“Korean”

“Chinese”

“English”

Part One:
“This is Undoubtedly the Seediest Bunch of Cutthroats, Villains and Scoundrels I Have Ever Seen.”
AKA “What's next? A singing, dancing mouse with his own amusement park?”

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Henry didn’t remember the fall from the boat, but he could clearly recall his panic as he flailed his arms and legs in the frigid waters and screamed for someone to help him. After several moments of trying to swim he did his best to lie on his back and float- the one thing he could do in water- but it was so cold and he was so terrified…

He didn’t remember passing out, and he certainly didn’t remember being rescued.

When he opened his eyes, he was lying on some kind of hard, wood floor and he couldn’t breathe. Someone pounded on his back mercilessly and he coughed what looked like a gallon of ocean water out of his lungs. Eyes tearing from exhaustion and pain, he looked around and saw only unfamiliar faces staring down at him, but he couldn’t read the expressions on them.

“Who are you?” He tried to ask, but he passed out again.

The next time he woke up he was face down on a pristine, white couch inside what looked like a normal living room- it had a TV, a coffee table and a bunch of armchairs, all the same spotless white. He looked down and saw that he was wearing different clothes than what he’d had on earlier, and at once the memory of the strangers came back to him. He tried to sit up and almost passed out from the effort it took.

“Oh, geuneun kkaeeo nass-eoyo.” (Oh, he’s awake.)

He heard a mumble of some sort and someone pushed him into a sitting position and a glass of water appeared in front of his eyes. Exhaustion forgotten he grabbed the glass and gulped it down.

“Ya! Eeteuk-hyung!!”

Henry jumped, just realizing that there was indeed someone in the room with him. It was a man who didn’t seem to be very old, only a few years older than Henry himself. He was tall and looked like he could very easily be a bouncer at a night club; he had very obvious muscles and a hard look about him. Before Henry could get a better look, the man turned away. The door at the end of the room opened and another man with a narrow face and bright red-blond hair walked through. The first man walked away, muttering something to which the newcomer smirked and laughed. Henry tried to clear his head and force himself to think straight as the second man took a seat across from him.

“Annyeonghaseyo, je ileum eun Eeteuk ibnida.” (Hello, my name is Eeteuk.)

Henry blinked a few times and shook his head, wondering if the water had damaged his brain.

“Dangsin-eun nuguyo?” (Who are you?)

“I’m sorry,” Henry finally said. “I don’t understand you.”

“Oh!” The man cried, “English!”

“Yes,” Henry said with a relieved sigh. “I speak English. I’m-”

The man abruptly turned and walked towards the door. “YA!!! KIBUM-SHI!!!”

Henry jumped as the man yelled loud enough to make a megaphone ashamed of itself. Without waiting for a response of any kind he just waltzed out the door, leaning it shut behind him.

It was slowly dawning on Henry that he was in some major trouble. These people could be rapists for all he knew, and by this point someone had to have realized that he was missing from the ship. He needed to contact the people in charge of him as soon as possible. But how? It wasn’t like he had a phone- and even if he did it would be worthless.

In any event, he knew he had to do something, and so he forced himself to stand up. At once the room began to spin and he forced himself to look at the floor and focus on breathing. He took a few shaky steps towards the door, but he didn’t get very far when yet another person made an appearance. Poor Henry was so startled by the door banging into the wall that he fell over from shock. The new person immediately rushed to his side, helping him back to the couch.

“It’s alright,” The man said. His English was heavily accented, but it was the first sentence that Henry had understood since he woke up and he nearly hugged the man.

“Where am I? What is this place?” Henry blurted.

“This is our ship,” the man said slowly, sitting down next to him.

“Who’s ship?” Henry asked as he scooted a few inches back from the stranger.

“Eeteuk’s. He is the one with…” the man pointed to his hair. “Red…?”

Henry nodded. “He owns this ship?”

The man looked a bit confused but smiled and nodded anyway. “I’m Kim Kibum. What’s your name?”

“Henry. Henry Lau.”

“Lau?” Kibum repeated, his eyes lighting up. “Chinese?”

“Yes,” Henry said hesitantly.

“You speak?”

“I do…”

Kibum promptly stood up and walked out of the room, calling “HANKYUNG-HYUNG!!!” As he did so. Henry flopped over onto his side and groaned in frustration. How many people were on this freaking bait trap?! He shut his eyes tightly, hoping that next time he opened them he’d be somewhere else.

“Are you alright?” Another new voice asked. This one spoke in Chinese.

