Ten years ago…

“Hey, Minjeong? Wake up. We’re here,” an excited whisper trapped under a gentle tone followed by a placing of hand on the blonde’s crossed arms where the backpack was sitting on her lap, shaking it lightly as it broke Minjeong from her brief nap inside the van that came to a full stop in an open space parking lot. Kim Minjoo, her high school best buddy in their school’s writing club and the culprit behind why she was dragged to come with her in this annual summer camp to begin with. “Hurry up. Let’s go!” Minjoo prompted, her eyes were burning in exhilaration with no intention of spending another second inside a confined space, as she quickly jumped off from the van to inhale the fresh air coming from the trees and mountain breeze.

It was around seven in the morning when they arrived in Gangneung which was less than an hour ride from their school and hometown in Sokcho. And by a blink or two, Minjeong took a moment as she first caught glimpse by the van window of her new temporary home for a week – the place where she would spend seven days with bunch of strangers around her age, except of course for Minjoo, from different high schools in the region. In which, speaking of bunch of strangers, Minjeong was already stunned and terrified by various groups of young people entering the camping grounds. Right then and there, the blonde just wanted to ditch this summer camp and locked herself up inside the comfort of four corners of her bedroom the whole summer break – just breathing and standing beside a total stranger was already making her socially anxious and exhausted, how much more of having a small talk with another human around her age? She wished, if only she had wings and could fly home, she was probably in the mid-air right now, waving good bye to Minjoo on the ground.

“What’s the matter?” Minjoo chuckled as she gently tugged Minjeong who was seemingly glued to her seat to come out from the van in which the blonde absentmindedly just abided willingly. “Here. Feel the air outside. It’s so refreshing!” Minjoo blissed, hugging herself from the shivers of the gust early wind.

Breathing in and out in a slow and steady beat, Minjeong immediately fell in solace from her sudden distress once her feet settled on the ground with scattered fallen leaves in different colors, as she let the summer breeze bristled the hairs of her skin and appreciated the wonders of the nature wherever her sight could land upon. “You’re right. it’s not that bad after all… yet” she teased, giving a half-smug and half-scared look at her friend, standing beside her.

“Come on. Don’t be so pessimistic about it,” Minjoo laughed as she shook her head dismissingly. “It’s just the first day and nothing’s happening yet. Just give it a chance and I’m pretty sure you won’t regret coming here. Who knows? Maybe you will get to experience the best unexplainable feelings and create unforgettable memories in your life in this summer camp?” Minjoo lightly nudged her arms with her elbow. “This is your chance to go outside to touch some grass or get some sunlight since you always spend most of your time in your home. This is your chance to try to get out from your comfort zone, buddy. Grab it,” Minjoo suggested which made the blonde released a short chuckle and a nod in response.

At some point at the back of her mind, prior of their arrival at the summer camp, Minjeong wished she just lied; she wished she just lied when Minjoo asked her during their last writing club activity – a week before their summer vacation began and after their first semester as freshman would end – if Minjeong had any vacation plans during the summer break in which she honestly answered “nothing”. To be exact, her response was “Nothing. I’ll just read books inside my room all day, and hopefully, I can jumpstart on writing my first poetry book and finish it until the end of the summer holidays.” – and Minjoo was not satisfied of this answer. Because of this, Minjoo convinced the blonde to test their luck to sign up for this creative summer camp for high school students in the region. Minjeong was definitely hesitant to join in the beginning because first of all, she wasn’t really that confident in herself that she would get in. Secondly, her pen and paper, and her laptop, were her only best friends when she’s alone and she preferred to have all the time to herself in most part. And lastly, meeting new people wasn’t really her cup of tea and it was really way out of her comfort zone, but the thought of learning and observing new things or ideas from other creative people, especially in the world of writing, lured her to sign up with Minjoo so she decided to go with it.

