Seokjin didn't know how long he slept nor what time it was. He had been awakened by the squeak of the cell door opening. And because he was leaning against it, he fell to the slimy ground of the narrow corridor that ran between the cells.

He opened his only eye that wasn't covered with a bandage and immediately put himself on guard, ready to defend himself before feeling the heavy weight of the irons that chained his wrists. The pain on his face was sharp but he ignored it because only one thing caught his attention: a thunderous laughter that filled the place and echoed.

By the light of the lantern he was holding, Seokjin could recognize Hoseok who was definitely taking sneaky pleasure in waking him up in the most brutal of ways.

"You see this chain?" Seokjin said, raising his restrained wrist towards Hoseok, "I'm going to strangle you with it!"

He was about to get up to make his threat come true when he received a painful blow to the head from a stick which made him bow his head. Looking up, he saw that the stick Hoseok was holding was actually a broom handle with a mop on the end so sticky he doubted it could clean anything. In a way, he was happy that Hoseok chose the stick rather than the dirty mop to attack him.

"The nap is over, Mr. Admiral. If you want to eat tonight, you have to clean the deck," Hoseok said happily. Handing him the mop.

"Excuse me?!"

"I excuse you," Hoseok agreed before repeating: "if you want to eat tonight, you have to clean the deck."

"That's out of the question."

He had never touched a broom in his life, and it was not today, on a wako ship, that he was going to start.

"Ah, that's right, Jimin said you were a princess who refused to touch what is dirty."

"I'm a wako killer above all and I will kill you before you can force me to clean up your wako filth!"

Instead of getting upset, Hoseok seemed very pleased with Seokjin's reaction.

"What's wrong with you, dickhead?" Seokjin grumbled.

"The captain said that if you tried to rule his ship like the arrogant wako slayer that you are, you would suffer the torture of the board and you would go and feed the sharks to teach the admiral where arrogance leads on his ship, these are his exact words."

Seokjin flinched and Hoseok saw it, happy that his threat made the admiral react.

"But! If you agree to come clean the deck, I won't tell the captain that you've started to want to lay down the law, little admiral."

Hearing Hoseok handle him like a child, Seokjin glared at him and grabbed the mop roughly.

"The meal had better be worth it," he warned.

Hoseok smiled at him with a sparkling look, throwing his braid over his shoulder.

"Follow me, admiral."

They went back up onto the deck of the ship, quickly crossing the two floors to which Seokjin did not have access and which housed, he assumed, the cannons, the powder reserves, the bedrooms and the pantry in particular. It was with deep relief that he found the fresh air of the deck. The twilight sun bathed the ship in an orange glow that hurt his eye because he had remained in the dark for too long.

The orange light made the red sailboat appear to be on fire and Seokjin found himself thinking that the name Red Princess suited it well: it was the most beautiful wako ship he had ever seen. He didn't recognize the wako ship that had attacked Eobu fifteen years earlier. In his childhood memory, the black ship was gigantic and frightening; he was almost certain there were more floors in the emerged part of the hold.

Moreover, he didn't recognize any of the wakos that had attacked that night. However, he was certain he recognized at least—he could never forget it—the face of the wako that had shot him. Was it dead, like the few wakos he had seen then? It was possible, but he was beginning to doubt that it was really the same ship.

He looked up to the red sails and at the top of the main mast, above the crow's nest, he saw a black flag flanked by a white rabbit with an evil look flew proudly. He gritted his teeth. "Rabbit" was the translation of the Japanese name "Usagi." Another ridiculous effort by this crew to be associated with this legend.

From experience, Seokjin knew that pirates only raised their flag to announce their imminent attack. Yet, now that he was accustomed to the light, he saw that the pirates, far from preparing for an assault, were lazing about here and there or having fun, gambling and betting while laughing or shouting threats to each other. On the upper deck opposite the captain's cabin, Taehyung was practicing his katana with impressive concentration given the festive atmosphere around him.

Seokjin's gaze did not meet anyone who gave the impression of being the captain of The Red Princess. Was he still in his cabin?

Continuing to look around the ship, he saw Namjoon maneuvering the rudder looking bored. Jimin was sitting on a barrel eating rice balls and Seokjin hoped it wasn't his meal he was eating.

