Chapter 2

Beautiful Stranger

 

 

It was that time of the month when high school sophomores from different schools have started an environmental camping in one of the famous provinces of the country.

 

At one particular academy, the students have gathered early in the morning. Chatters and whispers of excitement buzzed throughout the crowd. They boarded soon on the shuttles and every student spent the road trip either sleeping or chatting with their friends. It was like this every year and they’ve only heard how exciting and fun this camp was from their seniors.

 

Four buses started to stop in front of a big gate of some kind of a private resort. Excited whispers were heard as soon as all the students stepped out the shuttles. The head professors had taken the lead in entering the resort followed by the ever-so-amazed campers looking around in awe. The resort was indeed private. A lake was separating the resort from the entrance. They rode a boat to cross the lagoon and soon enough the breathtaking view of the mountains around welcomed them.

 

After checking a perfect attendance, the professors led the students to the clubhouse where they were going to start the camp.

 

“Alright. Everybody settle down.” One of the professors said. The students did as said.

 

“There are five cabins for every section. So here’s what we’ll do. We divide the three sections into five teams. The teams have already been decided. Let’s start with the first team your leader is..” The professor explained and paused looking briefly down on the papers in his hand.

 

“Lee Jinki.” He continued looking at the said student earning an enthusiastic nod.

 

The announcement carried on to each of the team’s leaders and members up to the last.

 

First team was Green, second was Red, third was White, fourth was Blue and the last team was Yellow.

Luckily, Jonghyun and his two other friends belonged to the same group; Green.

 

“Now, the first team gets to occupy the first cabin and the rest that follows go respectively.” The professor announced.

 

When Jonghyun’s team got to their cabin, Jinki and Joonmyun shared decks while Jonghyun shared with another boy.

 

The students were given an hour to prepare for the next activity. Some of Jonghyun’s teammates, including him, chose to spend half of the hour to take a nap. He set an alarm and wore earphones to listen to his ‘lullaby’ songs.

 

Their free time went on and Jonghyun was woken up by Joonmyun and they got ready for the activity. When they reached the pavilion, they immediately gathered with their teams and soon after the professors started to explain the game. It was a game where they needed to find a string of their team colour on random plants around the resort and name them. Jinki, as the leader, constructed his strategy of grouping his teammates so they could finish faster.

 

Jinki randomly pointed each and just told them whose partner is whose. Some immediately left and ran to search excitedly. Jinki, his two friends and another boy were the only ones left. He grabbed Joonmyun and left Jonghyun with the other boy with a, “You’re his partner, Jjong!”

 

Feeling dumbfounded Jonghyun stood on his spot unmoving. It wasn’t until he felt a poke on his shoulder did he wake up and turn to the smiling boy. “Hi!” The boy waved his hand and smiled wider. He thought he had too much energy.

 

“Hi. Let’s go?” Jonghyun wanted to escape as fast as possible. He felt awkward with the stranger and he knew he needed to plot revenge against Jinki for leaving him like this. He started to jog around and search for their team colour.

 

They occasionally bumped into their teammates frantically searching around. Jonghyun scanned his eyes around the place they ended up it was a bit far from the clubhouse now and he only got two plants on his paper. The boy wasn’t helping either. He beamed on every little thing they pass by.

 

“Hey.” The boy said after a while. Jonghyun had found one plant and wrote its name he knew by memorization on the paper and pulled the string off the plant to put it in his pocket.

 

“Yeah?” He replied out of manners but didn’t look at the other and scanned around.

 

“I’m Kibum.” The blond boy reached his hand out and Jonghyun gaped at him.

 

“What?”

 

“My name is Kibum.” The boy eye smiled and took Jonghyun’s hand to shake them.

 

The brunette nodded slowly. “I’m Jonghyun….?” He said unsurely.

 

“Jonghyun…Well, it’s nice to meet you.”

 

“Nice to meet you too, Kibum.”

 

The blonde chuckled at that. While Jonghyun rather held on a thought.. What’s up with this guy?

 

“I’m sorry about this but can we go back to the game?” Jonghyun asked carefully.

