Chen lounges on the shoreline, feeling the sand against his back, and the waves gently washing over his shoulders and running through his shoulder length hair. It feels good to bask in the sun, and he knows this would be one of the things he would miss most if his mother can't figure out a transformation spell. Besides Joonmyeon, of course. He can hear him pottering about inside his tiny little home, but doesn't know what he's doing in there.

He touches the bracelet Joonmyeon made for him, to remind him it's still there, and sighs happily. Even though he can feel the creeping sensation of hunger tightening in his stomach, he's loathe to move right now. It would be fairly simple to catch a fish, he eats them raw all the time, but it would be even better to ask Joonmyeon for some food. Human food is so varied, and full of interesting new flavours. That's something he anticipates when he becomes human: he wants to taste all the different kinds of food he can, in all the different lands.

Soft footfalls behind him alert him to Joonmyeon's presence, but he doesn't look up. Neither of them speak as Joonmyeon crouches next to him, then not caring about getting his clothes wet any more, sits down beside him. Chen finally looks over when he thinks some time has passed, and is slightly surprised and confused to find Joonmyeon staring at him. Joonmyeon coughs delicately, and holds out another one of those plastic bags that the food he buys comes in. Chen rolls over to investigate, looking closely at the writing he doesn't understand very well yet. Squinting at it, he tries to read:

"Cho-to-pay?"

Joonmyeon laughs, "Chocopie," he corrects, opening the packet and handing Chen one of the small round things inside. Chen inspects it, wondering what it is and if it has any relation to anything else Joonmyeon has given him to try. 

"It's good, go on, try it," Joonmyeon encourages. Chen wastes no time in taking a huge bite, and his eyes widen at the sweet flavour flooding his mouth. He makes a pleased noise and flops onto the sand with his eyes closed, chewing slowly. 

"I told you it was good," he chuckles, opening one for himself, "I got these just for you, by the way. I don't normally buy this kind of thing, but I thought you would like to try it,"

"Mm, thank you Joonmyeon," he moans, his lips clean of chocolate. Joonmyeon clears his throat, and looks away, suddenly very interested in what lies beyond the horizon.

"When I am human, what will happen?" Chen muses. "Will I be able to walk like you?"

"I don't see why not. It will probably take a while to get used to it. But you'll get there, I'm sure," 

"I hope so," Chen agrees, flicking his damp hair to the side. Joonmyeon sighs, lying back into the shore parallel to Chen, letting the warm shoreline wash over his shoulders too,

"When you're human I'll take you wherever you want to go. It might be hard, since you have to have a passport to go to a lot of places, but I'll do my best. I'm sure we'll find a way!" He turns his head so he's looking directly at Chen, his proximity startling and not good for his health. It's making his hearts beat faster. "Ho do you feel about theme parks?" Joonmyeon laughs,

"What?" The merman frowns quizzically. He's never heard of that before.

"A theme park. That's a place you can go to have fun, there's lots of things to do there. Rides, games, pretty things to see, things to eat-"

"I will go there with you!" Chen interrupts, "I-I mean, I want to visit this place with you. Please," 

"It's not just one place, there's lots of them. We can make it our life mission to visit all of them, if you want?" Joonmyeon is only teasing, but he thinks that maybe it really should be their goal to go see every single one of these attractions if it makes Jongdae smile like that each time. Taking him on a rollercoaster would be so much fun. He'd probably be scared out of his mind the first time, but after that Joonmyeon bets he'd be dragging him into each queue, desperate to go on again and again.

"Yes please," 

"We can go to one of the disney ones first, I know there's one in  France and that should be easier to get to than America, they have heavy border control over there I think. But before that we should watch some disney movies, so you know what kind of thing to expect. Ah, it's going to be so great. I can't wait for you to be human,"

"Me too," He anticipates the future so much, the human world seems fascinating. He wants to see everything, castles, gardens, flowers, birds, cinemas, clothes shops-everything. And all of it with Joonmyeon. He'd be lost without him, he thinks; he's the person who brought light into his life. After meeting him, his existance has been thrown into a vortex of colours and smells and tastes and experiences, without even leaving this small beach. He can't even imagine how much more there is to try out there.

