(Continued)

—Yesung’s POV—

Holy ! I had a heart attack when I saw Wookie’s pale face. And when he showed me the poison thorns, I thought my heart was going to stop – in a bad way. I can’t believe that Wookie nearly died cause of my carelessness. If something had happened to him, I’d be guilty forever.

We headed towards the dining area, hand-in-hand. My heart was beating more quickly than usual, but it’s probably just cause of the fright that I got just now.

I helped Wookie to get his plate of food, telling him to sit down first. I brought the plate to him and checked that he was alright before I took food for myself and went to the facilitators’ table.

“Yesung, I heard something happened,” Kangin looked at me as if he were going to kill me.

“Yeah… When we were trekking, Wookie accidentally got some poisonous thorns on his palm. Don’t worry though, cause I already pulled all the thorns out and the poison out personally. He also took an antidote so he should be fine. Besides, the colour already returned to his face,” I assured the burly man.

“He’d better be fine,” Kangin warned and continued to eat his food, shoving a scoop of rice into his mouth angrily. I gulped. I don’t want Kangin to kill me.

“Youngwoon, don’t be so tense. Yesung knows how to handle these situations. Ryeowook will be fine under his care,” Leeteuk told him. I heaved a sigh of relief, glad that I had Leeteuk to depend on.

“So, Yesung, you Ryeowook’s palm?” Heechul asked me, wriggling his eyebrows suggestively. Does he know something about how I feel? Because, frankly speaking, I’m still not too sure about my feelings towards Wookie.

We ate in silence, Shindong taking another portion when I was only halfway done with my first. When we were done, we cleared up and gathered our respective classes to dismiss them for a short break in the cabins.

I had wanted to return to our cabin for a rest too, but after what happened earlier on, I don’t feel very secure about leaving Wookie alone.

I went to their dorm, mindful to take my shoes off this time. The last time I didn’t take my shoes off, Wookie, Sungyeol and Youngmin were just about to kill me. I won’t ever go through that again.

“Ryeowook, are you ok now?” I asked him, plopping down onto the floor.

He smiled and nodded at me.

“Of course. Thanks Sungie hyung,” he said and hugged me in gratitude. I felt really warmed by his small gesture. Maybe Heechul’s right; I am falling for Wookie.

I looked around the room and it seems that the others aren’t in here. I asked Wookie about it and he just told me that they were off, practicing for campfire night yet AGAIN. I’ve already lost count of how many times they’ve practiced so far.

“How about you? Do you want to practice again?” I asked. Wookie shrugged and nodded. He sang ‘One Fine Spring Day’ again, pitch perfect as usual. I should really go and perform something as well. I’m just so tempted to.

When I asked Wookie for his opinion on that, I could literally see his eyes light up in excitement and he nodded furiously, asking me about what I would perform.

“I was thinking ‘It Has to Be You’ which was self-composed. I can sing it to you now, if you’d like,” I offered. He grinned and nodded, squealing like a fangirl. I cleared my throat and started singing the first line of the song.

Today, I wander in my memory

I’m passing around on the end of this way

You’re still holding me tightly, even though I can’t see you any more

I’m losing my way again

I’m praying to the sky I want see you and hold you more

That I want to see you and hold you more

It can’t be if it’s not you

I can’t be without you

It’s okay if I’m hurt for a day and a year like this

It’s fine even if my heart’s hurts

Yes because I’m just in love with you

I cannot send you away one more time

I can’t live without you

It can’t be if it’s not you

I can’t be without you

It’s okay if I’m hurt for a day and a year like this

It’s fine even if my heart’s hurts

Yes because I’m just in love with you

My bruised heart

Is screaming to me to find you

Where are you?

Can’t you hear my voice?

To me…

If I live my life again

If I’m born over and over again

I can’t live without you for a day

You’re the one I will keep

You’re the one I will love

I’m… yes because I’m happy enough if I could be with you

I sang off the last note rather beautifully, if you ask me. By the time I was done, Wookie was staring at me in awe, mouth agape. Then he managed to close his mouth and started applauding for me.

“That was amazing, Sungie hyung!” he exclaimed in amazement. I smiled shyly at the praise.

“I’ve seen better, honestly,” I told him humbly. He shook his head furiously in denial.

“No way! How could anyone be better than you?” he asked in horror.

