Archive of Our Own

It was a fine day out in the sea for fishing. The water was clear and calm, the sun was shining warmly, not too bright to be a hindrance, not too dim to make the way unclear. The day was so nice, in fact, that Yoo Joonghyuk was almost relaxed, lounging by the rails of his ship, breathing in the salt soaked air. 

“Looking good Master!” Lee Jihye called from where she was mopping up fish guts from Kim Namwoon's latest experiment. “It’s a nice day, right?”

Yoo Joonghyuk sighed. 

“Right,” Lee Jihye said. “I’ll get back to working then.”

It was a good day. A great day even. But there was always a catch with good things: they never lasted.

Yoo Joonghyuk knew this. He knew this, but even then, when he turned back to the sea, he wasn’t prepared for the ship sailing into sight. In an instant, his stomach plummeted along with his mood. He sprang up, grip knuckle-white on the railing.

The Salvation was a towering ramshackle ship, one that Yoo Joonghyuk prayed for the downfall of everyday. It was the absolute bane of his existence. He hated it almost as much as he hated its captain, Kim Dokja.

“All hands on deck,” he bellowed, eyes never leaving The Salvation , “follow that ship.”

Chaos ensued. His crew started scurrying to their positions like ants, finally doing something right. It was times like this that Yoo Joonghyuk was almost proud of his people. 

That is until Kim Namwoon, that rat, actually looked out closer to the ship with his crusty monocular. 

“It’s The Salvation ,” he cried out, like a moron that didn’t know what was good for him. “It’s just The Salvation. ”

Several groans echoed on board. Some people sighed, dropping their tools in favor of slinking to the floor. In an instant, Yoo Joonghyuk had his hands around Kim Namwoon’s neck. 

“What did you say,” he said, voice low. Kim Namwoon blubbered, face turning red. His monocular fell to the floor with a dull thunk. Yoo Joonghyuk squeezed a little tighter. “Just The Salvation?”

“Master stop!” Lee Jihye scrambled to pry his hands off. “You’re choking him.”

Yoo Joonghyuk lets his hands drop to his sides. Kim Namwoon gasped, holding onto his throat. Lee Jihye patted his shoulder.

Yoo Joonghyuk inhaled deeply. And exhaled. “Please. Just follow that ship.” He knelt down, picking up the monoculars and handed it back to Kim Namwoon. It was as close to an apology as he could give at the moment. He hoped he understood that.

The rest of his crew quieted down after that. Lee Hyunsung, his right hand, steered the ship, speeding them towards where The Salvation was floating. There was just enough breeze for them to pick up the pace.

From the quickly shortening distance, Yoo Joonghyuk could make out a familiar bastard grinning down at him from The Salvation’s bow. He scowled, hands tightening again on his ship’s salt-slick railing.

“Kim Dokja,” Yoo Joonghyuk spat.

There was no conceivable way that bastard had heard him over the waves, but his smile widened anyway. He leaned forward. His ship was still yards and yards away, but Yoo Joonghyuk stiffened with anticipation. Was this it? Of all his years aching for revenge, is this where it ended?

Kim Dokja blew him a kiss. 

Yoo Joonghyuk saw red.

Just as he was about to yell at Lee Jihye to—well, it wasn’t like she could make the wind blow faster but—do something, Kim Dokja winked down at him, and then The Salvation sped up and sailed away. For some reason that damned boat always got the better of them. Yoo Joonghyuk should really invest in an engine for his ship.

“—Master,” Lee Jihye said, a hand tugging at his sleeves. 

Yoo Joonghyuk sighed and tore his eyes away from the rapidly retreating ship in the horizon. “What.”

“Why do you… hate them so much?”

He turned to face her. Lee Jihye flinched. “It’s just,” she continued, eyes drifting over to the horizon, “they’re not bad people, you know? We’ve traded with them tons of times and Hyunsung’s even dating one of them—”

“He’s what.”

“Oh, um, forget about that.”

“The people on that ship…” Yoo Joonghyuk started, eyes glazing over with the thought of long lost painful memories. “They wronged me very badly. I understand they’re not all the same. It’s been years. But.”

Lee Jihye nodded, uncharacteristically solemn. “I understand, master. I’ll tell Kim Namwoon to shut up.”

Yoo Joonghyuk nodded. “Get ready for docking too.” It’d been a while since their last stop, and it was evident in the dwindling supplies, the antsy crew, and the meals that kept tasting blander and blander than the previous. Not even Yoo Joonghyuk himself could whip up something that wasn’t better than just ‘edible’ with the stuff in their pantry. But, besides those obvious benefits, there was another reason Yoo Joonghyuk was looking forward to this particular stop.

It’d been years since his last breakthrough to finding the culprits of his parents’ death, the most recent being finding The Salvation , and Kim Dokja’s smug uncomfortably familiar face. He knew—of course he knew—that his crew was right, that most of the people on board The Salvation weren’t the people he hated, but Kim Dokja. That slimy bastard Kim Dokja. 

Yoo Joonghyuk resisted the urge to ball his hands into fists like an overly emotional teenager throwing a tantrum.

He knew he had something to do with it. But he just couldn’t find the evidence to prove it, not yet. 

Still, as the ship finally made it to the docks of the port city, Yoo Joonghyuk could feel a little lighter, a little more relieved. He loved life at sea, it was more his home than any land could be, but he couldn’t deny that there was a comfort to the solidity of soil under his feet, and the steadiness of the buildings that arched above them. 

He waited till the rest of his crew figured out their duties, some staying behind to guard the ship, the rest off to get supplies and enjoy a little break, before starting off himself. The path he took was one less traveled, involving a lot of long thin alleyways and rickety bridges over shallow canals of sewer water. Yoo Joonghyuk wrinkled his nose at the smell and sped up. 

When he finally reached his destination—an old, nondescript building that seemed to be standing on its last legs—he was almost ready to turn tail and leave. The traveling was unpleasant enough, but what lay ahead… what he was about to find out. Was he really ready?

