“Oh my gosh, you guys are too much.” Even the most patient of them all, Wendy, has burst out after being in the presence of the resident couple who is showcasing their affection non-stop at the table. 

 

“No thank you.” Seulgi replies with a smirk,  snuggling her face into Irene’s neck and making the latter giggle. “Stop baby it tickles…” Irene pats her silly bear’s head, while looking down at her endearingly. 

 

“This,” Jennie gestures to their lovey dovey actions with an eye-roll. “needs to stop. It has been like a week.” 

 

“Respectfully, unnies, you are making me wanna throw up my lunch.” Sooyoung supports Jennie’s words and the rest of the group hums in agreement. 

 

“At least we are not making out in front of you.” Seulgi retorts while Irene covers quickly to prevent any more crude words from escaping. Irene apologises to everyone sheepishly, “We’re sorry everyone. We will take note from now on.”

 

“Baby,” Seulgi gently shifts Irene’s hand away from . “We shouldn’t need to apologise for being in love,” She tells her girlfriend sweetly.  

 

“We know you are in love. We get it.” 

 

“Come on guys, let me enjoy this. Y’all are just jealous of us because you are still single.” Seulgi smirks. 

 

A series of scoffs emerged around the table. 

 

“Silly bear,” Irene pats Seulgi on the arm and tells her softly, “Be nice to your friends.” 

 

“I only want to be nice to to you though.” Seulgi flirts back, making Irene smile inwardly. 

 

“But still…you should be nice to them baby.” She nudges the captain.

 

Their conversation is interrupted by a loud, retching sound. They turn towards the source. 

 

“Baby? In broad daylight? Joohyun, I expected better from you.” Jennie, the perpetrator, groans. 

 

“You’re the one who told me to be more open with my feelings.” Irene smirks in return, joining her girlfriend’s side to Seulgi’s delight. 

 

“I regret telling you that as now you have unleashed your full cringe potential.” Jennie grunts. Irene just shrugs in response and turns her attention back to Seulgi. She finds the captain looking especially cute today. 

 

Meanwhile, Seulgi decides to provoke her further. “I gotta say thank you so much for helping my baby to finally come out of her shell. I am enjoying all of this new Joohyun very, very much.” 

 

The girl rolls her eyes in response and involuntarily shifts her gaze back to the two girls seated a few tables away, where the exchange students are at. The sight of them laughing together sends her anger further through the roof. It brings her back to their argument days ago, which is still unresolved:

 

“Jennie, I know you’ve had a tough time recently with my ex coming into the picture. I’m sorry.” Lisa takes a step closer and grabs her hands. 

 

“So do you have a conclusion now?” Jennie asks hopefully, receiving a nod in reply. “About your feelings.” 

 

“I have talked to Rosie and we had closure. We agreed that all we have left together is the pure friendship we started off with, and no longer any hint of romance. We decided to try to be friends again.” She purses her lips and then sighs. “Its gonna be hard, of course, to make up for the lost time. But I hope we can rekindle our friendship again,” She suddenly notices Jennie’s hurt expression and adds on hurriedly. “If that’s okay with you.” 

 

“Are you kidding me? You wanna be friends with your ex?” Jennie scoffs and breaks Lisa’s hold on her hands. 

 

Her harsh reaction hurts Lisa. “Its been years since we broke up. I no longer have feelings for her.” She explains. “We just wanna be friends.” 

 

“You can’t have your cake and eat it too, Lisa.” 

 

“Don’t you trust me?”

 

“You were just confused about your feelings one week ago! How do you expect me to believe you?”

 

“It has never been about that. I like you a lot, Jennie. More than you think. You are the only one in my heart.” Lisa desperately confesses her feelings. 

 

“Then why do you still want your ex in your life? You can just have me.” Jennie wraps her arms around the latter’s neck. “You don’t need her.” 

 

The proximity makes Lisa hard to think straight. “Jennie…I’m sorry.” She still manages to reply. “I’ve already made my decision.” 

 

“Then why are we even talking about this?” Jennie scoffs bitterly and walks away. 

 

“I bet you are enjoying your time, with how often you guys sneak to the bathroom these days.” Jongin suddenly sends Seulgi a suggestive grin. His comment ignites a round of cheers from the table, which snaps Jennie out of her thoughts. 

