Camping (Jiyeon + Jiyong)
“Where are the tents?” Seung Ri asked Jiyong as he walked down the path from the parking lot.
“They were just here”
“Well, they’re not here now” Ae-young said, matter-of-factly.
“I swear I just took it out”
“Well, I suppose we can go and buy some more”
Jiyeon finally walked into the camp site, “Where do I put the food?”
They all looked around, “We didn’t bring an esky* did we?”
“Well, we can go get that too” Ae-young said.
“Wait, where are you going?” Jiyeon asked as they walked away she tripped.
“Stay here” Jiyong said as he picked her up.
“No!” she said, “Wait, where are you going? Are you going home? Can I go too?”
“We’re going into town and getting some supplies, you two stay here”
“Are you taking the car?” Jiyeon asked fearfully as she eyed it hopefully.
“It’s a 50 mile hike; yeah we’re taking the car”
“We’ll be back... unless it rains”
Jiyeon looked up at the greying sky, ‘please don’t rain!’
“Don’t worry; I’ll take care of you!” Jiyong said, as he put his arm around her, she glared at him and pushed him away.
“This is your entire fault”
“I thought you wanted to go camping” He asked as he took a bag that Seung Ri handed him.
“Yeah... but I thought that your version of camping included a hotel or something! Not dirt and nature and...”
He stopped and looked at her incredulously “YOU were so eager to come camping, weren’t you? And anyway who goes camping in a hotel?”
“Well at least I brought food, what did you bring huh? Magical tents that disappeared into thin air?” she asked as she waved her hands around.
“I DID bring them!”
“Uh... sure”
He looked back at the path that led to the parking lot, wishing that he had gone with them too.
“Um... Jiyong?”
“What? I swear if you’re gonna ask if we’re there yet one more time-”
“Jiyong, look!”
He finally looked up and dropped the water container.
“What the...?” He began, as they saw their clothes sprawled around the camp site.
“I told you I should have stayed here”
“I DID tell you to stay here! But you wanted to come with!” Jiyong argued back, as they ran around trying to see what they were left with.
“Oppa... we have no food”
He looked down sadly, “We have no tents”
“Why did I agree to this?” she cried and as she did, something wet fell on her face “Huh?”
They both groaned as it started to rain.
“Camping sucks”
******
“You’re going the wrong way!” Jiyeon cried as they both made their way up a watery path. Water seemed to be falling in all different directions, and each step they took seemed to be more slippery than the last.
“No, the map before said that there was a cabin this way...”
She slipped, and Jiyong turned to help her “Remind me, Jiyong. Why didn’t we stay at the parking lot?”
“Because they wouldn’t have come back there until morning, you heard what they said... and anyway, if we stayed there we would’ve gotten wet”
“But we’re getting wet now, whoa!” she said, as she slipped again, she used a branch as a rope to get herself up “Why didn’t I go with them?”
“Hey, just imagine this as a big adventure and we’re travelling thought the wilderness, roughing it”
She stopped and stared at him, then decided to kick him. He slipped into a pile of fresh mud, he glared at her and tried to get up, only to slip and fall down again.
“Agh! Stop laughing and help me up!”
Jiyeon leaned against a tree; even though she was getting wet she loved seeing Jiyong covered in mud. She wiped her tears away and pulled him to his feet.
“Ow!” She said as she pulled her hand away sharply from the tree.
“What?”
“N-nothing... mosquito” She said reassuringly, “Come on”
As she walked ahead of him, she giggled.
“What are you laughing at?”
“Oh, I just remembered something that happened yesterday” she said, absentmindedly, “This way?”
He stared after her, “You’re going the wrong way!”
“It’s this way”
“No it isn’t”
“Uh... yeah it is” she said happily.
“You’re going the wrong way!” Jiyong said as he chased after her, only just managing to get back in front after he pushed her aside, he directed. “It’s this way”
She rolled his eyes, “Men have no sense of direction, and it’s THAT way”
“Why do you say that?”
“Cause I can see it, it’s over there”
And as they both looked they could see a small cabin, it was a while away and the rain blocked most of its view but it was there. He grunted, “I was just testing you”
“Sure you were...” she said, after a couple of minutes of silence she spoke again, “God, I’m so hungry. Do you reckon there’s anyone living up there?”
