⊰ F O U R ⊱

THE CAPTAIN'S NAME

"I'm Jimin."

His voice was sweet and magnetic like a carefully crafted song. It caught me off guard and I struggled to find words.

"Are you going to tell me your name?" he asked, raising a perfectly arched brow.

I finally found my voice. "I'm Katherine, but everyone calls me Kat."

His eyes narrowed. "Hmm, I like Katherine better," he stated firmly, almost like he expected me to protest. Instead, I shrugged.

"You can call me that if you want."

His eyes danced. "Katherine," my name left his lips again, and I still had a hard time understanding how silky his voice was, like nothing I'd ever heard before.

"Well, if I was wrong about the sea water, I guess there's no reason for me to stay here," I said, reminding myself that I couldn't let my guard down around him too much. It didn't seem like he had any intention of harming me, but everything I'd ever heard about sirens suggested that they were dangerously deceptive.

Turning on my heel, I began walking toward the cell door. My hand reached out to open it, only to be blocked by his onyx tail.

"Seriously? Let me out," I demanded as I spun around to face him. That mischievous smirk was back.

"Not until you tell me what you're planning to do with me."

I sighed. "I don't know."

"Then I guess you're staying right here." His feline eyes glinted in amusement.

"I really don't know. Yoongi told me he was going to figure out what to do with you by tomorrow morning," I said.

His brows pulled together in a frown."Who is Yoongi?"

"He's the captain of this ship."

He nodded in understanding, watching me carefully like always. He seemed as intrigued with me as I was with him.

"Will you let me go now?" I asked, gesturing to the cell door.

He moved his tail out my way and I wasted no time in stepping out of the cell, closing the door behind me and locking it. I resisted the urge to look back at him as I walked out of the room. Taehyung was waiting on the other side of the door, leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets.

"Glad to see he didn't eat you," he mumbled as he pushed off the wall so he could walk with me.

I scoffed at his comment. "He didn't try anything. He barely moved at all. I doubt he plans to eat anyone." I found myself being oddly defensive of Jimin.

Taehyung glanced at me with strands of brown hair falling over his bandana and into his eyes. "We don't know what he's thinking, Kat. You can't trust him. He's a predator," Tae warned.

I knew what he said was right, but I still felt disappointed hearing his words.

"I know," I sighed.

Tae was the person I was closest to on the ship. When I was new to the crew, he stayed up with me many nights just to talk and we became friends rather quickly. I trusted him enough to know that he only had my best interest in mind.

The two of us walked together to the crew's quarters and were met with silence as everyone was already asleep. I whispered goodnight to Taehyung before easily slipping into my bed.

* * *

When I woke up in the morning, it wasn't surprising to find all of the crew still snoring and drooling. I was always the first to get up.

After leaving my bed and changing into new clothes, I walked out onto the main deck. It was dawn, the first rays of sunlight just streaming above the ocean's horizon line. I rested my elbows against the railing and inhaled the crisp morning air, listening to the occasional creaking of the boat. The serenity made it impossible to tell that there had been such a large storm just the night before.

After a few minutes of staring out into the distance, I heard footsteps approach. Soon, someone joined me in leaning against the railing. I looked over to find Yoongi.

"Good morning," I said quietly, not wanting to break the peaceful atmosphere.

"Morning."

I waited for him to say something else, but he let us fall into silence for several minutes. Then, finally, he stood up straight and turned to face me, "We need to talk."

I looked at him and took note of how serious he was. I nodded and stood up so I could face him fully. "Have you decided what we're doing with him?" I couldn't stop myself from asking.

"Who?" He tilted his head.

"Jimin. The siren."

He frowned. "So it's a he now? And it has a name?"

"Yes...He told me last night that his name is Jimin," I explained, feeling self-conscious under his intense stare.

"When I left you to deal with him, I didn't expect you to have a full blown conversation," he said with a raised voice.

Why is he so upset?

I raised my voice to match his. "We didn't. He just told me his name and then asked for mine. And I cleaned up his wound. That's it."

