Seulgi sat herself down at a table in a corner of a cafe after she had ordered and pulled out her phone to check the time. It was still early, she had ample time to kill. Setting the phone on the table, she looked around and decided to people watch for a bit while waiting for her coffee and sandwich. She was briefly pulled from her thoughts when the waiter came over with her order. Thanking him, she picked up her phone again to take a shot to update her social media account. She tapped on the share button after she got a satisfactory shot and scrolled down for a bit, stopping when she saw a photo taken against a familiar background.

She’d recognise that place anywhere - summer camp - the place where she spent most of her summers running around when she was growing up. Seulgi smiled at the memories of camp that she recalled fondly from time to time. All those hours spent on the beach learning how to kayak, hours spent in the woods jungle trekking and learning how to tie knots. Most children would rather spend their holidays at home, resting or playing video games, but not Seulgi. She preferred to be outside.

---

There was one year that she was particularly fond of, the summer when she was 16. She had signed up for camp with a few of her friends. Seulgi had been successful in persuading them to come along with her for once after only having heard her retelling stories from camp. They were enthusiastic enough about spending two weeks away from civilisation and while there were some initial complains about having to go without their phones and internet for the duration of the camp, Seulgi was proud to say that her friends had enjoyed themselves thoroughly and went back with her in the subsequent summers.

The first day of camp was usually a mild chaos with at least one or two younger participants crying as they reluctantly parted with their family. Seulgi took pity on them but they would soon get over it, they almost always did whenever camp activities started. After their parents had dropped them off, Seulgi led her friends to the registration counter outside the huge gymnasium where they would be assigned to their teams, or watches as they were called there.

Participants were split into watches that typically consisted of about ten people. Each watch was led by an instructor and a course assistant, or CA, as it was commonly abbreviated. The watch would be their family for two weeks and they would learn how to look after each other whenever they are out on expeditions.

“Seulgi, you’re back! I was beginning to wonder if you would show up this year.” The staff at the registration counter greeted Seulgi with a bright smile. “And I see that you brought friends with you this time.”

“Hi, Yoona. It’s great to be back.” Seulgi gave a little bow and set her things down, gesturing to her friends to do the same. “These are my friends, they’re new here. Those two Satan-look alikes are Joy and Yerim, Joy is the taller one.”

“Yah!”

“And this here,” Seulgi put an arm around the smaller girl next to her and gave her a shake. “Is my best friend, Seungwan.”

Seungwan gave Yoona a little bow.

“Welcome to Camp Gemini. I’m Yoona, as you can see here on my name tag.” she pointed to the tag that read ‘IM YOONA’ and guffawed. “Let’s see which watch you guys are in and then you can take a seat at one of the tables inside the gym hall.”

***

As they entered the building, they spotted at least six tables in place with several seats occupied at each of them. Seungwan looked around and pointed to a table with their watch name labelled and they hauled their luggage over and took a seat on one side of the still empty long table. Five other girls came to join them at their table a little while later. They gave one another little nods of acknowledgement before settling their things down and took their respective seats.

“Alright team, welcome to The K2.” A woman Seulgi had seen before during previous camps greeted them once everybody had arrived and Yoona trailed behind her, meaning registration had been closed. “I’m Taeyeon and I’ll be your instructor for the next two weeks. This is my assistant, Yoona, which you guys met during registration. She will be helping me terrorise the nine of you. Now, I need you to briefly introduce yourselves so let’s start with you and we’ll go around.” Taeyeon pointed to Seulgi who was on her right. She nodded and stood up to begin.

Seulgi’s attention shifted from one girl to the next as they went around the table during introductions. They were all about the same age, there were two cheeky looking girls who seem like they would get along swimmingly with the Satan twins, Hyejin and Wheein, another pair who were seemingly touchy with each other, Yongsun and Byul, and then there was her and her friends. Seulgi’s attention fell on the last girl who sat across from her.

“Hello. I’m Irene Bae, also 16 years old.” She started and suddenly the air shifted. “I’m not much of an outdoorsy or the most adventurous person but I do love camping a lot. I will try my best in the coming weeks.”

