The sun glared down at the ship from the sky as its scorching heat glazed at the untroubled sailors. It was a restful day for everyone to sit down and relax, enjoying the sunny weather out on the deck. An abundance of seagulls flew over the ship, screeching for food. One of the crew members, Taeil, began swatting the seagulls that were coming towards his bread he was eating. Next to him, Yuta laughed, amused seeing his friend struggling before getting jabbed in the ribs. 

"These stupid birds! Go away, shoo, shoo!!" Taeil yelled, taking off his hat to scram them away.

"Hey, don't be so mean to them. They only want food," Doyoung defended.

"Well, they're bothering me," he argued.

"That's because you won't share." Doyoung stood beside him, taking out his own piece of bread, tearing out bits of pieces to the starving seagulls. The seagulls calmed down, settling themselves on the deck, devouring the breadcrumbs that was being thrown onto the ground. 

Doyoung then smiled. "There ya go. Now they're not an irk anymore." Taeil blankly stared at the birds, mumbling incoherent words and walked back to his seat before Doyoung could say anything else. Yuta slightly shook his head in delight at the scene before him. He then clicked his tongue, while slowing leaning his head to the right.

"Hey, guys."

"Yeah?"

"What's the plan tonight?"

"Tonight?"

Yuta shot them an annoyed look. "Don't you remember?"

It finally dawned to Taeil and Doyoung as their eyes widened. "Oh, yeah!"

He shaked his head, ashamed. "We should call in the other crew members so we can discuss."

"I got it," Doyoung volunteered. With that, he immediately left the two to find the others. 

When he came back, there was ten more people behind him, baffled on what was happening.

"What's going on?" Jisung, the youngest out of all of them, asked.

"We need to figure out what's the plan-"

"For what?" 

"For tonight."

Mark raised his hand, "Wait, what's tonight?"

"'What's tonight'? We discussed this before we set sail," Yuta claimed. In return, Haechan and Jeno simply scratched their heads, giving nervous smiles.

"It's for Jaehyun's surprise birthday party!" Taeil spoke. 

"You did not tell us about the surprise birthday party," Haechan stated.

"I didn't? I thought I did."

"No, you did, but only to me," Doyoung said.

"Oh..oops." Taeil gave sheepish grins to the young boys, while they rolled their eyes.

"But his birthday was five days ago," Winnie replied.

"On the day of his birthday, his father allowed him to go out to the sea as his birthday present, which is why we're here," reminded Hansol.

"Yeah, so aren't we already celebrating it?" Taeyong questioned.

"We technically are already celebrating it, but now that we're out in the seas, we can have a better party for Jaehyun," explained Taeil.

"Besides, the party Jaehyun's father threw him wasn't even that great. It was a typical ball with dresses and suits. That's no fun," Yuta added. "I'm sure Jaehyun didn't enjoy slow dancing to classical music, while wearing an expensive and tight suit the whole night."

Mark nodded, agreeing with him. "That perhaps might be true."

"Which is the point. We can have a surprise party, here, tonight! Today is the last day we'll be out here and tomorrow is when we get back home. We shouldn't waste this opportunity."

"That's brillant! One last grand party for Jaehyun. It's not a bad idea to end the trip."

"Sounds good to me," Taeyong approved. The rest of the nodded, no one disagreeing.

Doyoung clapped his hands together. "Alright, guys, let's get to business. What's Jaehyun doing now?"

"I think he's in the cabin, his nose stuck in his journal again," Winnie responded.

"Why is he always writing in his journal?" The youngest wondered.

"Jaehyun loves to write down his discoveries everytime we travel out here. We usually don't travel out into the seas a lot because Jaehyun is the son of the king, so when we do, he tries to capture as many moments as he can with his journal and quill pen."

"Jaehyun loves sailing to explore new things. He told me he even wrote some myths that could be true somewhere in this unknown world."

"Like what for example?"

"Mermaids."

"Mermaids are real?"

"No, it's just what he's heard, but he doesn't know if it's true or not."

"Weird, but interesting," commented Jisung.

"Yeah, but I feel like he's a little too obsess with 'exploring the unknown things,' we have to make sure when tonight comes, we pull him out of that cabin." 

"So, what's the plan?"

The boys cautiously looked around, to see if Jaehyun was out before all leaning in to discuss their secret plan.

—

Nightfall had reached as the boys were setting up for the celebration. They took out instruments, drinks, food and decorations for their special friend. 

"Where should we put this?" Haechan asked Taeyong.

Taeyong inspected the banner, which said, 'Happy Birthday Jaehyun,' that Haechan and Mark made. He gave it a nod of approval before saying, "You should hang it up in the crow's nest, so then everyone can see it." The two boys obeyed and left, leaving Taeyong who was preparing the food.

He suddenly felt an arm drape over his shoulder. "How's the food working out?" 

Taeyong glimpsed to see Hansol. "Fine. I think the food is ready."

"Nice. I'll go see if the others are done."

Around 9:28, the boys had finally finished each of their duties and stood back to see their final creation. They all smiled at their hard work, admiring everything they had done.

"He'll love this."

"He better, Mark and I took forever to work on that banner," Haechan complained.

"Should we get him now?"

"Yeah. Guys, get in your positions. Winnie, go call Jaehyun." Winnie saluted him and went to the cabin.

The boys hid in their spots, patiently waiting for them to come.

