campfires ₰ l.gn ✓

as

the sun is beginning to set, but the rain doesn't have any intention of stopping. it lightens up a bit, settling into a delicate drizzle.

geonu and melody's waltz comes to an end, but neither wants to let go.

at this point, geonu knows. he knows he should say something he just doesn't know how. every time he makes eye contact with her, his mouth runs dry and the words melt away. even now, with tiny raindrops weighing down slightly on the girl's eyelids, the edges of her hair frayed because of the humidity, to him, she still looks perfect. he's speechless.

and it's not like melody's feeling anything different. but at the back of her mind, she knows that their days are numbered. if she doesn't say something now, she doesn't know if one of them ever will. for just a few seconds, she breaks away from his gaze, flashing him a knowing smile when she looks back up at him. "so...i guess ni-ki's right. you do like me."

"i guess he is right." geonu smiles softly, a faint pink color dusting his cheeks. his gentle expression soon turns mischievous as he pulls the girl closer, "well, nina said you like me too."

melody's hands rest at his shoulders, fingers tracing the hem of his orange camp counselor t-shirt. "i don't know, do i?" she lifts off her heels, nose almost brushing against his.

geonu resists the the urge to roll his eyes at her remark. "you drive me crazy." his eyes glance down to her lips, before locking eyes with her again.

"that i already know." melody closes the space between the two, lips pressed together sweetly.

geonu remembers the promise she made to him—that she would help him make memories at the camp that he would never forget. in that moment, he knew that this would always be one of them.

a few hours later, geonu heads to the lobby where the campers were gathered playing board games. as soon as he enters the main room, beomgyu jumps off his comfortable yellow bean bag and scurries to the head counselor, jeongin following close behind.

"so," the blonde-haired boy wiggles his eyebrows. "good job."

"good job for doing what?" geonu asks, eyebrow's furrowing in confusion.

"you know what." beomgyu persists, elbow nudging him in the rib-cage.

"ouch—what are you even talking about?" geonu questions, still incredibly perplexed, but now rubbing the side of his torso in pain.

jeongin leans in close to whisper, "the confessing." he moves back to his original spot, nodding approvingly.

geonu actually wants to rip the smirk off the two boys' faces, but instead, he simply responds nonchalantly, "it was fine. no one really had a big confession. she just brought it up and-"

"wait, she brought it up first?" beomgyu groans. "man, i had faith in you. ugh!" the counselor stomps away, probably off to go vent his frustrations in a game of monopoly with daniel and dahyun. if geonu was puzzled before, he's even more bewildered now.

"don't worry, bro. he's just mad he owes me 25 bucks." jeongin steps in, both easing the boy's perplexity and revealing his low expectations for him with a pat on the back.

geonu is about to respond when olivia and hitomi come up to the head counselor with some papers in our hand. "the results of the final activity survey are in." hitomi cheers, getting the attention of the campers in the room. the kids begin to crowd around the counselors.

oh gosh, it had completely slipped geonu's mind. every year, the campers would fill out a poll question asking which activity they wanted to do on the last day of camp. the activities with the highest votes would be the ones chosen to do on the final day before the farewell campfire.

"and the winner is...drumroll please!" hitomi calls out, watching the kids eagerly pat on the ground with their hands. "kickball!" the kids cheer excitedly, as they go back to games.

hitomi looks at the sheet in front of her with a bemused expression, muttering out loud, "hmmm...that's weird."

"what?" olivia asks, noticing the girl's interest in the paper with the poll results.

"almost all of the campers voted for kick ball, except for a few minis who wanted to do arts and crafts." she explains, letting the rest of the counselors take a look at the sheet of paper that she was holding. geonu's eyes confirmed her statement, as he quickly scanned the number of times kickball had been written down. obviously there had always been a few camp favorites, like arts and crafts, rock climbing and water balloon fights, but kickball had never been one of them. the head counselor was suspicious.

but once he turned his head to the right and saw ni-ki and daniel peering over at the head counselors, he knew that those two troublemakers were the cause of this.

the head counselor walks over to the boys with a stern look on his face. daniel begins to cower behind ni-ki as they see geonu approaching, their eyes blown wide in fear. "would you boys like to explain yourself?"

"not really." ni-ki shrugs, not losing his cool.

geonu raises an eyebrow at the tall boy attempting to hide behind his older friend. "daniel? do you have anything to say?"

"w-we," the boy begins. ni-ki's eyes are fierce as he looks at the younger boy, pleading him not to say anything incriminating. "we felt bad and wanted to do something for you! we didn't have bad intentions at all, we promise! we just did some-"

daniel's next words are cut off as geonu wraps an arm around each of them, embracing them tightly. "thank you boys, it means a lot to me."

ni-ki hugs the older male back tightly, closing his eyes and letting a genuine, pure smile grace his features. "you're my favorite counselor, geonu." he whispers quietly, not sure if the older male heard it or not.

geonu definitely heard it. and he smiles even wider.

daniel is beaming too, but his innocence ruins the sweet moment when he discloses something that is better left a secret. "okay, i'm glad that you're not mad because we bribed the campers with wayyyy too much candy."

"daniel, why did you tell him th-"

"you did what?!"