"Jungkook."

The vision of Jungkook imposed itself on Seokjin when he heard that name echo in his mind. A skinny 12-year-old boy who was starving and freezing but too proud to ask for help was huddled on a street corner in the dark neighborhood of Saengson. His black hair was dull and brittle from malnutrition and deplorable hygienic conditions, and yet, Seokjin loved styling it. 

"Jungkook?" Seokjin murmured.

Jungkook's sullen face lit up when he saw him and  Seokjin smiled in mimicry. How he missed him!

"You found me," Jungkook smiled.

"Obviously! I always find you, have you forgotten?" 

At the very moment he said them, Seokjin felt like these familiar words rang false. He frowned, feeling something was wrong.

"Jungkook?" he breathed. "Is that really you?"

The boy didn't answer and lowered his head. Then, without warning, he started running away from Seokjin, entering the streets of Saengson with the other street urchins who had disappeared forever. 

"No, come back, Jungkook!" Seokjin yelled, panicked at the idea of ​​losing sight of him again. "Jungkook!"

He wanted to run after him but his legs were stuck in the ground. He recognized the odious feeling of helplessness: he was in his nightmare.

In the distance, coming from reality, Seokin heard an unfamiliar voice, a sharp voice like a blade but seemed to have fun striking with the flat of the blade.

"Admiral Jungkook." 

It was like being pulled forcefully  towards reality. He suddenly opened his right eye and saw that his previously dark cell was slightly illuminated. He saw a lantern lying on the ground in front of his cell and behind it, he saw black leather boots and his vision could only go up to the knees of the man in front of him. The rest was plunged into darkness but Seokjin had no trouble guessing his identity, as if the aura emanating from him was indicator enough.

"Admiral Jungkook," the captain repeated.

Seokjin stood up, on guard. He now understood why the vision of Jungkook had imposed itself on him while he was still asleep and he pushed it out of his mind. It was the pirate who had called him that while he was sleeping and his damn brain had taken care of the rest.

He was on the verge of asking the pirates how he knew that name but he only just remembered that it was the name with which he had introduced himself to Namjoon. What a fool I am! he cursed at himself.

"Yeah, it's me," he grumbled, struggling unsuccessfully to open his left eye. 

He wanted to look at the other with as much disdain as possible but with his swollen face, he had the impression of offering a pathetic image.

"How strange..." the pirate whispered in the dark, making the place and the moment even more sinister than it was.

"What?" Seokjin said without understanding.

"Jungkook..." the man said again, as if he savored the name on his tongue.

This name spoken in the pirate's mouth had a strange effect on Seokjin. He shuddered. No, Jungkook's name definitely had no place in this man's mouth. He recovered and replied, annoyed: 

"You don't know how to express yourself clearly with sentences, do you need help?"

Too bad if he pushed him to the limit, he was tired of having to struggle to have a conversation with him. He was ready to feel a murderous aura descending on him preceded by a pistol shot that would have taken him to the other world but it was nothing of the sort. Even more astonishing, in the darkness that hid his face, Seokjin could have sworn he saw the glint of his teeth. Had he just... smiled?

And just as he expected to hear the man's voice turn into a sharp blade, it was the harmless blade of it that addressed him then:

"Jungkook was the name you introduced yourself to Namjoon with and yet, that's the name you whispered in your sleep.  And when I call you by that name, you seem to distance yourself from it, as if it belonged to someone else. This is all that I find strange." 

They were the longest words he had spoken to him and they were laced with a curiosity that Seokjin didn't understand. Why did this man give so much importance to something as trivial as his first name? He knew his last name, his military title and the nickname his enemies had given him, wasn't that enough?

"Namjoon claims he's great at extracting information without torture but he doesn't get the answers I would get under torture." If his voice was calm at the beginning, it suddenly became much sharper when he added: "If I had asked you, you wouldn't have lied to me."

