The next day underneath the hot sun after lunch, the boys all decided to cool off at the pool. Changing into swimsuits and running back to the cool water, they sighed contentedly as the cool water lapped against their hot limbs and soothed their almost sunburnt skin. 

Johnny and Taeil had fallen asleep within minutes on one lounge chair, Mark and Donghyuck giggling over them, running back and forth from the store. Ten and Taeyong were sure that they were planning some sort of prank, but Mark and Donghyuck were their babies; they would be forgived easily. Jaehyun had forced Doyoung to come into the water and play some games with Yukhei, Jungwoo, Jeno, Jaemin, Renjun, and Kun. Although a lot of people were still awkward with Kun, Ten was glad to see him becoming friends with the rest. He knew how much love could make you do ty things sometimes. 

Doyoung and Jungwoo quickly escaped the game to be referees/cheerleaders, and Yuta and Sicheng sat to their right, kicking their legs in the water and talking hand in hand. 

Ten observed all this as he and Taeyong sat side by side in lounge chairs, simply watching what was going on. Everything was perfect; he was a little drowsy, relaxed, and warm. But suddenly, Taeyong turned to him in a panic, and Ten furrowed his brows. 

"Do Chenle and Jisung have sunscreen on?" Taeyong asked, his voice laced with worry. 

Ten turned back to Taeyong with wide eyes. "," he responded quietly, digging through his bag to grab the sunscreen. The two leapt up and walked to where Jisung and Chenle were playing in the pool, at the deep end. 

"Sungie, Lele, can you guys get out of the pool for a sec?"

"Why?" Chenle groaned back. 

"You need to get on sunscreen," Ten explained. 

"But it's all sticky and it smells weird!" Jisung complained. 

"Anyways, the sun can't get us when we're in the water," Chenle added. 

"Nope, you're not getting out of this," Taeyong responded. "Come on, come here." 

Chenle and Jisung sighed but lifted themselves out of the pool, standing on the edge of the pool, dripping water all over the ground. 

"Here." Taeyong tossed them each a towel so they could dry off before Ten put a dollop of sunscreen in each of their hands. They began to put the sunscreen on, getting Taeyong to do their backs as Ten looked them over to make sure they were all covered. 

Just as they were about to get back into the water, Ten stopped them. "Guys! Your faces!" 

"Oh!" Chenle responded, getting a drop more to cover his face. Jisung followed, and they were finally done. 

"Thanks mom, thanks dad," Jisung spoke, and with a giggle the two middle schoolers leapt back into the water. 

Taeyong breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank god. If they'd gotten burnt, I wouldn't know what to do." 

"Do they sell aloe vera at the store?" Ten asked as the couple walked back to their lounge chairs. Taeyong sat down, but Ten sat in between Taeyong's legs instead of getting into his own chair. Taeyong didn't mind, in fact he was grateful, wrapping his arms around Ten's sunscreen sticky waist. 

"I don't think so," Taeyong answered, resting his head on Ten's shoulder. 

They sighed again, contentedly so. Their eyes drifted along all their friends who had become like family, then up to the lifeguards, who were half asleep at that point. Ten and Taeyong then looked to Chenle and Jisung to make sure they were alright. They couldn't blame those lifeguards, the sun was really hot and bright that day, but they had to make sure their sort of kids were safe. 

"This year has been...so different," Taeyong commented in a dreamy voice. 

"Mmh," Ten responded as a cool breeze brushed through their hair. The sounds of their friends in the pool faded into the distance and for a moment, Ten felt like he was all watching this from afar, as if it was a movie. "It has been different." 

They knew exactly why it was so different as their eyes went back to Jisung and Chenle, playing in the water. To anyone's eyes they would look so deeply innocent, even acting a little young for their age. 

"I grew up too quickly," Taeyong said. "At their age I'd already moved on from playing in the pool and thinking cheek kisses were a big deal." 

"Me too," Ten answered.

"Maybe....maybe we're so protective of them because we want to give them the childhoods we lost...or not, I'm being ing cheesy and stupid," Taeyong finished with a sad chuckle. 

"No," Ten answered. "I think you're right. We did grow up to fast." 

"We've grown up even more this summer," Taeyong commented. "But in a different way, you know?"

"We've...matured, that's the word," Ten responded. 

"Uh-huh....but I swear, I'm still just as passionate about you as the day we met." 

"Of course," Ten answered with a laugh. "We're talking like we're an old married couple with grandkids." 

Taeyong laughed back. "I do feel a lot older though." 

Ten hummed and grinned. "Me too. You know, I love you even more than last summer. I didn't think that was even possible." 

"Me either." 

Taeyong still wrapped his body around Ten's but they reached for each other's hands, interlacing their fingers. Ten sighed and leaned his back against Taeyong's chest, his head on his shoulder. Ten looked up at his beautiful, loving boyfriend with a beaming smile. And when Taeyong leaned down to kiss him, he didn't think he'd ever been happier. 

Taeyong pulled away with one of his soft and gentle smiles and Ten felt his heart beat; even after everything he and Taeyong still got butterflies for each other. 

"You know, babe...I can- I can imagine us living like this in the future," Taeyong said, gesturing his head to Chenle and Jisung.

