The quiet sounds of water rushing past his ears awakens him from his artificial sleep. He cracks his eyes open a sliver, and hates what he sees. The dank ceiling of his own bedchambers. Sitting up slowly, he notes that he doesn't even hurt, which makes him wonder how long he was unconcious, and that's when the feelings start to kick in.

How could she? How could his own mother do this to him? Despondence wells up inside him. Is he ever going to see Joonmyeon again? He rolls up and cries, sobs wracking his body. His life has been ripped out from under him, he'd been so sure that his mother would find a way to help him. He stares at his bracelet, thankful that he still has this at least, along with the memories of that one month he'd spent with his human, his friend, his lover. The lover that his mother had deprived him of.

She was the Queen of the ocean, wasn't she? Why couldn't she do it? She must not have been trying. She wanted him to stay here, imprisoned in this damn palace for all eternity. It must have been on purpose, maybe she didn't even look at all! He glares outside at the dark garden, not even lit by the glowing folliage at the moment so it just looks like a void, and decides that he hates it. He absolutely hates it here- there's so little colour here compared to the surface, where there are green leaves and flowers of all colours. The only thing that has colour here are the people, and they all hate him, so he has nothing.

He stays in his bedchambers for three days, no one comes to visit him, aside from to bring him food- boring food- and he's glad no one is trying to persuade him that life is better down here. Because it's not. 

He misses Joonmyeon terribly. Chen cries a lot, and wishes he were able to produce tears like a human, but there's no point. He glares at his tail in disgust, and wishes that he had two legs, not a flowy, scaly thing that's useless above water. 

What would Joonmyeon be doing right now? He doesn't even know what time it is there, since the sun's rays don't reach way down here. Would he be asleep? Maybe he'd be beachcombing again, loooking for those little shells, he thinks, and touches his bracelet. It's now his most precious belonging, his crown doesn't even come close, it's just a reminder of what he hates.

Chen hopes Joonmyeon misses him too.

After the fifth sleep passes, Chen becomes tired of moping away uselessly. He needs to do something, even if that just means swimming through the palace gardens, like he used to. But that doesnt help either, it's just an extension of his cage, and it makes him feel like a bird in a story Joonmyeon told him. 

On the sixth day, he ventures demurely into the grand hall for some food, a huge room which is sometimes cleared for parties and the like, but is usually their dining room since there are so many of them. The ceiling curves into a dome shape, with several arched beams criss-crossing over the center, and each section has a relief carving of some part of the merfolks' proud history, otherwise known as the old times, or before humans took over the land and forced the merfolk to reside only in the deepest parts of the ocean.

Ducking his head and hiding behind his hair from the rest of his siblings, who are all there already.

"Hey human lover!" One of his sisters shouts across the room, followed by a cacophony of laughter from his other siblings around her. He cringes into himself, and rests on the furthest seat from them, taking a plate and filling it with food. All of it seems bland, now, just fish and salty sea plants, theres no sign of sweet foods like Joonmyeon gave him.

He ignores the namecalling and petty comments from his family, eating in silence as quickly as he can. Then, leaving his cutlery on the table for the serving staff to clear away, he swims back to his bedchambers, sprinting once he's out of sight. Just because he tells himself he doesn't care anymore, doesn't make it hurt less. Halfway there, he changes his mind, and heads instead to the library, thinking maybe he can read through some books about humans, but when he gets there and opens the first book, he remembers how they're all just full of bias and prejudice, and it makes him even angrier. Stewing in his pent up frustration and loneliness, he glowers at nothing in a corner of the library. 

Chen misses the sunlight, and Joonmyeon's affectionate touches. 

He returns the next day, sulkily, and scans through the shelves for something to read. Nothing springs out at him- its just a lot of very thinck scrolls about mer history and magic which he hasn't a hope of working with. He reads them anyway, in need of something to do, as he's already scouted out all the exits of the palace. All of them are guarded, which means he's stuck here, permanently, unless he can sneak out somehow. He doubts that will be as easy as it used to be.