"Maybe one day you can meet my family," the human muses, looking at Chen in a way that makes his stomach flutter as though clouds of krill are trying to escape from inside him. Meeting Joonmyeon's family would be an honour. If they are anything like Joonmyeon himself, then he's sure he would love all of them. He knows a bit more about famillies in the human world now, so he can safely say that his mother probably won't be a scary overlord like his own, and his siblings are probably nicer to him that Chen's. 

"I would like that,"

"Me too. I'd like that too," Joonmyeon looks at him again, then wriggles a little closer until their shoulders are touching the slightest bit. Suddenly the krill inside Chen go insane. He looks away, trying to steady himself. What has gotten into him? Luckily Joonmyeon is silent for a while, which gives him the chance to pull himself together, and hide his annoying bodily reactions. When he's finally calm, and not scared of drying up from the heat rushing to his face, Joonmyeon speaks again.

"Jongdae? What's your home like?" 

Chen purses his lips, trying to think of some good words, but all the interesting ones escape him,

"Big. And dark."

"Are there lots of rooms? Why is it dark? Do you have lots of land- er- water? Territory?" The way the human is throwing question after question at him reminds him of how was when he first started speaking with him, and makes him feel a little bad for withholding the information. Clearly he'd been burning with curiosity.

"Yes, there are lots of rooms. My bedroom is far away from the others. It's dark because it's at the bottom of the ocean, silly," He answers. Joonmyeon laughs at the obvious response, 

"And the land? Is there lots of space down there?" 

"Yes. We have huuuge coral gardens," he draws it out with his hands in the air above them, making lots of small squares with his hands, "if the palace ends here, then the gardens keep going all the way up here," his hand travels way up above his head, "but I am not allowed to go there. Well, it doesn't matter now, I wasn't allowed to leave the palace but here I am."

"Because you kept running away?" 

"Yes, I think my mother thought I wouldn't return. She was right." Joonmyeon stares at him, lips pursed as he takes in his determined expression. Then sensing that this could turn into quite a sensitive topic, he changes the subject a little,

"So, these gardens. I don't know what plants grow that deep in the sea, what do you have there? Just coral?"

"No, not just coral, but those are the most impressive things. With magic, some merfolk can talk to the coral and ask it to grow in certain shapes. There are coral shapes of all the monarchs there. Lots of them,"

"Wow," Joonmyeon stares ahead without seeing anything, his eyes focused somewhere inside his mind instead, imagining the wonders at the bottom of the sea. It's strange how their roles so easily reverse, Chen thinks, both of them so excited by the prospect of something new, a whole other world to explore. But he would only become trapped there, getting out of there is so much harder than getting inside. If Joonmyeon ended up down there he'd be stuck forever. Chen wouldn't wish that on anyone, especially not him.

At peace, the two of them lie together and watch as the clouds drift by, and amuse themselves by pointing out different shapes in the billowing whiteness. This leads to more explanations as Joonmyeon has to explain what a lot of these things are, like rabbits. It seems to baffle him that he doesn't know what a dog is. Cloudwatching continues for a long time, until the sky starts to glow a warm orange, with the clouds glowing pink in wispy strands and the sun itself mirrored in the ocean, a shattered orange-red reflection.

"It's so romantic," Joonmyeon sighs, after a long period of quiet. He'd long ago stopped caring about how his fingers turned wrinkly, and he'd removed some of his clothes a while ago since they were chafing.

"Is this another word for love?" Asks Chen, intrigued. He's still confused over the human's bizzare culture around mating, so he wants to learn as much as he can.

"Sort of? It's related. Romantic is used to describe something that, uh, makes you want to fall in love?" 

