a/n Aeyoung is 15, Jake and Jane are 16
"Do I need to remind you kids to behave?" Ellie stared at her twins and gave them a pointed look while both kids in front of her looked at each other before nodding their heads.
"Sure," Jake grinned. "When did we ever not behave? Plus, there will be our teachers and chaperones.. So of course, we can't go wild."
Jane just shrugged. Ellie just stared at them for another minute before sighing. Hoping that they would keep their words. This would be their first time going abroad by themselves and as much as Ellie wanted to go with them, she knew that she should just let them go by themselves. She wasn't worried much because they would go with their teacher. This was a school event anyway.
"Okay, make sure you have your passports," Ellie reminded them for the last time.
"Don't worry mom.. We have it here," Jane waved her passport in the air and Jake followed suit.
"Cash? Phone? Your medicine?" Ellie bombarded and Jane assured Ellie that they had everything they needed so she didn't need to worry. After all, they were experienced travelers, so they knew the drill already.
This time, Jake was happy that they were not going on a 'family' holiday. Even though it was a school boot camp, at least he didn't have to face the usuals. Both Jake and Jane were their school's representatives for two different reasons. Jake for basketball, while Jane followed their grandmother's path, gymnastics. There was going to be an olympics competition among international schools in East Asia so all participants were preparing themselves for the real deal by going to the boot camp. They would have a friendly competition among the olympics participants as a warm-up, to get to know each other. That way, they got to see their future opponents in action and came up with a good strategy for the real competition. The booth camp would last for a week and since there were so many students and so many sports to compete, they separated the students according to the sports that they played.
They divided the land sports and the water sports. They also divided the land sports into indoor and outdoor. Since both Jake and Jane played in an indoor sport, they were assigned to the same venue.
"Which room is yours?" Jake looked at the list and spotted his name under room B2 while Jane found hers under room F4. "Not bad, our complex is across from each other, so if you need anything, you just have to walk across the bridge and find me," Jake told Jane. For once, he was acting like he was a big brother and Jane was thankful for that. She wasn't exactly a social butterfly so new situations like this usually gave her anxiety. But having someone close, like her big brother, at the same place and was ready to help her at any time gave her some assurance that everything would be fine.
After helping Jane with her luggage, Jake went into his own room. He met his roommates and soon the schedule started. Everyone was busy with practice and practice. After a common workout for all students, they started to separate the teams according to their sports and schools. Naturally, Jane was separated from Jake since they were competing in two different sports. The practice was brutal and the coach was more ruthless than his usual coach that Jake could barely feel his legs after practice. After showering under hot water to soothe his aching massage, Jake went into the dining room. He was just getting his tray and tried to find Jane when he bumped into someone.
"Sor –," the words died in the air when Jake saw who he was bumping into. "Aeyoung?"
At the same time, the other person also exclaimed, "Jake? What are you doing here?"
"I should ask the same thing, what are you doing here?" They were into a staring contest when someone else interrupted them.
"Ah.. I see that you've seen each other." Both Jake and Aeyoung stopped their staring contest to look at Jane. "I was about to find you to warn you," Jane looked at Jake and tilted her head toward Aeyoung. "About her.. But looks like I was late," she huffed before turning down her voice. "Let me remind you that we're in public right now, so please, whatever is between you two... keep it down until the booth camp has finished."
Jane reminded them of their last holiday when both of them bickered with each other so much. Jake looked at Aeyoung briefly before assuring his twin that he would put aside any disagreement that they had. After all, they were here for sports, so that was what he was going to do.
"What are you here for?" Jake questioned Aeyoung since the latter queued behind him.
"Taekwondo," Aeyoung replied.
"Aaahh..," Jake nodded. "I see that you're still doing that," he rubbed his jaw where Aeyoung kicked him years ago.
As promised, both Jake and Aeyoung remained civil. Which was not hard to do since the only time they saw each other was at morning warm ups and during eating times. There were lots of students so sometimes, they didn't see each other all day at all. That was, until the last night before the friendly competition round started. For the last three days at the booth, they would compete against each other in a friendly match. The night before the competition, the boys decided to sneak out to buy some liquor and enjoyed the last night having fun.
Jake was on liquor duty. Along with four other boys from other schools, they were sent to buy liquor from the nearest mini market. They were lucky the dude behind the counter didn't bother to check for ID and just let them buy the booze. They hurriedly went back to the camp as it was near night time inspection. They would hide the booze and get the party started after the inspection. They were about to jump over the wall when he heard some rustling. He narrowed his eyes and noticed there were some shadows lurking around the bush. Then he saw some shadows jumping over the wall. He was curious so he decided to take a better look. Just when he was about to reach the bush, he heard someone cursing and then a grunt.
"Aeyoung?" Jake realized that it was Aeyoung that was lurking behind the bush and cursing. "What are you doing here at this time?" he lowered his voice as well as himself to level with Aeyoung. He noticed that she rubbed her ankle and massaged the area. "What's wrong with your ankle?"
"Which one do I have to answer first?" she grunted but kept massaging her ankle. "What are you doing outside as well?"
"The boys are planning to have a small party before the competition starts tomorrow. Me and several other boys are on booze duty," Jake answered nonchalantly.
"Well, the girls are thinking the same," Aeyoung surprisingly answered his questions voluntarily. "And I also got the booze duty."
"Then, where are your friends? Why are you here all alone?" Jake looked around and saw no one else in sight.
"They jumped over the walls just before you found me. I think they think you're one of the chaperones so they left me here," she answered as she kept massaging her ankle.
"What's wrong with your ankle? Why do you keep massaging it?" Jake swatted her hand and pulled her ankle to inspect it himself. "Are you hurt? Wait.. your ankle is swollen.."
Aeyoung yanked Jake's hand and pulled her feet back. "I hurt my ankle during practice this morning. I landed on the wrong footing so it's a bit sprained. I've iced it and I will ice it again after this."
Jake shook his head, "And you still used those feet to walk to buy booze and back again? And here I think I'm the dumb one," Jake grunted and dusted his knees before straightening up. "Come on, I'll help you jump over the wall."
Begrudgingly, Aeyoung accepted his help. Jake jumped over the wall after her and then got down on his knees again.
"What are you doing?" Aeyoung flustered when Jake squatted in front of her, with his back facing her.
"What do you think? Hop on.. I'll carry you back to your room. You shouldn't walk on those feet," Jake nudged his head, prompting Aeyoung to climb his back.
"No way..," Aeyoung tried to walk away, but her sprained ankle prevented her from moving quickly. She hissed when a sharp pain shot up her leg.
"Geez.. you're really stubborn," Jake cursed under his breath. "Then don't be mad at me," he gave a short warning before swooping Aeyoung off her feet, carrying her on his back in a piggyback.
"Put me down!" Aeyoung hit his shoulder, hoping that he would put her down, but Jake was adamant.
"Stop it, will you? We'll both get caught if you keep hitting me and making us fall," Jake glared at Aeyoung over his shoulder and Aeyoung shut her mouth. "And don't think too much about this. I'm just helping you since you hurt your ankle. You can go back hating me after you're back in your room."
But then.. Both didn't feel like fighting each other anymore.
