Lost
"Woo Bin? This is not funny," Yi Jeong called, the panic in his voice getting more pronounced as he spoke. The pupils of his eyes darted from side to side to confirm his predicament. Yes, he is alone. In a savanna. In Africa.
"Ji Hoo?" he tried again. "Jun Pyo?" He was answered by a wave of cricket sounds and frog croaks.
"Come on, guys, this is not funny at all!"
And yet, he won't admit to himself that he is lost. And Alone. And hungry. And scared. Not scared. In a savanna. In Africa. Without a phone, or a laptop, or a GPS or even a frigging map. He was determined to get out of his lostsituation before he calls it one. Pretty wise of So Yi Jeong, don't you think?
And so, he resorted to calling other people. "Geum Jan Di? Ha Jae Kyung? Can you guys, cut it out? Please?" The last word was desperate.
Yi Jeong was about to sit down feeling like the most devastated person in the whole wide world when he realized he just bought his pants and it cost quite a fortune. He contemplated for a bit. How the hell is he going to get out of a savannah? The others must be looking for him. They can't just leave him alone!
He stretched out his arms subconsciously and thought of ways to barbecue a certain Song Woo Bin when he finds him.
Then, the most beautiful sound was heard: a sound of a damsel in distress screaming. It was better the hearing nothing at all (besides the animal sounds that were beginning to sound creepy), if you know what I mean.
Yi Jeong looked around him to see if he could help the lady but the next thing he knew, he was lying on the floor, with a girl on top of him with a wild look on her face. Her face looked awfully familiar. Yes, it did. "GET OFF ME!" he cried.
The girl scrambled to her feet and looked down nervously. "I'm sorry," she said.
Chu Ga Eul. The most obnoxious person in the world. The person who annoyed the wits out of himself when he babysat her in New Caledonia. The person he tried to ignore the rest of the flight there. Geum Jan Di really needs to change her best friend preferences. First this Ga Eul girl and now Gu Jun Pyo. How stoopid people can be.
"Well don't just stand there, help me up!" he said.
That snapped her. She crossed her arms and looked around her. "Now you did it! We're lost!" she said, as if that wasn't even obvious enough. Yi Jeong caught the hitch in her voice as she said that, and noticed that she was out of breath. What happened?
No. He was not being concerned with this girl.
Instead, Yi Jeong tried to get up, which wasn't really easy with a 20-pound bag on his shoulders. "Yeah, I just realized that," he said helpfully.
Ga Eul turned to him and eyed him dangerously, her breath becoming normal. "Get up faster will you! We need all the hands we need if we want to survive another night!"
"Whoah, whoah, whoah," Yi Jeong stopped trying to get up to digest what she just said. "Me," he pointed at himself, "staying the night with you," he pointed at her. "Fat chance."
"You can't even get up on your own," Ga Eul said and offered a hand.
Yi Jeong eyed it warily.
"What? I didn't hold that poisonous frog a while ago, if you're thinking about it."
Yi Jeong slapped the hand away. "I can get up on my own."
Ga Eul nodded in mock understanding. "Ok then, I'll get firewood, and you can," she smiled at him all too sweetly to be nice, "get up on your own."
She shrugged her pack off her shoulders, placed it down randomly and walked away, leaving him still sitting down awkwardly. He knew she was near with the scrunching of leaves under her footsteps. Now, he had to get up, and not let a lady take over.
He took off the bag, which was what he should have done moments ago, and helped himself up. He opened the pack to find the tent, some canned goods and blankets. His clothes went inside Woo Bin's bag, his best friend who will soon be fed to the first alligator Yi Jeong sees.
On second thought, thinking about alligators didn't help.
He unfolded the tent and tried to make it stand up, like how they practiced at home (yes, they prepared for this day). He tried to remember how Woo Bin had done this so easily once. Unfortunately for him, the tent won't stand up.
"Need help?" Ga Eul asked from behind him. He turned to see her arms full of dried sticks, leaves, bark of trees, and the like. Firewood. Very handy of her.
"Nope, as you can see, I stood up on my own," Yi Jeong said proudly.
Ga Eul laid down all what she collected and began to neatly arrange them in a pile. "Yes, a baby can do that, too," she said.
Yi Jeong slumped angrily at what she said, which was true, but he didn't like it when a girl was calling her weak. "I had a heavy bag on a while ago."
"Yes, you did."
"And I stood up on my own."
"Yes, you did."
"And you didn't help me."
Ga Eul looked at him curiously. "Your point is?"
