Castaway: Baek Jaeseong-6
The man had given them a brief rundown of the island's geography before taking his leave, mentioning that he and his companion would be staying in the eastern cave for the time being.
Left behind on the beach with her boyfriend Wooseok, Jooeun dropped to her knees and wept. Grief welled up inside her until she could barely breathe. Where had it all gone wrong?
Was it because I begged him to go on this trip? Because I pushed Wooseok to get on the boat first? Hic... Why is this happening to us?!
Everything had gone to hell. What was supposed to be a fun vacation had, in the span of a heartbeat, become a nightmare survival game. The boyfriend she relied on most was hovering at the edge of death, and there was nothing she could do. The sheer, crushing helplessness made Jooeun's tears fall even harder.
"Nnngh...!"
A death-rattle of a groan slipped from Wooseok's lips. Jooeun shot to her feet and rushed to his side. His hand was twitching, just barely.
"Wooseok! Are you okay?! Can you hear me?!"
"Nnngh...!"
He groaned a few more times before his eyes finally cracked open. He didn't even have the strength to speak — just a single, broken word.
"W... wa... water..."
"W-water?! There's nothing but seawater... Ah! He said there was a little stream, didn't he? Wooseok! Just hang on!"
Jooeun sprinted toward the center of the island. It was barely five hundred meters, but her lungs were already screaming. A five-hundred-meter run was no small demand on an ordinary person's stamina.
She wrung out every last ounce of strength she had and finally reached the stream. Clear water trickled through the heart of the island, burbling softly. Whether it was safe to drink, she had no idea — but it had to be better than seawater.
Finding the water, however, presented a new problem. She had nothing to carry it in. Jooeun stamped her feet in frustration, then finally scooped a mouthful and held it. She filled her cheeks as full as they would go and started back the way she'd come.
With her mouth full of water, she couldn't run hard. She walked as fast as she dared, hurrying back to Wooseok.
Then she pressed her lips to his. The water she'd managed to bring was barely a single swallow, but to Wooseok it might as well have been the water of life.
As a Hunter, Wooseok's vitality far outstripped that of an ordinary person. For someone with a Werewolf enhancement-type ability, that one mouthful of water was more than enough to pull the trigger on his recovery.
"Urgh... Where... is this?"
"An island! We drifted onto an island!"
Wooseok managed to push himself upright, Jooeun helping from the side.
The first thing he saw once his upper body was raised was the vast, empty sea. He realized he was lying on the beach of some island.
His last memory was of the Kraken's tentacle slamming into him. A searing pain, as if his entire body were shattering like glass, and then everything had gone dark. Recalling that blow sent a current of phantom electricity crackling through him all over again.
His body still hadn't fully recovered. He ached everywhere, as if he'd been worked over with a club.
"We're... actually alive, right?"
"Yeah. We're still alive."
Jooeun answered his question. Wooseok turned his head toward her — and found her completely naked.
"Your clothes..."
"Ah!"
For a moment she'd forgotten she was naked. It was only when Wooseok's eyes went wide that she clapped her hands over herself. She twisted away, scrambling for an explanation.
"Th-they tore apart in the ocean and just... washed away!"
"Ah... I see. Well, at least we made it out alive. You okay? Nothing hurt?"
Wooseok had been bouncing between life and death himself, so he didn't think to question her story. He looked at her for a moment, then pulled off his shirt and held it out.
"Put this on."
"Uh... huh?"
Jooeun froze. His kindness nearly brought tears to her eyes — but she couldn't put the shirt on. If she grabbed it and pulled it over her head, there was no telling what that psycho would demand of her.
She didn't even know the man's name, but she knew one thing for certain: he was completely unhinged. He was the kind of man who could violate a woman without batting an eye. She'd felt it in the handful of words they'd exchanged.
And the woman beside him had been strange, too. To Jooeun's eyes, she'd looked like a broken doll. Her sense of what was normal was nothing like Jooeun's own.
"Ah... I'm fine. This island's warm, anyway."
"You're a girl."
The words hit her harder than she expected. Wooseok and Jooeun had known each other since elementary school.
By no stretch of the imagination had Wooseok been a good kid. He'd started smoking in middle school, run with a rough crowd, shaken down younger students for money — a textbook delinquent. The one thing you could say for him was that he took care of his own.
Set aside the short fuse, and he was a pretty attractive guy. And then he'd become a Hunter. The day he awakened his ability, he'd confessed to her. Until then, they'd been something more than friends and less than lovers.
He could be rough, but as a boyfriend he was decent. This trip, too, had been her idea — she'd thrown a fit until he agreed. Wooseok had even taken time off from his party for it.
