WhIP

by footfungus

nederlands verhalen over mijn otp

264. Cutlass Byeongjoo AU

Chapter 1

Hua

Hei was pretty sure she was going to fall asleep if her tutor droned on about history for another five minutes.

Not that she would willingly fall asleep. With the test coming up in three days, she needed all the preparation she could have, but that meant being taught even more than usual and missing a couple meals here and there and getting even less sleep than usual. Which might've been her own fault that she'd stayed up studying, but then looking at it critically, there was no point anyways. One couldn't pass the test without having full control of her powers. She didn't have any control.

So was there a point in skipping meals and staying up too late just to study? Even if she did flawlessly on the knowledge portion of the test (if there even was a knowledge portion; no one really knew what the test was about and those who'd passed weren't allowed to talk about it), she'd utterly fail anything that had to do with her powers.

"Hei," her tutor snapped, and she blinked out of it, "You're going to fail if you go on like this."

She flinched. "Sorry."

The woman was unrelenting. "You're a child of the Song family," she scolded, "But right now, throughout the four years I've tutored you for, you've been completely useless. The family doesn't need failures. You have to prove that you're not one, but at the rate you're going, they'll kill you the moment you walk in those doors three days from now."

Hei tried not to flinch again. Ignore the tutor's words, she chanted to herself, Just ignore it. It had been four years with the same tutor (Hei wished she would just quit like the others ones before her because she was definitely the worst yet, but the woman was persistent) — she could still remember the first time she'd seen the tutor. She had been sixteen then. This is Song Miyeon, one of the servants had said, head lowered to the ground. She'll be your tutor for now.

The difference between Miyeon and the other tutors was that she was from the Song family, and a direct descendent. The ones before had been too scared to rebuke Hei in fear of what she could do to them (but she was pretty sure they'd mocked her behind her back about how useless she was when it came to her power, the one thing that marked her as a member of the Song family), but Miyeon mocked her straight up. The first story Miyeon had told her was about the prodigy from the Kim family. Hei had heard the story plenty of times from numerous tutors, but no one had ever made it sound as threatening as Miyeon made it. He'd been perfect, she said, It's been decades since any family has seen enough talent in a child to be enough for him to be a candidate for a family leader. That boy had it all. He was brilliant, he was powerful, he was dedicated. Until it turned out he wasn't. And despite how gifted he was, despite that chance he was given, he was still a failure. And disposed of. What more will turn out when it comes to you?

That had just been the first one. In fact, Miyeon often told her stories as a sort of threat. Some of them had actually happened, some were fictional, but the moral of them were always the same. Fail, and you're useless. We can't afford any failures.

We can't afford any failures. That was the phrase that had been drilled into her head since she was six, and for fourteen years, Hei heard it at least once a day.

"First family leader of the Song family," Miyeon said sharply, "Who was he?"

She mumbled a name in response.

Her tutor let out a huff. "This general knowledge is going to get you nowhere."

She began to go off on a tangent, but Hei zoned out again. This time, it was unstoppable. The air seemed heavier around her, and the distinct feeling of being frozen in place because of her power.

Slowly, images began to sew them together in front of her. Hei could remember thinking not now, but that was what she thought basically every time she used her power. It always decided to come in at the most inconvenient moments. Namely when Miyeon was talking to her. She'd get a scolding about not being able to control her power the moment she managed to snap out of it, whenever that was going to be.

Hei could only watch as two translucent figures appeared before her eyes. They were just slightly see-through, though the surroundings were similar to what they looked like at the moment. It couldn't have been too long ago.

The one on the right was a man, though he had a large hat pulled over his face. She could barely see his features. He was speaking to a shorter girl — was it a maid? She was wearing the maid uniform, but she was facing the other side and her face wasn't visible — though Hei couldn't hear sounds through the memory segments. Their lips were moving but no sound came out.

Frustrated, she tried to break free from the memory. They never lasted too long, but there were ones that were more than half a minute and being held captive and frozen under her own power was not only scary but humiliating. It was even more embarrassing that she didn't know what category her power even fell under. Segments of previous memories left behind in the place she was in. Not only was it not even remotely useful but she had no control of when she saw the memories.

Hei watched the two people converse for a little while — admittedly, part of her was curious about when these people had existed. It could've been years ago or it could've been days. She had no way of telling — until they finally began to fade the way they had appeared. As it disappeared, she began to unfreeze too.

Miyeon was staring at her with a disapproving expression on her face.

Hei tried to give the older woman a placating smile, but Miyeon wasn't taking any of it. With a dark look in her eyes, she set the book in her hands down.

"You've heard of the story of the Kim family's prodigy many times, haven't you?" she asked.

Was it even a question? Hei could only nod meekly in response.

"Learn from it," Miyeon growled. "I don't know what's wrong with you, Song Hei, but children of the families are expected to be able to control their powers. They're trained so they're stronger. Yet you can't even control it a least bit, so I don't know what a child like you is doing in the Song family. At least the prodigy the Kim family had wasn't completely useless. It's a pity he ended up where he did—" Hei could tell that it wasn't really a pity to Miyeon, "but at least he wasn't a complete mistake from the very beginning.

She bit her lip. Miyeon's words always got to her no matter how hard Hei tried to ignore it. "I am trying," she protested, but it came out pathetic.

The woman shoved the open history book roughly in her direction, nearly knocking over the cup of water that was placed dangerously close to the edge of the table. "Do it yourself," she snapped, "If you're going to fail anyways, I'm not wasting my time here with you."

She gave it a final shove. Hei watched numbly as it knocked into the cup, which toppled off the edge and hit the floor with a loud crash, the china shattering into uncountable pieces. It was hard not to flinch.

Miyeon turned and stormed out of the room, slamming the door so hard behind her that the whole house seemed to tremble.

Hei glanced dejectedly down at the broken cup. The water was already soaking through the carpet, the coldness seeping into her bare skin. With another sigh of defeat, she bent down and began picking up the pieces of the broken china. Maybe Miyeon was right. There was no point practicing for something that she was bound to fail anyways.

"I'll be leaving," the maid said, bowing at Hei, "Your foot should be fine. It should heal before…before…it'll heal in three days time."

Hei glanced at her foot. It was bandaged in white bandages, though it still hurt to put weight onto the bottom of her foot when she walked and she had limped around the house for the rest of the afternoon. Miyeon would probably be furious when she found out that she'd hurt herself before the test. Or maybe she'd pull the whole I don't care anymore facade.

It was your fault, you old hag, she thought, You're the one who knocked over the cup.

"Seungwan," she said, glancing at the maid (Hei hoped that was her name — it was hard to keep track), "Do you think I'll pass?"

Seungwan opened her mouth, then snapped it shut. Finally, she glanced down at her feet. "Miss," she said cautiously, "I don't think it's my place to say."

I'm technically not allowed to talk to you like this either, she thought.

"I'm not going to tell anyone."

Seungwan bit her lip. "Miss—"

"Do you think I'm going to pass?" Hei repeated, more forcefully than the last time, "Is there even any point in me trying to pass the test? Maybe I should enjoy these last three days because they're all I have left to live."

Seungwan lifted her head so she was staring Hei straight in the eye. It was odd — maids and servants almost never made eye contact with members of the family, and most of the time they walked with their head down. There was something surprisingly intense about Seungwan's gaze

"Do you want to pass?" she asked, "Is passing the only way you can live? If you ask me honestly, from the standards of the Song family, it's very possible you won't. But that test isn't your only option, if you ask me. There are better alternatives out there." She paused, greyish eyes surprisingly serious. Then she dropped her head, breaking the eye contact. "I have to go now, miss. Enjoy your dinner and take care of your foot. I'll… see you tomorrow."

She shut the door gently behind her before Hei could say anything else. There was something very familiar about the back of Seungwan's head — almost like the way the girl in her memory segment had looked like. Still, she was gone before Hei could put any more thought into it, and all she could do was sink into the chair hopelessly.

"I'm done for," Hei lamented into the pillow, "Even a maid thinks I have no hope."

The small carving of a cat gave no answer. There was a pile of books strewn across the floor of her bedroom, but Hei was too frustrated to pick them up any longer. Even a maid thought she couldn't pass.

Why'd I ask her in the first place? The ceiling wasn't the best thing to stare at, but it was all white and that somehow managed to calm her down (or at least, as calm as she could get). Right. I wanted someone to tell me that I'd do okay.

Except that hadn't worked either. Because even Seungwan, a maid that Hei barely knew, told her that it was very possible she wouldn't pass.

Hei rolled off the bed, then nearly got tangled in her dress trying to stand up. There was nothing good about being part of the Song family. She'd spent everyday since she was six learning about useless information, training for powers she couldn't control no matter what, and being trash-talked by tutors who'd all given up on her because she was too hopeless of a case. It didn't help that her mother was a well-known, powerful person compared to the Song family leader's other wives. She apparently brought down her mother's reputation, not to mention her father's and the whole family's. She barely saw her siblings — she didn't want to see them. The last time she'd seen any of them face to face was when she was eighteen, and it hadn't been the most pleasant experience. All of the others her age had full control of their powers then, and they were completely ready for the test.

Wincing at the pain in her foot, she pushed herself up so she was standing. She picked her way through the mess of books, barely managing to get through to the door without tripping. The dress the girls of the families were required to wear was ridiculous. Hei thought it probably made her weigh twice as heavy as she really was. And the hair, too. There were so many needless accessories.

But that test isn't your only option, if you ask me. There are better alternatives out there

Something about Seungwan's words struck her odd. Did she mean that death was a better alternative? It didn't quite click with Hei, so shaking her head, she limped her way down the stairs into the kitchen.

The mess that Miyeon had made had been cleaned up by the maids already, but Hei was still careful around the kitchen area in case there were still shards that hadn't been swept. The house was empty at night. Most of the children of the Song family lived in their own houses. Supposedly, her mother was supposed to visit them all on a weekly basis, but Hei was pretty sure it had been years since her mother had visited her. And the last meeting hadn't been very pleasant either. Perhaps it was better to be left alone.

The sky was dark when she looked outside, pitch black. The inner city was always like that at night. Deathly quiet, pitch black, as if the light from the moon and stars couldn't reach it. The older Hei got, the more unwelcoming the city of Hua seemed to become. Shuddering, she reached over and pulled curtains over the window, then made her way to the counter to get water.

For a long while, Hei sat idly at the table, unsure of what to do. It was getting late, but she wasn't tired. She'd been barely getting any sleep since a month ago, when Miyeon had made her lessons longer (and slipped in more additional insults), insisting that she needed to be as prepared as she could. The dread of the test and threat of being killed (or disposed of, in Miyeon's words) if she didn't do well was overwhelming all her senses.

Just when she was about to get up and return to her room, a knock sounded on the door.

It felt like someone had dumped a bucket of cold water onto her. Unpleasant, frustrating, and angering. Only one person would come to the house at such an ungodly hour — Miyeon. And Hei had had enough of her tutor for the day (if not forever).

Still limping, she neared the door. The knocks sounded again.

Odd, she thought, Miyeon would knock once and expect me to get it at that one knock.

More knocks. Hei tried to hurry her pace, but her foot hurt too much. Miyeon would see, and she'd be in huge trouble again.

"I'm coming!" she yelled, "Give me a moment!"

The large wooden doors were heavy to pull open, and the moment she had it open halfway, something felt off.

Miyeon always carried a lantern with her during the night. In fact, Miyeon had that lantern with her whether or not it was dark. Except this time, it was completely dark, and the rustic scent of blood hit Hei the moment the door opened. She was struck with horror, frozen in her spot, unable to shut the door even as her mind began blaring warning bells at her.

The light from inside the house was enough to illuminate the figure that was basically sprawled across the ground, and it definitely wasn't Miyeon.

The smell of blood was so thick that Hei found herself gagging. The person on the ground pushed himself up weakly, reaching a hand over and pushing the door open more, but he looked like he was on the verge of collapsing again. Hei couldn't move at all, despite the very obvious need to run. Danger. She didn't even know how such a person got inside the house at all — the entire inner city of Hua was well guarded — but whatever the reason, it was nothing good.

His face was illuminated slightly from the light of the room. His hair looked wet, and Hei wasn't sure if it was blood or if it was sweat or water. There was a long rip on the front of his shirt, and underneath it, a nasty gash. When he raised his head, he looked surprisingly young. He couldn't have been too many years over twenty.

There was something soft about his features, but there was also another feeling Hei couldn't place — for some reason, he looked familiar. Like she'd seen him before, but that was impossible because the girls of the family were kept apart from the boys until they passed the test. Apart from the odd tutor who'd been male, Hei could probably count on one hand how many men she'd seen in her life.

Run, her mind screamed, Shut the door and run. Call for help.

"Who…who are you?" she asked instead. "What happened to you…?"

He lifted his face up. There was a smudge of blood across his cheek, and as injured as he looked, there was something oddly intense about his eyes that didn't match with his face. Nor did it match with his voice, in fact, because he spoke up the next moment.

"Help," he managed, voice weak, and the fear was swallowed up by pity the moment she heard his voice. "Please help me."

Chapter 2

Of Blood and Pirates

Hei had absolutely no idea what to do.

Her door was already open and she couldn't just walk away as if she didn't see the boy, but what would the maids say the next morning when they found out she was housing an injured manandgot blood all over the carpet? Moreover, what would Miyeon say?Three days before the test, and you're not studying but doingcharitywork? Have you lost your mind? And a male, no less.

Which lead to the question of how he even got into the inner city of Hua, much less over the gates of her house. Was he a guard? If he'd been attacked in such a way, the attacker definitely was still around, right?

"What happened to you?" she asked, voice shaking. "Why are you…"

"Someone attacked me." His voice was faint, and it looked as if each word hurt for him to speak. "Please, miss…" He broke off into a very violent fit of coughing, and his hand came away from his mouth covered with blood. "Please help."

Asking him questions wouldn't get her anywhere if he were in such a state, but Hei also wasn't sure how she could help him. The most obvious one was the one on his stomach, though he already had one hand on it as if a feeble attempt to stop the bleeding.

Miyeon would be mad. The maids would be mortified. And she'd be forever guilty (or guilty for three days, because that was basically how long she had to live) if she didn't help him.

Carefully, trying her best not to breathe through her nose, Hei opened the door wider and took a step towards him. "Can you stand up?" she asked. "I don't know what I can help with…" Her voice faltered. She wasn't supposed to be helping in the first place. Calling the higher-ups would've been the right thing to do, but if the higher-ups came, there was no guarantee they'd even help him. For a commoner to trespass into where the Song family lived was strictly forbidden, no matter what reason. "I'll try to bandage the wound and clean it," she said finally.

He drew in a rattling breath. "I think…"

Through his bloodied face, Hei couldn't quite tell his features. Still, there was something very odd — something she couldn't place yet — about him that she couldn't brush off. Had she seen him before somewhere?

He pushed himself to his feet, one hand pressed against the doorframe and smearing blood on it.I'll clean it later,Hei told herself, trying to suppress the gag reflex.He can't help it.

When he was fully standing, she realized that he was actually taller than her. Because he'd been sprawled across the ground the whole time, she hadn't even noticed his height, but when he was finally standing (even though he was slouched), he was taller by a fair bit. And for some reason, that made him seem a lot more intimidating. For a split second, he seemed to be a completely different person and Hei hesitated. Letting in a beat-up stranger wasn't a smart idea.

And then he wobbled from where he was standing, threatening to fall over, and she held out an arm to steady him.

He gave her a pained smile-turned-grimace. "Thanks," he croaked. "I'm sorry for the blood."

"It's fine," Hei grit out as she slipped one of his arms around her shoulders, trying her best not to look at the blood thatalsobegan to stain her dress. He wasn't putting his complete weight on her, but already, she felt her shoulder aching from the strain. "Sit down on one of the chairs and I'll get something to clean your wound with."

Hei guided him towards the table, careful that he didn't step on the carpeted ground. It would be harder to clean than the wooden floor.

In the end, he ended up on one of the chairs, wheezing for breath and hand pressed tightly against the wound on his chest. Through the blood, his face was pale and pasty.

"Do you have any other wounds?" Hei took a step away from him. She could smell the blood on herself from him, and there was nothing more than she wanted to do than to wash it off. "There's one on your abdomen."

"That one first," he managed. "It's the worst one."

Wordlessly, she nodded at him.

It was slightly unnerving to turn her back to him as she searched for a large bowl in the cupboards. She could almost still feel his gaze on her, strangely intense for someone who was injured to badly and spoke in such a soft tone. She tried to ignore the uncomfortable feeling that had settled in the pit of the stomach, but somethingdidfeel off about him that just made her feel worse.

Maybe it was because she'd never been alone in the house with someone like that. Maybe it was because she'd never dealt with anyone's injuries, much less seen so much blood like that.

Swallowing her unease, she grabbed the largest bowl she could find and then a clean piece of cloth to wash the wound with, then a roll of gauze to wrap it up. Filling it with water, she turned back to him.

Hei wasn't even sure what color his shirt had been. She could see traces of white among the red, but with the dim light of the lantern (she needed another one, because it was dying), the rest of his shirt looked bloodied and torn. He had his head lowered, eyes squeezed shut and breathing still heavy.

"Hey," she said.What's your name? What are you doing here? Who are you? What happened to you?"Uh… can you take your shirt off? It'll be easier to clean the wound like that."

He lifted his head. "I think so."

Hei placed the bowl of water on the table, dropping the white cloth into it, keeping her gaze focussed on the flickering flame of the lantern as he pulled his shirt over his head. The moment it was off he broke off into a fit of violent coughing. The shirt was in rags when he held it in his hands, and she took it from him, grabbing onto the one part that was relatively more clean. "I don't think you can wear this anymore," she told him. "Can I throw it out?"

He gave a mute nod. Hei tossed it into the wastebasket, then turned to look at him again. He still had his hand pressed to the wound, a grimace on his face.

Hei had absolutely no idea how she was supposed to treat the wound. Seungwan had washed her foot with a cloth in the afternoon and then bandaged it with gauze, which she guessed was what she was supposed to do to him too, but he was injured a lot more than how she had been. Was it still the same procedure?

Hesitant, she wrung out the cloth and kneeled down in front of him.

"I…" she began, but the words caught in her throat.I don't know what I'm doingsounded pathetic, and at such a moment, Miyeon's words suddenly came back to her.You're a child of the Song family, so act like one.

"Can you take your hand away?" she asked instead. "I need to clean the wound. Is it the only one?"

"There's minor ones." He glanced at her. "But this one was the worse."

Hei involuntarily glanced up at him again when he spoke. The moment she met his eyes, she blinked and turned away, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't shake off the feeling that she'd seen him before. The way he looked at her seemed strangely familiar.

It took all her willpower to stop thinking about it and move onto cleaning the gash. It was hard for her to look at up close (and there was also the fact that he wasn't wearing a shirt and the proximity was making her jittery) — it wasn't extremely deep, the bleeding didn't seem too bad, but still — she didn't want to look at it.

Carefully, Hei cleaned until the area around the wound was free of blood. There were still smears over his chest, but at that point, the water in the bowl had been dyed red and she wasn't sure if it was sanitary anymore to use it to wipe away the other blood.

He bit his lip, closing his eyes again, though his jaw wasn't as tense. He looked a little bit like a lost puppy and Hei felt terrible. "Thank you."

"Can you wrap the gauze yourself?" she asked. "I'm going to change the water and you might want to fix up the other cuts too."

He hummed in agreement.Maybe I'm overthinking,she thought,but he sounds a lot more casual than the beginning.

She dumped out the water and turned to refill it, washing the bowl in the process and doing her best to wring the blood water out of cloth. It remained a light shade of pink, and Hei figured it was the best she could get it. Then, she washed her own hands and arms, scrubbing viciously as she tried to rid herself of the sticky feeling of drying blood off her skin, along with the rustic scent.

"Are you a commoner?" she called back. He had looked a lot better than he was in the beginning, and Hei figured that he could at least answer a couple of questions.

"I guess." His voice was quiet. "Yeah, I guess you could say that."

Slightly miffed by his answer, she picked up the bowl again, ready to turn back, when she caught a glimpse of his bloody shirt in the wastebasket. It had been so stained and torn, unrecognizable as a shirt before — what possibly could have happened to him to turn up like that? How much blood had he lost? It definitely wasn't a healthy amount.

"Anyways, I—"

How much blood had he lost? It definitely wasn't a healthy amount.

He had beendrenchedin blood. If someone lost that much blood, how had they not passed out? Sure, he looked as if he'd dragged himself to her doorstep, but then he started getting better.

And the wound on his stomach. It wasn't even bleeding that much when she cleaned it — back then, Hei had assumed he'd stopped the blood flow with his hands — but it wasn'tthatdeep. There was no way he bled that much because of the cut of his stomach. It looked like someone had cut him with a blade, but they weren't close enough to even cut it deep enough.

"What happened to you again?" She could feel her hands shaking around the bowl, as well as his gaze on her, still intense like the moment she opened her door and saw him. "How did you get so much blood on you?"

"It's not my blood."

Hei stiffened immediately, grip tightening on the bowl though she was too terrified to turn around him and look at him. How could his voice sound so different yet similar at the same time? It was the samevoice,but the tone was a complete opposite from how it had been before. He had sounded so timid in the beginning, and this... Confident, calm, collected, and like he knew exactly what he was talking about. Like he'd never been wounded.

I never should've let him in.She could hear the scrape of the chair on the ground as he stood up, and the deliberately slow footsteps travelling in her direction. Where had she seen him before? The familiarity couldn't have been something she'd mistaken.

The moment the footsteps seemed too close, she whipped around and threw the bowl at him, water, cloth and all, as hard as she could, turning around just in time to see him knock it aside with deadly accuracy and speed. Before she could do something, the sharp, cold edge of what was probably a blade of some sort was pressed to her neck.

Hei froze.

"Song Hei," he said, "That's your name, right? Miss Hei."

Petrified in terror, Hei stared at his face. He'd cleaned most of the blood off of it so that she could see his features clearer, though she still couldn't place a finger on where she'd seen him before. Something was beginning to click, but…

"What do you want?" She wished her voice wouldn't shake so much, but with the blade pressed against her neck, she was terrified, past the point of even trying to act brave. Had she let a criminal in?It's not my blood.A murderer? On top of that, she'd even helped him and treated his wounds — she could see the white gauze that he'd already wrapped around his stomach. "I don't know who you are, but if you know who I am, you'll know that I'm from—"

"Save it. You're not all that threatening." He lowered the blade, though Hei didn't dare move more. It didn't look like a sword — it was too small to be one and too large to be a dagger — and the blade was slightly curved.

A cutlass.

It hit her then, why he'd looked so familiar. It was really too late of a realization, especially now that she was helpless and at his mercy, but it was his posters that she'd constantly seen hanging around. The price on his head had only grown throughout the years. It had started when she was fourteen — another wanted criminal — apirate —that the family leaders wanted to catch. One among many, insignificant because he couldn't make as much as a dent in the reputation and power of the families. And then as time passed, they began raising the price on his head, more desperate to catch him. His face, painted on the wanted posters, became clearer, supposedly more accurate.

And staring right into his face, Hei had to disagree that the artists still hadn't quite gotten him right. But it was close enough for her to recognize him.

"Byeong joo," she managed aloud, and his half-smile widened into a grin.

"You recognize me, then," he said.

She clenched her fists to stop them from trembling. She was face to face with the exact man that the families had spentsix yearstrying to catch, yet somehow, he had chosen to show up at her doorstep. The last thing she'd heard of him was that he'd disappeared in a clash with the Do family. No one knew what happened to him and his crew, and though both sides had taken damage, the entire ship of the Do family had been completely wiped out. That had been a month or so ago.

And with him here, wouldn't it be her duty to her family to catch him? If she brought down Byeong joo, the infamous pirate captain, wouldn't that give her an automatic pass to the test?

Except she couldn't even use the power she had.

"Why are you here?" she asked instead, hoping she sounded like she knew what she was talking about (though she didn't). "You're supposed to be missing. What are you doing in Hua?"

Byeong joo gave a nonchalant shrug. "You know what happened, right?"

Hei took a wary step back. He had her cornered in the kitchen and there was no place to go, and even though he'd taken the cutlass away from her neck, this was Byeong joo and there was no way he wasn't skilled. She'd seen how fast he could move. There was no possible, in the heavy dress and with the minimal training she'd gotten, could she get away from him and call for help.If only I had another power that wasn't so useless,she thought.

"What are you here for?" she repeated. "You were obviously faking being badly injured. Why did you even come into the inner city? If you killed someone before coming in here, they'll be alerted of it really soon. There's no way you're going to get out of the inner city, much less Hua, so even if you're going to kill me—"

"I'm not here to kill you, though." He spun the blade idly in his fingers. "And I definitely won't be getting out the same way. You have secret passages for a reason, right?"

Shocked, Hei couldn't even speak. How had he known? Sure, he was resourceful for a pirate and being able to sneak inside the inner city and into her house was a pretty big feat, but to know about such things that only family members knew? No matter how powerful, how skilled he was, he was still a commoner. That was where he'd come from. And that should've made him no match against the family leaders.

"Look," Byeong joo said, "we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Either you go with me willingly, or you get kidnapped. You're going with me either way."

Hei couldn't even formulate a proper thought. It wasn't clicking. A moment ago she was helping an injured boy. How had it escalated to this? Kidnapped? He was saying to her face that he was kidnapping her? "Go with you?" she repeated dumbly. "Are you out of your mind?"

"Song Hei," he interrupted, then promptly continued on like he was reading off a script. "You're turning twenty in three days, which means you have to take the test. Your tutor — Song Miyeon, if I'm not mistaken — doesn't exactlyteachyou, but spends most of her time putting you down because you can't control your power. In my opinion, it's just out of spite. And I quote,'Young Miss can see snippets of the past in the spot she's in, but apparently her power is quite spontaneous and she doesn't know how to control it. It comes at random moments.' Is all that correct? You're also quite worried you're going to fail."

She opened her mouth to speak, then promptly snapped it shut. Byeong joo was still staring at her, gaze calm, the same infuriating smirk lingering on his lips, looking as if nothing was wrong.Young Miss?That was what most of the servants called her. Did that mean one of the servants had told Byeong joo the information? "You…" she began. "How do you…"

"How do I know?" He shrugged. "It's not that hard. Now if you'll keep the questions for later, we have to get out of here now."

Hei took a step back, though her back hit the counter. "I'm not going anywhere with you."

Faster than she could track with her eyes, he was standing in front of her, the cutlass a blur of silver in his hands. She braced herself for the pain, and oddly, her last thought was,I guess it's not my family that's going to be killing me.

Surprisingly, the first thing that she registered was the feeling of her hair falling down her neck, and then someone's hot breath against her face. Shocked, she cracked open an eye just in time to see Byeong joo step back, drawing his weapon away from her as the rest of her hair fell down from the updo. Had he cut the ribbon that held it up? How could he be so precise and fast at the same time?

"Song Hei," he repeated, voice surprisingly serious. "I know for a fact that you're terrified of taking the test and you think that you have no other option but to die. Isn't that what they all said to you? That you're useless because you can't use your power? It's funny that they had the audacity to say that even though it was their fault they never taught you properly."

There was an odd sort of truthfulness in his voice — an outlaw, a pirate, a commoner that the families looked down on — that felt extremely confusing. His eyes were burning, intense, the same as before. Throat dry, she shook her head, though it was even hard to move. "I don't get where you're getting at. I'm not going with you."

Byeong joo raised the cutlass at her again. "That wasn't an option."

Just seeing him use the blade again seemed to kick in some sort of instinct, and Hei grabbed for the nearest thing that could be used as a weapon — a rolling pin that one of the maids seemed to have left on the table — and threw it as hard as she could at him. Vaguely, she remembered the same thing not working when she'd thrown the bowl, but he was closer this time and she hoped desperately it would act as enough of a distraction to get past him.

His eyes widened in surprise. He wasn't slow to block the attack, and as Hei brought the rolling pin down at him, he snatched it out of her hand. She barely registered what was happening when he had cast it across the room with a flick of his wrist, and then the cutlass was against her throat again. Byeong joo leaned forward so his face was dangerously close to hers, eyes boring holes.

"I'm not here to play," he said in a low voice, "And I think you're misunderstanding me here. I'm not going to have a nice long chat with you and I'm not here to ask for your permission either. So it's going to be better for you—" he dug the blade a bit deeper into her neck, and Hei flinched, "—if you do what I say. Understood?"

She couldn't formulate any words. His gaze was unreadable, and Hei wasn't sure if he actually would hurt her if she didn't do what he said. He sounded serious enough, and he definitely wasn't lying when he was saying he'd killed someone on the way in. Still, if he broke his way in just to get her (she still wasn't sure on the reason), he wouldn't kill her, would he?

Byeong joo must've sensed her hesitation. "If I have to, I'll knock you out and drag you out of here," he threatened. "I don't know where the secret passages are, but I'm guessing they're in your room, right? It'll be a hassle to do so wouldn't it be much more pleasant for both of us if you cooperated?"

He looked very much as if he'd carry through with the threat. Gulping, Hei gave him a tentative nod — or as much as she could nod with the blade pressed to her neck. It was bad enough that he knew there were passages in every house — to know that they were in her room…

Byeong joo's grinned widely. "Smart choice. As for now…" he scanned her from head to toe. "We need to leave soon, but you're not going to get through the outer city wearing that with people suspecting you. Is there anything you can change into that's less…" He frowned. "Less...extravagant?"

He was speaking to her so casually when he had just been threatening her a moment ago. Hei wasn't sure if she could even wrap her mind around the situation anymore. The only thing she could really register was the fear and her rapidly increasing heartbeat and the cutlass that was still pressed to her throat.

"There's…" She swallowed thickly. "Maid's clothing downstairs, but–"

"That'll do." Byeong joo drew back his blade, and Hei let out a breath of relief as he stepped away from her. He reached back and picked up her lantern, the light still flickering. It made the shadows dance on his face, which seemed like all angles in the harsh light, like a carved statue. He glanced down at himself. "And I need a shirt too."

Gulping one last time, she nodded at him. Byeong joo was making the whole thing way too casual, and that was perhaps even scarier. He seemed to know what he was doing in everything he did, and what he'd done should've been an impossible feat yet he'd got into the inner city with only a scratch on his stomach. Even if he was a pirate, how had he been able to do that? He made the impossible seem like it was easy, and that demeanor — the casual, uncaring tone he switched into — was what scared Hei the most.

"Well?" he gestured at the hallway with his weapon. "Hurry up. I don't have all day."

Chapter 3

Leaving

"That still looks fancy," Byeong joo mused under his breath.

Hei bit her lip. She didn't want to humour him anymore than she already had.

He folded his arms across his chest. Hei had found a shirt for him in one of the rooms for the maids, and it was actually a bit too big for him. Along with it, she pulled out the first dress from the maids' room that she could find. It was light compared to what she normally wore, and with the accessories and hairpins all pulled out of her hair and her normal dress and suffocating corset off, she felt oddly freer.

It didn't change anything, though. His mere presence in the room with her unnerved her to an almost-unbearable point, and Hei would rather be sitting through a lecture with Miyeon than be in such a situation. To think of it, she didn't even have any ideahowit ended up in such a way. For the past couple of minutes, she only remembered numbly following Byeong joo's instructions. The only thing she was hyperaware of was the cutlass that he had in his hand, the threatening gleam of the blade.

That's the only reason I'm doing this,she told herself, though her thoughts were as muddled as her actions.He'll kill me if I don't. Or hurt me. There's no other choice, and…

"Let's go," Byeong joo said, voice cutting through her thoughts. "Your room is upstairs, isn't it?"

Hei glanced down at her clothing. The dress was so simple compared to what she normally had to wear, and she looked a lot slimmer without the corset, the unnecessary layers of fabric. The shoes were also more comfortable.

"How do you even know about the passages?" she asked. He wasn'tactinglike he was in a rush, but the guards he killed were bound to be found in little time. The security in the inner city of Hua was strict. If she could possibly stall…

"I'm not going to answer your questions right now," he replied. "Stalling won't be any use. Lead the way, Miss Hei."

Hei swallowed, but the lump of fear didn't go away. "You're not—"

"I don't want to do this the hard way," he said calmly. "But Iwillif you don't cooperate. I'm more than capable of getting you out here myself, and that's without being caught by your family. I don't know what you've been taught, but there's a lot of faults in the system of the families. They're not nearly as invincible as you think. It'll be a bit of a hassle and a lot more dangerous, but it's not impossible. I just can't guarantee it'll end well for both of us."

"My family is strong enough to stop you," she snapped at him, but it came out a lot weaker than she expected.

"Stop me?" He turned around, spinning the cutlass in his hands and took a step forward. She shrunk back, though his gaze pinned her in place. "That clash with the Do family a couple weeks back that everyone heard of — do you know what happened to their ship? It's destroyed, resting at the bottom of the sea and every single one of them—" he drew out each syllable, taking a step closer each word until they were face to face, "—are dead. And you're going to do as I say or else more of your family members will end up the same way."

Hei couldn't exactly say she cared about the other people in her family, but the threat itself was terrifying. Abruptly, he turned around. "We're leaving,now.Either you show me the passages or I find them myself."

It took her a couple of moments to compose herself, and then, steadying her breathing and trying to block out all the irrational thoughts, she followed him.

By the time she'd cleared up the area to expose the passages, she was sure at least thirty minutes had passed since she'd initially taken him into the house. It wasn't long, technically, but it should've been long enough forsomeoneto be alerted of his presence.

Still, the courtyard and surroundings remained eerily quiet. The black, gaping hole of the passages stood in front of them, unwelcoming and grim. Hei peered out the window desperately one last time, though there was no one to be seen.

Byeong joo held out a lantern. It hung from his fingers loosely, and he swung it in as casual a way as he did with the cutlass. Howeasyit was for him to use the weapon was scary.

"Stop looking for them," he told her in a quiet voice. "I made sure none of the guards in the area were able to find someone for help. It's going to be hours before they find out an incident has happened and we'll be long gone from Hua by then."

Why did he make it sound so simple? The thought was almost nauseating. How much more was he capable of? The most dangerous, most wanted man that the families were after… she'd never taken it seriously before. It seemed like something that was so faraway, something that could never apply to her because she probably couldn'teven pass the test. He was something for the higher-ups to deal with, not someone like her. And yet somehow he was standing in front of her, with whatever plan he had in mind and basically kidnapping her from right after her family's noses.

The cold hand of dread closed around her heart. She wasn't sure if he'd been bluffing when he'd said it, but what if her family really wasn't a match against him? He'd destroyed a fleet of the Do family's ships. If he were to face someone from her family…

She shook her head. It wasn't possible. He was still a commoner in the end, and though he'd killed some people from the Do family, he'd ultimately lost his own ship and crew too. He wouldn't get far through Hua without being caught. They'd been on the sea when he'd fought the Do family. Here — he was in the heart of where the Song family ruled.

Still, the more she thought about it, the more it seemed as if she were just making desperate, illogical excuses for something she already knew as the truth.

"Song Hei." Byeong joo spoke up again. "You do realize your family is going to kill you in three days?"

Her heart skipped a beat. The reminder felt like a slap to the face, and the worst part was that she couldn't even deny it. Miyeon told her. She thought about it herself. Whichever way she looked at it, she couldn't see another alternative. Yet still, hearing it from a stranger's lips… it hurt, and more than just a sting.

He looked as if he knew he hit a sore spot. "Look," he said. "You know it yourself, but you just don't want to admit it. Staying here with your family doesn't mean staying with luxuries and freedom and fun. As ironic as it is, you'll probably live longer going with me than staying here. So instead of going unwillingly, wouldn't it be better just togoand stop fighting it?"

"You're kidnapping me from my family—"

"A family that basically neglects you, puts you down and treats their children like dolls! You may have luxuries, you may not starve every night, but are you really a better life than the commoners are in your family? Do you feel welcomed and protected and cherished andcared aboutin this so called family? Face it, Song Hei. You're just another child that's disposable to them. Is it not the truth?"

His eyes were burning with a strange sort of fire.How does he know so well?she briefly wondered, but before she could say anything else, Byeong joo wrapped a hand around her wrist — painfully tight — and yanked her towards the passages. It didn't compare to the volume his words spoke, but it still hurt.

Hei tried to protest and yank her hand out of his grasp, but he was stronger than she was and she had no choice but to stumble after him into the dark. He closed the door behind them after dragging over the furniture that had previously covered it. There was nothing but the faint flicker from the light of the lantern that he held.

She'd never actually been in the secret passages. She knew they existed, knew where they were, and where they led (or at least, she thought she did — it was supposed to lead to a safehouse in the outer city, but Hei wasn't too sure and there never seemed to be any use of it). Supposedly, only members of the family knew of it — not even maids or servants knew — but Byeong joo somehow did.

The darkness was almost suffocating. The passage was dark and narrow, the air musty and humid. She kept her eyes fixed on the light in Byeong joo's hands, heart pounding from adrenaline and fear, and maybe an aftereffect from his words.Your family is going to kill you in three days.

It hurt even more coming from him. Miyeon, she'd gotten used to. Perhaps, in a way, she'd come to terms with it herself.If you're not good enough, you're no use to the family and that makes you useless. Your family is your top priority. Don't let your family down.It had been basically drilled into her head. Maybe, somewhere along the way, the words had lost their meaning, but that didn't mean the effect they had was completely gone. But having Byeong joo say it? It was the worse yet.

As he pulled her along in the dark, she tried to look at his face. She'd long given up trying to wrench her wrist out of his hands, but as debated as she felt, the most prominent part of her still wanted to get away from him. Sure, her family didn't treat her the best. Maybe she'd die in three days.But to betray your family—

"Stop struggling," Byeong joo muttered, halting abruptly. "Do you want me to let go of your wrist?"

Hei did a double take at him, unsure of what to say.

He didn't seem to need an answer, because a moment later, he had released her wrist. "Go in front," he said shortly. "Walk faster."

Confused and slightly scared by his tone, Hei did as told, massaging her sore wrist. She couldn't see, but she was pretty sure he still had his cutlass out.

She wasn't sure how long they'd been walking before the passage began to slant upwards. It wasn't a steep climb in the beginning, but gradually, it began getting more tiring to climb. The hill turned into stairs. Hei was feeling more and more exhausted each step, and by the time they seemed to nearing the top, she was ready to fall over.

Byeong joo jogged lightly up beside her, not the least bit fazed by the long climb. Hei dragged herself the last couple of steps to see him standing next to a door.

It looked horribly old and untouched for a very long time, and when she caught up with him, the ground around it was covered by a layer of dust.

"It should lead into a safehouse in the outer city, right?" Byeong joo asked, tapping the door with his weapon. "If I'm not wrong, it's pretty close to the ports."

"The ports?" It didn't connect for a moment, and numbly, she watched as he tried the doorknob cautiously. Then, the realization dawned and she gaped at him in horror (though he wasn't even looking at her). "You're—we're… leaving Hua by sea?"

He didn't turn around, voice indifferent, but a faint smile pulling on his lips. "I think you're overestimating my abilities here, Miss Hei. I can't stay in Hua for much longer. Even I have my limits. Besides—" he turned around this time, actually meeting her eyes. His lips pulled into a smirk. "I'm a pirate. The sea is the safest place for me."

There was something strangely fascinating about the way he spoke that made her unintentionally gravitate towards him, but it didn't take long for Hei to shake out of it. This man was dangerous. He'd kidnapped her. No matter how charismatic he could be or how convincing he sounded, what he was saying about her family — not that it was a lie, exactly — but it was extremely disrespectful and ridiculous. He was making it seem worse than it was.

Or was he?a small voice in the back of her head whispered.Is he really making it seem worse or is he just telling the bitter truth you don't want to face?

She shook it off violently. It was just a stupid effect from Byeong joo's words. To listen to him and not her family? That was ridiculous. He was an outlaw, a pirate. A commoner.His words don't mean anything,she told herself halfheartedly, but the other part of her remained stubborn.If his words don't mean anything — words from a commoner, an outlaw — why are they the truth?

The door creaked open and Byeong joo held out his lantern, poking a head out. His actions were minimal and cautious, cutlass held in front of him in a defensive stance. It was almost a stark contrast compared to before — he'd been so casual, almost uncaring, and now, with his steps light and careful, he almost didn't seem like the same person.

"Let's go," he said in a low voice. "There's no one here right now."

The only thing Hei could hear was the deafening silence around them, and perhaps constant sound of something in the distance. Was that the sea? It was similar to the sound she'd heard when she'd pressed one of the decorative seashells to her ear, but she'd never seen the sea up close or heard it at all. The inner city of Hua was too far away, and children weren't allowed to leave it until they turned twenty.

Almost against her own will, her feet brought her from inside the passage and into the building they were standing in. It was an old warehouse, looking as if it hadn't been visited in a long time. The floorboards creaked when she stepped on it, dust rising all around her. Byeong joo eyed his surroundings, looking extremely wary.

It was a lot lighter in the warehouse than it was in the passages, moonlight streaming from the broken windows and broken walls. She followed Byeong joo as he made his way towards the exit.

Was there anyone around? It look abandoned enough, and it was in the outer city. Hei wasn't even sure about the inner city, much less the outer. Were there members of the Song family situated in the city, or were they all commoners? If she tried to get help from a commoner…

"Don't think about it," Byeong joo told her, and she started in surprise. "Screaming for help or whatever you're planning isn't going to work."

Hei narrowed her eyes at him. "How do you know what I'm going to do?"

He gave a casual shrug, pace quickening slightly. "You were doing that last time, too. Looking around and out the window. I'm guessing they have guards around here somewhere, but they won't be expecting anyone to show up at such a time and neither will there be a lot. Don't rely on them to bring you back to your family."

"The guards are all well trained," she retorted. "Even if you're good, they're skilled too. I'm not going to follow you like I'm your dog or like this is my own free will."

"I'm not asking you to do that." He shoved open the door of the warehouse, boarded pieces of wood that were barely hanging on. "But it's very ironic that it sounds as if you're talking more about your family than you are about me."

He was looking at her straight in the eye. And just like the past couple of times, she found herself rendered speechless, unable to say anything. Byeong joo didn't move for a couple moments, holding her gaze until it became unbearable and she turned to look at the ground.

There was a faint breeze in the air when they left the warehouse, and a lot chillier than Hei expected. The most farthest she'd been in perhaps weeks was her own garden. Her surroundings — the small, worn down houses, silent because it was night but not totally silent — it was all a stranger to her.

Byeong joo must've read the surprise on her face easily. He gave her a dry smile. "Get used to it," he said. "You'll be seeing this kind of thing a lot more." He followed her gaze. "And… that."

She could barely hear him as she stared out at the ocean. She'd seen drawings of it in books, Miyeon had told her briefly about it once, but it was so much more… entrancing than she imagined. The warehouse had been built on a hill, and it overlooked the outer city as well as the sea in the distances, stretched for miles and miles on end, ethereally beautiful under the pale moon. It brought the breeze that she didn't feel in the inner city. And despite what was happening, the ocean brought a strange sense of peace to her. The waves glimmered under the moon, the pale white light dancing on the water.

This was what she'd missed before? What she hadn't been able to see because she'd been shut in one house her whole life, learning things that didn't have any value — this? Briefly, she wondered why her family had never let them leave. What was so wrong about seeing the ocean once in a while?

Byeong joo hummed quietly beside her, eyes also on the sea. "It's a clear sky tonight."

She snapped out of her fantasy world the moment she heard him speak, but Hei couldn't help but admit part of her wanted to go with him because of what lay before her. She shook the feeling off as best she could.

"There are still guards around here," he warned her. "We're out in the open if we walk down the hill, and that's the most dangerous part. I'm going to warn you now." He turned to look at her, eyes piercing. She could almost hear the hidden threat in his voice. "Do not eventhinkabout screaming. I don't want to kill unnecessarily."

She nodded, mouth dry. Byeong joo looked satisfied with that, and he headed down the hill. Legs shaky and eyes wandering to the sea unconsciously, Hei followed him.

It wasn't too long before the sea disappeared behind the houses of the outer city, and they neared it. The moon wasn't much of a light, and Hei could barely see because Byeong joo had blown out the lantern. They walked in tense silence, and she stared at the outline of his back. With the blade swinging loosely from his fingers and his broad back, he looked very much threatening. Definitely not a person she would even dream of crossing.

Which brought her to the main question that had been bothering her: what did he want from her? He'd broken through into the inner city of Hua, a wanted, infamous pirate, just to get her. Even if he was skilled, it was still dangerous. Apart from that, he sounded dead serious about getting her out with him alive, which Hei couldn't wrap her head around. Maybe he was getting the wrong person. Maybe he'd made a mistake somewhere. She couldn't even use the little power she had — out of all people, why had he chosen her? A huge part of her was mad at him, hated him (it was technically duty, too — an enemy of her family was her enemy too) and wanted him dead, but there was another undeniable part that was curious.

"Byeong joo," she said. His name sounded odd on her lips, and it was even stranger addressing someone she didn't know well without their surname. "Why did you…why me? Are you sure you don't have the wrong person?"

"I don't think there's another Song Hei," he replied.

"There's also no one else in the family apart from me that can't use their power." She felt herself getting more and more desperate each word. "I'm telling you, whatever you're planning to do, I'm useless. One of my siblings could probably do this job better than I—"

"Why do you keep on calling yourself useless? You make it sound like it's your own fault they never trained you properly."

"You wouldn't understand." She stared at her feet. "Why do you care, anyways? You keep on talking about how it's my family's fault. You're making it sound as if I'm above my family or something, and that's just preposterous—"

"I'll explain it later," Byeong joo said shortly. "But if it's going to shut you up, I'll say this quickly. Firstly, I do not have the wrong person, and secondly, the reason I'm doing this is because I'm going to need your help."

It sounded so ridiculous that she stopped walking. "My help?"

He didn't reply, and Hei was about to ask the question again when a tight grip dug into her arm. She hissed in pain and tried to yank her arm away from his fingers, but he held her with a vise-like grip. "Don't do anything except walk," he commanded, voice so authoritative that Hei complied involuntarily.

Byeong joo's hearing was apparently a lot better than hers was, because a couple moments later, the head of two guards appeared lower on the hill. She stiffened, and he quietly sheathed his weapon so it was less obvious.

Part of her wanted to call for help, but the other part of her knew it was no use. If he'd broken into the inner city on his own, two guards weren't going to be much of a hindrance to him. So, biting her lip, she sealed her mouth and followed him even though remaining silent was the last thing she wanted to do.

They'd almost made the way around the guards without them noticing when one of them lifted their heads. "Who's there?" he asked sharply, raising his weapon in his hands.

Hei stiffened, the two choices once again going through her head. Scream for help, because it wasn't like it washer faultthis time for them noticing, or continue to go along with Byeong joo's instructions. Each step was a step further away from where she was supposed to be, and while she wasn't sure if she'd already passed the point of no return, each step could be leading closer to that point.

The guard who had spoken up seemed to have already seen them. "Who are you?" he demanded, lifting a lantern of his own. HeisawByeong joo grimace in what looked like irritation. "Why are you here at this time of night?"

The family that most likely chosen well trained, moderately powerful people to guard the passages. If they were stationed here, it was more than likely that they were part of the Song family also — normal guards weren't supposed to know of the passages — but the ones at the gates of the inner city should've been even better trained. She watched helplessly as Byeong joo straightened up while the two made their way towards them.

"We're just passing through," he replied smoothly.

"You're trespassing onto the property of the Song family," he snapped back, holding out the lantern so it was illuminating their faces. Hei blinked at the sudden light, momentarily blinded. Byeong joo's grip tightened painfully on her arm and she bit back a protest.

There was a tense moment where no one moved, before the guard's eyes widened in realization. "Hey, aren't you from the Song family?" he asked.

At the same time, Hei yanked her arm out of Byeong joo's hands, wincing at the pain. "Help–" she tried, but he was quicker than she was.

In a split second he'd pulled her back roughly with so much force that she was thrown to the ground, and then at the same time drew the cutlass. His movements were a blur and faster than Hei could catch, the first guard had toppled to the ground. Byeong joo had snatched the guard's lantern and smashed it onto the ground, the glass shattering into smithereens.

The second one let out a noise of shock, drawing his sword and the glow of fire beginning to surround him.His power,Hei realized.He'd had time to summon his power, so however skilled Byeong joo was, there was no way he could evade…

The next moment, the fire had been extinguished and Byeong joo was standing over two unmoving bodies. Hei remained frozen on the ground, palms scraped because of the rocky debris, terrified, staring at the person in front of her. How was he even real? Who was he, really? Could a mere commoner really do something like that?

She'd never seenanyonemove so fast. She'd been prepared to go with him because it didn't seem as if the soldiers could fight him, but the fact that one had already summoned their power gave them an advantage and Hei had genuinely thought the guard would prove a decent match against Byeong joo. It wasn't fair. They had been caught off guard by him and he'd been ready before they were, but… still. She'd never imagined that two, trained family members would go down so easily.

It had also been something that was utterly of-the-moment when she yelled for help, and the word had come out before she could even think about stopping herself. What would he say? He'd told her not to speak, and she probablyshould'vecomplied for her own good.

"Are they dead?" she managed in a shaky voice. She couldn't see much in the dark, but she could smell blood in the air. It made her more nauseous.

Byeong joo turned to look at her, eyes dark. "No," he said lowly, and Hei gulped down her fear.This —his demeanor, his expression, the aura around him — it was the real definition of terrifying. "I knocked them out. But we're going to leave,now.And I'll follow through with my words if you scream again."

He turned without even waiting for her, and trembling, Hei pushed herself to her feet and started after him.I'm going to need your help,he'd told her a little while before they'd bumped into the guards.

Him? Her help?

It was so absurd, but as much as she didn't want to admit it, part of her held onto those words carefully.

Her help.It was ridiculous and maybe a little sad in a way, but briefly, Hei thought that it was perhaps the first time someone had said they needed her help.

Chapter 4

Learned or Earned

The cold air was beginning to get to Hei when she and Byeong joo reached the ports. The outer city of Hua was quiet too, and she couldn't see anyone lingering on the roads. Byeong joo walked at a brisk pace, though it wasn't long when Hei began to lag behind. Her feet ached and she was pretty sure she'd never walked so far in such little time.

There were lanterns hanging in the front of the houses, though most of them had been extinguished. She followed behind Byeong joo as he made his way through the streets like he knew them by heart, and the more they turned, the more ironic it seemed to Hei that she was utterly lost. Hua washercity.Herbirthplace. Whereshegrew up. And the fact that she was lost yet he seemed to know it like he grew up there…

"How do you know the streets so well?" she asked in a hushed voice. Maybe running away wasn't an option anymore (she'd seen how he dealt with the guards back when they came out from the passages —if trained members of the family couldn't fight him, there was no way she could even lift a finger), but at least she could try to get some sort of answers from him.

"I have a good memory." He glanced back at her. "Not exactly photographic, but close enough. I remember how I got here."

Hei stared at his back, a tinge of jealousy going through her. Photographic memory (or at least a relatively good memory)? That sounded useful. She'd spent hours memorizing the useless stuff from the history books. Someone could ask her who the seventh family leader of the Hua family was and she'd be able to answer from pure memorization.

But that had taken weeks, months, years. And he'd been able to memorize the street he'd been down one going in simply, like that?

Byeong joo seemed to notice the expression on her face, but he didn't comment on it. His expression was indecipherable.

Around ten minutes later, Hei could see the ports. The ocean had come in view again; the waves gleamed under the white moon, light dancing off the water. Stretched along the shore were the wooden docks, and boats big and small lined up neatly on the shoor, some for cargo and the others for passengers. She couldn't quite tell apart which was which.

There were people at the ports — they were standing at least a couple hundred meters away, though she could see a couple of workers moving large crates. There were a group of people huddled around the dock that lead to one of the largest boats.

Byeong joo stood still for a small moment, eyes fixed on the sea in front of him. He looked serene then, calmer. Not exactly like someone she'd imagine could kill or fight like she'd seen him, but by then, Hei knewtoowell how deceiving looks could be.

And then he turned, the grin that Hei was beginning to get used to hanging on his lips. It was a strange look: he was smiling, but at the same time, it wasn't out of happiness or in fact… any sort of emotion at all. He was just lifting his lips like that, like a look he got used to. The rest of his face remained guarded.

"Well?" he asked. "We're here. Ladies first."

She stared, unresponding and unmoving, as he gestured in front of him. Finally, Byeong joo lifted his cutlass. "Do I have to say it again?"

"No," she mumbled, head whirling.

For a brief moment, Hei wonderedifshe should consider at leasttryingto get away. He said he had more alternatives if she didn't cooperate, but that didn't mean she couldn't make it harder for him. What if she tried to run? To ask for help? If people knew she was from the Song family, would they treat her differently? She'd never actually left the inner city and she had no idea how the outer worked, but there had to be some sort of benefit for being part of a family. Miyeon had always said that family members were above commoners. As conceited as it sounded (it was something that Hei didn't necessarily agree with, but nevertheless, it was engraved into her mind), at that moment, she wished that the people standing at the docks would havesomeway of stopping Byeong joo.

The thought disappeared as soon as it passed. She didn't want to get hurt, and as much as she wanted to (or maybe it wasn't exactlywanted —more like she felt as if she had an obligation to) follow everything she'd learned (because going with Byeong joo without a fight and putting her own life first was debatably betrayal), a huge part of her had decided that she'd rather stay alive and well. Even if it meant betrayal.

Byeong joo's words echoed through her.A family that basically neglects you, puts you down and treats their children like dolls.

Was he wrong? As uncomfortable as it was for Hei to admit it, he really wasn't.

Not that she could really settle with the thought, so she shoved it to the back of her mind. Thinking about her family in such a way felt wrong.

"Before we go out there," Byeong joo said casually, "I'd like to clear up a couple of things. Do not scream, do not try to ask people for help, and most of all, do not try to fight me. You're going to make things worse for yourself and it's not going to end in the most pleasant way either. Am I understood?"

She met his gaze for a brief second before looking away. "Yes."

"If anyone asks, we were travelling to visit Hua."

She nodded numbly.

"Alright." He lifted the lantern so it was illuminating most of his features. The shadows seemed to carve into his face, making it more angular (which just made him look more intimidating). "Let's go, Miss Hei."

Gulping, Hei followed him down the uneven gravel path towards the boats.

Byeong joo let her steadily towards the group of people that she'd seen a moment before. Most of them carried their own bags, and when she got closer, she realized that there were a lot more people than she had originally thought there were when she looked down from on top of the hill she and Byeong joo had been standing on. Most of the passengers were men, though there were a couple of women huddled together in their own group.

He kept his head uncharacteristically low when he approached them, and after a moment of hesitation, Hei kept her chin up. Byeong joo hadn't said anything about looking down, and he'd be recognized more than she would be. Families didn't reveal names of their children (or their faces) until they passed the test. No one would even know who she was if she didn't say anything.

She and Byeong joo stood at the edge of the group for a while, and Hei spent the whole time trying to think of last-minute options of getting away and back to her family. If they were alerted in time, there was no way Byeong joo could get away. The problem was that he'd made sure he'd taken out every possible person that could alert the family on time, and thinking to there brought Hei to a dead end when she tried to come up with other solutions.

It wasn't much time later when someone from the boat stepped out. He had a cap pulled over his face, and the lighting wasn't good enough for Hei to catch sight of his face.

"To Ezentia!" he called towards the crowd of people. "Those who've paid for a cabin make a line on the left, and those who haven't go on the right. We're in a rush so hurry."

Two things hit Hei — surprisingly, her first question was whether or not Byeong joo actually paid for a cabin. Having one and not having one was an equally terrifying thought, but what was scariest was probably the thought of going into open sea. The ocean was beautiful when she looked at it, but there was no doubt it was dangerous. To be in open sea, so raw and vulnerable to it...

Her first question was answered when Byeong joo stepped to the left, and then the second question hit.

"Ezentia?" she hissed at him. "We're going to Ezentia?"

He met her gaze calmly, though there was a glint of warning in his eyes. "We can discuss this later, Miss."

Hei took a deep breath and tried to calm her breathing. Ezentia was where the Kim family ruled, and out of all the families, the Kim family was the one family that Miyeon claimed her family hated the most.They're a group of proud fools,Miyeon had said angrily once, and while back then, Hei hadn't really paid attention to it, the memory resurfaced.Always thinking that they're family is high and mighty when it's most likely the weakest. They brag about their scholars and scribes because they think it'll make up for their lack of power.(She also remembered something about the Song family having a long feud with the Kim family, but the details were vague in her mind.)

If going with Byeong joo without putting much of a fight didn't already brand her as a traitor, going to Ezentia would be a no-return for her.

Byeong joo was already moving forward quickly, and Hei had seen the look in his eyes. She didn't dare to cross him more. His cutlass was sheathed, hidden by the too-long shirt that she had leant him, but Hei had witnessed firsthand how fast he could draw it.

He handed two tickets to the captain of the boat, and Hei trailed behind him uncertainly. She desperately wished the old man who was taking the tickets would recognize Byeong joo, or even better, question her, but to her utter dismay, he barely raised his head to look at the two of them.

"Cabin four," he said in a bored voice. "You'll be going down."

"Thank you, sir." Byeong joo straightened, then offered an arm to her. "Shall we go?"

Hei stared at his extended arm, and for the hundredth time that day, she wondered how he could act so well and pretend like everything was ordinary. Offering her his arm? The gesture made her slightly angry. Calling the captain sir? It made him appear so civil, so… educated and polite when it wasn't the case at all.

She shoved his hand away. "Just go," she mumbled.

Byeong joo appeared unfazed. "Keep an eye out for cabin four," he replied.

They headed downstairs, and Hei gave one last desperate glance behind her back at the city of Hua. She could see the lights of the inner city walls gleaming like a beacon in the dark night, and then her head dipped beneath the line of the stairs and she could see now more.

The ship rocked slightly with the waves, and the thought of it being pure water under the piece of wood was a scary thought. Sailors and pirates alike — how could they survive on the sea like that? It could tear the strongest boat apart if the storm was violent enough.

"Here it is." Byeong joo broke through the silence. "Cabin four."

Hei lifted her head and glanced at where he was pointing at.

It wasn't fancy compared to what she saw on an everyday basis — the door had once been painted a darker color, but what was left of the paint was peeling. The number four was made out of metal, but the golden color had rusted so that it looked more like a dying bronze.

Byeong joo reached over and opened the door. "We'll be here for the next couple of days. If the seas are calm and everything goes well, we'll be at Ezentia in around five days."

After a moment of hesitation, Hei brushed past him and headed into the cabin. She couldn't see much — the lantern that Byeong joo held was too far to light up the dark room, though with the torches that lined the walls, she could make out the distinct shape of two beds. Both of them put together looked smaller than the one she had back home.

"What if…" her voice faltered. "What if the seas aren't calm? How long will it take to get there, then?"

"Are you hoping we all drown and the boat capsizes?" he asked, stepping into the room. Hei tried to swallow the panic rising to her throat when he shut the door behind them and turned the lock, but it didn't leave. "Because for your record, that's not going to work very well for any of us. It's also impossible."

"Impossible?" she echoed. "What are you going to do if we're in the middle of the sea and there's a huge storm? Do you think you can get out of that?"

"There won't be a storm," Byeong joo replied calmly before making his way to sit on the bed. "The ship should be departing soon. You probably don't want to be standing in the middle of the room for the whole time, though."

Hei glanced towards the bed that wasn't occupied. It was a fair distance away from Byeong joo's — at least, as far as the small room would allow — but it was still too close for comfort. She wasn't sure she could even close her eyes with him in the room. In fact, she wasn't sure if she couldeversleep without knowing he'd been caught by a family.

"You said you'd answer my questions," she said pointedly. "Or are you going to leave me in the dark still?"

She wasn't sure if she was pushing her limits by snapping at him, but after everything that had happened, Hei couldn't take it anymore. What else could he really do? They'd gotten out of Hua. She couldn't exactly fight back without being hurt, subdued or even worse, killed. When her family found out the killed guards the next morning, the ship would already be at sea, and even if they were to chase, it would be hard to catch up with hours of time ahead. Besides, would they even make the connection that they were leaving Hua by boat? Would they even think she was alive?

Those who cannot use their powers are nothing but a liability to their family,Miyeon had said.

Would they even bother to look for her? What was the point in looking for a liability, anyways?

"Are you still thinking about your family?" Byeong joo asked. He still sounded very indifferent, face betraying nothing. "You know there's no going back to them, right?"

Hei glared at him. "Did I really have a choice? Even if I wanted to go back, I can't anymore."

He tilted his head at her. "Is that an upsetting thought? Do you miss your family?"

She opened her mouth to snap again — itwasan upsetting thought — it wasn't just an upsettingthought,the whole thing was upsetting — but for some reason, nothing came out. Did she miss her family? There was no one to miss, and Hei knew that without even thinking. Miyeon? Definitely not. Apart from Miyeon, the only people she saw were the servants and at rare times, other family members. They were just passersbys, though, and she couldn't remember more than two of her siblings' faces. Her mother? Hei wasn't sure how long it was since she'd last seen her. Not that she even cared. She never really had a proper mother to begin with.

"I have an obligation to be loyal to my family and serve it as best as I can," Hei replied thickly, though her voice lacked conviction. "You wouldn't understand."

He laughed darkly. "Wouldn't I?"

She sat down on her bed at the furthest corner from him. His expression was terrifying. "No." The word barely came out.

"You have no obligation to be loyal to a so called family that treats their children like something disposable or like they own them. You have no obligation to be loyal to a family that weeds out the good from the bad and gets rid of those they deem weak or threatening. You have no obligation to be loyal to a family that demands everything from you and gives you virtually nothing in exchange. It isn't even afamilyto begin with."

Hei shook her head vehemently at him, though even as she did, she couldn't deny his words. She bit her lip, trying to expel the thoughts from her mind, though no matter how hard she tried, they lingered. There was just so much… truth in them that no one dared bring up in the inner city. Even thinking that way…

"If you think about it," Byeong joo continued. Hei wanted to block his voice out, but it was impossible. Part of her couldn't move, but the other part of her took odd satisfaction in hearing him talk about her family like that.Isn't he right?it whispered to her.Your family is going to kill you in three days, isn't it? What kind of family does that because their child isn't strong enough?"If you're in such a situation, you're supposed to kill yourself."

She froze.

"That's what you're taught, isn't it?" His gaze was intense, burning holes through her. "Children of a family would be better off dying than going with the enemy. Better to die for your family than to leave a traitor and put your own life first."

"What…what are you trying to get at?"

"They've taught you well." Byeong joo leaned over in front of him, reaching over and grabbing the pillow from the top of the bed. It was such a childish pose with his legs crossed and arms wrapped around the pillow that Hei couldn't connect him with the same person that had single handedly taken down the guards in front of her house and snuck in the inner city and at the same time taken down trained members of her family. "But how far does your loyalty to your family goes? You'velearnedto be loyal, but they haven'tearnedit. And true loyalty isn't learned; it's earned."

Nothing came out when she opened her mouth, and Byeong joo looked satisfied with that response.

Without another word, he leaned back on the bed, hands still wrapped around the pillow. "I'll explain more to you tomorrow."

For a long moment, they sat in silence. It was such a calm atmosphere, but the quietness just made her more nervous. Hei could almost feel the coiled up tension in the air, ready to be released at any moment.

It was only when the boat jolted when Byeong joo sat up again. Even though he'd looked relatively at ease the whole time, she could see the relief, a brief flash of it, on his face. "We're leaving."

Hei snapped upwards in surprise too, though for a completely different reason. The distinct feeling of panic was beginning to seep into her, and the situation was finally hitting her properly.Byeong joo. Her family. Kidnapped. Ezentia. The Kim family. Leaving. This isn't right, I shouldn't be leaving like this—

It was all a blur of nonsensical thoughts, momentarily paused when the ship started forward again, a bit roughly.

"It's not going to take long for it to leave the harbour," Byeong joo mused under his breath. "Do you want to go onto the deck?"

She stared at him. "Why would I do that?"

"Let's go." It wasn't a question this time, though it probably hadn't been in the first place. "I think you'll want to see it when we get onto open sea."

Chapter 5

Open Sea

Hei had followed Byeong joo up to the deck, albeit very grudgingly, though he barely left her with any choice. He looked a lot less tense now that they had left the city, though there was still something about him — almost as if he was never quite at ease, because there was alwayssomethinghe had to watch out for.

The ship had already pulled away from the dock when they exited from below deck, and now, with Byeong joo standing, leaning over the railing, it was beginning to travel at a decent speed out of the U shaped harbor. As Byeong joo stared out at the open sea, waves glistening under the moonlight, she turned and gave one desperate glance at Hua, wishing that someone would come get her back. It felt wrong standing next to a pirate like that. It felt wrong to follow everything he said without much resistance. Byeong joo was right, wasn't he? Any proper child of a family would've killed themselves if they couldn't get out of the situation.

She didn't dare. Even one look at Byeong joo's cutlass was terrifying, and though she felt utterly guilty about it, Hei would rather go along with what he said and betray her family than actually die.

Maybe it was why she was standing next to him then, moving her gaze from Hua to the sea. It spread out in front of her, seemingly endless, calm. Next to her, Byeong joo was still, hair brushed back by a wind that carried the strong scent of the sea. His eyes lingered on the waters the whole time, unmoving, even as the ship left the harbor. Behind them, Hua got smaller and smaller. The houses of the outer city were scattered around the huge hill, and then the walls that separated the outer from the inner; the family members from the common folk. It didn't seem as significant as it had appeared before, now that they were so faraway.

She wasn't sure how long they had been standing there in silence, with no sound but the soft noise of the wind and waves lapping against the hull. There was another three people on the deck with them, though they were a fair distance away.

Finally, Byeong joo tore his gaze from the sea and turned to look at her instead. He looked softer under the moonlight, though Hei supposed he'd been able to look pitiful, too. That was the reason she ended up going to Ezentia with him, anyways — because looks had been way too deceiving.

He didn't speak for a couple moments, then finally, tilted his head. "You've never left Hua, have you?"

Forget Hua. I don't think I've left the inner city. I don't think I've left myhousefor a couple of months.

"Why do you care?"

He shrugged. "I always wanted to leave when I was younger. I doubt you've never thought about it once in your life, but even though this is probably not your prefered method of visiting another place…"

"I'd rather not leave if it's going to be with you," she snapped. "You're taking me toEzentia.I'm from the Song family."

"So?"

"So?" Hei echoed incredulously. "You don't know anything, don't you?"

Byeong joo began to smile, an expression that should've been used to put someone at ease. Break barriers. Make oneself seem friendlier. On him, it was a scary look, frightening, and if she hadn't been frozen, Hei would've taken a step back. "Oh, trust me." He leaned forward. "Iknow.Because of a silly feud, there's been more bad blood than there should've been for generations and generations. You hate the Kim family? What for? It's not like yours is any better. Lu, Kim, Song, Park, Kim—" There seemed to be extra venom in his voice when he spatout the last name, though Hei's mind was too jumbled to even think about it much, "—they're all the same. Corrupt, run by power hungry bastards that try to control whatever they can get their hands on."

Hei tried to choke down a noise of surprise, though her voice wasn't working. The look in his eyes was terrifying, and what was worse was probably the thought of being stuck in the same room as him later on. It would besuffocating,and she wasn't sure if she could deal with that. For five days? She wasn't sure what was worse — the journey, or actually arriving at Ezentia. Both sounded equally bad. And the way he was speaking — the disrespect — yet she couldn't even find the words to reprimand him.

"Let's go." Byeong joo turned sharply away from the ocean. "I'm tired. It's probably best if we get some sleep, anyways."

I don't think I'll be sleeping if I'm in the same room as you,she thought glumly, though she didn't argue when she followed him down the stairs again.

Byeong joo sat down on the bed again when they got back, though not after he'd locked the door of the cabin. He'd set the relit lantern on the small wooden table and it swayed slightly with the boat's slow rocking motion. There was a strange sense of serenity that came from watching it.

"I'm going to sleep," he announced, yawning and stretching at the same time. "You should probably rest, too."

Hei stared at him incredulously. "You want me torest?After everything that happened, you think I'll actually sleep?"

His expression didn't change much. "I would personally get my rest if I were you, but you're also welcome to lie awake the whole night while I sleep. Whatever you want."

"What makes you think I won't leave when you're sleeping?" She didn't actuallymeanit, but since two hours ago, all she'd been doing was follow what he said and get backed into a corner after she tried to snap at him. He had a way with speaking that shut the other person up, and it was infuriating.

"There's nowhere to go on this ship. Are you going to jump into the sea?"

"It's a better option than staying here with you."

Byeong joo gave a snort. "Are you asking me to do something about it, then? You're so insistent on telling me that you're going to leave."

She narrowed her eyes at him, trying to read what he was thinking, though it was impossible each time. Warily, she watched as he stood up, eyes scanning the room until they landed on something in the corner.

He reached down and picked up a rope. Immediately, she flinched back.

Expression scarily calm, he made his way towards her. "But you're right, I keep on forgetting." He was right in front of her then, and Hei desperately wished that she'd kept her mouth shut. Ticking him off didn't seem like a good idea anymore. It had turned from anger to fear in a moment, quicker than she even knew emotions could change. "I don't know if you're serious about it or not, but you don't want to be here, do you? Family first." He gave a bitter smile. "I keep on assuming that your loyalty to your family is just shallow knowledge, but I can't guarantee that yet. Wrist."

Hei slid both of her hands behind her back. "What do you want?"

"Give me your wrist," Byeong joo repeated much more forcefully. His entire demeanor had changed in half a minute, and Hei was beginning to realize how bad an idea it was to even try to cross him. It felt wrong not to, but at the same time, he was right about her. Even after years and years of learning —keep your family first, family above yourself, your family isn't the most important —she would rather stay with an outlaw, a murderer, a thief than to get killed. And while she knew he wouldn't actually kill her, his expression was enough for her to grudgingly extend her wrist. With his lips pressed into a thin line, eyes boring holes into her and rope hanging limplyfrom his hands, there was nothing else that Hei could even think of doing.

Her only thought wasI messed upas he secured a knot around her wrist. The rope was a decent length, so when he tied it to the end of the bedpost, there was enough slack for her to shift into a position on the bed comfortably to sleep. In fact, there was so much that it hung off the bed. She could've touched the other side of the room if she stood up and walked.

It wasn't exactly too tight either — not enough for her to pull her hand through, and the knot looked fairly complicated. Untying it didn't seem like an option either.

Hei tugged on it, though it remained firm. "I didn't mean it," she said, desperation beginning to seep into her voice. There wasn't even much difference from before, but just the thought of being restrained… didn't sit well. "Byeong joo, I didn't mean it—"

"I'm not just doing this because of what you said," he replied quietly, turning back to his own bed and sitting down. "As much as I want to, I can't trust you just like you can't trust me. And you're right — Idon'tknow you well. I don't know if you're actually going to do such things, and I can't afford that. Just keep it like that. I'll untie it tomorrow and explain whatever you want to know." He turned to look at her then, meeting her eyes, and all of a sudden, Hei realized that hedidlook tired. There were dark bags underneath his eyes that she'd brushed off when she'd seen it before, and his face was pale. His voice was even softer when he spoke again. "I haven't slept in days, and there's going to be a whole lot that I'll tell you and you'll probably have more questions too. It's not that I don'twantto tell you now but I reallycan't.I physicallycan not."

He turned at that, reaching over, grasping the handle of the lantern and blowing the flame out. Hei heard the clang as he set it back down, then the blankets rustle. Soon, there was nothing but the sound of his steady breathing.

Her own, though, refused to calm. The room was dark by then, the boat still rocking beneath them. For a long while, she sat upright, refusing to lie down and relax when she was in the same room as a criminal, though Hei couldn't deny that she was tired, too.

Slightly grudgingly, she lay down slowly on the bed and stared up at the low ceiling of the cabin.

It was odd with the ever-swaying motion of the ship, and it was definitely something that Hei found hard to get used to. Still, though she tried to fight it, it wasn't too long after she lay down when her eyes began to shut. Before she knew it, she'd drifted off.

Hei snapped upwards in a cold sweat.

Her heart was racing in her chest, and though she couldn't even recall what she'd dreamt about (or if she dreamed anything at all), there was a fist of terror clenched around her chest that didn't leave no matter what she did. The darkness was suffocating, and though Byeong joo hadn't exactly tied it extremely tight around her wrist, she could feel the rope too well. It wasn't tight, yet at the same time, it felt like it was cutting into her wrist, stopping her circulation.

She could hear his breathing at the other side of the room, still steady. It was still nighttime, and while Hei had no idea how long she'd been sleeping for, she knew that simply closing her eyes and resting again wasn't an option.

In the dark, she could see the faint outline of the rope.Off,Hei thought as she sat up slowly, hoping the bed wouldn't creak beneath her.I want it off.

The blackness seemed to press down more, constricting her breathing.I shouldn't be here. This isn't right. I need to get back to my family, even if it means doing whatever I can. I shouldn't…

She tried to pull her wrist out of the loop, but Byeong joo had secured it enough so that it wasn't possible to wiggle her hand out of. For a moment, Hei let her hand drop, discouraged, though she was itching to get the rope off. As long as it was off and it wasn't so dark…

Hei pulled harder, wanting nothing more than to get rid of the feeling of being restrained. She could remember vividly — the heavy door slamming shut, cutting off all light, the sharp snap of Miyeon's voice just before the lock clicked. She couldn't move anywhere with her wrists tied, and the only thing she could do was scream at Miyeon to let her out until her voice gave away.Stay here,she'd say, and Hei could almosthearthe sneer in her voice.Until you've learned what a true member of the family should be like, don't leave. Calling for help won't be of any use either, Song Hei.

There was a raw sort of pain from her wrist, the kind from a freshly opened wound, though she could barely feel it. With one final hard yank, her wrist slipped out of the rope.

For a couple moments, Hei sat still on the bed, gasping for breath and trying to remain as quiet as possible. The area where she'd forcefully pulled off the rope throbbed, and when she touched it, it was tender and bleeding in other places.

Until you've learned what a true member of the family should be like…

She stumbled to her feet, hoping that her steps didn't make too much noise on the ground. She could still hear Byeong joo's breathing behind her at a steady pace, and she figured he was still asleep.

It was hard to control her breathing and move forward quietly, and the lock proved difficult, too. Hei fumbled with it a couple of times, her fingers trembling too much to do the job properly.

A real member of the family would put their family above anything else. Above themselves, too, if that's ever called for.

It took a couple tries too many to get the lock to open, but finally, Hei managed it. She almost sobbed in relief when she pulled the door open gently and a sliver of light slipped in from the outside. With one glance back at Byeong joo, she slipped out of the door.

The light from the torches that lined the hallway was blinding against her eyes, and she had to squint until her eyes adjusted. For a fleeting moment, she could see Byeong joo sitting on the bed, eyes surprisingly serious and sincere also. She didwantto hear what he had to say and undoubtedly had even more questions to ask, but that didn't matter. Undoubtedly, she was curious — he said he needed her help and that in itself was surprising enough.With what?

There was no way she could wait or drag it out, though. A day more, they'd be too far from Hua to go back. She couldn't even guarantee managing to get out of the room the next night. Each step felt as if her feet were made of lead.I need to get out. Someone needs to bring me back. I can't stay here. He's probably lying, anyways. I can't trust a pirate over my family—

Near panicking, Hei made her way down the hallway. Her breathing sounded too loud in the silence, and one by one, she tried to cabin doors, hoping that one would be open.Find help.Her thoughts were too jumbled, blocking out all rationality, and the only thing she could feel was the press of darkness all around her, even under the torchlight. It cut off her sight, and the silence cut off her other senses.

She barely managed to grasp the doorknob of the last room down the row of cabins. By then, Hei couldn't eventhinkof anything except the repeating mantra of,I have to get out.Part of her didn't actuallywantto — Byeong joo was right: there was nothing but death waiting for her if she returned anyways — but that was swallowed by the gripping fear.

To her surprise, the door to the last cabin opened, and Hei stumbled inside. It was even brighter than the hallway, and blinking, she struggled to adjust to the light.

Five pairs of eyes stared back at her.

Hei froze in the doorway, trying to calm her breathing. She opened her mouth, and then snapped it shut. What was she supposed to say?

"Hey," one of the men said, rising from his spot. "What are you—"

She drew in a shuddering breath. "Help," she managed. She wasn't sure what she looked like — her wrist was bleeding, profusely in some parts, and the dress she was wearing was crumpled and messy. She probably looked like a mess — shefeltlike a mess, at least, and not just physically. "I need to go back to Hua, so please help me."

"Who are you?" someone else asked, though his words were slurred. "The ship's already left. You can't just barge into room asking for help like that." He eyed her, and Hei suddenly felt very uncomfortable. "Are you sure you have no other intentions, Miss?"

A couple others sneered, and she took a step back. There was something very different about the way he saidMisscompared to Byeong joo, though she couldn't quite pinpoint how. The tone, the meaning — it just… wasn't the same.

The one who'd first spoken scrutinized her, and by then, in a brighter room, her senses were beginning to sink back. The panic from being in a dark room with her wrist tied was dying down, fading, and it was then when she noticed that at least three of the five looked at least somewhat intoxicated. As the seconds ticked by, her mind seemed to clear more and more, and the fact that she'd made a really, really stupid decision felt like a slap across the face.

Going to the captain of the ship would've been a better idea. In fact, staying put would've been smarter. Hei reached for the door again, bending into a hasty bow. "I'm sorry for intruding," she managed. There was something awfully unnerving about the men and she would've rather been with Byeong joo than them. She wrapped a hand around the doorknob, tense and ready to run.

One of the men stood up. "You can't just rush in and go like that," he said, taking a step closer.

Warning bells began to go off in her head.What was I thinking before?she wondered. Sure, being in such a dark place with her wrist tied had been terrifying and it had triggeredsomesort of response of panic and fear (Hei wasn't quite sure what it was now that initial feeling had been gone, but it had been years since Miyeon had last done such a thing and she had no idea she would end up having such a response), but she hadn't even realized how irrationally she'd been thinking until it was too late. Miyeon wasn't there, whispering in her ear about how terrible a member of the family she was. She was on a ship without anyone from her family, and for the first time since she'd met Byeong joo, briefly Hei wondered without any other objections from her mind if he was right about it all.

And then the man who'd stood up moved forward, slamming the door shut behind her back.

Panicking (this time for actual reasons), Hei moved to the side, narrowly missing his hand that had almost landed on her wrist.

He was slow, possibly clumsy, and very obviously drunk. On a normal occasion, Hei could've evaded him easily.

The cabin, however, had limited room. On top of that, the men who'd surrounded the table (what had they been doing before? Playing cards?) had all begun to stand up. No matter how fast she was, she was going to end up cornered if she couldn't make it out the door, and the door was blocked.

This was the right moment to panic,Hei thought grimly.Not before. This. Right now.

Maybe Byeong joo had basically kidnapped her from her own house. He was dragging her to Ezentia, he was a wanted outlaw, he'd tied her wrist to the bed — that was definitely enough for Hei to hate him. But in terms of being an actual danger toher,she figured that she was definitely safer with him than where she was at the moment.

The floor creaked as one of the men moved again. The door was left unguarded. "You could've asked instead of barging in and begging for help like that," he laughed, reaching forward.

Hei did the first thing that came to mind, and while it wasn't the smartest, it was the only chance she saw.

Half of her wasn't expected it to work, but perhaps it was because the last person she'd tried to fight had been Byeong joo and he'd swatted her rolling pin and the bowl aside like a fly.

The man stumbled backwards with a yell of pain, doubling over. Her fist burned from the blow, though the adrenaline was enough to keep the pain at bay. Briefly, she realized that it was also the wrist that was bleeding, though a second later, she'd shoved past the man and darted for the door, throwing it open.

She was barely a step out before someone grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked her back.

Hei didn't even try to suppress the gasp of pain. Her scalp burned — her hair was normally tied in bun, so there was no way someone could've pulled it before, but Byeong joo had cut away her hair tie — and then the sheer force sent her stumbling back into the cabin.

Someone's hand wrapped around her arm roughly and shoved her back into the room, though her vision had turned blurry. Hei tried to yank her grip out of his, but she wasn't nearly strong enough. She heard the door slam shut behind her again, so hard that the whole cabin seemed to tremble, or maybe it was just herself.

"Hey," growled the person she'd punched. Woozily, Hei tried to think of any sort of solution, though she couldn't think of anything. Her head was spinning, and vaguely, she realized that she probably should've called for help. "There's a limit to what you can play at." She couldhearhim, but at the same time, his words were incomprehensible, like she was hearing it all through a glass wall. It didn't seem to connect, at least not quite.

Her back met the wall, and it sent a jarring stab of pain up her spine. She glanced upwards through blurring vision, trying to keep her eyes from watering. It really didhurt.

"Listen." He leaned closer, and Hei flinched as the scent of alcohol washed over her face, trying to suppress the gag reflex. "I don't care what you're playing at, but know your limits."

There were five men in the room, and while not all of them looked completely drunk, three of them definitely did. The man that had her pinned to the wall was, undoubtedly, though he was still a decent amount stronger than she was.

Still, he was intoxicated and that gave him a disadvantage. If she could just make it out the door, she'd be able to get back to Byeong joo's cabin. Staying there suddenly seemed a whole deal safer, and if she hadn't been in such a situation, Hei might've sat down for a long time and just wallowed in regret of having done something so absurdly stupid. What had she been expecting? People that genuinely wanted to help?

Without giving herself anymore time to think, she followed her gut instinct and brought her knee up with as much force as she could manage.

The man released her with a roar of pain. Hei could barely hear him, adrenaline and panic and fear fueling her forward, enough for her to put everything else aside momentarily. Miyeon, her family — all of that seemed surprisingly insignificant at the moment. She reached for the doorknob, trying to hurry her steps (though there wasn't much that speed could help her with in such a tiny room with so many people).

"Youbitch," he snarled, and at that moment, the door opened.

That opened easily,she thought, more or less confused, and then someone else stepped into the room and Hei realized that she hadn't been the person who opened the door.

She'd never been happier to see Byeong joo.

His eyes were narrowed, scanning the room around him. The last time Hei had seen him, he'd looked absolutely exhausted and on the verge of collapsing. He'd been sound asleep when she'd left the room — the person standing in the doorway, looking positively livid at the scene in front of him, did not look like the same Byeong joo she'd seen hours ago.

"What's happening?" There was a deadly sort of quiet in his voice.

Hei took a shaky step in his direction. She could see him scanning the room, from the scattered bottles of alcohol to the intoxicated faces of the other men and then finally, landing on her. Wordlessly, he reached over, latching a firm grip on her wrist and tugging her towards him. She ended up halfway out the door, behind his back.

Hei nearly collapsed there. She felt unbelievably safer standing behind Byeong joo, and with the adrenaline gradually draining away, she was left with the crippling feeling of fear, the lingering sort that made her legs weak. Returning to their cabin and curling up on the bed sounded like the best option at the moment.

"Who are you?" she heard someone slur. It didn't seem like it was coming from the same person she hit.

"She's with me," Byeong joo replied simply. "I don't know what happened here, but I'm sure that bringing alcohol onto the ship wasn't permitted. There are strict rules."

Byeong joo didn't even flinch as the man grabbed the collar of his shirt, yanking him forward. She couldn't see his face, though his right hand hovered dangerously close to where his cutlass was sheathed. Behind them, the other four had risen to their feet, crowding around them all.

She'd seen him fight, but nevertheless, Hei couldn't deny that watching him face down five people that were all taller than him was nerve wracking. The possibility that he would lose against five clumsy drunkards was pretty much zero if he could take down two members of her family easily, yet she'd been cornered by the same people without being able to even put up much of a struggle.

"Let go." He sounded a lot calmer than he looked a moment ago. "I don't want this to end up in a fight—"

The man shook him. "Hey," he laughed loudly. "Who are you ordering around, pretty boy? She walked into our room begging. Why do you think she gets to leave without even finishing what she star—"

Even though HeiknewByeong joo could move fast, it was still surprising to see him actually do so. The one who'd been holding his collar went down without a sound, sentence never finished, and behind him, he threw a packed punch at the man behind. The third one tried to grab his hand, though he never even made contact with Byeong joo.

It was over before she knew it. The fifth man wasn't completely out, apparently, because he leaned against one of the flimsy beds, clutching his hand to his chest and breathing in choked, ragged gasps.

Byeong joo stood over him, unmoving for a long moment. From the doorway, Hei stared at him. His back was to her, expression unreadable, though she dreaded the moment he would turn around and look at her. Would he be mad? She couldn't imagine a reason for him not to be. She hadn'tmeantfor the nightmares to get out of hand and to make such a rash, unsensible and utterlystupidmove, but would Byeong joo even get it if she tried to explain? He'd probably tie up her ankles up too.

"You're causing a disturbance here," he said in a low voice at the man. "It's nighttime, and it's late. Consider the other people too." His eyes flickered to a smashed bottle. "And get rid of the alcohol before I tell the captain."

With that, he turned around, steps quick. He stopped when he was standing right in front of her.

Hei didn't dare meet his eyes — they were smouldering the last time she looked — though curiosity got the better of her after a couple more seconds and she peeked upwards.

He didn't look mad. In fact, there was a hint of genuine worry that she'd never seen before. For a while, he stared at her, scanning her from bottom up, gaze lingering on her wrist for a couple of seconds before he finally found her eyes.

"Are you okay?"

Hei had no idea what to reply with.Noseemed to be an understatement — her legs were shaking, she felt as if she'd collapse any moment, and the pain that she couldn't feel before was all beginning to catch up to her. She didn't even have the energy to nod or shake her head at Byeong joo, though she had to admit that she was more than relieved that he wasn't actuallymadat her. Not yet, at least.

He didn't say anything else about it, but nodded down the direction of the hallway, towards where their cabin was. With one last unreadable look, he nudged the door of the room shut with a toe. "Let's go back," he said simply, and without another word, began to head towards their cabin, steps slow enough for her to keep up with.

Exhausted and spent, Hei didn't say anything else and followed.

Chapter 6

Five Questions

Hei wasn't sure if her breathing had steadied or not, because it still sounded extremely loud to her own ears when Byeong joo shut the door behind them. Her whole body was still shaking, from fear or pain or nervous anticipation — she wasn't quite sure. She kept her gaze fixed on her hands, though it wasn't the best place to look because all Hei saw was the bloody cuts on her wrist from where she'd forcefully pulled her hand from the rope, and looking at that made her back hurt from where she'd been slammed against the wall, and that reminded her of the cut on her foot that still stung and hadn't quite healed. Everything just lead into a circle of how mad Byeong joo would possibly be.

Anywhere but Byeong joo's eyes,she told herself. If he'd been angry at her trying to ask the guards for help back then, there was no way thatthiswouldn't make him mad. And after seeing firsthand how scary he could be…

"I shouldn't have tied your wrist," he said quietly, and Hei's head snapped upwards. She couldn't look away after he'd caught her gaze. "I have to apologize for that."

Hei opened her mouth, shut it, opened it again and then decided that speaking didn't seem to be the best option to choose. She opted for staring at Byeong joo in absolute shock, momentarily forgetting everything that she'd been worrying about a moment ago. Had he justapologizedfor tying her wrist there instead of actually yelling at her? She couldn't comprehend why he actually didn't look mad.

"What happened before?" He actually soundedworried.Hei was partially convinced that he was toying with her, because he didn't hit her like the forgiving type or the kind of person who'd actually spend time listening to her even if shedidtell him what had happened. Not that she could exactly tell very well, either, because Hei couldn't quite rememberanyonelike that in her life and she was pretty sure Byeong joo was no exception.

"Well?" he prompted. "I don't suppose you made yourself bleed and decided to check every single cabin down here for help if you had been in the right mind. Anyone else would've bolted for the captain and reported that there was an outlaw on the ship. What exactly happened?"

Hei stared down at her hands. Byeong joo had lit a lantern so that the room wasn't as dark anymore, though she didn't suppose it really mattered as long as she didn't have her hands tied anymore. Was there really a point if she explained it to him? Would it even make a difference?

She blinked at him, and he shifted on his bed so that it creaked beneath him. "I'm serious, Song Hei. I can't do anything if you're not going to tell me the problem. I'm sincerely sorry for tying you to the bed — I was tired, I wasn't thinking properly, and while I know that barely makes up for anything... it was still a huge mistake on my part."

It was odd. Staring at him, the exact person who'd kidnapped her from her family and Hei was really supposed tohate (pirate, outlaw, wanted, murder,she told herself once again in her head, though the words had lost their meaning somewhere along the couple hundred times she repeated it to herself) — oddly, the only feeling she got from listening to his words was an odd prickle of comfort. He sounded like he genuinely meant it. Helookedlike he genuinely meant it. It was a sort of sincerity that she wasn't used to seeing, yet at the same time, the type she could recognize immediately without even knowing it well.

"It's nothing," she managed out thickly. "Why are you…"Why are you being so nice?"Why do you care? Why are you not…"

Byeong joo stared straight at her. "I don'twantto treat you like you're some sort of captive. I did tell you before that I need your help, and I don't want to force your hand at it." He seemed to hesitate there. "Well, technically, Idid,but trust me when I tell you that you're better off without your family. I may be a pirate and a wanted outlaw, but I'm not heartless and neither am I stupid. Help is always better when it's willing from both the receiving and giving sides."

"There's nothing I can help you with," she replied. "You said it yourself back there. I can't use my power. I'm useless—"

"You'renotuseless," he snapped, so suddenly and harshly that Hei jumped back. She watched with a tinge of fear as he stood up. It was terribly similar to what had happened when he'd tied her wrist to the bed post the last time, though to her utter relief, Byeong joo passed by her. His gaze was unreadable, though she could see a hint of anger shimmering behind his eyes, though the emotion was masked well. "I'm going to get some gauze for your wrist. Tell me when I'm back."

The door shut behind him, the sound, though soft, echoed through the now-quiet room loudly. When it faded, the only thing Hei could hear was her breathing as she sat alone.

She wasn't sure what to even think of Byeong joo anymore, and that was probably the worst part. There were so many things that she was unsure of and so many other things that she needed to ask him and confirm, but she couldn't even get them out. The only thing she could do was question over and over what he was doing and why he was doing it. He said that he needed her help, but that didn'treallywarrant such behavior towards her, did it? What did hewant?Pirates supposedly stole treasure, possible murdered people — but that didn't seem to be what Byeong joo was after. At least she didn't think so.

It was all terribly confusing, and Hei was pretty sure she'd have a mental breakdown if she tried to think of it more. It was hard enough struggling with the constant whisper —you shouldn't be doing this as a member of a family —but that was easier to block out when she wasn't panicking.

For what felt like a very long time, she sat in the room alone. And then, just as the silence was beginning to get unbearable, the door of the cabin swung open again.

Byeong joo appeared with more than just the gauze. Hei had to squint in the bad lighting to make out what he was holding, but when he sat down beside her, she'd pretty much figured out that it was an apple.

And then the realization dawned on her that he was sitting next to her on her bed, and internally panicking, she scooched to the side. "What—"

"Your wrist," he replied calmly. "I need to wrap it up. I don't think you can do it with one hand by yourself."

Hei swallowed nervously. Being in such close proximity with him made her feel extremely uncomfortable — being in the same room was already pushing limits —but she had no more energy to fight Byeong joo anymore and going against him didn't seem like a good idea either. She faintly recalled what had happened the last time he'd asked for her wrist, but when she stretched her injured arm out at him this time, his touch was strangely light.

She watched as he wrapped the white gauze around carefully. It wasn't bleeding too much, though the first layer was specked with red. The color was a lot fainter when he wrapped around again, and by the time Byeong joo had secured the bandage, it was simply white cloth around her wrist.

Cautiously, Hei moved her wrist slightly. The pain wasn't as sharp, held back by the support of the gauze.

Byeong joo stood up again. "Is that good?"

There was nothing she could do but nod at him.

He went back to his own bed, setting the leftover gauze and also the apple onto the small table beside his bed. Compared to before, Byeong joo looked relatively calmer, and Hei was thankful for that. He managed to control and reign in his emotions better than any person she knew (then again, she'd spent over a third of her life stuck with Miyeon, whose temper flared up very often. She never bothered to control it either).

"Are you going to tell me now, then?" She could feel his eyes on her, and Hei didn't meet his gaze. "I'm not going to buy it if you say that it was nothing. No one would believe that."

If she bit any harder, Hei was pretty sure her bottom lip would start bleeding. "I just don't like having my hands tied."

"I noticed. I can't read your mind as to why, though."

Heiknewshe should've stopped herself from talking. It was family matters, it didn't concern him, and he wasn't someone who she should've been looking for sympathy in. The enemy wasn't someone who she could freely confide in.

Maybe it was because the events from before still left her a bit more shaken than she realized, or maybe some part of herknewthat the sincerity in his eyes and voice and expression wasn't something faked. And despite all the factors against, she decided to go with it.Just once,she told herself, though the words were already tumbling out of her mouth.

"Miyeon," she heard herself say, almost against her own will. The words just came out before she could stop them. "It was a long time ago, but she used to lock me…" It got harder and harder to speak as she went on, and Hei tried to swallow the lump in her throat. "She used to lock me in a dark room with my hands tied if I couldn't memorize the lesson or I didn't finish…or I couldn't…"

His expression darkened, though he didn't exactly look surprised. "It was four years ago. And it wasn't really that frightening anymore after I got older, either—"

"That doesn't make what she did any less wrong, though." He reached for the apple he'd placed on the counter, chewing his bottom lip with his teeth. His gaze was averted so she couldn't see his eyes, which she began to realize was the best place to look at when trying to read his emotions. "It's almost dawn, and I don't think I'm going to be able to fall asleep any time soon. I told you I'd answer your questions when I woke up, so let's move onto that."

Hei watched as he sliced the apple in half neatly with his blade, and then handed her portion to her. "Everyone's still more or less asleep, so this was all I found." When she hesitated, he gave her a wry smile. "I wouldn't drag you this far to feed you a poisoned apple."

She took it from him, though she really didn't have much of an appetite left. Byeong joo didn't push her anymore when she set the half of the apple on her lap, and instead, took a bite into his own. Around a mouthful, he mumbled, "Because it's going to probably be a whole hell of explaining, let's go with five questions this morning. And then I'll answer five more in the afternoon."

It was undoubtedly surprising that he'd dropped the subject of Miyeon and what had happened before so easily (too quickly, Hei thought, though she was thankful not to talk about it either), but it didn't take more than a couple sentences from him forherto also forget about it. Maybe that was what Byeong joo had been aiming for — whatever the reason, Hei stopped thinking about it and she was more or less thankful for that.

"Five questions," she echoed dumbly. "Why are you… why are you being so nice? You're apirate."

"That counts as one," he replied with the faintest hint of the smirk returning to his face, and Hei glared at him. She should've known he would play dirty in some sort of way. Then his expression returned to serious again. "I know it's more or less a stereotype, but being a pirate doesn't make me a terrible person."

"Kidnapping me from my home and threatening me with a blade doesn't give the best first impressions—"

He raised his hands in a placating gesture, though there was nothing about it that made her feel any more at ease. "Knocking you out and smuggling you out of Hua would've been worse."

"—and that's an understatement. You might want to rethink theterrible personpart."

"Touche." He looked unfazed. "But to answer that seriously, a little bit of kindness doesn't hurt. I may have, ah,forcefullytaken you from Hua, but that doesn't automatically give me what I need from you. I need your help, and you have the power to withhold that if you decide to. Treating you like you're a captive isn't going to help me. It's just going to strain everything even more, and that's not going to work well for either of us. And as ridiculous as it sounds, try not to think of me as the enemy."

She opened her mouth to contradict him —that was more than simply ridiculous — but Byeong joo continued before she could say anything else. "I know I probably did a couple of things that were pretty terrible in like the ten hours I've known you, but I mean everything that I said before too. Sincerely."

She gnawed on her bottom lip. He didn't seem to be the same person who'd threatened her with a cutlass and killed the guards. Not even the one who'd shoved her back and taken down the five men in the blink of an eye. This wasn't the kind of personality or the kind of treatment she'd expected to get from a pirate, and frankly, it confused Hei to the point of a headache. There was some sort of pull in his words too that made her gravitate towards him when he spoke, too, and she found herself hanging onto his every word. Maybe it was something about his intonation, or his choice of words or the look in his eyes.

"Well?" Byeong joo asked. "What's your second question?"

Hei tried to think. She'd wasted her first question, so she had four more before she had to wait until the afternoon. "Why do you need my help?"

"I lost my crew," he replied immediately. "Well, I lost part of my crew. I need to track them down, but we were seperated so suddenly and on such a short notice that I have no idea where half of them are. There's no place to start unless I have someone who's able to follow their footsteps to where they are. You can see things that have occurred in one place in the past, right?"

Confusion was the first thing to hit. "I can't control my power at all. Are we going to sit somewhere until I finally see the proper memory segment for thirty seconds?"

"Third question," he said casually, and Hei bit back a protest. "No, we're not going to sit in the same place until you finally see the person I need you to see because that's not going to work at all. What you're able to control at the moment is barely a fraction of what you're supposed to be able to do. If you're trained properly, it'll be easier for you to control those visions." He tilted his head contemplatively. "I'm pretty sure your power goes a much longer way than just seeing segments of the past, too, though it's up to you to figure out what else you can do."

Most children were able to have control over their power when they turned six — no matter how little — which was when they started taking lessons from tutors. Hei wasn't too sure when she'd seen her first vision, though she was pretty sure she'd been at least twelve. Miyeon had tried to teach her how to control it, though it was useless.You're a lost cause,she said disapprovingly.There's no point in trying. Do you even have power that's useful?

She'd tried for years. With Miyeon, by herself, locked in her room as she tried to command her power to work according to her will. Most of the time it ended with crying herself to sleep.

"That's not going to happen," she told Byeong joo, and it came out as a dry laugh. "I've tried for eight years. Did they forget to tell you that about me when they passed information to you?"

"Does that count as the fourth question?" he mused under his breath, and Hei fought the urge to throw her uneaten apple at him. "And no, she didn't forget to tell me that. It sounds like your family was the one that didn't train you properly, though. You'll sharpen your skills up if you're taught properly."

"Even if my family didn't train me properly, who do you think will do better? You? You're a commoner. What do you know about family members' powers?"

Byeong joo's smile was dangerous. "More than you'd expect me to."

Hei had to admit inwardly that her family reallydidn'ttrain her properly. Being yelled at for an hour by her tutor and then told toforget itdidn't really fall under the category of proper training, but she wasn't going to say that aloud to Byeong joo anytime soon. Still, it wasn't completely Miyeon's fault that she had no idea how to use the little power she had. Compared to someone her age from her family, it was no secret that she wasn't powerful. The fact that someone like Byeong joo needed her help wasn't something that was easy to comprehend. She set down her apple, appetite completely gone.

"Fourth question." She cleared her throat awkwardly. "How do you know so much about me? Who told you?"

"That's two."

Shut up,she almost told him, though she managed to stop herself last minute. Byeong joo hadn't lost his temper yet (not that he had before, but he looked generally more at ease), but she wasn't pushing the limits. At least not now — Hei wasn't certain whenshewould lose her temper because he was the one who'd pushed past the limits.

He must've seen the expression on her face because his lips twitched in amusement. "I'll count that as one, then. Someone that I know told me. I think she's a maid —Son Seungwan. Ring a bell? She's been living in Hua for quite a while and she helped when I asked her, though I suppose she doesn't owe me anymore after this."

Hei did a double take. "Seungwan?"

"Kind of short, smiles a lot. That Seungwan. Know her?"

Seungwan had been the person who bandaged her foot. She didn't keep track of the maids too often — they came and went — but there was no way she could forget Seungwan. She was the one who had told her outright that she wasn't going to pass the test.A traitor, too,she thought bitterly.Figures. She must've known what she was talking about because she'd been contacting Byeong joo…

"She owed you," Hei found herself repeating, and she was about to ask him what he'd done for her to owe him something when she realized that Byeong joo would count that as a question too. She shoved the words back down and sealed her mouth.

He flashed a grin at her. "I saved her brother once," he said. She didn't even bother to comment, though it was still kind of surprising how fast he'd been able to read her. "In case you're wondering. Last question?"

She bit her lip. There was so many more things that she wanted to be answered at the moment — waiting until the afternoon felt too long — though Hei wasn't completely sure if she'd be pushing anything by trying to get more information out of him. She figured it was probably smartest not to test him until she was more or less sure he was being genuinely nice (if she couldeverfigure him out).

