San pulls me toward wherever place that is apparently not a way to my cabin. My thought starts to jumble for the possibility that he’ll take me to the brig like Seonghwa mentioned.

Thankfully, he stops at a storage room. After pushing me inside, he shut the door. The room became dim as the only source of light was cut off. His figure twirls around to face me. The wooden floor creaks under his steps as he saunters toward me. It reminded me of the horror movie where a killer traps a victim and starts to slaughter them...

I instantly scurry away from him but the room is cramped with stolen goods from the Royal navy which leave me no space to distant myself from the devil.

“Why’re you taking me here?” My back presses against a wall.

San doesn’t respond as he stands right in front of me. A shadow cast on his face, I hardly decipher his expression.

“San?” His quietness creeps me out. Don’t tell me he’ll chop me into pieces and hide my body parts in the barrels.

“How was it?” He speaks in an eerily tone, lowering his head to meet my eyes.

I knit my eyebrows. How was what?

“The true color of him...” His hoarse voice echoes inside the room.

Why can’t he speak in full sentences? I’m not a mind reader. However, I have an idea of who he meant. It’s my turn to be speechless.

“How was it?” He repeats when I don't answer him.

I take a deep breath to calm myself down.

“That's not your concern.” The true color of Hongjoong, I already learnt about his character from the book. Even though his cold gesture keeps nagging me, I can’t pinpoint my feelings. 

“Answer.” He says curtly.

What the heck! Did someone hit his head so he became talkative. I swear this is the longest conversation he has ever spoken to me.

Recalling the previous conversation with him, he said that I’m Hongjoong’s weakness. He seems against the idea of Hongjoong and I have feelings for each other.

“If you think that I’m your captain's weakness, then he already proved you that I’m not. He didn’t bat an eyelash when you were about to chop me.”

San chuckles in his throat, his hand raises to caress my cheek.

“So naive.”

His cold fingers make my stomach tingling so I move my head away from his hand.

His hand that hangs in the air then places on the wall next to me. He shifts closer that his body almost presses against me.

, I’m trapped. I knew it! Walls are dangerous.

“What the pirate king wants, he always gets it.” I stare into the bottomless pitch black eye of his, my hair in the back raising.

“But he doesn’t know...” I stop breathing when our noses touch. “When the devil desires something, he also gets it.”

Before my brain processes what he meant, the next thing I know is a soft flesh press on my lips. I blink rapidly at our close proximity. His cold lips stay on mine for a second before he pulls away.

It was too fast for me to comprehend what had happened. My face and body grow hot. My heart thumps so violently that it will jump out of my chest.

Perhaps it’s my imagination that I see dimples on his cheeks.

“I’m not a coward.”

---

Jack was ordered to get stuff from one of the storage rooms. He’s about to open a door when it suddenly opens. His mouth hangs open as he faces the devil. 

The combatant ignores him and walks out of the room. What shocks him the most is the seer who comes out later.

Her eyes are unfocused, and walking soullessly behind San.

Jack hand flies to his mouth. Dear lord, the devil the seeress’s soul. She became the devil’s puppet!

His mouth itches to tell someone.

On that night, the new gossip is spread like wildfire.

---

I have no idea how I get back to my cabin. San disappears as if he never brought me to that forbidden room in the first place.

I touch my lips and shake my head furiously. It must be my hallucination. Why would he kiss me? Or is that how he threatens his prey? Somehow his voice still rings in my head. ‘I’m not a coward.’

Did he take revenge on me for calling him a coward? And that sentence, ‘devil wants, devil gets’ whatever that is supposed to mean?

I scream in front of my room for a full minute until some crew walk past me and give me weird stares.

Before anyone decides to send me to a mental hospital, I enter the room. I spot Yeosang sitting on a stool next to Aurora’s bed. He whips his head toward me as I walk closer to him.

“How’s she?” I ask for Aurora’s condition. She’s still unconscious and lying like a sleeping beauty.

“Star!” Yeosang abruptly gets up. To my surprise he pulls me into a hug. One hand secure tightly around my waist and the other hand pat on my head. My tense body begins to relax in his warm embrace.

When we stay hugging for too long, I start to feel worried about him. “Yeosang, you okay?”

Yeosang jolts and lets me go. Red blooms on his cheeks.

“They didn’t hurt you, right?” He scans me up and down.

“Which one, the Royal navy or your crewmates?” My question makes him taken aback and I feel bad for talking to him like that.

“Both.” Surprisingly, he answers me. His eyes fill with seriousness.

“They didn’t.” I look downward to avoid his intent stare. They didn’t hurt me physically but I lost my sanity. That’s all.

Yeosang nods then pulls me toward my bed. I sit down as he sits next to me.

“I heard what happened. I’m sorry that you have to stuck with us.” Yeosang furrows his brows. Guilt flashes across his face.

“No Yeosang, I chose to be here.” I rather stuck with you than Chris.

“What do you mean? Is it the part of being the seer?” His expression is so serious but that makes him so adorable.

“Sort of.”

“Does your brother know?”

“He doesn’t” I shake my head. He doesn’t even know that I’m not his sister.

Yeosang lost in his thoughts for a while then he speaks up. “Thank you for choosing to be with us.”

For some reason, my chest feels warm. “Well, it’s like fate. And thanks for worrying about me, Yeosang.” I smile at him genuinely as he smiles back.

“You’re the first person who belittled my medicine. Of course, I’d be worried.” His next sentence urge me to roll my eyes.

“On a second thought. I don’t wanna be here anymore. I’m terrified of your green terror.”

Yeosang drops his smile and playfully ruffles my hair.

“Hey!” I whine.

Yeosang giggles cheerfully. My heart does a flip and I follow him, giggling.

