Second Officer, Ka Soojin has his boats swung out. He is standing amidst a crowd of uncertain passengers in all states of dress and undress. One first class woman in barefoot. Others are in stockings. The maitre of the restaurant is in top hat and overcoat. Others are still in evening dress, while some are in bathrobes and kimonos. Women are wearing lifebelts over velvet gowns, then topping it with sable stoles. Some brought jewels, others books, even small dogs.
Ka sees Kye walking stiffly toward him and quickly goes to him. He yells into the Captain's ear, through cupped hands, over the roar of the steam... "Hadn't we better get the women and children into the boats, sir?"
Kye just nods, a bit abstractly. The fire has gone out of him. Ka sees the awesome truth in Kye's face. He then turns to the other officers and seamen on the deck. "Right! Start the loading. Women and children!"
The appalling din of escaping abruptly cuts off, leaving a sudden unearthly silence in which Ka's voice echoes.
Woo Hwan raises his violin to play. "Number twenty-six. Ready, and-"
The band has reassembled just outside the First Class Entrance, port side, near where Ka is calling for the boats to be loaded. They strike up a waltz, lively and elegant. The music wafts all over the ship.
"Ladies, please. Step into the boat." Ka orders.
Finally one woman steps across the gap, into the boat, terrified of the drop of the water far below.
A random woman in the crowd moans out, "You watch. They'll put us off in these silly little boats to freeze, and we'll all be back on board by breakfast."
Pilwoo, Jimin and Mijeong come out of the doors near the band.
"My brooch, I left my brooch. I must have it!" Jimin's mother cries out. She turns back to go to her room but Pilwoo takes her by the arm, refusing to let her go. The firmness of his hold surprises her.
"Stay here, Mijeong."
Mijeong sees his expression, and knows fear for the first time.
゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。
Inside Steerage, it is complete chaos, with stewards pushing their way through narrow corridors clogged with people carrying suitcases, duffel bags, children. Some have lifebelts on, others don't.
One steward turns to another. "I told the stupid sods no luggage. Aw, bloody hell!" He throws up his hand at the sight of a family, loaded down with cases and bags, completely blocking the corridor.
Hoseok, Jungkook and Seokjin push past the stewards, going the other way. They reach a huge crows gathered at the bottom of the main third class stair well. Hoseok spots Helga with the rest of the Dahl family, standing patiently with suitcases in hand. He reaches her and she grins, hugging him.
Jungkook pushes to where he can see what's holding up the group. There is a steel gate across the top of the stairs, with several stewards and seamen on the other side.
One steward is trying to reassure the large crowd. "Stay calm, please. It's not time to go up to the boats yet."
Near Jungkook, and Irish woman stands stoically with two small children and their battered luggage. Her little boy turns to him mum, and says, "What are we doing, mummy?"
"We're just waiting, dear. When they finish putting First Class people in the boats, they'll be startin' with us, and we'll want to be all ready, won't we?"
On the Starboard side of the ship, boat seven is less than half full, with twenty-eight aboard a boat made for sixty-five.
First Officer Wang is there, shouting out orders. "Lower away! By the left and right together, steady lads!"
The boat lurches as the falls start to pay out through the pulley blocks. The women gasp. The boat descends, swaying and jerking, toward the water sixty feet below. The passengers are terrified.
゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。
Down inside the Master of Arms Office a porthole has been submerged with water. Yoongi is looking apprehensively at the water rising up the glass from where he sits chained up to the waterpipe, next to the porthole. Namjoon sits on the edge of a desk. He puts a .45 bullet on the desk and watches it roll across and fall off. He picks up the bullet. "You know... I believe this ship may sink." He crosses over to Yoongi. "I've been asked to give you this small token of our appreciation." He punches Yoongi hard in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. "Compliments of Sir Park Pilwoo." Namjoon flips the handcuff key in the air, catches it and puts it in his pocket. He then exits leaving Yoongi left gasping, handcuffed to the pipe.
Back on Starboard side, at the stairwell rail on the bridge wing, Fourth Officer Bang and Quatermaster Cha light the first distress rocket. It shoots into the sky and explodes with a thunderclap over the ship, sending out white starbursts which light up the entire deck as they fall.
