the Deep Ocean || Meanie

08

All 12 boys sat in the livingroom. The rest of them had come immediately when Seungcheol had called them saying that Mingyu needs help.
Mingyu was positively surprised to see that even when they didn't really know him, all of them were willing to help him get the job.
Seokmin was telling how you need to act in the palace while Minghao and Vernon were planning Mingyu's outfit for tomorrow.

"Wait. Let's go that through again. So when I go in..." Mingyu was confused.
"When you go in, you bow to the guards first. You need to show respect to them and do it in a place where the registration person can see you, so they see that you're polite," Seokmin repeated what he had said before. Mingyu nodded and took imaginary notes.
"And after that... Oh right! I go to the registration and tell them my Shin-name! What was it again...?" Mingyu remembered.
"Samariel," Soonyoung said quickly with Jihoon in his lap. Mingyu thanked him for helping and repeated.
"Samariel."

"Yes. They'll be less suspicious when they hear that you have a Shin-name. No one who's just come would be able to know what those are, right?" Jun said and looked at Seokmin who nodded. They had agreed that it'll be the best if couple of them go with Mingyu to the palace. It was unfortunate that only the registrated people could go in.

"Ok. We're ready," Vernon said and clapped his hands once. They showed the clothes they had picked for Mingyu and everyone agreed that they were great.
It was a deep blue tank top with dark green trousers. Mingyu thought that they actually looked great, comparing to some of the clothes he had seen in the town. Some people in the streets were wearing only the bottom half of their outfits, even women.
When Mingyu had asked if it was weird for them to be like that, the others said that they don't really care about how normal people dress in the town, regardless of gender. That's what Mingyu liked about this town, no one judged each other.

"But what are we gonna do with this?" Seungkwan suddenly asked and touched Mingyu's hair with a disgusted look. "Boo, I thought we agreed you stay at least 3 meters away from the handsome mister.." Vernon said quietly to Seungkwan and pulled him closer to himself. Even though he was trying to be quiet, everyone was able to hear this and now they were all giggling like crazy.

"Wait. You meant Mingyu by 'handsome mister'? I've been avoiding Joshua whole evening for nothing!" Seungkwan pouted dramatically and crossed his arms. This made the males laugh even harder. A small 'What about me?' was heard from Jeonghan, and the males started making dolphin noises because of laughing.

"To be honest, I was kinda confused by who you meant, so I've been avoiding everyone good looking in the room," Seungkwan confessed and lowered his gaze to his hands.
"Wait a minute.. That's why you've clinged onto me the whole evening?!" Soonyoung stood up and yelled which was the last thing everyone needed to not be ble to breathe because of laughing. They were all clapping lise seals and hitting each other while laughing so hard.

The rest of the evening they spent joking and laughing while also trying to focus on tomorrow's event. They decided to leave Mingyu's brown hair the way it is and just tell the registration that he has coloured it, if someone asked about it. The guys told Mingyu that hair colouring was a thing but not that famous with the citizens of their town. Mingyu's brown hair could make it hrder for him to get the job, but buying or making a blue hair dye would be a lot harder.
The king has banned blue hair dyes because he doesn't want any outsiders to blend in his citizens and live like they belong here.

The next morning Mingyu woke up from the couch at 6:15AM. He sat up and looked around him. The other guys had also stayed for the night, excluding Junhao because they said that they had other plans, which basically meant that they were 'going to spend the night together'.
It was so late when they were done with the planning, so the others weren't able to leave anymore. Apparently there is a thing that no one can go outside after 10PM. So many rules in this town, Mingyu thought.

Mingyu could smell the delicious breakfast that their youngest was cooking. He walked over to Chan and looked at what he was doing. "Morning, hyung," Chan said with a cute smile which made Mingyu happy from inside. He returned a smile to Chan who the turned back to his cooking.

Mingyu heard steps coming from behind him and turned his head to see that it was Joshua, Seungcheol and a sleepy Jeonghan. The three males walked into the kitchen and stood next to Mingyu. Joshua who was hugging Seungcheol by his waist greeted them. "How did you sleep Mingyu? Ready for your big day?" Joshua asked kindly.
"I am nervous but ready," Mingyu answered confidently and the others nodded.

Jeonghan yawned and walked past them. He walked behind Chan and hugged his waist while the latter was cooking pancakes.
"Dino nugu aegi?" Jeonghan asked tiredly and giggled. Chan tried tp shake Jeonghan off but failed. "Hyung, please. Not now..." Chan whined and pouted.
"Ahhh uri aegi, so cute," Jeonghan squealed and pinched Chan's cheek, then let go of him and walked back to his boyfriends.

The rest of the males woke up and when they had eaten breakfast, Mingyu started to get ready. He put on the clothes Vernon and Minghao has picked for him yesterday. When he was ready he went back downstairs and saw the other guys waiting for him.
"Good luck, Gyu" Joshua said and hugged Mingyu. He was never really a skinship guy but Joshua's hug was very comforting and he kind of didn't want to let go.

When everyone were done saying their good luck wishes, Mingyu and Seokmin left the house. The agreed that it was best if Seokmin went with him because he worked in the inner palace so he could help him. They started walking towards the town centre but stopped when they heard someone yelling.
"Wait!" It was Jihoon. He ran towards the two males and stopped to a talking distance. He was out of breath but still managed to speak.
"I just wanted to say... Good luck."
Mingyu and Seokmin both stared at Jihoon, who after saying that ran back to Joshua's house.
"Wow... I've never seen him do that before.." Seokmin said after they had stood there a while. Hearing this made Mingyu's heard feel warm. Jihoon really wanted to wish him good luck, so now he needed to get the job.

"We're here," Seokmin said when they stood in front of the huge palace. There were huge stairs leading to the palace's front doors. At least five hundred steps later they stood in front of the big wooden doors.
"Only you can enter from here. Remember what I told you, you only tell your Shin-name," Seokmin said seriously. Mingyu had never seen him like this and it made him nervous. Seokmin was close to Mingyu's face, staring into Mingyu's soul. He waited for Mingyu to speak. "Samariel.." Mingyu said quietly and Seokmin nodded.
"Good. Now, good luck in there! We're all cheering for you!" Seokmin was back to his smiley self and he patted Mingyu's back.
Mingyu returned the smile then turnwd around and pushed the heavy doors open.
He waved at Seokmin for the last time and then went inside.