134340 |JJK FF|

Chapter 48

Taehyung's recovery soared from there.

It came across as a pleasant surprise for the crew, who had strained themself sparse for the antidote already. They had admittedly been afraid that this moment of good fortune would end soon, that Taehyung's illness wasn't all it seemed. But it seemed he decided to take it from there.

"What did we come here for?"

"To find the mystery of this illness,"

"And what was causing this illness all this time?"

"... Fishes."

"Fishes?"

"Sardine."

"What did we fight last?"

"The octopuses."

"Well, it was another batch of Aquas, but you already told me you didn't remember anything from when you became ill." Jeongguk sighed, leaning back on his chair.

"Another batch of Aquas?"

"I'll tell you about it later." He laughed softly.

Taehyung blinked slowly as he sat on the bed with his head against the wall, trying to recall whatever memories he had lost. It wasn't like he made out of the ordeal unscathed. Like how you lose layers of skin cells once infected, he lost the memories from when he had the illness. Jeongguk reassured himself that much like the skin, they'd just make more memories to replace it.

"I'm going to sleep later." Taehyung said, "So tell me now,"

"That fight does not make a good bedtime story," Jeongguk warned him.

"I don't care."

Jeongguk sunk his teeth into his lip, thinking. There was no way he could tell Taehyung about his little trip to the sea and island. He might just die of shock, and he couldn't afford that after they just got him back.

"Ha... there's not much to say. A couple of Aquas showed up, we beat up each other until the storm got worse and they escaped. One of them was greatly injured and we kept him here until he gave us some insight about this illness and let us treat him. We made the cure. The end."

Taehyung stared at him sardonically, "It can't have been that easy."

"Who says it was easy?" Jeongguk retorted, "It was the hardest thing I'd done in my whole life,"

Taehyung opened his mouth, but Jeongguk quickly intervened, "It does not matter that much, anyway. I still have questions to ask you!"

Taehyung groaned slightly, "If you plan on asking all of those fifty questions you wrote down, Jeongguk..."

"Hey, calm down. I'm not that heartless. I'm only going to ask you twenty more--"

"You fell, Jeongguk! You actually fell off this ship, into water! Don't even think you could skip that part." Taehyung hissed.

Fuck. Jeongguk snapped his eyes from the paper, "... who told you that?"

"It does not matter."

"... It was an accident. I am fine, as you can see."

"You are now! But earlier..." Taehyung swallowed, then asked in a quiet voice, "Did... I cause it?"

It seemed he was overthinking the entire thing since he heard of it. Jeongguk was as confused as he was worried.

"What? You? No, of course not! Why would you think that?"

"You wouldn't have tried to hide it otherwise."