The group of Tiffany’s class and the rest of 3^rdyear students finally reached the camping ground by the lakeside surrounded by woods that they were supposed to spend a few days on. Of course, the silence of the camping ground soon disappeared when the door of the bus opened. The students impatiently got out of it and started chatting noisily with their own group while taking their own stuff, discussing which tent they would occupy and also whom they would share it with.

The moment Tiffany stepped out of the bus, fresh air directly hit her body which made her took a deep breath. Soon, Seohyun, Yoona and Yuri got out of the bus, standing behind Tiffany. They could already see that Ms Lee was standing by the side of the bus and handed Tiffany a few copies of their schedule for these few days. Tiffany made a short scan on what was the plan for the day and the rest of her friends also took a peek on it which wasn’t a bother to her as this wasn’t a secret or anything. The first plan was already announced by Ms Lee and for other classes, it was announced by their own homeroom teacher.

“You will be divided into 5 groups. The arrangement I would leave it to all of you after I pick the leaders who are Tiffany, Onew, Yoona, Seohyun and Eunjung. After this, we would have our lunch and you could cook in that wooden cabin and I could be found there as well, if there’s any problem or question. Then we’ll do some group activities at around 2 pm and I need the leaders to make sure her group to be ready by then. The copies of schedule are with Tiffany which would be handed out soon. For now, I’ll leave things to all of you.” Ms Lee announced and turned around, walking to the wooden cabin.

Just in a second, the calm and silence disappeared. Discussion on who’s going on whose group started. The five of them shared a certain look, they wanted to let their friends to calm down by themselves while themselves also need time to figure out the arrangement. For sure Tiffany was separated from her group, not that she was against of the idea, but it’s always better when she could be with her best friends. One thing that she knew, Yul would be joining her cause that was what Yul said at the announcement. She knew the reason why. One, Yul being the trouble maker didn’t have quite a lot of friends. Second, Yul had made a promise to Jesse which the younger guy wouldn’t break at all cost, she knew that for sure. At the thought of Jesse, she quickly fished her phone out to make a text before her brother would go in a panic mode, knowing how over protective he could be at times.

To: J-oppa

Oppa, we’ve reached the camping ground. Don’t worry too much of me,okay? Especially when I don’t reply directly. Btw, the place is really beautiful. I’ll share the pictures later. Oppa, don’t forget to eat and don’t argue too much with grandma when I am not around.

Once she was done with her text, she went back into her duty as class president. She didn’t realize that everyone has gone silent for quite some time and actually waited for her which made her realize one thing. They actually thought of her as a leader, although there was one person who didn’t quite like with that idea.

Tiffany flashed out her smile, a cheerful and sincere one. “Well, I guess I should leave the leaders behind me to make a choice on whom they want to pick but I hope that there would be a mix of boys and girls in the group. Once it is done, the girls would go to cook while the boys would set up the tents.” Tiffany started to sort out the things to do so that it would be more efficient. Besides, they didn’t have much time to spare as it was almost 1 pm by now.

Lucky enough no one disagreed and simply listened to Tiffany. Tiffany went to hand the paper of their schedule to each of the group leader. The boys directly went to start building the tents while the girls directly walked towards the wooden cabin to prepare food. But before that Tiffany made a warning to Yul, so that the latter didn’t try anything funny and ruined this which of course earned a glare from Yul and also a whisper of ‘you think I’m just a trouble maker?’. Tiffany let out a laughter and a shrug before she walked away, knowing that this time she could trust Yul not to do anything crazy with that kind of statement coming from Yul. Maybe to all of this, Jesse might have part in it as she knew Yul would only listen to her brother.

***

Tiffany slightly frowned as she was checking on her phone as she was sitting with her group on the wooden bench after they finished their lunch. They still had around 10 minutes left before their first group activities started. Tiffany still hadn’t gotten her reply from Jesse and that was why she started to feel worried about this. Usually Jesse would reply in just a few seconds, the longest a few minutes, however for her not getting a reply after an hour passed was sort of new to her and was worrying enough for her.

Her group noticed this and Seohyun decided to speak out her concern. “What’s the matter, unnie?”

Tiffany gave a weak smile and slightly pouted. “Oppa still hasn’t replied to my message.”

“Maybe hyung is busy.” Yul chimed in, trying to assure Tiffany that everything was alright because he knew the bond that Tiffany and Jesse had, was very strong and if something like this happened to either one of them, it would be something that made one of them worried which maybe to some other people it wasn’t something that was very concerning.

“Or that oppa is asleep.” Yoona said, helping to assure Tiffany.

Tiffany’s face somehow slightly brightened up at what Yoona had said. She nodded and smiled. “How could I forget about that? Oppa must be asleep, knowing how he could easily do that anywhere anytime.” She ended up slightly laughed, thinking of how bored must Jesse be to fall asleep at this kind of time although she couldn’t deny that she still had this certain tug in her gut, which wasn’t a nice feeling at all, and she wondered why it still hadn’t gone yet when she had gotten a reasonable explanation from Yoona. She didn’t want to make everyone worry and so she decided to push that feeling behind and would think of it later, when she had the chance to. For now, her job as the class president was waiting for her.

