EVERLAST [EXO Baekhyun]

CHAPTER 4 - SURVIVAL

Baekhyun woke to the sound of scurrying. He wasn't a morning person, not in the slightest. Well, sometimes he could be, but for the majority of his life, he always groaned at the thought of waking up. Now was no different. Adrenaline kept him going the entire time he had been on this island so far. Now it wore off, and he was left dealing with the morning hatred he grew over the years.

"Rona?" he asked, tapping the side of his head to regain his sight.

The woman was on the beach with a stick. A thick one at that. She was drawing letters in the middle of the beach, far out of the wave's reach. Not believing his eyes, Baekhyun narrowed them and stood, wobbling at first. He nearly fell into the tree, pressing his hands against the bark to steady himself. Holy shit, she actually was being useful. Baekhyun found himself chuckling before he could stop himself.

The chuckle he let out garnered her attention, her eyes snapping up to meet his gaze. Their eyes locked, and for a brief second, a second that lasted no more than a blink, he felt a connection with her. For the first time since they met, he felt that maybe, just maybe, there was something underneath her hollow shell that could be worth fighting for. But the key words there were 'could be'. Not definitely.

"Morning," she said as she got closer, tossing him a bottle of water. "Or more like afternoon. How was your nap?" He woke up earlier to skip rocks. That was around 8 o'clock in the morning. Due to him not being a morning person as he had mentioned probably 2, maybe 3 times now, he fell right back asleep and didn't wake up for another hour. It was only around 10:30 at most based on the sun's positioning. They still had plenty of time left on this island together. Baekhyun had so much hope boiling in his veins. Hope that a rescue would come. But when was the question.

"Good... where did you get this?" He stopped himself when he saw the droplets of water dripping off her hair, her hands on her hips and her clothes still drenched. "Wait, did you go in the water?"

"Well while you were sleeping, I used my 'judgement' to get us some waters from the wreckage. There were some undamaged bottles inside one of the fridges."

Baekhyun bit back a smile. "Must've taken a while to navigate all that wreckage."

"Not really, I was a swimmer back in high school."

He blinked. "Then why the fuck did I ever dive in that water? I should've left it to you from the beginning." She shrugged, pointing to the letters she drew. "'Survivors here, help'. Not bad. Not bad at all." She tossed the stick back into the forest, running a hand through her locks. It looked awkward seeing that. Not her fault, but since her hair was so wet, she nearly splashed him with free droplets of the ocean.

"Showing sympathy or not doesn't stop me from getting things done Mr. Byun."

"Did you do all that to prove a point?"

"I once edited a Wikipedia article to win an argument. Are you really asking me that?" she said, cocking a single brow up. He desperately wanted to laugh, but he held it back. No. This wasn't someone he should like, let alone want to like. Or maybe that was in Baekhyun's nature. Wishing to see the best in her even though they started off on a bad foot.

"As nice as water is, we're going to need food eventually," he said, diverting the conversation away from... that. He didn't want to start any unnecessary arguments. Not that that conversation was an argument, but it might've turned into one if Baekhyun continued speaking. He wasn't sure why she was being so nice today. Maybe it was a good mood, or maybe his optimistic nature finally rubbed off on her. He hoped for the latter.

She flashed a piece of metal, Baekhyun recognizing it as a knife. Oh. Oh shit. Who gave her a knife and why? "I found it in the wreckage. Someone must've been trying to cut themselves out of their seatbelt. Didn't work out well for them, but hey, at least they didn't die in vain. Now we have a knife if we need to cut things or kill to eat. Well, we'd need to figure out how to make a fire first."