o12

South’s Garden

Hei found Baekhyun again in the cabin, right after he’d handed the duty of steering over the Luhan.

He was arranging he covers on the bed (which were, surprisingly, folded), and part of their bags had already been unpacked and placed into the closet, which Baekhyun had just begun to fill up. Hei peered into the room, watching him tidy up, and tried not to laugh. As messy as he still was sometimes, she had somewhat drilled the habit of cleaning into him.

He looked up when the door creaked, and then the expression on his face melted into a smile. “Where did you go?”

Hei stepped inside and closed the door behind her. “I had to talk to Jinqiong for a second,” she told him, then looked around again. Everything seemed to look like how she remembered it.

“Well?” he asked. “How’s the ship?”

Hei didn’t know if he was purposely avoiding the topic of Jinqiong or if was unintentional. “Haven’t had time to look around again.”

“Save your energy, because everything looks the same.” Baekhyun lay down on the bed. Hei hovered at the edge—she didn’t want to sit down on clean sheets when she hadn’t changed into a nightgown—and watched him. “Except Yoona replaced a couple of things. Said the ship was too old fashioned, so we now have apparently more than one chair per cabin.” He lifted his head slightly, pointing at said chair. “I can now pile my clothes there without you complaining that there’s nowhere to sit. Which I still think is stupid, because a bed is a perfect place to sit.”

“You shouldn’t be on the bed unless you’ve changed into proper clothing,” Hei shot back. “It’s basics. In fact, you shouldn’t be lying down right now. Get up. Or change.”

He gave her a lopsided grin. “Make me.”

Hei knew the look well enough, but she almost always fell for it too, and this was apparently no exception because she reached over and attempted to pull him up. Before she could, Baekhyun grabbed her wrist much faster than she could react and pulled her down on top of him. She opened to protest, but by then, Baekhyun had already rolled over so he was leaning over her, grinning.

Hei glared at him. “You’re supposed to get up. Not the other way around.”

“And you said dirty clothing wasn’t allowed on the bed.” He tsked. “Look at you. What a hypocrite.”

She attempted to shove him off, but to no avail, and Baekhyun only laughed at her. It took at least another ten seconds before he gave up and scooched over, then lay down beside her, facing the ceiling.

Hei contemplated getting up now that she could, but she figured Baekhyun would probably stop her again, and she wasn’t about to be dragged back twice, so she lay still too. For a while, both of them stayed in comfortable, companionable silence before Baekhyun raised his head slightly, propping himself on his right arm so he was looking over her. Hei glanced towards him.

“Who are you most excited to see?” he asked. “We have Jongin, probably, Chanyeol and Yixing who’ll join for sure, and they’re all in Xiyuan right now. I’m not too sure about Minseok because from what I know, he still wasn’t reachable and Sehun’s with him, but I can’t be sure. If Minseok comes along, probably expect Joohyun too.”

“Where is Minseok?”

“Aesta?” Baekhyun shrugged. “That’s where I last heard from him, and Sehun, too, but I don’t really know if he’s going to come. I mean…it’s Hell’s Gate. They have to go through that again. Not many people want to, and to be honest, I’m surprised so many of the crew agreed to come.”

“We did make it through once alive and in one piece,” she pointed out.

Baekhyun sighed and settled back on the bed, shifting to his side so he could bury his face into the crook of her neck. She could feel his breathing on her skin, each warm breath every time he spoke. “This is still different,” he murmured. “The second sector’s gone, and we can’t enter it like the first—it’s too much to risk, especially if it’s my father’s soul that’s trapped there—and that only leaves two that we know of. The third sector… would be too dangerous to risk too. And I really don’t know about the one with monsters.”

“It might be our safest option.”

“And I don’t like that, because it’s not safe.”

“What are you scared about more than the first time?”

For a moment, he almost seemed to be holding his breath before he lifted his head slightly, pressing a light kiss against her collarbone. “A lot more,” Baekhyun murmured against her skin.

Hei felt her breath hitch as he propped himself up slightly, one arm moving to the other side of her as he trailed upwards slowly. “A lot more what?”

He hummed quietly. “A lot more to lose.”

He met her gaze then, and she couldn’t think of a reply either. Baekhyun watched her, like he was waiting for an answer that neither of them could quite find.

When she didn’t say anything more, he leaned down again, free hand moving to her back as he raised her chin slightly. Leaning into his touch, Hei closed her eyes.

He was right, though, and it was obvious when she looked at it. Except as much as there was to lose, there was also something she could gain, and she didn’t quite want to let go of it.

***

Jinqiong liked the cabin. It was neat, it wasn’t too small, and most of all, she could be by herself without having to deal with anyone else.

Then again, given the choice between having a small room to herself versus having to share an extravagant one with someone else, she would’ve chosen the former without a second thought. As she changed into another shirt, one that wasn’t stained with blood, and began to organize her bag, she realized that perhaps, for the first time in months, the cabin was actually a place that was hers and a place that she could properly settle down, even if it weren’t for a very long time.

