The Hunt

Summer Girls

During breakfast the next day, the counselors took a moment to quiet all of the campers. 

"Listen up!" Head counselor Taeyeon yelled through the large dining hall, standing on a table. "Today is a very, very special event. Can I get a drum roll please..." 

The loud noise of the pattering of fifty or so girls resounded through the room. 

"It's the camp-wide scavenger hunt!" 

The faces of the thirteen to fifteen year old girls fell. 

"And the winning age group gets free snacks from the store for the rest of camp!" 

The thirteen to fifteens immediately perked back up. 

"We are winning this thing," Jihyo murmured firmly. 

"It'll be fun!" Sana added. 

Jihyo turned to her sharply. "That's not the point." 

"The counselors are going to pass around your first clue now. Figure out each clue to get the next. Whoever figures them all out and finishes the hunt first wins!" Taeyeon explained. 

"Get on your jackets everyone, we have to be ready," Jihyo said. 

"This is to be easy enough for literal five-year-olds to do, so we should have an advantage," Dahyun added. 

"Doesn't that mean we shouldn't take this so seriously?" Chaeyoung asked. 

Momo scoffed. "Free snacks are free snacks. A five-year-old wouldn't be able to appreciate it anyways." 

"Ready, set, go!" Taeyeon called, and art counselor Yoona set the first clue in the middle of their table. 

Jihyo quickly snatched the paper up, and Tzuyu leaned over her shoulder to read it. 

"What is the most colorful place at camp?" Tzuyu read aloud. 

"Obviously the art shack; I saw little kids were doing tie dye," Jihyo answered

"Let's get going then!" Sana cheered, and Jihyo started running out of the dining hall across the camp. Tzuyu leaped up and followed her, and the rest of the girls trailed behind at varying speeds.

Tzuyu was panting heavily when she caught up but Jihyo seemed completely stable. The two were the first to reach the art shack but as more girls arrived, Jihyo's expression turned firm. 

"Awesome, we're the first ones here," Dahyun panted.

"Ladies, let's get looking! Go!" 

Tzuyu dived underneath the tables and chairs around the art shack, noticing Jihyo and Dahyun with her crawling on the floor, and most of the rest of the girls half-heartedly looking through the supplies and completed projects. 

She breathed a soft sigh of relief when she noticed the next clue stuck underneath one of the wobbly art shack chairs. She pulled it out, taking a brief moment to read it before immediately handing it to Jihyo. 

Jihyo looked at it for half a second before shoving the note into her pocket. 

"Pool everyone! We're going to the pool!" 

Jihyo's shout carried through the art shack and all of the girls immediately followed after her. 

Tzuyu ran to catch up to Jihyo, and Chaeyoung ran to catch up to Tzuyu. 

"What did the note say?" she asked quietly. 

"If I was a fish, where at camp would I be?" Tzuyu answered. 

"Wouldn't that be the lake then?" Jeongyeon loudly asked.

"They wouldn't let the little kids go all the way to the lake," Jihyo explained. 

Tzuyu ran a little faster to fall into line with Jihyo's quick steps. 

"You're so good at this," Tzuyu mumbled quietly, playing with her fingers.

"This was literally made for children," Dahyun, who was standing right behind them, answered with a chuckle. 

Tzuyu flushed a little and looked away, but Jihyo grabbed her wrist to regain her attention. Tzuyu looked up to see Jihyo giving her a massive grin, a silent thank you, a quick break in her determined attitude. But the moment was over as soon as it started, Jihyo's attention refocused on the game. But Tzuyu could still feel her heart pounding in her chest, just from that simple smile. 

Tzuyu noticed the preteen group running in the opposite direction of the pool as they approached the gate, and she and Jihyo shared a smile. 

"Okay everyone let's go! Think of the ice cream!" Jihyo yelled when they stepped inside the gate to the pool area. Tzuyu began poking around the pool chairs, under their stands and between their lats. 

A few minutes later, Tzuyu looked over to Jihyo (as she always did) to see her becoming more and more panicked by the second. It had taken much longer to find the clue than last round, and the sound of approaching children was becoming closer and closer. 

Tzuyu didn't think she could handle Jihyo losing this thing, so she doubled her efforts. And when she saw a hint of green in the water, she knew she'd succeeded...somewhat. 

"," she mumbled to herself. It was a ziploc bag, somehow stuck to the bottom of the pool, in the shallow end. The clue must've been in there. 

After sparing a final glance at Jihyo and releasing a loud sigh, she dove into the water. 

"Tzuyu?" Mina cried, the loudest any of them had ever heard her talk. 

When Tzuyu emerged a few moments later, her clothes and hair soaked, all of the girls were looking at her incredulously. But Tzuyu wore a smile, handing Jihyo the wet plastic bag. 

Jihyo beamed, seeing the dry paper note in the bag and Tzuyu all wet. 

"You didn't have to; I would've gone underwater for it..." 

