Queen of Roses

12) I'll Catch You

"Wow, did someone wake up on the wrong side of the forest this morning?" Taehyung continued to tease, "you should save all this aggressive energy for our training session later."

"Can you two stop flirting long enough to start this fire?" Jisoo asked, throwing her log to the ground with a loud thud.

"We are not flirting," they both replied at the same time, causing the rest of the group to collectively chuckle.

Yoongi rolled his eyes, keeping his face expressionless as he walked towards the firepit, "I can start the fire."

"Perfect," Jisoo took the ax from him, "I will help chop the wood while you do that."

Yoongi's eyes widened in surprise as she hauled the ax above her head and began breaking the logs effortlessly. He could not help but stare at her long flowing hair and slender fingers as she repeatedly broke off chunks of the wood in a smooth motion that put his own technique to shame. It was unbelievable how she managed to possess so much strength and beauty at once.

Sensing his eyes on her, she glanced at his frozen figure questioningly, "is there a problem?"

Yoongi cleared his throat as Taehyung laughed lightly in front of him, no doubt witnessing his awestruck reaction. Without another word he turned sharply and walked away.

After a low fire was burning smoothly in the middle of the clearing, the group gathered around it to warm up and discuss the plan for the day.

"The first thing we need is to find food," Jisoo announced, "since Taehyung and Chaeyoung will be using the morning to train, that only leaves 4 of us to hunt. But, we also need at least 2 people to guard our belongings, which leaves 2 available people to gather food in the end."

"How are we going to decide who does what?" Lisa asked while braiding her long auburn hair.

Jisoo quickly picked up four twigs from the ground and hid them behind her back as she shuffled them around randomly. Then she used both her hands to cover the bottom of the twigs and held them out towards the middle of the circle.

"Everyone pick a stick. The ones who pick the shortest will have to go hunting together."

Seokjin was the first to choose, followed by Yoongi, and then Lisa. Together, they held the sticks in front of them to compare sizes. Immediately, Yoongi felt his heart drop as he saw the results. Seokjin and Lisa began to cheer animatedly, squealing and jumping up and down like fucking four-year-olds.

It appeared, Yoongi and Jisoo were about to spend some quality time together. He just hoped they wouldn't kill each other along the way.

~{❀}~

Chaeyoung laughed as she watched Yoongi and Jisoo grumpily walk away through the expanse of tall pine trees, each carrying a bow and several arrows in their hands. They were already starting to bicker, so she could only imagine the fun they would have on their quest to find food.

"What are you laughing at?" Taehyung gave her a long side-glance, his eyes filled with mischief, "you are about to embark on a far more stressful experience than them."

She knew he was referring to the training they were about to have, and although he tried his best to make it seem terribly strenuous, Chaeyoung was still excited to finally learn the art of combat. As she had repeatedly stated before, she had always wanted to fight. No matter how intensive Taehyung wanted to make this, she was eager to start and determined to learn.

"How many times do I have to tell you? You don't scare me, Kim Taehyung," she replied, plastering a bored expression on her face.

Taehyung rolled his eyes, "let's see if you can still say that in a couple hours. Follow me."