095. You're on a deserted island
100 fic challenge [#095.] Drowning, Everyone, Kibum-centric, hints of every pairing under the sun -.-''
Title: You're on a deserted island
Length: 3614 words o.o
Author: shieldkitten
Rating: PG (some suggestions of violent behaviour, but it's mostly fluffy)
Summary: Everyone thinks the plane crash claimed the lives of 11 Super Junior members. They beg to differ.
Author's Note: This was sort of written as a continuation to this fic, as everyone seemed pretty upset that I'd gone and killed almost everyone as a plot device (sorry!). I felt bad, and then while watching Lost I stumbled on this idea. It's not absolutely essential that you read the earlier fic to understand this one, but if you're going to, I suggest you read it first. PS: I don't know how to build a boat.
Original post: link
You open your eyes and the world is blue around you, and your first instinct is to breathe, only you know you mustn't because you're drowning, under the water, you're drowning.
You kick upwards (you think it's upwards). There's light, and the pressure in your ears is dissipating, and finally you feel air on your face and you take a gulp of air so big you're not sure your lungs can handle it.
You know something terrible has happened, but before you can think about it, you black out.
You wake up and realise that you aren't dead yet, and for a moment you seriously consider celebrating the fact with a little bit of dancing about, until you realise that you're really too tired to care. You let your eyes fall shut as, in the distance, you think you hear a familiar voice. You decide to deal with it later, because right now you really want to fall asleep.
You dream of water and sand.
When you wake up for the third time, Donghae is hovering over you, looking more anxious than you've ever seen him.
"Are you...?" he begins, but you stop him with a smile (or at least you think you're smiling. Your face feels frozen). Donghae heaves a sigh of relief.
"He's awake! He's fine! Everyone's fine!" He yells to people you can't see, and you wince, because you're not quite ready for that volume yet. You turn your head and feel the sand shift under your hair (urgh, you think). Shindong is cradling Sungmin in his lap - flexible as Sungmin is, you don't think Sungmin's leg should be bent that way.
"We found them yesterday. Teukie hyung thinks it isn't as bad as it looks," Donghae says.
Huh, you think, before you fall asleep again
The next time you wake up, it is Kangin who is hovering over you, and he is shaking you awake despite the fact that you're pretty sure you should be treated like a delicate flower at this point (ow).
"Get up," he says. "You've been sleeping for three days and we have to feed you before you die."
Slowly, you manoeuvre yourself into a sitting position with some help from Hankyung who fusses over you like a mother hen, and you look around again. Someone has gathered a pile of coconuts, and someone else appears to have built some tents out of airplane blankets.
"We were on a plane," you say, more for yourself than anything (why does your head feel like it's floating?).
"It crashed," Kyuhyun says, and he doesn't even sound sad about it. "And then it exploded. You missed it with your unconsciousness."
You look around, surreptiously checking to make sure that everyone is all right. Sungmin is hobbling on makeshift crutches, Eeteuk has a bandage on his shoulder, a couple of the members have bruises and scratches, and Yehsung appears to have swallowed a bug, but other than that...
"We're on an island. At least we think it's an island. There's not really anything else between Korea and Japan." Donghae says.
"The other passengers?" You ask.
"We couldn't find them," he says. "We were lucky we found you on the beach when we did. The tide was coming in, and..." He suddenly gives you a hug, and you pet his back (not so tight, please).
"Does anyone know how to call home?" You ask.
"Yeah, we figured that out in the first ten minutes, but we thought we'd stay here and work on our tans instead." You think Kyuhyun may be using sarcasm as a coping mechanism.
"I know it looks bleak," Eeteuk says, wincing as Eunhyuk changes his bandage. "But at least we're all alive."
"Eat," Kangin commands, holding out a spoonful of coconut.
"You're okay, right?" Donghae asks. "You don't feel weak or anything?"
You do, and you feel nauseous too, but you obediently swallow the coconut (it's surprisingly good) and you give Donghae a smile. He hugs you again, and Hankyung joins in, and you wonder if maybe you were closer to death than you had realised.
"Get off of him, he has to eat!" Kangin says gruffly, pushing Donghae off of you. "Go help Shindong and Ryeowook with the sign."
"Sign?" you say around another mouthful of coconut.
"Shindong's making a big 'help' sign on the sand," Donghae explains as he gets to his feet. "So maybe a plane will see it. I'll come back later. Eat more."
"Eat, eat." Hankyung takes the spoon and coconut from Kangin and proceeds to stuff your mouth. You're grateful, but you think maybe he's being a little too overzealous.
