Battle Royale: Chapter 2
Title: Battle Royale: Chapter 2
Author: rickywrites
Genre: Drama, Romance, Action
Pairings: 2min (And more to come)
Rating: PG-13 (Contains swearing and violence)
Note: This is not entirely my story. It is based on the Japanese manga "Battle Royale". I am merely using the story as a guide to write my own, with my own characters.
Summary: A class of 15 boys, all aged 17-18 get abducted, taken to an uninhabited island and forced to participate in "The Program". With the aim of the game being to kill until only one victor is left, what will the once 'friends' do? Will they stick together till the end? Will their moral integrity see them though, or will they embrace the program as a chance to show what they got? Maybe this years program will set a record for the most blood shed. Find out in the coming chapters, what will happen to these unfortunate boys?
A/N: Please let me know what you think ;)
[Introduction and Character Info] [Chapter 1]
Chapter 2
"And the first lucky student to be picked is Boy# 1 CHOI SIWON. Please come and collect your backpack."
All heads turned to look at Siwon as he calmly stood up. He was determined not to look scared and pathetic. He had no reason to be. With his gang and their leader, Kyuhyun, Siwon had nothing to fear.
'If anyone could figure a way out of this, it's Kyu.' he thought, smiling.
"Ohh someone looks confident! I like that. Let's hope you have a good weapon, I'm sure you'll put it to good use." Teacher Yunho smirked as he handed Siwon his backpack. "Good luck! I'm betting the first kill is on you!"
He waited for Siwon to disappear out of the room. He started at his watch, and counted down "5, 4, 3, 2 ….1, times up. Boy #2 LEE SUNGIN."
No one moved.
"LEE SUNGIN? Hurry up we don't have all day."
Shakily, Sungin got to his feet. He looked longingly over at Yesung, who was more than just a best friend, and more than just a boyfriend. Yesung was his everything.
"Wait somewhere safe for me!" Yesung spoke, daringly.
"Awww isn't this touching. Sweet, very sweet." Teacher Yunho crooned, in a sickly sweet voice. "But… this is not the time for young love, this is the time for untimely death. Now get a move on before I throw up."
With tears streaming down his face, Sungin took his backpack and turned towards the door. He then paused, as if he had something to say. He turned around and threw the backpack back at Teacher Yunho. "I'LL NEVER PLAY! THIS IS SICK. I'LL NEVER PLAY YOU SICK BASTARD." And he ran out the door.
'That's right.' thought Minho. 'We're not going to play Sungin. Not one more person is going to die. Not like Heechul. We'll avenge him. We just have to put our heads together and find a way…. Shouldn't have thrown your backpack though. No… just incase…'
"Okay now that the drama queen has left the building, our lovely Mr. LEE TAEMIN is next."
Minho looked over at Taemin, surprised at the look of determination on his face.
"I'm sorry sir," Taemin said bravely, but shakily. "But I can't, I can't get up on my own."
Minho stood up immediately. "I'm taking him."
Teacher Yunho surveyed the situation. "Yes.. I do see the problem here. Hehe, my bad. I'm sorry about the leg Taemin, but no ones going in pairs."
Minho couldn't help himself. "But, but SIR!"
"Okay, okay pipe down. Taemin I'll let you go last. That way, you can take your time hopping about."
Taemin nodded and let out a feeble "Th… thank you … sir."
"Boy # 4 is our own Class President, PARK JUNGSU, or shall I just drop the formalities and call you Leeteuk. Step lively class president."
Minho watched as Leeteuk and Shindong left the building. One by one. Neither said anything, though Shindong stumbled as he walked out the door. And then it was Onew's turn. Onew looked back at Taemin, and nodded at his best friend. He then looked at Minho. "Hey, if you find Taemin before I do, look after him okay?"
Minho nodded. "Of course..."
"HEY! What's the holdup?!"
Onew walked up to teacher Yunho, took the backpack, and walked swiftly out of the room.
"Alright, and Boy #6 is LEE DONGHAE. Ahh, it's the smart ass."
Donghae stood up immediately, and turned to his boyfriend. "Eunhyuk, I'll see you outside."
Eunhyuk stood up and hugged Donghae as hard as he could. "I love you."
