Chapter 6

 

The Pier

11:30 AM

 

“After you, my lady—oww!” Mark yelped as he felt a punch on his left shoulder.

 

Herin hopped on the yacht, “You’re supposed to go first and help me get on, stupid” She laughed at Mark’s hurt expression.

 

Mark shrugged and hopped on the yacht himself and sang “Chivalry is dead, dead, dead”

 

Herin grabs him into a playful headlock and proceed to help the group set up the yacht to sail.

 

About an hour of constant chatter and laughter in the waters, the group decided to set up their lunch on the deck and sit in a circle.

 

“It’s a great thing we decided to sail. This is so nice” Liberty mentioned as she munched on her salad plate for appetizer.

 

“This is the ultimate summer getaway, and no one can tell me otherwise” Liam added.

 

“Is this your first time sailing, Mark?” Lia asked.

 

“The first time in a while, yes. I used to dream to be a fisherman as a kid” Mark chuckles, thinking about the baby version of himself fishing with his dad and brother every other weekend.

 

“Are we allowed to fish here?” Herin asked out of curiosity.

 

“I think based on the regulation; we’re allowed to catch some squid. Let’s check if we have some fishing rods available in the storage room downstairs” Liam answered. Out of everyone, he probably is the most familiar with sailing and the sea. In fact, they got this beautiful yacht thanks to his connection who willingly let him borrow it for the day.

 

“We could make some calamari for snacks from the squids we catch” Mark’s eyes widen with excitement. Just talking about fishing makes him feel nostalgic and it awoke his inner child.

 

“That is, if you catch any” Herin teased.

 

“OH you wanna bet? You’re so going to regret it when I win” Mark nudges her as he stole a piece of shrimp from her plate.

 

“Loser has to grant the winner one wish!” Herin challenges.

“Deal!” they shake their hands in agreement.

 

The trio watch them in amusement.

 

“Have you guys always bickered like this?”

 

“Yes” They answered in unison. Mark and Herin look at each other instantly, “Jinx!”

“Jinx again!” They exclaimed in unison for the third time.

 

“You guys are impossible” Lia laughed.

 

“Okay but to answer your question. We clicked right away when we met and although we were trained separately, it was just never awkward for us to be like… like.. this” Mark gestures himself and Herin.

 

Herin rolled her eyes at this lack of diction but cannot help but nodded in acknowledgement.

 

“When we met for the first time in 4 years yesterday, we were only awkward for 5 minutes and everything went back to normal” Herin adds.

 

“Did you guys secretly date?” Liberty blurted.

 

Mark chokes on his champagne and Herin choked on her shrimp. They both coughed a couple times and gathered themselves.

 

“Us?”, “No, it’s nothing like that” both of them denied although they cannot deny that question hit them in their cores, and it makes them question their own brains.

 

“Well, I think you guys would make a cute couple. A noisy one though” Liam joins in.

 

Both of them waves their hands and brush it off.

 

Somewhere in the waters

3:00 PM

 

“Found them!” Liam raised three fishing rods in his hands as he climbs the stairs from the storage room.

 

The group cheered as they find something interesting to do, they expected to be back at the Pier by sunset because they thought they were only going to eat lunch and sunbath.

 

“I can only find three, though. So, we’ll have to share” Liam said.

 

“You lovebirds can share, and I’ll take one for myself” Lia grabs one for herself as if she’s stating the obvious.

 

“But—” Herin and Mark protest, but they’re left with one rod as the trio already grab theirs and walk to their stations, “Okay”

 

Liberty and Liam decided to go to the left deck to be their fishing station, Lia goes a couple meters away from them towards the front of the deck, while Mark and Herin goes to the right deck.

 

Mark’s knowledge about fishing definitely does him a favor, it all came back to him as he holds on the fishing rod. Mark rolls up the sleeves of his shirt a couple times until it reaches his elbows so he would not get wet when they need to move their fishes to the basket.

 

“So, you prepare the jig like this,” he does the first one as he shows it for Herin to see and she just watches him in amazement.

 

Herin can’t help but her eyes kept darting to see the veins in his forearms popping as he works.

 

“Herin, it’s normal. I think you’re just hot. It’s the effect of the strong sun. Yeah, that’s what it is”

 

She shakes her head as she tries to convince herself that she’s not checking him out.