And he'd only be caught anyway, if he doesn't have legs he doesn't have a chance of escaping.

After flicking through tome after musty tome, the edges of the paper glued together with age,he happens across something that interests him. A spell for turning merfolk into a human. For a brief, shining moment, he is ecstatic, then furious with his mother for not proceeding with it. But then he reads further. She hadn't lied, the exchange for the spell is his memories. If he became human he would forget all about Joonmyeon.

Is that really worth it? Would forgetting Joonmyeon be worth becoming human? He's not sure.

On the one hand, he'd wanted this before he even met Joonmyeon. But he was the one who showed him what was out there, opened a tiny window into the surface world. It probably wouldn't be worth it if he couldn't remember anything, he would have to relearn the language, how to walk, everything. He'd just wake up alone on some beach without knowing who he was or where he came from. No, there has to be a better way.

Frowning, he makes a list. 

1. get more magic not happening any time soon

2. find another magician?

3. look for more information in the library

4. sneak out and go to joonmyeon even though I will probably die

He doesn't have much to go on, barely anything at all. But it's a start, and that's just as much as he had when he was researching humans just a month ago. Was it really so short a time? It feels like years ago. He bites his lip- a habit he picked up off Joonmyeon- and stares at his list for a while. The only thing he can think of to do right now is to find a record of all the proficient magic users in the kingdom. Most of them will be specialised, but there has to be something, right?

That's what he does the next time he's there, after eating. Scouring the bookshelves, he gets down anything that looks like it might be even a little bit relevant, and scans every word, eyes tracing the flowing script of his people. He doesn't find much that he didn't already know, and it gets tiring and hard to focus on what he's reading. Everytime he feels himself slipping into a daydream, he reminds himself why he's doiong this and brings the books closer to his face until his nose is burried in it.

It takes another day and a half of searching, but eventually he happens across something he might be able to use. Well, it's not really anything definite, just a hint of a reference- a magician who was kicked out of the kingdom for using spells too strong. She'd had radical visions of reformation, which hadn't been taken to kindly by the monarchy in control at that time. His grandparents, he thinks, if the date on the book is anything to go by. She's probably still alive!

Reading on, his stomach plummets once again: the person who wrote this had no idea where she had gone. Frowning, he got his list back and wrote a new item on it:

5. Find Sooyoun

How he's going to do that, he's not sure. But he will, he knows he will. He has to.

Every time he enters the grand hall for food, his siblings mock him. Usually it's along the lines of being a human lover, but sometimes they throw in the old insults of him being useless, from before he was even gone. He doesn't speak to anyone at all anymore, not even Yixing. He wonders if his voice even works anymore, he's too embarrassed to try talking to himself.

It's harder than he thought to find more information on Sooyoun as there's no list of banishment destinations or anything like that. And he has no one to ask either, the librarian glares at him all the time, as if his mere presence revolts her. Probably because he's a human lover. He sighs, looking over topographical maps in the dim light.

There's not much to see, really, just a lot of crevasses. She could be hiding in any of them. She might not even be anywhere near here! It's been over a hundred years since she was banished, she could be anywhere under the sea by now, or even dead. The futility of this task stares him in the face but he refuses to give up. Not yet, not when there's still a chance.

Over the next few days, he starts planning an excursion. He takes extra food during mealtimes and smuggles it to his chambers, and marks out possible places a mermaid might be able to hide in the nearby maps, bearing in mind she could be a long, long way from the palace, indeed from the kingdom itself. He'll have to swim through the village, so there is no question of wearing his crown, that's going to have to either stay here or be hidden away in a bag.

He watches the guards rounds, to see who's on duty at what time, and who'd be most likely not to see him if he sneaked past, and devises an escape route. All while avoiding everyone else in his family, especilly his mother who he hasn't even seen since he was forcibly dragged here. He thinks he has it figured out, but he waits another two days just to be sure, collecting more food still- this time only the ones that will last a while, a he discovered some disintegrating inside his bag.

