The drive to the campgrounds was short, only taking about ten minutes to get there from the house. Once parked the two got out and went inside the small building in front of the campgrounds.

 

Seulgi approaches the counter where the worker was sitting at.

 

“Hello, I called earlier about reserving a space for a few hours?” 

 

“Ah, Miss Kang Seulgi,” The worker at the desk quickly types something on his computer, “Yes, I have you down right here.” 

 

While Seulgi took care of their reservations, Irene decides to take a look around outside. She bumps into one of the show directors and quickly mumbles an apology.

 

"Irene, we're just going to set up some small cameras at you guy's area and we'll be back at the accommodation," The director informs her as multiple show staff behind him head towards the camp with equipment. 

 

"You're going to head back?"

 

He nods, "We have it all set up back at the house where we can monitor you two there."

 

"Ah, I see." 

 

"This is to make you guys act more naturally around each other without having too many eyes watching your every move, but don't worry there's still going to be some staff here in case something happens."

 

At that moment, Seulgi comes out of the building, "There you are," She grins at Irene, "and PD-nim too." 

 

"I've already explained this to Irene, but we're just going to set up some cameras around the campsite and we're going to go back to the house and monitor things from there."

 

"So it's only going to be Irene-unnie and me?

 

"There's still going to be a few writers and directors around. So if you guys need anything they'll be here to help, but other than that it's just you two."

 

 

一

 

 

Irene adjusted the bags in her hands as she followed the younger girl to their area, they walked along the path in silence. Seulgi looks back at Irene occasionally, to make sure the older girl was still following her. She slows down her pace when she sees that the older girl is falling behind. 

 

"Unnie, that looks heavy, let me carry some," Seulgi says, trying to take a bag from Irene. 

 

"Seulgi you're already carrying most of our stuff," Irene snorts, gesturing to the amount of stuff Seulgi was already carrying. "And these aren't that heavy."

 

"Are you sure? 'Cause I can-" 

 

"Ah, how much farther is our camp," Irene walks past Seulgi. 

 

Seulgi chuckles, shaking her head at the older girl, "Unnie it's this way!"

 

They arrived at a small clearing at the end of the path. There was a platform in the middle with some camping equipment on top of it. Seulgi gets to them first and starts looking through the item.

 

While Seulgi was busy doing that, Irene finds a note on top of a pile of camping gear, “Seulgi-yah, look at this.” The couple took to calling each other more comfortably fairly quickly. 

 

Seulgi stops her rummaging and leans closer to Irene to read the note. 

 

“To Irene and Seulgi, we prepared some camp equipment for you two, have fun and enjoy nature.”  Irene flips the card, but nothing else was written.

 

“No mission?” Irene mumbles, looking at the equally confused Seulgi. The other girl just shrugs as she goes to pick up a small ax from the pile of camping equipment in front of them. 

 

“Maybe they want to see how fast we can set everything up,” Seulgi says gesturing to the equipment with the ax in her hand. 

 

Irene shrugs and surveys the area. She finds the small cameras partially hidden out of sight, making them unnoticed for the most part. Irene squints and could even make out a camera attached to a tree. She turns back to Seulgi when she hears, “Unnie, look at this one, it moves!” 

 

Irene winces and takes a step back as she sees Seulgi swinging the ax from left to right enthusiastically, trying to get the camera to move back and forth. 

 

Eventually, Seulgi got bored with playing with the camera and they turn their attention to the equipment laid out on top of the platform. Irene felt a little overwhelmed with how many things were piled on top of each other. The two stood still for a little while, both trying to come up with how to go from there. 

 

Irene breaks the silence first, “Let’s just start setting everything up.”

 

Seulgi claps once and nods in nonverbal agreement. 

 

 

一

 

 

Both Irene and Seulgi worked on their respective tasks quietly, the only sound was from the leaves on the trees rustling as the wind passed through. 

 

Seulgi finishes putting the poles together and moves to secure the four corners of the tent to the platform. After she secures the last corner she steals a glance at Irene, who had her back facing her, and sees her carefully placing items on the table she just finished putting up. 

