The sun beat down so relentlessly, as if it had decided to fry the entire prefecture alive. The sound of cicadas was so deafening that it resembled a constant ringing in the ears. Kazuya Kinoshita wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand and let out a deep sigh.
His t-shirt was already unpleasantly stuck to his body at the back. He stood in the middle of a forest clearing, surrounded by wooden cabins and summer camp tents. How did he even get here? All it took was one stern look from his grandmother Nagomi, her talk about how he should "grow up and become a man the family would be proud of," and suddenly he was here. A volunteer helper and leader at a summer camp for children.
'God, this is hell. Why couldn't I have stayed home? I could have been lying in an air-conditioned room... Instead, I'm here struggling with a rope that strange bugs are crawling on,' he thought to himself as he tried to untie a knot on a thick tarp he was supposed to stretch over a makeshift dining area.
"Hey! You there! Kazuya, right?"
Kazuya flinched, causing the rope to slip from his hands. He turned around quickly, and his heart immediately skipped a beat.
Nami was standing there. She was wearing only simple denim shorts and a tight tank top, but in Kazuya's eyes, she looked like a goddess who had just descended from the heavens. Her long orange hair was swept to the side, though a few strands framed her face. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and her gaze was sharp as a razor.
'She's... she's incredibly gorgeous! Her figure is perfect. But that look... she looks like she could kill me just by looking at me,' Kazuya immediately blushed, his mind starting to race at full speed.
"Y-yes! I'm Kazuya!" he stammered, trying to stand up straight, but instead, he tripped over a tent peg and had to wave his arms to keep from falling face-first into the dust.
Nami just sighed heavily and rubbed the bridge of her nose. She was here as one of the leaders, and from the first hour, it was clear that she was the one really running things.
"Listen to me, we don't have all day. The food supplies should have been sorted and stored in the cooling boxes a long time ago. The kids will be hungry soon. If that food spoils, who do you think is going to pay for it? You? Because I'm not paying for it out of my own pocket, I guarantee you that!"
"I'll... I'll get right on it!" Kazuya nodded, sweating now not just from the heat, but also from nervousness.
Nami had something incredibly authoritative about her. She was just an ordinary girl, probably around his age, but she radiated the aura of someone who could negotiate with the devil himself.
"Excellent. And take someone to help you; those boxes are heavy," Nami added before turning and walking toward the main building, likely to check on the other volunteers. Kazuya stood there, unknowingly staring at her retreating figure.
"You're pretty pathetic, you know that?"
Kazuya jumped, this time with a muffled cry. A boy with white, messy hair jumped down from a tree branch directly above him. He landed on the ground so quietly it was unnatural. His hands were carelessly shoved into the pockets of his loose trousers.
It was Killua. Another participant, though Kazuya didn't know exactly if he was one of the older children in the camp or some kind of assistant. He was about fourteen years old, but his cold, sharp, and incredibly perceptive eyes didn't belong to a child at all.
Kazuya got a strange feeling from him. He didn't have the muscles of a bodybuilder; he looked like a normal kid, but the way he moved was terrifyingly fluid.
"W-what? I was just looking... I mean, I wasn't looking! I was just thinking!" Kazuya defended himself, feeling his ears burn.
Killua just smirked, an amused but slightly disdainful smile playing at the corners of his mouth. "Sure. Your thoughts were so loud I couldn't sleep in the tree because of them. If you stare at every girl in the camp like a dog at a piece of meat, those kids won't take you seriously."
"I'm not staring at anyone! You could help me with those food boxes instead, since you're already here. Nami said it needs to be done," Kazuya protested weakly, leaning down to finally pick up that cursed tarp.
Killua put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes. "I don't feel like it; it's too hot. Besides, I'm not your errand boy. Try asking someone else. For example, the one who's just arriving." He winked at him with one eye.
Kazuya looked in the direction Killua had nodded. A girl was walking along the dusty path leading to their station. And not just any girl.
Kazuya felt like his heart wouldn't survive another shock today. It was Misa Amane. She was wearing a black lace dress that was completely unsuitable for this forest environment, black arm warmers, and her blonde hair was tied into two perfect pigtails. She looked like a famous idol, like someone Kazuya would only see on a magazine cover, not in the middle of a dirty forest.
"Ahhh! This is horrible! This dust is everywhere! My skin won't survive this. And there's no signal at all! How am I supposed to update my status now that I'm in this awful place at the end of the world?" she whined loudly, stopping to brush off her shoes, which looked dangerously expensive.
Kazuya swallowed hard. 'She's so... cute! And that energy of hers! But for God's sake, what is a girl like her doing in a place like this?'
Misa suddenly looked up and noticed Kazuya, who was once again staring at her with his mouth half-open. Her expression changed instantly. She put on a wide, radiant smile and walked up to him. Kazuya instinctively took a step back.