 

“Oh! Right! I found one over there.” The boy pointed back near the cabins and the other immediately saw the green string tied to a fern.

 

“Come on then! We don’t have much time.” Jonghyun grabbed the other’s arm and ran toward the plant. Jonghyun pondered for a moment what the name of this plant was but he couldn’t remember it. “Hey, do you know what this is called?”

 

Kibum looked at the plant for a while before he shook his head. Jonghyun groaned and glanced around to see if any of his fellow team members were around but there were only the other teams.

 

“Alright! Everyone! Time’s up. Head back to the gazebo!” One of the coordinators shouted and Jonghyun whined but eventually walked back with Kibum feeling sorry behind.

 

 

“The winner is the Red team!”  Cheered the coordinator once everyone had gathered and tallied the strings and plant names they’ve collected. Said team roared in joy as they received the prize that was promised. The other teams did clap for them except for one who could only whine in defeat. “Green team, unfortunately, came last. You only got ten names out of fifteen but you had thirteen strings. And you know that’s not the rules but I commend you for telling me the truth.

 

“However, you guys are to be punished.” Hearing this, the group only whined and cried even more. “You will do the chores for dinner.”

 

“But, sir!” One of the members cried loudly and stomped his feet on the ground. This only caused the teacher to chuckle as well as the other students.

 

“No buts. I expect all of you to do the chores equally. Jinki, you assign the errands to your teammates.” Jinki nodded nonetheless and apologized senselessly to his team members.

 

After they finally settled down, they had started their main purpose of the camp. They had different guest speakers that shared about the natural environment and everything about it. Some were attentively listening but also most were staying as quiet as possible as they chatted with their friends. Jonghyun was one of them. He was animatedly whisper-talking with Joonmyun while Jinki paid much attention to the lecture. Little did Jonghyun know, someone else was listening in on their conversation.

 

“…-ust heard their latest song. It was so cool, right?” Joonmyun beamed as he leaned slightly against Jonghyun talking about one of their favourite bands.

 

“Me too. I really liked it. And I heard they were going to have a concert next month. Do you wanna go?” Replied Jonghyun.

 

“I think so. If I save enough lunch money though.” Both boys snickered as they relate to each other.

 

“I want to go too!” They flinched as one a mess of blond suddenly jumped in and his voice wasn’t exactly silent and so everyone had turned to them including the speaker in front. One of the teachers stood up, bowed politely to the guest and approached the boys.

 

Once close enough, she raised an eyebrow seeing two shocked but annoyed boys and one seemed to be uncaringly happy and had one of his arm wrapped around Jonghyun’s shoulder. “May I ask what it is that you are talking about in the middle of an important session? And where it is you want to go, Mr. Kim?”

 

“No! I didn’t-..” Jonghyun was about to protest when the instructor shook her head and pointed to the blond beside him.

 

“I was talking to him, Jonghyun.” Said boy frowned as he mistaken the overly used common surname as his own. Seriously, are everyone in Korea needed to have the same surnames? Don’t they get confused?

 

“Well, Jonghyunnie said he wanted to go to a concert and I wanted to go too. But don’t worry; we won’t go until next month.” Kibum answered with a huge smile on his face.

 

“Who said I’d go with you?” Jonghyun protested but was left ignored.

 

The professor sighed and looked in front again where the lecturer had continued his presentation. “Look, you need to be quiet because someone is talking in front, okay? You can talk about that later. Do you understand me, Kibum?”

 

Jonghyun thought it was kind of weird how she spoke to the blond. She had this tone that he was sure could only be used when talking to a child. Though, he thought it was weirder as he saw the boy beside him who now had let go of him. “Yes.” He answered dragging the last letter.

 

The teacher smiled and turned to Jonghyun and Joonmyun again. “If I catch you two again, you’ll be going to bed earlier without dinner.” She uttered seriously and walked back to her seat.

 

Jonghyun scrunched his nose and whispered to his friend, “How come she was mad at us and not at him? It was his fault!”