His admiral's habits meant that almost immediately, the pirates' nonchalant attitude irritated him. He was on a ship at sea, but no one was working.

"It's strange, I have the impression that you have enough idle labor to take care of the housework. Someone who is not me! " Seokjin barked at Hoseok.

Truth be told, he too would have lazed around on the deck of a ship – his own – instead of being exploited by wakos. He suddenly felt a wave of loneliness wash over him as he thought back to his crew, but he immediately pushed it away. He couldn't afford that kind of thinking that would weaken him.

"No one wants to deal with it," Hoseok shrugged and pushed a bucket of water towards him for cleaning. "But I like it when everything is clean."

"Then do it yourself!" exclaimed Seokjin, who was barely restraining himself from kicking the bucket.

"I don't want to," Hoseok hummed. "The captain said I was free not to do what I didn't want to do."

"Well, I don't want to either!"

"The captain didn't say anything about your desires," Hoseok objected.

Seokjin wanted to slap him, but his stomach gurgled loudly at that moment and Hoseok burst out laughing while Seokjin's bruised cheeks turned crimson.

"The sooner you clear this deck, the sooner you will eat."

Seokjin noticed the area of ​​the lower deck. Too big. However, he was so hungry that he decided to ask:

"Will the food be edible?"

"Promise," Hoseok said happily, showing him his little finger, as if to seal a pact. He was definitely a Joseon.

Yet, Seokjin refused to squeeze his finger in return.

"I want your meal," he demanded, convinced that he was going to serve him an infamous meal intended for the prisoner and barely edible.

Hoseok seemed perplex, as if he was wondering how his food was different from the food he was going to serve to Seokjin.

"As you wish, but only if you make the bridge shine," he said nevertheless with amusement.

Seokjin looked down at the black wooden bridge stained with dried mud, dried bird droppings and other dirt. Following his gaze, Hoseok burst out laughing:

"If you can."

"Fuck off," Seokjin snapped.

He raised his mop and quickly plunged it into the bucket of water, cheerfully splashing Hoseok in the process. The pirate didn't hold it against him but happily walked away to join Jimin, sitting on a crate next to his barrel to enjoy the show. Jimin did not offer to eat with him but decided to share his mockery of Seokjin.

Reluctantly, Seokjin looked away and started rubbing the deck with all the rage inside him, making the chain of his irons clink. But wielding a broom was not at all the same as wielding a sword. He quickly realized that he was particularly clumsy and that, as he had guessed, the slimy mop scattered dirt more than it cleaned it. And there was plenty of dirt.

"Pfff, that, a Princess ? This ship is just a decrepit old woman!" he shouted to anyone who would listen. He took back what he'd said, this ship was just as disgusting as the other ships. How could its captain accept living in this filth? Saengson could almost have passed for a clean place next to it "I've never seen such a dirty place, I'm sure those dirty pirates defecate on that deck! It's your responsibility to clean up your own shit, you hear me?!"

In response to his scream, something wet fell a few inches from him. At first, Seokjin thought it was bird droppings, but they were in the open sea, no seagull could have been there. Raising his head, Seokjin discovers the sullen face of Yoongi who roars from the crow's nest:

"Shut up, Joseon, you're disturbing my peace!"

Realizing that Yoongi had tried to spit on him and that it was now up to him to clean it up, Seokjin seethed and retaliated:

"You scarred bastard, come clean this up right away!"

In response, Yoongi grabbed the bottle of rum he was presumably drinking and downed some of it. Seokjin couldn't avoid all the rain of rum that fell on him and instantly made him stink of alcohol. In return, he showered the Ming soldier with insults in his own language.

But Yoongi ignored him and went back to lie down in the crow's nest, out of his sight, and Seokjin's insults were lost in the air.

"Hey, admiral!" Hoseok called out after having observed the show with interest and having had a good time.

"What?!" Seokjin replied aggressively.

"Come here."

Seokjin was tired of being told what to do but he was more tired of cleaning. He threw his broom to the ground and approached Hoseok and Jimin but kept a respectable distance between them because these two pirates were fond of bad tricks.

"He didn't make the deck shine," Jimin remarked, licking his fingers and to whom Hoseok had obviously told his deal.

"Go lick it if you want to see it shine, there's plenty of dirt to eat," Seokjin replied.

