{ chapter two

For the next couple of weeks Jongin frequents the rock shelves more often than he usually would, and Taemin always appears at the most unexpected moments, always taking Jongin by surprise, even when he’s purposely watching the water to find out where he comes from. Once, however, Jongin heard a slight gasp as Taemin came up from the water, and had enough time to regain his composure while Taemin coughed and caught his breath again. Taemin will always stay in the water with his arms resting on the lower rocks, and Jongin will always sit higher up on the more stable shelves, watching the mystifying other, waiting for him to reveal more about himself.

However, Taemin never says much, and even when Jongin plucks up the courage to ask him questions, his responses are vague and leave Jongin in more confusion than before. The most that he’s gotten out of Taemin is that he’s eighteen – just a year older than Jongin himself. He’s not reserved, though – his secretive demeanour oozes with confidence, and he always seems to get a kick out of perplexing poor Jongin.

So far, Jongin has deduced a couple of things about Taemin – one, he’s probably vegan, since he refuses Jongin’s offerings of ice cream whenever he has it, and his mood took a bitter turn when Jongin asked him if he wanted some of his tuna sandwich; two, he claims to spend most of his life in the water, despite the fact that Jongin had never seen him prior to their first meeting a few weeks before; and three, he doesn’t see why anybody would think it out-of-the-ordinary for a male to have long, shoulder-length hair. He additionally doesn’t seem bothered by the idea of skin cancer or burning, because he’s constantly without a shirt, despite his strange inability to tan.

One cool afternoon Taemin seems particularly keen on staring at Jongin intensely, watching his every move. Jongin is uncomfortable, despite feeling significantly closer to Taemin since their first meeting, and tries to divert his gaze and pretend not to notice.

“Hey, Jongin?”

Jongin looks over at his friend and waits for him to continue, silent.

“Do you believe in mythical creatures?”

Jongin knits his brows, feeling something in his mind stir for a moment, before he realises that he was asked practically the exact same question a couple of weeks before by Sehun.

“What kind of mythical creatures?”

Taemin traces his fingers over the rough crevices in the rock he’s leaning on. “Like…mermaids?”

Jongin studies Taemin’s unmoving expression and is left, once again, blind to Taemin’s intentions.

“Are you some mythology nerd?” Jongin bursts. “Is that why you stay in the water all the time? Because you want to be a mermaid?”

Taemin cracks up laughing – the hardest laughter Jongin has ever witnessed Taemin display – and he shakes his head in disbelief. “Just answer the question.”

Embarrassed, Jongin huffs and looks out into the water, pausing to think over his response – he doesn’t want to answer carelessly and make even more of an idiot of himself. Somehow, Taemin has such an unfair ability to make him feel like a complete moron.

“I don’t necessarily believe in mermaids,” Jongin finally says, and he feels Taemin’s heavy gaze on him.

“But I don’t not believe in them, either. I think that…the ocean is so massive, we’ll never truly experience the expanse of it.” He pauses for a minute, Taemin’s concentration affecting his ability to think. “I don’t think what we’ve discovered even touches the surface of what’s really out there deep in the ocean – there’s just too much of it to explore. I don’t believe in particular things, but I believe that there’s something.”

And, for the first time since they met, Taemin is left speechless.

Jongin can’t help feeling quite complacent with his ability to silence Taemin with his response, and turns to look at his friend smugly. Taemin is still staring at him, with a soft smile on his face, and a lot of thought in his eyes.

“What?”

“I like the way you think, Jongin.”

Forever modest, Jongin looks back out into the water, a little flustered at the ‘compliment’ he’s just received. Taemin is quiet for a while longer, before he releases a long sigh, and Jongin hears the water moving as Taemin does.

“Well, it’s been great talking to you. See you tomorrow, Jongin.”

Jongin looks over in puzzlement just as he hears a loud splash, as Taemin has never left before him, but he’s left gaping – the boy is gone.

Jongin scrambles to his feet and jumps down to the lower rock shelf, and searches the water around him for any trace of his friend swimming away. There’s nothing. In seconds, it’s almost as if Taemin was never there.

Again.

* * *

The next day, Taemin is already at the rocks when Jongin arrives late in the afternoon. He lays down his towel on the shelf Taemin is resting his elbows on, and sits down, facing his friend in the water.

“Hello, Jongin.”

“Hi.”

“Why so close today?”

Jongin leans back on his palms and tilts his head, a newfound boldness spurring him on. “You intrigue me, Taemin. I want to know why you’re so cryptic and unreadable.”