"Ohh comee oonnn boys you'll have plenty of time for that when you're dead."
Eunhyuk sat down as Donghae walked over to Teacher Yunho and snatched the backpack out of his hands, scowling.
"Ouch, this ones a tough one." Teacher Yunho said bemusedly.
And Donghae walked out the room, looking back one more time at Eunhyuk.
"Okay time for Boy #7, CHOI MINHO! Oh.. it's you?" Minho had stood up fists clenched by his side, fighting the urge to attack the disgusting man in front of him. But he kept his cool. He needed to stay alive, if only to protect Taemin. As he walked forward, he looked back at the innocent boy.
"Taemin, I'll be waiting for you."
Taemin smiled at him weakly, and nodded his head.
"Just how many couples are there in this class? Just move along Mr. Choi."
Minho took the bag out of Teacher Yunho's hands, and looked down one last time at Heechul. Dead on the floor. "I'm sorry…. I'm so sorry…"
And he left the room, backpack in hand, towards a hallway with a door marked 'EXIT' at the end of it.
'Think Minho, think.' Minho walked down the long hallway, trying to keep calm. 'No one's going to buy in to this. No one's going to kill. These are my friends… my friends! Sungin, Sungin said he wouldn't play. And Onew, no he wouldn't hurt a fly he's not going to kill anyone… He could easily… he's been taking martial arts ever since he was young… but he never uses it. Never shows off. No, he won't play. And then there's Donghae… the smartest guy I know. Back there, in the classroom, he stood up for me. I would have been dead, dead if it weren't for his quick thinking. He's gonna get us out of this… and Taemin… he looks small but look at how he got out of his seat and ran to Heechul. I should have been there… Taemin shouldn't have gotten shot… no… I can trust them. They're my friends… all of them….' His thoughts trailed off… he paused as a sick feeling came in to his stomach. 'No.. not all of them. Kyu… Kyuhyun and his group. Siwon and Shindong. I don't know them. They… bully… not Kyuhyun. Kyuhyun never bothered.. but … but he's there. He doesn't stop the other two. He just watches with that expressionless look on his face. I don't know them… and what about Key? Hard core Key… I heard he seduced a police officer… so that he wouldn't get a speeding ticket… what kind of person is he?… Would he kill? And what about the guy who just transferred to our school. Jonghyun Kim. I don't know him, can I trust him?'
He reached the door, and paused before he went through.
'No… I can't think like that… killing is a whole other level. They wouldn't… no one would… We're going to get through this! Onew has probably already rounded up the others and they're probably all there waiting. And we'll figure a way out of this!' And he opened the door with a smile on his face.
The courtyard was empty. Ahead of him was a forrest, an ocean was to the right of him. The school extended to the left of him, so he only had two options. The forrest, or the ocean. He already knew that the ocean wasn't an option. He was going to wait for Taemin and then…
Minho turned around swiftly, he thought heard a noise. But there was no one around.
'Maybe I better take cover in the forrest, but I won't go in too deep… I need to make sure I get Taemin… where's Onew?'
Minho walked forwards, towards the forrest, and crouched behind a bush, waiting for the next person to come out.
'It's almost been two minutes, the next person should be out soo…'
"AGGHH!"
Something cut across Minho's face, forming a slash on his cheek.
"What the… WHO'S THERE?!"
He turned around to find Class President Leeteuk, with a cross-bow in his hand.
"L..Leeteuk?! What are you doing?"
"I… I've got to do this…. I've got to g..get home! Myy… my father he would want me to… I don't want to die!"
"NO ONE HAS TO DIE! No one else is going to die!! Leeteuk we'll… we can do this. If we all get together we can figure out a way… we don't have to play! PLEASE, put that down!"
"NO! I'm not supposed to be here! It was a mistake… they couldn't have picked me…. I've got to get home! And I'm sorry but… but that means that… you have to… have to die Minho…"
"WAIT!" Minho threw his bag down on the floor and put his hands up. "Look, see I'm unarmed… I can't hurt you! So… just… listen to me please! We're classmates, we're a TEAM! Remember? You're the class president. You're the leader. You can help us! We can do this together… CAN YOU REALLY KILL ME? I know you can't, because you're a good person! You're scared… that's it. But put that down and we can work together!"
