9:00 AM- 11:00AM: Morning

Jackson woke up to the sound of "Reveille" blasting through the camp speakers at full volume. "Morning already?" he groaned. It felt like he'd just gone to sleep an hour ago, which maybe he had. Most of their cabin had stayed up half the night playing cards with each other and gambling with Yugyeom's stash of potato chips. Only Mark had gone to bed after an hour of playing, and Jinyoung an hour after Mark. How the two of them were able to sleep through Youngjae's maniacal laughter was beyond Jackson.

"How did the date go?" he'd asked Jaebum after Jinyoung had gone to sleep, respecting Jaebum's desire for him not to bother Jinyoung with it anymore.

"Fine," Jaebum had said. "It was pretty relaxing."

"Any kissing?"

"No."

"Booooring."

"You know, most boys would be planning ways to get over to the girl's half of the camp, not getting all fangirl-y over the resident slash couple," Jae pointed out.

"I know some of the girls over there, and they play dirty at cards," Yugyeom said. "Not a chance."

"As if you aren't playing dirty," BamBam said. "You keep on eating my chips."

And so they had carried on for most of the night.

To Jackson, Jaebum had overall seemed a little off during the card game. Occasionally his eyes would wander over to where Jinyoung was sleeping on the bottom bunk, then wander back to some vague place, usually Jackson's shoulder or the general vicinity, where they would stare broodingly until they decided to go back to Jinyoung again. He was constantly playing with his necklace, which he only tended to do when he was anxious.

He's lovelorn, Jackson decided. He's depressed that he's more in love with Jinyoung right now than Jinyoung's in love with him.

He wanted to cure Jaebum of it and have him be happy again, but he'd promised not to bother Jinyoung anymore, and he wasn't actually sure how to encourage Jinyoung to be more open with his affection if he wasn't allowed to talk to him about romance in the first place.

Instead, he hunted down Jinyoung's bunk buddy Mark, who was shaving in the bathroom area while the other boys woke up.

"Hey, man," he said in English. "You got a moment?"

"Not if you're going to hit on me again," Mark warned.

"What, I'm not your type? How could I possibly not be your type? I'm kinda everyone's type."

Mark rolled his eyes and continued to wash off his cheeks.

"I need to talk to you about Jinyoung," Jackson said.

"What about him?" Mark asked guardedly. "You know him way better than I do."

"Yeah, I know. But I'm currently banned from vocally shipping him and Jaebum to his face, so I gotta go through a middleman. You."

"Look, I have absolutely zero interest in doing any shipping. It's not my business."

"It will be your business if Jaebum continues to be mopey because Jinyoung isn't as into him as he's into Jinyoung. Puppy dog eyed Jaebum will literally shatter your heart, and you'll never be able to put it back together again."

Mark tilted his head. "You don't think Jinyoung's into Jaebum?"

"Of course he is! He's just a shy little cutie who's floundering because it's his first relationship. He's not good at showing his heart, but if he doesn't do better than he's doing now, Jaebum's totally going to notice and be hurt about it! That's the last thing we want, right?"

"What do you want me to do about it?" Mark asked. "I just met them yesterday. I've barely even spoken to Jaebum."

"Come on, all you need to do is give Jinyoung a nudge. Help him come up with some kind of romantic gesture. Oh, since Jaebum's kind of in a meh mood, what about getting him to cross dress and do a cheerleading routine to 'Cheer Up'?"

"I don't know what that is, and now I really, really don't want to know. I'm not going to order someone I just met to cross dress. Plus, Jinyoung already made it clear that he doesn't want to talk about Jaebum with me either. Can't you just let him get used to it on his own time? I'm sure Jinyoung wouldn't have said yes to Jaebum if he didn't even like him." Mark shot Jackson an annoyed look so strong that it made even Jackson highly consider shutting up.

Instead, he lifted his hands in surrender. "I just want them to be happy, OK?"

"Well, if they're going to be happy, they'll have to be happy at their own pace. Jaebum will have to learn to be happy with Jinyoung the way he is instead of getting mopey about it." Mark toweled his face off. "I'm honestly curious, though: why do you care so much?"

"I told you, I want them to be happy. Both of them always seem so close to being reallly, truly happy, but never at 100%, especially not Jaebum. I just want them to experience somethng that will take them the rest of the way there. They're important to me, all right?"

