The morning was crisp; Moonbyul could feel it through her blanket. She snuggled into the warm fabric, wondering just how it could possibly get under 70 degrees in the middle of summer. It was mighty unfortunate that her phone alarm chose that comfortable moment to blare a recently released Fiestar song. Well, not necessarily unfortunate- Fiestar was a great group. It was more unfortunate due to the fact that the serenity of the morning was effectively shattered, and a few of the lighter sleeping girls were yelling from the other room for her to turn off her loud music.

Moonbyul let the last line of the song play before swiping the ‘off’ button on the alarm app. For a few seconds, she debated between getting up and falling back to sleep.

“Euuughh,” Moonbyul groaned, rising slowly. She kept the blanket wrapped around her shoulders as she dropped onto the floor, careful not to startle a snoring Solar. Although, if she didn’t wake up to Fiestar’s iconic hit song “One More”, Moonbyul wasn’t sure anything would be able to wake her up. Moonbyul plodded into the room where the girls slept, hoping she remembered all the girls who had requested to be woken up early for stretching on hike day.

“Yeri-ah, Yerin-ah,” Moonbyul shook the girls awake, relishing in their groans. She knew their pain. Soon they would understand the allure of coffee. “Sujeong-ah, Dami-ah, time to wake up.”

“Moonbyul unnie,” Dami rubbed at her eyes sleepily. “Are you gonna stretch with us?”

“Aaaaaaaaaah...”

“Unnie,” Yeri pouted and blinked quickly, hitting Moonbyul with a certain kind of convincing cuteness only sleepy young girls can achieve. “Please?”

Moonbyul floundered. On one hand, her nice warm bed was calling her name. On the other, how was she supposed to resist these youngsters?

“Can I grab some coffee first?” Moonbyul asked tentatively. The four girls erupted into bright smiles and nodded. The girls hurriedly grabbed their hiking outfits and rushed to the bath house. Moonbyul drew her blanket tighter around her and walked back into the counselor room to change.

Going off the previously confirmed information that Solar would sleep through anything, Moonbyul set to changing without shame. It wasn’t until she heard a light, “You have a nice ,” that she realized that was a significant mistake on her part.

Moonbyul whipped around sharply, quickly pulling up her shorts.“Solar, hi! Good morning! Sorry for wakin-” Moonbyul paused. “Did you just compliment my ?”

Solar flashed a thumbs up at her and rolled over. Moonbyul’s face heated up and she decided to put on her socks and boots outside instead.

As Moonbyul was tying the laces, the girls surrounded her, their faces entirely too bright and happy for this early in the morning. “Shh, youngsters. This old man has to grab the coffee first.” Moonbyul hobbled to the mess hall to greet Boa and fill up a mug with her caffeinated poison of choice. Her campers followed along behind her like baby ducklings. It was an utterly adorable sight.

Back at the cabin, Solar watched the mother duck and her ducklings parade over to the mess hall from the window. She chuckled, yawned, and went back to her bed for a few more minutes of sleep.

Now in a different cabin entirely, Whasa and Wheein were hard at work piecing together the details of their plan.

“But what if it doesn’t work,” Wheein whined for the umpteenth time that morning. She picked at the hem of her shirt nervously. “I mean, morally, do we have a right to interfere here? In the lives of our friends?”

Whasa took her girlfriend’s hands in her own. “Wheein. Pull yourself together. This is a romantic comedy-slash-drama. Did you see any question of morality in A Witch’s Romance?”

“Actually yes, there was quite a bit of it-”

“No! You saw romance and drama and slapstick comedy!”

“Whasa, have you ever even watched A Witch’s Romance because I think you’re missing the point of that dram-”

“Shh shh shhhhh...” Whasa ran a finger along Wheein’s mouth, effectively silencing her. “Drama, comedy, romance? Yes, yes, and yes. Morality? No.”

“Okay, I think you really oughta watch this drama for more than the first ten minutes if you’re gonna use it like this in an example.”

“I watched fifteen minutes of it, thank you very much.”

“That’s still insufficient, Whasa.”

Whasa groaned and threw her hands up. “Come on Wheein! We’ve got to do something! Think of it as an early Christmas present to both of them.”

“Christmas is half the year away.”

“That’s what early means, Wheein.”

Wheein buried her face in her hands. “I know I’m being stubborn and pessimistic, and I’m sorry, but-”

“No,” Whasa sighed. “I understand. You’re just worried about them.” Wheein nodded. She put on a fake smile and waved at a couple of their campers as they made their way to the bath house to get ready.

“Oh,” Wheein blinked, looking between her hand and the campers. “I have an idea.”

Whasa raised an eyebrow warily. “You can’t hit the campers when you’re feeling frustrated Wheein. That’s just not right.” Wheein smacked Whasa’s shoulder.