Leeteuk started to lower his cross-bow. "T..together? A team?"
"Yes! We can do this…"
Suddenly Leeteuk raised his cross-bow again, not pointing it at Minho but right behind him. Minho turned his head… and saw Taemin hobbling towards them, yelling. "NO LEETEUK YOU LEAVE HIM ALONE!"
"Taemin NO… GET DOWN!" But Minho knew he had to act quickly. Before Leeteuk could process what he was doing, he ran at Leeteuk tackling him to the floor.
"MINHO!" Taemin screamed.
Minho had knocked the cross-bow out of Leeteuk's hands, and struggled to stop Leeteuk scratching his face off, trying not to hurt him at the same time. "Leeteuk STOP, I won't hurt you just calm down!"
"STOP!" Taemin yelled, with the cross-bow in his hands. "Minho get off him!"
Leeteuk stopped struggling and Minho finally could release him.
"SEE I TOLD YOU MINHO! WE'RE ALL PLAYING. AND YOU HAVE SO MANY FRIENDS. BUT ME I HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF MYSELF. NOW LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!"
And there was another sound of movement coming from the trees nearby.
"Taemin we have to get out of here… you're leg… can you run?"
"I… I think so…"
Minho took the cross-bow out of Taemin's hands and threw it as hard as he could in to the forrest. He grabbed Taemin's hand and they ran, away from Leeteuk, away from the noise, looking for a safe spot they could rest in.
They arrived at an area with a large number of trees surrounding a clear spot of grass.
"This looks good…" Minho said, as he helped Taemin sit down. "How's your leg? Let's take a look at it…"
"It's… it's aching… it hurts Minho…"
Minho opened up his backpack, and found a bottle of water, a loaf of bread, some bandages, a blanket and a small army knife.
"Not bad…"
He used the knife to cut the uniform around Taemin's wound. He then took the bottle of water.
"This might hurt a bit…" he poured some of the water of the wound, and Taemin bit his lip and stifled a cry of pain. "I'm sorry!"
"No… no it's okay Minho.. thank you… what about that scratch on your face!?"
Minho had forgotten about it. He put his hand to his cheek, the cut did not feel deep.
"It's just a graze, and don't thank me… it looks like the bullet's fallen out. Must have fallen out when we were running back ther…" he paused, not sure whether he wanted to talk about it, knowing that they had to. But Taemin spoke first.
"Do you think Leeteuk's okay?"
"I don't know…" Minho admitted as he started to wrap Taemin's leg in the bandage. "There was definitely someone coming... Did you see the look in his eyes? He was gone… completely gone. He bought in to the program… DAMMIT why are people buying in to this crap?!"
"They're scared Minho… scared of dying."
"I'm scared of dying! I don't want to do die! But that doesn't mean I'm going to kill my friends!"
Taemin paused for a while before he spoke again. "I feel… kind of bad for admitting this but… … but I think I can see why… I'm not saying it's right but… I'm just saying I understand Leeteuk. He wasn't like you… everyone likes you. But him… he was nice enough but I don't think he had any really close friends. He just felt alone… like he had to do something… I mean he didn't want to admit defeat and do nothing…. he didn't want to just run…"
"I… I guess I know what you mean… so… so what about you? Do you feel like you have to do something?"
"I… don't think I could. Just holding that cross-bow made me feel sick… I wouldn't have been able to fire it."
"I knew you wouldn't… You're not like that Taemin… I know you…"
Taemin bit his lip, an embarrassed blush spreading across his face. "Um… did you see anyone else?"
"No… just Leeteuk… I was waiting for you and he sprung up on me."
"Oh, I see…"
"What about you? Before you saw us in the forrest… you came out last… did you see anyone?"
"No… I just… I was scared… I thought I heard your voice so I came straight towards you… Minho why are you doing this?"
"Doing what?"
