Minseon has been bored for the past 2 weeks. Everybody around her is pairing up, flirting and batting their eyelashes at their partner and her - well, she has been asked to pair up but she has rejected all advances. In fact it had only been a couple of hours since Jongin last snuck up behind her and gently laced his tail with hers as if she wouldn’t notice. She had sighed deeply as she turned around in the water, unlacing their tails and sent him a glare. He had smiled sheepishly and when she left him to find her hiding spot in the kelp forest he had lowered his eyes. 

It’s not that Minseon finds Jongin unattractive, no, not at all. Jongin sports a beautiful green tail, the colour of the kelp she’s surrounded with and it matches his tan skin perfectly. It’s an honest wonder he’s going after her when they were together last year. Minseon doesn’t really see him as an ex-boyfriend but she knows he sees her as his and the more subtly he tries to make it clear, the more it bothers her. She sighs and forms a bubble with her hands, only to let it float towards the surface. The fish around her seem to be unaware that it’s courting season and sometimes she wonders if she could just ignore it altogether, swim away and be free. Then she’s reminded that she’s a horrible swimmer and that’s why she’s still with same group of people she has been with for the past 15 years.

Minseon doesn’t know for how long she sits in the kelp forest, tail laced around the seaweed, the body gently swaying in the shallow water. Her long black hair is floating behind her as she’s rocked gently from one side to the other, the dark green of her tail matching the seaweed around her just because it’s easier to hide like this. Normally her tail is a dusty sand that matches her skin and makes her hair stand out in an even starker contrast. She doesn’t know how long she’s been hiding when someone taps her shoulder and she turns around as a flash of panic settles in her. It could be anything but when she finally is face to face with the creature behind her she stares into the wide brown eyes of Luhan’s. He smiles wide and lets a hand fall through his hair, as if it would put his hair in place and she can’t help the snort that escapes her. Luhan looks horrible, he’s still panting slightly like he’s been over exerting himself to get to her and somewhere deep inside she doesn’t even doubt that he’s been swimming faster than he normally does, just to find her. 

“Baekhee said I could find you here,” he says and Minseon nods because of course Baekhee had sent him here. Baekhee with her coral-pink hair and her slightly darker tail would be the only one to tell Luhan (or anyone else for that matter) about her hide-out in the kelp forest. Luhan lets his hand brush through her hair slowly, intimately and Minseon shudders. It only seems to spur the other on and he continues his ministrations until she draws away and clings to the sea kelp with both hands as well. 

“What do you want?” she asks and he pouts a little as he wraps his tail around the sea kelp in front of her, to keep from floating away and spending more energy on getting to her.

“In 2 weeks, it’s mating and I … uh, I don’t have a partner. Can’t you be mine?” Minseon should have known that it was about mating, should have known that he wasn’t here with a purer motive. “I have good genes, you know that.” She lets her eyes roam over his slim body and keeps herself from giggling. Luhan is good-looking but his genes are not exactly screaming ‘survival’. His tail is transforming from the usual dusty brown to the green of the kelp around them, the colour slowly creeping from his waist and towards the tip of his tail. Minseon shakes her head a little.

“Maybe I’ll just not mate this year,” she says seriously and Luhan widens his eyes.

“What?” he asks and she nods. 

“Yeah, it’s not like it’s important. Seyoon and Baekhee will be mating anyway, you guys don’t need me.” Luhan tilts his head while he looks at her skeptically.

“You’re the weirdest person I’ve ever met. How can you not want to mate? Half of us are courting you anyway.” She scoffs at that because it’s true and it’s annoying. And so she lets go of the sea kelp with her arms and makes an overexaggerating gesture.

“That’s the problem! You’re all after me, when there are other nice girls out there. I don’t want any of you, you’re boring. Jongin got possessive after last year, I don’t want you to turn possessive either. And Joonmyun is still moping around. What is it with me that makes you all want to mate with me?” Her voice raises throughout and at the end she’s practically yelling, a few clownfishes turning around to stare at the two of them disapprovingly. Minseon waves a hand in their direction as if to ask them to mind their own business. Luhan places his hands on her shoulders in an attempt to calm her down.

