It was a couple of days after they had returned from their first expedition. Taeyeon had kept them on their feet with simple team building activities and games for them to rest. Their next big project was a water expedition the following day, which was why Taeyeon had gathered them at the boathouse that afternoon - they needed practice before the expedition. Hauling five, two-seater kayaks out from their racks, the K2 lined them up by the beach and paired up, each girl suited with a life jacket and equipped with a kayak paddle.

After a briefing on basic paddling techniques, each team enthusiastically carried their kayaks to the water, eager to try kayaking for the first time, all except Irene and Seulgi who were still on shore. Irene gave Seulgi an apologetic look and took a few deep breaths. Taking a dip in the shallow waters was one thing, paddling out into the open sea on a piece of plastic was another.

“Irene..”

“N-no, Seulgi!”

“Irene!” Irene looked up and saw Seungwan waving at them from her kayak.

“Seungwan, not you, too!”

“First one to reach the buoy gets to pat Seungwan’s !” Ten heads turned turned simultaneously towards Taeyeon who cheekily yelled from her speedboat a distance away. Her arm was stretched out, pointing at an orange buoy that was floating about 100 metres from the shoreline.

“Why my ??”

“Because..” Taeyeon pointed at Irene and their eyes widened after seeing how the said girl was suddenly very enthusiastic, pulling Seulgi towards their kayak and marched out to the water like a general.

The K2 laughed at how excited Irene got at the mention of a race and the prize. The entire watch had noticed that the tiny scaredy cat had a tendency to pat their bottoms, particularly Seungwan’s, and Taeyeon’s little race was a sure fire way to get her into kayaking. Seulgi was more than happy to oblige to Irene’s eagerness to win, seeing her overcoming her fears bit by bit was turning out to be one of her favourite things about camp that year.

The other girls started paddling towards their destination, the lonely buoy out at sea, leaving Irene and Seulgi in the dust seeing how they had a good head start. Seungwan was horrified at how pumped everybody was and paddled faster. If she won, her bum would be safe. Or so she thought. Her chances of winning was quite slim since her partner was not paddling at all.

“Yoona, come on! We have to reach the buoy before everybody else!” Seungwan grunted as she gave her all in paddling. “Please?” She turned around as much as she could and pouted at their CA who took the backseat.

“Aaaw..” Yoona set her paddle down and patted Seungwan’s head. “Alright, let’s save your bum.”

The kayaks currently in the lead for a pat at Seungwan’s bum was Wheein and Hyejin’s and Joy and Yerim’s. The four satans were already halfway to the buoy when Taeyeon made the announcement and cackled as they paddled at an easy pace, confident that the others wouldn’t be able to catch up in time. They were already so close to the buoy after all.

Unbeknownst to them, a dark force was coming up behind them as Irene and Seulgi paddled with a purpose. Joy took one look behind them and yelled at Yerim to paddle faster as the ones previously in last place were steady gaining speed and was about to overtake them.

“Paddle, Yerim-ah! Paddle like your life depends on it!”

“I’m paddling, Park Sooyoung! Stop yelling!”

“Why are all of you so eager to pat my bum?!” Seungwan whined as she too, was catching up.

“Because it’s squishy and nice to touch!”

“WHAT?!”

“Yes, Byul. Thank you for answering on my behalf.” Irene stopped paddling briefly to give Byul a nod and the latter responded with a greasy wink and a finger gun. Her partner, Yongsun, made a face and smacked her shoulder from behind.

Taeyeon stayed close to her watch with her speedboat and laughed at how Irene and Seulgi managed to turn the tables and reached the buoy first. Irene had temporarily forgotten they were on a floating piece of plastic and did a little victory dance, effectively rocking the kayak rather violently. It would’ve overturned had Seulgi not stopped her. Irene smiled sheepishly at her partner and Taeyeon saw that Seulgi’s ears were once again bright red.

“That kid has it bad..” She mumbled to no one in particular and called out to her watch to head back to shore for lunch.

The K2 were sprawled at their table in the mess hall, each too tired to sit upright. Jessica came up and rolled her eyes when she saw them.

“Yah, Kim Taeyeon. We were suppose to have them take it easy.”

“You weren’t there. It was so worth it. Am I right guys?”

The K2 gave Taeyeon thumbs up while Seungwan released the biggest sigh. Taeyeon turned back to Jessica and smiled.

“Stupid dork.” Jessica rolled her eyes again and walked back to her watch.

***

“Okay, since we had a tiring morning. We’re going to take it easy this afternoon.”

The K2 were gathered in the gym hall slightly after lunch, each with a compass in hand. Seulgi excitedly waited for Taeyeon to brief the watch about the activity they were going to do in a short while, it was one of her favourites at camp.

“We’re going to learn orienteering today and after we’re done with class, you guys will be split into two teams and we’ll do a scavenger hunt.”

Seulgi sat back and let the others try their hand at orienteering, watching with glee when her friends ended up turning the compass round and round while trying to find where North was, Yerim had taken to turning her whole body instead of just little device. She already knew what they were going to be hunting for later, but as Jessica had mentioned earlier during camp, Seulgi was not going to spoil the activity for her friends.

