At the end even the third class passengers came back inside, the noise was unbearable, the steam was coming out of the funnels at an high pressure, the stokers had to vent that hot steam out of the boilers, they couldn't let the cold water reach the hot steam of the boilers and blow up the entire ship.

The atmosphere was surreal, in the lower decks, in boiler rooms and cargo holds the officers were still checking the damages, sailors were doing their best to close the sabotaged watertight doors and the engineers had to keep the lights of the ship on, and all this just to keep the passengers calm and give them enough time to evacuate the ship. 

"Sir! Sir!" a guy shouted, the captain turned and as he noticed that he was a guy from the radio room he ordered him to go inside so that they could talk without yelling. 

"So?"

"An hospital ship received our message sir, it will be here in two hours" 

"Thank you..." the captain said, the guy left the room and two officers entered

"Sir, the lifeboats are almost ready, we need only other five minutes" the third officer said

"Good, what about you?" the captain said looking at the other officer

"Sir, the pumps are doing a great job and we're managing to close the sabotaged emergency doors, we calculated everything and..." 

"And?"

"The ship will sink in three hours at least sir" 

"Thank God... you can go now" 

Tine was really lucky, he went back to his cabin before the steward could lock them in order to prevent other passengers to come back to their cabin and be in danger, he was back at the entrance of the first class on the boat deck, he was bored, not a single passenger knew what was going on and the officers tried their best to look as calm as possible so that no panic could spread. 

"Where the hell are you Sarawat?..." Tine whispered, he was sitting on an armchair when a lady and her young son arrived, he stood up so that she could sit down and he went closer to the railing of the grand staircase

"Come back..." he said still thinking about Sarawat and he istinctively started playing with the ring his boyfriend gave him, suddenly the ring fell off his hand but he managed to catch it before it could fell into the void, the staircase was built in a way that could let you see the great glass dome even from the lowest deck that a first class passenger could reach, the F deck... Tine looked below him... only to see the water that was slowly flooding the F deck... he finally understood what was going on... the ship was sinking and he didn't know where Sarawat was.

"So, I'm going to check the D deck... would you like to check the C deck Sarawat?" Fukuda asked, as Sarawat nodded they both started looking for Ryo, it was a bloody sinking ship, where could he be? 

he kept looking for him for minutes but finally, when he was going back to the staircase he heard someone from the deck below, it was pretty weird actually, in a normal situation it would be really difficult since the first class is usually pretty noisy, the people chatting and the band playing... but now it was different, the band and all the passengers were on A deck waiting for the lifeboats to be ready

"Come on... or I'll kill him..." 

"Ok ok... I'm moving... but calm down..." 

It was miss Nakano and Ryo, he was certain about it, Akio went downstairs, he was shocked as he saw the korean lady holding a gun in her hands

"Miss... Nakano?" Akio said

"Oh, look Ryo! Your boyfriend is here to save you!" she said chuckling

"I thought... that we had an agreement miss Nakano!" 

"Oh, so you believed me... if every employee of the ministry of war is just like you Fukuda san... well, I suppose that Japan will lose the war pretty soon"

"Let him go" Fukuda said as he took his own gun that he kept hiding in his pocket for the whole journey, miss Nakano saw that Ryo was going  to Akio so she pointed her gun at her prisoner

"Suzuki Ryo! Stop now if you don't want to die" she shouted, the guy immediately stopped

"Let him go..." Akio said still pointing his gun at her

"Or?"

"What do you want?" Fukuda asked

"Throw your gun away first" she said

"Akio! Akio don't do it! She will kill us!" Ryo shouted, Akio thought about it for a second and eventually gave up and threw his gun away

"Good boy... Ryo, you can go with him" she said, Ryo slowly came closer to Akio when a shot was heard, Fukuda's eyes widened, Ryo looked at him and fell in front of his boyfriend

"RYO!" Fukuda shouted, miss Nakano looked at them and before going away she said

"Enjoy your last time together" 

Sarawat was still looking for Ryo when he heard the shot, he ran back to the staircase when he noticed that someone was coming downstairs fast, he decided that it was better to hide and see who was coming

"Sarawat! Sarawat!" it was Tine, he was terrified, Sarawat went to him and hugged his boyfriend

"Tine? Why are you here? Why didn't you wait for me on the boat deck with the other passengers?" Sarawat asked

"Sarawat.... the ship... the ship is sinking..." Tine said stuttering

"What?"

"Yes... come here..." Tine said pointing at the spot he saw before from the highest deck, Sarawat remained shocked as well

"Tine... we have to go" Tine nodded and they were about to ran upstairs when they heared someone whining downstairs, they both looked at each other and said

"Fukuda!" 

