A dark figure overshadows our table. All of us could sense tense air emitting from the combatant.

Mingi, who is holding the dagger, keeps his surprise well as he coolly passes the dagger to San. “Aye mate, nice dagger you got.”

San coldly glares at Mingi and grabs his dagger. Peering at everyone on the table, his eyes stop at me.

I gulp nervously. He must be angry for letting Mingi touch his precious dagger and calling him .

“I’m sorry!”

“You forgot the sheath.”

I shout at the same time as he speaks. Then my brain processes what he said.

The sheath? I stare at him dumbfoundedly. Seeing his mouth slowly stretch into a tiny smirk while putting the dagger in a silver sheath and he hands it to me.

I look at his cold dark eyes and meekly grab the dagger, “Thank you.”

San glares at his crew for one last time and leaves without uttering another word.

All of us exhale in unison.

“That guy can kill people with a stare. One day I might be his victim.” Mingi exaggeratedly states, his earlier cool demeanor faded away quickly.

Jongho snickers at Mingi and turns to me. “That was interesting. So why did he give it to you?”

Clutching the cold dagger in my hands, I think of San’s earlier response. “He said Hongjoong ordered him to give it to me.”

The trio exchange eye contact.

“Captain must have his reason.” Yunho says. Hongjoong is always unpredictable. No one can exactly guess his motive.

“And why did you say sorry to San?” Jongho continues asking me.

“Nothing!” I accidentally raise my voice and the trio squint their eyes in suspicion.

“Because she called him .” A new voice meddled in, revealing the honey skinned first mate. He saunters over our table and drags a chair from another table to sit with us.

All eyes focus on me and then the kitchen explodes with laughter.

“I know you have it in you.” Mingi laughs so hard that his knees hit the table. And Yunho tries his best to stifle a fit of giggles but he fails miserably.

“So bold,” Jongho nods in approval.

My face flushes in embarrassment and I shoot Wooyoung a nasty glare. But he winks at me instead, “You're welcome. ”

Wai a moment, if Wooyoung knows the reason so he must be at the crime scene.

“If you were there, why didn’t you help me?” I interrogate him.

“Nah, I wouldn’t cut myself from the fun.” Wooyoung chuckles at the memory. He was strolling around the ship and encountered an amusing scene. San threw a dagger at the poor girl when she left Aurora’s cabin. Her surprised face was hilarious; hung open and eyes wide like they were gonna pop out. He couldn’t believe that she had a deathwish to call his friend a . None of the crew dare to do so. After Star ran away, he spent a whole minute laughing at San’s face but his combatant friend brought out another dagger so that was how he stopped laughing.

“You’re unbelievable.” I grit my teeth at him.

“I know I am, thanks.” Wooyoung winks again. I hope his eye cramps.

Yunho clears his throat after laughing so hard, “Sorry, miss Star.” He smiles apologetically at me and I almost forgive him right away. Almost.

Jongho nudges Mingi to stop and turns to ask Wooyoung. “Why did San give his best dagger to Star?”

“How would I know his thoughts?” Wooyoung raises his brow at the boatswain.

“You’re his best friend.”

“Even though we're best friends, doesn’t mean we share the same brain cells.”

The whole table snicker at Wooyoung’s response.

Jongho shakes his head and looks at me, “Nevermind, I think I know the reason.” Everyone leans in to listen to Jongho. “Captain ordered San to give the dagger to you that implied his gratitude for saving Wooyoung. And that also means you earn a level of trust from him. Plus, you always get in trouble.” He eye the wound on my face. “You can use the dagger to defend yourself. As for San, he gave you his best dagger as a gratitude for saving his best friend.”

Everyone looks at Jongho in awe. As expected from the brain and logic of the group.

“You always impress me with that brain of yours” Mingi drapes his arm on Jongho's shoulder but the smaller guy annoyingly brushes him away.

“Do you not worry that I’ll use the dagger to harm your crew?” I ask but they sneer at my question.

“You can’t even stand a sight of blood.” Wooyoung mentions and I roll my eyes at him. Feeling regret for fainting, they're gonna keep teasing me until the end of the world.

I want to retort back to the annoying first mate but he cut me off by changing a topic.

“Oh right, Jongho, the carpenter mates are looking for you. They’re going to start fixing the Seakeeper. Those damn pirates blew her face off. Ah, my heart hurts at the sight.”

Something tugs at my conscience. The name Seakeeper sounds familiar.

Oh my god! It’s the author-nim’s pen name!!!

“Seakeeper?!” I shout, drawing the attention of the guys.

“Yeah, Seakeeper, our figurehead. It’s like a sea guardian that protects us. Sounds superstitious right?” Wooyoung explains and ignores the girl's weird reaction after seeing her nods absentmindedly.

Their voices fade into the background as my head already swam with the possibility that this figurehead might associate with the reason I’m stuck here. I’m going to investigate tonight.

---

At night, I sneakily leave the room aiming to see the Seakeeper. I reached the forecastle safe and sound and to my luck, I spotted no crew hanging around here.