"We wanna win, right?" Tzuyu didn't really mean that. What she meant was that Jihyo wanted to win, and she wanted to make Jihyo happy. 

Jihyo ruffled her wet hair. "You're such a good puppy." 

And Tzuyu's cheeks absolutely flamed. 

"What a simp," Jeongyeon mumbled under her breath. 

"That's for sure," a quiet answer soon came. She turned around to see Nayeon had been the one to answer. Immediately, both girls' faces fell and they quickly turned around. 

Jihyo pulled out the note and read it quickly, stuffing it in her pocket and beckoning the girls to follow her. 

"Can you at least read it out loud this time?" Jeongyeon yelled so the whole group would hear. 

"Fine. It's asking where the grossest place at camp is, and I'm taking us to the dumpsters behind the kitchen. Trust me yet?" Jihyo explained with an eye roll. 

"Oh, my god," Nayeon spoke from the very back of the group. Everyone ignored her but Jeongyeon, who turned to face the girl with a glare. "There's no way. There is no ing way I'm digging around through some ing trash just for some stupid ing clue for some stupid ing game. I'm out." 

"Fine, no free snacks for you then!" Jeongyeon shouted. She watched as Nayeon briefly paused before turning around and starting to walk away. Jeongyeon released the deepest sigh she could muster and ran after her. 

She grabbed her wrist and Nayeon turned around, a brief look of surprise crossing her expression before returning to her usual cold glare. 

"Look, just, come on." 

Nayeon tugged her wrist out of Jeongyeon's grasp. "Jeongyeon, this is lame! This is so ing lame! I'm, like, fifteen. I do not need to be wasting my summer doing scavenger hunts." 

Jeongyeon didn't say anything but didn't move. 

"Anyways," Nayeon continued. "Wouldn't you have more fun without me there?" 

"Yeah," Jeongyeon admitted. "But nobody else would. For reasons I cannot begin to understand, everyone else here likes you. And if you left, they'd be worried. Worried that you're sick or that you're not having fun. And it would kill everyone else's good time, which would therefore kill mine, okay? Like, I know some of these activities are a bit childish and lame but if you let yourself get into it, it's all kinda fun! Imagine if we didn't do any of it, like you wanted to do. Camp would've been so boring. None of us would've talked or been friends. I know you're probably incapable of this. But just, like, deal, okay? You don't have to be the cool girl here. Who the are you trying to impress?" 

This time, it was Nayeon's turn to be quiet. When Jeongyeon grabbed her wrist again, she didn't shake her off. And when Jeongyeon tugged her in the direction of the dumpsters, she just silently followed. 

When the two girls arrived, the rest were slowly and silently looking around the trash with grimaces. But when they noticed Jeongyeon and Nayeon had come back, most of those grimaces turned to smirks. 

"What were you two doing?" Momo asked accusingly. Dahyun and Sana wiggled their eyebrows at each other and burst into giggles. 

"If you all don't shut the up, I am lit-er-a-lly going to ING kill you all. Okay? So shut up and looking through the trash." Nayeon ended her little speech with an eye roll and leaned against the back wall of the dining hall. She adjusted her shoulders and suddenly screamed, feeling something crawl down her back. 

But Jeongyeon reached behind her to find a little piece of paper that had fallen onto the ground. 

"Congratulations! You have won the scavenger hunt! Go to the dining hall entrance to receive your tickets," Jeongyeon read aloud. 

"How did Nayeon end up finding the last clue?" Jihyo whined. But Nayeon had to work very hard to suppress her smile.

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mNa2zk
#1
(~w~)
jeybeee
1521 streak #2
Chapter 13: They're running in each other's mind all night lmao
bore_d1020 #3
Chapter 13: LoL!!!! Wth?! 2yeon are so funny!!!
jeybeee
1521 streak #4
Chapter 12: Wow that is a heartbreaking chapter.
bore_d1020 #5
Chapter 12: Wow damned…. Jihyo unknowingly breaking Tzuyu’s heart Again. and in some ways.. Sana the same to Dahyun. 😭😭😭 poor DaTzu.
jeybeee
1521 streak #6
Chapter 11: I feel guilty for thinking what Jeongyeon thought of the smoking pot...
bore_d1020 #7
Chapter 11: MiChaeng as sweet as ever.
Oh man Jihyo really? Sister? Tzuyu is heartbroken :(
Hmmm… no sure what’s going on with MoSaDa -.-
Hahah. Very cute of 2yeon. I think they are just tsudere to each other.
jeybeee
1521 streak #8
Chapter 10: I doubt they will not be competitive in any competition... Just look at them irl lmao
bore_d1020 #9
Chapter 9: this is so cute... Momo "ditching" Nayeon but ended up being the "third wheel". hhahaha. awww, hopefully JiTzu and MiChaeng will sail soon. but 2yeon ended up being better than thought even though they did end up in the water.
jeybeee
1521 streak #10
Chapter 9: Somehow I alrdy predicted 2yeon disaster lmao