It's a beautiful day at Camp Yellow wood. The sun shines lazily onto the lake, the birds sing on the tall fir trees, and the small colorful cabins arranged in a U form around the bonfire give the whole thing a very woodsy appeal.
Unfortunately, Yang Jeongin, the camp counselor for the blue cabin, doesn't have the time to appreciate the places aesthetics. He's late to the camper initiation planning, having overslept and then gotten lost on the drive to the camp.
He finally arrives, and turns off his car. Stepping outside, he only has a moment to enjoy the sunlight before he gets pelted by a water balloon.
It splatters on impact, cold and wet. Jeongin grits his teeth. He really hoped he would get at least a few peaceful hours here before the prank wars continued.
"Bull's eye", someone calls out, and Jeongin glares as Bang Chan steps out from behind the tall trees.
The camp counselor of Green and he have what you might call a history. They've been pranking, insulting and annoying each other since the first time Jeongin came to the camp.
He had been 13 and Chan 15, and Chan had made fun of his Chapstick and his height. He wasn't laughing anymore when Jeongin caused his boat to capsize.
"Fuck off", Jeongin mumbles, grabbing his bag.
Chan tuts.
"No cursing. You're at a kid friendly camp now."
"Abominable goblin."
"Is that even an insult?", Chan asks.
"Be quiet, you insufferable pastry cutter."
As soon as Jeongin says it, he realizes that's a terrible insult. At least the goblin made sense, Chan is wearing a green shirt, but what's he trying to insinuate by calling the other a pastry cutter?
Chan is just as confused by being called a kitchen tool. He's grown used to the odd insults thrown at him over the years, with Jeongin calling him everything from actual profanities to a detestable turtle( it had been after Chan lost the canoe race and pranked the winner, Jeongin), but this one is a new level of weird.
Then again, he thinks, setting off through the woods to the main house, he might want to rethink his own repertoire of insults. You can't call someone a gremlin when they are, infuriatingly, taller than you.
Chan is confident about his height, but he hates the fact that Jeongin grew this year. Before, he was smaller than Chan, about 168 centimeters. Now, if Chan had to guess, he's roughly 10 centimeters taller.
The clearing in the middle of the U positioning of the cabins is still wet with dew this early in the morning, and the long wet grass brushes against Chan's calves. On the other end of it, the main house perches, painted a simple brown. It overlooks the canoes and the lake.
The interior is large, with picknick tables arranged around a single bigger one that serves as a buffet table. The different corridors bathrooms, showers and kitchen, as well as the upstairs area that houses supplies.
Right now, the counsellors sit in the picknick table in the corner, talking amongst themselves.
Hyunjin, the head of the pink cabin, has already changed into his shirt. Along with his responsibilities as counselor, he also runs the art department for the camp.
Next to him sits Jisung, counsellor for yellow. He smiles brightly at something Minho, head of red cabin, says. Jisung handles the nature walks as well as taking care of the yellow campers. He is very knowledgable about the animals and plants found in this terrain.
Minho is across from Jisung. He handles the food, acting as a chef, so if something tastes terrible, he's to blame. He stares lovingly at his boyfriend, dressed in a yellow that suits him very well.
Next to him is Felix, head of orange, and Seungmin, head of purple. They are trained in first aid, so they make sure the infirmary is up to date and that the campers are given proper care related to their health issues.
Changbin, head of gray cabin, sits next to JYP, the owner of the camp. He's in charge of the 'survival camp', and teaches campers what to do in case they get lost, or how to start a fire and catch fish.
JYP's not actually there on most days, but easily reachable in case of a problem.
Chan himself is responsible for the sports department. He's been a counselor for two years, and he knows what to do with the campers by now.
"You're late", JYP says.
"Yes, sir, sorry"
He appraises Chan in his dark green shirt and khaki trousers.
"At least you're already changed", he finally says.
Jeongin stumbles in as soon as Chan sits down.
His blue polo shirt is buttoned up the wrong way, and his hair is untidy from hastily pulling the shirt over.
"Jeongin, glad you could finally join us", JYP says drily.
"Sorry for being late sir, I got lost", Jeongin brings out, ashamed,"but I scraped together some instruments for the sing along and music workshop to add to the stack."
He sits down next to Chan, opposite of Changbin, and hiddenly elbows the elder under the old table that constantly gives people splinters.
Chan doesn't dare react, seeing as JYP is right in front of them, but the way he picks at the sinewy dark wood tells Jeongin he's definitely going to retaliate somehow.
-
The campers have only just started showing up, and Jeongin is already exhausted.
At least ten different people have tried to already pick a cabin, one boy turned out to be sick and was sent back home and told to come back when he's healthy, and one mother tried to sign up her 8-year-old.
When Jeongin has finally gotten to through to her that 1. This is a camp for 13-18 year olds, and 2., it's a boys camp, he collapses onto the picknick table bench.
"Kids are a nightmare"
"Yep", Hyunjin agrees, stirring his ice tea.
"Did you put extra sugar in there again?"
