“Taemin.”

He doesn’t look up at you. Of course he doesn’t. Taemin has his legs stretched out on the bed, one hand casually propped up behind his head and the other being used to scroll through something on his phone. The camp counselor uniform that clads his body somehow manages to make him look like a freaking model, even though it looks like he slept in it last night and hasn’t changed yet.

His legs are better than your’s.

How is that even possible?

“Taemin.”

Still no response. You wonder if he’s purposely ignoring you or if he’s honestly so zoned out that he can’t actually hear you. Taemin his head to the side, looking as if he realizes there is a presence in the room but treats it like an annoying bug he can just ignore and swat away.

“Taemin!”

“What?” He complains, setting his phone down and giving you a look.

“It’s almost seven o’clock and we haven’t planned anything to do with the kids today.” You say, struggling to hold back your anger.

“What, can’t we just send the little brats to Key’s Craft Corner for today? I don’t feel like dealing with them.” He groans, head rolling back and hitting the wooden headboard with a thunk.

“Key’s going to kill us if we send him the sixth graders again. You know that.”

“Why? What’s his big problem with sixth graders?”

“Last time they were there, Key was having them make pinecone sculptures and five of the nine boys in our group made a and harassed the fourth graders with it. We’re not inflicting that kind of pain onto anyone else.”

Taemin sighs and closes his eyes, rubbing his temples in a pained manner. “Well, what are we going to do with the little devils, then? Maybe Minho can take them?”

“No can do. Last time he took them, the boys ended up pulling each other’s pants down trying to play football and traumatized the girls. They’re banned them from ever coming near his sports facility ever again.”

“How about JongHyun, then? Couldn’t they do, like, a music class maybe?” He asks hopefully.

“Nope. The boys got rowdy and somehow broke JongHyun’s favorite guitar and they’re banned from all vocal and instrumental classes.”

“How the heck did our sixth graders manage to get themselves banned from pretty much every activity in the camp?” Taemin mutters, smacking the back of his head against the headboard repeatedly to emphasize his disdain for the evil creatures.

You and Taemin had been working together since the beginning of summer, and the only thing that seemed to be bonding the two of you together is the mutual hatred of the kids you were in charge of at this camp. You’ve worked here in past summers, normally with second or third graders and with Kyungsoo to help you out.

But this year, you got stuck with the newbie (Taemin) and the most demonic bunch of middle school kids you’ve ever encountered.

Now, you know that a lot of middle schoolers aren’t actually that bad. Many of them were capable of normal, human functions and could even interact well with society.

You’re not sure which circle of hell these boys climbed out of, but it seemed like they were determined to ruin your life.

“Wakey wakey, campers! Breakfast is served in the mess hall!” Jinki’s overly-happy voice booms from over the loudspeakers, and both you and Taemin wince at the sound.

Time for work.

“Come on, Tae. Let’s just talk this over at breakfast. Surely we can come up with something for the demon children to do today.” You sigh, offering him a hand to help him out of his bed. Taemin stops banging his head against the headboard (how does he not have a concussion by now? But then again, he does have a pretty thick skull…) and glances at your hand, not looking too happy about getting out of bed but knows he has to.

He takes your hand and jumps out of his bed gracefully, strolling over to the mirror to readjust his thick black hair and sniffing his t-shirt suspiciously before shrugging and slipping his tennis shoes on.

You roll your eyes and head to the door, pushing it open and walking out into the cool morning air with Taemin right behind you.

“Ew! Counselor ___________ just came out of Counselor Taemin’s cabin! Ew! Were you guys having ?” One of your precious sixth grade boys asks upon seeing you and Taemin together.

That’s it. You’re going to throw something and maybe strangle those little horrible-

“Well, at least I’m getting laid!” Taemin retorts, tossing an arm around you casually and snickering when the boy’s eyes widen with horror.

“Taemin!” You hiss, elbowing his side. “Do you want those rumors going around camp?”

“What, are you trying to get with another counselor and I’m ruining your game?” Taemin inquires, lifting an eyebrow.

“What? No!” You protest, feeling your face go red.

“Then I don’t really see the problem with it.” Taemin says, shrugging and yanking you in closer to him.

“Would you get your arm off of me, idiot! I’m not letting people think we’re sleeping together just because-”

“Well, would you look at that! _________ and Taemin finally hooked up! About time, too.” JongHyun snickers, slamming the door to his cabin behind him and smiling devilishly.

Oh great. Not this .

“JongHyun, me and Taemin-”

“_________ and Taemin hooked up? Oh, is that what that banging coming from your room this morning was then?” Key chips in, suddenly appearing next to JongHyun.

Banging? What banging?

Then you remember that Taemin was hitting his head against the headboard this morning and quickly realize how bad that might have sounded to the guy on the other side of that wall.