The door opened with a twinkling chime of a bell. The inside of the room was dimly lit by a bulb swinging overhead without the push of any breeze, the sunlight snuffed by heavy curtains cloaking the nearby windows. The walls were crowded with towering shelves crammed full with jars and trinkets, what little floor space there was was taken over by a large table overladen with thick, dusty tomes. Yoo Joonghyuk felt a little like he was being suffocated, drowning even, with the enclosed walls and the damp warmth that made the air sit heavy in his lungs. 

“Who’s that?” someone yelled, across the room and muffled by the thick curtain cordoning off the back end. 

Yoo Joonghyuk didn’t answer, trailing a finger through the thick dust on the table and wrinkling his nose in disgust.

Han Sooyoung burst through the curtain in a flurry of dust and sparks. “Oh. It’s you.”

“You have something of mine,” Yoo Joonghyuk said, wiping his dirty hands on his trousers with the silent thought of washing them later.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s in the back, I’ll go get it,” she said, disappearing back behind the curtain. “You get my money ready.”

Yoo Joonghyuk took out the heavy sack of coins that he’d been saving for this stop for the past couple months, and waited sullenly. He’d reached out to the witch Han Sooyoung when he’d heard whispers of her power and her connections to the magic black market. So far, she’d proven her capabilities adequately enough, though she was quite stingy and greedy for coin. And very annoying to talk to. 

Han Sooyoung came back with a cloth bound object, small enough to fit comfortably in the palm of her hand but apparently heavy enough for her to need both arms to carry it. “Here you go old man. Money first.” She gestured to a rare empty spot on the table. 

Yoo Joonghyuk rolled his eyes but complied. 

She grinned. “One orb of your deepest desire coming right up.” She took the sack of coins and weighted it appreciatively in one hand, before letting the orb take its place. “Pleasure doing business with you.”

This was it. He’d spent years, decades , combing through archives, following up on leads from friends of friends and enemies of enemies. The paper trail the original crew from The Salvation gave only the barest amount of information to find the ship, and nothing else. He still had no idea of the motive, no idea who ordered the raid that ended his parents’ lives, no idea who dealt the killing blow. Kim Dokja was a piece to the puzzle, yes, but a small one in the grand scheme of things. Yoo Joonghyuk had done all he could with what he had, all he could do now was turn to the unknown and use the help of magic. 

The orb of deep desire was actually a pearl, one of only a dozen present in the dry world, harvested from the deep treacherous waters near the Chasm that split their ocean in half. It was too risky to harvest himself, rare enough for the price to be quite hefty even in terms of the black market, and, of course, quite illegal to own, since its scarcity and power meant that it was one of the many artifacts decreed by the royals too dangerous to let any of non-noble blood own. 

But that wasn’t important to Yoo Joonghyuk. What was important is what the orb could show him. The only thing his heart desired was to know what happened that wretched night, to find out who he needed to make pay for the blood spilt. 

The moment his fingers brushed the cloth covering the orb, however, a wave of uncomfortable warmth overtook him, washing away his anger and leaving sickness in its wake. Black scotomas ate away at his vision, and his stomach roiled like the contents of a ship on a stormy night. Han Sooyoung’s face melted into the wood of the shelves, the brown cover of the tomes liquified and swirled, the colors oil slick and pulsing. Yoo Joonghyuk doubled over with pain and nausea.

“What…” he gasped out. “What did you do to me?” He scrambled for the dagger in his boot and attempted to raise it threateningly.

“Put that thing away before you skewer yourself,” Han Sooyoung said, batting away the dagger like it was a mere fly buzzing about. It tumbled out of Yoo Joonghyuk’s hands to the floor with a loud clatter that ringed through his head. “Hmm. I didn’t know you were that weak.”

“Ex…excuse me?” Yoo Joonghyuk spat out with as much vitriol his addled state could muster.

Han Sooyoung ran her hands over the cloth covered orb, closing her eyes and frowning in concentration. “There seems to be a very, very, weak curse placed over this. I suppose it was an oversight on my part not to check for anything, but I assumed you’d be stronger than this.” She sighed, giving him a long considering look before pulling out a long purple scarf from one of her pockets. “Here, if you show this to me next time, I can give you a 20% off on your next order.”

Yoo Joonghyuk was panting from pain and closed his eyes so that the overstimulating brightness of the world didn’t increase the steadily crescendoing pain that was pounding in his skull. Han Sooyoung rattled on, seemingly uncaring of his plight, until his knees buckled.

“Oh shit! You can’t die here, that’d be bad for business!”

He pressed his forehead against the floor, the coolness of it a balm that temporarily soothed his pain. This was so fucking embarassing. He was the captain of a pirate crew, a formidable and fearsome opponent on sea, and yet here he was. Reduced to shambles because of a mere curse that was so weak that Han Sooyoung couldn’t even notice it. Really, besides from his revenge plan and his crew, he didn’t have much else going for him. He didn’t even cook as much as he used to, and since his last breakthrough, he’d been bonding with his crew less and less. No wonder they all loved Kim Dokja so much and refused to take him seriously as an enemy. They probably thought of him as a better leader than Yoo Joonghyuk could be.

A cool hand lifted his head off of the floor and pressed against his forehead. From a bit far away, as if he was separated from the rest of the world with a film of murky water, he could make out Han Sooyoung’s angry mutterings. Slowly his mind started to clear. There was still a tsunami wreaking havoc in his stomach, still the world seemed too hazy to be normal before him, but his mind was blissfully free of pain. Yoo Joonghyuk immediately sat up, dagger back in his hand.

“What the fuck did you do to me, you witch?” he said, pointing the knife to her throat. 

Han Sooyoung rolled her eyes. “Is that how you thank me? I already told you it was a curse. I know better than to hex my customers, no matter how much you make me want to break that rule sometimes.”

“Who did it?”

“How would I know?” She leaned back, sitting cross legged on the floor. “You know everything you order from me goes through many, many channels. It could’ve picked it up from anywhere.”

Yoo Joonghyuk glared. 

Han Sooyoung put up her hands in defeat. “If I wanted to kill you, I would’ve just let you take yourself out on the floor. You’re welcome for that healing spell by the way. It was my bad  so I won’t charge you for it this time but if you make me cast it again, you’re paying extra.”

“Again?”

