The next morning, Taehyun walked into Yeonjun' room and shook him awake. The boy jolted awake, and groaned.
"How is it that I'm always the last to wake up?" He mumbled, rubbing his eyes tiredly. Taehyun shrugged, as the other sat up and stretched.
"Beats me. I'm just used to getting up early," He replied, "The captain is still asleep though."
Yeonjun yawned, getting out of bed quietly. After Taehyun left the room, he got his clothes on, and tucked his sword into his waistbelt. Yeonjun walked out onto the main deck, looking around to see if anyone else was awake.
The sun had barely risen, the orange sun had slightly bled into the dark blue sky. Yeonjun rubbed his eyes tiredly again, sitting down on a crate. Beomgyu was standing on the side of the ship again and gazing through his telescope. Captain Soobin and Hueningkai were seated along the railing and eating fruit.
Yeonjun groggily walked over and looked up at Beomgyu.
"Hey.. Beomgyu, since you know you— emptied my pockets when you guys saved me," Yeonjun asked, "Do you think.. I could have my stuff back?"
Beomgyu lowered his telescope, turning to look at the other.
"Well good morning to you as well," He joked, jumping down and tucking the telescope into his pocket. Beomgyu reached into his coat, digging around in the pockets.
"I think I still have some of your stuff on me, most of it is with Hueningkai," Beomgyu replied, pulling out a short dagger. He threw it aside.
He proceeded to pull out a much longer knife with jagged teeth, which he also threw aside.
"C'mon I know I gotta have something in here," He mumbled, pulling out knife after knife and dropping it onto the deck. Yeonjun's eyes widened with surprise as he bent down to pick one of them up.
"DON'T TOUCH THAT ONE!" Beomgyu warned, as Yeonjun flinched, "That one's laced with poison."
He paused, then dug through his pockets some more, "Or was it the other ones..."
He took out a handful more knives, until Yeonjun and Beomgyu were standing near a pile of assorted blades.
"How many of these do you have?" Yeonjun asked, kicking a couple blades aside.
"Like I said, it's a secret," Beomgyu replied casually, then pulled out a small, burlap drawstring sack.
"Here's are the coins I found on you!" He said, handing it back to Yeonjun. He proceeded to dig around in his inner coat pockets until Yeonjun held up a hand.
"It's fine Beomgyu, I'll just ask Hueningkai if he has anything else," Yeonjun snickered, "I don't want you to empty out your entire knife collection."
"If you insist," Beomgyu shrugged, taking his hands out of his coat. Yeonjun helped Beomgyu put his knives back into his coat pockets, even though Yeonjun couldn't figure out where he'd gotten them in the first place.
Taehyun walked above deck, handing Yeonjun some bread and coffee.
"How'd you sleep?"
"Fine until you woke me up," Yeonjun mumbled, and slumped himself onto the deck. Taehyun chuckled, sitting down next to him.
"Sorry, if you want me to let you sleep next time just say the word," He responded, breaking off a piece of his bread and warming it up in some tea.
"Oh right, like I'm supposed to tell you in my sleep that I don't want to be woken up," Yeonjun joked, taking a bite of his breakfast.
"I meant just tell me the night before or something," Taehyun replied, "It's usually me who wakes everyone up in the mornings anyway."
The other hummed in response, looking around the ship.
=======
Under a bright sun, Yeonjun was cleaning the deck with Hueningkai while watching Beomgyu and Soobin train with each other.
"Don't expect me to go easy on you just because you're the captain," Beomgyu teased, taking out a blade with a short handle and twirled it in his hand.
The captain let out a scoff, drawing his cutlass.
"I'd expect nothing less," He smiled. Yeonjun busily mopped the deck, hearing the clashing of their blades and their boots hitting the firm wooden floor. He watched as Beomgyu swiftly ran around Soobin, throwing knives from his pockets as quick as he could.
Soobin dodged them gracefully, the blades barely missing him by the ankles.
Beomgyu reached into his jacket, fitting at least three knives in between each knuckle and hurled them as hard as he could. Soobin planted his feet on the deck, holding his cutlass steady.
He dodged the projectiles smoothly, catching the last blade by the handle. He lowered his hand, smiling at Beomgyu warmly.
"I don't think I've seen this one before," He commented, holding the small blade in his hand. Beomgyu let out a light laugh, twirling another blade in his hand.
"I've got more where that came from!"
He spun around, another quadruplet of knives firing towards Captain Soobin. Hastily, the captain dodged to the side and deflected one with his own cutlass. He kept his distance from Beomgyu, knowing his close-ranged attacks were just as deadly.
Soobin watched Beomgyu's hands carefully, circling the other and looking for an opening. He smiled to himself slyly, swiftly charging at the other.
Beomgyu quickly pulled another blade from his pocket, countering the captain's attack. The two steadied themselves, looking each other in the eyes.
"Looks like it's a tie," Beomgyu panted, Soobin gripping the handle of his cutlass tightly.
"Not quite."
He looked down at their feet that were planted into the deck. Swiftly, he lifted up his right foot and sharply stepped on Beomgyu's other foot.
The younger yelped, immediately dropping his knife and stumbling back. Beomgyu fell over, clutching his foot. Yeonjun let out a snicker, covering his mouth.
Beomgyu looked up and saw the captain's blade pointed right between his eyes. The captain lowered his cutlass, and extended a hand.
"Not too shabby if I don't say so myself," The captain smiled, as the other staggered up, "Sorry about your foot, are you okay?"
Beomgyu brushed himself off and smiled reassuringly.
"That's the closest I've ever gotten to beating you!" He laughed, punching the captain playfully, "We should go again! Can we go again?"
Captain Soobin snickered, "Maybe later. Clean up your knives from the deck, alright?"
Hueningkai stopped mopping for a second, then counted all of the knives Beomgyu had used.
"Wow, he used around eleven that time," Hueningkai concluded, looking at Yeonjun, "But I wonder if he's used the same knife twice, he's got a whole collection up his sleeve."
Yeonjun shrugged and leaned on the mop.
"No clue," He replied, "Do you guys just keep track of every knife he uses?"
"To be honest, no, it's too hard to keep track," Hueningkai admitted, "Sometimes he has multiple of the same knife or one of the same kind but different shape. There's just too many!"
"I'm guessing there's around thirty something," Yeonjun responded, "I wonder how he even stores all of those."
"Trust me, I've tried, and failed. Miserably," Hueningkai replied, "There's no way he was able to keep that many in there, I'm guessing he's reusing the same fifteen or so."
Yeonjun dipped the mop back into the bucket and swabbed the deck a little bit more. Beomgyu collected the rest of his knives, putting them back into his pocket and climbed back onto the shrouds.
He opened up his telescope, peering through it. There was nothing around them other than the open sea, and Beomgyu could barely make out the outlines of small fish swimming near the ship.
He glanced through his telescope once more, seeing something— odd... resurface then dive beneath the water.
Beomgyu lowered his telescope shakily, then turned around to look at the crew.
"Captain! There's something ahead!"