Lost

  The vociferous horn echoed across the dormitory. The girls cursed under their breaths as they barely managed to get up and dress into their uniforms. Jieun couldn't use the bathroom since there were too many girls crowding around to draw their daily dose of eyeliner. It wasn't as if she wore make-up regularly, but she felt shy showing her bare face to Chanyeol. Her face was so swollen from sleeping so late, and her hair was so frizzy that even her brush couldn't defeat the tangles. She looked at herself through the mirror and ran her fingers across the cool pendant resting on her clavicle. 

"Move," 

Jieun clumbled over to the side. It was the same girl, the very girl who got humiliated by Chanyeol the previous day. After that incident, nobody in the camp bothered her but nobody bothered to approach her either. She glared at the girl as she tucked her bobbed hair behind her ears and began chapping her lips after applying pink lip tint. She tossed the tint back to another girl in the bathroom line and in exchange caught the BB cream flying over the air.

"What?"

The girl shot, staring at Jieun through the mirror. 

"Nothing," Jieun murmured under her breath and laughed. Something about that girl was funny, the way she tried to beautify herself under that chubby shell and acting demure infront of prince-looking boys like Chanyeol. The girl placed her nametag on the side table and Jieun took a short glance before heading outside the dormitory to the base camp line ups.

No Seung-hee, Jieun thought to herself.

 Jieun welcomed the sunlight as it penetrated her eyes. She shaded her face with her small hands and rushed over to where Chanyeol and Se-chan stood, arguing over something. "You're the one who hugged me last night!" Se-chan hissed and punched Chanyeol who sighed and surrendered.

"Whoa," Jieun raised an eyebrow. "Since when did you guys have an affair?" 

"This morning, he was cuddling me completely on the floor." Chanyeol shuddered and blocked Se-chan's mouth before he could utter another word to protect his precious image. 

Se-chan stared at Jieun's face and burst into hysteric laughter, pointing at her face.

"You look like Sandy Cheeks in the morning!" He snorted and clapped like a retarded seal, trying to catch his breath. Jieun gasped and covered her face, averting eyes with Chanyeol. He bent down to meet her face and in exchange, gave her a sweet smile. He shoved Se-chan. "What are you talking about?" he took a step back and gazed at Jieun's disgruntled face. "She looks just as pretty without make-up. if anything, prettier." 

"Whatever you say," Se-chan whistled mockingly and got into a single line at the sight of their leader circling his base. Chanyeol glanced at Jieun's clavicle and reassured himself, seeing the pendant resting safely on her neck. His eyes were fixed on the pendant as their base camp marched slowly, and the pendant began to shake unstably over her neck..

 Their task was out of military base, and once again they travelled to an unknown village near. But the village seemed a little more prosperous this time. But everyone knew clearly why this place needed help; there were drunk men everywhere gulping down alcohol like it was water. Cracked alcohol bottles and crushed beer cans were strewn all over the ground reeking the atmosphere with unfathomable stench.

"Girls will stay here and clear the debris," the girls groaned. "Guys will follow me and clear the snow on the traffic roads." The leader disappeared with the boys trailing behind him. The girls cursed under their breath as they grabbed a rake and dodged the lecherous drunk men who were trying to touch the girls. They babbled with their red faces and watched the girls clean up the trash unwillingly.

 The foul stench of alcohol was puncturing Jieun's nose. 

"Lee Jieun," No Seung-hee spat. "Stop standing there and get to work." 

How ironic, Seung-hee hadn't even bothered to grab a rake. 

 Seung-hee watched Jieun as she leaned over and picked up alcohol bottles to trash in the bin. Everytime she leaned down, her pendent hung down and revealed its natural color in the sunlight. Seung-hee was sitting under the pavilion, huddled with friends as they exchanged cosmetics and took about a thousand selfies, deleting the majority. Jieun could feel their glares penetrating her back, but she no longer felt uncomfortable.

She was kind of used to it now.

"Jieun ah!" Seung-hee skipped over with her flock of friends. Jieun ignored Seung-hee and continued to clean the trash, pushing through her way abruptly. Seung-hee scoffed but sniggered and raised her tone. "Jieun!" she linked arms and tucked her loose strands of hair behind her ears. Jieun was trapped inbetween the forces of the girls and had no choice but to surrender.

"You must be so tired!" they traced her steps as Jieun bent over to pick up another alcohol bottle. 

"Not really," she cocked her eyebrows up. "I mean.. i just started." 

"Here's another one!" Seung-hee pointed and Jieun bent down, watching Seung-hee bend down with her. "You have sonething on your face," Seung-hee rubbed her face roughly, leaving a red patch on her cheeks. She bounced back up and snorted amongst her friends, kicking Jieun out of their little circle. "Work hard!" Seung-hee forced a smile and returned under the pavilion, sniggering and slapping each other lightly. 

"Something's up.." Jieun murmured under her breath. She felt as if a heavy weight had been lifted off her..

.  .  .

