“Could you please teach me again how to use this?” Bae Irene asked me with a careful tone, eyes nervously glancing between me and the fire kit in her hand.

Yes. You read that.

BAE IRENE asked me.

Under normal circumstances, I’d freeze and ramble and everything equals me making fool of myself, but knowing how the goddess Bae Irene braced herself to talk to me -a stranger in her book- and asked me to teach her I thought it’d be courteous to respond by teaching her.

Though I couldn’t help but frown when I saw the ferro rod in her hand instead of a regular match.

“Uh, didn’t the fire kit has a match or something easier?” I asked, lightly stretching my temple. Bae Irene fiddled with the ferro rod, looking for something I absolutely had no idea what it was, then shifted her eyes back at me. She gave me a hard stare.

“I know how to light a match. What I want to learn is how to light this.” She answered, though her eyes determined, her tone slightly wavered probably from nervousness. “You know how to use this, right?”

“Of course.” I nodded. No way I could reject her after declaring myself knowledgeable about survival earlier at the start of filming.

Yes, we were filming. It was a pilot program to compare how male and female works to overcome a situation. And the current situation was how males and females survive with basic equipment.

We were ditched ‘alone’ at an empty beach, though alone wasn’t the word because cameramen and staff spread around the area.

The female team was composed of Gugudan’s Kim Sejeong, Kim Chungha, IZ*ONE’s Eunbi unnie and me, and my beloved Red Velvet’s Kang Seulgi and goddess Bae Irene.

“...Sakura?” Bae Irene called me, slightly leaning forward to get better attention from me. I blinked at our (slightly) close proximity then coughed out loud.

“Sorry.” I mumbled, fiddling with a paper in my hand. “Uh...what was that again?”

Stupid question. Bae Irene must be thinking how lame I was.

“Could you teach me how to use this?” She repeated her question, lifting the ferro rod in her hand.

I put my hand below hers and let her drop the kit into my awaiting palm. “Of course,” I answered, crouching down near a small heap of branches and haystacks. She followed me and crouched down, her eyes focusing on my hands as I speak. “Having a piece of paper would definitely help. You need to scrape this rod with a serrated knife or something similar. Look, the paper holds the scraped ferrocerium in place. After you scraped enough,” I stopped, motioning her to lean back with my elbow. She followed my advice and leaned back slightly. I put the rod and steel pendant together, pressing them with enough force as I rub them together.

After three or four tries, the fire finally lit the paper up. I moved back in time as Bae Irene carefully put dry haystacks above to keep the fire from dying.

“And that’s how you got the fire.” I finished, standing up then patted the dust off my pants. She thanked me as I handed the fire kit back into her hand.

Silence wrapped around us and I looked around, looking for others. I saw Eunbi unnie talking with Sejeong unnie near the entrance to the forest while Seulgi unnie crouched down on the shore rocks with Chungha unnie.

“Uh, don’t you think it’s too early to light the fire?” I asked, trying to lighten the heavy silence.

“Do you think so? I was planning to boil our drink water.”

I frowned, “Wait, they didn’t give us freshwater? The bottled kind?”

“Nope.”

Bae Irene chuckled at my comical reaction. Of course, how could I forget?

“But they gave us empty bottles and I saw river stream over there.” Bae Irene pointed to my back, “How about we go collect the water? Seulgi and Chungha should be done hunting anytime soon.”

I threw my gaze back to Eunbi unnie and caught her looking at me. She winked, motioning the woman behind me with a flick of her hand then turned her attention back to Seojeong unnie.

I knew it.

“Sakura?”

“Sorry.” I coughed, taking a step forward to lead the way, “Let’s go.”

Halfway through the walk was spent in silence, the sound of our shoes shuffling on the dirt accompanied us like shadows. I could feel how both of us badly wanted to break the silence but were nervous, and the presence of the cameraman following us wasn’t helping either.

“It’s cold.” Bae Irene mumbled, pushing her hands deeper against her armpits. I fiddled with my hand glove tucked in my jacket pocket. Would it be weird if I give it to her?

We reached the stream in no time. I stepped forward to check the water temperature and it was cold, not freezing but cold nonetheless. Then I turned back to Bae Irene.

“Give me that,” I asked her, glancing at the bottle in her hand. She frowned.

“The water is cold, and I think it’s obvious which one of us is trembling.”

“Really?” She said, leaning to the side to look at the stream on my back. No way she could check the temperature by looking at it, and she gave up anyway. She put the bottle into my awaiting hands and our fingers accidentally touched.

She’s really freezing!

“I’m sorry!” She quickly apologized, hiding her hands back between her armpits. Her face burned.

I thought it was the best chance to give my hand glove so I did it.

And girl how glad I was.

She gladly received my hand glove, shuffling her small hands into the warmness. A relieved smile graced her lips as she thanked me. “I’m weak to cold.”

I nodded then turned around to collect the water. Once I’m done filling the two bottles full, I put them aside then stepped slightly further into the upstream.

“Sakura?” Bae Irene called me worriedly, “Where are you going?”

“I saw shrimps.”

“Huh?”

“Have you seen them, Irene sunbaenim?”

“Uh...I’d prefer you to call me unnie.” Bae Irene -unnie- mumbled, carefully stepping on the stones to reach me. “And did you mean river shrimp?”

“Yep.” I nodded. A movement caught my eyes, boosting my excitement as I crouched down near the spot where I saw it. I saw two medium-sized river shrimps in the water, its silverish-and-slightly-bluish color serving a good camouflage amongst the river stones. Too bad I saw them.

I used my two hands as a makeshift trap in the water, slowly moving closer into the land with the two shrimps trapped between my hands.

“You got them!” Irene unnie said excitedly. She held out her gloved hands for the shrimps which I gladly handed over.

“I didn’t expect to find them here.” I chuckled, turning back into the stream to search for more shrimps. 

Irene unnie asked for a plastic container to the cameraman to keep the shrimps then joined me at the edge of the river.

“Watch your steps, unnie,” I said, glancing at the older before turning my attention back to the water. I guess hunting for the shrimps had eased my nervousness about being alone with Bae Irene.

“God it’s cold!” She squeaked. Apparently she had taken off one of the gloves to dip her hand into the water. I chuckled.

“Told you so.”

Irene unnie grunted, slipping her hand back into my glove while her eagle eyes scanned the water.

“Kkura! I saw something moving over there!” She held my arm and pointed to a spot near the bushes. I obediently followed her direction and started catching shrimps by her order.

When Seulgi unnie came to pick us up later, we had totally forgotten about the time and collected quite a lot of river shrimps.

“Wow.” Seulgi unnie mumbled, looking at the plastic container then to both of us. “You were so loud like elementary kids.”

“Shut up, Seulbear.” Irene shoved Seulgi unnie’s shoulder, hugging the container closer as if it was her treasure. I followed the two behind with the two bottles of water in hand.

We joined the others around the bonfire. It seemed that Seulgi unnie and Chungha unnie had caught small shore fishes as well as some edible mollusks, also Eunbi unnie and Sejeong unnie had built our temporary tent for the night while the two of us were away.

When Irene unnie presented our hunts, Seulgi unnie couldn’t stop herself from remarking, “God, a