This summer camp was not just an ordinary summer camp where all high school students or out of school youth could easily join in as easy as ABC – it’s most likely for the gifted, highly creative students, or young people with lots of potential. Fortunately, the both of them quickly received a confirmation call that they were admitted just few hours after signing up and submitting a sample of their works. Even though Minjeong doubted herself for the countless nth time, almost all of her classmates believed that the blonde was the one of the greatest writers not just in their school, not just in Sokcho, but in the whole nation – because in such a young age, Minjeong won multiple writing contests ever since she knew how to write sentences; and there’s no hint of doubt that she was a naturally-born and skillfully talented writer, she’s just horrible at noticing it in her own self.

“I think you’re right,” Minjeong replied, tugging a soft smile on her face. “Maybe in this summer camp I can finally find an inspiration to write my first poetry book so I will give this a chance. Because I got to admit that my mind is kind of stuck in the rut lately,” she confessed as she turned to her friend and jokingly raised an eyebrow at her. “But you got to promise me that you will save me from the sea of strangers because you know I can’t stand to be around them for too long.”

Minjoo laughed. “Fine.”

They picked up their luggage and other stuff at the back of the van as Minjeong jokingly reminded her family driver before he left them that he should be on his phone all the time because he should expect a call from her, most likely just a few hours from now, to pick her up from this hell because she could predict that this summer camp was an approaching disaster, earning her a poke in the rib by Minjoo to stop her from being so negative, laughing together as they approached the entrance of the camping grounds where a middle school student wearing a boy scout uniform was standing there, holding a raffle box.

“Good morning sunbae-nim!” the young boy greeted as they smiled at him and greeted him back. “Please get one small envelope inside this box before you enter the campsite and don’t open it yet until the camp director said so,” he said.

“Alright. But what’s this for?” Minjoo asked while picking up her small envelope inside the raffle box.

“I’m sorry. I can’t tell,” he grinned where Minjeong picked next after her friend saying her thanks afterward. “Thank you sunbae-nim! You many now enter the campsite,” he gestured the way in.

Like a greased lightning, their smiles shifted in awe as they came in the foliage archway where they were welcomed by summer’s blue water gushing down the hill where the thickened lush grasses and full-bloomed flowers beside the brook were visible from a distance, few tall trees that wore nests of feathered friends in its branches, and the other sights of  the epitome of perfection that the nature could offer – and it’s surreal beyond their imagination how majestic it was to see such a wonderful view.

“Wow. This is so cool!” Minjoo admired.

“Yes, it is,” Minjeong replied above whisper as her eyes in captive of her surroundings, still breathless.

They temporarily settled at the corner of the open space huge assembly area together with the other campers. “I already expected that there are a lot of people would join but I didn’t expect it to be this lot,” Minjoo said pertaining to the increase in volume of sea of strangers in front of them compared to the last summer camp she had been to. “By the way, I really need to find a comfort room. Do you want to come with me so you won’t be alone here?” she asked.

“No, it’s fine. I can handle myself.” Minjeong declined politely.

“Are you sure? I’m kind of worried that if I leave you here, I will have a hard time pulling you out from few people surrounding you because they wanted to get to know you,” she joked.

“As if there’s someone in their right mind would come and talk to me,” the blonde half-snorted, half-chuckled.

“Come on. Don’t talk so little about yourself. Everyone knows that you’re beautiful and you’re talented. If they only knew that you are the person who easily defeated those writers from the other schools in the local and regional writing competitions, there would be probably a line right here right now.”

Minjeong laughed inwardly. “Can you please remind me why again you are my best buddy?”

“Like duh,” Minjoo feigned. “Because I am the best encourager in this planet.”

“Uhm,” the blonde faked protested, shrugging her shoulders resulting of Minjoo giving her a side eye causing Minjeong to laugh. “What? I’m not saying anything. You’re right though.”

“Aigoo,” Minjoo shook her head in a good way. “I got to go. I’ll come back in a few.”

“Alright. Take care,” the blonde smiled as her friend walked away.

