"Hey guys!" Johnny spoke cheerfully that morning. He and his campers were sitting around in a circle in the meadow by the ten to twelves cabins, post breakfast. Johnny never picked up his campers right from breakfast; they always showed up in their pajamas and Johnny had to wait for them all to change. "Are you ready for today's activity?" 

"Yeah!" They all cheered. The kids could be bastards sometimes but they were much more enthusiastic about daily activities now that they'd decided Johnny was cool (throwing a curse word or two into his casual speech with the campers had almost immediately done the trick). 

"Today we are...drum roll please..." The campers started slapping the floor with a little too much enthusiasm. "Hanging out at the store!" 

They all immediately sat up with annoyed expressions. 

"Wait, what?" One of the twelve year olds cried.

"That's so lame!" Another eleven year old whined. 

"The store is boring," a ten year old said and pouted. 

"Um...I'll buy you all ice cream," Johnny bribed. 

All of them looked enthusiastic once again, whispering to each other about ice cream. "Yay!" They cheered, standing up. 

"Can we go right now?" A ten year old asked. 

Johnny laughed. "Of course. Follow me!"

The ten to twelve year olds trailed behind him, laughing and excitedly cheering about the ice cream, but one of the twelve year olds and one of the ten year olds ran to catch up with Johnny, walking on either side of him. 

"Doesn't your boyfriend work at the store?" A ten year old asked in a teasing tone.

"Um.." 

"Yeah, are you just taking us to the store to hang out with your boyfriend?" A twelve year old added. 

"Uh...look guys we're here!" Johnny cried as soon as the store was in sight. That distracted them immediately and they screamed, running inside. Johnny just laughed to himself and followed them in. As much as Johnny didn't want to admit it to them, the campers were right. Johnny had organized this entire day around trying to hangout with his boyfriend while still keeping sight of his campers. 

As soon as he saw Taeil he grinned brightly, walking over to the cash register while the kids basically terrorized the store. Taeil looked shell shocked. 

"Hey," Johnny said with a sweet smile. 

Taeil was speechless for a moment. "O-oh, hey." 

Johnny laughed. "Enjoying my campers?" 

"I...I don't know how you deal with this every day." 

"Let's just say I'm not going to teach middle school once I get my teaching license," Johnny answered. 

"I got the last creamsicle es!" One of the twelve year olds screamed, and Taeil made a face. Another one started pretending to hump the bear statue in the corner of the store. 

"If we decide to have kids, let's have a girl," Taeil mumbled so the campers wouldn't hear. 

"Agreed," Johnny whispered back. "Does everyone have their ice cream?" 

"Yeah!" They yelled one after the other. 

"Come bring them up to me so we can stop bothering Taeil," Johnny said.

"Oh Taeil, oh you're so y, oh, oh," One of the twelve year olds spoke, trying to do an imitation of Johnny (and failing). 

Taeil and Johnny gave the camper a look before giving each other a look. "Stop, or I take away your ice cream priveleges," Johnny spoke to the camper in his firmest dad voice. That shut him up immediately, and the rest of the kids obediently brought up their ice creams. Taeil rung them up and they waited behind Johnny, on the tips of their toes. Johnny paid and once it was all done, the kids hurriedly grabbed their ice creams with their grubby hands. 

"Thank you Johnny, thank you Taeil," they all said disjointedly before running out of the store, Johnny following behind them. 

"Eat them before they melt!" Johnny yelled. The campers groaned and sat at the picnic tables outside of the store, talking animatedly about...Johnny didn't really want to know what. Johnny himself stepped outside too but leaned over the window, more like a square shaped opening in the wooden wall of the cabin right next to the cash register, to talk to Taeil. 

"How did you like my campers?" 

"They're...special," Taeil answered, and they both laughed. 

"I promise they're not that bad," Johnny said. "The morning is always the worst. Once it gets later in the day and they're a little more tired they are far more tame. Sometimes, they can even be sweet." 

"I don't believe it." 

