The sentences in italics are quotes from Romeo&Juliet <3 Enjoy!

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"Are you done staring?" Gwiboon rushed in an annoyed tone.

Taeyeon didn't even bother replying, but the answer was discernibly a no.

Gwiboon's lip curled in repulsion at the scene before her: her friend was lying on top of a girl whom they'd just saved from drowning. 

Their dripping bodies adhered perfectly, Taeyeon's tail was interlaced with the stranger's legs and its tip mirthfully fluttered back and forth. 

Gwiboon could almost see hearts flitting out of her eyes as she the contours of her face, the tip of her pointy nails tracing her skin airily as if it could break just from their touch, gaze just as gently taking in every feature of hers. She got second-hand embarrassment from watching only.

"Why do you even like her so much? She's clearly an idiot-" Gwiboon contested, "Both of them are idiots." she turned to face the limp body of the boy who, if it hadn't been for the mermaids, would've travelled with the girl to their grave.

"Who the hell even drowns in a pond? And in such a ridiculous manner?"

The grotesque scene that'd just taken place they witnessed by chance.

Their home was a small, stumpy pond hidden in the heart of an unbusy forest.

It was extraordinarily rare for humans or even wild animals to enter those woods far enough to discover it, and when they did, its green and brackish waters were a sufficient deterrent to keep anyone at a safe distance.

Taeyeon and Gwiboon were the only two merpeople inhabiting it, and as much as their bickering kept their otherwise flat lives dynamic, they often happened to be bored out of their minds.

So, on the uncommon occasion that a human stumbled across their spot, they loved to observe them, hidden under the water lilies blossoming on the top of their heads. 

Taeyeon's was yellow and white like her dappled tail, while Gwiboon's was of a rich cornflower blue.

This peculiarity was a gift only pond mermaids had. They weren't sure what its purpose was, but they used it as a sort of camouflage: they'd poke their heads above the surface up to their noses, secure in the knowledge that to anyone else, they just looked like two regular floating lilies.

This time, the visitors were two: a man and- as they fathomed after profound investigating peeks- a woman.

She had a tall, androgynous figure: her hair was black, tied in a low-ponytail which let a few wavy strands loose on the sides of her face. Her shoulders were square and wide compared to her slim, almost gangly body.

In Taeyeon's eyes, she looked agile and athletic. Like a prince. 

In Gwiboon's, she looked like a column. Or a twig. Or a stick. 

She wore an oversized, half-buttoned white blouse and rolled-up black trousers, which left exposed the tanned skin of her calves and décolletage.

Overall, she had more of a masculine look- she was a handsome girl.

She'd stop every few steps to gaze at various plants, while her fractious companion followed along.

"Minjung, you hag," he barked, "are you done taking pictures of every ing coloured thing you see like a toddler?"

"You called me a hag and a toddler in the same sentence," she observed with a hint of conceit in her calm tone. 

"Who ing cares. Can we go back already? It's too hot."

"Actually, there's a nice breeze up here. Maybe if you climb up my back you'll-"

She was interrupted by a blow on her arm. "You're lucky you're a girl, or I would've beaten you to a pulp."

"What were you going to do? Bust my kneecaps?" she sneered.

She was, indeed, taller than the guy by a couple of inches.

And despite Gwiboon's preference for taller people, she had to admit he didn't look half bad. 

His face especially stood out to Gwiboon because it was like someone had spied into her preferences and created it accordingly: bronze complexion, big, brown puppy eyes and, if the distance wasn't fooling her, even those crooked bottom teeth she'd always harboured a weakness for.

His broad shoulders and slender, toned waist were squeezed in a black tank-top, matched with a pair of baggy yellow shorts. 

His taste in fashion wasn't commendable, but his haircut was way worse.

He had spiky long-ish hair pushed to the back of his head by a headband, buried under the thick, messy brown strands.

"He's cute, isn't he?" Gwiboon asked.

Taeyeon didn't reply. She was enraptured, staring at Minjung with a brushstroke of red mellowing her cheeks. 

"Damn Tae, I thought you had higher standards. Doesn't she kinda resemble a frog?" 

Just that moment, Minjung pointed at the water lily on Taeyeon's head.

"Jjong, look!" she called out.

Taeyeon, startled by the sudden and dangerous focus on her, dropped to the bottom of the pond.

"Wha- where did it go?" Minjung mumbled.

'You dumb stupid !' Gwiboon wanted to scream. 