"What if it was your meal that I spilled on the floor for you to eat?"

"I'd rather die."

"For today I'll feed you even if you didn't do what I asked you, but tomorrow, I'll teach you how to clean properly," Hoseok intervened, pulling out a plate from behind him and handing it to Seokjin. "For now, I'm giving you my meal because you made me laugh a lot."

"You're being way too nice to him," Jimin grumbled, visibly displeased.

Seokjin didn't pay attention to him and grabbed the plate that Hoseok handed him, on which was a mixture of various foods from Joseon, Ming and Japan.

"Our crew is cosmopolitan and so are the guys who cook," Jimin explained. "I am one of them."

This stopped Seokjin, who looked at him suspiciously.

"I didn't put anything in Hoseok's food. I might have done something to yours," the Ming boy mocked.

But Namjoon had already tricked him with sea water by playing with words and he had been poisoned by the Ming girl in Denzhou so Seokjin wasn't going to accept Jimin's words without checking them. He started sniffing his plate in search of a strange smell. Seeing this, using his fingers, Jimin grabbed a piece of meat from his plate and stuffed it into his mouth. He chewed it with infinite delicacy and ended up swallowing it. Then he said:

"There's no poison but if you ask me, Joseon food is too spicy and Japanese food is tasteless. Ming food is the tastiest."

"Don't eat my meat!" Seokjin replied, pushing his plate away from Jimin when he was assured that there was nothing weird on his plate. "You don't know anything about good things, so you have no right to criticize Joseon food."

He only knew Joseon's food and he didn't care about Jimin's culinary tastes. He would've wanted to eat only Joseon's food, but he was so hungry that he ate everything without even bothering to sit down under the gaze of the other two who were smiling. He hoped it wasn't a bad omen, but now there was nothing he could do about it.

Never in his life would he have imagined that he would one day be hungry like he had been that day. He ate without any manners with his dirty hands since the other had not given him a pair of chopsticks. He knew his mother could have had a stroke seeing him like that, not to mention his barely cared for swollen face hidden under bandages like a leper, his poor clothing and his body odor. But his mother was not there, and he was no longer in his own world.

After several minutes of chewing too quickly, which gave him jaw cramps, he had to admit that he did indeed find Ming food delicious, perhaps more so than Joseon food. Yet, he refused to say that out loud, because it annoyed him.

Hoseok grabbed a mug filled with water and took a sip to prove that it was good before handing it to Seokjin who, with his mouth still full of food, grabbed it and took a big gulp to finally quench his thirst.

"Easy, admiral, you're going to hurt yourself," Hoseok laughed.

"It's beautiful to see a thirsty and hungry person satisfy his thirst and hunger," Jimin commented with admiration, looking at Seokjin as if he were a work of art.

He then did something he never did: he took a piece of meat from his plate and placed it on Seokjin's plate who devoured it shamelessly and without thanking him. Instead of getting irritated, the young Ming smiled and gave him another one as if he were feeding his pet.

When Seokjin soon finished his meal, he sighed in relief: he finally felt like he had his energy back. All he would need was a sword to train with - or to kill pirates with - and he would almost feel like everything was going well.

He put his plate on the floor and leaned on the railing to observe the dark sea that the indigo sky was only faintly lit as the evening star appeared. Without its moon. He frowned, surprised by this thought, which he hadn't had in a long time. Then he remembered that it had been just as long since he'd said Jungkook's name, and it must have something to do with it. He shouldn't have given that name to the pirates. At least, they seemed to prefer calling him by different nicknames – more or less friendly – rather than calling him by his name.

He breathed in the sea air with delight, relishing the semblance of freedom even though he was a prisoner on a wako ship. Around him on the ship's deck, lanterns were lit as the sky darkened. At the same time, the stars appeared one by one above them, drawing a map to the expert eyes of Seokjin, the navigator. Soon, however, as he looked out at the horizon, several things caught his attention.

First, the ship advanced slowly, even though the winds were favorable to him. Although well equipped with its sails and perfectly well shaped, it should have moved much faster. Either the captain had decided to slow down - which did not suit Seokjin who wanted to get near Joseon as quickly as possible - or there was a fault in the navigation of the ship, which would not have surprised him given this lazy crew.

Secondly, the sky and its starry map indicated something upsetting to him.

