They decided on going to another place where they could be sure they wouldn’t be heard, and, at Yena’s suggestion, they ended up in the alley they had managed to hide from the enraged crowd the day they met. According to the older man, “it’s a pretty secret place! Nobody would dare interrupt us!”

“So, I did some research while you were asleep,” Yena started when he had already settled, sitting on the floor. “And, aside from the things we both know, I also learned something new! Apparently, the delivery hasn’t arrived yet, but it’s meant to do so in the next days. In the meantime, we can try and get in their good books.”

“But what if we don’t?” Chaeyeon asked carefully, racking his brains about the best way to explain Yena his plans.

“What do you mean?” Yena looked at Chaeyeon, puzzled.

“What if we just... Go, without asking for permission?” The older man almost screeched.

“Do you mean go on the boat like stowaways?! I mean, I know you had some fever, but I didn’t think it would affect you this bad!”

“No, listen to me,” the younger man tried to explain, frustrated. It was just so hard to explain! What was he supposed to say? He needed whatever was in that delivery to return to the future because a weird monster told him to? It was nuts. “I don’t think they are going to let us go. Think about it. We only have gone on one delivery, so we don’t have any experience at all.”

“So?” Yena asked, seemingly more appeased.

“So? As you said, this isn’t a small tryst. It’s huge, something that Master Shinyu has never done before. You think they would employ newcomers?”

“Well, I admit the possibility is rare, but what if we get rejected? We can just work for a bit, then, when the opportunity arises, we volunteer ourselves for the next long journey.”

“No, it has to be this time. We have to get on that boat,” Chaeyeon remarked resolutely.

“Chaeyeon-ah, are you really fine? What’s with this change of heart? First, you want nothing to do with the delivery, then you suddenly have to get on the boat no matter what?”

“I know. I know. I don’t know how to explain it. I just know that I have to get on that boat, like something bigger than me is pulling me to this journey.” Yena gave him a gaze, as if looking in the younger man’s face signs of anything other than sincerity. He huffed.

“Fine, we become stowaways. Then what? We are going to get thrown to the streets when we come back. There is no way Master Youngjin won’t know.”

Yena was right. Chaeyeon is willing to bet they would get their asses handed to them when they are discovered inside the boat, and when they return to Silla (if the rest of the couriers don’t throw them to the ocean as punishment) they’ll be done for. It wasn’t much for Chaeyeon, though. He wasn’t meant to stay here forever, so he could just escape with the delivery and be done with it. But Yena...

A pang of guilt resurfaced in his chest at the thought of his older friend. He could do this just fine. It would barely represent something significant to his life, but for Yena, who lived here and would continue to live here, would represent his livelihood, and probably his life. Chaeyeon couldn’t do this to him, even if it meant he would be lonely for the rest of his existence in this time.

“You’re right. You’re right. I wasn’t thinking,” Chaeyeon acquiesced. “We’ll do it your way. If they don’t let us, I guess we’ll have to wait.” Yena glared at him, opening his mouth to interject, but closed it immediately.

“Fine, you weirdo. Make up your mind, why don’t you.”

“Sorry, sorry. I’ll do as you say.”

Chaeyeon didn’t expect a pang of sadness at her own words.

--

--

As expected, Yena could barely even begin asking Master Youngjin about it before he was threatened to keep his mouth shut. It would make the older man sulk for days on end, but Chaeyeon wasn’t fazed at all. His plan would go on, with or without permission.

As the days came to pass, he came to casually hear (yes, he was spying on Master Youngjin) that the shipment had already arrived at the capital, and would be prepared to be delivered to Yoondo for the journey to Japan. On the other hand, Yena had received another goods shipment that would probably take him to the other side of the Kingdom.

Their farewell was emotional on Chaeyeon’s part. For Yena, though, it was a temporary farewell, so Chaeyeon couldn’t be overtly emotional, no matter how much it ached to part from his friend, to probably never see each other again. When had he become so attached to that idiot?

The older man left, leaving Chaeyeon alone to plan his own sneak off to the ship. After all, he would have to travel to Yoondo first, and arrive before the rest of the crew did. There was not much food or water needed to get to his destination, so he was the least worried about it. What he was worried about, was not knowing how to get there. He could try and follow the crew, but they were far more experimented than he was; they would probably find he was trailing them quickly.

Who could he ask for help?

