Archive of Our Own

“It'll be fun, Jisungie!”

“No it won’t.”

“You need to build up your resume somehow. ”

“Who are you? My mother?”

“Do you even have anything better to do? ”

“Sure I do…”

“We both know you're just gonna end up playing games all summer. ”

“That’s not true!”

“Pleeease?”

“No, Chenle.”

Jisung is not typically someone who has a hard time standing up for himself. He knows how to say no, and he does so frequently. 

His best friend just happens to have the persistence of a mosquito, constantly buzzing at his ears and exhausting his resolve in the process. Little leech.

Speaking of mosquitoes, Jisung is currently being eaten alive by a swarm of them as he lays awake in his cabin, Chenle blabbing in the bunk above him. He slaps at a bug sipping from his arm. He’d stopped paying attention to what Chenle was saying a while ago, offering only vague, sleepy hums of acknowledgement. Chenle doesn’t seem to mind. He’s always lacked the self-awareness that Jisung seems to have in excess.

They’ve only been here for a day. All the camp counselors arrive three days before the campers for their training and ‘bonding exercises.’ If Jisung has to do one more team-building ice breaker he thinks he may actually keel over on the spot from humiliation. That aspect of the work hadn’t been in the job description. If it had, he wouldn’t have agreed to come. Ice breakers are deal breakers in his book.

Chenle is so happy he’s agreed to work with him over the summer, though. Renjun is usually Chenle’s cabinmate, but this year he’s decided to stay home to spend more time with his new boyfriend. Jisung grimaces. 

Renjun and Donghyuck make a cute couple, but sometimes Jisung wishes they were a little less precious. Their insistence on holding hands at every possible moment and whispering sweet nothings into each other’s ears while at the lunch table… It’s a bit much for anyone to handle. Especially someone who’s as hopelessly single as Jisung is. 

But as sickening as it is, Jisung can’t help the slight tug of jealousy in his gut. It feels like all their friends are neatly coupled up, so happy and fulfilled in their relationships. Jisung knows he’s always been the baby in their friend group, but sometimes he thinks he wants that too. The sweet touches, the whispers, stolen moments, loving looks. He yearns for it. But he’d never tell his hyungs that.

“Are you even listening to me?” A pillow swings down from the top bunk and attempts to crash into his face, but Jisung manages to dodge it before it makes contact.

“Yeah, I’m listening,” he croaks. The arid summer air has made his throat raw and tender. This isn’t at all helped by the frequent and boisterous singalongs that the counselors are made to participate in before mealtimes. Most of the counselors already know the songs by heart, as they had once been campers themselves, but Jisung has to murmur along and attempt to learn the lyrics by osmosis. Pair that with smoky campfires and water that tastes like dirt, and Jisung’s throat feels like sandpaper whenever he swallows. 

“I know you’re lying,” Chenle says with an accusatory tone. “We’re going on a hike tomorrow.”

Jisung groans.

“Don’t give me that attitude! If it were my choice we’d stay and hang out by the creek, but the supervisors want to take us on a full tour of the camp, which includes Eagle’s Peak.” 

“That sounds like hell,” Jisung laments, squishing his cheek further into his teddy bear plush. Yes, he’s nineteen years old. And no, he feels absolutely no shame about snuggling with a raggedy toy bear named Mr. Fuzz. “What if I pretend to have asthma, you think they’d let me out of it then?” 

Chenle seems to genuinely consider this for a second. “If you didn’t put it on your medical forms then they probably wouldn’t buy it…” 

“Crap.”

“Don’t go saying stuff like that around the kids,” Chenle chides.

“I can’t say crap? Is that a swear word?” 

“It is to a group of sixth graders, man. Don’t slip up around them, because they feed on your weakness like a pack of starved piranhas.”

“Geez, Chenle, why the hell did you make me come here again?” 

“Don’t say hell either!” He clicks his tongue disapprovingly. “And it’s because I refuse to suffer alone. If I have to stay here and not enjoy my summer, then you do too.” 

“You’re a terrible friend.”

“I love you too, Jisungie!” Chenle sings-songs before yawning exaggeratedly. “We have to get up at sunrise tomorrow to beat the heat. We better get some sleep so we don’t pass out halfway up the mountain.”

“It’s a fucking mountain?”

“Language, Jisung!”

🏕

Jisung is extremely upset with his best friend when he’s roused from his comfortable slumber by the sharp crash of a bell, the first navy blue light of day just starting to sneak through the slats of the wooden walls of their cabin.  

“Rise and shine, sleepyhead!” Suddenly, a dark shadow conceals Jisung’s view of the cobwebs laced along the beams of the cabin’s ceiling. Chenle’s smiling face hovers above him, eyes glinting with sick amusement as Jisung groans a muffled protest at being woken so early. 

“I can’t go.” He weakly coughs. “I’m sick.”

“We both know that’s a load of-” Chenle pauses, “nonsense.”

Jisung allows himself one more long-winded groan for catharsis before he forces himself up. “Did you know you’re kind of a sadist?”

“No I’m not.” Chenle’s brows furrow. “You’re just funny when you’re in pain.”

“That’s exactly something a sadist would say,” he grumbles, pulling on his camp counselor shirt, a bright neon green with the logo of the camp emblazoned on the front in bold, red font. When Jisung had first questioned the horrific color choice, Chenle had said something dismissive about being more visible to the campers. However, Jisung is more concerned about being visible to wolves or mountain lions on their trek up Eagle’s Peak. With the t-shirt on, he practically feels like a walking target. He might as well cover himself in tuna and run up the mountain screaming ‘come get your free kitty food! This prey won’t fight back! Put him out of his misery, isn’t this shirt fugly?’  

Chenle only replied that he worries too much. That may be true, but surely Chenle would have assured him there are no wolves or mountain lions around the camp if that was the case. Jisung frets on his nails as they walk to the cafeteria. 

When they reach the dining hall, breakfast is hard boiled eggs, cold sausage patties, an assortment of sad-looking fruit, and several loaves of white bread which still have their clearance stickers slapped haphazardly across the bags. 

“They usually save the good food for when the campers get here,” Chenle says a bit wearily, but he still loads his plate up with eggs, a sausage patty, half a banana, and two slices of bread. Jisung nods stiffly and starts to reach for a plate, but the smell of the eggs and sausage makes his stomach turn unpleasantly. He grabs a mug and pours himself a cup of coffee from the pot in the kitchen.

It’s lukewarm, and Jisung doesn’t really like coffee, but he chokes it down. He’ll need the energy if he’s going to be hiking up Eagle’s Peak. 

The cafeteria space is bustling with counselors. They’re all chipper despite the early hour, grouping together at the tables and laughing boisterously among themselves. The girls all have their hair tied up in high ponytails that bounce and swish as they move. Jisung scans for any familiar faces, but he sees none. It seems that Chenle, on the other hand, knows just about everyone. It’s sort of surreal to see his best friend cheerily greeting all these complete strangers, doing secret handshakes and laughing conspiratorially about past camp shenanigans. It’s like he has a double life. Even though it shouldn’t bother Jisung, something about it puts a sour taste in his mouth.  