It wasn't the first time people noticed the flowers on their heads- it was a disguise, people looking at them was the whole point.

But by abruptly vanishing she had fetched all their attention.

"What happened?" 'Jjong' wondered, peeking at the spot his cousin was pointing at.

"A water lily- I saw it, it was there but...it disappeared under the water?" 

"It's like someone pulled it down..." she continued.

"That's weird. Are you sure you didn't imagine it?"

"I'll go check," she resolved and entered the pond.

"Wai- you're going in?" Jjong asked in concern. 

"Yes."

"But you'll get your clothes wet." 

"It's summer, it's okay."

"But the water's all...nasty and miry."

"What, you scared?" she provoked. 

"I'm not scared."

"Then why don't you get in too?"

"Because it's stupid."

"You know, fear is an exquisitely human feeling. It's not for everybody to be brave and fight against your coward body's most primal instinct to run away from scary situations."

"Shut up. I'm not scared." he retorted and joined her with wide, stompy steps.

She waited for him, arm stretched out to hold her camera up.

"Why did you bring your camera?"

"While I'm at it, I want to take some up-close pictures of the water lilies."

"." Gwiboon cursed. Taeyeon was hiding at the bottom of the pond, eyes b with fear and hands sealing .

Gwiboon was scared too, but she had no choice but to stand there. If she moved, she'd just lure them into getting closer. All she could do was hope for the humans to give up before noticing her.

"Can I come forward?" Jjong asked as Minjung had ventured further.

"Yeah, I can still reach the bottom." 

Jjong approached her, the revolted grimace slowly fading from his face as he understood that the water did have a green colour to it, but it was because of the copious plants flourishing beneath and around it- it wasn't dirty but clear, almost limpid.

Even glimmery, for some reason. It was pretty.

"It's much cleaner than I expect-" as he walked, the ground suddenly disappeared from under his feet.

Before he could figure out that he had stepped into a huge, deep hole, he was far gone under the water.

"Jjong? Wh- oh my God!" Minjung screamed when she saw his hand fight to grab onto something. "Jonghyun!" she cried out as she ran towards him.

She finally seized his wrist and pulled, an emotional, relieved "I got you" panting out her lips.

But before she could pull him up, he pulled her down. 

---

That's when Gwiboon and Taeyeon jumped in. 

To rescue two helpless imbeciles struggling to reach the surface in a pond because they both managed to step in the one hollow it had.

"Can we leave before they wake up, see us and sell us to a circus?"

"She won't." Taeyeon answered, her voice honeyed and soft like a bird's chirping. 

She started humming a waltzy melody as she placed a kiss on the girl's forehead.

"You're embarrassing," the older spat and threw a glance at the unconscious boy, Jonghyuk or something. 

He was gawking at her with eyes so wide she was surprised they hadn't fallen out.

"ing perfect!" she cursed with a furious wave of the hand, "He saw us." 

Now that they were spotted, the only possible options were killing the intruders or killing themselves not to be kidnapped. "Are you happy now?"

The boy started coughing and Minjung followed him soon, vomiting clear water on Taeyeon's chest.

"Yuck!" Gwiboon shivered.

During her delirious hacking, Minjung couldn't quite grasp the situation. All she felt was a weight encumbering her movements and a shadow shielding her from the sunlight.

When she was finally able to breathe again, she opened her eyes to the most beautiful face she'd ever seen.

She paused and stared at it for a while.

Dreamy, almond-shaped black eyes softly sank into angelic apple cheeks.

Three lovely moles stood out in her diaphanous skin, the prettiest one sitting on the left side of her nose.

Her plump, damp lips invited her gaze to indulge in their violet undertone, revived by the moistness' shimmery glow.

The nymph- that's what she thought the stranger was, for she had never encountered such beauty on a human being before- had her arms wrapped around Minjung's neck in an adoring embrace and her cold, bare s pressed against her semi-covered ones.

"H-Hey..." she stammered, voice strained by the sudden rush of heat to her cheeks. 

"Hey~" the girl replied, her leer capturing Minjung in an enamoured, covetous grasp.

"What the hell is going on..." Jonghyun croaked, drawing everyone's attention to himself. 

"Jesus, are you okay Jjong?" Minjung panted as she suddenly remembered the reason why their bodies were soaked in water.

"I am..." he did not ask the question back. The fact that she had a girl laying on her and playing with her hair seemed enough of an answer. "Who are these people?" 

Minjung looked around and spotted Gwiboon sitting just a few steps away from Jonghyun.

