Water Heart | P.Sh

| 24 |

It turned out that Jungwon had ordered for us to leave the harbour shortly after I had gone to my hammock. He had seen it too dangerous for us to stay with the possibilty of anyone finding Jake cuffed to the mast of his own ship.

"So... next stop?" I questioned as I wandered up to stand beside Jay.

"Supposedly Isle de la Mort," he replied and I nodded slowly.

"And what are we doing there?" I questioned as I puckered my lips out and glanced around the deck in front of me.

"Supposedly there should be something that can help one of the crew members that is cursed," Jay pointed out and I nodded at him.

"And how much of the crew knows that it is only to save Sunghoon that we're going there?" I questioned and Jay stiffened before slowly turning to me, "how do I know?"

"Yeah..." he slowly nodded, confirming my question was exactly his thoughts.

"Oh you know... heard some old lady question Jiyeon about the cursed Boatswain," I casually shrugged and picked at my nails, "Jiyeon deemed there to be a month or less before he dies."

"We'll be on the sea for that long," Jay shook his head in return and I hummed quietly, "he'll last longer than that."

"And you know that because..." I trailed off and he merely glanced at me, "because as far as I've noticed and experienced... Jiyeon is by far the person on this ship with the most knowledge when it comes to spells and curses..."

"He'll last longer," Jay insisted and shook his head as his eyes trailed up to the dark figure that walked across the deck and glanced over his shoulder before wandering down into the food depot.

"Alright, I'll make a deal with you," I sighed and stepped over in front of Jay with crossed arms, "tell me what the curse is about or I'm personally pushing him over the railing."

"He's been cursed for two years," Jay murmured and glanced right beside my head, not even looking at me, "crossed the wrong people and they threw the Water Heart curse at him."

"And that is..." I trailed off and Jay only snorted at me.

"As you can imagine Sunghoon doesn't have any trouble in getting the girls he want with that face of his," Jay clarified and I only waved it off, "turns out one of these girls was not so kind about him just prancing from girl to girl as he liked. So she cursed him."

"That wasn't my question. I asked about the Water Heart curse," I clarified with a small frown on my face.

"What the curse does is funnily enough turn your heart to water. It supposedly starts by turning your blood to ice cold water running through your veins. Until eventually it is cooled down enough for the heart itself to turn, and as you can imagine. With a heart that is merely water you cannot live," Jay calmly replied and I nodded at him, "so either Sunghoon would have to go to Isle de la Mort and find the La vie chest or... he would have to fall in love with a person who will love him back just as intensely."

"And you highly doubt the last one," I pointed out and Jay nodded in return, "fair enough... does Sunghoon know this is why we're going to Isle de la Mort?"

"He's forgotten about the island long ago," Jay shook his head with a small sigh, finally looking back at me, "he's accepting of that he has to die right now. Now... if you have any other questions about the curse I suggest you go to Jiyeon, because she knows more about it. Like why he shouldn't be in contact with cold water like the sea, rain and such, and all those other things."

"He's not allowed to be in cold water?" I questioned and Jay shook his head in return as my frown slowly grew on my face.

So Sunghoon wasn't allowed to be in cold water otherwise it would apparently worsen his condition, from the hints Jay gave me. But, he had gone into cold water multiple times. Both the time he was out in the rain on deck and gave me his coat as well as the time he swam out to the rowboat.

"Hm..." I hummed quietly as the frown stayed on my face and I slowly left Jay by the helm, while Jungwon rushed up on the other side of the deck and hurriedly went to tell Jay something, meanwhile I made my way over towards Jiyeon, who happily sat on a small set of stairs up to the front of the ship, working on a wicker basket - half finished in her lap.

"Ah Soomin, I have to remember to tell you something," Jiyeon pointed out and I hummed as I sat down beside her, "Sunghoon was asking for you."

"Weird," I commented and she just nodded with a small hum, "I have question about him."

"What?" she hummed and looked at her wickerwork with a lot of concentration traced across her face.

"Jay told me about his curse," I pointed out and she only hummed, "he said he couldn't go in cold water and some other things."

"Oh yeah, that's right," Jiyeon nodded at me, "anything that exposes him to too much cold can hurriedly worsens his condition."

"How so?" I questioned and Jiyeon shrugged.

"Jay explained the water instead of blood?" she questioned and I hummed in confirmation, "so just like water normal works. If you put it in a warm environment it'll warm up, but if you put it in cold it'll slowly freeze. So essentially too much cold for a while will almost freeze his water... blood, whatever state it is in right now. His joints might become tough and such. But you know... the more it turns water the more it'll be easier for it to get cold. If it is too cold for too long it'll affect the heart and eventually kill him."

"Mhm... and how do you reverse it?" I questioned and she shrugged.

"Something with him having to love a person who loves him equally as much. I don't know the reversal method completely. Old miss Lina has only briefly explained it when I took Sunghoon to her shortly after he got cursed," she casually shrugged once more before craning her neck back and looking at me, "why?"

"It seems weird," I murmured and she hummed quietly.

"What about it?" she questioned and I looked back down at her.

"Is he actually cursed? Like... will he actually die?" I questioned and she nodded, "it's not some nonsense."

"If he gets a cut you'll see it," she pointed out, "it's watered out blood. All light red and very transparent compared to normal blood. Besides, these days he's complained about getting shivers for no apparent reason, even when the sun is high on the sky."

I quietly picked at my lips before going into my own little world to think about the whole Sunghoon being cursed situation over.