Chapter Text
He was pulled and pushed by the ever changing pressure of the water around him.
Yeosang couldn’t figure out which way was up as the waters surged around him, the sting of the salt not enough to close his eyes, as the fear of the unknown opened them. It was dark, but in a way that was fluid, as lights seemed to flash in the distance as he struggled to find the surface. His lungs were beginning to weaken, as he fought with a primal need of survival. Something was trying to pull him in another direction, and so he fought against that.
It was the right thing to do, as he finally felt the water change from a suffocating blanket to a churning, as his hands broke the surface first, pulling his head above the water. Rain and waves still made it impossible to see, and his eyes still stung from the sea water, but even the swallowed sea water was forgiven with the rush of air that followed it down. He choked and coughed as he tried to tread water and breathe, continually buffed by the ever surging waves. All he could hear was the thunder and waves, the occasional lightning strike illuminating the water, but the waves were so constant, he didn’t see anything but water.
There was no real understanding of time as he struggled for what felt like hours, trying to keep his head above water, sinking and rising with the waves. It was as if the waves were hunting him, for every time his face resurfaced and he got to take one breath, they would crash into him, sending him under once again. Something about the struggle of survival cleared his mind, there was no thoughts, no understanding that he was even a person, only the crushing need to breath. He was so tired.
After what felt like hours of struggling, he was trying to push his head back above the surface when his head hit something hard. Sputtering in the water, surprised, he opened his eyes to see a solid object above him in the water. Safety. Something to hold on to. His mind focused on getting on top of whatever that was, and he proceeded to swim up, the object seeming to block some amount of the waves, though his body still buffated around his. It wasn’t as hard as he originally thought, but he had no ability to process anything more than the need to get out of the water.
Finally, his head resurfaced, gasping, and he reached out for the object, hand slipping down until it came into contact with something he could get his hand around. He held on tight, using it to keep his head above the water. When he could finally stay up for longer than a few seconds, he screamed as something grabbed on to him, water filling his mouth again. Looking up, he saw a shadow leaning over the object, and he realized a person was grabbing onto his arm, trying to pull him up. They were yelling, but the storm took their voice and the water in his ears made it even more difficult to hear.
Survival instinct kicked in, and he grabbed onto the arm with his free hand, kicking and fighting to help the person pull him out of the death trap he’d been stuck in for who knew how long. As he fell over the side finally, heaving breaths that hurt his chest, he took in the two figures in front of him. They were in a boat, no, a blown up raft, and one of the figures was huddled in the bottom, arms over his head, but he couldn’t tell anything more than that. The one who helped him up wasn’t paying him anymore attention, turning to look out across the water.
He couldn’t make out his features, but that was his savior. Yeosang watched as he pulled something out of the water, dropping a large rectangular box looking thing into the bottom of their life raft. Unsure for a moment what he was doing, he realized he was grabbing debris and stuff from the boat and collecting them. His mind didn’t process why, but since he had some strength still, he did the same, looking over the edge of the boat to see if he could see any floating objects. They were probably also looking for other survivors.
Off in the distance, the twinkling lights of their sinking ship caught his eyes. It was just falling under the surface, and for a while, the lights stayed on, and he could see the shadows of things floating on the surface, backlit by those lights. Yeosang’s stomach twisted, and he vomited. When he was done emptying his stomach, he looked back up, finding the lights gone. They were stuck in darkness. Every so often the lightning would light up the area, but the rain and thunder and crash of the waves silenced anything else. If there were people yelling for help, they would never hear them.
Yeosang looked over to the person who saved him, finding him leaning over the side of the rocking raft as if he wasn’t one wrong move from falling in. He seemed to know what he was doing though, so instead of putting himself in danger, the fear and dread finally caught up, and he fell back into the raft, lowering his body down below the edges of it like the other man.
How did it come to this? They were already sinking by the time the alarms blared. All he remembered was getting drinks with some friends at the bar. He didn’t feel drunk at all anymore. This cruise was supposed to be a graduation party and goodbye among them before they all went their separate ways, but now it was a final goodbye they never expected. He shouldn’t be imagining all his friends dead, floating in the water around him, but he had no control over his mind. How did such a big ship sink in the matter of minutes? Surely a storm, even one that seemed so strong, couldn’t bring down a vessel that boasted dozens of journeys.
Unable to move once his tired body settled onto the floor, his eyes stayed focused on the figure that saved him. It was always moving, looking out across the water. He couldn’t see his face, always looking away, but he would thank the person once he felt he could speak again. The man pulled something else into the raft. It was not a person. There had to be a few hundred people on the cruise ship, and yet only three were in this boat. His stomach churned.
