“Captain.” The quartermaster calls for his captain’s attention.

The other crews shift nervously in their spot, waiting for their captain orders.

From the quarterdeck, the tiny captain has been fiercely staring at his wrecked ship for a full minute now.

Their once majestic ship has turned into a mess. The ship tilts slightly but fortunately manages to sail. The low spirit Revenge’s crew look around their flagship's worst state; torn black sails, broken floor, tangled rigging, splatter of red and blue blood.

They don’t get used to the loss as they are always on the winning side and the one that inflicts damage on others.

However, this time their opponent was the legendary sea creature. The Kraken appeared to wreak havoc and fled into the water just like that. They were puzzled why it left them alive. But it might be considered their luck as they are still breathing.

“Calamity,” Hongjoong mutters. The others around him share confused looks.

Hongjoong let out sarcastic chuckles. “She was right.”

The crew gulp down saliva when they see Hongjoong grin widely. The scariest Hongjoong is when he grins like that.

“Hongjoong.” Seonghwa calls Hongjoong for the second time.

“Go ahead.” Hongjoong finally turns to Seonghwa, signaling him to speak.

Seonghwa then begins his report. “Report damages; 15 dead, 10 missing, and 30 heavy injuries.”

Half of their crews are either dead or injured. The number causes the atmosphere to be gloomier.

“The starboard was crushed to the lower deck, mainmast has visible cracks, 6 damaged cannons, ¼ of food supplies was lost because its tentacles happened to wreck through the storage room.”

The crew draw breath as the list of damage goes on.

“Captain, with the ship’s condition, the quest to Wonderland is to be delayed.” Seonghwa finished his report and Hongjoong scrunched his eyebrows in deep thought.

“Captain, what if kraken or other creatures attack us again?” Someone in the crowd said.

They’ve sailed into the outer region of the devil’s triangle but Kraken already came to greet them. What will await them inside? They shudder at the thought.

Hongjoong’s face darkens when he notices his crews’ dreadful expression.

“You afraid?” Hongjoong lower his voice, sharp gaze piercing into his crews but none brave enough to look at him.

“Answer me!!” He slams his fist onto the rail. The others jolt in fright. “The Revenge doesn't have a place for a weakling.”

“If you’re scared,” He points at the water. “Make yourself disappear from my ship.” His icy voice cut through their hearts.

“No, we aren’t afraid.” Seonghwa answers.

Hongjoong side glance at Seonghwa whose face also begins to darken at Hongjoong’s unnecessary anger toward their crews. They are still terrified by the monster’s onslaught. And now they’re getting more terrified because their captain starts to be scarier than the kraken.

But even if Hongjoong appears to be cold-blooded, the crews still admire his fearless attitude. That’s why they choose to follow him and swear allegiance to him.

Hongjoong shot a dead glare at his crews for one last time and spoke to Seonghwa.

“You assign new duties to men who can still work and supervise overall repairing.” Seonghwa quietly nods his head.

Hongjoong then turns to order the boatswain. “Jongho, you lead the crews to fix the ship.”

“Wooyoung, you’re on watch today. And Yunho, you find us the nearest island. We’ll repair the ship there. There is a high risk that the monster may return or worse, we may encounter our enemies.” Hongjoong continues giving orders.

“But first of all, let’s send our fellow brothers back to their home.” The crews all turn their heads to see a lying row of corpses on the main deck. Grief penetrates their hearts. Those were their brothers who used to work, eat, sleep side by side for years.

“My Revenge’s crew, remember who we are. We are the Pirate king! King of the seven seas! Whoever breaks us, whoever dares take our brothers away, whether it’s men, monsters or witches, we’ll demolish them all. We are the destruction, their worst nightmare. They need to fear us!” Hongjoong's expression flicker with animosity.

The crew stare at their captain in awe. “Aye captain!!” They shout in unison with their return spirit.

