Notes From The Sea ✓

14

"Ouch! Stop, please!" Jimin only smirked. He watched as Taehyung struggled to get out of the two other mermen's holds.

His so called little 'sidekicks.'

He got new ones often, replacing the others since they weren't good enough anymore.

As one of the most popular mermen, Jimin could get what he wants easily.

Jimin pushed the electric eel against the bone of Taehyung's side fin once more, delivering a painful shock to the younger.

Jimin had wrapped a very thick layer of seaweed around the creature, so he could hold it without inflicting pain to himself. That way, he could easily press it against the poor, defenseless Taehyung, weakening him and hurting him to the fullest.

The blue haired male yelped out in pain, begging the elder to stop since he had no more energy left.

"Please, Jimin, I'm begging you, stop, please! Why are you doing this?!" Taehyung's whole body was shaking, not able to endure more volt any longer. If the silver haired male was going to keep this up, Taehyung feared to get paralyzed. 

Jimin gave him another shock, snapping his fingers after causing the two sidekicks to release Taehyung. He couldn't even move anymore.

The elder only grinned, a smirk so sickening it probably made the eel feel nauseous, too.

Taehyung began shaking harder as Jimin came closer.

Leaning into his ear, Jimin breathlessly whispered, "I can't wait for tomorrow."

Taehyung then screamed, a desperate, painful, ear piercing screech left his mouth when Jimin backed away, only to press the eel directly on Taehyung's gills on the side of his neck.

His vision blurred, dark spots began appearing.

The last thing he saw, was Jimin swimming away with the other two mermen before his world went entirely black.

When he woke up, he was dizzy. A throbbing headache made him rub his forehead. When he looked around, he noticed how dark the waters were. When he regained full conciousness, he realised he was laying on a rock, his back bent slightly in an uncomfortable curve.

He felt as if he had sunk a thousand metres deep.

He knew he was going to be swimming for a long time, before reaching the surface once again.

His memories slowly returned, causing his eyes to go wide and pure fear to take over him.

His body shuddered, his lip began bleeding due to the fact he subconsciously bit it so harshly.

He just wanted to be gone.

He hates this place. Why does this have to happen to him? He has no power over how long his fins are. He didn't make himself.

This all just makes him wonder. Wouldn't the human world be a better place for him?

He inhaled and closed his eyes, re-opening them when he wanted to swim back to the surface, to his secret hideout.

He pushed himself off the rock, bubbles floating up while doing so.

Suddenly, he hissed.

Looking down, he saw that there was a stone preventing him from using his tail as it trapped his fin.

He bends down and lifts the stone off with all the strength he could still muster. From the side, it looked like he was bent in half.

He wasn't very muscular, not very strong in particular.
He was skinny and you could see some faint muscle structure, but overall he just had a cute, pokable little tummy and squishable cheeks.

Watching as the stone sunk even deeper and disappeared in the dark depths, Taehyung could finally swim his way back to the place no one bothers him.

That plan eventually failed, since he stopped seeing a furious Hoseok swim his way.

"Where the hell have you been, Taehyung?! I was waiting for you all morning! I thought you agreed on spending some time together! You're always gone, I barely even see you anymore! Are we even friends?!"

As Hoseok kept on rambling with a raised voice, Taehyung just looked down, his nails digging deep in his bruised and already painful side fins. He couldn't even feel the ache that came with it, all he could think about was how much he screwed up, and how weak he was since he couldn't even defend himself properly when it came to Jimin.

What a shitty friend he was.

And now, his one and only sea-friend was mad at him. Furious, even.

"One more chance, Taehyung! One more, otherwise I feel like I'm a joke to you! Don't fail me again."

After that, the red tailed swam past his supposed to be best friend, making sure to bump their shoulders harshly.

Once Hoseok was fully wiped out of sight, Taehyung swam as quick as he could to the exit of their world. He didn't want to stay in the same place any longer.

He knew it was almost time for his daily meet up with Jeongguk anyway, so he took comfort in that thought while speeding up even more.

                 ────🐚────                     

"Wait, what happened to your gills?"

Jeongguk suddenly piped, his eyes widening when Taehyung turned to look at the sea. He couldn't help but notice the moonlight illuminated gills that were, oddly enough, bruised.

Taehyung looked back at Jeongguk with wide eyes, almost looking like a toddler that got caught stealing candy out of the jar.

One hand reached for his side fin nervously while his other hand clasped onto his gills to hide them.

"W─what are you talking about?"

The other frowned, "Your gills are bruised, Taehyung-ah. What happened? You know you can tell me everything."

The merman glanced from the human to the sand, from the sand back to the human, trying to think of an excuse.

"Nothing happened.."

Jeongguk scoffed, shifting closer to the other male. He raised his own hand wanting to remove Taehyung's, but the merman quickly got out of the way.

"Tae! I know it's not nothing, let me see!"

Taehyung quickly shook his head, nervous because of the fact that he didn't want to get caught, because of the nickname, and because of the worry in his voice. A small blush presented itself on either side of his cheeks.

"I bumped that side of my neck. Sorry for being so c─clumsy.." Nodding to himself internally, the blue haired merman thought that this was a pretty good excuse.

Jeongguk was still a little sketchy but decided to believe Taehyung.

"Why are you apologising? You have nothing to apologise for, accidents happen. Just be more careful next time, okay?"

Taehyung smiled sheepishly, feeling bad for lying but glad that the other bought it.

"Alright, Ggukkie! I promise I'll be more careful."

Jeongguk hummed, sending a smile because of the cute nickname that made his heart do a wierd jump.

"I'll see you tomorrow! I need to go back now.." Taehyung said, who was already pushing himself back into the water.

Jeongguk stood up and helped the other by carrying him, making the merman giggle bashfully.

"Thank you.." Taehyung waved, blushing even more.

"You're welcome." The human answered, watching as the other disappeared under water.