 

Irene feels Seulgi staring at her and smiles to herself, but pays her no mind and continues organizing their things. She heaves the bags on the ground onto the table with a tiny grunt and then proceeds to take out the containers of food from the bag onto the table. When everything was on the table, Irene taps the edge of the table, thinking of anything else she could do while she waits for Seulgi to finish with the tent. 

 

Irene huffs, deciding that she can’t just sit down and do nothing, and gets up from her seat and walks up to the platform. She stops next to Seulgi and asks, “Do you need any help?” 

 

“I’m almost done here you can just sit and rest,” she reassures the older girl with a kind smile. Irene nods as Seulgi turns to continue fixing up the tent and goes to sit back down. 

 

As it turns out, Seulgi was definitely far from almost done. 

 

Seulgi feels her sweat running down her face as she nervously glances back at Irene, hoping that she didn’t see her struggling with the tarp. They make eye contact and Seulgi quickly looks away while Irene goes back to cutting up some fruits with a small smirk. 

 

The younger girl clears , as she tries to forcefully connect the corner of the tarp onto the tent. A sigh of relief escapes as it finally gets it on. She grins and turns her head to silently brag about her small achievement to the older girl. Unfortunately for Seulgi, Irene had her back turned to her. Seulgi sulks as she finishes up with the tent.

 

Finally, with the tent set up, Seulgi stands. She groans, stretching out her legs. She hopped off the platform and outstretches her arms, presenting the tent to the older girl, “Ta-da,” she smiles proudly. 

 

Irene smiles fondly at her antics and applauds. 

 

Seulgi rounds the table and sits on an empty chair next to Irene. She slumps into the chair and lets out a sigh of relief, finally done with her task. Irene pats her shoulder. “Good job,” she reaches over the table, grabbing a plate of fruits, and offers it to the other girl. 

 

“Thanks, honey,” Seulgi says before shoving three apple slices into . 

 

Irene raises an eyebrow.

 

“If you don’t like that one,” Seulgi her chin, “How about, cupcake?” 

 

Irene doesn’t respond and just shoots her an unimpressed look. 

 

Seulgi chuckles, “Grandpa told us to be more comfortable with each other remember?”

 

“You must have a list full of pet names that you wanted to call me,” Irene teases as she rests her elbow on the table and leans her head on her hand, looking at Seulgi. 

 

Seulgi's face flushes, “Nothing like that, I just thought it would be fun if we had nicknames for each other. Isn't that what couples do?” Seulgi laughs awkwardly, stuffing with more fruit. She watched the program a couple of times and the couples always had pet names for each other, so she thought it would be weird if they didn't have anything to call each other. And she definitely wouldn't mind if Irene called her something other than her name. 

 

"Okay, then how about darling?" Irene says, glancing at Seulgi.

 

Seulgi clears and looks away from the older girl. 

 

"Darling, can you pass me that plate?"

 

The younger girl starts to choke, caught off guard from the sudden term of endearment. 

 

Irene laughs loudly, clutching her stomach, "Yah! Why are you so surprised when you were the one that started this."

 

"Ah, I think it'll take a bit more time before we can use those," Seulgi says, scratching her neck. Normally she would cringe at these things, but all she feels right now are the butterflies in her stomach. 

 

They let themselves relax and take in the serene surroundings. After a few minutes of silence, Seulgi sits upright in her seat and looks at Irene. The latter stared back confused. 

 

“Are you hungry?” Seulgi asks.

 

Irene would have burst out laughing if Seulgi hadn't looked so dead serious at that moment, “We could make ramen if you’d like.” 

 

Seulgi nods her head immediately, “That sounds like a good idea.” She then grabs the portable burner near her and sets it on the center of the table. Irene sets a pot on top of the burner while Seulgi grabs two packs of ramen and a couple of water bottles from their belongings.

 

Seulgi made Irene a bowl first, like the chivalrous person she was. Irene happily accepts the bowl and quietly thanks the younger girl. Seulgi serves herself a bowl and wastes no time digging in. She wipes and lets out a satisfied sigh, the ramen hitting the spot.  

 

“It’s nice to see you relax, I know how hectic your schedule must have been with your group promotions on top of your individual schedules,” the soloist says looking off in the distance. 

 

The corners of Irene’s mouth tug upwards, “I didn’t know you paid that much attention to me.” 

