Blood Moonlit | Seongjoong

Chapter III : Through The Rainstorm

It was pretty early in the morning when the Prince woke up, the first beams of light illuminating the cabin, dancing on the paintings on the walls. Seonghwa didn't lose a second and quickly dressed up, choosing to wear a loose light beige shirt and black high-waisted pants.

He was determined to make this new day a good day. Optimism.

When he opened the door, Seonghwa stopped instantly as he saw a little wooden chest on the floor before him. He slightly frowned as he kneeled down to take it and unlocked the little lid. Inside was a note with his name on it and an old brownish parchment. He swiftly looked around, but no one was in the corridor and all the doors were closed.

Walking back into his room, he decided to put everything on the bed. He unrolled the small parchment to verify what it was. Oh. A map of the ship. Seonghwa was pleasantly surprised, and since he didn't really know anyone here, he wondered who could have thought of this nice attention. Maybe Wooyoung or Jongho. Who else? Either way, he wished to thank them.

He carefully tidied the new items in one of the nightstand's drawers and finally headed towards the deck to watch the end of the sunrise.

Arriving on the bridge deck, Seonghwa greeted a couple of sailors working and went directly to the front of the boat. He delicately placed his hands on the fence, trailing his fingers on the polished wood, a cool wind passing through his hair as he closed his eyes for an instant before opening them again to see the pale blue sky, no clouds, the sun reflected on the sea, the rays of sunshine softly warming up my cheeks. He loved it, feeling so free. He could get used to this, to live on a ship, to travel from island to island, used to the scent of salt, the movements of the ship led by the waves.

"Sir?" Seonghwa was pulled out of his reverie by a sudden voice behind him. He swiftly turned around to see Jongho standing next to him with a bucket filled with water and a floor cloth.

"Hi, Jongho! How can I help you?" He happily asked the other man with a soft smile.

"I'm sorry to bother you, Seonghwa. Could you mop the deck with this? All of it?" Jongho handed Seonghwa the cleaning tools with a sorry look on his face. "It's an order from the Captain."

"Yes, sure. Give me that." Seonghwa slightly frowned but took the utensils anyway. "Thank you." He gave the younger man another gentle smile and raised his head, searching for a particularly annoying pirate, as Jongho was walking away. Seonghwa was determined to show the pirate that he was in fact not as useless and clueless as he seemed to think he was. He frowned seeing the pirate leaning on the banister of the quarterdeck. Hongjoong had watched the whole scene, and he simply waved at him from above with a smirk. This little condescending s-

The Prince shook his head. Calm down, Seonghwa. It's okay, no need to use bad words, just ignore him. He rolled the sleeves of his shirt up to the elbows and took a glimpse at the man one last time. Hongjoong was still looking at him from afar, a hand on his chin holding his head, elbows resting on the fence. Why was he staying there? Looking at him like that? Doesn't he have other Captain stuff to do?

Right after, Seonghwa averted his gaze and went to the side of the deck to start his new task, actually ignoring the pirate for the rest of the morning.

* * *

"Stop drooling over him." Someone said next to him.

Hongjoong quickly stood up, dumbfounded, and faced the man who just spoke. "What? I'm not" He stated as he found himself in front of excited cat eyes looking straight at him with amusement. He sighed at this view and turned back to watching the deck below. "What do you want, San? I have work to do."