the Deep Ocean || Meanie

01

"Rise and shine, Mingyu! Wake up, we need to leave in an hour!" Mingyu heard his manager yelling. He groaned and tried to go under his blanket but it was ripped off of him by his manager.
"Come on Mingyu. You're going scuba diving for the first time, isn't it nice?" His manager, Lee Taeyong, continued. Taeyong was the best manager anyone could ask and Mingyu liked him a lot, but Taeyong always made him wake up too early.

"No, it's not nice. I told you already, I hate the sea. It's too scary and deep" Mingyu whined as he sat up. Taeyong hummed as an answer. It's not like he could decide Mingyu's schedule, it was the agency who decided that.
"I think you'll like it. Just be open to these new ideas. Besides, you're just going to do a little trip in the sea and then they'll do an interview" Taeyong added. Mingyu huffed and got out of the bed to wash his face. Taeyong went to the kitchen to make breakfast for Mingyu, while he got ready.

Mingyu was in the backseat of Taeyong's car while the latter was driving. Mingyu stared at the city through the car window and sighed.
"You know, just try to look happy in the interview and I promise it'll go well" Taeyong commented when he saw Mingyu's frowning face. Mingyu turned to look at Taeyong.
"That's what I always do" Mingyu said hoplessly. The reason why Mingyu hadn't already stopped was his passion for music, otherwise he was ready to retire from the fame. But everytime he was on stage, he felt alive. Looking at all his fans cheering for him, he felt loved. Mingyu didn't want to be so shallow and only care about the public's opinion, but working with famous people and meeting fans everywhere, he wanted to show his best to them.
"I know, I know. It's hard, but think about all the fans who will watch the show and be happy" Taeyong tried to be optimistic. That thought helped a little. Taeyong always knew what to say to make Mingyu little bit more happy. It was true that all Mingyu wanted to do was to please his fans all around the world. If this scuba diving thing was what he needed to do to keep everyone satisfied, he would do it.

Mingyu arrived at the boat with a bit more motivation. All the filming crew members greeted him and he bowed back to them politely. Mingyu was known for being polite to everyone,  regardless of their job or backround. Mingyu treated everyone well and wanted to recieve the same from them.

"Ooh, Mingyu darling! Lovely to see you again" Mingyu heard a familiar voice calling him. He turned around to see the famous talk show host, Kwon Eunhui. She was known for having an attitude. Everybody knew that Kwon Eunhui would put celebrities in awful positions by always asking about some gossip. Mingyu, being a world famous rapper and athlete, had been interviewed by Eunhui many times, so he knew her questions more than well. He was glad that they would do the interview only after the scuba diving trip.

The director asked if Mingyu was ready to put the scuba diving equipment on. Taeyong took Mingyu's bags and waited near the boat. They were going to ride on a boat for a while, so that they could get to the deeper part of the sea. Mingyu had a feeling that something would happen, but he couldn't put a finger on what it was.

When Mingyu and the other divers had changed, they jumped on the boat. The leader of the crew explained the rules to them and what to watch out. Mingyu didn't listen everything because his nervousness was blocking him. He squeesed Taeyong's arm.  Taeyong would come with them to the boat of course, he was Mingyu's safe place. Mingyu suffered from anxiety and Taeyong would always help him, so just being able to see Taeyong helped him. The boat started moving and sooner than Mingyu had thought, they were at the middle of the sea. He couldn't see any land around him, only deep blue water, which made him nervous. The cameras were already on so Mingyu couldn't freak out and he tried to stay calm by going closer to Taeyong.
"You're going to be okay" Taeyong whispered into Mingyu's ear.

After the diving crew had explained the rules one more time, they checked the equipment for the last time and went into the water. Taeyong watched as the crew helped Mingyu into the water and all the cameras were filming the progress. When everyone from the crew was in the water and everyone had the oxygen masks on, they started to dive. Taeyong waved at Mingyu for the last time, before watching Mingyu go under the water.

Mingyu followed the crew deeper into the water. He was nervous, so he decided to look at the leader of the crew very closely.
However, the view that opened before him when they dived deeper distracted him from his nervousness. All the beautiful colors and weird looking fish. Mingyu started swimming towards a beautiful coral. When he was admiring the view and didn't notice the rest of the crew leaving to the other direction.

Mingyu saw a bright red fish swimming past him. He was immediately captivated by it, so he decided to follow it. He didn't even notice how far he had gone. Mingyu was now more relaxed than when he first came. He was lost in the beauty surrounding him.
Even though he had just looked at the red fish, it was now nowhere to be seen. Then Mingyu realized, he was lost. The sea wasn't beautiful and colorful anymore. Now it was dark and scary. Mingyu tried to find where he came, but he couldn't see anything familiar. He was starting to panick.

Mingyu started swimming forward, maybe he could find something. Then he had an idea, if he swims to the surface, he can see everything around him and maybe even the boat.
When he was trying to swim up, something was pulling him down. He tried to see what it could be, and quickly saw the reason. He had accidentally swam too close to a huge underwater vortex, that was now trying to pull Mingyu down. One of the only things the director had warned them about.
He tried to swim away from the vortex but it was too late now. It pulled Mingyu with it.

Mingyu tried to struggle his way out, but then he saw something. Inside of the vortex he saw light. It's not that Mingyu didn't care about his life, but he relaxed his body because he wanted to see where  the vortex would take him. Breathing was harder, probably because the vortex harmed his oxygen tank. He tried to fix his oxygen mask, but it didn't change anything.
This was Mingyu's end, wasn't it?

The vortex swallowed him and all Mingyu could see was darkness. He felt so alone again. It was colder than before. Maybe he was in some kind of underwater cave. He wanted to get out.
But then, he saw the same fish as before. The beautiful bright red fish was swimming in front of Mingyu. He didn't have anything to lose now, highly doubting that anyone could find him or that he could even survive, so he followed the fish again.
"You got me in trouble" Mingyu spoke to the fish, but of course it didn't answer. Mingyu was probably going crazy, right?

He continued swimming in the darkness until he saw... light? Mingyu saw the fish going through some seaweed and behind the seaweed, he could very certainly see light. Mingyu started to swim faster, with all the strenght he had left. He got to the seaweed wall and put his had against it. His hnd started to slowly sink into the wall and before he could even notice, he was looking at a stunning view.

He wasn't in water anymore, no he was standing at a cliff, looking at a huge city. There were so many different fish and they were swimming in the air.. wait? In the air? There was air. Mingyu took his oxygen mask off quickly and threw it on the ground. He took a deep breath. The air felt good in his lungs.
Was he alive?

Mingyu stared at the huge city in front of him and he spotted a big castle in the middle of it. He saw a market full of people buying stuff. He saw a church looking thing, which was very nicely decorated by the way.
There were a lot of small and old looking houses and buildings, more than that, there was thousands of people. All of them were exotic looking. Some of them had blue hair some of them white. Their clothes were also different. Many of them were wearing croptop kind of shirts and baggy pants. Probably because there was quite hot, concidering that they were underwater.
The whole city was surrounded by a big bubble, so Mingyu could see water as a replacement for the sky.
Mingyu saw a staircase made of rock on his left. If he would use those, he could get a closer look of this weird city. Mingyu nodded to himself.

He decided, that he was going to explore the city.