It was the shouting that woke him up. Indiscernible words breezing into his room through the open window like an opportunistic thief. Seunghyun groaned and wiped the sleep from his eyes as he sat up in the bed. As his head cleared he was able to make out some of the garbled yelling.

“-told us not to talk to anyone!”

“Don’t take this out on me. How was I supposed to know that-”

“This is the last thing we need right now! Both of you shut the hell up,” Seungri commanded in a dangerous voice that had goose bumps rising on Seunghyun’s arms even from the safety of his room. He shuddered as he imagined the dark glare that he was sure Taeyang and Daesung were being flayed alive with at that moment. They stopped shouting instantly.

He pushed the beige sheets off of his body, annoyed when the quiet rustling obstructed his eavesdropping. Seunghyun stood up carefully so as to not make any unnecessary noise and tiptoed to the window. He listened intently, head cocked to the side like a puppy, but there was nothing. He frowned and poked his head out the window, hoping to be able to hear the rest of the conversation.

Seunghyun gasped in surprise as he noticed the giant wall of steel floating where there should have been a clear view of the bright sky and deep blue ocean. His mouth fell open in a perfect ‘O’ as he stepped back and took in the massive ship outside his window. He stumbled back and hurried topside so for a better view.

It was at least twenty feet longer than the Big Bang. From the outside he could see that it had two floors above the deck and probably three below it. It screamed extravagance with every piece of gold plated furniture on the deck. It oozed decadence from the gambling tables and what appeared to be a stripper pole to the diamonds scattered like rose petals around a grotesque statue of a large man.

The strangest part though was the people. They were sitting in their throne like chairs with their champagne glasses raised to their lips. They were gathered around the poker tables with their cards in front of them. They were standing near the railing with their hands in the air as they gesticulated for emphasis.

But they weren’t moving. They weren’t making a sound.

All of the people were perfectly still as if they were simply incredibly life like statues decorating the ship.

Seunghyun swallowed and swiped his sweaty palms on his pants. Curiosity was quickly morphing into fear as he stared at the ship in front of him. Every fiber of his being begged him to run, to hide, to do something, god damn it, because it was becoming increasingly clear that something strange was going on.

Calm down. Get a hold of yourself, Seunghyun. Breath.

He used the bottom of his shirt to wipe the sweat off his forehead with a trembling hand. He braced himself with his hands against the railing and tried to focus on the way the sun warmed metal stung his palms. He drew in deep shaking breaths and exhaled slowly. Seunghyun pushed away all of the thoughts racing through his mind, aware of himself enough to know that it wouldn’t take much for him to completely freak out.

He jumped when he heard footsteps, and he hurriedly hid behind the life boat hanging on the rail near him. Peering over the edge of the tiny life boat carefully, he was surprised to see Daesung standing in the middle of the deck on the other ship. He raised an eyebrow in confusion, torn between staying where he was to see what Daesung was doing, or running back to his room to hide under the burrow of his blankets.

Seunghyun didn’t have time to choose because a beautiful voice began singing, and he froze in place, captivated by the sound.

“Wake up and feel alright.

Wake up and enjoy this life.

Greed and envy are like heavy chains.

Let go and release the pain.

Wake up and smile now.”

He felt his cheeks rising, the corners of his lips tilting up into a big smile, despite his fears about the mysterious happenings. What was going on? He knew in his head that he should be more afraid, but he couldn’t help but feel happy. He watched Daesung run to the edge of the other ship, literally jump over the two and half feet between it and the Big Bang, and land gracefully on his feet.

“Now Taeyang!” Daesung hollered in the direction of the control room. The ship lurched and Seunghyun fell backward. He cringed, pulse racing franticly as Daesung stood over him.

Daesung stared at him for a moment before he crouched down beside him. “Ah, Seunghyun, you are supposed to be asleep in your room right now.” Daesung shook his head and smiled down at him gently. “You probably have a lot of questions. Tell you what, let me take you back to your room and I’ll try to answer what I can. Deal?”

Seunghyun stared at the hand that Daesung outstretched to him. He swallowed thickly and tried to think past the choking panic. He did have a lot of questions about what the hell just happened. The thought of asking Seungri about it made him uneasy; Seungri always managed to make him sleep when all he really wanted to do was find out what was going on. He couldn’t ask Taeyang, not after the things that he’d said to him earlier. Seunghyun felt guilt poke him annoyingly in the back of his mind as he thought about the hurt look on Taeyang’s face.

And it was painfully obvious that the Captain hadn’t wanted him to know what they were planning; obviously, that’s why Jiyong had asked Seungri to take him to his room like a kid. He felt anger begin prickling at his skin as he remembered the way that Jiyong had purposely excluded him. He wasn’t a child that could be bossed around or left out, and it pissed him off to be treated as if he was.

With newfound determination, he met Daesung’s eyes and grabbed the hand reaching out to him. “Deal. Let’s go.”

Daesung helped him to his feet and the two quickly walked back to his room. He opened the door and ushered Daesung in before him, turning to peer down the hall to see if anyone had followed them. Satisfied that they were alone, he entered the room and locked the door behind him.