"What's so important? Wow, did it get dark that fast?" 

"Well maybe if you weren't all stuffed up in your book, you would've noticed the sunset," they heard a mumble.

They saw two dark figures standing. "Hey, where's everyo-"

"Happy birthday!!" Everyone yelled and jumped out of their spots with grins on their faces, waiting for Jaehyun's reaction.

Jaehyun eyes broadened at them and noticed the decorations that were put up. "But my birthday already passed, you guys know that," Jaehyun says, confused, but with a smile on his face.

Doyoung wrapped his arm around him. "After seeing the celebration your father threw, that was a sign that we had to do another one."

"I mean, it wasn't that bad," Jaehyun tried to defend.

"Be honest, it was. Trust me, we all saw, you, too. You looked miserable. We all know you secretly hated it."

"Not true," Jaehyun denied, but couldn't help laugh.

"See?" Hansol pointed out. "You know we're right."

"It's alright to admit it in front of us."

"Fine, fine. Maybe I did think it was boring."

"Exactly! Since tomorrow is when we arrive home, which means you coming back home to same old boring royalty again, let's use this last day to celebrate it. Your last day where we can have fun and do anything we want, without having to be formal," Taeil suggested.

Jaehyun beamed brightly at the thought. "I guess I can take a break."

Everyone cheered at his response and the celebration began. Some of them took out instruments and started playing it, lifting the mood up. Taeyong brought out the food and drinks while the youngest boys were messing around. They all danced to their hearts content, making noise to where no one can hear them. Jaehyun grinned the whole time, savoring these golden moments with his friends. Taeil brought out more drinks and asked for a toast. 

All of them raised their beverages to the middle, as Jaehyun began talking. "Thank you, all of you, for this event. I would also like to show graditude for you all for joining me on this trip. Tomorrow all of this will be over, but I will forever remember every single moment we spent out here. It's not easy to be friends with a prince, like me, in which I would love to thank everyone for their hard work in making this event, and most importantly, being my friends."

"To Jaehyun's twenty-first birthday!" They all applaused in enthusiasm.

The rest of the night, the boys continued to have fun, playing games with joyful music. The mood was joyful and delighted with the calm sea breeze swaying in the air as the waves of the ocean followed in motion. Wide smiles were clearly seen and laughter in the air, to which this special moment will not be forgotten. However, little did they know, the worst was yet to come.

—

Jung Jaehyun found himself leaning against the deck, mesmerizing the soothing ripples of the ocean. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, smelling the salty air. He can hear the seagulls as the waves peacefully hit against the ship. Feeling the soft gust, he gradually opened his eyes. His arms were rested on the top of the deck as he was in deep thought. Thinking about today, made the corner of lips lift up. Jaehyun had wished this would never last. Of course, he loved his father dearly, but the royalty life just wasn't for him. He preferred to be out here, exploring the outside world. There was risks, but he didn't mind one bit. The danger gave him thrills in which his curiosity enlargened.

Traveling was his escape. Where he didn't have to worry about arranged marriages, the kingdom, the responsibility on becoming the next king. It was tiring, a burden really. Instead of being stuck in a room all day, studying on how to run a kingdom, Jaehyun favored the idea of adventure on where so many possibilities were bound to happen. The thought of it made him feel shivers electrifying down his spine. Jaehyun thought adventure as a whole new world where there is so many experiences, and so much knowledge that is yet undiscovered. It is so yet obsecure, that many people do not know what lurks beyond the shoreline. Because of this, he was more determined to find out and share his insights to everyone.

Gazing intently afar, Jaehyun didn't notice another figure standing next to him. "If you're gonna stare that hard, might as well scare away the birds."

Snapping back to his senses, he looked to find Winnie his apprentice beside him. "Sorry," he glanced down, timid.

"I was joking," Winnie laughed, slapping his friend cheerly on the back. He studied his face. "Why the face? It's your birthday party."

"You mean my late birthday party?"

"Fine, late birthday party."

"I was just thinking."

"About what?"

Jaehyun sighed deeply. "Not really sure. Maybe the fact I'm not that excited to come back home tomorrow."

"Come on! Lighten up. There's always other trips."

He tried to give an assuring smile, but failed. "Yeah, you're right." 

Out of nowhere, the light breeze, turned in to a powerful gust of air. "Woah, did you feel that?"

"Yeah. That's weird. It was nice just a minute ago."

"Come on, let's get back to the others. Something is telling me that this isn't good."

Everyone met up, huddled together in a circle. "Guys, what's happening?"

"I don't know. The wind direction suddenly changed."

"Wait, guys, the sky," Jeno pointed up. They glanced up, to see clouds darkening. The gloomy clouds swallowed the sky as the wind became stronger.

"What the heck?!"

Everyone just looked at each other, puzzled on the current situation. "Wow, did you see that!?" Haechan yelled. They turned to see what he was pointing at and saw a flash of light crickle down the sky.

"Is that.."

"Lightning?"

Jaehyun broke away from the sky to get all their attention. He paused, taking his fingers and rubbing them together in the air. "Oh no.."

"What's wrong?"

"The air.." Jaehyun began to trail off before shouting, "a thunderstorm is coming, we need to get out this area, now!" 

"Thunderstorm?! But it came out of nowhere!"

"Thunderstorms are created by moisture, unstable air and lift. The mositure is used to form the clouds and rain. Air mass becomes unstable because the