Henry groaned. “Where am I?” He asked.

“You are on board a ship; the Super Junior.”

Henry blearily opened one eye. The new boy was tall and had spiky black hair and a face that looked easy to trust.

“I meant what planet am I on. Because it sure doesn’t feel like Earth.”

The boy laughed, throwing his head back and really letting go. Henry couldn’t help but crack a smile at it- his laugh was infectious.

“Yes, I suppose the marathon of people that you were just exposed to was probably a little rough,” he said when he’d finally calmed down. “I am sorry about that.” He held out his hand. “My name is Han Geng- most people call me Hankyung.”

Henry eyed the proffered hand for a moment, but at last he took it. “I’m Henry Lau.”

Hankyung handed Henry a bottle of water and an apple. All thoughts of possible poison or other unsavory additives flew from his mind and he took both, devouring them as Hankyung began to talk.

“The first man you saw was Kangin…at least that’s what he prefers to be called. He’s 23 years old, and he was instructed to get Eeteuk when you woke up. Eeteuk is the Captain of this ship- he’s 24, and he was going to be the one to explain everything to you, but since you spoke English he thought that Kibum would be the best person to talk. However his English is kind of limited, and so when Kibum found out that you spoke Chinese, he got me since I’m originally from China.”

Henry nodded to show that despite the fact that he was stuffing his face he did hear and understand.

“How did I get here?” He asked once he’d swallowed.

“Shindong was on morning duty, he was cleaning up the deck and spotted you floating in the water and alerted the rest of us, and then Donghae jumped in and swam you back to the boat. You weren’t really breathing when we found you, and you were ice cold. We thought you were dead until Donghae checked for a pulse.”

Henry gulped, his hunger vanishing- he barely even noticed the additional people being mentioned. Had he really almost died?

“How did you get in the water anyway?” Hankyung asked.

“I don’t remember,” Henry confessed. “I guess I fell.”

“Where were you? What was your ship’s name?”

“It was just a small fishing boat,” Henry said softly. “It belongs to a company that I work for now.”

Hankyung raised his eyebrows. “’Work for?’ You don’t look old enough to work for a fishing company- you don’t even look old enough to drive!”

Henry frowned. “I’m 18!” He cried, wincing as his throat screamed in protest.

“That’s barely old enough,” Hankyung insisted.

“It isn’t any of your business,” Henry muttered in English, and he received a scowl.

“What about your family? How can we contact them to let them know that you’re alright?”

Henry felt the all-too familiar pang of grief at the mention of his family. “They’re gone,” he said roughly. “I live on my own now.”

There was silence for a few seconds and then Hankyung patted him on the arm. “I’m sorry,” he said sincerely. “That must be very hard for someone so young.”

“I can manage it,” Henry insisted. Then he decided to cut to the chase.

“Look, I don’t want to cause anyone any trouble, if you could just drop me off somewhere in China then I can get back to where I need to be.”

Hankyung gave him a look that was half pity, half amusement. “We’d be happy to leave you off at Shanghai, but I’m afraid that you’ll have to wait a few weeks.”

Henry blinked at him. “What?”

“Well, we’re kind of far from the shore right now, plus we just left and we’re in the middle of…stuff,” He said evasively, plowing through Henry’s confusion.“The point is we can’t just turn around right now, we don’t have the time. In about two weeks we’ll have to go back to the port to refuel and restock, and once we’re there you can go. In the meantime, you can stay on board as our guest.”

Henry gave Hankyung an incredulous look. “For real? You want me to live here for two weeks? I don’t even know who you are! How do I know that you aren’t lying to me? How do I know you’re not criminals or something?”

Henry knew he was being a bit rude- these people didn’t need to save him after all; but when you wake up on strange ship in the middle of the ocean surrounded by people you don’t know, you have right to be suspicious.

Hankyung understood this, and so he laughed off Henry’s suspicions. “Trust me,” he said to the dubious boy. “If we wanted to harm you in anyway, we would have done it while you were asleep- you were out for nearly nine hours you know.”

Henry paled. “N-nine hours?”

Hankyung patted his arm once again. “Yep, and you’re still not done!” He said brightly. “You look like you need at least another five.”

Henry nodded, because he couldn’t think of anything else to do or say and his head was starting to pound. Hankyung tossed him a blanket and a pillow.

“Someone will check in on you every half hour or so. If you wake up and find that you can walk again without collapsing, feel free to just walk out that door-“ he pointed to the door that the last four people had come and gone through. “And then down the hall and up the first flight of stairs you see. It’ll lead you right to the deck.”

