One day you’re in your bathroom, sitting on the toilet seat in pajamas and shaving your legs when Baekhyun opens the door, nearly tearing it off its hinges. You lock eyes and both of you freeze.

After four seconds of absolute silence and mutual staring, you ask, “What seems to be the problem?” and he shuts the door on you.

You stare some more, squinting at the door. Baekhyun comes back five seconds later, pointing a finger at you. What is privacy?

“No. I came here with a purpose.” He announces.

“Sure, Frodo,” you say, looking down at your leg and sticking your tongue out as you continue shave it. “Shoot.”

“I’m sick and tired of school. I need vacation.”

“We just went to the mountains a while ago,” you point out.

“And you call that vacation?” Baekhyun deadpans. He’s silent for a moment. You look up to see him staring at you with his brand ‘are you ing kidding me’ expression. “Dal. We almost got killed by an angry Ifrit.”

You blink a few times. “Point. Okay, what about vacation?”

“I want to go to the sea,” Baekhyun says, crossing his arms on his chest, as if ready for you to say ‘no’. “We’re going to the sea, we’re gonna have fun by the beach, and the whole pack is coming.”

You snap your head up at that.

“The whole pack?” you gasp out. “Who’s gonna keep an eye on the city?!”

“Siwon,” Baekhyun shrugs. “Also, Hyoyeon, Sooyoung, Donghae and Jaejoong are coming. I already asked them.”

You squint at him. He looks serious. God. He’s serious. “You’re serious?!”

“I’m generally a guy that’s mostly serious.”

“Baek.”

“Yes, I’m serious. Serious Black.”

“Oh, my God.”

*

"I still don't think this is a good idea," you mutter, crossing your arms on your chest. Amber puffs out breath.

"Please chill. At least once in your life, chill," she says. Baekhyun opens his mouth, but he's only able to let out a gasp because Amber is already cutting him off, "Do not say anything that contains the word 'Netflix' in it, Baekhyun, I swear to God."

"What a hardass," Baekhyun scoffs. Amber elbows him. You three are in the back of Kai's car, with Chen in the passenger seat and Kai driving (unless it was an emergency, Kai would never let Chen drive his car). "You know what we should do someday? Like, when we have a steady income of money and lots of time to spare because we're all adults with nice jobs and stuff? We should rent a few campers and go around the country. We could be like the Winchesters, following leads on weird happening around." 

"My God," Chen says, turning in his seat to look at Baek with gleaming eyes. "That is actually genius. I'd make an awesome Dean." 

Amber laughs out loud. "You're way too straight to be Dean." 

"I'm sorry, but I still think that Dean is the straightest man in the history of TV," Kai butts in. 

"You must be blind if you don't see Destiel being a thing, dude," Amber sighs. "I'm used to you skeptics. You make me question the logic of the entire universe."

"If you're Dean," you say, "which one of us is Sam?" 

"Obviously the one with the most terrific hair," Baekhyun replies. "I'd say me." 

This time Kai scoffs. "You wish." 

"You wanna fight me?" 

"Kai's hair denies the laws of gravity," you point out. 

"We all know Sulli has the best hair," Amber says. "Damn, imagine though: a female Sam." 

"Samantha?" Chen says, high-pitched, making you all giggle. Kai's phone rings; Chen is the one to pick it up and click the green button. He sets it to speaker and your eardrums get attacked by music, screams and laughs. You all cringe. 

"Okay, help us out here," Taemin's voice cuts through all the other voices. "Which is better: Assassin's Creed or The Witcher?"

"Better tell us who'd make a better Sam Winchester, Sulli or Baekhyun?" Kai screams. 

"Neither, duh," Taemin replies. "You'd be Dean and I'd be Sam."

"See, that's unfair, just because I don't have a brother doesn't mean I can't be Sam," Baekhyun argues. 

"Dude, Kai literally makes the best Dean ever, with all the manpain and anger issues," Taemin continues. 

"Hey," Kai shoots. 

"How does that make you Sam?" Chen asks, already laughing his off. 

"I have the best hair." 

"Now that's a fat lie," Chanyeol screams in the background.

*

You're looking at the sea in front of you.