"I wouldn't believe it either if I hadn't seen it for myself. It's really like I have eight twelve year old Donghyucks to manage." 

Taeil laughed at that and leaned himself out of the window, both taking a quick peek at the campers before turning back to each other. "So what's your activity for today?" 

"This," Johnny bluntly answered, and Taeil laughed. 

"Really?" 

Johnny nodded. "I missed you." 

Taeil smiled softly at that. "Then that's a great idea. Even if it's not exactly an enriching activity for the campers..." 

"They've had four days of enriching activities and I've had no days of seeing you." 

"True, very true." 

They again turned to check the on the campers; most of them had finished their ice creams. "All of the sticks and wrappers better be in the garbage can!" He yelled, and a few of the boys hurriedly picked their trash off the ground and ran them to the garbage. They watched a few seconds longer, as one kid pulled out a deck of cards and the rest pulled pennies out of the many pockets on their cargo shorts.

"Johnny, wanna play poker with us?" One of the eleven year olds asked. 

"Not today, no thanks," Johnny answered, turning back to his boyfriend to see him making a shocked expression. 

"You play poker with the campers? You're encouraging gambling?" 

"Darling, I had to make them like me somehow. You should see poor Mark and his campers; he still has yet to win them over. I did what I had to." 

Taeil slowly shook his head. "Encouraging ten year olds to play poker. Really, you're the worst counselor," he said jokingly. 

"Perhaps," Johnny answered. 

"Johnny?" One of the ten year olds asked, looking up at his giant frame. 

"What's up?" 

"Well there's a ping pong table over there but there's none of the stuff, do you have it?" 

"Oh yeah of course," Taeil answered, pulling out the paddles and balls and handing them to the kid. 

"Thank you!" They all cheered before starting a game. Taeil and Johnny just watched them for a few moments, playing cards and table tennis. Despite everything they were still so innocent, and really, it was sweet. 

"Do you remember when you were that age?" Taeil asked. 

Johnny nodded. "I was really into yu-gi-oh." 

"I liked pokemon more, actually." 

"Did you have a lot of friends?" Johnny asked. 

Taeil shook his head. "You know I was always pretty unpopular until college. And camp of course. You? I mean, you were super popular in high school..." 

"I had my big growth spurt the summer before high school. So no, I was a loser too back then." 

Taeil laughed and they turned towards each other. "God, those first few summers I thought you were so cool, way too cool for me. You were really intimidating." 

"Me?" Johnny said and burst out laughing. "I dunno. I guess I was popular? But I never thought of myself that way I was just...the chill guy that kinda knew everyone, you know? Honestly, I thought you were way too smart for me." 

"And now?" 

"And now? I think we're just right for each other." Johnny reached to hold each other's hands and Taeil squeezed his back, their fingers interlocking, Taeil's tiny contrasting with Johnny's massive one. 

All of the sudden, a loud obnoxious voice piped up. "Taeil and Johnny sitting in a tree, -" 

Johnny let go of Taeil's hand and turned around, just looking at the twelve year old camper with that stern dad expression he was so great at. Immediately the camper ran off to go rejoin the poker game. 

Johnny released a deep sigh and turned around. "Anyways..." Taeil held back a laugh. "Anyways..." 

"Anyways...back then I was always worried you would find out what a loser I was during the school year and leave me." 

"God I hope you're not worried about that anymore..." 

"Of course not. I have other far more important worries now." 

"Like what?" 

"Like...like Jeffery and Fluff-Fluff." Taeil answered with a sigh. "Are they okay? Are they eating enough? Are they getting played with enough?" 

Johnny sighed and reached back for Taeil's hand again, giving it a squeeze. Their fur babies meant so much to them; of course Taeil was worried, and he had to admit sometimes he got a bit nervous too. "I'm sure they're okay. Our friend has taken care of cats before, and Jeffery and Fluff-Fluff aren't crazy or hard to take care of." 

Taeil grinned at Johnny. "I know. And of course, it's way worth it to be here." 

"Of course."