A/N: Happy birthday to my precious boy, Lee Taeyong. Here's another chapter. I think the next one may be the last. <3

Part 20.

Jaehyun got over the shock of the pain in his jaw when he saw Ten on top of Taeyong, choking the other so hard that Taeyong was barely breathing. Jaehyun got up and pushed Ten off of Taeyong. “Ten stop it!” He screamed and jumped on Ten who attacked once again. Taeyong coughed and heaved in shaky breaths, his throat closing and not letting much air in. “He’s wounded! What are you doing?!”

  “Johnny!” Ten cried and pointed at the dagger. “Where is Johnny?!” 

Jaehyun held Ten down with both hands, the other in the ground, sand in his hair. Jaehyun stared at the dagger too and he frowned. He crawled forwards, cradling Taeyong in his arms again but this time with hesitating hands. “Taeyong where is Johnny?” He asked and Taeyong looked at him with cloudy eyes. 

  “Cliff.” He said in reply and Ten roared but Jaehyun was quick and he latched out before Ten could. Ten got struck right across the face and he fell back down into sand face down. Jaehyun turned to Taeyong again, gripping his face to keep their eyes connected.

  “Tell me what happened, Taeyong.”

Jaehyun looked at Ten and Taeyong. Taeyong had been treated the bleeding wasn’t too heavy anymore. Ten avoided Jaehyun’s eye. “I’m gonna take the keys to Johnny and we’ll be back before dark.” 

Taeyong nodded before closing his eyes. Ten sniffled, but kept his gaze fixed elsewhere. 

  “Please don’t kill each other while I’m gone.” He pleaded and then he ran into the jungle. Leaving Ten and Taeyong behind on the beach. 

There was a long silence before Taeyong inhaled shakily. “I know I can’t possibly apologize,” Taeyong started, voice rough as he was in so much pain. Ten kept staring at the waves rolling in. “I analyzed the situation wrong. I thought you were turning into Benjamin…

  I made a choice, a choice that proved to me wasn’t the right choice. There is no forgiveness to ask for, just… know that I regret my actions and I will do everything I can to make up for it.”

Ten didn’t reply and Taeyong inhaled shakily, tears swimming in his eyes. “I’m so sorry.” He breathed. 

Ten hugged his own body and turned away. None of them spoke more than that.

Jaehyun pulled himself up the hill and found his way to the cliff that let him gaze upon the propeller plane. He smiled, he couldn’t help himself; the muscles in his cheeks tightened and forced him to bare his teeth before he let out a gleeful laugh. Johnny looked out the door and he was about to mimic the expression on Jaehyun’s face that showed pure ecstasy when he realized it was Jaehyun. 

  “Wait where is Taeyong?” He asked and Jaehyun’s mind replayed the scene on the beach. Ten on top of Taeyong, his broken fingers curling out Taeyong’s throat and pressing. He had hit Ten, and he had held a bleeding and defenseless Taeyong in his arms. He felt sick to his stomach and the smile fell off his face. Instead he found his way past the gap by walking the narrow path on the cliff. He jumped to safety and handed Johnny the keys. 

  “Something happened to him,” Jaehyun started as he dropped to his knees to see Johnny put the keys on the engine. Johnny stopped his actions at Jaehyun’s words and he turned to look at Jaehyun. 

  “What?” He asked and Jaehyun grimaced. 

  “The keys were on Nicolas?” Jaehyun repeated Taeyong’s words and Johnny’s eyes widened. “He fell down and accidentally landed on the dagger.” Jaehyun could see that these words made sense to Johnny, but they made no sense to him. “Who is Nicolas?”

  “The owner of this plane,” Johnny explained quickly. “Is he okay?” He asked worriedly and Jaehyun was happy that at least Johnny didn’t hate Taeyong the way Ten proved to do.

  “Not really, blade missed any important stuff, also didn’t hit any arteries so I think he’ll be okay. He can’t climb anymore, though. Got his shoulder.” Jaehyun explained and patted the spot on his own body where Taeyong had been stabbed. 

Johnny hissed through gritted teeth. “Auch, well Ten can watch over him.” He said and Jaehyun looked like Johnny had just told a very offensive joke. Johnny who was so eager to turn on the engine looked back around because he caught a glimpse of Jaehyun’s expression. “What happened?” He said in a demanding voice. He looked like he was ready to go to the beach and leave the plane behind. 

Jaehyun shook his head. “Nothing terrible, I’ll tell you on the way down. Let’s get this radio on, shall we?”

Johnny looked like he’d rather hold onto the conversation, but instead he exhaled quickly to prepare himself before he turned the keys. Jaehyun gripped the windowsill of the door and both of them jumped when the motor released a loud roar, coming back to life. 

  “It’s working!” Johnny yelled above the noise and Jaehyun covered his ears but he was laughing too. Jaehyun crawled inside the plane where the noise wasn’t as loud. Johnny started playing with the radio, trying to get contact with anything. Suddenly amongst the static they heard a voice come through.

  “Just make sure you land behind the yellow lights, you’re good. Take another turn around and you should be low enough, Peter.” 

Johnny and Jaehyun screamed and Johnny grabbed the mic that had fallen to the floor and pressed the button on the side. “Hello?” He almost yelled. “Hello, can you hear us?” Jaehyun squeezed himself forward.

  “We need help! Please find us!” 

The situation was thrilling; the air was static because of the hopeful tension in the air and the excitement bouncing off the boys. So close. They were so close.

