“I hoped watching me work would be calming for you,” Ji-woo said. “It hasn’t been long since you woke up. I’ll do my best. I’ll buy you so many nice things when I win the prize money.”
The innocent sparkle in her eyes mesmerized him.
“Besides,” she added, “I love treating sick trees.”
That smile was his undoing. He leaned down and captured her lips. His fingers, starved for her skin, tangled in her hair. Her mouth was sweet, yielding. When she tried to step back, he only kissed her more frantically, stealing her breath. It was the worst place for this—the damp scent of the forest floor, their hands caked with mud and grime—but they kissed with a passion that made them forget the work waiting for them. The kiss deepened, grew desperate, until his control snapped and his hand closed over her breast. That was when she pushed him away. He was already hard, the solid ridge of him pressing against her stomach.
With a small sound of protest, their lips finally parted. The first thing she saw were Seo Tae-joon’s bloodshot eyes, a vein pulsing at his temple.
“We can’t do this here,” she whispered. “We’re in the middle of a competition…”
“I know.”
They were both panting, unable to tear their eyes from each other’s lips.
“I-I have to tie the rest of the wire.”
“Okay.”
Ji-woo turned back to her work. Just a few steps away, the air felt different, the breeze suddenly refreshing against her hot skin. Her lips throbbed as if stung by a bee, and she could feel his intense gaze on her back. She had to keep her hands busy.
She wrapped a long wire around a sturdy trunk, then secured the other end to a neighboring tree that looked on the verge of collapse. As she pulled the wire taut, her expression tightened with concern.
“What’s wrong?” Seo Tae-joon asked, pulling her hands from the wire. Ji-woo’s face flushed.
She felt a little flustered under his intense gaze. “This will be so painful for the tree.”
Seo Tae-joon stared at the two trees, one now supporting the other with a single strand of metal. He smiled.
“Why are you smiling?” Ji-woo asked.
“That’s me,” he said.
“Huh?”
“I’m that tree,” he said, gesturing to the failing one. “The one that’s about to fall. But why do you feel sorry for the healthy one, Ji-woo?”
“Because it has to be a support for the other tree for the rest of its life,” she said softly. “This wire will hurt it. It’ll dig into its bark and leave a permanent scar.”
“Poor tree.”
His tone was lightly mocking. As Ji-woo frowned, Seo Tae-joon pointed at the wounded tree. “I think that one is laughing. It’s enjoying this. It gets to look at this beautiful tree for the rest of its life.”
“…”
Ji-woo had no answer for that. She stared at the two trees she had bound together, unable to see what he saw. Shaking her head, she brushed the dirt from her arms and began packing her tools.
Just then, Seo Tae-joon seized her wrist. “Seo Tae-joon!”
She stumbled, nearly losing her balance as he dragged her into a sprint. His grip was iron, her wrist aching as she struggled to match his desperate pace.
Her legs burned and her lungs heaved. Seo Tae-joon had to know she was struggling, but he didn’t look back or slow down, clutching her wrist as if his life depended on it. A sharp cramp stabbed at her side.
“The treatment bag!” she cried. “We can’t leave it—”
“Just run!” he yelled, his voice cracking with strain.
Ji-woo’s heart plummeted as she saw the grim set of his face. Seo Tae-joon had slung both their backpacks over his shoulders and kept pulling her onward.
The ground began to tremble.
“Uh… What was that?!”
A low, unfamiliar rumble vibrated through the soles of her feet. She instinctively glanced back over her shoulder.
“What—”
The mountain was collapsing.
The last few days of pouring rain must have done it. A torrent of mud and rock cascaded down the slope in a devastating landslide. Everywhere she looked, there was no escape. The trees were no sanctuary; they were too weak, too rotted to bear their weight.
She remembered the landslide from last year, how it had nearly buried the entire town. A scream tore from her throat as her legs gave out. In one fluid motion, Seo Tae-joon hoisted her into the air and threw her over his shoulder.
“…”
The view from his shoulders was pure terror. The nearby swamp had breached its banks, and a monstrous wave of sludge and debris was surging through the forest, an unstoppable tide intent on swallowing them whole.