From where I stand, I can’t really see the figurehead as I am quite far away from her. I want to get nearer but I don’t think climbing on a bowsprit is a good idea. I might fall down and no one will know how I disappear.

The half moon shines mildly above the black sea water, indicating that I’ve been here over a week. But a lot of things happened. I hope the Seakeeper can give me some kind of hint.

Lifting up my lamp forward, I see only a glimpse of the figurehead's backside.

“Seakeeper nim.” I whisper. “Author-nim, are you in there?” I sound so stupid right now but who knows the author might transmigrate into a figurehead. Anything could happen.

“Can you hear me author-nim?” I waited for a while but got no response. What if she isn’t here? And it’s only a coincidence that Ateez’s figurehead is named after the author.

“Who are you talking to?” A voice asks me from behind, making me jump out of my skin. I twirl around and see the boatswain.

His dark brown iris reflecting from my lamp stare at me strangely.

“Err...I talked to my...higher self.” I smile at him innocently.

Jongho scrunches his nose, “I heard you say something about author?”

“Noo, no author, what author? When did I say that? You must misheard.” I panic. Now, he’s going to think I’m a weirdo.

Jongho still looks at me warily. “Then what’re you doing here?”

“I’m here to take a night breath.” I take a deep breath of cool night air and look up to the night sky. “Wow, the stars are so beautiful tonight.” Millions of stars wink at me. It’s breathtaking.

“Why are you complimenting yourself?”

I crane my neck at Jongho. He smiles teasingly. “Just kidding. But stars are indeed beautiful tonight. This is my favorite part being on the ship.”

“Thank you for complimenting me.” I say and we both chuckle at my silly comment.

“I never saw so many stars before.” I mumble while scanning the night sky 180 degrees and feel like I’m floating in outer space.

“Really? Where did you live?” Jongho curiously asks. Isn't the sky the same everywhere?

“Somewhere where artificial light outshine the stars.” I sigh.

“I wonder where it is.” Jongho furrows his brows, artificial light, he ponders what is that.

“You’ll never be able to guess.”

“Try me. I’ve been to many places.”

But I only shake my head at him.

Jongho notices crestfallen of the seer expression and he feels that he touches into a sensitive topic.

“Once all of this is over, we can send you home.” He reassures her, attempting to bring her mood up.

“You can’t. It's too far away.”

“I think the guys will agree no matter how far it is. You are our savior.”

The girl let out a soft chuckle, “You can’t send me off with this ship.”

Jongho sees the girl getting gloomier, the more he speaks. But he can’t stop himself from prying. Her answer piques his interest in her origin. Her background is still mysterious to them.

“You must really miss your family, being away from your home this long.”

Family

Since I reached here this is the first time I think about my family.

“I don’t know. They probably don’t know that I’m missing.” I mutter under my breath but Jongho can hear me.

“Why is that? I believe your family is missing you.”

“Well, I live alone.” I answered him. Jongho's eyes went wide. He detected subtle sorrow in her tone. And he nodded in understanding.

“I guess family isn’t always a safe place for others too.” He sighs.

Too? I stare at him. He bitterly chuckles.

Then I recall his character’s background. He ran away from home to joined Ateez.

“Oh I’m sorry.” I instantly apologize as I’m afraid to bring out his bad memory.

“What are you sorry for?” Jongho tilts his head, staring at me. His face shows no sign of sadness.

“About your family.”

“It was in the past, I’m no longer- wait, how do you know?!” His eyes went wide twice the size.

Oops I accidentally gave myself away. “I...just judged from your expression when you were talking about family.”

Jongho narrows his eyes, “Hmm, I thought you also have a power to see people past. That would be too powerful, don’t you think?”

I awkwardly give him a dry laugh in return, “Of course not. You’re thinking too much. I think I’ll go back to my room. Good night Jongho.” I decided to escape from him before revealing too much information. With a brain like Jongho, he’d sense something off from me.

My mission for tonight failed. Not only that I didn’t get a hint about the Seakeeper, but also almost gave away my personal information. But that wasn’t the only bad point, the next day, a rumor about the seer talking to the figurehead gone viral on the ship.

Jongho-ah, why did you spread rumor about me talking to the figurehead? Although it’s true, the rumor ruined my reputation. I always thought you are the most normal person here.

Jongho-ah, you little *censor*.

---

Watching as Star makes her way back to her cabin, Jongho feels that the girl holds many secrets. But he doesn’t think it’s a threat to them. He is just curious, that’s all.

Because of the conversation between Star, Jongho unintended reminiscing how he became the boatswain of the Revenge.

A bitter smile forms on his lips. The night is still young, he guesses it’s not a bad idea to visit his buried past.

People always say parents mostly dote on their youngest child but his family can prove them wrong. The Choi family had two sons; Jongho, the youngest son of the family, had never felt the love or warmth as he should have received. His parent’s affection all poured to his oldest brother, Choi Jongbin, the smartest, proudest and most perfect son.

Since he could remember he always competed with Jongbin in every aspect; study, sport, music, or even their parent’s attention. But no matter how hard he tried, he only got second place. And second place has no place to stand in this household.