“Maybe, whoa... watch it” he said, as she tripped.
She said as she held her hands up “I’m fine, I’m good!”
But as she said that she tripped again.
“Here... jump on my back”
“What?”
“Come on, you’ve got two left feet, get on my back”
“But we’ll both slip and fall” she said.
“Fine” he said, turning away as he held up his hands, “Just trying to save some ti-oomph!”
She grinned satisfied at her perfect glomp. He shook his head, and continued to climb up the path.
“Finally” He said after a couple of more tries up the path, he grinned as he saw her run forward and try and open the door.
“It’s locked, can you like barge it down?”
“No... I’m too tired”
“What are we going to do?” She looked down sadly, and then ran to the window “Do you think we could climb through the window?”
“I don’t think so, but you know... we could always try the key” She looked at him as he held up a soggy mat and a shiny key in his hands, she grinned.
“That could work”
******
They both huddled up near the window, as the fire that Jiyong made kept them warm.
“I’m hungry”
“I’m not; surprisingly” she said “At least it’s kind of warm”
He looked over at her. She was shivering and wet.
“Where are you going?”
“Looking for something”
She looked back out the window; from there they were able to see through a small clearing of trees. It was raining as far as the eye could see, but there was something calming about it.
“Here”
She felt something warm and dry fall onto her shoulder, she turned to see a large bed sheet, and looked up at him surprised “Where’d you get this?”
“I was carrying it the whole time” He said, before he smiled at her, “I found it in the bedroom, it’s kind of dusty... but you’re cold right?”
“Thanks” she said and she pulled it open, he came closer and they both sat together, watching the rain.
“This is nice” she muttered after a while.
“Yeah, it wasn’t exactly what we planned though”
She put her head on his shoulder, “It’s still pretty good, I mean... I wouldn’t want to share this with anyone else”
He could feel that she was starting to go to sleep, and he lay her down. He stayed awake long afterward, smiling to himself, thinking about what she had said.
******
He snapped his eyes open; he didn’t even realize when he had fallen asleep. He was in an akwards position against the wall, and his neck hurt, but that wasn’t what woke him up.
“Jiyeon...?”
She was curled up in the blankets that he had left her, shaking and sweating. She groaned and fear gripped Jiyong.
He panicked and ran towards her, her eyes were closed and he shook her. “Jiyeon... wake up, oh god, wake up! Wake up!”
She mumbled something.
“What? What?” He asked as he leaned down.
She said quietly, “You’re pulling my hair”
He got up and saw that he was pulling at her hair, he moved her so that she was sitting up, and he was relieved that she was okay to make jokes, but he was still worried about her.
He took her by the shoulders and held her close, trying to ignore how cold she was, but he could see that she was still limp in his arms. “Wh-what’s... are you okay?”
“My hand hurts...” she said, and she held it out to him.
He looked at it, he could see that the bite that she had gotten earlier wasn’t from a mosquito, it had swollen worse and had turned a dark read with purple bruises.
His fear suddenly heightened.
“How does it look?”
“Its okay... it looks fine” He held her closer and grabbed the sheets and wrapped them around them both. He looked out the window, it had stopped raining but it was too dark to go out, “Hey, listen... don’t go to sleep”
“But I’m tired”
“I uh-um... I’m afraid of the dark, just don’t go to sleep”
“Okay”
******
“Hey, hey....” He said happily as he rushed to her, she looked around and saw that she was in a hospital room “You okay? Feeling better?”
“What’s going on?”
“You were bitten by a spider” Jiyong said, “I got you here as soon as the sun got up”
Jiyeon vaguely touched her head, as memories of him carrying her on his back came to her mind, his voice telling her to not go to sleep.
“Everyone else is sleeping outside”
She looked at him, and saw the black shadows under his eyes. He hadn’t slept, she realized, he was taking care of her. She moved in her bed.
“What are you doing? You shouldn’t be moving”
“Come up and sleep. It’s not good if you get sick too, and anyway... I’m afraid of the dark”
He grinned and moved to the bed. He wrapped his arm around her, “You really scared me”
“Sorry”
“It’s alright... but now we know”
“Know what?”
“We’re never going camping again”
"Yeah... I know"
_-_-_-_
Storylines are copyright of Jtoasn.