Finally, she settled with one. "Why are we going to Ezentia of all places? What are you going to do there?"

"I hope they taught you how to count in your family," he exclaimed in mock worry. "That's a very important thing to learn." Seeing her scowl, he continued on. "Ezentia was the place I settled in best after…" He hesitated, then hurried on without finishing his sentence. It was the first time she'd seen such uncertainty on his face, the worry of saying something wrong and slipping up, and it made him seem a lot more human. "Anyways, I do have a… house — it's more of a base — there and I know quite a couple of people there too. It's also where the rest of my crew is. At least the ones whose whereabouts I actually know. Eunho was originally going to be the person who went to bring you from Hua, but I figured it was better for him to stay in Ezentia. He should be meeting us there and have everything else arranged. Though he does sidetrack often..."

It took a couple of moments for Byeong joo words to actually sink in, and half frozen in shock and disbelief. "Eunho," she repeated slowly, scanning his face. He raised an eyebrow at her. "Lu… han.Lu."

"Eunho," Byeong joo spelled out for her slowly.

"That surname is from the Do family—"

"Yeah, he used to be from the Do family."

Hei couldn't quite comprehend. He was speaking about the Eunho person — whoever he was — so casually, like it was everyday he bumped into a member from one of the five families. "You have someone who used to be in the Do family in your crew?" she demanded. "Who the hell are you, exactly?"

He stiffened for a moment, though he relaxed back into the same smile so quickly that Hei wondered if her eyes had just been playing tricks on her. It seemed to be the default look he always went for — an unworried expression, thoughts hidden behind a smile, eyes calculating calmly. "That's too many questions. Back to Ezentia, unless you don't want to hear the rest?"

Who are you?she wondered. He'd avoided the question like that, and whether or not he knew she noticed, it was something that would bug her. He definitely wasn't just a normal commoner, but that was all she could get out of it.Byeong joo. Just Byeong joo, no surname.

"So?" he prompted, and Hei blinked. "I wasn't done explaining when you interrupted."

"Go on," she mumbled, mind still reeling from Eunho.

"I mean, if you were surprised bythat…"Byeong joo pressed his lips together. "I'll put it bluntly —I'm going to Ezentia to sort out a couple of things with Eunho, hopefully get a ship, and then kidnap Nam Yejun on the way."

"You're going tokidnapsomeone from the Kim family?" Hei demanded, running up the stairs after Byeong joo. He gave her the signature grin that she was itching to wipe of his face.

"I technically already kidnapped someone from the Song family. It's not going to be much harder."

"Yeah, and you knew for a fact that I couldn't fight back and couldn't even use my powers! Nam Yejun —he's… he's…"

Byeong joo reached the deck, mounting the last steps and completely ignoring her. The air carried the scent of the sea, though it was heavier, stacticky. She stepped up behind Byeong joo, ready to ask him again. He couldn't just tell her he was going to kidnapanothermember of a family and leave her hanging — and then she saw the sky.

The sea was beginning to pick up, the waves rising higher and higher. The sky hadn't lightened much from nighttime, though the most terrifying part of that was that Hei wasn't sure if it was because it was still too early for the sun to start rising or if it was because of the obvious oncoming storm. And as much as she hoped for the latter not to be the case, she could feel the tension, waiting to be released in the air. From the looks of it, with the darkening clouds and rough waves, it wasn't going to be a small one.

"Storm," she managed, though it came out as a choked whisper. Byeong joo glanced back at her. "Byeong joo, there's a storm—"

"And a huge one at that." He pressed his lips together. "The wind's in our favour, so I think this'll just help us arrive at Ezentia quicker."

Hei glanced at the dark clouds, approaching the ship frightening fast. She suddenly felt extremely small on the ship, open and raw to be played with by the ocean. If it decided to capsize the boat, there was nothing that anyone on the ship could do. Travelling by sea definitely wasn't something she was beginning to like, and this only proved it.

Byeong joo, though, looked completely unworried. The wind tugged at his hair, messing it up and sweeping it over his eyes. For a while, he continued to stare at the horizon as the ship rocked beneath them, more violently than before. It wasn't until a particular wave crashed into the hull and she was thrown harshly to the side that he finally turned around again.

"Go back to the cabin," he commanded, and Hei did a double take at him.But I still need to ask you about Eunho, Nam Yejun, what you want from me and so many other—

"Go back," he repeated. "The seas are going to get violent, and it's probably safest if you stay belowdeck. I'll go back in a while and we'll continue later." He made a shooing motion with his hands, and Hei stared at him until he gave her a gentle shove down.

A strong gust of wind guided her towards the door. "Oh," Byeong joo said, "You might want to eat the apple."

He pushed the door shut.

Chapter 7

Power

Another moment and Hei thought she was going to throw up.

Byeong joo hadn't warned her about getting seasick and while she knew it happened to some people, she hadn't realized that it would to her. The constant rocking motion she'd found sort of comforting, but now that the storm was actually tearing at the ship, she wasn't sure which feeling she wanted to get rid of: the fear that it would capsize and they'd all drown at sea (she cursed Byeong joo over and over in her head for dragging her with him) or the discomfort from the nausea of the turbulent movements. She'd taken a couple bites into the apple before giving up — seasickness and eating definitely didn't go together.

For a long time, she huddled on the bed, trying to tame the sick feeling, though it didn't get better. She had initially wanted to process everything he told her when she was alone, but at the moment, Hei couldn't quite concentrate on anything else.

She'd seen storms back in Hua, though she'd been indoors for all of them. The worst one had snapped one of the trees in the yard and it had toppled over, dangerously close to the house, but nothing more happened. She remembered the rain and hail tearing at the rooftops, claps of thunder following flashes of lightning, and it had sounded so chaotic outside that she couldn't sleep. Still, it wasn't actuallyscary.

Being on the ship was a different story.

The waves tore at the ship mercilessly and violently, and while she hadn't yet been thrown from the bed, Hei was pretty sure that another jolt would've done it. She couldn't quite imagine what Byeong joo was even doing outside. Maybe he was used to it because he was often on the sea, but staying on the deck amidst a storm of such volume? She couldn't make sense to it.

Maybe the storm swept him off some time ago,she thought half-heartedly, though it was nearly impossible. If he was going to stay up there, chances were he was doing it for a reason.

Hei wasn't sure how long it was before the storm started to calm down. She remained on her bed with her eyes squeezed shut, but gradually, the nausea began to ebb away as the boat went back to slower rocking movements. For a long time, she didn't move from where she was, and then the door to the cabin opened again. Hei snapped upwards.

Byeong joo entered, shaking his head like a wet puppy. He was absolutely drenched from head to toe, and in addition to that, rainwater dripped behind his steps. Hei eyed the ground where he'd tread on.

He continued shaking water from his hair as he headed towards the bed. "The storm's calmed down by now," he informed her casually. "It wasn't that bad, was it?"

Just bringing it up made Hei want to retch again.

"Your face looks a little green," he continued to remark. "It's alright. The first is always the worst, and then it gets better. You'll get used to being on the sea in no time."

"In no time?" she squinted at him. He was wringing out his shirt as best as he could, though the water only puddled at his feet, near his bed. Hei was tempted to tell him to go outside if he was so wet — she absolutely hated when people trailed water everywhere — but she really was in no place to do so (nor did she really want to, either, because the aftereffects of going through the storm still lingered and she didn't exactly feel too well). "What do you mean in no time? You said it would take five days to reach Ezentia."

Byeong joo nodded. "It does take five."

"Are there going to be more storms along the way?" Hei couldn't help the quiver in her voice. The past while had been an absolute nightmare (she wasn't sure if it had been ten minutes or an hour), and living through the exact same there made her dizzy.

"I can't really tell about that." Byeong joo seemed to have given up on actually drying himself, because he sat right down on his bed, wet clothes and all. "That storm wasn't bad, actually — we could be at Ezentia in three or four days if the winds remain in our favour, and the quicker the better. Though we'll hopefully be on sea a couple days after Ezentia. I don't suppose the Kim family is going to take it nicely after Nam Yejun goes missing, and it'll probably be best to steer clear of there for a while."

Hei stared at him incredulously. "We're… going to be on the sea so soon?"Wesounded odd — it made her feel as if she were actually working with him by her own free will, which was a lie no matter how much he twisted it and made it sound like he wasn't wrong. "Are you seriously going to just kidnap a member from the Kim family?"

"He's a scribe." Byeong joo undid his shoes and crossed his legs. "As long as I don't bump into a lot more people, he really can't do anything. I'll take Eunho with me too, just for safety." He gave her a wide grin. "Besides, he's not a girl. I'll knock him out and drag him with us if I have to. It's going to be easier."

Hei was about to ask him about Eunho again (because technically speaking, he was the person she was most curious about — an ex-member of the Do family working with a wanted pirate? That was unheard of) when he shook his head at her. "It's not afternoon yet."

Hei blinked at him. "What?"

"It's not afternoon yet," he repeated. "You have five more questions in the afternoon, but that's not now. I'm not going to answer it until it's the afternoon."

She opened her mouth to object and then decided against it and sat back again. Byeong joo looked absolutely harmless sitting on the bed continuously drying his hair, but there was nothing as being too wary at such a point. He said he wouldn't hurt her, and hadn't yet, but he just wasn't… trustworthy. No matter how good he was with words, he was technically an enemy, which meant—

"Are you thinking about your family again?" He tilted his head at her, wet hair falling into his eyes. "You have this really murderous look in your eyes when you look at me."

Hei blinked. "No."

"Liar," he replied breezily. "I was thinking you could try using your power right now to burn time. Have you practiced yet?"

"Practiced?" Hei echoed. "If you mean sitting there and staring at thin air and hoping for something to appear, then yes, by all means, I've practiced."

Byeong jootsked at her. "That's not how you do it. Has your family ever taught you properly?"

"They'vetried,but Ican't.I don't know how you were convinced that I can help you with it, because it's actuallyuseless.There's really nothing I can do, and it has nothing to do with my family—"

"Your power should be part of you," Byeong joo interrupted sharply. Her eyes flickered up, to his face, where a pair of serious eyes stared back at her. "That's what every child of a family has. Their power ispartof them; it's something they should be able to use like their other senses. It's something you should be able to command, but first, you have to get toknowit. If every time someone brings up your power and the only thing you do is claim you don't have it, then you're not going to have it. It has to do with your mindset, too."

He paused, and then stood up from where he was standing. Hei flinched back involuntarily when he took a step towards her. "Trust me, Song Hei." She couldn't quite move then, staring back up at Byeong joo. "You're never going to learn how to control it if you don't believe you can do it. No matter how I teach you and no matter how I force you, you're not going to. You have to learn to let go of your family and everything they've said to you up to now. You said it yourself — useless, a mistake — whatever it is, that's going to be nothing but a hindrance. Do youwantto learn how to control it?"

Hei wasn't quite sure what made her nod at him. "Yes," she admitted in a small voice.

"Then stop telling yourself that you can't. Forget the fact that you've failed before, forget the others who have told you you can't — and just focus."

She continued to stare up at him, unsure of what to do. His words sounded legit enough, but compared to her family, what did he know? Granted, he had hit spot-on for almost everything else he said, but this was about powers. Unless he was directly from a family, he wouldn't know anything about how to train someone.

"Let's just say I picked up a couple of things from Eunho." He crossed his arms. "Before you start questioning how I know this, that is. He's quite a competent spellcaster."

I learned from Eunhodidn't seem to suffice as a proper answer and there was definitely something he wasn't telling her, but if he was going to cut the conversation like that, asking him would be virtually no use later. After a bit of debating with herself, she decided to leave it at that.I'll ask him another time,she told herself.

"So what do you want me to do?" She held out her hands in front of her. "I don't know where to start. I don't even know what my poweris,for God's sake."

"What do youthinkit is, then?" Byeong joo asked back immediately, and Hei did a double take at him.

"Excuse me?" she managed.

"What do you think it is?" he repeated. "From what you've experienced of it so far, what do you think it could be?"

Hei stared at him blankly. "I… don't know."

Byeong joo didn't look the least bit ruffled by her lack of enthusiasm (or maybe it was just lack of knowledge). He held up his hands and then folded on finger down. "You can see segments of the past," he said. He folded another one down. "At this point, I don't think it'll have anything do with offense. More… defense, though I don't think it falls into either defense or offense." Another finger. "It's definitely not the sort of power used to hurt or kill."

He glanced at his remaining two fingers. "What else?"

She stared at his hands. "I… I have to be exactly where it occurred to be able to see it." His pinkie finger went down too.

"I think you can tell from that that it has something to do with time," he finally told her after a long moment of silence (Hei wasn't sure if he was waiting for her to speak or something, but she genuinely had no idea what to say and it was easier to just sit in silence). "I've seen people with clairvoyance, which is… it's a bit hard to explain, though most clairvoyant work as scribes. The Kim family has a lot. Anyways, while their power isn't exactly the same as yours, it does function similarly. They can see and sense and understand things that other people can't, and while the third one probably doesn't apply to you, you should be able to do things that are more… physically shown and related to time. If you train properly, you can do way more than simply seeing segments of the past."

Hei wracked her mind for the stuff she'd read in the textbooks, but there was no power she could remember that had anything to do with time. There were people who controlled some sort of element, and then others who were telekinetic, some rare ones who could mind read, spellcasters (like Byeong joo said Eunho was), but… time? It was completely unheard of.

"That's impossible," she told Byeong joo. "I've never learned of that. They would've written it down in the textbook. And besides, time? That's such a impossible power—"

"Just because it's not written down doesn't mean it doesn't exist."

She glanced at him again. It was hard to hold his gaze for long periods of time, and Hei found herself always looking down after a couple of seconds. "If Ididhave that power, why didn't they train me properly, then? You've probably heard the story of the Kim family's famous prodigy, but he was powerful. His family trained him more than they trained their other children. If they find that you have potential, why would they just… give up on you?"

Byeong joo's eyes flashed, and he was silent for a moment. A dark expression had flickered across his face, though it was gone in a second. "How many years has at leastsomeonestressed on the fact that your family would kill you if you failed the test?" he shot back. "What if I put it this way? They didn't train you because they thought you had no potential; they didn't because you hadtoo muchpotential."

She could barely wrap her mind around his words. "Me?" she echoed. "Ihave too much potential?"

His eyes glinted. "Why else would they send a woman to you for — how many years was it? Eight? — to put you down and drill into your head that you couldn't do anything? You said she used to lock you in a dark room with your hands tied. Did she eventryto teach you before she did that?"

Hei opened her mouth, thought twice, and then snapped it shut.

"Song Miyeon is also from the family, and I dug up some information about her. She's in a pretty high-ranking position, and she was never trained or assigned to be a tutor. She never taught anyone before you, and I can bet she won't teach anyone after. She wasn't there to teach you. She was there to watch you and make sure you couldn't do anything. Her power…" Byeong joo paused, staring straight at her. "Mind reading."

Mouth dry, she tried to formulate words though they didn't come out. While a good handful of tutors weren't actually from the family but hired scholars, getting one thatwasfrom the family and actually stayed for the duration of eight years was slightly odd. She'd never questioned it, though.

"Mind reading," she repeated numbly after Byeong joo.

Byeong joo nodded. As intense as his eyes were, there was always an air of honesty around him in whatever he said. And while Hei had brushed it off in the beginning as him being convincing or a way of talking, she began to wonder if it was actually because he was being truthful. If he didn't want to say something, he'd either tell her directly or avoid the topic. She couldn't recall him ever lying.

"What I'm saying," he continued, "is that your family never was going to teach you or train you properly. They couldn't just murder one of their children without a reason, so they were planning to do so after the test to cover it up as if it were because you failed. They sent someone powerful from their family to watch over you in disguise of a tutor to make sure youcouldn'tuse your power."

She could barely hear herself speak. "Why?" she managed.

Byeong joo shrugged, and while it should've been a nonchalant expression, his expression was dark. "Why else?"

Hei shook her head at him, still trying to wrap her mind around what he'd said. "I don't understand," she mumbled. "It doesn't make sense."

"They're not getting rid of you because they think you're useless, they're doing so because they're afraid of whatever power you have. Control over time is the sort of power that even a family leader wouldn't have, and it's purposely not recorded because it's so dangerous. If you had been trained properly, it's very possible you could be an actual threat against them."

"Me?" Hei was beginning to think that she could only get one-word sentences out at that point. It was such an impossible thought aftereverything,and as much as she couldn't quite believe it yet, part of her already did. It explained a lot — too much — and everything fit together scarily well. Why had she suddenly gotten a tutor who had been from the Song family? Why had Miyeon stayed for so long yet taught her virtually nothing useful?

"You look like you need some time to swallow that all," Byeong joo remarked with a dry smile. "Unless you want to go with me, I'll leave you here and I'm going to the deck." He stood up, ruffling his hair yet again.

Hei stared after him blankly, completely at a loss for words. Before he reached for the door, he stopped and then turned to look back at her one more time.

"You'll probably figure this out anyways, but I'll have to warn you: if your family, or any other family finds you, they're very likely to kill you on the spot or bring you back to be killed. Their reason would most likely be that you're a traitor, but that won't be the truth. They're not going to be searching for you to bring you back, and they're not going to assume you died until they actually find your body. So be careful and choose wisely who you can trust."

He gave her one last nod and then exited the room, leaving her to wonder if she could trust him.

It was at least a couple more hours when Byeong joo came back down, and by then, Hei was tempted to ask him for food because the couple of bites she'd taken from her apple hadn't been nearly enough. The only thing that held her back was pride, though she was beginning to teeter and give into the hunger.

She also wanted to point out that the afternoon had most likely passed, and he said that she could ask him questions in the afternoon. There was already plenty more she needed to ask him about, but after what he'd told her about her family, she had even more. She contemplated asking him to raise the limit to ten.

Hei still felt weary around him, but it wasn't as bad as it was in the beginning and she had began to get used to his presence. He wasn't very threatening (most of the time), and though he had his moments where his expression itself could've dropped the temperature of the room, he was more or less not too bad a person to be with.

That didn't mean she didn't immediately block out such thoughts when they came.Pirate, wanted man, outlaw —it was an useless mantra in her mind, and by then, the words had completely lost their meaning. She could only really think about her family and the distinct feeling of bitterness that arose with the thoughts. She couldn't quite tell apart the other emotions, but oddly, there was no sense of betrayal.Can someone that didn't care for me and treated me badly in the first place really betray me? Not exactly.

Byeong joo was holding a flask of water and a couple slices of bread when he entered again. She tried not to, but ended up eying the food in his hands. It was such a simple meal compared to what they used to make back in Hua, but at that point, Hei would accept any sort of food.

"Are you hungry?" Byeong joo asked, though he was grinning as if he had already noticed her looking at the food. She ripped her gaze from the bread and stared at her bed instead.

"No," she said, just as her stomach growled.

I hope he didn't hear that,she thought, though that wish went down the drain when his grin widened.

"No?" he echoed teasingly.

Hei settled with scowling at him in response.

Byeong joo handed her two pieces of bread, which she was too hungry to refuse. She settled with eating it slowly, still sitting on the bed with her legs crossed.

"So," Byeong joo said around an atrociously large mouthful (had he stuffed the whole piece into his mouth?). "Did you think everything through yet?"

There wasn't quite a proper reply to that, because Heihadspent the last couple hours struggling with whether or not she could at leasttrytrusting Byeong joo, figuring out what he'd said about her family (which fitted in so scarily well that it seemed to be the complete truth), and ignoring the hunger. She hadthoughtabout everything, but she still had her doubts on thethroughpart.

"I'm not sure," she muttered.

"You have around two days, then," he replied cheerily. "No rush. Eunho will probably be teaching you after we get to Ezentia for a couple of days and then we're off. You might want to get your mind around it before you start training with him, though. It'll make your life easier."

The last part of his sentence sounded ridiculous. "It'll make my life easier?" she echoed, slightly irritated. "Literally nothing is easy right now."

"It would be harder if we decided to take you with us when we go kidnap Nam Yejun," he pointed out, and that was that.

Byeong joo answered more questions that night, though he kept them limited to five. Hei questioned him about her family for three questions, though his answers weren't extremely informative and she barely got much more out of it. It seemed as if he had already told her everything he knew already, and whatever he wasn't saying were things he wanted to hold back and it didn't take her long to realize there was no point trying to get answers out of him.

It was only when he held out four fingers that she realized that she'd wasted three of her questions on virtually useless things, and she forced herself to drop the matter of her family to other things she wanted to ask — why Nam Yejun, of all people? To that, Byeong joo told her that it was because he was a scribe and they needed his power as a clairvoyant. She was about to ask him what he was planning to even do after finding his crew, but then Eunho was brought up again and Hei accidentally wasted her last question on him.Why did you come instead of him?

He'd laughed at the question like it was extremely amusing, told her Eunho was too nice to try to kidnap someone ("He'd probably threaten you and then apologize profusely for doing so"), and that wrapped up everything for the night. He refused to answer anything else until the next morning.

"You should sleep," he told her after a little longer of silence.

Hei eyed him. "I don't think I can."

"Why? Is it because of what I told you, because you're not tired, or because I'm in the room?"

All three,Hei thought, though she didn't dare say it out loud. She wasn't sure how she'd fallen asleep last night — maybe it was the exhaustion — but the same thing definitely wasn't going to happen again. It wasn't nearly as scary and unnerving to be in the same room as Byeong joo as it was before, but that didn't mean she wasn't cautious around him. She couldn't help but think back to the ruthless way he'd moved when they'd encountered the two guards back at Hua. She wasn't exactly sure why he hadn't killed them back then, but he definitely could've andhadkilled others before.

She settled with shrugging at him in an attempt to evade the question.

"Well," Byeong joo said. "I'm not tired right now either, so I'll go up and take a walk. If it's because of the third option, maybe you'll fall asleep faster."

It wasn't a reassuring thought that he'd return to the cabin after she was asleep, but Hei didn't voice that either. She watched as Byeong joo stood up and headed for the door (it was like the tenth time that day already). "Sleep," he insisted. "You barely slept at all last night, and that's not healthy. I'll be back in a while."

Hei wanted to point out that that meant that he didn't sleep much either (and he'd looked debatably more tired than she was), but Byeong joo was out before she could say anything else. She sat on her bed for a little while, unsure of whether or not she really should sleep, then settled with huddling under the blankets and mulling over everything that he'd told her.

She must've underestimated how tired she was, because she barely got through rerunning his words about Miyeon when she drifted off.

Chapter 8

Close Arrival

Hei slept a long time that night, and she was pretty sure that it was the first time in years that she'd been able to sleep so soundly. When she finally woke up, the cabin was empty once again, just like how it had been when she fell asleep. Byeong joo was nowhere in sight and the only thing that told her that he had even been there was that his bed was made and the cabin was brighter than it had been when she slept. Yawning, she slipped out from bed and walked across the wooden floor to the door. It was refreshing to sleep so long without the worry that Miyeon was going to show up and nag her early in the morning, but then she rethought about it and figured that just because Miyeon wasn't there didn't mean she should let her guard down.

That didn't work actually work very well, though, because when she headed up the creaking wooden stairs and opened the door, she saw the glittering sea and all other thoughts flew out of her head.

The last time she'd went above deck was when the sky had been grey and the storm was rapidly approaching. This time, the sky was blue without a speck of clouds, the complete opposite of what she remembered. It was almost strange to see it so calm. The sun, nearing its halfway point, shone across the waves and they gleamed blindingly at her, too bright to look at directly. Hei stood still for a while, admiring the view in front of her and taking time to appreciate the fact that her surroundings actually felt serene and still for once. It was a nice change that she wished she could keep.

"You're awake?" someone asked from behind her, and Hei whipped around to see Byeong joo standing with his arms crossed. All thoughts ofsereneandstillflew out of her head. "That was a pretty long time you were asleep for. I told you you were tired."

He had changed into another shirt, this one better fitting than the one she'd found for him back in Hua. His eyes gleamed like they were reflecting light on the water. At the starboard of the ship, two men conversed quietly. With quite a bit of relief, she realized that they weren't part of the same people whose cabin she had stumbled into the night prior.

She continued standing in the same spot, unsure of what to reply with.

Byeong joo seemed to sense her hesitation. "It's nice out here," he said casually, then nodded towards the railing before heading in that direction. "It's good that there are clear skies today."

Hei followed behind him. Was he attempting to make small talk? If he was, she had no idea how to respond. If he wasn't, then… she had no idea what he was trying to do.

"I think we'll be in Ezentia tomorrow night," he continued. "Probably pretty late, though." He leaned over the rail and glanced down at the waters below, the waves lapping lazily against the hull.

"Oh," Hei replied numbly.

Byeong joo raised an eyebrow. "Are you still not awake yet? It's nearing noon. Does your family even let you sleep properly? Are you sleep deprived or something?"

She blinked at him, a bit confused and trying to swallow the onslaught of questions. Maybe she wasn't quite awake yet, because she just shook her head at him.

They remained in silence for quite some time, with Byeong joo leaning over the rail (boyishly, with half his body folded over it as he looked down at the sea. Briefly, Hei contemplated pushing him over because he looked as if he'd topple any moment, but no matter how childish the pose seemed to be, he could probably recover in a split second and there was no saying he wouldn't throwherin), and her standing next to him, unsure of what to do as per usual. A couple minutes ticked by before Byeong joo stood up again.

Hei wasn't quick enough to look away, but when she did, it was obvious that she'd been caught staring. Byeong joo smirked. "Are you thinking about shoving me over?"

Hei stared at the waters and imagined what the outcome would be if she actually had. "I wouldn't think of it," she mumbled back.

"Don't," he warned in a joking manner. "I'll drag you down with me."

She knew that he didn't exactly mean it, but still couldn't exactly suppress a shudder at the thought of being in the waters. Being on the waters was one thing (and it was already scary), but actuallyinthe sea? Hei had no idea how to swim, and even if she did, the endless span of blue didn't seem beautiful anymore after that thought — it was downright terrifying.

When Hei didn't reply, Byeong joo propped a chin in one hand and tilted his head at her. "So, five questions. Go."

"What?" she asked.

"Five questions," he repeated. "It's morning."

Hei obviouslystillwasn't awake, somehow, because the first thing she asked was, "Right now?"

Byeong joo rolled his eyes. "Go back and sleep or something, because you're obviously not functioning right now. You've already asked me two very useless questions."

She scowled at him. "I'm completely awake. First question. Who are you?"

Hei had been meaning to ask him last night for her afternoon questions (or late, late afternoon), but she'd accidentally wasted her last one and he'd refused to reply to anything else. She'd gotten a couple of very, very vague answers the last time, but asking it straightforwardly meant that he had no way to avoid it.

She studied Byeong joo's expression, though it was masked very well. "My name is Byeong joo," he replied in an almost bored tone. "Pirate captain. From the families' perspective, a wanted outlaw, someone they've been trying very hard to kill. Subjectively speaking, your savior, objectively, your kidnapper. Or maybe thesavioris both subjectively and objectively."

Hei would've scoffed at thesaviorpart, but it wasn't anything new from Byeong joo and there were other things she had to worry about. "I don't meanthat," she said, a bit agitated. "You're obviously not just a normal commoner. And…" her voice broke a bit as the thought suddenly hit her. She had meant it as a question that she initially expected anoto, but by the time it was all out of her mouth, realization had struck. "Are you…are you also from a family? You have someone from the Do family in your crew, and a simple commoner couldn't be so skilled."

She'd been to busy trying to wrap her mind around other things for all the facts about Byeong joo to connect properly. Maybe it was because she'd subconsciously believed Byeong joo the whole time because he'd told her he was a commoner once (but that was before he'd pulled his cutlass out), or maybe it was because she hadn't put much thought in it. Or maybe she had already began to realize it bit by bit, but not fully until then. Whatever the reason, it hit her hard when the puzzle began to click. There was no other way that he could've done half of the things he did. There was no other reason why the families were so desperate to hunt him down. He was the flaw in their perfection, someone who was able to rip through the illusion of pure, untainted power they built up over the centuries.

Still, one realization just led to more uncertainties and questions.

"You're from a family," she said this time, and strangely, Byeong joo remained silent. "Aren't you?"

He gave her a tight smile. "Believe what you want." He was definitely trying to avoid ayesornoanswer.

"No, it makes sense," Hei shot back. "There's no other way. Which family? You're definitely not from the Song family, and you're not from the Do family either. Park? Kim? Kim?"

"Whichever you want it to be." He unpeeled himself from the railing, eyes boring into hers. "I can't tell you right now."

Now that he'd basically confirmed it, Hei couldn't ignore the curiousity. How had he ended up as apirate? What was his power? His family must've known he was alive if he was painted on so many wanted posters — why had he left? And even more importantly, why, exactly, was he doing what he was doing?

"I'm not going to answer any questions about who I am or what I'm capable of doing or why," Byeong joo said in a strained voice, and Hei ran his name through the three families that she hadn't eliminated.Park Byeong joo. Kim Byeong joo. Kim byeong joo. Could it be Kim? He said that he liked Ezentia best (or something along those lines). Park? She wasn't sure on that one. Kim? The Kim family would've been the strictest of eliminating threats and runaway members after the the failure of their prodigy, and Byeong joo had appeared six years ago. That was after the Kim family's downfall. Even without that, the Kim family had always been the most ruthless family. If he'd been a runaway from that family, she had a feeling that he would've been long dead.

Still, she couldn't quite eliminate the name off her list without any more facts.

"Song Hei," he said again, and she looked back up at him. She hadn't even realized that she'd been basically glaring at him until he spoke up again. His face was guarded. "I'd advise you against trying to figuring it out on your own. I can't stop you, but it probably would be best if you put it aside for now. I can answer everything else and I can help you with your power, but there are a couple of things that I cannot answer right now."

"Why?"

Byeong joo's expression softened a slight bit. "Not now," he told her. "If you want me to put it bluntly, it's because I can't fully trust you right now. That's probably more or less a mutual feeling, but whatever it is…" he trailed off. He looked strangely vulnerable for a moment, eyes flashing with a hint of pain. "Your question has a much more complex answer than you'd expect, and I'll tell you when the time comes."

Hei shut her mouth with one more look at his face. She had never thought that she'd sympathize with him at all, especially in the beginning, but she couldn't help but feel a faint pang of pity. It definitely didn't stop her from wondering, though. He was definitely from a family — he would've denied it if he weren't, so there was no doubt at that point — but which one? She gave him one more look-over, but he didn't pause another moment before giving her another smile. He couldn't quite hide how forced it was.

"I'll give you five more questions because I couldn't answer that," Byeong joo said. "So?"

He answered everything else, which ranged from how he met Eunho and why he said he liked Ezentia best as a place to stay. She had hoped for those things to give her at least some sort of insight to where he was from, but by the end of it, Hei had succeeded over fifteen questions and still had no clue as to who he really was.

They headed back to the cabin soon afterwards.

"That's why you were going to train me, right?" she asked, glancing towards him. He was hugging a pillow again (which she began to realize was a habit. She tried to connect it to a family but with no avail). "You know how it's supposed to work."

Byeong joo shrugged. "I wasn't lying when I said I picked a couple of things up from Eunho because he's a way better teacher than I am in some aspects. I didn't realize you were going to connect the dots so soon, though I suppose a couple things gave it away."

Everything he'd told her before seemed to be in a different light when she thought back. It made so much more sense now, and while she was still far from trusting him, she had thought about the possibility oftrying. What if she did try to work with Byeong joo without struggling? What if he was really right about her family — all of the families? A day ago, Hei wouldn't have either considered it. Throwing in a couple of additional facts about her family and him and something had changed vastly.

She shook her head, trying to clear it. Miyeon's words came back like they always did whe —someone like you is useless to their family and is better off dead. Remain loyal to your family no matter what— but they had a different effect from before, drawing a different sort of emotion — anger. How had she been able to tell her those things year after year when she knew full well that it wasn't Hei's fault? How did she make it look so easy, so natural, to yell at her and tell her that she was the failure when it was really something that was planned by them?

Byeong joo spent the rest of the day explaining bits and pieces of how to use one's power (with the promise that Eunho was a better teacher than he was). While she couldn't quite look at him without being overly curious, the initial fear and complete distrust had begun to ebb away slowly. She still felt wary — sometimes, he acted way to at ease and casual — but compared to before, the dislike had faded at an almost alarming rate. He was charismatic. He had a way with words that she couldn't ignore. He had been decent to her the whole time. There was no way she could even begin to hate him, no matter how hard she tried.

At nightfall, she was feeling a significant amount better than the day before, though Byeong joo still left the cabin when she was about to sleep.

It was such a gentlemanly gesture from a pirate that Hei couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that he'd done it on purpose, twice. She coccooned herself in blankets and was completely asleep in a couple of moments.

The third day was extremely uneventful, and she barely saw Byeong joo at all. He informed her that they would be arriving in Ezentia sometime in the night, and Hei couldn't rein back the fear that gripped her for the rest of the day.

Ezentia. While she tried to keep her mind off her family, she couldn't help the immediate reaction of going right back into what she'd been taught. It was impossible to get rid of, and while she had been used to it before, it felt like an absolute burden now.

And even without the influence of her the Song family's hatred for the Kim, Hei was still scared of arriving.

Byeong joo had warned her that the families would want her dead. It didn't really make a difference if she was kidnapped or if she went on her own will — it was all the same to them. While they were on the sea, she was safe from that, at least, but once they arrived on land, in the heart of a city where a family ruled,safewas a foreign concept.

It wasn't an extremely comforting thought. She spent the rest of the day in bed, and Byeong joo didn't appear either. Nearing midday, she saw a brief flash of a memory segment, though it barely lasted a couple of seconds and it was terribly distorted. She couldn't quite make out who it was and what they were doing, but she could see the distinct shape of a tall man and a smaller girl — his daughter? It flashed briefly before disappearing. It was both reassuring and worrying — her power was definitely still there, but would she really be able to use it properly in the future? Despite Byeong joo's reassurances from before, she couldn't help but doubt.

The sky was darkening when Byeong joo returned.

"We'll be there in a couple of hours," he said. "Be careful and alert, though. They won't recognize you but they'll recognize me. And they're going to kill you if they see you with me, so…"

How reassuring.

As if he could read her expression, Byeong joo gave her a lopsided grin. "Relax. I doubt anything's going to happen. It's very likely that we'll just dock unnoticed because it's going to be late. Just be prepared for the worst. That's always the best way."

Hei glared at him, hoping it could mask how scared she actually felt. "Easy for you to say."

"Miss Hei," he said, the grin turning into a full on smirk. "You'll have to get used to danger."

She opened her mouth at that, closed it, and decided it wasn't worth commenting on.

Since it was already dark, Hei curled up under the blankets again and shut her eyes in an attempt to ignore Byeong joo. She wasn't intending on actually falling asleep, nor did she particularly want to because Ezentia made her nervous, but somehow, sleep came to her much easier than it did before and she drifted off yet again.

Byeong joo was the one who shook her awake.

He'd mostly let her sleep the past couple of days, so it was a bit of a rude awakening and Hei tried to move away from him because she still felt exhausted. Still, he was persistent, and it took her a couple of moments to make out what he was saying:we're here.

Immediately, she shot upwards.

"That took you a while," Byeong joo said with a raised eyebrow. He stepped back, and Hei realized that he was cleaning his cutlass on his shirt.

He made such a scary thing seem casual, and quite frankly, it unnerved her a bit. She tried to ignore what he was doing, but the blade of the cutlass caught the light a little too well and it wasn't long until she snapped.

"Can you not?" she demanded, and Byeong joo glanced up, looking genuinely surprised at her outburst. "Why does your cutlass need to be so clean? Why have you been cleaning it for so long? Why are you making it seem so… so…"

"So…" he parroted. "So what?"

Hei shuddered, eying the weapon in his hands (which he seemed to notice, because he slid it back into its sheath). "Whatever. Are we in Ezentia yet? The ship is still moving, so we couldn't possibly."

"Not quite yet," he replied. "I saw the coastline and docks from the window, though. It'll be around ten minutes or so when we dock, and I thought I should probably wake you up beforehand. It's quite a nice sight. Ezentia is a rather beautiful city at night." His expression turned thoughtful. "At least from faraway."

Not exactly having the heart to ask him what he meant by that, she stood up slowly from the bed and tried to swallow the bitter taste rising to her throat. No matter how hard she tried to forget it, there was no denying that everything that she'd been taught by her family was second nature by now —she couldn'thelpthe immediate twinge of panic whenever Byeong joo brought up Ezentia. She shoved down the feeling as soon as it surfaced, but it was still there, something she couldn't get rid of easily. She tried to peer out the small window to see the city, but before she could, the ship jolted violently and stopped.

It was so sudden that Hei completely lost her balance and toppled over back onto her bed. Even Byeong joo stumbled forward a bit.

When she recovered from the shock, she realized that the boat had stopped moving. It still bobbed gently with the movement of the waves, but it didn't exactly feel like it was going forward anymore. She glanced hesitantly in Byeong joo's direction, checking for his reaction, but his eyebrows were furrowed and he looked slightly worried. Hei's heart sank. She'd been more or less waiting to get off the ship — she was absolutely sick of the sea and the boat —and the last thing she needed was getting stuck just before they got onto land. She longed for a proper bath, another dress, proper food, and a comfortable bed to sleep in in her own room, separated from Byeong joo with a locked door. And now, just a couple of minutes away from Ezentia, something had gone awry.

"What's wrong?" she managed in a small voice.

Byeong joo pressed his lips together. "I'm going to go check. Wait here and don't open the door if someone knocks. I have the key."

He disappeared outside.

The tone of his voice wasn't exactly reassuring, but there was nothing she could do but follow his instructions (which didn't require much) and wonder what had happened. Did they hit a rock? There was no other reason for the ship to stop like that. Did something break? Hei didn't know enough of ships to know how it happened, but she was pretty sure the ship wouldn't jolt like that if something had broken.

She sat waiting for what seemed like forever. Hei could hear the sound of people going back and forth outside of the cabin, some steps more hurried than others, but none of them opened the door. Byeong joo didn't return for quite a long time, and she was beginning to debate with herself whether or not she actually wanted him back when the lock finally clicked and he stepped inside.

Byeong joo scanned the room. He looked more tense than before and his hands lingered near hilt of his cutlass, ready to draw it at any moment. She'd seen the stance on him a couple of times, and it hadn't exactly been an end-well. She stood up slowly.

"We're goingnow,"was all he said. Hei couldn't remember the last time he'd sounded so sharp — was it back in Hua, when he'd faced the two guards after exiting the passages? He didn't lookthatworried about it back then.

"Why?" she managed meekly, though by the look on his face, it couldn't have been anything good.

"Family members," he replied shortly. "The Song family must've reported your disappearance to the Kim family — which means they're absolutely desperate to catch you — because they sent two people to check the ship." Byeong joo paused. "And remember this — they're probably ordered to kill you if they can't catch you. So if you don't want to die here or get dragged back and killed, you might want to follow my instructions."

Chapter 9

A Matter of Trust

If Byeong joo was trying to reassure her, Hei had to admit that he was downright terrible at it because her stomach felt the same as it had when they'd gone through the storm. Throwing up sounded like a great first (and only) option.

Byeong joo had other plans, though, because he steered her out of the room at an alarming pace before she could protest or even wrap her mind around what was happening. The Kim family had sent two people? How bad could it really be? He'd been able to take down two guards by himself back in Hua. If the Kim family had only sent two people, that would mean that they weren't exactly sure which ship he'd be arriving on (or if he'd even be arriving at all). They were most likely checking to make sure, so it wouldn't exactly betoohard to deal with. At least, Hei hoped.

Not that it really meant she was any less afraid, because her heart only seemed to beat harder each step upwards. The cabins had all been emptied, doors opened, and everyone else was gone.

"Is it just two people?" she asked him.

He stopped at the door and gave her a slight nod. "It's most likely because they have to check each ship that docks from Hua, and they have no idea which one it is or if we're even travelling by boat. They don't even know if we're going tobein Ezentia. Which means they'll have to get people checking the arriving ships at every harbour of every city. So… it shouldn't really be too hard to deal with."

"Do they know it's you?"

Byeong joo raised his head. He had a hand wrapped around the knob of the door, though he remained motionless. "They might. I'm not too sure if either of those two guards caught a glimpse of my face before I knocked them out, but they definitely saw who you were. I should've killed them when I had the chance because this just complicates things."

She couldn't stop the shudder at his words, but he didn't seem to notice anyway, eyes fixed intently on the door. "I told the captain that I had to grab the other person I was with, but they've already begun to check everyone. He's bound to know that we're missing."

Hei stared at him. "Then what are we supposed to do?"

He fingered the hilt of his cutlass absentmindedly. "Right now, I think they're not letting the ship dock until they've loaded all the passengers onto a smaller boat, and that's how they're taking everyone ashore. There's no way we're going to make it in with the rest of the passengers because they know both your face and mine and they're bound to recognize me the moment they see me even if they don't with you. No one's going to take it kindly if I waltz in and kill the two from the Kim family either, I think. Not in front of everybody, at least."

"So how…?"

Byeong joo narrowed his eyes. "I'll think of it when we get there. For now, it's best if we go out there because it's more open. If we get cornered down here, it'll be harder to actually fight or get away because it's a dead end." He paused and turned to meet her eyes. "If all else fails, jump."

Without leaving her any time to question or argue, he pushed open the cabin door.

Like usual, Hei's first reaction was to panic. They were obviously at a disadvantage no matter how skilled Byeong joo was — even if the Kim family had only sent two people to check, it was almost a given that the ones sent were powerful. Besides, if they had been ordered to kill her, there was only so much Byeong joo could do to make surehedidn't die and got away. To also ensure her safety? No matter how she thought about it, the possible outcomes all seemed rather tragic.

Still a bit queasy, she followed behind him. At first glance, the deck was empty from where they got out. Then she spotted the group of people being herded from the ship, climbing down what looked like a ladder to a boat bobbing on the waters. It was already loaded with people.

The captain stood with his arms crossed next to two other men, watching the whole thing unfold with a rather displeased expression on his face. He looked like he didn't want to be there at all — perhaps even less than she felt. Hei couldn't see the faces of the two people next to him, but there was no doubt that they were the people the Kim family had sent. She could almost feel the aura of power around them, and oddly, there was something familiar about them that she couldn't quite place yet.

In the distance, Ezentia's lights glowed. The city itself was bright at night, a contrast to the darkness Hua settled into whenever the sun went down. The inner city had tall, spiralling towers that caught every bit of light, glowing like beacons in the darkness. The moon and stars seemed dull compared to it. For a brief moment, Hei completely forgot the situation at hand and marvelled at the view.

"There's two more people," the captain was saying. There was an edge of irritation in his voice. "The man went to bring his companion up a couple of minutes ago, and I'm sure they'll be here in no time."

The man on the left shifted, idling playing with the small knife he had in hand. "We don't have all day," he snapped, though the pounding in her ears drowned out the rest of the sentence.

It was only the side profile of his face that she could see, but there was no denying that she recognized him. It also explained why he'd felt so familiar when she first saw him —they were half siblings.

"They're from the Song family," she hissed at Byeong joo, though inwardly, she felt absolutely terrified. It took all of her willpower not to turn and bolt. People from her family already intimidated her, but those two? She was pretty sure they were pretty high-ranking in the Song family. On top of that, they were twins, and that meant that they could amplify their power when they were together (or at least she heard).

He looked genuinely surprised, an expression that she'd never seen on his face. "Song…? Why would the Song family be here?"

Hei took a slow step back, though her back hit a closed door. Panic was beginning to close around her throat. The thought of people from the Kim family coming was already a terrifying one, but from her own? It was downright petrifying. She could barely feel Byeong joo's presence near her. "I can't," she managed at him.

"Song Hei," Byeong joo said, a hint of alarm beginning to seep into his voice. "Hei, you have to listen. If you follow my instructions, there's no reason we won't be able to get away from this easily, but you can't just panic now. Even if they're from the Song family, it doesn't make them any harder to deal with than the Kim."

She took a shuddering breath in. They were still hidden in the shadows and no one seemed to have noticed them yet, but it was only a matter of time. From the angry way they were speaking with the captain, the man was already doing as much as he could to stop them from tearing the whole ship apart. It was only a matter of time before the two got impatient or turned around and saw them. "They're twins from my family. I don't know anything else, but they shouldn't be here. I don't… I don't know what their power is, but they're really strong."

Byeong joo's eyebrows furrowed. "I don't think we're going to go anywhere in Ezentia if they spot us. They'll try to track us down everywhere unless…"

His words hit her, and Hei shook her head slowly. "You can't fight them."

"There's no other way."

"Byeong joo, you can't—"

"Hey, look who it is," someone drawled, and Hei completely froze, head snapping away from Byeong joo.

Byeong joo was much quicker than her. He had his cutlass in his hand a moment later, balanced perfectly in front of him as he stood a step in front of her.

"Song Hei," the man said. He'd only taken a couple of steps towards them since he noticed their presence and his twin was also staring in their direction. He exchanged a couple words with the captain. The captain looked hopelessly in their direction, gave a sigh, and then disappeared down the side of the ship and onto the small boat with the rest of the passengers. Hei could see the boat slowly draw away from the ship.

She took a small step back.

"Hiding behind a pirate?" he asked, and all of a sudden, Hei recalled their names. Song Jongup and Song Jonghyun —they were a couple of years older than she was, but both of them had climbed up ranks significantly quickly because of how powerful they were.

"You're from the Song family?" Byeong joo spoke up instead of her. He had on a slightly bored expression, though his back was tense. "Why are you hanging out here in Ezentia? This should be the Kim family's job."

"Byeong joo," he snarled (Hei wasn't quite sure if he was Jongup or Jonghyun, but it didn't really matter that much), voice abruptly changing. "It's a shame you didn't go down with the rest of your crew and the Do family's fleet. I'll make sure that happens today, then."

Byeong joo's smile was dangerous. "Don't get ahead of yourself."

"Trust me, he's not." Jonghyun (or Jongup) was stepping forward again, spinning the knives in his hands. He had at least a dozen of them strapped on — throwing knives? Whatever they were, there was something completely terrifying about the way they caught light. She was beginning to wonder if she and Byeong joo could get out of the situation unscathed. If Byeong joo was from a family, then he'd have power, but would it really be enough against two well trained, high ranking members of her family?

"Song Hei," Jongup repeated. "I have orders to bring you back."

Everything Byeong joo had told her the past couple of days went through her head and she remained frozen in her spot behind him, staring at her half-siblings and trying to shake herself out of the grip of fear. It didn't leave, only got worse.

"Miss Hei," Byeong joo said, though he didn't look at her. "We're going to leave."

"Leave?" Jongup mimicked, sneering. "You're nothing without your crew, Byeong joo. You've dug yourself a grave the moment you walked into Hua."

"Really?" Byeong joo smirked. "The ones that are in the grave right now are the ones I killed when Iwalked into Hua. And you two. I've faced countless people who told me in the beginning that they could kill me, and now they're six feet under. Come back with ten more men and maybe it'll be a fair fight." His eyes flashed, the same calculating, cold look that she'd seen on him the first couple of times she'd met him. It was a huge contrast to the person who'd answered questions for her, saved her from the five men, and the one that he'd been sharing a room with the past three days. It reminded her why she'd been terrified of him in the first place.

"I'm scared," Jonghyun sneered. "What are you going to do?"

"Go," Byeong joo told her calmly. "The sea."

Hei didn't move.The sea?Was he expecting her to jump off board? Sure, they were close to Ezentia, but that didn't mean they were close enough toswimthere. Besides, shecouldn'tswim. The water was dark, cold and unforgiving when she looked at it, a vast difference compared to the glittering blue at day. There was no way she was going to jump in.

"Song Hei," one of the twins said. "Come out from behind him. I have orders to bring you back home."

Her heart stuttered athome.She couldn't quite envision Hua ashome,exactly — it was where shelived,but was it really home? Still, the familiar tug, the obligation towards her family flooded through her once again and she nearly took a step forward towards them. She might've if Byeong joo hadn't been standing in her way.

"Go." Byeong joo's voice was more insistent this time, snapping her out of whatever trance she'd been pulled in. He turned back to the twins. "Your family is that desperate, aren't they? Does the Kim family know that you're acting up like this in their land? I don't suppose they'll be very happy when they find out. Neither will any other family be. I'm sure you have people stationed in each city just to catch her. Park, Kim, Lu, Kim. Can you even afford to anger them?" He laughed. "It's a pity you won't be able to make it back to your family alive."

Jonghyun's expression hardened, and without another word, he drew one of his knives and threw it towards them, hard.

It spun towards them at an alarming pace, and there was no way Hei could've dodged. Byeong joo saved both of their lives with a swift sweep of his cutlass as he knocked the blade aside.

The moment it touched the wooden floor of the ship, it burst to flame.

With a slight shriek, Hei stumbled backwards from the fire. Byeong joo looked shocked, though he covered it up in a split second with a mask of calm. She could feel the heat radiating off the flame — it wasn't some illusion.

Faster than she could blink, three more knives flew towards them. They whizzed past her face, dangerously close, and embedded themselves into the wall behind her. An inch or two closer and it would've been her head — and something told Hei Jonghyun hadintendedto miss. Fire roared up behind her, spreading quickly, and she scrambled forward. The mast went up in flame too, and before long, the whole ship was ablaze.

"Get off!" Byeong joo shouted at her, giving her a rough shove towards the direction of the railing. Hei stumbled forwards, blinking from the smoke and uncomfortable hotness. The fire as spreading quickly, so fast that it couldn't have been natural. Blindly, she ran in the direction that Byeong joo had pushed her to, trying to see through the haze along the way. It was near impossible and she wasn't sure if she was even going the right way anymore.

Her hand finally hit the railing. Vision clearing slowly, Hei scanned the ship.

Byeong joo still stood amidst the flames, and panicking, she wondered why he wasn't following her. Jonghyun was still standing in the same place, another one of his knives in his hands as he fixed Byeong joo with a dark stare. She couldn't see Jongup anywhere, and it definitely wasn't a good sign. Then again, she could barely make out anything through the flames and smoke.

The sea rocked beneath her. It was relatively calm, but the waves still looked scary, especially when they reflected the redness of the flames behind her.Jump off?It seemed to be an impossible option, and Hei couldn't get herself to move no matter what. Did Byeong joo really expect her tojump?

A figure stepped through the smoke, and her head snapped towards Jongup's direction. He stalked forward, tapping his dagger against his thigh as he walked.

It was almost sad how she froze, pinned under his gaze. He reminded her of everything she'd told herself to forget the past day, and it all came rushing back, especially without Byeong joo's presence there as an anchor. As much as she didn't like it, there was something about the pirate that drove away the scarily obsessive thoughts about her family. And Jongup just made them come back, full force.

As an almost-desperate last minute resort, she scanned the deck for Byeong joo, though he was nowhere to be seen. Something drew her gaze back to Jongup no matter how much she wanted to fight it.

The smile he had on was borderline insane, and somehow, it snapped her back into reality. She glanced back at the sea once again. It wasn't too far a jump, but that wasn't the main worry — she couldn't swim. Even if she could, what was stopping Jongup from following her?

"Hei!" It was Byeong joo this time. He was standing at the edge of the fire, though she couldn't quite see Jonghyun. Hei wondered if Byeong joo had killed him. "I told you—"

Another one of the knives sliced through the air, and whatever he was going to say was lost (though she figured it had something to do with jumping off). Jongup tilted his head, obviously fine with letting his brother deal with Byeong joo.

"Little sister," he said. Each word felt like a slap across the face. He certainly didn't feel like any sort of brother nor had he ever been one, and calling her by that was just downright offensive and angering.

"I'm not your sister." Her voice trembled, but Hei was surprised that she'd actually managed to get it out. Her grip tightened on the railing. "And you're certainly no sort of brother coming here like this."

Jongup barked a laugh. "I'm here to take you back to your family, Hei. By the looks of it, you didn't go with him willingly. I'm offering you the chance to go back. You're twenty today, aren't you?"

She stared at him, surprised. Time on the ship had passed strangely quickly, and the one thing that she'd been dreading for the past couple of months had disappeared more and more as Hua got further and further away. She hadn't even realized that she'd turned twenty — that didn't even seem very important when she didn't have to take the test. It was just an age that didn't matter at all when the one thing she'd associated with it had been taken away.

"Did you forget?" Jongup seemed to have taken advantage of her shock as he moved forward again. Hei tried to steady her breathing and think logically — where was Byeong joo? If she jumped now, would he be quick enough to save her (if that was even what he was planning on doing)? To her frustration, she couldn't even concentrate on anything but Jongup's words. They rang through her head, blocking out all sensibility. Part of her was tempted to do what he said — he was obliged to do so, after all.

Hei wasn't sure what would've happened next if Byeong joo hadn't come. She'd nearly forgotten about him — there was an odd pull of Jongup's words that seemed to erase any rationality she had, and though sheknewit was wrong, she couldn't help but want to follow every order.

At that moment, Byeong joo appeared in her peripheral vision.

There was a splatter of blood across his cheek and down his shirt, but he didn't seem to have any visible injuries from Jonghyun's weapons or from the fire. His eyes, however, were burning, almost as if they had absorbed the rage and flames from the fire itself. Clenched in his hand was the cutlass, now bloody.

Jongup broke the eye contact first, turning around to look in Byeong joo's direction. His whole body stiffened visibly.

"Song family high ranking officials?" Byeong joo tilted his head. The smile on his face was debatably as chilling as the one she'd seen on Jongup's, or perhaps moreso. "You don't seem like much. At least your brother wasn't."

Jongup's jaw tightened, a vein jumping in his temple. "Your tricks don't scare me."

Hei could tell how hard he was trying to keep calm, eyes flickering to Byeong joo's bloody weapon every couple of seconds. He was obviously trying to analyze and figure out the situation and whether or not Jonghyun was actually dead or mortally wounded.

"Song Hei," Byeong joo said, eyes meeting hers. "This ship is going to burn completely soon. Get off."

Jongup's head snapped towards her, a maniacal gleam entering his eyes. "Come back to Hua," he said. "I don't know what Byeong joo wants with you, but if you help me take him down here, it'll give you a guaranteed pass to the test."

Hei's legs felt like lead. "What?"

"You heard me." Jongup was dangerously close now. "Help me kill him and I'll pass you. I'm a high enough official to do that. If you kill him, you'll not only be able to pass but you would've done something all the families have failed to do up until now. I won't speak for the family leader, but I'm sure you'll definitely be given a good spot in the family."

She could feel her arms trembling around the rail. Byeong joo remained completely silent in the back, almost as if he was waiting to see what her answer would be to Jongup. For a long time, there was nothing but the sounds of the fire cackling in the background, and then finally, she shook her head at Jongup. "You're lying," she said weakly. "You're just going to hand me over to be killed the moment we get back."

"Now, sister." His expression was slightly unhinged. "Your family wouldn't send people to every city to find you just to kill you when you got back. You're a valuable asset to them."

Valuable asset.The two words echoed through her head, repeating themselves like a broken record. It was meant as a compliment, but something about it felt empty.Asset,like she was something to be used.

"Hei," Byeong joo said yet again. "Jump,now."

She turned to meet his eyes instead of Jongup's. He looked strangely calm standing in the midst of the fire, almost like he was completely confident that it would go the way he wanted it to. In comparison to Jongup, there was something anchoring about him. He was the pirate, the outlaw, the criminal. Yet at the same time...

"Hei," he repeated. "Just trust me."

The mass of black water stretched in front of her was more than terrifying, and Hei had been hoping the whole time that there would be another alternative. Now, with Jongup standing between her and Byeong joo, she realized that there wasn't really. Byeong joo would never get to her on time before Jongup unless she actually got off the boat, and the only way to do so would be to go into the sea.

She could feel the gazes of both men on her, tense and waiting for her next step.

Trust me,Byeong joo had said.

Trust you?she wondered for a brief moment.Is that really a good choice? Trustyou?

"Sister—" Jongup began.

It would be a lie if she said that she hadn't been even a least bit swayed by his words of going back and helping him kill Byeong joo. She wasn't sure what it was exactly that made it a no-deal — perhaps it was killing Byeong joo itself that was something she couldn't do, or maybe it was how he referred to her as an asset, or maybe it was Byeong joo's expression and the utter, strange sincerity in his voice. Before Hei could allow herself more time to think, she pulled herself over the rail and leapt.

Jongup let out a roar of anger behind her, and in her peripheral vision, she saw him lunging forward for her. Fingertips brushed her back, though it was fleeting and quick and the next thing Hei felt was the iciness of the water as it hit her.

The cold was drenching, chilling her to the bone immediately. While her dress was a significant amount lighter than the one she used to wear back at Hua, the material, now wet, dragged her down as if it weighed a ton.

Hei found herself struggling, trying to pull herself to the surface. The water wasn't nearly as calm as it had looked, though she managed to fight her way up to the surface for a fleeting movement and gasp one breath of air. The undercurrent pulled her down again.

She kept her eyes shut for as long as she could manage, blindly trying to find her way up to the surface again, though she could barely swim. The water dictated where she went, and no matter how much she struggled, she couldn't seem to go anywhere except where it forced her to.

Hei was beginning to panic when a burning feeling spread through her chest from holding her breath and the lack of air. Where was Byeong joo? What was happening with Jongup? What if Jongup had already killed him? He'd told her to trust him, but where was he now?

The pain began to bloom and all thoughts of Byeong joo flew from her head as she floundered desperately in the water. She couldn't see anything even when she opened her eyes — it was too dark. There was nothing but water all around.

Death by drowning when I willingly jumped off into the water myself,Hei thought angrily.How ironic. I knew I couldn't swim, yet I still followed his instructions and jumped.

The need to breathe, even if it were just one gulp of air, was painfully intense. Hei didn't even have the energy to struggle anymore — it seemed to just seemed to hurry the speed of drowning — but there was nothing more she wanted to do than to breathe and to be out of the horrid water. Her whole body felt numb with cold and her movements were beginning to turn more and more sluggish.I need air,she thought weakly, and it became a mantra in her head.Byeong joo. Where is he?

She must've been holding her breath for too long, because involuntarily, she gasped in a mouthful of water. It wasn't even something she could stop — a reflex that she had no control over —and her vision was beginning to blur, thoughts turning more and more murky, black spots dancing. She had no more energy to even attempt to pull herself up to the surface nor try to stop herself as she breathed in mouthful and mouthful of water against her own will. The burning was so intense that Hei felt like she'd die from the pain and not from actually drowning.

Just before she completed blacked out, Hei vaguely felt a strong pair of arms wrap around her waist, pulling her upwards. And then a moment later there was nothing else except darkness.

Chapter 10

First Meetings

The first thing Hei registered when she came back to consciousness was someone pinching her nose and the uncomfortable burn in her chest. The first thing shesawwhen she opened her eyes was Byeong joo, who was way too close to her face for comfort and she immediately shot upwards in surprise.

Byeong joo had fast reflexes, apparently, because he narrowly escaped bumping his head against hers by shifting backwards.

The moment she sat up, the fire in her lungs turned more intense and Hei felt like she was drowning once again. Her vision blackened at the sudden movement and she felt Byeong joo's hand on her back, steadying her. She might've fallen over again if he hadn't held her upright.

"There's still water in your lungs," she heard him saying, though it didn't quite compute through the ringing in her ears. Less than a couple of seconds after the sentence left his mouth, Hei had turned to the side and was coughing all the water out painfully. He patted her back, though she could barely feel his hands through the pain. Her throat felt strangely parched even though she'd swallowed god-knew-how-much water and each cough hurt more than the last.

It was a relief to get out all the water out of her lungs, though she didn't feel much better after it. She was still completely drenched, and the dress she had on felt uncomfortably heavy. Wiping wet hair from her eyes, she turned to glance at Byeong joo and then the terror promptly caught up with her. It hadn't really clicked that she might've died then and there when she was drowning, but now that she felt a bit more lucid, Hei wanted to sit there and cry. It had been so terrifying and she'd felt so helpless and the water had been cold and she couldn't even make it to the surface. The moments where she realized that she'd been on her own in the water had broughtscaryto a whole new level.

"I'm sorry," Byeong joo said quietly. "I should've come sooner."

Hei gave another weak cough. "You don't think?" She tried to laugh, though it came out sounding like a sob. "Don't ever…" The thought was almost too much to think of. "Don't ever make me do that again."

Byeong joo scanned her as if making sure if she really was alright, then finally, tentatively suggested, "What if I teach you how to swim?"

She shook her head at him vigorously. "I don't want to be in water ever again. I don'twantto learn how to swim."

There didn't seem to be a response he could think of for that and silence blanketed over them for a long while. Hei knew it was probably best if they got up and were moving again —now that she looked carefully, they were sitting on the beach and the ocean wasn't far off — in fact, it was too close for comfort. The sand was sticking to her palms and very likely to her dress too. The night air wasn't nearly warm enough for someone to be sitting in soaked clothing outside, and even if it were, she still wanted to change out of it as soon as possible. Byeong joo didn't look nearly as bad as she felt, though he looked like he'd taken a swim too (which, she supposed, he had).

"What happened back there?" she asked cautiously. "After I jumped, did you kill Jongup? You were the one who pulled me back up to the surface, right?"

Byeong joo's expression darkened. "I got Jongup to admit that he'd been lying with everything he told you, and then I killed him."

The way he said something like that soeasilymade her shudder and she decided it wasn't worth lingering upon. Still, she couldn't help but feel the pang of disappointment. SheknewJongup was lying to her and most likely trying to use her, but part of her clung onto what he said and foolishly wished that it would actually happen. Was it surprising? Not exactly. It had been too good to be true in the first place.

"And after?" she prompted.

Byeong joo didn't look nearly as willing to answer that. "I brought you here. The undercurrents were really strong, and the sea wasn't nearly as calm as it looked like. Jongup was a lot harder to deal with than his brother and it took longer than I expected. I didn't mean to leave you alone in the water for so long."

Hei glanced out at the sea, though she could no longer see the ship. She was pretty sure it had been a fair distance away, and he'd either have to be an unnaturally good swimmer to get both of them ashore through the waves and currents, or…

"Water," she blurted. "Is that your power?"

His face was unreadable. "Part of it, but not all."

Studying his face, she tried to make out what he was thinking. It was nearly impossible with Byeong joo — he always kept his expression well guarded, almost as if he were afraid the wrong person would be able to read through his emotions and figure out what he was thinking. It wasn't too surprising that his power was related with water (after all, it made sense — he'd been outside when there had been a storm), but something else? She'd never heard of anyone being able to control more than one element.

"What else, then?"

Byeong joo's gaze was distant, and Hei had a feeling that he wasn't exactly willing to tell her. He normally didn't leave questions unreplied to.

"I jumped into the water," she reminded him. "You told me to trust you even though I had no idea how to swim, I had no idea what was happening and I didn't know if you could even save me. The moments when I was drowning was absolutelyterrifying.So I think you at least owe me an answer for that, right?"

His lips quirked upwards. "You definitely don't sound as scared of me as you did in the beginning."

"So?"

"Earth, air, water, fire." He paused, as if letting the information sink in first."I don't prefer earth and I seldom use fire, but… well, the reason I chose to be a pirate in the first place was because it would be easier for me to manipulate the water and wind to my advantage."

She'd somewhat suspected it, but it still came as a surprise nonetheless. He was definitely well trained, and families normally trained their children that had the most potential the most. Byeong joo obviously landed in that category — if he could take down two high ranking members of her family so easily, he was no joke — but the main question was what exactly had happened to him and what family he was from. She wondered how powerful he was, exactly. Being able to control four elements was already something that was near impossible, so he couldn't possibly betoostrong in any of them, right? There was no way he could fight someone who had the power of water and triumph over them with water alone.

It was probably best not to push it though, Hei concluded, though she was dying to ask him more. "Can you summon fire right now?" she blurted instead. "I'm cold."

He laughed aloud at that. "I take it that you're feeling better. And no, I can't. I can summon water and wind, but fire would just be something I can control when I'm around."

Hei felt her teeth chattering. The wind was picking up, and next to the sea, she didn't quite feel safe. Ezentia's lights gleamed in the distance, and suddenly, she wanted to go to where Byeong joo had told her about. A change of clothes and a warm bath sounded like bliss.

"Are we leaving, then?" she asked.

He nodded and then pushed himself to his feet, shaking his head and sending water droplets everywhere. He held out a hand to her, and after a moment of hesitation, she ignored it and pulled herself to her feet shakily. She nearly toppled over, vision tunneling once again, but Hei figured that she'd had enough of Byeong joo's help to last herself a lifetime. He waited for her patiently as her vision recovered, though it was still rather dark and she couldn't see much.

"Did Jongup really mean it when he said that they sent people to every city?" she asked. The skirt of her dress was sticking to her legs and each step was a struggle. Byeong joo looked as if neither the water or wind bothered him, though she supposed it made sense, considering his power. "That's… that's a lot of effort they're putting in to look for me."

"I don't think he was lying about that." Byeong joo frowned a bit. "'I'm pretty sure that they weren't actually expecting you to come to Ezentia, which is why they only sent two people here to watch. Neither did they think it was me that kidnapped you. It's very likely that they thought you left on your own accord, which is why they're being even more cautious."

Hei couldn't find a reply to that that didn't lead to her asking about him, so she didn't respond to it, inwardly phrasing and rephrasing her questions to him and trying to figure out the best way to say it. Which family was he from? Why had he left? It made sense why the families put so much work into hunting him down, but… Jonghyun and Jongup had only called him Byeong joo. Did that mean none of the four remaining families know who he was?

The sand gradually got drier as they headed up the beach, and each step sunk in. Hei soon dropped thinking of Byeong joo's heritage in favour of trying to block out the cold, which took a lot of effort. Her dress was beginning to dry the hard way by the time they neared Ezentia — the wind picked up significantly, and the fabric dried in such a way that it remained cold even though it wasn't as soaked.

"How far are we?" she asked Byeong joo.

He tilted his head. "About twenty more minutes to walk?"

Hei wasn't quite sure if she'd evensurvivethose twenty minutes. At the rate they were going, she was going to die from hypothermia before they got around the bend.

The streets of Ezentia were relatively empty, which Hei was more than thankful for. She wasn't even sure how people were like in the outer cities, but any normal person would've probably questioned why she had decided to take a midnight swim when it was freezing and forget a change of clothes. They'd probably also question why she was walking alongside Byeong joo.

Lanterns hung in front of every single house on the road, all shining brightly. She'd barely passed through much of the outer city of Hua, but she could remember dark, dead and empty streets. Even without people, Ezentia still looked alive.

"It's called the City of Light sometimes," Byeong joo said, noticing her staring. "It's one of the things that makes Ezentia special, though it's not nearly as nice as it looks on the outside."

"What do you mean by that?"

He shrugged. "You'll see soon. It's not exactly the most pleasant place to be at at times. It shouldn't be much of problem, though, because we're not staying here for long anyways. And besides, you're going to be staying inside most of the time. I don't think any of us agree to taking you with us when we go into the inner city. If everything goes well, we should be leaving Ezentia very soon."

Hei continued staring at him. He'd never explained everything in detail, at least not fully — she knew that he was looking for the rest of his crew, but after that, what? He needed her power, supposedly, to find his his crew. After that, did he still need it? Would there be a point keeping her with him? The thought sent cold fingers crawling down her back — what if he decided to get rid of her after she (if she would ever) found his crew?

She shook her head. Byeong joo wouldn't, would he? The thought dawned on her that she'd only known him for four days, and that definitely wasn't enough time to know a person well. What if the next time she was drowning he decided that she wasn't worth saving?

"You're making a face at me," Byeong joo noted, and Hei immediately smoothed out her scowl. "What are you overthinking this time?"

"Nothing," she replied quickly, though Byeong joo obviously didn't buy it. "I just…nothing."

He gave her a quick once-over then seemed to decide it wasn't debating about. "Let's hurry," he suggested instead. "The sooner we get there, the better. Wearing a wet dress doesn't look too comfortable."

Hei glanced downwards at her dress. The greyish fabric was thick, but she crossed her arms over her chest anyways just in case the water made it see-through.

Byeong joo looked offended at that action. "What kind of person do you take me as?"

She frowned. "I don't know, you're a pirate, so—"

He was the one scowling this time. "Just because I'm a pirate doesn't mean I don't have a shred of decency. I hate these stereotypes."

Hei was a bit too confused to think about much as she trudged behind Byeong joo through the streets. It was odd when it was so bright but at the same time so empty. The brightness brought more shadows, elongated and stretching from the corners, wherever they could reach. In the distance, she could see the inner city, this time much closer. It looked like a beacon against the darkness, reflecting (or giving off — she wasn't sure which it was) all the light around it. Whoever had designed the inner city of Ezentia was definitely a better architect than the one that had designed Hua, she thought a bit grudgingly.

"Have you been to all of the cities?" she asked Byeong joo.

He seemed to be relieved that the topic had changed from before. "I have, though I normally go to Ezentia. I'm mostly on sea. It's a lot safer for me there and families don't really have much of a chance catching me there." Hei was about to point out that the incident with the Do family happened when he was on sea, but Byeong joo beat her to it. "What happened with the Do family was an exception," he explained, though he looked actually a bit upset about it. "Ishould'vebeen more careful, and I knew that, but I let my guard down and they were extremely prepared. I'm pretty sure there were at least three people they brought that were able to control water and were decent at it. At least I drowned their whole fleet, but it was probably one of the stupidest things I've ever done. Still, we didn't get away with casualties or any consequences and I…"

He looked horribly vulnerable in that moment, and Hei felt a pang of pity for him. He was obviously beating himself up for what happened to his crew, and while they were technically pirates, Hei had to give them the benefit of the doubt that they weren't terrible people.

Byeong joo's eyes seemed a little glassy. Hei wasn't sure if it was the lighting that was tricking her vision, but whatever it was, he looked like he was blinking away tears. She contemplated asking him if he were alright, but he straightened, expression steeling. "I can't change the past now, though."

They dropped the topic and lapsed into silence again, though the streets started livening up.

Maybelivening upwasn't the right way to describe it. The first signs of life was a man who was knock-out drunk, lying on the side of the street, completely passed out. Hei steered clear of him even though he showed no signs of wakening, but the next two people they passed by was actually walking (granted, they also looked intoxicated and not quite sure which direction was forward) and that was even scarier. She found herself sticking closer and closer to Byeong joo.

"Where are we going?" She found herself lowering her voice for some reason. "This doesn't look like a residential area."

Byeong joo actually laughed aloud at that. "Miss Hei," he said. TheMiss Heisounded teasing, and she shot him a dirty look. "Do you think we'd be safe if our front door was in a residential area?"

She frowned. "Well, no, but here…"

"It might get a bit messy, but I don't like to take risks."

"Youdon't like to take risks?" Hei narrowly avoided a man who'd nearly stumbled into her. He looked directionally challenged. "You literally killed all the guards around my house to get me and that wasn't a risk? You broke into the inner city of Hua. You're skilled, but that wasn't a risk?"

He chuckled. "Do you really think I would've done something so reckless without months and months of planning?"

Hei stared at him in surprise. "Seriously?"

"I'm not a fan of risks," he reiterated.

She never would've guessed it. What he'd done seemed risky to her so many times — from kidnapping her to how he'd faced the twins head on. That had all been thought out and planned beforehand?

"We're here," Byeong joo said suddenly, breaking her away from the train of thought. "You might want to stay close. It's not going to pleasant getting through the crowd of people, but it shouldn't take long."

Squinting at the sign above their heads, she had to read it twice before turning to Byeong joo for confirmation. "You live in a tavern?"

He gave a snort. "No, but that's my front door."

"Your front door is a tavern," she repeated.

"It's actually bigger than it looks on the inside," Byeong joo replied. "There's the main room which is what's a bother to actually get through each time, and if you turn down the hallway, there's a corridor of closed rooms and one of them leads you to the house. It's pretty much hidden."

He must've seen the look on her face, because he raised his hands. "Hey, not my choice! I would've gone for something in a more… tame place, but Hyunmin and Eunho were the ones who designed this and I didn't even have a say in anything until they finished. Just watch out when you go through the first bit. And don't open any wrong doors in the hallway."

She was tempted to ask why, but Byeong joo was already heading towards the entrance. She ran to catch up to him.

It was painfully loud when they entered, and the air reeked of alcohol and sweat. She was probably in desperate need of a bath, especially after taking a dip in the sea, but this place made her gag. There was a painful amount of people, and squeezing through everyone felt like an impossible task. Hei gave Byeong joo a glance, though he wasn't looking at her. "Let's go," he said. "Follow close."

Easier said than done,Hei thought miserably as she shoved her way past a tall man who was holding an alcohol bottle in one hand. It was hard to even see Byeong joo, much less keep up with him. She tried to keep her eyes on him, but it was harder than it looked to see him through the sheer amount of people.

She was near halfway across the room when someone's hand wrapped aroundher arm, pulling her to a halt. The grip was too uncomfortably tight to belong to Byeong joo, and she couldn't see him in the crowd anywhere. Panicking, Hei glanced back at the man who'd grabbed her. He was sitting down on one of the flimsy tables, obviously a bit more than just tipsy.

"Hey," he slurred, and Hei panicked as he tugged her towards him. She didn't dare actuallyyellByeong joo's name aloud, but frantically, she scanned the room for him. He was nowhere in sight.

Heart pounding in her chest, she tried to tug her wrist out of his grasp, though she wasn't nearly strong enough to do so. The man was insistent, applying more force, and Hei went with the only option she could go for.

He let out a howl of pain when her foot met his shin, but it had the desired effect: he released her wrist, if only for a moment, and Hei took the chance the rip her hand away and bolt. She could hear him screaming profanities after her, and a couple people cast her confused and irritated looks, though most were too drunk to do anything.

She was hopelessly lost in the mass of people of the tavern a couple moments later.

Trying to rein the alarm, Hei looked around the room once again, though it had the same outcome as before — she couldn't see Byeong joo anywhere in the crowd of people. She took a nervous step forward, unsure of whether or not it was even a good idea to move, when she caught sight of the man who'd previously grabbed her. He was looking around, bellowing something incomprehensible but no doubt looking for her. He was eitherextremelydrunk or held grudges a bit too much.

Hei ducked her head and headed in the other direction, though before she could bolt, someone's hand landed on her shoulder.

She bit back a scream and tried to jerk away, but the person's grip was firm. "Calm down," he said quietly, and Hei blinked in bewilderment, not expecting such a soothing voice. "You're going to create a scene if you continue doing that."

Her head snapped upwards and met the eyes of a stranger. He looked around Byeong joo's age at first glance. He stood out in the crowd — obviously not the least bit drunk and extremely alert. Large eyes, blackish brown hair framing his face, and lips pressed together tightly.

"Who…" she began. "You're not Baek—"

"The idiot lost you," he groaned before moving forward, this time guiding her, hand moving to the small of her back as he pushed her through people. "I can't believe him."

It was pretty obvious who he was at that point, though he looked nothing like Hei had imagined. Eunho weaved through the crowd like he knew exactly where he was going, and in less than a couple of minutes, it began quieting down and he turned into a separate hallway.

Byeong joo was waiting for them there with his arms crossed.

Hei felt a wave of relief when she saw him — even though the man was most likely Eunho, she didn't feel exactly safe around him because she didn't actuallyknowhim — and then the distinct feeling of anger crashed over her.

"You left me behind," she accused.

He unstuck himself from the wall. "You were gone when I looked back, and by then, I was already basically out of there. I thought I told you to follow me."

"Someone grabbed me!"

He winced. "Sorry. But I did see him—" he jerked his chin in Eunho's direction, "—going through the crowd, so I figured letting him find you would be a much easier task than if we both went and looked. It could've resulted in both of us getting lost."

Hei turned towards Eunho to take a proper look at him. He was a bit taller than Byeong joo now that they were standing together, though it seemed like a bit more than just slightly taller because he had a slimmer build. His hair was a dark brown, covering his forehead. His features were a lot softer than Byeong joo's.

"Well, you've technically just met each other, but I think we need a proper introduction. Hei, this is Eunho, my first mate. Eunho, this is Song Hei." Byeong joogave her a knowing grin and met her eyes. "I kidnapped her from Hua four days ago."

She cringed at that, but Eunho didn't show any other reaction apart from the corner of his lips twitching upwards. He held out a hand politely, giving her a slight smile, and Hei took it tentatively. "Pleased to meet you. I think we can do introductions later, though. You look like you need a hot bath and a change of clothing, and that's not going to happen if we stand here talking."

Chapter 11

Missing Crew

Eunho seemed to be a much nicer person than Byeong joo was, and that was Hei's first impression of him.

He was also apparently a lot more uptight than Byeong joo (or at least he showed that he was) because he kept to his word about not lingering and hurried both of them towards the direction of the hallway, snapping at Byeong joo the moment he even paused or made any sort of comment (it might've been amusing in another circumstance, though she couldn't find it in herself to laugh). Hei followed behind him, with Byeong joo to her back as he led her through the hallway before stopping at the second last door.

It looked the same as the other ones until Eunho placed a hand on the doorknob. For the faintest moment, the air around them seemed to shimmer, a light ripple, so faint that it could've been mistaken as nothing. And then he twisted and pushed just like anyone would with a normal door. He gave her a slight nod, and Hei peered a bit suspiciously at the dark room, wondering if it was even safe to go inside.

"Go," Byeong joo said behind her. "The torches should light up when you step inside, unless Eunho still haven't fixed it."

"I've fixed it," Eunho grumbled.

"Good," Byeong joo Hei could completely lose all of her courage, she took a tentative step inside.

They were right that it would light up the moment she stepped inside, but even then, it still came as a huge surprise and Hei stood in shock as a row of torches flickered to life in front of her, lighting up one by one down a long corridor. It was such a pretty sight compared to everything else that had happened in the day, and she couldn't help but pause a couple moments and stare at the sight in front of her.

"Ezentia isn't called the City of Lights for no reason," Byeong joo commented suddenly, and Hei jumped. "They do have magic for that and it's not that hard to get your hands on. You can stare all you want later, though. We need to get going now."

She took a slow step forward. "Do I just follow this?"

"Yeah." It was Eunho this time. "There's a door at the end. Let mego in the front, though. I have a key to that."

"A key?" Hei echoed. He'd obviously opened this door with magic —the other one was opened by a key? That didn't exactly seem to fit. They were on two different ends of the spectrum. "Why would you… have a key for that door and magic for this one?"

"It's easier," he replied simply before he moved past her. "Let's hurry. Byeong joo's going to start complaining about his wet clothes."

"Can't he control water?" A bit confused, Hei stared at Eunho. He was talking to and about Byeong joo in such a casual way and part of her expected Byeong joo to smite Eunho on the spot for some odd reason. She was so used to seeing him take down people that part of her questioned if he could even interact with someone (that wasn't her) normally.

"Doesn't stop him from complaining."

He continued forward in silence after that, and Hei hurried after him, still trying to wrap her mind around what exactly Byeong joo and Eunho's relationship extended to. Seeing someone talk so… easily to him was completely new. She wasn't sure what she had in mind exactly when he mentioned Eunho, butfirst matedidn't seem the same asfriend.And they were acting exactly like friends. It made sense, really, but at the same time, it seemed like nonsense.

It wasn't too long after when they reached the end of the hallway. When Hei looked back behind them, the torches were beginning to die down again, one by one — the light seemed to follow where they went. They reached the doorway on the other side in less than half a minute.

Eunho spent a couple of seconds digging around for a key in the pocket of his coat, and then there was the openingclickof the lock before a brighter, much warmer light flooded in, and she stepped through the doorway into the room. The temperature was much higher inside than out, though Hei basked in the warmth for a momentbefore looking around the interior.

She'd seen her fair share offancy.In fact, Hei's whole life had been an abundance of fancy, to the point where it wasn't pretty or a luxury or anything — it was a burden.Fancymeant the too-heavy dresses she had to put on, it meant the house that was so big that it magnified the loneliness, it meant the materialistic things she never really wanted or needed but still had. The first word that came to mind after seeing the room in front of her wasn't fancy or pretty or even well-designed — it felt homely.

It wasn't exactly well kept — the carpet beneath her feet was rumpled, there was what looked like an unfolded blanket thrown over one of the couches, and the room itself just wasn't the neatest place she'd seen. Still, there was a strange sort of warmth it exuded that had her frozen at the doormat for the longest moment.

"Well?" Byeong joo prompted. "Let's see. You probably want a bath and a change of clothes, so while Eunho does that, I'll show you around."

Bewildered, she stared at him. "What?"

Eunho gave him a mock salute. "Yes, captain."

He disappeared from the room, leaving her in a worse state of shock than before.

Byeong joo wrinkled his nose. "It's gotten so much neater since I left, though I suppose it's seen better days. I remember when Junhyuk gave the whole place a spring cleaning when he visited. That was horrifying. I can't find anything when it's neat and sorted out."

He seemed to realize then that she was studying him without saying anything, and he tilted his head at her. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Hei shook her head. "You're… strange," she finally managed. "You seem so laid back with Eunho it's just…"

Byeong joo shrugged as if he had no response to that (but was content with having no response). She watched as he undid his cutlass from his belt, tossing it haphazardly onto one of the couches and kicking off his shoes. "Stop standing at the door. I promised to give you a tour, so let's go."

Throughout the whole time, Byeong joo was uncharacteristically chatty. Hei spent the whole time listen to everything halfheartedly, most of what he said going into one ear and out the other as she tried to figure out what exactly had gotten into him. Was he happy because he saw Eunho again, or because there was a safe and comfortable place to sleep? He treated it like home, so that could've been a reason. There was more than a couple times where she bit back questions she wanted to ask him but followed him throughout the house.

Byeong joo was showing her around the hallway that led to the branch of bedrooms (so far, they'd seen the living room (Hei wasn't sure how anyone could spend five minutes talking about that, but Byeong joo somehow did), the kitchen area, and then an emergency exit that seemed to operate under very complex mechanics). "I'm at the end," he said. "Eunho's the room beside mine, and everyone else shares rooms." His expression darkened. "They used to, but it's been at least a year since we've all been in Ezentia together. It's too dangerous. I've been staying on sea a lot, and if the word gets out that I'm in Ezentia, it could be difficult to get out again."

Hei glanced upwards at him and swallowed. "How big is your crew?"

"Small."

That meant he didn't want to talk about it. "How many are currently missing?"

He seemed to have reverted back to the person she was used to at the mentioning of his crew, and Hei almost wished she hadn't brought it up. The mood felt significantly darker, and Byeong joo gnawed on his bottom lip for a while before replying. "Over half. I know that Kyungsoo is currently in Vasileia, but I'm not returning there until I have to."

"Vasileia? That's the city of the Kim family, right?"

His expression remained calculatingly neutral, emotionless to the point where Hei wondered if there was something behind it apart from indifference. "It is."

"And Kyungsoo is…"

"One of my crew members. Do Kyungsoo."

That wasn't a family name. She had three names, now: Eunho, who was from the Do family, Do Kyungsoo who wasn't from any, and Hyunmin whom he'd briefly mentioned right before they entered the tavern. She didn't know Hyunmin's last name, but it was more than possible that he was from a family too. "Who else is in your crew?" she asked again, hoping to get an answer out of that one.

"Let's not talk about this now." Byeong joo scrubbed a hand over his face, and all of a sudden, he looked weary. Hei tried to hide the look of disappointment, but it must've showed pretty obviously because Byeong joo gave her a slight smile. "I'm pretty sure Eunho'll come get you at any moment now, so I'll discuss this with you tomorrow. He's also better at explaining than I am, too. You have all day to bother him, and I think I'm going to go to sleep for the next twenty four hours as soon as I get to take a bath." His expression softened. "I can't wait to sleep in a proper bed."

Hei came to one conclusion. "You're weird," she told him.

He smirked at her. "How so?"

She opened her mouth to reply withI can't figure you out at all,but before she could, Eunho appeared at the end of the hallway. It wasn't a particularly long one, and he reached them in a couple of steps. There was a splash of water on the front of his shirt and he had his sleeves rolled up.

"I hope he's not bothering you too much," he said to Hei, giving Byeong joo a side-eye. "You probably want a bath now. And it's pretty late and you're probably tired. I'm going to steal her now, Byeong joo."

"Yeah, you should probably go." Byeong joo glanced at the door of his room, yawning. "I'm going to get settled in after I wash up too. It's been a while since I've seen this place. Actually, there was another part that I didn't get to show you, so maybe we should do that first—"

"Get out of here," Eunho told him with a slight laugh, and Byeong joo faked a scowl at him before making a beelinefor his room.

She was being led out of the hallway a moment later, Eunho ushering her back into the direction of the living room and then down another corridor. Hei made sure they were definitely out of earshot when she finally asked hesitantly, "Is there something wrong with Byeong joo?"

Eunho pressed his lips together. "Not that I… know of? Why?"

Hei considered her words for a little while. "He's a little chattier than normal."

"He tends to do that when he's in a good mood." Eunho pushed open a door for her, and Hei followed him through. "Though I think the lack of sleep may be getting to him, too. Anyways, I don't believe we've had any proper introductions yet."

The air was significantly warmer in this area of the house, and despite being absolutely freezing before, she was beginning to feel hot. The dress wasn't nearly close to dry, but it wasn't the cold kind of wet anymore. "You're Eunho," she said. "Byeong joo talked a lot about you when we were on the ship."

"I suppose Byeong joo's done all the introductions for me before I met you." He gave a wry smile. "That means that you know I'm from the Do family, right? It's sort of self-explanatory once you hear my name."

Hei nodded.

He tilted his head at her. "You know, Song Hei, you're taking this a lot calmer than a lot of people would. You were, what, forcefully taken from your family six days ago?"

She gave a nervous laugh. "Well, I think I've already seen the worst the past couple of days, and like two hours or so before this, Byeong joo took down two high ranking members of my family and burned a whole ship down and…well…" She paused, wondering how she exactly she should even attempt to phrase it. "He did tell me a couple of things about my family when we were on the ship, and it wasn't as if they treated me—" There was a bitter taste in her mouth when she said it, and all of a sudden, Hei realized that the words weren't hard to get out because she wasn't used to talking her family in such a way —it was because it was the complete truth that she'd grown to accept somewhere along the way. And the truth was always the hardest to say. "—It wasn't as if they treated me like family anyways."

"It's not necessarily a bad thing," he replied. "Anyways, Byeong joo told me it would be best if we got to proper explanations and such tomorrow because you look absolutely shattered. I'll leave you here to take a bath. There's a fresh set of clothing on the side. After you're done, follow the hallway down and you'll reach the living room. I'll show you your bedroom after that."

He gave her one last smile. It was a much softer, gentler look on his face compared to Byeong joo's. Most of Byeong joo's smiles were harsh, the taunting sort, or something that was nearer to a smirk (at least, the ones that Hei could remember. He wasn't much of a smiler in terms of comfort because he always looked serious when talking about serious topics. The one smile she had ingrained in her mind had to be the one she'd seen when he had faced the twins, and that was more or less a disturbing image to think of). Eunho's was… more of a smile.

That train of thought was soon interrupted when she opened the door. The air was thick with water vapour, even hotter than the last room, though it had been days since she'd had a proper bath and Hei soon stripped of the dirty clothing and settled into the water. It was warm and calm, a nice contrast compared to the sea, and she sat still for a long time with her eyes shut. It was only when the water began to cool slightly when she went for the bar of soap.

Hei was beginning to feel pleasantly drowsy when she pulled on the new set of clothing Eunho had left on the chair, and the heat made her eyes droop. Sleeping in a proper bed (and in a room by herself) sounded like heaven, and while she had gotten used to the ship, she still would've preferred sleeping somewhere where the ground didn't rock beneath her feet. Toweling her wet hair, she headed out of the door in the direction that Eunho had directed her in.

She stopped halfway in the hall when the faint sound of two mixed voices travelled down, one distinguishable as Byeong joo's. She was too far away to hear what they were saying, but for the first time since they saw Eunho, his tone was surprisingly serious, perhaps even a bit agitated. She inched closer to them, hoping the floorboards didn't creak underneath her.

"Byeong joo," Eunho said quietly. "The only things I've been doing for the past two months are getting a ship ready, sorting out everything back here, and doing all I can to look for them. Especially… especially Jiyong." His voice broke there. "Kyungsoo can't really leave Vasileia right now, though he sent me a message a week ago saying that he searched the city and Jiyong wasn't there. It's very possible he drowned."

Hei couldn't see Byeong joo's expression, but his voice was tight. "No one's dead until I have a body."

"I want to believe it too," Eunho said back through gritted teeth, exasperation clear on his features. "But yousawhim get stabbed before he fell into the water."

Jiyong.That was a Chinese name, which meant that he was either from the Do family or not from a family at all. He was definitely from Byeong joo's crew.Stabbed? Drowned?Had this happened during the clash with the Do family?

"I've gotten stabbed plenty of times," Byeong joo responded, though his voice was weak and it lacked conviction. He sounded like he was trying to convince himself also. "It's very likely that where he was stabbed wasn't fatal, and neither of us saw where he went. Iwoke upwashed up on a shore with numerous wounds and I'm still alive. There's no reason Jiyong…"

His voice broke then, and Hei was tempted to move forward more. She couldn't see him, but he sounded close to crying.

"You control water," Eunho reminded him gently. "Youcan'tdrown. In fact, it's possible you healed faster because you were in water. Jiyong isn't from a family."

"Are you suggesting we don't look for him?"

Hei inched a step closer. She could see the couches on the other side of the living room — Byeong joo and Eunho were on the opposite end. "You planned everything so meticulously up to this point, didn't you? My family was the reason why everything is now being delayed by months. You could've easily lost Song Hei to her family if you'd been three days late, and we both know that that's very possible when you're travelling by sea. It's not hard to be late by a couple of days, and if that happened —ifthey managed to kill her, then…"

"But it didn't."

"Hell's Gate only opens on a solstice, and you're going to miss that if you spend more time searching for crewmates. We have approximately two months to find them, train Song Hei, and then locate the gates."

Two months to train me?She nearly panicked there. Eventwo yearsdidn't seem to be enough. She didn't understand nearly half of what they were talking about, but whatever it was, it didn't sound pleasant. Hell's Gate. Finding Byeong joo's lost crew members. Jiyong who Eunho assumed dead.

Byeong joo gave a groan. "This really all depends on her, doesn't it?"

"You tell me. You did the calculations."

Her vision seemed to tunnel before her. What exactly depended on her? She knew that Byeong joo needed her help — he'd painted out the whole picture out for her — but was it just his crew? By the way he was talking, it felt like there was definitely more. And the more she listened, the more of a burden it felt like.

Byeong joo was silent for a long time and Hei strained to hear his next reply. Part of her wanted to barge in and demand what the hell was going on, though that would mean she'd have to admit to eavesdropping and she couldn't imagine either Byeong joo or Eunho being too happy about that. She was pretty sure it wasn't even a conversation she was supposed to hear anytime soon. Hei stood still (in shock or because she didn't want to be heard — she wasn't sure which one it was), holding her breath, until Eunho gave a sigh. A chair scraped backwards on the ground.

"Go sleep," Eunho said in a tired voice. "You've barely gotten any proper rest these past couple of days and you're going to need that. We'll be on sea again soon and you're going to be the only one who can watch the sea."

She panicked as the other chair scraped, though Byeong joo's silent response to Eunho was even worse. Before she could turn and bolt back to the room where she'd came from, the whole world came to a standstill before her.

Not now,she thought.Please not now.

The memory fragment flickered to life in front of her, the white walls of the hallway turning lighter, painted with brighter rushed down the hallway, too fast for her to catch their face, though she probably wouldn't have recognized them even if she had seen it.

Not now,she repeated, though it was pointless — either Byeong joo or Eunho had probably already seen her. Once she snapped out of the memory they'd be already there in front of her. As for when it was happening…

She squinted in front of her, trying to catch a proper glimpse of what was happening in front of her. The hallway was lit up better than before in the vision, and for some reason, the people who walked by appeared in brighter colours. Another person dashed past her, footsteps thudding on the wooden floor, laughing. With a jolt, Hei recognized it as Byeong joo.

He looked the same, though his hair seemed shorter (or maybe it wasn't — she didn't have time to see him properly before he disappeared). Someone hollered his name, though it was faint.

Noise.All of a sudden, thoughts of being caught by Byeong joo and Eunho flew out of her head. Memory segments didn'thaveany sound. She'd never seen any of them where she could hear what they were saying or any sort of background noise. Everything was pure silence — and yet she could hear clearly what was happening. It was a bit distorted, unlike what normal voices sounded like, though it was stillthereand she could make out what they were saying.

"Kim Byeong joo!" It sounded like Eunho this time.

Her heart felt like it had crawled to her throat.

If Hei could move, she would've fallen over.Kim Byeong joo. Kim.The words repeated themselves through her head like a broken record. It had been one of the possibilities, but even then, hearing it felt like a bucket of cold water dumped over her head. Out of all the families,Kim —it seemed to bring him to an utterly new level. Not only was he from a family, but the Kim's?

The vision slowly began fading around her, and Hei tried to figure out what was the most shocking: the fact that she couldhearthe segments (or at least this one) or that Byeong joo was a Kim. Both felt equally unfathomable, though the moment time started to flow at a normal pace around her, her legs promptly gave away and she had more to worry about.

The first thing that Hei saw was Byeong joo who was standing over her with furrowed eyebrows. He didn't look too happy, arms folded across his chest and an obviously displeased expression. It was such a sheer contrast to the person she'd seen running down the hall in the memory that Hei couldn't even connect them.

She tried to find a way to explain herself —technically, she could play it off as just getting there —but for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to get out any sort of excuse. "I—" she began, though Byeong joo beat her to it.

"How much did you overhear?"

Hei was tempted to say something along the lines of,nothing, I just got here,though her voice didn't obey her. She had a feeling that Byeong joo wouldn't just take the lie either— not with the way he was looking at her.

"You're aKim," was the only thing that came out.

Surprise flashed across his face. "How do you know?"

Her thoughts weren't nearly coherent enough to formulate another answer apart from repeating the same thing.

Byeong joo looked absolutely exhausted and Hei almost would've felt bad if it weren't for the questions circulating. Finally, he gave a short sigh and offered her a hand. Still feeling like she wasn't quite out of a state of shock, Hei took it and he hauled her up. It was only then when she noticed Eunho who was standing at the end of the hallway, watching them with a mixed expression of both worry and surprise. He didn't make a move to approach them.

He didn't even look in Eunho's direction. For a long time, he stared at her and she stood still, waiting for his next move, all the while trying to decipher his expression.

Byeong joo finally stepped away, making him the first one to break the eye contact. "I suppose this means we need to talk."

He didn't tell her to follow him but headed off in the direction of the rooms, and after a moment of hesitation, Hei hurried after him.

Chapter 12

Once Prodigy

To say that Byeong joo wasn't scary would be a lie, because the sort of quietness he exuded was downright terrifying. There had been a moment or two when his expression was so indecipherable and unpredictable that Hei wondered for a split second if he might kill her.

He didn't wait for her or turn back when he walked down the hall which made it impossible for Hei to see his expression. She trailed a fair distance behind him, checking her back for Eunho, though he seemed to have disappeared. That meant she was left alone with Byeong joo, and she wasn't sure if he was angry or not.

Still,Hei tried to reassure herself, though it did little use.It's not my fault I saw a vision. That's where I heard his name, and I can play it off as if I never eavesdropped—

Byeong joo stopped then in front of the bedroom that was supposed to be hers (at least Hei hoped — she didn't quite remember from when he was showing her around). His expression was still a mix of emotions when he turned around, though he held the door open for her.

Hei glanced at him, pausing in front of the door. "Why are you telling me this here?"

"This used to be Junhyuk's room," he replied. "He has maps stored here. It'll be easier to explain with some sort of visual representation." He raised an eyebrow at her, though compared to before, it felt half-hearted and forced. "I'm supposing you heard quite of a bit of my conversation with Eunho?"

Hei pressed her lips together. There was no point lying to him — there was no way shecouldlie to him —but some part of her still wanted to deny. Finally, she gave him a weak nod.

"Come inside." He pushed the door open further. "Actually, I should be the one asking you that. It's your room."

Hei gave him a side eye, though she found herself relaxing a bit. He sounded like how he usually did —casual, a bit teasing, though there was nothing extremely off nor did he actually seemangryat her. She stepped back into her room cautiously and Byeong joo followed, leaving the door open.

That was a breath of relief. She'd spent the past couple of days on the ship stuck in the same room as him and being stuck with someone she couldn't trust and didn't know well behind closed doors was unnerving. Byeong joo had been a gentleman the whole time whether or not she wanted to admit (most of the time — there were still a couple moments that Hei would've smacked him if she had the courage to when she looked back), but even then, she'd only known him for a couple of days and that definitely wasn't enough time to get to know a person properly.

She sat down on her bed as he rummaged through one of the drawers in the desk at the side. Hei took the time to look around the room —it was rather spacious — not nearly as big as her room back home, but way larger than the cabin they'd spent the past couple of days in. There were no windows, though there were multiple lamps lit up. There was a large wardrobe in the corner of the room.

Byeong joo seemed to have found what he was looking for, because he closed the drawer and headed towards her with a piece of parchment in his hand. He sat down beside her and unfolded the map. Hei spent the first couple of moments panicking about how close he was sitting onherbed, and then she saw what was on the parchment and forgot all about Byeong joo.

It was a drawing of the sea, extremely detailed and intricate. In meticulously neat writing, the five cities were all listed, though their positions were only plotted out. The detail had obviously been paid more to the sea itself — the spots of islands, landmarks, areas of severe storms — they were all there.

Hei scanned the map. "Someonedrewthis?" she breathed.

He nodded, a hint of sadness on his face, though it was carefully masked. "Junhyuk. He did all the maps here, though this is probably the one he worked hardest on. We've gotten nearly the whole sea mapped, though…" he paused, eyes sweeping over the paper. "Well, it's nearly finished. He works on it in his free time when he does come to Ezentia, which is rarely."

"Why doesn't he come to Ezentia a lot?"

"Kim Junhyuk," Byeong joo said. "He's a Kim. People will recognize him easily in the streets here because by the time he left Ezentia, he was already a well-known family member to the public. Eunho and I can sometimes get away with it, but Junhyuk definitely can't. If you live in Ezentia and you're over the age of ten, you'll probably recognize his face."

"He's a Kim?" Hei knew that there were more than a couple of family members in his crew, but it still hit her as a shock. "I think… I might've heard of his name before. I'm not too sure."

"He's a cold guy," Byeong joo said, then snorted as if it was some sort of joke that Hei didn't quite get. "Literally. His power is ice."

Hei stared at the map on his map and Byeong joo followed her gaze. "Right," he said. "I was going to tell you about Hell's Gate."

She studied his face for a couple of seconds. He was staring down at the map intently, eyebrows drawing together, gnawing on his bottom lip like he was thinking about something. He looked exceptionally tired in the lighting of her room, and Hei was beginning to feel even worse for making him explaining everything to her. She could ask him the next day about it all — Hell's Gate, why they needed her help, the fact that he was aKim —she was struggling to stay awake also, and she'd slept more than Byeong joo.

"You can tell me tomorrow," she suggested timidly.

Byeong joo looked up. His face was a bit too close for comfort, and the same grin beginning to lift his lips upwards. "Are you worrying about me?"

Hei scowled at him. "I'mtired. I never said anything about you."

"Are you sure?" He grinned, then it faltered. "But no, I think I'll just tell you today. I wanted to do so a while ago but I couldn't find the right time. I might as well get it over with now."

He traced a finger along the map, and then finally, he stopped at a darker colored spot. It was near the north, a bit to the east of Vasileia. When Hei looked closer, she could see the sketch of what looked like two, black colored rocks jutting from the sea. It was labelledHell's Gatein the same neat writing the whole map had, though most of the area around the two rocks were unmapped.

"You said you needed to be at Hell's Gate by the solstice," Hei recalled. "That's in two months, right?"

"Two months and a week." Byeong joo smoothed out the map on his knees. "The gates can only be seen on the solstice. We're going to need at least a week prior to search for the exact location of them because no one knows — a lot of people actually say it's a myth —and the sea there is extremely hard to navigate through because it's so cold. We can't get through without Junhyuk, but I have no idea where he is at the moment. As for the actual gates themselves…" He paused, fingers ghosting over the surface of the parchment. "Legends say there's a guardian that kills anyone that tries to pass."

Hei opened her mouth, couldn't think of a response, then snapped it shut again. "Come again?"

