9:00 AM- 11:00AM: Morning

"Holy crap, I am red," Yugyeom said in dismay, studying himself in the mirror.

"I'm redder," BamBam said, pointing to his face. "It looks like I tattooed blush on my face."

"Sorry, boys, but you are looking at the Red King right in front of you," Jae said. "It looks like I dunked my head in paint."

Jackson rolled his eyes. "OK, step aside peasants. I'm sure all of you were wearing your shirts like wholesome little boys yesterday, but check out this burn from someone who took off their shirt half-way through." He ripped off his shirt, exposing the massive sunburn on his chest and back. "Get a load of this."

"DAYUM!" Youngjae said appreciatively.

"Can I smack it?" Yugyeom asked.

"Only if you want to pay my emergency bills." Jackson glanced over at Mark and Jinyoung, who were brushing their teeth at the sinks. "How are you guys still that pale?"

"It's called sunscreen," Jinyoung said, spitting out his toothpaste. "You should try it some time."

"I'd rather try aloe vera."

"Jaebum's got some in the shower with him."

"Great." Jackson walked over to the showers and threw open the curtain to the one that was currently occupied. A very soapy and Jaebum stared back at him in surprise. Niiiiiice, Jackson thought.

"Hey, fork over the aloe vera," he said.

"Every heard of knocking?" Jaebum quipped, continuing to lather shampoo into his hair. His face was beet red, but Jackson was pretty sure that was his sunburn and not any sense of modesty. Jackson had seen him several times before, but twice was better than once and ten times was better than five.

"Knocking? On a shower curtain? Can you say pointless?" He extended his hand, and Jaebum plopped the aloe vera in it.

"You can go now," Jaebum said, as Jackson lingered at the shower for awhile.

"Um, don't you want to rub it on me?"

"Ask someone else, would you?" Jaebum grabbed the curtain and yanked it shut again.

Jackson went reluctantly back to the sinks. The other boys were mainly shaving or brushing their teeth, except for Mark and Jinyoung, who were already finished. He sidled up by their area to eavesdrop on whatever they were talking about. Mark hadn't really talked to the rest of their cabin members as openly as he talked to Jinyoung, and Jackson was a little curious about him.

"So, what do you think they'll have us do today?" Mark was asking. "Hanbok modeling? Trot singing?"

"I wouldn't mind the trot singing," Jinyoung said. Was that a coy smile Jackson was seeing? "I'm told I have a pretty decent voice."

"Seems like everyone here does, whether it's us or Cabin #1. Someone always brings a guitar out at the campfire, but I've never gotten to hear you sing since you keep on skipping out." Mark glanced at him in the mirror. Wasn't that look a little too warm? "What do you think we'd do for Buddy Time, in that case? Would you serenade me?"

"I'd love to." Jinyoung placed a hand on his heart, imitating the warbly trot style. "~You are the rain which falls on my desolate heart, you are the light which illuminates the darkness~." Jackson had to admit that Jinyoung was doing an excellent job of imitating the style. But aren't the lyrics a little too romantic?

"Just what I'd expect from you," Mark said appreciatively. "A beautiful voice to go with everything else."

Jinyoung blushed—and you could tell it was a vivid blush, due to the lack of a sunburn. "Then I'm sure you've got a very sweet voice yourself."

Jackson stared at them incredulously. They were flirting. FLIRTING. Jinyoung was flirting with another man while Jaebum was in the other half of the bathroom, innocently showering and blissfully unaware that his boyfriend, his soulmate, was blushing at the praise of another man.

Jackson didn't waste a moment. The blood rushed to his head, and he couldn't suppress the anger boiling in his heart and save it for a more appropriate time. He grabbed Jinyoung a little roughly by the arm and yanked him forward. "I need to talk to you, Park Jinyoung," he snapped. Jinyoung sputtered and Mark looked a little surprised and even (if Jackson wasn't being delusional) slightly aggressive as if he wanted to step in and pull Jinyoung away from Jackson.