Jisung huffs and sips his coffee as Chenle greets another one of his very good summer camp friends. The double doors at the side of the cafeteria open quietly. No one else seems to notice it over the bustle and the noise, but Jisung watches with mild curiosity as a boy with scruffy black hair enters the dining hall, yawning and looking as though he’s still halfway stuck in a drowse. Jisung immediately relates. 

The boy grabs a plate and loads it up with food. An inordinate amount, really. Jisung would be disgusted if he wasn’t blinded by respect for his gall . He doesn’t sit down, opting to lean against the wall and shovel the food into his mouth as if he was in a hurry and couldn’t even spare the few seconds it took to swallow his food. 

Jisung wants to ask Chenle who the hell that weirdo is, but he’s so engrossed in conversation with his camp friends (Jisung has already forgotten their names from last night’s introductory campfire. Whoops.) that he keeps his mouth shut. 

He keeps sipping at his coffee and watching through his shaggy black bangs as the boy stuffs his face, occasionally stopping to flash a full-cheeked smile and a wave at any passersby. His smile is quite cute, what with the way his eyes scrunch up, but the cuteness is diminished by his ravenous (and quite frankly disturbing) devouring of his food. 

“Hey, you sure you don’t wanna eat something? The hike up Eagle’s Peak is kinda brutal,” Chenle suddenly says to him, speaking through a hunk of banana in his mouth. 

“I’m a dancer; I’m sure I can handle it,” Jisung says confidently. 

Chenle gives him a look. “You sure? I have a granola bar in my bag if you need something. I think the breakfast bar is picked clean by now.”

“I’m sure.” God knows how long that granola bar has been… festering… in the bottom of Chenle’s bag. “Thank you, Le.”

He slings an arm around his shoulders. “This is Park Jisung, the biggest idiot I’ve ever met,” Chenle introduces him. Jisung scowls. “But he’s my best bro. I’ve told you guys about him, right?” Chenle’s camp friends seem to light up with recognition, and Jisung feels slightly warm. It’s nice to know that Chenle thinks about him even when he’s not there. He smiles as he relearns the names of Chenle’s friends. They’re all very nice. He likes their intricately decorated wood cookie name tags and their childlike enthusiasm. 

Jisung thinks maybe summer camp won’t be all that bad. 

When he glances over to where that strange boy had been wolfing down his breakfast, he’s vanished. He looks around at the other tables to try and catch another glimpse, maybe point him out to Chenle, but he’s nowhere to be seen. 

Jisung makes a mental note to look out for him during campfire that night.

🏕

Jisung sorely underestimated how hot the sun is. He once listened to an audiobook about space, and it had claimed the sun is 93 million miles away from Earth. So why does it feel like it’s suspended directly over his head, radiating its heat over him in sickening waves that make his knees wobble and his head swim? He scowls at that evil little orb in the sky, mentally cussing it out for being such an unrelenting torment. 

There isn’t a cloud in sight, and there are no trees on the path. 

“Come on, Jisung! Keep up!” Chenle and his friends are trekking happily up the trail, occasionally stopping to excitedly point out a lizard or a cool rock. Jisung wishes he could share their enthusiasm. 

He pants, feeling a trickle of sweat run down his nose. His boots seem to weigh him down and his feet drag with every step. “You can go on without me, don’t worry!” 

“You sure?” Chenle asks, looking uneasy. “I don’t wanna ditch you, dude.”

“I promise. I’m a slowpoke, so just go ahead.” He musters a smile. He feels like death. “We’re stopping for lunch at the peak, right? I’ll catch up to you there.”

“Okay… I’ll see you there, man!” 

Jisung sends him a weary thumbs up, and Chenle is running off with his friends. It doesn’t take long before his back disappears and Jisung is left alone among the other stragglers. Behind him are some of the older coordinators, big men with beards and a kind-looking woman with silver hair and a tattoo of a snake on her left arm. They walk slowly behind the rest of the pack, discussing the migration of a native bird population. Directly in front of him is a rather chubby boy wheezing his way up the incline. He has an inhaler clutched in his hand, and Jisung feels dreadfully sorry for him. 

Jisung fiddles with his wooden name tag, messily painted and covered in fluorescent smiley face stickers. He’s never been too good at the whole arts and crafts thing, but he thinks it has a sort of messy charm. He imagines hanging it on his wall when he gets home. Home. Jisung savors the thought of it. There’s little he wouldn’t do for some air conditioning and a glass of his mother’s homemade lemonade right about now.

He takes out his water bottle and sips from it. It’s warmed from the sun, and the water at the camp tastes mineral-y and dirty. Jisung grimaces. It tastes like he fished it right out of a pond. 

His stomach rumbles, and Jisung suddenly feels very faint. He isn’t sure how long he’s been walking now. The sun is at its highest point in the sky and all he’s been paying attention to is the act of putting one foot in front of the other. Just one step more. Jisung can manage one more step. And then another, and then another, and another, another…

Is he going to puke? He feels he might puke, but there is nothing other than coffee and acid in his stomach to expel. He takes another shaky sip of water. The landscape is hazy and warped. Jisung squints but nothing seems to focus. He really wants to sit down. If he could just make it to the top of Eagle’s Peak, then he’d be able to sit and eat and maybe close his eyes so the awful pounding in his head would stop. 

“Hey kiddo, are you alright?” The kind-looking woman with silver hair has a gentle hand placed on his shoulder, but it feels like a ton of bricks. 

“I’m just- just a little lightheaded…” Jisung says quietly. At least, he thinks he says it quietly. Everything sounds a little faraway, like his ears are full of water. 

The woman says something in response, but Jisung isn’t quite sure what she says, because he’s falling. He can feel it, his back hitting the Earth and the sun tickling his nose with its unrelenting rays. His head hurts, but this time it’s because there’s a rock digging into the back of his skull. 

He can hear the adults scrabbling about above him, asking him questions, putting the edge of a water bottle against his lips. He drinks it begrudgingly, feeling awfully stupid as his head is supported like a newborn baby. How humiliating. He shuts his eyes against the light of the sun, but it only seems to make him feel dizzier. 

Suddenly, hands are fitting themselves under his armpits and hoisting him up again. Jisung cracks his eyes open to see the friendly, smiling face of a young boy. A very cute young boy with shaggy black hair and an eyesmile and several pimples across his forehead. It’s the boy from the cafeteria. Jisung’s stomach is in knots. 

“Are you okay to walk back to camp?” He asks, his voice sweet and faraway, floating in one of Jisung’s ears and out the other. This boy is really pretty, even close up. He’s really pretty and he’s talking to him. Pretty boy turns away to speak to one of the coordinators, “He can’t even speak, we might need to call an ambulance. It’s probably heatstroke.”

Jisung cannot stand the embarrassment of having to leave camp in an ambulance because of a little hike. He can’t even imagine what all of Chenle’s camp friends would say about him. Probably that city boys like him simply aren’t made for the great outdoors and how he never would have made it through the week anyways. He simply can’t bear that. “Wait!” He grasps onto the boy’s elbow, planting his feet firmly onto the ground and standing as tall as he can without pathetically wobbling like a palm tree caught in a hurricane. “I’m— I’m fine. I can make it.” 

“You sure?” The pretty boy has his arm wrapped around Jisung’s shoulders to keep him upright, and he feels like he might pass out for a completely different reason (sheer embarrassment). 

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He shrugs the arm off, head still spinning, but the nausea beginning to alleviate. “Thanks,” he mumbles. 