Byeong joo lifted his head. "That's just a story. It's quite possible that Hell's Gate doesn't exist and there's no such thing as that guardian, which is another reason why I'll need Nam Yejun. He should be able to see things like this clearer. I need more substantial information than simplestories."

"Go back a couple of sentences," Hei said, still not quite comprehending. "You're going after a mythical gate that opens twice a year and trying to cross through it even though someone's guarding it? You know, assuming this thing even exists? What are you evendoingit for? Is there some sort of treasure beyond the gates—"

"Treasure?" Byeong joo laughed and Hei met his eyes. It was a subtle difference, but there was a sort of coldness behind his gaze that wasn't there a moment ago. "I don't want treasure, Song Hei."

She suppressed the cold tingling down her spine. "Whatdoyou want?"

He didn't answer her question outright, but tilted his head. "How did you find out that I was a Kim? I'm curious. I don't think Eunho's ever called me by my full name even once since we were here."

The change of topic was so obvious that Hei wondered if he was doing it for another reason apart from avoiding the question. "I had a vision. Someone called you Kim Byeong joo." His gaze remained fixed on something front of them, and Hei hesitated. "Are you really… are you really from the Kim family?"

"Wouldn't it be nicer if I weren't?" he mused, half to himself. "I thought you said you couldn't hear sound in the memory segments."

Hei wanted to counter why it had become an interrogation to her and not the other way around, but she did owe him a couple answers and she was more than confused about how she could hear sound in the vision. "I couldn't before."

He frowned. "It's probably this place, then. The flow of magic in this house is really strong because of how much magic was put in to build it and set it up, and there's still a lot of magic inside it. It might've triggered your power a bit more than it did in another place." He must've sensed her next question, because before Hei could ask him about his family again, he refolded the map and turned around so he was facing her fully. "Before you ask me again, yes, I'm from the Kim family."

There was so much she learned about the families (mostly her own) from before that Hei couldn't quite recall, but she did remember a handful of information on the Kim family. They were the most well known family, the most powerful, the richest. It wasn't hard to sense the tone of jealousy and resentment in Miyeon's voice when she talked about them, nor was Hei unaware of the note of triumph when she began to retell the story of their failed prodigy over and over again.

"Their prodigy from before," she began. "People began noticing you around two years after the Kim family killed him. I thought they would be stricter after that." Hei paused. There was a small whisper in the back of her mind, a possibility that was too impossible for her to think of. "How old are you?"

His face was devoid from all emotion. "Twenty four."

She fought the wave of shock. He definitely didn'tlookover twenty five, but after hearing everything he had done, twenty four seemed… almost painfully young. Someone only four years older than her had killed uncountable members of families and posed a threat to them. It was unimaginable. "Did you leave your family when you were eighteen, then?"

"Eighteen?" Byeong joo laughed, though it wasn't a comforting expression. "Do you think I became a pirate the moment I left Vasileia? I spent a year struggling by myself and trying to run away from them because they wanted me dead, and then I found Eunho another six months later. It was two years after I left that they actually swallowed a bit of their pride and put up posters for me. There were rumours a while back that they killed everyone they didn't trust in their family just so no one could leak out who I was. That's an upper hand I have over them."

Sixteen.Hei stared at him, trying to formulate a response, though her mind was spinning as she struggled to wrap her head around his words. "You're not him. Youcan'tbe him. Everyone knows the Kim family killed their—"

"You get it now?" His expression was bitter. "It would've been more disgraceful to them if they told everyone that the prodigy they kept bragging about had not only betrayed the family but also escaped execution, don't you think? They covered the whole incident up by saying I died and then secretly sent people after me. Why else do you think they're so desperate to kill me? The other four families believe I'm just some random commoner because I've been careful to keep my power under wraps when I'm around them. All five have denied claims that I'm from their family, so only the Kim family knows the truth."

"How did you escape?" Hei could barely hear her own voice. "They said your family killed you."

By the looks of it, it wasn't something Byeong joo wanted to go think about, much less talk about. He had his lips pressed together tightly, eyes dark, and if it weren't for the curiosity and confusion, Hei would've dropped it then and there and suggested calling it a night. She couldn't, though — not exactly. Not when he'd basically told her he was the prodigy from the Kim family. That was the story she'd basically grown up hearing as an example of what sheshouldn'tend up as — yet the main character of said story was sitting in front of her in flesh and blood. It was so strange thinking about it that she couldn't even connect the dots: the two famous people she'd heard about for years were actually the same one. Byeong joo, wanted pirate, outlaw, murderer, thief; the Kim family's unnamed prodigy.Kim Byeong joo.It fitted together oddly well, even though it was something that she wouldn't have evenbegunto think about if he hadn't mentioned.

Byeong joo remained silent for a long time. Hei was beginning to wonder if the question would ever be answered when he finally lifted his head. "Do you really want to know?"

He didn't give her a chance to askwhy notbefore he continued. "I killed half of the guards stationed there, a couple of other family members, and then innocent bystanders that were in the way. All of that in aday."

There was something extremely hollow in his eyes when he said it. The lamps lit in her room were gradually dying, the room turning darker, and in the shadows, Byeong joo's face was all shadows and sharp, contrasting angles. Despite the initial disbelief and every other swirling, unidentifiable emotion, all of her wanted to say something to comfort him. He didn't seem like an undefeatable, terrifying pirate at the moment. He didn't feel like the prodigy she'd always been told about — power unparalleled by no other heir, brilliant, unreachable.

"You sound like you regret it," she said carefully.

It was a strange moment of vulnerability from Byeong joo that she didn't expect at all. He leaned back, eyes closed, the same, bitter smile lingering on his lips. "Regrets?" The word sounded foreign coming from his lips. "Song Hei, I get up, Iliveon everyday because of regrets. I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing right now if I don't have regrets I want to pacify."

It was impossible to imagine what it was like. She'd always been the one who was supposedlybelowher family's expectations and at the same time, Byeong joo was the exact opposite. Still, Hei realized, there had been uncanny similarities between the two opposite-end situations.

"It's not exactly fun when your family expects everything from you," Byeong joo noted. He paused for a second. "The higher you climb, the harder the fall is, right? Everyone was watching whether or not I'd climb higher or I'd fall right then and there, and I guess the latter happened. It was just too tiring to struggle to go even higher."

"Would you have rather stayed with your family, then?"

"Stayed?" He gave a tiny shake of his head, almost like a shudder. "Staying doesn't work no matter how I think about it. There was bound to be a point where the pressure was too much, even if it happened to be when I was older. Still, sometimes I wish…" he trailed off. "Never mind. I think it's best that you rest now. It'll be morning in a couple of hours and there really isn't time to waste."

Hei reran the whole story (that she knew of) through her head again. If that part hadn't been twisted, the reason that he was sentenced to death was because he'd basically betrayed his family by skipping lessons and sneaking out to see a commoner girl at night. She was about to ask Byeong joo about her when he stood up abruptly.

"I'm going to go rest now," he said, and Hei wondered how many times he had said the same phrase that night. "I'll tell you more next morning."

He was out the door before Hei could protest.

For a while, she sat still on her bed in the same place, unsure of what to do. Byeong joo had disappeared just like that, leaving her with more questions, though Hei supposed it was nothing new at that point. It was a pattern that she noticed (not necessarily something she could get used to) — he'd tell her things, she'd ask him a question, and he'd shut her off and file it undertomorrow.She'd spend the rest of the time between then and whenevertomorrowwas rethinking everything by herself and complicating it more than it should've, all the while confusing herself by the second.

Byeong joo had closed the door behind her and the lamps were beginning to die down. It took a couple of minutes for her to finally settle with the fact that he wasn't coming back with more explanations, and then around five more to settle under the blankets in a sad attempt to fall asleep.

Hei remained awake for what felt like a painfully long time, repeating everything that Byeong joo had told her through her head. She couldn't quite erase the bitter, resentful look on his face from her mind no matter how hard she tried, and when sleep finally overtook her, his words repeated themselves over and over in her head until Hei wondered if she'd ever be able to forget them in her lifetime.

Chapter 13

Past

Hei felt more tired when she woke up than when she fell asleep, which was downright rotten. She wasn't sure what time it was either — the room had no windows, so it was as dark as it had been when she last remembered (perhaps darker, because the lamps were completely out of oil). She could've slept an hour or she could've slept ten — whichever one it was, Heifeltlike she had slept one.

She was wearing the same dress she changed into after taking a bath, though it was rumpled from tossing and turning in bed. Hei smoothed the wrinkles out as best she could — to the point where it was acceptable to step out of the room in — washed her face in the basin because she hadn't a chance to last night, and then sat down in the chair after second thoughts instead of exiting like she initially planned on doing.

Strangely, her first thought was whether or not Byeong joo had slept better than she had, because the last time she had seen him, there were considerably dark bags under his eyes and he looked like he was going to pass out at any moment. And then she thought of what he'd said about being in the Kim familyandbeing the ill-fated protagonist of the story she'd grown up hearing, and Hei figured a couple hours more sleep would do her good.

Against her better judgement, she ventured out of her room and into the hallway. Immediately the torches around her flickered to life. She jumped in surprise.

The hallway was empty, though faint voices came from the direction of the kitchen and living room. Hei shuffled in the direction, blinking at the blinding light and absentmindedly sorting out the questions she'd never gotten to ask Byeong joo the night prior. The smell of food drifted from the kitchen the closer she got, and Hei hadn't even realized until then how hungry she really was.

The kitchen was even brighter than the hallway, and both Eunho and Byeong joo were there. Byeong joo was sprawled unceremoniously on one of the couches closest to where Eunho was setting up the table, idly polishing his cutlass on his shirt.Again.

With a bit of horrified confusion, Hei wondered if that was a sight she would have to get used to — Kim Byeong joo shining his blade casually when he was bored. It definitely wasn't something that she wanted to see when she woke up each morning.

Eunho was the first to spot her. He gave a slight smile and nod in greeting, and then Byeong joo sat up from the couch, draping his right arm (which had the cutlass) over the back of the couch casually, the blade gleaming in the light. Hei suppressed a shudder.

Apart from that, though, he still looked really tired. The dark circles under his eyes hadn't exactly gotten better, and his hair was a mess too. The one piece that stuck upwards was beginning to bother Hei almost as much as his cutlass did, and she had a urge to shove it down. He looked closer to eighteen than twenty-four.

"Did you sleep well?" he asked, though his voice lacked something in it, like part of him was still stuck with the hollowness from their conversation last night. "It's, like, nearing midday."

"You didn't," she pointed out.

Byeong joo made a face at that. "I don't lookthatterrible, do I?"

"Debatable," Eunho called. "I think it would be best if we ate first. Byeong joo said there's still a couple of other things you didn't finish talking about, and after that, I can start teaching you a bit if you'd like."

That should've been exciting, though Hei couldn't help but feel a coil of both anticipation and dread unwind in her stomach at the mention of Byeong joo. He was still the same when she looked at him —well-built physique, the tension in his movements that never seemed to leave him, the expression on his face that she was socloseto reading but just couldn't — but that was what she was used to. There was something strangely different about him — she hadn't realized that his eyes were quite so sad, didn't think his smile was so… lacking.

"Are you done staring at me?"

She snapped out of it. "What?" Part of her was still expecting the same person he'd been last night — quiet, sad and serious.

He tilted his head at her. "Well? You were staring."

Hei turned away. "Wasn't."

"Whatever floats your boat, then." He sheathed his weapon and stood up, stretching, before brushing past her and sauntering towards the table. "I'm hungry and I'm not going to wait for you to eat."

Hei hurried after him. "That's not polite."

"I'm a pirate, so technically, I have no manners—"

"Shut up," Eunho groaned. "It's been less than a day since you've been back and everything is messy again. Do you know how hard I worked to clean everything up after you?"

Byeong joo shrugged before picking up his fork and stabbing at the plate. "I'm the captain. I do what I want."

"Not if we have a mutiny—"

"I'll drown you all," Byeong joo threatened.

"Remember that potion I made last year? I still have it and there's nothing stopping me from splashing it on you."

For a moment, Byeong joo looked like he was going to say something else because he opened his mouth, seemingly thought twice, scowled at Eunho and then stabbed at his food again. "This isn't over," he warned.

Hei watched the exchange with a bit of horrified curiosity, though in a couple moments, both had turned to look at her. Byeong joo raised an eyebrow, Eunho gave a sheepishwhoopssort of grin (he didn't actually look like he cared, though) and Hei averted her eyes back to her food after a second or two. The rest of breakfast (could it really count as a breakfast? It was nearly midday) was spent silence with occasional banters between them (to her surprise, Eunho seemed to have won everything). By the time Hei was finished, Byeong joo was long done and watching her and Eunho.

"Are you done eating?" he asked. "Leave it to Eunho to do the dishes."

Hei blinked at the plates in front of them. She rarely washed her own stuff — there were maids for a reason — and the fact that they had dishes to do didn't even compute until Byeong joo mentioned it.

"What are we…"

"I do recall leaving and going to sleep instead of explaining everything, and I take it that you have questions?"

"Yes, but—"

"Then let's go." The chair scraped behind him as Byeong joo stood up. "We don't have all day to waste."

Hei followed him up. "Where?"

She didn't miss the look he shot at Eunho, and though it was for a brief second, the message was clear. He wasn't comfortable talking about the topic with a third person in the room — for whatever reason Hei didn't know —and Eunho nodded his head in the direction of the bedroom-hallway.

"I'll just be doing my dishes here," he reassured Byeong joo. "I won't eavesdrop."

He pressed his lips together and then headed towards the direction of the bedrooms. "Come on," he called, and Hei scrambled out of her seat and after him.

She fell in step with him a couple seconds later. "You look tired," she said awkwardly.

The wordtiredseem to trigger a yawn. Hei almost laughed at him when she stopped herself. It came out as a rather uncovered, choking cough, and Byeong joo raised an eyebrow at her, though he didn't comment on it. "I don't think I had the best sleep last night, but I felt absolutely terrible after fighting the twins and I'm fine now. I'll probably go sleep early again tonight." He paused. "Or maybe I'll finish planning with Eunho. It depends."

To Hei's surprise, they passed the door of her room and Byeong joo continued forward. It didn't take long for her to realize that they were heading for his room and she slowed down.

He hadn't seemed to have closed the door properly before because it was half open, and from what Hei could see, it was a lot bigger than her own. It didn't have the neatest interior even from the sliver of it she could see, and when Byeong joo nudged open the door with his foot, it was even messier. For one, the covers hadn't been made — that bothered Hei to no end — there were papers strewn absolutely everywhere, and the closet in the corner was open. She frowned. There weren'ttoomany clothes on the floor, but she could see at least two visible shirts piled up on one of the chairs.

"You canlivehere?" she asked, appalled.

Byeong joo frowned at her. "Yeah, why not?"

Hei nearly tripped over something on the floor. It was basically covered by a partially drawn map, but she could make out what looked like the handle of a blade sticking out.

"You have adaggerin your room just lying on the ground?" she demanded. "This place is dangerous. And your bed isn't made, there's clothing everywhere—"

"I like my messes," Byeong joo replied sagely. "It's much more convenient."

"At least make your bed!"

"No can do." He sat down on the edge of it and patted the seat next to him. "Sit down."

"This is a death trap."

"God, you sound like a second Eunho," he groaned, then kicked aside the dagger on the ground (that was still in reach, apparently). "Is that better?"

Hei eyed the floor warily before carefully picking her way through towards him and sitting down (not before making sure there was nothing under the covers that would be potentially sharp). The bed was a lot harder than hers.

Byeong joo shifted so he was facing her. "So," he said. "What do you want to know now? I know I was a bit… uh, well, I was tired yesterday. Go ahead and ask questions now."

Instead of speaking, Hei took another moment to study his face. She was aware of the fact that he was looking at her too, and frankly, it was a bit awkward, but there was something that felt a bit off about his joking. Not that it was surprising, really, but she was definitely curious about what he really was hiding behind the grin. She scrutinized him until Byeong joo lifted a hand and waved it front of her face.

"Hello?" he tilted his head. "I didn't drag you here to just sit."

Hei blinked. "Right." She rethought the questions she'd wanted to ask him the night before, though she wasn't sure if he'd react nicely to some of them. "Uh… about Hell's Gate — why did you say that it all depended on me to Eunho? You didn't exactly explain the whole thing last night."

It was barely noticeable, but Hei saw him visibly relax. Was it because it wasn't exactly a topic about his family? "You can't cross through the gate without fighting the guardian," he said. "Not unless there's someone to stop the guardian when we steer the ship through."

"I'm supposed to stop the guardian? No offense to myself, but you seem to be a better candidate for that."

Byeong joo's eyes seemed to regain a bit of their sparkle. "No, you're going to literallystopthe guardian," he said. "Actually, you're stopping more than just the guardian: you're going to stop time."

Hei was pretty sure her mouth dropped open, though she was too shocked for the thought to even click to her brain. She stared at Byeong joo for a good thirty seconds and he met her gaze evenly, not breaking eye contact until she managed a choked,howmixed with awhat.She was pretty sure what came out in the end wasn't even a word.

Byeong joo looked terribly amused by her confusion. "You have two months to train. Two months and a week."

She opted for opening her mouth, shutting it, and then repeating the process a couple of times. "You expect me tostop time?"she asked Byeong joo.

He bobbed his head.

"Do I look like I can do that? I can see visions of what happens in the past around me, and even that's random. Yeah, you said you'll help me improve and yeah,maybeit's possible, but do you get howbiga step you're talking about? You're asking me to move a mountain and I can't even move the rock in front of me."

"So focus on moving the rock if you're ever going to want to move the mountain," he replied.

She didn't even have a response or any sort of way to counter that. She couldn't find a hint of insincerity in his expression and Hei gave up after a couple seconds of searching. There was a numbing feeling of defeat, and perhaps a little desperation. "How, then? What if my powers don't even extend that far? That's… that's a big step and if I could stoptime—"

"I can't be sure right now," Byeong joo replied with a slight shrug. "I'm going to place my bet on the fact that you can, but I can't confirm fully until I get the clairvoyant. A lot of things will be much clearer when I have Nam Yejun." He paused. "But I'm pretty certain that you're more than capable of doing so, and perhaps even much more."

The thought was borderline uncomprehensible. Her, stop time? Could time even be stopped?

"Is that all you have to ask?"

Hei glanced up. "No." Before she could lose all of her rapidly draining courage, she managed, "Was your reason for execution really because you were skipping lessons and… seeing someone?"

Byeong joo's expression remained completely neutral — to the point of beingtooneutral. "Yes. That part of the story wasn't a lie."

His answer was short, and while it wasn't that Hei had really been expecting differently, it felt like a bit of a disappointment. "Could it have been an excuse to get rid of you?" she questioned cautiously. "I mean, you're obviously powerful, and—"

"It wasn't." He sounded firm. "They trained me nonstop for years and years because I supposedly had the potential to become another family leader, they sent the best tutors to me, the best trainers, pushed me to progress my powers in literally every aspect and made sure that I was perfect. But I'm human, and humans can't be perfect. It's just a matter of how we show that imperfection, and I guess I was just too obvious about it."

"What did you do?"

Byeong joo's gaze was piercing. "Don't you know the story? I ran away one night into the outer city to take a break from it all and then I crashed into someone who happened to be kind enough to take me in."

Nothing good was going to come out of it if he kept talking, and Hei was certain of that, though for some reason, she let him continue.

Byeong joo sat back onto his bed, pulling his legs up. "I'm pretty sure they referred to her as a simple commoner girl in the stories," he mused, half to himself. "The one that the Kim family's prodigy had been seeing, the one that was sentenced to death with him because she was the fault he'd screwed up. That's all she was to them in the end. A commoner girl."

There had the brief though of whether or not the girl had managed to escape with Byeong joo — it had seemed like an improbable possibility before, but if he managed to escape, couldn't she? One look at his face answered the question, and Hei couldn't help but wonder exactlyhow muchof what he was doing was because of her.

"Anything else?" His voice was strained. "Eunho may be able to explain the stuff about Hell's Gate and your power better, though. It's his specialty."

He definitely didn't look like he particularlywantedto be answering more of her questions, and after a moment of hard contemplation, she shook her head at Byeong joo slowly.

"I'm going to rest a bit more," he said, voice still a bit short. "If you find Eunho, he might be able to teach you now."

It was pretty clear that she wasn't exactly welcome there and that Byeong joo wanted time alone. The brief description of the girl hadn't helped, though she'd just be rubbing salt on wounds if she pried further. Some things just weren't meant to be touched, and this happened to be it for Byeong joo.

Hei stood up slowly, careful to trod on the empty patches of floor that there were. Byeong joo had flopped backwards on his bed when she peered at him one last time, and before she closed the door, he called something along the lines of seeing her at dinner.

It was a veryByeong joothing of him to do, but at the same time, Hei thought that the emptiness in his voice didn't suit him.

Eunho was reading something on one of the couches when Hei found him.

He had the book propped above his head, though he set it down the moment she entered the living room. He swung his legs around the sofa so he was in a sitting position and then turned to face her. "Where's Byeong joo?"

She jerked her chin in the direction of the hallways. "His room. He kicked me out."

Mumbling something under his breath, Eunho headed towards her. "What a brat." He made his way to the kitchen, and a bit reluctantly, Hei followed behind him. She wasn't nearly as comfortable around him as she was around Byeong joo — the only proper interaction she had with him was during the previous night when he'd talked to her for less that five minutes, but the only person she'd seen Eunho actually beingmeanto was Byeong joo, and their relationship was (with the lack of another word to properly describe it) special.

He made a beeline towards the counters, opened one and pulled out two cups. "Water?" he asked.

Hei shuffled towards the kitchen table. "Yes please."

Eunho poured two cups and then headed towards her. He sat down at the opposite corner and handed her the purplish blue cup. The china was cool to the touch, and Hei stared down at the inside for the while, watching the water swish around the rim. Neither of them broke the silence, and for a couple moments, she wondered ifanyonewould or if they'd spend the rest of the time blanketed in the awkward quiet.

"What did Byeong joo say?" Eunho finally asked.

She nearly choked on her water. "Huh?"

"Was it about his family?"

The last thing Hei wanted to do was repeat everything she'd just went through, but Eunho was the second closest person she'd be able to get answers from, seeing that Byeong joo obviously cut the line there. "The girl died, right?"

Eunho set down his cup. "He talked abouther?"

Hei fidgeted on her seat. "Not exactly, but… well…he told me to ask him whatever, and the topic just… came up?"

"She didn't make it out." He tapped his fingers against the wooden surface of the table, the other hand wrapped around his cup. "Byeong joo doesn't talk about Heejin that often, though. I don't think he's told anyone what fully happened."

"Her name was Heejin?"

Eunho blinked. "Didn't he tell you?"

Wordlessly, Hei shook her head at him. Byeong joo hadn't specifiedanything,which she supposed made sense, but either she'd been too scared to ask him for the name or he didn't want to tell her.Heejin.Giving her a name seemed to make it strangely different. She was always justthe girl who the Kim family's prodigy had began to snuck out to see,and now that she had a name…well, it made her seem more human.

"She… died?"

It was obvious that Eunho was trying to skirt around the topic or drop it completely, because he looked almost as uncomfortable as Byeong joo had when he was talking about it. "I'm pretty sure they killed her when Byeong joo tried to break her out," he said cautiously. "He doesn't really like any of us talking about it, though. It's probably best to avoid that topic around him if you can help it."

Hei mentally slapped herself for not picking up what he was hinting at earlier. She took another tentative sip from her cup. "Byeong joo said you were going to teach me how to use my powers."

Eunho's face lit up at that, obviously both relieved by the change of topic and seemingly happy about where the conversation was going. "We have most of the afternoon. We can start trying something in one of the empty rooms or even the living room, if you want. I'll teach you how to focus on your power first and we'll try. It'll be as easy as snapping your fingers once you get the hang of it—"

He broke off and grinned sheepishly. Hei blinked back to him, a bit confused, though not unpleasantly so. If she could wrap her mind around what he was saying… well, it soundednice.

Eunho stood up and offered an apologetic shrug. "Sorry, I got a bit carried away. Do you want something to eat first? We have apples. I find that I can use my power better after food."

Chapter 14

Progress

Hei had no idea what to expect out of it when Eunho sat her down and told her to try to see something.

"I can't," she protested. "A vision isn't just going to magically come to me. What happened last night wasn't anything that I could control, and besides, it's a waste of time if you just want me to sit here at wait—"

"Concentrate on it," Eunho interrupted. "A vision isn't going to magically come to you, yes—so make it. You have to be able to control your power. You should be able to tap into it every time because you're hand in hand with it, and that's what you lack: you're not connected enough with your power. It'ssupposedto be part of you, which is why there are moments you're able to see it—that's when it'sforcedyou to connect. Still, unless you're the one who willingly accepts it, there's no way you're going to be able to tap into it like you should be able to. Once you've done that, it's only a matter of practicing so you're better."

Hei stared at her hands. "How am I supposed to do that? It's not that I don'ttry."

"Try again." Eunho held out his own hand. "The flow of magic is really strong in this house, so it should help you connect with your power. It'll be easier the more you doing, though most people have that moment—" He snapped his fingers, "—when they suddenly have a turning point. Or it's gradual. Others have been able to control it for as long as they can remember, though it really depends."

"What about you?" she asked.

Eunho looked a bit surprised that she was asking him, but nevertheless, shrugged and spoke, retracting her head. Hei wasn't sure what she was trying to do—distract him from the topic of her power, maybe, because it made her feel uncomfortable? She didn't even know if she was asking him because she was actually curious.

He crossed his legs on the couch. "I had a lot of trouble casting spells when I was younger." He frowned. "I'm not sure what age I was when I finally managed to do something simple without completely failing at it, though there was a point in time where I suddenly started improving. I think I surprised almost everyone in my family and it was like they suddenly realized I had potential or something." He paused. "Though that's not the case with you, is it? Your family purposely tried to hold down your power."

Back onto the topic of my power,Hei thought miserably, though the only thing she managed out was ayesthat sounded more like a question than a confirmation.

"Try to concentrate," Eunho suggested yet again. "You're being blocked from your power not only because you haven't practiced but because your mentality and the fact that you think you can't. Get rid of that."

She fidgeted on the couch. "I don't know what to do. I can't concentrate."

"Focus on something, then." His voice didn't waver. "Is there anything youwantto see if you're going to glimpse the past?"

From what Hei knew, she could only see what had occurred already in the place she was in, so there really wasn't much to view so to speak of apart from Byeong joo and his crewmates. Still, that was interesting enough, and she didn't deny the fact that shedidwant to know more. He'd mentioned a couple people: Zhang Jiyong who Eunho claimed was dead, Kim Junhyuk who was a member of the Kim family and a cartographer and then Do Kyungsoo who was apparently stuck in Vasileia. Apart from Eunho, they were the only ones she knew, though there had to be more.

"Byeong joo," she managed. "He never told me much. Actually, he did, but there's just so much that's remained vague..."

Eunho's expression didn't change. "Focus on that will, then. That's where a lot of it comes from. You have to will your power to do something. If you sit down and wait passively for something to happen, you're going to have to wait a long time."

Hei had half the mind to to give up then and there, storm into Byeong joo's room and tell him that she quit and he ought to find someone else with the same power, but instead, she shut her eyes and tried to concentrate. There was nothing except emptiness and Hei was about the open her eyes and complain to Eunho that her power seemed to be content with remaining dormant when a faint tug in her gut stopped her.

She rarely felt anything when she used her power, so her first thought was that it was nothing. Almost immediately after brushing it off, the pull got stronger and Hei opened her eyes.

She nearly shrieked when she saw the person sitting next to her.

Byeong joo had no reaction to her, like he couldn't see her, which Hei figured made sense because she was looking at a vision. He had a pillow to his chest, legs crossed underneath him and was conversing in hushed tones with someone on the opposite end of the living room. Hei couldn't quite pinpoint how old he looked — definitely a couple years younger from the Byeong joo she knew. He didn't look nearly as worried, hair cut shorter, features not as sharp as she remembered. The more she looked, the more obvious it seemed—he really couldn't be anywhere over twenty.

The room looked different, too. The couch he was sitting on wasn't nearly as old, the walls were emptier than they were before and the place itself looked… less settled in. Across the couch Byeong joo was perched on were two others—one of which was Eunho and the other a smaller man with cat shaped eyes. He looked debatably younger than Byeong joo, though at the same time, he seemed like the older of the two.

She watched as Byeong joo leaned forward. There was still that intense gleam in his eyes that never seemed to have disappeared. "Are you sure Park Yano's still in Sileion?"

Park Yano. Sileion.Sileion was the Park family's city, and whoever Yano was was definitely from that family.

The unnamed person shrugged. "I can't guarantee that he'll still be there after ten days. He's hard to track. If he's confident enough to go back to his home city even with his family after his head, then he's got resources and skills."

Byeong joo threw his pillow to the side and groaned. "This is so troublesome. Why is the idiot in Sileion of all places? Junhyuk, can you go recheck it? We can't afford to return to there again, yet we also need Park Yano…"

So that's Kim Junhyuk.Hei wasn't quite sure what she'd been expecting, but it was probably something… different. Byeong joo said Junhyuk was a well-known member of the Kim family and had powers over ice, and after hearing all of that, Hei had no idea what to think of him. Still, the man sitting in front of Byeong joo on the couch was nothing close to what she imagined. She couldn't quite connect his face with a cartographerandsomeone who could control ice.

Junhyuk leaned back, looking somewhat frustrated. "I think it's worth the risk to go back to Sileion. Eunho, do you…"

His words gradually died off and the vision began to fall apart around her. Before it completely dissipated, Hei could see Eunho's lips moving, though the vision was gone before she could hear what he was saying. She blinked back into reality.

Eunho was leaning in front of her, frowning slightly. He looked different from what he had looked like in the vision, definitely noticeably older and more tired. Byeong joo had seemed the same, though the tiredness was magnified in him many times more than Eunho.

"I take it as you saw something?" Eunho asked.

Hei nodded a bit numbly. "Junhyuk…?"

A look of shock flitted across Eunho's face. "You saw Junhyuk?"

She thought back to the three of them on the couch—Byeong joo on one, Eunho and Junhyuk on the other. They'd brought up something about Park Yano, sailing to Sileion and then something from Eunho's side that she couldn't hear. She retold everything to Eunho, who raised an impressed eyebrow.

"That was years ago," he said. "Back when Yano made a huge fuss in his family for murdering a bunch of people and escaping. I doubt you heard about it because families are so obsessed with covering things like this, but around four or five years ago, almost everyone in Sileion and the underworld knew about him and Byeong joo was hellbent on getting him on the crew because he was powerful. We managed to corner him after a couple months when he was trying to get to Vasileia and he ended up joining us. It was actually Kyungsoo who ended up finding him." He paused. "But seriously, I didn't expect you to be able to see things from so far back."

Hei shrugged. "I can't control what I see."

"Then we'll work on that." Eunho sat back, giving her a slight smile. "The fact that you're actually able to concentrate and see something is an improvement in itself, though I suppose it has to do with being out of your family. Just living in that environment was probably a hindrance in itself."

They spent the rest of the afternoon going through basics. Eunho was so patient that Hei almost felt bad for every time she failed, though by the end of it, she'd seen a couple short snippets (most nonsensical scenes that Eunho couldn't even remember happening) of the past and apparently successfully identified Yano and Kyungsoo. She hadn't even realized how long they had been sitting there for until Eunho called for a break and told her he needed to make dinner.

Hei retreated to her room after that, feeling a significant amount better than she had in the morning. It wasn'tthathuge a step in her power, but for some reason, she felt like she'd climbed over a mountain.

Byeong joo joined them for dinner afterwards. His hair was a dishevelled mess and he looked like he desperately needed another 12 hour nap. Hei pointed it out to him when he collapsed onto his seat.

He leaned back on his seat and groaned. "I feel like I'm going to throw up."

"That's probably because you were stuffed in your room for the whole day and because you haven't eaten anything for hours," Eunho replied. "If you wake up tomorrow morning looking like that, I'm not taking you with me to get Nam Yejun. You'll be more help if you stayed back and slept."

Byeong joo scowled, but it didn't even look scary, especially with his hair sticking up everywhere. "Who's the captain here?"

"You, but you're being useless."

Hei watched as Byeong joo picked up his cup and took a long drink of water. "Did you tell Song Hei the plan?"

Eunho shook his head. "Right, we should go through it."

Byeong joo turned so that he was facing her, and Hei realized then how pasty his complexion was. It made the bags under his eyes stand out even more, and she had the strange urge to drag him back to his room and kick him to bed. She wasn't sure what he'd been doing in his room, but it obviously hadn't been sleeping like he said he was going to do.

"We're going to get Nam Yejun tomorrow night," he told her. "Eunho has the ship ready on a neighbouring island, so the moment we get him out, we'll head back here, grab everything we need, and then leave as soon as possible. Ezentia isn't going to appreciate their best scribe missing, and it's possible they'll keep the city closely guarded when they find out about him. We'll be long gone by the time they find out, though."

Hei blinked at him. "What if you get caught?"

"We won't," Byeong joo replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "ApparentlyEunho found a reliable source who has information on the Kim family on it, so everything should work out well."

"And if it doesn't?"

He gave her a wide grin. "Haven't considered that yet. Failure isn't an option. We're going to get Nam Yejun successfully, we're going to get out, and we'll be leaving without any interference. As long as that happens, I don't mind if Ezentia blows up the next day."

"Where's the ship, then?"

Byeong joo shovelled a mouthful food into his mouth. "You have so many questions," he said, shaking his head at her. "We're taking a smaller boat to the island it's docked on. I think Eunho cast some sort of invisibility spell on it as of now, but he knows where it is. He told me it's decent sized, so you don't have to share a cabin with anyone this time."

"Thank god," Hei grumbled.

He raised an eyebrow. "What was that?"

She followed his example and ate a mouthful that would prove difficult to swallow. "Nothing," she replied in a muffled voice.

Eunho snorted at the other side of the table. "No one wants to share a room with you. You're too messy. Junhyuk's going to go absolutely insane about it when he sees you."

Byeong joo gave a serene smile. "I like my messes."

The rest of dinner was continued in silence, with the rare banter or two from Eunho and Byeong joo.

She helped clean up after they finished, at a loss of what to do, and Eunho suggested she rest early. He took the bowl she was delivering to the sink from her hand. "You're probably tired from the afternoon," he said. "While you may not physically feel it as much, the fact that you used your power so many times in a couple hours is way more than you've done before, and that's going to drain any person. And we're all going to need a proper rest today after tomorrow. Byeong joo's brushing it off as nothing, but actually getting Nam Yejun out of Ezentia isn't going to be an easy feat and we all should be well rested for that."

There was no arguing with Eunho, and Hei couldn't refuse the offer of extra sleep either. She bid them both goodnight, shuffled to her room, washed up, and in less than fifteen minutes was fast asleep.

The next day itself wasn't extremely eventful. There was a sort of nervous energy hanging in the air because of what was going to happen that night, and Byeong joo told her to pack up the stuff she needed. She followed his instructions to the wardrobe in the corner of her room which she still hadn't opened, and found a whole layer full of folded dresses.

None of them were extremely fancy (when she asked Eunho about it, he face planted into the table and groaned about the terrible things he had to go through to get them), though they all looked pretty comfortable. She fitted as much as she could into the bag that Byeong joo had given her.

It was near noon when Hei decided to leave her room. She'd glimpsed a very brief vision of a man hunched over the desk (which was where Byeong joo had pulled out the map he showed her two days ago), scribbling something onto paper, and she could only guess that it was Junhyuk because apparently it had been his room. The memory fragment didn't last long enough for her to see his face and there wasn't anything informative about it, so she left it at that. Byeong joo was sprawled across one of the couches again, one arm dangling off the couch. When Hei took a closer look at him, he was actually asleep.

She waved a hand in front of his face. He remained unmoving.

A hand landed on her shoulder, and Hei nearly jumped out of her skin. Eunho leaned into her vision, a finger on his lips and a grin spreading on his face.Watch this,he mouthed.

Half amused and half curious, she took a step back. Eunho leaned over until he was face to face with Byeong joo, movements slow and silent, before suddenly snapping his fingers near Byeong joo's ear.

Hei made a mental note to never wake Byeong joo up suddenly in the future. He had told her he was a light sleeper once, but she hadn't realized howlighthe meant by light and how on guard he really was. In a split second, he'd unsheathed his cutlass and the point of it was levelled to Eunho's neck.

He whistled as Byeong joo blinked, looking slightly disoriented. He drew his arm back, shaking his head and the intensity in his eyes dying down. "Why'd you do that?" he grumbled. "I could've stabbed you." He glanced towards Hei. "Why do you look so shocked?"

Hei snapped her mouth shut. "Nothing," she managed. "Remind me to never be the one who wakes you up."

The rest of the day was also largely uneventful, and Hei spent another hour or so practicing her power with Eunho. If she concentrated hard enough, she could force herself to be thrown into a memory segment, though she still had little control over it. He suggested she take a break a while after, and Hei figured it was because she was probably going to end up getting close to no sleep at night.

By the time they'd finished dinner, Byeong joo had dragged her to the living room and sat her down on the couch. He was constantly glancing around them, eyes lingering in places that Hei couldn't quite see, hand hovering close to where his cutlass was. Hei wanted to ask him what was wrong, though she had a pretty clear guess that he was nervous about Yejun. He'd played it off as nothing, but according to Eunho, everything he planned was planned meticulously and he hated failure.

Ironic because he's known as the Kim family's failed prodigy,she thought.

"It shouldn't be over an hour," he told her. "You should be ready to leave whenever, and also…" He paused. "Thingsshouldn'tgo wrong, but if they do, be prepared to run too."

"I still don't get how you're going to break into the inner city and kidnap someone," Hei said.

Byeong joo's lips quirked into a grin. "You don't need to get it. And also, one last thing—don't run away when we're gone. I can't afford having to track down two people."

Hei was about to protest that she wouldn't—even if she wanted to (surprisingly, the thought didn't even cross her mind once in the past couple of days. There was a sort of at-ease feeling she had around Eunho, and even around Byeong joo the sense of nervousness had diminished by a significant amount), shecouldn't.And then it hit her that Byeong joo was joking.

"Maybe I will," she grumbled. Then she frowned. "How are you going to get Nam Yejun to the ship? Eunho said you were knocking him out because then he'd be too much to deal with if he were conscious."

His smile turned into a contemplating frown. "Well, the current plan is that we're stuffing him into a wooden box and wheeling him out in a wheelbarrow or wagon," he said. "Surprisingly, that's not as suspicious as it sounds. A lot of people transport heavy loads like that and… Nam Yejun in a box can count as a heavy load?" he shrugged. "Not my first option, but I think it would work better than hauling an unconscious body through Ezentia. The outer city has seen some strange things, but they're not going to let something likethatpass."

A week ago if someone had told her that, she would've laughed at them and called their bluff. Then again, a week ago she would've done the same thing if they told her someone was going to break into the inner city of Hua singlehandedly and kidnap her. A lot of things that she knew and had happened now were impossible to even imagine a week ago.

"Well," Hei managed. "So I just… sit and wait for you two to get back?"

He nodded. "There's also a couple of things I have to bring, so I'll leave all the bags with you here. Be ready to leave as soon as possible."

Hei watched Byeong joo and Eunho disappear down the hallway, the torches flickering behind them. There was an odd sort of serious, grim determination set on Byeong joo's face when he left, and it made her wonder just how exactly they were going to succeed.

For the first fifteen or so minutes, Hei tried to entertain herself by going through the maps in her room. It didn't take her long to figure out that firstly, she couldn't read the maps, and secondly, they were awfully boring. The fact that Junhyuklikedmapping and had spent months and years drawing the stuff he had was frankly quite hard to get through her head.

Not long after, she began worrying. Byeong joo had said it would take them around an hour or so, and while it clearly hadn't been that much time, Hei began to wonder what would happen if something were to go wrong. As much as she didn't want to fully admit it, Byeong joo and his crew were technically the only sort of protection she had. After what happened with Jonghyun and Jongup, her family was bound to be after her. Even though going along with Byeong joo would be dangerous, being alone would be worse because she had no idea how to hide or survive or fend for herself.

For what seemed like forever, she sat alone near the kitchen. Hei lost track of time, though she was pretty sure over an hour had passed. The feeling of distinct panic was beginning to rise in her throat when movement flashed in the corner of her eyes.

Her head snapped up as someone stormed past her.

She didn't need to see his face properly to tell that it was Byeong joo, though his hair was dripping wet and the door hadn't made a noise when he came in, which meant it was a vision. And a vision at such a time was not only useless but hindersome, though Hei still had no idea how to snap herself out of it and she cold only watch in frustration and panic as Byeong joo slammed a fist against the kitchen counter.

Someone else stepped into her line of view, and she recognized the person as Junhyuk. "Snap out of it," he said sharply. "If this is going to be the way you deal with a failure, you're never going to move on. Sometimes I wonder how the hell you even got away from Vasileia."

Byeong joo whirled on him. He looked positively livid and Hei could see blood smudged down his face. "Hyung, I might've just gotten Eunhokilled!"

"And breaking the kitchen isn't going to help any of us," Junhyuk replied in an eerily calm voice. It seemed to anger Byeong joo more. "Firstly, Eunho's possibly not dead, and secondly, you're going to calm down and think rationally."

Byeong joo took in a shuddering breath, eyes a mix between infuriated and terrified. "What are we evensupposedto do? They're going to send people after us, and Eunho is either buried under all that rubble or he's trapped there, and both just make it hopeless because you know very well that your family's guarding that place now."

A vein ticked in Junhyuk's temple. Hei was torn between wanting to snap out of the vision or continue watching it. She could've afford a distraction like this, especially because Byeong joo and Eunho would be returning at any moment, but at the same time, she couldn't deny the fact that she was curious—what exactly had happened for Byeong joo to think Eunho was dead?

She wasn't sure if it was relief or disappointment that surged through her when the words that came out of Junhyuk's mouth had no sound, and slowly, the vision began to unravel before her. It faded into oblivion, and slowly, the world began to fall in place in front of her eyes again.

She fell backwards with a shriek of surprise when she saw Byeong joo standing in front of her.

Hei probably would've completely fallen over if Byeong joo hadn't caught her around the wrist, though it still sent a horrible jolt down her arm and it felt like he'd yanked her arm out of her socket for a couple of moments. His gaze was unreadable for a long time, and Hei was too shocked to do anything except stare up at him.

He finally steadied her and released her wrist, taking a slight step to the left. Hei hadn't even realized Eunho was there also—she must've been caught in her vision when they came back.

And then she noticed the body that one of them (she was betting on Byeong joo) had dumped unceremoniously on the side of the room, near one of the sofas. There was a nasty bump on his head (she hoped he wouldn't get any head injuries from it) and he was obviously unconscious from it. Hei couldn't see his face from where she was standing, but he was probably Nam Yejun.

Byeong joo himself wasn't in the best shape either. His clothing was ripped, hair significantly messier than it was when he left the house, and there was a scratch down his arm. Eunho wasn't as roughed up as he was, though his eyes were weary.

"We're leaving," Byeong joo told her, still sounding a bit breathless. "We don't have any time to waste."

He must've caught her looking at Yejun, because he followed her gaze and then gave her his signature grin. "Sorry we don't have time for introductions. Song Hei, this is Nam Yejun. We'll give you a proper introduction when he's not out cold. And when we don't have the Kim family after our heels. Let's go."

Chapter 15

A Rude Interruption

Fitting the unconscious Nam Yejun into the box was a struggle in itself, and then loading him on the cart was even worse. Hei watched awkwardly from the sides as Byeong joo nearly dropped the box onto Eunho, who managed a couple profanities at Byeong joo. She couldn'tseeYejun and he was obviously still unconscious, but after all the times Byeong joo's grip on the box slipped accidentally, she began to feel very bad for Yejun. He was going to have more than one head injury if it went on.

Finally, they managed to get him on and Byeong joo tossed a couple of their bags on it too. Hei eyed it with some suspicion—she couldn't quite picture them gettingthatout of Ezentia without being severely judged or questioned, but neither Byeong joo or Eunho seemed to find anything odd about it and she could only follow behind as Byeong joo pushed the cart in front of him. She flinched at each jolt. She couldn't imagine how painful it was for Yejun, who was stuffed inside the box.

Byeong joo caught her staring at the box and he laughed (which Hei thought was mean, because someone was suffering inside that cramped space). "Aren't you thankful that this wasn't how I got you out of Hua?" he asked.

Hei shuddered. "Don't you feel bad for him?"

He got a rather thoughtful look on his face. "He can't feel anything at the moment, because he's out cold."

She shuddered again. "Is this how you recruit your crew members?"

Byeong joo swerved the cart, narrowing avoiding a hole in the road. The streets were completely empty then, or at least the one they were travelling down was—it was more secluded than the rest and the wheels sounded painfully loud in the otherwise silent night. Buildings loomed on each side, and while it was a lot safer sandwiched between Byeong joo and Eunho, Hei couldn't help herself from glancing around, nervous. After being inside for two days, she felt awfully exposed in the open.

"For one," Byeong joo said, "Eunho actually foundme.Jiyong did too—treated me for weeks—and yeah, we kind of did the same thing to Yano though I doubt the fight he put up was half as bad as the one Nam Yejun will when he wakes up. You were a special case, and if my memory serves correct, you weren't stuffed in a box or even knocked out. You'll be listening for days if I told you how Kim Hyunmin joined the crew, though you're agirland I don't suppose you want to hear that." He wrinkled his nose. "Actually, we agreed on never speaking about that again."

That piqued her curiosity. "What happened with Kim Hyunmin?"

"Kim Hyunmin decided our front door should be in a tavern. Does that tell you what sort of person he is?"

Hei stared at him for a moment. "No."

"You're never going to get the story out of him." Eunho grinned. "'What happens in the Sileion bath houses remains in the Sileion bath houses',according to Byeong joo. Hyunmin's sworn an oath of silence too, so even I have no idea."

She couldn't quite make out if he was joking or not, so she turned to look at Byeong joo, who had changed his expression into a very good poker face. "Why were you both at the Sileion bath houses? You're a Kim and he's a Kim, so what were you even doing?"

Byeong joo gave her a serene smile. "Secret," he chirped, and then turned a corner so abruptly that Hei thought the box containing Nam Yejun would fall off. "You don't want to know anyway."

"You probably don't," Eunho echoed, and then they lapsed into silence.

For a very long time, Hei followed Byeong joo and Eunho, though the bag strapped across her back began to feel a bit too heavy to carry and she was getting tired also. She hadn't slept at all since the previous night, and it was late and she'd been actually getting proper sleep somissingit just felt wrong now. She wasn't sure how Byeong joo was so comfortably navigating through Ezentia's streets—even if heknewthem well, how did he know every nook and cranny?

After what seemed like forever, she began to hear the sound of the sea in the distance again, gradually getting louder. As much as the thought of the black, bottomless water scared her, there was something extremely soothing listening to the unchanging noise of the waves lapping.

Byeong joo's expression brightened a bit and he turned to glance at Eunho. "Where was the boat again?"

"Outskirts," he replied. "It's between the sixth and seventh dock, and then the ship itself is docked on Gyeoul."

"The ship is docked on someplace called winter?" Hei asked.

Eunho laughed. "Ezentia has a bunch of islands surrounding it and they have the weirdest names ever. Gyeoul's a pretty secluded one, and almost no one lives on it. I still threw over an invisibility spell on the ship that'll only unravel when I get close to it. Hopefully. I think that spell should hold..."

"How far is it from here, then?"

"Depends," Byeong joo interjected in Eunho's place. "Because I'm the one who's getting us there, technically, and if the ocean is calm enough tonight, it should be less than fifteen minutes. I really don't want to fight the waves, though."

Hei didn't have the time to ask him what he meant by being the one to get them there, because Byeong joo turned one last corner and the sea was spread out in front of her.

It had been a couple days since she'd last seen it, and her last memory of it was nearly drowning in the cold, unforgiving water and she couldn't suppress the shudder that ran through.

It was still beautiful, though—the water glimmered in the moonlight, waves moving at a steady, unchanging pace towards the shore. She could see the reflection of the moon on the water, a bit larger than a clear-cut half and Hei found herself freezing as she stared at the unending expanse of water in front of her. She only snapped out of it when Byeong joo tapped her shoulder gently. "Let's go," he said in a quiet voice. "We don't have too much time to spare at this point."

The next ten or so minutes was spent walking on a trail next to the shoreline that was covered with sand and not very well maintained. She was beginning to wonder if Nam Yejun was evenalivein the box when Byeong joo stopped.

Hei nearly crashed into his back. "What are you doing?" she managed out, though his gaze had turned to the sea and it was obvious what he was looking at.

"Between dock six and dock seven," Byeong joo announced proudly. "All aboard the ship!"

She followed the direction he was pointing and then squinted at the small rowboat that had been turned over on the beach. It wasn'ttoosmall, technically, though she had a hard time imagining how they were to fit the box with Nam Yejun, her, EunhoandByeong joo inside. Besides, there weren't even oars. What was a rowboat with something to row it with?

"Isn't the island fifteen minutes away?" Hei asked, dumbfounded. "How are we going to get there on that thing? That's at least a mile or so, isn't it? You don't even have oars, and even if you did, there's no way you're going to be rowing on sea with them."

Byeong joo wiggled his fingers at her. "You're forgetting me." He dropped the handles of the cart. "Eunho, help me with this. Hei…" He hesitated. "Can you try to turn the boat over so we can get Yejun inside?"

Hei followed his gaze to the boat, which was down on the sand. She didn't particularly want to get on, though that definitely wasn't a choice. There was no way to avoid being on sea again, but the thought of being on a small rowboat in the midst of waves and miles and miles of water all around them was a bit disconcerting. Even with the knowledge that Byeong joo could control water, she still didn't quite feel safe.

"Well?" Byeong joo asked. "The boat's a bit heavy, but I think you'll be able to flip it around."

She glanced one last time at the sea, gulped, and then clambered down towards the beach and tried to ignore the feeling of sand beneath her feet. It was horribly uncomfortable walking on it because it sunk underneath her feet when it wasn't wet, and then when she got closer to the water, the sand starting sticking to her feet and Hei fought the tremendous urge to tell Byeong joo to do the job.

By the time she reached the boat, there was dry sand inside her shoes and wet sand sticking to it on the outside and a cold wind was beginning to pick up. Teeth chattering, she bent down and wedged her hands under one of the sides. The feeling of the wet sand sticking to her hands was absolutely vile and Heihatedit, so with all her strength, she lifted the side of the boat in an hopeful attempt to get it over with.

It wasn't as heavy as she expected, but that didn't mean itwasn'theavy and she nearly dropped the side of the boat again (which would've been tragic, because her fingers would've been crushed). She managed to turn it over in the end with the help of her foot and kicking it, and it fell with an extremely loud thump that made her flinch. She shook off the sand from her hands and attempted to kick it off her shoes as best she could.

Eunho and Byeong joo were hauling the Nam Yejun Box down with them when she looked back to check, though this time they didn't drop it. She made room for them as they dropped it into the center of the rowboat.

Byeong joo dusted his hands off on his pant legs and whistled. "I think we can call this mission successful."

Eunho nudged the boat with the toe of his shoe. "That's never a good thing to say when the mission hasn't been accomplished yet," he chastised. "Hei, get on the front. Let's go."

She ended up sitting at the front of the boat, holding her extremely-heavy backpack on her lap. Between her and Eunho was the box (Eunho had unscrewed one of the wooden seats, apparently, to be able to fit Yejun) and at the very end was Byeong joo. He pushed the rowboat into the water until the water was up to his knees and then he hopped on.

Hei still hadn't quite wrapped her mind around how the boat was going to be moving without sails or oars because she'd never quite seen Byeong joo use his power and she wasn't sure how far it extended, so it came as a shock when the boat jolted forward seemingly on its own and began to glide over the ocean's surface smoothly. She glanced back at Byeong joo, though his gaze was fixed on the water and he looked like he was concentrating. Her hair whipped around wildly in the wind, which was getting stronger because of the speed they were going at.

"East," Eunho called back at Byeong joo, though his voice sounded a lot fainter than it should've been because of the wind. "Gyeoul's more to the east."

The boat swerved so suddenly that Hei thought she was going to be thrown into the water. She turned back to complain, though Byeong joo just gave her a grin that didn't look very apologetic.

"Sorry," he said, obviously not sorry.

She scowled at him and turned her attention back to in front of her.

It was mesmerizing watching the water beneath them, and despite the fear that was never quite gone, Hei found herself tracing the ripples that were formed from the front of the boat cutting through the waves. It was too dark for her to see much in front of them—the lantern Eunho had wasn't much use—but Byeong joo seemed to have a pretty clear idea where he was navigating the boat.

Around ten minutes later, with no islands in sight, Hei's teeth were really beginning to chatter. The dress she was wearing was nowherenearenough to keep her warm, especially with the chilly ocean wind buffeting against her. She also got a strange thought along the way of Nam Yejun waking up and breaking out of the box and it was plain scary.

She turned to look at Eunho. "H-how much longer?" she managed out.

He squinted. "I can't see anything, but maybe… soon?"

That wasn't very reassuring, and Hei was torn between hugging herself to keep warm and keeping both her hands on the side of the boat for extra security. She wanted to curl up in a ball under the seat to keep warm, butthatwasn't going to happen anytime soon, especially in front of Eunho and Byeong joo.

She nearly sobbed in relief when Byeong joo announced in a quiet voice that he could sense the island, though Hei was pretty sure tears would freeze on her face if she were to cry. Thirty seconds later she could see the the outline of land against the water, though it was fuzzy in the darkness. The first thing she was going to do when they got onto the ship was to change into warmer clothing, provided that she'd been smart enough to pack that.

Eunho shifted in his seat, which made the boat tilt dangerously. Hei tightened her grip on the sides. She heard him muttering something about the ship being on the other side of the island, and then the boat sped up again.

Hua wasn't nearly as cold as Ezentia was at night—at least, she didn't think it was, but she'd never been outside in Hua (at least not properly)—and neither did it have such a strong wind. It had been cold the day she'd left with Byeong joo, though that had been the only time that Hei had really been outside of the city. It was painfully ironic when she thought back: she'd been living in Hua for the full twenty years of her life yet she'd walked through the streets of Ezentia, which she'd stayed at for three days, more than Hua. It brought a wave of bitter homesickness that Hei felt angry at herself for feeling. She really had no home back then, so there was nothing to miss.

Except she did miss it. Even if she hated how she'd spent every day back in Hua, there was still a feel of familiarity there that she wanted back. Sheknewwhat every day would be, even if she didn't necessarily want it to be like that. She'd come to terms with the fact that she wasn't going to get anywhere, that her family didn't need someone like her just in time for Kim Byeong joo to whisk her off her feet and completely demolish everything she believed in.

Maybe it was the expectations that Byeong joo had of her. It had literally gone from zero to a hundred in the matter of hours, and Hei hadn't quite recovered from the whiplash of that yet. She wondered if she ever would.

Byeong joo's voice broke her from her thoughts. He had stood up on the boat then, balanced precariously on his seat as he scanned his surroundings. Hei wanted to tell him that they'd all hold him accountable if the boat overturned, though she didn't want to speak either.

"Eunho," he finally said. "Mind undoing the invisibility spell and sending up a flare so we can see?"

Eunho gave Byeong joo another one of his mock salutes before turning throwing something up into the air. "Don't look!" he warned Hei, though it fell to deaf ears because she followed the direction of whatever he threw.

A moment later, she was blinded for at least ten seconds as the air flared up painfully bright in the darkness. Even when her vision began to clear, black dots remained splattered across her vision.

The night had been lit up, though—the spot above them where Eunho had thrown something was bright, the brightness reflecting on the waves. It was also enough to illuminate the giant ship in front of them that Hei had somehow missed.

She felt her jaw drop.

It was a lot different from the one they sailed to Ezentia in—obviously designed more for speed while that one had been for passengers and space. The flare of light that Eunho had sent wasn't bright enough for her to see all of the ship, but still, she could only stare as Byeong joo guided the rowboat closer to it.

The sails were tied up and the ship itself was anchored, though it still looked… well, it looked majestic, and Hei couldn't quite find another word to properly describe it. There was something different about the ship compared to others she'd seen, and maybe her thinking was biased because it was Byeong joo's ship, but there was something about it that stood out to her as something dangerous. And while she couldn't physically connect them in terms of looks, there was also something about it that reminded her of Byeong joo's cutlass.

They were drawing extremely close to the ship by then, getting further and further from the flare that Eunho had thrown when the boat was pulled to a sudden halt. Hei was thrown forward violently, nearly falling off the boat and bumping her arm painfully on the sharp edge of the side, managing a faint noise of pain.

Behind her, she heard Byeong joo curse, and then before any of them could do anything or before he could say anything, a wave of water crashed over the rowboat.

Hei's first thought was panic the moment the cold, unrelenting water touched her, and when she tried to gasp for breath, the only thing she got was a mouthful of water. The boat had definitely overturned and for a couple of terrifying seconds, she had no idea which direction was up and the ocean tore at her mercilessly. She clung onto her bag, torn between letting it sink and fighting her way to the surface and keeping it because it was all that she had left of her belongings.

The undercurrents weren't nearly as strong as they were the last time around, though she was still panicking when she managed to flounder her way to the surface and gasp a breath of air. Hei could see Eunho somewhere near her, though he looked like he was having trouble keeping afloat. He was holding someone in his arms, and Hei caught a brief glimpse of Nam Yejun's face in the dark. Drenched hair clung to his forehead as he paddled over, and it took all of her energy and concentration to keep her head above the water.

"What happened?" Hei managed out, sputtering from the mouthful of seawater she'd swallowed. It was disgustingly salty. She needed to cough it out properly, though she wasn't sure if she could stay afloat at the same time and cough. "Where's Byeong joo?"

Eunho's eyebrows drew together and he couldn't quite hide the flash of worry from his face. "He disappeared underwater. Can you swim over to the ship? There's a ladder on the side to climb up on, and I think… I think you'll be safer on deck."

Hei scanned the waters around her. Byeong joo was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Byeong joo?" she repeated.

"Don't worry about him," Eunho replied tensely. "Focus on getting onto the ship. Byeong joo's in his home territory right now and he fights best surrounded by water. Just focus on getting to the ship."

Hei didn't point out that he'd lost half his crew when they were on water, his "home territory", and instead struggled towards the ship. It wasn't easy fighting the waves and she had to swallow her heart that was pounding in her throat and panic was threatening to overwhelm her. She absolutelyhatedthe feeling of her clothes sticking to her skin, she hated justbeingin the water and it frightened her to no ends. By the time she had reached the side of the ship, Hei was gasping for breath and itching to have solid land beneath her feet.

She barely had one hand on the side ladder when the water exploded around fifty feet behind her. The safest route would've been to scramble up the ladder like Eunho had instructed, but the only thing she could do was freeze.

The flare that Eunho had thrown was beginning to die down, though it wasn't hard to make out the figure that wasstandingabove the waves, completely drenched in water and the recognizable shape of the curved blade of his cutlass in his hand. The fading remains of light seemed to reflect on the water dripping off Byeong joo, though the one part Hei couldn't bring her gaze away from was the glint in his eyes, something that even the gleam of his cutlass couldn't parallel.

Not more than a couple feet away from Byeong joo, someone else stood, a much larger, heavier sword in his hands. She didn't recognize his face, though behind her, she heard Eunho draw in a short breath of shock and perhaps worry.

The intruder leveled his sword towards Byeong joo's neck, though Hei saw the tip of it shaking. His voice was also trembling when he spoke, but it sounded more like it was out of suppressed anger than fear. His whole body was tense and his expression was downright murderous. Hei suppressed a shudder.

"Byeong joo," he hissed, and she saw said man's scowl widen into an almost taunting expression. "Give me my brother back before I kill you."

Byeong joo followed his movements and lifted his cutlass. In the moonlight, there was something that was even scarier about his faint smile than the threat of the other man. He shifted his stance on the water. "Han Noah," he acknowledged and then his smile widened. "I'd like to see you try."

Chapter 16

Setting Sail

"Go up," Eunho said in a tense voice behind her. "That's Han Noah. I have my fingers crossed that Byeong joo's power over water is stronger than his, but I don't think it's safe for either of us to be in the sea right now. And he's here for Nam Yejun."

Hei's hands felt numb with cold and she was shivering, though it wasn't just from the freezing water. It took all of her self control to rip her gaze away from Byeong joo and Noah and to turn her attention to the ladder at the side of the ship. She unclenched a hand from the first bar and reached for the second, though she couldn't help but glance back one more time at Byeong joo's direction.

Neither he nor Noah had moved from the spot where they were standing, though Byeong joo's eyes were flashing with concentration, knuckles white around his cutlass. Another hurried reminder from Eunho made her rip her gaze away and pull herself up the ladder.

The cold sea wind hit her the moment she got out, and Hei nearly froze from the cold. If she thought the water was bad, beingoutsideof it was worse. She could barely move.

"Song Hei," Eunho reminded.

"R-right." Her teeth chattered as she wrapped her hand around a higher ladder rung. "Sorry."

After what seemed like a painful amount of time, Hei had managed to haul herself over the railing onto the deck of the ship. She was completely drenched, hair hanging in wet, sticky strands and shaking uncontrollably. The fear from being in the water hadn't died down yet, and as cold as Hei felt, the first thing she did was look in the direction of Byeong joo and Noah.

Eunho climbed over the side, looking bedraggled and exhausted, dragging a limp Nam Yejun with him. The flash of worry that passed his face wasn't missed, though Hei figured it was best if she didn't comment on it.

She couldn'tseeanything that was happening around Byeong joo and Noah, but there was no way anyone could miss the tension in the air. Eunho swore once behind her, and he scrambled to his feet and stumbled to the railing next to her.

"Han Noah's powerful," he muttered, half to himself. "I haven't seen anyone that could parallel Byeong joo's power with water or even be anywhere close on his level, but Noah's holding up better than most."

Hei couldn't stop her teeth from chattering. "What are they doing? Having a staring contest?"

Eunho's voice was tense. "Both of them are trying to overpower the other. Byeong joo's told you about his power, right? He's strongest when it comes to water and air, and I don't think he's ever met anyone that could beat him in those two elements. He has some control over earth and fire too, but water…" His brows scrunched. "He's being stupid right now."

The waves rippled underneath Byeong joo. "He's what?"

"Being an absolute idiot," Eunho repeated. "He's too prideful to resort to using another element, even though he could finish Han Noah off in a couple seconds if he used air. He's wasting time and energy trying to outdo him with water."

Hei followed his gaze to where Byeong joo was. There was still the half-smile hanging on his lips, though it wasn't the same frequency as before. He'd been taunting Noah last time, but this wasn't the same. Byeong jooknewhe couldn't afford to fool around, and that worried Hei.

"He's stronger than Noah, right?"

Eunho gave a hopeless shrug. "I don't know the extent of Han Noah's power. Byeong joo should be if he stops being a stubborn idiot—"

It was almost too fast for Hei to catch, but behind Byeong joo, a wave of water rose. She was screaming a warning at him as soon as it clicked in her head that he was in danger, though she was too late—the water had risen higher and then abruptly crashed down on him, all in less than two seconds.

She could barely register Eunho's grip around her arm and his voice telling her to stay still. There was a feeling of sheer terror when the waves settled down, and the only figure left on the water was Noah, both hands still clenched around his sword. His eyes flickered around him, stance still wary, though Byeong joo was nowhere to be seen. It was as if the wave of water from before had completely swallowed him.

Hei was completely unsure why such panic had risen when Byeong joo had disappeared. She'd known him for around a week, and a couple days ago, she would've saidgood riddanceif Han Noah had drowned him. She wasn't particularly close to him—evenacquaintancesseemed like a bit too strong a word, so she couldn't quite explain the feeling of terror that was rapidly draining into her. Still, in the back of her mind, the reason was clear.

Byeong joo provided security. He was a source of power, a certainty that she couldn't find before growing up, and for that, he meant a lot more than just anacquaintance.It definitely wasn't a mutual feeling, but at the same time, Hei didn't want to let go of it.

The seawater was dark under Noah, waves rippling in a uniform motion with no sign of Byeong joo. Hei desperately hoped he was still there somewhere—he couldn't drown, technically—but whatifNoah's power had trumped his? He couldn't reach air when he was under the sea, nor was there fire or earth.

She turned to look at Eunho. "Do something," she managed at him.

Eunho frowned at the sea. "Han Noah would be going for the two of us to get his brother back if Byeong joo was really defeated. He's still waiting for something because he's uncertain."

Barely a couple of seconds passed since the sentence left Eunho's mouth when the water behind Noah exploded.

Beside her, Eunho muttered something along the lines ofshow offunder his breath and Hei watched in surprise as the water spiralled upwards, the pattern a lot different from before. Han Noah had whirled around, alarmed, though there was a slight hesitance in his movements; fear.

"Water and air," she managed out. "He's combining both."

The half-grin on his face had morphed into a full out smile. Byeong joo's stance had completely shifted, and he took a casual step towards Noah, the water behind him following his movements, a swirling vortex of barely-contained turbulence. He spun the blade in his hands idly, though his eyes were burning.

"He's probably mad at being forced under the water like that," Eunho grumbled. "But God, did he really have to do that?"

Hei squinted at the scene in front of them. "Why isn't Noah moving?"

"Byeong joo!" Eunho yelled instead, and she started in surprise. Byeong joo's gaze snapped towards them. "We have to leave."

If she looked closely, she could see Noah trembling as Byeong joo neared, though it was more out of anger and concentration than actual fear. She wasn't what was holding him in place, but he was obviously unable to move at all. There seemed to be an invisible force that was slowly forcing his sword arm down, and he was straining hard to fight it. Still, it was clear as day that Byeong joo had gained the upperhand.

"Pity." His voice was startlingly loud. "It's been a while since I've seen someone with such strong control over water or even met someone who was a formidable match."

Noah's jaw tightened, whole body shaking. "I'm going tokillyou."

Byeong joo grinned down at him. "Brave last words, Han Noah."

"People like you will never get what you want," he spat back. "The families—"

"Youknow anything about the families?" Hei watched in slight horror as he raised his cutlass. "If you really did, you'd know that every single one of them arescum."

His arm went downward and Hei flinched away, turning her head to the other side and cringing. She knew Byeong joo had killed both Jonghyun and Jongup and she'd beenthere,but she hadn't exactly seen it. A lot of others had probably died by his hands, but still—seeing it and hearing it were two extremely different things. She caught a glimpse of Nam Yejun when she turned back, who Eunho had left on the wooden deck, drenched but still unconscious. A wave of guilt swept over her.

Noah had come for him, she realized—they were brothers, and possibly full siblings. Hei couldn't rememberanyonelike that in her life who would've care about her if she'd disappeared, much less anyone who would come after her. And after that thought, she felt terrible for Noah all of a sudden.

She turned to the railing again, about to ask if it were possible that Byeong joo didn't kill him, but there was already no sign of him or Noah on the waters. She blinked, half wondering if she'd missed him, and then his head appeared over the railing from where the ladder was.

Eunho steadied her when she stumbled backwards in surprise, and then Byeong joo hauled a body over the ladder with him and Hei nearly fainted.

He was dripping water all over the deck, which bothered Hei more than it should've. There was no visible blood on Han Noah when she looked at him, and she hadn't exactly caught where Byeong joo had brought down his cutlass. Still dumbstruck, Hei remained in the same spot as Byeong joo wrung out his wet clothing. Water splattered onto the wooden deck.

The wind seemed to have intensified, and an extremely cold gust passed by the deck and she shivered. Her dress was completely soaked, hair messed up and sticking to her face and clothing. The water had also begun to puddle beneath her—in fact, there were dark patches of water around all five of them.

"What's wrong?" Byeong joo tilted his head at her. "You looked scared."

Hei opened her mouth, shut it, opened it again and tried to formulate a response. Was he joking with her, or was he genuinely confused why she felt and probably looked terrified?

"You could'vedied,"she managed, though her voice was a lot shakier than she expected it to be. "Forget you, we all could've died, and I don't… I don't…"

"It's nothing new. I had it under control this time, though." He scanned her, then his eyes drifted to Eunho. "He'll show you to your cabin. I think we should set sail soon, before the Kim family finds out that their best scribe is missing."

She glanced one more time at the unmoving shape of Han Noah on the ground, and Byeong joo followed her gaze. He was still breathing, which meant Byeong joo hadn't landed any sort of fatal blow, though his complexion looked awfully pale in the light of the moon. His sword had disappeared.

"He's not dead," Byeong joo supplied helpfully. "I whacked him with the hilt of my cutlass."

"Why?"

"He's too useful to kill." He said it casually, though there was a calculating glint in his eyes when he spoke. "You probably want to get settled down in your cabin, though. We'll be setting off in a couple of minutes."

When Hei sorted through the backpack she'd gotten from Eunho, all the clothes she'd packed inside were wet.

The only ones that had remained relatively dry were undergarments because Hei had wrapped all her clothes in a ball and those were in the middle, but they were still damp to the touch. She spread everything out on the bed in front of her, and they ranged from soaked to just cold to the touch. None of them seemed really wearable, though. With a choice between only having undergarments to wear and walking around with wet clothing, she would've gone with the latter any day.

She sat back on the bed. There was so much that had happened that night—she wanted to ask Byeong joo or Eunho about the vision she'd seen just before they left Ezentia, there was Nam Yejun and then Han Noah, and lastly, they had set sail again. Hei wasn't quite too sure how she even felt about it. Being on sea wasn't her first choice, but at the moment, the waters were smooth and they were moving forward at such a calming pace that she didn't mind it too much.

The cabin was a bit smaller than Junhyuk's room had been, though it was snug and home-like. There was a bed pushed to one corner, a wardrobe on the other side, a washing stand next to that and then a wooden chair. It was a lot warmer than the outside had been, though Hei was still shivering, especially when the adrenaline had drained out of her. She wondered if she could leave all her clothes to dry and then roll herself in blankets, though it didn't seem like a smart option.

She was still trying to figure out what to do when two knocks sounded on her door and then it swung open. Byeong joo came in with a hand over his eyes.

"Tell me you're not changing," he said.

It would've been a nice gesture if he hadn't already been peeking through the cracks of his fingers. Hei nearly tossed one of the wet dresses at him, though she told herself that he wasn't worth the effort.

"You can already see," she snapped at him, and Byeong joo took his hand away and grinned, not looking the least bit guilty.

"Caught me," he said breezily, then took a larger step inside the room and nudged the door shut a bit more behind him. He was holding what looked like clothes in his other hand and seemed to have changed out of the wet clothing, though his hair still sent droplets of water running down his shirt. "The boat kind of tilted over and I realized your clothes are probably all drenched. They should be wearable next morning, though."

Hei blinked at him as he extended an arm out. "Who's clothing is that?"

He rolled his eyes at her. "Mine, but it's one hundred percent clean, in case that's what you're worried about. Eunho told me you really like neat."

"Are they actually clean?"

Byeong joo snorted. "Yes, they are. It's probably too big on you because you're shorter than I am, but it should be fine just until your clothing dries."

Hei held up the shirt he'd given her. It was a greyish color, nothing fancy, though it was soft to the touch and, most of all, dry. She felt oddly touched at the gesture—it was considerate, and while sheknewByeong joo paid attention to details, it still felt undeniably nice that hecared.

"Thank you," Hei mumbled, though she wasn't sure if he could even hear her. "I really… well…"

Byeong joo waved it off with an airy hand. "You should probably rest," he reminded her. "Eunho and I will probably be steering the ship tonight, and there shouldn't be much happening." His eyes crinkled. "I can give you a proper introduction to Nam Yejun tomorrow morning if he doesn't bite my head off first when he wakes up. Goodnight."

He slipped out the door just like that, and Hei was left alone in her room again, the clothing that Byeong joo had given her still on her lap. She sat still on the bed for a while, and then finally when she realized it was no use attempting to think everything through, changed into the t-shirt and pants. She curled up under the blankets fifteen minutes, and surprising, despite the rocking of the boat and the turbulence of her thoughts, was asleep before her head hit the pillow.

Hei woke up the next morning with the ship jolting underneath her, and bleary-eyed and still sleepy, she sat up slowly and tried to blink away sleep. She was still in Byeong joo's clothing (which had the faint after-scent of soap), though the pant legs had unrolled themselves and were so long that she almost tripped over them when she stood up. The shirt had obviously been designed for someone with wider shoulders, because the sleeves almost came up to her elbows and she felt extremely small in it.

Most of the dresses weren't completely dry yet, so Hei attempted to roll up the pant legs again and made her way out of her room, drowning in Byeong joo's clothing. She nearly tripped over the pants twice as she climbed up the stairs to above deck.

Three people were already standing there, and she froze at the doorway.

Technically, there were two peoplestanding—Byeong joo and Eunho, and then Nam Yejun, who'd been tied to one of the foremast. She felt sorry for him—first he'd been knocked out and stuffed into a box, and now he was tied to a wooden pole.

It wasn't nearly as cold in the morning as it had been the previous night, and when Hei looked around her, there was nothing but an unending stretch of sea, the glittering blue surroudningevery side. The sails had been unfurled so that they caught the wind and the ship was heading forward at a decent pace.

Byeong joo was the first one who caught sight of her. He'd been facing Nam Yejun before, though he turned in her direction when she pushed open the wooden door.

He gave her a quick scan, surprisecrossing his face. Hei wondered if it were because she was still wearing what he gave her. "Morning," he greeted cheerfully. "You and Yejun here woke up around the same time."

Hei supposed they did, though Yejun definitely didn't look like he wanted to be there. In fact, she was pretty sure he would try to strangle Byeong joo if someone untied him.

She neared the group cautiously. Eunho was leaning against the railing with his arms crossed, and he gave her a slight nod of acknowledgement. Yejun turned to fix his glare at her, looking as threatening as anyone could tied up to a mast (which he wasn't doing bad at—if looks could kill, all three of them would be dead by then).

Hei stared back at him.

Now, with proper lighting, he didn't look like much. He was fairly slim, with piercing eyes and sharp features. There was the visible bump on his templewhere either Byeong joo or Eunho had hit him, which looked raather nasty. Hei spent a couple more moments sizing him up, though the longer she met his eyes the more unnerved she felt—it was almost as if he were taking her apart as he looked at her, bit by bit, piece by piece, and it was awfully vulnerable feeling. She was shivering when she finally managed to rip her gaze away to look at Byeong joo instead.

"Nam Yejun," he was saying. "This is Song Hei. Hei, this is Yejun, though he's not speaking much. I think he's mad at me."

"Song?" Yejun croaked, and all three of them turned to look at him. His voice cracked and he sounded like he was in desperate need for water. "You're unbelievable. You have a girl from the Song family?" He squinted at her. "She just turned twenty, too."

Hei's jaw dropped. "How did you know?"

The glare she got in return told her she wasn't going to get an answer out of him anytime soon.

"Clairvoyance," Byeong joo filled in helpfully. "He can see things like that. Or it just comes to him. I'm not too sure how it works."

"I can't see you, though." Yejun sneered at him. "Did you spellcaster friend obscur you on purpose? I should've expected that much from a coward."

Byeong joo looked completely unruffled. "I don't particularly want someone to read me just by looking at me. It's just a precautionary thing."

"What do you want, then?" He tried the robes around his wrists, though they had been tied extremely tight. "Trying to recruit new members because your past ones are dead?"

"Ouch," Byeong joo replied emotionlessly. "I heard rumours that you were blunt, but damn, you're blunt."

"What do you want?" Yejun repeated, a vein in his jaw ticking. "Don't I get some sort of explanation after everything you've done to me?"

Hei couldn't help but feel sorry for Yejun. Despite the hostility he was radiating, there was still visible fear behind his eyes, though she couldn't blame him for that. There was something about the casualty of Byeong joo that just made him scarier. She'd spent the first couple of days second-guessing everything he didbecause of the casual front.

"Well?" Yejun prompted.

Byeong joo stretched out his other hand. "I want you to read this and then explain it to me."

Yejun's eyes flickered down to the leather bound book that he held, eyebrows furrowing, and for the first time since Hei had seen him, his expression melted into surprise and then finally gave way to anger.

"You stole this," he hissed. "This was from my family's archives."

"Glad you recognize it."

The ropes strained as Yejun tugged on them more violently, and Hei was pretty sure he would try to attack Byeong joo if he got free. "A murderer and a thief," he spat. "I expected as much from you. You can do whatever you want but I'm not going to be helping you understand anything, and certainly not about some mythical gate."

Hell's Gate. So that was what it had been about.

"You know it's not mythical," Byeong joo replied calmly, though he didn't seem like he was joking around anymore. "And both you and I know that. I want the directions to that place, and you're going to help me get it."

"I said I'm not helping—"

"I knew you'd say that." Byeong joo took another step towards Yejun, though his demeanor had completely changed. Casual mask gone, replaced by barely concealed anger."You don't want to help me for free? Sure. How about if you do it for your brother's life?"

The color drained out of Yejun's face scarily fast. Byeong joo held his ground firmly. "Han Noah caused quite the disturbance last night trying to get to you." When Yejun didn't respond, Byeong joo tilted his head. "Do you want me to go down and get him for you? Do you need proof?"

"You're not lying," Yejun murmured, almost half to himself, eyes flickering down before he raised his head again. His eyes were burning. "You're a fucking bastard, you know? How many people before have you killed just to achieve what you want? Holding Noah for ransom is justlow."

"I take it that you're going to be reading through that book, then?"

Yejun was shaking. "What's going to stop me from ripping up the book to shreds?"

Byeong joo dropped the book at Yejun's feet, shifting his weight. "Your brother's life," he said simply. "Eunho, let's go. There's a couple of things I have to sort out first." Before he turned away, Hei caught a glint in his eyes, something bitter, angry, and she realized that Yejun's words hadn't exactly bounced off him like he'd made it seem. "Untie him this afternoon."

He brushed past her without another word, disappearing around the ship, and Eunho followed, frowning. "You might want to grab some food for the morning," he told her before he disappeared after Byeong joo too.

Chapter 17

Companion

Hei was about to follow Eunho and Byeong joo to wherever they were headed, but before she could move, Nam Yejun spoke up.

"What are you doing here?"

She froze, going through her choices and trying to decide whether or not he was worth listening to. He didn't prove much threat, especially since he was tied to the mast and unable to do something, but she also couldn't quite shake off the cold feeling that had passed through when she'd met his eyes for the first time. It was like he was taking her apart piece by piece simply by looking at her, and Heihatedfeeling vulnerable. She knew it was part of his power—that had been why he was able to tell her age without being told it—and that was more or less the reason she was hesitant to even speak up in front of him. He had been able to tell in an instance that Byeong joo was telling the truth; speaking to someone like that was frankly quite overwhelming. She wished that she could have whatever spell Eunho had put on Byeong joo cast on her too.

"Song Hei," he repeated. "Are you going to run away like Byeong joo too?"

Hei gnawed on her bottom lip, trying to swallow the anxiety, before turning around to face him.

He wasn't threatening at all when she looked at him—around Byeong joo's height, but Byeong joo was more built, probably because he was a fighter. Nam Yejun definitely wasn't. His skin was pale from time spent in the archives, features sharp and eyes intense as he stared at her. Byeong joo's expression was always guarded, and Hei knew—but Yejun was at another level. It wasn't that she couldn't read him—there was just that overwhelming feeling when shedidlook at him.

"He's not usually that bad," she blurted, taking a small step towardsYejun.

"Oh?" He scanned her up and down, gaze scrutinizing. "Why areyouin his crew?"

Hei glanced down at her clothing, though it didn't quite click in her head just yet. "Well," she began. "I'm not too sure, exactly, but—"

And then it hit her that she was currently wearing Byeong joo's clothing, and her face went beetroot faster than she knew it could. "It's notthat,"she sputtered, scandalized. "Your brother capsized us last night and I had no dry clothing."

Yejun raised an eyebrow at her. "You're not lying."

"I'm not," she exclaimed, still mortified.

Now that Yejun wasn't exactly using his power on her, Hei found herself relaxing slightly. He didn't seem half as hostile with her as he had been from Byeong joo, and she had her fingers crossed that it was because he was somehow able to tell that whatever happened with Noah wasn't exactly her fault. Nor was it Byeong joo's, exactly—she had come to the point where she couldseethe logic behind his actions. While had hadn't shown it, Byeong joowasdesperate to get what he wanted, and she couldn't blame his decision of using Han Noah as blackmail no matter how terrible she felt for him and Yejun. It was better than killing him, anyways.

"So what are you doing here?" Yejun tilted his head at her. "I don't recall ever hearing about a girl in his crew, and one from the Song family no less."

She tugged at the hem of Byeong joo's shirt self consciously, wishing she could change back to her own clothes. "I really… still don't know yet. I was in the same situation as you a week ago."

He raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "I'm not the only one who was knocked out and thrown into a box?"

Hei shook her head, feeling more and more flustered at each word. "Kidnapped. Except…" She winced, trying to look for the best way to phrase it without offending Yejun. "Except he was nicer about it."

Yejun tried his wrists again on the rope, though it remained as firm as before, and he gave a short sigh. "Figures, you're a girl. But I can't believe I ended up here too."

He was sounding a lot more… toned down than before, so Hei moved a couple steps closer. She had a feeling that it was going to end up being a long conversation, which she didn't exactly mind. Yejun had been snappish before, but even with the wariness in his expression, it was still a breath of fresh air talking to someone in a similar situation. Or somewhat similiar.

"You know," she said quietly. "It might be a bit hard to believe, but he's not really that bad. I… my family would've killed me if I hadn't gone with him, and he's treated me better than they ever have."

Yejun's eyes steeled. "I didn't ask for your opinion."

She flinched back. "Sorry," Hei managed automatically.

The same feeling from before began creeping up, when she first met his eyes, and involuntarily, Hei took a shaky step back. She didn't want Nam Yejun—in fact, she didn't wantanyone—digging around with information on her, whether it be knowledge or memories or emotions—and that was exactly what it felt like Yejun was going through. She was about to ask him to stop or simply leave when he cocked his head at her, a spark of interest begin to light in his eyes.

"You're interesting," he announced, like a verdict being passed. "You're different from those two. I can't see anything on either Byeong joo or Eunho because they have concealing spells, but for you…" He drifted off. "There's just a lot about you. But you're sincere and that makes life a lot easier for me. I hate trying to read through lies."

"Read through?" She blinked at him. "How does your power work?"

He attempted to shrug, though it didn't exactly go well with the rope around his shoulders. "If I concentrate hard, I can sort of see through people. I knew general information on you when I saw you—I kind of just… know it, but some other things are different. It's hard to describe because it's not a power that people can physically sense or see."

"I can sense it," she replied. "It feels like you're prying through me."

The spark of interest in his eyes grew. "You can?"

"Am I not supposed to?"

"No one's ever told me they could," Yejun replied. "I can normally read through people without them noticing, though I suppose that's why you were looking away when I first saw you. But that's odd. I never thought anyone would be able to actuallyfeelit. What exactly does it feel like?"

He was getting a lot more talkative than Hei had expected, especially compared to before, and the initial anger had completely evaporated by then. It wasn't a bad change per say, but she was beginning to feel a little overwhelmed.

"I'm not too sure," she began. "It feels… it's kind of uncomfortable, like you're trying to see into me and you're digging through too much. It makes my head hurt if you go at it too long."

Yejun was silent for a couple of moments, and then finally, he frowned. "What's your power?"

Hei was beginning to get tired of her answers being something along the lines ofI don't know,but she repeated the three words to Yejun nevertheless because it was the truth and something told her lying in front of him was a stupid idea. She reallydidn'tknow what her power was exactly—all she knew was that she could see snippets of the past, but even that confused her.

He raised an eyebrow. "You were with your family until a week ago?"

Hei nodded.

"And you don't know what your power is?"

She nodded again.

Yejun looked like he couldn't formulate any sort of response for a while, and then finally, shook his head. "I can't believe this," he mumbled. "I'm dreaming. I'm currently tied to the mast of Byeong joo's ship, I have to translate a book that's at least five centuries old for him because he has my brother locked up somewhere on this ship and he has some girl from the Song family in his crew who doesn't know her power. Today was supposed to be a normal day for me."

Hei figured it was a good thing that he couldn't read Byeong joo at the moment, because it seemed like all the information was already too much to handle. He'd probably lose it if he knew Byeong joo was a Kim. And if he found out he was the Kim family's dead prodigy...

Then she wondered if Nam Yejun could read her thoughts, because that would mean she had basically revealed everything to him. She repeated the question to him.

"Can't," he replied immediately, "When it comes to people, I receive basic information on them—I justknowwhen I see them, I can tell truth from lies, and if I try hard enough, I can pick up their emotions and some other small things. But mind reading isn't part of my power. I also can't see things if they're concealed, like Byeong joo and Eunho were—it's like a block obscuring my power."

She let out an involuntary breath of relief. Miyeon had been a mind reader (though she hadn't known until Byeong joo had told her), and the thought of someone being able to know exactly what she was thinking was extremely disturbing.

"Relieved?" Yejun raised an eyebrow at her, and when Hei flinched, his expression softened. "I won't pry, don't worry." Then he frowned. "Do you know when Byeong joo is going to let me down? It's horridly uncomfortable here and I think he's established the fact that I can't do anything except follow his orders unless I want my brother dead."

There was no way she could miss the hint of bitterness in his voice. Hei decided to convince him some other time that Byeong joo wasn't so bad. "I'm not too sure," she said cautiously. "He said this afternoon, but I guess I could talk to him…"

Yejun opened his mouth to respond, and at that moment, footsteps sounded and Hei's head snapped in the direction they'd sounded from.

Byeong joo rounded the corner she'd last seen him disappearing, and she shot straight up, feeling a bit guilty for an unbeknownst reason. There was nothing she'd done wrong, yet at the same time, Hei jolted in surprise, feeling as if she'd been caught red-handed in something.

He raised an eyebrow at her when he saw her. "I thought you were going to get breakfast with us?"

Hei glanced at Yejun one last time. His expression had turned back to guarded, eyebrows drawing together, and Byeong joo didn't seem to mind at all that he didn't look welcomed. "Song Hei, let's go."

"We're talking," Yejun replied sharply. "I know pirates aren't known for being polite, but you know basic manners at least, don't you?"

"Calling me names wasn't the epitome of polite either, Nam Yejun," Byeong joo replied, a glint appearing in his eyes. "So I wouldn't be speaking if I were you."

"I don't know how you pirates do things, but tying someone to the mast and threatening them with their brother's life isn't the way you get someone to help you."

"Then you tell me." Byeong joo took a step forward, swinging his cutlass between his fingers, eyes intense. "Would you have willingly helped me if I ask you to? Would you willingly come with me if I showed up in the inner city of Ezentia one day? There's something I want from Hell's Gate, Nam Yejun." There was a look on his face that Hei couldn't quite read, but there was such burningwillin his eyes, almost to the brink oftoo muchthat she took a small step back from him. "And trust me, I'm going to do whatever I have to to get that."

A vein ticked in Yejun's temple. "I don'tcarewhat you want," he said simply. "It's the fact that you're willing to hurt others to get what you want that disgusts me." A challenging look flashed across his face. "And the fact that you've tied me here. The least you could do would be letting me down. It's not like I can go anywhere or even fight you."

"I'll let you down in the afternoon," Byeong joo decided.

Yejun scowled. "Why? You've kept me here long enough."

Byeong joo ignored him pointedly and turned to Hei. "Let's go," he said. "It's almost midday and you haven't eaten anything."

She hesitated for a moment as he turned to go the other way, and finally, she gave Yejun a sympathetic wince before hurrying after Byeong joo's retreating figure. She caught up to him when he'd rounded the corner, though none of them spoke until he pushed open the door to what looked like the mess hall.

"You two seem to be getting along," he said. "I finished breakfast and you're chatting like old friends."

Hei hesitated. She'd told Yejun that Byeong joo wasn't so bad—which was true, though he was insufferable at times—and while she hadn't known Yejun nearly as long, he wasn't bad either. She wasn't quite sure what to say about him, but he definitely didn't deserve to be tied up on the mast for another couple hours.

"He's… nice," she finally managed. "I mean, he was nice to me."

Byeong joo tossed her an apple she hadn't even noticed he grabbed. Hei barely managed to catch it. "Nam Yejun's smart," he replied. "I don't like him. People are rarely smarter than I am."

"Deal with it," Hei shot back, though she had to muffle the laugh. He sounded like a kid complaining about something he couldn't get. "But seriously." She swallowed, unsure of how she was supposed to say it. She definitely didn't want to see Yejun tied up to the mast the whole time because he looked miserable enough and it was cruel and she didn't exactly want to think of Byeong joo as cruel. "You should let him down. He's really not going to be able to do any harm because he's obviously not stronger than you or Eunho."

She took a bite into the apple and Byeong joo leaned back on his chair, eyes growing cloudy. "He unnerves me," he admitted, and Hei stopped mid-chew and gawked at him. Before she could ask why, he plowed on. "All the clairvoyant I've met just… unsettle me. It feels like they're prying into the things I don't want people to know, which is why Eunho normally casts concealing spells on me. But Nam Yejun's power is strong, and if he were in a better shape, it's very possible that he could see through that if he tried to. I don't want him finding anything about me if it's not on my own will."

He sounded almost… afraid. He spoke calmly, his face remained impassive, but there was the quiver of uncertainty there. Hei was at a complete loss for words.

"Well," she finally managed after a couple long moments of awkward silence. "Still, I don't think he's a terrible person. He might end up helping you willingly if you treat him better."

Hei hoped she hadn't offended him with her last comment, though his expression was just thoughtful. "Possibly," he said in a doubtful voice. "You can't be sure. He may not be able to lie, but he's exactly the type of person who's intentions are hardest to see through."

You are, too,she thought, though she figured she'd used up her courage for the day. She took another bite of the apple, which crunched loudly in the silence, and Byeong joo gave her an attempt at a smile. "I figured I could teach some basic combat today," he said. "There's a spare dagger downstairs and while you shouldn't have to be in the front lines when it comes to fighting, knowing some self defense will never hurt."

She blinked at him. "You're teaching me?"

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"Ye—" she began, then backtracked. "Absolutely not."

He snorted. "You're sitting in front of one of the Kim family's best fighters. Have a little more faith, will you?"

"Stop bragging."

"It's the truth," Byeong joo grinned. "I'll meet you up on the deck a while later because you probably want to change out of that." He gestured at her shirt then tilted his head. "Unless you don't want to?"

Hei felt her face burning. "I will."

In a knee length blue-green dress and half an hour later, Hei climbed up the steps again and tried to come up with an excuse that would get her out of whatever combat training Byeong joo was going to put her through. She couldn't exactly come up with anything convincing, so she wondered if asking Eunho to teach her more about using her power would be a better idea. Anything that would give her a reason not to even attempt using a blade would be good, because the idea was a bit mortifying. Hei could almost see the image of accidentally stabbing herself.

Maybe that would work. She couldn't help Byeong joo if she accidentally died, and thatsounded like a plausible excuse.

The sun was beating down when she got to the deck (which kind of annoyed her—why couldn't it have been this warm last night when she was getting hypothermia from the water?), and her gaze travelled to the Nam Yejun Mast automatically. To her surprise, he was nowhere to be seen, though Byeong joo was sitting haphazardly on the railing with his back facing her, legs swinging beneath him as he stared down at the glittering expanse of sea in front of him. It was actually a pretty sight with him silhouetted against the sun, the blue of the sea a nice color next to the white of his shirt. Hei stood still for a couple moments and then Byeong joo turned around. She averted her gaze to the wooden boards underneath her feet.

"Your dress matches the sea," he commented, hopping down from the railing, and Hei dropped thinking about an excuse in favour of trying to decipher what he meant.

"Better than wearing your clothing," she grumbled.

"Am I getting that back?"

"No." She shuffled her feet on the deck. "Where did Yejun go? I thought you weren't untying him until the afternoon?"

"I gave him a room and told him to read the book," Byeong joo replied, heading towards her. "I admit tying him up to the mast for so long was a bit unnecessary and he was also beginning to get on my nerves with the amount of talking he did, so now he can talk to himself. He'll stay there unless you'd rather have him up here watching you trip over your sword?"

He was teasing her a lot more the past couple of days, and it was something Hei couldn't handle yet completely, especially when she often found herself grappling for a response. She was more or less comfortable around him—at least, a significant amount more than the beginning—but Byeong joo's personality was a lot more outgoing than hers and quite frankly, she felt a bit overwhelmed at times.

"I don't see why I have to do this," she said.First excuse."I could be spending more time trying to master my power with Eunho instead."

"Eunho's busy right now."

Second excuse."If I die tripping over my sword, no one can get you through Hell's Gate because—"

"Relax," Byeong joo laughed, and then handed her something. Hei took a step back from the dagger, the blade reflecting the sunlight almost blindingly. "It's not going to be that bad."

When she didn't move, he reached over, grabbed her right hand, and then placed the hilt in her palm before closing her fingers around it for her. "Trust me," he said in strangely coaxing voice. "It's not that hard once you get the hang of it."

Hei swallowed the lump in her throat. She felt unsafe just by holding the weapon.

Byeong joo spun his cutlass in one hand. Hei told herself she would not be doing that."Right," he said, beginning to grin. "Let's see how good you are with a blade, then."

Chapter 18

New Revelations

Hei wanted to die by the time Byeong joo called for a break.

He passed her a flask of water and she immediately dropped the dagger for it. Her hands hurt from gripping the weapon, her arm hurt from trying to keep it up in the correct stance (but she was doing it wrong anyway) and her head hurt from trying to make sense of everything Byeong joo was saying. He was also quite a merciless teacher—he hadn't actuallycuther with the blade, but every failed block ended with a whack with the flat of his blade, and ithurt.

She sat down hard on the deck. "You're terrible," she wheezed, nearly choking on a mouthful of water. "I don't want to do this ever again."

"Shame, I was going to teach you tomorrow again." He sat down next to her, crossing his legs. It wasn't fair that he didn't look the least bit out of breath. "You're not that bad for someone who's never had combat training before."

"No thank you," she managed. "I'd rather spend the rest of the day hiding behind Nam Yejun than do this again."

"Why him?"

"Because he scares you and that'll keep you away."

Byeong joo rolled his eyes. "I'm notthatscared of him. Though I think… well, he's a clairvoyant. He might be able to teach you a bit about your power, though it depends on whether or not he wants to. I think he's going to refuse if I say I want him to do it. I might have to try to blackmail him again."

"Don't," Hei cut in hurriedly. "I'll just ask him myself. That's not fair to him or Noah." She paused. "Speaking of Noah, how is he?"

He pursed his lips. "I haven't checked on him yet. He might be awake, though I'm not quite looking forward to it." Byeong joo winced. "I got Eunho to put protective spells around the room that we currently have him in, but he's one of the best fighters that the Kim family has and he's pretty dangerous. Our best bet of controlling him is blackmailing him with Nam Yejun."

She set down the water next to her. It was unbearably hot with the midday sun, which was at the highest point, and she wanted to curl up in her room and rest because learning defense with Byeong joo was absolutely exhausting. She also wanted to practice her power, possibly talk with Nam Yejun again, and then ask Eunho a couple of questions. And then there was Noah. She didn't think it was exactly fair to use him against Yejun and use Yejun against Noah, and she wasn't quite sure how Byeong joo had planned everything.

"Noah was here for his brother, right?" she asked. "That means he can't be that bad, right? He wasn't here out of duty for his family but for—"

"I don't know if that approach will work here," Byeong joo interrupted, drumming his fingers on the deck. "Han Noah is definitely hostile, and I don't think getting anyone to talk to him is going to calm him down. He's not armed anymore, but still, I don't want to take any risks. Yejun can't lie, but Noah definitely can."

"What if you got Yejun to talk to him?"

"Does Nam Yejun look like he'll follow what I say?"

Hei hesitated. "I could… I could try talk to him. I don't think he'll try to strangle me if I go see him."

Byeong joo contemplated that for a couple moments, and then finally, gave a slow, thoughtful nod. "That would work," he agreed. "Ask him about your power too, I guess?"

Nam Yejun wasn't in a particularly good mood when Byeong joo directed her to his room, and Hei stood at the doorway of his room and wondered if she should tactically retreat and talk to him another day.

Then he lifted his head and Hei realized there was no going back. "You," he muttered, setting down the book he had in hand. "I didn't think he'd let you come here."

Hei blinked. "It's not like I'm a prisoner on here or something."

"You aren't?" Yejun looked genuinely surprised, then he deflated. "Doesn't change the fact that I am, though."

Hei inched cautiously towards him and Yejun tossed the leather-bound book to the side. The cabin he was in was a bit smaller than hers, though it wasn't exactly cramped (especially compared to the box that Yejun had been stuffed in the night prior)—there were also papers littered on the table all around and various books. Yejun had settled onto the bed, and already, there was a pen and paper on his lap. "I could try convincing Byeong joo to let you see Noah. He's apparently in one of the rooms below deck."

"You could convince him?" Yejun echoed, beginning to frown. "He doesn't hit me as the type to be easily swayed, and you've only known him for a week. What are you to him, really? You claim that you don't know what your power is—which wasn't a lie—but I doubt Byeong joo would go out of his way to get you from the Song family if you weren't going to be of any use to him."

Hei couldn't help but cringe at the way he put it. It almost reminded her of Jonghyun and Jongup—like she was something usable and also something that could be disposed of just as easily.

"He's not using me," she protested, then hesitated. She wasn't sure how much she was supposed to tell Yejun (or at least she didn't know how much Byeong joo wanted him to know), but then again, lying was pointless too. "Something about going through Hell's Gate."

"That's a suicide mission," Yejun replied immediately. "The Guardian at the gate isn't a lie. And he only has a little over two months to get there. Even if the impossible happens and he does manage to get through the gate with his life and his ship and crew still intact, there's no way he'll be able to navigate inside that place without out a map. I don't think I'll be able to see a path even with my power. It's supposed to be no-return, where families condemn their worst enemies to an eternity of suffering. At least that's what I got out of the myths I've heard about it."

"There's actually people living inside there?" she demanded. "I thought… well, I didn't know what Byeong joo wanted to do with it, but he said there's something he wants inside there—"

Yejun gave a sharp laugh. "Your captain really is something."

She blinked. "What?"

"There's one particular story about Hell's Gate that almost all scribes know," he said slowly. "It's extremely vague and we're forbidden to touch the books that have any sort of information on it, but apparently there's something inside the heart of Hell's Gate that's able to kill a family leader."

The room suddenly felt ten degrees colder.

Yejun raised an eyebrow. "You don't know this?"

Hei was too numb to even shake her head. She knew Byeong joo was ambitious, though he'd never really told her what his ambitions really were. But with Yejun putting it into perspective, she began connecting the dots—the venom in his voice and the blatant hatred in his eyes whenever someone brought up the family or the family leaders. He hated the families, no doubt, especially his own—but she had never thought that he'd been aiming tokillthem.

"I didn't know," she managed out, then sucked in a deep breath. "That's impossible. You can't kill a family leader, can you?"

Yejun gave a cynical laugh. "Who are we to question what he wants, even if his end goal is insane?"

Insanewasn't it, because Byeong joo was a planner if Hei ever saw one. He was someone who held fast onto his goals, someone who wouldn't give up if he desperately wanted something. And knowing Byeong joo, it wasn't insanity that was purely driving him forward.

Besides, there were plenty of things about Kim Byeong joo that Yejun had no idea about. She wondered how much Yejun's perception on Byeong joo would change if he knew he was a Kim, if he knew that Byeong joo wasn't just doing it for no reason—though that was one thing among many others that wasn't her place to tell Yejun. Hei swallowed the words one by one, though she was itching to tell him.

"Ask him," she muttered, though mentally, she made a note to do so herself. She had had absolutely no idea before what Byeong joo wanted, and hearing from Yejun wasn't enough—she needed Byeong joo himself to clarify. "He can probably tell you more than I can."

"I'm not going to willingly talk to him," Yejun grunted. "He can go on a suicide mission for all I care. The only reason I'm helping him reading through this for Hell's Gate is for my brother." He picked his book right up without another word.

Hei shuffled her feet on the carpeted ground, unsure if she'd overstayed her welcome because Yejun seemed like he was ignoring her. Finally, after a long moment of extremely awkward silence, she blurted, "Are you hungry?"

