The world was changing. Magical sea creatures such as merrows, selkies, sea witches, and nymphs were now land-dwellers, since the oceans were no longer enchanted. They had mingled amongst humans over the past decades. With passing time, the seafolk living on the land had lost a few of their capabilities and had instead learned to adapt to the surface. 

Out of all the migrated sea species, merfolk were the ones more common. Almost all of them had mixed blood and were often born without a tail, but usually inherited other traits of their ancestors, such as being able to breathe underwater, having an enchanting voice and enhanced senses, being able to influence the weather, being able to communicate with other sea creatures, and being able to manipulate water forms.

Most humans did not know merfolk because they kept their existence discreet for their protection, but there were quite a lot of secret online communities that merfolk used to find and help each other. And through one such online community, Jinki had become friends with three other mermen who had gotten into the same university as him. It had been four years since then and all of them were moving on to grad school in the same university.

“Are you sure you will be okay?” Jinki asked as he emptied his locker. He had been working part-time in a gourmet supermarket close to the beach called Atlantis since that summer and had quit since he had landed a teaching assistantship at the university now. 

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Taemin leaned against the lockers, watching Jinki pack his things up. Jinki had recommended Taemin for his spot on Taemin’s strong insistence and Taemin was refusing to tell him why he wanted to work here instead of taking the coffee shop job on campus. He lived in the dorms, unlike the others who had their houses nearby. The dorms were almost ten miles away and Jinki had only been working at Atlantis because it was only one mile away from his place.

What was stranger was that the owner of the supermarket, Minho, had easily agreed to give the job to Taemin when Jinki had requested it, but he had briefly expressed reluctance after meeting him in person. Minho had no answer when Jinki had asked him why he didn’t want to hire him and thus Taemin had ended up with the job without further objection.

“Minho’s doing grad school too,” Jinki passed on some information, “He has to take care of the store so he usually only takes online classes or the ones that are scheduled once a week.” Jinki hummed trying to remember more to say, “He lives upstairs in the loft. So even if he’s not on shift, you can just knock on his door if you need anything.”

“Got it…” Taemin looked around, quite intrigued by the way the store was entirely encompassed in a huge aquarium. It was almost like an aquatic theme park, only smaller. The walls were aquariums, so was the ceiling. A huge number of fish were swimming around, and there were so many kinds that Taemin had never seen, despite being a merman.

“He really loves taking care of them,” Jinki explained when he noticed Taemin’s gaze, “Being a human, he can’t communicate with them, but he talks to them quite dearly. Tells them about his day and stuff. He can’t sense it, but the fish respond to him.” He smiled, “I can’t talk to them either, but I can sense the way they excitedly swim over when he comes back home and follow him around all day.”

Do you guys really follow him around all day?

Yes! He’s our Master!

Taemin raised his brows in interest, his eyes following the fish who had answered him before swimming away, “Fish that are fond of a human. This is interesting.”

“I know you can talk to them but don’t disrupt the waters much, okay?” Jinki warned him, realizing that Taemin had just communicated with the fish on sensing the change in the swimming patterns of the creatures.

“There is no way I will be disrupting anything, unlike Jonghyun hyung who is always causing random showers due to his changing moods. Or whenever he sings.”

“Am I the only one who finds that cute?”

Taemin just shrugged, “I wish I could have sharp senses like you or quick healing like Kibum hyung does. And both of you can change, to top it all off.”

“Only in enchanted waters. You know the history– the ocean water lost its magic when Atlantis was destroyed by a terrible storm. Atlanteans held so much power that its destruction released a conflicting wave of magic that damaged all other clans and kingdoms of the oceans, along with nullifying the magical properties of the water. It eventually spread to faraway seas as well. That’s why most of the sea folk–”

“Migrated to the surface, because a life without magic is easier up here than down there.” Taemin completed for him blandly, having now memorized the history lesson Jinki often gave him.

“Yes.” Jinki continued, “Consequently, the current generation of sea folk is mostly of mixed parentage, and thanks to that we aren’t as sensitive to normal water as our ancestors used to be. Imagine being splashed with water, or spilling water on yourself, or just washing your hands… and then randomly changing. Would’ve been hell. Our ancestors had it tough, staying away from water to keep themselves discreet.”