"I get it. But you're acting like it's your relationship more than theirs. Its fine to be happy for them, but maybe you should ask yourself why you need to be happier or care more about it than they do. As for me? Please just leave me out of it. I don't want to give Jinyoung a reason to hate me, OK?" He tossed his towel over his shoulder, gave Jackson a little wave, then marched back to the cabin to get ready for the morning's activities.

11:00 AM-13:00 PM: Hangul Helpers

"OK," Counselor Nichkhun said. "Out of all the campers who have lived overseas for most of your lives, which of you feels most confident about hangul?"

Only Vernon, Jae, and Jackson raised their hands. Jinyoung knew for a fact that Jackson actually had a lot of problems with hangul, but since he was usually confident about everything, it probably wasn't an incorrect answer.

"I get you," Nichkhun said. "Having lived overseas myself, hangul is one of those things that looks easy. It's not as difficult as Japanese or Chinese to learn, for example. But still, the difficult parts can reach up and grab you sometimes when it comes to spelling. When a teacher is talking and you're writing notes, you often blank out, right? It's sometimes hard to match the verbal sounds to the correct character."

The foreign students nodded. Even on the Korean side, Youngjae was also bobbing his head sympathetically.

"So today, we're going to play a game to help you learn and remember hangul," Wooyoung continued.

"But not just that. We want you to build team work as well. So this game will be Cabin #1 vs Cabin #2. Here are our rules. For thirty minutes, the members of the cabin who live in Korea will help our students from overseas study and review their hangul. After the thirty minutes are up, we'll kick off Hangul Helpers!” Nichkhun gestured across the campgrounds to a tall support beam lofted high up into the air with pieces of paper dangling from it. Each piece of paper had a hangul character marked in bold on it. “We'll call out different hangul and the international members of Cabin #1 and Cabin #2 will compete to grab the right character first. Except, it's not within reach if they do it alone. They'll have to sit on the shoulders of one of the Korean members, who will need to cooperate with them and navigate them to the right character. If you want to win, you have to do it as a team effort. Now, let's get started studying!”

For the next half-an-hour, Jinyoung and Jaebum (with some occasional help from Yugyeom and Youngjae) quizzed Jae, Jackson, BamBam, and Mark on their hangul. Jae was by far the best, while Jackson came in second. Mark had a lot to review, but was a fast learner. BamBam was completely relaxed about the whole thing and decided he would do fine no matter what kind of competition there was. “If I partner with Yugyeom, he'll steer me towards the right place,” he said assuredly. The two boys high-fived.

“So we're doing this by our buddy system partners?” Jae asked. “Because I'm thinking it would be best if we all used Yugyeom. Combine him with me, and we're a freaking giant.”

“I doubt they would let us get away with that,” Jaebum said. “Besides that Wonwoo guy is even taller than Yugyeom, I think.”

“The two shortest are Jackson and Mark, right?” Youngjae asked. “Their buddies are tall enough to where height won't really be a problem. I say we just stick to our determined duos.”

“I dunno, Youngjae, are you strong enough to hold all of this?” Jae asked, gesturing to himself while striking a seductive pose.

“If you handle me, I'll handle you, man,” Youngjae said, winking.

After the 30 minutes were up, both cabins gathered by the support beam. A few of them exchanged smack talk while they waited for the challenge to start, but Jinyoung could hear Mark quietly repeating hangul syllables to himself while drawing the symbol in the air with the tip of his finger.

“All right, are you all studied up?” Counselor Nichkhun asked. “We hope so, because there's a new part of this challenge we didn't mention. We've got some pretty tall guys on the Korean team this year, so it will be too easy if you crane your neck up and give your international partner hints. So each member of the Korean team is going to have a handicap when they go up. So which team wants to start?”

The Jae-Youngjae team and Joshua-Jeonghan team volunteered first. As they stepped up to the support beam, Wooyoung and Nichkhun plunked thick headphones over Youngjae and Jeonghan's ears. “We'll be playing some heavy metal on these to make it impossible to hear verbal orders from your partners. You'll have to be instructed by them another way.”

“Ready?” Wooyoung hit play on the MP3 players attached to the headphones and both Youngjae and Jeonghan winced at the onslaught of noise. “First syllable is... neun. GO!”

