[8:49PM] Faint music plays in the background as Seonghwa stares blankly at the white ceiling, long discarding the last slice of cake sitting on the table. He feels a sort of emptiness within him that he can't seem to describe and it's been bothering him for over an hour. He closes his eyes and concentrates, calling out for his soulmate.
"It's my birthday today."
No response. He sighs, disappointed. He doesn't know why he even thought to bother them. He rises from his chair, beginning to clean before a sweet voice responds, quickly filling his heart with a sense of happiness.
Plot summary: Obedience has been the very core of who she is. Cursed with not being able to identify faces and haunted by dreams of a monstrous woman, she spends her days serving under the feet of others with no hope of freedom. Later proving herself on a slave ship, she's recruited into the ranks of the Horizon and meets the infamous Pirate King, Kim Hongjoong. The pirate life is uncertain, but at least she's free.
Warnings: mentions of slavery, death, burning, scars
Word count: 2129
Synopsis: Fear of water.
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Leaving the healer's quarters, Eunsung trails behind San as he guides her through the halls of the lower deck. They stop in front of a double door, and he turns to face her. He jabs a thumb at the circle-shaped windows and she spots a young man wiping the kitchen counter.
"Watch this." He whispers mischievously and she sends him a confused look. San turns on his heel and kicks the kitchen door open.
"Seonghwa! Come out, you have a new mouth to feed!" He says in a chirpy tune. For a second, the kitchen is completely empty and she wonders if her dreams have finally affected her mental health. A black-haired figure appears behind the counter, wielding a pan.
"Who?" The man's voice comes out deep in annoyance. San steps out of the way to introduce her, now dressed in some crew member's clothing. "This is Eunsung. She was one of the slaves on board of the ship we raided a few days ago."
"I know who she is, Choi. The captain's been telling us about her for days."
Eunsung faces the cook nervously and bows to their surprise. Seonghwa lays the pan on the counter, crossing his arms. "I'm not the king of the seas for you to bow to me."
Eunsung stammers. "I-I'm sorry, it's just that on the ship we needed to bow to everyone on board as a sign of respect." San places his hands behind his back and laughs. "We don't do that here. Especially not to Seonghwa." Seonghwa throws a kitchen towel in his direction in response.
She nods slowly, feeling out of place. The cook points to one of the empty wooden stools. "Sit there. I'll go make something."
As they wait patiently, Eunsung stares in amazement as Seonghwa begins to cook. The fire burns bright, but he remains unaffected to how close the flames are to his hands. She recalls the boy slave again. The way his skin had burned away etching deep into her mind. She swallows hard.
He must be dead.
San sits in front of her, clasping his hands together. "You don't have to watch him cook the entire time, you know?" She turns to face him, quietly apologizing.
He waves it off.
"So.." He starts. "You really don't know how I look like? Or Seonghwa?" She nods hesitantly. "Then how are you able to identify people?"
"I-uh, by their clothes and their hair. Sometimes it's by their voices." She answers, drumming her fingers lightly on the wooden surface.
"How were you even able to get in touch with a witch in the first place?" His voice comes out curious and her eyes turn downcast. "I mean, you must have known the risks when you went to negotiate with one."
She drums her fingers harder, now more focused on the sound than his voice. Risks? Had she known the risks? She didn't even know what she wished for or what she had given away. She shuts her eyes for a moment and she's greeted with bloodied green eyes.
"Most ask for something non-material, but sometimes they ask you to commit a ritual of some sort-"
A plate is loudly set down on the table, cutting off San and stopping Eunsung's nervous drumming. "I think that's enough." Seonghwa moves his head to face the healer as he talks. There's an unknown tension around the table. "Wouldn't want her to think of you as a big mouth."
San's voice lowers. "I appreciate the concern."
The cook makes an effort to slowly pull out the chair at the head of the table before sitting down. She notices three unusual white scars at the side of his neck. He faces her suddenly and she's quick to turn her eyes away to look down at the table.
Seonghwa props his elbow on the table, resting his head against his hand. San grumbles, moving his chair so his face isn't covered by his arm. "What are you waiting for?" He gestures to the sizzling meat sat on the plate and a glass of water. "Eat."
She reaches for it, dragging it slowly towards her, the delicious intoxicating smell beckoning her to eat. She stabs it with the fork, quickly bringing it to her mouth.
Gods. She couldn't believe how hungry she was at that moment. As she continues to hungrily scarf down, she listens in on their quiet conversation.
"You shouldn't fire at her with all your questions. She's a former slave, she'll get overwhelmed." Seonghwa scolds. Her heart tightens at the word slave.
San scoffs, crossing his arms. "What would you know? At least I'm actually talking. Don't think I forgot about you though. Glad to hear your voice box is still working." He taps at his adam's apple.
Seonghwa huffs. "I can't believe the captain assigned you to show the newbie around."
