fate, destiny, & love

04 | au mouvement

04

au mouvement [fr.] —
play the first/main tempo

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quqi liked camps to a moderate extent.

she would not say she was a camp enthusiast per se — she would rather much stay at home and binge all the korean dramas and anime she had listed down on a watch list. she just liked camps because they always took place near a forest, or somewhere that was near the countryside, and it brought a change of scenery. plus, she got to breathe in the fresh air of the area, where the typical carbon emissions of the city did not reach. she also liked it because the stars were more visible at night, like little pinpricks of light shining against a big mass of dark ink. she just hated the physical exertion bit whereby it was simply a must to sweat under the hot blistering sun, which was worsened by the summer sun and heat.

the first two days were pretty good: activities went by smoothly, the meals were alright, and the rooming situation was not too bad. the girls and boys of each team were separated into separate dorms and the girls in her group (other than remi) seemed genuinely nice. nothing changed between her and kageyama: the two remained cordial throughout the camp and talked about school matters.

day three was when fate decided that those two could not just stop at keeping a distance.

it was almost twelve in the afternoon, and quqi's team (along with a few others) were supposed to make lunch for themselves.

"alright everyone! split yourselves into groups of three!" their instructor yelled after clapping his hands together twice.

most of the girls in the group gave hopeful side glances at kageyama, praying that he would take a hint and join any of their groups. remi, on the other hand, was much bolder than all these girls combined and she was determined to push her dear friend in the right direction. she marched straight up to kageyama as the other girls looked on with questioning gazes.

"hey, kageyama-kun, we're short of one member," she said with a smile, "could you join us?"

kageyama made eye contact with his fellow guy friends for a split second before turning back to remi, nodding, "sure, i'll join you."

remi smiled all too widely at his positive response, "thank you, kageyama-kun."

she led him towards quqi, who was squatting on the ground and placing some solid fuel into the burner. she looked up and almost did a double take when she saw kageyama.

"do you need help with the matches?" he pointed at the box of matches lying beside her feet.

"yeah," she picked it up and handed it to him before raising her eyebrows at remi, to which the latter fluttered her eyelashes innocently in response.

once kageyama caught a matchstick on fire, he threw it into the burner, then quqi placed the mess tin (which already had water filled to the one-third mark) on top of the burner. remi looked over at the ingredients and announced, "sensei didn't give me one of the ingredients, so i'll go pick it up from him!"

without allowing either one of the other two to utter a single word, she walked away towards the group of teachers standing a distance away, under the shade of the trees.

after remi left, both of them remained squatted around their setup, listening to the overlapping voices of their classmates.

"so, uh, huan-san," kageyama was the first to speak up and initiate a conversation, "where are you from?"