“No, Key, that wasn’t-”

“Wow, about time!” Key congratulates, patting Taemin’s shoulder.

“Thanks, hyung.” Taemin says, smiling like the son of satan you swore he was.

You’re going to murder someone soon.

“I’m so proud of you, kiddo. I didn’t think you had it in you.” JongHyun smirks.

Okay. This was ending now.

“We didn’t-”

“Isn’t there some rule against counselors sleeping together, though? Jinki might get mad at you guys for this.” Key ponders.

“But we didn’t actually-”

“Oh, don’t listen to Key. You two just keep… um… doing what you’re doing, I guess.” JongHyun says, winking suggestively.

“Would you two shut up and listen to me? We didn’t-”

“Why are you guys all standing around like idiots? Do you want breakfast or not?” Minho scolds, walking out of his cabin and motioning for your group to head toward the mess hall.

“Coming!” Key calls, sending you and Taemin one last wink before jogging to catch up with Minho, JongHyun trailing behind him.

“Now look what you’ve done.” You say grumpily, forcibly removing Taemin’s arm and storming ahead with your arms crossed in front of your chest.

“Oh, come on _________. I’ll tell the guys I was joking at breakfast!” Taemin calls to you.

You glance behind your shoulder, seeing that Taemin was smirking and walking behind you at a leisurely pace.

“You’re not forgiven. The sixth graders are still going to think we had and that’s not okay.” You protest.

“So? Maybe the little devils will respect me a little bit if they think I banged my co-counselor.” Taemin argues, snickers.

You make an offended noise and quicken your pace, flicking your bangs out of your face and refusing to acknowledge him anymore.

“_________.”

Nope. Not going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he made you mad. That was only going to fuel his fire.

“________!”

An arm drops over your shoulder, the smell of faded cologne tinged with an underlay of sweat alerting you to Taemin’s presence (he really needs to change his shirt).

“Can you please let go? I don’t feel like talking to you anymore,” You huff, trying not to get into the dark brown eyes burning a hole in the side of your face.

“_________.”

“What?” You snap, turning to face him in annoyance.

The corner of his mouth twitches, and you’re tempted to slap that condescending smirk right off of his stupidly handsome face.

He leans down, said stupidly handsome face way too close to your’s and brown eyes burning boring into your soul. “I think you might actually need to get laid, ________. You’re way too uptight about this.”

Okay, now he’s getting slapped.

Your hand makes a satisfying cracking sound against the skin of his cheek and even though you still don’t feel wholly justified, you feel a tiny bit better.

“Ow!” Taemin yelps in surprise, giving you an accusing look as you turn on your heel and storm away from him.

You push the doors to the mess hall open, grabbing a tray and getting in line for breakfast.

Taemin sulks through the door, tail between his legs as he picks up his tray and slides into line next to you. The kitchen staff dishes out your breakfast, placing an array of food on your plate as Taemin struggles to find a way to apologize.

“Sorry. That was kind of rude of me.” He says sheepishly.

“Yes it was.”

“Am I forgiven?”

“Give me your cookie and maybe I’ll accept your apology.”

“But-”

“Do you want to get slapped again?”

Taemin sighs sadly and picks up his chocolate chip cookie, placing it on your tray gingerly.

“There. Am I forgiven now?”

“Tell your friends we’re not sleeping together and then yes. I will forgive you.”

“Fine.” He mumbles. “And they finally started thinking I was cool…”

You give him a dirty look that immediately silences him, and the two of you walk back to your table in silence.

“Hey, there’s the love birds!” Key says happily when he sees the two of you walk in.

“Don’t call us that, Key. We didn’t actually have .” Taemin sighs, sliding into the seat next to you.

There’s a collective groan from the occupants at the table, all four of the other men eating breakfast making frustrated faces.  

How many people were actually that invested in whether or not you slept with Taemin? Was this really any of their business?

“Why did you tell us that and get our hopes up?” JongHyun asks, stabbing at a grape with his fork.

“I just told the sixth graders that to get them to shut up for a bit,” Taemin shrugs, shovelling a forkful of eggs into his mouth.

“And why do you even care that much, JongHyun?” You ask, feeling slightly disgusted.

“Because maybe if you two actually sleep together then all of the in the air would go away!” JongHyun exclaims, stabbing at the grape again and only managing to send it flying toward a table of third graders.

“What ?” You mutter, trying to ignore the short blond boy and concentrate on your food.

“So, what are we going to do with the spawns of satan today?” Taemin asks after long, awkward silence.

“I don’t know. What can we do with them?” You ask hopelessly.

“They’re not coming to my craft corner, that’s for sure.” Key says decisively, looking angry at just the memory of those brats defiling his precious craft time.

“Don’t you even dare have them come near my music classes.” JongHyun warns.

