“What do you do on land?” Sehun asked. The merman pointed to the door. “I saw some people with bags and nice clothes before; they must be working, right?”

“I just finished school so I’m looking for a job,” Haebin explained. “Here on land, you have to go to school until you’re in your twenties before you can be deemed educated enough for an actual job. I want to be a writer…”

“A writer?”

Haebin nodded. “I majored in literature and language in college! I also have a degree in media and communications,” She sighed. “I want to write for a magazine firm or become an editor. Can you imagine if I was an editor for Elle Korea?” She asked. “Or say you open up a magazine one day and it says By Kim Haebin?” She gushed. “That would be ing awesome!”

Sehun listened and agreed indifferently. “I’m not entirely sure of what that all means but I hope you get what you want soon if it makes you happy.” He smiled.

Haebin stared at him and took a deep breath. “Wow, I wish my aunt give me that reaction. She smacked me upside the head and told me to become a doctor or something that makes actual money.” She scoffed. “Does she think I’d be poor as the editor of Vogue Magazine?!”

Sehun raised his eyebrows and tried to comprehend the situation. What is a magazine?

“W-Well…anyway, you must be tired if you swam the entire ocean,” Haebin said. She stood up and led him to her room. “You can take a nap or something; I’ll give you a few hours of quiet time while I sort things out in the living room.” She pointed to the two morons on the couch. “I’ll call you out for dinner, how’s that?”

“A nap?”

Haebin clapped her hands together and put them by her ear. “Sleep!”

“Ah…but I’m not even-“

“Not even tired?” Haebin scoffed as she stood by the door with her arms crossed. “My , he fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow!”

---

“Dude, what happened with Pumpkin? You didn’t kick him out, did you?” Chanyeol slurped his soup and loudly chewed on a piece of kimchi. “Gosh look at all this food, we should’ve asked him to stay for a meal at least!”

Baekhyun nodded and chugged a tonic before leaning back into his seat. “God bless you, Kim Haebin.” He patted his full belly. “You should get your hands on your aunt’s recipe book! All of her stews worked as hangover cures for me!”

Haebin put the cover back on the pot and took away a few empty dishes before ushering the two out of her flat. “Okay, guys! Go home! Come back when you’re sober, only.”

Chanyeol turned around and refused to leave. “What? No way, we didn’t watch our movies yet! This is our routine! Get drunk; go to Haebin’s house, vomit, shower, sleep, and then have a movie marathon!”

She shook her head. “Stop coming to my house when you guys had too much to drink! Does that make any sense? You dickheads are so damn rowdy when you’re tipsy and instead of ending up at a police station, you guys somehow manage to make it back to my house? Every single time too?” She rolled her eyes. "How ridiculous!"

Baekhyun bowed and clutched his chest. “The heart knows what it wants…”

“Guys!” She snapped. “Out! Now! I’m busy today!” She shoved the two out of her front door. “Come back when you’re sober!”

Sehun came out of Haebin’s room from all the noise, his hair was a mess and his eye bags finally seemed to make a belated appearance. “Haebin? What is happening? Did you tell the two boys to leave? They were nice to me…”

She raised an eyebrow and laughed at the entire situation. “You’re here by accident, my friend. Chanyeol and Baekhyun were drunk, you just happened to make it here.”

“…Then accidents are nice, sometimes.”

Haebin strolled back to her kitchen in leisure as her apartment became peaceful and serene again. She scooped Sehun a bowl of rice and set it on the table in front of him. “This is crab stew, my aunt made it! She runs a restaurant so I get a lot of my food from there! Ah! This is marinated squid, fried mackerel, cucumber kimchi, rolled egg, and braised fish.” She lifted her head. “I hope you-“ She gawked. Holy , I forgot…he’s a mermaid! Merman! ...

Sehun looked absolutely horrified and very shocked, needless to say. He darted his eyes back and forth from one end of the table to the other. He saw the crab parts floating around in the red stock. He saw the mackerel, the squid, and what is that? Tilapia? He nearly shoved his fist in his mouth to stop himself from screaming. “Oh, my! Oh, my!” My friends!

“D-Dude! I’m so sorry! I completely forgot,” Haebin furrowed her brows. “Didn’t you go to a sushi restaurant before?” She ran into the bathroom and dug through the laundry pile before a crumbled napkin fell on the ground. She picked it up and shoved it to him. “I know this place, it’s a sushi restaurant.” She said as she unwrinkled the tissue, revealing the company’s logo. “Esh, don’t be surprised. You eat fish all the time, don’t you?”

He shook his head. “We don’t have tuna and salmons in my part of the sea! I eat shrimp a lot but c-crabs and…fish and Tilapia, for the most part, they are friends!” Sehun exclaimed. He pointed to the fried mackerel. “H-He looks like one of the fish that used to follow me around!”

Haebin gasped. “Oh my gosh, is this cannibalism?” She whispered. She ducked under the table and grabbed his thigh. “No! Not here, he has legs like me. It’s not wrong if he eats fish!”

Sehun grabbed his beating heart and stared at the food in disbelief. “I forgot that you guys eat this all the time, goodness!”

Haebin picked up her chopsticks with shaky hands and dug through one of the fish. She held a piece of white flesh in between the two sticks and hovered it over his mouth. “Sehun, try some, hm? I mean you had salmon before and tuna, and whatever the hell you possibly ordered. Did you like salmon?”

He nodded. “I did, it was bloody amazing.”

“Well maybe you will like this too,”

He shook his head. “No way! I got friends who look like that- oomph!”

Haebin watched as his expression twisted and turned, he looked even more distraught. At this point, Sehun looked like he would pass out. “Spit it out if you don’t like it!”

Sehun fell over and rolled up in a ball as he chewed on the fish. He sat straight in his seat and stared stupidly. “Haebin…”

“Y-Yes?”

He smiled in confusion. “It tastes pretty good…” He whispered. Sehun hugged his arms and looked at all the seafood dishes. “What in the world? I know a crab named Jin, he would pinch me pretty hard if he knew that I ate these…”

Haebin scooped him a bowl of soup and picked up her spoon. “You gotta eat to survive here,” She said. “Don’t worry about it.” She smiled. “Ah, wait until I show you pork belly. And steak! And ice cream! And chocolate!” She ladled some soup into her spoon and showed him how to eat with utensils. “Eat up, Sehun!”

He slowly went through all the dishes with his messy chopstick skills. “Everything is really cool here in Seoul, I’m happy you’re the first person I met.” He laughed a little. “Well, the first cognizant person…”

Haebin scoffed. “Bro, you have a lot to learn.”

“Really?”

“Mhm, but don’t worry!”

Sehun looked at her. “Hm?”

“I’m going to civilize you!”

[a/n]: comments are much appreciated! :)