Taeyang kicked a rock with his hands buried in his pockets, accidentally spraying sand over Wooyoung's legs. “Heh, sorry.” he grinned awkwardly, not really feeling that sorry though. It was strange, for normally he was a decent enough person to genuinely feel sorry when he was supposed to, and sometimes even when he wasn't supposed to, but tonight he felt nothing. Perhaps this island was slowly succeeding at the life force out of him, leaving him too tired both mentally and physically to care about anything at all.

Seunghyun's life was hanging in the balance, and there was nothing he could do about it. Not one thing. Except pray. And prayed he had, constantly through the entire day, fervently, to the point that he had started losing faith, both in himself and in God. Maybe there was no higher power. Maybe they were just 19 lost souls on a desert island, left to fight the gruesome powers of Nature, alone and abandoned, with the odds cruelly stacked against them, like a huge impenetrable brick wall that was impossible to climb. The thought shook him to the core, scaring him beyond belief. He tried to push it away, to focus on the present and what needed to be done right now, in this exact moment in time. Everything else was white noise. Pointless, irritating and would eventually drive you crazy.

So in the now he would stay, desperately clinging to the passing second, but being forced to let go of it all too soon. He needed to find a place to sleep, a simple enough task in a complicated situation, but it wasn't that simple. His eyes darted to the place where G-Dragon lay with closed eyes, cuddling up to Seungri like he was an overgrown teddy bear. Poor G-Dragon. He knew he felt responsible for all of them, stretching himself as far as he would go and then stretching even further in an attempt to create a miracle. For that was what was needed, a miracle. He had to be beyond exhausted. Taeyang wanted to offer him strength, but he was fresh out. Besides, he didn't feel like squeezing in between them, forcefully creating a place for himself where he no longer belonged. He knew that if he asked to be included, he would be, but for some reason he despised the idea. He would rather sleep alone, for that was what they all were at the end of the day, each and every one of them, alone. You were born alone, and you died alone. And the in between only consisted of kicking the water like crazy, hoping you wouldn't drown. Not today. But he was tired of kicking, he couldn't even feel his legs anymore. He was starting to doubt the point of it all.

With a dark cloud hanging over his head, he walked along the line of paired up boys, some already asleep, wondering where he should rest his tired out rag that once was his body. His eyes kept going back to Wooyoung. Not because he felt bad for sprinkling a few sand grains over his otherwise flawless lady killer legs, but because he was jealous of what he had. He hated to admit it, but that was what he was, jealous. Wooyoung had a spot with his name on it, a warm place that he could call his own, somewhere he could rest his head and feel slightly less lonely. He fit so perfectly into Taecyeon's embrace, like they had been created for each other. It wasn't that it was Taecyeon, it was just that he had someone. And so did everyone else, everyone but him.

Junho rushed past him in a fuss, bumping his shoulder against the side of his arm, heading for Taecyeon and Wooyoung. Mildly surprised, he followed the path of destruction back to its origin. Minjun was standing a little ways off, looking a bit out of place. He walked towards him, feeling the shyness welling up inside him. He tried to push it down, but it was intent on taking control over him. He and Minjun weren't what you would call strangers, that was a long way off, since Minjun and G-Dragon had been good friends for a long time, but they weren't exactly close either. He had always been G-Dragon's friend, so he had never really felt comfortable being left alone with him. He preferred having G-Dragon to remove the pins and needles, assuming the role of mediator.

“Uhm.. are.. are you flying solo too?” he stammered, his face heating up, gradually turning into the surface of the sun.

“Eh, yeah, I guess I am...” Minjun said absentmindedly, his eyes were following Junho's back as the distance between them grew greater.

Changmin was fuming. Yunho had left him alone the entire day after putting him in an impossible position. How could he have put him in charge when he knew he had a hard time doing stuff like communicating with a big group of people, let alone organizing and leading them. He felt wronged, cheated. But more than Yunho, he was angry at himself. He had wanted to rise to the occasion, he had wanted to become the man Yunho expected him to be, needed him to be, but he had failed. They had barely managed to build what could only be called a hovel, or it wasn't even worthy of being called a hovel. He got mad at himself just thinking about it. He kicked a rock, intending to take his frustrations out on it, but the rock fought back. He clenched his teeth as the pain crawled up his leg. He had forgotten for a moment that he had lost his shoe. 'Why Changmin, why?!', he reprimanded himself angrily. He just had to kick it with his shoeless foot. Why did he keep making stupid mistakes like that? He bent down to rub it, but that only made it worse. His foot had blisters all over, there was not one inch of skin that was not sore. He swallowed as he suppressed the pain.