 

“We normally catch squids at night. But I guess—Herin, are you listening?” Mark switches his focus from the bait he’s setting up to Herin who’s shaking her head.

 

“Huh? Yeah, what?” She snapped back to reality and meets Mark’s gaze on her.

 

Mark chuckles and messes her hair a bit, “Well, you clearly weren’t listening. Let me do the first one then”

 

Herin just nodded as a response and touches her hair.

 

“Way to make yourself look like a fool Herin”

 

The yacht shakes a bit as they were hit by a sudden big wave. Surprised, Herin lost her balance before she realized that she was gonna fall and closed her eyes for that split second to brace for the impact.

 

“Herin!” she could hear Mark called her name.

 

Herin opens her eyes as she felt herself not in the water nor the hot floorings of the deck, and instead she found herself in Mark’s embrace with one arm protecting her head and the other on her waist.

 

She immediately gets herself off him and moved to the side. She realized that Mark had caught her right before she could topple over the yacht and fall to the water and brought them to fall on the yacht instead.

 

“Hey, you okay?” Mark sits up and reaches for her immediately. He checks the back of her head and both of her arms.

 

“I’m—“ Herin’s eyes widen as she notices red liquid dripping down his left forearm and she grabs his left arm, “Mark, you’re bleeding!”

 

“Thank goodness” Mark ignored her and sighed in relief as he didn’t find any cuts on Herin and only a couple small almost non-existent red scratches.

 

“Huh? Am I?” He looks back to where they fell and saw a small knife they had used to prepare the bait earlier on the floor. “Oh, I must’ve hit that when we fell”

 

“Are you all okay?” The captain runs up to the deck from the control room. “I apologize for the small bump earlier”

 

The group are now gathered to check on Herin and Mark. Lia rubs her lower back as she fell on her bum earlier. Liberty and Liam reacted fast enough to hold on to the railings.

 

“Could you show me where the emergency kit is?” Herin asks the captain.

 

“Yes, follow me” the captain runs back to grab the emergency kit inside.

 

“You okay, mate?” Liam asks with concern apparent in his face.

 

Marks nods reassuringly, “it could’ve been worse, Herin almost topple over to the water”

 

“That was surprising” Liberty added, “I didn’t know the yacht could shake that much”

 

“You saved her” Lia chimed in and pats his shoulder as if she’s expressing her gratitude.

 

They see Herin runs back to the deck with the emergency kit in her hand. She sits next to Mark and opens the box with her shaky hands.

 

“Really, it’s not a big deal. You guys go back to fish” Mark flashes his signature smile, trying to reassure the group everything’s fine. “Be careful of the waves, though” He jokes.

 

Lia, Liam, and Liberty finally moves back to their spots after seeing that they’re okay.

 

“You’re mad” Herin dabs the disinfectant cotton on his wound after wiping off his dripping blood.

 

“Did you think I would let you fall to the water?” Mark tries to lighten the mood although he’s wincing in pain.

 

“Well no, but—”

 

“I would never forgive myself if I see you get hurt” Mark interrupted and tries to look for her eyes, “So, don’t feel bad. Okay?”

 

“You got hurt because of me” Herin avoids his eyes and tries to focus on dressing his wound.

 

Mark looks back at the knife on the floor and shudders in terror at the thought that knife could have hit her instead if he was late by a second.

 

“It’s barely a cut. Don’t feel bad. Hmm, Herin?” He tries to reassure her once again although his cut is indeed a deep one, but he wished he could take away her guilt because he doesn’t want her to feel that way, not even a slightest bit.

 

She finishes up as she wraps bandages over the pads covering his wound.

 

“I’m sorry” she whispered.

 

“What—” Mark gaped at her.

 

“I’m sorry for being so clumsy” she continues.

 

“Shush, it happens sometimes. Anyone can be clumsy” He looks at her warmly, trying to ease her nervousness.

 

Herin finally nods slowly, “And I’m sorry if your bandage wrap looks ugly” She added.

 

Mark lets out a hearty laugh and Herin finally gets the courage to meet his eyes. She finally sniffles a small chuckle along with him.

*

*
*
*
*
*

No cliffhanger this chapter!!

 

I had to google some facts about squid fishing to make this a bit more realistic lol

 

Did this chapter eases some of your failed summer vacay due to the pandemic?