Captain's Will

2. A New Purpose

San returned the next day. He sat in the same corner as before with his good leg propped on the wooden one and sipped his drink. The hood concealed his features from view, but Hongjoong could see through the shadow clear as day.

San was waiting for him. He wouldn't leave before Hongjoong agreed to join.

The former pirate didn't know what San needed him for. What type of adventure had he planned? Were the other crew members involved? Was it a personal matter? If he needed a crew and went out of his way to find Hongjoong here, he likely considered the others as well.

Hongjoong wasn't ready to face them. In the years spent apart, he couldn't forgive himself for what he had done. Even if his crew assured his tormented mind, the scars on his heart were etched into his being forever.

With his fingers gripping a plate of food tightly, Hongjoong parted the crowd. Today, the inn was less busy than the day prior, and the captain who had groped Hongjoong before had gathered his crew and set sail. After serving the plate, Hongjoong passed by San's table.

"Ye be wastin' yer time," he muttered as he wiped down the sticky surface. The nicks of countless knives roughened up his rag and tugged loose threads from it.

"There be no journey if it ain't with ye, Captain," San replied. Under his hood, his voice was muffled. Hongjoong wondered what he had done in the past two years. Did he still get hunted? Hongjoong's title had become a distant memory of the public. Other pirates had risen in ranks and wreaked sufficient havoc to divert the attention from him. Had San returned to the sea and upheld his name?

"There be other captains out there," Hongjoong gritted through his teeth. Better captains. Ones that didn't sacrifice their crews to a beast they couldn't defeat. Ones that didn't leave a member dying below deck. Hongjoong had been a fool to believe he could do it. He hadn't seen the fortune he had, and he had destroyed it.

The guilt in his heart ate at him like a festering curse.

"Nay fer us. Ye be the only one we want."

Hongjoong pushed off the table to flee behind the counter. He doused himself in work and ignored San's eyes on him. Soon enough, the man would understand what a pitiful state Hongjoong had degenerated to. He would concede that Hongjoong wasn't able to lead a ship anymore.

However, another week passed, and San didn't move an inch. Every evening, he made his way inside the tavern to sit at the same table. The maids got used to him, throwing flirtations and chuckles his way when he got cosy yet another time. He never showed his face to them. Only when Hongjoong stepped outside to smoke a stressed pipe, San joined him to stare out over the bay by his side. His hair got ruffled by the wind and the stars reflected in his eyes. The yearning for the waters beyond the beach in his gaze was the same as in Hongjoong's.

There was no avoiding San, and at night, Hongjoong laid awake for long hours, robbed of his sleep by the pull in his heart to listen to his mate. He missed the sea. If only he wasn't so greedy to return.

San always left at dawn. Once the rowdy night swarmers cleared and the music of the concertina slowed under overworked hands, he left to melt into the shadows. The thuds of his peg leg carried him through the streets as Hongjoong packed his things to retreat into the room upstairs he rented.

Was the rest of the crew where San went? Yeosang, Jongho, Mingi and Wooyoung? Perhaps even... No. He wouldn't be with them.

Hongjoong sighed as he wiped down the counter before he would retreat into the morning hours to sleep. The cackling of the seagulls outside as they chased early merchants through the streets wouldn't keep him up.