"BAEKHYUN! CHUNGHA!!" I call out, bursting through the doors of the sickbay. As soon as I walk in, two heads snap towards me, clearly startled at my sudden entrance. The sickbay here is much larger than the Aurora's. It's nice and spacious, lined up with about four cots on each side. I run to the middle, looking wildly at the pair inside of the room, feeling a nostalgic sensation as I gaze upon their familiar faces.
"S-sun-Mi?" Chungha asks, perplexed to see me here. She blinks a couple of times at where I stand, almost as if to convince herself that what she's seeing isn't an illusion. I bite down on my bottom lip, trying my best to contain my excitement but failing when Baekhyun stands up to face me. Without thinking, I throw myself at him, wrapping my hands around his neck. It takes them both a second to register what's happening before they respond.
"I— You— Oh god, it's really you!" Baekhyun hugs me back tightly, laughing at the events; meanwhile, Chungha stands there, looking at me with her mouth agape. I laugh with him as well, feeling my prior anxiousness dissipate as I cling to my dearly-missed orange-haired cousin. When I let go, I don't get a moment to breathe because Chungha is the next to throw herself at me with glassy eyes.
"Oh, I'm so glad you're alive! All of us were so worried when you fled, we thought something happened to you. And then we found Taehyung— Sun-Mi, I'm so sorry," she apologizes, squeezing the air out of me while she tries to hold in her tears. I pull away from her hug and cup her face, making her light blue eyes look into mine.
"Chungha, it's okay. I'm here, I'm fine. You guys risked everything for me that night, there's no reason why you should feel guilty for how things turned out," I console her, wiping off the crystal tears that had started to move down her perfectly smooth, porcelain skin. I hug her comfortingly one more time, running my hand through her blonde hair and I wait for her to settle down.
"Out of all the places, who knew we were gonna meet up here." Baekhyun muses, sitting back down on a cot and staring up at me and Chungha.
"It's odd how life works." I agree with him. "But someone once told me that nothing in life happens as a coincidence. There must be some reason why we've been reunited," I state wisely, remembering what Bina had told me a while ago. Chungha lifts her head to look at me, still keeping an arm around me but moving enough to also face Baekhyun.
"You're right. It's very suspicious to me that you've been reunited with us at the same time that we've been sent to discuss the next law that hag wants to pass." Chungha vocalizes, sniffling a little.
"A new law?" Both of them nod.
"Your mother has gone mad with these laws."
"She's not my mother," I respond to Baekhyun's comment curtly.
"Right, I forgot. Step-mom." We go quiet for a quick second before I ask about this suspicious law.
"What exactly is it that she wants to pass?" Chungha and Baekhyun look at each other, exchanging an uncertain glance as Baekhyun speaks up to talk about it.
"She, uh, she wants to set a new law on magic bearers. She's calling it The Ban."
"Okay but magic has been banned. What's she planning?" They take another moment to think of what they're going to say and this time Chungha says it.
"According to Sehun, he's found a way to steal someone's magic but it can also kill them. There's a chance that if this law passes... we might be looking at a genocide." My heart drops at the news and the atmosphere turns dark. I remember Hongjoong and how he mentioned that he'd lost some of his powers. The only reason that can explain why Sehun didn't kill him was that there were more things he wanted to do to Captain. Eye-patch is lucky to even be standing right now.
"When are you two supposed to meet with the King and Queen of Ocleavear?"
"Tomorrow morning." They answer in unison.
"But maybe you can come in for the meeting and try to convince them to not pass the law," Chungha suggests. I purse my lips, thinking about all of my choices. If this law passes, more people will be in danger than before. And it'll be worse if they ever get their hands on the Isle of the Lost. It's full of magic-bearers.
"Alright," I declare, having decided what it is I must do, "I'll try to see if I can slip into the meeting. If you guys can't convince King and Queen Kang to let me in, I can probably get Yeosang to do it." At the mention of his name, Chungha's eyes fly wide open and she straightens herself up, viciously wiping at the left over tears and fixing her hair.