"Helping me Minho! Helping me, trusting me… I'm wounded… I'm such a burden to you… you would be a lot safer without me… and how do you know? How do you know I'm not just waiting till you fall asleep so I can… you know…"
"Taemin…" Minho interrupted him. "I… You… Back in the classroom. You just got up and ran to Heechul… that should have been me… I should have been the one who got shot… and… now that Heechul's gone… I'm going to protect you. If it's the last thing I do I will protect you from harm Taemin. And about trust? With you I have nothing to worry about. You… you rushed to his side when he was shot without thinking of yourself. You couldn't do anything bad. You're not that type of guy…"
Minho trailed off…
"Min… Minho…" Taemin said with tears in his eyes. "I know you're not that type of guy either… Onew… my best friend… you've been friends with him for a long time. He's always saying you stand up for your friends… we never got to .. hang out much but… I trust you."
Minho smiled. "That's good to know Taemin…" He then looked around hopefully. "I wonder where Onew is… if we can just get Onew… and then Donghae… his boyfriend Eunhyuk… Sungin and Yesung…"
"You didn't mention Kyu… or Key… or that new guy, his name's Jonghyun right?"
"Right."
"You don't think we can trust them?"
"I don't know… we don't know them… I mean look what happened with Leeteuk... what do you think?"
"I… I'm opting for hope." Taemin said, optimistically.
"Hope?"
"Yeah… who knows for certain what the others are thinking… but we can't be the only ones thinking like this. If enough of us refuse to play, they have no game."
"I like that. Hope. Yeah, you're right. If we just stay strong and… and.. Taemin why are you looking at me like that?"
Taemin, who was staring at Minho with tears in his eyes, quickly bowed his head down. "I'm sorry Minho… it's just that I … it makes me happy knowing I can trust you."
"Right back at you Taemin." Minho smiled. "Why don't we see what you got in your backpack?"
They rummaged through Taemin's backpack and found that his weapon was a pair of binoculars.
"Pathetic…" Minho sighed. "Imagine… some people have guns…"
"Maybe it's lucky that we don't have a gun. Those with guns would be tempted to use them…"
"Yeah I guess you're right… it's always nice to have a little protection…"
Taemin yawned.
"Sorry, I'm boring you aren't I?"
"No no, Minho not at all, it's just.. I'm exhausted… running with that leg wound…"
"You… get some shut eye. I'll watch out for you, you have nothing to worry about with me here protecting you."
Taemin smiled. "Thank you Minho, thank you so much."
And he took a blanket, and rested his head on his backpack, and fell asleep immediately, easily.
Author: rickywrites
Genre: Drama, Romance, Action
Pairings: 2min (And more to come)
Rating: PG-13 (Contains swearing and violence)
Note: This is not entirely my story. It is based on the Japanese manga "Battle Royale". I am merely using the story as a guide to write my own, with my own characters.
Summary: A class of 15 boys, all aged 17-18 get abducted, taken to an uninhabited island and forced to participate in "The Program". With the aim of the game being to kill until only one victor is left, what will the once 'friends' do? Will they stick together till the end? Will their moral integrity see them though, or will they embrace the program as a chance to show what they got? Maybe this years program will set a record for the most blood shed. Find out in the coming chapters, what will happen to these unfortunate boys?
A/N: Please let me know what you think ;)
[Introduction and Character Info] [Chapter 1]
Chapter 2
"And the first lucky student to be picked is Boy# 1 CHOI SIWON. Please come and collect your backpack."
All heads turned to look at Siwon as he calmly stood up. He was determined not to look scared and pathetic. He had no reason to be. With his gang and their leader, Kyuhyun, Siwon had nothing to fear.
'If anyone could figure a way out of this, it's Kyu.' he thought, smiling.
"Ohh someone looks confident! I like that. Let's hope you have a good weapon, I'm sure you'll put it to good use." Teacher Yunho smirked as he handed Siwon his backpack. "Good luck! I'm betting the first kill is on you!"
He waited for Siwon to disappear out of the room. He started at his watch, and counted down "5, 4, 3, 2 ….1, times up. Boy #2 LEE SUNGIN."
No one moved.
"LEE SUNGIN? Hurry up we don't have all day."
Shakily, Sungin got to his feet. He looked longingly over at Yesung, who was more than just a best friend, and more than just a boyfriend. Yesung was his everything.
"Wait somewhere safe for me!" Yesung spoke, daringly.
"Awww isn't this touching. Sweet, very sweet." Teacher Yunho crooned, in a sickly sweet voice. "But… this is not the time for young love, this is the time for untimely death. Now get a move on before I throw up."
