If Baekhyun had to pick his most favorite place in the ship, it has to be the bathroom. Well, for starters, unlike majority of the ship, it’s clean and smells good—there’s a smell of lily somewhere though he doesn’t know where it’s from. It’s a given since Sunny’s probably in charge in here.

Baekhyun quickly side eyes Chanyeol who came with him inside. “What are you doing?”

“What?”

“You don’t actually think we’re taking a bath together.”

“Why not?”

Baekhyun glares at him. “Please, Chanyeol. I’ve seen enough of your for the past few days.”

Chanyeol pouts. “I feel offended.”

“You should be.”

Chanyeol smirks. “You’re lucky I already took a bath.”

“You already did?”

“Yeah. When you were busy baking with the guys,” Chanyeol moves closer to Baekhyun, pushing his chin up slightly with his finger before planting a kiss on his lips. “I’ll be in our room.” He whispers before turning around to leave, leaving Baekhyun idled with his mind floating around the feeling of his lips against his.

--

On the way back to his room, Chanyeol noticed the growing silence due to the pirates slowly retreating back to their own quarters, calling it a night. He greets some kids on the way and learns that they’re the sons and daughters of the pirates here. He found it weird that some pirates brought their kids with them but after asking one of the kids, he was informed that most of them don’t have a home anymore. And Chanyeol realized that there’s more to being a pirate and going to a pointless voyage. This run-down ship is their home.

When he finally arrives, he’s greeted with packed food on top of his and Baekhyun’s beds with notes that express gratitude. It felt great. Chanyeol thinks he can stay here forever if not for the weird job he has. Come to think of it, he has to do something about that.

--

Baekhyun came back after an hour, towel over his wet hair with arms occupied with his used clothes. Chanyeol notices how small the brunette looked under that huge shirt the other pirates must’ve lent him. It even reaches his knees and then his thoughts kind of wandered to what Baekhyun is wearing underneath but the latter’s face appearing in front of him snapped him out of it.

“I’m not wearing anything.”

“Did I say that out loud?”

Baekhyun laughs at him. “Your face kind of gave it off.”

Chanyeol moves over, sitting up straight, with his legs hanging by the edge of the bed. “You wanna sit beside me?” He asks while tapping the space on his side. Baekhyun gives him a smirk. He drops his used clothes on the side of the bed before hopping beside Chanyeol, creating a slight bump. Chanyeol thought he was imagining a smell a while ago but now that Baekhyun’s this close to him, he can actually smell flowers. “You smell like…flowers.”

Baekhyun chuckles while leaning against the wood behind him. “Yeah. Lily. The bath smelled like Lily. Although at some point I tasted alcohol.” Chanyeol snorts. “So, Mr. Secret Agent, what’s your plan?”

“Hm?”

“I mean, we can’t just stay here right?”

“Unless you want to become a pirate.”

Baekhyun hits him lightly in the stomach. “I’m serious!”

“We’ll see where their destination is and maybe we can ask Junmyeon to let us off if they decide to dock. We can find our way from there.”

“But we’re practically penniless. I mean, look at me, I’m wearing a pirate shirt!”

Chanyeol wraps his arms around the latter to pull him closer. “Come on. It suits you.”

Baekhyun didn’t mind the gesture but the warmth Chanyeol gives off made him restless. It’s totally what he needs in this cold evening night. And he’s worried he might come looking for it every now and then when he’s not even sure Chanyeol would be pulling him close like this every now and then. He just wishes this will never end. He doesn’t remember the last time he felt this calm. He doesn’t remember the last time Kris made him feel like this. He frowns at how their potentially perfect relationship crumbled like his burnt cookies in the oven.

The ship suddenly likes due to the unsteady waves and Baekhyun hears his used clothes fall down from the bed. He quickly crawled to the edge to pick it up and unexpectedly, he sees an object falling from the pockets of his jeans. He crooks his eyebrows while slowly picking it up with his mind running through the past events, trying to remember when he procured the certain key he now has in his palm.

“Oh gosh, the drugs.”

Chanyeol turns to Baekhyun after noticing him whispering at the side. “What do you have there?”

Baekhyun yelps in surprise causing the key to accidentally slip off his palm, falling down and hitting the cold wood. Chanyeol stares at it in silence before the familiar object finally registered in his mind. “It’s the key.” Baekhyun turns to him, unsure of how to react as well. After confirming that the key is the same key he was told to seek after, Chanyeol turned to Baekhyun, eyes full of questions. “Why do you have the key?”

