The Last Call | An Iz*One Journey

Chapter 10: Open Your Eyes

Hyewon's POV

Yena stroked her chin absentmindedly; she was deep in thought.

Or maybe just stoning, as usual.

"34 gears. We need to put them back in place for the generator to work." She slowly pushed herself off the ground from her kneeling posture, struggling to stand up even when I helped her.

"Yah. You seem to be a genius at these kind of things." Deep inside, I could almost recognise the bitter taste of envy in my mouth. In comparison to her, even my hard work and dedication seem to come to naught, going unacknowledged by fellow Wizones. In some of their eyes, I'm nothing but a pretty face.  Well... Yena was naturally gifted in many things - her talent for dancing, her vocal ability for singing and rapping, as well as her charming personality - instantly winning the hearts of those she sought.

Maybe that's the reason why Yuri was smitten by her - and not me.

"I'll leave you to it, alright Hyewon?" She placed her mitten hand at my shoulder, squeezing my bony shoulder blade comfortingly. Her cheshire grin so brazen, but told me so little about what was in her mind. With careful strides, she shuffled towards the medical tent once again, where Hitomi had been waiting for her. Alright - I need to focus on getting this thing fixed.

"Everyone," I started off towards the campfire, where Yuri, Minju, Nako and Wonyoung huddled around the fire, "we need to start looking for working gears to fix the generator. Once that's done, we can power some of the aircraft's equipment to call for help."

They all nodded attentively, before Minju spoke up. "Unnie, I can help with that. It shouldn't be too difficult for me." She assured, referring to her bruised eye. The healing seemed to have expedited since we first found her, though still looking a bit worrisome.

"Me too, Hyewon-unnie." Nako said resolutely, getting up on her knees energetically. "It's been a long time since I've gotten some exercise anyway."

"No, Nako. I'm not gonna let you walk around with a hole in your tummy." I chided her like a distraught mother. Glancing at my partially-shattered wristwatch, I noted that it was still early in the day. "Besides, you can help prepare lunch while we're away."

Her lips curled into a sad pout as she agreed reluctantly. As she walked away wordlessly, her shoulders sagged lowly. Sigh, I just hope she understands that we're not gonna play with anyone's lives here.

"Alright everyone," I regarded the three remaining members, "Let's get ready to leave in ten minutes. Minju, just remember not to over-exert yourself." Gaining their acknowledgement, we all set off to prepare ourselves for the little excursion - getting water, adequate warm clothing, and an proper backpack each to store the gears we were going to find. These gears had to be of a specific size, just as all the others on the generator were. It wasn't exactly large to begin with, being about the size of a ripe apple. Yet, being made of a kind of metallic steel, just one of them may weigh several pounds.

"Let's split up. I don't think we will be in any danger walking around the crash site." I decided. While part of me was tempted to pair up with Yuri, I couldn't possibly put one-eyed Minju with the maknae. If anything went wrong, I would never forgive myself. Besides, Yuri was much more matured and well-bodied, so I had to put Wonyoung under her care instead. Responsibilities, responsibilities...

"Be careful girls." I advised Yuri and Wonyoung, giving them a brief touch of the hand right before we separated. Minju and I took the helm of the plane, where Yujin and the gang headed off, while the other pair went to the rear end. Our goal: to search for loose parts or extra gears to fix the generator.

Minju and I scoured the surroundings for any form of debris, hoping to find similar gears as needed. We dug out parts of the torn-up plane, inspected other parts meticulously, and searched high and low for them, but just couldn't get lucky.