At first, it's sort of fun. Hankyung is exceptionally good at finding coconuts, and Donghae turns out to be a pretty good fisherman, so food isn't a problem.
"When we get back," Shindong says, "we'll have to film a music video about being pirates. No more of this fluffy or sexy image business. Pirates all the way!"
"We've already got a pet monkey," Eeteuk says, patting Eunhyuk's back. Eunhyuk throws a coconut at him.
"Heechul can play the damsel in distress," Kyuhyun says. He has cheered up somewhat, and you think it may be because Eunhyuk found Kyuhyun's suitcase the day before, and it had a PSP inside it, chock full of gaming goodness.
"Oh he'll like that," Kangin snorted.
Speaking of Heechul or Siwon always puts a damper on things, and there's a strained silence as everyone recalls that there is a world outside the island, and in it people don't know if any of you are alive or dead.
You don't remember much, but the others have been helping you piece it together. You were all on a plane on the way home from a fan meeting in Japan when one of the engines failed barely half an hour into take off. You don't remember, but Eunhyuk assures you that you lost your head, panicking and running up and down the aisles screaming, eventually knocking your head on an open overhead storage compartment.
You don't believe him.
Ryeowook paints a chilling picture of how the plane was going down too fast to deploy the life rafts, so they told everyone to make a jump for it in an orderly fashion, only some people didn't want to jump because they were afraid of the water.
"We saw the explosion," he says, leaning against Yehsung. "I don't think... I think a lot of people didn't make it."
"Don't think about it," Yehsung tells him, running a hand over his hair.
You think about it. A lot. How the eleven of you all managed to find your way onto the same island, how no one else did. How maybe you’re all dead, and this is some strange proto-heaven, where you have to pass a test before you get to the real thing.
You think about Heechul and Siwon too, about what they're doing, whether anyone has managed to stop Heechul from commandeering a boat and ten gallons of gas and coming out to find you all himself.
"Does your head still hurt?" Donghae asks you. He's been drawing things in the sand that look like pirates and ninjas fighting, sort of.
"I'm fine," you tell him, feeling the back of your head where you discovered a lump two days ago. It's getting noticeably smaller, so you aren't too worried (also you're not a hypochondriac like Eeteuk, who thinks every bug is carrying some form of malaria).
"Okay but if your head hurts you have to tell me, because that could mean you're having an anu... aneru... aneuric... a blood clot thing."
You smile and nod, though you wonder what Donghae would do if you did have an aneurysm. The island isn't exactly equipped with medical facilities (that you know of) and none of the members are neurosurgeons (that you know of).
"I'm going to go fishing, you want to come?" Donghae asks, getting to his feet.
"I want to come too," Hankyung says as he pulls a reluctant Kyuhyun to his feet. "Come on, a bit of fresh air will do you good."
"There's nothing but fresh air here," Kyuhyun complains as Hankyung prods him forward towards the beach.
Donghae slips his hand into yours and gives it a squeeze. You think life on the island would probably be a lot harder if you'd been alone.
"I wanna get off I wanna get off I wanna get off!" Eunhyuk wails, flailing even as Donghae tries to calm him down with a hug. Your head echoes his cries as it throbs painfully (maybe you should tell Donghae).
It's been seven weeks, as Shindong's makeshift calendar comprised of a tree trunk and scratches made with a plastic knife attests. Everyone is tired of coconuts, fish and the occasional seagull (no one asks Kangin how he gets them, he doesn't volunteer too much information) and you all just want to get off the island.
You're itching to do something, anything that involves more than sitting around watching people slowly succumb to cabin fever. Kyuhyun's PSP ran out of juice on the fourth day, so some of you tried learning Chinese from Hankyung for a while (Hankyung had started giving all the trees Chinese names and you thought learning Chinese would help you remember them), but you gave up when it turned out to be harder than English. You think the only reason Sungmin hasn't actually started killing anyone yet is because Shindong and Kyuhyun stole his crutches in the middle of the night, and although a hopping Sungmin is much harder to avoid than you would expect, he tires fast (scary, scary man). Ryeowook's written half a dozen songs about living on an island, feeling like an island, being trapped on an island and hating islands, but then Yehsung wrote a parody of Ryeowook's song about getting to be alone with someone you love on an island so they aren't even speaking to each other anymore. Ryeowook had been feeling tetchy that day and neither of them have apologised yet. You've memorised all the songs, including the parody one, but your brain still feels like it's melting into puddles around your ears.
No one's coming. You admitted that to yourself yesterday when you were helping Shindong brush sand off of the giant rock 'help' sign. It had read 'hlep' for the first week and a half until you finally felt well enough to walk around and pointed it out.
