“Everyone, get with your partner and line up!” Coach Jung, the Physical Education teacher and also the soccer team’s coach, yelled loudly through the megaphone, destroying every students’ eardrums while he’s at it.

 

Students began to scattered, leaving their comfort zones to search for their assigned partners. Shortly, the entire schoolyard became noisy as people were shouting on top of each other. Confusion floated in the air while watching everyone else pushing past and picking fights just to get to their partner. The whole scene was chaotic.

 

Jinyoung bit his lip and clasped his hands together as he stood still at his spot next to a tree. He wished he was still in his comfy bed and just snoring away for the whole week, but of course, his mother excitedly woke him up and forced him on his feet. And so now, he ended up at the Gates of Hell. Jinyoung wondered all the time why was the world so cruel to him.

 

“Hey!”

 

The school’s nerd turned towards the cheerful voice. That person greeted him with a bright smile and an enthusiastic wave. Jinyoung felt awkward and didn’t know what to do except remaining still and just stared.

 

“What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be with Mark-hyung?” The soccer team’s captain asked with a friendly glint sparkling in his eyes.

 

“Um… I…” Jinyoung casted his eyes down, finding interest in his old pair of sneakers instead.

 

“Why do you care?” It was so obvious whose that voice belonged to.

 

Youngjae scoffed, “Why are you even here, hyung? We’re not even partner!”

 

“I’m your boyfriend,” was the swim team’s captain short answer.

 

“So? We’re in different grade level and class, so we’re not picked together. Go find your partner! I need to find mine.”

 

“Then why aren’t you going to find them? Instead you’re here.”

 

Jinyoung shifted uncomfortably, witnessing the bickering couple in front of him. Clearly, Jaebum didn’t seem to like him one bit. “I t-think I should g-go… E-excuse me…”

 

Before Jinyoung could picked up his duffle bag and fled the scene, Youngjae grabbed a hold of his arm with a kind smile. “Don’t mind him. Our Jaebum-hyung isn’t usually this mean. He’s very nice when you get to know him, I think.”

 

“Stop calling me ‘hyung’.”

 

Youngjae rolled his eyes, “Anyways, Jinyoung-ssi, you seems lost? We can take you to Mark-hyung-”

 

“He’s been looking everywhere for you,” Jaebum said, tone of voice surprisingly a lot softer than Jinyoung had ever heard him.

 

Jinyoung immediately puts his hand up in front of him and shook his head, “No! I mean, no, that wouldn’t be necessary. I can, um, find him myself… Thank you…”

 

“Okay, cool,” Jaebum shrugged, “Let’s go, Youngjae.”

 

Youngjae wiggled his hand out of his boyfriend’s grip, “We have to help him!” He then turned to Jinyoung with the cutest smile, “It’s okay! Come on! I know where he is!”

 

“Young-”

 

“Sshhh, Jaebummie, baby, behave,” the younger captain shushed his boyfriend in a smooth attempt, which worked perfectly well. The older captain didn’t say anything more. Just remained looking bored while intertwining fingers with his dear Youngjae.

 

And the next thing Jinyoung could process was Youngjae dragging him through the sea of bodies. Jinyoung free hand held tightly onto his duffle bag as he nervously looked around, secretly praying that a certain redhead wouldn’t come into view.

 

His prayers were never answered.

 

At least not correctly.

 

A bed full of fiery red hair stood out like a sore thumb in the midst of this hectic crowd. Jinyoung gulped, feeling the hotness mounting on his cheeks. At this rate, his face might turn even redder than that bed of soft red hair.

 

“Mark-hyung!” Youngjae called and waved excitedly. “We’ve got delivery for you!”

 

The moment the school’s hopes and dreams turned around was the moment Jinyoung felt the desperate need for air. It’s nothing much. Just Mark Tuan in a casual white tee and navy shorts. Yet it had felt like the world stopped spinning for a second.

 

“Jinyoung!” Mark shouted and ran over as soon as their eyes accidentally met. The redhead quickly ran over with a cheerful smile etched across his handsome face. “There you are!”

 

“H-hi, Mark-ssi...” Jinyoung muttered under his breath, hanging his head low in embarrassment of meeting Mark’s eyes again.