"Are we no longer going to the North?" he asked Hoseok.

"I don't know," Hoseok said nonchalantly. "You have to ask Namjoon, he's the navigator."

"I thought he was a peddler before being a pirate?"

"Well, now he's a navigator."

A navigator who had not received navigator training? Seokjin looked up at Namjoon who was yawning until his jaw dropped. For a navigator who was supposed to be responsible for the lives of the men on board the ship, he did not inspire much confidence, he thought.

"Come on, I'll take you to see him," Hoseok offered.

Surprised by Hoseok's proposition, Seokjin turned to him.

"Don't be too nice to him," Jimin scolded him without much conviction.

"I don't have anything else to do and I'm having fun with him," Hoseok retorted, shrugging his shoulders and getting off the crate he was sitting on.

Jimin jumped out of his barrel after him and Seokjin took a step away, but the Ming didn't attack him. He seemed oddly in a better mood since Seokjin finished his plate and had accepted his food, like he was glad he didn't waste the food and had eaten until he was full.

"I don't fight during digestion," he told him lightly before walking away, carrying their empty plates into the kitchen.

"This guy is weird," Seokjin shook his head and followed Hoseok up to the upper deck.

"He is just what life made him," Hoseok told him. "Just like you who doesn't know how to clean the floor. Oh, I forgot to tell you: it was catastrophic," he added, turning around and seeing Seokjin's glare.

"What about you, who loves cleanliness but hates cleaning?" Seokjin retorted. "How has life made you this way?"

"I don't want to tell you!" Hoseok replied in a joking tone.

Sensing that he was in a playful and talkative mood - in fact, he seemed to be like that all the time - Seokjin took the opportunity to ask:

"And Jimin? What did he do for a living before becoming a pirate?"

"Something that made him very hungry and at the same time, strengthened his arms a lot," Hoseok laughed.

Perfect! Every conversation is a game for him and leads to nothing, Seokjin thought with annoyance.

They quickly joined Namjoon who casually held the rudder, and the latter gave Seokjin a charming smile accompanied by his little dimple.

"Hey, mate. You seem to be doing better."

"You don't need this ploy anymore, I'm already in your net," Seokjin quipped, settling down with Hoseok against the railing of the upper deck, in front of the helm.

"It's not a trap. I'm just like that," Namjoon told him. "Right, Hoseok?"

"No, your dimple isn't always there," Hoseok contradicted him by sticking his index finger in his cheek. "Is it because you like the admiral that you're smiling at him like that?" he added, smiling.

Namjoon chuckled while Seokjin rolled his eyes and scratched his forehead, which itched unpleasantly under the bandage.

"As a peddler, I have to be outgoing, agreeable and charming. Let's just say I did a good job yesterday, paying for a valuable commodity and successfully bringing it back to the captain."

Like the day before, Seokjin felt animosity towards Namjoon. He was treating him like a commodity after drugging and capturing him? His chains rattled as he barely refrained from hitting the pirate.

"Sorry about that mate, it's nothing personal," Namjoon said, noticing his hostility.

Personal or not, Seokjin had no intention of forgiving him. He fully intended to settle the score with him as soon as he could. In an effort to calm himself, he said curtly:

"So, it wasn't a lie, you really are a peddler. But how did you learn to navigate then?"

"On the job. The captain trusted me with that, so I learned."

Again, Seokjin frowned, taken aback. This was what he had feared. It was incredibly reckless to travel without a professional navigator.

"Your captain asked you to head north earlier, didn't he?"

"Yes, we are returning to the Sea of ​​Japan, on the other side of the Joseon Peninsula."

"The East Sea you mean," Seokjin corrected him sharply.

"If you want," Namjoon said diplomatically.

Indeed, the inhabitants of Joseon spoke of the East Sea while the Japanese spoke of the Sea of ​​Japan to designate the same sea. Since he was from Joseon and not from Japan, Seokjin was surprised to hear Namjoon speak of the Sea of ​​Japan. It was probably his contact with the wakos that made him adopt the same terms as them.

But he was even more surprised to realize that Namjoon thought he was heading straight towards the Sea of ​​Japan when he was going deeper into the Yellow Sea. It didn't take him long to realize that Namjoon absolutely didn't know how to sail. He burst out laughing, laughing to the rhythm of the clicking of his chains which shook with the jolts of his body.

