Hongjoong POV
Ooof! I sit down on the kitchen floor. San's training is hard but I definitely made huge progress. San gives me a glass of water and sits down next to me. He lays his head on my shoulder and breathes heavily.
I never noticed it until now but over the past year his physique changed a lot. His posture is a lot better, he has gained a lot of weight and especially a lot of muscles. But so also have Mingi and Yunho. Especially over the last two months all of us have built a lot muscles.
What I am concerned about is how Mingi has changed. In the beginning he was so excited and eager to see the world. Now he seems to be very uncomfortable with visiting new places.
11 months ago
I leave the ship. I should have put on thinner clothes. It is pretty hot today.
I walk through the fields while some farmers curiously follow me with their eyes until I make it to the village. I really hope I can find someone who can sell me some bread and maybe some fruits. I look around to see if there is a shop or a small market but then I bump into a huge pillar.
"Ouch."
The pillar suddenly moves and I realize that it is actually a tall boy.
"Oh, I am sorry."
"No problem but I haven't seen you here before. Are you an adventurer?", he says and smiles like an excited puppy.
"Yes, I am a treasure hunter. Ehm, do you know where I can buy some bread?"
"Oh really? Do you have a ship? You travel the world? Go on adventures? Find treasures?"
He looks at me with big eyes. I don't know what to say. I just want to buy food. Another tall man approaches us.
"Good morning Yunho. Don't you need to look after your crops? And who is this?"
"Ah, I already did that? He is an adventurer! Isn't that exciting?!"
"Oh, really? Where are you from? Where have you been to?"
The man smiles brightly and swings excitedly from one side to another. I nervously look around, not knowing what to answer.
"Ehm, I was born on a ship soo... yeah.... And I have been pretty much everywhere."
"Woah amazing!!!", the man exclaims.
"Sorry if we are interrupting you with something. It's just really exciting for us. We just pretty much never get off of the island.", Yunho apologizes.
"It's okay. I understand. Ehm, but I still need to buy food."
"Oh, yeah. We will show you where you can buy something."
We walk through the village. The two point out the houses of different farmers and tell me the history of every field.
We reach a big house at the edge of the village. There is a huge oven at the side of it. Next to the front door is a small built in shop. A chubby woman greets us from behind the counter.
"Yunho, Mingi! What can I do for you?", she asks.
I step forward.
"Ehm, hello I need some bread and a few apples please.", I say.
"Oh hello. How much do you need?"
"Two breads and a half kilo of apples."
"I haven't seen you here before by the way? Are you a traveler?"
"He is an adventurer!", Mingi answers.
"An adventurer? Haven't had one of those here in a long time."
The woman gives me the apples and the bread and I pay.
"Have a nice day and good look on your adventures.", the woman says.
The bag with the apples is really heavy. Yunho notices that I struggle with it and takes the bag from me.
"Let me help you."
"Can we see your ship?", Mingi asks.
"Yeah, why not."
They ask me a lot of questions about my journeys. I tell them a lot of different stories and they have big reactions to everything I say.
After some time we are finally back at my ship.
"Wow, it's huge. Do you have a crew?", Mingi asks.
"Not at the moment."
"Do you need a crew?", Yunho asks.
"Actually I do. It's really hard to do everything on the ship on your own."
"But I am guessing you want people with experience?"
"Not necessarily, no."
"Could we join then?", Mingi utters.
I look at them. They are both tall which is definitely an advantage. Apart from that they are also farmers which means that they are used to working in harsh weather conditions and are decently fit.
"If you want to you can. But aren't you needed here?"
"I think our families would be doing fine without us. It was just always our dream to go on adventures and travel the world."
"You should think about it some more. It's a big decision. I will be here until tomorrow. I can also show you the ship if you want to."
"Yes. I really want to see it.", Mingi exclaims.
We bring the food down into the food storage and I begin showing them the ship. They are super fascinated by the cold storage and the water filtering system and ask me a lot of questions about them.