 

“How was your weekend? Excited for today?” Mark asked as he reached out to grab the duffle bag on Jinyoung’s shoulder, “I honestly couldn’t sleep, because all I could think about is you!”

 

Jinyoung gulped, already giving up on hiding his crimson cheeks and allowed them to burn openly. He tried to snatch back his bag, but Mark didn’t let him. The redhead insisted on carrying it despite also carrying his own backpack. Jinyoung looked around. People were looking at them, whispering to each other, making Jinyoung felt small.

 

“Oh, my God. Isn’t that the nerd? Is he making Mark carrying his bag?”

 

“Who the does he thinks he is?”

 

“So annoying! Mark would have been so much better off with me!”

 

Jinyoung bit his lip, silently getting angry for himself. Mark was causing him so much trouble, but the basketball captain seemed to not care and kept a smiling face through and through. To make it even worse, Mark’s hand had already wrapped Jinyoung’s hand securely.

 

“Can you all shut the up?” Jaebum scoffed, “There’s people trying to hear the announcements here.”

 

Beside Jaebum, Youngjae giggled amusingly. The younger patted his boyfriend’s back and gave a little appreciative smile. Jaebum responded with a smirk and a not-so-subtle wink.

 

After being scolded by the school’s bad boy, everyone zipped the mouths and turned away, occupying themselves with something else. No one dared to look over at Mark’s and Jinyoung’s direction. The view was blocked by Jaebum’s deadly glares anyways. Mark secretly looked over his shoulder at his friends. It didn’t surprise him to see Jaebum so protective. That trait has been flowing in the bad boy’s blood since the day he was born. Doesn’t matter what kind of relationship, friends or lover, if anyone associated themselves with Im Jaebum, then they will surely be protected forever.

 

“Hey, Jinyoungie,” Mark squeezed his partner’s hand to grab their attention.

 

Jinyoung looked shocked, “What… What did you just call m-me?”

 

“Jinyoungie,” the redhead grinned, “Can I call you that? We’re going to spend a week together, so might as well get familiar now. You can call me whatever you want, too!”

 

“Um…” Jinyoung hesitated. Words couldn’t force their way out his mouth. But his heart was beating a bit faster than usual nevertheless. It’s impossible not to when someone as blinding as Mark Tuan is happily smiling like a little adorable child. “I… No, it’s f-fine. I think Mark… Mark-ssi would be fine.”

 

A frowned played on Mark’s lips, “Then at least drop the ‘ssi.’ We’re same-aged friends. No need to be so formal.”

 

“Okay…” Jinyoung nodded slowly, “Mark…”

 

Before Mark could reply back to that sweet sound of his name coming out of his crush’s mouth, Coach Jung was already resuming to shouting through the megaphone. “All righty! Now that everyone has settled with their respective partner, let’s the party begins!”

 

The entire schoolyard erupted in cheers from thousands of students. Everyone wore some kind of sparkle in their youthful eyes. The hype was beyond control. But looking at all the students’ excitement, the teachers were satisfied as well. This trip will be one Hell of a trip.

 

“Here’s how today is going to go,” the P.E. coach opened up a little book he had with one hand while the other still gripping tightly onto the megaphone. “The buses are already here. Freshmen are going on the yellow ones. Sophomores, you guys are red. Juniors, you’re blue. And the oldest, Seniors, you are green. Bus numbers are sent out through the school’s app on which class going on which bus. I know you all carried your electronic devices with you, so open up the app and check it. Now, the rules of this school do applied on the bus. I do not want to hear any negative reports from the bus drivers, especially my Senior kids, you guys are the oldest, thus, you are expected to rightfully behave. Everyone must treat everyone with respect and kindness. I know some of you does not like your partner, but trust me, after this week, you and your partner will become the best of friends-”

 

A couple of groans and nasty comments passed through the crowd as people started to rolled their eyes and complained about their assigned partner. Jinyoung looked up at Mark and startled himself to see that Mark has already been looking at him. Mark leaned over and whispered in Jinyoung’s red-tipped ear, “That won’t be a problem, because I love my partner.”

 

Jinyoung swore that Mark could hear his obnoxious heartbeat above the ruckus around them. Maybe Mark did, because he couldn’t stop the wide, infectious, smile spreading across his face.

