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Jisung named him Minho because he had the face of a Minho: pretty, sharp and with curious eyes.

The first time he saw Minho he had mistaken him with a floating peace of seaweed until his eyes appeared over the water, bright orbs in black between the blond strands that stuck down messily. Jisung rubbed his eyes twice before deciding it wasn't a trick played by the sun high on the blue sky of a summer day, his hungry stomach, and the soft waves of Gamji Beach. There was actually someone starting at him a few meters away from his boat. He was far from the shore and there was no tourist's boat near his but his first thought guided him to think it was someone drowning.

"Hey! Fuck! Wait there, I'm going for you!" Jisung had hurried to the water and didn't realize the person was too calm to be drowning until he tried to swim in his direction and the blond hair quickly disappeared under the surface. He blinked and dived down with the intention to help, grab the person or something, salt itching in his eyes as they widen and caught on the blurry shape of the white tail flicking and hitting him before propelling the person away quickly.

His mouth opened and Jisung struggled back up with a gasp as scared as amazed, his hair –a bit too long even though his boyfriend had been telling him for weeks that he needed a haircut– sticking all over his face as he took a deep shaky breath and blinked to find his boat and swim back. Jisung's skin was still itchy when he made it back up and dropped himself down, between the thermic boxes he had used to store the pieces of coral, heart bumping fast and his mind stuck on the blurry vision of a white tail attached to a human torso.

"Mermaids aren't real," Seungmin had said over dinner when Jisung, bright eyed and mouth full, retold his adventures on the sea –and by adventures he mostly meant collecting coral pieces, a couple jellyfishes and water samples for the lab but also the encounter with Minho, who was still not named Minho.

"I swear!" Jisung hit his hand on the table, dropping his chopsticks as he tried to convince his boyfriend he was not lying. Seungmin just stared at him and nodded a bit, eating with calm and then humming a 'whatever you say, Sung'.

But he wasn't lying. He saw a mermaid and two days later, when he was free from lab work and made it back to Gamji Beach to plant some more healthy corals after supervising the samples from his last batch where doing good, he saw it again. This time he already knew the two pair of eyes watching him from under the blond strands of messy hair, barely above the surface of the waves, wasn't a person drowning. He felt his heart bumping faster with excitement but tried to control it and instead of grabbing his mask and underwater camera to jump in the water and take evidence of mermaids being real, he just stared back. For a long second he didn't move and then Jisung walked closer to the edge of his boat and crouched down, still keeping eye contact.

"Hi," he called, and the eyes blinked at him, big and shiny pupils, "Are you real?"

The mermaid didn't answer and after a couple minutes it seemed to get bored of just observing Jisung's stare back at it and dived back to leave, his tail flicking on the surface for a second. Jisung's heart bumped fast again and a smile formed on his face. He wasn't crazy, it was real. The mermaid was real, even if his boyfriend didn't believe him that night either. The next morning he stole one of the food buckets from the penguins' area of the Aquarium before heading to Gamji Beach. His car smelled like fish for the whole twenty minute ride, but he was mostly used to the sea life smell and didn't care. He grabbed his stuff and quickly waved at the entrance guard before hurrying to his boat.

He stopped the engine in the same spot he had been working at and unraveled the anchor down before changing into his wetsuit and getting ready to dive. He kept staring around, but the surface was calm, no blond hair peeking. With a defeated sigh Jisung grabbed his stuff and sitting on the edge he let himself fall backwards into the water and dived down easily. His equipment wasn't heavy as he wasn't working in very deep waters –the Aquarium was lacking personnel since one of his teammates was on maternity leave and the other had moved from Busan, so he wasn't allowed to do excursions he couldn't manage on his own– and Jisung didn't take much time settling the corals he had planted in small rocks in the lab on whatever hole he found on the small colony. He took notice of some of the old ones looking sick and made a mental note about cutting some of the endings to take it to the lab.

Jisung was almost done with the corals and ready to go back up when there was a flicking on the water by his right. He turned immediately, alert for big fishes or even a shark. But the small shoal of tiny yellow fishes were scared by him moving suddenly and not by the mermaid who was now staring at him while peeking from behind a rock full of old corals and anemones. Jisung gasped before he could remember his air tank was limited and not enough for him to be wasting it like that. He stared at the mermaid, black eyes and blond hair floating softly around sharp features Jisung was seeing just now. Cute. Male –at least by the human torso bit Jisung saw.

The mermaid was glancing curiously at Jisung's equipment, and the human remembered he had actually brought a bucked of stinky fish that was up on his boat. Quickly, Jisung waved his hand at the mermaid and then pointed up before pushing himself up and swim back to the surface. He found the stairs by the side and climbed up, not wasting his time before taking off the equipment, setting the tank aside, removing his mask in one move but not taking the time to take off the fins as he padded to the bucked and grabbed it before coming back to the edge. The mermaid's head popped out of the water, but only half of it as his mouth and nose went back under the surface line when Jisung showed the bucket.

"Uh? No!! It's food! Nothing bad!" He said, and slowly lowered the bucket and picked one of the fishes to show. The mermaid frowned a bit in confusion, looking from the fish to Jisung's face when the boy offered it in his direction, "For you."

He wasn't sure if the mermaid would understand. He probably didn't speak Korean, right? For a moment nothing happened, just eyes meeting eyes in silence and the boat being moved softly by the small waves. Then, he moved forward, closer to the boat, closer to Jisung and the fish extended in his direction. A pale hand came out and fingers with long nails and a thin membrane reached for the fish. Jisung smiled, giving it easily and watching the rest of the face coming up the surface when the mermaid sniffed at the food and then, after a last glance at Jisung, bit into it with sharp teeth.

The human giggled and just observed as the mermaid devoured the fish quickly –in a way that should've been scary and not interesting– and then peeked back up with bright eyes. "Want more?" Jisung reached for the bucked and lowered it to the water, offering it to the mermaid to grab some more if it wanted. He hesitated, but ended up moving close enough to peek into the bucket and then at Jisung with surprise, as if he couldn't believe the human had caught so many. "Ah, I didn't catch them myself," he said, "I just brought them for you."

The mermaid considered it a couple more seconds before grabbing another fish and devouring it as fast as the first one. He didn't seem to want a third, so Jisung set the bucket aside and just observed as the boy was now confident enough to have his shoulders out of the water, trying to peek further into Jisung's boat with curious eyes. The human smiled and then had an idea, "Oh, wait, don't go!" He hurried to find his cellphone, rifling through his stuff until he found the dry bag and opened it, struggling with wet fingers to turn it on and find the camera before coming back. But the mermaid was gone before he could snap a picture to prove to Seungmin he wasn't lying.

"Ah… fuck," Jisung pouted to the sea, "Next time."

But next time he was underwater picking the old coral sample when a silky finger poked his cheek and Jisung turned his face to see the mermaid offer him a fish. A huge fish. His eyes widened and he almost coughed, rushing up to the surface and grabbing the stairs before removing the breather and taking a deep mouthful of air. The mermaid's hair emerged right behind, unsure eyes staring at Jisung as he wasn't sure what was wrong and offering the fish again. Jisung shook his head, "No, no, I–… it's too big, I cannot take that."

The mermaid frowned, head titling aside as if he didn't understood so Jisung sighed, let go of the stairs and gestured big and then a cross with his arms as he shook his head, "It's too big! I cannot carry that home!"

He seemed to understand Jisung and with a cute sound his hands ripped a piece of the fish and offered it to Jisung's disgusted face. The human forced a smile as the mermaid stared at him and waited until Jisung picked the offering with a tight, "T-Thank you?" That pleased the mermaid, who's lips twisted awkwardly to copy Jisung's smile a bit. It was an awkward gesture, as if the mermaid had never smiled before and Jisung couldn't help but laugh at how cute he looked. Then, he had remembered he needed a picture, but he wasn't fast enough to grab the underwear camera on his equipment before the mermaid left again.

It kept happening, and yet not once was Jisung able to snap a picture for Seungmin. He always got distracted or too slow or too unlucky. But the mermaid kept coming. Sometimes Jisung brought him fish again, trying to lure him closer to the ship and slowly managed to make the mermaid be confident enough to grab the side stair and push himself up to peek at the boat without getting on. Sometimes the mermaid brought him stuff, from rocks to smaller fish, an anemone Jisung was sure was toxic for humans, pieces of coral, shells, small crabs and even a cute jellyfish after he saw Jisung capturing one. Jisung always talked, even if the mermaid probably didn't understand, he started telling him things and asking questions that were never answered.

"Are there more mermaids?"

"Can I get one of your scales? For lab testing!"

"Can you breath both above and underwater?"

"Are you a mammal or a fish?"

"Do mermaids have their own language?"

"Do you have a name?" The mermaid's head snapped to Jisung and the human stopped his doings to look at him, "Do you know what a name is?" He smiled softly, finding it cute the naive way the mermaid had taken a liking to having half of his body on the boat from the stairs, tail splashing down as he hung there.

As he didn't receive more answer than a curious look, Jisung sat down with crossed legs, explaining, "A name. My name is Jisung," he pointed at himself and then at the glasses on his face, "These are called glasses." The mermaid just stared blankly at him, but for some reason Jisung thought he understood. There was something smart in the glint of the mermaid's dark eyes.

"Do you have a name?" He pointed and this time the mermaid gave him a short no with his head. He had picked up on the gesture as Jisung kept doing it when he couldn't accept the gifts the mermaid brought him. "No?" The mermaid shook his head again and Jisung hummed, bringing a hand to his chin, "Well, you need one."

He thought about it for a long second, going through a few names in his mind until it came down to, "Minho!" The mermaid blinked in his direction, titling his head with interest, "Do you like it? Does it sound good? Minho, Minho," he repeated, trying to see if the mermaid liked it or not, "Min–"

"Minho."

It was Jisung's turn to blink in amusement and confusion, "Did you just…?"

Minho raised his eyebrows and before Jisung could say something else the mermaid pushed himself off the boat. The human hurried to the edge, the boat swaying and the water splashing with the movement. "Wait, don't go yet, I…" he called, but Minho waved at him and dived down.

Jisung sighed and grimaced, "I'm not coming tomorrow."

It was getting too cold for field work.

The TV was on and the sports channel displayed some baseball games good takes when Jisung got home around seven. He had been stuck in some last minute lab reports to write and ended up driving back when it was already getting dark. He dropped the keys on top of the low cabinet they kept next to the entrance and closed the door with his hip, already calling, "Babe, I'm home."

It was a small apartment, neither of them needing much space. From the entrance as he discarded the shoes for the house slippers Jisung saw the tiny living room, the light dim from a standing lamp and the TV's glow over the empty couch of three spots, divided from the kitchen only by a counter and a table they barely ever used for dinner. On the right the short hall lead to their shared room and the bathroom, from where Seungmin appeared, hair dripping water and a towel on his shoulder. Jisung smiled to his boyfriend as he came closer to welcome him, black shorts and a comfortable t-shirt a bit twisted, as if he had struggled to put it on.

He didn't have to ask, he moved closer and leaned to plant a kiss on his boyfriend's silent lips before discreetly helping with his shirt, "How was your day?"

Seungmin huffed a bit, but his eyes softened when looking at Jisung. "It was a day," he mumbled, and Jisung didn't pressure him further. Some days it was just like that. Seungmin would wake up and his shoulder would've been in the wrong position all night and suddenly he couldn't move properly. Some days the pain would go away with some of his morning pills, some days it would stay as a constant buzz during the whole morning or come back mid afternoon when Seungmin had almost forgotten and by mistake used the wrong arm to reach the higher cabinet.

Jisung was sure which ones of the options was today, he had seen Seungmin take his pills in the morning, but he had left way too early to tell if those were good enough today. Though, judging by the way Seungmin rested his head on Jisung's shoulder for a second and sighed, letting his boyfriend put an arm around him and caress his back softly for a second before straightening up and shaking his head while moving towards the sofa and out of Jisung's hands, the pain wasn't as bad as the fact that Seungmin's team had a game tonight.

"Did you see your mermaid today?" His boyfriend called, sitting down with an arm more stiff than the other and glaring at Jisung mischievously. The biologist pouted but the way that put a small smile on Seungmin's lips didn't let him be actual mad at his boyfriend teasing him.

"I did. He's called Minho now," Jisung said, and when Seungmin snorted he glared at him with wide eyes, "What?"

"You named the mermaid Minho?" His boyfriend said and he crossed his arms, sulking because even if Seungmin didn't even believed Minho was real he would still make fun of him about it.

"Yes, he seemed to like it. Why?"

"Nothing. It's really creative," he teased, putting his eyes back on the TV as Jisung realized he had given the mermaid one of the most common Korean names. Definitely not original. Definitely not giving enough magical creature. Not that he knew if Minho was actually a magical creature or just a marine mammal. Was he even an mammal? Well, he did have pecs with nipples, Jisung pondered, but he had gills like sharks and was just as good at breathing out of the water as under the surface. He wasn't sure, it was still a mystery that peaked his curiosity.

He kept wondering it as he walked to the bathroom and took a warm shower. Seungmin was still sitting in front of the TV, the game had started and all his focus was now on the screen as his previous team came onto the field. Jisung walked back into the living room and crossed in front of his boyfriend to hang the towel next to the balcony door before moving to his side on the couch, sitting down to Seungmin's left.

"Ramen?" He asked, kissing Seungmin's shoulder to get his attention and making eye contact for a short moment before Seungmin looked at the screen again while nodding. "Want a beer? I think we still have a couple of them on the fridge," he added, reaching to leave a kiss on his boyfriend's cheek before getting up and moving to the kitchen.

Jisung wasn't really good in the kitchen. He wasn't a total mess but Seungmin would usually prefer to cook himself for both of them or order delivery. But on game's nights Jisung was used to the nostalgia flooding his boyfriend, so he prepared two packets of ramen quickly, just as they came in the packet. He added two eggs just because he thought the noodles alone would be too simple. The game's sounds filled the space, along with the water boiling, as Seungmin sat silently on the sofa. Jisung grabbed two beers once the ramen was done and carried the pot with two sets of chopsticks towards the low coffee table by the couch.

"Hm? Smells good," Seungmin moved to sit on the floor and helped settled the stuff carefully, "Sung, can you bring the smaller bowls?" He said and Jisung complied quickly bringing them so it was easier to eat sharing the noodles on the pot. Once everything was settled he sat by Seungmin's left with a loud sigh, picking up his chopsticks and slurping some noodles before paying attention to the screen.

He had been dating Seungmin since before his injury, since the times he would get first row tickets for Jisung to see his games, and yet Jisung understood nothing of baseball. He pointed to the screen as they focused on the pitcher, "That's Lee Daehwi, right?" Jisung mumbled, reaching for his beer and looking at his boyfriend for confirmation.

Seungmin hummed, "Yeah, he seems to be needing a rest. He's not throwing his best balls tonight."

"Why?" Jisung asked, sipping from his bottle. Seungmin looked at him and it took him exactly seven seconds to give in with a sigh and explain to his boyfriend not only why his ex teammate was throwing mediocre balls but also the rest of the game. Jisung kept pointing stuff out and asking questions Seungmin had answered a lot of times before but that helped slowly to ease the curve of his shoulders and by the end of the game, when Seungmin's team won, he was way more relaxed than he would've been if he watched the game alone.

Jisung leaned on his shoulder, settling his head there and leaning close enough to nose on his neck, "I'm sleepy."

Seungmin let out a short, fond laugh, his left hand coming up to Jisung's hair to pet him, "You only had one bottle."

"Hm… Irrelevant, I want cuddles."

"Someone needs to do the dishes."

"Tomorrow," Jisung pouted, turning his best begging eyes to his boyfriend who scoffed and without thinking reached to push his face with his right arm. But the movement made him flinch when the pain shot up his neck from the movement on his shoulder. Seungmin whined softly and Jisung straightened his back, a bit worriedly but his boyfriend just shook his head slightly, arm back to the resting position that didn't hurt, "Do you wanna take any painkiller before bed?"

"No, it's okay, it's not that bad," Seungmin reassured and Jisung didn't let him help much as he moved the things to the sink to do the dishes. The taller boy didn't let him do all the work, "I'm okay, I'll do it," he insisted and Jisung ended up just clinging to his back as Seungmin did the dishes with enough care not to move his arm in a way that would hurt again. Once he was done Jisung let himself be dragged to the bathroom and brushed his teeth lazily, stopping with the brush still in his mouth to pee urgently when the beer called in his system, while Seungmin was right by his side and unbothered.

