Bring It On! - Chapter 14

Chapter 14.

What kind of drama is he playing out in his head? I smacked his palm hard enough to make a sharp sound, then pulled a T-shirt over my body, which had only been in underwear. Jay frowned at the rustling sound of fabric.

“Sun Woori, shower first before putting that on. I was kidding.”

“I had to wash it anyway since it got sandy.”

“It’s gross.”

“Better than getting sunburned.”

Jay still looked displeased, even though my body wasn’t his. I hadn’t put on the shirt because of his weird joke. I’d done it because I really hated getting sunburned. The sunlight here didn’t just tan your skin. It practically gave you a mild burn. 

But Jay couldn’t hide how bothered he was, as if I’d done it for his sake. Why was he acting like this over something as minor as wearing a T-shirt over a wet body?

“Then take it off. Wear mine instead.”

“What, do you want to do a strip show? Forget it. Come on, we need to talk about something.”

“What is it?”

I walked past Jay, ignoring his question. My sudden quick pace made him follow a step behind.

As soon as we got back to the shelter, I called Suho over to the campfire, which served as both our kitchen and dining table. The two guys stood in front of me, confused as I plopped down what we’d caught in the fish trap today. It was just two dead fish and some seaweed.

“We’re running out of food. Even the coconut pulp bait isn’t attracting fish anymore, and the stockpile we’ve saved will run out by tomorrow.”

“What if we eat just once a day?”

Suho raised one hand as he asked. Our routine so far had been like this. Eat rice as soon as we woke up, drink instant coffee and eat coconut pulp to get through lunch, and eat again just before bed so we could fall asleep with full stomachs.

Honestly, for a deserted island lifestyle, we were eating surprisingly well. I just hadn’t expected that my desire to make sure Suho, still a growing kid, ate his fill would lead to our supplies depleting so fast.

“I work that hard, and you want me to starve to death?”

Jay immediately countered Suho’s idea. To be fair, Jay barely ate compared to the size of his body. You’d need a lot of energy to keep someone that tall and muscular running. I understood his point, but the situation was getting serious. We really needed to start thinking about one meal a day.

“If we keep eating like this, we will starve to death.”

When I said that, Jay ran a hand roughly through his hair and dropped into a seat.

“Then we need to find more food.”

“Yeah, food is the top priority. But we can’t put off building a proper shelter either. With the way the weather’s been lately, it wouldn’t be weird if a typhoon came. There’s no way our current temporary setup will hold.”

“Should we split into two groups? One for food, one for shelter?”

I folded my arms and thought for a moment. There was young Suho, and then a big guy who was frankly less helpful than Suho. Even pairing the two together probably wouldn’t be more effective than just me working alone. Best case, it’d be inefficient. Worst case, they’d come back from foraging with a broken leg. That would be a disaster.

And then they’d pull something like, “I brought back aloe vera and a couple of blueberries…” 

Just imagining it gave me a headache. I wouldn’t even be able to yell at the injured person. I’d just be crushed with despair.

But having all three of us work on the same task at once also felt like a waste of time.

“For now, let’s all go forage together.”

Like it or not, food was the most urgent need. Jay didn’t know what he was doing yet, but once he got the hang of it, he usually caught on quickly. With his stamina, he could handle in one go what would normally take me two or three tries.

“What about the shelter?” Suho asked.

“Once Jay gets used to foraging, I’ll handle the shelter alone during the day. You two can help out starting in the afternoon.”

***

The morning dew hadn’t dried yet and still clung to the leaves. Clear drops of dew slowly slid down and dropped onto the damp grass. Between the thick green foliage, a pair of white rabbit ears perked up and trembled like they were vibrating. 

A rabbit, crouching low, poked its round, fluffy face through the grass. Its shiny pink nose twitched as it sniffed the air. It picked a ripe, broad leaf and was just about to take a bite when—

Thwack!

A flying spear pierced the rabbit clean through the neck. Blood splattered across the once-green leaf as the rabbit toppled sideways.

“That’s how you catch one.”

“Y-you…!”

I lifted the lifeless rabbit by its ears, and Jay, pale as a sheet, pointed at me like he was accusing me of something.

“Murderer! How could you do something so horrible to such a cute, innocent rabbit?!”

“If we don’t catch this, we’re the ones who’ll die. What are you talking about?”

“You could’ve at least let it take one bite of the leaf first!”

“These guys are fast and sharp. If you miss your chance once, it’s hard to catch them again. Here, take this.”

I pulled the spear out from the rabbit’s neck and tossed the carcass to Jay. Startled, he instinctively caught the dead rabbit with both hands. Looking down at it with pity, he gently closed its eyes with his large fingers.

“You monster…”

“Still with the dramatics? Who do you think sharpened that spear? It was you, wasn’t it? That makes you an accomplice.”

Unable to argue, Jay placed the rabbit into the wooden basket we’d brought.

“But won’t it rot if we just leave it like this?”

“So you do want to eat it?”

“…Well, since it’s already dead, we might as well put that energy to good use.”

“If we gut it and hang it on the drying rack, it’ll keep for quite a while. Relax. Suho’s good at the prepping part.”

The discomfort and hesitation Jay was feeling right now were things Suho and I had both gone through already. Back then, there had been no one like me to teach us. We made countless mistakes, learning by trial and error how to hunt and how not to let what we caught spoil. We even went so far as to dry seawater and make our own salt, which we then used to preserve fish.

“Alright, now it’s your turn.”

“……”

I held out the spear, and Jay reluctantly took the blood-stained weapon with a grim expression. If he started whining about how he couldn’t do it, I was fully prepared to kick him in the shin. But to his credit, he didn’t say no.

“Crouch.”

I grabbed Jay’s left arm and pulled it down.

“See that little guy over there? Squirrel or chipmunk or whatever.”

“Where?”

“On that tree. Can’t you see it?”

“Nope.”

“You little…. What’s your eyesight?”

I yanked his head toward me and stretched one of his eyes wide open. My deeply annoyed face reflected off his dark pupils.

“Look.”

Tears welled up in his wide-open eye. Only then did I let him go. Jay wiped at his eyes with his forearm like a sulky kid. I grabbed his face again, this time gently, holding it forward.

Where he was looking, there stood a tree thick with leaves. A squirrel scampered quickly down the trunk from the top. When I jabbed him sharply in the side, Jay flinched, then slowly crept forward.

The squirrel, unaware of the danger, had settled calmly on the ground. It might as well have had a sign that said “Please eat me.” I held my breath and watched Jay’s first hunt unfold.

Sweat dripped slowly down from under Jay’s thick neck. For someone built like he could punch out a wild boar bare-handed, he looked absurdly nervous. Just as he was getting close to the target….

Snap.

He stepped on a twig.

The squirrel, until then relaxed, turned its head sharply toward the sound. In that instant of extreme tension, the eyes of the hunter and prey met. It was barely a second, but it felt like an eternity.

Then they both moved at once.

Jay lunged with the spear. The squirrel dodged the tip by a hair’s breadth.

Without missing a beat, Jay chased after it, thrusting the spear into the ground over and over like a man possessed. Thwack. Thwack. Thwack! He ran like a madman after the squirrel as it darted away.

I stood up slowly, watching his figure grow smaller in the distance.

Calling me a monster, was he? And now look at him, chasing a squirrel like a lunatic. I shook my head and began walking after him.