 

Seulgi stammers, trying to explain herself, but Irene giggles and teasingly says, “I mean, it doesn’t look like you have a lot of free time yourself. It’s interesting how much you know about mine.” 

 

“You’re my wife, of course, I would notice,” Seulgi wiggles her eyebrows eliciting another giggle out of the brunette. Wanting to keep the good mood going, Seulgi thinks of something else they could do, and not after long, her gaze stops at the tent she painstakingly set up by herself. She clears and gestures to the tent with both hands, "Wouldn't it be even better to rest inside the tent I worked so hard on?” 

 

Seulgi leads the way, entering the tent first. 

 

“You did great setting this up, Seulgi.” Irene sits next to the taller girl. 

 

“Oh,” Seulgi lets out while she goes to the corner of the tent where she placed her bag. "I just remembered something," she says, digging through the front pocket for her phone and earphones. After she finds what she was looking for, she crawls back to the curious Irene. She settles next to Irene and offers her an earbud, “I need your opinion on something.” 

 

Irene puts on the earbud and peeks at Seulgi’s screen, an unfamiliar title displayed on her screen, “Oh my gosh, is that?” 

 

Seulgi nods proudly, “Mmhm, and you get to be the first person to listen.” She presses play, and her eyes are glued to Irene’s face, eager to see the brunette’s reaction to the song. 

 

The song starts off softly with a bright and playful melody that makes Irene feel light. Seulgi’s smooth and stable vocals are heard over the catchy instrumental, and an impressed noise unconsciously comes out of the girl group member’s mouth. The older girl nods her head to the beat of the song with a smile, and when the song comes to an end Irene turns to Seulgi and gives her a round of applause. 

 

“This sounds so good! Now I'm going to have to wait to listen to it again,” Irene says, faking a frown. 

 

Seulgi rubs her neck sheepishly, “I’m glad you liked it.” 

 

“What would you have done if I didn’t?” Irene asks teasingly. 

 

“I would’ve needed to record a new song,” Seulgi says like it was the most obvious thing in the world. 

 

Irene just scoffs at how ridiculous that sounded, "Am I allowed to listen to the rest of the album?"

 

"Do you want to?"

 

Irene nods her head eagerly and Seulgi gives in and plays the next song.

 

 

一

 

 

The couple arrives back at their accommodation from the campsite around sunset, and the show producers let them take a break from filming until the staff finishes preparing everything for dinner. Both girls decide to rest in their respective rooms until they need to go back to filming. 

 

After waking up from a much-needed nap, Irene walks out of her room into the kitchen to see the show staff busily walking in and out of the house. She looks around the room to see if Seulgi is also awake, but she doesn’t see her. 

 

The old lady approaches Irene, who was feeling a little out of place. She touches the brunette’s shoulder to get her attention, “How was the campsite, dear?” 

 

Irene smiles, “The area was very beautiful, we had a great time.” 

 

“That’s great to hear,” the old lady smiles, “Oh, and I noticed that you were trying to look for Seulgi.”

 

Irene nods, a light shade of pink are tinting her cheeks.

 

“She’s outside with my husband gathering vegetables for dinner,” she informs Irene, “Why don’t you help me in the kitchen? I could use another pair of hands.” 

 

Irene follows the lady into the kitchen and washes her hands, “Would you like me to cut these?” Irene asks, pointing to the vegetables next to the cutting board. 

 

“Yes, dear, and you can just put everything in that bowl.” 

 

The idol nods and proceeds to do just that. 

 

Meanwhile, in the garden Seulgi and the old man were in the middle of something, the basket full of vegetables was left on the side temporarily forgotten. The two are crouched down in front of a chili plant and seem to be discussing seriously to themselves. 

 

“I feel like this is a spicy pepper Seulgi-yah,” the old man says, his chin, “Look how red they are!” 

 

Seulgi scratches her head, “We’re supposed to get the ones that aren’t too spicy,” she recalls the instructions the old lady gave them. 

 

“That leaves us no choice,” the old man nods solemnly, “One of us needs to try it.” 

 

The singer gulps and looks around, and an idea pops into her head, “We should have PD-nim try it instead,” she whispers to him. 

 

The old man nods frantically, “You’re brilliant Seulgi-yah,” he says, giving her a thumbs up. 

