TWISTED 2| Sequel| MYG| 18+

28.

The sun has been shining at its best, judging by the amount of heat, I could tell it was near mid-morning. Why did this stupid sun have to choose today out of all the days, to shower all of its strongest rays?

Our feet gave up a long time ago, our stomach felt like it was touching our backbones. Both of us were so close to passing out. The only fear that kept us moving was getting caught by MinHyuk. I hope he sends Hyunjin, of course, he will be accompanied by his guys but there is still hope of mercy from him.

"What kind of a forest is this? There are no rabbits, no small huntable animals."

"I guess it's about time we eat these." I replied to her irritated voice by pointing towards the flourishing green leaves that spread all over the forest.

"Plants?"

"Sis, it's edible and used in salads. It's a Korean Angelica tree. Also known as dureup."

"I'm a native Korean and I didn't know. I must say I'm impressed." In the midst of this life-and-death situation, I felt proud of the nights I spent on the internet, learning whatever I could about Korea. I smiled and reached forward to fetch some. I set aside the front few layers of leaves and dug in, in feeble tries of getting the cleanest as possible. Of course, they were open in the wild and were not clean but at least they were not licked or touched by an animal.

"Here." I gave her half of what I collected. I wish we could wash it with water but that's a luxury we can't afford. We can't find water to even drink, washing something is a far cry. I rubbed it against the cleanest part of my dirty white dress and brought it to my mouth, sniffing its leafy smell. I tried numbing my senses as I hurriedly placed it in my mouth and gulped the half-chewed form.

"It tastes awful." Just when I successfully passed it to my intestines and started being grateful for finally getting something to eat, I heard her whiny voice. Oh, I'm sorry dear I thought it would taste like fried chicken.

"It's earthy, that's fine. Think of it as a salad." I wanted to punch her in the face. I mean what are you? A princess?

I suppressed the urge of yelling at her as I munched down the leaves I had in my hands. No doubt, it didn't feel good to eat some leaves raw that too without even washing but at least we got something to eat. A hope of nutrition and energy. Something that will help us get out of this place. I sighed in relief as I felt myself getting full. Now, all we needed was water and we were good to go.

"Can't we look for something else?" My eyes landed on Hazel who had barely eaten two of the leaves that too with an ugly face. And I lost it.

"Shut the fuck up Hazel. Stop fussing and be thankful for getting out of that graveyard and not getting eaten by an animal in a deep forest for almost a day." I screamed at her face and she practically froze. Has she not been yelled at before? As if I care.

I guess the dangerous combination of frustration, hunger, fear was getting the best out of me. I was running out of patience. I started walking forward. After a few steps, I heard her steps following behind me and I calmed down a bit. After hours of dodging the hanging branches and climbing through the branches that laid down the path. I finally came across a bunch of fruit-like plants. I reached forward and picked out some. They were hard kiwis. As if a person lost in the desert found a puddle of water, I happily picked out a bunch and served it to Hazel, even though she had finished her leaves by now. Her face beamed and she greedily finished a few in one go.

"Slow down, we don't know how long we are going to stay here. Let's store these for the future. Only one, after a bunch of these." I pointed towards the Angelica tree leaves we had stored in a piece of cloth we tore out of our dresses. She agreed without any argument. She helped me pick the maximum amount of kiwis and secure them in another piece of cloth.