"Who else would do it? You?" San suggests amusingly. "Do you think you'll do better than me?"
"At least I won't chew her ear off with my incessant questions for my useless research."
San lightly claps his hands onto the table, letting out an amused sound. "You have a complaint, you tell it to the captain. Don't waste my time with your pettiness."
The tense atmosphere grows thicker as she swallows the last slice of meat down her throat. She shifts awkwardly in her chair, taking a sip of water. "Hey, look. She's done." San announces emotionlessly. "I guess we'll get going now." He rises from his seat, looking down at Seonghwa before quickly making his way towards the exit.
"Let's go, Eunsung. Say bye to Spark."
"Spark?" She asks, confused at the strange name. Seonghwa sighs. "It's a childish name San gave me. The 'S' stands for my first name, Park is just my surname."
She gradually nods. Her eyes wander back to his neck again and she notices that he has the same three scars on the other side of his neck as well.
"You should get that checked." He points at her side. She thoughtlessly moves her hand to her faint bruise. "The shirt got raised a bit, I'm sorry for staring." He admits.
She's slightly taken aback from his apology. A horrible feeling washes over her for even staring at his scars. She clears her throat. "I did already. It's okay, I've endured worse."
"Well, you shouldn't have to." He responds neutrally.
San yells from the other side of the door. She catches herself bowing again. "Goodbye."
--
After leaving the kitchen, San brought her to every other room in the lower deck. They went by them in a flash, but the most memorable room to her was the living quarters for the Powder Monkeys. She had expected it to be similar to the nightmare that was the hole.
It was separate from the rest of the crew's living quarters, but when San opened the door and greeted them all by their names, her expectations disappeared in an instance. Some boys were sleeping on clean hammocks, and Eunsung wonders if there was another ship with this kind of nice treatment. She could only see their bright hair colors, but they greeted him back in the same friendly manner and waved at her before focusing back on the game they were playing.
She bows at them before he closes the door. "You're very old-fashioned," San mentions. "You seriously need to stop bowing to every person you meet."
"It's a habit." She murmurs.
They're both now at the upper deck. She steps on the wooden floor and her knees ache with a familiar dullness to get down and scrub. Close by, a man carries a bucket filled with water in her direction and she visibly stiffens, her eyes transfixed on the object. He stops a few feet in front of her and spills the water over the deck and it carries away the dirt and muddy shoeprints, disappearing over the ship. His nearby crewmates yell at him for getting their shoes wet, but he merely laughs at them until they join in on his merriment.
"Eunsung? Are you okay?" San's worried voice snaps her out of her trance and he appears beside her in an instance. She's quick to look at him despite his lack of a face. She nods. His head moves in the direction of the laughing men, but if caught on to what she was looking at, he didn't say anything. "Come on. Don't want you going missing now, do I?"
She's not a slave anymore. Never again.
They move to the right side of the Horizon. Some of the men working stop and whisper amongst themselves as they pass them. "that's her..", "The captain's life.."
She stares over the railing and she sucks in a breath and almost expects a giant hand to rise from the water like in her dreams. Her throat tightens and she realizes she's afraid of the darkness of the sea.
She tears her eyes away and struggles to focus back on what San was talking about.
San slaps the sides of one of the cannons. "Here are the cannons, I won't go into too much detail since you aren't going to work here. The powder monkeys fire the cannons and are usually the new members of the ship like you, but you're a special case."
San cups his hands at the sides of his mouth and yells towards the mizzenmast. "Wooyoung! Come down here! Captain finally assigned your pathetic butt an apprentice!"
She strains her head to look above and sees a flash of purple before a young man skillfully climbs down the Riggs.
"An apprentice?" The man, supposedly named Wooyoung, asks exasperated. "I just helped raid a ship a few days ago and the captain is already giving me more responsibility?"
Wooyoung points at her, his tone annoyed. "You. What's your name?"
"Eunsung." She replies, straightening her back after being addressed. He scoffs. "I can't believe we're already replacing the old gunman."
"The..the old gunman?"
The head gunner points at his neck. "Poor man got shot right here and fell off the foremast. It wasn't pretty."
She gulps and San fake laughs, patting Wooyoung on the back. "Captain's orders, so please don't try scaring her off on the first day. She's a pretty decent shot from what I heard. Maybe even better than you."
Her eyes widen. Nobody said anything about that. San waves, giving words of encouragement before disappearing downstairs to the lower deck.
Wooyoung crosses his arms, giving attention to the gun in his holster. "You were one of the slaves on board the snake-something, right?" She nods, the action feeling more forced.
He stays silent and she awkwardly speaks up again. "I'm cursed." Her words feel heavy on the tongue. "I can't see what expression you're trying to show."
He groans, pointing towards the Riggs. "Start climbing. I'm not going to waste time on someone who won't even be able to qualify as a rigger."