“No problem.” The boy punctuates his words with a little chuckle and Jisung really can’t tell if he said something funny or if this boy is seriously judging him for his sad little display. Jisung imagines he looks like death. He’s sweating through his t-shirt, his bangs are plastered to his forehead, he’s probably white as a sheet, and the cargo shorts that his mom bought him are not at all flattering on him—

“Are you with us, honey?” The gray-haired lady interjects, looking rightfully concerned. Jisung wonders if she’s currently dreading the potential lawsuit his family could file against them if he died out here.  

“Yeah, I promise I’m fine. I think I just need to lay down…”

“You guys should go ahead. I’ll head back to camp with Jisung and take him to the nurse.”

“Alright, you boys stay safe now. Feel better, Jisung,” the woman says with a lovely smile, and before he can begin to protest, Jisung is being guided by a hand on his back in the opposite direction, downhill, towards the camp. 

“If you need to stop and rest we can do that, I just want to get you to someplace with shade as fast as possible,” the boy says casually, like he frequently deals with gangly boys nearly blacking out from a bit of sun exposure. 

“Okay,” Jisung says weakly. His limbs feel heavy and he wants nothing more than to lay on the hot Earth and melt into it and become a perfectly preserved fossil, but the boy is right. He really needs to get someplace cool. 

“Cool. I’m Jeno, by the way. I’ve worked here as a counselor for the past three summers, so if you need help learning the ropes you can always ask me.” He smiles, and Jisung tries to muster one in return. He hopes it didn’t look too much like a grimace. Jeno seems nice, and he doesn’t want to scare him away. 

Suddenly, a thought occurs to him. “How did you know my name earlier?” 

“Your nametag.” Jeno laughs and points at the wood cookie swinging from his neck. Jisung wants to crawl into a hole.

“I’m an idiot,” he says nervously, fiddling with the nametag around his neck. “My friend really wanted me to come this summer. His name’s Chenle, maybe you know him?” 

“Sure I know him! How could I not?” Jeno laughs like he’s thinking about something really funny and Jisung is sure it’s one of those very funny inside jokes all these people seem to have with each other. 

“Yeah, well. Renjun couldn’t make it this year so I guess I’m his replacement.” Jisung rests the back of his hand on his forehead in a fruitless effort to cool it down. 

“I did notice he was gone.” Jeno has a troubled frown on his face. “Is he alright?”

Jisung snorts. “Oh, rest assured, he’s having a great time right now.”

“What does that mean?” Jeno asks, clearly amused. 

“He’s staying with his new boyfriend over the summer. They go to different schools so they’re taking advantage of every last millisecond they can spend together,” Jisung says disdainfully. He doesn’t intend to sound so bitter, but it just comes out like that. He suddenly feels like he’s emotionally dumping on this complete stranger and he almost feels inclined to apologize, but he bites his tongue lest he blurt out something equally idiotic and embarrassing. 

“Wow, really? Is it Donghyuck?” 

Jisung is slightly taken aback. “Yes. How’d you know?” 

“Renjun would never shut up about him. It was embarrassing. He once hiked all the way up Eagle’s Peak alone just to get cell reception to talk to Donghyuck.” Jeno rolls his eyes. “But he still insisted they were just best friends. I’m glad to hear he pulled his head out of his ass, even if it means he’s ditching me.”

“Wow, he seriously did that?” Jisung laughs. “They’re disgusting when they’re in the same room, but I failed to consider how much more disgusting they’d be when they’re apart.”

Jeno laughs at that, but an awkward silence settles between them and Jisung suddenly remembers that he’s very much ill. 

“How long is it until we get back to camp?” 

“Only about ten minutes. Why, are you okay?”

“Yeah, don’t worry about me. Are you sure, though? Only ten minutes?”  

“I think we’re past not worrying about you, Jisung. You collapsed. If you’d gotten heatstroke… well that’s serious business,” Jeno says earnestly. “And yeah, ten minutes should be about right. We were on the hike for less than half an hour.”

Jisung blanches at that. “Half an hour? God, I couldn’t even manage half an hour without passing out?” 

“Less than half an hour,” Jeno corrects him. 

Jisung groans. 

“Don’t worry. It happens more often than you’d think.”

“Are you just saying that to make me feel better?” 

“Well…”

“Actually, don’t tell me. I don’t need to know.” 

Jeno laughs, and Jisung can’t help but crack a smile despite himself. “I think I didn’t eat enough at breakfast. I’m a dancer, so it’s not like I’m out of shape or anything.”

“Don’t worry, dude. I wasn’t thinking that.” Jisung suddenly realizes Jeno still has his arm wrapped around his shoulder. It also dawns on him just how handsome he is. Not just cute or pretty, but properly handsome. Like a Han Solo type of heart-breaking, rakishly handsome. “We’ll get you something to eat back at the camp. I know where they store all the good food.” Jeno winks, and Jisung’s heart leaps into his throat. 

Oh no.  

🏕

Jisung’s brain runs too fast for him to catch it. One ridiculous thought runs into another until he’s thinking about kissing Jeno behind the thick border of trees at the camp’s edge. At sunset. With tongue. 

His face burns hot as he lays in bed, Chenle snoring lightly above him. Jeno had simply taken him back to camp, gotten him food and water, and stayed with him as his body returned to normal temperature and he was okay enough to be left alone. He had gone back to his cabin after that, to sit in the dark and be soothed by the old, woody smell of the walls. 

He felt a little pathetic like that, laying alone in his cabin while everyone else had fun and participated in camp activities, but Jisung enjoyed the solitude. He fell into light dozes throughout the day, Jeno’s face drifting into his mind each time. He had dreams about walking through a meadow with Jeno, eating picnics with Jeno, moving in with Jeno, opening a quaint little café with Jeno, marrying Jeno— 

So, he’s a little infatuated. And, at 3:00AM, dreadfully awake. 

Jisung turns over in his sleeping bag, over and over again. He can’t seem to find a position that’s comfortable, and it’s so dreadfully hot. He feels like he’s being suffocated in the dark walls of the cabin. He kicks his sleeping bag off of himself and gets up from the bed, floorboards creaking unpleasantly as he grabs his toiletry bag and walks towards the door. Chenle stirs in his sleep and Jisung pauses with one foot poised in the air. Chenle always sees right through him, and Jisung is worried that if he wakes up, he’d somehow manage to worm a confession out of him. He’s already endured enough humiliation for one day without having to tell his best friend that he’s fallen hopelessly in love at first sight, thank you very much. When the snoring continues he breathes a sigh of relief, gently opening the door and tip-toeing outside. 

The night air is cool, which Jisung appreciates. What he doesn’t appreciate is how creepy everything looks under the cover of night. The trees loom like evil overlords as he walks to the communal bathrooms. He jumps when he hears a rustle in the bushes, hand clasped over his heart when a bird flutters out of the brush and into the night sky. He thinks about all the horror movies about camp counselors fruitlessly attempting to escape ruthless killers in ski masks. He also thinks about how going out for a late night stroll alone, without telling anyone of his whereabouts, is exactly what the first person to die in a horror movie would do. 

The moon is a slim crescent in the sky, and as pretty as it is, it means the path is pitch black. He tries to take careful steps, avoiding rocks and the odd hollow patch in the dirt, but Jisung still trips on a rogue tree root, falling on the ground with a soft thud. 