 

“-settle down, kids! Like I say, you’ll eventually get used to it. Use this time to bond with each other! This is what this whole camping trip is for! Well, and winning prizes, but I’m sure you all know that. Anyways, with your partner and in an orderly manner, like how humans supposed to act, proceed to your buses. We will depart shortly. The destination is only two hours away. We’ll make it their on time for you all to start on your first mission! NOW OFF YOU GO!”

 

With another loud cheer, every student began running, scattering out in different directions. Obviously, they chose to ignore the “orderly manner” that was told. Adrenaline fueled these hormonal teenagers. And really, they can’t be stopped.

 

Jinyoung looked around confused and scared of being pushed and shoved, so on his instinct, he just gripped onto whatever close to him. He only realized that he’s holding onto Mark’s hand and arm when someone had shoved him so hard, sending his body crashing against his partner’s. Jinyoung blushed, finding their position somewhat awkward. The nerd looked up shyly but was totally caught off guard by the redhead’s flaming face.

 

“Hahaha…” Jinyoung giggled.

 

“W-what…” Mark diverted his eyes somewhere else.

 

“Your face matches your hair! A tomato!” Jinyoung laughed, hiding his smile behind his hand.

 

Mark ducked his head and cursed under his breath, “S-stop it! It’s not funny!” He sneaked a glance at his partner and smiled. In a quiet voice, Mark pointed out, “Your face matches my hair, too.”

 

Jinyoung stopped laughing and stared at Mark. He then cleared his throat and faced the other way, pretending he was looking for the buses. Mark had found the action incredibly cute but controlled himself from kissing those red cheeks. Biting his bottom lip, Mark watched as a clueless Jinyoung tried to search for nothing in particular.

 

“Hey, they’re over here,” Mark tugged on Jinyoung’s arm gently, “Where are you looking at?”

 

“H-huh? Oh… Yeah, I was, um, uh…”

 

Shaking his head, Mark decided to save Jinyoung the trouble of thinking up a smart reply. “Come on, let’s go!”

 

Jinyoung didn’t say anything else and allowed himself to be dragged by Mark across the schoolyard. There were many things going through his mind of equations and literary structured analysis. But the only thing seemed to matter at that very moment was the flustered wonders of why only Mark and him were holding hands and not everyone else.

 

 

 

%%%

 

 

 

“Jinyoung-ah…”

 

His eyebrows knitted together in a soft annoyance.

 

“Jinyoungie, wake up…”

 

He stirred a little; a quiet whine escaped his lips.

 

“Wake up, baby…”

 

His eyes opened, hearing the ringing of the strange endearment clearly in his ears. The cushion underneath his head felt a bit… Odd… Jinyoung slowly regained conscious. Lifting his head up, Jinyoung’s eyes widened as they came to directly met with a certain set of unwavering kind eyes.

 

Mark smiled, tilting his head a little to the side quite cutely. “You’re awake.”

 

Jinyoung blinked, knocking himself to reality. Then, he finally realized… “Oh! I’m so sorry!”

 

An affectionate chuckle left Mark’s mouth, “It’s okay, really, I liked it.”

 

Jinyoung looked down at his lap and rubbed his nape awkwardly. He blamed himself for being so careless and inconsiderate. How could he just peacefully sleep like that!

 

“Hey, it’s really okay,” Mark placed a hand on his partner’s shoulder, “Your head was knocking against the window. Seemed like it hurts, so I decided to lend you my shoulder. Don’t worry, no biggie. If I couldn’t do this one simple thing, how am I supposed to win you over?” The redhead winked.

 

“I…” Jinyoung stole a glance at the warm hand on his shoulder, “Thank you…”

 

“Anytime! But we have to get off now. Everybody’s already lined up at the campsite. You were sleeping so comfortably… I didn’t want to wake you up. And you were cute. Thought I might as well enjoy the view.” Mark’s comment earned himself a shy shove on his chest from a furiously blushing Jinyoung. Mark laughed, “Okay, okay, let’s go now!”

 

They moved out the bus, bickering about who should carry Jinyoung’s bag. In the end, Mark won, leaving Jinyoung awkwardly walking along him without anything to hold onto. But Jinyoung didn’t need that. He was holding Mark’s hand anyways. It’s not like he wanted to. Mark had insisted that holding hands would prevent them from straying from each other. Jinyoung agreed secretly, because based on his calculations, it made sense. So why not?

