“What’s happening?” Sunggyu asked, following behind Woohyun’s quick footsteps.

“Well, the sea lions are having some trouble,” he sighed. “I just hope those poor babies are okay.”

“Do you know exactly what’s wrong?”

Woohyun shook his head. “Nope. No idea whatsoever. That’s why I’m kind of nervous.” He let out a sigh and rushed towards the sea lion tank.

“I’m sure they’re fine,” Sungyeol reassured from Sunggyu’s right. “This isn’t the first time one of the babies got sick.”

“It depends on which baby it is,” Woohyun said as they reached the tank. He turned to Sunggyu. “Do you want to come along, or would you like to stay here?”

Sunggyu glanced at the tank. “How deep is it?”

“It’s not so bad – only about fifteen feet deep.”

Sunggyu rolled his eyes. “I love how you make deep water sound so shallow.”

Woohyun smiled sheepishly and shrugged. “Well, I guess it’s just not that deep to me. So would you like to come along?”

Sunggyu glanced at Myungsoo, who had already begun to follow Sungyeol up the steps. He didn’t want to be left alone here, so it didn’t look like he had much of a choice. “I can come,” he agreed softly.

Woohyun knew the look in his eyes and squeezed his shoulder. “Just follow close behind, okay? Don’t look at the water.”

Sunggyu glanced at the tank then back to Woohyun. “Well… I’ll do my best.” Woohyun smiled and gave him a firm pat on the shoulder. “Although,” Sunggyu continued, “those two over there might make me puke instead.” He looked pointedly at Sungyeol and Myungsoo and Woohyun laughed.

“Yeah, that’s true. Maybe I should just shield your eyes from them too.”

“Just shield my eyes from everythi–oh, ew, they’re starting kiss. Ew.” Sunggyu cringed as the couple in front of them was displaying affection without a care in the world. “Ugh, those two idiots are disgusting.”

Woohyun looked over at the two and laughs. “Yeah, I guess so. You have to admit – they’re cute though.”

Sunggyu snorted. “Yeah, okay, cute. Anyways, don’t you have a sea lion to attend to?”

Woohyun nodded. “Come on – up the steps we go.”

Sunggyu followed him up the metal steps, making sure train his eyes on the nape of Woohyun’s neck and not at the swirling water. It got easier, he noticed, the more he stared at Woohyun and not the water. He didn’t even have to look at his face – just his nape would do. He had to move quickly though, as Woohyun was racing up the steps fairly quickly. They reached the top soon enough, and Sunggyu was relieved to see that there was a lot more platform at this tank. The platform was decorated with big rocks that the sea lions could relax and sunbathe on.

Woohyu, however, was not busy staring as Sunggyu for he rushed straight towards a dirty-blonde trainer that was floating in the water, his arms and head perched on the edge of the platform while trying to coax a slow moving sea lion to play. The small sea lion lay on its stomach while many sea lions surrounded it in concern.

“Come Jinnie,” he called. “Don’t you want to come in the water? Let’s play!” The sea lion lifted its head and groaned in response, flopping back down to its original position. A few surrounding sea lions whined and nudged it, but nothing happened. The trainer in the water let out a vexed sigh as he pulled himself out of the water and went straight to the sea lion. He cradled the animal in his arms. “Something must be really wrong…”

“What’s happening?” Woohyun asked as he approached. Sunggyu walked to his side, feeling slightly better that this particular platform was not submerged like the previous ones. Woohyun glanced around. “Where did Sungyeol go?”

The blonde trainer looked up from his spot. “I told him to go get the vet. Something’s not right with Jinnie.”

Woohyun frowned and bent down. “Let me see him,” he said, gently taking the sea lion from the other’s arms. He held it closely, a concerned expression gracing his face as the sea lion squirmed uncomfortably. “What’s wrong, baby?” Woohyun whispered to the animal gently. “Are you okay, Jinnie? Are you sick?” The sea lion just barked sadly and lay still in his arms. Woohyun let out a sigh. “Did anything happen earlier today?”

The other trainer shook his head. “No, nothing. He was just sunbathing like normal, but when everyone went into the water he just lay there. At first I didn’t really notice, but after a while I knew something was wrong. Jinnie is usually the most energetic.”

“Maybe it has to do with the heat?” Woohyun pondered aloud. “I’m not really sure. Jinnie has never acted like this before.”

“I know – that’s why I’m worried. But Sungyeol should come back with our vet soon, and I hope he can fix it.”

Woohyun nodded, petting the sea lion’s head. He kissed the top of it. “You’re going to be okay, Jinnie. You’ll be fine.” He looked up at Sunggyu and smiled. “This is Jinnie, by the way. He’s one of our younger sea lions. He’s still practically a pup. Oh – and this is our head sea lion trainer, Jang Dongwoo,” Woohyun added, nodding at the blonde trainer.