Seokjin felt like he should have been scared by this man. He understood why the other crew members were intimidated by him. The man always began by letting calm settle around him. A dangerous calm, a harbinger of a storm, the sailor that Seokjin was understood that well. No one wanted to see the storm break loose, everyone took shelter. This was what Seokjin felt as the captain spoke to him. He felt like a storm was about to break if he wasn't careful.

"Jungkook is not my name," Seokjin admitted.

"I know that."

"So why waste your time instead of getting to the point?! You want to know my real name, right?"

"No, I don't care about your real name."

Seokjin felt himself blush with humiliation and replied:

"That's perfect because I wasn't going to give it to you!"

The silence spread and Seokjin decided to fill it before it made him nervous: he hated heavy silences with anyone, not just this pirate who obviously had trouble holding a conversation.

"You've been talking about my name a lot since earlier, but you want to know what I find even stranger?" he said. "That you came all the way down here to see me, here, in this disgusting place that I share with rats and spiders. And yes, I'm pretty sure they're not the ones you came to talk to."

This time, the silence did not last forever and the other was direct:

"Namjoon says you want to sail my ship."

"Namjoon informed you well."

Seokjin would have liked to see his face. He felt that he had an ascendant over him and wanted to sweep away this feeling.

"Why?"  the pirate finally asked.

"Because I want to run away," Seokjin said mockingly.

"I know that. What I want to know is why you don't hide it," the other replied in a voice that should have imposed respect and perhaps fear on Seokjin as it imposed on the other passengers on the ship but which strangely did not intimidate him.  

Instead, he couldn't help but giggle, because he suddenly understood why he wasn't intimidated: he had spent his life making fun of people who didn't have second-degree skills, and the person he had spent time making jokes with when he was a child - Jungkook - was himself a person who was sorely lacking in sense of humor.

He would not have gone so far as to say that the captain looked like Jungkook - that would have been an affront to the memory of his friend - but thanks to him, now as an adulte, he didn't let this kind of thing get him down. He didn't shy away from problems. He was heading straight into it. He wasn't running from the storm, he was going through it and braving it.

"You dare to laugh at me?" asked the pirate who seemed more stunned than angry.

"When you revealed to me how good you were at torturing people? I would never dare," Seokjin scoffed. 

"I have the feeling that everything that comes out of your mouth is a lie. You're not afraid, that's obvious. But you should be careful of your overconfidence."

Once again, his threats went completely over Seokjin.

"I'll try to remember it," he lied. "So, do you allow me to sail your ship?"

"No," the other replied.

Disappointed, Seokjin was going to retaliate with acerbic remarks but the other added:

"Not if you can't use that cheeky mouth of yours to persuade me instead of just making fun recklessly of the one who can destroy your life in a second."

"Do you want me to persuade you?" Seokjin asked suspiciously. 

"That's right."

"Your men have already done this to me. I gave them what they were waiting for and then trapped me. You just want me to flatter your wako ego before denying my request and leaving me to languish here until old age hits me, don't you?"

"You speak a lot for someone who has everything to lose. Are you nervous?"

"I'm not nervous, I'm protecting myself from disappointment!" Seokjin exlaimed. And without being able to stop himself, he sulked. He had always been spoiled by life and the people around him had always given him what he wanted. Never had he been so deceived as since he was on this ship. 

He had given Namjoon the most precious name he had only to receive a glass of sea water. He had humiliated himself in front of Jimin for a piece of chicken that the other had kept away from his mouth. He had agreed to clean the deck to get a meal and then got spat on by Yoongi. He was tired of being humiliated. What did the captain have in store for him?

"My proposition is honest: if you can convince me, I'll let you sail, otherwise, I refuse, isn't it simple?"

"You are a wako, you are the antithesis of honesty!" Seokjin exclaimed.

"I see," the pirate just said. "Since my proposal does not suit you, I have nothing more to do here."