 

“I don’t know. I’m gonna move next to Jinki hyung.” Before he could complain the younger had already stood up and moved to the elder’s side. He could only pout to himself and sulked as he was left alone again. Curse Jinki and his sixty-year old eyesight. Jonghyun didn’t really like sitting near the front and especially in front. He had to force himself to listen to these boring speeches about trees and small plants and making them plant them because they’re slowly reducing. Why them? He wasn’t the one pulling those trees out to make pencils and chairs and doors and all things useful in life. He wasn’t the one who shoves his endless ultraviolet rays that cause plants to dry out. He wasn’t the one who makes it rain so much for a minute and the second it was freaking hot that he was afraid he might get heat . So why was he supposed to plant them if other people or even the nature are only going to destroy them? It would only be a waste.

 

Jonghyun buried himself inside his thoughts but immediately got pulled back into reality as he heard a ridiculously childish giggle behind him. He turned around and saw the familiar blond locks and wide mouth-ripping grin.

 

“You look funny.” He said as he tried to cover his chuckle.

 

Jonghyun, though, shook his head and turned to the front again. he might as well listen to that old man over there than be bothered by this guy here. But his soon plan to have a peaceful time by himself was cut off when he felt a finger poke his shoulder. He shrugged it off but it kept continuing. He hissed in annoyance and flicked toward the boy called “KIM” Kibum.

 

“What’s your deal?” He whisper-shouted looking murderously at the blond. However, Kibum seemed unfazed this. Because he smiled again.

 

“Tell me about the band you liked. So I can like it too.”

 

Jonghyun frowned. “Didn’t you hear what the teacher said a while ago? Do you want me to get in trouble?”

 

Kibum only shook his head. He stood up suddenly and occupied Joonmyun’s vacant seat. He smiled again at Jonghyun to which the other only replied with an irate snort.

 

The next few minutes went by like that. Kibum would occasionally nudge him and talk about nonsensical things –at least to Jonghyun it really was. The brunette had tried so hard to ignore him but all his focus went down the drain when he heard the other’s words once again.

 

“I like your eyes.” Kibum whispered but not looking at him. Jonghyun, honestly, didn’t know if he was talking to him or not. He thought he was but he wasn’t looking at him.

 

“What?” He asked before he could stop himself.

 

At this, Kibum turned his head to him and gave him a fond smile looking directly at him. It was then Jonghyun saw Kibum’s extremely bright caramel orbs. And he thought the same as the other did.

 

“I like your eyes, Jonghyun. It’s so brown and deep and shimmering.” The blond said as if it was just a normal thing. Yet to the older, it wasn’t. It was not normal at all. Especially since he felt a shiver run from down his toes and up to his back and neck. And he was sure that after that shudder, his face was that of a tomato.

 

Jonghyun was about to reply when suddenly everyone around them clapped indicating that the lecture was over and stood up to either yawn or stretch. Typical students. A buzz immediately emerged from the crowd. It became loud after a second so Jonghyun missed Kibum’s last words.

 

When Jonghyun turned, Kibum was nowhere next to him. He saw him with the other students heading back to the cabins. Jinki and Joonmyun came back in time and he was pulled with them.

 

They were given a break for the afternoon. Jinki thought of this as the perfect opportunity to discuss their punishment. The team was gathered inside their cabin huddled in a circle around the leader. Some of them were on the bunk beds. Jonghyun was one of them laying flat on his stomach on the lower part of the double deck. Jinki started assigning each of them to the chores.

 

“So we lost..” Jinki started. “…and cheated.” He mumbled looking at the guilty-looking members. “We are to do the errands for the dinner. This means we need to go and help in the kitchen and dinner hall.

“Me, Joonmyun, and Kihyun are going to help serve the food.” He pointed to himself and said members. Jonghyun sighed loudly making everyone look at him as he rolled to his back.

 

“What?” Jinki asked.

 

“You left me out.. again.” He emphasized the last word and closed his eyes in annoyance.

 

“I have something else for you.”

 

Dark chocolate orbs slightly opened revealing a smiling face looking down on him. “Hi!” Caramel, looking happy stared at him.

 

“…”

 

“What now?” Jonghyun grumpily asked.

 

“We are left out. We are out of slots in doing errands.”Kibum says.

 

“You two.” Jonghyun and Kibum turned.