"What are you laughing about?" Hoseok asked who wanted to laugh too.

Namjoon just observed Seokjin.

"He's judging me," he understood without appearing annoyed in the least. "Because he is a real sailor who knows how to sail, unlike us.

"You're a funny pirate crew," Seokjin agreed, barely regaining his seriousness. "Instead of trusting you, maybe your captain should come and take the helm. You don't know how to navigate at all."

"I do what I can and that satisfies my captain," the peddler defended himself.

"Namjoon, let me tell you that you probably have other interesting qualities for a wako - especially the manipulation of people - but navigation is not one of them. Setting and maintaining a course is an art. An art that I have mastered," Seokjin clarified with newfound confidence and a good dose of contempt towards Namjoon.

"I feel like you want to suggest something, little admiral," the peddler guessed with a smile. The dimple had disappeared, however, because he felt confronted on the ground of manipulation.

"Indeed: instead of making me clean the ship under the direction of Hoseok, have me sail under your direction and I'll get you where you want faster than you usually do because from what I understand you get lost a lot along the way in addition to being particularly slow and unable to grasp the winds. No wonder you stayed at the Ming's for so long that every wako in the Yellow Sea – and an admiral of Joseon – could locate you."

Namjoon's eyebrow twitched nervously as Hoseok chuckled.

"It's fun," he said happily, "we always find out where we are at the last minute and often we go around in circles."

Seokjin rolled his eyes. He wanted to have a serious conversation with Namjoon and Hoseok was bothering him.

"Navigation is not a game," he said before turning his attention to Namjoon whose response he was waiting for. He knew that his proposal was not easy to accept.

"If we leave the rudder to you, you'll lead us to Joseon, right?" Namjoon said bluntly.

Yes, Seokjin thought, that's exactly what I'm going to do by leading you straight to the nearest military port.

"I will guide us to the East Sea," he said instead, which wasn't a lie. On one side of the East Sea was Joseon and on the other side was Japan. All he would have to do is head towards Joseon, making it appear that it was the Japanese side. These incompetent pirates would see nothing but fire until they land in enemy territory. "I just want to escape the housework, I prefer to sail," he insisted.

"Maybe you could teach me navigation and I would be the one to hold the rudder," Namjoon suggested.

Seokjin's face immediately closed.

"I won't teach a wako anything at all," he replied, no longer trying to be friendly by hiding his hatred of wakos. He had never in his life spent so much time with wakos without slaughtering every single one of them and he had already made enough concessions by chatting with them. "I'll take the helm or let you continue exploring the Yellow Sea until you finally understand how to get out of it. Hoping you don't steer us into the ocean."

Namjoon seemed to think before saying:

"I'll talk to the captain about it."

"I can tell him about it myself," Seokjin objected, "why didn't I see him? Is he so afraid of me that he hides?"

"I suggest you don't talk like that about the captain in front of the crew," Namjoon warned, checking to make sure that no one besides him and Hoseok had heard.

Hoseok looked more amused than upset, but Namjoon was tense. Seokjin then realized that all three of them were Joseon. Could that be a problem in the eyes of the other wakos? he asked, turning to the lower deck where he met the contemptuous gaze of two Japanese wakos who were openly talking about him and pointing at him.

Even though he hadn't seen him, Seokjin thought that, given his recognizable accent, the captain of the Red Princess was Japanese. Did the Japanese crew members therefore have more power over the others? Or simply a special relationship with their captain as Taehyung gave the impression? Yet, aside from the captain, whom everyone seemed to unanimously respect, there didn't seem to be any real hierarchy on board.

"What is so exceptional about your captain?" Seokjin asked casually.

Namjoon gave him an enigmatic look and repeated:

"I'll talk him about your request. He's the one who will come and talk to you if he wants, you won't go see him at your leisure. Hoseok, take him back to his cell, the little admiral is not the master he thinks he is when it comes to negotiation and manipulation. At least not in front of me."

Seokjin sighed in annoyance but followed Hoseok without flinching. He felt like his situation had progressed well that evening and didn't want to lose this progress by rebelling.

Patience, Seokjin, he told himself through gritted teeth as Hoseok closed his cell door and left him in the dark and the stench again.