It was chaos at first as Jae and Joshua tried to figure out how to direct their partners. At first, Jae just tried to stretch his long arms out to grab the neun paper, but this upset their balance, and Youngjae immediately started giving one of his ear blasting “ah, ah, AH!” shrieks due to the pressure on his shoulders. But it did at least indicate to him that he needed to go right, so he stumbled in the direction Jae was reaching for while still fussing about his poor shoulders.

Jeonghan and Joshua's process was a lot less painless. Joshua simply reach down and tapped Jeonghan's shoulder in the direction he wanted to go. Without the wasted time spent on shoulder pain, they were able to get to the neun symbol first.

“Seok!” Nickhun called out. It was by chance nearby Jae's head, so he quickly snatched it up before Jeonghan could even move.

“Eot!” This one went to Joshua. He and Jeonghan were still moving more fluidly as a pair, probably because Youngjae was too busy laughing his head off at the situation to take Jae anywhere.

“Nan!” The character was in between Joshua and Jae, but Joshua reacted just slightly faster and nabbed it.

Wooyoung and Nichkhun powered off the MP3 players. “All right, that's it for the first groups. Cabin #1 is winning 3 to 1. Who's up next?”

Yugyeom and BamBam stepped up to square off against Wonwoo and Minghao. This time, Wonwoo and Yugyeom had to carry their partners while wearing highly elevated Japanese geta.

“This is not going to happen,” Wonwoo groaned. He was already wobbling before Minghao climbed up on his shoulders. “Look, let's just stay towards the middle where the most symbols are.”

Yugyeom was having a slightly easier time, but was still giving BamBam plenty of warnings. “Let's do this putting safety first. If I start to fall, I'll make sure you don't get hurt.”

“Yeah, I'll be careful, too. We got this.”

“Ready?” Nichkhun asked. “Our first syllable is...jeong!”

“Ehhh... which one was that again?” BamBam said, leisurely scanning the papers surrounding him. Minghao was too occupied trying to stay onboard a wildly swaying Wonwoo to give him any useful directions. Yugyeom lifted his head up and steered BamBam towards the right place, only wobbling a little in his geta. “Right there,” he said.

“Oh, yeah, it's that one,” BamBam said, grabbing the paper calmly.

“Eu!” Wooyoung called out.

The round proceeded in a consistent fashion. BamBam took his sweet time remembering the hangul with a little help from Yugyeom, and Wonwoo and Minghao tried not to fall over. BamBam grabbed the first three syllables, and Minghao accidentally grabbed the last one just as Wonwoo dropped down into a crouch, unable to stand anymore.

“We've got a tie, now,” Nickhun said. “4 to 4. Next set of partners are up.”

Jackson and Jaebum volunteered to go next up against Vernon and Seungkwan. Seungkwan and Jaebum had the laces on their shoes tied together as the handicap—they'd have to move very slowly to avoid tripping.

Jinyoung had been anticipating disaster since it was Jackson and Jaebum—Jaebum was absolute crap at most games, and Jackson didn't understand the meaning of “clear and simple instructions”— but they actually did quite well for themselves. Jaebum was able to move cautiously enough not to trip, and Jackson still managed to be both clear and hammy when giving directions by calling them out in the style of a dance DJ. “To the left! To the right! Take it back now, ya'll!”

Still Vernon was better at recognizing hangul than him, so the round ended in another tie when Jackson grabbed two and Vernon grabbed two.

“Perfect, we're going into the final round with a 6-6 tie!” Wooyoung clapped. “Good luck to both teams!”

Jinyoung and Mark stepped up to challenge Seungcheol and Junhui. The handicap this time was blindfolding, which immediately made Jinyoung wary. Wasn't this the most difficult of the handicaps so far? If he couldn't see, it would be so easy for him to accidentally run into Seungcheol or to lose his direction and possibly cause a nasty fall for Mark.

Mark grabbed the blindfold from Nichkhun and tied it securely around Jinyoung's head. “Do you trust me?” he asked as he tied the knot.

“Excuse me?” Jinyoung asked. “Are you Aladdin?”

Mark chuckled lightly. “Hey, I'm not sure I can show you the world when you can't see anything.”

“True.”