 

“W-What?” Seulgi spits out a nervous chuckle. She takes a glance at her girlfriend, who is also blushing madly and when their eyes meet, she immediately looks away.  

 

“You know what I mean.” The boy continues to tease. 

 

Feeling maligned, the dance captain, the more hot-headed of the two jumps to defend herself. “You guys are too dirty minded! We are simply helping-“ 

 

“We are busy with something else that is important and its not what you think.” Irene cuts in and gives Seulgi a small pinch under the table to signal her to shush. For she has almost spilled the big secret. 

 

Sensing the couple being backed into a corner soon, Jennie stands up and clears . “I’m going to get some snacks for the bus ride later and Joohyun, you are coming with me.“ 

 

“Okay!” Irene replies hastily and stands up, more than happy to leave this awkward conversation. “Do you guys want anything?” Irene asks everyone around the table. 

 

“One choco milk please!” Yerim raises her hand. 

 

“Make it two!”

 

“Three!”

 

“I want a melona ice cream!” 

 

“Okay.” She notes the orders down mentally and turns to Seulgi, who has been silently just grabbing her hand. “What about you, silly bear?” She asks her softly.

 

“Just two banana milk for both of us. And some snacks for everyone the bus journey later too. Wait, thats a lot of items. Let me come along-“

 

“No, we are fine!” Jennie cuts in and holds Irene close to herself, protecting her friend from the captain. “I don’t want to play gooseberry anymore please,” she pleads. 

 

“Fine.” Seulgi chuckles upon hearing Jennie’s desperate tone. She turns to her girlfriend and tells her softly, “Just call me if you need help okay?” 

 

“Okay. I’ll get going first. Goodbye silly bear.” Irene whispers back and pats Seulgi’s cheeks, while Seulgi mouths ‘I love you’ in response and sends over an air kiss. 

 

Before Irene gets lost in Seulgi’s eyes, Jennie loops her arm around Irene and drags the latter away through the cafeteria doors. 

 

In the absence of her girlfriend, Seulgi finally turns her attention to her friends around the table for a chat. As usual, the conversation goes from an attack on Jongin’s singlehood to Seulgi’s simpness then Yerim and Sooyoung’s will they won’t they relationship. 

 

Jisoo joins the table and she takes Irene’s empty seat beside Seulgi. “Hey guys, I was held up in class. What did I miss?” She turns to the captain with a bright smile. 

 

Seulgi shakes her head lightly and turns her gaze to her food. “Nothing much. Just the usual.” These days, she find it increasingly hard to look into Jisoo’s eyes without feeling uneasy in her heart.

 

Seulgi turns towards the cafeteria doors and knits her brows together, “Hmm why aren’t they coming back yet? Is it too heavy for them to carry?” She asks her friends worriedly. 

 

“Calm down, Captain. they are probably still walking there.” 

 

“I am going to check on them.” Seulgi stands up, ready to find her girlfriend. 

 

“Its like you guys cannot even be apart for more than five minutes. Do you love Irene unnie that much?” Yerim makes a casual side comment, which makes Seulgi flash a quick, wary glance at Jisoo, who happens to meet her eyes. 

 

Seulgi immediately looks away and sits back down. “I said don’t tease me already. Yerim, do you seriously wanna be on cleaning duty for the next month?” She asks her in a scary, icy tone. 

 

“I’m so sorry unnie! I will keep my mouth shut from now on.”

 

“Good.” Seulgi reveals a victorious grin, igniting an involuntary giggle from the girl beside her. Seulgi notices it and she turns around to meet her best friend’s dazzling smile. 

 

Still smiling, Jisoo tells her, “KkangSeul, you always love to don’t you?”

 

“She deserved it.” She chuckles back. 

 

“I missed this…Us talking.”

 

“Ah, is that so? Its been a while huh?” Seulgi replies her with an awkward chuckle, looking away. “It must be because we were so busy previously. I haven’t even had the time to thank you for being such a good vice captain yet.” 

 

“Lets take some time later during the outing to catch up? I have something important to tell you.” 

 

“Me? I-Is that something you cannot tell me now?” Seulgi asks, fearing the worst in her head. 

 

“Yeah unnie tell us too.” Sooyoung nudges, teasing her unnie. 

 

“Yeah!” 

