Boom!

Yugyeom flinches. It’s been four days since the start of The Games and Yugyeom has heard the canon go off eighteen times already, but he can never forget the fact that it’s signalling the end of someone else’s life, someone who was his age–or even younger–killed for the amusement of the Capitol. He blinks as some smoked meat, a few crackers and a bottle of water are held in front of his face.

“Eat up,” Jackson rasps, his face drawn and pale. Yugyeom nods his head in quiet thanks, but doesn’t immediately tuck in. “What’s wrong?”

“I didn’t see you have any, shouldn’t you…” Yugyeom gestures to the food still in Jackson’s hands.

Jackson’s lip curls without humour. “Don’t worry about me,” he says with a dry chuckle. Yugyeom bites his lip, idly picking at the dirt caked into his cuticles; he makes no move to take the food. Jackson stares rolls his eyes with a scoff before he bites into the meat and gulps down a mouthful of water. “There. Happy now?”

“Yes, thank you,” Yugyeom nods as he finally accepts Jackson’s offering. It doesn’t take long for him to finish the food and when he does it sits uncomfortably in his stomach. Yugyeom shrugs it off; he’s long inured to hunger pains. “By the way,” he starts hesitantly, fiddling with his fingers as he looks up at the older boy through his eyelashes.

Jackson tilts his head. “What?”

“I just wonder, why are you going through all this trouble for me?” Yugyeom mumbles. The question has been at the back of his mind ever since the older boy grabbed him by the arm and dragged him off into the trees when the first gong sounded. Yugyeom has opened his mouth to ask it several times before, but swallowed it each time.

“Why not?”  Jackson shrugs, a bitter smile twisting his face. “After all, I volunteered for this,” he makes a wide gesture with his hands, “I may as well do something worthwhile, right?”

“You volunteered so that a lifelong friend of yours would be safe. You didn’t even know me until a week ago,” Yugyeom frowns. “Why not try to make it back home instead?”

“That’s not an option for me,” Jackson says darkly as he turns away to stare at the forest before them as a light breeze gentle rustles the leaves on the trees, making them shimmer in the fading light. “Not anymore.”

“But why? Why not try?” Now that Yugyeom has finally worked up the courage to ask the one question that’s been pressing on his mind, it’s like he can’t stop. “Why give everything up for me of all people?”

“Because!” Yugyeom jumps at Jackson’s raised voice. “I don’t deserve to go home with a payout after what I’ve done. Because I’ve got blood on my hands. Because I’ve become a ing murderer! Because keeping someone alive and sending them home safely is the only good thing I can do now. Because I can only save one of you; Yerin ate nightlock before I could tell her not to and Bambam got run through a spear before I could even get to him!”

Yugyeom cringes at the reminder of the death of the District 8 boy he used to eat lunch with before the start of The Games. Together with his District partner, Yerin, the three of them used to try to forget where they were and what was probably going to happen to them shortly. It’s kind of surreal to Yugyeom for him to be the last one of their little lunch group standing. Bambam wasn’t strong, but he could run faster than anyone else and Yerin was so clever and resourceful that she always got top marks in school.

Boom! Boom!

“!” Jackson jumps up. “That was much closer than the last one. We need to move before it gets too dark.” Jackson slings his bag over his shoulder and grabs his blood stained sword. Yugyeom follows after him, struggling not to trip over the twisting tree roots sticking out of the ground. It takes him a while with his concentration split, but eventually he works out how many other tributes are left.

“Two,” he pants.

“What’s that?” Jackson looks over his shoulder.

“There are only two other tributes–Jackson!” Yugyeom flings out a hand and grabs Jackson’s arm as the older boy drops like a stone before him. He wheezes as his stomach hits the hard ground, but he digs his fingers harder into Jackson’s arm.

“!” Jackson swears as his left shoe goes bouncing off the cliff face. “Did I remember wrong or wasn’t there a cave here before?” Yugyeom’s only response is a grunt as he uses all his remaining strength to keep the other boy from falling to his death.

“Did you hear that, Chanhyuk?” Yugyeom can faintly hear the voice of the District 1 girl.

“I’ve found some tracks. Come on, Soohyun!”

“! They found us,” Jackson growls. “Yugyeom, you’re going to have to let me go.”