He looked upwards and raised a skeptical eyebrow at her.

"Just wondering," Hei rambled on, "you haven't eaten since Byeong joo brought you here—"

"He brought me food a little while before," Yejun interrupted. "I don't suppose I'll be any help to him if I starve to death."

She glanced at her toes. "Oh."

Ten seconds of complete quiet later, Yejun turned his gaze from the book. "Why are you still here?"

Hei blinked, then pointed a finger at the door. "Should I leave?"

"You could if you want, but I asked you what you were doing here. You came here to ask me something, right?"

"No—" she began, then thought better of it. "Yeah."

"Then what?"

"Byeong joo said you could teach me how to use my power," she began hesitantly. The topic of her power before had always seemed to be a gaping hole, a huge, unfillable weakness, and the feeling hadn't quite gone away. Years of the same thing drilled into her head didn't disappear in a week's time, and Hei wondered if it would ever disappear. "Eunho's been doing so and I've gotten better, but you're a clairvoyant and apparently our powers are similar."

"Another favour for Byeong joo?" He didn't look impressed, and Hei braced herself for the rejection. To her surprise, his face softened a bit. "I suppose I can't decline, though I have no idea what your power even is. You'll have to explain a bit to me before I can do anything about it."

Yejun was a good listener.

Hei had been tentative about it when she started talking, a bit disconcerted by the way his eyes seemed to drill holes into her, though Yejun remained completely silent and she found it coming out easier and easier. She skipped around parts that she didn't talk about, but ten minutes later, she had more or less spilled out everything.

She wasn't sure if it was an effect of his power on her or the simple fact that she couldn't get away with a lie in front of him—whatever it was, the truth always came tumbling out whenever she was in front of him. She felt strangely relieved by the time she'd finished talking, and Yejun had a thoughtful expression on his face. He'd long forgotten the book Byeong joo had given him, and it lay untouched on the side.

"Your family is terrible," was the first thing that came out of his mouth, and Hei did a double take at him. Inability to lie or not, it was horribly straightforward and blunt, and both Yejun and Noah had hit her as the type that were horribly loyal to the families.

When Hei didn't respond, he waved a hand in front of her face. "Why do you look so surprised?"

"Are you saying that because this is theSongfamily we're talking about and the Song and the Kim hate each other, or…I thought you were…"

"I can't exactly kiss up to my family even if my life depended on it," Yejun replied with a slight shrug. "I have no special feelings for a group of people who use my power for their own good and exploit my inability to lie by claiming it's aloyaltyto them that they simply don't deserve. Sure, there are people who genuinely enjoy doing whatever they do for their family, but you'll be surprised how many are there because years and years of brainwashing and because they have the thought drilled in their head that they're somehow obliged to their family. Many more want to leave but justcan't."

She felt more confused. "Shouldn't you be glad to be gone, then?"

Yejun's eyes turned serious, a hint of anger sparking. "What's the difference between them forcing me to do what they want me to do and Byeong joo doing so? There's something you're forgetting here, Song Hei—you may not be a prisoner aboard Byeong joo's ship, but my brother and I are. I don't think we're in a better situation. Probably worse. I'm being blackmailed to help someone unwillingly with the life of someone I care about and he's taking advantage of the fact that I can't lie to him. I don't see much difference, honestly."

At a loss for words, Hei made another mental note to tell Byeong joo to start treating Yejun better. "I'll… talk to him," she said in an unsure voice.

Yejun seemed to sense that she was uncomfortable, because he gave a slight shrug. "We're getting off topic. You're here for me to teach you."

"That's not the only reason—" she began, though Yejun cut her off before she could continue.

"I'll do it tomorrow," he said casually. "My head still hurts from where Byeong joo hit me and I'd rather not make it hurt even more. I'll teach you on one condition, though."

Hei swallowed. She wasn't sure if it was up to her to agree, though she nodded at him to go on.

"My brother," Yejun replied. "I don't know what Byeong joo's done to him at the moment, but I hope he knows if anything happens to him, I won't be hesitating to rip this book to shreds and he can say farewell to whatever plans he has. I just want to go see Noah once. You have my word that I'm not going to try anything and I can even try to placate him—that's it."

Hei chewed her bottom lip. "I don't think he'd be against that," she began slowly. "I'll ask him when I see him, though I can't guarantee anything."

"Tell him I won't teach you unless he lets me." Yejun shrugged. "Problem solved, simple." He paused, a friendlier grin appearing on his face. "Also tell him that I'm not doing anything for him if he has the audacity to deprive me of any one of my three meals."

Hei found Byeong joo on the helm of the ship, standing near the wheel and playing with his fingers idly. His cutlass was hanging on his belt, which was a relief, because approaching him when he was holding it was to some extent terrifying. He raised his head when she neared.

"Finish chatting with Nam Yejun?" he asked. "Did he agree to teach you?"

She nodded. "On a couple conditions." She held up a finger. "He wants to see Noah and talk to him once."

Byeong joo pursed his lips. "Second?"

Hei lifted another finger. "That he gets three proper meals a day."

He actually snorted at that. "Nam Yejun has his priorities straight. Is that it?"

"Yeah," she replied, "and he also told me a couple of things about Hell's Gate."

Byeong joo's whole figure stiffened. His voice was careful when he spoke. "Like what?"

Hei thought of her answer carefully. Byeong joo wasn'ttoounpredictable, but she still wavered sometimes in fear of saying something wrong by accident and potentially triggering him. She remained silent for a long couple of seconds, wondering which way would be the best to phrase it, and then finally managed, "He said you wanted to kill the family leaders."

For a few terrifying moments, she wondered if he was going to cut her down with his blade, and then his shoulders sagged and he leaned back onto the wooden railing and gave a sigh. It was something that didn't suit him—the Kim Byeong joo she knew was calm, collected, and he definitely wouldn't look defeated.

"I suppose you should know," he murmured, half to himself. "I avoided telling everyone it because it sounded like a mad man's idea, though it's pretty hard to fool Nam Yejun."

"You're trying to kill the family leaders," Hei repeated. She'd been expecting it, but to hear him confirm still felt like a slap in the face. "That's…I've never heard of anyone who would want to try—"

"Not all of the family leaders." Byeong joo wasn't looking at her anymore, his gaze fixed somewhere far away that Hei couldn't see. "Even I admit that that's too big a goal to have."

"Your father," she got out, a horrified realization draining into her. "Why?"

"Isn't the answer obvious?" Byeong joo tilted his head at her, though his expression was wary. "I hate him. After everything he's done, I don't really think he deserves to live and ruin more lives."

"I thought you were travelling to Hell's Gate for Heejin," she admitted in a small voice. "I didn't know what exactly was there, but I didn't think you were going to do something like…that."

Byeong joo hopped onto the railing, fingers tapping with unreleased nervous energy on the sides of them. He had a bitter look on his face. "Heejin's an unchangeable part of the past," he said simply. "But no, she's not the only reason I'm doing this. I knew her for a bit over a month before my father sentenced me to death, and that month doesn't cover all the years prior." He swung his legs beneath him, a childish action, though there was such rage in his eyes that didn't quite match. "I met my father once, when I was sixteen."

Hei opened her mouth, then closed it. Did he want her to say something? Was she supposed to just listen? "And?" she managed out in a small voice. "I thought no one got to meet family leaders unless they were in extremely high positions."

"They normally don't. But my family thought I had the potential to become the next family leader, and at that time, believed I was the perfect child they could have, so the day after I turned sixteen, they sent me to see him. Do you know the only thing he said to me when I met him?"

She held her breath, both dreading and anticipating his response.

He turned to look at her, this time meeting her eyes, gaze piercing. "No greetings, no nothing. He wasn't proud of me, he didn't particularly care about me, he didn't ask how I was. Just one thing:the higher you climb, the harder you fall."

Silence followed his words, heavy, crushing silence, almost like he was waiting to let the weight of his words sink in slowly. Hei let out the breath she'd been holding, though she couldn't shake off that unidentifiable feeling. Her father probably never had spared her even a second glance, a second thought, though that definitely wasn't as hurtful as actuallymeetinghim and hearing something like that come out of his mouth.

Byeong joo gave a mirthless laugh. "All my expectations were crushed after that one meeting. I couldn't figure out what he meant, though it was more of a threat, really, and I just couldn't accept it. A couple nights later I ran awayinto the outer city of Vasileia, and that was the first time I met Heejin.

"Of course, a month later, all of Vasileia has blown up because someone from the Kim family has been publically sentenced, though they don't know his name or face, rumors have gotten out that it was their prodigy that the family was proudest of. They're all whispering about how he betrayed his family for a commoner girl, and though there's speculations of who she might've been, she was never well-known enough for them to find out. The Kim family leader relays a message of his greatest disappointment and apologies to everyone, though it's obviously insincere and the only thing he really cares about is how big a blow his family's reputation has taken because of it. They assure everyone that they've executed the traitor, but it hasn't really happened and the Kim family's made sure to silence everyone involved in the incident. Everything dies down after that, and I'm left as nothing but a tale teachers tell their students to scare them with."

He was far from tears, and Hei knew, though there was so much raw anguish and pain behind his voice that she could almost feel it. For what seemed like forever, time seemed to stay at a standstill and Hei stared back at Byeong joo, afraid to break out of the surprisingly vulnerable moment from him and at the same time too scared to stay in it. Finally, she reached forward and laid a hesitant hand on his arm. To Hei's relief, he didn't flinch away.

"I'm sorry," she managed, and even though she was pretty sure he'd heard the same line plenty of times, it was the most sincere thing she could muster out loud without faltering.

Byeong joo gave her a sad smile that didn't quite suit him. He sounded so serious compared to how he usually was that Hei couldn't even link it together. "There's nothing any of us can do about it anyway."

He paused, eyes still cloudy, and then shook himself a bit and took a slight step back. "I was going to tell you that we'll be stopping by one of a main islands near Sileion in a couple of days. There's not much to see on the ship when it comes to visions, so I thought you could go with me there."

Hei blinked. "For what? Are Eunho and Yejun—"

"Nope." He gave her a grin. "Just you and me. Eunho made me do this back when I was still recruiting my crew—I spent a day with them doing something as bonding. I think I won Hyunmin over when I bought him sweets."

"You're not going to win me over by buying me sweets."

"What if I buy you more dresses?"

"Please don't buy me anything."

He shrugged, though he was still smiling. "Whatever floats your boat. You're stuck with me for a whole day, though, so brace yourself."

Chapter 19

Brothers

Byeong joo decided it would be best if they sent Yejun to see his brother that evening ("The faster we get it over with, the better"), given that Noah was awake. He also decided that it would be best if Hei was the one who went to relay that message, so she found herself heading to the cabin Yejun was in with a plate of food Eunho had given her from the mess hall. The sun was beginning to dip by then, the sunset orange of the clouds pretty against the endless stretch of waves and water.

She had to kick the door instead of knocking because her hands were full with the plate of food, and a couple moments later, the door swung open and Yejun poked a head out, a grouchy expression etched on his face. Hei was beginning to wonder if it was permanent.

He relaxed a bit when he saw her, recognition flickering over his face and he stepped aside and Hei shuffled in with the food. Yejun eyed it like he was giving it a visual rating, and then finally directed her to set it on the table in the corner.

The room had changed a significant amount since the last time Hei had set foot in it—there were more papers arranged on the bed this time, though they all had near-indecipherable handwriting scribbled all over. Some looked like calculations and the rest were notes. There was a couple pieces that Yejun had for some reason scrunched up and tossed to the side, then more writing that he'd scribbled out. At one point, it looked like he'd thrown a tantrum and decided to take his anger out on an unlucky piece of paper.

"Well," Hei commented. "You sure settled in fast."

Yejun snorted. "What can I do?"

She shuffled around a discarded pile. "Byeong joo said you could go visit Noah."

Yejun's eyes lit up—there was really no hiding it—and then he raised an eyebrow. "Is there nothing on the other end of the deal for him?"

Hei shrugged. "You're already reading that book for him, aren't you? I think that's enough that he can demand."

He didn't look convinced at all, and while Hei didn't blame him, she desperately wished Byeong joo would at leasttellYejun something. She could see them getting along quite well if Byeong joo didn't insist on concealing himself every time he was around Yejun and if the latter could just drop the grudges for a moment. Then again, it was a hard task for both sides.

"Song Hei," Yejun repeated, and she snapped back into reality. He was waving a hand in front of her face. "When are we going?"

Byeong joo hadn't exactly specified so Hei had no idea either, but she tried hesitantly, "After dinner?"

Around thirty minutes later, Yejun's cabin door creaked open and Byeong joo poked his head in. Hei had managed to find one of the books on the bookshelf in the corner and was flipping through, Yejun munching thoughtfully on a piece of bread. His gaze steeled the moment he saw who was at the door.

Hei dropped her book and sat up straighter, while Byeong joo seemed to decide it was a good idea to juggle his cutlass from hand to hand. Behind him, Eunho poked a head in.

"Nam Yejun," he said in a surprisingly emotionless voice, "are you ready to go right now?"

She stared up at Eunho. He'd always been the nicer of the two when it came to him and Byeong joo, the one with more patience, the one who spoke nicely (at least to her). Hei's first memory of him was when he'd guided her through the crowded tavern—he'd been sosureand levelheaded back then, but at the same time, sympathetic.

This—the surprisingly monotone of his voice, the lack of anything—she hadn't expected it from Eunho also.

Yejun regarded the two of them warily before standing up. "Alright," he said. "I have another condition, though—that Song Hei comes with us."

"Me?" She turned to glance in Yejun's direction. "Why me?"

There was no missing the venom in his voice when he spoke, and Hei still flinched even though it wasn't directed at her. "I don't trust them."

"And you trust her?" Byeong joo nudged the cabin door wider, gaze challenging. Then he laughed. "You're a good judge of character, I forgot. But character's hard to judge when you can't see anything, am I right?"

Yejun's jaw tightened, though he seemed to have enough self control to stop himself from saying more.

"Hei, are you coming?" Byeong joo called, and she scrambled to her feet and hurried after them.

They went in single file down the hallway, with Byeong joo in the front, Eunho, Yejun, and finally her. The lanterns that hung from the sides of the walls flickered, shadows elongating. Hei wondered if it would be safe with all four of them below deck with no one to man the helm, though she supposed there was no issue, especially seeing what Byeong joo's power was.

The room they'd locked Noah in appeared to be the last one down the hall (they'd passed hers a couple seconds ago, and it unnerved her a bit to be sleeping so close where Yejun's brother was being kept. The only memory of him that she had was when he had been threatening to kill Byeong joo, and while it was understandable, it didn't make Hei feel any safer) and the door had been completely sealed. Eunho paused in front of it for a couple seconds, fingers splayed out against the wooden surface, before he finally tried the knob.

Hei half expected Han Noah to leap out and bash all of their heads with a wooden plank and some sort of makeshift weapon, but all she could see was blackness, the light from the hallway illuminating a couple of feet into the room. And then Byeong joo stepped inside, the lantern in his hand, and Hei could make out the faint shape of a bed and dresser, just like how all of the rooms had been organized.

"You have a visitor," was all he said. "Also, don't eventryto do anything funny. You have ten minutes, Nam Yejun."

Yejun gave her arm a slight tug, and Hei blanched at him. "You wantmeto go with you?"

"Absolutely not," Byeong joo interrupted at the same time. "That's the stupidest idea anyone could think of."

"I don't think she's any safer with you," Yejun shot back. "Look here—she's the only person on this accursed ship that I actually have some sort of trust in—don't go off about me not being able to judge you because of the concealing spell. If there's something to conceal, then there's something you want to hide from me, and you don'thidegood things about yourself. You hide the lies, the wrongdoings, the sins. I swear on my life that neither my brother nor I will harm her, and you know that I can't lie. That's the only reason I'm here in the first place."

Byeong joo didn't look convinced. "I don't get why you need to bring Song Hei in with you.You'retalking to Noah, not her."

"I have a feeling my brother would like her," Yejun said, then at Byeong joo's scowl, shrugged. "Then again, Noah's always liked honest people. If he's going to spend God knows how long locked up in there, he should at least know that there'sonedecent person aboard."

Byeong joo's scowl deepened, though he didn't try to stop Hei when she went hesitantly behind Yejun.

"Are you sure your brother isn't going to try to kill me?" she asked timidly.

"Let's hope not," came the reassuring reply.

Yejun carried the lantern into the room, the brightness flooding over what was previously dark, and Hei trailed behind him, feeling very much like she was intruding on something private. She glanced back towards Byeong joo, who was leaning against the wall, arms crossed, face impassive. Hei didn't have time to even try to read what he was thinking before she slipped inside the room after Yejun, heart racing in her chest.

The first thing she saw was someone sitting on the bed, the orange glow from the lantern not nearly enough to draw at Noah's features clearly, and Hei nearly shrieked. She turned to look at Yejun, though the light was playing with his face too, and he looked a lot scarier than she remembered.

And then Yejun set the lantern down closer to Noah, the light washing over his features more, and Hei had to actually keep her jaw from dropping. She hadn't seen Noah very clearly when he'd been facing off Byeong joo, but the aggression in his voice had definitely influenced what she thought he looked like. He was nowhere near as hostile as she imagined—Hei didn't evenknowwhat she expected him to be like (possibly extremely scary, scowling, and ten feet tall). She didn't expect a young man around Byeong joo's age who looked absolutely worried out of his mind and exhausted at the same time.

"Hi," she said in a small voice. "You're Noah."

Noah's gaze travelled towards Yejun, completely disregarding her. "You're fine," he said, obvious relief in his voice. "I swear to God I'll get both of us out—"

"Hyung, that's impossible," Yejun cut in. "You fought Byeong joo them already, didn't you? Either him or his first mate—Eunho—but there's no way either of us can do anything. Besides, I promised him I wouldn't do anything and youknowI have to keep to my promises."

Noah's brows drew together. "Eunho? That bastard was from the Do family?"

Hei nearly spoke up then and there to correct him, especially when Yejun nodded in agreement—Eunho was one of the nicest people she'd ever met (not that that was exactly saying much, because everyone from her family had been pretty terrible and apart from that she'd met a grand total of less than ten people)—but then again, she was pretty sure bringing that up in front of both Yejun and Noah wasn't the smartest thing to do.

"Who's she?" Noah jabbed a finger in her direction, and Hei rethought the hostile part. He didn't throw her off the same way that Yejun had before, but he was scary in the physical way. Yejun didn'tlookthreatening in terms of strength or power, but Noah was. She had the urge to step behind Yejun.

"Song Hei," Yejun introduced casually. "She's been kindly getting messages across for me to Byeong joo. I'm pretty sure she's the only reason I'm here right now. Byeong joo probably would've gladly kept me locked up in that place forever, but…"

Noah's gaze moved over to her, and Hei shifted on her feet, feeling a bit uncomfortable. It felt like he was analyzing her—not in the same way that Yejun had, but scrutinizing all the same.

"Song," he finally said. "I don't suppose I ought to be surprised, but a Do and a Song on his ship? That's unheard of."

There's also Kim Junhyuk, Kim Hyunmin and Park Yano that I know of,Hei thought, though she didn't say it. Junhyuk, Hyunmin, Yejun and Noah were all siblings, and bringing them up just seemed awkward. She couldn't land a close guess as to how any of them would respond to it, butyour brother is working under the same guy who kidnapped and knocked you outdidn't seem to be something that would get a positive response.

"I've just been here for a week," she said. "Uh…"

"She was in the boat you capsized," Yejun filled in helpfully. "Apparently Byeong joo broke into Hua's inner city and dragged her to Ezentia. And you know what's interesting? Her power."

Noah raised an eyebrow. "Go on."

"That story we found when we were children," Yejun continued, "the one with pages torn. You were punished for sneaking into the archives, remember? It mentioned something about someone with the power to control time. There was an incomplete story about a man who could do that and was banned by his family."

Hei stared at Yejun, both confused and shocked. "The Kim family had books on that?"

"Apparently, yes." Yejun's eyes flickered towards her, face serious in the limited light of the lantern. "The thing is, it's not that easy to distinguish legend from reality when it comes to the families, because therearea lot of myths that definitely aren't real and some at the same time that are extremely grey. I had no idea about that one, exactly, though I had an inkling when you explained your power to me. It's definitely not a coincidence."

"But what does it have to do with me?" She glanced at Yejun, and then Noah. "So I'm not the only one who has this power—but whoever that man was—"

"Hell's Gate is where the families banish their worst enemies," Yejun interrupted yet again. "Death is a quick mercy. To be damned to eternal suffering is another thing."

Alarm flashed across Noah's face. "Hell's Gate?"

"That's where he's heading." Yejun's expression was grim. "I don't know what his goal is–actually, I have a pretty good guess at that—but his motivation? I have no idea. It's a fool's quest, and he's going to get everyone aboard his ship killed when he attempts that. The bastard's also concealed everything about himself so I can't even tell what he's thinking. My head hurts too much for me to read properly, and even then it would be hard because the spellcaster he's working with has had a whole bunch of experience."

Hei was still tempted to correct Yejun about Byeong joo, though she remained silent, still feeling slightly out of place, though her mind was whirling. According to whatever Yejun had read, she wasn't the only one with whatever power she had, and whoeverdidhave it before her had most likely ended up in Hell's Gate. Given that whatever tale they'd read hadn't been just a myth, then whoever had the same power as her would still be in Hell's Gate. And that was exactly where Byeong joo was going.

Another thing to ask him, Hei thought. It wasn't anything new, but at the same time, she wished there wouldn't be so many questions. Byeong joo never exactly lied to her before, though he definitely had his secrets that he kept to himself.

"Well?" Noah was saying, and Hei blinked up at him. "I'm curious about you and Byeong joo. You've been here for a week, you were also kidnapped by him, but…"

"Nine days," Hei corrected automatically, then she shifted uncomfortably. Both Yejun and Noah had both received possibly nasty head injuries from Byeong joo, and she wasn't sure if she'd do anything by claiming hewasn't as bad as he seemed.It was also awkward with the two of them both looking at her. "He's not actually that… terrible," she tried. Yejun hadn't taken it well the last time she'd said that to him, and at least, he didn't seem happy about it. "I told Yejun about this earlier today, but I'd most likely be dead if it weren't for Byeong joo. I think he's just being wary, and both he and Eunho aren't awful people."

"Why is he doing this, then?" There was that same creeping, prying sensation when Yejun met her eyes, though Hei didn't dare turn away. She had the vague feeling that she'd spoken out of line, which was ridiculous, but it was something she'd gotten so used to be snapped at about back at Hua that she couldn't help but feel scared about what they'd do about it.

Much to her relief, Yejun seemed to pull back his power and Hei let go of the breath she was holding. "Nevermind. You probably noticed he's not a commoner already, didn't you, hyung?"

Noah gave a nod. "He had the same power as me, except he was… more powerful. I've never seenanyonewho was even close to me when it came to control over water."

Yejun barked a laugh. "Family member. It's not that unexpected, but that just makes him even more insane. He's bound to know what a family can do if he's grown up in that environment."

Then he did the one thing Hei had been dreading—turned towards her, a frown playing on his lips, and she could almost sense his next question. "Do you know which family he's from?"

She managed to squeak anoas an answer that Yejun didn't quite seem to hear, though Hei supposed one didn't need to have the power to see through lies to know that she was lying.

"He's not your brother, is he? He's not from the Kim, he can't be from the Lu. Park? Kim? I'm pretty sure the Kim family was extremely strict when it came to their children, especially after the incident with their prodigy, so…"

There was no way Hei could even begin to lie to Yejun, though Byeong joo saved her that time. The door to Noah's cabin swung open wide, light from the corridor flooding through, and he poked his head in.

"It's been more than ten minutes," he announced casually. "I hope you've said everything you wanted to because I've held my end of the deal and I'm not going to do more."

Noah's face visibly darkened when he saw Byeong joo. He was smiling amiably, looking relaxed, though Hei had figured out by then that he had a habit of hovering his hand over where his cutlass was whenever he felt threatened and was nervous. Still, his voice didn't waver and neither did his gaze, meeting Noah's burning one calmly.

"Yejun," he repeated, not even glancing in his direction, tone more forceful this time. "Any last words?"

He looked like he had more than a couple last words, though to Hei's surprise, Yejun stood up slowly. "Don't do anything," was all he said to his brother, before he headed towards the door. "I'll sort this out on my own."

Hei contemplated whether and not she was supposed to bid Noah goodbye, because they didn't exactly seem to be on that friendly of a basis to be saying farewells, but she waved at him once before the door closed behind her because it seemed to be the best thing to do out of courtesy.

She was about to follow everyone above deck when Byeong joo stopped her. His gaze flickered towards her briefly, though it lingered on Yejun and Eunho, who were both going up the stairs in tense silence. They disappeared from view a couple seconds later, and Hei was left facing him.

"Go rest," he said in a quiet voice. "There's a couple things I'd like to clear up with Nam Yejun before I send him back to his cabin, and it's getting pretty late. We'll probably be getting to Aesta in three days if we continue going at this speed and if the winds hold up, and then dock there for around a day."

"Aesta?"

"That's what the town's called. Summer. The island itself was nameddesolateand something along those lines in a language that I can't seem to remember, so…" Byeong joo gave a slight snort. "There's a town called summer on an island that's called desolate. It's not the prettiest place to be, but it's quite different from Hua and Ezentia and in some ways better than those two. I think you might like some parts of it."

"Aesta," Hei repeated to herself one more time, frowning. "Where is the island exactly?"

"Between Xiyuan and Sileion, though it actually may be closer to Sileion. It's quite large—it covers around… I think it was a hundred thousand square miles? Aesta's the closest town on it and it's a port city—port town—so we'll be able to dock pretty close. Eunho said something about restocking on food too." His eyes flickered to the stairs. "I have to go now. Goodnight."

He turned the other way before Hei could manage any sort of other response, and then his lips lifted into a slight smile. "Sleep well."

Chapter 20

Aesta

The next three or so days weren't very eventful, and Hei spent most of her time practicing her power with Eunho or by herself or with Yejun and hanging around the deck. She'd gotten used to looking at the sea by then—every morning, it was basically the only scenery that she could see in all directions—and even the rocking of the ship had turned into something that Hei could ignore (it had started storming on one particular night, and Hei had just about drifted off to sleep when the boat started violently. She'd spent the next hour or so trying to deal with the seasickness and tame the nausea, and when she finally drifted off, her dreams were almost as turbulent as the movement of the boat. She'd woken up with the glass of water she'd set on the bedside table shattered on the floor).

Yejun was mostly busy with his book, and the only times Hei really saw him was when Byeong joo sent her to deliver meals to him (he refused to tell her what exactly he'd talked about with Yejun that night, though Hei supposed it hadn't been rainbows and sunshine because Yejun hadn't looked too happy about it when she brought it up) and the odd couple of times she dropped by his room and he taught her.

She was also given the task to give Noah food, though he wasn't talkative at all and those all ended in silence. Eunho took on that job after a couple of times, and Hei didn't see him anymore after that.

On the morning of the fourth day, there were hints of land in sight for what had been days. The first thing she saw was a thin strip of a sandy island, barely keeping above the waves, and for a couple minutes later, there was nothing more. Eunho was at the helm, steering, and Byeong joo was nowhere in sight. She was tempted to find him and ask him whether or not they were approaching Aesta soon, though before she could go anywhere, the door of his cabin swung open.

She was pretty sure every other room on the ship was below deck—Eunho's was the one across from hers, Yejun's at the start of the hall and Noah on the end. Byeong joo's was right under the stairs that led the helm, and while Hei had never been inside, she'd caught a glimpse of the interior. It wasn't nearly as big and fancy as she imagined (she had initially thought the captain would have a much larger cabin)—a low ceiling, like everything else, a desk shoved into the corner of the room, an unmade bed and then clothes everywhere. It was all she saw before he'd closed the door, though Hei had been more and less surprised by that for the rest of the day.

Byeong joo was dressed more fancily that what he usually wore, she realized after a moment—he was wearing a white shirt underneath that was tucked in neatly (which was almost weird to look at, becauseneatand Kim Byeong joo normally didn't go together in one sentence). The top two buttons hadn't been buttoned, which was bothering Hei a bit more than it should've, though overtop that, he had a long black coat with gold trimmings. It almost looked like something she'd seen men of her family wear, except fashioned to suit Byeong joo more. It was less traditional, a bit more casual. His hair had been brushed out of his face more this time, unlike how he usually let flyaway locks over his eyes.

"Are you done staring?"

Hei's head snapped up so she was looking at him. "What?"

"Are you done staring?" Byeong joo repeated, slowly this time, like explaining instructions to a child with mock patience. "We're going to dockpretty soon, so I need to take the wheel. I'm already up late. I hate having to dress up and it tookme forever."

Hei gave his outfit a once-over again. She would never voice it aloud, but he did look nice and she suddenly had the urge to pick a fancier dress. "I'm not staring," she concluded, though she'd taken notice of the gold buttons on the side of the coat and it was fascinating tracing out the small designs on the buttons.

"You're still staring," Byeong joo told her.

She ripped her gaze from the shiny gold and fixed it on the wooden planks beneath her feet instead.

He gave a slight laugh and brushed past her. "I think it'll be around thirty minutes for us to get there and get the ship docked, so you have that time to eat and wash up if you haven't already. I'll come get you when we're going to leave."

"Why are you taking me again?" she blurted before he could head up the stairs to the helm. "I mean, wouldn't it be more useful if you got Eunho to go with you?"

Byeong joo raised an eyebrow. "If I take Eunho, you'll try to escape with Nam Yejun and Han Noah and then all my hard work will be for nothing."

He laughed and bolted up the stairs before Hei could retort, and after second thought, she retreated to her cabin too.

It wasn't too long later that she'd decided on something to wear—an ivory white dress that was a bit longer than the one she had on. The skirt of it flared out nicely, and Hei spent a moment in front of the mirror to appreciate the fact that the bodice didn't suffocate her like the dresses from Hua had. There weren't uncomfortable layers of petticoats underneath, no chokehold of a corset, and the fabric itself was just more… breathable.

She was just about to make her way above deck when a knock sounded on her door, and a couple seconds later, Byeong joo pushed it open, poking his head inside.

"You might want to come up," he told her. "It's quite a nice sight and the ocean's a lighter color now. You can see reefs below."

The sun was beating down again when Hei mounted the stairs—it was significantly warmer than it had been thirty or so minutes ago, and when she peered over the railing, Byeong joo was right—the sea was a much lighter, more transparent green-blue, waves of white light dancing off the waters. If she focussed on a spot that wasn'ttooblinding to look at, she could see forms of life beneath the waters. The fish were colorful, more tropical, and she could see a blur of other colors.

"Over there," someone behind her said, and Hei glanced back. Byeong joo joined her by the railing and pointed a finger in the distance. "You can see land over there. We'll be probably taking a rowboat over to Aesta, though. It's best to anchor the ship a bit off from island. I don't think many locals would bat an eyelash at it because they don't really care enough, but just for caution."

Hei squinted at the direction he was pointing at. There was a prominent smidge of black. "It looks small."

"Looks can be deceiving, sweetheart."

She scowled at the name. "Youlooklike you're a proper pirate but you're just a mess."

Byeong joo gave a serene smile, the one he always pulled when he was going to say something completely stupid. "At least Ilooklike a pirate, then. And you probably don't want me to act like one. I heard rumors that pirates that act like real pirates are assholes."

"Isn't that what you are?" she mumbled under her breath, half wanting Byeong joo to hear her response and half hoping he didn't.

He raised an eyebrow. "Come again?"

"Nothing."

He snorted at her answer, and then left her to watch the reef by herself.

Five minutes later, the small smudge of black began to take shape and actually look like an island. Hei kept her gaze on it until the ship slowed to a stop. It seemed to rock when the anchor dropped on the other side.

A couple seconds later, Byeong joo appeared around the corner. "Let's go," he said cheerfully. "I can guarantee you that the boat's not going to flip this time around."

He climbed down the ladder at the side of the ship before her, and Hei watched from on the deck as he hopped down on the wooden rowboat. It wobbled beneath him at the abrupt movement, looking dangerously close to tipping, though somehow, it didn't capsize.

She hesitated for a long moment. Being so close to the water didn't feel safe, exactly, especially with the tropical blue color, spotted with the colorful reefs. It didn't help that she could see marine life underneath—was it even safe going in the waters in a rowboat? What if a wave crashed down on them? What kind of hostile animals lurked beneath the reef?

Byeong joo saw her expression. "Hurry," he urged. "It's not that bad, I promise."

Her hands were shaking so badly around the railing that Hei was scared she'd let go by accident and tumble down, but after what felt like longer than it should've been, her feet finally touched boat. Byeong joo steadied her before she could fall over, and Hei nearly panicked as it swayed beneath her.Thatwas what she hated about small boats—they were so unsteady, like they were on the verge of tipping at every small movement (she was also pretty sure they weren't supposed to be used on oceans, but Byeong joo had apparently made an exception to that rule because he could control water).

They started forward at a decent pace, with Byeong joo at the back and Hei gripping the front of the boat. There wasn't too much of a breeze and neither was it cold, and after a while, Hei found her getting used to it. It was nice, actually, if she ignored everything she was scared of, and if she ignored that, then there was nothing really tobescared of.

The island grew steadily in the distance until they entered what looked like a bay. It was so close then that she could see the landscape—a small town that encircled the half-oval shape of the beach, stretching until Hei couldn't see. Mountains rose behind, covered with green. It definitely looked more full of life compared to Hua, and while she could see why the town was called Aesta, she couldn't quite figure what sort of sane person would decide to name the island itselfdesolatein another language.

The ports weren't exactly bustling with life when the rowboat bobbed to the shore, which was probably for the best. Hei was careful not to step on too much wet sand when she got off, though Byeong joo sloshed through the water like he had no other care in the world.

"I thought you were dressed up?" she asked as he fell in pace with her. "Now your pant legs are all wet."

Byeong joo shrugged. "It's warm, it'll dry. It's not that bad."

"Why are you so fancy, anyways?" She kicked a bit of sand off her shoes. "What's so special about today?"

He raised his eyes to the town. "There's someone I have to meet here. He'll probably take me more seriously if I put a bit of effort into my outfit. Even if he can't see that."

For some stupid reason, Hei felt a pang of disappointment that she immediately swallowed as soon as it surfaced. It was just ridiculous to even think that Byeong joo would come to Aesta for no reason but to tour around for a day with her. There was no point for him to do that, and he wasn't the type of person who'd just waste time like that either.

"Stop frowning like that," he said, and Hei glanced upwards at him and tried to turn her expression back to neutral. "I'll find him late afternoon. I said I'm spending the day with you, and that's what we're going to do. I'll buy you sweets if that'll win you over."

"I'm not Kim Hyunmin," Hei mumbled back. "And I'm not frowning."

"Liar," he joked, leaning down so they were eye to eye. Hei was about to tell him to back off (because he really needed to learn personal space), though something dangling from his neck caught her attention instead.

She'd really only been able to see it because he hadn't buttoned the top two buttons of the white blouse. A small shape—not exactly symmetrical and neat enough to be an actual crafted pendant. She recognized the shape of a seashell, beaded through a black string. She'd never seemed to have noticed it before.

"What's that?" she asked, pointing, and Byeong joo straightened up, a hand wrapping around it as if on impulse.

"Necklace," he said, as if it weren't obvious. "It's just something I always wear around." He gave a slight laugh, though his voice shook a bit. "Good luck charm, I guess?"

Hei could almost hear his answer, though nevertheless, she asked the question. "Who's it from?"

Byeong joo's step faltered, though his expression remained the same, albeit forced. "Heejin."

"Ah." Neither of them spoke for a long while as Byeong joo led her away from the docks and towards Aesta.

It was extremely different from Hua and Ezentia just visually—all of the houses were one-story, small, built from wood. Some of them ought to be fixed, she thought—pieces of wood were beginning to fall off, the straw roofs of some with gaping holes on top. She wasn't sure how people could evenlivein such conditions. The cobbled path was in desperate need of fixing in more than a couple places, and there were a few too many times where Hei stumbled over a chipped piece of stone and a dip in the ground. No one on the streets seemed to pay any attention to either her or Byeong joo—they either didn't recognize him, or did but didn't care. Byeong joo led her through as she took in the surroundings.

"The main street's a lot busier." He spoke up again, glancing around. "There'll probably be people that recognize me over there, but I doubt any of them care because no authorities drop by this island anyway and reporting me will be no use." He got a thoughtful expression on his face, the one that Hei identified that meant he didn't do anything remotely good. "I might've pissed off the man that basically has Aesta under his rule—unofficially, though—and he tried to kill me, like, three times, but then ended up with half of his underlings dead and I'm pretty sure he'll think twice before approaching me again."

Hei mouthed anohand continued after him as he turned a street, into a narrower alley.

They were almost at the end of it when a force yanked her backwards, and Hei stumbled with a shriek of surprise. Byeong joo whirled around, hand travelled to his hip, and then spent the next three seconds sizing up the situation in silence.

Then he burst out laughing, and Hei tried to resist the urge to whack him. She might've, really, if he'd been in reach and if she could move—her hair had somehow managed to snag on a protruding piece of wood, and it had gotten tangled in the process and there was no way she could get it out. She backpedalled a couple of steps carefully as Byeong joo struggled to contain his laughter.

"Help me out," she gritted out, face flaming. "Don't just stand there laughing at me, for God's sake!"

He gave a choked cough. "You look ridiculous."

Hei scowled, then winced as she tugged a bit too hard. "I'm going tokillyou when I get out of this."

"That's one reason for me not to free you," he replied. "You also sound like Han Noah."

"Just help!"

He finally decided to stop the torment and made his way over, skirting away when she tried to kick him ("Don't ruin my outfit!") and after a couple of painful tugs, her hair was free and Hei straightened, patting strands of it down self consciously and glaring at the piece of wood that had caused her all of the troubles. Byeong joo was watching her, an amused grin still hanging on his lips, before she turned to scowl at him. Her scalp felt like it was throbbing when she thought about it.

"You're terrible," she told him. "You're right that all pirates are assholes. You're a major one."

He clucked his tongue. "Generalization is never good, Miss Hei. And did they ever wash your mouth for that language?"

Hei wanted to point out that Byeong joo swore too much to have the right to say something like that, but ended up keeping her mouth shut. She pulled her hair over her shoulder and attempted to pull out the tangles from the part that got caught. It really was long—waist length, almost—and while it wasn't an easy task, it gave her something to do to turn her concentration away from the embarrassment. Byeong joo waited patiently (too patiently, in fact) for a long time, until his face lit up suddenly.

"I have an idea," he announced.

Hei glanced up at him. "I don't like your expression."

He gave her another smile, but for some reason, it wasn't as teasing as before, which meant Hei barely stopped herself from grinning back. There was something contagious about that look on his face.

"It's not a bad idea this time, I promise," he said. "Follow me. There's something I know here who might be a bit of help."

"Byeong joo," the woman whom he'd introduced as Bae Joohyun said, "I'm way too old to be doing this. I quit years ago."

Hei couldn't quite agree on theoldpart, because Joohyun was extremely pretty, and she couldn't be a year over twenty five. She remained standing behind Byeong joo, peering at her surroundings, curious and at the same time a bit shy. She had never really met anyone her age and the same gender that had treated her like their equal (in fact, Hei was sure that most of her siblings laughed at her behind their backs)—in fact, she could count on one hand the amount of times she'd seen someone like that. Apart from the maids, she'd been separated from everyone else her age. Miyeon had told her most children were, but Hei was beginning to wonder how true that was.

Joohyun's house was a significant amount larger than most of the ones she'd seen in Aesta, and it was also fancier. She was dressed in what felt like a cross between simple, commoner's clothing and the gowns she'd been forced to wear back at Hua—it wasn't as formal, though it was still fancy.

"Nonsense," Byeong joo replied. "Think of it as a favour."

"I don't owe you anything, Kim Byeong joo."

Hei felt her mouth drop open at the usage of his surname, and while she snapped it shut a split second later, Joohyun had already seen it. She didn't comment, though her eyes seemed to sparkle a bit.

"Do it to repay the favour you owe Eunho, then?" Byeong joo tried again.

Joohyun raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Who are you to squander Eunho's favour like that?"

"I'm Eunho's captain."

They had a staring contest for around thirty more seconds, before Joohyun finally threw up her hands. "I'm not doing this for you," she said with a warning jab at him. "Song Hei, right?" She threw Byeong joo a pointed glare. "Stay up here. I'll have your head if you break something again."

He grumbled something in response, and Hei gave him one last questioning glance before Joohyun ushered her into another room.

"How long do you want your hair?" Joohyun asked her, and she blinked in slight confusion. "It's quite long right now."

Hei tugged at a strand self consciously and opted for a nervous laugh. "I'm not too sure. I can't remember the last time I've cut it, and it was almost always just trimmed a bit. It's always been long. I really… have no idea. Byeong joo kind of proposed the idea on a whim because my hair got caught."

Joohyun leaned against the wall, a slight frown appearing. "That's going to be awfully inconvenient, darling," she murmured, "If I'm not wrong, you were part of the Song family not long ago? You probably had no need to cut your hair back then, but now that you're technically a runaway and a criminal, it's the safe route you want to go for. Back when I was in Byeong joo's crew, I kept my hair short. You don't know how easy it is for someone to grab it and you'll be at a huge disadvantage if that happens."

Hei swivelled around on the chair to look at Joohyun. "Youwere part of Byeong joo's crew?" she asked. She barely stopped herself from sayingyou don't look like it.

"Kim Byeong joo has a certain eye for people," she replied with a shrug. "It wasn't exactly the life for me, though I was there for a good four years before leaving. He still drops by to visit once in awhile. Keeps me updated on what he's up to." Joohyun picked up a lock of her, then held placed a finger on a point. "This long? I think you could go shorter. I can see short hair working pretty well on you."

Hei had never seen herself with short hair, so she couldn't quite say. She stared at the mirror in front of her as Joohyun asked her questions, and finally draped a towel over her and began to cut.

About twenty or so minutes later, what had been waist-length hair was barely touching her shoulders, a bit over her chin. Hei stared at the mirror as Joohyun combed out all the tangles. She still looked like herself, but at the same time, it wassodifferent. It was a lot lighter, and without the rest of her hair weighing it down, it was beginning to look a lot more wavy than before.

Joohyun smiled at her through the mirror. "That looks better.

Hei tugged at a strand of hair again. If she pulled it straight, it went past her shoulders by just a bit, though as soon as she released it, it bounced back to the original length. She did it to a few other locks before Joohyun laughed and untucked the towel from around her, shaking it off.

"I can see why Byeong joo wants you in his crew," she said as she tossed the towel in a bin. "You're pretty different from everyone else there, but it's a good sort of different. He needs someone like that once in awhile."

Hei's legs felt like jelly when she stood up again—sitting in the chair for so long had turned them numb—and she nearly slipped on the floor. "What do you mean?"

"Everyone was pretty uptight when I was there," she explained simply. "It was probably because Byeong joo used to push extremely hard and had high expectations of everyone. There were moments of joking around, but all in all, well…" Her eyes flickered to the door, almost as if she were checking whether or not Byeong joo was listening. "You know him. He's someone who won't stop until he reaches his goal, but at times I worry what that'll take. He needs someone next to him that can temperthat."

"I can't, though."

Joohyun tilted her head. "Can you? That's for you to answer yourself. Come on, let's go. He's probably already being impatient out there."

Hei brushed her dress off again, checking her reflection one more time. A girl she couldn't quite recognize fully stared back with serious eyes. She spent a couple more seconds taking in her image in the mirror, then turned to follow Joohyun into where Byeong joo was waiting.

Chapter 21

Warmth in the Cold

"Well," Joohyun said, "how is it?"

Hei shuffled her feet on the carpeted floor and fixed her gaze on one spot of the room that wasn't anywhere near Byeong joo. She wasn't used to the feeling of her hair grazing her shoulders—it wassodifferent compared to before—and she wasn't sure how it looked either. She could feel Byeong joo's gaze on her, though she decided against looking up. Staring at her feet seemed like a much better idea.

Byeong joo remained silent for a couple of seconds (which was a long time for him), then tilted his head (which Hei watched from her peripheral vision). "You haven't lost your touch yet, Joo."

Joohyun rolled her eyes. "Of course I haven't."

"And you won't be getting your hair caught everywhere now, Song Hei," Byeong joo grinned down at her. "That's a major improvement."

Hei couldn't help herself and glanced up. He was still looking at her, and self consciously, she reached up and patted her hair down. She couldn't get used to the feeling whatsoever, and it was even worse that he was still looking at her. "You're staring," she couldn't help but add in an attempt to make him look away.

He raised an eyebrow. "Stealing my lines now?"

'"Stop staring' is two words. They don't belong to anyone and I'm free to use them as I like."

"They're my lines," Byeong joo repeated stubbornly. "You don't have my permission to use them."

Hei had forgotten all about her haircut for the time being. Scowling at Byeong joo was more favourable. He still had that teasing half smile there which she was itching to wipe off, though she couldn't think of a response that could even counter his stupidity. Joohyun saved her from having to.

"You better be off when you still have the better part of the day to do something," she said. "Drop by next time. And bring more people. I don't want to just see you."

"Especially Junhyuk?" Byeong joo asked.

Joohyun threw her scissors at him.

It was nearing midday when they left Joohyun's house, and Hei couldn't stop tugging at her hair. It got to the point where Byeong joo paused and asked her what exactly was wrong and whether and not she even liked her haircut, and to that, Hei let go of the lock she was pulling at.

"Joohyun did a good job," she said, fighting the urge to reach up again. It was like she constantly needed to remind herself of the fact that her hair was no longer long by running her fingers through it, and as much as Hei wanted to stop it, she found herself doing it unconsciously when she wasn't thinking about it. "I'm just not used to having it this short. It's always been that length before."

"Have you seen yourself in a mirror yet?"

"Yeah, there was one in the room we were in."

Byeong joo gave a shrug. "Then you'll know it looks perfectly fine. You'll get used to it soon, so stop tugging on it now."

There was a sort of nagging in his tone that reminded her of the way Eunho spoke to him, and Hei couldn't help but roll her eyes at it because Byeong joo had no right to be nagging(he was the kind of person whoshould'vebeen nagged). "Yes, captain."

He raised an amused eyebrow. "What was that?"

Hei hid her face and moved forward, hoping he'd follow and drop it, which, to her relief, he did.

The main street of Aesta, which was what they seemed to be in, was a lot busier than it had been in the morning. Vendors had set up stalls for the day, selling things that ranged from fruits to jewelry. It was bustling with people, a large majority of which were women, some pulling children along. Hei felt out of place walking beside Byeong joo, and she was pretty sure others noticed too. She didn't miss the glances directed towards them.

"You said you got in a fight with someone the last time you were here," she tried a bit nervously. "Are they going to show up again?"

Byeong joo snorted. "They can try. Are you hungry?"

He didn't sound particularly worried, which was pretty comforting, though Hei wasn't quite convinced. He disregarded a lot of things in front of her that were actually huge, and she couldn't quite tell if this was one of those moments and if he really didn't view it as much. "Not really."

"I'll buy you candied fruits," he decided. "Hyunmin loved them. I think he's in my crew because of them."

Hei was about to protest, though her stomach decided on that moment to rumble and she let him lead her into the direction of the stall.

Three minutes later, she was staring at the candy-glazed fruits strung on a stick dubiously and wondering why Kim Hyunmin seemed to think so highly of it. It didn't look like anything special, really, though Byeong joo had been insistent. She held it in front of her as they squeezed through the crowd.

"Try it," Byeong joo urged. "Seriously. I'll question Kim Hyunmin's tastes in literally everything—choice of weapon, the stuff he wears, women—but he actually knows good apart from bad when it comes to food."

"You told me not to trust Kim Hyunmin because he decided that your front door should be in a tavern, though."

"Only trust Hyunmin when it comes to food."

When they finally got away from the most crowded part of the street, she took a tentative bite out of the first fruit. It wasn't big—around the size of a strawberry—but Hei didn't want to take a huge bite in case she didn't like it afterwards. For the first couple of seconds, she couldn't pinpoint whether or not the fruit was leaning towards sour or sweet, and then she decided that it was more sweet. The sugarcoated layer worked surprisingly well with the inside, and she took another bite from it. Byeong joo seemed to be a cross between amused and curious about her reaction.

He found a place not far from the beach for them to sit down at, and waited patiently as she ate. After a couple minutes of awkward silence, Hei snuck a glance at him.

He caught her. "Staring again?"

Hei completely missed where she bit down next. "I was going to ask if you're hungry."

He swung his legs around so he was sitting criss-crossed on the bench, facing her. "Touched by the concern, but not really. I don't like sweets."

She was about to tell him that she frankly didn't care when her vision blurred in front of her, and a figure moved behind Byeong joo that she hadn't noticed before.

Then she realized that the child running past him was more or less see through, and that he'd basically appeared out of thin air and was moving pastasByeong joo was also moving. Hei nearly dropped the candied fruits in hand and screamed, though she was too shocked to do so.

Byeong joo followed her gaze. "What?" he asked, sounded more confused than worried. "Hello, are you—"

"I canhearyou," she managed aloud, still trying to follow the translucent boy who was beginning to disappear from where she could see. "But that—that had to be a memory segment, there's no other explanation—"

He squinted towards the distance. "What did you see?"

The child had disappeared, though Hei still couldn't quite get over the feeling of shock and she kept on trying to look around for what would be the hints of something similiar. It had returned to the same scenery—the waves of the ocean lapping at the sand, the loudness of the town which had faded to a quieter murmur. There was no sign of what had happened before anywhere, and she was left staring around in confusion and trying to figure out what exactly had happened.

"That's not a memory segment," Hei said, though the words came out shaky. "You were moving and I could hear you and the child was translucent, which shouldn't happen—"

"Calm down," he interrupted, and she broke off and blinked at him. "I'm positive that it was. Your power isn't going to remain the same throughout the whole time you're here. It's probably an improvement that you're seeing it without actually being frozen in the memory. That would be horribly inconvenient in a lot of other situations."

He sounded so calm about it all that Hei quieted down, though she still tried to find what she'd seen before. It was fruitless. She turned back to look at Byeong joo, who was watching her with a curious expression.

"So?" he asked after a moment of silence. "What exactly did you see? I'm pretty sure this a huge improvement. I suppose Nam Yejun teaching you was actually of use."

Hei stared down at her hands. "It wasn't that much. I normally get frozen in the memory segment when I see it and I can't hear my other surroundings or even see them, but this time I could still hear you talking when the boy ran past. And he was more… translucent than actually solid. He kept flickering out." She frowned. "Are you sure that that's an improvement?"

"I'm pretty sure you're not getting worse," Byeong joo said drily. "If you were, that'd just be tragic."

Hei tried to reach for that same tug she felt whenever she connected with her power, though she couldn't feel it anywhere. She had been able to forcefully throw herself into a memory segment the past couple of days, but all of the things she'd seen had been on the mundane side. This was different, though—she wasn'ttrappedinside of her own power for once, though at the same time, it was frustrating because she couldn't force herself into using her power.

Her shoulders dropped. "I can't see anything anymore. I hate my power."

Byeong joo uncrossed his legs and sat up straight. "Are you saying that just because you're having trouble doing what you just did?"

Hei had no idea why it had even come out, though she figured it didn't just stem from that. It had gotten better, especially after leaving Hua and having Eunho and Yejun teach her. Being able to actuallydosomething with her power was exhilarating at times, no matter how hard the process was, but there were also plenty of other moments when she wished she had something else as a power. Maybe then her family would've treated her better. Maybe then she would've been more useful, it wouldn't be so hard, and maybe then she would've grown up actuallybelongingwith everyone around her.

She didn't even realize she was glaring at the ground in front of her until Byeong joo leaned over. "Song Hei?"

Blinking, she shook her head. "It's nothing."

He looked like he had something to add to that, but after a short moment, he gave her a slight smile. "It's frustrating. I know it is."

Do you, really?she wanted to ask.You've grown up being gifted with your power.

Byeong joo must've gotten what she was thinking, because he opened his palm.

She glanced towards him in confusion, but less than three seconds later, a small sphere of water was levitating a couple of inches above his hand, the sunlight making it appear blinding. Byeong joo let it stay there for a couple of moments before he shut his palm and the water splashed down to the ground, splattering against the pavement.

"You know how long I spent perfecting that skill?" he asked.

Hei opened her mouth, thought twice, then snapped it shut.

"Three years to be able to do it, five to perfect it." Byeong joo's hand dropped back onto his lap. "I was forced to spend hours practicing it everyday, and it was a tedious process. Probably the most painful thing I've ever had to learn. But do you know how I managed to escape from my family that day? I drowned nearly half of the inner city with water that I'd pulled from the air. I probably would've died that day along with Heejin if I hadn't learnt it."

She suddenly had no appetite to eat the candied fruits anymore. "Eight years."

"Well, it's obviously not going to take you eight years, and neither do wehaveeight years," Byeong joo replied with a shrug. "The process is painful, but the product is worth it. You'll find so much more use for your power sooner and later, so don't hate it."

"Easier said than done," she mumbled, though he stood up abruptly and Hei wasn't sure if he even heard her.

"Let's go," he said. "There's a lot more I wanted to do in Aesta today, and it's not going to happen if we sit here talking about these things. It's supposed to be a fun day." He eyed the fruits she held in her hand. "Also, if you're not going to eat that, I want it."

They spent the rest of the day going through Aesta and doing small things. By the time afternoon was drawing to a close, she was lugging a bagful of things behind her that Byeong joo thought was necessary to buy. She wasn't sure how he had so much money to spend, but ithadbeen a fun day either way and Hei was smiling despite herself at the end. There was something awfully contagious about Byeong joo's constant grinning that she couldn't ignore, no matter how hard she tried, so she decided to give into it (just for today,she told herself). She couldn't remember the last time (and if it had even ever happened) she'd spent a whole day just relaxing and doing things for pure enjoyment, and it wasnice.

There had been a couple more times when she'd stumbled across the half-translucent figures, though it was nothing huge and they were nowhere near as inconvenient as the previous memory segments were. By the end, Hei could easily ignore them.

The sun was beginning to dip when Byeong joo made an abrupt turn into an alleyway. The setting sun was making everything darker, shadows elongating, and it definitely wasn't the time to be taking shortcuts.

"Where are we going?" she asked, hurrying so her pace matched Byeong joo's.

"There's one last person I need to visit," he replied. "For the map. Remember when Nam Yejun brought up the other day that I couldn't navigate through Hell's Gate even if I did get past the Guardian? He's wrong. A map does exist, and I know the exact person who has it."

Hei was pretty sure that the area they were heading for wasn't exactly the safest place in town, especially when they were straying so far from the main street, walking through more secluded area. Aesta didn't exactly scream safe at her in general, even during the day, but with the dying light, it was even worse.

"Are you sure we shouldn't go back and do it the next day?"

Byeong joo glanced back at her, eyes flickering from her face to her hands. His mouth formed anObefore he reached an arm out. "Give me that," he said. "I forgot you were carrying it."

Hei handed the bag off to Byeong joo without another complaint. She wasn't going to pass by on an opportunity like that. "So?"

"And yeah, I'm sure. It's notthatlate. Nothing really…" He made a face. "Badhappens around this time because people are still sorting through stalls and closing for the day. I'd hate to have to deal with anything later, though. It gets messy here, especially if word spreads that I'm back again. I think we can get this dealt with quick."

"So who is it that you're going to see?"

Shadows seemed to flicker across his face when he blinked, eyes more serious than she'd seen for the day.Thatcouldn't have been a good sign. "He goes by Nano," Byeong joo said, and there was no hiding how terse his tone had gotten. "His full name is Kim Nano. Most of the town is terrified of him because there's rumors he meddles in dark magic and is basically insane, but that 'magic' they're talking about is just because his mother was the daughter of a family member." His jaw tightened. "I wouldn't necessarily disagree that he's psychotic."

That was nowhere near reassuring.

Byeong joo must've read her expression. "I'll handle it," he said. "He'll probably give it up if I can find a good deal."

Hei swallowed the lump of fear in her throat and told herself that Byeong joo had it under control, just like all the previous situations, though she couldn't help but wonder as they headed through the dark.

The place that Nano lived in didn't appear like much at first glance—almost similar to the houses she'd seen lining the streets of Aesta—but when Byeong joo pushed the door and entered, the interior was extremely different.

It wasn't exactly a homely place—the walls were lined with what looked like pendants, and the narrow pathway led to a table on the other side that was filled with a display of miscellaneous objects that Hei couldn't name. There was a shelf on her right side, stacked to the top with potions of all colors and sizes. The place was lit up with lanterns hanging from the top of the ceiling, casting a warm glow, though it was anything but warm.

Then her eyes landed on the figure that was hunched down on the table at the end of the room and Hei had to stifle a gasp.

His eyes were the most horrifying part—he was obviously blind, though his eyes looked like someone had purposely destroyed them. She couldn't quite tell his age, though he couldn't have been more than thirty. Hei took a slight step behind Byeong joo. There was something extremely unnerving about Nano, and she wanted to leave right away.

She watched, slightly horrified, as he turned into their direction. His voice was still sharp when he spoke, though there was something eerie about it that Hei couldn't quite place a finger on.

"Who is it?" He tilted his head. "I'm not open for readings at such a godforsaken hour."

Byeong joo's footsteps echoed loudly against the wooden floor as he approached the front of the table. "Remember me, Kim Nano?"

The man seemed to tense up on the spot, and then he relaxed and his lips curled into an unpleasant smile. It wasn't the teasing sort of grin that always seemed to find its way onto Byeong joo's face—this one was malicious, calculating, and extremely unsettling.

"Byeong joo," Nano said. "Back here again so soon? Who did you bring with you this time? Your first mate—Eunho, wasn't it?—put up quite the struggle last time you were both here. Did he come and visit again? I remember him swearing he'd never come back."

Byeong joo's eyes flickered, and Hei could see the obvious uncertainty written beside it. Apart from that, Nano obviously unnerved him ontosomelevel. It wasn't new, butKim Byeong jooanduncertainput together made her nervous too. The expression evaporated in a second, though, and Byeong joo pulled out the wooden chair from in front of the table and nodded at Hei. "Sit down," he said.

There was a no-arguing tone in his voice, and while Hei really didn't want to be so anywhere remotely close to Nano, she inched towards the chair and sat down.

Nano's expression went from surprised to curious and finally to amused. "A girl, am I right? Finally found someone to warm your bed, Byeong joo? It's been years since I've known you and this is a first."

Hei shot a glance at Byeong joo, slightly nervous to see his reaction. It was obvious he didn't have the best of pasts with Kim Nano (she couldn't really blame him for that), but she had yet to see him lose his temper and she didn't exactly want to.

"She's a crew member," he replied, though his tone had gotten snappish. A vein ticked in his temple. "I'm here for the map."

"Which map?"

"You know which map." Byeong joo pressed his palms flat on the surface of the table, mere centimeters from knocking over a displayed globe. "You told me I could have it if I brought you the jewel from the Do family, and that's what I did."

Nano tilted his head. "Did I really ask you to do that? I heard you got into a lot of trouble with the Do family because of it."

He reached into the pocket of his coat and pulled out something, one hand still pressed against the table. The more Hei watched him, the more she realized—he wasreallystruggling to control his temper, which was odd, because Byeong joo was normally someone who had a firm grasp over his emotions. Either Nano had done somethingextremelyterrible to him in the past (which Hei was doubting, because knowing Byeong joo, if that happened, she wasn't sure if the man would even be alive if he tried something like that) or there was something else.

His mother was a daughter of a family member,Byeong joo had said on the way there.Most of the town is terrified of him because there's rumors he meddles in dark magic.

If it was Nano's magic—or power—that was messing with Byeong joo… well, Hei really had no idea what to do apart from watching quietly from the sidelines and perhaps intervene if it really was necessary.

Byeong joo's hands were trembling from barely-contained anger when he set down a jewel the size of small rock.

Hei blinked at it, almost horrified that Byeong joo had been carrying something like that in his pocket all day (though it did seem to be a very Byeong joo thing of him to do). It could've easily fallen out if he hadn't been careful, or if a thief or pickpocket decided to nab it…

Nano reached forward, fingers running across the table's surface before they finally met the gem that Byeong joo had placed down. Hei couldn't quite place what color it was the longer she looked—she had thought it was white on first glance, but then there was the flicker of other colors—greens, blues, reds, all sort of hues she could name—and the more she stared at it, the more uncertain she felt.

Then Nano pulled it back, wrapped his whole hand around it, and Hei was left trying to picture the jewel in her head and decide on which color it had been.

"So?" Byeong joo asked. "I got the jewel for you. Give me the map now."

Nano tossed the gem into his left hand, then back to his right. "Do you really think this is a fair trade, Byeong joo?"

He grit his teeth. "What else do you want?"

"I got to read Eunho last time you two dropped by here, didn't I? It gets a bit boring staying in this place for so long. I'll give you the map if you let me read you."

Byeong joo visibly stiffened, though he played it off with a laugh. It came out easily, though Hei wasn't sure if she was just hearing it wrong or if his voice actually shook. "You still can't leave this place? I guess you shouldn't have challenged that family member. Now you can't even take a step out of this house. Pity."

He obviously hit some sort of sore spot, though Nano only mirrored the laugh. "Save me the pity and stop trying to change the topic. It's painfully obvious. Will you let me read you or not? Eunho offered for you last time, but that just makes me curious, Byeong joo—what is it exactly that you don't me to see—no, that you don't wantanyoneto see?"

Hei glanced at Byeong joo. His right hand was lingering at his hip again, where his cutlass was sheathed, and he looked like another word was going to prompt him to draw it. She'd never seen him like that—he hadn't even looked that way during his fight with Noah.

She wasn't too sure howreadingeven worked, but Eunho obviously hadn't thought highly of it if he vowed to never come back. And if Byeong joo didn't want to do it, then it was possibly related to seeing his past and at least something related to that. It also reminded her of Yejun's power—clairvoyance.It was definitely different and Yejun was probably way more powerful, but he'd called it reading too when he talked about his power to see through things.

"I'll do it," she blurted, and both Byeong joo and Nano turned abruptly in her direction.

Hei wasn't sure what had possessed her to say such a thing, but maybe it was because something told her that it was the right moment to intervene, especially with Byeong joo beginning to look so ticked off. She was pretty sure he would've tried to stab Kim Nano with his cutlass if she waited any longer.

The anger slowly dispersed from his face. "Hei, you don't know what he's going to do—"

"It's fine," she cut in thickly, even though she was beginning to regret it. "Yejun's power is kind of like that too, right? It'll be fine."

Byeong joo's eyebrows furrowed, then he pressed his lips together tightly. "I'm sure there's another alternative than this. Nano, I'm pretty sure it's not that hard to find a better deal."

"This works." Hei didn't like the look on his face at all, though it was too late to back out. "I'll give you the map for the Do family's gem and if you let me read her."

Ignoring Nano, Byeong joo turned to look glance her direction. "Hei," he said, warning evident in his voice. "He's nowhere like Yejun. The reading he's talking about is nowhere near what Yejun does. It's literally sifting through your past emotions. Why do you think the town comes to him believing that he's a fortune teller?"

She forced a smile at him. "That doesn't sound that bad."

Before Byeong joo could say anything else, Nano turned towards her. It was unnerving just looking at him—his ruined eyesshould'vebeen the most unsettling part of his face, but somehow, it was the way he smiled that made Hei shudder. It was like heknewsomething bad was going to happen, and accepted—no, enjoyed—that fact.

"Now you're just making me more curious," he said. "You let Eunho go ahead with it without this much protest last time in your place—now this girl is offering. Aren't you going to let her?"

Byeong joo grit his teeth. "No."

"Then you're not getting the map, I guess," Nano laughed. His mocking tone seemed to grow. "Are you really going to let something this small get between you and what you want?"

For the longest moment, Byeong joo didn't move or speak, fingers tightening so much that his knuckles turned an alarming shade of white. Part of Hei wanted him to say no—whatever Nano was talking about definitely didn't sound the least bit pleasant and she wanted to avoid it if possible—but the other part of her knew that they wouldn't be leaving without the map and the best route would be to get it over with, quickly. Finally, with each moment growing longer than the last, Byeong joo broke the silence. "Fine," he said shortly. "Hei, if you're sure…"

She gulped. "I'm sure."

Byeong joo fixed a heated glare at Nano, even though the latter was blind. "You'd better not pull anything else," he hissed.

"Or what? You'll kill me?" Nano gave a laugh. "Both of us know that that's just going to end in two tragedies." He turned in Hei's direction. "Hei, is it? Give me your hand."

She shot one more glance at Byeong joo. He looked both angry and worried, though he didn't stop her when she outstretched her right hand tentatively in Nano's direction.

His hands were ice cold when they wrapped around hers. All of a sudden, the whole roomed felt several degrees cooler, and Hei found herself shivering nonstop the moment she made contact with him.

"A heads up," he said. There was a glint in his eyes—even though they were supposedly unseeing—that made her shiver more than the temperature did. "I've been told that it's best to close your eyes before I read you. For your own good, that is."

Hei gave another attempt at swallowing the lump in her throat, though it didn't seem to want to go away. Barely a split second passed after she squeezed her eyes shut when a painful jolt ran up her arm.

Her first reaction was to attempt to rip her hand away from Nano's and open her eyes, though she found that she couldn't move at all. None of her limbs obeyed her, and the only thing Hei could do was internally scream at the pain. She hadn't thought it would be so bad—when Byeong joo mentioned reading, the first thing that came to mind was the slight discomfort she got whenever Yejun used his power on her—but that wasnothingcompared to the pain she got from Nano.

The pain was beginning to ebb away, though Hei still couldn't move. She wanted to open her eyes, though no matter what she did, she couldn't do so. Just when she thought it was over, an overwhelming wave of pain swept over her again.

Except this time, it wasn't actually pain. Hei was pretty sure she would've doubled over if she could move—this wasn't evenphysical,and it wasn't exactly pain—it was the distinct feeling of fear—raw, inordinate, and completely suffocating—the same feeling she'd been through too many times to count back in Hua. The dark nothing around her didn't help—it reminded her a littletoo muchof Miyeon, the lock of the basement door clicking shut above her and the ropes around her wrist. Hei was struggling for breath by the time the fear passed on, though before she could recover from it, the fear was replaced by a bitter resentment, disappointment, humiliation.Never good enough for your family. A failure. Useless.It came one by one, all the negative emotions piled up over the years, things she'd been most afraid it resurfacing just after she'd managed to bury them.

Her vision flickered to life then, and one by one memories appeared before her. They were nothing pleasant (in fact, Hei wasn't sure if she couldthinkof any actuallypleasantmemories from Hua), things that she'd tried to leave in the past because thinking of it was unfathomably terrifying. Miyeon was there again, arms folded across her chest and holding the strap in one hand and glaring down at her. Hei was fifteen again, hands held out in front of her, red and burning from the amount of times Miyeon had hit her.

Then there was the basement, the most terrifying part of the house. It was dark, without any windows, and the door could be locked from the outside. She wasn't too sure what Miyeon had tied her wrists against, but they wouldn't come free no matter how hard she pulled. It was too cold and scary down there to fall asleep, and Hei had spent the rest of the night huddled in a ball and attempting to tame her tears. She would just be yelled at more if Miyeon found out she had been crying.

There were also small things—too numerous to count, though still there—the crushing feeling of disappointment for not being able to use her power properly; anger at herself for being so useless (because according to Miyeon it was her fault, and it was something Hei had started to believe after hearing it so often); resentment at life for being so unfair. Why did her siblings have it so much easier? It wasn't like she hadn't tried. What exactly had she done wrong to end up with a stupid, unusable power?

She barely noticed when the memories stopped playing before her and her visioned darkened once again. It was only when she felt Nano retract his grip from her hand that Hei actually sat back, jolting so hard in her seat that she nearly fell out of it.

The room seemed blindingly bright when her eyes snapped open. She would've fallen off if Byeong joo hadn't steadied her.

If Hei could have moved, she might've curled up in a ball and stayed there. The room seemed more disorientating than it had been before (and it was alreadybad),her head hurt, and she wasn't over the painful rush of emotions and memories that Nano had forced her through. Hei could barely even feel Byeong joo's hand against her side, nor could she make out what exactly he was saying (he seemed to be asking something along the lines of whether and not she was okay). The aftermath of whatever reading Nano had done to her still lingered, the blow more shocking than anything she'd ever received. The fear, the pain, the anger was still lingering, strangely magnified even though she'd technically snapped back into reality.

Byeong joo and Nano were still conversing in hushed tones (and maybe she just couldn't hear properly). Byeong joo gave her one more worried once over before his chair scraped underneath him and he stood up to his full height. "Give me the map now," he said. "You've gotten what you wanted."

Nano smiled in her direction. "I'm sure our Hei here will be fine, won't she? It might be a bit shocking. Some people says the aftereffects takes days to wear off. Or weeks. Let's hope she's not one of those people, shall we?"

Hei had a distinct feeling that Nanodidthink she was exactly what he was talking about. The urge to curl up in a small space increased.

"The map," Byeong joo gritted out.

"Her memories are quite interesting," Nano continued, and Hei scooched closer to Byeong joo. "I was wondering if it was a good deal to read her instead of you, Byeong joo, but seeing all that was definitely worth—"

Faster than Hei could catch, Byeong joo had drawn his cutlass and lunged at Nano. The other man flinched back, though his speed was nowhere near Byeong joo's and a second later, Byeong joo had back Nano into the wall with the blade pressed to his throat.

"The map," he hissed. "Don't give me that bullshit of not being able to kill you. Trust me, there's things worse than death out there and I'm capable of making all of them happen to you. You think you know pain? Think again."

Visible fear flickered around Nano's face, though he masked it up with a slightly strangled laugh. "I never said I'm not giving you the map."

"Then get itnow."

Nano stumbled back, a hand going to his throat where a thin, angry red line of blood had been drawn. Byeong joo watched him with a murderous expression as he hobbled away towards a door at the back of the room, fingers travelling along the wall for direction. It was only when he disappeared through the door that Byeong joo turned back.

He gave her a once-over, eyebrows drawing together again. "Are you alright?"

Her hands were still trembling, though Byeong joo looked mad enough and Hei didn't want to do anything that would make it worse. She forced herself to nod, though she couldn't quite get anything out.

Byeong joo didn't look extremely convinced, but before he could say anything else, Nano reentered.

Hei told herself to shake off the memories and concentrate what was going on, though it was hard. Everything seemed to be separated by a glass wall, and Byeong joo's voice was getting fainter and fainter. She could stillhearhim, though it was a disconnected, incomprehensible cadence of syllables she couldn't quite piece together. She watched as Nano handed him a rolled piece of parchment paper and he tucked into his pocket, though nothing reallyclickedproperly before he placed a surprisingly gentle hand on her shoulder and told her they were leaving.

Hei flinched back so violently the moment he touched her that she nearly cracked her head on the back of the chair. It was an unnecessary reaction, and she knew, though she couldn't really help it either.

Byeong joo frowned. "Hei? We're going."

She swallowed thickly. Nano couldn't possibly see, but at the same time, he seemed to be watching them with that same unsettling look, like heknewwhat she was thinking and feeling. She was beginning to understand what Byeong joo meant when he said the man was psychotic. He was on another level of insane.

When she didn't respond, Byeong joo gave her arm a slight tug so she was forced to stand up. Hei stumbled forward a couple of steps, barely able to stand properly, though Byeong joo steadied her before she completely tipped over.

"I don't suppose you'll be visiting anytime soon?" Nano called after them.

Byeong joo's features contorted with anger, barely contained, though he managed to rein it in. "Let's go," he grunted. "I don't want to deal with this bastard any longer."

The bells on the front door chimed when Byeong joo pushed it open, and then Hei was hit with a faceful of cold wind. She wasn't even five steps away from the building when her legs decided that it would be a good time to give away under her.

He caught her before she completely fell over. Hei was torn between embarrassed and just staying there, because Byeong joo's grip was firm and anchoring and she was too exhausted both physically and mentally to do anything about it. She was also shivering, though she wasn't sure if it was from Nano and if it was because it was actually cold outside.

"Hei," he said again, voice a lot gentler than before. "Are you alright?"

Her teeth chattered when she nodded.

He obviously didn't buy it, though she supposed that one didn't have to be Nam Yejun to see through the blatantly obviously lie. Hei watched, a bit unsure of what was happening, as he shrugged off the black and gold coat he'd been wearing all day. She had no idea what he was doing until he draped it over her, and even after that, she stared up at him in confusion and a bit of shock. It was warm, comfortably so, and whatever material the coat was made out of shielded out the biting wind.

"Do I have to pull your arms through for you too?" he asked. "Put it on. You're cold. You're going to freeze to death at this rate, and that'd be plain irresponsible of me."

She threaded her arms through after a couple seconds of confused thought.

Byeong joo adjusted the collar of the coat for her until it was straight, then gave her a smile that seemed a bit sad. He didn't look angry anymore, Hei noted in the back of her mind, and that was reassuring. "I'm sorry that I let that happen."

Hei shook her head this time. "It was my choice."

"That's not it." His gaze was distant, elsewhere, lingering somewhere off in the distance where Hei couldn't see. "The point isn't whether and not it's your choice to do something. A captain isn't just supposed to boss around his crewmates and give orders. They're also supposed to take responsibility for them—their wellbeing, their lives, all of that—and I've done a pretty terrible job of that recently."

Unsure of how to respond to it, Hei just stared at him. He looked particularly...well, she wasn't quite sure of the word to describe it—at least not exactly—though there was something oddly entrancing about his features under the pale light of the moon, something that made her look twice and then again and again until she couldn't tear her gaze away. It was a momentary thing, though for a second, she could toss away all the previous jumble of negative emotions from before.

Then he turned around so his back was to her and then knelt down.

"Get on," Byeong joo said.

Hei blinked in confusion. "What?"

"Get on my back," he repeated again, sounding a lot more patient than she expected from Kim Byeong joo. "You're obviously in no shape to continue walking. I can carry you back through the town."

Hei shook her head, then remembered he couldn't exactly see her because he still had his back to her. "It's fine, I can walk—"

"An idiot can see you're absolutely drained."

Hesitating, she stared down at him. He didn't move from the spot, not wavering, and after a couple seconds of thought, she gave in and wrapped her arms around his neck tentatively. It was too tempting an offer to give up, and Byeong joo was right—shewastired, and walking back through Aesta seemed to be an impossibly tiring thing to do.

Fifteen seconds later, with her arms (tucked in the too-long sleeves of Byeong joo's coat) wrapped tightly around his neck (in case she would fall off) and a strong grip supporting her, Byeong joo had started forward again. Hei kept her head at a fair distance away from him—the proximity already felt overwhelming, and it was also slightly awkward because she had never related Byeong joo as one who'd be sympathetic and even so gentle withanybody—though there was something soothing about the up and down pattern of his steps that made her feel drowsy. She still couldn't quite shake off what had happened with Nano, though sleep was enough to tug it away from her, just out of reach but still there.

Before she knew it, her head had landed on his shoulder, and the sounds around her faded to a muffled hum. Byeong joo didn't comment on it either, just continued forward with the same silence around them—silence that seemed to wrap around like a blanket—and Hei didn't want to move after that. It was undeniably comforting with her head on his shoulder, a substantial grip around her, and despite everything that had happened a little while ago, Hei found herself drifting off, too exhausted to fight sleep and feeling surprisingly safe with Kim Byeong joo.

Chapter 22

Light in the Dark

Hei woke up with Byeong joo tugging on her hand, and she lifted her head, extremely disoriented and still exhausted. She definitely hadn't slept long enough, which was proven true when she realized that the lights of Aesta were still glimmering faintly behind them and the sea in front. Byeong joo was still carrying her, though he'd stop walking and was standing on the beach, next to the boat they'd taken to get to the island.

He turned his head a bit so that he was looking at her. "Awake?"

She tried to blink sleep from her eyes. "Where are we?"

"Going back to the ship." He nudged the boat with his foot. "Can you walk by yourself? I don't think this'll hold if we both sit on one side. You can go sleep as soon as we get back, alright?"

She still wasn't used to him being so nice—even if it was just temporary and because what had happened back at Nano's place—and it took her a couple of moments to even respond. Byeong joo had to remind her again for her to actually remember.

Her steps ended up still a bit shaky when Byeong joo set her down, and it seemed like whatever Nano had done had somehow messed with her balance because she nearly stumbled over again. Byeong joo steadied her without a word, and Hei stepped into the front of the boat. It had been warm—nicely so—on Byeong joo's back, but now that she was by herself again, the cold night air had begun to seep through his coat too. It would've been much worse without it, but now she wanted something warmer. Preferably Byeong joo.

She shook the thought out as soon as it surfaced, horrified at herself.

Both of them kept silent as Byeong joo pushed the boat off shore and they started off again. Hei found herself drifting off every couple of minutes, though the cold wind was enough to keep her awake, along with the swirling torrent of memories that seemed to come back now that her mind was clearer. She couldn't quite shake any of them off, and even though it was nowhere as bad as it had been in the exact moment where she'd felt the overwhelming flow of emotions back with Nano, the lingering aftereffect was a bitter taste that bothered her almost as much. She could ignore it if she really tried—concentrating on something else worked—but only for a little while. She'd thought the reading would be a simple thing—Byeong joo had a reason for being so adamant in trying to stop her.

Then again, what would've happened if it happened to him too? He'd already been slipping over the edge with his temper back there—if Nano had tried to read him, it was possible that he would've tried to destroy the whole place.

The moon was filtering through the clouds by the time they got back to the ship. Hei's hands were trembling so bad around the ladder rungs that she nearly slipped, twice, though she managed to make it to the top on her own. The deck was empty, devoid of life, until she saw Eunho's silhouette on the helm. He headed down the stairs towards them just as Byeong joo appeared over the side too.

"You're back a lot later than I expected," he said simply. "We should be setting off at this time. I don't know how well the wind will hold up, but it's best if we get out of Aesta as soon as possible. The Song family's doubled the price on your head and hers."

Hei flinched at the mention of her family, and Eunho's eyes trailed over hers. His eyebrows furrowed. "Are you alright?"

What was there to tell, really?No?The answer felt obvious, but anomeant that she'd have to go into details explaining, and that was one thing she definitely didn't want to do. She already felt too vulnerable, and the last thing she needed was breaking down in front of both Byeong joo and Eunho.

"I'm just tired," she mumbled. "I'm going… I'm going to go sleep now."

She felt both Eunho and Byeong joo's gazes on her as she headed for the stairs, though Hei was too tired to look back at the two of them. Her steps seemed especially heavy when she descended, the darkness more black than she remembered it being, and while the silence was exceptionally pressing around her, she found herself curling up on the bed of her cabin nevertheless. In less than five minutes, she was asleep again.

Hei woke up in a cold sweat, heart pounding erratically in her chest and breath coming out in short, restricted intervals.

The room wasn't normally cold—the temperature was normally just right, especially with a layer of blankets over her—but her whole body was shaking. She'd somehow managed to kick off all of her blankets, and sitting alone in total, complete blackness, the room seemed to shrink until it was pressing down all around her suffocatingly.

And the darkness. She couldn't see a thing when she looked down at her hands, the lamp hadn't even left any embers, and there was no light slipped through the crack on the door.

While Heiknewit was different and where she was, she couldn't help the rising feeling of panic that was beginning to build in her chest. Her breath, which was already uneven, seemed to constrict in her throat like the darkness reallywaschoking her. She couldn't stop the fear crashing over her, and before she knew what she was doing, she'd stumbled out of her bed and into the hallway.

It was dark there, too, and only then did she realize that the ship wasn't steady and the sea was more or less working up a storm. A jolt sent her sideways, into the wall, though the pain in her left arm was muted and she barely felt it. Her heart was pounding so hard that her chest physically seemed to ache. There was no way she was going to be able to breathe with such darkness around her—she could barely make a distinction between where she was at and the basement at her house at Hua because both were so scarily dark—and the only thing she could think of was getting out.

She slipped on the wooden steps twice going up the stairs because she couldn't see, and by the time she finally grasped the doorknob, her hands and knees felt scraped. The pain didn't quite click either, though the door was shut extremely tight and she had to shove it hard to actually get it to open.

Cold sleet hit her the moment the door opened.

The cold was terrible—that reminded her of the basement just like the dark did—but the ocean air was fresh and that meant she wasn't trapped in an enclosed space anymore. She couldn't see the moon anywhere in the sky anymore because it was raining too hard for that, though she caught a glimpse of the waves, violent, tearing at the boat mercilessly.

Hei barely managed ten steps onto the deck when her legs gave out underneath her.

The rain pelted down viciously, soaking through the thin material of her dress and drenching her head to toe. She wondered briefly if she would freeze to death by staying up there, but that seemed to be a better option than going back down. Suffocating and freezing—the latter seemed better. There was no wayanyonewas making her go back down there into an enclosed, dark space.

She somehow managed to drag herself into a corner and curled up there, though it didn't do much to shield her from the elements. Shivering, she huddled there and tried to calm herself down, but it felt like an invisible hand had wrapped itself around her throat, constricting her airway. Each breath was more painful than the last, and it wasn't long after that she was struggling to breath.

Hei had no idea how long it was that she stayed in the corner, freezing sleet sloshing over her until her whole body felt numb. A feeling of despair that had already steadily risen was began to take over, and while the rational part of her brain knew she was being ridiculous, she couldn't help it anymore. Rationality wasn't going to help.

She might've stayed there and frozen to death, really, but at that moment, footsteps—jarring, because the only noise she'd heard the past while was the rain and waves and her own erratic breathing—sounded. It took all of her willpower to just lift her head.

Kim Byeong joo stood over her, also drenched, hands at his side and eyes wide with shock. For a long, long moment, Hei stared up at him and he stared back, as if too shocked for words, and then as if the situation had been slapped into him, he snapped into action again and bent down beside her.

A warm pair of hands landed on her arms, though Hei tried to shrug him off. It worked the first time, but she had no energy left to do so the second time around and he was persistent. Byeong joo somehow managed to pull her upright, kneeling in front of her so that she was shielded from most of the rain.

"Hei," he managed, and for the first time she'd seen him, he seemed to be at a loss for words. "Song Hei, are you even bre—how long have you been up here?"

Even if she could formulate an answer, her teeth were chattering too hard for her to speak. She couldn't really, though—Hei could barely concentrate on Byeong joo's features through blurring vision. She took a shaky breath.

"Hei," Byeong joo repeated, sounding a lot more sure of himself than the previous time. "You can't just stay up here. You're going to freeze. It's raining, for God's sake."

"I d-don't—" The next words refused to come out. "I—"

His eyebrows furrowed for a brief second before he sat down fully beside her. "You have to breathe."

"Can't—"

"Hei,breathe.Stop speaking for now. Follow me."

He took a breath in, and she tried to after him, though it didn't quite work out. Byeong joo resumed patiently, breathing in and out slowly until Hei finally managed to match his pace. A couple minutes later, her mind was clear enough to get out coherent words, though her teeth were still chattering non-stop.

Byeong joo sat back. "How long have you been up here?"

"D-don't know."

"You're going to freeze if you stay up here. You need to go back down."

She shook her head, nearly panicking all over again. The prospect of going back downstairs into the darkness, the suffocating room was too much to think about. "I don't want to go back there."

Byeong joo's eyes flickered to the door, then back to her again. "Why?"

"It's dark." Her voice quavered, though it was the best she could get out. "I don't want to go back there."

He looked genuinely worried this time, but there was a flicker of doubt—did he actuallycarefor her wellbeing? No one back had Hua really had. Even the people who were respectful to her were only so to her face. They mocked openly when they thought she wasn't looking, so was Byeong joo truly worried? Or more accurately—was he worried abouther,or was he worried about the girl who could get him through Hell's Gate? Hei had no idea where to draw the distinction, and she was afraid that it would end up being the latter. That was why she was there, after all—because Byeong joo needed her power for something.

"Let's go back down," he decided. "I'll light a lamp down in your room and get Eunho to take the wheel tonight. I can't have you freezing to death up here."

Hei didn't have the energy to struggle when he pulled her to her feet gently. It wouldn't be so bad as long as he had a light like he said, and the fact that there was someone there was also comforting.Even if he's just doing it because I'm another step for him to get closer to his end-goal, at least he's doing it, right?

"Wait here," he murmured. "I'll find a lamp before we go down."

It seemed like forever that Hei stood on her own, shivering, the rain still falling endlessly. She was beginning to wonder if he'd even come back when he appeared around the corner from his cabin, holding a flickering flame in his left hand. "Let's go," he said.

Hei stared at him for a couple moments. Sure, the lamp was light and that was better than no light, but even then, did she really want to go back down? There was no saying she wouldn't wake up with just more nightmares. Maybe if she didn't sleep, she'd be able to keep the memories at bay.

"Song Hei," Byeong joo repeated in a soft voice. "You're going to freeze up here if you don't go down. I promise it'll be fine."

"The dark—"

"We have a light." He extended his free hand towards her, and Hei stared at it in confusion. "Besides, there's fire here—I can control that, remember? It's not going to be dark."

Hei studied his hand for a couple more seconds, and then after a moment of uncertainty, took it. His hand closed around hers without a moment of hesitation, pulling her to her feet and steadying her. She might've protested if it had been any other situation, but his hands were warm and anchoring, and for some weird reason, his touch reminded her a bit of the glowing flame inside the lantern—warm, casting light and driving away the darkness.

The stairs creaked when they headed down, and each step left a trail of water behind her. The hallway wasn't nearly as dark with the lantern, shadows fleeing into the corners instead, and it just felt a lot safer with Byeong joo beside her. The door of her room had been left open—Hei hadn't even thought about closing it—and when they reached it, Byeong joo gave the lantern to her by the handle.

"Here," he said, and Hei nearly panicked again.

"You're leaving?"

"I need to grab a change of clothing and wake Eunho," he replied, "You should get a dry dress, too. There's no way you're going to go back to sleep like that. Besides, Eunho told me you liked neat. You're getting the carpet wet."

Hei wasn't too sure why, but his last couple of words brought a strange kind of reassurance. Everythingwasn'talright, she didn't feel anywhere near fine, but Byeong joo bringing something so mundane up was a little bit of a reassurance anyways.

He gave her one last small smile before shutting the door quietly behind him, leaving Hei standing in the middle of the room still holding the flickering lantern, water pooling around her on the ground.

For a long time, she stood still on her own, still trying to gather herself, and then finally set down the light on the bedside table. The wet dress was awfully uncomfortable and Hei didn't quite have the energy to do much more, so she pulled out the first thing she could find from her closet. Part of her wanted to at least fold her wet clothing instead of leaving it in the corner, because that was messy and she didn't like messy, but the more dominant part protested that she was too tired to do anything of the sort. She ended up curling on her bed again, staring at the flickering lamp and wondering when Byeong joo would come back. There was something comforting about him and his presence, like the lantern but as an actual human being.

It was odd to think about it—in fact, it gave her a headache to attempt to think back—but just around two weeks ago, she had absolutely detested Kim Byeong joo and would've given everything to get away from him. Hei had no idea how it ended up this way, and maybe she wasn't quite thinking straight, but at that moment, she had no complaints on it.

Two knocks sounded on her door, followed by Byeong joo's voice, muffled. "Can I come in now?"

"Yeah." Her voice came out as a croak.

It was a couple seconds later that he actually did open the door and peek in before stepping inside fully. He looked different in the lantern's light—tired, older, not a fearless pirate that Hei associated him with most of the time. He was towelling his hair dry with one hand when he nudged the door shut with a foot, eyes scanning over her for a couple of moments, a reserved, cautious look, before he headed over slowly.

He was so dressed down compared the morning—loose pants and a simple, one-colored short-sleeve t-shirt—that Hei had a hard time connecting him with the same man who had laughed at her for staring less than fifteen hours prior.

"Are you feeling better?" His voice was quiet, barely audible. "If you want to sleep, I can go right now—"

Hei shook her head frantically. "Don't."

Byeong joo looked torn for a moment, and then he finally sat down on the edge of her bed. "You're probably exhausted," he said. "You need to rest, Hei."

She shook her head again. The cold feeling was beginning to spread again. "I don't… I don't want to sleep."

"Why?"

She couldn't stop shivering. "Nightmares. It's too dark."

Byeong joo hesitated for a long moment, and then finally, tentatively, scooched closer on her bed so he wasn't just balanced on the very side. "Will it help if I stay?"

Thatsounded better. She nodded.

He swung his legs up so he was sitting properly on the bed. "Do you want to talk about it?"

She shook her head this time. "S'cold."

Byeong joo frowned down at her. "How are you still cold? These blankets are pretty thick."

Hei really had no idea, so she didn't answer him. He gave up with a sigh, though he sounded far from exasperated, before lifting the blankets and crawling under too, next to her. The lantern continued to flicker, casting shadows across the room, though light was better than no light. She could hear Byeong joo's breathing—it was rhythmic, a nice pattern to listen to, and she found herself relaxing.

"Hei," Byeong joo repeated. "Do you want to talk about it?"

She shook her head, then stopped. Would it hurt to talk about it? Sure, talking about it was uncomfortable, but she felt undeniably safe with Byeong joo, and maybe, just maybe it was worth the try to do so.

"How about I'll start with yes and no questions for now?" he asked. Before Hei could respond to it, he plowed on. "Is it the dark you're scared of?"

Hei glanced at the opposite wall, just past Byeong joo's face. It was flickering with shadow, but if she couldseethe pattern of the shadows, that meant it wasn't completely dark and that was better. She glanced back at Byeong joo.

It wasn't quite possible to read his expression, especially with the shadows contouring his features, though despite that, there was something about him that just seemed… trustworthy. Maybe it was the fact that he'd cared enough to actually stay, or maybe it was from before, up on the deck, when he'd managed to calm her down. He was reliable, he seemed tocare,he took notice of small details that no one had ever before, and all of that was something that no one had stopped to do for her back in Hua, and for that, she genuinely was thankful at Byeong joo for that.

"Hei?" he asked again.

"The dark, yeah," she managed, though her voice came out in a whisper. "It just reminds me… reminds me too much of Hua."

"Song Miyeon?"

She nodded again.

"Was it because of what happened back at Nano's place, then?"

Mentioning Nano made Hei shudder. She wasn't sure if Byeong joo could even see her answer.

"Did that remind you of your family?"

Thatwas worse, and Hei couldn't even get herself to move anymore. It was too jarring of a mentioning, especially so soon after, and she couldn't quite stop the influx of jumbled, angry thoughts that crashed through when he brought up her family. She didn't even know that she was shivering again until a warm hand landed on her arm.

"Hey," Byeong joo said gently. "It's alright. Breathe."

She took in a shaky breath as he continued. "You know, the one thing I find the hardest to do is to forget things that people have said to me. Especially when it's ingrained in your mind—it's a challenge in itself to ignore it, but to forget? That's nearly impossible, and I'm not going to ask you to. But let's go through all of that."

Hei frowned at him. The lantern in the corner was beginning to die down, but the dark wasn't nearly as bad with Byeong joo beside her and she could force herself to ignore it if she tried. "Go through what?"

"List me one thing your family's told you."

She frowned. "What?"

"One thing that your family—or Miyeon—tried to tell you you were."

Hei hesitated for a long, long moment. Dozens of words rose up, but she couldn't bring herself to say any of them.

"Hei," Byeong joo prompted.

"They said…" she trailed off, not quite able to meet his gaze. "That I couldn't use my power."

"Can you?" he asked back immediately. "I've seen major improvements in that since you've met me. Give me something else."

The word tumbled out before Hei could stop herself. "Useless."

His eyes seemed to burn, though the light might've been tricking her vision. "We both know that's not true. If they're to judge a person's worth by how much they can be 'used,' then they're to blind ones there. You've also helped me lots on this ship. Do you know how much harder it would've been when it came to Yejun if it weren't for you?"

Hei shook her head.

"Well, now you do. Next."

There was something about the blunt, clean-cut way he said things like he was just dishing out facts that made him seem strangely believable. Her voice got clearer as time progressed, and a couple minutes later, Hei was feeling better and better with each thing she listed to Byeong joo. By the time she got to the sixth one, it felt like someone had lifted something heavy from her back that she hadn't even realized she'd been carrying all along. Byeong joo continued speaking with surprising confidence, never faltering, until he asked for something else and Hei realized that she was out of things to say.

There was lingering, overwhelming silence for a couple of moments, before Byeong joo gave her a faint smile. "There's one thing you're missing," he said quietly. "You're brave."

Hei almost laughed aloud. She couldn't help but think back—she'd been too terrified to jump into the water back when she'd faced Jongup, she hadn't been able to deal with Nano reading her, she couldn't handle the dark (scared of the dark, atherage?). "Me?" she echoed after him. "That's not true."

"I was too scared to face Nano's reading," he pointed out, "yet you volunteered in my place. I warned you that it would be bad, but you still did it. That's bravery."

Hei shook her head. "Look where I ended up with that."

"For someone in your situation, you're still taking it rather well. Nano read Eunho too, and it took him weeks to recover from that blow. It's been what, two weeks since we left Hua and your family? You've adjusted to this quickly, you're learning, you're willing to help. The past doesn't just go away like that, but you're still coping well. Bravery doesn't equal being brash and thoughtless, Hei."

She had no reply to that, but instead remained quiet. She could feel his gaze on her face, though it was almost too dark for her to see his features properly. For at least a couple of minutes, no one spoke, and Hei watched the flames of the lantern die down slowly. Finally, Byeong joo gave a slight sigh. "I suppose you should sleep. It's been a long day and we both need rest."

"Are you leaving?"

"Do you want me to leave?"

There was something lulling about his presence, combined with exhaustion, that made her feel sleepy. Half lucid, Hei shook her head and moved towards him. "You're warm."

Byeong joo's chest rumbled in a silent laugh, though he didn't say anything else.

For a couple of minutes, Hei lay in silence, matching her breathing with Byeong joo's. It was something that didn't take much thought but a lot of concentration, which meant she could move on from thinking about everything else and focus on something small. She was asleep not long after.

Chapter 23

Colds and Warm Drinks

Hei woke up the second time tucked in snugly inside her blankets so that she couldn't possibly kick them off, though beside her, the bed was empty and Byeong joo was nowhere in sight.

For a long time, she lay there, staring up at the ceiling and trying to remember the previous night properly. She wasn't sure what exactly had happened, but she remembered an extremely vivid dream of talking with Kim Byeong joo and falling asleep doing so.

Then she saw the pile of clothes she'd left in the corner of the room, something she'dneverdo if she'd been in her right mind, and Hei nearly screamed.

She was pretty sure that it hadn't been a dream because she remembered everything extremely well, but still—it didn't feel exactlyrealthinking back. She'd never connected Byeong joo with the kind of person who was considerate to the point of showing it clearly, though that was exactly what he'd done. And if it hadn't just all been an extremely realistic dream, it meant that he'd actually woken Eunho up for it, then consequently talked to her until she fell asleep.

Hei glared at the ceiling for a couple more minutes, trying to swallow whatever she'd done the past night and at the same time figure out how exactly she was ever going to face Byeong joo again. It was embarrassing enough that he had to find her in such a state on the deck, but to actually fall asleep with him on the same bed—Hei wasn't sure if she'd ever live it down.

What exactly would Byeong joo do, though, if she saw him? Tease her? Laugh? Not mention it? That was probably the most frustrating part about Kim Byeong joo—she could see him at both ends of the extreme, and never quite figure out which end hereallystood on (then there was also the small tug of longing in her chest that she was trying her best to ignore but not quite able to. Whatever had happened the past night had beennice,no matter how mortifyingly embarrassing it had been, and she'd be lying to herself if she said she didn't like talking to someone who took the time to listen and the time to simplycare.On top of that, Byeong joowaswarm).

After a couple more minutes of contemplation, she grudgingly dragged herself out of the bed. The moment she stood up, the whole room swayed dangerously in front of her, and Hei realized that her head was hurting, she felt extremely cold all over, and her throat was aching.

Maybe more sleep would do her good. Yawning, she combed her hands through her hair a couple of times in front of the vanity (though it didn't take much to straighten out her hair, because it was less than a third the length of before) before heading out of the room.

She crashed straight into Nam Yejun.

Hei nearly screamed, though she stopped herself before she did. He was waiting in front of her door with his arms folded across his chest, a half-worried, half-disapproving look on his face.

"You scared me," she mumbled, taking a slight step back. Her throat hurt to simply talk. "Why are you here? I thought Byeong joo wasn't letting you go around the ship on your own?"

"He told me I could go around as I liked two days ago," Yejun replied, then narrowed his eyes at her. "That's not the point."

Hei rubbed her eyes. She still felt extremely tired, and maybe retreating back to her room after a glass of water was the best option. "What is the point, then?"

"I saw Byeong joo come out of your room this morning." His voice was completely unamused, serious, and Hei snapped up at his words. "Do I get some sort of explanation for that? He refused to say anything to me when I asked him about it, and I'm definitely not getting anything out of him anytime soon."

She opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again. "I'm not too sure myself," Hei managed meekly, though it was quite true. "I mean, he did come out of my room—it's not what you think—and he was there last night, but…"But how exactly do I tell you everything that happened last night?

Yejun's gaze softened. "I'm not accusing you of anything, but you look absolutely exhausted, you know? Your complexion is terrible. Your face is kind of ashen."

Glancing down at her hands, Hei blinked. She wasn't too sure how bad she looked because she hadn't really worried about that when she checked the mirror, but she hadn't expected it to be to the point where Yejun would immediately comment on it. "I didn't sleep well?" she tried.

"Your lips are kind of purplish blue," he said, "and you have really obvious bags under your eyes. Was this because of Byeong joo?"

Hei shook her head. "I'd probably look worse if it weren't for him."

He raised an eyebrow at that. "I'm not following."

It was such a long story to tell that she wasn't sure if she even wanted to go through all of it, starting from what had happened at Nano's place. Maybe even before that. On top of everything, Hei wasn't sure if she could even explain the previous night in words properly—sherememberedit, but she definitely hadn't been in the right state of mind when it happened. Recounting all of that verbally didn't seem possible.

"I don't… well… it's a long story." Her throat felt like it was getting progressively worse, raspier at each word. "My throat hurts too much to say it."

"You should probably get back there to rest," Yejun muttered. There was that slight tingle she got whenever he used his power, though it wasn't anything extremely probing and Hei had gotten used to it, at least somewhat. "I think you might've come down with a cold. How did you end up doing that?"

I was on the deck last night when it was sleeting really harddidn't exactly seem the kind of answer that would get away without an explanation, so Hei shrugged. "Long story again," she mumbled.

Yejun seemed to sense that she wanted to drop it, and to her relief, he didn't pry any further. "Let's go get you some water," he said instead.

The climb up the stairs felt especially long, and when Hei tried to push open the wooden door, her right arm ached painfully. She hoped Yejun wouldn't notice when she switched to use her left, though he was perceptive (he and Byeong joo both—it was a good thing at times, but this time definitely wasn't) enough.

"What's wrong with your right arm?" he asked.

Hei rolled her shoulder a bit, glancing around. The sea was still cloudy, no sign of the sun, though it was no longer storming. "I hit it last night."

"Where?" someone else asked, and Hei bit back her scream as she whirled around to see Byeong joo.

He was descending from the stairs that led to the helm, heading towards them at a brisk pace, and Hei had to fight back to the urge to turn the other way and bolt. She ended up taking interest in her shoes.

A pair of boots appeared in front of her shoes, footsteps coming to a halt. Hei kept her gaze on the ground.

"Where?" Byeong joo repeated. "You didn't mention that last night."

Hei winced atlast night,and Yejun also stiffened visibly in her peripheral vision.

"I didn't really notice it," she mumbled, still refusing to look up. Her face felt warm. "I crashed into the wall when the ship jolted because of the storm, and it doesn't really hurt unless I strain it to do something."

Yejun frowned. "Why were you walking around last night? The storm was an absolute mess."

The memory wasn't quite pleasant, though Byeong joo saved her from answering that question with an even worse one of his own. "Are you alright now?"

He was being unbelievably nice, which Hei would've taken gladly at any other moment, except Yejun was there and it just made it awkward because she hadn't explainedanythingto him, and neither had Byeong joo. For a couple moments, she contemplated the best possible answer, and then finally went with a shrug before peeking up at him.

Byeong joo actually lookedworried,and that in itself was a surprise. Hei stared at him for a couple seconds too long before ripping her gaze away. "Just still a bit tired," she mumbled, "I want a drink of water."

