{ chapter four

Three days pass and Jongin manages to convince his parents the hallucinations have passed and he feels better, and he’s finally allowed out of the house. Thankfully, the past couple of days have been rainy and dreary, so he wouldn’t have been able to visit the beach anyway, giving him an excuse if Taemin questions him about his absence.

Jongin knows his encounter with Taemin was as real as anything, but to save himself from being treated like he’s mental, his friendship with Taemin has now been defined as a simple fantasy, an apparition as a result of a fever. He’s decided to keep anything to do with Taemin and the Mer a secret – if his best friend doesn’t believe him, then nobody else will.

He runs down to the beach with haste, watching the distant grey clouds slowly gather and build, promising afternoon storms. All he can do is pray that the week of separation hasn’t deterred Taemin and lost him forever.

Jongin leaps through the sand and scrambles over to the rocks, gasping when he sees Taemin seated on the edge of the rocks, looking down into the water sullenly. Taemin jolts and looks up in horror, but relaxes and smiles once he realises who his visitor is.

“Jongin!”

Jongin returns the smile instantly and hurries over, kneeling down to hug Taemin. He smells of salt and seaweed, but somehow the scent is warming to him.

“I thought you’d never come,” Taemin laughs, pulling away and motioning for him to enter the water. Jongin quickly kicks off his shoes and tugs off his shirt, watching as Taemin dives in.

“You had me waiting for three days, remember?”

Taemin grins as Jongin slips in beside him. “Parents got mad at me for being out for too long. Sorry.”

Jongin refrains from telling Taemin about what kept him locked up at home for so long, dubious and slightly afraid of how his friend might react. He’s not sure if Taemin ever wanted their little secret to spread further than between themselves, so he decides to play it safe and pretend he never revealed a thing.

“You ready to go a little deeper today?”

“Yes!” Jongin exclaims, taking Taemin’s extended hand excitedly.

“Awesome. We’ll try getting you breathing in shallower waters this time.”

Jongin only realises how much he’s missed the beach when Taemin pulls him under the water and propels them forward, the rush against his face and skin exhilarating him. Only when Taemin looks behind worriedly does Jongin realise, he hasn’t requested to go up for air.

“Wait,” Jongin requests, “slow down.”

Taemin flicks his tail and they halt suddenly, and Jongin inhales, feeling no pain as the water enters his lungs.

“You’re…you’re breathing?”

“I’m breathing.”

Taemin lets go of Jongin’s hand, perplexed, and watches as Jongin breathes slowly and easily. His Sea blood surges within him, and he feels relaxed and warmed.

“Did you…try and do that? Connect with the Sea?”

“I—I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

Taemin’s eyes follow Jongin’s gentle movements, and Jongin can’t help but feel quite proud of himself. He can immediately tell that what he’s done is very out-of-the-ordinary.

“Well, how about that,” Taemin breathes, “you really are a natural. It’s almost as if you were made to be with the Mer.”

“Does this mean you’ll take me to the residential areas?” Jongin requests immediately, and Taemin rolls his eyes in disapproval. Jongin pushes out his bottom lip, and only then does Taemin pause in contemplation.

“I mean—I guess, we could try…”

* * *

Jongin observes his surroundings in wonderment, the sea life flying past him, colours melting together as Taemin pulls him along. It’s just like he remembers it to be – beautifully transparent water, vibrant coral on the higher rising rocks, fish of all different colours that he’s never seen before. He gasps and requests for Taemin to slow down when they pass a turtle, and reaches out to touch it, only to have it back off and quickly swim away.

“You really have no manners, do you?” Taemin scolds, pulling crestfallen Jongin along as they swim off again. “Don’t just touch animals without their permission. How would you feel if I started petting you, huh?”

Jongin huffs in annoyance. “That’s what you did to my legs.”

Taemin smiles, facing forward so Jongin can’t see how embarrassed he is. Instead, he makes a comment about how they’re close to his hometown, but they’ll have to swim a lot deeper to get to the caves.

“Caves?”

“Yes, don’t you know what a cave is?”

“I know what a cave is,” Jongin replies, rather defensively, “I just want to know why you’re taking me there.”