“Or the my sports classes.” Minho chips in, looking up from his food long enough to fix a glare on the two of you.

“I know, I know. No classes. But we need to do something with them!” You say, rubbing your temples.

“You could take them on a hike.” Key muses thoughtfully.

“A hike?”

“Yeah, up and around the lake. You could bring camping gear and spend a night out in the woods at the head of the lake and then come back tomorrow morning.” Key explains.

You and Taemin look at each other, digesting the idea carefully before continuing. “That may not actually be a horrible idea.” Taemin says slowly.

“I’m pretty sure that’s the only thing we can do with them by this point,” You decide, nodding. “Thanks for the idea, Key.”

“Are you sure you two haven’t slept together?” JongHyun asks again hopefully.

You throw your roll across the table at him and it smacks him in the face.

“I’ll take that as a no, then.”

______________________________________________________________________________

“Okay, listen up everyone.” You command, trying to capture the attention of the sixth graders currently throwing pinecones at each other.

“Guys.”

A pinecone hits you in the chest and you grit your teeth, about to start yelling when Taemin steps in.

“Hey! Listen to Counselor __________!” Taemin snaps. The boys drop their pinecones and shut up almost immediately.

Well, it looks like one thing Taemin predicted came true. They definitely respected Taemin more because they thought he was sleeping with you.

“Today and tomorrow, we’re going to be hiking!” You announce, clapping your hands together and wait for a reaction.

*insert cricket noises here*

“We’ll be spending the night at a campsite at the head of the lake and head back tomorrow morning.” You pause again, waiting for someone to do something.

There’s a few grumbles and a few enthusiastic claps, and you figure that’s the best reaction you’re going to get out of them, so you send them off to their cabins to go collect their things.

“Well, that went well.” You sigh, crossing your arms.

Taemin pats your back sympathetically, watching the sixth graders slink off to their cabins slowly. “Hey, look on the bright side. At least they respect one of us.”

“I wish it was me. How the hell am I supposed to make those satanic adolescents respect me?” You gripe, gritting your teeth.

“Well, there are a few things you could do… not any that you’d be willing to do, of course.” Taemin remarks.

You elbow him in the side, fixing him with a glare. “What are you implying, Taemin?”

“Nothing.” He says, smiling cheekily. His arm plops down around your shoulders, tugging you closer. “Nothing at all, darling.”

“Would you stop that?” You say irritably, trying to push him away.

Unfortunately, despite how stick-thin Taemin is, he’s still significantly stronger than you.

“Ewww. Why are you guys touching like that?” One of the returned sixth graders whines, scrunching his face up in disgust.

Taemin looks down at the boy boredly, tugging you in again for emphasis. “Just let the adults do adult things, pipsqueak.”

“I’m not that short!” The sixth grader (you think his name is Carl?) challenges, dropping his sleeping bag on the ground taking up a defensive stance.

“Yeah. Sure. Right.” Taemin scoffs, rolling his eyes.

“Hey!” Carl protests, running at Taemin at full speed.

All Taemin does is reach out with the arm that isn’t draped around your shoulder and use his hand to catch Carl’s head in his palm, keeping him an arm’s-length away.

It takes one medium-sized push to knock the kid back, and he stumbles backwards and barely manages to catch himself from tripping over his sleeping bag. He glares at Taemin, stalking away angrily to go find his friends.

“You know, you could try being nice to them too.” You point out, holding back a snicker.

“Nah, that never works. It takes a combination of fear and pure, adulterated admiration to instill a sense of respect in these brat’s heads.” Taemin explains, smirking at a group of boys who kept stealing glances in your direction.

“You have a point.” You agree, sighing and abandoning your quest to dislodge Taemin’s arm.

"That's what I thought." Taemin says, smirking in a self-satisfied manner.

It takes ten minutes for all of the demon spawn to reconvene in the clearing, hauling their sleeping bags and tents-in-a-bag over their shoulders.

“Okay guy, here’s the rules!” Taemin shouts, clapping his hands together and walking to the front of the group. “Number one, stay with the group. Don’t wander off and get lost. We don’t want you to get lost and starve and die in the woods so that three months later we find your decomposing body in a cave in the middle of nowhere.”

“Number two,” You say, walking over to stand next to Taemin, “Listen to your counselors. That’s us. I know you guys think you’re invincible now that you’re in sixth grade, but until you have a high school diploma and are legally old enough to vote, you’re going to have to get used to listening to authority.”

This elicits a few snorts and grumbles from your forced audience, but you and Taemin ignore them as Taemin continues on.

“Number three: use the buddy system. Yes, even when you have to pee. This will hopefully keep you from being eaten by a bear or caught in a bear trap.”

“There’s bears in here?” A sixth grader asks, looking slightly terrified.