“Well, yeah,” Han Sooyoung said, rolling her eyes. “You didn’t think you’re cured, did you? All I did was alleviate some symptoms but you can’t get rid of a curse entirely without fulfilling its clauses. Come on, this is like basic beginner magic stuff, you cannot be this dumb.”

Yoo Joonghyuk scowled. “How do I get rid of it?”

“Now you’re getting it.” Han Sooyoung grinned. “Man, you’re gonna hate this though.”

“What.”

“I’ve never seen a curse with a fulfillment clause like this one before. To break it you have to…” She inhaled in a deep breath, letting the suspense build. Yoo Joonghyuk was not amused. “Kiss the person you hate the most!”
Yoo Joonghyuk’s knee-jerk reaction was to bring the knife back to Han Sooyoung’s throat. “You want me to kiss you?” If he was fuming before, he was a goddamned erupting volcano now. Was this her twisted idea of a joke? Was she a pervert as well as a swindling money hungry witch?

Han Sooyoung reeled back, disgust flashing on her face. “ Absolutely not! I’d rather you die. I’d rather chop my own foot off and use it in my next meal. I’d rather—”

“I got it,” Yoo Joonghyuk said, clipped.

“Good.” She stood up, dusting her hands. “Now get out of my shop. You’ve overstayed your welcome, and I have things to do. And you can take your package with you, it’s all clean now, you’re welcome.” Han Sooyoung strode back over to the back of the shop, then stopped just before disappearing behind the thick curtain. “And my advice? Find and make the hell out with whoever you hate before my spell wears off and your symptoms worsen. It would be bad for business if I lose another customer this month.”

The curtain closed behind her in a plume of dust. Yoo Joonghyuk coughed, eyes watering. He had to solve this before getting back to his ship. This was much too inconvenient. He slipped his dagger back in its sheath and hesitated before slipping the orb in his pocket as well. 

Yoo Joonghyuk took in eager gulps of fresh air the moment he stepped out of the shop, glad for the open world despite it being tinged with the oily stink of sewage and sweat and garbage. For the extortionate amount of money Han Sooyoung took for her services, it was a wonder why she still chose to have her shop in such a rancid place. Maybe business was worse than he thought.  

Unfortunately the brief second of peace didn’t last long. Yoo Joonghyuk was still feverishly warm, and, after a few drags of breath, the stench hanging in the air only served to further make his stomach roil. Yoo Joonghyuk gritted his teeth and pushed through. He had to find Kim Dokja. He had to—

Yoo Joonghyuk stumbled over a particularly large cobblestone that jutted out from the ground like a gravestone. He had no way to stop himself from falling, the speed at which he was walking had given him too much momentum to even attempt to right himself. He flung out a hand to brace himself, and preemptively scrunched up his face in anticipation of the pain and disgust he’d feel with his face smushed to the dirty, grimy ground. However, the fall never came.

Instead, warm hands came up to brace against his shoulders, and his face was buried, not in the hard unforgiving stone of the street, but in soft clothing warmed up by someone’s body heat.

What was more curious, however, was the fact that, for a moment, Yoo Joonghyuk felt… cured . It was more than just the lingering balm of Han Sooyoung’s spell; all of his symptoms—the fire in his belly and the storm that wreaked havoc on his insides, the weakness in his knees—were reduced until he could barely feel them at all. In fact, Yoo Joonghyuk felt better than he had in days , finally free of the tiredness that darkened his eyes since the days leading up to this visit to Han Sooyoung’s shop. What he was left with, instead, was sluggishness, the sort of grogginess that kept making his heavy eyelids fall shut like after waking up too early from an afternoon nap in the sun—not that he took many of those.

“Hey,” the person said. “Are you okay?”

Yoo Joongyuk could feel the vibrations of the person’s chest underneath his ears, could feel the warm breath they let out with their words brush against his forehead, and suddenly he became all too aware of what sort of situation he found himself in. He snapped out of the sleepiness he was lulled into by the sudden calm of his symptoms and the readily available presence of a comforting body, and immediately scrambled back a healthy distance away from the person. 

Immediately, like a wave crashing onto the shore, the sickness slammed into him, making his knees weaken. It was so much worse than before, the world spun around him, colors smearing thickly across his vision before being eaten up by the black that was creeping around his eyes. 

“Yoo Joonghyuk? What’s wrong with you?”

At the mention of his name, Yoo Joonghyuk looked up to see Kim Dokja. His vision narrowed to a point, all the darkness and dizziness shoved aside to let him see Kim Dokja in stark detail. It was the first time he’d seen him on land, the first time he’d had the chance to observe him up close without the miles of blue waves stretched out between them. 

Kim Dokja’s annoying ever-present smile was noticeably gone from his face. His hair wasn’t as tousled as it was when he was yelling at him at sea, but it was still thick and shiny and fell in messy locks over his forehead, clearly the product of an overgrown bowlcut. His starry eyes were searching Yoo Joonghyuk for something, scanning him head to toe, and then it hit him what expression he was making. It was a concern. For Yoo Joonghyuk. 

A surge of familiar rage swelled up in Yoo Joonghyuk. In one way or another, Kim Dokja always managed to be the cause of everything that was wrong in Yoo Joonghyuk’s life. He wasn’t just satisfied with taking away his parents, no, he had to keep bothering him too. He wasn’t satiated with the fact that he was already doing all he could to make Yoo Joonghyuk’s life hell, he just had to be the fulfillment clause to Yoo Joonghyuk’s stupid curse too.

Sure, maybe it was a little immature of Yoo Joonghyuk to put this curse on him, but Kim Dokja was beginning to become a recurring theme with all the worse things that happened in his life, and Yoo Joonghyuk was really getting tired of it. It was time to end it.

He crossed the distance between them in quick, sure strides, ignoring the way his breath came easier through his lungs the closer he came. Kim Dokja’s brow furrowed further. “Yoo Joonghyuk—” He cut off his name with his mouth, smashing their lips together in a way that was honestly quite painful and devoid of any of the romance such an act usually conveyed. Their teeth clacked together, and Kim Dokja let out a startled sound that disappeared into Yoo Joonghyuk’s mouth. Their roles were reversed, this time it was Kim Dokja that clung desperately to him to resist getting bowled over from the violence of Yoo Joonghyuk’s embrace. 