“No you dummy! I was thinking about the hike! What if we told Minho and Jenissi about our plan and they can gather information for us. See if the plan would work, I guess.”

“That...” Whasa thought about it for a moment. “That just might be a good idea.”

“I do have those from time to time, you know.”

“I have to ask though,” Whasa smirked. “How did waving to the campers give you that idea?”

“Well because,” Wheein started, then stopped. “Actually, I’m not sure. But you know what they say- don’t question the thought process of a genius.”

“I’m not questioning the thought process of a genius, I’m questioning your thought process.”

Wheein made a face before heading towards the door. “This is harassment and I refuse to endure this suffering.”

“Wheein wait!” Whasa was laughing now. “Think about the children!”

“Oh, shut up,” Wheein snorted and made her way outside, heading towards the amphitheater where Jenissi, Minho, and two of the campers from their cabin were playing cards and enjoying the quiet of the early morning.

“Two kings,” One of the boys said.

“No way, that’s bull. Take the pile, kiddo.” Wheein could hear Minho’s triumphant cries cut through the stillness of the morning.

“, I was bluffing. You get the pile,” Wheein snorted. That sounded like Sungjun, the camp clown.

“Oh my god, I’ve been served by a kid,” Minho pouted.

“Please don’t use the Lord’s name in vain, Minho,” Jenissi commented.

“Yeah,” Wheein sat down beside them and took a peek at Minho’s cards. “Don’t use my name in vain.” Jenissi rolled his eyes and went back to studying his cards.

“Good morning Wheeinie!” Minho chirped, oddly happy for someone who pretty much just got his handed to him at a card game. “Also Jenissi, I am God. I am the Rap God.”

“Then where’s your mixtape, ‘Rap God’?”

“Ouch, man.”

“I only speak the truth,” Jenissi shrugged and pulled a card out of his hand and put it down on the table. “One ace.”

“Bull,” Wheein stated. “Minho has all the aces.”

“You’re not even playing!” Jenissi whined, but took his card back all the same.

“True. I actually have some serious business to attend to and it involves you guys.” Wheein watched as the other camper kid put down a card. She could tell he was lying, but she didn’t want to get too overzealous with her callouts. “It’s about The Plan.”

“So we finally get to learn the meaning behind your Parent Trap allusion?” Jenissi visibly perked up. Wheein nodded.

“Does this mean we have to stop playing?” The kid Wheein didn’t know looked between the three counselors with disappointment. He only had three cards left; this kid wanted to win.

“Wheein can tell us while we finish this round, Wonjun-ah,” Minho told the kid. Wheein nodded and explained the situation to Minho and Jenissi, interspersed with several heated interjections of “bull” by the players.

“So do you think you can do this for us?” Wheein asked.

“Hey,” Wonjun put down his last card and looked up at Wheein. “Can me and Sungjun help?”

Wheein blinked. “Well... yeah, I guess I don’t see why not? I don’t know what you’d be able to do though.”

“We can say that we’re slow hikers and hang out at the back of the line so Minho hyung and Jenissi hyung have to stay there with us. My girlfriend, Yuji, is friends with them from being in their cabin years ago, and if I get her and her friend Hyeyeon to stay with us, Moonbyul noona and Solar noona will have to stay with all of us.” Wonjun said, leaning back proudly.

Wheein was stunned.

Minho was stunned.

Jenissi was stunned.

Sungjun piped up, “Hey, we could also write the notes so they don’t recognize the handwriting.”

Wheein was stunned again.

Minho and Jenissi were also stunned.

“When did kids these days get so calculating?” Wheein muttered. Minho and Jenissi shook their heads. “Okay boys, you’re hired.” Wonjun and Sungjun fist bumped each other triumphantly.

Beside the mess hall, Moonbyul was leading a stretching session.

Everytime she would look up from a stretch, at least two more kids had joined in. She could see Boa and Sihyun sipping coffee and watching with amused grins from the side door of the mess hall. Was Moonbyul embarrassed or was she glad she could attract such a crowd? She wasn’t sure. All she knew for certain was that she couldn’t wait for another cup of coffee.

When the meal bell began clanging, Moonbyul couldn’t have been more relieved. She quickly dismissed the session and shot indoors to refill her mug.

Solar was already sitting outside with her breakfast and Moonbyul joined her, full mug in hand.

“So,” Moonbyul peered at Solar over the rim of her mug as she lifted it to her lips. “You think I have a nice ?”

Solar’s cheeks turned a bright red and she gulped, opening to defend herself. Before she could say anything, Wheein, Whasa, Jenissi, Minho, and Hyuk bursted through the doors, causing quite the calamity to the otherwise quiet morning. Solar gaped at them before meeting Moonbyul’s eyes once again, terrified that she might have taken it the wrong way.

On the contrary- Moonbyul smiled knowingly and gave Solar a playful wink.

