“Well this ,”

Soonyoung looked down at the fashionable first year girl who checked her hair in a pocket mirror as they walked trough the woods. He responded with a simple shoulder shrug, unsure what the right answer was. He didn't think it was that bad since he was with someone he knew but he wasn't excited that they were lost. The tips of her fingers poked and pulled at the misplaced strands making sure that not a single one was out of line. Once she was done with that, he continued to watch her reapply her pink glittery lip gloss. He was glad that they had lost the boar that was following them when they hid out behind a boulder on the side of the trail.

Placing her little make-up kit inside her backpack's side pocket when she was done, Bee crossed her arms over her chest and pouted, “If it weren't for Jihoon, we wouldn't be in this mess,”

“I thought you liked Jihoon?” Soonyoung raised his eyebrows curiously at her. There was something different about the way Bee had been approaching Jihoon lately. Nowadays, she was easily irritated by his actions and was constantly hitting him than ever before. She didn't squeal at the very sight of him either. If he thought about it more, she didn't call him 'oppa' anymore too. Now he was just 'Jihoon'.

Bee giggled as a smile quickly appeared on her face, “I do still like Jihoon...a lot! But he's not exactly how I thought he would be,”

“And what would that be?”

“I used to think that he was a mysterious, and conceited type of guy, but once you get to know him, he would actually be charming, smart, and very romantic. You know, like those handsome boys in Japanese dramas like Hayato from Sprout or Naoki Irie from Mischievous Kiss: Love in Tokyo!” she held a hand to her heart, exhaling deeply at the thought of the handsome Flower Boys. There were stars in her eyes as she looked up the cloudless blue dome above them. Soonyoung chuckled and gestured for her to continue. Immediately, pulled into a frown, “But instead, Jihoon's actually a brainless, insensitive playboy who can't keep his Big Boy hormones in check. Oh, and he's boring too,”

“And...you like that in a guy?” the older boy was pulled deeper into confusion.

Bee placed a finger on her chin, thinking about what she had just said. Within a few seconds, she came up with a conclusion, “I like that in Jihoon. If you were like him, I probably wouldn't like you – not that I like you or anything, you know. I'm just using you as an example. Anyway, even though he's always talking about other girls, and flirting with them, I can't move on no matter how hard I try,”

Soonyoung pursed his lips and nodded, taking in what she had just told him. He felt bad for the younger girl. From what Choyoung had revealed to him, Bee had liked Jihoon ever since they entered the same elementary school as Jihoon and him. Though, Choyoung woudn't tell him how Bee met Jihoon. He tried remembering how but every time, he came back with nothing. He didn't even know the two until this school year. Clearing his throat, he slipped his hands into his jean pockets, “So if you don't mind my asking, how did you meet Jihoon exactly?”

“I'm surprised Choyoung hasn't told you,” Bee looked up at him, blinking. She nudged him on his side with her elbow, “I would think that she would tell you because you're her soon-to-be-boyfriend and all,”

Grinning, Soonyoung brought his eyes down to the ground and watched the little pebbles on the ground pass by as they walked, “Think about it this way. She values your guys' friendship before her own relationship,”

“Well if you put it that way, I'm glad that she does. Anyway, I guess it doesn't hurt to tell you. I've been keeping it a secret for years now and you're not a bad guy,” she adjusted the straps of her backpacks on her shoulders, “I'm sure Jihoon doesn't remember this considering his brain capacity, but when I was in fourth year, the entire grade found out that I liked this one guy in my class. You know Choi Hansol, right? I was really embarrassed when people kept teasing me about liking the foreigner and falling for his unique charms. After school, I sat on the playground by myself and I cried. To my surprise, someone came up to me. And guess who it was?”

“Jihoon?”

Giggling, Bee held the sides of her face as they began to turn pink from recalling her most important childhood memory, “Exactly. Jihoon had the most adorable face that I had ever seen in my life. Eyes that were narrow they looked like lines, a face as round as the playground balls, and what made him much cuter was that he was a chubby boy through and through. Anywho, I'm sure you don't want to hear me rave about his beauty so I'll just get to the point. Once I told him what had happened, Jihoon handed me a duck printed handkerchief he had in his pocket and he instructed me to wipe my face. Sitting down next to me, he smiled and told me that I was prettier when I was happy,”

“So wait, did Jihoon know who you were?”