He stooped to grab the lantern and leave. As the light got closer to his face, Seokjin could see part of it.  His facial features were fine and despite his tanned, sun-damaged complexion and his mature voice when he spoke, Seokjin realized that he was a young man who was probably not even past his thirties. He had a distinguished appearance, as if he were a man of the nobility. How could such a young man have gained the trust of such a poorly educated crew? 

The answer could come from the man's build which could be guessed through his shirt: it revealed a muscular body trained and probably a formidable warrior. But that couldn't be enough because respect had to be maintained and there were surely many other good warriors on this ship, starting with Taehyung who nevertheless had absolute respect for him.  How would this have been possible without respecting his word to his men? 

Seokjin thought about Hoseok, Jimin, Taehyung and Namjoon.  

Hoseok who said that the captain let him do whatever he wanted, even if it meant doing nothing. 

Jimin who had a strange affection for food and who had the support of the captain when he fought for food to be respected. 

Taehyung who, even though he was probably capable of decapitating him, bowed to his captain at the slightest desire. 

Namjoon who didn't know how to sail but who, for his captain, decided to do what he could.

Not to mention all the other stupide brutes who populated this ship but followed their captain without flinching. 

There was undoubtedly an element of honor in him, even though he was a wako. Besides, that man told Hoseok that if he was too arrogant, he would throw him overboard. This meant he didn't like arrogance. If Seokjin put aside his pride, would he agree to grant his request?

"Wait!" he said. 

The man stopped. Seokjin suppressed the wave of shame that was rising within him and declared:

"I... I'm going to convince you, so listen to me."

"I'm listening."

"You gotta let me sail because even if I wanted to use that position of sailor to run away like you said, it would be difficult and you know it. If you are so confident in your crew and even in yourself, and you desperately want to keep me on this ship, you will succeed even if I am at the helm. Besides, your navigator is really bad and with him, it will take us three lunar cycles to return to the Eas- I mean the Japan Sea," Seokjin corrected himself, deeming it more prudent to use the term preferred by the wakos.

"I see," the other said in a tone that did not reveal what he was thinking.

"Now if you don't mind," Seokjin continued, not knowing if he had managed to convince him, but wanting to change the subject to repress his shame, "it's my turn to ask a question. Who are you and why am I still alive?"

"I count two questions, not one," the other pointed out and Seokjin thought he heard a note of amusement in his voice but it was barely perceptible.

"You can still answer it," Seokjin replied, annoyed.

Again, silence fell and Seokjin wondered if he had upset him. He stood still in the dark.

"Have you lost your tongue?" he said to restart the conversation.

"Be careful not to get yours cut off, it seems too hanging to me."

Seokjin was very keen on his tongue but he couldn't help but reply:

"Quite the opposite of yours, right? You let Namjoon and the others do the talking for you while you stay perched in your cabin. Wouldn't you have any socialization problems, by any chance?"

"Yes, I do."

Seokjin almost choked as he didn't expect this response but the other decided that the conversation was over. 

"You can sail if you want, but don't expect to be free as soon as you reach the Sea of ​​Japan," he declared before turning on his heel, taking the light with him and leaving Seokjin in the dark.

He had almost reached the stairs when Seokjin shouted to him:

"Wait!"

Seokjin saw him stop and he grabbed the bars of his cell, sliding his face between two bars.

"What is your name? I can at least know that!"

Silence answered him.

"Pfff," he breathed before lying back down on the ground. "Whatever."

He thought the man could have at least given him a false name. He would go around the crew the next day to ask their name. He wouldn't believe anyone who told him his name was "captain".

Seokjin closed his eyes and a long moment passed. He expected to hear the other's footsteps coming up the stairs but that wasn't the case. He must have been particularly discreet despite his corpulence. 

Suddenly, as Seokjin felt sleep gripping him again, a voice made him open his eyes and realize that the lantern was still dimly illuminating the hold. The man still hadn't left.

"My name is Wakaï."

"Eh?" Seokjin said, standing up quickly.

The other had spoken quietly but he was sure he had heard him.

"My name is Wakaï. Wakaï Usagi."