"If we join the crew, are we getting paid?", Yunho asks.
"Sure. Let's say we split the money we make in a month. 65 percent are going to be savings for the ship and food and the rest we are going to split evenly among us."
"Sounds good."
"Actually I think we haven't asked your name yet.", Mingi utters and giggles.
"I am Hongjoong."
"Nice, we are Mingi and Yunho. But you probably already picked up on that."
"Yeah."
I bring them back to where we first met.
"Think about it and tell me tomorrow morning. But you should know that you can't go back that easily once you choose."
"We will. Until tomorrow."
Now
How can I make him feel more happy and at ease again? San stands up and continues with his lesson.
A bit later Jongho comes in.
"Hongjoong we are near an island, do you want to go there?"
"Ah, yes. According to the map there should be a village where we can stock up on food and crystals."
I go outside with him and look over the railing. To my surprise I see another bigger ship to our right. They seem to be approaching the island too.
We park our ship at an unexpectedly big and busy harbor. I get our money and my backpack and meet the others in front of the ship. Another group of adventurers walk past us. I wonder if they are also trying to get past the wind barrier. After a few steps out of the harbor we spot a sign that says:
"Welcome to Gum Pirtaenashii"
I wasn't expecting to see a sign in our language here. As we walk through the village we see quite a lot of people from different countries, I feel someone tug on my shirt.
"Wooyoung and I are going to buy ingredients for San's cake.", Seonghwa whispers into my ear.
I give them some money.
"Good idea. You can take Yunho and Yeosang with you to buy the food. We will be at the machine store.", I say. The four go towards the grocery store.
"Why was he whispering?", Mingi asks.
"I don't know.", I lie and giggle nervously.
"Oh, I know.", Jongho says and smiles.
"Why?", San asks.
"I am not going to tell you."
"What is going on? Are you planning something? Why can't Mingi and I know?", San whines.
"You will see it later."
We go into the store. It's bigger than I expected. Besides some crystals I also buy some spare parts in case the sand destroys parts of our motor. After we paid and step outside again, a light breeze is blowing in our faces which also brings some fine dust and sand with it. I accidentally inhale some of it and have to cough. The others look at me worried.
"Are you okay?", Jongho asks.
"Yeah, I just inhaled some dust."
"That's the universe punishing you for keeping secrets from me and Mingi.", San argues, still pouty and offended from earlier.
I sigh. I don't what I should do to snap him out of it but at least he isn't saying that he doesn't deserves to know anyway like he probably would have a few months ago.
We meet with the others at the marketplace. On our way we walk past a restaurant out of which a delicious smell comes.
"Did you get everything we need?", I ask.
"Yes, here is the rest money.", Yunho says.
"I am starving!", Wooyoung exclaims.
"Let's go home then.", I state.
"But I want to eat something warm and tasty.", Mingi comments.
"There was a restaurant that we walked by that seemed tasty.", Yeosang proposes.
"We already spend quite a bit of money today..."
Seonghwa holds onto my arm and pouts.
"Pleeeaaaseee. We haven't eaten a nice lunch in while and it smells delicious.", he says in a soft voice and smiles cutely. Ugh! Why is he like this?
"Okay. Let's bring our stuff back to the ship, pack some of the things we found, eat at the restaurant and then sell some stuff. Is that alright with you?"
They nod.
The first thing I notice is that the other adventurers are also in the restaurant. They seem to be drunk and are talking loudly. We sit down at the only empty table directly next to them.
"Oh, more adventurers. What can I bring you?", the waiter asks.
"Do adventurers not come here often?", I wonder.
"Not as much as painters or just normal tourists. Many come here to paint the wind barrier or just look at it. It is very pretty. Only occasionally adventurers come to try and fly through it. So two groups at once visiting is really out of the ordinary."
We order our food. One of the adventurers from the other table stands up and comes stumbling towards us. He holds on to San's chair in order to not fall over.
"You're going to fly through the... the border too?", he slurs.
"Ye...", I try to answer but get interrupted.