Left alone with nothing else to do, Minjeong couldn’t help but to observe her surroundings and she could easily spot by the look on the faces in the swamp of people around her that they were competitive and talented people.  She noticed that they could instantly make new friends in just a matter of meeting them less than a minute, some of them were showcasing their own dance choreography to others, some of them were singing harmoniously and playing different musical instruments together like they were in their own concert across the field, some of them were talking about their past experiences in acting for a theater show, or attending an acting workshop, in which some were casted and appeared in a commercial video shoot, some of them were proudly showing a short video of that they directed, animated or created, some of them were sharing their social media accounts to show them their artworks that they posted in which some of them were already accepting commissions for their artworks, some of them were discussing about books that they read, and some of them already wrote their first short stories or compilations of poems – yet here Minjeong was, standing alone at the corner, feeling small in a spacious field, because she felt she hadn’t done anything yet in particular, except for her writings for competitions, but for her own creative personal work unlike the others, even though she knew she didn’t have to feel that way but she just couldn’t help it – in fact, she was just about to start her first poetry book this summer but she didn’t have any idea yet what to write.

As she sometimes often wondered if there were a place for an introvert like her inside this summer camp for most system designed mostly for the extroverts or people who could have a conversation without being awkward and anxious at all, because one of the main purposes of a summer camp was to develop the social skills of each camper and create teamwork or companionship, aside from honing their individual skills or develop a new one. But looking at the bright side, Minjeong believed that one of the best things in a summer camp was she would able to find her tribe or people who enjoyed or shared the same interests or passions she had – and that was the world of writing; because it’s important to feel belonged.

She pondered if ever she would find that same belongingness in this place even if it’s only for a week just like she had in their writing club in their school. As the clouds dusted away over the horizons, revealing the sun perching on the skies where its sunshine hit their faces, causing Minjeong to look at any other direction just to avoid hurting her eyes from the bright ray, where she noticed a gorgeous girl with a small face, who had a smooth flowing jet-black long hair, in which the blonde assumed that she was just around her age or a year older, who was sitting on the foliage of dried crispy leaves on the ground under the shade of a tree from a distance – away from all other people – unbothered in silence while wearing her headphone where hear head was slight swaying in accord with the rhythm of the music that she was listening to, like she felt delighted spending her time in her own world. She seemed to be doing something in her notepad like she could be writing or sketching something, and Minjeong wasn’t quite sure why she didn’t notice that she was staring at her for some quite time, only to realize when the raven girl lifted her sight from her notepad, looking at her direction.

Heartbeat.

Panicked, the blonde veered her sight towards the skies, even though she felt her eyes were going to burn – it couldn’t be compared from the deep embarrassment for the unintentional shameless gawking she had done. Minjeong wasn’t sure if the raven girl was still looking at her in which she had left with no choice but to keep her sight fixated above even if her neck hurts – but one thing Minjeong was sure, she couldn’t deny that her heart was acting strange and funny.

“Welcome campers! Please gather around,” the camp director announced using a megaphone as he stood from the make-shift stage across the field, catching all the attention of the high school students.

Saved by the bell, the students assembled on the center of the field. Minjeong just quickly turned around to face where the camp director was at, and decided to stay on her footing while listening to him; as she tried to avoid looking at the raven girl once more, as the blonde wondered and worried if ever the raven girl noticed her staring a while back.

“Hello! I am the camp director and I am the one in charge for your one week stay here in this camp,” the man in his mid-thirties said. “For starters, I will say few important reminders, and some rules and regulations in this camp…”

Her mind easily drifted away while the camp director was speaking. Minjeong had no idea why she was struggling to erase the raven girl in her short-term memory. Usually, anyone could easily forget the face of a stranger that they passed by while walking down on the street, or the face of the person beside them when commuting to their homes, or just another face in the crowd; but how was that soft and delicate face of that raven girl registered in her long-term memory so quickly? Playing her fingers together as she took a deep breath, Minjeong mustered all her courage to look behind her where she found last the said girl, maybe just one look wouldn’t hurt, she thought – but as she peeked, she was not there anymore. Most likely, Minjeong thought she was somewhere among the crowd, probably listening, or maybe not, to the camp director right now. Shaking her head to wake herself up as she tried to pay close attention again, Minjeong realized something – Minjoo, her only friend, hadn’t still come back yet - and now the blonde was starting to worry about her whereabouts.

