Day 34

I woke up hours later, alone with my stomach viciously grumbling. Knowing Daehyun was probably out catching fish for our supper, I hopped off the hammock, already missing his presence.

We’d been stuck to each other ever since last night when we discovered the emotions we held towards one another. But I’m not complaining. Daehyun is perfect and he is all mine.

This mysterious island boy was finally all mine.

Hopping over to the beach, I found the boy riding the waves on his surfboard as he usually did with his wooden spear, searching for an appetizing fish to stomach under the amber sunset.

I smiled at his small figure as he speared the water and caught nothing. He isn’t muscular for no reason. The older boy was taking longer than usual to catch his prey and I began to wonder if there was a problem.

Watching for a little longer, I witnessed the boy trying hard to keep his balance before completely toppling off his surfboard and splashing into the water, his spear flying out of his grip.

Moments later his head bobbed back up, only to go back under.

Squinting closely at the scene ahead, I noticed him take longer to come back up…

My feet began to press forward in worry as his head reappered and disappeared, as though he were struggling to stay above the surface. Was he trying to grab onto something below the waves?

Suddenly, Daehyun’s head bobbed back up and he thrashed towards his surfboard urgently. Before I was able to relax my shoulders, a cry tore through the peaceful sunset and I found myself running towards the shoreline, shouting after him.

“DAEHYUN!” I screamed, my eyes bulging out of their sockets.

“YOUNGJAE!” he called back, thrashing around in the water. “HELP—”

Panting heavily, I ran towards my little rescue boat parked near the shore and used all of my strength to push it  into the water.

I had no time to grab the raft, it was within the trees and it was way too heavy for me to drag on my own onto the shore in time to save Daehyun from whatever it was. Groaning with impatience, I heaved the boat off shallow water and swiftly jumped in, scrambling for the paddles.

“DAEHYUN I’M COMING” I scream, guiding the boat straight towards the spear floating atop the water.

“YOUNGJAE”

“I’M COMING” I cry desperately, rotating the rotten paddles with all my force. I didn’t care if the boat went down under, as long as I made it to Daehyun on time, that’s all that mattered.

The spear came closer and closer within my reach as I forced the boat onwards. I just about managed to grab it when Daehyun’s screaming began to die down.

His head was no longer above the water.

With my heart literally plummeting to my feet, I furiously pushed the boat towards his surfboard and reddening water.

no…it was happening again.

Flashbacks of Jaehwan’s dying body within the waves had tears ripping down my skin, gushing desperately from their ducts.

“DAEHYUN!” I shriek, dropping the paddles and scrambling for the spear.

Forcing away the surfboard, I looked down into the blue to find Daehyun’s face underwater, struggling for air as a shark was engulfing his entire left leg.

It didn’t take long until I’d made the brave decision to hurl myself into the water with the spear. Taking a deep breath, I swam down and allowed Daehyun to weakly cling onto my legs to stop himself from being dragged down.

I lift my arms over my head, both hands holding onto the spear and readied myself for the impact.

The sharks black beady eyes burned into my own as I threw my arms back down mercilessly with possibly every ounce of force I could muster.

The spear sliced straight into the shark’s head right until it came out the other end, it’s teeth immediately loosening their grip as its brain started to dysfunction.

Daehyun’s eyes roll to the back of his head, bubbles escaping his nostrils as he let out the breath he gave up holding.

The shark completely released its razor teeth around my lover’s leg and sank lifelessly towards the seabed, blooding curdling in spirals and diluting the blue with crimson.

With untainted urgency I haul Daehyun up from under the arms to the surface of the bloody water.

“Daehyun! Stay with me,” I shout, swimming us both over to the little lifeboat. “Stay with me baby,” I cry, struggling to deposit the heavier boy into the boat.

Daehyun’s leg streams with blood as I finally get him into the boat, weeping crazily. He was losing so much blood. The panic overwhelmed me as I climbed into the boat and grabbed the paddles.

“Just hold on,” I pant, rapidly paddling us back to shore. Daehyun lays at my feet, eyes slowly opening and closing as his leg flowed with blood.