Jang Dongwoo stood up and offered his hand along with a large grin. “Nice to meet you. I’m Dongwoo.”

Sunggyu grasped his hand firmly. “Nice to meet you, too. I’m Sunggyu. So you train sea lions here?”

Dongwoo nodded. “And otters. They’re not the same thing, if you’re wondering,” he laughed. Sunggyu laughed too and wondered if Dongwoo could read minds because he really was wondering that. “You’re advertising for us, right?” he asked and Sunggyu nodded. Dongwoo flashed another brilliant grin. “Thanks! We owe you a lot!”

Sunggyu smiled. “Oh, don’t worry. Sungyeol is paying me.”

“Speaking of the devil,” Woohyun said, standing up with Jinnie in his arms, “how long does it take to get the vet anyways?”

“Well, he’s on his lunch break, so he’s probably not in his office,” Dongwoo said.

“Is he sick?” Sunggyu asked, touching the sea lion gently.

Woohyun leaned closer towards him, slowly allowing him to pet Jinnie. “We don’t know and that’s why we need the vet. We can usually tell if they’re being stubborn, but that’s not the case with Jinnie.”

Sunggyu scratched his head gently, staring at it with curiosity. “Aw. I feel bad for the guy.”

Dongwoo brushed his wet hair from his eyes and took Jinnie back into his arms. “I really hope Hoya gets here soon. Jinnie doesn’t look good at all.”

Sunggyu leaned into Woohyun. “Who’s Hoya?”

“The veterinarian here,” he answered. “He’s a nice guy, so don’t worry.”

Sunggyu shrugged. “I wasn’t worried.” Woohyun only grinned up at him as frantic steps sounded up the metal staircase.

They all turned their heads towards the stairs. Sungyeol was first to run out, followed by Myungsoo, who was followed by a fit man with chocolate brown hair and eyes filled with concern. He wore a pale blue button up, tucked into his tan khakis. He stepped onto the platform with clipboard in hand and stethoscope around his neck and looked around frantically. “Where’s Jinnie?”

“Hoya!” Dongwoo called immediately as he saw him. Hoya ran towards him and Dongwoo met him halfway, cradling Jinnie in his arms. Hoya held Dongwoo’s arms as he looked down at the whining sea lion. “I’m not sure what’s wrong,” Dongwoo said. “I just know that his behavior isn’t normal.”

Hoya grazed a hand over the sea lion’s head. “How long has he been like this?”

“For almost two hours.”

Hoya looked up and locked eyes with Dongwoo. “And he hasn’t been active at all? He’s just laying here?”

Dongwoo nodded. “Yeah, but it’s not like when he’s sunbathing because at least then he’s making some noise or waving his flippers since he’s normally so jumpy. Now he’s just lying there like he’s… like he’s dead.”

Hoya and Dongwoo crouched down, Hoya checking up on Jinnie with his stethoscope and nudging his body gently to see if he could find anything wrong. Sunggyu watched them with interest, completely captivated by the scene.

“He’s cool, isn’t he?” Woohyun said. “Dr. Hoya is the best vet we could get our hands on. He’s really passionate about the animals here.” Woohyun tilted his head. “Especially the sea lions, actually.”

“Well it’s definitely nice that’s he has so much passion,” Sunggyu agreed. “He seems like a very reliable person.”

Woohyun nodded. “He is. We’re very lucky to have him here.” He turned to Sungyeol. “What took you so long to get Hoya here?”

“You wouldn’t believe it,” Sungyeol said. “We ran all the way to his office only to see that he was on lunch break. I almost ran around the whole park until I saw him at the café across from the tank. He was writing something on his clipboard, but I didn’t see it.”

“Well, at least you found him,” Woohyun said. “I was afraid that Jinnie was going to get a lot worse during that time.”

Hoya picked up Jinnie in his arms, holding the sea lion close. “I’m going to take him in and take a few samples. He should be completely fine, but I need to find out what cause this.”

Dongwoo nodded, petting the little sea lion in his arms. He placed a kiss on the top of his head. “Get well soon, Jinnie. The rest of us will be waiting for you to come back.” The small crowd of sea lions barked together and Dongwoo smiled.

“Don’t worry,” Hoya grinned. “Jinnie will be back before you know it.”

Dongwoo smiled brightly, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Thanks, Hoya. It means a lot.”

Hoya coughed and smiled again. “It’s nothing – it’s just my job.”

“I don’t think we’re needed here any longer,” Woohyun said. “Let’s go back to the dolphins, okay?”

Sunggyu nodded and followed him down the steps, and back to concrete ground. He let out a short breath he hadn’t realized he was holding, and he wondered for just how long he was holding it.

“You know what I noticed?” Woohyun looked at Sunggyu. “You seem to do fine around water as long as you have something other than the water to focus on.”

