Underwater World

L

🔱

"So... you have anywhere we can begin to look?"

Yunho and Mingi decided to explore around Zeeta, entering all buildings and looking through big bushes of seaweed. Yunho even stopped some travelling shoals to ask if they've seen the shard, to which none had a clue as to what he was talking about. Yunho didn't quite have the talents to talk to the fish as much as Seonghwa, his form of communicating being rusty and incoherent.

They looked in about every nook and cranny of the main city, even going as far as to dig into little hills of dirt, that decision quickly regretted as crabs chased them away. Throughout all of this, still no shards in sight. They couldn't find it and no one else had seen it.

They went around asking other merpeople about the shard, none having seen it, but all of them being shocked when they saw Mingi and his lack of tail. The two gave minimal information, just leaving immediately once they question it.

The sea around them began to grow darker, Mingi assumed this meant night was growing closer, which frustrated him as they got no closer to finding the shard. Yunho sighed, then the two swam back to the tall, skinny building which held all the sleeping capsules. There were lots of merpeople there, some getting ready to sleep, some already out like a light.

The two felt dejected as they said their farewells and went to their capsule. Well, Mingi went to what he assumed was the capsule he slept in last time, they all look the same and there are millions of them. He just chose the one directly under Yunho, he was pretty sure that's where he slept. The two went to sleep but their minds were wide awake, trying to think about places they could look for the shard the next day. Although that wasn't the only thing on their minds, they fell asleep thinking about each other.

~

Mingi was awoken to the sound of loud chatter around him, shoals zooming by and mer children swimming around with different, large sea creatures. He smiled at the sight, this place really was beautiful, he was beginning to fall in love. With the place, the scenery, the people. Well, person.

"It's a great sight to wake up to hey." Yunho swam slowly towards him, his blue hair sticking up in multiple directions, his eyes lidded and a yawn breaking out. The sight made Mingi breathless. How could someone just wake up and still look that ethereal. Mingi shook his head and pushed away those thoughts. It must be a merperson thing.

"Yeah, the children look like they're so happy." Mingi replied, watching as a group of little mermaids swim around a dolphin, laughing and racing against it, the dolphin clacking joyfully. "They don't need to worry about a life saving gem."

Yunho looked at him curiously. "A... children? What is a children?" Mingi looked from Yunho, to the kids, then back to Yunho. Mingi wasn't sure if he heard correctly, however Yunho's adorably confused face convinced him he did. Mingi gestured towards the group of little mermaids, becoming just as confused as Yunho.

"Oh... is children a land term? We call those Guppies! Well, they go from hatchlings, to guppies, to adults!" Yunho explained, which made Mingi realise just how different both places were. Just how different they were. Mingi chuckled at this, the word 'guppy' being oddly endearing.

"Ah, we call them children, it goes from a baby, to a child, to a teenager, to an adult." What seemed normal and obvious to Mingi, made Yunho light up in curiosity and interest.

"Wow, why do you have one extra? What is a teenager?" Mingi felt delighted that the two were celebrating their differences, finding Yunho's interest in the land terms cute.

"A teenager is like, between the age of 13 to 19. Whichever numbers have the word 'teen' in them." Mingi tried to explain to the best of his ability. It was weird explaining something that you would never think you needed to ever explain, something that people around you would just know. Yunho laughed bubbly and swam around in a circle, a habit he seemed to do whenever he was happy or amused.

"That makes sense! You land people are smarter than I thought!" Mingi felt as if he was in a trance. Yunho's messy hair, his adorable laugh, his beautiful smile, his shining tail, overall everything about him put him under a spell. He didn't know what this was and why he was feeling this way, it couldn't be normal.

"Okay, enough talking, let's go exploring!" Yunho exclaimed and thus off the two went, exploring different sides of the city, looking for the sneaky little gem shard. They kept asking around, merpeople and different species, yet not one had a clue of what they were talking about.

However, as they went around, they heard the people whispering. They heard all the gossips and rumours being spread around about the human. The tall human who walks around with the second eldest prince. None of the whisperings were true but it still put a damper to their previously excited mood.

"Wow, I heard the princes kidnapped a human."

"Oh I heard that the human came down to study us."

"Well I heard that the human came down to kill us!"

"If he did, he would've done that already, no?"

"I guess, but it's just what I heard."

Yunho started to slow down, his shoulders hunching miserably. He felt super guilty, that all the merpeople were talking bad about the humans. He just wanted to clear up the misunderstanding, but he felt it was cause an uproar. Seonghwa wouldn't be happy either.

Mingi noticed Yunho's change in attitude and decided to do something about it. He didn't like this Yunho, he wanted the happy Yunho back. Mingi stopped walking, which made Yunho stop too, in confusion.

"Yunho, what's wrong? You've gotten a lot more quiet as we've looked. Are you tired? Do you want to go back?" Mingi asked worriedly. He wouldn't want Yunho to keep looking if he was tired, he would immediately take him back and get him to sleep no matter what. Yunho however, just shook his head and sighed. Mingi knew what this meant.

"Oh, is it because of what they're saying? Yunho please don't listen to them." Mingi comforted. Yunho didn't feel comforted, Mingi brushing it off just made him angry.

"How can I, when they're taking such bad things about you? I can't just stand by and listen to it, it hurts me that they think this about you!" Yunho raised his voice slightly, startling Mingi. This was the loudest he's ever heard Yunho speak since he yelled in fear when they first met.

"Yunho, I'm not hurt by their comments. I understand them, I'm unknown, a mystery, different. It's just natural that rumours are made, since they know so little about me. Don't worry about it, they aren't true so they don't affect me. Just try not to listen to them, alright?" Mingi smiled sweetly at Yunho, who looked down, hair in front of his eyes and nodded.

"Alright, what do you say we keep on looking for this shard?"