Morning came by and they heard a loud screech from one of the bed rooms, one by one they got out and saw Johnny dragging Jaehyun by his feet outside the bed room and to the living room. “Hyung I swear! I’m not the only one who has that picture!” Jaehyun tried to shield his face from his brother. Johnny and Taeil woke up last night when everybody was already eating dinner, none of their friends made another sound as they watched the two sit on their respective seats as they were trying to get through their drowsiness. When they went back to their bed rooms, Jaehyun made sure that his hyung was already fast asleep before sending the picture he took earlier. Johnny woke up the next morning and there was an absolute fat chance that he wanted to get out of bed since they were already heading back to Seoul later, he picked up his phone from under the pillow and lazily scrolled down through his Kakaotalk messages. He stopped at his and Jaehyun’s conversation box and opened it; his eyes grew wide at the picture of him and Taeil sleeping on the couch. The older had his head on Johnny’s lap, his hand on top of Johnny’s holding his phone together with him and each one of his ear buds on his and the older’s ear which he didn’t know how the heck did that happen because when he woke up, Taeil was already sitting down on the couch fighting off his drowsiness. Johnny didn’t know how to react, he should feel pleased though but pictures like this shouldn’t be seen by Taeil because everything will be extremely awkward all over again. “Hyung! Yuta hyung has a copy too!” he screeched, “delete it Jaehyun…or else~” Jaehyun swallowed that huge lump on his throat and fidgeted his phone deleting all of the pictures he took of Johnny and Taeil last night. He then glared at his friends and all of them hurriedly deleted the pictures that they took, he heaved out a deep sigh and released Jaehyun’s feet before retreating back to their room for more sleep. It was a good thing that Taeyong and Taeil went out to buy breakfast for them or then, Taeil would find out and distance himself from Johnny again.

“It’s finally todaaaaay~ we’re going back to the ship and start a brand new adventure” Ten said, Yuta hit the back of Ten’s head causing the younger to glare at him “what new adventure are you talking about? We’d be lucky if we don’t go into crisis like an abandon ship kind of crisis” Yuta heaved out a sigh as he looked at the ship floating mightily in front of them. Taeil stood beside the two and looked at the ship as well; he shrugged and made his way towards the stairs to go up so he can place his luggage inside his room. The two followed him from behind and the rest of their group of friends as well except for Johnny, Hansol and the new seafarers who are to join them in the ship. Taeil sat down on his bed and stared at the empty bed on the other side, “I won’t who’ll be my roommate” he asked then he started to unpack his stuff and hanged his uniform neatly. After waiting for almost an hour, Taeil decided that he should visit his mother for a short while, bring her a bouquet of flowers and some of her favorite food with the money that he had earned as Johnny’s personal cook. He quickly grabbed his small bag and placed his ticket, seaman’s book, phone and wallet then went out of his cabin to ask Hansol for his shore pass and I.D. he went to look for the new captain but he was nowhere to be found, he sighed to himself as he doesn’t even know what room was Yuta assigned to. But more or less, he’ll be staying in Hansol’s chamber but he doesn’t know which chamber because all of their rooms were not the rooms they had used before they disembarked the ship. He sat down on the lobby watching as more new recruits had come up replacing the ones who had decided to switch ships. He saw Taeyong’s brother Jeno carrying his luggage while walking beside someone with their fingers intertwined together; the younger approached him and smiled at him “hyuuuung! What are you doing here?” he placed his bag down, “hyung this is Jaemin, my boyfriend. He’ll be in the F&B department” “I’m Taeil” he extended his arm and Jaemin gladly shook his hand with a smile. “Your smile is really pretty, Jaemin-ah~” Taeil cooed and Jaemin blushed thanking the older, “anyway hyung what are you doing here?” Taeil looked around and shook his head “just looking for Hansol to get my shore pass.” Jaemin looked at him “Hansol hyung is probably up at the muster station going through the list of duties and probably pulling some strings to have Yuta hyung sleep in his chambers with him” Jaemin said and Taeil just smiled. “Oh~ I see…” he nodded a bit and saw Johnny walk up, “Johnny hyung can give you another shore pass though” Jeno pointed out then called Johnny who immediately approached them dropping his and his sister’s bags on the floor. “You called?” he asked, “Taeil hyung needs a shore pass. It looks like he’s going somewhere important for a very short shile” Johnny just nodded at Jeno, “I can go with you wherever you want to go… you don’t need a shore pass” Taeil hesitated a bit but nodded. “Wait here, I’ll get my and Hye In’s stuff in our rooms then we can go” Johnny sped up with his and his sister’s belongings and Taeil thanked Jeno and Jaemin before walking down the ship.