The boys are taking it very enthusiastically.

The moment you reach the actual water, they all practically throw themselves into it, stripping as they go, making everyone on the beach turn their heads towards you. It’s hot as hell and you’re already stripping out of your clothes yourself, eager to touch the cold water and get rid of all the sweat that you’ve gathered over your skin during the short walk from the hotel to the beach.

Beside you, Eun is giggling as she takes off her dress, and Amber is stumbling over her shorts.

You run to the water, laughing loudly at the first touch of the waves, and you all jump right in, not even trying to calmly get used to the coldness.

There’re hands on you before you realize, Sulli clinging to you, and you surface, gasping for air, laughing. She splashes your face, still on your back, and you tilt your body so that she starts to fall.

“I come to the rescue!” Chen hollers, running towards you, gasping, threading the water that’s reaching his waist with his legs, dripping wet. He jumps at you, freeing Sulli in the process, and right before you go underwater, you hear the girl scream, “My hero!”. You’re underwater only for a second, because then Chen grabs you around your thighs and pushes you out.

Air bites your skin, then you’re falling, and there’s salt water in every possible place on your body.

Someone grabs you again, heaves you up, and you feel your skin tingling with warmth. Someone is holding you up bridal-style, and you rub at your eyes, getting rid of the water, to look up at Kai.

He’s beaming down at you, wet and gorgeous, and you get an urge to kiss him right then and there.

“Oh God,” Xiumin mutters somewhere on the side. “I do not want to see any watersports here.”

“How is a watersport?” Chanyeol asks him.

“Are you kidding me?”

The lovely moment doesn’t last long because someone throws an inflatable ball at Kai’s head. He yelps, losing his balance, and you almost end up underwater again.

“Cut it off loverbirds, there’re children on this beach!” Taemin scolds, running into the water. Kai leans in to plant a kiss on the heated skin of your forehead and he puts you down.

You blush when you see Eun smiling knowingly at you.

“Ew,” Amber says on the side, smiling as well, and winks at you when you glace at her.

“You’re all so gross,” Baekhyun says. Amber laughs at him and kisses him on the cheek. You can see him practically melting.

*
 

“Say ‘cheese’,” Chanyeol says. You look up at him, squinting when the sun blinds you, and you smile like a total creep. Chanyeol takes the photo and laughs like a maniac. “This is my favorite photo of you so far.”

“I like you too,” you say, standing up with a towel. Then you bend again to grab your hat. “I’m going to go buy some food. You going with me?”

“I am!” Eun says from the side. She stands up from the sunbed, still wearing a pair of diving googles, which she probably doesn’t even realize. “I’ll help.”

“Then I’m going too!” Chanyeol exclaims happily, looking at Eun like she’s made of gold. You wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case. “Smile!” he adds, lifting his phone up again. Eun stands next to you and you both look at the phone, smiling widely. Eun sticks her tongue out just as the camera goes off, and Chanyeol grins.

“Beautiful. Now throw your hair! Yes! Perfecto!”

"Jesus, please don't use that accent," Kyungsoo says, joining you by your side with two huge cotton candies. 

"Please don't call me Jesus," Chanyeol replies, looking Kyungsoo up and down. "Please tell me I can have some." 

"I wanted to ask if you want me to show you where to buy it, but sure, you can have a little," Kyungsoo says, handing him one of the pink fluffs. "By the way, we should totally visit the aquarium tomorrow. There're dolphins and other cool watery things there." 

"Are there seals there?" Chanyeol asks, grabbing his camera and lifting it up. "Smile, Soo." 

Kyungsoo smiles sweetly, candy floss still in hand, and Chanyeol shoots a photo of him. "Lovely," he says. 

"There are seals, yes." 

"That's sealiously great." 

"You asked that because you wanted to make that pun, didn't you?" you ask, taking some candy floss from him. Chanyeol grins.

"You can't judge me."

*

"Look," Amber whispers. "That's Nemo." 

Baekhyun laughs as he leans over the girl, staring at the tiny fished swimming in the tank. 

"Lots of Nemos," he says. "I can buy you a stuffed one later on." 

