⏰ 4:30 AM

Kkura knows for a fact that if a person's day starts before 7 o'clock, it isn't going to be a good one.

So when her mother comes bursting into her room at the break of dawn, yielding a pamphlet and a smile, Kkura tries her best to fall back asleep because she deserves this much doesn't she? It's barely been a week of summer, meaning it's barely been a week that she's been able to sleep in every morning. Then why, why is her mother sitting at the edge of her bed fanning a pamphlet at Kkura's face and beaming as bright as the sun? (Which isn't even out yet.)

"Wake up wake up wake up!" she sings. "It's going to be a big, big day!"

Kkura groans, burying her face deeper into her pillows. Maybe if she ignores her mother she won't have to--

"Sakura!" her mother says. "Wake up; I need to tell you something."

"Can't it wait?" Kkura's voice is muffled.

"No. Now get up, or you'll be late!"

Kkura springs up at the word 'late'. As much as she loves to sleep, she hates being late to anything. "What is it?" she asks, throwing her duvet off her body and crossing her arms.

"Well, I don't know how to say this..." her mother trails off, "but you're going to be a counselor at Camp Izland!"

Kkura nearly falls off her bed. "What."

"It's your fault," her mother continues in an even cheerier tone and hands Kkura the pamphlet. "If you'd have just passed your classes, then your professor wouldn't have had to give you work for extra credit. And since you're majoring in Psychology, he suggested community service. So I signed you up at Camp. It's gonna be fun, Sakura."

Kkura cringes at the use of that dreaded name. "I don't care if it's for extra credit, mom! What makes you think I'm going?"

"You loved it there," Kkura's mother looks slightly crestfallen now, her voice softer. Kkura feels sorry, but that doesn't change the fact that she's pissed. "I just thought you'd want to have fun this summer--"

Kkura can see in her mother's eyes that there's more to it. She doesn't pry, deciding instead to take one for the team and accept her fate. She's going to summer camp this year.

⏰ 7:00 AM

Kkura inspects what she's packed, which is just underwear, female necessities, three pairs of shorts, five tee shirts, and flip flops. That's going to last a whole summer right? "If I do the laundry every ing day," she mutters under her breath, zipping the duffel bag up and slinging it over her shoulder. Her hiking boots clunk on the steps as she goes down the stairs, continuing to mutter profanity at herself. She kisses her mother and father goodbye (her mother's smiling again, but she keeps on casting furtive glances at her father, who's grunting into his cellphone; but this has become normal now, as they're basically fighting 24/7).  

"I hate myself," she grits her teeth, inserting her key into the ignition of her car. "What did I do to deserve this?" She turns the key, expecting her car to roar to life so she can just drive to camp and cry some more, but it merely sputters before dying out. "The hell," she turns it again, this time with more force. The same thing happens. "," she turns it once more; this time the engine doesn't even make a single sound. But Kkura does. "!"

She's about to cry when she trudges back into her house and throws her car keys onto the coffee table in the living room.

Her mother pops her head out of the kitchen. "Back so soon?"

Kkura resists the urge to roll her eyes. "My car won't work. Can you get dad to jump the car or something?"

"Your uh-your dad left for work already," Kkura's mother's voice is rushed. "And I don't know about cars," she mutters to herself, and somehow realizing her daughter's still there watching her, she beams. "We can figure something out!"  

"Dad left already?" Kkura asks. "Why is his car still outside? He was just here a few minutes ago."

"He-he commuted today."

"Okay," Kkura nods slowly, suspecting something is very wrong with her mother. "Then what can we do?"

Kkura's mother thinks for a moment. Kkura glances at her phone, because it's already 7:08 and she's supposed to be there by eight o'clock and she might be late. Her mother's face lights up, finally, with an idea. "I can call Heechul! Chaewon could drive you to camp, since she's going, too."

Kkura groans for what might as well be the sixtieth time today; that may not even be an exaggeration. Kim Heechul, famed for being the richest man in town, is the father of Kim Chaewon, who's like, a total . Apart from being the daughter of the richest man in town, she was the most popular girl in high school, who's just perfectly perfect. (Kkura almost published that as her description in their yearbook, believe it or not.) It's only a wonder how Kkura's mother and Heechul are such close friends but Chaewon didn't even spare Kkura a second glance in high school.

"Mom," she whines, forgetting that she's supposed to be a cold nineteen year old. "Chaewon? Why is she coming to camp? Can't you jump my car? Mom--"  

Kkura's mom brings a finger to her lips, a look on her face reading 'shut up, Sakura'. Her other hand is holding her cellphone up to her ear, which she speaks into. "Hi Heechul! Yeah, it's Chungah...I was just wondering - oh really! Wow, yes, anyway, Sakura's kind of gotten herself into a pickle..."