Jackson didn't give him the opportunity. He dragged Jinyoung outside and took him a safe distance away from the bathrooms so no one would eavesdrop.

"What the hell was that, Jinyoung?" he yelled with the full force of his anger.

"What?" Jinyoung asked defensively. "Did I do something?"

"YES. YES, YOU DID SOMETHING. You were FLIRTING with your bunk buddy Mark Tuan in front of everyone. You, a TAKEN MAN were FLIRTING."

Jinyoung's face turned so red that he almost perfectly matched the burnt state of all his cabinmates. Then, the sputtering started again. "I...I was not flirting. Absolutely not."

"Yes. You were."

"No. I wasn't."

"YES, YOU WERE. Park Jinyoung. You were singing a romantic song to him, he called you beautiful, YOU FREAKING BLUSHED, and then you called him sweet. TEXTBOOK definition of flirting."

"But I didn't have those intentions, so I wasn't-"

"For someone without those intentions, you were sure as hell acting like you had them. I can't believe you."

"Don't," Jinyoung said. He wasn't defensive this time, and if Jackson wasn't mistaken, he even looked a little despairing. "Please don't say that. Mark and I are friends, and I don't want to think weirdly... I don't want to have those kinds of thoughts about him, I just want to be a normal friend. But now, because you said that, it's going to get weird and awkward and the best part of this whole thing is going to be ruined and he's going to hate me, so just-"

"THE BEST PART!?!?" Jackson yelled. "The best part of this trip for you is MARK, not your own boyfriend? You value your Buddy Time more than you value the dates Jaebum has been focusing on JUST FOR YOU?!?!?"

"I didn't mean-"

"Well, that's what you said." Jackson took a frustrated breath. "Look, Jinyoung. This isn't like you. Or at least, I thought you weren't this kind of person. You're the person Jaebum holds as most precious, the person he LOVES, and to think that you wouldn't even value that when he needs that the most? I'm so freaking disappointed in you."

At that, Jinyoung's defensiveness returned. And it wasn't just defensiveness, it was outright fury. "I'm not here to please you, Jackson," he snapped. "In fact, I'm really sick of you having all these ideals and expectations about me that aren't even close to being right. Who are you to tell me what kind of person I am or should be? I'm not going to be the perfect boyfriend you want me to be for him, because right now I don't know how I feel and I don't know what I'm doing, and I'm just a really, really ty boyfriend. OK? I AT THIS. And when you just assume I'll be perfect and decide that I'm somehow failing by being a clueless idiot, it just makes me feel even worse about this whole thing, which is already complicated enough without you sticking your freaking nose in it constantly."

"OK, Jinyoung. I get it. You don't need to be perfect. Fine. But you should have a least an ounce of respect for Jaebum and his feelings."

“And you're going to act all superior than me about it? You're practically the one who started this whole thing to begin with, telling Jaebum we were meant to be and forcing it down his throat without ever asking him if it's what he wanted. Did you ever think for two seconds that we were happy the way we were before, and this whole thing is some deluded attempt on our part to satisfy you and your annoying fantasies?”

“Is that all this is to you? Is that all Jaebum is?”

“Im Jaebum is my best friend. And no, I'm not going to change the way I feel about him unless my heart decides to. Not yours. Mine.” Jinyoung took a deep breath, clenching his fists. “I don't want to hear about this again from you. So if you don't have anything else to say to me, then just stay away from me and leave me alone until you decide to be a friend instead of a matchmaker. And don't you dare talk to Mark about any deluded ideas you may have about my feelings. Just stay out of it.”

With a cold, hostile glance, Jinyoung stalked off in the direction of the cabin. If there had been a door nearby to slam, he probably would have done so at full power.

Jackson also felt in the mood to slam something, but instead roundhouse kicked a nearby tree. It hurt, but he didn't really care. He was just so angry at everything and everyone. Jinyoung, Mark, himself. He was so angry he couldn't even tell which one he was angriest at.