"Hiiiii! You're Kazuya, right? I'm Misa! Listen, could you do me a tiny little favor?" She pressed her hands together in front of her and blinked at him with the biggest puppy eyes he had ever seen.
'She's... she's so close! She smells like strawberries and expensive perfume.'
"H-how can I help you?" Kazuya felt his brain slowly turning to mush. He realized once again how average and ordinary a college guy he was. If a girl like this had approached him in Tokyo, he probably would have run away.
"My suitcase is so heavy. And my tent is all the way on the other side of the camp. If I had to drag it myself, I'd definitely break a nail! Please, please, will you help Mi-sa?" Misa complained, pointing to a huge pink suitcase standing a few meters away in the dust.
"I... well..." Kazuya remembered Nami and her threat about the food boxes. If he didn't go for the food, Nami would kill him. But if he refused Misa, he'd break his own heart.
"Misa-Misa would be veeeeery grateful," she added with an even wider smile, leaning forward slightly, and Kazuya was definitively lost.
"O-of course! The suitcase! I'll take it right away!" he blurted out before he could rationally consider it.
A quiet, disdainful laugh came from the tree branch. Killua was no longer sitting there; he was standing nearby, looking at Kazuya with an expression that clearly said: You're a lost cause.
Kazuya ran to the pink suitcase. He grabbed the handle and pulled. The suitcase didn't budge.
'What on earth does she have in here? Bricks?!' He braced his legs and tried again. The muscles in his arms tensed, sweat dripped into his eyes, but he only managed to lift the suitcase slightly before it fell back into the dust with a thud.
Misa covered her mouth with her hand. "Oh, are you okay? You don't look like you have much strength..."
Kazuya wanted to sink into the ground. He felt so incredibly embarrassed. Here he was, in front of a gorgeous girl, and he couldn't even move her suitcase.
Suddenly, a hand reached out from behind him. It was an ordinary hand belonging to a young man in a black t-shirt and dark trousers. Without a single word, he grabbed the handle of the suitcase and, with absolute ease, as if it were just an empty cardboard box, he lifted it.
Kazuya stepped back in surprise.
Standing next to him was Sung Jin-Woo. He was another older guy in the camp, maybe in his early twenties. Kazuya had noticed him before. Jin-Woo wasn't extremely muscular; he looked lean and athletic, but he had something incredibly calm about him.
He said almost nothing, didn't complain about the heat, and didn't smile. His eyes were dark and focused. Kazuya felt a natural respect for him. Even without any special abilities, Jin-Woo moved and acted like a person who had everything under control.
"Where is it going?" Jin-Woo asked. His voice was deep and calm, without a hint of effort.
"Oh! You're so strong! Over there, to that tent with the blue roof! Thank you... um..." Misa clapped enthusiastically, completely ignoring Kazuya, who stood nearby, red with shame.
"Jin-Woo," he replied simply and, without another word, walked away toward the tent with the heavy suitcase.
Kazuya stood there, wanting to tear his hair out. 'I'm an idiot. A complete idiot. And a weak idiot at that. That guy handled it with one hand, and I looked like a malnourished boy doing it.'
"So, problem solved. And you can get back to those boxes of yours, Romeo. Otherwise, that orange-haired fury will skin you alive," said Killua, who had approached in the meantime.
Kazuya nodded quickly and ran toward the food supply van. When he arrived, Nami was already standing there with a notebook in her hand, counting cans and packages.
A few younger children were already running around the van. Kazuya recognized a boy with wild brown hair and goggles on his forehead—his name was Taichi. He was arguing with another boy, Yamato, about which of them could carry more water bottles.
"I'll take three!" Taichi shouted.
"I'll take four!" Yamato snapped back.
"Then I'll take five!"
Kazuya watched them for a moment. They were just normal kids, full of energy and life, who apparently didn't mind the heat at all. It was a strange contrast for him. On one hand, these noisy, carefree children (Taichi, Yamato, that nice girl with the strange hat named Mimi, that quiet boy Koushiro with his laptop), and on the other hand, a group of strangers to which he also belonged.
Nami, Misa, Killua, Jin-Woo, and himself. They had nothing in common. Not by a long shot.
"Kazuya! You're really slow today," Nami's sharp voice snapped him out of his thoughts. She tapped her notebook with the end of her pencil.
"Take those three boxes of vegetables and bring them to the kitchen tent. And try not to spill them."
"Yes! Right away!" Kazuya took the first box.
It was heavy, but not like Misa's suitcase. As he carried it, he couldn't help but steal a glance at Nami. She was still calculating something, frowning, and looking absolutely focused. Even though she was strict, there was something about her that Kazuya found comforting. She was practical. Unlike him, she knew exactly what she was doing.
I have to ask at least one of them on a date, it's a duty!