“Nope. He told me afterward when he introduced himself that he didn't really know me but everything he said was true. Although, I'm pretty sure he was lying when he said that just so I wouldn't cry,” Bee chuckled as she brought her hands back down to her side, “When I finished cleaning up, he patted my knee and promised me that if Hansol doesn't date a pretty girl like me, then he would...and we all know how that went,”

Soonyoung patted her shoulder; he had no idea how else to respond. He didn't want to giver her false hope by saying that Jihoon will like her one day, but he didn't want to reconfirm that Jihoon didn't like her because that was just mean. Bee reached up and tapped his hand lightly with her fingertips, “It's okay, you don't need to say anything. I mean, I'll get over him eventually. Just...maybe not at this time. So what about you? Have you liked anyone other than Choyoung?”

“No, I can't say that I have,” he slid his hand off her shoulder and placed it back inside his pocket, “I've never really been into girls. I wasn't even expecting to start liking Choyoung when I first met her. Honestly, I thought it was super embarrassing to get my braces stuck with hers. I didn't even want to go to school the next day! But when I first talked to her, something inside of me just craved desperately for her attention. She wouldn't give it to me though because she thought I was annoying. That just made me want to be around her more,”

“Eeeyy, Choyoung's right. You are so cheesy,” Bee pushed him on the shoulder as she laughed. Now it was Soonyoung's turn to glow a bright red as she , “You sound like you're coming straight out of a Chinese drama or something with those poetic words of affection,”

Soonyoung clicked his tongue in an attempt to look cool but he ended up laughing at himself. Bee laughed along with him with a wide smile plastered on her face. Eventually, they grew silent as the sun was slowly beginning to set over the horizon after about another hour of walking. Tired, Bee looked around at the trees trying to find a familiar landmark, though she didn't expect much because every tree looked the same to her at nighttime. She sighed and stretched her arms up above her head, “I wonder if we'll ever get back to camp,”

“Speaking of which,” Soonyoung poked her side to get her attention, making her wince and bring her arms back down. He dragged her over to a flat top rock and pointed down at the bottom of hill, “We made it back! Look Bee, it's just down there!”

“Thank the Lord, we're here!” Bee squealed excitedly, pulling Soonyoung into a hug by instinct. When she realized what she was doing, she quickly pulled away and regained her serious composure, “Um, sorry. Force of habit. Shall we go now?”

Running as fast as their legs could carry them, they dashed to the campfire where everyone else was gathered around chatting. Many of them had flags in their hands while others came back empty handed. Soonyoung smacked his forehead knowing that he left Jihoon's flag with Choyoung. Bee dug out her out the five flags she had collected when Jihoon wasn't paying attention and handed two of them to Soonyoung, “Here, these are yours. The other two are Choyoung's,”

“Oh, wow. Thanks!” He accepted them with a nervous smile on his face, “Sorry we couldn't find anything for you,”

“No, it's fine. I'm not even sure that all the flags were found anyway,” Bee waved it off like it was nothing, “Anyway, let's go look for the others. They should have found their way back by now. Well, I'm concerned for Jihoon but the other three should be here,”

Soonyoung followed after Bee who was rudely walking through the crowd with her arms spread out to her full arm span as she pushed through. Many people told her to watch it but all she said was glare at them and they would shut up. Her eyes lit up when she saw two familiar figures, and she tugged on Soonyoung's arm, “It's Saron unnie and Jihoon!”

“Oh, hyung! You made it!” Jihoon ran up to the two, pushing Bee out of the way to hug Soonyoung. His clothes didn't seem like they took any more damage since Bee last saw him but he seemed to be missing the chain he had hanging off his pants earlier. Not that it mattered or anything. Saron jogged after him but stopped just behind the smaller boy. She didn't have any intentions of hugging Soonyoung. She wasn't that excited to see an acquaintance. Saron waved at her classmate who was struggling in carrying Jihoon, “Hey Soonyoung. Glad you're okay,”

“Same goes to you,” he tried to wave back but couldn't because of the crying hot mess he was holding in his arms. Rubbing Jihoon's back, he looked back at a laughing Saron, “Have you seen Choyoung or your brother?”

Her laughter immediately halted, and her eyes went wide, “Wait, I thought Chan and Choyoung were with you!”

“I'm so hungry!” Chan complained as he rubbed his growling stomach.