"Are you telling me that the smexy pirate that came to visit us last time is here with you right now? How do I look? Is my makeup ok? My mascara isn't clumpy is it?" I giggle at her reaction and Baekhyun just facepalms, clearly disappointed.
"Out of all the things she just said the first thing you react to is the name of a random man? He probably doesn't even remember you!" Baekhyun complains.
"Aht- Aht- Aht! He will soon," she shoots back confidently, crossing her hands. At the same moment, someone else bursts into the room.
"Sun-Mi! Where did you—," Wooyoung stops mid-sentence, moving his gaze between me and the two other people with me. "Uhhh, hi," he changes his tone, walking slower to us before stopping right next to me. "You guys must be Sun-Mi's old friends." Chungha and Baekhyun only stare at him silently, making it really awkward for all of us.
"Guys, this is my friend and crew-mate, Jung Wooyoung. Woo, this is my cousin, Baekhyun," I introduce and he shakes Baekhyun's hand, flashing a confident smile. "And this is my best friend and First Lady, Chungha," with her, Wooyoung takes the ever-charming route and bows to her, taking her hand and kissing her knuckles.
"It's a pleasure to meet such a beautiful friend of Sun-Mi's," he compliments flirtatiously, making Chungha a red mess.
"That's enough, Casanova," I interrupt him, pulling him back by the collar with an eye-roll. He giggles adorably which only makes Chungha fall for him even more. I give him a stern look and he looks away, ignoring me with a smug smile.
"Chungha, we should really get going," Baekhyun reminds her, tugging on her sleeve and snapping her out of her daydream. "We need to settle into the castle and get ready for tomorrow."
"You know what, I think maybe I could give you guys a tour of the place." I propose cheerily, turning to Woo. "Do you think the King will be okay with that?"
"Depends. But if not, just tell Yeosang, he'll take care of it." I nod and motion for Chungha and Baekhyun to follow me. Baekhyun steps in next to me extending his elbow so that I can link my arm with his, which I do. Wooyoung does the same thing to Chungha, and just like that, we exit the sickbay on our way to the Ocleavean castle.
~
Wooyoung had decided to stay behind and spend the rest of his day with his dad, which is understandable. The rest of us decided to head to the castle and when we arrived, Chungha and Baekhyun were both greeted by Mina at the gate who had been expecting them. The atmosphere between the two of us has been kind of tense and the murderous glances she would throw my way gave our relationship away. It wasn't until we were out of earshot that Chungha started to whisper in my ear about the strange interaction.
"Sun-Mi, oh my goodness, who was that? She looked like she wanted to rip you apart?" The now energetic blondie pulls me closely next to her to ask. I roll my eyes ignoring her to avoid the question but it doesn't help that Baekhyun has also decided to join the gossip.
"Right!! The minute you two breathed the same air I felt a disturbance."
"Oh, C'mon you two! You just got here and you're already sifting through my affairs with people!" I complain, throwing my hands up."
"Well, excuse you, but as you can tell, it hasn't been very eventful back home. The least you can do is fill us in on the juicy events of your life these past 9 months." He defends, waiting expectantly for me to answer. I look over at Chungha who's batting her eyelashes at me sweetly.
"You two make my life so difficult," I sigh, finding no other choice but to fill them in. "I may or may not have dumped water on her on purpose because I was jealous," I admit, putting my hands behind my back with a pleased look on my face.
"Pfft— Amateur," Chungha scoffs, looking away from me. "I would've dumped something more damaging." I gawk at her bluntness and Baekhyun only laughs.
"Okay, to be fair that was the only thing at my disposal."
"Right... what was it that you were jealous about again?" My orange-haired cousin asks slyly, smirking when he notices that I've gotten a bit red. I open my mouth to respond when I hear a loud rustling followed by shouts and grunts. When the three of us round the corner, we walk out into a large open garden with an equally large path walk leading into it. A couple of feet ahead, two figures seem to be wrestling with each other.
They've locked onto each other and neither seems to want to let go. The struggle continues and as we warily walk closer to the fighting pair, I begin to distinguish the voices.
