Chapter 48
While the Rils Party was drying coconut flesh in the sunlight, Perty was moving toward the water source.
His two companions?
Jay and Baek Seola were following behind him.
Jay lightly shook the empty water bottle in his hand as he said.
“Thanks to Perty-nim, we know where the water source is. That’s a relief.”
Baek Seola chimed in from the side.
“That’s why I said we should bring Perty-nim along. Just the water alone costs a fortune, and without Perty-nim we’d probably still be buying bottled water with our own money.”
They were flattering him, but Perty felt uneasy in the back of his mind.
The location of the water source wasn’t something he had found; it was something Rils had told him.
And she had even attached the condition that he not tell the others.
But.
‘It can’t be helped.’
Perty muttered inwardly.
It was only natural to share survival-critical information once you had saved a companion.
There was no such thing as an eternal secret to begin with.
And people who kept promises to the very end were even rarer.
In a way, weren’t they competitors from here on out?
Perty let out a self-mocking laugh.
‘Sorry, kid. We’re taking the win.’
@
“Phew. Done!”
Yerin stretched with both hands on her hips.
On the white-sand beach, thinly sliced coconut flesh had been neatly laid out on rocks.
The sun was strong and the sea breeze was just right, so they should dry nicely.
“Rils.”
“Yep.”
“Then why did you tell us to light a fire on the beach?”
“We’re camping out today.”
At the sudden remark, Yerin looked blank.
“Camping? All of a sudden? What kind of camping is that?”
“We’re going to do night shellfishing.”
“Ah.”
Only then did she nod as if she understood.
I pointed with my finger at the shells scattered on the ground.
“Shellfish and conchs that wash up on land get eaten by birds first.”
“That’s true.”
“But the ones hiding under the sand beneath the sea can’t be eaten by birds, right? So they’re fine.”
Birds wouldn’t be able to dive underwater, dig through the sand, and catch the shellfish after all.
There would probably be plenty of live shellfish and bivalves in the water.
Yerin’s eyes sparkled at my explanation.
“Rils. Then can we have grilled shellfish tonight?”
“If we’re lucky.”
“Nice! I’ll wipe them out completely. Heh heh.”
As expected, the moment food was mentioned, Yerin’s energy shot up at once.
Then.
Kim Woong, who had been quietly listening to the explanation, suddenly raised his hand, like a student asking a professor a question in class.
“Benefactor, I have a question!”
“Yep.”
“But wouldn’t torches have too short a lifespan? If we’re going shellfishing, we’d probably need something like a flashlight.”
Oh.
That was a good question, worthy of a top student.
I picked up the bamboo container beside me.
Inside was the resin I’d gathered all day.
The sticky golden liquid was oozing inside the container.
“So I went and got this.”
“What is it?”
“Tree resin.”
I also took out the rabbit hide I’d brought in advance.
“Just smear the hide with plenty of resin and light it on fire.”
“Oh.”
“It burns much longer than lighting a twig or some grass.”
“How long does it burn?”
“About ten minutes? It would’ve been better if we had cloth. Hide is tough, so it doesn’t catch fire easily.”
After hearing that, Kim Woong stroked his chin and thought hard about something. Then he sprang to his feet.
“Benefactor.”
“Yep?”
“I’ll go look around nearby and see if I can find any clothes or something.”
“Clothes? Then it’d be easier if the three of us searched together.”
Kim Woong waved his hand repeatedly.
“No. You and Yerin-nim have had a lot of trouble today, so I’ll go quickly by myself. Everyone, please rest up.”
“Yep.”
“Then I’ll be off.”
Kim Woong strode into the jungle without hesitation.
For some reason, his steps looked strangely light.
@
There was a reason Kim Woong had set out so confidently.
The reason was the two female streamers he used to live with.
They were people far removed from survival.
And they always just complained as they followed behind Kim Woong.
-Ah, my outer jacket got covered in dirt. Gross.
-Come on. It’s not even a luxury brand or anything.
-Exactly. We should just throw it away when the content ends.
-We could just dump it on the deserted island and leave it there.
Back then, he had listened to their words without thinking much of them.
But now things were different.
“If things go well, I might be able to find some easily.”
Kim Woong muttered to himself and quickened his pace.
His destination was the shelter where he used to live.
It was a little far from the coast, but that didn’t matter.
After all, he was confident in his stamina.
He just had to think of it as endurance training.
‘What if they’re still doing well?’
What if, against all odds, they had survived and were still maintaining the shelter?
Kim Woong soon shook his head.
‘No way.’
The odds of that were slim to begin with.
There had already been torrential rain before, and according to Rils, the shelter he had made was no different from a pile of trash.
Even if they were still alive, he could just pretend not to see them and move on.
After walking for quite a while,
a familiar place came into view.
“…….”
Then Kim Woong came to a stop.