“And that’s it for the important things that you need to know. The full list of reminders, rules and regulations are printed at the back of the brochure, and the camp trail map that we will give to you later,” the camp director continued. “And now, for the exciting part,” he said while rubbing the bottom of his chin like he had thought of some evil plan to make this summer camp horrible… well, technically, not yet as for Minjeong.

“For this year’s summer camp, we decided to add a little spice. Starting today until the end of the camp, you’re all no longer allowed to use your real names. You all are going to use codenames,” the camp director proudly declared, earning him a few bewildered faces drawing among the crowd including Minjeong who was furrowing her eyebrows at him. “Now, now. I know you’re all confused because some of you already know each other because some of you are classmates, or neighbors and such. But, the reason why we’re going to do this is for you to go out there and make new friends, and since some of you are popular, many people here already know your real name. So, in order to make everything fair and square, we decided to use codenames. Now, we have exciting prizes for the person who memorized most codenames at the end of the summer camp. With that said, you’ll better think of your codenames now because you need to register and write it in our list that we will give in a short while so that you won’t able to change it during the entire summer camp.”

Voices within the crowd began to overlap with one other where they began to discuss their own codenames while some competitive ones were already taking advantage of the situation of memorizing few codenames as early as now. And the truth of the matter was, Minjeong didn’t care about the prize or what codename she would use for the entire summer camp; she’s more concerned in finding her own friend that until now was nowhere to be found… or at least she thought. Not until, her eyes were covered with hands behind her back.

“Guess. Who’s this?” Minjoo teased.

Minjeong shook her head. “Obviously, it’s you Minjoo.”

“Nah. The camp director said we should only use codenames so what is my codename?”

Chuckling, the blonde easily guessed the correct answer. “Minguri”

“Ugh. I hate how good your memory and guessing game is,” Minjoo groaned as she stood beside her. “How about you? What’s your codename?”

“I– I honestly haven’t think about it yet,” Minjeong dwelled temporarily in her deep thought as her fingers fixed her bangs as her habit when she’s having a hard time to think. “But I guess since I’m starting to hate this season because of the heat,” she joked. “So, I will just keep it cool and chill until the end of this camp so I will become the Winter in this summer.”

Nodding in approval, Minjoo beamed. “You know what, I actually like it. I think Winter suits you better.”

“Really?” the blonde couldn’t believe what she heard because she was actually just playing with her. “Why?” she asked.

“Because you are like the epitome of winter. You are pure as a snow. You look cold at first glance but you are actually a warm fuzzy person inside once they got to know you better.”

“Hmm,” Minjeong paused as she thought about it in which she kind of agreed in that statement whereas little did Minjeong knew that she would carry her codename in her entire writing career and that she would become a legendary writer one day. “Alright then. I guess I will go with Winter,” she smiled. “By the way, what happened to you? Why it took you so long?”

“Uhm. Well, I saw some familiar faces here in this camp so I decided to stay with them for a while to have some chit chat about school and life in general, until the camp director appeared at the stage,” Minjoo scratched the back of her head, smirking. “Sorry about that, Winter”

Laughing quietly, Minjeong should definitely get accustomed to be called Winter from now on even though it felt weird for the first time, the blonde assured. “Don’t worry, Minguri. It’s fine.”

A loud screeching of feedback from the megaphone was ringing in their ears, resulting of them to look at its source. “Oops. Sorry about that,” the camp director apologized as he fixed it and continued talking using the megaphone. “Hello again! I hope by this time all of you have your own codenames because now we’re going to the second part of changes that we made for this year’s summer camp,” he asked them. “Do you all remember that you were asked to pick a small envelope from the raffle box before you entire the camp premises? I want you to open it all up now.”

Minjeong and the rest of the crowd opened their envelopes, and inside of it was a small paper where there’s a figure of a shape or object printed on it, depending on what envelope they had picked by chance. “As you can see, there’s a shape or object in there. And take note, not everyone has the same shape or object, only four or two persons shared the same shape or object,” he then revealed the exciting part. “The person or persons you shared the same shape or object with, is or are going to be your camp buddy or camp buddies which means you’ll be sleeping at the same tent with them for the rest of this summer camp.”

