「Chapter 23: Packing」
=Eryn's POV=
I let out a long, sharp breath through my mouth.
"So did anything interesting happen in school today?" Jace enquired. I didn't know if he was asking for the sake of asking, but it seemed like it. I turned to him.
"I don't know, I got really mad at one of my classmates but he didn't really offend me or anything," I mumbled, rubbing my nape. "He did tease me a little during class but it wasn't exactly a big matter either."
"Why would you get mad? You never do, you only get scared," Jace said, turning into the garage of our house.
"I don't know either," I said, unbuckling my seatbelt just before he pulled over.
Jace let out a long sigh, unbuckling his too and turning off the engine. "What am I gonna do with you?"
I chuckled lightly.
"Also, what was it about a camp?" Jace asked suddenly, making me cringe and bite my lips. "N was talking so loudly about it back there."
"Uh, well..." I hesitated, my creative mind crafting up all sorts of excuses, in which all seemed ridiculous and too see-through. Jace raised an eyebrow at me, clearly knowing what I was trying to do. I smiled innocently.
"You know you can't lie to me."
I gave up, relenting. "Yeah, yeah. I have a camp next Monday but I don't want to go and have no intentions to go."
"But it's just a camp and you told N you had already packed. You can't turn your back on this," Jace said as we walked towards the main door. I clicked my tongue. Did he listen to our whole conversation or something?
"But I'm not familiar with most of them yet, it'll be so awkward and everything," I argued as Jace unlocked the door with a card. With a beep and a push, the white wooden doors swung open.
"You're gonna go," Jace stated casually.
"Jace, you know you can't ㅡ"
"I know you'll be fine. I promise. N will be there, won't he? You guys are already getting along so well."
"We aren'tㅡ" I started, but stopped. I knew that it was true. In fact, I had became really dependent on N. He helped me so much ever since I came here, subtly. Jace noticed my hesitation and smirked.
"Go on up and get that form out of your bag. And start packing already," Jace said, heading to the kitchen to grab a glass of water, as he always would. It had became a habit of his.
"You're talking so much like Mom," I said softly, smiling slightly at the memories of her, but quickly pushing the thoughts away when I felt a prickly sensation at the back of my eyes. Jace frowned a little, but he smiled again so soon, as if that frown was never there. Was it?
"Come up after you're done, I need help with the packing and everything," I said and made my way upstairs to my room.
Jace came up ten minutes later, and I hadn't started packing at all.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
"Was waiting for you to come up," I stated simply, standing up from my bed. I pulled the untouched consent form from my bag, showing it to Jace. He scanned through it quietly.
"It's seven days," he murmured seriously. "That's really long, I expected at most five days or something."
I nodded. "Yeah, I know. Soㅡ"
"So you'll have more time for bonding sessions!" he exclaimed excitedly. I stared at him for a second, narrowing my eyes at him and groaning, plonking face-down onto my bed full of soft cushions. He laughed, walking over and sitting on the edge of my bed.
"It'll be fun! Don't worry and just stop thinking of all the nonsensical stuff that always goes on inside your head," he said, flicking my temples lightly. My reply was short and sweet.
"Ugh."
"Now," he said, clapping his hands together once and standing up. "Let's start packing."
"No," I murmured, my voice muffled by my pillows.
"Get up."
"I like ㅡ love ㅡ my bed. A lot."
"Yeah I know, you sleep with it."
"Punny."
"God, just get up already!" Jace exclaimed, grabbing my arm and pulling my lifeless and limp body off the bed. I slumped off the bed like a slug.
"You're so heavy," Jace muttered as he was literally trying to carry my weight. By my arm.
I immediately stand up on my feet and elbow him. "Excuse you."
He snickers and opens my cupboard.
"Pick your clothes for the camp. For ten days," he reminded. "I'll go get the luggage bag from the other room."
I sighed in reply and he walked out. I went towards my cupboard and picked everything at random, pairing whatever went well with each other. In the end, I brought out mostly skinny jeans, pullovers, leggings, pullovers.
I have tons of them since they were pretty much the only things I wore. They're comfortable and cute, what more can I ask for?
Jace came back in a while later with a mini hand-pull luggage ㅡ or whatever those things were called ㅡ and some large ziplock bags to put my clothes. I rolled up my clothes and placed them into the bags orderly, paired accordingly. I got my undergarments too and stuffed them into the sides of the bag. I got another bag and placed extra clothing in there, just in case. Of accidents.
Jace helped my place the bags into the luggage and placed my necessities (toothbrushes, soap and shampoo, etc) in too. I smiled in appreciation. He's been doing these things for me since young, packing my stuff as we moved from city to city, country to country, and comforted me whenever I was upset. Although he was indeed annoying at times, he was... How should I put it? My blood-related best friend, I guess you could say.