 

“Don’t be so nosy, little ones.” Jongin butts in, surprisingly. He locks eyes with Jisoo, whose dark orbs are shining with fear currently. He sends her friend a small nod of encouragement and beckons her with his eyes to reply Seulgi. 

 

“No. I would like to speak with you in private, if thats okay.” Jisoo insists. “Please.” 

 

“Um, that’s fine. Okay.” Seulgi presses her lips into a firm smile for Jisoo and nods to herself. “Lets find some time later.” 

 

What has to come, will come eventually. 

 

 

———

 

 

The annual summer camping trip is something that all SM High students look forward to after the end of their examinations. 

 

It is a chance for everyone to let loose and take a short break in the midst of their studying and build good memories with their friends. 

 

Especially so, Irene has been excitedly looking forward to this event as this is her first trip since transferring into the school. Seulgi has told her so many good things about this annual tradition that she cannot wait to experience it for herself, and to finally take a trip somewhere with Seulgi. 

 

The last school trip they took was when they were still fake dating, and Irene still remembers all of the emotions she felt like yesterday. 

 

How her heart involuntarily fluttered in those quiet moments when it was just the two of them: where Seulgi would look at her with a certain softness in her eyes. 

 

Just like she is doing now. While laying on the backrest, Seulgi has her head turned in Irene’s direction and looking into her eyes with a small smile. 

 

The entire bus is currently silent as the students have all fallen into a food coma after the visit to the rest stop earlier. The world around them seemed to have slowed to a crawl, except the two of them. 

 

“What are you thinking?” Irene whispers, finally breaking the silence after they have been looking at each other for god knows how long. 

 

“Hmm?” 

 

“Cat got your tongue?”

 

“I just like looking like you.” Seulgi whispers back, while not breaking the eye contact. Being able to look at Irene like this and having her girlfriend’s attention wholly focused on her too, this feeling of peace is everything she has dreamed of. 

 

“Silly bear.” She replies, slipping out a small smile too. She stifles a yawn, suddenly feeling the food coma setting in too. Her eyelids suddenly feel heavier and heavier…

 

“You are the silly one who is falling asleep. Come here.” Seulgi pats on her shoulder and Irene hugs Seulgi’s arm happily, leaning her head on the spot where Seulgi has indicated. 

 

This feeling of warmth while being with Seulgi is something she never wants to stop. That is the last thing she thought about before drifting into dreamland. 

 

 

———

 

 

“We did it babe!” Seulgi exclaims and does a double five with Irene, after they finished making their tent in lightning speed. 

 

With Irene’s brains and Seulgi’s nimbleness, the two managed to complete the challenge of pitching their tent without any instructions in no time. 

 

“We are the fastest too.” Irene looks at the sea of unfinished tents around with a huge smirk on her face. “We won!” Her competitive streak is something that Seulgi has always found very attractive, and really hot. 

 

“Too bad this isn’t a competition or we would be on top for sure. We make a good team, don’t we?” Seulgi asks, sporting an equally proud grin. 

 

“Of course we do, we make the best team.” 

 

“Teammates for life?” 

 

“You bet.” Irene smiles and looks around before she gives Seulgi’s hand a discreet squeeze and steps away to clean up the extra poles and strings on the ground, while Seulgi takes care of the tent interior. 

 

“Come in.” Seulgi beckons her, holding up the flap of the tent once she’s done. 

 

Irene looks around to see if anyone is looking before crawling in. She is surprised by how Seulgi has already set everything up neatly, placing their sleeping bags in the middle and their bags at the side. 

 

“Good job baby.” Irene praises her with a pat on the head.  

 

“You like it? Yayyyy” Seulgi tackles Irene into a hug, causing both of them to lose balance and fall onto the hard camping ground. Seulgi, who is the bigger spoon, immediately whimper in pain when her back hits the floor. “Ouch!” 

 

“Baby are you alright?” Irene asks her worriedly, rubbing Seulgi’s shoulder on her behalf. 

 

“It hurts. Kiss it better.” Seulgi demands with a pout and Irene gladly gives her a light kiss on her clothed shoulder. “Better?” The girl on top asks. 

 

“Not yet. Here too.” Seulgi points at her own lips cheekily. Irene props her arms onto Seulgi’s chest and replies with a smirk, “You didn’t fall on your face though.” 