The only option was to ask the restaurant owner if he knew how to get there. Turns out, he did know how to get there, and, with a knowing smile, gave Chaeyeon a map, explaining in detail the way he should go, along the the landmarks that would guide him without getting him lost. Despite his obvious knowledge of something Chaeyeon himself didn’t know, the man never asked him anything, nor gave any indications that he would. He only wished Chaeyeon luck and sent him on his way, with a sack filled with chobap, of course.

His journey to Yoondo was long, or at least it felt that way for the young man, who barely let himself rest. The paranoia he had known for a long time returned in full force, not letting him sleep, even if he wanted to. He feared he would be ambushed the same way he and Daehwi were in that delivery. The first night he tried to sleep, but when he realized that his mind refused to shut down, he decided to continue walking midst the darkness, using his phone’s light to guide him (he had to wrestle with himself on that one, as he was also paranoid of his phone having no battery, even if it was useless to him in the 9^th century).

And with terrible exhaustion, he arrived at Yoondo, a small fishing village that, despite its size, had gigantic ships waiting at the shore. Thankfully for him, he had some food left, so, after eating as much as he could, he left the food sack next to a lodging house, hoping it would be of use to someone. Unfortunately, it seemed he definitely had strayed, as the crew were already preparing for the journey, many of the members already populating the ship.

He had to sneak inside of the ship, but how? There were a lot of people on the ship, he could not just walk in there.

He entered the lodge, and tried masquerading as a weary traveller. He saw a few tables and mats, which made the remaining rooms the rooms where everyone slept the night. Nobody was there, except behind the counter, where a small woman was looking at him attentively.

“Hello,” Chaeyeon greeted, bowing. He smiled slightly when he got a greeting back.

“I travelled a long way to here, looking for any ships that could take me to Tang,” he said, tweaking his voice to sound exhausted (it wasn’t even hard, he WAS exhausted).

“I am sorry, boy, the only ship is about to embark, and I am not sure of their destination. You can ask them, but their ship does not seem to carry passengers.”

“Oh,” he said, faking disappointment. “Do you have a room I can use, then?”

“They are all still occupied by those men. Come back at dusk and I’ll rent you a room, then.”

“Thank you so much.” Chaeyeon bowed again, leaving the lodge.

‘How can I sneak into the rooms?’ It wasn’t an easy feat, as the woman seemed to do nothing but wait for patrons. Chaeyeon noticed she had looked in his direction as soon as he opened the door to enter the lodge. He needed her to be distracted.

‘The phone!’ If he managed to have her look at the phone, and get distracted with it, maybe he could sneak to the room. He didn’t quite like parting with the phone, but he didn’t have any other idea. Grabbing the phone, he hugged it to his chest. When was the last time he had copied his pictures into their laptop?

What if, instead of the phone, he gave her his modern clothes, like... Like... That could probably also distract the woman without Chaeyeon having to relinquish his phone. He turned to look at the ship.

‘I don’t have time to get this wrong!’ With a sigh, he hugged the phone again, entering the lodge.

“Hello again,” he bowed again, noticing the woman’s inquiring gaze (and wariness). “Uhm, I need your help with something.”

“What is it?” the woman asked, seemingly more wary than a minute before.

“It’s this... thing,” Chaeyeon said, dangling her phone. “I found it while I was travelling, and I don’t know what is it.”

The woman squinted, looking at the small thing in the young boy’s hands.

“What is that?” the woman asked as Chaeyeon got closer.

“I don’t know, it looks like magic,” he said, pressing the turn on button, which turned the screen on. The woman jumped back, now agape.

“What is that...? Get away from me!” the woman screamed at Chaeyeon, who, bewildered at her reaction, also jumped back.

“I don’t know what you are, but get away from me!” Chaeyeon, at a loss of what to do, decided to do the first thing that came to his mind, throw the phone in her direction.

‘I am so sorry,’ he thought  as he chucked the phone at woman, who screamed and hid behind the counter. Chaeyeon took that as his chance and ran into the hall, where there were many doors. He heard the main door open, and he panicked.

‘I need to do this quickly.’ Opening slowly the first door, he heaved a sigh of relief when he saw no one in the room, despite the room obviously being occupied. Looking around, there seemed to be nothing of use. Hearing footsteps, he closed the door shut, and ran to the last door, hoping that would put anyone off his tail.

