Work Text:
It was a Saturday, a sunny day, perfect for sailing. The boy set off in the afternoon with his little motor boat ready, he would fish a little and then come back, he didn't plan to go very far and the waves weren't too big, it was perfect.
He said goodbye to his father with a brief 'see ya' and a wave of his hand as he took the boat out to the open sea, but not far from the shore.
He spent the rest of the afternoon fishing and returning the fish, he decided to relax a little, confident that he had the anchor set, he lay back looking up at the slightly overcast sky and slowly closed his eyes to the sound of the water moving in the background, and before he knew it he had fallen asleep.
He quickly woke up when he felt a sudden movement, he had not realised that it had started to drizzle and that the waves were no longer slight movements, now they were bigger and more violent, desperate he grabbed the engine lever and started to pull it to start the engine, it took him a while but he managed to start it, He quickly sailed a little to get back to the coast as fast as possible, but a tug stopped his thoughts, the boat was not moving, he tried a little more but something was jamming it, it took him a while to understand that he had completely forgotten to take out the anchor.
He could not think more because a big wave fell on him turning the boat, which did not resist much breaking in two, Jeongin rose to the surface to feel drowned but a strong wave sank him again, he tried with all his strength to climb and breathe but the waves did not allow it, he tried with all his strength but he was tired of fighting against the tide, his last thought, before falling into unconsciousness, was if his family will be okay, and he let himself be guided by the violent waves.
He woke up to a loud slap on his cheek, heard some laughter in the background and slowly opened his eyes, seeing himself surrounded by men full of filth, he got up somewhat exalted feeling a strong headache, he stepped back somewhat scared of the men in front of him, their looks did not give them confidence.
“Careful boy, you don't want to go back in the water so soon, the waves might catch you again.” Jeongin looked back noticing that he was very much on the edge of a moving boat and a couple of metres away were some wild waves, he moved away from there a bit scared, he heard a slight laugh from the men in front of him.
“Please don't make fun of the boy, you don't want to scare him away,” a man in a typical pirate cap from the 17th centuries spoke. “How are you feeling, young man? That storm sure swallowed you up.” He gave him a smile that appeared to be friendly, but Jeongin felt that he should not trust him, any of the men in front of him.
“Where am I?” He ignored his question which seemed to upset the man.
“On my boat boy, welcome to the ark of hope.”
“How far are we from Málaga?” I notice how the man in the hat's gaze darkens.
“We are a few weeks away.” He smiled mischievously when he saw Jeongin's surprised face.
“How is it possible that we are so far away?”
“It happens when there are storms, when you try to flee and the strong tide, you end up further away than expected.” The young man was a bit shocked, he was so far away from home, he had no way of telling his family that he was still alive. “Officer Minho!” A young black-haired man of no more than thirty appeared at his side, “give new clothes to the boy from Murcia and you know what to do with the rest.”
“Aye aye, Captain.” The man in the hat, the captain, left and the rest of the men dispersed and the officer indicated for him to follow him and he started to walk but stopped when he noticed that he was not being followed, “follow me Scallywag, I have no time for nonsense.”
Jeongin followed him with some mistrust, he didn't want to do it, but his tone of voice clearly said he didn't want to argue and he fell for it and followed him to some cabins below deck, took a pair of clothes and threw them in his face.
“Put those on quickly.” He didn't take the counter since his clothes were wet and he didn't want to catch a cold being so far from home and with these people he didn't trust. The officer turned away, the young man guessed so as not to make him uncomfortable.
“In approximately how long will it take us to get back to Murcia?” The officer turned around with a smirk, watching the boy adjust his long-sleeved shirt, which was too big for him.
“We're not going back.”
“What do you mean, we're not?” he asked, a little upset.
“We have no reason to go back, so we'll move on.”
“Maybe you don't, but I do, my family is still waiting for me!”
“Well, forget about them because from now on you'll be one of us,” Jeongin was alert, they had him on that boat against his will and with no way out. “Be good and don't complicate things for me.”
“I can't! I have to go back, my family…” He couldn't go on because the officer had grabbed him by the collar of his old shirt and slammed him against one of the cabin walls.
“Didn't you hear me? Forget about them, if you want your stay here to be peaceful, do as I tell you or you'll get it bad,” he let him go and went to the door, “I want you on deck, if you're not here in five minutes, well, you've been warned…” he went out leaving him alone.
‘Now what will I do? I can't get off this ship and if I don't do as I'm told something serious could happen to me, I'll have to wait until we get to some port to escape and go home, but how long will that take?’ The young man hurried up towards the deck, not wishing to know what would happen if he did not go.
“I see you've made up your mind.” The Officer gave him a pleased smile.
Officer Minho taught him about the rules of the ship, he told him that he should not go near the ends of the ship, since the tide was being very violent, and clearly he didn't want to die yet, he told him about the rules of piracy, he remembered that once in his life he had read about them, they were strange, One of them said that women and children could not enter, neither could they gamble inside the ship, one would think that being pirates they would, the officer told him that he should memorise them because at some point, as if it were a surprise exam, he would be asked about them and if he didn't know them by heart he would have to clean the whole deck alone.