---

Sound of gunshots rang across the ship as they performed burial at sea. Dead bodies, wrapped in white shroud, are disposed into the ocean. They watched as the bodies gradually sank and disappeared into the bottom. They don’t have land to bury their bodies, sea is their home and final destination.

They allow sorrow to engulf their hearts just for a moment and they go back to their duties. This isn’t the first time they loss their brothers. Death is inevitable, especially pirates like them. And it could be their turn next time. That's how their lives are.

Hongjoong still remains standing at the rail, staring seaward with an unexplainable expression.

Some of his close men stand by his side.

“Captain, you were so cool.” The first mate speaks from beside him.

“When have I ever not been cool?” Hongjoong tears his gaze from deep blue ocean to smirk at Wooyoung.

“I shouldn’t’ve complimented him.” Wooyoung jokingly mutters.

Hongjoong snickers and turns his attention back to the sea.

The others watch their captain’s strange silence. Something must be on his mind.

They signal Seonghwa to ask Hongjoong. But Seonghwa blatantly ignores them. So they proceed to nudge each other to ask the captain.

“Did you notice it?” Hongjoong suddenly speaks up, causing them to stop bickering.

“Notice what?” Wooyoung asks.

“The Kraken was strange.” Hongjoong mutters, lost in his memory.

After Star was hit and lost consciousness. San immediately came to defend her. But as if the kraken was triggered by San, all attacks were directed at him. Jongho, who was the nearest to Star, quickly carried her into the safe place inside. However, the kraken seemed to block him.

When Hongjoong paid attention closely, the attacks didn’t aim at San but at the unconscious girl.

Hongjoong immediately abandoned his steer to his men while he personally led the crew to attack the Kraken. He yelled rows of order to gunners while the master gunner coordinated with him.

Mingi was furious that it attacked his friend. His red face matched his hair color. His thunderous shout could win against Kraken’s roar.

Cannons were loaded with grapeshot and chained cannonballs. The damage inflicted on its tentacles as blue blood splash onto the ship. But that didn’t stop the berserk beast.

Seonghwa and Wooyoung took the role of sharpshooter, shooting from rigging to clear the path for Jongho.

Jongho safely carried Star inside the lower deck. But several tentacles tried to follow them.

A cannonball, shot by Mingi, able to sever its eye. It roared for the last time and submerged into the water, disappearing.

Its behavior was indeed strange.

“It seemed to focus its attack on Star.” Seonghwa knits his brows. He also noticed the weirdness. The others nod in agreement.

“Maybe it’s a misogyny.” Mingi voices out his opinion which earns an are-you-serious look from his friends.

“But it didn’t attack Aurora.” Wooyoung says.

“It did,” Jongho answered because he saved her. “But after that its attention was fully on Star.” He places a hand on his chin, thinking what possibilities would the Kraken attack her.

Then Mingi dramatically in his breath. “Because you compared her hair to its tentacles!” he shouts into Wooyoung’s face.

“Idiot, do you think Kraken would attack her because of that?!” Wooyoung retorts in his high pitch tone.

“Lower your voice, it may hear you.” Mingi lowers his voice in case the Kraken decides to attack them again. The others roll eyes at him.

“It could be something about her seer power.” Yunho joins in the guess.

“Or she used to upset it so she hid in our ship. But it found her.” Wooyoung suggests his idea.

“You lot are being too imaginative.” Seonghwa mutters.

“Well then Seonghwa, do you have any better idea?” Wooyoung challenges Seonghwa. He shoots dagger at Wooyoung and then they all start to argue.

“Shut the hell up and get back to work!!” Hongjoong yells at them as he can’t tolerate ridiculous arguments anymore. They immediately shut their mouths and scatter away, afraid to trigger the tiny guy. However, they still don’t stop arguing.

Seonghwa sighs and pats on Hongjoong’s shoulder and walks away.

