oo6

Further Complications

Jinqiong was extremely certain that Jongdae telling her to find Luhan so he could take a look at the gem—he was a spellcaster, after all—was an excuse to get rid of her, but the last time they’d had a conversation had really gone up in flames and she wasn’t about to start another fight with him. Jongdae, at any rate, looked too tired too—he seemed to be getting ready to sleep, and while Jinqiong was tempted to do the same, part of her was still too angry at him to sleep with him in the same room. She left without another word to Jongdae, made sure the door slammed behind her, and headed across the hall to stop in front of the other cabin.

After a moment of hesitation, she knocked, then tried the knob hesitantly. It wasn’t locked, and slowly, she pushed it open and glanced inside.

Her first thought was that one of the beds was empty, which, she hoped, wasn’t Luhan’s because Jongdae was right when he suggested she go to him for information—she was curious about the gem, and if Luhan couldn’t figure it out, they really were stuck—but then she saw the figure sitting on the bed on the other side of the room and realized that it was, in fact, Luhan that was missing from the room. Baekhyun had looked up from whatever he was doing, eyebrows furrowing when he saw her.

It took Jinqiong another moment to realize that there was someone else curled up next to him, already asleep and actually lying down, barely visible underneath the blankets. Baekhyun’s frown deepened before he raised a finger to his lips, though he didn’t actually seem as hostile as he had been in the morning.

Carefully, she stepped inside, scanning the room. It looked similar to the one she and Jongdae were in, except there was a rusted candlestand at the side and Baekhyun had lit a lantern, which was burning brightly next to him.

“Where’s Luhan?” she asked in the lowest voice she could. Hei didn’t stir next to Baekhyun, but he glanced towards her briefly, like he was scared her voice would wake her.

Deck, he mouthed back.

There obviously wasn’t much of a point talking to him unless they were going to evolve to mouthing an entire conversation to each other, so Jinqiong her heel to go up to the deck. Before she could, she heard Baekhyun call, voice low and barely audible, “Why are you looking for him?”

Jinqiong paused, glancing at him over her shoulder. His expression was carefully guarded, face passive, but it still reminded her of his hostility that afternoon, and she was pretty certain that said hostility was far from gone. Suddenly, it seemed a bit unfair. She hadn’t forced them to help her, really, and if Baekhyun was going to be mad at her because Hei wanted to, then it was irrational. A small voice whispered at the back of her head, a reiteration of Jongdae’s words, and angrily, Jinqiong shut it out.

It was probably a terrible idea, but she straightened. “It’s none of your business,” she replied, making sure to raise her voice to its normal volume. Baekhyun bristled, but before he could say anything else, she yanked the door open and walked out.

The moment it closed behind her, Jinqiong realized two problems. Firstly, she wanted to ask whether or not Luhan was able to figure something out about the gem and never had the chance to, and, secondly, at the rate things were going, there was going to be no one left on the ship that she could get along with. Jongdae was self explanatory, and after the past couple of interactions with Baekhyun, he obviously didn’t like her either (it was mutual). Hei was so timid around her that it made her nervous too, and Luhan hadn’t exactly spoken to her.

She did regret snapping at Baekhyun and purposely spiting him, though. The question hadn’t exactly been accusatory, but just looking at him made her remember how he’d spoken to her before, and if it were one thing she was good at, it was snapping at people and purposely pushing at their limits until they were uncomfortable or angry. It seemed to work a lot with Jongdae and Baekhyun, but it also got on her nerves as well. While there should’ve been satisfaction in getting the last word, there never was.

Shaking the thoughts away, she turned to the direction of the stairs. It didn’t matter, because sooner or later, it was all the same. If the whole thing ended in flames, then there was nothing to worry about anyway. If it worked out, she would be gone again, going from place to place, still on the run from her family. There was no difference at the end of the day, and most importantly, none of them—Baekhyun, Song Hei, Jongdae—would matter in the long run.