“Shit,” he whispers, brushing his dirtied hands on his shorts as he pulls himself up. Curse his long and unruly legs. 

“So, is falling down, like, a common occurrence for you?” 

Jisung shrieks bloody murder as he catches sight of a shadowy figure watching him from the treeline. Suddenly, it’s advancing on him. Quickly. It briefly crosses Jisung’s mind that he should grab a stick to defend himself, but he’s frozen in place. He readies his fist as the figure draws nearer, but when it comes into a patch of light cast from the dim, orange lightbulb outside one of the coordinator cabins, Jisung breathes a sigh of relief at the sight of a familiar smile. Jeno. His heart pounds in his chest and he feels like his breath has been stolen from his lungs. 

“You scared the shit out of me.”

“Language,” Jeno warns. “What are you doing out here?”

“I could ask you the same thing.” Jisung pulls at his shirt and his shorts self-consciously. He wasn’t prepared to face the boy that’s been the object of his shameless daydreams for the whole afternoon. 

“I asked first.” Jeno raises an eyebrow and Jisung feels very caught off guard by how hot it is. 

“Couldn’t sleep I guess.” Jisung shrugs. “There isn’t enough air in those cabins.”

Jeno hums. “I know what you mean. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just… tripped on a root, that’s all.”

“I was just on the way to the bathrooms, so…”

“Oh, me too.” Awkward silence ensues. Jisung curses himself again for being such a stiff conversationalist. “Wanna walk together?”

“Yeah, sure.” 

They walk side-by-side in silence, and even though they aren’t touching, Jisung can feel Jeno’s presence beside him, and he gets increasingly more nervous with each passing second. 

“Thank you,” he suddenly blurts out. “For helping me this afternoon. I’m really sorry for inconveniencing you.”

“You don’t have to feel sorry.” Jeno smiles, and Jisung melts. “Weirdly enough, I actually had fun today. I’m glad we met.” 

“You’re glad I almost got heatstroke and died?”

“You didn’t get heatstroke! I promise if that had been the case we would’ve called you an ambulance.” Jeno bumps his shoulder against Jisung’s, and he hadn’t been prepared for the contact. It only lasts a moment, but Jisung feels the touch buzzing under his skin. He shivers. 

“So where are you from? I forgot to ask before.” 

“I’m from Seoul,” Jeno says kindly. “I’m guessing you are too, right? You go to the same fancy art school as Chenle.”

“It’s not that fancy… but yes.” Jisung smiles to himself. “I wonder why Chenle’s never mentioned you.”

“We’ve hung out a few times but it’s hard to keep in contact.” Jeno kicks a rock out of the way. Jisung assumes it was so he wouldn’t trip on it, and he fights the blush he feels rising to his cheeks. He sort of has a thing for cute boys taking care of him, sue him. “With all my camp friends, we’re all sort of happy to see each other once a year and catch up.”

“Why were you eating alone this morning then?” 

Jeno looks at him in surprise, and while Jisung can’t quite see his face in the dark, he can see the glimmer of curiosity in Jeno’s eyes as he stares. “I came in late and I was happy to observe. I didn’t want to disturb anyone.”

“So you just wolfed down a huge plate of food while standing in a dark corner?” 

“Hey! I’m a growing boy, don’t shame me for my appetite.” Jeno snorts out a laugh. “Honestly… everyone sort of has their friend circles and I don’t fit in anywhere very well. Everyone’s very nice but sometimes it’s more comfortable to stay on the sidelines.”

“I know what that’s like,” Jisung says immediately. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love my friends. But they’re all in relationships and sometimes it feels like they’re all nicely paired up and I’m just… watching them from the outside,” he confesses. He isn’t sure why he feels so comfortable talking about these things to a virtual stranger. Maybe sleepiness has loosened his tongue.

“Right? God, my best friend was such a nightmare when he started dating his boyfriend. I thought the honeymoon phase would never end.”

“Being single while all your friends are happily in relationships sucks,” Jisung agrees. “I mean, I don’t want to assume anything. Are you?”

“Am I what?” Jeno cocks his head.

“Single?” Jisung asks breathlessly. 

Jeno cracks a grin. “Very much so. Unfortunately.” 

Jisung nods slowly. They’ve arrived at the camp bathrooms, the flickering light outside swarmed with a posse of moths, casting strange fluttering shadows across the ground. They awkwardly go inside to do their business, and Jisung is delighted to find that the bathrooms are not as disgusting and filth-crusted as he expected them to be. He brushes his teeth, since he hadn’t remembered to do so in his Jeno-filled haze of an evening. 

Jeno splashes some water over his face and Jisung laughs when it gets all over his hair. He retaliates by shaking his hair and spraying Jisung with droplets of cool, mineral-smelling water. Jeno looks like a puppy, and Jisung would be lying if he said he isn’t hopelessly endeared by the way he giggles and squeezes the water out of his hair. 

“You should get back to bed,” he says as they leave the bathroom. The moths flutter overhead like a strange, writhing halo. “You were pretty sick earlier today. You need to get some rest.” 

“I slept almost all day,” Jisung complains. “I don’t think I’d be able to rest even if I keeled over dead.”

Jeno thinks for a moment, his hands tucked into the pocket of his sweatshirt. “I think I have the perfect thing for you.” He grabs his hand, and Jisung cringes because he’s sure he’s very sweaty and much too warm for optimal hand-holding. Jeno doesn’t seem to care, and if he does, he doesn’t comment on it. 

He leads them through the maze of cabins effortlessly, even in the dark. He doesn’t stumble over any branches, rocks, or roots. Jisung wishes he could say the same about himself, but he’s tripping over his own feet as Jeno guides him along a trail through the trees. Jisung wonders if this is his first-to-die-in-a-horror-movie moment. Jeno could easily be a very charming serial killer. The pretty boy next door that you don’t expect to have sadistic, homicidal tendencies hidden behind his pearly white smile. Jisung thinks it wouldn’t be such a terrible way to go. At least no one would be able to blame him for falling for his magnetism. Jeno would probably be able to charm a whole jury with that eyesmile. 

“Where are we going?” He has the wits to ask. 

“My cabin,” Jeno responds with a soft smile and a squeeze of his hand. Jisung would follow him wherever. He wonders if he has obvious heart eyes like a cartoon character. He doesn’t feel like he’s being very subtle. The way that the dim moonlight illuminates the soft curves and harsh angles of Jeno’s face is nothing short of magical. He seems to glow. 

They arrive at one of the boxy wooden structures that all look the same. Each cabin has a name, and painted in peeling orange paint, ‘Cloud Cabin’ is emblazoned over the door. Jisung likes it much more than his own ‘Scorpion Cabin.’

“Wait out here,” Jeno says, finally letting go of his hand. Jisung holds his own hand to his chest for a moment, reverent, before wiping the sweat collected on his palms on his pajama shorts. 

Jeno returns after only a couple minutes with something in his hand. “Here. This will help you sleep.” He thrusts the item into Jisung’s hands, and Jisung looks down, surprised to find a book with a very worn cover in his grasp. On the front is a boy standing before a wrought iron gate with an old-looking mansion overgrown with plants in the background. 

“Great Expectations? You like Dickens?” 

