For the first time that summer...it was cold out. The sun was hidden by clouds, and a chilly breeze permeated throughout the camp. For once, their cabins being five degrees hotter than outside was actually useful, so the girls used the weather as an excuse to have a lazy day inside. After breakfast, they grabbed some more string from the art shack for friendship bracelets (they were all sort of experts now), and made their way back to cabin E2. 

Mina, Chaeyoung, and Jeongyeon sat on the floor, the two girls best at the bracelets trying to teach Jeongyeon how to make one that actually looked neat. Nayeon and Momo had climbed on top of Jihyo's bed, without permission, whispering to each other while working on bracelets of their own. 

Nayeon and Momo looked up and around the cabin for a moment and shared a smirk. "Well well well, what is going on over there?" Momo called, staring at Sana and Dahyun. 

The two girls were seated in Dahyun's top bunk... underneath the covers. Sana rested her head on Dahyun's shoulder and swung her legs over Dahyun's, practically cuddling in the bed together. 

Nayeon snickered, and Dahyun dramatically rolled her eyes. "When are you all going to get another joke?" 

"When you guys start dating," Jeongyeon teased. 

Sana laughed genuinely, and after a beat, Dahyun forced herself to laugh too. Sana grinned at her, and Dahyun was briefly relieved that Sana bought it. 

Ever since her realization at pottery the day before, everything had changed. It was like she started really noticing, really thinking, and as soon as she started she couldn't stop. 

Sana was essentially perfect, and Dahyun knew she wasn't biased in saying that. She was fun, and cheerful, and excited about everything in the most infectious way. But she was also soft and caring when she needed to be. She got Dahyun's sometimes dry sense of humor and seemed to like her in particular. Not to mention, she was the most beautiful girl Dahyun had ever seen in real life, and she knew how to use her hands... and . Dahyun knew she was blessed just to know her. 

But they were still in high school, even if it was summer, and high school politics still reigned. Sana was the popular girl, and Dahyun was the class clown. Now the class clown wasn't unpopular, per se...but she wasn't the dateable kind of popular. Plus, Sana was so experienced in matters like this. And even if Dahyun could put up a good front, the only experience she'd ever had in matters of love was quiet gay yearning from a distance. 

And most of all...Sana was like this with everyone. Even if the other girls thought they had something special, Dahyun knew Sana was essential just like this. It didn't have anything to do with Dahyun herself. Even Sana would admit it herself. 

So Dahyun would take what she could get from Sana, the cuddles and affection, and try her best to not see the teasing as fact, and take what she could get from this. 

"They're so funny," Sana said quietly to Dahyun. Funny. That was one way to put it. "I'm just friendly with everyone! And I love it." 

"It's nice. I...I really like it." Dahyun didn't want to say it made her as jealous as it made her happy, but she could admit that half truth. She took a deep breath, and gathered the courage to keep talking. For her own mental health. "Have you ever been in a relationship before?" 

Sana nodded. "Yeah. I've had a girlfriend and a boyfriend before. Nothing longer than a couple months though." 

"How did you handle it, being such a flirt?" Dahyun teased. 

"I am not a flirt!" Sana exclaimed with a fake gasp. 

"Oh come on..." 

"I'm just friendly." 

"How did your partners handle your... friendliness?" 

"I may be friendly with everyone...but special people get special treatment. And if I'm going to date someone, they are definitely going to get that special treatment," Sana insisted. 

"I don't know about it, but I think the other girls think you're giving me that special treatment." 

Sana grinned, but it wasn't her usual cheery smile. It was a little different... a bit like when they'd kissed during spin the bottle. But she kept cuddling Dahyun, looking her in the eye, still pressed together fairly close. "They sure do." 

Dahyun swallowed and gathered her courage. As much as Sana could deny it, she was a flirt. So Dahyun could flirt right back. Especially when she figured it wasn't going to go anywhere. 

"Am I a special person?" 

