Location: Camp site
Time frame: After lunch
Point of View: Sakura

My body shivered against the cold wind that had blown past me—quite a change from what the wind was this morning. It was warm and it was the perfect temperature for water rafting. That's right; water rafting was this morning's thrilling activity that we had participated in.

It was one of those activities that was introduced to bring about team-building and problem-solving skills, one that required everyone on board to work together to navigate the challenges of the rapids; and it certainly achieved its intended purpose. Once out there, there was no choice but to work together. I still remember the look of the frightening (but magnificent) white waters, as well as the loud and rumbling sound of the rushing water; I couldn't remember a time when I was more terrified—yet at the same time, I've never felt such thrill in my life. No doubt was water rafting the most exhilarating and adrenaline-inducing activity I've ever done! Next time I plan something outdoors in nature, I will have to remember to try it again.

And so, it was a perfect morning of camping—emphasising the word "was": the warm embrace that was present in the wind of the morning had surely dropped to a surly graze. Looking at the sombre clouds overlooking the fields, I wouldn't be surprised if it started raining. Still, cold as it was and as ugly the skies were getting, I wouldn't go inside and miss the scenery for anything.

As I lay resting my back against the pole that connected to the veranda, I leisurely stared out into the open field. Happy students played on the various activities that had been set out for yesterday afternoon's orientation course—the swinging log and the rock-climbing wall; while others played on the trampoline that was situated on the property.

This was great. Unlike the previous day where we had several activities to get through, the only activity planned for today was this morning's water rafting. The remainder of the afternoon was left for all of us to do as we pleased. The tone of this evening was more or less the same tone, as light-hearted outdoor games were planned for tonight before retiring for the day. I still hadn't really recovered from yesterday's full schedule, so I was definitely not going to object to the relatively slower day.

My thoughts were suddenly broken by the clearing of someone's throat. I moved my attention behind to where the sound had come from: it was Li who had signalled for my attention. He was holding a mug and was gesturing that what he had in his hand was for me:

"I thought you might like this," he said.

Not minding a warm drink, I accepted it. As I reached for it, a stream of pain suddenly travelled from my shoulders to my head; I hissed in reaction to the negative sensation—

"That's painful," I expressed to myself aloud.

The aching shoulders that had developed from yesterday's rock climbing and abseiling—and most likely from the added strain of today's water rafting activity—reminded me that it had yet to dissipate and I should not agitate it again—at least not until it had some time to heal.

Providing some sort of relief to it, I cautiously tried massaging it as I took the drink from Li.

"Shoulder pains causing you some trouble?" he queried as he took a seat next to me.

"Just a bit." I then opted to leave it alone: time will just have to heal it. I took a sip from the mug. "Thanks," I said. Li nodded in acknowledgement. I began again, "Is Hana okay? She looked a little worse for wear after that misstep in the hills."

Hana was one of the students in Li's group. While coming back from water rafting, she had managed to hurt herself, tripping over several branches on the ground, causing a few others in front to lose their footing also. Fortunately, the others hadn't fallen over like Hana did, and the accident had only inflicted minor injuries on her, gaining a few grazes to the knees and a couple of sore wrists.

"She's fine; just feeling embarrassed about the whole incident."

"She shouldn't be embarrassed."

"We told her that, too."

"That's good that she's okay then."

"Uh."

Silence filled the next few moments as I took another sip of the hot chocolate. It was a good mug of hot chocolate, I had to say; something about this and how he had made it was addictive.

"How did you make this?" I decided to ask.

He seemed puzzled by the question as his reply was delayed and broken: "Ah, the usual—cocoa and milk." He paused then added, "And a little sugar as well—Why?"

"It's nice."

"Good, I'm glad."

Another quiet moment passed.

"That trampoline looks kind of fun, don't you think?" I heard Li suddenly say.

I looked in the direction to where the trampoline was, to where his eyes had laid: two students appeared to be competing with one another—probably competing to see who could jump the highest as I saw them go higher with each subsequent jump.

