JR’s POV

Next we had the cooking round. Aron’s round. I was looking forward to it. We would have to make a three course meal. Aron and Baekho would work on the main, Ren and Minhyun had to do the starter, which left Rin and me to do the dessert.

We got to work, planning the meal. The starter would be a beef, sweet chilli and soy noodle broth which was Rin’s recipe. The main would be a sushi platter with rice balls and the whole fancy Japanese sushi sort of thing. We’d planned the dessert to be a strawberry and chocolate mousse stack between shortbread slices in those fancy dessert glasses.

We worked together and separately, depending on what was needed. When Rin put the desserts in the fridge to chill I sighed with relief, it had all gone well! She turned around, her little smile curving her lips up and God. I got the urge to kiss her then. But I suppressed it and instead hugged her. She was that tiny that I picked her up with ease.

“You’ve been doing amazingly today!” I grinned.        

She looked down shyly. “So have you. And thanks, but you haven’t seen me at my best.” She shook her head and smiled slyly.

“What have you got planned?” I asked, slightly worried as I set her down.

She turned to join the others and looked back at me. “Don’t worry, you’ll see later.” She patted me on the cheek.

We had a break for lunch and then we had the relay race challenge. Minhyun would run first; giving us a speedy start, then it would be Baekho, Aron, me, Ren, and lastly Rin. We’d seen what she could do for speed and we all chose her to be last in case we needed to catch up majorly. We all stayed in shorts and a tank top.

I kind of stared when I saw Rin. She wore close fitting shorts that showed off her long toned legs and the tank top revealed her thin but muscled arms. I was shocked. I’d never have thought someone as tiny as her could pack so much strength into such a tiny frame.

We got into our places and waited for it to start. I waited in a ready pose looking over my shoulder for Aron. Suddenly the baton hit my hand and I grabbed it, sprinting off. I was at a disadvantage but I still did alright. I’d barely let go of the baton when Ren sped along but we were still behind. I hoped like hell Rin would get back the lost ground.

I didn’t even really see her, just a pale-skinned blur as her legs sped her along. I saw her glance to where the other racer was and frown, putting on a lot more speed. I just about screamed with joy as she won. But I held myself back, thankfully. We got another short break to rest before Capture the Flag. I was excited, this was Rin’s challenge, I knew she’d do well.

Rin’s POV

Oh goody. My challenge. I already knew the rules and had ideas. I knew it would be played in a forest. We had paintball guns for each team and if we were hit we were out fully. I was going to leave four to guard the flag and then I’d take one other, JR, and go with me to capture the other team’s flag. I was going to climb a tree and see what I could see which would hopefully be where the other team’s flag was. Then I and my partner would make our way there climbing trees, my partner would be a sniper and cover me while I captured the flag because I wasn’t really good at shooting.

It started, we had five minutes to prepare then the game would be fully on. I told the guys my plan and they hid the flag and got into place while I made like a monkey and scrambled up the tallest tree I could find. I saw a light further away, the sun was going down so it was getting dark; and smirked, this was going to be easy.

I whistled softly and JR appeared on my branch, giving me a startle. I gasped and lost balance; he held onto the branch above him with one hand and slid the other around my waist.

“Me Tarzan. You Jane.” He grunted in an attempted Tarzan-voice and I laughed softly. He drew me against him and leant closer, his eyes boring into mine. “This is your challenge; I know you’ll do amazingly.” And he pressed his lips to my forehead. I was glad the dark hid my blush.

“L-let’s go.” My voice trembled slightly. I led the way, moving from branch to branch with ease. I didn’t need to check if he was following because there was always a nice warmth right behind me.

I stopped as I heard movement and voices. There were four of the idiots on the ground nearby. I pointed them out to JR, the sharp shooter and he started aiming, as did I. In the space of time I got one down, he got the other three. I was impressed.

We made sure no one else was around before continuing on. I estimated the distance we’d gone and guessed we were close so I scrambled higher to see obvious movement nearby. JR and I snuck closer and separated. He hid and prepared to shoot. I climbed to a tree directly above the flag and waited for his signal.

A snap of a twig told me he was ready and I owl-hooted in reply. That was my first signal. He threw some stones and twigs to make noise which led the two guards away. I was ready on my branch, my feet locked around it, as soon as the guards moved away I swung myself backwards and reached for the flag. My fingers clamped down on cloth and I swung back up. I was moving away while I owl-hooted my second signal.

Two shots were fired and fluorescent pink blossomed over the two boys who swore in disgust and saw down, defeated. I made my way to JR and tackle hugged him against the tree trunk. His arms pulled me close and I squeaked at the tight grip. He laughed and just held me closer.

Once we were over our initial excitement we moved through the trees again back to our teammates. I’d used the flag as a coat, I so wasn’t smug or anything. Okay. Maybe a little. But I had every reason to be!

I was swamped with hugs when I got back and the guys hoisted me up onto Baekho’s shoulders. JR and Ren held either hand as we walked back, well I didn’t walk, I was carried.