Thankfully, there was no one there either, and, to Chaeyeon’s even bigger relief, there was a closed chest in there, which didn’t seem to be a lodge decoration. It didn’t seem to use a lock, which meant Chaeyeon could inspect it.

‘Can I fit in this?’ But the question was useless, as the young man tried, almost immediately, to fit on the chest. It was cramped, but well enough for him to travel for a while. He closed the chest, and waited for a while before the door opened.

Praying to whatever god would hear him, he hoped the man wouldn’t think about inspecting the chest, instead, just taking it into the boat. The prayers didn’t stop when he felt the chest being moved, but triplicated, as it became more dangerous with each passing moment.

He didn’t want to think about the things that would happen to him if he was discovered, but, as he already knew, he was a pessimist, and would not stop praying hastily and thinking of the worst case scenario.

The chest stopped moving, and Chaeyeon felt his heart beating in his throat. It didn’t calm down in the time the chest was stationary.

It felt like forever when the man started moving the chest again, which was now being lifted, instead of just being pushed.

Through the edges of the chest, Chaeyeon could notice a decrease in light, which meant he had finally entered into the inner ship. Or so he hoped.

The oxygen was becoming lesser, and he found it difficult to breath, but knew he had to stay as long as he could inside the chest, to ensure no one would be around when he finally got out of it.

He tried getting his mind out of it, but, ultimately, he couldn’t continue breathing, so trying to push the chest open, he realized that, although the chest didn’t have a lock, it probably had a latch of some sort, which prevented him from getting out of the chest. Oh no.

It didn’t matter now. He could travel just fine, opening the chest as much as it could be opened to breath and closing it whenever someone came here. The items inside the chest weren’t that important, in Chaeyeon’s opinion, so he thought it would be rare for someone to try open the chest. Another advantage would be that the chest was actually behind some barrels, so, whatever the case, the chest wouldn’t be the first thing someone would see if they entered.

It would a take a while for the ship to sail, but when it did, Chaeyeon (and the chest) slid violently against the wall, making the young man hit his head. He tried rubbing his head, but it was difficult to move, so he decided to bear with the pain.

Suddenly, he heard the latch of the chest being maneuvered, which froze him in his tracts.

‘No, no, no, no...’

The chest was opened, and there was a man looking down at him.

“Chaeyeon?”

“Yena?” The older man smiled, extending his hand at Chaeyeon, who was still in shock.

“Who...? What...?” The man grabbed Chaeyeon’s arm, pulling him out of the chest.

“Quick, let’s hide,” Yena said as he closed the chest again and directed Chaeyeon towards the far end of the room.

“You scared me, you idiot,” Chaeyeon retorted as soon as he recovered his wits.

“Serves you right. You were going to leave me behind!”

“I didn’t want to get you in trouble.”

“Maybe I want to get into your trouble!” Yena blurted out, making both of them freeze.

“Ah, uh, I mean. I didn’t want you to go alone. What happened to I got your back and you got mine?"

“I got your back by not getting you kicked out of this job!” Chaeyeon exclaimed, choosing to ignore Yena’s first comment. Yena seemed like he was about to retort, but Chaeyeon beat him to it. “You didn’t say it, but it was obvious you liked this job. How are you going to work in the capital once we return?”

“How are YOU going to work in the capital once we return?”

“I’m not worried about that,” Chaeyeon answered dismissively. “I know it won’t be a big blow if I have to go somewhere else, but you?” Yena sighed.

“You are my friend, like my brother, if you want to see it that way. I’ll go where you go because that’s what friends do. What family does.”

“Even at the expense of your life?”

“Well, I did say I wanted adventure, right?” Chaeyeon felt touched at his loyalty. Having only known each other for a few months, it didn’t make sense someone would get this attached to her, right? He wanted to give Yena a hug, but decided not to, not being that into displays of affection  (except displays of affection for his sisters).

“Thank you,” he said, instead, hoping his tone and a pat on Yena’s arm could convey everything he felt.

“For what? Now you’re stuck with me.” Chaeyeon laughed.

When his laughter died out, he asked, “but now that I think of it, how did you sneak into the ship?”

“That’s a story for another day,” Yena answered, scrunching his face into a funny looking frown.

“Well, if you haven’t noticed, we are trapped in here, with not much to do, so do tell,” Chaeyeon supported his back on the wall, trying to get more comfortable.

“I don’t really want to relieve the experience, but let’s just say I entered through the waste passage.”