Taemin raises an eyebrow, a smirk pulling at the corner of his lips. “Is that so?”

Jongin inhales deeply, determined not to falter. Nothing Taemin has done seems to add up – there’s something about him that just doesn’t fall together, and Jongin is dying to find out more. He’s told his friend Chanyeol – who knows practically every teenager in the country – about Taemin, and even he was perplexed as to who he could be.

“Who are you, really, Taemin? Why are you hiding yourself from me? How can we be friends if you won’t even—if you’re lying to me?”

Jongin maintains eye contact, even though he feels increasingly intimidated, and waits patiently for Taemin’s answer as the water washes around him. Finally, Taemin shakes his head, looking down and laughing gently.

“You really want to know?”

Jongin balls his fists, sensing that Taemin is trying to toy with him, and watches as Taemin dips his fingers into the water and swirls them around.

“Come out of the water,” Jongin demands.

Taemin waits for a few more seconds before he shrugs and looks back up at Jongin, his smile fading away.

“If you insist.”

Taemin props his hands up onto the rock and pushes himself up, and Jongin quickly shuffles back to give him room. However, once the rest of Taemin’s torso is out of the water and he’s pulled himself up to sit on the edge of the rock, Jongin continues to move back, this time yelling in horror.

“W-What the—what the hell!”

Taemin pulls the rest of his lower body onto the rock and grins, holding a finger up to his lips.

“Shh. Don’t attract any attention.”

“Oh, my God, is this some kind of joke?”

Jongin goggles at Taemin’s revealed body, terrified, and looks up and down from the bizarre sight to the look of utter entertainment on Taemin’s face – for where Taemin should have legs is a long, slick, glistening blue tail.

* * *

Jongin tries to calm his erratic heartbeat and convince himself it’s a prank, but the mesmerising teal colour melts into Taemin’s beautiful white skin, and he knows it’s too realistic to be a joke.

Awestruck, Jongin stares at the glossy tail, identical to that of which a mermaid would own, drops of water slipping down the smooth surface. It doesn’t have scales, but instead resembles the sheen skin of a dolphin. Two translucent fins end the tail in a slightly deeper shade of blue than the rest, and lie flat on the rock, reflecting the warm sunlight.

Taemin waits for Jongin to speak as his eyes dart across his tail, trying to piece everything together. Constantly staying in the water, never feeling the cold, giving vague responses when Jongin asks about where he comes from…it all fits together, but nothing makes sense.

“Taemin?” Jongin says weakly.

“It’s real. You can feel it, if you want.”

Jongin edges closer, seeking reassurance, and apprehensively reaches out to touch the meeting point between the tail and Taemin’s skin. It’s completely smooth – there’s no seam between fake and real.

“Oh, my gosh,” Jongin breathes, running his fingers down Taemin’s sleek tail. It feels moist and cool under his fingers from the water, but he can detect the warmth beneath it, and the slight movements as Taemin responds to the touch.

Jongin looks up, bewildered, and Taemin smiles. “I can feel that, you know.”

He quickly recoils, blushing. “Sorry.”

Taemin glances at Jongin’s legs, before meeting Jongin’s eyes once again. He looks like he wants to ask if he can touch them, too.

“I’ve—never felt human legs before,” he blurts. “I mean, you’re the first human that I’ve ever interacted with. I’ll tell you more about myself, you know, if I could…if—”

Jongin outstretches his legs immediately, desperate for an explanation of some sort, and allows Taemin to his legs, apparently spellbound by the concept of having hair below the torso. Only when Taemin’s hands move up his thighs does Jongin grab his wrist to stop him.

“Not—uh, not there.”

Taemin laughs, fascinated, and Jongin quickly realises he knows what he’s doing.

Taemin retreats, and flicks the end of his tail, finding it funny how transfixed Jongin is by it. He wishes to bring his tail closer, but it’s too heavy to move out of water, so he’s left rooted in his position.

“Tell me if you see anyone coming, alright?” he says softly. “It’s hard for me to move, and I’m not really supposed to be revealing myself to humans.”

Jongin nods in agreement, and Taemin sighs and shifts awkwardly, looking into the ocean briefly to collect his thoughts. Impatient, Jongin can’t help but press for more information, desperate for some kind of consolation.

“How many mermaids are there out there?” Jongin urges. “Do you have little cities and everything?”

Taemin glowers at him disapprovingly. “Before I tell you anything, let’s get one thing straight – we’re not mermaids.”

“Then what are you?”

