The Woods

Kacia's P.O.V.

I hear the shouts before I even reach the edge of the market. I see a large circle surrounding two young men. Shoving my way through the crowd, I recognize my neighbor, Choi Soobin, and the local bully, Jeon Wonwoo.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me!" I shout, pushing in between the boys. Wonwoo spits at me, but Soobin grabs my arm.

"What are you doing? Get out of here!" He whispers, trying to lead me away. I pull away from him and face Wonwoo.

"You need to stop this nonsense. All you do is bully those who can't or won't fight back. What does your father think about this? I bet he doesn't know, does he? Does he know that you chase all the girls around, but you're so mean, none of them will talk to you anymore? Jeon Wonwoo, you need a reality check, and a slap across the face. This fight is over, go home." I turn and take Soobin's arm. Wonwoo grabs me by my braid and throws me to the ground. I scramble to my feet and put my fists up the way my brother, Namjoon, taught me. Wonwoo laughs and steps forward. Before he gets very far my friends, Renjun, BamBam, Hyunjin, Win, and Dowoon tackle him to the ground. Soobin grabs my arm and we take off across the market. I glance behind me and see the boys running after us.

"Keep going! To The Woods!" Win yells. Soobin pulls me along faster until we reach the edge of the dark forest. Without hesitation, he plunges into the undergrowth, dragging me with him. We finally reach a small clearing and stop. Hyunjin keeps running, but BamBam goes after him and brings him back.

"Why? Why did you guys do that? I can tae care of myself." I cross my arms and turn away from them. Renjun puts a hand on my shoulder.

"Jeongin asked Hyunjin to make sure you didn't get hurt. Hyunjin asked us to help. I thought you liked Jeongin." Renjun says softly. Soobin looks up and meets my eyes, but I can't deal with relationship stuff right now. I look around the clearing and try to see which way we came from. All I can see are the dark, twisting trees surrounding us, with no way out.

"Guys, which way did we come from?" I ask. BamBam's eyes widen and he takes off.

"BamBam, no!" I yell, chasing after him. I hear four pairs of feet following me and wish they had stayed put. After a while, I can't see BamBam anymore, but I can hear whinpers coming from somewhere near me. I poke around in the undergrowth until I find BamBam sitting on the ground. His leg is twisted in a funny way and there's a widening pool of blood underneath it. I kneel and tear a long strip from my shirt. Wrapping it around his leg, I pull it tight and try to cut off the blood flow to his leg. I can't hear BamBam whimpering anynore, so he must not be in pain anymore. Someone pulls me away from BamBam and thats when I see that I'm right. BamBam isn't in pain anymore. I turn to some bushes and throw up.

"What happened? Why did Kacia- Oh!" Win must have seen the body. Apparently, he lost too much blood before I got there.

"He was fine, though. When I first started to cut off the blood. He was still whimpering and making pained sounds. He was alive." I squat and put my head between my knees. Soobin leads me away and puts his arm around me. I lean into him, grateful, when I realize Renjun and Hyunjin aren't with us anymore.

"They're back at the clearing trying to build some shelter and a fire." Soobin whispers to me. I exhale in relief and allow him to take me back to the clearing. Once we get there, I see a roaring fire, an impressive shelter, and some dead rabbits. There's a crude spear on the ground and it's covered in blood. The sight of blood makes me light headed and I start to sway on my feet. Soobin props me up and helps me over to the fire to sit.

"Nice shelter, but it only needs to be temporary. We aren't going to be here that long." Soobin says to Renjun, rubbing my back.

"Yeah, we just thought that since Kacia's here too, it should be better than some sticks propped against a tree." Hyunjin puts in. The shelter was built on some knocked down logs used for a floor. The used the tightly packed trees around the clearing for natural walls and leaves for a roof.

"We've been gone for six hours. Why hasn't anyone come to look for us?" I wonder aloud, yawning. Soobin helps me stand, and nobody answers. He takes me to the shelter and helps me make a bed of leaves against the wall. I know why they won't answer. It's because there is no one coming to look for us. In our families, we're the trouble children. We're the ones getting into fights and skipping school. No one is coming to look for us because they want us to stay lost.