"They sell stuffed fish here?!" Amber gasps, straightening up her back and succesfully knocking her head on Baekhyun's chin. She doesn't even react when he hisses in pain. "That's awful." 

"No, you hitting me is awful," Baekhyun scolds, glaring at her. "I meant a mascot. But you always gotta ruin all the romance, dammit." 

"Stuffed Nemo mascot, how romantic," Kris smirks on the side. 

"Yeah, okay, Nicholas Sparks, tell me: what kind of a romantic thing did you do today?" Baekhyun asks, throwing his arms out in annoyance. Luhan suddenly laughs, even though he's a few meters away and staring at completely different fish; he throws his whole head back in a fierce giggle. 

"Oh my God, don't tell him, don't scar his innocent mind," he says in-between laughs. 

"I don't need to be erted to know that means something involving ," Sulli says under her breath. 

"Quietest people have the loudest minds, mind you," Sehun says, nudging her with his elbow. Sulli frowns and gasps. 

"I do not," she argues. Everyone smirks at her, forgetting all about Nemo or Kris. "I do not!"

Kai grabs your hand suddenly. You've been standing a little further away from the rest, laughing at them nevertheless, and so you don't even notice Kai stalking towards you until he tugs you forward. 

"I want you to see something," he says, pointing in the right direction. You pick up your pace, hearing the excitement in his voice, and you laugh. You enter the area of the aquarium where bigger fish swim together with even bigger fish, and then Kai runs right by the grateful sharks. You kinda thought he'd stop next to them. Surprisingly, he stops by the seals. "Look. That little seal over there." 

And suddenly, you know what he means. 

As a seal swims past you, on the other side of the glass, you feel a wave of magic. You squint, following the animal with your stare, and it catches your gaze. You take a step closer as it makes a few circles inside the tank and then stops right in front of you, hovering in the water.

It's young, cute, and lovely. It looks like a normal seal, but you can see that it's a bit lighter than the rest of the ones swimming with it; a few people who see that it has stopped right behind the glass get interested and start to pile around you. But the seal is looking straight at you, just flopping its fins a little to stay upright. You can swear it shakes its head at you and then makes a happy circle in the water, jumping around. 

You're so mesmerized by the unknown, pleasant magic it seems to create, that you forget you're surrounded by people and you put your hand onto the glass, staring at the animal. It makes another flip-flap in the water and then swims even closer to the glass, putting one of its fins on the glass as well, as if trying to touch your hand through it. It's brief but it's there. You find yourself smiling widely.

"You feel that?" Kai whispers. 

"Yeah," you reply. At that, the seal swims back a little, claps its fins awkwardly, and then swims away completely, disappearing from your sight. A few kids that were next to you aww at the seal leaving and the crowd of people slowly dissolves. You turn towards Kai. "That is definitely not a normal seal." 

"What is it then?" Kai asks. 

"What what is?" Xiumin asks, joining you two. 

"We found a magic seal," you inform. 

"Did I hear that right?" Tao asks, appearing at your side as well. "Okay, no, wait. I used way too much enthusiasm there. Is it a water Ifrit?" 

"It's a seal," Kai says, shoving him to the side. 

"It's back!" you shout, pointing at the water again. The seal is back, dancing crazily in the water. "Hi," you say, waving at it. The seal stops and tilts its head adorably. Then it starts making some movements with its right fin. Suho stands next to you as well, finding you. 

"Who's that?" he asks. "Seems like you made yourself a new friend. Why is it pointing at itself?" 

"Damn," you whisper, taking a step back. "Oh my gosh, guys." 

"What?" Kai asks. "What is it?" 

"It's a magic seal!" Xiumin exclaims. 

"It is!" you scream back. A few heads turn at you. You look around, then at the seal, then at the boys, then back at the seal. "I'll get you out," you say, slowly and surely, and then you turn on your heel and head for the exit. 

"Wait, what?" someone says. "Dal, wait a second!" 

"Guys guys guys," you say, reaching the rest of the pack all watching stingrays swimming above their heads. You love how fast they react and how much they actually resemble confused puppies. "We've got a mission! And no angry Ifrits this time, trust me." 

"What's going on?" Yixing asks. 

"Nevermind, shut up and drive!" Min replies, already following you. Suddenly, you're all running, even though nobody knows where to or what for. 

