rapture of the deep ; seodo

★ chapter 4 ★

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"Hi Dongju! Mind if I come along?" Geonhak asked, head peeking from behind the doorframe, as he came across Dongju, their latest trainee, and approached the scuba diving branch of their dive centre.

Dongju's face lit up immediately after having set the two oxygen tanks, which he was about to carry towards the boat, aside, and he beckoned the older over.

"Geonhak! I wouldn't have expected you to stop by on your days off; heard you're not much of a scuba diver - But yeah sure, a family of tourists will come in today. Gotta ask boss first, obviously - he's running late again - but I don't see why he'd mind," Dongju shrugged and flashed a toothy smile, "just leave your mask and fins on the boat, tinker yourself a weight belt, and get your tank ready, I'll arrange you a regulator and a jacket - we're leaving as soon as everyone's set."

Geonhak thanked Dongju who was already skipping towards the boat while dragging two heavy tanks along, and Geonhak wandered in the opposite direction - this kid deserved a raise.

Inside the hut where all kinds of equipment were stored - between hung up wet suits that smelled of wet dog and lack of oxygen, - Geonhak found Dongmyeong who was struggling to zip up his wetsuit, so he went up to help him, which caused the boy to yelp up in surprise.

"God, you scared me!" Dongmyeong scolded to which Geonhak answered with an innocent shrug.

"Thank you, though. Are you joining us today?" He then asked excitedly, which reminded Geonhak of how much of a family they all were despite their hectic schedule and rare encounters.

Geonhak nodded and proceeded to search for the box with plumb and bare belts, when a thought crossed his mind.

"Can I borrow a mask for a while? I must have lost mine on the way home yesterday." Geonhak scratched his neck and waited for Dongmyeong to pick one from the jumble of spare and free-to-rent masks.

Just as Geonhak was about to put on the mask that Dongmyeong had handed him, a shout from outside resonated as far as into their cramped hut, "Morning boss!"

The rest of Dongju's excited greeting was swallowed by the deafening sound of the compressor kicking off, and Dongmyeong excused himself before rushing to check whether it was truly necessary to fill a handful of empty tanks if they would come back with another load of voided bottles of oxygen in the evening anyhow.

At about the same time as Dongmyeong left the hut, Keonhee entered rather boisterously as he threw his head around until his disbelieving eyes locked with Geonhak's through the tempered glass of the mask.

(Dongju derived special pleasure from calling Keonhee 'boss' despite the latter having deliberately told him to stop and simply address him by his actual name, as it was neither that he was the one in charge nor someone to order others around. However, given the fact that Keonhee was the diver of highest rank and simultaneously the most experienced of them all, in one way or another, the team relied on him and matters fell back on him at some point as well - so Dongju kept calling him that.)

"What do you think you're doing here?" Keonhee asked after he had dragged Geonhak out of the noisy hut into a quiet corner among the shades.

The sun was blaring; Geonhak saw droplets of sweat cling to Keonhee's heated cheeks, as the younger had probably slept in and rather involuntarily put up with a morning jog to work. Keonhee was taller than Geonhak by a few inches, which allowed him to tower over Geonhak as he was glaring at him with expectation and soft despair trickling from his expression.