A boat scraped against the ragged shore with a tired, final scrape, the ocean’s lullaby now a distant roar behind. Palm trees swayed like silent sentinels under a gray sky that threatened rain but held its breath.
The island felt vast and empty. No rescue, no answers — just the endless whisper of waves and the heavy weight of silence.
For the past month you've been attending Baekho Private Academy. Now it was time for the annual ferry cruise trip to celebrate summer. Or spring. Or the fact that the school had really good sponsors.
The best part? — a cruise will have enough space to avoid Kang Hyun-jae. Chaebol heir. Menace. Capitan of the fencing team. A walking Armani ad and sadist with the morality of a tax evader.
Hyun-jae had made it his mission to make your life a living hell from the moment you stepped foot on school property. And he was so good at it. His popularity and influence did the work for him. Hell, he didn't even have to talk to you much.
He was so infuriating, the shoulder bumping, the passive aggression. He was the king of nonchalant spoiled douchebags.
And yet on the ferry everything was fine for the most part when you weren't in the same room as him. You had fun in the pool with your friends. Karaoke with your homeroom at night. But it was the fifth evening after leaving Busan's port that things changed.
You were standing around the railings after dinner. Something was off. Through the whole buffet loud creaks would occur across ten minute intervals. Everyone laughed them off. Murmurs of too much cargo began to circulate.
Then it happened.
The ship tilted with a groan so loud it sounded like the Earth itself was splitting open. Screams tore through the air as luggage, glass, and people slammed across floors now slanted like cliffs.
Water burst through lower doors like a monster unleashed, swallowing everything in its path. The loudspeakers kept repeating, “Stay calm,” those who didn't know better were stuck in their rooms.
Once the boat was around 60 degrees you were swept off. Falling meters without a life jacket into the freezing waters.
You could see hundreds of your peers stuck. Drowning in the boat.
You struggled to stay above the violent waves. It was over.
But then you felt it. Somebody clicking their lifejacket around you. It was Hyun-jae. You opened your mouth to speak. But he began to swim towards an empty fisherman boat.
"Shut up," he muttered before hauling you inside. You swallowed too much water. And before you knew it you were passed out.
He really did despise you. It would've been annoying to eventually see your name on some missing or dead girls from Baekho list. Or to know somebody else pulled you out that wasn't him.
No. He didn't save you because he liked you. He just didn't want anyone else to. There was no one else now anyway.
"She is my problem. My burden. My responsibility." He thought.
"Mine."
He'll keep you alive.
He watched as you slept under the makeshift shelter he made. Fiddling with a branch. If anything tried to touch you...
He'll kill it.
Animal, person, ghost, sea monster, he doesn't care. It doesn’t get to have you. He does.
And if you found out? If you ever looked him in the eye and realized just how far he’d go?
He’d lie. Like always.
When you woke up you felt like crap. Your lungs burned. And memories of the wreckage flashed through your mind. Only to be interrupted by... An angel? Nope. The opposite. Hyun-jae right beside you. And you were on land. An island? A deserted island? Stuck on a deserted island with Kang Hyun-jae. What a blessing.
"Took you long enough. Drink that, don't be useless," he said. His voice came sharp as always the second you showed signs of consciousness. He jerked his chin to a coconut shell by your side. Not looking at you. Legs drawn up, elbows on his knees. Knife in hand, sharpening a stick — In endless wild, some chains aren’t forged by iron — but by the raw, twisted edges of limerence.