“Ladies and gentlemen, the Fasten Seat Belt sign has been turned off, and you may now move around the cabin. However we recommend you to keep your seat belt fastened while you’re seated,”

You heard the announcement being sounded and you put your headset on, not wanting to start another conversation with Kate because you know she'd be asking for your permission again. Curious at what she’s doing, you take a peek at her. It turns out that she's still looking at that Chanyol.

“That's it,” you think, “I am gonna blindfold her and drag her to our first hotel as soon as we landed!” You promised to yourself. With the melody of your favorite K-artist, you dozed off to your sleep... 

 

***

 

Something's wrong. The plane is shaking.

You open your eyes. A thunder growls.

Bright. Then dark.

The plane shakes against the turbulence and you can hear the seats’ shriek through your headset with every move.

Another flash of bright light.

Thunder.

No.

Thunderstorm.

 

The plane is going through a thunderstorm! You quickly took off your headset and shook Kate's shoulder beside you, sleeping while facing that EXO member. “Katee!! Wake upp!! What's happening??” you asked, panic.

“uh, what..? Oppa, don't wake me up like this...~” she is still half asleep. 

“Pshh,” you knew she's a huge sleeper, but this is getting in your nerves. "YAAA!!! KATHERINE WAKE UUPP!! Something's wrong with the plane!!" you shout to her ears 

“Whaatt??? Hmpphh, I was having a real nice dream!!” Kate answered, still wanting to go back to her sleep. “It's just Sehun, Suho, and Chen playing around.. We'll pass this area soon,” she said, shifting her body to find a comfortable position to sleep again.

 

Before you can protest, the plane was shaken by another clash of thunder, another bright light.

 

Something is dead wrong with this last thunder.

So loud ,so close..

 

The plane shakes again. This time, followed by a huge “BOOOMM!!”

The explosion sounded so close, you think it was just by your side. Not believing your ears, you turn your eyes to look at the window.

The plane's wing is on fire.

The engine is on fire.

Bright red and yellow blaze against your eyes.

You screamed your lungs out and turns your body to hug Kate. The other passenger, now all are awake thanks to the last thunder, starts panicking with you. 

You and your friend can do nothing but stare while hugging each other and screaming each other's names.  

The plane is losing its altitude. The pilot's request to stay calm was impossible to follow. Screams and shouts everywhere. People were calling for their loved ones. Afraid of looking out to see what's happening, you just shut your eyes closed, hands still around Kate's shoulder, both or you holding in the urge to scream to each other's ears. The two of you bend down to your knees, while one hand were still hugging each other. Tears started flowing from your eyes as the plane loses control completely.

“It's alrightt. Don't cry…” a hand patted your head softly. You open your eyes to see your friends face, giving you a comforting smile. “Babo. How can she smile at times like this.. How can she be so calm?”

“I lived well,” she said. “Whether we survive this or not, I have no regrets.”

You look at Kate, her eyes shifting from the fire to Chanyeol.

“I guess fire is what you get from getting close with Chanyeol. Oh, the irony…” she said. At that time, you didn’t understand what she was taking about. Your eyes followed to where her gaze is fixed and found Chanyeol on his seat, hands stretched to the top of the seat in front of him, head sunk between his arms.  Universal safety procedure position. You can't see his face, but you can see his whole body so tense. Beside him, an Ahjussi much smaller than him, have one of his hands fixed on the hand rest, the other on his chest, his head and back pressed against the seat, lips muttering something, probably his family members’ names. Wife? Kids? Parents? Maybe all of them.. 

Your own mind travels to your loved ones too. Your parents, your  older sister, your boyfriend. Speaking of which you left him in not a very good term... How much you wish to say the words 'thank you' 'I'm sorry' and 'I love you' to them.. How you wish to hug each and every one of them.

 

But at least you're here with your best friend. “At least the both of us together”, you think. You looked at her. Kate is a bit shorter than you, but she is definitely prettier and more cheerful than you. She is smiling, but you can tell that she also wants to cry so badly. She's a strong girl, and she knows you need her smiling and not crying with you. 

