My Rival's Paradise
Forbidden Fruits
"No! Don't eat that!" Julia knocked the fruit out of Hwoarang's hands.
"Hey! I'm eating here!" he exclaimed, annoyed as he picked up the fruit and brushed off the sand.
"Stupid! Don't you see these strange markings?!"
"Yeah, so?"
"I don't think it's such a good idea to eat that."
"Fine, enlighten me," said Hwoarang sarcastically.
"Don't you find it kinda weird? I mean, why would a tropical fruit like that have that on its surface?"
"Don't know, don't care."
"Stop being so reckless! That's the reason why we're even stuck here! Because you were so damn reckless!" Julia lost it, and started yelling again, unable to control herself.
"Need I remind you for the third time that you jumped in with me?"
"You grabbed me and didn't give me time to think!"
"In a storm like that, how can you think?"
Julia stopped yelling and became silent. "He has a point there," she thought but she wasn't willing to admit that out loud.
"Nevertheless, I don't think we should eat it."
The strange markings on the fruit were indeed odd, especially the two almond shaped circles with a small figure inside, a line that went under the circles and a triangle, covered each piece of fruit.
Hwoarang took one good look at Julia before he quickly sank his teeth into the red fruit and took a big bite.
Julia shrieked and covered her ears as she dashed to the ground. She continued to shriek for a moment before she realized she heard a sound.
The sound of Hwoarang's laughter as he started to laugh harder, before his laughs became bellows.
"You looked so stupid like that!" he exclaimed, clutching his sides from his hard laughter. "You made it sound like a volcano was erupting!"
Julia stood up and brushed herself off, trying to regain her dignity even though she felt embarrassed and paranoid.
After Hwoarang stopped laughing, he handed Julia a piece of fruit with a mocking smile. She grabbed it and took a large bite, savoring the sweet, tangy juices.
The both of them sat down, next to each other but not too close as they enjoyed the tropical fruit of the island.
"Jinny! I got something! I got food-...whoa," she exclaimed in awe as she gazed at Jin's work of construction.
In the time spent looking for food, Jin was able to construct a shelter big enough for two people. The cozy looking shack was built with sticks, dried grass and held together with dry sticks, stones and other dried grass.
"Wow! You built all this!" she ran over to where Jin was standing.
"Looks nice, doesn't it?" said Jin softly, with a smile as he admired his work.
"I got food, Jin!"
Jin looked at the fruit gathered in Xiaoyu's hands and then took a good look at Xiaoyu, who looked exhausted and had messy pigtails but nevertheless, pleased.
"Great job," he grinned as he noticed Xiaoyu's pleased look light up and her eyes began to sparkle.
"Probably just hungry and tired," he told himself and thought no more about it.
Xiaoyu handed him a piece and she put down the others, also taking one for herself.
"Where did you find these?" Jin asked as he observed it, carefully and suspiciously, noticing the strange markings.
"In some tree, it was full of them!" Xiaoyu exclaimed happily that he was talking to her and she wasn't the one doing all the asking.
"I see. Did all the fruit have this on it?" Jin pointed to the markings.
"Mmhm, but it looked good," Xiaoyu nodded.
Jin shrugged and was ready to take a bite out of the fruit.
Xiaoyu bit into hers and smiled. "Mmm, this is great!"
Jin took a big bite; regardless of the tension he felt when he held it. A bright flash emerged and Jin yelled, arching his back as he was knocked up into the air and came crashing down.
"Jin!"
A bright, white light, flashed with a loud boom on the other side of the island. Julia heard this and jerked her head up and turned around to find that everything had subsided.
"Did you hear that?!" she exclaimed loudly, waking Hwoarang up from his daze.
"What? No," Hwoarang was annoyed that Julia had woken him up from his thoughts of the good old days where he could argue with Jin.
"That bright light! That noise! Everything! You didn't hear it?!" Julia got up, and ran towards where the light used to, futilely, know that it came from all the way on the other side of the island.
"Hey, calm down!" Hwoarang took off after Julia and stood next to her, staring into the trees, not knowing what the hell he was doing.
"I saw it! I know I did!" Julia began to pace back and forth, mumbling to herself.
Hwoarang did not know why Julia was all worked up about this "bright light." So what if some bright light was shining and crap, he just wanted to be left alone with Julia.
"Calm down and we'll slowly talk about it," Hwoarang stopped Julia mid-pace and wrapped his arms around her shoulders.
She struggled a bit but found it a lot more comforting in his arms than walking around nervously. She took a deep breath and was about to talk but found it rather difficult, her face pressed up against his muscular chest.
Although Julia was smart, there was one thing she was not good at, hiding how she felt. She didn't say anything and tried to make it look like she was still trying to catch her breath.
"He feels so warm," she thought to herself. "Ah! Snap out of it, Julia! You're not supposed to-..."
Julia pulled away from his grip and started to head off into the woods.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Hwoarang tried to hide his frustration but was not doing a very good job.
"I have to check out the other side," she called out. "There may be a way for us to get off after all," she smiled.
Hwoarang growled and began to follow her, and took a piece of fruit and stuffed it in his pocket.
"Jin!" Xiaoyu shrieked as she saw a bright white light overtake Jin's body. She watched helplessly as his body landed onto the sand with a thud.
Slowly, she crept to his lifeless body and gazed at it. The body glowed with the white light surrounding him.
"Jin?" she reached out to touch him.
He woke up with a fast jerk and searched around for something. "What happened?" he demanded angrily.
"Y-you bit that...and then you flew into the air...and then you were glowing," said Xiaoyu nervously and surprised at Jin's tone of voice.
Jin took a good look at the fruit that he previously bit and tossed it onto the ground angrily, watching the splatter of red fly onto his white shirt. It almost looked as if he had blood on his shirt and that he had just killed someone with his murderous face.
He looked at Xiaoyu with an angry glare for a moment, taking note of her frightened face as she backed away slowly.
"We're going to die," he said emotionlessly.
TBC
A/N: I've been having a bit of trouble with the plot so far...I can't decide when Julia and Hwoarang should meet up with Jin and Xiaoyu...but suggestions for this story are always welcome up...Julia appears to be falling for Hwoarang but can he keep her? Will she continue to fight? What is the matter with Jin? And what is up with this "mysterious" fruit? Find out next. =p