Bring It On! - Chapter 21

Chapter 21.

The cover was so explicit it made my face burn. Jay brushed the salt off the photobook and casually flipped through a few pages. His face twisted as he glanced at a random page. 

Curious, I leaned over to take a look and couldn’t help but burst into laughter. It was a photo of a man in a full-body fuzzy fur outfit, lying on a woman’s thighs with his chest and butt exposed.

“How did something like this even drift all the way here?”

Jay shrugged his shoulders. Then he flipped through a few more pages of the stiffly laminated paper.

“If they’re going to expose all the parts that should be covered, what’s even the point of wearing clothes?”

Jay said in a tone that clearly showed he didn’t get it.

“It’s actually more erotic to cover up suggestively than to be completely naked.”

Jay snapped the photobook shut with a loud thud. When I looked up, he was staring at me like I was some kind of pervert.

“How do you know that so well?”

I was honestly flustered by his sudden implication. Reflexively, I tried to explain myself.

“Hey, I’m not saying I look at this kind of stuff often. People just say that all the time.”

“Not sure about that.”

“You don’t even know my age, so don’t act like it’s a big deal. Forget it.”

“Forget it? Just be honest. Admit you’re an expert in adult content.”

“Stop trying to corner me like that!”

Just then, Suho stirred and made a sound, “Mmm.” I gave Jay a sharp jab in the side, and he quickly hid the photobook behind his back. Suho, who had been sprawled out asleep, rolled over to face away from us.

“I’m going to wake Suho, so hide that thing.”

“Okay.”

I knelt on one knee, and Jay copied my posture. Just as I reached out to shake Suho awake, I turned back to Jay.

“What are you doing? I told you to hide it.”

“You don’t think that kid’s already seen it, do you?”

Jay leaned in and whispered secretively in my ear.

“What?”

I turned to face him, and Jay recoiled a little in surprise. But more than his reaction, it was what he said that got to me.

“No way.”

“Then how else would it have ended up here?”

“Suho just picks up anything that washes up on shore. He brings back so much stuff, I doubt he even knows what he picked up.”

“But has he ever brought back a book before?”

“Don’t say useless stuff.”

“Denying it won’t change reality. Look, here it says—”

“Just go! Get lost!”

I shoved Jay repeatedly, but he didn’t budge. I was the only one who staggered. As I tipped sideways from the force, Jay chuckled and grabbed my wrist to steady me, pulling me toward him. While I was still flustered, he was grinning at his own mischief.

As if I wasn’t already worried enough about a kid living in such a dangerous place, the idea of him being exposed to this kind of inappropriate and provocative material made me uneasy.

But it’s not like I could just forbid him from going to the beach entirely.

While I was getting caught up in a sudden wave of serious thoughts, Jay lightly tapped my shoulder and stood up.

“Considering the pages weren’t easy to flip because of the seawater, it probably means no one’s even opened it before. Don’t worry too much.”

Jay waved the photobook like a goodbye and walked out of the shelter.

Silence returned. I looked at Suho, who was still fast asleep, completely unaware of everything. Then the thought crossed my mind. What if we’re not rescued for a year, or even ten? Jay and I are grown adults. We could manage to keep ourselves together. But Suho?

Spending his most formative years in a place like this would be tough enough. Even if we did get rescued later, would he be able to reintegrate into society? Suho and I weren’t even real family. And what kind of job could a kid who couldn’t even read do as an adult? The worry weighed heavily on my chest.

Right before I was about to drown in all that overthinking, I shook my head hard to snap out of it. Focus on living well today. Thinking about the past or future only brings anxiety.

I shook Suho’s shoulder to wake him up.

***

We had run into an unexpected obstacle.

The three of us castaways were just standing there, dumbfounded, staring intensely at a single thing. A pumpkin. Nearby, a campfire crackled and popped, but nothing was cooking.

“Have you ever cooked pumpkin before?” 

Jay asked.