"I have to be energized."
Methodically, Hyunjin keeps stirring, before pulling another packet of sugar out of his pocket. He constantly steals the little packets out of restaurants and cafes, leading most of his pockets to have at least one packet of sugar, salt or pepper.
Hyunjin pours it in.
"I'm going to die."
Then, he downs about a quarter of the one liter bottle in one gulp, grimacing.
"Give me that", Jeongin says, thinking about meeting a bunch of campers, and Hyunjin complies, still grimacing.
He sniffs at the dark gold liquid. A sickly sweet smell wafts up from it, and Jeongin can tell Hyunjin poured enough sugar in for it to be syrupy.
A few clumps of sugar that won't desintegrate swirls at the bottom when Jeongin shakes it a bit.
Finally, feeling like he's going to regret this, he downs a gulp.
The mixture is so sweet, it overpowers Jeongin's taste buds. When he swallows, he swears he can feel it slide down the inside of his throat. And yet, it tastes weirdly comforting.
In the tea, he can almost taste the smoke and odd air in his grandmother's house. She always drank black tea with two pieces of rock sugar, which sweetens the tea up a few notches.
He takes another sip.
Hyunjin's eyes bulge out of their sockets.
"You can drink that? I can't have more than a sip."
"Yeah", Jeongin answers, vague. His memories with his grandmother are deeply personal to him. He applies a layer of Chapstick.
"Uh-huh"
"All campers, please come to the green. All campers, please come to the clearing", Chan's voice crackles through the old megaphone. It's been in use since before he started coming here, which is 7 years ago now. Time really flies.
The campers file into the green clearing if they weren't there already, sitting down on the grass or the logs for sitting around the camp fire. Jeongin and Hyunjin come out of the main house, ushering out some last stragglers.
Jeongin takes a sip from the brownish golden liquid he carries, then makes his way over to the firesite, where Chan stands on the circle of stone slabs around it.
"Hello, and welcome to camp Yellow wood. I'm Bang Chan, counselor for the green cabin."
He proceeds to explain a couple of the rules, like the no technology rule, no swear words, and curfews, before asking the counsellors to introduce themselves.
"Hello. My name is Seo Changbin, and I am the gray cabin's counselor. 16-18 year olds, you have a chance of being with me."
They go around like that, Hyunjin's pink drawing shy laughs from a few of the younger ones.
"Right, so now, I'd like the 13-15 year olds to please go to my left over there, and the 16-18 year olds, to my right, over there."
The campers do so, and Jeongin, Felix and Hyunjin already go over to the left. Changbin, Minho, Seungmin, and Jisung go to the right, leaving a clear line in the middle.
"Now please, see if you have any close friends here you might want to do things with. We're aiming to get about 8 people a cabin."
Chan hops off of the stone fire pit and walks over to the other 3.
"Looks like we'll be competing this summer, Jeongin", he says teasingly.
Cabins in the same age group often have 'friendly' competition.
"Yeah yeah."
The groups form, with a little bit of haggling and hassling, and the four organize themselves and pick one each.
"Hi guys", Jeongin smiles brightly,"I'm Yang Jeongin, 19, and I'm your camp counselor for the summer. How about we go to the blue cabin, and then we can continue introductions?"
The kids nod, looking a bit unsure, and Jeongin sets off with them in tow.
They grab the kids things out of the main house. The blue cabin is aptly partially painted blue, with a blue wooden door.
The campers unpack first, organizing their things into the little nooks and putting the sheets on their bunk beds.
"Ok, now let's go around and introduce ourselves. Say your name, your age, and your favorite camp activity"
They go around, each one of the nervous kids introducing themselves. Some of them are so quiet Jeongin can barely hear them.
"Ok, does anyone here snore? Or sleep walk or sleep talk? Because it's completely fine if you do, but I would like to know beforehand. I once freaked out because someone in my cabin randomly started sleep dancing."
"Which song?", one of the campers wants to know. He's smiling just a bit.
"I don't know. That was part of the creepiness. Anyway, let's go..."
Jeongin checks the schedule. They have another half hour to kill.
"Play some volleyball", he decides on a whim.
The volleyball field is behind the pink cabin, a sandy area where the net is hung up each summer.
When they get there, the green cabin is already occupying the field.
They're all around 14, and Chan stands in the middle of them, explaining nuke 'em. It's camp tradition not to play volleyball. The people who actually play the sport often end up destroying the people who don't, and everyone should have a fair chance.
Chan spots the blue cabin. They look a bit lost, quite honestly. One of the boys stands there, rubbing his arm in a rhythm, up down, up and down. Then, Chan has an idea to annoy Jeongin and simultaneously make the campers feel less awkward.
"How about we have a bit of a friendly competition?"
-
After Chan explains the game, all the campers get into position.
Chan's campers are better at the whole catching and throwing part of the game, but Jeongin's team, even if they don't really know each other, works better as a team, coordinating who takes what, and yelling 'I got it' when the ball's in the air.
