The next day the surgeon prevented me from walking around the ship and I had to suffocate in my tiny room. It was a good thing that Aurora came to visit me. The day passed by slowly and boringly. When the time reached late afternoon, I asked Aurora to go outside to get some fresh air before I evaporated into thin air. She agreed. But I actually have an ulterior motive.

Since last night's investigation plan of Seakeeper failed, I plan to explore again today. But my hunch sensing that author-nim unlikely possesses the figurehead. Because if she did, she probably died from a cannonball blown in her face. And that would be too tragic.

Based on my assumption, the name Seakeeper may associate in some way with the real author-nim. Therefore, I’ll be conducting an one on one interview with the crews.

I want to go ask Ateez but they are all occupied with their tasks so I kill the time by asking the other crews.

Aurora and I situate ourselves at the mainmast. When I begin calling a passerby, she’s confused at my behavior but I tell her it’s for bonding time.

“Hey, brother, you got a second.” I shout at a crew who climbed down from rigging. He looks left and right and then points at himself. “Yes, you brother, come here.” The man scratches his head perplexingly but is still walking toward me.

“I have a question to ask you. Do you know a story about the Seakeeper?” I get right to the point.

And the interview session went like this for a while until Aurora excused herself into her room as she couldn’t tolerate the glances staring her way. But I didn’t want to go inside my room yet so I continued annoying the crew.

Crew A: “You want to know the history of our Seakeeper? You ask the wrong person, I just joined the ship not long ago.”

Crew B: “Seakeeper? Our figurehead has a history?”
Star: “...”

Crew C (Apparently a carpenter mate): Me and ma lads craved the figurehead ourselves, she’s ma masterpiece. Ye see, I carved her forehead... blah blah blah...
Star: “...” (apparently doesn’t want to know how the figurehead was made.)

Crew D: “...”
Star: “Let me repeat my question, do you know anything about your figurehead?”
Crew D: “...”
Star: *Intentionally flash him San’s dagger that hanging on my belt*
Crew D: “Errr....it made of wood.”

I spent the entire late afternoon getting nothing. The crews are either clueless about their figurehead or refuse to talk to me. For the latter group I had to (threaten) show them San’s dagger and they would answer me. The only useful information I got is that San intimidates the whole crew because they are even afraid of his dagger.

The sky has turned orange and I decide to go back to my room. Seeing a shadow cast down from behind me, I turn around and raise my head to look at the tall man.

“Aye, shooting Star, what’re you doing here?” The fiery red haired gunner master greets me with my new pet name.

“Hey, Mingi. I was just bored in my room so I’m here to take a breath.” I answered him.

Mingi nods. “I heard you ask people about our Seakeeper.”

Crap, I think I overdone it. “Yeah, I was curious.”

“You can just come and ask me, I know everything about this ship.” Mingi proudly says.

Right, why did I not think about Mingi’s specialty? He’s the most talkative person and literally knows everything about the ship.

“But I’m kinda busy now. If you have time tonight. I’ll tell you. ” He adds.

“Sure.” I agree.

“Good.”

The conversation pauses as Mingi’s eyes trail around my face.

His forehead creases and he suddenly curses out loud which startles me.

“Aish! that thug!” His face contort into scowl. “If I got rid of those thugs faster, that bloody merchant wouldn't be able to lay a hand on you. I’d have buried bullets in that er’s head!”

I blink at his outburst. One second he’s being cheeky and another second he erupts like a volcano.

His chest puffs in and out in anger.

“Mingi,” I call him softly, afraid to trigger his anger.

He closes his eyes for a second and reopens, his raging expression turns soft, “Does it still hurt?”

“Not much. What about you?” I’m surprised at his quick change in emotions but feel thankful that he cares.

He lets out scoff and points at himself, “This body is made of iron. And those thugs punched like a .”

I roll my eyes at his bluff and try to poke a wound on his cheek. But my hand doesn’t make contact with his face as he instantly grabs my hand.

“Not so fast, shooting Star.” He smirks mischievously, lifting his available hand toward my face intending to imitate my move.

As my hand is still in his grasp, my other hand let go of the wooden cane to guard my face from Mingi’s attack.

Suddenly, the ship lurch, making me lose balance, however, Mingi has a quick reflex as he swiftly pulls me up. But he couldn't control his strength so my face hit his broad chest.

His hand still grasps on my wrist and the other loops behind my back. If the others see us, it would look like he hugs me. We stand frozen in that position. The loud thud that echoes in my ears, I don’t know if it comes from my heartbeat or his.

“Mingi!” A high pitch voice yells from the lower deck. Mingi quickly let go off me. We both awkwardly look anywhere but each other.

Mingi clears his throat and shouts back, “I’m coming!”

His face glows a shade of red that almost matches his hair color. “You alright?”

I nod, feeling my whole face burn like someone set me on fire, “Yeah, fine.”

“Yah! Mingi!!” The same voice shouts again.

“For sake, I said I’m coming!!” His voice came out like thunder. My ears turn numb.

He turns to me, his face scrunches up in annoyance. “See you around.” He smiles at me awkwardly and I stiffly smile back.

After Mingi left, my soul also left my body. My throat itches from screaming out loud.

