20 REMAINING

"Hyung, how are you feeling?" A loud yet mellow voice echoed through the forest. It was Jinkyu (X-2), who was exploring with his two allies. "I should ask you instead, Jinkyu, I mean with your head and such..." this voice was much weaker, and it came from the heavily injured Youngdoo (X-4). He was feeling a lot better now his wounds have been treated, but it was still very painful. The boy tried his best to hide it, so Doha (W-7) and Jinkyu didn't have to worry too much. "But really, Doo, are you feeling alright?" Doha asked again, wrapping an arm around the other's shoulder and looking at him closely. "Yeah I'm really fine! Maybe still a bit weak, but I'm so glad to be with you two..." The white boy smiled warmly while first looking at his best friend, then the other. "You must feel like a third wheel now, Jinkyu!" Youngdoo grinned at the taller while leaning onto him too. "Of course I feel like a third wheel!" the sky boy laughed happily, "But you two were always so close so I'm glad you're happy." The two white boys chuckled, what Jinkyu said was very true. They had always been together. "Well, let's hope we can all stay together for a long time..." Doha sighed, looking down at his feet. Both of his friends agreed, patting the boy on the back comfortingly. "I wonder though..." Jinkyu muttered while looking up at the trees. It was slowly getting lighter and soon it would be day again, time to move to the main island, "Who's still left? Will we be able to make it in time or will we all... die?" At the thought, Youngdoo shivered. "Well..." Doha started his reasoning, "We know for sure that Changmin is dead, but we don't know anything about the others, Hocheol, San or Seonghwan..." Both of the other boys nodded and Jinkyu had to add something to that, "At least we know that Hocheol is a threat. We didn't hear anything about the other two, we don't know if they are killing or not..." "Well, at least one of them has to be still alive, or both if they managed to catch Hocheol, because otherwise we would be ready to go to the main island and they didn't announce anything yet..." Doha perfectly knew how the game worked, and he felt proud, and also kind of statisfied that only one or even none of them have died. But it was also making him feel really concerned. What if nothing happened, and they would all just die? Doha sighed and made the decision, "Guys... If at 5 am our group isn't complete yet... I'm going to kill myself so you guys still have a chance..." Youngdoo and Jinkyu both gasped, while the white boy started nodding understandingly, the younger was firmly shaking his head. "I would rather die together than see you go on your own!" the sky boy complained, "What if no one of them died yet? Then we would still all die and then your sacrifice would be for nothing!" Youngdoo shook his head and smiled, "If they are all still alive... I'm going to follow Doha's example. In fact, I should go first, because I don't even have a chance of survival anyway! If you guys didn't find me I would've bled out already-" While reasoning, Youngdoo suddenly tripped over a tree branch, and landed pretty hard. "Youngdoo!" Doha exclaimed, immediately picking up the other again. "Hyung! Hyung! Are you okay?" Jinkyu helped the other to pick up Youngdoo and put him on his feet again, but even though the fall wasn't much, it was a lot for the heavily injured boy. "It hurts a lot- Why even... This isn't right-" the boy groaned while heavily leaning onto his two friends. The youngest looked down to check if something was wrong with his hyung's legs, because he seemed to be unable to move much, nothing. Then he checked on the back of Youngdoo's legs, but he spotted something that was way worse. "H-H-Hyung..." the boy stuttered while becoming white as a dead body, pointing a trembling finger at Youngdoo's back. Doha immediately looked, and his jaw dropped. "O-Oh dear god... This i-is not good!" both of the boys were really afraid, while the groaning oldest was just confused at what was so bad. "Y-Youngdoo-hyung..." Jinkyu was honestly afraid to say it, and looked at his friend.

"Y-Your back... Is bleeding again-"

"It's even worse than before!" Doha furrowed his brows heavily while studying the big stain of dark red. "Why didn't we notice earlier, Jinkyu?" The younger shook his head, "Because it was very hard to notice, because of the old stain of blood, but now we can clearly see the change of colors, and the stain growing in size... We really need to do something quickly!" The boy was already rummaging in his backpack, trying to find his first-aid box. "You don't need to, guys..." Youngdoo chuckled weakly, "Just leave me to die... I'm really getting weaker each second... And I told you I wanted to go in case it was needed..." The boy sighed and let go of the others' grips, walking to the nearest tree and sitting down against it, the immense pain of reopening injuries visible on his face. "No! I don't allow that!" Jinkyu yelled in despair as tears welled up in his eyes. He had to see the other almost go already, and he didn't want to let him go, never. Doha on the other hand... He snatched the first-aid box out of the younger's hands and sighed, looking down. "I think... we should let him... We're not getting him to come with us anyway, Youngdoo's really stubborn..." he chuckled, but it wasn't sincere, it was forced and broken. "I would do the same... If I were him..." the leader smiled weakly