Day 3

The next morning I woke up with a scare. Just as I was bringing my left foot out of the boat, I found those footprints in the sand right beside it. I shrieked and tripped backwards, landing on my back against the opposite edge of the boat and causing it to flip over with me caught underneath.

I wriggled my way out, scratching my precious nails into the sand and filling them with tiny irritant grains.

I stared at the larger footprints for a moment. Whoever they belonged to, had come and stood right beside me last night, possibly observing my boat-buddy and I.

They were aware of my presence.

I scratched my head and dwelled on a particular thought. Despite my intrusion, they have done and shown absolutely no form of harm. They even crept over here like a mouse as though they were trying to be careful and to prevent me from waking me up.

Calculations done, I figured that there might not be a tribe after all…and that it was just another normal human being living here all on their own.

But why?

I rolled onto my back and kicked the boat until it was sitting up right again, then I began to venture towards the opposite end of the beach where I had witnessed the fire.

Surely enough, once I got there I found a pile of branches tangled within a neat circle of rocks.

The wood was burned out and fresh ash skittered along the sand, swooping in circular motions before completely disappearing.

Those same large footprints tainted the sand and lead back into the forest which seemed to be desperately calling my name.

I looked back at my boat, and then back the camomile bushes and Bismarck trees. Do I dare?

Hesitantly, I took my very first step towards the forest. Then a second step. And then a third, until I was gradually getting closer and closer. Would they know how to talk?

Would they be wearing a leaf around their s?

There was only one way to find out. I chewed my bottom lip before striding deeper into the forest; looking left, right, up and down in search of the mysterious island dude.

I could tell it was only one of them, since the footprints at my boat were identical to the ones at the shelter. I peered over a huge fan palm and rolled my eyes to the left, and then to the right. The coast was clear.

Whoever this guy was did a good damn job at keeping himself concealed, apart from his footprints, which were the biggest giveaway. A few moments later, I flinched from a loud ripping noise coming from ahead.

I gathered my guts and began to sprint through the trees towards the noise, adamant on finally discovering whom this stranger was.

I wasn’t going to be scared anymore. I, Yoo Youngjae, will become a man and come face to face with whoever the hell this dude is, even if they aren’t wearing a decent amount of clothes.

I finally stopped running when I reached my destination. Beyond a sweet Allamanda bush, there was a large open space with tall bamboo sticks occupying the centre. 

Like the previous shelter, it had huge palm leaves tied up around them, forming a leafy green canopy surrounding another woven hammock. The shelter rustled for a moment before it went still.

A pair of feet appeared under the palm leaves, going on their tiptoes before landing flat again. I leaned closer over the bush and blinked curiously, watching as the perfect pair of feet wearing shell anklets moved from one end, to the other.

Whoever those feet belonged to, must definitely have a beautiful pair of hands. Although they were big, they were perfect. They sure had a nice set of toes on them. And they were tanned.

This could pass as foot .

I chewed my lip a bit harder as the feet began moving back towards the end closer to where I had been gawking. Then my eyes widened when the palm leaves parted, revealing a gorgeously sun-kissed male stepping out of them wearing a loose vest-top and shorts above his knees.

His golden-brown hair was dishevelled, but in the most iest way possible and without a doubt, I had drool slithering down the corners of my mouth.

The boy…or the man…whatever the hell he was went onto his tiptoes again and continued to tighten the bindings the bamboo sticks had on the palm leaves, oblivious to my presence.

My verdict of him owning a pair of beautiful hands had been proven as I witnessed his slender long fingers curl around the strings and tug at them.

His tanned arms flexed each time he fastened the strings and his leg muscles bulged each time he went onto his tiptoes.

Without even realising it, I was leaning my weight onto the poor Allamanda bush until a fat branch snapped, possibly awakening the entire forest. I quickly dipped my head behind the bush and began creeping away when I suddenly heard his voice. He had a voice!

“Hey Sandy, what you got there?”

I let out a shaky breath and peered over my shoulder to witness the boy kneeling down to ruffle a…dog?  Instead of gargling to myself about how soft and fluent his voice sounded to my ears and praising the fact that he didn’t notice me, I constantly questioned the dog’s appearance.

The dog panted with its tongue loitering out of its mouth and its tail wagging happily behind its back. I had spent a whole day on this island without hearing a dog bark…but this stranger appears to be petting one right before my eyes.

I crept away, still baffled before making my way back towards the beach. This man was too beautiful to come face-to-face with.

My plans of becoming a man were soiled.

It’s impossible because either a) I’ll become all twitchy and pee myself when trying to express some form of a sentence or b) I’ll make a complete fool out of myself and I wasn’t planning on doing either of those. I pursed my lips together when I realised that I’d just witnessed him building another shelter.

Could he have been making that for me?

Impossible, he doesn’t even know me so why on earth would he possibly want to put his effort into building me my very own shelter? It seemed too absurd. I’ll just burn out here in the sun until I shrivel up like a raisin.

I climbed the bushes and ended up tripping over a big, ripe coconut. My eyes glimmered with hunger as I lunged at the coconut and began bashing it against the closest tree that had came into my sight.

The coconut cracked and I quickly lifted it up and opened my mouth to allow the nectar to pour into my mouth. As soon as I had finished drinking down all the sweet coconut milk, I began to break it apart so that I could munch on its white flesh.

The time was currently 11AM, so I literally had a whole day of doing absolutely nothing. One of my options was to take a nap and help the day go by quicker, but my other option was to socialize with the mysterious island boy.

The first option seemed more pleasant since I could not socialize to save my own life, which was why I only ever had 1 friend throughout all my years in high school and pre-school.

Lee Jaehwan.

I almost forgot. I picked a white lily from its bush and caressed its singular petal, feeling that same surge of remorse enter my blood. Then I knew of a way to use my time.

As I travelled back towards the beach, I collected an arm full of camomile’s, plumeria’s, lilies, and ipomoeas. All were white because I was about to do my very own personal memorial service for Jaehwan, since I happen to be the only one aware of his death.

I stayed a reasonable distance away from the water, but not too far before laying the flowers down against the sand and taking a seat behind them.

“Jaehwan…son of both Mr and Mrs Lee…ended his days at sea on August the 21^st.” I started, keeping my gaze locked on the beautiful bunch of flowers. A twist happened on the inside of my chest as I began to remember more and more details of the harmless boy. “He was…a son, a brother and a best friend.”

Another twist.

“He always did his best to keep those around him happy…he always put a smile on your face because his own was so contagious. He always seemed to be smiling…which is what I loved most about him.”

A deep breath, and another twist.

“It’s going to be hard for the many of us to smile…now that he has left this world.”

I plucked the stalk off one of the flowers and stood up before making my way over towards the water. My feet splashed into the shallowness until I went in deeper and deeper. The water was now up to my hips when I decided to look down at the perfect ipomoea cupped within my palms.

I gently lowered it down until it had been swept away by the blue waves and taken away from me. I was a crying mess all over again, with tears streaking down my face as I watched that ipomoea dedicated to my best friend float away.

“You were the greatest friend I’ve ever had…and I will always love you.” I sobbed, watching the flower disappear within the waves. I sniffled and began to walk away with a heavy heart.

If there were a lesson I’d learned while being out here, it would be that there are very few of us that can be counted as the lucky ones. 

~*~