A few more days past and it was almost a week since him and Chan ended up aboard an unfamiliar ship. He was feeling much better every day, and he even started asking around for work to do. Sadly, Chan kept stopping him, and he could only get away with doing a few small chores, like peeling and cutting vegetables, and retying loose knots. 

Speaking of helping out in the kitchen, Byeongkwan found out that Jun was the one who made all those delicious meals. Byeongkwan decided that he is seeing Jun in a whole new light. No one who was a bad person could make such delicious meals.

But besides small chores, Byeongkwan couldn’t help much around the ship, nor could he even practice his sword. Instead, the most he could do is sit by and watch Seyoon practice. 

It was nice though, since he got to learn Seyoon’s style of fighting. Byeongkwan had only learned one strict style from the moment he started learning to wield a sword, so this was a pleasant change for him. He loved watching Seyoon’s deep and heavy strikes. Each move was thought out, focused, and well executed. Byeongkwan thought he had never seen someone fight so beautifully.

It was so different from Byeongkwan’s light and quick style, that the younger formed a deep admiration of Seyoon.

“I’m jealous that you get to hold a sword.” Byeongkwan commented off-handedly. 

Seyoon stopped his swings and look towards Byeongkwan. “Do you want to practice with me?”

Byeongkwan immediately brightened up. “Can I?!”

“I don’t see why not.” Seyoon chuckled at how cute Byeongkwan’s reaction was.

“But I’m suppose to be resting…” 

Seyoon thought for a moment. “Well, we can just do some light swings...how does that sound?”

“Perfect!” Byeongkwan agreed. “But I need a weapon.”

“Let’s go get you one.” Seyoon suggested.

“For real?”

Seyoon shrugged. “We have a lot in the cargo hold. I’ll show you around.”

Byeongkwan quickly nodded. “Okay!” 

The two of them walked downstairs to the bottom floor. It was a lot darker and messier than Byeongkwan had anticipated. 

“We ended up with more weapons that we need….It just kind of happened.” Seyoon explained. 

He started to show Byeongkwan around. “Over here are the guns. We don’t have much ammunition, though, so we try not to use them too often. And over here are the cannons.”

Seyoon pointed towards three black cannons facing out towards the windows. “We don’t have enough manpower to be effective with them, but they work as a good scare tactic.”

Seyoon then showed Byeongkwan further into the room. “Here’s all the swords.” He pointed out. 

There were so many swords, and many in good shape. There were shortswords, longswords, daggers, cutlass, rapiers, scimitars, and sabers.

“Take your pick.” Seyoon suggested.

“Wow!” Byeongkwan said. “This is amazing! It’s almost as much as a noble’s armory!”

Seyoon was going to ask if Byeongkwan has ever been in a noble’s armory before, but he was cut off by the sound of cannon fire.

“Oh no.” Seyoon said aloud. He looked at Byeongkwan and Byeongkwan looked back at him with a panicked look on his face. 

Seyoon immediately bolted off to gather some weapons to take upstairs. He started shoving bullets into his pocket and he picked up two pistols. “Byeongkwan! Grab me an extra shortsword. It’s for Chan.” Seyoon ordered.

Byeongkwan ran the shortsword over to him and look Seyoon directly in the eyes. “I’m going up there too.”

“No!” Seyoon shouted. “You stay here. You’re hurt; you shouldn’t be fighting.”

“I am not staying here by myself while Chan is out there by himself!” Byeongkwan retorted.

Seyoon snatched the shortsword out of Byeongkwan’s grasp. “He is a grown man, he should take care of himself. He wouldn’t want you out there either.”

Seyoon took off running up the stairs, leaving Byeongkwan behind. The cannon fire was loud and obnoxious, but Byeongkwan had more worries. 

Seyoon was right; Chan was trained in basic combat, enough to defend himself. And Chan definitely wouldn’t want him out there fighting.

But Byeongkwan couldn’t bear to leave him alone. And plus, he didn’t know what kind of situation was out there. Maybe the ACE crew was horribly outnumbered. In that case, Chan wouldn’t stand a chance.

With renewed determination in his eyes, Byeongkwan quickly snatched a rapier out of the pile of swords and headed upstairs.

He had almost just reached the top of the stairs when he heard Chan call out his name.

“Byeongkwan, help!” 

For Chan to rely on Byeongkwan, must mean that the younger was in trouble!

Byeongkwan dashed full sprint towards the sound of his name. He had no time to assess the situation, so instead he stabbed the nearest stranger straight through the chest. 

