Chapter 101 - Chapter 101: Hunting for a Cute(ish) Fish (Part 2)

I dove into the water. My eyes immediately fell on a beautiful scene. Delicious-looking fish were swimming all around me.

I dove in deeper with the VJ right behind me. He then began to film the glorious scene around him.

“That looks pretty good.”

I followed a particular fat fish even deeper under water. The fish quickly dove under a rock. I then aimed my harpoon. As soon as that fish dared to come out, I was definitely gonna get it.

But after about a minute, it still didn’t come out. With that, I continued to wait. We’ll see who wins in the end.

One minute and thirty seconds later. The fish had no intention of coming out, while I had no intention of giving up. But just then, the VJ tapped me on the shoulder.

“?”

I turned to look at the VJ. He pointed at his throat, gesturing his need to breathe. As a response, I waved at him, telling him to go ahead. He immediately swam upwards for some air. If he needs to breathe, he can just go on ahead. Why’s he asking for my permission? Anyways, I turned my attention back on the rock….and at the very moment I did, the fish came out from under the rock and began to swim away.

‘I don’t think so!’n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

I swam after it, but even I was too slow for the fish.

‘Fuck!’

This sucked! And if that wasn’t bad enough, the fish actually stopped to turn around and stare at me. I swear it was smirking. I’m sure you’re wondering how a fish could smirk, but I swear it was. The bratty fish turned around, shaking its little tail in my face as it disappeared.

‘Are you kidding me?’

To think that I just got laughed at by a fish. This is all that muscular VJ’s fault. I swam upwards myself to gather my thoughts. As soon as I broke through the surface, the VJ swam towards me. He was still gasping for air.

“Hey…Sian…how can you…hold your breath…for….for so long…”

“You’re just weak. You should’ve brought an oxygen tank.”

“Well, that’s…”

Just then, Sung-hwan swam towards me.

“Hey, Sian.”

“Yeah?”

“There you are.”

“Yep. How did your fishing go?”

“Not good. This harpoon isn’t that great.”

Uh-huh, sure. Look at him making excuses.

“Oh, really? So you couldn’t even catch one?”

“Yeah. This harpoon is really weird.”

He then gestured towards my harpoon.

“What? You want mine?”

I passed my harpoon over onto Sung-hwan. His face lit up immediately.

“What about yours?”

“Mine broke. It was really weak.”

“.....”

So it’s the harpoon’s fault, huh? Wasn’t this guy a heavyweight champion…well, he wasn’t acting like one!

“You couldn’t catch one either, huh?”

‘I just started, you bastard,’ I said to myself.

“Just watch me, okay? I’ll go and catch one, then I’ll teach you how to do it.”

This guy sounded very confident just now. Where he got such unfounded confidence, I have no idea.

“Okay~”

“Oh, here.” Sung-hwan then passed me his harpoon and I caught it.

“Good luck, Sian!”

With a wave, Sung-hwan disappeared.

“How did he break it?” I looked at the harpoon. It was barely holding itself together.

“He really did a fucking number on this thing.”

At that, the VJ looked shocked.

“Sorry for cursing.” As I apologized, I pulled the harpoon trigger.

Twang.

Whoosh!

The hook flew. Going…going…

“Huh?” I tilted my head.

“What?” The VJ exclaimed, looking in the direction I was staring at. Just then, the harpoon in my hand was bending. Something strong was on the other hand, tugging hard.

Snap! Snap snap! Snap!

Whatever it was, it was strong. Soon, it jumped out of the water and we could clearly see what it was. It was a shark.

“Whoa!”

“Wow!”

We both gasped simultaneously. Luckily, it was only a baby shark. Then again, even though it was speared, it didn’t die and began to swim towards me. It opened its jaws wide, giving me a clear view of its sharp teeth. Even as a baby, those teeth were pretty impressive. It was clearly aiming for my neck, but my fist was faster and I used it to hit the shark right on the nose.

Wham!

Glub glub glub…

***

“Who knew we’d get to eat shark?” Byung-hoon asked, looking down at the baby shark in amazement.

“Good, huh?” I said with a big smile. Byung-hoon then gave me a thumbs up.

“How did you catch it?”

“With this?” I said, holding up the broken harpoon. Byung-hoon’s jaw dropped.

“How did this happen…”

“I don’t know. Anyways, I had actually planned to let it live since it was only a baby. Unfortunately, it approached me, like it wanted to die. So, I killed it.”

“Good job. But a shark…there aren’t supposed to be any sharks around here, are there?”

This time, Byung-hoon turned to look at the main producer who swam up to him.

“Of course not,” the producer said. So, Byung-hoon pointed at the baby shark.

“Then explain this.”

“What is it?”

“A baby shark.”

“What? Uh…um…?...!!!”

The producer’s mouth fell open and all of a sudden, he cried, “Shark!”

At that, everyone in the water freaked out and tried to swim out of the water. Surprisingly, it was can’t-swim Ji-sung who was ahead of everyone. He was amazing! He could definitely be faster than me. Was it just beginner’s luck?