Calm down, the whole ship is staring at me, I can’t show my ultimate fangirl mode in front of them.

Once my soul comes back to my body, I bend down to grab on to my fallen wooden cane but a hand comes into view.

Jack, the young cabin boy, picks up my cane and hands it to me.

“Thanks, Jack.” I thank him.

The boy nods, “Miss, if you want to know about the Seakeeper, why don’t you ask captain himself?” He asks me.

He’s right. Hongjoong is the captain, he must know about his figurehead. But the thing is I’m not ready to face him yet. His stare made me feel jittery. If he gives me that look one more time, I swear I’ll disintegrate for real.

Jack sees that the seer is being quiet so he points at the quarterdeck, “Captain is right there, if you wanna ask him.”

I follow his eyes and see a lone figure behind a steering wheel. Hongjoong is leisurely helming.

His youthful eyes staring seaward. Whenever he is steering a wheel, he looks very serene. His majestic mullet flew tenderly in the wind.

And my heartbeat quickened up.

---

Hongjoong steps out of the bridge, stretching his stiff body after a long meeting. He stops at the rail when he spots the familiar girl sitting at mainmast. Seeing the girl talk to his crew, he begins to feel perplexed.

“What’s she doing?” He asks his helmsman who is steering the wheel next to him.

“I heard the seer asks about the figurehead.” The helmsman answers.

Hongjoong’s brow raise. Why would she be interested in his figurehead?

He waves at his helmsman to take over the helm.

He continues to observe Star who immerses herself in chatting with his crew. He chuckles when he sees her ignores all scary looking crew and asks only friendly looking one.

Hongjoong shakes his head in amusement. She’s so naive, there are no friendly pirates here.

Time flies fast, he has been watching over Star for an hour. He sees her getting up to leave but his gunner master shows up.

He isn’t curious what they are talking about. He isn’t curious why Mingi suddenly shouts furiously neither. Well, he really isn’t curious how they’re being playful with each other.

He sees Mingi raise his hand to touch the girl's face. Hongjoong let out a snort. That guy aims for his position and even aim for his g-

The ship suddenly lurches as Hongjoong unintentionally lets go of the helm.

But it didn’t go as he pictured. Mingi quickly grabs the girl into his embrace and they stay in that position for almost a minute.

He let out a low growl.

It’s time to select a new master gunner. Hongjoong thoughts.

“What happened?” The stoic quartermaster asks when he noticed the ship's strange movement. He leaves the bridge and comes out to see his captain have a deep scowl on his face.

Hongjoong doesn’t answer but his glare direct at people on the main deck. Seonghwa follows his sight and sees the annoying gunner master and the bothersome seeress standing way too close to each other.

Seonghwa’s face twists into a scornful look, he smells something off.

“What are they doing?” Seonghwa intends to go confront them. But Hongjoong stops him.

“Just let them be.” Hongjoong speaks, his gaze gluing at the two figures.

Seonghwa squints his eyes at Hongjoong to add his remark but Hongjoong exudes killing intent so he decides to shut up. He turns to stare at Star. The girl's presence makes his crew act strange. 

Does she come here to help them or harm them? Seonghwa ponders his decision to accept her into their ship.

Seonghwa clicks on his tongue and leaves his peculiar captain alone.

Hongjoong continues watching the two people until Mingi leaves, he is able to look seaward.

---

I climb the stairs toward the quarterdeck to find Hongjoong. I stand far away from him a meter away.

“Captain,” I call him. Hongjoong doesn’t respond so I step closer.

“Captain Hongjoong,” I raise my voice. “Can I ask you something?” he still ignores me. I sigh and choose to leave. “Nevermind, I’m leaving.” I say and twirl around but his voice stops me.

“What do you want to know?”

I turn around and look at him but he is still staring forward.

“About your Seakeeper.”

At a mention of Seakeeper, he peers at me by a corner of his eyes and tears his gaze away.

“If I answer, will I get something in return?” He asks.

“I don’t have money.” As expect from pirate, every actions are for bargaining.

He snickers, “I’m already rich, I don’t need your money.” He pauses and turns to look at me. “I’ll tell you in the future.”

I suppress goosebumps forming on my arms. Whatever he thinks must not be a good thing, judging from his sly smirk.

“I’ll treat your silence as an agreement.” He concludes and I can only blink at him.

“Seakeeper I named her myself.” As he starts speaking, his playful expression is replaced by a hardened one. Heaviness hung in the air around him. “On the darkest day when the sea has become an enemy, a blind sailor lost his hope. His eyes filled with wrath, his heart filled with resentment. At that moment, he was thrown into a fathomless abyss. All he could do was only choke with salty tears.”

Even though he’s here, I feel him drifting away. A wave of pain flash past his eyes and disappear.

“There she stood. The guardian of the sea, my guardian.” Corner of his mouth tug upward. “She who loves the sea more than her life. She who became one with it. Sea took her away but it’s the only thing that reminds me of her.”

“Who is she?” I don’t know why I’m scared to know the answer.

Small genuine smile presents on his lips. This is the first time that I see so much emotion in Hongjoong’s eyes. “She was the person I ever loved in my life.” 

// I apologize for making you confused who to ship Star with. Cause I'm kinda confused too >///<