Out of nowhere, a hand ruffled his hair so harshly that it actually pulled out a few hairs. He knew exactly who the owner of the hand was, and he was not going to give in to him. He straightened up, giving him a proper death stare, though it faltered for a split second when their eyes met. He always forgot just how overpoweringly beautiful Yunho's eyes were. So perfectly shaped and full of energy. He could see Yunho was about to say something. Afraid that his words would melt his anger, he spoke first.

“You just left me! All day!” he growled, his voice failing him, shaking like a leaf in a thunderstorm.

Yunho sighed tiredly, his eyes turning soft. His hand found the back of Changmin's neck, rubbing it softly. It felt so good, all the stress that had apparently taken residence there seemed to quietly fly away. No. This changed nothing. He couldn't just make up for everything with the wave of his hand. Even if it was a very skilled wave that felt amazingly good. Not this time. He shook himself loose, firmly pushing his hand away.

“Okay, I got the message, I'll find someone else to sleep with tonight.” Yunho said in a kind voice, starting to walk away. Changmin's gut squirmed at the thought. He didn't know which was worse, Yunho spending the night with someone else, or him having to snuggle up to any of the other guys for the night. He shivered at the thought. Awkward. So, so awkward. Without thinking, his hand shot out and grabbed Yunho's wrist before it was too late.

“Did you see how pale he was?” Yoseob whispered almost inaudibly.

“And while he was fighting for his life, we were...” his guilty voice trailed off. Doojoon hugged him tighter, weaving his arms around him, curling him into a little ball in his arms.

“Do you think he'll survive the night? Will any of us survive?” he added in a thin voice shaken by worry.

“This kind of thinking is not going to do you or anyone any good. If you let these horrible things that have happened to us take over, and get so blue and hopeless that you can barely move, is that going to help anyone? It's the precious few good things that we have left that we have to hold on to with everything we've got.” Doojoon paused for a second to let the words sink in and then continued.

“I believe that our love is what is going to get us through this. If we hadn't... I mean, we found the material that was needed to finish the hut, and before that, the construction was going so badly that there was not much we could have done to help anyway, so would it have changed anything if we had skipped those wonderful fifteen minutes of heaven, just to arrive a tiny bit sooner to join the chaos? Instead we were energized enough to find the branches that were needed and to help finish the hut.” he explained.

“We've got to hold on tight to our sanity, it's so easy to misplace it out here. Once lost, it will never return. We've got to keep the hope alive, and give each other strength, only then are we going to get through this in one piece.” Doojoon assured him in a hushed tone, talking to himself as much as Yoseob.

“I love you, munchkin.” he added, softly kissing his cheek as he closed his eyes. A couple of 'what ifs' were circling around in his head, but he refused to entertain them for even one second. Yoseob was safe in his arms right now, and that was all that mattered.

“Promise me you'll never ever do something as reckless as today.” Nichkhun demanded in a low voice, softly Chansung's back.

“But... if it's important..” Chansung feebly objected.

“Don't you get it, you are important. You.” he insisted, urgency coloring his voice. It was everything Chansung had longed to hear and more. He knew Nichkhun meant it just as friends, but nevertheless it was knowing that he had a place in Nichkhun's heart that was the key part. That was enough for him, he convinced himself.

“But how do you know you're being reckless? You just do it, and then afterwards you realize it was reckless.” Chansung thought out loud.

“Just promise me, pabo-ya.” Nichkhun chuckled, his patience stretching thin, but still he seemed to be in good spirits.

“I don't want to promise something that I'll accidentally end up breaking.” Chansung started explaining, but got distracted by a weird, irregular sound nearby. He strained his ears to hear what it was, not sure if it was an animal or a person.

“Are you okay?” he asked the darkness, pretty sure it was the sound of someone hyperventilating. There was no answer, instead there was a commotion and the noise of someone scuffling away.

“Junhyung!” a scared voice cut through the night air.