♦Chapter Three♦

The 2:00 pm sun was beating down into the Cheetah Cabin but the air-conditioned room prevented anyone from being too hot. Cas was still on her bed, back to flipping through her comic from when Jessica had interrupted her a few minutes ago. She looked back to Jessica for a moment, only to be surprised to see her waving and smiling to another girl that just walked by. Cas raised an eyebrow in question. It was extremely rare for Jessica to smile to anyone other than Cas and their other friend Lee Soonkyu, whom many affectionately call Sunny.

Seeing the look, Jessica turned back to Cas. “That was Jihae, a friend of mine.” Jessica looked back over to Jihae for a second before turning back to Cas. “Do you want to meet her?”

Cas chuckled humorlessly. “Why would I? I doubt we’d like each other. There are only two other girls besides you that I get along with. She’d probably hate me.” Cas flopped down across the bed laying her head in Jessica’s lap.

Jessica just rolled her eyes, shoving Cas off her lap before standing up, pulling the other girl with her. “If I can get along with her, so can you.” Cas tried to stay where she was, whining loudly that meeting Jihae would only end in despair. Jessica didn’t have any of it, roughly getting Cas up and shoving her towards Jihae.

Jihae crossed her arms, giving Cas a not-so-subtle once over to evaluate her appearance  before settling her judging gaze back on Cas’s eyes. Cas stared back at the shorter girl with hands on her hips, not backing down.

Rolling her eyes again, Jessica proceeded to give a smile to them both. “Jihae, this is Son Minjung, also known as Cassiopeia or simply Cas. Cas, this Nam Jihae.”

Jihae gave a wry smile before holding her hand out. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Cas retuned the smile. “Oh no, the pleasure is all mine.” She reached out and grabbed the older girl’s hand, giving it a firm shake before letting go.

Up on her bed Demi gave a loud snort, catching the three girls’ attention. “Now kiss!” Laughing, she swung her legs over her bed, staring down at them. “You guys are so stiff. Get those sticks out of your asses.”

Jihae and Cas looked at each other, not entirely sure what to do while Jessica and Demi watched in amusement. Another voice jumped in then, coming from one of the beds in the corner. “What’s the point? It’s not like we’re going to have to spend that much time here. We’re only here to sleep, really,” Dee said, not even looking up from the manga she was reading.

“I think it would be better if we didn’t get to know each other,” Chaerin said from next to Dee. “That way I won’t have to hate any of you and have to send you to the infirmary.” The other girls in the room, minus Dee, couldn’t help but glare at the other girl. Most of them knew who she was, and knew that she wasn’t the nicest girl in camp except to her friends. “Except you, Jihae. It’s always been too late for you, I already hate you. You try to mess with me again like you did at Lotte World and I’ll you up so bad you won’t even remember your own name.”

Jihae laughed cruelly, staring Chaerin straight in the eye. “Don’t act innocent here, Chaerin. You’ve done just as bad things to me in the past,” she said, her voice hard. “Oh, and try to touch me and I’ll get my friends to beat you to a bloody pulp.”

Dee smirked to herself in the background, continuing to flip through her manga. She knew Chaerin could take care of herself and at the moment wasn’t concerned about Jihae’s threat as her friends weren’t actually around to hurt her own friend.

“Woah there, can we not be threatening each other right now? I don’t want any blood spilled in this cabin on the first day. Other people have to sleep here too you know, and dead bodies would end up smelling really bad and keep me up at night,” Demi said somewhat sarcastically, surprising herself. Though she could often be considered the ‘life of the party,’ she usually wasn’t the type of person to try to break up arguments between strangers. However she really didn’t feel like living in a place that was always going to be filled with tension.

Cas watched the exchange, slightly amused. This is why I don’t like girls. They’re so petty, she thought to herself. At least Demi didn’t seem that way, so there was a chance that there was some other person besides Jessica she could at least get along with in the cabin, even if they wouldn’t end up being friends. “If you guys are going to go at it, make sure you don’t break anything,” Cas couldn’t help but say. She was never the type to stay silent in the background, after all.

Hyoyeon suddenly rushed out the cabin, running over to the Fox Cabin where she knew Gina was. She wasn’t quiet when she barged in, rushing to Gina who was in a conversation with Victoria and grabbing her arm, quickly telling her that she thinks a fight might be breaking out in their cabin. Gina said her goodbyes to the girls in the cabin before running out the cabin to her own, Hyoyeon in tow with Victoria not far behind to lend an extra hand just in case.

