Chapter Text
After a long night of meetings and boring busy work, Chan got very little sleep once he finally made it back to his room. No matter how hard he tried, his mind just wouldn’t calm down enough to lure him to sleep.
Though at some point he must have fallen asleep because he wakes up to a knock on his door. Chan lets out a very incoherent sound, and the door opens. “Time to get up!” Bam sings as he walks over to open the curtains, Chan just rolls back over and buries his head into his pillows. “Oh come on Chan, even your guests were ready when I checked their room a couple of minutes ago. Now this makes Chan’s head shoot up and look at his friend.
“You saw them already? Did they like the room I gave them? I hope they slept well last night, I mean they were in an unfamiliar environment and we only just met. What if they were uncomfortable and-” A hand gets slapped over his mouth. Chan glares at Bam who just stares at him. “Respectfully, shut the fuck up. I don’t know how they slept because they can’t talk but they seemed well rested.” Bam released his hand from the Prince's mouth. “Now we have to get you ready for the day, you have 15 minutes before I come back in.” And with that, Bam leaves the room.
The reminder that he has the day off to spend wandering around, acting as a tour guide for the men that he found, sends him shooting up and walking to his closet. Opting for a simple flowy white blouse and some black pants, along with some boots, he walks over to the bathroom where he washes his face and attempts to style his hair. Beating Bam’s 15-minute timer, he walks out to the main living room where everyone is already waiting.
Chan stops short at the entryway, where everyone is waiting for him. Once again he is stunned by the beauty of his companions for the day. He must have some sort of silly expression on his face because a couple of them giggle. Straightening up he looks at Bam, “Is there a plan for today or am I allowed to just go?” At the confirmation from his advisor that he’s allowed to go anywhere today, something that is so rare for him, Chan lights up and looks at the group, finding that they are already looking at him. Blushing, Chan looks away and quickly walks to a nearby desk.
Grabbing a notepad and a pencil, he hands it to Minho who takes it but looks at him with a confused expression on his face. “In case you need to tell me something and I can’t understand what you mean.” It makes the former smile at him and nods his head. “Bam could we get the big carriage to use, the one with three rows and two horses?” As the advisor heads out of the room to go pull the carriage around, Chan turns to the group.
“So how did you sleep last night? I hope the room was okay for you.” He receives smiles and nods from most, but Jeongin starts gesturing, moving his arms in and out and making an awed face. Chan takes a shot into the dark and says “The room was big?” which makes Jeongin nod quickly and smile wide. Minho hands him the notepad, and Chan reads ‘It was very comfy, thank you for the room and we all slept like guppies.’
“Huh, ‘guppies’, I've never heard that term before but it’s very cute!” Chan hears a call from outside by the driveway, “Oh that must be the carriage, follow me.” The group follows Chan outside to where a three-tiered carriage is waiting. Felix squeals and breaks out in a sprint when he sees the horses, Jisung soon runs after him with a smile that has Changbin trailing behind slower than the other two but with a smile on his face. “They must like horses..” Chan murmurs, but it seems Seungmin hears him and nods with a smirk on his face.
They manage to get all of them in the carriage, with Hyunjin; Felix; Changbin in the last row, Seungmin; Jisung, and Jeongin in the second, with Minho right next to Chan at the front. There seemed to be a bit of an argument between the group between who sat with Chan, but Minho just had to hold up the notepad in his hand and all arguments stopped. “I’ll try my best to drive slowly since it seems to be your first time.” In truth, some of them looked nervous, mainly Hyunjin who kept looking around with an anxious look on his face. But it seemed like most of them were excited, mainly Felix and Jisung who couldn’t stop bouncing.
Then off they went! Chan decided that the first place he was gonna take the group was to the town square. The ride went mostly smooth, other than when they hit a bump in the road and it scared Hyunjin, who squealed loudly at the lurch, making Chan giggle at his response.
Once they arrived, the group explored the square, picking up different items and examining them. Chan mainly just observed them go and grab different pieces, he noticed that Felix seemed to be enamored with a hair clip that had a symbol of a mermaid with a pink tail that was sparkly. The blonde put the clip down and walked away, but Chan went and bought it for him when he wasn’t looking.
Then he went and did the same thing for the rest if they expressed interest in an item at the market. A watercolor painting for Hyunjin of the beach, a pocket knife for Changbin, a bread pastry for Jeongin, a book about the history of his kingdom for Seungmin, a notebook with musical notes on the cover for Jisung, and finally a cat figurine for Minho. Chan was very excited to give the items to the group, however, he decided to wait until later thinking the time would come.
The band started to play around the gazebo and it quickly grabbed the attention of the men who were fascinated by the sounds. At first, they stood and watched as couples came up and danced to the music. Chan suddenly felt a hand grab his and looking up he saw Minho smirking at him and tugging him towards the dancers. “Oh I don’t usually dance-” but then someone shoved his back, and quickly turning he saw a smug-looking Seungmin smiling at him.
Minho kept pulling him until they were spinning in circles in a modified waltz of sorts, Chan didn’t think he had smiled this wide in a while. Something about being around this group makes him feel so comfortable and at home. As he and Minho float around he looks back at the rest of the group, where most of them are watching them with big smiles, except for Hyunjin and Changbin who are latched together in a sweet embrace. Jisung follows Chan's eyes and sees the two, lightly tapping them apart, just for Changbin to give him a kiss as well.
Now this blows Chan’s mind. Gay relationships are not really uncommon but they aren’t seen expressed much in public. Part of him wants to tell them to break apart in fear of someone getting angry at them, but the other part of him is smiling at his boys being so happy.
