You woke up the next morning feeling sore and lethargic. You didn’t get much sleep at all due to all the sounds of the jungle. It was amazingly noisy at night with all the hoots and growls and insects chirping. You wondered to yourself if you’d ever get a decent night sleep during your stay here. It had only been two days since you arrived at EXO Island and you were already home sick.

You missed the feel of your soft bed and your squishy polka dot pillow. You missed your baby girl, Lightning—your 3 year old pet cockatoo. You wondered how she was and if your parents were remembering to feed her and fill up her water bowl every day.

You also missed your shower.

 

And your shampoo.

 

You sat up in your bed and scratched your greasy head of hair and cringed at how gross it felt. You stood up and stretched before exiting your teepee, squinting your eyes at the bright sun.

As you stumbled out of your teepee, you bumped into someone causing both you and the other person to let out an ‘oof’ sound. You looked up—it was Kai.

Flashbacks from last night rushed through your mind. Kai’s rude behaviour, the odd scared look on his face when he held you, Suho’s reminder to Kai of some order that Elder Soo had supposedly given him. 

You were still pissed with the way Kai spoke to you, but you wanted to know more about what was said last night, more about this island, more about why everyone was calling you ‘angel’. You wanted to know what orders Elder Soo had given out to everyone.

Kai wasn’t happy that he bumped into you but you thought that if you pretended to be nice to him, the jerk might warm up to you and reveal a thing or two.

 “Good morning, Kai!” You gave him your best fake smile, “Did you sleep well last night?”

Kai grimaced before he turned around to walk away.

“Didn’t I tell you to leave me alone?” He mumbled and he stormed off in a huff.

Nope. Can’t pretend to be nice to that even if I tried.

“Fine! Jerk!” You yelled at his back as you balled your fist.

You felt a light tap on your shoulder and spun around angrily.

“WHAT?!”

D.O. jumped backwards, raising his hands above his face, as if he was expecting you to punch him.

“I’msorryIjustwantedtoknowifyouwantedtocomewithmetomygardenbutifyoudon’twanttothatsokay!”

You mentally kicked yourself for exploding like that and pulled D.O.’s hands down from his face, your face softened in the process.

“Sorry D.O. didn’t mean to snap at you.” He looked at you warily before his shoulders relaxed and he straightened his posture. You quickly forgot about being angry at Kai as D.O.’s warm smile lifted your mood. The smiling boy looked down to his wrists where you still held on to them and he blushed. You instantly let go seeing his reaction.

I guess with such lack of girls around here, these boys aren’t really used to skin ship with female friends.

“What was that you said about a garden?”

D.O. snapped out of his shy state and became slightly flustered.

“Oh! Well you see, I have this herb and vegetable garden,” D.O. scratched the back of his head nervously, “and I was wondering if you’d like to come see it with me?—but if gardens aren’t really your thing and you think they’re lame and don’t think seeing it will be fun, then that’s okay, really! Like, I think they’re kinda lame too and like…I mean…I like them, but I admit they’re not cool and it’s kinda girly. Oh my goodness, it was silly of me to ask, I’ll just go by myself, you probably have other stuff to do anyway and—“

You pinched D.O.’s lips closed with your fingertips, his eyes going cross-eyed as he stared at your hand silencing him. He was acting like a little high school boy trying to ask someone out on a date.

“D.O. You’re rambling. Shut up.” You let go of his lips and the boy flushed a light shade of pink. You smiled at him. “Gardens are not lame. Where’d you get the idea that I’d think that? I’d love to see your garden!”

D.O. clasped his hands together excitedly and his whole face twinkled like all the stars in the universe put together, times ten.

“Really?! You like gardens?” D.O. grabbed your hand and skipped forward, swinging your arms between you. “You’re my most favourite Angel ever!”

You laughed at him incredulously raising your eyebrow as you were dragged through trees.