And worse, he had to face a truth that he didn't want to face. It wasn't that Jinyoung hadn't realized he was in love with Jaebum yet, or hadn't acknowledged that they were soulmates—it seemed more likely now that Jinyoung didn't love Jaebum at all and maybe was never going to.

But Jaebum's serious, he thought. He'd seen the evidence of that the night before on the docks in the way he'd looked at Jinyoung, sweet and carefree, unburdened in ways that he hadn't been with Jackson in a long time, easily content in the way only Jinyoung could make him. Jaebum's falling in love, even if Jinyoung's not.

And that hurt worse than anything, worse than being wrong. He didn't want Jaebum to be hurt. He didn't want to have pushed Jaebum into something that caused him pain when the whole reason for it from the beginning was to make him happy. But how could he be happy if his heart wound up broken from something that may never have happened if Jackson hadn't forced it?

It can't happen like that, Jackson thought desperately. There has to be a way to get Jinyoung to love him back. I don't know how, but I'm going to find it if it's the last thing I do.

11:00 AM-13:00 PM: Da-Seon

Naturally, since Jinyoung was incredibly pissed off, the theme of the day was temple life and meditation. They started off learning about temple etiquette from the old Buddhist traditions, and now they were doing da-seon, the tea ceremony. Jinyoung usually loved this sort of thing, the tradition, the history, the silence, the sweet fragrance of the tea, but now it was doing nothing for him. Even hyper BamBam had managed to remain steady while pouring the tea, but Jinyoung's hands were shaking.

Why is Jackson trying to ruin my life?, he wondered. He didn't get it—Jaebum had handed everything Jackson had wanted on a platter, but now Jackson had decided it wasn't good enough, that it wasn't what he wanted unless Jinyoung did it the exact way he'd imagined. And now, not only was he trying to control Jinyoung's relationship with Jaebum, but he was also trying to ruin his friendship with Mark on top of it.

Jinyoung felt tears filling his eyes out of nowhere. He was so bitterly ashamed. Maybe part of it had been Jackson jumping to conclusions again, but he also felt culpable. Had he been flirting with Mark? He'd never really flirted in his life, so he didn't know if he had. But if he had, wasn't it a betrayal to Jaebum, after all? And if he had—why had he done it?

Everything around him felt as fragile as the tea pot in his hands. His relationship with Jaebum, whatever that was. His friendship with Mark, whatever he intended for that. It felt like either could break if he even pressed the tip of his fingernail against them. And he didn't want that to happen. He didn't want to sacrifice everything good he had in his confusion.

I hate this, he thought to himself. I wish I could go back to yesterday when things were starting to make sense. I wish I could be anywhere else but here.

The tea pot trembled in his hands. He'd done a temple stay once when he was younger even though his family was Christian, and he remembered that there had been a monk there who had told him the tremors of your movements during the tea ceremony reflected the tremors of your heart. That seemed about right. On a day like today, there was no way of doing it elegantly or with any semblance of steadiness. His heart felt like it would never be still again.

He passed the tea pot to Youngjae and stared into his tea. It wasn't the kind of tea you could see your future in, but still he wondered. He wanted answers. What am I doing? Where am i going? What the hell is my heart telling me, or is it even saying anything at all?

“Now that we've all poured our tea, we may take a drink,” Wooyoung said, his soft voice breaking through Jinyoung's thoughts. “Be careful not to spill or be wasteful. Don't slurp or be excessive with how you drink. Even a small action like this can be a form of worship, so do it mindfully and reverently.”

Jinyoung raised his cup to his lips and sipped the tea. Korean tea wasn't strong, but rather simplistic. It was supposed to settle you in the same way meditation did, but Jinyoung didn't feel all the way there. It would be great to be touched by enlightenment, but he wasn't sure it was possible for him with all the worldly concerns he had.