"Thank god you noticed," Kyuhyun had said as the others scurried to fix it. "Who knows how many planes have flown right by, unable to decipher that we were in need of aid?"
You overheard some of the others discussing gagging Kyuhyun once, but since Kyuhyun still sings some incredibly gory songs about drunken sailors early in the mornings (is it possible he's dealing with missing Heechul by... becoming Heechul?), you suppose nothing ever came of it.
But yes, no one is coming. Seven weeks is a long time for people to not come looking. You don't know much about planes, but you’re pretty sure there must be some sort of tracking device to let people know where a plane is at any given moment. So your plane is in pieces, sitting on the bottom of the ocean (probably). That's still no excuse for people to not come looking for survivors.
"Do you think they think we're dead?" you ask Kangin one night.
"Probably," Kangin says. "Don't tell the others. They'll just panic."
You watch him walk around, making sure everyone is tucked in nice and warm around the campfire. Donghae is with Eunhyuk, who really isn't taking to being stranded well at all, but you find Yehsung alone and decide to curl up next to him.
"Maybe you should just apologise," you tell him, even though you know he's pretending he isn't staring at the small of Ryeowook's back.
"It wasn't my fault. I was just trying to cheer everyone up." Yehsung turns and looks at you. "I mean, I don't know what you’re talking about."
It's one of those nights when you feel like talking, one of those nights when, if you were home, you would crack open a bottle of soju (not literally) and pour out all the thoughts you keep inside you, like how you want to become a character actor, how you’re afraid you're the least useful member of Super Junior, how you're stuck on an island with your best friends but everyone is so tense and anxious that you're afraid, you're really afraid that people are going to start hurting each other, and you don't really know what to do to stop it from happening.
"Don't think so much," Yehsung says, ruffling your hair. "Your head will explode."
You take a deep breath and let it out slowly. Hysteria can wait. You feel sleepy, and you'll think about it tomorrow.
Tomorrow comes, and Kangin has found an axe (!).
"Put it down!" You blurt out before you can stop yourself. Kangin looks at you strangely.
"I'm not going to kill you, if that what you're thinking," Kangin says.
You take a deep breath and let it out slowly. You were actually more worried about Kyuhyun (he's been extra snarky all morning), but Kangin doesn't sound like he’s feeling particularly murderous.
"We're going to build a boat," he announces, hefting the axe onto his shoulder.
"That looks dangerous," Eeteuk says. "You could take out an ear."
"Where did you find an axe?"
"Can I hold it?"
Everyone looks at Sungmin. Sungmin crosses his arms and pouts. Everyone turns back to Kangin.
"We're going to build a boat. I've seen them do it on TV, and we've got plenty of wood and vines and stuff. And you're all going to help me. Except Sungmin, because he's not allowed near things that can be used as weapons anymore."
Eunhyuk rubs the bandage on his left arm. No one lets Sungmin have spoons anymore.
"We're gonna need a really big boat," Kyuhyun murmurs.
A really, really big boat.
You suppose the point of the boat isn't so much escape as hope, seeing as how no one actually knows how to build a boat and you can't really learn how to build a boat by watching TV. But there's hope, and hope in abundance, and even you find yourself getting really excited as the boat slowly starts to take shape. Eunhyuk wails a lot less - he's a hard worker and always volunteers to go find more vines (he's very good at climbing trees, that Eunhyuk). Ryeowook turns out to be a knot-tying genius, though he frets often about how his hands will never be as smooth as they once were. Yehsung promises to buy him a ton of moisturiser when all this is over (they're talking now), and Eeteuk then announces that when they get back to civilisation, he's taking a bath in moisturising cream and everyone is welcome to join him.
"We're going to need more wood," Kangin says, swinging the axe over his shoulder (one of these days he's really going to take out an ear) and he heads off towards the trees.
"Not that one, that one's Confucius!" Hankyung cries, running after him.
"You named a tree after Confucius?" Kangin asks him.
"I ran out of ideas. That one's Li Mochou. You can kill her."
You really hope you get off this island because you can't wait to see what Hankyung names his own kids.
Everyone is incredibly excited when the boat is finished. Their excitement is contagious, because you find yourself cheering, pushing the boat out into the water and jumping on, helping Hankyung and Eeteuk pull Kangin up when he misses his step and lands with only half his upper body on the deck.
Your spirits are high, and the wind is blowing, filling up the sail made of mostly T-shirts.
"Hey, are we... Are we sinking?" Eeteuk asks.
Morose, exhausted and half-drowned (again), you collapse next to the campfire and refuse to get up for the next two days even if Donghae promises he'll catch you a stingray for breakfast.
