Kairi looked around at the interior of the castle with awe. “Wow...” 

Jiyong rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Sorry, it’s kinda small...” 

 

Kairi shook her head. “N-no! It’s actually beautiful! Your castle is nice...” she said shyly. 

 

Jiyong smiled at her timidity and threw his arm around her shoulder, causing her to blush furiously. “Don’t be so shy! You’re going to be staying here with my family and I indefinitely, so you might as well get comfortable with me!” 

 

Kairi’s blush grew even more red. “O-okay...” She bit down on her lip and tried to suppress her growing grin. 

 

Jiyong sighed contently. “And maybe you’ll be able to stay forever.” He winked at her, causing her to let out a small squeak. 

 

They both heard a small scoff come from behind them, and they turned around to see Kris with his arms crossed and a sour expression on his face. “Did you want to say something?” Jiyong asked politely. 

 

Kris raised his arms in defense. “No, no. Go on and continue showing us your ‘small’ castle, Mr. Prince.” 

 

Jiyong gave him a puzzled look but dismissed Kris’s antagonistic attitude. He walked up ahead and was leading them to other areas in the castle. 

 

Kairi slowed her gait a bit, so she was walking alongside Kris. She gave him a hard punch in the arm and a mean glare. He let out a hiss of pain before glaring back at her. “What the hell was that for!” 

 

Kairi huffed. “What do you mean, ‘what was that for?’?! Why are you being so rude to my husband?!” 

 

Kris raised his eyebrows. “Husband?” 

 

Kairi realized what she let slip out, and her blush started to return. “S-shut up!” 

 

Kris rolled his eyes. “See! That’s what I mean! You’re not acting the same!” 

 

Kairi narrowed her eyes. “What the hell is that supposed to mean? I’m the same.” 

 

“No, you’re not! You’re stuttering, you’re blushing, you’re clinging onto a MAN’s arm like a lovesick puppy. It’s SICKENING! It’s not you,” Kris explained. 

 

Kairi’s eyes narrowed even more. “And what makes you think that you know me that well? We’ve only known each other for a couple days now.” Kris narrowed his eyes as well but remained silent. She scoffed in derision. “I thought so. Now stop being so rude, or I’ll rip your balls off.” 

 

“How do you know what balls are, considering you’ve been a mermaid your entire life?” Kris smirked. 

 

Kairi panicked and threw her hand over Kris’s mouth, and muffles of protests rumbled from his throat. “Shh! Not so loud! We can’t have people knowing that I’m a mermaid! Do you know how unbelievably dangerous that is?!” she whispered frantically. 

 

Kris ripped Kairi’s hand off of his face and wiped his lips. “I’m aware. Don’t worry, Princess . I’m being careful with our little secret.” 

 

Kairi glared at him before turning her attention back on her love and skipped over to him. Kris watched her go with a nauseating feeling in his stomach. “God, her behavior is disgusting,” he managed to say while gagging. 

 

Kairi felt her skin prick a little bit as they continued walking, but she ignored the feeling even though it was starting to grow as the minutes passed by. Her fingers twitched a bit, and Kris noticed. He discretely pulled her back and whispered into her ear. “What’s happening?” 

 

Kairi shook her head. “I have no ing idea. I feel antsy and dry.” 

 

Kris’s eyes widened. “You don’t think it’s withdrawal from the water, do you?” 

 

As soon as Kris mentioned water, Kairi’s throat immediately dried, and she felt extremely dehydrated. “I-I think it is,” she managed to croak out. 

 

“What should we do then?” Kris whispered frantically. “The ocean is too far from here!”

 

Kairi thought about it and got an idea. She skipped over to Jiyong and tapped his shoulder, causing his attention to turn to her. “Yes, love?” 

 

Normally, Kairi would have squealed with joy if she heard him call her that, but she was so dehydrated that she couldn’t think properly. “U-uh, do you have a place where I could swim? I love swimming, but the ocean seems awfully far from here...” 

 

Jiyong smiled softly. “We have a swimming pool. It’s actually not that far from here! I can show you it. Come on!” He grabbed her hand and rushed them over to his pool. 

 

They arrived at two large intricately designed doors, and Jiyong threw them both open. Kris’s and Kairi’s jaws almost fell off. 

“Holy ...” Kris whispered as he stared at the pool. 

 

Jiyong looked at the two of them in glee. “I know, right? It’s amazing! We recently added it in. It’s nice, no?” 

 

Kairi walked over to the edge of the pool and lightly touched the water with her finger. She sighed with content. It was nice and cool. She submerged more of her hand in the pool, causing ripples to disturb the once calm pool. She submerged her other hand into the pool and cupped them together, gathering water. She raised them up to and was about to drink it when Jiyong suddenly grabbed her arm, causing her to spill everything out of her hands. 

 

“What on earth do you think you’re doing?!” Jiyong exclaimed, bewildered at the fact that Kairi was about to drink pool water. “Are you crazy?! Do you know how dangerous drinking pool water is?! There’s a lot of chlorine and chemicals in it! If you wanted to drink something, you could’ve just asked for a water bottle!” 

 

*Drinking sea water is way worse than pool water,* she thought. But nonetheless, she bowed her head in embarrassment. “I didn’t know...” she muttered. 

 

Jiyong’s eyes softened and helped Kairi stand up. They walked out of the pool room and headed towards the kitchen to give her water. Jiyong glanced over at her and asked, “Are you from the country? I mean, you seemed pretty-uhm-what do you call it? Clueless? In lack of a better term.” 