 

Seulgi grins and stands up, “I’ll go and find PD-nim.” She leaves the garden and enters the house to find the show producer. 

 

“PD-nim,” Seulgi calls out as she enters the house. She walks into the kitchen and spots Irene cutting some vegetables, “Irene-unnie! Good morning, how was your nap?” she greets. 

 

“I think you mean afternoon, Seulgi,” the idol teases. 

 

“It’s morning somewhere,” Seulgi grins.

 

Irene chuckles, “Shouldn’t you be in the garden helping Mr. Lee with the vegetables?” 

 

Seulgi looks around the kitchen for the old lady before whispering, “We ran into a problem, so Mr. Lee sent me to find PD-nim.” 

 

“I think I saw PD-nim go out front a while ago, but it looked like the staff was busy,” Irene says, putting the knife down. “Maybe I could help.” 

 

Seulgi stiffens and chuckles nervously, “Are you sure? You seem very occupied here.”

 

Irene nods slowly, “Unless you don’t want me to help.”

 

Seulgi shakes her head, “No, it’s not like that.” 

 

Irene smirks and follows Seulgi to the garden. 

 

The old man sees the young couple approaching and waves, “Seulgi-yah I thought you went to call PD-nim?”

 

Seulgi chuckles and rubs her nape, “Irene-unnie offered to help.” 

 

“Irene-ah, let’s keep this between us okay?” The old man says in a hushed voice, “If my wife finds out, she’ll never let me hear the end of it.” 

 

Irene nods but sends a confused look to Seulgi. 

 

Seulgi began to explain the situation to the older girl, “We didn’t know which peppers to pick, so we figured we could have PD-nim taste it for us.” Irene raised her eyebrow at this whilst Seulgi continues, “and since you’ve offered to help…” she trails off, not finishing her sentence. 

 

Irene stares at the bright red chili peppers they were standing in front of and knew for a fact this was a spicy pepper, but she decides to humor the two, “Are you trying to see if those are spicy?” 

 

Both the old man and Seulgi nod. 

 

Irene chuckles and picks one, and brings it close to . Seulgi is mentally preparing to immediately run to the kitchen for a glass of milk if things go wrong. Irene hesitantly bites a small piece and chews slowly as Seulgi and the old man look at her worriedly. After a few moments, Irene doesn’t seem to be bothered by the taste, she even takes another bite to reassure the two. 

 

“It tastes pretty sweet, is it supposed to be spicy?” Irene tries to keep her features neutral. 

 

Seulgi breathes out a sigh of relief, “It’s not spicy?”

 

Irene shakes her head, “It’s not spicy.” She offers the pepper for Seulgi to try. 

 

Seulgi boldly takes a bite and immediately regrets this as feels like it had just been lit on fire. Irene stops pretending to be unaffected by the spiciness, and her expression morphs into a pained one. Seulgi stares at Irene in pure disbelief while the old man tries—and fails to stifle his laughter. 

 

“I’ll go get you two something to help with the pain,” he says, retreating to the house. 

 

“I can’t believe you would go that far to get me to eat it,” Seulgi pants, trying to relieve the pain on her tongue. 

 

Irene just laughs, she was in too much pain to for words. 

 

The old man comes back with two glasses of milk and shakes his head, “I don't understand you younger generation,” he mutters jokingly before going back into the house, basket in tow with the correct peppers. 

 

The couple immediately downed the milk, easing their pain. Irene recovers first and bursts into laughter after seeing how red Seulgi’s face was. 

 

Seulgi finally recovers and wipes her teary eyes, “You deserve an award for that acting.” 

 

Irene looks at her with concern in her eyes, “Are you okay?” She gets closer to the younger girl, “Did I take it too far?” 

 

“No, I’m okay, it was a fun prank,” Seulgi reassures her. 

 

Irene grins, “I can’t believe you were going to make PD-nim try it.” 

 

Seulgi giggled, “In my defense, Mr. Lee thought it was a great idea.”

 

The two continued their banter while they make their way into the house. 

 

Once they entered the kitchen the older couple had finished preparing everything for dinner. 

 

“The staff is looking for both of you,” The old lady informs them. 

