Castaway: Baek Jaeseong-12
The mainland seemed occupied with the marine dungeon. Still not so much as a glimpse of a passing ship, and a rescue team, of course, had not come either.
They knew there were castaways, though. The moment that dungeon was cleared, a search for the missing would begin. I figured a week, maybe two. That was my estimate, so it wasn't exact.
Food was more than plentiful. All I had to do was wait for rescue at my leisure. This was a vacation in all but name — an internet-free vacation.
Jooeun and her boyfriend, however, would not be so fortunate. For them, every hour on this island was a stretch of hell.
I'd watched Jooeun's boyfriend hunt a few times. He clearly still hadn't recovered his body. Getting food on this island in that condition was impossible, and this deserted rock had almost nothing worth foraging to begin with — no wild fruit, barely any shellfish.
I gave Jooeun the food I'd promised, after she'd diligently put in her sexual service. She took it and went back with a bright, happy face. To think she could smile like that over a few scraps of bread. Unimaginable on the outside. Material things really are relative. Today, too, I arrived at a fresh little realization.
"Well then. Time I moved around a little myself."
I stretched and rose to my feet.
These days, my daily routine was sex. Sex when I woke up, sex after meals, sex before bed, sex outdoors, sex inside — and even in my dreams I did nothing but have sex. And I still wasn't the least bit tired of it. This was addiction. I was already a sex addict.
"Where are you going? We've only had sex ten times today."
Jisu had it even worse. Once we got off this island, she was going to suffer from sex withdrawal. A moment of silence for the Jisu of the future…
"Just gonna go take a look at that hunter bastard's face. He should be getting restless about now."
"Ahh. Oppa, you're thinking of cucking him, aren't you?"
"Obviously. I especially want to see that hunter bastard's face twist."
"Me too. That guy gave off the worst vibe from the first impression."
Jisu backed me with enthusiasm. Our first meeting with that bastard had been the worst of the worst. Not a single one of my women would ever take his side.
I left the cave naked. I was the master of this island, and I owed nothing to anyone. I circled the island in the spirit of a light stroll.
The hunter bastard was making a goddamn spectacle of himself with a harpoon in the rocky waters off the northern reef. Yesterday he'd been hunting birds; looked like he'd changed targets. Not that any of those clueless fish were likely to impale themselves on his spear.
"I got it! I caught it! Yes! I finally caught one!"
…
Apparently there were as many stupid fish in the world as there were stupid people. He danced a manic jig with the harpoon still stuck through the fish. I called out to him, cock dangling as I walked.
"Hey. You, dipshit."
"Huh!? Who are you calling a dipshit!? You bastard! Put some clothes on!"
"That's none of your business. Anyway, what about my offer? Given it any thought?"
My offer, of course, was that he sell me his girlfriend. Nothing a normal person could accept. If someone made me a proposal like that, I'd wipe out their entire bloodline.
Hearing me, he flipped me the middle finger. With a smug look on his face, he pointed at the fish he'd landed. His first successful hunt had him over the moon.
"You see this!? I can get my own food now! You think I'm gonna listen to a piece of shit like you?"
"Hmm. Well, let's see how that plays out. My offer's still on the table, so think it over."
I didn't interrupt his little victory lap. In a situation like this, he wasn't going to listen to a word I said anyway. But in the end, I would be the winner. This brief happiness of his was nothing but a flag for the misery to come.
I quietly took my leave. Until I disappeared from sight, he stood there grinning to himself with a grotesque little laugh.
"Jooeun! I did it! I caught a fish!"
"Really!? Wow! That's amazing!"
Jooeun was genuinely delighted by Wooseok's success. She'd been cold to him that morning, and the guilt made her react even more enthusiastically.
It was only natural for a man trapped on an island like this to get pent up — unless, of course, he was Jaeseong, who spent the entire day having sex. And even Jaeseong, for all that sex, never seemed to run dry.
So Wooseok's earlier mistake was something she needed to understand and forgive.
"I'm sorry about this morning. Pushing my own wants in a situation this desperate… I'll do better. Don't worry about food anymore. I'll take care of it."