 

“The...country...?” Kairi repeated slowly. *What’s ‘the country’? Doesn’t that mean land? This land? Am I from land? Oh, ! He’s suspecting something! He knows I’m not from land!*

 

Kris watched her expression falter a bit with amusement before speaking up and helping her out. “Yeah, we’re both from the country.” 

 

Jiyong and Kairi looked over at Kris with surprise. “Oh, so the two of you did come here together then...” Jiyong said. Kairi could hear a tinge of jealousy in his voice. She was horrified at the fact that Jiyong was jealous of KRIS but was ecstatic knowing that he was jealous at all. “Why’d you come to the city?” 

 

“She-uh-” *Quick, Yifan! Think of a good lie!* “She wanted to be singer, so she came here and I followed to make sure she’s safe,” Kris smoothly lied. *Pat of the back, Yifan.*

 

Jiyong nodded slowly. “I see.” He looked over at Kairi and smiled. “Well, you do have the most lovely voice. I can see a bright future for you.” 

 

Kairi’s cheeks turned pink again. “T-thank you.” 

 

Kris scoffed and muttered something under his breath about throwing up. When Jiyong turned away, Kairi stomped hard on Kris’s feet and gave him a mocking smirk. 

 

They all arrived at the kitchen, where they got Kairi a water bottle. She chugged it all down in a couple seconds, appalling everyone. She chuckled sheepishly at their stares. Jiyong smiled. “Aish, interesting girl.” 

 

The sun was quickly setting, and Jiyong showed them their rooms. They dropped Kairi off first, and she waved them goodbye before throwing a quick warning glance towards Kris. 

 

Kris and Jiyong walked down the hall to Kris’s bedroom. Kris nodded him goodbye and was about to enter the room when Jiyong stopped him. “So when are you leaving?” 

 

Kris froze at his words and turned to look at him with mild surprise. “Excuse me?” 

 

Jiyong’s polite tone was dropped, and he talked harshly towards Kris. “You heard it the first time. When are you leaving?” 

 

Kris leaned against the doorframe and raised an eyebrow. “Why should I leave?” 

 

“Well, you said that you were here to ensure Kairi’s safety on her trip here, but now that she’s here with me, she doesn’t need you anymore. She’s completely smitten with me, and I too, so all she needs is me. I’ll repeat my question: when are you leaving?” he asked in a hard tone. 

 

Kris narrowed his eyes. “I’ll leave when I know she’s completely out of danger.” *And when I find a way back home.*

 

Jiyong scoffed. “What kind of danger can she face here? From me? I won’t hurt her.” 

 

*Not you, you stupid bastard. From Hyorin.* Kris rolled his eyes. “Even if you two are smitten with each other, the fact remains that she’s a girl and you’re a guy. You can very well take advantage of her, and your words doesn’t mean to me. Actions mean a whole lot. So I’m here to keep an eye out on her.” The words meant to come out as a cover up, but he felt that he meant those words more than he expected. 

 

Jiyong narrowed his eyes dangerously. “Whatever. Just don’t prolong your stay here too long because I intend on keeping her here forever as my wife.” 

 

Kris rolled his eyes and went into the room, ending their conversation. *Dream on.*

 

 

 

 

Hyorin trailed her eyes around her lair frantically, trying to search for a certain necklace. “WHERE IS IT?!” She threw the desk over like it was paper and searched underneath it. “This isn’t good, this isn’t good!” she cried out. She tore out the drawers, the cabinets, the cupboards, everywhere just to look for it. “I can’t have lost it! That’s the only thing that’s keeping this contract bounded!” 

 

A sudden thought occurred to Hyorin. “No...” she whispered. She rushed over to her glass ball, muttering a few words, and an image appeared. 

 

Hyorin watched as Kairi sneaked into Kris’s room and tended to his bruised and calloused hands. Kris looked at Kairi gratefully as she focused on bandaging his wounds. Hyorin’s nails dug into her skin when she saw what was wrapped around Kairi’s neck. 

 

Hyorin let out a bloodcurdling scream. “THOSE LITTLE-UGH!” she roared, destroying her already demolished lair. She breathed unevenly as she tried to calm herself down. “It’s okay... You can still stop that little and the prince from falling for each other. Your plan can still work.” 

 

A sudden sound emerged from a pot she kept in the corner, and she swam over to it. The pot rumbled as a mysterious and questionable liquid twirled around. It emitted a large bubble, and it floated out of the pot and in front of Hyorin. She waited for something to appear. 

 

An image of Kairi and Kris appeared, and they looked at each other happily and lovingly with Jiyong nowhere in sight. The bubble popped, letting small streams of colors to float back down into the pot. 

 

Hyorin froze as she tried to compute what she just witnessed. “T-the image was supposed to be of Jiyong and Kairi. That was what was supposed to happen. That’s supposed to be the prophecy. That’s supposed to be her fate. This seems to be a new prophecy though... What could that possibly mean...” Her eyes widened. “Oh, no. J-Jiyong and Kairi aren’t meant to be together anymore... The earth has shifted and changed her fate. She’s meant to be with Kris now.” 

 

She spun around and grabbed her book from her bookshelf. “I won’t let this happen. I will not! I will NOT let a little pretty boy come in and ruin my plans! I WILL get this kingdom! ONE WAY OR ANOTHER!” she shrieked. She shouted out the foreign words from the book, and she was surrounded by the whirlwind of water. 

 

A loud cackle blared from her lair as she transformed into a human. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HI, GUYS. I'M BACK. 

 

Midterms was okay. I got a D on my math midterms, C in history, A in dance, and 100% in honors chem (OHMYGAWD).  Now that midterms are over and done with, I can start updating more *thumbs up*

 

:33 See ya!