All the campers set down their tea cups again. “In preparation for camp, Wooyoung and I did a temple stay and asked one of the monks for folktales or stories to pass along to you,” Nichkhun said. “He gave us two parables representing Buddhist teachings to tell you. I'll share the first one. Once, there was a man who was traveling on a very hot day. As time went on, he became thirsty, and in his travels he was blessed to come across a full stream rushing with water. However, the thirsty man stood next to the water without taking a single drink of it. Another traveler passed by him to water his animals, and was confused by the man. You look extremely thirsty, and you look at the water with need, but you do not drink. The man replied, I am thirsty, but there is too much water for me here. I could not possibly drink it all, so I cannot begin to drink.”

“What the heck kind of crazy attitude is that?” BamBam wondered.

“A pretty common one, if you think about it. All of us are presented with opportunities and advantages every day, but also trials and difficulties. Sometimes, don't we hesitate to take one thing because we feel afraid of the bigger picture? The good things and the bad things can all be a part of the same river, so we won't take a chance and drink of it, even when we're thirsty for what we want.”

“It's a story of missed opportunities,” Jinyoung said quietly.

“Exactly.”

“My story's a little different,” Wooyoung said. “Once there was a father who had a son that he loved very much. One day while the father was away, some bandits burned down his village and kidnapped the little boy. When the father returned, he found the burned body of a child and believed it to be his son. He was crushed by his loss and retreated into his grief, isolating himself. Days later, his son escaped from the bandits, ran back home, and returned to the remains of his father's house to knock on the door. His father asked who it was. When the boy answered, 'It is I, your son,' the father, who was deep in his mourning, thought it was some other village boy playing a cruel joke and ordered his son to go away. The boy continued to knock and plead to his father, but the father demanded him to leave. Finally, the boy left, never to return again.” Wooyoung paused. “So, who thinks they know what that one means? Jackson? Any thoughts?”

“Check dental records before assuming someone's dead?” Jackson guessed. Wooyoung rolled his eyes.

“This one's beyond Jackson's scope,” Jaebum said, lifting his hand a little. “What it's saying is that if you hold one idea as the ultimate truth, you may ignore the real truth when it comes knocking. Literally knocking. Not something Jackson's particularly known for.”

“Excuse me, I-”

Nichkhun raised his hand. “Please don't fight during the tea ceremony, boys.”

“Anyways, the important part of all of this is that while Korea may be changing and there may be different teachings we listen to and religions we follow, the traditions still hold important truths in them,” Wooyoung said. “It's important to pay mind to your misunderstandings and flawed ways of thinking and try to seek a better path. And sometimes that path may be clouded in troubles or you're too afraid to drink from the stream when you're thirsty or whatever, so it's important to take the time you need to clear your mind. Enlightenment may not be easy, but the journey is just as essential. By desiring good, you can change yourself for the better. So let's try and open our minds a little so that when the truth comes knocking for us, whatever kind of truth it is, we're not leaving our doors shut.”

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

Their Buddy Time activity for the day was, unsurprisingly, meditation. Jinyoung would have vastly preferred the trot performance serenade he and Mark had joked about earlier. At least in that case, he could have focused on someone else's words and lyrics instead of his own thoughts. The only downside to trot would be that apparently it led to him flirting, and if he even dared to sing romantic lyrics, he would be stuck feeling guilty and overthinking it thanks to what Jackson had said that morning.

Still, he was in no mood to meditate, even though Seon style meditation was more about cutting off excessive thoughts rather than dwelling on them. He knew Wooyoung and Nichkhun's stories had made good points, but he still couldn't help being clouded by his own fear.

He and Mark were set up at a meditation spot near the lake. They'd been given sturdy cushions to take with them, suitable for the outdoors, but other than that, they were simply told to teach their partners the proper posture and techniques, then to let their minds go free.