Wooseok thumped his chest, proud of himself. His attitude was markedly different from before. Hardship after hardship had set his mind straight, and he could finally take other people's feelings into account.
Jooeun smiled brightly and nodded. More than the food itself, it was Wooseok's growth that made her glad.
"Yeah. Thank you! I'm sorry about this morning too. I was tired, and I think I got too emotional."
"It's fine. Let's not fight over petty stuff like that anymore. Come on, let's eat this first."
The fish Wooseok had caught was fairly large. Neither of them knew a thing about seafood, so they couldn't tell what kind it was, but it didn't look inedible. There was, however, an unexpected problem.
"This… how do we eat it?"
Fish was generally cooked over a fire. You could slice it into sashimi, of course, but they didn't have a knife. And even if they had one, neither of them knew how to prepare it.
Even Wooseok, who'd caught the thing, hadn't seen this coming. It was like having a can of food and no can opener.
"We'll have to start a fire, right?"
Time to do the homework they'd been putting off thanks to the warm weather. Homework, as always, had a way of coming back around.
Wooseok started trying to make fire again, using a block of wood and a small stick — a simple friction method. Simple in principle; anything but simple in practice.
He'd picked up a few tricks from previous attempts, but he still wasn't equal to actually producing a flame. Nature was far harsher than he'd imagined.
"Hah…! Hah…! Hah…!"
After an hour of trying, Wooseok finally gave up. At this rate, the energy he'd burn starting a fire would outweigh whatever he'd get from eating the food.
"What do we do?"
Jooeun pointed at the fish. Wooseok stared at it with a dark expression, then opened his mouth.
"We could eat it raw, right? Like sashimi…"
"I can't do fishy stuff…"
"This isn't the time to be picky about food."
Jooeun gave a small nod. No, it wasn't the time for that.
Wooseok went first. He scraped off the rough scales with a sharp stone and dug into the flesh, tore off a piece of the white meat, and forced it into his mouth.
A fishy taste far worse than he'd expected slammed into him. He nearly gagged. Hunger shoved it down anyway. If he hadn't been starving, he wouldn't have eaten it for a million dollars.
"Ugh…! It's edible…"
He said that, but Jooeun took one look at his face and shook her head. She had a weak stomach. Eating raw fish was out of the question. You couldn't even call that sashimi. It was just a raw creature.
"I don't think I can eat it…"
If there had been truly nothing else, maybe. But she had Jaeseong. Jooeun shook her head firmly.
"Then how are you going to last? We have no idea when a rescue team is coming."
"That's true…"
In the end, Jooeun took a bite of the fish as well. The moment the flesh hit her tongue, she brought up not only the fish but a thin wash of stomach acid.
"Blegh! Uwek!"
The taste was far more horrific than the reek. She couldn't understand how anyone ate this. It was nothing like the good food she'd earned by playing cute for Jaeseong. It was like putting garbage in her mouth.
Jooeun vomited up everything in her stomach. The one mercy was that there hadn't been much in there to begin with.
For a moment, anger surged through her. Wooseok, who couldn't bring back anything but this vomit-worthy excuse for food, looked pathetic. Whether he'd grown as a person or not, he had become incompetent.
"Jooeun…"
"Sorry… Wooseok, I really can't eat this. You have it all."
She pressed the anger down as best she could. Wooseok hung his head.
"Yeah…"
In the end, the fish became Wooseok's alone.
Jooeun headed for the stream, saying she needed to rinse her mouth. Once Wooseok was out of sight, her face went paper-white, and she muttered to herself.
"I have to eat things like that from now on? That's… that's hell!"
She rinsed her mouth at the stream. She gargled ten times to kill the fishy taste coating her tongue. It still didn't feel like it was gone.
After rinsing, Jooeun pulled the bread from her pocket. She'd originally meant to share it with Wooseok, but Wooseok had his raw fish. It was grotesque food she couldn't possibly eat — but for him, it would be enough.
"That's right… This is what it takes to survive. This is all for me and Wooseok."
Looked at another way, this was all Wooseok's fault. She was the one suffering because of an incompetent boyfriend who couldn't even start a fire.
