“!!” Shouting out as he witness Jaejoong take the plunge, Yunho leaps up from his chair, long legs ferrying him across the deck in seconds while muscular hands abandons the y translucent outer piece and white sleeveless top. Dressed only in long white khakis, the shoes are on the ground strewn all over the place.

With the second splash, a little louder than the first one, the boat is emptied of its occupants, who have decided to go for a little ‘skinny dipping’.

Searching around desperately for signs of live, Yunho notices a small amount of bubbling coming from a spot not far away, instead of a swimming Jaejoong. The younger man’s safety was the only thing going through his mind since they are very far out and there is no way Jaejoong will make it to land with those merciless waves.

Doing a nose dive, the man held his breathe and saw a struggling Jaejoong a few feet away. With forceful , the man swam over in the matter of seconds, going deeper with the help of his wet and heavy pants.

Taking note that Jaejoong’s collar, or rather, the collar of his shirt that Jaejoong is wearing, is trapped within the still propellers of the yacht. Jaejoong had somehow plunged in deep enough to get himself stuck fast and running out of oxygen dangerously quickly, especially since he was struggling so much. Grabbing Jaejoong by the back of his neck, Yunho transferred a small pocket of air to him via a very salty lip lock, cliché but a truly useful way to prevent someone from drowning.

Then, unwinding the shirt as he tries to turn the heavy metal blades, it took Yunho a huge amount of effort to release the harder part of the collar from between the gap of the fan and the motor. Then, hurling Jaejoong upwards by the waist, Yunho gave the young one enough velocity to propel himself upwards in view of Jaejoong rapidly weakening lower limbs due to oxygen deprivation.

However, uncomfortable with Yunho’s paws all over his torso, Jaejoong struggled a little and ended up sending the older man’s head into the bottom of the boat, knocking him out instantly.

Reaching the surface and gasping for air while he treads water, Jaejoong is not relieved to see that Yunho has not surfaced yet. Looking around himself frantically, the kind hearted young man could never forgive himself if someone were to die because of him. in a lung full of wet air, he dived back in again.

Fortunately for him, Yunho has not sunken into the depths yet. Paddling his feet as fast as he can and thrashing against the uprising current, the smaller person torpedoed his way to Yunho’s side and grabs the man under his armpits.

Wasting no time, Jaejoong pushed on as hard as he could with the extra weight, kicking so hard that his legs threaten to cramp up. Praying hard that they won’t at such a critical moment, the young man was miraculously able to bring them both to the surface, Yunho’s face up first, remembering how he was taught rescue in swimming classes years ago.

Nearly running out of air himself, Jaejoong fought the waves and the man’s dead weight, managing to make progress towards the boat. The distance is not significant, but it felt like forever to Jaejoong, just to conquer the measly distance with such a big size man in tow.

Swimming wasn’t the most harrowing part. Hauling Yunho on board was. Trying all sorts of methods, Jaejoong failed. Nevertheless, being an intelligent young man, he decided to just save some energy in the meantime. Scrambling on board, Jaejoong ended up slipping off the edge a couple of times, when pulling Yunho up, like a wet seal sliding off a piece of icy floater.

Giving up on using pure brute force, the young man couldn’t get the older man to wake no matter how hard he slaps the man. Finally, spotting a hose stacked up neatly by the side, Jaejoong, did a small split and used his toes to pull the rubber tubes over while his hands hold onto Yunho’s bicep.

Lying on his belly, the latter worked tirelessly to loop the tube around the older man’s broad chest. Getting into the water to do it since he can’t seem to succeed, wondering all along, why he is so bent on saving Yunho. He can’t forget how the man who bullied and tormented him would save him so valiantly.

Scrambling up the boat once more, Jaejoong pulls the tube, loops the other end around the railing by the boarding side of the boat and tugged with all his might, imitating how the game of ‘tug-of-war’. With the metal pole as a pulley, he succeeded and Yunho is saved, lying motionless but still breathing.

Then, making sure that all of the man’s body parts are on board, Jaejoong darts over and pounds him on the chest, expelling all the ingested and aspirated water with the hammering on the man’s sternum. It worked and Yunho was coughing out water, but the bachelor isn’t waking just yet.

This situation is to Jaejoong’s advantage and there is no way this bright young man is ever to let the chance slip up. Tying Yunho up with the remaining piece of hose after unlooping it from the pulley, Jaejoong fastened the big man to sit against the steps.

Racing over to the control panel, with the adrenaline still rushing from the earlier escapade and rescue, Jaejoong told himself he is only driving his car. Then, reading the small GPS screen at the side, he pulled up the anchor after a few tries and started the propellers which almost ended him earlier.

Seeing the small arrow move as he moves in circle, Jaejoong quickly picks up the skills of a ship captain and started interpreting the map by the side, estimating the direction with the compass on Yunho’s Tag Heuer watch. Pushing the handle and hearing the water splash against the side, wetting his already soaked body parts, Jaejoong does not care that he is speeding. After all, the boat is called speedy III.

