Chapter Text
“Hello? Yes, I would like to know what the procedure is for submarine mailing. Oh, I can do it there? Alright, how much for the stamp? Okay, thank you, have a good day.”
Mingi carefully locked the door of his apartment before mentally making sure he had everything he needed on his way out. On his way to the post office, Mingi felt strangely good. Not that he was gloomy on main before, but he felt a change.
As he looked around, he noticed that people walked closer to him. The day wasn’t particularly busy, so why didn’t they take space from him? He noticed a couple of elves walking by, hand to hand, and when they noticed him, they showed no sign of hostility or avoidance. There was also this fairy kid who smiled at him when she saw him.
All of that was quite disturbing, but it didn’t feel bad.
As he arrived at the post office, he went to the submarine mail station as he was told on the phone and wrote his message for it to get printed onto waterproof paper. The letter got posted, and the day after, it started its journey through the ocean. Soon, in a shipwreck some kilometres away from the shore, a man with black tentacles opened a letter he
just received from his mailbox.
“Dear Mr. Park,
Our last interaction made me think of you as a genuine, nice person. I know that my request is somehow out of the blue, but I hope you will not see here any offence. To repay a friend for his service, he asked me to find items that can only be found in the ocean. Will you please help me fulfil his request? You will be able to find the list on the back. Please
let me know what I can offer you for this service if you happen to accept my request.
Best wishes,
Song Mingi”
Seonghwa flipped the page over to find a list of items. There were not many of them and nothing seemed impossible, but they were indeed items that were rare on the market and
quite expensive. Seonghwa’s everyday life felt rather dull for the last couple of weeks, so a little quest could not hurt anyone, he decided.
It was his day off, so instead of lying around his house (shipwreck), he wandered around the area to find the items that Mingi needed. Mere people would find Seongwha intimidating by his presence but the locals knew that this “big octopus guy” wouldn’t harm anyone. The kids even found him squishy, apparently.
He enjoyed looking everywhere, letting the ocean current play with his hair, as black as his tentacles. The one thing that was unique about him, was that his arme had a gradient
black from his nails to his elbows, but that gradient disappeared if he ever got out of the water and dried up.
That’s what happened when he put a “surface world” appropriate shirt on to head over to the post office of the shore.
It was like room 1117 of his company: some space for him to come out of the water and start using his lungs, and the rest was a floor with carpets all over. Everything was wet, as it had to be expected. Seongwha safely made his package delivered to Mingi with a letter, asking him to hang out eventually.
And just like that, Mingi found himself sitting on a terrace on stilts above the ocean, feeling the sea wind on his face, eating lobster with his coworker who had his tentacles spread all over the bench. He had been listening to Seongwha’s stories all lunch and he didn’t have enough.
“…So turns out, it was an eel! Who would’ve thought?”
“You got many stories! I didn’t know there was so much happening under the sea.”
“Yeah, to be honest, I wish to know more about how people live on land but there is not much I can do…”
“You know what our similarity is ?” Mingi felt so comfortable with him, that he started talking like an extrovert.
“No? Tell me.” Seongwha tilted his head, suddenly curious.
“Both of us don’t do great under the sun! Our skin dries up and that puts us in danger.”
“Wow, you’re right !” Seongwha exclaimed with his mouth full. “Once I rested on a rock too long and my skin became itchy as hell. On top of that my tentacles were stuck on the rock… I thought I was going to die.”
“Oh my god same! I took a nap outside once and my cap fell off, my skin became so ashy and I didn’t have other bandages !”
“I can’t believe I’m trauma-bounding with a mummy.”
Seongwha’s sentence made them both laugh for a minute, which felt so much more refreshing than the wind.
Mingi took a look a him and surprised himself by thinking that his sharp teeth added to his beauty. Hopefully, he made friends.
“Thank you again for the stuff you sent me by the way.”
“You’re welcome! What was it for anyway?“
“Oh I owe a wizard something for helping me so he requested that.”
