Kyuhyun's hand instinctively went inside his pocket to pull out his trusty smartphone. But he ended up cursing loudly upon realizing that it wasn't there.

"Will you stop cursing!" Seohyun reprimanded and Kyuhyun sighed, "We need to contact the others one way or another. But I have no idea how!"

"Why? Something urgent?" Leeteuk asked and Kyuhyun debated within himself whether to tell him his idea or not. In the end, he decided against it, thinking that Leeteuk might only get too ecstatic and blow up their cover. Kyuhyun plans to take things slowly, they'll quietly look for those people who might've captured Yesung and Taeyeon. They can't be noticed otherwise they might get captured (or die) too. He sure does learn strategies from Starcraft.

"N-nothing. It's just that we found water and they must also be too thirsty by now." Kyuhyun said glancing at Seohyun knowingly. He was happy to think that the girl seemed to get the message through eye contact. Better yet, he was happy that they both seemed to understand each other better now.

"Kyuhyun-ssi, there's no way we could contact them. We lost our phones. And even if we have them there's no signal." Leeteuk said.

Kyuhyun sulked down, "Exactly why I'm cursing."

Seohyun stood up, "Wait guys, I have an idea."

-------------------------------------

She kept running. Away. Anywhere. Just to get away from that unknown being.

Her foot hurts but she could not stop. The man has a knife, she was sure of it. It was a sharp knife that glistened in the sun. But the worse thing is, she had never seen that man.

He was not one of them, definitely not one of her companions. Was he the one who took... or killed Yesung-ssi? she thought.

Tears streamed down her face. She should have never left. Leeteuk. Where is he? Where are they? Where's their camp? She had to go back. Who knows what he might do if he sees her.

"Leeteuk oppa!!!" she screamed and screamed but nothing responded. She glanced behind her, making sure the man had not followed her.

She kept running, tears blurring her vision, dizziness and fatigue overwhelming her and she had not noticed that ahead was a ravine.

She slipped and was almost sure she was going to die at that very moment had she not been able to grasp at a vine. It was some sort of a tuber or perhaps a root of some tree. But at the moment it hadn't mattered. She hung there, helpless... Willing herself not to glance down at the emptiness below.

"Oppa!" Taeyeon yelled with all her might, "Someone!!! HELP!!!"

A couple of seconds, for what seemed like forever, passed and she was drained of all hope and energy... She was about to accept the fact that maybe she was destined to die by falling in this deep ravine, in an island in the middle of nowhere... She considered that maybe she was indeed going to die and rot here and no one might even get to find her body and give her a proper burial.

She choked on her sob and closed her eyes. A faint image of Leeteuk appeared... "Oppa..." she mumbled and was about to let go...

When suddenly, a hand held hers and started pulling her up.

----------------------------------------

"Sungmin-ssi..."

"Mm?"

"I..." Sunny sighed, avoiding Sungmin's questioning gaze and ignoring Eunhyuk's teasing smiles. "I'm sorry..."

"For what?" Sungmin said.

"For... You know..." she said, playing with her thumb.

"You have nothing to be sorry about, Sunny-ssi." Sungmin gently said. "It's not your fault. Hyuk is just really playful like that." He smiled reassuringly and Sunny could feel herself relax. She's been troubled because of the way she acted, how she stupidly believed it and made their relationship awkward like this. She's just happy that none of the three had mentioned about her blurting out of 'falling for a gay' because if they do, she knew she'd die of embarrasment right there.

"Oh! Wait..." Hyoyeon suddenly exclaimed and stopped walking.

"What is it Hyoyeon-ssi?" Eunhyuk asked as she held him by the shoulders tightly. "Hy-hyoyeon-ssi..." he murmured confusedly.

"Tell me... Eunhyuk... Is that... Is that your real name?"

Eunhyuk blinked, almost ready to laugh at the randomness if it had not been for Hyoyeon's extremely serious face.

"What?! Is it? It's not. Right?" she pressed, gripping his shoulders tighter.

"Wa-wait. Why suddenly..."

"Answer me!"

"No... No it's not." Eunhyuk blurted out and he felt the grip lighten.

"I knew it. I've been hearing him call you Hyuk..." Hyoyeon mumbled, obviously thinking. "But why..."

"Hyoyeon-ssi, we have to--" Sungmin started but the girl spoke with an edge to her voice.

"Why did you change it? Why should you? You didn't even tell me. We've been working together, I watch you everytime, I pay attention to all your favorites. Like blue and strawberries and the group HOT. Yet it turns out I don't know something as basic as this. I feel like... I feel stupid."

"Hyoyeon-ssi..." Eunhyuk said,  almost speechless.

"What's your real name?"

Eunhyuk glanced at his brother who gave him an I-told-you-look.

He shook his head, smiling uncertainly, "Hey. Wait. Why are you suddenly being fuzzy about it? It's just a name."

"Hyuk? Is it?" Hyoyeon asked, still pressing the subject.

"Hyukjae, actually. Lee Hyukjae." he finally admitted, "There. Calm down now, okay?..." he brushed a strand away from her face.

"Hyukjae..." Hyoyeon mumbled thoughtfully.

"Uh-huh. Let's continue now, shall we?" Eunhyuk winked and Hyoyeon smiled faintly. 

"I'm sorry but why did you have to change your name?" Sunny asked and Eunhyuk shrugged playfully, "For fun?" He obviously doesn't take the matter too seriously. He hardly ever took any matter seriously, anyway.

"What's fun about it? It's like deceiving people..." Sunny muttered.

