Young and Wild || seongjoong || ATEEZ

Chapter Eleven : Worth Fighting For

Chapter warnings: mentions of human experimentation (VERY minor and vague) and slight violence

"Three years, completely gone. No memories, no recollection- nothing."

The voice in the room was quiet but it still bounced off the walls like booming thunder.

"Are we sure it's three years? He's forgotten everything? How can this be?"

The tension and stress in the room were palatable, no soul was left at ease. With each word that was spoken, it only got worse as the men who were crammed into the room seemed to be unable to accept what had happened and how their future would change because of it.

It was a topic that had been talked about for the few days that they had somehow, a miracle really, found a port before everyone had fallen dead to the floor. It was all a blur, Seonghwa was fairly sure he wasn't even conscious for most of it, not that he wanted to be awake for it anyways. What happened that night on the beach line of the island that singlehandedly managed to break his entire heart within mere seconds was something he couldn't get out of his head.

"I've spent the past three days with him trying to figure out the extent of the damage. If ye were in my shoes ye'd know just how hard it is to talk to the captain right now- he's changed. He's fallen back to how he used to be before any of this ever happened."

That was Yeosang. The darkness in his voice spoke of how exhausted the blonde pirate was. The sheer amount of darkness under his eyes also spoke of how stressed the younger pirate was. He was a splitting image of every single man in the room, each member of the main pirate crew looked about as lost and confused- perhaps downright angry at times- as they tried to come to accept what had really happened.

They were not doing very well.

The blonde pirate and the first mate had been the only ones to keep it together, all the others had seemed to spiral into a state of insanity all unique to themselves that night on the beach when it became apparent that their captain could not remember anything. But as soon as they had found land that did not wish their demise, the first mate spun out of control and lost his mind. The anger that overtook him was like no other, Seonghwa hadn't seen anything like it.

"I know damn well how hard it is to talk to him!"

That was the first mate, his voice sparking a bit of fear to burn deep in Seonghwa's stomach.

His eyes refocused on the lamp that had been burning for hours in the corner of the room. Its light was too bright, it burned Seonghwa's eyes to the point where he struggled to look at it. The room was too small, certainly not meant to hold seven grown men, and most definitely not meant to house the amount of tension that had been generated over the few hours that they had been talking about the issue at hand.

"I need answers, and I need them now!" The first mate bellowed, his eyes burning red as he slammed his bruised fist down onto the small wooden table that Yeosang was leaning against. The blonde pirate didn't flinch at all, not even concerned that the first mate's careless actions had nearly caused his fist to come in contact with his thigh.

The first mate was steaming- had been for days- the veins in his neck bulged and his temper grew short. He was not the man that Seonghwa knew and had come to grow rather fond of. He was unsettled, almost seemingly completely lost without his captain's guidance. Yunho was completely beside himself, so angry and lost that Seonghwa could physically feel the power of their crew crumbling quickly.