Suddenly the man was in front of him, pushing something into his hand. He said something, but he couldn’t hear him. Something about water. He looked down and found a pan in his hands. Frowning, he looked up at the figure, and the figure yelled something, but he couldn't process it, pointing down at his feet. Looking down, he noticed the bottom of the boat was filling with water from the surging waves, and then he realized he was being told to empty the water in the raft.
For some reason, having a purpose took over his brain, and he began to do as he was told. The figure moved to the huddled figure and lifted him to prop him up on the side, as the water was close to cover his head. Their third passenger didn’t seem to be conscious, whether he was alive or not was beyond Yeosang, but their savior seemed to know what he was doing. So he continued to pail the water.
He continued to do that for a while, feeling like it was a never winning situation as more water spilled over as he emptied his pot. Eventually their savior came over and took the pot, pushing him back into a sitting position, taking over what he had been doing for who knows how long. Yeosang watched him as he pailed the water, unable to really see any features, but he imagined a serious look as the man worked. At least they he was with someone who seemed to have his head on his shoulders and knew what to do.
After what felt like hours, he and the figure switched out every so often with the pot, the other man going to watch over the side, the storm began to calm enough that the howling winds no longer sounded deafening. The waves were still choppy, but water stopped spilling over, and eventually they were only pailing water every so often from the rain. Eventually the rain was the only noise, and it was cold, but he began to feel like they had passed through the worst of the storm.
Yeosang watched as the man finally settled into the boat, looking exhausted and checking on their unconscious third. He watched him check his pulse, shake his head, but it couldn’t be that bad, as he wrapped his arms around the figure and pulled him close. Their savior looked over and waved him over, motioning to the other side of the third man. Doing as motioned, he moved to the figures side and pressed his body to their side, finding them colder than himself. It was another man, and though he was unconscious and cold, he seemed to still be breathing.
They spent the rest of the storm keeping the third man warm.
He woke to the sound of sloshing waves against the raft.
Yeosang blinked his eyes open, body still and crushed up against someone else. As his eyes opened, he took in the sight of the raft they were in, and the still stormy sky above them, but it was brighter than the night before. It all came back to him, and the fleeting peace was pushed away by fear and apprehension settling into his chest. Looking around, beginning to breathe quickly, he suddenly felt it recede slightly at the calm face of their savior sitting on the side of the raft, looking out over the water.
The man was tall, even sitting down, handsome and a bit of a dream as the wind blew his now dried hair back. “How did it happen?” Yeosang’s voice was hoarse from the gallons of water he had swallowed before, but it still came out clear enough to be heard.
Looking over, the man’s face morphed into that of pain, shaking his head. “I don’t know. It happened so fast.”
It had. One minute he was taking a shot with his friends, the next he was struggling to swim. Yeosang sat up straight, looking down at the man that was leaning against him. He seemed of a similar age, face handsome and body broad. The paleness was obvious though.. “Is he okay?”
The man hummed. “He probably hit his head or something, but he’ll probably be fine. He’s breathing. There’s not much else we can do but make sure he stays breathing.”
They fell into silence, and Yeosang looked around to see the mess on the floor of their raft. There were a couple suitcases, many pieces of broken wood and metal, even some odd and ends fabric. “What’s with all the trash?”
He didn’t look over, still watching the water. “We don’t know how long we’ll be out here. All of this can become useful at some point.”
Sighing, not willing to second guess someone who obviously was thinking far clearer, and further, than he was. “I’m Yeosang.”
“Yunho.”
He looked down at their third. “Do you know him?”
Shaking his head, he sighed and moved over to reach out and check the man’s pulse again. “No. He was floating nearby when I deployed the raft.”
The thought of what would have happened if this person had been dead when they finally had the time to check him sent shivers down Yeosang’s body. He’s never seen a dead person before. “Well, at least you saved him, and me.” Yunho didn’t seem to take it as praise, only grunting and moving away. “Are you still looking for people?” He asked, watching the man go back to his post.
“That and for land hopefully. Or more debris. Anything that would help us.”
Nodding at his reasoning, he looked around and noticed a bottle of water sticking out of a bag at his feet, suddenly feeling his thirst. “Do you mind?”
Yunho looked down to see where he was motioning, and sighed, closing the bag and reaching over for the pot, which he now realized was half filled with water. “No more than a swallow or two. I only had enough time to grab a few, and we don’t know how long we’ll be out here, so better to save the bottled water.” Yeosang gave the pot of water a cautious look. “It’s rain water, it’s safe.”