“This is just a game, OK? Winning or losing—none of that really matters to me. So let's just play it safe. You can move as slowly as you want, and I'll warn you if anything is going to happen. We don't have to win, let's just not get into any accidents, OK?”

Jinyoung nodded, immediately feeling soothed. “All right, I'll trust you.”

He knelt down, and Mark climbed up onto his shoulders. It was heavy to carry him, of course, but not unbearable. Jinyoung grabbed his legs, getting a steady grip on him.

“Ready?” Wooyoung's voice asked. “Our first syllable is... chak!”

“Try 5 steps to the left,” Mark said softly. Jinyoung followed his instructions. “Stop,” Mark said, cutting Jinyoung off after 3 steps. Jinyoung could hear Seungcheol's voice from right next to him. They were probably close to crashing.

“An!” Nickhun's voice came from somewhere to the right. Either Mark or Junhui had grabbed chak, but Jinyoung didn't know which. He simply followed Mark's next instructions: three steps to the right.

It was nerve-wracking not to be able to see anything or place where he was, but Mark's calmness kept him calm. He didn't want to drop Mark, so he just focused on keeping his grip on Mark's legs and following his directions carefully.

When he stopped moving, he heard a paper rustling. He was pretty sure Mark was the one to grab it this time.

“Kyeo!” Wooyoung's voice said.

“Two steps left, but careful, we're close to Seungcheol,” Mark said. Jinyoung followed, and stopped as soon as Mark told him to. He could feel him moving on his shoulders. It sounded like Seungcheol and Junhui were moving beside them. Another paper rustled. Jinyoung definitely could hear Youngjae and Jackson cheering in the background, but it almost felt far away. He was almost single-mindedly focused on what was happening immediately around them.

“Him!” Nickhun called out.

“Go left until I tell you to stop,” Mark said. Jinyoung crept sideways, not as nervously this time. He knew Mark would direct him safely.

After a moment, Mark told him to stop. This time he felt a greater shift on his shoulders—Mark must have been stretching a lot this time, probably because the other team was close and they couldn't get closer without running into them.

There was a lot of rustling this time—it sounded like they were in an area where a lot of papers were hung. Eventually he heard one of the papers being pulled down.

“Cabin #2 wins, 9 to 7!” Nickhun declared.

That's us, right?, Jinyoung thought, a little dazed. Mark reached down and pulled his blindfold off. It felt like he was stepping out of a dream as the sunlight flooded his eyes and his senses refocused on everything else going around him. His teammates were cheering and jumping around, and the remaining hangul papers spun lazily over his head. Mark still held the winning “him” character in his hands.

“Great job, Jinyoungie,” Mark said, grinning. “You did perfect.”

Jinyoung slowly lowered himself to the ground so Mark could hop off. The other members of their cabin came up to smack them on the back.

“You were totally zen there, man!” Jackson said, beaming. “Everyone was cheering like crazy and I kept on telling them to shut up so you could focus, but you weren't even bothered.”

“You were cheering louder than anyone,” Jaebum said, rolling his eyes. He grabbed Jinyoung by the back of his neck, giving him a gentle squeeze. “Great job. You, too, Mark.”

Mark gave a little nod, but seemed to be retreating a little, as if he wanted people to praise Jinyoung instead of him.

But Jinyoung felt the opposite. Impulsively, he reached out to grab Mark's hand. “So you kept me from getting into an accident and recognized all the hangul they called out?” he said, smiling. “I thought it was enough to have a kind teammate, but I'm happy I got a smart one, too.”

Mark looked surprised at first, but he quickly grinned back. “You were trusting me. I couldn't let my buddy down, now could I?”

15:00PM-18:00PM: Buddy Time- Jinyoung & Mark

“OK, since we've already established that this is a game and winning or losing doesn't matter, we are not just going to rush into the woods like everyone else,” Jinyoung said, opening up his backpack. “Sunscreen and mosquito spray first.”

“Yes, ma'm,” Mark joked. He grabbed the bottle of sunscreen Jinyoung tossed to him and squeezed some onto his hands.

“How are you with orienteering?” Jinyoung asked. “The woods are pretty big, so we should be careful about getting lost.”

“Orienteering?” Mark asked blankly.