"You are g-going to... to fail. I have the BEST navigator and a.. a SUUUPERRR experienced c-crew. You kids are N-NOTHING against uss..."
"Well but we won't be having a massive hangover and know a way through there.", Wooyoung blurts out.
"HAHAHA, THERE IS NOOO WAY!! ALL YOU NEED IS SKILL!!! AND YOU ARE JUST LITTLE KIDS. SO JUST GO BACK TO YOUR MOM AND LET THE ADULTS DO THEIR STUFF!"
We just look at him, unimpressed by his words. The owner of the restaurant comes and tells the adventurer to sit down and shut up if he doesn't want to get thrown out.
The food comes and it's absolutely delicious. Now I don't feel too bad anymore giving in to the others. After I paid, we leave the restaurant. As we walk past them, one of the adventurers pushes Jongho, making him stumble. They laugh and shout at us.
"Goodbye and good luck kids! Don't cry to much!"
We ignore them and walk through the door.
"Funny how they call us kids but they are the ones being childish.", Yeosang comments.
"I hope we don't run into them again.", Yunho adds.
We sell some stuff and go back to our ship from where we start sailing towards the border again.
Two days later
I walk onto the deck where all of the others are running around looking at the beautiful thick clouds in the distance. I go to stand next to Mingi.
The waiter in the restaurant was right. The wind barrier looks beautiful. The orange and yellowish clouds look amazing in contrast to the blue sky. The swirls if the whirlwinds throughout them makes it even prettier.
"Wow!! It so amazing Hongjoong!", Mingi mumbles and hugs me.
After admiring the view for quite some time I go to the kitchen.
At noon Seonghwa comes into our bedroom. I look up from my book, wondering what is up.
"Joong, we are preparing San's birthday. First of all we need his birthday present and second could you take care of him while we prepare everything?", he asks.
I give Seonghwa the shirt and the small cat plush toy that we got for San some time ago. Then we go down together. San is standing in the kitchen door speaking to Yeosang, Jongho and Wooyoung.
"Why did you get out the nice tablecloth and set the table so nicely?", he asks.
"We are just setting the table for lunch.", Yeosang replies.
"Are you done soon? I am bored."
I grab his arm.
"Let them do their thing. We will play outside.", I suggest.
San comes with me on the deck.
"What do you want to do?", I ask. San touches my chest and runs away.
"Your turn."
Really catch? In this heat? I run after him anyway. I follow him up the stairs to the wheel but he immediately runs down the other stairs, so I run down again. He runs towards the main mast and climbs up. Is he stupid? He can't escape me from there. I climb after him. The crow's nest is not big enough for three people, so I am trying to grab San from underneath. He squeaks and hides behind Yunho. I climb up a bit farther to reach him and manage to touch his foot.
"Your turn!", I yell and quickly climb down again. San of course follows after me. We run around the deck for a bit. At times I barely get away but slowly I am starting to feel out of breath and dizzy from running around in the heat. I run up the stairs and grab onto Mingi and try to use him as shield.
"Ehm, captain. You should know that this is dangerous. I am trying to navigate the ship.", Mingi says.
"Sorry."
I run away and jump down the stairs but San is faster and catches me. He tightly hugs me as we both breathe heavily.
"Got you!"
"Do you maybe want to go inside? It's too hot to play outside like this."
"Okay."
"By the way why did you hide in the crow's nest? That was not very smart."
"I just wanted to give your short legs a chance."
I look at him annoyed while he just giggles. We go inside and play a card game.
A while later Seonghwa comes in again and tells us that "lunch" is ready. Jongho has taken over the wheel while the rest are in the kitchen. We enter the nicely decorated kitchen and San seems very confused at first then excited.
"For me?"
"Happy birthday!", we shout.
Yeosang gives him his presents which makes him break out in tears.
"At home we never got to celebrate like this. And I never got any presents. We were never able to afford any. This means so much to me. Thank you so much!", he tells and hugs all of us.