Giving him a look of thankfulness, he took a long swallow, happy enough to wet his throat even at the odd flavor. Looking around again, he took in the bag at his feet, wondering what else was in there. “How were you able to be so prepared?”
He shrugged, taking the pot back and putting it back where it was stuck between a suitcase and the wide, keeping it from spilling too much. “I worked in the kitchen area, which is where I was when the water flooded in. I grabbed what I could as quickly as I could.”
That's when he noticed the white button up and the use-to-be-clean slacks, and the shiny shoes. Dressed like one of the waiters. “Well, if it wasn’t for your quick thinking, we wouldn’t have survived.”
“Thanks.” It didn’t sound too genuine. “I just overthink a lot, so I already knew where a lot of things were.” He barked out a humorless laugh. “And I fucking hate boats, and always went to bed overthinking about ‘what if it sunk’.” Yunho rolled his eyes over at him. “Guess my anxiety helped me out just this once.”
Yeosang’s laugh was weak, but he already felt slightly better that this man was intelligent and seemed to be kind enough. He tried to keep his pounding heart calm, knowing at any minute he was going to break down and freak out. For right then, though, he was calm enough to move and look out over the calm water. “Do you have any idea how far we were from land?”
“A few days.” His tone was darker, looking away.
That didn’t help him, and he patted his chest, as if that would help his rising nerves. “This isn’t good.”
Yunho looked over, seeming to notice him losing his cool. “It’s protocol for many of the crew to release a signal buoy so that the ship and any survivors can be found.”
“How far are we from the ship?” Looking out over the side, he could pick out debris off in the distance, but he saw nothing of the ship or any other people.
Clearing his throat, Yunho wouldn’t look over at him, but told him the truth. “The storm probably dispersed everything that made it off the ship, but the coast guard is trained in these matters, they’ll know to spread their search wide.”
Yeosang nodded, looking up at the still quick moving clouds and the too common flash of lightning. “The storm isn’t done?”
“Probably not.” Yunho answered honestly. “It looks like it’s picking back up. We were probably pushed away by the brunt of the waves, but we can’t outrun it before it hits us again.”
“Fucking hell.” He cursed, rubbing his eyes as he realized they were not anywhere near safe out here.
Yunho grunted his agreement at their predicament.
They fell into silence, and eventually the raft began to rock more as the waves and the wind began to pick up. He hated that Yunho was right. The skies were darkening once again, and they could see the sheets of rain in the distance. It could have been hours or days since the ship sank, and Yeosang couldn’t tell, soul sinking as the cold rain began to sprinkle across his skin once again.
The rain arriving woke up their third member, the groan turning both their heads as the man sat up and rubbed his head. “What the fu…” His hand went to the back of his head, where hair had hidden whatever mark was left from whatever knocked him out. Eyes looking up and landing on the two of them, he moved away from Yeosang, looking scared, eyes wide. “What the fuck is going on?” His eyes shifted out over the water, taking in the open, and stormy, sea. “The ship…”
Yunho sighed, picking up the pot, and moving over to him, holding out a hand as if calming a cornered animal. “The ship sank. Here, drink this.”
His mouth opened, giving him a confused look as he held out the pot of water. “Sank?”
Giving him a pitying look, he forced the pot into his hands, which he took without seeming to be really thinking about it. “Drink as much as you can, you were out for a while and you need to stay hydrated.” Yeosang felt a little jealous as he watched the man take a tentative sip, before seeming to find his thirst and downing half the contents, before passing it back over. Thankfully, Yunho then passed it to him. “Leave me a little, the rain will fill it again soon.”
Doing as he was told, he downed half of what was left, handing it back. He turned to their now awakened companion, taking in his dazed look. “What’s your name?”
“San.” He answered, but didn’t look up from the hands in his lap. “Are they all dead?”
Yunho shared a look with Yeosang, before answering. “I doubt it. I saw other rafts during the storm, they must have just got swept off in other directions.” Yeosang didn’t know if he was lying or not, but he was no longer looking at them, seeming to be eyeing the storm.
“But a lot of them are probably dead.” San didn’t let it go, looking over at Yeosang as the other man didn’t look at him.
He only shrugged, also looking away, unwilling images of the floating bodies of friends coming into his mind.