Taemin rolls his eyes. “That’s where we live. You don’t seriously think our homes are made of sand, do you?”

Jongin falls silent, and makes a decision to try and shame Taemin with his knowledge of the Surface instead. But not now – his pride feels too deflated to speak up.

A few minutes pass and Jongin notices they’re swimming at a steeper gradient, dipping lower and lower into darker waters. Jongin begins to feel a slight burning in his throat, and his head throbs slightly as they speed into the ocean depths.

He squeezes Taemin’s hand ever so gently, and Taemin immediately stops, turning around.

“It hurts, right?”

Jongin gulps, but nods slowly. “A little bit.”

“Do you want to stop?”

“Um—how far do we have to go?” Jongin says quietly, trying not to sound doubtful about the rest of their journey. Taemin looks around, apparently too busy worrying about Jongin to notice their surroundings, and estimates a five minute journey until they reach the outskirts of the residential areas. Five minutes of swimming normally wouldn’t faze Jongin, but five minutes swimming at the speed that Taemin does is a lot of depth gained that he isn’t sure he can manage.

“I’ll take you back up,” Taemin decides, after Jongin’s long silence. “I knew it was a bad idea—”

“No. Please. Let’s keep going,” Jongin begs, tightening his grip on his friend. “It’s not that bad, I promise. I’ll tell you once I can’t go any further.”

Taemin nods, and it’s clear to Jongin that he wants to bring him down further, too. He takes a deep breath and motions for Taemin to continue, bracing himself for the pressure to come.

* * *

“Taemin, I see somebody!” Jongin yells, “look! It’s a Mer!”

“It’s a Merman, Jongin, not a Mer.”

Heart racing, Jongin clings onto Taemin’s arm and stares at the beautiful person swimming up ahead, his tail a wonderful seafoam green, blonde hair flowing with the gentle currents of the water. The Merman turns and stares at Jongin in bewilderment, but doesn’t say anything. Being so deep down in the ocean has Jongin’s head throbbing, but the enthrallment of seeing more of Taemin’s kind distracts him from the pain.

“Everybody’s going to stare at you. Hope you don’t mind,” Taemin warns, smiling smugly at the disbelief on the other Merman’s face. He knows he’s going to get a lot of attention – it’s not often they see humans in the depths of the Sea, and even less so for a teenager to have the ability to bring one down.

They swim on further and Jongin chatters excitedly as they pass more people, and Taemin begins to point out caves, covered in moss and oysters, the mouths strung with curtains of seaweed. The citizens all stop to look at Jongin, whispering to one another in amazement, and Jongin smiles sheepishly and waves, unaffected by their bemusement.

It’s almost like an underwater city. There are so many caves – not only homes, but stores, too. The seaweed curtains are drawn back and tied with beautiful strings, the inside lit up by bioluminescent plants and plankton, displays of all kinds laid out on shelves and tables made of rock – pearls, jewellery, geodes, even oysters and kelp being sold as food items. The sight of it all is so overwhelming, Jongin barely hears Taemin call over his friends.

“This is the human I was talking about!” Taemin gushes, as two young males swim over to the pair. Jongin snaps out of his trance when he feels hands on his legs.

“Dude, he’s real!”

“There’s hair on his legs!” one of them shrieks, “look, Minho, his toes are huge!”

Jongin kicks his feet defensively and scoffs, appalled by the sudden intrusion, and Taemin waves his friends away, amused. “Guys, don’t touch him. He has feelings, too.”

“My toes are not huge,” Jongin rebukes.

“Sorry, Jongin. They’ve never seen humans before. This—” Taemin gestures to the smaller of the two, who rudely commented about the size of Jongin’s toes, “—is Jonghyun, and this is Minho. They’re my two best friends.”

“Hey, isn’t this the second time he’s been under?” Jonghyun queries. “How’d you get down here, Jongin? Doesn’t it hurt?”

“Do you really mate using organs between your legs?” Minho interrupts, and Jongin recoils in horror, while the other two crack up laughing.