Yi Jeong stopped and thought. Yes, he didn't have a point. He just wanted to, well, kind of impress her –No he didn't want to impress her! He wanted to prove her wrong, that he could stand up on his own. Which he realized was as lame as it sounded. "Nothing," he said dejectedly.
He heard a little crack and felt warm. Ga Eul had created fire. "Nifty."
"Thanks? I guess…" she answered and awkward silence had fallen upon them.
What's happening, Yi Jeong! Come on, talk! You won't be able to survive a night with the most annoying person in the world if you don't establish trust. Talk! he commanded himself. Nothing. He found nothing to talk about. He just stood there, looking at her. Looking at her. Staring at her.
"You sure you don't need help on that tent?" she asked all of a sudden.
Yi Jeong looked at the tent that looked like a pile of rags in his used to be clever hands. "Nope."
Ga Eul shrugged. "Suit yourself."
Ga Eul took her bag, a lot smaller than Yi Jeong's and began taking things from in it and laying it out carefully on the ground. She took out her water bottle, a huge one, still full of water, her notebook-light laptop, some chips and some canned goods.
"Seriously, a laptop?" Yi Jeong asked, who still had not moved from his position a while ago.
She didn't answer but continued to arrange her stuff. She took out some clothes, which made him look away in embarrassment. He began to layer out the tent and see the pattern which he didn't understand just a while ago.
"I'm going to take a dip in the river close by," she told him.
"Do what you want," he said, trying to sound unfriendly to make it up for the awkward silence a while ago.
Yi Jeong rummaged his bag for the instructions manual he was sure he stuffed inside a while ago. After a few moments, it was on his hands and he was trying to figure out the difference in the lengths of the sticks that was supposed to hold the tent upright.
He took one stick, slid it down the corner of the tent, which stuck to the other end. It made an arch that held the tent. He took another and did the same thing. He was so lost in his work, that he didn't notice the sun going down, or the time he was losing.
"Hey! I've finished the-" Yi Jeong looked around to boast of his accomplishment when he saw no one was there. "tent… Ga Eul-yang?" He muttered a curse under his breath.
Yi Jeong looked at his tent, a perfect house for a pair of people in a savanna. It was originally for him and Woo Bin, since his best friend said, and I quote, 'It's immoral for a non-married couple to stay in a closed place even just for one night'. Ironic to hear from the F4's Don Juan.
Well, he had to make do with Ga Eul for the night. If he could only sleep outside, which he can't, he'd do so for a lady. But what made him worried was the lady he was thinking about was not there.
"First, the F4 and now her…" he continued to whisper, minutes after he finished his tent. He managed to heat up the canned goods and used the plastic plates they brought for the occasion.
He was beginning to worry about the Chu girl. Sure they weren't in good terms at the moment, but she's the only company he's got after Woo Bin and company ditched him in the middle of the wilderness. He began to imagine all the wild stuff that could endanger a little lady.
Then his overly imaginative mind landed on his alligator. And she said she was going to take a dip in the river. Oh God.
"GA EUL-YANG?" he stood up and yelled.
He took the longest stick from the firewood to light his way, to look for the girl. He tried to see farther that where the light can let him see. "Ga Eul-yang…"
"Yes?"
He whipped around to see Chu Ga Eul, her wet braided hair hanging on her shoulder, and was holding her wet clothes. He was so relieved to see her he didn't realize what he did next until she pushed him away. He actually asdfdghjklhuggedlkjhgfdsa her. He hugged her.
"Uh, good to see you too?" she said a bit shyly. "Oh good you finished the tent!" she exclaimed, pushing him aside. "And you cooked the goods!" She turned to see him. "Nifty," she smiled.
He found himself smiling back. Maybe rooming with this girl wasn't a bad idea after all.
"Where were you?" he asked, when she sat down and began eating from his plate. What surprised him was he didn't mind.
"I washed my clothes after taking a quick swim," she said.
Her eyes gleamed in the firelight. They were amazingly brown. "Something on my face?" she asked him, after he had stayed silent for quite some time.
"Uh…"
Her doe-like eyes studied him carefully. And he held her gaze. They were so beautiful, her eyes. It's like she wanted to memorize him, and imprint his face in her mind. Not that he minded. So Yi Jeong didn't mind. He was lost in those eyes. Those beautiful brown eyes that looked at him in the sincerest possible way.
Then, she looked away and broke the spell.
"Have you eaten?" she asked.
"How does a roasted Song Woo Bin sound like?" he asked back, trying to get back to his mojo.
She laughed, a more beautiful sound than her scream a while ago. "Why are you so angry with him?"
"Well, he did leave us in the middle of nowhere."