Collective gasped followed by some screaming in happiness when they found out that their peers also got the same shape or object – lucky for them, but unlucky for Minjeong because all she could feel right now that she fell in the trap of doom when she took a peek from her friend’s paper – as a result, they’re not going to sleep in the same tent for the next seven days starting today. She thought that she would feel comfortable knowing that Minjoo was going to be her camp buddy just like what Minjoo told her about the previous summer camp she had been to where they could choose their roommates freely, but unfortunately for her, this time around was a lot different compared to last time and the blonde was having a hard time to process it in.

“Hey, are you okay?” Minjoo asked when she noticed the horrors on the blonde’s face. “I’m so sorry Winter. I had no idea that they changed the rules this time around. If only I knew, I wouldn’t convince you to come with me. I don’t want you to make you feel uncomfortable.”

Minjeong smiled, patting the back of her friend’s shoulder. “No. You have nothing to apologize for. It’s not your fault,” the blonde chuckled. “Besides, that’s one of the purpose of a camp is to create new friendships, although, I got to say that there could be a lot awkwardness going around for me at first but maybe I could warm up and get used to it. And also, just like what you have said earlier, this is just the first day of the summer camp, maybe this isn’t going to be bad so I will give this a chance.”

Interrupting the busy and buzzing crowd, the camp director talk through the megaphone once more. “Can I get your attention, please?” the students went silent and paid close attention, as the camp director continued. “Now, what I need you all to do next is to find your camp buddy or buddies and go to your respective tents to settle and get to know each other for a while,” he paused “But wait, before you all move, as you may have notice, if you flip the paper, you’re going to find a number at the back. If you got four, it means, four of you will share the same tent. But, if you get two, it means only the two of you will share the same tent,” he then ended with a big smile. “Good luck finding your camp buddy or buddies and I will see you later after an hour. Now, everybody, go!” as the students went out like the bees looking for honey, shouting their shape or object that they got so that their camp buddy or buddies could hear them and find each other quickly.

“Wow,” Minjeong sarcastically said, she’s upset, frozen and still as she stared blankly at her paper.

“Why? What did you get?” Minjoo asked, peering at it.

“I got a shape of a quarter moon,” the blonde showed it to her weakly, flipping the paper to show the back of it. “And I got number two.”

“Dang,” Minjoo felt bad. “I got a diamond shape and number two as well,” Minjoo showed hers. “If I only got number four, maybe we could swap papers so you won’t feel awkward around sleeping together in one tent with an unknown person.”

“It will be alright. I just need to adjust and hope that my camp buddy is easy to get along with,” Minjeong smiled. “You should go now and find your diamond camp buddy.”

“How about you? Aren’t you going to find the half of your moon?”

“The half of your moon sounds… weirdly romantic.” Minjeong chuckled. “Maybe later.  I’ll just stand here and wait to subside the chaos in the crowd and let few students to leave first because I can’t move around in the sea of people. It’s making me dizzy.”

“Uhm. Excuse me?” a voice behind them spoke up, causing them to turn their heads to a girl with a short chestnut hair with a small face and a pair of pretty brown eyes. “Hi. I’m sorry to interrupt but I think I heard that you’re looking for a diamond camp buddy?” Kim Chaewon, an uprising singer that appeared in some singing competitions in national TV since she was little, and a daughter of a well-known theatrical actress, asked Minjoo.

Dazed and frozen, Minjoo just looked at her face unable to utter a word like she had seen a celebrity – well, technically, Chaewon was kind of a celebrity. A moment of unwavering eye contact and a shy smile was slowly forming on her friend’s face – in which a dead air was formed so Minjeong nudged her daydreaming friend, indicating that she was asked by a question and that she needed to answer.

“I– I’m… Yes… yes, I am. I’m sorry about that,” Minjoo flustered, half-stuttering, half-chuckling, in which the blonde was holding her laughter at the sight of her socially outgoing friend who quickly turned into a