Until We Become Untethered (The Forever Pirates) #3

Seonghwa 

Being back on the sea again should've been a relief, but all it did was ensue mine and Hongjoong's constant fighting. Half the time, I had no idea what we were even fucking fighting about half the time. I felt like my rage for him never ceased, and due to encouraging the same level of hatred for me, he never backed down on a fight when it came to me. 

I was screaming at him right now, actually fucking losing my goddamn mind on the bastard, and for the love of god, I genuinely couldn't even fucking remember what started it. It always diverted into the same fucking topic though, it would always hit the point of why we couldn't stand each other and all the reasons why the other was so incredibly insufferable. And Hongjoong, forever with his uninterest and nonchalance about my fiery rage. At one point, I remembered the time where we reacted the complete opposite. I held the disinterest and he held the vitriol. 

MM was in the room, and only then did I vaguely remember that it started over a disagreement of her staying on the ship. Even as I disagreed with the idea, she didn't seem to mind my ill feelings towards her. But now, I watched as she chuckled to herself during our fighting or smiled like she used to always do. 

I ignored her for a while but after one too many snickers from her, I exploded. "WHAT?!" 

She continued to smile as she looked between the two of us. "It's cute." 

"Excuse me?" I breathed, fuming so bad I thought I had actual smoke expelling from my body. 

"How much you two hate each other and yet...you're in sync." She shrugged. "I find it cute. I've never seen it before like this. Breathing and heart beats in sync, gravitating towards each other in any given crowd, but the moment you two speak to the other...clash. It's insanely entertaining to watch." 

I stared at her in utter confusion, "Sync? What the fuck are you talking about?" 

"Hongjoong." She said, like all she had to do was call his name and he'd answer. 

His eyebrows furrowed, like he hadn't exactly noticed but quickly he noticed something, because I noticed the sudden shift in comfortability and his lacking of. 

"Well?" She urged. 

He tsked, flashing her a glare before his gaze landed on me. "I can recognize her heartbeat and t'e sound of her breathing. I'm sure ye've come t' recognize t'e different sounds wit'in t'e crew. I can't differentiate between us." 

I swallowed, it was a fact I wasn't too keen on being let in on. It only built the pain in my gut. 

"The real kicker is, you two don't have to actually react this way with the other. It's actually unnatural. So defiant-"

"Shut up!" I snapped her her, my eyes going from between him and her. "Shut up, both of you." 

I walked out, practically stormed out. I didn't like being mocked for the relationship I had with Hongjoong, whatever it was. But what she said stuck in my head, and I couldn't help but need to talk about it.

***

"I'm yer backup, aren't I?" Yunho asked, his focus on the crystal of magic he was working on rather than me.

This one was practically harvested from the caverns, something MM apparently did as Hongjoong wanted to study it again, but both her and him refused to get anything else from Aviana.