This rapier is sharper than I thought.

Byeongkwan cut through the other two men cornering Chan with no mercy. Once the immediate threat was gone, he gave Chan a quick inspection and determined that the other seemed just fine.

“I’ll join Seyoon and hold them off.” Byeongkwan knew the danger would continue unless he took care of the main force. “You stay here and try not to draw attention to yourself.”

“You’re supposed to be resting!” Chan shouted.

“And you’re supposed to be protected by me!” Byeongkwan retorted. Byeongkwan was quite mad that Chan had been put in the line of danger. The only thing he could do now was fend off everyone else and eliminate the source of danger.

Byeongkwan ran towards Seyoon, who was outnumbered. Seyoon was holding off the oncoming foot soldiers by himself. Jun was managing the flow of the battle from the back, while taking care of the enemies that had slipped past Seyoon. And Donghun was standing near Jun with a rifle, trying to attack enemies long distance. 

Byeongkwan joined the fray in the front alongside Seyoon by stabbing his way through. The rapier was a weapon that was hard to use, but it was perfect for someone with quick reflexes and excellent sword technique, just like Byeongkwan. It wasn’t a slashing weapon, like Seyoon’s scimitar, but a piercing weapon that proved really handy in crowd control. After all, a small but deep wound was not enough to kill, but better at rendering men unable to battle than a shallow slash wound. 

Byeongkwan cut through the crowd of men encircling Seyoon and moved to center, where he stood back-to-back with Seyoon. “I’m here to help.”

“Thank you.” Seyoon breathed, clearly out of breath. It was a tough battle for a small crew like this.

The two of them huddled close together, their shoulders making contact every once in a while as the group of enemies closed on them. With Seyoon and Byeongkwan back-to-back, the enemies no longer had an opening to attack. When they went to strike Seyoon’s side or back, Byeongkwan would parry. And when they tried to attack Byeongkwan’s weak points, Seyoon would cover for him. The two of them, even with their different fighting styles, worked in perfect harmony.

Eventually, the group of eight surrounding them dwindled down to four, then three, then one. The last man yelped and dropped his sword, only to pull out a gun. Byeongkwan quickly saw what was happening and pushed Seyoon out of the way.

Byeongkwan winced as the bullet shot past his arm and cut through his skin. 

Seyoon quickly recovered and angrily slashed the man in the neck, taking him down for good.

The other ship starting ringing a retreat alarm, and the assaulters began to run away.

Seyoon rushed over to Byeongkwan, who was holding him arm where the bullet had scratched him. There was blood trickling out from between his fingers where he was applying pressure. 

“You saved me.” Seyoon gasped. If Byeongkwan didn’t push him out of the way, he surely would have been shot in the chest. Instead, Byeongkwan was injured in his place. 

“I couldn’t bear to see you injured.” Byeongkwan replied through gritted teeth. It wasn’t a deep wound, but it was very painful.

Seyoon ripped some fabric off his shirt and tied the cloth around Byeongkwan’s arm as a temporary tourniquet.

“Thank you.” Byeongkwan relaxed a bit, now that the cut was sealed up. It hurt so much, but he felt better knowing that Seyoon was okay.

“No,” Seyoon touched Byeongkwan’s arm lightly, “Thank you.”

The two of them met eyes. Seyoon was still standing very close to Byeongkwan’s body, and his hand was still on Byeongkwan’s arm. Byeongkwan felt hot where Seyoon was making physical contact with his body, and he cheeks heated up in response. Seyoon was still sweaty from the battle, and his white hair was messy, but Byeongkwan could see the other’s handsome face so clearly.

“And that’s when you fell for him, didn’t you?” Chan asked Byeongkwan. 

The two of them were sitting in their shared room, and Chan had just interrupted Byeongkwan’s story.

“No!,” Byeongkwan blushed, “Well….I don’t know. Seyoon’s always been really attentive of me and we’ve always had a good time together. Plus fighting together with him felt so right. I know he’s a good guy. But, I never thought of him as more than a friend….until…”

“Until just now, right?” Chan teased.

“Augh!” Byeongkwan stuffed his pillow into his face. “I don’t know!”

Chan reached over and patted his best friend on the shoulder. “Take you time to think about it. No need to rush.”

Byeongkwan pulled his face out of the pillow to look at Chan. “For someone who hasn’t experienced his first love, you have a lot to say.”

Chan laughed. “Sorry. Now let’s go to sleep. Because of that sudden fight today and the whole pirate thing, it’s been a long day.”