 The sound of the whistle raged throughout the area. The guys returned back to the debris-free area and lined up in two lines of gender. Jieun glanced at Chanyeol whose nose was red from the coldness and laughed under her breath. The way he shuddered to win against the cold was so cute; he was just like red nose reindeer. "Santa fired you?" Jieun joked as she pinched his nose and chuckled lightly.

Nobody in their base camp even bothered to snap pictures of Chanyeol and Jieun together, because they were so prone to it.

 Se-chan and Chanyeol sniffled and laughed off their coldness, marching to the cafeteria to receive their dinner. The night grew colder and everybody crowded at the entrance with a metal tray in their hands. Jieun looked around, looking for Myungsoo. They were split apart into different camps and hadn't seen each other ever since the first day. She wasn't sure how he survived such a day with his facade.

The line progressed faster than expected, but the cafeteria was already so crowded because they were one of the last people in line. Jieun loaded a bunch of food onto her tray and roamed around the cafereria, looking for a boy with sharp facial features. It wasn't that hard to find a good looking person amongst everyone in this place. Jieun chuckled and placed her tray down infront of Myungsoo. 

"Why're you sitting alone?"

 Jieun asked rhetorically and gestured Chanyeol and Se-chan to sit beside her. Chanyeol grunted unwillingly and took the furthest seat. Myungsoo grinned slightly, conscious of Se-chan constantly observing his face everytime he smiled. Chanyeol watched as Jieun punched Myungsoo playfully, showing smiles that Chanyeol had never brought out of her before. feeling slightly dejected, he looked down at his food which seemed to be pitying him.

The fact that someone else could make her smile brighter only watered the dejection growing in his heart.

"Really?" Chanyeol snapped back to reality at the sound of Jieun's high pitched giggle. The way Myungsoo smiled back at her infuriated Chanyeol, because he didn't want anyone to smile at her. Only he wanted to smile at her, and only himself.

 Chanyeol bit his lips and watched as Myungsoo bent over and wiped the grain of rice stuck on the corner of . He breathed lightly and ruffled her bangs, returning to their chatter as if nothing had happened. "I have to wipe the food off your mouth everytime," Myungsoo teased and Jieun laughed with a mouth full of food. Chanyeol cringed, forming a fist under the table.

"Doesn't it feel nice to crawl out of your chique facade?" Jieun asked with a genuine smile on her face. "You should smile more often," she nodded and watched as Myungsoo sipped his drink silently. 

Jieun gasped and clenched a bunch of tissues. Se-chan had pushed over a large cup and ruined Jieun's uniform shirt. She wiped her upper chest in disdain and barely managed to get most of the water stains off her shirt. "I only have one of these.." she grumbled as she received more tissues from Se-chan and slipped it inside her shirt. Chanyeol stared at her clavicle then down to his hands.

"Excuse me," he murmured in an undertone and stormed out of the cafeteria. Jieun chased after him, because she knew there was something clearly wrong. Chanyeol wasn't himself during the whole of dinner and Jieun partially knew that it was because of Myungsoo, but that was her little motive to try and get them talking - obviously failed. 

She saw Chanyeol kick over a stack of milk craters and from his pocket, slipped out a cigarette pack. He cussed under his breath and sat on the milk crater, exhaling the smoke and staring at the sky. Jieun was appaled; He was so sweet to her that she forget that he had this side. She wanted to snatch the cigarette off him but she was afraid that he would pounce on her, just like he did with the middle schooler.

 "Since when did you smoke?" 

Jieun seethed and spun Chanyeol's shoulder aggressively. startled, Chanyeol crushed his cigarette with his shoes and slipped the cigarette packet inside his pocket. "I wasn't-" "Don't lie to me. i know it's not your first time." She crossed her arms and locked her eyes with his. She could obviously tell that he was perturbed with her eyes on him, but she didn't want to let him stay this way.

 Chanyeol looked away and retreated back to the carton.

"Chanyeol, are you crazy? you're still underage and you shouldn't be carrying cigarettes in the first place-"

"Well !" He cursed frenetically. shocked, Jieun stared at Chanyeol as he threw the pack of cigarettes on the floor. It slid all the way to her feet and Jieun stared down at the packet weakly labelled Marlboro.

"What am i supposed to do Jieun?" he retorted. "I hate seeing you laugh with Myungsoo and i loathe the way he touched your face and smothered his fingernails all over you-" Chanyeol paused and stared at her clavicles closely. Scoffing, he sighed heavily.

"You even took off the pendent for him?"

Chanyeol asked emotionally, staring at her upper chest. "What?" she stammered and ran her hands across her clavicles, finding no source of a necklace or a jewel. She slapped around her uniform hysterically, hoping that the pendent would fall out somewhere. "I w..as wearing it the whole day and i swear it just disappeared-" Chanyeol stared at her in dismay and turned his back to her.

"Chanyeol please this isn't what you think-"

"Jieun," he looked into her eyes. "That was the only thing that i had left of my mother." 

"I'm sorry i'll find it-"

"If you don't feel the same way as i do, don't give me any false hope."

A/N

srry i rushed this chap