Chan jolted awake when he felt a splash of water on his face. 

He pried open his eyes slowly and sat up slowly. He couldn’t see for while as his eyes adjusted to the dim sunlight.

The ground beneath him was hard, and he tried to breathe a short sigh of relief. But the breath was caught in his lungs as he felt a sharp pain in his chest. Chan coughed up a rather worrying amount of seawater.

He squinted his eyes shut again and cringed in pain as his chest and throat burned. When he fought off the pain enough to open his eyes again, he was facing three unfamiliar faces. They stared down at him emotionlessly. 

“Chan!” 

Chan looked past the three strangers and towards the sound of his name. He saw Byeongkwan, sitting about five feet away from him. Chan was so relieved to see Byeongkwan there, but that relief quickly turned to worry when he saw the state Byeongkwan was in. 

Byeongkwan’s blonde hair was tousled in every direction, obviously dried without care. He face looked thin and tired, and blood was matted along the side of his temple and speckled across his face. Byeongkwan’s body was tied to an unfamiliar mast, and his arms were tied behind his back. Byeongkwan strained against his bonds as he called out to Chan again.

“Chan are you okay!?”

“....Where-”

Before Chan could even finish his sentence, a cutlass was shoved in front of his face.

“State your name and where you’re from.” The black haired man with the sword ordered. 

Chan couldn’t make sense of what was going on, but all he knew was that he was in big trouble if he didn’t answer this man’s questions.

He took a deep breath before speaking. “I’m Chan. I was aboard the Stray Kids merchant ship when we got hit by an unexpected storm. I’m from Choice.”

The black haired man slowly pointed his sword towards Byeongkwan. “Who is he?”

Byeongkwan strained against the ropes once more “I told you I’m-!”

There was a loud echo as Byeongkwan was slapped across the face by another one of the men.

“He wasn’t asking you!” The offender hissed.

Chan couldn’t help but flinch at the sound of the impact, and his eyes got teary seeing his friend in pain.

“His name is Byeongkwan.” Chan quickly replied. “He was aboard the same ship as me.”

There was a brief silence before the third man stepped up.

“Their story checks out boss. What should we do?”

The black haired man sheathed his sword. “Throw them in one of the empty rooms that lock.” He looked down at Chan and gave him a once-over. “And give them some dry clothes.”

Chan didn’t have time to respond before one of the men, the brown-haired, sturdier built one, grabbed him by the arms and shoved him towards the stairs. “Get moving.”

Chan glanced behind him and saw Byeongkwan being untied from the mast by the other person. He felt a yank as the brown-haired man practically pushed him down the stairs.

At further glance, he didn’t look much older than Chan; a couple years, maybe. He was surprisingly handsome and well built. He had on a dirty white blouse with a brown vest with black pants underneath.

The man led Chan down the hallway, followed by Byeongkwan and the other crew member holding them captive. They stopped in front of a room, and the brown-haired man unlocked it to reveal a small area fitted with two beds and a small circle window in between. The beds were simple wooden frame with a mattress on top, but it was nice. The room was otherwise empty.

Chan was pushed in, quickly followed by Byeongkwan. The brown-haired man from before also tossed in some dry clothes before shutting the door without another word.

Chan heard the lock click and footsteps retreating.

“A little help here?” Byeongkwan asked Chan. His arms were still tied together behind his back. It looks like the other man didn’t bother to undo them.

“Oh! Of course.” Chan replied, quickly getting to work. As Chan dumbly fumbled at the ropes, Byeongkwan sighed.

“I’m so glad you’re okay. I don’t know what I would have done if I lost you.”

Chan smiled. “I’m glad you’re okay too… But what happened? I was definitely tossed overboard.”

As the ropes loosened, Byeongkwan moved away and rubbed his sore wrists. “I...I couldn’t bear to lose you. So I jumped overboard to save you. Luckily you were holding onto a broken barrel so we could stay afloat.”

“...and the Stray Kids?” Chan asked in anticipation.

Byeongkwan shook his head. “Sorry. I don’t know what happened to everyone else.”

Byeongkwan walked over to the clothes on the ground and tossed some to Chan. “Let’s change out of these clothes.”

Chan slowly worked on peeling the half-wet, half-dried clothes off his body as he changed into the new ones. His old clothes were torn, wet, a little bloody and quite smelly. 

He hissed when the new clothes rubbed against the wound on his arm as he put them on.

“Are you okay?” Byeongkwan asked. 

Chan nodded wordlessly, trying to keep the pain at bay.

Byeongkwan walked over and turned Chan’s arm over to inspect the wound. It was deep, but had mostly stopped bleeding. The salt in the water was probably making it hurt more than it should. It would probably be fine, as long as it didn’t get infected, Byeongkwan concluded.

“Are you okay too?” Chan asked. Chan couldn’t help but notice that Byeongkwan seemed in way worse shape than him. Byeongkwan’s cheek was a little swollen from earlier, but more importantly there was a good amount of dried blood stuck around his temple and hairline. He looked really tired, despite how rebellious he seemed earlier.

Byeongkwan used his old clothes to wipe some dried blood off his face. “I’m fine. I got knocked in the head a little by some flying debris during the storm. It’s nothing to worry about.”

They finished changing and Byeongkwan immediately laid down on the bed.

Chan walked over to the window and looked outside. There was nothing but sea, and Chan couldn’t even tell which direction they were moving in. 

“What’s going to happen to us?” Chan asked.

Byeongkwan sighed. “I don’t know, Chan…. I don’t know.”

any guesses on who the other three people are? lol

Thanks for reading <3