The Retreat | Enha multi ship

[Chapter 40]

"That should be everything..." Gaeul checks over the list on her phone one last time, to make sure she didn't leave any of Jungwon's stuff behind. With everything accounted for, she zips up the suitcase, and wheels it out of the cabin. 

While she packed Jungwon's belongings, she had left her own outside, expecting them to still be there when she came out. However, everything was gone. Her eyes widen and she starts to panic, had someone stolen all her stuff? That would be the worst way to end this week.

"Don't freak out," Yujin comes strolling up to the cabin with a smirk. "I took your stuff to the bus already."

Gaeul lets out a huge sigh of relief. "Thank God, I was really scared then."

"I know, I could see it on your face." Yujin chuckles, waving for the girl to come down the steps. "I felt like being nice today."

"Well I appreciate it," Gaeul breathes out as she struggles to carry the heavy suitcase down the stairs. When she finally gets the bag to the bottom, she was completely out of breath. "I swear I don't remember packing bricks." Yujin laughs at her while pulling up the suitcase handle.

"I can do that." Gaeul says, reaching out for the handle, but Yujin slaps her hands away.

"You can barely breath, just let me help-"

"I shall help you!" Riki suddenly appears in between the girls, and snatches the bag from Yujin. "A noble man such as I, cannot allow a beautiful lady such as yourself, to carry her own luggage."

The girls glance at each other in a 'this kid is so weird' sorta way, before bursting into laughter. 

____

"I can't believe Heeseung would go for someone like Jim."

"He's literally a nobody, what is he thinking?"

On his walk to the coach, Jake heard a lot of conversations similar to this one. It seemed like his budding relationship with Heeseung had become the talk of the school. It wasn't nice to hear people say stuff like that, and not even get his name right, but what hurt the most, was that these girls were standing right next to him. Did they not care about his feelings?

"What's wrong?" Heeseung asks, joining Jake in line for the bus. He had gone off a minute ago with Jake's aunt to put their bags in the storage, but when he came back he noticed something was wrong immediately.

"Those girls were talking about us." He mumbles quietly, not wanting the girls to hear.

"Who was talking about you?!"  

Unfortunately for him, he had an aunt who didn't understand context clues.

"Shhh please!" He whisper yells. "Those girls were saying bad things about me and Heeseung." He subtly nods his head in the direction of the girls.

His aunt looked furious, but she bit her tongue, not wanting to cause anymore trouble for her nephew. Oppositely, Heeseung remained quite calm, but seemed concerned for Jake's feelings. "There's always going to be people who have something to say. You can't let it get to you."

"It just sucks to hear." Jake drops his head onto Heeseung's shoulder, and the red head wraps an arm around him. 

"Oh my God see...Heeseung would look so much better with someone else." One of the girls mutters.

"I'm about to commit murder for the second time." Jake's aunt says through gritted teeth, rolling up her sleeves menacingly.

"No," Jake pleads, pulling his aunt behind him. "I'll deal with- wait- did you say a second time?" He spins around in confusion.

"Does it count if I never got caught?"

"Yeah I think so." Heeseung answers a bit awkwardly.

Jake shakes his head, ignoring that revelation for now. He walks up to the girls, and taps their shoulders lightly.

"I can hear you two." 

He was sick of being the nobody, the punching bag, the one everyone thinks they can just talk about. His name was not John, or Joe, or Jim, he was Jake fucking Sim, and he was not going to let another person belittle him.

"I don't know if you care, but your words really upset me. So in the future, maybe you can remember that what you say actually has consequences. Anyway, you both are really pretty, and I hope you have a nice day."

Even when standing up for himself, Jake wasn't the type to be mean. He preferred to kill them with kindness, instead of throwing out ridiculous insults. Some people would see him as weak, or say that he wasn't harsh enough, but this was exactly how Jake wanted to handle it. Express his feelings, and then move on with his life. 

"You're so cute." Heeseung smiles, ruffling the boys hair as he comes back over.

Maybe it was the adrenaline from it all, but Jake felt like doing something else out of his comfort zone. Making the first move. He hops up on his tippy toes, and pecks Heeseung's cheek. The smile on Heeseung's face only grows wider, and he pulls Jake into a hug.

"See that bitches! You can't ruin my nephews happiness!" His aunt couldn't control herself anymore.

____

Hand in hand, Sunoo and Sunghoon amble slowly towards the bus. Everyone seemed in such a rush, pushing, shoving, waiting in line, but they just wanted to spend their last few minutes at the retreat in peace.

"Did you enjoy this week?" Sunoo asks.

"I guess, it was just a bit more stressful than I imagined." They both chuckle at that. 

Though it never ended up being the stress free retreat Principle Im had promised it to be, a lot of good came from this week. Issues were worked through, rivalries were ended, connection were made, and so much more. They all came out of the retreat stronger, and so, they actually felt glad that they came. 

"How about you?"

"I had fun, but I can't wait to go home." Sunoo chirps, suddenly remembering something that gets him all excited. "Ooh that new drama 'Moonlight Sunrise' is airing tomorrow, do you wanna watch it together?" 

"Of course, I heard the lead actor is incredibly handsome." Sunghoon replies, smugly running his hand through his hair.

Sunoo nudges him lightly. "You're only saying that because someone told you once you look like him." 

"I think I recall that person being you." Sunghoon leans in with the biggest smirk on his face. "Luckily you don't need an excuse to call me handsome anymore."

"Your ego is big enough." Sunoo giggles, squeezing Sunghoon's hand before dragging him to the bus.