He was a bit tipsy still when they made it to bed, but still made sure to pick Seungmin's left side to lie down and throw an arm over his stomach. Seungmin melted on it, nuzzling closer and kissing Jisung softly on the lips, finding his mouth by memory now that the lights were off, "Good night, baby, I love you."

"Love you too, Sung," Seungmin snorted with a smile Jisung felt against his lips before his boyfriend turned his face and moved to find a more comfortable position to sleep. Even asleep Jisung kept chasing his warmth, arms always slipping to his boyfriend's skin and ears alert in case Seungmin woke up in pain in the middle of the night.

Jisung sulked with a bored pout on his lips as he fed the seal in the outside pools of the Aquarium when he heard a child squeaking, "MOM, A MERMAID!" His head swayed quickly in the direction of the voice, to the tourist and her daughter that were standing next to the low wall that marked the limit of the aquarium and the sea below. This was a restricted area, next to the labs where Jisung did most of his job out of the field. The pools out here were mostly dedicated to animals in recovery or new to the aquarium, not meant for the public eye. When the mother's eyes met Jisung she seemed embarrassed at being caught sneaking around.

The little girl pointed to the water, but her mother just shook her head and patiently smiled, "I don't see anything, honey," listening to the kid complaining, pouting and swearing she saw it on the water. "I'm sure you did. But… what if we go get some snacks now? Mom is hungry, don't you wanna eat anything?" The woman said, eying Jisung nervously and apologizing with a small gesture as she tried to convince the kid to go back. After a couple tries and the promise of candy, albeit reluctant, the kid grabbed her mother's hand and let herself be taken away, still glancing back a few times before she was too far to see the sea.

The day was gray, full of clouds painting Busan's sea in the same color. Jisung set down the bucket, the seal getting his head on it trying to catch the remaining food when the boy moved to the low wall where the kid had been. The waves hit softly on the rocks down the limit, barely a meter or so below. Jisung glanced at the surface, the clouded sky making it look darker. He heard the soft happy whistle before he saw the blond head peeking out of the water, bright eyes meeting Jisung's as he came as close to the rocks as he could, making another sound, louder this time.

Jisung smiled, he had been worried about not being able to tell Minho he couldn't come back in the colder months, and he was glad to see the mermaid again, but when the boy held onto the rocks and whistled again, Jisung waved his hands, "Ah, wait! You can't come up here!"

It was too high for the mermaid to climb like that, Jisung thought he could make it if he jumped drawing an arch of drops like dolphins did on the Aquarium's show. But that was dangerous not only because Minho could hit himself if he didn't reach the right height but also because on the other side of the low wall over the rock there was hard floor and not water. And, of course, Jisung wasn't sure it was a good idea if humans could see the mermaid. He was a human, but he didn't count, he wasn't a threat to Minho. The mermaid tilted his head as if he didn't understand, letting out a soft chirp, questioning.

Jisung looked behind his shoulders and checked around to make sure he was alone before he leaned down over the wall, "It's dangerous. They could see you!" He said, shaking his head. "You can't let them see you," he bit his lip as he saw Minho almost pout in disappointment and a sudden idea popped in his head, "But we have a more private pool to rehab and then free animals in the lab!" He exclaimed.

The mermaid didn't seem to understand much but Jisung pointed to his left, "I'll see you there! It's closer to the water level!" He said, gesturing a bit with his hands and then going back to pick the bucket from where the seal was trying to lick the interiors, "Sorry, buddy, that's all," he said, taking it away and patting the animal's head before getting out of the limits of his enclosure again, locking the fence this time.

Minho was still on the rocks when Jisung glanced down from the low wall and he pointed again, making a gesture with his hand and walking in the direction to the lab. The mermaid followed him with his eyes a long second before he jumped back into the water and swam in the direction Jisung had pointed, whistling so Jisung would know he was following. The lab was similar to a warehouse in structure, Jisung jumped the two steps that divided the way to the labs from the rest of the area, the low wall following. He kept catching glimpses of Minho's blond hair or his shiny white scales to the right, on the water behind the limit.

Jisung stopped at the entrance –a wall not letting him proceed to the pools behind by the outside–, gesturing Minho to go around as he unlocked the door and crossed the lab to the back. A pool started at the end of the labs, wooden floor giving into greenish tiles where they would usually tend animals before releasing them outsides. There was a liftable door that connected the pool with the outside, but Jisung took the normal door to the side to the space outside where the floor leaned slightly so the pool and the path descend to connect with the waves, where Minho placed his hands on the tiles and pushed himself into the low pool.

"Oop, that's a little…" Jisung blinked at the way the pool was not deep enough for Minho to swim or move comfortable unless he crawled, but the mermaid seemed okay with it and whistled at the human again, tail flapping, "Are you mad at me? I'm sorry I didn't came back. I was gonna tell you!" He waved his hands and Minho rolled onto his back, using his elbows to push himself up a bit in a sitting position.

"No come back?," the mermaid said, frowning a bit, "You mad at me?" His words were tiny, like he was just using them because Jisung had voiced them first and not because he already knew them.

"Me?" The human blinked, "No, I'm not mad. I just can't come back because it's getting cold."

The mermaid blinked, titling his head.

"Ah… cold," Jisung circled his arms around himself, rubbing his shoulders and then pretending to shiver. The mermaid blinked again, "The water gets too cold for me to swim, and I could freeze!"

"Freeze."

"Like ice. Do you know ice?" There was a short silence as the mermaid just looked at him and then Jisung sighed, shaking his head, "It doesn't matter, it's just cold. I will come back when it's warm again to check on the corals. You could watch them for me!" He was about to continue babbling but tiny words stopped him once more.

"Cold," Minho hummed, licking his lip and looking down at Jisung's clothes with curiosity.

Jisung looked down at himself, "Ah." Minho was probably used to seeing him in the wetsuit and not in a coat and normal pants. "This is for the cold. You put more clothes on so you don't get sick," he said and his eyes trailed down to Minho's naked torso. He had looked before, of course he had, he was a curious marine biologist and had put his eyes on the way scales started as tiny pieces around his hips and came down slowly, surrounding the soft space of his belly and low back, they grew progressively bigger and closer to each other to form the tail until the fin. There were also some scales on his elbows and Jisung had seen some on the back of Minho's neck too, but the scales were colored on the purest white, shiny under the sun and blending perfectly with Minho's pail skin on the areas they touched.

Minho's tail flapped and Jisung blinked, blushing as he realized he had been staring, he brought his eyes back up to the mermaid's that were looking at him with interest –not even a bit shy at the way he was exposed to the human's eyes. "You cold?" Jisung said, just to say something, feeling the warm color his face. He moved towards the lab door and Minho seemed a bit scared of being left behind so he pushed himself on his arms and chirped.

Jisung turned, "Wait, wait," he showed his hands, "I'll come back in a second."

The mermaid didn't seem happy and his tail splashed the low water, but he waited. Jisung hurried inside and soon he came back bringing a sweater. It was actually not his but Seungmin's, it was just one he liked to take from his boyfriend and he had forgotten yesterday in the office. He didn't think Seungmin would mind. In fact, Seungmin didn't even believe the mermaid existed, why would he be mad if Jisung lent it to Minho? Anyway. The mermaid perked up, eyes glowing when he saw Jisung extending the purple item to him.

"Here, let me help you," he mumbled, stepping into the pool, he was wearing plastic boots since he'd been working with the seal, "You need to raise your arms." He showed and Minho struggled until he was sat up enough to pull his arms up and let Jisung put the sweater on him.

Pale wet fingers explored the fabric, just feeling across it and staring at it. Only when Minho looked up at Jisung did the human noticed the mermaid's ears were red. Was he blushing? "Do you like it?" He smiled, proudly, and Minho looked down at the sweater again, fingers gripping the fabric before he nodded.

"Like it," he mumbled as he pulled the neck of it to his nose and sniffed it, "Jisung."

Jisung blinked, it was the first time he heard the mermaid call his name. His smile grew again, "Yes!"

"Like Jisung."

"Ah, yes, it smells like me because I was wearing and it probably got some of my perfume…" the human mumbled, trying to think when did Minho smell him. Or were mermaid's noses just that good? Also would he understand the concept of perfume? Was he able to smell underwater? Only when Jisung was diving did Minho actually come close enough to him to smell the human's scent. But Jisung wasn't sure he would smell like anything aside from fish and salt water in said conditions. He sniffed his own coat, wondering, until he saw Minho lying back down and his eyes widened when he saw the sweater getting soaked on his back.

He didn't thought about that detail. Minho would go back into the water. He didn't need a sweater. "Oh, wait, it's getting wet," he mumbled, reaching with a hand but stopped before touching when Minho moved backwards and stared at him, "Uh? I… I just realized it will probably be heavy when it gets soaked and it won't really make you warmer. Actually wet clothes will make you colder when you get out of the water, so maybe–"

The mermaid groaned and gripped the fabric when Jisung pulled on it as to try taking it.

"No."

"Listen, it will only be annoying, you don't need a sweater under the water, it really–…"

"No. Jisung."

"Okay, that's rude, it will just be heavy, come on."

"Jisung."

"Minho, I need you to give it back, could you please…?"

Jisung pulled, the mermaid pulled back and they struggled for a bit as Jisung kept trying to convince him he actually didn't need a sweater under the water and Minho got grumpy and mumbled Jisung's name followed by 'no' or 'mine' indistinctly, until Jisung slipped and pulled at the wrong time, loosing balance and falling sat on the the low pool. The human whined, the water was cold and soaking his pants and coat immediately. He cursed and heard the mermaid chirping happily before he felt hands on his legs and opened his scrunched eyes to Minho getting closer to his face.

"Mine."

His heart skipped a beat and Jisung's face went red under the possessive pair of dark eyes staring at him. The knot in his throat didn't disappear when Jisung swallowed, his throat beating a bit too fast as his cheeks remained warm and he didn't know how to move with Minho's hands moving up to hold his thighs and lean even closer. Just then, when the mermaid's nose was close enough to his and a hand had almost reached his hip, Jisung heard it.

"Jisung! Where are you?" Someone was calling him from inside the warehouse.

He snapped out of it and moved to the side, out of Minho's reach, making the mermaid fall into the water as he hurriedly got up, looking down at his soaked clothes. "Fuck, fuck," he patted himself and glanced from the lab door to Minho, who's expression had soured to frustration, "They can't see you. Go!" He glanced again at Seungmin's sweater and sighed before gesturing for Minho to go, "Just keep it. Whatever. Just go! They can't see you. Go, go. Hurry."

Minho grumbled and glared at Jisung with a pout but ended up rolling and pushing himself over the border and back to the waves. Just in time the fin disappeared when the person looking for Jisung appeared on the door at his back, "Jisung-ah, there you are. We have a group of kids for a talk on the jellyfishes. Can you handle it?"

He turned around, hands on his back and a totally not suspicious smile, "Ah, Hyunjin, kids? Yes, sure, I'll do it."

The social media manager guy who was now his only friend at work raised an eyebrow and frowned when he noticed Jisung's clothes were wet, "What were you doing?"

"Uh? Nothing!"

"You're soaking."

"I fell," he dismissed it with a hand and before Hyunjin could ask further about why was he even out there, he moved towards him faking a shiver. Hyunjin gave in and just scold him, talking about how cold it was and how they shouldn't keep the kids waiting. Jisung nodded, saying he would be quick, and looking back one last time before going inside. A pair of eyes were staring at him barely above the surface, and there was something in their glint that Jisung couldn't place.

Seungmin had gotten them the tickets online so they just had to wait in the line for the gate to get their wristband and be able to wander around the crowd of other rock fans in Samnak Eco Park. They arrived around three in the afternoon, because Seungmin wasn't a fan of spending the whole day surrounded by people. He would've preferred tickets for a Day6 concert, seats on the high rows of a stadium from where they could comfortably watch and sing along with their favorite bands. Jisung knew that, but he also knew his boyfriend did a lot of things just because he knew Jisung was into it, and going to the Busan International Rock Festival was one of those things Seungmin would just let Jisung drag him to.

It wasn't his first time at the festival, so he came prepared: denim pants that were comfortable enough to sit on the grass, a black crop top under a light jacket because he knew that it would be chilly when the sun went down. Seungmin carried a small backpack with water and some snacks, but as soon as they got past the gates Jisung intertwined their fingers and pulled him towards the food stands. "We should find Innie," his boyfriend complained, but Jisung was already taking a look at the food when Seungmin glanced at his phone, "They're at the stage two area."

"Is it too early to get a beer?"

"Maybe?" Seungmin glared up from his phone, taking a look at where his boyfriend was not listening to him, "But the bathroom line will be longer later."

"Good point," Jisung got his wallet, "I kinda want a tteok-bokki… but also the friend chicken is always good," he glared to the food truck a few meters away where some people were lining up to get food.

"Get the tteok-bokki and beers, I'll get the burgers," his boyfriend hummed, "We can save them for later? That way we don't have to come back here soon."

"Hm, okay, in that case I'll get two chi-maek portions too? Since they're on the same stand and the lines just get worse later," he suggested and his boyfriend shrugged before they moved separately.

Some minutes later, after saving the burgers in Seungmin's backpack along with the chi-maek cups, Jisung spotted Jeongin's ginger hair in the distance and nudged his boyfriend in the direction of their friend. Seungmin followed, holding the tteok-bokki paper cups, still warm, as they reached the mat. Jeongin didn't get up from where he was laying, head on his boyfriend's legs, barely lifted a hand when he saw them coming.

"Wow, you really got a nice spot," Jisung said, sitting down and smiling to Felix who smiled back proudly.

"We've been saving it since this morning," he said, stretching a bit before taking a hand back to his boyfriend's hair to caress it softly, "Oh, you got tteok-bokki?" The blond eyed the cup Seungmin passed to his boyfriend.

"I want ice cream," Jeongin muttered, but his eyes were closing under his boyfriend's hand petting.

The music flowed around from the near stage, it wasn't too close and they weren't sat right next to the speakers, so Jisung wasn't overwhelmed by the noise and could still see the indie band he didn't know playing. It was nice, they sat on the mat, shared the food, Jisung had time to talk to his friends as well as to snuggle to Seungmin's side and steal his fried chicken or a kiss from his lips. Jeongin called them gross, but still accompanied Jisung to the bathroom line and to buy another beer. Seungmin even indulged Jisung in some dancing when WOODZ played some songs, letting his boyfriend drag them barefoot closer to the stage. Jisung moved his arms and sang on the top of his lungs, nudging Seungmin and pulling him for a deep kiss as some other band took the stage.

Around seven Jisung saw One Ok Rock coming on stage and abandoned the mat again to get as close to the stage as he could. Seungmin stayed behind to help Jeongin pick the mat and their stuff up before they found Jisung and Felix singing in the first row. Jisung smiled when he felt his boyfriend's chest against his back and leaned back, turning to smile at Seungmin before focusing back on the song, banging his head as he felt light and happy with the music flooding his senses. Three hours later Jisung's throat was a bit raspy from singing and the last artist in the lineup played two extra songs before closing the night. Seungmin bought him another beer and paid for some eomuk that Jisung ate on their way out. Jeongin and Felix waved their goodbye when the other couple headed to the subway station, both promising Seungmin a game night sometime soon.

The way home was short, Jisung was a bit sleepy and light headed, still humming some songs and happy about Seungmin's hand finding his waist and they kept close to each other on the way to their apartment. Once the door was closed, Jisung felt lips latching on his neck and he smiled, giggling when his boyfriend kissed all the way up to his cheek and turned him around to find his mouth.

"Baby…" he mumbled between kisses, grinning and passing his arms around Seungmin's tiny waist as he kissed his boyfriend back. Seungmin hummed, nibbling on his mouth and throwing his backpack aside as he guided Jisung to the sofa. He sat down, Seungmin pushing him softly down and climbing on his lap, mouth opening to deepen the kiss. Jisung moaned softly, hands gripping his boyfriend's waist and breaking the kiss when he needed air, feeling Seungmin's hands going to his sides and sliding towards his belly.

His head was fuzzy and soft lips found his again, sloppy and messy he kissed Seungmin, fingers on his skin and his hands going down to squeeze Seungmin's little ass. His boyfriend moaned softly, leaning closer to Seungmin's chest and letting a hand go up to Jisung's neck. His breath hitched but when he felt Seungmin's hips grinding down on him he pulled away from the kiss, his boyfriend chasing his mouth for a second before bumping against the side of his jaw by mistake. "Wait, I need to pee–" he complained with a whiny voice and Seungmin pouted a bit but didn't complain when Jisung lifted him to get up for a quick bathroom trip.