With tears streaming down his face, Sungin took his backpack and turned towards the door. He then paused, as if he had something to say. He turned around and threw the backpack back at Teacher Yunho. "I'LL NEVER PLAY! THIS IS SICK. I'LL NEVER PLAY YOU SICK BASTARD." And he ran out the door.
'That's right.' thought Minho. 'We're not going to play Sungin. Not one more person is going to die. Not like Heechul. We'll avenge him. We just have to put our heads together and find a way…. Shouldn't have thrown your backpack though. No… just incase…'
"Okay now that the drama queen has left the building, our lovely Mr. LEE TAEMIN is next."
Minho looked over at Taemin, surprised at the look of determination on his face.
"I'm sorry sir," Taemin said bravely, but shakily. "But I can't, I can't get up on my own."
Minho stood up immediately. "I'm taking him."
Teacher Yunho surveyed the situation. "Yes.. I do see the problem here. Hehe, my bad. I'm sorry about the leg Taemin, but no ones going in pairs."
Minho couldn't help himself. "But, but SIR!"
"Okay, okay pipe down. Taemin I'll let you go last. That way, you can take your time hopping about."
Taemin nodded and let out a feeble "Th… thank you … sir."
"Boy # 4 is our own Class President, PARK JUNGSU, or shall I just drop the formalities and call you Leeteuk. Step lively class president."
Minho watched as Leeteuk and Shindong left the building. One by one. Neither said anything, though Shindong stumbled as he walked out the door. And then it was Onew's turn. Onew looked back at Taemin, and nodded at his best friend. He then looked at Minho. "Hey, if you find Taemin before I do, look after him okay?"
Minho nodded. "Of course..."
"HEY! What's the holdup?!"
Onew walked up to teacher Yunho, took the backpack, and walked swiftly out of the room.
"Alright, and Boy #6 is LEE DONGHAE. Ahh, it's the smart ass."
Donghae stood up immediately, and turned to his boyfriend. "Eunhyuk, I'll see you outside."
Eunhyuk stood up and hugged Donghae as hard as he could. "I love you."
"Ohh comee oonnn boys you'll have plenty of time for that when you're dead."
Eunhyuk sat down as Donghae walked over to Teacher Yunho and snatched the backpack out of his hands, scowling.
"Ouch, this ones a tough one." Teacher Yunho said bemusedly.
And Donghae walked out the room, looking back one more time at Eunhyuk.
"Okay time for Boy #7, CHOI MINHO! Oh.. it's you?" Minho had stood up fists clenched by his side, fighting the urge to attack the disgusting man in front of him. But he kept his cool. He needed to stay alive, if only to protect Taemin. As he walked forward, he looked back at the innocent boy.
"Taemin, I'll be waiting for you."
Taemin smiled at him weakly, and nodded his head.
"Just how many couples are there in this class? Just move along Mr. Choi."
Minho took the bag out of Teacher Yunho's hands, and looked down one last time at Heechul. Dead on the floor. "I'm sorry…. I'm so sorry…"
And he left the room, backpack in hand, towards a hallway with a door marked 'EXIT' at the end of it.
'Think Minho, think.' Minho walked down the long hallway, trying to keep calm. 'No one's going to buy in to this. No one's going to kill. These are my friends… my friends! Sungin, Sungin said he wouldn't play. And Onew, no he wouldn't hurt a fly he's not going to kill anyone… He could easily… he's been taking martial arts ever since he was young… but he never uses it. Never shows off. No, he won't play. And then there's Donghae… the smartest guy I know. Back there, in the classroom, he stood up for me. I would have been dead, dead if it weren't for his quick thinking. He's gonna get us out of this… and Taemin… he looks small but look at how he got out of his seat and ran to Heechul. I should have been there… Taemin shouldn't have gotten shot… no… I can trust them. They're my friends… all of them….' His thoughts trailed off… he paused as a sick feeling came in to his stomach. 'No.. not all of them. Kyu… Kyuhyun and his group. Siwon and Shindong. I don't know them. They… bully… not Kyuhyun. Kyuhyun never bothered.. but … but he's there. He doesn't stop the other two. He just watches with that expressionless look on his face. I don't know them… and what about Key? Hard core Key… I heard he seduced a police officer… so that he wouldn't get a speeding ticket… what kind of person is he?… Would he kill? And what about the guy who just transferred to our school. Jonghyun Kim. I don't know him, can I trust him?'