The campers in Fox Cabin stared after the two, wondering what was going on. Jinhee stared at the confused girls before scoffing. “She said a fight was about to break out in one of the other cabins.”

Kimchi gasped, bringing her hands to . “Oh no, a fight? Why would people be fighting?”

Jinhee scoffed again, giving Kimchi an incredulous look. “You’re seriously asking that? This is a camp full of people who aren’t right in the head, what do you expect?”

“Not everyone here is like that,” Kimchi said, giving Jinhee a sad look. “There are a lot of really nice people here, too, I’m sure.”

Jinhee looked at the younger girl, eyes a little softer than before. “I wouldn’t know. This is my first year here,” she said before facing her back towards the room, grabbing a nearby book and immersing herself in it to block out everyone else.

“Fights are so pointless,” Hyemi muttered to herself, hunching over and sticking a piece of chocolate in . Jieun suddenly came up to the younger, poking her to get her attention. Hyemi looked up at her in confusion, seeing Jieun holding on to the arm of another girl who seemed to be hiding behind her. Seeing the hiding girl, Hyemi sat up straighter and stopped eating, waiting for one of them to say something.

“Mi, I want you to meet Jinju! She’s my other best girl friend, next to you,” Jieun said, tugging on Jinju’s arm to get her to stop hiding. Jinju stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to say.

Hyemi nodded to the other girl, sensing that she was just as socially inept as her and Jieun were. “Hello, Jinju.” At the sound of her name, Jinju looked up, looking to a point right above Hyemi’s eyebrows and nodding back. Jieun smiled at the exchange, slightly awkward that it was, but glad that her two best girl friends finally met each other.

“This is a good time to introduce myself then, I suppose,” Heebon said, delicately leaping from her top bunk and landing smoothly. She gave a deep, flourishing bow before popping back up. “My name is Kim Heebon! I see there are some new campers here, so if any of you need any help or have any questions don’t feel afraid to come to me!” The bright smile Heebon gave off had the other girls in the cabin relaxing. Suzy smiled to herself on the bunk Heebon just left, amused at the other’s overly dramatic display.

At that moment Victoria came back into the room. She smiled cutely at the group of girls. “I see you are all getting along well!” She walked further into the room. In response Jinju suddenly collapsed, Jieun just barely catching her in time.  Jinhee immediately turned back to face the rest of the room, the sound startling her though she wouldn’t admit it. “Oh my god,” Victoria said, a hand on her heart in an attempt to stop its rapid pace. “Will you stop doing that? It’s annoying.” Victoria than left as quickly as she had come, irritated at Jinju’s actions.

Heebon fluttered over to Jinju’s side, a concerned look on her face. “Oh my, is she alright?” Heebon laid the back of her hand on Jinju’s forehead to check her temperature. Jinju jumped at the contact, standing back up like she didn’t just pass out. The other girls stared at her, confusion clearly painted on their faces. Jinju became nervous at the attention, going to her bunk and bundling herself up in her blankets.

Jieun smiled at the room, grabbing their attention. “Don’t worry, she didn’t actually faint. She does that around people she doesn’t like. You only have to worry if she passes out in a crowded area.” Hyemi gave Jieun a strange look, internally wondering where she found such a strange friend. Everyone else just went back to what they were doing before, pretending they understood Jieun’s words but still somewhat confused in reality. They all had a feeling it would take a while before they all could understand each other, and wondered if they would be able to get along or end up fighting like the Cheetah Cabin.

❤❤❤

Jihae felt someone bumping into her while she was on her way to the bathroom to do her morning routine, causing her to give them a vicious glare. It was early morning and she hadn’t eaten yet, which always causes her to be in a worse mood than usual. It didn’t help that it was Monday, either, making it the first official day of camp.

Demi apologized to Jihae, not in the mood to fight, though couldn’t help but feel a flare of anger rise up. She had just gotten back from her early morning run and needed to wash up before getting to breakfast. They both stood in front of the sinks to get ready. Once Jihae finished brushing her teeth she stared blankly at Demi. Feeling the gaze, Demi turned to look at Jihae after she finished washing her own face. “You talk a lot in your sleep. The things you say are freaking hilarious, even if it’s pretty annoying,” Jihae said bluntly, the glare still painting her face before leaving the bathroom and heading out towards the Dining Hall. She liked getting there earlier than most to avoid the rush and have more time to wake up, and only food could get her to do that.

