No matter how loud he yelled at them, all he received was laughter. Loire kept pushing at him, sometimes running her hands down his chest and pulling at his shirt. Cameron pushed back, feeling tears well in his eyes with bubbling emotions running over. Loire didn't notice, but it seemed like Kim Seo did.
Yet, his way of helping was a lot stranger than someone normally would.
Cameron backed away as far as he could from the girl, he ended up backing into Kim Seo. Before he could escape, the tall boy wrapped his arms around him and he was trapped. He was shorter than the boy, so as he wiggled around out of the grip, he was slipping into the water that was coming over his neck.
Kim Seo squeezed him, leaning down as he whispered in his ear. "Keep going and I'll throw you to the hunger wolf." He motioned to Loire who was diving up and down with a wide smile on her lips.
Cameron huffed, feeling as if air wasn't reaching his lungs. When the tall boy noticed him stop, he smirked against his skin, the short boy felt so warm in the cold water. He would be warmer if he wasn't wearing a soaked sweater.
Kim Seo ripped the sweater off over his head, hearing the shorter boy yelp in surprise. He reached for his clothing, seeing Kim Seo toss it towards the shores where it got even more dirty. He pushed himself away from the boy, his bare skin pressed into his exposed chest made his body shiver. The boy mocked him, laughing at his scaredy-cat behavior.
"Fuck you!" Cameron yelled out, tears welling inside his eyes. His voice even croaked with slight fear.
"Don't be a piss baby Cam cam." The tall boy shook his head, he missed the slight voice change.
"You're a bunch of assholes!"
The boy exited the water, huddling to himself while grabbing his sweater and running into the trees. Vinh watched him go, a slight frown forming on her lips, she turned back to the two, seeing Loire ignore what was happening. She did notice that Kim Seo was wiping his lips, his cheeks looked slightly pink.
Was he blushing?
Vinh tilted her head, thoughts running through her mind.
"Vinh! Vinh!" Marie pulled her attention down, she saw the small girl reach for her with tiny hands. Picking her up, Vinh chose to ignore the strange behavior.
Cameron sat down, his jeans, shoes, socks, and even hair all soaked. He held his sweater close to his bare chest, tears sliding down his cheek. He was so angry, so pissed off for not being able to fight back, to do anything. He was too weak, too scared.
The wet tears mixed in with the water that tasted shitty. He wiped his eyes, red and sore from the unhelpful emotions. After a few seconds, he cursed loudly to himself, hitting the ground with his fists until they felt numb.
It was silent after his outbursts, shallow breaths escaping in a heap out of his pink lips. The cold suddenly got to him, making a shiver run up his spin. With a small gulp, Cameron sat up from the tree trunk he was leaning on. He moved his soaked sweater in front of him and started to weld the water out of it by squeezing it tightly. He had to do it more than 5 times before it felt like most water came out.
He flipped it out, drying it off quickly with his hands waving it around the air. When he heard the group's laughter come closer from the water, he realized they were coming out. He growled with frustration, wanting nothing more than to run away and never see them. But he was too scared to leave by himself.
He was scared of everything, not able to live up to what he told himself. He believed he could protect himself, to fight off the bullies and adults that mocked him. He didn't like it, they all pitied him or either fucked with him for fun.
All his life he was treated like a small helpless child, or forgotten like his parents had done with him. It made him angry, and without realizing, a lot more helpless.
He didn't like to admit it, but he was just all bark, no bite..
A slight brush of a bush near his tree made him flinch. It wasn't in the same direction as the group, so it was a worry. He gulped, feeling goosebumps run up his skin. It was dead silent. No animals chirping, or the group laughing, he felt even more scared. He turned, the laughter of Loire hitting the silent air as he let out a sigh of relief.
By the time the group came into the clearing where Cameron was sitting with his sweater in the sun, he was off in his own mind ignoring them along with whatever he just saw in the bushes. Loire put herself in the sun, brushing her hair away while setting her underclothes down. Kim Seo followed in suit, relaxing under the sun.
