the sun had set and the moon found its place in the sky, illuminating the property with the help of string lights and lanterns that scattered around the house. the air got colder and the members had wrapped themselves in warmer jackets, planning to play a game of beer pong.
dayoung's chair was in the middle of jisung and haechan. her feet were placed on the chair, hugging her knees close to her chest in an attempt to keep warm. her hearing began to muffle as she yawned behind her hand, tears gathering at her eyes.
"i think she knows how to play," stated mark, bringing her attention back to the group. "have you played beer pong before?"
he was addressing her, of course, seeing as dayoung was the only "she" among them.
"i know how but i've never tried it. i turned of age with you guys, remember?" she answered.
"right, right. okay, then let's divide the teams with dedenjji."
dayoung begrudgingly got up from her seat and ended up in a team with haechan, jeno, and jaemin after making her palm face up.
"i feel like i'm gonna lose," she scratched her cheek. "i have bad aim."
"yeah, you can't even make it when you're tossing your clothes in the laundry."
"irrelevant, lee jeno."
in a half-hearted apology, he hugged her from behind and rubbed his cheek against hers. she rolled her eyes with a slight grin, leaning into him for warmth.
haechan and mark versed in a round of rock, paper, scissors which the elder won. he easily made the first shot in but missed the next.
there weren't any victories for a while, so dayoung snuck away to the kitchen in search of banana milk. she hummed along to a song that was stuck in her head, leaning on the refrigerator's door before spotting the yellow carton.
"bingo!" she cheerily said to herself and reached for it.
when she closed the fridge, she realized one of the cameramen had been filming her and got embarrassed. covering her face for a second to hide her pink cheeks, she then brushed it off and happily showed off her drink to the camera.
"mission accomplished~"
it was jisung's turn to toss the ping pong ball and he made it into the cup at the point.
"we're doomed," said jaemin. being the non-competitive person he was, a smile was on his face as he predicted the game's obvious outcome.
chenle's ball bounced off the rim of one of the remaining cups and dayoung ended up catching it.
"oh, perfect, it's your— when did you get that?" haechan questioned and gestured towards her drink.
"just now," she shrugged.
she figured it would be easiest to aim for the front, thinking that there's a good chance it could bounce into the cups behind if it did. taking a sip from her milk, she threw a fastball and got it into the same cup jisung did.
jeno clapped his hands and shook her by the shoulders. "our underdog!"
"she looked so relaxed too!" pointed renjun.
even so, it wasn't enough to win the game. mark's team took the victory and the opposing four sulked at the thought of doing the dishes.
dayoung followed jaemin into the kitchen, wanting to finish cleaning up as soon as possible.
"jaem, go rest," dayoung told the older '00 liner. "you already did the dishes and cooked for us earlier."
he shook his head. "i can help a little bit."
she pouted and grabbed his shoulders, looking up at him to meet his gaze.
"thank you for your hard work! bye-bye!"
she softly nudged him out of the kitchen right as haechan and jeno arrived. the vocalist was on the verge of throwing a tantrum just by looking at all of the bowls and plates on the table.
"should we play music?" asked dayoung, trying to make cleaning more enjoyable for the three.
"i'll go get the speaker."
jaemin pulled dayoung onto his lap after lighting the bonfire, putting a fuzzy blanket over them. a content sigh sounded from him and the girl turned to look at him. she gave him a loving smile that he more than willingly returned. he then focused his gaze on the crackling fire, basking in the sound of mark playing the guitar and his group members singing together.
dayoung gently leaned into jaemin, her voice seamlessly blending in with the others.
"..돌아서는 그 순간, 벌써 네가 그리워."
[trans: the moment you turn around, i already miss you.]
"anyways," haechan began. "we came camping for the first time today. how was it?"
jeno and chenle were the only ones that answered before mark randomly did a count-in to which renjun sung a couple of lines from 'walk you home'.
jaemin was still focused on the fire when he noticed that the wood wasn't burning easily. he wanted to hold the blow-torch on it for a little while more, so dayoung got up and settled in the empty seat to their right.
"yin, wanna play something?" mark offered and motioned for her to take the guitar.
she happily accepted and stood up again, carefully grabbing the instrument and sitting back down. she placed her fingers on the lower half of the guitar's neck and strummed it once to make sure it was the right chord. from there, the melody came easily.
"for all the times that you rain on my parade, and all the clubs you get in using my name."
mark and haechan followed along. the voices of the three complimented each other perfectly, adding to the calm atmosphere.
"you think you broke my heart, oh, girl, for goodness sake. you think i'm crying on my own, well, i ain't."
jisung hummed along, making the corners of dayoung's lips turn up in the slightest.
"and i didn't wanna write a song 'cause i didn't want anyone thinking i still care, i don't but you still hit my phone up."
in the middle of singing, dayoung heard jaemin comment, "blankly staring at fire.. is nice," to which she nearly giggled at.
they eventually went around to talk about how today was for them, and went it was dayoung's turn, she unknowingly had a smile on her face as she spoke.
"being here with you guys, i felt at home. it's been a long time since we were all together like this and it made me realize how much i treasure moments like these. we're all far away from our families, so i'm grateful that we're able to be with each other,"
"i really wouldn't trade any of you for the world."
"noona..! you're so cute," jisung gushed and reached over to wrap her in his arms. "we don't deserve you."
dayoung laughed and hugged him back with her free arm that wasn't holding the guitar. she ruffled his hair at the same time jaemin ruffled hers.
mark smiled. "we wouldn't trade you either, bub — not for anything."
➥ 終。
➥ in love with the thought of ji acting like a child just to be babied by dayoung (':