"one more thing... make sure you won't become like me and run away from your fears and... make sure you also don't have any regrets. for your kindness, you deserve a happy life too, wooyoung."

---

smeengi was mad.

at himself mainly, but he still felt a bit of irritation towards the captain seep through.

all smeengi wanted was to please his leader, yet he royally pissed him off and now he won't face him at all. he feared that maybe he went a bit too far trying to save the captain, and now he might have to pay a tremendous price.

he needed to make it up somehow.

smeengi managed to somehow exit off of their beloved pirate ship undetected, thankful that today was one of those maintenance days meaning that they'd be beached until tomorrow morning. his heavy boots sunk in the cold sand, causing the escape through the beach to take way longer than it should've.

smeengi really needed to figure out what he could do to make it up for captain hookjoong.

so he walked.

and walked.

he walked deep into the lush forests of neverland til the sun was about to set, his pirate mind racing through as many things as possible that he could do to fix everything, but due to his low iq and tired brain, most of the ideas were absolute shit.

maybe that's why he became a pirate instead of an engineer or scientist or any job that required brains in the first place.

smeengi continued to walk when suddenly he stopped, his ears picking up something that didn't sound like a sound from nature.

it sounded like... voices?

the poor first mate tentatively snuck towards the sound of the voices and almost let out a large gasp once he discovered the source. there were two figures sitting on the ground. the pair of figures were closely hugging each other, hushed voices and sad and pain-filled sounding cries emanating from them.

smeengi almost immediately recognized one of them to be his leader's devious rival, peter san because of his bright pink hair, but the other figure was quite unfamiliar to him. it couldn't have been one of the lost boys because his attire was rather... different than theirs. who was this strange other person?

then smeengi realized. he saw another boy up in the clouds with peter san, flying down towards the ship just as he was going to push his captain away from the fight scene he anticipated. that must be who he was.

as smeengi stared at the two hugging boys, the gears began to turn in his small pirate brain. by what he could see, the two boys looked extremely close and probably care for each other a lot.

smeengi knew he was onto something. he knew that there was a golden idea on what he could do somewhere in his head.

then the puzzle pieces finally clicked, painting a whole picture clearer than day.

what if he kidnapped peter san's little friend and used him to lure the pest towards their ship?

he was a genius.

but how would he know where to find them?

smeengi watched as the boy's positions shifting, the two now staring at the stars. they can't be staying out here all night, right?

maybe he could wait it out and eventually follow them back to their hideout.

smeengi felt so proud of himself at that very moment. he has never done anything this elaborate or intelligent in his life.

if only captain hookjoong could see him now and be proud too.

---

smeengi could not help but smile as he snuck back to the ship.

he somehow successfully managed to find out where he thought was the home of peter san when he followed the two boys after their little chat.

he had valuable information now, and maybe his leader will finally appreciate him.

the ship was still sitting at the shore when he came back and thankfully because it was in the middle of the night, not many of the other crew members were awake.

smeengi slowly climbed his way onto the ship, cringing a bit at himself as his boots made a loud thud as they hit the planks. the icy wind caused him to shiver slightly, rubbing his dirty hands for warmth.

smeengi shuffled towards the captain's quarters and peered through the foggy glass. he was about to turn the rusty handle when he saw something that made him smile slightly.

the captain was sleeping.

his head was uncomfortably set on his wooden desk and his oily hair was sticking out in many directions cutely, but he was still doing something that seemed quite rare. finally, instead of staying up to work, he was taking care of himself.

smeengi left the vicinity and headed downstairs to his own quarters. he's disturbed the captain too much in the past few days and he didn't want to do anymore damage.

besides, he could always tell him later. to smeengi, the captain's wellbeing was still his top priority.

a/n i love smeengi he might be my favorite character in this book 🥺

unedited