···

The door to the girls’ restroom suddenly open.

“Seulgi!” Wendy exclaimed, panting hard as if she was running.

“I’m here,” Seulgi raised her wet face up, “What’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing.. Just some people telling me that you excused yourself and went to the restroom all of a sudden. Did something happen again?” Wendy asked, a face full of worry.

Seulgi just smiled, “Well, thanks for coming here to ask.”

“No problem.. So.. Anything?”

“N–no, nothing.. But let’s go before the other students think we’re doing something fishy inside the restroom,” Seulgi headed for the door.

But Wendy just laughed, “Haha, I wouldn’t mind.”

···

“The school trip is going to take place in two days, so I hope you’re all prepared for that. We tried our best to go with your preferences of who you wanted to be in a cabin with, so there’s that, and that’s what you filled out when you were registering online, yes?” The teacher announced.

“Yes,” the class answered.

“I hope you’ll all have fun. You’ll spend three days there doing activities and of course, some bonding nights, right?”

“Yes,” the class replied once more.

“Now rules and guidelines. Because this is a school trip, you are expected to abide by the rules 24/7 and act like you guys are on school campus. Don’t do anything that would get you in trouble in school because that’s most likely going to get you in trouble on the trip. Okay, point is, get prepared, pack, and go to the school trip to have fun, be safe, are we clear?”

The final, “Yes.”

Cabin 6:

Taeyeon*

Seulgi

Wendy

Amber*

Joohyun Irene

Luna

Krystal

Jinri

*Those upperclassmen who have asterisks after their names are cabin leaders.

Wendy and the others walked up to the paper.

“Hey, wait, was this Taeyeon girl always in our group?” Seulgi asked.

“Taeyeon..? She’s in our group?” Wendy commented right after.

Then Amber, Luna, and Jinri respectively.

“What? W–wait, why is she the other cabin leader? What is this!?”

“T–Tae –– Taeyeon!!?”

“Why in the world is someone that we don’t know in our group?” Jinri crossed her arms, “Since when did Irene join our group too!?”

“Who was the Joohyun girl that got replaced by this Irene girl?” Amber asked.

“Ugh! You don’t remember? I told you that Irene is Bae Joohyun since Day One, duh! She just likes to be called Irene preferably over Joohyun –– and don’t ask me about that,” Jinri quipped.

Being the big talker that Jinri was, she spoke fast.

And Krystal, being the silent one who doesn’t care, had no comment.

« Irene is in the group? Taeyeon is in the group, too? What does this mean –– what are the chances of having them put into a group like ours..? Was this intentional or coincidental? » Seulgi thought.

“You okay, Seul?” Wendy asked.

« She’ll always ask that same, exact question. »

“I’m fine.”

“So are you going to think about her again –– Irene..” Wendy frowned.

Wendy was absolutely right, no matter how much Seulgi wanted to deny it. Irene was a different kind of girl that she’s seen at the school, and almost never does she see her in public at lunch with other people –– just in chemistry. It makes her wonder where she is and everything –– who wouldn’t be curious? She is really pretty after all, she seemed like she’d get popular really quickly.

“Oh, Irene? Well yeah, a lot of people want to talk to her for some reason –– like she’s a cool kid and all that –– but they always fail. They always lose her somewhere in the hallway or something. People have tried to find her to befriend her, but they never find her unless they have at least one class with her. It’s strange, really. I heard chemistry was the only class that she actually has a seat partner –– and it turned out to be you!” Jinri said, a while ago. Seulgi was just recalling her discussion.

“Seulgi?” Wendy waved her hand in front of Seulgi’s face.

“H–huh?”

Wendy sighed, “Yeah, you are totally thinking about her right at this moment.” Her face with a sad expression.

“... Wendy, that’s not –– ”

And then Wendy just hugged Seulgi tightly, “Let’s not talk about her. At least, not right now.”

Being jealous was something that Wendy knew not to feel, and being mad at Seulgi for thinking about Irene was just going to add oil to the fire. The last thing that Wendy wanted was a relationship that lasted for only a few weeks –– Be sensible –– she thought.

Out of nowhere, Amber cleared , “Are you two done yet?”

···

[Day Of Departure]

Wendy held Seulgi’s hand tightly. They were walking onto the bus, ready for the 2 hour trip with snacks in their hands.

“I heard that one of the nights, our cabin’s going to be paired up with one of the guy’s cabins, for an activity,” Amber chuckled, “Can’t wait to hang with the guys.”

“We’d better get paired with the hot guys, not some nasty, disgusting nerds,” Jinri scoffed, “I don’t want to touch some random guy’s hands if they’re not hot.”

Krystal just nodded in agreement.

“Oh yeah, they gotta be the cool guys..” Amber rephrased her statement.

“One night, we’re going to walk alone in the dark during the night on the ‘Night Trail’. And then there’s another night where there’s a ‘Test of Courage’. It’s like the Night Trail but you get to have a partner next to you while you walk. It’s apparently like the Night Trail, but longer,” Wendy enlightened all her listeners, “And that there will be scares –– occasional jumpscares here and there –– and also scaarryyy things to come.”

Luna whispered dreamily, “It’d be great if I could be partnered with Taeyeon.”

Amber just rolled her eyes.

Wendy turned her head to look at Seulgi, and when Seulgi could feel that Wendy was looking at her, she turned her head also. Wendy smiled brightly, but Seulgi smiled awkwardly.

Everyone got quiet again. Krystal and Jinri were sleeping on each other. Amber just sat with Luna, leaning on the window while Luna had her head on Amber’s shoulder. Wendy sat tall while leaning back with her eyes closed.

Seulgi was trying to sleep like how Wendy was, sitting still with her eyes closed. But she couldn’t help but to be intrigued by her schoolmates’ conversation.

“Hey, those two girls in the back… Did we ever have such pretty students in the back? I’ve never seen them before.”

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