 

“You’re going to wash the dishes after dinner.” Jinki simply assigned.

 

“What?!”Jonghyun jumped out of bed.

 

“Well, since you two got the lowest number of plants named. Plus you lost one ribbon..” Jinki pointed to the ceiling reminiscing each and every mistake the two of them made this day. “Plus you interrupted the seminar. Plus you didn’t pay attent-.”

 

“Okay! I got it already!” Jonghyun hissed and was left like a kicked puppy by Jinki and now was also left with this weird-childish boy. When Jonghyun turned to Kibum, as usual he was smiling at him.

 

“Come on. Let’s eat!”Kibum offered.

 

“Yeah.”Jonghyun shortly replied.

 

Kibum went out of the cabin first and Jonghyun followed then. As the two were walking to the dining hall, Kibum was talking to Jonghyun but for the latter it seems like he’s talking to himself.

 

Kibum stopped walking for a minute and turned to the other.

 

“Were you listening?” asked Kibum.

 

But Jonghyun just kept walking and passed by him.

 

“No. Should I be?” Jonghyun coldly replied.

 

“No, it’s okay. I-it’s actually.. nothing.” Kibum felt a sudden tight knot in his stomach.

 

“You’re just hungry.” Kibum whispered to himself and ran to the hall.

 

 

 

Jonghyun entered the hall, grabbed a plate and fell in line. He put a scoop of rice and a piece of fried chicken, some side dishes, a juice and sat on a table by himself.

 

He was about to eat a spoonful when this almost familiar figure sat in front of him.

 

“Hi.” He brightly smiled.

“Aish. What’s with this guy?” Jonghyun thought to himself.

 

Jonghyun continued eating and never-minding the boy in front of him.

 

Slowly, the other students head to their cabins and Jonghyun’s team were left and started doing their assigned errands. Jinki tried helping his other mates in their errands and gladly they almost finished their works.

 

On the other side, Jonghyun was arguing with his dishes and was being watched only by Kibum.

 

“Aren’t you supposed to help me?” Jonghyun stopped for a second and asked his ‘partner’.

 

Kibum replied with a chuckle and grabbed a towel to dry the dishes.

 

Silence gapped between the two and finished earlier than expected. It was still quite a while since there were too many plates and glasses and utensils but by then Jonghyun finally loosened himself and let go of the grudge he so wanted to hold against that friend of his. Yeah, friend. He should also reconsider hanging out with Jinki. They brought back all the dishes into the kitchen and headed back to the cabin.

 

“Jonghyun. Can I ask you a favour?” Kibum called out and asked.

 

“Uh-yeah. What is it?” Jonghyun replied suddenly halting his steps and yanking his head back to face the other.

 

“You won’t get angry, right?” Jonghyun hesitantly nodded.

 

“Depends. What is it?”

 

“Can.. I-.. uhm..” Kibum clicked his tongue and scratched his head at the same time falling to stare at the now more interesting ground. “Can I have.. your.. I mean..”

 

He breathed out deeply briefly closed his eyes, “Can I have your I.D?”

 

The crickets around started to sound louder at the next scene. Kibum had his head slightly tilted and one eye closed.

 

“Sure. Here you go.” Jonghyun replied after another painful minute and removed his name tag.

 

“T-Thanks.” The blonde stretched out his hand and received the I.D shyly.

 

“What do you need it for though?”

 

“Because..” Jonghyun raised his eyebrow and questioningly looked at the blonde boy.

 

 

“Because I want to remember you..” He raised the tag and read the name written in Jonghyun’s own penmanship, “..Jonghyun.”

 

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I REALLY JUST CAN'T LET THIS PASS.. MY FAVOURITE 2MIN AUTHOR JUST SUBSCRIBED THIS FREAKING STORY!! HELLO TO HARUNACHAN-NIM!^^ OH GOSH , YOU DON'T KNOW HOW HYPED I AM! I'M LIKE.. LIKE.. I DON'T KNOW.. JUST GAAH! *0* THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR COMMENTING TOO!^^

 

OH AND HAVE A MERRY SHINee CHRISTMAS AND새해 복 많이 받으세요 TO EVERYONE AS WELL!!