“Hurry! If there’s a baby, the mother is probably close by!” the producer shouted as he sped out of the water. We all immediately returned to shore.

***

Luckily, we all managed to get out of the water before the mother shark appeared. The producer immediately showed the baby shark to the guide who looked shocked at the sight of it. The research team came out and claimed the baby shark. I protested, but it couldn’t be helped. Hmph! My shark meat!

“But we’ll make you ramyun,” the producer said, immediately noticing my disappointed face. Was he kidding? How could instant noodles compare to the delicacy of shark meat? Then again, I guess it’s better than nothing, so I conceded. What can I say? I’m easy to please.

“I guess we can’t go fishing anymore,” Byung-hoon said, looking disappointed himself.

“This sucks. I was going to clean out the entire ocean,” Sung-hwan muttered. He seemed disappointed as well. So, I asked.

“Did you catch any?”

“No, since the shark appeared.”

“I see, but I caught something. A shark, at that.”

“You got lucky.”

So he was just chalking it up to luck, huh? I almost socked him for that but let it go.

“Oh well. We’ll just enjoy the view. I know it’s disappointing, but we can still look for land animals.”

“Let’s go looking for giant crabs!” Junho shouted.

“Sian already caught one,” Byung-hoon said, pointing at the giant crab that was killed earlier. Junho nodded, not looking surprised in the least.

“Let’s partner up and continue hunting. Out here, the only thing you can eat is crab, but there are a lot of different types, so try to get different ones. If you see a big one, tell me okay? Don’t go crazy and get bitten.”

“Yes, sir!” We all replied. After that, Byung-hoon went on to pair us up.

“I’ll go with Ji-chun. Junho with Hye-jeong. And Sian and Sung-hwan will go together. Okay?”

“Okay,” we all replied. Ugh, I’m with Sung-hwan again?

“Looks like we’re partners again, Sian!”

Well, at least one of us was happy.

“Yep,” I said, forcing a smile. No, this was a good thing. This gives me the chance to hit the guy and make it look like an accident. With him tossing that harpoon at me, I was really not liking this guy.

“Let’s go hunting!” Byung-hoon shouted.

We all headed off in different directions.

“Follow me, Sian!”

“Okay.”

I followed Sung-hwan. I really hate it when people act like this towards me. No one tells me what to do but me. Oh, wait. There’s Jinwoo, but other than him, no one. Nonetheless, I had to be careful about this. There was a camera filming our every move.

“Sian. Come over here.”

“Okay.”

We stood in front of a tree. It was huge and had fruit hanging off its branches. So I figured we were going to pick the fruit, but that wasn’t it. Sung-hwan began to dig between the roots.

“Let’s dig here.”

“Why?”

“Look. There’s a hole. There could be crab hiding here.”

“You sure?”

Yeah, there was a hole near the roots, but it looked like a rat hole to me.

“Then you dig here then. I’ll look for another hole.”

“You want me to dig?”

“Yeah. You can just use your hands. It’s not that hard.”

‘Then you do it, you bastard,’ I thought to myself.

Sung-hwan looked down at me, wondering why I wasn’t getting started. Suddenly, I pointed above his head. He looked up and I immediately gave a high kick.

“Ah!” Sung-hwan shouted, ducking to avoid the kick. My foot hit the trunk.

Wham!

The tree shook and soon, the dangling fruit began to fall off its branches one by one.

Thud thud thud. Thud thud thud.

One of them was a large coconut which fell right on top of Sung-hwan’s head.

Thwack!

Sung-hwan’s head must have been really hard because the coconut cracked in two. Also, the coconut must have been hard as well because Sung-hwan’s eyes began to lose focus and all of a sudden, he passed out.

“That’s better.”

“W-what?” the VJ asked, looking terrified. He asked, “Shouldn’t we call the medic…?”

“No. He’s just shocked. Just give it thirty minutes.”

I’m not a doctor, but I know this much at least. But just then, a thought occurred to me – what if something happened to him.

So, I turned back to the VJ.

“Call the medic.”

“Okay!”

The VJ ran over to our campsite. As for me, I started digging at the hole, just to be sure. I swear, if there was no crab…

But after digging for a bit, a huge hole appeared. I immediately began to dig deeper and found myself looking at a large crab. I looked over at Sung-hwan who was still passed out. At that moment, I felt a bit sorry. But only a little bit.

“There really was one, like you said. Sorry.”

With a sincere apology, I made a crab for the crab. The crab snapped its claws and managed to take hold of my right finger.

“Ow!”

Wow, that hurt.

“Ow..that hurt…!”

But the crab didn’t relent. In fact, it only gripped my finger even harder. The crab was enormous. Probably as big as one of Sung-hwan’s thighs! But the most surprising part was the fact that the crab’s giant claw was five times bigger than its body! With a jump, it leaped into the air and grabbed onto my wrist.

Snap.

“What the!”

Shit, that really hurt. With my right index finger and wrist both in its hold, my left hand began to move.