“You’re beautiful and your genes are amazing. Your personality is perfect and you’re … well, you’re hot, ok?” She shakes her shoulders as if to shake him off. He doesn’t give up that easily. “Give me a week. If you don’t find anyone else in that week, let’s be together. Just this season, you can go back to Jongin in the fall if you want. Seriously. A week, Minseon?” He releases her shoulders and reaches a hand towards her, pinky extended. She closes her eyes. A week, a week would be all she needed to get away and find someone else and - if Minseon is honest, the idea of not mating this season is really off-putting. She’s sure she won’t be able to not do it. In the end she opens her eyes and laces her pinky with his in a promise.

“One week. You should court to me, though.” He nods with a wide smile and when he turns around and swims away from her, he fist-bumps the water before he grabs a turtle that conveniently swims by. She hears a faint ‘see you, sweetheart’ before he’s long gone with the new transportation he has found and she grabs onto the sea kelp she has been clinging to for the last hours.

As she lowers herself to the sea bottom her tail transform from the green and back to the dusty sand. She finds a stone and as her long hair touches the surface of the grey rock beneath her she closes her eyes. Minseon doesn’t count the seconds she’s on the rock before she suddenly feels steps on the ground and opens her eyes. She barely rescues her tail before a crab closes it’s claw in now free water. She squeals, grabs onto the sea kelp and frantically swims a few centimetres towards the surface, just enough to be out of reach. The crab stares up at her and she glares at it. 

“,” she mutters before she slowly ascends towards the surface.

She needs to get back to the others, they’re probably going to be worried if she doesn’t return before the night and she doesn’t really want to be alone for much longer anyway. She misses Baekhee and Seyoon, the boys she could do without. But the two girls are the only ones she has that sort of understand her. Baekhee doesn’t understand why Minseon isn’t happy with all the attention she’s getting and Seyoon is still trying to figure out whether she has to court the boys or if they’re gonna court her.

Minseon swims her way back to her home in the coral reef and she only reaches home as the moon lets its light shine its way through the shallow water. Baekhee grabs her arm as soon as she recognises the older girl and Minseon panics shortly in fear that it’s one of the boys or a stingray. It’s neither and she breathes relieved.

“Baekhee,” she scolds but the younger girl isn’t having any of that. The girl with short pink hair and a now dark brown tail sends the older a glare and drags her into their small little cave. It’s a little hole between two corals and it most certainly can’t hold all three girls but Baekhee has declared it their meeting spot and a boy-free zone. Thankfully Seyoon isn’t there so it’s not too tight today. Minseon sighs and raises an eyebrow but Baekhee just glares at her, hands on her waist, tail tapping an impatient rhythm on a stone below. 

“Where have you been? Hiding in the kelp forest for this long? I thought you’d been eaten by a stingray or something, you know it’s their season as well! Have you any idea how scared we were? What if you didn’t get to mate this season?” Minseon laughs and it only causes Baekhee to be even more offended.

“Really, you were afraid I wouldn’t get to mate?” she asks. Baekhee rolls her eyes as if it is the most obvious thing in the world. 

“Of course, I gotta know if you choose Jongin again this year like he wants you to. He’s been all over you!” Minseon shivers at the thought and almost looks over her shoulder to make sure he’s not lurking behind her, ready to someone curl their tails together again.

“I don’t want to be with Jongin. I mean, he was a wonderful mate last year, but we’re over, there’s nothing there, there never was. Just because he carried the babies last year for two seasons doesn’t mean we were anything serious and he knows that! Everybody knows that, Baekhee. You never stick to the same two seasons so you have absolutely nothing to tell me.” Baekhee crosses her arms offended but can’t counter the statement because it’s true. She hasn’t been with the same guy for more than one season. 

Minseon liked Jongin last year but she doesn’t like him anymore. Last season was more because of practicality because none of their 20 offsprings in the first season had survived and Jongin has great genes. The fall season had been a lot better, 5 of them had survived and that was all she had needed. And despite Joonmyun’s constant courting she’s never getting back together with him. Minseon still remembers the first season she had been mating and had been with Joonmyun and he had been a nightmare. She doesn’t want that ever again, all nagging and demanding. Baekhee doesn’t get to counterattack before a yawn makes its way through her lips and she scowls a little. 