You say a silent prayer for your own life and for everyone that flashes in your head. 

The plane's decline seems never ending.  Only a few seconds passed but it felt like minutes...

The sky, the sea and the land dark between the clouds, you have no idea when a crash is going to happen. All you see is red and orange, blazing against your eyes, with of dark grey smoke, dancing like the tail of the flame.  

 

“Kate?” you called her. “Thank you for being my best friend…”

“Yeah. Thank you to you too…”

 

And that was the last words she said. Why? Because the plane crashes to trees and woods, and soon enough, to the ground. The plane loses control.  You lose your grip on your friend as the plane shook so hard. Every part of your body seemed to be thrown in a million of directions. Bags and luggages started falling out. Crashing against trees and earth, the plane's body gave up. As it started tearing up, bits of metals and glass were thrown to the passenger. The last thing you remember before you hit your head to the plane's body was hearing a crack sound beside you, a small and soft sound, but it gave you the creepiest feeling. 

 

 

***

 

 

“야!! 일어나!! 일어나!!”

 

 A distant voice is calling for you. Felt like your consciousness is being pulled without you wanting to. 

Something, no, someone is calling for you.. 

 

"야아!! 난 너 아직 살아있어 알아! 일어나!" 

 

The voice seemed clearer.

 

Pain.

That's all you can feel..

Hurts.. You felt like the weight of the plane is planted on your head.. 

You try to open your eyes but it was too bright. 

“Ngh.. What?” You close your eyes and pull your right hand up to your head.  

“오!!! 야!! 빨리 일어나!! 괜찮아??” 

You heard someone talking in front of you as you try to open your eyes again. At first everything was still blurry, you can make out an outline of a human in front of you. You pull your hands from your head and bring it in front of your eyes. As your eyes start to focus, you can see blood stains on your hands. Your head was bleeding, at least you think it is really your blood there.

“야! 너, 괜찮아? 들리나요?” said someone in front of you.

You put your hands down too look at him. 

Park Chanyeol, the name flashes in your head. His face a feet in front of you, waving his hands in front of your face, trying to grab your attention. 

“괜찮아요?” he asked again.

As your mind started to regain all consciousness, you remembered that the plane you're on was falling down. 

You instantly remembered your friend, and that disturbing sound of a breaking bone. You turn to her, finding her head leaning in an angle too big to normal person. A broken neck? Her head was also bleeding, her hands and legs bleeds from glass pieces that blasted earlier. You grab her head, “KATE!! Wake up!! WAKE UPP!!” You shake her head, and then her shoulders.

 

Oh no. Something's wrong.

 

You put your fingers in front of her nose. She's not breathing. With trembling fingers, you put your index and middle finger together and reach for her neck, where her vein is supposed to be found. Your fingers stayed for a few second, trying to control your trembling hands and trying to feel any pulse from her veins.

 

Nothing, you don't feel anything.

 

My fingers must've been wrong. You reach for her heart, your palm against her chest.

No. Nothing.

You broke down to tears, you shake her shoulders again

“NO!!! KATEE!!! NOO! PLEASEE DON'T DIE ON ME! KATHERINE ANGELICA!!! WAKE UUPP!!!”

 

You unbuckle your seatbelt and hers, pushing Chanyeol out of your way to pick up Kate’s lifeless body and lays her flat on the plane’s hallway. You kneel down and put your palms together, right above left, and position it in her chest. A cardio-pulmonary resuscitation is all you can think of.

“1, 2, 3, … …” you started pumping her heart with all your strength. “…, 30!” you bent down and gave her a good volume of breath through . You notice something again when you extend her neck, something wrong; you can hear some crepitus from the back of her neck and her neck movement is off the normal axis.

She must’ve broken her neck. You know it’s no use, she has probably been dead for quite some time, but you can’t stop yourself.

