pirate king (pirate!au) ➵ ateez ✔️

father

Yeosang stumbles.

No, he doesn't trip over his own feet, nor does he fall over something on the deck. His knees simply buckle under the weight of his father's words, as if they've lost all ability to keep him upright, and he actually stumbles, nearly falling to the deck before Wooyoung catches him by the arm and hauls him upright, concern written all over his face.

"What?"

Hongjoong whirls on Kang Yongsun, eyes going dark. "You have exactly five seconds to get off my ship before I open fire on the lot of you scum."

Something sharp, painful tugs at your chest, and you tug on your captain's sleeve lightly, his intensity burns. "Captain... you swore not to..."

He bites back a hiss, eyes still never leaving Captain Kang's face, true to his reputation as an exceptional commander he does not seem to be fazed the slightest by your captain's threat. Instead, he doesn't even look at him, eyes fixed only on his son.

"But..." Yeosang stutters, face as white as a paper sheet and mouth working soundlessly as he searches him mind for words. "But... But didn't Mother run away from home after giving birth to me? Didn't she-"

"We told you that... but at that time... the family believed that you were the one who caused your mother's death... after all, she died giving birth to you, and that birthmark under your eye..." Kang Yongsun pauses, voice turning grim. "Well, people believe that birthmarks are signs that you've been marked by Fate... that you're a curse to the family you're born to."

Yeosang swallows, fingers tentatively reaching up to touch the dark blemish resting on his cheekbone. His whole life, he's known what his birthmark means, knows that he should be grateful that he's even alive when some other members of the aristocratic class would rather kill the child at birth rather than have the public finding out about them having a cursed, blemished child...

"I loved your mother..." Kang Yongsun says softly and Yeosang is broken out of his reverie as he stares at his father, not once in his life has he seen his father so openly and emotionally vulnerable. "I loved her more than anything else in the world, Yeosang. Her health was always bad since the two of us were young, but I insisted on marrying her... and after we got married, she insisted on having a child even though the physicians told her not to..."

Something cracks in Yeosang's chest. His father, the love was genuine, the love for his mother so real he can feel it himself. For the woman that has never been present his entire life, for the woman who gave birth to him, for the woman who he's never met.

"Father..." Yeosang begins to say but Commander Kang puts up a hand, some sort of sad smile twitching on his lips. "I will not lie, I believed that you were the reason I lost her. The second you were born, I never even got to hold you in my arms, instead I was holding my wife and your mother as I watched the life leave her eyes... and she asked me, 'Is the baby alright?' with her last breath... and I hated you for that, Yeosang."

"That wasn't even his fault-" Wooyoung pipes up angrily, stepping forward but you catch his arm and drag him back much to his protest, your eyes are still fixed on the Commander, the pain of his loss shining so strongly in his gaze that it takes your breath away. "Let him finish." You murmur softly, and while Wooyoung sighs unwillingly he eventually falls silent, still staring at Kang Yongsun with every malicious intent he can muster.

Yeosang, on the other hand, doesn't move an inch, eyes swimming with indescribable emotion - painful, guilty, lost - because what is he supposed to be feeling? His whole life, he's known that his father hated him, and while he might have never thought much about the reason why, he's always assumed that it had been his father's responsibility; that he had simply seen something in Yeosang he didn't like. But to find out that he was the one who had been chasing after his father's back when the entire time, his very birth had been what drove a wedge between them in the first place.