“How unhygienic.”

“That’s rich coming from you.” Jinki raised his brows, “Your dorm room’s a frigging mess.”

“Ha. Ha.” Taemin faked a laugh, his eyes on the few fish who hadn’t fled like most had and instead were swimming in the same spot, shocked that he could hear and talk to them. 

Stay away from Master. He doesn’t like you.

Taemin snickered at what the fish had said, trying to convey it as intimidatingly as possible.

We are serious. Stay away.

“What happened?” Jinki finally zipped up his bag, moving aside to let Taemin have his locker, “What are they saying?”

“Oh, they’re just welcoming me,” Taemin stuffed his cap and jacket into his new locker, “Since I’m gonna be staying here for a long time.”

Minho wasn’t around for the first three shifts that Taemin worked. He met a couple more part-timers during his shifts and Minho had come home when Taemin was wrapping up his shift. Minho had gotten to work immediately and had barely exchanged anything but a greeting with Taemin. Taemin was fuming internally at the way the fish were taunting him about Minho’s curtness.

But when the weekend came, there was no one but Minho and him working. Minho was taking care of the cashier spot while Taemin helped the customers that came in and got other chores done in between.

It had been pretty busy all day and Taemin hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to Minho at all, but finally business had slowed down later that evening and he headed to the billing desk, where Minho was sitting on a barstool, slumped and leaning against the aquarium wall, reading a textbook. As Jinki had previously mentioned, most of the fish were indeed swimming around Minho, leaving the water in the rest of the walls deserted.

“Do you need anything?” Minho asked, lowering his book.

“You can study comfortably upstairs. It’s only a couple of hours until we close...I’ll take care of the store and close up.”

“Don’t you need to study too?”

Taemin looked at the fish swimming around Minho. Taemin would have indeed gotten some studying done had his mind not been occupied with the constant roasting and taunting he had been subjected to all day from them. “Yeah but it's too noisy in here.”

“You can leave early then.” Minho raised his book, covering his face, “I am okay with the noise.”

“Really? Thank you.” Taemin heaved a sigh as he headed towards the break area that also had the lockers and a changing room. He was back after putting away his apron, grabbing his bag and jacket. He put on his cap and wished Minho goodnight.

He was about to leave when he heard one of the fish say,

Why does Master seem so disappointed that he’s leaving? He did not want him here right?!

Shhh! Quiet! Did you forget the merman can hear us, you moron! Didn’t we decide we won’t say anything about Master while he’s here?!

Taemin turned around, finding Minho still nonchalant and engrossed in reading, completely oblivious to the fact that his fish had just exposed him.

So darn cute, Taemin chuckled to himself before he pushed the door open and left, completely oblivious to the fact that Minho had caught his little statement and was wide-eyed, his ears slowly turning red.

Taemin was invited to Jonghyun’s place for dinner that night and he sighed when he drove into his neighborhood, finding it drizzling. Usually, the merman could control the enchantment of his voice when he sang, but he still couldn’t control it when he got too emotional. 

Kibum was standing outside with a spare umbrella so Taemin wouldn’t have to get wet during the short walk from the driveway to the front door. 

“He’s watching that new series and is crying buckets over it,” Kibum explained with a sigh. “He’s even slightly drunk. Don’t ask anymore.”

“Don’t need to.”

“Finally!” Jonghyun exclaimed from the recliner when Taemin walked in. The drizzling was subsiding because the video had been paused. Jonghyun was still sniffling, “Why did you take up an extra shift? You missed the first two episodes.”

“Yeah, seriously. What’s with you? What happened to the job you got at the coffee shop?” Kibum asked, making himself comfortable on the couch next to Jinki, “Why would you drive all the way here to a tourist-ridden area? The pay difference isn’t even much. You’re probably getting paid less at the supermarket if you deduct your travel expenses.”

Taemin was silent. He always was when he didn’t want to answer the question with a lie. 

“Are you facing any trouble on campus, Taemin?” Jinki asked, worried.

Jonghyun grew worried as well, “Or did something happen at the coffee shop? In the dorms?”

“No,” Taemin answered, “No, nothing’s wrong, except