Seabound-SKZ

Chapter Fourteen

Chris could've sworn he was having a heart attack, they resurfaced and the other Mers leaned over the side of the rock, "You okay Chan?" Minho worried, pulling the human back out of the water and Jisung tackled Seungmin, pushing him under the water again "You could've hurt him!" He scolded the younger, pushing his shoulders back and Seungmin giggled, "I'm fine, thanks," Chan said slowly, still trying to figure out what had just happened, and what he felt about it, he had first thought he had a crush on Minho when he pulled him from the storm and stitched up his wound, then he realized his feelings for Felix, Seungmin, and Jisung when they had visited him on their own, then Hyunjin, Changbin, and Jeongin the night before when they had all comforted him as he cried, and now Seungmin had kissed him-his first kiss-, an accident at first but the second time was definitely on purpose and Chan was trying to sort out the surge of emotions that came with it. Minho furrowed his brow, he hadn't seen anything happen in the water but he had a pretty good idea of what it was.

Seungmin swam away as fast as he could, Jisung hot on his trail and Hyunjin slipped into the water to join the chase, the three of them ending up in a spinning mess in the water, "you were underwater for way too long," Jisung transmitted when they stopped spinning "What happened?" He was genuinely curious, as they floated up towards the surface, Seungmin smiled softly "I-" Hyunjin cut him off with a gasp "You kissed him didn't you?" he transmitted it so loudly Jisung flinched so hard he flipped over onto his face in the water, Seungmin covered his face shyly and nodded, Jisung frowned but quickly covered it up "Oh..." He couldn't help but sound disappointed, "That's..." Hyunjin started, his tone sad "Great, I guess..." Seungmin looked between them "Why do you sound so upset?" The other two let themselves sink to the bottom of the ocean, Seungmin following them down, "I just..." Jisung paused "I sort of had a crush on...nevermind, it doesn't matter, congratulations." he forced a tight smile, Hyunjin nodded, and Seungmin felt his heart sink slowly, he had fucked this up alright.

The Mers on the rock had by now clued in, Jeongin frowning, he had thought that everyone liked everyone, but he guessed Seungmin had just been play-flirting, as the boys did sometimes just to piss each other off. "So..." Changbin started, Chan's eyes widened as he noticed that the Mers had realized "I am so sorry-he just-I-" Chan stuttered, the four Mers next to him on the rock all reached out and patted his shoulders, "Yeah...it's becoming pretty normal for our friend group, 'accidental' kisses, Hyunjin and Jeongin did the other day. don't worry about it, we aren't mad." Changbin intertwined his hand with Chans, who breathed a sigh of relief, his only friends didn't hate him, thank god.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what even came over me," Seungmin said to the two other boys next to him, Hyunjin nodded and Jisung gripped his hand tightly, "I mean I didn't really know what I was doing until I did it..." the youngest trailed off, studying his Hyungs faces for any sign they were mad at him and the two others shook their heads, "I get it," Hyunjin sighed "I mean you guys made me kiss Jeongin and if you weren't there I would have probably done it again," Jisung averted his gaze, heart aching at two of his crushes admitting that they liked others in their friend group, The three of them sat in silence for a couple of minutes before Seungmin said, "I should probably go apologize to Chris." and the other two nodded, heading back towards the others.

Chan accepted the apology quickly, saying it was just an accident, even though he knew it wasn't really. Seungmin smiled in relief as their dynamic went back to usual, everyone teasing Jisung and Changbin, who clapped back with awful remarks, making everyone else laugh as they continued their search for trinkets lining the floor, Chan and Seungmin blushing every time they made eye contact.

they stayed in the water a bit longer before Chan suggested they go to their respective homes for eating and then meet up again at the docks, to which the Mers agreed enthusiastically. They all started on their way homes, Chan pulling out of the water and the Mers ducking under it.

The Mers ate quickly, they had all brushed off the kiss fairly quickly, figuring with the number of kisses that were going on in their friend group it would do no good to dwell on it, Seungmin was glad for that, the relief he felt when his friends teased him about the day instead of ignoring him and just pretending it hadn't happened. They ate pretty fast, all wanting to go see Chan again, especially Felix since the prince had promised that he could do his hair when they met on the docks again. He bounced around the room, giggling excitedly as the others watched him adoringly, the sunset scales shimmering and dancing in front of their eyes.

"Let's go!" Seungmin whined, dragging out the 'o' while he waited for his friends to finally get their stuff together to go, he grabbed Jeongin's hand, who's ears turned pink and pulled him out the door behind him, the others all chasing behind the two youngest, Hyunjin swimming laps around them and laughing as Felix attempted to keep up, yelling happily as Jisung and Changbin joined in, turning their chase into a game of tag, Minho took Jeongins other hand, making the already pink boy even more flustered. Minho occasionally yelling up at them as they got a bit too close to rock formations or too close to ramming into each other. each time Minho yelled the younger Mers would stick their tongues out at the oldest, pushing each other around and play fighting, never actually going as far as hurting the others.