Water Heart | P.Sh

| 15 |

The pants were suprisingly roomy for what I had expected, and the white shirt was a blessing to be wearing. Somehow it seemed warmer than my usual chemise I had been wearing for the past few days.

"Are you sure you can put my hair up?" I questioned with worry as Jiyeon had me sit on a box up on the deck for her to see me more clearly.

"Easily," Jiyeon chuckled at me as she began braiding one half of my hair, "I use this trick all the time, Don't worry.

I sat still as Jiyeon braided one long braid from my forehead and down to the end of my hair, using half of the hair I had on my head. She braided quite tightly and I was sure it was gonna be a relief for my scalp when I unraveled the braids. After having braided one side she began braiding the other.

"Throw the anchor!" Jay's voice called out and I raised my eyebrows slightly.

"There's not really a harbour here," Jiyeon excused quietly, "usually the Flottante reaches these towns before us and gets the only proper spot at the harbous... which usually is a good thing for my job."

"You feel alright with it, right?" I questioned and she only hummed in return, "Jungwon and I will be there."

"I know," she quietly murmured and I smiled slightly as I could feel her tying off the last braid, "I'm gonna pin the braids to your scalp and tie one of our scarves around it, alright? You'll look like a swabbie and some of the people at the town might be disrespectful to you, but Jungwon will have the captain hat so it'll be alright."

"Why will he have that one?" I questioned in confusion as I felt Jiyeon wrap up the braids to lay flat on my head.

"It covers his face more. The crew of the Flottante knows him.... quite well," Jiyeon remarked with a small hiss, "they'd rather see him dead, I believe... but they never actually try to kill him. It's a bit of an odd realtionship if you ask me."

I quietly flattened out the fabric of my black pants before looking down towards the brown boots Jiyeon had found for me. They were a bit too big for me, but they were men's boots and that probably explained the size.

Soon enough a white piece of fabric came into my view and Jiyeon carefully made sure it just covered my hairline before tying it tightly at the back of my head, right by my nape. 

"I'll just fix it up front," she excused and walked over in front of me and adjusted the scarf a bit, making sure it didn't overlap my ears and didn't go down over my eyebrows, "a bit feminine pirate, but once everyone's got a pint of beer or so, no one will give it a second thought."

Jiyeon looked dazzling as she stood, ready to get onto land. One side of her blue skirt had been clipped up to show her calf and black boot underneath, meanwhile she had shifted her black belt out with a whole corset underneath her skirt, but over the thinnest and loosest chemise she could find, having it pulled down over her shoulders to make her look completely bare from her armpits and up. Her lips had been painted a bright red and she had hung charms in her hair that matched her earrings.

I had noticed how bigger parts of the crew had trouble with stopping to stare at her. Funnily enough the same thing couldn't be said about me.

"Are you alright?" I questioned, noticing how she had begun playing with the multiple rings adorning her fingers and kept glancing around as if she was nervous.

"I always get a bit fiddly before we go on land," she excused with a small laugh, "Remember, I wasn't on land when we laid at your harbour. This is the first time I'll have solid ground under my feet in over a month.

"I'm not sure if I'm ready to stay on this ship," I commented in disbelief and she only let out a small laugh at me.

I watched as Sunghoon rushed out from Jay's chamber and sent us a glance before he rushed on over to the rowboats that was getting sinked into the water. After Sunghoon, Jungwon rushed out of the chamber as well, a small belt in hand.

"You don't get a sword, but you get a dagger," Jungwon breathed out as he extended the belt towards me. On it hung a dagger cover with a long and sharp dagger. I surely had never seen a dagger of this kind before.

"Oh wow... what an honor," I sarcastically remarked and Jiyeon let out yet another small laugh at me as I fastened the belt around my hips before standing up and looking down at myself, "I'd say I'd do well as a man," I commented.

"Sure you do," Jungwon hummed with a small chuckle before he turned and looked at Jiyeon, "feeling alright?"

"Yeah," she just nodded with a small smile.

"You know, you just have to scream and we'll be there within seconds," Jungwon reminded and snapped his fingers before letting his hand fall down onto the shaft of his sword, ensuring it was there.

"I know," she cooed at him with a tired look on her face.

I glanced away when Jungwon had turned her face to peck her lips, immediately catching onto how Sunghoon was just looking over towards us.

"We should go into the rowboat," Jungwon announced and I looked back at him, catching how his arm fell from around Jiyeon's waist the moment I had turned to look at him.

I watched as Jungwon tugged Jiyeon with him, by holding a light grip on her hand. Sunghoon and Jungwon assisted as they helped Jiyeon down into the boat first, probably because of her skirt.

"Ladies first," Sunghoon called out, looking over towards me as he raised his eyebrows at me.

"Technically... I'm a man now," I reminded him as I walked up to him and Jungwon.

"Still the physique of a woman," Sunghoon clamly excused and I turned my back to the sea as Jiyeon had. 

I slowly crouched down and did the exact same steps as Jiyeon had. Grab onto the railing and slowly haul myself down. Eventually both Jungwon and Sunghoon had grabbed onto my arms and sunk me down lower until I could feel a step under my toes and I let go of them. Jiyeon simply smiled at me as she helped me properly down into the rowboat and pulled me over to sit beside her.

"Jungwon and Sunghoon will row," she whispered as I looked up to watch Jungwon crawl down before letting himself fall the rest of the way, Sunghoon following his suit and doing exactly the same. The rowboat rocking back and forth when they landed.

I watched as both Sunghoon and Jungwon sat behind each other and grabbed the oars before beginning to pull on them and row away from the ship and towards the pirate town we had reached.

"Now when we get on land..." Jungwon trailed off with a small sigh, "we'll all go inside, Sunghoon will stand and look out from one part of the tavern, and the two of us are going to stand together," he pointed out and looked to me making me immediately nod, "Jiyeon has a sign, I know it, to tell us she'll go outside with him soon. We go out before them and stand outside the tavern, acting like nothing. Then when they go towards the Flottante-"

"That one right there," Jiyeon murmured and pointed to a large ship at the harbour, with all black sails, which was very odd compared to the dirty white sails of our ship.

"-we'll follow them," Jungwon finished and I nodded at him, "we won't go on the ship, but we'll stand on the bridge under it, and be ready to run up if our help is needed."

"I understand," I assured him with a small nod before looking over towards the tavern that had lit up during the sunset. I could already hear loud voices  yelling and cheering along with song and music coming from the place.

I felt quite weird and nervous about having to go in there, but if I sticked to Jungwon it would be fine.