[ dedicated to ErinBTS_xo_ as a thank you for reminding me of this story. thank you so much for reading! it means a lot ]
NOTE: while this ending may seem a little rushed/out-place, please remember that this story is supposed to be a one-shot of sorts so it's supposed to be short! i did my best to wrap it up as cleanly as i could given the time that i had. i hope you guys enjoyed CAMP COUNSELORS as much as i enjoyed writing it for y'all <3
WARNING: you will bust all your uwu's
It was supposed to be a normal kind of night - calm, quiet, bright.
It was supposed to be the kind of night where the kids went to sleep without a fuss, where Jungkook wasn't expected to meet up with the rest of the camp counselors for a late night smoke. It was supposed to be the kind of night where starlight freckled his skin as he wandered dirt pathways, where his breath came out in puffs as the temperature dropped.
It was supposed to be him, his thoughts, and any accompanying panels of moonlight.
Sometime around midnight, minutes after finishing the last of his curfew rounds, Jungkook was following wherever his feet took him. His brain hadn't quite registered the way the rest of his body screamed with exhaustion, each pace slightly more sluggish than the previous. It explained why, in spite of feeling like the world was sitting on his shoulders, Jungkook was wide awake - and that pissed off the rest of him. He could see exactly where his feet were taking him but he had no control over where he went.
His body was staging a mutiny.
He was used to walking in the woods after midnight. The faint sound of the running river calmed otherwise actie nerves and whistle of the wind added a skip to his step, even if small. Every now and then, his feet led him to the lake dock. Sometimes he took his shoes off and sometimes he kept them on - every time he dipped his feet and sat, shoulders slouched. There was something wholly comforting to him about seaweed tangling around his ankles and frogs croaking in the distance. It was the way water lapped against body, soothing the ache in his soles that made the lakeside a welcome detour from his normal.
But while the lake and the woods were familiar territory for Jungkook, the heart of camp was not - at least not at night.
Camp's main meeting point was nothing more than a dirt circle. A worn, wooden rod dipped into the earth, standing high in competition to the trees. Two megaphones hung from the top end, one taut against the pole and the other dangling by a thread. It was odd - in daylight, the rust on the megaphones caught the sun and sparkled. In moonlight, the glossy finish of the metal - albeit a little faded - brought out the megaphone's white undertones.
At night, the normalities of camp didn't seem as normal anymore.
Sunlight had a tendency of dousing the world in an excess of fire - orange, red, and magenta. Moonlight was its undoing, washing away the saturation until the color contrast was back to normal - it was the saving grace to colors overwhelmed by flame. The megaphones, from where they were, looked like calla lilies coming into bloom. Log benches became phasmids shaking out the sleep in their legs as they prepared to prowl the grounds. The hearth was like molten lava and the rocks surrounding the continuous campfire were like volcanic ash. And the figure sitting the folding chair across from where Jungkook stood - he didn't look just like any regular camp counselor anymore.
He used to look ghostly at night, the whites of eyes and his cheeks sticking out, but now, his sun-kissed skin shimmered with a nude lacquer. His hair was almost as red as the fire raging next to it, the black of his roots in sharp contrast with the crimson glow but blending with the clear night sky. He braced a hand against his thigh as he prodded the fire and Jungkook couldn't help but notice how well his clothes outlined every muscle in his arm, chest, legs. Jungkook sucked in a breath the same time Taehyung sucked his lower lip into his mouth, nibbling nervously.
Taehyung didn't look at Jungkook until the soles of his shoes were digging into the dirt. Still, he didn't smile when he did. "You should be with the other counselors," was all he said.
"I needed some time to myself. I needed to think about something."
Taehyung cocked his head to the side. "Think about what?"
"You." Jungkook shrugged when Taehyung's eyes widened. "Me. Us. You've been avoiding me for a while now."
It was Taehyung's turn to shrug. "I've been busy."
"Really? Is that why you threw your uneaten ice cream away and ran when you saw me coming to your table during dinner? Is that why you had Jimin lifeguard with me this week? Is that why you decided to sit out in the middle of your volleyball game?"
