_TOMORROW NEVER CAME. [jakehoon]

chapter twelve

"Woah!" Sunoo beams as he takes a bite from his beautifully cooked fish, courtesy of Jake, "This is amazing, I never knew some random leaves could make it this good, or maybe I'm just starving."

Jake chuckles as he continues to roast a fish over the flame, "Yeah, I noticed some sage by the stream, it's not much but it really adds a little something to plain fish."

"That's a pretty smart move, I used to love cooking fish and sage and parsley were my absolute ride or dies," Jay joined in, savouring his own fish with excitement, "I'm still surprised you managed to find anything around here."

"Yeah! That stream looked pathetic when I saw it."

Jake hums and takes the fish off the flame, examining it and making sure it is cooked perfectly before handing the stick to Sunghoon.

Sunghoon perks up and takes ahold of the fish, his stomach rumbling in excitement, "Thank you."

"Be careful, it's hot, and try to not bite too hard in these areas because it has a lot of fish bones," Jake instructed Sunghoon, making sure the idiot doesn't hurt himself.

"Thank you, Baby," Sunghoon dived into his food without further questions, his bite almost devouring half of the fish.

Jake blushed at the pet name, a little relieved that Sunghoon had gone back to his previous playful behaviour.

"Yeah, Jake Hyung, thank you," Jungwon beamed, savouring his own fish, "we're really lucky to have you wish us."

Sunoo nodded in agreement and Jake ducked his head bashfully.

"Aren't you going to eat?" Jay asks, finishing off his fish, "there's plenty."

"I'm okay," Jake mumbles, opting to pick at the fire to pretend like he was busy.

Jay didn't push it, but Sunghoon did.

"Eat something," Sunghoon demanded, "we've got a lot of ways to go and we don't know if we'll be lucky enough to scrounge up anything like this again."

Jake looked at Sunghoon hesitantly, "But I..." he stopped, trying to word his sentence in a way that made sense, "I don't deserve it..."

Sunghoon stared at Jake like he was crazy, "You caught all of this fish and cooked it for us deliciously, of course, you deserve it. Even if you hadn't caught anything or burnt all the fish to a crisp, you still deserve to eat, what kind of idea is that?"

Sunghoon aggressively shoved his half-eaten fish in Jake's hands, "I deserve to not eat as well in that case."

"But-" Jake tries to hand the fish back to Sunghoon.

"Yeah, in that case, we don't deserve it at all," Jungwon chimed, lowering his own stick, "I didn't even leave camp."

"Me too," Sunoo stopped his eating too and Jay silently followed.

"No, guys, please eat it," Jake pleaded, a painful feeling seeping back in.

"You too," Sunghoon said sternly, "don't be ridiculous and eat. You are hungry and we have food. The solution is pretty logical."

"But-"

"We're a team," Jay skewered another fish the same way he watched Jake do it before, his eyes softer than the way they usually looked at Jake, "this is how we take care of each other."

Jake stayed silent as he watched the four of them encourage Jake to eat, "O...Okay."

Sunghoon smiles and nudges Jake, "Do you want to finish off mine or wait until Jay finishes cooking that one?"

Jake turns to Sunghoon, his eyes warm and sparkling from the fire, Sunghoon could feel his own breath hitch from how alluring Jake looked, "Can I eat this? And we share the other one as well?"

Sunghoon blushes at the suggestion but nods, gesturing for Jake to take a bite, "You deserve to taste your own cooking, it's really good."

Jake takes a tentative bite and chews on the fish with a small and content smile, making the rest of the group smile as well - Jake might've been an unexpected companion, but he was starting to be a very welcomed one.

The group savoured the food and shared a few stories with one another, trying to bring some sort of normality into their unfavourable circumstances. It was nice.

"I'll take the first watch," Jay offers, "we should probably hit the road early in the morning if we want to get out into the main area before the fuel ends."

The group agreed and started making themselves comfortable - well, as comfortable as sleeping on the ground in the middle of a zombie-infested forest can be.

Sunoo and Jungwon huddled together, using their backpacks as a pillow and each other as blankets - the two fell asleep surprisingly fast, which shocked Jake. They must've been beyond tired

Sunghoon propped himself up by a tree, arms and legs crossed as he tried to stay in a position that wouldn't hurt his muscles or topple him over.

Jake awkwardly sat in his spot, unfamiliar with the circumstances of sleeping with absolutely nothing. Jay notices, "Try sleeping next to Sunghoon, it's not the most comfortable position, but it can be better than having your head in the dirt."

Sunghoon opened his eyes and gently patted the spot next to him, "C'mere."

Jake hesitated before walking towards Sunghoon and sitting down next to him.

"If you want to, you can sleep in the car if it's too uncomfortable," Sunghoon whispered, voice laced with exhaustion, "but that means you'd be alone in there with a bunch of leaves and branches surrounding it."

"No, I'm fine," Jake settles in a similar position and tries to get his brain to shut off, which comes as a much bigger struggle than he anticipated.

Less than 12 hours ago, he was snug in a bed with actual plates to eat food on and now he's in the middle of a forest with a bunch of people who he doesn't know, as his home burns to a crisp a few miles away. Yeah, things like that definitely keep you up.

Jake spent most of his time thinking over everything that happened and what could've happened with his eyes closed shut. He said a few prayers to himself and even tried to count sheep like his younger siblings used to do, but when he reached the 865th sheep, he figured sleep was just simply not going to come to him.

It was a harsh contrast to Sunghoon who had passed out in the first 10 minutes of silence, his snores ringing in Jake's ear now and then.