Seungmin sat there, following him with his eyes as Jisung rushed to the small hall and into the bathroom, not caring to close the door fully. They'd been living together for years after graduating from college, and Seungmin had seen him naked many times, and held him in countless parties when Jisung was too drunk to stand straight but needed to pee. He washed his hands and went back out, ready to continue the make out session and get handsy, but was met with Seungmin sleepy on the sofa, cheek puffy as he rested his head on the back of the couch. Jisung had barely taken a couple minutes to come back, and yet Seungmin was on the verge of falling asleep. His eyes opened when Jisung reached for him, pulling him softly and carefully carrying him up.

"What…?" Seungmin mumbled into Jisung's neck, leaving lazy kisses as his boyfriend carried him the short way to their bedroom. Jisung stumbled, but didn't let him fall, Seungmin was surprisingly light for a man of his height –he guessed joining Chan at the gym had been a good choice after all.

He dropped Seungmin in bed softly, careful even if it was one of his good days and Seungmin wasn't in pain. The boy let Jisung take off his clothes, doing the same favor back, but frowned when Jisung brought his sleepwear instead of running his mouth down his skin. "You're tired," Jisung said, helping him put the white shirt on.

"I can still do it."

"You'll fall asleep before I can get inside you."

"I won't," Seungmin yawned, reaching for the front of Jisung's top and pulling him into the bed for more kisses. Lazy lips dragging over lazy lips as Jisung trapped him by hovering above, "I'm fine."

"It's way past your bedtime," he giggled against his boyfriend's lips, breaking the kiss to look him in the eye, "And I have to get to work early tomorrow."

"You don't have field work."

Seungmin was right. Jisung only got up early when he had field work, otherwise he didn't have a strict schedule. He would be fine if he arrived around nine, considering he wouldn't be needed for any kid's talk about jellyfishes or anything before ten thirty, when the Aquarium opened to the public. His papers could be written at any hour and the coral he was planting to add to their colony once the warm season started again would still be in the lab if he got there a bit later. But.

"Minho is always early at the lab's pool," he pouted, letting his head fall on Seungmin's good shoulder when he heard his boyfriend huff. He had dated Seungmin enough years to pick up on the soft jealousy under the sound.

"Your mermaid."

"He's not mine," Jisung rolled his eyes a bit, leaving soft kisses on Seungmin's neck to get him to look at him again, "It's just an interesting fish. Or a mammal. I'm still not sure, but he does have nipples and breathes out of the water," he babbled, nerdy. "But he's always there too early and I'm afraid someone would see him and I don't think other people would be as nice as I am… maybe they would want to cut him and put him under a microscope and…"

"You said you want to put him under a microscope."

"But with his consent," he remarked, bitting Seungmin's cheek and making him complain, "Consent is always good."

"Didn't you said he didn't know how to talk?"

"Listen, I'm teaching him and he's a fast learner."

Seungmin stared at him and hummed, "So you're not gonna fuck me because you've to meet Minho."

Jisung's brain glitched and he gasped, pushing himself up with his elbows to stare properly at his boyfriend's eyes. But the joke he was gonna make about Seungmin being jealous of a fish died on his throat when he saw actual insecurity in his boyfriend's eyes. His heart ached for a whole second and he softened, leaning to bump their noses together. "Hey," he whispered, almost on Seungmin's lips and the other boy pressed his mouth in a tight line, "Baby?"

"What?"

"I love you," he remarked it with a kiss on Seungmin's cheeks.

"But you wanna put some other man under a microscope," his boyfriend scoffed, but it was tiny, hands going to Jisung's chest, like he wasn't sure if he wanted to push him away or melt into the comfort of Jisung's kisses.

"First, he's not another man, he's a mermaid, so he's also half fish, I don't even know if he has a dick to be considered male or if mermaids have male human torsos and have a different sex," Jisung said, trailing kisses down Seungmin's neck, "And, second, are you implying that you want me to put you under a microscope?"

"Not literally. But I don't like the idea of you studying another man's body to find if he has a dick or not."

Jisung giggled, meeting Seungmin's lips, "I promise you it's merely a scientific interest."

His boyfriend took a deep breathe, staring at his eyes for a long second before relaxing, "Okay."

Jisung smiled big, a hand going down to Seungmin's waist, "I love you."

"I love you too, Sung."

"Does this means you do believe me that Minho is real."

"No, I'm totally convinced you're cheating on me with a fish."

Jisung gasped dramatically but Seungmin laughed.

The mermaid kept coming. He was there during the morning and most times he stayed until the afternoon. Sometimes Jisung would lift the door dividing the outside pool from the inside so Minho could enter the lab properly and swim more comfortably instead of lying on the low water. The mermaid supported his arms on the edge of the pool and rested his cheek on top, watching Jisung work and sometimes napping just there where the boy could see him. Sometimes he still brought gifts: tiny rocks, little fishes or shiny objects he found pretty and even coral pieces after he saw Jisung was growing some.

Jisung didn't mind the company, but every time when it was time to go he had a hard time convincing Minho to go back into the sea and come back tomorrow. The mermaid was clingy and more than once when Jisung brought him fish to eat –he had to feed Minho as he planned to spend the whole day there, right– or offered him one of his humans snacks that the mermaid looked curious about, Minho had held his wrist, touch his fingers and even bring Jisung's hand to his face so the boy could hold his cheek. Jisung's heart skipped a beat every time Minho nuzzled his face onto his hand, like a clingy cat. Cute.

"Cute," Minho repeated once when Jisung voiced it by mistake and the boy jumped, blushing under the mermaid's stare and pulling away with an awkward laugh, dismissing it. But Minho was a fast learned and the word seemed stuck on his brain and he learned that dropping it randomly to Jisung's doing would make the boy fumble and blush. He learned a couple more words and his sentences, though still awkward, started to make sense and he occasionally would answer to Jisung's babble or when he had a question.

"Are mermaid lonely animals?" Jisung had asked once, curious because since he met Minho he had never seen him with other mermaids. Maybe they were weird, maybe they lived isolated and only met other mermaids in mating season. Did they have a mating season? Or a shorter biological cycle where they could feel like mating several times a year? There were so many questions.

"Lonely animals?" Minho asked, head on his arms as he watched Jisung from the border of the pool.

Jisung turned on his chair, he had moved his desk to the back of the lab just to stay close, even if it was colder here and he had to keep his scarf on as he worked. He considered how to explain his question for the mermaid to understand and ended up grabbing the whiteboard and the markers he had used before to explain some concepts and words. He drew some mermaids in a group –more like stick mans with fish tails– and then one alone, he pointed to the group, "Group. Family. Community. It can be big or small," he said and then pointed to the singular one, "Lonely mermaid. Swims and lives alone. Only one."

Minho blinked towards the board, considering it for a long second. He looked sleepy. Lately, he always looked sleepy.

"No," he shook his head and Jisung titled his head with curiosity, "No lonely animal."

"Oh," Jisung put the board down, blinking to Minho's sleepy form with more questions, "Then where is your… group?"

Minho scoffed, his tail hitting the water behind him as if that was a stupid question, "Here."

"Here? You're the only mermaid here. And you always come alone… I've never seen them, but you must have a family, right? If you said… but here? Are they hiding from me…? I mean, mermaids don't let human see them, they're just a myth and they hiding would explain…" he mumbled, speaking more to himself than to Minho, and the mermaid took so long to answer that Jisung had almost assumed he didn't hear.

"Warm waters," he said, glancing up at Jisung when the boy stopped moving. "Others are on warm waters now. But… not my family," his eyes felt heavy on the boy's. "My family here," Minho nuzzled his head down to the sleeves of Seungmin's sweater, where he was supporting himself on the edge of the pool. "Mine."

Jisung almost hit a revelation that would make the mermaid's behavior since they met make sense, but he had a way too nerdy brain. "Warm waters?!" He clapped, face illuminated to the revelation, "Ah! So mermaids migrate during winter. Interesting. So maybe the theory of a mating season is not wrong?" He turned back to his desk, not catching the way Minho let out a soft sigh, tired eyes dropping. "Some fishes also have a mating season when migrating in winter. Maybe mermaids are like that?" Jisung rushed, taking notes on the journal he had started just to keep track of his mermaid's discoveries.

"That brings the question… how big is a mermaid group?" The human turned to see the mermaid again, ready to grab the whiteboard and teach him numbers, but stopped when he noticed Minho had fallen asleep again. He blinked twice, taking in the soft way Minho's lip formed a pout, the skin reddened and looking a bit dry probably because of the cold. The mermaid's cheeks were constantly pink now, as well as his nose, and Jisung had noticed he slept a lot in the last few weeks since the winter had properly settled.

He sighed, getting up and slowly walking to crouch down right in front of where Minho was resting his head and arms on the edge of the pool. Jisung observed him for a long second before reaching with his hand to push the blond hair away from Minho's temple, "Minho, you should be in warmer waters too, shouldn't you?"

His fingers brushed the mermaid's temple and he frowned when he noticed the skin was warm. He had measured it before with a thermometer once. Minho's body temperature was usually a couple degrees lower than humans. Minho had a fever. Jisung moved to get up and find the thermometer again but the mermaid's eyes opened lazily, like if they felt heavy, and a hand grabbed the human's wrist, not letting him go and instead pulled him closer so Jisung was cupping Minho's cheek. The mermaid looked up at him with dizzy eyes and nuzzled into the contact while the human could only watch with wide eyes and properly feel how the mermaid was burning.

"Stay."

Jisung felt his stomach flip and fumbled with his words, "I'm not leaving, I–… I'm just gonna get the thermometer, I think you're sick. It's gonna be just a minute and I'll come back, I promise, Minho, I'm not going anywhere, just–" the sound of a message on his phone made him stop and Minho let go of his hand, glaring towards the desk. "–a second," Jisung moved to get his phone. Minho didn't seem like he minded, or more likely he seemed too tired to care.

Baby: it's snowing.

Baby: [pic]

Baby: stuck with jeongin because there's traffic.

Jisung glared at his screen for a second and then up at the window. It was dark outside already, the first snow of the year falling softly on a lazy December morning. The Aquarium hadn't opened its doors yet, the city was still waking up, Seungmin had been picked up by his friend to visit the physician for his weekly therapy session, and Jisung was on the other side of the city, near the sea, worried about a mermaid sick due to the cold. He cursed under his breath and went back to the mermaid.

"Minho…" he called, and the mermaid only huffed, flipping his tail on the back and splashing the water, "I cannot leave you here, and it's too cold outside." His eyes darted from Minho's dry lips to his red cheeks and the sweater that was too heavy and wet for someone sick to be wearing. Jisung took a deep breathe and glanced at his phone to get the time before sighing and making a decision quickly, "Okay."

The human knelt down and patted on Minho's shoulder softly, quickly shaking it when Minho didn't respond. The mermaid lifted his head and looked at Jisung with confusion but the boy moved backwards and patted the floor, "Can you get out?" Minho frowned, more confused, but Jisung patted the floor again and let out a frustrated sound. "I'm going to take you home," he pointed at himself, "Do you wanna come with me? It's warmer and you look sick."

Minho didn't need more details, as soon as Jisung said 'come with me' the mermaid pushed himself on the edge and struggled but got out, with Jisung's arms helpfully pulling from his armpits until Minho laid on top of his belly over the floor titles. Jisung took a deep breathe, taking a glance at the length of Minho's tail and doing quick math. He hurried to get his stuff in the backpack and got it on his shoulders before coming back and reaching. The mermaid's tail was longer than a pair of human's legs, but Jisung had noticed it was flexible so he tried to pick Minho up in a bridal style. Minho was heavy, heavier than Seungmin, but Jisung pressed his lips and brought him up after a short struggle, a hand under his tail and the other behind his back.

The mermaid's eyes widened and his arms came around Jisung's shoulders, gripping on the fabric of his coat as if he was scared of falling. Jisung held him tighter, stumbling back slightly due to the movement, the mermaid whistled with fear, "Fuck, fuck, you're heavy, don't move much!" He complained, finding balance again after a panicked second where he almost fell. "Okay. Just hold onto me, it's fine."

Minho didn't seem like he wanted to let go anyway and after a couple steps he discovered the perfect spot to hide on the human's neck and Jisung felt him nuzzle in, too warm, and dripping wet as he walked them out of the lab and, around the personnel area of the aquarium, towards the parking lot. Minho watched the white falling from the sky with curious and wonder over Jisung's shoulder while the human kept glancing around every second, just to make sure nobody saw him drag a mermaid to his car. Luckily for him the workers must be busy making sure everything was in order to open the doors for public in the next hour, so he reached his car, a dark blue pickup truck he had gotten from his dad.

Jisung lifted the cover from the corner and passing Minho over the fender settled him on the truck's bed, "Sorry, wait, let me…" he pushed aside some of the stuff he had there, including his personal diving equip, which he hadn't put back in its place. "There, you have more space," he helped the rest of Minho's tail in and the mermaid looked up at Jisung in confusion as if he wasn't happy to be put in there so Jisung gave him a sorry look, "It's a short drive! I can't fit you on the passenger seat with your tail," he excused and was about to say something else when he heard someone calling him from a couple cars away.

"Jisung-ah?"

In a swift movement he brought the cover back into place to hide Minho and turned around to face Hyunjin, who seemingly just arrived and was getting out of his car. "Ah, Hyunjin-ah, good morning."

"Good morning." Hyunjin eyed the hand Jisung used to hold the waterproof mat that worked as a cover for the truck's bed, "Are you just arriving? Do you need help unloading something?"

"What? Ah, no, no, I'm leaving." Jisung let out an awkward laugh. "Seungminnie is feeling sick and called, so I'm going home. I can work on my papers from there today," he gestured with a hand and Hyunjin bought it easily.

"Oh, Seungminnie is sick? That sucks, I'll have to call him later to see how he's doing," the guy reached for his phone inside his coat, "It's been a while since we hung out, we should do something before the year ends."

"Sure." Jisung felt wet fingers reaching for his hand, Minho's hand sneaking out of the cover. His eyes widened and he pushed the hand away as he forced a bigger smile, "All of us together would be nice!"

"Yeah, like we used to back in college. I haven't seen Felix in a while, do you know how is he doing if–"

"I should go now." Jisung interrupted Hyunjin before he could keep babbling.

The other boy blinked but nodded, stepping away and waving his hand. "Right, tell Seungminnie I hope he gets better. And I hope we can all hang out soon," he smiled with a bit of nostalgia but Jisung didn't have time to process the other's feeling when he had more urgent worries than Felix's ex being sappy near the holidays and the fact their friend group hadn't gathered in a while.

As soon as Hyunjin was out of his sight, Jisung lifted the cover and turned to Minho, "Okay, I think he didn't suspect anything, we're fine–" he stopped when he realized the mermaid had fallen asleep again. He sighed, bitting his lip, "I'm gonna get you home quickly, don't worry, Minho."

Jisung put the cover back in place and hurried to the front. He jumped into the seat, throwing his backpack aside and making sure to send a message for his boyfriend before turning on the engines.

Jisung settled the kettle on the stove and reached for the first drawer to his right on the kitchen counter, where Seungmin kept some of their medicines. He stopped when he heard the door opening and turned to see his boyfriend, right shoulder a bit stiff as always after a session, entering their apartment. Jisung leaned to smile at Seungmin from the kitchen, "Hi, baby, how was therapy?"

"Normal," the taller mumbled, taking off his shoes and coat before walking inside towards Jisung. His voice was low, heavy, and Jisung was familiar with the tone. Seungmin didn't like the therapy because it reminded him he could no longer play baseball professionally.

"Come here," he called, bringing Seungmin closer by the waist when he was in his reach to kiss him softly. Seungmin hummed against his lips and then nuzzled into his arms, face on his shoulder. He stayed there for only a second, until he noticed the stove was on and there was a pot with boiling water.

"Are you making lunch?" Seungmin pulled away, looking curiously between the kitchen and Jisung.

He smiled a bit, "Yeah. Something simple and reheating left overs. Why?"

"Mm. Nothing," Seungmin raised an eyebrow, "You didn't tell me why you were coming home early today either. Did something happened?"

Jisung blinked, he had barely sent a quick text telling Seungmin he would be home soon by the time he came back. He didn't mention the sick mermaid he had brought along. He smiled and let out an awkward laugh. "About that…" he started, passing a hand through his hair, but was interrupted when the kettle whistled, the water boiling.