Luhan was on the deck when Jinqiong found him. He had sat down on one of the benches at the side of the ship, facing the sea. She couldn’t see his features very well in the fading light, but his gaze didn’t move from the sea until Jinqiong approached him cautiously, slightly unsure whether or not it was a good idea.

He tore his gaze away from the horizon when he saw her, tensing until recognition flickered across his face. “It’s just you,” he muttered. “I thought I was recognized.” Then, after a couple of seconds, he moved aside so there was room for her on the bench. “I’m going to assume you came to look for me?”

He sounded friendly enough—carefully so, but still friendly. Jinqiong was too tired to think too much into it, so she sat down next to him, reached into the pocket of her coat and pulled out the gem.

It glimmered slightly in the dying light, a kaleidoscope of colors that caught the sunset on every surface of it. It had looked beautiful in the beginning, when she’d stolen it from the families and wondered idly just how much money it would be worth, but after so many months of being stuck with it and having Byun Junsu chase after her, it was no longer pretty. All she could see was an utter nuisance in her hands that she couldn’t get rid of even if she wanted to.

“Jongdae said you had a better chance of figuring this out than any of us,” she told him. “I don’t know much about it except what he’s told me and what we’ve pieced together from Junsu.”

Luhan nodded. “It’s magic. I can feel it.” He took the gem from her. “But I heard that you can’t part with this. It goes back to you?”

“Kind of?” She took it as he handed it back, then raised it. “Watch this.”

Luhan managed some noise of protest as she raised her arm and threw the gem as hard as she could towards the sea. It sailed towards the water, landed with a splash, and completely disappeared from view as it sunk beneath the waves. For a couple of seconds, neither of them moved, and then he managed, “Are you sure that thing… comes back?”

Jinqiong reached into her pocket. Her hand closed against the smooth surface of the stone, and she pulled it back out, opening her palm for Luhan to see. His eyes widened slightly, and when he gingerly picked the gem up again, he seemed slightly more cautious, if not a bit more interested than he was before. “Every single time,” she replied. “I’ve tried to break it too. Doesn’t work. Did Baekhyun fill you in on everything? Or Jongdae?”

Luhan shook his head. “Didn’t nearly have enough time.”

“Well, basically, I was… tipsy enough to break into Vasileia—they’re still struggling to keep the family together, but their defences are a lot weaker—before Byun Junsu freed himself from wherever he was being held, and then stole the gem, woke up the next day completely sober, realized it was a bad idea and then went to sell it. Except I literally couldn't get rid of it, so I tried to go back to Vasileia so I could put it back to where I’d taken it, but that didn’t work either. Crashed into Jongdae along the way.” She glanced towards the jewel. “I don’t know a lot about Byun Junsu except for the fact that he’s cursed to be unable to go under sunlight, is apparently horribly deformed, and craves human flesh. On top of that, his life is attached to the gem—if he gets his hands on it, he can use it to break the curse, but if the gem is destroyed, he’ll probably die. Or at least, I think. Except none of us know how to use the gem—Jongdae didn’t have enough time to search anything about it before we were running, and Junsu’s after us now. I can’t let go of the gem either unless I die, so…” She threw her hands up. "That's kind of it."

Luhan studied the thing he was holding like he was seeing it in a new light. “I’ve heard of this thing,” he muttered, half to himself, “I never expected it to be like this.”

“Can you do anything about it?” she asked as he studied the gem. “I don’t… I’m not sure what there is to do about it, but none of us have figured out how to use it or any of its properties except what I just told you. Jongdae said it’s the kind of thing that aligns with your power, so…”

Suddenly realizing that she’d spoken more to Luhan than she had for the whole time she’d boarded the ship, Jinqiong broke off, unsure of what more to say. He didn’t seem to notice that, but rolled the stone over in his fingers. “How far do you have to be from it that it’ll return to you?”

Jinqiong shrugged. “I’m not too sure.”

“Then we’ll try it tomorrow.” Luhan handed it back to her. “I have a couple more messages I need to send tonight to Yoona and the other crew members—I’m not sure if I can reach them yet, at this point—and then I’ll see what we can figure out about the gem tomorrow. Try to get some decent rest now. We don’t have any way of monitoring Byun Junsu, so you should probably get sleep when you can.”