“Absolutely not. This is my summer reading assignment, and it’s put me to sleep more times than I can count.” Jeno laughs. “If this can’t put you into a snooze, I’m not sure what will.”

“Thanks.” Jisung smiles sincerely, brushing his fingers over the cover of the book. They stand there for a moment, like they’re both trying to think of something more to say. Jisung thinks there’s a lot of things he would like to tell Jeno. Like how he thinks he’s very handsome and he has such a beautiful smile and how he would very much like to have a YA-novel-esque summer romance with him if that’s at all on the table—

“I’ll walk you back to your cabin. I don’t trust you to not trip and break your neck on the way.” Jeno leads the way back through the tree-lined path, and Jisung feels slightly sad that Jeno didn’t take his hand again. He shakes those thoughts away. He can’t let himself get too hopeful. After all, chances are likely that gangly, tongue-tied creatures of the night aren’t Jeno’s type. 

He lays in bed with Great Expectations open in his hands. On the inside of the front cover, in penciled, chicken-scratch writing, is the name Jeno Lee. Jisung brushes his fingers over the letters, feeling the grooves left by Jeno’s pencil. His eyes are already heavy. The exhilaration of meeting Jeno in the forest in the middle of the night was enough to put a heavy sleepiness in his limbs. He feels strangely at peace when he drifts off. His head isn’t filled with any ridiculous fantasies about proposals and honeymoons. Instead, he falls asleep with Jeno’s book open on his chest and the feeling of their hands linked together vivid in his mind. 

🏕

“Rise and shine, sleepyhead!” Jisung groans, throwing his arm over his head to block out the sun or the noise or both. Chenle is rocking back and forth eagerly on the top bunk, making it squeak horridly (to the point that Jisung is almost worried the bed will collapse onto him) and his face hangs over the edge, grinning sadistically at his pain.

“Five more minutes,” Jisung groans, rolling over in bed so he doesn’t have to face Chenle’s mocking face, only to hear a soft thud hit the floor a second later. Shit. The book. Jisung quickly sits up to retrieve it, but Chenle is too quick for him.

“What do we have here?” Chenle asks teasingly. “We both know you never read for fun, so what’s this for?” He leafs through the book, as if looking for something incriminating. Jisung loves Chenle, he really does. But he also knows what will happen if he finds out about his massive crush on Jeno. Chenle has a tendency to... go overboard, when it comes to his crushes. Jisung will never forget when he was an awkward freshman crushing on Renjun (which, in hindsight, he’s glad that never worked out) and Chenle relentlessly harassed him with probing questions like ‘isn’t Jisungie so handsome today?’ ‘Isn’t Jisungie so cool when he dances?’ ‘Jisungie has been going to the gym lately! Do you want to feel his muscles? Show Renjun your muscles, Jisungie!’

Turns out, the whole time Renjun had been under the impression that he and Chenle were boyfriends. Jisung didn’t blame him at all. He probably would’ve thought the same.

“I’m just trying to branch out a little.” He snatches the book back, knuckles going white with how tightly he holds it in his grasp. “Is it so crazy to think that perhaps I enjoy a spot of Dickens on a summer evening?” Jisung says in his most ridiculously posh British accent. Chenle laughs, and Jisung breathes a quiet sigh of relief. Crisis averted.

“Yeah, actually. That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.” Chenle pulls him up from the bed by the arm. “We need to get dressed. The campers are coming today!”

Jisung smiles. Well, he tries to smile. He had sort of forgotten he’s there on the job and that his ultimate goal isn’t just to woo the pretty boy with the sharp jaw in the Cloud Cabin. Jisung imagines the cabin full of preteen boys, smelly and loud, and his face immediately sours. Chenle’s grin morphs into a chastising look. “Jisung, we’re here for the kids. We need to make sure they have a magical, wonderful, amzing summer that they’ll never forget! That’s the job of camp counselors, and I take it very seriously. At least try not to be such a sourpuss, okay?” He ruffles his already-messy hair roughly, making Jisung whine in protest. “You manage not being a miserable wet blanket, and I’ll manage the kids. Sound good?”

Jisung smiles (for real this time). “Okay. Sounds good.”

“Good. Now let’s go eat before check-in time starts and shiz gets crazy.”

“Language!”

“Shiz isn’t a swear!”

“It might as well be, it’s derivative of the word.”

“You read, like, one line of Charles Dickens and suddenly think you can use fancy words.”

“‘Derivative’ is a fancy word to you?”

“Oh— Just shut up.”

🏕

The camper check-in is chaotic. A stream of minivans drops off pimply, pubescent preteens and thrusts them into their arms for them to entertain. Chenle seems to be an expert at this. As their campers arrive, Chenle instructs them on how to set up their beds and make their own wood cookie name tags. He has a Tide pen to get hot pink glitter pen out of a campers shirt, he shows one little girl to her cabin across the campground (she gave him enchanted mooney eyes the whole way there), and when one skinny, awkward camper tells him he’s allergic to bees, Chenle assures him he has an EpiPen on him at all times and he knows how to use it. He’s truly in his element, so he doesn’t notice when Jisung slips away (just for a moment!) while he soothes a crying camper who’s already feeling homesick and missing his mom.

He’s spotted Jeno working at one of the welcome tables, where there is an assortment of refreshments. Lemonade, a fruit tray, cookies, a cooler full of soda. He’s been sitting in one of the folding chairs, smiling at campers who come up to fill up on sweets. Now, though, the lemonade has run dry and the stream of giddy kids has dissipated, leaving Jeno cleaning up the remains alone at his table. He looks awfully cute in his rainbow tie-dye camp t-shirt and khaki shorts. That’s what all the counselors are wearing today, but somehow Jeno just makes it look good.

“Hey,” Jisung says, fiddling with the string of his name tag as he approaches. “Need a hand?”

“Not really.” Jeno laughs. It’s true, Jeno’s almost done clearing off the table, and he’s more than capable of moving the table back into storage what with all those muscles—

“But you can still keep me company! Did you manage to sleep at all last night?”

“I did.” Jisung smiles shyly at the memory of their meeting the previous night.

“It was the book, wasn’t it? It’s such a bore.”

“Yeah, definitely.” Jisung finds himself saying despite not having read a single word of the book other than the name on the inside cover. “Thanks for giving it to me, by the way. It was really nice of you... I feel like you’ve done me so many favors and I haven’t returned any of them.”

“No need! It’s really no trouble,” Jeno says kindly. It’s a little awkward. Jisung doesn’t know what to say to someone he’s just met but he’s spent more time thinking about than any other crush he’s ever had. And the scariest thing about that is that he doesn’t even think that’s an exaggeration.

“So, um. Have you met your campers yet?” Jisung asks in an attempt to keep the conversation going. 

“Oh, I don’t really have campers. I’m the sports instructor this year!”

“The sports instructor?” Jisung tries to casually lean against the table, but it groans loudly under his weight. He retracts like he’s been burned.

“Um, this table is really flimsy. You probably don’t want to do that.” Jeno laughs. Jisung feels like his heart has turned into a mini sun and it’s going to burn him alive from the inside out. “Yeah, I’m studying phys ed and physical therapy. Working here is great experience for when I’m applying for teaching positions.” 

“Wow,” Jisung thinks aloud. “I hated PE.”