"Get that," Seungmin prompted, pushing him a bit, and Jisung didn't miss time and nodded, turning around to get the kettle and pour the boiling water in the mug. He reached for the teabags he gathered before. "I'll go to the bathroom and come help in a second," his boyfriend said and Jisung just hummed.

It took him a second too long to process that sentence properly and by the time Jisung turned, eyes wide with a warning on his lips, "Wait, Seungminnie!" it was already too late. He left the mug and rushed to the bathroom, stopping to the image of his boyfriend frozen in the door, staring at the mermaid in their bathtub as the mermaid stared back at him. Seungmin took a deep breathe before Jisung could say anything and without moving his eyes from the man with a fish tail. The bathtub was too small for him and the tail hung out of it splayed over the bathroom rug, white scales pretty surrounded by the gray aesthetic of their bathroom.

"Han Jisung."

"Yes, baby?" He mumbled, smiling innocently, but Seungmin didn't even blink in his direction. His voice was calm.

"Why is there a man with a fish tail in our bathroom?"

"He's actually a mermaid not a man with a fish tail," Jisung answered, "That's the definition of a mermaid… but you get my point." Seungmin turned and glared at him, so Jisung quickly added, still smiling awkwardly, "At least now you know I wasn't lying about Minho's existence?"

Seungmin opened and closed his mouth as if he was at a loss of words. He turned his head towards the mermaid and then back to Jisung. He came closer to his boyfriend, explaining in a quick way, "So, apparently mermaids migrate during winter but for some reason he stayed here and got sick, so I figured out I had to do something so he doesn't die, you know? And so I brought him here, filled the tub with warm water and I was making him some tea and trying to find the ibuprofen to give him some, though I still don't know if I should give him human drugs, but at least he's not freezing anymore and–"

Minho was just looking between them with curiosity, his brow furrowing slightly when Seungmin lifted a hand and Jisung shut his mouth. They stared at each other in silence for a second, Jisung smiled a bit again but Seungmin didn't seem to find it funny, "Why is he wearing my sweater?" He pointed.

"I lent it to him but he didn't want to let go of it after."

Minho sniffled and right away sneezed cutely before letting out a grumpy sound and moving his tail with annoyance, the water splashing slightly out of the bathtub border. Jisung saw the way Seungmin's eyes went back to the mermaid, probably taking in the red on his face and ears, the way his lips were a bit dry even when he was lying in water hot enough to make the bathroom's mirror foggy. Minho stared back at Seungmin, his eyes sharp. He still looked a bit tired, but also as if he didn't trust the new human enough to doze off in his presence.

"He shouldn't keep that thing wet on him if he got a cold," Seungmin frowned a bit to himself.

Minho growled glaring at him and Jisung took it as a sign, grabbing his boyfriend's arm and dragging him back to the kitchen, "I'll try to take it in a moment, babe. Uh… what don't we talk in the kitchen, um? I was making tea to give him some pills and we can have lunch in a second?"

Seungmin's brow was still furrowed but he let Jisung drag him away from the bathroom door and pressed his lips. "Okay," he muttered, eyes on Jisung, and taking the other's hand off himself once Minho could no longer see them from the hallway turn, "Then talk."

Jisung grimaced. He hated arguments. He usually didn't argued with Seungmin, not for real, they had banter all the time, but mostly over stupid stuff or Jisung being dramatic and sulking. But in those Seungmin's tone was only fake serious, and nothing like the plain one he had just used. "Baby, I already told you, he seems sick, probably the weather, and I couldn't just let him die out there, right?" he started, gesturing with his hands nervously, walking closer to Seungmin and then back to rest his lower back on the counter, "I brought him here just till he gets better… and the weather gets warmer."

Seungmin's expression didn't falter, he narrowed his eyes a bit, so Jisung pressed his hands together, "It's temporary!"

"So your plan is to keep him in our bathtub till like March? April?"

Jisung bit his lip, admittedly, he hadn't thought much about those details. Seungmin sighed, "Sung-ah, we can't keep a mermaid in our bathroom for months. How are we supposed to use it?!"

"Oh, that's not an issue, I had to pee before, if you ask him to look away he's really polite."

Seungmin blinked, his expression glitching for a second, he shook his head slightly, titled it and frowned again, "You…"

"I mean, I was technically giving my back to him, and he was not looking. I think? And I really had to pee, it was that or the pot on the balcony," he babbled, pointing to the glass door at the end of their living room to make a point.

His boyfriend rubbed his face, like he wasn't sure what to say to that, "Okay, fine, what about showering? How are we gonna shower? Are we just gonna skip for three months? Go to Jeongin's to use theirs? Tell him ours is broken? Or maybe ask the neighbor if we could bath at their place a couple times– wait," Seungmin cut himself with a gesture before Jisung could say anything to his questions –luckily because those very valid questions Jisung didn't actually had answers for–, "Did anyone see you bring him in here?"

Jisung lit up, that was a question he could answer, "No! Maybe only the little kid from the first floor before the elevator doors closed... But it's okay, I don't think anyone would believe her and I will give her some candy to keep her quiet," he waved his hand.

Seungmin took a deep breathe, "Great, we're bribing the neighbor's kid…" and paced a bit on the spot until Jisung reached for him, grabbing his boyfriend's hand, "Look, he doesn't need to be in the bathtub all the time, I'm pretty sure nothing will happen if he's like… in our living room as we shower, right? Nothing happened when he was out of the water on the way here anyway," Jisung tried to convince him, squeezing his hands.

He remembered the first time he begged his parents to buy him a fish and a small aquarium when he was a kid, it wasn't much different to this, Jisung thought, so he stared at his boyfriend's eyes and made sure to purse his lip in a cute pout and get his best begging look, "Please, babe, I promise I will carry him in and out of it so you don't have to lift him with your shoulder. And I'll get your fave takeout for a week if you let me take care of him here. Otherwise I'll have to take him back to the Aquarium but the heating system there is not too good because the lab is next to the sea and also I'm afraid someone would see him and I'm not sure that's…"

Seungmin sighed, "Jisung…"

"Please, babe."

They stared at each other for a longer second, "You beg for him like he's a small pet and not a whole fish man bigger than our tub…" and then Seungmin gave in and slightly relaxed his frown before rolling his eyes, "Okay, fine, yes, okay, we can keep the mermaid. Temporarily," he added the last part but Jisung was already smiling and pulled him in for a kiss on the lips while giggling.

"You're the best, did I ever tell you that, Kim Seungmin? I love you so much, I'm so lucky to have you!" He muttered, pulling away and then kissing him quickly again, "I promise he's very nice and you're gonna take a liking to him." His boyfriend held back another roll of his eyes as Jisung moved to grab the tea and the pills, "I'm gonna bring these to him now and try to take the sweater from him. We can have lunch after!"

Seungmin followed him to the bathroom a couple steps behind but stayed in the door as Jisung entered, crossing over Minho's tail and getting closer to the bathtub side where the mermaid was resting on his arms. He opened his eyes and looked up to Jisung when the human came closer, making a soft and tired chirping sound. Jisung knelt down a bit, "Take this," he said softly, passing the mug first and the pills right after. "Put these in your mouth and swallow with the tea," he instructed with gestures.

Minho got the message quickly and took the pills, scrunching his face as he passed them down and then sniffing the tea a second after tasting it before deciding he doesn't like it. "Did you put sugar in it?" Seungmin said and the mermaid looked up to Seungmin at the same time Jisung turned to his boyfriend with a sheepish expression, he forgot the sugar in the hurry and mess and the tea was probably no longer hot. Minho glared between them when Seungmin read the answer on his boyfriend's face without needing Jisung to voice it, and Jisung saw the questions in the mermaid's eyes, so he sighed, taking the mug and putting it away.

"So, Minho, he's Seungmin, my boyfriend."

"Seungmin," the mermaid repeated, sharp eyes glaring at Seungmin up and down as the boy leaned by the door –blinking surprised to the mermaid's sweet voice– and then turned back to Jisung with curiosity, "Boyfriend?"

"He can talk?" Seungmin said at the same time.

"I talk," Minho scoffed as Jisung gestured with his hand 'so so' to Seungmin: "He learns pretty fast."

"I see…" his boyfriend muttered, eyes narrowed to the mermaid who ignored him and turned to Jisung again.

"What boyfriend?"

Jisung blinks, realizing Minho surely doesn't understands such human concept. "Oh," he brings a hand to his chin, thoughtfully, "Boyfriends are like... a couple. Like, family. Or mates! Like, you live together, and kiss and well, love each other and mm... like your group? like... partners make babies. No, wait, we can't have babies... how do I..." He tries to explain as he feels Seungmin's eyes on them.

"Is this how you've been communicating?"

He struggles, "Kinda? I also have a whiteboard on the lab so sometimes I will just show him."

Seungmin raises an eyebrow and Minho's tail splashes a bit, successfully bringing Jisung's attention back to him. The human claps as if his brain suddenly got it, "Boyfriends! Boy is because he's male! Like me, like you!" he points between the three, "Right? At least I think you're male..." he added in a mutter and shook his head right away, "And friends, like... people who really like each other and stick together? Mm, like families and groups of mermaids."

Minho frowned a bit, trying to understand the concept, "Boy... friend?"

Jisung, wasn't sure how else to explain it so he hummed, hoping that if Minho didn't get it right now he would in the near future. Minho took another second to think before pointing between Seungmin and him and then himself and Jisung, "Boyfriends."

His eyes widened and he hurried to move his head and arms to sign a no, "No, no, no, no." Minho titled his head with confusion and Jisung pointed between Seungmin and him, "He and I are boyfriends," and then the mermaid and him, "You and I are just friends."

The mermaid frowned, making a short sound and moving his tail stubbornly, "But boyfriends is family."

Jisung blinked at him with confusion, he did established that as a concept he felt Minho would understand, but he wasn't sure how it was related. But before he could question it further and understand, Seungmin cleared his throat and he glared at his boyfriend who eyed towards the sweater Minho was wearing. "Ah, right. Minho, I need to take this off," he pulled at the sleeve and Minho growled but Jisung insisted, "I promise you can have it back when you get better. But you need to warm up and this thing is wet and not good…"

The mermaid didn't like the idea and tried to move away as Jisung got up to try take the sweater off him, "Minho, please–"

"Mine."

"It's actually my sweater," Seungmin said from the door and Minho glared at him, blinking as the human held his eyes with equal intensity. Jisung wasn't sure who to look at nor what was going on, but suddenly Minho seemed to understand something and peeled the sweater off without further sulking, so the human smiled and grabbed it when Minho threw it aside.

"Oop. Thanks," he said, still smiled, and moved to pass the sweater to Seungmin. It was soaking wet and probably needed to be washed. Seungmin grabbed it and frowned to the state of the fabric, damaged by the salt water, he sighed in frustration, muttering to himself as he took it out of the bathroom, "I liked this sweater."

The mermaid flicked his tail again, opting to sink down in the bathtub and close his eyes.

Seungmin refused to call Minho anything but fish man for the next couple days. Every time it happened Jisung had softly corrected it to 'mermaid' and yet his boyfriend pretended not to hear. He sighed and let it be, trying to tiptoe around Seungmin and Minho's grumpy state. At least the warm water, the pills and the tea –Jisung had made sure to put sugar in it and discovered that the mermaid actually had a sweet tooth– made Minho look better, which was good because Seungmin refused to use the bathroom if the mermaid was inside.

"Can you move the fish man–"

"Mermaid."

"–so i can shower?"

"I need to use the bathroom, Sung, can you get the fish man–"

"Minho."

"–out?"

"Could you please take the fish–"

"Mermaid."

"–man out of the tub?"

Minho didn't seem bothered by Jisung picking him up and dragging him out of the bathtub to set him on the sofa. In fact, he seemed to like the sofa, running his curious tiny hands on the cushion's fabric and trying to sit up by holding onto the back so he could look around. His eyes were curious, shiny, and wandered around their tiny living room with interest. He had jumped a bit when Jisung turned on the TV out of nowhere, and the human flinched as Minho's tail hit the coffee table and luckily there was nothing on it to break.

Jisung was gonna turn it off, but after the initial surprise, Minho seemed interested, eyes following the images. The human smiled softly and explained a bit of it, and upon a sudden idea he found some cartoons with easy dialogues for Minho to follow. Maybe he would learn a couple more words and Jisung would be finally able to ask him important stuff and the stuff that he didn't think was important but Seungmin kept asking, like how old was Minho.

"I don't know," Jisung had said when Seungmin asked the morning after Minho arrived to their bathroom, as they were still in bed, Jisung clinging to his boyfriend under the covers, cold hands trying to gather the warmth under Seungmin's shirt and making him hiss.

"Ask him."

"I'm not sure mermaids count time the same as us," he tried to say but Seungmin huffed.

"You said they migrate. If it's a seasonal thing then it happens once a year, like with most animals, right?"

Jisung had pushed himself up on an elbow, meeting his boyfriend's eyes, "You're right."

"You could ask him focusing on that."

He smiled and leaned to capture his boyfriend's lips. "You're so smart," he praised against his mouth and the boy smiled back a bit, but Jisung cut the kiss before Seungmin could bring him closer. "I need to pee," he said, moving out of bed and wining a complaining whine from his boyfriend, "What should we have for breakfast."

Seungmin groaned, sitting up. "I'm reheating the fish soup," he said, his tone low key grumpy, "That's what fish are good for… eating them." Jisung pretended not to hear and moved to the door, making Seungmin sigh, "At least take him out of the bathroom before you pee! I don't trust him not to look! Jisung-ah!"

He had actually tried to explain to Minho the concept of a year, he had used paper and pencil, he had tried to explain with his own age. It had circled around without results because Minho didn't really have a concept of numbers, time didn't seem to mean the same to him and it was surprisingly hard to count back on how many times had Minho migrated to the south with his mermaid group. But maybe with the right cartoons Minho would learn to count and talk better, there were kid's shows that taught those these days, right?

The mermaid seemed to like the sofa and even if he and Seungmin glared at each other with a tense vibe, Jisung let Minho spent most of the Sunday on their sofa watching educational cartoons. It was harder to bring Minho back to the bathtub that night, after they ate dinner. Jisung had insisted and Seungmin even though sulking had agreed to sit on the low coffee table and watch his boyfriend teach the fish man how to use chopsticks. Seungmin pushed down the acid feeling every time Minho failed, making a mess and winning a shiny laugh from Jisung. After they finished their food Seungmin picked the dishes and Jisung picked Minho up to drag him back to the bathtub.

Even if Minho seemed just fine siting outside the water, Jisung was scared it was bad for him to be out of it for too long. He grabbed the mermaid under his arms, bringing him in as if to hug him and Minho, by instinct or more likely because he had already been moved like that many times during the weekend, laced his arms around the human's shoulders, glaring at Seungmin's sulking expression with some pride. Jisung, unaware of the silent war, moved him to the bathroom, the mermaid's tail dragging on the floor as he struggled to bring him back into the bathtub while walking backwards.

"This would be so much easier if you could grow legs… but I guess real mermaids don't do that and it's only fiction… because you've been out of the water long enough to dry and still…," he fumbled and Minho stared at him with shiny eyes for a second, but nothing happened.

Or at least nothing happened until the next morning when Jisung left bed early to his alarm and barefoot moved to the bathroom while his eyes still hadn't fully opened. He opened the door and barely glanced at the bathtub as he moved to the toilet, lifting the lid and yawning before he realized he hadn't stumbled over Minho's tail on the way. Jisung turned around and stumbled back with a scream when he noticed Minho's sleepy form in the water had two legs. The tail hadn't just magically disappeared, as Jisung took in the white scales floating on the water and on the floor, some slick substance flooding from the border, as if the tail had melted over night.

"HE HAS LEGS!" Jisung yelled, half surprised and half amused, the tone making the mermaid stir and bringing a sleepy Seungmin to the door.

"What's going on…? Why are you screaming, it's six in the morning…"

"HE HAS LEGS!" He pointed again and Seungmin turned to look as Minho, yawning, sat up and in a pair of shaky legs tried to stand, "Careful, you–" Jisung moved to help and stopped as Minho held onto him, his eyes trailing down without his permission and his mouth rounding. "Oh, yes he's definitely male," he muttered, his cheeks reddening.

Seungmin frowned, following Jisung's pupils but closing his eyes with an annoyed sigh,

"Can you not stare at another guy's dick while your boyfriend is still here?"