“My voice is only good for this kind of songs. I’ve tried other genres and they don’t fit in. But I know for one thing that I can hold notes pretty well,” I told him and grinned. My eyes travelled over to the clock and I jumped up.

“What?” Wookie asked me worriedly.

“We have to go! There’s only another few minutes left. Come on!” I told him, feeling a little panicked, and went out of the cabin. Wookie followed behind me, turning the lights off and wearing his shoes, locking the door before we went to the field.

“Hyung, what are we doing later?” Wookie asked me.

“We’ll be doing bonding games. I’ll go through the list later,” I replied and went to gather the others in the class. Wookie stood at the front of the two rows with Jongjin. I made sure that everyone was here before I went off to the first activity which was ‘Ladders of Success’.

I briefly explained the game to the class and they started to try. Basically, we paired up and held these wooden sticks in a parallel fashion. Then one person would attempt to walk over the ‘ladders’. The main point of this activity was to build up trust between each other, I guess. Everyone had a chance since we had time. The hardest person to handle was… I don’t know. They were all pretty easy, especially the lighter ones like Wookie and Sungjong.

We finished around forty-five minutes later, so we left for the next game. It was situated near the dining area and the activity was called ‘Don’t Break the Chain’. We were all to hold hands and step through a series of jumbled up numbers in ascending order. There were twists and turns and the leader had to be really good. Luckily, Sunggyu had good leadership skills and he cared about those at the back, so we made it across efficiently without breaking the chain.

That spent another half hour and we were off to the next activity, ‘Water Challenge’. There was a sort of raft which could go from one side of the river to another. The rule was that only three people could go together and it was hard for one person to return on his own, so only one person could be transported each time. But since all of us were guys, it was easier for us to pull the raft. Smaller sized people would be transported first and we all had a chance to pull the raft.

After that, we were on to the last activity, ‘Ring of Success’. This was way harder than ‘Ladders of Success’ cause we were pulling this rope to make it firm enough to walk on. However, I didn’t join in this time as I had to ensure the safety of the person walking on the ‘ring’.

The lighter/shorter people tried it and we returned to the field again to get ready for dinner. After dinner, we headed off to the campfire area and Leeteuk started to get everything organised.

----------------------------------------

When all the classes were in order, we began giving out instructions.

“Those people who are performing in groups please get into your groups. The solo performers please sit here,” Hankyung said, pointing to the area. Only a few people were doing solos, and those were Siwon, Kibum, Wookie, Kyuhyun, Henry, Seo In Guk, Jongjin and Changmin.

“Solo performers will go first, so please get ready,” I told them, pumping my fist for Wookie. He nodded at me, his lips set in a thin line. He might be nervous.

Firstly, Siwon went up to sing this Christian song, ‘Who Am I’. He had the background music in his iPod which he connected to our speaker. It sounded… unique.

Next up was Henry who performed his guitar piece. After Henry finished playing the beautiful piece, the audience clapped in amazement. Seo In Guk then took Henry’s place and started singing his song, ‘Shake It Up’.

Once Seo In Guk finished, I saw Jongjin walking to take centre stage, looking a little more than uptight. I pumped my fist at my little brother and he forced a nervous smile at me. He took a deep breath and started to dance the octopus dance that I had taught him.

When he was done, everyone was laughing in amusement. Not at Jongjin though – it was just the dance. I was the only one who clapped enthusiastically for my brother and went to hug him encouragingly. I patted his back and led him back to his previous seat and smiled at him.

“You did well, dongsaeng,” I told him and patted his hair and he pouted at me.

“Thanks hyung,” he said with a mischievous grin and shooed my away.

By the time I got back, the boy called Shim Changmin had gone up and was singing the song ‘Mirotic’. I had heard it before by some people who were currently in my batch, the group who called themselves DBSK. Changmin skipped the rap parts, but overall, his singing was amazing.

Kibum was up next and he sang ‘You’re My Endless Love’. His voice may not have been too stable, but the song complimented his voice rather well. Once he was done, Kyuhyun went up.

Kyuhyun was completely different from the past few singers, maybe with the exception of Changmin. His voice was simply perfect for singing ballads. He sang a song called ‘7 Years of Love’ and he said that it was composed with his friend’s help. His voice was rather stable as well. I can’t believe that someone could be such a good singer.

When Kyuhyun was done, it was Wookie's turn. I knew that he was super nervous and scared of making a fool of himself so I shouted ‘hwaiting!’ to him, completely ignoring the stares that I was receiving from the other students. Wookie was smiled at me and nodded. He took a deep breath and the first line of ‘One Fine Spring Day’ sounded from his lips.