He said it all like they were facts, without the least bit of bias or irritation or anger that she’d heard from both Baekhyun and Jongdae, and quite frankly, it was a relief. Jinqiong took the stone gingerly, placed it back into her coat pocket, and nodded at him. “Thanks,” she managed, shifting awkwardly. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

She didn’t wait to hear Luhan’s reply before she was hurriedly rushing below deck again, half-running towards the cabin. Jinqiong wasn’t sure why just talking with someone civilly felt so uncomfortable, but it did, and for a couple of seconds, it had turned suffocating for a reason she couldn’t understand.

At least a minute passed as she stood in front of the cabin door, unmoving and unwilling to open the door yet, trying to gather her thoughts. It wasn’t Luhan, exactly, but the whole thing made her head hurt, from Song Hei to Byun Baekhyun to Luhan, and perhaps Kim Jongdae. It was strange being around people, working with someone, and part of her wasn’t sure if it were any better than being alone.

She managed to open the door a little while later. Jongdae was asleep, anyway, so there was no one to face. I want to sleep, she told herself, but for some reason, she couldn’t quite believe it. I’ve been wanting to rest for a while. Now’s finally the chance.

“Jinqiong?”

Jinqiong jumped around at the voice, a feeling of guilt sweeping over her before realizing that there was nothing to feel guilty about. Still, not quite able to brush off the feeling of having been caught red-handed, she turned to the direction of Jongdae’s bed, disoriented in the dark.

“What?” she asked, voice coming out harsher than she intended. She hesitated, then tried, “Weren’t you going to sleep early?”

“Yeah.” Jongdae didn’t say anything for a couple of seconds. “I thought I was.”

She didn’t reply but shut the door behind her. The last time she had spoken to him properly had been when he had snapped at her, and while it was a common occurrence, his words never quite lost their sting. What a sorry lie you’re telling yourself. Maybe it was the fact that they always contained some semblance of truth in them, that he always managed to hit the mark despite how much she wanted to hide it.

There was nothing more to say. Stiffly, even more uncomfortable with the fact that he was awake and not asleep, she crawled under the covers of her bed, which were cold to the touch. Shivering, Jinqiong lay on her side, unspeaking. Jongdae was awake too, she knew, but he didn’t say anything else and neither did she.

For a long, long time, there was nothing but the sound of her own breathing mixed with Jongdae’s. The silence, which was something Jinqiong didn’t usually mind, seemed to have turned suffocating as she waited, threatening to press down.

As if he felt the same way, Jongdae spoke up again, voice breaking through the silence. “Did you ask Luhan about the gem?”

He sounded more cautious than annoyed like he had the last time, which probably meant he wasn’t mad anymore, but Jinqiong didn’t quite trust herself to talk to him. Neither of them were particularly mad at each other when the conversation started out, but how it ended was always a different story. “Yeah,” she said shortly, then turned to face the wall, back to Jongdae even though she could barely see her own hands in the darkness.

“Hey,” he said again, apparently not having taken the hint that she didn’t want to continue any sort of conversation. “Look, I shouldn’t have snapped at you today. That was stupid of me to do and… I was just frustrated about the whole thing and you happened to be the one person I could yell at then.”

Silence followed his words. Jinqiong couldn’t bring find it in herself to fall asleep, and she stared at the wall ahead of her, not quite able to process Jongdae’s words. It was an apology, or as close to one that Kim Jongdae could get, but for some reason, she didn’t find it as satisfying to hear him admit he was wrong than it should’ve felt. Finally, she muttered, “Aren’t I always the person there when you happen to be frustrated?”

“Jinqiong—”

“Whatever.” She pulled the blanket up to her chin more, guilt gnawing at her chest, but for a different reason. “Just go to sleep.”

She could almost see Jongdae hesitate despite the fact that it was dark. He seemed to finally decide on not saying a word, and five minutes late