The K2 members were sprawled on the field the next morning, each getting comfortable lying down on the tarpaulin tent sheets that were spread out like a picnic blanket. They were learning how to pitch a tent but decided that it would be easier to just bundle themselves into a burrito. The rest laughed as Hyejin and Joy both demonstrated how to efficiently roll themselves into a burrito while Yerim and Wheein then came and rolled them both around. Taeyeon fished out her camera to take photos and videos of her participants, her unruly laughter could be heard during the videos’ playback as she practically doubled over at their antics.

“Guys, we are not going to be burritos during our expeditions when we can pitch nice and comfy tents. Hyejin, Joy, unroll yourselves then we’ll start with our class today.” Taeyeon called out to the two rolling burritos.

“We’re stuck. Can somebody help?”

Yongsun and Seungwan went over to the two burritos and helped them out of their tent sheets.

The members set to work quickly in pitching a simple A shaped, group tent after Taeyeon and Yoona had demonstrated. Seulgi stepped back and let her watchmates try their hand, occasionally helping out when they were stuck or when the tent’s structure needed reinforcing. Everybody agreed that the best part about learning how to pitch a tent was huddling in it afterwards because it was apparently very comfortable.

“Why is it so comfortable? How is it so comfortable?”

“It’s because you guys pitched this yourselves. Kinda like how food tastes better if you were the one who made it.” Yoona reasoned.

“Alright guys, come on out. We need to learn how to pitch a solo tent.”

“Why do we need a solo tent?” Wheein asked curiously because from what she knew, their expeditions involved the whole watch.

“Because..” Taeyeon paused for dramatic effects. “At the end of camp, you guys are going for a solo camp while Yoona and I get to relax for 24 hours without you kids.” She grinned and high fived her snickering CA.

The watch fell into a slight terror as Taeyeon explained about solo camp and what it usually meant. Seulgi watched her friends in amusement and laughed when Joy came up and shook her by the shoulders.

“An entire night alone in the jungle?! That’s not I signed up for! You didn’t say anything about this!”

While Seulgi was being harassed by Joy and Yerim, she glanced at Irene who seemed like she was about to pass out at the thought of being alone in the dark jungle. Once Joy and Yerim let her go after Taeyeon announced that it was time for their expedition briefing with the other watches, Seulgi went up to Irene to check up on her.

“Irene!” Seulgi was surprised when the said girl jumped slightly before turning around to face her.

“Sorry, I was just thinking about some..things..”

“Solo camp? Don’t worry about it. It’s actually really fun. I’ll tell you about it later”

“Sure.”

When the K2 got to the gym hall for their briefing, they were one of the first few watches to arrive. Mont Blanc, with Jessica as their instructor, was already there ready to go. The two watches greeted each other and chatted before everyone else arrived and Seohyun rolled out a white board and Jessica started the briefing.

Seulgi eagerly listened as the instructor explained their first expedition of the camp and she was pretty sure she was the only one who didn’t complain when Jessica mentioned the journey would take up to six hours on foot, depending on how fast they could trek up the hills. Seulgi looked around at her watchmates and saw that most of them were making faces and sighing as Jessica continued.

“Yes, Amber? Do you have a question?”

“Are we going to carry all the camping gear with us on the hike? The tent sheets and all?”

“You guys don’t have to worry about those. We know they’re very bulky and heavy so they’ll be loaded onto a truck together and sent to the campsite.”

A collective sigh of relief could be heard as soon as Jessica finished her sentence and Taeyeon snorted because her watch were the loudest. Jessica dismissed them once the briefing was over and they headed towards the mess hall for lunch.

***

Seulgi was floating about in the water, enjoying the sun and the salty sea water as her life jacket kept her afloat and she was being rocked back and forth by the waves. Her fellow watchmates were having fun playing not too far away, and she saw that her two satanic friends had somehow convinced the others to start some kind of splash-off. Seulgi was glad she wasn’t involved; it looked kind of intense. Taeyeon and Yoona were supervising from the side to make sure everything remained fun and safe.

She turned her head towards shore where she spotted Irene sitting by the shoreline and drawing patterns on the sand. The said girl had been a little scared about entering the water, which Taeyeon respected and told her to join if she was feeling confident enough. Their instructor had brought them down to the beach for a water confidence exercise before their upcoming water activities. Seulgi stood up and slowly waded her way towards shore to check up on her new friend.

“You doing alright?”

Irene looked up from her sand doodles and smiled, patting the spot beside her. “It’s pretty nice here. Wanna join me?”

“Sure.” Seulgi shrugged and took a seat beside Irene. Unknown to her, she accidentally sat on whatever Irene was drawing earlier.

“Yah! I worked so hard on that!” She whined and pouted.

“Sorry, I’m a bit clumsy. I’ll draw you something later. I’m pretty good at it.”

“Oh..” Irene was a bit surprised. “Y-you don’t have to.”

Seulgi waved it off and pointed at the mess that was their friends who were then having a go at Yoona and Taeyeon.

“Wanna join them? The water is still pretty shallow over there. It comes up to around your waist probably.”

Irene blinked at her for a bit before nodding hesitantly. Seulgi stood up first and pulled her up, half dragging Irene into the water with her. The rest of the watch stopped their assault on their instructor and CA when they saw that Irene had finally joined them and clapped all of them proud of her for overcoming her fear even by a little.

