TW: Violence

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Seokjin's consciousness returned to him abruptly.

His chest burned and he felt hands pressing hard on it at regular intervals. He wanted to ask the person to let go of him, to stop hurting him like that. He had to tell them, but his body didn't respond. 

It was only when he felt lips on his and breathe deeply inside until you oxygenate your lungs that his eyes opened wide and his shocked gaze stared into the two big black eyes that were staring at him too closely.

He was lying on his back, in full sunlight that the person leaning over him did not block so, almost immediately, he closed his eyes again when he felt the sun burning them. Nevertheless, he managed to push away the person who was leaning over him and who had entered his vital space. 

He intended to let them know and his mouth opened but instead of the flood of words he thought he would bring out, it was a deluge of salt water that he expelled before almost choking on the reflux.

Immediately, the person who had manhandled his chest and his mouth just before grabbed him firmly by the arm and laid him on his side, in lateral safety position. It was less one: the water finally flowed outward instead of returning to suffocate him inside.

"Well, he's alive after all," a voice said.

"He's tougher than I thought," another added.

He knew these voices but could not mentally associate them with faces and his blurred vision did not allow him to see what was around him. He began to cough violently, spitting out the seawater that still filled his lungs. The smell of foam that crept into his nostrils made him nauseous and he vomited all the unwelcome seawater into his body.

When he finished, his body remained shaking, panting and spasming. His skin was pale and his chest burned as he filled his bruised lungs with air.

He lost consciousness again.

When he awoke again, everything around him was plunged into darkness except for the lantern which was placed next to his face.

"Are you awake?" Hoseok's voice asked.

Seokjin grunted in response and slowly stood up, realizing that he was back on his pallet in his cell, with his hands still bound in shackles. Had he dreamed of this drowning? His cold, trembling body had been covered with a thick blanket the likes of which he had never seen in his cell. 

"I brought you a blanket and something to eat and drink."

Seokjin saw that indeed, there was a mug of water a bowl and a full of steaming tofu stew and he recognized Joseon food. However, he didn't touch anything. He wasn't hungry and even less thirsty, he was nauseous just the thought of drinking water.

"The captain saved you. Without him you would have been returned to the sea and your skeleton would be swimming with the tuna," Hoseok told him and Seokjin could see that he was sitting cross-legged in front of the bars outside the cell.

"Why?" Seokjin asked in a strangely hoarse voice. Why had this detestable man saved him from drowning after having sunk his ship himself?

"I don't know. He seemed to have decided to let you die at first but he suddenly jumped into the water without telling anyone. Then he came back up with you and we helped him get you back on the ship. You were unconscious and everyone thought you were dead because you weren't breathing. But the captain got the water out of your lungs and you started breathing again. The captain is really cool, don't you think?"

Seokjin didn't answered, only thinking about what he had consciously experienced. So none of this had been a dream... He shivered but it wasn't just because his clothes were still wet under the blanket. 

"H-how long was I underwater?" he stuttered without being able to help it.

"I don't know, five minutes? Maybe more."

Seokjin let himself fall back weakly on his pallet, hoping that Hoseok didn't notice the tremor. He had felt like he was dying. He had taken a few breaths before the water invaded his mouth then his throat and finally his lungs, making it impossible for him to breathe and causing him to panic. It had been painful and it had taken a long time. Then, after those long seconde of suffering, he had felt his conscience leave him and with it had arrived the promise of the end.

But after everything, he was still alive and he was still a prisoner of the wakos. His lips trembled.

"You will tell your so cool captain that he would have done better to refrain," he said to Hoseok in a trembling voice full of anger, with an aggressiveness that he could not control.

"It's an unexpected thank you, but okay, I'll tell him," Hoseok said, getting up.

"These are not thanks!" Seokjin retorted, furious.

Hoseok watched for a moment as Seokjin trembled with anger and glared at him.

"You should calm down," he suggested.

"And you should shut up!" Seokjin replied, 

But Hoseok didn't do that. He did not allow himself to be dismantled by the anger of the other which he did not think was addressed to him and which he judged to be linked to his suffering.

"You are pale and you're cold," he said with concern. "You are probably sick but after what you did yesterday, Zijing will not come to heal you, so I advise you to rest as much as you can. The guys up there are thinking about what they're going to do to you for killing some of our people during yesterday's battle. And..." Hoseok said hesitantly, "I don't think the captain will stop them."

This time, Seokjin remained silent. He was not surprised to hear this. He didn't regret what he had done, he had killed wakos of this crew and he was going to face the consequences now. That's how it was and he was too weak to fight against what was happening. The pirates had only saved him to make him suffer more. There was nothing left to do but wait.