Sunggyu nodded. “It’s… easier, I guess; having something to focus on. It’s a distraction.” He smiled. “I guess the phobia is slowly getting better, huh? It has to – I mean, look at all this water I have to spend time around.”

“Woohyun-hyung!” Myungsoo shouted, cutting off whatever Woohyun was about to respond with. “Can I take Yeollie out to lunch?” he asked, hugging his boyfriend’s waist.

Sungyeol pushed him off. “I already told you I can’t! I have to help out today.”

Woohyun stopped and looked over his shoulder at the couple. “It’s true – Bora and Gongchan need help with dolphin feeding today. The other usual trainers have the day off today.”

“But I want him,” Myungsoo whined.

“You have him,” Sunggyu said, chuckling. “He’s yours – isn’t that good enough?”

Myungsoo frowned. “Don’t be a face, hyung. I meant that I wanted him to myself for lunch.” He faced Sungyeol again, taking his hands. “Come on! I was going to cook and everything!” He jumped up and down slightly. “And then we could’ve cuddled together afterwards.”

“Oh, he wants more than cuddling,” Sunggyu muttered under his breath.

Sungyeol smiled at his boyfriend. “Soo, you know I’d love to, but I need to work. Otherwise who else is going to help Woohyun-hyung feed the dolphins?”

Myungsoo got a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “Sunggyu-hyung can!”

“What?” Sungyeol exclaimed.

“What?!” Sunggyu repeated.

“Yeah!” Myungsoo said. “Sunggyu-hyung can stay here with Woohyun and feed the dolphins with Bora and Gongchan! What could go wrong?”

“Soo, baby, are you okay?” Sungyeol asked in concern. He laid a palm on his boyfriend’s forehead. “Did you forget that Sunggyu-hyung is bad around water?”

Myungsoo pouted. “Come on, Yeollie! Just skip out this once, okay? Come back to the apartment with me.”

“Soo, I really want to but–”

“Go ahead,” Woohyun cut in. Sungyeol and Myungsoo looked at him in surprise. Woohyun only grinned larger. “You can go ahead and cut, I can cover for you, Yeol. We don’t have any shows with the whales today, so go ahead.”

“Hyung, are you sure?” Sungyeol asked.

“Nobody will even notice that you’re gone,” he said. “Besides, we have the most authority out of all the other trainers. It doesn’t really matter.”

“What about Sunggyu?” Sungyeol asked, looking at his hyung in concern.

“Don’t worry about him,” Woohyun said, waving it off with his hand. “I can take care of him.” Sunggyu shot him an amused look, almost like a challenge. Woohyun shot it right back. “I’m sure that Sunggyu can handle tossing a few fish to some dolphins.”

“As long as it’s not the whales,” Sunggyu said.

“It won’t be the whales,” Woohyun reassured.

“Well, you heard them, Yeollie, come on, let’s go!” Myungsoo said in excitement, dragging his boyfriend away before anyone could change their minds.

“Wait, Soo, I have to change out of my wetsuit!”

“No you don’t, let’s just go!”

“Soo!”

Woohyun and Sunggyu watched in amusement as Myungsoo dragged his boyfriend towards the parking lot. Sungyeol ended up breaking away and running to the locker rooms to change out of his wetsuit.

“I hope Sungyeol comes out of this alive,” Sunggyu said. “Myungsoo was practically eating him with his eyes.”

“Well, it’s not my problem if he’s too sore for the show tomorrow.”

“Why don’t you have a show today?” Sunggyu asked. “You usually have shows daily, don’t you?”

Woohyun nodded. “Usually, we do. But they get the day off so that they can have a whole day of bonding with the rookie trainers.”

“Ah, I see,” he nodded. “So when you get a new batch of rookies you usually have a full day of bonding with them and the whales?”

“Yeah. After all, if the trainer isn’t close to the animal then there won’t be a mutual relationship.”

Sunggyu nodded. “I should add that to the booklet I’m making. That would be nice.”

Woohyun looked at him, scrutinizing him for a second. “You know, hyung… you don’t strike me as a person who’s afraid of water.”

“And why is that?” he pushed.

“Well, don’t take this the wrong way, but I kind of expected you to be a bit more closed off and–”

“Weaker?” he finished.

Woohyun nodded. “You’re surrounded by water, and you still seem so confident and strong. How do you do that?”

“I’m technically not in the water, so I guess I’m not affected as much. But being in water… that’s a completely different story.” He paused for a second. “I guess I just don’t want my phobia to affect what I do and how I live. I fight it off the best I can.”

“You’re very determined – I like that about you.”

Sunggyu chuckled. “Well, thank you.”

Woohyun flashed a smile and skipped forward. “Come on – let’s go feed the dolphins! It’ll be fun!” He grabbed Sunggyu’s hand and led him towards the tank they were at that morning. Sunggyu stared down at their intertwined fingers inquisitively. Woohyun flushed. “Oh sorry, are you not comfortable with hand holding? We don’t have to you if you don’t want to.”