"So the sky...makes you want to fall in love?" Chen is incredulous. How can something like that make you want to spend a long time with someone else, or have ? 

"No! Well, sort of. It creates an atmosphere. Think of it like this: you're both staring at the sunset together, and one of you says 'it's so beautiful' because the sky is so pretty, like it is now. Then the other person is looking at you instead of the sunset, because the warm orange-yness makes them look different, and it makes them light up and then, without even looking at the sunset at all, they say 'I know-"

"You are beautiful," 

"Yeah! Uh- what?" Joonmyeon looks startled, probing Chen's face for answers. 

"I understand romantic now I think," he mumbles, staring at Joonmyeon's face. The light does make him look different, it makes him glow and flush pink. But maybe, the pink has nothing to do with the sunset. His round face reminds him of the moon, and Chen thinks that simile is apt, because the moon reflects the sun's light, and controls the sea. Chen thinks that, maybe, he'd do anything for Joonmyeon.

"Y-you do?" His voice cracks slightly.

"Yeah," Chen doesn't elaborate, instead he asks, "how did you know you were in love? Before?"

As if snapping out of a trance, Joonmyeon blinks and raises his eyebrows, "uuhh," he says intelligently. "I guess I didn't, really. I wasn't sure at first, but we both decided to try it anyway, but unfortunately we weren't good for each other even though it was good to start with. I left because all we ever did was argue and I knew he wasn't going to leave. He was so stubborn."

"So you weren't in love?" 

"No, I don't think so. Not at the end, at least. At the beginning I might have been in love, who knows?"

"Could you... please tell me what you felt like?" Chen implores, looking intensely into Joonmyeon's eyes, wanting to know what signs to look out for, "because when I am with you I don't know if I am friends or different," 

Joonmyeon bites his lip, bright pink blossoms blooming across his cheeks, staring up at the sky, "Well when I first met him, I thought he was really attractive-"

"What does that mean?"

"I thought he was very good looking, handsome, I wanted to spend time with him. And my heart would beat faster when he was nearby." He smiles softly to himself. "And then, of course, there were the butterflies."

"Butterflies?" Chen frowns.

"Butterflies are an insect, very pretty, but here it's a metaphor. I mean there was a tickly feeling in my stomach. When people are nervous they say they have butterflies in their stomach because it feels like theres something fluttering around inside you."

"Oh," He lies back. What Joonmyeon just described sounds like the krill he's been experiencing, maybe that's what he meant? Does that mean he's other than friends with Joonmyeon? It's the only logical conclusion, because everything that he just said, Chen has experienced. He thinks he must be, he likes Joonmyeon in a way that's different than friendship. If only he had other friendships to compare this feeling to, then maybe this wouldn't be so hard. His lonely childhood means that he can't differentiate.

"Yeah. But like I said, we grew apart. There hasn't been anyone I felt the same way about since then," he says, glancing at Chen from the corner of his eye. Just as Chen opens his mouth to ask another question, Joonmyeon yawns loudly, stretching his arms way above his head, 

"Aah- I should go to sleep now," he says, starting to get up. 

"Oh. Ok." He fishes around for his clothes in the shallow water, and bundles them up into a ball before he stands up, and Chen watches him wordlessly. Why does it suddenly feel like Joonmyeon doesn't want to talk to him anymore? He feels a little hurt, but he's right, they should go to sleep soon.

"Goodnight,"

"Night," the human stands there for a moment longer, looking as if he wants to say something else, but decides against it, turning back to his home instead. He stares at Joonmyeon's back as he leaves. He has a lot to think about and analyse tonight, and he contemplates as he drifts to his makeshift seafloor bed. About how he feels when Joonmyeon is there, and whether he is in love or if he is just imagining things. 

Come morning he is still confused, but thinks he is probably in love with the human. Probably. Maybe. Most likely. What he really needs to do is a test, meaning he needs to try out these 'other things' Joonmyeon mentioned before, and see how he reacts to them. He thinks if he were just a friend after all, then he wouldn't like to do them, but if he is...

