Water Heart | P.Sh

| 2.25 |

I abruptly pulled myself away from Sunghoon as he rushed to sit up beside me as well. The yelling out on deck continued and we shared a quick glance.

"You don't think..." Sunghoon trailed off slowly.

"She'll push him overboard," I realized and quickly got out of the bed, rushing out of the Captain's Quarters in just my chemise, which only reached halfway down my thighs.

"You'll freeze to death Soo!" Sunghoon yelled from behind me as I watched Jiyeon march right across the deck, Jungwon rushing up from the food depot right behind her.

"Ji, just listen to me!" Jungwon loudly insisted as a blanket was draped around my shoulders from behind.

"You two calm down and talk this out!" Jay yelled as he rushed up from under the deck as well.

"Calm down? Calm down?" Jiyeon repeated in a menancing laughter, "you think we should calm down?"

"Actually I do!" Jay yelled back in return.

"You said you didn't allow him on land!" Jiyeon yelled back in return.

"So he went against my orders? What do you want me to do?"

"Punish him!"

"He is the Quartermaster, he's in charge of punishments!" Jay reminded and Jiyeon ran both her hands through her hair, letting out a loud sigh that seemed to also be mixed with a frustrated squeal.

"He is the one the Phantôme is after!" Jiyeon reminded, looking furious. But now that I really looked at her properly, it was clear she wasn't mad or angry or furious. She was scared, extremely scared.

Over by the food depot Jake had slowly made his way onto deck as well, Sunoo and Lin stopping halfway up the steps from the food depot.

"You let him go on land. You let him kill somebody," Jiyeon reminded.

"Ji, just listen-" Jungwon attempted and she hurriedly turned to him. Her skirt swinging about her legs, hugging them tightly before it swung out once again to its usual draping.

"No! You knew what you were doing. You knew it was wrong!" she snapped.

"He harmed you," Jungwon excused.

"Is that so? Then how come you not just have killed the entirety of the Flottante instead?" she retorted and it went dead silent as Jungwon saw no proper answer to that, "Why? Why have you not killed the entire crew on this ship before the Fantôme took them?"

"I just want to protect you," Jungwon calmly excused, attempting to near her, but failing. Jiyeon quickly moved halfway across the deck once again, putting more than enough space between them.

"Liar!"

"Ji, will you just-" Jungwon sighed heavily before stopping himself, finding himself clenching his fists and closing his eyes in frustration.

"If I... can?" Jake spoke up and Jungwon looked over towards him, nodding and waving it off with his hands, pinching his nosebridge, "Jiyeon... just... listen."

"I don't want to," she shook her head abruptly and starting walking backwards away from Jake, who attempted to reach her.

"You're not really angry... you're scared, and that's completely fine," Jake reminded her as Sunghoon let out a heavy sigh from behind me.

"That idiot," Sunghoon murmured quietly.

"He's right," I shook my head quietly, "look at her. Her lips are quivering, she has tears in her eyes..."

"He does want to protect you," Jake gently assured and she shook her head immediately, grabbing her elbows once she halted in her steps.

"It's a lie," Jiyeon whispered just enough for me being able to hear her, the fake anger slowly disappearing from her face and properly revealing the fear.

"No, he does," Jake shook his head, "but you didn't see it for a while. How he was pacing around slowly going insane when you weren't here and he didn't know what was happening to you. He had to trick himself to thinking you were up in the Crow's nest majority of the time. Ever since you've come back he watches you everytime you're on deck. He makes sure you eat all your meals, down to the last crumb. Whenever you do something he is always preparing himself to run in case something happens to you. But you don't see it."

"And what about when something does happen?" Jiyeon questioned, "where is he then?"

"Not allowed to go, on my orders," Jay defended, "majority of the time he's been kept in the dark by us playing things down."

"I'm sorry, what?" Jungwon questioned as he quickly turned to Jay, "you've kept things from me?"

"She was our only bait for a while, we couldn't let you know everything. Otherwise you'll just tie her to the mast and refuse to let her go anywhere," Jay excused, "Soomin knows more than you do."

"I do?" I questioned in disbelief.

"Yeah... you do," Sunghoon whispered with a small nod.

"But I barely know what happened before I got on the ship," I reminded and he nodded.

"Exactly," he nodded.

"Just ask him. How many times have Jiyeon been bait for us?" Jay questioned and Jungwon turned with a frown.

"Six," he replied calmly and Jay only raised his eyebrows before looking over at Jiyeon, "is it wrong?" Jungwon quickly murmured and turned to her as well.

"Thirty-two," Jiyeon calmly replied, face slowly softening.

"Thirty-two?" Jungwon repeated in shock before turning to Jay, "you baited her out thirty-two times? How did I not notice?"

"We put you on other duties on land at those times," Jay excused casually, "we couldn't let you know..."

"How much... how much don't I know?" Jungwon slowly questioned.

"All the times we knew there were too big of a risk... and all the times it went terribly wrong," Jay slowly admitted.

"See? So now we calm down and talk about what we missed," Jake urged.

"I think we should go back to bed... I think they can take it from here," Sunghoon whispered and grabbed my shoulder to pull me back into the captain's quarters.

I hesitantly let myself stumble in with him and watch as he closed the door. A heavy sigh of defeat left Sunghoon's nostrils as he pressed his lips tightly together.

"You used her as bait thirty-two times?" I whispered in shock and he nodded quietly, "and I thought I had done it loads of time, with the three times I've done it... you've exploited her at any chance you got as long as it was for your own benefit."

"And we're not proud of it, believe me," Sunghoon assured, "But it was the only way without killing anyone innocent. The past is not up for discussion Soo, and this does not mean you should be doing it more in the future to take any pressure off of her."

The stern look Sunghoon gave me was enough for me to understand that I shouldn't dig more into it than Jungwon and Jay already had out on the deck. It was clearly something Sunghoon didn't like nor want to talk about.