Jeongin still didn't trust anyone in there, not only because they had him against his will, but something didn't fit, when he passed by somewhere there was always some pirate watching, he supposed they didn't trust him either, although Minho didn't stay away from him for long, he was in his charge, he had to watch out that he didn't do something stupid.
Even though Jeongin wanted to punch that officer sometimes, because he was a complete idiot and insensitive, every time he wanted to talk about going home to his family, he would tell him to shut up and make him mop the deck. He didn't know how long it had been since the storm caught him and he ended up there. He reckoned it had been a couple of weeks, but he wasn't sure.
There were things that didn't fit very well in that place, when he was alone he sometimes heard voices calling him, but when he turned around there was no one in sight, and he couldn't make out whose voice it was, plus no one there called him by name, this intensified when he went to sleep, though he didn't do it much since he didn't trust the men on that ship, the voices became louder and clearer, sometimes it was a woman, sometimes it was a man, but he didn't know who they belonged to, sometimes he saw shadows, people he thought he saw but they weren't there, maybe he was going crazy, or maybe he had a blood clot in his head that even though it had been weeks he was still in pain.
It was also strange that the boat was so calm, it seemed as if the boat was moving forward but not lurching because of the strong waves, that despite it being a sunny day, although it wasn't always, the waters were so violent.
“Scallywag!” Jeongin turned his head towards the man trying not to roll his eyes, he didn't want to continue with those strange fencing lessons, he always ended up sore, he threw a sword at him, which he caught somewhat clumsily. “You should be more confident with the sword, don't be afraid of it.”
“Considering that you threw it at me, and I was able to stick it in, I'm clearly going to be afraid of it.”
“If you don't let your reflexes work, you could get hurt, we've talked about that.”
“Why should I learn fencing?”
“It keeps you busy,” he said simply.
“From what?”
He ignored his question and then the sword fight began with a lunge, a fight that didn't end until late at night, they didn't stop even when Jeongin fell, they always started again.
They went on like that for weeks, Jeongin could not see any island, he could only see an infinite sea, it didn't look good to him, given that they were taking a long time to reach some port, as if they were wandering around aimlessly, he felt disoriented, he wanted to leave, he wanted to stop pretending that he didn't mind being there, he wanted to go back to his family, he thought about them but that only made him more disoriented, he tried to think about his mother, but he couldn't remember what she looked like, not even her name, He tried to remember his father but he found himself in the same situation, his head hurt a lot just thinking about them, little by little he had forgotten them and he had not realised until now, he tried with his brother and friends but the result was the same, he remembered little things with them but he did not remember their faces or their names, he only knew that they were my family, but how much time must pass to not even remember that, the headache was killing him, everything was spinning, everything became dark, he could no longer see anything and slowly he fell unconscious.
_______________
Slowly he began to regain consciousness, he listened to the muffled sounds of the violent waves that never calmed, he opened his eyes slowly, they burned horribly, the thought of his surroundings made his head throb. He felt a slight pressure on his shoulder and focused on his surroundings somewhat alertly, Minho was staring at his side with his foot pressed against his shoulder, there were several pirates around him watching him in the terrifying way that made him so uncomfortable.
“What little stamina you have, kid, it was only a few weeks without food and you've already passed out, though in my opinion you held out longer than we thought you would.”
The young man was surprised, he had not realised that he had not been eating, at no time had he felt the need to do so, he felt somewhat disoriented, he did not remember what he was doing before he fainted, he supposed that he was training his swordsmanship and his blood pressure dropped, He hadn't seen the sun much in that place, there was always a foggy and violent storm, but from time to time, the sky cleared, although sometimes it seemed strange to him that it didn't rain so much, it was just a few drops, but what made it violent was the thunder and the waves that never calmed down.
“How long was I unconscious?”
“Not long, just a few minutes.”
The boy ran his hand over his head, which hurt like hell, he couldn't believe it had only been a few minutes, he knew he had been fine a while ago, but now he felt as if the boat had run over him like six times in a row, he really should eat something and rest a bit.
“I guess I'll get something to eat, do I have any chores to do?”
“Just eat and rest,” he smiled at him in a calm way, but to the boy it seemed a bit scary, whenever he saw someone on that ship smile no matter how kind the smile was, it always seemed scary, maybe it was the fact that some of them had missing teeth or rotten teeth, but Officer Minho's teeth were perfectly white, something that since he arrived to be part of the crew seemed unusual, but now he didn't remember why his perfect teeth seemed strange to him.
He retreated to the kitchen to get some bread or whatever there was, he took a piece of bread and ate it feeling strange as he didn't taste it as he remembered it, maybe it was old or it was a different type of bread, he didn't feel it's touch either.
The young man felt dizzy again, the headache became stronger, he walked towards the dormitories where his cot was, staggering and holding himself up against the wooden wall, everything was spinning, he reached the dormitories and threw himself on his bed, and let them fall back into the darkness, hearing that beeping sound again.
He heard a female voice telling him to wake up, begging him to wake up, but slowly the voice started to get deeper, he opened his eyes and saw Officer Minho looking at him.
“Finally you wake up Kid, how are you feeling?” He examined his eyes with a small torch.
“Officer Minho?” He asked, disoriented.
“Officer?” He looked at him quizzically, a little worried, putting the small torch in the pocket of his white coat. “I'm Doctor Lee, do you remember me, Jeongin?”