“I—I don’t know.” Baekhyun stutters. “I must’ve slipped it in my pocket when I fell against the drugs back at the ship. I don’t know, Chanyeol, I don’t—“ It didn’t take long enough for him to notice the protective expression Chanyeol has. “It’s not mine, Chanyeol, I swear!” Chanyeol only stares at him. “You believe me right?!” He’s close to begging now.

“Alright, alright, I believe you.” Chanyeol finally says while walking towards the key to pick it up. “Baekhyun, do you know what this key is for?” Baekhyun shakes his head as he stares at Chanyeol’s face, trying to read the man’s expression. He has the same expression when he first met him. “This is the only key to the vault where those dealers hid the formula for that new drug they’re trying to sell.”

“What...What does that mean?”

“That means their meeting with the investors from different countries and the distribution of the drugs will be postponed until they recover this key.”

“Then that’s a good thing, right?”

“Yes, if you don’t include the part where we’re being hunted down by now.”

Baekhyun gasps, his voice and body shaking in fear.

“I’m sorry—“

“No, no, don’t do that. Don’t…start blaming yourself. It’s not your fault. I dragged you into this.”

“But if I didn’t take the key—“

“If you didn’t take the key, the drugs would be circulating across countries by now. It bought us more time, Baekhyun.” Chanyeol walks towards him, taking his hand to try and soothe the latter. “Hey, relax.”

“This is just so overwhelming. I mean drugs and all. And now we’re being hunted down.”

Chanyeol chuckles lightly in hope of creating a light atmosphere for the brunette. “You’ve never done this with Kris before?”

“No,” Baekhyun says after taking a deep breath. He looks up to smile at Chanyeol before continuing with, “Kris was kind of…protective towards me. He made sure, in every mission, no one would come after him through me. I don’t know how he does that. I can only imagine.” Baekhyun chuckles slightly remembering the times Kris insisted he bring bodyguards with him so someone can watch over him. It was a long-week argument in which Baekhyun won.

Chanyeol drops on his knees in front of Baekhyun and then leans closer towards the latter’s face. “Don’t worry. This time…I’ll protect you.”

--

“Well, lucky for you, we’ll be docking somewhere in the Philippines. Uh. Davao, if I’m not wrong.” Junmyeon tells him the next morning at the main deck. Chanyeol still finds it hard to believe that this mean before him is a pirate. He looks like he’s Gangnam-bred. Born with money. Well, he’s not an expert when it comes to people but he can at least tell by the way he talks, moves and dresses (who the hell wears a suit on a pirate ship?) that he didn’t live under the sewers.

“That’s…far from the mainland, right?”

“Very far.” Junmyeon chuckles. “Though, it’s the biggest city in the country. I’m sure you’ll find more ways there.”

Chanyeol nods. “Thanks.”

“Listen, I’m not trying to stick my nose into your business but…I’ve seen danger and Baekhyun, he’s—“

Chanyeol looks away. “.”

“He won’t last running around for days. I mean, you’ve seen him.”

“Yeah yeah. He…He screamed his way out of a chase before.” And it nearly got them killed.

“He has to go home.”

“I’ll protect him.”

“You’ll protect him.” Junmyeon nods. “That’s reassuring. But who’s gonna protect you, huh?” He chuckles before sipping from his cup of tea. “Anyway, do you know anyone from there? Cause, we can come with you for a while if you want.”

“No. It’s okay. I know some…people. We’ll find a way to communicate with the base so we can let them know our whereabouts.”

“He has to go home.” Junmyeon tells him again.

“HOLY ! THAT IS ONE HUGE FISH!”

Chanyeol turns his head towards the group of pirates by the edge of the deck surrounding Baekhyun who’s preoccupied with a fishing rod on hand. The pirates have been teaching him fishing all morning and it makes Chanyeol happy knowing Baekhyun doesn’t feel burdened and that he can smile through all of this. This is the first time he’s felt something like this towards someone but he’s sure he’ll do anything to protect that smile.

“Yeah.” Chanyeol murmurs with his eyes still lingering on that perfect smile. “He has to go home.”

“CHANYEOL, LOOK! I CAUGHT A HUGE FISH!”

Because this is his problem and he’s not gonna let Baekhyun get dragged with it even further.

“I CAUGHT A LARGER FISH BEFORE!”

“YOU’RE AN !”

--

After lunch when Chanyeol decided to head back to their room to check on Baekhyun, he found the brunette staring blankly at the empty bag on top of the bed. “What’s wrong?”

“They said…pack, right?”

“Uh-huh. We’ll be arriving early tomorrow.”