"Min, that's a very old meme, I'm disappointed in you," Chanyeol says. 

"Dal, wait," Kai says, catching up to you. You slow down a little, looking over your shoulder. 

"It's a selkie, and we gotta help it get out," you grin.

*

"Okay," Kai says. "So how are we exactly gonna do the thing?" 

"This is breaking and entering, I tell you," Tao whispers. 

"Oh my God. As if you've never broke into anywhere." Chen grunts. 

"Hey, I have to keep up my good boy image, don't destroy that," Tao scolds. 

"Amber," you say. "Got the uniforms memorized?" 

Amber, who is standing right next to you and peeking around the corner, nods eagerly. 

"Yes," she says. "You sure you want to do that?" she asks. "I can't exactly follow you into there. We already look suspicious." 

At that, she looks at the row of teenagers just randomly hanging out by the wall in the Aquarium, looking shady as frick. It's the number that makes you scary. You cringe. 

"Can you be a little bit more casual?" you ask. 

"What's casual about stealing a seal from a freaking Aquarium?" Sulli asks. 

"What's casual about our lives in general?" Yixing counters. 

"Watch out, Lay is dropping some deep thoughts," Chen jokes. 

"You should all calm down," you say, rolling your eyes. "Is my backpack zipped up?" 

"For the ninth time, yes," Kai growls. "Can we get over it?" 

"If it works, we'll come out as three," you say, pointing a finger at your pack. You stare at them and they stare at you and then you realize that what you said might be taken a bit differently, and that's when they all crack and begin to howl with laughter. You feel yourself blushing. "Stop that." 

"Oops, the guard is giving us a side eye," Kris notes.  

Baekhyun opens his mouth, "Dal, if you planned parenthood, you could've at least..." 

"Stop," Xiumin says, "or I'm gonna piss myself." 

"Shut it," Luhan hisses. "I really don't want that guard to come over." 

"Too hot for you to handle?" Eun asks. 

"He is kinda nice," Amber admits. You shove her lightly. 

"Focus!" you say just as Baekhyun shouts "Hey!". 

"Excuse me," an unknown voice says. You take that as a cue to disappear behind the corner, Kai and Amber following shortly; then Amber calls her powers and you feel a wave of it. You stare down at you to see yourself wearing the Aquarium's worker's uniform - a white t-shirt with the Aquarium's name on your and blue shorts. You know that it's an illusion, but you still feel a bit like someone just stripped you off your actual clothes. You hear the guard talking with the boys around the corner and you snort when you hear him reprimanding them. 

"Okay," you say, looking to the side, at the door that says 'staff only'. Then you notice a small metal box below the door handle and the smile disappears from your lips. "Wait. We need a..." 

"...card?" someone asks. You jump, then turn to see Kyungsoo standing next to you, holding an access card. He hands it to you looking smug. "You'd all die without me."

With Amber's magic following your every step, you head for the staff room, card in hand. You get in without a problem, entering as short corridor and finding male and female locker rooms inside. There's a tiny kitchen there, too. And a person sitting by the table there. 

She looks suspicious when she sees you. All alarms go off in your mind. 

"And you are? This is staff only," the woman says. She looks around thirty.

"We're new," you say right off the bat. Kai stutters next to you, sending you a side-way look. 

"Yeah," he says, still looking at you. "We're in charge of the...seals." 

"You're in charge of what they tell you you're in charge of," the woman replies. You stare at each other. Her expressions grows impatient by the second. "Well? Are you gonna go change or are you just gonna stand here all day?" 

"Oh," you say. "Right, sorry, yes." 

"We're going," Kai adds. 

"Freaking rookies," the woman mutters, taking a sip of her coffee. You and Kai practically run towards the locker rooms, splitting for a second. You stare at all the lockers there, wondering what you're supposed to do now. You hear a metallic, snapping sound and you turn your head towards it; a few seconds later, Kai comes into the girl's locker room with a real uniform. 

"Did you break the locker?" you ask, whispering. Kai shrugs. You roll your eyes at him and walk towards the first closed locker, already whispering 'apertum' under your breath. The locker clicks open, revealing a set of white t-shirt and blue shorts. You pull them out. 