Before long, Jeongin is still the last one not out. Slick with sweat and sand, he throws the ball over.
Chan catches it with one hand easily, allowing a member of his team back in.
Then, he jogs to the back, kicking up sand with the darkened soles of his feet. His blond hair glints and glitters with droplets of sweat in the midday sun.
He slings the ball over the net almost casually. Jeongin sees it coming, and already knows it's going to hurt.
Still, he drops to his knees and catches the ball one handed against his chest. It almost jumps back out of his hold from the force of the impact. His chest hurts like hell, but his campers cheer when they get to run back into the field, and that's all that counts.
There's something about Nuke 'em that bonds people together.
They play for a bit more, then finally stop for a drink of water.
Jeongin sees that this is his chance to get Chan back for the water balloon incident, and douses the elder with the water from his water bottle while Chan's back is turned.
The campers laugh, and Chan turns, a dark glimmer in his eyes. He screws open his own water bottle.
Jeongin stumbles back and starts running away. Chan follows. He chases the younger around the volleyball court, going in circles until he finally catches him, and pours out all the water onto him. They're both panting now, and Jeongin hugs Chan to make him wet as well.
Chan shoves him into the sand, and it sticks to Jeongin's wet shirt and gets into his hair, so he pulls Chan's leg away and the blond topples as well.
Jeongin then grabs a good handful of sand and sits down on Chan's chest, pinning his counterparts arms with his legs. He rubs it into Chan's hair, the other trying to shove him off, and picks up Chan's almost entirely empty water bottle to make sure the sand sticks to the hair.
Both cabin's campers watch the interaction, looking at each other uncertainly.
"What are they doing?", one quietly asks the other, glancing at the very intimate way Jeongin sits on Chan's chest.
"I have no clue."
"Are they dating or something?"
Satisfied with the amount of gritty substance in Chan's hair, Jeongin gets off of him and motions his campers to get back to the green.
He grabs his shoes and brushes off his clothes as best he can while he walks away.
Chan gets up and starts to shake the sand out of his hair, running his hands through the gritty wet mass, but the sand sticks to his hair persistently.
He gives up and asks the campers to come with him for the afternoon activities.
For the afternoon activities, campers can individually decide whether they'd rather learn to cook or bake something, learn survival skills, make some artwork, go for a hike, do something sporty, or learn an instrument.
Usually, hiking, sports and survival skills are most popular.
That proves true now too, though there are a few in every group.
Jeongin takes his group to sit down on a bench in the shade of a tree that overlooks the volleyball court.
He tells them to get to know each other already, and runs to the main house to get some supplies.
Coming up with several acoustic guitars, ukuleles, and shakers, he then walks back. Felix helps him carry the instruments.
"Does anyone already know how to play some chords?"
Three of the six raise their hands, and they get to pick an instrument. Two pick ukuleles, one picks a guitar.
One guy asks if he can sing along with the guitarist, and one boy grabs a shaker, leaving Jeongin with one 14-year-old eager to learn the ukulele.
"Ok, so these are called frets. You put your fingers in between them, and then strum. Now, let's start with a simple C chord."
Jeongin shows him how to play, going over what he needs to do to play some basic chords. Then, the boy is ready to play some basic strumming chords, until finally, Jeongin teaches him a beginners' song to practice with.
The other boys have started to sing brown eyed girl, and Jeongin sits next to them, enjoying the dappled sunlight that streams through the light green leaves.
He lays down. The sand finally comes off of him now that it's dry, but he still feels gritty, so he starts rolling down the sloping ground, the grass brushing the sand right off of him.
He makes it to the bottom, and stands up. His world still spins, and he stumbles and falls right back into the soft grass.
One of his campers, the one with the shaker, lays down and rolls down after him. The others follow suit.
Jeongin is still slightly dizzy, but now he's in the mood for immaturely rolling down hills, so he goes back to the top and starts again.
The shaker-boy joins him.
They do this a few times, each one making it harder to stand and not fall over.
By now, Jeongin is used to the speed he reaches, and tries to roll faster and faster. He races against the 13 year old, trying to go fast enough to beat him.
He is stopped prematurely by a pair of feet.
When Jeongin gets his bearing back, he realizes Chan stands above him.
"I didn't know rolling down hills is a part of making music"
"It gets the blood flowing to your head. That stems creativity", Jeongin groans. He has lost.
"What song do you want me to play this evening?", he calls over to the shaker-boy rubbing his temples.
"Good Riddance by Green day, please"
The boy has good taste. Even though Jeongin prefers Elton John. There's something about Tiny dancer that's just... Beautiful.
"Fine, but I'm only playing, not singing"
Jeongin doesn't like singing, it makes him feel uncomfortable. He had an issue with his choir teacher calling him out a few years back and hasn't been comfortable with his voice since.
"I don't want to sing either though"
"I can do it."
Jeongin looks up at Chan. That was unexpected.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, it's no big deal."
-
I know it's the end of summer, but I'm posting a summer ff, and you are incapable of stopping me.