Chapter 16: The First Day

It was now Thursday morning. All the students gathered together in front of the school with their bags packed as they were talking excitedly about what they were going to do on the trip. They were all excited to get away from school and home for a couple days. Among them, Junhyung was standing in the middle of them all, soaking up all the attention that he could. It was going to be different for him since none of the other members were going with him, but he was loved by everyone else so he knew he would be fine. He turned his head slightly, his eyes catching glimpse of the only silent person in the class.

Hyunseung sat on the ground several yards away from the other students. He was trying to steer clear of anyone who might want to cause him harm. The last few days, had been weird for the boy. The kingkas had been staying away from him lately and Junhyung rarely even spoke to him, let alone yelled at him. He just couldn’t get past this feeling that they were doing this to hurt him more when they eventually did turn on him. ‘I just have to be ready for whatever they throw at me.’ He hardened his stare before he stood up from the ground to walk over to where the teacher had started talking.

”Okay everybody, in a minute we will be boarding the bus. Make sure that you have all of your belongings with you as we will not be making any stops until we get to the campsite. It will take about two hours to get there. As soon as we get there we will go straight to setting up camp. All of you are expected to participate in setting up your tents and helping with anything else that needs to be done. I will announce who is sleeping in which tent as soon as we get there. Does anyone have any questions?” No one said anything. “Okay, if you have not used the restroom, I recommend that you go now before getting on the bus. Now, let’s start loading.”

The students all started pushing their way to the bus before the teacher interrupted them once more. “Oh, I also forgot, you must sit with your partner on the bus!” He yelled over the talking students. A few students groaned at this announcement but followed his instructions anyways. The students filed in on the bus, sitting down with their partners, some talking animatedly with them, others ignoring their partners all together. The teachers took their time taking attendance to make sure that everyone was accounted for. Once they were sure that all the students were there, they sat down and instructed the driver that they could go.

000000000000000000000

Hyunseung sat by the window next to Junhyung. It had been thirty minutes since they had left the school parking lot so the other students had calmed down some, many of them taking naps. The younger boy had headphones on listening to music, blocking out everyone else on the bus. The older boy didn’t mind at all though, it was better if he wasn’t tormenting him. Once he felt sure that the other boy wasn’t going to suddenly direct his attention at him, Hyunseung slumped into the bus seat, his knees on the seat in front of him, and closed his eyes as his head fell back.

Junhyung was sitting with his headphones on, listening to a new song by Big Bang, when he felt a weight fall on his shoulder. He looked over quickly to see that his partner had fallen asleep. He felt anger and disgust rise within him as he lifted his hand, ready to push the other boy off of him. Just as his hand was about to push the other boy’s head, the older boy whimpered slightly in his sleep before nuzzling in closer. His glasses slipped off his nose slightly as he pushed his face into the other boy’s shoulder, showing his eyebrows pushed together and the dark bags under his eyes.

Junhyung’s hand froze in the air as he stared at the sleeping boy. Another whimper left the latter’s throat. ‘I wonder what he’s dreaming about…’ His hand fell to his side as he turned forward once again. His eyes caught glimpse of his English teacher’s face and swore that he saw a smirk on the man’s face. With a scoff Junhyung lifted his hand once again, this time successfully pushing the other boy off of his shoulder. He ignored the groan that came from the older boy as his head hit the window.

Hyunseung groaned as he rubbed the bump on his head. He looked around trying to figure out what had happened. He looked over to find Junhyung glaring at him with flared nostrils. “Do yourself a favor and keep your filthy hands off of me.” Junhyung threatened.

Hyunseung’s eyes widened as he finally realized what must have happened. “I-I’m sorry…” he whispered as he pushed himself a little further away from the angry boy. He pulled his legs to his chest in fear of being hit and leaned against the window, refusing to look back at the younger boy.

Junhyung couldn’t keep the small bit of guilt that appeared in his chest as he watched the older boy curl in on himself. He didn’t know why he was feeling bad. He had spent countless days going out of his way to torment this boy; he shouldn’t feel bad for pushing his head off of him while he was sleeping. It wasn’t his fault that the boy decided that he would make a good pillow. With another scoff he forcefully turned his music back on, closing his eyes to force the guilt he felt away.