“Hopefully you won’t have to find out.” Taemin says offhandedly.

“Number four,” You continue, “don’t touch any plants until you know what they are and if they’re safe. I wish I didn’t have to include this, but because it hasn’t been able to get through your thick skulls, that means please do not eat anything unless you know for sure it’s safe to eat.”

“And, last but not least, respect the animals and plant life around you as we go on this hike. I know it’s in your nature to destroy everything in your general vicinity, but please do not leave a path of destruction in your wake.” Taemin finishes off, looking around the group of sixth graders expectantly.

The sea of blank stares and bored faces is enough for you to think that they somewhat comprehended your and Taemin’s little speech, so you smile and heft your pack up on you back and motion for the group to follow you and Taemin.

Part of you thinks this is a good idea.

Part of you thinks that this is going to be an adventure you’re never coming back from.

______________________________________________________________________________

It takes half an hour for you and Taemin to start regretting this decision.

“Look at that bush.” A boy whispers to his friend behind you.

“What?”

“It looks like a…” There’s a fit of giggling, and then, almost shouted, “!”

The group of boys surrounding him bursts out into a hysterical bout of laughter, and you hear a few of the girls make disgusted noises.

“I really hope I wasn’t that bad in sixth grade,” Taemin mutters, casting a dark glance over his shoulder at satanic youths behind him.

“You probably were.” You joke, nudging him gently.

“If I was, then I really wished someone would have slapped me and told me to shut up because oh my god these brats are annoying,” Taemin groans, running a hand through his hair. “I don’t even see how that bush looks like a , honestly. I have no idea where they’re getting that from.” Taemin points out.

“I think they just delight in saying the word. They don’t actually need to see something to resemble it.” You mutter, rolling your eyes.

“Probably.” Taemin agrees.

You two hike ahead in silence for awhile, glancing behind you frequently to make sure the chatty middle schoolers weren’t getting into any kind of trouble.

“Do you have a boyfriend back at home?” Taemin asks unexpectedly, breaking the quiet.

“No. Why?” You say, a little surprised.

“No reason. Just wondering.” He says quickly, clearing his throat and scratching his head awkwardly.

Strange.

Well, whatever. You weren’t going to dwell on it.

“Aren’t you wondering if I have a girlfriend?” Taemin asks hesitantly.

“No. Should I be?”

“I don’t. I mean, I don’t have a girlfriend. Just in case you wanted to know.”

“I didn’t.”

“Oh.”

Great. Now you just made it awkward. Or, you guess, Taemin made it awkward with all his questions.

What the crap was happening? You and Taemin normally got along pretty well.

Well, okay. Not all of the time. But you and him made a pretty good team, nonetheless.

“Hey, look what I found!”

Oh God. Turn your back on them for one second...

“Oh, cool, what’s that?”

You turn around just in time to see a boy pick up a freaking bee’s nest.

A bee’s nest.

“Why are there so many bees?” One of the boys asks, swatting one away.

A few of the kids who recognize what the boy is holding start backing up slowly, eyes widening in horror.

“James, put that down.” Taemin says quietly.

“What?” James, the idiot kid, says, scrunching his face up in an effort to understand Taemin.

“Put that down. Slowly. Very carefully.” Taemin says, maintaining a calm demeanor even though internally, you were having a major freak out.

Most of these kids were from the city.

You couldn’t blame them for never seeing a bee’s nest.

“Ouch!”

A bee stings James on the hand and he chucks the nest as hard as he can, naturally toward the center of the group, and all hell breaks loose.

Yep. You’re going to blame the uncultured swine of sixth graders for not only picking up the bee’s nest, but also for not having enough sense to throw it away from the group at least.

You, Taemin, and the rest of the sixth graders go screaming into the woods, swatting bees away and trying to prevent getting stung.

“Dammit!” Taemin yells in frustration, furiously swinging his arms around wildly as he ran.

By some weird miracle, the group manages to run away in a somewhat orderly manner because you don’t seem to be missing anyone when the bees finally go away and you’ve stopped running long enough to catch your breath.

The good news: no one seems to be severely hurt or stung.

The bad news: you had no idea where you were since you ran off the trail.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Taemin asks for the third time already, and you push him away in irritation.

“Yes, I’m fine. Shouldn’t you be checking on the demon children?”

“Why would I do that? I could care less about those brats.” Taemin scoffs, his eyes wandering over your body carefully.

Personally, you thought that Taemin was just using the excuse of ‘looking for injury and bee stings’ to justify unabashedly check you out.

“So? We’re still in charge of those brats.” You say, walking over to a clump of sixth graders sitting in the grass and snacking on some granola bars with Taemin trailing behind you.

“You guys okay?” You ask, squatting down next to them.

“Yeah. We’re fine.” A girl says, shrugging.