Yoo Joonghyuk pulled away, wiping at his face with his dusty sleeve. He felt much, much better; Han Sooyoung thankfully hadn’t seemed to be lying when she told him the cure to the curse. He wouldn’t have put it past her for this to all be some sort of scheme to get rid of Yoo Joonghyuk for good. Sure, it would’ve been counterproductive on Han Sooyoung’s part to get rid of a customer, but then again, there were many who’d pay handsomely, more than Yoo Joonghyuk could even imagine offering, to have him killed.

Kim Dokja was left speechless, mouth gaping open like a fish gasping for air on land. If it were any other occasion, Yoo Joonghyuk would’ve revelled in the knowledge that he’d been the one to finally shut him up, a feat that he was sure was no small accomplishment. However, as it was, he was still left feeling drained from the effects of the curse. It’d taken more out of him than he’d thought. Yoo Joonghyuk could feel himself start to sway on his feet.

“Wow,” Kim Dokja said, seeming to have finally gotten control of his bearings. “That was very forward of you.”

Yoo Joonghyuk’s vision was still blurry and black around the edges, no matter how hard he tried to blink them away. He could still hear Kim Dokja chattering on, but it felt like he was underwater and Kim Dokja was far, far away. 

“...should really take me out to dinner first, you know? Like it’s not like I mind that much but we should do this prop—hey, Yoo Joonghyuk? Are you alright? Yoo Joonghyuk! ” 

Yoo Joonghyuk closed his eyes in exhaustion, and the world faded away. 

~~~

Yoo Joonghyuk woke up with a head that felt like it was stuffed with concrete. He groaned, rubbing at his forehead, before slowly sitting up and registering where he was. It took a few moments, a few extra blinks, and then his hand flew to his dagger, and he was suddenly alert despite the pounding headache now throbbing his brain. Because Yoo Joonghyuk was not on his own ship. He wasn’t even lying on the cobblestoned pathway outside of Han Sooyoung’s shop either. No, he was in a bed tucked beside a large window, in a room that he’d never seen before but was sure, by the familiar bobbing under his feet, to be on a ship. 

The room was small and relatively bare, with only the bed and a desk that was overflowing with scrolls and bottles of ink. Warm paneled wood made up the walls, unadorned of decor, but clearly well maintained and polished. 

Yoo Joonghyuk turned back to the window, expecting the worst—for there to be nothing but water as far as the eye could see, to leave him with no doubt that he’d been abducted. Instead, he could still make out the pier, could see dirty errand boys scurrying around to load cargo into merchant ships, could see the distant sprawl of the city behind them all. If he really pressed himself up against the glass, he could even make out his own ship a few docks down, and it made the knot of worry in his chest finally loosen. He was fine. This was salvageable. He patted down his clothes to make sure that everything was still there. Someone seemed to have removed his jacket, but it was lying neatly folded beside him, and after one inspectory pat down, Yoo Joonghyuk could discern that the orb and the rest of his money was there. Even better. Maybe this wasn’t all for naught after all.

The door opened and Kim Dokja walked in, confirming Yoo Joonghyuk’s suspicion of who the ship belonged to. Immediately, Yoo Joonghyuk had the dagger back in hand, the other clutching the jacket maybe a little too possessively behind him. 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Kim Dokja said, holding up his hands in surrender. “It’s just me. You’re okay.” Yoo Joonghyuk glared. Kim Dokja approached slowly, hands still outstretched like he was trying to soothe a stray cat. “How are you feeling?”

Like shit. For some reason, he was always left feeling disarmed around Kim Dokja. Not that he’d ever admit that, of course. 

Instead of answering, he swung both legs off the bed and got up to his feet, trying not to let the rush of pain that flooded his head show on his face. No signs of weakness. 

“Wait, you should really rest. I don’t know what happened to you but I got Lee Seolhwa—my doctor, she’s really good—to look at you and she said your body completely shut down. You haven’t been sleeping for a while have you?”

Yoo Joonghyuk slipped on his jacket, heedless. 

“If you’re worried about your crew, you shouldn’t be. I already told them about you—”

“Leave. My. Crew. Alone,” Yoo Joonghyuk hissed, pressing the blade of his dagger to Kim Dokja’s collarbone. Kim Dokja looked down at it with a strange sort of curiosity, like he was genuinely surprised to see it there.

Kim Dokja let out a nervous laugh. “Yeah, okay, I got it.”

“Don’t talk to them or me again.” Yoo Joonghyuk pushed past Kim Dokja to the door, hoping that that was enough to deter him. He would’ve ended it all now if he could, but he knew that right now he was in no state to win a fight against Kim Dokja, especially not on Kim Dokja’s own turf. Despite Kim Dokja acting like a blundering fool half the time, Yoo Joonghyuk knew there was a reason why he was the leader of a pirate ship, not just a lackey. Even if he’d somehow managed to get the upper hand and slit his throat, there was no way that Yoo Joonghyuk would be leaving the ship alive. No, it was best to go home, rest and recuperate. Make a plan. And then strike, when he’s least expecting. 

Unfortunately, Kim Dokja didn’t seem to get the memo, and he followed him out, still continuing to babble. “I know you have that whole tsundere thing going on, but not even a thank you? What would’ve you have done if I weren’t there to graciously sweep you off your feet when you fell?”

Yoo Joonghyuk's shoulders started to ache from where they were hunched up with tension, as he kept on walking past endless rooms trying to find the gangway where he could get off without any help from the annoying chatterbox behind him. With every step of the way, Yoo Joonghyuk could feel his restraint slipping, his knuckles tightening into fists from annoyance. Finally, he stopped, suddenly enough that Kim Dokja ran into his back with a little ‘oof.’

“Kim Dokja. Do you know why I kissed you?”

“Because…” Yoo Joonghyuk could hear the uncertainty in his voice. “Because you like me? Right?”

He whipped around, clenching his fists and eyes flashing. Kim Dokja took a step back, his weak smile flickering and then disappearing. “ No ,” Yoo Joonghyuk spat out. “I was cursed to kiss the one I hated most. If it weren’t for how weak I am right now, you’d be dead where you stand.”

It was evident that Kim Dokja hadn’t expected that. His eyes widened as the words landed, his uncertainty washed away by something that Yoo Joonghyuk could only describe as hurt, before his face smoothened out to be expressionless. “I see,” he said, giving a thin-lipped smile. It looked nothing like his other ones; it was wrong and ill suited to his face, devoid of any humor and almost painful. “I’m sorry then. I misunderstood.” 

Yoo Joonghyuk did it. He finally managed to lose his stupid tail. He finally got it through Kim Dokja’s thick skull that he hated him, and he wanted nothing to do with him other than have part in his death. But for some reason, he couldn’t manage to muster up a feeling of victory over his win. Instead, all Yoo Joonghyuk felt was hollow as he watched Kim Dokja walk away and finally leave him alone. Maybe the curse had affected him more than he thought.