“Howdy partners,” Hyuk chirped as he dropped between Solar and Moonbyul, effectively cutting off their conversation, much to Solar’s relief.

The morning went by in a blur of breakfast foods and bad cowboy impersonations. The call for senior campers to get ready to leave rang out after 20 minutes, spurring the counselors into action. Whasa, Wheein, and Hyuk waved at their compatriots as the senior counselors made their way to join the group gathering on the road in front of the mess hall.

“Miss Moonbyul,” Moonbyul whipped around just in time to get crushed by the tight embraces of two senior campers.

“Yuji, Hyeyeon,” Moonbyul laughed. “What are you doing back here?”

“We decided to take this year’s hike slower and savor it. Will you hang out in the back of the group with us?”

“Well,” Moonbyul looked at Solar, who shrugged and nodded. “Yeah, sure.”

“Sweet!” Minho punched the air. “Their boyfriends were gonna straggle behind too, so now we have friends with us.”

“You had me,” Jenissi blinked at Minho, frowning.

“Wait no, Jeni, I didn’t mean that-”

“No. No, that’s alright. I understand.”

“Jeni no, please don’t be that way!”

“I’ll just take the kids and go, Minho.”

“Jeni, no, a divorce would ruin the kids and I don’t have the money to pay for child support.”

“Shoulda thought about that before you went and replaced me with Moonbyul and Solar.”

Moonbyul rolled her eyes and grabbed the two men and started dragging them along after the rest of the group, calling for Solar, the girls, and their boyfriends to follow along.

The beginning of the hike was spent with energies peaking and easily tackling the first few steep inclines. The topics of discussion ranged from Sungjun, Minho, and Hyeyeon defending the existence of Bigfoot while Jenissi and Wonjun brought up facts to disprove their claims mercilessly.

“What is your stance Solar?” Minho nodded towards Solar.

“I think there’s still so much we don’t know about nature that it’d be illogical to rule anything out at this point,” She shrugged.

Moonbyul grinned- her thoughts matched Solar’s words exactly.

An hour and a half into the hike, the group stopped at a stream that crossed their path to catch their breaths.

“Hey- what are you guys doing for the Banquet tomorrow?” Yuji asked Moonbyul. “Got any dates?”

Moonbyul laughed nervously, avoiding looking in Solar’s general direction. “None yet.”

“Well have you asked anyone?”

“N-no...” Moonbyul frowned. “I’m too afraid of getting rejected, you know?” Unbeknownst to Moonbyul, Solar raised an eyebrow and looked towards her from her position beside the stream.

“Yeah, I can understand that. Do you want to go with a date?”

“Oh, yeah.” Moonbyul looked towards the sky. “Yeah, that’d be nice.”

The last leg of the hike was spent on the topic of the Loch Ness monster, with the debate teams split the same way as earlier.

“We’re here!” Sungjun shouted upon finding a steep rocky staircase of sorts.

“But this isn’t a waterfall?” Solar questioned, looking at Moonbyul. She only received a smirk in response.

Sungjun helped Hyeyeon up the staircase and Solar followed along behind them, curious now.

What she saw took her breath away.

An enormous thundering waterfall, the height of at least a three story building, fed into several different levels of pools where campers and counselors alike were wading in the cold, clear waters. If there ever was a perfect Kodak moment, this was it.

Sungjun and Wonun pushed past her to get into the water, knocking her off balance. Before she could slam down onto the wet rocks, Moonbyul caught her, knocking her breath away.

“Hey, you okay?”

“Y-yeah,” Solar gulped, staring into Moonbyul’s pretty eyes.

“Well, you wanna come into the water with me?” Moonbyul smiled encouragingly.

“Sure.”

Moonbyul made sure Solar was steady on her feet before taking her shirt off to reveal a nice, sleek black bikini.

“I’m gay,” Solar whispered aloud.

“We know,” Minho stated behind her. When Solar spun around nervously, she was met with Minho’s good natured smile.

“Don’t tell her I said that, please,” Solar pled.

Minho just laughed and gave her shoulder a friendly punch before taking off his own shirt and jumping into the waist deep natural pool.

Solar took off her shoes and put them beside Moonyul’s and took a step into the water.

“ me,” She yelped, jerking back instantly. Despite it being mid-summer, the water was frigid, even chillier than she’d originally planned for.

“Well since you asked so nicely,” Moonbyul smiled, giving her a suggestive wink.

“I don’t have to withstand this abuse. They don’t pay me enough for this.”

“They’re not paying us anything really.”

“Exactly. Further proof that I have no reason to have to go through this because of you.”

“But Solar,” Moonbyul whined.

“Nope.”

“Solar please,” Moonbyul moved closer to her in the water. Solar fought a grin back.

“Nuh-uh.”

“Solar. Solar please.” The tips of Moonbyul’s lips curled up as she caught onto Solar’s joke.

