“How was your sleep?”

IZ*ONE gave their instructor a variety of replies, ranging from “Pretty good,” to “I just want to go back to bed.”

“Well, come and eat breakfast so you guys can feel energized, and so that you can have more time to pack your stuff,” Instructor M beckoned the girls into the cafeteria.

Eunbi rubbed her eyes, “We can stay in the cafeteria longer, we already packed most of our stuff last night.”

“I see, no wonder why some of you are tired.”

Most of the maknae line and a few of the unnie line nodded in response. Minjoo had packed her things quite nicely without any of the older members help and Hitomi did most of her work with only a little bit of help from Chaewon (but for whatever reason, they took a really long time to pack their belongings in their shared room, and they ended up being one of the members being tired). The rest of the maknaes assisted each other but they still ran into complications when they were packing, and they too were tired. Hyewon and Yena were the only two in the unnie line that had problems packing, and it’s not because they were incapable of doing that, they were just messing around most of the time.

They all ate, sharing stories about the things they saw in the Jungle Field. Instructor M even told them about the things that happen behind the scenes. She said that all the staff members here worked very hard to create the simulation buildings’ environment to match that of Fiji and that more than fifty field members are working around the campus and making sure that the training camp is in working order. There are also about a hundred members in the offices, who are also ready to put on boots and take on tasks in the actual camp.

“Hey, Chaewon?” Chaeyeon said.

Chaewon looked up from her food, blinking rapidly to shake out her drowsiness, “What’s up?”

“Why are you so tired? I thought you and Hii-chan finished early?”

The radish perked up almost immediately, and she looked nervous, “O-oh… well, you see. We ended up talking about random things, and I guess we just lost track of time.”

“Hmm okay, that makes sense. But why was there this long and undefined sound coming from your door when I passed by?” the main dancer asked, unaware of what she just said, and put a piece of her salad into .

Chaewon sighed, closed her eyes momentarily to take a deep breath, and gestured at her phone on the table.

The other 2000z liner took this as a sign to take her phone out and check it.

Chaewon: Hitomi and I are a thing.

She observed the reaction of the girl opposite her, and Chaeyeon’s eyebrows twitched but she kept her expressions at a minimum. Chaewon appreciated that.

Chaeyeon: Wow! Since when? Also, congratulations!

Chaewon: Long story, but all you have to know is that the long sound was .

Chaeyeon: Hold on a second, you guys did the “thing”?

The radish almost spat her ing egg out.

Chaewon: No! We just ended up near the door while we were making out!

“Girls,” Eunbi said from the other end of the table, “please finish your food before you use your phone.”

Chaeyeon: You better spill everything later.

“Uhm, instructor?”

Instructor M turned away from her conversation with Yuri and Wonyoung, “Do you need anything, Minjoo?”

The young woman pointed at her legs, “What’s gonna happen to the scar on my shin?”

“Bro, you live in South Korea. The epicenter of beauty products and skincare. There are millions of creams and lotions that will make that scar go away in three days. And the cut wasn’t that deep to leave a super permanent mark.”

Minjoo made a face that said Well, sis ain’t wrong.

Yujin came into the conversation, “Don’t worry unnie, you’ll still look pretty and amazing. And even if you did have a scar I’d still call you pretty. Plus, scars are hella cool.”

It was like Eunbi’s ears had been trained to pin-point where the profanity had come from, and it took her only half a second to get on Yujin’s . And Minjoo barely had enough time to process the compliment the puppy had directed to her.

“Yujin, don’t you dare start our morning like this, please.”

“But I didn’t even curse! You can’t call hell-”

Minjoo placed her hand on Yujin’s to silence her, “Just let it go, I got the message.” The frog turned crimson at the last part of her statement and reddened even further when the second maknae gave her that amazing eye-smile that she fell in love with since the very beginning.

Yena imitated a sound close to someone vomiting, “Get a room!”

“Shut up Miss ‘Yuri, dream of me’!” Yujin stuck her tongue out.

“Oh I see how it is, Miss ‘Minjoo’s my favorite unnie’!”

“Yeah, yeah Miss ‘I’d date Yuri’!”

Eventually, both girls stood up and continued their onslaught of “insults” which made the subjects of their bouts, Minjoo and Yuri, turn red either because they were flustered or embarrassed or both. After a few more minutes of back and forth shouting, both the duck and the puppy became annoyed.

“Miss ‘I love Yuri’!”

“Miss ‘I love Minjoo’!”

They said at the same time.

The whole table went quiet, and even the staff from the kitchen went silent. Yuri and Minjoo looked at each other and then their respective love interests. Yujin excused herself to the bathroom, bringing her phone with her, and Minjoo immediately took out her phone.

The visual knew that Yujin would not directly speak to anyone for at least an hour, and she would only communicate through text to Minjoo and her alone. She opened the messaging app and tapped on “Yudingz <3” to begin chatting with the puppy. She heard Yena say that she needed to finish packing up a few of her things, and from the corner of her eyes, she spotted Yuri running after her.

“What the just happened?” Hyewon said.

Wonyoung gasped, “Unnie!” Right next to her, Nako covered the maknae’s ears to protect it from the second round of shouting.

“KANG HYEWON!”

Yuri found Yena inside their shared room with her head in her hands. She was groaning and chiding herself for being so stupid. Not only did she egg on Yujin and , but she also blurted out what the younger had told her and the Master Memers in confidence. And look where it got her. Her secret was revealed too.

“Yena unnie?” the hamster peeked through the door.

The duck looked up and rubbed her nose, “Yeah?”

“Remember what I said yesterday in the cave?” Yuri started, “Maybe I meant it, maybe I didn’t.”

Yena’s eyes widened, but then she squinted and cocked her head, “What did you say yesterday?”

Yuri slapped her shoulder, “Yah! Unnie, I’m trying to be sincere here and you’re seriously acting like this.”

The older grinned at her and laughed, “What? I genuinely don’t know!”

“Aaaah!” Yuri whined. “Fine, I’m leaving!”

Yena stopped laughing and stood up so fast from her sitting position, “Wait! I’m just messing with you, come back.” She sat back down on the bed and motioned for the younger to do the same.

“So, as I was saying-” Yena cut Yuri off by putting her head on her shoulders. “Uh, what are you doing?”

Yena sighed and circled her arms around Yuri, inhaling her scent, “I already know what you said yesterday. Just,” she paused. “Let’s just stay like this for a few minutes.”

Although Yena was now aware that there was a connection between them and that their feelings were reciprocated. However, she didn’t want to move too fast for the younger since she kind of just abruptly confessed in front of the whole group (and confessed for Yujin as well).

Yena felt that the best choice for both of them is to take it slow at first, an idea that she got from the Master Memers, because she wanted to make sure that they were both committed to a relationship. Actually, all of the Master Memers had said that they would take it slow with their respective love interest, except for Hyewon as she had stayed quiet throughout that discussion.

They had said that if there was a chance that the other person reciprocated their feelings, they would move at a steady pace to make sure that