~~~

When Yoo Joonghyuk finally managed to get back to his ship, he had cooled down considerably. The headache that had plagued his mind had also mostly gone away, and his hands no longer shook around his dagger. 

Lee Hyunsung was by his side the moment he got on board, worry etched into the furrow of his brow. “Are you alright, captain? I heard you were sick? Are you feeling better?”

Yoo Joonghyuk was really starting to get tired of these sorts of questions. “I’m fine.”

“Did you finally get some, captain?” someone called out. 

“ Who said that?” Yoo Joonghyuk thundered. His crew quieted down, the mood noticeably dampened. “ The Salvation is an enemy. Kim Dokja is an enemy. You disrespect my authority by treating this like a joke.”

“Captain—” Lee Hyunsung started.

“He could’ve killed me. I was vulnerable, yet you trusted his word over my countless warnings.” Yoo Joonghyuk shook his head. He could feel the burn of tears of frustration prickling at his eyes. “Reconsider where your loyalties lie. I do not need traitors on my ship.”  

Yoo Joonghyuk left for his cabin, the only place where he allowed himself to relax, hoping his words had as much of an impact on his crew as it had with Kim Dokja. He collapsed onto his chair with a weary sigh. Even after having taken a nap, he was still tired. Too much had happened in one day, and most wasn’t good news. 

The orb poked uncomfortably into his back, and he took it out, laying out velvet cloth it was wrapped in over his desk before placing the orb on it. A slip of paper fell free once he loosed the cloth, flitting to the floor. Yoo Joonghyuk was too enraptured with the orb to notice. It was much larger than a regular pearl, about two times the size of his closed fist for reference, and it glistened with the colors of the rainbow like an oil spill at sea. 

Yoo Joonghyuk wasn’t that experienced with magical artifacts—he wasn’t the biggest fan of shortcuts that he didn’t understand, and he knew many had a cost too steep to pay for. But this orb, he’d done extensive research into, had only gone to get it as a last resort. Still, he didn’t really know how it worked. Did he have to touch it? Say some words? It didn’t seem to come with a user manual. 

He touched it tentatively with the hilt of his dagger and watched for a reaction. When nothing happened, he sighed. There was nothing more to it then. He’d have to risk getting cursed again and put his hand on it. The moment his fingers pressed against the pearl, its slick surface warmed. Immediately, Yoo Joonghyuk yanked his hand back, remembering how mere hours ago the curse had latched onto him the same way. He wrung his hand out, but the warmth didn’t travel across his body. 

Yoo Joonghyuk touched the orb again, more intently this time, laying three fingers flat across it and watched as the oil spill grew murky. Show me who murdered my parents , he thought, as insistently as he could. He repeated it out loud too, just in case. 

Slowly the rainbow cleared. Yoo Joonghyuk leaned forward in his chair to get a better look. A too familiar smile came into view. He held his breath as the rest of the face revealed itself. Kim Dokja’s sunny smile peered up at Yoo Joonghyuk, his hair tousled by the ocean wind and starry eyes gleaming with amusement. 

Yoo Joonghyuk clenched his hands into fists. He knew it. He knew he did it. But why was his stomach sinking anyways? Why wasn’t he happy? He was proven right. 

It’s because Kim Dokja had to have accomplices, he told himself. Accomplices that the orb wasn’t showing them. He still didn't have the full picture, that’s why he was disappointed. Kim Dokja was around his age, and his parents had died when he was eleven. There wasn’t any conceivable way that an eleven year old Kim Dokja had bested grown adults by himself. But this was more than enough proof that he had something to do with it. 

Yoo Joonghyuk wrapped the orb back up in the cloth and leaned back in his chair. He had to think. He had to figure out how to make Kim Dokja pay and confess what he knew to him. 

