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"I just got the news," the coach says. "Unfortunately, our friends from Kyunghee University won"t be able to join us, they all got some stomach bug."
"Ah, I really looked forward to practicing with Jun," Wonwoo sighs with disappointment.
"Wait coach, does that mean we have a whole place for ourselves?" Seokmin asks immediately. Their coach thinks for a few seconds before responding to that.
"I guess so."
"Yay, single rooms!" Chan calls and he high-fives Seokmin. The coach sighs.
"Remember, this is a training camp, and we will be training every day for five days straight, so don"t even think about doing anything stupid," the man warns them, then looks at the watch. "It"s ten past two… I"ll give you time until half-past tree, come to the dining hall by then and we"ll eat and I’ll tell you the exact schedule.”
The boys agree and run to claim the rooms.
It’s a small inn in the forest, with only ten double rooms, nothing fancy, but it’s been their coach’s favorite place for summer camps, thanks to its location and actual, proper badminton court. They usually came there together with Kyunghee University badminton team to train together, and it got definitely crowded. But now ten rooms are more than enough for the six boys, and it almost looks empty.
Mingyu looks at Seokmin and Chan racing up the stairs, and then Soonyoung dragging Jihoon with him. He sighs.
“Upstairs or downstairs?” Wonwoo asks him. He shrugs.
“Whatever. Can be downstairs, closer to food,” Mingyu says, but the sad tone of his voice makes Wonwoo look at him with concern.
“Are you okay? You were so excited when we were on the bus. Do you also feel sick?”
Mingyu shakes his head and bites his lip.
“It’s stupid.”
Wonwoo nudges his shoulder.
“You know you can trust me. What’s up?”
Mingyu sighs, looks around to check if no one else is in the corridor with them, and then says, very quietly,
“I wanted to room with Jihoon-hyung,” he admits, and Wonwoo needs a second to understand what is he talking about before he starts laughing. “Hey! You said I can trust you!”
“Sorry, sorry,” Wonwoo says and takes a deep breath to calm himself. “I know this camp is for bonding, but…”
“I thought that maybe there could be like, a there was only one bed situation, so…”
Wonwoo rolls his eyes.
“Mingyu. Just confess to him. Take him on a date. Don’t try to make up some movie scenarios to, I don’t know, make him fall for you? He likes you, maybe if you just confessed like a normal human being you’d know if he wants to date you or not.”
Mingyu grunts in acknowledgment. He knows that. But unfortunately, one, he’s a big romantic and wants to have a story to tell people and make them jealous, even if he has to create it himself, and two, he’s a mess in front of Jihoon.
Jihoon, current team captain, is the reason Mingyu joined the badminton club in the first place. He’s never played it competitively; only in summer with his friends, when they were bored and one of them brought a set of rackets for kids. He wasn’t really a sports guy, so he didn’t consider joining any sports club at uni - even if he got a lot of offers just because of his height - but one day the badminton club was practicing outside, when he was sadly eating a kimbap at the stairs to the dorm, and the short guy with a mop of blonde hair was the coolest person he’s ever seen. And without much thinking, he came up to the coach after the practice and asked if he can join. And it’s been two years since that moment - Jihoon, Soonyoung and Wonwoo in their last year already, all other seniors long graduated - and as much as Mingyu got better at playing, his crush on Jihoon only got bigger. And, paradoxically, it was also getting harder to confess as time was passing.
He thought that maybe, just maybe, this camp will be it. The last camp before Jihoon graduates. They’ll end up in a room together, maybe Mingyu’s bed will break and they’ll have to sleep together- But now there are too many beds . What an irony.
“I’m taking this room,” Mingyu says, pointing to the first door to the left. Wonwoo nods.
“Then I’ll be on the other side if you need me.”
Mingyu enters the room, drops his things on the floor, and jumps on the bed the closest to him.
Something cracks and the mattress caves in.
Fuck .
***
It"s sad, without the other team. Despite their universities being literally next to each other, they never manage to practice together - that’s why all of them look forward to the camp so much. But as they contacted their friends, they confirmed all of them were emptying their stomachs the whole day after a dinner they ate together (apparently, their coach was about to sue the restaurant). So now it"s just like normal training, but in a quiet, picturesque place as opposed to their campus in the middle of the city.
The coach almost got a heart attack when Mingyu told him about the bed he broke, but he told the staff, and they replaced it. Mingyu had to run twenty laps more than the other boys and clean the court afterward alone, which, as Wonwoo said, served him right for his stupid ideas.