Seongwha hummed at the statement. They agreed to meet up on the shore sometimes, hoping to find in each other a partner in solitude.
_
On his next training session, Mingi delivered the package.
“You found all of that so quickly! Thank you !” Yunho hopped on his feet while unboxing everything. Mingi smiled, not really knowing what else to do. As the sorcerer went putting the objects away, Yixing, who watched the whole interaction leaned against Mingi’s ear.
“You should ask him out” he whispered.
Mingi’s head snapped at the sentence, eyes as big as tennis balls.
“What? You too definitely like each other.” Yixing shrugged as if it was no big deal. “You’re ancient, Mingi, don’t act as if you were just born !”
“Come on, I’m not ancient!
“You’re older than a vampire.”
“Yeah, but-”
“You’re so old you’ve been to a Beethoven concert. You’re so ancient you could’ve been in William the Conqueror’s army. Heck, you’re older than Jesus! Are you sure you’ve never seen dinosaurs?”
Mingi was laughing so hard it was hard to breathe and Yixing was still going on even though he was crying of laughter. The look on Yunho’s face was priceless and didn’t help them to stop laughing at all.
“Come on you antiquities, it’s time to train !”
In the glade, the training turned out to be successful. Yixing decided that Mingi didn’t need their help anymore.
“I had a great time with you guys! I’m gonna head out now, my shift starts in 30 minutes. Have a great night !” He said and left not without winking at Mingi.
Mingi had thought briefly about what he said and realized that he was right! He did like Yunho but he didn’t realize it until now. For some reason, he felt a boost of braveness coming to him, after remembering Yixing mentioning that, after all, he was too old to be acting like this. So he just broke the silence they had while walking in the woods.
“Yunho?”
“Yeah ?”
“Would you like to go on a date with me ?”
They heard an owl a few trees away.
“With- with you? Me ?”
“Yeah.”
Yunho turned his head the other way, trying his best to tune down the big smile on his face.
“I would love to! We should go to the tavern! Actually, let’s go right now !”
His excitement was always unmatched, and that was something he grew to appreciate over the weeks.
They walked together through the city to the tavern, lightly conversing.
“By the way what’s Yixing’s job ?”
“Oh, he is a receptionist at the Cemetery Hotel.”
“Like for ghosts ?”
“Yeah. I mean he is a ghost himself after all.”
“When you put it like that…”
They entered the tavern, sat down at a table for two and ordered. The night wasn’t busy, there were just a few people here and there drinking and chatting. No one would say that a tavern like that was appropriate for a first date, but the two of them liked it that way. The smell of alcohol was never intrusive, people weren’t completely drunk, and the music was chill.
The waiter returned soon enough with their drinks and Mingi noticed that the same guy with impeccably white teeth and dimples served them the last time they went there. Yunho noticed that too and remembered that one conversation he had about hypnosis.
“Hey, San! Sorry to interrupt you but do you have a few minutes to spare?”
“Uh wait, I’m gonna ask my coworker, hold on.”
Mingi frowned but not for long because San came back within a minute.
“What did you want, Yunho?”
“Well my uh- date, Mingi and I were wondering if vampires had similar hypnosis powers as mummies.”
“Oh. Well, I suppose so ?”
“I have an amazing idea. Why don’t you just try on each other at the same time ?”
San and Mingi looked at each other dumbfounded, before looking back at Yunho.
“This is the worst idea I’ve ever heard.”
“Are you even a sorcerer ?”
“No guys I promise it’s just out of curiosity! Pretty please ?” There went the puppy eyes.
San sighed, and as he was about to decline again Mingi leaned to his ear.
“Can we do it? I’m on a date with him, I would like to make him happy.” San looked at him with a defeated look and rubbed his eyes.
“Okay. But if anything goes wrong you’re the one who will be taking the blame in front of my boss.”
San took a chair to face Mingi and both of them started to stare into each other’s eyes.