Throughout the entire song, Wookie had been looking straight into my eyes. Maybe doing so makes him less nervous, so I didn’t bother asking about it and let him do as he wanted. He practiced hard with me for this and I hope that he’ll make the best out of this opportunity.

He ended the song beautifully, ending with a graceful bow and hurrying back to his seat. When he looked into my eyes, my heart could have stopped beating. How could one person’s stare be so mesmerising? How could his gaze have been so captivating? And I thought that I was straight.

Should I confess? But what if Wookie doesn’t feel the same way? I mean he’s had a girlfriend before while I’ve never been attached in my entire twenty-five years of life. When I say that, I’m counting in Korean years, ok? I’ll keep my feelings to myself. I don’t want to have a heart break.

All the solo performers were done and the six facilitators started to grade them seriously, pushing aside all of our biasedness. Honestly, I couldn’t stop being biased. I was sandwiched between choosing Kyuhyun and Wookie since they were both so good. Changmin was good as well, but he should have sung a solo song.

In the end, I gave Wookie a higher score for ‘Stage Presence’. I really feel that he was so charismatic while he was singing, especially when he just looked straight at me. I felt like his stare had pierced through me and seen through my soul. It was amazing.

When we were done tabulating our scores, Kangin turned to me.

“Kim Jongwoon, what the hell was that with Ryeowook? Shouting to him?” Kangin asked me. I could hear the underlying growl in his voice and I stiffened. Kangin wasn’t someone to be trifled with.

“I was being encouraging, ok? He was nervous and even his brother didn’t do something for him. Of course I had to step up and help you,” I lied. I hadn’t even thought about what I was doing. I just knew that Wookie needed my support and I had to do something. It was unfair to Jongjin, but I’m confused about how I feel for Wookie, really.

“I know how Ryeowook works, Yesung. Even if he’s nervous, he’ll still do his best,” Kangin told me. When he said that, I really felt like punching him. Just cause he does his best even when he’s nervous doesn’t mean that he shouldn’t be encouraged. What kind of a brother is Kangin?

“You know what? I know him better than you do. He wants people to care. He needs your attention. He requires encouragement to do better. Have you done the last part, Kangin? No, you haven’t. Don’t come preaching to me,” I told him and narrowed my eyes at him before turning back to the students. Kangin was stunned and he couldn’t say anything to rebut me.

Meanwhile, Leeteuk was giving out instructions for the group performances. It was currently 8pm and we have two more hours for everyone to perform. First up, we had EXO-K followed by EXO-M. They both performed the exact same song, just that once was in mandarin and the other was in Korean. It was creative, I have to admit that.

Next was Infinite who, as promised, performed ‘Before the Dawn’. Their synchronisation was really perfect. I didn’t see it when they performed earlier on, but now that I’m watching it again, I’m just speechless.

After them, Boyfriend came up. Kwangmin still seemed to be in pain but he performed ‘Waterfloor’ and ‘Boyfriend’ with perfect professionalism, not showing any signs of pain or difficulty, even at the parts where he had to raise his right arm.

When Boyfriend finished their two dances, Teen Top came to perform ‘Crazy’. The dance break at the end was well worth watching, but they weren’t up to standard as of yet. I gave them points for their coordination as well though. It was pretty good.

Big Bang then performed ‘Lies’, followed by FT Island with ‘Severely’ and CNBlue with ‘Intuition’. The two were both instrumental bands.

U-Kiss performed ‘Bingeul Bingeul’ while MBLAQ did ‘Mona Lisa’ and BEAST did ‘Fiction’. There was Block B with ‘Freeze’ and 2PM with ‘I’ll Be Back’. SHINee performed ‘Replay’, B1A4 performed ‘Baby Goodnight’, and ZE:A did an upbeat song called ‘Here I Am’. Then there was B.A.P. who did a song called ‘Warrior’ with this scarily quick rap. Eunhyuk has competition already alright.

Lastly, 2AM did a ballad called ‘You Wouldn’t Answer My Call’.

We all gathered together after thanking them and started to calculate our scores. Eventually, we were down to a few choices: U-Kiss, Infinite or MBLAQ as the finalists for the ‘Best Dance Song’. We ended up choosing U-Kiss cause ‘Bingeul Bingeul’ was just so catchy. It’s still playing in my head now!

