Bring It On! - Chapter 16

Chapter 16.

Splash!

We were completely submerged.

My hair, which had been tugged at by the bird, spread out in strands and floated in the water. 

I could see Jay’s face close to mine. He had tilted his head back slightly to check above. I followed his gaze. Beyond the shimmering surface, the bird was circling above us.

My breath, held in haste, was running out, yet the bird showed no signs of leaving. Its maternal instinct was truly extraordinary. As I grimaced and endured holding my breath, my eyes met Jay’s. 

His gaze urgently scanned my face, filled with unease and anxiety. I clutched at his clothes with all my strength, like a devout follower enduring a spiritual trial.

Jay couldn’t decide what to do, glancing between me and the sky again and again. My heart felt tight, and the pressure in my face built to the point it felt like I’d burst. Then Jay grabbed under my butt and pushed me up with all his might.

“Pwah!”

Light flooded my eyelids in an instant, and the air I so desperately needed rushed into my lungs. Cough, cough. I let out a few small coughs and wiped my face with one hand. My senses began to return. Once I surfaced, I realized both the bird and the swarm of bees were gone.

I was floating in the middle of a deep pond. And only then did I remember Jay. That guy can’t swim!

I hurriedly dove underwater. Jay was slowly sinking. I grabbed his hair and dragged him back to land.

“Cough, cough!”

Jay lay on his stomach, coughing continuously. Then, as if he’d used up all his energy, he collapsed onto his back on the ground. I lay beside him. We both gasped for air in silence for a while. The sun, barely hanging on the horizon, finally slipped into the sea as if being swallowed. Only when the burning sky gave way to the spreading dark blue did I sit up.

“The eggs?”

Jay sat up after me and reached into his pockets. Each of his pockets held two eggs, slightly smaller than chicken eggs. Including the one I had caught, we had a total of five. Our final food gathering mission was a success.

***

Leaving wet footprints behind, we trudged back to the shelter.

“You know, maybe catching the bird would’ve been better than the eggs.”

He had a point. If we caught the bird, we could eat the meat too, and unlike the eggs, the bird was already fully grown.

“We should’ve taken both,” I muttered. Jay didn’t mention the bird again.

As we neared the shelter, the scent of burning leaves reached us. Suho had spotted us and was waving a torch. We, completely worn out, finally stood before the campfire.

“…Did you fight a wild boar or something?” Suho asked, shocked by our appearance. I didn’t even have the energy to respond and just shook my head.

Using a pot that Jay had split in half as a frying pan, we placed it over the fire. We cracked three of the eggs onto it. Sizzle, sizzle. As the eggs cooked, we heard a bird let out a long cry from deep in the forest.

***

I’m not the type to believe in luck, but occasionally, I bought a lottery ticket dreaming of a complete life turnaround. Buying it on a Monday and tucking it safely into my wallet always lifted my mood for a few days. Come Saturday, it would inevitably be torn up and tossed in the trash, but still.

The question “What would you do if you won first place in the lottery?” is common and cliché. Yet no matter how many times I imagined it, it always made my heart flutter.

What I wanted to buy if I ever won the lottery wasn’t luxury or fame. It was freedom.

The doorknob to my room was broken. I was never allowed to lock my door at home. My parents could come into my room anytime they pleased. They’d read my diary, go through my receipts, even inspect my expense log.

Some might think this was twisted affection from parents toward their eldest daughter. But it wasn’t love. It was resentment.

They had been forced into marriage after an unplanned pregnancy, and to them, I was nothing but the criminal who ruined their lives.

On the other hand, my younger sibling—born on an astrologically blessed day, handpicked by a spiritual advisor favored by politicians and celebrities—was cherished and adored. I don’t believe my parents ever truly developed any parental love. To them, my sibling was simply an investment toward their own ends.

I’m not trying to argue whose life was more miserable. But sometimes, I wished my parents would just snap and beat me like maniacs. I fantasized that if I were covered in bruises and ran to the police, they might separate me from my parents once and for all. I had those thoughts every night before I fell asleep.

But my parents, being socially respected individuals, would never be foolish enough to physically hit their child. Instead, they began a quieter, more insidious form of abuse. social isolation and relentless psychological pressure.

Even though we had hired help for chores, they made me personally wash my sibling’s school uniform. They never paid for any tutoring, yet if my grades didn’t meet their expectations, they’d confiscate my allowance and phone until the next exam.

Every time I punched in the door lock code to enter the house, I felt like I was choking. I couldn’t remember the last time I laughed at home. I never exchanged more than ten words with them at a time.

Strangely enough, I felt more comfort with a random stranger I’d sit next to on the bus than I ever did with my own parents.

I once hoped that becoming an adult would free me from this suffocating life. I even planned to attend a university far from Seoul on purpose. But it was as if my parents had seen right through me. 

They told me they wouldn’t pay tuition unless I went to a university in Seoul. Otherwise, they’d enroll me in a cram school for another year.

As a college student, I wasn’t allowed to work part-time and had to rely on the allowance they gave me. But luckily, since my younger sibling was on edge preparing for high school entrance exams, and my parents had gotten busier with work, they didn’t interfere in my life as harshly as long as I obeyed curfew. Maybe their aging bodies just didn’t have the energy to keep micromanaging me anymore.

When I had just one semester left before graduation, I started picking up part-time work whenever I had free time. The moment I saved enough for a plane ticket, I secretly took a leave of absence from school, got a working holiday visa, and left for Australia.

Just like when I bought a lottery ticket on a whim, I dreamed big on the flight. What I wanted was true freedom. Freedom from anyone’s interference.

And that dream… came true in a way that was a little, or rather, very different than I had imagined.

On this uninhabited island, where not a single soul lives.

***

Starting early in the morning, raindrops began to fall little by little. By sunrise, they turned into a relentless downpour. At the deafening sound, as if our shelter might collapse, I quickly shook Jay awake. Together, we lowered the waterproof tarp we’d rolled up and secured the tent fabric we used as a door.

Once I woke up, I couldn’t fall back asleep so easily.

But Jay, despite being soaked to the skin from lowering the tarp, sat down and immediately started dozing off.

He’s going to mess up his neck sleeping like that.

His face drooped down pitifully as he slept. I sat beside him, thinking I’d lend him my shoulder, but the height difference was way off.

“Hm.”

After a moment’s hesitation, I gently lifted his face and supported his right cheek with my palm. It was supposed to make him more comfortable, but Jay’s eyelids twitched, then slowly opened. His long lashes blinked slowly.

Feeling my palm against his face, Jay furrowed his brows.

“…Why’d you hit me?”

His voice was low and raspy, still thick with sleep.

“I was just holding your head so your neck wouldn’t hurt.”

“But you, like… hit me.”

“What kind of dream were you having?”

“A dream?”

“It hurt so bad I almost cried…” 

He mumbled vaguely, still half-asleep. But even though he was awake now, he kept his cheek resting against my palm. In the end, I had to be the one to pull my hand away. His head swayed slightly, then settled back into place.

“What time is it?”

Jay asked with a big stretch.

“Eight o’clock.”

“Still looks like night with all these storm clouds.”

“Since it’s raining, let Suho rest in the shelter, and let’s get some work done while we’re already wet.”

“Isn’t that kid getting off too easy?”

“He’s a kid, so it’s fine to cut him some slack. Now get up.”