Wandering Sky

Chapter Three: Rhapsody

That night Su lay in Maxi’s bed, thinking about all that had transpired. Gen had forced her into a lewd act, the other three pirates had also violated her, and Maxi was angry at them. Although furious, Su couldn’t help but think it was kind of him to be so concerned for her safety. Even sweet.

‘NO!’ Su’s mind screamed. ‘He’s a horrible person, just like his crew! He kidnapped me, the bastard! He took me away from Hwang!’

Hwang ... how Su longed to see him again. Every night when she laid in the Defense Force quarters, in a separate room from her captain, she dreamed of him. She wanted nothing more than to have him tell her he loved her, that he’d be with her until the end of time, that he’d chosen her over Seung Mina ...

But it was not to be. Su knew Hwang had eyes for Mina, and vice versa. Although Hwang wasn’t ready to admit to his feelings yet, she saw them there. It was painful, being the “invisible girl,” as it were, but Su didn’t mind. As long as she was close to Hwang, she could be happy. The longing never stopped, however.

“Hwang ...” she whispered, pulling Maxi’s jacket tightly around her beaten, violated body. She was wondering if he was thinking of her. Probably was, considering how she was the only other survivor of the attack. She smiled softly when she imagined how overjoyed he’d be to see her again; they were close friends, though not quite as close as Su wished.

But then there was the problem of her identity. What would Hwang say to everyone? That she was in actuality a woman, or that she’d been kidnapped because the pirates wanted an informant of some sort?

Who knew? Su didn’t, and for the moment she didn’t really care. All she wanted was to forget everything that had happened. Life sucked, that was for sure, and bad things always seemed to happen to her.

Just then the door creaked open. It was Maxi, come to check on her. “Hello,” he said quietly, forcing a smile. Su merely gave him a reproachful glare, and then looked away. “Look, miss, I’m sorry about what happened. Believe me, if I’d gotten there beforehand I would have ...”

His voice failed him, and Su rolled over onto her other side so she didn’t have to look at him. To her immense chagrin, he sat down on the bed. “We’ll be in Shuri any minute now. We’ll all be staying in town tonight and we’ll set sail tomorrow after we restock. I’d like for you to come into port with me. You know, have some dinner and a drink. What do you say?”

Su gave a grunt of approval, and Maxi patted her shoulder. “Well, why don’t we change your bandages?”

The girl would have wanted to shout in his face that she could do it herself, but not only was her back tender, but she’d wrenched an arm when Gen shoved her against the wall the second time. She could barely move it, let alone work it enough to get the bandages changed. She sat up, her back to Maxi, and lowered his coat to expose her sutured back.

He grabbed a knife from his pocket and slipped it under the cloth, slicing it evenly and allowing it to fall from Su’s body. He’d brought with him a fresh roll of clean cotton and quickly bandaged her after inspecting her stitches. Just after he finished, a lookout told them they were docking. ***


Wandering Sky docked in Shuri, a small port town and Su reluctantly followed Maxi off the ship. Kyam and the man called Yagazzi saw her, and each gave her an apologetic look. Quickly turning away from them, still embarrassed, she lengthened her strides to match Maxi’s and had to fight to keep up; he was much taller, with longer legs. He looked down at her and smiled. “Let’s get some food, shall we?” She nodded solemnly, but then remembered he was still shirtless, and she was still wearing his jacket.

As if responding to her observation, another crewmember dashed up holding a bundle of forest green cloth. “I found it, Captain,” he said proudly, holding it out toward him. “It took a while, but I found it.”

“Thank you. Now go on, have a good time, okay?” Maxi gave the younger man a bright smile as he took the cloth. When he left, Maxi turned to Su. “Well, I’m glad he found it – I certainly couldn’t. Here you go – some nice new clothes to replace your torn ones. You can change once we get back to my place.” He gave her the clothes, and she was astonished.

It was a beautiful silk hanbok, with matching trousers. Clothing of this quality had to be pricey. “But I can’t wear this!” Su protested. She hated receiving gifts of any kind – it always made her feel as if she were indebted. “It’s much too nice!”

“Oh, you can too. You’d probably look very nice in that – better than in those man’s clothing.” He grinned, but then his expression became more serious. “Just think of it as an apology ... for what happened with Gen.” He sighed sadly. “I can’t apologize enough. It was my fault that happened – that a pure, innocent girl like you had to go through that.”

Now Su’s expression became sorrowful. “No, it was my fault ... and besides, I’m not exactly ‘pure’ anyway.”

“What?”

“Well ... can I tell you when we’re somewhere ... more private?”