I grabbed my Kanken backpack to use as a daypack and put the necessary in. A bottle of mineral water, a poncho, an umbrella...
Jace tossed me a spray tube of insect repellent.
"You'll need it," he said as I stuffed it into my bag, zipping it up.
"There, we're done! Is there anything else you would need?" he asked, placing his hands on his lap as he sat on floor, glancing through the open luggage.
I shrugged. "If there's anything else, I'll put it in," I reassured.
"Can you sign the form? I'm not gonna ask Dad and it's awkward to ask that... that woman," I muttered, not wanting to call her Mom. Although I had to call her that in front of her face, she wasn't my mom.
Jace frowned at the term I used, but didn't say anything as he deeply empathized with how I felt about the family matters. He nodded, saying, "I am your guardian, after all."
Jace gave me a small smile and I returned it. He signed the form and I stared at it for a while. I haven't been to camps much as I heard ㅡ and knew ㅡ that there would be tons of weird activities they make up for you and you barely even get a minute to yourself. And I'm all about keeping to myself. How contrasting.
"Do I have to tell them about this or do I just go?" I asked, referring to my parents. It may seem out of the ordinary for everyone else, but I only told Jace majority of my matters, and vice versa. We keep things from our parents all the time, whether it's a big matter or not. We could sneak out of the house for three days straight and sometimes they wouldn't even notice. They practically lived in their office.
"I'll take care of that. You, just focus on having fun at the camp, alright?" Jace said, putting both his hands on my shoulders. I shrugged.
* * *
"I'll text you tonight."
My heart internally screeches.
It's 7pm right now, and I have no idea what's N's definition of 'night', but for me its any time after six. So here I am, waiting for my phone to ring.
No, this isn't right. Why am I waiting? It's not like he's anything special to me. I shake my head and toss my phone onto my bed, walking over to the room next door - Jace's room.
Without knocking, I turned the knob and peeped in. He was leaning against his desk, his phone to his ear, his eyebrows creased in frustration. The moment he noticed the door opening, he muttered something like "I have to go" and hung up, turning to me. I blinked at him.
"Can I... come in?" I asked, looking around.
"Of course, you didn't have to ask. You already opened the door anyway," he joked. I smiled and walked in.
"Who was that?" I asked.
"What? Oh, just my friend from school, there's a lecture tomorrow so he was giving me details about it," Jace told me. I nodded and turned to his desk full of worksheets and papers, buried under thick textbooks.
"Were you studying?"
"Yeah, kind of," he said, making a disgusted look as his eyes scanned through his messy desk.
"Have you eaten? I can go cook something for you," I suggested. I felt bad. Jace was always taking care of me, making sure I was always fine and healthy but I never really did much for him.
"It's alright, I'm not hungry." Jace smiled.
"But it's late already. I'm going to cook something for myself too so I'll just make some for you too, alright?" I urged. I didn't like him not eating.
He nodded hesitantly. "Thank you."
I shook my head and grinned, dashing downstairs to the kitchen. Many of my old friends expected my family to have maids around the house, but we didn't; we only had one when we were much younger. Our parents were always not home so they don't actually need one, and of course they wouldn't have hired one just for me and Jace ㅡ we were both old enough to take care of ourselves.
I knew how to cook quite a variety of things, but Jace didn't feel like eating much I couldn't possibly shove a whole meal down his throat. So I simply cooked ramyeon, the Korean instant noodle. I tossed some eggs in and it was done in less than fifteen minutes.
"Jace! Come on down!" I shouted.
"Coming!"
I brought the food to the table and I could hear him walking down the stairs. He came to the table and sat down, digging in.
"Thanks again," he said, his mouth full. I chuckled and ate, too.
After dinner, the both of us returned to our rooms. I instinctively checked my phone, and I indeed had received a message. I quickly opened it.
Hey, N here. What are you up to?
I smiled subconsciously and typed in my reply.
Nothing much. You?
I received a reply a minute later.
Same here. Are you feeling better? You weren't exactly in the best mood just now, you startled Hyuk.
I bit the corner of my lips. Should I apologise to him? Maybe not, I can do that on Monday. It'll be better that way.
Yeah, I'm fine. I'll talk to Hyuk about that, sorry.
Just like that, we continued texting back and forth till late, past midnight. We noticed the time and wished each other goodnight.
"Goodnight, sweet dreams, let's talk tomorrow," he had sent me.
I smiled and went to bed, drifting off into deep sleep peacefully...
That smile still lingering on my lips.
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〖A/N〗
This chapter is longer than my other chapters but I hope it'll make up for my hiatus!
I also changed the cover for this book since I'm honestly not happy with the previous ones. hehehh.