Water Heart | P.Sh

| 51 |

By midday we had dropped the anchor and rowed in to the shore, almost invading the town that we had anchored by. I had no idea where Jiyeon had gone, but I had seen her and Jungwon wander off hand in hand almost immediately after we had gotten onto shore. Meanwhile I was trying to peek at the lap of parchment Sunghoon had brought with him onto land.

"Will you stop peeking?" Sunghoon let out a small laugh at me and moved his hand away to hide the parchment when my chin accidentally had grazed his shoulder.

"Why?" I questioned in confusion, "if you want to get a good prize on these things you're gonna need for me to talk for you."

"And why would I need that?" he questioned as I folded my hands behind my back and shrugged casually.

"I'm a business woman," I excused calmly and he snickered down at me, "I am. Did you get me to budge when it came to the price of bread?"

"Alright, I'll let you talk for me," Sunghoon agreed and softly placed his hand on my back, pushing me along with him.

I skipped in my step before happily walking beside him as we wandered through the town in search for a market to buy food at.

"Why do people keep avoiding us?" Sunghoon complained as he tried approaching the third person to ask about the market, but they had just walked off yet again.

"Hold on," I murmured and pulled out my earrings and handed them to him, letting my hair out of the ribbon I had used to tie it up with earlier, "just trust me," I excused as I noticed how weirdly he looked at me.

I quickly clipped my skirt down from where it hang as I rushed over to a nearby woman, who was wandering hand in hand with her small son, who couldn't possibly be no older than five.

"Excuse me?" I questioned and she immediately smiled widely, "I'm looking for the market, do you happen to know where it is?"

"Of course," she smiled widely before pointing down a street, "just down there and then to the left. You're not from here, are you?"

"Oh, I just came with the ship from England," I excused, purposely making my accent thicker than it was, "we're sailing on at noon."

"Exciting. May you have a nice life here," the woman excused and continued on walking.

I smiled happily as I turned towards Sunghoon, who only stood and stared at me in surprise. I happily wandered back and grabbed my earrings from his hands before putting them back into my ears once again and tied the ribbon around my wrist.

"How did you do that?" Sunghoon whispered and I gave him a funny look.

"What? I've lived more on land than I have on sea," I chuckled at him before just beginning to walk along the route the kind woman had given me, "now come on." 

Sunghoon quickly jogged up to me and walked by my side towards the market, to which I directed the route. Every once in a while I would skip my step, only causing a small chuckle to come from Sunghoon as we entered the market, while he had to grab onto the back of my chemise to assure I didn't just run off.

"Do you maybe... feel a tiny bit excited about this market?" Sunghoon questioned and I just turned to him with a wide grin as he smiled slightly in return, "slow down a bit for me, alright?"

"Okay," I nodded quietly and walked by his side throughout the market.

Everytime Sunghoon found something we needed to get back on the ship he would step back and let me do the talking for us, bringing the prices down a bit and with a few extra things in the pouch whenever it was an elderly man who was selling to me.

"Can we go a bit away from the market?" Sunghoon questioned as I returned with another pouch of vegetables to him.

"Why? Are we finished?" I questioned and he shook his head quietly as he pursed his lips, "then why do we have to go?"

Without a word Sunghoon quickly grabbed my wrist and rushed through the market and out the nearest side alley he could find. I looked at him weirdly as he finally stopped walking and leaned against the nearest wall.

"What was that abo-" I didn't get to finish my sentence before Sunghoon had hunched over and clutched his chest tightly with one of his hands as the other grabbed tightly onto his knee, "Sunghoon?" I quickly questioned and rushed to his side, assisting him over to sit down on a few empty wooden boxes, "what is it? What's going on?"

"I was cold this morning," he murmured and my eyes widened as I quickly looked around me, finding nothing I could throw over him to keep him warm, "how many days do I have left? Like four... three?"

"No no, it'll be fine," I assured him as I kept looking around myself, "just let me find a blanket somewhere."

"It hurts Soo," he murmured and grabbed onto my hand, hindering me from approaching anyone out at the market, "please, it hurts."

"Please what?" I questioned eagerly as I looked around, desperately wanting to yell for help.

"Stay with me for some time," he pleaded and I eventually nodded, holding his hand in both of mine, trying to warm it from the ice block it felt like.

"It's gonna be fine," I murmured and looked around desperately as Sunghoon stayed hunched over, "it's gonna be fine... can I try something?"

"What?" Sunghoon breathed out and closed his eyes tightly.

"I wanna check your blood," I whispered and he glanced up at me, "please... I need to see how red it still is..."

"Alright," he whispered with a small nod.

I quickly got out his small dagger from his belt and carefully held it up the side of his ring finger, having determined it wasn't exactly the most important finger at all. Carefully I cut into his finger, earning a small hiss from him before I shoved his dagger back into his belt. Carefully I pressed out a bit of blood to take a look at it.

"How does it look?" Sunghoon sighed deeply and I pursed my lips as I looked at his finger, "Soo?" Sunghoon questioned and turned his head to look over towards his hand.

Before he saw anything I quickly bent down and pressed a kiss to his lips. He didn't pull away, but immediately replied the kiss without any complaints. I guess he could easily figure out that it didn't look too well by how I had reacted. I just couldn't get myself to tell him that his blood had been almost clear with a small hint of pink to it, if it even had any red color.

"It's fine," Sunghoon murmured against my lips as I had broken the kiss by pulling a bit away, still standing with closed eyes, "it's fine Soo," he reminded and softly cupped my cheek, caressing it with his thumb, "all is fine."