  “Wait a moment, Peter, we have someone on the line.” 

  “It’s an emergency!” Johnny quickly said. 

  “Please confirm your identity, who am I speaking with?” 

 Jaehyun got so close he could almost speak into the mic. “My name is Johnny Suh, I travelled with six other people out on a boat and a storm hit us and now we’re stranded on an island.” 

  “Oh wow… Hello Johnny, this is Nate you’re speaking with, do you have any idea of where you are?” 

  “Our boat should have a gps in it, we sent out an emergency call when we realized the storm was too bad.” Johnny said and then gave them the information on the boat and which harbor they left from. Jaehyun almost didn’t breathe, the moment was too important. “The island has a mountain on it, enough jungle to have a wide range of wild-life, I think we’re near the Caribbean Sea. Actually, we have no idea.” Johnny then cried and the man on the other line gave some comforting words.

  “Calm down, Johnny, we’re tracking the signal right now, can you tell us how you’re contacting us?”

  “On a plane, it’s on one of the cliffs of the island.”

   “Sir,” another voice said. “We got the location, let’s confirm their pickup.” 

  “Okay, listen Johnny,” another voice cut in between his sentence and Johnny and Jaehyun waited with wide yes, listening intently. “There’s storm coming your way, but we can send out a helicopter that will arrive tomorrow, can you make sure to be on this cliff when we arrive?” 

  “Yes, sir!” Johnny and Jaehyun shouted. “We have two wounded but we’ll do our best.”

  “How many are you?” 

  “Four, sir.” Johnny replied as Jaehyun and him had done a little celebration but then they turned quiet. 

  “Didn’t you say you were six?” 

  “Not all of us made it.” Johnny could only say and then he shared a gaze with Jaehyun. They’ve made it. They were going home.

Johnny and Jaehyun were in such a hurry they forgot the previous conversation and as the sun was setting low on the sky they were running down the beach towards the camp. Ten turned to face them and Taeyong woke up at them shouting. 

  “WE’RE GOING HOME!” Jaehyun shouted in glee and Ten’s eyes widened when Johnny dropped down to pull Ten into a hug. He created a short enough distance to look into Ten’s eyes. 

  “We’re gonna be picked up tomorrow, Ten.” He said in a soft voice and Ten reached up to cup Johnny’s face. Tears welled up in his eyes and Johnny nodded when Ten’s eyebrows formed a confused frown. “Yes, Ten.” He said without needing Ten to voice his doubts. “Home.” He said and Ten sobbed, leaning in to press a kiss to Johnny’s lips and Johnny kissed the other back. 

Taeyong overheard their conversation and he looked up at Jaehyun. “Home?” He asked and Jaehyun grinned through his tears. 

  “A helicopter will pick us up at the cliff tomorrow, we have tomorrow to climb the mountain, but we can do it.” Taeyong smiled when he heard Jaehyun explain and Jaehyun leaned down to peck Taeyong’s lips. “I love you.” He said and Taeyong kissed Jaehyun back. 

  “I love you so much.” He replied.

Ten and Johnny fell asleep in each other’s arms, same did Jaehyun and Taeyong. Ten hadn’t spoken to Taeyong but they had shared a look that Jaehyun found himself analyzing before going to sleep. Was it forgiveness or a mutual agreement to suppress the hatred until they were back home? Jaehyun couldn’t help but feel his heart ache when he tried to put together what could’ve happened to them. Ten had fallen from a cliff, Ten hated Taeyong enough to blame him for something that could’ve happened to Johnny. Jaehyun frowned and then felt Taeyong turn his head and bury his head in Jaehyun’s neck, the other’s breath tickling his bare collarbones and he hugged the smaller closer as the wind had grown cold and harsh. The shelter they had put up creaked under the cruel wind and rain fell against the leaves they had added to it to keep them dry. He looked up and saw that the flames still held on to the wood, the cliff sheltered it from being hit by rain and the wind blew the smoke away from them. Johnny and Ten lied against the wall of the cliff, Ten hidden behind Johnny’s bigger form and Jaehyun tried to focus on all the good things that had happened. How Johnny and Ten had gone from arguing and denying any form for closeness to them holding onto each other for dear life. He still remembered asking Johnny if he liked Ten and Johnny had denied it so hard. Jaehyun knew one day he’ll tease them with it, but right now, he just wanted to be on that helicopter, just sitting with a seatbelt around his chest and Taeyong’s hand in his. He wanted to go home and he wanted to see the other’s faces lit up by florescent lights. He wanted to eat a burger from Shake Shack and listen to music again. Jaehyun was about to fall asleep when he heard Ten’s small voice speak.

  “Johnny, you awake?” 

Johnny hummed in reply and Jaehyun heard the sound of a peck and guessed it was Johnny kissing Ten’s forehead. 

  “I… I love you.” Jaehyun barely heard it, but he felt his heart bleed because Ten’s voice was just above a whisperer and the words carried so much emotion and fear. 

  “And I love you.” Johnny said in reply, Jaehyun could feel the love in Johnny’s voice and he never expected to hear that in the always sarcastic Johnny Suh. “So much, Chittaphon.” 

Ten chuckled and sniffled, “I told you to call me Ten.” 

Johnny released a warm chuckle. “I love you, Ten.” 

Jaehyun heard them kiss and he moved his hand to caress the back of Taeyong’s head, running his fingers through the other’s hair. They could make it out alive. Right? All of them would get to the helicopter. One day they will all be best friends again.