“Just tell me if you need something.” You say, standing up and moving onto the next group.

Taemin sighs, realizing that you were in full-on counselor mode and wasn’t in the mood for him right now. He starts making rounds as well, and as soon as you and him get a good consensus of the condition of the group, the two of you pick a corner to go discuss your next moves in.

“So, now what?” Taemin says, glancing around the makeshift camp.

“I don’t know. Everyone seems pretty tired out after running for their lives and no one looks like they want to move.” You say, stretching out your legs in front of you.

“Okay. Let’s rest here and maybe eat lunch, and then we’ll start trying to find the trail.” Taemin decides, standing up and brushing off his shorts.

“Listen up, brats! Looks like we’re going to be stopping here for awhile, so sit back, relax, and enjoy the total experience. And if you see a bee’s nest, please, for the love of god, don’t touch it. Got it?”

The demon children nod, for once not arguing against you and Taemin.

“Good.” Taemin plops down next to you, sighing heavily as he starts digging through his lunchbox.

Everything was going to be fine, right? You’d make it back to camp fine and nothing would go wrong and everyone was going to have a good laugh about this later, right?

Oh, you sure hoped so.

_____________________________________________________________________________

“I’m pretty sure we’ve passed that tree three times already, Taemin.”

“Are you saying I don’t know where we’re going?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“So, what? I should just let you lead?”

“Yes.”

“I can’t let you do that!”

“Why not?”

“Because! I’ve taken the counselor navigation course and you haven’t!”

“What? And that automatically makes you more competent at navigating a forest in the middle of nowhere better than I can?”

“Duh.”

“Taemin!”

This had been going on for twenty minutes already. The arguing, you mean. The actual amount of time you and your group have spent wandering around lost in the forest added up to four or five hours already and a feeling of dread was starting to settle in your system. Neither you or Taemin really had much of a clue of where you were going or what you were doing, but both you were trying to take charge and failing miserably at it. Plus, both of you were exhausted and getting snippish. Even the devil children were tired, which was a blessing because that means they finally shut up.

“Fine, fine. You can lead for a bit. I’m getting tired anyways,” Taemin agrees begrudgingly, moving the back of the group to keep an eye out for stragglers.

After half an hour more of wandering, you finally find a clearing of sorts and make an executive decision to stop and make camp.

You move through the motions of setting up tents and dividing the kids into groups in a tired dazed, almost putting two boys and some poor innocent girl into one tent together before Taemin came and took over your delegating.

“Go to sleep, __________.” Taemin commands, pushing you towards a tent.

“No, I have to… do… something…..” You yawn, trying to remember what it was exactly you were supposed to be doing.

“I can take care of it.”

“But-”

“No ‘buts’. Well, unless it’s your’s and I get to- nevermind. Sorry about that. My mind goes to the gutter when I’m this tired.”

“Your mind is always in the gutter,” You mutter, trying to repress another yawn but ultimately failing.

“Go to sleep, ________.”

“But, what if we can’t get out of here? What if we’re really lost and miles away from civilization and we all starve to death out here? Let’s be realistic, we only brought enough food for two days and-”

Taemin silences you with a kiss on the forehead, an action that stuns you into silence to the point where he can push you into the tent without you arguing against him.

“Goodnight, sleepyhead.” Taemin says, smirking and zipping your tent closed.

You want to go outside and yell at him for kissing you without permission, but you’re so tired that you can’t see straight and sleep is starting to overtake every other basic need in your body and soon enough, your eyes flutter closed.

______________________________________________________________________________

When you wake up, it’s freezing. That’s probably why you woke up, actually.

Your teeth are chattering and a quick glance at your watch confirms that it’s been barely an hour since you went to bed originally.

11:36. Seriously?

You pull the sleeping bag around yourself as tightly as you can, but it fails to provide any warmth whatsoever.

Shivers wrack your body and damn you’ve forgotten how cold it can get at night in the summer. You weren’t adequately prepared for this freaking ‘hike’.

Closing your eyes, you try to lull yourself back to sleep but the cold’s being pretty good at keeping you awake.

Screw this.

Gathering up your sleeping bag, you quietly the tent and creep out into the clearing.

The grass is wet and dewy under your feet, soaking through your socks and making you feel even colder than you already were.

Taemin’s tent is up ahead.

You were just going in there because you were really cold, okay? That’s it. You had no ulterior motives. None whatsoever. It wasn’t because you thought Taemin was really actually quite handsome and funny and despite his unfortunate sense of humor he was actually a really cool guy and-

No. Stop it.

You were cold.

That’s it.

You Taemin’s tent carefully, stepping inside gingerly and trying to redo the zipper without waking him up.

Okay, you hadn’t really thought this through. You felt exactly how you did when you were little and got a nightmare, so of course you were too scared to sleep in your own bed so you crept over to your parents room and kind of stood in the doorway for awhile wondering how to wake them up without them getting angry.

