Use to us

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Jade's p. o. v.

"He's the captain of this ship."

He nodded in understanding, watching me carefully like always. He seemed as intrigued with me as I was with him.

"Will you let me go now?" I asked, awkwardly gesturing towards the cell door. He moved his tail out of my way and I wasted no time in stepping out of the cell, closing the door behind me and locking it.

I resisted the urge to look back at him as I walked out of the room. Jungwon was waiting on the other side of the door, leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets.

"Glad to see he's didn't eat you," he mumbled as he pushed off the wall so he could walk with me. I scoffed at his comment.

"He didn't try anything. He barely moved at all. I doubt he plans to eat anyone." I found myself being oddly defensive of Sunghoon. Jungwon glanced at me with a raised eyebrow, strands of his black hair falling over his bandana and into his eyes.

"We don't know what he's thinking, J. You can't trust him. He's a predator." Jungwon warned.

I knew what he said was right, but I still felt disappointed hearing his words. Sunghoon was a siren, not a human. So why do I feel this strange connection to him already?

"I know." I sighed.

Jungwon was the person was the closest toon the ship. When I was new to the crew, he stayed up with me many nights just to talk and we became friends rather quickly. I trusted him enough to know that he only had my best interest in mind.

The two of us walked together to the crew's quarters, met with silence since everyone was already asleep. I whispered goodnight to Jungwon before easily slipping into my bed.

When I woke up in the morning, it wasn't surprising to see that everyone was still asleep. I was always the first to get up.

After getting out of the bed and changing into new clothes before any of the crew woke up, I walked out into the main deck. It was dawn, The first rays of the sunlight just streaming above the ocean's horizon line.

I rested my elbows against the railing and took in a deep breath of the warm morning air, listening to the occasional creaking of the boat. The calmness made it impossible to tell that there had been such a large storm just the night before.

After a few minutes of staring out into the distance, I heard footsteps coming from behind me. Soon, someone joined me in leaning against the railing. I looked over to find Heesung.

"Good Morning," I said quietly, not wanting to break this peaceful atmosphere.

"Morning."

I waited for him to say something else, but he let us fall into silence for several minutes. Then, finally, he stood up straight and turned to face me " We need to talk."

I looked at him noticing how serious he was. I nodded and stood up so I could face him fully. "Have you decided what we're doing with him?" I couldn't stop myself from asking.

"Who?" He tilted his head in confusion.

"Sunghoon. The siren." I answered.

His brows pulled together. "So it's a he now? And it has a name?" I could hear the frustration in his voice, but he seemed to be trying to control it.

"Yes....He told me last night that his name is Sunghoon." I explained, feeling self-conscious under his intense stare.

"When I left you to deal with him I didn't expect you to have a full-blown conversation." he began raising his voice.

Why is he so upset?

"We didn't. He just told me his name and then asked for mine. And I cleaned up his wound. That's it." I raised my voice to match his.

He lets out a sigh and looked at the water, the veins in his hands becoming notable as he gripped onto the railing tightly.

"I'm sorry for getting angry." he glanced back at me. "I just don't want you to get hurt." He reached out and pulled a strand of hair behind my ear. The action wasn't new to me. It became a habit of his since he started doing it for the first time two years ago.

"I know, but you don't have to worry. I'll be more careful." I tried to reassure him.

"I always worry. Do you know how scared I was when I saw you nearly falling into the water last night?"

"I'm okay...."

"J, what u wanted to talk to you about wasn't siren, it's about us."

"Jay has been challenging me lately because he thinks I'm being unfair. He keeps telling me that I have a soft spot for you, that I treat you differently than the others. And he's right. I speak to you differently, I let you off the hook while I punish the others. I used to think I did it because I was protective of you, ever since saving you. But after Jay kept bringing it up, I realised it's more than that." He stepped closer to me, and I moved back. After a couple steps my hips we're against the railing and Heesung put his hands on either side of me.

"I don't know when it changed, but at some point, my protectiveness over you became more of a possessiveness. A need to be close to you, a need to call you mine. I never let myself admit it."

"Cap...." I stopped short as his finger covered my lips. He leaned closer to me, his nose nearly brushing against mine.

"How many times do I have to tell you? What's my name?" he questioned, his breath fanning my face?

My cheeks burned as I opened my half-smiles were him. "Lee Heesung."

His lips tilted up in a half smile as his name left my mouth.

"Good girl."

Then he was leaning in and my mind was clouding over until clumsy footsteps started approaching us. Heesung pushed away from the railing, distancing himself and allowing me to breathe normally again.

"Morning Captain, J." Daniel nodded to us in acknowledgement as he walked to us, unaware of what he just interrupted. He rubbed his eyes clearly he is not fully awake yet.

"Good Morning, Daniel," I mumbled, still trying to slow my racing pulse.

"Kim, go check on our prisoner. J, please go wake the rest of the crew up." Heesung instructed.

I nodded at his orders and quickly sped off to the crew's quarters, glad to escape the tension between the two of us.

I proceeded to wake the males up by banging on the wall and shouting for them to rise and shine. There was plenty of groaning and cussing as their precious sleep was interrupted, but soon enough they were all following me out on the deck where we met Heesung.

"I've decided our best option is to just turn the siren in for a reward. We don't know enough about what he's capable of, so I'd rather just get rid of him as soon as possible. I've heard they're worth a pretty penny no matter where you go, so we're headed to the nearest town." Heesung announced.

Many of the pirates nodded in agreement, but K spoke up, "Captain, don't you think we should try to find out more about him first? There are so many rumours, claims that they have healing abilities, that they can control the weather..... What if he's more useful to us if we kept him here?"

I was surprised to hear K's suggestion but it made sense. It would have been unwise to just hand Sunghoon over without knowing what we were losing first."

"I have a hard time believing he'd be willing to share his abilities with us if he even has any. So unless you can get him to agree to some kind of arrangement before we reach land, we'll be trading him in by tomorrow night." Heesung said.

I looked at K and he met my gaze. I could tell we were on the same page. Both of us would rather make a deal with Sunghoon, to experience whatever power he might have and benefit from it.

As the crew dispersed to their different posts, K approached me. "I guess it's up to us to keep the siren here."

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