The Managing Director, Somun is cracking. Already at the breaking point from his immense guilt, the rocket panics him. He starts shouting at the officers struggling with the falls of Boat Five. "There is no time to waste!" He yells and waves his arms. "Lower away! Lower away! Lower away!"
Fifth Officer Chu, a baby-faced twenty-eight year old, and the youngest officer, looks up from the tangled falls at the madman. "Get out of the way, you fool!"
"Do you know who I am?"
Chu, not having a clue nor caring, squares up to Somun. "You're a passenger. And I'm a ship's bloody officer. Now do what you're told!" He then turns away, back to the crew. "Steady men! Stand by the falls!"
Somun numbly back away. "Yes, quite right. Sorry."
On Port Side, Second Officer Cha is loading the boat nearest Pilwoo and Jimin - Boat Six.
"Women and children only! Sorry sir, not men yet." Cha shouts.
Another rocket bursts overhead, lighting the crowd. Startled faces turn upward. Fear now in their eyes.
Kim Taehyung has his Biograph set up, cranking away, hoping to get an exposure off the rocket's light. He has Minji posed in front of the scene at the boats. "You're afraid, darling. Scared to death. That's it!"
Either she suddenly learned to act or she is petrified.
Jimin watches the farewells taking place right in front of him as they step closer to the boat. Husbands saying goodbye to wives and children. Lovers and friends parted. Nearby Wan Bao is getting a reluctant woman to board the boat. "Come on, you heard the man. Get in the boat, sister."
"Will the lifeboats be seated according to class?" Complains Jimin's snob of a mother. "I hope they're not too crowded-"
"Oh, Mother shut up!" Jimin snaps. Mijeong freezes, mouth open. "Don't you understand? The water is freezing and there aren't enough boats, not enough by half. Half the people on this ship are going to die."
"Not the better half." Jimin's father pipes in.
All of a sudden, Jimin's face changes as it hits him like a thunderbolt. Yoongi is third class. He doesn't stand a chance. Another rocket bursts overhead, bathing his face in white light. "You unimaginable bastard."
"Come on, Mijeong, get in the boat." Bao ushers. "These are the first class seats right up here. That's it."
Wan Bao practically hands her over to Cha, then looks around for some other women who might need a push.
Jimin steps back, shaking his head. "Goodbye, mother."
Mijeong standing in the tippy lifeboat, can do nothing. Pilwoo grabs Jimin's arm but he pulls free and walks away through the crowd. Pilwoo catches up to his son and grabs him again, roughly. "Where are you going? To him? Is that it? To be a gay whore to that gutter rat?"
"I'd rather be his whore than your son."
Pilwoo clenches his jaw and squeezes Jimin's arm viciously, pulling him back toward the lifeboat. Jimin pulls out an earring and jabs him with it. Pilwoo lets go with a curse and Jimin runs into the crowd.
"Lower away!!" Shouts Quatermaster Cha.
"Jimin! JIMIN!" His mother cries.
Wan Bao glares at her. "Stuff a sock in it, would ya, Mijeong. He'll be along."
The boat lurches downward as the falls are paid out.
Jimin runs through the clusters of people. He looks back and a furious Pilwoo is coming after him. Jimin runs breathlessly up to two proper looking men. "That man tried to take advantage of me in the crowd!"
Appalled, they turn to see Pilwoo running toward them. Jimin runs as the two men grab Pilwoo, restraining him. Jimin runs through the First Class entrance.
Pilwoo breaks free and runs after him. Jimin reaches the entrance, but runs into a knot of people coming out. He pushes rudely through them.
Pilwoo runs into the boat deck foyer, and down the landing, pushing past the gentlemen and ladies who are filling up the stairs. He scans the A-deck foyer. Jimin is gone.
゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。
The hull of Titanic looms over Boat Six like a cliff. Its enormous mass is suddenly threatening to those in the tiny boat. Quatermaster Cha, at the tiller, wants nothing but to get away from the ship. Unfortunately his two seamen can't row. They flail like a duck with a broken wing. "Keep pulling - away from the ship. Pull."
Wan Bao scolds them. "Ain't you boys ever rowed before? Here, gimme those oars. I'll show you how its done."
She climbs over Mijeong to get at the oars, stepping on her feet.
