under the sea : nomin

🐚 : chapter one

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“ do you need help? ” mark asks jeno who's obviously struggling to lift his baggage. his plan is to put his bags and luggage in the upper deck of his bed but the constant swaying of the ferry where they are currently in is not helping him to balance his body at all. making it hard for the eighteen year old jeno to do what he planned.

“ yes hyung, please ” jeno is panting heavy breaths. at any moment from now he feels like he could vomit.

mark, who's sitting at the opposite bed across from his was having this smirk all along. it seems like he enjoys this too much, watching his friend's struggle.

“ i'm sure donghyuck packed some medicines for nausea. do you want me to get it for you? ” mark genuinely asks jeno who's now sitting on his bed while his right hand gently massaging his temple. his attempt to lessen the headache that's been bugging him ever since he stepped foot in this ferry.

jeno's eyes flew open upon hearing those words. a smirk making a way on his lips. “ if you want to visit your boyfriend's room, you're free to do so. you don't have to use me as a reason, hyung ”

“ don't! you want to visit that room as much as i want to. ” the older brunette could only roll his eyes at the younger one as he lifted the last baggage from the floor. his voice was hinting some teasing and jeno knows exactly what mark meant by that.
“ by the way, why do you have so many bags? we're only staying in that island for five days ” mark adds. he now understand why jeno wasn't able to lift these bags of his. mark feels like he can pass out any minute if this shaking would not stop now.

jeno ignored what mark stated just now and decided to focus on the topic the older one opened first. “ i don't know why they don't want to let us stay with ou- ”

jeno's rants about how the teachers demanded that every couples shouldn't share a room together was interrupted by a strong shake that caused mark to leaned his right arms to prevent him from hitting his head to the walls.

the rooms is so small that if you would extend both of your arms in the longest it can, you can now touch the walls that separates the rooms. but at least the beds are newly cleaned. jeno can still smell the laundry detergent they'd used.

“ urgh! it's not clearly a good idea to travel sea during night. what are they thinking?! ” mark nearly shouted those words. originally, he didn't want to participate to their school's annual foundation week vacation, neither do jeno. especially when they heard that this year they will go on an island vacation for five days. beach bonfire, volleyballs and marshmallows on a stick aren't really a thing mark and jeno wanted to do. yet they can't help but to go when they adviser promised them a five points addition directly to their average grades. both of them clearly needed that. particularly now that their finals are like two months away and their grades are already on its lowest it can get.

“ what if we bump into some iceberg just like what happened to titanic? ” jeno wondered out loud. he grabs one of the pillows laying around on his bed and immediately hugs it. he's actually terrified of that thought. they're in a ferry, in a sea, anything can happen right now and swimming is something jeno didn't think was essential before. he regrets not going in that swimming lessons his mom forced him to attenda long time ago.

“ this is not a movie ” mark tries to soften his voice, trying his best to comfort the younger dongsaeng of his but in actuality, he's scared shitless too. he copies jeno's gesture. grabbing a pillow, hugging it too tightly and leaning his head on the wall.

“ night, titanic sank during nighttime right? ” jeno asks again. he tries to cover the slight tremble of his voice but he fails.

“ stop thinking about sinking. nothing will sink, i assure you. besides, there's no iceberg here. it's summer in korea right now. ”  mark says with a matter-of-fact tone of voice. he closes both of his eyes, trying to sync his body to the waves crashing beneath to the metal body of the ferry they're staying in for tonight.

“ we need to sleep now ” mark yawns at the mention of the word sleep. both of them are tired and they don't know if they can sleep peacefully now especially if they feel like they're experiencing a mild earthquake.

“ i don't know if i can sleep tonight ”

“ well, we need to. surely, you don't want to arrive in the island tomorrow looking like a zombie, right? that would ruin your reputation as the mr. good looking lee jeno ” mark teases. he knows how jeno hated to be labelled like that. some schoolmates of them really thinks that jeno enjoys the popularity he's been receiving for having a good look but jeno deeply despise that.

jeno examines as mark shifted his whole body so he can lay comfortably on his bed.

“ you're really going to leave me like this? ” jeno questions mark as he now closes both of his eyes.

“ if you can't sleep that doesn't mean i can't too. so, shut up. just don't go outside okay? you know, curfews and everything. if they will caught you sneaking out, you will end up not having breakfast tomorrow. i'm fine with you being punished but the stupid rules includes your room mate being punished too. i want to have a delicious breakfast with hyuck tomorrow so please don't break that specific rule ”

jeno pouts as mark finally closes both of his eyes. indicating somehow that he's already falling asleep and jeno shoud too.

even though he's sure that this constant swaying will just wake him up in a couple of minutes, still jeno tries his hardest to fall into a dreamland.

in which, he successfully landed into a one after ten minutes of trying. a strange dreamland that consists of fishes, seashells and a shiny blue... tail?

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