It was no mystery that Taehyung was avoiding Jungkook. The older had made it blatantly clear that he needed his space, and Jungkook gave it to him. He wasn't mad - a little annoyed, but never mad. He was used to Taehyung's antics; he was used to Taehyung getting close to him one day and then pushing him away the next. It took Jungkook two years to figure out why he did it.
"I'm sorry," Taehyung whispered. "I don't mean to do it."
Things between them were easier when they were just Taehyung and Jungkook, friends until the end. There was no need to mull over what it meant when their pinkies brushed or when their eyes lingered on each other for a second too long. That's what followed a confession, a profession, and a kiss.
The confession was something along the lines of time - it was always only a matter of time before feelings finally finally surfaced; strengthened, humbled, everlasting. The profession wasn't extravagant; there was no magic carpet, or glass slipper, or sudden transformation from frog to man. It was an ambush in the middle of the woods, full of sugary smiles, dark eyes and a shout in the absolute open. The kiss was euphoric; a gentle brush of lips at first, hesitant and experimenting, before evolving into fervor, hidden behind a mask of reaching hands and too many clothes.
Jungkook preferred how it was over how it used to be. When they were just friends, it was a constant tug-of-war for who seemed to like the other more. It was a fear that one didn't reciprocate the other's feelings and a constant anxiety over who was giving the other too much attention. There was an unnecessary excitement to being neither friends nor a couple, but Jungkook didn't mind that as long as there was no uncertainty.
Taehyung was using a stick to kindle the fire, the tip of the wood burnt and dusting away. Jungkook kicked it out of his hand. "I know you don't," he said softly. "That's why I don't hold it against you."
They both knew where the other stood - Jungkook liked Taehyung, and Taehyung liked him back. That fact was clear from when Jungkook was sixteen itself. Their relationship got hazy whenever it came to what they wanted to do about the mutual liking. Jungkook wanted a relationship, but Taehyung - it was a different story with him.
"It was a lot to take in," Taehyung started. "Capture the flag and the ice cream thing - I know I riled you up a little too. I don't know if I can give you what you want."
Jungkook was silent. It was the same back and forth between them every summer. Jungkook wanted to become something more, to become official. Taehyung wanted to say on the downlow because he wasn't sure what becoming official would do to them - them as friends.
Both of them knew it was easy to translate a friendship into a relationship, but backtracking was never as easy. It was why Jungkook never pressured Taehyung into something he didn't want - he didn't value a romantic relationship over their friendship. At the same time, if Taehyung was completely against them being romantic, he wanted to know - he had the right to know. Was he supposed to continue giving Taehyung his full attention or was he supposed to keep his options open? Jungkook wasn't even sure what him and Taehyung were, but he didn't want to be his friend for benefits for the summer.
The temperature was dropping. If it wasn't for the warmth of the fire, Jungkook would've been huddling into Taehyung's side. "I've always respected your space and what you've wanted, but we're both getting to a point in our lives where we need to decide what we want to do from here. I don't want to pressure you into making a decision about us right now, but I do want you to realize that time is ticking."
"We don't see each other during the year. We never have."
"We never had a reason to until now," Jungkook countered.
Shafts of moonlight filtered through the trees and curtained Taehyung's cheeks and eyes. They were hollow, sunken. It didn't look like he'd slept well that last few days and when Taehyung looked at Jungkook, the younger almost mirrored his face. There was a puff under both their eyes - from crying in the shower out of confusion or tossing in bed out of stress.
"After friends get into a relationship, if things go sour, they rarely go back to being friends. Even if they do, it's not the same. What we have - I'm not willing to jeopardize that. You mean too much to me for me throw that away for a chance to kiss you."
Jungkook chuckled at that. "As if me giving you a handjob helped to keep things platonic."
"You know what I mean."
And he did - Jungkook knew with his entire being what Taehyung meant. He knew that he agreed with everything Taehyung had said, and if he knew what was best for him, he would've switched his feelings off. Jungkook would've realized that liking him would've only continued to complicate things for them. But, when he looked at Taehyung with his boxy smile and pudgy cheeks, all Jungkook could think about was how he hadn't started liking Taehyung earlier.
