Camp Heartbroken | TXT Novella

Chapter 7 - Huening Kai

Taylor is beautiful, yes, but it's not something Curly would have cared about. The cat would only wish to cuddle up with the warmest body in the room. But... perhaps he'd also care about the inner warmth of a person. And on the scale of kindness, Taylor's measurement must be through the roof.

Huening Kai is practically bouncing on his heels—well, as much as possible while sitting and trying to stay at least a little still. His teachers always call him the one who's never able to stop, as in Stop running around the classroom. Stop making jokes. And stop being so hyper—have you had caffeine this morning?

But Taylor seems to feed off his energy, sucking it up like a sponge and returning it through winks, shared glances, and half smiles that could send any person's head spinning. She speaks on the importance of team bonding, activities, and a lot—lot—of practice. They will be singing and dancing from morning to night, but of course they'll break for some summer relaxation. Kai isn't sure whether one minute or thirty passes while she goes over everything they'll do together.

"Sounds like quite a lot for two months," says Taehyun, mouth slightly parted in wonder.

Kai jumps in, unable to control his excitement any longer. "What are we gonna do today? We have to start somewhere, right? So I'm ready to find out our first task."

Some of the boys regard him with blank stares, perhaps falling on the more overwhelmed side. But his heart is clutched with comfort when Taylor begins speaking. "Today, we'll start off with an activity. And it'll end up helping us in one thing—deciding what your group name will be. As the first group to attend Camp Heartbroken, you guys are the trendsetters. I want you guys to come up with a name that's totally you."

Yeonjun nods, looking quite relaxed compared to how he was during the fight outside. Beomgyu also copies the gesture and awaits the next instruction. Huening Kai is glad, as when he was peeking out the door, he was sure a few fists would go flying.

"Right after I give the instructions, I'm going to leave the room," says Taylor. "I really want you guys to become close and not to rely on me. Think of me as a teacher that'll only be with you at the start of every class."

Soobin, Kai notices, is sitting in open wonder—eyes slightly widened. Kai allows hope to enter his heart, and the grin on his face is telling of what can come from this—the making of the first, Korean American boy band.

"What's our first activity?" Huening Kai says, fidgeting. He can't take the wait any longer.

Taylor nods. She heads into a nearby room, coming back while hauling a chalkboard on wheels. "To come up with a name! You'll all draw a picture. Your teammates will guess what the image represents, and then by the end of it all, you'll know a bit more about each other. Hopefully enough to come up with a title that's representative of everyone."

Huening Kai jumps up, raising his hand as if he'd jump suddenly and reach a star. "I'll start!"

The pop star smiles, handing him a perfect, unused piece of chalk. She leaves the room in a strut, as if still performing in an arena, on one of her world tours. She exits into the room farthest from the living area. "This is my room. You guys will sleep upstairs. Let me know when you're done coming up with a group name. Love you!"

Kai shudders a bit, because he would also say Love you after every time he left Curly and headed to school. No matter, he shrugs his shoulders and walks to the chalkboard. He starts with a careful hand, drawing the outline of one of Curly's favorite objects.

If one of the boys can guess this picture, he'll be surprised. 

A/N: Thank you so much for reading!