Only this was a million times worse, because instead of your parents this was a cute boy and instead of needing protection from a nightmare you were here for cuddling purposes.

Wait, no. That came out wrong.

What you meant was-

“___________?”

. “Hey, Taemin.” You say weakly, crouching at the entrance of the tent awkwardly.

“What are you doing in here?”

“I’m cold. Can I, um, crash in here for the night?” You ask hesitantly, biting your lip.

“Yeah, sure. Of course. Come up here by me.”

You let out a shaky breath and crawl up to Taemin, laying your sleeping bag down and already starting to feel a little warmer.

Maybe that was because your face was on fire because of how embarrassed you were by this whole thing, but, you know, whatever works.

“Better?” Taemin asks, sounding almost amused as you find a comfortable position on the ground. It’s really dark in here. You can’t see a thing and you thank the heavens that you haven’t stepped on him yet.

“Kind of.”

“You can come closer, you know.”

“I’m fine.”

“No you’re not. You’re still shivering.” He protests. “Come closer.”

This was technically true. You were shivering, but more from the nerves than from the cold.

“Fine.” You say, scooching nearer to Taemin.

“A little more.”

You reluctantly scooch an inch or so closer to him.

“Little more.”

“Nope. I’m fine right here.”

Taemin rustles around in his sleeping bag, and then you feel his arm snake around your waist and tug you in closer to him.

“Taemin!”

“What? This way we can both be warm.”

“...Okay then.”

You and Taemin sit in awkward silence for awhile, backs pressed together in the tiny tent. You can hear his breath in the overwhelming quiet, something that both calms you and makes you nervous at the same time.

Just go to sleep. Just… sleep. Sleep.

This wasn’t working.

“Taemin?”

“Mm?”

“Are you still awake?”

“Yes, why?”

“Do you wanna talk for awhile?”

“Sure, I guess. What do you want to talk about?”

“I don’t know.”

“That’s helpful.” Taemin laughs quietly, rustling around in his sleeping bag. “You can turn and look at me, you know. You don’t have to talk to the side of the tent all night.”

“...Okay.” You flip over hesitantly, making sure to keep a good amount of distance between you and him when you do so. But again, it’s really dark in here and you can’t see a thing so you weren’t quite sure how far you were from him.

“Are you still cold?”

“No.” You lie, tugging the sleeping bag around yourself tightly in an attempt to gather up some more heat.

“You’re lying.”

“No I’m not.”

“You’re still shivering. Come closer.”

“I’m okay.”

“I’m not accepting ‘no’ as an answer. Come closer.” Taemin commands.

“Okay, okay.” You grumble, scooching in closer again.

Taemin’s arms wrap around you possessively, yanking you in until you were flush against his body.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

At first you thought something was stomping around outside, but then you realize it was just the sound of your own heart beating abnormally hard in your chest.

“T-Taemin?”

“I’m cold.”

He’s cold. Okay. There was nothing else going on here, of course.

“We’re cuddling.” You say plainly, waiting for him to argue against you and call it something else.

“Yes.”

“But only for the purposes of creating heat, correct?”

“Absolutely. Cuddling for the purpose of heat creation.” Taemin agrees.

“Yeah. Okay.”

“You know, if you’re really that cold, we’d technically be warmer if we stripped-”

“Nope.”

“I’m just saying, there would be a lot more body heat-”

“Taemin. No.”

“Okay, fine.”

Silence settles over the tent once again, but instead of the cold keeping you awake, it’s Taemin this time. You can feel his chest move up and down as he breaths, deep and even, and you can feel his warm breath against your neck.

You’d be enjoying this if you weren’t so nervous at the same time.

“__________?”

“Yes, Taemin?”

“Can I tell you something?”

“Sure, go ahead. What do you want to tell me?”

There’s a pause, and then, very softly, “I kind of sorta think I like you.”

“Kind of sorta think?”

“Wait, that came out wrong. I like you. There. I said it.”

He likes you.

Okay.

Wait, what?

“You…. like. Me.” You say slowly, turning the words over in your mind and try to figure out if there could be another possible meaning to what he said.

He could like you as a friend. Or as a co-counselor. That’s probably what he meant.

“Yes. I like you.” He repeats firmly.

“Thanks, Taemin. I… like you too, I guess. You’re a great co-counselor.”

“No, no. I don’t think you understood what I meant. I mean, I’m in love with you. That’s really what I meant.”

How were you supposed to respond to that? Did you like him too?

Well, yeah. Duh. Of course you liked him. Your heart and head were going insane being this close to him.

But… what were you supposed to say to that?

“____________?”

“Huh?”