Taemin tilts his head, “Jongin, do I look like a maid to you? A human maid that, what, sweeps floors and cleans windows? We have men, and we have women, and we are Mer, but none of us are maids. Except, you know, the actual maids.”

Jongin nods slowly, a little humiliated. Now that Taemin says it, it only seems logical that their entire…”species” wouldn’t be classified as ‘mermaids’. He stays quiet in fear of discouraging Taemin from revealing more.

“We don’t necessarily have cities, like humans do,” Taemin sighs, “although I’ve never travelled far enough to see human cities. We do have separated provinces, and larger kingdoms. Those kingdoms are what the Surface defines as the separate oceans – the kingdom I live in is what you would call the East Sea.”

“What’s the Surface?”

Taemin raises a hand to gesture towards the land above the cliff face, “all of this. We call your home, the land above the air, the Surface, and our home is the Sea. We don’t separate the Sea like you do.”

Taemin pauses to allow him to absorb the information, slightly beguiled at how stupefied Jongin looks at the newfound knowledge. Taemin has grown up being educated about humans and life on the Surface, and despite knowing that humans are unaware of the Mer existence and think of them as mythical beings, it still strikes him how little knowledge Jongin really has.

“So you have royalty?” Jongin finally says, voice feeble in disbelief.

“Of course, we have rulers for every kingdom. The royal families are the purest forms of Mer to exist. You can tell them apart by their appearance, which I don’t believe is the case for humans.”

Taemin places a hand on his tail, “In my kingdom, the commoner’s tails range from green to blue colours, depending on your heritage. But the royal family have distinct purple and violet coloured tails – apparently it’s to do with the amount of Sea in their blood. In different kingdoms, the commoner tails differ in colour, but the royal tails are always purple. Same goes for hair – royal hair is always dark brown or black. That’s why my hair is lighter brown in colour.”

“That’s incredible.”

Taemin tosses his now partly dried hair over his shoulder, “I know.”

Jongin is hesitant to ask more questions, but he can’t resist, curious about what Taemin means by having Sea in the royal blood. Taemin responds with ease, relishing in his ability to hold Jongin spellbound, even though he himself is aching to question Jongin about life above the water that he’s never experienced.

“There’s a reason why I can come up and breathe Surface air, even though I’m Mer. It’s because I have Surface blood in me that allows me to survive – it runs in the families. Commoners have varying amounts of Surface in their blood, so some find it easier to breathe air than others. The royal families, ironically, can’t breathe on the Surface, because their blood is so pure and they have such little Surface blood within them.”

“How did the Surface blood incorporate itself into…your people?”

Taemin scoffs. “That kind of history is stuff they teach us as kids that I never paid attention to. It’s not important.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Taemin smiles in satisfaction at Jongin’s dazed expression, “enough for one day?”

“Uh-huh. But—there’s just one more thing I have to ask.”

“Yeah?”

“You know how you said…that there’s some Surface in Mer blood?” Jongin says slowly, making sure not to mess up the details. Taemin nods, encouraging him to continue.

“Does that mean there’s some Sea in human blood?”

Taemin beams, and Jongin feels his shoulders relax – he hasn’t made a fool of himself for once.

“I’m so glad you asked,” Taemin sighs, “I’ve been yearning to bring you under. But I’ll leave that for another day.”

“What?” Jongin splutters, “wait, what do you mean, bring me—Taemin, wait!”

Taemin has pushed himself off the shelf and back into the water, sending a smile over his shoulder.

“It’s getting late. I’ll be here tomorrow. Goodnight, Jongin.”

Jongin stands up, baffled, and watches as Taemin dives under the waves. He flips his tail and smacks it down on the surface, spraying Jongin in the face, before it follows him into the water. Jongin gasps and wipes the saltiness from his eyes, but by the time his eyesight has cleared, there’s not a breath of Taemin left behind.

✏ [ a/n ] hello!!!! sorry that im updating so fast haha but its meee again and i'm SORRY for this stupid chapter it's all just background information but it's vital u know ok and i know theres no kyungsoo yet but BEAR WITH ME FOR THE FIRST COUPLE OF CHAPTERS I PROMISE IT'LL GET INTERESTING.....?!1? anyway thank u to those few people that have commented/upvoted ily guys ur the best xx if you'd like to leave some feedback pls do??? bc im lonely?!?! but anyways i hope u enjoyed and ur finding this stuff interesting!!!!! and if you dont understand any of this stuff pls ask HAHA ily guys see u!!!!!!

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