“Oh, and don’t worry,” He said on his way out. “I promise that nobody hear will do anything to you…really Heechul is the only one you might need to worry about, but he’s more likely to attack with his words than anything else.”

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Eeteuk surveyed the deck, feeling a twitch form in his left eye. It had been exactly five hours since he’d last had to raise his voice to anyone, and that was 4 hours and 55 minutes too long. Any moment now the peace would shatter, and when it had been quiet this long it was bound to be chaos.

“You worry too much,” Kangin told him. “Enjoy the quiet while it lasts.”

“That’s just it though,” Eeteuk responded (his voice muffled because he was biting his nails at the same time), “It won’t last. I just know that something is going to happen.”

“Yeah, you’re gonna give yourself an ulcer from all your constant stressing,” Kangin muttered. Eeteuk paid no attention though as a horrible realization hit him.

“Oh my god, I haven’t seen Sungmin at all today!”

Kangin rolled his eyes. “Here we go again.”

What Eeteuk didn’t realize was that half of the bad stuff that went down on the ship was his own fault. Eeteuk would go running all around the ship asking people if they’d seen Sungmin. Donghae would want to help and be more of a hindrance than anything. Heechul would be reminded that he hadn’t tormented anyone for a while and run off to do so. Even though it was highly unlikely that Sungmin would be there, Eeteuk would go below deck and bother Kyuhyun for a little while. Then, Kyuhyun would already be miffed so that when Donghae or Eunhyuk finally got bored enough to do something, he would explode at them and chase them around the boat trying to throw them overboard. Siwon would try to intervene and only succeed in getting Heechul’s attention, and then Kyuhyun would yell at everyone to go away and mind their own business. Finally a fight would break out and Eeteuk would yell at everyone for something that he set in motion.

So, to save all that trouble, Kangin quickly grabbed Eeteuk and threw him over his shoulder, and then he ran to the pilot house.

Kibum, being the master helmsman that he was, was attentively maneuvering the ship. Kangin gave him a brief nod (Kibum wasn’t at all surprised at the fact that Kangin had their captain slung over his back), and made a beeline for the P.A. system, flicking it on.

“Attention crew,” he said into the mike. “This is an announcement for Sungmin. I have a stray bag of Reese’s cups in my possession and I-”

The door flew open and Sungmin came galloping in.

“You called?” He said cheerfully.

“See?” Kangin said smugly as he let Eeteuk down. “Problem solved.”

“Where’s the Reese’s?” Sungmin demanded, pouting a bit.

“They’re down in the galley, come on I’ll get them for you.”

Eeteuk watched them go with a half miffed, half relieved look on his face; miffed because he didn’t appreciate being carted around like a sack of flour, and relieved because Sungmin was not in fact adrift in the ocean or hanging from the mast.

“Hey, Eeteuk-hyung,” Kibum said suddenly, “Is that the kid we pulled out of the water yesterday?”

Eeteuk jumped, his adrenalin suddenly rushing again. “Where?” he yelled.

Kibum pointed to the deck, and Eeteuk could just pick out the latest addition to their crew.

“Oh crap,” he moaned, rushing out. Heechul had already gotten there.

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Henry stumbled onto the deck, blinking away the sudden brightness of the sun. For all the people he’d met and heard of, he’d expected the deck to be a bit more crowded, and yet he seemed to be the only person around. The ship’s deck was narrow but long, and at the back there sat a massive tarp which Henry assumed was covering a small boat or some kind of technical thing. Behind and above him was a tall structure, which he assumed to be the pilot house, and to the right of the tower was a set of stairs- uncovered and open to the elements. Henry briefly considered going up the stairs and finding whoever was steering the boat but before he could someone yelled across the deck.

“Ya! You!”

Henry jumped and turned around, coming to face the strangest looking person he’d ever seen.

Okay, maybe strange was the wrong word…the most peculiar looking person he’d ever seen; he couldn’t really tell if it was a man or a woman. He was going with man though. Whoever he was, he was a bit intimidating looking. He had red hair and an angular face, and he stood with his hands on his hips and a mischievous look about him.

“You are the new boy?” He asked in halting English.

Henry nodded slowly. “Yeah, I’m Henry.”

The boy stuck out his hand. “My name is Kim Heechul, I am in charge here.”

Henry took Heechul’s hand, a bit confused. “I was told that Eeteuk was in charge…”

Heechul scoffed. “No way. So, you know what we do here?”