As he slithers out of his chambers, when the lights are off and everyone is asleep, he feels a thrill run through him. Despite the fact that he has no idea what his mother will do to him if he's caught, this is exciting. The idea that he'll hopefully be seeing Joonmyeon again even more so.

But he worries about the magician- even if he does manage to find her, what if she says no? What if she casts him out, or worse, kills him? He hopes she wouldn't do something like that, but the way the author wrote about her, she could do. But she's his only hope so, as he hides in the shadows from the guards, slipping past them without so much as a stray bubble to alert them to his presence, he steels his resolve. He'll make it back to Joonmyeon, and then they will travel the world together, just like they promised.

Once he's out of the palace grounds, he breathes a sigh of relief, then recomposes himself. He's not free yet, he still needs to get through the village without being seen, and he doesn't really know his way around here anymore. He'd come here a lot as a child, but he'd grown bored at some point, and started looking for other things further away. Like an eel, he keeps to the darkness as he swims through streets lined with coral and woven seaweed houses, with rooms that seem to float and are connected to the rest of the building only by a single precarious tube-like corridor.

No one comes out to investigate, no one even sees him. Everyone seems to be fast asleep, just as Chen had hoped. He goes faster just in case, the sooner they find he's missing, the sooner his mother will probably send the sharks after him again. He'd always been scared of those when he was younger.

Ducking underneath a particularly wayward coral establishment, he sees the edge of the village in sight, and pushes himself harder. As soon as he breaches that, then he's done it. 

Crossing the line feels like a victory over his mother, but he keeps going without stopping to celebrate, not even for a moment. If he's going to find this magician before the sharks find him, he has to be as quick as he can. Will he even be able to rest? He's not sure, he doesn't know how long it will take, or if he'll be able to find her. 

He travels through the darkest crevasses imaginable, and searches the deepest caves he's ever heard of. He forgot to bring a light, so he has to borrow some of the luminous plants' glow while he searches. But he finds nothing, not the first day, or the second, or the third day of his quest. He won't give up yet, though, he's barely started.

A few times he accidentally disturbs some sleeping creatures and is chased out, frightened.

On the sixth day, he's sick of looking in holes. He wonders how long it's been since he's seen his lover, a month? Not quite, he thinks, but it feels like longer. Why couldn't it have felt this long when he was with him? He grows depressed, travels slower and slower, barely even raising his head to check inside each cavern, not even caring that the sharks could catch him. They can have him, for all he cares, at this rate he will never see Joonmyeon again anyway so why live while knowing that?

After a while he finds less and less crevasses, and the ones he does find get smaller. This is it, he thinks, this is the end, she's not here and I'm never going to see him again. A sudden movement catches his eye, and he hones in on it, perplexed. He hasn't seen signs of life that aren't plants in a long while, why is there something here? 

It's an octopus, known to be amicable with merfolk, so he shrugs and watches it go by, walking on it's two main appendages like a human might. He supposes it can go faster that way. He finds himself jealous that even this creature is closer to being a human than he is. He sags, and the octopus stops in its tracks, and makes eye contact with him, causing him to stiffen up as if caught doing something he shouldn't. He isn't sure why, but this octopus has an air of authority. 

The octopus crawls closer to him, staring him in the eyes as it's red-brown tentacles sway ever so gently in the tide. One of them raises, and reaches out to him, touching his hand. Chen lifts his arm too, and suddenly the tentacle is winding around his arm, suction cups affixing themselves to his skin. He is alarmed but not afraid, as the octopus begins to pull him, dragging him in the direction it first came from.

"What?" His voice sounds garbled from disuse, and he coughs a few times, before repeating himself. Of course, the octopus makes no sign of having heard him, just insistently tugs him further and further. Having nothing else to do at this point, Chen easily follows, curious. 

Another crevasse comes into view, a smallish one, and Chen wonders what on earth is going on when the octopus leads him to it, and takes him down into the darkness.

A light shines from inside a cave, a little way down. Chen takes a deep breath, nerrvous all of a sudden. Is this her? Is this the magician? The octopus notices his hesitation and lightly kisses his wrist with it's suction cups, reassuring him. 