"Go get one," he said, and simultaneously, Yejun snapped out brusquely, "What did you do to her?"

Hei's head snapped up, though she wasn't too sure who exactly to look at—Yejun or Byeong joo. The latter actually looked quite taken back, which was quite new, and Yejun just seemed downright hostile.

"He didn't do anything—" she started, though Byeong joo was already turning the other way, the shock morphing into a look of irritation.

"It's none of your business," he said sharply. "You already pry a lot because of your power, don't you?"

Yejun's lip curled into what looked like a sneer, and Hei was torn between trying to stop the two of them and bolting, because the situation was far from pleasant and she was way too tired to deal with anything of the sort. "Always hiding," he mocked. "What is there to hide about yourself that you don't want anyone to know? It's not like I'm going to be able to go anywhere spreading the word. Or is it so bad that you don't want anyone to know?"

Byeong joo stopped, turning around. "Some things I don't like to share unless it's with people I trust," he snapped back. "I don't care if you claim that you have your intentions all set in the open. I don't trust you, period."

There was an unpleasant gleam in Yejun's eyes that almost reminded Hei a bit of Nano, even though the two of them were nowhere close. "I could say the same for you."

He shrugged. "I couldn't possibly care less."

"You want to kill the family leaders, don't you?" Yejun called, and Byeong joo's whole body stiffened. "Don't think I didn't know. It's not that hard to tell, especially after you've given me that book. I'll tell you now, because you brought me here for my ability to speak the truth anyway, right?"

Byeong joo didn't look like he would live through any more provoking, and she knew Yejun was just pushing at it too because he was frustrated without getting answers. Still, there was a much better way around it all that neither of them seemed to even want to go for.

"Guys—" she started, though Yejun beat her to it.

"It's a fool's quest," he spat. "You're from a family, aren't you? I don't know which one it is, but do you know how many people have attempted to do what you did? Dozens, and every single one of them have ended up dead. You're no exception, except you're a selfish bastard who's condemning a crew of innocent people to their death's too because of your own blindness."

Byeong joo's jaw tightened, a vein jumping in his temple. "How many innocent people have the families condemned because they were simply in their way of things, or because they thought their ownchildrenweren't up to their standards?"

"Oh, and I supposeyou'llbe playing hero and saving all of these people?"

"Better than just going along with the families like you did, right, Nam Yejun? You know, if I hadn't taken Song Hei from her family, she would've been dead two weeks ago. Her family was going to kill her, and for what? Because they were scared of her power. They claimed that she was weak, that her power was useless—because they didn't teach her and made sure she was kept in check so shecouldn'tuse her power. You're saying peoplethatcorrupt should continue ruling? That makes you as bad as them."

Yejun looked absolutely livid when he took a step forward, and Hei was scared that he was actually going to swing at Byeong joo. "You knownothing."

Byeong joo's laugh was chilling, and Hei had a hard time connecting him with the same person she'd seen last night. "You're the one who knows nothing."

There was that same tightening sensation around her chest, an uncomfortable cold. Hei wasn't sure why, but whatever was happening definitely wasn't something she needed, especially after the reading from Nano. The argument physically gave her a headache, and the fact that they were arguing over something so trivial and because of her was near the tipping point. She'd come upstairs to grab a drink of water—why hadthatled to Byeong joo and Yejun fighting?

Yejun seemed to forgotten about her existence. He'd taken a step forward in Byeong joo's direction, hands clenched in trembling fists beside him, like he was struggling to rein back the anger. "Iknow nothing? I know enough to know that you're leading this whole ship to their deaths. Doyouknow what'll be waiting for you inside there? Maybe it was for the best that you lost your crew back then. That was a much more merciful death than Hell's Gate will be."

Someone seemed to have taken a match and struck it, because something finally blazed to life on Byeong joo's face at the mention of his crew. It was the look she'd seen on him back at Nano's place, though that had been because of Nano's power. This—Byeong joo was actually mad, and Hei was scared he would actually do something rash if Yejun took it a step further.

"And her," Yejun continued, jerking his chin in her direction, "You claim that you've saved her from her family, which may be true for that moment, but save her for what? You're just using Song Hei like you're using me, Noah, and even Eunho. You're selfish, Byeong joo." He took a step forward so they were eye to eye. "You're too blinded by yourself to see others. What do you want? Revenge? You're definitely not playing hero for anyone but yourself."

The temperature seemed to have dropped again, and while Hei had thought she'd been imagining it for a moment, one look at the sky told her that shewasn't.The once-grey clouds had darkened significantly in the area they were in, the air thick with unreleased static energy. The sea, which had been calm a moment ago, seemed to be working up a storm, swirling around the ship, almost like it was moving to shadow Byeong joo's emotions.

And maybe it was,Hei realized in horror. There was no way a storm would come up so suddenly. If Byeong joo was calling the weather to match his emotions, then it would be even worse than she imagined. It seemed to be steadily getting worse by the moment, visibly, the water moving in a more violent fashion, the storm clouds drawing closer, growing darker.

"Nam Yejun," he hissed. Hei nearly lost her balance as the ship jolted violently, though Byeong joo didn't even seem to notice the wave that had risen so high that water had washed over the deck. His voice rose with each word, and Hei realized with a chill that he reallyhadlost control over his emotions this time. "You have absolutely no clue—"

"And I'll remain havingabsolutely no clueuntil you decide to stop taking the coward's route out—"

"Byeong joo!" she shrieked, though it was too late—the wave had already swept over the deck, the water towering over them for a split second before Hei promptly got a gallon of cold, salty sea water dumped onto her.

It was only for a moment, though when the water ebbed away again, she was left shivering, hair dripping all over again, clothes completely soaked.

Byeong joo looked like someone had slapped him across the face. It was surprise, first, then that turned into horror, worry, and then finally guilt. He didn't glance twice at Yejun before taking a step in her direction, almost slow, as all around them, the storm seemed to disperse rapidly, until it was like it had never happened.

Except it had. The wooden deck around her was darkened with water and she was shaking uncontrollably from the cold. The headache hadn't exactly gone away either.

He actually looked stricken, which Hei hadn't expected. Yejun lingered in the back, watching with wide eyes, before Byeong joo finally spoke up. "I…" He sounded completely lost. "I'm sorry, I wasn't…"

"S-stop fighting," she managed, though her teeth were chattering too hard to get the words out properly. "You shouldn't be fighting over something so tr-trivial."

"You're soaked," he pointed out, as if it weren't obvious, then shook himself. "I didn't mean to do that—"

"I-I'm fine." She couldn't stop herself from shivering, but as long as they weren't yelling, it didn't seem to be that much of a big deal. "I c-can just change into something else."

Byeong joo stared at her for a couple moments longer, before he turned on his heel and headed the other direction. "I'll get you a towel," he said, before he disappeared into his cabin.

Yejun snapped into action the moment Byeong joo disappeared. He knelt down beside her, albeit a bit cautiously, and then finally got out, "Are you okay?"

Hei tried to answer, though a cough interrupted her before she could get anything out. It took a good couple of moments for her to stop coughing, and even when she'd stopped, her throat felt uncomfortably scratchy from it. "Fine," she rasped. "It's cold, and you two…" She went for a shaky laugh, though part of her was still too petrified from what had happened to get it out properly. It turned into another choked cough. "You two are kind of similar. It would've been kind of funny if that hadn't been the situation."

Yejun's eyes steeled. "I'm not similar to him."

You kind of are in some points,she wanted to say, though the words didn't exactly come out. "Stop fighting with him," she said instead. "I don't know, maybe you two could…" It was almost too much to ask for, and the image of Kim Byeong joo and Nam Yejun talking civilly was almost a funny one to imagine. Nevertheless, there was no way the crew would be able to fix its dynamics if they were at each other's throats the whole time. "Maybe you could try talking to him. He's not really as bad as you make him."

She was slightly scared that Yejun would snap at her for saying that, but his shoulders just drooped into a look of defeat. "I can't trust him. Especially when he keeps that goddamn guard up all the time—I can't even begin to read him, and I still stand where I was in the beginning. You don't hide something unless youhavesomething that's worth hiding."

Hei had no idea how she was supposed to reply to that, but at the exact moment, the door to Byeong joo's cabin opened and he came out holding a white towel, bunched in his right hand. His gaze flickered to Yejun, though it didn't linger.

Yejun stood up. "I'll go back for now. You should probably get a change of clothing and rest. I think you have a cold."

Hei didn't have time to say anything before Yejun had already retreated down the stairs, leaving her staring back up at Kim Byeong joo.

He didn't say a word before he draped the towel over her. "Let's go. Nam Yejun's right—you probably caught a cold from last night and this isn't going to do it any good."

It was still undeniably awkward next to Byeong joo, though it seemed to be a one-sided thing (at least, Hei thought it was) because she could still feel his gaze on her even though she refused to meet his eyes. He was uncharacteristically quiet when he helped steady her, strangely reserved, and he held open the door for her in complete silence. Only when Hei got to her room did she finally look up at him because the silence was beginning to get to her. She turned to look toward him.

"Why are you so quiet?" she demanded.

Byeong joo looked taken back. "Pardon?"

She clapped a hand over her mouth, a bit surprised at herself for such an aggressive outburst. "Sorry."

He scanned her, looking half guilty and half confused this time, before he finally shrugged. "I'll go make you a warm drink," he said. "Go change into something else. You should probably rest today."

Hei didn't have time to even swallow the fact that he was beingso nicewhen he had already turned and closed the door shut behind him.

She ended up changing into the first dress she grabbed from the wardrobe, and after a moment of uncertainty, spread the wet dress neatly on the back of the chair to dry before curling up on the bed. The warmth was nice, though it really would've been better if her throat hadn't hurt so much and if the headache had kindly decided to go away.

Byeong joo came back not long after holding a mug with steam still rising from the top. He gave her one look before setting the drink down.

"Get up," he said. "Your hair is wet. You can't sleep like that."

It was too comfortable to move, so Hei shook her head at him.

Byeong joo sighed. "I'll dry your hair and you can drink."

Hei eyed the warm drink. For a brief moment, she wondered if it was worth arguing with him because he was currently going with everything she said and that was kind of fun, but she could smell something sweet wafting through the air from whatever he'd made and she hadn't drunk anything since the previous night. Giving up, Hei sat up.

He handed her the cup. It was hot to the touch, and the warmth was welcoming. Hei spent a couple moments warming her fingers on the cup before the bed dipped and Byeong joo sat down behind her.

Hei sat still as he towelled her hair dry, and there was something oddly therapeutic and relaxing about the way he ran his fingers through. She forgot about drinking until Byeong joo asked her about it, and only then did she take a small sip from the mug after blowing on the surface.

It was a sweet drink, and while she wasn't quite sure what it was, it warmed her throat to the point where it eliminated the pain of swallowing, and the same warmth travelled down until she no longer felt cold anymore. She had basically finished the cup when Byeong joo finally sat back, tossing the towel aside onto one of the chairs.

"Done," he broke the silence. "You can rest now, unless you want something to eat."

She wasn't exactly hungry, so she shook her head at him before he stepped off the bed. For a moment, no one spoke, and then before Hei could lose all her courage, she blurted out, "You should go talk to Nam Yejun."

Byeong joo stiffened. "Hei—"

"You're never going to be able to get along if you never actually take the time to talk it through with him. And Yejun isn't a bad person. He's just being that way because he's wary of you and because… well…" She trailed off. There didn't exactly seem to be a nice way to say it, so she closed her eyes and forced her to get the words out. "Because of the way you treat him and his brother right now. He told me before that he's not exactly fond of the families either, but the fact that you're using his brother against him is just… it's just not that much better."

He didn't say anything, remaining unmoving, and Hei winced. She couldn't tell at all if he was just thinking about her words or if she'd actually offended him. It already felt like a push to his limits.

Finally, Byeong joo sighed, shoulders sagging. "I just… it's hard to trust him with something like this. I know he can't lie, but that's more of an issue. If he has this information, people can get it out of him because he can't even pretend that he doesn't know. I don't want anyone out there who'll spread rumours to know I'm a Kim. It's the one card I have against my family, and I don't want to pull it out until it'll cause the most impact."

Hei glanced at the door. "I still think you should tell him," she told him in a small voice. "It'll do good if you're not fighting all the time, and I think he'll have a better understanding of your intentions if he knows who you are."

Byeong joo hesitated, then he straightened. "I guess."

"Think of it as a favour because you dumped water on me back on the deck."

He snorted that time, then reached over and took the cup from her, which Hei had finished. She felt warm all over. "Fine. Get some rest and I'll bring you food later."

"Does that mean you're going to talk to him?"

"Can I get out of this if I let you dump a bucket of water over me too?"

Hei shooed him out of the room, though he was laughing. It was a lot like the Byeong joo she was used to, and she couldn't help but grin too, before succumbing to the warmth and curling up on the bed again. It was an unignorable fact that it wasn't all just because of the drink Byeong joo had given her.

Chapter 24

Stowaway

Hei nearly had a heart attack when she shuffled up to the deck again and saw Yejun and Byeong joo sitting on the steps that lead up to the helm, chatting. She nearly turned the other way and retreated, though Byeong joo caught her before she could run down the stairs.

"Awake?" he asked, and Hei froze at the doorway before turning back around slowly. Yejun was looking at her too, and she shifted under both of their gazes, uncomfortable.

"I was just going to get more water," she mumbled. "Keep talking."

Byeong joo got to his feet. "We're done talking."

"Right," Yejun said, though his voice lacked the normal hostility it held when he spoke to Byeong joo. "Is your cold better, Hei?"

She blanched at the two of them. "What's wrong with both of you?"

"I'll get you a cup of water," Byeong joo said decidedly, before he disappeared in a couple fast strides around the corner of the ship. Hei stared after him in confusion before Yejun brushed past her too to go downstairs. His gaze was reserved, a bit far away, and for a long couple of seconds Hei gawked at him.

"Just what did you two talk about?" she managed.

Yejun turned to glance at her. "Stuff."

He was gone before Hei could say anything else, and she stood still at the doorway, a bit shocked at being brushed off by both of them. Still, if they weren't at each other's throats… well, that was a good thing, she supposed, even if it ended up with a more awkward atmosphere than she imagined it would.

She was still trying to sort out her confusion when Byeong joo appeared back around the bend, holding two cups in his hand. He tilted his head at her. "Are you feeling better?"

Hei wasn't sure why, but for some reason, she found it extremely hard to meet his eyes. Last night was one thing, but he'd also dried her hair for her a couple of hours ago and that just felt like… well, it was a bit too much. Not that it really was Byeong joo's fault—not completely—but it was just one of those things that felt impossible to solve unless sheaskedsomeone about it, and there was no way she was telling anyone.

He handed her one of the mugs he held. "So?" he prompted, and Hei realized that she'd accidentally left his question unanswered.

"Better?" she tried, wondering how if she could get away by staring at the ground instead of his face.

Byeong joo frowned. "What's wrong?"

Hei had to look up for that one. "Huh?"

His lips pulled into the grin she was more familiar with. "There. You're staring again."

She choked on her sip of water. "Eye contact does not equal staring."

He patted her back as she coughed, looking a lot more at ease than he had when he'd left her room a couple hours ago. It was a nice change for once, especially because the Byeong joo she was used to was someone who joked about a good half of the time and she wasn't quite used to him being nice (not that it wasbad,per se, but it was just… strange).

"Well," Byeong joo said when she finally recovered. "Now that you're up here, do you want to train more?"

Hei almost spat out her water. "What?"

"On second thoughts, maybe not," he continued breezily. "Let's go up to the helm."

Hei was still trying to figure out what exactly had gotten into Kim Byeong joo as she sat down next to him on the ground. The deck had dried from before, though she thought again and decided the ground was too dirty to sit on and stood up instead, still taking small sips from the water he'd given her. It was too hot to down in one go.

"So you talked to Yejun," she started as he rested a hand on the wheel idly. "What did you guys…"

"I got Eunho to take down the concealing spells," he cut in quickly. "It was easier to just let him read me straight up instead of explaining stuff to him, and it made everything a lot quicker. I think he's still surprised to find out I'm a Kim and also… well, everyone around your age has heard the story of the Kim family's prodigy too many times to count and they all assumed he was dead. He took it a lot better than a couple of others I've told it to, but he was still pretty shocked."

Hei had no idea what to say to that. "That's… good, I guess?"

Byeong joo hummed in reply. He was staring at the distant sea, like he knew exactly where he was steering the ship, although Hei herself couldn't differentiate any sort of direction through the waves. The black and gold coat he'd worn to Aesta was gone—he was dressed way more casually than that, but for some reason, there was something oddly captivating watching him with one hand on the wheel, hair ruffled by the sea wind. It was nothing fancy, nothing special about his attire, but the most fascinating part wasn't that—justhim.She could've stared for much longer if Byeong joo hadn't turned to meet her eyes.

She immediately glanced away on habit, partly scared that he'd call her out for staring yet again, though to her surprise, the only thing he asked was, "Are you okay with everything that happened last night?"

Hei did a double take at him. "Pardon?"

"I'm assuming Nano's brought back a couple of bad memories," he started carefully. "I'm just… well, I really had no idea what to do last night. You were panicking and I was pretty sure you'd try to do something a lot worse if I didn't stay, though it might've been a bit…"

Hei stared at him, trying to figure out what exactly he was trying to say. He looked as lost as she felt.

"A bit what?"

Was his face red? She couldn't quite tell from where she was standing, because he wasn't looking at her, though the fact that he couldn't find the right words was a bit funny. He was normally sure of himself.

"Improper," Byeong joo finished, though it sounded more of a question than a statement. "Right."

Her face went beetroot. "Nothing happened."

"Well, yes, but—"

"I'm getting more water," Hei cut in quickly before trying to make a run for it.

"I didn't drink mine." Byeong joo nodded at the cup that he'd set on the ground near her. "You can have it."

Cursing him inwardly, she set her own empty cup and picked up his, though she really didn't want to drink anything else. Either Byeong joo was being absolutely dense or he was just finding a reason for her to stay. It was probably the latter, though, because Byeong joo was anything but dense.

For a long, long while, neither of them said anything. Hei tried to think of something to say or do, though each option sounded more awkward the last and she ended up keeping quiet, hoping that Byeong joo would either send her back or say something to break the silence. He did neither for way too long, and Hei was beginning to wonder if he'd dragged her up to the helm with him to suffer when he sighed and turned to look at her.

"I'm glad you made me talk to Nam Yejun," he said. "He was pretty understanding about it all. I really should've done so sooner."

"Are you thanking me right now?"

Byeong joo raised an eyebrow. "What does it sound like?"

She gave a helpless shrug.

"Thanks," he murmured softly. "There's enough to worry about at the moment apart from Nam Yejun, and it's a pretty big burden lifted now that I have. I can focus on other things better, too."

There was that strange, rare moment of vulnerability that shone through when he said that that made Hei pause and look at him. She really hadn't noticed before, but Byeong joo looked exhausted. It wasn't just the smudges of grey under his eyes—something about his voice, too. He was handling so many things at once that Hei couldn't even imagine how she'd begin tostartdoing what he was doing.

"What about Noah?" she asked. There didn't seem to be an appropriate reply.

"Yejun says he'll talk to him." Byeong joo's fingers tapped against the wood of the wheel. "I think Eunho'll be hesitant on letting him out, because Han Noahiskind of unpredictable, but if we can get his word for it, he may be able to help. It's been Eunho and I steering the ship these nights and it gets tiring. If Noah's willing, he could be able to navigate pretty well, though I'm not sure if any of us trust him enough for that. Yejun's one thing, but his brother's definitely another."

"You were steering last night, right?"

"Yeah," Byeong joo said. "I do most of the time there's a storm because if it gets too out of hand I can control it, though I heard the door to below deck open last night so I went down to check."

She cringed. "You had to wake up Eunho because of that."

"Sweetheart, you could've died. I'm pretty sure Eunho having to take my shift isn't a big deal."

Hei tried to ignore the name, though it wasn't quite possible. "Where is Eunho now?"

"Sleeping. I sent him to bed because he's obviously sleep deprived. He keeps on claiming apples are missing from the cellar, but only the two of us ever go there and when I asked Nam Yejun about it, he said he's never been to the place before. I think he's hallucinating. Besides, who even counts the number of apples you have?"

Eunho, apparently.Hei shrugged in response instead, though before either of them could say anything, she went back into a coughing fit.

Byeong joo glanced towards her and frowned. "You still have a cold, don't you? And the temperature's not exactly the best out here. You should go back."

"You're the one who dragged me up here."

"Touché," he deadpanned. "Speaking of the cellar, you really need to eat something. It's been almost a day since you last ate and that's not healthy. You're also not going to recover if you do that."

A particularly cold gust of wind swept over the deck and Hei shuddered. "I'll get an apple," she decided. "Make sure to tell Eunho it's not missing but that I took it."

The cellar was to some extent even cooler than the outside, and the dress she had on did nothing to keep out the cold. Hei found herself shivering as she rummaged through the stored foods until she finally found an apple. She escaped the cellar as quick as she could with her apple. It was way too cold to stay.

Then halfway back to her cabin, Hei froze. She could see Byeong joo's silhouette at the helm still, figure straight and still, hands on the wheel as he stared into the distance. Hadheeaten?

After a moment of contemplation, she headed back for the cellar to grab another apple for Byeong joo. He'd just have to tell Eunho that there were two gone.

The mess hall was dark when she stepped inside. Someone had obviously been in it a while back, though the candle had long burned away. There were still drops of wax on the table from it.

Hei banged her knee on a chair twice before she finally got to the door that lead to the cellar. She fumbled for the knob for a good couple of seconds, half blind and struggling (because she was still holding her own apple with her other hand, which wasn't really the brightest of ideas), before it finally opened.

It was bright inside, and that was her first thought. Then she realized that itshouldn'thave been bright, because she'd blown out the lamp when she left a couple minutes ago.

AndthenHei saw the figure that had attempted to hide behind one of the barrels and she actually did scream that time. The first thing that came to mind to do was to throw her apple at him.

"Quiet," someone half whispered, half shouted at her. "Please don't scream."

Hei probably would've, really, if she hadn't been so shocked. She ended up gaping at the figure who'd finally stood up from behind the barrel, petrified to the spot and confused at the same time. She couldn't yet make out their features clearly, but their voice sounded young—perhaps even younger than her.

The boy straightened to his full height, and wide, terrified eyes met hers and she ended up openly gawking.

He was taller than her, obviously, but everyone on the ship towered over her so that wasn't saying something. But still—whoever it was was tall, taller than Byeong joo and perhaps even taller than Eunho; a lanky frame, long limbs.

Despite his height, though, the boy in front of her couldn't have been over sixteen.

"What… the hell?" she managed. "Who are you?"

He pressed an urgent finger to his lips. "Please don't tell the captain."

Hei stared at him for a couple moments more and tried to get over the shock. It wasn't possible. "Do youknowwho the captain is?"

"Byeong joo hyung?" he asked in a small voice.

"Hyung?"she echoed. "You call Byeong joohyung? Who are you?"

The boy's eyes darted around nervously, looking a lot like he was trapped and looking for a way to escape. He gnawed on his bottom lip for a little while before answering in the same unsure voice. "Hamin."

"Right," Hei said. "That's… not saying much."

"Please don't tell him," Hamin repeated. "He'll just kick me off if he finds me here, and I don't want him to. I can take care of myself."

There was no way she was getting over the shock anytime soon. If he called Byeong joohyung,then Hamin must've at least known him well. He was too young to be a crew member, and as far as she knew, Byeong joo didn't go around befriending random children. She couldn't think of any other explanations as to why he'd known Byeong joo.

"How do you know him?" Hei tried. Hamin had turned to nibbling on his fingernails, still in that nervous, jittery, cornered way of his from before. "You didn't happen to be part of his crew, right?"

His eyes widened. "Of course not. I knew… well, I don't remember how I know him, but I used to see him around when I lived in Vasileia, and he was friends with my cousin." His shoulders visibly dropped. "I was too young to remember what happened, but we left when I was almost seven and I've been in Aesta ever since. He used to visit really often, but…" He actually looked dejected, and if it weren't for the rising suspicion, Hei would've concentrated on the pity. "He didn't even come see me this time."

"Your cousin," she said slowly.Vasileia—if Hamin was born in Vasileia and Byeong joo was friends with his cousin, that meant she could only be—

"Heejin." His gaze had darkened as he stared down at his feet. "She passed away eight years ago."

Hei tried to ignore the feeling spreading in her chest, though it was near impossible. It wasn't exactly unpleasant, per se, though it was a sort of horrified realization, the type that she couldn't place her finger on but still spread there all the same.

"Heejin," she echoed.

He nodded, then turned to look back up. "Please don't tell him. It'll only be a couple more days and then it'll be fine, but I'm scared he'll make me go back because we're only a day away from Aesta and he'll just turn the ship back and send me there.Please."

Hei shifted uncomfortably. She couldn't bear ratting him out just like that, and she was pretty sure he wasn't lying about his identity. At the same time, she wasn't sure if she could even keep the secret that he was hiding out in the cellar from Byeong joo for a couple more days. Eunho had already noticed something amiss—the missing apples. It wasn't long before they caught onto more apples missing.

"Well," she began awkwardly, unsure of how exactly she was supposed to break it to Hamin that she was in a tight spot. "I think it would be best if you found Byeong joo and just told him directly—"

"I can't," he groaned. "I'm sure he'll just send me back to Aesta, and I'm… I'm old enough to help him."

"And you're…"

"Fifteen," Hamin filled in helpfully.

Hei's first thought ended up beingbut you're pretty tall for a fifteen-year-old,though she didn't say it aloud to him. Unsure of what exactly to do next, she pointed a finger up at the ladder that lead out of the cellar. "I ought to get going," she said before cringing.Thatsounded awkward—was she supposed to just leave him in the cellar because there was nothing else she could do? He obviously would've rather had her leave him there than tell Byeong joo, but making him stay there just seemed a bit cruel.

"Are you sleeping here too?" she asked before she turned away. "That's gotta be pretty cold."

Hamin gave a slight shrug. "It's fine once you get used to it."

She shivered. "I can bring you a blanket or something. It's freezing down here."

"It should only be another day—"

Hamin froze all of a sudden, breaking off mid-sentence, and before Hei could ask him what was wrong, the door above them opened abruptly.

She stumbled back with a small shriek, surprised, as Byeong joo leaned in, eyebrows furrowed and confusion scribbled across his face. Hei watched as his gaze jumped from her to the boy behind her, and then the confusion melted away to surprise, then recognition, and then the horror began to sink in.

"Yu Hamin," he managed out, sounding completely dumbstruck.

Hei snuck a glance at the boy behind her. His face was ashen, and he looked both guilty and scared. He stared up at Byeong joo with wide eyes, and then finally managed, "Hyung, I can explain—"

"What are you doing here?" Hei flinched at the sharp edge in his tone. She wasn't sure what Hamin had been expecting out of Byeong joo, but he seemed to visibly deflate at that.

"I really can explain," Hamin started, desperation beginning to creep into his voice. "I saw Eunho hyung the other day at Aesta, and h-he told me you dropped by, so I snuck onto the ship when none of you were there—"

"Hamin," Byeong joo repeated. He still sounded angry, though she could see that weariness creeping into his eyes, the desperation that any normal person that didn't know him might've missed. It wasn't that he didn't wantHaminthere or didn't want to see him—it was obvious that they just couldn't afford it. "This really… this really isn't the time for jokes like this. I don't have time for this."

Hamin looked visibly hurt. "It's not a joke."

"So what are you doing?" Byeong joo jumped down from the ladder. "Dammit Hamin, I don't have the time on my hands to take you back to Aesta—that's another two day journey back and forth, and I can'taffordwasting that time, but this is too dangerous for you." He shut his eyes. "This was already hard. You've made it so complicated."

Hamin seemed to flinch back more and more at every word, hurt evident on his face. Hei felt undeniably bad for him, and finally, in a small voice, she turned to look at Byeong joo. "You don't need to be so hard on him," she began.

He fixed a hard glare on her. "Are you in this too?"

"No! I just found him in the cellar when I went to get my apple."

"Apple?" Byeong joo echoed, and then he gave a disbelieving laugh. "Damn, Eunho was right that apples were going missing. That was you, wasn't it?"

Hamin looked like he had no idea what to say. All three of them stood in total silence for a long time, the cold of the cellar beginning to seep into her more at the lack of movement before Hamin finally said, "I thought I could help."

Byeong joo raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"You said I could join you when I was older," Hamin continued, voice gradually getting smaller and smaller at each word spoken. "I thought… well, it's been five years since you said that, and you became a pirate at sixteen, right? I'm almost sixteen—"

"A pirate isn't something you shouldwantto be," Byeong joo said sharply. "You don'tchooseto live a life on the run because you have no other choice, Hamin. You don't choose to face death everyday. And it shouldn't be the life you willingly try to live either."

Byeong joo was somewhat shorter than Hamin, but for some reason, the other boy looked extremely small as he stared down at the ground, shoulders drooping. "What am I supposed to do, then?" he asked.

He pressed his lips together. "I can't have you staying down here. I'll get you a cabin—temporarily, don't look at me like that—and I'll talk to you about this later. Come on, you two." Byeong joo paused, a hand hovering above a ladder rung before he fixed a hard gaze on the cowering boy behind her. "And don't think we're done here, Yu Hamin."

Chapter 25

Resolving Issues

Eunho was the first to catch onto the news of why his apples had gone missing, because he found Hei in her cabin and asked her about it a little while after. He brought a cup of some sort of warm drink with him, which Hei found was quite a sweet gesture.

"If I'm not mistaken," he said, "I just saw Byeong joo escort Yu Hamin into a cabin? They haven't come out yet and I don't know if it would be a good idea to interrupt right now. I'm not dreaming, am I?"

Hei retold the whole story of how she'd found Hamin sheltering in the cellar for the past day, and Eunho listened intently with a thoughtful expression. The only thing he said when she finished was, "I was right this time. Apples really did go missing."

She gaped at him. "Are you not against Hamin being here? Byeong joo seemed absolutely livid. I thought he was going to blow up."

Eunho gave a slight shrug. He still looked somewhat tired, though, with a pang of guilt, Hei remembered that it was because Byeong joo had woken him to take the shift instead. She wondered if she should tell him to go back to sleep, though it was mid-afternoon and that didn't seem to be the best way to go. She'd only succeeded in messing up her sleeping schedule by sleeping too much during the day back at Hua (on the odd times Miyeon wasn't there and she could actually rest).

"It's not really Hamin I'm worried about," he finally said. "The boy's extremely smart and he's decent with a blade. He's quick, too." Then, under his breath, he added, "He just adores Byeong joo way too much."

"What?"

Eunho repeated, louder that time. "He's always seen Byeong joo as a hero of some sorts, I guess," he elaborated. "Not that it's exactlybad,because, well—don't tell him I said this—he does have a couple… redeemable qualities, but you probably noticed—he's not the type of person you should have as a role model. Young children shouldnotgrow up learning to be like him, and Yu Hamin's idolized him since he was, like, seven."

"Byeong joo was… sixteen then?"

"Right. Hamin's an orphan, though he lived with his aunt and uncle—Heejin's parents. Apparently he used to see Byeong joo whenever he snuck out to see her, and while the Kim family ended up sentencing both her and her parents, he got Hamin out and dropped him off to live with someone he knew well in Aesta. I think he's grown up with the dream of becoming a pirate like Byeong joo."

Hei mouthed anoh.

"But still," Eunho continued, "I don't think it would betoobad to have him in the crew, as long as he's dropped off before we go to Hell's Gate. I don't know how that's going to work, though. I just hope Byeong joo isn't being too harsh on him. I bumped into him in Aesta and he was devastated that Byeong joo didn't go visit him."

"He… sounds like a nice kid," Hei tried.

"He is." Eunho straightened. "I ought to go now. And…" He hesitated for a moment. "Byeong joo told me about what happened at Nano's place last night, and I have to say, that was incredibly brave of you. He also said you're improving with your power, and that's always good to hear. I'll start teaching you again once you've gotten a bit better from the cold, alright?"

It was a strangely warm feeling hearing that from someone, because it meant that hecared,and that in itself was an almost-overwhelming thought. She hadn't expected something like that when Byeong joo had dragged her out of Hua—to find friendship, family, all the things she'd missed growing up withthem.

"Rest up," Eunho advised her one last time, before he turned and slipped out of the door.

Byeong joo looked absolutely spent when Hei found him again.

She wasn'ttoosure, because he was sitting inside his cabin and the lighting was dim in there compared to the outside, but from what shecouldsee, he had his head in his hands, fingers tugging through locks of hair in frustration. For a little while, she wondered if it was even a good idea to approach him (probably not), but then, after a second of contemplation, she knocked on the half-open door of his cabin.

He lifted his head, lowering his hands, before his eyes widened with recognition.

"Hi," Hei managed. "Uh, I…"

His shoulders drooped. "Come inside."

She eyed the room. It wasn't nearly as messy as the one he had back in Ezentia, but compared to hers, itwasa mess. "I don't—" she started.

"There's no spare daggers lying around this time," Byeong joo joked halfheartedly.

Realizing that it wasn't the time to argue with him, Hei pushed open the door wider and took a cautious step into the cabin.

She wasn't surewhatexactly she'd been expecting—she'd glimpsed his cabin a couple of times, though he never left his door open wide enough for her to see much. She knew it wasn't big—at least, not extremely spacious like she initially imagined—but it didn't look much different from her room or Yejun's in term of size.

It was still quite messy; the bed wasn't made, one door of the wardrobe was hanging open, and the wooden desk had all sorts of papers on them; from maps to books to scribbled things that Hei couldn't even read. She spent a couple moments taking in the interior of his cabin before shuffling forward. "What happened to Hamin?" she asked.

"I'm confining him in his room," Byeong joo grumbled. "I might be able to drop him off somewhere, but there's no way we can go back to Aesta and not waste valuable time. I know a couple of people in Sileion, but I don't know if it's safe to stay there for long…"

Hei made a mental note to visit Hamin in the afternoon. He had looked pretty downcast when Byeong joo had dragged him to his cabin, and while Byeong joo technically had the best in mind for him, it didn't necessarily come off that way.

"Eunho said we're stopping somewhere again," she started instead, because he just looked even more dejected at the topic of Hamin. "He didn't give me names, but…"

He hummed in response, fingers ghosting over the largest sheet of paper on his desk. It looked like a bigger version of the map he'd first shown her, back in Junhyuk's room in Ezentia, with more intricate details (if that was even possible—the smaller one had already looked too complicated for her to read). "Castra," he said. "It's a town a little bit past Sileion, though it's an extremely pretty fortified place and it's defenses are pretty strong. The families tend to steer clear of that place, though, so it makes a pretty good hiding spot for a lot of people."

"Why do they avoid it?"

Byeong joo frowned at her. "Do you want to sit down? There's a chair in the corner."

"I'm fine—"

"You should sit down," he said decidedly before getting up, making his way to the wall where there was an extra wooden chair before dragging it over. Hei cringed the whole time at the scraping sound on the floor.

She ended up on the other side of the desk, face to face with Kim Byeong joo, and unsure of what exactly she was doing there. Her initial intention had been to ask him about his plans, but she had no idea what that had turned into.

There was that whispering feeling that rose whenever she saw him, though it seemed too small, insignificant (at least, Hei told herself it was) for her to address or even think about. She tried to ignore it; it bothered her, yes, but the person in front of her wasByeong joo—captain, perhaps, to some extent, the person who'd saved her from her family, crewmate, friend, though that seemed to be a far stretch—nothing else.

Nothing else,she told herself as she traced the outline of his face, the shadows moving with the flickering flames.

"Right," Byeong joo said. "You probably know this already, but family leaders don't normally do stuff on their own and it's their children that does all the dirty work." His lip curled slightly. "Anyways, there are a lot more runaways than you expect—most of them decide to lay low, some have made names for themselves, some are hunted down and killed by their families. But a lot of them have gathered in Castra–apart from that, the town is kind of a like… well, it's basically a hideout for all those outlaws and because so many of them have decided to gather in one place, families tend to avoid it."

"So why are we going there again? Do you need more maps?"

A glimmer reappeared in his eyes. "Not maps, Miss Hei. We're picking up Kim Hyunmin."

She did a double take at him. She'd heard numerous things about Hyunmin—firstly, he'd designed the hideout in Ezentia, secondly, he had a strange taste in things, and thirdly, he really liked food. It was hard to even imagine him, because out of everyone she'd seen back at Hua, she'd never caught a proper glimpse of him in her visions.

"Hyunmin," she repeated after him. "Are you serious?"

"Does it look like I'm joking?"

"No, but—"

"I think I might take Yejun along with us too," he said thoughtfully. "Castra's quite nice in the day, and there's this bookshop there that has a bunch of history books that he might enjoy. We're going to drop by to grab supplies on a nearby island, and then it shouldn't be that long before we get to Castra. Maybe… seven days at the most? Six, if the weather holds up. It should be more straightforward after that, though. I need to find Junhyuk, Yano, and then pick up Kyungsoo from Vasileia. And…" His eyes darkened. "Jiyong."

The last time Hei had heard him talk about Jiyong was with Eunho, who claimed that Jiyong was dead. She was about to ask about it, then realized it probably wasn't a wise move.

"You said there are a lot of runaways from families," she began instead. "Are there really…?"

"Lots." Byeong joo traced a finger down the map idly. "Not all of them are full descendents of the families, though—some have parents who are, grandparents—all of that. That's what the families try to control the most, though. It's that power getting out, no matter how diluted, that they're always trying to prevent. It doesn't work that well, as you can see."

"Have you met a lot of people from the families that ran away, then?"

Byeong joo tilted his head thoughtfully. "A couple direct descendents. I killed them all."

It was the casual way he said that that made her shudder, though he seemed to notice a moment later and went on hurriedly.

"Not all of them are good people, Hei. You probably thought I was bad when you first met me—admittedly, I wasn't the nicest—but trust me, there's much worse. I've seen…" he winced. "People abuse their power too much, especially when it gives them such an advantage over others. And especially after you've just left from a place that's dictated what you do all your life—the freedom and liberty can be addicting. I've met too many people who've done that."

She opened her mouth to respond, though she couldn't quite find anything to say.

"There was one man that we came across last year," Byeong joo muttered, half to himself. "He was from the Park family—I think he left when he was around twenty something years old—but he started running a prostitution ring about a year after he'd left the family. I ran into him twice—and he's an absolute cockroach. He just won't die. I stabbed him through the chest the first time and I saw him five months later after and then killed half his men with Junhyuk—long story—but I think he managed to get away. I would've honestly liked him dead because at the moment, he's a bigger threat than the families are."

"He's from the Park family?" Hei asked. "Don't you have someone from the Park family in your crew? Park Yano?"

A much fonder look flitted across Byeong joo's face. "Yano's basically the opposite. He's really nice once you get to know him."

Hei tried to swallow, though her throat was dry. She hadn't realized at all, even after she'd left Hua until then how many people actuallydidrebel against the families. Neither had she quite realized how bad it really was outside of the safety of the inner cities, where a majority of the population lived their everyday lives in.

Byeong joo seemed to read her expression. "Don't worry about that," he chided, though his tone was gentle. "It's unlikely we'll ever come across anyone like that because we're on sea most of the time, and besides, I doubt Park Jaekyung would show himself in front of me any time soon. Just concentrate on your powers." He paused this time, then gave her a slight grin. "I'll teach you more self defense once you're not sick anymore."

Hei managed to laugh and make a face at that, though part of her still felt somewhat nauseous from what he had just told her. "I'd rather not learn more self defense."

She dropped by to visit Yejun first before Hamin—the former was munching on an apple and flipping idly through pages of the leather-bound book Byeong joo had given him, though he wasn't scribbling notes that time.

He barely looked up when she stepped inside his room, and didn't comment either when Hei sat down next to him on the bed. There was a homely sort of comfort she got from Yejun whenever she was around him—it wasn't the same as Byeong joo, definitely, and he felt more like an older sibling she'd never had when she was younger. That was one thing she liked about Yejun.

She squinted at the pages. "You canreadthat?"

"Want lessons?"

Hei recoiled. "No thanks."

Yejun glared at the book. "You really don't. It's a headache to look at, and then I have to translate the important parts and write it down…" he shuddered. "Ugh."

"Sounds hard." She peeked at the book again, though it wasn't any more readable than before. "Also, have you heard of Park Jaekyung?"

He set down the book and raised an eyebrow at her. "Park Jaekyung?" he echoed. "Who doesn't? His name is almost as well known as Byeong joo's."

She blinked at him. "Really?"

"Yeah. He's known for… well, he's basically known for being ruthless. A lot of people associate his name with that—he's infamous for being cruel and not sparing anyone. Around two years ago, the outer city of Ezentia started riots because the Kim family refused to dispatch people after Park Jaekyung when he murdered at least 40 people—over half of which were women and children—and claimed that it was the Park family's responsibility. I think he's laid relatively low for the past year, though, because the Park family did increase the number of men hunting him down and along with his clash with Byeong joo."

Hei shuddered. "I can't quite… I can't quite remember hearing specifically about him, but his name did sound kind of familiar when Byeong joo mentioned him."

"It was pretty big deal when it happened," Yejun agreed. "Did Byeong joo give you specifics on what he did?"

"Something about killing half of Park Jaekyung's men with Junhyuk."

Yejun froze. "Junhyuk? As in Kim Junhyuk?"

"Did Byeong joo not tell you that Junhyuk was part of his crew?"

He looked completely dumbstruck for a moment, which was something that she'd never seen on Yejun. "No," he managed out in a muted voice. "I know… I know there was Park Yano and a couple others, but Junhyuk was declared dead five years ago. The Kim family claimed to have found his body." His eyebrows knitted. "Are you sure we're talking about the same Junhyuk here? He had eyes that kind of looked like a cat, he looked way younger than his age, his power was over ice—"

"—cartographer, extremely neat?" Hei finished.

Yejun's jaw dropped open. "I can't believe it is him. I thought he died so long ago. Where is he now?"

"Missing."

Something a lot like guilt flashed across Yejun's face. "I really shouldn't have said that to him when I first met him."

"Said what?"

Yejun pressed his lips together. "Remember when I told him that he was looking for new people because his old crew was dead? That was insensitive."

Hei studied him for a couple of moments. "It wasn't entirely your fault," she pointed out. "Also, it's weird that you're being nice to him."

Yejun raised an eyebrow at that. "Do you want me to insult him?"

She shook her head hurriedly. "No, you can save that for a later date."

He laughed at her. "Alright, whatever you say. Go rest now. I told Byeong joo I'd teach you as soon as you got better, and that should start from tomorrow if possible."

"I'm not tired."

Reaching out, he ruffled her hair once. It was much easier to mess up because the strands were shorter, and she ended up with half of her vision obscured as Yejun laughed at her. Hei scrambled off his bed and fled the room.

Later on, she found Yu Hamin huddled on the bed, by himself, and looking utterly miserable. The door to his cabin was open just a crack to let air in, though he didn't seem like he'd be going anywhere.

"Hi," Hei managed before she poked her head inside just a bit. "Can I come inside?"

Hamin looked up, though his eyes looked kind of blank. "Sure," he mumbled halfheartedly. "Byeong joo hyung told me not to go anywhere too."

She winced, though there didn't seem to be an appropriate response to that so she pushed the door open a bit wider and stepped inside.

The room was even simpler than hers; there was nothing but a bed, a stand, and a chair. Hamin had left everything else untouched and curled up in a sad ball on the bed, though he pulled himself up when she came in and was currently patting down his dishevelled hair.

"What are you doing here?" It wasn't an accusatory question, just curious, though Hamin still shook his head the moment he said it. "I mean, why did you visit me? Not in a rude way, hyung told me I should always be polite."

Hei nearly laughed out loud. It was a hard image to picture—Byeong jooof all people teaching someone manners, though nevertheless, she could somewhat imagine it. "You looked glum the last time I saw you," she replied. "I know Byeong joo can be harsh at times. Too harsh on some occasions."

Hamin's face fell. "It's not his fault. He was right, I shouldn't have snuck—"

"Do you really believe that?" Hei didn't mean for the words to be said aloud, though she blurted them out anyways. "I mean, you were pretty resolute when I saw you. Don't tell me you heard Byeong joo say something and then gave up."

He paused. "No."

"Pardon?"

"You're right." He was staring at the ground. "But hyung wants me to go back, and I don't want him to be mad at me the whole time. There's no point staying if he's going to be angry at me the whole time."

"Well…" She wasn't too sure on what to say or even how she was supposed to comfort him. "Try to convince him, I guess? That you're able to take care of yourself and that you're not going to be a burden like he claims."

Hamin didn't look too sure, but finally, he gave her a small nod. "Alright," he said in an equally tiny voice. "I'll try, I guess."

"That's good," Hei said, then cringed at how awkward she sounded. She tried for a smile at him, though it turned into a wince. "I'm going now. Goodnight."

She basically fled for her cabin. Hamin echoed the words after her, though she was out of the door before he finished saying them.

Despite that, though, there was an odd sense of accomplishment when she finally did push open the door of her cabin, and she slept much better that night than the previous.

Chapter 26

An Embarrassing Encounter

Hei was up early the next morning, though the sun had already risen. Eunho was steering the ship, though he either didn't see her or didn't say anything when she climbed up the stairs.

Byeong joo was nowhere to be seen—in fact, no one was—and she spent the first couple of minutes staring at the sea, the light reflecting off the surface of the waves, the green-blue of the sea glimmering prettily. She spent a while in comfortable silence, admiring the sea. The weather was a contrast to the day before: it had been cloudy the whole day (stormy for a couple minutes if she counted the time when Byeong joo had lost his temper), and the sky was complete cerulean blue when she glanced up. The ocean, too, was surprisingly calm.

She was about to turn away when something caught her attention in the corner of her eye. A break in the seemingly-never-ending waves. She squinted in the direction and nearly shrieked.

It was the same translucent figure she'd seen back in Aesta, though this seemed to be more… well, it was less see-through than the last. The area in which she could see the person was darkened significantly, and all around her, the scene to come to life on top of the once empty ocean. It was different from most visions, though—like the one she'd seen in Aesta with Byeong joo, time had frozen around her—it was just the area it was happening in that had changed.

The waves lost the blue glimmer, the color leeching out until it was a darker, less brilliant gleam. Hei watched in both fascination and confusion as different things materialized around the man in the water—broken planks, bobbing all around him, and at one point, something that looked like a body. He was floundering in the water, nearly staying afloat, until he managed to grasp a piece of driftwood, coughing violently.

The man was too far from her for her to make out his features properly, though a moment later, the silence around her was broken abruptly.

It was a distorted sound, words bent nearly to the point of incomprehensible, but Hei managed to make out the fact that the guy was hollering Byeong joo's name as he struggled through the water. He seemed to be saying something else, too, though Hei couldn't understand what it was. She squinted and leaned forward, straining to hear or catch a better glimpse of his face, though both were near impossible. Beside the fact that he was repeating Byeong joo's name (or what shethoughtwas Byeong joo's name), there was something else that that she couldalmostmake out.

She nearly yelled at him to speak up, though before she could do anything or think of some other solution—because it obviously had to do with his crew—the image before her eyes dispersed like the wind was scattering particles.

Hei stood in shock for a good thirty seconds.

It had happened so fast that she couldn't even wrap her around what had happened. She tried to sort through it like Yejun had once taught her—going through what had happened step by step would help her clear her mind—but there were only three things she could pull out into coherent sentences: firstly, the person in the water was likely someone who was part of Byeong joo's crew, secondly, he had been shouting Byeong joo's name, and thirdly, there was something else he was saying that might've been important.

The last part was frustrating enough because she hadn't been able to understand what he'd been saying, but she also hadn't gotten a proper enough glimpse of his face to tell who it was. From what she knew, it wasn't Kim Junhyuk—she'd seen him plenty of times in visions—it wasn't Zhang Jiyong either, which left Do Kyungsoo, Kim Hyunmin and Park Yano.

Miffed, she turned around just in time to seen Eunho descending from the helm.

"You're up early," he commented.

"I saw something," Hei said immediately. "There was someone out in the sea—it was a vision—but he was too far away and I couldn't see his face and he seemed to be shouting Byeong joo's name—"

"Woah." Eunho held up his hands. "Slow down.Whatdid you see?"

Hei repeated, forcing herself to slow down, though it was harder. Once she'd described everything she could remember, Eunho remained absolutely silent for a long while. Finally, he muttered, "It's possible that we're passing by the same place we collided into my family's fleets."

When she squinted at the water, it was the same as before—the blue, with no sign from before.

"Here?" she echoed. "I think… well, it was obviously one of his crew, but I didn't recognize the person, so there's no saying who it was. I'm pretty sure he was shouting something else along with Byeong joo's name, but… yeah, I can't tell."

Eunho's eyebrows furrowed. "What did it sound like?"

She shrugged helplessly. "I honestly couldn't make it out."

"Do you have any ideas?"

It had been hard enough to make out Byeong joo's name, so she shook her head at Eunho. "I think I could make out that it started with anS,"Hei mumbled. "He was trying to say anything, but I couldn't understand a thing."

"Save me?" Eunho guessed, then shook his head with an embarrassed laugh. "Well, given that you might've seen Park Yano—it's possible, because he has no idea how to swim."

"He was a pirate and he doesn't know how to swim?"

"Apparently."

"Park Yano," Hei echoed. Something was beginning to form in the back of her mind, though she couldn't quite make out what it was and she could only stare at Eunho and tried to make it out. "I've never seen him in any visions back at Ezentia, so I have no idea what he looks like."

"A literal giant, pretty lanky, ears that stick out like a sore thumb? He has huge eyes, too. Grins a lot."

"I couldn't see his height because he was halfway in the water, but then that… that might be him."

"I'm sure we've told you a bit about Yano," Eunho said in a slightly dry voice. "He has the power over fire and he's a vicious fighter, though most of the time, he's pretty sweet. Maybe a bit weird, too. Has a strange relationship with Kyungsoo. Apparently his family had some pretty high expectations of him, except he kind of ruined all those when he broke out of Sileion and killed at least a fifth of the guards in the surrounding area right before he turned twenty. You'll see a bunch of wanted posters for him all around if you ever go to Sileion. His family hates him."

"Sileion," Hei echoed. "I think…"

He glanced at her. "Yes?"

"That was what he was saying," she muttered, and then it seemed to hit her full force. "Oh my God, that was what he was saying! Sileion—it sounded kind of like that, but I had no idea until you told me it was Park Yano and mentioned the city—I think he was telling Byeong joo to find him there or something. That has to be what he was saying—there's nothing else it could be—oh my goodness, he's in Sileion—"

"Calm down," Eunho laughed. "But hey, that's one step closer and it means we don't actually have to go searching for him somewhere else and that'll save time. I reckon Byeong joo'll be delighted when he hears."

It was an odd sense of accomplishment because it had come out of the mundane, an unlikely coincidence that she'd stumbled across that she'd accidentally saw Park Yano because of her power. Still, despite all of that, there was still a hint of pride for actually doing something right for once.

"Wake Byeong joo up," Eunho suggested, eyes flickering to the direction of Byeong joo's closed cabin door. "It's about time he got up and you can tell him about it too. I'll work on your power with you later on today after I go rest for a bit after he takes the wheel."

Approximately a minute later, Hei found herself standing in front of Byeong joo's cabin door, hand poised to knock, hovering about his door, but not too sure what exactly she was supposed to do. If Eunho told her to wake him up, then he wouldn't beawaketo open the door, which meant she'd have to go right in. No matter which way she thought of it, it seemed to be an invasion of privacy. Byeong joo always knocked on her door, so it would only be polite to knock on his. But if he were asleep, would he even hear if she knocked? She weighed both options for a couple moments, and then decided to knock and then enter if there was no response.

It only took three hits on the door for it to swing open.

"I'm up," he grumbled, towelling dripping hair with one hand. "Geez, Eunho—"

Hei gaped at him in shock.

For one, he wasn't wearing a top, and the water that he'd washed his hair and face with was dripping down his chest. Her second thought was that Byeong jooreallywas fit and that she'd probably die if he ever punched her, and then the horror washed over her and the realization that hehad no shirt onfinally computed.

Byeong joo obviously recovered quicker than she did. He looked slightly embarrassed for a split second, and then that morphed into a devilish grin. It was too quick of a change for her to comprehend. "How long do you plan on staring for?" he asked.

Hei slammed the door as hard as she could in his face.

She heard a muffled protest of "hey!"on the other side, but her face had turned beetroot and she stared at the wooden door in front of her and tried to gather her composure. Her face felt too hot to be able to face him in a dignified manner, and she couldn't quite erase the image from her mind. For at least fifteen seconds, Hei stood in front of the door, torn between embarrassed, angry and completely mortified.

Park Yano,she repeated to herself.Right. I'm here because I saw a vision of Park Yano and I have to tell him because Eunho said he'll be happy about it—he doesn't even deserve to know—and then I have to tell him to go up because it's his turn to steer.

"What's wrong?" someone asked behind her, and Hei spun around to see Eunho descending from the helm stairs again. "Is he not getting up? What's wrong with your face?"

"Nothing," Hei said quickly (probably too quickly, she realized).Ignore, ignore, ignore."Byeong joo, are you decent yet? There was something I had to tell you."

"Yeah," came the response, and he pushed open the door again.

Her first thought wasnope, not decent yet,and then her mind promptly short circuited. He looked the exactly same he had forty five seconds ago (though he'd gotten rid of the towel)—hair still wet, grinning in that irritating way like heknewhe was doing something stupid and was enjoying that. On top of that, still no shirt, which was the most important part.

Hei was too shocked to even slam the door in time to avoid further embarrassment.

"You lied," she managed outloud.

His grin widened before he leaned forward until they were eye level. Hei shrunk back on impulse, though he followed her movements. "Wrong," he hummed, voice sounding an octave lower than it was supposed to be. "I'm always decent."

It took a couple of moments for his words to click in, and then Byeong joo fell back, laughing so hard that he nearly doubled over. Hei would've shouted at him if she could find her voice, though at that point, she was pretty sure her face gone from red to purple. With the remaining dignity she had left, she reached over and slammed his door again with strength she didn't even know she possessed, so hard that the frame seemed to shake.

Byeong joo was still laughing on the other side when Eunho joined her by her. "Well," he concluded in ado-I-really-want-to-knowvoice. "That was… interesting."

Hei hid her face in her hands and squeezed her eyes shut. "I can't unsee," she groaned.

"It's okay," he told her. "You'll get used to it in no time."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Before Eunho could answer, the door that led to below-deck swung open and Nam Yejun stepped out. He glanced towards them for a moment, turned forward, skidded to a halt and then turned to stare at them again.

Hei managed to lift her head up to look at him. He looked confused for a couple moments, then frowned at her. "Why is your face so red? And why are you all lined up in front of Byeong joo's cabin?"

Eunho patted her on the back sympathetically.

"So," Byeong joo said. "Park Yano's in Sileion? That's a terrible place for him to be in, honestly. Everyone recognizes him and his family is hellbent on killing him. We do know quite a handful of people there so hecouldtechnically get away with it as long as he doesn't show his face, but still—I didn't expect him to shelter in Sileion. But that's a good thing. I could make a slight detour and get him out of there, which would mean there's only Junhyuk and Jiyong to find. Saves me a lot of time."

Hei still couldn't quite look at him in the face after what happened in the morning. She'd retold him everything she saw and kept her eyes fixed on a spot right past his head the whole time so she didn't have to meet his eyes—it was awfully awkward, though Byeong joo didn't seem to be the least bit affected by it (which was, undeniably, the worst part because it had been such aByeong joothing of him to do and she'd still bit the bait) and Eunho just found it extremely amusing. Yejun had no idea what was going on, but she was pretty sure he'd attempt to read her if she didn't tell him.

"Ithinkhe was saying Sileion," Hei had to clarify. "I'm not sure. But that's the most likely answer—I don't think he was shouting anything else."

"Probably was." Byeong joo sliced an apple neatly in half with his blade, then again and again until it was split into eight pieces evenly. He slid the plate towards her. "Apple?"

Hei wanted to demand how he could be so casual to her, but she bit her tongue and took a slice from him and mumbled her thanks. Asking would mean bringing it up, and bringing it up sounded like an absolute nightmare.

"Why was her face red this morning?" Yejun suddenly asked, and Hei choked on her bite of apple. She ended up in a coughing fit, and Eunho pushed her the glass of water beside her.

"I think she's still sick," Byeong joo said serenely. "That's one bad cough."

Yejun narrowed his eyes. "That's also a pretty worrisome fever if it turned her face that shade."

"Worrisome," Byeong joo echoed, not sounding at all worried.

"His fault," Hei managed out through coughs, not able to keep quiet on it any longer. She pointed an accusatory finger in Byeong joo's direction, and he feigned a look of shock.

"Me?" he exclaimed in mock surprise. "What did I ever do?

Yejun raised an eyebrow at her, taking an apple slice also. "Whatdidhe do? You never told me why you and Eunho were standing in front of his cabin this morning when I came up."

"A joke," Byeong joo filled in helpfully. "Miss Hei here doesn't appreciate them enough."

"I'd appreciate the jokes more if you had a shirt on!"

With absolutely impeccable timing, Han Noah appeared at the entrance of the mess hall. Complete dead silence followed her words, four pair of eyes all on her, and the frown on his face melted away to utter confusion and he stared at the group of them, mouth open before he snapped it shut. "Should I…" he pointed in the other direction. "Is this…"

Hei wanted to die.

A great second impression,was her only thought as Noah was seated down on the long table with them, courtesy of his brother. She wasn't sure if the silence was awkward because of the fact that Noah was sitting with them and everyone was tryingnotto be hostile or if it was because the first line he'd heard when he entered was what she said. Either way, she wanted to escape. Or melt into the floor. Both seemed to be nice options.

"So," Byeong joo finally said, stretching his hand over the table towards Noah. "Do we have a deal here that we won't kill each other?"

The other eyed him warily. "For now. I'm going to trust what my brother says on this, but I still don't trustyouin particular."

"I don't really want to fight with you again," Byeong joo replied with a slight shrug. "We both know what the outcome will be if it happens once more, though."

Noah's jaw ticked.

There was a long moment of tense silence as Byeong joo and Noah stared at each other, like they were trying to overpower the other person through a glaring contest, until Yejun finally put a stop to it and all but shoved an apple slice into Byeong joo's mouth. "Okay," he announced in a loud voice. "Hei, I said I'd teach you practice today, so let's go. Byeong joo, you can go steer or something—"

"Who made you captain?" Byeong joo interrupted. "That's my job and I give commands around here. Hei, you can go with Yejun and he'll teach you today, Eunho, go rest, and I'll steer."

"I can help with that," Noah cut in, and Byeong joo raised an eyebrow.

"Oh?" he asked.

"I can control water too, if you've forgotten. I'm pretty sure it won't be that hard to steer since I can tell directions as long as I'm on the water. I've been on ships before."

"It's not that," Byeong joo said. "How do I know you're not going to decide to drown everyone in the boat when I'm asleep?"

"Because that's the type of thing you'd do, not me." There was a sort of challenging gleam in his eyes as he met Byeong joo's gaze, arms folded in front of him. "It's your call, though. I'm offering to help, but I'm more than willing to let you stand there for a couple hours instead of me."

Yejun stood up from his chair, eying his brother and Byeong joo as if trying to guess whether or not the two of them would try to kill one another. Finally, he seemed to pass a verdict as he nodded once at her. "You guys can sort this out on your own," he said decidedly. "I'll head off with Hei here. Just don't kill each other when you decide."

Hei wasn't too sure if it were a good idea to leave Byeong joo and Noah in the same room, even if Eunho was there, because she really couldn't put it past either of them to attack the other if provoked enough. Still, she turned and followed Yejun out.

He didn't teach her, but instead sat her down and showed her all of his notes he'd written. She couldn't understand half of the scribbled down characters, though she made out a couple simpler things. Frowning at the piece of paper he'd handed her, Hei shoved it back at Yejun. "Can't read this," she told him. "Why are you showing me this instead of teaching me?"

"Because this is important," Yejun replied.
"Teaching me isn't?"

"Nope." He shuffled through another pile. "Kim Byeong joo has some big goals, and I'll give him that. I don't necessarily approve of most of them because… well, it doesn't matter who he is—going to Hell's Gate is still kind of suicide whether or not he has a map with him or not, though I suppose he's planned this out way more elaborately than I originally thought he did. He's been gathering information and resources for at least five years, you know?"

It was a bit odd to hear Yejun talk about Byeong joo as an acquaintance. She was so used to him bristling every time Byeong joo was brought up that the fact that he was the one to bring it up casually just seemed out of place.

"He started when he was nineteen?"

Yejun nodded. "He said he had the goal at nineteen. He used to just go around killing as many members of families as he could, but… well, I have to admit, this has made him a lot more dangerous. Especially when quite a handful of people believe he's a commoner. He has a lot of influence because a lot of common folk are sick and tired of being oppressed by the families, and Byeong joo's kind of the best stand they have against them."

"You seem to know a lot about him."

He shrugged. "He told me about it all and let me read him at the same time, so there was a lot more information I caught on. Why do you ask?"

"I didn't ask," Hei mumbled before reaching for the nearest piece of paper in an attempt to divert the topic. She wasn't quite ready to talk about Byeong joo so much, especially after the mortifying encounter in the morning. Just the mention of him made her feel jittery. She thrust the piece of paper at Yejun. "So? What were you going to talk to me about? Get onto the topic."

He snorted at that and pushed the paper away from his face. "There's just a couple of things I seemed to have figured out about Hell's Gate, though I can't be extremely sure as of now. There's quite a lot of information in the book he gave me. I suppose there would be more, but my family's kept all of them on strict watch and no one's allowed to read them. And they're really hard to decipher, even with my power."

"I'm surprised you can understandanythingin that book," Hei muttered. "Can you understand like, every language there is?"

"As a matter of fact, I can." Yejun set down the papers on his lap. "It's quite hard work, though. I'm not particularly fond of it. Anyway, as I was saying—Hell's Gate. I think—this is just a guess—but there's something inside it that Byeong joo needs in order to kill a family leader. And I'm guessing the person who's guarding that object is someone who has the same power as you."

Hei gaped him. "Say what?"

"The book that I was talking about with my brother," he replied. "The one that I read when I snuck into the library when I was younger—a story about a man from a family who had some sort of power over time and then tried to wage a war on the families—apparently he was sentenced to eternal suffering in Hell's Gate. I'm not sure how accurate it is because it sounds like a watered down version, but from what I can pull out of this book, the same man is very likely still there and Hell's Gate and has the solution that Kim Byeong joo is looking for."

That wasn't any easier to wrap her head around. She continued staring at Yejun with an open mouth.

"Well?" he asked. "Does that make any sense? Do you think I should tell him now?"

Hei gave a slight cough. "There'sreallysomeone out there with the same power as me?"

"Well,out thereisn't the right word, because Hell's Gate wouldn't exactly count asout there,technically speaking. But yes. You're not the only one with a power like that, and because of the fact that the last person who tried to face the families head on had the same power as you, it makes sense why the Song family was so keen on getting rid of you."

She shuddered. "Did the book say anything about how Hell's Gate is like?"

"No, or either I haven't gotten to that point yet. I hope it does, though. There's no way Byeong joo's going to navigate his way through that place relying on the help of a map that may not even be completely accurate, and it's best to have prior knowledge on what one's going into before actually going into it. I'll just have to speed up reading this thing."

Hei flopped down backwards onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling. "It all sounds so complicated and he… well, he wants me tostop timein order to get through. There's like, a month or so left until we have to get to Hell's Gate? There's so little time and so much to do and I don't get how we're ever going to do all of that."

"You should be the one that's good with that kind of stuff, right?" Yejun grinned. "Time, right?"

"Yejun, he wants me tostop time—"

"And you're going to do that." He straightened. "Let's go somewhere else so open. We'll work on your power now."

Chapter 27

A Day Off

They did end up stopping on the place Byeong joo talked about to get supplies, and he suggested that she and Eunho join him for sightseeing.

"It's a nice place," he told her. "Well, not the town itself, but the surrounding scenery is quite nice. There's a really nice river there that has black colored sand at one part, and I thought you'd quite like it. I don't think you've ever had the chance to go sightseeing when you were in Hua, right?"

Hei shuffled her feet on the deck. It had been two days and she still couldn't bring her to meet his eyes for longer than five seconds. "I've seen my backyard in Hua. That's literally it. There were a couple occasions where I've left the house for general gatherings, but… yeah. No scenery."

She could feel Byeong joo's eyes on her, lingering a bit too long for comfort, and Hei gnawed nervously on her bottom lip and kept her eyes fixed on the ground. "Well," he finally said, though his tone was a bit strained. "There's plenty of scenery there to make up for that there. I suppose we could spend until noon outside instead of going straight to grab supplies."

Hei glanced at the horizon. She could see the shape of land beginning to appear, and the oddest part of it was that it was the coastline. Aesta had been on an island—this wasland.On top of that, they were way closer to Hua than she would've preferred, and it brought an awfully exposed, uncomfortable feeling. She didn't want to return to Hua ever again, and if she absolutely had to, she would've preferred if it would be after she'd managed to control her power more. Hua brought back all thecan'ts—she didn't want to return until she was sure that shecould.

"Why am I going with you two again?" she asked.

"Because we ought to all spend quality time together," he sang back. "You might want to grab a coat this time, unless you'd like mine again."

Hei wasn'ttooagainst that, but there was no way she was ever going to say that aloud. "I don't," she told him pointedly.

"Suit yourself," Byeong joo shrugged. "We'll be off in fifteen minutes. Tell Nam Yejun I grant him a day to spend quality time with his brother too. On the ship. They can scrub the deck if they're bored enough after it. And also tell him that he ought to keep a watch on Yu Hamin—I don't trust that kid not to do something stupid and I can't bear to lock him up in his room, so…" He paused, then added thoughtfully, "Even if I locked him up, he'd probably find a way to escape."

Hei found Yejun first. He was just coming out of his cabin when she saw him, rubbing his eyes and looking as if he needed a couple more hours of sleep.

"Byeong joo said you have the whole ship to yourself and Noah for a day," Hei told him. "We're going to be leaving soon. Two things." She held up her second and third fingers up at Yejun. "One, you have to watch Hamin. Byeong joo's scared that he's going to do something stupid."

"That's manageable."

"Second, don't run away with Noah or something." She folded the last one down. "You know, steal the ship and try to head back to Ezentia and then expose his identity to everyone?"

Yejun snorted. "As if. My family would just execute my brother and me."

Hei grimaced. "Yikes."

"Yikes indeed," he agreed in an emotionless voice. "Be off, then. Don't have too much fun."

"I've never seen a river before," Hei told Byeong joo, who was beside her as the three of them stared down from the top of the ravine. "Do they normally look like this?"

"Well, this isn't actually a really big one," Byeong joo started. "I've seen much larger, that is. But it's famous for the black sand shores. It's rather pretty, if I can find a way to get down there."

Hei frowned. "What do you mean?"

"The river's basically carved this into a canyon," he said, jerking his chin down in direction of the rushing water. Hei couldn't quite estimate how far the drop was, though it was at least thirty feet. Probably way more. "I think some kind soul decided to build a staircase down, but that was decades ago and the last time I visited, it wasn't exactly stable."

Squinting down, she could see what Byeong joo meant by black sand. The color stood out against the reddish brown walls of the canon, a shiny black, glittering like small, chipped pieces of gems in the morning sun. It just shone all the brighter with the river torrents sweeping by, sunlight catching on the water. It was such a unique and pretty sight that she didn't look away until Byeong joo tapped her on the shoulder.

"So?" he asked. "Do you want to go down there?"

Hei followed the finger that was pointing at the river. "You said the stairs aren't safe."

"Yes, but we have other ways, Miss Hei."

For some reason, theMiss Heifelt different than what it did normally coming from him. Hei decided that it was best to ignore it. "Like what?"

"It's not that far a drop," Byeong joo replied with a slight shrug. "There's quite a nice breeze going today, and I reckon it wouldn't be too hard to fly us down there if I have enough support from the wind. If you really want to go see the shore, I could do that."

Hei glanced down once again, then back at Eunho. Far away, in the distance, she could see the town that Byeong joo had been talking about, the one they had to drop by for supplies, though it seemed too far away to be a worry. In the field, with just Byeong joo and Eunho, everything felt nice, soothing, just like the meadow of purple and yellow flowers growing in the tall grass, brushed side to side by the morning breeze. It ran gentle fingers through her hair, pulling her dress back, and the fresh air was clearer than anything she felt in Hua, and if she forgot about everything else there was to worry about, it felt almost as if everything were completely ordinary.

"Is Eunho going, then?" she finally asked.

Byeong joo glanced at his friend. "Eunho, would you like me to carry you down thirty some feet in the air?"

Eunho visibly shuddered. "No thanks. Spare me from heights. Go have fun by yourself. You two have exactly an hour before we're going to the town."

Byeong joo shrugged. "I hope you're not scared of heights, Hei. Eunho is. The last time we did this it didn't go that well."

"Did what—" she started, but before she could finish her sentence, Byeong joo wrapped an arm around her waist, and with almost no effort, jumped.

A scream ripped itself out of her throat as they plummeted in free-fall for a good couple of seconds, though it was carried away by the wind too. Hei's only thought wasit's not peaceful anymore and I'm going to die this moment because Byeong joo tried to kill me,and then they slowed down so suddenly that it felt as if half of her had still been left somewhere back up. She was gasping for breath, half torn between crying and heaving her breakfast back up because whatever had happened hadn't exactly been the best on her stomach.

They hovered at the same place for a couple minutes. Hei could see the river again—it was closer, but that was just scary because they were still in midair and Byeong joo's power was the only thing still keeping them up. Her heart was pounding so hard that her ribcage seemed to ache from it.

"Can we go down?" she managed, still not quite over the initial terror when he'd jumped. She tried to say something else, but the only thing that she could say came out as a squeak. "Don't drop me," she told him.

He hummed in response, which Hei hoped was an assurance, before they started setting down slowly.

It was an odd sensation, really. She'd never seen Byeong joo do anything of the sort before even though she knew he could control air, and she hadn't expected it to be so literal when he said he could use his power to bring them down. It was terrible frightening to have nothing underneath her to stand on, with nothing but the support of Byeong joo's arm—sure, he was strong, butwhat ifhe did accidentally drop her?—and the rushing water a fair distance below them. She ended up squeezing her eyes shut.

It was a good fifteen seconds before her feet finally touched the ground and Byeong joo let go of her the moment she had something under her feet. Hei sat down hard onto the sand.

It normally would've bothered her to no end to be sitting on sand—sand always bothered her to no end because it stuck to absolutely everything when wet—though she couldn't bring herself to care as she sat there for the longest time, trying to catch her breath and let her heart return to its normal rate. When Hei could finally breathe again, she lifted her head and took one last shaky breath.

"Warn me if you're ever going to do something like that next time," she wheezed. "I think I'm going to go with Eunho in the future. I'm also scared of heights from now on."

"Come on, it wasn'tthatbad, was it?"

"It was very bad," she told him before glancing back up. The top of the cliff seemed faraway, casting a long line of shadow on the black sand. She couldn't see Eunho anywhere on the top, though he probably would've preferred to stay away from the edge if he was scared of heights. "I don't… oh my goodness, I thought I was going to die."

Byeong joo offered a hand to her. "It's not as bad going up."

Hei eyed him warily. She didn't quite trust what he was going to do, but after a moment of hesitation, she took his hand. He pulled her to her feet with ease, then gave her a blinding grin. Part of her wanted to slap it right off his face and the other half was terribly convinced to smile back because it was infectious, so she ended up not doing anything.

"You hadone armsupporting me," she pointed out as she brushed sand off of her dress. "What if you dropped me?"

"You're not that heavy. Besides, even if I let go, I had the air supporting you. Nothing would've happened."

Hei still shuddered at the thought. "Is there a safer way going up?"

"Not that I know of? Unless you'd like to climb the cliff."

"Forget it," she mumbled, then glanced down at her feet.

It was the first time she'd actually taken the time to glance at her surroundings. There was still lingering nausea, not quite gone from the first moment Byeong joo had jumped, though Hei could ignore it if she really tried. All around her, the river swept past, white torrents, hurriedly flowing into the direction of the sea. The parts of the sand that were under sunlight gleamed blindingly, uncountable black grains stretched out in what seemed to be an endless beach.

"It's nice," she finally said to Byeong joo.

He gave a slight laugh. "Does it make up for what I did back there?"

"Scenery does not make up for plummeting to my death."

"Oh well." Unfazed, Byeong joo toed the black sand, then glanced down the shore. After a moment of comfortable silence, he offered her an arm and a grin. "Care for a stroll, then?"

Hei rolled her eyes at him and shoved away his elbow. "Just walk."

It was an hour or so later when they finally joined Eunho. He was still sitting in the tall, waving grass, though when he stood up, Hei realized that he'd somehow woven a flower crown from the wildflowers scattered on the field. The purple and yellow kind of clashed, but it was still pretty, and he swung it around his index finger before pushing himself to his feet.

"You're late," he told Byeong joo. "It's been more than an hour. I do hope you know how to manage your time wisely." He turned towards Hei, and gave her a much more sympathetic wince. "I hope you're alright from when he just pulled you off. That happened to me the last time—it wasn't here, but it was honestly the most traumatizing experience of my life. I'm sorry you had to go through that too. We should start a mutiny."

Byeong joo raised his hands in a placating gesture. "In my defense, I didn't know you were scared of heights back then."

Eunho grumbled something that sounded extremely angry before stretching out a hand. The flower crown dangled from his fingers.

Hei stared at it for a couple moments. "Is that for me?" she asked dumbly.

Byeong joo solved the problem by plucking the flowers from Eunho's hand and then placing it on her head after taking a couple seconds to arrange it. Hei was too shocked to do anything when he stepped back.

"Doesn't look bad," he said in a nonchalant voice. "And who else would it be for if it weren't for you? If he made it for himself, he would've put it on by then, and I don't think I would look good with flowers in my hair."

"You claim you're always decent, though."

The moment she blurted the words out Hei clapped her hands over her mouth in horror, but it was too late. Eunho's head snapped up, eyes wide before he covered a laugh with a choked cough. Byeong joo glanced at her, amusement twinkling in his eyes, which didn't seem to be a good thing because he had that look he always got whenever he was going to say something that was mortifyingly embarrassing to her.

"Don't say it," she mumbled into her hands. "I don't want to hear whatever it is."

"Why would you assume that I would say something?" he asked, then shook his head in mock disappointment. "Whatever. Let's go. We should be able to set off by late afternoon if we run into no issues in the town—which we shouldn't."

Hei felt a bit self-conscious about the flower crown on her head because it felt rather fancy, and the purple and yellow stood out against the simple white of her dress. Besides, Byeong joo was dressed in darker colors too—a striped black and mahogany shirt (of which the top two buttons open, so she could see the seashell necklace hanging from his neck) tucked in black pants and dark colored boots. Likewise, Eunho's whole attire consisted of navy blue and a brown that was so dark that it seemed more black.

On the nth time she tried to fix her flower crown, Byeong joo stopped her. "It's fine," he said. "Just leave it."

Hei adjusted it one last time and lowered her hands.

The meadow was beginning to dip then, leading them down into what looked like a slight valley nestled in between two hills. She could see the town clearer beneath; it looked absolutely nothing like Aesta.

For one, it was a lot smaller, though the buildings were much more spread out than the ones in Aesta. Hei could see a gravel path winding its way through the town, around every corner, and finally leading up to the sea. From the height they were standing, people looked like ants, no larger than her fingers. The houses were made of many different material—some stone, some brick, some wooden, some with thatched straw roofs and other with boarded ones. There were two stories, single, and at the end of town, what looked like a giant clock-tower and a much larger building.

"It's… a really small place," she finally said, because there was nothing more than Hei could deduce out of the town. "People don't drop here often, do they?"

Byeong joo hummed in response. "They don't. I'm pretty sure not many families even know that it exists, actually. There are so many tiny villages like this scattered over the land that families don't care about, and all of them are run by people who manage to rise in power because they've gathered a gang or something to work for them. That's why they're to some extent even more irritating to navigate through. They're not very open to visitors. Though I suppose it's a matter of staying hidden, too."

Hei glanced down. "What do you need to get?"

"Food," Eunho cut in, holding up one finger. "Water isn't a huge issue, but unless some kind soul would like to go fishing or something, food isn't going to come out of nowhere. And apparently Yejun wants more paper? He mentioned something about using up that and the ink."

Hei thought of the stacks and stacks of translations Yejun had already done, all piled up in his room, and then the numerous sheets he'd crumpled out of frustration. "Makes sense."

"You're going with me," Byeong joo told her cheerily. They were beginning to approach the outskirts of the town. A woman who was hanging up her clothing to dry took one look at them and hurried away back into the house. Byeong joo watched her with a half-bored expression on his face. "We're going to find supplies for Yejun, and then if I can, I'm going to drop by to visit the blacksmith. Most of us prefer to fight with our powers, but it'll never be bad to have an extra sword or two lying around."

Hei didn't have time to tell him that she would've much rather gone to grab food with Eunho because dealing with sharp things never seemed to be a good idea, though Eunho was already heading in the opposite direction and there was nothing she could do but run after Byeong joo.

He weaved through the streets like he'd lived there all of his life. Hei had to jog to keep up with him, and at some point, she nearly lost him in a crowd of people. Just when she was near-panicking, he pulled her to the side.

"The flowers are untangling," he pointed out, and before Hei could do anything, he plucked the flower crown from her head. Sure enough, the purple and yellow were beginning to fall apart, resembling less of a crown and more of a long strand. "We're at the blacksmith's right now—I can strap on, like, four more weapons without looking ridiculous, and then we'll find a stall that sells paper and ink."

Hei hadn't even realized they'd been standing in front of a door until Byeong joo pushed it open for her. The interior of the room was dark, not light enough for her to see properly, though once in awhile, sparks flickered from a corner of the room, bright enough to illuminate the surroundings for a split second before it faded back into darkness. Along with it came the screeching of metal against metal.

"Minho," Byeong joo greeted. "Mind getting a light?"

She shuffled behind him. It was awfully dark, and she couldn't see whoever he was addressing, which made her nervous. For a couple of moments, nothing happened and her surroundings remained the same, until all of a sudden, the room blazed to light.

It was the same firelight that they used on the ship—the lamps—and the color made everything appear oddly warm and at the same time, extremely contoured. The first thing Hei spotted was the figure that was standing next to the dying embers, tall, though he didn't look more than twenty-five.

She did a double take. Hei wasn't quite sure what she had expected, but definitely not whoever the person in front of them looked like.

"What is it this time?"

Byeong joo gave him an easy grin. "I need weapons."

It was almost scary how easily he dished that out like it was an everyday thing, though Minho didn't seem extremely bothered by it either. In the lamplight, she could see the hammer in his hand reflecting sharply, and then she realized that along the walls there were blades of all sorts lined—daggers, throwing knives, long, curved swords and even javelins. Byeong joo headed towards the wall without another word, and after a long moment of hesitation, Hei followed him.

"It's going to cost you quite a lot," Minho said, picking up something from the table next to him. He tapped the blade of a double-edged dagger against his palm. "How many are you looking for?"

"Two longswords and a couple smaller blades that I can conceal. I'm not too sure how people would react if I came out of here carrying an armful of weapons. I don't suppose it'll be very pleasant."

Minho shrugged before pulling something from the wall. He held it up to the light, the silver edge of the sword reflecting the flames, before he handed it off to Byeong joo. "One," he said. "You could probably strap both of them to your back. There's a twin blade for it."

Hei decided to stay on the opposite side of the room, because being close to such sharp objects made her nervous. Byeong joo turned the blade in the light, and after half a minute of inspection later, he gave Minho a short nod. "What else? Do you reckon I can fit four throwing knives and two daggers, then?"

"You look ridiculous," Hei told Byeong joo.

That was a lie; he didn't lookthatbad, even though he had two longswords strapped in an X on his back and visible sheathed blades hanging from his belt. Hei decided that it was fine if she let him believe that itdidlook bad.

She was holding the stack of papers he'd bought from a store down a corner, and balanced precariously on top of that were three capped bottles of ink. Hei had to constantly check in front of her and at the same time keep it all from falling, and it was awful work because the main street was crowded and Byeong joo liked to move along at a fast pace.

"I'm always decent," he told her cheerfully.

Hei decided that it was best for her balance if she ignored that. "Where are we meeting Eunho?"

"On the ship. He probably got back before we did because there wasn't that much for him to pick up. So yes—we'll be able to set off by mid-afternoon once I get everything in place, and then we'll head straight for Castra. If all goes well, it'll be three—four at most—days for us to get there, and then we'll be able to pick up Park Yano from Sileion. And then there's Jiyong and Junhyuk and Kyungsoo, but I know where Kyungsoo is, so…" He trailed off, then gave a slightly sheepish grin. "I'm rambling. This is just going a lot more smoothly than I planned and that might give us extra time before I have to reach Hell's Gate, and more time is always better than being pressed for it."

Hei gave him a cautious once-over. "You look very happy."

"Things are going smoothly."

"That means we're going to be sailing to our deaths sooner."

Byeong joo gave her a good natured grin and then ruffled her hair with his free hand. It was something that Yejun did sometimes, which seemed natural, though Hei nearly froze up after he withdrew his hand. There was something so weirdly fond about the gesture that the fact thatKim Byeong joohad done it to her couldn't quite compute.

She remained shocked still for a good couple of seconds as Byeong joo continued forward as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened, before hurrying to catch up to him and trying to figure out why in the world her heart was beating so erratically.

Chapter 28

Rum Luck

By the time they got back to the ship, it really was mid-afternoon as Byeong joo had predicted. He helped her carry the sheets of paper up and Hei fumbled with the bottles of ink, though nothing ended up spilling and they transported all of that to Yejun's room. He headed to his room with all of the weapons and returned half a minute later with all of them gone.

"You store that stuff in your cabin?" Hei demanded.

Byeong joo shrugged. "Why not?"

"How do you sleep with the knowledge that you havethat stuffstored up in your room?" she demanded back. "That's just… scary."

"Sweetheart, I used to sleep with blades under my pillow back when I first ran away from my family, and none of them were sheathed."

Hei really wished he'd stop calling hersweetheartbecause it was more distracting than he knew it to be, but then thinking about it again, bringing it up with him was an even worse idea so she decided to keep her mouth shut. "You slept with an open blade under your pillow," she repeated after him. "Wouldn't you accidentally cut yourself?"

"No."

"Do you still do that?"

"There's no point, though I do have my cutlass on me at times."

She made a mental note to herself not to ever develop the same sleeping habits as Byeong joo. It seemed to be a little paranoid—maybe more than a little—though she couldn't quite blame him for it either, especially when so many people were after his head. "Whatifyou do accidentally stab yourself?" she tried, though before Byeong joo could answer, the door below deck swung open and Eunho stepped out.

Hei's first thought was that he looked utterly terrible, though she couldn't quite make sense of that because the last time she'd seen him he had looked completely normal and she wasn't sure if it were even possible for a person to change so much in so little time. And then she wondered if he'd been crying, because that was what it looked like—his eyes were a bit red, expression dull, and lips pressed together in a line. His eyes flickered towards Byeong joo and her, almost like he was looking through them, and then his shoulders drooped.

"We need to talk," Eunho said in a flat tone. "Let's go to the mess hall."

There was a moment of utter and complete silence from both her and Byeong joo, though Eunho brushed past them lifelessly and headed off around the corner before either of them could object or ask. Hei caught a piece of paper in his hands and something else—it looked like a necklace, though she didn't quite recognize where it was from. A yellowish stone dangled from the black pendant, swaying with each step, and beside her, Byeong joo drew in a sharp breath.

He didn't move for a very, very long moment. Hei held her breath, too scared to ask what was wrong and where the recognized the pendant came from, though she never got a chance to anyway because he was striding hurriedly after Eunho once he recovered.

She could do nothing but run after him after a second of thought.

Eunho had taken a seat on one of the chairs in the mess hall at the head of one of the tables when Hei pushed open the door. Byeong joo was already a couple of steps in front of her, because by the time she neared them, he had already picked up the necklace from the table with an expression of mixed horror and fear. It was all emotions she didn't quite associate with Kim Byeong joo that Hei stared at him for a very long time, taking shallow, light breaths in fear of doing something that was too loud.

"Sit down," Eunho said to Byeong joo. "I don't… I don't think we should call Yejun or Noah into this yet, but Hei—you've seen Jiyong, right?"

She hesitated. "Once or twice."

Byeong joo sank down into one of the chairs. He still looked like he was in shock. Hei followed suit nervously, glancing at the sheet of paper that Eunho had in front of him, which was still folded. She glanced at the necklace in his hands again—Jiyong? If Eunho was asking her about Jiyong, then that was probably his. The only thing she knew about Jiyong was that he was stabbed the last time anyone saw him and that Byeong joo firmly believed he was still alive.

"Good news and bad news," he said. "I'm not too sure if it can even count as good news, but…"

Byeong joo set the pendant down. "Just say it."

Eunho took a deep breath. "This letter is for you. Read it yourself."

He slid the parchment paper in Byeong joo's direction and Hei watched from the other side of the table. She felt as if she were intruding, but at the same time, getting up to leave definitely wasn't an option. Byeong joo's fingers were actually trembling around the paper as he unfolded it once, then twice, before opening it to a messy scrawl of black ink that she couldn't quite read upside down.

She could see his jaw ticking as he read on, though for the longest time, crushing silence encompassed the room. Finally, just before Hei was pretty sure something was going to break because of the tension, he lifted his head.

"Where did you get this?" he asked Eunho, voice low, strained and barely coming out. A vein jumped in his temple.

"Someone recognized me." His voice was dull. "Remember the man who used to run the village two years back when we visited? Apparently a couple weeks ago Park Jaekyung arrived, killed almost a third of the village's people, and left that note for you. It's possible that he's done it to a couple of other places he believed you would stop at. That's why the villagers were so scared when they saw that there were visitors."

"Park Jaekyung," Byeong joo repeated.

Hei did a double take at him. "Jaekyung?" she echoed, and at that moment, Byeong joo slammed a fist against the table.

She snapped back in shock, though Eunho remained unmoving, almost as if he had expected the outburst from the beginning. He just looked exhausted, while the previous emotions on Byeong joo's face had melted away to rage. Slightly unnerved, she scooched back on her chair, though Byeong joo had already stood up. The seat behind him toppled over at the force, though he didn't seem to notice. In less than five seconds, he'd disappeared from the room, leaving her sitting there with Eunho, who looked utterly torn.

Silence hung over them heavily for a couple more seconds before he heaved a sigh. "I'm sorry you had to see that."

Hei took a deep breath. "I don't… I don't get what happened. What did the paper say?"

Eunho's expression was grim. "Zhang Jiyong," he said. "You heard about it, right? The last thing any of us saw of him was when he got stabbed through the chest by one of my siblings, and then… well, I thought he died from that. Byeong joo heals faster when he's in water, but even he would've had a hard time recovering from a blow like that. I didn't think he would even live, but apparently he did. That's a good thing, but…"

Park Jaekyung.He didn't really have to say the whole thing for her to get it, and there was the same feeling of dread uncoiling in her stomach. She remembered Byeong joo grinning at her and saying that everything was going more smoothly than he expected—he reallyhadsaid that too early.

"That man," she said in a choked voice. "He has Jiyong, doesn't he?"

Eunho's face went paler, if it were even possible. "You know about him?"

"Byeong joo was telling me about how he and Junhyuk killed half of his men and ruined his business in running a prostitution ring."

"Right. They don't have the best history—in fact, there were a couple instances where Jaekyung swore he'd kill Byeong joo that I can recall, but in terms of actual strength and power, Byeong joo's ahead of him by a lot, so unless Jaekyung has some sort of leverage, he won't be able to do so much as to scratch Byeong joo. But now that he's got Jiyong…"

"It's do as he says or have Jiyong killed," Hei finished. "What does Jaekyung want?"

looked slightly sick as he unfolded the piece of paper and handed it to her. "He says he'll trade in Jiyong for Byeong joo. And that man is cunning and holds grudges—it's the worst possible combination."

Hei squinted at the scribbled handwriting. There were smears of dark red-brown at the side, and she didn't even want to try to imagine what had happened in order for there to be blood on the paper. Jaekyung had slaughtered a small half of an innocent town to get his message across to Byeong joo, and that was just one of the many.

"So?" she asked in a small voice. "What are we supposed to do?"

Eunho gave a helpless shrug. "If only I knew. I don't even have the faintest clue as to where Jaekyung's ship is at the moment, and even if I did, there's a faint chance we could get anywhere close to him without being spotted and threatened. I don't…" His shoulders drooped and he buried his face in his hands. "I don't know how we're going to get out of this one with everyone in one piece."

Hei spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in her room dejectedly.

Byeong joo had disappeared somewhere—she had absolutely no idea where, though she remained in her cabin so there really was no telling. For the rest of the day, she practiced her power halfheartedly by herself as the ship sailed on forward at a steady pace, occasionally hitting rough patches of waves. She wished she could do something to help, because the feeling of sitting and doing nothing was so painfullyuselessthat Hei wasn't sure if she could stand it for much longer. Still, there was nothing she could think of that would've been any help—the visions still didn't come easy, and even if they did, she couldn't simply see Jiyong's location out of nowhere.

The sun was almost completely set when someone knocked on her door.

She half expected it to be Yejun, though instead, Eunho stood there. He looked utterly spent, though on top of that was obvious anger. He attempted to smooth out his scowl when he saw her, though it didn't quite disappear. It still felt as if he were silently fuming.

"Hi," she managed timidly. Witnessing the whole episode with Byeong joo in the afternoon was enough, and angry Eunho was too much for her to deal with.

"This is a lot to ask," he said in a tight voice. "But can you go up to the mess hall and make sure Byeong joo doesn't accidentally kill himself or something?"

She nearly fell off her bed. "Pardon?"

"He's drunk," Eunho gritted out. "The damn—" He cleared his throat. "The last time the idiot did that he nearly capsized the boat because he kept on trying to mess with his power on the sea, and then there was one time where he told Junhyuk to use him for target practice for knife throwing. He insisted firmly, actually."

Thatsounded kind of funny, and Hei had to bite back a slight laugh. It died in her throat when she remembered why exactly Byeong joo was even drinking.

Eunho continued as if he hadn't heard anything. "I tried to keep any form of alcohol away from him," he muttered, looking more and more irritated by each word. "He has absolutelynotolerance. Half a cup and he's done for. I don't know how much exactly that he's drunk, but just know that he's probably completely drunk at this point. Just… supervise in the corner of the room or something."

Hei got to her feet slowly. She wasn't sure how she ever was going to deal with Byeong joo, drunk, because he was an extremely collected person and she couldn't even begin to picture him as Eunho had described.

"He has a low tolerance," she echoed. "How?"

"Beats me." Shrugging, he took a step back from the door, then stopped. "I really appreciate it. I just… I just can't deal with it in situations like these, and I can't even yell at him for being an irresponsible captain because the last time I did that when he was drunk… well…"

Unsure of whether or not she even wanted to hear the whole story, she gave one last nod at Eunho and headed up towards the mess hall.

The smell of alcohol hit her before she even saw Byeong joo. It was so strong that Hei had the urge to turn the other way—maybe Yejun was more suited for the job than she was—but finally, breathing through her mouth, she shuffled towards the doorway.

The mess hall was an absolute mess, and that was the first thing, because messes bothered Hei to no end. And then she saw Byeong joo, hunched over one of the tables with his head in his hands and the absolute chaos around him.

It was definitely too much to handle. For a couple seconds, she was even more tempted to call Yejun up, but then the fact that there was spilled alcohol on the tables and shattered glass on the floor all around Byeong joo trumped that and Hei decided that she would do somethingaftereverything was cleaned up properly.

Cautiously, she made her way towards Byeong joo. He didn't seem to notice her at all, hugging the bottle of rum to his chest. He didn't move at all when she eyed the broken shards of the bottle around him, so Hei decided that the best course of action would be to grab a broom, sweep up the shards and then mop up the table with a cloth before washing it over with water. She took a couple of steps towards where the cleaning supplies were kept, and at that moment, Byeong joo lifted his head.

Hei froze.

"You," he slurred, pointing a finger in her direction, though it missed her completely. "Why are there so many of you?"

Swallowing the lump in her throat, she shook her head. "You're just not seeing properly. You're drunk."

He heaved a dramatic sigh as Hei reached the broom and dustpan. "I didn't drinkthatmuch," he proclaimed. "Half a cup and then I'm feeling dizzy. And now I want more, but Eunho took away the rest from me, and now I don't know where they are."

It was probably best if she ignored him, though Hei still found that to be impossibly hard as she swept up the broken bottle around him. Eunho said he had a low alcohol tolerance, but half a cup? Byeong joo had hit her as the kind of person who'd be able to down ten glasses and remain perfectly sober.

"Everyone's gone," he continued as Hei dumped the shards into the garbage bag. She grabbed the tablecloth from where it hung, doused it in water, and headed back to where Byeong joo was seated. There was still what looked like half a bottle of rum left, and she was pretty sure it would be a terrible idea to leave him with it. "All the rest of my crew who I couldn't save, Heejin, and now Park Jaekyung has Jiyong. Everyone's gone, and I can't even do anything about it."

Her chest tightened at his words, though Hei forced herself to ignore it as she wiped the area in front of him too before trying to tug the bottle out of his hands.

Byeong joo yanked back harshly. "It's mine," he slurred, though it was nowhere near threatening.

Hei sighed. It was obvious why Eunho hadn't wanted to deal with him, though she wasn't sure if she was capable of doing so either.

"Look," she said slowly. "You're already drunk. You can't have more. Drink water."

"I want them back," Byeong joo replied as if she hadn't even spoken. "Why is it so hard?"

"Because you can't bring back the dead."

He looked even more dejected than before, if it were even possible. Finally, he released the bottle and pushed it towards her. Hei barely managed to catch it before it toppled over—that would've ruined everything she'd been trying to clean up. She set it aside, out of reach, as Byeong joo pushed himself to his feet unsteadily. He was barely half a step away from the seat before he stumbled and sat back down again, hard. "I know I can't."

"Then why are you like this?"

"Heejin," he said, and Hei blanched. "Because of me, her whole family ended up being executed by my father, and then… and then she…" The rest of his sentence was lost in incomprehensible mumbles. "If I had been more careful, Jiyong… none of this would've happened. I can't—" He sniffed, and Hei narrowed her eyes. Was hecrying?"I can't take care of anyone."

"That's not true," she said. "There's some things that we don't ever have control over. It's not your fault."

"You." He glanced straight up at her that time, and Hei found herself freezing, both unsure and unable to do anything. There was something oddly lucid about his eyes, though the moment passed before she could concentrate more on it. "If it weren't for me, you never would've had to go through's reading."

She went around the table, standing over Byeong joo. He remained seated, still slouched, following her movements with half-lidded eyes. Hei wanted to tell him that it wasn't his fault for that—she'd chosen to do it herself, and he'd done all he could after it and that really did mean a lot, though she held the words back. It felt as if they'd be wasted, because he wasn't going to understand or listen anyway in such a state.

"You should go back to your cabin," she decided. "Drink water to get the alcohol out of your system."

Byeong joo tried to get up again, though he was no more successful than he was the first time, except he nearly toppled over on her. Hei barely managed to catch him before he stumbled again, not seeming to realize that she was the one supporting him.

She almost collapsed—Byeong joo had been able to carry her back through Aesta, but the other way around didn't seem possible. Struggling with the weight, Hei tried to hold his body up without tipping over, though he seemed to have decided to put all his weight on her instead of trying to walk on his own.

"Hey," Hei said, nudging him with her shoulder. Byeong joo didn't even budge. "Kim Byeong joo!"

"Bring them back," he muttered.

Gritting her teeth, she shook her head at him and tried to hoist him again. It wasn't much better than the first time, though Hei managed to stagger a couple steps towards the door of the mess hall, pulling him with her for a couple meters before she nearly slammed into the frame.

"Byeong joo," she repeated again. "Get up, you have to walk. Do that all you want once you get back to your cabin, but I'm not strong enough to carry you all the way there."

"I don't…" The words were mumbled, near inaudible, and Hei had to strain in order to actually hear what he was saying. "I'm tired."

Well, so am I,she nearly snapped, but one look at Byeong joo shut her up.

It wasn't something she would even thought to associate with Kim Byeong joo until then—he was the confident captain of the crew, powerful, prodigy of the Kim family—but at the moment, he just looked sad, completely vulnerable and defeated, and utterly, absolutely miserable. Hei hadn't exactly realized just how much he was dealing with—he always played it off as nothing, or something that he did with ease—and it obviouslywasn't.

"How about this?" She toed the door open with her right foot. "You walk for fifteen seconds and rest in a comfortable bed instead of sleeping with rum all around you and drinking away your problems. They're not going to disappear."

"They really don't," he said, voice oddly clear for a moment, and Hei turned to look at him in surprise.

His hair was plastered to his forehead, and there was just something about his state that was pitiful and made her chest tighten more than it really should've. It really was a lot—she hadn't known Jiyong, but the letter from Jaekyung had been terrifying enough. For Byeong joo to know he was the root of it—a third of a town slaughtered, one of his crewmates kidnapped—how could he even deal?

It took a whole lot of effort, but in the end, Hei managed to pull him to where his cabin was. The door was open just a crack, though she managed the shove it open and tumbled inside with Byeong joo.

She didn't quite manage to catch him that time—she tried, but he nearly pulled her down with him—though for some reason, his pillow had been strewn across the floor and it was basically what half of his body landed on. The blankets from the bed had also been tossed to the side (it kind of looked like he had a tantrum but failed in actually ruining anything).

"Get up," she told Byeong joo. "Your bed is literally five feet away."

He picked up the pillow from beneath him instead, wrapping his arms around it like she'd seen him do so many times before. It seemed almost impossibly different now that he was doing it when drunk. "I want them back, Hei."

Her breath caught in her throat at her name. She had thought that Byeong joo hadn't recognized her the whole time. Forcing herself to keep calm, she took a shaky breath in. "Jiyong isn't dead yet."

"Heejin," he mumbled back. "She is."

"Byeong joo—"

"It's my fault," he whimpered. "Hei, it's all—"

"Byeong joo!"

He looked as if she'd slapped him across the face, eyes flickering up to hers again, a frown beginning to make its way up to his face. "Is it?"

Hei was torn between being irritated and actually feeling terrible. To her surprise, it wasn't her patience that had worn thin—she realized that it was just… Byeong joo. It was so off seeing him in such a way that she had no idea how she was even supposed to deal with it. "It's not," she replied, sounding more confident than she felt. "None of it was your fault. If you're going to find anyone to blame, it's your family, not you."

That seemed to ease him a bit, because he slouched over dejectedly again. Hei bent down next to him and tugged his arm. "Get up. You can't sleep on the ground—get on the bed."

For a moment, she thought she'd have to put up with Byeong joo protesting again, but with a groan, he pushed himself from the ground with one arm, the other still wrapped around his pillow, and then got to his feet terribly unsteadily. Hei had to catch him, and even then, he was nowhere near walking straight. She barely managed to get him to the bed when he collapsed on it.

Byeong joo climbed on, still clutching his pillow as Hei picked up his fallen blanket from the ground. She wanted to grab him another one, because it had been on the ground and that meant it was dirty, but she wasn't sure where she was supposed to get a clean blanket, so she went with dusting it off before draping it over Byeong joo.

He curled up under it immediately, looking very much like a lost little boy and years younger than how he normally looked. Before she could stop herself, she reached out and smoothed the messy bangs on his forehead away.

A bit embarrassed by herself, she drew back her hand. Byeong joo didn't seem to notice either way, though she cleared her throat awkwardly and sat back from the bed. "You should rest," she told him quietly. "I'll grab you a cup of water to drink later on, but—"

A hand caught around her wrist and she jolted in surprise. Out of reflex, she tried to pull her hand away, though Byeong joo was still stronger than her and she didn't quite manage to successfully do so.

"Byeong joo," she tried. "I need to grab you water and you should sleep—"

"Stay," he mumbled, voice muffled from the pillow.

Hei tried to yank her hand out again. He remained persistent. "Stay," he insisted again, and she gave up trying and sat down on the bed instead.