He reached the door, and paused before he went through.
'No… I can't think like that… killing is a whole other level. They wouldn't… no one would… We're going to get through this! Onew has probably already rounded up the others and they're probably all there waiting. And we'll figure a way out of this!' And he opened the door with a smile on his face.
The courtyard was empty. Ahead of him was a forrest, an ocean was to the right of him. The school extended to the left of him, so he only had two options. The forrest, or the ocean. He already knew that the ocean wasn't an option. He was going to wait for Taemin and then…
Minho turned around swiftly, he thought heard a noise. But there was no one around.
'Maybe I better take cover in the forrest, but I won't go in too deep… I need to make sure I get Taemin… where's Onew?'
Minho walked forwards, towards the forrest, and crouched behind a bush, waiting for the next person to come out.
'It's almost been two minutes, the next person should be out soo…'
"AGGHH!"
Something cut across Minho's face, forming a slash on his cheek.
"What the… WHO'S THERE?!"
He turned around to find Class President Leeteuk, with a cross-bow in his hand.
"L..Leeteuk?! What are you doing?"
"I… I've got to do this…. I've got to g..get home! Myy… my father he would want me to… I don't want to die!"
"NO ONE HAS TO DIE! No one else is going to die!! Leeteuk we'll… we can do this. If we all get together we can figure out a way… we don't have to play! PLEASE, put that down!"
"NO! I'm not supposed to be here! It was a mistake… they couldn't have picked me…. I've got to get home! And I'm sorry but… but that means that… you have to… have to die Minho…"
"WAIT!" Minho threw his bag down on the floor and put his hands up. "Look, see I'm unarmed… I can't hurt you! So… just… listen to me please! We're classmates, we're a TEAM! Remember? You're the class president. You're the leader. You can help us! We can do this together… CAN YOU REALLY KILL ME? I know you can't, because you're a good person! You're scared… that's it. But put that down and we can work together!"
Leeteuk started to lower his cross-bow. "T..together? A team?"
"Yes! We can do this…"
Suddenly Leeteuk raised his cross-bow again, not pointing it at Minho but right behind him. Minho turned his head… and saw Taemin hobbling towards them, yelling. "NO LEETEUK YOU LEAVE HIM ALONE!"
"Taemin NO… GET DOWN!" But Minho knew he had to act quickly. Before Leeteuk could process what he was doing, he ran at Leeteuk tackling him to the floor.
"MINHO!" Taemin screamed.
Minho had knocked the cross-bow out of Leeteuk's hands, and struggled to stop Leeteuk scratching his face off, trying not to hurt him at the same time. "Leeteuk STOP, I won't hurt you just calm down!"
"STOP!" Taemin yelled, with the cross-bow in his hands. "Minho get off him!"
Leeteuk stopped struggling and Minho finally could release him.
"SEE I TOLD YOU MINHO! WE'RE ALL PLAYING. AND YOU HAVE SO MANY FRIENDS. BUT ME I HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF MYSELF. NOW LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!"
And there was another sound of movement coming from the trees nearby.
"Taemin we have to get out of here… you're leg… can you run?"
"I… I think so…"
Minho took the cross-bow out of Taemin's hands and threw it as hard as he could in to the forrest. He grabbed Taemin's hand and they ran, away from Leeteuk, away from the noise, looking for a safe spot they could rest in.
They arrived at an area with a large number of trees surrounding a clear spot of grass.
"This looks good…" Minho said, as he helped Taemin sit down. "How's your leg? Let's take a look at it…"
"It's… it's aching… it hurts Minho…"
Minho opened up his backpack, and found a bottle of water, a loaf of bread, some bandages, a blanket and a small army knife.
"Not bad…"
He used the knife to cut the uniform around Taemin's wound. He then took the bottle of water.
"This might hurt a bit…" he poured some of the water of the wound, and Taemin bit his lip and stifled a cry of pain. "I'm sorry!"
"No… no it's okay Minho.. thank you… what about that scratch on your face!?"
Minho had forgotten about it. He put his hand to his cheek, the cut did not feel deep.