“It hurts—” he croaks without moving a limb.

“Hold on baby, were almost there.”

I honestly didn’t know what I was going to do. There were absolutely no supplies on the island to aid his injuries and I feared that my panic was going to have the best of me.

When the boat jolted to a stop on the sand, I threw the paddles down and curled my arms under Daehyun before lifting him up bridal manner with much difficulty.

The blood on his legs tainted my skin and clothes as I ran as fast as I could back to my shelter, careful not to bump his injuries into any trees or bushes on the way. I placed him on the sand and ripped the shirt off my back to tie around his legs.

My eyes welled with more tears as I looked at the horrifying rupture of his calve. He was losing a dangerous amount of blood and I had nothing but a shirt to stop the bleeding.

“This might hurt baby,” I breathe, inching closer towards the injury. My stomach swarmed with guilt as I wrapped the shirt around the major wounds and tugged a painfully hard knot around them to secure the bleeding.

Daehyun bellowed from the pain, throwing a hand over his stomach, which moved up and down swiftly from his breathlessness.

“Youngjae…” he whimpered, his hands grasping around to find mine once I'd finished tying the last knot. I crawled over to him and gripped him hard, my tears falling to his drenched shirt.

“It…hurts…”

I brought his head onto my lap and held his hands up to my chest, nodding sorrowfully at his cloudy eyes. “I know baby,” I trembled, “I know.”

I began shivering like crazy, rocking him back and forth as he suffered from the pain. The inevitable was going to happen, and the two of us knew that. Daehyun lay there, his chest rising and falling slowly as he learned to bare with the pain.

This was going to be it, I thought. There was no way Daehyun was going to survive without professional medical care and there is none of that on this damned island.

Breaking into a fit of tears, I clutched Daehyun closer to me and placed hard kisses onto his hands to get him to calm down. I looked at the shirt around his leg and cried harder when I noticed the blood seeping through.

“You’ll hold on, right?” I whisper between the tears, “You’ll come back home with me, wont you?”

Daehyun stares up at me with bloodshot eyes, his lips cracked and colourless unlike how they were this morning. Pink and blooming.

“You’ll make it…” I shook, placing more kisses against his fingers. “I’m not going anywhere without you baby.”

Daehyun swallowed, his Adams apple bobbing from the dryness in his throat. I couldn’t imagine how much pain he was suffering.

My chest just ached from the sight and the incredulous thoughts swarming my head were becoming insufferable. How could something like this happen the day before we were going to go back home together?

He was my only hope to reunite with my family and start a new life after clearing up the incident with Jaehwan.

He knew the way back.

It dawned upon me that I might have to…board that raft myself, just like I boarded that lifeboat myself. 

Either I take the risk or live alone on this island with our memories haunting my existence.

I couldn’t be the survivor again, I thought.

I’d rather go out on that raft and die than stay here like a coward for my own safety because it’d be the second time I survived and lost the ones I loved. 

Looking down at Daehyun, I shuddered from the sickly pale of his skin. His face was drained from blood and his skin was turning cold. “Please stay with me,” I whispered, pecking Daehyun’s chapped lips.

Why me…

“I’m not leaving this island without you, Daehyun. Please stay with me…”

Why me…

Heart thumping in my chest and a cold sweat trickling down my spine, I removed myself from Daehyun’s body and headed in the direction of the raft. I gave one more look over at his pale body on the sand before continuing towards the raft he and I had built together. 

Why me...

Gripping onto the wood with my small hands, I dragged it over towards the beach until it was at a reasonable distance from the water. Then I headed back to Daehyun.

The heavy truth caused more tears to fall from my eyes as I lifted Daehyun and carried him to the beach. I rested him comfortably against the sand and ran to find the flints he used to spark up a fire.

I used them to set the raft alight.

“I’m not going anywhere without you.” I sob, holding Daehyun’s fragile form within my arms as we watched the raft blaze into the night. Daehyun said nothing as he blinked slowly at his efforts slowly being burned away. 

It didn’t take long until I fell asleep drenched in my own tears, clinging tightly onto the dying Island boy. 

~*~