Taeyeon went over and patted Irene’s back, giving her a thumbs up before calling the K2 to form a circle and link their arms.

“Alright. Now this little exercise is called water confidence. We need you guys to feel confident in the water and this is how it’s going to happen. All of you already linked arms with the ones next to you?” Taeyeon continued when she heard a chorus of yeses. “I’m going to need you guys to lift up your legs, as if you’re sitting. But you guys will be floating, thanks to you life jackets. Understand?”

Seulgi and Byul could feel Irene tense up between them when Taeyeon gave the instruction to sit in the water.

“Don’t worry, Seulgi and I are here to support you!”

“What she said.”

Seulgi and Byul gave her toothy grins and Irene gulped. Taking a deep breathe, she lifted her legs like everybody else and soon all 11 of them were floating about in the water, arms linked. Taeyeon let them continue for a few minutes until she was certain that all her participants were at ease before telling them that the exercise was completed and they could play for another half an hour before having to wash up for dinner.

They had half expected Irene to make a run for shore the moment Taeyeon dismissed them but to their surprised she stayed in the water with them, even if she stayed clear of the chaos by standing quite a distance away from the group. Seulgi didn’t try to get her to join in because she might be slightly more confident than she was before in water, but she decided it was best not to push it.

“Guys, I lost my shoe!” Seungwan suddenly shouted while feeling about the seabed where she stood. “My leg got stuck in the muddy seabed and when I pulled it free my shoe didn’t come out. And now I can’t find it.”

Joy told Seungwan not to move while the rest closed in on where she stood and started searching. Even Irene came over to help. Taeyeon was keeping an eye on her wrist watch the whole time while Yoona joined the search and gave them another ten minutes before they had to wash up for dinner. Seungwan’s eye widened and frantically felt about the seabed.

“Alright, guys. The sun’s going down, we gotta go. Go back and wash up.

“Wait, wait, wait, wait! I feel something!” Hyejin yelled and dug deep into the muddy seabed. “Is this your shoe?” She lifted something that seemed to be just a big lump of mud, but after wiping away the dirt, Seungwan squealed with joy.

“Way to go, team! Now let’s go. Meet me in the mess hall for dinner in an hour.”

Taeyeon brought them over to the showers installed near the beach to rinse off before they headed back to their dorm, still dripping wet and flicking excess water at each other along the way.

***

Preparations for their expedition began as soon as dinner ended because Taeyeon wanted them to rest as early as possible given their route the next day. Apparently the instructors had drawn lots to pick which route their watch would be taking and her incredibly terrible luck had landed the K2 with the longest route, not that her participants needed to know about it yet. She sighed as she supervised her half her watch who were hauling equipment out from storage to the gym hall. Yoona had led the other half to the water filters to fill up a few gallon bottles to take with them on the hike and to clean their cooking tools.

“What were those rectangular tins they took with them?” Byul asked as she helped tie up the tent sheets with Taeyeon.

“Those are mess tins, the camp version of lunch boxes. That’s what we’re going use instead of plates whenever we’re out on an expedition. Oh hey, Yoong. Everything done at your end?” Taeyeon turned to greet Yoona and the rest of her watch as they came back to the hall to regroup.

“Yup. Mess tins and cutlery all washed and are kept in the mess hall cabinet.”

Taeyeon nodded and pointed towards the nine, standard issue, Camp Gemini backpacks that were laid out together with their camping gear. Each of them took one and dragged their tired bodies up to their dorms to pack and rest after they were dismissed.

Seulgi was resting in bed when she felt three people climbed up to her bunk. By the time she got up, the intruders had already made themselves comfortable on the bed. She sighed when she saw the looks on their faces - the satans reincarnate looked like they just thought of something and Seungwan looked at her apologetically, thus confirming her suspicions.

“Yes?”

“So….” Yerim drawled. “Where’s Irene?”

“She went out to get water and go for a walk with Yongsun before lights out.”

“So….” It was Joy’s turn. “Irene..” Joy crossed her arms and nudged Seulgi with her elbow, eyebrows dancing with glee.

“Seulgi, you have a thing for Irene, don’t you?” Byul head peeked out from the upper bunk’s railing and soon everybody was crowding Seulgi’s bed, much to her horror. She didn’t know if the bed was steady enough to support their weight.

“No, I don’t know what you guys are talking about. We’re just friends.”

“That’s what they all say..” Hyejin said in a sing-song manner.

“I’m telling you guys, we’re just friends.” Seulgi insisted.

“Me thinks the lady doth protest too much. Don’t you guys think so?”

“What are you guys talking about?” Everybody whipped their heads towards the door to see that Irene and Yongsun had returned from their walk and quickly adjourned their impromptu meeting. Seulgi laughed awkwardly at Irene and lied back down, pulling the blanket over her and prayed that Irene wouldn’t ask any more questions.

It was when the lights were turned off did Seulgi dared peeked out from the blanket and sighed in relief, only to scream in terror a few seconds later when she spotted Irene staring at her with one eyebrow raised through the bunk’s railings.

“AJDKAFHKLJDSHFKAJ IRENE YOU CAN’T DO THAT!!!!”

Irene burst laughing and snorted as she made her way to the bathroom in the dark, letting Seulgi and her racing heart be. When they heard the door close, Joy whispered not so quietly. “Seulgi, you got it bad.”

And the rest of the watch snickered as quietly as they could.