𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒 ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳ 𝐧𝐜𝐭 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 - 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐮

⇛ 𝐂𝐇. 𝟒𝟕

𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝟏

"chenle, are you alright?" jihyun asked, patting the boys knee as she sat beside him. he was further away from everyone else and quieter than usual.

"i just keep replaying that moment in my head. i was being careless and i didn't listen to you. next thing i know, i'm drowning."

"but you're alive and well so it's okay."

"if you weren't there, i'd be dead." he whispered, placing his chin on his knees.

"but you're not dead. that's all that matters, right?" she said, rubbing the back of his head. he looked up with a smile and nodded.

"yeah."

"join us again?" she asked, holding a hand out. he took it and followed her back to where everyone else was gathered. "made any plans yet?"

"so we have a slight problem. we don't have much food. enough for today and some for tomorrow. there's a low possibility of getting sponsors today so we'll have to go looking for food." mark explained.

"that means leaving the cornucopia." jisung muttered. "we should collect a bag each and take the most important resources from here before we take off."

"yeah, we'll do that."

"when will we leave?" chenle asked.

"tomorrow afternoon maybe." jeno told him. "we don't need to rush."

"alright. the sun has set. i want to take the first shift being on lookout. anyone else?" jihyun asked, glancing up at the sky.

"i will." renjun replied.

"me and jaemin can go after." haechan said, resting his head on his bag.

"okay. everyone rest up. we didn't sleep much last night."

"night." the six that were going to sleep chorused as they got comfortable with only the use of bags and small sheets they had.

jihyun had moved to sit in front of them with a knife in her hand and smaller ones in her pockets. she heard footsteps as renjun walked over to her then joined her sitting on the rocks.

"hey, rennie boy." she said and he looked at her with a frown.

"did you get that from haechan? he's always giving me weird nicknames."

"yeah, we actually decided on it together."

"i'm not even surprised. you two are monsters together."

"i'm not that bad." she said and rolled her eyes.

"yeah, you're not." he hummed, bringing his knees up to his chest. "i remember when i first met you, you were really reserved and intimidating. you didn't want to talk to anyone. me then never would have thought you'd be playful and caring."

"wow. i really gave that impression? well, i guess it was what i was going for..." she shrugged. "i was a bit of an annoying little shit. i had an ego, thinking i was better than everyone else and i didn't want to associate myself with others either because i looked down on them or didn't want them to do that to me. the more i think about it, the more i realise how full of myself i was. not about winning the games but about being the smartest. i didn't think of everything though. i couldn't do any of this alone. then i met you seven..."

"and you love us." renjun said, placing his arm around her shoulder.

"yeah. i do." she whispered, resting her head on his shoulder.

they sat in silence, watching the ripples in the water in front of them. the ripples were weird considering there wasn't anything in the water... unless there was something vibrating. jihyun's forehead creased as she focused more on it. she glanced up at the forest in front of her and saw the trees were shaking immensely but it was unusual because it was only one section.