We eat cake, celebrate and play a lot of games. I go to bed early since we will reach the border tomorrow and I will need to navigate the ship the whole day.
The next day I wake up at sunrise. I get ready, take the notes from the temple with me and take over the wheel from Wooyoung.
"Good morning. I think we are almost there.", he says and sleepily makes his way inside. The big clouds are directly in front of us but I see a narrow gap between them. They look very intimidating when they are this close. The wind outside is starting to get stronger and brings quite a bit of sand with it. I put a cloth over my nose and mouth to not inhale it.
A half hour later Seonghwa climbs into the crow's nest to help me.
It only takes two hours until our ship enters the gap between the clouds. The wind is pretty strong and the sand makes it a bit hard to see but it's not that much worse than navigating in a thunderstorm or in fog, so we should be fine. I just need to be careful not to leave the path. I constantly check the notes and compass to make sure we are on the right way. Seonghwa warns me whenever we get too far into the thick clouds.
It is going very well but after a while I get a bit tired. Yunho and Jongho come and look after me and Seonghwa.
"You two should rest now. You have been out here all day. Dinner is also waiting.", Yunho says.
"I don't want to risk anything. It's very dangerous here. I am the best navigator, so I should fly through here.", I argue.
"You're only the best navigator until you get too tired and weak to navigate. Then it's time for the second best navigator to take over."
He is right. I won't be of use and potentially make a mistake if I don't rest. I leave the wheel to him and Jongho takes over the crow's nest. Seonghwa and I eat our dinner and then go to sleep.
The next morning I take over the wheel again and San is in the crow's nest this time. Everything is going smoothly, almost too smoothly.
After a few hours Seonghwa comes with a cup tea and some bread. He has his hand over the opening, so it won't spill.
"You should drink something warm. It's a bit chilly in the wind."
He gives me the cup and two slices of bread. Immediately the wind blows some sand into my tea. I sigh but drink it anyway. Seonghwa climbs up to San, hugs him and gives him the rest of the bread. He stays there for a while.
A half hour later San screams something down:
"Hey, I think there are thunderclouds to our right."
I can't see anything yet. But if they are far away enough it should okay.
"Are we going directly past them? With the direction of the wind they should theoretically move away from us.", I shout.
"Not directly but they are fairly close."
"Okay! Keep an eye on them!"
Nothing happens in the next two hours apart from Seonghwa going back inside.
"Joong, the clouds over there look a bit weird. I... eww sant in maii maof... I think it's a whirlwind. And it seems to be moving southwards, so it will be blocking our way for some time.", San suddenly exclaims and takes his cloth off for second, so I can understand him better.
"Are you sure?"
"Pretty much. The clouds are beginning to form a circle."
What should I do? Should we stop the ship and wait until the path is clear again? Should we fly around it? We might need to wait quite some time and the wind direction and path might change in the meantime.
"San, go down and tell the others that they should put everything that is lying around in the cupboards. Besides that they should find somewhere to hold on. We are going to fly around the storm."
San climbs down the mast and disappears into the ship. Should we pass it on the left side or the right side. I guess it depends how far it has moved.
Ten minutes later San is back together with Seonghwa who rushes into the captain's cabin.
"San go up again and tell me at which position the whirlwind is?"
San climbs up into the crow's nest again.
"It is starting to move into out pathway."
We might not be fast enough to pass it on the right then. Let's fly portside then.
"San get down here and hold on tight."
San comes down again. I give him the compass and my notes.
"We are probably not going to see anything so please tell me if we are still on the right way once we enter the clouds. And hold on tight to the compass and the notes!"
"Yes, captain!"
I navigate towards the clouds. As we enter them the sound of sand scratching against the ship becomes louder. We fully indulge in the clouds and the wind becomes so strong that I am slightly lifted off the ground which causes the wheel to spin too far to the left and the ship to tilt. Sand forcefully rubs against my skin and clothes which feels like am stabbed by thousands of little needles. Additionally the mist of the clouds is making everything wet and I can't see anything because of the sand.
