What is that?” asks Rakan. “Are those the shooting stars—?”
“Meteor shower,” amends Sett.
“—meteor shower you were talking about the other night?” continues Rakan, looking between Xayah and Aphelios. “Miella, you got us tickets to an observatory on meteor night?”
She doesn’t see how stating the obvious will add anything to the conversation, so she says, “the moon is waning so it will be visible from the Northern Hemisphere.” Her boyfriends are both looking at her with surprise in their eyes; Aphelios smiles. “What? I read the articles Phel shares in the group chat.”
In a whisper, to avoid being heard by the driver, Sett asks, “did my girlfriend just romance my boyfriend harder than me?”
“Imagine if she were trying to steal your man,” Rakan teases, elbowing Sett on the side.
“So… how long is this meteor shower?” Sett asks with a glint in his eye. “Will there be time for other recreational activities?”
“The best time for the shower is before dawn,” says Aphelios in his low voice. Anywhere else, the guys would be straining to hear him, but here in the van, Aphelios’ voice carries enough that he doesn’t have to repeat himself.
It’s a little past midnight and Sett looks at Xayah, aware that she would not ask her guys to be still for four hours. “Then what are we doing until then?”
The van makes a turn and they arrive at their destination, a campsite that’s more luxurious than anything she would’ve picked for herself —they don’t have tents, they have domes— but that’s secluded enough that they shouldn’t be bothered by anyone. As a bonus, it’s only a short trek to the observatory itself, which is good since Xayah is not a fan of hiking in the woods.
“I didn’t pack for a hike,” says Sett.
“You’ll be fine, I promise.”
Alune checked them in in advance, so Xayah goes to the front desk to pick up the keys on her own. The clerk tells her about the meteor shower and lights up when Xayah mentions they are going on a tour later that night. As Xayah comes back to find her guys, they’re having a lively debate about the merits of “stargazing music”, whatever that is.
She walks past them to the end of the campsite, where dome number twelve waits for them. The guys follow her, Rakan and Sett still invested in their conversation, while Aphelios wordlessly catches up.
Xayah must admit that the glam portion of this camping trip certainly delivers. As they open the door, they’re greeted by a small living area with two low profile sofas and a coffee table in front of them. Next to the door there’s a place for their shoes and the hosts have generously left some house slippers for them. There’s a flatscreen on top of a low rack that houses a minibar. They have a private bathroom with hot water and a working shower and enough towels that it’s making the last hotel she stayed at look bad. The dome even has air conditioning.
On the coffee table, more goodies await: a bottle of sparkling wine and chocolate-covered fruit.
“Wow,” says Aphelios.
“Wow indeed,” adds Rakan, coming up behind Xayah to hug her. He puts his chin on her shoulder before saying, “when did you get such expensive tastes?”
Xayah half-turns in her arms and puts a hand on Rakan’s cheek. She speaks to him, but the words are clearly meant for the three of them. “I did this for you. I’d sleep in the back of a truck under the stars if y’all weren’t squirmy about snakes.”
Sett grabs her hand and Aphelios’ at the same time, bringing him to the group hug Rakan has initiated. Xayah feels safe and loved in their arms, their embrace warm enough that it could last the whole night. Xayah is the first to pull away, looking at the one man she’s not dating, “ready to go watch some stars, Phel?”
Aphelios gives her one of his warmest smiles. “Ready when you are.”
They drop their things off and Xayah guides them to the observatory. She’s never been there before, but she’d be damned if they’ll get lost in a 20 minute walk so she memorized the path. They are almost 10 minutes into their trek when Sett says, “I’m not gonna lie, this place is not giving me very romantic vibes. More like serial killer vibes.”
“I don’t know, it’s giving orgy in the forest vibes,” says Aphelios, the most he’s spoken the whole evening.
Sett trips over empty air just as Rakan grabs his arm in time to help him stay upright. Xayah shares a look with Aphelios, then laughs.
“I mean, if we weren’t—” Aphelios starts.
“Phel, you can’t say things like that! Not when we can’t…” Sett’s voice dissolves in the darkness.
“You have to admit it was funny,” Xayah says.
“We have to go back.” Sett stops walking and does his best to sound as serious as he can, without much success. “We can’t just… do nothing about that.”
For once, Rakan is the voice of reason. “We can, actually. We have things to do.”
Sett groans, but resumes walking. Aphelios for his part, looks like he’s really considering Sett’s proposal.
“Do you want to go back?” asks Xayah.
The man shakes his head. “The milky way awaits.”
The observatory tour is short because even their guide wants to see the night sky. Apparently, it’s the best night to see the Eta Aquarids and next year conditions won’t be as favorable in the Northern Hemisphere. Xayah knows they were lucky to have an evening together this year, if Heartsteel’s success continues, that might not be the case next year. Who knows where their schedules will take them by then?
After they’re shown to the guest observation deck, they grab something to drink and go sit in the folding chairs scattered around the deck. Since they’re not alone, they keep their chatting to a minimum, their eyes fixed on the dark sky. The meteors streak across the night, their fiery trails illuminating the vast, quiet expanse above. Xayah feels someone’s hand on her shoulder, but she can’t look away from the sky. It feels blasphemous, to waste an instant of this peaceful moment.
Time passes differently when one’s entranced looking at the sky and before Xayah knows it, the first signs of dawn start to show. The other people in the observation deck have started stirring, conversation picking up around them louder than Xayah would have liked. Aphelios stands up and the rest of them turn to look at him.
“Come on. We should try to sleep,” he says.
Xayah stands up after him. “Yeah, let’s.”
When they get back to their dome, Sett wastes no time and takes off his hoodie and t-shirt in one fluid movement, then he drops on the sleeping area, making a mess of blankets and pillows.
“So about that orgy…” he starts, already undoing his zip.
Rakan grabs the bottle of sparkling wine on the coffee table, pops it open and takes a big swig from it. Xayah watches as Rakan passes Sett the bottle before kissing him, deep and demanding. She turns to Aphelios and arches an eyebrow in invitation.
“Ladies first,” he teases, using his hand to gesture towards their boyfriends kissing in the sleeping area.
“Yeah, right,” Xayah is smiling though. Before joining them, she asks Aphelios, “did you have fun tonight?”
Aphelios grabs her hand and pulls her towards their half naked boyfriends. “Night’s not over yet.”
Xayah shakes her head fondly. She could stretch this night a little longer, she guesses.