For a while, neither of them moved, and just when Hei thought that perhaps he'd fallen asleep, he tugged at her wrist again. "You're going to leave."

She blinked. "I'm not."

"You're sitting there," he continued, "like you're ready to leave. It's lonely."

Taking a deep breath in, she tried to calm herself, though her heart was racing in her chest and she could feel it. She scooched in hesitantly on the bed a bit more, though at that, Byeong joo propped himself up so he was face to face with her. It was terribly hard to ignore how close he was, and involuntarily, she scanned his features one time before staring down again. "I'm not going to leave," she croaked, voice nearly breaking completely.

"Promise?" He held up a pinkie finger.

"God, Byeong joo." The words barely managed to come out. "How old are you?"

He didn't move his hand, eyes staring into hers with an odd sort of intensity and Hei kept her gaze on his pinkie finger for a couple moments more before giving in with a sigh and hooking her own around his. "I'll lie down with you if that makes you feel better."

That seemed reassuring enough for him, because he finally gave up and lay back down. After a long moment of hesitation, Hei followed his movements and settled down cautiously beside him, still face to face. The lamp that had been lighten on the bedside table was beginning to flicker, threatening to die out at any moment. Now that she was looking at him carefully, she realized just how tired he was.

"Hei," he spoke up suddenly, "do you think I can do it?"

She blinked. "Do what?"

"Save 'Xing. Get to Hell's Gate on time. It doesn't seem possible now that I think of it now. There's so much that I can't do. No matter how… no matter how hard I try, there's just always things I can't control." The words were still slurred, meshed together like he wanted to get them all out faster but at the same time lost track of the single word he was trying to say. Hei had to strain to understand.

"Hey." She shook his shoulders a bit, though Byeong joo didn't seem to have much of a reaction to it. "You've gotten this far."

They lapsed into silence, and Hei spent the next couple of minutes tracing his features in quietude. There was something oddly calming about doing so, and Byeong joo looked so much more peaceful asleep that the difference almost hurt. He seemed to have drifted off, eyes shut, breathing turning even, and just as she was about to wonder if it would be best to leave, he opened his eyes again.

She nearly fell out of the bed in surprise. "I thought you were asleep," she managed out, stumbling over the words. She was pretty sure that if Byeong joo had been sober, he would've laughed at her, though he didn't reply at all.

Hei couldfeelhis eyes on her, flickering over her face even though she could barely see him properly in the dim light. Not daring to move, she remained rigid, not breathing, too scared to meet his eyes and unable to calm her heart down.He's drunk,she told herself, though it wasn't any help at all.He won't even remember any of this when he wakes up the next morning—

Part of her was extremely tempted to bolt out of the door because she couldn't quite bear the suffocating tension in the room, the pressure pushing down too much, though before she could decide what to do, Byeong joo scooched towards her, wrapping an arm snug around her waist and pulled her closer.

Hei didn't have any time to register what was happening before he leaned closer, breath ghosting over her lips for the faintest fraction of asecond before he was kissing her.

Time seemed to skid to a halt, settling into a complete standstill. Hei couldn't breathe, couldn't move, couldn't even begin to formulate proper thoughts. Her heart seemed to be pounding painfully loud in her ears, and she could feel every part of Byeong joo that made contact with her like it was burning; his hands, arms, the brush of his fringe across her face, the smell of rum all around him until Hei was certain she could taste the alcohol too. It was nothing more, really, just the faint pressure of his lips against hers, though even the thought of that was terrifying and confusing and impossible.

After what seemed like forever, he finally pulled away. Hei didn't even have the time totryto thinkabout what had just happened before he wrapped the other arm around her, pulling her into a tight hug that she couldn't even begin to get out of. It was nice, undeniably, except for the fact that the situation didn't let her dwell on that.

"Byeong joo," she began, though her voice broke and she couldn't get anything out. Her hands were trembling so bad that she couldn't even get a firm grip on his arm, much less pry them off from her. With more effort than it should've taken, Hei shifted so she wasn't facing him anymore. "I—"

"Just stay like this," he mumbled, though he sounded like he was beginning to slip off into sleep. "It's warm."

He had kissed me.The thoughts were beginning to slowly sink in, each more chaotic than the last, and Hei tried to keep calm.He was drunk, he's not going to remember, it's not supposed to mean anything, but I'm going to remember—

Byeong joo's grip tightened even more—not to the point of being uncomfortable, but tight enough for it to have been completely impossible to break out of. There was still the faint scent of alcohol around him as he rested his chin on her shoulder, breath tickling her neck.It could've been fine,she realized with a jolt.If it had been any other circumstance,if onlyhe hadn't been drunk when he'd done so, I really would've been fine with it.The fact that he had done so when he wasn't in the right mind only made her question what his intentions really were behind it. As far as she knew, he could've mistaken her for someone else.

Hei kept completely still for a little longer, until his breathing finally steadied into even intervals and his grip slackened around her. Still shaking, she lifted an arm carefully and climbed up unsteadily. She felt nearly as incapable of walking as Byeong joo had when he'd been fifteen minutes prior, and her vision tunnelled dangerously in front of her before she managed to steady herself against the wall.

Byeong joo was completely asleep when she glanced back at him one more time, curled up in a mass of blankets, an arm moving so that he was hugging the other pillow.

Him.Through the mix of confusion and uncertainties, Hei could make out one thing: she wished he hadn't been drunk when he'd done that.If he hadn't, then…

Dwelling on it made her head hurt, so as fast as she could manage, Hei turned the other way and ran.

Chapter 29

The Aftermath

Hei didn't get a wink of sleep that night, curled underneath her blankets and trying to make sense of what had happened. She knew it was fruitless, technically, because Byeong joo had been drunk when he kissed her and that meant that it was more than likely he hadn't done it because of… well, anything in particular, which also meant that there was no point in trying to solve it because it was impossible to. That wasn't the main issue, though. For at least half an hour, she tossed and turned and tried to settle a consensus with herself of where she stood with Kim Byeong joo—personally, without any influences of what he'd done—and she couldn't quite figure anything out either.

She went through everything once. Just about three weeks ago, she'd utterly detested him for forcing her out of Hua, but that had taken an one eighty turn in less than three days. She wasn't too sure when exactly all of that had lapsed into actually being comfortable around Byeong joo to the point of being able to talk about her childhood with him—untouchable memories that she hadn't even wanted tothinkabout. She had absolutely no idea whereanyof the liking to Byeong joo had come out of or when it had gotten to such a point, but now that she really thought about it, it was pretty much undeniable.

And quite frankly, Hei hated it.

Maybe it was the fact that sheknewshe would never willingly bring the kiss up to Byeong joo on her own accord, which meant it would remain left there in the dark to be forgotten. Or perhaps it was because she knew a bit too well that he hadn't meant anything when drunk—hell, he could've mistook her for Heejin in his state. Or perhaps it was because while he wouldn't remember a thing the next morning, she would, and that felt utterly terrible.

Groaning, she turned the other direction on the bed and stared at the wall in despair.If only Eunho hadn't made me do that. Yejun could've taken wonderful care of Byeong joo and he probably would've slapped him if he tried anything of the sort, and then everything would be absolutely fine—

Hei pushed the pillow off the bed in frustration. It landed with an extremely unsatisfyingthunk,and she sat up and bent to retrieve it, feeling more and more antsy by the second. It was completely silent, and everyone was bound to be asleep at such a godforsaken hour—there was no one she could talk, and that was on the basis that she'd even tellanyone. It seemed better to keep her mouth zipped shut about it to Byeong joo or to anyone.

For the rest of the night, Hei drifted between consciousness and the edge of it, never quite managing to fall asleep properly and at the same time not quite lucid enough to sort any of her thoughts out properly. She felt more tired than she did when she went to bed in the morning, and it was, quite frankly, a terrible feeling. One look at the vanity told her her that she looked even worse than she felt—her hair was an absolute mess, and the circles under her eyes were so prominent that there was practically nothing she could do to cover it up with. For a while, she stared at her reflection dejectedly, and then wondered if it would work if she tried to pass off as sick again and attempt to make up for the lost sleep.

Before she could do anything, a couple of knocks sounded on her door, and she nearly knocked over the cup on the table in surprise.

To her relief, it was Eunho that spoke up. "Can I speak to you for a second?"

There was no point in refusing, nor could she possibly hide her reflection. Reluctantly, she reached over and twisted the knob so the door was open just an inch.

Eunho peered inside. He scanned her up and down, eyes ultimately landing on her face, and then frowned. "Okay," he began. "I have to apologize in advance if Byeong joo put up so much of a struggle that you couldn't sleep the whole night. I thought he'd listen to you way better. I definitely did not expect this."

The mention of Byeong joo's name made her uneasy. "He wasn't that bad."

He didn't seem to buy it at all, but didn't say anything either.

"Could I come inside?" he asked. "You look like you haven't slept in days right now."

Grudgingly, Hei pulled open the door more for him. She couldn't wait to hear what Yejun was going to say about her face if Eunho already noticed so much already.

She ended up sitting on the bed, Eunho across from her in one of the chairs he'd pulled over, trying to figure out if there was a way to escape the situation because the last thing Hei wanted to do was evenmentionsomething about the past night. Reporting it all to Eunho? That sounded like an absolute nightmare.

"Eunho," she tried. "He wasn't that bad. I cleaned up the mess hall, kind of struggled a bit in getting him to walk, and then got him to his room and then he went to sleep. That's it."

She barely managed to stop herself from cringing at that, becausethat's itdidn't cut it, but Eunho didn't have to know.

Sadly, it wasn't enough for him. "Byeong joo's always been a pretty depressed drunk," he said, raising an eyebrow. "It's never easy getting him to do what you say when he's drunk—trust me, I've seen it a couple of times—and he utterly hates being left to sleep alone when he's under the influence of alcohol. You wouldn't look like you've gotten no sleep if he hadn't doneanything."

Hei stared down at her hands. "If you knew all of that, why did you still let me handle him?"

He scrubbed a tired hand over his face. "I didn't want to deal with him last night. I thought… well, I thought that he was frankly too intoxicated to do much and would end up passing out pretty soon, but…"

Hei tried to swallow the lump in her throat. "He just… talked a bit about Jiyong, and then Hee...Heejin, and then he said a couple of things—I can't remember—and then that was it—"

She hadn't even realized how uneven her breathing had become until she couldn't even get the end of her sentence out. Concern flickered across Eunho's face. "Hei," he said, beginning to edge on panic. "Are you alright?"

It wasn't possible to get any words out, so Hei just nodded miserably. She was pretty sure it wasn't the least bit convincing—Eunho seemed to realize too—because he frowned and leaned down so he was actually looking at her. "What did he do?"

"Nothing."

"Hei, no one's going to buy that."

She sat in miserable silence for at least thirty more seconds, contemplating what to say. She'd obviously blown her chance in trying to play it off as nothing, because that had gone absolutely tragically, but she wasn't sure what else to say. Telling Eunho wouldn't be nowhere as bad as telling Byeong joo, but she wasn't sure if he would tell Byeong joo about it after and she didn't want him to know.

"Hei," he prompted again, "you're not doing yourself any favours by keeping it in like that."

Hei squeezed her eyes shut. She didn't particularly want to think back, but the same thought surfaced every time she did:if that had been any other circumstance, if he hadn't been drunk, I would've been perfectly fine with Byeong joo kissing me.

The silence was beginning to get suffocating. She managed to struggle under the tension for a minute or two longer, and then, almost against her own will, Hei blurted, "He kissed me."

"Hewhat?"Eunho demanded immediately.

Hei wanted to melt into the floor. "Don't tell him," she managed, though her voice caught in her throat and it came out as a hoarse whisper. "Please don't—please don't tell anyone."

"That's not going to do any good, Hei—"

He sounded genuinely concerned, which kind of made her feel worse, but she shook her head at Eunho. "Don't," she repeated. "He was drunk and it'll just make the atmosphere more awkward if he knew."

There was a long, long moment of crushing silence as she sat on her bed staring at her hands glumly and wishing she could rewind to the past day and erase everything. Eunho seemed to be speechless, because he opened his mouth twice and snapped it shut, and then finally, asked, "Do you like him?"

Her response came out as a choked cough.

"It's not a bad thing," Eunho continued. "I mean, he's… well, Byeong joo's not a terrible person. He has quite a couple likeable qualities. I'm pretty sure you're, like, the one person he's nice to."

"That's not making me feel better," she replied in a small voice.

He cleared his throat. "I won't say anything if you don't want me to, but I still think that it would be better if you did something about it."

"Don't," she repeated, and that was the end of the conversation.

Hei really got no closure from the talk with Eunho—the only thing was that Eunho knew, and she was still slightly scared he would tell Byeong joo about it. Fifteen minutes later, she was heading reluctantly to the mess hall to grab a drink and some food and trying to practice a neutral face in case she ended up bumping into Kim Byeong joo anywhere on the way.

It was just her luck that she saw him the moment she turned into the mess hall. She had her fingers crossed that he was still in his room sleeping because that seemed to be the best option to go for while drunk, but to her absolute horror, he was sitting with a glass of water in front of him, head buried in his hands and slouched over the table.

Her first reaction was to turn the other way and run, except Byeong joo had heard the door opening and he glanced up the moment she took a step in the room. Hei froze up on the spot.

"Morning," he croaked in a hoarse voice, lifting his head from his hands. "I feel like shit."

Hei stared at him. His hair was a mess—an absolute mess, because it was sticking up everywhere and pieces of it were defying gravitational laws—and she had the odd urge to smooth it out for him. She scolded herself the moment she thought of it.

He didn't look like he slept much better than she did (which was basically no sleep at all), though his skin was more pasty than hers had looked like in the mirror. The circles under his eyes weren't as bad as hers, but…

"Hei?" he asked, and for some reason, her heart dropped. He obviously didn't remember a thing.

"I'm—" The rest of the sentence didn't seem to want to come out. "I-I'm here to get water."

Byeong joo groaned and tugged at his hair. "I have a migraine and it's not going away."

He sounded so casual that it physically hurt. Hei tried to tell herself that it really was nothing and this was how Byeong joo normally acted around her, which meant he didn't remember and that was probably for the best, but it just suddenly felt all terribly unfair.

"You were drunk," she pointed out as she made a wide circle around him to get to the water jug. "How much did you drink last night?"

Another groan. "I can't remember a thing. I don't think Eunho can put up with me any longer. The last time he… I have a vague memory of being sung to. That's just embarrassing thinking about it."

He thought Eunho was the one who'd dealt with him last night.Hei wanted to throw her cup, but she managed to pour the water in without spilling anything. Her hands were shaking. "Eunho said you have a low alcohol tolerance."

Byeong joo snorted. "I don't."

"Half a cup—" she began, because that was what he'd told her last night, but then she remembered that he didn't even know anything about last night and snapped her mouth shut instead.

He didn't seem to have heard properly, because he glanced back. "What was that?"

Hei shook her head. "Nothing."

Byeong joo was definitely too out of it, because he didn't even make any sort of comment about it which was odd, especially for him. Hei wasn't too sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but she settled for good because that made life easier and she wasn't sure she could deal with Byeong joo prying too. She watched from the corner of her eye as he took a long swig from his cup in front of him and set it down a bit too hard before burying his head in his arms once again.

"I feel sick," he announced. "I'm going to go outside and steer for a while and see if that does me some good."

She held her breath until the door swung closed once again behind Byeong joo, footsteps fading into nothing, and Hei sat down hard on one of the chairs and tried to steady her breathing. She still was nowhere near close to sorting out the jumble of emotions, some way too messy for her to even try to recognize, and it just seemed more and more hopeless a cause the more she thought about it.

The rest of the day was largely uneventful, though it was mainly because she managed to steer clear of Byeong joo for most of the day. Exhaustion got the better of her a little while later and she ended up sleeping again, though it was just as restless as the night had been. By the time she woke up properly, it was already nearing evening.

The deck was empty when she headed up the stairs, though Yejun's door was open a sliver and she could see lamplight shining through. Eunho was gone, too, as was Noah—she hadn't seen Yu Hamin in a while—which left Byeong joo. At first glance, he wasn't anywhere on the deck, so she relaxed and headed for the railing.

It had been quite a sunny day, so Hei could see the sun setting in the distance, a flaming ball of orange as it dipped to sea-level, turning the waters a combination of red and yellow mixed with the blue of the dusk further off. She stared at her surroundings for a couple moments longer before leaning over the railing, though a hand landed on her shoulder before she could lean forward more.

Hei shrieked and batted the arm off, more out of shock, though that turned to horror when she saw Byeong joo standing next to her. He raised his arms in a placating gesture, though he had an amused eyebrow raised at her.

"What's with that reaction?" he asked. "You look like you just saw a ghost."

No, but probablyworse,Hei thought, though she forced herself to relax before turning back to look at the sea, thankful that it wasn't bright enough for him to see her face properly. She traced the waves and told herself to ignore the fact that Byeong joo was standing next to her—that was awkward enough—but it wasn't possible because he propped an arm on the railing and leaned in next to her. He was close.Tooclose.

"We'll be getting to Castra in two or three days," he said, and Hei tried to figure out whether or not there was an appropriate response to that because she couldn't quite think of anything to reply with. "I'm… well, I'm hoping we can pick up Hyunmin and then leave, but I have no way of tracking Park Jaekyung down at the minute."

She snuck a glance at Byeong joo's face. He was obviously trying to hide it from the looks of it, but there was obvious worry in his expression, and his movements were tenser than normal. Despite everything, she couldn'thelp but feel bad for the fact that he was stressing over so many things, even if he didn't really have much of a choice—he didn't have the luxury of wasting time.

"How are you feeling?" she asked cautiously.

"From what?"

Hei cringed. "Last night."

"The migraine ran its course, but I still feel terrible." He gave a shrug. "It'll pass sooner or later, though. You look…" Byeong joo trailed off, then leaned down so he was looking at her face. Hei had the urge to turn the other way or just curl up to hide—either or—but that would've made the situation worse and Hei wasn't sure if she could handle that.

"You look tired," Byeong joo concluded finally. "Did you not get enough sleep last night?"

It just made her feel worse that he was being concerned, because it wasn'tfair—nothing was fair, and for a split second, Hei was convinced that she had to tell him—but then that feeling passed and she forced herself to shake her head before giving a wavering smile that felt more like a grimace. "I'm not tired. It's probably just the light."

To her immense relief, Byeong joo dropped it at that. He leaned back with a sigh. "I can't believe I was telling you just yesterday that everything was in place properly and that I was ahead of the game."

For some reason, it seemed months ago that they'd taken that trip to the town, months ago that he'd taken her to the bottom of the ravine, months ago that Eunho had handed her the purple and yellow flower crown. She couldn't quite wrap her mind around the fact that it had beenyesterday.

"Well," she finally said. "What happened with Jiyong was unexpected."

He sighed again. "Jaekyung's… well, there's nothing I can do."

Her head snapped upwards. "Are you planning on handing yourself over to him? You know he wants to kill you, right—"

"You think I don't?" His gaze was distant when Hei turned to glance up at him. It was fixed on something in the distance that she couldn't quite see, like looking past into a different world. "Hei, I've seen firsthand how insane that person is. And besides, he's the kind to hold on tight to grudges. I knew I would have it coming the moment Junhyuk and I reduced his men to less than half the size and ruined whatever business he was running, but… well, I figured we'd be fine as long as we stayed on sea and far from him because he still wasn't a match against me. I never thought…"

The sun had nearly disappeared below the horizon then. The dying rays of light seemed to accentuate the fatigue on his face, carving the shadows deeper than they should've been. Hei stared at Byeong joo for a while more, though his expression was guarded, unreadable.

"You're not going to just… Jaekyung…"

His shoulders seemed to drop. "I don't knowwhatto do. I know that necklace is Jiyong's, but I can't take Jaekyung's word for it—what if he's already dead? There's no way for any of us to make sure, I don't even have a clue as to where Jaekyung is, and… there's only six weeks left to get to Hell's Gate."

He still didn't answer the question, though by then, Hei was pretty sure it was because he didn't want to. Still, she repeated it. "You're not going to trade yourself for Jiyong."

His eyes flickered towards her. "Hei, I don't know—"

"You're not," she repeated. "You're going to find another way around it, because nothing's going to be any better if you go along with what he says."

Byeong joo looked totally unconvinced. "You haven't met him."

"I've metyou. And you've… you've dealt with situations much worse–you escaped from your family, you managed to defeat Jaekyung once, you killed two of the best people from my family singlehandedly…" Hei trailed off then, feeling a bit embarrassed. She hadn't realized that she'd been looking at Byeong joo throughout the whole time, and hurriedly, she turned to look back at the waters. It was too dark to see properly by then, which meant he couldn't see how warm her face had become.

Silence reigned for a while more. She had no idea if her words even helped or just accidentally made it worse because it was alwaysand always would be impossible to tell when it came to Byeong heartbeat sounded way too loud in her ears, and for a brief moment, Hei was scared that Byeong joo would be able to hear it too and ask her about it.

To her relief, he only gave her a slight smile. "You're really something."

Hei blinked at him. "What do you mean by that?"

Byeong joo didn't respond, though instead, gave her another small smile, this one a lot more relaxed than the last one. "Well," he said finally. "I suppose we have a lot of work to do if we're going to get Jiyong back, right?"

Chapter 30

Fortress

Hei didn't see Byeong joo around quite as often for the next day or so. Yejun also seemed busy, though when she asked him about what he knew about the Jiyong situation, he just gave a helpless shrug.

"Don't know," he mumbled. "I'm a bit over halfway through the book at this point, but Jiyong… well, Jaekyung could be anywhere at the moment. The only thing he needs is a perfect setup to trap Kim Byeong joo, and then everything would be done for. Byeong joo's powerful, but he has his limits too, and I'm pretty sure that Jaekyung knows that. And at the moment, he's playing at one of them."

Hei frowned. "Do you have any ideas?"

Another helpless shake of his head. "I don't think I know Park Jaekyung as well as Byeong joo does. If he does manage to trade out Jiyong for Byeong joo, though, I'm certain that it wouldn't end well for any of them. He'd probably kill Jiyong out of spite anyway, and as for Byeong joo… well, Jaekyung's known for being sadistic. I don't want to imagine what he'd do to him."

The thought made her shudder. There wasn't any way Hei could think of to approach Byeong joo about it again because he seemed like he didn't want to talk about it, and just the thought of striking up a conversation face to face felt, quite frankly, extremely overwhelming. He sounded as if he'd given up the option of turning himself in for Jiyong, which was a relief, but it just wasn't really possible to tell with Byeong joo. She was half-convinced he was going to attempt an even worse plan, if that were possible.

"For what it's worth," Yejun began hesitantly, "I think that if he could also grab something that's valuable to Jaekyung and make a trade for it—"

The door to his cabin swung open, and Hei jumped in surprise.

Noah stood at the doorframe, frowning a bit, and then his eyes flickered from her to his brother. Finally, he stepped inside. "I heard that you're going to Castra," he started.

Yejun nodded. "It might be beneficial."

"The city is less than two days away," Noah continued slowly. "And it's a dangerous place—are you sure you want to go with him? I know you said that it's fine to trust him, but it's just really hard to tell because I can't see things the way you do."

"Hyung, it's fine."

"Not just that, though." Noah glanced in her direction. "The thing that all three of us have in common is the fact that none of us came aboard this ship willingly. Song Hei—I don't know the full story, but I heard that he broke into Hua's inner city and got you out three days before the test."

She winced at the memories. "More or less, yes."

"I just can't see his intentions. Does he value his crewmates for who they are, or for what they can do? He's revenge driven—anyone can see that—and while he may care for the people on board this ship also, if you ultimately make him choose between them and his goal, what would Kim Byeong joo pick?"

The scariest part of that question might've been the fact that Hei couldn't tell. She'd had her doubts before—all the times he'd helped her; had it been forher,or for the person that could get him through to Hell's Gate?—but vocalizing them just seemed to be a stupid idea in general.

Neither she nor Yejun replied to Noah's question, and the room lapsed into a heavy silence. It hit her then: she reallydidn'tknow Byeong joo as well as she thought she did. It had been, after all, only around three weeks, and while it might've felt like a long time, she'd rarely seen half of who he was or what he could do.

"He was…" She didn't sound fully convinced herself. "He's not that type of person."

There was nothing scornful about Noah's tone—just a simple question that she couldn't answer. "Are you sure?"

Hei didn't reply, but she knew very well that the answer to that was a no.

Yu Hamin was the next person she bumped into in the morning.

Everyone on the ship seemed to be in a glum mood, because he left his cabin with his head hanging, bangs falling over his eyes so that it covered most of his face, and what looked like a permanent frown on his expression.

He glanced up when he crashed into her, eyes widening. Hei thought it was a miracle that he could even see two feet in front of him.

"Sorry," he hastily exclaimed. "I didn't see."

Hei fought back the urge to point out that there was no way he'd be able to see if he stared at the ground the whole time, especially with bangs like his, though she held herself back and gave him a sad attempt at a smile. "It's fine," she said. "Are you alright?"

His face fell even more, if that was possible. "Byeong joo hyung said he's dropping me off with someone in Castra."

"Oh." She winced. "Did he talk to you about it already?"

Another miserable nod. "He was nicer about it, but I just… I just wanted to help, and he said I could when I was older whichwas at least fiveyears ago... soI think he just doesn't want me here."

"Well," she started slowly, trying to find a proper way to phrase it. Sheknewfor a fact that it wasn't because Byeong joo didn't want Hamin there—not in the way he was saying—but because it was very possibly a suicide mission and the smartest way to deal with that would be to take as little people as possible to reduce the number who might possibly die. "He just doesn't want you to get hurt."

"What about the rest of his crew?"

Good question, I have no idea,Hei thought, though the only thing she could do was attempt to smile at him. It came out more like a wince once again. "It's just… it's not that simple."

Hamin's frown did not go away. "That's what everyone says."

Hei wasn't even sure if Hamin knew half of what Byeong joo was planning: Hell's Gate, his father, finding the rest of his crew, or even the situation with Jiyong. She wondered if the boy would still want to stay if he knew the full story.

"Look," she finally said. "I know it's a lot, and Byeong joo… well, he's not in the best of moods, but I can try to talk to him about it if you want."

Hamin's face lit up hopefully, though it wasn't much and it soon fell as soon as it had brightened. Hei regretted bringing it up the moment the words left her mouth: for one, she didn't particularly want to approach Byeong joo because she feltundeniably awkward, and secondly, she couldn't help but agree that the most logical course of action was to get Yu Hamin somewhere safe rather than let him remain with , she couldn't quite take back her words, especially when he jumped on them as soon as she had blurted it out. "Are you going to tell him to let me stay?"

"Not that," she corrected immediately. "But I'm sure there's a compromise we can reach. Byeong joo doesn't want you in his crew because it's dangerous, right? So far, you haven't proven anything to him—if you do, well…"

"He'll keep me?" Hamin asked hopefully. Hei almost laughed at the way he'd phrased the sentence, though she managed to nod at him with a straight face.

He looked a significant amount happier about that arrangement than the last. "Are you really going to ask him about it?"

Not that I really want to, but I don't have a choice,she thought while giving him a nod. "Definitely," she told Hamin.

Definitelyonly happened a day and a half later, when Byeong joo reported they were close to Castra. In fact, he was the one who'd approached her first, because Hei had spent the rest of the day before busying herself with other things and attempting her hardest to avoid him. She also completely forgot to ask him about Hamin's situation, because her mind short-circuited the moment she saw him.

It was in her room that he found her, and she'd been practicing trying to throw herself into memory segments. It came a lot more easier than before—it was that grasp on her power that she normally managed to hold onto for the amount of time she liked (if Hei concentrated hard, she could also force herself out of them), though there was really nothing to watch in her room. At some point, she saw one of herself, which had been plain strange.

Two knocks sounded on her door before it opened just a crack, and Kim Byeong joo stuck a hand inside and waved at her blindly. "Am I allowed to come inside?"

"When have you bothered with manners?" she retorted, and the door opened fully, revealing Byeong joo with a slight grin. Her mind decided to take notice on the small details first: his hair was slightly ruffled, parts of it sticking up in a disorderly fashion; the circles under his eyes weren't as prominent as before (though they were still there, never quite gone), which made his eyes themselves seem brighter, more vivid, holding that same intensity they always did. She swore his eyes somehow always managed to catch bits of light.

Hei managed to shake it off, but it was too late.

"Staring," he told her a matter-of-factly, and Hei immediately scowled at him.

"Am not," she declared. "What is it?"

"What is what?"

"Why did you come to my room?"

"Oh." He invited himself in after pausing for a second and sat down on one of the chairs on the side of the room. "We'll be getting to Castra around late afternoon, I think—I told you already—you and Yejun are going with me, right?"

Hei nodded slowly.

"Right." He was tapping on his knees. "There's these archives in Castra that I thought Yejun might like, and we could possibly grab valuable information from that too, and I want to try to find out where Jaekyung is at the moment. I still have one card against him—he doesn't know I can control water, which means the ship itself can be miles from him and I could still approach it without him noticing, but just for safety, Eunho designed this."

He held out a palm to her, open, and Hei glanced at the string he seemed to be trying to give her.

"That," she said slowly. "What… is that?"

Byeong joo picked up one end of the string. "Wrist."

Gaping at him, she tucked her hands behind her back. "Not before you tell me what that is."

"To be honest, I'm not quite sure. Eunho says it's for safety."

"Well," Hei relented, stretching her right wrist towards Byeong joo. "I suppose I can trust it if it's from Eunho."

"I'm insulted," he told her lightly, not looking the least bit offended, before he took her wrist gently—which made her heart jump unwelcomely (Hei wished desperately it would stop doing so)—and wrapped the string around before tying it securely. She couldn't help but be reminded of the last time he'd done so, back on the ship to Ezentia, when Byeong joo had been a lot less gentle and much scarier. To her surprise, it didn't even bring back any unpleasant emotions—a change of suchmagnitude only brought a oddly warm feeling.

Hei held up her wrist after he'd finished. "How is this supposed to help?"

Shrugging, he sat back on the chair. "Ask Eunho. I think he can explain the specifics to you, but I'm not too sure because his spells always seem like nonsense to me. He can conjure up a couple of pretty impressive ones, though."

She set her wrist down. Byeong joo made no attempt to stand up or move, still sitting right across from her in the chair, and Hei began to wonder whether or not she was supposed to do anything else because the atmosphere felt as if it were getting more and more awkward by the moment. It was during moments like these that Hei was extremely tempted to tell him, but common sense kicked in a second later and she told herself she couldn't tell himanything.If it were awkward already, telling him would just make it worse.

"Hei," he finally said. "You've been avoiding me for the past couple of days."

She froze up.

"Haven't," she finally got out, seconds too late for redemption. "What made you think that?"

He looked her dead in the eye. "I didn't talk to you at all for the past day or so, and there's only six of us aboard this ship."

"I was just busy," she managed out, though the words seemed to stick to her throat, and the moment she spoke, it was obviously that neither she nor Byeong joo believed it. "I mean—there's just a lot happening and the whole ordeal with Jiyong just seems… well, it'sscary,and I don't really know—"

"Were you there?" he cut off, and Hei snapped her mouth shut immediately, heart beating erratically in her chest. He didn't know, did he?

"Where?" she tried.

Byeong joo winced like he didn't particularly want to speak about it, but nevertheless, plowed on. "Three days ago. When I was drunk. I asked Eunho what I did and he just told me I embarrassed myself and actually looked kind of normally recounts everything to me in extreme detail because he likes to gloat about it, but he said nothing at all. Wereyouthere?"

For the longest of moments, Hei couldn't think of any sort of response. Byeong joo's eyes bored into her, giving her the feeling that there wasno wayshe could even lie to him. Even an attempt would be useless because it felt like he was looking straight through her, almost like Yejun did. Hei opened her mouth, truth at the tip of her tongue, before she hesitated again.

Then it hit, panic and perhaps more so fear, and she came to the logical conclusion that she'd been clinging onto the whole time: shecouldn't.Not when she couldn't guarantee what his response would be; not when there was that awful, awful chance of Byeong joo apologizing and saying it was a mistake if he found out. The possibility of hearinghimsay that was terrifying enough for Hei to snap back to her senses.

"Why would I be?" Her voice sounded a lot more certain than she felt. "I was in my room the whole time."

Byeong joo looked taken back for a moment, blinking, before he gave a slow nod, shoulders dropping a bit. It was faint, something Hei might've missed if she hadn't been watching carefully.

"That's what I thought," he said, frowning a slight bit. "But I could swear that—" He paused, then shook his head. "Never mind."

It really would've been over if he could hear how hard her heart was beating. Struggling to keep calm, she mirrored the action. "Maybe it was so bad that Eunho didn't want to tell you?"

Byeong joo looked completely unconvinced, but he gave a hesitant shrug. "Maybe."

"Right," Hei echoed.

To her relief, he stood up after that, pushing the chair back to where it had been originally standing before he came in. "I'm going to sort a couple of things out before we go to Castra," he told her. "Be ready at about noon, and tell Yejun about it also. And if you want, I can give you a blade to use just in case."

Hei thought back to the two times he'd attempted to teach her self-defense. Neither had gone very nicely, and she was pretty sure that she was better off not learning something she couldn't possibly master and of wasting hours of her time on it when she could very much be doing something that would actually be beneficial to her power.

"I don't think I'd work well with a blade," she told Byeong joo as he headed for the door.

"I ought to give you a couple of those things Eunho made for self defense," he mused thoughtfully. "They're particularly helpful potions you can throw at someone, and one of them apparently knocks them out for at least five hours. You canthrow,can you?"

It took Hei a couple of moments to get that he was joking, though it still seemed a bit halfhearted, different from what she was used to. When she didn't quite respond to him, Byeong joo turned and slipped out of the door without another word. It closed behind him quietly, so silent that Hei couldn't even hear it.

Hei spotted Castra in the distance before Yejun did as they began to approach the shoreline, and she pointed out at the smidge of it on the horizon. It gradually got bigger; a fortress of twisting towers, high walls, and bleak, lifeless grey as if all the color had been drained out of it.

Yejun squinted at the city. "It looks ugly," he said immediately.

"What a lovely observation."

He gave a shrug. "I'm a honest person, what can I say?"

"You could say nothing," she pointed out, though at that moment, Byeong joo came up from the stairs below deck.

"I'm getting Eunho to anchor the ship around here," he said. "We'll go the rest of the distance by boat."

"By boat?" Yejun echoed. "How are you going to manage that? There's still at least a mile to there, and I don't suppose you want Hei or I to row it over?"

"We don't even have oars," Byeong joo snorted. "No, Nam Yejun, I don't expect you to row it over."

"Right," Yejun replied. "You would be the one doing that anyway if we did ever have to. What's the plan?"

Watching the giant stone walls of Castra become closer and closer was both fascinating and slightly scary at the same time. They were mostly the color of ash, though some other parts of it had been mended with darker pieces of stone. There were giant iron gates towering at the front of the fortress. As they got nearer, Hei could see that the gates were wide open, and people were passing freely through it.

"So," Yejun was saying. "Can you, like, breathe underwater like my brother or something?"

Byeong joo looked half irritated by the influx of questions and half amused. Hei could see his eyes fixed on the water, concentration written across his face, so his answers to Yejun all ended up being shorter than they should've been. The boat glided smoothly across the sea, cutting through waves with ease. In less than fifteen minutes, it was approaching the coastline of Castra.

The docks weren't nearly as busy as the ones she'd seen, though there was the odd handful of people bustling around. No one spared them a glance as the boat bobbed across the waters and landed on a particularly rocky part of the beach. Both she and Yejun waited as Byeong joo dragged it ashore.

"Well," he finally said as they both stepped out, with Hei trying to avoid the sand as best as she could (at least her shoes weren't wet, she thought—if they were, the sand would just stick more and that was pure irritating). "Welcome to Castra, I guess? It's, ah, a fun stay."

Hei stared at the desolate grey walls rising up on either sides of the city, and she couldn't quite figure out where thefuncame from. The sides of them swept up to the sky—she couldn't quite guess how high it was, but it seemed to be a lot taller than the city walls she'd seen in Hua and Ezentia. As she approached it with Byeong joo and Yejun, there was the sudden feeling of nervousness. The city was so closed off, the only way being out was the front gates. While they didn't look exactly heavily guarded, it brought back that same feeling she always got in an enclosed space, the suffocating tension.

"Hei?" Byeong joo glanced back at her. "Why did you pause?"

She took a deep breath. "Nothing."

Hei found herself holding her breath as they went through towards the gates. The iron bars loomed up in front of her, towering for a couple of moments before they passed as they entered into the inside of Castra. Immediately, it was a contrast to what had been outside: more colorful, not lifeless anymore.

It was different from Aesta, too: the houses in Aesta weren't as tall, most of them one story buildings, though the ones in Casta were built up; at least two or three stories, all of which were made out of stone or brick. The cobbled path was well-worn, curving and bending towards some place that Hei couldn't see. People hurried by, some pulling children along, others pushing large carts with them. There were people of all ages—an old woman hanging up dreses on a clothesline, a mother chasing ayoung child that couldn't have been over three or four, a group of boys squatting in the corner of a street.

The vast difference between Castra and everywhere else Hei had been was shocking. It seemed more like a city than any place she'd been in: the wealth felt more evenly distributed, the rich and poor not as clearly spelt out. There weren't houses on the verge of crumbling on one end of the city while on the other endbuilt way too large for its inhabitants.

There were brightly-coloured signs hanging off some of the buildings, too, and Hei could peer through the glass windows to see people inside. Shops of different sorts instead of street markets, with tinkling chimesand pretty interiors.

"Correct me if I'm wrong," she murmured to Byeong joo. "But this looks a lot… better than what the main cities look like."

He followed her gaze around. "It is."

"Why?"

"The divide is pretty obvious everywhere else," Yejun broke in. He was looking around, eyes flickering across his surroundings. "In Ezentia, Hua, Xiyuan, Vasileia and Sileion, it's all clearly separated—the inner city with all the family members and the rich and then the outer. There are some towns scattered across that are generally less advanced because they're so secluded, and then you have places like Castra."

Hei nearly crashed into a man hurrying down the street. She barely managed to avoid him. "Byeong joo said a lot of runaways come to hide here."

"Right," Yejun said. "And on top of that, a lot of them have been trained by their family—though they may be treated as outcasts and are on a wanted list, they're still a significant amount stronger than a lot of commoners with a lot more abilities. Have them all gathered in one area and you get a place like Castra. It probably has better defenses than Vasileia has."

"Really?"

"Vasileia's defenses aren't all that impressive," Byeong joo interrupted. "They don't have much of one at all, in fact—I'm pretty sure they mostly rely on their children of the family because a lot of them are well trained and there's no threat of attack. Besides, even then, it's always the outer city that's going to be attacked first. That's the reason the cities are designed—the common folk will have to suffer most of the damages and by the time they get through, the inner city's had time for thorough preparation."

The thought was nauseating. Hiding behind commoners and those who couldn't fight while it should've been the other way around—it was just wrong. Hei really need no more proof that the families were terrible, but that just furthered the fact even more. "Have the cities ever been attacked?" she asked Byeong joo instead.

"Ask him. He's the history man."

She glanced towards Yejun for answers, though he just gave a slightly confused shake of his head. "Not that I really know of," he said slowly. "A family's most dangerous enemy is really their own, honestly. They put most of their energy tracking down outlaws and fugitives, but who are those people? Children who've run away before their family could put an end to them."

The mood had dropped significantly, and for a couple of moments, she and Yejun followed Byeong joo down the street with a pressing silence. Neither of them spoke for a very long time, before Byeong joo finally turned towards them and offered a smile, albeit it was a bit strained. "Hungry?" he asked. "Let's pick up food first."

Chapter 31

Outing Gone Wrong

They headed through the city at a decent pace, down winding streets, some with crowds so dense that they could barely squeeze through and other alleywayscompletely secluded. By the time they got to wherever Byeong joo seemed to be going for, Hei was pretty sure they'd been walking through Castra for at least half an hour because her feet were sore, she was hungry and thirsty, and would've very muchliked a comfortable place to sit down at.

"Here," Byeong joo said, gesturing at a small shop window. "I'm thinking you'd like this place, Yejun."

"You thought of me," Yejun muttered. "I'm touched."

"You're very welcome," Byeong joo responded with a serene smile, then pushed open the door. "Ladies first," he told Yejun.

Yejun gave her a slight nudge forward. "Hold the door for lady Kim."

Hei wasn't even sure who even managed to get inside the store first (it was either Yejun or Byeong joo—she ended up last, ironically), but in the end, all three of them made it through the doorway with minimum injury.

The first impression she got from the place wasold.

There was a fine layer of dust covering the shelves that rose on either sides of the place, and when the door was pushed open there was a bell that rang, though it sounded sort of brittle and a bit off pitch. When Hei peered past the bookshelves, she spotted a man sitting at a desk that looked just as old as the interior of the place.

He didn't do as much as to spare them another glance as they headed inside. Yejun had quieted down, eyes scanning his surroundings with newly dawning awe on his face as he took a slight step towards the bookshelves.

Hei trailed behind him, a little miffed because she could never summon up such fascination inbooks,but Yejun looked completely immersed. It was only a minute later that he seemed to remember that she and Byeong joo still existed as he turned towards them with excitement clear on his face. "Am I allowed to pick anything?" he asked, sounding so much like an gleeful child that Hei had to stifle a laugh. "There's a lot of things here that I could get a lot of stuff out of reading—God, how old are these books—and then…" His hand trailed down a couple. "It's almost the complete volume. What evenisthis place?"

"A bookstore," Byeong joo deadpanned. "Hei, we ought to leave Yejun here alone with the only love of his life."

She didn't even have time to protest when he picked up her wrist and pulled her towards another direction. It was a gentle grip, nicely so, and Hei put out her best attempt at ignoring the fact that his hand made her heart speed up as he dragged her towards the other side of the store.

She spotted the couches set up at the side a couple seconds later. They looked as old as the rest of the bookstore was, but all of a sudden, the thought of sitting seemed very nice because her legs were still sore and Hei quite appreciated the gesture, even though she wouldn't outwardly tell him.

A moment later, both of them were sitting on a couchand Hei was trying to figure out whether it would be better to attempt to strike up an awkward conversation with Byeong joo or remain in equally awkward silence. He solved that problem, though, by reaching into the bag he'd been carrying and pulling out a flask. "Do you want water?"

Unsure of how he always managed to read her so well, she gave a hesitant nod because shewasthirsty and walking for thirty minutes under a scorching sun hadn't done that any favors. He passed the flask to her, which Hei accepted, then paused. "Did you drink out of this already?"

Byeong joo rolled his eyes. "Not this again."

"Byeong joo!"

"No," he replied. "Seriously, how are you going to handle it when Hyunmin joins? He literally drinks from everyone's cups. He's also way messier than I am."

"Keep him away from mine."

"Easier said than done, sweetheart. You can't keep Kim Hyunmin away from anything."

Hei tried to conjure up an image of Kim Hyunmin from Byeong joo's descriptions (her most vivid memory of what Byeong joo said about him was that he had good taste in food), but it wasn't quite possible. For some reason, she could only see an older, more outspoken version of Hamin, and it was an extremely weird image.

She went with wiping the mouth of the flask with her sleeve a couple of times before drinking from it. It was cold—refreshing against her parched throat—and she nearly downed half the flask before she remembered that Byeong joo hadn't drunk anything yet. He watched her with an amused expression which Hei tried (and failed) to ignore as she lowered the flask.

"I can always get more water somewhere later," he said with a slight snort. "You can have more if you want."

Shaking her head, she screwed the cap back on and passed it to Byeong joo. He took it wordlessly then leaned back on the couch. "I wonder how long Yejun's going to take picking books."

Hei glanced at the rows and rows of shelves, though she couldn't see Yejun in the midst of it. "Probably a long time. When are we meeting Hyunmin…?"

"After this, hopefully. He's supposed to find us at a meeting point, but I'm thinking that I might leave you and Yejun at a cafe and I'll go grab him before finding you again. I'm sure he'd like some time sorting through those books, and unless you'd like to walk around for about thirty more minutes, you might just want someplace to rest."

Thatsounded like a nice idea, though Hei had never been to a cafe before and she wasn't sure what they even looked like. There was also the possibility that they'd be here for much, much longer based on the fact that Yejun seemed ready to spend the rest of his life at the bookstore. She tried and failed to spot him through the shelvesagain.

"Are we leaving Castra before tonight?" she asked him.

"If all goes well, yes." Byeong joo lifted the flask of water and spun it around idly between his fingers. "I still need to figure out how exactly we're going to track down Park Jaekyung, though it'll be easier with Hyunmin hear. IfJaekyung's in this area by chance, I can probably try to get Jiyong backbefore I pick up Yano in Sileion, but I don't even have a guess as to where he's hiding so it's impossible to think of a concrete plan"

Hei didn't have anything to input, because ifhedidn't know, she definitely wouldn't either. Unless her power somehow showed her Park Jaekyung explicitly stating where he was, there wasn't much she could do to help Byeong joo. She couldn't begin to think of any semblence of comforting words.

For a moment, Byeong joo looked very much like he was going to have a breakdown, but then he straightened and gave her an attempt at a smile. "I think we ought to hurry Nam Yejun up," he said. "Or else we'll never leave this place."

It was a good twenty minutes later before they finally managed to drag Yejun out, and then it took another five minutes for them to leave the bookstore, with Yejun lugging a huge bagful of books happily, looking like a child who'd just received the present he'd been asking for for years. He kept on glancing into the cloth bag as if checking to see if the books were still there, and after a little while, Byeong joo started laughing at him about it and Yejun retaliated with swinging the whole bag at him.

He missed and it nearly hit her, though Byeong joo tugged her to the side before it could. Yejun looked like he was going to swing again, though he glanced at the books one last time.

"You're not worth enough to be hit by these," Yejun said decidedly. "These books are probably worth more than your existence."

"Iboughtthose books for you," Byeong joo protested, looking very much offended. "They can't be worth more than I am if I had the money to buy them."

Yejun either didn't think it was worth arguing about or was too content about the books to care, because he didn't even reply to Byeong joo. Hei followed the two of them down the street, half jogging to keep up with their speed.

At one point in time, they came across a man who was playing what looked a violin. People went by him without a second glance, though Hei found herself pausing in front of him, drawn by the clear notes drawn from the instrument. She'd never heard such music—the melody was haunting, each note lingering long enough to make its effect, but then slipping away before she could grasp the essence of it.

Byeong joo stopped beside her. "That's nice music, isn't it?"

Hei glanced at the violinist. He didn't even notice the two of them standing there, eyes shut as he played, and Hei listened for half a minute more before Byeong joo was tugging her away.

"We can't stay," he said.

She strained the hear the last notes of the song, though he was moving fast, and the hum of the crowd around her was beginning to drown out the song. By the time she gave up trying to listen, they were already a fair distance away.

"Do you like music?" Byeong joo asked finally. Yejun fell in step beside them, though he remained relatively silent. "You didn't hit me as that type."

Glancing back one more time at the man with the violin, Hei nodded at Byeong joo. "It's nice. I've heard a couple of orchestras play before back at Hua, though once when I was six and I didn't really appreciate it that much, and then when I was fourteen. It's just… I'm not too sure how to explain it, but…"

"You'd get along with Park Yano," Byeong joo laughed. "He absolutely adores music. We still have a piano onboard the ship, actually, in one of the storage rooms. It's extremely out of tune—at least, it was the last time I checked, but it's still playable and I still remember a couple of songs. I could try to play for you once we get back."

She blinked at Byeong joo. "You can play piano?"

Byeong joo gave a shrug. "A bit," he said. "I was taught a bit when I was younger, and I can still pick up a couple of things because it's one of those instruments that never goes away once you learn it, though I'm not extremely good at it. If you want to hear a musical prodigy, go find Yano. I'm pretty sure he can play at least five instruments. I'm nothing compared to him."

"Fake modesty," Yejun interrupted bluntly. "I bet you're going to play some song that a normal person needs four hands to play once we sit you down in front of a piano."

Byeong joo snorted. "I wish. That's Yano if you ask me. Anyways, we're here." He nodded in the direction of a building at the end of the street, and Hei followed the direction he was gesturing in—a reddish colored brick house of three stories. The first floor had large glass windows, with a wooden sign that readcafein fancy print hanging in the center. The interior looked practically empty, though it was quite hard to see through the reflection of the sun on glass.

"You're leaving us here," Yejun said in an unimpressed voice. "What was the point of bringing Hei and me, then?"

"To buy you the priceless books," Byeong joo replied with a frown. "What else is there? Anyways, I should be back in around an hour or so—hopefully less time—and then after I grab Hyunmin we should be off again. I think we may be able to get back before nightfall if we're lucky."

Hei glanced towards the cafe, still trying to get a proper glimpse of the interior, though it was no use. Byeong joo gave her a gentle push in the direction. "You don't want to come with me," he said. "You'd have to walk for a long while and you already said you were tired of walking."

"We could still go with you," she tried, which felt stupid the moment the words came out. It wasn't that Hei wanted to walk around for another thirty minutes. She just... wanted to go with Byeong joo.

Hei shoved the thought down in a panic the moment it surfaced.Nope.

Byeong joo gave a light snort in response."Wouldn't you rather stay here? Why, is my company that irresitable?"

Automatically, she made a face at him. "No."

His lips pulled into a grin as he reached forward to ruffle her hair. Hei didn't have time to duck away from his hand before her hair had been messed up, covering her vision, and she frowned at him. Before Hei could form a protest, Byeong joo had turned the other way, and,quicker than it should've been possible, was swallowed up by the crowd. Hei watched until he was completely gone before Yejun tapped her shoulder and she reluctantly to follow him.

She didn't quite feel safe being in such a huge city without Byeong joo. It was way better than being alone because she'd have Yejun with her, but at the same time, in a place like Castra, Hei would've very much rather been with Byeong joo. Still, Yejun didn't look like he had any sort of objection, and speaking up about it seemed stupid because all they were doing was sitting in a cafe waiting for him to come back with Hyunmin.

With no other choice, Hei shuffled after Yejun towards the direction of the store. The scent of something sweet hit her the moment Yejun pushed the door open for her, and Hei followed him inside.

There was a couple sitting in the corner of the cafe, both of them discussing something in hushed voices and bent heads. She watched as Yejun scanned the whole cafe once fully, concentration evident in his features, before he gestured for her to sit down.

That made her feel a bit safer. Yejun's power was oftentimes so concealed that she forgot he had one, but it was reassuring to know that he'd deemed them safe.

A woman with her hair tucked in a neat bun came up and handed them both a menu. She gave them both a smile, murmuring a quietwelcomeunder her breath before slipping away.

Hei took a while to simply look at her surroundings.

The cafe was way cooler than outside—it was hot under the sun—and there was that sweet, lingering aroma in the air that made her slowly relax. The counter at the front had a bouquet of colorful flowers in a glass vase, along with other miscellaneous decorations around the place. Paintings hung from the walls, ranging from blooming fields to stormy seas. It was a nice place—quiet, cool, with a comfortable atmosphere.

"Are you getting anything?" Yejun asked, and Hei blinked up at him. "I have a couple of coins that Byeong joo gave me."

She glanced down at the menu. Most of the items were scribbled with pretty cursive, listing from food to drinks. She wasn't exactly hungry because it was mid afternoon, and Hei had never ordered anything from a restaurant so she had no idea what she would like or what she wouldn't like.

"You can order for me," she decided. "Just get… a cold drink, I guess?"

Three minutes later, the same woman took their order, leaving them to sit and wait. Yejun was sorting through the bag of books he had with him, and Hei peeked over the table to see what he was doing. She remembered seeing him carrying at least eight books to the counter back at the bookstore—there were probably more.

"What did you even get?" she asked curiously. "Were the books that interesting?"

"Interesting?" Yejun looked offended. "Do you even know what these are? A couple of them were pretty buried in the bookstore, but do you know how many places have books like these? They're the kind of stuff you'd find in Ezentia's archives—that's priceless. I don't know how they ended up here and some aren't the original copies, but…"

Hei had a hard time trying to appear interested. It was funny how invested and passionate he got when talking about anything related to books, while she ended up at the opposite of the spectrum because she could never quite stand sitting still and reading. She glanced at the leather-bound cover of the book, then frowned. "I can't even read that."

Yejun turned it around to look at it himself. "Oh? Yeah, you probably can't."

At that moment, the waitress came back with a tray, two tall glasses of different drinks on it. She set the darker colored one in front of Hei, the other to Yejun, and then turned on her heel and left. Hei remained quiet until she was out of earshot beforepointing at the drink. "What is this supposed to be?"

"Some kind of drink from an exotic fruit that is apparently native to this area," he replied with a shrug. "Try it. It's not poisonous."

Hei eyed it doubtfully. "What did you get?"

"Lemonade."

"Yejun!"

He laughed at her. "If you don't want yours, we can swap."

She eyed him before taking a sip from the glass.

To her surprise, it didn't taste half as weird as she expected. There were pieces of ice floating at the top of the drink—which was a light reddish-pink color—though the liquid itself seemed cool on another level that had nothing to do with the ice. It wasn't extremely sweet, either, which was nice, and Hei took another sip before she could stop herself.

Yejun stared at her with obvious amusement over his lemonade. "Is it good?" he asked.

Hei nodded. "What kind of fruit was this supposed to be?"

"Don't know. The name was too long for me to remember. Did you realize that the waitress that came for that was different from the one who served us?"

She blinked at him. "Pardon?"

"The waitress." Yejun still maintained that same calm expression, though his eyes were darting and it made Hei start feeling more nervous too. "It's probably nothing, but it just seemed weird that they switched servers when there were so few people around."

Hei glanced towards the couple in the corner of the room again. They still looked perfectly engaged in their own conversation, not paying any heed to them, so Hei shrugged at Yejun. She wasn't sure if he was just paranoid—it probably came because he was a clairvoyant and unnaturally observant—or if something was actually wrong. Really, Hei couldn't quite differentiate anymore. The past three weeks with Byeong joo seemed to have made her more on guard than she'd ever been, but the fact that her family was after her also contributed to that general feeling of unsafeness. Maybe it was a combination of eveyrthing.

"They probably just changed shifts," she finally concluded before taking another gulp of the drink, watching as the woman disappeared into the room behind the counter.

Yejun gave a nod, though he didn't look convinced. Still, he focussed back onto the books in front of him, taking sips of the lemonade here and there as Hei resumedlooking at her surroundings, the decorations of the interior.

It was a little while later when she began to feel sleepy. She'd basically finished most of the drink and it left her with a woozy feeling. The atmosphere was still nice—quiet, just how she liked it, and the drink felt soothing, cold against the heat of the outside. Hei found her eyes closing a couple of times before she snapped awake. She nearly drifted off at one point, though the noises of chairs scraping jolted her awake. Hei blinked drowsily as the couple in the corner left the cafe with intertwined fingers, laughing quietly with each other, and turned back to look at Yejun.

He was still reading the book when she looked at him. "How long has it been?" Hei asked him. "He said he'd be back in an hour, right?"

Yejun glanced at her. Hei wasn't sure if it were the exhaustion interferring with her eyesight, because his movements looked a bit sluggish too. She blinked a couple of times, trying to clear her vision.

"It's been around half an hour," Yejun replied, then frowned at her. "What's wrong?"

Hei had no idea why, but she was struggling to keep her eyes open. "Sleepy."

His eyebrows drew together. "Did you not sleep properly last night?"

It felt like too much effort just to think back, and it hurt her mind just trying to recall. She had a feeling that she hadn't sleptthatbadly—the seas had been calm, there had been virtually nothing to worry about—so that didn't explain why she suddenly felt so tired. Hei shook her head at Yejun. "Just tired."

The feeling was overwhelming at that point—Hei wanted to just close her eyes and sleep. It wasn't the type of jarring exhaustion, the worn out feeling—it was just tiredness and the immense urge to close her eyes.

"I'm going to sleep until Byeong joo comes back," she told Yejun, then decided to finish her drink first. She reached for the glass, though before she could, Yejun pulled it from her abruptly, the juice nearly sloshing out from the cup.

Hei blinked at him, surprised by his actions, yet her thoughts were too muddled for her to comprehend properly. In the back of her mind there was a niggling that something was off—very off, because she'd never felt so abruptly tired—but she couldn't think straight enough to find out a reason for it, nor did she particularly want to.

"Get up," Yejun finally said, and she did a double take at him. There was a strange sense of urgency in his voice that even she could sense in that top of that, there was a hint of urgent command in his tone that had Hei on her feet before she knew what she was doing."Get out of here."

"What?"

"Go," Yejun hissed, and at the same time, stood up himself. The chair scraped behind him, and in the corner of her eye, Hei saw the door behind the counter swing open. It wasn't the waitress that came out, though—and that was enough for Yejun's warning to trigger in her head. She pushed herself to her feet in an attempt to get away from the table,buther first step sent her stumbling into the nearest seat, head spinning.

It was as if the weariness had been kept at bay by something and hit full force the moment Hei stood up. Her vision tunnelled in front of her into momentary darkness, and Yejun's shouting at her to leave blurred into nonsense. It took all of her effort to get herself standing straight up, though at that point, Hei was pretty sure she wasn't going to be able to walk, much less make it out of the cafe. She turned to Yejun, trying to catch a glimpse of the man who'd come out of the door. Before she could even move properly, someone grabbed her arms from behind, twisting them harshly, and she flinched back in an sorry attempt to fight back. She couldn't see Yejun anywhere (was it her vision?) though through the numbing exhaustion, Hei felt clear, cutting terror.

She gave one last desperate try on shrugging her arms out of the man's grasp, though it was locked tight and there was no way she could fight it any longer. The last panicking thought that Hei managed to grasp onto lucidly was what Byeong joo would do when he came back and found them missing—or even possibly dead—and then a black curtain swept over her vision.

Chapter 32

In the Dark

Hei woke up in complete darkness with a major headache ripping her head apart.

For the longest of moments, she struggled to gather her bearings and make sense of what was happening, because the last thing she could remember clearly was Byeong joo telling her he'd come back and ruffling her hair and then feeling extremely sleepy after drinking the strange exotic-fruit drink that Yejun had ordered for her. She couldn't quite figure out why the place she was in was so dark, or why her whole body seemed to ache orwhy the splitting headache was threatening to make her want to pass out again.

And then it hit her: Yejun's warning for her to leave, the man whom she barely managed to catch a proper glimpse of before blacking out, the waitress who had disappeared.

She sat up straight—or, attempted to—though she could barely move her arms much before something yanked them back forcefully.

It was so surprising that Hei nearly screamed in shock. She would've if her throat didn't feel so parched that she couldn't even get the noise out.

Immediate panic swept over her. It took her a couple of moments to recognize the sharp clinking of chains and the thick metal bands around the wrists—when she tugged on it, it went slack quickly, which meant there wasn't much room to move around. It was also frighteningly dark. There seemed to be a flickering light at the end of whatever the place was, but it was behind a corner and it was barely enough to calm her down.

Swallowing the fear as best as she could, Hei surveyed what she could see of her surroundings. It was hard to see with such dim light, though from what she could make out, there was what looked like iron bars in front of her, darker smudges against the blackness. Her head hurt way too much for her to strain to hear slight noises, but there was the faint trickling of what sounded like water. On top of that, the whole place seemed to rock back and forth, the familiar pattern of waves.

Sea—they were on the sea again. Obviously not with Byeong joo, that was a given, and clearly not with somebody good. Where was Yejun? What had happened to the cafe owner and the lady who'd been serving them before? Clearly, it had been over his promised hour—where had Byeong joo gone?

She tugged at the chains again. Theclankingwasjarring and loud in the silence and Hei flinched at the way it yanked her wrists back the moment she moved too much.

Her breath hitched in her throat when she tried to breathe, and Hei could feel the familiar, unwelcoming tightening in her chest as she began to panic. She couldn't quite help it—the shackles were cold and hard which was unlike what Miyeon used to use, but it restricted her movements nonetheless and there was basically no light.Thatmade it similar enough to bring back unpleasant memories.

Forcing herself to swallow, Hei attempted to push herself up one more time. Her hair was matted uncomfortably to her face, though as much as she wanted to fix it, she couldn't quite move her arm far enough. She struggled upright into a more comfortable position and worked on calming her breathing.

It was terribly hard, especially when the last time it had happened Byeong joo had been there with her and that had played a huge factor in actually calming her down. It allso wasn't helpful that her wrists were still chained even as she worked on calming her breathing. Still, after a minute or so, the fear had subsided to a dull whisper and Hei was leaning back on the cold wall feeling more exhausted than she had been when she woke up.

A bit more lucid than before, Hei glanced around the cell again. She couldn't quite tell where she was—the only thing she knew was that they were on the what she could see, ahead of the bars was a narrow hallway that had an extreme ninety degree turn to the right, where the flickering flames of a light still shone through.

Her throat still felt too parched to speak, but if she was chained to a cell in someone's ship, it had to have been the same person who'd drugged their drinks back at the cafe, which meant Yejun could possibly be somewhere too.

"Yejun," she tried, her voice was so hoarse that the words came out as a raw whisper.

"Yejun," she repeated, louder this time, though it was still scratchy and barely audible.

The sound echoed, but there was no other response. A new wave of terror swept over her—what if she'd been left alone to die down here? It didn'tfeellike a place that was well-visited—it smelled overwhelmingly musty, and on top of that, everything just felt uncomfortably from that, Hei thought that she could also smell a faint hint of a metallic scent in the air, and she wasn't sure if it were from herself because she was possibly bleeding or if it were someone else's blood. Neither was a nice thought.

She tried to think what standard protocol would've been if she were Kim Byeong joo. She wasn't sure if he'd ever end up in a similar situation, but if did, heprobably wouldn't have panicked first thing.

Taking a deep breath in, Hei glanced down at her wrists. She couldn't see much still, though her eyes were beginning to adjustto the darkness. Her wrists felt raw from pain, which meant that tugging at the shackles more would just made it worse. With as minimal movement as possible, she pulled on it lightly to see how far it would go.

It wasn't as bad as she thought—it wasn't tight to the point where she was allowed to adjust her position, but there definitely wasn't enough slack for her to move freely.

Who would've?she wondered. Byeong joo had a lot of enemies, obviously, but hewasa careful person and no one should've gotten word of the fact that he was in Castra unless they were being followed. It had all seemed planned, too—the waitress being switched, something subtle than a normal person might've not noticed, and then how both of their drinks were drugged.

Which made her wonder—how long had she been out? Her throat was so parched that it felt like she hadn't drunk anything in days, but it wasn't possible for it to havebeen days since she'd been out. If it had…

The thought was nearly enough to make her panic again, though Hei forced herself to stay calm. Yejunhadto be somewhere around, too—he might've been still unconscious, or maybe she hadn't been loud enough for him to hear her.

"Yejun," Hei tried yet again. "Are you—"

"There's no use," someone suddenly said, and Hei snapped backwards in shock so abruptlythat she nearly cracked her head on the wall.

It definitely wasn't Yejun. The person who'd spoken didn't seem to be in the same cell as her either, but they were close. She glanced around, though there was nothing else she could see.

"Who are you?" her voice came out shakier than she intended. "I—"

"There's no use shouting for him." He sounded slightly accented—it kind of reminded her of Eunho, though Eunho's accent wasn't asnoticeable. "Two men took him to the deck around an hour ago, and he hasn't come back yet."

Hei's blood went cold. "Where am I? Why did they take him?"

The man on the other side gave a slight sigh. "I don't know anymore. The two of you were taken down here a little less than a day ago, and he woke up first so they took him first."

Hei forgot all about not panicking. "Who's 'they?' Why areyouhere?"

He gave a rasping cough, and she wondered how longhe'dbeen there. From what it sounded like, they were prisoners aboard some kind of ship, and while a small inkling had begun to form in the back of her head, she couldn't quite bring herself to think about it yet. It seemed all too scary, and entertaining the worst possibility wasn't helping.

"Park Jaekyung," the man replied. He didn't sound exactly worried—just a strange, accepting calm that was a sheer contrast to what Hei felt. "I suppose I'm here because my captain, actually—I'm not too sure of the details, but I hear from Jaekyung that he's out for revenge. I think I happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."

All of a sudden, she couldn't quite breathe. There were two things in those couple of sentences:Park Jaekyung—thatwas whose ship they were on, and the realization was so terrifying that Hei wanted to vomit—and then his other words echoed through her head painfully clear:I'm here because of my captain.

"Byeong joo," she finally managed aloud, because it was the only thing Hei was able to get out coherently. "Are you… are you Zhang Jiyong?"

She could hear him move somewhere on the other side. "How did you…?"

It suddenly felt like way too much, and Hei didn't even have the energy to reply to his question. For a long moment, she remained silent, unsure of what to say, before finally managing, "I think I'm here because of him too. So is Yejun."

Jiyong gave a slight groan. "Oh my goodness. I've been gone for a month andthishappens? That was Yejun, then if I'm not mistaken—Nam Yejun—and you're… if you're associated with Byeong joo, then you're…"

"Song Hei."

"Soyou'reHei." He gave a slight attempt at a laugh, though it was half-hearted and empty. "I didn't expect to meet you here of all places. At least Byeong joo succeeded in bringing you out of Hua."

Hei still couldn't quite wrap her mind around the fact that she was speaking with Jiyong. It felt like such an unlikely coincidence even though it really wasn't. Theywere both where they were because of Byeong joo's clash with Jaekyung, so it wasn't as if it were an accident. Still, the fact that they'd ended up in neighbouring cells on Jaekyung's ship was such a strange thought that her first reaction was laugh incredulously.

"Do you… you've been here for a while, right? Do you think they'll hurt Yejun? Or kill him?"

There was a moment of very nonreassuring silence silence from Jiyong's side. Finally, hesitantly, he said, "I'm not too sure."

It made her feel worse, and he must've been able to sense it because he added on hurriedly, "If he kept Yejun alive up until now, Jaekyung won't kill him."

Hei shook her head miserably."Yejun can't lie."

"Pardon me?"

"He can't lie," she repeated, growing horror mounting when it actually hit her. "That means if they're going to question him about anything, he can't even lie, and Byeong joo told him and—"

"Slow down," Jiyong started, though it felt like a slap across the face and she couldn't quite concentrate on his words. It was almost terrifying unrealistic. Everything seemed to fit in the wrong places, but at the same time they fitperfectly,making sense in the worst sort of way. If Park Jaekyung had brought Yejun up there to interrogate him, Yejun didn't have much of a choice—it was either tell the truth or not say anything.

She couldn't quite guesswhatYejun would do. If the stuff she'd heard about Jaekyung from Byeong joo was true, then Hei didn't even want to begin to imagine what he'd do to someone who didn't comply to what he said. On the other hand, Yejun wasn't the type of person (at least, she didn't think) who would give in just because of threats and pain. He'd probably refuse to reply if he were asked, which then meant he'd very possibly get hurt.

"How… bad is Jaekyung?" she asked Jiyong weakly, suddenly feeling sick. "How long have you been here?"

She could almost hear the wince in his voice. "It's kind of hard to keep track of time down here. They gave up asking me questions because they figured they needed me alive to bait Byeong joo, but I can't even tell if it's day or night. The ship docked briefly for what seemed like a couple hours a couple days ago—one or two—but… I'm pretty sure it's been weeks. And Jaekyung can get…" he trailed off. "I don't know what stories you've heard about him, but unlike a lot of people out there, the stories about him are mostly true."

There was an absolutely agonizing feeling of helplessness. With a bitter pang, Hei wondered why they'd even bothered to shackle her to the wall, because she couldn't do anything anyway. All she could do was sit there, while somewhere on the ship Yejun was most likely being hurt (if he were even alive) and Byeong joo himself was put in an even worse situation than before. Everything waswrong.

"Byeong joo said the last time he saw you, you were stabbed," Hei started carefully. "That was… a bit more than a month ago. Maybe five or six weeks?"

Jiyong drew in a sharp breath. "It's been that long? That means I've been here for around three weeks."

She winced. "He thought you were dead."

"Well, I did think so too—"

There was the painful scraping sound of metal against metal before a much brighter light shone into the neighboring hallway. She snapped upwards, alert, before a harsh voice spoke up. "Toss him in the cell with the girl."

"Captain, he's bleeding—"

"Let him," the same person snapped sharply. "Two people is enough for Byeong joo to take the bait. The clairvoyant's useless if he refuses to answer, so he can bleed to death for all I care."

Jiyong had gone dead silent in the cell beside hers. Hei remained still as the footsteps got closer, mind whirling—that was Yejun, there was no doubt—and then orange torchlight flooded over the place.

Blinded by the sudden brightness, she squinted, struggling to adjust to the light. She could make out the outline of a man as the door to the cell swung open, and then he shoved someone forward before the door slammed shut again with a painfully loudcrash,said person collapsing close to noise of the lock clicking seemed to linger for a long while before the man finally turned on his heel and strode away, taking the light with him.

Hei shifted up as much as she could, too terrified by everything to think of a proper course of action. She couldn'tseeYejun, but from what she managed to salvage from her mixed jumble of thoughts was that firstly, the man who'd been at the door had been calledcaptain,which probably made him Park Jaekyung. Secondly, Yejun was obviously hurt—it might even have been something critical—and she couldn't exactly do anything about it because she couldn't move her arms more than a couple of inches.

The door above slammed shut too, light completely dying. Terrified, Hei leaned toward him.

"Yejun," she tried. "Yejun, are you—are you okay?"

He gave a low groan in response. The once-faint rustic scent of blood had turned full blown, completely attacking her senses and bringing up a wave of nausea. With what looked like more effort than it should've been necessary, he pushed himself into a half-fetus, half-sitting position.

"I think my left arm is broken," he croaked, voice barely audibly. "I can't move it and dammit, it hurts like hell."

Hei opened her mouth, then snapped it shut, unsure of what she was even supposed to say. Finally, she managed in a small voice, "What did he do?"

He gave a cough that sounded extremely worrisome. She couldn't see how badly he was injured, but from what it sounded like, it wasbad.Hei wasn't too sure how he was still conscious.

"Questions about Byeong joo," Yejun told her. "I don't think he knew I couldn't lie, not that that would've been any help either way—but he must've figured something out because I kept on refusing to answer." He gave a mirthless laugh. "At least I pissed him off. Thus the broken arm."

Hei sat back, horrified. "That's not a good thing."

"Gives me satisfaction."

She swallowed. "You didn't answer his questions—"

"It's not just because of Byeong joo," he replied quickly. "Don't get me wrong, I didn't do it for him—not completely, at least. It's just awfully infuriating that he thinks he can drug me, throw me in the basement of some ship and get me to betray someone just by using pure force—"

"Right," she interrupted. He couldn't lie, but he was positively adept at getting around a topic."Totally."

She could almost picture Yejun scowling. "Is this how you treat the injured?"

Hei almost laughed at that, though it died in her throat. "One thing," she said. "We found Jiyong."

He sputtered. "What?"

"Right," Jiyong's voice came from the neighbouring cell, and Yejun jolted in surprise so suddenly than he ended up hitting his injured arm. Hei heard him hissing in pain.

"You," he finally managed. "What... the fuck? Byeong joo was looking for you, right? You're the healer—the medic—he got a letter from Park Jaekyung a couple days back aboutyou, right?"

There was a moment of tense silence before Jiyong finally said, "I guess that makes three people Byeong joo's got to rescue."

"It'd be a miracle if he could save one," Yejun replied dryly, though there was a faint quiver in his voice that didn't escape unnoticed.

"How badly hurt are you?" Hei demanded immediately. "Your arm is broken and you're bleeding somewhere—isn't that a problem? Are you… is there anywhere that should be bandaged?"

"I'd rather not move from this position," he replied. "I think it's making my arm hurt the 's still painful but I can bear it right now and—and I don't think—" he winced. "I don't think I can bandage with one hand if I could evenmove,so… no, I guess, to bandages."

Hei tugged on the metal shackle, though it was still fruitless since all she managed to do was send a jolt of pain up her arm. "I'm chained up. I don't think… well, I cantryto get my hand out of this, but I don't think it'll work because it's made out of metal." She scowled into the dark. "I don't know why they thought it was necessary. It's not like I can do anything if I weren't tied up—it's been days since I last saw a vision too, but it's not like seeing memories of the past is going to get me anywhere."

"How wonderful," he replied, then gave a sharp noise of pain. "God, thishurts."

"You ought to have your arm in a sling," Jiyong's voice floated over from the other cell. "If you can, try to rip off a piece of cloth for a makeshift one."

"I want to break Park Jaekyung's arms," Yejun announced.

Thatsudden proclamation was enough to make her snort a bit, though it didn't last long. Jiyong was right—he did probably need his arm in a sling, not matter how rough it was, and he wouldn't be able to do that himself. If she didn't have her hands tied, she could very possibly rip a piece of her dress for that, though Hei couldn't even reach her dress, much less tie a sling for Yejun. It might've been possible if she could get at least one wrist out, though Hei wasn't too sure how she was supposed to pull without seriously injuring her hand in the process. She'd scraped her wrists and hands raw when she'd done it with ropes—she couldn't imagine what it would be like if she had to yank them out of metal cuffs.

Still, there was no way she wouldn't at leasttry.It really would be nothing compared to the fact that Yejun had had an armbroken.

"I'm going to try to get a band off," she told Yejun. "I think I can try to pull my hand out if I pull hard enough, and then I can try to make a sling."

She could hear Yejun shifting positions slightly, followed by a groan of pain. "You're going to injure your hand."

Hei almost laughed at the incredulity of that statement. "That's nothing. Your arm isbrokenand you're bleeding—you can't just tell me not to because I'm going tohurt my hand."

He laughed weakly. "I tried."

The first tug, unsurprisingly, brought nothing but pain. The metal band was tight enough to the point where she wouldn't have otherwise thought about pulling her hand out, but there was enough space to wiggle her hand, so Hei pulled harder. It hurt,but at one point, her hand felt like it was beginning to slip through, which meant it waspossible.

"Song Hei," Yejun murmured. "It's fine."

"No, I can get it through—"

"Hei," he repeated more forcefully, louder, voice straining from the effort. "I'm fine. You can seriously hurt your hand doing that, and we don't need more injuries. Save your energy for something else. I can deal with this pain."

Hei slumped back helplessly, though Yejun was right and she knew it. She hadn't even gotten to the joint of her thumb and the skin was already scraped and bleeding.

"You should rest," Yejun finally said. "We all should. Save your energy, Hei, you're the only one that's not injured."

"Is there a point?" she interrupted. "I mean, Byeong joo had no idea where Jiyong was, and this isn't… any better. Park Jaekyung's probably going to try to lure him out with us, and I don't… I can't guess what he'd…"

She trailed off into unwelcome silence, because it meant that Yejun had no idea either. And ifYejundidn't know, then who did, really? When he finally spoke up, he sounded more unsure than she'd ever heard him sound. "He'll figure out something," he began shakily, and then paused in an attempt to steady his voice. "I'm sure he will."

Chapter 33

Dungeon Talk

They spent the next while—Hei wasn't sure how long it was, but she lost track of time pretty quickly—in silence, mostly because she had no idea what to say to Jiyong and because it didn't seem to be any help to make Yejun continue speaking when he was already in so much pain. She contemplated trying to pull her hand out again, but it was hurting even more than before because the area where she'd attempted to pull it out was raw with pain and most likely bleeding. Then there was themetallic scent of blood from Yejun's injuries, enoughto make her nauseous. For a little while, Hei tried to think of ways to get out, but there was virtually nothing she could even try to do that would remotely help the situation. At some point, Hei attemptedto talk to Yejun again, though his breathing seemed to have finally steadied and she wasn't sure if he was trying to conserve his energy or if he'd passed out from pain or simply fallen asleep due to exhaustion.

Talking to Jiyong felt a bit awkward, and she wasn't sure what he looked like, much less what kind of person he was (even though he did sound nice for the couple of words shehadexchanged with him), so Hei ended up trying to find the most comfortable position possible despite the shackles on her arms. She ended up shifting restlessly a couple of times before giving up and staring out at the darkness in despair. It felt all the worse now that it was silent, even though she knew that Yejun was next to her.

The first vision hit not long after Hei had attempted to stand up (which had gone tragically—she barely made it over a crouching position before she was yanked down by the chain, which resulted in more burning pain around her wrists).

It was a bit odd how she could see everything, and in the dark, the figures appeared more ghostly than normal. Hei had to bite back a scream when she first spotted them, though they flitted through, talking in a indistinctive chatter before fading away. At some point, a man all but materialized beside her, also chained by phantom shackles to the wall, looking very much like he was close to bleeding to death from various open wounds. It was such a gruesome sight that she ended up squeezing her eyes shut until she was sure the vision had passed.

Nothing really useful came along. At one point, a door slammed loudly and she started, terrified that someone had come in from above deck, though another translucent figure stormed down from the stairs. Hei couldn't quite catch a proper glimpse of his features, but his tone, from the words shecouldcatch, was sharp and abrasive. She couldn't quite get rid of the cold feeling even after he disappeared, though it marked the end of the influx of visions.

Hei managed to curl up in the tightest ball possible without hurting her arms, and for the longest while, she remained like that. Then, Yejun shifted slightly beside her, and Hei perked up,relieved at the noise.

"How long has it been?" he rasped. "God, I'm so thirsty."

It took a couple of tries for Hei to even find her voice. Her whole body ached painfully, and a migraine was beginning to settle in again. On top of that, there was a painful gnawing in her stomach, and Yejun was right—her throat was parched to the point of pain. It had been at least a day since she'd gotten a proper drink (the last one, Hei thought with a twinge of irritation, being the drink she'd gotten at the cafe, the exact one that had been drugged).

"Couple of hours?" Her voice was barely above a whisper. "Since you got down here, anyway. I don't… I don't know if they plan on leaving us here to starve to death or something."

Yejun groaned. "I'd die for a glass of water."

The choice of words sent a chill down her spine. Jaekyung said he only needed one of them—what if he did decide to actually kill Yejun? They could only go so long without water and food, and Byeong joo—if he didn't know where Jiyong was, how was he supposed to find them?

"No one's dying," she replied in a small voice.

He lifted his head to look at her. "Hei, I didn't mean it that way—"

"I know," she cut in, though another wave of despair and fear was beginning to settle in. "But Yejun—what—what if? It's not like we can do anything about it. You're injured, and even if you weren't, your power wouldn't do much on Jaekyung, and he has his whole crew. Even if Byeong joo managed to find us, Park Jaekyung still has an upper hand unless Byeong joo decides that we're not worth the sacrifice to save, and Jaekyung himself is from a family, which means he has a power which means that there's... there's no way out of this. Or if Byeong joo has to..." The thought was too terrifying to say aloud. "If he wants information on Byeong joo that bad, what if he—if he were to threaten me with your life I don't… I don't think—I don't know—"

"I got a reading on Jaekyung," Yejun interrupted, successfully shutting her up for the moment. Hei hadn't even realized how erratic her breathing had become until she stopped, trying to focus on something else, though the darkness all around seem to have grown in magnitude, pressing ruthlessly. She felt awfully trapped, which Hei supposed wasn't actually far from the case.

"You read him," she echoed. "How did you…"

"It wasn't easy," Yejun replied, then winced. "Most of it was absolutely useless information—but his power has something to do with healing."

She did a double take at him. "Healing?"

He gave a slight snort at her expression. "Not the kind you're thinking about, no. But healing himself—he recovers from injuries extremely quickly. At least I think it's that. It would also explainwhy he never died the first couple of times he crashed into Byeong joo despite the injuries. He's also frighteningly strong, but it's mostly the self-healing."

Hei couldn't quite comprehend the thought of healing oneself. She'd never been terribly injured, but she'd seen others with bad wounds, and the thought of that just… healing didn't quite compute. "So he can't die?"

"That's the thing," Yejun replied. "I thought about it—healing your own wounds is one thing, but what if we drown him? Unless his power also includes not being able to die, which I highly doubt."

That was enough to make her laugh, though it hurt her throat. "Does it work like that? Also, we can't drown him. There's no way he doesn't know how to swim, and even if he couldn't, are we supposed to just push him off the ship or something?"

"Byeong joo can."

The mention of Byeong joo's name brought a wave of emotion that felt too overwhelming for Hei to dwell on. She'd been around him for the past three weeks—there hadn't really been one day in which shedidn'tsee him—and Hei hadgotten so used to his presence around her that it just felt strange that he wasn'tthere. Besides, there was something about him that brought a strange sense of comfort that Hei couldn't place a finger it was because he was really the first person in her life that had ever been genuinely concerned about her wellbeing, or maybe it was because he was the first to attempt to bring her up ratherthan pushher down. For the past three weeks, he'd just beenthere,whether Hei liked it or not, and most of the time, she genuinely did.

"Hei?" Yejun asked. "Are you still with me?"

She blinked. "What did you say?"

He gave a mock-exasperated sigh. "I'm in pain, don't make me repeat myself."

She winced. "Sorry."

Hei could feel his eyes on her, though it wasn't the same type of prying she got when he was trying to read her. This was just plain questioning, the worried sort, without any uncomfortable pressing.

"Well," Yejun said slowly, though his mind didn't seem to be on the words anymore. "Byeong joo stabbed Jaekyung through the chest once, didn't he?"

"He didn't die from that," Hei pointed out.

"Well, no, but which side of the chest was he stabbed through? He could puncture some major arteries—even the lungs—but with Jaekyung's power, it wouldn't be impossible to heal if it were the right side of the chest. But the left, where the heart is? What if he were stabbed through the heart?"

Hei stared at him. "What?"

He looked like he wanted to say something else, and for a couple of moments, she expected him to. Instead,Yejun finally heaved another sigh and his shoulders slumped a bitmore. "You're not paying attention, are you? What's wrong?"

The fact that he noticed wasn't some marvelous feat because she sounded detached even to her own ears, but still, hehad fact that he did made the the whole thing begin to feel overwhelming again.

"I'm scared," she confessed in a small voice.

Yejun's eyes seemed to cut through her, gaze piercing despite the dim light. Finally, he replied, "So am I."

She tugged slightly on the metal chains. It still bothered her—the cold, the darkness, the restraints—and with a jolt, Hei realized that perhaps the only thing anchoring her from being swallowed up by unpleasant memories was Yejun, but even then…

"I miss Byeong joo," she said, voice even lower than the last sentence, half mortified by the confession and half too exhausted to even care about what she'd said aloud.

Yejun didn't agree with that one. In fact, he didn't even reply for a long, long time—he probably didn't hear her, Hei thought, which was probably for the best. It took at least half a minutefor him to sigh.

"What are you two, exactly?" he asked. "I don't speak to Byeong joo nearly enough to get a proper reading on him every time—even if I could, it's hard because he's so guarded—but you're always so open and it's obvious what you're thinking even without using my power. I could tell that you were still somewhat frightened of him a couple weeks back when I first met you, but that's obviously changed."

Hei pressed her lips together. "I don't know." It wasn't a lie, not really.

"Let me phrase this again, then. What is Byeong joo to you?"

That struck. At least five different words came to mind, but Hei couldn't manage to get even one of them out. What had he been, really? Kidnapper, in the beginning—enemy of her family, so wasn't he her enemy too? That had taken a one-hundred-eighty degree turn by the time they'd gotten to Ezentia, but what had been the turning point from then on? Was it when he'd stayed with her that night they'd come back from Aesta, when he'd spent his time speaking to her and calming her down? Was it when he'd carried her back from Nano's place, or when he'd given her his coat because she'd been freezing? Or had it been when he'd been sharp enough to notice her clothing was all wet and given her his? Maybe it had been all of those—one after another—that had brought her to wherever she'd ended up.

"A lot of things," she finally told Yejun, and it wasn't a lie either.

He didn't seem satisfied with that answer. "That doesn't cover it. You saidI miss Byeong joo,notI miss EunhoorI miss NoahorI miss Hamin.What doesa lot of thingsmean?"

She hesitated. It still felt hard opening up—talking just never had been her strong suit, and it felt like such a risky topic that Hei didn't want to speak of it. The terror from before still lingered;the possibililty of confronting Byeong joo about it only to hear that it had been what she dreaded most—a mistake. Still, on the other hand, talking about ithad proved a remedy for feeling better in the past, and now, it was at least a distraction from their situation.

"Well?" Yejun prompted again.

Hei took a deep breath. "I'm still not too sure," she started. "But… you know that time I came back from Aesta? We met someone there and it… well, I guess… he was the first person who I've ever spoke to about my family—even back when I detested him—and he was also the first person who genuinely showed that he cared. And that in itself means more than you think."

Yejun was watching her when she glanced at him. "No," he said slowly. "I know what you mean."

It all came spilling out, for some reason, like a dam broken, because Hei couldn't stop herself once she'd started. They traced back, with Yejun listening patiently—her family, glancing over Miyeon and her childhood, everything Hei could remember about Byeong joo, and then jolted to an abrupt stop when they got to the night he'd gotten drunk. After a moment of contemplation, Hei skirted around the topic carefully and continued on.

The throb in her wrists had been buried in the back of her mind when she finished. Yejun was looking at her thoughtfully, with a completely unreadable expression on his face, and Hei was too scared to ask what he was going to say. Finally, Yejun replied, "Byeong joo's not a bad person."

She gawked at him. "That's all you have to say?"

He gave her an impish grin. "No." Then, almost too fast for Hei to comprehend, his expression turned serious. "But in all honesty, he's not… well, he's responsible, and I'll give you that. I haven't really talked to him personally after that time, but I still stand. Byeong joo's not a bad person. He's just a bit overly ambitious at times."

"What do you mean?"

"Hell's Gate." Yejun shifted slightly. "It's still a big goal,and going through there? That's going to be dangerous, and it doesn't matter how intricately he has the whole thing planned out. But hey." She could hear the smile in his tone. "That's not the chief worry right now."

Hei slumped. "There'll be no Hell's Gate if we don't get out of here."

"Oh, no, not that. I'm talking about your crush on Byeong joo."

Hei could feel blood rushing to her face. "That's a lie."

"Give me a break," he shot back immediately. "After all you told me, even if I didn't have my power, you're lying when you say it's a lie. Repeat it after me.I,"he paused, as if waiting for her to speak.

Hei stared at him incredulously. "I'm not repeating anything after you."

"Like,"Yejun continued.

"If you weren't injured, I'd hit you."

"Byeong joo,"he concluded.

Hei was torn between hiding her face and crying, though she couldn't quite move her arms far enough to even do so and giving up would just be letting Yejun win. Jiyong saved her from having to think of an answer.

"I don't mean to eavesdrop," he broke in. "But I couldn't help but overhear. What exactly happened in the past seven weeks since I've been gone?"

Hei was feeling a significant amount better thirty or so minutes later, even if it was mortifyinglyembarrassing with Yejun poking fun at her about Byeong joo. She got him to promise not to say a word about it to Byeong joo when (and if, though that was a depressing thought that she didn't want to dwell on)they got back, and grudgingly, he agreed. Jiyong joined in the conversation here and there, though he still remained relatively silent in the cell next to the them.

Yejun's energy seemed to wear off slowly, because a while later, his answers had turned shorter, strained, and though he brushed her off when she asked him what was wrong, it was obvious that the pain was getting hard to deal with. She'd forgotten about his broken arm for a little while because he'd talked so animatedly, just like how he normally spoke (Hei was pretty sure she wouldn't even get coherent words out if she were in so much pain), but the moment he went silent reality settled back in and Hei was once against reminded that he was severely injured.

All of a sudden, Hei felt very much helpless again. She couldn't even make a sling for his arm—she couldn't evenmove.It was a terrible feeling she could do nothing about, and when the silence came back, it seemed ten times more miserable than it had been.

She wondered where Byeong joo was. How would he find them? Was Jaekyung's deal still the same—turn himself in and the rest of them would be free? She didn't really expect him to keep his word, and Byeong joo wouldn't either, would he? He was the sharpest person she'd met (maybe minus Yejun) and he'd known Jaekyung longer than her. There was no way Kim Byeong joo would walk into such a blatant trap.

Yejun seemed to have fallen asleepafter another fifteen minutes, and from the neighbouring cell, Jiyong remained silent too. Hei was beginning to get what Yejun meant when he had said he'd die for a glass of water—the thirst was nearly unbearable, and on top of that, Hei felt starving. The last thing she'd eaten was a slice of bread for lunch, and that was over a day ago.

"Jiyong," she started against her better judgement, though by the time she stopped herself, he'd already hummed in response from the other side. A bit guilty for possibly disturbing him, she continued, "Does Jaekyung give you water?"

"I'd be dead if he didn't," Jiyong replied. "I don't know what he's doing at the moment, but I'm sure—"

He wasn't even finished the sentence when the door above opened again. Hei flinched at the noise, the harsh grating of metal against metal, and then light flooded into the corridor in front of them. Beside her, Yejun jolted up immediately, looking like he very much regretted that decision a second later because he cradled his arm with a low groan, blinking at the light.

It was nearly blinding. Hei had been sitting in darkness for hours—since Yejun had been dragged back, really—and she couldn't see much for a good ten seconds. Footsteps followed down the corridor, and when her eyes finally adjusted, Hei made out three figures—one a significant amount taller than the other two, and the clanging sound of keys.

With a jolt of shock, she recognized the tall man as Jaekyung. She'd seen him once in a vision and also heard his voice back when they'd taken Yejun down. Now with a proper glimpse of his face, she realized that therewassomething strangely unnerving about his features—they were sharp, set deep, and there was a stony, unsettling look in his eyes that scared her more than it should've. His eyes swept over the two of them, lingering for a couple of seconds on Yejun, who was still curled over his arm. He lifted his head then, a steely sort of calm defiance in his eyes, previous signs of pain wiped clean.

She nearly panicked then. What if Jaekyung was back for Yejun? He was injured enough, barely able to move, and the thought of being left alone in the dark without Yejun was too terrifying to even consider. Then his eyes landed on Hei instead, and a new sort of horror settled in.

He paused for a couple of moments, then jerked his chin in her direction sharply. "I'll question her," he told the man with the keys. "Leave the clairvoyant there."

The sound of the door swinging open was way louder than it should've been, the sound echoing in her ears painfully. She could hear Yejun protesting, though there wasn't much he could even do. The shackles were tugged off her wrists, releasing a burning sensation that had been held at bay for the past while, and then she was forcefully pulled upright by the man. Hei nearly fell over again, legs weak from the hours and hours of sitting in the same spot, though she was forced forward. It hit her was going to question her, and while unlike Yejun she could lie, there still were limited outcomes that were favourable for her.

Someone shoved her out of the cell,the door slammingshut again. She wasn't nearly comprehending all of it properly, though Hei could make out Yejun's voice and a string of profanities at Jaekyung that would've scared even Miyeon.

Hei tried to turn back to Yejun once, but something sharp prodded against her back. It changed into the cold steel of the flat of the blade, and then pressure was added onto it and the man without the keys leaned in, hovering too close for comfort.

"I suggest you hurry, Miss," he said, though there was something mocking about the way he saidMissthat almost made her mad. Byeong joo had been the only one who called her that, and this was painfullydifferent. "The captain doesn't like to be kept waiting, and I'm sure you wouldn't like him mad either."

Chapter 34

Achilles' Heel

The first thing that hit her was the sea air when Hei was pulled up above deck, and the sudden bout of fresh air was enough to clear her head for a brief moment. The slight salty smell of the sea was nice—she'd gotten used to the musty, rustic scent of the dungeons after a while, but it only hit her then how nice actualfreshsea air was.

And then the man holding the blade to her back shoved her forward again, this time rougher, and Hei stumbled, blinking under the glow of the sunlight as she struggled to gather her bearings.

The ship looked way different from what she was used to—for one, it was way larger than what she'd been on for the past few weeks—and the masts were pure black cloth, the color seemingly leeching away the light from its surroundings as they rippled in the wind. From what Hei could see, there were at least a dozen people running around the deck, and she was certain there were more around.

It was much windier than it had been the last time she'd been on open sea, and the wind blew her hair around wildly, obscuring her vision. Hei didn't dare move her hands from her sides to brush it blade dug into her back painfully, forcing her forward at a speed that she could barely keep up with after being cramped in the cell for so long. A few moments later, Hei found herself standing in front of a wooden door and decided she'd much rather been pushed forward for longer than face Jaekyung.

With a slight jolt of surprise, she realized that it was in the general area of where Byeong joo's cabin had been, though itwas definitely way larger than Byeong joo's. The man who wasn't holding the sword to her backpushed the door open and she was shoved inside before she could even react.

Hei's first thought was that it wasn't the captain's cabin—it looked more like a study than a place to rest because there was nothing but a huge desk in the dead center of the room. Byeong joo had a desk in his cabin too, but it was pushed to the corner and it was small, piled high with papers and books and then a bed in the other corner and clothes thrown all over the room. This definitely wasn't evennearthe same thing—and then she saw the weapons lined up behind on the wall. It took all of Hei's self control to swallow the scream rising in her throat, though she still shrunk back in shock.

She hit the closed door instead. The lanterns hanging from the wall flickered, shadows fleeting, as did the candle on the desk, though it was beginning to burn low. It all felt unbearably suffocating, and she wanted nothing but to get out of the place as quick as she could.

And then a shadow near the weapons moved, and Hei did scream that time. Jaekyung turned around, the faint gleam of the sharp edge of a blade in his hand, eyes fixed on her. She wasn't quite sure how he had blended into the shadows so well—perhaps it was because the room wasn't well lit up and the flickering shadows were enough of a distraction to hide his presence—but whatever it was, it was unnerving that someone his height and size managed to remain hidden for so long.

His features remained calm, though there was a glint in his eyes that was completely terrifying. Involuntarily, she reached for the handle of the door, though before she could find the knob, Jaekyung gestured towards the desk with the blade in his hand. "There are men guarding the door outside," he said. "I can assure you that they'll drag you right back in if you even attempt to run, and that wouldn't be pleasant for you, would it?"

There was something about disconcerting about the way he spoke—a calm layer smoothed over barely-contained violence that she could almost sense, carelessly hidden, threatening to spill out. She'd seen how badly he'd hurt Yejun, she'd heard of how Byeong joo described him—now, seeing and hearing him in person only confirmed everything.

When Hei didn't move from the spot, Jaekyung sauntered towards the desk. The chair scraped painfully loud on the ground as he pulled it out and sat down in it, then gestured towards the chair across from it. "Sit down."

Hei still didn't move.

A spark of impatience caught fire in his eyes. "Sit down," he repeated. "I'm giving you the chance to do so yourself, but it's no difference to me if you'd rather be tied to the chair."

She clenched her fists, trying to force the tremor out of them. As steadily as she could manage, Hei crossed the room and sat down stiffly in the chair across from Jaekyung.

Up close, he didn't look that much different—the hard-set features, sharp, and with what looked like a permanent scowl etched on his face. He seemed to be in his late twenties or earlythirties. He was tall even when sitting down—at least, compared to her—with a sort of rigidness in his whole body and movements. Hei was beginning to wonder if that look was the only expression he ever had on his face.

Neither of them spoke for a long couple of moments, and then Jaekyung set down the knife he'd been holding onto the desk next to him. Somehow, the action didn't comfort her."Song Hei, am I right?"

She bit her lip, unsure of how to reply. There didn't seem to be a proper response to it, really, though Jaekyung didn't seem like he'd been expecting an answer anyway because he continued on.

"I have a couple questions," he told her, tilting his head. "You look like you're smart enough to know that it'll end better for you if you cooperate."

Even if shehada response, Hei wouldn't have responded, much less when she had no idea what to say. Jaekyung studied her, then his lips pulled into a unhinged smile. "You're quiet, aren't you?"

By then, Hei was beginning to wonder if he would ever stop asking her things that she couldn't answer, though she figured it wasn't a problem either because Jaekyung didn't seem to find any issue in carrying out an one-sided conversation with himself. "Just one thing, Miss Song Hei. I'm sure you know this already, but you can't remain silent the whole time."

Hei clenched her fists so hard that it felt like they would bleed.

Jaekyung smoothed a hand over the tabletop. It was covered with a thin layer of glass, a map sandwiched between the table the glass top. For some reason, Hei's first thought was that it wasn't drawn nearly as intricately as Junhyuk's map had been, though that was fleeting and she followed Jaekyung's finger across the map. It landed on where Xiyuan was.

* (marked M below)

"You know, Song Hei, I used to run a business here in Xiyuan."

She swallowed, not daring to meet his eyes. Jaekyung waited for a while, then, seeing that she wasn't going to reply, continued. "It was profitable and didn't require much work, either—and then Byeong joo came along with Kim Junhyuk and ruined all of it."

Hei nearly snorted out loud.Profitable, didn't require much work—he'd run a brothel, and that was how he chose to describeit? She was torn between laughing at the incredulity and actually snapping at him because there was something about his casual tone that made her incredibly angry, yethe was blaming Byeong joo and Junhyuk as if they were the ones who'd wronged him?

"One of my men told me you're part of Byeong joo's crew," he said. "Is that true?"

She couldn't help it that time—she glanced up at him. "Why wouldn't it be?"

Jaekyung's lip curled upwards in distaste. "Is he really desperate to the point of recruiting women to his crew?"

She wasn't sure how offensive he meant for that to be, but it was, extremelyso, and Hei bristled, fear forgotten for a moment. "What do you mean?"

He leaned forward, fingers wrapping around the hilt of the blade he'd laid on the table. "Isn't it obvious?"

"It's not." Her voice sounded clearer than she expected, and while Hei wasn't too sure where she'd even gotten the sudden courage to meet his eyes, it might've been fueled by the anger. "I don't see what you're getting at."

For someone his size and build, he moved surprisingly quick, and Hei flinched backas Jaekyung plunged the knife into the arm of the chair, inches from her skin, the blade sending splinters of wood flying. He leaned over the desk, the previous calmness from moments ago melting into oblivion, replaced by unhidden ferality. "I'm not here to play with you," he hissed. "You want to know why? You're unsuited for a life like this. You're weak. The only place you'll ever be useful in is the bedroom."

For a split second, Hei had the overwhelming urge to grab the knife from the arm of the chair and stab him just to wipe the expression off of his face, but he beat her to it, pulling it from the chair and leaving an unfixable dent in the wood. She wasn't sure how long it been since she'd felt so livid at someone's words—perhaps never, really—but there was something about how casually he said something like that—degrading, infuriating and absolutely wrong—that made her furious.

The worst part, though, was probably that she couldn't do anything about it. He had the upper hand—the weapon, the training, the power, his crew all around. He was also right in one point: without a proper grasp of her power, especially without all the training other members of the family had been through, she was weak and there was nothing she could do about it.

Jaekyung's eyes flickered towards her again as he set the knife on the table, just out of reach, and Hei eyed it. It wouldn't be possible for her to grab it faster than he could (besides, there was an assortment of different weapons behind him just in arm's reach—even if she did snatch the blade from him, it was virtuallly useless). "I have a couple of questions," he said. "If you know what's best for yourself, you'll answer them."

She stared ahead, trying to find a fixed spot to keep her eyes on, because that brought just a slight bit of comfort. The chair scraped loudly as Jaekyung stood up, turning so he was facing the rows and rows of weapons displayed on the wall. His hand ghosted over the blades until he stopped at one and picked up a dagger from the wall. He turned, then, tapping it against his palm.

"I'm sure you have at least some clue of what Byeong joo wants," he started. "Where exactly was he planning to go before this?"

For a brief moment, Yejun flashed through her mind. He'd ended up like so because he refused to answer Jaekyung's questions, and while prospect of the same thing happening to her was terrifying, the thought of giving in, of spilling the secrets Byeong joo had trusted her with—it was even worse. She hadn't been planning on tellingin the first place; now, after everything Jaekyung hadsaid, submittingwas an easy surrender that Hei wasn't going to give him the satisfication of.

He made his way around the desk. "Well, Miss Song Hei?"

It was going to come with consequences, Hei was also certain that however much mental preparation she'd coached herself through was nowhere near enough. Still, she kept her eyes fixed on the flickering, dying candle.

She couldhearthe patience, barely there in the first place, wearing thin in his voice. Jaekyung stopped pacing then, right next to her chair,the gleam of the dagger threateningly bright in her peripheral vision.

"Are you really not going to answer?" His voice had dropped quieter, the tone more menacing.

Barely three seconds had passed since the sentence left his mouth when he snatched her wrist with his free hand, yanking her arm straight so hard that Hei felt like it would be pulled out of the socket. Before she could register what had happened, there was a sharp, burning pain along her arm, and then red bloomed from where he'd cut her.