Jooeun bit into the bread. A sweetness filled her mouth that the reeking raw fish couldn't begin to compare to. She knew it with even more certainty now. She was never eating raw fish. Not ever.
And if everything Wooseok brought back from now on was like that… she had no confidence she could stay by his side.
Two days passed that way. After his first successful hunt, Wooseok failed every attempt that followed. The fish had been calorie-dense enough that he'd managed to scrape by somehow.
He was more worried about Jooeun than himself. He assumed she was getting by on water.
Jooeun visited Jaeseong every day and came back with food. She paid the price, of course. Jaeseong's demands grew more extreme, but in return, Jooeun's psychological resistance only kept shrinking. By now, she could accept whatever he asked of her.
"Oh. Not bad with that ass dance. You take lessons or something?"
"Dance club in high school. We done?"
Jooeun shook her hips in front of Jaeseong like a whore. All she'd done was add a few dirty moves to a dance she'd learned in school, and the reaction was excellent. She was putting her weapons as a woman to active use.
"Not bad. Alright. The canned food I promised. Here."
Jooeun snatched the can from Jaeseong's hand as if someone might steal it. Rationed carefully, this would last her two days. And since she no longer had to share with Wooseok, it would stretch even further.
She beamed over a single can of food, but another thought ran underneath. This pervert of a man could change his mind at any time. So she needed to squeeze as much food out of him as she could, while she still could. There was still no sign of a rescue team.
"Um… how much food do you have left?"
Jooeun asked, looking at Jaeseong's bulky bag. Strangely, the bag didn't look much different from the beginning. Hadn't he said at the start that it was about a week's worth?
Jaeseong patted the bag.
"I've been rationing, so I can probably last another three or four days. Why? Not enough food?"
"Yes. I'd like a little more, if possible. Oh, I'm not asking for a freebie, of course. We're a give-and-take arrangement, after all."
Jooeun said it with a suggestive little smile.
He was hungry. Three days of surviving on water. He wanted to scoop up dirt and eat it.
Wooseok gritted his teeth. That first success had been his last. He wanted to kill the himself of three days ago, drunk on a moment of triumph.
"I need food… food…"
The blood vessels in his eyes stood out red. He had to get food. If he didn't, he might actually starve to death.
Whether it was fortune or misfortune, there was a way. Wooseok swallowed.
What that bastard wants is Jooeun… Jooeun.
She was his girlfriend, and the woman who'd saved his life. But the situation closing in around him was forcing a choice.
Wooseok weighed Jooeun against food in his mind. A few days ago, he would have chosen Jooeun without a shred of hesitation. Now it was different. He was so hungry he could lose his mind.
If Jooeun just makes a sacrifice… no. Wait. Is it even a sacrifice? Once we get out of here… once we're out, I'll treat her better! Yeah. If we die on this island, none of it means anything anyway, right? Once we escape, I'll treat Jooeun right. Buy her everything she wants… feed her everything she wants to eat… Yeah. I'll ask her. The last favor of my life…
That was how Wooseok rationalized the decision. He wasn't wrong. He was making a wise choice for the future. Comforting himself with that, he went looking for Jooeun.
But Jooeun wasn't there. Not in the cave, not at the stream, not on the beach. The island wasn't that large, but with a diameter of about a kilometer, it was easy to miss someone if your paths didn't cross.
He combed the island like he was hunting lice and still didn't find her. He'd used nearly all his strength; he was on the verge of collapse. In the end, Wooseok headed for Jaeseong's cave alone.
Well, maybe this is better. It wasn't going to be easy to say to Jooeun anyway…
He turned over what he would say to Jaeseong as he walked, slowly. Even thinking about it was agony, but there was no other way.
I'll let you fuck my girlfriend, so share your food. Just give me half of what you've got.
That was roughly how he planned to put it. Holding that in his head, he approached Jaeseong's cave — and heard a woman's moan.
"Haaahn~♥ Haaang~! Haaaahn~! Haaaaahn~!"
"Crazy bastard. Even in a situation like this, he's at it again."
He muttered it to himself, with no memory of what he himself had done to Jooeun not long ago.