"A bit too big," Kai says. "But will do." 

"This is four sizes too big," you point out, unfolding the t-shirt. "Maybe I should look for a smaller..." 

"Are you guys writing the Bible there?!" the woman from the kitchen screams, making you both jump. As on cue, you begin to strip off your clothes and change into your undercover ones, the adrenaline kicking in when you realize what you're doing.

"Well, getting banned from an Aquarium is certainly going to be something new," Kai says, jumping around to pull on his shorts. You laugh. You grab your backpack once you're done and you leave the locker room as quickly as you can, trying to look like a blur to the woman in the kitchen. 

You somehow make your way out of the Aquarium, using another staff room (the fourth one you find) and then some worker asks you what the hell are you doing here. You come to a halt right in front of a huge swimming pool where killer whales seem to swim in circles.

"You were supposed to feed the penguins," he says, pointing at something over his shoulder. When he sees you, he looks sincerely confused. "Who the hell are you?" 

"New," Kai says. "We weren't sure where to go, we didn't get any strict instructions, so." 

The man stares for a wqhile, as if considering his choices, and then sighs heavily. He rubs his face. 

"One day I'm gonna kill Cheng and no one is gonna be sorry for him," he says, long-suffering. "Come on. Follow me."

You start to think that this was a very bad idea. Especially when the guy starts to give you pointers and explaining what is where and what hours are the feeding hours. He seems to be thinking that you're actually new and you feel bad for lying. But then you feel that magical wave you've felt before and it all goes away. You see a girl walking past you, carrying a bucket of fish, and you follow her on a hunch. 

The man leading you doesn't realize. Kai does; he looks over his shoulder, sending you a distressed look, and you motion him to follow you. He turns on his heel, awaym from the man, who doesn't even notice. Again. He keeps oin talking about some rules as he seems to think that he's leading two new workers to do sobe job. You disappear around the corner, following the girl shortly, and you walk through the dark blue corridors, finally reaching your destination - the seal pool. The girl opens the door to it and before it can close, you grab the door handle. That's when she notices you and turns to look at you. 

"Hey," she says. "What...?" 

You snap your fingers in front of her face and she goes completely numb. Kai catches her mid-fall, gently lowers her down on the tile floor, and you close the door behind yourself. The girl has dropped the fish bucket and now they're scattered around your feet. 

"Lock the door," you say, walking towards the edge of the pool and looking down into the blue darkness. "Hello? Can you hear me?" 

Suddenly, there's four seals jumping out all at once, and you squeal in fear as their bodies hit the tiles, making the funniest sound you've heard in your life. You take a step back, the seals crowding you and squeaking; they have really long whiskers, you note, and are all super adorable. "Oh gosh," you say. "Well, not exactly who I was looking for, but you're all pretty darn cute, too," you praise. 

The seals seem to realize you don't have food for them. More start to jump out of the water until you're completely surrounded by them, but they quickly notice that Kai is the one with the bucket. It's loud and crazy and there's cute fat seals just jumping around you and letting out their squishy sounds. None of the seals is the one you're looking for, though, and you start to get worried when you see its head sticking out of the pool. 

"Hi!" you shout. "Oh my God, I swear, we're all gonna end up in jail for it, but we're totally getting you out of there," you say quickly. Kai lets out a distressed grunt and you look over your shoulder to see him struggling in the middle oif a seal huddle. You wish you could take a photo of him now. You take your backpack off, presenting the white seal with a towel and some clothes. "Come on out. We'll get you out of here." 

At this, the seal looks so humanly surprised you have no more doubts - it must be a human that has transformed into a seal. It swims over to you and you pray nobody sees you here; you look around, however, and see a camera in the corner, on one of the walls surrounding the place. "Wait," you say, raising your hand towards it and sending a spark of magic towards it; the camera lights up with electricity and its little head falls down miserably. "Okay, you can come now." 

The seal jumps out of the water awkwardly, all shaky limbs and clumsy body; it stares up at you curiously, then shakes all over, as if a shiver just run up its spine. It starts shaking its head at you and you sober up. 