She stares at the tall wooden beam and she swallows nervously. She's never been that high before. "Get going!" Wooyoung commands.
She slowly makes her way towards the tied ropes, getting used to the strange texture.
It's just like the ladder back in the hole. Just treat it like the ladder.
She begins to climb. She imagines the top to be the hatchet door -- her temporary ticket to the outside. Her foot slips momentarily and she exclaims in surprise. She hangs by both of her arms and she struggles to pull herself back up.
Her heart plummets down to her stomach in fear and she does the mistake of looking down. Everything looks tiny from her perspective. Her grip begins to slip and she holds on for dear life. She's going to die if she falls.
She stares down to see the small figure of Wooyoung watching her, and she admits that she's even more afraid of what he might do if she fails.
She's not going back to being a slave.
Her muscles strain and she hooks her foot back onto the rope and continues to climb until she finds herself pulling her body onto the top of the mizzenmast. She stands in victory and she finally smiles for the first time in a long time. She leans against the railing to look down at Wooyoung. "I did it!"
He walks towards the Riggs and in a couple of seconds, she finds herself face to face with Wooyoung. Her mouth opens slightly in disbelief. "You passed..for now." He concludes. "Did you think we were over? I'm not going to let you go until you're able to climb as fast as me."
He cracks his knuckles and even through the blurry facade, she can imagine him smirking. "Get back down and restart."
plot summary: Obedience has been the very core of who she is. Cursed with not being able to identify faces and haunted by dreams of a monstrous woman, she spends her days serving under the feet of others with no hope of freedom. Later proving herself on a slave ship, she's recruited into the ranks of the Horizon and meets the infamous Pirate King, Kim Hongjoong. The pirate life is uncertain, but at least she's free.
I’m making a taglist for everyone who wants to be notified when I upload a new chapter of Horizon. If anyone wants to join just like or reblog this post.
You can read the first chapter here and my masterlist here.
I hope you continue to support my story because every time I see someone enjoying Horizon, my heart just goes 🥺🤧💗
Please don’t reblog or like this post if you don’t want to be included in the taglist.
Synopsis: A little thing I wrote before Horizon discontinued.
Masterlist
—
Eunsung can feel herself slipping away.
Her head is pounding and it feels like someone is deliberately stabbing inside her brain. Her thrashing means nothing compared to the hold around her body and the tears slipping from her eyes are useless as they mix into the salty water she’s submerged in.
She watches as the witch’s tentacle tenses even tighter and even more air is knocked out of her lungs. She should have never have come. Eunsung should have never had come to the island.
“Stop struggling,” the witch commanded. The witch’s mouth never moves as her voice echoes in Eunsung’s head, “It’ll all be over soon.”
The pain is hot and fiery as the tugging in her brain grows harsher. All her screams are muffled by the water and they only turn into large bubbles as they float to the surface.
The witch finally finds what she’s looking for and the last tug relieves Eunsung of her misery. She’s too tired to fight and too tired to scream and she watches as whatever she tugged out of her brain, flashes through different colors. Eunsung sees a familiar face, and her body wrecks with sobs and choked apologies.
The witch holds the memory softly in her hands. “A deal is a deal, Miss Moon. What I am doing for you now is merely out of pity.” She hovers her hands around the memory, creating a transparent bubble and she watches as it floats away.
And bursts into nothing.
She swims closer to Eunsung and cups both her hands around her tear-streaked face. She gives her a soft smile and the grip around her waist loosens.
“It’s time to rise.”
—
When Eunsung finally awakens, and the heat of the sand is scorching beneath her skin, it doesn’t take her much time to realize that she isn’t home.
I’m sorry that Horizon has been on-hold for a long time, but I think this may be the last Horizon post before it’s discontinued. There were a lot of things that I was unhappy with in the mere three chapters that I wrote. I felt like the pacing was too rushed and I struggled to make the characters, especially Eunsung, have proper chracterization and dialogue. I originally planned to post the fourth chapter a month after the third chapter was posted, but I kept on rewriting it to the point where the personality I gave Wooyoung was beginning to annoy me (no hate to real-life woo though) and how flat Eunsung felt.
I found this sitting in my drafts and it says I had last edited it at the start of June. It was supposed to be the prologue. I guess it was a last attempt at rewriting the story, which now that I’ve realized it, I shouldn’t have done. I hope I can begin to write stories that I’ll have the capability to continue. I know not a lot of people read Horizon before it stopped, but I still wanted to apologize. To the people who did read Horizon, thank you for the likes and reblogs that you gave to my first ever story. I really, really appreicated every single one. I know Eunsung’s story ended abrubtly, but I hope one of these days I may come back to it and write for her again.
somebody help I don’t know how to give personality to a character. The only personality I know is mine and it’s just loud and annoying and no one is going to want to read someone that’s like me
