× day nine ⤖ part one ×

                                    

                                          
        
                          
[ Minji's P.O.V ]
                          
There are only so many days you can survive off of berries and edible plants before you start to waste away. I'm rapidly losing energy and probably weight, too. It's hard to tell on myself with my suit on, but I can just feel it.
                          
"Chae, do I...look too...thin to you?" I ask, out of breathe from climbing. We decided to move up another level along the mountain, and we found a large sort of ledge on the side with a climbable path to get up on the side, but a drop off on the other edge. It's hard to tell if this is exactly part of the mountain or not, considering there is more forest on the other side of the ledge connects to more forest - it's just higher up. All the ground is extremely uneven leading up to the mountain, slowly getting higher and higher until you reach the actual hike - or climb, depending on which route you're taking up.
                          
"Nah," Chae tells me in between pants, "You look...just as beautiful as always..." She flashes me a smile and I giggle a bit.
                          
"Thanks Chae. Same...with you..."
                          
"Jesus Christ... it didn't look this steep when I...agreed to move camp up here..." Hwiyoung whines.
                          
"Well, I'll let you in on a...secret, buddy...we only let you vote...to make you feel included...we were coming up here either way..." I try not to laugh as Chaeyoung exposes the truth to Hwiyoung.
                          
"Are you kidding? I thought you guys...trusted me by now..."
                          
"We're still letting you live...under our protection," Chaeyoung tells him, "Meaning out votes hold more value...oh, thank god we're here," she sighs heavily as we finally reach the flat area where we decided to rest for the day.
                          
"Under your protection. I could take Minji any day, she got a 4.5-"
                          
"Hey, watch it," Chaeyoung looks at him pointedly.
                          
"It's fine, Chae," I laugh slightly.
                          
"Yeah, Chae," Hwiyoung smirks, "I was just saying. She's weak. How'd she even get an alliance with you guys? Did you know her before the games or something?"
                          
I'm about to speak up for myself but Chaeyoung gets to it first.
                          
"Listen up, Hwiyoung, she's no more useless than you are; the only difference is that I actually like her. One less person in this group means one more serving of food for us, so if you want to insult Minji, you can do it while you're falling down the edge of the drop-off. Got it?"
                          
Hwiyoung quickly nods, his eyes widening.
                          
"Got it."
                          
I have to restrain myself from clapping for Chaeyoung. I didn't need her to stand up for me, but just the fact that she cares about me enough to do it puts a smile on my face.
                          
I wish I could have known her outside of the games. She seems like such a cool person. 
                          
"Good. Now I'm gonna go walk some ways to set the traps up here. You guys just...don't go anywhere."
                          
"Where would we go?" I chuckle.
                          
"I don't know," She laughs a bit as she heads off further into the woods. As soon as she's out of sight, Hwiyoung turns to me, sighing heavily.
                          
"Yikes. She's a bit uptight, isn't she?"
                          
"I mean, she's trying to keep us safe. She's responsible for catching us food, and it's not going the way she expected. She doesn't completely trust you yet, and it probably doesn't help that you aren't particularly respectful towards us," I throw in a bit of a laugh at the last part to soften the blow.