“I’ve only ever bought pumpkin porridge at a porridge shop. I don’t even remember the last time I saw a raw pumpkin.”

I answered calmly.

We had already been brainstorming for an hour and still had no idea how to eat it. If we tried to roast it, it might burn to charcoal. But it didn’t fit into the coconut shells we had used as makeshift steamers either.

“Let’s just… start by prepping it, maybe?”

It seemed better to try something, rather than sit around with our hands tied. Jay picked up the axe he had rinsed with water and split the pumpkin in half. 

Using a makeshift knife fashioned from a piece of wood and a halved metal plate, he scraped out the seeds. The seeds were set aside in an empty container, and he began to roughly peel off the skin.

“Well, now that we’re doing this, let’s try everything. Steamed, grilled, whatever.”

The large chunks were stuffed into the coconut shell we used like a steamer, and the rest was thinly sliced into julienne strips. It was to reduce the surface area in contact with the fire, lowering the chance of it burning and becoming inedible. 

When salt was sprinkled lightly over the shredded pumpkin, a sweet, nutty aroma rose with the smoke. One of the octopus legs we had caught today was torn off and shredded, then stir-fried together with the pumpkin. After eating fish every day, the new scent had my mouth watering.

Suho couldn’t wait and kept asking, “Can I try it? Can I try it?”

I had thought he wasn’t interested in food, but it must’ve just been that what we’d been eating until now hadn’t tasted good. I picked up a small pinch of shredded pumpkin, blew on it gently, and fed it to Suho.

Right next to Suho’s face, another mouth appeared, wide open. I closed Jay’s jaw with the back of my hand.

“What about me? Why don’t I get any?”

“You hate unhygienic stuff. Why would you want something touched by someone else’s hand?”

“Look around you. We’re way past worrying about hygiene.”

“For someone who’s adjusted so well, I don’t get why you made such a fuss the first day.”

“Don’t bring that up. That was my dark past.”

His genuinely embarrassed expression made me laugh a little.

I scooped the food into a clean, dried coconut shell and stretched my hand toward Jay. But no matter how long I held it out, no one took it. Had he gone somewhere? I turned around and there he was, still standing in the same spot.

“What are you doing?”

His gaze pierced into my face with an intensity that was almost scorching. It was nothing like his usual lazy-eyed look. Maybe it was because his features were so striking, but that unblinking stare made me feel uncomfortably self-conscious. 

Why was he suddenly acting like this? He gave no explanation, just kept staring, and the longer it went on, the more acutely I felt every muscle in my face. 

Why was he looking at me like that? I felt heat rise in my cheeks. I was just about to press the back of my hand to them when….

“Don’t move!”

“What?”

Jay hurriedly tried to stop me, but my hand was already headed for my face. I halted mid-motion, but my hand had already touched something dry and crumbly.

Flap, flap! Something on my face beat its wings wildly.

“What the hell?!”

Something soft struck my lips multiple times in rapid succession. The creepy sensation made my hair stand on end. My eyes widened to their limits. I could sense that something huge was clinging to my face.

“Stay calm. I’ll take care of it. Stay calm, Sun Woori!”

The heat from the campfire had dulled my senses, but now they were all coming back sharply. Multiple thin legs had dug into my cheek and were now creeping along it. I’d gotten used to squashing small bugs by now, but something this big? 

I couldn’t even imagine it. The insect, waltzing across my face, gently placed its dainty little legs onto my lips.

Aaaargh! I screamed, and Suho, startled, screamed too. Jay, ironically the least calm of us all, shouted at us to calm down. The three of us flailed in a panic while the insect remained unbothered.

At that moment, Suho, unable to bear it any longer, grabbed the water container and dumped it over my face.

Splash. A loud gush of water, and the surprised insect flew away.

“Sun Woori! Are you okay?”

Jay gripped my shoulders tightly and called my name with a worried look. My soaking wet hair clung to me, and water dripped steadily from my clothes.