“KATE!! DON’T DIE ON ME! COME ON KATE!” you shouted as you start another cycle of pumps. “… 30!” you bent back down and have more air to her lungs. You kept on repeating your CPR cycle. Again and again, 30 pumps, then two breaths.

You’re crying, you’re sweating so much, your arm is losing its strength, and your palm started bruising. You can’t even control your breath anymore. “COME ON, KATE! COME BACK!! COME ON!! COME ON!!” you’re desperate.

When your arm can’t keep straight to pump anymore, you started punching her body, “I can’t lose you like this Kate! Come on… please… come back…” you don’t even have the strength to shout anymore, you just cry under your breath. You felt a hand stopping you from giving Kate your fourth punch on her chest. You tried to break free but the grip is too strong.

“LET..!! GO!!!” you jerk your hand but without any succeed of freeing your wrists. You’re out of strength, and crying makes it worse for you. You can’t focus on anything. With your left hand, you can only gave weak punches on her chest, before exhaustion finally took every bit of your strength and you crash your head to her body, the grip on your wrists loosen as you cry yourself against her torso.

“Uhhhuhu… Kate.. Don't leave me.. Kate.. Why...” you cried your heart out on her body, hugging her.

A hand reaches for your shoulder. “친구에 잃으니 얼마나 슬프시겠어요,” the sound said.

You didn't respond, you just want Kate back.

His hand is there on your shoulder, putting a comforting pressure against you. 

 

 

After a few minutes crying, your cry started to calm down to a few sobs. His hand is still on your shoulder, comforting you.

As your brain started thinking logically again, you let go of Kate and turn to Chanyeol, the one stopping you from wounding Kate’s body. “Thank you,” you said.

“천만에요,” He said in a sympathetic tone. “안타깝네요..”

“Thanks,” you answered. You position Kate’s hands one above another, put her head facing the ceiling, and tidy her messed up hair. When she finally looked like she's just asleep, you caress her head one last time and said, “rest well, Kate. May you be happy out there…”

After giving her your last respect, you stand up to see your surroundings.

 

You then realize that you too have scars on your arms and legs, but not so severe. Chanyeol straighten himself up and stands beside you.  You look around to see every other person and the plane. 

The sight was traumatic indeed.

The plane was torn in 2, but the lower part of the plane still sticks to one another. The front half, where you sat, small fire was still burning on the edges of the torn body.  You look around, seeing the other passenger. Most of them were in an unnatural position, with severe wounds or bleeding, some still have their eyes open, looking somewhere distant or just unfocused, signs of a sudden death. The combination of those made quite a horrific sight.

You gather your bravery and started reaching for the people around you, searching for another passenger that might be alive. Chanyeol knows what you wanted to do. “모두가 죽었다,” he said. Not knowing what he said, you checked a few more people, but again and again, you find no pulse on their blood vessels.

"야,이것이 쓸모없다, 모든 사람들이 우리를 제외하고 죽었다. 내가 확인" he said. You don't understand what he said, but from his intonation you know that he's telling you he's sure everyone's dead. You started to tear up again, but Chanyeol pulled your hands and made you face him. “누군가가 우리를 찾을거야, 다음, 우리가 살아남을 수있을 때까지” he said. "we live, they find we" he said in slow, unsure English with Korean accents. You understand what he means, that someone will find you and until they do, you two have to survive. 

You look at him and nod to sign that you understands. Only then you realize that he have a huge bleeding open scar about 7cm on his upper left arm, right in the middle. His white hoodie's sleeve ripped and now covered with streaks of brown red marks. As soon as he realize where your eyes are looking at, he put his right arm up to cover his wound.

“괜찮아요..." he assures you, although you can now see his right hand is trembling over the wound, and his left arm is still dripping blood. You look back to where he was seating before the crash. A piece of metal from the plane's body popped out just where his arms were. “He must've pulled himself out of the stabbing metal,” you think. You look back to him, and see him smiling widely like an idiot. “How can he smile so bright? That must've hurt so much!!”

