Splintered Arrows ↠ YoonMin

Chapter 18

Jimin

I felt so useless.

Taehyung, Jungkook, Mikyong and I had left the Cornucopia about an hour ago and Taehyung had taken on the responsibility of being the "leader." Everyone was in danger and it was all my fault. How could've someone really taken all the supplies that quietly?

I lagged behind the group, arms around myself as I wallowed in shame at the position I'd put my friends in. Maybe Namjoon would go as far as kicking me off the Career team for what I'd done. Maybe we'd all die out here and it wouldn't matter anyways. Maybe if I just ran away from them right now, they wouldn't even notice.

Or maybe they wouldn't care.

I was pulled from my thoughts when Taehyung stopped, pointing between the trees excitedly. I hurried to catch up to the group, curious about what he had discovered.

"It's the river again." He told me as I came near. "But not the same spot we first rested at. It must go on for miles, all around the arena."

I felt my hopes rise. At least now we had water. Maybe we could survive through this after all.

We all gathered around the edge of the river, sitting to make plans and rest. Taehyung assigned Jungkook to collect water and treat it with the small amount of iodine we had, and Mikyong was poking in the dirt with a stick. There was an uncomfortable silence between Taehyung and I as we both sat wordlessly, not doing anything. After a while Taehyung cleared his throat and I felt I knew what was coming.

"Everything happens for a reason." He began, squinting up at the sky. "That's what I think."

I didn't say anything for a few moments, sticking my finger in the dirt, just like Taehyung had when we first gathered by the river with Miseo.

"I'm sorry. For everything." I apologized.

There was silence again and I felt like he was waiting for me to say more.

"For getting mad at you and making you upset. And falling asleep." I added. "And putting us all in danger."

Taehyung shook his head. "You don't need to apologize to me, Jimin. I deserved it." He said with a frown. "I wish I never left home. I wish all of us never left home."

I couldn't even help it anymore. My throat stuck and I could feel the tears coming on. I quickly wiped my eyes, feeling ashamed. If my father was watching I was sure he'd be embarrassed that his son was crying during the Hunger Games.

"You're my best friend, Jimin. I couldn't even live without you." Taehyung placed a hand on my back, giving me a sad smile. "We can get through this together. I promise."

And as if on cue, I noticed something black float down from the sky across the river. I jumped to my feet, startling Taehyung. Was that what I thought it was?

"What's wrong?" Taehyung asked, getting up as well. All I could do was point. Across the river, floating down serenely with a parachute attached to the straps, was a black backpack. I could only guess what was inside.

"It's from the Sponsors." I said, but before I could even finish, Taehyung was splashing across the river. Jungkook looked up from what he was doing in confusion as I joined Taehyung, hurriedly making it to the other side.

There was a small strip of paper with a neatly printed note on it that read, "Don't lose it this time - Daejung" attached to the zipper of the pack.

"It must be food." Taehyung realized excitedly, and I nodded, unzipping the backpack. Sure enough, it was full of fruit and packages of meat and some bread wrapped in plastic. I couldn't believe my eyes.

I turned, expecting to see Taehyung as surprised as I was, but he was looking somewhere else. Before I could ask what was wrong he wordlessly pointed to the back of the note. Confused, I peered down at it. In small, handwritten capital letters, it read "FIND NAMJOON."

Whoever wrote it seemed like they didn't intend for it to be seen by the cameras. I quickly pulled the note off the pack and stuck it in my pocket as Taehyung began looking through the food.

"You must've been pretty popular among the Capitol." Taehyung joked, his eyes widening at the couple of chocolate bars stuck in the side pocket. I nodded.

We both looked up when we heard splashing in the water and saw Jungkook crossing the river, Mikyong on his back so she didn't get wet.

"What's going on?" He asked, setting Mikyong down when he reached dry land.

"Jimin's sponsors sent him a pack full of food. Take a look for yourself." Taehyung held out the backpack for Jungkook to see.

My excitement faded and my heart stopped when I heard loud voices come from the trees. We had been here for quite a while.

"We should get moving." I said quickly, taking the backpack from Jungkook and zipping it up before pulling it on. "I think there's people coming."

"Yeah. C'mon Mikyong, let's go." Taehyung called to the small girl, who was reaching in a bush. She quickly brushed herself off before hurrying to catch up as we went the opposite direction of the voices.

"It will be safer to avoid conflict since we have no weapons." I told the group. My mind went back to the secret message on the back of Daejung's note. I wasn't sure why, but we needed to make finding Namjoon our next priority.

And it wasn't going to be as hard as I thought.