“I think it’s time to group everyone up.” Tiffany stated to her best-friends with a small smile, trying not to let the negative thoughts affect her and cheered up for the rest of the day. With that she stood up and walked to talk to Eunjung and Onew to gather their group and meet up outside.

***

Night time came with most of the students tired with the activity they had, a small competition among the third year classes. 3A and 3B were pretty much draw for every subject that was being competed while 3A aced in every academic competition while 3B aced in every sports related competition. Other classes were pretty envied of those two classes at first but now, they had gotten used to it and even turned into each class fans .

The students scattered around the ground, some was in the wooden cabin, sitting down and gossiping or simply playing a board or card games, on the benches and tables provided. Some were scattered, playing chase around the camping ground. Some more sitting in front of the bonfire, near their tents while talking and singing.

Among all of the students who were having fun, there’s only one person who chose to stay in the tent with a phone right in front of her, staring at the lock screen, looking at the wallpaper of her and her brother, showing no new message at all. She sighed for she didn’t know how many times ever since she looked at her phone. It was very concerning to her. Her brother had never forgotten to reply to her and never even once it took a very long time for him to reply to her. Things were just too weird today and now she couldn’t deny the very troubling feeling she had.

In the end, she decided to make a phone call. An assurance would be good now for her. However, when her brother didn’t pick up, the worry that she had, going worse. It felt like there’s an extremely bad feeling in her gut. “Why didn’t oppa pick his phone up?” She mumbled to herself. Sighing, she decided to call again after a while but the result was nothing. In the end, she decided to call her mom, and was going to ask her what was going on to Jesse.

Just when she was going to press the dial, someone opened up the flap of the tent and peeked in. “We’ve been looking for you for a while.” Eunjung said, slightly panting.

Tiffany directly sat up and looked at the person who intruded the silence that she had earlier on. “What’s wrong?”

“Yul picks up a fight and we’ve been trying to separate him.”

Tiffany directly crawled out of the tent as fast as she could. She didn’t want Yul to get in trouble again and worst being dismissed from classes. She knew that the teachers wouldn’t be that lenient anymore after Yul repeatedly pulled pranks on students which she never really understood on why he was doing that. The rate of the pranks after Jesse graduated was getting even worse and that was why this was something concerned her so much. After all, Jesse was the only one who could sort of have a leash on Yul who was uncontrollable to everyone.

“Where’s Yul?” Tiffany directly asked Eunjung who was standing behind her.

“Far end of the lake.” Eunjung still tried to catch her breath.

Tiffany directly sprinted towards the direction that Eunjung had pointed out. Little did she know, it’s just a part of the scheme that Eunjung made up. Tiffany ran as fast as she could to stop Yul from fighting before everything turned out really bad.

Twigs underneath snapped, making sharp sound and the crisp sound of grass accompanied every step she took as she kept running to find Yul. Without she realized, she was getting further from the camps and darkness of the woods enveloped the path in front of her. Shouting out Yul’s name out loud and she couldn’t find him or anyone. Turning around, she realized that she was lost. She wasn’t following the trail of the lake anymore instead she was surrounded by trees. Panic started to seep in. She was confused and scared. What if no one knew where she was? What if no one realized that she was missing? Should she stay or walk away to find a way back in the darkness? How she wished her brother was there with her? Thinking of her brother, it reminded her of her phone in her pocket. Pulling her jacket tighter as it’s getting colder, she then tried to text someone. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any signal on her phone which made her more afraid than before. She decided to walk back from where she was coming, turning on the flashlight on her phone, to help her with the way and also so that people could see where she was if there was a search team.

***

Yul walked out of the wooden cabin with Minho as the two were asked by Ms Lee to help moving some boxes of cooking ingredients in the kitchen. He was just going to go back to his tent but Yoona and Seohyun stopped him on his track.

“Yul, do you see Fany?” Yoona asked worriedly with Seohyun standing behind her.

“No... why?” Confusion clearly could be seen on Yul’s face. “Isn’t she in the tent? Texting or maybe calling Jesse Hyung by now?”

“That’s what we thought too. But she isn’t there when we go to check on her and I’ve asked people around the tent but no one sees her.”

“Are you sure that she’s not at somewhere close by or even in the restroom?” Yul didn’t want to directly conclude that Tiffany went missing.

“We’ve checked, oppa.” This time, it’s Seohyun who answered and slightly shook her head. “But she’s not there.”

Yul massaged his temple. Where could Tiffany go? Everyone who was close to Tiffany would know how bad she was with direction. And if she did go and have a walk, she wouldn’t be going somewhere far. Yul was so sure of it. Kidnapping? that would be impossible. There wasn’t any suspicious person here.

“Where would she go?” Yul mumbled to himself and the let out a sigh. He was clueless.

“Let’s ask around. It’s impossible none of them see her.” Yul instructed Yoona and Seohyun. The faster they could get some clues, the faster they could find Tiffany. He totally couldn’t imagine if Jesse found out. The three of them would be first to face Jesse’s wrath.