“Oh please. I’m the only ‘angel’ you know so your comment is invalid.”

“A comment on you being the best is never invalid.“

 

 

Jogging behind a skipping D.O. wasn’t an easy task. The boy was so good at dodging all the tree branches and roots that were peeking out from the ground. He never slipped on any rock nor did he trip on any logs or fallen vines.

You on the other hand did all the above and more. Good thing D.O. had hold of your hand or else you would’ve ended up with a lot more injuries than you already had.

“D.O. are we there yet?” You asked impatiently. You had gotten quite puffed out and hoped you weren’t too far away from your destination.

D.O. looked back at you and realised that you were breathing slightly harder than normal and noticed you had a strained look on your face. He stopped skipping and slowed down to a walk, an apologetic look on his face.

“Almost there, Angel! Just a little further!”

You nodded your head, thankful that D.O. slowed down for you.

“Hey D.O.? Is D.O. your real name?”

The doe eyed boy chuckled and shook his head.

“No, D.O. is just a nickname everyone calls me. My real name is Kyungsoo.”

“Kyungsoo…that’s a really cute name.” D.O looked away blinking a few times as he felt his face grow red. No body’s called him Kyungsoo since he was 5 years old, so hearing you say his real name for the first time sent shivers up his spine. You made it sound like the most beautiful name in the world. “If your name is Kyungsoo, why does everyone call you D.O.?”

D.O. blushed a second time at your use of his real name again but then soon looked deep in thought for a few seconds before speaking again.

“Well, it’s kinda because of Kai.”

Because of Kai? What has that jerk got to do with this?

“He…well…I…it’s a long story and it’s really not my place to say anything to be honest, Angel.” D.O. looked like he wanted to tell you something but was holding back for some reason. You thought out of all of EXO-K, D.O. and Sehun would be the easiest to crack when it came to finding out information. But Sehun couldn’t talk, so it made cracking him difficult.

Maybe I can poke and prod D.O. and get him to spill some beans about a few things.

“Oh c’mon D.O. it’s just me. I’m the Angel remember? So it’s okay!” You tried to hide the discomfort and sarcasm in your voice when you referred to yourself as an ‘angel’.  

You felt D.O.’s hands start to get clammy and he stuttered when he spoke.

“I-I…I d-don’t know…he might get angry…” D.O. looked at you, his face silently pleading for you to drop it. “I really—“

“Please D.O.?”

“Angel, I—“

You put on the cutest voice you could muster and snuggled up slightly to D.O.’s arm, batting your eyelashes at him.

“Kyungsoo-yah~!” D.O.’s eyes became as wide as an owl’s, his face turning a bright crimson. You were actually worried his head would explode from blood overload.

Yes! I think I’ve got him!

 “I-I-I-I—“

“Kyungsoo—“

“—OKAY! I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you!” D.O. let go of your hand and covered his tomato red face. “Just…stop saying my real name!” D.O. knew that if you said his name one more time he’d end up spilling absolutely everything to you and end up getting killed by Suho.

Either that or his heart would stop beating.

D.O. let out a defeated sigh before removing his hands from his face and letting them hang by his sides. You couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed when he didn’t return to holding your hand. You hoped that if you slipped or tripped on something now, he’d be quick enough to save you.

“I got this nickname the day I became friends with Kai. We were 5 years old and I had just lost my mum. My dad had died the year before in combat so I was left all alone without a family.”

“Your dad…died in combat?”

D.O. looked up to the sky and pursed his lips together, his eyes growing sad.

“Yeah. He was an EXO-K warrior too back then.” D.O. shook his head as if shaking away sad thoughts that had appeared in his mind. “Anyway, I was being bullied by the local kids because I was an orphan. They bullied me all the time and I used to see Kai at a distance watching in fear. He always looked like he wanted to help, but he never did.”

You scoffed and rolled your eyes.