While they did so, Vinh sat with Marie between her next to Loire while also in the sun. They let their clothes dry off since they didn't go so far in where their hair was still dry. Only Vinh jeans were and Marie's dress was wet.
It was silent, it seemed like the group chose this time to let the silence sink in, to enjoy the sun and dry off. Only small giggles from Marie and Loire were heard for the last 15 minutes going through.
After a few minutes Kim Seo sat up, brushing up his pants before pulling his shirt up. For a 17 year old, the boy had a well toned body. Besides being slightly leaner, he had a broad shoulder along with his chest. He caught the eyes of everyone in the group.
Vinh lost interest quickly, soon after so did Loire, she turned and played with the little girl who was pulling grass from the dirt. It left Cameron who kept looking down then back up. He couldn't help but feel slightly jealous of the boy who wasn't too much older than him.
How did he get like that? The small boy glared under his lids, sending silent threats at him without knowing. Not only was jealousy in his eyes, but a bit of admiration, something he couldn't help but do. Kim Seo looked up, catching the boy's eyes. He smirked, sending a mocking look at the small boy.
Cameron flipped him off before turning his head and ignoring everyone.
"So-" Loire jumped up, her eyes already filled with new sound excitement. "What next?"
Who she directed that to was Kim Seo, the boy sighed, making sure he wasn't wet anymore before he sat up from the soaked grass. "Well, how about you choose what we do next?"
"Whatever you want to do," the girl shrugged, patting herself dry.
"Well I'm fresh out of ideas." Kim Seo sighed, looking at Cameron who was still ignoring him. So instead he looked over to Vinh and Marie, "what about you?"
The girls looked over, Vinh understanding the question while Marie looked over blankly. "I don't care. We could go for something to eat though."
"That's hard to do." Kim Seo shrugged at her, looking over to Marie who was cuddled up in her lap. "What do you want to do?" He smiled at her, waiting for a few seconds for her to answer. She didn't, turning over and back into Vinhs chest.
"Finding food it is." Kim Seo sighed, standing up with the exasperated sigh coming out as a chuckle.
"Where do we even start with that?"
The tall boy looked over to Loire, thinking for a while before responding with a shrug. "Don't know yet."
"If we head back we can find food back there." Cameron said from behind them.
"No- I refuse to eat some brown bag lunch!"
"Would you rather eat a dead rat or something?"
"Rats are less common here, most likely able to find rabbits." Vinh walked past them to start following behind Kim Seo who turned to chuckle at the two arguing.
"Rabbit sounds yummy." Loire piped up with a giggle.
"Ewh."
Loire jumped at him holding his head one again and trapping the small boy. She hollered while he tried to fight back, of course, he failed in the end.
"Let's take a peek back there to see if we can find some food." Kim Seo decided on, setting off in a direction away from the lake and back to the clearing. As he said so, he had Lorie looking over to him and releasing the boy.
"Wait, you actually want to go back?"
Kim Seo turned back, though he continued to walk with the group following behind silently. "Yeah, we should eat some real food. Plus, we're only going back to steal something to eat before camping out here." He motioned around them.
Loire nodded, her eyes filling with more energy. She followed behind, making sure Cameron was in her hands while they made their way behind Kim Seo, Vinh and Marie.
As they bickered, Vinh looked up to him. "You're going back for Marie aren't you?"
"What?"
The girl rolled her tired eyes, "you looked at her before choking on something. You also have no damn clue how to hunt."
"Yes and yes." He shook his head, giving a small huff as he took a small peak behind him. "Do me a favor and not tell them?"
"Scared?"
Kim Seo's expression suddenly stopped, he became quiet for a second before a smile was back on his lips. "Me? 'Kim Seo' scared? Yeah fucking right."
"Watch your language," Vinh growled under her breath when Marie started to pay attention to their conversation.
"Hey, you said damn."