 

“Is everyone here?” Coach Jung shouted through his, now, very much treasured megaphone, as his sharp eyes scanned the crowd, “Teachers, please go around and read off attendance. Students, please remain patient and properly check your name and your partner’s name off with a nearby teacher.”

 

Mark was quick on his feet. He pushed through the crowd, hand gripping tightly to Jinyoung’s. “Teach! Tuan Mark and Park Jinyoung from Senior Class 3!”

 

“All right! I got you both!”

 

“Thank you!”

 

With a glance over his shoulder to make sure his partner wasn’t tired out or anything, Mark continued moving forward in great speed. They made it first in line. Coach Jung was obviously impressed. “My, my, my, competitive much? And isn’t it the infamous Basketball Captain? Your coach couldn’t make it today, I’m sorry to hear that.”

 

Mark sneered, “But Coach... You don’t look a slight bit sorry~”

 

Coach Jung laughed loudly, a bit unnecessary and exaggerated, “What are you saying, Tuan? Of course, I’m not sorry- I mean sorry, truthfully, honestly, sorry-“

 

“Please, Coach, you’re everything but sorry,” another pair joined in, right behind Mark and Jinyoung. “In fact, it’s a bit sketchy that you’re the only Coach here…”

 

“Youngjae, you’re the Captain of my team. We’re on the same side, remember?”

 

“No,” Youngjae shrugged, “Never heard of that.”

 

Jinyoung bit back a smile at the soccer captain’s sassiness. It’s interesting to see such a well-known friendly person, and probably every teacher’s favorite, casually talking back to the strictest coach of the school. Mark leaned over and whispered for only Jinyoung to hear, “Coach Jung just salty that our Basketball Team gets a lot more funding than his Soccer Team.”

 

“I heard that, Tuan! Respect your elders!” Coach Jung raised his clipboard and slapped Mark’s arm with it. “Jeez, I forgot you kids are good friends with each other,” he sighed and turned to his most precious pupil, “Youngjae-ah, next year is your last, focus a lot more, okay? I know your, um, boyfriend, is graduating this year, but don’t let that stop you from striving next year. Sports before boys!”

 

“Roger that, Coach!” Youngjae assured with his signature smile.

 

“Okay, you kids chat, I have to continue checking off these Freshmen and Sophomores. God, I hate them.”

 

They all burst out in amused laughs as they watched Coach Jung grumpily trudged off. Jinyoung couldn’t help it and hid his smile shyly behind his hand; the corners of his eyes crinkled adorably.

 

“So, already the first ones, huh?” Youngjae gave his hyung a pat, “As expected of the rumored Power Couple of Senior Class 3.”

 

“Have to impress my man, you know,” Mark smirked and playfully winked at Jinyoung, only to received a slap to his arm, on the same spot from Coach Jung’s clipboard earlier, from an extremely embarrassed Jinyoung.

 

Youngjae shook his head, but smile nonetheless at the cute scene. His Mark-hyung is definitely whipped as . “Well, enough about you two,” Youngjae cleared his throat, “This is Sana, my partner. And Sana, this is Mark-hyung and his husband- I mean partner, Jinyoung-ssi.”

 

The pretty girl beside Youngjae giggled excitedly, “You don’t have to introduce! Of course I know who they are! The whole school does!”

 

“You’re sleeping with a girl?” Jinyoung accidentally blurted out. When he realized what he had said, his hand automatically flew to cover his mouth.

 

“Girl? Her?” Youngjae rolled his eyes, “Please, she’s more manly than girly. Sana is our Soccer Team’s manager, which only gives her the right to handle all the scheduling and extra academic stuff, but this woman literally treats us all as her ing slaves!”

 

“Shut up!” Sana scolded, “You’re not supposed to expose me!”

 

“See?” Youngjae pouted, “She’s mean! I was so upset that I got paired up with her! I’m going to spend this whole week in Hell!”

 

Jinyoung smiled, “You’ll be fine. Jaebum-ssi is right behind you.”

 

The four of them turned their attention at the approaching representative pair of Senior Class 1. Sana gasped, “… Is that Bae Suzy? With Jaebum? Oh, God, we’re so ed! Their presences are scary!”