“I just confessed to you, and you haven’t said anything yet and I… I was just wondering… if… you… maybe, um, liked me back? Or, actually, if you were kind of sorta in love with me too?” Taemin says hesitantly, nerves making his voice shake uncharacteristically.

“Just a second. I’m… thinking.”

“Okay.”

You can do it. Just say it. You were already cuddling with him in a tent while being lost in the woods. Might as well take this a step up and confess your love for him.

Do it. Say it.

“I…. kind of sorta think I’m in love with you too.”

“Kind of sorta think?”

“Okay, I’m in love with you. Better?”

“Much.” There’s another pause, and then he asks timidly, “Is it okay if I kiss you, then?”

“I think so?”

“You think so?

“I mean, yes. Kiss me, Taemin.”

Suddenly, like he couldn’t wait any longer, Taemin’s lips find your ear.

It seems like that wasn’t the area Taemin was aiming for, but it’s too dark in here to see anything so he’s just relying on his sense of touch to do everything.

His lips detach themselves from your ear and find your cheek.

Almost there, Taemin.

He doesn’t remove his lips this time; instead, he peppers tiny pecks from your cheek to the corner of your mouth.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

He was going to kiss you.

Taemin’s mouth presses onto your’s, landing right on target.

Oh, oh my.

His arms tighten around you, pulling you in closer to him. Taemin’s lips move against your’s sweetly, tenderly, but there’s a desperate edge to it.

Probably because he knows that the two of you aren’t going to get much more alone time in the future and this may be the last (and first, technically) time you’d be able to do something like this.

And, in the wise words of the internet and popular culture:

Well, that escalated quickly.

Somehow (you don’t exactly remember how this happened, strangely), you end up on top of him, kissing him like you needed his breath to survive.

First kisses shouldn’t be like this. You’ve seen the movies. You’ve read the books. First kisses between couples are normally goodbyes, little pecks on the lips before parting ways that leave you with an entire night to gauge how you feel about the other before deciding exactly what you wanted to do with the relationship.

This wasn’t sweet. Or innocent in any way, shape or form. But then again, Taemin wasn’t exactly the most pure of souls.  

“Wait, Taemin.” You pant when his hands start to wander to… places.

“What?” He asks breathlessly, nuzzling your neck and dropping a kiss on the skin there.

“We’re in a tent.”

“Yes. We’re in a tent. Great observation.” Taemin agrees, moving back up to attack your lips again and thoroughly distracting you for another minute before Taemin’s hands start fiddling with the hem of your shirt.

“Wait!” You gasp, pushing him away.

“What?”

“We’re in a tent.”

“You said that already.”

“I mean, we can’t do… this in a tent.” You explain, feeling your face go red.

Taemin sits back, silent for a second. “Tents are romantic.” He says defensively, sounding almost desperate.

“We’re lost in the woods.”

“That makes it even more romantic.”

“We’re surrounded by sixth graders. You can’t honestly tell me that’s romantic.”

“Okay, okay. I guess we really shouldn’t then….” He sighs in disappointment.

“So…” You say awkwardly after a long, pregnant pause.

“So…”

“Now… what?”

“I… don’t know.” Taemin laughs nervously.

It would help if you could actually see something in here. Your eyes are starting to adjust to the lack of light, but you still can’t see Taemin’s facial expressions, which might help in this situation.

“Do you want to take a walk?” You suggest finally, pulling the sleeping bag out from under you and draping it over your shoulders as a kind of cape.

“Sure.” Taemin agrees, copying your sleeping bag/cape idea.

He s the tent and steps out, helping you up. Taemin grabs your hand, smiling sweetly at you in the moonlight. “See? This is romantic.”

“Very.” You whisper. “Of course, it would probably be a hundred times better if we weren’t in a camp of middle schoolers.”

“Yeah…” Taemin agrees, casting a dark glance at the other tents around him. “If it wasn’t for these brats, I could have gotten laid.”

You smack his arm, feeling slightly offended by his wording.

“It’s true, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is true, but still. Is that all you were hoping to accomplish with this?” You hiss at him.

“What? No! That would have just been an, um, added perk. If was all that I was going for, there were much easier people I could have pursued."

He had a point. There were plenty of counselors at this camp that were desperate to get some. Cough cough JONGHYUN cough cough. Well, he didn’t really want to get some with Taemin. You didn’t think so, at least. You didn’t think JongHyun swung that way. Maybe he did. You honestly weren’t sure, but hey, it was none of your business who JongHyun chose to pursue. Just as long as it wasn’t you.

“I think you’re really great, _________. And working with you this summer has probably been the only thing that gets me up in the morning.”

“Really?” You say, brushing a strand of hair behind your ear and feeling your face go pink with happiness.