Would Joonmyeon accept him? Would he be disgusted? He's not sure if he could take the only person to ever willingly spend time with him rejecting him in that way, so maybe it'd be better to stay quiet about it for a while. That's what he would do if he had more time, at least. There's still the chance that his mother won't be able to find anything to turn him into a human, in which case he only has about a week left with him. Less than a week, actually, just five days. How had the time passed by so quickly?

Suddenly he's running out of time, and there's a pressure to find everything out there that wasn't there before. He needs to know whether he is a friend or not. He needs to clarify with Joonmyeon. 

Breaching the surface, he urgently searches for him, swimming rapidly closer to the shore while keeping his head above the water so he can see. He spots him lounging on a rock a little way out, rather than on the sand. On closer inspection, he isn't actually lounging, he's looking out, mostly likely for him. The thought makes his hearts swell, the idea that Joonmyeon wants to spend time with him as much as he does, makes his hearts sing. 

He's not going to dance around the subject, lest he confuse himself, he has to be direct.

"Joonmyeon!" He calls out, making the human jump a little, but he smiles when he sees him coming closer.

"Jongdae," 

"Joonmyeon, come down here, I need to ask you a question," Chen rests a hand on a lower part of the rock that Joonmyeon could sit on. Head tilting curiously, the human obliges and slips down until they're almost level with each other. Feet dangling in the ocean and tiny waves brushing against his calves, Chen looks up at the person he's pretty sure he's fallen in love with.

"I need to- I want to try something. Is it ok?"

"What is it?" Joonmyeon looks utterly perplexed, eyebrows coming together in the middle. Chen touches them to smooth them out, not wanting to see him upset. Joonmyeon's face slowly turns a pale shade of pink, making Chen smile.

"I want to 'kiss' with you,"

"W-what?!" Joonmyeon exclaims, jerking backwards, "why?"

"Is it wrong?" Chen retreats back into the water, hiding his face until only his eyes are visible. He hadn't expected that to hurt so much, like something inside him was torn. He pushes his hand against his chest, hoping it will fix whatever has gone wrong inside him, but it doesn't help.

"N-n-not wrong. I just didn't, well, I had no idea. That you wanted to. Ahh," he ruffles his hair. He drags his hands over his face and peeks through his fingers, "Why do you want to do this?"

"It's a test." Chen mumbles, lips barely touching the air.

"A test?"

"To find out if I love you,"

"Oh," Joonmyeon tucks his legs up to his chest, hugging his knees. He's silent for so long that Chen worries he's offended him somehow, and he feels horribly dejected even though Joonmyeon hasn't actuallly opened his mouth to say anything yet. He wants to swim away, to hide and never come out ever again.

"Ok," Chen's thoughts are interrupted by the quiet word. He looks up in shock,

"Beth? I mean, what?!" Chen corrects himself after reverting to his mother tongue. Joonmyeon lets his legs dangle back in the water, and shuffles closer to the edge. Chen looks on, unsure what he's seeing. Joonmyeon makes a gesture that he's come to know means 'come here' so nervously he inches forward until Joonmyeon stops, by which time Chen in neatly situated between the human's knees, hands resting on the rock either side of him so he doesn't sink. 

"Ok." He breathes, "ok, you can kiss me." 

Chen freezes, staring at Joonmyeon without a clear idea of what to do now. They aren't even touching, yet he feels like he's never been closer to anyone in his life. The scenery fades and he can't take his gaze off Joonmyeon's eyes- he leans a little closer and Chen tries to remember everything Joonmyeon said about what a kiss is. Lips touching, right? He shoots a glance down at the human's mouth, and his own falls open instinctively.

It's short and sweet, so fast that Chen almost blinks and misses it, but Joonmyeon is retreating back, blushing colourfully. His lips were warm, and dry, and for some reason Chen wants to try again. Without really thinking, he reaches out and grabs Joonmyeon's head, guiding him back until they are reconnected. Joonmyeon makes a small startled sound but doesn't react other than that.