For the ‘Best Solo Performer’ award, Wookie won. Kyuhyun wasn’t far behind. Heck, it was a close fight. But we found that ‘One Fine Spring Day’ was better suited for Wookie’s voice as compared to ‘7 Years of Love’ for Kyuhyun’s voice. Well, Kyuhyun did win ‘Best Solo Ballad’, contrary to what I had predicted this morning.

Expectedly, Jongjin won the ‘Best Comedy’ award. He was the only one who did something funny, anyways. Then there was the ‘Best Coordination’ award that Infinite won, since their scorpion dance was so good.

‘Best Ballad’ went to 2AM for their amazing vocals. ‘Best Dance’ went to SHINee.

The last award, ‘Best Effort’, went to Boyfriend, namely Kwangmin. He had been injured just three days ago and yet he doesn’t care about his injury. He cared more about performing well and all six of us facilitators like that kind of spirit.

Leeteuk announced the award winners one by one, giving the trophies out to the winners. They were real trophies like those that people win in the Olympics or something. Hey, what can I say? Our school is prestigious and it’s a private institution, so the fees aren’t exactly cheap if you know what I mean. The money goes to facilities and events such as orientation camps.

Wookie’s face when he was called was simply priceless. He looked so shocked, as if he didn’t deserve the award. He walked up and bowed to Leeteuk, taking the trophy with both hands and grinning brightly as if he just achieved his biggest dreams. Then he turned to look at me and my heart just stopped beating in my chest.

He was slightly tearing and yet still smiling, and he ran towards me, hugging me tightly.

“Thanks for the help, Sungie hyung,” he nuzzled his face in my chest and released his tears of joy. Heechul whistled and I felt the urge to kick him. That diva can be so annoying.

Leeteuk cleared his throat, obviously trying to get everyone’s attention before continuing to announce the respective winners. Meanwhile, Wookie completely ignored everyone and kept hugging me. I could like literally feel the happiness radiating from him.

“You did well, Wookie,” I told him and patted his head, breaking the hug. He looked up at me and I saw a look of hurt flash across his eyes, but it was gone within a second. He smiled lightly, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. He went back to sit beside Jongjin, listening attentively to Leeteuk as he announced the winners.

After everybody had gotten their awards, it was shower time and we went by the winners of the games. Class 1-1 and Class 1-5 got to bathe first this time, followed by Class 1-4 and Class 1-3, and lastly, Class 1-2 and Class 1-6.

I had gone to bathe at the same time as Class 1-4, but Wookie completely avoided me this time. He usually sticks to me like glue. What did I do wrong?

-------------------------------------------

After bathing, we went to the cabins to rest. I put my dirty clothing in a bag and threw it onto my bed before heading over to find Cabin 16. I need to know why Wookie suddenly doesn’t want to talk to me or I wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight.

When I went to find him, nobody else was in there except for Wookie. I’m assuming that the others are with their own cliques/boyfriends.

“Ahem,” I said, trying to get Wookie’s attention. His head whipped around to face me and he huffed, turning back to whatever he had been doing. What am I, invisible?

“We need to talk,” I told him. He turned to look at me and narrowed his eyes.

“What do we have to talk about?” he asked. He seems really pissed.

“Why are you avoiding me?” I demanded. He thought about this for a moment and shrugged.

“Oh, I don’t know. You pushed me away?” he stated rhetorically. He suddenly seemed a little surprised about what he said and started to blush. I got the hint.

“So I pushed you away, huh? What’s wrong with that, Wookie?” I asked him in a low voice. He gulped and shook his head vigorously.

“Nothing’s wrong, hyung. I didn’t mean anything,” he told me and tried to get out, but he was too slow. I had him cornered in seconds. I put my hands on the walls on either side of his head, leaning in dangerously.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, smiling a little menacingly.

“I… I hear my hyung calling for me!” he tried to make an excuse to get out. I shook my head at him.

“That’s the best you can do? What I want to know is simple: What do you feel for me?” I attempted to get the answer out of him. I had to know.

He hesitated but sighed in the end. There’s no getting out of this.

“I like you, ok? I’ve liked you ever since five years ago, when you moved into my block. I watch you closely everyday but you’re so damn oblivious! I would have approached you, but I’d just broken up and besides, I’m a shy person,” he admitted. “Can I go now?”

“Not just yet,” I told him. He looked at me quizzically.

