𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 (𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞!𝐚𝐮) 𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐙

CH. 56 ~ Aftermath

1st person

~

Light filters in through the windows of the room I'm situated in, but I'm currently too disoriented to recognize it. The first thing that hits me, as I manage to finally open my heavy eyelids, is the breathtaking pain buzzing under my skin and across my whole body.

Who knew existing could hurt this much?

Unable to get up from the soft cot I'm lying on, I resort to looking around instead, noticing the features of the room I'd become accustomed to. I'm in the sickbay.

The soft swaying of the boat and the hypnotizing rhythm of a foot-tapping on the wooden floorboards somewhere in the corner of my room helps keep me from falling back into my slumber.

When I find it a bit more bearable to breathe, I move on to flex my toes and fingers. Unluckily so, the second I do this I feel a horrendous burning shoot up from my leg and intensify as it moves up. I curse under my breath, gasping for air which stops the tapping being done at the corner of the room.

There's a slight creaking of a chair followed by footsteps and soon enough, the hardened face of a certain navigator comes into view, stopping over to get a good look at me.

"You're up." He states more than he asks which I find odd. I would've expected this sort of answer from Eye-patch or San, but not from Yeosang. I try to open my mouth to ask him where his snarky remark is but it hurts to even think about talking. Already seeming to have expected this, the navigator nods, straightening up to go fetch something from my drawers.

I hear the rattling of glass from my salves and tinctures followed by the aggressive slamming of drawers which definitely catches me by surprise.

While he looks for whatever it is he needs in the drawers I try to rack my memory for what I might've done to cause his irritation, but I can only recall his gruesome eye injury. I soon notice the slamming of drawers has stopped and subsequently Yeosang pops up again, this time with a vial of a yellow liquid in his hand. I recognize it instantly, labeling it a painkiller, one of the more potent ones I had hidden away secretly.

"Hongjoong said you might wake up sore. You should take this before you try to move," he kneels next to my cot, gently opening my mouth and then the vial to allow me to drink the painkiller. The bitter taste makes me want to gag but I restrain from doing so, knowing full well it'll just hurt.

"How long have I been out?" I finally ask, furrowing my brows as the memories of what happened slowly begin trickling back into my head.

"About 2 weeks? I think." He curtly responds, not really in the mood to talk right now.

We wait in silence for the concoction to work on the rest of my body, only waiting about 10 minutes, and I take that time to scan Yeosang. He looks like he's aged 5 more years with his terribly messy blond hair and the large raccoon-like eye bags under his eyes. It makes me wonder what just happened to cause him to look like this.

On the bright side, his wound had healed magnificently, only a scar across his eye being left, a mere shadow of what it once was.

"Does your eye work?" I find myself blurting out of curiosity. Yeosang is momentarily startled by my sudden inquiry, but he answers it nonetheless.

"Perfectly. I'm forever grateful you were able to heal it on time."

"Me, too," I agree, trying to smile at him but not sure if I'm doing it correctly because I can't even feel my face muscles. "It would've been a shame if a pretty face like yours was missing an eye." I joke, remembering what he'd told me before. His upper lip twitches upward in a sorry attempt for a smile, a look that starts to make me question what's really going on with him.