Every time he would poke it hard enough, he would wince and groan about how he hadn't eaten dinner yet. Choyoung was a few steps ahead of him looking over the map and trying to memorize the layout of the grounds before the sun went down. It was a matter of life or death here and she didn't want to die. Not now. She whipped around and hit him in the head with the map, catching him by surprise, “Don't you have something to eat in your backpack?”

“Oh, that's right!” Chan's face lit up, suddenly remembering the small sandwich bag of homemade brownies he snuck from their family's food supply. Slipping the straps off his shoulders, he hungrily dug through the biggest pouch to look for the stolen dessert. When he found it stuffed at the bottom of his jacket, he got up and held it to Choyoung's face, “I stole my sister's brownie bag this morning! You want one?”

Choyoung felt water at the sight of food. Though her stomach wasn't singing animal noises, she was still hungry nonetheless. her lips, she didn't even realize that she was starting to drool until Chan pointed it out to her. Quickly rubbing with the back of her sweater sleeve, she shook her head and started walking again. At this point, the sun was completely down and the stars were starting to show their shining selves. Chan greedily shoved a brownie in his mouth and swallowed it within seconds. He held the bag out to her once again, “Are you sure you don't want one?”

“I'm fine,” Choyoung pushed his hand away.

Pouting, Chan took one out for her anyway. He decided to just give Saron his share of brownies even though she would yell at him and nag his ear off before she accepted them. Taking her hand, he turned it over and placed it in her palm, “There's no reason for you to not eat. You should eat something. That way you won't pass out from starvation,”

Blinking her eyes, Choyoung stared up at him a bit surprised. The image of Soonyoung sitting at their table despite her protests after they had gotten stuck flashed through her eyes. That day, Soonyoung had said the exact thing Chan had just said a minute ago when he was trying to get her to eat his mom's soup. She shook her head once again to wipe the image away as she forced a smile onto her face, “Thanks Chan,”

Taking a bite, she continued to walk but this time, Chan was beside her. Fireflies flew near the bases of the trees much to Choyoung's amusement. After wiping her hands on her pants, she crept over to a patch of fireflies and knelt down. Chan scuffed his feet on the ground as he stood in place, not wanting to get near the insects. Him and bugs didn't make a great match. Choyoung noticed this and waved for him to come over, “Come on! You're not scared of fireflies are you?”

“No, I just...don't want to disturb you. Yeah, that's right,” Chan raised his nose in the air trying to appear manly, “But since you say so, I guess I'll go over there too,”

He tiptoed over to where she was kneeling and sat down next to her, bunching up and keeping his arms close to his sides so that he wouldn't touch any of the creepy insects. He never trusted insects. To him, anything that glowed was other worldly – at least, that's what happened in video games. Chan almost screamed when Choyoung trapped one in her hands, “Oh my gosh, Choyoung don't touch it! You'll burn yourself!” He was under the assumption that fireflies' lights were hot.

“No, silly! Fireflies' lights aren't hot! If it was, they'd die,” Choyoung opened her hands just a tiny bit so she could watch the firefly glow. Scooting closer to Chan, she showed it to him but keeping it a safe distance so that he wouldn't freak out. The look on his face seemed like he wanted to just pass out. His mouth formed into a small 'o' in amazement of seeing the insect so closely. He had never looked at an insect this close before. She smiled, “There's a chemical reaction that happens in their bodies called bioluminescence. That's how they light up,”

Chan inched his face closer but fell backwards on his bottom when Choyoung suddenly released her hands, letting out the lighting insect. Giggling, Choyoung stood and brushed herself off to start walking once more. It was dark out and who knew what night creatures lurked around this part of Korea? She did not want to find out for herself. Chan scoffed when she just walked off, not even bothering to help him up, “Um, hello?”

“You can get up by yourself can't you, grandpa?”

“Why you little...ugh!” Chan scrambled to his feet and chased after her, “Get over here!”

Once again, they were silent as they navigated through the woods. The night sounds of owls hooting, crickets chirping and insects humming bounced off the tree trunks. Luckily, there were no signs of anything big and scary. Not even the wild pig that was chasing after them. Chan had gotten rid of it when he threw down his sweater so that it would follow their scent to that instead. She couldn't thank him enough for that. Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud thump from their right. She immediately latched onto Chan's arm in panic.