Hongjoong also sighs. He turns around and spots the combatant sitting on the rail, casually cleaning his blade. His entire body is covered with the blue blood of the monster.

“San,” Hongjoong calls him as he strides toward him.

“You hurt.” He witnessed San shield Star from getting smashed by a giant tentacle. It ended up clashing on his back. But this guy acts like nothing happened. If it was someone else, that person would’ve traveled to the underworld already.

“Go see Yeosang.” Hongjoong says.

San averts his gaze to Hongjoong and back at his sword.

Hongjoong sighs again. He used to San ignoring him.

“You’ve been in my ship for a long time already. But I don’t understand what you think sometimes.” Hongjoong mumbles, hoping that San will finally open up to him or the others.

But San remains quiet.

Hongjoong thinks of when he recruited San into his ship, the others rejected his idea as they fear of San’s deadly aura. Once he officially became one of the crew, groundless rumor floating around the ship saying that San traded his soul to the devil. So he possesses such immense strength. The rumor got out of hand and became known among pirates. Not long after he became one of the most feared pirates. Even until now, he bet the majority would choose to face Kraken than San.

But beyond San’s cold outer appearances, Hongjoong sees a lonely boy. He sees a broken soul like him.

“San, you know you can always open up to me or others. We’re your family.”

Pale hands of the combatant stop its motion. San slightly glance at Hongjoong. Then he put swords and dirty cloth into Hongjoong’s hands. He instantly gets up and walks away, not uttering a single word to Hongjoong.

“San! Go see Yeosang, did you hear me?!” Hongjoong shouts after San. But he already disappeared below the lower deck.

He shakes his head at San’s stubbornness. Although San follows his order every time, when it comes to other stuff, San always ignores him. Even Wooyoung who claimed himself as San bestfriend, got ignored most of the time too.

People think he’s the most unpredictable one but in his opinion it’s San.

Hongjoong calls a nearby crew to clean the swords for San. “Clean them and return to San.” Upon hearing San’s name, the man feels like he could faint on the spot.

Hongjoong chuckles at his crew’s reaction. But he’s doing this to bond other crews with the combatant.

Once the poor crew weakly walk away, his mind then drifts to another stubborn person. If she obeyed him, she wouldn’t get hurt. Anger rises in his chest, he wants to go back to hunt that kraken, grill it, chop it into million pieces and feed it to his whole crew.

How dare it touched his treasure.

---

Orange light shines through the single window of the room. A beautiful maiden sleeps soundly on her bed. Her eyes gently flutter open, her peaceful expression turns into a painful one.

Her beautiful lips part as she says the first word once she regains her consciousness.

“”

It’s ing hurt.

The pain in my abdomen makes me cry in agony. My head and back are also in pain.

The last memory slowly returned and I gasped loudly. I was hit by the kraken. I quickly touch my body to see that I’m still intact.

Oh dear lord, I survive the attack.

I try to get up but the pain preventing me. Still I lift up my head up and raise my shirt to see a glimpse of big dark purple bruise across my stomach. It’s a miracle that I didn’t break in half.

Suddenly, a cough enters my ears. I startle, scanning around the room. My eyes meet with a dark shadow at the end of my bed.

I screamed out of fright but didn’t forget to cover my belly. And I end up clutching my stomach because of the pain from screaming.

The person steps into the light.

“What’re you doing in my room!?” I shriek when I see his face.

“This is my ship.” Hongjoong answers while sitting on a stool next to my bed. His ears turn pink and he refuses to meet my eyes.

“But why’re you standing there like a creepy fangirl?!” My face grew hot. Ugh, he saw my belly. I wanna dig a hole and escape. But why does he act shy when I’m the one who is supposed to be shy.

“Creepy what!?” Hongjoong grimaces. Who would have thought she’d lift up her shirt. However, a sight of her bruise made his blood boil.

Then he stares at me with a serious look.

“You disobeyed my order.” Hongjoong says.

