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Above Kyungsoo’s head, the neon lights are too bright; all around him, people are incredibly loud. No matter how hard he tries to focus on the frigging lexicology exercises, no matter how deep he tries to press his earplugs in further, it just doesn’t work.
His t-shirt is clinging to his sweaty back by now, causing him to shift again and again. Apparently, restlessness it is, today.
Fuck it. Kyungsoo stands up, gathers his pencils and papers and all that jazz and shoves everything into his bag. He doesn’t bother zipping it; he simply climbs up the stairs of the auditorium, uncaring of curious eyes on his figure as he pushes the door open.
The lights are even worse here, but it’s quieter, soothing to his ears, even, and a sigh of relief makes it past his lips.
He almost bolts down the stairs to the university pavilion’s entrance hall, revelling in the chill that caresses his cheeks as soon as he’s out.
Ah. It feels great to be out and away from all the useless sensory input.
He fishes his cellphone out of his back pocket, tapping at the screen twice for it to light up. Once it’s unlocked, he opens his texting app.
Kyungsoo
Hey Nini
I’m done for the day, want anything?
Instead of beginning to walk straight away, he moves his weight from one foot to the other. It’s not that he has that much time to lose, but walking and texting all at once isn’t really his thing. He once tried to keep up with Baekhyun’s blabbering about a tall ninja guy and walk and text, and ran straight into a fire hydrant as a result.
It’s one of his most painful memories of the year.
But after a good five minutes of catching three Hoothoots and one Cyndaquil on Pokemon Go, still no answer. Right, his roommate is probably fast asleep (in the middle of the day, what the actual fuck), or forgot to charge his phone yet again.
It wouldn’t be anything new.
Kyungsoo shrugs to himself; it’s the younger man's loss if he doesn’t get fried chicken, then.
Jongin doesn’t like surprises, such as Kyungsoo coming back earlier than planned from a class – the older one prefers not to know why – but it isn’t his fault, anyway. He did warn him.
The door is locked when he makes it to their residence. It’s curious, but he’s got a key, and so has nothing to fear.
At first, the Jongin-free sight of the apartment makes him believe that the other probably left for an errand or some extra dance practice, and he takes it as his cue to crash down on his bed, face first.
Just then, a splash of water can be heard from the bathroom’s direction, and he raises his eyes to it, frowning. Maybe Jongin is home, but he’s taking a… a bath? Well, okay, baths are nice from time to time, besides the fact that they’re a waste of water. Maybe he should take one soon, too.
The bathroom’s door appears to be closed, but then the sloshing of water can be heard again, and Kyungsoo downright stares because he picked up on it way too easily. With a deep sigh, he forces himself up.
The door’s slightly ajar, but not enough that he can actually peer inside. The lights are turned on, though, so Kyungsoo decides, to hell with it, and pushes the door the slightest bit open.
He freezes.
Before him, in the bath, a seal.
A frigging. Seal.
What. The. Actual. Fuck?
And its staring right back at him, and Kyungsoo swears he can detect real panic in its huge, dark, round as marbles, eyes.
Oh, it’s cute, too, its fur prettily painted with slate-coloured spots against light grey, and considering its size as well as the prettily rounded shape of its head, Kyungsoo is pretty damn sure it’s one of these common but always incredibly adorable harbour seals.
The question, though, remains; what is a seal doing in his bath? He’s preeeetty sure the sea is at least an hour away by train, and the nearest aquarium? About thirty minutes away.
He shuts the door, his grip surprisingly steady on the handle.
Then, he all but grabs a pillow from his bed, hugs it with all of his strength, and begins muttering incoherent things to himself. You see, it helps, sometimes, in coping with the impossible thing that is reality. Or hallucinations. “So, Kyungsoo, you saw a seal. In your bath. But. Clearly, it’s the Thai leftovers that you ate for breakfast that don’t do it right now. I mean, come on, a harbour seal in a university residence’s bathroom, also where the fuck is Jong–”
The bathroom door slams open right at this moment, revealing his missing roommate clad in only a very wet towel, held by trembling hands, around his crotch area. “L-Look, Kyungsoo, I can explain –”
Kyungsoo chokes.
What is this very naked, very golden skinned roommate of his trying to say, even?
