Meet Me Here

Chapter 2: Rise and Shine

Perhaps they were alike in personality but her connection with the child was instantaneous. The girl, Milky was a 12-year-old who had been a regular camper at Camp ICBM for the past 5 years. Their conversation started off slow, with Ye Jin gently coaxing Milky out of her shell. Deep inside, she recognised that Milky was shy like her and that made it easier for her to understand the little one.

By the time more campers joined the line, Milky had already completely opened up. She was now chatting away and joking with some of the younger kids and Ye Jin.

All this time, Hyun Bin was observing Ye Jin's group from the stage. He was smiling like an idiot the whole time Ye Jin was interacting with the children. Now, his childhood friend practically blended in with her group of campers who were eagerly trying to befriend her. There was already a little girl trying to crawl onto Ye Jin's back as she reached out to high five a little boy. 

Walking past Ye Jin, Hyun Bin couldn't help but pat her arm encouragingly, silently praising her for a job well done. Ye Jin felt his familiar touch and looked up just in time for them to exchange a smile. Their little moment didn't go unnoticed, and the children started teasing Ye Jin about him the minute he left.

"Ooo are you two dating?" One of the girls clapped happily.

"So sweet! He patted her on the arm!" Another camper joined in the hype.

"Teacher Ye Jin,  is he your boyfriend?" Another curious camper asked her innocently.

"He's just a close friend, darlings. Don't get your hopes up." Ye Jin chuckled.

Her response was met with a chorus of disappointed awws before laughter filled the air again when Ye Jin reached out to tickle one of them.

"Teacher Ye Jin, your friend looks like my brother." Milky pointed out as she looked between the two close friends.

"You have a brother?" Ye Jin tilted her head to the side.

"Ne! He loves to play music for me to dance to." Milky shared.

"That's so sweet, Milky! You and your brother must be very close. Is he at this camp too?" Ye Jin tried to look around to see if any of the children resembled a mini–Hyun Bin.

"Aniyo, my brother is way older than me! He's legal already!" Milky scrunched up her face at the thought of the adult world.

Ye Jin laughed at Milky's precious reaction and ruffled the girl's hair. With that, they launched into another discussion as they waited for the rest of the campers to arrive.

Soon, So Sook announced the start of Camp ICBM and the room burst into a round of cheers. Ye Jin and Hyun Bin glanced at each other across the room as they clapped happily. Their smiles only grew wider as they shared in the joy of the camp spirit together.

After the usual round of introductions, the groups dispersed into their little circles for the essential part of every camp, the icebreakers.

Essential but the most painful part of every camp.

That was when the awkwardness was at its peak. The extroverts usually hated how quiet it was and would attempt to fill in the space with chatter while the introverts were usually too intimidated to initiate any conversation. In a nutshell, icebreakers as its namesake suggests, existed to break the icy coldness between strangers but it was an uncomfortable process.

As the facilitators worked to break the ice, it was evident that some groups were progressing faster than the others. Much to Ye Jin's confusion, Dea was missing while Suk Chin was currently busy with his Main I/C duties like the rest of the I/Cs. That meant Ye Jin was left to handle 25 kids alone for the duration of the ice breaker. Not one to back down from her duties, Ye Jin tried her best to hype her little Pirates up despite her lone ranger status.