After we finished our meals, we all laid down to rest. Just like the night before, there were a billion stars across the sky, twinkling and glistening as they put on their own show.
“It’s pretty.”
Have stars always been this pretty? You can’t see stuff like this in Korea.
“It was like this back then as well.”
And there I go again, thinking about my old village. Oh…here comes the tears. I want to hold it in, but the female hormones have definitely taken over me. I feel like I’m becoming more and more sensitive lately.
“What are you thinking about?” Hye-jeong asked all of a sudden.
“Huh? You’re not sleeping?”
“I can’t sleep.”
Hye-jeong sat next to me and laid down, looking up at the stars.
“That star,” she said all of a sudden. “That’s my star.”
“Huh?”
Which one? There was basically a bajillion of them.
“The one right there. The brightest one.”
“Oh, that one?”
It was Venus. Was she comparing herself to the goddess of beauty?
“Isn’t it pretty?”
“Yeah,” I said with a nod.
Venus truly is a beautiful star. It reminded me of Jia. I really missed her, as well as the way she would always pout and act all cute towards me. Her space next to me felt rather empty.
“Hey.”
“What?”
“Have you really not been bitten by an alligator yet?”
“Nope. Not yet.”
Okay, I have. But then again, it technically doesn’t count because I wasn’t injured. It was the alligator that became the victim with its broken teeth.
“Mr. Lee called me earlier. He said that there’s no possible way you didn’t get bit and asked me to make sure.”
“What’s there to make sure about? I’m still here, aren’t I? Ain’t that proof enough?”
“I mean, yeah. But for some reason, he keeps saying you’ll definitely get bitten. That you have to.”
“You can tell him to go to hell.”
“Okay.”
“Now that I think about it, how did he get in contact with you?”
“Oh, there was another manager who came with me. He talks to Mr. Lee.”
“I see. Well, like I said, he can go to hell.”
“Okay,” Hye-jeong said with a nod.
“Oh, hey.”
“What now?”
Seriously, can’t this girl shut up? I want to wallow and be miserable in peace.
“Did you really throw that button at me?”
“Yeah.”
“How? I couldn’t even tell where it was coming from.”
“Of course you couldn’t.”
“How did you do it?” Hye-jeong asked, her face the epitome of curiosity
“You really want to know?”
“Yeah.”
“Here. I’ll show you.”
I picked up a small rock off the ground. I pointed at a heegak resting on top of a boulder in the distance. Now that I think about it, I’ve seen a heegak every night since I’ve been here.
“Are you going to hit that bird?” Hye-jeong asked, sounding doubtful.
“Yeah.”
The bird was really far away. With my powers, I could see everything down to its nostrils, but for Hye-jeong, it was an indistinguishable bird.
“First, I’m going to hit the rock. That will make it jump into the air. And that’s when I’ll throw another one to hit it directly.”
“Is that possible?” Hye-jeong asked, her eyes wide.
“Watch.”
I threw the rock.
Whoosh!
The rock flew at the boulder and hit it hard.
Crack!
The rock hit the boulder so hard that we immediately heard it make impact. At that moment, the bird jumped into the air and I immediately threw another rock at it.
Whoosh!
Once again, the rock flew at its mark and hit the heegak right on target.
Wham!
The bird fell to the ground instantly. I felt a little bad for it, but…
“Wow,” Hye-jeong said, her jaw dropping to the floor. Her face had an expression of pure disbelief.
“See?”
“You’re really…”
“Watch your mouth.”
“Okay,” Hye-jeong said with a nod, but her face didn’t look at all judgmental. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she was falling in love with me. Well I hope not. It was getting rather annoying to have so many people falling for me. I wish they would stop.
***
Soon, it was morning. I woke up to the sound of a rooster, but sure enough, it was just Hye-jeong’s phone alarm again. I almost broke it to pieces right there. She’s not even using it, so why did she bring her phone? She doesn’t even touch it. She just uses it as a clock. Then again, considering that it annoys the crap out of me every morning, maybe there’s another purpose.
“Good morning, Sian,” Byung-hoon said, giving me a wave. Byung-hoon Lee. He’s gotten heavier since we started this show. Not just him, though. It seems that everyone has gained some pounds. Probably because of how much we’ve been eating. We’ve eaten a heegak, an alligator, and some eels. Not to mention the coconuts. We really did stuff ourselves.
“You’re up early, Sir.”
“Yeah, I went for a walk. But hey, look what I found. Ta-da.”
Byung-hoon whipped out a dead heegak.
“Oh, did you catch it yourself? That’s impressive.”
“No, I didn’t do this. It was already laying behind that boulder, dead.”
“Oh.”
So it was the heegak that I killed last night. Seeing it made me feel bad again. Why did it have to sit itself on that boulder?
“But you know what’s strange? There was a huge lump on the side of its head. It looks like it got hit by something.”
Byung-hoon kept looking at the bird in his hand with a perplexed expression, trying to figure out what had caused the lump.
“Maybe it bumped into something,” I said with a shrug. It’s not like he’ll believe me if I tell him the real story, so I just decided to feel happy for him.
“For breakfast, we’ll feast on roasted heegak and eel.”
“Okay!”
Breakfast would be another feast! Who says it’s a survival show? Looks like an eating show to me.
