TREASURE || ATEEZ

12- blinded

ep. twelve
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You hear someone knocking on the door.

Groggily, you raise your upper body up at the sound, hands rubbing your eyes. It is quite early for someone to be injured already and arrive the sickbay, so you wonder who decided to visit the surgeon this early in the morning.

Seonghwa, who is the closest to the door, stands up from his desk and makes his way to the door. Opening it, he is greeted with one of his fellow crew mates and a small smile makes its way to his lips when he recognizes them. "Hi Jongho! What brings you here?"

Jongho perks his head to the side in search of something, and then lands his gaze onto you. Spotting you causes him to grin, his hand rising up from his side before he points at you. "Seonghwa, I would like to ask the lady here if she would like to accompany me to breakfast if that's okay."

Eyes widen at the statement, and the blond pirate stumbles on his words as he purposefully blocks you from the first mate's sight. "I-I don't think it's a g-good idea to."

"Don't be silly, Seonghwa." A small chuckle leaves his lips while he gently pushes the surgeon aside to make his way to you. "Besides, I have permission from the captain to bring her to the dining room with me. Barely any of the crew is up, and I'll be watching over her."

Before the older male can speak, Jongho grabs you by the wrist and escorts you outside of the room. A gasp of surprise leaves your lips and your arm tightly clutches his, having the fear that you will lose your balance and fall if you let go.

The both of you wander around the pirate ship until you all arrived at the dining room. Jongho gladly opens the door for you and allows you to go in first, which you hesitantly do. Having the male take the lead once again, you are brought to an empty table and told to stay put as he makes his way to the kitchen to grab the food.

You are a bit anxious as you wait for the male due to the previous incident that occurred with San. You don't want the same event replaying, especially since you don't want Jongho to be punished for being kind to you. However, you haven't been able to eat for a few days due to Captain's orders, so this is your chance to regain your energy after everything that has occurred once you boarded this ship.

Your observant eyes scan the area, searching for any pirates lingering in the room or entering the dining hall as you patiently wait in your seat. Your knee constantly bounces up and down, teeth slightly biting into your bottom lip. No one is around at the time, supposedly because it is fairly early at the moment, yet your anxiety perks up within every second.

Fortunately, the first mate of the ship returns with two bowls, one filled with soup, and a fairly large piece of bread in his hands. He places them down gently before he settles himself into his seat, now sitting in front of you. His hand grabs the soup-filled bowl and pours roughly half of it into the empty one and you realize what he is doing.

With eyes widened, you immediately bring your hands up and shake them as a sign of refusal. "Jongho, I can't possibly accept that. It's your food, you should eat more than me."

You are about to reach out to one of the bowls to pour some back into the other until a hand pins your wrist to the table. Your gaze that was once focused on the meal is now locked onto that of the first mate of the ship, and you notice a sincere smile on his face. "It's okay, Hama. I don't mind sharing."

"Besides-" the sudden grumbling of your stomach cuts him off, causing him to giggle, "you haven't eaten in a while, so you must be really hungry."

A sigh of defeat leaves your lips as an embarrassed blush decorates your cheeks, internally scolding your stomach for growling so loudly. You say no more since your stomach gave yourself away, and Jongho passed you a bowl with a piece of bread.

The both of you enjoy the meal quietly, no one speaking a word to one another. The sounds of bread tearing a part and mouths gently slurping the soup fill the silence as the rocking of the ship along the waves of the sea chimes in. You haven't been able to eat since you boarded this ship, but you don't want to seem rude and impolite by devouring everything quickly. With that, you try to restrain yourself by taking small sips of the salty soup and small bites of the rock-hard bread.

To be honest, you feel awkward in this situation. The both of you simply met last night, and the lad has been nothing but kind to you compared to the others. He has heard the news of Wooyoung's words, but seems to not be affected by it compared to the other pirates.

It seems weird to you, him acting this way toward you. He seems too nice for someone being around a person who can be a potential threat.

"Well, we pirates are also capable of deceiving others..."

Your head perks up from the dining table when you suddenly hear Jongho's voice ring in your mind, eyes landing on the male sitting in front of you. He notices your gaze, and he flashes you an adorable smile.

Is he perhaps deceiving you?

You shake your head almost immediately and slap your cheeks lightly, earning a questionable hum from the first mate. You awkwardly give him a smile and a small, "don't worry about it," before you quickly finish your breakfast.

He would never do that, you think to yourself as you take the last bite of your bread. You do not want to think of his actions toward you as nothing, so you decide to not bring it up again.

Eventually, both trays of food has been finished and the two of you clean up the dining table. Jongho brings the dishware back to the kitchen, where they will be cleaned, and you wipe the table with a rag that the pirate has given you. When you are done, you settle the rag in the bucket where the male has grabbed it from and await for him at the table. He comes out a few minutes later, and he grins at you as he lends an arm to you.

"Now then," he begins, nudging your shoulder a bit to usher you to wrap your arm around his, "let's get you some new clothes. You must be uncomfortable in the ones you are wearing right now."

Agreeing to his statement, you gladly take his arm into yours and the both of you make your way out of the dining hall. You allow him to take you to wherever he desires to go, and you can't help but feel safe with him around.

If only you knew the ulterior motive behind his behavior.