"We're building another one," Sungmin announces. You're half-asleep, and Hankyung is using your stomach as a pillow, so you don't really pay attention until someone yells 'He's got the axe! Run!' at which point you leap to your feet and do as you're told, dragging Hankyung along with you.
"Stop it, I'm not going to kill anyone anymore!" Sungmin stomps his foot (anymore?). "We're building another boat. A better one. Also it's going to be pink."
No one emerges from the safe distances they have retreated to.
"Come on, guys, it's been half a year, and I'm really tired of living on this stupid island. Let's go home."
Kyuhyun pokes his head out from his hiding place. "Does it really have to be pink?"
Sungmin appears to think about it. "I guess pink paint's kind of hard to find here."
"Put the axe down and take three steps back," Eeteuk calls out.
"Ten steps," Eunhyuk interjects.
"I wasn't ever really going to kill anyone," Sungmin says even as he counts his steps backwards.
You exchange looks with Hankyung as you both decide to risk your lives to retrieve the axe (you might not have volunteered if Hankyung wasn't with you). Instinct tells you to believe Sungmin, but sleep lightly.
Very, very lightly.
Everyone gets to work again, only more soberly this time, more carefully. Planks are checked, double checked and triple checked. Sungmin goes over every inch of the hull with a bucket of seawater to make sure it really is waterproof this time.
"I'm so tired," Ryeowook sighs, dropping into Yehsung's lap and making him massage his overworked hands.
"What are you going to do when we get back?" Donghae asks the group as they wait for Sungmin to finish his inspection of the boat. You massage his shoulders to keep your hands busy.
"I'm not playing that game," Eeteuk says, hanging off Kangin's shoulder. "The last time..."
"I'm going to eat chocolate," Shindong announces. "A mountain of chocolate. And then kimchi. The spiciest kimchi ever."
"The brand with the dancing capsicum on the packaging?" Kangin perks up.
"Why is it a capsicum anyway?" Kyuhyun asks. Your stomach growls and you pat it, glancing back over your shoulder at Sungmin, and Eunhyuk who is now helping him test the knots (if Ryeowook sees them he's going to throw a fit).
The first thing you're going to do when you get back, you think, is call your mom.
"It's done!" Sungmin announces, grabbing the person closest to him for a celebratory hug. This just so happens to be you. You pat his arm and try not to imagine him breaking your neck. "The boat's done! We can leave tomorrow!"
You decide to exercise cautious optimism this time. More than half of the members agree.
No one really knows which direction you're going in (you hope you haven't been swept out to the Indian Ocean yet), but there's a good breeze and plenty of fish and coconut, and the only thing more hilarious than one seasick member is two seasick members clutching each other, trying not to die. Everyone's played the 'when I get back to civilisation' game so often that you can pretty much recite each other's parts, except Shindong's, because the list of food he wants to eat only grows longer and longer.
"Do you think it's going to be kind of weird when we get back?" Shindong asks. "After all, they probably all think we're dead."
"It'll be like Huckleberry Finn," you muse out loud, and then you have to spend the next two hours telling the story of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
"Moon river, wider than a mile... I'm crossing you in style some day..." Kyuhyun’s voice is dreamy against the quiet of the night. It's beautiful out on the ocean, with only the stars above you - you think you might appreciate it more if you haven't associated the horizon with being stranded. You wonder if you'll ever take a plane again, or go to the beach.
"Do you think we'll still be Super Junior?" Donghae asks sleepily, curled up against you (you're sharing a blanket). You think that maybe he's only talking to you, but in the silence broken only by the lapping of waves against your boat, everyone hears it.
"We'll always be Super Junior," Eeteuk says, mid-yawn.
You smile and close your eyes, letting yourself risk a tiny bit more optimism.
When you wake up, you hear the sound of a bullhorn. Someone is yelling at you, and it's the first time in months that you've heard a new voice.
Kangin is already on his feet, and you watch as Eunhyuk and Eeteuk join him, yelling and waving at the Japanese patrol boat that seems to think you are illegal immigrants.
Donghae hugs you, and you realise that you've already begun to cry.
"You know what I regret the most?" Yehsung asks when you've all been safely transferred onto the deck of the Japanese patrol boat.
"What?" You ask, wondering if you'll like the answer.
"I never asked why the rum was gone."
You smile as Kangin tries to toss Yehsung overboard.
Epilogue
Everyone played rock paper scissors on the bus to be the person who gets to ring the doorbell, and you won, so you walk through Jeollanam-do in front of everyone like the leader of a troop of crazy men (should that really be a simile?) and you ring the doorbell.
Behind you, Heechul twitters excitedly.