 

Youngjae’s frown grew deeper as the pair advanced closer. Jinyoung noticed and tapped Mark’s hand. The redhead nodded and called out, “Hey, Youngjae, don’t worry. Suzy already got a boyfriend. And Jaebum is, like, idiotically in love with you. So-“

 

“I’m not worried! I know Jaebum can take care of himself…” Youngjae interrupted, voice betraying his previous remark of not worrying.

 

Sana nudged her partner, “The whole school knows how crazily possessive he is over you. What are you- Wait, is our mighty, always-act-like-he-doesn’t-care, Captain, perhaps, jealous?”

 

“Sana, shut up!” Youngjae screeched and chased after his partner, who’s running all around the campsite, laughing and teasing the poor captain.

 

“Is it okay?” Jinyoung timidly asked Mark.

 

Mark smiled, “It’ll be okay. Sana is doing that to make Jaebum jealous anyways. Plus, it’s good for Youngjae to show his emotions once in a while.”

 

“Ah…” Jinyoung nodded knowingly.

 

“Hey.”

 

“Hmm?”

 

“You’re interested,” Mark pointed out.

 

“Wha-what?” Jinyoung became flustered as he started darting his eyes around.

 

Mark’s smile only grew wider, “You know, if we were together, you get to hang out with my friends, who are all genuinely interesting and nice people. And we’ll make sure you will never feel alone ever again.”

 

“What are you saying… There’s Jackson…”

 

Mark’s face grew slightly pale from the mention; obviously completely forgotten that Jackson was playing the enemy here. “Um… There are some things you might not know… But I swears I would not let anyone hurt you!”

 

Jinyoung always wonders how could Mark just say all those things with such an honest face. Isn’t he embarrassed? It’s ridiculous for Mark to end up with someone like Jinyoung. Everyone likes Mark. Everyone hates Jinyoung. They don’t mix. Not at all.

 

But what is this swirling feeling of a thousand butterflies flapping within him? Jinyoung refused. There’s no way he’ll be able to handle this. Mark always insisted that it isn’t a joke. But what if… What if it is? What would Jinyoung do then? How would he going to take it?

 

It’ll be a cruel ending.

 

There’s nothing worse then getting one’s hopes up and crushing it all down at the end. All for cheap laughs.

 

“Jinyoungie…” Mark squeezed his partner’s hand, “I don’t like that face. Please, smile.”

 

Jinyoung looked up and shook his head, “I’m sorry.”

 

Mark sighed, “That’s okay. We’ll work on it.”

 

There’s nothing to work on, Jinyoung wanted to say, but decided to keep that comment to himself. What differences would it make?

 

 

 

%%%

 

 

 

“What the …” Mark cursed, scratching his head in confusion and frustration. He stood there, squinting at the messy pile of sticks and plastic fabrics that just collapsed from the power of poor construction skills. At first, when Coach Jung had announced the very first mission, Mark was smirking to himself, fully confident that he got this, but now, the redhead was on the verge of entirely giving up. “Huh, this is a lot harder than I had thought.”

 

He’s even more lost now that Jinyoung wasn’t around. Mark was disappointed with himself. He had told Jinyoung that he could do it. But look at this mess now. “Fantastic, Mark Tuan. What a way to impress the love of your life,” Mark sighed, running his hands through his hair wildly, impatient and angry.

 

“Mark?”

 

“Yeah, babe?” It slipped out before Mark could even stop it.

 

Choosing to ignore that sudden slip, Jinyoung cleared his throat, “I got food,” he held up the bags he had. Mark immediately rushed over to carry the bags for him. Jinyoung was caught off guard. “They’re not heavy… I could carry them…” He mumbled quietly under his breath.

 

“I’m sorry, I’m such a useless piece of ,” Mark apologized as he set the food bags down near the pile of firewood that they had collected earlier together.

 

Jinyoung looked shock, “Why would you say that?”

 

Mark pouted, “Because I can’t even set up a ing tent. How am I supposed to support you in the future?”

 

“…” Jinyoung felt himself burning up.

 

The redhead sighed, “I’m so useless.”

 

A tiny smile perched upon Jinyoung’s lips as he looked at Mark with such softness in his eyes. Who would have guessed that a strong influential individual such as the basketball captain himself could be this cute? Shaking his head, Jinyoung picked up a stick and turned it in his palms, examining every detail and formulating every way of possible algorithmic methods of piecing everything together. Jinyoung smirked, this isn’t hard, he realized.