“Why not? You got your answers, don’t you? If you don’t feel the same way, then let me go,” he told me and started pushing at my arms in a futile attempt to get out of my cage.

“I haven’t gotten the chance to do this,” I said and planted my lips on his. He smelt of… smoke, from the campfire. Wookie had been shocked at first, but he slowly melted into the kiss and hugged me tightly while angling his head to give me better access his mouth.

When I felt we both needed to breathe, I broke the kiss. Wookie looked up at me.

“So does that mean we’re together?” he asked. I shrugged.

“We have one more person to get through,” I reminded him, mentally groaning in annoyance.

Wookie sighed and nodded. “Youngwoon hyung.”

I brought his hand to my lips and kissed his knuckles lightly. “Don’t worry. We’ll break it to him after camp. Let’s go and do the reflections for today, ne?”

We went to the field and found everybody in the class, gathering them before I seated them down and started asking questions.

The four questions were:

1. Have you bonded during this camp? How so?
2. What have you done well today? Why do you think so?
3. What have you not done well? How can you improve on this?
4. How do you think you can continue bonding after camp?

I gave them around fifteen minutes to write their answers down, walking around randomly and plopping down on the floor beside Jongjin, looking over his shoulder to see what he was writing. He turned around and whacked my head.

“Hyung, go away! You already called me yesterday, so you can’t call me again today,” he reasoned.

“But there’s no reason why I can’t look at my brother’s work,” I told him. He puffed his cheeks out and ignored me, resuming his reflection.

When they were all done – I gave an extra five minutes for Sungyeol and Hyunseong – I started calling out people to give their answers.

“Hmm… Minwoo,” I called. I walked over to him and took his book, reading his answer to Q1.

“You have bonded, especially with your close friends in Boyfriend. Also, you’ve gotten closer to Sungjong and Taemin who are your cabin-mates and are closer to your age. You’ve opened up to your classmates more than before and are more like yourself around them, just like when you’re around the Boyfriend members. Ok,” I read his answer and returned his book to him.

“Seungho,” I took the reflection book from him and started reading his answer to Q2.

“I managed to see the nest atop the tree in our clue during the amazing race. It was the main point of the clue and I was the one who realised it. Also, I think Byunghee and my performance to the class was rather good. We barely went off pitch,” I finished and gave the book back to Seungho.

“Myungsoo,” I held my hand out for his reflection book since he was sitting right in front of me.

“I usually infer well and can figure out clues for things like the amazing race, but I was off-form today. There isn’t exactly a way to improve on this. I just have to be more consistent with my thinking,” I handed the book back to Myungsoo.

“Honestly, Myung? That isn’t a problem,” Woohyun said.

“Yeah I couldn’t think of anything else to write,” Myungsoo replied with a casual shrug.

“Lastly, Woohyun. You seem to have a lot to say,” I commented and held my hand out, beckoning him to pass the book to me. He sighed and did as told, looking a little indignant.

“We should go on class outings or just go out together with other classmates instead of just staying in our respective cliques. Everyone seems fun so I figure that it can’t be too bad, right?” I read.

“Are you talking to the book or yourself?” I asked and raised my brow. Woohyun blushed and shook his head. My statement had made the entire class burst into laughter.

“Stop it, guys,” Sunggyu ordered and the class quietened down. He could be the class chairman!

“Ok, here,” I gave Woohyun’s book back to him. “That’s all for today. Wake up call at 6.30am. Gather in the field by 7.15am. I know I was late to assemble today and that may have given some people a slightly bad impression of me but I won’t be late tomorrow. You guys will clean the toilet that you usually bathe in, which is Toilet 2. I’ll see you guys tomorrow then. Goodnight,” I told them and hurried them back into their cabins. Wookie stayed behind to say goodnight to me personally, which I really appreciated. I gave him a quick peck on the forehead and told him to get more rest.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, hyung. Goodnight!” he exclaimed again and waved, heading back into his cabin. I smiled and nodded, retiring to my cabin for a good night’s rest as well. I’ve finally cleared things up. Now we still have one last obstacle.

Kangin.

I ended this chappie rather weirdly and I'm already done with the next chapte :)

Did you guys like this? I tried my best ><

Look forward to the next chappie although it doesn't say much. And I might update a little slowly for the next few weeks cause my Common Test is coming up and I really have to study or I'd fail for sure :/

Well I'll see you guys next week then! Annyeong! ^^