o17

Attempts

Jinqiong retreated to her room as soon as they boarded the ship, dumped the backpack she’d brought with her onto the ground and ended up lying down on the bed, staring at the ceiling. The tiredness of having used her power for a fair bit of time on both herself and Hei came with its toll, and for a good while, she remained still, limbs slightly sore from the effort and a bit of drowsiness beginning to settle. Baekhyun hadn’t exactly said much to her when they’d boarded the ship but said something to Hei about getting healed by Yuxuan, who was also below deck, and Jinqiong figured that was her cue to leave.

They were supposedly leaving as soon as the rest of the crew got there. She was partially tempted to sleep—really, she should’ve to replenish her energy—but another part felt too jittery and nervous to do so, especially not until they got onto open sea. Junsu had never been far off behind her, but the fact that he’d been in the same city, so close, and had been close enough to somehow kidnap Baekhyun and Hei made her antsy. He obviously had some sort of advantage they didn’t know of, and it was frustrating. They were maybe physically a step ahead of him, but somehow, he still kept up just fine.

For a long while, Jinqiong stared at the ceiling, trying to sort out all of her thoughts and push back the guilt. It wasn’t necessarily her fault with what had happened to Baekhyun and Hei, she reasoned, given that they had been the ones to go out on their own, although the more she tried to convince herself that it wasn’t all her responsibility, the more guilty she felt. Hei had meant to cheer her up before, but truthfully, Baekhyun was the most correct. All of the crew were risking their lives because of something stupid she had done with no obligation to do so.

She wasn’t sure how much time had passed when someone knocked on the door of her cabin. Blinking, slightly disoriented but not quite asleep, Jinqiong sat up from her bed, trying to figure out just who in the world would knock at such a time. The rest of the crew wasn’t back yet—it would’ve been much louder if they were—and, shaking her head, she called, “Come in.”

The door creaked open slowly. Then, just as unwillingly, Byun Baekhyun stuck his head inside, already beginning to frown.

Jinqiong groaned internally. He was the last person she wanted to see.

“Can I help you?” she ended up asking. It sounded stiff the moment it came out, although Baekhyun hadn’t exactly been discreet on showing hostility before.

“I just wanted to say thank you,” he replied, though his face was still devoid of any other emotion.

Jinqiong blinked, then sat up slightly straighter. “What?”

“Thanks,” Baekhyun repeated, but it was obvious that time that his tone was slightly grudging. “For bringing Hei over. I didn’t… well, thanks.”

Jinqiong was tempted to just send him away, but it wasn’t everyday that she saw Byun Baekhyun thanking someone, especially her, and she figured that she might as well savour the moment.

“You didn’t want?” she asked against all better judgement.

Baekhyun was quick enough to catch onto the fact that she was deliberately provoking him because the uncomfortable expression melted into clear hostility again, lips pulling downwards into a frown that Jinqiong was pretty sure he wasn’t even aware of. “We’re leaving as soon as Jongdae and the others get here,” he said shortly. “Also, Junsu may not be able to follow us now, but I hope you still remember that if it ever comes between you and my crew, what I’ll choose is obvious.”

It always came back to that. And despite the fact that she had practically told Hei a little while back that Baekhyun not only had a point but was right, hearing it from him was drastically different.

“You don’t need to thank me if you don’t even mean it,” she shot back. “If that’s all, then you might as well get to more important things.”

Baekhyun’s eyes flickered over her, lips pressed into a tight, angry line before he turned the other way. The door closed behind him, too harshly to hide the clear agitation, before his footsteps retreated.

The victory was short-lived, though. Like every single time, Jinqiong found herself regretting deciding to pick a fight with Baekhyun because it always ended up in the same way and fixed absolutely anything, but it seemed that both of them were more than happy to engage. Shaking it off, she settled back into the bed and closed her eyes. It didn’t matter if Junsu was out there, she decided. Or Jongdae, or Junmyeon, or Kyungsoo or the rest of the crew. None of them mattered anyway, and she didn’t have to fight the exhaustion staying up worrying for people who didn’t even care.

Jinqiong still found that she couldn’t fall asleep fifteen minutes later.

***

By the time Yuxuan was done with healing (it took a significant time longer than Hei had expected, although she had thought it would hurt but it was practically painless), the rest of the crew had arrived and Baekhyun and Luhan were busy steering the ship into open sea. She sat on the bed of the new infirmary room as Yuxuan tossed out the already bloodied bandages.

“You are good now,” the other girl told her.