"GIVE IT BACK!" Seonghwa yells as Eye-patch tries his best to wrench himself out of the oldest's grip. Captain refuses to hand him back whatever it was he had, which angers Seonghwa even more. The wrestling escalates really quickly and I yell for them to stop but by that point Seonghwa already got the lead, sweeping the shorter man's legs out from under him and pushing him into one of the bushes on the side of the path walk to minimize the damage.
"What on earth is going on?!" I call out worriedly, arriving at where the two men are on the floor. Seonghwa is still struggling to take something from Eye-patch but when he does, he stands up and turns to face me.
"Sun-Mi!" He straightens himself, hiding his hand and whatever it was he was holding, which looked awfully like a cookie, behind his back. "W-we were just playing." I eye him and he notices that I'm scrutinizing him, so he puts on an innocent smile. Eye-patch soon gets up grumbling to himself and then looking over at me.
"He's lying. He stole my cookie." Eye-patch whines, glaring at Seonghwa's head with a pout. The oldest sputters, opening and closing his mouth without any words ever coming out of it. I roll my eyes extending my hand for him to give the cookie. Reluctantly, Seonghwa sets down the cookie in my palm and I split it in half, handing one to each of the two men.
"You guys act like literal children."
"But Hongjoong had taken my—,"
"I don't wanna hear it. You are grown men! FULLY-GROWN ADULT MEN!" I chastise them and they bow their heads guiltily, not meeting my eyes. "As you can see there are guests. Now please stop embarrassing me." At the mention of guests Seonghwa directs his attention specifically to Baekhyun who's standing to my left. Eye-patch is a little slower to realize the two people at my sides, but when he does notice his attention also goes directly to Baekhyun. When their eyes meet, both their bodies instinctively tense up, ready to spring at each other.
"Sun-Mi, who are these people?" Captain asks, looking harshly at Baekhyun who gives him an equally murderous glare. Even Seonghwa looks a little bit tense which is really starting to worry me.
"They are the ambassadors sent from Eohithra to speak with the King and Queen over a new law. Don't worry though they're my friends. Baekhyun here is my cousin—,"
"Oh I know who he is. We've run into him plenty of times." I'm starting to think that it was a bad idea to have them meet. I look over at Chungha who is literally just eating up at the drama excitedly.
"Oooo! Fight! Fight!" I elbow her to shut her up and she does, letting out a little yelp. That caught Seonghwa's attention and instantly he recognizes her when he sets his eyes on her.
"Wait, Hongjoong, calm down. I've met them before." He sticks his neck out for us, holding back Captain who looks ready to pounce on Baekhyun.
"What are you talking about?" The shorter one asks with a scowl.
"Remember how Yeosang and I ran into Sun-Mi when we went to see Ten? Well, she had passed out that day and I remember meeting her friend. She was the one Yeosang was flirting with." Seonghwa responds, reminding Eye-patch.
"Really? This girl? OUCH— I didn't mean it in a rude way!" Captain shouts when the oldest pulls his ear. Chungha mad-dogs Baekhyun who started laughing at Hongjoong's reaction and I facepalm, once again getting embarrassed by them. By this point, the tension between Baekhyun and Captain has left a little but it's still present. I'm just going to decide to ignore it. Seonghwa rolls his eyes, facing Chungha with the same polite smile he gave her the day he came into the castle.
"It's nice to see you again." He addresses her with a small bow and then Baekhyun. "Isn't it Hongjoong?" He nudges Captain who unwillingly agrees.
"You know, I just remembered, Mingi had actually told me that he needed my help with something so, uhh, I guess I'll catch you all later." Eye-patch evidently lies to get his way out of here, backing up slowly and then speeding off somewhere else, but not before snatching Seonghwa's price of cookie from out of his hands. The cook is slow to realize, reacting too late to do anything.
"Stupid minion," he mutters frustratedly under his breath, watching Hongjoong speed off before swiveling back around to face me. He takes a deep breath before grinning again.
"So, um, what are you up to?" I fidget with my hands slightly while answering his question, feeling my stomach tingle.
"We were just walking around when we heard you two fighting," I pause, biting my cheek as I judge whether to ask him the next part. "Are you free now? If you are, you're more than welcome to join us." I invite, maybe a little too excitedly because I hear Chungha and Baekhyun snicker from behind me. Seonghwa doesn't notice, only shaking head dejectedly.