He let out a sigh and looked at the water, the veins in his hands becoming prominent as he gripped onto the railing.

"I'm sorry for getting angry," he glanced back at me, "I just don't want you to get hurt." He reached out and pulled a strand of hair behind my ear. The action wasn't new to me. It became a habit of his since he first started doing it about two years ago.

"I know, but you don't have to worry. I'll be more careful."

"I always worry. Do you know how scared I was when I saw you nearly fall into the water last night?"

"I'm okay—"

"Kat, what I wanted to talk to you about wasn't the siren. It's about us."

"What do you mean?" I asked, nerves stirring in my stomach.

"Hoseok has been challenging me lately because he thinks I'm being unfair. He keeps telling me that I have a soft spot for you, that I treat you differently than the others. And he's right. I speak to you differently, I let you off the hook while I punish the others. I used to think I did it because I was protective of you, ever since we saved you. But after Hoseok kept bringing it up, I realized it's more than that."

He stepped closer, and I moved back. After a couple of steps, my hips were against the railing, and Yoongi put his hands on either side of me.

"I don't know when it changed, but at some point my protectiveness over you became more of a desire for you. A need to be close to you, a need to call you mine. I just never let myself admit it until recently."

"Cap-" I stopped short as his finger covered my lips. He leaned closer to me, his nose nearly brushing mine.

"How many times do I have to tell you? What's my name?" he questioned, his breath fanning my face.

My cheeks burned as I opened my mouth to answer him, "Min Yoongi."

His lips tilted up in a half-smile as his name left my tongue. "Good girl."

Then he was leaning in and my mind was clouding over until clumsy footsteps rushed toward us. Yoongi pushed away from the railing, distancing himself and turning around, allowing me to breathe normally again.

"Morning Captain, Kat." Jungkook nodded to us in acknowledgement as he walked up beside us, unaware of what he just interrupted. He rubbed his eyes, clearly still waking up.

"Good morning, Jungkook," I mumbled, still trying to calm my racing pulse.

"Jeon, go check on our prisoner. Kat, please go wake the rest of the crew up," Yoongi instructed.

I nodded at his orders and quickly sped off to the crew's quarters, glad to escape the tension between the two of us.

I proceeded to wake the males up by banging on the wall and shouting for them to rise and shine. There was plenty of groaning and cussing as their precious sleep was interrupted, but soon enough, they were all following me out on deck where we met Yoongi.

"I've decided our best option is to just turn the siren in for a reward. We don't know enough about what he's capable of, so I'd rather just get rid of him as soon as possible. I've heard they're worth a pretty penny no matter where you go, so we're headed to the nearest town," Yoongi announced.

Many of the pirates nodded in agreement, but Namjoon spoke up, "Cap'n, don't you think we should try to find out more about him first? There are so many rumors, claims that they have healing abilities, that they can control the weather... what if he's more use to us if we kept him here?"

Namjoon's suggestion made sense. It would have been unwise to just hand Jimin over without knowing what we were losing first.

"I have a hard time believing he'd be willing to share his abilities with us, if he even has any. So unless you can get him to agree to some kind of arrangement before we reach land, we'll be trading him in by tomorrow night," Yoongi said with a hardened stare. "If he agrees to anything, report back to me."

I looked at Namjoon and he met my gaze. I could tell we were on the same page. Both of us would rather make a deal with Jimin to experience whatever power he might have and benefit from it.

As the crew dispersed to their different posts, Namjoon approached me. "I guess it's up to us to keep the siren here."

I nodded and looked up at him. "His name is Jimin."

Namjoon laughed and put his hand on my shoulder. "Alright, let's go talk to Jimin then, shall we?"

I agreed and we started making our way below deck. Just as we were finally nearing the brig, we heard a loud bang come from behind the door. Namjoon and I glanced at each other, then before either of us could say anything, we heard Jungkook shout in pain.

Namjoon rushed forward, throwing the door open and stepping inside with me right on his heels. We stopped short upon seeing Jungkook with his cheek against the floor of the cell, his neck held down by Jimin's clawed hand.

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