Sighing loudly, Yunho stood up, the raft rocking slightly, and moved to his pile of stuff. “There’s no use letting yourself worry about it. We need to survive.” He undid some of the rope that was wrapped around the edges of the raft, took some of the cloth that ended up being blankets and sheets and clothing, and began wrapping it around the smaller stuff. The other two watched as he secured it down to the raft. “The storm is coming our way again, so make sure we don’t lose any of this.” He pushed his bag, the one with the bottled water, up under the giant blanket bag he made.
Yeosang’s nerves spiked as he watched the man prepare for round two of the storm. The man lifted the now empty pot and handed it to San. “You’re on pail duty. Keep the water out of the boat.” He only nodded, the water already beginning to fill the bottom again from the rain that was beginning to come down in harder sheets. He turned to Yeosang. “You and I are on lookout duty. Grab any debris and any people we might see.”
“What if they’re dead?” He asked quietly, unable to stop himself from looking at San, who had looked dead until Yunho had told him he wasn’t.
Taking a deep breath, Yunho shrugged. “If they're dead, we leave them.” It was such an obvious answer to a stupid question, but the way he was so nonchalant about it made Yeosang shudder.
He nodded though, happy to let Yunho make the decisions for them.
Though the storm was just as rough as the night before, it seemed easier to handle having already been through it before. San didn’t move from his spot, constantly pailing water as the other two kept their eyes peeled on the water. Only once did Yunho pull in something, a floating plank. There were no signs of other people during the long storm.
It seemed they were stuck in the storm for days, but when it finally broke, exhaustion eating at their bones, unable to sleep during such turmoil, the sun began to peak through the clouds. It was lowering, which meant it was probably after three or so, if Yunho was current. They had been out here for almost two days then, right? Time was weird, because it could have been more, and Yeosang wouldn’t be surprised.
As the storm was finally receding, they took time to fill and drink from the pot, drinking their fill until they left it to fill. Yunho, seeming to feel they were out of the worst of it, told them to get some rest, and he would keep watch. The sun was hot, and it made sleeping in the damp raft uncomfortable, but the two boys were so exhausted, and happy for the warmth, that it didn’t take long for them to succumb. Eventually, he was awoken, and he took watch as Yunho slept.
The sun was setting when he was left to his own thoughts as his companions slept. He took a couple swallows from the pot, but made sure to take no more, wondering if the storm was truly gone. Though happy to not be rained on anymore after hours of it, he was worried about their water situation. Even the promise of the hidden water bottles didn’t assuage his apprehension. What were they going to do about food? Because hunger was already biting at his stomach.
San woke up on his own, the sun long gone and the moon rising. Surprisingly it didn’t feel as dark as it could be, with the bright stars and moon reflecting off the water. Yeosang watched as the boy went straight for the pot, but didn’t feel the need to say anything as he took a couple drinks and put it back down. They were all strangers, but thankfully they all seemed to be on the same wavelength when it came to working together to survive.
Moving back over to his spot, the two of them exchanged glances before San spoke. “You can sleep if you want to.”
He shook his head, strangely wired. “I’m not that tired yet.”
San grunted, pushing back his hair. “I probably could have slept for two more days if the fucking rocking wasn’t beginning to fuck with my dreams.”
Having had a similar thing happen, nightmares of the sinking, it was part of why he didn’t want to try to sleep again. “Nightmares too?”
Grunt. “We just went through another storm, and it still doesn’t really feel real.”
Even the chill in his bones felt like a part of a dream. Yeosang shivered, looking up at the stars, clearer than he’d ever seen them. “It would be beautiful out here if the situation was different.”
San looked up, barking out a laugh. “Yeah. My mom would have loved…” The words trailed off, and he looked over to see that he was staring up, eyes shining and cheeks wet.
Giving him a pitying look, understanding, he tentatively spoke. “She was on the boat with you?”
Choking back a sob, he didn’t look away from the stars. “My whole family was. Dad, mom, brother.” He inhaled another sob, eyes squinting against the pain he was feeling, that was so easily read on his face. “My baby sister.”
Yeosang felt pain over the thought of losing his friends, but he knew his family was safe on land, in the middle of Korea. San had possibly lost his whole family. He wasn’t sure what he was doing, but he moved over, carefully reaching out and wrapping an arm around his shoulders. It didn’t take more of a moment for the man to fall apart in his arms, turning into his chest and heaving heavy sobs.
They stayed like that for a while, Yeosang rubbing his arms as he hugged the crying man to him. His own eyes teared up as he realized just how lost and fucked they were. Untold amount of death, lost at sea, no direction to follow, floating further and further away from the location of the ship. The further they drifted, and the longer, the less likely it was for them to be found in time before hunger or dehydration killed them. Even Yunho couldn’t deny that fact.
