Bring It On! - Chapter 11

Chapter 11. 

Although food was scarce, we had a warm-hearted dinner and put Suho to sleep. As soon as we heard his steady breathing, Jay and I carefully got up. We took a flashlight and stepped out of the shelter.

“Have you ever handled a gun before?”

Jay shook his head. I hadn’t either, not directly, but I’d seen it done plenty of times over someone’s shoulder. The place I worked at was a small ship company run by a Korean couple in the countryside, and burglars frequently broke the windows and came in. 

The owner, Mr. Son Mooyong, kept guns within arm’s reach everywhere. I’d seen him regularly disassemble and clean them.

I picked up the pistol, recalling the process from memory. I checked the ammunition, removed the magazine, pulled back the slide, and lowered the lever above the grip to disassemble the frame. Sure enough, the inside was crusted with dried salt.

“Do you have something to wipe this with?”

“I’ll go get it.”

Jay brought back a towel from the laundry. I brushed the salt off using the dry part of the towel.

“Are there bullets?”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s hope we won’t need to use them.”

I disassembled the barrel and spring, wiped everything down thoroughly, and reassembled the gun. Then I handed it to Jay.

“You hold onto it.”

Jay looked at the pistol with clear disapproval.

“I’m someone who can even exorcise spirits physically, you know.”

He raised his arm to show off, as if daring me to take him seriously. Ignoring him, I reached behind and groped at his back pocket.

“Hey, hey! Don’t touch me like that all of a sudden….”

Jay flinched, arms raised awkwardly, unable to push me away. Calmly, I slid the pistol into the roomy back pocket of his pants.

“Neither of us has fired a gun before. I don’t know how much recoil it gives. With your build, it’ll be more stable for you to use it.”

“Then let’s just try firing it now.”

“We haven’t even explored a quarter of this island. Who knows what might come running if it hears a gunshot.”

“You think there are bears here or something?”

“There could be something worse than bears.”

Jay still looked unconvinced.

“Anyway, I’m surprised you found clothes that fit. How come?”

I changed the subject before he could answer. And it really was odd. Jay wasn’t exactly average-sized, yet somehow there were clothes on that yacht that fit him perfectly. From what I knew, the yacht had been bought by a Korean. Hard to believe there were many men with builds like Jay in Korea.

“Why ask me? It’s your yacht, isn’t it?”

“It’s not mine.”

“Didn’t you end up stranded on it?”

“I did, but it’s not mine. It was a yacht being delivered to some crazy rich guy. I got a sudden call a week ago to deliver it into the middle of the ocean. Even the buyer’s info seemed fake.”

The mysterious buyer didn’t even check the yacht’s interior or specs. They just wanted the fastest option. But still, a week? The timeline was absurd. Yet as soon as the man said he’d pay double, the impossible suddenly became possible.

“What kind of lunatic… So you just dropped it off in the middle of the sea?”

“At first, yeah, they said I didn’t need to care, so I was thinking I’d need another yacht to get back, like a delivery driver. But turns out the guy didn’t even know how to operate a yacht, so I had to go with him to the dock.”

“Sounds like he had issues with both his personality and his brain.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

I chuckled softly and agreed with Jay. Thanks to that crazy rich guy’s similar body type, Jay was able to ditch his smelly homewear.

“Take good care of the gun.”

I gave Jay’s back pocket, where the pistol was tucked, a few pats and headed back into the shelter first.

Suho, who had been sleeping soundly earlier, was now sprawled in the center of the floor. Jay came in right after me and saw him.

“What are you doing?”

“Moving the little guy.”

“Suho won’t go back to sleep easily if you wake him. Just leave him be. Nothing’s worse than getting your day-night cycle flipped here.”

“Then where do I sleep?”

I motioned with my chin toward the space next to Suho.

“And you?”

Why was he asking where I would sleep? The only remaining space was the opposite side of Suho. I lay down on the innermost spot in the shelter, and Jay’s face changed subtly.

“If you hug him, control your strength. Suho might actually snap in half.”

Lying down with my eyes fixed on the tent ceiling, I waved a hand at him. Jay didn’t lie down until long after I did.

***

“Ugh—ah! Noona, noona!”

Suho’s urgent scream jolted me awake like an alarm.

“Suho, what’s wrong!”

I hadn’t even rubbed the sleep from my eyes when I quickly turned to check beside me. I’d dozed off with the worry that Jay might be smothering Suho in his sleep. But to my surprise, Jay simply had a hand lightly resting on Suho’s stomach. There was none of the full-limb entrapment he’d done to me.

“What the…”

I was dazed by the unexpected sight. But as soon as Suho saw me, he dove into my arms.

“Noona…”

“What’s wrong? Did Jay hit you in his sleep?”

“No, it’s not that.”

“Then what?”

“His breath stinks.”

“…”

It hadn’t even been 24 hours since Jay changed out of his reeking clothes. But a different kind of smell still lingered near him. No matter how good he looked on the outside, the bones and organs beneath his skin worked the same way as everyone else’s. Not even Jay could escape bad breath.

“Okay. I’ll take care of it.”

As soon as Jay opened his eyes, I shoved a toothbrush into his hands. His drowsy eyes instantly lit up with joy.

“Why didn’t you tell me we had this…. Wait a second.”

His brightening expression started to twist in confusion. He ran a finger lightly across the bristles.

“This isn’t new, is it?”

“Uh, no. It’s mine.”

“You’re kidding.”

He looked at me like he’d just witnessed a crime.

“You want me to scrub my teeth with your toothbrush?”

“Just smearing toothpaste on your teeth doesn’t clean them. Stop whining and use it.”

“That’s insane. Who shares a toothbrush? Not even in the worst disaster movies do people do that. You know why?”

I didn’t want to know. I didn’t need to hear whatever absurd logic he was about to spew.

“Because everyone knows, except you, that sharing a toothbrush is just one step above incest and fratricide in the hierarchy of taboos!”

Jay shouted, scandalized. I didn’t care how dramatic he got. This wasn’t the time to argue. I squeezed a long line of toothpaste onto the brush and grabbed his chin. As I gradually tightened my grip, his lips puckered like a fish.

And then I shoved the toothbrush into his mouth.

“Gagghh! Gghhh!”

He thrashed like a prisoner being forced to drink poison. But the toothbrush was already in. It was too late for him to fight back. I scrubbed every last tooth thoroughly. When the toothpaste started to foam and spill from the corners of his lips, I finally pulled the brush out.

Desperate to spit it out, Jay looked around in panic, then bolted out of the shelter with a pale face.

“Cough! Cough!”

“Rinse.”

Jay grabbed the cup of water I handed him and rinsed his mouth vigorously, down to the last drop. He shook the cup upside down to get every last bit.

By the time he finished brushing, his face looked like that of a survivor who’d barely made it through a tsunami.

“How is it?”

“…Fuck, it’s refreshing.”

“Right?”

I calmly nodded and walked off, leaving him behind.