000000000000000000000000000000

The rest of the drive seemed to fly by and soon enough the bus was pulling into the campgrounds where they were going to be staying for the next four days and three nights. The students got off the bus excitedly. They all gathered into their groups of friends and waited for their teacher to tell them what they were to do first.

“Okay, everyone, gather around. As I said before, there are five tents for us to use. There are three eight person tents, one seven person tent and one two person tent. There will be no trading of tents. The point of this trip is to get you and your partner to work together better. I will now read off who is in which tent, when I call your name, please come forward, group together and I will give you your tent. Seungri, Taemin, Hyunjoong, Woohyun…”

Junhyung tuned out the teacher after that. He knew that he was sharing a tent with Hyunseung and knowing that was enough to make him angry at the whole situation. This thought caused the angry student to look over at his partner to see him with his head down, trying not to be noticed. The older boy was standing away from the rest of the students while focusing all his attention on the teacher. The younger boy scoffed at him and turned back to the teacher as well.

“Junhyung and Hyunseung, you two will be using the two person tent. Please come up and get your tent and start setting it up.” The teacher said before looking at his list once more before he was interrupted by two boys.

“What?! Bull!” Junhyung yelled. “Not only do I have to share a tent with him, but it’s only going to be the two of us?! He’s going to molest me in my sleep!” A hard glare was directed at the teacher.

“Junhyung, calm down. Tent assignments are final and I won’t say it again. You need to work together with Hyunseung and get along. Now go set up your tent.” The teacher said with resolution in his voice. There would be no more arguing with him. Junhyung turned his glare to his partner before stomping off further into the campground.

Hyunseung sighed deeply as he stepped forward to get his tent. ‘What is teacher thinking...I’m going to be killed before this weekend is over...’ Another sigh left his mouth as he went to find the younger boy.

0000000000000000000000

Hyunseung walked through the campground looking for his partner. He wanted to get his tent set up so he could put his stuff in it and get it over with. He knew that the teacher wouldn’t leave them alone is he just put it up by himself and he wasn’t sure he could take any more punishments from the teacher. With another sigh he turned to look in the woods. It didn’t take him too much longer before he found his partner sitting under a tree with his headphones in and his eyes closed. He could hear the music from where he stood and knew that his partner was pissed to be listening to his music that loudly.

Taking a deep breath to work up the courage, Hyunseung tightened his grip on the tent in his hands and stepped forward to confront his partner. When he was right next to his partner he knelt down slowly and tapped his partner on the shoulder. Junhyung opened his eyes and looked to the side to see one of the causes of his anger. He ripped the headphones out of his ears and turned completely towards the other boy and reached forward and pushed him back.

“What the do you want?! Get the away from me.” Hyunseung flinched as his ribs were jolted as he hit the ground. Gritting his teeth he stood up again and took a step back from the fuming boy.

“The teacher is never going to leave us alone if we keep acting like this. We have to make him think that we are getting along.” Hyunseung sighed once more as he looked at the other boy with a defeated look.

“There is no way in hell that I’m going to be all buddy-buddy with you just because that ing teacher thinks he owns the world and can do anything he wants. I’m not a ing toy for him to control.” Junhyung ground out with a growl.

“Look, I know that you hate me. It’s obvious, not that I know why...But I can’t take it if teacher keeps messing with us like he has been. I hate it as much as you do, if not more, but just stop being a baby, act your age, and get over yourself. Pouting over here in the woods and yelling at the teacher won’t fix anything. We have to make him think that his plan is working. Okay?” By this point Hyunseung had knelt next to the older boy again and was looking at him with a pleading look in his eyes.

Junhyung stared at the other boy; he felt his anger dissipate some as he looked into his eyes. He thought about what he had said and had to admit that he had a point. With a sigh that sounded a lot like a growl, Junhyung agreed with his partner. “Okay, fine. But don’t get any funny ideas you got it?! One wrong move and I beat the out of you.”