"I don't think I'll be able to go with you today. Sorry." He apologizes which honestly kind of bums me down. I was hoping to get some more attention from him after he made it up to me yesterday but I understand that he's busy. I guess he notices my sadness because he holds up a finger for me to wait and walks over to a basket on the side of a large bush, picking up a single white rose from it and a pair of gardening scissors. He walks over to me, handing me the rose with a dashing smile and I don't know how to react. "I was in the rose garden earlier fixing some stuff and I saw some large bushes of gorgeous white roses," He begins to explain with a bright glimmer in his eyes. "At some point, the roses reminded me of you so I took a couple to give to you. As a second reparation gift."
I take the rose with an unsteady hand feeling my heart almost stop at the sight of Seonghwa holding out the rose. It looks exactly like the dream I had a long time ago back at the Isle. I take the rose looking down at it blankly, not being able to think of anything besides that dream.
"Do you not like it?" Seonghwa inquires with a furrowed brow and wide eyes.
"No-no, I love it. I just— I already told you I forgave you. You didn't have to give me this."
"I know, but I wanted to." He answers in an incredibly soft tone, a wide smile spreading across his features. "Here let me help you with it," he suddenly suggests without giving me a moment to answer.
He takes the rose from me, cutting off a part of the large stem and then raising it up to my head. He steps in closer to me, enough for me to smell his addictive scent mixed in with sweat from working outside, and arranges the rose so that it sits behind my ear, tucking half of my hair behind it. When he tucks my hair behind my ear, his fingers move slowly almost caressing it before his hand comes down to my cheek. His hand lingers there for a second, my skin tingling when his skin makes contact with mine, and he just stares. Almost as if he were admiring how I look with the flower.
He smiles one last time, squeezing my shoulder and them excusing himself to leave. I can't bring myself to move, feeling my heart pound vigorously against my chest and my cheeks burning up. I spin around ever so slowly to face a gawking Chungha and Baekhyun whose jaws almost touch the floor. Chungha laughs maniacally, jumping up and down ecstatically next to me.
"OMGOMGOMG! IS THAT THE PERSON YOU WERE JEALOUS OVER! IT HAS TO BE HIM HE IS FINEEEEE!" She hollers, shaking me violently.
"Sun-Mi, that is one fine man. Why the HELL did you not kiss him right then and there?" Baekhyun speaks up, almost making me choke in my saliva. "Like I am the straightest man you will ever find—,"
"No, you're not."
"Shut-up." He cuts Chungha off. "But I would've kissed that man right then and there. You really passed up such an opportunity there." I smile sheepishly, not answering and only looking down which makes them bug me even more.
"She's not disagreeing! YOU'VE TOTALLY FALLEN FOR HIM." Chungha announces for everyone to hear.
"Shhhh! You're too damn loud!" I shush her.
"You move so fast. It's almost like you never dated Taehyung." Baekhyun comments not really thinking about it. I stiffen up and the mood changes just as quickly. I know he didn't mean it to offend me but I can't help feel my heart fall into my chest as I begin to be slowly filled with guilt. "Oh, wait, no, I'm so sorry I didn't ever mean for you to take it that way—."
"It's okay," I cut him off blankly, lifting a hand to take off the flower sitting behind my ear. I look down at the delicate white rose, the absence of color in it reminding me of Taehyung's pale skin. Flashes and little memories of that day cloud my train of thought. I shut my eyes tightly as I try to push pack the painful events. I try my best to push down my guilt but I can't help feeling like there's a large empty hole where my heart should be.
"Look what you've done this time, stupid. Now she's gonna cry because of you!" Chungha punches Baekhyun angrily.
"No, I am not gonna cry. I'm fine."
"But, are you sure? I mean it's still very recent and I know how hard it must be after losing someone that way—,"
"Chungha!" I raise my voice startling both of them and then adjust my tone. "I am fine." She nods, understanding that I don't want to talk about it. In order to keep the conversation going I start to ask around, wanting to avoid an awkward atmosphere between the three of us. "How has it been back home since I left?"
