The Legend of Magic Island | taejun + sookai

part 19: convincing the captain

"You three are from Captain Soob's crew, yeah?" he asked, resting his hands on his hips.

Hueningkai nodded, extending a hand to the other.

"I'm Hueningkai! And those two are Taehyun and Yeonjun," he said sweetly. However, the other swatted his hand away.

"I don't do handshakes," he nitpicked, "You don't have to be so formal, just introducing yourselves would do."

Hueningkai lowered his hand, giving the other boy a funny look.

"Kang Yeosang's my name," he smiled warmly, "Captain Hongjoong's right hand man, and sometimes Wooyoung's best friend."

San rolled his eyes, hitting the other playfully.

"Quiet! I'm trying to talk to these three!" he joked, Yeosang hitting him back playfully.

"And let you do all the work?" Yeosang scoffed, returning an arm to his side, "C'mon, they're meeting the crew not just Choi San! We don't have a whole crew of San!"

San gave the other a sharp jab with his boots, Yeosang stumbling back. San snickered again, as Yeosang winced.

"So there's... seven of you?" Taehyun asked, counting with his fingers, "Is that right?"

"Oh no, no, there's—" San paused again, "Wait how'd you get seven?"

Taehyun counted the crewmates again, holding up seven fingers. Yeosang brushed himself off, pushing San aside.

"There's eight, you forgot to count our medic and sunshine," he corrected, "Yunho. He's not here at the moment since he went into town with Wooyoung, but you'll probably see him later."

Hueningkai anxiously glanced over at their captain, who was still talking with Jongho and Seonghwa. He leaned over to Taehyun and Yeonjun.

"What are we gonna do if he doesn't agree to help us?" Hueningkai asked quietly, "Then we've just wasted our time here... Captain could be—"

San separated their small huddle, a reassuring smile on his face.

"If the captain doesn't agree, I'll do some talking with him," San reassured, "If not, I'll still help you get Beomgyu and your captain back, don't worry!"

Hueningkai sighed in frustration, slumping his shoulders.

"But Captain Soobin—"

"He'll be fine!" Yeosang interrupted, nudging the other playfully, "If Captain Joong says we can help, then you can count us in!"

Yeonjun huffed, crossing his arms.

"That's not the point, we don't know how much time we have until Bang Chan decides to call it quits and kills them!" Yeonjun sighed, "And we don't know how the rest of the crew is holding up while we're gone."

The three fell silent, looking back to the pirate captain, who was still exchanging a word with Seonghwa. Yeonjun sighed again, massaging his temples in frustration.

Taehyun remembered the members of Bang Chan's crew that were heading in their direction. He paused, running to the edge of the ship to see where they had gone. They had long disappeared into town, stopping their search near the docks.

Captain Hongjoong returned the map to its bottle, turning to the three and clutching the bottle in his hand.

"So, Magic Island, huh?" he wondered, handing the bottle to Jongho. Taehyun nodded.

"Yes, i-it's always been Captain Soobin's dream to find it," Hueningkai stammered, "It's the only map we have, and Bang Chan's after it."

"And it's the only map to have Magic Island on it," Seonghwa added, taking a glance at the bottle, "It's different than the ones we've seen. And different than the ones I've read in books."

Jongho nodded in agreement, setting the map aside.

"Where did you get it?"

"It's Captain Soobin's!" Hueningkai answered hastily, "H-His father made it... it's one of our prized possessions..."

"Now, could we please have it back?" Hueningkai pleaded, putting his hands together. The Captain sighed deeply in frustration.

"Jongho, give them their map back."

Obediently, the boy handed the glass bottle to Yeonjun, who safely tucked it away in his pocket. Hongjoong sat down on a wooden crate nearby, resting his chin in his palm.

"What's on Magic Island?" he asked, "I've never heard of it, and it's not on any of our other maps."

"We'll tell you later, just— Are you going to help us or not?" Taehyun huffed, anger rising in his voice, "We don't need to be wasting any more time here while my Captain is suffering back on our ship!"

"Because we don't have all day to be messing around, Captain Bang Chan could change his mind any moment and throw our crew overboard!" Taehyun snapped, "Captain Soobin is already in poor condition, he could be even worse by now. And Beomgyu—"

Taehyun stepped closer to the captain, when Seonghwa pushed him back. The boy scowled, clenching his fists.

"I thought we already made it clear we're not helping unless there's something in it for us," Hongjoong hissed, resting his hands on the crate, "You can't expect everything to be handed to you on a silver platter."

San looked between the two, who were glaring at each other fiercely.

Hueningkai hesitated, fidgeting with his hands nervously.

"Captain Soobin could think of something if you come around to helping us," he bargained, "We can't exactly name anything right now, since we don't even have our ship—... but Captain Soobin always keeps his word."

Hongjoong raised an eyebrow, then sighed.

"Fine, but you three follow my orders, alright? Otherwise all of us are gonna end up dead."

Taehyun sighed a breath of relief, "Thank you Captain."

The captain hummed in response, turning to his first mate, "Seonghwa, tell Wooyoung and Yunho we're having a slight change of plans."

<————⚔️⎈⚔️————>

Captain Soobin and Beomgyu sat in the room, bored. They could hear commotions coming from above deck, barely making out the footsteps of Bang Chan's crewmates.

"Wouldn't it be dumb and ironic if the other three got lost then captured by another crew?" Beomgyu asked out loud, "Then they have to split up again then find more help."

Captain Soobin groaned in frustration, "Don't jinx us. I just hope the other three are okay, they're taking an awful long time."

Beomgyu looked around the room they were locked in for something to escape with. However, the two were beat and too exhausted to keep pushing onwards. Soobin covered his eyes with his sleeve, sighing deeply.

"I don't even know if we'll make it to Magic Island at this point," Soobin murmured, "Look at all the drawbacks we've had to deal with, being prisoners on our own ship from Bang Chan himself."

Beomgyu sighed, "I mean— If we survived a whole octopus attack, there's a chance we'll survive some petty captain and his crew."

Captain Soobin rested his arms to his sides, "I just hope so."