"Yeah," I replied, "They seem to be having a lot of fun."

But as I continued to watch the students play this fun game, it looked like it was getting to a point where it looked dangerous: each time they came back down, their landing seem to be more and more unstable; legs seem to be unsteady, shaky, and unbalanced beneath their weight, causing them to propel into the air at odd angles.

It appeared that Mr. Hisamatsu had seen what I had seen as I saw him approach the students on the trampoline. I couldn't hear the exchange of words between them all, but the body language of Mr. Hisamatsu told me that he was saying something along the lines of toning it down; and the students were doing as they were told as I saw their jumps becoming less dangerous and more stable.

Li's sudden amused chuckle entered my ears. Puzzled to what had warranted the chuckle, I turned my attention towards him: his attention was still on the scene with the students on the trampoline; it was this scene that had amused him. I looked back to the students at the trampoline, but still I couldn't find what was so amusing about it. I soon caught on though, as I saw the jumps the students were doing becoming the more ridiculous: their movements were somewhat spastic as they propelled into the air.

I chuckled also; Li looked at me and then smiled before looking back out into the fields. I couldn't understand the reason for that smile, nor could I understand why he had looked.

The part of my back leaning against the pole was beginning to tire: I changed my sitting position. The pain in my shoulders was beginning to get to me again—it just wouldn't give me a rest from its annoyance; it had been telling me to do something to relieve it the whole time I had been sitting here.

Placing the mug I had cupped in my hands down, I finally decided to pay it attention as I rubbed where it ached. They say warming up and warming down before and after activities would avoid this sort of pain—I guess I should have done that; it would have saved me from some of this pain had I actually bothered to at least done a little.

I saw Li look in my direction once more; and again, his sudden interest baffled me. Moments later, he revealed the reason behind the action. Still, I hadn't understood near enough to what was on his mind when the next couple of things he said resulted in catching me off guard:

"I heard that there's a good technique that relieves shoulder pains."

"What's that?" curiously I asked. I was open to any and all ideas that might rid a pain that'd been gnawing at me from the moment I woke up.

"You find the point in the upper trapezius muscle—the part of the muscle that runs across the shoulders—and press on it hard; enough to relieve the ache. I've seen it done and people say it's quite effective." He paused. "Here: may I?"

When he said that, and then gestured with his hand to allow him to show me, my mind stopped working properly. For what seemed like many long seconds, shock occupied my mind, and it was having difficulty in providing me with the instructions that would allow me to respond to him.

"You... want to...?" was all I could eventually say.

"Uh—turn around," he instructed with his index finger.

I did as he asked, unable to react in any other way. I waited—a little apprehensively, to say the least—as I began to feel a little self-conscious: every sound, every scenery—everything and anything came to my attention crisp and clear; my eyes couldn't stay focused on one thing as they moved to look to the left, and then to the right; and my body felt as stiff as probably that tree I had caught my eyes staring at—Yes, I felt the situation to be an awkward one. Li had apparently noticed this as he advised me to—

"Relax," he soothed, "It works much better if you relaxed."

I couldn't feel him do anything for a while as I tried my best to relax. I continued to wait.

"How are the shoulders feeling now?"

That was when I felt like I no longer had tense shoulders as whatever Li was doing seem to have made the shoulder pains disappear.

I couldn't help but indulge in the sensation as I now felt Li begin to move his hands rhythmically, making circular motions with his thumbs, applying then releasing pressure on the shoulder muscles.

He had made it sound like he hadn't done this before, but sitting here, feeling the incredible sensation that his hands were creating, I could only think that he had been a little too modest as he was really good at this—incredibly good.

My senses were then led to focus solely on the sensation—feeling nothing but the sensation. It had begun from the shoulders; now it travelled through to my arms; then to the heart of me, before travelling through to the rest of my body, causing me to fully become engrossed in its feeling. I became more and more pliable to its seductiveness as it took me to a world of delightful pleasure.

It feelsso good...