“What?” I surprise at his sudden change.

“I told you to go back to your room but you ignored me.”

I recall when Hongjoong shouted at me to go back inside but I decided to run into a warzone.

“I have my own reason.”

“What reason? You could’ve been dead!” He raises his voice, clearly upset.

“But I’m not dead.”

Hongjoong glowers at my response.

“And that was the result of your stubbornness.” Hongjoong points at my belly.

“I wasn’t being stubborn, I was saving...err…” I leave the sentence trail off as I’m not sure is it a good idea to tell him that I know the scene beforehand.

“You foresaw that coming?” But Hongjoong is a smart man as he can piece things together. He saw Star threw a dagger at a tentacle, saving Jongho and Aurora.

“Err...yea,” I admit.

“This power of your...” He sighs. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

I forgot the scene. But of course, I can’t answer him that.

“It was a sudden image pop up in my head. I didn’t have a chance to tell you.” Well, I lied.

Hongjoong quiet for a while and speak up. “Thank you for saving Jongho. You were brave.”

I smile cheekily at him. But he scold me with his eyes. “Don’t get a wrong idea. There’s a thin line between bravery and recklessness.”

“Yessir.” I response. Hongjoong mouth tug upward and then he quickly recompose himself.

“You were right. About the calamity.”

“Oh,” I remember my fake premonition dream. Hongjoong dismissed my idea. However, with the Kraken appearance, my prediction came true. I don’t know if I should thank that giant squid or not.

“Did you defeat it?” I ask him.

“Nah, it just fled.”

I nod. In the original story, Ateez injured the Kraken so it fled. But both side received equivalent damage.

“I agree to go along with your premonition.” Hongjoong adds.

“Will you be okay?” I stare at him wide eyes, thinking of Yeosang’s words. The crew might not be satisfied with his choice.

“Why wouldn’t I be okay? I’m doing this for my ship. I don’t need other sea monsters attacking us.” Then his eyes flash mischievously, “So you worry about me.”

“Wha..what! No!” I yell, “I’m worried about myself. What if I didn’t get to Wonderland.”

He scoffs, “Why do you need to go to Wonderland?”

“I have my personal reason.” I emphasize personal, hoping that he won’t press for an answer.

“Does that reason involve me?” He tilts his head to the side. And I find it cute.

Danm it Star, stop fangirling.

“Why would it involve you?” I divert my gaze from him to the ceiling as I can’t stand his sparkle eyes.

“Hmm, I remembered you said that it's your fate to be here, to help me achieve my goal.”

“Umm..yes...” I did say that at the first encounter, back when I spitted nonsense stuff to survive.

“I also remember another thing, you said you know my future love life. What about it?” Hongjoong grin widely when he spot red flush appear on the girl’s face.

“You sure has good memory.” I mumble. Hongjoong heard me and chuckled. I grimace at how attractive he sounds. Ughh.

Wait a moment. Perhaps I can use this opportunity to mend the love storyline.

“Well, about that, congratulation, you already met your future lover.” I begin my fortune teller career.

“She’s beautiful inside and out. She’s kind and brave. But She’s also a strong headed person. So at first, you’ll have conflict with each other.” I describe Aurora, hoping that he’ll get a hint.

Hongjoong watches the girl speak and his anger somehow vanishes.

“And she’s really near you.” I add.

“How near is it?” Hongjoong eyes darken when I turn my face to see him.

“Umm well, near.” I feel something odd coming from him.

Hongjoong shift a stool closer to my bed. “This near?”

“Ehh...” I watch as he moves his face closer to mine.

“Hmm, closer?” He says as he gets way too close. Too freaking close. 

I open and close my mouth like a dying fish but I can’t find a right word to say.

“So is this close enough?” His velvet voice makes me goosebumps. “Can you foresee what I’m going to do next?” He chuckles playfully.

Doing what? I start to panic.