Demi shook her head as the other girl left, though couldn’t help but be curious about what she might have been saying the night before in her sleep. It didn’t take long before she also finished getting ready, heading out the bathroom and into the bedroom to grab her bag. In the room she noticed Cas rolling out of bed. Demi raised her eyebrow at the sight of Cas’s bright pink, leopard printed bra. The night before Cas had warned them that she didn’t like sleeping with a shirt on, but Demi was surprised at Cas’s choice in attire. Demi left the room then, heading out to eat with her backpack hanging from her shoulders.

Cas slowly headed towards her dresser, falling to the ground in the process in her sleepy haze. She groaned loudly from her position, flailing her arms and legs before stopping her movements entirely, merely lying on the floor motionless. Dee woke up from the sound, snapping off her eye mask and looking towards Cas. She smirked to herself, getting up and nudging Cas with her foot. Cas only groaned louder in response, resuming her flailing motions. “Just leave me alone to suffer! Life is not worth living in my state of exhaustion,” Cas said, going back to her motionless state.

Rolling her eyes, Dee left the girl where she was to get ready, doing so quickly. When she left the bathroom again, she saw Cas still lying on the floor. She decided to leave the girl where she was as she didn’t feel like dealing with anyone, heading out the door. Outside, Dee spotted the Fox Cabin. She stopped outside of it, deep in thought. When Leeteuk was announcing the cabin arrangements the day before, Dee heard a very familiar name, Lee Kyumi. She wondered if it was the same Kyumi that she hadn’t seen in eight years, that Kyumi being her younger twin sister. Pulling herself out of her thoughts, Dee went back to heading towards the Dining Hall.

Kimchi stared outside the window of her cabin, shock on her face. She thought she just saw her twin, but the figure left too quickly for her to tell. Jinhee stared in curiosity at the girl looking at the window. She quickly wiped the drool that had stuck to her face overnight, getting out of bed and going over to Kimchi. “What’s so interesting out there?”

Startled, Kimchi jumped slightly at Jinhee’s words. Her shock eased at the sight of Jinhee, giving the tall girl a bright smile. “Oh, I just thought I saw someone that’s important to me,” Kimchi said, smile slightly wilting. It was only a second later though that the bright smile retuned, Kimchi hopping off to the bathroom. “Are you heading to the Dining Hall soon, too?”

Jinhee nodded, but otherwise didn’t respond and went to do her own morning routine. She soon heard the door to the cabin opening, Heebon skipping though to area to get to the bathroom. She gave a smile to Kimchi and Jinhee who were in there already. “Good morning! I was just out jogging by the lake. You guys should join me sometime, and then you could get fit like me,” she said, washing her hands and face before leaving to change her clothes. Jinhee narrowed her eyes at the retreating figure, wondering if the other had just insulted her body. She decided to let the comment slide for now, but if she heard another jab from Heebon she was prepared to retaliate.

Hyemi woke up to the sound of Heebon rummaging around through her stupidly large collection of shoes. Deciding it was a good time to wake up she got out of bed carefully. Heebon looked up at Hyemi, smiling to her and holding up two pairs of shoes. Before she could ask the question, Hyemi had pointed to the pair in Heebon’s left hand with a blank look on her face, walking away to get her own clothes.

Hyemi stopped in front of her dresser, staring confused at the one next to hers. It was covered in Jinju’s name. The confusion left her face when she remembered seeing the younger girl crouched near the dresser with a sharpie in hand last night. Hyemi figured that this was what she was doing that whole time.

As if sensing that she was thought about, Jinju slowly began to wake up, just as Jinhee the cabin. She saw Kimchi also about to leave. “You smile and talk a lot in your sleep, you know. It’s really cute,” Kimchi said to Jinju, giving her a smile and leaving the cabin after she grabbed her camera bag. Jinju blushed in embarrassment, ducking around Hyemi to get to her dresser, grabbing her clothes and heading towards the bathroom.

Hyemi did the same after answering a text from Mir she received telling her to hurry up because he was hungry. She heard Jinju humming softly to herself as she got ready, Jinju hating silence. The two got ready in relative silence, the only noise being Jinju’s humming. Hyemi and Jinju left the cabin shortly after each other. Hyemi was a little bit ahead of Jinju, but was stopped short at the sight of another girl further up with Heebon. She stared in interest as she saw a girl wearing outrageously bright colors walking slowly, looking as if she was about to fall asleep at any minute if not for Heebon holding on to her arm. After a few more moments of watching, Hyemi continued on to the Dining Hall.