Seeing that the admiral remained silent, Hoseok got up and left. Unexpectedly, he had left the lantern with Seokjin. Perhaps a gesture intended to be generous towards a man who was awaiting his ordeal.

Despite his exhaustion, Seokjin couldn't sleep.

He was filled with fear whenever he tried to do it, reliving his terrible drowning. This feeling was worse than wondering what the pirates were planning to do to him or when they were planning to come for him.

After what seemed like an eternity, two pirates whose names Seokjin hadn't remembered came looking for him and grabbed him roughly, each by one arm, without any consideration for his wrists painfully tied together.  Weakened, Seokjin did not struggle and let himself be dragged along.

They brought him back sharply to the deck and Seokjin understood by looking at the dark gray sky that the day was coming to an end even though the attack on his ship had happened the day before.

Darkness was beginning to envelop the ship and the reason was not just that night was falling: the rain was coming. The storm he had desperately waited for to escape was only now arriving, as if to mock him. Lanterns were lit in the four corners of the deck and the deck was filled with members of the crew who uttered bestial cries. Seokjin assumed it wasn't a party that was being planned that night: it was his public execution. But maybe for these pirates it was equivalent?

While the two pirates dragged him into a sort of guard of honor that he would have renamed "the gard of hatred" where he was copiously insulted by the wakos, Seokjin saw Namjoon behind the crowd whom he exceeded by a good head. The latter did not have the same reaction as the others, as if he disapproved of what was happening. Jimin and Hoseok were nowhere in sight.

On the upper front deck, in the place that formed a balcony in front of the captain's quarters, Seokjin saw Wakaï, surrounded by Yoongi and Taehyung who had retrieved his katakana and was giving Seokjin a dirty look. Seokjin returned it without hesitation but he mainly focused on Wakaï who wore an indecipherable expression.

He glared at him and shouted to him over the clamor of the pirates:

"You found me, so I imagine you are happy now?!"

He was furious to see that the other had no reaction but soon, he no longer saw him because the pirates pinned him against the main mast, forcing him to turn his back on the captain and they tore his shirt from the back.

Seokjin let out a cry of surprise when he felt his skin being revealed. The scar from the bullet he had received in the stomach when he was little and which had emerged on the other side of his back was visible, revealed for all to see. He was not fooled, he understood very well what awaited him.

"Mates," Wakaï said in his calm voice that silenced everyone. "You asked for justice to be done for all our friends the admiral killed along with our enemies. You asked me for his death and I refused it to you."

"Why?!" Seokjin yelled, trying in vain to break away from the mat to look him in the face. "Why can't you just let me die?!"

Wakaï ignored him and continued talking to his men.

"I forbade you to kill him but you are authorized to take revenge. All those who have a grievance against him that requires atonement, you will take the whip and imprint your resentment in his flesh. After that, you won't be able to take revenge on him. I forbid you. And if you disobey me, it is against you that my grudge will be directed. Is this clear?"

The mass of pirates roared their assent and Seokjin, pressed against the mast, felt his muscles stiffen. If all these men whipped him, he might as well be dead.

"Who starts?" someone shouted.

"Why not Taehyung?" Yoongi suggested with a wicked smile. "After all, Joseon ridiculed you and stole your precious blades."

"My blades are in my possession again, I have no need to act like an animal," Taehyung replied, to the surprise of Seokjin who thought he would have happily accepted. "But why don't you go and show us how your breed behaves, Ming dog?"

"No problem," Yoongi said, heading towards the lower deck.

As he passed, he met Namjoon's disapproving gaze, to whom he gave an evil smile. 

"Give me that, Makoto," he ordered, snatching the whip that one of the pirates was holding, then entering the guard of honor that Seokjin had crossed a few minutes before.

Hearing the sound of Yoongi's boots walking towards him, Seokji felt his breathing quicken in anticipation of what was going to happen and the pain he would experience. He soon heard the whip cracking on the ground, aware that Yoongi was taking pleasure in raising the tension and especially his nervousness.

Then, without warning, the whip cracked on him and lacerated his back, drawing a howl of pain from him. He would have collapsed to the ground if the two pirates holding him hadn't kept him upright. It hurt so much!

"The others might not be as strong so I made sure that mine will stay engraved in your flesh, Joseon," Yoongi spat in his ear.

"I'll kill you for that!" Seokjin yelled, in pain. "You, scarred bastard!"

"As if you could," the pirate mocked, before turning to the others: "who's next?!"