She nodded in understanding. Then gazed up, into nothingness. Yet she smiled.
He looked up, too, trying to fathom what's in the sky (besides the total blackness) that can make a girl happy. In his confused state, he found himself staring the girl beside him that continued to smile genuinely at nothing. He suddenly realized that he never smiled at nothing before.
He stared that smile, no those lips curving upwards, that mesmerized him into wondering what is beautiful about the darkness. What is there to smile about in the night? And he was lost in that smile, that lovely smile, the curve of those lips…
"I know I'm beautiful, you don't have to stare that much."
Yi Jeong looked away, suddenly embarrassed. "I wonder what time it is…" he muttered silently.
Ga Eul, having finished eating what was left on the plate, set it aside and opened her laptop. In a while of pressing buttons, she said, "7:47… wow. It's already really dark. It almost looks like it's already midnight."
Yi Jeong looked at the sky. It was really very dark. "Want to go to sleep now?" he asked. Ga Eul yawned just after he asked that he laughed and stood up to lead her to the tent.
Both of them sat at the opposite ends of the tent, respecting each other's privacy. Ga Eul laid down first but didn't close her eyes just yet. "Hey, you're not so bad, Yi Jeong-sunbae," she said.
Yi Jeong laughed. "Is that supposed to be a compliment?"
"Well, you seemed like a spoiled brat the first times we hang out with the others," Ga Eul said and looked at him with her amused eyes. Yi Jeong was beginning to love those eyes. Just those eyes. "So yeah, I guess it's a compliment."
Yi Jeong let himself lay down on the floor of the tent. It wasn't very comfortable but it was all they had. "You're not so bad, either," he whispered when he saw Ga Eul's eyes droop close. "I just hope we had this time sooner. It would have probably helped with molding your impression on me."
Ga Eul's lips curved into a smile again when she opened her eyes, and Yi Jeong didn't want her to sleep. He wanted those eyes open for as long as they could. "Did I annoy you?" she asked.
"You did," he agreed, that she laughed. They paused. What used to be awkward silence became just comfortable silence that fell on them. The kind you didn't want to interrupt because it's just too good to listen to one another's breathing and to feel the others presence and know that you're not alone.
"Sunbae?"
Why does she keep breaking the spell! Wait, did I just think that? "Yeah?"
"Thanks for not ditching me in the middle of nowhere," she yawned.
He smiled a bit. "Well, after screaming like your life depended on it, I figured you needed company." Actually, it was he who needed the company. He didn't want to tell her that though. Maybe in the near future, when they've become more than what they are now. What the hell are you thinking about So Yi Jeong!
She shivered. "I'm scared of being alone," she admitted. Yi Jeong shifted to his side so that he was looking directly at her. She was lying on her back so she was staring up. "When I saw I didn't have anyone beside me a while ago I was so scared I thought I was going to die."
"Good thing you ran into me, then," Yi Jeong commented, to keep the atmosphere as light as possible.
"You couldn't even get up on your own!" she cried and laughed at same time she looked at him. Those eyes, those beautiful eyes were looking at him again. She was smiling at him, too. He was just staring at her he couldn't get an answer out of him. Her sincere smile because an amused one as she closed her eyes. "Good night, sunbae."
He was so lost right now. Lost in her eyes a while ago, now lost in her smile. He was so lost he didn't get to reply to her as she drifted to sleep…
The he realized, being lost in Ga Eul's smile and eyes is the only time he'd want to get lost in his life.
.
"You are evil, Ha Jae Kyung," Jan Di said.
"I know," the JK heiress smiled as she pressed some buttons to modify the environment of the dream simulator, a machine her company invented.
"I can't believe Yi Jeong fell for everything we planned!" Woo Bin cried. "He was so excited about this field trip he didn't realize we were fooling him."
"We had to get those two together," Jae Kyung said. "Yi Jeong was obviously into Ga Eul, he just doesn't realize it himself."
Ji Hoo nodded, "I think giving them a push was a good plan, but I didn't expect you'd go as far as inventing something like this."
Jae Kyung laughed. "We didn't invent this for that cause. It was just coincidence. And we needed a test run, so I thought, why not try it on our friends."
"Wait-" Woo Bin said, cutting the happy atmosphere with his panicked voice, "What happens then if the machine malfunctioned?"
Jae Kyung's eyes went wild and began to dial numbers on her phone.
"Oh God don't tell me," Jan Di asked. "They're going to be stuck in dream world?"
"Then they'd be living the best dream of their lives!" Jun Pyo said that made him receive a punch from Jan Di.