Before long they’d reached Maxi’s residence, a small, cozy house on the outskirts of town. It was beautiful, just like his ship, and Maxi suggested she change into her new clothes. He led her to his bedroom (heart art was beating like crazy at this point) and left her there to change while he returned to the sitting room. She came back after she’d done so, and he let out a low whistle when he saw her.

“Stop it,” she said softly, blushing and looking away. She had never thought of herself as pretty, though many people were quick to disagree with her. And Maxi was no exception.

“You know, most women don’t like to talk to men about their ‘first time.’ Why are you so eager?”

“I just ... never told anyone about it, and ... sometimes it helps to talk about things.” Her voice was low, almost a whisper, and full of bitterness.

“Do you regret it?”

‘Why is he so stupid?!’ Su’s mind demanded.

Noticing her angry expression, he patted the empty space on the couch next to him. “Come on, sit down. Tell me about it if you want.”

Su obliged and took a calming breath – she already felt tears welling up in her eyes. “I was ... fifteen when it happened. My father was on a trip to China, and so it was just my mother and myself at home in Chili-san. I went out to buy some vegetables at the market, and I was just fine until I passed by this group of men. They were a lot older than me, like 25 or so, and they started to hassle me. And then I started running, but they caught me, and ...” Her voice caught and she couldn’t continue. She had begun to cry again, as she had been doing consistently ever since Maxi had kidnapped her. Su put a hand to her mouth to stifle her sobs, and then she felt Maxi’s strong arms wrap themselves around her diminutive body.

She remembered it vividly; she’d been turning down a small alley, a shortcut to her home, when they’d caught up to her. The leader of the small gang had tackled her and pinned her down. He was scruffy and smelled of booze, and he’d kissed her roughly, his tongue forcing itself into her mouth. She had struggled to get out from underneath him, but he was far too big, far too heavy. Then one of his friends had grabbed her arms and held them as the leader tore off her pants and touched her in places she herself had never explored. Su had tried with all her might to scream for help, but the moment she opened her mouth they’d always slapped her harshly. After her virgin cunt had become wet enough, the leader pulled down his own trousers and shoved himself into her. There’d been a pain like none other she’d ever felt; she was far too young, and his harness was too big for her. She screamed when her virginity was taken from her, and she was begging him to stop, please stop, but he wouldn’t listen. When he blew in her his three friends took their turns. After it was all over, the leader held her at knifepoint while she lay there, naked, on the ground. He told her if she ever told anyone about it, they’d hunt her down and kill her. Then they had left, leaving her laying there with bruised cheeks and their fluids seeping from her hole, tinged pink from her virgin blood. She hated herself for being weak, unable to keep that from happening to her. But what angered her more was the fact that the whole time, despite the pain (or even because of it), her body cried out for more. She’d experienced her first orgasm while the third man raped her, and even though it was the most horrible thing that had ever happened to her, she desired more. Or rather, her BODY did. The need for pleasure enveloped her and when the fourth man had finished, she was disappointed she hadn’t come again.

As she told Maxi the whole terrifying event between sobs, he hugged her closer, encouraging her to cry. And as Su curled up on the sofa next to him, crying into his bare chest, she was starting to see him not as a heartless kidnapper, but as a caring human being. No one had ever held her like this, with such kindness and understanding; he was offering her solace and asking nothing in return.

‘So here I am ... falling in love with the enemy?’ she asked herself as she calmed down. ‘Hwang would be so angry ...’

After a few more moments she stopped crying; there were no more tears left in her. Su slowly pulled herself out of his embrace and gave him a pathetic smile. “So, as you can see, I’m not pure anymore,” she said with a forced laugh, pulling a wisp of chocolate hair behind her right ear. “So you don’t have to feel so bad about what that guy did.”

“No ...” he replied quietly, “but I’m angry with myself for teasing you. Now I see how cruel it was.”

Su shook her head. “Don’t worry about it, you didn’t know.” She paused and gave him a shy smile. “But thank you for ... listening, you know. Thanks.” Her eyes refused to meet his.

When he spoke, his voice was uncharacteristically timid. “But ... you know, you shouldn’t think that because of that, sex is a horrible thing. I’m not trying to get into your pants or anything, I really mean it. It’s a wonderful thing and when you’re ready you should go after it. Trust me, once you find someone who’s right for you, you’ll believe me.” He looked outside, and turned back to her. “It’s really late. You can sleep here if you want ... I have a spare room. Is that okay with you?”

