Day 25

As the week went by, the swelling of the sting began to lessen and my fever gradually faded away with the help of the island boy.

He constantly aided to the wound, fed me well and kept me warm as the storm progress outside of our small shelter.

I hadn’t potentially walked out of the cave on my own two feet yet because there were risks of slipping or losing my balance.

After several days of incessant rainfall, it finally stopped.

The dark grey clouds that loomed over the small island dispersed, leaving behind saturated sands and greater sea levels, much to Daehyun’s distaste.

Our long lost source of light finally made an appearance, casting her tenacious beams of light over the hued surfaces of the tropical island and blanketing us beneath her much needed warmth.

The first thing I did when I woke up was scan the cave to find Daehyun.

My sight was groggy and my head was spinning because somehow I managed to sleep in an awkward foetal position all night, curled up against a section of shimmering wet stone.

The fire we lit had burned out and most of the wood had turned into ashes flitting the cave by the warm blows of wind. I looked over towards my ankle and sighed, contented by the sight of gradual progress.

From an inflaming dark blue, the swelling had formed into a tender pale red with the small blister in the middle. I straightened my shirt appropriately around my body before crawling towards the edge of the cave, where the fall crashed and collided against the thick boulders and eroded a deeper plunge.

Just as I brought my legs over the edge, the island boy appeared with a batch of bruised bananas and a net full of catch. He sent me a knowing smile and raised the products suggestively, making me exhale and push myself back into the cave.

“You weren’t planning to sneak off, were you?” he asked, scraping his two flints together. His muscles contracted and screamed absolute perfection as his tank exposed them up to his well-defined acromion’s.

I shook my head and began to peel a banana, my attitude stale from being in the cave for so long.

Daehyun seemed to notice and he gently nudged my elbow.

“You can take a walk once you’ve finished eating” he said, sending me a soft smile.

I nodded and took a bite of the fruit, still a bit surprised from his concern.

For an entire 5 days, Daehyun catered to me no matter what I had asked for. Even if I requested for a mere stone to carve the walls with out of boredom, the boy was up and out, insistent on keeping me satisfied for as long as I had to recover.

The sting wasn’t that major. If he let me, I would’ve been capable enough to help him catch but he constantly refused, using my stupid fever and the weather as an excuse to make himself do all the work. It made me feel quite convicted and inutile with a tinge of selfishness.

I didn’t so much like the feeling of being spoon-fed. It was new to me since I always went about things independently back home.

After consuming my morning share of nutrition, I stood up and began to make my way towards the opening with a hand exploring the sharp ridges of the cave wall. I glided my fingers along the slimy surface until I reached the deafening crash of the fall, foaming the base.

“Will you be okay?” called the island boy, still eating his breakfast.

I glanced over my shoulder and nodded anxiously, gripping harder onto the stone in case I slipped. I felt his stare burn through the back of my head as I made steady moves down the steep slope of rocks.

“C-Careful…” I heard him say, his voice unsteady. In a swift movement, I hopped down onto a flatter surface and was able to climb my way through the rocks without being plummeted by the fall.

Crouching down, I reached my foot out and then brought my other foot to join it and in no time I was on the flat land, digging my toes between the grains of sand.

I wondered around aimlessly, tapping leaves of their dewdrops and hopping away from the insects washed up on the open land. Suddenly, I gained an idea and immediately set off in the direction of Daehyun’s shelter.

Maybe I could put it back up for him?

As I approached my destination, I found the shelter in an annihilated arrangement with the palms torn and the bamboos broken in half.

Daehyun’s hammock lay beneath the wreckage and the ground that was meant to be surrounded in golden sand had been coated under a layer of broken branches, dead insects and strewn plants.

The storm obstructed his small habitat and caused a sever derangement of his shelter.

I sighed and scratched my head, thinking of where to start.

Kneeling down, I began to gather the torn palm leaves into a pile so that I could remove them and replace them with new ones that hadn’t been damaged.

Then I began to also remove the bamboo sticks and leave behind the ones which were still firm. After binding the undamaged ones together and digging them deep below the earth, I sauntered off to collect the new stack of leaves.

I returned with loads, including extra bamboo and began tying them up to re-create Daehyun’s shelter. It wasn’t easy, but I somehow managed to get the hang of it as I got onto my tiptoes to make the bindings. It was fiddly at first, the bamboos would bend and the leaves wouldn’t stay up, causing me to loose some of my patience.

Eventually, a couple of hours went by with no sign of Daehyun and I had successfully managed to make a small perimeter of standing bamboo sticks.

As I added the last few leaves overhead and around the edges, I heard the sound of rustling bushes and twigs being snapped nearby.

I spun around to find Daehyun and Sandy approaching me and my work. His eyes grew wide and his lips parted ever so slightly as he stared in awe at my effort.

“Youngjae…why did you—”

 “It’s not done yet…” I mumbled, making my way over to the hammock I left on the side.

“You…you didn’t have to, I mean, you shouldn’t have.” He said, his voice quiet.

“Why not? You’ve been pampering me ever since I got here so I thought I’d do you a favour.”

I dragged one end of the hammock and began fastening it to the shelter as Daehyun slowly calculated my doing. Subsiding the mess of the sand, Daehyun sent a beaming smile my way and instantly picked up the other end to tie it up with me.

“Thank you, Youngjae. But if the storm returns then I apologise on behalf of all the effort you put into this…”

“It’s nothing, really…I just didn’t like feeling so…useless.”

“I’ve never said you were.” he retorted.

“I know but you’ve done a lot and I just wanted to do something in return. Is that so bad?”

The boy hesitated before shaking his head and wearing a smile. “Shall we go check on yours?” he asked, after making the last knot. I nodded and followed him off towards my ruins that were further west.

~*~

After replacing and remaking my shelter, Daehyun pushed his moistened bangs away from his forehead and sighed, satisfied with the outcome. Sandy weaved her way in between my ankles and looked up at me with her tongue lolling out of excitedly.

“Looks like we should go grab ourselves something to eat.” I suggested, bending down to the back of the dogs ears. Daehyun agreed and began heading towards the beach.

I tailed behind with the female dog and watched him jog over towards my boat.

“Youngjae! Come and look at this—” he said, peering over the edge of the boat.

I was surprised it hadn’t been taken out by the sea even after that ruthless storm. I peered over Daehyun’s shoulder and gasped at the small sea creatures trapped inside. Some which I’ve never seen before. 

A starfish lay on one of the benches, absoring the puddle of water around it whilst little crab and fish swam along the base of the boat. Daehyun plucked the seaweed off the starfish and carefully picked it up before placing it against his palm.

“Hey there Patrick…” he whispered in all seriousness, “want me to put you back in the ocean?”

I giggled at his reference to a cartoon and watched him as he ran a gentle finger along the starfish’s bright pink back.

“Wanna touch it?”

Daehyun ed the creature beneath my nose and watched me expectantly. I hesitantly brushed a finger over its squishy contours and shivered from the foreign feel. Daehyun understood my nervousness and swiftly went back to it on his own. “Come on big guy, let’s send you back home to Bikini Bottom.”

He padded down towards the shore and I eagerly went back to peeking inside of the boat. We were going to have to lift this thing together to pour them back in the ocean.

And that was exactly what we did once he returned. Daehyun and I carried the boat and carelessly let it topple over once we were at a reasonable depth of the sea, freeing the creatures inside.

“Youngjae?”

“Hm?” I perked up from my daydream and looked up at Daehyun who seemed to never loose his smile since I made his shelter. He bit his bottom lip and shook his head, as though he forgotten what he was about to say.

“…It’s nothing.” 

~*~