MISSION: Love

+ twenty-three +

The teachers finally rang their bells, signalling us to come back to the campsite. I got up and dusted off the dirt from my shirt. I watched as Sunghoon and Jay stood up straight and went ahead to search for the campsite.

"Hana, wait! You could get lost," I heard Jay's voice behind me. He scurried towards me and walked next to me, silently leading the way. Our walk together was so awkward that even the crickets were laughing at us. I stopped and waited for Sunghoon at the back.

I heard Jay also stopping before asking, "I have to ask you something."

I hesitantly turned to look at him. "If I didn't date Jihu, would you confess to me?"

"I am not having this conversation."

"No. We need to have this talk."

"We were supposed to have this talk before I'm trying to move on. Now, I don't want to have anything to do with you. Please! Just leave me alone," I snapped and walked ahead, leaving him and Sunghoon behind. As I reached the campsite, I saw Jihu folding her arms as she waited for my team to arrive.

I sighed and went to take a seat near the campfire. Some of the female students from Class B sat next to me. It made me relieved because Jay wouldn't have any place to sit near me. We all sat in a circle and talked about the things we found in our assigned spots earlier. Some of the students even said that they bumped into scary ghosts.

Their stories made my skin crawl. But I couldn't be too scared because I couldn't stop thinking about Jay's question.

"What about you, Hana? What did you see earlier?"

I was brought back to reality. I glanced at Sunghoon who was also waiting for my response.

"Well, we sat on the ground and looked at the stars. Then, there were also rare forest flowers and fireflies. We enjoyed our time at our spot."

The session moved on with ghost story-telling. I hugged myself as I felt an unusual cold wind brushing against my skin.

"There was this family who wanted to visit this historical castle at 6 pm, right? But the closing time was at 6:30. And people say you should never visit old buildings in the evenings because that is the time that ghosts move freely around places."

"So this family accidentally came late to the castle and asked a security guard there if they could explore the place. Unfortunately, the guard said that no one should be around the castle at 6. So the family headed back to their car but the mother felt something strange. If there was no one there at 6, how did the security guard manage to be there?"

"First, she thought that it was probably his job to take care of the castle. But her guts were telling her to turn around. To her surprise, the guard had no legs and his eyes turned whiter than white. His nails were long and were blacker than black."

Everyone gasped and hugged themselves as they felt goosebumps. "So what happened? Did the guard chase after them?" I asked curiously. "Yah! You're dead if I can't sleep tonight," Ahrin warned and glared at me.

"Alright, everyone!" The teacher stood up from her seat, "It's bedtime. Enough ghost stories for today."

💌

The next morning started with cloudy skies and raindrops pouring. I got out of the tent with my jacket on and saw no one outside yet. I could even hear snores coming from the teachers' tent. I sat at the campfire place the night before and zoned out, thinking about the things that happened the day before.

Me confessing and telling Jay about my feelings, sleeping in the same tent with Sunghoon and Jay wanted to talk about my confession.

So many things happened that my mind just couldn't handle it anymore.

"Hey," I immediately turned around when I heard a familiar voice. Ahrin smiled and walked toward me with her hands in the pockets of her jacket. She sat next to me and exhaled heavily, "It's been so long since we sat next to each other like this."

I stayed silent and lowered my head, avoiding eye contact with her. "How are you? Like, really. How are you feeling? You finally confessed your feelings to Jay."

"Confused, frustrated, hesitant, I don't know."

"You know, it is never your fault. Jay is not worth your time. You deserve better," she nodded and looked at me. I scoffed and scooted away from her, "Why are you suddenly nice to me? Where's Jihu?"

"I know that I haven't been nice and a good friend to you. I'm sorry, okay? I realised that without you, I feel so empty. You have always been with me even at my darkest moments and I do not want to lose you as a friend just because of my stupidity."

I stood up and headed back to the tent before stopping to look at her, "Is this because Jihu and Jay are dating? So is she ignoring you just to be with her new boyfriend? Is that why you're asking for my forgiveness?"

She stayed silent and looked away, avoiding my piercing gaze. I ran my fingers through my hair and let out a disbelief chuckle. "After what you've done, I find it so hard to trust people again. Just leave me alone."