Parking is a so Jaejoong gave up altogether and released the anchor a couple of metres away from the nearest wooden platform. The vessel is nothing close to a land vehicle. Rushing into Yunho’s bunk and passing by a still unconscious Yunho, Jaejoong does not even wash away the salty and sticky feel before changing out into the man’s other shirt. This time, he is putting on a pair of pants no matter what. Yunho practically lives there since he has almost everything he needed on board.

Pulling on the only track pants with strings to fasten, Jaejoong rolled up the end of the trouser and dashed out to the top deck again. Noticing how his legs are still giving way despite his alert mental status, the young man concluded that he is weakened after skipping most of the major meals for nearly half a week.

Grabbing the packet of mint candy on Yunho’s driver panel, the young man stocked up on the instant carbohydrate and sugars supply in his system by chewing a couple in a mouthful. He loves mint since it’s hot and the minty boost really helped. Finally, he digs through Yunho’s wallet and takes the only hundred dollar bill available, for the taxi fare he foresees he might have to pay.

Running pass Yunho, Jaejoong smiled at the distance between the harbour and boat. Jaejoong does a lot of jumping back in school since he did badminton. The cue to make the jump is a stirring Yunho. The bigger man’s eye lids are moving and parting so Jaejoong was forced to make a premature jump.

Landing on uneven wooden pieces and hearing a soft crunch at his ankle, Jaejoong knows he is screwed if he does not continue to run. Pushing himself up and grimacing as he runs with the sprain, Jaejoong looked back just to check on Yunho. Angry at himself for caring at all, the young man is surprisingly relieved to see the older man awake in a daze.

Taking the pains to hide in case the man see which direction he was headed, Jaejoong found a main road in no time and flagged down a cab after almost a mile of limping barefooted.

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POV from Jaejoong

YES!! I made it!! I feel a little bad for what I did to him… but I guess he deserved it!

Thanks to him, I got to do things that I have never done before, or done years ago. They are namely, driving a boat, swimming and saving someone while swimming, standing broad jump even though that was meant to be a long jump, sprained my ankle… and also, walking around only with a shirt on. Underwear-less.

My successful escape is all thanks to umma and Suie. They were with me all this while as I was playing with fire… or water in my case.

The thing is… I know nothing about that guy except that he has a father and grandfather who had apparently bought me as a gift for him. Who does that?! That’s human trafficking and they are doing it under broad daylight like my kidnap was none of their business. How lawless can this place be? To allow people to do that? I am SO headed straight home with Hyun Joong after I reach the hostel!

I also know his name is Yunho. Jung Yunho. I found out thanks to his driver’s license which I was tempted to take from his wallet and hand over to the police. Someone ought to stop him and his family… but I will go through proper means to report him. I am after all, a good citizen. His social security number is engraved in my brain and I am not going to go easy on him just because he wasn’t as bad as those kidnappers were to me.

If he and his family do not exist, there won’t be a need for kidnappers. No demand, no supplier, no human trafficking. It’s that simple.

The first thing I must do is call umma and Suie! I can’t wait!! Is this why Lech Walesa says that freedom is priceless?

Priceless… god! I hate that word now! How dare he mess with my vocabulary?!

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Meanwhile…

“Hello? Park Yoochun speaking.” The detective picked up his mobile phone while trying to juggle the pile of papers and a cup of coffee in his hand, headed from the data store back to his office.

“Yes… Are you sure?” The man stops moving and frowns. “Can you send me a copy of his scan report please? Thanks.” The man replied in a low voice.

Thereafter, returning to his desk and slumping down onto his armchair with a frustrated groan, the man massaged his temper a little. Trying to return his focus on the remaining case, the man could not forget how genuinely lost Junsu looked, recalling the face every now and then.

Finally, leaving his office for a meeting with his informant, Yoochun decided that he would take a detour to see Junsu at the hospital once he is done with the field work. He has no obligations to do so but feels a need to visit the lonely person, assuming he will be terrified.

Reaching the hospital after a few hours, Yoochun made sure to make look up the doctor first.

“Detective. We have reasons to believe that one of the effects of his injuries involves memory loss.” Drawing a rough sketch of Junsu’s skull to illustrate to Yoochun, the doctor explained that the boy will be suffering from a lot of after effects despite his miraculous survival.

“The CT scans revealed that PTSD is the least of our worries…” “He will need operation to eliminate all the danger the foreign body might cause… but the surgery will be risky and consent must be legit.” Nodding his head in silent understanding, Yoochun can feel the stress building up.

“Aside from the operation… What else will he be suffering from after discharge?” Yoochun asks out of pure concern.

“I have assessed him and it seems to me that he will be having a hard time balancing himself due to the injury at his cerebellum…” “He will be having frequent fits as well so there will be a few medications he must take regularly.” The doctor continued on as though Yoochun will be Junsu’s carer and the detective is speechless.

“We can discharge him soon since the brain swelling is recovering very well…” The hint is dropped at last.

TBC

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