Minho didn't like the idea of staying home with Seungmin alone. He seemed to like it even less than wearing the boxers, pants and shirt Jisung had to force on him once his tail was gone because Seungmin wouldn't just have the man naked around their apartment. Jisung didn't like it either, especially not when that morning Seungmin made fish soup again for breakfast and added it to Jisung's lunchbox, but considering he was the only one of them currently employed he couldn't risk being fired.

So even when Minho looked at him with big confused eyes, Jisung still put his shoes on and promised he would come back in the afternoon and that Seungmin would take care of him. Seungmin pulled him for his mandatory kiss before leaving and the mermaid narrowed his eyes in annoyance, but Jisung just waved to him, picked up his back and left. As soon as Jisung was done, the other human stared into Minho with sharp eyes that met the mermaid's equal sharp gaze. Seungmin didn't like it any more than Minho but his boyfriend hadn't really considered how he would take care of a mermaid at home if he had to work and he couldn't just flush the guy down the toilet and tell Jisung his fish man had taken a trip to heaven.

Seungmin had made his way back to his shared room with Jisung after a long second but Minho stood a bit longer in the entrance, as if he was waiting for the biologist to come back. When he didn't and Minho started to get bored he made his way back to the sofa and turned on the TV to find the cartoons Jisung usually settled for him. He zapped through the channels, that much he understood how to do on the device, but since he didn't know how to read nor had learned how to find the streaming services, he couldn't find the right ones. Defeated, Minho dragged his feet down the short hall and pushed the bedroom's door open to peek inside and hold the controller up.

"What?" Seungmin lifted his eyes from where he was scrolling on his phone while lying down as soon as he felt the movement on the edge of his vision.

"The TV."

"What about it?"

Minho frowned, "I wanna watch." He didn't move from the door, as if an invisible barrier kept him out of Seungmin's space as much as possible, especially since Jisung wasn't there.

The human raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, so?" Seungmin sat up, lowering his phone but barely showing interest in Minho's problem, "You can turn it on and swipe channels, Jisung showed you how."

He let out a frustrated sound, moving the controller in his hold, urging Seungmin to grab it but the human didn't compile nor leave the bed to help him. Jisung always understood, even when Minho didn't know how to voice something in human's words. The biologist had his board or the papers and a lot of questions, gentle eyes and gestures as he tried to communicate, understand or explain something to Minho. He would've known what Minho wanted without the mermaid needing to remember the specific word for it, but Jisung's boyfriend didn't. Or at least, he pretended he didn't and Minho scoffed in disgust as he rummaged for the word in his head. Jisung had called it…

"Cartoons," he muttered, waving the controller again, "I wanna watch cartoons."

"Then watch them," Seungmin said, and before Minho could insist further he laid back down and ignored him.

Minho didn't like to stay home alone with Seungmin. He was stuck watching a random channel with idols variety shows that were too fast, had too many texts and established dynamics that Minho didn't' understand. At some point he was hungry and he was too prideful to go find Jisung's boyfriend again so instead he found the kitchen's cabinet where his human kept those cookies Minho had liked. He was looking through the snacks trying to find the ones he wanted when he heard Seungmin coming out of the room and the tingle of keys. Minho turned around and found Seungmin staring at him with a frown and keys in hands.

"What are you doing?"

"Hungry," he answered quickly, face still and tone plain.

Jisung's boyfriend raised both eyebrows and then huffed, shaking his head before moving to the front door. Minho frowned and followed him, the cabinet hanging open on the back. "I'm going out," Seungmin was saying, ignoring the way the mermaid followed his tracks, "I have to do groceries and I'm meeting a friend for lunch. You can eat all of Jisung's snacks and there's fish soup covered on the stove."

Minho didn't understand half of it but one thing was clear enough for him to comprehend, "You leaving?"

Seungmin didn't bother to answer, just humming as he sat down to put on his shoes. Minho stood there with a frown for a long moment. Minho didn't like the idea of being home alone with Seungmin but he liked the idea of being home alone on his own even worse. And Jisung had promised Seungmin would take care of him –not that Minho needed the mean human, but it was Jisung's promise. So there was only a logic solution to that. He sat down next to Seungmin and reached for the closest shoes he could grab in the entrance, which happened to be a pair of Seungmin's old sportive shoes.

The human stopped as he watched the mermaid awkwardly trying to fit his feet in the shoe. His shoe.

"What are you doing?"

"Going too."

Seungmin laughed. It wasn't as pretty a laugh as Jisung's, it was a bit cold and fake. Minho turned to look at him, dead serious. Seungmin's laugh died, "No, you're not."

Seungmin could feel the start of a headache on the side of his head. He picked what he needed from the island at his right, settled it in his basket and walked faster to find the next thing on his list when a hand placed something inside his basket. Seungmin stopped in his tracks, looked down and saw what looked like the potato chips Jisung loved on top of his groceries.

"No," he took it out and tried to put it back on the shelf Minho had taken it from. The fish man frowned, and when Seungmin hurried to move away, he reached to place it back in Seungmin's basket. Again. The human took a deep breathe and grabbed the potato chips, walking back to put them away. "No, we're not buying potato chips. Jisung has a lot of snacks at home yet, we don't need more."

"Not these," Minho argued, picking them up again, but this time Seungmin pushed them away before the mermaid could place them in the basket. Again. "These red. I didn't see red ones." Great, he had learned some colors with Jisung's cartoons, Seungmin was impressed, he supposed.

The human sighed, "It doesn't matter, I'm still not buying them. Put them back."

"I want them."

"Well, that's too bad, because I'm not paying for them," he placed the chips back on the shelf and walked away fast.

Minho followed him with quick steps.

A part of him had hoped to loose the mermaid after they left home fifteen minutes later than Seungmin had planned to because he had to make Minho change into clothes that weren't Jisung's shorts and used t-shirt. He had ignored Minho at first, but when he reached the elevator, barefoot mermaid in used clothes behind him and the old lady from two doors away of his apartment came out and greeted him with a smile before looking at Minho concerned and curious, Seungmin felt his cheeks warm of embarrassment. "Are you cold, young man?" The auntie had said, and Minho had nodded, looking at Seungmin pointedly. So Seungmin didn't have a choice but to go back and provide Minho with proper clothes, since he was stupid enough to follow the human outside in the cold being barely covered.

There was still a part of him that wished Minho would just take the wrong turn or get so curious about the stuff on the store's shelves that he would loose Seungmin and with that his way back to Seungmin's house. But another part of him kept slowing down and looking back whenever Minho stayed behind looking at something with curiosity. If he lost the mermaid out in the wild, Jisung wouldn't forgive him, and Seungmin wasn't that cruel as to leave Minho out in a world with rules he didn't understand. His heart had rushed in fear when Minho almost ventured in front of a car before they reached the store, luckily his hand had acted fast and he grabbed the mermaid's wrist to pull him back to the sidewalk safely.

Yet, he was not getting more chips.

Seungmin grabbed the things left on his list for the week, Minho walking behind him and uninterested in the shampoos. The fish man didn't attempt to get anything else in the basket until Seungmin got the basket on top of the counter to pay and the girl behind it started to check out his groceries. When she had almost poured everything into bags after mechanically scanning each product, Minho added a serving of pudding into the basket and she grabbed it by inertia before Seungmin even reacted.

The girl blinked towards Seungmin, "This too?" She asked as Seungmin was already glaring at Minho.

"No," he muttered, took the pudding from her hand with a polite smile, "I'm sorry," and passed it back to the fish man with a low voice, "Put it back, you don't even know what this is."

"I know. I like it," Minho insisted and Seungmin wondered if Jisung had let him try it yesterday. Seungmin didn't have much of a sweet tooth, so he didn't keep track of Jisung's deserts. "I want it," he repeated, and dodging Seungmin's hand placed the pudding on the counter and looked at the girl expectantly, "This too."

She raised an eyebrow and eyed Seungmin, but he just pressed his lips, not really wanting to make more of a scene in front of her. "Do you wanna pay by card or cash?" She asked after a second and he brought out his wallet in defeat. Whatever, it couldn't be that expensive, so he passed the card to the cashier without a word and they were heading out of the store shortly after.

Seungmin carried the bags on his left hand and as soon as they were away he passed one of the bags to Minho with a slightly annoyed tone, "If you're gonna be annoying, you should at least help." The fish man blinked but grabbed the bag after a second, when Seungmin let go of it all of the sudden and resumed walking. Minho looked inside the bag, the pudding sat on top of the other products safely, so he could have it once they got back to the apartment, he smiled to himself, pleased with his treat for a second before realizing Seungmin was a few steps in front and hurrying to catch him. It took Minho only a moment to realize they weren't moving in the same direction they'd come from.

"Where are we going?" He asked, matching Seungmin's pace easily even if the human's legs were longer.

"I told you I was having lunch with a friend."

"What friend?"

Jisung came back from work around six. It had been a long and boring day, two talks for the kids, one on jellyfishes again one on the importance of corals, and a lot of lab work and paper. He hadn't realize how used he had grown to Minho's presence in the lab's pool until he spent hours sitting at his desk or checking the coral he was growing without anyone to turn to for talking. Sometimes he got so bored his mind would wander to the mermaid and a question would come up, but he couldn't ask it because Minho wasn't there, he was home with Seungmin.

He had texted his boyfriend several times through the day, but all the info he got from him was that Seungmin and Minho had gone out and maybe met Felix for lunch. Jisung didn't need to be a genius to know Seungmin was annoyed at this arrangement, and it was totally his fault, so he stopped by a flower shop on his way home and arrived carrying a bucket of Seungmin's fave ones.

He was received by a grumpy Seungmin, who kept sending him and Minho glares even when he received the flowers and a loud kiss from Jisung, and a Minho who was happily eating a pudding and was more interested in the flowers than Seungmin was. Dinner was kinda tense, Jisung tried to do conversation, but his jokes always landed in silence: Seungmin wasn't in the mood and Minho didn't get most of them yet. And yet, he tried, he helped Seungmin with the dishes, hugged him from behind and kissed his shoulder a couple times, watching his boyfriend melt a bit to the affection just to glare again when Jisung's attention moved back to the mermaid who wanted to show Jisung the words he learned today and tell him about the friend of Seungmin he met.

"I told him Minho is a friend of yours from abroad," his boyfriend had explained when the lunch with the Aussie came into the conversation, "Luckily, Felix is not one to ask many questions… but if hyung discovers him, we're in troubles, we don't even know his age and he can barely talk."

"I can talk," Minho argued, "I talked Felix."

"To. You talked to Felix," Seungmin corrected with a glare and Minho repeated the whole thing in low voice, as if he was trying to memorize the structure being corrected.

Jisung couldn't help a small smile, because it was kinda funny, but it quickly turned into a short nervous laugh when Seungmin's sharp eyes caught it. "We will be fine! Did you tell Felix where was he from?"

"Malaysia," Seungmin muttered, "I also said he doesn't speak English and not much Korean."

"Okay, then we stick to that story and I think we will be fine!" Jisung said quickly, "Even if hyung finds about Minho, they have no way to know he's actually a mermaid and not a foreigner with little language knowledge. Right?"

"As long as he doesn't grow his tail back out of nowhere I guess… but he legally still doesn't exist, nor does he even have a last name and we don't know his age, so if Chan-hyung gets even just a bit suspicious–"

"What's hyung?" Minho interrupted, turning his eyes between the two of them as he munched on his food –he was still awkward with the chopsticks but Seungmin had gotten him some practice ones and he was doing just fine with those and a spoon.

"Oh, you call someone hyung when they're older than you," Jisung explained shortly, and Seungmin added reluctantly after a second:

"Someone who's lived more than you." It was slightly more specific, but Seungmin wasn't about to try to explain it in more details, his boyfriend was.

"If you're a boy you call the boys who are at least one year older than you 'hyung'. If you were a girl you would call them 'oppa'. Also if the person who's older is a girl its not 'hyung' but noona, since you're a boy, but if you were a girl and wanted to call a girl who's at least one year older than you, you would call her 'unnie'," he babbled. "Now, if they're way older than you and not just some years, you call them something else, like–"

Seungmin interrupted his boyfriend by pressing some meat wrapped in lettuce into his mouth. Jisung glanced at him with a frown but still munched on the food and stopped his explanation. Minho hummed, as if he was taking in the concept and nodded before going back to his food. None of the humans were sure he understood the concept of years the same way they did and his age was yet a mystery even if he didn't look much older than them.

It was more or less the same for the rest of the week: Jisung would arrive after work with flowers for Seungmin and hear in bits from them about their shared day.

On Tuesday, white roses and Seungmin scolding Minho for lying in the bathtub fully dressed and ruining his clothes.

"Why does he only uses my clothes?" his boyfriend had complained once they got in bed.

"He said its softer and comfier," Jisung passed an arm over his waist, pulling him closer, "Maybe we should buy him his own clothes?" He said, and before Seungmin could question their economy not being the best, Jisung added, "If you accept the offer from the school–"

Seungmin glared at him, ignoring the last part, "What are we gonna do with his clothes once he goes back to the sea?"

"Mm… keep them in case he wanna come visit?" He suggested with a sheepish smile before sighing and kissing Seungmin's shoulder sweetly, "I don't know, babe, but its that or he's using our clothes."

Seungmin had melted. Seungmin always melted. "Well, but if he's gonna lie with clothes on inside the bathtub it better be your clothes. He already ruined my sweater."

On Wednesday, yellow tulips and Minho happy after discovering Seungmin's fave shampoo did the best bubbles.

"I'll buy you a new bottle tomorrow, baby," Jisung muttered, snuggling close to his boyfriend in bed, kissing the side of his neck as Seungmin scoffed.

"He also uses my colone from the bathroom's shelf."

"That's because you smell really good," he said, mouthing at his boyfriend jaw, hands moving under his shirt, "Sweet."

On Thursday, jasmines and Minho complaining about Seungmin taking over the couch and the TV to watch baseball.

"He almost bit me!"

"He's like a toddler, Min, you need to be patient with him," Jisung mumbled, but he had his doubts about calming Seungmin this time. Even Minho had been mad that afternoon when Jisung arrived, complaining because Seungmin had changed the channel to baseball –the mermaid didn't really understand what baseball was, but being forced to watch something he hadn't picked wasn't nice.

"I'm patient," Seungmin turned to face him in bed, "I let him in our apartment, I cook enough for him or pay for his ration of take out, I let him use my products because he doesn't seem to like yours, he has followed me outside every fucking time I take a trip to meet Lix or even to get the trash out."

"But you can't deny he's cute when clueless following you around."

His boyfriend just glared at him and Jisung gave his best begging eyes, "We can't kick him out. It's cold. And he wouldn't survive out there. And also we don't know if he can grow his tail back. I can't just…"

Seungmin took a deep breathe and sighed, rolling his eyes a bit, "I hate you. You're not sleeping on the sofa just because the fish man is there."

Jisung smiled a bit, pulling him closer and reaching to kiss his lips, "I love you too."

"At least teach him how to do dishes or something," Seungmin muttered against his lips, "And that he needs less toothpaste to brush his teeth. Please."

He nodded, moving to straddle his boyfriend as he kept kissing him, "I will, I promise."

He wouldn't call it a war but there was certainly a rivalry that was fun to watch –not that he would admit it to Seungmin and risk being kicked from their bedroom. Not that Jisung caught all of it, but he wasn't stupid enough to not notice when Seungmin was territorial over him: sitting on his lap or making soft pecks into unnecessarily deep goodbye kisses. And then there was Minho, who's eyes he could feel every time Seungmin kissed him, Minho who rested his head on Jisung's lap when Jisung showed anime to him, Minho who would try to hand feed him the gimbap Seungmin had just made. Jisung wasn't picking up on all of it, he missed Seungmin meeting Minho's eyes at his back every time his boyfriend kissed him, and he missed the way the mermaid's eyes followed them to their shared room and he stayed on the makeshift bed of the sofa.

And there was Friday's morning.

Jisung's alarm went off and he whined, rolling to reach for his phone and turn it off while his eyes were still closed. Usually Seungmin would get up first and wake him up instead of the annoying tune, but not on Fridays. Seungmin visited the hospital on Fridays. He reached for his phone and swiped to turn it off before pressing his face on the pillow with a low groan. "I don't wanna go to work," he mumbled pouting as he felt a hand sliding around his waist and his boyfriend's sleepy voice:

"You need to go to work, Sung. Get up."