She noticed later when their scavenger hunt started that the coordinates they were given had changed and it thrilled the said girl. While the objects they were hunting for was the same, their positions had been moved and it was up to them to find it in the large camp area. They were split into two teams and were both given a set of coordinates and a starting point. Once Taeyeon blew the whistle, both teams were off. Yoona and Taeyeon were present at respective teams to give them hints in case they lost their way.

Yoona tailed Seulgi’s team as they went around searching for their next target. They were tasked to look for letters that they assume would eventually form a word. Those letters were painted on random places around camp and the only way to find them was to use their compass to point them in the correct direction. Seulgi was first to use the compass and then passed it to her teammates for them to give it a go.

Meanwhile, Irene proved Taeyeon’s statement correct about being a natural born leader as she led her team during their orienteering scavenger hunt. Seungwan, Joy and Yerim were in-charged of working the compass while Irene read them the coordinates, her keen eye spotting the letters before they even reached their destination even though some were painted on the most obscure places like on a rock. Their team worked efficiently and managed to piece together with word in record time, as opposed to Seulgi’s team who were more relaxed about it and took slightly longer.

The K2 regrouped in the gym hall afterwards and presented their respective words. Irene’s team found the word “cooperation” while Seulgi’s found “responsibility”. They clapped to congratulate themselves on a job well done because wondering about the large camp area under the afternoon sun was not easy.

“Well done, K2!” Taeyeon congratulated them again. “In this camp, we aim to build character in our participants and to teach them about responsibility and also teamwork, two things that were needed to complete the scavenger hunt and will be useful when you all are older. And the nine of you did very well. I’m very proud of you guys. This might actually be a new, unofficial camp record.”

The K2 erupted in another round of cheers.

***

Seulgi was hunched over her belongings while packing her backpack for their water expedition when she saw two shadows loomed over her. Nothing good would come out of it, Seulgi thought as she paused her packing and slowly turned around to meet Joy and Yerim. They had that look on their faces which told Seulgi that they were up to no good.

“Yes, Satans? How can I help you?”

“Irene just went out to refill her water bottle..” Joy said nonchalantly.

“Alone, if I may add.”

“Yes, she told me about it before she went out.” Seulgi noticed that the others were starting to crowd around her again. “So…??”

Joy rolled her eyes and hauled Seulgi towards their dorm’s entrance, the others trailing behind them like a flock of sheep.

“Seulgi, if you want to even have the slightest chance with her, you have to at least start talking to her outside of activities!” Yerim flailed her arms in exasperation, not sure if Seulgi was actually dumb or was just playing dumb.

“Look! She’s going alone to the water cooler. Go say hi or something.” Joy pointed towards the little water station by the steps up the hill to their dorm.

The two pushy satans gave Seulgi a nudge before she grumbled and went down the steps, scratching her head as she thought of what to say to Irene when she reached. Seulgi paused to turn back but saw that her watchmates had created a blockade around the entrance, effectively prevented her from chickening out. She sighed and continued walking down the steps. Unknowingly to her, Joy and Yerim descended the slope using a little path the found they found the bushes and hid a safe distance away from the water station.

Seulgi went down the steps relatively quickly, skipping the last step before the water station and landed with a little thud, causing Irene to squeak and jump a tiny bit. Irene turned around with a glare, water tumbler poised for a strike before exhaling in relief when she saw that it was just her bunkmate.

“Stop doing that.” She turned around and continued filling her large bottle of water.

“Sorry, it’s a habit. I always jump that last step.”

“You’ll wear out your knees faster if you do that often.”

“Oh..”

“All done. Your turn.” Irene stepped aside and lingered around, waiting for Seulgi to finish to return together.

“So...uhm..Irene?”

“Yes?”

“You..uhm..come here often?”

Seulgi could hear a faint sound of somebody facepalming in the background and rolled her eyes.

“It’s my first time here at camp, Seulgi..”

“Right..right..silly me.”

They grew quiet for a moment before Irene spoke, “The view is really nice from here.”

“Huh?”

Seulgi followed Irene’s gaze even though she knew what the latter was referring to. That particular water station had a view that was similar to the one they could see from the K2’s balcony, perhaps just not as far up. Everything was quiet and peaceful as the camp prepared for bed. The only sounds were from the waves that crashed rhythmically on the shore and the sounds of cicadas hidden in the trees around them. Seulgi looked back at Irene, about to say something when she saw that Irene was looking up at the sky, eyes filled with wonder.

“The stars are really pretty and easy to see here. You can’t even see them in the city. There’s just too many lights.”

“Yeah..I don’t think I’ve seen this many stars in a while. Hey check out that really bright one by the moon.”

“That might actually be a planet..Jupiter maybe. If it’s that close to the moon and still that bright.” Irene paused and looked at Seulgi when she felt the girl staring at her. “Yes?”

“Nothing..it’s just feels kinda cool, ya know? Like hey check it out! We saw a planet!”

Irene giggled. “You’re cute, you know that?”

“Eh?”

“Let’s go back.” Irene changed the topic quickly. “It’s way past our bedtime.”

“Oh..okay.” Seulgi gestured for Irene to go first and she followed, this time not missing the rustling of the bushes behind them. She made a mental note to strangle the two satans the next morning.

***