The two of them set down their cushions at the lakeside. Jinyoung had tried to put himself at a distance from Mark since he was still feeling self-conscious and awkward and could barely look him in the eye without wondering if he'd overstepped a line that morning, but Mark had placed his cushion right next to Jinyoung. “I need to observe your posture,” he said. There was something hard and stubborn about his tone today.

“You just fold your legs like this,” Jinyoung said, demonstrating. “Some people like to have their palms open and resting on their knees. But it's also OK to have your hands resting in your lap. Whatever works best for you.”

Mark imitated his pose. “Like this?”

“Exactly like that.”

Mark closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again. “I don't think I can meditate today without talking to you first. I feel like I need to apologize.”

Jinyoung blinked. “Have you done anything...?”

“The reason Jackson pulled you out this morning was because he wanted to get you away from me, right? I spoke too closely with you, and I am so, so sorry.”

Jinyoung's heart clenched a little. For some reason, it was painful to hear Mark apologizing for it. He felt like the one who should have been apologizing.

“I'm the one who-” Jinyoung started to say.

“No, absolutely not,” Mark said. “You've never been anything but polite to me, just like you are with your other friends. But I'm not like you and I don't have a lot of other friends, so I keep going overboard about how thankful I am that you've been so nice and friendly, and I took it too far this time. You have a boyfriend, and people will misunderstand if I say things like that, won't they? That's not fair to you or to Jaebum, so it won't happen again. I promise.”

“I...I see.” Jinyoung tried to process this, but still felt like he was coming up short. He thought he would be happy to hear Mark say that it was an accident, that it hadn't really meant anything deeper and that while it was probably a little careless, it wasn't outright inappropriate. But the more he thought back on it, the less it seemed like an accident. Hadn't the things they were saying come out of them naturally? In that sense, wasn't it dangerously close to being intentional?

“Jackson accused us of flirting,” Jinyoung said slowly, trying to piece his thoughts together.

“God, I'm just so sorry,” Mark said wincing.

“But Jackson flirts all the time,” he continued, ignoring Mark's reaction. “It's OK, because he's single. But his kind of flirting involves him complimenting or overpraising someone without any stronger intention behind it. If it went deeper than flirting, I don't think he'd mind in some cases, but usually he's just doing it to do it. It doesn't really matter all that much to him. Because of that, I've always thought of flirting as being a little insincere. The kind of words you throw around more for the reaction than for the meaning.”

“Yeah...?”

“And the problem is, I don't think I was being insincere. I don't want to feel like I'm being insincere with you, or saying something that doesn't really matter just to make you feel good.”

“Oh,” Mark said quietly. “Well...I can't say...I mean...just because I'm sorry and I wished I hadn't said it considering your relationship and all...that doesn't mean I was being insincere, either.”

“OK. So that means-”

“Jinyoung, please stop for a minute,” Mark said abruptly, putting a hand on his knee. “Don't think about it logically or analytically. In fact, please don't think about it at all. I did something I shouldn't have done, and if you spend too much time figuring out why, you're going to come to a conclusion that's going to make you really, really not want to be around me anymore, so can you just forget about it so we can get through the next few days as buddies peacefully?” He looked at Jinyoung beseechingly. “Look, I saw you and Jaebum on the docks last night, and you really looked so good together. Please just focus on that. Because if you don't, if you focus too much on this instead-” he gestured broadly at the two of them- “I am probably going to make a bigger mistake than this morning and you are going to hate me and I'm going to hate myself and it's going to be a very big mess, so let's just not.”

“Mark, I don't really understand-”

“Good, because I really, really, REALLY don't want you to understand. You don't need to understand to be happy. So just focus on being happy and forget about anything else. Please.” He pulled his hand away, returning it to his lap.

“Fine,” Jinyoung said, but he didn't particularly feel fine. He felt like yet another person was trying to direct his feelings for selfish reasons, without giving him the chance to decide for himself. “But if you don't want me to be angry with you, you're doing it wrong. There's really nothing Jaebum and I hate more than people deciding on their own how it is between the two of us.”