(Kyungsoo is not at all looking at the beads of water rolling down the other’s sharp and less sharp angles, no. Never. It’s shock, it’s panic, that’s why he can’t take his eyes off, and anyway, he doesn’t see that well to begin with, does he?)
“Explain what?” He barks, then dig his teeth into his lip when Jongin flinches.
“I, uhm, I mean… the seal… I?”
Eyebrows deeply furrowed, Kyungsoo all but gapes at Jongin. So he didn’t hallucinate. Or maybe he passed out in class, and is dreaming, or actively imagining everything. “Yes. The seal. Where the fuck is it?”
Jongin scratches the back of his head shyly, touches his ear once. Kyungsoo recognizes the movement; it’s something he does all the time when he’s lying or very, very nervous.
“I, uh, I’m the seal. I mean, I was the one in the bath?”
It doesn’t compute. At all.
Kyungsoo tries to muster his words, tries to say something, but then the ground falls out from underneath his feet, and everything goes black.
“Oh, oh fuck, oh shit, Kyungsoo, what I am supposed to do –“
Jongin’s high, panicked voice is the first thing his senses grab onto, and Kyungsoo grumbles under his breath. “Man, stop this.”
A relieved shriek, a wet hand on his forearm. He blinks, his eyes slowly but surely adjusting to the lighting of the bedroom.
Above him, the ceiling, and under him, roughness. He’s on the rug. Oh.
Leaning into his personal space, Jongin, long stretches of his skin still bare for the whole world to see, and glistening with water pearls. (Well, okay, they’re in their shared bedroom, alone, so no one else is going to have a look at him, but eh.)
Kyungsoo is, well, confused to say the least.
He looks so sorry Kyungsoo almost feels bad for fainting. Or whatever that was.
“You like, you just stopped breathing, or maybe you were breathing too much, and you just – went down?”
The younger’s eyes are filled with worry and guilt. Kyungsoo doesn’t like it.
“Just tell me. Are you a seal?”
Jongin’s eyebrows shoot up so high on his forehead, Kyungsoo is under the sudden impression they’re going to fly away.
“I’m not – I’m not a seal. Not really. Just, uuhh….” His words trail off, and Kyungsoo is even more lost than he was a few seconds ago. It seems like it’s not a dream. If it is, well, he wonders for how much longer it will carry on.
“So you’re… a seal-man?”
At this point, he gives up on normalcy. His life was never meant to be normal anyway, yo.
Above him, Jongin sputters. “No, it’s not a seal-man – I’m a selkie.” He sounds indignant.
Kyungsoo sighs long-sufferingly. This is going to be complicated, he can just feel it. “Ok, what’s a selkie.”
“So,” Kyungsoo breathes out, having just spent the last thirty minutes listening to Jongin explaining what a selkie is. “You’re telling me you’re not a seal-man, but a selkie. Which is, basically, a seal, and a man.” He knows he is probably sporting an angry, contemplative look even though he is far from being annoyed; his thick, bushy eyebrows certainly don’t help with that. His astigmatism, too, doesn’t make it all that easy to discern Jongin’s features, and it’s all the worse when he is tired or overwhelmed.
Just like now.
Beside him, on the bed, Jongin huffs, a strand of hair caught in the small whirlwind. “But I’m not a seal-man, okay? It’s different. I’m not quite a human per se; I’m just… I’m a selkie. I’m a being who lives in the sea and turns into a human to dance on the moonlit shores and…” Kyungsoo raises his hands.
“Ok, enough poesy. So you really made a deal with a witch to,” he stammers, “like, spend most of your time in your human form instead of your seal form so you could enrol in an art program and learn to dance?” His tone is utterly disbelieving and he knows it, but he can’t help it. His roommate’s story is just downright crazy.
“Well, that, and something else.” A flush spreads across the bridge of Jongin’s nose and he averts his eyes to the ground.
Kyungsoo looks at him, eyes are round as plates. “Something else?”
Jongin suddenly grabs one of the pillows behind them, and hits him. “It’s not for you to know!”
The older frowns, and shrugs. “As long as you don’t tell me some shit like, I fell in love with a human, like, me for instance, and I wanted to join him and – ”
Jongin freezes, his breath hitching in his throat and his blush deepening.
Silence.
Then, “wait, seriously?”
Kyungsoo’s own cheeks become pink.
Oh.