ʟᴀ ᴄᴏꜱᴛᴀ | ɴᴄᴛ ✔️

Chapter 4: Sign Up For What?

By now, you've gotten yourself acquainted with almost everyone around the camp, and you felt yourself slowly growing a little bit comfortable around some of the boys, specifically the older ones among them, because of their maturity.

You were still with Jaemin, and he began taking you to their medical center. "There's only a few more you have to meet, and then we're done."

"Christ. How many of y'all are there?"

"I'd say no more than twenty-something..." He shrugged. "Our numbers really went down after this all started..."

"Yeah, I can tell."

He pushed the doors to the medical center open, looking around for any sign of a person being inside. "Ten! Kun! Hello?"

"Back here!"

"Come on." He signaled you to follow him down a dimly lit hallway and into what looked like a medicine room, and you see the form of a boy in a jean jacket standing by a cabinet, who turned around the moment the two of you stepped inside the room.

For lack of better words, the boy looked friendly, sporting mint-green, tousled hair and glasses. He smiled as soon as he saw the two of you. "Hey, Jaemin. Who's this?"

"This is Y/N. She's gonna be staying with us." He introduced you to the blonde. "Y/N, this is Kun. He's one of our doctors."

"Nice to meet you." You did your best to return the smile, which ended up being more of a lopsided smirk.

"Same here."

"Have you seen Ten by any chance?" Jaemin asked him.

"Yeah, he's in one of the observation rooms down the hall. You know Mark got into another accident last night..."

"Of course, he did..." Jaemin slowly shook his head, sighing. "He never knows when to stay out of trouble..."

"You're telling me." Kun chuckled. "Ten's in there fixing up his arm."

"Alright, then that's where we're going next." Jaemin turned around, dragging you with him.

"Hope to see you around sometime, Y/N." You heard Kun chuckle, to which you turned back to him briefly. "Y-Yeah, same..."

"Ten...?" Jaemin chirped, cracking open a door to his right. "Knock knock."

"Come in." The aforementioned boy responded.

You walked in behind Jaemin, seeing two more boys inside, one sitting up on the bed and the other standing by his side with a roll of gauze in his hand.

"Jesus, dude. At this point, we might as well wrap you in bubble wrap..."

"I second that idea." The boy sighed. "This is the third time this month, and September just started..."

"But this time, it wasn't my fault!"

"That's not what Lucas told me this morning..." He retorted, finally facing you and Jaemin. "Sorry. Hi, new girl."

"Hey...I'm Y/N."

"Oh, I heard. I was hoping I got to meet you sooner or later..."

"Yeah, I'm just taking her around, introducing her to everyone," Jaemin tells him.

"Cool. Did you sign her up for watch yet?"

You blinked. "Sign me up for what now?"

"For watch." Ten giggled. "It's like a weekly rotation we have where some of the boys go up to the water tower and keep a lookout for anything security-related. Like walkers, for example." He explained to you, and you nodded, not entirely interested.

"Another cool thing about standing watch," Jaemin whispers into your ear. "You get a rifle."

"I'm in."

Mark laughed. "See, that's the first thing you should've told her, man."

"Whatever." Ten chuckled. "Anyways, I think Taeil has the list, so go talk to him, and he can get you set up."

"Taeil..." You began repeating the boy's name before turning to Jaemin. "Which one was he?"

"You know, short guy, brown hair?" He tried to jog your memory. "The one you saw Haechan clinging onto like a koala?"

"Ohhh...!" You gasped. "Look, you're gonna have to give me a minute to match everyone's faces to their names, okay? There're so many of you; I can't keep up..."

"It be like that sometimes..." Mark muttered.

"Hey, you be quiet and worry about your arm," Ten hushed him up, helping him out of the bed. "And if I find you in here next week, I'm locking you in here..."

"That would be for the best at this point." Jaemin stifled a laugh. You smirked and shook your head while you continued to listen to their banter.

~~~~

"So, you said you wanted to sign her up for watch?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Jaemin nodded at the short brunette in front of him, watching as he flipped through a notebook he had in his hands.

"Okay, what day of the week do you want?"

"Any day is cool with me." You shrugged.

"Alright, alright...Then, if you're fine with it, I can sign you up for Tuesdays with Sicheng, Jaemin, Shotaro, Chenle, and Jisung."

"Nice!" Jaemin smiled, nudging your shoulder. "How cool is that? You get to have watch with me!"

"And Chenle...?" You raised an eyebrow. "Did you forget about that part?"

"Oh, he won't bother you – you guys shook on it, remember?"

"You honestly think he'll stay true to that?"

He made a noise as he shrugged his shoulders, indicating that he wouldn't know. "We'll just have to see. Besides, we don't have watch until tomorrow. If he tries anything, we'll be there to see it."

"I'm sorry, did I miss something?" Taeil tilted his head. "What does Chenle have to do with her having watch tomorrow?"

"I'll explain later," Jaemin told him.

"Okay, well, I can switch her to Thursdays if that's what she wants-"

"No!" He cut him off. "Please, I need a change from being around so many dudes all the time!"

"How do you think the rest of us feel?" Taeil snickered. "Y/N, are you sure you're okay with having watch tomorrow?"

"...I guess..." You sighed. "It can't be all that bad as long as I tune him out, right?"

"Yeah...that's one way to put it..."

"Now, can I go back to my room?" You look over at Jaemin. "I wanna take a nap."

"It's ten in the morning..."

"Yeah, and Taeyong woke me up at seven. That, and I didn't go to sleep last night until four. Needless to say, a bitch is tired..."

Taeil laughed. "That's fair..."

Jaemin grumbled. "Fine. But I'm coming to get you when we're about to eat."

"Fine by me." You yawned, bidding the two boys goodbye before walking past them and towards the hotel.

~~~~