He slaps a hand over his mouth when he realizes what he said, but Jeno only laughs good-naturedly. “No, don’t worry. I get it. I’d like to create a curriculum that’s a little more inclusive of different interests. Soccer isn’t for everyone, you know?”

Jisung wrinkles his nose. “You don’t need to tell me.”

“Aren’t you a dancer? I would’ve thought you have really good feet coordination.”

Is he flirting with me? Is this flirting?

“Yeah, well, it’s uh...”

Flirt back flirt back flirt back flirt back —

“I bet my feet aren’t as coordinated as yours.”

I’m doomed.

Jeno lets out a slight noise of confusion. “What makes you say that?”

“Um, no reason! You just seem like the kind of person to be, um, good with your feet?”

“Oh! Well, thank you,” Jeno says sheepishly. “I guess I am. Rock climbing and all…”

“Wow, you rock climb?” Jisung really doesn’t think he could get any more into Jeno. 

“Yeah.” That sweet smile seems to be frozen on his face, because it never wavers. “It was just a hobby, but the camp got this sweet new rock climbing wall and they needed someone to get certified to instruct so...” he shrugs. “It’s really fun. I did it last summer and it was a hit.”

“That’s awesome,” Jisung says, simultaneously at a loss for words and strongly desiring to tell Jeno just how cool and handsome and husband-material he thinks he is. Jisung wonders if he can cook. He’d need to if they’re going to get married because his abilities in the kitchen leave him limited to a menu of toast, ramen, and coffee. 

“It’s really fun! You’ll have to let me strap you in and give you a little climbing lesson sometime.”

“I would very much like that,” Jisung says. He’s deathly afraid of heights, but that’s a problem for Future Jisung now. 

“Jisung!” Suddenly, Chenle is running towards them from the cabin, red-faced and with a slight shimmer of perspiration on his upper lip. “Hey, what are you doing here? I could really use some help with the campers. One of them tried to eat a piece of gum on the underside of the bunk and I almost didn’t catch him in time.” He takes a deep, steadying breath. Then, he seems to register that there is more than one other person present, and he cocks his head slightly in confusion. “Do you guys know each other?”

“Yeah, we met yesterday on the hike,” Jeno says warmly. “I didn’t mean to steal your partner, you should go help him, Jisungie.” Jeno smiles at him before reaching down and pulling two sodas out of the cooler. “Here, take these. It’s hot out and you guys are gonna be working way harder than I am.”

“Thanks, man.” Chenle pops open the can and gulps down half of it on the spot. He wipes at the soda that had run down the sides of his face and onto his neck with a smile. “Let’s go, Jisungie.”

Jisung shoves him slightly before flashing a smile at Jeno, waving slightly as he is pulled towards their cabin by an impatient Chenle. Jeno waves back, eyes crinkled into half-moons and the slight dusting of a sunburn shining across his cheeks. Well, Jisung thinks it’s a sunburn. 

“You’re going to tell me what all that was about after campfire tonight,” Chenle whispers in his ear, a delighted grin on his face. Curse him. Chenle simply knows him too well. 

“Yeah, yeah. We’ve been through this before.” Jisung rolls his eyes but, secretly, he’s a little bit excited to spill all the suffocating thoughts and emotions that have been swimming laps around his mind for the last day and a half. It feels like it’s all been waiting in the hollow space of his throat, ready to leap out at a moment’s notice. Jisung had been afraid to so much as yawn, lest he reveal how much he loves Jeno’s smile and how he seems so intrinsically kind and how he kind of wants to kiss the mole under his eye and—

Chenle will definitely laugh at him for falling this hard in such little time. 

🏕

“So. Jeno, huh?” Chenle whispers.

“You’re not subtle at all, you know. All the kids can hear you.”

“They’re not paying us any attention.” Chenle is probably right. They’re huddled in a corner playing a very lively game of Uno. The kids are nice, Jisung thinks. They all seem fairly self-directed and all it took was some cheap pizza and s’mores to get them in high spirits. “So spill. The first day of camp and you’ve already found yourself a summer romance?”

“I’m sure it’s entirely one-sided, so no need to be jealous.”

“Why would I be jealous? I have my Markie at home,” Chenle says dreamily. Jisung can’t tell if he’s playing it up for laughs or if he’s being serious. 

“Gross.” Jisung wrinkles his nose in distaste. Chenle is looking at him expectantly, ever-patient but never uninvasive. He sighs. “Jeno is just… He’s really sweet.”

“And?”

“He helped me the other day. When I got heat exhaustion.” Jisung fiddles with his wood cookie nametag to avoid having to make eye contact. “He brought me back to camp and I don’t know, I just feel like we click.”

“Wow.” Chenle nods. “You’re really whipped, huh?”

“I guess.”

“I don’t really blame you. He’s easy on the eyes.” Chenle chuckles to himself. “You should have seen him in middle school. He had these huge glasses and he was the biggest suck-up to the counselors.” 

Jisung smiles softly down at his lap. “Sounds cute.”

Chenle looks at him for a moment, as if contemplating. “Alright. So what’s the plan?”

“What do you mean?” Jisung asks suspiciously, finally looking up from the ground. 

“Well, if we’re going to get him to fall for you before the end of camp and finally get you a boyfriend, we need a plan.”

Jisung groans. “No, Chenle— no offense, but your plans never end well.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You lack… subtlety.”

“Why do we need to be subtle? You want to make out with him. Just tell him that. You’re a reasonably attractive boy, why should he say no?”

“He might not like me.”

“Then he clearly has his head up his own ass and doesn’t deserve you anyways.”

“Chenle!”

“What?”

“Language!”

“I heard that eleven-year-old say ‘fuck’ earlier. I don’t think they’re really fazed by ‘ass.’” 

“I can handle Jeno by myself, okay? Just please do not interfere.”

Chenle raises a brow. “I’ll make you a deal. If you can convince Jeno to go on a date with you before the last day of camp, then I won’t interfere. Beyond that, I can’t promise anything.”

“You’re insufferable.”

“It’s in my nature to meddle.”

“I am aware.”

“You love me for it.”

“I guess,” Jisung grumbles, but he can’t help the gentle smile that slips onto his lips when Chenle isn’t looking.

🏕

Jisung only has two days. A whole two days to try and woo Jeno into going on a date with him when they get back to Seoul. 

Does he have a plan? Absolutely none whatsoever. 

Is he confident that he can do it? No. No, he’s not confident at all. 

He’s not even sure where or when Jeno works. During the day, he catches glimpses of him in the tall lifeguard chair by the pool, reffing a game of soccer, or by the rock climbing wall, but their activities never align. 

They go on a forest walk that afternoon. Jisung wants to sulk, but once he feels the cool shade of the trees, any protests leave his body. The air smells cleaner away from the campgrounds, and it’s quieter too. The kids all have these scavenger hunt journals, and if they find all the items before the end of camp they win a prize. Probably just a stupid little plastic knickknack, but they seem intent on crossing off all the boxes anyways. 

“Jisung, what’s the difference between a chipmunk and a squirrel?” One of the kids asks him, nose buried in his journal. 

“A squirrel is… longer, I think.” 

“Chipmunks are smaller and have stripes going down their backs. Squirrels have longer, fluffier tails and they have hairy ears,” Chenle butts in. 