As Yoo Joonghyuk plotted, the slip of paper that had fallen was picked up by the breeze, flying over to the window before being lost to the wind. It was a pity, for while it wasn’t the user manual Yoo Joonghyuk had hoped for, it still contained information that would’ve been valuable to know. It was a label containing the name of the magical artifact the orb was. And it decreed the pearl as, not ‘the orb of heart’s desire,’ the artifact that Yoo Joonghyuk had suffered through so much to get, but as ‘the orb of sexual desire.’ A small, but quite fatal, error had occurred, but Yoo Joonghyuk was left unaware of it.

~~~

The next couple weeks at sea were arduous. Gone were the days of lazing around till noon, of Kim Namwoon slacking off at his job to pester Lee Jihye, of Lee Hyunsung having nothing to do but help out in the kitchen. Gone were the days of Yoo Joonghyuk enjoying the sunlight at the deck. Now it was all business. Yoo Joonghyuk was determined in his bloodlust, and he’d made it quite clear that if any member of his crew had any doubts, they were free to leave. And leave, some did. 

Yoo Joonghyuk tried not to act like it bothered him, how some of his crew would so readily choose Kim Dokja over him, but his disquiet seemed to puncture the mood of his crew anyways. Conversations quieted down whenever he entered a room or the deck. Food was always served silently, and there were no longer games being played by the younger members in the morning. Yoo Joonghyuk’s dark circles only grew deeper, and he started spending longer and longer in his own cabin, poring over his maps and trying to figure out where Kim Dokja was headed next.

That was another noticeable difference. Whereas before, The Orpheus seemed to be crossing paths with The Salvation nearly every week, now they’d met only once since that cursed day three weeks ago. 

It had been a rainy day, Yoo Joonghyuk remembered, when he’d finally caught sight of that familiar ship in the horizon. He’d ordered his crew to sail fast, to follow it, and for once everyone obeyed without any ribbing or taunts. Kim Dokja was absent from his regular perch, and, as Yoo Joonghyuk’s ship sailed closer, he could make out thick slashes of paint messily covering up the name of the ship. Instead of The Salvation , the ship seemed to be now named Kim Dokja’s Company . 

Yoo Joonghyuk barely managed to hold back his smile at the bad paint job. And what sort of name was Kim Dokja’s Company , especially for a ship? 

Nevertheless, he didn’t manage to take a closer look because it sped away. No longer did Kim Dokja come out to taunt, and no longer did The Salvation , or Kim Dokja’s Company , linger when spotted. After that, weeks went by without catching them.

Yoo Joonghyuk could feel the crew getting restless. They’d never had such a long ship-targeted mission before. Usually, they’d just go searching for artifacts that others needed found to trade at ports, or they fought against ships that attacked them first. 

He was starting to regret not taking advantage of that day in Kim Dokja’s ship. Maybe he should’ve gone along with Kim Dokja’s ridiculous notions of romance, so he could slowly wean out the information. But then again, deception was never Yoo Joonghyuk’s strong suit. Maybe he could’ve stabbed Kim Dokja right then and there, or at least have knocked him out so he could take a better look at the papers on the desk. Or he could’ve paid more attention to the ship layout when he was trying to get off of it. He could’ve done something. 

However, dwelling on the past didn’t get you far in the future, so instead Yoo Joonghyuk put his foot down and decided that a full ship renovation was in order. The Orpheus was beautiful and worked just as well as the day Yoo Joonghyuk had gotten her, but therein lay the problem. There were many technological and magical advancements in ship making since the days of The Orpheus’ s prime, and it was high time Yoo Joonghyuk made use of them. 

So, the next port they docked at, Yoo Joonghyuk sought out a team of carpenters and engineers that specialized in ship augmentation, and let his crew get the well deserved vacation they needed while the team worked on The Orpheus . It’d been a bad past couple of weeks, and Yoo Joonghyuk hoped that this would boost their morale.  

In the two weeks it took to get The Orpheus ready to almost fly on sea with new engines, Yoo Joonghyuk spent his days training. He sparred with Lee Hyunsung, he sharpened his swords, he threw darts in the kitchen before cooking meals. 

On the night before the last of their stay at this port, Kim Dokja’s Company docked. Yoo Joonghyuk wouldn’t have even known if it weren’t for Kim Namwoon and Lee Jihye’s loud voices, and how they immediately shut up with guilty hand-caught-in-the-cookie-jar smiles stretched wide across their faces the moment Yoo Joonghyuk made his presence known.

“Master,” Lee Jihye pleaded, “can’t we go after them some other day? It’s almost nightfall.”

“Yeah, I don’t think anyone’s going to be up to it,” Kim Namwoon chimed in.

“That’s fine.” Yoo Joonghyuk left for his cabin and came out with his sword and orb tucked securely in one of his pockets. “I don’t need everyone to get the job done. Arm yourself and come with me.”

They obeyed but not without squabbling and whining the whole time. They walked down the pier to where Kim Dokja’s Company bobbed slightly on the water. Yoo Joonghyuk hissed at them to shut up, and they walked around the side to where they could enter the ship. To Yoo Joonghyuk’s surprise, the ship was open, a plank connecting the ship to the dock. He stifled the wrongness that rose in him that screamed that this was a trap, and walked up. Lee Jihye and Kim Namwoon followed without complaint.

The ship was far too empty for Yoo Joonghyuk’s comfort. Kim Dokja’s crew was large, near double the size of Yoo Joonghyuk’s own, but they came across not a single living thing while walking in deeper. None of the lights were on, their path was illuminated only by slices of moonlight through the portholes at the side of the ship. 

When Yoo Joonghyuk found his way back in front of the door to the room where he’d woken up all those weeks ago, he gestured to Kim Namwoon and Lee Jihye to stand guard, and warned them not to come in, no matter what they heard.

Yoo Joonghyuk slowly opened the door and slipped in. Kim Dokja was sitting upright on the bed, gazing out of the large windows. The moonlight gave him an ethereal, ghostly glow that made him look almost angelic. He turned to face Yoo Joonghyuk when he came in, and he smiled another one of his fake smiles.

“I’ve been expecting you,” Kim Dokja said. 

Yoo Joonghyuk lunged with his dagger, forgoing his sword in such close quarters. Kim Dokja rolled out of the way with practiced ease, and the blade struck his pillow, making it erupt into a flurry of feathers. 

“Hey, wait, let’s talk!” 

Yoo Joonghyuk snarled. “I don’t talk to scoundrels like you.” He swiped at him again, positioning himself so that Kim Dokja couldn’t make a run for the door past him. 

“You just did,” Kim Dokja said, grinning more genuinely.