Nothing seems to be happening. Chen has his lips puckered against the human's which is exactly what he'd been told to do, but it's not right. Laughing, Joonmyeon wrenches away, leaving Chen mortified.

"You have to move your mouth, otherwise it doesn't work. Look, copy what I do- gently," he leans back in, pressing his mouth on his, and ever so softly moves his lips. Chen catches on quickly, and soon they're moving in tandem, and Chen feels his hearts fluttering inside him. His eyes shut of their own accord as he reciprocates, unconciously slipping his hands upwards to hold onto his arms. It feels good, he's surprised at just how warm he feels, something strange and new bubbling up inside him.

"See?" Joonmyeon mumbles against his mouth, just before he pulls back. Chen doesn't open his eyes immediately, trying to memorise the sensation as it plays ghost over his skin, but when he does Joonmyeon is looking at him intensely. He's having trouble thinking coherently, and all thought besides more has flown away. 

"So? Did that decide anything?" 

"Ah?" Chen blinks a few times,

"About whether you l-love me?" Joonmyeon covers his mouth with his hand, shy.

"I don't know," Chen examines himself. His hearts are racing, and lips tingling, and he's drawing in short gasping breaths.

Wordlessly, he takes Joonmyeon's hand and draws it up to his chest so he can feel the arythmic pulsing beneath his skin, watching his face light up in awe. He smiles lopsidedly, letting out a happy sigh. Joonmyeon twines his fingers in Chen's hair and tugs him back for another kiss, prising his lips apart sweetly and swiping their tongues together, careful to avoid his sharp teeth. Joonmyeon makes a low noise in the back of his throat, and Chen is shocked by the answeing call in his belly, but it makes him cling onto the human harder, wishing they could just stay like this forever.

He's forced to breathe, so his wish cannot be granted, but he thinks he knows now. He has to be in love with Joonmyeon, there's no other explanation for how he feels. His priorities have changed slightly, he no longer wants to become human simply to travel the human world: he wants to travel the human world with Joonmyeon by his side.

"I think I am in love with you," he pants, resting his cheek on the other man's shoulder, hoping he won't cast him away after his emotional confession. A warm dry hand slides accross his back and pulls him tighter to Jonmyeon's body, Chen's bare chest pressed against the human's clothed one. He hopes that means it's ok to feel this way.

"I have a feeling it's mutual," Joonmyeon sighs into Chen's hair, his shoulder. Chen can't help but feel cherished, thinking back to one of his first days here when he called Joonmyeon sweet. But he's found new words that fit him too: like charming, and loveable and precious.

"You are- you are in love with me too?" Chen whispers, elated. If only his family could see him now, in love with a human! He'd be an outcast for sure. It's a good thing he's never going back there again, he thinks, gripping the sleeves of Joonmyeon's shirt so tight he might puncture the fabric. Joonmyeon hums softly, voice hitching at the end. 

There are so many problems that could arise from this, so many things that could come between them. Not least the fact that they aren't even of the same species, though with luck that issue will be sorted soon enough. He won't let that bring him down. They've got ages to figure out their future, it's going to be fine. They'll visit theme parks together and fly to different countries and hold hands, and it will be good. He convinces himself of this before asking,

"Can we kiss again?"

-

"No, I cannot just carry you to the other side of the island!" Joonmyeon laughs, smacking Chen lightly on his bare stomach, "Jongdae, do you know how heavy you are? I could barely make it from the rock pools to the sea with you!" Chen's indignant frown is giving him hysterics. 

"Fine, I understand. Stop laughing at me." He pouts, making the human laugh even more until he can barely breathe, and Chen is struggling not to smile a little too. It was a silly request, but he just wanted to see what it was like. Even if Joonmyeon could carry him the hour long walk there, he'd probably suffocate long before he reached there.

