I Am The Sea || Choi San

confessions

Captain Hongjoong, Seonghwa, Mingi, Jongho, Yunho, and San stand on the main deck when Wooyoung leads Theo up to them.
They turn towards them at the exact same moment, and Theo straightens her back a little more, holding her head a bit straighter.
Wooyoung glances at her from the corner of his eye and smiles as he squeezes her hand to calm her.
It is just as Theo had imagined it.

The wind from the see rustles her skirt and blows the wispy strands of her hair into her face, the warm light from the lit oil lamp reflects in her bright eyes.
The boys stand in silent awe in front of Theo, watching her every step as she slowly walks up to them, seemingly gliding over the floor ever so gracefully, and then finally sinking into a delicate curtsy.
Their eyes are wide, their cheeks flushed. All of them smile in wonder and admiration, shaking their heads in amazement or stumbling over their own words, trying to find a compliment worthy of her appearance.
All of them, except San.

Theo's eyes find San's immediately after she rises from her curtsy, hooking into his stare.
Theo finds herself breathless when she takes him in.
He's wearing a pair of black straight-cut pants, and black boots. His jacket is made from a leather like, black fabric that shines just slightly in the light, as if it has been polished, and its collar is straight. The jacket has an interesting cut, short in the front, long as a coat in the back. It's sleek and elegant and every bit similar to the jackets noble men wear.
The most surprising thing, however, is San's hair.
It's short.
He must have cut it, as his usually unruly strands of raven hair are buzzed short on the sides, only long enough on top to fall into his forehead. It frames his face in a whole new way, accentuating his high cheekbones and sharp jaw.

San is so all-consuming gorgeous, Theo can't take her eyes off of him. He looks like a member of the royal family, a nobleman of the highest order, and he holds himself with the utmost polish.
His eyes are dark, and though Theo had expected there to be a coldness in them, a certain distance, they're warm and friendly.
The two of them look at each other, and just for a moment, San smiles. A tiny, secret smile just for her.

Then Yunho speaks up, and Theo finally finds it in herself to take her eyes off of San.
"You look beautiful, Theo," he says, "Truly beautiful."
"Thank you," Theo agrees and raises her hand to smooth over a plead in Yunho's sleeve. "You don't look too bad yourself."
Yunho is wearing a similar outfit as Seonghwa, a pair of black pants and a pristine white shirt. A sheathed cutlass is hanging from his side, just as there is on Seonghwa's side.
San seems to be the only amongst the crew, Theo had noticed, that never wears his weapons openly.

"Alright, gentlemen," Captain Hongjoong says then and clasps his hands together nodding gravely, "The ball has started, time to go. Take care of each other, come back the way you're leaving right now, please."
With that, he ushers Mingi, Seonghwa, Yunho, Theo and San off the Inception and orders his men to put out all the lights.
Mingi leads them through the darker side streets and they rush towards the finer part of the town, hidden between the moving shadows of the night. Courlet is big, all cobblestone streets and painted front doors and pots of flowers on the window sills.
Seonghwa and Yunho are walking with Mingi in the front, San and Theo in the back.

The two of them are silent along the way, but Theo can feel herself loosen up. The anger she felt towards San is slowly dissolving - being furious with him is more exhausting than simply moving on from it.
The Kang residence is a ginormous house, even larger in size and opulence than the Calvin estate used to be, with white columns in the front and wide balconies on each floor. The house glitters in the dark night, and the group can clearly make out the ground's borders from afar. The garden is lined in green, lush trees and bushes instead of a fence, and the back of it is completely unoccupied by any guards as far as Theo can tell.