The Truth Hurts [exo]

6

"Then you just slip your knife underneath and peel back."

My mouth fell open as I watched Jongin skin a rabbit with ease. We had been gathering food and supplies the entire morning from the rocky hills and after hours, one of his snares had finally caught something. Now I was massaging my aching arms and watching him skin the animal.

"How can you just...but...it was just..." I was at a loss for words. The rabbit had been alive a few minutes ago and now I was staring at both the inside and the outside of the animal, sitting in two different piles.

Jongin shrugged and began building a fire. "I warned you not to watch."

I shivered as I replayed the image in my head. Dead men, dead animals. I would have to get used to this very quickly.

I dusted off my skirt, already annoyed that the hem was ripping from being snagged by branches. It had only been a day and threads were popping out. So this was the quality of a low-class seamstress.

"We're gonna be heading north," Jongin informed me. "I heard those people who are after you came from the southeast."

"We're not going to sleep in tree trunks anymore, are we?" I kneaded my poor shoulders that were sore. We had been sleeping in cramped, hollow tree trunks the past two nights to avoid the cold ground.

I watched Jongin bite his lip as he teared off a leg of the rabbit, making me gag. He set it near the fire before giving me a reply. "If we find another town by tonight, we could stay there. I'll need to sell the skin anyway." He held up the grey rabbit pelt and I grimaced.

"Can we stay there the whole night this time?" I asked.

Jongin laughed lightly. He didn't laugh very often but I noticed that his shoulders always shook slightly whenever he did. "If you can keep your hands off the ale."

I was about to make a comeback when Jongin stopped moving and just stared out into the trees. I knew this was his way of listening and I followed in suit. Finally, I heard the distant sounds of men's laughter and the clicking of horse hooves.

In the time that I took to fasten my cloak, Jongin had already cleared everything and ushered me to stand beside a tree.

We weren't far from a trail and Jongin peeked out occasionally as the sounds of chatter came closer. There weren't very many of them, maybe ten at most, but I still had an uneasy feeling in my stomach.

I stayed with my back pressed against the tree as Jongin stood beside me with his head turned to the direction of the trail.

"Shit," he hissed as he whipped his head back. I looked up and saw that he had closed his eyes, probably frustrated about some mistake he'd made.

I touched his hand and he looked down at me. He knew I was wondering what was going on but he wasn't ready to tell me yet.

The sounds had stopped suddenly and since I wasn't given any updates, I looked out at my own discretion. Meeting the stare of a man on horseback, I immediately regretted my move.

"Whoever you are, come out from there," a deep voice called from the trail.

Jongin put a finger to his lips to silence me before stepping out from behind the cover of the tree trunk. I was left alone to hide by myself with only their voices to give me any direction.

They exchanged their pleasantries before Jongin went closer to the path and farther from my tree. I couldn't make out what they were saying anymore.

How had they noticed us? There was shrubbery between the road and our hiding spot that should've shielded us. Maybe they had spies hiding in the trees. I reached my hand up to make sure my hood covered my face properly. Perhaps those spies were part of the enemy.