The team is waking up together, training together, playing games together, and eating together. They were already pretty close, for a team composed of people from such vastly different majors, but the camps always brought them even closer. Everyone seemed to adopt Chan, their only first year, playfully harassing him to bring some friends before the seniors retire.
Mingyu, while focusing on the training - the coach said he needs more practice if he wants to go further than quarterfinals next time - is savoring every moment with Jihoon. He"s thankful for every time Jihoon corrects his posture, yells at him, or high-fives him after scoring while playing together in doubles; enjoys every game in which he ends up on a team with the captain. Every time he makes Jihoon laugh gets engraved in his mind for him to replay it before sleep - and maybe some of it gets recorded on Wonwoo"s camera too, since he is quietly vlogging their camp.
The days pass fast, and soon it"s the last one; this time their evening training gets dismissed in favor of a campfire. The boys and their coach eat a lot and laugh a lot, making great memories together, sharing their concerns and advice. They would"ve spent the whole night like this, but unfortunately, it starts raining at one point, and there"s a distant rumble. The team clean up quickly and go to their rooms, so they won"t get caught in a storm.
Mingyu"s laying in his bed, half asleep but still scrolling down TikTok"s for you page with the storm loud and wild in the background, when he hears a knocking on his room"s door. He checks the time - 1:32 am - before tiredly getting out of the warm blankets to open the door.
Jihoon is definitely not the one he could be expecting.
"Hi Mingyu," Jihoon says. A lightning bolt lights up the room, thunder following, and he winces.
"Hyung?" He rubs his eyes. "What are you doing here?"
"I- uh. It"s embarrassing." Jihoon looks away.
"Go on, I won"t judge," Mingyu encourages him. Jihoon sighs.
"I"m scared of the storm," he says so quietly that Mingyu almost misses it. "I just need some company, that"s all, but Soonyoung would make fun of me," he adds quickly. "So, uh. Can I come in?"
"Sure, sure," Mingyu makes way for Jihoon and then closes the door behind him. He"s shocked that Jihoon came to him, specifically, and he"s not feeling sleepy anymore. "You can take the second bed."
Jihoon doesn"t move. The room is lit by a flash of lightning again, and he looks displeased.
"Do you maybe… want to watch a movie together? Or something? You don"t have to, of course, I can do it alone, but…"
"No, no, it"s fine!" Mingyu assures him. He would be stupid to let that opportunity pass him. Watching movies at night with your crush? Dreams come true!
"You probably want to sleep."
"Not at all! What do you want to watch?" He picks up his phone and sits on his bed, back against the wall, and pats the space beside him. Jihoon slides there hesitantly. Mingyu covers both of their laps with his blanket.
"Anything, really. Just to keep myself distracted."
"Okay." After a few minutes of intense thinking - Will he judge me for my choice of movie? Should I choose something neutral that everyone likes or maybe try to impress him? What exactly does Jihoon like? - he settles on Ant-Man, one of the movies that popped up at the top on his Netflix page.
"I like this one," Jihoon admits, and Mingyu feels accomplished. When he hits play, he realizes how small his phone is for two people to watch something on. To see well, Jihoon has to press himself close, making Mingyu feel hot from contact. He"s not complaining though. It doesn"t make it easy to follow the plot of the movie, because he keeps getting distracted whenever Jihoon wriggles to change his position, presses closer when a thunder strikes, or especially at one point when he puts his head on Mingyu"s shoulder.
Despite all of these sensations and his heart beating twice as fast as normal, he gets sleepy pretty quickly. He tries to suppress his yawning, but Jihoon seems to notice.
"You"re tired."
Mingyu waves his hand.
"Not really." A yawn escapes from his mouth to prove him wrong. Jihoon takes the phone, up until now carefully tucked onto the blanket to stay in one place, and pauses the movie.
"Sleep. Now." Jihoon commands, like the team captain he is.
"Okay, fine." Mingyu moves to lay down, thinking Jihoon will go to the second bed, but he also lays down and pulls the blanket over both of them.
"Goodnight Mingyu," he says, before turning his back to him. Happy but confused - I"m not dreaming, right? - Mingyu also turns his back to Jihoon, and to his dismay, falls asleep in the next three minutes, not really able to cherish this moment.
In the morning, however, he wakes up with Jihoon"s hand over his waist, breath hot on his neck, and thanks every god he knows for the storm.
Maybe the number of beds was not an issue after all.