“Ah, sorry. That's probably not a word you would know. It means...kind of like having a good sense of direction. Being able to know where you are and being able to find your way back to where you started.”

Mark shrugged. “I guess we'll see.”

“That's comforting.”

“You could help me out with this whole 'orienteering' business, too. We're supposed to be a team.”

“Right.”

After they'd covered themselves in sunscreen and repellent, Jinyoung approved them to go into the forest. Their Buddy Time activity this time was a scavenger hunt. The counselors had given each team a list of ten hangul characters, and they had to collect and take pictures of items in the forest which began with the corresponding hangul syllable.

“Looks like our list shouldn't be too hard,” Jinyoung said. “But I'm supposed to have you take the lead in finding things. You're the one learning the syllables, after all.”

“No problem,” Mark said, taking the list. “Thanks to you helping me study before the Hangul Helper game, I'm pretty much good to go.”

“That wasn't just me, that was everyone,” Jinyoung said, flushing.

“Uh... Youngjae didn't actually teach anything, and Yugyeom just sat around nodding with whatever you and Jaebum said. And no offence to Jaebum, but you're a better teacher.”

“Well...um...thank you.”

“Not at all.” Mark glanced down at the list. “All right... here's an easy one. Ip.” He picked up a leaf. “One down.”

“Looks like this list goes from easy to hard. Want to try the next one?”

“Yeah, sure. Our next syllable is 'jab', so let's look for some weeds. I'm sure there's one those yellow flowers or something here.” He thought for a moment for the right word, but shook his head, giving up. "Dandelion," he said in English.

“Sounds good.”

The two explored quietly around the trees for a moment. “Hey,” Mark said suddenly. “I probably shouldn't say this, but Jackson talked to me this morning. About you.”

Jinyoung groaned. “About Jaebum, right?”

“He thinks you're hurting Jaebum's feelings by not being affectionate enough.”

“Does he?” Jinyoung bit his lips. “Do you think that's true? I think Jaebum's going through something right now, but I thought it had started before we went out. Maybe it is my fault.”

Mark gave him a look. “I wouldn't really know, would I? I just met you two yesterday.”

“Oh. Yeah. Right.”

“But I guess it's a possibility. Maybe he was anxious about getting together with you in the first place, and he's still anxious because he's still unsure about your feelings.”

“That makes two of us,” Jinyoung said softly.

“What?”

“Nothing. Anyways, why would Jackson be telling you about that?”

“He wants me to, er, tell you to do something to cheer up Jaebum again. His suggestion was—and this 100% was all him and not me—you wearing girl clothes and doing some kind of performance for him.”

Jinyoung started choking. “WHAT?!?”

“I didn't really get what he was talking about, but I think that's what he said. 'Like a cheerleader'.”

“Oh my god. I am going to murder him.”

“I'm not saying this to get him in trouble, actually. And I know you really don't want to talk about it. I even told Jackson that it was none of my business and that I wanted to stay out of it, but...” Mark paused for a bit. “I thought about it, and I think it must be because Jackson really cares about Jaebum that he was asking. He was worried about him being anxious or upset. And since I've noticed you've been a little anxious sometimes, too, I thought...well...maybe it wouldn't be bad of me to worry about you, too. If you don't mind.”

Jinyoung considered. He didn't necessarily want Mark to worry about him, but it wasn't a bad feeling. In some ways, it made him feel really good. It's nice to have someone who cares about what I'm going through not because they care about me and Jaebum being together, but because they care about me as an individual.

“I'm just going through a bit of a personal crisis, that's all,” Jinyoung said. “Dating Jaebum... we discussed it a little bit before I accepted him. Because our friendship is precious to me and I don't want to lose it, I was really hesitant about going out with him. But I agreed with everything in our discussion, and it all seemed fine then...but as soon as everyone else knew about it, it just seemed crazy to me. Like I was being held up against these huge expectations for a perfect romance that I'll never be able to fill. And I hate feeling so self-conscious and confused around Jaebum. He's the last person who should ever make me feel like that.”

“I think I understand what you're saying,” Mark said, finally finding a dandelion. He slowly crossed “jab” off their list. “I think it'll be hard for you to continue unless you let those thoughts go. It's a relationship between the two of you, not a relationship between you two and Jackson or Youngjae or anyone else. Their thoughts don't matter. So maybe if you can find a way to erase their thoughts from the whole thing and focus only on yours, you'll figure out a way to decide how you really feel.”