She had her arms crossed in an irritated demeanour and a tail sinking into the water.

She also noticed that what she thought were the pretty girl's legs, interlaced with her own, felt a little too thick and slimy.

She lowered her gaze and saw an opalescent, white limb, mottled with jazzy yellows that reminded her of a koi's pattern.

"Holy ..." Jonghyun gasped, "Mermaids?"

"Are we hallucinating while drowning?" he continued.

"Are we in heaven?" Minjung pondered in a moony, awestricken whisper.

"Of course your idea of paradise is having a pretty mermaid fawn over you."

"You're not dead." Gwiboon barged in their nonsense. "You were drowning and we saved you."

Jonghyun searched for the source of the irked sound and when he found it, he ogled at it with his mouth agape.

More than her unearthly features, he was struck by her humanly ones.

Given, he too had never witnessed such striking beauty on other girls before.

Her round, prominent cheekbones gracefully subtended a pair of foxy, shifty eyes, the shadow cast by the thick frown on her eyebrows matching the sulk on her bowlike lips.

"The are you looking at?" she snapped.

He winced in shock.

"You," she accused. "You are heavy as . I destroyed my back carrying you."

"Excuse me? It's not my fault you're weak. Your arm's like a freaking breadstick."

"That's because I'm a girl, you blind idiot." 

"You mean a lazy girl who doesn't train her muscles." 

She growled. Never in her life had she been so offended by something she 100% agreed with. 

"At least I'm not stupid and ugly like you."

"Are you sure? Letting two humans see you isn't the smartest move. Plus," he looked her up and down. "Aren't mermaids supposed to be beautiful?"

"They are." Minjung protested, fondly admiring Taeyeon. 

She grabbed her hand. "Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight, For I never saw true beauty till this day." 

"Are you ing quoting Romeo and Juliette?" Jonghyun nearly shouted.

"I thought humans were beautiful too but you two have put me into perspective," Gwiboon resumed.

"But Unnie, I don't get it. Didn't you say he was cute while we were watching them?" Taeyeon feigned innocence in her high-pitched, tweeting voice, but she knew exactly what she was doing.

"T-That's because I was looking from a distance." 

"It wasn't that far-"

"Ouch! Why me!" Minjung cried when her legs were forcefully, cruelly hit by Gwiboon's tail in a poorly-aimed attempt at hitting...what was her name again?

"What's your name?" she asked the mermaid, the sparkles in their gleaming pupils still locked, with her hands now girdling her waist. 

"Taeyeon." 

"Taeyeon, my nymph. The world shines with a glorious, soothing light when reflected on your fair skin. Words cannot grasp how splendid you are, but perhaps a picture can. Shall we take one together?" 

"Of course!" 

Gwiboon scoffed. "Have you become stupid by osmosis, Tae? It's already bad enough that they saw us. What if she shows someone else the picture?"

"She won't. Right?" Taeyeon pleaded and Minjung nodded vigorously. "Plus, they could already tell people about us, what difference does a picture make?"

"If they tell people they saw mermaids while drowning, they'll think they're crazy and lock them up somewhere. With a picture, they'll lock us up somewhere," she argued. "and wipe that idiotic lovestruck expression off your face!"

"Are you a Virgo?" Minjung interrupted.

"...what?"

"You're busting everyone's balls and you're gratuitously mean. Sounds like a Virgo to me."

"Whatever. Bro, let's take the picture." Taeyeon cupped Minjung's cheek and leant back, wholly exposing her chest.

She couldn't help but stare.

"Y-Yes," she stuttered. A nervous smile trembled over her front teeth as she tried to keep her eyes on Taeyeon's face, but they kept dropping lower.

"She just called you bro." Jonghyun cackled. His cousin, though, was deaf to his mocking, because the mermaid had guided her hand on her bosom.

"Wanna touch it?" she suggested lewdly and clawed her hand over Minjung's, making it squeeze her .

"Take it somewhere else!" Gwiboon screeched, "Do you not have any shame at all?"

She turned to spare herself from the obscene show and caught Jonghyun hastily diverting his panicked eyes from her chest.

It was natural for mermaids to leave it unveiled, but their reactions made her weirdly self-conscious.

She gathered her tail to cover it.

"Look, I get that you humans don't have s but staring is inappropriate, and kind of harassment." 

"What do you mean? I obviously have s too," Minjung pointed out.

"What do you mean obviously?" Jonghyun contested with a squawking, boisterous laugh.

