HyunAe walked up to her door as she peeked to see if Yonghwa was still there, he was swimming away when he was stopped by Kiseop again, her heart clenched with worry as she remembered that Seohyun had requested his presence earlier that day. She watched as Yonghwa swam away with Kiseop in a rush and her heart sank again. 

Another merman blocked her view to see where Yonghwa had gone and she moved to close her door even more to be unnoticed.

“Oh, I forgot that I had to talk to that new guy today.” The merman said. “What was his name?” 

HyunAe finally noticed that the merman had a colleague with him and that was why she couldn’t even see outside her door anymore.

“Yonghwa right? The new kid?” The colleague mentioned. “He must be around here somewhere, at least he’s easy to find."

“He’s not that new, hyung, but I know right, he’s near the palace finally. We don’t have to swim as far to speak with him anymore. At least he’s moved up in society.” The merman said, before swimming away. “I must tell him to proceed with the next step.” HyunAe could hear him drift off and her entire heart trembled as it broke into a million pieces.

Yonghwa was just using her, he had been with the elites this whole time? He knew that she was the princess before and that’s why he brought her up because he had to earn the trust of her father? But he had told her he wasn’t like that, he had shared with her his secret.

Was that just to earn her trust? She had told him she wanted to see the surface, something she had never shared with anyone. Of course, she knew that her brother had an inkling but she never told him outright. 

She shook her head before running out of her room. She had to find a distraction, she had to see if she could even make it on her own. If she could make her own decisions, if she couldn’t even decide for herself, how was she going to become Queen? She had to find that recipe to make the potion for legs. She had to make it to the surface.

She went to the library to find the recipe for it and saw that the book was old as it had not been used in a long time. She looked at the ingredient list and all of them were doable except for one.

One female octopus tentacle. 

She needed a female one because she was a girl and she needed to grow feminine legs and there was only one female octopus in the entire area and it was Yu Jin, the sea witch. She had venture out there to get her tail in order to complete the potion. It said if she wanted to make the potion repeatedly then she could snip off the tentacle into smaller pieces, meaning the potion would have a time limit and she would need to find a way back to the sea before she turned into a mermaid.

She decided that she would do that after she gathered the rest because it would take her some time to do so, for now it was time for her to sleep.

~

Yonghwa rushed home after Kiseop delivered the message that his mother was growing ill, he couldn’t believe that he had forgotten about her. She had to make deliveries by herself and with Hongki’s help, but sometimes that kid could be unreliable.

He found his mother in bed as he raced up to her in panic, “Are you okay?” He asked and she gave him a weak smile.

“Yonghwa. I’m fine, baby. Just worked too much that’s all.” She assured him, “How was your day?” 

He let out a sigh, his mother always only cared about his needs more than her own. “My day was fine. But what happened?” 

“I just had a lot of deliveries to make and I gave Hongki a break so he could spend time with his friends.” His mother answered and Yonghwa sighed again.

“Tomorrow I will help you with the deliveries I will tell HyunAe that she can spend some time with her friend Seohyun because I need to help you, if she calls for me.” Yonghwa said sternly.

“But Yonghwa, you have a duty.” His mother urged and Yonghwa shook his head.

“No, mother. I have a duty to you as well. And the princess should understand that as well, her family is important to her.” Yonghwa said definitively, that was the end of their conversation and he wasn’t going to let his mother talk him out of it.

— 

HyunAe had collected all the ingredients before her brother was even awake, they were easy to get and she didn’t even have to leave the palace for it. If she did, then she would have to call for Yonghwa, per her father’s orders, but she wasn’t about to trust him with this secret anymore.

She decided that she needed to talk to Seohyun and see what her friend had to say, and if she had met Yonghwa the night before. They met up in the garden as it was Seohyun’s favorite place and when HyunAe first saw her, she was glowing.

“Hello, HyunAe.” Seohyun greeted her eloquently and they sat down under one of the trees. 

“Hello, Seohyun. I see that you’re doing well.” HyunAe mused as she looked over her friend.

Seohyun smiled demurely and touched her pearl necklace, “Yes, very well. I have been seeing all of the men of the sea and how they all drift to me. They are really quite naive if you think about it, mesmerized by beauty.” Seohyun replied, “but how have you been?"

HyunAe put on a bright smile and lied, “I’ve been great. I finally got to see some of the real world in the palace and now my brother seems to trust me more.” She admitted to her friend. She wasn’t going to tell Seohyun much else but she needed to sound like she was trusting her in order to gain some information.

“Oh that’s good. I’ve been too busy with siren duties to be in the palace, so I have no idea what’s going anymore. But my siren sisters say I don’t have to bother with the politics since we are separate from the palace.” Seohyun said and she twirled her hair around her finger. “But I’m glad, all is well with you.” 

HyunAe paused as she realized Seohyun’s words, she hadn’t been at the palace at all. Which means Yonghwa couldn’t have been meeting her yesterday. So who was he in a rush to see? Someone else? An elite? Had she jumped to the wrong conclusion?

“Hello, earth to HyunAe.” Seohyun said, interrupting her thoughts.

“I’m sorry, what happened?” She replied with a weak smile, her mind was a mess and she had no idea what to do.

“I said, do you wanna go shopping? The sisters said I have to buy some hair dye for my hair and we can find you some new accessories.” Seohyun asked her.

Shopping. HyunAe smiled widely, it would be the perfect distraction. “Yes. Let’s go."

~

Yonghwa swam back and forth all day, making sure he kept himself hydrated and well aware of how much energy he was exerting because he didn’t want to fall ill like his mother did. He breezed through the whole day with smiles and food for all the elderly merpeople that couldn’t help themselves. 

He had lost track of time until he finally sat down for dinner with his mother and he realized that Kiseop hadn’t been by at all today. In fact, HyunAe didn’t even bother with him at all today. She hadn’t called for him, she didn’t come looking for him. 

He frowned slightly as he felt empty from not seeing her, his mother sat down at the table and started to eat the porridge he made for her before she gave him a look. “What’s wrong?” She asked him.

“Nothing. Just surprised that’s all.” Yonghwa said, not willing to admit his confusion to his mother just yet. Maybe it was just a fluke and she had plans with Seohyun in the first place and she didn’t need him today. He would just go and see her tomorrow.

Yeah, he would go look for HyunAe tomorrow and then tell her about his mother and why he was busy today. She would understand, wouldn’t she?

Author's Note;;
Finished this chapter thanks to this baby :3 lol. <3
MHMMMM <3 Look at those muscles <3 ugh :3 enjoy :D