It was horrendous. Absolutely horrendous. No matter how many hours Sehun spent in the ocean swimming building his body of steel, nothing would compare to the brutality of exercising as a human. 

"Ow..." He laid limply on the couch the morning after and frowned. "What happened?" He grumbled. 

Haebin watched from afar, she sipped her coffee and chuckled. "See? Proof that exercising is bad for you!"

"Everything hurts." The merman mumbled sadly. "I was never like this in the sea..."

"Come on now! Things are different on land of course- Hey, if it makes you feel any better, I can bet my life that Chanyeol and Baekhyun are completely deceased right now. Baekhyun can barely get up the stairs without running out of breath on the regular and yesterday was the most work Chanyeol has done in years."

"Should we visit them?" Sehun asked out of concern. "Do you think they need help?"

Haebin scoffed. "Pft! Give them a week! They'll recover!” 

“They make tonics for hangovers, do they make ones for this?” 

She laughed. “Unfortunately not, they don’t make stuff that cures soreness from working out."

“Are you going somewhere?” Sehun sat up from his slumber and rubbed his eyes. “You have your bag on!” He flung his arm out and pointed at her cross-body. “Ah!” Then he rolled over and grabbed his arms in pain. 

“I need to run to the city for a bit.”

He shuddered. “Run…”

“I have to buy a pencil skirt and a thinner blazer,” Haebin explain. “I have an interview.” She cupped her face and giggled to herself out of excitement. 

“That’s great!” Sehun exclaimed. “Does that mean you’re finally going to get the job you wanted?”

She shrugged. “Who knows? I’ll know after my interview. Anyway, do you want to go to the mall with me? JAX Mall just opened a new ice cream place too!”

Sehun slowly shook his head. “Can I stay home?” He asked. “My legs are hurting a lot,” 

Haebin hopped off her seat and grabbed her keys. “Want me to bring home anything?”

He shook his head again. “No thank you, but thank you for asking.”

She smiled and waved her hand as she left. 

Meanwhile

Baekhyun’s eyes snapped open as the sunlight poured into his room. “Oh my God, why am I here?”

Chanyeol groaned and laid stiffly in bed. “Because we worked out yesterday and now the both of us are ed.”

Baekhyun flew up and screamed loudly at the sight of a half- Chanyeol next to him in bed. “WHAT…IS GOING ON?” Then the soreness of his body hit him like a truck. “OH ME.”

“Nah I’m good.”

The shorter rolled his eyes and sat there without budging, moving even an inch was annoying. His entire body was pulsing and he could still feel his muscles wrecking havoc all around his body. “Why are we here?”

“What do you mean? I told you, we worked out-“

“No, why are we here?” Baekhyun asked. He pointed to the bolded word. “Meanwhile? Why is there a meanwhile?”

“Ah, it’s a filler while Haebin goes shopping.”

“Oh okay.” 

Chanyeol itched his arm and yawned as he looked around. “Oh? Are we in Chapter 16 already? Holy hell, when is their relationship going to pick up? I know we’ve been funny as for a few chapters but still…”

“You think krismatics is aiming for a 40 chapter long rom-com?” Baekhyun asked. “All of her other stories were roughly 20 chapters long, maybe she’s trying something new?”

Chanyeol furrowed his brows. “No, I know the truth.”

“What?”

“We’re just so funny,” The giant began. “We’re so funny that she focuses on us- we’re comedy gold honestly. We’re walking memes, Baekhyun.”

“I’m the funny one, you’re just an idiot for show bro.” 

Chanyeol poked a finger into Baekhyun’s thigh. “HOW WAS RUNNING 3 AND A HALF LAPS YESTERDAY YOU WEAKLING?”

“GAHHH.”

Chanyeol threw his head back laughing with his deep voice. “HAHAHAH I’ll show all of you how funny I can be HAHAHA- AHHH AH AH AH STOP-“

Baekhyun smiled maniacally as he gave Chanyeol’s biceps a squeeze. “TAKE THAT.”

“HOW LONG IS THIS ING FILLER?”

Back at Haebin’s Residence

Sehun laid on the couch and chewed on a few shrimp chips as he browsed through the channels. “Man, I should’ve gone with Haebin. What if she needs help with carrying bags?” He looked around the living room and gazed longingly at the fridge. Getting his hands on a bag of chips was like taking candy from a child, they were all around the house and within arm’s reach but getting something to drink was a different story. 

The merman laid in his position for a few minutes in a dilemma. He had shrimp chips lined up on the coffee table behind him but the water was a mile away? (Alright, fine, more like 15 feet) “Why am I like this?” He mumbled. “How could I not have thought this through? I have snacks all around me and not one bottle of juice?” He clenched all the muscles in his body to sit up before mentally preparing himself to walk across the room - it was a lot of work, believe me. “To go or not to go…"

Sehun was about to use all his energy to migrate to the most wonderful place in the house until a news report caught his attention. He slowly turned his head to the TV screen and put his dreams to be in the kitchen aside.

“Just in, an escalator at JAX Mall malfunctioned and collapsed while citizens were on it. There have been 28 reported injuries so far. Reporter Chang is at the scene.” 

Sehun dropped his bag of shrimp chips and stood up. “H-Haebin…” He looked around his space for his phone. “Haebin is there,” He whispered. He gave her a call and felt his heart drop when it went to voicemail. “Haebin…” He had no time to think, his body hurt like crazy but he still ran out of the house. 

The merman ran down two blocks towards the bus stop and panted heavily, he felt as if his legs would give out any second but he couldn’t stop. “Haebin…” He bent over and held onto a wall. Sehun ran his fingers through his hair in regret. “I should’ve gone with her…”

“Sehun?”

He lifted his head to see Haebin walking towards him. 

“H-Haebin!” Sehun walked slowly towards her. “Why didn’t you pick up your phone? I was worried!”

She set her bags on the floor before reaching into her bag. “Did you call-“ 

He ran up to her and pulled her into his arms. “I thought something bad happened to you.” He whimpered. 

Haebin’s eyes widened when she heard the change in his voice. “Hey…what’s wrong?”

Sehun pulled away with tears in his eyes. “An escalator broke at JAX Mall. I saw it on the news and it was scary. A lot of people got hurt and I thought something happened to you when you didn’t answer your phone…” He looked her up and down. “Are you alright?” 

“I-I think it happened after I left.” She was taken aback by how shaken up the merman was. 

Sehun couldn’t even think straight, all he wanted now was to make sure that Haebin was really standing in front of him.

The merman wrapped his arms around her and quietly whispered. “Let me hold you.” 

[a/n]: comments are much appreciated!