“That's not really all that easy,” Jinyoung said. “My thoughts are kind of a mess even without other people helping.”

“Maybe that's your answer. If you're confused, maybe you shouldn't go forward for the time being. Until you really know what you want to do.”

“Maybe,” Jinyoung said. But he felt like he'd already agreed to make an effort for Jaebum's sake. They were supposed to be spending this time to progress their thoughts on whether they should be together or not. It didn't seem right just to stop now. “Anyways, what about you? Have you ever been in love before?”

“Me?” Mark shook his head. “I don't know your word for it, but only...a child's love? Since I've moved a lot, anyone I've dated, I broke up with when I left to go somewhere else. And I guess I probably wasn't in love with them because I never felt like I absolutely had to stay with them no matter what. I always felt just fine going. I think I'll really be in love when I start thinking 'I have to be with this person no matter what. There's no other option'.”

“Wow,” Jinyoung murmured. Now that he thought of it, he'd never really felt that way about anyone himself. It seemed like such an intense feeling, almost beyond his capabilities.

“Yeah,” Mark said. “It seems kind of scary. But it would be nice to feel like that. To have something that important that you don't want to let go of.”

“Right...” Jinyoung heard a cricket chirping on one of the trees and snapped to attention. “Wow, um, we really should be working on our list right now.”

“Sure. But like we already said, winning or losing doesn't really matter here.” He gently put a hand on Jinyoung's arm. “You're OK, right? You'll let me know if there's anything I can do?”

“Yes,” Jinyoung practically choked out. He felt the blood rushing to his head. It wasn't as if he wasn't used to being treated with kindness. No matter how much he ed, Jaebum was always good to him. And Jackson was such a pillar of support that sometimes he went overboard with the encouragement, like he was doing now. But with Mark, it somehow felt different. Like a cool wave gently washing over him, one by one putting out all of the panicked fires inside him. Careful, or you'll burn yourself out. You don't need to destroy yourself to figure yourself out.

“Good,” Mark said. “Now hold still.” He extended his hand and reached into Jinyoung's hair, gently pulling out a ladybug that had apparently landed there earlier. “Mu was one of the syllables on our list, yeah? Three down.”

0

The two of them came in dead last. They kept getting distracted and talking instead of looking for their items, and then when it was time to get out of the forest, they kept on looping around in circles without finding the exit. The only good thing they could say was that they were the one team that had managed to avoid a sunburn, thanks to Jinyoung's regular sunscreen reminders.

But no, that wasn't the only good thing. Jinyoung felt a little steadier now, and far less worried. He knew in a few hours it would be time for his alone time with Jaebum, and the thought didn't make him anxious. He was still confused, but not terrified. Some of the original intentions were coming back—he and Jaebum were only trying to see what everyone already naturally saw in them, not trying to bend themselves into what other people wanted. They just wanted to open their eyes and see what they could see.

I can do that, Jinyoung thought confidently. Whatever answer it reaches. Maybe I'm not sure right now, but when all of this is over, wouldn't it be great if I could find a love strong enough to shatter all of this confusion for good?

15:00PM-18:00PM: Buddy Time- Jackson & Jaebum

“Jaebum, I didn't want to have to be the one to do this, but drastic times call for drastic measures,” Jackson announced.

“No, Jackson, you can't take off my pants and use my underwear as the item for 'paen',” Jaebum deadpanned.

“Oooh, are you wearing right now? That actually wasn't my idea.” He pushed Jaebum onto a nearby tree stump. “Sit, sit. You're about to see something that only happens once in a lifetime.”

“Jackson? You're scaring me.”

“Scared is the last thing you should feel. Because you are about to cheer...up!” He pressed the play button on his music player app and started waving some imaginary pompoms. “Cheer up baby, cheer up baby, cheer up a little more. A girl can't give her heart too easily, that's how you'll get to like me even a little more~”

Jaebum didn't let him get any further before he burst out laughing, smacking his hand on his knee before trying to collect himself. “Jackson... Jackson...what are you doing?”

“Come on, let me finish, I'm getting to the good part!”

“I seriously can't watch this, you look...” He started laughing again. “Are you batting your eyelashes at me?”