“An-gwaenchanayo!” you said. Your medical knowledge took over. You reach for his sleeve and ripped it so you can get a clear view of his wound. As you pull his sleeve away, you examine his wound. “A metal, huh? The wound doesn't look dirty, but infection can still happen. I have to open the wound, clean it up before closing it again,” you planned. 

 

You search for something that can help you reduce the bleeding first. “My scarf!” you think. You search for your backpack, and found it on the floor 2 seats behind where you sat. You quickly open your backpack and search for your favorite scarf. Your scarf is black, with white flowery twirls along the length of it. The scarf itself is about a meter long and only about 15cm wide. You got back to him and hesitate for a moment before ripping your favorite scarf in half. You then signal him to sit down on the hallway (because he's too tall for you to treat while standing up) and you tie a knot on his upper arms, above his wound, with one of the part. Not too loose, not too tight, just enough to reduce the bleeding. “Right,” you think. “Now, water…” You search your bag again, remembering that you brought a bottle of drinking water with you.

“이름이 뭐예요(ireumi mwoyeyo)?,” he asked. “your.. name?”

“I’m (Y/N)” you answered as you open the cap, and position the bottle above his wound with your right hand.

"(Y/N)-씨, 확실합니까? 우리가 나중에 마실 물이 필요하지 않을까요??," he quickly stops your hands midway, his tone showed concern.

You didn’t understand him, but you said, “Ya! Trust me, I'm a medical student!” as you shake his hands off you.

"It's gonna hurt, but this is necessary, so bear with it.." you said as you use your left hands to hold his hands, just in case he jerks his arm because of the pain. 

 

“아아아아(Aaaaa)! 아파(apa)(it hurtss)!!” he said then he bit his lips to hold back his pain as you pour the water.

When you’re sure that it’s clean, you wipe it with the other half of your scarf. You then wrap the scarf around the wound, and tie another knot to close it.

“Too tight?” you asked as you look at him and raised your eyebrows. He smiles and gives you a thumb up with his right hand.

“Thank you,” he said. You smiled. You kinda like his accent when he talks in english.

“You're welcome.”

"야(Ya)! 너 머리를(neo meorireul).." he said as he point at your head and frown his eyebrows in concern.

"Ah, this?" you asked, holding the right part of your head that bleed earlier. “It's not much, it's not bleeding hard anyway…” you smiled.

“야(Ya)! 진짜(jinjja)! 그것도 청소!!” he said, pointing at your water bottle and then to your head. 

“Hahaha arrasoo!” you said.

So you bend your head to the left and clean the scar on your head too. “There, happy?” you asked him. He smiled and gave you another thumb up.

You smiled along with him, and for a second, you feel like everything's gonna be alright. 

 

You gathered everything you might need to survive in the woods, your backpack, which includes an umbrella, a hat, your phone, your ipod, nail clippers, a notebook and a pen, and your important documents. 

He also brought along his backpack and his jacket. 

 

Both of you got out of the plane from the emergency window and breathe in the fresh air of the woods. After your eyes adjust to the sunlight, you look around to see where you are. You're all surrounded by trees, each one more than 10m tall and at least 30cm in diameter. Dawn is still breaking between the trees, it's still early morning. As far as your eyes can see, there are only trees. No sign of a nearby civilization. You’re on a stranded island, somewhere between thousands of islands in Micronesia. You can hear the sounds of the creatures in the woods. Birds, crickets, frogs, insects, all buzzing through your ears. You turn around to look at the broken airplane. You can see a few luggages being thrown outside the plane, some were broken and opened, while the others were still intact. 

 

You took your phone out of your shorts’ pocket and turned it on. As soon as the start screen blinks away, you check the time.

6:38am.

You’re not sure what time zone you’re in right now, but at least you can tell time with your phone. Sure enough, there was no signal whatsoever from your network service that reach your phone, so you turned it off again.