“I don’t get it. What the am I going to pack?” Chanyeol starts laughing as Baekhyun continues to try and make sense. “I mean, we didn’t bring anything. Were they expecting me to pack invisible clothes?”

“You are so full of .” Chanyeol says in between laughter. Baekhyun also starts laughing as soon as he sees Chanyeol losing his . A knock interrupted them. Sunny slowly opens the door, greeting them with a polite smile.

“Hey.”

Chanyeol clears his throat. “I’ll leave you two alone.” Sunny nods at Chanyeol as he passes by the door.

“What’s up?”

Sunny slightly lifts the box on her hands. “The guys wanted me to give you this. They’re cupcakes. They said they want you to have it.”

“Aww. That is so cute.”

“We’ll miss you though.”

“Come on. We don’t leave until tomorrow. Don’t make me cry now.”

“You gonna cry? Really?” Sunny throws her head back laughing. “It’s just that we normally don’t have guests in this ship.”

“It’s not every day we get to sail with pirates either so we’re even!” Baekhyun announces happily.

“Hey, you wanna do something fun before you leave tomorrow?”

That amused grin is enough for Baekhyun to lend his ears.

--

“You think this is important? What the hell do we need a ing massage chair for?”

Chanyeol doesn’t really know at what context Junmyeon is yelling in but it’s enough to make him curious in just a second. So he knocks at the door before slowly pushing it open. He sees the pirates seated around a round table with Junmyeon in the middle, leading what seems to be a meeting nobody really knew about.

“Oh, sorry to interrupt—“

“No, no, good timing.” Junmyeon immediately says, raising his head from the paper he was yelling at earlier. “Come in.”

“What’s up? This a meeting?”

“No. Yeah. Sort of.” Junmyeon answers although it’s obvious he doesn’t sound sure himself.

Chanyeol crooks his eyebrows while glancing at the pirates around him who only gave him a shoulder shrug.

“We’re trying to create a grocery list for Sunny.” Junmyeon finally tells him.

“Grocery list?”

“Yeah. Why do you think we’re docking? We need to refill our food supplies here man.” One of the pirates tells him although with this amount in one room he’s not really sure who.

“Uh, let me see?” Chanyeol walks over awkwardly, trying to squeeze himself in between the bodies to reach Junmyeon at the other side of the table. Junmyeon gives him the paper and he scans the bulleted items one by one. He has never seen this much nonsense on a grocery list in his life.

--

“Karaoke machine?”

“Nope.”

Baekhyun crooks his eyebrows at the paper. “Cadaver.”

“Definitely no.”

“A LIVE BRAIN?”

 “Give me that.” Sunny finally snatches the paper to see for herself what other bull those men listed down. “A hooker—oh God no. Never.”

Baekhyun snarls. “They sure know how to make a grocery list.”

Sunny gives him back the paper and Baekhyun happily scratches out the useless things…which was most of the items listed.

It’s the morning when they leave. It’s also the morning where Sunny goes out to do the grocery wherein she dragged Baekhyun along. It hasn’t been long after the ship docked near the lines of the fishing boats near the wet market they’re strolling around now but Baekhyun already feels the absence of the shaky flat wood under his feet.

They head first to the fishes. Baekhyun watches Sunny busily checking the fishes. He has never been to a wet market before. His social status doesn’t really give him a chance to do so. “Sunny.”

“Hm?” Sunny hums in response while moving forward slowly.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Yeah. Sure.”

“Why a pirate ship?”

He doesn’t get a response immediately but seeing Sunny’s smile tells him the answer to that question isn’t simple. “You know before all this, none of us knew each other. Well, some of us. It’s not really a pirate ship. It’s Junmyeon’s private ship. He’s Gangnam-bred. Extremely rich. So they have those private kind of things.”

Baekhyun nods slowly in amusement.

“He ran away.” Sunny adds while glancing up at him. “I guess he didn’t like living like that. While running away, there were men who wanted to kidnap him knowing he’s rich. Luckily, these good guys, some of the pirates on that ship now, went to save him. So Junmyeon took them, gave them a home, that ship. Pretty cool, right?”

Baekhyun didn’t have anything to say. It amazes him how some people who have received so much would rather give and how some people who give so much barely receive as much in return. There’s an imbalance. But maybe that’s what makes life beautiful. And finally experiencing something like that changed his views on the less privileged. He’d give anything to meet more people like them in the future.

“How about you?” Baekhyun inquires while following closely behind Sunny. “How did you meet them?”

“Oh. We’re close friends.” Sunny answers simply. “Enough about that. Time to talk about you.” She gives Baekhyun a sly grin before continuing. “How did you and Chanyeol meet?”