“Don’t say it, okay? Goodnight.” She lets the tapping die out as she wraps her tail around a small stone that peaks out of the sand, enough to anchor her to the place and closes her eyes. Minseon knows she isn’t asleep yet, Baekhee never sleeps that easily, but if it ends the conversation then Minseon is more than happy to let her pretend.

She swims from the small cave and finds a place in between the colourful corals, wraps her tail around one of them and closes her eyes, but she doesn’t fall asleep. 

She’s awakened with a startle when someone places something warm on her bare shoulder and wraps what feels like tentacles around her waist. Minseon screams and tries to get away but the thing that’s clinging to her is holding on tight. Then she hears the soft giggle and feels the warm breath on her ear and she scowls. Jongin. Her tail has lost its grip on the coral and the colour is a stark electric blue. 

“You were floating away, baby,” he whispers into her ear and she shivers at the feeling. With much force she pries his hands off of her and turns around to face him.

“Jongin, please, we’re not together.” She doesn’t get to say anymore before someone has pushed Jongin a good 10 centimetres away. Jongin seems surprised at the sudden force until they both spot Luhan coming from the left. Minseon sighs. She hates mating season with a passion.

“That’s right, she’s with me now,” Luhan states proudly and Minseon decides that she doesn’t want to be a part of the fight. The fact that they’re fighting over her is bad enough and the knowledge that it’ll probably turn into something physical is even worse so she turns her back to the now arguing boys and swims away. She really doesn’t want to be with either of them but she promised Luhan. If only Jongin would just stop being so possessive.

She doesn’t know where she’s going, the current has shifted in the night while she slept and she’s a little confused but very determined to get away. It takes an hour or two before she realises she’s at a part of the reef she has never been to. The corals are more dull, look more dangerous and the shadow of a stingray on the sand has her frantically pushing towards the corals in order to hide, her skin tan and her tail and hair a muddy sand to camouflage her as good as possible. Her tail is drawn as close to her body as possible to avoid crabby claws and she’s looking around.

She has to get back home to safety before she gets eaten and as she turns around to find the safest way home she spots him. He’s alone, it’s obvious to her. His colours match hers, the beige of the sand reflected in his tail and the murky brown of the corals mirrored in the hair that floats around his head like a halo. Minseon peeks out from the corals she’s currently hiding behind to get a better look at the man at the same moment he turns his head in her direction and they get eye contact. Minseon swears in that moment that that is the man she wants to make hers. She doesn’t want Jongin or Luhan or Joonmyun or anyone from back home because they’re familiar, but this one, this stranger in the outskirts of the reef, this is who she wants to mate with.

Suddenly Minseon doesn’t hate mating season all that much. Until he turns around and leaves her alone in the reef and the sound of a claw closing is terrifyingly nearby. She has only heard the sound when she feels the pain and quickly turns to look towards her tail, a crab barely holding onto it, but the pain is excruciating and she sees white for a second or two before she feels the adrenaline.

“Let go,” she hisses, grabs her tail with both hands and tries pulling it from the crab’s claw, but the small crab is stronger than it looks and it tugs her down towards the sand. Panic starts rising in her the closer she gets to the crab. She doesn’t want to die, not today. She grabs a stone from the sand and throws it towards the hard shell of the creature and then another one. When it doesn’t work, she desperately reaches towards the corals and clings to them with all she has. The crab pulls one way and it hurts so bad Minseon is afraid she’ll lose her grip on the coral when something grabs the crab from behind and pulls it off of her. She hurries behind the coral when she sees an octopus feeding on her earlier attacker and it’s only when she finally calms a little from the shock that the pain shoots back through her body. 

Minseon whimpers as she brings her tail closer to inspect it. It’s bleeding and she lets a finger run over the wound to examine the damages. It doesn’t seem to be a very deep wound and she doesn’t have to swim far to find a brown seaweed leaf that can she can wrap around her tail. Swimming further, however, is painful and instead she relaxes back against the corals, sinking back into them and shielding her from danger. Minseon has to grab hold of the coral with her hands to make sure she doesn’t float away in the current that only seems to get stronger. She’s scared and she keeps blaming herself for being stupid enough to let the current bring her away from the kelp forest. If only she had gone to where she knew she could be safe.