Kkura wonders when the last time she heard someone use the phrase 'in a pickle' was. Probably in third grade.  

"Okay," Kkura's mother proclaims, hanging up. "Chaewon will be here in fifteen minutes."

⏰ 8:13 AM

Chaewon is in fact, not yet here, despite it being twenty three minutes after the time she's supposed to be.

And then Kkura sees the car from the window looking out from their living room, and she immediately crawls to her mother. "Mom I changed my mind I don't want to go to camp anymore I'll get extra credit another way I'll clean up the neighbor's dog's crap, please mom, I'll do anything--"

Chaewon honks her horn, probably waking up all the teenagers catching up on sleep within a mile radius.

"Sakura," her mother steers her towards the door, handing her the duffel bag, "it'll just be a month. And you'll be back here, okay?"  

Chaewon honks her horn again, louder this time.

"Mom, her car is pink."  

Kkura's mother smiles brightly at her daughter and kisses her on the cheek, shoving her out the door. Kkura blows a strand of hair that's gone onto her face, manages to turn her expression neutral then gets into Chaewon's pink BMW.

"Duffel bag in the back, please," Chaewon takes a sip of her latte. (Kkura's guessing it's some non-fat thing with extra foam, skim milk, whatever else girls like Chaewon request at Starbucks.)

Kkura obliges, getting out of Chaewon's car. She opens the trunk and practically dies at the amount of luggage already in the back, and somehow manages to squeeze her (now looking very ugly and dirty) duffel bag in between two Louis Vuitton travel bags. She climbs back into the passenger's seat, after shutting the trunk.

Chaewon gives her a once over, still sipping at her latte. She purses her glossy lips and starts driving. Kkura notices Chaewon's strawberry blonde hair has grown since they graduated high school (that really shouldn't have come as much of a surprise), not to mention her pale skin is glowing, and her all-pink ensemble makes Kkura very dizzy. Or that might be Chaewon's very rough driving. Take your pick.

Soon, the houses start having larger gaps between them, get smaller and smaller. Eventually, they disappear altogether and are replaced by a wide array of fields and farmland, dotted with various hooved animals.  

"So," Chaewon starts, keeping her eyes on the road, "why did I pick you up?"  

Kkura stares at Chaewon's perfectly manicured fingers gripping the wheel. "Er-my car had a problem."

"That disgusting old Dodge Dynasty? Emphasis on the nasty," then Chaewon laughs at her own joke, throwing her head back.  

"Yeah," Kkura says uneasily. "You were late, actually."

"Oh?" Chaewon's eyebrows raise.

Kkura nods, then remembering that Chaewon isn't looking at her, she says, "Yep. You were over twenty minutes late."

"Well, I'm sorry," Chaewon retorts, slamming the brakes in the middle of the highway. "But I don't really care."

⏰ 10:19 AM

Chaewon turns wordlessly onto a narrow dirt road, driving considerably slower, since there is shrubbery on either side of the road that would "totally wreck my car" as she put it. A mile down the road, there's a rickety sign that reads: "CAMP IZLAND: ALLOW THE SHIMMERING LIGHTS OF SUMMER TO REFRESH AND ILLUMINATE YOUR FERTILE YOUNG MINDS!" and Kkura almost snorts, because she forgot how stupid Camp Izland's tag line is (if one can even call it a tag line). Chaewon parks her car beside a few other (equally very fancy) cars, which Kkura figures are owned by the other counselors and whatnot, before turning it off and getting out. Kkura follows her.

She finds Chaewon waiting behind her car, arms crossed, eyes trained at the pink trunk. Kkura stands around awkwardly until Chaewon rolls her eyes demanding, "Well? Aren't you opening it? I thought we were late."

Kkura tried to be polite; to grow up, but Chaewon seems to have other ideas. She gulps, "it's your car...?"

"Yeah, well, the least you can do for offending me on our way here is taking my luggage up to my cabin, right?" Chaewon asks in a sickeningly sweet voice.

Kkura doesn't buy it. Enough of trying to be nice if Chaewon is going to act like a child. "I didn't mean to offend you, madame," she drawls. "I was just stating a fact. If you would just kindly pull that stick out your and see that--"

"Excuse me?" Chaewon's eyes widen, but she still somehow looks frighteningly beautiful, and that's a real thing with her. "Maybe you could extract that stick out of your , since you're getting