“The chart.” The captain hissed, his nose almost touching Sungjong’s. “If you hand it over now, it will cover all your living expenses and we’ll take you wherever you want to go. And I don’t mean this as a threat.”

Sungjong looked away. “It’s…” Ah, the thought of it made him even blush again. “…Too embarrassing. I can’t do something like that. Furthermore, the person I give it to-“

“You don’t understand it, do you?” Sungjong shuddered at the sudden darkness of the pirate’s voice. What made him more scared was that Myungsoo suddenly grabbed his chin and made the boy face him yet again.

The younger’s eyes widened as his eyes locked with Myungsoo’s. The latter’s eyes were cold, and hard.

“We are pirates.” Much like his eyes, his tone was just as cold, it made Sungjong shiver more. “Anytime I feel like it, I could strip you of everything you have and then throw your carcass to the sharks.”

Sungjong may be feeling terrified right now, but he swore that he won’t ever back down for the sake of his father’s chart. He glowered at the pirate, earning a scoff from the latter. Myungsoo then suddenly seized the strap of Sungjong’s bag and tried to snatch it away from him.

“Is the chart inside here? I’m sure you don’t want anything bad to happen to yourself.” Sungjong’s quick action of gripping the bag to him even more tight made the pirate even more suspicious so he didn’t mind wasting his time playing tug of bag strap with the boy.

The ship seeming to have crashed onto something ended their little game. Myungsoo hastily let go of Sungjong and his bag before running out to the main deck. He took the telescope from Dongwoo’s hand to see who has been interrupting his taking away the chart time.

“Thank ye fer yesterday! Now hand over the lad and the chart!” Myungsoo sneered as he remembered that it’s the pirates whom he has beaten up easily yesterday.

“Oh. What’s this we have? Yesterday’s small fry? Good timing. Our next source of booty has arrived, boys.”

“You mean our next source of booty. Pull up beside the boat! And let’s relieve them of their cargo!” A few minutes later, the old man pirate from yesterday’s ship has crashed beside Myungsoo’s ship and his men all jumped onto it.

While the battle is going on, Sungjong had been hiding and watching from below, by the stairs.

Just as I thought.

It’s pointless to have faith in pirates.

Seeing that everybody is busy with their own combats, Sungjong scanned the place to look for an escape route.

Bingo.

The path towards the cockboat is clear, so he made a quick dash for it.

Now’s my chance.

I have to leave immediately while there’s chaos.

Sungjong carefully places one foot on the rail, watching the small boat carefully as he waits for the right time to jump, what with the strong waves and all.

“Over there!!! It’s the lad with the chart!!” He heard someone yell a few feet from behind. Dammit! They saw me!!!

Sungjong, who doesn’t want to get caught by the greedy pirates, chooses to jump off the ship immediately to save his life.

“Don’t let him escape! Shoot his legs out from under him!” Sungjong however, too busy thinking about escaping and too slow to move, didn’t hear the sound of an arrow fired from the pirate’s crossbow.

Seeing as the arrow is about to hit the boy, Myungsoo runs to shield the young man from the arrow. Sungjong gasped at the sudden weight that pressed onto him, lasting for a few seconds as the captain quickly regained his balance, pulling the arrow that has struck into him his left arm.

“Myungsoo ssi!” Sungjong shrieked in horror as he watches the pirate’s blood spluttering everywhere after taking the arrow out.

“Yah! Hurry up and bring him inside!” He ordered directly to no one, so Hoya, who was nearer the scene and the boy, ran and easily placed Sungjong on his shoulder. “Come on, lad!” Too shocked to even react, the young man just let the muscled pirate carry him away.

Why?

In the end, the mean old pirates have been defeated by Myungsoo and his crew that they had no other choice but to retreat.

“Is this all the booty they had?” Myungsoo frowned at the almost empty wooden chest of golden coins they got for overpowering the wimpy pirates. He sighed. “Well, it figures. They really were small fry after all.” He turned to his men. “What damage did we sustain?”

“There are several men with broken bones. What about you, capt’?” Woohyun eyed Myungsoo as he helps his co-pirate up.

“Oh this?” Myungsoo shrugged at his left arm. “It’s just a scratch.” He then gracefully left the pirates to tend to themselves, heading to his own quarters to tend to himself.

“I’m sorry! This was all my fault!” Sungjong appears in front of him out of nowhere, bowing continuously as part of his ap