And before his eyes, the shelter he had painstakingly built came into view.
The frame had been blown away by the wind, and the roof had caved in.
Debris strewn everywhere greeted him.
“Wow. If it hadn’t been for the benefactor, I really would’ve been in big trouble.”
Before Kim Woong met the Rils Party,
the place he had lived looked less like somewhere people lived and more like a ruin swept away by a typhoon.
“…….”
Kim Woong fell silent for a moment at the horrific sight.
As expected, the saying that good is rewarded and evil is punished wasn’t said for nothing. Then he suddenly thought of his current life.
A cozy cave that blocked the wind, a fire pit that gave off warm heat, and even a water source close to where they lived.
And there was even the reliable gatekeeper, Baby-nim, who drove off intruders.
“I really need to be loyal.”
Kim Woong’s respect for Rils rose even higher as he slowly began to look around.
Mightn’t the jungle knife they had taken from him be here too?
“Hmm. Nothing here?”
As he rummaged through the collapsed wreckage by hand, brushed away the sand piled on top of it, and searched the surroundings thoroughly,
“Oh.”
He finally found something usable.
Two outer jackets half-buried in the sand near the shelter.
A sportswear brand logo shone brightly on the chest.
Kim Woong recognized the jackets at a glance. They were the outer jackets worn by the female streamers he used to hang around with.
They were covered in dirt, but they were perfect as torch material.
All he’d need to do was roughly wash off the dirt in seawater, dry them, and then use them.
He nodded in satisfaction.
‘This should be enough to earn praise from the benefactor, right?’
Kim Woong draped the two outer jackets over his shoulders and turned back toward the shore where Rils was waiting.
“Hmmm~ I’m feeling really refreshed.”
as he hummed a tune.
@
“Ohhh, Kim Woong-nim is amazing!”
“Haha. This much is nothing to me. If my benefactor tells me to, I can even pluck the stars from the night sky.”
Watching him put on a one-man show, Yerin snorted in disbelief.
“Rils. I definitely told you this before, didn’t I?”
“What about?”
“That I’ve never seen a decent guy among men who talk like that.”
Despite Yerin’s mockery, Rils’s eyes stayed fixed on the outer jackets Kim Woong had brought back.
“They look perfect for cutting up and using as torch material.”
Then she immediately ran to the sea, shook the dirt off the jackets, and laid them out to dry in the sunlight.
Rils nodded in satisfaction and said to Kim Woong with her usual blank expression.
“Kim Woong-nim.”
“Yes, benefactor!”
“Since you caught a crayfish last time and brought back material for torches today,”
Rils paused briefly and continued.
“I’ll give you two praise stickers.”
“……!”
Kim Woong’s pupils trembled as if an earthquake had struck.
“Two? You’re giving me two praise stickers?”
“Yep.”
“Hahahaha!”
Kim Woong threw his head back and laughed heartily, looking up at the sky with a face like he’d gained the whole world.
“Thank you! To think I’d finally be able to get praise stickers from the benefactor... Today really is my lucky day.”
Seeing that, Yerin shot to her feet under the coconut tree.
“Wait!”
“……?”
“Rils. Isn’t that a bit unfair?”
“What about?”
“How can you give two at once?”
“Here.”
“I only gave you one today!”
“Yerin-nim only did one thing today.”
“What?”
Yerin’s eyebrows twitched.
“I worked hard too, cutting bamboo and hauling seawater under this blazing sun!”
“Yep.”
“And I dug the sand and lit the fire, too. I messed up my fingernails until they were a disaster. Look at this.”
Yerin showed Rils her ruined fingernails as if she had been wronged.
“Well, who gets a manicure before coming to a deserted island?”
“Rils, you’re way too T. You’re lacking sensitivity.”
“Yep.”
“And I worked hard drying the coconuts too.”
“That was a group effort, so it doesn’t count.”
“Hey!”
It wasn’t like they were elementary school kids getting stickers from a teacher.
A single praise sticker had somehow made the atmosphere strangely serious.
But Yerin was genuinely indignant.
‘Why do I get one sticker and Kim Woong gets two?’
For some reason, Yerin felt like Kim Woong was threatening her standing in the party.
Especially.
That praise sticker Rils tossed out so casually.
That thing was weirdly infuriating.
No matter how hard she worked, she always got just one sticker.
And Kim Woong gets two?
Isn’t this an unfair example of discrimination in a competitive society?
“Rils.”
“Yep.”
“Give me two praise stickers too.”
“No.”
“Why!”
“Kim Woong did better.”
“…….”
That was a fatal blow.
Yerin clutched her chest. Beside her, Kim Woong grinned obliviously.
“Yerin-nim. Haha. Next time, just work even harder until the benefactor is satisfied.”
“Kim Woong-ssi.”
“Yes?”
“Be quiet.”
“……Yes.”
As the childish war over praise stickers raged on,