He stares at the clear sky, smile fading from his face. Today is the last day, and time is running dangerously short. He's on edge, and so is Joonmyeon, the both of them failing to hide their growing anxiety behind laughter and jokes. She'll be here soon, and then everything will be decided.

"Don't worry, everything will be fine," Joonmyeon tangles their fingers together. Chen still has difficulty believing this is real, that what happened between them wasn't some strange dream. They'd spent a lot of time in the days leading up to now kissing, and holding each other. With a degree of reverence, he looks at their entwined hands and hopes that they'll still be able to do this once everything is over with. It shouldn't be too long now, he thinks, looking out to the horizon.

He's right. It's not an hour later that Chen notices the first signs of his mother's arrival: still waters and silence in the evening air.  

"She's coming," 

"Ok. Should I stay with you?"

"Yes," he squeezes his hand. He has a feeling he's going to need all the help he can get. 

There's not so much drama in her arrival as last time, no sharks or waves, she simply glides closer with an empty stone expression. That does not bode well, Chen thinks, but it also doesn't necessarily mean bad news. He hopes.

"Mother," he greets, desperately wanting to hide behind his friend but he can't, this is something he has to face head on. His mother doesn't say anything for a while, just stares at them, eyes gradually tracing his face then down to their conjoined hands, but her face doesn't betray how she feels about it. Chen feels embarrassed to be seen like this, as physical contact isn't so common for merfolk, but he fears he might break if he isn't absolutely certain Joonmyeon is right there.

"Chen," he braces himself, clenching his jaw, "I personally searched through the palace library, and had trusted servants search all the libraries in the kingdom for information on how to transform you into a human. We found something, but the exchange... I am not willing to give up your memories. That is my final decision."

"No," Chen whispers aghast. "No! You promised!"

"I promised only that I would try. I have. And I have deemed the consequences too much to risk. Now come home," Her hair raises, snaking in the air like it would underwater, and her eyes illuminate the demi-darkness, casting haunting shadows across her imperial face.

"No!" Chen screams, backing away from her and taking Joonmyeon with him. "No! I will not go!"

"You promised." She flings his words back at him,  and Chen can feel the subtle tingle of magic coursing through him, though he tries to resist.

"Chen? What's wrong?" Joonmyeon panics behind him, "Why are you shouting?! Did she not find anything? Chen!" 

"She says she found something but won't let me," he explains, keeping one eye on his mother as she raises her arms, saltwater cascading over her arms. She's about to try usin gmagic on him somehow, he knows it, but he isn't strong enough to resist her if she truly used all of her power. He's weak, and her powers are magnificent, as befitting royalty. Yet another reason why he should just leave.

"Son, do not go back on your word now," she intones, eyebrows furrowing. Icicles of fear drip down into his stomach, and he pushes joonmyeon even further behind him for protection as the tides begin to swirl around them.

"Mother, I love him! I cannot leave him!" He tries to plead, but it's no use, he should know that by now. Once she has made her decision, it cannot be swayed. 

"Chen!" Joonmyeon cries out behind him, waves crashing over both of them now, rising higher and higher. Something invisible has a hold of him, he can feel it tugging at his body, trying to tear him away from his love, but he won't let it. He will fight! With everything he has, he will fight his mother and not leave his lover!

It hurts, the magic tears into his flesh like a thousand needles being dragged through his body, but he can't lose. Holding onto Joonmyeon for dear life, he notices his human is crying. He can feel the pull too, and is clutching at the merman with all the strength he has, but he's slipping. Together they aren't enough to hold out against the queen of the merfolk kingdom. 

Water roars in their ears, and with one final excruciating tug, Chen screams and slips through his fingers, flying through white water and spinnning, tumbling through the surface until he has no idea which way is up. Which way is back to Joonmyeon?

All he remembers before blacking out is bubbles surrounding him, and his mother telling him to sleep.

wooooow this took a really long time and im sorry ^^; 

my tumblr is here

ps. i drew a picture of chen in this im sorry if its really big??? haha enjoy wet chen