My Rival's Paradise
Can you Fight the Heat?
"Jin, I'm kind of glad we're stuck here together," smiled Xiaoyu leaning onto Jin's shoulder.
"And why is that?" Jin asked softly with no emotion.
"Because, um, that way...uh...we can get to know each other better," Xiaoyu used improv nervously, not knowing what to say.
"For what?"
"You really are clueless, aren't you?" giggled Xiaoyu as she nuzzled her head on his shoulder.
Jin slowly scooted away, clueless to Xiaoyu's actions. Xiaoyu looked up at him in surprise as he stood up quickly. She took notice of Jin's white shirt clinging to his chest, still damp and his messy, spiky hair glistening from the light.
"I say we should start looking for help," he began firmly. "We need to carefully plan out the standard procedures of survival. First, we are going to need shelter. I shall start with that."
"Er...," Xiaoyu looked at Jin with confusion. "That's the most words he has ever spoken to me in one go," she thought.
"What do you want me to do then?" asked Xiaoyu. She glanced at Jin and was surprised to see him stacking up huge piles of wood, rocks, and big dried leaves from the tree.
"You can find some food," stated Jin, not looking at Xiaoyu, who was standing there clueless.
"Oh, alright." She was hoping that he would ask her to help him make the shelter so they could work together closer. But oh well, humans must eat and human's can't eat without food.
She started to head off into one of the dark openings through the trees.
"Hey! Xiaoyu, wait!" Jin called out.
"He's gonna ask me to help him instead!" thought Xiaoyu excitedly.
"Don't go too far off in there."
Xiaoyu's face fell as she muttered an, "okay."
"What are you doing?" Hwoarang asked, confused as he spotted Julia hustling around with huge pieces of wood and dried leaves.
"What does it look like?" she muttered.
"The hell would I know," he grabbed a small pebble and threw it into the ocean.
"Stupid arrogant jerk," Julia thought to herself as she piled all the items on top of each other.
Hwoarang walked off into the sandspit, removing his gloves, and his shirt. He tossed them aside to the dry sand and headed off to the low tide.
"What the hell are-," Julia cut her sentence short when she saw Hwoarang remove his shirt. "You doing," she finished when she was able to find her words.
She took a good notice of his muscular arms which reached up to smooth his fiery hair. "The perfect body," she thought in a trance.
"What does it look like?" he smirked at her, noticing that her eyes kept glancing up at his muscular back.
"Beautiful...I mean I-I'm building a signal. You should help," she said shaking her head out of the daze.
Hwoarang left the water, picked up his shirt and gloves and headed over to where Julia was standing.
"I told you, we'll be here for more than seven days," he leaned close to Julia until their faces were almost touching.
Julia gulped involuntarily and tried to cough to cover it up.
"I won't help you," he told her. "But I will...," he trailed off, his hands sliding up her arms, chuckling to himself that she did pull away.
"I will go get me a banana now," he said pulling away from her and letting go of her.
Julia blushed a deep, tomato red, embarrassed but still had too much pride in her head for submitting.
"A banana?!" she exclaimed angrily. "I wanna get off this damn place!"
Hwoarang breezed past her and started walking towards the dark opening from the trees. "No, you don't."
"He could've came with me or asked me to help," Xiaoyu thought to herself as she slowly walked off into the trees.
What she saw astounded her as she gazed upon the paradise that lay ahead of her. A shady but beautiful place it was, indeed. Exotic flowers lay in the path and the green willows and other different trees provided shelter from the blazing heat of the sun.
But what Xiaoyu found odd was that she was standing on a paved road. It was almost as if somebody had laid out a carpet for her. As if someone had made this paradise.
"Okay, I'll just follow this road," she said to herself, a bit apprehensive because she found it strange.
It wasn't long until she made her way to pass by a tree blooming with exotic fruit.
"Food! I've found something!" she ran excitedly only to find that the fruit held strange markings.
"Whoa," she said out loud, a little bit creeped out. "Oh, what the heck." She grabbed as much fruit as she could hold.
"Jin will be so pleased!" she said happily. She turned around to walk off down the road only to find herself lost, not noticing what direction she came from.
"Think, Xiaoyu, think," Xiaoyu looked both ways, confused at the same time.
She began to get scared, not knowing her way back. Was it down the left or down the right?
Xiaoyu decided that staying here would be stupid, so she went with her gut feeling and took the road down right, scared but relieved to find that familiarity was coming back to her and Jin.
Hwoarang walked down the paved road with ease and a happy smirk on his face. "Faze one complete," he thought to himself. "Now that she has seen what she's stuck with, she's moving to temptation."
"Temptation, what a wonderful and horrible word," he said out loud.
He continued to walk down the road, not a bit scared because of his distractions in patting himself on the back for getting Julia to look at him.
"Whoa, now that's what I'm talking about!" Hwoarang came across a large tree with full of ripe, plump fruit hanging.
He grinned as he reached for the fruit, not noticing the strange markings on the fruit.
Hwoarang grabbed as many as he could hold and headed off with a satisfied grin down the winding road.
He returned back to where he was stranded with no trouble, following the paved road that lead straight to the place he was originally in.
He walked down to find Julia, exhausted and red from carrying and tossing whatever would be able to burn into a large pile.
She dropped a large pile of wood into the larger pile and plopped down on the sand to rest. She looked to the side and groaned when she spotted Hwoarang but jumped up when she saw the food in his hands.
"You have food!" she exclaimed as she scrambled up to meet him.
"What makes you think you're getting any?" he replied as he set the fruit down and selected the ripest, reddest piece from the pile.
"Excuse me; I've been working all morning, building a signal to get the both of us off this damn island. I think I deserve a little recognition," she replied, starting to get angry from Hwoarang's ungratefulness and her hunger.
"Do you really think you do?" he asked, about to take a bite.
"Yes, I do."
"Give me a hug."
"What?"
"You heard me. Give me a hug."
"What are you? Delusional? Just let me have some," said Julia, frustrated and baffled.
"I guess I'm delusional if I'm asking for a hug, but nevertheless, you have to give me one."
Julia glared at Hwoarang for a second and then stepped forward. She apprehensively touched his back and was trying to pat it and pull back but Hwoarang pulled her into a tight embrace.
"W-what are you doing?" she cried and tried to push him away.
"What does it look like?" he held her tighter.
"This doesn't change anything!"
"Are you sure?"
"Just give me the food."
Hwoarang was about to take a giant bite of that delicious looking fruit but was knocked off guard by Julia.
"No! Don't eat that!"
TBC
A/N: Sorry this chapter was kind of short. I just got back from a church retreat a few days ago and I'm still exhausted. Let's see the juicy details I can reveal ]. What are these strange markings on the fruit? And why is there a paved road in the middle of a deserted island? Does Jin even notice Xiaoyu the way she wants him to? And what is up Hwoarang's sleeve for his Phase Three? Find out on the next chapter, coming soon.