Then, without warning, an image came thunderously into my mind, stopping me from further enjoying the sensation: the image showed a girl sitting at a wooden cabin, on the veranda of that wooden cabin; her eyes were closed; a contented smile adorned her face. Behind her, was a guy with short dark hair providing a relieving pleasure to the girl; her head was relaxed against his chest as he massaged her shoulders.

My eyes snapped open in realisation: the image I saw in my mind was the mirrored image of reality. Any feelings of pleasure were immediately replaced by the feeling of extreme embarrassment. I needed to bring the situation back to one that I could handle, somehow. I racked my brain desperately for words that would explain this loss of composure.

But seemingly, I hadn't needed to as the person causing my mind to become frantic saved me the trouble. He had stopped massaging—no longer feeling his hands on my shoulders.

"Hopefully, that has made it a little better," Li said. My eyes avoided his as I managed an uneven nod. He moved back to his seat before he continued—saying, "I guess the technique works. I'll have to use it the next time people come to me complaining of having aching shoulders."

I tried to answer this next one as best I could without letting my lost of composure show: "It's a good technique," was what I came up with.

Silence fell again. That cold wind that I disliked earlier was now very much welcomed as it provided a cooling sensation upon its contact. Unsure of what to say or what to do, I used the time to recompose myself, focusing back onto the comfortable scene of happy students playing in the fields. For the remainder of the time that I sat here, I did not dare myself to look at what he was doing or thinking.

Location: Somewhere in the hills
Time frame: Thursday, afternoon
Point of View: Sakura

The relaxing day yesterday, and the fulfilling breakfast this morning, courtesy of Eriol's group, allowed everyone to set out for the hills energised and ready for our last activity before we headed back home—the last activity being: the good old camping out in the wilderness! There was to be no cabins with bunks to sleep in; no bathroom to shower and groom in; and neither would there be a nice kitchen with electricity to cook in. All of what we had done with in the past three days and nights would have to be done without for the remainder of this camp trip; we were going to survive without such luxuries. Camp food, fire, sleeping bags and tents, and nature were the only things we were going to survive in and with for one night.

What fun!

My group was thrilled when I announced that we had finally arrived at the camp site after three hours of walking with only one small break to allow us all to regain our strength and to refuel ourselves. Like all walking tracks, there were challenging parts such as steep grounds, slippery surfaces, and narrow walkways, but the students I had spoken to during the walk hadn't found it too strenuous or difficult and had more or less found it enjoyable.

Arriving at the site—a rather open area with few shrubbery but consisted of a forest of tall trees—the teachers and property owners were of course already at the site as they went by car, but surprisingly, I found that both Eriol and Li's group were already there and had apparently already finished setting up as I saw that all their tents were erect and areas were all laid out—neat and organised; Tomoyo's group was also there, but they appeared to be just settling in as I saw them still in the midst of putting their tents up; and Natsumi's group: yeah, also there—her group's tents also almost up.

So it looks like everyone's group had made it to the camp site before I had. My group was the last one to arrive. In my mind, I heard myself express a chuckle: I was so sure that I would come at least second with the great navigation skills I pronounced myself as having before setting off—I guess not!

"Hey guys!" I greeted them.

Tomoyo was the closest to me, seeing me first: "Sakura—your group finally made it!"

"Hey, garden snail," Eriol teased from his seated position. He was casually setting up the "kitchen" area as I saw a pot in his hand and a large empty can by his feet. Scrunching my face, I frowned in response to his teasing; Tomoyo chuckled.

"We didn't take as long as Eriol makes it sound, did we?" I asked Tomoyo.

"Nah," she said waving that thought away, "They arrived only five minutes before us and it's only been ten or so minutes after that before you got here."

"Well, that's good then."

Keen in making a start on actually camping, I turned to my group and gave instructions: "Okay, let's get started: we'll get the tents up first and then set our camp area out. After that, we can have a little rest before starting dinner—yeah?!"

"Yeah!"

Five hours flew by fast as night fell. Chatting, wandering around the area, and cooking dinner had filled those hours—in fact, dinner was still in progress as I took the position of spectator and supervisor to my group's handling of tonight's dinner.

