The Retreat | Enha multi ship

[Chapter 7]

"Are you sure it's in this one?"

"Positive."

After struggling for a while to find the right birds nest, Jungwon's team was approached by Junhyuck, who offered to show them where the key was. He led them to a slightly smaller tree than the rest, but the nest was still out of their reach. As expected, it was going to take team work to get the key, but both Jungwon and Hyeongjun refused to get on Heeseung's shoulders, so that only left one person.

Now they had a new set of struggles. Heeseung was trying his best to balance, while Sunoo desperately reached towards the birds nest. He could only get his hand in there for a few seconds before Heeseung would wobble backwards, and then they'd repeat themselves. Even though he was scared of falling it was still pretty fun, and everyone ended up laughing at how silly this whole situation was. 

"I can't see it though." Sunoo yells down.

"Well it's up there, I'm the one that hid it." Junhyuck replies confidently, receiving a nod from the ravenette who continues to search.

"Couldn't you have gone easier on us?" Jungwon wanders over to Junhyuck's side, deciding to make conversation while he watched the spectacle. 

The boy turns to him, then quickly looks away, nervously stuffing his hands into his pockets. "I never get to decide where things go, they just tell me where to put things, and I do."

"You sound like you've done this before." That wording was a little abnormal for someone only doing one week of work experience, and Jungwon happened to pick up on it. He instantly saw how Junhyuck's cheeks flushed pink.

"Oh ah...yeah." Junhyuck mumbles, sheepishly scratching his nape. "It's a weird story-"

"Ow!" Sunoo's yelp interrupts his sentence.

"Oops sorry! I was trying to hit the birds nest!" Hyeongjun apologizes, dropping the pile of pebbles in his arms. 

"Doesn't look like we're getting the key anytime soon, so you might as well share." Jungwon says through his laughter. He drags his gaze away from the tree, and places it on Junhyuck, who was still avoiding eye contact with him. "You can look at everyone else, but not me, am I really that scary? I promise I don't bite."

Junhyuck slowly turns to Jungwon. "I lose all my confidence around pretty people."

There was a second of silence, before Jungwon bursts into laughter. "Yet you have enough confidence to call me pretty?" Junhyuck's blush intensifies. "Let me in on that story then."

"Mm okay...So, I kinda live out here, in the woods I mean. My mum actually owns the retreat. I don't even go to normal school, I've been home schooled my whole life." Junhyuck explains, still struggling to keep eye contact with Jungwon, his eyes flicker back and forth between the floor and Jungwon's eyes. "That's actually why I pretend I'm doing work experience. Was it two years ago? I'm not sure. Basically these Seniors came on a camping retreat, and would not stop harassing me. They followed me for the whole week calling me an antisocial freak."

"Ugh they sound like dickheads." Jungwon scoffed. "No wonder you don't want to tell people."

"I mean back then I was like 15, 5 foot 3 and weighed as much as a feather." Junhyuck smiles at Jungwon's laughter. "I can deal with people like that now, but why should I have to deal with it at all? I'd rather keep it to myself, and avoid the problem entirely." 

Jungwon hums. "That makes sense."

"Got it!" Sunoo shouts excitedly. "Now let me down!"

____

"Looks like Sunoo's team got their key." Sunghoon announces, with zero enthusiasm in his voice. Out of all the groups searching, they were one of the only ones left who hadn't found their key yet. 

"Seriously! I've been digging in these nettles for like five minutes!" Riki whines. He removes his hands from the nettles, and begins scratching them like crazy. "Maybe we're wrong about the key being here." He says to Jake.

It had definitely crossed Jake's mind that they could be looking in the wrong place, but their clue didn't really give them much to go off of.

"Hey! what the hell are you doing?!"

All three boys turned towards the yelling, seeing Jay basically being ripped apart by Yujin. She was pulling at his clothes and reaching into his pockets, only stopping when she retrieved a small silver key from the inside of his hood. Then she skipped off back to her group, while Jay just stood there blinking idly.

"Did you not feel it in there?" Sunghoon questions, peeking into the empty hood.

Jay slaps the boys hand away, and starts fixing his tousled clothes. "No, I don't even know when they put it in there." As he brushes himself off, he can feel a certain pair of eyes burning through him, and to no surprise, Jungwon was glaring at him from across the forest. He shrugs with his palms out, almost saying "What? That wasn't my fault."

"Another team down. At this rate we'll be sleeping in the woods for a weeks." Jake sighs. 

He desperately tries to think of anywhere else their key could be, but he was losing motivation. Coming up with nothing, he goes back to inspect the nettles. If Yujin's team found their key in Jay's hood, and Sunoo's team found their key in a birds nest, realistically, the key should be somewhere in the nettles, but they've looked and it wasn't. Using the same logic, it was unlikely they buried the key. So, thinking outside the box, Jake takes a quick peek behind the warning sign.

"Ugh you've got to be kidding me." The key was stuck to the back of the sign this whole time. Jake rips off the tape, and grabs the key, waving it in front of his group mates. "I can't be the only one who's already over this retreat."

"You're not." The other three boys say in unison. 

____

Poppy by Stayc has taken over my life

anyway...

Hope everyone's enjoying the story so far!