“Yeah. And then I had this dream where I kissed you and the idea just got stuck in my brain so much to the point where just seeing you made my brain short out, and that’s probably why I’ve said and done all of the stupid crap I did these last couple weeks. It’s not that I meant to offend you… it’s just that I didn’t want you to know that I actually had sincere feelings for you and so I tried to be as stupid as I could possibly be and obviously that worked well because I made a fool out of myself most of the summer-”

You kiss him lightly on the cheek, cutting off his nervous rambling before he accidentally offends you again.

“I’m taking that as my cue to shut up?”

“Good job, smart one.”

“Got it.”

You’re about to say something else, but then you hear the crunching of gravel underfoot and look down to see… gravel. The trail.

“Taemin.”

“Yes?”

“I found the trail.”

“Seriously?” He groans. “We did all of that worrying for nothing?”

“Looks like it.”

“If the trail is right here… then the lake must be…” You pull away from Taemin and run across the gravel pathway, stopping at the sandy edge of the lake.

It was quickly decided to set up camp by the lake, enjoying the peaceful view of the glassy surface of the lake reflecting the moon. Now this, this was romantic. And far enough away from the middle schoolers to get some proper alone time.

And… now…. um.

Ahem.

It was safe to say things, once again, escalated quickly.

Most of it was a blur of wandering hands and kisses that didn’t leave you with much breath left to do anything much but kiss him back.

But, naturally, that’s where you just happen to fall asleep once you and him are too tired to do much else.

And of course, that’s where your middle schoolers just happen to find you.

Tangled up in Taemin’s arms, sleeping on the ground with a sleeping bag twisted around the two of you and your head buried in his chest.

“What are they doing?”

“I don’t know, but they’ve been sleeping like that for awhile.”

“Ew! Does that mean-”

“No! Ew! That’s gross!”

“But Jake said-”

“Yuck! There’s no way!”

You lift your head off of Taemin’s chest tiredly, looking up to find a clump of middle schoolers observing you and Taemin from a distance. Dew had already soaked through the bottom of the sleeping bag, leaving you feeling damp and cold.

“Taemin.” You mumble, pushing him lightly.

“What?” He grumbles back, trying to snuggle into you.

“Get up. It’s morning.”

“I don’t wanna.”

“Too bad. You gotta.”

"Go back to sleep..." Taemin mumbles with discontent.

"There are middle schoolers watching us. We've gotta get up," You say, stretching and pulling the sleeping bag off.

"I found the trail!" One of the sixth graders chirps, pointing at the ground.

"No , Sherlock." Taemin retorts crabbily, sitting up and rubbing his droopy eyes.

"Taemin," You chide, rolling your eyes at his comment.

You, Taemin, and the clump of middle schoolers make your way back to clearing the rest of the sixth graders were sleeping in and then start packing up to trek back to base camp.

Luckily for you and your co-counselor, the middle schoolers are pretty quiet the rest of the way back, shaken by the whole getting-lost-in-the-woods ordeal they had suffered through last night.

It was like a blessing from the heavens. You and Taemin were able to laugh, chat, and, to the chagrin of the sixth graders hovering behind the two of you, hold hands.

Your little rag-tag group arrives sometime right before lunch, exhausted and worn out to the point where you're tempted to just go back to sleep in your cabin instead of trying to figure out what to do for the rest of the day.

"So, how'd the hike go?" Key snickers when he sees your group enter the mess hall, nudging JongHyun and trying not to laugh.

"I'm never taking advice from you again, Key." You deadpan, sliding into the chair at the table and lying your head on the flat surface.

"Was it really that bad?" Minho inquires.

"Yes..." You groan, sitting up and leaning your head on Taemin’s shoulder tiredly.

Three pairs of eyes stare at you and him in confusion, trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

JongHyun seems to be the first to come to a conclusion.

"Oh! Oh!" JongHyun exclaims, clapping his hands together excitedly. "You two are together now, right?"

Your blush and Taemin's sheepish smile is enough to give him an answer.

"You are, aren’t you? Yes! Finally! Does that mean you hooked up then?" JongHyun asks, quirking an eyebrow suggestively.

"JongHyun!" Taemin hisses.

"What? It's a valid question!" He replies defensively.

"JongHyun, you know that's the universal sign for 'I-got-laid-but-I-can't-say-so-because-I'd-be-a-douche-for-bragging-about-it'." Key explains, winking at Taemin.

"No, we didn't do anything like... that. We kissed. That's it." You cut in, clearing up any confusion before it became a full-blown misunderstanding.

"But we still have three more weeks of this camp. There's plenty of time left to get laid." JongHyun states simply, shrugging.

"JongHyun!" Taemin exclaims, face burning in embarrassment.

"What?"

You try to ignore the guys arguing, and instead close your eyes and smile to yourself.

Three more weeks of taking care of the demon children.

But as long as you had Taemin by your side, it won't be so bad.