Seulgi looked at Irene in a bit of an awe. For one so small and timid looking, Irene had commanded their attention with ease and it had surprised even their instructor and CA.

“Looks like we have a natural born leader here.” Taeyeon commented off-handedly before turning her attention back to her participants. “First things first. I need all of you to surrender any electronic devices over to us for save keeping during the course of this camp. It’s standard procedure because we want all of you to be fully focused on the activities and to live in the moment. Please hand everything over except your cameras. That you may keep with you but it’ll be at your own risk so please take care of it well. Any form of food and reading materials need to be handed in, too.”

Taeyeon nodded at Yoona and she placed a small wooden box and some labelling stickers with some pens in the middle of the table. Everybody at the table looked at each other hesitantly before Seulgi coolly got up to retrieve one of the pens and stickers and sat back down. She fished out her phone from her pocket and turned it off before turning it over to place the sticker on the device, effectively labelling it as hers. She then deposited it into the box and nudged her friends to do the same.

Once all their devices were safely locked in the box, Yoona disappeared out the hall with it while Taeyeon led them to their dorm. Seulgi looked around and saw that other watches were already on the move as well. They walked down the stoop outside the gym hall and onto a road that led to the foot of a small hill, passing by a small field along the way.

Groans could be heard as they begin their ascend to their designated dorms. Their dorms came in the form of wooden chalets that sat on the side of the hill overlooking the beach and unfortunately, were only accessible by stairs. Seulgi groaned too because their watch was The K2, the second tallest peak in the world, which meant that their dorm was the second highest on the hill and it would be one heck of a climb for sure.

“How..much..further, Taeyeon?” Hyejin asked in between gasps, her leg muscles burning from the climb.

“You can do it, kid. We’re almost halfway.”

“Only halfway?!” Joy, who was right behind Taeyeon, stopped all together causing the entire watch to stop to take a much needed breather. “There’s not way I’m going to make it all the way up there carrying these bags.”

Almost everybody nodded.

“You’ll get used to it in a couple of days, Joy. Don’t be dramatic.” Seulgi nudged her to move, not wanting to waste everybody’s time because there was another watch behind them. “I was in Everest a couple of years back. Now that was a challenge.”

“Thank god we’re not in Everest then.” Joy rolled her eyes but got moving.

“Atta girl, Joy! Now let’s go team!” Taeyeon turned around and resumed their little climb. “Oh by the way, there’s a water station right over there so you guys don’t have to go all the way down to the mess hall to get water.” She pointed to a little shed that sat by the trail.

***

Taeyeon had given them some time to settle down in their dorm before they had to return to the hall for an ice breaking session and a tour of the camp’s grounds. The dorm were filled with a cupboards and sturdy, wooden bunk beds. Seulgi looked around for any unoccupied lower bunks but it seemed like she was a tad bit too slow, so she had to settle with the upper bunk. There were a few upper bunks left to choose from but Seulgi settled with the one nearest to the balcony door, at least it would be a bit breezier in case the weather was too hot at night.

Setting her backpack down with a thud, she heard a small squeak. Seulgi turned towards the lower bunk and saw that her bunkmate was looking at her accusingly.

“You scared me.”

“I’m sorry. Irene, right? Is it okay if I take the upper bunk?”

“Sure, go ahead. You’re Seulgi, right? The one who has been here before, like a million times?”

Seulgi turned around and saw Yerim and Joy snickering at the side and sighed, wondering when did they even get the chance to talk to Irene about her.

“Not really a million times, but close enough. Need a hand?”

Irene was putting on the bed sheets for her bed but Seulgi was asking out of basic courtesy, her bunkmate had everything under control.

“I’m good. Do you need help? How does one change the bed sheets on the upper bunk?”

Irene got up from the bed and surveyed the upper bunk together with Seulgi who apparently had never been on top before. They stared at each other for a while before Seulgi decided to call for reinforcement.

“Joy, can you give me a hand?”

“You short people can’t live without me.”