“That’s disgusting.”

“Hey, I grew up at a farm and had to deal with poop all the time, so it wasn’t that bad.”

“You said you didn’t want to relieve the experience.”

“I don’t want to relieve the experience because I don’t want to gross you out.”

“Who’s Mister Tough Guy now?”

“It’s still you. By the way, what’s your plan now, chief?”

“Well,” Chaeyeon started, ignoring the fact that Yena was trying to change the subject. “The plan is to... steal the shipment?”

“I’m sorry, I think I am hearing things. What’s the plan again?” Yena interjected, using a finger to clean his ear.

“I need to steal the shipment.”

“What? Have you really gone insane?!” Chaeyeon shushed Yena. “What are you going to do with the shipment? Deliver it?”

“I don’t know. I think I will deliver it.”

“But does it have to be you? I mean, those men are already delivering it to its destination. What’s the point in stealing it if you’re just going to deliver it yourself?”

“The thing is...” Chaeyeon started, trying to find an excuse. He did not want to lie to Yena, but there was no choice. “I overheard them speaking.”

“Oh?” Yena exclaimed, intrigued.

“They said they were going to make do with the shipment and sell it, so that they could keep the gold.”

“Woah, and when did you hear this?”

“I heard when I was being brought in here.” Yena looked amused, probably at the mental image Chaeyeon’s words gave him.

“Then, how are we going to do that? If you haven’t noticed, we are now at sea, hiding like stowaways. If they find us, and know we know their plans, they are going to throw us to the sea, or kill us!” Chaeyeon felt guilt at the older man’s immediate trust and gullibility.

“I know. I know. We have to find something to do.”

“Where is the shipment, anyway?”

“It must be here, or so I hope. Hey, help me look around.” At the room, which was the storage of the ship, there were many barrels and chests, which meant that they: Number one, had a lot of places to look for the shipment, number two, would probably not know which one of the things in here was the shipment they were looking for. It didn’t discourage Chaeyeon anyway; they had time, lots of it.

They had to look for a while, stopping at any sound too close for comfort. After several open chests, Yena signaled towards one, beckoning the younger man to get closer.

“I think it’s this one.”

“How do you know?”

“It has a lock. I didn’t see a lock in any other chest.”

“You might be onto something,” Chaeyeon mumbled, scratching his neck.

“I’m not as dumb as you think I am!”

“I’ll hold my judgment on that.”

“Hey, I...” they both heard steps near the entrance, so they rushed towards their hiding place, barely making it when the door opened. Chaeyeon could judge by the sounds the man was making that he was taking something out of one of the barrels, food. It took forever for him to finish whatever he was doing and head upstairs.

“Hah, took him long enough,” Chaeyeon exclaimed when they finally left their hiding spot.

“Y-yeah,” Yena said, a little out of himself.

“Are you okay?”

“I-I don’t know. I think I just got dizzy.”

“Rest for a while, we have a lot of time to kill. If something happens, I’ll wake you up.”

“Don’t fall asleep, then, dummy,” Yena remarked as he tried to get comfortable on the wooden floor. It was a pretty difficult task, Chaeyeon could tell, but whether it was because Yena himself was exhausted or because he was bored out of his mind, he fell asleep after a few minutes.

And that became their system for the next couple of days. One would wake up, they would talk to each other for a while, then the other would fall asleep as the the other stood guard. After a while, they actually lost the sense of time, as they had barely any way to know what time of the day was it. They knew it was day when someone came downstairs to grab some food, and knew it was nighttime when it was quiet.

It wasn’t the worst thing ever, except that the one time both men fell asleep, that was the time where everything went to .

For one reason or the other, both thought that it was already nighttime. Yena convinced Chaeyeon that it would be fine for the both of them to fall asleep for a moment, reminding him that it was nearly impossible for them to stay asleep for long, as they weren’t used to the ships movement. It had been quiet at first, but the ship suddenly was moving dizzily, making everything on the storage room slide wildly. Chaeyeon had woken first and had to pull Yena in his direction to prevent him from being slammed into the wall by one of the chests.

“What is going on?” Yena asked, still groggy from the little sleep he got.

“I don’t know! Should we go investigate?”

“It’s dangerous! What if someone sees us?”

“But what if it’s something important?”

They argued back and forth for a moment, but Chaeyeon won in the end. He was the one who would go out to investigate, while Yena would wait for him in the middle of the stairs.