“Come on, leave him alone,” Taemin chuckles, hugging Jongin around the shoulders to comfort him. Jongin, meanwhile, is baffled at how strikingly similar Jonghyun and Minho are to any other human teenager – not at all mysterious and furtive like Taemin. Jonghyun smiles playfully at Jongin, flicking his deep emerald tail animatedly, while Minho gawks at Jongin with his strangely orb-like eyes, fascinated by the foreign human before him.

“Hi, I’m Jonghyun,” the smaller one chirps, grabbing Jongin’s hands and pulling him from Taemin’s grasp. “We’re going to get along just fine. Better than you get along with Taemin. I mean, if you can get along with Taemin, you can get along with anyone, right?”

“U-Um…”

“Hey, why don’t we take Jongin down to the royal palace?” Minho suggests. Jongin immediately perks up, blinking in interest.

“Royal palace?”

“Oh, yes!” Jonghyun insists, “didn’t Taemin tell you? We’re in the central province now, that’s why all the markets are here, but the royal palace is in the centre of our kingdom. It’s magnificent – Taemin, can we take him?”

“I don’t see why not.”

Jongin beams as Jonghyun clasps their hands together, and impatiently insists they take him to the palace. After all, he’s never seen royalty before.

* * *

“Wow,” Jongin whispers breathlessly, floating backwards into Taemin’s hands, limbs weak and unable to keep him upright and stable. “It’s huge.”

The palace is carved out of a massive cliff of rock, caves forming multiple entrances into the looming building before them, with intricate pillars and towers shaped from beautiful sandstone. A large gate with spacious columns, also carved from sandstone, surrounds the residence and the front gardens – more to signify the borders of the vicinity, rather than keep unwanted guests out. Two Mer guard the main entrance into the building, holding long trident-like weapons in their hands.

“Have you ever been inside?” Jongin queries, and Minho chortles with laughter.

“Of course not!” he taunts, “nobody is allowed in the royal palace apart from royalty.”

“It’s not like he knows any better,” Taemin says defensively.

“Hey, guys, there’s Prince Junmyeon,” Jonghyun whispers, pointing through the gates. The other three peek over his shoulders curiously, and Jongin spots a young male sitting on a rock in the gardens, surrounded by trimmed bushes of seaweed. His hair is jet black against his white skin, and his tail is the most dazzling, opaque violet he’s ever seen. It almost looks like it’s glittering.

Jongin watches the prince busies himself with some kind of rock tool, his face soft and content. He looks friendly and gentle, so unlike what Jongin expected for a member of the royal family.

“He’s beautiful, isn’t he?” Taemin murmurs, tilting his head to try and get a better view. Jonghyun snorts and knocks him back.

“Has Taemin mentioned he has a crush on the prince?” he teases, and Taemin gasps and wrestles him down, ordering him to shut up. Unfortunately, Jonghyun’s squealing causes Junmyeon to look up and through the gates, furrowing his eyebrows.

He smiles kindly at the curious teenagers, about to look away, until his eyes fixate on Jongin’s legs and his face freezes in horror.

“,” Minho whispers, whipping Taemin with his tail to gain his attention. Jongin looks back and forth between them, lost, and watches helplessly as Junmyeon rises and swims over to them. He slips through gates, signalling towards his guards not to follow him, and crosses his arms in front of the paralysed teenagers.

“Who are you?” Junmyeon asks Jongin, his voice more concerned than interrogating. Jongin opens his mouth but can’t get any words out, and looks to his friends helplessly.

“S-Sir, please,” Taemin stammers, “he—he doesn’t mean any harm, p-please—”

“I won’t put any of you in danger,” the prince says gently.

Jonghyun and Minho slowly back away, and Taemin clasps Jongin’s wrist, hands trembling.

“His name is Jongin,” Taemin says shakily. “I just…we just…it’s my fault, Sir, I brought him down here.”

Junmyeon reassures the scared boy by placing a hand on his arm, and Taemin gapes at him, stupefied.

“It’s not safe for you to bring humans so close to the royal palace,” Junmyeon warns tenderly. “If the King were to see, you’d be in awful trouble.”

“We’re sorry, Sir,” Minho says sheepishly. “It won’t happen again.”

