Chapter 8.

It all comes down to this; I'm an ocean, you're the rain. The ice is melting fast, but you're not pulling down the brakes.

  “Don’t act like this!” Ten cried and Jaehyun finally stopped walking.

  “Act like what?” Jaehyun snapped and turned around to face Ten who was crying, he was biting his lip and flinched when Jaehyun stepped forward. “Like what?”Jaehyun repeated through gritted teeth.

  “If it was you how would you feel?” He asked.

Ten reached out for Jaehyun, but Jaehyun stepped away. “You need me.” Ten said through his tears, soft fingers touching Jaehyun’s neck. Jaehyun shook his head. Ten was too close to him.

  “I don’t need you.” He said and saw Ten retract his hands. “We can’t fall into this again.” He then added when he saw how hurt Ten looked.

Ten looked angry. “There’s nothing wrong with it!”

  “There’s everything wrong with it!” Jaehyun exclaimed. “Everyone thinks it’s disgusting, you’re not supposed to kiss another guy and actually want it. You’re not supposed to love another guy like that, you’re not supposed to touch-” Ten stepped away. “- another guy like that. We were boys, Ten and we were stupid. It’s wrong.”

Jaehyun avoided Ten’s glare, but then he decided to look at Ten and Ten looked furious. It happened in a blur. Jaehyun felt a sharp pain on his left cheek and his head was forced to turn at the force of the slap. “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with love, Jaehyun!” He yelled. “Did it ever feel wrong? Tell me!”

Jaehyun sobbed, but shook his head.

  “Say it!” Ten shrieked large tears falling from his wide eyes.

  “It felt right.” Jaehyun sobbed.

  “What about Taeyong?” Ten asked. “Did it feel wrong?”

Jaehyun sobbed and started falling to his knees. “It felt right.” He cried and Ten just looked down at him.

  “Stop listening to stupid people, Jaehyun. Love is not weakness.” He said and Jaehyun cried out.

  “It feels like a weakness.” Jaehyun said after some time. “It hurts so much!”

Ten kneeled down beside Jaehyun and embraced him. “It’ll stop hurting.” He said softly and kissed Jaehyun’s temple. “It’ll stop hurting, I promise.”

Jaehyun gripped onto Ten’s shoulder with one hand, pulling him even closer. Ten kissed the top of his head.

  “It’ll stop hurting.” Ten repeated and Jaehyun cried into Ten’s shirt, wishing again and again that Taeyong just could’ve loved him and not hurt him like he did. But Taeyong would never love him.

Johnny, Mark and Hansol came running towards them and Ten shielded Jaehyun with his body. Jaehyun hid his face in Ten’s shirt, holding onto it with a steel grip.

  “It’s okay.” Mark’s voice sounded and Jaehyun stopped crying in the middle of a sob.

  “What?” He asked and leaned back.

Mark’s eyes were wide, but there was no sign of him not meaning what he said. “I don’t care.” He said. “You’re you.” He added and Jaehyun wiped his cheeks. Mark went over and reached out a hand for Jaehyun to take. “You’re my friend.” Mark said lips pressed into a thin line. He looked serious and Jaehyun took his hand, letting the younger pull him up on his feet. Johnny went over and helped Ten up, one arm around him. Hansol looked furious.

  “Want me to beat them up?”

Jaehyun shrugged. “What can we do?”

Mark smirked. “I know what to do.”

None of the group had duties to make dinner that night. Soohyun said they were free to do what they wanted, but tomorrow he had plans for them. The group just smiled and sneaked out a bucket from the hut. Jaehyun’s eyes were red, but he didn’t mind. As they were crossing the space from the West hut to the East side of the South hut, he noticed Taeyong stand with Yuta and Jeno. Taeyong lifted his gaze and looked at Jaehyun. Jaehyun looked away. Taeyong’s gaze was piercing, but he couldn’t read it.

The three boys went into their hut and Mark peeked into the hut. “They’re all eating, let’s do this!”

Crawling up the backside of East, Johnny received the bucket from Hansol and Mark and Jaehyun stood in the room that seemed to belong to Doyoung, Taeyong, Yuta and Jinyoung. They read it from the bags. Mark sent a crooked smile in Jaehyun’s direction before he started to slowly pour water on the top bed of one of them. Jaehyun was covering his mouth, he hadn’t imagined the Canadian boy to do this.

