Chapter Text
There was something fishy about Phichit, and Seung Gil was determined to find out what. No one could be that happy all the time. No one could look that good all the time. No one could have the energy he did all the time.
Phichit was terrible at school. It wasn’t that he was stupid, as Seung Gil found out the first day he met Phichit for tutoring sessions. The swim coach had gotten very frustrated when Phichit couldn’t keep his grades afloat, Seung Gil needed community service hours for NHS, it seemed like a perfect match. No, Phichit wasn’t stupid. He just did not care about school – except for swimming.
At least for Seung Gil he would try. It seemed he liked Seung Gil. And that was just another odd thing about this already odd boy. There were a lot of jocks who pretended to like Seung Gil in the hopes that he would help them with their work or do it for them. With Phichit, it seemed like the opposite was true. He pretended to need help with his work to get Seung Gil to spend time with him.
“Why do you do this?” Seung Gil asked one day as he sat back watching Phichit devour goldfish crackers and fly through his chemistry homework. “You clearly don’t need me to help you, so why not just do this so you don’t have to be here?”
Phichit threw a goldfish at Seung Gil. “I can’t work at home. My dad doesn’t let me go out except for school and swim team. Being in tutoring is a loophole I can use to get around that. Besides.” Phichit smirked at him. “Are you really complaining about the world’s easiest community service hours?”
“Why can’t you work at home? Just… hide from your dad or something?”
“My dad’s not the problem with working at home, it’s just that the environment is horrible for doing homework.” Phichit threw another goldfish at Seung Gil. “Just trust me. I don’t even take my books home.”
“You don’t…” Seung Gil shook his head. “Why won’t your dad let you go places?”
Phichit shrugged. “It’s ‘not safe’ for me to be away from home for too long. Even swim team, he keeps threatening to make me quit because he doesn’t think it’s healthy for me to be in chlorinated water that long.”
“Chlorinated water is bad…?” Seung Gil had always thought that chlorinated water was better than unchlorinated. Less fish poop and bacteria and the like.
“It is for us. There’s a reason I swim the clumsy way instead of the good way.” Phichit paused in consideration. “Actually the good way would probably be against the rules and get me disqualified anyway, so there’s two reasons.”
“Oh. I see.”
“No you don’t.” Phichit grinned. “If you’re up for an adventure, I can show you, though! Dad finally said yes when I asked if I could invite you to come see why I am the way I am.”
Obviously, Phichit was exaggerating. It wasn’t an adventure to go to someone’s home. Seung Gil was curious, though, so he agreed to do it. Phichit handed him a necklace. “You’ll need this.”
“Okay…” Seung Gil took the necklace and put it on.
Phichit insisted on Seung Gil leaving his bag in Phichit’s locker. Seung Gil didn’t understand, but he went with it. When Phichit walked him to the beach, though, he started getting a little skeptical. When Phichit found a cave and left his clothes and shoes on a rock inside, and encouraged Seung Gil to do the same, Seung Gil got a lot skeptical.
“One thing you should know before we go… I’m adopted. You’ll notice I look nothing like my father or my siblings. Well, Viktor’s my brother by marriage and Yuri and Mila are his brother and sister, but still, I don’t look like Guang Hong or Yuuri. Yes, my brother married a guy who has a brother with a very similar name, if it’s too confusing, Blond Yuri can be Yurio.”
“Um, okay…?” Seung Gil was ready to admit that he thought Phichit was absolutely crazy. Then again, he’d never seen any of Phichit’s family.
“Ready?” Seung Gil nodded. He was lying, but he was also aware that he would probably never be ready and that just getting the crazy over with was probably the best thing for everyone. Phichit waded out into the ocean, and when the water reached his hips, he dove.
The smart thing to do here, of course, was to turn around, put his clothes on, break into Phichit’s locker, take his bag and leave the necklace, and then go home and forget this ever happened. He had all the hours he needed for NHS. He never had to deal with Phichit again. Just this once, though, Seung Gil decided not to do the smart thing. He dove.
Phichit took Seung Gil to an underwater castle. Seung Gil gasped in surprise when he looked over – and saw Phichit’s legs were gone, replaced by a long red and gold tail. It then occurred to him that he was somehow breathing the water just fine. Phichit grinned. “Took you long enough! When Guang Hong brought Leo down for the first time, he noticed the second Guang Hong changed.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’m a merperson. My whole family is. Come in, meet my dad.”
Phichit was not just a merperson. He was a merprince. Celestino was the king of the local merkingdom. His oldest son, Yuuri, married Viktor, the oldest son of Yakov, king of another merkingdom. Yakov had gotten mad because Viktor ran off to do it, but they’d made up. There were two other people there with legs. Phichit introduced them as Leo, Guang Hong’s boyfriend, and Otabek, Yurio’s… “I have no idea what they are. They swear they’re not dating, Yurio’s too young for that, but Yurio nearly destroyed the local fish ecology when he thought Otabek was flirting with Mila. Which, incidentally, is how we found out Mila has a girlfriend. Sara’s a mermaid. She’s not here right now.”
“And this is why you can’t do your homework at home.”
“And why chlorinated water is bad for me, and why Dad won’t let me stay out. Too much time away from the saltwater and I’d lose my ability to change back.”