 

“We could take these out to the front,” Seulgi offered as she and Irene moved to grab the plates of food. 

 

“Thank you, dear,” she called out to their retreating backs. 

 

They see a line of cameras and lights set up in a semi-circle in front of a bench table near the entrance of the house. The pair set the dishes down onto the table, and a couple of staff members approach the two with their mics in hand. Once they had their mics all set up the cameras started rolling, and they took a seat on the bench. 

 

Seulgi particularly looked very excited to begin eating, and Irene smiles to herself finding the other girl’s excitement to be very precious. The girls don’t forget their manners and thank the staff and the owners for the food before finally digging in. 

 

The small grill in the middle of the table is , and Irene begins to cook the meat. Seulgi’s gaze is focused only on the meat while her right hand tightly grips her chopsticks.

 

“The meat has only been on the grill for ten seconds, Seulgi-yah,” Irene softly teases, “Eat this while you wait.”

 

Seulgi pouts, but still accepts the bowl of stew that Irene slides in front of her. She takes a few bites before asking, “What did your members say when they found out you were doing this show?” 

 

Irene doesn’t take her eyes off of the meat, “There was lots of teasing from Joy and Yeri, Wendy was the only one not giving me a hard time,” she jokingly says. 

 

“When I told my manager who I was partnered with he looked so jealous,” Seulgi snickers, giving her manager a cheeky look. 

 

Irene chuckles, “My members all want me to introduce you guys, Yeri especially seemed very eager.” 

 

Seulgi sees the older girl struggling to cut the meat and wordlessly takes the tongs and scissors from her and cuts the meat. “Meeting with my in-laws,” She hums.

 

“In-laws?” 

 

“My sisters-in-law,” Seulgi chuckles. 

 

“I could call them right now,” Irene says, waving her phone. 

 

Seulgi hums, placing a few pieces of meat on Irene’s plate before also stacking some on hers, “How should we introduce ourselves to them?” 

 

Irene takes a bite and thinks. 

 

“How about, this is Irene’s wife speaking or this is your sister-in-law,” Seulgi taps her chin, “Personally, I like how nicely that first one rolls off the tongue.” 

 

The girl group member plays along, “Then I should introduce myself as Seulgi’s wife?” 

 

“Of course!” Seulgi giggles, “Don’t tell me your somebody else's?” 

 

Irene giggles and decides that Wendy would probably be the best person to call, as her other two members seem to love ignoring her calls. She dials the Canadian’s number, and the couple nervously waits for her to pick up. 

 

Wendy answers after a few rings, “Unnie, hello?”

 

Seulgi and Irene look at each other, “You go first,” Irene whispers to Seulgi. 

 

“Hello?” Wendy tries again. 

 

Seulgi took a deep breath, “Hello, sister-in-law, this is Irene’s wife,” Irene tries her best to stifle her giggles as Seulgi cringes. 

 

The line is silent on the other end, Wendy not knowing what to say calls out to her members, “Yah! Both of you come over here unnie’s wife is on the line!” 

 

Irene mentally facepalms as she hears a lot of yelling and shuffling on the line. After a minute of chaos, Wendy managed to restore order and reply, “It’s nice to meet-” but gets cut off by Yeri, “Hello Seulgi-ssi, I hope Irene-unnie is treating you well~” 

 

“Our unnie can be a little shy so I'm just going to tell you that she's fine with you holding her hand or giving her hugs,” Joy adds. 

 

“Yah!” Irene yells into her phone, “Wait until I get back to the dorm.”

 

Giggles from the other line could be heard before Irene ended the call. 

 

“I think that went well,” Seulgi giggled. 

 

Irene sighs, “I can only imagine the chaos if they were actually here with us.” 

 

They continue to eat their dinner and once they were done the production crew wrapped up filming and eventually all the cameras were off. They clean up the table and wash the plates before getting ready for bed.

 

“See you in the morning,” Seulgi yawns waiting for Irene to enter her room before heading into hers. 

 

“Good night, Seulgi,” Irene waves before entering her room and crashing onto the bed, her body tired from the day’s activities. 

 

In the room next door, Seulgi is in the same position a few seconds away from reaching dreamland. 

 

Both girls quickly fall asleep with smiles on their faces.