Asking the students around, finally they got some clues on where Tiffany ran to. And what confused them was what the urgent thing was. Tiffany wouldn’t just run off if it wasn’t an urgent thing. Never thought they’ll play detectives right now.

“Seohyun, if the two of us didn’t come back after an hour, please do tell Ms Lee where we are going and most probably all of us are missing.” Yul told the youngest of them to stay and could alert someone if something bad really happened.

“Hopefully we could find Tiffany before things turn ugly and worry everyone.” Yoona continued, surprisingly had the same agreement with Yul over this for not telling everyone that Tiffany was missing and to deal with it by themselves. They just didn’t want to ruin others who were having fun right now.

“Okay... although I wish I could follow you guys.” Seohyun wished she could be of some help for them but knew that it was for the best that she stayed.

“Be careful, unnie, oppa.” Yul and Yoona turned to look at Seohyun and nodded, assuring her as they made their way to the woods.

***

Tiffany kept on walking, thinking that she wasn’t supposed to be that far from the lake but why she couldn’t see the sign of it after she walk for quite some time. This had turned into something really scary for her while she was doing her best not to panic. If you are lost, don’t panic. Trust oppa that oppa will find you.Tiffany remembered clearly what Jesse had said. Despite that Jesse wasn’t around, she believed that someone would find her. For now, she would keep on walking until she could see sign of light from the camp or the lake.

Feeling tired, Tiffany decided to take a break. She sat down on the protruding root and leaned against the trunk of a big tree. She felt cold and she hugged herself to keep herself warm although the effort might be futile and showing no result. It’s getting darker and the night is getting colder, she could feel that.

“Anyone around?” Tiffany shouted, attempting to get attention from someone although in her vicinity there wasn’t anyone.

Tiffany sighed dejectedly, trying not to be pessimist that she was lost and no one would find her. Although the negative thoughts of her was found in a weak state after the cold of the night and without food or drink did scared her. However, she would hold on the hope that if they did tell her family and they came to the camping site, she knew Jesse would able to find her, that’s how strong their connection was.

Truthfully to be told, Tiffany did feel tired from all the walking, and the cold just didn’t help at all and made her sleepy. She wanted to get up and just walk but her feet no longer got any strength to do so. She wondered if it was okay to sleep for a little while. Just in a few minutes time though, she had fallen asleep even if she didn’t want to at first.

***

Yul and Yoona walked along the trail on the lakeside. They didn’t find any sign of Tiffany and they had walked quite far from the camp. The silence was so awkward though according to Yul. Never thought that he would have a walk with Yoona, just the two of them and without one trying to kill the other.

“Do you think we should try head into the woods?” Yoona was the first one to break the silence, making Yul turn to face the latter. Yul slightly faltered since the first thought that came to his mind was how beautiful Yoona was but then the thought of Yoona being grumpy and being his enemy came back to him, becoming a splash of cold water to wake his mind.

“I guess so.” Yul awkwardly walked first, wanting to escape the almost embarrassing situation for himself although Yoona didn’t really know what was going on in Yul’s mind which made her think of how weird Yul was right now.

“Fany-ah... where are you?” Yul shouted as loud as he could, hoping to get a sign from Tiffany.

“Fany-ah…”
The shout echoed as they repeated Tiffany’s name while they walked further into the woods. They hoped that they were heading to the right direction and that they would meet up with Tiffany soon. They still couldn’t imagine if they couldn’t find her or if they did and it was already too late. For Yul, he just wished he could find Tiffany as soon as possible so that the fear that started to loom around him would dissipate as he could already feel the wrath coming from Jesse if this news leaked to the older guy. However, sooner or later Yul would still tell Jesse about this, it’s just he preferred it to be when Tiffany was found and in good condition.

They were going to give up and going to walk back and continued their search somewhere else but then a glint of light coming from ahead of them, making them curious. They made their walk there carefully, just in case it was wild animal. Taking careful steps, to be sure that it was silent enough, they walked to the direction of the light. As they got closer, they saw a figure leaning against the wall. At first they were scared that they were finding a dead body until they got closer and saw that it was Tiffany, holding her phone, noticing the light that coming from the back of the phone. Seeing that, Yul and Yoona directly ran towards Tiffany. They saw Tiffany was unconscious and that sent panic in them.

“Tiffany…” Yul’s voice was weak, fear settled in him as he gently shook Tiffany’s body.

Yoona knelt next to Tiffany and held Tiffany’s hand, noticing how cold it was. Yoona was going to take off her jacket to cover Tiffany more but Yul saw it and Yul shook his head, a sign for Yoona that she didn’t need to do that as Yul had taken off his jacket and covered Tiffany’s body with it.

“Fany-ah…” Yoona shook Tiffany’s body, trying to wake the latter up as well.

The both of them started to feel restless, afraid that they were too late to find Tiffany. So, Yul wasted no time and carried Tiffany up bridal style with Yoona followed him by his side as they made their way out of the woods as fast as they possible could in order to get help for Tiffany.