“We met…accidentally. In a cruise ship. I’m not allowed to give more details but something happened and we crossed paths and I kind of caused a ruckus and he didn’t have any choice but to tag me along and certain circumstances lead us to jumping off the ship and we ended up in this island and then you found us.”

“Honey, that’s not even the whole story but I’m already jealous of your life.”

“Yeah, it’s kind of fun and all if you don’t include the part where the cruise ship is for couples and that my fiancé cheated on me so I had to go to that stupid cruise alone.”

Sunny laughs out loud. “You’re full of !”

Baekhyun shrugs while smiling proudly. “That’s what they always say.”

An impulsive yelp from Sunny alarmed Baekhyun. Sunny was looking behind her, towards a guy running with a sling bag the guy snatched from her earlier and Baekhyun didn’t even give it a second bit to think before chasing after the vigilante. “Baekhyun!” Sunny yells in worry.

He wasn’t exactly the hero type of guy. You have guys like Kris and Chanyeol for that but the events have given him no choice. First of all, he’s not going to let this guy get away with taking what’s not his. Second, he may have to give his trust to the suffice experience he has with hapkido to back him up if ever he catches up with the snatcher. Third, damn this guy sure knows his way around this wet market. Baekhyun couldn’t even count how many times he almost slipped and bumped into something.

He notices the bright light from the front and realizes they’re nearing the exit now. He speeds up his pace just in time the snatcher slows done, thinking he’ll be safe around this area. However, Baekhyun was able to slide through the water, giving him enough speed to close the distance left and reach an arm to grab the snatcher’s collar. He pulls him back with brute force causing him to share the fall and they hit the cold, wet hard cement. The crowd gasps at them. Baekhyun doesn’t let go until the snatchers spins around to stand up that he was forced to. He immediately grabs the sling of the bag before the snatcher gets back on his feet completely.

“Let go of the bag.” He tells the snatcher but the only response he gets is a threatening glare. “Let. Go. Of. The. Bag.” He says again, this time with stern. He starts to wonder if the guy can understand him and he curses knowing he can’t speak Filipino. “Look, let go of the bag now or I swear to God I’m going to break your neck.”

The snatcher starts pulling and Baekhyun immediately does the same. At the first few seconds, it was just them both pulling and pulling against each other but the snatcher suddenly advanced towards him with a fist ready, catching Baekhyun off guard, but the brunette was able to avoid through ducking.

.

I swear after this I’ll have bruises all over my face!

Well, yeah, he has a background with hapkido. He’ll give you that.

But he’s not man enough to take on this guy. Not ever.

These hands are for baking!

Not punching!

So the best he could do now is duck, duck, move to the side, duck, duck, and more ducking.

After a few more one sided punching, the snatcher finally takes out his last card—a knife.

“HOLY SH—THAT’S NOT FAIR!”

Baekhyun closes his eyes when the snatcher advances with his knife, hoping some miracle will actually come about as a reward for trying to be a hero. And that is exactly what the heavens who probably have pitied him gave him when he opens his eyes after hearing continuous painful screams and punches. He stares widely, frozen in his spot, down at the snatcher lying down on the floor covered with bruises and a few blood.

“HOLY SH—“ He was interrupted when a guy whose face was hidden a black hoodie pulled him away from the scene and ran towards the same direction he came from earlier. Baekhyun couldn’t find his voice to ask what was going on or who the he was and before he knew it, they stopped somewhere in the middle of the wet market and a vague sound of what appears to be Chanyeol’s voice echoed around him. He turns to the direction the voice was coming from then back to the guy who saved him earlier. He couldn’t see his face but he can see his eyes with the little light the hoodie was letting in. The guy slipped something in his hand before running off, losing itself in the sea of people around them.

“Baekhyun!” Chanyeol grabbed the latter and pulled him close into his arms. “Oh my God, you’re okay.”

“Yeah, I’m f—“ Baekhyun can feel Chanyeol’s heartbeat rushing.

“Jesus, I leave you on your own for a while and you get yourself into trouble.” Chanyeol whispers against his ear while rubbing his back.

“Chanyeol, I’m fine. I’m alive.” Baekhyun sees Sunny running towards them. She must’ve called Chanyeol here. “Sunny, your bag.” Sunny slowly takes the bag from Baekhyun.

“Thank you. Are you okay?”

Chanyeol breaks the hug and Baekhyun smiles reassuringly at Sunny. “I’m fine. Don’t worry.”

“What happened? You stink.” Chanyeol asks and Baekhyun hits him lightly in the shoulder with a slight chuckle.

“Some guy snatched her bag so I chased after him.”

