× day three ⤖ part three ×

                                    

                                          
[Jisung's P.O.V]
                          
I clear my throat awkwardly after a certain amount of time has passed.
                          
"I-I can't believe that just happened."
                          
"I can," Hyunjin says, blatantly. "We were all idiots to trust her. Do you all see it now? This is what happens when we let new people join our group. We lose each other. And that can't be happening if we want to survive until the end."
                          
"And then we'll have to turn against each other," Chaeyoung mutters.
                          
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
                          
Things return to silence for a minute while I mull over what Hyunjin said, and worry sets into my system. He's been slowly warming up to Minji over the past few days, but I'm sure that this incident just knocked down his wall of trust. How is he gonna treat Minji now? Is he still going to let her stay with us?
                          
"We should probably get back to sleep if we wanna be rested for...tomorrow..." Hyunjin mutters.
                          
I almost laugh at his lack of empathy. "Hyunjin, give her some time-"
                          
"It's fine, Jisung, he's right." Chaeyoung stands up, wiping her eyes and taking a deep breath. "We have to accept the fact that we're going to lose our friends in the games. It's inevitable. I just wish we lost her in an honorable way, not to a deceiving, selfish snake like Jaeeun." Chaeyoung looks over at Jaeeun's dead body, her gaze laced with hatred.
                          
"I'm so sorry, Chae," I mumble.
                          
"It's okay. It's not your fault."
                          
"It's mine," Minji stands up next to Chaeyoung, keeping her eyes trained on the ground. "I'm the one who insisted on keeping Jaeeun alive. I should've known she would pull something like this after she ditched me at the cornucopia. We should've kept Wendy alive and killed Jaeeun on the spot."
                          
"Minji, it's not your fault," Chaeyoung starts, "if it were Momo, I would've trusted her, as well, even if she ditched me."
                          
"I was never as close with Jaeeun as you were with Momo...yet I trusted her anyways, and I got two people killed," Minji mutters.
                          
"You didn't get anyone killed. Jaeeun did. Don't take the blame, there was no way you could've known. All of us trusted her to watch over us while we slept, you're no more at fault than the rest of us."
                          
I turn to look at Hyunjin, shocked that he isn't lashing out at Minji for 'getting two of our best fighters killed.' Minji seems to accept Hyunjin's words as the truth since the fact that he's defending her is so abnormal.
                          
"O-Okay...thanks."
                          
"Wait, so you're not gonna kick Minji out now?" I ask quietly.
                          
"She could have tried to escape with Jaeeun, but she didn't. She stood up for us and, even though she couldn't bring herself to kill Jaeeun, she was furious with her. Not sure I could bring myself to kill you, so I can't blame her this time."
                          
I have to say, I'm pleasantly surprised with how Hyunjin is taking this.
                          
"Well, this was a horrible experience. But death is gonna be the norm for the next few days until everyone falls victim to it, leaving - hopefully - one of us as the victor. So we have to learn to move past it. The smartest thing we can do now is to go back to sleep," Hyunjin says, sitting back down on his sleeping bag.
                          
"I think we should walk a little ways first," I suggest, causing everyone to look at me. "I mean, unless anyone wants to fall asleep surrounded by corpses," I gesture to the dead bodies of Momo, Wendy, and Jaeeun.