“Didn’t know you’re some kind of rodent expert,” Jisung mumbles. “Must be why you’re such a little rat.”

The kids giggle and chorus a scandalized ‘oOoOooOhhh’ until Chenle sends them a withering look. 

“Jisung never gets out of the city. I bet he’s never even seen a chicken in real life.”

“I haven’t.”

“Wait, are you serious?” 

“Yeah. The only chickens I’ve ever seen have been dead and fried.” 

“Mr. Chenle, what’s next on the schedule? My feet hurt,” one of the kids whines. Jisung isn’t sure what his name is because his nametag is drawn in a purple glitter glue that had dripped and smeared into an unintelligible blob. 

“We have a campwide game of capture the flag tonight!” 

All the boys groan. One takes a pointed hit from his inhaler. 

“C’mon it’ll be fun guys!” Jisung says in an effort to be cheery. 

“Yeah! If you beat the counselors we have to swim in the lake.” Chenle shudders. “It’s freezing even during high summer.” 

“Wait, what?” 

“You didn’t know, Jisungie?” Chenle asks innocently. “Every year the counselors and campers go against each other at a ruthless, cutthroat game of capture the flag, and if they win we have to go for a swim in Eagle’s Lake.”

“How is that even fair!” Jisung exclaims, and a woodpecker flies from a nearby tree. “There’s so many of them and so few of us!” 

Chenle leans in to whisper in his ear, “Yeah, we lose every year. The campers love watching the counselors swim in the lake… it’s kind of a tradition.”

“I can’t believe you dragged me here,” Jisung whisper-shouts back. Luckily the campers are distracted by a plant that may-or-may-not be poison ivy. 

“I know you secretly love it.” He pinches his cheek, and Jisung slaps his hand away. “Hey, do not eat that!” Chenle rushes over just as one of the boys was about to stick the mystery plant in his mouth. 

Jisung laughs as Chenle tries to wrestle the leaves out of the boy’s hand without actually touching them. 

As much as he doesn’t want to admit it, he thinks that if Chenle asks him to join him again next summer, he would do it in a heartbeat. 

🏕

It’s sunset, and everyone is gathered on the large grassy field they use for soccer games. They’re all filled up on hot dogs and soda, and Jisung will be surprised if no one throws up during the game. 

Everyone was given a smelly jersey to wear over their camp shirts. Jisung wonders if it would really have been that hard to wash them, but Chenle tells him to suck it up and ‘wear the fricking jersey.’ The counselors are the red team and the kids are… well, any color other than red. They didn’t have enough blue jerseys it seems. 

The flags are tall, unwieldy poles with fluttering scraps of orange fabric at the top. The whistle will blow, and then each team has six minutes to hide it somewhere in their team’s zone before the bloodbath begins. 

Jisung sighs. This is taking him back to PE class. He hated PE.

“Hey.” Jisung jumps and looks towards the voice. He could’ve sworn Chenle was just at his side, but suddenly he’s off with some of his other camp friends. Jeno is standing at his shoulder, much too close for comfort. He can smell Jeno’s shampoo. It smells like something very generic, but it’s Jeno, and anything Jeno seems to be painfully overwhelming to his senses. “Want to guard the flag with me?” He asks, the pole grasped in his hand. It makes sense that Jeno has the job of hiding and guarding the flag. He’s probably the most physically fit of all of them. The sleeves of his tie-dye shirt are rolled up slightly and Jisung has to force himself to not stare at the light contours of his muscles in the light of the setting sun. Christ, why did he have to be built like a freaking greek god?

Oh boy, is he sweating?

“Yeah! I’d really love to.” A bit eager, but at least he managed to form a coherent and contextually-appropriate sentence. 

“Awesome! I was thinking maybe up in one of the trees at the treeline? The kids love any excuse to climb a tree.”

“That’s not dangerous?” Jisung asks.

“Nah, we won’t put it very high. And we’ll make sure to pick a tree with some very sturdy branches.” For whatever reason, Jeno throws an arm around his shoulders. Which would have been totally cool and casual if Jisung didn’t have a debilitating crush on him. He fidgets and resists the intense urge to shrug Jeno’s arm off of him. He points towards the tree line, leaning close to Jisung’s ear so no one else could hear. “I’m thinking that tree right there. What do you think?” 

“Yeah. Yeah, that one looks good.” Jisung isn’t even sure which tree he’s talking about, but that hardly matters at all when his arm is wrapped around him and it feels very nice. In fact he wishes it felt a little less nice. Why did Jeno have to be so nice?

“Alright. That’ll be our plan then.” He pats him on the back several times before retracting his arm. “Be ready to run when the whistle blows, okay?” 

Jisung nods, a smile pulling at the edges of his lips. He does sort of get why people play sports. The competition-fueled adrenaline buzzes in the tips of fingertips. He feels alive in the best way possible. But really, Jisung can’t tell if it’s because of the game or because of Jeno. 

They all gather in the middle of the field, poised to run when the head supervisor (the grey-haired lady with the snake tattoo) blows her whistle. Jeno reaches and grabs his hand, and Jisung smiles at him, even though his heart is beating out of his chest and his hands are probably clammy from the heat. Jeno smiles back at him, still so soft and sweet. Jisung just wants to reach over and cup his face in his palms. 

“LOVEBIRDS, what are you doing?” Jisung’s hand falls out of Jeno’s as he’s startled by Chenle’s high-pitched yell in his ear. “The whistle blew! Go, now!” 

Jeno just laughs good-naturedly as Jisung smacks Chenle’s arm as hard as he can manage. “C’mon, Jisung!” He says, and then they’re fleeing to the treeline. The wind ruffles his hair and an exhilarated laugh escapes his lips.

The rest of the red team stays back to strategize how to protect the flag, but honestly their efforts are fruitless. A horde of children hyped on root beer is about to stampede over them. A small group of scrawny college students doesn’t have a fighting chance against those monsters. 

But still, he runs with Jeno to the edge of the forest. Jeno climbs the tree easily, pulling himself up onto the branches with practiced ease. It makes Jisung wonder if this boy is part monkey before he realizes that’s quite literally how evolution works. 

He nestles the flag in the tree where there are plenty of strong, knobby branches for foot support, then he drops back to the ground. “How does that look?” He asks, dusting off his hands. 

“It’s good.” Jisung nods. “Should we head back and see where we should help out?” He turns back towards where the red team is attempting to make some sort of weak human barricade in the field.

“No!” Jeno says suddenly, grasping his forearm. “I mean,” he drops his arm, “we should probably hang back, right? We can be, like, the last line of defense.” 

“Okay, yeah,” Jisung agrees. “That makes sense.”

“Good.”

“Good?”

The head supervisor calls from the middle of the field, “Two minutes left!”

“Yeah.” Jeno takes a deep breath. “I actually wanted to tell you something.”

It’s that moment that Jisung realizes this would be the perfect time to ask Jeno out. No kids listening in on their conversation, no Chenle butting in at the worst moment, no pressing responsibilities. The orange light of sunset kisses Jeno’s face, and he looks like he’s glowing. Jisung wonders what he looks like outside of camp. When he’s studying at the library or wrapped up in his bedding or on his daily commute. 

He’ll never know if he doesn’t do something now. 

“I actually have to tell you something too,” Jisung says, his palms now fully sweating. He looks around and finds that Chenle is staring at him from his spot in the human barricade. He gives him an enthusiastic thumbs up, and Jisung flushes.