He complained in a whine but rolled without pushing the hand away and sat up, "What if I call in saying I'm sick today?" Jisung rubbed his face, trying to keep his eyes open and wondering if he could just quit instead.

"We need to pay the bills," Seungmin mumbled, words mushed, "And you're a bad liar."

He scoffed, turning to refute that, ready to sulk and lie above of his boyfriend to make a point not even he would believe, but words never left his throat. Jisung froze, eyes widening as his stomach went cold. Seungmin was gonna kill him. He was a dead man either he pretended to see nothing and got up now or told his boyfriend that the body he was hugging was not Jisung's but Minho's.

Jisung held back a squeaky sound, bringing a quick hand to cover his mouth, when Seungmin snuggled closer to Minho's back, tightening the grip around his waist and pressing his nose on the back of the mermaid's neck.

"Get up," His boyfriend whispered in the other's boy's neck with a kiss. A kiss.

Jisung should've felt jealous. Right? But there was something so soft in the image that mixed with the surprise and the fear of his imminent death. He didn't feel jealous. He felt warm on the verge of cuteness aggression and a panic attack. Minho groaned, frowning and slowly opening his eyes with a cute feline yawn, his arm across Jisung's lap stretching as he looked up at the human with the cutest sleepy expression.

Jisung was dead.

Seungmin pressed another kiss on the back of Minho's neck. "Don't fall back to sleep, Sung," he whispered, and bit down, making Minho let out a surprised yelp, which finally made Seungmin open his eyes. Jisung didn't dare to move when Seungmin's eyes focused on the hair very much blond on the person he was hugging and then found his boyfriend's eyes staring at them. Jisung saw the exact moment Seungmin realized what was going on in their bed, he saw the way his eyes expanded, how he snapped his arm away and turned to roll away. But their bed was not big enough and Seungmin fell from the border, tangled in the bedsheets and hitting the floor with a pained, "Ah!"

Jisung got up immediately, rounding the bed to reach for his boyfriend, eyes falling on the hurt shoulder that hit the floor first under his weight, "Seungmin-ah! Fuck, you okay?" He reached for his arm as Seungmin hissed in pain, "Do you want me to get ice? Does it hurt too bad? Is it–"

"I'm fine," his boyfriend said through gritted teeth, but he let Jisung help him up, allowing Jisung's hand to slip around his waist protectively, "Why is the fish man in our bed?"

"Uh… I don't–" his words slowed down as he glanced at Minho, who was lazily stretching and opening his eyes to them with innocence. Minho didn't know why they were making so much noise so early in the morning. Minho. Minho who stretched like a cat and sat up. Minho who was fully naked and not only shirtless as Jisung thought when the bedsheets covered them. "–know..."

"How did he get in our bed?"

"Mm?" The mermaid rubbed his face, clueless. But Jisung was not looking at his cute face when Minho reached for the bedsheets that fell with Seungmin to try and go back to sleep. His cheeks were warm. Wow.

"Jisung? Are you listening to me?" Seungmin frowned and turned to follow Jisung's eyes. It was already too late, Jisung was a dead man anyway. His sentence was sealed by Seungmin hitting his hands away and rushing out of the room. He reacted quickly, blushing profusely and following his boyfriend with a pouty voice,

"Wait, Seungmin-ah! I wasn't staring!"

The bathroom's door closed with a small bang and Jisung sighed in frustration, passing a hand through his hair and moving his eyes to Minho, who at some point through their discussion peeked out of the bedroom and moved to the couch as soon as Seungmin desisted on the talk and decided it was time to get ready for the day. He took a deep breathe now as the mermaid's innocent but worried eyes met his before he covered the distance to the sofa and sat down with him.

"Okay, so we talked and we think is time for us to talk about boundaries."

"Boundaries?" Minho frowns a bit.

"Yes, boundaries are like limits and in order to be in good therms with someone you need to make sure you don't cross their boundaries, alright?" The mermaid hummed uncompromisingly and Jisung continued, "So… the bed is out of limits. Being fully naked outside the bathtub is also outside of limits unless you're changing clothes. So, what I'm trying to say is… you can't do that again."

"What again?"

"Getting in our bed naked."

"Clothes on?"

Jisung moved his hands quickly, "No, no, no, bed is off limits. You sleep on the sofa! We even got you pillows and…"

Minho's frowns deepened, "It's small, the bed is more comfortable."

The human sighed, casting a glance in the bathroom's direction. Seungmin was probably taking longer than usual just to give time for Jisung to fix it, as he'd put it before. He moved a hand through his hair again, wishing he had his whiteboard to explain Minho the concept of a boundary, of jealousy and privacy. Not that he was sure he could make the mermaid understand even with colorful markers and drawings. But it was even harder with just words.

Any other moment he could've explained it properly but he didn't have time and he just needed Minho to understand so he kept his voice soft but decided to be direct, "Bed is more comfortable but…, Minho-yah, you can't sleep with us."

"Why not?" Minho huffed, but he sounded more curious than annoyed, like he was genuinely confused.

"Well… because me and Seungmin are a couple and couples need their private space to just… the two of them," he cleared his throat but Minho's face didn't seem any less confused, so he just went with the simplest explanation, "And there's not enough space, you saw Seungmin fall this morning."

The mermaid pressed his lips thoughtfully and looked around: to the couch, then to the bathroom door, and finally concluded towards Jisung, "Seungmin doesn't want to sleep with me?"

Jisung blushed and blinked quickly, "No! I mean… yes, but that's not… I didn't want to say it like that, it's more complicated than a simple not wanting to, it's…"

"But the couch is too small for us."

It took Jisung a second to understand what Minho was implying but before he could jump to say he couldn't sleep with Minho either, the bathroom door opened and Seungmin came back, a towel on his neck and hair looking wet. His boyfriend's sharp eyes fell on them and Jisung closed his mouth, getting up as to put some distance between him and the mermaid, "Ah, Seungmin-ah! Mm… I was talking to Minho and explained to him the concept of boundaries and privacy and he already understood and won't do it again. Right, Minho-yah?" He turned with begging eyes.

The mermaid blinked to him and then narrowed his eyes, like he didn't like the words coming out of his mouth, "No…"

"Good! Now that all is clear I'll pee and then get ready because I actually need to be at the Aquarium in a bit," he rushed to the bathroom, leaving a kiss on Seungmin's cheek on his way.

Seungmin had been treating his shoulder at the VHS Busan Hospital since before he had to stop playing. He still remembered how his manager was the one to force him to rest and book an appointment after a week of playoffs that left his arm feeling heavy. That was six months before he felt an electric pain crushing to his arm on the middle of a game in Japan. He still remembered his manager's worried look when Seungmin's ball fell midway and he held his arm breathing heavily. He was taken out of the field, the pain, the lights, the crowd's eyes, making Seungmin dizzy. There was ice on his shoulder and the manager didn't even let him stay on the bench for the rest of the game, protesting only gained him a strict look from Chan and he had no choice but to leave with the paramedics.

The first surgery went well and Seungmin didn't skip a single day of rehab exercises. Chan kept telling him to slow down, a couple more months of rest wouldn't damage him. "You're arm is more important than some headlines," he kept saying, but Seungmin was pressured by the public, but his young age running and other good pitchers taking the lead. Neither Chan nor Jisung would hear about the feeling of falling behind. After six months Seungmin was back in the field, with a warning of not throwing balls over a certain speed.

But Seungmin was stubborn. And he needed to prove himself –and the headlines, much to Chan's disapproval– he wasn't broken and he was still good, a promising star that was just rising. He managed two good games and then he got too confident, too bold. A ball too fast and pain he ignored until by the end of the night it shot towards his neck and Seungmin saw stars. He remembers crying at some point and Chan putting the painkillers in his mouth as the paramedic instructed him not to move.

He went into surgery once more one month after, when the pain didn't disappear and he struggled even to dress himself. It helped, but it wasn't enough for Seungmin to go back to playing. The club had released him with the promise of paying his hospital bills but no more. Chan had delivered the news and tried to reassure Seungmin it wasn't the end for him, but the boy had just pushed him away then and buried his face into the hospital pillow. He refused to do the rehab therapy for almost three weeks. What was the point of it? He wouldn't be able to play again anyway. The surgery had killed the biggest pain, but his shoulder still hurt most of the time and Jisung had to help him dress: sweet words coaxing Seungmin to pull his arm up with his boyfriend's help.

And then he couldn't take it any longer: the pain, Jisung's sad look and Chan's voice notes coated in promises of job offers as coach or a kid's trainer. He still remembered calling Jeongin on a random Friday and Jeongin not even questioning when Seungmin told him he needed a ride. One year later it was still Jeongin who drove him to the Hospital every Friday. He parked at the front of Seungmin's building around 9am and Seungmin would already be downstairs to not make him wait and to make sure they didn't get caught in traffic so he could be on time to the weekly appointment. And after it was done he would text him and Jeongin would pick him up. The first time he had stayed, and a couple times Jisung had decided to accompany him too, but Seungmin preferred that none of them were there to see him fumble or shiver if the exercise drove him a bit over his limit to test his jointure.

So it was just logical that when Jeongin picked him up that Friday morning, after waking up with a fish man on his bed and arguing with his boyfriend about said fish man overstepping limits, Seungmin wasn't happy as he got in the car. His mood was sour and he closed the door a bit too strong, making his friend turn with a frown, "Hey! If Jisung didn't fuck you right last night is not my car's fault, hyung!"

Seungmin scoffed and only then Jeongin noticed the extra person jumping in his back seat.

"Uh? Who's that?"

He didn't even turn, securing his seatbelt, "Jisung's friend. He's visiting. Speaks poor korean. Felix already met him."

"Oh, right, he told me. From Malaysia, right?" The younger said, turning his ginger head to watch Minho, "Hi, nice to meet you, I'm Jeongin, Seungmin's best friend."

"Minho," the mermaid said.

Seungmin turned to see the window, sinking lower on his seat, "Can we go already?"

His best friend had rolled his eyes, twisting the key to bring the car to life, "Yeah, yeah, I'm on it."

Thirty minutes later Jeongin had dropped them at the hospital, as usual, "I have a meeting till lunch, but call me when you're done and I'll be here soon. Don't try to take the subway." The ginger said, leaning to see Seungmin through the passenger's window. Seungmin did a vague gesture to him, ignoring him when Jeongin scoffed, "I'll tell Chan-hyung if you do, so just call me!"

The hospital was always full of people, and Seungmin didn't really like it, so when he felt a hand grabbing his sleeve and he turned to see Minho he understood the expression on his face. Hospitals were a bit overwhelming. He reached to take Minho's hand off him,."You could've stayed at home," he mumbled and walked first, knowing the fish man was following right behind when he felt a tug on the back of his jacket.

"I don't like staying alone," Minho mumbled, eyes scanning the people around as he followed Seungmin closely.

Two rows of stairs, a couple turns and they were in the rehab area. The secretary at the desk recognized Seungmin and told him the Dr. would see him after she was done with the current patient so he took a seat. Minho sat next to him, hand still gripping Seungmin's jacket as if he was afraid the human would just go and leave him there.

"Where are we?"

"A hospital."

"What's hospital?"

Seungmin pressed his lips, fingers poking on his thigh. His shoulder was still buzzing from this morning's fall. Maybe the exercises would make it better or maybe not. Maybe it would make it worse. There was always a chance, and it wouldn't be weird for Seungmin to wake up next morning with the feeling of a rigid arm.

"A place where people go when sick or hurt," he said when Minho pulled on his shirt demanding an answer.

The fish man frowned, "You hurt?"

"Mr. Kim Seungmin, the doctor will see you now, please go ahead," the girl at the desk called, interrupting before he could answer and he gladly took the chance to cut the talk. He got up, nodding to her and moving down the hall to the door he knew well. Not that it meant much, as Minho followed him as if it would kill him to be more than two meters away from Seungmin.

The doctor was waiting for him with her usual soft smile. Once they entered she sent a curious glance to Minho, "Hello, I don't think I've seen you with Mr. Kim before?"

Minho blinked to her and to the hand she extended he offered his in return to shake –something he must've learned when meeting Felix or in one of those cartoons he kept watching. "Minho."

"He's a friend. Is it okay he sits during the session? He will not bother us," Seungmin hurried and she nodded.

"Sure, It's not a problem if someone comes with you to the sessions," the doctor said, gesturing Seungmin towards the bench they usually took and then to Minho, "You can sit over there. It will take a bit."

Seungmin saw Minho nod and sit, curious eyes inspecting the place and then following Seungmin's moves. It was the same routine, he knew it by memory and he tried to ignore the fish man eyes as he sat on the bench, taking his shirt off. The doctor put the warm pad on his shoulder's blade and then they went through the exercises: first rotations and slight movement, the doctor commenting on the weather and asking Seungmin to talk about his week as she changed for light weight and then the elastic bands. Seungmin wasn't fond of the small talking, but he tried his best mostly because she'd been nice and patient with him. After all she was the only doctor still willing to see him once a week instead of just sending him home with an exercise routine on his own.

"Does this hurt?" She asked when Seungmin made a face to certain movement.

"A bit. I fell on it this morning. But it's not a big deal."

"On a scale…?"

"Three. I've felt worse."

She hummed and resumed the exercises, making sure to check Seungmin's reactions as she helped him get a bit more weight. Seungmin didn't notice Minho getting closer until he saw the fish man taking the abandoned elastic band and pulling on it with his hands and a curious expression. "Don't play with that," he warned and the doctor lift her eyes just in time to see Minho release one of the ends and get hit by it.

Laugh bustled up from Seungmin's throat when the fish man's face wrinkled and he jumped in surprise, the human's eyes shrinking and his free hand coming up to cover his mouth. The doctor, who had rushed to check Minho didn't actually hurt himself, glared at him.

"Be careful with those," the doctor warned Minho softly with her eyes still judging the ex baseball player, who calmed slowly and rubbed his eyes before looking at the fish man. She huffed and moved Minho to go back to the chairs, "Just please sit over there and don't touch any of the instrumental, please."

The fish man pressed his lips, the jump scare still tickling on the tip of his nose, but he moved backwards and returned to the metal chairs. Seungmin's attention came back to the doctor as she guided him through the rest of the routine, but he felt Minho's eyes stuck on him and the weight hanging on his shoulders since that morning felt somehow lighter.

Jisung left the takeout bags on the counter for Minho to curiously look through before he found his boyfriend coming out of the bathroom. He smiled to Seungmin, walking closer to kiss him on the lips sweetly, one hand going to the other's small waist when his boyfriend let out a tired sigh against his lips. There were eyes on them, but Jisung kept his on his boyfriend's exhausted features and lef0t another kiss on Seungmin's cheek.

"You're home early," Seungmin mushed, but didn't pull away from the affection.

"I missed you," he lied blatantly and Seungmin rolled his eyes when Jisung pulled him closer to kiss him again.

"Not in front of the fish man–" he complained when Jisung kissed him again, eyes drifting over his boyfriend's shoulder to find Minho watching them from the kitchen. For some reason Seungmin's cheeks were red when he pulled away, still looking past Jisung, "Did you bring food?"

"Mm, yes, I grabbed some Kimchi Jjigae on my way home," Jisung said, letting him go towards the kitchen and following soon after, hands never leaving his boyfriend's waist, "I thought you would like to have some."

Seungmin muttered a low 'thank you', getting to the bags and opening them while ignoring Jisung's chin on his good shoulder and the hands around his waist. Minho was still watching them so Jisung explained, "It's Seungmin's favorite food, right, babe?"

"Hm. Yes."

"I also brought beers so we could all three have some and maybe watch a movie?" He suggested, eyes bright as he realized something and looked at Minho, "You've never tried alcohol."

"Alcohol?" Minho frowned a bit as he eyed the cans in the bag Seungmin was inspecting.

"You're not trying to get the fish man drunk, are you?" His boyfriend blinked at him and frowned slightly over his shoulder when Jisung gave him his most innocent eyes.

"I don't think he will get actually drunk with one beer. He can't be that weak," Jisung argued, pulling away from his boyfriend's back to move towards Minho, "Alcohol is a thing humans drink to feel good. Sometimes for fun or sometimes to forget bad times and relax. Beer is a type of alcoholic drink, you usually drink it with friends."

Minho blinked curiously and reached for the cans as to inspect them, but Seungmin hit his hand away, making the mermaid growl a bit at him. Jisung laughed nervously when they met eyes, bringing both his hands up and in between them. "Okay, I think we should have those with the food," he said, "I just need to shower to stop smelling like fish– no offense, Minho-yah, and like you guys can pick a movie, right?"

