Bring It On! - Chapter 13

Chapter 13. 

“Hyung, give it here. I’ll do it,”

Suho tried to take the axe from Jay, nudging him with his elbow.

“Lee Suho.”

I called out to him in a firm voice. Suho glanced at me, looking a bit guilty.

“Did you finish sorting everything you picked up before coming over here?”

“I was just about to…”

Suho mumbled gloomily, and Jay snorted.

“You’re a good liar, huh? You were stuck next to me, chattering away right after breakfast. When did you even plan to do it?”

“Hyung!”

“So, they must all be useless. Should I just throw everything away?”

“No! No, no, I’ll do it!”

Suho quickly got up and ran toward the shelter. Jay, looking relieved that the annoyance was gone, readjusted his grip on the axe.

“I’ll chop the wood. You start building the campfire.”

I snatched the axe from Jay’s hand.

“A campfire? Why?”

“The old one dies out in just a couple of hours. Now that we’ve got rope, I figured we should make a sturdier one.”

I told Jay to go find some thin, bamboo-like sticks. While he was gone, I chopped up the rest of the log he had left and stacked the pieces neatly on the ground where we’d build the new shelter.

Jay dug a hole for the fire, then placed a bundle of wood tied together over it. It looked solid enough that moisture from the ground wouldn’t put it out easily. We stacked small branches and leaves on top as kindling, and just like that, we had a solid new campfire. Jay waved his hand proudly, signaling he was done.

Only then did I thrust the axe into the log and straighten up.

“Let’s take a quick break!”

Shouting toward Jay, I walked over to the shelter. I finally understood why farmers used to have mid-morning rests. Without this little rest, we’d have collapsed from the sun and labor long ago.

Jay and Suho stood in front of the new campfire. It reached up to our waists and looked much more reliable than the one we used to light on the ground. I had been worried about leaving it to Jay, but it turned out surprisingly well.

“You’re starting to get the hang of things.”

“I was always smart.”

“How would you know? You don’t even remember your own name.”

I chuckled as I set a pot over the fire. Without me saying anything, Jay untied a plastic bag from a branch and brought it over.

“What do you think? Pretty sharp of me, huh?”

“Yeah, good job. Really.”

I poured the water collected in the plastic bag into the pot. When I halfheartedly praised him, Jay puffed up his chest proudly, then nudged Suho with his elbow like, “Did you hear that?” But Suho just silently handed Jay a coconut.

While Jay cut the coconut, the water in the pot began to boil. If anyone asked why we were boiling water in this heat, I’d just say: fight fire with fire.

Drinking boiled water with instant coffee recharged our sugar and caffeine levels instantly. There was no snack more precious or valuable than that. Jay used to rant about drinking cheap instant coffee in this weather, but now he was practically addicted. One time, he even woke me in the middle of the night to ask if he could have just one stick.

“No way. We’ve got less than twenty left. From now on, we’ll have to split one stick between us.”

He stared longingly at the coffee like a puppy drooling over a treat.

“Here. Take it.”

At long last, Jay finally got his hands on the coffee he so desperately craved.

“Aaack!”

Out of nowhere, a mystery bug flew straight into Jay’s cup. Its smooth, pebble-like shell made it look like a cockroach. It splashed around wildly in the hot coffee with its wings and legs flailing before eventually going still. Horrified, Jay ended up throwing his cup away.

The coffee he had yearned for was now splattered on the ground like spilled guts. The bug was still twitching on top, trying to live.

“Noooo!”

Jay dropped to his knees in despair. He looked like he wanted to end that bug’s life on the spot, but he couldn’t bring himself to touch it or even look directly at it. In the end, his only option was…

“…What are you staring at?”

Me. He looked up at me with teary, pitiful eyes.

I lightly kicked the bug away like a pebble and picked up the cup covered in dirt. It was really all spilled. Since we didn’t have a generous supply of instant coffee, using more than three packets a day was a luxury. But I couldn’t just ignore the effort he put into building the campfire.

“Let’s share it.”

“How dumb do those bugs have to be to dive headfirst into hot coffee?”

“And who was the one freaking out over that dumb bug? With your build, I bet you could take on a hundred of those bugs and win.”

“…Don’t say stuff like that. That’s disgusting.”

“Scared? At your age, and you’re still scared of things like that?”

When I handed Jay a new cup while laughing, his long eyebrows twisted.

“I’m older than you.”

“You don’t even remember your name.”

“I remember my age.”

Jay replied shamelessly, without changing his expression.

“Yeah? I’m twenty-five.”

“Right. I’m twenty-six.”

“That was a lie. I’m actually twenty-seven.”

“Now that I think about it, I’m twenty-eight.”

“Actually, I’m twenty-nine.”

“I’m thirty.”

The unstoppable spear met the unbreakable shield. We sat on the ground, drinking every drop of our coffee, yet continued the age war for a long while. It only ended when I declared I was ninety-seven, and Jay finally backed down, saying, “Okay, grandma.” 

Did I win? Somehow, it felt like I lost.

***

“Ssssss.”

I took a deep breath through my nose and plunged my face into the ocean. Pushing through the clear, rippling water, I went deeper and deeper, grabbing the string of the fish trap I had set two days ago and pulling it up.

“Pwah!”

As soon as I surfaced, I shook my head to fling off the water. I got back on land and opened the trap. Just some slippery seaweed and two fish. That was it.

“Should I just change the location completely?”

We had one more mouth to feed now, but the food supply was worse than before. We were already swamped with building the shelter, and now we had to gather food every day, too. I let out a sigh from deep within.

I walked barefoot along the sandy shore, following the coastline, and stopped at a spot far from the shelter. I firmly stuck a branch into the ground to mark the trap’s location and went back into the sea. I installed the trap again, desperately hoping we’d catch at least three fish this time.

As I came out of the water, wringing out my wet hair with both hands, I saw the giant of a man running toward me from a distance.

“Sun Woo…!”

He rushed toward me frantically, then froze as soon as he saw me. His eyes started trembling violently like something had short-circuited, and he quickly turned around.

What’s his problem again?

I picked up the clothes I had spread out and walked over to Jay. Tap, I lightly patted his back, and he flinched like crazy.

“Did you do something wrong?”

“Y-You think I’ll just fall for that?”

Jay’s ears turned bright red as he started muttering something incomprehensible.

“What are you talking about?”

“I get it. You’re expecting something weird to happen between us. After all, it’s just you and me, two healthy adults stranded on a deserted island.”

“What the hell? Are you having weird fantasies?”

“But this isn’t how it should be. We barely know each other. We can’t just give in to our desires and have a physical relationship on impulse. Don’t use cheap tricks like this. Follow the proper steps. Steps.”

“……”

“I’m just not emotionally ready yet.”

Jay said firmly. Then, suddenly, he reached his hand out toward me. I looked down at his palm with cold eyes.

“At least try holding hands first.”