Water Heart | P.Sh

| 8 |

Turns out sleeping in a hammock is something you need to get used to with time. The back ache I had woken up with once everyone had begun stirring in the early hours of the morning was uncomparable to anything I had experienced before.

It had turned out to be so that Jiyeon slept in a hammock near mine and had rushed to find me in the morning, holding an oil lamp in her hand.

"Come on... we need to get you some proper clothes," she smiled happily and waved for me to follow her, "and next time just tell me you don't have a night gown on you," she pointed out and I looked down at myself. Still in the same dress from last night.

I was led through a maze of rooms, and small corridors. It seemed like we were walking through a longer space than the entirety of the ship was supposed to have.

"Here it is," Jiyeon smiled as she stopped in a room and placed the oil lamp on the floor as she opened a big chest, "we've gathered quite a lot of women's clothes through the years. I don't know why they keep coming with clothes though... it seems that they aren't aware that they've stolen me enough already."

"A girl's gotta have her choices," I pointed out and Jiyeon snickered in amusement as she dug into the chest before abruptly standing up and scanning me over.

"I suppose we use the same size," she shrugged and continued digging before eventually pulling out what looked to be a dark green skirt from the chest. I wasn't sure due to the dim lighting.

After she had handed me the skirt I slowly got out of my dress, leaving me in my long chemise.

"Oh that has some nice embroidery on it," she commented in shock and touched the neckline of my chemise softly, "it is very hot on deck so you would hate to have an outer shirt on," Jiyeon quietly assured before I realized the belt and other harness like thing in her hand.

I hesitantly pulled on the skirt and fastened it in my waist by tying the two waist strings tightly. Jiyeon was quick to adjust the skirt for me before wrapping a thick leather belt around my midsection.

"Is that necessary?" I questioned in confusion and Jiyeon nodded at me, "why?"

"I got you a dagger, and you need to keep it somewhere... besides gives you a nice figure," Jiyeon snickered as she tightened the belt properly.

It was now that I realized that the other thing she had in her other hand was a cover for a dagger. With a small smile resting on her face she attached the cover on the belt in a small leather hoop and a metal ring.

"Now on the belt there's these clips," Jiyeon explained and tugged on two clips, one on each side of my hips, "they come into hand if you need your skirt out of the way, just clip the skirt up and you'll be a lot more able to move."

"Isn't there pants?" I questioned slowly and Jiyeon looked up at me and she quietly nodded, "why don't we use them?"

"Uhm... we can only really use them when we visit pirate towns or if we end in altercations with another ship. Then we are to run down here and change in case the other ship manages to invade ours," she excused slowly, "it's for our safety."

"Why...?" I slowly questioned and Jiyeon clearly glanced towards the oil lamp while pondering if she should answer.

"If you're a woman in a pirate town then you're automatically a prostitute," she excused quietly, "but these days I've had to hide on the ship instead of going onto land when we get to those places..."

"Bullshit," I commented and she only let out a small laugh before nodding in agreement.

"Very much bullshit," she nodded in agreement, "but I mean... it's for our safety," she excused and picked up the lamp, "and uhm... you had to meet Jungwon and Sunghoon up on deck this morning... so we better go."

With a small smile Jiyeon led me my way back through the ship before getting me back up on deck and turning off her oil lamp and handing it over to another crew member.

"I got the girl for you," Jiyeon smiled happily as she skipped her way in between Jungwon and Sunghoon. One of them looking happier to see her than the other.

I watched as Jiyeon crawled her way up into the Crow's Nest and continued her work from the other days before I looked back down to Jungwon and Sunghoon. 

"So what is it?" I questioned with a small sigh.

"You need a job when you're on the boat," Jungwon pointed and I just nodded as I folded my hands in front of me, "and I see... Jiyeon already helped you get dressed to move around properly."

"I'm not sure about the belt," I admitted and he let out a small laugh, "a bit too wide, isn't it?"

"You won't feel it," he assured and waved it off with a flick of the hand.

"You'll be a swabbie," Sunghoon shortly spoke, clearly too impatient for Jungwon's friendliness.

"Okay... and that is...?" I questioned slowly making Sunghoon immediately roll his eyes at me.

"You have to sweep the deck and wash it everyday," Jungwon pointed out and I only nodded.

"That's it?" I questioned and he nodded at me, "well, that shouldn't be a problem."

"It's in any weather," Sunghoon pointed out, "no matter how high the waves..."

"High waves requires you to use buckets to empty the deck," Jungwon nodded, "but you're not alone with it," he quickly assured and I simply nodded at him, "so just get your mop and get started."

"Sure," I nodded and rushed to grab one of the mops standing around, wandering around and mopping the deck along with the few other men who had the same job as me.

Once in a while I would glance up towards the Crow's Nest, watching as Jiyeon once in a while would pop up with a tied rope in hand, yell down to the rest of us on deck and she would throw it down into a designated basket filled with loads of other neatly tied ropes.

At one point Jungwon had crawled up there as well, but made sure to not interfere with her job while he stood and looked through a monocular out towards the horizon, yelling down updates to Jay every once in a while.

I had found it quite impressive how they had been so touchy and affectionate towards one another teh other day, but now that they were in the middle of work they could just ignore the other and let them do their job.

"Thunder clouds ahead!" Jungwon eventually yelled out from the Crow's Nest and quickly crawled down from there and rushed back up to Jay mumbling something to him to which Jay only nodded.

No one seemed to react on the thunder cloud that had been seen up ahead, which must mean it wasn't gonna have any meaning for us.