"I won't call you scared alright," she gave him a serious look that made his steps slow. "So stop acting it."
He nodded, letting her step faster up and away. "Alright, right."
It was a few more minutes as the group walked forward, it was a bit chattery since Loire and Cameron bickered back and forth with insults with Kim Seo sometimes joining. The group didn't exactly know where they were going, tossing words around until Kim Seo who was leading them stopped.
Loire stopped as well, running forward to Kim Seo and looking over his shoulder. "What happened? Why stop?"
"Quiet, we are close by." With that, the tall boy stepped forward, ducking under bushes until he stopped, looking over the shrubs before motioning for the group to follow his lead. When they got close enough, he knelt down, the others following his moves. "So I need someone to watch and cover my back, one of you guys have to stay here and watch the angel and keep guard."
"Angel-"
"I'll stay with Marie," Vinh jumped in, cutting Cameron's confused voice off.
Kim Seo quickly shook his head, "no, I need your help with watching my back and finding where I can go and all that. You're the smartest."
"Hey-!" Loire started, only Kim spoke up to cut her words off.
"You're gonna be with me and help grab enough for all of us. You're important so don't start getting offended."
Vinh rolled her eyes, "then who's watching Marie?"
Kim Seo sighed, looking up and training his eyes on Cameron. The rest followed, leaving the group's eyes onto the boy who was slow to understand what they were getting at. When he did he scoffed, shaking his head and his face turned red with a burst of anger.
"No. No! I can't handle kids!"
"Well we're not sure you will be bold enough to go in.. plus, you can't catch on easily so I wont be able to trust you with watching. So, that leaves you with babysitting."
"You son of a-"
"We should go," Loire stepped up as the older pair began to get in positions. The hyper girl came forward, pointing to a tree behind Cameron. "Wait there," she patted him with a smile. "Good luck."
They left, leaving Cameron to look off before turning his eyes to the small child who looked up at him with indifference. He sighed, walking over to the tree and making sure the small girl was in front.
Loire and Kim Seo walked forward, the tall boy looking into the clearing off and on and taking small glances in Vinh direction. She kept her eyes on the guards, waiting for them to turn in the best spot before motioning the pair to go through to the other path. They did so, very quickly before a guard could catch them.
They were closer now, so close that Kim Seo caught his eyes on the brown bags that had the lunch in it. He kept his eyes on Vinh, sliding down into the ground next to Loire while waiting for her signal.
Vinh watched, and watched. She waited for an opening, but every look saw either a guard or a teacher in that area. She growled under her breath, she didn't have the patience for this. She also knew how the others and Marie didn't because the small child was hungry. The quiet girl thought she was smart enough to come up with something better than what Kim Seo thought. She couldn't do it by herself though.
Kim Seo saw the looks in the girls eyes, he realized that it wasn't gonna work, there was always at least one guard keeping an eye in that area. He had to create a diversion, something to pull the attention away. He should have brought Cameron, he would make a great distraction since he needed Loire's help grabbing a lot. They will have to settle for one bag for each, meaning Kim Seo would have to grab 5 bags total.
He sighed, nodding to Vinh before stepping back out of the bushes to regroup and speak with Loire. The girl was confused, looking back and forth from him and the lunch bags, "what's happening now?"
"Can you create some sort of distraction, again?"
A small smile crept up on her lips, she nodded. "Yeah! Hell yeah if that means I can kick Damian's ass again!"
"-Also, you need to have a way out before going in."
Loire stopped, looking over to him, her eyebrows creased with a troubled expression. "What? How? Can't I have your help?"
"My hands are gonna be full." Kim Seo shrugged.
Loire pouted, anger clear in her expression. "That means I can't go to Damian. Shit, that was the fun route!" She huffed a few times, pouting like a child before she nodded to herself. "Alright, alright. I can do it myself, won't be as fun but I can do it."
"Good." The tall boy nodded, stepping back into the bushes. "Go do it now then."