" you."

Taeyeon faked a flinch of surprise for her to bounce under Minjung's touch. "You said a bad word!"

"Oh...uh...yeah." she blushed and let out a dopey, brain-dead chortle. "Sorry." 

Gwiboon shook her head. "I raised a weasel..." she murmured to herself.

"Are we taking that picture?" Taeyeon pressed.

 "Yes," Minjung sounded her pockets and the ground around her searching for the camera. "Oh crap, I think I lost my camera in the water."

"Want to go look for it?" Taeyeon chittered and tilted her head.

"Oh darling, you're so sweet," she breathed, indulging in the mermaid's eyes as in reverie. "Sure, let's go."

"Ming, wait-" Jonghyun interloped. "A-Are you sure you want to get in the water with a...a siren?"

"Jjong, don't be stupid. They saved us. If she wanted to drown me, she could've just let it happen earlier."

"You're so ungrateful Jonghyuk." Gwiboon commented, side-eyeing him.

"It's Jonghyun." he corrected.

"Did I ask?"

"It's true that you should be more thankful to Gwiboon-unnie. It was her idea to save you," Taeyeon said in a tone too kind for the shade she was throwing.

"Just go already." Gwiboon snarled and the other offered a mischievous smirk in reply.

She plopped into the water and admired Minjung as she stripped from her soaked clothing, except for her bandeau and orange boxers.

"Why did you take them off? They're already wet." Jonghyun asked.

"So they can dry up before we leave. You should take them off too." She squeezed the clothes, hung them on a robust branch and walked into the water.

"Right..." Jinki was picking them up. He wouldn't want to ruin his car seats. 

When the lovebirds departed, he was left alone with Gwiboon.

She seemed to be uneasy as well, for she was showing her back to him and restlessly tapping her forearms.

"Can I take my shirt off?" he asked, voice held back by hesitance.

"Like I care." 

This -he almost said. Instead, he took a deep breath and quietly removed his tank top.

To fight the awkward silence that had created, he scrutinized the water lily on Gwiboon's head.

The marvellous blue flower sank on the top of her hair, as softly as it would on the water surface.

Leaves similar to a weeping willow's cascaded over the sides of her face; they looked like thin braids when meshed with her flowing mane.

''Can you take it off?'' he crawled nigher and pulled at it.

''Ow! son of a bi- No!" she screamed.

"I'm sorry-" he blurted as she glowered at him with an acrimony he didn't think he deserved.

Seriously, there could've been smoke fuming out her nostrils, and her eyes were so scornful, so vicious he feared her skin would be venomous if he touched it.

The intimidated sensation her piercing glare gave him turned into a stomach-twisting red on his cheeks when he realized how close their faces were.

It only added to it that behind her, he could see Minjung and Taeyeon making the hell out.

He parted with a nervous laugh, "Those two are really going at it, huh?"

She turned around and blenched. "It's like she's trying to off..." she mumbled, lips and nose defaced by a gnarl.

"Can I ask you something?" Jonghyun blundered out.

She nodded. 

"Why are you such a ?" 

She raised her middle finger, and he laughed.

"You know what I mean." he leant back and patiently waited for her to withdraw her mind from the far places it had wandered to.

He could tell she had zoned out because a lovely pout, absolutely atypical for her ornery character, had pushed her upper lip forward, plushy and damp.

She sighed, "I'm just scared someone's gonna take her away from me. She's...I don't know why but I can't say apart from her. I'd die of heartache."

"Awwww, that's sweet." He cooed, and she twitched  in a small smile.

He placed a hand over his heart, "I swear we won't tell." 

She scoffed, "how can I know you're telling the truth?" 

"Hey, I'm a man of his word! I don't make promises if I can't keep them." he protested.

The tone she used, mildly accusive, slanderous, would have normally angered Jonghyun, but this time all he saw was the heartfelt worry making Gwiboon dig her nails into her arm, chew on the lining of her cheek and compulsively steal glances at Taeyeon. 

Gwiboon eyed him for a while, her stern exterior thawed by the sense of thankfulness- and, unexpectedly, tenderness- that unfurled within her.

It was nice, it made her feel like she could...trust him.

"So you promise not to tell a living soul about this?" she murmured.

"Pinky promise." 

He held his finger up. When he hooked it with hers, both of them took a pause of contemplation.

Gwiboon's pinky was so pale it tended to the fainter hues of blue. Transparent, frosty to the touch and crowned with a menacing pointy nail, it resembled those stacks of spiky icebergs he often saw in Romantic paintings.