"Like..." Ten trailed off, looking for an explanation. 

"Married, couple of kids." 

Ten swallowed thickly; he always thought he was too wild and adventurous for such a normal and boring thing. But maybe it would be different, with Taeyong things that seemed every day had already become exciting. And anyways, he was happier this year at camp than he'd ever been in his life. Maybe he always just thought he was too rowdy, too much of a bad kid to get a normal life later on. 

"I never though I'd say this, but..." Ten started, very shyly, looking down at the lounge chair beneath him, "Maybe that would be nice." 

Taeyong kissed Ten's neck sweetly. "As long as I'm with you, I think anything would be alright." 

~~~~~~~~~~

"Ah!" Jisung screamed when Chenle grabbed his leg. The two of them bobbed above the water and started to laugh loudly, their hair and skin soaked with the chlorine water of the pool. 

Most of the others were playing a big game of water polo like usual on the deep end of the pool, but for some reason that day they hadn't felt like it. They both sort of just wanted to hang out, just the two of them, so they went to the deep end of the pool to play marco polo (although they'd been interrupted to get their sunscreen on). 

With the sun out bright, their friends around them, and Ten and Taeyong's watchful eyes making sure they were alright, Jisung felt truly safe and happy. Even though he really was so much younger than the rest, he rarely felt out of place. Even though he was young he knew how big of a deal it was, and he was grateful. 

But, he was even more lucky to have Chenle by his side. Even though Chenle was a year older he was much closer to Jisung in age, so when Jisung needed to do more kiddy things or just feel more comfortable, Chenle was always there. Chenle had become his best friend, even including his friends from school. 

The two of them were inseperable: from sitting next to each other for meals, to playing together in the day, to whispering at night once the lights were off, even if they were tired. Renjun always yelled at them for disturbing his rest, but it didn't matter much when they could talk all night. 

Jisung had really thought they didn't have any secrets until they played truth or dare. It was more than ten days ago at that point when Chenle admitted he had a crush on someone, but refused to say who. Jisung didn't want to admit it, but he was upset that he didn't get to know who Chenle liked. 

Normally, he didn't care all that much about love and crushes and all that; he hadn't liked anyone since the fourth grade, and he thought that was just a silly elementary school crush. But Chenle's confession weighed on his mind; he thought about it all the time. Even when his friends at school had crushes he really didn't care who it was or what happened between them, but Chenle's just felt more important. His curiosity ate away at him, and it was too weird. He had to find out or else he thought he'd go crazy. 

Jisung knew camp was ending soon so once Chenle caught him in Marco Polo, he tugged Chenle over to the back corner of the pool. 

"What are you doing?" Chenle asked with a high pitched, dolphin like laugh. Jisung didn't know why, but he felt nervous about asking Chenle about his secret. Even so, hearing Chenle's dolphin laugh made him feel a bit better. 

"I-I have to ask you something," Jisung responded. Chenle nodded, falling serious, and Jisung hummed. "Do you remember when we played truth or dare? Not the last game, but the game before?" Chenle nodded again but his eyes began to dart around and his cheeks turned pink. Chenle, for all his good qualities could be a bit oblivious, so Jisung was surprised that Chenle had some idea what Jisung was about to ask him. "Um, I'm really curious about your truth answer. Can you tell me who you like now that we're in private?" 

Chenle had now turned bright red and had started to look anywhere but at Jisung, and Jisung was shocked. Was this really such a big deal to Chenle? Who could it possibly be? "Uh, sorry, I can't," Chenle answered bluntly, his face looking weird when it was sad (since Jisung wasn't used to it). 

"Come on! We're best friends, right? We tell each other everything!" Jisung responded in a quiet voice. Now his feelings were really hurt, why couldn't he know? Did Chenle not want to be his best friend anymore. 

"Um, fine, um, I'll tell you, I guess," Chenle said, and Jisung breathed a sigh of relief. "It's....um..." Chenle looked away from the pool water and up at all the other campers, his eyes searching around. "Oh!" He finally spoke. "It's, uh, Kun." 

"What?" Jisung cried. He was suddenly filled with a weird anger he'd never felt before; Chenle couldn't like Kun!

"Uh, yeah. That's definitely who I like, not someone else," Chenle responded. 

"B-but he's so much older! And you've barely talked to him!" Jisung said, the weird anger now coupled with sadness. He really didn't think Chenle's answer would've affected him so much, and he still couldn't even figure out why. 

"He's nice, okay?" Chenle responded, and Jisung sighed. He felt bad; if he was a good friend he wouldn't have reacted so negatively. But he couldn't stop feeling angry or sad about it, even though he didn't think he had a reason. 

"Fine," Jisung responded, crossing his arms. Chenle looked genuinely upset, and Jisung just felt even worse. Chenle still couldn't look him in the eye. 

"Do...do you wanna play more marco polo?" Chenle asked shyly. 

"Yeah," Jisung answered; it was probably a good idea if they forgot about this entire conversation. 

"You be marco!" Chenle said, diving into the water, the happy tone of his voice quickly returning. But try as he might, Jisung couldn't get himself to feel the same way.