“Heh. Sounds like that jerk alright—“

“—but then one day he did.” D.O. interrupted you. “The kids were getting a bit violent with me and Kai came up and saved me."

D.O.’s face lit up warmly recalling the memory. You waited for him to continue but he was too caught up in his own thoughts. You cleared your throat.

“So like, that really doesn’t explain how you got your nickname.”

“Oh right.” You noticed a change in his face, it was no longer recalling good memories. It looked more like he was contemplating on whether he should continue or not. He sighed and nodded—you knew he’d decided that it was okay to tell you.

 “That was the day I realized that Kai wasn’t all that dangerous after all. If the rumours about him were completely true, I wouldn’t have been saved by him that day.”

You let his words sink in for a minute but you still had no idea what the hell he was talking about.

“What rumours?”

D.O. stopped walking and turned to look at you, his face serious with a slight fear behind his eyes.

“You have to promise me that you won’t tell him that I told you coz he’s my best friend and I feel like I’m betraying him by telling you.”

You stuck your pinkie finger out.

“Promise!”

D.O. just stared at your finger, not knowing what this meant. He looked at you confused.

“It’s a sign of making a promise. It’s called a pinkie promise. Once you make a pinkie promise, you can’t break it.”

D.O. looked at your pinkie with amazement and broke into a small smile. He stuck his pinkie out too, but instead of locking it with yours he just touched the top of his pinkie to the top of yours.

“Pinkie promise with Angel!”

You curled over with giggles, slapping your knee at how cute he was. D.O. just stared at you confused as to why you were laughing, but he didn’t care all that much because your giggles were like music to his ears. His lips couldn’t help but curve upwards.

You both stared to walk again before he continued.

“Kai’s cursed.” D.O. said in a gruff voice. You blinked and looked at the boy incredulously.

“Cursed?!” You let out a puff of air. “Yeah, right. Curses don’t exist. Like I’m going to believe that, c’mon D.O. be serious.”

D.O. remained silent. The only sounds that could be heard were the crunching under your feet, the trees dancing with each other in the slight breeze and the occasional chirp of a bird. You looked at D.O.’s face and saw that it was as still as stone.

“You don’t believe in curses?” D.O. looked down at you for the first time. You’d never seen him look at you like that before—like you were the one who was talking nonsense. “You have a lot to learn of our world, Angel. Curses exist. Curses beyond just Kai.”

You shuddered at the dismayed look D.O. was giving you, making you a little uncomfortable. You thought the idea of a curse was silly, but you did want to find out more about the island, so you nodded your head and accepted his theory of a curse existing.

“So what’s the curse?” You asked.

“He’s bad luck.”

You stopped walking.

“…that’s it?”

“What’s it?”

“He’s bad luck? That’s it?”

“You don’t underst—“

“Here I was thinking he turned into, like, some kind of monster or some . Like some kind of hulk or maybe he had super powers or something scary like that. So what if he’s bad luck, what’s so scary about that? Okay, so if he’s on the same team as you in a game of basketball or something, you’d lose or get hit in the head with the ball but—“

D.O. placed a finger on top of your lips to silent you. Your face flushed realizing that you were rambling.

“It’s not like that. Anyone that has ever gotten close to Kai is dead now.”

Another silence fell upon the two of you. The wind blowing through your hair was the only movement that came from you. Suho’s words from last night echoed through your mind.

”He’s not…the best person to be around. He only causes trouble for those around him…”

D.O. continued with a grim look on his face, his hands playing with each other nervously.

“His mum died at birth. His dad died a few years later in an accident.  The people that took Kai in after that died in a fire. Kai was the only survivor of that house hold.”

D.O. grabbed your hand again and pulled you along, forcing you to continue walking. Your gaze was set dead in front of you as you took this information in, your face unmoving. You wanted to ask D.O. more questions, but your lips didn’t want to move.

“Ever since then, anyone else that got close to Kai fell unlucky. It started off as small things, like tripping or dropping things. Gradually the luck got worse and people start to get injured.”