"What's with you guys. It's just a name..."

Hyoyeon breathed and answered softly. "... Because a name is something so meaningful Eun-- Hyukjae-ssi." "Because... sometimes a name is all a person could ever have. All he could ever hold on to..."

The meaningfulness in Hyoyeon's tone made Eunhyuk think... Back to that time when he made up another name... A made-up name that he never took back. He never even had the chance to tell her who he really was...

And maybe he'll never really have that chance... Ever.

-------------------------------------

"Aw!"

"Oh my, Jessica-ssi!" Yoona exclaimed as she knelt down beside Jessica who was on a sitting position, holding her foot.

"Let me see." she said and Jessica was feeling too much pain to even disagree.

"A-are you okay? Does it hurt much?" Donghae asked, kneeling in front of hair. She nodded slowly.

"I.. I think I twisted my ankle."

Heechul glanced at Donghae before he too, knelt in front of her. "Come on, just ride on my back.". He could feel Donghae's weird look directed at him. Jessica blinked, "Heechul-ssi?"

"We have to get moving. You're really... being burdensome, you know." Heechul said though inside him, he felt worried over Jessica's pained expression.

"Ah- ah, right." Jessica murmured and was about to climb Heechul's back but Donghae suddenly spoke up, "No. I'll carry you."

Jessica turned to look at him abruptly as he positioned himself and said, "Come on." She was still barely grasping the fact. Did he just seriously ask me to ride on his back?

Heechul scoffed, "You don't look strong enough, dude. Jessica-ssi, come o--"

"Sica," Donghae said sternly, "We... I... I already piggybacked you before, right?"

"U-uhm..." Jessica stuttered, at a loss for words as Donghae's normally sad eyes stared straight at her. Of course she remembered that day. She remembered perfectly. That day back in Mokpo when Donghae carried her on his back as his brothers chased them. It was one of the few moments when she felt truly happy... and she'd give anything just to experience that once more.

Almost subconsciously, without another word, she found herself climbing Donghae's back. Yoona carefully assisted her while Heechul chewed on his lip.

"You okay there?" Donghae said and Jessica hummed in response. His back felt warm and she doesn't mind the mud in his clothes. She doesn't mind Heechul's annoyed expression though she felt quite apologetic. She doesn't mind anything else in this world and for all it's worth... she'd be willing to stay in this moment forever...

-------------------------------------

Hyoyeon unconsciously started braiding her hair as they walked. Her mind was still buzzing with thoughts of Eunhyuk, or Hyukjae whatever. She couldn't get over the fact that from the back of her head, she had ever so stupidly thought that perhaps... just perhaps, the Hyuk that Sungmin kept saying stood for JiHyuk.

Yoo Jihyuk.

The only thing left to her by her only childhood friend. That name...

...

That day, when that boy was about to leave her, when he was about to go move to Seoul... With a sudden rush of confidence and perhaps a strong surge of curiosity, Hyoyeon yelled,

"Hey, wait! You never told me your name!"

The boy looked back, gave a gummy grin and said, "Jihyuk. Yoo Jihyuk."

She found herself repeating the name... "Jihyuk-ah..."

The boy nodded and waved before running away.

And just like that... He left her world. And she never saw him again.

...

But now that she think of it, she realized that he never really asked for her name. Maybe because at that time, they thought it hadn't mattered. All that mattered was their friendship at that moment.

Or maybe until now, Jihyuk didn't think it mattered. Hyoyeon sighed... Maybe Jihyuk hadn't even thought she mattered. Maybe he forgot completely about her, with the pretty Seoul girls and all. Who would remember a childhood friend whose name he doesn't even know?

She finished braiding till the ends of her hair and she barely even realized. Sunny was talking about something she hasn't really paid attention to that's why she merely blinked when she suddenly said, "What do you think, Hyoyeon-ssi?"

"Uh-- uhm.." she stammered, half-aware that Eunhyuk was starting to stare at her.

"H-hey, Eunhyuk-ssi?" Sunny said when she noticed Eunhyuk stopped in his tracks. "Why? You look like you saw a ghost or something..." but then she realized he was looking straight at Hyoyeon.

"Wh-what's wr-wrong?" Hyoyeon blinked and Eunhyuk bit his lip, "You just... The braid..."

"Guys, check it out. Over there..." Sungmin's surprised tone caught the rest's attention as they turned to the direction he was pointing out.

"What is that?" Sunny asked.

"A smoke?" Eunhyuk offered.

True enough, there was a tall post of thick gray smoke in the distance beyond the canopy of trees.

"Hyung..?" Eunhyuk turned to ask Sungmin who answered thoughtfully, "I think... It's a signal. I don't know what it's for or who made that but..."

"Should we head there?" Hyoyeon spoke and with a tinge of uncertainty, Sungmin nodded, "Yes. We won't know unless we go check it ourselves..."

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Rather short update, yeah. But I wanted to quickly update (like, an actual update) because it seemed like you guys sort of thought the Chapter 24 I had posted was an update. Haha sorry for that~ ^O^

But yeah, here it is. :) Who helped Taeyeon up? Who was the guy with the knife? What's with the smoke? Who is Yoo Jihyuk and why did the braids get Eunhyuk's attention? (this seems obvious though hahaha!) Aaand of course, Where the heck is Yesung?

I think we're getting quuuuite close to a series of revelations haha. I hope you keep subscribing~

Thanks a lot! ♥

PS: Pretty lame title for this chapter hahaha. I can't think of any. >:)