Sunggyu smiled softly. “Ah, no, it’s okay. It just caught me by surprise. You’re a skinship fan, aren’t you?”

Woohyun nodded as he took him up the metal steps, his fingers still gripping Sunggyu’s. “Yeah, I like holding hands. Sungyeol likes a lot of skinship too, so we hold hands without even knowing sometimes.” He chuckled to himself. “It’s funny.”

Sunggyu’s other hand gripped the metal railing as he traveled upwards, hearing the sloshing of water sending his stomach into flips again. Unconsciously, he gripped Woohyun’s hand a little tighter. Woohyun sent him a glance. “Are you okay?”

Sunggyu nodded as they reached the top of the steps. Unlike the sea lion tank, the dolphin tank’s platform was submerged. He forced his eyes off the water and onto Bora and Gongchan, who were throwing some fish and squid for the dolphins to eat. The dolphins were lined up at the platform, squeaking and squealing as they were tossed their lunch. Bora and Gongchan were clearly having fun as they smiled and applauded the animals whenever they jumped up to catch a fish.

“Woohyun!” Gongchan exclaimed as he noticed him. “Oh, and Sunggyu, too! Ready to help with the fish?”

Woohyun nodded, bringing Sunggyu closer. Sunggyu held his breath as he stepped into water again, but his fingers were in Woohyun’s and that proved as a good distraction.

Gongchan handed him a bucket filled with cold fish and squid. “Here you go. It’s well into feeding time, so go have fun.”

Woohyun smiled and gave Sunggyu the bucket to hold. “Watch this,” he said. He reached into the bucket and pulled out three fish as he looked out into the water. He whistled. “Kwansoo-yah!” he called. A nearby dolphin perked up in his direction, squeaking at the sight of fish. Woohyun delivered a hand motion and Kwansoo jumped into the air, the water droplets sparkling as he fell. “That’s a good boy!” Woohyun cooed, throwing him the fish.

“How can you tell them apart?” Sunggyu asked as he slowly inched towards the ledge. “They all look so similar.”

Woohyun said, “They’re all small differences. It takes a while, but after you get to know them, they’re all so different and beautiful.” Woohyun bent down to pat Kwansoo on the head. “Dolphins are some of the best animals out there. They love interacting.”

Sunggyu nodded to show that he was listening when a voice called from the side. “Woohyun!” They both turned their heads to see Hoya standing at the top of the metal steps, waving Woohyun over with his clipboard.

“Oh, it’s Hoya. He looks urgent. I’ll be right back,” he told Sunggyu. “You’ll be okay, right?”

Sunggyu swallowed the lump in his throat. “Yeah. Of course I will.”

Woohyun gave him a reassuring squeeze on his arm before walking over to Hoya. “What is it?” he asked.

“I found out what was wrong with Jinnie,” he said, his voice low.

Woohyun nodded. “Yeah, what was it?”

“Turns out he had a really bad stomachache. And I know it doesn’t sound that serious, but I think it’s because of the fish he ate this morning.”

“Jinnie’s diet? Are you sure? Dongwoo and I got those fish ready ourselves.”

Hoya nodded. “I know you two did. But I went back to the sea lion facilities a minutes ago and I checked Jinnie’s supply and all his fish were bad.”

Woohyun furrowed his eyebrows. “You mean they were spoiled?”

“No, not spoiled per se, but… Woohyun, the fish were some sort of diseased fish. They weren’t healthy fish and when Jinnie ate them it didn’t turn out too well.”

“But we always have fresh fish!” Woohyun said in surprise. “How could that have happened?”

“I don’t know, but it seems as if someone switched out Jinnie’s fish for some bad fish. I’m not sure if there’s foul play involved, but I’ll keep my eyes open. Meanwhile, I gave Jinnie some medicine and he should be absolutely fine.”

Woohyun opened his mouth to thank him when the loud sound of a scream and a splash alerted him. Hoya’s eyes widened and Woohyun turned around to see a spilled bucket of fish and big ripples and foam erupting at the surface of the water. Some of the dolphins dived underneath and it only took a second for Woohyun to realize that Sunggyu had fallen in.

( A/N ) ; ohohoho well hello i hath updated again. don't hate me otl.

anyways i hoped you enjoyed this chapter haha. took me a while to write it. but please welcome sea lion trainer dongwoo and vet hoya :3 they should be interesting. and ooh, was the fish switch foul play or some sort of accident? and is gyu gonna be okay?! cause omfg he just fell into the dolphin tank.

and what? almost 200 subscribers? it's only chapter five ahaha! not that it's a bad thing XD

anyways thanks for reading and subscribe, comment and upvote if it pleases you X] thanks!

~ Quinnie