Jaemin the Icy Prince and Me - Na Jaemin NCT

16. Summer Break

Summer camp.

Rise and shine.

So it's summer break and I'm here with Jaemin and his friends at this forest in Busan, in a really hilly and remote country spot. We came here by coach, and hiked all the way down narrow, winding country paths into the woods. There's a row of wooden chalets, all very basic, divided into guys and girls - guys on the left, girls on the right. There are shared bathrooms with standing showers, divided into guys and girls, and there's a shared kitchen where you can cook, with plates and pans and gas stoves, very simple, but good enough for the adventurous, no-frills kind of holiday maker. There's a baebeque grill outside, and a pit where you can make a bonfire too.

If you're wondering how I came to be here, well, remember that day Jaemin came over, and told my mum about the Interactors' Summer Camp? It turned out to be a half-truth, because his friends - and, by friends, I mean those cool seniors in Jaemin's class, who are two years older than me, and whom Junnie are I, the insignificant little juniors, are in awe of - decided to go on a trip to the country, after all.

So, anyway, Jaemin invited me to join him for the camp, and again, I should stress that no learning is involved, and no teachers are invited; it's basically a bunch of bored city kids deciding to venture to the country for some fresh air and maybe see some live chickens, because some of us have never seen living, breathing, clucking chickens before, and the only chickens that we've seen so far are cold, naked, dead and headless, and, who knows, perhaps a duck or two as well, since our knowledge of ducks is pretty much limited to Good Ol' Rubber Ducky, that trusty companion, who shared our bathtubs when we were little - yeah, THAT duck, the squeaky one with the red, luscious beak.

The city kids who troop to the country camp in the woods can be roughly divided into three types.

First, you've got the Serious Ones, the ones whose hearts are filled with a thirst for knowledge, whose eyes shine with the call to adventure, ready to forego wifi and the Internet and hole themselves up in the barren wilderness.

Then, there's the second group, the Playful Ones. This group doesn't harbour any noble intentions of furthering their knowledge, or aspire to become one with Nature. This group, basically, just wants to flirt and play and make out under the twinkling stars beneath the canopy of the romantic woods. This group hopes to snare the girl or the guy of their dreams, and return with a conquest in tow.

Then there's the third group, who couldn't be bothered at all, who join a summer camp because they've got nothing better to do. This group is easily recognizable, and often sports a look of boredom on their faces, and spends their time napping, eating, and napping again, and fiddling with their phones, occasionally springing up to walk around aimlessly in circles, hands clutching their phones raised to the skies, and muttering, "Crap, no signal".

Na Jaemin belongs to this group.

What am I doing here?

Because he asked me to tag along, to "keep him safe from the annoying ones". A deal's a deal, he said, keep them away from me, you don't know these girls, they get all strange and dewy-eyed when they're in the woods, it does something to their heads, so you come with me, and protect me, okay, if you want me to get out of that summer camp alive, and in one piece.

So, that's why I came.

But, it's not working out the way I thought it would.

I thought we'd sit together in the coach, and he would maybe put his head on my shoulder, and fall asleep, like in that drama I watched. Instead, he's sitting with this girl, this soft, spongy girl, whom I'm starting to hate.

It started all wrong from the start.

I woke up late, and he was mad with me, because he'd waited for me for close to an hour. So we rushed to the coach station, and that's where I met the rest of the gang. They're all older than me, and I feel so awkward and so small. The guys are pretty nice though, and there's this guy who's especially nice, and his name is Leean. Jaemin introduced me to his friends, and said, "This is Mina." He never said, "This is Mina, my girlfriend." And I know I'm just his fake girlfriend, but it makes me sad somehow. I wished he'd said that I was his girlfriend.