༄ 2018

The world changes in such subtle, imperceivable ways. The difference in the piers and docks, in the nuts and bolts holding it all together. The difference in the ships — sleek and buffed aluminum bodies instead of mildew-covered oak, billowing sails made from polyester instead of cotton canvas.

I trusted one thing would always be the same. The sea.

Standing at the very edge of the bow, I opened my arms and sucked in a lungful of salty air. The ocean had not been my home for almost 150 years, but each time I came back, the familiar babble of water and squall of seagulls welcomed me like a jolly childhood friend.

I rubbed my palms together. "What do you think, boys? Ready to sail?"

I turned and saw my family standing on the deck, staring down at the iPhones in their hands.

"You really brought your phones?" I said disbelievingly. "All of you?"

"Sorry, Chan." Minho was taking pictures of Jisung against the cloudless blue sky. "My mom asked for photos."

"I'm ordering iFood," said Hyunjin. "I have to make an offering if the seagulls are gonna crown me their supreme overlord."

"Changbin's on Twitter calling people piss babies," Jeongin snitched.

"Well spongegar_6969 is being a piss baby," Changbin grumbled.

I sighed. "As long as it's... necessary."

Jisung flinched as a seagull flew over his head. "Minho, can you please just take the picture?"

"You keep moving and fucking up the panorama."

"But the birds are trying to kill me!"

"Ahoy, me hearties!"

Felix rode a full circle on the mainsail, dismounted with a diving somersault and landed in Changbin's arms. He was dressed in breeches, an eyepatch and a tricorne hat — a pirate costume he bought from Party City.

"Felix, you look ridicu—" Jisung shrieked and darted across the ship to escape a swooping seagull. Minho filmed him.

"What was that, Jisungie?" Felix cupped his ears, feigning attention. "Sorry, can't hear ya over the sound of my own radness."

"I'm pretty sure pirates never said 'ahoy' or 'me hearties,'" said Seungmin.

"We did sometimes, actually." Haseong was assisting him with his myriad of suitcases. "At this point it's lost all meaning. Jesus, Seungmin, how much shit did you have to take from home?"

"Look, if this bucket goes down, I'm not gonna do the 'Cast Away' thing with the bivouacking and the loin cloths. I brought tents, daily changes of clothes, forty-seven flare guns and, most importantly, my trusty Switch."

"Alright." I slapped my hands together to get their attention. "This should be a lovely time to set sail. We're here to celebrate the sea — and of course, Felix's early one-hundred-year deathday."

"I'm still attached to the plane thing," said Felix.

"You're not doing the plane thing," said Changbin.

"Wait, there's my takeout guy!" Hyunjin leapt off the ship and fled up the dock. "Don't leave without me!"

I hung my head. Haseong came over, tipped my face up and kissed me.

"You okay?"

"You're gonna call me a fogey."

"What is it?"

"They're on their technologies! Here! I mean, look at the view!" I flung my hand at the horizon. "Haseong, you're good at bossing them around — make them put the phones away."

"I'm on it." He turned and walked up to Felix, took the hat off his head and flipped it upside-down. "This is now a phone receptacle, deposit all phones here."

Changbin and Minho put theirs in the hat, and Seungmin gave up both his phone and his Nintendo. Hyunjin returned to the ship, takeout in hand, and surrendered his phone as well. Haseong told them to form a line, then paced in front of them like they were a crew on their first day at sea.

"Now that we're on the water, you will refer to us only as Captain Bang and Captain Bak. Sure, we're here to celebrate the sea or whatever Chan said, but also because you asked to experience a day in the life of a pirate. So remember — you got yourselves into this."

Felix, Jeongin and Hyunjin's hands came up.

"Felix?"

"If we have to call you two captains, then I demand to be addressed as a viscount."

"Absolutely not. Jeongin?"

"Referring to you as captains suggests a rank among crew members, and I feel I am worthy of a proper title."

Haseong and I looked at each other and shrugged. "Jeongin is first mate then."

Jeongin stood tall.

Hyunjin stepped forward. "Captains, I humbly ask permission to sprinkle bread on my body and offer myself to the seagulls."

"Er. Okay."

Minho flung his hand up as well. "Oh oh, I have a question too. Can I steer the big wheel?"

"Good initiative, boyo!" I put an arm around his shoulders and led him to the helm. Haseong directed the rest to weigh the anchor and release the sails.

I put Minho's hands on the wheel and told him to steer right. "Have you ever been on a ship before?"