Sana bit her lip and looked away. 

"You two can deny it all you want, but... come on," Jeongyeon teased, looking up at the couple from her bracelet. 

"Focus! You've almost got it!" Chaeyoung interrupted, forcing Jeongyeon to get back to work. 

"How's yours coming?" Sana asked, looking at Dahyun's bracelet. And Dahyun figured she'd never get her answer. 

On the other side of the cabin, having been kicked out of her own bed, Jihyo was seated next to Tzuyu on her top bunk. 

"Wow, that one is really nice," Jihyo said, leaning over Tzuyu's shoulder to look at her work. 

Tzuyu grinned up at her. "It's for you." 

"Really?" Jihyo asked with genuine excitement. Tzuyu just nodded and tied the bracelet around her wrist, now one of the many Tzuyu creations tied onto Jihyo's arm. 

"Mine is for you too," Jihyo spoke, and Tzuyu held out her own wrist, which was also covered in bracelets made by Jihyo herself. "For my little sis." 

Tzuyu forced herself to keep the smile on her face. 

Jihyo paused from grabbing more string to start another to look at her bracelets. "God, yours are so much better than mine. You're so good at this." She gave Tzuyu the sweetest, most genuine smile, and Tzuyu couldn't help but melt. 

God, she was ed. And she sure knew it. 

It had started out so chill. Tzuyu knew she came off as innocent, but enough time on tiktok had taken away that naivety on the inside. So she'd found most of the girls pretty ing hot on the first day of camp, including Jihyo herself. It wasn't until that day at the pool that Jihyo became Tzuyu's favorite. 

Tzuyu hid her own chuckle. It was a little gross, she knew, that Jihyo in a bikini was what had started this whole thing. But as long as everyone else saw her as innocent Tzuyu, she could stay as dirty Tzuyu inside. 

But quickly, things got deeper. Jihyo was so deeply kind, so deeply caring, so deeply determined. And so much of that was directed at Tzuyu, even if it wasn't in the way she wanted. How could her feelings not change? From simple lust to really, genuinely, having a crush. 

Jihyo was just made to be admired, for her personality more than anything else. She was cool, confident about everything especially liking girls, two whole years older, and definitely had her together. So unlike Tzuyu in so many ways. 

Tzuyu... she was an only child, with no friends and no hobbies except her pet dog. So she was used to taking care of the two things she had in her life: her dog, and herself. So it felt so, so nice to be taken care of by Jihyo. It just hurt that it was in a different way than she wanted. 

For the first time, she was actually friends with the person she had a crush on, instead of admiring them across the classroom or the phone screen. But she didn't even have a chance. She'd been friendzoned, no, worse, little ing sister zoned. And it was probably too late to get out of that. 

Jihyo liked her, a lot. As a sister. As sweet, innocent Tzuyu. For the first time, Tzuyu wanted someone else to see this new self that puberty had brought out of her: dirty Tzuyu. That's how she knew this crush was far deeper, and far more real, than anything she had ever experienced before. 

But...at least she got to know Jihyo, and be her friend, or even closer to her than that. She was lucky in that regard. And she'd made it further with a crush than she ever had before. 

"What colors do you want?" Jihyo asked. 

"H-huh?"

Jihyo chuckled and ruffled Tzuyu's hair, and Tzuyu exhaled, getting out of her head and back into the real world. "I asked what colors you want for the next one." 

"I-it's cool, I-I can cut the strings-" 

"No way. I've already got the scissors." 

Tzuyu smiled. "Um... apricot, red, and brown, please. Two strings of each." 

Apricot reminded Tzuyu of Jihyo, red was Jihyo's favorite color, and brown tied the whole thing together. Yes, of course, this one was for Jihyo too. Yes, she was aware of how much of a simp she was. 

"Coming right up." Jihyo chuckled to herself. "Just let me take care of you sometimes," she mumbled. 

Tzuyu sighed. If only Jihyo could take care of her heart.