"chan, my son. less than a week from now is your coronation and you will be the proud king for atlantis"
"yes, father" chan only glares at the floor, hoping it will crack and swallow him whole.
chan's head perks up when he hears the king's next line.
"how about this week you stay in the castle"
"b-but father, why?"
"oh?" the king is taken aback, "you never ask any questions over my requests"
"i-.. i just want to know because you never ask me to stay here"
"because i have faith in you, my son. you will never betray me, am i wrong?"
chan gulps in fear. tonight is the night he will escape with seungmin and others and he does not want this plan turns flop.
"i will be here" chan bows.
"and i would be honoured, son."
chan swims away from the kingdom to their secret hideout.
"like hell i would be stepping there after this" chan let out a 'tsk'.
as he has arrived to his destination, he sees seungmin is sitting on a rock. he can tell that the younger is sad by his finger swirling around the seaweed slowly and the head of being defeated. he swims towards the light brown hair.
"seungmin, what's wrong?"
seungmin just sighs, "...we're gonna leave this place. we're gonna leave our place, our home..."
the younger lifts his head up to look at chan, "to be honest i'm not ready. this place is where we built together and it has so many memories that we have created."
"imagine leave it behind," seungmin caress the rock that he is sitting on.
"and the memories that we have shared together"
"can we... even create a new one better than this one?"
chan shows him a gentle smile, "seungmin"
"hm?"
"i'm not ready either, but i don't like my current life. i want to change it, and i want to live just like how i want to, no matter what situation it is."
chan takes the younger's hands and holds them, "e-even we need to survive in people's world, but i hope that we both are happy, together. i don't want you being sad"
seungmin let out a tear drop as chan laughs.
"don't cry you big baby"
"shut up!"
that night, where the quartet has arrived in the cave, felix taps the water and the sirens come out.
hyunjin and felix helps them both to get out of the water surface. jisung takes out two towels and gives to them.
"dry yourself with this"
seungmin takes it and he gives another to chan. minho is trying to find some supplies before he realises the sirens do nothing but staring at the towels.
"oi"
they both raises their head in sync like a puppy. the fourth of them are not trying to burst some uwus over there.
"why don't you guys drying yourself?"
seungmin shifts his head towards the towel before he stares at them once again.
"how's this shit works?"
the humans are sighing, this is going to be a long night.