 

She looks at Seulgi for a reply but the latter looks back with widened eyes, too stunned to speak. “What’s wrong-“ She presses onto Seulgi’s chest to prop herself up and it is then she felt it realised why Seulgi reacted this way. 

 

“I’m so sorry!” Irene immediately apologises and sits back up, holding her arms to herself. Even in the dim lighting of the tent, her blush is obvious. 

 

“No I should be sorry instead! I forgot to bring my, um, bra into the bathroom while bathing this morning. I figured since we are going have a long bus ride and they are kinda small,” She sees how Irene’s eyes visibly widen at her words, “Oops I’m sorry for the TMI…um, so to sum it up, I just thought no one would notice under this huge hoodie I’m wearing and now I made things between us super awkward.” She concludes with a loud groan. 

 

Rare, awkward moments like this are a clear reminder of how early they still are in their relationship, despite the good times they have recently which makes them feel as if they have already known everything about each other. 

 

Irene gives a curt nod to acknowledge her explanation, and then lightly clears . “Um, this is just a suggestion, or rather my personal opinion, that it may be good, or maybe better, if you could wear something underneath, especially since we are in the company of our schoolmates and teachers.” 

 

“That is a good observation.” Seulgi agrees in a needlessly formal tone that makes herself cringe inside too. “I will go get changed now.” Seulgi takes her gym bag and turns away from Irene as fast as she could, as she feels the embarrassment burn through her body like a fast flame. 

 

Meanwhile, Irene embarks on her new mission of cleaning the tent cloth with a wet tissue with burning, red cheeks. 

 

They cannot help but both recount what had happened a week ago, when Seulgi sneaked out of her party to find Irene in her apartment. 

 

Their first night together. 

 

“Babe, why are we still so shy despite what we have already done?” Seulgi suddenly asks, turning back to look at Irene, who also twists her body to face her at the same time. 

 

“You’re right.” Irene reveals a small, coy smile in return. Its silly when they have gone so much further in the past few days. 

 

“Lets not be awkward. Come on.” Seulgi crawls towards her with her lips puckered. Irene invites her with open arms, wrapping them around her neck to pull her in to let their lips meet. 

 

It always feels so good every time they kiss. It sends flutters down Irene’s spine whenever Seulgi suddenly deepens the kiss by nudging her tongue into . 

 

“B-Babe not now.”

 

“Knock knock.” Someone at their tent calls them, interrupting their moment.   

 

Irene immediately pushes Seulgi away and runs to the tent entrance. “Um wait a minute!” 

 

Jennie lifts up the flap. “I need you guys to help with my tent before the sun sets…Why do I sense an air of awkwardness between you two?” She asks with a quirked brow. As usual, nothing escapes Jennie’s eyes. 

 

“Nothing happened. I’ll go with you.” Irene brushes it off while Seulgi just chuckles in response under her breath, still in the same awkward position where she got pushed.

 

Jennie notices her awkwardness and asks Seulgi, “What’s wrong KkangSeul? Why are you lying down like this?”

 

“Ask her not me.” She responds coolly as she sits herself back up.

 

“Did I interrupt something?”

 

“No you didn’t. Seul, go change now.” Irene gives her the side-eye and the bear immediately understood the assignment and scurried out of the tent. 

 

“Okay…so what is that about?” Jennie beckons towards the open tent door, where Seulgi has forgotten to out down the flap in her attempt to escape as fast as possible. 

 

“I don’t know, she’s weird sometimes. Lets go.” Irene pushes Jennie out of the tent before she can ask more questions. 

 

On the way, Jennie tries to probe multiple times about Seulgi’s behaviour, being her usual nosy self. While Irene dismisses all Jennie’s theories by saying nothing has happened, a part of her trying to convince herself too, hoping that the lingering feeling of Seulgi’s chest on her arm will leave her skin. 

 

“Don’t lie to me. I already heard you guys kissing outside of the tent.” 

 

“Oh.” Irene clears awkwardly. “I’m sorry.” 

 

“So how was your first time?” Jennie casually asks. 

 

“W-What do you mean?”

 

“You know what I’m asking. Do you really want to say how did I know or do you wanna save the embarrassment for you?” 

 

“Fine…it was nice.” Irene replies, with her cheeks flushed at the thought of this topic. 