Then he hushes me to lower my voice and point at Aurora. Our giggles ceases but the heaviness  lifts out of my chest.

“How’s she?” I ask him.

“She’s still not waking up, probably from the intense shock. Fatigue and lack of nutrition make her body recover slower. And the unknown symptom might be the cause as well.”

I nod as he explains. “Thank you for taking care of her.”

“It’s my duty.” He says. “I’ll check up on her when she wakes up. I can’t stay here for long. I need to check on other patients.”

“Okay.” I nod.

“Star, or should I call you by your real name?” He asks me out of blue.

“Star, I’m Star.” I affirm him.

Yeosang nods. “Well, Star take care. Remember you can always come to me. I might not be the strongest one here but I promise to protect you.”

He leans closer and connects his lips on my forehead.

My heart skips a beat at the warm touch.

He gingerly pulls away and stares right into my eyes. “See you later Star.”

I sit there like a statue, not knowing how to react. My soul is about to leave my body again.

Yeosang gives me a shy smile and leaves the room.

My hand touches where he kissed me.

Oh my god, is today a kiss day? Three freaking members kissed me today.

Anyway, Yeosang probably did it to comfort me. Yes, nothing more. Don’t overthink.

“He seems like a nice person.” A sweet voice belonging to no other than Aurora startles me.

I jump in my skin and snap my head toward her.

“You awake?!” Please don’t tell me she saw everything.

Aurora sees me panic so she clears awkwardly. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but I happened to be awake.”

“Oh,” I manage to let out an ‘oh’ and inwardly howl in shame.

“How are you feeling?” I change the topic and walk to sit next to her bed.

“I’m fine.” She sighs and continues. “So you’re Chris sister.”

“Um, yes. And you don’t know me?” That question is kinda stupid but I’m curious why she didn’t recognise me.

She shakes her head. “I barely visit Chris’s manor unless my aunt forced me. He mentioned his sick sister once. I never knew it’s you.”

Sick sister? Does Alice's body suffer sickness? But I feel perfectly fine.

“Since Chris knows that we’re here, he will try every way to help us.” Instead of being happy, she scrunches her face as if she’s in pain. “Believe it or not, I'm kind of relieved that I woke up to see that I’m still in pirate’s ship.”

From the original story, after Aurora’s parents died, she lived with an evil aunt who forced her to engage with Chris. Obviously, Aurora is against the idea but she’s powerless. She decided to run away from her aunt by selling the Wonderland map and flee to Havana. After that she was captured by Ateez and that’s how the story begins.

“Um,” I don’t know what I should answer her as I don’t want to be rescued. And I know she doesn’t want to be with Chris either.

“But the pirates won’t let us go easily.” Aurora sighs again. “We have become their pawn in their revenge game.”

“Um.” Right, they won’t. Hongjoong has confirmed me.

“I’ll try to get us out alive from here.” Aurora's firm tone surprised me, “But promise me to not turn me to Chris. I don’t wanna marry him.”

“I won’t, but we’ll leave after Wonderland.” I feel bad for lying to her. But Wonderland is my only escape route. I guess she’ll have to escape by herself.

“Okay.” She smiles gratefully at me and it doubles my guiltiness.

---

“Yunho, change the course to Wonderland.” Hongjoong orders the navigator at the head of a long table.

“Captain, but the Royal Navy is hot on our tail. We’ll lead them to Wonderland at this rate.” Yunho puckers his brows.

Hongjoong shakes his head and lifts a captain logbook that San stole from the frigate. “They’re planning to ambush us at Nassau. They even hire privateers to hunt us down.”

Hongjoong scans his crews’ faces and stops at Yunho. “The Revenge can outrun them. They are slow colossal anyway and for the frigate, San’s already severed her tiller ropes. It’d take a while for them to fix.”

“Aye, captain.” Yunho complies.

“The time is running out. We must lift the curse as soon as possible. After that we can wage war with them. Chris's weakness is in our palm. The victor has already decided.” Hongjoong grins slyly.

The others nod in agreement.

“Captain, what will you do with Star?” Hongjoong snaps his head toward the fiery red haired master gunner.

“You lot are dismissed.” Instead of answering, Hongjoong shoo his crew away.

“Captain...” Mingi whines but is dragged by Jongho out of the room. Some crew members are concerned about Star but they see that Hongjoong is in a bad mood so they’re willingly shut their mouths.

Once everyone piles out of captain’s quarter, Hongjoong throw himself into the red velvet couch. 

“Your love seems to cloud your mind.” Seonghwa stays inside the room and witnesses how tired Hongjoong looks.

“And your grumpiness seems to cloud your judgement.” Hongjoong crack one eye open to see Seonghwa’s deep scowl across from him.

“You’re willing to use her against her brother?” Seonghwa asks.

“I won’t be using her, if she loves me so much that she chooses me over her brother.”

Seonghwa snorts upon hearing a cocky answer.

“You can fool others but you can’t fool me. You already lost today. You allow him to waltz out of our ship alive because he’s her brother. And you’re afraid that she’ll hate you if you kill him. You never intend to hurt her from the start.” Seonghwa scoffs at how terrible his captain acting.

Hongjoong stares at Seonghwa, unamused.

“When the time comes can you choose between the Revenge or that girl?”

“Don’t cross the line, Seonghwa.” Hongjoong growls in his throat.

Seonghwa smiles coldly. “Love isn’t for us pirates. You should know better, captain.”

“Don’t touch my treasure. You should know better, quartermaster.” Fury dances in the pirate king’s eyes. 

☆*:.☆*:.☆*:.☆*:.☆*:.☆*:.☆*:.☆*:.☆

Well, hope you survive this chapter. (*¯ ³¯*)♡