It wasn'ttoodeep, but the pain still hit her, full blown, and it took all of her effort to sit upright. Jaekyung's expression didn't change, though there was a new sort of anger in his eyes. She flinched as he leaned down, towering over her, the dagger still hand. "Listen here," he hissed. "I'm not here to play games with you."

Hei was terrified—really, she was certain she hadn't been so scared when she first met Byeong joo—but trumping the fear was the set resolve that shewasn'tgoing to give into Jaekyung. "I'm not answering anything," she snapped back at him, and faster than she could catch, he drew the blade across her arm again, the cut almost parallel to the last one. She bit back a noise of pain. It hurt like hell, andHei wasn't too sure how much longer she could even go on before breaking. She tried to steady her breathing. It was just a scratch; Yejun had been through worse, as had Jiyong and Byeong joo too—but no matter what she told herself,the thought of being cut yet again still terrified her.

"Second question," he growled, "I know Byeong joo's from a family, but which one? It couldn't be Park, and I doubt it's Lu—but it's one of the other three. Which one is he from?"

She met his eyes. They were smouldering, and past the anger, there was obvious frustration. It wasn't much, but it brought a hint of satisfaction to Hei that she'd managed to tick him off. "Park," she replied.

He wasn't fast about it the next time, but the dagger drew across her arm agonizingly slow, cutting right next to where the last mark had been. Her eyes were watering when she blinked, though she managed to hold the tears back for the moment.

Hei lost track of time and the things he had asked. It hit her around the seventh mark that he wastallyingthe number of questions she refused to answer, because the first five had one gash vertical while the four were horizontal. The sight of blood and the smell of it was beginning to toy with her senses—it brought extreme waves of nausea, especially when it was her own her blood and there was much of it and it hurt so much. She was pretty sure that the only thought that kept her going was the fact that shewasn't—no matter what—going to comply with Jaekyung just because he thought he could get the answers throughbrute force and threats.

She didn't even know that she'd been crying until Jaekyung stepped back, looking absolutely furious. Hei glared back angrily.Weak,maybe—maybe she couldn't fight back, maybe she wasn't nearly as strong, maybe she couldn't use her power—but if there was one thing she could do, it was to stand her ground. She wasn't going to spill something Byeong joo had trusted her with, and certainly not to someone like Jaekyung. Through rapidly blurring vision, she could count a total of nine tallies carved up her arm, all nine marks bleeding profusely, but for all she cared, he could've cut nine more.

Jaekyung slammed a fist against the glass covering of the desk. The sound echoed in the otherwise silent room and Hei couldn't help but flinch back. She wondered briefly if that was what Yejun had felt when he told her that at least he'd pissed Jaekyung off—there was that mean, spiteful sort of fulfillment. If she could keep her emotions under control, then Jaekyung had technically lost inpart by losing his temper.

He wedged the flat of the blade underneath her chin and Hei winced at the sudden coolness of it. There was something unhinged about his expression—justhowmuch did he want revenge on Byeong joo, exactly? She couldn't tell, nor did she really want to. She glared back, hoping fear wasn't evident on her face, because truthfully, it was terrifying. Hei had barely managed to handle a blade close to her back when Byeong joo taught her how to fight, but with Jaekyung's dagger frighteningly near her throat with the intention to hurt, it was a whole new level.

"One more chance," he snarled. "Don't think I'm going easy on you because you're agirl.I don't care who you are or what you are—answer the questions."

How long had it been until he'd finally given up in trying to get the answers out of Yejun? How long would it be until he finally got the message that she wasn't going to answer anything? Nine marks now—now many more before he let her go back to the cell?

He yanked the blade up harsher, forcing Hei to lift her chin. She couldn't think straight anymore—the most prominent thing was how much her arm hurt and how much she wanted to stop the bleeding before blood got absolutely everywhere.

"There are worse things than pain," Jaekyung growled. The blade dug into her throat a bit more, enough pressure for there to be a sting, yet not enough to bleed. Hei flinched—or tried to before realizing she had already moved to the back of the chair—as the point trailed down her throat with Jaekyung increasing the pressure until she could feel blood trickling down her neck. His eyes burned; anger, frustration, and Hei realized he was watching intently for a reaction. She clenched her hand against the arm of the chair. If it was a reaction he wanted, then she wouldn't give it to him.

She nearly snapped when the dagger rested on the neckline of the bodice of her dress, threatening to cut the cloth. He added more force, cotton beginning to split underneath the blade, the point of the dagger tracing anunforgiving red line was something feral on his face when he leaned closer, too near for comfort. "You know Nam Yejun quite well, don't you?"

Hei froze.

It seemed to dawn on him that he'd hit the target. "He doesn't have life threatening injuries yet, does he? Would you answer then if he did? I do wonder." He sneered at her. "Would you still keep quiet if I were to bring Nam Yejun up here? It's just one broken arm now, but what about a finger for every question you refuse—"

Jaekyung obviously hadn't been expecting it (truthfully, Hei hadn't expected herself to move either), but with strength she had no idea she even possessed, she slammed her elbow into his gut, barely avoiding the dagger in his hand.

It probably didn't hurt him much, but she had the element of surprise because Jaekyung stumbled back in shock. Hei scrambled up from the wooden chair, then after a split second of hesitation, grabbed the knife he'd left on the table and backed off.

It was instant regret. Sure, maybe it did feel satisfying to hit him, but there were nonextoptions and the only thing she'd succeeded in was making Jaekyung angrier.

He'd recovered from the blow, features contorting with rage as she backed around the desk, trying to figure out what the best course of action would be. Fight? That wasn't really possible—she barely knew how to use the blade. Talking her way out of it was like reasoning with a madman, and running didn't seem to be smart either because even if she could get to the door, Jaekyung's men were waiting outside.

Still, it was the most doable option out of everything else. Jaekyung's eyes were smoldering, a vein jumping in his temple. She could see his knuckles clenched white around the hilt of the dagger.

"You're making it difficult for yourself," he hissed. "Set the blade down right now—"

Hei bolted.

She heard him shouting something at her, voice furious, though adrenaline was enough for her to speed up. Jaekyung wasn't any slower too, and even if the fear was enough to keep her on her feet, it didn't necessarily mean it was possible to outrun him.

It was either absolutely impeccable timing or a very, very unlikely coincidence, but whatever it was, Hei was thankful. The ship jolted then, so suddenly that both she and Jaekyung were thrown to the floor. She somehow managed to keep a grip on the knife.

Hei was pretty sure she scraped her palms from the fall. She could still feel the dizziness from the fall, but for the moment, the ship seemed to have stabilized andstopped moving altogether.

For some reason, she managed to recover quicker than Jaekyung, though he wasn't far behind her. Hei grabbed at the doorknob, barely balancing properly on her feet. She wasn't sure why she was so lightheaded—it could've been because of the state her arm was in, or maybe it was the way the ship had jolted, or maybe the loss of blood, or maybe even all her, abit too close for comfort, Jaekyung raised the dagger.

Hei had no idea what she was doing (there wasn't much she even picked up from the couple of times Byeong joo taught her how to use a blade) but somehow she managed to act, partially out of self defense and partially because she'd been aching to strike Jaekyung for quite some time. Hisdagger caught her before she could move away, though at the exact same moment, ignoring the pain that exploded in her side, Hei brought her own blade up towards his face. She found her mark.

Jaekyung stumbled back with a howl of pain. One glance back told her that shehadcut him, and it was deep:a long gash of red running from his cheek to his forehead, crossing dangerously close to his left eye. Hei didn't have time to dwell on whether or not she'd blinded him before she was fumbling with the door. Jaekyungstaggered towards her, dagger dropped and clutching his eye. "Youbitch,"he snarled.

* (unmarked below)

To her utmost relief, the door opened after two tries. She sprinted out, slamming it shut behind her if only to stall Jaekyung for a moment.

He'd been bluffing when he said he had men guarding the door, because there weren't too many people in sight. She was pretty sure no one saw her when she darted around the nearest corner, trying to keep her breathing quiet, though it wasn't physically possible at that point. Hei barely managed three steps around when she crashed into someone.

Her first response was to shriek, but before she could, a hand clamped over her mouth. Panicking, Hei tried to elbow the person, though they grabbed her hand easily.

"Shh," a familiar voice whispered, and she nearly collapsed then and there.

Byeong joo seemed to sense that she wasn't trying to fight him off anymore, because he took his hand from her mouth and he spun her around gently so she was facing him. Hei stared up at him, trying to figure out whethershe was beginning to hallucinate from the pain or if he were really there. He felt real—his hands on her shoulders, breath on her face—it definitely wasn't a hallucination, but it didn't seem to be reality either.

He scanned her up and down, though ultimately, Byeong joo's eyes landed on her arm. Hei followed his gaze down and winced. It hadn't looked that terrible before, though maybe it was because her vision had been blurred back then. Now, she could see how bad it really was: a mess of red, bloody cuts—especially the one vertical line that went over the four horizontal ones, where the skin around was torn horrifyingly around the carved marks. She'd forgotten the pain for a moment, but now that the adrenaline was draining out, it came back full force. Everything seemed much clearer—her side, her arm, even the thin line Jaekyung had cut down her throat to the neckline of her dress and then frighteningly lower—it all burned.

"God, Hei—" his voice broke for a moment. "I..."

Now that she was looking closely, she realized just how exhausted he seemed. The circles under his eyes were so prominent that they were completely unignorable, and his features were frighteninglypale. Byeong joo hadn't looked that bad when he'd found out about Jiyong.

"How did you…" She glanced behind him. Hei hadn't noticed before, but Noah was standing behind Byeong joo silently, eyes darting around and fingers twitching around the hilt of what looked like a sword. She swallowed. "How did you find me?"

"Eunho tracked you," he replied. "That bracelet I gave you a couple days back—that was for safety precautions. I didn't think it would come in useful, but…"

She sucked in a deep breath and tried to steady the shaking of her hands."Yejun's still locked up. And Jiyong—he was there too—and Jaekyung's after me because I ran—"

"I've got it under control." There was a grim sort of determination on Byeong joo's face, matched with a hint of anger. "Eunho's not far behind. I'll deal with Jaekyung—can you lead Noah to where Yejun is?"

She blinked at him. "There are people guarding the doors."

"I don't intend to really sneak past," Noah cut in. "It'll be fine, but the sooner we can get him, the better. We shouldn't give Jaekyung the chance to take any hostages."

Byeong joo glanced down at her. "Can you do that?"

She nodded.

"Alright." He nodded too, though he didn't look extremely certain either. Hei was about to follow Noah when Byeong joo opened his mouth, snapped it shut, then reached over and pulled her into a tight hug.

It felt warm, so nice and so real, though part of her still wondered—was he? It seemed too good to be true, but for the moment, Hei relaxed against his chest, trying to hold in a shaking breath. For a moment, Hei could focus on something other than the stinging of her arm and the lingering terror that hadn't fully subsided.

"It's alright," he murmured, though it sounded more like a question than a statement. "Stay safe, okay?"

Byeong joo released her way too soon, and Hei stepped back from him reluctantly. Noah was waiting in silence behind them. "Let's go," she managed to him, and Byeong joo gave her one last smile—it seemed more like a wince—and then disappeared around the corner.

Noah followed her gaze. "He'll be fine," he told her. "Let's find my brother."

Byeong joo had either been trying to cause a distraction or he'd been spotted way too early—whatever reason it was, there was a lot of shouting from around the corner when she lead Noah to where shethoughtthe two men had led her out of. Keeping her fingers crossed that it was right, she pointed it out to Noah and trailed nervously after him. She could hear Jaekyung barking orders, though for once, he sounded like he was close to panic.

The door wasn't locked, to her relief, and Noah yanked it open easily. Hei squinted down the staircase—it was too dark to see, and she didn't particularly want to go down once again, but Yejun and Jiyong were still there.

"There might be guards," she warned Noah. "And the cell's locked, I think—you need to get the keys."

He pressed his lips together in a flat line. "I can manage that."

"Okay," Hei replied, then glanced at the staircase. She could still hear absolute chaos on the deck, though she could only pray that Byeong joo was holding up on his own. Taking a deep breath, she stepped into the darkness.

It was some reassurance that Noah was behind her, with his footsteps sounding close to hers. The staircase seemed longer than she remembered, but finally, her foot hit the floor of the narrow hallway.

"God, it smells like blood here," he muttered. "Is my brother…"

Hei winced. "His arm's broken, but there weren't any life threatening injuries."

She could hear the anger in his voice. "Park Jaekyung, that bastard."

It wasn't directed at her, and that was much obvious, though she'd never really spoken properly to Noah and his tone still somewhat intimidated her. She moved to the side timidly. "It's around the corner. I don't know if there's anyone guarding the cells, though. There wasn't anyone when I was there."

Noah remained quiet for a moment, unmoving, and then he gestured at her arm. "You need to wrap that up," he said. "It's already bleeding pretty badly. I'll do it for you once we get my brother out."

He was heading down the hallway before he even finished his sentence, and Hei hurried after him.

The first thing she saw when they turned the corner was that there were three of Jaekyung's crewmates already there, one halfway through unlocking the door to the cell where she'd been in with Yejun. The man's head snapped upwards when he saw them, though it didn't seem to click that neither she nor Noah were part of the crew until a moment later. He paused, eyes narrowing.

"Hey—" he started, though Noah had already moved, scarily fast. There was the sharp, ear-splitting sound as he drew his blade from its scabbard, and then the man who'd been unlocking the doors was cut down before he could say another word.

The remaining two had enough sense to draw their weapons, though the one furthest from them had begun to back away nervously, holding what looked like a short knife in front of him. "Don't come closer," he said, just as the man in front seemed to think it was a smart idea to attack Noah.

He managed to parry the first blow, though it sent his own blade flying to the side. Noah was utterly ruthless—he didn't pause a moment before slicing down, barely blinking, and Hei flinched. She didn't quite see what happened to the last man, but in less than ten seconds, Noah had set his sword against the wall and went for the cell door.

It was already unlocked, so he pulled it open with ease. Hei could see Yejun, still curled up in the corner with his injured arm cradled to his chest. A pair of hands wrapped around the bars in the cell next to that one.

"Song Hei?" Jiyong croaked. "What…"

She glanced at Noah. He'd headed inside, and the keys to the cells all hung there, still dangling from the lock. Slightly nauseous, Hei stepped over the body of the first man he'd killed, who lay unmoving on the ground before the barred doors, blood beginning to pool around him. Swallowing the undeniable urge to retch, she grabbed the keys from the lock and headed to where Jiyong was.

It took her a couple of tries to find the right keys for his door, then a couple more tries to unlock it with trembling hands. Jiyong stumbled out asplit second after it swung open. Beside them, Noah was supporting a limping Yejun.

Yejun's eyes seemed to light up when he saw her. "You're okay," he breathed in obvious relief, and then his expression melted into a frown. "You were up there for a while, though, before the ship stopped, so—your arm."His frown deepened into a scowl. "Did Jaekyung do that?"

Hei tried to smile. She wasn't sure she managed. "It's not that bad compared to what he did to you."

"Hei, you can't compare it like that."

To say it didn't hurt would've been a lie, but the worst was over. "I'm fine," she told Yejun. "I think… we should probably get out now."

Noah seemed to have noticed Jiyong for the first time. Something seemed to cross his expression, though he didn't question the other man, just picked up his sword from against the wall, supporting Yejun with the other arm.

"We should probably get out of here before it dawns on Jaekyung to send other men," he told them. "And I don't know how long I should leave Kim Byeong joo fighting up there by himself."

They didn't crash into anyone else going up the staircase, although they were greeted with a man holding a giant sword the moment Noah pushed the door open. He nearly dropped Yejun, yet somehow managed at the last moment to parry the blow while holding up his brother at the same time. Hei narrowly avoided being in the line of fire, nearly stumbling back into Jiyong and knocking him all the way down the stairs. The man who'd attacked them was on the ground in less than fifteen seconds.

The deck was in absolute chaos.

The first person Hei spotted was Byeong joo, then there was Eunho, not far from him. She'd never quite seen Eunho in action—he didn't hit her as much of a fighter because out of everyone on the ship, he was the calmest, most level-headed, but there was was;deadly fast and extremely accurate, seemingly taking down whatever Byeong joo couldn't. Apart from him, there was another that stood out strikingly well—one man that was almost frightfully tall. She didn't have a clear memory of what he'd looked like nor had she really caught a proper glance at his face in the vision she'd seen, but it was quite obvious that he was Park Yano.

There was another figure too, darting in and out of the crowd of Jaekyung's men, though his movements were a blur and Hei couldn't quite catch who it was, right until he appeared right next to them.

She yelped as someone materialized out of thin air right next to her. Noah drew his blade immediately, though the person leapt back easily, evading the swing without any effort.

A man who looked around her age stood grinning at them a couple feet away, and Hei stumbled back in shock. He seemed to be moving at an unnatural pace, so fast that he was basically disappearing from one spot and appearing at another. When he finally stopped moving, she could catch a large smile, slightly tanned skin, easily a head taller than her. A pair of throwing knives hung limply from his fingers.

Yejun sounded like he'd been socked in the stomach. "Hyunmin," he managed.

Hei gaped. "You'reHyunmin?" she demanded.

"Hyunmin," Noah repeated, looking like he didn't quite believe his eyes. "You—"

"Long story. You're Noah, right? I've never met you properly, but I know Yejun hyung!"

Yejun opened his mouth, closed it, and then shook his head. "We don't have time for this right now," he finally got out, shock still evident on his face. "I…"

"Right." Hyunmin gestured towards the deck, and Hei frowned at him. She wasn't too sure what she'd been expecting when Byeong joo told her about Hyunmin, but even though he was smiling, he looked a lot more… serious than she had imagined. Her largest impression of Hyunmin was that he was a jokester that liked food—that wasn't the first thing that she would've come to mind seeing his face. "Captain told me to escort Miss Hei, Yejun and Jiyong hyung to the boat."

Hei glanced towards Byeong joo. She hadn't even realized just how many people Jaekyung had in his crew until then—there were bodies literally everywhere, and the sight made her nauseous. She wasn't sure how Byeong joo or Yano or Eunho even managed to move properly, much less fight.

Swallowing thickly, she pointed at them. "They're going to be fine, right?"

"He's been through worse," Hyunmin replied. "But you three are the top priority right now, because you're injured. Let's hurry."

Hei didn't particularly want to leave—there was something bothering her, a uncomfortable niggling in the back of her mind, though she couldn't quite place her finger on it. A bit reluctantly, she headed after Hyunmin, and then it hit her.

"Where's Jaekyung?" she demanded.

Hyunmin stopped. "Miss Hei, you shouldn't be worrying—"

"Jaekyung," she repeated, the feeling of unease growing more and more by each passing moment. "He was—Byeong joo said he was going to deal with him, but Byeong joo would've... he was going—"

Surprisingly, it was Yejun that spoke up next. "He wouldn't have run off just like that. There's nowhere to go, and he's… he's hellbent on getting revenge. I don't think it's anything good that we don't know where he is right now."

Hei scanned the scene in front of them, though there was nothing particularly alarming that she could see. What had once been Jaekyung's crew was almost completely demolished, most of his men bleeding out on the ground or already dead. Byeong joo stood in the center of it, Eunho a couple feet away,scanning the surroundings as if it had finally dawned on him just how many people dead there were. It was hard to think about—just half an hour ago, she had been absolutely terrified, surrounded by the enemy. And just four people had diminished that to all nothing in less than ten minutes. Everything would've been fine—if Jaekyung weren't missing.

"Something's not right," she started, and then something sharp was flying in the direction of Eunho before any of them could do anything.

Byeong joo spun around, somehow having sensed the movement, but it was already too late. His cutlass slashed down in an arc, though it completely missed and Eunho was stumbling back with a cry of pain, hand going up to the knife that had been buried into his left shoulder. On what seemed to be the total opposite side of the deck, she heard someone else shouting—Yano, most likely—and then Byeong joo made the mistake of turning to look at Eunho instead of facing the immediate threat.

Hei saw Jaekyung before he threw the next dagger, still half-hiding behind the canvas of one of the main wooden masts. And then two blades were travelling in Byeong joo's direction, something that he could never have stopped no matter how skilled he was, happening so fast that she couldn't even catch it.

She was shouting at him before Jaekyung even threw the knife, but for once, Byeong joo wasn't quick enough. There was a moment of horror—of utter, absolute horror because the blades were travelling straight towards his chestand Byeong joo wasn't showing any signs of moving away,because it was too fast for him to avoid, because he'd been distracted by Eunho,because Kim Byeong joo, despite everything, was not invicible or infallible. Then there was a feeling of sheer, all-encompassing desperation that drowned everything else, and Hei could only think that this—this was Kim Byeong joo, Kim Byeong joo who'd ended up meaning so much more than he was supposed to to her—and then something seemed to tip over the edge.

Both of the daggers stopped.

For a slight moment, she thought it had been Eunho or Hyunmin or even Byeong joo himself, and then she realized that no one around her was moving at all. Noah's mouth was open in a silent shout, Yejun had just turned, broken arm still held tightly to his chest, eyes wide with shock, and Eunho had a hand wrapped around the hilt of the weapon embedded in his shoulder. All of them were completely still. The waves, too, were no longer moving. The sea wind that had been buffeting them just a moment ago had died, the air hanging so still that Hei could barely breathe. When she looked around herself one more time, it seemed almost as if she'd stepped into a frame of a scene, a moment captured in time, a painting of one single split second.

She took a shuddering breath and then lifted a hand.

It was trembling when she glanced down at it, and Hei squeezed them tightly into fists. She took a step forward, then another, until she was moving faster, half-running to where the daggers were. They hovered, dangerously close to Byeong joo, the aim deadly accurate.

The fact that time had stopped didn't fully hit her until then, and Hei would have collapsed if the adrenaline hadn't been fueling her on. Hands still shaking, she reached upwards and wrapped her fingersaround the hilt of the first blade.

It went immediately to deadweight the moment her hand touched it, and Hei barely managed to catch it. She brushed the other one to the side, which dropped to the ground with a loudclang.

Jaekyung was still standing behind the mast, a deranged sort of satisfaction on his face, eyes fixed in the direction that the daggers had been. He was less than ten feet away—a couple of steps reach.

Yejun had said that the only possible way—that they knew of—to kill him was to stab him through the heart. The cut she'd given him from the knife had almost completely disappeared by then, looking as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. What if it didn't work—if he healed all the same if hewerestabbed in the heart?

The first stepseemed painfully heavy, an unknown pressure pushing down so hard that Hei could barely breathe. And then it got easier and easier, until she was standing right in front of him.

Part of her was absolutely terrified. Even if time had stopped for the moment, he was frightfully close, and she was scared of him. Hei couldn't help wonder if timewould unfreeze all of a sudden, leaving her right in front of Jaekyung before she could even do anything. The other half of her felt undeniably angry looking at him—he'd hurt Yejun, he'd hurt her, he'd tried to kill Byeong joo, Jiyong, murdered a third of a village of innocent people—and yet was standing there, speaking as if he'd done nothing wrong or as if everyonebuthim had deserved what they got. Like the world owedhimsomething.

The air at a standstill around her,Hei raised the dagger slolwly, positioning it over his heart. She was shaking so hard she wasn't sure she could even bring the blade down.

For some reason, she ended up glancing back at Byeong joo one more time. He was staring straight in their direction, half turned around, surprise written across his expression, as if the fact that he couldn't have avoided the two daggers hadn't even dawned on him yet.

Hei turned back to Jaekyung. Before she could give herself any more time to hesitate, she'd brought the blade straight down with as much force as she could manage.

Her surroundings seemed to shatter the moment the dagger made contact with Jaekyung, like the clock had started to run again with a jolt. Noah's shout at Byeong joo resumed, Yano's finished what he was saying, and something seemed to clang to the ground behind her. It all sounded strangely muffled to her now, with her hand shaking around the hilt of the dagger that had been buried over halfway into the left side of Jaekyung's chest.

The triumph on his face melted into surprise, his eyes flickering from Byeong joo's direction down to her, and then back again. She could hear someone repeating her name in the background, though it all sounded like a disjointed, dampened cadence separated by a glass wall. The expression on Jaekyung's face turned to incredulity, and then he glanced down at his chest as if he couldn't quite believe what had happened.

"You—" he began.

Hei took a step back, barely keeping her balance. She couldn't quite believe it either—how had she even managed to stab him?

Jaekyung's hand went up to the blade, a hand wrapping around the hilt, reaching for support around the wooden mast. He ended up crumbling to his knees instead, still trying to pull out the dagger from his chest, though each attempt was more feeble than the last. He was coughing uncontrollably into his hand, red drippingthrough his fingertips despite his efforts to stop it. Hei couldn't quite connect him to the same man who'd been confident in his crew and his men and his power less than fifteen minutes before.

He glanced up at her then, though it looked like the effort in doing that itself was almost too much for him. There was anger in his eyes, hate, vengeance, but on top of that was obvious fear.An Achilles heel,she realized. He'd been completely unstoppable until that point, but there was no healing the moment someone found out the one weakness.

Jaekyung finally managed to pull the dagger out from his chest. A red spot began to spread rapidly around the front of his shirt, the blade abandoned on the deck next to him. Hei watched, feeling more and more horrified by the moment. There was satisfaction, yes, because he really did get what he deserved, but the fact that she'd been the one to stab him didn't seem real either. Her vision blurred—she wasn't sure exactly whatit was, but it felt like all the energy had been drained out of her the moment time had started running again. Her head was pounding painfully, the world spinning in a strange way all around her.

She stumbled right into Byeong joo. Hei was pretty sure she would've fallen over if he caught her a moment later. Her legs seemed to give way the moment he touched her.

Byeong joo steadied her. There was a smudge of red on his cheek and all over his arms and shirt, but Hei couldn't summon enough energy to care that she was in contact with so much blood. He was there, he was fine, everyone else was alright too, and nothing else seemed to matter.

There was obvious panic on his face, but it didn't quite register either. Everything was a veil of calm now,so peaceful that it sort of scared her.

"I—" Hei couldn't quite find her voice. "I did it—stopped time—Byeong joo—"

Byeong joo's grip tightened. "I know."

His voice sounded faint, fading word by word. She barely felt lucid. "He tried to kill you."

"But he didn't," Byeong joo replied, before hoisting her up more. "It's fine now, alright?"

Was it fine? It didn't feel like it, but she couldn't think straight either so she had no idea. Maybe it was the fear speaking, which hadn't quite gone away, but was thankfully fading alongside everything else. There was an unfightable sort of exhaustion washing over her, the pain in her arm and side and neck slipping away into a welcome numbness.

"Hei?" She could barely hear Byeong joo then. There was a hand on her shoulder, shaking her, though it wasn't long after when everything faded into a comfortable, thoughtless darkness.

Chapter 35

Clear Skies

The first thing Hei registered when she woke up was the fact that she was lying on something warm and soft, which was nice because she was pretty sure it hadn't been nearly as nice where she'd passed out. Blinking, she tried to sit up, but the moment she was upright, her vision spotted into black and she nearly collapsed again. For a moment, nothing clicked, and then it all happened at once—a terrible migraine, a burn in her arm, an empty sort of gnawing in her stomach and the painful awareness of how just parched her throat was. When her vision finally cleared, the first thing she noticed was that she was in her room on Byeong joo's ship. And then she saw the person who had their head buried in their arms at the side of her bed, curled up on the floor, face hidden under a mop of black hair.

Hei tried to shift, but her whole body felt sore. Her injured arm had been bandaged by someone, most of the wounds cleaned, though her dress was still the same one she'd been wearing back on Jaekyung's ship.

She was still trying to figure out what had happened—everything felt like blurred pieces that she couldn't quite put together yet—and then Byeong joo lifted his head from his arms and blinked.

Even then he looked rather exhausted, bags visible under his eyes, face an unhealthy, slightly ashen color. Still, Byeong joo's expression brightened when he saw her.

"You're finally awake," he said, and then broke off into a yawn before standing up. "You're probably thirsty."

Hei stared at him. She'd seen him two times before she'd passed out, but the thought that he was actuallytherehad yet to hit her, which was ridiculous because she'd only been on Jaekyung's ship for two days. It just felt like forever—and the fact that she was back and safe and everyone was fine was almost too much to comprehend.

Byeong joo handed a glass of water to her. He'd changed out of the shirt he had on before, to her relief, because that had blood on it (thinking of it, so did her dress), and had on a simpler outfit that reminded Hei slightly of what he'd worn the night after they left Aesta.

Hei couldn't quite stop her hands from trembling when she took the water from him, and it took all her effort to hold it without spilling. Byeong joo waited patiently as she took small sips from it. She could feel his eyes on her face, but for some reason, meeting his eyes seemed like a scary prospect so she kept her gaze fixed in front of her instead.

He took the cup from her after she'd finished. "Your dress is still kind of… bloody," he started. "Eunho didn't think it was proper to change youso we kind of cleaned it as best as we could. I can get him to draw a warm bath for you right now, except I'll have to redo the bandages on your arm and you might want to eat—"

Hei burst into tears.

She had told herself she wouldn't the moment everything came back, but that didn't exactly prove possible because just Byeong joo being there felt way too overwhelming. For a long while, she tried to control her breathing and blink back the tears, but the dam was already broken and she couldn't bar it up again. The bed dipped beside her—she couldn't see Byeong joo through her fingers but Hei was torn between feeling mortifyingly embarrassed that she'd cried in front of Byeong joo yetagain and not caring because she couldn't hold back tears any longer. Then he'd wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a tight hug.

It made her cry harder.

Byeong joo ran soothing fingers through her hair, the other arm still tight around her shoulders. For a long, long while Hei sobbed into his chest—all the fright from Jaekyung hurting Yejun, threatening her and cutting her, and then finally from seeing Byeong joo nearly killed. It had been too chaotic back then to feel the emotion properly, but now it came back full force, making her realize just how terrifying it had all beeen.

She wasn't sure how long it took for the tears to finally run out. Byeong joo must've sensed that she wasn't crying anymore because he pulled away until he was at arm's length, hand still on her shoulders. There was something gentle about his gaze that seemed strangely foreign on him.

Hei sniffled and tried to calm her breathing, but it was impossible at that point because they still came out in irregular intervals of half-hiccups. She tried to wipe away the wetness on her cheeks before realizing that her palms were also wet and it proved futile.

"Don't look at me," she told him weakly. "I'm—I'm sorry—I didn't mean—"

She didn't expect it when he pulled her into another hug, nor was Hei against it either because Byeong joo was warm and his hugs were tight and anchoring and there was something comforting about the silence that he could hold with her. She was the one who ended up moving away from him that time. It still felt hard to meet his eyes, so Hei stared at his hands instead.

"Hei," Byeong joo said after a moment. "You know there's nothing wrong with crying?"

She blinked, not sure how to respond.

"Hei," he repeated. "Look at me."

Reluctantly, Hei lifted her gaze to meet his eyes. They were serious, surprisingly so, and she couldn't quite look away. It was then that it hit her just how close Byeong joo was, and that also seemed overwhelming, along with everything else. "I'm fine," she blurted out, though that sounded ridiculous even before she finished saying it.

"Anyone can see you're not."

She bit her lip. He was correct, really, but admitting to it felt weak, and that reminded her of what Jaekyung had said and she didn't want to prove him right, even if he were already dead. "It's over," she told him. "Jaekyung's dead, Jiyong's back, we're all fine—there's no point in crying."

"You barely had time to do anything back there," he pointed out. "It's natural for it to hit you now. There's nothing wrong with crying. It doesn't make you weak nor does it make something you've done any less brave."

She hiccuped again. "I guess."

Byeong joo raised an eyebrow at her, an expression that she was a lot more used to. "Only an I guess?" he asked.

Hei tried to laugh. It came out sounding more like a sob which evolved into a choked cough, which was kind of pathetic, but she didn't care anymore. Besides, Byeong joo had already basically seen the worst of it. He didn't say anything but reached over and patted her back gently until she stopped coughing.

He tilted his head at her. "Are you feeling better now?"

To her surprise, she was. Hei wasn't sure what she was expecting out of all of it, but the prospect of crying didn't seem to be much of a reliever in the beginning. It had been, though, in the end. She wiped her cheeks one last time, but it was still fruitless because her hands were wet.

Byeong joo laughed at her lightly before swiping the cloth of his sleeves underneath her eyes gently. "Get up. You can probably grab some food too, though you probably want to change out of that dress and wash up first."

Hei didn't quite feel strong enough to walk on her own. Still, she'd embarrassed herself enough in front of Byeong joo for the day, so summoning all of her energy, she scooched to the side of the bed and pushed herself up a bit unsteadily. For the first couple of seconds, her vision darkened again at the sides. It was very likely that she would have fallen over again if Byeong joo hadn't steadied her.

She glanced back at him. "I can walk—" Hei started.

"You haven't eaten in days, you lost a significant amount of blood and have been bedridden for over eighteen hours," Byeong joo cut in. "It's a miracle you haven't collapsed yet, and I'm not having you collapsing either on my watch."

Thatwas heartwarming, even ifthere was no way Hei was going to say it aloud to Byeong joo. Hand still on her back, he steered her towards the door. She stumbled a couple of times, lightheaded, but he managed to catch her. By the time they got the the end of the hall, Byeong joo was pulling her in the direction of the stairs.

"We're getting you food first," he told her decidedly.

"I thought Eunho was heating up a bath."

"You're probably going to pass out and drown," he replied a matter of factly. Before Hei could find any sort of retort, he paused in front of the stairs and frowned thoughtfully. "I don't think you'll be able to climb these."

Hei glanced up the staircase. Maybe Byeong joo was right, because they did look a lot longer and steeper than she remembered, even if it was probably the exhaustion speaking. Still, she wasn't going to admit that, because the least she could do was climb stairs. She'd been through far worse.

"I'll be fine," she told him. "I don't even feel that bad—"

She broke off with a shriek as Byeong joo picked her up with almost no effort, and then he was mounting the stairs easily. Amidst half panic and half mortification, she made the mistake of glancing over his shoulders.

"Don't drop me," was the first thing that came to mind.

Byeong joo's whole frame seemed to shake as he laughed. "I didn't last time."

Genuinely hoping that her face wouldn't be beetroot by the time they got to the top, Hei shook her head again. "I could've gone up by myself."

He shifted slightly so it was a more comfortable position, then gave her a full grin. "I know."

Hei wasn't sure if Byeong joo smiling so many times was good for her recovery. "Why'd you pick me up, then?"

He gave her a slight shrug before attempting to push open the door with a foot. It didn't budge, and Hei was certain he almost dropped her when he moved an arm to try the knob instead. The door opened, with Hei thinking about how tragic it would've been if he actually did let go.

The moment they got to the deck, a draft of fresh air hit. The sun was out, bright, though it was beginning to sink towards the horizon, clouds and water alike beginning to dye red. It was the same sea, same sun, but for some reason, it seemed a lot different seeing it on Byeong joo's ship compared to when Hei had seen it on Jaekyung's. For a while she stared, the silence companionable and feeling surprisingly comfortable in Byeong joo's arms. All too soon, someone rounded the corner in her periphery.

Both she and Byeong joo turned to look at the same time. Kim Hyunmin stood at the side, clearing his throat awkwardly. Through an extremely strong wave of embarrassment, Hei noticed that he was wearing an apron which was ridiculously small on him and it was hilarious, which she would've laughed aloud at in any other circumstance.

Finally, Hyunmin shot them a wavery grin. "I cooked food?" he tried. "Uh, don't know if I'm interrupting anything, but there's… like, food in the kitchen if you want?"

Byeong joo disappeared later on, though Eunho took care of everything else. There were white bandages wrapped around his left shoulder, but he seemed to be moving perfectly fine. He handed her a bundle of clothing.

"I got these from your closet," he told her. "We ought to get you more clothing the next time we drop by somewhere, though."

Ten minutes later, Hei was sitting up to her neck in warm water (with the injured hand balanced carefully at the edge of the bathtub, because getting it wet hurt) trying to wash off the remaining blood. The cut that ran from her throat to her chest wasn't deep enough to sting badly, though the gash beneath her ribcage wasn't very happy when she stepped into the water. The pain had faded into something more moderate after a while, but Hei still finished washing up as soon as she made sure she had scrubbed off all traces of blood left behind. She bandaged her side as best as possible by herself, then grabbed more gauze for her arm to wrap up later. It was horrifying to look at—even though it had stopped bleeding and most of the blood had been wiped clean, the best part of her arm was an angry sort of red and it still hurt like hell. An irrational part of her mind screamed at her to wash it off too, until there was no red left, but that was obviously impossible and she hurried out of the room before she did end up doing something stupid.

Hei bumped into Yejun halfway to her room. He had been waiting for her, leaning against the wall, a book propped up in his uninjured hand. His broken arm had been already put into a sling.

It had been her first time seeing him since she'd passed out. He looked a lot better than before—the cuts on his face were washed and covered, he was wearing clean, untorn clothing, and the worse of the wounds were bandaged.

"Are you going back?" he asked.

Hei nodded. "I need to get someone to bandage my arm. I can't do it with one hand."

Yejun glanced down at his own arm. "I would help, but I don't think I can. It might do you some good to leave that in the open for the night, though, and then wrap it up in the morning."

The prospect of leaving that—that mess of red, deep cuts—in the open was somewhat unsettling, but Yejun was also almost always right, so she gave a reluctant nod. "I guess."

"Well, no matter how injured your arm is," he jerked his chin at his sling, "this'll take longer to heal than you."

Hei started off again with Yejun following after her. "Is it badly broken?"

"Nothing's like… crushed," he said carefully. "But I don't think I'll be using the arm anytime soon. At least it's not my dominant hand. I don't think I would be able to read what I write with my left hand, honestly."

She pushed open the door of her room. "Aren't you going to rest too?"

"Already did. You're the only one who passed out for so long because you used so much energy. You should sleep."

Hei didn't argue when Yejun hurried her towards the direction of her bed. He dragged one of the chairs from the side with one arm, took the linen she was still holding, and set it on the vanity. Hei peered at him from under the blankets. It was so nice—she'd never found speaking with Yejun or lying on a soft bed a privilege, but after being stuck in the dungeons for so long, talking with him comfortably felt like a luxury.

Silence held itself there for a couple of minutes, before Yejun finally shifted in the chair. "Hei," he started. "What exactly did Jaekyung try to do to get you to answer? He cut your arm, I know, but…"

Mentioning his name made her feel strangely uncomfortable. Hei tried not to think about it, but the first thought that came automatically was her arm and how terrible cut up it was and how much that bothered her. It took all her self control not to look at it.

"That was basically all," she said. "I… well, did Byeong joo tell you?"

"No one knows what happened. Byeong joo said he found you outside and you were running from someone. I assume Jaekyung?"

Thinking back, Hei had absolutely no idea how she'd managed the courage to do what she'd done back there. It would've been suicide if Byeong joo and Noah hadn't turned up in time, and even then, it had been a narrow shave. "Jaekyung also told me he was going to… uh, kill you," she tried. "I was lucky, actually, and Noah and Byeong joo had impeccable timing—if they'd been ten seconds later Jaekyung might have caught me again. I think I managed to slash his eye and then I ran."

Yejun gave a low whistle. "That was brave. And really stupid. But hey, it worked, right?"

"Mostly stupid," she agreed. "I don't know how I even had the guts to do that."

"Desperation is a powerful thing," he replied. "You stopped time, then—Byeong joo would've died if you hadn't. If I ask you to do the same thing here and now, could you?"

Hei snorted. "I'm too tired to even see a vision."

He didn't reply for a long time, and Hei was beginning to wonder if he was going to leave to let her sleep when Yejun spoke up again. "I'm proud of you," he said quietly. "You may not have full control on that part of your power, but you still did it. You faced Jaekyung bravely, didn't give in when he threatened you, and even managed to wound him and escape. You've come a long way, you know, right?"

She blinked at him. It didn't feel like it. "Have I?"

"It's been a bit over three weeks, Hei—when I first met you, you couldn't control your power at all. It may seem like a slow process, but you're moving exceptionally fast. And you're different, too, believe it or not."

Hei glanced down at her hands. "I don't know."

"At any rate," Yejun continued, "you've improved. That's a fact." His grin morphed into a more mischievous one. "Question. Did you ever imagine when you first got here that you'd like Kim Byeong joo, of all people?"

Sliding down further into her blankets, she hoped her face wasn't red. "No."

His grin widened. "No?"

Hei hid her face. "No," she reaffirmed, voice muffled in the blankets. "Seriously, I thought I'd hate him forever."

Yejun snorted. "Look how that turned out."

"Let's move on."

Yejun reached over and tugged the blanket down so her face wasn't covered. He didn't look like he was going to drop the subject anytime soon. Knowing Yejun, Hei was never going to hear the end of it. "Has it ever occured to you, then, that he might like you too?"

It was impossible for her to make out if that was a serious question or a joke. Hei wasn't sure if his power extended to being unable to joke too, because some jokes could technically fall under the category of lying. Finally, she tried, "No?"

He gaped at her. "The most amazing thing about this is that I can tell you're not even lying."

"Why would I be?"

Yejun squinted at her. "You're either dumb, or you're actually blind," he finally concluded. "You know, he stayed by you the whole time until you woke up this afternoon?"

She opened her mouth, snapped it shut, opened it again, then couldn't quite think of a reply. Sure, she'd woke up with Byeong joo there, but staying there for the full fifteen or so hours she'd been asleep?

"Why would he?" Hei asked Yejun, though it sounded dumb the moment she said it.

He groaned. "You're actually dense. I'm leaving."

"Wait, don't—"

"I also heard he carried you up the stairs," Yejun said as he got up from the chair. "Is that saying something?"

"How did you even know?" Hei demanded. "Only Hyunmin saw."

Yejun was halfway to the door when he finally turned back and then gave her a serene grin. "News travels fast," he said tranquilly. "Goodnight, Hei."

The door clicked shut gently behind him, and after a moment, she reached over and blew out the lamp too.

It was no surprise that she didn't sleep well, but being jolted awake in the middle of the night wasn't nice either.

For a moment, Hei was in the dark again, and terrifyingly, it reminded her of Jaekyung's dungeon. She sat still momentarily, working on calming her breathing into even intervals, trying to focus on small things that made it obvious she wasn't in a place she didn't like. She found herself getting up quietly from the bed and heading out into the hallway, up the stairs and onto the deck. Some fresh air would've done good, Hei figured, and she wasn't extremely tired either because she'd spent already spent a good part of the day unconscious.

It was cold when she got outside—she hadn't bothered grabbing a jacket and the wooden deck was cool underneath her feet—though it was still nice, a faint sea breeze gusting through, waves lapping quite calmly against the hull. The canvas of the mast rippled with the wind, the ship heading forward at a decent pace.

The sky was clear, too; there were sparse few clouds, making the moon completely visible. It was full today, hanging a little less than halfway in the sky. If Hei looked close enough, thousands of stars she'd never quite noticed before gleamed in the night sky, each shining with their own intensity. It was strange how she'd never paid attention to them—maybe because she'd never really been outside at night enough to marvel at such small details, details that one had to look carefully to find. Or maybe it was because back at Hua, the skies had never been clear enough to see the stars shine so brightly. For a long, long while, she stared at the sky, almost awestruck, and then a familiar voice sounded in the background.

Hei turned, looking at the helm immediately. She'd forgotten that someone would be steering, and it turned out to be Byeong joo again. He was peering over the railing, a darkened silhouette.

She wasn't terribly sure if she was ready to talk to him yet. If there was one thing she knew about Yejun, it was that he didn't say things unless he thought he was right, and most of the time, he was. But what if he wasn't? What if, after everything, Byeong joo's response would be the same: it was a mistake? Still, there was no avoiding Byeong joo or pretending that she hadn't heard him, so Hei made her way up to the helm.

He still had one hand on the wheel when she mounted the last step, glancing at her when she appeared. Byeong joo scanned her once, then frowned. "Why are you up?"

Hei shuffled towards him. "Can't sleep."

"Why are you wearing so little?" he continued. "You're going to freeze. You're not even wearing shoes or socks."

She looked down at her feet, then tried for a sheepish grin that made Byeong joo raise a skeptical eyebrow. "I forgot?"

"Your arm isn't bandaged." He started shrugging his coat off. "You should've gotten someone to bandage that for you before you went to sleep."

Hei couldn't quite remember if he'd always been like that, but the fact that he noticed so many things made her heart speed up. The butterflies in her stomach were doing an entire dance routine. "Yejun said it was best to leave it like that and then wrap it up in the morning."

"Don't trust Nam Yejun," he warned, before he handed his coat to her. "Here. If you're going to stay here, don't freeze like that."

Hei pushed his hand away. "You'll be cold too."

Byeong joo rolled his eyes at her in mock exasperation before draping the coat over her. Hei tried to protest, because he was wearing a relatively thin shirt underneath that, but he hushed her before she could say a word. Byeong joo didn't look like he would be giving in anytime soon either, so she ended up reluctantly threading her uninjured through a sleeve while leaving the other out. "You didn't need to do that," she told him, but the coat was warm and large and Byeong joo and she couldn't deny that it was nice.

For a long time, they stood side by side in silence. Hei found herself looking at the sky again—she couldn't quite get over the stars because it felt like the first time she'd seen them so clearly, though at some point, she became extremely aware of the fact that Byeong joo was looking right at her.

"The stars are pretty," she told him, for lack of anything else to say.

Byeong joo didn't reply. Hei was beginning to wonder if she should return the jacket and leave when he turned so his body was angled towards her fully.

"Hei," he said, and she looked up at him despite herself. There was something intriguing about his features under the moonlight—the longer she stared, the harder it was to look away—parts of it seemingly silver, contoured sharply with shadow and light.

"I never got to thank you," Byeong joo began in a low voice, "for saving my life back on Jaekyung's ship. I don't know where I'd be at this moment if you hadn't done that."

Hei felt frozen under his stare, and it took all of her effort to shake her head at him. "Anyone would've done the same."

Byeong joo's gaze was distant. "Would they have? Would they have taken that—" he jerked his chin in the direction of her arm, "—for the sake of protecting a secret for a person they owed nothing to?"

There was no possible way for her to decipher the expression on his face, though there was something about the way he was speaking that frightened her a bit. "Byeong joo, that's not true—"

"But it is." There was a strange sort of intensity in his eyes. "You owe me nothing. I didn't kidnap you from Hua to save you from your family. If you were any other person, do you think I would've risked my life to get there?"

She opened her mouth, shut it, then decided she was better off keeping silent. There was nothing new about his words, but hearing Byeong joo say it aloud left a bitter taste. Mouth dry, Hei shook her head at him mutely.

Byeong joo wasn't looking at her anymore at that point—he was staring in her general direction yet his eyes weren't fixed on her—they were on somewhere distant, staring at something (or maybe someone?) that Hei couldn't see.

"Thing is, Song Hei." He paused, eyes refocusing. "I would've gone to Jaekyung's ship all the same yesterday if you hadn't had your power. Even if you couldn't bring us through Hell's Gate."

He looked serious enough—in fact, Hei wasn't sure if she'd ever seen Byeong joo so serious—but at the same time, what he said didn't compute either. Had he moved closer, or had they been standing so close the entire time? What was she supposed to say? That she knew he would? That she was thankful he'd come? In the end, Hei remained silent, because there didn't seem to be a proper response to him.

"You didn't have to," Byeong joo finally said. "God, Hei—neither you nor Yejun had to do that for me. If anything like that happens again—"

"I still trust you." It felt odd to say, because the word in itself—trust—seemed to carry something so unbearably heavy. "You told me trust was earned, once. And if anything like that does happen again, I still trust that you'll still...you'll still do what you can."

Byeong joo had definitely moved closer. When had he let go of the wheel? When exactly had she backed up into the railing? At some point, Hei realized that she was practically holding her breath, though even when she noticed, she couldn't bring herself to breathe properly because it felt too loud.

"Do you?" he echoed. "That's a lot you could be putting at risk there, Song Hei."

"I trust you," she repeated firmly.

He held her gaze squarely, and Hei couldn't find it in herself to look away. There was something so compelling about Kim Byeong joo that she never acknowledged outright until then—his stare, his smile, even his voice. Neither of them moved for what felt like too long, and Hei was beginning to wonder whether or not it was a good time to leave when he finally spoke up.

"That night," he started, "when I was drunk—that was you, wasn't it?"

Hei could feel her chest tighten uncomfortably. "Pardon?"

"It was you," he murmured, as if reaffirming it with himself. "I asked Eunho the night Jaekyung kidnapped you and Yejun."

Voice barely above a whisper, she couldn't help but ask, "What did he tell you?"

His eyes flitted down from her eyes for a second before he looked up again. "I'd like to genuinely apologize."

Hei barely managed to shake her head at him. "There's nothing to apologize for."

Byeong joo tilted his head at her, breath ghosting over her face. He was frighteningly close, a fact that scared her more than it should've, yet accompanied by a nervous sort of anticipation. Her heart was pounding so hard that Hei was pretty sure her ribcage would burst. Then Byeong joo smiled slightly, lips lifting into that grin she was so familiar with, slightly playful, but still so, so genuine.

"Then," he started, "do I have permission to kiss you again so I'll actually remember this time?"

Part of her had been expecting it, really—after all, who would smile like that if they were going to reject someone? Still, Hei couldn't find it in her to actually respond to him. He laughed fondly, quietly, and then leaned down to close to gap.

Never would Hei have imagined she'd end up where she was at the moment; pressed against the railing of the helm, kissing Kim Byeong joo of all people, a hand supporting the small of her back firmly. It felt surreal, it couldn't be happening, maybe she was dreaming—yet she knew dreams were never so lucid and Byeong joo was real, warm, substantial, anchoring. For a moment, Hei remained frozen, and then she was succumbing to the warmth, something that she never managed to grasp onto until that moment.

Byeong joo pulled back all too soon. His pupils were dilated, still smiling when she peered up at him. For a brief moment, Hei hesitated. Then, tiptoeing and gripping his shoulders, she reached up to kiss him again.

He gave a soft hum of contentment as she closed her eyes, one hand slipping under the jacket to rest on her waist, the other moving to her chin and lifting her head up slightly. Everything about Byeong joo felt so natural as he tilted his head, deepening the kiss, hand trailing from her hip to her back again, leaving a trail of warmth lingering in its wake.

Hei was breathing hard when Byeong joo finally stepped back, eyes still fixed on her. There was something about his gaze; so bright and full of vitality, like he had somehow, miraculously, gotten the stars to reflect. She couldn't quite comprehend that it was her he was staring at in such a way. Neither of them said a thing for a good ten seconds before Byeong joo offered her a small smile. "You should go rest," he suggested. "I can bandage your arm for you if you want, or you can leave it like that for the night."

"I—" she broke off, and with a lot of effort, ripped her gaze from his and looked at the ground. "You should too."

He laughed. "I have to stay my shift."

Hei didn't quite want to leave, but staying didn't feel like the proper option either. Her mind was whirling—what had that meant? If he kissed her, then—

"And Hei?" A hand landed on her shoulder, and Byeong joo spun her around before she could head down the stairs. "Rest. Don't stay awake second-guessing my intentions."

The words tumbled out before Hei could stop herself. "Then what are your intentions?"

Byeong joo's eyes were surprisingly serious when he met hers. "I like you. Does that clear things up?"

She opened her mouth, snapped it shut, then finally managed to nod jerkily. "Do you want your jacket back?"

He gave her a gentle push in the direction of the stairs. "I'm fine. Go sleep. I'll talk to you tomorrow morning, alright?"

Hei could barely think straight as headed down the steps of the helm towards her cabin. The last she saw of Byeong joo was his silhouette on the helm, millions upon millions of stars gleaming about him, and she wondered why she'd never noticed how clear they were.

Chapter 36

Future Plans

To Hei's surprise, she slept comfortably for the rest of the night, without the interference of nightmares. By the time she'd woken up, washed up and headed up to the deck, her head didn't feel any clearer than it had been last night when she'd gone to was still trying to figure out if she'd had an extremely realistic dream of Byeong joo kissing her again or if a miracle had happened when she crashed right into Park Yano.

It had been the second time she'd seen him (in person—not counting the one vision of him drowning that she'd seen), and he seemed even taller close up. At any rate, he towered over her by a lot, and Hei had to look up to actually meet his eyes.

She wasn't too sure what exactly he reminded her of, but he definitely didn't look scary or much of a fighter. Maybe an older version of Hamin, infused with slightly elvish features (and extremely large ears that stuck out, something one couldn't miss at all).

Eunho had told her Yano was nice, but Hei still had no idea what he was like, and his height was intimidating. She contemplated leaving, because neither of them had said a thing and it was more than awkward. Before she could, he asked,"Are you looking for Byeong joo?"

His voice was a deep baritone that surprised her a bit. She'd heard him twice, too, but the vision had been so distorted that she couldn't make out the least bit what his voice sounded like. Jaekyung's ship was all a nonsensical blur, too, so it was quite a shock when she heard him speak.

It took her a couple of seconds to recover. "I guess?"

"I heard he had the shift for the first part of the night," Yano replied. "He might be still asleep—or just waking up, since it's already pretty late."

Hei wasn't sure what she even made of Park Yano. He sounded surprisingly detached, so she gave a nod, a bit confused, and then turned to look at the door of Byeong joo's cabin.

It was shut, as usual, and for a brief moment, she remembered that the last time she'd been in a similar situation was with Eunho and that had been horrifying and embarrassing and Hei didn't want to have a repeat of it.

Yano tilted his head. "What do you have to talk to him about?"

"Uh…" Hei shifted her weight. "I'm not… too sure?"

He didn't look convinced, but unlike literally every other person on the crew, didn't pry further. "Also, you should bandage your arm up. It's nowhere near healed yet."

It was a bit heartwarming how everyone noticed it. Hei realized then what felt significantly different about Byeong joo's crew: all of them seemed like they genuinely cared. It was different from her family—those who'd faked concern hadn't even tried to make it seemed sincere, and a good part of them didn't care enough to even pretend.

"I will," she told him, and at that moment, the door to Byeong joo's cabin swung open.

Yano's expression brightened a bit when he saw Byeong joo standing at the door. "She wants to talk to you," he said immediately. Then, before Hei could react, hegave her a slight shove in Byeong joo's direction. She nearly shrieked—thatwas unexpected, because Yano had seemed so quiet the whole time. With a massive grin on his face, he turned the other direction. "Have fun," he called before all but bolting the other way.

Byeong joo rolled his eyes at Yano before turning to look at her properly. "He's right, though," he said. "I do have to talk to you, and I believe I told you so last night."

Her heart decided to conveniently skip a beat then (or maybe two, or three, Hei wasn't sure). "Right," Hei echoed, then glanced in the direction Yano had evacuated in. He had long disappeared, so hesitantly, she stepped towards Byeong joo's room.

It was still as messy as ever, which normally would've bothered Hei to no end. At the moment, she wasn't thinking clear enough to care about whether or not she was going to trip over a hidden dagger on the ground. Byeong joo pushed the door shut until there was only a sliver left, then turned to look at her.

"Your arm isn't bandaged," was Byeong joo's first comment.

"Your bed isn't made," she pointed out.

He laughed at her in a way that immediately made Hei feel better. There was something so casual about it that was relaxing, even though the prospect of actually talking to him face to face was still terrifying. "Sit down," he told her instead. "I have linen in my room somewhere and I can wrap up your arm for you right now."

He had a stack of books on the nearest available chair and another stack on his desk (also frightfully messy), so Hei took a tentative seat on his bed, so close to the edge that she really would've fallen off at any moment. She watched as Byeong joo rummaged through a drawer, then another, and then another until he finally seemed to find what he was looking for.

"Do you not keep track of any of your things?" she demanded as he made his way over.

"Still found it, didn't I? Arm, please."

She stretched out her arm in front of him. The first cut started a couple of inches above her wrist, though the vertical one ran frighteningly near to the faint blue-green of a vein. They continued upwards in almost perfect parallel, though it was anything but neat. Hei couldn't even bear staring at it for much longer.

Byeong joo didn't move for a couple of moments as he stared at the cuts, knuckles white around the linen. She glanced up at him. "Are you going to bandage it?"

He blinked, as if snapping out of a trance before shaking his head slightly. "Sorry," Byeong joo muttered as he took her wrist with one hand and started wrapping with the other. "I just… what Jaekyung did was... despicable. And I couldn't even do anything about it."

He sounded like he felt terrible, and when Hei peered at his face, guilt was clear across his features. It wasn't his fault in the least bit—in fact, he'd done all he could and just because he didn't directly save her life didn't mean that hehadn't.

"Hey," she said. "At least you got to stab him through the chest once. Even though it was the wrong side."

Byeong joo actually laughed aloud at that as he tied the cloth at the end. "Right," he started, then paused and turned fully so he was facing her. "I believe I owe you a proper apology, though. I don't think the one from last night sufficed."

Bringing up the past evening was going to happen sooner or later, Hei knew, but she still didn't feel prepared to actually talk to him about it. She couldn't quite wrap her mind around the fact that Byeong joo hadactuallykissed her even though it had obviously happened, mostly because she was still struggling to come to terms with how different everything was. Perhaps it was the fact that it felt too good to be true—three weeks ago Hei had been well-practiced in expecting the worst possible outcome, but now, with so many things to hope for and look towards and enjoy, a cynical part of her couldn't help but wonder if everything would crumble after one wrong move.

"There's nothing to apologize for, really," she mumbled to Byeong joo. "You… well, you were really drunk that night. You obviously weren't thinking. It's not like you did anything on purpose."

"That doesn't mean I shouldn't apologize," he replied immediately. "Seriously, Hei, look at me—it stillwashighly inappropriate and it doesn't matter whether or not I was drunk because I'm still responsible either way. And I'm sorry for making you uncomfortable."

"What's past is past," Hei murmured, glancing at her hands. Then, she couldn't help but add, "Don't drink again, though."

Byeong joo physically winced at that. "I didn't do anythingthatbad, did I?"

"Define bad."

He gave a groan. "Do I want to know?"

From what Hei had heard from Eunho, Byeong joo hadn't even beenthatbad because he definitely had even worse moments (judging from the stories Eunho told, he'd either been too depressed about Jiyong that night to do anything or not drunk enough to do anything stupid). After a moment of contemplation, she said, "You spent a while telling me how much you loved and appreciated Nam Yejun."

He remained silent for the longest time, and Hei wasn't sure if he was shocked or confused. Finally, Byeong joo managed,"Don't tell me I actually did that. I feel like I've heard a similar story from Eunho once."

"You cried," she replied. "Also, you prefered the pillow over me."

Byeong joo looked absolutely mortified, though Hei couldn't quite figure out why because he'd obviously done stupider things. Still, it felt like she finally had the upper-hand over him and it was awfully amusing, so she continued. "I carried you to your cabin."

He hid his face in his hands. "Please stop there."

"You made me pinky promise to stay," Hei said, "and then talked about how much you appreciated Noah's presence even though he hated you. And how you very much wished he would like you too."

"I didn't do such a thing," he immediately shot back, looking very much offended. "You're just making up stuff on the spot now."

"Right," she admitted. "Well, I did hear worse stories from Eunho, so…"

Byeong joo cleared his throat loudly. "Moving on," he announced. "I… well, there's nothing, really. I just wanted everything to be cleared up. No misunderstandings, right?"

"No," she echoed.

He gave her a bright grin. "Does that mean I get to kiss you again?"

It was nearly impossible for Hei to keep a straight face, much less talk with one, but she held a hand up to him and stuck out her pinkie. "Only if you promise not to drink again."

Laughing, he hooked his own finger around hers and leaned in for another kiss.

The mess hall was much louder than normal when Hei followed Byeong joo inside. Maybe it was because of the addition of two other people, or maybe because the crew had finally decidedto eat at the same time for once (without Eunho—he was at the helm, and Jiyong was apparently still resting). From Hei's brief experience during supper the day prior, Hyunmin had practically been too talkative to deal with, and Eunho had ended up dragging him out.

He was no less excited looking at him now—chatting animatedly with Yano at one end of the table, legs crossed beneath him (how he managed to balance with criss crossed legs on a bench was a bit of a mystery to Hei), though he seemed to break off from his conversation when she shuffled in after Byeong joo.

"Morning!" he called cheerily.

Hei obviously still wasn't prepared for the onslaught of never-ending energy from Hyunmin because she ended up taking another step behind Byeong joo. All she remembered from Byeong joo about Hyunmin was that he liked food, had a bad taste in literally everything else thatwasn'tfood, and that he apparently stole drinks from everyone's cups. The last one was particularly unsettling. She'd been able to fight off Yejun eand Byeong joo from drinking from her cup, but Byeong joo claimed Hyunmin was unstoppable and Hei didn't particulary have it in her to fight with him.

A hand wrapped around her wrist and Byeong joo tugged her out from behind him. "It's fine," he said, and Hei could tell he was trying not to laugh at her. She frowned at his expression. "Hei, none of them are scary people. Especially these two. Might be another story when it comes to Kyungsoo and Junhyuk but you'll probably get along with both of them because they're super neat like you." He waved his hand in front of him him. "Anyway, in case you didn't already know, that's Yano—" he pointed a finger at an extremely general direction (and really could've been pointing at Yejun too), "and that's Hyunmin."

There didn't seemed to be much of a response she could go for, so Hei tried to smile. "I'm... Hei?"

The mess hall had gotten significantly quieter since they got inside, and everyone—Yejun, Noah, Hamin (who was sitting behind Yano, the only person in the room who was taller than him), Yano and Hyunmin—were all staring at her direction and Byeong joo's.

He stared back at them all. "Well? Are we going to get on with proper introductions now?"

Park Yano, it turned out, was a huge puppy. An elated, over-enthuasiastic, oversized puppy.

He just exuded happiness and was generally nice to be around, and apparently also really liked cooking (with the claim that Kyungsoo never let him cook when he was around because he was too messy—Hei was beginning to like Kyungsoo more and more). He was, to some extent, even more talkative to Hyunmin when he started speaking, which didn't seem quite possible in the beginning.

Hyunmin also reminded Hei of a dog, but a lot more eccentric. He claimed he liked food, chicken, sleeping, and that was basically all she got out of him. He was a different sort of chatty compared to Yano—Yano would hit one topic and expand on it forever, while Hyunmin just had a lot to say about quite literally everything. He had a lot of embarrassing stories about Byeong joo too, but those were shut down immediately after they were brought up. Hei made a mental note to ask him about it when Byeong joo wasn't there.

It was nearly midday by the time she finally got out of the mess hall. It was too late for lunch, so Hei went to find Yejun instead.

He was, like usual, scribbling notes—which was what she saw him doing a majority of the time—but this time, he'd finally migrated to the desk and was currently trying to prop a book open and write with the same hand. He gave her a short glance when she shuffled inside the room.

"Turn the page for me, please," Yejun groaned. "I can't handle this anymore."

She peered at his sheet as she flipped the page. He had told her that his writing with his left hand would even be more illegible, but Hei wasn't suremore illegiblewas even possible because it already looked like complete and utter nonsense to her.

"So," Yejun started. "What did I miss?"

It took her a couple seconds to respond. "Excuse me?"

Yejun set down the pen in hand and capped the bottle of ink. "You don't just walk into the mess hall holding Kim Byeong joo's hand and tell me nothing happened."

Hei felt her face heat up. "I didn't do anything of the sort."

"I don't lie," Yejun replied with a grin. "So yes, you did."

She sat down on the spare chair beside him, trying to figure out how exactly she was supposed to explain everything to Nam Yejun in the shortest, vaguest way possible. The problem was that shecouldn'texplain everything without detail, which meant she would have to recount the night Byeong joo was drunk, something Hei knew he wouldn't let her live down if he found out. In the end, she settled with, "I talked to him."

Yejun gawked at her, a picture of shock, offense and disapproval. "That's all you have to say?" he demanded.

"Well…" She gnawed on her bottom lip. "That's basically what happened. In short."

"In short," Yejun echoed incredulously. "When exactly did this happen? You told me that you never even considered the prospect of Kim Byeong joo liking you back literally last night. Do you stand by that still?"

She flushed. "No."

Yejun frowned. "Did you find him in the middle of the night or something? Because when I talked to you before bed, you said he didn't like you, and in the morning you're..." He made an exaggerated gesture with his uninjured arm, promptly lost the page of his book, and swore.

Hei hesitated, wondering if he was baiting her into admiting something embarrassing. She tried to choose her next words carefully. "Kind of? It was pretty late and I couldn't sleep. Wejust… talked for a while, I guess. About stuff."

"Stuff," he repeated, looking very much like he was contemplating whether or not he was supposed to clock her over the head with his book. "Well, if you don't want to tell, I won't pry. But I still think you're dense."

"Am not," Hei complained, they leaned over to look at his writing. "How far are you through the book?"

"Nice change of topic."

"Shut up."

"Three quarters. I don't know how long it'll take for me to finish, though—it's getting even more nonsensical in the end—and some of the things I've written down I need to decipher. What about your power?" He tilted his head at her. "Have you tried to stop time again yet?"

Hei made a face. "No. I don't think it's going to work, though. I still have no idea how I managed to do that, and it doesn't feel like I'll be doing it again anytime soon."

"I should start teaching you again," Yejun mused. "Hey, maybe we could get someone to pretend to stab Kim Byeong joo and your power will activate itself."

The image of that happening again made her wince, and Hei shook her head at Yejun. "I have a bit over a month, right? If I managed to do it once, then maybe I could learn to do so in the next month or so. It shouldn't be… shouldn't be that hard." The moment the words came out, she knew she didn't mean it.

Yejun didn't call her out for lying, but instead studied her with an unreadable expression. He wasn't reading her—not exactly, because Hei could feel it when he was—but his gaze was still extremely piercing and she couldn't help but shift, a bit uncomfortable with the silence.

Just when the silence was beginning to get unbearable, he leaned back on his chair. "You know, Hei, two weeks ago if I told you the same thing, you'd definitely say that one and a half months wasn't close to enough to develop your power. And really, it wouldn't be for a normal person—you're definitely improving extremely fast and it's impressive. And it's not just your power, it's your mindset too. You're actually thinking differently instead of constantly being stuck in the belief that you can't do something."

Hei could feel herself smiling despite herself. "Was that a compliment from you?"

"No," he said in his usual short, no-nonsense tone. "It was the truth."

The sun had disappeared under the horizon when Hei found Byeong joo again. She still felt tired for some reason, though he'd been missing the whole afternoon and she figured she could find him before actually going to sleep because there was something about Byeong joo that chased away nightmares and was just comforting in general.

He was making his way down the helm when she spotted him. The sky was a lot cloudier than the night before, and Hei could barely see the moon peeking through.

Byeong joo gave her a slight smilewhen he saw her. "Aren't you going to sleep?"

Hei fought back a yawn. "It's not that late."

"It's pretty late," he countered, then nudged open the room of his cabin with a toe. "Come in."

Hei shuffled inside. His room was no different from that morning, except itwasdifferent because she actually took note on just how messy it was. Granted, itwasn't as bad as his room back in Ezentia; that had been a nightmare because he had left everything lying on any empty space, while in comparison, the floor of his cabin was actually quite eyed the chair, covered in papers, and then his desk, which wasn't nearly any safer. At least the closet door was closed, though Hei was half convinced that it just hid the horror of unfolded clothing inside.

Byeong joo lit one of the lamps on the bedside table and carried it to his desk. There was a section of it that had been cleared—an extremely wrinkled map sat there—and he brushed away a couple of stray papers before frowning down at it.

Hei took a seat on the corner of his bed again because it was basically the only place in the room that she could sit. "What is that?"

Byeong joo ran a finger over it absentmindedly. "Hell's Gate," he murmured. "It's the map we got from Nano back in Aesta. I'm trying to memorize it as best as I can, but a lot of it is just nonsense and I still have no idea what to expect in Hell's Gate—except utter chaos, really—until Yejun finishes translating that book."

"Do you think Yejun could read the map?" she asked.

He shrugged. "He has a lot on his hands at the moment so I don't think it'd be fair if I asked him to do one more."

"Well, Yejun might—" Hei broke off into a yawn. She could see Byeong joo watching her with amusement as she tried to fight it off the fatigue. "Yejun might be interested."

"I'll find him tomorrow, then," he replied. "You should probably rest. It's been a long day."

"It hasn't," she argued, althoughshe was feeling tired and he wasn't wrong about that. "I literally did nothing today."

"Sleep," he insisted.

"It's a long way to my room. I'll go later. I just got here."

Byeong joo glanced up at her, then jerked his chin in her direction. "You can sleep here if you want to."

Hei blanched at him. "Sleepwhere?"

"On the floor." He rolled his eyes at her. "The bed, Hei. Where else?"

"That's your bed," Hei replied, appalled. "Yourbed. Not mine."

"So?"

"Your bed," she echoed. "I can't sleep there."

"You're tired, you said you wanted to stay a bit longer, and your room is too far." He flashed her a grin, all teeth, eyes crinkling into crescents. "I don't see what's wrong. Just lie down for a while—I'll carry you to your room later if you must."

Hei wasn't too against that, actually, but she wasn't going to say it out loud. Still, Byeong joo sounded serious and it wasn't a bad deal at all, so a bit grudgingly, she slipped off her shoes and slid under the blankets. They were still a bit cool to the touch. Hei kept still, trying not to shiver, staring up at the ceiling of the cabin as the pattern of shadows cast by the flames flickered and danced. Byeong joo remained at his desk, the occasionalscritch scratchof his pen sounding in otherwise silence.

"Hei," he finally called. "Are you asleep?"

She shifted so she was turned in his general direction. The blankets were beginning to feel warmer, and it was a nice sort of sensation that made her eyes droop. "No." She yawned again. "Kind of."

He quieted down once again for a few minutes. Just when Hei was beginning to drift off, the chair next to the desk scraped back and Byeong joo stood up. "I can't do this anymore," he announced. "God, this map is such a pain."

Hei blinked once, then twice, trying to wake herself up. "Is it that hard?"

"That's an understatement," he grumbled before picking up the lamp from his desk and setting it down on the bedside table again. "My eyes hurt."

The bed dipped next to her as Byeong joo climbed on. He pulled the blanket over before reaching for the lampand blowing out the light.

Hei squinted in the darkness. It was nice sometimes, she had to admit—with Byeong joo, it was a sleepy sort of darkness that was more comforting than it was frightening, which she thoroughly liked. The bed was also a significant amount larger than the one in her cabin, though she could still feel every movement as Byeong joo shifted so he was facing her.

"Do you still want to go back to your cabin?" he asked.

Half lucid, Hei shook her head. "It's warm."

Byeong joo gave a slight snort. "Now you say that?"

"S'warm," she repeated again.

"I have to get up really early tomorrow morning," he said. "Eunho has to wake me up for my shift—he might wake you up too. Are you sure you don't want me to move you back?"

Hei could barely think straight at that point. Part of her wished Byeong joo would stop talking so that she could sleep, but his voice was also comforting and she liked listening to him. "I don't want my room anymore," she murmured, too tired to filter her words."I'll stay here as long as you let me clean your room."

Byeong joo laughed softly. "I'll clean it just for you."

"Wow," she replied. "I'm lucky."

"And because Junhyuk is coming back. He's going to skin me if he sees my cabin."

"I like Junhyuk already," she told him.

"You like me most."

"Debatable."

Hei couldn't actually see Byeong joo very well in the dark, especially when she was fighting to just keep her eyes open, though she could imagine him frowning at her and the image made her laugh slightly. A finger poked her uninjured arm lightly. "That's a lie," Byeong joo declared confidently, then shifted in her direction again and gave a slight sigh of content. "This is nice."

Hei hummed in agreement. A hand crept up to her face, fingers brushing away stray hair, before it slid to rest at her waist. "What are you going to do about Hamin?" she asked him. "Are you still dropping him off somewhere?"

There was a pause from Byeong joo's side. Finally, after a long while of contemplation, he murmured, "No."

She blinked, suddenly feeling a bit more awake than a moment ago. "No?"

"He's smart," Byeong joo admitted a bit grudgingly. "Like, really smart. Honestly, we probably never would've gotten to you and Yejun and Jiyong on time if it weren't for him because everyone was panicking and Eunho spent the whole time trying to track you through your bracelet. Hamin also managed to steer the ship on his own—I don't know where he managed to learn and I don't know if Iwantto know—but whatever the reason, he did well. And he made me promise that I wouldn't send him away if he did something useful, so…"

"I thought that was all you," Hei replied, then grinned. "Did you doanything?"

"Excuse me?" he demanded indignantly. "Are you disregarding my efforts now?"

"What efforts?"

Byeong joo gave a noise of protest. "You're somean," he whined petulantly, "I worked so hard to get you, Yejun and Jiyong back and now you treat me like this?"

"You mean Hamin worked hard?"

The grip around her waist tightened as Byeong joo pulled her towards him. "Stop," he said, sounding a lot like a child. A giggle escaped before she could stop herself. "Hamin just came up with the plan."

"At least he came up with something—"

Byeong joo poked her again, this time in the side, and Hei nearly shrieked, curling in. It tickled more than she expected it to. She tried to bat his hand away, though he caught her wrist easily. "Don't say another thing," he warned. "No more Hamin."

Hei slumped into the bed again. "You're just jealous he came up with the plan."

He pulled her toward him that time instead. Hei half expected Byeong joo to jab her again, though she ended up in a loose hug instead, his chin resting on her shoulder. On reflex, she froze up for a couple of seconds before finally allowing herself to relax into his grip, still feeling a bit cautious. As nice as it was, such close proximity still felt overwhelming when it came without warning (and with, too, sometimes).

Byeong joo didn't say anything afterwards, and Hei stared at the opposite wall, no longer as tired as she had been before. His breathing had turned into more steady intervals, and after a little while of contemplation, she tried to shift out of his grasp.

To her surprise, his hand tightened. "Are you leaving?"

Hei jumped. "No. I thought you were asleep."

He hummed in response, though it sounded sleepy, voice lower than normal. "You should sleep too. I'll probably be up in the middle of the night."

Sleep no longer seemed to be her first option, though Hei shut her eyes and started counting. By the time she got to somewhere around sixty, she'd managed to do nothing but bore herself awake. She contemplated getting up and walking around because it wasn'tthatlate, but moving from Byeong joo without waking him and then sneaking out didn't seem to be very feasible so Hei remained still, listening to the steady in and out of his breathing. When he finally seemed asleep, she unclasped one of his hands and turned around slowly so she was facing him.

It was almost unbelievable how much younger he looked asleep, expression at peace, free of all the worries. It was one of those moments when she had a hard time connecting him with the same man who'd moved on ruthlessly because of one final goal, something he'd pursued for eight years of his life. Byeong joo was driven, and Hei knew that—except sometimes, she couldn't help but wonder if there was some point in which he would know to stop.

And then she began to wonder—his goal of taking down his father—it wasn't a guaranteed success, of course—but what if it turned out to be a guaranteed failure? Would he carry it through regardless, knowing that it was very much possible he'd lose his life? The more she thought, the more worried Hei felt. Then the thought hit her that shedidn'treally know Byeong joo well. And even if she did know him well; even if she knew him for years and years like Eunho did—would he still remain just as unpredictable after all that time?

Byeong joo cracked open an eye. "Staring again?"

Hei flinched backward so suddenly that she nearly fell off the bed. "I thought you were asleep."

"So you could stare at me as long as you want? Dream on."

Hei didn't quite have it in her to actually laugh at him. "Byeong joo," she started. "Your family—your father, that is—you said you want to kill your father."

He visibly stiffened. "Yeah."

"Would you…" she trailed off. It sounded ridiculous just thinking of it, and saying it aloud was even worse. "How risky is that? Say you got out of Hell's Gate alive and with what you were looking for—what's the chance of you killing your father and getting out of there alive?"

Byeong joo didn't reply for some time. Finally, he managed, "Why?"

Hei tried to swallow. "Just… how likely would it be for you to lose your life in that process?"

He turned so he was facing her properly. "Sweetheart, I could lose my life anyday, and the same goes for any of us."

"Not that," she began. She wasn't sure if Byeong joo actually didn't understand what she was talking about or if he was trying to avoid the topic as best he could without answering fully. "If you were to walk into Vasileia with a forty-sixty chance of killing your father or dying, respectively—then would you?"

Byeong joo hesitated. "I don't… I don't know."

"What if it were fifty-fifty?"

"Maybe." He paused, drawing in a shaky breath. "It's just… I've been doing this for eight years, Hei. The moment I left Vasileia I told myself I'd kill him—and that's all I've been working for this whole time. If I... ifI don't, what would I even be left with?"

He must've taken her silence as objection—maybe it was—because a warm pair of hands wrapped around hers. "Hei, I don't—I don't mean… I know there's my crew, there's so much more—there's you—but still, if you want the truth, it's not something I can just give up on because there's a possibility of losing my life in the process."

"That's not reassuring."

Byeong joo let go of her hand, fingers creeping to cup her cheek. "I won't do anything rash, I promise."

"You always do rash things."

He gave a slight laugh. "I guess I'll have to watch that, then." His smile turned more cheeky. "Just for you."

She jabbed him this time. "For yourself, not me."

"Alright," Byeong joo relented. "We should sleep."

Hei wasn't sure if he was agreeing with everything she'd said or just the last part, but Byeong joo was right—they'd spent quite a while talking already and he'd have no time to rest if it continued on. A bit grudgingly, she nodded at him and curled up closer to him. It was so nice and warm next to his chest, and Hei spent the next couple of minutes matching her breathing with his heartbeat.

She was still thinking about him and his family when she drifted off, and while Hei wasn't too sure when it was that she'd drifted into dreams, the last thing she remembered lucidly was just how comfortable and pleasant it was to sleep free from the fear of any sort of nightmares, feeling undeniably safe next to Kim Byeong joo.

Chapter 37

Training

Byeong joo wasn't lying when he had said Eunho was going to wake them up, but he never mentioned that it would be late into the morning and that Yejun and Yano were also going to be there with him.

Hei's first thought was that Byeong joo was still there when she woke up, which was odd, because she remembered him saying he had a shift in the middle of the night. The fact that he was there meant she had woken up before his shift, or that he'd slept through it. Both seemed equally unlikely. Disoriented, she tried to blink sleep from her eyes and figure out what time it was and why it was so bright, because Byeong joo didn't seem to be awake next to her. Or he might've been, but from the position she had ended up in, she couldn't see his face.

"Wake up, lovebirds!" someone chirruped with much too vigour, and Hei tried to block out the voice, except Byeong joo shifted up beside her into a sitting position and there was nowhere to go. She turned the other way and squeezed her eyes shut again.

She still felt too exhausted to deal with anyone. Just because Byeong joo had to be up for his shift didn't mean she had to be as well.

"Eunho?" she heard him rasp. "What time is it even—"

"Sun's up," Yejun's distinct voice exclaimed loudly, and her eyes shot open before she could stop herself. What was he doing in Byeong joo's cabin? "Well, not just the sun—everyone's up except you two."

Byeong joo didn't even sound surprised. "Eunho, what the hell?" he demanded. "You were supposed to wake me up for my shift."

"And Hei was supposed to be sleeping in her room," Yejun interrupted gleefully, "not yours."

Hei tried to slide under the blankets.

"Don't," Yejun said immediately. "Is this the stuff you said you talked about with him yesterday?"

She could feel her face go beetroot. "Yejun!"

"I went to look for you," he continued relentlessly. "In fact, I got up early because I said I'd try to teach you a bit about your power today, but you weren't even there. Instead, you're sleeping with Byeong joo—"

"Yejun!"

"—literally," he finished, then gave her a frightfully angelic grin. "Hey, what do you think I was trying to say? I can't even lie."

Hei shook her head at him, hoping her face wasn't too red. "I hate you."

He looked completely unruffled, the same grin hanging on his face. Behind him, Eunho watched on with an amused expression, and then behind him, a much taller figure stood—Yano, Hei realized—why were there so many people there?—who also looked thoroughly entertained by everything. Hei wanted to slide back into the covers and hide from everyone's stares. She couldn't, so she went with scowling at Yejun instead.

"Well," Eunho finally said. "It is breakfast, so you should both get up."

Byeong joo, who'd remained surprisingly quiet throughout the whole ordeal, nodded in agreement. "That's right," he grumbled, running a hand through his hair before attempting to pat it down (it didn't work). "Get out, all of you. I need a lock on this door."

"You never had an issue on us barging in before," Eunho replied. "Now you want a lock?"

"Privacy," he shot back, then squinted at Eunho. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

"I was going too, except Hei was there."

"Which is why you should've stayed in your room," Yejun told her.

"At least they both have clothes on," Yano offered as Eunho herded them out of the room. Hei hid her face back inside the covers.

"I'm never staying in your room again," Hei told Byeong joo as she rounded the corner out of the mess hall. "But please install a lock on my door too."

His lips turned downward into what looked like a pout, which really shouldn't have been allowed because Hei knew she'd be done for if he made that expression every time he wanted to convince her. She struggled to keep a straight face. "Why?" he asked. "It's not like Eunho's going to barge in with Yejun and Yano everyday."

"Neither will I be staying in your room everyday."

"Why not?"

Why not? she echoed. There really wasn't an answer, because as much as Hei would've wanted too, she wasn't sure if staying in Byeong joo's room every night was a good decision. "It's improper," she blurted, only to regret the words immediately after they came out. Before she could find something to say to save herself, Byeong joo had leaned forward and grinned.

"Improper," he echoed, then tilted his head. "You say that as if I'm so proper."

Hei leaned back, a bit overwhelmed by the proximity. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Byeong joo straightened again. He still had a playful glint in his eyes, but didn't comment more on his words. "Nothing. Anyway, I was thinking that we try to do something about your power today—if you want, that is—because Yejun talked to me about it yesterday."

If it weren't for the topic of her power, she would've callled him out on changing the subject so blatantly. Previous conversation forgotten, Hei weighed her options. On one hand, she did very much want to try because her power wasn't going to teach itself if she didn't do anything. On the other, the thought of trying yet failing still felt irrationally frightening—the only reason she'd been able to stop time back on Jaekyung's ship was because Byeong joo's life had depended on her ability to do so. Now, without desperation or fear fueling her, without the need to summon her power, could she really?

He must've picked up something from her expression, because Byeong joo stopped walking and paused in front of her. Hei halted too.

"Hei," he said slowly. "You do realize that just because we're going to try today doesn't mean you're going to necessarily succeed today? That also doesn't mean you can't. It takes time, and it takes practice until you can call on it without basing it off of emotion alone. Your power is there, but it's a skill you have to hone to control and none of us expect you to be an expert at it overnight. No one is able to do that."

She shuffled her feet on the ground and tried to think of something to say. "Yeah," Hei managed out in the end, though she didn't sound at all convinced even to her own ears. "There's still a month left."

"You also need to find out the best strategy for you to summon your power," Byeong joo continued. "At least for now."

For some reason, the first thing that came to mind was Yejun telling her how they could pretend to stab Byeong joo to get her power to activate itself. That thought made Hei shudder, and she turned towards the direction of her cabin. "I'm going to change," she mumbled to him, still trying to rid herself of the image of Noah using Byeong joo for target practice. "I'll come out to find you in a couple of minutes."

Hei didn't expect half the crew to be waiting for her when she climbed the stairs back to the deck, but apparently a majority of them had gathered on the deck.

Byeong joo was polishing his cutlass—it seemed to be his go-to whenever he had nothing to do, though Hei had yet to figure out why it needed so much polishing because it already seemed extremely shiny. Yejun lifted his head the moment she opened the door. To her surprise, his brother was sitting right next to him. She hadn't talked to Noah properly ever since she had gotten back from Jaekyung's ship, and the fact that he was gathered there with the rest of them was confusing. She now had an audience of five ready to watch her fail, it seemed.

Eunho was chatting with Byeong joo—was he polilshing his blade without even looking at what he was doing?—and beside the two of them was Jiyong, which was the most shocking of the group. Hei could see a couple of bandages peeking out from his shirt and he still hadn't quite regained a natural complexion, but he looked a lot brighter than he had sounded back in Jaekyung's dungeon. He was the second one to spot her after Yejun, and she got a wave and a smile from him.

Byeong joo sheathed his weapon when he saw her, to Hei's relief. "That wasn't a couple of minutes," he said, tone lightly teasing, and Hei scowled at him.

"I thought…" she scanned the group. Yejun she'd expected because he'd been teaching her quite a bit before, but three people already felt a bit overwhelming. Five was a frightful lot. "I thought it was just going to be you."

"Did you really expect me to miss this?" Yejun cut in. "I was the one who came up with the idea of reenacting Jaekyung trying to kill Byeong joo in order to get your power to work."

Hei gaped at him in horror. "You never said anything about reenacting!"

"Imagine that," Yejun snorting. "Getting all the way to Hell's Gate, and the whole crew scrambling to act out that scene on Jaekyung's ship in order for you to properly stop time."

The thought was, quite frankly, horrifying, though some part of her must've found it extremely funny because Hei couldn't quite stop the laugh that came out. Yejun watched on in amusement as she tried to stop herself, which soon evolved into choking. Not long after, five pairs of eyes were on her, and Hei was left trying to catch her breath, hoping that her face wasn't red from embarrassment.

Eunho was the first to speak up after she recovered. "You know," he said, "Yejun's not that wrong. A lot of children have trained since they could use their power, but even they have a method that works the best, or a setting where they find it easiest to control or summon their power. For a lot of people, they've become so atuned with their power that it shifts with their emotions, and they find it easiest to summon when they're at the extreme end of an emotion. Others find it work better when they're calm, but... I don't really think that's you."

Hei eyed Yejun warily. "So what are you suggesting?"

He beamed. "Reenact Byeong joo getting stabbed."

She groaned. "No, we're not—"

"Jiyong's here," Eunho interrupted. "Damage control. In case Byeong joo does get stabbed."

Byeong joo didn't look all too happy about that, so Hei turned to look at him in hopes of getting out of it. "Did you agree with this?" she demanded.

"No," he replied immediately. "I was forced to. I had no choice. They made me."

"Lies," Noah shot back almost immediately, and Hei glanced up in surprise. Byeong joo's expression had begun to turn sheepish. "You were the first to agree to this when Yejun brought it up."

Byeong joo kept a straight face for an impressive amount of time, but the corners of his lips started to twitch after a few seconds. He shot a mock accusatory look in Noah's direction, then heaved a sigh. "Fine," he relented, to Hei's horror. He jabbed in finger in Yejun's direction. "If I die, it's your fault. I'm doing this so Hei can get her power working, nothing else."

Yejun grinned. "He's willing to die for you."

She shoved Yejun on the uninjured arm, though he barely budged, still laughing at her. "Alright," he said, "Let's clear the deck so we can actually act this out."

Hei turned towards Byeong joo, who was sulking behind Eunho. He caught her gaze and crinkled his nose. "It wasn't my choice," he insisted once again. "They made me."

"Shut up," Yejun shot back breezily. "Noah can hide behind the mast for extra effect and Eunho can pretend he got stabbed in the shoulder—"

"You're actually acting this out?" she demanded. Yejun just ignored her and continued.

"Jiyong can stand by in case someone actually does die—"

"Why is Noah Jaekyung?"

"—and then I'll direct this. Hei, you better not mess up. Or Byeong joo's screwed. And Noah is Jaekyung because no one else is available and I can't aim to save my life. I might hit you instead."

She opened her mouth to protest because there was no way she was going to let them act out Byeong joo nearly getting stabbed just to get her power to work. Hei was dead certain there were other ways that didn't involve violence that would get her power to work, though she had no better ideas to contribute and there was nothing she could do when Yejun dragged her to the side. Byeong joo stood a couple feet away with Eunho a step behind him, and Noah poked a head out from behind the mast, eyes fixed on Yejun for further instructions. He was either taking it extremely seriously or didn't have another facial expression to offer. Hei wanted to melt into the deck. In her peripheral vision, she saw the door to below-deck swing open yet again as Park Yano stepped out, followed closely by Yu Hamin. She groaned internally—more people watching meant it would be more mortifying to mess up.

"Alright," Yejun shouted, then moved Hei over by the shoulder with his functioning arm. "Ready, set, action!"

Hei watched with a horrified amusement as Noah raised an arm, a dagger in hand. Then, belatedly, she realilzed that she was nowhere even near ready to summon her power, and it was a problem if they were actually expecting this to work. Before Hei could think further, Eunho gave an extremely dramatic yell of something along the lines of I've been stabbed! before crumbling to his knees. Behind her, both Yano and Hamin burst out laughing. Jiyong looked like he was struggling to keep a straight face.

Eunho was on the ground then, still clutching his shoulder, and Hei couldn't quite hold back the wave of laughter. There was no way she was going to be able to summon her power if that went on, and then Yejun motioned towards Noah and the dagger in his hand went flying, straight towards Byeong joo.

"Hei," he warned, "now's the time—"

It definitely wasn't the same as the last time. Maybe she still felt exhausted from that one use of her power, or maybe she just couldn't—whatever the reason, Hei couldn't even trace the dagger as it flew towards Byeong joo, aimed at his chest. At the last second, she was yelling at Byeong joo to get out of the way because she clearly wasn't capable of saving him like she'd done on Jaekeyung's ship. Thankfully, he was already a step ahead of her, hand raised in front of him. The dagger slammed against an invisible shield inches from his palm, then dropped harmlessly onto the deck.

Hei opened her mouth, snapped it shut, then decided on shaking her head at him. "How did you…" she started. Eunho was beginning to pick himself up from the ground, brushing himself off, wincing as he rolled his injured shoulder. "Spoilsport."

"I was prepared," Byeong joo told her, slowly lowering his hand. "We're never trying that again."

Hei turned to look at Noah, who was just coming out from behind the mast, and then at Yano and Hamin who both looked thoroughly amused by the whole thing. Yejun had a thoughtful look on his face that screamed nothing but trouble. "That didn't work," he announced as if it hadn't been obvious, a thoughtful look passing his facee. "Does anyone have any better ideas?"

"Byeong joo," Hei started. "This isn't a good idea."

She glanced at Yejun, who was watching on with his brother and Eunho a little ways away. Hamin was sitting a bit further off with Hyunmin, who seemed to have swapped with Yano—he'd left for the mess hall. Byeong joo was standing in front of her, cutlass balanced perfectly on his palm, head tilted and lips curving in an easy grin. For some stupid reason, the first thing she decided to notice was how good he looked with the wind ruffling his hair, and how he really should've worn a shirt that wasn't so tight because it was distracting. Hei managed to shake herself out of it by looking down at the blade Byeong joo had given her just thirty seconds prior.

The blade was straight, unlike Byeong joo's cutlass. Hei gripped the hilt awkwardly. "Byeong joo," she repeated nervously. "We can figure out another way. You're going to end up killing me."

His expression faltered for a moment, but then he regained the grin. "Nope! Besides, I'm not going to stab you. I can use my cutlass better than that."

"You could get someone else—"

"Don't trust them. Besides, it's going to be fine. Use what you know for self defense and then try to stop time. If you do, you win."

Hei eyed his cutlass and shook her head. "I don't want to win."

Byeong joo tilted his head. "If you win, you get to order me around for the rest of the afternoon."

She shuddered. "I'll pass."

"The whole day tomorrow."

"No."

"The next three days," he offered, and Hei hesitated, because ordering Byeong joo around for three whole days seemed like too good of a deal to pass. She paused, which he seemed to take that as a yes because he grinned. "Deal," he said before Hei could object.

"Hey, wait," she started. "What if I lose?"

Byeong joo blinked as if the thought had never occurred to him. "Same thing. You do what I say for three days."

"One," Hei tried to bargain.

He frowned in protest. "Why do I get three and you get one?"

"Because you're more likely to win."

Hei didn't expect Byeong joo to give in so easily, but after a couple seconds of a staring contest, his shoulders slumped and he heaved a sigh. "I guess," he grumbled, though he sounded far from exasperated. "But not because I'm more likely to win, it's because—"

"Are you going to start?" Yejune called from the side. "You've been talking about it for five minutes now. I'm getting bored."

Byeong joo swung his cutlass in a circle. "Fine. Blade up," he advised her. "You can block easier then."

Gingerly, Hei raised the blade until she was holding it near her face, arm extended in front of her. It felt like the most awkward position ever, especially with five people watching, and she wanted to melt into the deck until it was over. He stared directly at her, head tilted slightly as he took in her stance. Finally, seemingly satisfied, Byeong joo flashed a blinding grin at her. Which was unfair, Hei thought, because she was already having trouble thinking straight.

"Ready?" he asked, and Hei was about to tell him that no, she wasn't and probably wasn't ever going to be when he lunged.

She nearly screamed. At the last minute, Hei remembered to actually keep her blade up and the cutlass clashed against it with the ear splitting screech of metal against metal. Before she could recover, Byeong joo had swung again and Hei stumbled back to avoid. It was a miracle she didn't trip over her own feet.

"Blade up," he reminded yet again, as if she had time to keep to that advice when she was trying not to get stabbed. Byeong joo wasn't even trying, and Hei knew—his blows were a lot slower than she'd observed when he was actually fighting properly, and he was only using a fraction of his usual force. Still, she was having trouble keeping up with him. Before she knew it, the railing was a couple of feet from her and she still had no luck with both the blade and her power.

"Byeong joo," Hei managed, though before she could finish telling him that she was going to give up, he had already somehow hooked his blade under the cross-guard. Faster than she could react, Byeong joo yanked her dagger out of her hands, sending it skidding uselessly across the deck, far out of reach. Then her back hit the railing and Byeong joo was leaning over her, the flat of his cutlass pressed against her neck. He was smiling, eyes crinkling into crescent moons. "I win," he said in a low voice.

It hit Hei suddenly that there were five people watching. She drew in a rattling breath. "Fine," she started shakily, then glanced at Yejun, who was grinning far too widely. He wasn't going to let her live this down anytime soon. "You win."

His grin didn't disappear, which Hei realized a little too late that it was a terrible sign. He dipped forward a bit more. "You haven't stopped time yet," he pointed out. "Are you even concentrating?"

Hei glanced down at the cutlass. The blade was cool against her throat because Byeong joo had turned it to the side, but the fact that it was there still made her jittery. "Can't concentrate," she tried. It was awfully hard trying to speak while moving her jaw as little as possible. Byeong joo noticed and lifted the blade slightly so that it was hovering an inch from her. "You win. Can you let me up now?"

It shouldn't have been a surprise, really, that Byeong joo didn't budge, but Hei still groaned internally when he remained in the same spot. "Nope. You haven't stopped time yet."

"Which means you win and I lose."

"I'm not moving until you do something."

For a couple seconds, Hei contemplated shoving him, but then decided it wasn't worth it because the cutlass was still close to her neck and she didn't trust herself to move without getting injured. "They're all watching," she tried, catching Yejun's eye in the process. He looked positively amused by the whole thing, which just made it worse because that meant he wasn't going to help her. It wasn't even Yejun, really—Noah, Eunho, Hyunmin, and even Hamin—that traitor, Hei thought—all seemed far too entertained to do anything. "You win, I'll just do as you say for the next day and try to summon my power later—"

"How about this?" That smile couldn't have meant anything good. "One piece of clothing off for every ten seconds you don't stop time."

Hei blanked. "What?" she demanded, his words not quite fully computing.

Byeong joo gave an easy shrug. "It's that straightforward. I'll keep stripping until you stop time. One, two, three—"

"No!" Hei shrieked, mortified. "Keep your clothes on! I'd rather sword-fight again—"

"Seven, eight, nine, ten." Byeong joo was beginning to tug off his jacket with his one free hand. He got one sleeve off, switched his cutlass to the other hand so he could shrug off the other sleeve, then tossed it aside to where her dagger was. At least he had a jacket, Hei thought dumbly, because that gave her ten extra seconds except those ten extra seconds were useless anyway because she had no idea how she was supposed to stop time, especially under a time limit with Kim Byeong joo threatening to take off his clothes. Hei contemplated yelling at Yejun to help, but he'd probably just laugh.

"Song Hei," Byeong joo said. He couldn't even keep a straight face anymore. "Five more seconds and I'm taking off the shirt."

Hei would've socked him across the face is she didn't feel so frozen. Panicking, she tried to move to the side, but Byeong joo still had his cutlass held to her neck and he was nearing eighteen.

"Another ten seconds," she managed aloud, and then squeezed her eyes shut. "Byeong joo, just say you win—"

"Nineteen!" he chirped happily. "One more second left."

It was nearly impossible for focus on her power—the most prominent thing Hei could concentrate on was how embarrassed she felt. It took all of her effort to direct her attention to her power, something she'd managed to practice when it came to summoning memory segments. Hei was nowhere near perfecting the skill—she couldn't even be classified as good—but she still managed to grasp onto the one bit of control she could reach.

Stop time. It seemed to be such a huge thing to do, especially on command. For or a moment, Hei paused, unsure of how exactly she was supposed to use her power. She settled with imagining, because it was the only way she could think of: the frozen waves, still air, unmoving figures of others. And Byeong joo—there was no way possible she was going to let him take off his shirt again. For a second, there was pure silence, and then hesitantly, she opened one eye.

Hei hadn't been expecting it to work at all—part of her expected to see Byeong joo shrugging off his shirt still, but he couldn't have possibly been doing so because the cutlass was still pressed against her neck and he couldn't take off his shirt with just one arm. Then she saw Yejun, who was standing in the same spot, frozen mid-sentence, and then Hei glanced back at Byeong joo. He had just begun to lift his shirt with his free hand but hadn't exactly gotten the chance to do so properly—he was probably fumbling with that because there was no possible way he could get it off when he was still holding the cutlass.

She nearly laughed aloud in disbelief. It had actually worked—how in the world had Kim Byeong joo gotten her power to work by stripping?—after twenty years of failure in her family, he'd gotten her to stop time through the stupidest, most ridiculous way possible.

Nevertheless the unconventional method, it had worked, which meant she actually won. Which also meant that Byeong joo had to do whatever she said for the next three days. Cautiously, Hei moved to the side, barely managing to evade the cutlass without scraping herself, and then ducked under Byeong joo's arm. She had no idea how she was supposed to stop her power (or unstop time), and the only possible option seemed to be waiting it out until all her energy ran its course.

After a couple moments of thought, Hei reached over for the cutlass. All that embarrassment (firsthand andsecondhand—how had Eunho managed to put up with him for five years?) he'd put her through had to be worth something, and Hei figured that ordering him around for three days wasn't nearly enough compensation.

It turned out that she couldn't quite reach over him to grab it, so carefully, she ducked under his arm again and then went for the blade. Byeong joo hadn't been holding it properly—his fingers were wrapped loosely around the bottom of the hilt, and there was just enough room for Hei wedge her fingers between the crossguard and his hand in an attempt to yank the cutlass from his grip.

The cutlass didn't come out from his hand, though Byeong joo himself moved.

Hei actually screamed that time and stumbled back, except she was already extremely close to the railing. Byeong joo had much faster reflexes than her—which was a miracle because he'd been halfway through taking off his shirt when time he unfroze—and she found herself being yanked to her feet before she could actually fall.

The first thing she noticed was that Eunho, closest in her line of sight, wasn't moving either, and neither was Hamin or Yejun or Hyunmin or Noah. She turned to gape at Byeong joo, who was looking in the direction of the sea, jaw open.

More than confused, Hei prodded him again. "You're—" she started. "How did you…"

Byeong joo pointed a finger at the general direction of the group, gaping. "They're not moving."

"You're not supposed to be moving either," she managed. "How are you… this—time's stopped right now, you're not supposed to—"

His eyes flickered between the crew and the sea. Byeong joo looked genuinely awed by his surroundings, expression bright in a way that made it impossible for Hei not to stare at him. Before she could do so for longer, he turned back to her and grinned yet again, and Hei remembered that she was supposed to be mad at him. "I guess this means you won," he said, glancing at the jacket he'd tossed aside. "That's a shame—ow! What was that for?"

Her fist was burning, but Hei wasn't about to admit that in front of Byeong joo anytime soon. "You deserved that, you jerk."

He was clutching his stomach where she'd managed to punch him. It was worth the pain in her hand. "Ow," Byeong joo repeated. "That was unnecessary."

"Threatening to take off your clothing was more unnecessary!"

"I wasn't actually going to," he protested. "I'm not that stupid—"

"You sounded like you were," she shot back. "What kind of idea was it to make my power work by stripping?"

That sounded downright wrong the moment it came out, and Hei clapped her hands over her mouth, though it was already said and done. Byeong joo burst out laughing and Hei was more than tempted to punch him again. "It worked, didn't it?" he asked when he recovered. "I didn't even get to take off my shirt."