Yunho who watched this saw San’s eyes glow red and Mingi’s eyes glow green. Their breathing started to sink, they stopped blinking, and slowly, they went numb.
“Guys ?” No reaction.
“Guys, do you hear me ?” Still nothing.
“Hello ?” He snapped at them but still nothing. Yunho thought splashing water on them would help but it didn’t. He decided to take his wound and try a little magic on them to see if that would work. Turns out: it did the job.
“Hey, are you guys okay? You were out of it for a moment.”
“Yeah, we know.”
“We were in a sort of headspace together, talking to each other.”
“But we couldn’t snap out of it.”
Again, Yunho looked at them as if they had grown plants on their skin but decided to let it go and thank San for his time.
“Well, that was quite an experience,” Yunho said, while Mingi was looking distractingly at his drink. He kind of felt out of place at that moment. As if he didn’t belong there. Having been alive for quite some time, it wasn’t his idea of a good date, and even though he had seen lots of things, he couldn’t help but wonder if asking Yunho on a date was the best idea. He shifted awkwardly in his seat.
“Are you happy?” He asked.
“Yes, thank you for putting up with me. And sorry about that I’m just curious.” Yunho responded, sensing Mingi was uncomfortable.
“It’s okay, a date doesn’t have to be perfect.”
They talked and finished their drinks, and then Yunho offered Mingi to walk him home. Yunho and Mingi talked on and on but the feeling of awkwardness was not leaving Mingi’s side.
Yunho was the one making most of the conversation, getting into various subjects such as zombie traditions or unicorns’ alimentation, while Mingi was actively listening. He didn’t have much to say, because unless Yunho, Mingi did not study cultures and all these things and he was not that curious either. It was endearing for him to see someone talk about things they love, but at the same time, he realized that not once did he talk about himself.
There was the reason for Mingi’s weird feeling. And when he realized that, Yunho too, realized that something wasn’t quite right.
“Hey, if what I say doesn’t interest you there is no point of going on like that. You can go home.”
“I am interested. The whole situation is just really weird.”
“I don’t see anything wrong other than you looking hella annoyed right now.”
“I’m not annoyed. I just…” Mingi did not want to mess up right now, so he had to pay attention to his words. But after spending so much time on earth, you tend to stop filtering your mouth. “I just noticed that you were not really talking about yourself much. I like hearing you talk about stuff you’re interested in, don’t get me wrong. But right now you’re always putting the attention on external stuff rather than yourself.”
“You just told me a date doesn’t have to be perfect!”
“It doesn’t! Look, I’m just confused. If a date means having a debate over dragon’s artefacts for you, then so be it! But don’t let me there stupidly expecting anything romantic or personal.”
Both of them were hurt now. In front of Mingi’s apartment complex, none of them dared to look at each other’s eyes.
“I just want someone to love me,” Mingi whispered, too low for Yunho’s hearing.
A tear ran down his left eye, almost unnoticed by both of them in the dark. Suddenly, voices in his head just started talking. What did he expect? He already got help for his cursing problems, he was definitely asking too much. He let out a breath he had kind of been holding, and was about to tell Yunho that he was just going to go home when the other spoke.
“I’m sorry.” Mingi lifted his head.
“No, I’m sorry for being so bad at this. I’ve never been anyone’s romantic interest before, you must think I’m still a child. Please don’t cry I didn’t want you to think I didn’t like you.”
Mingi didn’t know what to say, but his body acted on his own and he went to hug Yunho. He ended up saying something nonetheless.
“You’re not a child. It’s not because I’ve lived for centuries that I’m in any way better than you at that.”
As a sorcerer, Yunho sensed Mingi’s aura moving out of emotion. He pulled out of the hug and cupped Mingi’s cheeks into his hands. He made Mingi look into his eyes.
“Hey, I’m so proud of you. You didn’t curse anything !”
As Mingi realized that, he smiled with pride and hugged Yunho once again. They could make this work out just fine.