Tentatively, Hei reached back to feel where the wound had been. She still felt bad about having Yuxuan heal her—there’d been so many bad injuries from so many people that no one had gotten her to heal—in fact, Jinqiong had been slashed in the side, Baekhyun across the chest—yet she was the only one who Yuxuan had used her power on. It was just one whiplash, and, feeling guiltier by the moment, she fumbled with the buttons of the dress again. Between the time of walking from the house to the docks, she had somehow managed to bleed through the bandages, staining the back of the new dress too.

“Thanks,” Hei managed, then gave her a tentative smile. “You really didn’t have to.”

Yuxuan stared at her with dinner-plate eyes. “Why?” she asked.

Figuring that it would be practically impossible to explain with Luhan being the translating middle-man, she shook her head. “Never mind. But thanks. I really appreciate it. Now I can sleep on my back without having to worry about the wound.”

Yuxuan giggled slightly at that. Hei turned towards the door, though before she could take another step, it opened and Baekhyun poked his head inside

“Hey,” he said, eyes flickering from Yuxuan to her. “Are you alright now?”

Hei nodded. “All healed.”

Baekhyun smiled warmly at Yuxuan (Hei wondered if Jinqiong would ever get the same look. She figured it was too unlikely to think about). “Thank you,” he said. “I’m sorry if it was too much work.”

Yuxuan shook her head. “It’s okay,” she told them. “Gege tells me not to heal people if I can, but… well, there’s nothing else I can do.”

Hei frowned. “What do you mean nothing else?”

Yuxuan shifted, either unsure of how to say it or unsure if she should say it. After at least ten seconds of silence, the girl shook her head and gave them another one of her smiles. “It’s okay,” she said, and Hei wondered if the cheeriness in her voice was forced or not. “You should go rest. There was… was… loss of… blood?” She repeated the sentence in Chinese to herself, then shook her head. “Blood loss.”

“Alright, doctor,” Baekhyun laughed. “Thanks for letting me know. I’ll make sure she rests.”

Yuxuan, seemingly satisfied with that, nodded. Gently, Baekhyun, hands on her shoulders, steered her towards the door.

It wasn’t until he turned down the other corridor into a much warmer room that Hei realized someone had drawn a bath and heated it. Blinking, she turned around to look at Baekhyun. “I thought I was supposed to rest,” she protested.

Baekhyun tilted his head. “With that much blood on you that hasn’t been washed off?”
 

She flinched slightly at the reminder, although he was right. There was no way she was going to settle anywhere without cleaning the blood off.

He was able to tell from her expression right away, because he let out a quiet chuckle before giving her a gentle push towards the bath. “I’ll grab you clothes,” Baekhyun said, then he faltered. “Just… try to relax. I know it’s been a long day and I’m sorry for dragging you out there and getting caught by Junsu—”

“Hey, wait, that wasn’t your fault—”

“—but he shouldn’t be able to track us and as long as we stay on sea, it’ll be fine. I’ll be right back.”

With no sign of whether or not he even heard what she said, he slipped out of the door again and was off, leaving Hei standing alone in the middle of the room. She stood still for a couple of moments before deciding that Baekhyun was right that a warm bath would do a lot of good. She would have to talk to him after in case he was still half-panicking about the Junsu situation. Knowing Baekhyun, he wasn’t yet done blaming himself.

Two minutes later, she was submerged up to her neck under warm water, scrubbing all the remaining blood that Yuxuan hadn’t managed to wash off. It was so relaxing that she didn’t even hear Baekhyun come in, only noticing when he set down a pile of clothing on the bench beside her.

“Glad for the suggestion?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Hei sank deeper into the water and closed her eyes, relaxing. “Yeah.”

He dragged the chair over so he was sitting next to her, resting his arms on the edge of the tub before settling his head down too. “Told you.”

She reached up to flick water at him. “Shut up.”

“Make me.”

She cupped a handful and flung it at him. Baekhyun was surprisingly ready, though, because he moved to the side with a grin. “Missed.”

Relieved that he was apparently done with talking about Junsu (along with the stubborn insistence that it was somehow his fault when she wouldn’t have even gotten out if it weren’t for him), Hei leaned over too. “Aren’t you supposed to be steering right now?”

“Junmyeon took the shift. Said I should rest up after what happened with Junsu.”

“Jongdae needed help with the map, didn’t he?”

“Jongdae could find much better help.”

Hei sighed. “Okay, why are you here?”

“Because my wife is.”

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter