oo7

Problems With No Solutions

Hei was positive Baekhyun was about to rip his own hair out as he stared at Jinqiong, who had apparently fallen asleep on their bed in the cabin. Not exactly, really—she was sitting on the floor, half-propped on the bed, completely out. Hei couldn’t even begin to imagine just how much she’d drunk to end up in such a state, and how in the world she’d managed to get her hands on so much alcohol. Then there was the question of how she had thought it would be a good idea in the first place, because even for Jinqiong, it seemed to be an awfully irresponsible thing to do.

Baekhyun stopped at the door, expression flickering between livid, horrified and then anger again. He stared at the scene with wide eyes for a while longer before he got out, “How much did she drink? How the hell did she get her hands on alcohol?”

Jongdae, who was following, close behind, muttered, “Leave it to Song Jinqiong to get her hands on alcohol wherever she can. It’s a talent.”

Baekhyun whirled around. “What the hell?” he repeated so loudly that Hei physically took a step back because of the volume.

Baekhyun was obviously mad, because even Jongdae flinched back slightly at his tone. He was quick to compose himself, though, because he straightened. “I’ll get her back to my cabin,” he said, tone surprisingly placating, even though it didn’t seem to do much to calm Baekhyun down. “Sort things out with the captain, maybe. I’ll… talk to her when she wakes up.”

“You make this sound like it’s not the first time.”

Jongdae rubbed a hand over a more tired expression. “Yeah, it isn’t,” he said quietly. “There’s no point getting mad at her right now. If you’re going to do anything, yell at her when she’s awake. There’s nothing you can do.”

“I can throw her off the ship,” Baekhyun gritted out.

“But you won’t.” Jongdae’s voice was calm. “Look, I’m not saying let her off with no consequences, because she caused trouble which could put all of us in danger and we’re already partially here because of her, but there’s nothing you could do right now that could be helpful. Just wait for a better time, because it’s obviously not now.”

Hesitantly, she peered up at Baekhyun too. He was biting his bottom lip so hard she was pretty sure it would start bleeding, though finally, he nodded stiffly at Jinqiong’s direction. “Get her out of my cabin,” he said. “I’ll talk to the captain later to see if I can convince him to let us stay until we get to Himaeri. We need to see if we can get a cabin for Kyungsoo and Yuxuan. If we’re not kicked off the ship first.”

Before Hei could say anything to Baekhyun, he his heel and stalked the other way without another word. Less than ten seconds later, he had disappeared up the staircase, and soon was gone. Helpless, she turned to look back at Jongdae and Luhan, who were both crowded at the doorway of the cabin.

Jongdae broke the silence first. “I’ll handle Jinqiong,” he started. “You should probably go find Baekhyun. In case he does something rash, you know.”

***

Baekhyun, of course, was arguing with the captain.

Hei spent a couple of minutes helping Jongdae and Luhan drag Jinqiong from their cabin back into the one she shared with Jongdae. They managed to get her back to the cabin (Jinqiong was an absolute deadweight, and wouldn’t wake up no matter how much effort was put into waking her), and Hei hurried to the deck in a vain attempt to find Baekhyun before he directed his anger on someone else.

What was supposed to be reasoning had apparently turned to arguing with the captain, and both of them didn’t look happy. The captain, with his black eye from Jinqiong, was gesturing as he talked with wild hand movements, and while Baekhyun’s arms were folded across his chest, he was talking too, anger still clear on his face. At second glance, the man didn’t look too old—she hadn’t paid attention back when they’d boarded the ship, but there was no way he was anywhere over thirty, surprisingly young for a captain. He was slightly taller than Baekhyun, though the height difference didn’t seem to faze him.

Hei attempted to intervene before the captain ended up with another black eye.

“Hey,” she started, tugging on his arm. Baekhyun turned around briefly, recognized her, and turned right to the captain.

“I have to get to Himaeri,” he tried. A vein jumped in his forehead, but he had done a relatively good job for at least keeping his voice calm even though Hei was pretty sure he was dying to raise his voice. “Look, this is really, really urgent. I’m sorry for the trouble my companion caused, but this is really important for us.”

“I can’t have you on my ship like this.” The man fixed a hard stare on them, unmoved. “The other woman has caused too much trouble to stay. I’ll also have to report to the higher-ups for an incident like this, and I can’t afford to have her on this ship for another two days. One other passenger is already hurt because of her.”

Hei wondered if it was a good idea to bring up that technically speaking, the other person, whoever they were, had started it first, though given Jinqiong’s personality, she probably was just as involved. Baekhyun continued on with his attempt to convince the captain.”

“We’ll keep watch of her,” he was saying, “and besides, if you leave us at the next stop, there’s no saying when the next ship will come—”

“That’s a problem you have to solve yourself.” He glanced towards Hei briefly, then spun around pointedly. “If you’ll excuse me now, I don’t have time to discuss this more with you.”

He made it another three steps before Baekhyun grabbed her hand. Hei opened to ask him what he was doing before he had already called, “My wife’s pregnant! The journey’s already been hard on her because she gets seasick a lot, but staying in an unknown town with no way of figuring out when we’ll be out will be too much for her to handle.”

Hei choked on her next breath as the captain turned around, eyebrow raised dubiously. He looked towards her again, frowning, before taking two steps back. For the longest time, he seemed to be scrutinizing them as she waited for his next words, holding her breath. Baekhyun’s hand was tight around hers, and Hei realized then that as angry as he was with Jinqiong, he was still nervous about what the captain was going to say.

Finally, the man frowned and shifted his weight. “You both look familiar,” he started, and she did a double take at him. “Have we met before?”

The surprise quickly turned into alarm. Both she and Baekhyun weren’t registered under real names, but that didn’t make either of them less recognizable. They’d gone to a small town in hopes of not being recognized—at least not by features—this was the last thing that was supposed to happen.
 

“Sir,” she started. “I don’t think we’ve met—”

“You.” He pointed a finger at Baekhyun, not longer looking as mad as he had. It was more curiosity and slight confusion, which Hei couldn’t tell if it were a good thing. The last person who’d recognized Baekhyun had looked terrified, but then again, the captain hadn’t seemed to quite put his finger on the name yet.

“I—” Baekhyun started, and at the same time, the captain exclaimed triumphantly, “Byun Baekhyun.”

Hei froze, and beside her, Baekhyun stiffened also. Before either of them could attempt to cover it up, the captain dropped his hand. “My son really likes you,” he continued, and Hei snapped shut in shock, everything else she was going to say disappearing. She’d expected some sort of accusation, or maybe fear. Anything but that.

Baekhyun still shook his head, though even he couldn’t hide the shock. “I think you’ve gotten the wrong person—” he protested.

“And you’re… the girl from the Song family?” The man fixed his gaze on her. “Song Hei?”

At that point, Hei was positive that objecting would get them nowhere. Finally, she nodded hesitantly at him, hoping for the best. My son really likes you was the last thing she expected to hear, but it wasn’t necessarily a bad sort of unexpected. It reminded her of Sehun, at any rate.

“Sir,” Baekhyun attempted cautiously. “Could we possibly discuss this in private?”

The man’s eyes widened in surprise before he nodded. Now that he wasn’t angry, he looked friendly, curious, even, which was a much better alternative. Hei hoped it wasn’t a front, but from the instinctive way he’d reacted, she was positive that it wasn’t.

“Right,” he said. “Pardon me. Let’s go to my cabin.”

***

Being in a captain’s cabin brought back memories, even if it was much neater than any cabin of Baekhyun’s she’d been in.

It wasn’t nearly as large as the one of the last ship they’d been on—that had been extremely spacious for a room built on any sort of ship—but there was a desk in the corner, a wardrobe, and a bed on the opposite side of the room. There were piles of paper on the desk, though each were arranged impeccably neat, which, in Hei’s opinion, was an extremely nice sight to see.

“I don’t have extra chairs,” the man said. “But I suppose your wife would like to sit?”

It took Hei a couple of seconds to realize that apparently Baekhyun fibbing about her being pregnant hadn’t come off as a lie, even if everything else had. She was about to object that he had been bluffing when when Baekhyun squeezed her hand, this time obviously a warning, and she bit back the words from the tip of her tongue. The captain seemed nice enough, and while she didn’t particularly want to lie, but Baekhyun was right about being cautious even if he seemed trustworthy for the moment.

Thirty seconds later, Hei ended up sitting on the only wooden chair there was, feeling awfully like the center of attention (and not deserving the attention either, because she really didn’t need to sit anymore than the other two). Baekhyun hovered near her, still on guard.

The captain spoke up first. He extended a hand in Baekhyun’s direction and dipped his head at him. “Sorry about before,” he started. “I didn’t recognize you nor your wife, and it’s standard protocol if someone causes a mess that they’re removed from the ship at the next stop in case they cause more trouble. I’m Jo Minhyuk. Please don’t call me sir. I’m probably not that much older than you.”  

Baekhyun took the hand. “You already seem to know who we are. But then… why are you not…”

“I can’t turn you in here even if I wanted to,” Minhyuk cut in before Baekhyun could say more. He was more perceptive than he let on, Hei realized, and while Baekhyun was too, he probably still had Jinqiong on his mind, along with the fact that they’d been identified so easily. It was obvious that he wasn’t exactly focussed at the moment. “To be quite honest, you have more supporters among commoners than you know. Everyone’s sick of the family’s rule, and you’re the one who changed that. That’s not it, though.” He turned so he was facing Baekhyun completely. “I’m from Vasileia too. When I was nineteen, I used to steal for a living. One day, I thought that I’d be able to get enough to last me a lifetime if I managed to break into the inner city. Needless to say, the Byun family caught me. Anything done against the families is capital punishment.”

Something flickered across Baekhyun’s face; familiarity, perhaps. The realization of something that had happened to him too—something utterly unfair that both of them had to face. Hei listened, curious, slightly amazed by the coincidence.

“I’m sure you remember nearly drowning Vasileia that day, right?” Minhyuk gave him a dry smile. “I happened to get away because of that. So I guess I have you to thank for saving my life.”

Baekhyun dipped his head. “I was only trying to save my own,” he murmured. “You have no reason to thank me.”

“Well, at any rate, my son thinks you’re a huge hero. Many commoners think the same way, really.” He shrugged. “I don’t think you’d be aware of it, but even if you’re fighting against the families for your own goals, it still affects those who’ve always wanted to but never could. People still will look up to you, because you’ve done more for them than the families have ever done.”

Seeming to have loosened up a little, Baekhyun offered Minhyuk a tentative smile. “The Byun family’s gone now,” he said. “Vasileia’s security is terrible. You can probably go steal all you want right now.”

Minhyuk snorted. “I’m not about that life anymore. With all due respect, from captain to captain, I think I’m the better one when it comes to this kind of job.”

Baekhyun raised an eyebrow, though Hei could see the corner of his lips tilting upwards. “You’re asking for a second black eye.”

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