That was why she felt so guilty. If it hadn't been for her, none of this would have happened. That guilt was part of why she'd fought so desperately to save him.
"No. You're the one who's hurt, Wooseok. Getting you better comes first."
"...Can't argue with that, I guess."
In the end, Wooseok backed down first. He was grateful for her consideration. And besides — her naked body made for excellent scenery.
He set a gentle hand on her waist.
"Is it just us here?"
"Ah... no. Those other people are here too."
At her words, Wooseok pictured the Hunter couple. The memory of that irritating bastard's face soured his mood in an instant.
"So there's another guy on this island. All the more reason to put some clothes on."
"Ah... no. They said they'd be staying on the east side for a while. There are two caves on the island — east and west. Let's take the west one."
"Caves, huh. So this is a completely uninhabited island?"
"Seems like it. Can you move?"
"If we take it slow, yeah. Let's go. West is... which way?"
"That way, they said. Come on."
Jooeun supported him as they walked. The two of them made their way slowly toward the western cave.
The cave was larger than either of them had expected. They'd pictured a cramped little burrow, but the mouth was wide enough to drive two cars through side by side. Stepping inside, they felt a surprising sense of comfort.
"Not bad. I'll need to recover here for a while."
Wooseok's Werewolf ability granted powerful passive regeneration. He checked over his own condition, estimating how long it would take.
"If I rest up and replenish my energy, about two days should do it. I'll need to keep movement to a minimum until then."
"Okay. Just focus on getting better. I'll handle everything else in the meantime."
Jooeun said it with a smile.
She was hungry. The growl of her stomach was loud enough to echo. Normally Jooeun would have been mortified, but she didn't have the energy left for embarrassment.
"...Jooeun. You got anything to eat?"
She shook her head. Everything they'd brought had been left on the boat when they jumped. By now it was fish food.
Grrrrrooowl.
Wooseok's stomach joined the chorus. Recovering his body had burned through a massive amount of energy, and his hunger was that much worse for it.
They needed food. That was the only thought in Jooeun's head.
Hunt something? No. There's no way I'd succeed at hunting. What do I do... Maybe those people...
Jaeseong's face flickered through her mind. She shook her head.
Going to that guy would only mean more of whatever he'd already put her through. She couldn't afford to give him any more leverage. Wasn't she in this mess because of him in the first place?
Grrrrrooowl.
The body was brutally honest. Now the cave was filled with nothing but the racket of two rumbling stomachs. She wanted to just sleep through it, but she was too hungry to even close her eyes.
"...At this rate, we might actually starve."
Wooseok's voice was sharper than usual. When he got like this, you had to be careful. Jooeun knew that from experience.
"You said there were other people on this island besides us, right?"
"Uh... yeah."
"Think they have food?"
"I don't know. Their situation's probably about the same as ours."
"Doesn't matter. We need to check. Jooeun. You said they were on the east side?"
Jooeun nodded. Wooseok slowly sat up and stripped off his shirt and pants, holding them out. She stared at the clothes, then at him, blank-faced.
"Put these on and go over there. I'd go myself, but my body's at its limit. I can barely walk."
"Uh... okay."
Jooeun took the clothes he offered and put them on in front of him.
"Once I'm better, I'll make it up to you somehow. Please."
"Got it. I'll be back."
With that, Jooeun left the cave. The moment she was outside, she took the clothes off. If that psycho was watching her from somewhere, she wasn't about to take the chance.
Am I overthinking this?
She walked toward the eastern side of the island. The island was small enough that she reached the eastern cave in no time. Their cave was considerably smaller than hers. Fortunately, they were inside.
"Hm? What's up?"
Jaeseong and Jisu were eating chocolate bars. Jooeun stared, stunned. A waterlogged backpack sat between them.
"That backpack... where did you get it?"
"It drifted in on the water. We got lucky. There's a decent amount of food inside."
Jaeseong said it around a mouthful of chocolate. Jooeun's throat bobbed as she swallowed hard. Watching her, Jaeseong looked thoroughly pleased.
"Anyway, you're naked just like I told you. It suits you."
"D-don't look."
She said it, but she made no move to cover herself. Then she sat down beside him. She glanced at Jisu, wondering if the other woman might be offended — but Jisu's expression didn't change at all.
Her boyfriend's being hit on and she doesn't even care? Yeah. This woman isn't right in the head either.
"Um... how much food do you have, exactly?"
"Enough for two people to last about a week, I'd say. Good thing we packed it full, huh?"
He gave the bag a couple of pats as he said it. True to his word, the backpack was stuffed to bursting.
Jooeun looked at him with naked desperation. She didn't want to owe this man anything more — but she had no other choice.
"Um... could you spare us some food?"