WHO ARE YOU?|ATEEZ FANFIC (In Editing Progress)

Chapter 11|A blood red puddle

Bored, Seonghwa had made himself comfortable in one of the six hammocks that he, Yunho and San had diligently hung up together, while Hongjoong read through the handbooks with Jongho. The silence in the lower deck was oppressive and Seonghwa was bored that they had nothing left to do. Hongjoong insisted on reading through the books as much as possible first, before they even thought about setting off. ‘After all, they were seaman’s manuals. There was definitely something important in them.’ He said and then told the others to just relax. Seonghwa wasn’t the only one who was bored. Yunho, San and Wooyoung were sitting together in the corner, playing a card game that Yunho had taken from the house, while Mingi was laying on the floor, trying to ignore the ship dancing on the soft waves. Suddenly, Seonghwa heard a surprised sounding ‘Oh!’ coming from Hongjoong’s direction. He quickly sat upright in the hammock and looked over at Hongjoong.

“Did you find something interesting?” He asked curiously. Hongjoong closed the book in his hand and looked down at his lap where a small silver key had just fallen out of the book, surprising him. Confused he tilted his head and picked up the key.

“I think so.” He answered Seonghwa’s question and looked closely at the small key. The head of the key was very delicately crafted in the shape of a ship and an ‘I’ prettily engraved on it. Seonghwa watched Hongjoong for a second, before he climbed out of the hammock and carefully walked over to him.

“Let me see.” He sat down on the floor right next to Hongjoong, who immediately handed him the key, before taking the book in his hands again.

“A key?” Seonghwa asked confused.

“It fell out of this book.” Hongjoong explained quickly, opened the book and noticed, on the inside of the cover, a small notch in the shape of a key.

“He must have been in there.” Confused, he frowned and tilted his head.

“What could it be for?” He turned a few pages until he suddenly discovered a sketch of the ship and how it was constructed on page five. At first glance it looked like a normal drawing of a ship. It showed the framework marked with thick black lines and named individual rooms, sails and other parts of the ship that Hongjoong had no idea about. When he took a closer look at the stern of the ship, he paused and frowned. It looked as if there was a mechanism attached to the bottom of the ship that looked suspiciously like an engine like those found on modern ships and boats.

“This… This ship has an engine.” He said, astonished. Immediately the others turned their heads towards him with questioning looks.

“What did you just say?” Wooyoung asked, quickly put down the cards in his hands, got up and came running over. San and Yunho followed him.

“There are propellers attached to the bottom of the ship that drive it.” He turned the book over so that he could show the three boys the illustration. They looked closely at the sketch in amazement.

“I really didn’t expect that,” Yunho admitted.

“Does that mean it doesn’t matter if we know anything about sailing or not?” Wooyoung asked with relief in his voice and Hongjoong nodded.

“I think it’s possible for us to start an engine and keep this thing going straight ahead.” He said and looked at the key in Seonghwa’s hand again.

“This key must be there to turn on the engine.” Seonghwa held out the key so Hongjoong could take it in his hand. He looked at the key and then at the drawing of the ship, thinking.

“But where do we put it?” The drawing of the ship was drawn in the smallest detail. Everything important was somehow marked in the drawing, but somehow Hongjoong couldn’t tell from it where the ignition lock was.