Wait. His boys? No, they are not his boys. Maybe each other's boys, as it seems like affection is spread throughout the group evenly when he thinks about it, but definitely not his boys. It seems like Minho had noticed his change in mood suddenly and pulled them off of the dance floor. Upon approaching the group, Chan is given a worried look, and instead of showing much opinion of what he just witnessed he just says. “Time for our next activity!”
The group loads back into the carriage, no one but Chan knowing where they are headed next in their adventure across the kingdom. As Chan drove them to the next location, he noticed Minho glancing at the reins of the horses often. “Do you want to try to drive them?” Chan asks Minho when he catches his gaze. Minho looks quizzically at him for a second, then he hands the notebook to Seungmin. The second Minho takes the reins, he slaps the reins, and the horses go flying.
Exclamations break out from the group in the back, particularly Hyunjin who is still not very sure about the carriage. “Woah! Minho slow down!” Chan yells as he gets flung into the man's side from the bumpy and fast ride, but he only gets a sly grin in response. After a couple minutes, Minho seemed to get bored from the activity and handed the reins back to Chan, who stopped the carriage to give the poor horses apples for their trouble. Once he got back in the carriage he noticed looks from Jeongin, similar to the ones Minho was giving him earlier.
“You can have a turn, only if you don’t go super fast like someone,” Chan playfully eyes Minho who just continues to smile. Jeongin bounces up and takes Minho’s spot next to Chan, who does not look happy at being replaced.
The rest of the ride goes smoothly, as Chan guides them to a lake grotto. Once again, the group is stunned by the beauty of this place that their prince showed to them. “My parents used to take me here on the rare days off, it's where I learned to sail. I like to come by myself when I need a little break, and I wanted to show you.” At the sheepish smile crossing the prince's face, the mers smile at him and Jisung reaches out to hold Chan’s hand.
The group walks over to where the water meets the land and sits down under a giant willow tree. For a while, there is just silence, as the group takes in the scenery and just spends time with each other. After a while, Chan reaches down to the bag he brought with him and starts to hand over the items he purchased earlier. “It’s not much, but I saw you all looking at these earlier and thought they would be a nice souvenir to take with you once you have to head back home.”
The mers just stare at this kind and selfless man for a while, gently holding each item in their hands. Changbin finally is the first to break out of the trance and gets up to hug the prince, pulling him into a tight embrace. The rest follow in his example, with Felix and Jisung throwing themselves on the growing puppy pile.
Chan is the happiest he has ever been, and that is something he can say with absolute certainty. After complaining that his back was hurting from the angle at which he was sitting, the group gets off him, but they don’t really go far and just sit even closer to him.
Hyunjin helps put Felix’s clip in his longer blonde hair, with the latter smiling widely at the new accessory. Jeongin shares his bread pastry with the group, though they try to get him to eat most of it himself, with Changbin using his new knife to help cut it up.
Chan just watches at the cohesive way that they fit together, like it was fate they washed up on his beach just for him. Turning his head to the right, he finds Seungmin staring right back at him with an inquisitive gaze.
The brunette leans closer to the prince, gently cradling his face at their closeness. Chan slowly feels his eyes begin to close as he leans in, ready to meet in the middle. Just as their lips are about to touch, a huge wave comes and pushes them apart, getting the group all wet. “Shit.” Chan jumps up and starts grabbing everything so it to not get soaked by the sudden wave.
It snaps him out of the insane thoughts of kissing Seungmin, or any of them. They are not his, and he has no right when they have a home to get back to.
The group heads back to the castle after that, as it is nighttime, and being soaked in water isn’t the best feeling. The mood was dampened among the whole group but they were still optimistic about getting Chan’s affections by tomorrow night.
After bidding goodnight to the prince, who headed back to his room, they made their way to their room. “Well, that failed miserably,” Jeongin says, flopping on the bed but quickly is pushed off by Minho telling him to change first.
“I wouldn’t say it failed, in fact, we were incredibly close! Plus we have another whole day to get him to kiss one of us.” Felix said as he cuddled with Jisung to keep warm.
“Okay first everyone take turns taking a bath to get warm again, these fragile human bodies need warmth to live,” Minho commands ushering the group around. “Come on Min, gossip with us! We all saw that moment of you both on the dance floor.”
“Yes, a moment that was great until Chan spotted you guys kissing!”
“Hey listen how could I resist when Hyunjin looked so cute watching you guys!” Changbin protested and kissed Hyunjin again for good measure. “Plus it didn’t seem like Chan was all that bothered by us”
“Well, it definitely got him worried about something cause he was weird for a bit after dancing.” Jisung comments from the floor.
“Whatever it was, it seemed to go away. I was so close though to getting his first kiss with us.” Seungmin pouted with a scowl on his face. It made the group giggle at the man who just scowled more. “I know, our brave strong pup kissing the pretty prince.” Hyunjin pulled his cheek and cooed.
“Alright enough gossip, time for bed, we have a prince to woo again tomorrow morning.”
Chan stands on his bedroom balcony, looking out towards the sea. The events of today swam in his mind, making sleep avoid him once again. The door to the balcony opens and Bambam walks out.
“Y’know Chan, as much as you are waiting for the right one, I think you found the ones. Warm and caring, and right before your very eyes.” The advisor gestured to the window of the group's bedroom, where they could see them rushing around getting ready for sleep. At the silence from the prince, Bambam heads back inside.
He just stands for a bit, watching the ever-moving eb and flow of the sea. Just as he is about to head back inside, mind clearer than it was a couple of minutes ago, he hears something on the beach.
Walking on the sand is a man, humming a tune in the exact voice he heard at the beach. It’s him, the person who saved him!
Chan blinks again, his irises a gold color, and robotically marches back inside the castle.