Around them the evacuation is in full swing, with boats in the water, others being lowered.
゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。
Yoongi pulls on the pipe with all his strength. It's not budging. He hears a gurgling sound. Water pours under the door, spreading rapidly across the floor.
"Shit." He tries to pull one hand out of the cuffs, working until the skin is raw... no good.
"Help!! Somebody!! Can anybody hear me?!" He cries out, and then to himself; "This could be bad."
The corridor outside is deserted. Flooded a couple of inches deep. Yoongi's voice come faintly through the door, but there is no one to hear it.
In the First Class corridor, Pom Hyo is opening stateroom doors, checking that people are out. "Anyone in here?"
Jimin runs up to him, breathless. "Mr. Pom, thank God! Where would the Master at Arms take someone under arrest?!"
"What? You have to get to a boat right away!"
"No! I'll do this with or without your help, sir. But without will take longer."
Pom looks defeated. "Take the elevator to the very bottom, go left, down the crewman's passage, then make a right."
"Bottom, left, right. I have it." Jimin repeats.
"Hurry, Jimin."
Jimin runs up as the last Elevator Operator is closing up his lift to leave.
"Sorry, sir, lifts are closed-"
Without thinking Jimin grabs him and shoves him back into the lift. "I'm through with being polite, goddammit!! I may never be polite the rest of my life! Now take me down!!"
The operator fumbles to close the gate and start the lift.
゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。
Wan Bao and the two seamen are rowing, and they've made it a hundred feet or so. Enough to see that the ship is angled down into the water, with the bow rail less than ten feet above the surface. "Come on girls, join in, it'll keep ya warm. Let's go Mijeong. Grab an oar!"
Mijeong just stares at the spectacle of the great liner, its rows of lights blazing, slanting down into the sullen black mirror of the Atlantic.
Through the wrought iron door of the elevator car Jimin can see the decks going past. The lift slows. Suddenly ice water is swirling around his legs. He screams in surprise. So does the operator.
The car has landed in a foot of freezing water, shocking the hell out of him. He claws the door open and splashes out. The lift goes back up, behind him, as Jimin looks around.
"Left, crew passage."
Jimin spots it and slogs down the flooded corridor. The place is understandably deserted. He is on his own.
"Right, right... right." He turns into a cross-corridor, splashing down the hall. A row of doors on each side. "Yoongi? Yooonnggii??"
Yoongi is hopelessly pulling on the pipe again, straining until he turns red. He collapses back on the bench, realizing he's screwed. Then he hears him through the door. "JIMIN!! In here!"
In the hall, Jimin hears his voice behind him. He spins and runs back, locating the right door, then pushes it open, creating a small wave.
He splashes over to Yoongi and puts his arms around him. "Yoongi, Yoongi, Yoongi... I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
They are so happy to see each other it's embarrassing.
"That guy Namjoon put it in my pocket."
"I know, I know."
"See if you can find a key for these. Try those drawers. It's a little brass one."
Jimin kisses Yoongi's face and hugs him again, then starts to go through the desk.
"So... how did you find out I didn't do it?" Yoongi asks.
"I didn't." Jimin looks at him. "I just realized I already knew."
They share a look, then Jimin goes back to ransacking the room, searching drawers and cupboards. Yoongi sees movement out the porthole and looks out.
A lifeboat hits the surface of the water. Yoongi sees as the bottom of the boat breaks through the surface and appears in his view underneath the tall water outside.
゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。
While the seamen detach the falls, Boat One rocks next to the hull. Lucile and Sir Cosmo Chwa sit with ten others in a boat made for four times that many.
Lucile complains, like the rich do. "I despise small boats. I just know I'm going to be seasick. I always get seasick on small boats. Good Heavens, there's a man down there."
In a lit porthole beneath the surface she sees Yoongi looking up at her - a face in a bubble of light under the water.
Jimin stops trashing the room, and stands there, breathing hard. "There's no key in here."
They look around at the water, now almost two feet deep. Yoongi has pulled his feet up onto the bench. "You have to go for help."
Jimin nods. "I'll be right back."
"I'll wait here."
Jimin runs out, looking back at Yoongi once from the doorway, then splashes away. Yoongi looks down at the swirling water in fear.