“What? Where the hell is that guy? Come on. I’ll give him a good beating!”

“Chanyeol, it’s okay. Someone came to help me.”

“Someone came to help you? Who?”

Baekhyun shrugs in response. “I don’t know. He just appeared.”

“What did he look like?” Chanyeol asks in curiosity, having a bit of idea of the identity of this mysterious person. He’s been in this job long enough that incidences like this and people like that appearing out of nowhere is not a astounding anymore.

“I’m not sure. He hid his face under his hoodie. A black hoodie. He’s kinda like a ninja.” Baekhyun replies. “That’s funny.”

Chanyeol smirks after finally deducting who it was. “Ninja, huh.”

“Let’s head back?” Sunny offers graciously with a gentle smile. Chanyeol places a clean cloth around Baekhyun’s shoulders before they start walking, following closely behind Sunny.

--

For some reason, looking up at the ship from his spot makes him sad. It’s that kind of feeling knowing he won’t be in that ship when it finally leaves. Sunny’s busy giving her regards from the pirates but really, all he can think about is the sadness that comes afterwards. He’s grown attached to the pirate ship that it hurts to see it go. But things have to move on.

“I put a little money in your bag. They’re from Junmyeon. He said it might help you.”

Baekhyun finally looks away from the ship. “Thanks Sunny. Really. For everything.”

“Well, this is it.”

“Yeah.”

“You take care, alright? Don’t forget about your pirate buddies.”

“Never. I promise.”

Chanyeol nods at Junmyeon’s advice for him. Junmyeon pats his back before turning around to walk back inside his pirate ship. Chanyeol turns to Baekhyun. He was laughing about something, and so was Sunny. It made him smile. Already, these people loved him. He guessed it’s just the way it is. People just liked Baekhyun, the way people liked fast foods, pop songs and celebrities.

After a while, Sunny started saying her goodbyes which ended with one last hug. Chanyeol smiles at her as he walks back inside the ship. A few minutes after, the ship finally started to sail and what’s left of them to do is to wave goodbye to the people who gave them so much even with such short amount of time.

--

An hour after the ship left them, Baekhyun and Chanyeol found themselves walking around the unfamiliar streets of Davao. The sun was scorching hot above them.

“Chanyeol, I’m tired.”

“I know.”

“Where the hell are we going?”

“We need to find a place to stay.”

“Can’t we at least grab a cab or something?”

“We don’t even know where exactly we’re heading and you want to commute?”

“But I’m tired!”

“Yeah I heard you the first time.”

Baekhyun groans in distress. He pouts as he was forced to go with Chanyeol’s ways as he seemed to be the only person who actually knows what he’s doing. This is a foreign land and he doesn’t have anything with him. If only he had his damn I.D., he could probably make use of it but unfortunately, he left it back in that damn cruise ship. He slipped his hands inside his pockets while following closely behind Chanyeol and immediately paused when he felt something familiar inside—a piece of paper. The paper the ninja guy gave him earlier that he somehow forgot about.

“Chanyeol.”

Chanyeol sighs. “Look, I get that you’re tired. But you’re not the only one—“

“Chanyeol!”

“What? What?” Chanyeol finally stops walking. He turns around and sees Baekhyun looking at a piece of paper. “What’s that?”

“It’s the paper the ninja guy gave me earlier.”

“What?” Chanyeol immediately snatches the paper to look at it himself. “Why didn’t tell me earlier?”

“…I forgot.”

Chanyeol only sighs at his response. This penmanship is definitely Kai’s, he thinks while reading the numbers.

421-6417

It’s a phone number.

Chanyeol grabs Baekhyun’s hands. “Come on.”

--

They found a store after a few walks and Chanyeol asked politely to use the phone in which they had to pay a few pennies in the end. Chanyeol doesn’t really know what he should be expecting from this phone call or who he should be expecting would answer. Until the ringing finally stops and replaced with a familiar voice saying, “Hello?”

Holy . “Minseok!”

“What the—Chanyeol?! ing . You’re ing alive!”

Baekhyun looks up at him curiously. “Chanyeol? Who are you talking to?”

“The person who will ing save our lives.” Chanyeol tells him happily. Baekhyun waited for a few more minutes for Chanyeol to finish conversing with the person on the other line. When he finally did, Baekhyun couldn’t help but notice how happy Chanyeol was while explaining to him their next move. Moreover, he loved the hope he saw in Chanyeol’s eyes.

a/n:

i am so sorry this took so long

it took me like 190759237039 songs to get my mojo back

yes i updated this along with perfectly imbalanced hooray me!

- gelie