Chapter I

Jennie wiped the sweat off her forehead and adjusted the straps of her backpack. Her legs were burning, feet covered in blisters, but she didn’t dare to stop. Lisa, the self-proclaimed master of mountain treks, said that it hurt less when you just kept on walking. So Jennie walked, or more like dragged her feet, taking tiny steps, one by one.

She really couldn’t understand why the students’ body decided to hold the integration camp in the mountains. Were they a bunch of sadists who enjoyed watching people as they gasped for air and writhed in pain? Most probably. Masochists who derived pleasure from walking up a steep hill in a thirty degrees heat? Certainly. Into which category Jennie fell? She wasn’t sure yet.

Being a sophomore meant there was no real reason for her to participate in the event. But Rosé said it would be fun and Lisa obviously had to second her. So Jennie wasn’t left with much choice, really. It was either joining them or listening to their constant whining.     

“Oi, you okay there, mate?” Rosé called out as she waited for Jennie to catch up. Her ginger hair glowed in the midday sun that peeked through the dense foliage above them.

"Don’t. Call. Me. Mate,” Jennie wheezed the words to the rhythm of her steps, glaring at her friend. “And yes, I’m fine.”

“We could take a break, you know?” Rosé suggested and fell into step beside Jennie.

Ignoring her words, Jennie tried to make out Lisa’s silhouette among the crowd of freshmen students who walked in front of them. Sure enough, she caught a glimpse of the bobbing blonde head at the very front of the group.

“How come she is so far ahead already?” Jennie her chapped lips, staring at their Thai friend’s tall figure in the distance.

“You mean Lisa?” Rosé chuckled. “Don’t underestimate her, mate. She may be skinny, but come zombie apocalypse or some other disaster, I guarantee you, of the four of us, she’s the only one surviving.”

Jennie snorted. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

Somehow she could easily imagine Lisa using her sick breakdance moves in fights against zombies.

“How has she been doing lately?” Rosé asked after taking a gulp from her water bottle.

Jennie glanced over her shoulder at the two female graduate students who were bringing up the rear by choice.

Those were surely the sadists.

“She’s fine. Much better than she used to,” Jennie replied, remembering how excited Lisa was in the morning before they left for the camp. It had been a while since Jennie saw her grinning with such unabashed enthusiasm.

“Has she been mentioning her?” Rosé asked cautiously.

Jennie took a sip from her bottle and shook her head. “Not to me at least. Has she been talking to Jisoo?”

“Yeah, but not about her. Jisoo still feels guilty, though.”

“She shouldn’t,” Jennie stated flatly. “It’s not like she was playing a matchmaker. She just invited them to the same party.”

Rosé let out a heavy sigh. “That’s exactly what I told her. But I think she won’t feel better until she is one hundred percent sure that Lisa has moved on completely.” 

“Well, she’s here, that must mean something,” Jennie concluded calmly.

She wished to know what exactly it meant, though.            

“Can I say something crazy?”

Jennie cocked an eyebrow. “Don’t you always say something crazy?”

Unfazed by the comment, Rosé continued. “I always thought you and Lisa would end up together.”

Jennie barked a laugh. “What?” She looked at Rosé in amused disbelief, but seeing as her friend remained silent, she instantly discarded the mirthful attitude. “Wait, you aren’t joking.” Her eyebrows narrowed somberly.

“Why would I?” Rosé countered, sounding uncharacteristically serious.

“Because that’s just a ridiculous idea,” Jennie retorted a little louder than she intended, prompting a few odd looks from the freshmen students. “It would never work. I don’t even do relationships, and Lisa is… she…”

“Prefers older women?” Rosé provided lightly.

“I was rather thinking along the lines of being a hopeless romantic, but you have a valid point too, I guess,” Jennie admitted. “Either way, that’s not happening. It would only mess up our friendship.”

“Aha!” Rosé exclaimed, shattering the tranquil ambiance of the forest. The students in front of them hastened their steps. “So what you’re basically saying is that if you two weren’t friends, you would totally go for it.”

Jennie grunted in mild irritation. “That’s not what I--”

“Oh come on,” Rosé said, cutting her off. “Just admit it, mate, you think she’s hot.”  

Biting the inside of her cheek, Jennie shook her head. She had no idea how to respond to Rosé’s accusations. Especially since there was some truth to her words. Because yes, Lisa was attractive, or scratch that, she was drop-dead gorgeous. With her shrewd eyes, precious bright smile and slender figure, she could have any girl she wanted. But she didn’t, because she believed in one true love, even if that hadn’t worked out for her so far.