Their parent’s dream was for them to join Royal Navy. As he was blinded by competition, he studied hard. However, he still failed miserably and became a disgrace to his family. And surely his smart brother passed and joined Royal Navy.

Everyday he lived with hatred for himself, his brother, his parents, his fate, his life. He despised everything.

One day, bad news traveled to his family, Jongbin, a new officer of Royal Navy, got attacked by pirates and heavily injured. They visit him at a hospital, seeing his unconscious brother, he didn’t know what to feel; sad, pity, or delighted.

His mother couldn’t stop crying for days and everyday her distress was directed to Jongho.

“If you were smart and got into Royal Navy, your brother wouldn't end up like this. It could’ve been you, not your brother.”

That was the last straw with his ty family.

Love and yearn for his parents had turned into resentment. He decided to run away, away from his old life. A taste of freedom touched on his spirit and he never felt so great in his life. 

Since his family abhorred pirates so much, he was gonna be one. And not just a normal pirate, he would become one of the pirate king.

He heard rumors of a new rising pirate king. The story went around that he was the most vicious and marvelous pirate king throughout history. Jongho was thrilled even from hearing his tale.

After several months of tracking and using money to buy rumors of the Pirate King’s whereabouts, he finally found them in Tortuga.

The young fearless Jongho charged into a tavern where the Revenge’s crew was hanging around.

He requested one of a crew to bring him to his captain but that man only glared at him and scoffed. “Kid, go home.” He slurred. But Jongho insisted. The man got exasperated and almost threw him out of the tavern if not a fiery red haired man intervened.

Observing his rescuer, this tall giant man must be one of a high rank crew as he exhibited authority toward another pirate. He wore a nice long dark coat and pistols hanging from 2 sides of his leather belt.

“Lad, why do you seek our captain?” Deep hoarse voice questioned him. “You look like a kid running away from home.” The giant red haired added.

Jongho inwardly rolled his eyes at him but decided to answer nicely. “I want to join the crew.”

“You?” The red haired guy scanned him from head to toe. “What can you do?”

Jongho at that time didn’t develop the body of a muscular man as nowadays. He was a scrawny kid. But the giant’s remark sounded like an insult to him.

“I can snap people in half if they talk too much bull.” He irritatedly spatted.

Jongho thought the giant would be fuming because of his answer but he roared in laughter instead. “I like you already. Come! I’ll bring you to Captain.”

Jongho stared dumbfounded at the red haired giant. This guy is so weird, he thought.

The giant led him to a private room where 2 people presented. Jongho observed the two men. One of them is the pirate king. Which one is it? Both of them looked so young, maybe a little older than him.

A man in an all black outfit stared at him disinterestedly. His face was stoic but he had an intimidating aura.  A bang covered his right eyes but only his sharp left eye could scare people away.

“Mingi who did you bring?” The all black man asked.

“This lad wanna join us.” The giant named Mingi answered a bit too enthusiastically.

“There are hundreds of skilled sailors who want to join our ship. What can you do?” His left eyes narrowed as he openly examined Jongho.

“He said he can snap people who talked bull in half.” Mingi answered. And Jongho wanted to facepalm.

“Mingi you are gonna be in trouble then.” The black haired guy snickered.

“Quartermaster, you’re so mean. I never talk bull.” The Mingi guy pouted cutely and Jongho had an urge to punch his face.

“Captain, what do you think? I like this lad already.” Mingi beamed at another guy who played with a dagger in his hand. This guy has a short mullet and a small amount of hair tie in rattail. He shifted his gaze to Jongho and he swore this was the first time he felt so intimidated that his legs began to shake.

So this is the pirate king...

“Tell me, why should I accept you?” Captain asked as he slowly put the dagger down on a table and cross his arms.

Jongho nervously thought of the answer.

What can he do?

Navigating? No, he just failed the test.

Helming? He wasn’t good at it either.

Cooking? Nah, he never cooked in his entire life.

“C’mon, why did you take so long? Just tell captain your honest reason.” Mingi nudged him in the shoulder.

Honest reason

The reason why he was here, in front of the pirate king, was because his family hated pirates thus he wanted to be one.

Fire burning in his chest as he answered through clenched jaws. “Because I hate Royal Navy.”

Captain raised an eyebrow at him, a sly grin spread from his lips and he chuckled darkly, “What’s your name?”

“Jongho,” He answered, scared at the pirate king's reaction.

“Well, Jongho, welcome to my ship.” His sly grin got wider and creepier which made Jongho wanna reconsider his decision to join them.

That was how Jongho became the crew of the tyrant Pirate King’s Revenge.

Even though Jongho felt grateful toward Hongjoong for accepting him even with his immature reason, he didn’t know why he had an impulse to wipe that sly grin from his new captain’s face so much.

//This is a long chapter as I decided to add Jongho's backstory to give you a glimpse of how they become pirate king. The other members' story will be unfolded later.

See you in next update (☞°ヮ°)☞ ☜(°ヮ°☜)