Henry shook his head and Heechul grinned at him.

“You see, we are-”

“YAH!!! KIM HEECHUL!!!”

Eeteuk came running over, but Heechul paid him no mind and blurted out, “We are pirates!”

Henry gaped and Eeteuk skidded to a halt next to them and the conversation switched to Korean.

“What did you say to him just now?” Eeteuk demanded. Heechul gave him an innocent look.

“I just told him what it is that we do,” he said sweetly.

Henry tried to process what he’d just heard. Pirates? For real?!

“You alright?” Eeteuk asked Henry gently in English.

Henry blinked up at them, his face perfectly blank. “I didn’t know that pirates were even around anymore,” he said finally.

“Of course the pirates are still here,” came Kibum’s voice from the right as he descended the stairs to the pilot house. “You think of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ and ‘One Piece.’ We are not like that.”

“What are you saying?” Eeteuk demanded. “Tell him we aren’t pirates!”

“Did somebody say ‘pirates’?”

Everyone whirled around to see a boy dressed in a billowing white shirt, black jeans, boots and a pirate hat standing on the edge of the ship. Henry paled a little when he saw that the boy carried a sword (though he would find out later that the sword was made of plastic).

“Donghae, get down from there,” Eeteuk snapped.

“Never!!!” Donghae cried, running along the edge and slashing wildly with his sword. “The Pirate King of the East Sea follows no orders!”

Henry was suddenly grabbed by the wrist and pulled away from the bickering group. He stumbled along, panicking until he realized that it was Hankyung.

“Don’t mind them,” he said soothingly. “They’re not always like this.” Then he paused. “Okay, Donghae and Heechul are always like this, but I swear they aren’t crazy.”

Henry nodded weakly. “So…are you really pirates?”

Before Hankyung could answer the floor next to them suddenly swung upwards. Henry thought the boat was falling apart until he realized that it was just a trap door opening; and it slammed and bounced against the deck. Another boy- this one wearing a large pair of sunglasses- heaved himself up out of the opening.

“Alright, who’s talking about pirates?”

Henry didn’t understand what he said, but he understood the tone. This boy was pissed.

“Ah, Kyuhyun,” Hankyung said in a surprised voice. “How strange it is to see you on deck while the sun is out.” He said it in Chinese, and Henry was surprised when the boy responded in the same language.

“Don’t try to distract me,” Kyuhyun growled. “What’s Donghae spewing now?”

“I think it’s actually Heechul’s fault this time,” Hankyung said, but Kyuhyun wasn’t listening- he’d just caught sight of Henry.

“Aha!” Kyuhyun yelled, jabbing a finger into Henry’s chest. “You’re the new kid!”

Henry jumped back, rubbing the spot on his chest that had been poked. He was already starting to see that personal space wasn’t a known concept on this damn boat. “Yeah, my name is-“

“Listen up,” Kyuhyun interrupted. “Don’t believe any of these idiots, we are NOT pirates. I don’t care who told you what, just get the thought out of your head.”

“Okay, fine!” Henry sighed in exasperation. “So then what do you do?”

Before either Hankyung or Kyuhyun could answer there was a crackle of feedback over the P.A. system and everyone clapped their hands over their ears. After a few seconds, the theme song from “Pirates of the Caribbean” started to play.

“LEE DONGHAE, I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!” Kyuhyun screamed, tearing off to the pilot house.

“Right then,” Hankyung continued, as though nothing had just happened. “We’re not pirates, although Donghae, Eunhyuk and Heechul like to pretend we are. Actually, Heechul does it just to piss off Kyuhyun; Donghae and Eunhyuk might actually believe it. The reality is that we’re treasure hunters.”

Henry gave Hankyung an ‘Are you kidding me?’ look. “Isn’t that basically the same thing?”

“Well no, not really,” Hankyung said, starting to explain. “Pirates steal things- not just treasure but in modern days they steal things from shipping boats. We hunt for historical treasure, and it doesn’t have to be gold and silver and the like. We look for sunken war ships and planes as well. It’s Siwon’s dream to look for Amelia Earhart’s plane, and one day we might actually do that.”

Hankyung spoke earnestly, and as he talked a dream-like expression came over him.

“We started doing this because we wanted adventure. A few of us were friends or knew each other through other people or through internet chat rooms…one day we all got online and started talking. Ryeowook was the one who mentioned treasure hunting- he’d read a newspaper article on it or something- and we all jumped on it. It had something for everyone involved- Donghae loved sailing and the sea, Eeteuk had the boat, Heechul wanted to do something incredibly outrageous, Siwon loved history and Kyuhyun could basically figure out how to work anything technological, and for everyone else it was an escape from the boring lives that we were living.”

