As the first rays of the sun shined, I woke up. Taemin, to my right, seemed to have been sweating profusely and was frowning and panting. I shook him awake, and he immediately shot up, his eyes showing panic and fear. 

Slowly, he came to himself, and suddenly he burst out crying. I comforted him as I could, whispering "Everything's going to be alright"s and "It's okay"s, cradling him as I could. 

After he calmed down, we settled to depart. With the electronic compass, and the motor filled with fuel, we set off. The shore slowly grew distant, until it was a line on the horizon. 

The day was painfully slow. Thankfully, the waves were calm and the ocean behaved well. Checking every once in a while, I concluded that we would be arriving near midnight to the Tsushima Islands. 

As night fell, Taemin suddenly poked me. 

"Noona, night is dangerous?" he asked. I frowned at the unfamiliar term, and decided to disregard it for now. I looked at the now blackened sea. It did bring chills down my spine, after all, Mother nature was always unpredictable. 

"Yeah... But we can't go back now, can we?" 

Taemin frowned but kept quiet. I sighed, gosh, I at comforting people. 

"Taemin, come here," I nodded next to me. I had to keep my eyes on the compass and the waves so we wouldn't tip over or go the wrong way, "it's alright, look, there's not much wind and the waves are manageable. We're going to be alright, okay?" 

He nodded, and I smiled briefly at him, "Look, we have to organize everything, get the backpacks," he did as told, "we're going to be arriving at the islands soon, and I don't know how heavy the coast guard is, alright?" 

Taemin frowned, and I guessed he didn't understand, "We could be attacked at shore, so we've got to be careful." He 'oh'ed before nodding quickly and setting the backpacks aside. 

"What do we do?" 

"Well, depending on the security they've put up, we're going to swim or not," suddenly, Taemin struck a panicked face, and I pursed my lips, "Don't tell me you don't know how to swim," 

He shook his head, "I know, but not good," he said. I sighed, "Does that mean you can't take the backpack with you?" I asked. 

He took the backpack on his hand and weighed it out. He looked at me apologetically and shook his head. I settled with rufflying his messy brown hair, "Don't worry, I'll carry it, but you've got to get to shore quickly and quietly, alright?" He nodded and I was satisfied with that. 

Taemin took care of our meal right after that, preparing a cracker sandwhich of sorts. We ate quietly as I kept navigating. I could make out a blacker bump in the horizon, and quickly told Taemin to get ready. 

Huh, I think we got lucky, I don't see any signs of security nearby, I thought. I didn't let my guard down, however, and as we approached the island I figured out that we would be able to land our boat. I quickly told Taemin of the change of plans and he nodded along. 

Caught off-guard, however, a wave took us by surprise. I saw Taemin who was holding onto his backpack give me a panicked look. I dived towards him and my backpack, and held both against me. We fell into the water, under the boat. I quickly strapped my backpack and took ahold of Taemin's, and grabbed the young man's hand. We quickly made our way back to the surface. 

"You alright?" I said nearly out of breath. 

"Neh," he answered, and I mentally scoffed. I hoped that meant yes, so I continued, "Follow me, don't take off your hand," I said. 

I gripped his hand harder, and we slowly started swimming. I cursed at the fact that I didn't get a chance to take the compass from the boat, or the fuel, but kept at our task. Thankfully, we were close enough to the shore that by the time we got there, we were just exhausted. I dropped the backpacks and threw myself onto the sand. Holy crap, that was close, I thought. Taemin sat next to me, panting as well. As I gained back my breath, I sat up. 

"Listen, we've got to find a place to hide and sleep in, in case someone's in the island. Can you carry your backpack?" Taemin nodded wordlessly, and I noticed that his pale complexion shined against the moon's light. 

"Okay, let's go into these woods, and we'll figure something out, okay? Follow me," I said as I got up, took the heavy sack, and walked towards the daunting forest.

We woke up on the sandy floor under a couple of trees. Taemin had his arms tightened around my waist, and I quickly pried them off, careful not to wake him up. I sighed and ran my hand through my hair, Yuck, I need a bath.

I got up and went around our 'camp site', checking for intruders -- or natives, since we were the intruders -- or any type of enemy. Satisfied that there was no threat, I came back. I checked on Taemin, and wondered about the shore we'd arrived on. I jogged towards it, and noticed that our boat had arrived, although it was upside-down and about to collapse. 

"Shoot," I said, knowing that if anyone saw it, they would know that someone from Korea had arrived. I checked the floating device, just to make sure that it really wouldn't work, and sighed dejectedly. 

Oh well, at least we survived the trip, I thought bitterly. 

I headed back to the camp to see a startled Taemin. When he saw me, he ran towards me and hugged me, repeating something over and over. I awkwardly patted his back and pushed him off after a while. He pinked, and went towards our backpacks. 

"What are we doing?" he asked. 

"Well, our boat came ashore but we can't use it, it's broken," Taemin's shoulders slumped, "but we'll follow the shore and try to get to the southern part of the Island," he furrowed his eyebrows, so I sighed and rephrased, "We're going South, or down, of the Island," the young man nodded.