She’s close to tears when she shakes her head and wills herself to stop being so pathetic. It won’t bring her back home to cry, nobody is going to come looking for her, not even Jongin. Slowly she makes her way against the current in the direction she believes is home. From coral to coral she swims, her speed dramatically slowed and every time a stingray shadow floats over the seabed she spends 5 minutes or longer waiting in the shadows of the corals.

The moonlight is shining through the water when she finally returns to the colours she’s known almost all her life. Seyoon has transformed into her usual midnight blue when Minseon finally spots her and the young girl spins around at the call of her name, her braid cutting through the water. 

“Minseon!” she exclaims, hurrying as much as she can until she has her hands wrapped tightly around the older girl. “We thought you had died!” Minseon feels her body shake before she’s realising she’s crying. Seyoon gets taken aback at the older girl sobbing on her shoulder but doesn’t let go of her embrace.

“I was so scared,” Minseon whispers into the water and Seyoon gently guides her back to the others. The first one to meet them is Baekhee who promptly notices the seaweed wrapped around Minseon’s tail and she quickly fetches Yixing and Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo clicks his tongue as he eyes her injury but he doesn’t ask any questions as he tends to her wound and wraps another piece of seaweed around it. Yixing, however, looks at her with questions in his eyes and Minseon lowers her face to avoid his gaze. 

“What happened?” Yixing asks in a low voice but neither of them gets to say more before Minseon is wrapped in four strong arms, a man on either side of her each. They lightly push at each other, while they try to embrace her. Minseon sighs and pushes them both a little away. 

“Stop it, let go of me,” she says, voice raw from the earlier sobbing and both men draw a little away, but only enough for Luhan to still play with her now midnight blue coloured hair and Jongin to lace his fingers with hers. Luhan glares at Jongin and Jongin glares back at him and Minseon decides to ignore both of them as she frees herself and announces that she’s going to sleep. She can’t hold onto the coral with her tail so she wraps a thin piece of seaweed around a coral and then she secures it to her wrist before she closes her eyes. Murky brown hair swims before her eyes before she drifts away. 

Minseon returns to her daily schedule of being courted, hiding and coming back home a little before the night comes. It’s been 5 days and Luhan is sure he’s won her over by now, his small gifts of pearls and shells on display in her hair. He still hasn't been able to link his tail with hers but Minseon has told both Jongin and Luhan that tail-lacing is off-limits until the wound has fully recovered. It doesn’t hurt anymore and the shock of almost dying is no longer affecting her, but it’s a wonderful excuse to get rid of the two of her most incessant bachelors. Baekhee thinks she’s stupid for using it as an excuse and Seyoon keeps complaining that Minseon won’t allow her to arrange her hair into a beautiful bun using the pearls Luhan has brought her.

It’s early in the morning when Minseon goes to wake up Baekhee. The water is still a little cold from the night, the sun’s rays have yet to warm up the surface and Baekhee shivers a little. 

“Do I have to come?” she asks and Minseon nods. They swim, Baekhee slowly waking up when they reach the outskirts of the coral reef and the colours turn to brown and beige instead of blue, green and pink. “This is dangerous,” she says as she eyes the wide seabed of sand and only a few rocks and seaweeds. Minseon drags her behind a brown dying coral and shushes her.

“I need to show you something,” she whispers and points in the direction of the open sea and Baekhee blinks, not seeing anything. The younger girl tilts her head irritated and stares at Minseon, but the older girl just gasps and stares towards the open ocean. It takes a few seconds before Baekhee’s curiosity wins her over and she turns her head to follow Minseon’s gaze and what she sees is enough to has her jaw dropping.

“But…?” she says, stunned by the lonely man hiding a rock, making sure the coast is clear before he swims towards the brown corals. Minseon is completely enchanted with his looks. His hair is beige, a blonde that suits him so well that Minseon is positive she would prefer this look any day over the murky brown. As he reaches the coral his tail transforms so it's better camouflaged and his skin gets tanner. “Who is he?” Baekhee hisses into Minseon’s ear and Minseon wakes up from the trance the stranger has brought her in. She shakes her head a little before she faces Baekhee.

“I don’t know, but isn’t he beautiful?” Baekhee scoffs.

“Why were you even out here? Is it here you got attacked?!” Baekhee curls her tail a little more together and floats a little higher in order to avoid crabs. Minseon laughs fondly but her sound attracts attention and the stranger and before she knows it, a soft hand is covering , a warm chest pressing against her back and Baekhee goes wide-eyed.