What he found was pandemonium. It was storm, a huge storm, making the waves roar potently, threatening to swallow the ship whole. The crew was trying the darnedest to keep the ship afloat, but even for someone who knew nothing about ships like Chaeyeon it was obvious that they wouldn’t resist for long. The young man ran back downstairs, where Yena was waiting for him.

“Yena, grab the chest!”

“The shipment?” Chaeyeon huffed.

“Yes, hurry! We don’t have much time!”

“What is going on?” Yena asked as he tried lifting the locked chest. He signaled for Chaeyeon to help him and the latter rushed to his aid.

“There is a storm, a big one, and the ship isn’t going to resist. We have to get out of here.”

“But to where?! To the middle of the ocean? Where we’ll probably die?!”

“What else do you suggest?!” Chaeyeon screamed as he heard a huge ruckus. His heart sunk as he saw that there was a considerable amount of water that was getting into the storage room. “Either we stay here and die a slow death or we throw ourselves into the ocean and fight until our last breath!” Yena seemed to be fighting with himself, trying to make a choice. He then closed his eyes, seemingly having come to a decision.

“Let’s go, and hope they don’t notice we’re here.”

They finally arrived upstairs, where the men were all trying to keep the boat from sinking. In their haste, nobody was paying attention to the two men carrying a chest, which made this the smoothest plan they’ve had. However, they finally noticed someone WAS actually paying attention to them when they threw the chest from the board.

“Hey! Throw away everything useless from the storage room!” a man ordered them, making them jump. He hadn’t... caught them? It seemed like it. Chaeyeon felt compelled to do what the man had asked him to, but Yena pulled him back.

“Where are you going?”

“To do what he told us!”

“I know it’s hard, but we already threw the shipment out of the ship. If we hesitate more, we’re gonna lose it.” Chaeyeon, unsurprisingly, felt guilt, more guilt than he had ever felt in his life, as he nodded at Yena. There was no choice. He needed to go home.

“On the count of three!” They both looked at each other, and, in a rare act of affection, grabbed each others hands.

“One,” Chaeyeon counted.

“Two,” Yena followed.

“Three!”

As both men fell to the raging water, Chaeyeon felt a eerie sense of dejavu, and he was mentally transported to when that monster had pushed her into the water. Only this time, he would be awake the whole time.

As soon as he hit the water, he tried swimming to the surface. Having already located the chest, he tried grabbing onto it as soon as he could, coughing when he could finally breath. It was difficult to stay afloat, but Chaeyeon, more or less, found a way to keep himself from sinking. But there was one thing missing. Oh no.

Still grabbing the chest, Chaeyeon submerged his face, trying to look out for Yena. When he didn’t see any trace of the young man, he panicked. Quickly letting the chest go, he submerged himself.

Thanks to the moving waters, there was barely any visibility, so it seemed nearly impossible for Chaeyeon to see anything, much less to locate his friend. He tried looking for a while, but eventually had to come up for oxygen.

In the midst of the waters, trying not to drown and not to lose sight of the chest, Chaeyeon finally saw a figure that was holding onto the ship as best as he could.

Chaeyeon hollered at Yena, calling his name again and again, but the sound of the storm was louder than any scream he could make, so he tried swimming back to the chest, which proved to be far more difficult than the first time.

He never stopped trying, praying that Yena would hold on until he came back for him.

Turns out, it was even more difficult to swim hanging onto the chest. The damn thing would only obey the waves and disregard Chaeyeon’s efforts to reach Yena. In fact, it felt like, instead of getting closer to the ship, he was only straying farther and farther away. He tried with all his might, but he was gradually losing strength.

A body surfaced in front of him, also holding onto the chest.

“Yena!” the aforementioned man was coughing, trembling in weakness as the ocean continued roaring.

Now that his friend was safe, he stopped his swimming intent, resigning to hold onto the chest and pray that they would get out of this alive. He closed his eyes, and tried grabbing Yena’s hand. He didn’t try to move any further when he didn’t find it, exhausted beyond belief.

The last thought that came to his mind was his mother before he lost consciousness.

--

--

Well, here it is, hahaha. I'm sorry for taking so long to update. Uni and other stuff got me dead. Plus, I'm actually writing something else that I might show you all later (I'm pretty hype about it).  Thanks for the comments and for subscribing! Hope you like this one too.