Yoo Joonghyuk plunged his dagger down on Kim Dokja’s skull, but he sidestepped, making the knife pierce through his desk, splintering the wood. Kim Dokja sighed. “Come on man, that was my favorite desk.” Yoo Joonghyuk pulled out the knife and whirled around. Kim Dokja put his hands up in surrender. “Why do you hate me so much?”

“You know what you did.”

Kim Dokja flung a fistfull of feathers at Yoo Joonghyuk, temporarily blinding him. Yoo Joonghyuk let out a frustrated growl. “I genuinely don’t. Seriously. Can we please talk?”

Yoo Joonghyuk blinked away the feathers to see an uncharacteristically serious expression on Kim Dokja’s face. He was staring at Yoo Joonghyuk with an intensity that made him more uncomfortable than the feathers in his eyes. 

Kim Dokja seemed to catch on that he’d gotten his attention so he spoke faster. “I really respect you and your crew. I know many of them are friends with some of mine, and I really think an alliance would benefit both of us. I don’t know what I did to earn your ire, but I’ll do anything you want me to do to make up for it.”

Yoo Joonghyuk glowered. “The only way for you to make up for it is to die.” He’d cornered Kim Dokja now, up against the wall across his bed. His blade bit into Kim Dokja’s throat, and a thin line of red seeped out. He watched it trickle down Kim Dokja’s neck and pool into the crook of his collarbones, and all he could feel was that same hollowness he’d had before. “Why aren’t you fighting back?”

“Can’t you grant me a dying wish?” Kim Dokja said softly. 

A part of Yoo Joonghyuk wanted to say no, to spit it back on his face and ask if he’d granted his parents any dying wishes. But the other part, the hollow part, was curious. “What.”

“Tell me what I did to you.”

“You murdered my family.” Yoo Joonghyuk’s voice broke. 

Kim Dokja’s eyes widened. 

—

Yoo Joonghyuk was eleven years old, and it was a fine day out for fishing. The water was clear and calm; the sun was shining bright and warm but there was enough of a gentle breeze that it wasn’t suffocating. It was a good day, a great day even. 

His father had set out the nets to catch fish, and his mother was next to him, preparing the deck to be a host to a school of dozens of squirming fish. His parents were merchants, not fishermen, mainly focusing on sailing port to port with wares across the lands, so these fishing days came by fewer than Yoo Joonghyuk liked, only when their stores of food had exhausted itselves, and they were too far to travel to the nearest port. His mother wasn’t the biggest fan of descaling the fish or watching them flop around and suffocate to death in the air, but Yoo Joonghyuk had no such qualms. 

He leaned on the side of the deck, closing his eyes to better appreciate the warmth of the sun on his skin, the salt from the ocean flooding his nose, and the distant call of seagulls and gentle waves lapping against the side of their boat. 

  But there was always a catch with good things: they never lasted. And that was the exact moment everything went to shit. The rest of that horrible day was blurred in Yoo Joonghyuk’s mind, which was probably a mercy. He remembered the haunting shadow The Salvation had cast over their small boat; he remembered the tears that clogged his throat, the snot that ran into his mouth while he pleaded with the men that piled on from the ship onto theirs to leave them alone; and he remembered, at the very end, when the screams of his parents were still ringing in his ears and the sun had well and truly set and taken with it the last remaining warmth of Yoo Joonghyuk’s life, Kim Dokja. 

Kim Dokja, though his face had significantly more baby fat and his annoying smile had not yet taken a permanent place on his face. Kim Dokja, with his face sprayed with his parent’s blood. He was there on that ship, on The Salvation . He was there the night his parents died. 

It was such a laughably common fate, really, to be killed at sea. The crew of The Salvation were part of something bigger, Yoo Joonghyuk was sure, and really all they were doing were their jobs. Yoo Joonghyuk had no idea why or how he was spared, only knew that he’d been found floating on a plank of wood and luckily rescued by a passing friendly fishing boat. 

And ever since then, he’d been searching for the people who played a part in the murder of his family so he could make them feel as weak and hopeless as he did before ending their lives.

—

Tears were streaming down his face. Kim Dokja laid a calloused hand over his, the one covering the dagger, but instead of pushing it away, he just rested it there.

“Yoo Joonghyuk,” Kim Dokja said, his eyes searching his face like it was the first time he’d seen it. “That was you ?”

Yoo Joonghyuk jerked away, taking his dagger with them. “Yes.”

“Oh my god.” Kim Dokja couldn’t stop staring at him with wide eyes.

“Don’t you have anything to say for yourself?”

“No—well, I mean, I was there, you’re right,” he took in a long, straggled breath, and when he looked back up, his eyes were red with unshed tears, “I was there on this ship that night. But I didn’t kill your parents.”

Yoo Joonghyuk let out a derisive laugh. “I know what I saw.”

“No, I was just a deck boy. I didn’t know who they were, or what they did, I promise. That night… was the first time I saw what they were capable of. I was in the kitchen when I heard the noise coming from the deck.” Kim Dokja’s eyes glazed over as he recalled. “I came out just as they got you on board. You were kicking and screaming and crying and then I…then I saw the blood. I’m so sorry Yoo Joonghyuk.”

Yoo Joonghyuk said nothing.

Kim Dokja gulped. “I got you off the ship that day. That’s probably why you remember me. They were going to kill you next to your parents, they only let you live that long to make them confess… something. I don’t know what they wanted, but they were going to kill you after they got it. I wrapped a burlack sack around you and snuck you down, and I pushed you out in the water with one of our rafts and some food. I didn’t know if you could’ve…survived that but I guess I thought it would’ve been better than what was awaiting you here.”

“How did you get this ship, then, if you were just a lowly deck boy.”

“Ah, that,” Kim Dokja said, wincing. “Well I wasn’t very slick with getting you off, you know, so they caught me. They didn’t really care to deal with me so they were going to sell me off at their next stop but I got really lucky and managed to escape. One thing led to another, I saw this ship being sold one day, and you know that night was pretty traumatic for me too, but this ship was really nice and also cheap, and the rest is history. Here we are.”

“And you know nothing about what they wanted with my parents, and where they disappeared to?”

“Uh, no, not really. But! I have been trying to look into it.” He slowly edged out from Yoo Joonghyuk’s grasp and went over to his desk, ruffling through some of the stacks of papers on it, before taking some out. “I’ve been looking for an artifact for a while, and well, the previous crew seemed to be bounty hunters of some sort, but like for artifacts. That’s probably why they targeted your parents, they must’ve thought they’d gotten something they wanted in their wares. When I got this ship, I saw they left behind a lot of their records and transactions.” He tapped the stack of papers. “You’re welcome to take a look through if you want.”

