Woohyun found himself dumped unceremoniously between the blades of an especially tall bunch of grass. Sunggyu landed more elegantly on a tree branch in front of him. 

“THIS PLACE IS HOT!” Woohyun yelled, forgetting that the earbuds wouldn’t impede Sunggyu’s hearing. It was much warmer here than North America, and the sweat was already so caked onto his body that he had to take his dress shirt off. 

“Oh my i-” Sunggyu jumped in surprise at Woohyun’s voice, losing his balance. He flailed his arms pathetically as he fell off of the branch, landing unhappily in the patch of grass below.

Woohyun’s eyes widened. “SORRY, HYUNG! DID I STARTLE YOU!?”

Sunggyu hissed and whispered aggressively. “Woohyun, shut up! I can hear you just fine! Magical earplugs, remember!?”

Woohyun gasped and immediately covered his mouth. He nodded dumbly, uncovered his mouth a little, as if he was afraid his voice would fly away, and whispered back, “Sorry, hyung!”  

Sunggyu rolled his eyes. He gestured to Woohyun to follow with a finger pressed against his lips. He seemed amazingly unaffected as they made their way through the brambles and bushes. With each step, the rustle of escaping animals sounded around them.

“This place is obviously not inhabited by humans. Why did you have to drop me in a bramble bush?” Woohyun whined as he dodged the low-hanging vines and tried not to step into hidden creeks. The smell of ocean salt was lingering in the air, but he couldn’t quite hear the sounds of waves crashing against the shore yet.

Sunggyu rolled his eyes, “That was like a patch of grass. Stop being a baby.” 

“A very sharp patch of grass,” Woohyun grumbled. 

“Shhh.” Sunggyu silenced him as they approached the edge of the forest. The low rumbling of the ocean was just barely audible now, and the two of them peeked through some bushes at the scene before them.

The ocean was pristine blue and the tide low, the mild waves lapping gently at the white, sandy beach.  Not too far away, Woohyun could see a large island on the horizon, and several more in the distance. A group of large rocks lay at the entrance of a more mountainous area of the island they were currently on, complete with a small cave. 

Right at the mouth of the cave were two mermaids - the Sirena, Woohyun supposed. The dark-haired one had a luminous, spring green tail that didn’t need the sun to blind him with its brightness. The one with lighter hair had a deep, royal blue tail that shone like freshly spun silk. They were also both completely , causing Woohyun to blush and avert his eyes from the definitely female parts.

“Let’s go in,” Sunggyu whispered, and the two slowly made their way along the edge of the forest until the approached the rocky side of the land mass. Soon enough, they came within hearing distance of the Sirena.

“Do you see all these bones along the shore? That’s how many people I killed just last night.”

“Oh please. I have to legit bury my bones because there were too many lining the shore that they were starting to get swept out by the tide.” The slightly shorter, dark-haired Sirena flipped a trail of lingering seaweed out of her wavy curls. “Besides, Jessica. I’m the leader of the Sirens on this island, not you. I advise you to learn your place.”

The light-brown haired Sirena scoffed. “Oh please. The other girls listen to me more these days, Taeyeon.” She sneered. “We all know that I can sing higher.”

Taeyeon gasped, offended. “That may be, but I can sing better. And we all know that.” She flipped her hair to the other side for emphasis.  

“My songs lure in the most men!”

“That is a lie and we all know it. Did Yuri come up with that rumor? No wait, it was Yoona, wasn’t it?” Taeyeon grumbled. “This argument is a waste of time. My songs kill the most men.” She chuckled darkly. “Even women, too. I admit, your songs attract the men, but my songs keep them here long enough for us to kill them.”

Jessica huffed. “I’m not afraid of hurting a few measly peasants. You so much as see a child and you spare the entire fleet.” She smiled. “You should be careful, Taeyeon. Rumor has it you’re growing…” She leaned in. “...soft.” 

Taeyeon was about to throw another comment about how she thought Jessica should shove a rock up a certain orifice when she sensed something coming. “Wait, one second,” Taeyeon silenced her junior. 

“Don’t change the - !” 

Taeyeon shot an icy glare and a shhh! at Jessica, who rolled her eyes and fell silent quite indignantly. As their ears grew accustomed to the newfound peace, they noticed an uncharacteristic rustling coming from the bushes nearby. 

“Smells like men,” Jessica whispered.

“Sounds like them, too,” Taeyeon said with a grin, as the voices became audible through the silence. “Two of them, I think. Two more for me! Sorry, babe.” 

“We’ll see about that.” The two Sirena dived into a pool of water that was deeper than it looked, staying hidden behind the large crevasses that splayed along the edges. They surfaced just enough to keep an eye on the undiscerning male specimens. 