Several of the boys and girls in my group were having fun with our camp stove which consisted of a large tin can and burning twigs and whatnots as the source of heating, enthusiastically feeding twigs to the camp fire every now and then to keep the fire going. The other students either watched or tended to the food.

"Don't get too close to the fire, guys," I warned, having seen those feeding the fire become a little too daring as their fingers became only inches away from the flames. They listened to my warning as they fed twigs from a distance further back.

Unlike the camp trips in the past years when the students had to plan their own dinners, everyone's dinner consisted of the same foods this year: chicken, roasted vegetables, and a noodle casserole.

I suspect the other groups were more or less at the same point as we were with dinner almost done. We had already finished cooking the chicken and vegetables, and the noodle casserole was the only thing that was left to cook. Judging by the progress, dinner was just a few minutes away.

As I watched and waited, my thoughts moved to my surroundings. My senses were soothed by the calm that existed in the air tonight: I saw a radiant and an almost cloudless night sky above us, seeing only a couple cirrus clouds in the distance interrupt what would have been a clear night sky; the crescent moon and the stars were glowing magnificently bright tonight; and the rustling leaves, resonant bird chirps, and the gentle crackle of wood burning in the darkness were sounds of tranquility. I couldn't have asked for a better setting than what was present for camping out tonight.

My attention was led back to the camp fire as one of my students called for me—

"Sakura, can you check the noodles—is it done?" Chizu, a well-mannered, and one of the more enthusiastic students in my group, was the one who had called for me.

I took the fork she held in her grasp as I gave the noodles a stir then lifted a couple strands in the air to see its texture.

"It's cooked," I determined, "Get your plates, everyone. Then we can finally start chowing down." Everyone was happy to hear that. They passed their plates over to me as I began scooping the noodle casserole into each of their plates which were already filled with the chicken and vegetables that we had cooked earlier.

When dinner was over and all had finished cleaning and tidying up their areas, everyone moved to the main camp fire at the centre of the vicinity for dessert—dessert being, once again, roasted marshmallows and chocolate. I could never get sick of roasting marshmallows. I found that putting together a very thin layer of melted chocolate with a marshmallow was one delicious combination! After this part of the night, it was not too particularly appealing anymore—well—at least that was what it was for me as my desire to stay at the camp fire was gone when they began to tell the kind of stories that made me shut my ears tight, retreat to the nearest shelter, away from everyone, and hope not to ever hear them! The kind of stories I was talking about were ghost stories.

I didn't understand why in settings like these, in the darkness, at nights, and—in this instance—in the middle of a forest where the only people around were those here, people had to tell ghost stories! I detest them, to a point where I wished they never existed! I did however force myself to stay for at least the first one, but I couldn't even stand one, as the middle of the story became unbearably scary. I quietly told Tomoyo that I was going to clean up some more things back at my group's camp area as a reason to leave the group, but I think she knew the real reason to why I was leaving. Her reply was that she had brought along a couple of books and magazines with her and I could read them if I got bored.

So, I am here, inside this spacious tent, lying on top of my sleeping bag with the stretch torch on, enjoying the book Tomoyo lent me to pass my time with. I had only read a few chapters so far, but it made me think about borrowing this romance novel of Tomoyo's to finish reading it at home. The part I was up to at the moment was getting so good that I could barely hold my anticipation for the end. This book being a rather thick one, I don't think I could finish it without spending another week reading it. But who knows—I might not have to borrow the book from Tomoyo: if I continue reading at the speed I was reading at the moment, maybe I'd be able to finish the entire book tonight and find out!

As I flipped to the next page, now fully absorbed into the world that this author has so wonderfully created, I was rudely interrupted:

"Kinomoto?"

The voice was quiet-spoken and muffled, but I knew who was on the other side of the tent. The thing that puzzled me, however, was the reason for his visit.

I kept a track of my place in the book with the bookmark that Tomoyo had left in there and motioned to unzip the tent door to answer the visitor. "Li: what is it?"