"Ooft, not good at all," Chungha shakes her head, looking almost distraught at the thought of Eohithra.
"Incredibly weird things have been happening. Queen Lee has been acting so differently. She's a complete wreck ever since you left. She has become so paranoid and aggressive with everyone, I'm surprised she hasn't killed half of her servants already," Baekhyun expounds.
"Paranoid? Why is she paranoid?"
"Well, at first when you left the castle she thought you had been killed off. She became especially adamant on this when we, um, found... you know, Taehyung's body. And for a couple of months she was at ease, but she still made those Pirate Affiliation Laws just in case. When Sehun came with the news that he had found you, she immediately started to panic. It only got worse when you escaped captivity." He continues to explain and Chungha nods along, confirming everything he says.
"She's gone completely mad, Sun-Mi. Like totally psycho. We even heard Ji-Eun talking about it with Sehun. She looked so worried about the Queen, I kind of feel bad for your step-sister." Chungha relays which I'm surprised to hear. If Queen Lee has gotten to the point where even Ji-Eun is worrying for her, something is completely wrong.
"Okay well, what about my dad? Has the King done anything to calm her?" Both Chungha and Baekhyun give each other a look of anxiety before the latter gives me a response.
"You see, that's the thing. No one knows where he is. The same week the news of you escaping Illoriant came, King Lee disappeared completely. Like he just vanished. Not even the Queen knows where he's gone."
"And that's not even all," Chungha continues, "Anytime we confront Ji-Eun about it, she turns completely violent and lashes out at us. One time she even broke down crying for who-knows-what." This information begins to creep me out as I start going through the possibilities of what could've happened. How could my father just disappear like that? There has to be some reason for it. But what is it?
"Has anyone else disappeared?" I dig deeper, crossing my fingers that the answer is no.
"Irene. The same day that you left, she also left. But luckily she left a letter behind with Ten explaining that she's decided it's time to leave Eohithra and start focusing on her real self, or something like that."
"Strange," I mutter, mulling over the facts that have been presented to me. Could my father's disappearance be connected to Irene's? No, he vanished after her not with her. "Guys, have my brothers been acting strangely?" Chungha hesitated to answer but did anyway.
"They have, actually. Why?" I think back and remember the dream I had the same night I dreamed of Seonghwa giving me a white rose. In it, my father and my brother's were being controlled by my step-mom before Mark shot me. Considering that what I had dreamt about Seonghwa ended up coming true, there could be some explanation for my father's disappearance there.
"Never mind," I brush it off, deciding that it's probably nothing.
"Okayyyy, um, I'm getting kind of creeped out talking about this, how about we change the subject?" Baekhyun proposes to Chungha and I think it's a good idea.
"OH wait! Sun-Mi, did you ever read the letters I gave you? I did give them to you right?" My orange-haired cousin asks worriedly, I press my lips together, remembering that I actually lost them.
"Actually, I might have lost them." I confess, turning a little red from embarrassment. "Sorry, did they have something important?"
"OH THANK GOODNESS!" Baekhyun exclaims, relieved to hear that I didn't read them. "They were embarrassing anyway."
"Why?"
"I might've been a little tipsy when I wrote mine." He laughs a bit while saying this. Chungha gives him a deadpan glare and he rolls his eyes with a groan.
"Ok, ok, I was completely wasted when I wrote it." At this point, I'm not even surprised considering that he's done way worse to embarrass himself. I only laugh, glad that I saved myself the trouble of reading through one of his drunken emotional tantrums.
"Anyways, how about you fill us in on how your life has been these past months? I'm just dying to hear how you convinced those pirates to let you stay with them!" My blonde-haired friend chatters, linking the three of our arms together as she pulls us along to the shade where I go on filling them in on all of the crazy events that have occurred to me in the past months.
From almost getting skinned by Eye-patch to finding out that I'm an enchantress, I tell them every single thing that has happened to me and they absorb it like sponges. The three of us talk, laugh, and enjoy each other's company, overjoyed to be able to see each other again, for who knows when the next time will be. For now, I take in this moment as it is, appreciating every second I have with them.
If only it were like this everyday....