"It's just a graze, and don't thank me… it looks like the bullet's fallen out. Must have fallen out when we were running back ther…" he paused, not sure whether he wanted to talk about it, knowing that they had to. But Taemin spoke first.
"Do you think Leeteuk's okay?"
"I don't know…" Minho admitted as he started to wrap Taemin's leg in the bandage. "There was definitely someone coming... Did you see the look in his eyes? He was gone… completely gone. He bought in to the program… DAMMIT why are people buying in to this crap?!"
"They're scared Minho… scared of dying."
"I'm scared of dying! I don't want to do die! But that doesn't mean I'm going to kill my friends!"
Taemin paused for a while before he spoke again. "I feel… kind of bad for admitting this but… … but I think I can see why… I'm not saying it's right but… I'm just saying I understand Leeteuk. He wasn't like you… everyone likes you. But him… he was nice enough but I don't think he had any really close friends. He just felt alone… like he had to do something… I mean he didn't want to admit defeat and do nothing…. he didn't want to just run…"
"I… I guess I know what you mean… so… so what about you? Do you feel like you have to do something?"
"I… don't think I could. Just holding that cross-bow made me feel sick… I wouldn't have been able to fire it."
"I knew you wouldn't… You're not like that Taemin… I know you…"
Taemin bit his lip, an embarrassed blush spreading across his face. "Um… did you see anyone else?"
"No… just Leeteuk… I was waiting for you and he sprung up on me."
"Oh, I see…"
"What about you? Before you saw us in the forrest… you came out last… did you see anyone?"
"No… I just… I was scared… I thought I heard your voice so I came straight towards you… Minho why are you doing this?"
"Doing what?"
"Helping me Minho! Helping me, trusting me… I'm wounded… I'm such a burden to you… you would be a lot safer without me… and how do you know? How do you know I'm not just waiting till you fall asleep so I can… you know…"
"Taemin…" Minho interrupted him. "I… You… Back in the classroom. You just got up and ran to Heechul… that should have been me… I should have been the one who got shot… and… now that Heechul's gone… I'm going to protect you. If it's the last thing I do I will protect you from harm Taemin. And about trust? With you I have nothing to worry about. You… you rushed to his side when he was shot without thinking of yourself. You couldn't do anything bad. You're not that type of guy…"
Minho trailed off…
"Min… Minho…" Taemin said with tears in his eyes. "I know you're not that type of guy either… Onew… my best friend… you've been friends with him for a long time. He's always saying you stand up for your friends… we never got to .. hang out much but… I trust you."
Minho smiled. "That's good to know Taemin…" He then looked around hopefully. "I wonder where Onew is… if we can just get Onew… and then Donghae… his boyfriend Eunhyuk… Sungin and Yesung…"
"You didn't mention Kyu… or Key… or that new guy, his name's Jonghyun right?"
"Right."
"You don't think we can trust them?"
"I don't know… we don't know them… I mean look what happened with Leeteuk... what do you think?"
"I… I'm opting for hope." Taemin said, optimistically.
"Hope?"
"Yeah… who knows for certain what the others are thinking… but we can't be the only ones thinking like this. If enough of us refuse to play, they have no game."
"I like that. Hope. Yeah, you're right. If we just stay strong and… and.. Taemin why are you looking at me like that?"
Taemin, who was staring at Minho with tears in his eyes, quickly bowed his head down. "I'm sorry Minho… it's just that I … it makes me happy knowing I can trust you."
"Right back at you Taemin." Minho smiled. "Why don't we see what you got in your backpack?"
They rummaged through Taemin's backpack and found that his weapon was a pair of binoculars.
"Pathetic…" Minho sighed. "Imagine… some people have guns…"
"Maybe it's lucky that we don't have a gun. Those with guns would be tempted to use them…"
"Yeah I guess you're right… it's always nice to have a little protection…"
Taemin yawned.
"Sorry, I'm boring you aren't I?"
"No no, Minho not at all, it's just.. I'm exhausted… running with that leg wound…"
"You… get some shut eye. I'll watch out for you, you have nothing to worry about with me here protecting you."
Taemin smiled. "Thank you Minho, thank you so much."
And he took a blanket, and rested his head on his backpack, and fell asleep immediately, easily.