 

Unsatisfied with the answer, Jennie pushes, “What do you mean nice? Like it was mediocre?”

 

“No, it was great!” Irene immediately defends Seulgi, which makes Jennie chuckle. She adds, “I felt safe and loved the whole time.” 

 

“I really wanna know this next question: Was she good?”

 

“She treated me really well-“

 

“Come on, Joohyun. You know what I’m asking.” 

 

Irene sighs and finally gives Jennie a straight answer, “She…has great stamina.” 

 

“So I’m assuming she made you-“

 

“Yes yes, can we stop talking about this now?” Irene covers her face in embarrassment with her palms and walks straight ahead. 

 

“Didn’t expect anything less than from the captain.” Jennie chuckles to herself, finally letting this topic go to rest after torturing her  shy friend. 

 

When Jennie glanced at the distance, something made her stopped in the middle of the path. “You must be kidding me.” She scoffs loudly. 

 

Irene turns towards the same direction and sees Lisa and Rosie setting up a tent together in a remote corner, obviously with the intention of hiding from everyone else. The girls are laughing while looking into their unusually large bag, discussing excitedly. 

 

“Um-“ Before Irene could calm her down, Jennie has already stormed off. She quickly hastens her steps to follow the girl, wondering what to say to comfort her. 

 

“Jennie, I don’t think its what it looks like.” 

 

“The truth is already in my face, Joohyun. She said we shouldn’t share a tent together since we are still fighting-” Jennie makes a pause to huff out a breath of pure rage. “Yet, I see her sharing a tent with her ex. Her ex of all people. The reason for our fight. Can you believe it?”  

 

Seeing how livid Jennie is, Irene scrambles to reassure her. “Maybe they are not sharing a tent and she’s just helping to pitch it…” She trails off when she meets Jennie’s cold, condescending gaze. “Joohyun, are you even hearing yourself? You are my friend. Why are you defending her?”

 

“Because…” Irene weighs the costs and benefits of what she is about to say and decides to just screw it and spill the truth.

 

“What good reason can there be?” Jennie scoffs in disbelief. “You know what happened when we fought two days ago. Lisa said she wanted to be friends with her ex. Can you believe it?” 

 

“I think Lisa already said they talked it through right? There’s only friendship remaining between them.”   

 

“But who in their right mind would be friends with your ex?” Jennie retorts. She knows fairly well from her own relationship history that friendships with exes will never work out. They will just get back together.  

 

“They have broken up for years already. It is be normal that they have moved on.”

 

“It never works.” She sighs. 

 

“Maybe you should trust her, Jennie. She may not be as bad as you think.” Irene reminds her. “Just look at Seulgi. She seemed like a player but she turned out to be good.” 

 

“Taking every chance to praise your girlfriend huh?” Jennie chuckles. “Sadly not everyone is like your Seulgi. Lisa is…just like one of those jocks after all.” 

 

“No! Ugh I will get into so much trouble for saying this but that is not true because I know the truth and it is,” Irene takes in a deep breath before revealing, “Lisa is planning a surprise for you.” 

 

 

 

———

 

 

 

After changing, Seulgi walks back with hesitation in her steps, as she is still unsure of how to face her girlfriend after what happened inside in tent. 

 

Surprisingly, she finds Jisoo standing outside like she is waiting for someone. 

 

“Jisoo? Why are you here?” Seulgi asks. 

 

“I was told if I waited here, I could find you.” She replies, her tone foreboding something serious. 

 

“Do you need my help with the tent?” Seulgi offers, well knowing that is not the reason. “I gotta go to Jennie and help her but I can go to you after.” 

 

“No but I need to talk to you now. Is that okay?” 

 

“Okay.”

 

“Can we go to the benches overlooking the mountains?” 

 

“Okay. Just let me grab something from my bag too.” 

 

 

 

———

 

 

 

They sit facing each other on the bench, but her heads are both turned to admire the sunset overlooking the hill. The red ball is half hidden behind two overlapping mountains, casting hues of orange, yellow across the entire sky.  

 

“Its beautiful.” Seulgi first speaks, after they have spent some time in comfortable silence admiring the scenery. 

 

“It is indeed.” Jisoo replies and Seulgi turns to face her. The girl continues, “The sunset is, but what I meant is this