***

Ice breaking was more often than not an awkward affair during camp, but not that summer. Everyone was a good sport and it was a good laugh whenever they matched the wrong name to the wrong person. They were having a hard time telling Seulgi and Irene apart because they practically looked like twins, something nobody had realised until they were standing side by side during the ice breaking session. Seungwan, Joy and Yerim had no problems since they had already known Seulgi most of their lives but their four new friends, their instructor included, had a tough time.

“Wait, did those two switch places?” Seulgi watched as Wheein asked Hyejin while frowning, pointing back and forth between the two of them as they stood in a circle.

“No, they didn’t..I think? Yoong, did they switch places?” Taeyeon nudged Yoona and the latter stuck her tongue out at their instructor.

“I’m not telling!”

“Seulgi’s the one in the white t-shirt, guys!” Byul snapped her fingers at her realisation and finger gunned Seulgi who returned it.

“Yeah, for today. We can’t rely on her white t-shirt forever, Byul.” Yongsun shook her head.

Seulgi smiled at Irene who was equally amused by the situation and saw that Irene, together with Joy, Yerim and Seungwan, were trying very hard not to laugh at their new friends. Irene had one hand cover in a last ditch attempt to keep herself from laughing.

“Guys! Seulgi is taller!”

“Yah!” Irene huffed and her eyebrows furrowed, causing them to burst laughing.

“This has to be one of the best ice breakings we’ve had so far, Taeyeon.”

“Definitely.” Taeyeon managed to catch her breath just long enough to reply Yoona before doubling over, guffawing like a middle-aged woman, as her participants started to compare heights with one another. Joy was smugly towering over everybody else while Yerim was crowned the shortest, huffing away as she was pushed to the back of the line by Wheein and Hyejin.

Taeyeon gathered the mess that was her watch and ushered them out of the hall when another instructor shot her an icy glare. Seulgi waved at that instructor, she had been in her watch once before. Giving her a quick bow, Seulgi scurried out the hall to catch up with her watch.

“Where’d you go?” Taeyeon eyed her curiously.

“Oh..I saw Jessica in the hall.”

“You were in Mont Blanc before?”

“Yeah, a couple of years back.”

***

Taeyeon herded her watch towards the cafeteria, or mess hall as it was called, where every other watch were already gathered. Jessica, Mont Blanc’s instructor briefed all of them about mess hall etiquette and how things worked. Everyone listened intently, none dared to make any noise as she explained. Seulgi saw Taeyeon chuckling with another instructor while pointing at the participants, they would probably tease Jessica later because she scared everybody on the very first day with her icy glares and stone cold face.

Jessica pointed to the cabinets that lined the walls of the hall, each watch had their very own cabinets where food trays and cutlery were kept. There was also a counter at the very front where Yoona and another CA stood to hand out containers filled with dishes to each of the watches’ representatives and a kettle filled with their drinks.

After the briefing was done, Taeyeon motioned for her watch to send a few volunteers out to collect their food.

“Can you manage the kettle, Irene?”

“I got it, Yongsun. No worries. Yerim-ah, you okay with the rice container?”

“I’m not hopeless, Irene.”

“Famous last words..” Irene giggled when she heard Hyejin mumbled it as she passed them carrying another tray.

Once they settled everything on their table, the rest got to work in distributing food evenly to the entire watch. They passed the food trays around until everyone had gotten their fair share. Nobody had started eating yet, it was camp tradition that they would only start once everything is in order. Taeyeon announced a short moment of silence to give thanks to the food and they digged in afterwards.

Seulgi sighed when she took her first bite of her dinner, earning her looks from Joy and Yeri. Even Irene, who was sitting across the table from her, raised a brow, wondering if the food really was that good. Seulgi couldn’t help herself, it tasted like home. She made a mental note to not mention it to her mother, ever, she might get kicked out of the house. She smiled sheepishly at her watchmates and continued to dig in, but not before stealing a look at Irene, who was still staring at her. Seulgi pretended to cough and averted her eyes immediately, missing the way Irene smirked at her reaction.

***

 

TBC

 

A/N: Hello! it's been a while since i've posted anything and welcome to my new on-going! i hope you guys like it and if there are any errors, please let me know.