 

“Come help me, Mark?”

 

In a blink, Mark was already up and enthusiastically appeared next to his partner. His smile was something Jinyoung could never fight against. Or even have the will power to fight against. “Here, hold this…”

 

It wasn’t a quick we-got-this kind of tent, but it definitely wasn’t the oh-we-just-bullted-this-just-so-we-could-get-a-place-to-sleep kind of tent. With Jinyoung’s careful planning and Mark’s mind of a fast learner, they managed to work in perfect harmony, setting up a pretty decent tent in a time span that wasn’t too bad. Even though they, unfortunately, couldn’t get first place but ended in second, they were quite satisfied how everything turned out.

 

“You’re awesome!” Mark complimented as soon as the teacher left.

 

“Thank you… It wasn’t anything much,” Jinyoung said, “You helped, too.”

 

“But we came in second because of me wasting time being an idiot,” Mark sighed, again, “I feel bad.”

 

Jinyoung shook his head, “Don’t be. At least someone from our class got first.”

 

“Which is ridiculous, because Eric and Jackson have absolutely no teamwork at all!”

 

“Didn’t Eric-ssi also got first in setting of tent last year?”

 

“Oh, yeah, you’re right… That makes better sense…”

 

Jinyoung laughed, “Were you not the one who sets up the tent for the past three years or something?”

 

“I wasn’t! And they didn’t have this whole do-it-yourself concept until last year, in which case, I was in charge of gathering firewood and getting food,” Mark ruffled his already tousled bed of fiery red hair.

 

“Who was your partner last year?” Jinyoung asked out of curiosity.

 

“Jaebum,” Mark answered with a shrug, “I’m glad they didn’t decided to do the whole chained-to-your-partner thing last year. It would have been literal Hell.”

 

“You’re fine with it being this year?” Jinyoung grabbed a long, thick, piece of firewood and sat on it, feeling the tiredness of his legs starting to catch up.

 

Mark took noted of his partner’s action and did the same, “Yeah.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Because it’s you who I’m chained to. Here,” he snapped open a can of ravioli and handed it to Jinyoung. “If it was someone else, I would have been really disappointed. This whole trip would mean nothing.”

 

Jinyoung muttered a small “thank you” before accepting the food. Reaching into the bag again, Mark pulled out a water bottle and uncapped it for Jinyoung. “I prayed everyday, you know. I guess God answered my prayer.”

 

“Nonsense…”

 

Mark chuckled, “I paid attention to you more than you think, Jinyoungie.”

 

That nickname. No one has ever called him that. Not even his own parents. He wasn’t used to it. It sounded so foreign in his ears, but for some reason, his heart would stutters, or skip a couple of beats, whenever a specific person calls him that. Jinyoung felt so embarrassed but comfortable at the same time. All these feelings are mushing his mind. Jinyoung doesn’t know anymore.

 

“So… Um…” Mark exhaled a huff of air, shoulders tensed up, “How would you like for us to sleep later…?”

 

The scooping of ravioli stopped abruptly. Jinyoung swallowed, realizing the moment reality came tumbling down his face. He looked up at the sky; night has finally sets in, stars were lining up to expose themselves against the blanket of pure darkness. Jinyoung couldn’t believe so much time has passed. The day was almost over. Which means they’re going to have to sleep soon… Jinyoung suddenly lost appetite and left his ravioli can abandon as he reached out to the water bottle, feeling the weird thirst clawing at his throat. He took a long drink, almost finished the bottle in one go. When he was done, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. His eyes had this obscure determination. “Whatever, I don’t care. I’m tired.”

 

Mark’s eyes followed Jinyoung as the nerd retreated himself into the tent. Mark gulped, “What exactly does that mean?” He whispered to himself in the midst of confusion.

 

 

 

%%%

 

 

 

Curfew calls spread throughout the campsites. Teachers were going around, making sure everyone was back in their tents. And another group of teachers settled their own tents next to girl-boy pairs for emergency and safety reasons… They clearly didn’t thought this whole chain-to-your-partner thing through well enough. But that’s all right. There’s room for improvement next year.