And then Siwon opens his door.
“Hey,” you say, cracking a smile.
Title: You're on a deserted island
Length: 3614 words o.o
Author: shieldkitten
Rating: PG (some suggestions of violent behaviour, but it's mostly fluffy)
Summary: Everyone thinks the plane crash claimed the lives of 11 Super Junior members. They beg to differ.
Author's Note: This was sort of written as a continuation to this fic, as everyone seemed pretty upset that I'd gone and killed almost everyone as a plot device (sorry!). I felt bad, and then while watching Lost I stumbled on this idea. It's not absolutely essential that you read the earlier fic to understand this one, but if you're going to, I suggest you read it first. PS: I don't know how to build a boat.
Original post: link
You open your eyes and the world is blue around you, and your first instinct is to breathe, only you know you mustn't because you're drowning, under the water, you're drowning.
You kick upwards (you think it's upwards). There's light, and the pressure in your ears is dissipating, and finally you feel air on your face and you take a gulp of air so big you're not sure your lungs can handle it.
You know something terrible has happened, but before you can think about it, you black out.
You wake up and realise that you aren't dead yet, and for a moment you seriously consider celebrating the fact with a little bit of dancing about, until you realise that you're really too tired to care. You let your eyes fall shut as, in the distance, you think you hear a familiar voice. You decide to deal with it later, because right now you really want to fall asleep.
You dream of water and sand.
When you wake up for the third time, Donghae is hovering over you, looking more anxious than you've ever seen him.
"Are you...?" he begins, but you stop him with a smile (or at least you think you're smiling. Your face feels frozen). Donghae heaves a sigh of relief.
"He's awake! He's fine! Everyone's fine!" He yells to people you can't see, and you wince, because you're not quite ready for that volume yet. You turn your head and feel the sand shift under your hair (urgh, you think). Shindong is cradling Sungmin in his lap - flexible as Sungmin is, you don't think Sungmin's leg should be bent that way.
"We found them yesterday. Teukie hyung thinks it isn't as bad as it looks," Donghae says.
Huh, you think, before you fall asleep again
The next time you wake up, it is Kangin who is hovering over you, and he is shaking you awake despite the fact that you're pretty sure you should be treated like a delicate flower at this point (ow).
"Get up," he says. "You've been sleeping for three days and we have to feed you before you die."
Slowly, you manoeuvre yourself into a sitting position with some help from Hankyung who fusses over you like a mother hen, and you look around again. Someone has gathered a pile of coconuts, and someone else appears to have built some tents out of airplane blankets.
"We were on a plane," you say, more for yourself than anything (why does your head feel like it's floating?).
"It crashed," Kyuhyun says, and he doesn't even sound sad about it. "And then it exploded. You missed it with your unconsciousness."
You look around, surreptiously checking to make sure that everyone is all right. Sungmin is hobbling on makeshift crutches, Eeteuk has a bandage on his shoulder, a couple of the members have bruises and scratches, and Yehsung appears to have swallowed a bug, but other than that...
"We're on an island. At least we think it's an island. There's not really anything else between Korea and Japan." Donghae says.
"The other passengers?" You ask.
"We couldn't find them," he says. "We were lucky we found you on the beach when we did. The tide was coming in, and..." He suddenly gives you a hug, and you pet his back (not so tight, please).
"Does anyone know how to call home?" You ask.
"Yeah, we figured that out in the first ten minutes, but we thought we'd stay here and work on our tans instead." You think Kyuhyun may be using sarcasm as a coping mechanism.
"I know it looks bleak," Eeteuk says, wincing as Eunhyuk changes his bandage. "But at least we're all alive."
"Eat," Kangin commands, holding out a spoonful of coconut.
"You're okay, right?" Donghae asks. "You don't feel weak or anything?"
You do, and you feel nauseous too, but you obediently swallow the coconut (it's surprisingly good) and you give Donghae a smile. He hugs you again, and Hankyung joins in, and you wonder if maybe you were closer to death than you had realised.
"Get off of him, he has to eat!" Kangin says gruffly, pushing Donghae off of you. "Go help Shindong and Ryeowook with the sign."
"Sign?" you say around another mouthful of coconut.
"Shindong's making a big 'help' sign on the sand," Donghae explains as he gets to his feet. "So maybe a plane will see it. I'll come back later. Eat more."
"Eat, eat." Hankyung takes the spoon and coconut from Kangin and proceeds to stuff your mouth. You're grateful, but you think maybe he's being a little too overzealous.
At first, it's sort of fun. Hankyung is exceptionally good at finding coconuts, and Donghae turns out to be a pretty good fisherman, so food isn't a problem.