 They took the bus to the crematorium but before that, Taeil bought his mother’s favorite flowers and food and some candles. Johnny helped him with setting up the small memorial for the older’s brother and watched him pray for her soul. When Taeil was finished, Johnny also prayed for the older’s mother surprising Taeil. The taller smiled at him and patted his shoulder, “your mom looks really pretty. I bet she’s really nice” he said and Taeil nodded “she’s the nicest in the world…” they sat down for a short while, exchanged short talks before getting up and heading back to the ship. Johnny went back to the control room where he’d meet the new officers before all of them get to meet all the new and old crews in the conference room, Taeil was inside his room. His hand on his chest, he couldn’t close his eyes because every time he does, he sees Johnny’s face and his heart would beat a thousand times faster he groaned loudly and sat up after hearing someone knocking on the door. Herin’s head poked inside and she smiled, “guess I’ll be rooming with oppa then…” she placed her bags down “there are no more rooms available so they let me stay here with you Taeil oppa, I hope it’s okay” she smiled showing her deep dimples. “Ani…it’s fine, Herin-ssi. I don’t mind” he stood up and helped the younger with her bags, “oppa insisted that I’d stay in his room but I don’t want to get some sort of special treatment just because Captain Seo is my older brother” she chuckled and sat down on her bed. Taeil nodded in realization and kept quiet on his own bed, he wasn’t close with Herin unlike how he is with their other friends. He was the new addition to their group but his shyness and awkwardness wasn’t really helping so he stayed indian seated on his bed until they heard the announcement for a pre-embarkation meeting. The two of them left their room deciding that Herin should keep their key just in case since the older tends to lose a lot of things on his grasp at times. Taeil sat down on the far end with Taeyong and Ten on his right, Jaehyun and Doyoung on his left and then Yuta on the far end together with Hansol’s younger brother. “I’m glad that we have a lot of people who moved in the galley with us… we don’t have to take extra shift hours” Taeyong heaved out a soft sigh, “we need at least 8 people per shift or we’d be drained as hell” Taeil nodded in agreement recalling the kitchen disaster they had only months ago, as Taeil was about to open his mouth he saw Johnny and Hansol walk inside the room with their uniforms on. He had already gotten used to seeing Johnny in casual clothes for a whole month now that he had forgotten how good Johnny looked like in his uniform. The two captains had a couple of papers on their hands and started their meeting; they had assigned the crews in their own station as well as for the emergency stations. Johnny kept on stealing glances at Taeil the whole time but the older was busy taking notes, the captain could only smile fondly at how diligent Taeil was. When the meeting was over, Taeil and Taeyong went to the galley to prepare all of their food for dinner and since the new crews would start working tomorrow the two are the only people in-charge of everybody’s meals for now. The two sighed and looked at the crates of vegetables and they began working, half an hour later Yuta had entered the galley with Kun and decided to help the two but they still had enough people and Taeyong and Taeil were already tired, luckily Ten came in and decided to help as well. “My hands are already sore from all the chopping” Taeyong complained a little later but Taeil didn’t utter a word, he still continued with his work despite him loosing energy already.

Everybody was in the employees’ dining area having their early dinner in each groups of their own since this will be their last before they are separated in different shifts. The two captains decided to join the others surprising the crew and officers, each of them stood up and paid their respects before the two dismissed them so they could continue eating. Hansol sat beside Yuta as soon as he had spotted the latter immediately, “you look good in that uniform” he complimented his boyfriend then quickly shoved some food inside his mouth startling the new crew who didn’t know about their relationship. The new captain kissed the younger’s cheek and all those eyes who were set on them went back to eating their food, Johnny looked around sat down in between Mark and Herin purposely making the younger boy glare at him. “I wouldn’t sit here if Taeil hyung is here~” he shrugged, “hyung are you really coming out now? Like totally open to us about your ultimate crush” Mark asked in English but only got a noogie in response from the older. “Taeil hyung said he’s going to rest…so he won’t probably be eating dinner” Ten had told him, “he had been working nonstop and refused to take a break when we asked him to” Yuta added. “Which room is he?” his friends just looked at each other, “Herin’s his roommate, hyung…ask Herin” Jaehyun said, Johnny turned to his sister who had just finished eating “I’ll take you there…but please let oppa rest, his hand had cuts and burns from earlier. You should really take care of your boyfriend oppa. Like Jaehyun oppa” she then stood up and stacked up her dirty plate where the rest had placed them. “He’s not my boyfriend” he mumbled, “well…not yet~” he smiled to himself.

As the others were getting ready to welcome the passengers from down the ticketing station to the person in-charge of the front desk. They were all well groomed, Yuta seems so fidgety. He just checked their route and they were heading to Osaka, and they are going to land in his birth place half a month from now before they sail to Portland. They’re going to dock there for a week and he’ll be with his parents and Hansol, he felt excited yet nervous at the same time. Like something was going to happen, he can’t keep calm at all and when Ten saw the older’s behavior it had worried him. The last time Yuta was like this was when they were still interns, the older seemed to be worried over something but they just shrugged it off. About a week later, a ship had almost collided with theirs that would have cost their lives if it weren’t for Johnny who quickly diverted their ship’s route to another direction. Ten felt worried and scared, he then looked up the control room and prayed to the heavens that both Johnny and Hansol would deliver them to their destinations safely.

Johnny was sitting on the edge of Taeil’s bed watching the older sleep with a few band aids on both of his hands, “Oppa I’ll be in the clinic…I have yet to meet Dr. Chenle and Dr. Jisung and co-nurse Renjun” she headed out closing the door as quietly as possible to not wake up the older. Johnny lightly traced his finger over the older’s cheek but quickly retreated his hand away when Taeil flinched, he looked around and saw the older’s things were arranged in one corner and his uniform hanged properly. Taeil stirred a bit and opened his eyes to see a tall figure sitting in front of him; he squinted in his eyes with sleep still in his system “J-Johnny?” he sat up and rubbed his eyes, “what are you doing here, Captain Seo? You should be having your dinner already” he hissed a bit as he touched his one of his burns accidentally. “You weren’t there, so I came looking for you” he ruffled the shorter’s hair, Johnny was slowly getting his confidence back in front of Taeil. “I’m done with my duty now captain” “I know~” Johnny quickly replied “I wanted to make sure that you’re okay” Taeil smiled at what Johnny said. “Hmm…but you better go now, I heard that you’re manning the wheel at night and it’s almost 8pm…some of the passengers might have boarded already” he stood up and playfully pushed Johnny out of the room, when the taller had turned his heels to the other way Taeil had pulled him and planted a soft kiss on his cheek. He smiled and whispered, “thank you for being so nice to me, Captain Seo~” he waved at him and closed the door leaving Johnny stunned on the other side of the door.