“I didn't decide on my own,” Mark said firmly. “You're dating. You decided that, not me. A part of 'how it is between the two of you' is the fact that you're in a dating relationship, so I'm not going to just pretend like you don't have one. If you want me to see it another way, you'll just have to change that little fact. And I'm pretty sure you're not going to.”

Jinyoung was about ready to protest, but it struck him then that Mark was right. He was fully, 100% right. He could accuse Jackson of leaping to conclusions about their relationship because Jackson had gone on about them dating before they'd started, but Mark wasn't in that position. Even before they'd been introduced, Jinyoung had already been established as 'Jaebum's boyfriend'.

“You're right,” he said slowly.

“I know.”

“So if you're not supposed to pretend like that relationship isn't there,” Jinyoung said, “how am I supposed to pretend like this morning didn't happen, when it did?”

Mark stared at him without saying anything for such a long time that Jinyoung wondered if he'd given up their conversation and lapsed into meditation like they were supposed to be doing. After what seemed like hours, his mouth finally parted open. “, Jinyoung,” he said. He sounded eerily calm.

“Hmmm?”

“When someone offers you a way out, you're supposed to take it.”

“Yeah?”

“I'm going to try to be good, OK? I don't want to make things difficult for you. Or for myself. Or anyone.”

“Fair enough.”

“But if I it up and can't...if I can't stop what's starting, I'm going to remind you of this moment, OK? I tried to give you a way out. And you didn't take it.”

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

“Jackson”

“Shush, man, I'm meditating.”

“Do you not hear the zen in my voice?”

Jackson cracked open an eye. Jaebum was indeed sitting in his meditative, cross legged posture. His eyes were closed.

“What do you want?” Jackson asked.

“I want you to talk to me,” Jaebum said. “About why you and Jinyoung look about ready to murder each other today. And I have a feeling I'm not going to like the answer, and I'm honestly tired of being mad, so I'm going to stay in my zen zone, and you are going to tell me what happened, and I am going to react calmly, and we are not going to discuss it again because we are going to keep it from happening again. Now. Discuss.”

“Don't wanna,” Jackson said, his heart sinking.

“I'm not asking.”

“It's Jinyoung's business to tell you.”

“Or is it 50% your business, too?”

. Jackson took a deep breath. “We had a fight.”

“About?”

“You, I guess. It sounded like he was flirting with Mark this morning, and I got mad and maybe told him that I was disappointed in him and pretty much implied that he was a ty boyfriend.”

“After both he and I told you to stay out of it?”

“I couldn't stay out of it this time. He was flirting. Maybe that doesn't count as cheating, but it should.”

Jackson had thought the news of Jinyoung's bad behavior would snap Jaebum out of his zen zone, but it didn't. “Was Jinyoung actually flirting?” he asked. “I don't think Jinyoung knows how.”

“If he wasn't, he was at least encouraging Mark to flirt with him.”

“So you think Mark likes him?”

“Maybe.”

“And you think Jinyoung possibly likes Mark?”

Jackson in his breath. “No.”

“No?”

“No. He said he didn't respond with those kind of intentions. I'll believe in him, because I don't think he's the kind of person who would do that to you.”

“So you two are still angry with each other because...?”

“Because? Well...I was so angry, that I probably said some harsh things to him that made him feel bad about himself, and he's angry at me for not staying out of it when I told him that I would. And I may still be a little angry at him because he was acting reckless with your heart, when your heart should be too precious for him to break.”

“You think my heart is too precious to break?” Jaebum asked calmly. “How ironic.”

“How so? How was I supposed to think of anything else? If I were dating you-”

“You're not,” Jaebum said, a little bit sharply. “You're not dating me, so it's not up to you decide how the person who is dating me behaves.”

“I know,” Jackson said, a bit meekly. “I get it. I was out of line. What more do you want me to say?”