"When we get back," Shindong says, "we'll have to film a music video about being pirates. No more of this fluffy or sexy image business. Pirates all the way!"
"We've already got a pet monkey," Eeteuk says, patting Eunhyuk's back. Eunhyuk throws a coconut at him.
"Heechul can play the damsel in distress," Kyuhyun says. He has cheered up somewhat, and you think it may be because Eunhyuk found Kyuhyun's suitcase the day before, and it had a PSP inside it, chock full of gaming goodness.
"Oh he'll like that," Kangin snorted.
Speaking of Heechul or Siwon always puts a damper on things, and there's a strained silence as everyone recalls that there is a world outside the island, and in it people don't know if any of you are alive or dead.
You don't remember much, but the others have been helping you piece it together. You were all on a plane on the way home from a fan meeting in Japan when one of the engines failed barely half an hour into take off. You don't remember, but Eunhyuk assures you that you lost your head, panicking and running up and down the aisles screaming, eventually knocking your head on an open overhead storage compartment.
You don't believe him.
Ryeowook paints a chilling picture of how the plane was going down too fast to deploy the life rafts, so they told everyone to make a jump for it in an orderly fashion, only some people didn't want to jump because they were afraid of the water.
"We saw the explosion," he says, leaning against Yehsung. "I don't think... I think a lot of people didn't make it."
"Don't think about it," Yehsung tells him, running a hand over his hair.
You think about it. A lot. How the eleven of you all managed to find your way onto the same island, how no one else did. How maybe you’re all dead, and this is some strange proto-heaven, where you have to pass a test before you get to the real thing.
You think about Heechul and Siwon too, about what they're doing, whether anyone has managed to stop Heechul from commandeering a boat and ten gallons of gas and coming out to find you all himself.
"Does your head still hurt?" Donghae asks you. He's been drawing things in the sand that look like pirates and ninjas fighting, sort of.
"I'm fine," you tell him, feeling the back of your head where you discovered a lump two days ago. It's getting noticeably smaller, so you aren't too worried (also you're not a hypochondriac like Eeteuk, who thinks every bug is carrying some form of malaria).
"Okay but if your head hurts you have to tell me, because that could mean you're having an anu... aneru... aneuric... a blood clot thing."
You smile and nod, though you wonder what Donghae would do if you did have an aneurysm. The island isn't exactly equipped with medical facilities (that you know of) and none of the members are neurosurgeons (that you know of).
"I'm going to go fishing, you want to come?" Donghae asks, getting to his feet.
"I want to come too," Hankyung says as he pulls a reluctant Kyuhyun to his feet. "Come on, a bit of fresh air will do you good."
"There's nothing but fresh air here," Kyuhyun complains as Hankyung prods him forward towards the beach.
Donghae slips his hand into yours and gives it a squeeze. You think life on the island would probably be a lot harder if you'd been alone.
"I wanna get off I wanna get off I wanna get off!" Eunhyuk wails, flailing even as Donghae tries to calm him down with a hug. Your head echoes his cries as it throbs painfully (maybe you should tell Donghae).
It's been seven weeks, as Shindong's makeshift calendar comprised of a tree trunk and scratches made with a plastic knife attests. Everyone is tired of coconuts, fish and the occasional seagull (no one asks Kangin how he gets them, he doesn't volunteer too much information) and you all just want to get off the island.
You're itching to do something, anything that involves more than sitting around watching people slowly succumb to cabin fever. Kyuhyun's PSP ran out of juice on the fourth day, so some of you tried learning Chinese from Hankyung for a while (Hankyung had started giving all the trees Chinese names and you thought learning Chinese would help you remember them), but you gave up when it turned out to be harder than English. You think the only reason Sungmin hasn't actually started killing anyone yet is because Shindong and Kyuhyun stole his crutches in the middle of the night, and although a hopping Sungmin is much harder to avoid than you would expect, he tires fast (scary, scary man). Ryeowook's written half a dozen songs about living on an island, feeling like an island, being trapped on an island and hating islands, but then Yehsung wrote a parody of Ryeowook's song about getting to be alone with someone you love on an island so they aren't even speaking to each other anymore. Ryeowook had been feeling tetchy that day and neither of them have apologised yet. You've memorised all the songs, including the parody one, but your brain still feels like it's melting into puddles around your ears.
No one's coming. You admitted that to yourself yesterday when you were helping Shindong brush sand off of the giant rock 'help' sign. It had read 'hlep' for the first week and a half until you finally felt well enough to walk around and pointed it out.
"Thank god you noticed," Kyuhyun had said as the others scurried to fix it. "Who knows how many planes have flown right by, unable to decipher that we were in need of aid?"
