"Why that face baby? something's wrong?" Kai tried to sound lighthearted but it ended up ringing with nervousness. "I still can't understand– how– why two human men can not have babies?" Sehun asked again, apparently needing to hear the answer again. "No, they can’t. Our biology isn’t compatible," Kai answered, not sure why he had to state the obvious, nevertheless he obeyed. "The only way they can have children is via adopting, or surrogacy" Sehun bit his lower lip at that. "What is surrogacy?" Kai was still allowing himself to process the information, this was all new, weird even.
He blinked when he realized Sehun had asked him a question, but before he could respond, Namjoon was already speaking. "I need to go up and get a few things to finish up the ID." He announced. "I will leave you two for a moment. Don't touch anything. Please." He said and continued to walk towards the staircase. Kai turned his attention back to Sehun.
"How about you tell me how it works for merfolk? Then I’ll tell you the differences, and all you need to know about surrogacy." Kai prompted, caressing the back of Sehun's hand. The merman deemed that idea doable and hence started the educational monologue on his smooth silky voice. "We merfolk can have fingerlings… it doesn't matter if it's two men" Sehun started to explain himself, words measured and slow. "I don't  know how humans have babies, but for my kind it doesn't have to be between man and woman. We have takers and givers."  "Takers and givers?" Kai's eyebrows traveled up. "Male givers can only impregnate a female or a male taker but male takers are different, they can play the role of both male and female mer because they can impregnate and also carry fingerlings in their tummies " Sehun peeked up at Kai, and upon finding that dark intense gaze resting solely on his person he quickly averted his eyes. "That's how our biology is," Kai nodded once, albeit he still looked like he was having a hard time taking it all in. "I think what you’re trying to say is that you have sub-genders. That’s definitely not something we humans have. For us, it’s simple; only the women can bear children" Sehun nodded, taking in the new information too. He looked expectant to hear more, but Kai couldn’t exactly focus on giving a seminar when he still was half-numb with shock. He had so many questions, his curiosity burning him up.   "But how does that happen for your kind?" Kai asked after a few seconds of contemplative silence. "I mean the impregnation. Do the takers– was it? Do they lay the eggs and the givers inseminate them or?" "No we don't lay eggs, we give birth like dolphins and whales and we feed the babies from our milk–" "You're mammalians too, that's what you're trying to say?" Sehun nodded. "I don't know what mammalian is but yeah, I think you can call us that.  Merfolk mostly have two– four fingerlings at a time, but Sirens only have one,  mers do have one baby too but they're very rare. Like Jimin and and his brother are born without companions." He explained. "I think human have only one baby, right? Because they're so big just like sirens," Sehun voiced his deductive reasoning, though he didn’t sound absolutely sure of himself. "Majority of the time yes. But human women are capable to carry multiple babies too," Kai said. "Having twins and triplets is not unheard of, although they’re much rarer," "That… must be very painful for the mother no?" Sehun frowned. Kai snickered. "I don’t know, I’m no woman. But their bodies change a lot during pregnancy and honestly seeing their stomach inflating that big just looks plain uncomfortable. So yeah, they got my respect," Sehun nodded slowly. "Inflating mean it grows big right?" "Yeah," "Our stomach also grow when we are pregnant but i heard it's not very painful for merfolk when giving birth.,"Sehun explained in a soft voice and Kai cursed himself for imagining Sehun with a roundish stomach and blossoming from the pregnancy glow. That immediately made Kai realize he didn’t ask a very important question yet. "And uh- exactly which one are you again?" Sehun gave the human a questioning look. "Which one what?" Kai didn’t know why he already felt so sure of the answer before even posing the question. "Giver or taker. Which one are you?" He was rewarded with a shy whimper, as Sehun immediately averted his eyes. The merman fiddled with his fingers a bit before he gathered the courage needed for speaking up. "I am a taker" Kai released the breath he was holding. ing called it, he was preening smugly but his self-congratulatory mood disappeared just as fast as it came. Oh my god this means Sehun can get pregnant. Pregnant, like a girl.      