CHAPTER 16

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Saturday afternoon, I was finally able to do something that I wanted. Sleep. At one point, the rest of the first years came round to the cabin to check in on me. Jimin had his foot wrapped. It was only a bad twist, and he would fine in a few days. He and I were the only two that didn’t escape the forest unscathed. Minseok let them hang out for about ten minutes before making them leave, telling them I needed to rest after my rough night.

“Thanks, Mom-seok,” I said playfully as he closed the door behind the boys.

“What’d you just call me?” he asked with a laugh.

“uh… nothing,” I feigned innocence. “Thanks for scaring everyone away so I can relax.”

“It’s not a problem. Rest as much as you can now because it’s going to be another long night. We’re having our first village camp fire, and you have to come.”

“Everyone has to attend?”

“No,” Minseok admitted, “but I won’t let you sit in here all night. I’m making you come. It’ll be fun. I know the others will want you there.”

I didn’t know how I managed to get so popular at this camp in such a short period of time. I mean, I was used to rumors and people talking about me at school every now and again, but this was totally different. People actually liked me. At least they seemed to.

Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I was not acting so withdrawn all the time. At school I tried to hide and ignore the troublemakers, but their tactics to get a rise out of me only got worse. Why stop at pushing someone against the lockers when you know you could shove them inside, and they won’t fight back?

I don’t know for sure when I gave up on defending myself. I was still trying to figure that out. Maybe it was when I started to notice that I was getting punished with the jerks or instead of them. I didn’t want deal with punishment from the school plus wait for a revenge attack. I’d just as rather avoid the confrontation. The only way I knew how to do that was to stop fighting back. Funny how nothing changed. I had my two friends for support, and I knew it was only a matter of time before I was out of that horrid school for good. I could tough it out.

The atmosphere at camp seemed to help me feel like myself again. I felt happier because of it. I hadn’t come across anyone that I knew from school, so I didn’t have to deal with judgment from anyone. It wasn’t a fresh start but more of a rewind. I really liked being able to do and say what I wanted again, for the most part. A weight had been lifted off my shoulders, but of course I traded it out for a massive secret.

Eight o’clock had rolled around before we were headed off to the lakefront for our fire. I stood around with Minseok and Kyungsoo for a while we waited for the rest of the village to arrive. As they slowly arrived, Luhan and a few other boys got the fire going. When everyone appeared to be present, Luhan stood on a log and quieted the group.

“Welcome to the first Jiri Village campfire of the season!”

Everyone cheered.

“If you don’t know me, I’m the Village Leader Luhan.” There were a few cheers from the crowd. “I’ll get right to our main order of business for the night. As you all know, we had initiation last night. You may have heard that things didn’t go exactly as planned. It’s true, but our first years never left the woods. At this time I’d like to ask them to please join me in front of the fire.”

I mentally cringed. This was such a summer camp thing to do. I stumbled a bit, being pushed forward by Kyungsoo. I turned around to glare at him only to be met with a bright smile and a hand motioning me to go.  I slowly moved forward to join the others, settling in between Jimin and Hyuk.

“What are they going to make us do now?” Jimin whispered to me.

“I’m not sure, but they can’t kick us out of the village. We don’t have any other place to stay,” I whispered back.

Hyuk nudged me in the side. I looked to him and followed his gaze to Luhan who glared at us. I shrugged and smiled at Luhan, hoping it would lighten the mood. He only rolled his eyes and looked back to the crowd.

“Please repeat after me,” Luhan cleared his throat, “In the name of Jiri Village, I promise to always try my best, be kind to all campers, staff, and the outdoors. I promise to act with bravery, adaptability, honesty, and loyalty.”

The seven of us repeated the silly oath after Luhan. I wondered if every village did something like this or just ours. Actually, it wasn’t that silly. It was kind of nice.

“Welcome to Jiri Village, boys,” Luhan declared happily.

There was a cheer from our fellow villagers before they rushed in on us with hugs and fist bumps of congratulations. We were all ushered to the logs around the fire and eagerly asked to retell the tale of our night in the woods. I smiled as I noticed everyone listening intently as Jimin started to retell the story. Of course everyone had to know how I survived on my own. It was nice to be welcomed. I really did feel like I belonged. It almost made me forget that I’d already broken the Jiri promise of honesty long before the words had even left my mouth.

“We should tell ghost stories,” Baekhyun suggested when we were finished with our story. “Jisoo, you first!”

I narrowed my eyes and leaned forward on the log, letting my face bathe in the firelight. I glanced around to see that every one was waiting for me to begin. “I heard that this is a true story, so try not to be too scared. Out there somewhere… exists a summer camp with no Wi-Fi!”

“Jisoo, you’re supposed to tell a story, not remind us of our nightmare,” Jaehyo yelled out from across the fire. I leaned back to get a better view of him. As expected, his phone was in his hand.

“I honestly don’t know any scary stories,” I confessed.

“Alright. Calm down. I’ve got this,” Kyungsoo spoke up. He stood and started pacing around our circle. “There are things at this camp scarier than no Wi-Fi.”

I laughed lightly as he used my lame joke as a transition to his story.

“Ever wonder why the camp doesn’t allow night swims? Well, I’ll tell you. Many years ago, on a warm summer night, a group of boys had come down to the lake. One boy in particular had reservations about going into the water. ‘What if something happens? There’s no one here to supervise.’ His friends only laughed at him and called him chicken. One by one they dove off the dock into the dark water. Not wanting to be made fun of by his friends, the boy dove in.

He didn’t know what he’d been so worried about. They boys started playing and having swimming races. Everything was fine, that is, until it was his turn to race.

He and another swam out towards the center of the lake as fast as they could. The other boy had turned back earlier that he was supposed to. Realizing this, the boy yelled in fake anger as he approached the real turn around point. The moment he reached the point, he sank in the gloomy water. He kicked as hard as he could towards the surface, shouting for help. His friends only mocked him, pretending to drow