Chan's flinched at her sudden closeness, heart starting to pound harder. He brought his head down trying to hide the shy smile creeping up on his face. Unfortunately, he lost and it grew bigger. Noticing the lack of space between them, Choyoung pulled away and awkwardly cleared . She mumbled an apology and turned away from him. Chan saw her hold her hands together close to her chest – then it hit him. Choyoung was afraid of the dark! He remembered that one time, during one of his sleepover parties in elementary school, everyone was mad because she kept turning on the lights when she thought that everyone was asleep.

“It's alright if you hold onto me,” Chan bit his lip, afraid that she was going to harshly reject his offer. She had done it many times before in middle school when they rode the bus home in the afternoon and she wanted to sleep. Thankfully, she didn't hesitate to clutch onto his arm again. Choyoung looked away at whatever else but Chan, “Thanks again,”

It wasn't long until they found themselves standing in an open field. There was completely nothing but a medium sized log mysteriously placed smack dab in the middle. The two first years wandered out into the opened and sat down on the ground, leaning their backs against the log to rest their worn-out bodies. They were exhausted from all the walking and running they had been doing that afternoon and it even extended into the night. Not once were they able to just sit down until now.

“The stars are really something, huh?” Chan had his head resting against the log so that he was gazing at the star-filled sky. He had never really seen the stars while they were in the city. The closest he had ever gotten were the stars at the planetarium inside the star observatory. Even so, they were electronically generated stars, so it wasn't as satisfying. Choyoung sat next to him, still a bit close to feel safer in the dark of the night. She couldn't really see anything in detail; she could make out shapes but that was pretty much it. She simply nodded at what he said, not really paying attention to the conversation.

“I wonder if the others made it back,” she wondered out loud, making Chan aware that she wasn't even paying attention.

Chan looked down at her, smile on his face disappearing. A sadness clouded his eyes as he watched her play with her fingers. The knot in his chest tightened knowing exactly who she was concerned for. As if his mouth had a mouth of it's own, Chan bluntly asked, “Who are you most worried for?”

“What?” Choyoung tensed up.

Chan felt her stiffen against his arm and he had his answer. Exhaling deeply, he brushed his bangs out of his face, “It's Soonyoung, isn't it?”

There was no point in pretending like she didn't hear him but she just ignored it, not wanting to answer. Knowing that he couldn't see her face, she rolled her eyes. If there was one thing she knew Chan liked to do, it was guilt trip her into getting what he wanted. At least, that's what she experienced when working on lab projects and other partner work with him. He would deliberately talk his way out of it and she would have to do it on her own. But she would do it anyway because in exchange, he would tutor her in Cell Bio. He did well in the subject even though he half-assed a lot of their assignments.

“So it is him after all,” Chan shifted his leg so that his right foot was under his left knee, making a sort of '4' formation. Choyoung continued to look at her lap, avoiding his gaze. Neither of them said anything hoping that the other would forget what was said earlier. A nervous laugh escaped his lips as he crossed his arms over his chest, “I can't believe I got my hopes up too high,”

No response. Choyoung closed her eyes tightly, cursing under her breath wishing that Chan wouldn't do anything rash. She could come up with a few options on where this conversation was going and she knew it was going to end up in her least favorite conclusion. She sharply gasped when she felt his hands grip her shoulders, turning her to face him. Opening her eyes, they immediately started to cross because of how close Chan was to her. She found herself unable to move away, his chocolate orbs drawing her in.

“I've known you ever since we took our first steps in daycare. Every year on the first day of school, I would come home angry that I was your seat mate again because our last names came after the other,” Chan swallowed hard, but the lump forming in his throat just stayed there, “But for a while now, I've been wondering whether I was really annoyed, or if I was just oblivious to my feelings,”

“Chan, I-”

“When I saw you come through our classroom doors once we started high school, smiling like an idiot even though you were late as usual, my heart stopped. I don't know why, it just did. And every morning following that day, my chest would tighten. As gross as it sounds, my hands would start to sweat underneath our lab gloves whenever our hands would touch during a in-class Biology project,” Chan's breathing got heavier as his voice lowered. As much as she wanted to, Choyoung couldn't command her body to push him away.

His forehead was pressed against hers, just like Soonyoung always did. That's right. Soonyoung. He would be so mad at her if he caught them right now. Her heart started to race, and she hoped that her watch would start beeping and alarm Chan long enough for her to stand up and get away. Bringing his eyes down, Chan scoffed and lightly shook his head, laughing at himself, “I guess what I'm trying to say is, I like you, Kwan Choyoung,”