“If that’s the case, why is Kai a warrior? Why does Elder Soo allow him to be in charge of looking after the tribe? It doesn’t make sense…” You started to play with your hair with your free hand, your other hand still holding D.O.’s.

“Elder Soo doesn’t want to believe the rumours are true. He wants to believe that everything that happened with Kai in the past was just coincidence.” The tone in D.O.’s voice scrutinising. “But I know that he’s just as scared of Kai as everyone else in this tribe is—Hey! We’re here!”

D.O.’s voice instantly changed to a much happier one. His eyes crinkled and his lips turned upwards, his teeth gleaming through. He dragged you forward towards the small garden patch. It was well organised from size to colour. The darker herbs on one side gradating to the lighter ones on the other side. The ones with flowers separated from the ones without. D.O. really thought hard about the placement of all these herbs.

“This is just my herb garden. My veggie patch is just beyond those bushes over there.” D.O. scratched the back of his head and looked down at his herb garden.

“It looks great, D.O.! You’ve really kept these plants in good health!” You didn’t really know that for sure because you didn’t know the first thing about plants. But you felt like he was waiting for a comment so you thought you’d give him a compliment and hoped what you said was acceptable.

It was.

You saw D.O. trying to conceal his happiness but he failed, bursting out into a big derpy smile. He waddled happily up to a plant with white flowers. You recognized it as the same plant that he used on your leg the day before.

“If you ever need some healing, feel free to pick as much of this plant as you need!”

You squatted next to him and brushed your finger along the pretty white flowers.

“Thanks Kyungsoo…” D.O.’s face went bright red again at the use of his real name and you giggled at him. He bashfully hit your arm in return causing you to laugh even more at how adorable he was. You suddenly realized something.

“Hey D.O., before you told me that story of Kai having a curse.”

“..yeah?”

“What did any of that have to do with why people call you D.O.?”

D.O. laughed and slapped his forehead, realizing he had gone on a bit of a tangent with that conversation.

“Oh! Sorry! I did have a point to that story! Since Kai was a baby he somehow got the nickname of Kai. Not sure how or why. Everyone just called him Kai except the ones closest to him. And since everyone that called him by his real name died, people were scared of using his real name.”

You still did not see where this was going or why he was bringing up Kai again, but you let him talk.

“After Kai saved me from the bullies I tried to befriend him but he wouldn’t let me because I’m guessing he didn’t want me to die. One day he was being bullied because the kids thought his nick name was weird and told him he was a bad luck loser with a loser nickname and no friends.”

D.O. started to get a bit animated and put on a little show of how he approached this situation. He even put on a 5 year old voice, imitating himself.

“So I walked up to those big bullies and was like, ‘He’s not a friendless loser! I’m his friend! And I also have a nickname! Nicknames are cool!’ And they were all like ‘oh yeah? Well what’s your nick name, loser?’ And that’s when I had to come up with a nick name because I didn’t really have one. So I just made up D.O. And that’s how it stuck. Now everyone calls me D.O.”

You pursed your lips and your cheeks puffed out slightly trying to contain your laughter—but you failed. You doubled over unable to retain yourself as D.O. wondered why you found that so funny.

“Are you serious?! After that huge story about you and Kai and his curse, in the end all you have to say about your nickname is ‘I made it up’?! You know you could’ve cut that whole story short by just saying something like ‘Kai had a nickname so I made one up too’?”

D.O.’s lips formed an ‘oh’ shape as he realized that he could’ve saved a lot of time and could’ve kept that story to himself. He laughed nervously at how stupid he must look.

“You may be right but it’s too late now I guess. And don’t forget you pinkie promised!”

You eventually stopped laughing and ruffled the boys hair. He smiled at you and went back to his garden to pick some herbs. You sat there silently and watched him do his thing. He looked so happy picking and pruning at his garden. You decided to break the silence with more of your nosey-ness.  