The mouth of the cave is adorned with hanging plants and pretty shells, shells that aren't from around here, and- are those human things? A knife and fork, and a submerged machine which Chen has never seen before. Of course, it could be that the person who lives here made it themself, but it looks human-made to him. It has lots of dials and things to press, and two circles on the front, and a thin rod which sticks up from on side.

As he enters, he can see a shadow of a merfolk floating just slightly above the floor. He can't see much more than a tail, a rich purple mottled with lighter lilac scales that remind him of the night sky in a way. Their hair sways untamed in a cloud around their head, longer even than his mothers- it's a wonder it doesn't get in the way. He marvels at it all, the clear boxes-clearly made by humans- filled with things he has no name for and shelves stacked with more human objects.

His hearts start to race, pounding in tandem. He's scared, he realises, he's scared that she will be bitter and resentful, and will throw him to the sharks when they come for him.

"Muneo? Back already? I thought- oh. Hello there," a thin, slightly wrinkled, mermaid emerges from the shadows, face open and welcoming, and startlingly beautiful. She wears only a selection of necklaces, falling between her s, a combination of both merfolk craftsmanship and human. The amalgamation of both cultures in both the way she dresses and decorates is confusing.

He thinks he might faint- if this is who he thinks she is, then she has power beyond his fathoming. The octopus doesn't let him sink, however, keeping him steady, and he is grateful.

"Now, now," she continues in her soft voice, "there's no need to be afraid," she makes no move to come closer, but tilts her head to the side, as if reading him. Maybe she is! Maybe she can see into his soul, can read what's inside his mind. 

"You are a prince, am I correct?" She asks. Chen's mouth falls open in shock.

"Y-yes,"

"My name is Sooyoun, what, may I ask, is yours?"

"Chen. It's Chen," he stammers, looking off to the side. She frowns, 

"You look like you've been in the wars, you're so thin too. Have you been eating? Let me get you something," She bustles off into the back of her cave, or should he say home?, and comes back bearing a plate laden with food, all of it fresh. He salivates, but makes no move to reach for it, just in case she's testing him or something. The octopus still holding onto him pushes him forward a little, encouragingly. Chen looks up, asking for permission, and the magician smiles warmly at him.

"Thank you," he says, formally. The boiled fish tastes different to how it does at the palace, but not bad. It burns his tongue a little, but not in a painful way, and it's puzzling. But he eats all of it, keeping his eyes only on the food. He's too nervous to look up just yet.

Once he's finished, Sooyoun takes the empty plate from him, and hands it to the octopus,

"Muneo, go clean this up for me, ok?" The cephalopod obliges, and the magician lowers herself so she's opposite him. He doesn't say anything.

"I haven't been to the merfolk kingdom in a very long time. I wonder if it hasn't changed?" She muses, seemingly to herself, "The last time I was there, I was thrown out of the council for speaking against the king. So, Chen, was it? What are you doing so far from home?"

"The palace is not my home, it was my prison," he mumbles, a pained expression on his face.

"Oh. Oh dear one, what happened?" She touches his hand, so lightly he barely feels it but the gesture is enough for him to start spilling his story to her. As he speaks, her face gradually twists into one of pity and shared pain, and when he's done, she embraces him. Shocked, Chen freezes. The action is so startlingly human that he cannot breathe, and he begins to cry.

"And I-I came to you hoping you might be able to help?" He finishes, voice hitching. Sooyeon rubs his shoulder in comfort, and Muneo the octopus crawls into his lap.

"We'll see about that, little one," she murmurs as he calms down, slowly, "I'm sure there's something that can be done," Muneo curls up against him, and he smiles a wobbly smile. 

"Thank you," 

"No need for that, I haven't done anything yet." She runs her fingers through his hair, then leaves him and Muneo to mull on their own. Muneo is surprisingly playful, wrappit it's tentacles around him in a parody of a hug and swiping at his hands when he tries to touch it's head. A little more comfortable now, he inspects his surroundings, while absently petting Muneo. 