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine."

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm reading a book."

Through the small tent door, I saw his eyes flick to the book that I had gestured to be reading. He then took a seat on the ground, back facing the tent. He made himself comfortable as he draped his arm over his bent knees. "How's the book so far?"

I had hoped that he'd leave after the question before last to allow me to continue in reading this book, but he had chosen to sit and continue with this small talk that I was fast becoming bored of. Nevertheless, finding a modicum of patience left in me, I continued—

"I'm getting into it."

His head cocked to the right, his unruly, brown hair flipped to that side: what was he doing?—and what had his eyes fixed onto? I mirrored his action before understanding when he said,

"It's a romance novel."

He was searching the genre. Even though there wasn't a particular tone in his speech, when he made that observation, the thought of being in possession of a romance novel made me want to try and hide the book from sight. My mind, however, told me otherwise: being a romantic is not shameful, it told me, as it ordered me to leave my hand and the book where it was presently.

"You like reading romance novels?"

"Well. I like this one..."

He didn't say anything after that. Many silent moments passed.

Forgetting about getting back to reading my book for a moment, my mind became curious to what he was thinking when I caught myself finding his presence intriguing: he was sitting stock-still. Had it not been for the slight movements in his back and shoulders, I could have easily mistaken him for a statue. Be as it was, he didn't look or feel as rigid as one, as he looked relaxed and was at ease. It took me a couple of moments more before I had sensed something virtuous radiating from his presence as I caught onto his aura.

Realisation then struck me: was he here because he was keeping me company?

"That guy—" he suddenly began.

His attention was back towards me from having been out towards where a forest of tall trees was once visible. It was pitch-dark now; and as I look beyond the tent door and past Li, I found nothing comforting looking in that direction—more frightening than comforting.

I waited for him to continue as he had halted in his speech. I believe he was taking some time to gather his thoughts.

He started again; I assumed he had finally gathered them, but it appeared to me he had changed tact as he continued with another beginning: "That book, I think my cousin has read it before. I remember it very well because my cousin blew my head off when she thought I wasn't listening to her then demanded that I listen with both ears. She said that she liked the story because it was filled with "juicy" drama and "sweet" tension—I think those were the words she used to describe it."

As I listened to him, I began to feel bad about having first thought of him as a rude interruption, where in fact he might have been just thinking of me. Believing so, I allocated more time to my responses—

"Yeah, the book's getting really good. I'll probably have to borrow it off Tomoyo to finish it at home, if I don't finish it tonight or on the train trip back."

"Uh, it took my cousin a month to finish it. She skims because she's impatient and her impatience makes her miss details. Meiling thinks she can shortcut everything, but it ends up taking twice as long."

This Meiling he was talking about seems like an interesting character. I think I remember hearing that name before. Though it appears that he was being critical of her, I swear I sensed, as he was telling the story, amusement in his body language.

I took the opportunity to find out some information about the ending as I asked, "Did your cousin say anything about if the relationship between the two main characters survives?"

He chuckled before he responded to my query, "It will ruin the ending if I told you."

He was right. I had gotten too eager to find out how the storyline will play out in the book that I hadn't thought it through enough before asking the question. I definitely would rather find the answer to that question myself than have it told to me. It would be pointless to continue reading if I already know how it ends.

"But judging from what my cousin said, you'll find it a good book," he offered.

It was at this point that I heard footsteps and chatter. I assume it was my group returning back from the camp fire. Li confirmed my assumption: "Looks like it's time for bed."

"Yeah."

He got up a little, squatting; his eyes looked directly into mine: "Goodnight."

"Goodnight," I returned.

I think I was right: he came here to accompany me until the evening ended.

The final night of camp ended like that. The girls stayed up for another hour or so after that, as we chatted about random things that had happened in the past few days on the camp trip, school, and about boys. The latter was the one that filled most of our conversation. One surprising thing that I discovered while chatting to the girls was that, yet again, Li was a very popular topic amongst these girls too.