“Ssssh,” a soft voice whispers into her ears. The hand lets go of and Baekhee automatically hides a little in the coral, trying to make herself as small as possible. Baekhee is loud-mouthed and usually not that cautious but the fear of being far from home is making her eerily quiet. The stranger sends them a smirk and points towards the seabed. “They can hear us.” Baekhee whimpers a little from behind the coral and Minseon turns to look over her shoulder at the girl's chocolate coloured hair. “Don’t be afraid,” the stranger says again and Minseon returns her attention to him. “You’ll be able to get home fine! From the reef, no?” Minseon nods and sends him a kind smile.

“Yeah, do you … do you live here?” She nods towards the open sea and the stranger shrugs a little. 

“Here and there and everywhere.” And before Minseon thinks she has blurted out ‘want to come visit us?’ Baekhee squeezes her shoulder so hard it makes Minseon wince and the stranger smirks a little before he shrugs once more. 

“Okay,” he says but starts swimming before either of the girls has had time to introduce themselves or lead the way. Baekhee swims close to Minseon all the way home and Minseon barely gets to introduce herself to the stranger before Jongin has squeezed himself beside her and put a hand protectively around Minseon’s waist.

Back home in the safe environment, Baekhee returns to her colourful self and Seyoon comes to greet them. She’s followed by Zitao whose hair is rather ruffled and Minseon can’t help but smile knowingly at the younger girl, who blushes a pink that could rival the coral she’s beside. Nobody else seems to notice. The stranger introduces himself as Jongdae and Minseon has to pry Jongin off of her and state loud and clear (to Baekhee’s obvious amusement) that she doesn’t have a mate. Luhan stares at them from the sidelines and Minseon decides she’s had enough of the jealousy that’s obvious in the waters, so she leaves. Tied to her usual sea kelp with eyes closed and the silence of the ocean around her, she finds comfort and relaxes. She’s high enough to avoid crabs and she’s not too close to the surface to be in danger of stingrays. She gets startled when she feels the kelp move with force and she opens her eyes only to look at Jongdae, the stranger, who sends her a soft smile.

“Hiding from your mate?” he asks and Minseon sighs deeply and grabs the kelp with her hand to make sure she’s steady.

“He’s not my mate,” she says and Jongdae nods in silence. There’s silent except for a couple of sea lions somewhere swimming through the kelp forest.

“Why are you traveling on your own?” she asks after a while and he shrugs, eyes closed but he doesn’t say anything. It only spurs Minseon’s curiosity on. “Don’t you have a mate?” This time he doesn’t move at all and Minseon feels like she got too private. Maybe he lost his mate this mating season and maybe that’s why he’s traveling alone. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.” She keeps quiet after that. It isn’t until she feels something softly touch her dark green hair that she turns around to face him again. 

“You’re beautiful,” he says and she scoffs and shakes her head slightly.

“Don’t say that. I’m considering not mating this season.” He widens his eyes at the news and blinks a couple of times. Minseon feels like laughing at his reaction.

“Why not?” he asks after a couple of seconds and it’s Minseon’s turn to shrug. “You have nice genes,” he compliments again and Minseon wants to deny that her heart rate rises a little. There’s something different about the stranger - or maybe it’s just because he’s a stranger. Instead of letting it affect her, she changes her position so she can look directly at him.

“Tell me about yourself,” she exclaims and he sighs. He does tell her a little about himself, mostly irrelevant facts like how his favourite colour is the murky brown of the seaweeds on the outskirts or that he once got clawed by a crab on his arm. He even shows her the scar and she laughs at him and gently shows him her tail, still wrapped in a piece of brown seaweed, now contrasting greatly with the green colour of her tail. He smiles fondly at her and tells her to watch out, that she isn’t as used to adventures as he is and she pouts and tells him it’s not her fault that she’s a bad swimmer.

Luhan snatches her hand the second they arrive back home and tells her he has something very important to show her. Minseon can’t forget Jongdae even as Luhan tries to remind her of the deal. 

“Minseon?” he says. “Are you even listening?” She blinks. 

“What?” she asks and he sighs exasperated. 

“The deal? A week and then you would be my mate? Remember?” Sh