There are a lot of tiny plants growing inside pots, and a multitude of tubes and wires a tiny little tools he can't fathom the use of. He can't see much further back in the cave, since it's so dark, but he assumes she probably sleeps back there.

He feels a little blindsided. Like all the anxiety he'd had over finding her was pointless, she isn't scary at all. He starts to wonder if she's actually as powerful as the author of that book said she was, because the only experience he has with power comes with a heavy dose of fear too, so she's either doing a brilliant job of hiding it or she has about as much magical power as he does. 

"So, tell me about Boa. Last time I saw her she was a tiny larvae, but now she's the queen, am I correct?" Sooyeon encourages him to talk more, pulling him into her side. It reminds him of how Joonmyeon used to, but it's all different at the same time. She doesn't lean into him and press her cheek against his the way Joonmyeon does, nor does she playfully nudge his tail with his leg. It hurts.

"Yes. She's the queen now, she has been for almost....thirty years?" 

"Not so long then," she muses, "forgive me for pressing you about this, I have not spoken in my mother tongue for a very long time. I miss my people but I cannot return."

"Why not? In the book I read you were sent away because you had 'radical opinions'. What does that mean?"

"It means, my dear, that I was in a situation very much like yours. Only that I was not a member of the royal family, so therefore I didn't have the protection of the monarch at the time."

"Oh," Chen's mind reels- similar situation? She had been in love with a human?

"Yes. I had a lover above the water. Everything about the situation was wrong, but I continued to visit her as often as I could anyway. Eventually I was discovered. I was banished because of it, because I thought that not all humans are corrupt and terrible. It's true, a lot of them are, but some are not. After I was banished, I searched day and night for months to find a spell that would turn me into a human so I would not have to live alone. I spent seventy one years with her," her eyes look into the distance, not seeing anything before her. 

"Did you find one?" Chen breathes, hope clogging up his throat. If she did, maybe that means he could be human for Joonmyeon too. 

"I found one, but it has conditions, and it is a very difficult spell to cast. I'm sure I would be able to manage it, but there are a few things I need in order to cast it, which I don't have right now. It will take a few days to prepare, during which time I expect you to fully think about whether you want to do this, as it is irreversible,"

"Irreversible? But you're a mermaid right now..?"

"I was just coming to that part. One of the conditions of the spell is that you must return to the ocean often. When you are fully submerged in oceanic water, then you will return to your former self. The other condition is that your legs will not work the same way the rest of the humans' do. You will be lame, able to fit in but unable to walk. Is that what you really want?"

Chen stays silent for so long that she leaves him again.

He stares at the rocky ground, thinking hard. Which is more important to him, walking? Or Joonmyeon? Originally he would have said being able to walk, so he would have gladly taken the other spell, the memory loss one. But now that he's met him, he isn't sure. Would he rather stay here, able to move with relative freedom, or live above the surface? Thought the spell means he hs to swim anyway, that part doesn't matter.

Would he get upset if he couldn't walk? Almost certainly. But he thinks he could deal with it, maybe, if Joonmyeon was right by his side.

"Oh, there was one other part I forgot to mention: do you want to have all the necessary parts to become human?" Chen stares at her, confused. Of course he wants to be 100% human, if she left anything out then that would defeat the point of casting a spell, wouldn't it? He nods slowly, wondering if he's missing some kind of joke. Sooyeon smirks playfully,

"Just making sure," she chirps, leaving him more befuddled than before.

He doesn't move much while thinking, and Sooyeon bustles around him sympathetically, bringing him food occasionally. He's so grateful, and if he weren't so preoccupied with such a big decision, he's sure he would get along famously with her. Muneo crawls all over him, pressing suction cups kisses onto his cheek and being loveable, and if he does agree to this then he will miss them both dreadfully, but perhaps not as much as he misses Joonmyeon right now.