Sehun upon not getting any reaction searched Kai's funnily blank face, his whole demeanor fidgety and nervous. "Is.. that bad?" Kai who finally snapped out of his internal screaming immediately cradled Sehun's face in his hands and pressed a kiss onto his forehead. ", why would you say that, it's not bad baby. It's a good thing– it means we can have children." He smiled, dropping a kiss to Sehun's lips, which Sehun let out a sigh into. "You want to have pups with me?" He breathed into Kai's mouth. "Of course I do, but why do you call them pups? I mean isn't like what wolf's babies are called?" Sehun nodded, "yes, but because I am half Siren we don't call them fingerlings, sirens are more of sharks and sharks babies are called pups"  Yeah, Kai remembered coming across something like that when he was watching one of Jungkook's shark documentary. "I think I've heard of that before– I mean shark babies are called pups." Sehun hummed."So what is surrogacy?"  "You've never heard of surrogate mother?" "No. what's that?" "A woman who gives birth to a child not her own, with the intent to give that child up to at least one of the biological parents once it is born." Sehun hummed and nodded urging Kai to continue.  "Surrogacy is an arrangement, often supported by a legal agreement, whereby a woman agrees to become pregnant and give birth to a child for another person or persons who is or will become the parent– parents of the child–" "But why not just marry a woman and have children? Why will people seek surrogacy?" Kai chuckled at that" Well people may seek a surrogacy arrangement when pregnancy is medically impossible, when pregnancy risks are too dangerous for the intended mother, or when a single man or a male couple wish to have a child. Surrogacy is considered one of many assisted reproductive technologies. In surrogacy arrangements, monetary compensation may or may not be involved." He finished caressing Sehun's face. "Oh I understand now" Sehun smiled. "But we merfolk–sirens don't need surrogacy." Kai smiled back. "I am really glad you'll be able to have my child ."He leaned to kiss Sehun properly and Namjoon chose that moment to re-enter the living room, he cleared his throat and both men immediately pulled back, living a decent space between them. Kai held Sehun's hand as they moved to stand next to the desk Namjoon was working at.  "First name?" Namjoon asked, typing on the keyboard. "Sehun!" Kai answered. "Last name"  "Kim" "Date of birth?" Kai realized he hadn't ask Sehun about that yet, he turned slightly to look at Sehun and the merman stared at him back. "What's your birthday?" He asked. "12 April, 1998" Namjoon nodded as he continued to type, asking the necessary questions in the process. Kai's eyes darted to the other desk and that's when something catches his attention, without thinking he moved to pick the pamphlet up. "Isn't this Kim pharmaceuticals?" Kai asked and Namjoon nodded without stopping to spare him a glance. "It's my family's" he said. Kai's eyes widened at the revelation, he knew Kim pharmaceuticals, the CEO was his Dad's friend that happened to be Jennie's Dad, this meant Namjoon and Jennie were related. But Namjoon said he's half mer did that mean Jennie was too? "You're Jennie's brother?"  At that Namjoon paused and turned to face Kai. "You knew my sister?" "Dear God, I do. She's– she's the girl I was supposed to marry–" "You're the Kim Kai, Kim heechul's son?" He asked and Kai nodded. "But if what you're saying is true, how come I never knew your other father, it was a woman that I know as your dad's wife" "He remarried a year after my father died." Kai nodded in understanding."You said you're half mer, does that mean Jennie–" Namjoon shook his head before Kai could finish his sentence. "No, she's my half sister, the woman you knew as my Dad's wife is her mother." "Did she know about you?" Namjoon nodded. "It's hard to hide it from her since she's in the family– or more like the face of the family." "How come your Dad never showed you to the world? Everyone know Kim pharmaceuticals and the only person known as the heir is Jennie" Namjoon let out a humorless laugh. "isn't it obvious? We're not fully humans, so my Dad doesn't consider me or my brother important, the only importance we have is how he and his wife uses our blood for creating medicines." "What?" Sehun was the one that spoke, both Namjoon and Kai averted their gaze to look at the mer prince. "They're using you?" "Yes, but apparently I left 13 years ago, I was 15 back then, but my brother refused to come with me when I decided to leave because I couldn't take being a lab rat anymore, he stayed even after everything my Dad and his wife does to him. Honestly I just don't understand why he chose to stay." "How could you let him stay?" "He's an adult, I asked him several times to come and live with me, I even told him that I would leave the country or we could go back into the ocean if he's scared or something, but he said he doesn't want to. He's fine being a lab rat as long as he gets to help people get better with his blood. So no I didn't just leave him on his own, I tried but he wouldn't follow me." Sehun let out a sigh. "Do you go see him sometimes?" Namjoon nodded. "I do, we talk a lot on the phone and we do hang out once a month. He's happy staying with Dad even though the man couldn't acknowledged him as his heir" "But why?" "His wife refused to accept it, she threatened to reveal our identity to the world if Dad refused to do her bidding and make her daughter the heiress." "Sneaky wench" Kai cursed. "Does my parents knows about you and your