"You need to tell me if you're completely against a relationship," Jungkook urged. "If you seriously don't see a future for us or don't want there to be a future for us, then you need to tell me. At least we're not a thing now - we still have time to go back to normal friends. There's no point making whatever we have weirder than it already is."
That meant no more sudden, stolen kisses behind the cabins. It meant no more accidental touches in the kitchen or lingering stares at the dock or suggestive gestures on the beach. Taehyung refused to look him in the eye, staring at the fire instead. Jungkook decided that if the fire continued to steal Taehyung's attention from him, he was going to have to put it out.
"That's the problem!" Taehyung suddenly cried out. "I don't fucking know what there is for us. I like you. I want you. I want you for as long as I can have you, but I'm so scared that it won't be long enough."
When Taehyung laughed, there was no humor in it. "Now that I have you, I don't want to let you go. I don't want to remember what things were like before you came along, and I don't want to know what things'll be like if you're gone."
Jungkook took Taehyung's hand in his and that - that felt like the most intimate they'd ever been. Their first kiss had been passionate, romantic. It was the official coming together of gratification, all the pent up sexual frustration boiling down to a single moment of roaming hands and mouths and hearts. The two of them holding hands, their elbows brushing and their fingers entwining - that felt like two halves becoming one whole. Jungkook's decisions completed Taehyung's indecisiveness, and Taehyung's fear mingled with Jungkook's confidence.
Taehyung was looking at Jungkook then. His hand trembled in Jungkook's, the palm wet with sweat, but he didn't pull away. He let Jungkook see beyond the suave confidence he wore on the daily because Jungkook deserved to know who he was investing his time in. Not someone who always knew what they were doing and knew what they wanted, but someone who loved fiercely and feared the consequences of it. When Jungkook squeezed his hand in response, a gentle smile playing on his face, it was a confirmation - a sign that he could see Taehyung's vulnerability and that he accepted it.
"It's just that people say they spend their lives with their best friend. They have forever with them, and I want that forever with you. What if something goes wrong and we don't have that?" Taehyung whispered.
Jungkook had no answer for that. It wasn't like he could see into the future and reassure Taehyung that everything would be alright, or change the events of time. All Jungkook could do was interlock their fingers tighter, squeeze harder until the veins in both their hands started to stand.
He brought the back of Taehyung's hand to his lips. "Don't worry about having forever. Don't ruin today thinking about what has to happen tomorrow."
"Tomorrow," Taehyung echoed.
Jungkook pressed a kiss to Taehyung's knuckles. That was the only way he could think of calming down the older boy. "And even if we don't have forever, we'll always have this summer. This summer and every summer before that," Jungkook continued. "We'll always have this moment and if this is the most we'll ever have, I'm happy. At least I'll still have you."
It wasn't certain what they were. They didn't have their closure and it didn't look like Taehyung was ready to decide anytime soon. But time - they did have a little bit of it left on their side. Together or not together, they were still Taehyung and Jungkook, camp counselors or not. They still had each other and at the end of the day, that meant they were still infinite.
A/N: and so camp counselors has come to an end! i'll admit, i did forget this story existed for a little while, so a big shoutout to some of you guys for dropping comments reminding me that this short-story was still incomplete! who knows when i would've updated this if it wasn't for you guys. all that being said, i hope you guys enjoyed this update, this final chapter! this is, genuinely speaking, one of the best chapters i've ever written imo. i don't know how i managed it, but i think it turned out very well and finished this rather haphazardly written one-shot exactly how i wanted it to. thank you all so so much for reading this story and being patient with me. your support, as always, means the entire world to me and i don't know where i'd be without you guys. now that camp counselors is over, i'll have to come up with something else to update for y'all, haha.
if you're looking for another vkook fic to read, i currently have 2 stories on my account! formula no. 21 is underway and i'll be working on updates for it! if you guys are interested, it would mean the world if you checked it out! game of thongs is a 'coming soon' and will hopefully come out this summer! i hope everyone is doing super well! take care of yourselves kiddos and remember, as always, y'all are the greatest, kindest, most special lil beans in the entire world <3