To her, since they weren't webbed like hers, Jonghyun's fingers seemed oddly long. Their tan complexion appealed to her more than she would admit, and their warmth, clashing against her algid skin, melted her down to the bone.

"It'll be our little secret," he joked.

The silliest grimace warped her lips as she tried to refrain from smiling, but she did inevitably burst into giggles.

Jonghyun joined her soon, eyebrows raised and teeth (crooked as she had hoped, Gwiboon noticed) exposed in a surprised expression.

"So you can laugh!"

"Of course I can," she rolled her eyes, still smiling widely. "You just weren't funny before." 

"Now I am?" he leant back boastfully.

"Honestly, you're just stupid," she answered sincerely, "but it was funny."

"Look how pretty you are when you smile," he beamed and squeezed her cheek between two of his knuckles. "You have the loveliest dimples."

"Okay, okay," she waved his hand away. "That's enough, Casanova."

---

When Taeyeon and Minjung returned, Gwiboon clammed up again.

On one hand, she wasn't used to opening up, so this unfamiliar exposure, added to the unusual liking she had taken to the guy, embarrassed her. On the other, she was scared that she had let her guard down too soon.

She couldn't, she had to protect Taeyeon who, on the contrary, was brave to the point of recklessness.

"Are you coming back?" Taeyeon asked, b with hope, as Minjung dressed up.

The human dropped to one knee and clasped her wrist, placing a chaste kiss on the back of her hand. "Of course, my darling." 

"Are you sure it's not too much of a hassle? I hear the walk here is filled with jeopardies." 

"I'll grow my own wings and fly to you if necessary. We are lovers. We shall borrow Cupid's wings and soar with them above common bound."

Taeyeon chuckled lightly, hiding bashfully behind her hand. "That's flattering, honey. But what if with the effort, you grow weary of me?" she sighed.

"That's just ludicrous, love." Minjung claimed, voice fervent, and squeezed Taeyeon's hand to her racing heart. "My bounty is as boundless as the sea from which this pond creates, My love as deep. The more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite."

"What the is wrong with lesbians?" Jonghyun turned to Gwiboon. He shammed detachment by tossing a rock around with his foot. "By the way, I might come back too. Just to check on Minjung." 

The mermaid shrugged. 

"You're such a ing ." he fumed at her stubborness. "But...thank you for saving me."

She chewed on her tongue, waiting to figure out what to say but Minjung beat her to the punch, "Okay, off we go." 

"Yeah, she ran out of Shakespeare quotes to steal." Jonghyun added, stealing a last glance at Gwiboon, and they walked away.

When they took a few steps farther, Taeyeon called Minjung out.

"Minjung, wait! I have to share a secret with you."

She didn't have to hear it a second time.

She promptly raced to the shore and leant over, brushing her ear against the mermaid's mouth.

Instead of speaking, Taeyeon kissed her cheek and smirked.

"Jonghyuk, you too!" she rushed him with a gesture of the hand. 

He kneeled before her. "It's Jonghyun-" he began to clarify but halted at the soft caress of her lips.

Gwiboon rolled her eyes, seething in a feeling she refused to address as anger or, worse, jealousy. 

"I think Unnie wants to kiss you too," Taeyeon 'whispered' to Jonghyun, yet she made sure everyone heard her loud and clear.

She whipped her head with an outraged gasp, "I never said that!"

That moment, Jonghyun posed a long, delicate peck on her forehead.

"Thank you again." he murmured against it and parted.

Red burst on her cheeks like a varnish-filled balloon.

Minjung bent over to do the same and Gwiboon flinched in horror, so hard she almost fell in the pond. "No, ew! Not you."

Kissing Minjung was an appalling perspective, but at least she turned so pale in fright it cleaned the rosy glow off her flaring cheeks.

"Better for me, I can smell the stink of fish from here." the girl sulked, visibly offended, then faced Taeyeon again. "Hello, my beloved. I'll see you very soon."

Taeyeon blew her a kiss. 

All greetings given, the cousins headed back into the forest.

As they moved branches from their path, Minjung could feel Jonghyun's eyes boring into her.

Their serious, untrembling stare stood sombre as a sneer formed on his snout.

"What?" She spat.

"Your girlfriend kissed me on the cheek." he teased smugly.

"Shut the  up."

---

thanks for reading <3 let me know your thoughts if you feel like it! <333