campfires ₰ l.gn ✓

h

"pssst guys, what do i do?" melody whispers into the radio in her hand, begging that one of the other counselors answers through the radio.

"i don't know, melody." olivia hisses, "maybe, walk in and speak?"

"jeez olivia, it's not that easy." chae responds to her obvious statement. "clearly you've never been this whipped for a guy you like."

"hey, i'm very romantic when i want to be." olivia defends, melody's radio letting out a screech from the increase in tone from the female on the other side.

"sure, you are." jeongin deadpans, not buying her justification one bit.

"guys, i am not whipped-" melody tries to argue against chaeryoung's initial statement.

"mhm sure~" hitomi sings into the speaker.

melody groans out loud. "can we just focus on the task at hand?"

"honestly mel, you have to figure this one out on your own. all of us tried talking to him but he didn't want to respond." beomgyu comments.

"i've known him for so long but he's never retreated into his shell like this before. but i think if you try, he might open up to you." youngbin sighs into the speaker and melody can't imagine how perplexed he must be right now. "just give it a shot. he already likes you, so just do what you think is best."

"okay okay, i'll try." the short haired counselor responds, taking a deep breath as she clips her radio on her back pocket, holding the one geonu left behind in her hand. she walks in quietly, unsure of how to start.

the lights are on and there's a lump on the bed covered in the white sheets, who she assumes must be geonu. "okay! so i know you're probably very mad at me right now. but i just want to say that i'm very very very sorry and i didn't know what you were going through. but if you want to talk about it, i'm here. and also, i shouldn't have asked you so many questions but sometimes i don't really know when to stop talking. like right now, i don't really know what i'm saying but i hope you don't hate me because i kind of like you and it would not be good if you never wanted to see my face again." she rambles all at once, words blending together as she speaks them with her eyes closed tightly.

there's no response. "hey, i know you didn't respond to anyone but i just said a lot of really genuine things. can you give me some kind of a response, please?"

still nothing. she walks over to the bed, poking at lump. it's way too soft to be human muscle. she yanks at the covers, and mentally berates herself when she sees that the only thing on the bed are pillows. "are you kidding me?!"

a voice emerges from behind, "who's kidding you?" and melody stumbles backwards onto the bed in shock. of course, he scares her like that.

"oh my god-" melody stares at geonu, who seems to be drying his hands on the towel. he must've been in the bathroom. "did you...hear any of that?"

"no...was i supposed to?" he shrugs, hanging the towel on the rod behind him and making his way to the bed. he fumbles with the covers for a few seconds, before climbing under and facing away from the girl seated at the edge of his bed.

"no, no." she shakes her head rapidly to affirm it and lets out a sigh of relief. "you, uh, left your radio back in the lobby." melody places the device on the table, noticing the empty plate on it. good, at least he's eating properly.

"thanks." it's just a word but to her, it sounds so cold and distant.

well here's goes nothing, "how are you doing, geonu? for real."

the boy in question hesitates for a minute. then pulls the covers off the top half of his body sitting up to look directly at her. his eyes are glassy and sad and his hair flops messily onto his forehead. "honestly, awful."

after looking at the conflicted state of his soft brown eyes, she feels herself hurting on the inside too. geonu, who is always cheerful with the campers, who leads the rest of the counselors so well, who is always looking out for her, is hurting and she wishes that she could just erase all the pain for him.

but all she can do is be there for him, so she does exactly that. melody pulls him into a warm hug, rubbing up and down his back as he buries his face in the crook of her neck and lets out of his worries.

an hour later, melody is sitting on geonu's bed, back against the wall as he lays his head on her thigh. the boy feels a lot better now that he's talked to melody about everything—the phone call from his dad about being accepted to a big entertainment company, realizing that he has to move to the city and won't be able to come back in the summer to be a counselor, wanting the last kickball game to be perfect because of how much it means to him and how he was just confused and frustrated earlier, but didn't mean anything he had said. and she listened patiently to him throughout his explanation.

"guys, we haven't heard back from them yet. what do you think happened?" jeongin's voice crackles from the radios on the table next to them and melody reaches over for one.

"i hope they made up." hitomi says, good-naturedly as usual.

"that's nice and all, but they keep being flirtatious all the time and i cringe on the inside-" olivia states honestly. ever-so blunt, as always.

"you cringe on the outside too." youngbin corrects her statement. "what do you think they're doing right now?"

"do you think they're-" beomgyu begins before chae cuts him off.

"shut up, beomgyu. what if they're listening to us?!"

geonu lets out a giggle as he gestures to melody that he has something to say. she obliges, pressing the button and holding it close to his mouth as he begins to speak with an authoritative tone. "okay counselors, that's enough fooling around for today. back to work starting tomorrow, we have a lot to get done in this last week of camp."

cheers began to sound through the radio and melody laughs at their friends' reactions. "our head counselor is back!!!" she hears, but can't decipher which boy's voice it is.

"just make the most of the time we have left here." melody consoles the boy with her pretty smile. "and we'll try to make lots of memories for you too."