“What?!” Yugyeom jolts so hard that he nearly loses his grip of Jackson’s arm.

“You won’t be able to pull me up in time, you need to go,” Jackson says seriously. Yugyeom slides forward as the older boy removes his other hand from the cliff face.

“I can’t!” Yugyeom cries out as something that may be a tear or a bead of sweat rolls down his cheek and drips onto Jackson’s forehead.

“Then I won’t give you the choice,” Jackson says before he balls his other hand into a fist and smashes it into Yugyeom’s knuckles.

“Ah!” Yugeyom tries not to flinch, but he loses his grip and Jackson uses the opportunity to thrash himself free. “No!” Yugyeom sobs, turning away with his hands covering his eyes. He had no choice but to see Bambam’s guts splatter on the ground and he could do nothing but watch as Yerin’s body went into spasms before she stopped moving forever, but he won’t watch Jackson die.

“There he is!” Yugyeom looks up as the brother-sister team finally breaks through the trees. He scrambles to his feet, raising his trembling fists. “Looks like this one still has some fight left in him,” the boy chuckles.

“Let me play with him, you went and hogged the last two kills for yourself even though we’re supposed to be a team,” the girl pouts.

“As you wish,” the boy bows slightly mockingly as he sweeps his hand towards Yugyeom.

She grins and takes a step forward. “I know I’m young, but looks can be dece–Ah!” she screams as a sword embeds itself into her chest.

“Soohyun!” the boy dashes towards his sister and catches her before she can fall. Yugyeom should probably take the chance to run, but he’s frozen in place, his eyes wide and his mouth gaping at what just happened.

“C-Chanhyuk, I…it hurts,” she coughs as blood spills out of , her body trembling. Yugeyom can’t help but feel sorry for the girl even if she was just trying to kill him. The boy pulls a sharp looking knife out of the holster on his hip, his lips turning white as they press together. Before Yugyeom can blink, the boy slides the knife right across his sister’s throat. Seconds later, a Boom! sound echoes above their heads.

“You,” the boy growls. Yugyeom feels the blood leave his face as he takes in the dark, twisted expression on the other boy’s face. “What did you do?” he steps forward, his knife clutched tightly in his hand.

“I-I-I didn’t–” A sharp pain rips through Yugyeom’s abdomen and head as his back goes crashing into the ground.

“Liar!” The breath is knocked out of Yugyeom as a heavy weight suddenly digs into his chest.

“Get off him, you bastard!” Yugyeom blinks in surprise as the last voice he ever expected to hear again rings out.

“J-Jackson?” he coughs wetly. His only response is the sounds of grunting and shoes scuffing on the ground net to him. Yugyeom tries to sit up, but that only makes waves of pain ripple from his stomach to the rest of his body. He clutches at the warm wetness on his abdomen with one hand while the other slowly rocks his body onto its side instead. The setting sun and his blurry vision make it hard to see, but Yugyeom can just about make out two male figures grappling at each other. Before long, his vision swims too much for him to see anything properly and his eyes slip shut.

Boom!

“Yugyeom!” He blinks his eyes open at the sound of Jackson’s voice. “Yugeyom, no…” As he’s rolled onto his back, Yugeyom realises that he can’t feel his feet anymore. “,” Jackson sobs, his tearful face blocking the last wisps of light. “!” Something goes Crack! right beside Yugyeom’s head.

“It’s okay,” Yugyeom breathes, his voice faint even to his own ears.

“No, it’s not ing okay!”

Yugeyom continues as if he wasn’t interrupted. “Thanks for looking after me this entire time. You don’t have to worry about me anymore, I’m safe now,” he smiles. Maybe it’s the blood loss messing with his reasoning, but Yugyeom wholeheartedly believes his own words. Unsurprisingly, Jackson doesn’t.

“What are you saying?” the older boy chokes out. He presses his hands against the wound in Yugyeom’s abdomen in a bid to stem the blood flow to no avail.

“Jackson,” Yugyeom’s eyes slip closed, his voice barely above a whisper.

“What? What is it?”

Yugyeom lightly squeezes the warm, wet hands holding his own. “Forgive yourself and live well,” is what he means to say, but his words get garbled by the end. His fingers relax around Jackson’s hand.