Junmyeon smiles ever so slightly, before looking over his shoulder through the gates to check that nobody is watching. His smile quickly falls, and Jongin spots a few guards swimming over to them.

“Go, human,” the prince orders, “it’s too dangerous here for you. Take him back to the Surface, boys. Hurry.”

Snapped out of his trance, Taemin grabs Jongin and yanks him hard, pounding his tail as fast as he can. His breathing is laboured and shallow, cheeks flushed red – but somehow, Jongin knows it’s not from overexertion.

After a few minutes, Jongin realises Jonghyun and Minho haven’t followed them, and the palace is nowhere to be seen. Taemin is still blushing, and refuses to meet Jongin’s eyes, but he still swims as fast as he can to get them away from any other Mer.

“Taemin?”

He finally slows once he hears Jongin’s voice, gulping nervously.

“Taemin, there’s nobody here, I think we’re safe.”

“Sorry—right, sorry.”

Jongin looks at him uneasily, but Taemin diverts his gaze and continues swimming onwards.

“Do you really have a crush on the prince?”

“No!” Taemin snaps, a lot more forcefully than necessary, voice cracking slightly.

“Then why are you—”

“Just let me take you home, okay? It was a stupid idea to bring you down. You could’ve gotten hurt. It’s not safe for you to be down near the other citizens, especially not the palace, you can’t ever go down to the palace again, especially with damn Jonghyun making so much noise and getting Junmyeon’s attention, he made me look like a complete idiot…”

Jongin decides it’d be safest not to mention Junmyeon anymore. There’s no doubt about it – Taemin really likes the prince. He doesn’t understand why he’s surprised – somehow, in his mind, he was so sure that Mer couldn’t be gay, but it only makes him feel more assured that Mer really aren’t so different to humans after all.

“Taemin, why would I get hurt?” Jongin asks. “Why isn’t it safe for me to be around the palace?”

His friend sighs in exasperation. “The King hates humans. He hates anything to do with the Surface. He doesn’t like anybody that brings humans into the Sea, and he’d be livid if he knew a human was anywhere near the palace, let alone talking to his son. You’re damn lucky the prince and princess are kind to humans – if anybody else had seen you, you’d be banished forever.”

“There’s more than one royal child?”

Once Taemin realises he’s not being targeted for his very obvious feelings for Junmyeon, he begins to relax, reassured that Jongin is simply curious about the royal family.

“There are three. Junmyeon’s older sister, Princess Yuri, has already left the kingdom to marry. The royals are bound to royal marriage. His younger brother almost never exits the palace. We barely know about him. Jongin, we’re near the Surface now.”

“Oh.”

Jongin frowns – even though they’re approaching the Surface, the sunlight that would normally filter through and illuminate the higher waters isn’t present, and they still seem to be swimming through relative darkness.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I can feel it. Are you ready to break through?”

“I’m ready.”

As usual, leaving the Sea is painful, and Jongin has to clutch Taemin for support as he coughs seawater from his lungs and inhales the bitterly cold Surface air. Only something is different.

“Oh, God!” Jongin cries, “it’s pitch dark out here! How long were we in there for? Oh, my God, I have to go home, Taemin, get me to the beach, now!”

As Taemin swims him out to land, Jongin frantically formulates excuses in his head to explain his absence – if his parents weren’t satisfied, he’d be kept away from the beach for weeks.

“What’s the matter?”

“My parents – I’m not supposed to be out this late! I should have been home early, it probably stormed while I was gone, oh, God…”

Jongin quickly clambers over the rock shelves once Taemin brings him to shallow water, grabbing his belongings that he left behind – sure enough, they’ve been soaked through from an earlier downpour of rain.

“I’ll be back!” Jongin cries, before turning and bolting off for home. Taemin watches him as he leaves, and doesn’t dive back underwater until his friend is out of sight.

✏ [ a/n ] I PROMISE KYUNGSOO IS SHOWING UP VERY SOON OK JUST WAIT FOR IT I SWEAR TO GOD!!!! i have nothing more to say except sorry that this story is so lol

word count: 2947