Age of Death (Taennie)

18

"Guys, are you-? Oh."

Jennie turned her head so sharply her ponytail swung around and whacked me in the side of my cheek. Flushing deeply through a wince, I didn't have to look to see it was Chahee standing in the bathroom doorway. She was even more embarrassed than Jennie and I, judging by the look on her face, she was so red.

"I'm sorry, Taehyung, your dad asked me to come check on you, I'll tell him-" she rushed to say, but Jennie cut her off, sounding surprisingly calm.

"It's okay, well head down now. We were just, um, finishing up Taehyung's makeup. For the camping trip." She scratched at the back of her head awkwardly and then shuffled past Chahee without looking back at me.

Once she'd gone, Chahee and I stood alone in the most uncomfortablefew seconds of my life.

"I'm sorry," she said at last. "I didn't know-"

"That she was here and we are together" I finished for her.

She smiled feebly, still thoroughly embarrassed as I was. "No, I knew she was here. I didn't know that you and Jennie were-"

"We're not," I said, stopping her. "So...thanks"

I slipped past her and headed for the stairs, willing my blush to fade before i reached my dad.

When I found him, he was with Jennie in the living room. She was talking to him like everything was fine, but she couldn't quite look me in the eyes.

"Alright, Taehyung, ready to go? All packed?" He asked me when he caught sight of me. I nodded. "My bags by the door."

"Great." He smiled at Chahee, who must've shown up behind me just then, and asked her, "Would you like to lead the way?"

"Lead the way?" I echoed. "Are we taking two cars?"

"Yes," said Dad. "You and Jennie can take your car. That way if the two of you wind up chickening out, you can leave without us."

"I won't chicken out," I insisted, but I mostly just didn't want to ride alone with Jennie. Her facial expression said she felt the same way, and she even chimed in to agree with me.

"Yes, Mr. Kim, don't worry. We'll be okay."

Dad seemed skeptical, but after a few-second pause, jennie's input seemed to win him over.

"Alright, but I don't want to hear any complaints." He headed for the door and i trailed after him, avoiding eye contact with Chahee along the way.

I'd gotten out of being alone in a car with Jennie. Now if only I could get out of being alone in a tent with her all night, because it certainly looked like it was going to be a long one.

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A half-hour drive precluded our arrival at the campground, but I convinced dad to crank up the music during the drive, so it wasn't bad. We pulled into the campground and unloaded our stuff from the back of the car. Dad and Chahee carried most of our gear, but my backpack wasn't exactly light, and I wasn't looking forward to carrying it all the way to our campsite.

Chahee led the way down a trail near the parking lot, and Dad brought up the rear, leaving Jennie and i to linger awkwardly in the middle. Eventually, the distance between the two of us and Chahee and Dad widened, and Jennie decided it was time to acknowledge me.

"So, um...I didn't mean to." She paused like she was hoping I'd say something, but I didn't. Sighing, she continued, "If I did anything, I mean..I was just-"

"Look, I like you," i finally blurted out. Jennie tripped over a root and nearly fell, and i attempted a feeble catch that only made things worse and sent us both sprawling to the ground.

"Woah!" Dad called out behind us, and i heard him up his pace. Ahead of us, Chahee stopped walking, but i was too busy trying to push myself up off of a wide-eyed Jennie to see either of them until they were at our sides.

"Sorry, that was my fault," I mumbled.

"I'm okay. We can keep going," Jennie agreed, and shot me a sideways look. The four of us moved as a tight-knit group after that, which was absolutely painful, and I thought wryly that at least the day i couldn't get any more awkward.

We found out campsite not long after that and got the tent parts laid flat on the ground. Chahee moved towards me like she wanted to help me out with mine, but I grabbed dad before she could reach me, so she mercifully went to work on her and Dad's tent with jennie's help.

They finished first. Dad and I were kind of pathetic. Our tent fell over every which way before Chahee finally felt sorry enough for us to come help. As i watched her, I had to admit that she seemed like a pretty cool woman. If she were a teacher of mine rather than my dad's girlfriend, I knew I'd like her. But as it was, i couldn't help but have trouble warming to her, and this morning certainly hadn't help me.

We spent a few hours by a nearby lake after that. Chahee knew how to fish, which wasn't surprising, but she wanted to try and teach me and Jennie how to do it too. After giving us instructions, she set us up a decent distance from her and dad, which I knew was her way of giving us time to talk. I didn't appreciate it.

Jennie and I sat in silence for a long time while i half-assed a cast out into the water with an un-baited hook. I didn't like the idea of catching a fish. The catching part sounds fun, but I couldn't get past the idea of some poor innocents fish getting a hook in the mouth.

Jennie seemed to put some genuine effort into it, but I got the impression it was out of some combination of her usual "try everything once" philosophy and of her wanting something to focus on other than me, rather than out of a genuine urge to learn how to fish. For that half-hour or so that we spent sitting together without speaking.

She cleared her throat at last, and i nearly let out a sigh of relief when I realized she was actually going to speak.

"Sooo....this is awkward." I grimaced. "This whole trip is awkward." She wrinkled her nose and nodded her agreement. There was a pause.

"....Do you think your dad and his girlfriend are going to do it in their tent?"

"Oh my god!" I screeched and started whacking her over and over on her shoulder while she shook with quite laughter. "Why would you say that? Why would you put that into my head?"

"It broke the ice, didn't it?" She countered, grinning at me when i finally gave her a reprieve. "It's better than not talking."

"That's not for you to decide. Eww." I shuddered and set my fishing pole down on the ground next to me.

"It'll be okay," she reassured me. "If we hear any shenanigans coming from their tent, we can fight back with some of our own."

"You..." I opened and closed my mouth for a second, horrified, and then finished, "You need to be on some sort of medication."

"Who's worse: the crazy person of the person who likes the crazy person?"

"The crazy person who likes the person who's crazy enough to like the crazy person," i muttered, and she looked at me like she wasn't sure whether to laugh of to kiss me.

For a moment, i thought she might do both, but then she arched an eyebrow, murmured, "Touché," and then went right back to fishing.

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Happy Valentines day my loves💝💝