Somewhere Between the Sea and the Sky.

Episode 3: Chapter 9.

“I said I’m sorry. I’m sorry I left you behind.”

“... Huh—?”

Yunho’s eyes were wide open, but he couldn’t think about anything to say next. So they were having the conversation, finally, hm? Seeing the soldier was speechless, Mingi ended up sitting in front of him, legs crossed. None of them said anything for a couple of seconds, well aware of how draining the conversation would be. They… weren’t ready, but maybe they would never be.

“I’m sorry.” Mingi said once more, his voice almost a whisper.

“You did what you had to do.” Then Yunho smiled, a soft but sad smile. “Even if it meant doing it without me.”

“I came back for you—”

“I know.”

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“What am I supposed to do now?!”

He shouted, the tall and imponent young man had no doubts on his mind. It wasn’t easy to make Mingi angry, but he sure was furious at the moment.

“Just— Forget it like nothing ever happened?!”

“You’ll just get yourself killed!”

The other one didn’t scream less than his partner, Yunho’s gestures were exaggerated and clearly nervous.

“Is it really more important than your life?!”

“It is my life!” He closed his eyes for a moment, frowning as he took a deep breath that failed to calm him down. “It was supposed to be our life. Together.”

“This is not about us, Mingi.” He got closer to the brunet, stopping right before touching him in case he didn’t want him to. “We will figure it out. We can start again, whatever it takes. But you can’t just—”

“So, it’s over.” Mingi laughed. “I just— I’ll let them destroy everything. Our ship, our dream, our life.”

It wasn’t supposed to be like that, they were supposed to chase their freedom. Yunho knew well how Mingi felt, everything they worked on was about to be destroyed because someone told the White Army about it. Two poor boys who wanted to become pirates, what a foolish goal. It took them years and everything they had, every little resource they could gather, but no one cared about their effort. They only cared about the word “pirates”.

“It’s not over, just… delayed.”

“I don’t want to delay my freedom. I don’t wanna keep hiding in this hell of an island like— some kind of coward.”

“Now is not the time to be brave.”

And after that, he gave Mingi a little kiss to try and calm him down.

“I love you, and I want you to stay alive.”

And he meant it, of course he meant it.

It was because he meant it that, when he woke up alone the next morning, Yunho didn’t doubt a single second to go after him, to try to save his life. He ran with every inch of energy in his body, he ran to their hiding spot, he ran to be by his side, but he didn’t make it in time.

Their ship was sailing, and Yunho couldn’t exchange more than a heartbroken look with Mingi before he was too far from him, before the army arrived to arrest them.

No.

To arrest him.

Just him.

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