"Of course I am, I'm trying to be charming enough to cheer you up, here. Pay attention!"

Jaebum shook his head rapidly back and forth, still laughing. "No, no, no, it's OK. I don't think I can watch any more of this without-" His laughter bubbled over again as Jackson cutely stuck out and shook his , and he doubled over, clutching his stomach. "I surrender!"

Jackson couldn't hear the music very well over Jaebum's cackling, so he shut it off. "I take it that it worked?"

"What worked?" Jaebum asked, wiping his eyes. "What the hell were you trying to do with that?"

"You've been in a bad mood recently, and I thought I would help. I was going to ask Jinyoung to do it, but you told me not to bother him, and Mark wouldn't tell him for me. So I thought it was better for me to do it myself than no one at all."

Jaebum's smile was warmer than it had been in awhile. "Well...that was certainly something. What on Earth made you think Jinyoung was the right person to do that? That's definitely more your style than his."

"But you're upset because things are still kind of slow with Jinyoung, right? So I thought if Jinyoung did it, it would help you realize that there's nothing to worry about. That everything's fine."

Jaebum's expression turned more serious. "Actually, no. I wasn't upset with Jinyoung. This was always going to be the speed things between us would move at, so I'm not surprised or worried about it. So, no, that wasn't Jinyoung's problem to cheer me up from. I'm glad you were the one who did it. Thank you."

Jackson stared at him quizzically. "Um, yeah, I totally don't get what you're saying."

"You don't really have to. Just, thank you." He smiled again. "You're a good friend. I think that was important for me to remember."

"Of course I'm a good friend, but why is that important to remember right now, and how could you forget it in the first place, seriously? You know I have your back no matter what. That should never be a question."

"I know. I just confused the question for something else, maybe." He shrugged. "But yeah, I guess it worked. I think I can face the situation with Jinyoung head on from now on. Nothing to hold me back."

"Oh. Well, that's good." But somewhere deep down, Jackson felt something strange he'd never felt before, a little tiny bit of bitterness that he had done the work of perking Jaebum up but Jinyoung would be the one to benefit the most from it. It was such a selfish, uncharacteristic thought that he instantly felt terrible over it and tossed it out. He was not that kind of person. Just seeing Jaebum happy and smiling again was reward enough. And he wanted Jinyoung to share in that happiness. He was sure Jaebum's new resolve would open Jinyoung up, too, and they'd come closer together. Exactly what he had wanted.

But Jaebum must have seen something off in Jackson's face, since his forehead immediately wrinkled. "Something wrong, Jackson?"

"Nah, nothing. Just felt like I was being bitten by a mosquito or something." He smacked his arm for show. In fact, he was pretty sure it was covered in mosquito bites by this point.

"Good, since I'm not really in the mood to pull a performance like the one you just pulled to cheer you up." Jaebum rose from the tree stump. "Now come on, let's find something that begins with 'paen'."

"Your ?"

"Cut it out," Jaebum said, smacking Jackson on the head. It felt like normal, like how they had been before setting out for the woods. The foreign feeling slipped away from Jackson, and he smiled. He had done something good, and all was right in the world once again.

19:00PM-21:00PM: Lovers- Progress!

Jinyoung was in a good mood by time his evening with Jaebum rolled around, and Jaebum seemed to be in an excellent mood too. None of the awkwardness they'd started with the night before was there this time. It felt as natural as it used to feel before, back when they'd get together after school or for the weekends, that cozy rush of "here's the person I get along best with, and I'm ready just to kick back and have fun."

They went to the docks on the lakeside and plopped down at the end. They were still using their stupid bird-watching story, but this time the birds they were supposedly watching for were gulls and waterbirds. Jinyoung was 100% sure Nichkhun was just humoring them so they wouldn't be making out in the cabin and bothering the other campers. "Just get it out of your system," he'd said when they'd gone to him for approval to miss the evening campfire event again.

"Looks like a good day for you, huh?" Jaebum said, leaning back on the palms of his hands. "You really kicked at the Hangul Helpers game with Mark."

"You didn't do so bad yourself," Jinyoung said. "I thought you and Jackson would be a little less organized than that. No offense."

"None taken. I think we're working things out a little better than before."