They had reached the last bed. Taeyong’s bed when they suddenly heard steps outside. Mark hurried towards the window and threw out the bucket. Ten shrieked when he was hit by the cold water. Jaehyun didn’t know what to do, he grabbed a shirt from one bag and as the door opened he threw it over the person’s head. Mark gripped the boy’s flailing arms and Jaehyun held him close to his chest to muffle his voice.

Mark looked up at Jaehyun and they both shared a gaze. It was Taeyong.

Jaehyun gave Mark a questioning look and Mark looked back at him with wide eyes while struggling to keep Taeyong’s arms still. Mark shrugged exaggeratedly and Jaehyun groaned before throwing his body against Taeyong’s and pinning him to the wall. Taeyong froze for a moment, arms squeezed between their chests. “Let me go!” Taeyong’s muffled voice yelled. “Who are you?”

  “You shouldn’t have done this to me.” Jaehyun spoke in a low voice where he assumed Taeyong’s ear would be and Taeyong’s body stiffed.

  “J-Jaehyun?” He stuttered and Jaehyun pressed his body against Taeyong’s almost crushing the smaller. Taeyong yelped.

  “You don’t say a thing.” He hissed and Taeyong struggled a bit in Jaehyun’s grasp. Jaehyun decided to be more specific. “I’m going to tell them that we’re together.” He said and Taeyong froze once again.

  “Who?” Taeyong asked in a small voice.

  “Your parents.” Jaehyun said. “I have a collection of pictures of us because of you and your friends.”

Taeyong didn’t say anything. “Please.” He just pleaded and Jaehyun let go of the other. Taeyong stood totally still.

  “You didn’t see us.” Mark then said and Taeyong turned his head in the direction of Mark’s voice. Then he shook his head and Jaehyun felt relief wash over him before he hurried out the window and sprang into Hansol’s arms. Johnny reached up and caught Mark before they all ran into the forest.

When they found a sunny spot for Ten to sit and dry in, Mark spoke up. “Someone came in!” He gasped after catching his breath. Jaehyun sent him a look and Mark silenced. Then he nodded and continued. “We didn’t see who it was because Jaehyun immediately threw a shirt over his head. We struggled a bit but we managed to throw him out of the room and then run.”

Jaehyun gave Mark a grateful look and then he nodded when Hansol looked at him. “He wasn’t that tall or strong.” Jaehyun said. “I could manage.”

  “Did you get all the beds?” Ten asked and shook his wet hair. Johnny huffed when he was hit by the droplets.

Jaehyun shook his head. “Not Taeyong’s.” He said and Hansol groaned.

  “Dammit!”

  “But we got that Doyoung, right?” Johnny asked and Mark and Jaehyun nodded.

  “Good, I can’t stand him.” Hansol blew his bangs away and after failing to do that flicked his head to the side. Jaehyun just enjoyed the evening sun and glanced at the green field they had found. It wasn’t big, but they had found a large set of stones they could sit on. Ten kept running a hand through his hair to dry it.

  “Sorry for drenching you.” Mark piped up and Ten laughed.

  “You’re dead, you know?”

Mark winced. “Man…”

Jaehyun chuckled; still he couldn’t get the feeling of pinning Taeyong to the wall off his body. It was reacting weirdly to him, he felt hot just thinking of his hips pressed to Taeyong’s body and Taeyong’s arms caught between them, hands flat against Jaehyun’s chest. Jaehyun shuddered and shook his head. Mark looked at him worriedly and Jaehyun gave him a small smile. “I’ll manage.”

He mouthed.

He wouldn’t really, he wasn’t ready to face Taeyong again, and a small voice inside his head told him he was totally wrong about who he thought Taeyong was. Taeyong hadn’t sounded disgusted at all when Jaehyun pressed his body against his. His voice had sounded so small.

Jaehyun noticed the others get up and he looked away, taking in the pine trees swaying in the wind. He hated not knowing what the was happening.
He didn’t know anything right now. He didn’t know Taeyong and he didn’t know himself.

Mark patted Jaehyun’s knee when he passed him and Jaehyun sprang down from the stone and headed back to camp with the boys.
 

It was silent and the boys entered their hut to meet a smell of food in the air. The boys all smiled and headed towards the kitchen where Taeil forced them to leave because they were busy cooking. Sehun was lying on the bed with his gameboy when they entered and then he jumped up. “We didn’t get to draw the stars!” He said and Jaehyun smiled.