“Aren’t you scared?”

He tied the herbs that he picked together with a long blade of grass and held it out to you like a guy giving a girl a bouquet of flowers. You accepted the herbs and smiled.

“Scared of what?” He asked as he pulled you to your feet.

“Being best friends with Kai.” You shuffled your feet and you watched guilt grow on his face. He hesitated a bit before answering you.

“Honestly, yes, a little bit.” He dusted his knees where some dry leaves were stuck. “But I’m not going to leave him for it. He’s lonely here with everyone avoiding him and treating him like a virus. I know what it’s like to be lonely. He may come off as cold but he’s actually a nice guy when given the chance.”

You tried to imagine Kai being nice. You imagined him smiling and giving you a bouquet of herbs. You shivered involuntarily. That image was just awkward. He’ll always be a rude jerk to you no matter what D.O. said.

Your thoughts were interrupted by D.O. as he jumped and pushed you to the side with a scream, the impact of the push somehow knocking D.O.’s knife out of his belt.

“S-s-s-snaaaake!” D.O. stuttered out pointing to a huge brown python. Your blood ran cold as you took in its size. It was roughly about 10 feet long and really, really thick. That thing could easily swallow a cow whole. You felt tears stinging your eyes.

“K-k-kill it!” You glanced at D.O. to see he also had tears in his eyes, his face as pale as a ghost. You saw his eyes dart to where his knife had fallen down.

“Angel. Run when I tell you to okay?” His eyes darted to the knife again.

“D-D-D.O. what are you going to—“

“—RUN!” D.O. grabbed the knife and the snake struck at him but he managed to dodge and somehow ended up on its back holding its head down by the neck. He lifted the knife and was about to bring it down on the snakes neck when it thrashed beneath him, sending him and the knife flying.

The snake started to wrap itself around D.O.’s little body and you started to bawl your eyes out, unsure what to do.

“D.O.!” You yelled in panic. He struggled against the snake but it had a very firm grip on his legs and he could feel the tightness rising up to his torso.

“G-g-go! Get out of h-here!”

Everything in your body was urging you to listen to him and run. But you couldn’t leave him here to die. You ran forward towards the snake that was busy trying to crush D.O. and you picked up the knife. Without hesitation you let out a loud cry and stabbed at its neck, instantly severing its spinal cord—killing the beast.

Your hands shook, a bead of sweat rolled down your face. D.O. wriggled out from the dead snakes’ grip and ran up to you cupping your face.

“A-are you okay Angel? Are you hurt?” You just stared at him blankly as he looked you up and down to make sure you weren’t in any pain. “Angel?”

 “I-I…I” You were in so much shock you couldn’t properly form words. D.O. smiled at you proudly and your hair.

“You did well Angel, you did well.” He turned around and cut off the snakes head completely, just in case. He put the knife back in his belt and threw the large snake around his shoulders. You were surprized someone of his size had enough strength to carry that thing.

“You just got us dinner, Angel!” D.O. beamed at you and your face went pale once again. He walked ahead of you and you slowly followed. “We got to get you a belt as well as your own weapon. Obviously it’s dangerous out here and you need something to protect yourself with. Once we get back I’ll get someone to take you to the weapons shack.”

You heard what he said and you nodded slowly. But all you could think of was the fact that you killed a snake and was going to eat it tonight.

I’m a savage.

 

---

 

A/N: Am I spelling "teepee" wrong? I looked it up on google and it says both "teepee" and "tipi" are correct. Which version do you prefer? Should I just leave it as "teepee" or should I change it to "tipi"? (I feel silly asking this question LOL) 

Thanks for reading once again! I apologise for the amount of talking in this chapter, hopfully you didn't get bored and 'X' out of my story haha ^^;; 

Don't forget to comment and subscribe (if you haven't already) I appreciate it so much! :) Saranghae~! <3