"Working what things out?" Jinyoung asked. "I didn't know you guys were fighting."

Jaebum looked guilty for a second. "Not fighting...it's just...can I tell you some other time?"

Jinyoung shrugged. "Sure. Whatever. Anyways, good thing we won Hangul Helpers since Cabin #1 crushed us at the scavenger hunt. Every single one of their teams beat our teams."

"Well, what did you expect? You've got Team Chill with Yugyeom and BamBam, and Team Do-Nothing-But-Laugh-And-Make-Lame-Jokes with Jae and Youngjae. Meanwhile, Jackson had to take a break in the middle of our hunt to be weird, like always. Although I was kind of surprised about you and Mark being last. You're the most put together out of anyone."

"We got lost," Jinyoung said.

"Yeah, so did we, but we still finished like twenty minutes before you did." Jaebum smiled at him. "Hey, I bet if you and I were a team, we'd have been in first."

"Of course we would have been. We bring out each other's responsible sides."

"Eh, don't make us sound boring."

"I don't take being boring as a bad thing." Jinyoung scooted down the dock and dipped his bare feet into the water. The water was delightfully cool. Across the lake, he could see the girls around their own campfire making s'mores. On the boy's side of the lake, someone was playing guitar and singing, and Jinyoung closed his eyes and listened. It didn't feel as still as the night before. He could feel something inside of himself lifting its head and awakening, but he couldn't put his finger on why it was doing so only now. He wasn't sure he was any more in love with Jaebum than he had been the day before, but his feelings overall felt as if they had undergone a complete shift in just one day.

Jaebum rested his hand on top of Jinyoung's on the dock. He had a cool touch, like the water.

"By the way," Jinyoung said. "Jackson told me through Mark that I was obligated to cheer you up today."

"You don't have to. I feel great, actually."

"But if there's anything you wanted to talk to me about, I'd listen to you."

"You don't have to say that. I know you would." He paused for a moment. "Actually, there's one thing I wanted to ask you. You and I have known each other for so long, but you've never expressed an interest in anyone, have you? So it made me wonder a little about what your view of love even is."

Jinyoung coughed. "Wow, because it's such an easy topic to explain, Jaebum."

Jaebum laughed. "I know. But I was thinking about that a little today. I've always fallen in love in the most complicated way possible with the most complicated, frustrating people. And I've always been more angry about it than happy. And now I'm wondering if I was doing it wrong all along. I'm thinking that love should be more simple and natural than the crazy mess I was trying to turn it into. And I was wondering what you thought."

"I'm not really sure. But I guess I've been thinking about it, too. Because of this whole thing. And I was mentioning it to Mark, and he said that to him, love is something so important that you can't leave it behind or say no to it, because it's your only option. I kind of liked that idea. There are so many things you can't take with you when you go through life, and you leave so many things behind along the way. I think it would be amazing to have that one thing too important to let go of."

Jaebum nodded. "Ah. That kind of sounds exactly like the complicated answer I had been trying to change my mind about."

"Maybe. Maybe not. I kind of think love can somehow be complicated and simple at the same time."

"Sounds about right." He laced his fingers together with Jinyoung's. "When this started, I told you that I didn't think it was impossible for me to fall in love with you. I won't ask you anything else right now, because I know you're not ready. But do you at least think it's possible for you to fall in love with me?"

Jinyoung considered it seriously. It was an important question, one that deserved a fair answer. He still couldn't say he was in love, or at least not right at that moment, anyways. But when Mark had spoken to him about love, it had for the first time seemed obtainable and possible and for once desirable. He'd wanted something like the love Mark had described in his life.

And Jaebum was the kind of person who would be good to take with him along any journey he went on. He was kind, generous, fun, and talented. And he was already one of the most important people to Jinyoung. He was already a step closer to being that essential presence that Jinyoung couldn't let go of than anyone else.

So in that way, it didn't feel impossible. He could envision it in the future, a Point B he could possibly reach if he wanted. He just still couldn't determine if his want was pointing him in that direction, or to some other point waiting for him in the future. But he felt closer to finding out. He felt like he was making progress towards something, whether that something was Jaebum or something entirely different.

"Yes," Jinyoung finally said. "It could be possible."

"Great," Jaebum said, exhaling. "Now we just have to change it to being probable."