Meanwhile, Woohyun was muttering to himself about how he should have used the bathroom before they had left the nice cafe, fumbling around and feeling rather uncomfortable while Sunggyu kept focused on their targets. 

“Woohyun?”

“Don’t talk to me while I pee! It’s weird!”

Sunggyu rolled his eyes. “At this rate, Woohyun, I think they’ve noticed us.” He looked back at the Sirena to find that rocks now bare of any magical creatures. His small eyes widened. “.” 

“What? What’s going on?” Woohyun said a little too loudly. 

“They’re gone. We’re going in. Tracking takes too much effort and I’m not going to lose them.” 

Woohyun had barely zipped up his fly before he was forced to follow Sunggyu out of the bushes and into the soft, white sand of the beach. He struggled to run after his partner with his feet sinking into the ground at every step, and vowed to spend a day at the spa sometime soon to make up for all of the strenuous exercise. 

“How do you even know where they are?” Woohyun half-shouted, still unused to earplugs and how they distorted the sounds into the muffled vibrations ringing inside his skull. 

Sunggyu relentlessly continued to pad in the same direction without sparing his partner a glance. “I can sense their auras.”

“You can?”

Jessica turned to Taeyeon from their hiding place. “He can?”

Taeyeon scoffed. “No, he can’t. He’s totally bluffing.”

Woohyun was skeptical. “Can you sense everyone’s auras? Or just the magical creatures?” 

“Well, since I’m a magical creature, it’s easier to sense other magical creatures. It’s like we all have our own distinct individual genomes, but if you looked carefully, you would see that we all have a single universal sequence within our genomes.” 

“He sounds pretty serious, Taeyeon.”

Taeyeon grumbled. “Fine, then. If you’re so worried, go swim away or something. Or are you afraid of a couple humans?” 

Jessica glared at her senior, but stayed put, watching as Sunggyu began to wade into the water and began swimming closer to them. At the very least, he’s swimming right into our clutches. 

Woohyun paused at the edge of the shore, not feeling very keen on getting his pants wet. “Is it universal with humans, too?”

“I think so.” Sunggyu turned to look back at his partner who was now staring out into the ocean. “Hey, you coming or what? I’d rather catch them instead of the other way around, you know?”

Woohyun nodded and broke his gaze. He bent down to roll his pant legs up. Sunggyu rolled his eyes for what seemed to be the thousandth time that day. “You know you’re going to get wet either way, right?” 

Woohyun grumbled. Swimming wasn’t part of the plan, but he relented and began to wade into the water.  

Soon, the two men were close enough, Sunggyu being within meters of their grasp, and his clumsy partner not too far behind. Taeyeon looked at Jessica and, with a grin, slipped into the clear ocean water. Her tail changed colors as she entered the water, matching her skin, which blended in perfectly with the sand below. 

Jessica followed after, quickly catching up with the other Sirena. Sunggyu stopped, suddenly feeling the auras more strongly than ever. He backpedalled and took a few steps towards the shore, until he was only hip-deep in the water, and assumed a guarded stance. A tattoo quickly floated off his arm, spinning into a miniature portal in the air beside him. 

He reached through and pulled out a silver scepter with a sharp point at its tip, waiting as the forms in the water moved closer. 

“This water’s too shallow,” Jessica hissed at Taeyeon, “We won’t be able to drag them away.” 

“No meat for you, then,” Taeyeon said cheerily as she let her tail turn back to its usual bright green. She angled it so that the sun would reflect off of it and into the man’s eyes. He squinted slightly, but didn’t close his eyes as she had hoped. 

The man was holding the scepter out over the water when suddenly, a spark of magic flew off the scepter and towards the Sirena.

Jessica quickly dodged out of the way, finding herself en route to the other man, who was unarmed and seemed otherwise harmless. 

“Woohyun!” Sunggyu shouted, shooting a spark of magic towards his partner and wishing he had the foresight to arm him before they had entered. The magic exploded around the partner, causing the Sirena to recoil, but the distraction gave the other fish-maiden just enough time to slap him with her tail, knocking him over and the scepter out of his grasp. 

A man underwater was not a graceful creature, and Taeyeon easily ensnared their off-balance attacker and dragged him deeper into the ocean. Jessica followed behind, forgetting their second target in favor of healing the magical wound she had suffered. 

Woot, chapter two is up! Sorry, I know we totally said that we'd try to update again before the end of spring break, but....

Anyways, we decided to both be irresponsible for a few hours while we wrote instead of doing all of that end-of-semester work. Hope you enjoy!