"Once. I threw up." He cleared his throat. "But that was a while ago. Is this anything like the ones you used to sail?"

"Not exactly, though I think the design is meant to be evocative of the 1700s-pirate-esque style. You wouldn't believe how dauntingly grand naval architecture was back then."

"I have an idea — I watched Pirates of the Caribbean."

"But have you heard the creak of real oak floorboards beneath your feet? Oil lanterns flickering in the dark? Cannon balls rolling around freely belowdeck?"

"Obviously I haven't. But it sounds kinda romantic."

I smiled. "I suppose it was in my case."

Once wind filled the sails, the ship drifted away from the dock. The seagulls were still circling because of Hyunjin's bready offering; he was sitting crosslegged with birds roosted on his head and shoulders.

Seungmin was leaning over the edge of the craft. "The SV Zelma-Marie... boring. Haseong, what were your ships called again?"

"The first was called the Devil's Crib. My captain said it was because our wickedness would render Satan a wailing babe." He whistled two batty notes, swirling his finger next to his ear. "The ship I ran with Iseul and Shao was called the High Roller — baccarat reference."

Hyunjin tried not to disturb the birds while speaking. "What about your last ship? The one you captained with..." He hesitated to say the name.

Felix was balancing nimbly on the boom. "It's alright, Hyunjin. What was her pick? 'The Merciless Mace' or some such?"

"Actually, she was dead set on one name from the beginning," I said. "The Red Sun. She said it meant the harbinger of the revolution."

Haseong rolled his eyes. "Bullshit, she just thought it sounded cool."

"To be fair," I said, "it's a little cool. We couldn't decide between the Red Sun and the Lover's Hum, so we ended up painting the two names on either side of the ship and calling it a day."

"Wait wait wait," said Changbin. "'Lover's Hum'? What does that mean?"

"Haseong?" I smiled at him.

He sniffed through each nostril and grudgingly explained: "Chan would hum to me in our more tender moments. It was... the most beautiful sound I'd ever heard."

Hyunjin awww-ed loudly, scaring the seagulls away in a flurry of feathers.

"We've got a softie here!" Seungmin called into the distance. "Big softie to the left port side!"

"You mean Captain Big Softie," Minho said.

"Imagine a young, romantic Haseong," Changbin mused.

"Imagine a Haseong without a stick up his ass," Felix added.

"I'm literally right here," Haseong said. "And I will maroon you, Felix, do not test me."

"That's Viscount Lee to you, sir."

"There's something I don't understand," Jeongin cut in. "You were pirates for a decade — successful ones. Where did all the treasure go?"

"We spent it," I said. "First ship maintenance, reparations, clothes, then later on mortgages and insurance. And gambling." I looked at Haseong and he looked over his shoulder.

"You're saying you blew our entire inheritance?" Changbin gasped.

"Firstly, we're incapable of death, and secondly, you are not our children."

"Semantics," said Felix.

"What would we even do with doubloons?" said Minho.

"I'm pretty sure doubloons don't exist, love," said Jisung.

"Aren't they just double loonies?" Hyunjin tilted his head.

Haseong sighed, kneading his temples. "All of you, go batten down the hatches or something."

Felix saluted and spun on his heel. "C'mon lads, let's go pretend we know what that means." The rest followed him belowdecks.

"Landlubbers," Haseong muttered.

I turned to the bow again, leaned on the railing. He came up behind me, arms around my waist, chin on my shoulder.

"Do you ever miss it?" he asked. "Travelling? Piracy? I don't know, youth?"

I laughed. "The sun always shines brighter in hindsight. I'm so perfectly content here and now. Aren't you?"

He kissed along my shoulder. "Utterly. I love you. You know that, don't you, Captain Bang?"

"As I love you."

We watched the skyline for a moment, rocking slowly to the ocean's rhythm. The feeling of his arms around me was so familiar, the only real home I had ever known.

"What do you think?" he said then. "Should I tell them?"

He was twirling a single gold coin between his fingers. I smiled, plucked it from his hand.

"Let's keep it between you and me."

                            ༄ ༄ ༄

well... that's a wrap ✨💕🌸🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️

i hope you all liked this story !! 
i worked really hard on it and
i'm proud of the way it turned
out. it was fun to write more
characters; fei, iseul and shao
have become my babies along
with chan and haseong :3

i have now finished the prequels,
but not to worry, i'll still be around
to clog up your notifs a while longer.
i will start posting again soon, and i'm
very excited to complete the series
with something unexpected.......

bye!