Chapter 6 - Motivation

"Wow, this is so neat! Thanks for figuring out the riddle, Solbin!" Haein squeaked as she engulfed her quiet friend in a grateful hug. The small boat teetered back and forth during its glide across the blue waters.

"Woah, watch out Haein. You're making the boat wobble." Yulhee warned.

"It's okay, we won't capsize or anything." The pinkette replied with a wave of dismissal.

"It's not that... Look at poor Jiae." The girls turned to their resident candy lover, who was tightly gripping both edges of the boat with a bewildered expression.

"Jiae... Are you okay?" The girl slowly shook her head. 

"She's looking kind of green. Like the lake water. Does anyone have candy on them?"

Everyone but Solbin shook their heads. The outlier reached into her pocket and pulled out a few hard candies from the other day (Jiae had asked her to carry some just in case). Then she dropped them in Haein's hand. Haein unwrapped a piece and pushed it into Jiae's quivering mouth. "There, that should do it." Indeed, the girl immediately relaxed, focusing her attention on the sweetness coating her tongue.

"What would we do without you, Solbin?" Yulhee sighed, leaning back.

"First, the riddle, and now this..."

Solbin shook her head and mumbled something, but the others couldn't quite hear her. "What was that?"

"...I wouldn't have been able to do it without Counselor Yujeong's help..." The campers gave the blonde counselor rather suggestive grins.

Before Yujeong could protest, Soyeon gave her a look of disbelief, pulling the paddle up to her chest. "You cheated?"

"Of course not! I just gave her some encouragement and whatnot, that's all - what's that look for? You don't believe me? Solbin is a very smart girl okay, on top of being a good singer, a good dancer, a goodlooking - " Yujeong stopped herself as soon as she noticed Soyeon had joined the campers in making suggestive expressions. With increasing silence, the blonde's face also grew an increasingly darker shade of red. However, they all failed to notice that Solbin's face was doing the same. "Stop looking at me like that before I stop paddling." With that said, the girls instantly diverted their attention to the lake.

Although the prize for winning the scavenger hunt was "a boat trip out on the lake with any three friends", counselors were present in order to paddle the boat as well as supervise. The girls didn't mind anyway, they liked their counselors and enjoyed their company (not to mention the set of arms moving their boat along).

While the other girls busied themselves with pointing out strange objects floating on the lake surface, Solbin scooted over to Yujeong's side. "Would you like me to help you?" She quietly offered.

"Oh no, it's fine but thank you for asking. This helps me build strong arms, heh." Despite Yujeong's insistence, Solbin had noticed the blonde's weakening . She gently grabbed onto the handle and lent her strength for the pushes. "Oh Solbin, you really don't have to - "

"Oh my gosh! Turtles!" Haein shrieked, causing everyone on the boat to flinch. The excited pinkette bent over to the boat in an attempt to get a better look at the swimming reptiles but the extra weight was too much. The boat nearly tipped over but luckily stayed in place. However, Yujeong, who was on the very edge of that side, was on the verge of falling into the water.

Losing her balance, Yujeong closed her eyes and prepared to fall face-first into the lake, until she felt a sturdy arm sweep under her lower back and catch her. A collective gasp from the other girls prompted Yujeong to slowly open her eyes and find Solbin's face a mere centimeters away from hers. Of course, her heart rate quickened at the close proximity and she hoped that Solbin could not possibly feel its distant pounding.

Yujeong had been quite close to Solbin before - in fact, she touched the younger girl's face during their very first lesson together on facial expressions. Never would she have thought that she would fall for this girl. The world worked in very mysterious ways.

"That was so close, oh my goodness." Yulhee spoke up first, placing a hand on her chest in relief.

"I'm sooo sorry!" Haein cried, situating herself in the middle of the boat, where Jiae already was, looking terrified again. "I won't do anything again, I'll just stay here for the rest of the ride."

"So...are you two planning to help paddle or are you just gonna remain in that romance film-worthy position?" Soyeon half-teased the frozen pair. She really needed someone to help paddle though.

"S-Sorry." Yujeong apologized under her breath as she regained her balance and sat a little farther away from the edge of the boat. Solbin followed her counselor's action and the boat was back at weight equilibrium.

"I don't think you're in any condition to paddle." Soyeon pointed out, motioning for Solbin to take the paddle from Yujeong.

Yujeong raised a brow. "What? Why?"

"You're sick~" Soyeon sang with a wide smile. As much time as she's spent with Soyeon, Yujeong knew her fellow counselor was referring to love sickness. The blonde held onto her paddle, refusing to give it up to Solbin.

"You can paddle on the return trip." Yujeong told Solbin, who nodded in agreement. "Let me finish what I started, at least."

The rest of the boat ride was rather uneventful, minus a few inappropriate comments from Soyeon regarding Solbin and Yujeong's sharing of paddles. Soyeon and the campers also discovered that Yujeong was quite tuckered out from paddling and she had fallen asleep in the middle of the boat. They allowed the blonde to get her rest, and they placed their jackets and sweaters over her. She wasn't too happy about this once she woke up, but the girls were glad that she was able to reenergize.

After the boat ride was dinner, and the winners of the scavenger hunt were more than eager to fill their empty stomachs with food at last. The other members of Petit Macaron were waiting for them at their table, greeting them as they sat down.

"How was the boat ride?" Hayoung inquired, passing the bowl of mashed potatoes to Haeryung.

"It was really cool. The lake is even prettier up close. But...Haein kinda almost drowned Counselor Yujeong." Yulhee mentioned nonchalantly as Hayoung's eyes widened.

"I said sorry! Many many times!"

"Drown? I can swim perfectly fine..." Yujeong muttered, stabbing a piece of broccoli.

The girls continued talking about the boat ride until they eventually exhausted the topic, breaking into smaller groups to have conversations.

"I hope they fixed the oven." Junghwa commented, picking up another loaf of bread from the basket.

"Geez, you're already thinking about dessert?" 

"Those hard candies last time were no good."

"Strongly agree on that one."

The atmosphere during this particular dinner was light and playful, especially with the apparent absence of a certain troublemaker. With Jinye gone (she still hadn't returned after she was sent to the main cabin), many of the girls were at peace. Even Jiae was able to eat at t