“You can’t possibly expect me to believe all that,” Yoo Joonghyuk said. His tears had dried up by now, and he used the sleeve of his shirt to wipe them off before marching back up to Kim Dokja.  

“What? Why not?” Kim Dokja looked surprised. “It’s the truth.”

Yoo Joonghyuk knew it was foolish of him to show all the cards he had up his sleeve, but he pulled out the orb of heart’s desire anyway, brandishing it like a weapon between them. “There’s nothing my heart desires more than finding out who’s to blame. And you were the one who showed up.”

Kim Dokja stared at the pearl in his hand with a conflicted look on his face. “Are you sure that’s legitimate?”

“What?”

“You got that from Han Sooyoung, didn’t you? I’m not saying she’s not…reliable but have you considered that maybe that’s a fake?”

“What?”

Kim Dokja sighed and stepped closer, tilting his head to get a better look. “Look there’s something engraved in the bottom.”

Yoo Joonghyuk tipped the orb away from Kim Dokja, and, sure enough, there was something engraved in the bottom. The effervescent rainbow glow was noticeably absent on the bottom to make way for a hurriedly inked label. The Orb of Sexual Desire: need a quick way to know if the fire of your loins desires you back? Look no further—

Yoo Joonghyuk smashed the orb to the floor, cheeks flushing a horribly humiliated red. The pearl splattered open wetly, popping like a particularly large soapy bubble. 

Kim Dokja leaned back to avoid getting caught in the spillage, and then he opened his mouth to speak again when the door to the room burst open, Kim Namwoon and Lee Jihye coming in waving their swords in a disarrayed panic. 

“Master! Are you alright? We heard something weird…” Lee Jihye trailed off, eyes narrowing in on the mess on the floor. “What is that ?”

“What did you do to our captain?” Kim Namwoon pointed his sword straight at Kim Dokja’s throat. 

“Nothing! Nothing,” Kim Dokja put his hands up in surrender again, “it was all a misunderstanding. I think.”

“It’s fine,” Yoo Joonghyuk said, gruffly to Lee Jihye and Kim Namwoon. They didn’t look convinced, but Kim Namwoon lowered his sword. 

Enough time had passed that weak rays of the early morning sun stretched into the room, and Yoo Joonghyuk could feel exhaustion weighing down his body. He closed his eyes and sighed. This had all just been a giant waste of time. He’d humiliated himself, lost the only lead he had, and had been trying to kill the man who saved him this whole time.  

“Master, were you crying?” Lee Jihye peered up at him, her expression showing more curiosity than concern.

“No. Let’s go.” Yoo Joonghyuk turned back to Kim Dokja, but couldn't manage to make himself look at his face. “I owe you an apology.”

“It’s okay! I mean, I get it, I probably wouldn’t have acted much better if I thought you killed my parents.” 

“I owe you,” Yoo Joonghyuk said, trying to ignore the burning stare Kim Namwoon and Lee Jihye were boring into the side of his face.  

“You could make it up to me by going on a date with me?” Kim Dokja said, voice wavering with uncertainty at the end. Yoo Joonghyuk snapped his head up to Kim Dokja; Lee Jihye and Kim Namwoon’s jaws dropped. Kim Dokja looked down to the floor, suddenly bashful, with a light tinge of pink to his cheeks. “I mean, you don’t have to say yes or anything, I know my face doesn’t bring up the best memories for you, I’ll forgive you either way—”

  Yoo Joonghyuk could feel the warmth from before return to his face and ears. He thought about it. He thought about how so many members of his crew seemed to respect Kim Dokja, how Kim Dokja took him to his ship and took care of him after he basically assaulted him on the street, how he didn’t fight back when Yoo Joonghyuk tried to attack him and was so adamant in hearing what he’d done wrong. He thought about how readily Kim Dokja was willing to forgive him, even after all he’d done. There was only one conclusion to be drawn from all of this.

Kim Dokja was a massive, idiotic fool. 

“Okay,” he said, almost unconsciously. 

“What?!” Kim Dokja, Kim Namwoon, and Lee Jihye said in sync. 

“Are you sure? Really?” Kim Dokja said, an uncertain smile on his face like he couldn’t quite believe it. 

Yoo Joonghyuk scowled. “I already said yes, you fool. And I want to look over the records you have.”

“Oh yeah, of course! Here you can take them right now, I have copies.” Kim Dokja handed over the slim stack of papers, the earlier smile transformed into a brilliant grin that rivaled the sun in its brightness. 

Yoo Joonghyuk nodded. “Thank you. I’ll be back. Get your throat looked at.” He turned and strode out of the room, his steps more sure than whatever he was feeling at the moment. It took a bit, but then Lee Jihye and Kim Namwoon caught up to him, chattering loudly.

“Who are you and what did you do to our captain?” Kim Namwoon said with a little too much glee.

“Oh my god, I can’t wait to tell the others, this is insane !” Lee Jihye said, clutching her sword in excitement. “Uriel’s going to be so mad she wasn’t here!”

Yoo Joonghyuk ignored them all the way down to the pier and to his ship. Only when he finally collapsed back in his cabin, did he let himself think over all the events of the day. In the weeks he spent training for this very night, he never once even considered the possibility of it ending with … a date of all things. But he couldn’t bring himself to regret his decision. He had been acting a little irrationally whenever Kim Dokja was around, all his feelings towards him were clouded by his certainty of Kim Dokja’s guilt. But it was also true that he wasn’t wholeheartedly convinced that Kim Dokja was the culprit until he’d gotten hold of that stupid orb, and, speaking of the orb, it was also true that he had already had some… feelings towards him that couldn’t be explained away by hate. 

Yoo Joonghyuk’s entire life had been driven with the purpose of revenge since the moment he’d been set adrift in the ocean, so there’d been no time for him to be distracted with anything as foolish as a date. He’d never stop until he avenged them, but right now Yoo Joonghyuk realized, as he looked down at the stack of papers that Kim Dokja had given him, his next clue, he just wanted to take a break. Maybe it was fine to take a breather and reconnect with his crew, to start looking forward to things other than shoving his knife through someone’s throat in catharsis. 

Maybe it was time that he finally moved on. 

Yoo Joonghyuk stared at the paper, unseeing, for so long that the white of it burned into his irises. He blinked it away and staggered to his bed. Maybe he should start by finally getting a decent sleep schedule. All of this introspection and mid-life crisis could wait till the morning. His crew got this. 

Sleep pulled Yoo Joonghyuk down into darkness, and he welcomed it with a smile on his face.