pirate king (pirate!au) ➵ ateez ✔️

betrayal

"Eleuthera?" Your captain repeats, as he sits down at his desk. You need to get to this island and figure out who this man is, the one with the answer to your missing memories. You nod frantically, clutching the book to your chest.

"Yes, captain."

Hongjoong stills in reorganizing the papers on his desk and gives you a side glare, as if waiting for you to notice something. You frown, a little confused by what he wants from you, but then you see Yeosang mouthing a word over his shoulder.

"Hongjoong!"

Yes, of course that's the name of your captain. What your captain wants is what you don't understand.

"What?"

Captain groans and puts his head in his hands. "Call me Hongjoong." He sounds almost whiny, like a child not getting his way, and you stare at your captain a little incredulously. Seriously, why is this the most important thing on his mind now?

"Captain gets whiny after he drinks." Yeosang supplies helpfully from behind his captain's back. You make a small noise of understanding.

"Yes, captain." The words slip out of your mouth by force of habit and you immediately clap a hand over your mouth, a sheepish smile on your face. Your captain knocks his head against the desk in exasperation and a groan escapes his mouth as you and Yeosang exchange looks.

"Ugh." Hongjoong reaches for a map at his side, opening it. You sidle up to his side as he searches the map for Eleuthera, Yeosang joining you in looking for the location.

"Why do you suddenly need to go to Eleuthera, though?" The navigator asks you curiously as your captain flips the map around. "Captain, it's near the Bahamas Islands."

"Thanks." Hongjoong replies as he leans over the map, squinting to read the tiny handwritten scrawls on the yellowed vellum. "Chin Hae, why do you want to go to Eleuthera?"

You pause for a moment and the two men turn to look at you, waiting for an answer. Thinking about it now, you realise how strange it is to say that the reason you want them to travel all the way to a foreign island is all on a whim that you hope to find the man who had given you this necklace, a person you who may not even have your memories.

All based on the words written on the back of this book, which had been given to you by a shopkeeper out of nowhere.

What if it's mere coincidence that the same words inscribed on your necklace are written on the book as well?

You bite your bottom lip, chewing nervously as you try to make up your mind.

What if you just end up burdening your crew for nothing?

Then you remember what Hongjoong had told Seonghwa, back that time when he had locked himself in the ship galley.

"I want you to tell me all your problems, burden me with everything, share life with me and the crew. We're a family."

The last time you had kept secrets from the rest of the crew, massive disasters had happened one after the other and you are not excited to repeat the experience all over again. So you clench your fist and look your captain in the eye.

I'm going to be honest this time.

"Remember that time I was healing Yeosang and fell unconscious for a week?" You say and the two flinch back as if you've struck them in the face with a whip. Okay, maybe it was a bad idea to start with something so depressing. "I had a... dream... of sorts... I mean, it didn't feel like a dream, more like an old memory, but-"

"You don't need to explain things, just tell us, we'll listen." Hongjoong cuts you off and you realise that you're rambling. You shut your mouth, thinking about how to phrase it a little more eloquently. "So, I had a dream about meeting a man with really, really green eyes on a beach. And he told me that he would be with me every step of the way and touched my necklace. I don't know how, but he somehow carved the words into the metal with his thumb."