That in itself was, admittedly, a nice thought. Actually having spare changes of clothing and a closet to put it in already felt foreign, but it wasn’t necessarily a bad sort of strange either. She settled down on the bed after changing her bandage around her waist one more time, surprisingly feeling better than she had in a long time.

Was it Hei? Jinqiong wasn’t sure, but she also couldn’t deny that seeing someone who seemed genuinely worried was… welcome. It wasn’t Jongdae, who was always blunt and who she couldn’t really figure out whether or not he did worry (she was going to assume he didn’t, though she was having a hard time figuring out whether or not that was the truth the past couple of days). She definitely wasn’t like Baekhyun, and not even Yuxuan, who, despite being nice, felt too timid for her to speak with. Luhan, too, who seemed distant despite never snapping.

Surprisingly, though, the first connection she made was Hei and Junmyeon, which should’ve been the last two people Jinqiong linked together. Somehow, she did, though, and even stranger, it wasn’t hard to see where the similarities happened to be. Junmyeon had been sincere; in fact, he hadn’t been the least bit bothered by any of her responses, nor did he sound defensive. He had a sort of way of speaking that Hei did too sometimes, and it didn’t feel impersonal or forced or fake.

Wonderful, Jinqiong thought as she stared at the other side of the room. The two people on this ship who aren’t completely insufferable are my half sister and the brother of the guy I half-kidnapped.

As if on cue, a knock sounded on her door. Her first reaction was to freeze, and briefly, Jinqiong wondered how believable it would be if she pretended she wasn’t in there at all before she figured that no one in the crew would believe that.

“It’s not locked,” she called. “Come in.”

The door swung open and Jongdae peered inside. He stood at the door for a little while, scanning the room, before he stepped inside and shut it behind him.

Jinqiong glanced at him, and he met her gaze back. “What is it?”

His eyebrows furrowed. “Junmyeon told me you were injured.”

Jinqiong glanced down at the left side of her waist where the cut was, then shrugged. “I got cut,” she said. “But it’s fine now.”

Jongdae’s eyes flickered across the room, like he was taking everything in wordlessly. Jinqiong wondered briefly what he’d been thinking—the ship wasn’t new to him, at any rate (in fact, only she and Yuxuan hadn’t been on it before)—before he set something down on the vanity. “Here,” he said. “Gauze.”

“A whole roll of it,” Jinqiong noted. “Gee, thanks.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Would you like two rolls?”

That sounded more like the person she knew, and for some reason, even if he wasn’t exactly being nice, the familiarity of it was better than anything else. “One is more than enough,” she replied. “Hei brought some, anyway.”

“Well, if you’re going to insist on not letting Yuxuan heal it, then at least keep it clean,” he said. “Now that we’re able to, anyway. We have more than enough resources.”

“And Byun Baekhyun probably doesn’t want to waste any of it on me even if he does have more than enough?”

Jongdae considered that. “Byun Baekhyun doesn’t share anything,” he said decidedly. “Anyway, my cabin’s next to yours if you need anything.”

Before Jinqiong could think of anything to say, much less say anything, he’d opened the door and slipped out as quickly as he could come in. It shut behind Jongdae quietly, and she stared at the wooden frame. It was only a moment later that she realized she’d forgotten to thank him for bringing the gauze, and then even longer after that Jinqiong realized that she’d probably never thanked Jongdae properly before.

***

Resting was nice, but like always, sleeping in a bed peacefully was made her even more jittery, and for a good part of the night, Jinqiong lay awake, staring at the ceiling through the dark. It was Hei who had actually brought her dinner when the time came around, though she dropped it off quickly before she was off again (Jinqiong was pretty sure it was because Baekhyun was close behind, and Hei was no idiot—there was no way she hadn’t picked up the fact that Baekhyun obviously didn’t like her). By the time the ship seemed to quiet down and settle into a more restful mood, Jinqiong was more awake than ever.

She had to admit that it was somewhat relaxing to lie down even if she couldn’t sleep, just like it felt good to be alone in a room without having to think about any sort of invasion of privacy.

The longer she stayed still, though, and the more quiet the ship was, the more awake Jinqiong felt, and subsequently, the more lonely the whole place felt. That felt stupid, because she’d spent so long looking forward to finally being alone—after all, it was better than having anyone from the crew breathing down her back—and now, finally, with what she’d been looking forward the whole time, she couldn’t even enjoy it properly.

Irritated with herself, Jinqiong rolled over so she was looking at the ceiling. After a small while of staying still, it was too clear that she couldn’t sleep.

Part of her was pretty sure it was because she was still paranoid, especially when the last constant in her life was Byun Junsu (which was saying a lot) and she wasn’t used to actual peace. After all, for the past couple of months, peace had always ended up being the calm before the storm.

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