You overheard some of the others discussing gagging Kyuhyun once, but since Kyuhyun still sings some incredibly gory songs about drunken sailors early in the mornings (is it possible he's dealing with missing Heechul by... becoming Heechul?), you suppose nothing ever came of it.
But yes, no one is coming. Seven weeks is a long time for people to not come looking. You don't know much about planes, but you’re pretty sure there must be some sort of tracking device to let people know where a plane is at any given moment. So your plane is in pieces, sitting on the bottom of the ocean (probably). That's still no excuse for people to not come looking for survivors.
"Do you think they think we're dead?" you ask Kangin one night.
"Probably," Kangin says. "Don't tell the others. They'll just panic."
You watch him walk around, making sure everyone is tucked in nice and warm around the campfire. Donghae is with Eunhyuk, who really isn't taking to being stranded well at all, but you find Yehsung alone and decide to curl up next to him.
"Maybe you should just apologise," you tell him, even though you know he's pretending he isn't staring at the small of Ryeowook's back.
"It wasn't my fault. I was just trying to cheer everyone up." Yehsung turns and looks at you. "I mean, I don't know what you’re talking about."
It's one of those nights when you feel like talking, one of those nights when, if you were home, you would crack open a bottle of soju (not literally) and pour out all the thoughts you keep inside you, like how you want to become a character actor, how you’re afraid you're the least useful member of Super Junior, how you're stuck on an island with your best friends but everyone is so tense and anxious that you're afraid, you're really afraid that people are going to start hurting each other, and you don't really know what to do to stop it from happening.
"Don't think so much," Yehsung says, ruffling your hair. "Your head will explode."
You take a deep breath and let it out slowly. Hysteria can wait. You feel sleepy, and you'll think about it tomorrow.
Tomorrow comes, and Kangin has found an axe (!).
"Put it down!" You blurt out before you can stop yourself. Kangin looks at you strangely.
"I'm not going to kill you, if that what you're thinking," Kangin says.
You take a deep breath and let it out slowly. You were actually more worried about Kyuhyun (he's been extra snarky all morning), but Kangin doesn't sound like he’s feeling particularly murderous.
"We're going to build a boat," he announces, hefting the axe onto his shoulder.
"That looks dangerous," Eeteuk says. "You could take out an ear."
"Where did you find an axe?"
"Can I hold it?"
Everyone looks at Sungmin. Sungmin crosses his arms and pouts. Everyone turns back to Kangin.
"We're going to build a boat. I've seen them do it on TV, and we've got plenty of wood and vines and stuff. And you're all going to help me. Except Sungmin, because he's not allowed near things that can be used as weapons anymore."
Eunhyuk rubs the bandage on his left arm. No one lets Sungmin have spoons anymore.
"We're gonna need a really big boat," Kyuhyun murmurs.
A really, really big boat.
You suppose the point of the boat isn't so much escape as hope, seeing as how no one actually knows how to build a boat and you can't really learn how to build a boat by watching TV. But there's hope, and hope in abundance, and even you find yourself getting really excited as the boat slowly starts to take shape. Eunhyuk wails a lot less - he's a hard worker and always volunteers to go find more vines (he's very good at climbing trees, that Eunhyuk). Ryeowook turns out to be a knot-tying genius, though he frets often about how his hands will never be as smooth as they once were. Yehsung promises to buy him a ton of moisturiser when all this is over (they're talking now), and Eeteuk then announces that when they get back to civilisation, he's taking a bath in moisturising cream and everyone is welcome to join him.
"We're going to need more wood," Kangin says, swinging the axe over his shoulder (one of these days he's really going to take out an ear) and he heads off towards the trees.
"Not that one, that one's Confucius!" Hankyung cries, running after him.
"You named a tree after Confucius?" Kangin asks him.
"I ran out of ideas. That one's Li Mochou. You can kill her."
You really hope you get off this island because you can't wait to see what Hankyung names his own kids.
Everyone is incredibly excited when the boat is finished. Their excitement is contagious, because you find yourself cheering, pushing the boat out into the water and jumping on, helping Hankyung and Eeteuk pull Kangin up when he misses his step and lands with only half his upper body on the deck.
Your spirits are high, and the wind is blowing, filling up the sail made of mostly T-shirts.
"Hey, are we... Are we sinking?" Eeteuk asks.
Morose, exhausted and half-drowned (again), you collapse next to the campfire and refuse to get up for the next two days even if Donghae promises he'll catch you a stingray for breakfast.