 

As the check-ups came to a close, a loud whistle was blown, indicating the end of the first day of camp. Students and teachers were in their respective tents, getting ready to officially end the day.

 

Jinyoung turned to his side when he heard the blaring whistle, covering his ears. He was glad that their tent was somewhat further from the main area of the campsite. His ears would have been in worse condition if they were.

 

He waited for the whistle to stop. When it did, Jinyoung removed his hands from his ears and softly sighed. Now, all he needs to do is sleep. Can’t be that hard. He was very tired anyways…

 

Turns out, it was THAT hard.

 

In the calm, quiet, night of nothing but faint sounds of crickets chirping and hustling of the gentle winds, Jinyoung found it hard to remain still and sleep peacefully when there’s another body breathing softly next to him. Despite the wall of jackets and duffle bags dividing in between, Jinyoung’s idea, the said male couldn’t seems to keep his heart from beating too fast or his forehead to start sweating out of nervousness. Jinyoung had never slept on the same bed, in this case, mat, as someone else before. Let alone sleeping with the hottest guy in the entire student body. Anyone would be nervous!

 

Sleep, sleep, sleep, come on, SLEEP!

 

Jinyoung begged himself, all desperate and needy. But his body acted like it’s been fueled. Jinyoung never felt so betrayed. Now, he’s at a point where he’s even afraid to move. What if Mark was a light sleeper and the slightest sound could wake up the redhead? Jinyoung bit his lip, feeling stressed all of a sudden. This is so hard, he mentally facepalmed. Pulling his blanket over his head, Jinyoung wants it to suffocates him, so he could die right there and then.

 

“Jinyoung-ah…?”

 

That almost made Jinyoung jumped. “Y-yeah?” He croaked, voice came out hoarse and awkward, leading him to softly clear his throat. “Yeah?” He repeated.

 

“Oh, I thought you were already asleep,” Mark said, voice so amazingly gentle like the winds outside.

 

“I was about to…”

 

“Oh,” Mark replied, “Sorry…”

 

A silence barged in. Jinyoung could hear the soft breathings again. Will he be able to sleep this time? A question he has no answer to. He waited for a bit. For nothing in particular.

 

And then…

 

Maybe because of the lullaby sung by the breezes outside…

 

Or maybe because of the alluring noises of crickets’ chatters…

 

Or even maybe because of a certain redhead’s soothing breathings…

 

Jinyoung found a spark of courage in the depths of this first night.

 

“Hey, Mark?” Jinyoung whispered.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“When did you start to, um, like me?”

 

The silence on the other end totally crushed Jinyoung’s previous courage, leaving him shattered in embarrassment over his awful question.

 

“Hmm,” Mark finally broke through, “A long time ago. To be exact, Freshmen year? Yeah, Freshmen year…” Jinyoung could hear the smile on Mark’s lips, “I was in the library, searching for books about metamorphosis for my assignment, then I saw you reading by the window alone. I remember the sunlight that day was especially bright and stunning as it shined on you. It was like watching an angel peacefully reading. And, I, um, I don’t know, fell for that beautiful radiance. So I started coming to the library to watch you read… Sounds creepy, but in my head, at that time, it was super romantic. Anyways, I started crushing and that soon developed into something quite massive. I stopped going to the library to watch you, because I felt like a bother and a creep. But I’ve never stopped watching you,” Mark paused to let out a long sigh, then he continued, “I was scared. I was scared of how people would look at me. I was scared of approaching you. I was stupid and scared and madly in love. I couldn’t do back then and I regretted it all the time. But now, I’m not scared anymore.”

 

If Jinyoung were facing the other way, he would have known that Mark had turned towards him with a caring smile. A smile of nothing but pure admiration and love for that one person he treasures most. That one person that made him found the power, the courage, to step out of his shell.

 

“I realized how much you mean to me,” Mark said, “I know it took a ing long time, but it’s our last year, so it’s go big or go home. And I didn’t have the patience anymore. I just want you to know. I want you to know how much you mean to me, and how much you truly worth. And how much I want you no matter who you are, because I love you for the perfect person that you are.”

 

Like magic, those words were like a spell, casting on Jinyoung.

 

He didn’t know when he had fallen asleep.

 

He didn’t know he had fallen asleep with a smile dancing on his lips.