❤❤❤

The Dining Hall was noisy, most of the campers having arrived already and in the midst of talking while eating. Heebon dominated half the conversation at her table, everyone paying rapt attention as she told her stories and laughing when it was appropriate to. She stopped in the middle of a story she was telling when she spotted Zelo, one of her favorite dongsaengs. She called the young boy over, watching as he dragged along two girls. She recognized one of the girls as Jinhee and the other as Zelo’s slightly older girlfriend Hwang Yeonju.

“Hi, noona,” Zelo greeted cheerfully when he reached them, tugging along Jinhee and Yeonju. Jinhee glared as she sat, not paying attention to anyone around her.

Heebon cooed in response, tugging playfully at Zelo’s cheeks as he protested the treatment. Heebon saw Yeonju looking at her silently, but the girl immediately went back to her book when Heebon looked back.

Another girl soon arrived, Yoonmi sitting down next to the sulking Jinhee. Jinhee gave Yoonmi a smirk, Yoonmi returning it. “I hate my cabinmates,” Yoonmi said. “They’re ugly, useless, and boring.”

Sohee looked affronted, Heebon not failing to notice. Sohee and Yoonmi were in the same cabin, after all. “I know how you feel,” Jinhee said, picking at the rice on her place. “You should see my cabinmates, they’re probably worse.” The two proceeded to laugh with each other, Zelo turning to them in curiosity. Heebon secretly glared at them, being in the same cabin as Jinhee, but refrained from commenting with a nasty insult in order to maintain her image.

Hearing the laughter, Jihae leaned over to look at the other side of the table in curiosity, smiling to herself when she noticed Heebon’s insulted look. She mentally congratulated Jinhee on her insults before turning back to Kikwang who was giving her a look of confusion. Jihae vaguely gestured in Heebon’s direction. “I hate her, is all. She’s annoying and I wouldn’t mind seeing her six feet under.”

Lee Kikwang leaned over, patting Jihae on the shoulder. “Don’t be so mean, she’s not that bad,” he said smiling to her.

Jihae returned the smile, at ease in Kikwang’s presence. “I wouldn’t get into any more fights if I were you. You already almost got in trouble yesterday,” Cas spoke up from next to Heebon. The two have been close friends since they met on their first day of their first year in camp three years ago and were often seen together. Jessica sat in between Cas and Jihae, basically ignoring everyone at the table as she ate.

Kikwang gave Jihae a surprised look. “Really? What happened?”

Jihae stared down at her food. “I don’t want to talk about it.” Reluctantly, Kikwang let the topic go and started a new one, him and Jihae engaging themselves in a conversation about his cabinmates.

Cas sighed softly, wishing she could have stirred up some drama between Jihae and Kikwang for fun. Across from her, Yoo Youngjae didn’t fail to notice her slightly depressed look. “Better luck next time,” he said with a smirk on his face.

Cas smirked back at him. “I don’t need luck, Youngjae. I’m better than that,” she finished off, brushing her hair back dramatically. Youngjae wasn’t someone to stay quiet for long however, immediately shooting back a badly-veiled insult that started up the two in an argument.

“Hello, everyone!” The voice of Leeteuk rang out through the hall, conversation stopping. “Don’t forget to head to the Great Hall after breakfast for another meeting! No rush though, we still have 45 minutes.”

Kimchi sat at her table alone, wondering silently what the meeting was going to be about. Her thoughts were soon interrupted by Changjo sitting down next to her, brushing his hand across her back. Kimchi screeched in surprise, Changjo laughing mockingly in response. “What do you think the meeting is about?” Changjo asked, leaning over to steal some food from Kimchi’s plate.

She pouted cutely at Changjo’s actions, but didn’t stop him. “I don’t know. Some of the girls were talking about it last night though, something about putting us in groups.”

“They are putting us in groups.” Kimchi and Changjo turned to the voice seeing Jieun smiling at them before returning to her own table with her food, Jinju and Changmin following behind silently.

The trio sat down at a table already occupied with Mir and Hyemi, Changmin introducing himself to them before sitting down. “I hope I’m in the same group as you guys,” Mir said cheerfully before stuffing his face with food.

