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

Chapter 13|The storm

With the moons light reflecting on the surface of the lake, the illusion slowly made her way through the darkness in the silence of the night with the moon and the stars as Its only company. The only one left on deck at that hour, after he volunteered for the first shift of the night shift, was Hongjoong. After Wooyoung had taken a look at his hand and the short therapy session Hongjoong had with him, he eventually had decided to take a little nap which accidentally lasted until Yunho came down to wake him up for dinner, so he wasn’t tired at all in the evening and volunteered to take the first shift. Everyone else had been so exhausted after the long, hard day on deck that they had gone to bed right after dinner, before the sun had even set, leaving Hongjoong alone on deck for serval hours. He was sitting on a barrel Yunho and Mingi had carried up the stairs earlier, when Seonghwa took his turn to stand by the steering wheel, so he could sit while steering, and because it was actually a good idea, Hongjoong kept the barrel by the steering wheel and sat on it himself when he felt his legs getting tired of standing so long. Steering the ship wasn’t much work to do. He just had to make sure, that the waves wouldn’t get them off course, but since there weren’t actually any bigger waves in the lake, his only job was to sit and hold the steering wheel while starring at the island the ship was slowly approaching. They had been on the ship for just over twenty-four hours now and slowly but surely the island seemed to be within reach, while the beach behind them was now just a line on the horizon. They had covered almost fifty kilometers at an absolute snail’s pace, but they were almost there. If Hongjoong stayed on course, they would probably reach the island’s beach before the first sun light. Finally. They’ve only spend a little over a day on this ship and Hongjoong was already sick of it. Having nothing to do but staring at the water, sleeping or steering the ship, was almost more exhausting than walking for hours under the burning light of the sun, with sand in your shoes and your skin suffering from sunburn. It was so boring, Hongjoong was actually glad he overslept most of the day, which just made him feel a little guilty for leaving the others alone with their boredom. After he woke up from his nap and joined the others for dinner with the boys, Seonghwa gave him a quick recap of the day. They basically hadn’t done anything. Wooyoung had changed San’s bandage one more time right before dinner, while cursing about not taking the more advanced first aid kit with them, in which a needle and thread would’ve been, perfect for San’s wound. Without stitching it, the healing process would take so much longer. Doing the day it had started bleeding a little again, which they only noticed, when San’s bandage was all of the sudden soaked in blood. Who would’ve thought they’d run out of bandages only a day after leaving the town? They definitely underestimated the danger they were actually in. So while Wooyoung had taken care of San’s arm that afternoon, Yunho and Jongho had set themselves the task of figuring out how to hoist the sails of illusion. They had climbed up the rigging and spent several minutes on the mast untying the knots that held the sails in place and once they finally managed to open the knot the ship’s beautiful white sails unfolded. Only later did they realize that hoisting the sails had been of no use for them at all. The weather had been completely calm all day. No wind, not even a breeze would get caught in the sails, so they got the sails in again. Looking straight ahead, Hongjoong sighed deeply. Letting go of the steering wheel for just a short moment, he raised his arms up high and stretched himself, when suddenly heard the door to the captains cabin opening with a squeaking sound. Confused, he furrowed his eyebrows and leaned forward, to see who was coming out. When he saw the person with the deep black hair and slightly outgrown undercut, he knew immediately who it was and a smile grew on his face.

“You should be sleeping, Hwa.” Hongjoong said, drawing the attention of the boy on deck. Seonghwa turned around to him and shook his head.

“I slept enough.” He answered and climbed up the stairs to the upper deck to join Hongjoong at the steering wheel.