The fact that the younger boy had agreed to pretend to get along brought a smile to Hyunseung’s face. ‘If we pretend that we are getting along, that means that Junhyung can’t beat me up. Which means that I’m safe at least for this trip!’ His shoulders deflated as he finally let himself relax a bit. “Thank you, Junhyung. This trip will be so much easier for both of us.” Hyunseung said quietly as he continued to smile at the other boy.

Junhyung stared openly at the other boy, all his anger gone now. He hadn’t seen such a smile from this boy in a long time. It truly seemed as if he was happy that he had agreed to pretend to get along. How could something like that make him so happy? It’s not like they would actually get along, they would just pretend to when their teacher was around. “What the hell are you so happy about?” His eyes narrowed in a glare.

Hyunseung’s smile widened just slightly. “Oh nothing, come on, let’s set up our tent before teacher comes looking for us.” With that he stood up and was about to start walking when instead he turned back to the younger boy and stretched out his hand towards him. It was an offer of the agreement for this trip. With a few moments of hesitation, Junhyung reached forward and gripped his hand, pulling himself up off the ground. Their hands remained in a shake for a few seconds after the younger boy was standing before they both let go and began walking back to the rest of the students.

00000000000000000000000

“Damn it! This is not working!” Junhyung yelled as the tent fell over once again. It was difficult with his partner having a broken arm. “I quit. This is stupid!” He was about to walk away before his partner stepped in front of him with his good arm on his hip.

“Junhyung, we need to get this done. If we don’t then we’ll be sleeping out here with no protection. Is that what you want? What if it rains?” Junhyung glared at the other boy before growling and turning around to try once more. Hyunseung smiled lightly as he looked around, spotting the teacher looking at them. The teacher smiled at Hyunseung and said boy faked a bigger smile and nodded before going back to help Junhyung.

With a little more fuss, the two boys were able to get the tent set up. They then went to gather all of their belongings from the bus to put them in the tent. They still had a bit of time before they were expected to do anything so they decided to set up their sleeping bags. Hyunseung set up his first while Junhyung went to make sure he had everything. Hyunseung made sure to set his blanket up as close to the wall of the tent to leave plenty of room for Junhyung’s bed to make sure that they wouldn’t be too close in such a small space.

Once he was happy with his set up, he crawled out of the tent just in time to see Junhyung coming back with another bag. “I’m all done, you can set up your stuff now.” The younger boy didn’t say anything as he just walked past him and crawled in the tent to set up his blankets. The older boy shook his head slightly as he went over to his backpack, which was leaning against a tree nearby, grabbed his water bottle and took a drink.

Once he was satisfied, he put his water bottle back in his bag and went back to the tent to see if Junhyung needed any help or if he needed to move his stuff over more. He walked to the door of the tent, poking his head inside. Junhyung sat right in front of the door, digging in one of his bags. The younger boy looked up at his partner quickly before going back to his bag.

“Did you get everything set up?” Hyunseung asked. Junhyung looked up at his partner once more, about to answer when suddenly the older boy groaned as he was pushed hard by one of the other students. The glasses wearing boy fell into the tent and onto the younger boy.

Junhyung groaned loudly at the sudden weight that was crushing down on his rib cage. His eyes squeezed shut at the mild pain. He felt a weight on his forehead now. He slowly opened his eyes only to find himself staring into the eyes of his partner, Hyunseung’s forehead resting on his own, his glasses having fallen off in the fall. The older boy’s arm that wasn’t broken was under Junhyung’s shoulder where he had tried to break their fall and their legs were twisted around each other. They both had wide eyes as they laid there frozen, staring at each other.

00000000000000000000000000000000

I know it's been way longer than I meant it to be. There has been a lot of things that have been going on in my life right now and I have lost the motivation to do a lot of things, let alone keep writing. You see, my mother passed away this past Christmas and it has been really hard on me. I have been trying to find the motivation to do things, including writing this chapter, but it has taken a lot for me to do it. Luckily, I already had half of it written before. I'm sorry if its not very good, but as I said, I have had other things on my mind. I hope that I can find the motivation to keep going and I hope that I can get the next chapter to you soon. I'm sorry that you have all had to wait so long but here it is. Thank you to everyone that has subscribed and thank you for all the reviews. Please keep it up and give me the encouragement that I need. :)

Thanks, 

Ashley