***
We were enjoying our breakfast when the main producer showed up.
“Today is our last day here.”
“What?”
We all looked at the producer, looking quite confused. A few even looked annoyed. I looked at the lobster head producer, who looked right back at me. Was he a monk? He didn’t seem at all affected by my sexy, feminine eyes. In fact, he looked back rather defiantly. He’s going places, that man. I better be nice to him.
“Then, where are we going next?” Byung-hoon asked. He didn’t seem at all scared about what the producer had just said. Then again, he’s been doing this show for about two years now. He’s probably gotten used to stuff like this now.
“We’re going to follow the river and meet with the Samaran tribe.”
“The Samaran tribe?”
“Yep. You will spend the day with them and learn about their culture.”
We all nodded in understanding.
“But isn’t the river dangerous?” Hye-jeong asked.
Looking at her face, I can tell that she was scared. And her face wasn’t the only one. They probably remembered that alligators lived in that river. I guess the idea would be frightening.
“You’ll be in a boat and there will be guides to ensure your safety.”
The producer spoke as if there was nothing to worry about, but the group was far from assured.
“Hey, do you have life insurance?” Junho asked Byung-hoon.
“I have five.”
“Of course you do. I drew up three.”
The two grinned at each other knowingly.
“Um, excuse me. I only have one,” Ji-chun whined with a pout.
“Anyways, we’ll leave right after breakfast, so get ready.”
“Okay!” we all readily answered.
***
After eating breakfast and packing up our stuff, we headed for the river. It took us about two hours to get there, but isn’t this where I caught the alligator the other day? I could even see the broken alligator teeth.
“Hey! There’s alligator teeth here,” Sung-hwan said, bringing the pieces over.
“Maybe it’s from that alligator we ate,” he said. “His teeth were all broken too, remember?”
“No way,” Byung-hoon said, waving his hand dismissively.
“The distance from here to our campsite is way too far. What kind of alligator would wander that far? Besides, a cold-blooded animal like an alligator won’t be able to wander too far because if they move too much, their lactic acid will build up and cause paralysis.” Everyone agreed with Byung-hoon, though Sung-hwan looked so sure that he was right. No surprise there. Athletes generally have good intuition.
“Everyone, over here, please,” the lobster head producer said to catch our attention. We followed him to a small cluster of boats surrounded by men carrying guns. The sight of them was a relief for the group. And just then, Hye-jeong screamed.
“Look! An alligator!”
Everyone looked to where Hye-jeong was pointing and began to shout.
“There really is one!”
“So scary…”
“It’s huge,” Sung-hwan gasped. Even he looked frightened. And remember that he’s won 8th overall in the UCIVA heavyweight championship. That means he’s considered he 8th best fighter in the world. If he’s scared, I can only imagine how frightened everyone else would be. Just then, our guide said something to the interpreter who translated for us.
“He says not to worry. There’s no reason for it to attack us.”
“But still, are you sure it’s safe? Are we going to ride on that boat?” Sung-hwan asked, his scared expression looking out of place on his huge body.
“Yes, we are. You really have nothing to worry about,” the producer said with a smile. Apparently, there are a lot of people who cross this river by boat on the daily.
So with our worries, we all climbed into the boat and headed for the nearby Samaran village.
***
“The alligators are behaving quite strangely,” the interpreter said.
Sure enough, they really were. The moment my boat passed by, they would all run away and disappear. Even the ones who were far away would look back warily, staring at my boat. Wait a minute…were they looking at me?
“This is how alligators behave when they meet a natural enemy.”
“A natural enemy?”
Everyone looked confused. Do alligators even have anything to be afraid of?
“Yes. Animals like leopards or giant otters can easily attack an alligator. They’re also known as Amazon otters, but even so, the guide says he’s never seen alligators this frightened before.”
Even the other guides looked amazed as they watched the alligators swim away from our boat.
“Is it because of me?”
I looked at an alligator and met its eyes. It immediately turned its head and began to swim away furiously. Now that I think about it, they also ran away when I beat up that gator. Maybe they told the other alligators about it. Anyways, the sight of the alligators’ strange behavior brought a sense of relief for the group, and we continued on in peace.
***
After about an hour, we arrived safely at our destination.
“The village is about an hour’s walk from here,” the producer informed us.
“I will lead the crew to the village first so we can get ready. The rest of you will follow the lobster head producer.”
Byung-hoon seemed concerned at that.
“He’s just the new guy. Are you sure he won’t get lost?”
“I’m sure. He knows the way. Right, Youn-mi?”
“Yes, sir,” the lobster head producer said with a firm nod. Youn-mi Yoo. He graduated from Seoul National University, the top-ranked institution in the country. Unlike his appearance, his skillset makes it clear that he’s not one to be messed with.
“With that, I’ll be off to prepare your welcome with the village members. That’s why you guys just take your time when you follow us.”
With that, the main producer left with the staff.
Now, it was our turn.
“We’ll leave now. Don’t rush, okay? We don’t want anyone to get hurt. Slowly but surely.”
We all nodded at the lobster head producer’s words. The four men stood around me and Hye-jeong. While Hye-jeong seemed reassured by this formation, I didn’t feel just as confident.