Before I die of a heart attack, I lift my hands to push him away but he swiftly grabs my wrists.

“I won’t let you push me for the second time.” He smirks. His gleaming eyes can melt me into a puddle.

“Uh, I...” When he notices me stutters, a low chuckles escape from his lips.

“What else about her?” He asks, changing topic but not moving his face away.

How am I going to speak human language in this dangerous position? His hands still grabs my wrists. And his hot breath brush my face.  While his eyes stare deeply into mine. I swear I die on the inside.

“L..let me go first.” I weakly stutter.

He chuckles again and slowly lets go.

I breath out quickly as I unconsciously hold my breath.

I gulp, calming my heart before resuming, “She has many suitors so it's sort of a fierce competition among your friends.” This is the most heart wrenching part because I like all the ships.

Hongjoong listens and scoffs inwardly. Several faces pop up in his head. But whoever pursues her, he’ll demote them to swabbies.

I see Hongjoong's expression getting darker and realize that if I tell Hongjoong alone he will have an advantage. So I make a mental note to tell others too. And then I’m gonna sit back and watch the drama unfold.

“Well, you have to show your sincerity.” I know who she's gonna end up with in the end but let me spice things up.

“Oh and she also has a beautiful singing voice.”

“You sure have high confidence to compliment yourself.” Hongjoong mutters. He recalls Star’s singing the other night and snicker.

“When did I compliment myself?” I ask, confused.

“You just did.”

“I didn’t!”

Oh shoot, did he think the story is about me?!

“It’s not about me!” Flustering, I shout out loud.

“If it’s not you then who could it be?” Hongjoong startles at the girl’s way of expressing shyness.

“I’m not the only guest on this ship, alright!” I feel like fainting. He really believe that it was me!

Hongjoong’s grin falters. He averts his gaze to see Aurora’s empty bed and he looks back at me.

“Did you dream about it?” He asks in a serious tone.

“Err, yes.” I answer him in a soft tone when I see his stern look.

“How accurate is your dream?” He doesn’t let me answer as he continues speaking. “You said the future can be changed.”

“Yes…” As I answer, his grins return.

He suddenly moves closer that our nose almost touch.

I shut my eyes tightly.

However, nothing happens. Instead, I feel his hand softly pat my head.

“Rest well.” I open my eyes and see his warm smile. My heart pounds loudly as our eyes lock together. That jittery feeling return.

Little did Star know, Hongjoong also feels the same. He blinks his eyes confusedly at the surging feeling.  He just wanted to tease the girl but why he suddenly feel strange, like having a fever?

Hongjoong gets up abruptly.

We both look away awkwardly.

“I didn’t drink wine today though” He mumbles. “Uh, I’m going.” Hongjoong stiffly scratch his red neck. His cool captain demeanor disappears. If his crew saw him right now, they’d be shocked than seeing another sea beast.

I nod dazedly. My mind hasn’t return into normal state yet.

Before he leaves the room, he turns around one more time. “Just admit it Star. It’s about you.”

I startle, “No! Captain, wait, you misunderstand!” I shout after him.

“It’s Hongjoong for you.” He flash me with his signature grin and exits the room.

I lie, wide awake, my mind occupy with the previous scene. I cover my burning face and squeak.

Ouch, the pain from my stomach return cause I squeak too hard.

No Star, he was just flirting. Don’t fall into his trap. I violently shake my head.

Not long after, the door opens again,

“Hongjoong, you misunderstood!” I quickly shouted.

“Hongjoong misunderstood what?” A cold voice that doesn’t belong to Hongjoong answers me. He’s the person who I least expect to visit me. 

// Do you know who squeal harder than Star?

Me!!!

BTW, Ateez won 2 consecutive trophies!! Ateez and Atiny really work hard for this comeback. I'm so proud TT. I hope they win more. I just love seeing Ateez being happy. Let's fight harder for the boys!! ヽ( `д´)ノ