“Nothing. Actually no, not nothing. We've asked you not to involve yourself, and you couldn't stop. You get irrationally angry even when you think Jinyoung didn't have any bad intentions. I think I need to ask this one more time.” He opened his eyes. “And I want you to think about this hard, Jackson Wang, because you're either going to pull me back or set me loose with this for good. And I'm not going to ask you again after this, ever. This is your last chance.” He fixed him in a determined stare. “Was there any reason at all for your anger besides you wanting me and Jinyoung to be happy? Is that really all you want? Because if there's another explanation, I need to hear it. Now. Before I... before I close the door on it for good.”

Was there another reason? Jackson forced himself to think of it, even though he didn't want to. He thought back to the boiling anger of that morning, the frustration he'd felt at Jinyoung's lack of loyalty, the sense of if this were me in his shoes, I would never do something like that, I'd never even think of someone else other than Jaebum.

Maybe that was something that he should have admitted to. That part of his anger was not just because his favorite couple wasn't traveling a smooth road. It was that Jinyoung was squandering an opportunity, and that he was treating it lightly while Jackson would have treasured it through everything if the same opportunity had been his.

But it wasn't. Jaebum had said it himself. Jinyoung's shoes weren't his to fill, and much more than he needed Jinyoung to be perfect, he just needed Jaebum to be happy. That was the reason to end all other reasons. Nothing else mattered. That was the only answer he could give because the other answer, the one lurking in the back of his head where Jackson tended to shove his more selfish thoughts, would not make Jaebum happy at all.

“No,” Jackson said, his hands clenching on his knees. “I just want you to find happiness. That's all it is.”

Jaebum showed no emotion—it was as if this was the answer he had been expecting, and he had already prepared himself for it. “OK,” he said, his voice as cool and untroubled as the lake in the distance. “But don't try to change your mind in the future. I offered you a way in. You didn't take it. That's all. It's over. The end.” He smiled, but it wasn't warm. It was almost kind of chilling. “You better really want that love story between me and Jinyoung. Because you just permanently started it yourself.”

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

“So this seems like a reoccurring theme lately, but it looks like I have to apologize on behalf of Jackson again,” Jaebum said.

“No you don't,” Jinyoung said quickly. “I don't hold you responsible for Jackson's opinions.”

“True, but since it was on my behalf, or at least his idea of what 'my behalf' is, I still feel guilty. So I'm sorry. I hope you two will find a way to patch it up, but if you need a break from him, I understand. It might be good for him to stop focusing so much on you and your boyfriend abilities anyways.”

“My ty boyfriend abilities,” Jinyoung muttered.

“Let's just say 'beginner' boyfriend abilities.” Jaebum shifted on his cushion, the same ones they had used during the meditation earlier. In fact, they were now parked down in the exact same spot Jinyoung and Mark had meditated, or at least tried to meditate. The uncomfortable feeling of the situation was not lost on Jinyoung, but Jaebum had been the one to pick the spot, and it would have been odd to protest.

“By the way, the reason he got angry was because you were flirting with Mark?” Jaebum asked curiously.

Jinyoung turned red. “That...that was what he accused us of, yes. I wasn't actually attempting to flirt, or anything...”

“That's what I told Jackson. That if you were flirting, you probably didn't even realize it.”

“But I need to apologize to you. What I said to Mark—what Jackson said was me 'flirting'—I didn't say it insincerely.”

“What exactly did you say?”

“That he's really sweet.”

“OK, if that's the case, I was completely flirting with Jeonghan this morning at breakfast when he made a special trip to the buffet line to get me some raisin bread because I said the slices on his plate looked good. I meant it pretty sincerely, too.” He ruffled Jinyoung's hair. “You're allowed to call people sweet or think good thoughts about other people and mean it, Jinyoung. In fact, I'd probably be a little alarmed if you weren't kind to others, aside from Yugyeom. It just doesn't match you at all.”