"Oh, yes, sorry," you say, unfolding the towel and crouching down to put it over the seal. You take the opportunity to touch the skin on its head and pet it; you aww at how adorable it is. 

"I'm running out of fish here, Dal," Kai says. "And probably out of time."

"Yeah, yeah," you say, patting the seal down with the towel, trying to make it as dry as possible. "Give me a second." 

What happens next is one of the most amazing things you're able to experience in your life. You feel something buzzing under your hands and so you take away the towel and stand up; you stare down at the seal to see it slowly morphing. Its body seems to be taking a different shape entirely. Its color changes and limbs begin to grow; it's subtle. It's beautiful. In the end, there's a girl lying on the floor, her seal skin wrapped around her. She looks at you shyly, hugging the skin close to herself. She must be around thirteen, maybe even younger, and there's color already returning to her cheeks. 

"I can't believe you knew," she whispers. 

You grin, quickly putting the towel away and pulling out various pieces of clothing from your backpack. You didn't know who the selkie is gonna be, so you took clothes that could fit both girls and boys, but you didn't have any children's clothes. You hand her your blouse. 

"We've got to hurry," you say. "Put this on." 

The blouse turns out to be long enough for the girl to cover her knees. You give her a pair of pants and she looks a bit ridiculous, but it's worth it. When she's done putting on clothes, you leave the place, making sure the girl you knocked out is okay and no harm will happen to her from the rest of the seals. The selkie waves her goodbyes to her animal friends and you walk through the corridors. You outward panic when you see a guard walking through and Kai grabs the girl, puts her on top of his shoulders, and you run until you're out of the staff area of the place and until you're away from anyone that looks even mildly concerned by you.

You run into the toilets, making a few women there gasping when they see Kai. 

"Oh God," Kai says. "Sorry, sorry," he apologizes, closing his eyes. "I'm just...I'm leaving, let me just." 

You take the selkie from him. He leaves, awkwardly, and you head for the bathroom stalls, ignoring all the weird looks. You put the selkie down onto the floor, crouching down in front of her. 

"Are you okay?" you sk. "How long have you been here?" 

"I don't know," she shakes her head. "Long enough to forget that I'm human, sometimes. "

"Where are your parents?" 

"They live by the beach," the girl says. "I can find our house if you get me out of here and show me the beach." She's squeezing her seal skin nervously now, biting her lip as well. You rub her shoulder. 

"Don't worry," you whisper. "You're safe now." 

*

The girl's name is Mari. She's half-Korean, half-Scottish, and when her mother sees her among two packs of werewolves, she is more than a little surprised. She's mostly happy, though; happy to the point of crying. You leave their house after Mari hugs each and every one of you. 

"Okay, so," Taemin says. "You totally managed to pull off a rescuing action. Movie style." 

"I didn't even know humans could turn into seals," Tao says. 

"They can," you say. "I just hope she won't get lost again." 

"That was pretty awesome," Eun says. "Maybe except for the hot guard telling us to be quiet and asking us for IDs." 

"He asked for IDs?" Kai asks, curious. "That's hilarious."

"Not for us," Sehun says, shaking his head.

"You did good today, though," Kris says, grabbing your shoulder and pulling you close. "You saved a baby selkie." 

"Well, a child selkie," Baekhyun corrects. "I still can't imagine her shedding her skin. Is it like when snakes do it?" 

"It's completely different," you reply. "It was quite amazing, actually." 

"I got to pet a seal," Kai says. "That was quite amazing too." 

"Oh my God, I'm envious!" Chanyeol and Amber moan at the same time.

*

Kai is falling asleep. He’s lying on a pillow, on the sand, and your head is propped on his stomach. You listen to the grumbles his stomach makes from time to time and watch the steady fall and rise of his chest.

You’re also thoroughly amused with how his face looks from this angle.

“Kai,” you say.

“Hm.”

“You have like five chins from this angle.”

Kai doesn’t react for a moment. Then he snorts and his cheeks get all red as he looks down at you, snorting, eyes almost closed, his smile wide.

You laugh up at him as he shakes all over.

Thanks for reading raspberry chocolate fudge cups! Hope you enjoyed :D 
For anyone interested what a selkie is, here you go.