Water Heart | P.Sh

| 2.3 |

"Lin... Lin..." I whispered, slightly shaking the hammock said girl was sleeping in.

The sun had risen about an hour ago and there was already a lot of commotion up on deck. It was incredible how neither Lin nor Sunoo had woken up by all the sounds.

"What is it?" Lin murmured and lifter her hands up to her face, "is Sunoo up yet?"

"No, but we're gonna convince him it's alright you're on this ship as well," I muttered and she frowned when her hands lifted from her face once again, "come on."

"Where are we going?" she whispered as I tugged on her hand for her to get out of the hammock.

"You can't wear that on a ship," I remarked with a small smile and she only hummed before nodding and following along.

Once in a while Lin would stumble in her tired daze. Mindlessly following after me through hallways down towards the dress room. I had grabbed an oil lamp from the small depot and was able to light our way down to the dress room. It was exactly how I recalled it. An incredibly dark room which even the oil lamp couldn't light up. The dark chest as big and messy as it was last time.

"Let's see," I murmured and set the oil lamp down on the floor beside me and opened the heavy lid, which made a loud creak.

"What is this?" Lin questioned quietly behind me. Making the entire ship sound painfully silent. Even the waves splashing against the ship outside was completely muted.

"It's the dress room. Where we get dressed and find all our chemises, skirts... and in case of an attack pants and scarves to make us look like regular swabbies," I excused and she hummed quietly.

"And how often are attacks?"

"I've only ever experienced one... so I don't know... if state ships attack us we just have to act like hostages, no need to change," I waved it off and finally dug out two (barely) white chemises and a dark red, more bordeaux, skirt, "how do you feel about red?"

"Sunoo says it suits me," she remarked and I nodded quietly and extended the skirt towards her.

"I'll help you in a moment," I excused and managed to find my green skirt.

Once I closed the lid of the chest it dawned upon me. I hadn't seen the shadow of blue in that chest. That could pretty much only mean one thing... whenever Jiyeon was arrested she had been wearing the blue skirt.

"Alright... let's get you dressed," I sighed and started by unbuttoning the top of my own dress - which I was already wearing, "just watch whatever I am doing. The skirt is the tricky part, so I'll wait for you to change to that."

As I got out of my dress and changed into one of the chemises I had found, so did Lin - with hesitance. After I finally had gotten int my chemise and buttoned it up properly I grabbed the green skirt and stepped into it, patiently waiting for Lin to catch up.

She had just gotten into her chemise and let it fall down past her hips, almost halfway down her thighs. When she stood there in just the chemise, she looked way too fragile to be as stubborn as she usually was. Her awkward stance and slow movements seemed to be a stark contrast. Even the way she grabbed the red skirt seemed wrong.

"Alright, step into it," I urged and she did so, "now... the top is split into two... the front and the back. Each piece has two strings you have to tie around your waist," I explained and started with the back piece, tying it in front of my belly button. Pulling the front piece up and tying it behind my back.

I didn't watch as Lin tied up her skirt, instead I had realized that we were in lack of belts. I had quietly turned back to the chest to find the belts at the very bottom of it. What a pain it was to dig through the chest, but I finally managed to pull two belts up. My own thick belt was still in the chest along with a thinner belt - which on the other hand had quite a thick buckle to close it.

I quickly laced up my own belt as I had been used to before wandering over and checking if Lin's skirt was properly tied around her waist.

"I don't get how this will convince Sunoo," Lin commented and I snickered in amusement.

"Red suits you," I excused and she hummed quietly, "let's just do some things before he wakes up... I could imagine we need to get the rigging sorted... breakfast first of course. But we might as well make ourselves useful, don't you think?"

"Well... yeah..." she murmured as I wrapped the belt around her waist. On top of the place where her chemise was tucked into her skirt.

I quietly adjusted the belt and buckled it close and secure. Just like my belt it had a few smaller pockets and such attached to it.

"What are all these for?" she questioned in confusion and grabbed a neatly embroidered pouch.

"I could imagine the pouch there is for a pocket," I chuckled and she glanced up at me, "you have a sheath for a dagger as well and this..." I frowned and grabbed onto a funny loop on her belt, "hm... I suppose this is to help to you up with rigging."

"Why would I need a sheath for a dagger?" she questioned hesitantly.

"Not necessarily for self defense," I assured her, "they use daggers for every day life as well. Just wait and see. Now let's get up on deck."

I sent Lin a smug smile, which she eventually returned, before we began walking back through the snug hallways on the boat. Finally we were walking through the sleeping chamber and ended up on deck - the sun already hanging quite high on the sky.