None of them backed down immediately and Jisung wasn't sure if something happened during the day. He knew Seungmin wasn't in his best mood on his physical therapy days, and he was sure waking up with Minho naked on their bed hadn't made it any better. That and Minho probably following him to the hospital was not a good combination for sure, reason why Jisung bought the kimchi jjigae and the beers. He laughed again to cut the awkward silence and reached for his boyfriend's arm, "Seungmin-ah…"

But it was Minho who ended up sighing, breaking the silent war by looking at Jisung's hand on the other human's arm and then pressing his lips and moving to the living room space, "I'll pick the movie."

Seungmin scoffed a bit and Jisung glanced quickly at the mermaid, to make sure he wasn't watching before going close to his boyfriend and circling his waist again. "Hey, babe… did something happened during the session? Did Minho…" he muttered, low, only for Seungmin.

"It was fine during the session, he was annoying as usual, but nothing…" he answered in the same tone, shaking his head and glancing quickly to Minho before looking back at his boyfriend, "I just don't think teaching him to drink is a great idea. Not tonight at least. I'm tired. Can we just have dinner and sleep?" Seungmin sounded pouty and Jisung melted, understanding Seungmin just had a long day and wasn't sure if he could deal with a potentially drunk mermaid and his lightweight boyfriend.

"Sure. Yeah, right. We can have the beers another day then. Yeah? I'll just put them in the fridge," he assured and pressed a long kiss on Seungmin's cheek.

"Thank you."

Jisung pecked on his lips a couple times until Seungmin pushed him away, "Go shower, you smell like fish."

He giggled, leaving a last kiss to win a groan before moving away, "Alright, alright, I'll be fast! Don't start without me."

Minho didn't know what was wrong but something was definitely wrong. He couldn't know what for sure but Seungmin hadn't eaten breakfast with them, even though Jisung separated a portion for him. To be honest, he didn't notice something was wrong –he was just happy to be around Jisung any time he could– until he walked the human to the door and Seungmin didn't came to kiss him goodbye. He frowned as Jisung put on his shoes in the entrance, getting up with a long sigh and a glare to the door of his room before smiling back to Minho, the kind of smile that made Minho forget for another moment that something was off, "Okay, I'm going now. Have a nice day!"

"Where's Seungmin?" He asked, reaching for Jisung's wrist before he could grab his bag and leave.

"Uh… he's still sleeping… Today…" The human said, and Minho noticed the hesitation, "Hm, he may just be tired. There's also a game in the afternoon… damn it," Jisung sighed and looked at him with soft eyes, "Can you… try not to fight today? Maybe?"

If he suspected something was wrong before, he was sure now. Jisung had never asked him to be good with Seungmin or behave. A part of him wanted to say he never actually misbehaved. But the human was looking at him with something similar to worry and he couldn't say no to his human's eyes. He scoffed, "Okay." It was worthy because Jisung smiled again and grabbed his hands to squeeze it for a second, grateful.

"Thank you, Minho-yah, I'll get you pudding on my way back! See you in the afternoon!" The human said, and Minho didn't have time to react when soft lips pressed into his cheek.

The door clicked closed and Minho still hadn't moved. His cheek felt warm. Soft. Soft. Jisung's lips were soft. Was that how they felt against Seungmin's every morning? He had seen the humans crash their mouth every morning from the side, jealous and curious. He lifted a hand to touch the area. Warm. Jisung's lips were soft. Would they feel as soft against his own? He stood there, remembering every kiss he had seen the humans share and wonder if he could get one too. Or was it one of those things, like the bed, out of limits. It couldn't be, right? Jisung had pressed his lips against Minho's cheek easily. It couldn't be forbidden.

He wasn't sure how long he stood there before he heard the bedroom door open and turned around to see Seungmin come out. Minho blinked and dragged his feet towards the human, the warmth of his face forgotten upon the curiosity about what was wrong with Seungmin. But the boy ignored him, only sparing him a glance as he reached the bathroom. "What–?" He didn't even have time to ask before Seungmin closed the door in his face.

Minho frowned and scoffed. Rude. Jisung had told him not to fight with Seungmin, but Minho did nothing and yet it was obvious the human was in a bad mood. Shaking his head and deciding that if he was ignored then he would ignore Seungmin back, he made his way to the sofa and turned on the TV to distract himself. At least now he knew how to change the channels and find whatever he wanted to watch, so he got himself comfortable on the cushions and didn't pay attention to how long Seungmin was in the bathroom. When he heard the door opening he didn't move but his eyes darted quickly to the movement in the hall and he caught a glimpse of Seungmin going back into his room.

He hadn't touched the breakfast Jisung made in the morning. Minho hugged one of the cushions and frowned to the TV. He didn't like Seungmin. Minho tolerated him because he didn't like to be alone and because he was part of Jisung's family. And Jisung was his family, so by extension he had to accept Seungmin. But he didn't like him. He was pretty, for sure. Not half pretty as Jisung though, Minho thought with spite, he wouldn't have courted Seungmin if it had been him that he met first. Seungmin was grumpy and Jisung was chatty, cute and smiley. Minho felt himself melt and he buried his nose on the cushion with a long sigh.

He had seen many humans, they were everywhere. But Jisung was the first one he showed himself to. The first time it had been a mistake, he had seen Jisung come back to the same area a few times and out of curiosity he had been observing the human. At the beginning he thought Jisung was harming the coral, taking peaces from it, but once the human left Minho got closer to it and found that he was actually planting more and the coral had been growing. The mermaid didn't know humans cared about corals or anything under the sea they couldn't eat, so he was curious and started observing Jisung. Not just underwater, but also when he got back into the boat and mumbled a song to himself finished his job for the day with a tired stretch that gave Minho a beautiful sight of the human's back.

There was something in the constant work of Jisung, in the way he worked while singing to himself, in the honey of his skin bathed under the summer sun and how careful he treated the sea that made Minho want to get closer. And when he did he found Jisung was not only pretty, but also kind. A bit weird, sure, but that only made him cuter in Minho's eyes. He offered fish for him to eat and watched Minho with his big bright eyes as if he was observing something marvelous. And Minho's chest started to hurt when the human left back to the sand every day. He wanted Jisung to stay, he wanted to be allowed on the ship longer hours and just lie there watching the human put do stuff he didn't actually care to understand. He wanted to hear Jisung talk even when he didn't understand.

The first time he brought Jisung a courting gift he remembered feeling unsure, a bit scared of Jisung rejecting it. He wasn't sure if the silly human would understand it or like it or like him as he liked the human. So he left the piece of coral in the boat, pushing it softly to Jisung, who blinked at it dumbly before taking it to look at it. It was a cute specimen, pinkish. He seemed to like it and Minho's heart was reassured so he brought more stuff. The only thing Jisung didn't like, for some weird reason, was fishes. And then Jisung gave him the sweater. Accepting Minho's courting gifts could be just kindness, but giving something back meant Minho's courting was accepted.

Mermaids mated once in a lifetime and Minho had chosen Jisung. Okay, he hadn't mate Jisung yet, but he knew his heart made a decision and it was not gonna accept anyone else. Minho didn't know any mermaid that had mated a human before, but he didn't really care. It had been harder and harder to leave his human's side and when his colony left to migrate south for the cold days he'd stayed behind: he'd have preferred to die than be away from Jisung during the whole winter. His human, his mate, his Jisung who had kindly given him a human name. Humans called it love, Minho had learned, and it was a foreign concept that he wasn't sure humans understood properly either, but still Minho started to call it that in his head.

And then there was Seungmin. His stomach growled as he remembered the other human and only then he glanced at the clock on the wall and then to the window. It was almost lunch time. Minho sat up, frowning and looking towards the kitchen, the breakfast for Seungmin remained untouched on the counter. He didn't like Seungmin, he hadn't liked him the first time he saw him, he hadn't like that Jisung's attention wasn't solely for him, but over the days he had understood Seungmin was important to his human. So even though his heart was reticent, he accepted Seungmin as his mate's mate. Mermaids mated once in a lifetime and Minho had chosen Jisung, but that didn't mean humans could only have one mate.

Seungmin wasn't that bad anyway. He was fun to tease and bother most days, even though he complained he wouldn't leave Minho alone, he smelled really nice –in fact, he smelled better than Jisung, softer, sweeter– and he brewed a dark liquid in one of the kitchen's machines which taste Minho liked –he had tried to make it himself but he only got scolded about making a mess, and it didn't taste the same when it was Jisung who did it. Of course, Jisung liking Seungmin was also important, but aside from that there was something else he liked about the grumpy human: he was clean, he followed routines, especially eating routines.

So it was weird he hadn't come out for breakfast and that he was still in his room when it was almost lunch time. Minho didn't know exactly what, but something was wrong. He got up from the sofa and made his way to the room, knocking on the door –he had been called out about it at least twice and he wouldn't mind in a normal day but since something was wrong and Jisung had asked him to be nice. He heard no response and knocked again but this time pushed the door open to peek his head inside, "Seungmin."

The human was lying on his back in bed, scrolling on his phone with his left hand. Seungmin glanced towards Minho when he was called and his expression was tired, like he didn't have the energy to bear the mermaid today.

"What is it?"

"It's lunch time."

"I'm not hungry."

"I am hungry."

Seungmin scoffed, "Well, I'm not, there's probably food in the fridge, warm it up and eat without bothering me."

"You didn't have breakfast," Minho insisted, fully opening the door.

"I'm not hungry," he mumbled, turning over to his left side after abandoning his phone, facing away from where Minho was standing. The mermaid frowned and walked in, rounding the bed so Seungmin couldn't avoid looking at him. Seungmin sighed deeply, "Minho, not today, I'm not in the m–"

"You didn't have breakfast and Jisung made it for you," the mermaid said at the same time, grabbing Seungmin's arm and pulling as to try to get him up. But Seungmin whined loudly, face contorting in pain as he pulled his hand away from Minho –electric pain shooting up his shoulder to his neck. Minho froze, watching Seungmin hold his shoulder as tears peaked in his eyes. Pain. Seungmin was in pain.

"I t-told you I'm not h-hungry! Please just–" The human said in a shaky low voice, blinking away the tears, as if he was trying to act cool in front of Minho right now, "–leave me alone."

The mermaid wasn't sure what to say so he just nodded and quickly left the room in silence. Now he wasn't hungry anymore, he paced around the living room anxiously. Why did Jisung leave if his mate was in pain? Why was Seungmin in pain? He didn't like Seungmin, but his heart clenched seeing him tear up to pain. When was Jisung coming back? He glared at the clock, Jisung usually wasn't home until the short hand pointed to five. But Jisung's mate was in pain, shouldn't he take care of Seungmin? Minho paced around the living room anxiously again. Was there something he could do to make Seungmin feel better?

He stopped in his tracks as an idea popped up in his head. Pills. Jisung had given him pills when he first got there being sick. Those things were magic –though he was sure the warm water also helped. Minho moved to the kitchen first, searching in the drawers until he found a bottle of pills. He couldn't read but he decided it must be that one and grabbed a glass of water too. Water was also comforting to Minho. He picked the sweater Jisung had lent him yesterday from the couch on his way to the room.

This time he didn't knock, but Seungmin heard him come in and glanced over his shoulder with a frown, "What? There's food in the fridge, I'm sure we stored some of the leftover ki–" the human mumbled as if he wasn't in the mood to actually sound annoyed, stopping himself when Minho stood in front of him again and he noticed the bottle of pills that read 'vitamin C', the water and the sweater. He blinked with confusion and the mermaid extended his arms in offering. "Why are you bringing me those…?"

Minho frowned a bit and urged the bottle into Seungmin's hand even if the boy was lying down, "Take it."

"I don't need vitamins."

"But you're in pain," the mermaid insisted and putting the glass on the nightstand moved closer as to help Seungmin sit up. This time he was softer, making sure not to grab onto the human's left arm and coaxing him to sit up with kind hands, "Pills are for pain."

Seungmin sat up and narrowed his eyes to Minho, still holding the vitamins, "Are you… Did you meant to bring me the painkillers?" his voice turned a bit amused in the end and Minho saw the ghost of a smile in Seungmin's face as he pressed his wrist into his eyes, "You…"

"Seungmin," he called, pulling the human's hand away of his face and taking the bottle to open it up for him, thinking maybe he struggled with that too right now, "Here."

The human stared at the bottle and then at Minho, taking a breath before shaking his head softly, "These are not for pain, Minho. There's many types of pills," he explained, placing the bottle in the nightstand next to the water. Minho frowned to that and then offered the sweater hanging from his arm, "What is that supposed to do? Isn't that Jisung's?"

"Yes."

"Then why are you giving it to me…?"

"Comfort. Smells like Jisung. Take it," Minho pushed it into Seungmin's hand until the human grabbed it and settled it on his lap with a scoff before stopping and frowning again.

"Comfort?"

Minho nodded, "Yes, and… sorry I hurt you."

Seungmin took a long minute to process the words, "I was in pain already, it's not your fault. You don't need to–" he mumbled softly, finding Minho's eyes with a expression the mermaid hadn't seen before on him, "Why are you trying to comfort me?" He sounded confused, like if there had to be a hidden reason for Minho to care about him. And there was a reason –Minho wouldn't care about a random human– but it wasn't hidden.

"Because you're Jisung's mate. And Jisung is my mate. And you're in pain and he's not here."

Pause. Pause. Minho saw the way Seungmin paused for a second, blinking to his words and then turning his pretty eyes to the mermaid with confusion, "Jisung is your what?"

It was Minho's time to frown. He was sure he'd pronounced it right and it was a concept Jisung used before for him. Wasn't it? Yet, maybe Seungmin was deaf or struggling to understand because of the pain making his brain fuzzy, so he repeated for him, "Mate." Seungmin frowned and opened his mouth as if he was gonna object to that, but Minho's stomach thought it was the right moment to growl, effectively cutting him off. The human blinked and Minho looked down at his belly, bringing a hand to it and humming before glancing back to Seungmin, "Sorry, I'm hungry."

Seungmin let out a short sound that sounded close to a laugh, "This is–" but his own stomach growled and Minho frowned, as if that was proof enough Seungmin was lying before about not being hungry. The human blushed, looking away and pressing his lips in defeat, to mumble through his teeth: "–okay."

He blinked confusedly, observing as Seungmin got up, left hand hanging stiff by his side. He walked to the door and upon seeing that Minho wasn't immediately following he stopped to frown and call back, "Stop looking at me like that, I'm fine. And I thought you were hungry. Do you wanna have lunch or not?"

Minho nodded and hurried behind him towards the kitchen.

"I'm home!" Jisung called from the door, a couple plastic bags hanging from his hand as he kicked his shoes off in the entrance and hurried down the short hall. His feet slowed down and he stopped to blink at the weird image in front of him. The TV was on playing a baseball game, Seungmin's team was playing –from what he caught on the edge of his vision–, and on the sofa his boyfriend was sitting right next to Minho as he pointed to the screen and explained with a live tone Jisung hadn't heared him speak about baseball in a while, "…you throw the ball super fast or with a twist so the person with the bat doesn't hit, if he hits he can run, and he needs to run fast and try to make it to a safe spot that's called a base. If someone on the opposite team catches the ball before he makes it there and he gets touched by it, wait, you must pass it to the closest person or the one standing in the base, okay?"

Minho hummed, focused on Seungmin's words, "Okay."

"Anyway, if he secures the base next time someone hits the ball he runs to the next and so on until he makes it back to the starting point which we call home. That's why if he hits the ball far enough for nobody to catch it and he can comfortably run all bases to home we call that a home run."

"Ah," Minho nodded, "Did you hit the ball?"

Seungmin let out a soft laugh, shaking his left hand a bit, "No, I was a pitcher. I threw the ball."

The mermaid hummed again and only then his eyes adverted toward Jisung who was still standing in the hall and observing them with caution. "Oh, Jisung-ah," he called, getting up and walking in his direction. Seungmin turned and met his boyfriend's eyes. The mermaid glanced at the plastic bags, "You brought pudding?"

Jisung blinked and looked down at the bags too. Did he bring pudding? Oh, yes, he had bought some. He nodded, offering the bags to Minho, "Yeah, yeah, can you put those in the kitchen? Get the pudding if you want?"