Hei whacked him again on the arm, though with considerably less force than before. "You need a better method."

"Right." He paused. "First things first, though: how am I moving? Time's still stopped, as far as I know. How is this even possible?"

"I don't know." She toed the ground. "I don't even know how to break out of it. I don't know how I made it work, actually, I don't know how you're moving, I don't know anything—actually, I think you started moving when I touched your finger, but I still don't know why and it's confusing—"

"Hei," Byeong joo interrupted. "Calm down. No one's asking you to figure out your power in a day after you just managed to summon it, and I'm pretty sure you'll be able to figure this out once you get more used to it. Just try to…" he glanced around. "Try to unpause time?"

Hei gaped at him. "How do you expect me to do that?"

He shrugged helplessly. "How did you stop it this time? How did you unstop it last time?"

"I stabbed Jaekyung?"

Byeong joo winced. "Never mind. Uh…"

She squeezed her eyes shut. Hei couldn't pinpoint the moment that time had actually stopped, but she remembered picturing her surroundings frozen had been what connected her to her power in the first place. There had also been a slight tug in her chest—not to the point of being painful, but it was there, like a constant reminder that she was doing something straining with her power (which would probably come with consequences later on, especially if she held it out for much longer). Hei tried to imagine what it would look like if she let time run again, but it had stopped coming easily.

At one point, she opened her eyes, hoping it had worked, but it was obvious before she looked around because the air remained completely still around her, with nothing but the sound of Byeong joo's breathing. He raised an eyebrow at her. "No success?"

Hei groaned. "No. I'll try again."

She could still feel Byeong joo's eyes on her as she tried to channel her thoughts towards her power, trying to grasp for the not-yet-familiar feeling. Hei had no idea where she was even supposed to start. She didn't feel as if she'd commanded her power as much as it had simply happened, and now, it still seemed to lie far out from her control. Trying not to let the discouragement get best of her was hard, and she reminded herself that being able to stop time was still something, even if unstopping it was proving an issue.

"Hei," Byeong joo's voice sounded again. "Don't worry about it. Worst comes to worst, we'll just wait for you to tire out."

Hei winced. "No thanks."

"It's okay, it's not like we're wasting time anyway." He paused, then added as an afterthought, "Would it work if we reversed it? One piece of clothing off for every ten seconds you can't unpause time?"

Hei felt her face go crimson. "No!"

He raised his hands placatingly. "Just a suggestion."

Eyeing him dubiously, she sidestepped so she was a safe distance from him, shut her eyes again, and tried to summon her power.

It was a bit easier than the first time, mostly because Byeong joo wasn't threatening to take any article of clothing off anymore, but it still took an immense amount of concentration before she could actually connect with anything. Hei tried to imagine the waves shimmering in the sun, silence melting into the sea breeze and water lapping against the helm and Yejun's laugh resuming. For a couple seconds, nothing happened, and there was another tug in her gut, more intense and painful than the last one, and Hei nearly collapsed.

She heard time resume before she actually saw it, and it felt like her ears popped. Her surroundings weren't exactly loud, per se, but the sudden resumption of noise did seem terribly so.

Byeong joo managed to catch her before she completely fell over, grip strong enough for Hei to stay on her feet. She reached for the railing. It was as if someone had drained all the energy out of her in the split second time started running again, and Hei could barely catch her breath. Footsteps sounded, muffled but at the same time echoing strangely. She tried to blink away black spots as Eunho appeared in her line of vision, then Yejun, followed by Noah and Hamin and further off Hyunmin. Hei tried to stand up on her own, but she nearly toppled over again. She managed to steady herself against the railing with the other hand, waiting for her to vision to clear. Byeong joo hovered beside her, eyebrows furrowed (was that even Byeong joo? Hei couldn't see properly. It was too short to be Hamin).

"Hei," Yejun finally said. "I'm going to assume you did something with your power because you literally reappeared a couple of feet away. With Byeong joo, no less." He frowned. "How did he move, though?"

Hei tried to wave him away with a hand, but taking away one hand for support nearly had her pitching forward. Byeong joo reached for her and didn't let go this time. She wasn't sure how the exhaustion had even hit so hard and suddenly, but at the moment, even talking felt like too much effort. "Something weird happened."

"Right," Yejun replied, for once looking a bit mystified. "Does that mean… you won?"

She nodded. "I want to sleep."

"It's not even noon, Hei—"

"I want to sleep," she insisted, then turned to look at Byeong joo. "You have to clean your room."

There was a moment of silence before Hei heard Noah say, "I'm not following."

"I won. He has to clean his room now."

"You got yourself a good deal," Eunho laughed, and at that moment, her legs decided to buckle beneath.

Byeong joo managed to catch her. Without much effort, he'd hooked an arm under her legs, the other around her shoulders, and Hei felt herself being lifted up. Another wave of fatigue swept over her, but it was a lot better now that she wasn't standing.

"You're going to clean your room," she repeated. "That's the first order."

"Yes, captain," he snorted then turned briefly towards the direction where the other five were standing. "I'm taking Hei to her cabin." He paused, then grinned at her. "And then I'll clean my room."

Chapter 38

Compliments and Midnight Talks

Hei was pretty sure Byeong joo had said he was taking her to her cabin, but it wasn't her cabin that she woke up in, it was his. At this point, she was pretty sure she'd been in his cabin more often than her own the past few days.

She blinked a couple of times, trying to get her vision to adjust. Someone had tucked her in bed nicely, comfortably, and Hei didn't particularly want to move because the position was too cozy to abandon. She lay there quietly for a few moments, then began to wonder how long it had been that she'd been asleep for. Last time had been almost a whole day—that was an aftereffect of using her power, and Hei knew—but what about this time? It was very possible she passed out after killing Jaekyung not just because of her power but because she'd already been dehydrated and starving and exhausted. There wasn't nearly the same pain and discomfort as last time, though her throat did feel a bit parched.

Slowly, Hei sat up. She was alone in the room, but someone had left a lantern flickering on the bedside table, and the wax inside looked relatively new.

And then she looked around and blanched.

The last time Hei had seen Byeong joo's room, there had been stray papers and books strewn everywhere and the backrest of one all the chairs were covered with clothing. The desk, too, was an utter nightmare, filled with papers and pens and ink. There had been stuff on every available flat surface, except Byeong joo had apparently successfully cleaned all of it up.

Gaping, she scanned the room another time because it was so clean that it seemed unbelievable. The papers were sorted into neat piles, the chair had been cleared so one could actually sit on it, and the clothing had been folded and left on the bedside table, next to the lamp. The closet door was open, but everything inside was almost orderly—it looked as if Byeong joo had been halfway through tidying it because there was still a section that needed cleaning.

How long had she been out for? Hei was pretty sure his room was so terrifying it would've taken days to clean. Shifting, she tried to sit up, but the moment she moved, pain seemed to hit. Her whole body ached, and it was hard just propping herself up.

The pain subsided into a dull throb after a couple of seconds. There was still a headache brewing in the back of her head, but it was much more manageable. With more effort than it should've taken, she pushed herself out of the bed, straightened the blankets as an afterthought, and then headed out of the room.

The first person Hei bumped into was Noah. The sky was darkening, sun dipping towards the horizon, though she had no idea if it were evening of the same day or if it had been more than a day since she'd been out. He was making his way up to the helm when he spotted her.

"Miss Hei," he greeted, and she almost laughed at the name. Out of everyone, Noah was the only one who still called her that. Then again, they didn't speak very often. "You're awake."

She nodded slowly. "How long has it been?"

"A couple of hours. Are you looking for Byeong joo?"

"Yes," Hei said without thinking, then amended hastily, "Not really. I'm just—the crew in general, I guess."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Byeong joo's in the mess hall the last time I saw, and my brother's still in his room. I'm not sure where the rest are."

Hei was torn between actually looking for Byeong joo because he was the first person she wanted to find and actually going to Yejun's cabin because Noah was still watching her and she'd just be proving him right if she went to find Byeong joo immediately. Still, she wasn't sure it would be worth disturbing Yejun for something like that, so she remained standing still, trying to figure out which direction would be the best to take.

Noah looked very much amused. "Well?" he asked. "You go straight forward, turn left and then turn left again to get to the mess hall. You'll find Kim Byeong joo there."

Hei tried to say something, though it came out as a choked cough. "I'm not looking for him."

"Sure you aren't." There was something about Noah's tone that reminded Hei of Yejun—a whole lot, in fact—and she was torn between crying and laughing because one Yejun was more than enough. Hei had never spoken enough to Noah to be able to pinpoint what exactly she thought of his personality. Apart from the fact that was extremely protective over Yejun, part of her still found him slightly scary, and very intimidating. But definitely not... this. Whatever this constituted of, which Hei wasn't certain.

"I'm not going to find Byeong joo," Hei found herself clarifying, the way she often did to Yejun when he teased her. "I just need water from the mess hall."

Noah didn't look at all convinced, but he gave a knowing grin (that reminded her even more of Yejun). "Of course," he said. "It's my shift to steer. I'll see you later."

He disappeared around the helm just like that, and it took Hei a couple moments to remember that she was supposedly off to get a glass of water.

Byeong joo was, like Noah said, in the mess hall. He was chatting quietly with Hyunmin (Hei had no idea until then that Kim Hyunmin was capable of talking quietly), two mugs between them. He glanced up when he saw her, and then straightened in surprise. "You're already awake?"

Biting back a yawn, she nodded. The mess hall had been cleaned up, it seemed, so everyone had probably finished dinner. Despite her whole body feeling weak, Hei still didn't feel as hungry as she thought she should've been.

The chair screeched as Byeong joo stood up. "Sit down," he told her. "I'll grab you water and food."

It was how she ended up across from Hyunmin in utter silence (with slight scraping noises from Byeong joo, which didn't make it any less awkward, only more). For a while, neither of them spoke, and Hyunmin cleared his throat. Hei stared at her hands. She was in the process of wondering if she was physically capable of handling Kim Hyunmin when he started talking when he actually did open his mouth.

"So," he started, sounding a lot more at ease than Hei felt. "What do you think of Byeong joo?"

Hei choked. "Pardon me?"

Hyunmin looked unfazed. "I've known him for a long time," he said. "I've never seen him interested in a girl before. It's almost hilarious how much he adores you."

She could feel her face turning crimson, and while Hei knew it was no use, she tried to keep her expression neutral. Byeong joo remained completely silent in the back—there was no way he wasn't hearing Hyunmin, so did his silence mean he approved of this conversation? Hei wished he'd just come back with food and water so she wouldn't have to answer Hyunmin, but Byeong joo didn't return and Hyunmin was still looking at her expectantly from across the table. She was stuck. There was no way around the question, ignoring him was not an option, and answering it properly didn't seem quite possible either.

"Well?" he prompted.

"He's messy," Hei blurted.

There was dead silence from both Hyunmin and Byeong joo's sides. She was pretty sure Byeong joo had stopped moving completely, though she didn't dare look back at him.

Hyunmin recovered first. "Well," he said, albeit with a bit of forced laughter, "I didn't mean that way, but—"

"He never listens, either," Hei interrupted. "He's absolutely insufferable when he's drunk and he never asks for permission before he does stuff—"

"Water and food," Byeong joo cut in loudly before she could continue. She could hear his footsteps sound before he slid in the seat beside her. "You need to eat. And drink. And stop talking."

"You need to finish cleaning your closet."

He frowned. "Why can't I just get one compliment, Hei?"

"There's nothing to compliment—"

"Okay," he interrupted again. "You can listen while you eat. Finish the food. Don't talk with your mouth full. Compliment me later."

"Shameless," Hei grumbled, but the exhaustion from before had worn off and she was feeling a lot hungrier than ten minutes ago. Neither Hyunmin nor Byeong joo spoke the first couple of bites in, and then Byeong joo shifted so he was turned towards her direction.

"We were talking about Vasileia," he started. "I think it's around nine or ten days away if the weather holds up, but most likely it'll be longer because the sea around there freezes up around this time of year and I'll have to clear the way with my power—it might be easier if Noah's there as well—since we don't have Junhyuk and we can't risk hitting an iceberg. I'm pretty sure we can grab Junhyuk and Kyungsoo and then leave in less than a day's time, but we'll most likely also need your power to get into Vasileia because they've like, tripled their defences and I don't think we can get into the city without being caught or recognized."

Hei stared at him. "Nine or ten days? That's… soon."

"The solstice is also in exactly thirty five, so it's best that we hurry towards Hell's Gate in case we miss it. If I give twelve days to get the Vasileia— being generous—and then twenty to get to around Hell's Gate, it should be fine. But we still need to drop by someplace for supplies, and a lot of it, and then… well, it would be best if we'd done that before, but with everything that happened with Jaekyung it isn't possible and it's a miracle already we're not that far off track. I need to somehow find you winter clothing because you're going to freeze once we get closer to Vasileia since everything you have is summer clothing and it's cold all year round there, but you might have to just bundle up and take some of my clothing."

"I'm not too against that," Hei said, and then it hit her that she wasn't supposed to say that aloud.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Say that again?"

She shovelled in a huge mouthful of food. "Can't talk with my mouth full."

Byeong joo snorted, though to her relief, he continued on talking. "Supplies should last for a while—it'll definitely be enough for on the way. It's probably best if you practice using your power these couple of days so you can build up more endurance. I can't have you passing out every time you stop time."

"At least it was only a couple of hours this time," Hei muttered.

"Did I miss anything?" he turned towards Hyunmin. "I can't remember. I need to run over all this with Eunho because he keeps track of things better."

Hyunmin shook his head thoughtfully, and then his eyes lit up and he jabbed a finger in her direction. "She still hasn't answered the question properly."

Hei was beginning to run out of food to shovel in, though she shook her head. "I already expressed my opinion. That's all I'm going to say."

"Aw, Hei, c'mon—" Hyunmin started, though she shook her head at him.

"I would compliment if there was something to compliment," she repeated, and that was the end of that.

"Well," Byeong joo said. "Does today count as a successful day?"

Hei peered up at him through the blankets. "I was out for a good half of the afternoon, Byeong joo."

"Yeah, but you managed to actually summon your power—on will. That's pretty good. I also cleaned my room. That's a huge improvement."

"I guess," she said, and it must've sounded pretty unconvincing because Byeong joo gave a slight snort.

"Don't be negative," he said. "Really, you should be proud of yourself. That was pretty impressive from what I saw."

He was flipping through his closet (though to her relief, Byeong joo actually put the clothes he picked up back in place so he wasn't messing up the whole thing—it would've been tragic if he hadn't) and it took a couple of tries for him to find what he was looking for. He was already wearing loose grey pants, shoes set neatly to the side and clothing folded on the chair (Hei made him, and there was nothing that he could do about it).

It took a couple of moments for her to realize that he'd grabbed the shirt with the intention to change into it. "Don't," Hei started immediately. "Oh my goodness, don't change here!"

Byeong joo paused, then glanced towards her. "Why? It's my room. Am I supposed to change outside?"

"I'm in your room!"

"Just look the other way," he said, and then he was lifting the helm of his shirt and Hei had no option but to duck under the blanket, cheeks burning. She counted to twenty slowly, because that should've been more than enough time for Byeong joo to change out of his shirt and into a new one, then remembered the last time something similar had happened and decided to count another fifteen seconds for safety. Hei was at thirty one when she felt the bed dipping beside her and the cover was pulled from over her head.

"Was that necessary?" Byeong joo asked. He was grinning slightly. "It was just a shirt."

"And you're wearing nothing underneath," she pointed out. "That's improper to change in a room when there's a girl there."

Byeong joo looked amused, which was rarely—if ever—a good sign, though Hei was already at the very side of the bed and she couldn't really go anywhere further from him. "I believe we already had this conversation before. And we came to the conclusion that I'm not proper."

"You can learn to be proper in the next three days," she replied. "That's another command."

"How am I supposed to do that?"

Hei rolled over so she was on her back, facing the ceiling, closer to Byeong joo. An arm slipped under her head as he automatically moved towards her. It was comfortable, really—Byeong joo was warm, Byeong joo chased away nightmares, Byeong joo stopped the dark from being a fear when he was there. As much as Hei would never admit it, it was so much better staying in Byeong joo's cabin than in her own alone.

"Your family should've taught you how to be proper," she said. "Or else they've taught you wrong."

"It's been eight years." There was a hint of reluctance in his voice, maybe even a hint of pain, and Hei regretted bringing up his family immediately. It was the sort of thing that Byeong joo had never appeared to be quite comfortable talking about—she couldn't blame him, really, because she felt the same and she hadn't even gone through half of what he had. Just when the silence was getting uncomfortable, he shifted around. "You never finished saying what you thought about me at dinner."

Hei groaned. "Not this."

"So?" Byeong joo prompted. "Hyunmin's not here. Say all you want."

"You're absolutely shameless," she accused, and he gave a grin like he knew the fact even better than she did.

"Well?" he asked again. He began prodding her on the side again when she remained silent, and Hei yelped, whacking his hand away.

"You're not making this easy," she told him. "You can't poke me and expect me to compliment you."

"What if I kiss you?"

The words well, yes, that would work were already on the tip of her tongue, though Hei stopped herself at the last second. "You know a lot," she started. Byeong joo hummed, head moving towards the area between her neck and shoulder. She could feel his hair brushing over bare skin, breath warm. "When I first met you, you seemed to know more about my family than I ever had, and you could pull out facts to back that up too. It was honestly impressive.

"You're observant too. It wasn't… it wasn't really something I appreciated until… well, I'm not too sure, but you notice small details and you actually think about them. Things like that just mean so much suddenly sometimes—it's hard to explain, but there's just moments when you'll mention something and it's details that normal people would glance over and the fact that you noticed means… means more than you'll ever realize."

Byeong joo had gone completely silent, and Hei wasn't sure if that were an indication for her to continue speaking or not. After a moment of hesitance, she went on. "You're nice when you want to be."

"When I want to be," Byeong joo echoed. "I'm always nice. What are you talking about?"

Hei flicked him on the shoulder. "Shut up. Don't compliment yourself or I won't say anything more."

Byeong joo grumbled something incomprehensible, but remained otherwise still. "Go on."

"You're nice when you want to be," Hei repeated, and he gave a slight snort. "And sweet when you're not being terrible. And you're… you're…" She trailed off, then glanced down at Byeong joo. He lifted his head then, scooching upwards so he was looking straight at her. "You're sincere. You're considerate. You always seem to know what to do and what to say and—"

Hei hadn't expected it, really, because listing off all his good qualities was a joke at first, but the more she talked, the more it hit her. "That time you found me on the deck after Nano's reading."

Byeong joo was watching her, completely silent. She couldn't read his expression still, though all of a sudden, meeting his eyes seemed to be too much. "I don't know when," Hei began in a small voice, "I actually started liking you so much. I guess after Nano's reading you just—no one's ever cared enough to do that. And the fact that you did was just overwhelming to think of. And you were—believe it or not—the first person who's even told me that I—the first person who acted like I would ever mean anything. It sounds stupid, but back in Hua, everyone just seemed to concentrate on what I couldn't do. I guess I got used to that, but it never was pleasant to hear it either. But you—"

A warm pair of hands rested on her shoulders. "Hei," Byeong joo said slowly. "Thing is, I shouldn't have been the first person who's told you that. You're twenty. The fact that no one's even tried to encourage you once in your life—that's not how it's supposed to be."

"It didn't really mean anything after a while. You kind of just hear it when you've heard it so many times, and it no longer feels like anything."

"That's not how anyone should grow up," he repeated. There was a strange note of insistence in his voice, though Hei supposed it was expected. "I guess that's one thing about families that I can't stand at all—one of the many things, actually—the environment all their children grow up in is terrible, but they're numb to it because it's been like that all their life—the pressure, the bringing-down, the expectations—that's not what someone should spend their childhood struggling with." He turned to face the ceiling. "Honestly, I can't understand how any parent can care so little. If I were a father—I mean, any father should cherish their children. I know it's not really the case in a lot of situations, but given the chance, I'd like to…" There was a faraway look on his face when Hei glanced up at him. "I'd like to do what both my parents would never have been able to do and never have done."

It was nice listening to him talk about such things—it was much different from when he normally brought up his family, and it was a refreshing change for once. "Hypothetically speaking," Hei started. "If you weren't planning on killing your father, would you have become a pirate?"

Byeong joo remained silent for a good ten seconds. The lamplight was fading to the point where she could barely see his features—they were mostly shadow—and that made it even harder to tell what he was thinking. Finally, he gave her a slow nod. "Probably not. I've always wondered what it would've been like to just live a normal life, I guess—away from the threat of always having to watch my back. To be able to walk the streets like a normal person instead of having to hide, just doing trivial things with people I care about."

She studied him. "I thought you've always wanted to be a pirate."

He laughed, though it sounded a bit sad. "It's not all that great as people may make it. What about you, though? You couldn't have spent twenty years with your family without ever wanting to get out."

It was Hei's turn to go silent. Thinking back to Hua just felt like such a long time ago, another lifetime, another universe. She couldn't imagine going back, nor would she ever have to. How had she even stood it back then? What had she wanted for the first twenty years of her life? It hadn't been the same as Byeong joo, that was for sure, but no matter how Hei thought about it, she couldn't pinpoint an exact thing that she'd ever wanted. Get stronger, maybe, but that wasn't for herself—it was a goal based on her family, and apart from that, there hadn't really been anything.

"There wasn't much," she told Byeong joo. "I never thought about it."

He shrugged. "Think about it now."

Hei hesitated. "Settling down would be nice," she agreed. "It sounds… quiet."

Byeong joo tilted his head at her. "How many kids do you want?"

The sound that came out was somewhere between a choke and a noise of protest—Hei wasn't too sure how to classify it—and she stared at him gaping for a couple of seconds.

"Well?" he prompted.

There was no way her face wasn't red. "What are you trying to imply?"

"Nothing—" Byeong joo broke off into a frown. "God, Hei, really? It was an innocent question. I never knew you were that type—"

"Stop there," she cut in hurriedly. "How many kids did you want?"

To her relief, Byeong joo dropped it. "I've actually wondered for a while," he said with a slightly embarrassed laugh. "I mean, even as a child, I always tried to imagine how I'd be if I were a parent. I told myself I didn't want to make the same mistakes my parents did—which was quite a lot for people I've seen like twice in my life—but I figured I'd probably never get the chance to either."

"That's not answering the question," Hei told him. It was nice, admittedly, hearing him talk about his childhood with such a tone—most of the time he sounded resentful, but this—this was free of all that.

He tsked at her. "Impatient much?"

"You're more impatient," Hei mumbled, though Byeong joo either didn't hear her or ignored because he paused for a couple more seconds.

"I'd like a daughter first," he finally said. "Maybe a son after."

Hei squinted at him. "You'd rather have a girl than a boy?"

Byeong joo looked genuinely confused. "Why not?"

"The families have always—"

"I think we've established that I don't quite agree with what the families do," he replied. "I know it's family mentality that men are automatically better than women—at least that's what I've grown up hearing, because they've literally forced the fact onto their children that sons are valued more than daughters—but that's absolutely bullshit and honestly, it's appalling that they've raised their children to think that way."

It was the same, clear-cut way he said things (like he had done so so many times before) that made his words strangely reassuring, extremely believable, and something Hei couldn't argue with even if she tried. "You should've been family leader," she joked. "Imagine how much that would've fixed."

"Would it?" he tilted his head thoughtfully. "It's easier to see flaws when you take a step back and look, and that's what many children of the families never do. I might've been the same if I never met Heejin, if I never ran from Vasileia. Maybe if I never met with my father that one time, I would've stayed and been the same as all of the rest of them. Either way…" He smiled, this time wider, eyes crinkling into crescents. "I asked you the question first and you never answered."

Hei tried to curl up under the blankets, though Byeong joo pulled it down. "You're answering, like it or not."

"I asked you because I didn't have an answer."

"Think of one now."

"Why do you want a daughter first and not a son first?"

Byeong joo flicked her shoulder. "That's a terrible change of topic."

"I'm not trying. Answer the question."

He scrunched up his face. "Because I heard older brothers bully their younger sisters."

Hei couldn't hold back the laugh. "That's why you want a girl first? Would you have bullied your sister if you had one?"

There was a pregnant pause. Byeong joo appeared to be thinking (though she was pretty sure he was trying to avoid the question as best as he could or find a way to phrase what was probably the very sad truth). "Bully is a strong word," he started. "Sure, I might've been mean once in a while—"

"So you would."

"That's just twisting my words."

"You would," Hei concluded with a laugh. "Older brothers can be nice, though. Look at Noah."

"That's only because he's older now. I bet he was mean when he was a kid."

"Well, I think it would be nice if one could have an older brother."

Byeong joo crinkled his nose at her. "Son and then daughter? This doesn't work out. We're opposites."

"Don't be childish," she chastised, and then broke into a yawn. All that was left of the lamp was fading embers, and the darkness was making Hei feel sleepy. She curled up into his side—that was warm, and that just made the fatigue kick in faster. An arm slipped around her, almost as if out of habit, and it felt so easily natural.

She felt Byeong joo's fingers brush over her forehead briefly, sweeping away stray strands of hair, and then he murmured a quiet goodnight. Hei was asleep not long after.

Chapter 39

Snowed Under

The next couple of days went by faster than Hei expected.

It wasn't really a change in routine that made time fly—at least, she didn't think so—but for some reason, three days had gone by in a blink of an eye. Hei spent most of her time grappling with her power—it got progressively easier, but that didn't mean it took any less effort to summon or left her any less drained. Yejun insisted on supervising a couple of times, and for the four times she'd successfully stopped time, she dragged him into one of them. He'd looked awed for once (it was probably the only time she'd seen Nam Yejun looked so shocked), though Hei hadn't been able to hold onto her power for a bit more than fifteen seconds that one time.

Byeong joo was right, too, that it gradually got colder. The change hadn't been an overnight thing—the temperature dropped bit by bit—but on the morning of the fifth day was when she actually noticed how different it had been.

Hua had always been warm. The coldest it had been was after rainstorms, and there were a couple instances where Hei remembered hiding under her blankets as it hailed, the sound terrifyingly loud against the shingles. She'd run out after it stopped and collect the pieces of ice that were left (if Miyeon weren't there), watching as they melted in her palms—that had been cold, and the air would still have a lingering, chilly feeling—but that was basically the coldest Hua ever got.

It wasn't the same when she stepped out of Byeong joo's cabin in the morning. The cold from the previous days she'd dismissed as a cold draft, but flakes of white were actually falling, the skies grey.

Hei paused at the door a couple of moments, unsure of what to do. It was either go back or get something warmer to wear because she was already shivering, or stay outside for a while longer because the snow was pretty and she'd never seen it before. She settled with the latter because it seemed too beautiful to miss.

Byeong joo solved the problem. Hei heard him before she saw him, footsteps creaking across the wooden floor. "You're letting all the warm air out," he teased before giving her a gentle shove forward. Hei was about to protest that she wanted to get something warmer to wear when he'd already draped something over her.

"Did you bandage your arm?" The door shut behind them with a slight click, and she turned to look at the sky again. "It's going to come in contact with fabric if you don't bandage it."

Hei slid her uninjured arm into the sleeve. The jacket went past her knees, and the sleeves were way too long for her, though it was warm and comfortable and the fact that it was way too large bothered her way less than it originally would have. She held out her other arm to look at.

The cuts had begun to scab, so the angry-red had turned into a much darker shade, though Hei still wrapped it up at most of the time so she could avoid seeing it. The skin around it still felt tender, especially if she pressed her fingers onto it, but it was still considerably better than before.

After a moment of contemplation, she shook her head at Byeong joo, slid her remaining arm into the sleeve also, and reached to button it up. The first button started a bit above her knee, and then made its way up all the way until her neck. The sleeves were way too long—Hei had to roll them up in order to even see her hands.

Byeong joo watched her with a slightly amused expression on his face. After Hei had made sure that all the buttons were properly aligned, she turned back to the sky.

There was no sign of the sun, though a patch of the clouds seemed a bit brighter than the surrounding area, the only hint that it was actually day. Snowflakes were still drifting down, melting as soon as they landed on her hand. It was such a different sight to see compared to both rain and hail, and Hei spent the next couple of moments wandering across the deck under the snow. It had begun to gather on the wooden boards, too, along the railings and settling on the sails.

Byeong joo trailed behind her, though he only spoke up when she turned back towards the mess hall. "The snow's the really wet kind," he grumbled. "That's why the flakes are so big. It's going to melt and leave a mess everywhere if the temperature decides to rise again."

Hei blinked at the sky. "Snowflakes are smaller than this?"

"Mostly." He held out a hand to catch one, though it melted as soon as it met his palm. "The weather's not even that cold—it gets worse, so you might want to start wearing stockings—and then the snowstorms start getting bad. I'm hoping it won't be too much of a delay, but we don't have Junhyuk with us and I'm still not the best with controlling them. I don't know if Noah knows how. I haven't asked him yet."

Hei rounded the corner. "How bad are snowstorms?"

Byeong joo frowned. "It really depends. I just hope there won't be any bad ones, because it's hard for even me to tell the direction when that happens. I can't do everything at once, and working to keep the ship afloat and control the storm and not crash into anything is too much to concentrate on at once."

Hei mouthed oh at him. There hadn't been any storms for the last couple of weeks and when the seas had been rough, the nausea had gone down by a lot. Still, she wasn't too sure how her stomach would decide to cope during a snowstorm, and it seemed best if she never found out.

The mess hall was a lot warmer than outside when she stepped inside—the open door brought a cold gust of wind inside, though Byeong joo slammed it shut as soon as both of them stepped inside.

Everyone (save Eunho, who was on the helm) was in the mess hall, and for some reason, Hei's first thought was that it would've been smarter if she and Byeong joo went inside at different times because now everyone was staring at them and that was definitely unwanted attention.

Yejun was the first to speak up. "Why are you standing there?" he asked.

Hei snapped into action as soon as he spoke. Barely daring to glance back at Byeong joo, she grabbed her cup from the counter, poured a cup of water from the water jug at the side, and then made her way to the table next to Yejun. She could see Noah beside him, silent like always, and then further off, Yano. Hyunmin, Hamin and Jiyong were on the next table, though they were near enough for Hei to catch snippets of their conversation.

Yejun raised an eyebrow at her. "Did you get a good night's sleep?"

Briefly, Hei contemplated sloshing her water at him, but then decided against it and went with drinking it instead to avoid replying. Byeong joo took the spot diagonal from her, propping his chin in his hand.

Yejun munched thoughtfully on his piece of bread. "It's getting cold," he said in a conversational tone. Byeong joo glanced up with a skeptical look on his face.

"And?" he asked. "You know it's cold up in Vasileia. This isn't even the worse."

To Hei's utter surprise, it was Noah that spoke up next. She was pretty sure the last time she'd heard him talk was two days ago—he was the one of the people that she rarely came across on the ship, for some reason. She saw Yejun the most (apart from Byeong joo), and somehow, Noah the least. He rested his forearms on the table, leaning over so he could see Byeong joo. "Do we all get clothing from you?" he asked. "Obviously Hei does, but do we all get winter clothing?"

Hei sputtered on her water. "What?"

Byeong joo looked genuinely confused. "Are you joking?" he demanded. "Are you possessed?"

Noah kept a straight face. "You know, maybe I'd actually feel accepted in this crew if you gave me your clothing. It's quite cold these couple of days."

Hei was about to ask Yejun if he'd somehow swapped bodies with his brother because that definitely wasn't anything Noah would normally say, but then she realized that the conversation at the other table had stopped and Hyunmin, Hamin and Jiyong had all turned to face them.

"Did Noah hyung just make a joke?" Hyunmin demanded, looking like he was genuinely shocked by it.

Someway or another, Noah managed to maintain the same poker face. "Did I?" he asked. "How do you know that was a joke?"

To Hei's horror, Yejun jumped in too. "It is cold," he told Byeong joo. "We need thicker blankets."

She eyed him. "I'm pretty sure Eunho has that stored somewhere—"

Yejun shushed her. "You have extras, don't you, Byeong joo?"

He eyed them wearily as he took a slow sip from his cup. "Yes," he got out, though it sounded more like a question than an answer. Hei wanted to tell him to stop talking because that was the only way she could think of to stop Yejun, but it was too late and she was pretty sure the next preventative measure she could take was keeping silent herself.

"You ought to share," Yejun went on breezily. "You said you want to be responsible for the wellbeing of your crew and we're obviously freezing to death. That doesn't look like responsibility to me."

Byeong joo kind of looked like he wanted to escape. "What are you suggesting?"

Yejun leaned on his uninjured arm over the table. "You had extra blankets in your cabin, and you have Hei to warm your bed, so you should most definitely—"

"Yejun!" she shrieked, and he flinched away, clutching his arm. "That's just—"

"That hurt!" he shot back. "That was my injured arm, oh my God." The smile he gave told her that she'd barely hurt his arm (and Hei was also pretty sure it was only his forearm that was broken, and she'd whacked him near the shoulder), and she made a face at him. "Besides, I can't lie. So that's the truth."

"You're terrible," she grumbled, face burning. It didn't help that every single person in the mess hall seemed to be looking at her—Byeong joo included, and Hei figured that that was the worst.

He patted her on the back. "That's why you have Byeong joo."

Hei couldn't decide if it were a better idea to leave altogether because she was pretty sure she was already incapable of living it down, especially if Yejun continued talking for another minute more, but before she could even get up, Yano spoke up.

"Byeong joo," he said slowly. "I don't mind if you're nicer to Hei than you are to us, but are you really going to let us freeze to death?"

Byeong joo seemed like he was trying to decide whether or not he were to strangle Yejun, Noah, Yano or himself first. "You're all tools," he declared. "It would be better if you froze to death."

"But it's not okay if Hei froze to death. Why does she get special treatment?"

"She's the only girl—"

"You weren't this nice to Joohyun," Hyunmin interrupted. "You'd probably tell her you hoped she froze to death first if she were here."

Byeong joo stared at him. "Have you seen how mean Joohyun was to me?" he demanded incredulously. "I'm not going to give her special treatment."

"That's not the reason," Yano immediately jumped in. "But like, serious talk, you two need to quiet it down at night because others are trying to rest. If you can't give us blankets, at least let us sleep."

Hei was pretty sure her face had moved from red to purple. Byeong joo muttered something that sounded like a string of profanities and then something else about wishing he never picked Yano up from Sileion, and she heard Yejun laugh beside her.

For some reason, it was Jiyong that stopped all of them. At least he had enough sense to do so, Hei thought, because Byeong joo obviously had no luck in shutting anyone up—he just made it worse—but even Jiyong looked amused. "Hei's right that there's extra blankets somewhere," he said. "I'll ask Eunho about it later. It is getting cold."

Hyunmin frowned. "Aw hyung," he started. "Don't be a spoilsport—"

"There's children here," Jiyong declared in a semi-serious tone as if Hamin couldn't hear him—Hei wasn't too sure if he was actually worried about Hamin being there or if he was joking—she wasn't sure which one was worse, either.

Hamin opened his mouth, most likely about to proclaim that he wasn't a child when Byeong joo cut in. "Right," he said hurriedly. "There's Hamin, all of you should shut up—"

"Hamin needs to know how terrible of a captain you are. Park Jaekyung nearly killed me because of you—do you know how long broken bones take to heal?—and this is how you treat us? You won't even share winter clothing with us. Right, Hei?"

Her first response was to glance down, because she was still wearing Byeong joo's coat and Yejun was smiling at her, eyes twinkling. Her second thought was that he deserved to be hit again, though that would just be proving that he won. "You can freeze," she told him pointedly. "I won't be."

"Now you're being rude because the captain likes you and you think you can get away with everything. This is unfair privilege."

"You're asking to freeze," Byeong joo threatened.

"Are you saying you don't like Hei?"

He blinked, looking slightly confused for half a second and then opened his mouth to retort, though Yejun beat him to it.

"Dump him," he declared loudly. "He doesn't love you. He doesn't love his crew either. We should have a mutiny."

The chair scraped as Byeong joo stood up. "I'll grab breakfast later," he said. "When you all are gone. I can't do this anymore."

"But you know who you can do—"

The rest of Yano's sentence was cut off as Byeong joo threw the nearest thing on the table at him—a spoon, apparently, which Yano caught easily. He disappeared from the mess hall less than three seconds later, and Hei eyed Yejun warily. "I think I'll do that too," she started slowly. "I'm not hungry anymore."

Yejun raised an eyebrow at her. "You can't even spend time with us anymore?"

"I spend plenty of time with you."

"Not enough." Yejun gave a dramatic sigh. "You even insist on pushing breakfast to later so you can be with Kim Byeong joo—"

It took quite a fair bit of concentration still, but with a whole lot less effort than it would've taken before, she reached for her power and tried to imagine everyone freezing. It was the best method out of everything she tried—picturing what was happening actually made her power work—and to her relief, the whole room was frozen when she glanced up again.

For a couple seconds, she stared at everyone, barely holding in a laugh because they looked so ridiculous (namely Hyunmin), and then slipped out the door quietly.

Yejun absolutely wouldn't let her live it down the next day—he never would, knowing him—and he spent the rest of the day asking her why she'd left him for Byeong joo.

Nothing really happened apart from that—Hei managed to use her power three times in the same day, which she'd never managed before, though it basically knocked her out for the rest of the afternoon.

It was night time leading up to the seventh when the storms actually struck.

The weather had been dropping steadily, but it hadn't exactly been an issue because she spent most of her time inside and the only times that required going outside was walking to the mess hall or down to her room, but the cold was completely bearable. It was nearing midnight that she was actually jolted awake by how badly the ship was being thrown around, and beside her, she could feel the bed shifting as Byeong joo got up.

Squinting in the dark, Hei tried to follow his figure, though she still felt half-asleep and there wasn't enough light to see. "Is there a storm?" was the only thing she managed out coherently.

Byeong joo seemed to have picked up a coat he'd draped on one of the chairs. "Yes," he grumbled, and Hei tried to ignore the fact that his voice sounded a lot lower than usual, still rough from sleep. "I should probably attempt to deal with it before it gets worse and the ship capsizes or something."

Hei turned onto her back. "Are you going to be okay?"

He paused, and then gave a quiet laugh. "It's just a storm," he said. "It'll be fine. I might have to stay up there until it dies down, though, and I don't know how long it's going to be. Snowstorms like these last for quite a while."

Hei curled up deeper into blankets. It suddenly felt cold with Byeong joo gone, and on top of that, the ship was rocking so violently that she was beginning to feel nauseous. She could hear the wind howling outside, painfully loud, and it felt like the cabin itself was being shaken, threatening to collapse then and there. The door opened for a couple seconds as Byeong joo headed out—the wind was literally shrieking outside, and a sudden gust of cold swept into the cabin before it slammed shut again.

For a couple minutes, Hei lay still on the bed, unsure of what she was going to do, before finally deciding to curl up and try to go back to sleep again.

It wasn't successful, especially after one particular jolt nearly threw her off the bed. She could hear the waves tearing at the ship viciously outside, wind more noticable now that Hei was completely awake. She spent a little while longer fighting the nausea, then decided that it was a lost cause and pushed herself up into a sitting position, still fighting the headache and the feeling of wanting to throw up.

At that moment, the door to the cabin burst open again. She nearly jumped out of her skin, but then Byeong joo's voice spoke up, rising over the howling wind. "Hei!" he shouted. "Can you grab Noah? Eunho's having trouble steering and I can't handle this on my own—I can't tell anything because it's snowing so hard—and I need his help!"

The door slammed again and he was gone.

Hei scrambled to her feet as best as she could—keeping her balance was frightfully hard—and then tried to find her coat in the dark. There were matches on the bedside table, along with Byeong joo's lantern, though she didn't quite trust herself in handling fire when the ship was so unbalanced and it was so dark. She fumbled to the nearest chair, where all her clothing was folded.

The cabin itself was colder than normal, especially when she was only wearing a nightgown. Her fingers were beginning to numb, and struggled to get the coat on and then button it properly. Hei stumbled twice trying to get to the door, then barely managed to open it with the wind pushing at the other side. It slammed so hard that the noise was audible above the wind.

Byeong joo was right that the storm was bad: she could barely see a couple feet in front of her through the white flurries, and the cold was a piercing sort, leaking through the coat and chilling her to the bones. Hei kept a hand on the wall, dragging it along to keep her position before she hit the door that led below deck.

It took a couple attempts to yank open, though when it finally did, it wasn't even her.

Hei could barely make out Noah's face when she saw him, though his voice was recognizable enough. "What are you doing?" he asked. She had to strain to hear him. "It's not safe out here."

"Byeong joo told me to get you," she replied.

Noah squinted at her. "Can't hear," he said. "Byeong joo's on the deck, right? The storm's going to tear the ship apart at this rate. It's probably best if you go back inside."

A minute of blind wandering later, Hei was shrugging off Byeong joo's coat, which was covered with snow and beginning to drip on the boarded floor. She dusted the snow off as best as she could, draping it onto the back of the chair. There was an extremely bad jolt than sent her tumbling sideways, though it was coincidentally in the same direction as the bed, so Hei landed half on that and half on the headboard, knocking the elbow of her injured arm against it. Her head was spinning—she still felt nauseous—but there was nothing more she could do but wait for the storm to pass.

It did, on the basis that it first got worse. Hei spent the next couple of hours huddling miserably in bed, wanting to throw up but completely unable to, tired but also unable to fall asleep because she felt too uncomfortable to do so. When the storm finally began to calm, Hei had no idea how long it had been, just that she was absolutely exhausted.

Barely lucid, she remembered the door of the cabin creaking open—or it could've been a dream—Byeong joo stepping inside, murmuring something about the storm, and then she had drifted off.

He was gone the next morning when Hei woke up. The cabin's temperature seemed to have dropped even more—she had no idea that that was even possible. Shivering, hands rapidly numbing, she changed into a warmer dress, pulled the stockings on, and then surveyed the coat.

It obviously wasn't dry from when she'd been in the storm the previous night—the fabric was still damp to the touch and very, very cold, which definitely wasn't okay because it was already freezing. After a moment of second thought, she decided to run for the mess hall.

That failed the moment she opened the door from the cabin. The first thing that hit her was a gust of wind so cold that Hei was tempted to hide back under the blankets, and then one step outside and she'd slipped on ice and fell.

Eunho chose that exact moment to appear. He gave one glance towards her, raised an eyebrow, and shuffled over. "Are you alright?" he asked.

Hei tried to push herself up, though she nearly slipped again. The deck seemed to have been covered with a thin layer of ice, and further off, the wind had blown the snow into drifts near the railings. She took the hand Eunho had extended towards her and let him pull her up, still shivering, and then gaped when she spotted the seas.

Everything just seemed… colder. Her breath billowed in front of her in white puffs of air, and when Hei stared at the waters, she nearly couldn't recognize it from what it had looked like before she'd gone to sleep.

For one, the sky was a cold sort of blue—the sun was shining (that was so weird that Hei couldn't even comprehend because of how hard it had been storming just a couple of hours ago), but it didn't exactly feel warm. It glimmered off the deck, which was now somewhat shiny, and reflected off the sea too.

There were pieces of ice floating everywhere. Some were small pieces, broken chunks, and other were larger, bobbing aimlessly with the waves. It looked so different from the sea that she was used to that Hei stared for a very long time, forgetting about the cold until Eunho tapped her.

"You're not wearing much," he pointed out. "What happened to the coat?"

Hei shivered as an exceptionally cold gust of air swept across the deck. "It's wet. I went outside in the storm last night and it hasn't dried yet. I was originally going to run to the mess hall."

Eunho's eyes flickered towards Byeong joo's cabin, where the door had been left open. He reached past her, pushed it shut, and then nodded at the ice. "I don't think that's a very good idea," he said. "At least, running isn't."

She took a hesitant step forward, trying to move forward as best as she could without slipping. "Right," Hei echoed. "Probably isn't."

The seas didn't get any better. They went without a storm until the evening of the eleventh night. It had turned so dark that Hei couldn't see the sun at all through the clouds, even though it hadn't yet set, and Byeong joo gave her a short warning about the seas being especially rough before running to help Noah and Eunho on the deck. Hei spent the whole time curled under the blankets, toes cold and waiting in nervous anticipation for the storm to strike and attempting to mentally prepare herself for whatever sea sickness was going to hit. It got a bit rocky for around fifteen minutes and Hei tried to figure out what she was going to do if it stayed like that—or got worse—for the rest of the night.

It didn't, however, and around an hour or so later, Byeong joo came back claiming that they were on the right track and that the store had calmed down for the moment, though the winds had begun to pick up. He was shaking his hair like a wet puppy, which Hei found undeniably cute though she remained silent.

"It's cold," he muttered as he attempted to dry his hair with a towel. "I can't wait until Junhyuk's back so he can deal with these things."

He pulled off his coat, tossing it onto the chair carelessly. His room was beginning to regain some of the messiness, to her horror—the desk was beginning to pile up again, and Byeong joo definitely didn't have the habit of folding his clothing.

The bed dipped next to her as Byeong joo sat down. He was still trying to dry his hair. "I think it'll be another day or so at the most," he told her. "If this wind keeps up, maybe half a day."

Hei turned towards him. He was still sitting, though she wished he'd lie down because Byeong joo was warm and it was cold by herself. "How long are we stopping by Vasileia again?"

"Hopefully not long." He seemed to have given up on drying his hair because he tossed the towel to the side, too (to Hei's relief, it landed on the chair, which was better than on the ground, even though it was still out of place). "Plan's get Junhyuk and Kyungsoo, maybe grab a couple things we need, and then leave. I think I have a pretty good idea where they're staying at the moment, and we could also happen to get you a couple other dresses. Especially thicker ones, because the ocean around Hell's Gate is cold and the summer ones you have now don't work."

"Does that mean I don't get your coats anymore?"

Byeong joo's eyes crinkled into the crescent moons again. "Do you want them?"

"They're warm."

"I can also get you warm coats from Vasileia."

"Your coats are nice."

"I can get you nice ones from Vasileia too. Why do you want mine?"

Hei was too tired to go against him. "Because they're from you."

He reached over and pinched her cheek lightly. "Can't hear you."

"Too bad," Hei grumbled, and then shut her eyes. "I'm going to sleep."

Byeong joo gave a quiet laugh. "Fine," he said. "It's probably best if you rest up. If we get to Vasileia by tomorrow, we'll probably be going inside before nightfall, and you'll need to use your power quite a bit. It's best that you rest up for that."

"Nightfall?" Hei echoed, "That's… early. I don't know if I can stop time that easily just to get past, though—"

He squeezed her waist lightly. "You've done completely fine the past couple of times. It'll be fine."

Hei suddenly didn't feel as tired as she had been a moment ago. There was the unignorable gnawing worry beginning to form—what if she couldn't? Under pressure, knowing that it depended on her—what if her power refused to work at that moment?

Byeong joo must've sensed that she was still thinking about it. "Hey," he said, and Hei could almost hear the smile. "We've gone this far, haven't we? Now we just need Kyungsoo and Junhyuk, and then we'll be heading to Hell's Gate. Besides, you'll like both Junhyuk and Kyungsoo. They're all neater than I am."

She managed a slight laugh at that. "Everyone's neater than you, Byeong joo."

"Can't argue with that." He gave a slight sigh. "Well, rest now. You'll probably need it for when we get to Vasileia."

Chapter 40

City of Ice

Somehow, Hei was up the next morning before Byeong joo was. She crept out, grabbing the coat he'd given her, and then went down to her room because most of her belongings were still there. After washing up and making sure she was dressed warm enough for the weather (the temperature seemed to have stopped dropping, which meant it remained at the extremely freezing level), she headed to the mess hall to grab a drink.

To her surprise, no one was there—the deck was relatively empty too, and while she could see Noah's silhouette on the helm, staying outside didn't seem very pleasant. It was way too cold, even with layers of clothing on, so Hei hurried back towards Byeong joo's cabin and made a mental note to find Noah afterwards (or maybe bring him a warm drink, because if it felt chilly just walking outside for a couple of seconds, it was bound to be freezing standing there for hours).

Still shivering, Hei pushed open the door to Byeong joo's cabin.

She closed the door quickly after stepping inside because letting the cold air in was a terrible idea (the cabin was cold enough—it didn't need to get colder). The first place she glanced at was the bed because that was where she'd last seen Byeong joo, but the blankets had been folded down—not nearly as neat as she would've prefered, but still better than them being left untouched. And then someone moved in the corner of the room and Hei glanced up.

Byeong joo had turned around, looking somewhat surprised, though not particularly worried. Hei's first thought was that it was way to cold for him to be washing his face shirtless, which was what he seemed to be doing because he had a towel in one hand and the washing basin was right next to him. If she was cold with a coat on, then how was he surviving without a shirt and with water dripping down his chest from his hair and face?

For some strange reason, her second thought was, again, just like the first time, Byeong joo was really fit—she knew he was strong because he'd carried her a couple of times and made it seem like nothing—but still, he had nice arms which was probably how he even managed to carry her in the first place and also a nice chest if she thought about it—then it hit Hei that she was staring (quite shamelessly) and that he was half naked and then the thought occurred yet again that she was staring.

Hei was pretty sure she was about ten seconds too late from redemption when she covered her eyes. "Put on a shirt," she managed, though it came out as a squeak. "How are you—it's freezing, for God's sake, why are you—oh my goodness—"

Byeong joo sounded way too amused. "I didn't want to get my shirt wet."

She kept her hands over her eyes. To Hei's absolute horror, she could hear footsteps approaching, and she was more than certain that he hadn't put a shirt on yet. "You can't just walk around without a shirt!"

Byeong joo stopped in front of her, and then he tapped her shoulder lightly with one hand. Out of reflex, Hei lowered her hands from her face and glanced up at him, which was immediate regret because she knew he was still topless and it happened to be the first thing she saw before she could make eye contact. A small grin appeared when he realized he'd caught her gaze. "It's my room."

"I'm also sharing the room with you and could come inside anytime—"

He tilted his head thoughtfully to one side. "Does that mean I can walk around without my pants on too, then?"

"No!" Hei almost shrieked, shoving at his shoulder. Laughing, Byeong joo ducked out of the way.

"Technically, I'm not sharing a room with you because it's still my room and you have your room," he pointed out. "So I'm free to do what I like."

"I'm moving out," she said in a small voice. "Doing what you like does not encompass walking around missing any important article of clothing."

"Yes, but 'important article of clothing' is subjective, so if I were to say that pants weren't important, would I really be wrong?"

"You would," Hei told him firmly, and then took a large step to the side. "Put a shirt on before you freeze to death."

"So it's you, Hei, and Yano?" Yejun asked. Hei couldn't quite tell if he was skeptical about the arrangement or perfectly fine with it—she could never say when it came to Yejun.

Byeong joo tapped the handle of his cup absentmindedly. "Yes." He drew out an invisible map with his other hand. "We're going to stay quite a fair distance away from the main docks of the city because that would definitely attract unwanted attention and I have no intentions of facing my family head-on at this point, and the less people, the better. I think we'll be there at around sundown, though I'm going to wait until it's evening before I leave. There'll be less people, and I don't think appearing out of nowhere after stopping time is going to be a smart idea when everyone's still milling around. If all goes well, we grab Junhyuk and Kyungsoo, a couple of other belongings, and then leave as soon as possible."

Hei shifted in her seat. Her nerves still felt jittery and she didn't quite trust herself when it came to her power, either, and to use it twice in such a short span of time wasn't exactly the easiest task. "I don't know about four people," she started. "I mean, I can probably bring you and Yano through fine—depends on how long it takes—but Junhyuk and Kyungsoo too, afterwards? I don't know if I have enough endurance to do that."

Byeong joo gnawed on his lip, eyebrows furrowing. "I'll see if I can find another way to get in that doesn't involve your power, but for now, the only solution is to rest up before we leave." Then his face brightened. "One thing before we leave, though—you're dressing up as a boy."

Hei nearly spat out her water. "Pardon?"

His eyes crinkled. "You're dressing up as a boy."

"I heard the first time, but are you going to elaborate?"

Byeong joo shrugged. "There's not much to it. I think it'll be less suspicious, honestly, if we do get caught because it's not too much out of the norm that there are a group of people wandering around late. Just… with a girl might make it more suspicious. You'll probably draw a lot less looks, too, and besides, your family has a price on your head right now."

Yejun leaned forward. "You're going to make one short boy."

Hei scowled at him. "You're not tall, either."

"Well," Yano interrupted loudly. He pushed his chair out, rising to full height, and Hei tried not to laugh because almost everyone in the crew could be considered short next to Yano. "I suppose that's set. My apologies in advance for crashing your date, though."

"You can turn around now," Hei said.

Byeong joo took his hands from his eyes and also turned around as she tried to fix the shirt. It was obviously too big for her, as the pants had been, but they were tucked into her shoes which made it a significant amount better and she'd somewhat managed to adjust the waistband so it fit her (at least so that it wouldn't fall). Hei shifted again—it wasn't uncomfortable, per se, but wearing pants and a shirt was just strange. The only time she'd done so was when Byeong joo had given her his clothing after Noah had flipped their boat, and that had been casual clothing and she hadn't bothered on getting it to fit. She glanced down at the outfit yet another time, and then frowned at Byeong joo.

"I'm not going to pass off as a boy just because I'm wearing pants and a shirt," she started dubiously.

Byeong joo held up what looked like a hair tie. "We're tying your hair up and I have a cap," he said. "Hopefully that'll work when it gets darker."

Unconvinced, she shuffled towards him. He stretched out his hand with the hair tie and opened his palm—there were a couple of hair clips too—and gave her a slight grin. Part of her noticed that it wavered a bit—was Byeong joo tired? Hei wasn't sure, but he did look somewhat so—but the other part of her wondered if she had just seen wrong. "Can you tie it up yourself?" he asked. "Or I can do it if you want."

"You do it."

He gave a snort. "Sit down, then."

For the next two minutes or so, she sat impatiently in one of the wooden chairs as Byeong joo struggled to tie her hair up so that it was all out of her face and piled at the top of her head. There wasn't nearly as much hair to tie compared to before because her hair was a significant amount shorter, but that also meant there were more stray strands that came loose. Hei didn't even dare move in case it all came falling down, though Byeong joo pulled her up.

Hei held back a laugh when she looked in the mirror. "I look terrible," she managed as she touched one of the pins cautiously. "How did you even do this?"

Byeong joo feigned hurt. "It worked, didn't it? It'll hold once you put the cap overtop. Turn around."

Hei spun around. The shirt came up to her thigh and the pants were extremely loose and she still wasn't sure how anyone would ever fall for the disguise, but Byeong joo appeared to be satisfied.

"That works," he said.

Hei glanced down. "I don't look like a boy at all."

Byeong joo shook his head. "No, it's fine," he replied, then tilted his head thoughtfully. His eyes flickered down from her face for a moment and then he pointed. "I mean, your chest isn't flat enough—"

"Hey!" He didn't even bother to move when she hit his arm as hard as she could. Face burning, Hei crossed her arms over her chest. He gave a light laugh, obviously not ashamed at himself at all.

"Pervert," she accused.

Byeong joo didn't look the least bit guilty. "I was just pointing out the truth."

"But why are you looking at my chest in the first place—"

"You said you didn't look like a boy, so I was looking you over. Obviously." He gave a cheeky grin. "I could've said worse."

She whacked him again, this time even harder, and Byeong joo's grin stretched wider. He reached for the coat hanging on the back of the chair and held it out. "Just put a coat on and it'll be fine."

"It was fine until you pointed it out," she grumbled, but took the coat anyway.

It fit a bit better than Byeong joo's other coats—those were too big on her and Hei had to roll up the sleeves because her hands disappeared inside them if she didn't—but it was still a bit too big on her. It came down lower than the shirt did. The buttons went all the way to the top, so Hei did it all the way up. Her fingertips peeked through the end of the sleeves, which she supposed was as good as it would get.

Byeong joo scanned her, reached out to straighten the collar, and then handed her the hat.

It was a plain grey color, nothing fancy, though when Hei pulled it over her head, it covered most of her hair and came far enough down her forehead to make the lack of hair look natural instead of bald. She squinted at the mirror behind Byeong joo. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to be anymore.

"Are you sure people are actually going to fall for this?" she demanded.

He stepped back. "The attire is alright. It'll be less questionable when it gets dark."

Hei frowned. "Are you sure? I still don't look like a boy."

"Maybe you're just too pretty to pass off as a boy."

It took a couple of moments for the words to sink in, and she turned to gape at him. He looked kind of smug and amused at the same time, and Hei finally settled with making a face at him.

"That was terrible," she grumbled, though at the same time, Hei couldn't quite fight off the smile that was threatening to fight its way to her face.

Byeong joo leaned forward a bit. "You're smiling," he concluded with a mischievous grin. "That means it worked."

"It was still terrible," she replied, then adjusted the cap one more time in the mirror. "And I also look terrible."

He patted her back. "It'll be fine," he said.

It was sunset when Hei actually spotted land. She spent the first hour or so struggling to sit straight in order not to mess up her hair because Byeong joo had, quite honestly, done a terrible job, and then gave up, undid her hair, and told herself to take a nap. It ended up to be a couple hours later that Byeong joo was shaking her awake, and she felt more tired that when she'd closed her eyes, which Hei supposed wasn't the best thing because she was supposed to feel less tired after sleeping, not more.

Her brain had cleared a bit when she followed him up to the helm, struggling to redo her hair so that it was all piled up at the top. Yano was there too, and yawning, Hei let him pin up the final strands of hair that she couldn't see before putting on the cap.

The first thing she actually saw was a strip of land, though Hei almost missed it because it was so white, covered completely by snow. There seemed to be the very faint outline of the mountains in the very back, though it wasn't exactly noticeable until they got closer. And then the first towers of Vasileia began to appear, and Hei gaped.

It was vastly different from Hua—the inner city definitely didn't have as complicated architecture—Hei was pretty sure none of the buildings were even half as tall. It was built up on a hill, so the outer city took up the lower ground as it gradually rose up into fancier buildings. At the top of the hill stood the largest tower, the rapidly fading evening light glancing off of the turrets.

Hei turned to look at Byeong joo. His gaze was fixed on the city, face also lit up by the sun, though there was something extremely distant about his eyes, almost a bit uncertain. For the longest time, neither she nor Yano said a thing and he remained unmoving, staring at Vasileia as if he was trying to take in the details yet at the same time didn't want to do so.

"Byeong joo," she tried finally.

There was something so raw and open on his face the moment he turned towards her that Hei forgot what she was going to ask. And then it disappeared, carefully tucked behind a mask of ease.

"Yeah?" Despite the nonchalance, his voice shook a bit. "It's been so long since I've last been here."

Hei scrutinized his face again—or, tried to—but there was nothing that would give away what he felt. It was a problem, she realized—he was so adamant in hiding insecurities and fears most of the time, especially when it came to his family—the person he portrayed was someone completely unafraid of what he'd left behind, but from what Hei saw, it was most likely the thing that scared him the most.

"Hei?" He was frowning at her, and she shook her head, ripping her eyes from his face. "You were saying…?"

For some odd reason, the first thing she noticed was that he hadn't even called her out for staring, which he never really missed if he had a chance to. She gaped for a couple moments longer, remembered that she was supposed to be asking a question, then realized that she had completely forgotten what she wanted to say.

"I… uh…" Hei glanced at Vasileia again. It was snowing a bit, so the whole area looked somewhat foggy, which made the city look like it was also covered under a layer of mist. It was beginning to come into detail slowly as they drew closer—the tallest, darkest towers first visible, and then more of the outer city. "Is it cold all year round here?"

Even Byeong joo looked a little taken back by the question. "Depends on what you deem as cold. I've grown up there for… most of my life, and I've gotten used to the temperature. I thought Ezentia was unbearably hot when I first got there, honestly—though yes, I guess by Hua's standards, it's pretty cold."

"Oh." She shuffled her feet. It suddenly felt awfully out of place standing next to Byeong joo, because there was something extremely distant about him at the moment, so after a moment of brief hesitation, Hei turned to go back indoors.

They docked in less than another fifteen minutes' time, and by then, Hei was beginning to feel a bit nervous, too. The sun had mostly disappeared, and she'd worked on trying to calm her nerves for the past while since she left, and after checking her reflection in Byeong joo's mirror for the sixth time in the past while (Hei still didn't think she looked nearly convincing enough to be mistaken for a boy), the door of the cabin swung open again and Byeong joo stepped inside.

He also had his jacket button up high, to his chin, cutlass sheathed somewhere underneath. Hei watched as his eyes flickered across the room until they landed on her. With a barely audible sigh, Byeong joo shut the door and headed towards her.

"We're going," he said. "I need to find a weapon for Yano in case he needs it—probably not, honestly—and then that should be good. Eunho also gave me a potion to throw, but I don't want to use it until I don't have a choice. And apparently it's very fragile and shouldn't be broken. I also need to grab something else for Junhyuk and Kyungsoo because I bet they'll have any blades on them and it'll be best if they're armed, especially Kyungsoo—"

"Byeong joo," she cut in before she could run out of courage, "are you scared?"

He went dead silent. For a couple moments, there was that old, creeping suspicion that she'd said something wrong and he'd get angry even though that had never really happened, and then his shoulders slumped, to Hei's immense surprise, head dropping. "Is it that obvious?" Byeong joo asked.

Hei hesitated. "Kind of."

"I'm just…" he took a slight step towards her. "I haven't been back in years. I try to avoid Vasileia as much as I can because the city just… doesn't bring back the best of memories. I shouldn't be thinking this way and I know it's ridiculous, but I can't help but wonder what could go wrong again and if I can even get Junhyuk and Kyungsoo out."

With a pang of surprise, Hei realized just how much nervousness and fear were channeled into those couple of words. She couldn't even begin to think of a way to comfort him—at least not verbally—so after half of second of internal debating, she reached for his hand.

Byeong joo's fingers were a lot longer than hers, hands significantly larger, too, though his grip was warm and firm. Silently, she felt his hands tighten around hers, the elongated shadows of his eyelashes racing across his cheeks every time he blinked, the lighting that made the smudges under his eyes a bit too prominent. He looked even more worried, standing up close.

"It'll be fine," Hei told him, even though she had no idea about it herself either. "You managed to save Jiyong, Yejun and me from Jaekyung when it seemed impossible—this is just Vasileia, right? No one's held captive or anything. This isn't any harder."

"I almost got killed on Jaekyung's ship," Byeong joo pointed out, though his voice was a bit lighter, a bit of the previous mirth beginning to appear. "That wasn't part of the plan."

"Eunho told me you didn't like sticking to plans. And you didn't die, so…"

"Only because of you." He gave her a larger smile. "My saving grace."

It took her a couple of moments to get it, and Hei crinkled her nose at him. "That was terrible," she started. "Please don't even pun on my name ever again."

"It's the truth, isn't it?"

"I mean, technically, but when you put it that way, it just seems like it's… bigger than it was?"

He tilted his head. "You saved my life. Am I supposed to downplay that?"

Hei wasn't sure how to answer him. He was right—she had saved his life—but at the moment it had happened, it wasn't exactly a choice—she'd done the one thing it seemed as if she had to do, and miraculously, it worked. "You've done the same too," she pointed out, because there was no way to argue with him. "I didn't save your life just to get called cheesy nicknames."

"You're going to have to live with that until you get rid of me."

"Perfect, I was just planning to start a mutiny."

He laughed at her, louder this time, and Hei relaxed because the anxiousness seemed to have disappeared. She didn't protest when he tugged her towards him by the hand, fingers curling around hers as he ducked down to kiss her. Hei leaned upwards, gripping both of his shoulders for support as Byeong joo tilted his head, movements still slow, gentle, though there seemed to be a lingering sort of desperation, hidden behind everything else, and she realized that he wasn't quite past the fear of returning to Vasileia even if it he'd hidden it well for the time being.

Hei could barely bring herself to breathe when Byeong joo pulled back. She was about to ask him again if he were scared or think about something to say to comfort him, but before she could do anything, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her against him. He didn't say a thing, and Hei remained silent, hoping that he'd be able to get over whatever fear that still anchored him in Vasileia and that even in silence, she could bring all the comfort he needed.

"I can't survive here," was Yano's first words when they set foot on solid ground.

Hei was inclined to agree with him, because throughout the whole boat ride, her teeth had been chattering nonstop—the ocean air was painfully cold, and at the speed they were going at, she felt like her face was going to peel off and the last thing she wanted to do was walk in the cold for even longer. Curling up under blankets next to Byeong joo sounded nice, but that was hours away. Grudgingly, she shouldered the backpack he'd given her, following Yano's footsteps. The beach was covered with a thin, fine layer of snow, and each step left a very distinct footprint on the clean snow. It was a little while later after they trudged on in silence that Byeong joo fell in step with her.

Hei's hands were rapidly numbing as she clenched and unclenched them in her pockets, trying to salvage the last bit of warmth left. Shivering, she turned to look up at Byeong joo.

"How much longer does it take?" she asked him.

He looked as if the cold didn't bother him at all. It was quite a funny comparison looking between him and Yano, whose tall form was hunched as he plowed on through the snow, and Byeong joo hadn't even bothered to button his jacket up all the way. Hei wished that she could let her hair down, because no matter how high up she had the coat buttoned, her neck felt awfully exposed when everything was tied up instead of down like she normally had her hair.

Byeong joo squinted. "I don't think we can go through any side gates because none of them are open at this time, so that leaves the main gate, which is around… another fifteen or so minutes' walk? And then if all that goes well, it's another ten minutes or so if we take the shortcut to where I think Junhyuk and Kyungsoo are."

"Where's that?"

"Kyungsoo's sister's house. I'm hoping to grab a couple of supplies from her, too, and you can get thicker clothing before we leave."

Out of everyone, Kyungsoo had been the one person that Byeong joo had spoke of the least—maybe it was because Byeong joo had known where he was the whole time—though she remembered Eunho mentioning something about Kyungsoo always kicking Yano and Hyunmin out of the kitchen when they tried to cook—and she knew that his surname was Do and he'd grown up in Vasileia, but that was all she knew. He was also neat, according to Byeong joo, but almost everyone was neat compared to him so Hei didn't know where in the spectrum of so-called neat that Kyungsoo lay.

"Are we leaving right after?" Hei asked again. "I still don't know if my power is enough to bring three people through the gates and then five back."

"I don't think it'll be safe to stay the night in the city, though." Byeong joo gnawed on his bottom lip. "We can try to slip in closer when going into the gates so we walk as little distance as possible, but apart from that, I doubt any of the guards will let us in without seeing our faces. Even if they don't recognize you, I don't think it's possible for them to miss me. Or Yano, honestly. His height already gives him away."

Yano turned around at scowled. "You're just jealous I'm taller."

"Don't flaunt your height," Byeong joo shot back. "You're on the other end of the spectrum. I've average height."

"Average my ass, you're obviously short. Eunho's average, and you're a noticeable amount shorter than he is—"

"I think Yejun's established that I'm the short one," Hei cut in. "At least since I'm dressed as a boy right now."

Yano turned to look at her thoughtfully. He gave her a once-over before looking at Byeong joo again. "She can't bear to hear you being called short," he cooed. "How cute."

If her face hadn't been so cold, Hei was pretty sure her cheeks would've turned red. "I'm not," she protested.

"Are too."

"Byeong joo's short and that's a fact—"

"Hey!" He poked her on the side. "You're supposed to be on my side, not his—"

Hei couldn't quite comprehend why exactly Byeong joo had stopped, though Yano obviously caught on before she did because he skidded to a halt too. A firm grip latched onto her wrist before she could move forward more, and Byeong joo pulled her behind him. The temperature seemed have dropped in the matter of seconds the moment he went silent, and it was only after what seemed like way too long of silence that Byeong joo released her and relaxed.

"Gates are around the corner," he murmured quietly, eyes flickering to the wall they'd been walking beside the whole time. He'd been joking around a couple of minutes ago, and the change was so sudden she could barely comprehend. "I don't think they have a lot of guards posted at the moment, but just in case, be quiet."

Hei followed his gaze. She wasn't sure how exactly it was that he'd been able to tell where the gates were because she could hear nothing but the whistling of wind and see the flakes of snow falling in front of them, but Byeong joo was most likely right about it.

It seemed awfully nerve-wracking all of a sudden. He didn't let go of her wrist, just tightened his grip, jaw clenching as he stared forward through the snow. "Welcome to Vasileia," Byeong joo finally said dryly. "Let's get out of this alive."

Chapter 41

Salt In Old Wounds

Out of all the cities Hei had seen, Vasileia had to be the most unwelcoming one that she had seen, even though it had looked beautiful from afar.

The stone walls were cold, lifeless, and it reminded her a bit of Castra, just more secluded. Castra had been full of people, of color, of noise, and Vasileia just looked as cold and empty as the weather felt. Mixed with the wind and the snowflakes, it might've been the most unwelcome place Hei could remember coming across.

Byeong joo tapped her shoulder lightly. "You'll probably have to stop time in a couple of minutes," he murmured in a low voice. His breath ghosted across her face for a couple seconds, warm before it dissipated into the snow too. Hei stared up at him, trying to calculate just how much energy it would take for her to bring them in. She normally stopped time for around thirty seconds—if they ran, it would most likely get them through and a fair distance away—but she'd never yet done it with two people inside the stopped time. "I'm going to check how many guards there are and how far the gates are, exactly, and then we'll go."

"I'm not sure…" she began, and all of a sudden, remembered how terrified he'd seemed just before they'd left his cabin.

That expression was long gone; he stared forward with an icy, collected sort of calm that she'd seen multiple times on his face, but at the same time, it wasn't hard to tell that he was still nervous because that sort of fear didn't just go away so quickly. Taking a deep breath, Hei nodded at him. "Alright."

A bit of relief flooded across his expression for a faint moment, and he gave her hand a slight squeeze. "Stay here," he told her quietly. "I'll be back in a moment."

Byeong joo slipped into the snow without waiting for another response, and Hei watched as he disappeared around the corner, already fading figure wrapped up in white. She tried to keep her eyes on him until she couldn't anymore, and then finally turned to look at Yano.

He followed her gaze. "You don't need to worry."

Hei kicked at the snow. "I know."

"He's not even doing anything but double checking where we are, exactly," Yano continued. "Literally nothing could happen to him."

"I know," she repeated, and then bit her lip. "It's just… he looked scared about it, and he's Byeong joo. I guess he's never talked about Vasileia that much before, but the fact that he responded like that just makes it scarier. Even if it's not the city itself that poses that threat to him, it's still…"

"We all have memories like that, don't we? The magnitude of it may be different, but there are things that you know logically that there's nothing to fear about it—at least not that much—but you can't help it. And really, the only thing you can do is try to get over it. There's no saying whether or not it's going to get better."

Yano was right, and Hei knew, but at the same time, it didn't stop her from staring into the mist and hoping that he'd return quickly because it still unnerved her greatly that he'd gone off by himself like that. Soon after, Byeong joo was appearing through a thick layer of fog and snow again, and then he was standing next to them, brushing the snow from his hair, blinking white from his eyelashes.

"There's not a lot of people," he told her in a quiet voice. "From what I can see, there's three guards on patrol, so we can probably get a little closer before you have to stop time. And it probably won't be far to walk before you can unstop it—if we hurry, it shouldn't take over twenty seconds."

Hei took a deep breath. "Let's go, then."

He gave her a stiff not, then turned on his heel again. Hei followed him, squinting through the snow, the barely noticeable patter of Yano's footsteps behind her. It was about half a minute or so later that he'd gripped her arm. "It's probably best if you do it now," he told her. "I don't think we can risk going closer and remain unseen."

Blinking through the snow, she gave a slow, uncertain nod, and then shut her eyes and concentrated. For some reason, it was strangely easier to use her power when there was something constantly moving around her—the snow was one of them—and, reaching for her power, Hei willed it to stop.

The air stilled beside her after a couple of seconds. Hei kept her eyes shut for a little while more before opening them. It was unsurprising that the snow had stopped when she saw it, but for some reason, there was always that whisper of awe and surprise every time she used her power, no matter how many times it had been. It took Hei a couple of seconds to remember that she was supposed to be bringing Byeong joo and Yano in, and hurriedly, she tapped both of them on the hand.

Yano blinked in surprise, and then his jaw dropped. Byeong joo brushed his hand in front of him, eyes flickering, and then he seemed to remember the situation. "Right," he murmured, though he sounded like he was still in a daze. "Let's… hurry."

The gates came into view a couple of seconds later, and if Hei had known they were so close to where the guards had been stationed, she never would've asked Byeong joo to bring them closer. To say it was unnerving was an understatement as she trailed after his fast-paced steps, half running, as they passed the unmoving figures. The iron gates (they were huge—it was different from the ones she'd seen in Castra—the iron bars were so thick that Hei was pretty sure she couldn't even wrap her hand around one, and they were tall too, the ends pointed and gleaming) had been pulled shut until there was only a crack left for them to squeeze through, and the three of them went through single file before Byeong joo all but ran the rest of the way. He didn't stop until they were a fair distance from the gates.

Her first thought when both she and Yano filed behind into the small alley that they'd run into was that the outer city of Vasileia was almost as painfully empty as the outside had been even if it had buildings, and then Byeong joo wrapped a hand around her arm and nodded slightly. It took Hei a couple of moments to realize that he was asking her to let time resume before it used up too much of her energy.

It did, after a couple seconds of concentration, and like normal, the exhaustion hit the moment everything started moving around her. Hei stumbled, a bit shaken from the loud pop that seemed to echo through her whole head, but Byeong joo's hand was still on her arm and the wall was close enough to support her before she completely toppled over.

"That wasn't… hard," she started, blinking the black spots from her eyes. "Do you know your way around, Byeong joo?"

"Of course." He shook his head, trying to get the snowflakes from his face. "It hasn't been that long since I've been here."

Yano was apparently very amazed by her power, because he kept on falling in step with her, wide-eyed and bombarding Hei with too many questions about her power that she wasn't even sure how to answer herself.

Vasileia's outer city was extremely different from both Ezentia and Hua—the houses were all made of stone and brick, built for more protection when it came to colder weather—though some of them were in dire need of repair either, and the colors were nowhere as vibrant as the inside of Castra had been, nor was the city as bright as Ezentia. The word that kept on surfacing when it came to the city was cold: the color was cold, the place was freezing, and it was so bad that it seemed like no one wanted to come out. There was barely even a sign of light, and at some point, the emptiness of Vasileia's cobbled streets got so overwhelming that she found herself reaching for Byeong joo's hand before she could think twice.

To Hei's surprise, his fingers closed around hers almost immediately, grip extremely tight. She couldn't see his face from where she was standing, but the nervousness was noticeable in almost everything—from his posture to the way he squeezed her hand as he lead them down the street. They wove down roads until Hei was confused as to where right and left even were, hand still in Byeong joo's the whole time. A couple of times, she saw light glowing from behind pulled shutters, though apart from that, there was no other signs of life.

"Do people not come out at all at night?" she asked.

Byeong joo slowed down for a couple of moments. "Not much, especially when it's cold," he said. "And I think they're scared of being inspected by the guards. It's technically not… banned, but Vasileia has a lot of guards going through the streets. They say it's for safety and most of them are honestly too lazy to care from what I've seen, but they have the right to stop you and check you and a lot of them take advantage of their status and boss around commoners. It's not… the prettiest sight. It might've happened after I escaped Vasileia—the Kim family got a lot more strict with who left the city and who wandered around. It's one of the reasons I barely come here."

"It looks so empty that there aren't guards either," she tried.

He snorted. "I guess it's so cold that guards don't even come out. Anyway, we're almost there. It's a couple more streets down."

They continued in silence, with nothing but the squeaking of their footsteps on the wet cobbles as snow kept falling steadily. At one point, Yano made a comment about feeling excluded because they were all holding hands, but the atmosphere wasn't light enough to keep up a conversation like that and they all lapsed back into silence.

Hei was beginning to wonder how big Vasileia was and if they'd ever get to wherever Byeong joo was off to when he turned a corner and stopped in front of a doorway.

It was just as empty as the other buildings looked, but he knocked immediately without a moment of hesitation. For at least thirty seconds, no one answered and Hei held her breath, nervous for some reason, and then the door swung open to reveal a girl holding a candle.

Hei blinked, a bit surprised, even though it should've been expected—Byeong joo had said they were staying with Kyungsoo's sister, after all—but the girl looked around her age and it seemed to have been so long since Hei actually saw someone her age and the same gender that she did a double take. She was pretty sure the last person had been Joohyun, and that had seemed ages ago. It had been Seungwan before that.

"Byeong joo," the girl said. "You're late, aren't you?"

He sighed. "A lot has happened."

She wrinkled her nose at him, though held the door open wider nevertheless. "Come in," she said. "You don't know how troublesome it was to house my brother for over a month."

Byeong joo nodded at her and Yano. "Go inside," he echoed.

"This is Do Eunsoo," Byeong joo introduced.

Hei was still shivering—the aftereffects of being outside for so long obviously hadn't worn off yet as she followed them inside. She'd taken her jacket off—the inside of the house was much warmer—but her hands still felt numb from how cold they were.

She stuck out her right hand to Eunsoo. "Nice to meet you," Hei managed out.

Eunsoo shook her hand quickly. "Likewise. I'll go grab my brother and Junhyuk," she said. "Are you staying for long?"

There was something about the curt way she spoke that was strangely likeable about her. It reminded Hei a bit of Yejun, and also of Byeong joo (though that was only at times and when he was being serious). Apart from that, Eunsoo just felt like enjoyable company in general.

"We're not going to stay for long," Byeong joo replied apologetically, "I don't think it'll be safe for me to linger in Vasileia, and it'll be best if we leave before sunrise. Eunho said we'd stop for supplies somewhere else because the possibility of me being recognized here is way too high to be safe and I don't think it's safe to keep the ship docked so close to the city either."

"They've been patrolling the streets a lot more," Eunsoo said. "I've kept Kyungsoo and Junhyuk under house arrest because I didn't want either of them to be recognized, but it's dangerous. If they do so much as to see you at night, you'll probably be inspected. So try to avoid guards. And stay away from dead ends."

"Advice taken."

"Also, avoid anywhere near the inner—"

"Byeong joo!" The door on the far side of the room was flung open, and Hei jumped in surprise. The first thing she noticed was that this man was also holding a lantern mounting the steps, and then another person followed him.

She recognized Junhyuk immediately because she'd seen him a couple of times in visions, which meant the first man holding the lantern was Kyungsoo.

It took her a couple of seconds to realize that he actually looked extremely alike to his sister—in fact, they would've been hard to distinguish if they had both been the same gender—and also the fact that both he and Junhyuk were Byeong joo's height. And then Hei remembered that she was pretty much staring at him, and ripped her eyes off his face and stared at her hands on her lap.

Junhyuk stepped out of the doorway but stopped there. "It took you long enough," he remarked lightly, and then nodded in acknowledgement at Yano, who was sitting a little distance away from her and Byeong joo. Kyungsoo immediately turned to look at him.

"Why did you bring him along?" he complained. "He's just going to get us all caught because of how ridiculously tall he is. And loud. Anyone other than him would've been great."

Yano rolled his eyes. "I'm not the one stuck in Vasileia for seven weeks in my sister's house. I bet she wants you out."

Eunsoo nodded. "True."

"Junhyuk and I clean the house for you, you ungrateful brat—"

Junhyuk was apparently the one who made both of them quiet down. Hei watched the back and forth with a horrified sort of amusement until he turned to fix his eyes on her, and then she wanted to shrink back into the couch.

She knew that he was supposedly the levelheaded one from what she'd seen and what Byeong joo had told her about Junhyuk, but Hei still had no idea what to think of him either way and meeting new people had never been her favourite thing to do. She tried to meet his gaze, but it got a bit overwhelming and she went with staring at her hands again. It felt like he was scrutinizing her for a little too long, and then he gave her a slight smile and stuck out a hand.

"Song Hei, right? I'm Kim Junhyuk."

Hei glanced up at him, and then took his hand hesitantly. He didn't look that much older than Byeong joo, though apparently he was already twenty seven—he looked around her age if she thought about it—but there was a strangely quiet air of confidence around him that she couldn't help but feel was intimidating.

Byeong joo's eyes flickered to Junhyuk's face and then back to her. "You're scaring her, hyung," he teased Junhyuk lightly, and Hei wanted to smack him. "You still sound so formal."

Junhyuk let go of her hand and turned to look at Byeong joo again. "We're leaving now?"

"Yeah, it's probably best if we get going soon." Byeong joo got to his feet and stretched, then turned to Eunsoo's direction. "Do you have a couple of thicker dresses you can spare? I don't think we'll be getting out of the cold anytime soon because the sea near Hell's Gate is still pretty icy, and Hei's been wearing summer dresses with my coats."

Hei wanted to melt into the chair when Junhyuk raised a questioning eyebrow in Byeong joo's direction, though Eunsoo didn't say much about it but nodded thoughtfully. "I can probably grab four or five for her," she said, then turned to look at her. "You're about my size. It'll do."

With that, she disappeared down the staircase again and an awkward silence blanketed over the whole room. There were a couple of things that bothered her: firstly, there was the fact that they'd have to get through the cold streets of Vasileia and then another fifteen minutes down the shore to actually reach the boat, and then spend another five painfully cold minutes on the rowboat before finally getting back to the ship, and that was granted that everything else went smoothly. Then there was the fact that she had to stop time again, but this time, it was to bring five people through, and Hei still had no idea if that was even doable. Thirdly, there was Junhyuk and Kyungsoo, who both seemed to be looking at her, and it was awfully unnerving being the center of attention—especially when no one spoke.

Finally, Kyungsoo shifted his weight. "I suppose a lot has happened," he finally started, then nodded at her. "I don't suppose you'd like to explain why you've dressed Song Hei up in a terrible attempt to pass her as a boy."

Byeong joo shrugged. "It's not complicated. She'd probably attract less attention in Vasileia if we were to come across anyone like that. And her family's after her—it's less recognizable this way."

Junhyuk's eyes flickered over her for a split second, though he fixed his gaze on Byeong joo instead. "How far is the ship?"

"Through the front gate, around fifteen minute's walk down."

"And where did Eunho manage to get this one?"

Another shrug. "Ask him. He kept it in Gyeoul for a couple weeks without anyone noticing, somehow." Byeong joo's face brightened. "You don't have to share a room with anyone anymore, though."

Junhyuk looked mildly impressed. "He stole a ship that big? If there's Nam Yejun and Hei and you're able to fit everyone in a room, that's pretty large."

"Also Han Noah and Hamin," Byeong joo said. "I mean, Yano's current room has an extra bed and Hyunmin's with Jiyong, so I'm thinking I can put Kyungsoo with Yano and then you can have Hei's old room."

It was her turn to gawk at Byeong joo. "Since when did I have an old room?"

"Since today." He gave her a slight grin. "I told Eunho to rearrange the rooms and he asked me where we were going to put Junhyuk. I figured it would be more spacious for everyone if I just moved your stuff to my cabin because or else it's a spare bed there, and you've barely touched anything in your room anyway because it's so neat."

"Wait, backtrack for a moment," Junhyuk cut in. "You can't just kick Song Hei out of her room to sleep in yours just so I don't have to share a room with someone. I'm fine staying with Eunho if he cleans up after himself—"

"Eunho would probably rather stay by himself than deal with you cleaning everything five times a day," Byeong joo snorted. "Just take the room."

"Song Hei obviously didn't know of this—"

"Do you mind?" Byeong joo turned towards her and tilted his head. There was something about the barely visible smile and the easy way he asked that made her chest tighten (and he needed to stop smiling that way). "I mean, there's no difference because you've been staying in my room for the past week—"

"Kim Byeong joo," Junhyuk started. Hei was positively sure her face had turned bright red, and the worst part was that all her hair had been tied back anyway and that meant there was no hiding the flush. "I don't know what happened between you and her, but I'm not staying in a room knowing you moved Song Hei out of it without her permission."

"It's fine," Hei cut in with a small voice. "He's kind of right—I can just move my clothes to his cabin instead. That's basically all of my belongings in my room."

"You're the only girl aboard the ship," Junhyuk pointed out, unrelenting. "It doesn't make sense that you're the one who has to share a cabin with someone. Besides, I don't trust the captain."

The grin melted off of Byeong joo's face as he tried to push himself up, affronted. "What's that supposed to mean?" he protested. "I'm the most trustworthy person on this ship."

"You're the last person I trust to share a cabin with a girl—" Junhyuk started, and then the door to the staircase was pushed open again and Eunsoo appeared holding a bundle of clothing. She scanned the living room with a raised eyebrow—from Byeong joo, who was standing up and Junhyuk in front of him, and then Yano and Kyungsoo, who were sitting and standing to the side respectively.

"What's happening?" she asked.

Hei wasn't too sure if they'd even agreed on sleeping arrangements, but around fifteen minutes later, Eunsoo had finished packing the six dresses into a bag and Hei was currently trying to adjust the straps of it on her back into a comfortable position. Kyungsoo was pulling on a coat, Junhyuk was apparently fine with what he was wearing, and Byeong joo was adjusting his own cap.

Eunsoo stood against the wall with her arms crossed. She remained completely silent for the whole time, and only when Byeong joo was herding all five of them towards the exit did Eunsoo actually approach them.

She stopped in front of Kyungsoo. She was a fair bit shorter than he was—around her height, perhaps even shorter, and she still had her arms folded over her chest when she looked up at her brother. Yano took a step back, almost as if he was trying to give them space, and then Eunsoo wrapped her arms around him. Hei barely managed to catch the stay safe she mumbled into his chest before stepping back.

Kyungsoo ruffled her hair. "I'll be fine," he said. "It's been five years and I'm still in one piece. Thanks for putting up with Junhyuk and me. We made you suffer for quite a while."

"Just you," Eunsoo laughed, though it sounded a bit shaky. "Junhyuk was a blessing. Go now. You shouldn't keep everyone waiting."

He gave his sister a last once-over before stepping back and nodding at Byeong joo. "Eun's right," he murmured. "It's best that we leave before the weather gets worse. It'll be best if we put as much distance between Vasileia and the ship as possible before the sun comes up."

"Go," Eunsoo repeated one more time. "I'll hopefully see you soon. No dying before that."

The snow was still falling when they hurried down the street, though the temperature seemed to have gotten even chillier (or maybe it was the fact that the drastic difference between the warmth of the house and the freezing weather of outdoors made it colder). Hands shaking inside the sleeves, Hei tried not to concentrate on the feeling. They headed in an extremely messy single file down the street, none of them speaking. Byeong joo seemed to be gradually speeding up as he walked—Hei wasn't exactly sure, but the nervous energy was just building up the more they walked until he was going so fast that she had to run to keep up.

Junhyuk was the one who stopped him. Hei jumped when he spoke up. "Byeong joo," he called quietly. "Slow down. You're going to walk straight into guards at this point if you're not careful."

Byeong joo halted for a brief moment. His face was pale in the faint light of the moon, and his hands, which just peeked out of his sleeves, were clenched white. It seemed as if going through the streets of Vasileia in the open had taken more toll on him than it had going to Eunsoo's house.

"Sorry," he mumbled under his breath, and then turned back to her. Hei shuffled forward so she was walking in step with him. "Do you think you're going to be able to stop time when we get to the gates? I think it's possible to take down the guards there, but the problem would be whether or not we can do so without any of them raising an alarm, and that would be too risky because there are more smaller gates down the shore and it's very likely they'd be able to reach the ship before we can if the alarm were sounded. It's probably ideal if you could stop time and we'd go through, but if you can't…"

Hei swallowed thickly. "I should be able to," she said in a small voice. "I think, at least—I've never tried with so many people, but if we're quick, I'll probably be alright."

"Thanks," he replied, and then rounded a corner abruptly. Hei barely managed to follow him, and even when she did, she crashed right into someone else.

It took almost all of her self control to swallow the scream that built up immediately. Byeong joo had been talking about guards, which was her first thought, and screaming definitely wasn't a good option if she crashed into guards. Her second response was to look up even though that probably wasn't a good idea either, and then she met a barely-visible pair of dark eyes that were hidden by the shadows of a hood. There was another man—the other lingered at the back, also with the same hood of the cloak over his face.

The eyes flickered over her quickly. To her absolute surprise, the man didn't do anything—just bumped her shoulder rather roughly. "Watch it," he hissed, and then he was hurrying away again, steps quick, into the swirling snow, gone just like that.

It felt like someone had knocked the breath out of her lungs. Even as she watched them disappear, Hei couldn't move, couldn't breathe, and for at least another fifteen seconds, she stood completely still next to Byeong joo, feeling strangely petrified with a terror that she hadn't felt in weeks and weeks.

A hand landed on her wrist. Hei nearly ripped her arm out of Byeong joo's grip until she told herself that it was him and that he meant no harm, but even then, she couldn't quite swallow the fear.

His eyebrows furrowed. In her peripheral vision, she could see Kyungsoo, Junhyuk and Yano—they seemed to have disappeared when she hit the man—but Hei could barely concentrate on Byeong joo's face.

"Hei?" he asked. "What's… did you know them?"

Her teeth had begun chattering. "They're not guards, are they?"

"No. They would've stopped us if they were." His voice had turned strangely soft. "Do you know them?"

"I think." She squeezed her eyes shut. "That man that crashed into me—he looked kind of similar, and he felt—he's one of my half-siblings. I don't know for sure, but he looked—I feel like I've seen him before but there's no way he should be in Vasileia—"

"Calm down." Both of his hands had moved up to her arms, squeezing so tight that it was beginning to ache slightly. "Even if they're from your family, it's fine—I don't know what the Song family is doing sending people to Vasileia, but they're obviously not supposed to be here either if they're not going to even put up a fight with us walking around and you bumping into them, and they obviously didn't recognize you either, so it's fine."

"But it's my family," Hei whispered. "Byeong joo, it's my family—"

"And that doesn't matter." His voice was strangely confident, anchoring, and Hei tried to swallow back down the paranoia that was rising steadily. "Your family doesn't define you, it doesn't shape you—and we've been through all of that and you've also proved all of that."

Her hands, for some reason, wouldn't stop shaking. "I know, but they just—"

"It's fine." Byeong joo's eyes were darting around, almost like he was beginning to feel trapped, and the previous feeling of calm from his voice seemed to melt back into fear. "We need to get going, though—it'll be very likely that we don't crash into them again, so everything's alright, okay?"

Get out of Vasileia. That sounded nice, admittedly, because going back to the ship meant curling up in a warm bed with Byeong joo and that chased away basically all the problems Hei could think of, except they were still a fair distance from the ship and getting out most likely depended on her using her power, and Hei wasn't even sure if she could use her power when she wasn't thinking straight.

"Hei?" He was holding out a hand then, fingers splayed, and it took her a couple of moments to realize that he was offering his hand to hold. Hesitantly, she took it, and immediately, Byeong joo was pulling her along again. "We have to hurry," he told her. "And then we'll be back to the ship in no time, okay?"

She nodded and tried not the think about her family. She couldn't quite recall the man's name—he was probably in his early thirties from what she saw, but Hei could remember clearly that she'd seen him in Hua. Besides, Byeong joo was right—if they weren't there with permission from the Kim family, then it meant that they weren't supposed to be there, which meant they couldn't go around causing havoc in the streets, which was probably the reason they'd been hurrying off after they had bumped into her. It was a miracle that they hadn't recognized her, though Hei supposed the terrible getup Byeong joo had dressed her in could be credited for that.

For the next couple of minutes, Hei barely knew where she was going—if Byeong joo hadn't been pulling her along, she probably would've gotten lost—and everything else she remembered was just a confusing blur of half-coherent thoughts as Hei struggled to organize everything and calm down. It was just her family, she reasoned with herself—two members of her family who, granted, were probably there for her, but still had no influence over what she did. It was a fear before, but now it was just an irrational one, and it wasn't going to do her any good if she kept on worrying about it. She tried to focus on the snow, then when that didn't work, Byeong joo. That only reminded her of the fact that he, too, had been scared of going to Vasileia, and the fact that Kim Byeong joo was nervous made her feel uneasy.

They began to near the gates soon after—Hei could see the walls peeking from above the rooftops. Her teeth were chattering nonstop then, and out of all of them, Junhyuk seemed to be the only one who didn't mind the cold.

It wasn't much longer than Byeong joo pulled all of them to a halt. He turned around, eyes still jumping around. "The gates should be around the corner," he murmured in a quiet voice. "Hei, are you…"

She closed her eyes. "Yeah."

The worst part was over after she'd stopped time, Hei told herself—it was a long walk back to the boat, yes, but Byeong joo would probably stop being nervous after they'd left Vasileia, and that made her feel more at ease. Concentrating, she tried to picture the snowflakes freezing once again, the chilling wind stilling until it had stopped completely, the faint hum of the sea in the distance fading to nothing.

Swallowing thickly, she tried to summon her power. Once they were out of Vasileia, the two people of her family would be nothing—they already were, really—the most likely scenario was that she'd never see them again, and the fact that they were in Vasileia didn't mean a thing. They weren't even the main threat—the city was swarming with people from the Kim family, and if that didn't scare her, two members from the Song family shouldn't have been anything to worry about.

It felt as if her thoughts were constantly drifting, so Hei tried to direct her attention back to her power. For at least fifteen seconds, she stood in the same spot, trying to picture what the place would looked like when time stopped, though the wind kept whistling by no matter how hard she concentrated. When she finally opened her eyes, nothing seemed to have changed. Blinking, she turned to glance at Byeong joo, who was staring at her, eyebrows beginning to furrow.

"Hei?" he asked. "Are you alright?"

She shook her head at him. "Sorry," Hei managed. "I'll—just give me a moment."

There was an impending dread, though, a fear of failure that she hadn't felt in a long time. What if she couldn't? What if her power just decided that it didn't want to work anymore, what if she really just wasn't capable of meeting whatever expectations Byeong joo had—what if? There were so many uncertainties about her power and the lack of control on it that Hei absolutely hated, especially how it was just so unreliable.

Squeezing her eyes shut tighter, she tried to call on it again. Byeong joo had already let go of her hand—there was nothing she could feel but the pressing cold all around—but before even a couple of seconds had passed, the sound of footsteps sounded—jarring, loud—and she opened her eyes, surprised. Byeong joo was tugging her back already, hissing something about guards—and then Hei spotted the same two cloaked figures rounding the corner.

It was too late, though, because the first man had obviously already spotted her because they were heading at an increased pace in her direction.

"Hey," he called loudly. Behind her, Byeong joo let out a string of profanities quietly. "Don't you know that the Kim family's issued a curfew?"

Hei had the urge to step behind Byeong joo, because she was growing increasingly uncomfortable as they headed in her direction, but that would've made it even more suspicious. She remained in her spot, hoping they'd just drop it, but there was also the growing anxiety that they'd recognize who she was. Sure, the lighting was still barely enough to make out anyone's features, but they were bound to find something off about the fact that they were still outside, especially since there was now three more of them.

They began nearing, and she felt Byeong joo squeeze her hand. "Don't say anything," he whispered, so quiet that Hei could barely hear him.

"I know," he called back. "We were just heading back."

"What were you doing outside in the first place?" He was less than ten feet away, still moving closer.

Byeong joo held his ground. "We're not from around here," he said calmly. "We just got lost in Vasileia, that's all."

"There aren't any ships docking at nighttime." The two men were so close that Hei could've reached over and touched him. "Besides—" His eyes flickered towards her, and then back towards Byeong joo. "Why would you be heading towards the city gates if you just arrived?"

Byeong joo's eyes had begun to dart again, flickering between the two men, and then back at her for a split second. "We got lost," he repeated. "I could ask you the same thing—we bumped into you a while back, didn't we? If you're not from the Kim family to patrol, then there's no reason for you to be out here either."

The man closest to her sneered. Hei still couldn't remember his name, but what unnerved her most was what his power could be. If Byeong joo was going to fight, it would've been best if he knew what he was facing, and while she was beginning to have a creeping suspicion, she couldn't pinpoint what exactly it was.

"Hey," he laughed. "Do you know who you're speaking to? We're representatives from the Song family. I'm sure Vasileian guards wouldn't mind us taking anyone suspicious in for questioning." He glanced at her, and Hei held her breath, praying that she wouldn't be recognized. "We're here on command of the Song family leader—"

"Wait a second." The man who had remained silent the whole time took a step forward, a frown beginning to appear on his face. He was staring straight at her, Hei realized with a jolt of terror, and his hand was going to his hip. Warning bells had begun to go off in her mind, but she was petrified to one spot in absolute terror, unable to move even if she wanted to. And then recognition was racing across his face, almost as if he'd made some genius discovery of some sort. "You look like—you're—"

"Hei, move!" Byeong joo's warning barely managed to click when the man had lunged at her, sword drawn. For a terrifying moment, the gleam of the blade was cutting down towards her, and then someone had grabbed her arm in an uncomfortably tight grip for a millisecond and she had been shoved roughly to the side, straight into the side of a brick wall. Her right shoulder collided first, the angle cutting into bone painfully, and Hei nearly collapsed at the force Byeong joo had thrown her. And then there was a short gasp of pain from the general direction of where she'd just been standing—barely audible, but still there, and then the sharp sound of a blade being drawn. Head spinning, she tried to gather her bearings, but the only thing that seemed to register was that Byeong joo was the one who'd made that noise which meant Byeong joo was the one hurt, but nothing else seemed to click. In her peripheral vision, Hei saw Yano moving forward swiftly, and quicker than it should've been possible, the street was quiet again, the same as before except with bloodstains and two bodies lying in the middle of the road. Snow was already beginning to cover it.

Byeong joo was turning around, an arm pressed against his abdomen, visible pain written across his face. He was slouched slightly, and Hei could see a clear gash the sword had drawn, tearing through layers of fabric and cutting a line across. Red was beginning to stain his fingertips.

Guilt bubbled up before she could even find the right words to say. "Byeong joo," Hei managed, though it came out as a choked whisper. She couldn't find it in herself to even move. "I'm sorry, I—"

He gave a pained wince. "It's fine," he cut in in a voice that said that it was anything but fine. "Just… someone rip me a piece of cloth. I need to attempt to stop the bleeding or else I'll lose too much blood."

Junhyuk was the one who moved first. He'd taken someone's blade—Yano's dagger, apparently—and was cutting a piece of cloth from his shirt until he had something wide enough and long enough. He handed it over to Byeong joo, expression grim.

"We better get moving," he said. "There'll be guards passing by soon, and even if no one heard us, someone's bound to see what happened here. There's no way we're going to be able to clean blood from snow."

Hei watched, feeling worse and worse by the moment, as Byeong joo secured the cloth around his stomach, jaw clenching and unclenching. He was obviously trying to deal with the pain, and compared to how she'd done so before, he was doing a pretty good job of it. "We can go through the front gate by force," he murmured. "As long as we kill the guards before the manage to sound the alarms, no one really will know that we're there."

Kungsoo didn't look so convinced. He was the one who had remained the quietest the whole time, but there was a hint of both irritation and fright, mixed with worry when he did speak. "They're right next to the alarms," he pointed out. "The doors everywhere start closing when they sound those, and that'll mean that there's virtually no way for us to get out. It's just unlikely that'll work. It's still a better idea if Song Hei stopped time."

Byeong joo glanced at her. "I don't think she's in the shape to do that right now."

It was most likely that none of them expected Kyungsoo to blow up the way he did—Hei definitely wasn't—though part of her must've been expecting it because of his tone before. "You're the one in no shape," he had begun to snap, voice rising every word, "to even attempt to take down guards and place a bet on the fact that you think you can kill them before they touch the alarms."

Byeong joo scowled. "Then what are you suggesting we do?"

Kyungsoo had already whirled on her. "What were you even doing?" he demanded. "He told you to move, for heaven's sake, just move!"

Hei shrunk back, the words I'm sorry beginning to rise again because she knew that it was her fault and that there was nothing she could say or do to refute that fact, but before she could, Byeong joo cut in. "That's enough." His voice was a bit weak, but there was still an edge to it. "It's not her fault, and we're sticking to what I said and that's final. You don't have to fight if you don't want to, but that's our best bet at the moment."

Kyungsoo gave an irritated huff. "You're going to kill yourself," he growled. "It's absolute suicide for you to think you can pull that off without anybody catching you."

"There's no better option." Byeong joo was turning towards the street again, his non-dominant hand wrapped around his stomach still, voice short and clipped. His other hand was resting on the hilt of his cutlass. "Let's just get the hell out of here."