stupid piece of paper : hyunsung ✓

nineteen

Gradually the rest of the parking lot begins to fill with the teachers and finally the busses. Three of them stood in front of Jisung vibrating to the music of their engines. Jisung held a god-fearing cough in from the exhaust gases, the music in his headphones telling him how bad every aspect of the world he was born in was. 

"Everybody come here, I want a count off," their homeroom teacher screamed. Jeongin nudged him, snickering in a way Jisung just had to join. "Hello?! Everybody please!" A few tries later and even less attention than he had with his first try, the teacher just shooed his class into the first bus. 

The group of boys moved slowly. "As long as we get a seat..." Jisung overheard Chan murmuring to himself. 

"Just gonna drop of my bag and..." He followed him through the crowded space, throwing his duffel bag into the open luggage room. 

 "Let's go and get seated quick huh?" Chan turned around to look at the rest of the group. Something about the whole "we're two separated friend groups" did not seem to arrive in his head yet. Furthermore, he seemed like a dad, especially with that voice he seemed to use whilst talking to himself. 

Jisung took a hold of Changbin's arm as he was climbing the narrow pair of steps. "Don't you try to leave me alone." He said it darker than he intended to. But he had to save his ass from sitting next to any of the weird kids that were queuing up behind their class. 

"Well shit," Jisung groaned as he fell into the seat next to the window. There was not much fabric or comforter to feather his fall. 

"God... this sucks." Changbin rolled his shoulders. 

"It does," Jisung fumbled with his jacket until he found his phone in one of the pockets. "My ass is going to be so sore." Changbin turned to him with a chuckle on his face. Without looking up from his phone Jisung said, "Don't even try you bastard." That made his friend giggle even more. "Fine fine whatever." Changbin held both hands up in defense. 

On his screen, standing bright against his dark wallpaper, shone the time; 8:14. Just perfect. Jisung yawned. The doors of the vehicle closed. He wrapped his arms around himself, the fabric of his jacket puffing around him. It was icy cold in here. 

Changbin had turned around in his seat, one knee propped up, conversing with whoever was sitting behind them. Suddenly he scrambled back to sit straight. Everyone did. Jisung raised his head. His homeroom teacher stood in the aisle, holding the microphone. Jisung registered the crack of the speakers above him and the roaring of the bus. 

He picked his headphones up and placed them where they belonged. The second they did, every noise around him turned silent. He clicked on play and started to zone out. He trusted that his friends will tell him what the talk was about. They started heading to the camp.

The morning scenario of their city raced past him. It was mixing up in a grey, cold and foggy cocktail that was hard to digest for someone who stubbornly didn't want to fit in. 

 Jisung closed his heavy eyelids. 

--

Well, screw the "trust in his friends" part. The second he jolted awake, and sleep-drunkenly stumbled out of the bus, everything was chaotic. 

While waiting for his turn in the mass of grabby hands to get his bag, he took his surroundings in. He knew that the camp was next to the water. Jisung didn't imagine it to be in the middle of nowhere. He took a step back and peaked behind the bus. A long, dark road wound through the maze of trees into the forest. 

He huffed. "Great..." Of course, his friends had already taken off to the campsite by the time Jisung got his things. 

"This is terrible. Just..." Jisung stomped behind the last students. The mud clung to his shoes, making disgusting noises with every step. "UGH." He blew air out of his nose and tried to calm down. Or make it to the camp without punching a tree. His new white Converse. Of course, they had to be white. "I'm so stupid sometimes..." 

Jisung had made it onto the court. The lake spread out in front of him. The only thing that suddenly seemed completely calm and balanced. 

To his right was a kind of hut, with a terrace that stretched once around the whole building and was occupied with many round tables. The wood looked nearly black because the spruces drew long shadows over the whole complex. It dripped silently down the end of the gutter. 

Jisung saw a small trail leading to a cottage built in the same style. "Bathhouse" was written on a sign, he guessed. There were spruce needles and dirt stuck to the signpost. 

The people behind Jisung pushed past him to the left. He followed silently. He didn't really want to mess with anyone here. To confirm this, he yawned again and shouldered his athletic bag. "What could that be?" Jisung wondered as all the guys squeezed into the entrance of a huge white event tent. 

The question answered itself as he entered as well. "Oh no."