Even as strangers, they were all they had.
His eyes caught Yunho’s, now awake in the bottom of the boat.
~~~
When Yeosang woke up to the sun, San was cuddled up against him and Yunho was sitting up and looking out over the side of the raft.
Sleeping on the uneven, not sturdy, floor was causing his back to stiffen more as the days went on. He wanted to stand and stretch, but he was too scared of capsizing it. Plus, it was a glorified floaty, and he was too scared to pop the only thing keeping them alive. So, instead, he sat up and detached himself from San, stretching his arms up and groaning as his back arched.
He fell back against the side, covering his eyes to block out the sun, seeing only water in all directions. “It’s not looking good, is it?”
Yunho let out a breath, shaking his head, being honest. “No. If we don’t find land, especially if it doesn’t rain anytime soon, it won’t end well.”
At the mention of rain, he looked over to their pot, only half full. Sighing he moved to take a single drink of water, less than his body was begging for, and put it back down. The hunger pangs were becoming overbearing, and even water wasn’t enough to stave it off. “We really need food.”
“Yeah.” Was the only response he got.
Eventually San woke, not speaking, sitting back against the side and staring down at the bottom of the raft, not meeting anyones eyes. They floated in silence for a long time, maybe hours, before Yunho stood up quickly, rocking the raft. The other two man sat straighter and looked out to where he was looking. At first Yeosang couldn’t tell what he was looking for, but then he saw it.
A dark floating mass in the distance.
“What is that?”
Yunho was already moving to their pile of debris, pulling out the plank of wood. “Hopefully something useful.” He began paddling their way toward whatever the floating mass was.
As they got closer, they noticed the unmoving body laying on top of a splintered piece of wood. It must be part of the ship, and by the looks of it, they didn’t know if the body on top was alive or not, but Yunho kept paddling. For some reason, none of them called out, some amount of tension and fear holding their voices as they got closer. It was a man, sprawled face down, eyes closed.
“Hey!” Yunho finally called out, but the body didn’t move. Yeosang’s stomach twisted.
Continuing closer, he let the raft bump up against what they now realized was a large banquet table. Definitely from the ship. Yunho gave the other two boy’s a look before reaching out and poking the body with the homemade oar. At first there was no response, until a low groan could be heard as he poked harder.
“He’s alive!” San exclaimed, seeming to have been holding his breath.
Seeming to not be thinking, he jumped into the water. Yeosang cursed in surprised, but Yunho moved over to the side of the boat, seeming to be on the same page, reaching over to keep the table close to the raft. He felt useless as he watched San scramble over the side of the table and pull the man off, struggling to keep them both above the water. Even exhausted, he proved to be strong, moving both himself and the body he held easily to the side of the raft.
Yunho waved him away when he came forward to try to help. “Stay on that side so the raft doesn’t flip.”
Doing as he was told, he moved to the opposite side. As the raft shifted weight, Yunho pulling the unconscious man over the edge, Yeosang had to almost lean over the opposite side to keep it steady. It took a couple minutes of struggling, but eventually he pulled the man over the edge, tumbling down into the raft with him. San climbed back in easily, and helped Yunho sit the man upright against the edge.
“He’s breathing, but it’s shallow.” Yunho muttered, grabbing the water and bringing it to particularly chapped lips. Apparently the body doesn’t need to be conscious to know that it needed water, and the throat moved slowly as he was slowly fed it. Another pained groan left the figure as he took the water away. “Can you hear me?”
The eyes blinked, and the face scrunched up in a wince as it turned away. Yeosang and San shared a sigh of relief as Yunho gave the man more water. He was worried about their draining reserves, but none of them seemed willing to let this man die just because they might suffer for it later. They were all going to suffer one way or another, at least they wouldn’t have to do it alone.
“Isle…” The pained word came out, almost unable to be heard.
Yunho leaned in. “What was that?”
“I saw… Island…”
His eyes shifted to the two waiting boys, who had both heard what he had said. Immediately their eyes turned toward the horizon. They didn’t see any dark mass in the distance, but that wasn’t stopping them. Yunho grabbed the oar and held it out to them. “Take us in that direction.” He motioned toward the way they had been moving to reach the man and his table.”
Finally with a purpose, with hope, Yeosang using his hands, they moved toward the promise of land.
It took some hours of exhausting rowing, but eventually they caught sight of a shadow that was more than just debris.