"We're building another one," Sungmin announces. You're half-asleep, and Hankyung is using your stomach as a pillow, so you don't really pay attention until someone yells 'He's got the axe! Run!' at which point you leap to your feet and do as you're told, dragging Hankyung along with you.
"Stop it, I'm not going to kill anyone anymore!" Sungmin stomps his foot (anymore?). "We're building another boat. A better one. Also it's going to be pink."
No one emerges from the safe distances they have retreated to.
"Come on, guys, it's been half a year, and I'm really tired of living on this stupid island. Let's go home."
Kyuhyun pokes his head out from his hiding place. "Does it really have to be pink?"
Sungmin appears to think about it. "I guess pink paint's kind of hard to find here."
"Put the axe down and take three steps back," Eeteuk calls out.
"Ten steps," Eunhyuk interjects.
"I wasn't ever really going to kill anyone," Sungmin says even as he counts his steps backwards.
You exchange looks with Hankyung as you both decide to risk your lives to retrieve the axe (you might not have volunteered if Hankyung wasn't with you). Instinct tells you to believe Sungmin, but sleep lightly.
Very, very lightly.
Everyone gets to work again, only more soberly this time, more carefully. Planks are checked, double checked and triple checked. Sungmin goes over every inch of the hull with a bucket of seawater to make sure it really is waterproof this time.
"I'm so tired," Ryeowook sighs, dropping into Yehsung's lap and making him massage his overworked hands.
"What are you going to do when we get back?" Donghae asks the group as they wait for Sungmin to finish his inspection of the boat. You massage his shoulders to keep your hands busy.
"I'm not playing that game," Eeteuk says, hanging off Kangin's shoulder. "The last time..."
"I'm going to eat chocolate," Shindong announces. "A mountain of chocolate. And then kimchi. The spiciest kimchi ever."
"The brand with the dancing capsicum on the packaging?" Kangin perks up.
"Why is it a capsicum anyway?" Kyuhyun asks. Your stomach growls and you pat it, glancing back over your shoulder at Sungmin, and Eunhyuk who is now helping him test the knots (if Ryeowook sees them he's going to throw a fit).
The first thing you're going to do when you get back, you think, is call your mom.
"It's done!" Sungmin announces, grabbing the person closest to him for a celebratory hug. This just so happens to be you. You pat his arm and try not to imagine him breaking your neck. "The boat's done! We can leave tomorrow!"
You decide to exercise cautious optimism this time. More than half of the members agree.
No one really knows which direction you're going in (you hope you haven't been swept out to the Indian Ocean yet), but there's a good breeze and plenty of fish and coconut, and the only thing more hilarious than one seasick member is two seasick members clutching each other, trying not to die. Everyone's played the 'when I get back to civilisation' game so often that you can pretty much recite each other's parts, except Shindong's, because the list of food he wants to eat only grows longer and longer.
"Do you think it's going to be kind of weird when we get back?" Shindong asks. "After all, they probably all think we're dead."
"It'll be like Huckleberry Finn," you muse out loud, and then you have to spend the next two hours telling the story of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
"Moon river, wider than a mile... I'm crossing you in style some day..." Kyuhyun’s voice is dreamy against the quiet of the night. It's beautiful out on the ocean, with only the stars above you - you think you might appreciate it more if you haven't associated the horizon with being stranded. You wonder if you'll ever take a plane again, or go to the beach.
"Do you think we'll still be Super Junior?" Donghae asks sleepily, curled up against you (you're sharing a blanket). You think that maybe he's only talking to you, but in the silence broken only by the lapping of waves against your boat, everyone hears it.
"We'll always be Super Junior," Eeteuk says, mid-yawn.
You smile and close your eyes, letting yourself risk a tiny bit more optimism.
When you wake up, you hear the sound of a bullhorn. Someone is yelling at you, and it's the first time in months that you've heard a new voice.
Kangin is already on his feet, and you watch as Eunhyuk and Eeteuk join him, yelling and waving at the Japanese patrol boat that seems to think you are illegal immigrants.
Donghae hugs you, and you realise that you've already begun to cry.
"You know what I regret the most?" Yehsung asks when you've all been safely transferred onto the deck of the Japanese patrol boat.
"What?" You ask, wondering if you'll like the answer.
"I never asked why the rum was gone."
You smile as Kangin tries to toss Yehsung overboard.
Epilogue
Everyone played rock paper scissors on the bus to be the person who gets to ring the doorbell, and you won, so you walk through Jeollanam-do in front of everyone like the leader of a troop of crazy men (should that really be a simile?) and you ring the doorbell.
Behind you, Heechul twitters excitedly.
And then Siwon opens his door.
“Hey,” you say, cracking a smile.