-

Chen fiddles with his bracelet, counting all the shells and pearls over and over again, and imagining Joonmyeon's warm arms around him. He sighs, catching the attention of Sooyeun,

"Chen? What's that you have there?" She asks, taking his hand and bringing the jewelry closer to see it. She touches it with reverence and treats it like a treasure the same way Chen does, and he feels a flush of warmth.

"Its something Joonmyeon gave me," he confesses. The magician nods, turning his hand over so she can see the other side.

"It's beautiful. Does he know the meaning?" Chen shakes his head, "Neither did my lover when she gave me this," she lifts one of her necklaces up. It is large, and silver, laden with tiny green gemstones.

"That's lovely too," he says, admiring the way the light catches the gems. 

"Looks like we both have gifts from our beloved," she sighs wistfully. Chen nods. 

"Do you have your crown with you? May I see it?" After Chen hands her the delicat tiara, she turns it over in her hands, looking at it from every angle.

"I hate it," Chen says, glaring at the piece of his heritage. He hates what it represents, at least, how it links him to his family and the walls that tried to keep him contained. The actual crown itself is beautiful, and it's a shame he can't look at it without being reminded of what it is. 

"That's a shame, its very lovely. Was it made especially for you, or was it handed down?"

"It was worn by someone before me, but a lot of pearls were added when I started to wear it." He points out some which differ just slightly in colour, and she hums in acknowledgement. She places it on a table beside her, behind some other things which he has found are called alarm clocks, though they don't work down here, and leaves it there. The relief he feels of having it out of his hands comes as a surprise to him, but he feels as though a heavy weight has been lifted from him.

-

"Chen, dear, come here please," Sooyeun's voice breaks through the fog of his thoughs, and he drifts over to her. She is holding out a reflective peice of material out in front of her, the surcace shiny but soft, rippling gently. He'd call it a mirror, but he has a feeling it has more to it than that.

"This is a scrying mirror," she explains, "it allows me to see anyone I know, anywhere in the world," she waves a hand over it, revealing an image of a late middle aged man with greying temples, playing with a young child. "This is my nephew, playing with his grandchildren. My lovers sister had children, and I saw them sometimes, before I could no longer hide the fact that I didn't age at the same rate as they did. I check up on him in person from time to time. He's doing well,"

"Wow," Chen sighs in awe. He watches the man pick up the tiny human, and carry it over his head, their tiny arms waggling like an anenome.

"I am showing you this because I thought you might like to see the one you are doing this for," she tells him, waving her hand over it again so it goes blank, reflecting only their faces. 

 "How? How can I see him?" 

"I cannot do it for you, as I have no connection to him you must do it yourself."

"But I have no magic," his elation drips away from him, replaced with a deepset feeling of inadequacy.

"Try it just once, you may surprise yourself," She smiles ruefully, "just think of him, Joonmyeon isn't it? Just think of him and do what I did. The mirror will do most of the work," 

Think of Joomyeon? That doesn't sound too hard, he's been thinking of him almost non-stop since they were separated. Eye screwed shut tightly, in case he fails, he focuses all his mental capabilities on the human boy, and mimics the magician's hand motion from earlier. Nervous, he cracks one eye open and gasps.

There he is, sat on the rock where he always sits when he's looking for Chen. He looks terrible, eyes lined with dark circles, and his hair is a spikey mess. He looks like he has become thinner, too. He looks like he's been crying, too, eyes red and damp looking. Chen feels like crying just looking at him. How he wishes he could reach out and hug him right now.

"See? You do have magic," she says, but her words sound hollow. Maybe she wasn't expecting the moment to be so sombre, maybe she thought seeing him would cheer him up. He's not happy about seeing him like that, but he's immensely grateful to her for sharing this with him. On an impulses, he flings his arms around her neck. 

"I'm sorry, my dear," she rubs his back up and down avoiding his dorsal fin.

-

When the time comes, another couple of days later, for him to make his decision final, he's still not sure, but he's leaning heavily towards yes. In fact, most of him is screaming yes yes a thousand times yes, but there's a tiny part of him that wonders what if...? too. What if Joonmyeon hates the fact that he can't walk. Would he have to carry him around places? 