“No way. Not after this.”

“B-but,” Moonbyul’s lip quivered. “What about the children?”

Solar couldn’t help herself from leaning toward Moonbyul, transfixed by her lips. As her eyes fluttered shut in preparation for what she was about to do, Minho’s voice jolted her back to reality.

“Hey, you guys wanna come join the Polar Bear Club?”

Solar and Moonbyul both jumped.

“Yeah, yes-” Solar choked out. “Of course.” She waded her way over to where Minho was waiting with a group of campers. Moonbyul stood stock still, not even registering what had happened.

Solar had almost kissed her.

Solar had almost kissed her.

From the dryness of the rock, Jenissi sat, after having just watched the whole situation just play out. Even he was blushing. That was the stuff of fan fictions that he just witnessed. He hastily grabbed his cell phone from his pocket, fingers whizzing across the keyboard as he updated Wheein and Whasa with the best of his story telling abilities.

Back at the camp, after just arriving back from Low Falls to watch the tired junior campers eat lunch and in desperate need of some lunch of her own and a nap, Wheein’s pocket vibrated. She took it out and read her screen with an audible gasp.

“Well?” Whasa raised an eyebrow. “Share with the rest of the class, Wheein.” Hyuk, who was sitting beside her, nodded enthusiastically.

“They almost kissed,” Wheein whispered.

“WHAT?” Hyuk jumped up. “Minho and Jenissi are cheating on their boyfriends?!”

“No, you dummy, Moonbyul and Solar.” Wheein rolled her eyes as Hyuk lowered himself back down.

“Oh. Well that’s good, isn’t it?”

“It’s great,” Whasa grinned at Wheein. “This plan is totally gonna work.”

“I didn’t believe it at first, but I’m pretty sure you’re right.” Wheein nodded, typing out a response to her faithful informant.

“What are you telling him now?” Whasa peeked over her girlfriend’s shoulder.

“To cancel Sungjun and Wonjun’s offer to write the notes. I wanna get this done right now.” Wheein stated.

“I could write them instead,” Hyuk winked at them. “What are we gonna do with the kids though?”

Wheein and Whasa pondered that question. Whasa then promptly stood up and clapped her hands, announcing, “Alright kiddos. It’s nap time!” The three adults herded sleepy young kids into their respective cabins before meeting back at the art cave to write some super sneaky notes.

Meanwhile, the rest of the hike passed Moonbyul in a blur. She remembered getting out of the water and drying off, and she remembered starting back to camp, but the details escaped her. She was still stuck trying to process the reality of what had just happened.

Solar. Kiss? Solar kiss her? Kiss. Maybe. Almost. Solar.

“What was that?” Moonbyul blinked, shaken from her thoughts. Solar had her head cocked to the side, her eyes questioning. “Solar what?”

“U-uh,” Moonbyul stammered.

“Yeah?”

“Gotta Zayn,” Moonbyul shouted, dashing forward down the trail, nervousness clouding her judgement. She probably shouldn’t have run away from Solar after she tried to kiss her, because it was probably going to make Solar think she’d done something wrong. Then again, Zayn shouldn’t have run away from One Direction. If Zayn could leave, so could she.

From that point onwards, she was running down the whole trail, never ceasing. Always running, refusing to stop. She only stopped about an hour later as she stood panting in front of her cabin. As soon as she had regained her breath she walked inside, climbed up to her bed, and flopped down. Except, there on her pillow, lay a note.

She knew the camp had a mail system in which campers could send letters to one another and they would be delivered around mid-day. Assuming it was a cute little note from one of her girls, she opened the note with a little smile.

Will you go to the Banquet with me? If yes, please meet me in the gazebo by the creek an hour before the Banquet starts. –S

S? Moonbyul frowned, going down the list of girls in her cabin whose names started with S.

Then she realized.

S stood for Solar.

She gasped and grinned, finally getting the answers she wanted. If the kiss made her 75 percent sure Solar had the same feelings for her, this note pushed the percentage over 100. She hugged the note to her chest before sliding it under her pillow and curling up for a much need nap, a goofy smile plastered to her face.

Later on, Solar arrived back at the cabin, her shoulders slumping when she saw Moonbyul asleep. She was almost entirely certain that her behavior had ruined any chances she had with Moonbyul. Sitting down on her bunk with a sigh, she noticed a piece of paper resting on her pillow. Picking it up, she read it with wide eyes.

I’ve been admiring you all week. Will you go to the Banquet as my date? If you want to, come find me in the gazebo by the creek behind our cabin an hour before the Banquet starts. –M

Solar stood corrected. Maybe she hadn’t blown everything with Moonbyul after all. She smiled upwards, where Moonbyul lay sleeping, and thanked every single lucky star she’d ever wished on for this opportunity to meet the most wonderful person in the world.


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