Thalassophile ✔️

chapter three: overdue explanations

a couple hours after felix's fanboying session, the group had settled down, all staring at the eldest. "so, i'm sure you all want me to explain what the hell is going on here." the human boys nodded, with the freckled boy's eyes sparkling like an infant looking at sweets. "well, we're mermen, if that wasn't obvious. the soulmate thing's a myth for us, since it's rare for a human and merperson to meet." looking at his friends, woojin continued "we have a language of our own too, which is what i slipped into when felix first met us. we can control water and it's temperature, so that's something. we can breathe, see and talk underwater,  as well as obviously being good swimmers. when a me-"

"guys, i've got the cookies!" minho interrupted, running into the room carrying a large box. he almost seemed giddy with excitement about the cookies. opening the box revealed a sight.

the cookies were rainbow.

"anyway, what did i miss?" the boy turned back to the group, and felix somehow managed to summarise it in ten seconds. minho nodded at the bear to carry on, "when a merperson turns eighteen, they can change into a human form, which is what jisung here did, and he stays like it most of the time." all eyes turned to the squirrel-like boy, who was a little pink from all the attention. "mhm, i always wanted to  go into the music industry, but it's worse down there than up here. though, i do tend to change back when i'm experiencing an extreme emotion." this provoked a snigger from hyunjin, who was then playfully hit by said squirrel.

"everyone's tail is unique too, so it's not hard to tell people apart, even if they're twins." the older of the kim brothers finished. making eye contact with the now educated humans, he asked "other than felix for the moment, does anyone want to ask anything?"

the younger australian pouted at this, but understood why. the poor merman would drown in questions if he hadn't said anything. "when do the soulmate marks appear?"  chan asked, remembering that hyunjin mentioned his mark appearing ages ago. "it's not definite, but i'd say when the pair have physical contact for the first time. no one really knows since the marks appear with no symptoms at all." the kangaroo considered this for a minute, before connecting the dots. "wait, doesn't that mean seungmin and hyunjin met a year ago?"

all eyes were suddenly on the pair, who were screaming internally at chan's intelligence. "seungmin, explain."

the younger made eye contact with his brother, who just seemed to be disappointed that he hadn't said anything. breathing deeply, he bluntly stated "i saved his dramatic ass from drowning." the model sheepishly laughed, wetting his lips once more. "the plank i was sat on snapped beneath me. and i hadn't had the time to learn to swim. worth it in the end?"he explained.

"hyunjin literally pulled a gay prince eric." felix said to no one in particular, but this simple statement was enough to send the friends into hysterics. once they'd calmed down, woojin mentally prepared himself for an overload. "felix, go ahead."

"do you have royalty? can you speak to animals? are there different countries under the sea? how long do you live? how do you live, like housewise? does the kraken exist? is atlantis a real place? can you dye your tails? how do you repr-" the boy rambled on, not giving woojin any chance to answer, until he was interrupted by a phone ringing. chan picked his phone up, only to discover that it was the baby of the group. "heya jeongin, what's up?" he answered, putting the device on speaker.

"the sky, hyung."
"glad to hear you're doing fine. why are you calling all of a sudden, haven't you just gotten out?"
"mum said i could come, so i am."
"fair enough. any reason in particular, or are you just bored?"
"i'm coming to find out which one of you idiots put a temporary tattoo on my wrist and got me dress coded."
"wait, of a heart?!"
"chan hyung you clearly know who did this. someone's ass is getting beaten when i get there. see ya"

and with that, the youngest abruptly ended the call. "how the hell is that possible?!" jisung exclaimed, mouth full of rainbow cookie. "it shouldn't be."seungmin stated, looking at his fellow mermen. " somehow, one of you has two soulmates." almost on cue, there was a knock at the door,  before it creaked open to reveal jeongin, still in his uniform. "ok, which one of you bitches put this on?" he called out, showing his wrist. sure enough, a soulmate mark was chilling there. woojin walked over to the maknae and asked him to show him his wrist.

the thing was, the mark was now pink.

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short chapter, but i needed to set up the ship soo...
not sorry?
also, check out this little mochi (who i'm happy to call my sister)! she's new to writing, but is scarily good at it!
if you want a ridiculous and fluffy crack fic, there's one. if you just want something fluffy, there's something too.

and that's enough with the promo. see you all next time!