Henry found himself nodding and being pulled in to the story because it was, in a way, what had happened to him. After his parents had died he’d wanted nothing more than to get away from everyone and everything, and despite not knowing how to swim he’d always liked being on the water. He’d been on several sailing and speed boats before and loved it, and he’d loved the sense of freedom and independence that the ocean promised. That was why he’d gone to China and gotten a job in the fishing industry. It was pretty much the only job on the sea he could get aside from the Navy (not for him, thank you very much), and so far it had been everything he’d wanted it to be. Except for the part where the storm hit and he fell overboard, of course.

It was promising to be a very touching moment between the two, except at that very moment there was a screech of feedback over the P.A. system that caused both men to clap their hands over their ears again and effectively ruined the bonding mood. The P.A. system then went silent- apparently Kyuhyun had stopped the track from playing.

“Oh god,” Eeteuk moaned. “Here it comes.”

Like a warrior back from the hunt, Kyuhyun came stalking down the stairs, a squirming Donghae slung over his shoulder and walked over to the edge of the ship. Another boy- this one with black hair, muscled arms and a very concerned look on his face- trotted after them.

“Eeteuk-hyung,” the boy said hesitantly, “I really think Kyuhyun is going to kill him this time.”

Eeteuk hid his face in his hands. “I’m too old to deal with this,” he muttered.

Two more boys appeared from a door under the pilot house; Henry recognized one as the man who had been in the room when he’d woken up, Hankyung had called him Kangin. He didn’t recognize the second boy, but he had a round face and wore a pink and white polo shirt. He was also munching on a bag full of Reese’s cups.

“Oh, Sungmin-sshi and I were just wondering when Kyuhyun-sshi was going to crack,” Kangin said. “Was he very hard to catch, Kyu?”

Kyuhyun glared at Kangin over Donghae’s legs. “He locked the door from the inside, it took me a while to get in.”

“Did you kick the door down again?!” Kibum cried.

“Speaking of pilot houses,” Sungmin said through a mouthful of chocolate. “Are we just drifting aimlessly right now? Please tell me we’re anchored and not drifting aimlessly.”

“Please don’t insult me but even suggesting that I would allow that to happen. We’re on auto pilot right now,” Kibum informed everyone. “Now back to my original question! Is my door lying face down on the floor at this very moment?”

“No!” Kyuhyun scoffed. “Didn’t I say that I wouldn’t do that anymore? I just punched a hole in it and unlocked the lock.”

“You did what?!” Eeteuk, Kibum and Kangin all said at the same time.

“Kyuhyun,” the first newcomer- the one with the super buff arms- said sternly. “You really can’t keep breaking things when you don’t get your way- we’ve discussed this. Remember, WWJ-”

“Siwon, be quiet,” Kyuhyun snapped.

“What Siwon means is that you need to pay more attention to your boyfriend,” Heechul teased.

“Zhou Mi is not my boyfriend!” Kyuhyun screamed, whirling around and accidentally (or not) knocking Donghae’s head into the wall.

“Who said anything about Zhou Mi? Why does your mind always jump to him?” Heechul asked with a smirk, and Eeteuk decided to intervene before things got messy.

“Alright, everyone stand down,” he growled, getting between Kyuhyun and Heechul before the blood could start flowing. “Heechul, back off. Kyuhyun, put Donghae down now!”

Kyuhyun pouted at him. “Can’t I throw him overboard just this once? It’s not like he’s gonna drown, he knows how to swim!”

“I don’t care, put him down this instant!!”

Sighing, Kyuhyun literally dropped Donghae down onto the deck. As soon as he was free, Donghae bonked Kyuhyun on the head with his sword and ran away, yelling about how he did not allow mutiny from his crew.

“Oh, here we go again,” Eeteuk whimpered as Kyuhyun gave chase, a clearly upset Siwon trying to stop him.

“Give it a rest, Siwon,” Heechul said brightly, flinging his arm around his shoulder. “It’s a lost cause.”

Hankyung laughed and turned to a very lost and horrified Henry.

“Welcome aboard the SS Super Junior. Would you like to meet the rest of the crew?”

Henry’s ‘No’ was lost in Donghae’s piercing shriek as Kyuhyun finally flung him overboard. 

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To be updated same time next week (hopefully....assuming I have internet access, cuz I will be in Lake george at that time -___-