"Chen? Are you ready?" Sooyoun asks him softly, carefullly. She crooks her finger and uses it to make him look her in the eye, another habit she's picked up from spending time with humans. He doesn't mind though.

"I-I think so," he stutters, trying to look behind her at everything she has prepared for him. He's truly touched that she's doing this for him, without even asking for anything in return. He wants to cry again, but not because he's sad.

"You think so? Darling, that's not quite good enough. I need a little more conviction if this is going to work." Chen nods, swallows and inhales,

"Yes. Yes I'm ready for this, I want to be human and I agree with the conditions." He declares. He still has a few niggling worries about them, but he can deal with those when the time comes.

"Good, there we go," she grins, wrinkles appearing in the corners of her dark eyes "let's get started then." She ushers him back onto a seat she dragged into the centre of the room, one which looks like its been woven from some kind of plant. Gingerly, he sits on it, his tail curling around one of the legs gracefully. Anxious anticipation swells inside of him as Sooyoun picks things up and arranges them around him.

"Just relax dear," she mumbles, without even looking at him, "and try not to move too much, alright?"

She begins muttering things to herself under her breath, things he can't hear no matter how hard he strains his ears. He sits on the chair for what feels like hours, as the magician dances around him, doing things he assumes are last minute preparations, and he wants to fidget but she told him to be still so he restrains himself, sitting as still as a statue.

"Alright, all done,"

"What?" He frowns. That's it? She's done? The spell is complete? What an anticlimax.

"That's it, it's over. When you get on dry land your tail will split and you will become human, on the outside at least- you will still have two heart." She looks at his incredulous face and rests her hand on her hips, "yes, dear, that's really it. Not all magic is flashing lights and sparks you know!"

"I'm sorry," 

"No, no, don't be sorry," she laughs, gathering him in her arms again. He wonders if this is what Joonmyeon feels like when his mother hugs him. "I think I shall miss you, when you are gone, darling,"

"Me too," he mumbles, wanting to stay here a little longer.

"Tomorrow. You should leave tomorrow, after you have slept and eaten. I will give you some things to take with you on your journey, so you won't starve, and I'll point you in the right direction, alright?"

"Ok." He's at a loss for words, he's so grateful for everything she's done and doesn't know where he'd be without her. Dead, probably. "Will you get in trouble for helping me?"

"Oh, no dear, don't worry about that. I have certain precautions against being found- the only reason you got here was because Muneo brought you, and she knows where it is. Didn't you wonder why you weren't attacked by the royal sharks?"

"I kinda forgot about that," He confesses. Sooyoun chuckles, and runs her fingers through his hair again.

"Did you want to take your crown with you? Or leave it here?"

"Can I leave it with you?" 

"Yes, of course, dear."

"Thank you," a watery grin stretches across his face, "for everything."

"No need to thank me, darling,"

-

Then next morning Chen wakes up to Muneo sitting on his chest, leaving darkened ring shaped marks on his skin. He supposes this is it's way of saying goodbye, so instead of pushing the octopus to the side, he simply sits up and lets it slip onto his lap, where he pets it until it's time to go. While waiting, he watches his surrogate mother bustle around and make food for him. 

They embrace one last time, before Sooyoun faces him in the right direction,

"Go this way for as far as you can, that way you should avoid the palace grounds. Here, this should help you avoid being foud by the royal sharks," she hands him a small piece of string with a few stone beads on it, tying it around his wrist next to his keepsake from Joonmyeon.

"I can't thank you enough-" Chen starts, but Sooyoun cuts him off with a look.

"I will not hear of it, understood? Go and make me proud- remember I will be able to check up on you at any time, ok?" 

"Yes. Goodbye!" He turns and begins to swim to Joonmyeon, happiness gracing his face.

wow i got this done a little bit quicker than normal, right? just a bit? yeah? ahh...

so yeah, chen is on his way back to joonmyeon! yay!

here is my tumblr and also i have a lot of backstory and history for this fic so if you have any questions ask them in the comments, or maybe on my askfm ?