 

You walk to the back of the plane, and search the plane's baggage room, trying to find your own luggage. Chanyeol followed you, and he too try to find his luggage. You found your luggage deep behind the many bags of shooting equipment. “Gah! Why does it have to be so deep inside!?" you frowned.

 

You start to move the things between you and your luggage. You're already quite annoyed when you hear Chanyeol shout from your side. "야!! 그것은 여기! 그녀는 괜찮아!!" he shout in joy. As you turn your head, hoping to see another survivor, the only thing you see is an acoustic guitar in his hug with the brown guitar case beside of him. He looked extremely happy, like a little kid hugging a toy he's been hoping for for the last whole year. 

“Ya!! I thought you found a survivor!!” You shout back at him, getting more annoyed. “Why does he has to be so happy about a guitar when he's supposed to find things to help him survive??” you let out a sigh. 

"미안 해(mianhae)," he said. "내 지타 (nae ji-ta).. 헤헤(hehe).." and he gave you that little kid smile again. 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” you said, getting back on retrieving your luggage. 

 

As you finally reach your luggage and got out of the plane, you see Chanyeol struggling with a blue polycarbonate luggage, the same color with his LA hat, but scratched and dirtied because it got thrown out of the plane. Chanyeol is sitting on the ground, opening up his luggage, trying to find something useful.

You sat across him and open your own luggage. You reach for your multipurpose knife, deep between the pile of clothes. 

“Aha!” you exclaimed and held your hands out, holding your multipurpose knife. 

Chanyeol looked up. “Oohhh, good!” he said. He was quite surprised to the fact that you actually have that thing. 

 

You then took 2 set of clothes out and stuff it in your backpack, ordering things inside to make space for your clothes. Chanyeol did the same; he took a set of clean clothes with him and stuffs it in his backpack. Both of you know without talking that you have to leave the crash site, find fresh water, build a shelter, and survive somehow between the woods. 

Chanyeol stands up and got back to the plane's luggage room. Looks like he wants to find something...

“야! 저 좀 도와 주세요!!” he screamed from inside. You come to him and asked what's wrong. “Bag, chocolateu, there!” he said, pointing at a brown luggage just beside where your bag was. He then makes a move with his right hands, four fingers gripping on air, with the thumb sliding fast to one side, slides again and again.

“Fire,” he said.

“A LIGHTER!” you snapped. “Fire! Okay!” you said as both of you start taking the brown luggage out. He then opened the outermost zipper of the bag and put his hands in, searching for the lighter.

“아-하!!” he said, pulling his hands out. “PD의 가방. PD bag. He, smoking” He said, smiling proudly while gesturing himself lighting a cigarette with the lighter.

He then continues to search the bag until his hands come out again with a pocket knife. “하! ‘nife!” he exclaimed.

Your eyes widen. “Yes! That would really help!” you said to him.

“Okay, with this, surviving will be much easier,” you think. “Now, the only thing left is to find water…” You put your multipurpose knife on your shorts’ pocket and zip up your backpack.

 

You put your backpack straps on your shoulder and face the rising sun. You turn to look at Chanyeol as he already puts on his backpack, his right hand holding to his brown guitar case. He bends down so that his left hand can reach his hat without moving his injured upper arm. He fixes his blue hat, to the right position to block the sunlight. He then stands up straight again, and turns to you.

He looked at you for a few silent seconds before giving you a firm and convincing nod, a sign that he's ready to go, he's ready to survive.

 

You, too, nods to him.

 

You took one deep breath and think to yourself.

 

“I will survive, one way or another, i'm gonna get back home.”

 

You then exhale slowly to calm yourself. 

 

“Let's go against the sun for now,” you said, pointing at the sun, then to the direction opposite to it. “taeyang-ie, kaja!” you said to him, as he nods in agreement. He then took the first step and walk in front of you, signaling that he's gonna lead you two through the forest. He’s going to survive with you. 

 

With that, you start your fight for survival in the jungle with EXO’s Park ChanYeol.