“Really?” Jinyoung didn't know if he was relieved or confused. He was glad Jaebum didn't think he'd done anything inappropriate, but at the same time he wondered why he'd spared so much thought to his exchange with Mark and read so much into it if it was an 100% commonplace thing.

“Really. Besides, Jackson said he didn't have any impressions of you being in love with Mark. I'm actually really glad you've been making a new friend, so I'm not jealous.”

“Really?” Jinyoung repeated. Not to the second part, but to the first. He was sure Jackson would have echoed to Jaebum what Jinyoung had said in the heat of the moment, the part about his and Jaebum's relationship being the result of Jackson's deluded fantasies. He was also sure Jackson would have confessed to Jaebum that Jinyoung was showing an unacceptable amount of interest in Mark, since that was what had offended him the most.

Because wasn't I?, Jinyoung thought, a little confusedly. Aren't I? Or am I not?

“Yeah, it's all good.” Jaebum calmly threw his arm around Jinyoung's shoulder, drawing him closer. “Just, you know, be a little more aware of what's flirting and what isn't in the future. Because if you really start flirting, I might get jealous. That would be cheating, after all.”

The word seemed amplified in Jinyoung's ears. Cheating. A whole rush of emotions ran through him all at once. The bulk of it wasn't guilt. He wasn't guilty of cheating (definitely not in action, and only slightly in thought), so that wasn't the emotion that was bothering him. What he was feeling now seemed a lot more like shock. If Jaebum was talking about cheating and jealousy, that meant he really would be hurt if Jinyoung found someone else. And if he felt hurt over that, that meant his heart was invested, which also meant...

Oh god, I should have listened to him earlier, Jinyoung thought. He's serious about this. He's really, really serious, and meanwhile I'm...

He had to admit it to himself. He'd gone on their dates each night, and he'd done his part of considering falling in love with Jaebum as a possible outcome. But always, always in the back of his mind he assumed they'd decide they were better off as friends and things would go back to how they had been before. He was so used to being Jaebum's best friend that it felt like the most natural outcome, and the whole thing at camp had felt like them playing along with their agreement until they and everyone else came to the conclusion it wasn't as fantastic as it had all seemed in theory.

But Jaebum was serious. And that changed everything. Jinyoung had promised to be serious as well, and being serious certainly didn't include flirting with other boys and then suggesting you weren't going to put it behind you when said boy practically begged you to.

The full brunt of the shame Jackson had been trying to make him feel that morning finally hit him. I'm not just a ty boyfriend, he thought, I'm an inconsiderate, self-centered, careless friend and today I was potentially seconds away from breaking my friend's...boyfriend's...heart, just because I'm going through some kind of complex emotional crisis and can't bring myself to terms with the fact that I actually am a taken man, just like Jackson AND Mark reminded me I am.

“You OK there, Jinyoung?” Jaebum asked, looking a little concerned.

“Y-yeah. I'm fine.” He forced a smile. “I'll be careful not to flirt accidentally again.”

“Glad to hear it.” Jaebum smiled at him, and he looked so unburdened and carefree that it almost broke Jinyoung's heart that he didn't feel the same in that moment. “So, wow, we're only on Day 3 of camp, and so much drama has already happened. What did Jackson say you and I would probably be doing by Day 3? Making out?”

Jinyoung's stomach sank. Were they going to be doing that now? He felt childish, but he wasn't prepared. He didn't want it to move that quickly.

“Hey, hey, don't look freaked out, I was just joking,” Jaebum said lightly. “We can save that. Another time.”

Another time. It was already in their future, then. He wanted to slam on the brakes, but it felt like he'd missed the chance to do it without giving Jaebum whiplash.

“Let's have a more peaceful time for the next four days,” Jaebum said decisively. “Just fun and relaxation. Beautiful memories together. You and me.”

“OK,” Jinyoung said, exhaling. “Just like we promised. You and me.”