“One more minute!”

Jisung grabs Jeno’s hand and pulls him behind the tree. 

Jeno laughs. “Woah, there.” Jisung stares as Jeno regains his footing. He looks so ridiculously handsome and he’s not sure what to do about it. He’s gotten this far. He’s in front of him, and he thinks he ran through the script nearly a hundred times while he lay awake last night, but suddenly all the words have escaped him. Jeno just looks at him with those soft eyes and his sweet smile. “What’s up?”

Jisung doesn’t think about it, because he knows that if he allowed himself even one second of hesitation, he never would’ve mustered the confidence to lean up and connect their lips together. 

Right away, Jisung feels regret. He almost pulls away to apologize profusely and hide away in his cabin for the rest of camp under the guise of a tummy ache. But then, Jeno’s hands rest gently on the sides of his cheeks, holding him in place. 

Jisung finds that he really likes the feeling of Jeno’s lips. That’s what he had imagined, but he’s found that dreams aren’t usually the best representations of reality. In Jeno’s case, he was nothing short of a dream come to life. 

He kisses slowly, like they don’t quite literally have a timer counting down the seconds they have alone together. His lips are sweet, just like the rest of him. It’s a little awkward, with a bit of nose-bumping and Jeno accidentally slobbering on his lips when he tries to incorporate some tongue action, but Jisung really doesn’t care. 

He loosely wraps his arms around Jeno’s waist, just to hold him. Just because he can. And suddenly he feels so giddy he isn’t sure what to do with himself.  

Jeno pulls away, wiping at his mouth with a pretty blush on his cheeks. “I can’t kiss you when you’re smiling like that.”

“Well I can’t not smile when you’re kissing me like that.”

“You’re really cute, you know that?” Faintly, Jisung can hear yelling and laughing and shrieks of joy, but it sounds far away, like they’re in their own little pocket of existence and there’s no more room for anyone else. “I thought so ever since I met you.”

“Me too.” Jisung leans in and kisses the mole under Jeno’s eye, just like he’s been wanting to do for days. He considers saying something else charming and flirty, but he’s worried he’ll just make a fool of himself. So he kisses Jeno again. 

They stay like that, undisturbed, for what feels like a long time. Jisung melts into Jeno’s comfortable hold despite the oppressive heat. Somewhere along the way, Jeno’s hand finds his and they lace their fingers together. It’s thrilling. Jisung wonders if this is what Renjun feels when he kisses Donghyuck, and he suddenly doesn’t blame him for wanting to ditch summer camp to do more of this.

Because kissing turns out to be really fun when you’re completely enamored with whoever you’re doing it with. 

Jeno bites playfully at his bottom lip and Jisung laughs under his breath. He kisses over Jeno’s cupid’s bow and at the corner of his lips, tracing his mouth without kissing him full on the lips. It’s only when Jeno whines in protest that he truly kisses him again. His cheeks hurt slightly from the way Jeno is squeezing them between his palms. Jeno sighs contentedly into the kiss, and Jisung can feel it tickling his upper lip. 

“Jisung?” An incredulous voice asks, and they jump apart like they’ve been burned. “Oh my god. Gross! Get a room, you two!” 

Yup. Mood ruined. Thanks, Chenle. 

“Sorry,” Jeno mumbles, genuinely ashamed. His cheeks are still flushed and his lips look so plump and sweet. Jisung wants nothing more than to keep holding him and keep kissing him until he finally feels sick of it.

“We just lost because of you guys, by the way!” Chenle chastises. “I can’t believe it. Who would’ve thought… Jisung Park abandoning his responsibilities to kiss boys behind trees,” he teases. 

“Only one boy,” Jisung corrects. 

Jeno smiles at him, slipping his hand into his. 

“Wow, you guys are disgusting. You’re lucky the kids didn’t see you back here. Imagine if they had gotten lifelong trauma from seeing you guys sucking face… We’d have a lawsuit on our hands!”

“Shut up,” Jisung laughs. Really, he’s too happy to feel genuinely angry. He feels on top of the world. His lips still buzz and his heart beats at an exhilarating pace in his chest. 

They swim in the freezing cold lake that night while the kids watch and laugh. But Jisung doesn’t mind at all because he knows that on the other side, Jeno’s arms are open and waiting to warm him up.

🏕

“I honestly can’t believe you managed it,” Chenle says to him as everyone is packing up and getting ready to bid farewell to the kids. “I had a whole plan for how I was gonna tell Jeno about your crush on him. It was going to be subtle, yanno? Just a little nudge. ‘Hey, Jeno. What’s your ideal type of guy?’ and then when he described you perfectly I was gonna be like ‘Hmmm I think I know someone just like that’ and then he would’ve been like—“

“Alright, alright.” Jisung bumps him with his shoulder, a sheepish smile on his lips. “You don’t need to sound so disappointed.”

“Really, you thwarted my plans. You need to stop being such a smooth-talker.” Chenle ruffles his hair before going to check and see how far the boys had gotten on their packing. They’re busy exchanging numbers and talking about hanging out over the school year. One of the boys is talking about taking the train into Seoul every weekend, and it makes Jisung’s heart warm.

He slips out of the cabin unnoticed, closing the door quietly behind him. He turns to find that Jeno is already outside his cabin, and he smiles warmly. They haven’t had much time alone since that night they played capture the flag. As much as Jisung wanted to experience his whirlwind summer romance with Jeno, they both still had jobs to do, and there was little time for... shenanigans.

“Hey,” Jeno greets, in that effortlessly hot boy-next-door love interest kind of way that he so naturally emulates. “I realized that I don’t have your number, and I wanted to make sure I got that before you leave.”

“What if I don’t want to give it to you?” Jisung asks teasingly.

“I hadn’t considered that possibility.” He laughs slightly and scratches the back of his neck. “If you don’t want to keep in touch I’ll understand. I just thought—“

“Oh my god, please do not finish that sentence.” Jisung looks around to see if the coast is clear before walking up to Jeno and planting a kiss right on his lips. He looks a little dazed at that, and Jisung feels somewhat proud of himself. “I would want nothing more than to give you my number. As long as you promise me you’ll use it.”

“I’d be a fool not to.” Jeno hands him a pen and holds out his hand. Jisung takes it and cradles his hand gently as he pens his phone number as clearly as he can onto his skin. He draws a little heart next to it for good measure. Is it painfully cheesy? Yes. Does Jeno seem to care? From the dreamy look on his face as he looks at the numbers on his hand, no.

“You, um, probably shouldn’t call me,” Jisung confesses. “I won’t pick up.”

“You’re so cute.” Jeno leans in hesitantly and places a peck on the corner of his mouth. “I’ll text you, okay? It’ll be the first thing I do when I get home.”

“I’ll count on it,” Jisung whispers.

Jeno smiles at him one last time, sweet and soft, before turning to go assist with checkout.

Jisung can hardly contain his happiness. He ghosts his fingers over the corner of his mouth like a dazed, lovesick idiot, watching Jeno’s retreating back. The sweet touches, the whispers, stolen moments, loving looks. They’re all his, but they mean so much more to him than he ever thought they would. Because it’s Jeno.

And, maybe, if he’s lucky, it’ll always be Jeno.