I extend my leg and am able to get a hold of the base of the wheel with it. I use all my strength to hold on to it and try to spin the wheel in the other direction. The ship tilts back into an upright position.
"San are you okay?", I ask in panic.
"Yes, but it hurts!"
"Do you still have the notes and the compass."
"Of course!"
"Good hold tight and stay strong!"
I try to keep the ship stable but the ship still swings from side because of the strong wind. The main mast is creaking dangerously. I hope the ship will survive this. It is really scary to be basically blind in a storm. Even though San constantly tells me the direction that we are currently sailing in I still feel like we are about get picked up by the whirlwind. My heart is beating so fast that it is kind of becoming hard to breathe. My leg is starting to hurt from holding on to the base of the wheel. But I can't give up now. I will bring everyone safe to the other side.
After an hour I feel like we made it past the whirlwind... hopefully. Now we need to find back to the path. My whole body aches from trying to withstand the wind and my skin feels like it has been rubbed raw by the sand. I think I even got some cuts on my hand.
"San, are we on the right way?"
"I think so we are currently sailing south eastwards."
Let's hope I am right about being past the whirlwind otherwise we're as good as dead. We sail another hour in the same direction but the path is still nowhere to be seen.
I am starting to feel anxious. Are we going to die out here?
"San?"
"Hmm?"
"What if we don't make it out?"
"We will we only need to go on for a little longer. We can do it!"
I am starting to question my decision of trying to fly around the storm.
Only a few minutes later the clouds to our right get a bit thinner and the wind a bit softer. I change into that direction.
Shortly after we get out of the clouds and back on our path. The wind here is a light breeze in comparison and I can finally see something again. I sigh in relief and let myself fall to my knees. I feel a bit dizzy for some reason. I look around and see San sitting on floor with one arm holding on to the railing and a tight grip on my book and compass. His figure starts to duplicate and it feels like the ship is still rocking heavily from side to side. My vision slowly fades to black the last thing I hear is San shout.
"HONGJOONG!!!"
When I wake up again, I lie in my bed. My head still hurts a bit. I see that someone took care of my wounds.
"Oh, you're awake.", Wooyoung says and makes me flinch a bit. He is sitting on Seonghwa's side of the bed with one of my books in his hands.
"W-what happened?"
"You idiot passed out from exhaustion. Yunho already warned you yesterday that you shouldn't navigate for that long. You need to take better care of your body."
He ruffles through my hair.
"What about San?"
"We send him straight to bed after Yeosang took care of his wounds."
"Yeosang?!"
"Yeah, he said he would take care of it. He's making progress with his trauma it seems."
"That makes me happy."
"Me too."
"What time is it?"
"Shortly after noon."
"WHAT?! How long did I sleep?"
"Almost a whole day."
I try to get up but my whole body still hurts.
"Are you hungry? You want me to bring you something?"
"Yes, thank you!"
Fifteen minutes later Wooyoung is back with something to eat and a can with tea. He helps me to sit up and pours the tea into a cup.
"Are we out of the clouds yet?"
"No, Jongho thinks we might be three quarter through it. It will probably take another day."
"Okay. I will take over the wheel later."
"No,you won't. Not today and not tomorrow. You can't even stand, you idiot."
That's true. I also should probably trust the others more. They learned well from me. I can't wait to get better again and see what is on the other side of the wind barrier.
Authors Note:
Hii, I know it has been a bit since the last update, so you're getting a long chapter. I was completely knocked out by the heatwave and traveling to the other side of the country to see Ateez while getting barely any sleep. But it was amazing, even though I was in the fourth last row. 🙈 At least I had a nice overview over the stadium and could see the choreography pretty well. Their live vocals were out of this world and their moves were so sharp, especially Wooyoung stood out to me. Of course they also did some funny things like Yunho trying to strip Yeosang.😂 I had a very good time, even with a slight sunstroke.
I hope you liked this chapter and I hope I can update a bit quicker next time and I am not tired from the heat.