  “Let’s draw them now.” He said while taking the pen and they went over to the corner they had chosen. They drew the stars in the shape of a crystal to make sure they could recognize them amongst all the other stars. Then Taehyung called for them to come down and eat.

After dinner they had plans of meeting by the fireplace, Soohyun and Jongsuk thought it was great for both teams to come and Johnny and Hansol snickered before heading out, talking casually as if the other team was on the hunt to find the culprits who had drenched their beds. Ten was talking about how he had seen some stars form the star picture of the zodiac sign leo, which Mark was gasping at. Jaehyun was staring straight ahead because one wearing a black hoodie and a piercing gaze stood opposite him. Soohyun told them to take a seat around the fire and Jaehyun positioned himself at the upper steps, hoping his face would be in the shadow. Taeyong sat opposite him, eyes still looking at him.

Jaehyun cleared his throat and looked away, but then he noticed Doyoung, Jinyoung and Yuta’s glares and he tried hard not to smile. Johnny and Hansol laughed loudly and Mark continued on with a joke that Jaehyun barely listened to. Mark sat at his feet and Ten sat to his left beside Johnny. Sehun leaned over and put one hand on Jaehyun’s knee. “Have you heard?” He asked after Jaemin had gossiped. “Someone drenched the other team’s beds? Just one room, but still!”

Jaehyun pretended to be surprised and gasped. “What? Who?”

Sehun shrugged. “I don’t know but I want to kiss them!”

Jaehyun faked a disgusted expression. “Ew, don’t.”

Mark though leaned in and whispered to Sehun that he had to prepare himself to kiss a lot. Sehun and Mark continued to gossip, Sehun trying to figure out who had done it. Jaehyun raised his gaze and saw Taeyong’s dark eyes reflecting the flames. Taeyong was fiddling with his sleeves and he raised his gaze again to look at Jaehyun.

Jaehyun gave him a look, and Taeyong shook his head. So he hadn’t told anyone. Jaehyun nodded and then joined in on Ten’s conversation with Johnny and Hansol.

  “What is this I hear?” Soohyun suddenly spoke up after talking with Jongsuk. Everyone looked over at him, only the sound of the wood giving in to the flames could be heard. A few insects were buzzing around too, but besides that dead, dead silence. Soohyun glanced at everyone. “Someone has drenched members of Team River’s beds?”

Jaehyun remembered to scan everyone’s faces as if being curious too. Taeyong was rubbing his face with his sleeve covered hand, eyes focused on Soohyun.

  “Does anyone know who did this?” Soohyun asked and Doyoung raised his hand.

  “It was Jaehyun.” He said and everyone gasped while Jaehyun could only look at Taeyong while his jaw was dropped.

Taeyong’s eyes were wide and he shook his head as if saying that he didn’t go against Jaehyun’s word.

  “How could you know?” Johnny defended Jaehyun. “You only say that because you don’t like him.”

Doyoung laughed but it sounded far from happy. “So it is him?”

  “He was with me all day.” Mark said and everyone looked at him. Taeyong frowned while looking at him, as if he recognized the other’s voice. “Also how the hell would he get into your room? Who would by free will go in there?”

A few laughed and Jaehyun couldn’t help but chuckle.

Soohyun groaned. “Okay stop there, anyone want to confess?”

No one spoke.

  “That’s it.” Soohyun said and crossed his arms over his chest. “We’ll mix the rooms.”

  “What?” Johnny exclaimed.

Soohyun looked at him more sternly. “For one night we’ll have the teams share rooms together.”

Jaehyun felt his blood run cold.

  “That will be tomorrow, because it’s too dark to move around in the night. Prepare yourself. I’m making the rooms.”

Jaehyun knew this wouldn’t turn out good. He looked over at Taeyong who was thoughtfully looking into the fire. If Jaehyun had to room with Taeyong he’ll scream.

Jaehyun screamed. 

A/N:

I'm writing chapter 18 right now and damn, I still have a lot to write and have planned ahead. I really love this story, and thank you all for all the comments, I really really appeciate them! They inspire me so much! <3
Also thank you for 100+ subcribers, it's nice to see so many enjoying this story! <3

Once again, comments are always appreciated! <3

Love,
Emma. <3