Hyemi chuckled at the sight, but nodded along to the statement. “Me, too. I don’t want to be stuck with strangers again like last year.”

Jieun giggled at Hyemi, but still felt bad for her. “You had Thunder though, so it couldn’t have been too bad.” At Hyemi’s nod of agreement, she turned to Jinju and Changmin only to find them in their own little world, talking quietly with each other. She sighed softly, wishing Jinju would be a little more sociable and talk with Hyemi and Mir as well. She looked back to Hyemi then, also wishing she would open up more and talk to Jinju and Changmin.

Jinju leaned back in her chair, moving away from Changmin who was about to fling his fork at her playfully. As she leaned back though, she felt herself hit another person. Immediately Jinju sat back up glancing to the person she had hit, nodding to him apologetically before turning back around.

The boy only smiled to her, taking her silent apology and moving to his table with Chaerin and Dee. Chaerin kissed Jiyong in greeting, Dee hitting them both playfully and complaining about their PDA. “Who was that person who hit you?” Chaerin asked.

“Not sure,” Jiyong said, unconcerned with it. “I saw Mir at her table, though.”

At the sound of her enemy’s name, Dee sat up straighter and turned around, spotting Mir at the nearby table laughing with his friends. “He looks ing dumb when he laughs. Like a horse,” Dee said, turning back around to finish eating her breakfast. Jiyong shook his head at her words as Chaerin laughed. It wasn’t long before Jiyong changed the topic, the trio laughing loudly together.

Demi had looked up when she heard the loud laughing from the table next to her. She was surprised to see Dee looking so happy as the she always looked calm and collected the day before. Lee Jinki, or Onew to most, looked to Demi when he noticed her inattention. “What are you looking at?”

Demi pointed to Dee’s table. “Just them, no biggie. The two girls are in the same cabin as me.”

Onew followed where Demi was pointing to, eyes widening at the sight. “You’re in the same cabin as CL and Dee? Aren’t they two-thirds of the Badass Trio?”

Taecyeon burst out in laughter from Demi’s left, nearly knocking over Minsoo’s, who was sitting in front of him, glass of water. “Is that what they call themselves? Oh, that’s funny.” He went back to shoving food in his mouth, chuckling to himself.

Minsoo kicked Taecyeon playfully from underneath the table for almost spilling his drink. “No, that’s what other people call them. They just adopted the name.”

Laughing, Demi patted Taecyeon’s knee as he was complaining about Minsoo’s kick. “Oh well, it’s not like I have to deal with them too much. Fat chance that we’ll end up in the same group together.” The three boys nodded, all four getting up to put their dishes away.

Onew giggled slightly to himself, elbowing Demi in the side. “Maybe you’ll end up with Kim Himchan though,” he said while laughing, making kissy faces at her. Demi shoved Onew in response, the other boys laughing along. They left the Dining Hall soon after, unintentionally starting up a chain reaction of the other campers doing the same, and headed for the Great Hall.

❤❤❤

Leeteuk watched as the final campers entered the Great Hall, not wasting any time before starting up his speech as he noticed some of his staff arguing quietly with each other. “Okay, everyone. We’ll now be assigning the groups for the camp. For new campers, the groups consist of 18 to 22 campers of boys and girls led by one counselor. Each group will have some members from the same cabin as you, so don’t worry. Every weekday the groups meet up together do certain activities. The location, time, and the activity itself changes on a daily basis according to your counselor’s whim. These activities are to help you deal with your problems in a fun and safe way. They are mandatory, and skipping without permission will you land you in deep trouble. Groups are differentiated from each other by a color.

“Our first group is the Purple Group, led by Jo Kwon. The campers are as follows: Bang Cheolyong, Choi Jinju, Choi Jonghyun, Jang Dongwoo, Jung Cheonsa, Jung Daehyun, Jung Hyemi, Kim Heebon, Kim Himchan, Lee Danja, Lee Kyumi, Lee Sungjong, Moon Jongup, Nam Jihae, Park Jinhee, Shim Changmin, Son Minjung, and Yang Seungho.”

____kasper's korner

Yay, third chapter! So, how do you like the Purple Group? Muahahahaha!

Next chapter things will really start picking up as all the intros to characters and the camp itself is pretty much over.

It'll be awesome, I swear!

Oh, and to everyone who hasn't seen the poster yet: How do you like it? My sister made it!

❤ Kathy