“That’s pointless you know,” Daesung giggled as he poked around the jar of seashells on top of the dresser. “Locks don’t usually deter a pirate.”

Seunghyun rolled his eyes and huffed. He folded his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall. “We had a deal, right?”

“Okay okay. Somebody is very impatient,” Daesung muttered. “What exactly do you want to know?”

“What just happened? I heard yelling and then I went topside and I saw those people. Why were they like that? Not moving? And then I heard you sing, and… , just tell me what that was.”

Daesung nodded reluctantly and wandered toward a painting on the wall. “The ship belongs to a sleazy politician. He steals government funds that are supposed to be used to better his town, and he uses the money for himself. The Captain got word last night that the was on a vacation for himself and his greedy underlings, so we decided to help redistribute the wealth.” Daesung frowned as he traced the spines of the books on the bookshelf, and Seunghyun had to bite his tongue to keep from interrupting to tell Daesung to just stop moving! “We don’t usually make mistakes.”

“We’ve done this so many times that it’s easy now, like second nature. We pull up beside the other ship and pretend that we have engine trouble. Seungri convinces them to let us board their ship. Taeyang disables the locks on their safes and gives them engine trouble so they can’t chase after us. Jiyong and…Jiyong and Seungri gather the money and food and anything that looks valuable and move it to the Big Bang, and then I make everyone too distracted to worry about the fact that their stuff is missing.”

“Usually?”

“Yeah, usually.” Daesung nodded, lost in thought as he moved to the window and stared out at the pink streaks painting the sky as the sun began to set. “Taeyang tried to flirt with one of the girls. He was just messing around; things have been sort of tense around here lately so he was trying to lighten the mood. When he talked to her, she unfroze. They all did. We almost had eleven pissed off people ready to claw our eyes out, but Seungri took care of it. Ji wasn’t so lucky though. One of the politician’s goons was in the kitchen where the Captain was emptying the cupboards. He didn’t know that they unfroze and in a split second the guy stabbed him in the side.”

“Is he okay? Where is he?” Seunghyun shouted as he jumped away from the wall. He felt irrationally worried about the Captain that he knew virtually nothing about. The only thing he knew for certain was that the mere thought of Jiyong being hurt ached like a physical blow.

“Seungri’s with him. There was a lot of blood…” Daesung trailed off.

The overwhelming urge, more of an irrepressible need really, to see the Captain had Seunghyun rushing to the door and fumbling to unlock it with shaking hands. Daesung ran over to him and pulled him away from the door.

“Stop it; you can’t see him now. Seungri knows what he’s doing. You’d just get in the way.” Seunghyun deflated as Daesung pushed him into sitting on the bed. Daesung punched him on the shoulder in a friendly manner and sat beside him. “Don’t worry about. Jiyong is tougher than he looks. Besides, I thought you wanted to know about what happened.”

Seunghyun furrowed his brows as he stared unseeing at the floor. His fists clutched at the sheets, and he didn’t know why. Why did he care what happened to this stranger that he had only met that morning? Why did it suddenly feel like every breath he took until he found out if the Captain was okay was a shard of glass that stabbed and ripped and sliced its way down his throat and embedded in his lungs?

He heard Daesung continue to talk beside him. At first it sounded far away like a phone call with a bad connection, but after a few moments the soothing sound of his voice had calmed Seunghyun enough to listen.

“You asked why those people weren’t moving, right? You’ve probably noticed by now that Seungri isn’t normal. All he has to do is order someone to do something and they do it. Sometimes, if a person is particularly strong-willed, he has to say it few times.”

“Now really isn’t the time for jokes,” Seunghyun complained quietly.

Daesung laughed and flopped backward on the bed. “It’s not a joke, Seunghyun. Seungri, Taeyang, and I aren’t normal. We can do things that not a lot of other people can.”

“Oh, really?” he asked sarcastically. “What can you do then?”

“When I sing, people’s moods are affected.”

Seunghyun snorted. “That’s supposed to be true of any singer.”

Daesung sat up sharply and stared at Seunghyun imploringly. “No, it’s not like that. It’s much stronger. If I sing a sad song, then people become so depressed that they try to kill themselves. If I sing a happy song, then people feel revived, cheerful, and invincible. I’ve even learned that I can put suggestions into the lyrics that can change the way they see the world or live their lives.”

Seunghyun’s head hurt as he tried to wrap his mind around the absurd things that Daesung was saying. It couldn’t be true; it was impossible. Next they’d say that unicorns and dragons were real too.

But… well he did seem to fall asleep instantly whenever Seungri told him to. And he had felt happy earlier after hearing Daesung sing even though he knew he should have been terrified.

“What about Taeyang?” he asked quietly. He rested his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands as he tried to process everything. His head felt incredibly heavy, much too heavy for his poor neck to be able to hold up all alone, and he couldn’t tell if a normal headache was starting to form just behind his eyeballs or if it was one of the new special ones that made him want to jump off a cliff.

“He can-” Daesung began excitedly only to be cut off by a sharp knock at the door.

“Hey guys, Seungri called a meeting in the study. He says it’s about Ji.”

Seunghyun felt his heart inexplicably shatter a little bit as he hastily stood up and followed Daesung to the door.