Su laughed. “Sure. But for now, I want to ask you something. Can you ... hold me like you were?” He looked shocked. “No, not anything like that, I just ... that’s the first time anyone’s ever held me like that, and I like it. It really made me feel better.”

Maxi shrugged, smiled, and hugged her again, drawing her in close. She curled up in his lap, and he rested his chin on the top of her head. “I’m sorry I couldn’t stop Gen. But I promise I’ll keep you safe from now on,” he whispered. “And I’ll take you back to Korea, too. Back to your Hwang.”

Su sighed at the sound of his name, but it wasn’t a sigh of relief, nor of longing. “Hwang ... it’s his fault all this happened. If he hadn’t attacked your ship, I would’ve still been with my teammates.” That was when her anger began to rise. “My friends ... how many of them did YOU kill? How many did you murder? Four? Five?”

Maxi looked at her sadly. “Not one.”

“Liar,” she grunted.

“I swear, Su. I didn’t kill any of them.” Su fell silent. “But I’m still responsible – I ordered my men to take lives. It’s my fault. I understand if you hate me, but ... don’t hate the crew. It wasn’t their fault.” Maxi felt nothing but regret for his words and actions when Su pulled away from him again. He had feelings for this girl, not quite feelings of love, but rather feelings that were almost brotherly. The poor girl had been though a lot, and he wanted to help take some of her pain away (much of which he himself had caused, at least in his mind). But he was relived when she didn’t look angry.

“No ... I don’t hate you. It was our fault. We attacked you when you hadn’t done anything wrong ... at least that we knew of. So even if you didn’t, just let me go on believing you did, so I can think that they all died for a reason.”

Maxi once again had nothing to say. Su looked at him longingly; she wanted to be held, to feel safe and re, re, but she still couldn’t find it within herself to trust this man, even if she felt the first stirrings of love when she looked at him. ‘Maybe I should just give up on Hwang and concentrate on him ...’ she thought solemnly. ‘Hwang could never love me anyway. Of course, Maxi probably won’t, either.’

“What did you mean when you said no one had ever held you the way I did, and it made you feel better?” He looked quite curious.

“Whenever I was sad as a kid, my parents never held me. They’re very strict, and want me to grow up to be a traditional Korean woman. So they were always quite cold and distant, because they wanted me to be independent. And it was working, and I was on my way to being the ‘perfect housewife,’ as my mother said. But after I was ... well, after the incident when I was fifteen, I decided I didn’t want to be a woman anymore. I wanted to be a man. So I forced my father to teach me swordsmanship and I began dressing la maa man. They became even more standoffish with me after that, but I don’t mind. Still, it’s nice to have someone hold me, no matter who they are.”

A bit stung by her last few words, he nonetheless smiled at her. “I’ll hold you all you want, Su. Just ask.”

Instead of asking, she embraced him and snuggled up against his warm body. “Thank you,” she whispered, her exhaustion and the time of day finally catching up to her. “You know, it seems you care about me more than anyone I’ve ever met. You’re certainly nicer, that’s for sure.” And she drifted off to sleep in his arms, a peaceful smile on her pretty face.

Maxi picked her up and carried her to his room where he laid her on the bed. He decided to let her sleep in his, since it was by far the most comfortable bed of the two in his house. He pulled the covers over her slumbering body and was about to turn away and leave, but then bent down and kissed her on the forehead. “Goodnight, Su,” he whispered. Maybe his feelings WERE more than merely brotherly, after all. ***


Su awoke the next morning and stretched. She’d dreamt of Hwang again, but quite differently from the way she used to. She’d dreamt that shs los lost in a dark forest and being chased by someone. She could see Hwang; he was just beyond her reach. Su kept calling out to him, begging him to help her, but her voice went unheard and her pleas unanswered. He just ignored her.

Silently she made her way from Maxi’s room to the sitting room. There she saw him sitting at the table, looking over a list and scribbling some notes down on some parchment. He was humming quietly, occasionally making an irritated sort of noise when he noticed something unfavorable on his list.

Su watched him from the opening of the hallway, and giggled silently to herself. After a few more minutes of fond observation, she walked quietly up to him. “Good morning,” she said shyly.

He looked up at her with his dark brown eyes and smiled in greeting. “Good morning, Su. Did you sleep well?”

She nodded vigorously. “Yes, yes. Did you sleep at all?”

“Enough.” He paused, jotted something else down, and then set the papers aside. “Let’s go get something to eat, alright?”


Yeah, not much happened in this chapter, but the next one will pick up a little. This chapter was mainly to shine some light on Su and her past, and get some sappy romance going. I’ll update soon!