“What did you just say?!”

Jihyo, Jungyeon and Nayeon gasped as Momo and Mina reiterated what had occurred back there.
Tzuyu looked blankly as the girls used complex Korean words that seemed to do with geography which she did not understand yet.

“It’s around 1.5 hours walk from where we are, you say?” Jihyo asked, doing her best to stay calm in the situation.

Momo nodded, even her laid back demeanor doing little to hide her frantic thoughts, “I shouldn’t have rushed ahead…”

“It’s not your fault,” Mina muttered, surprising everyone with her input, “If we stayed, nobody would be able to get help for them until much later.”

“How fast can emergency help come?” Nayeon asked, looking at Jungyeon who was making the call.

“It appears that there are many incidents requiring aid right now,” she responded, “And since these two are not injured in any way, the rescue team unfortunately will have to get to them later as they focus on priority cases….”

“But…all the food supplies of our group is on me,” Momo blurted out as she patted her well stocked rucksack, “And it’s almost evening now…”

All of a sudden, Jihyo dropped her rucksack to the ground.
She began taking things out – extra clothes and a tent etc. until only some essentials, a sleeping bag, first aid kit and food supplies remained. Flinging the much lighter bag on her back, she turned her back from the crew.

“What are you doing?” Tzuyu asked as the student president candidate walked away with a mission on her mind.

“I’m going to help Sungjoon sunbae and Sana.”

A hand quickly gripped on Jihyo’s shoulder.

“I’m coming with you,” shouted Jungyeon.

“You should really come out.”

“NO!”

I sighed as I sat near a bush outside the tent I just built.
Sana had chosen to stay indoors away from the bugs, but also away from any possible rescue helicopter from seeing us.

“Why are you acting like this?” I rolled my eyes.

“We only need one person outside!” she replied loudly, “Plus you owe me, big time.”

“One more mission better be deduced, two would be even better,” I retorted, “Being stranded with you and doing the grunt work goes way beyond what the missions for accidentally seeing you...not that dressed….should have entailed!”

“You should feel blessed to be stranded with me!”

I was about to fight back when groans could be heard from the tent.

“Wait…are you okay?”

“Shut up you idiot, byuntae!”

!!!!

So for being nice I get treated like this!?

After a brief moment of silence, a more restrained voice came out of the tent.

“Sorry…” Sana whimpered, “It’s just….”

After a deep breath she finally completed her sentence.

“….I’m on my period.”

Momo and Mina remained with Nayeon and Tzuyu as they continued to make way to base camp after leaving directions for the emergency rescue team.

Nayeon and Tzuyu appeared preoccupied in their own conversation as Momo noticed Mina looking at her.
The blonde girl finally broke the silence between them and whispered, “Are you still mad at me?”

“No, you just told me never to talk to you again,” Mina noted, “Did you forget?”

Momo swallowed as the guilt sunk in deeper than it already did.
“Was this why you were being so chummy with others like Sungjoon except for me?”

The former ballerina looked away towards the sunset framed by the mountain scenery around them. “You think too highly of yourself…not everything is about you.”

“Eh???” Momo stared at Mina, confused.

“You are too obvious aren’t you?”

Jihyo stopped in her tracks as Jungyeon asked her the question.

“Starting a rescue mission for my best friend,” the older girl chuckled, weighing in the reaction of Jihyo, “It sure lets everyone know you care about him…”

“….I just want to make sure he is okay,” the younger girl replied hastily after a slight pause.

“Sure, you can tell them that,” Jungyeon continued, “Wait, isn’t that their tent across the valley over there?!”

She pointed towards a tent stuck between boulders quite a distance away.
A familiar looking boy appeared to be sitting outside the tent.
Both of the girls looked at each other and increased their pace.

“Look, I got some painkillers if you need something,” I said, reaching to the tent, “You need to be comfortable if we want to survive until help comes.”

I peered into the opening to see Sana knowing frustrated, rolling around in a sleeping bag.
She immediately stopped when she saw that I was witnessing all this and slid further away from me.

“JUST THROW IT IN!” she cried in caterpillar mode.

Tossing the bottle of pills, I studied the face of the flustered girl.
“Don’t girls know around when they go on period? Why would you opt to come to a trip with potentially water sports and definitely hiking and camping on your period? Especially when you weren’t a part of the program to begin with…?”

Sana judged me silently as she unscrewed the bottle cap, “It’s none of your business.”

“Were you doing it for Jihyo’s campaign? You are more invested in student politics than I thought…” I began to the tent further, hoping to go in talk with her. Staying out there was awfully boring and uncomfortable.

“You! Stay away from me!” the girl got jittery all of a sudden.

“WHY?! We have been hiking together all along today...Although you were almost always far behind or walking closer to Momo now that I think about it…was it the period…or…?”

Sana pulled her hands out of her sleeping bag, “Just keep this arm’s length of distance away from me!”

“Why?”

The girl finally had enough of my questioning and grabbed me by my collar.
This felt oddly, familiar.
Too familiar.

Suddenly, my lips felt warm.