 “See? You’re thinking about it. Honestly, you should just go for it. Follow your heart, mate.” Rosé gave Jennie a playful shove and gushed with a smug grin.

Rubbing her abused arm, Jennie scowled at the girl. “How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me that? I grew up in New Zealand, not Australia, and you haven’t been down there in years, too. Besides, we’re girls, it doesn’t make sense.” 

“Don’t change the subject.” Rosé waved her off. “I know that you’ve at least entertained the idea of you two being together.”

Jennie grimaced, wishing her friend wasn’t so perceptive. Although she considered relationships a waste of time as they usually led to nothing but disappointment, something she’d learned through both - experience and observation, Lisa’s honest and laid-back personality made it easy to imagine that with her things would be different. Still, Jennie wasn’t willing to risk their friendship just to check whether her foolish hunch was correct.

“Sometimes the strongest relationships are born out of friendship, you know?” Rosé spoke up again in that awfully mature voice. “So don’t let the fear of losing Lisa stop you from going after her, because one day, you may lose her to someone else, anyway.”

Jennie tightened her grip around the straps of her backpack.

Rosé’s words hit too close to home. Because as much as Jennie wanted to remain just friends with Lisa, she wasn’t entirely okay with Lisa being in a relationship with someone else either. It was selfish and stupid, and she wasn’t even sure why she felt that way.

“Thought you two got lost already.”

A familiar voice interrupted Jennie’s thoughts. Looking up, she noticed Jisoo waving her snapback at them while devouring a sandwich. She sat on a decaying log and next to her stood Lisa who was downing a bottle of water. Her flushed skin held a soft glow under the light of sun rays. Stray droplets of water trickled down her chin to her slender neck, disappearing somewhere underneath her sinfully short tank top.

Mesmerized by that alluring spectacle, Jennie swallowed thickly. A gesture Lisa must have mistaken for a sign of thirst.

“Want some?” She offered her bottle to Jennie, grinning happily.

But despite dryness in , Jennie shook her head. “I’m fine,” she muttered curtly, unable to meet her friend’s gaze.

It wasn’t that kind of thirst that she felt, and the fact highly disturbed her. Though not as much as the sight of the two graduate students approaching.

“Okay, let’s get going guys.” She resumed her walk and Lisa followed her, after hefting her huge backpack onto her shoulders.

Jennie wondered what the hell she was carrying in it and how exactly she was able to maintain her balance under its weight.

“Hold up, I haven’t even finished eating,” Jisoo remarked with reproach.  

Jennie stopped and turned around. “You can eat on the move, or just join us later.” Although she was talking to Jisoo, her blank stare was directed at the graduates.

After exchanging a few words in hushed voices, the two girls stopped and dropped their backpacks to the ground, resting beside them.

Jennie noticed how Jisoo followed her gaze. A wry expression distorted her delicate features as if she’d just realized that her sandwich was way past its expiration date. Her lips parted like she was about to say something - something very unpleasant. But then Rosé snatched her snapback and put it on her head, blocking her vision.

“Hey!” Jisoo screeched and after taking off the cap scowled at her mischievous girlfriend.  

“It’s okay, we’ll catch up with you,” Rosé told Jennie and shot her a suggestive wink.

Rolling her eyes, Jennie left the two to their own devices and went back to Lisa. The girl either didn’t notice the older students or simply ignored them since Jennie couldn’t find any traces of uneasiness on her face. Just a soft smile which Jennie unwittingly returned. 

“Look at you,” Lisa said once they resumed their walk, her voice carrying a happy lilt to it. “You said you would die before you reached the top and now you’re the one hurrying us up.” She slung her arm over Jennie’s shoulder, pressing their cheeks together. “I told you it wouldn’t be so bad.”  

Not able to remain her gloomy self in the face of Lisa’s unending optimism, Jennie let out a hearty chuckle. And although her feet were surely bleeding and she wouldn’t be able to walk tomorrow, she had to agree, it wasn’t so bad.

The rest of the climb was spent in comfortable silence. As the top of the mountain seemed to jump at her, Jennie felt a sense of uncanny anticipation thrum within her. Was it caused by her earlier conversation with Rosé? Or perhaps, by Lisa’s eager smile? She had no idea. But something told her that nothing would be quite the same after this camp.

A/N: A bit short, but hope you enjoyed it ^^