They went downstairs, the white stones used for the stairs were now red because of Ryo's blood, Akio was hugging him and he couldn't help but feel frightened as he noticed that Ryo's body was becoming colder and colder

"Akio... you have to come with us" Tine said calmly

"I can't..." Fukuda replied

"Akio... please... go... I don't want to feel... feel... guilty... because of this... you have to... to go..." Ryo whispered

"I can't go... I'm sorry Ryo... I'm really sorry..." Fukuda added, he hugged his boyfriend even tighter when he felt Sarawat's hand on his shoulder, Sarawat was trying to take Akio to the boat deck, Akio's eyes widened because of the sharp pain he felt, it wasn't in his shoulder... but in his leg, hu cried because of it. Tine, Sarawat and Fukuda noticed that his leg was injured and he couldn't move.

"I'm sorry Ryo... but it looks like I have to stay here..." Akio said, Ryo looked at him and chuckled since he understood that there was no reason to keep imploring him, Fukuda looked at Sarawat

"Sarawat... would you give me my gun? It's just there..." Akio said, as he noticed that Sarawat didn't want to he added

"Sarawat... please... I won't die because of the wound... and I don't want to drown... please..." Sarawat nodded and took the gun, Akio smiled, both Tine and Sarawat understood that it was time to leave and reached the boat deck.

The noise disappeared and the officers started telling the passengers what they had to do, at first everyone was pretty calm, but after the first hour panic started spreading, the water reached the D deck, the engineer were doing a great job, in fact the lights were still on even in the submerged areas and the water near the ship turned green, it was spectral.

The passengers were pretty scared, they had to leave the bright and warm interior of the ship only to go on a small and cold lifeboat that was about to be lowered in the dark water. 

"Sarawat... do you think that..." 

"Tine, calm down, there's enough room for all of us"

"But... but..."

"Tine, I said calm down, I know... they said women and children first... but you don't have to worry, ok?" Sarawat added, Tine was on a wooden chair but when Sarawat noticed that he was getting too cold he told him to stand up and walk for a bit.

A man jumped off the ship and a small group followed him, the situation was getting serious and Sarawat accidentally slipped because of the crowd, he started crying because of the pain as well, Tine didn't knwo what to do and called for help

"Help! Someone help!" there were still a lot empty lifeboats so an officer took Sarawat into one of those

"Tine..." 

Soon a few ladies got into the boat as well and tried their best to take care of the injured guy

"Take good care of him" Tine said smiling

"Tine... Tine get into the boat... TINE!" Sarawat shouted, the officer looked at Tine and shook his head

"Sarawat stay calm, there are enough lifeboats for all of us... you don't have to worry about me"

"Tine! Tine!" Sarawat shouted before fainting. 

After two hours and ten minutes from the explosion the passengers finally saw the lights of the hospital ship coming to rescue them, the officers were now much calmer than before and so were the passengers. 

You could hear the people chatting like they were used to at dinner when someone cried pointing at a tiny white wave coming closer and closer, a few seconds later a loud explosion could be heard, the lights remained on for a few minutes but the water, that now reached the C deck, couldn't let the engineer do their work. 

"What..." Sarawat woke up because of the explosion, his lifeboat was now near the hospital ship and ready to be rescued as other lifeboats previously, he was about to look at the sinking ship when he felt a hand covering his eyes

"What..."

"Shh Sarawat..." the person said

That guy covered his eyes for a really good reason, the ship was now listing fast because of the torpedo, the few lifeboats that were still on the ship started crushing onto the deck belows, people jumped off the ship as fast as they could hoping to escape that living hell.

"We have to go back!" a sailor shouted, as the passengers left the boats to go on board of the hospital ship the crew men came back to the sinking ship to rescue those who jumped, that cruise ship was now just a black mass with more or less two hundreds souls screaming

"T... Tine..." Sarawat whispered, his eyes became tearful and as the person who was still covering Sarawat's eyes felt the tears on his hands he looked at him

"Sarawat... I'm here" 

"TINE! How is it possible?" Sarawat shouted as he saw him

"Well... there were no more ladies or children around this lifeboats and there was still a afew empty places... so the officer told me that I could get into the boat..." Tine said smiling.

A few hours later

The lights of the morning were spreading all over the crowded deck f the hospital ship, more or less fifty person died... but Sarawat didn't know this... because he was in one of the empty rooms of the hospital ship

"D... doctor?"

"Oh, you're awake! How do you feel?" the doctor asked

"Quite... good thank you..." Sarawat said rubbing his eyes, the doctor left the room and Sarawat heard that he was chatting with someone outside

"Yes... he's awake, you can visit him if you want"

"Thank you doctor" 

The door opened, Tine entered and he slowly closed the door behind him

"T... Tine..." 

"I'm back Sarawat... you will have to stay with this Nuisance for quite a long time" Tine said smiling

"Well... it is the Nuisance and the handsome prince after all" 

"You aren't that handsome Sarawat" Tine said hugging him

"You didn't mean that" 

"Yeah you're probably right" 

The End

So, this is the end and I hope that you liked this book as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thank you for your support and I'm really happy if you want to share your thoughts about this ending,