The mermaid hummed happily and if he thought Jisung was weird said nothing before taking the bags and walking away. As soon as he was out of Jisung's sight the human launched to the sofa where Seungmin was still sitting. "What is happening?" He asked and Seungmin hissed when his boyfriend took the spot on his right so he moved a bit away, glancing at Seungmin's shoulder, "Sorry, is it…"

"It's fine, Sung."

He sighed and then peeked up to his boyfriend's eyes, "Anyway, what was that?"

"What?" Seungmin raised an eyebrow, "I was just explaining baseball to him."

"Just explaining baseball to him," Jisung repeated with an exaggerated tone, "You–"

"I thought you would like me to get along with your mate," his boyfriend said in an overly plain tone.

Jisung coughed and took a hand to his chest as if he was suffering a heart attack, eyes opening comically, "MY WHAT?"

Seungmin turned to face him better, "Mate. M. A. T–"

"Okay, okay, I get it, I get it!" He waved his hands to stop Seungmin from comtinuing as he felt his cheeks growing warm, "But why do you–… He's not– I mean, what do you–" He was bugging, unsure what exactly to ask so Seungmin rolled his eyes and helped by answering anyway.

"The fish man told me you're his mate."

Jisusng pointed to himself, incredulous, "He told you I'm his mate?" Seungmin nodded, crossed his arms carefully and watched his boyfriend for an explanation. Jisung laughed awkwardly, face going red as he thought about the implications of that statement. His voice was a bit too light when he reached for Seungmin's hands, "Babe, babe, that's not… I haven't mated with him, I swear on my life, Seungminnie… Seungmin-ah."

"I mean, I wouldn't blame you, I've seen his dick," his boyfriend said, shrugging only with his good shoulder and looking away from Jisung, clearly sulking. Jisung widened his eyes, burning in embarrassment as he remembered Seungmin catching on him staring at Minho's naked form twice.

"You–! That's not… Seungmin-ah," he laughed nervously, airy. Objectively, Minho was hot, but Jisung would never cheat on his boyfriend, "that's unfair, Seungmin-ah, Seungminnie, babe, you know I wouldn't." When Seungmin didn't say anything he repeated, leaning closer as to try meet his eyes, more seriously, "You know I wouldn't."

The taller sighed and had mercy enough to meet Jisung's big pleading eyes. He softened, "I know." Jisung relaxed, visibly closing his eyes in relief. "But Minho says you're," he pointed and looked over his boyfriend's shoulder to where the mermaid was coming back while savoring the pudding with a tiny spoon. Minho stopped on his tracks when Jisung turned to him too and he stared at both humans with innocent eyes, blinking twice.

"Hm? 'ant some?"

"Uh? No, I…– Minho-yah, can you come here for a second?" Jisung moved aside, careful not to squeeze Seungmin but giving the mermaid space to join them on the couch. Minho joins them with curious eyes and Jisung laughs awkwardly again, rubbing the back of his neck as he finds the right words. He doesn't so he just goes straight to the point, "Seungmin said you told him I'm your mate?"

"Mm. Yes," he answered simply, and took another bit of his pudding.

Jisung opened and closed his mouth and eyed his boyfriend who just raised his eyebrows in 'I told you' way. He took a breath and laughed again as if he didn't know what to do. He didn't expect Minho to admit it openly. Since when did the mermaid think they were mates?! Had he thought so all this time?!

"Since you gifted me the sweater," Minho said, reading Jisung's mind. Oh, no, maybe he had voiced the questions, "You accepted all my gifts and gifted something back to me, so you accepted my courting."

The human blinked, opened and closed his mouth without a word and only managed to talk when Seungmin pinched his side, "But Seungmin is my mate."

"That's okay," Minho shrugged, finishing the pudding and licking his lips, "He's your mate. You're my mate."

"No, wait, but…" Jisung frowned, and an idea formed in his mind so he hurried, "You can't be my mate and not Seungmin's, because Seungmin is my mate, right? That doesn't work."

Minho considered it and for a second Jisung thought it worked and maybe the mermaid would forget the idea. But he didn't seem sad or rejected, after a moment he just nodded, glancing at Seungmin and then back at Jisung, "Okay."

His boyfriend was being courted by Minho. It wasn't even subtle and yet his boyfriend was oblivious to the small act of service the mermaid directed to him. There were small things, like wanting to help Seungmin in the kitchen or sitting with Seungmin when he watched baseball –instead of fighting him for the remote. Minho had even tried to learn how to use the coffee machine for Jisung's boyfriend. And Jisung guessed it was okay, as long as it didn't crossed the line, he wasn't especially jealous or mad when this meant he stopped coming back to arguments.

At least Jisung didn't have to buy flowers anymore to soften his boyfriend, right? He wasn't especially rich and as much as he liked to gift Seungmin stuff, his wallet wasn't bottomless and flowers weren't especially cheap. His boyfriend was getting flirted with by a hot mermaid guy, true, but Minho's courting methods weren't really the best. Jisung wouldn't have noticed if not for the fact Minho had courted him first. Being honest, he hadn't realized back then when the cute mermaid kept bringing him random stuff but seeing it happen again and directed to someone else was like lightning striking him down.

Jisung blinked twice the first time he saw Minho offering Seungmin a rock from outside. His boyfriend had frowned and took it with confusion but that seemed to be enough for the mermaid. A rock, then one of Jisung's sweaters, a sock he retrieved from someplace under the wardrobe –some kind of mermaid witchcraft if you asked Jisung–, a feather he found on the balcony, the soap carved in a funny shape –Seungmin hadn't liked that one and Jisung was scolded about not telling the mermaid he couldn't use the knives to fuck their soaps– and literally anything he could find. He wasn't sure if he should tell his boyfriend what was going on or just let it be. He received small objects and didn't react much, barely placing them somewhere else and looking at Minho confused, and that seemed enough to encourage the mermaid into bringing a new treasure.

It was innocent enough to keep his boyfriend oblivious the same way Jisung had been oblivious when Minho brought him random stuff he picked from the waters. If he told Seungmin that he was in fact not just receiving random trash but being courted by the mermaid, Jisung wasn't sure his boyfriend would take it the right way. Would he glare at Jisung with confusion and disgust? Would he jump with a 'WHAT?' on the tip of his mouth? No, that was maybe tad too dramatic for Seungmin and fit Jisung's character better than his boyfriend. Seungmin would probably feel shy, maybe a bit contradicted and definitely bug for a whole minute without being sure how to respond. Jisung imagined them having the conversation in bed, his arm around his boyfriend's middle and his cheek pressed to Seungmin's chest –in his head they were probably naked but that was his horniness speaking and the fact Seungmin refused to have sex with Minho outside their room being able to hear them.

He imagined Seungmin petting his hair and then stopping when Jisung finally found the words to explain that Minho making bubbles in the bathtub for him or emptying his perfume in one of Jisung's sweaters weren't acts meant to annoy him but to conquer his heart. Jisung never imagined further than that, his brain couldn't conjure Seungmin's reaction properly so he was always stuck there and every night they went to bed –properly dressed in pajamas– he didn't say anything and just cuddled to his boyfriends side. Maybe if he ignored it long enough his boyfriend would end up rejecting one of Minho's silly gifts and the mermaid would feel rejected and give up. Maybe if he ignored it long enough spring would come and they could send Minho back to the sea and Seungmin would never knew. Maybe, just maybe, because every time he thought about taking the mermaid back to the sea his heart made a little turn and he imagined coming back home to his boyfriend staring at the TV with dead eyes and a heavy arm.

Every night he pushed the thoughts aside and nuzzled into Seungmin's neck, "Good night, baby, I love you."

Maybe if he ignored it long enough Seungmin would still be this more alive version of himself, the one grumpy when Minho made a mess in the bathroom, the one who walked outside every day just because Minho made him, the one who watched baseball games on the TV with something other than sadness and longing just because he had Minho asking him stuff –and unlike Jisung's questions that Seungmin knew where meant to cheer him up, Minho's were genuine. It was innocent, it made Jisung's stomach feel weird and funny for the first time in a long time, but he didn't have to bring flowers every day and Seungmin seemed okay with it. He wasn't gonna untangle the feelings in his belly, that would probably make it more messy, so as long as Minho didn't cross the line that made Jisung feel jealous, it should be fine. Or thats what he told himself as he refused to do anything but watch his boyfriend be courted.

And then one afternoon as he arrived home, Minho had raised from the sofa and hurried to the entrance. "He wants to go with you somewhere," Seungmin had said from the living room, uninterested. Jisung felt suspicious but he hadn't been able to deny the mermaid the walk when Minho stood by him in the entrance –Seungmin's shoes and coat on– waiting insistently.

He had complained a bit, of course he had, whining about it being cold and being able to take a walk earlier with Seungmin instead of waiting for him, but Minho had just patiently stared at him until Jisung murmured a curse and picked up his keys to go back outside. It was fucking December and snow fell all over Jisung's hair as he tried to sink further into his scarf and coat. He kept muttering under his breath and glancing at the way the mermaid fought his heavy eyes –Jisung made a mental note about the cold weather probably affecting him since he was supposed to be in the South during this time of the year. They had walked apparently without a goal until Minho stopped in his tracks and pulled Jisung's arm towards the flower shop by the end of the block.

"What–" He was gonna ask, but Minho was already looking at the flowers and picking a bucket that wasn't especially cheap. Jisung was confused as to why Minho wanted flowers at all, but he had seen the mermaid stare at the ones he brought for his boyfriend before. Maybe it was just curiosity or he had picked up on the way Jisung stopped bringing them daily and he missed them. Whatever, if buying them got them back into the warmth of his apartment sooner, Jisung didn't have objections, so he opened his wallet and paid for it.

They walked back quickly, Minho's eyes scanning the floor as Jisung complained of the cold and told him about his day. It was a short walk and soon Jisung was opening the door for them and letting the mermaid in first. Seungmin was moving in the kitchen when they arrived and Jisung saw Minho walk straight at him and offer the flowers. His stomach turned and he didn't know how to name the feeling in his belly when his boyfriend stared at the peonies.

Jisung froze for the whole second Seungmin just blinked confusedly, a wooden spoon still in his hand, "Peonies?" Seungmin frowned but after a second just shook his head, set the spoon aside and took the flowers. Minho's eyes seemed to glow and his face illuminated with joy when he turned to check on Jisung with a triumphant expression. The expression had was short lived and was soon replaced with confusion.

"Here, you can put them somewhere. Now, out of the kitchen, I'm cooking," Seungmin said, his tone plain as he pushed the flowers, now in a vase, into Minho's hand before going back to cooking. Jisung took a deep breathe and thought it was over as Minho walked sulkily towards the living room and set the vase on the closest surface before sinking onto the couch.

He went to bed feeling lighter that night and dared to kiss Seungmin's neck until his boyfriend pushed his face away with a flustered gesture, "Han Jisung, stop." Jisung whined and pouted, doe eyes turned to his boyfriend. "Don't look at me like that, you know Minho could hear us, and I don't…" Even in the dark he could see Seungmin's cheeks turning red and he leaned closer to find his lips this time.

"But it's been a while, Seungminnie…" Jisung muttered against his boyfriend's mouth, hands going down to his waist and holding the man where he was thinnest. Seungmin's breath hitched and Jisung smiled as he moved on top of his boyfriend, feeling a small victory in his belly. "And I will be quiet."

Seungmin scoffed and let Jisung kiss him some more before pushing his face away again, "No."

He whined, "But– baby–"

"No." Jisung pouted but his boyfriend didn't give in to his doe eyes, so he ended up moving away and getting off the bed. Seungmin lifted himself a bit as Jisung dragged his feet to the door, "Where are you going?"

"Well, since we're not doing anything, I need to pee."

He didn't have to turn to see Seungmin rolling his eyes. Jisusng made his quick trip to the bathroom, eyeing the dim light that was still on in the living room. He heard the TV noises and on his way back he leaned to find the mermaid very much awake and sitting on the couch with an intense glare on the screen, "Uh? Minho-yah," he called and the boy turned to find him, "What you doing? It's late, you should sleep."

The mermaid blinked cutely at him and Jisung's belly gave a weird turn, melting, "I'm watching something." Jisung frowned a bit. He wasn't sure how the mermaid's sleeping habits were, he hadn't really investigated it properly, but the mermaid looked sleepy enough for Jisung to assume he should sleep.

"Well, don't stay up too late," he said, glancing at the screen where they were cooking something, maybe Minho was just hungry, even though they had a nice dinner. He shook his head and waved his hand before turning back to the bedroom, "Good night, Minho." The mermaid knew where snacks were so if he had a night craving he could just get one of Jisung's snacks. After all, Minho had made himself at home in Jisung's apartment with ease.

Jisung parked on the same spot as usual and glanced at Minho as he unbuckled his seatbelt after turning off the radio, "Okay, so, rule number one, and the only rule in fact, nobody can know you're a mermaid," he said, reaching to free Minho from his own seatbelt, "Got it? Whatever you do, don't get in any pool." Minho hadn't grown his tail back since he switched to legs magically, but a part of Jisung was still afraid and curious of it happening when Minho touched the water, kinda like that show Felix made him watch in college depicting Aussie girls turning into mermaids and gaining magic powers –Minho didn't have magic powers that Jisung knew, and he liked to sink in the bathtub for a couple hours every day until his fingertips were wrinkled– but Jisung wondered if he hadn't turned back because the bathtub was too small and unlike the characters on H2O Minho had a say on when turning or not.

The mermaid just nodded to his worry and they got out of the car, Minho following him as Jisung guided the way from the parking lot to his lab office. Jisung glanced back at the mermaid as he walked, but the closer they got to the sea and the more Jisung was able to smell the salty air, the more Minho seemed to relax. He had been a bit upset when they left the apartment, and Jisung had tried to cheer him up by playing music on the radio, and when Minho ignored that, Jisung decided to sing along to Taylor Swift. He won Minho's eyes on him a small smile that turned into a soft laugh when he made a point to sing higher and move his shoulders theatrically. "Cute," he even heard Minho mutter and ignored the way his face felt hot.

One thing was celebrating Minho's failed attempt to give Seungmin flowers, a different thing was letting the mermaid be sad over Seungmin scolding him that morning when they woke up to a mess in the kitchen: a bottle of tomato sauce sprayed on the counter, water boiling out of the pot in the oven –the vegetables on it flooding out and burning– and Minho's finger bleeding –the guilty knife on the floor. "Han Jisung," Seungmin had said, turning to him in all seriousness after Jisung took care of Minho's finger, "Either you take him to work with you today or we're having sushi for dinner." Minho had probably understood that as his korean was much better now, and he pouted, his cat like eyes turning sad. If he had ears, Jisung imagined them turning downwards.

Jisung didn't think his boyfriend was capable of murder. Not really. But Jisung didn't want to test it so he just nodded and made sure to bundle Minho up and drag him out for work. And now here they were, Jisung opened the door to the lab and let Minho scurry inside first. It had been weeks since he took the mermaid home, but the place was the same: lab equipment in an improvised room, some freezers they used to store specimens and samples, a couple empty desks and Jisung's at the back, near the pool Minho once inhabited. Even the whiteboard was there on the side, the pack of half-fish stick figures Jisung drew last time and never cleaned still on it.

"Ahhh…" he stretched his arms, dropping down on his chair and rotating to face Minho, "It's been a while since we spent a day together, just the two of us." Jisung smiled and gave a couple turns in his chair before clapping his hands, "I know! It's a great time to continue my investigation on mermaids. Don't you think so?"

"Investigation on mermaids?" Minho muttered, eyes curiously following when Jisung stood up and moved towards the lab equipment on the other side of the warehouse just to come back with some needles and recipients. The mermaid took a step backwards, watching Jisung warily, "What's that?"

"These? Nothing! Just what we use to get blood samples," the human said, setting the stuff on his desk and holding his hand behind his back with innocent eyes turning to Minho, "I have taken notes on your habits and your behavior and… okay, that sounds a bit bad…" He scratched the back of his neck and then moved to draw a chair for Minho, "Come, sit."

The mermaid eyed him with suspicion but sat down anyway. Jisung sat back on his chair, so close their knees bumped together, "Okay, so, what I gathered until now is mermaids are animals, should I say 'beings'?, that live in groups, like families, and travel South during winter," the human yapped and Minho's eyes softened as Jisung went on an on about stuff he had picked up just from observing Minho, "And certainly you don't do good in cold, we had to turn the heating two degrees warmer, I've been sweating, but you look dizzy when it's cold and I really don't want you sick again…."

Minho blinked curiously.

"I also figured your diet is similar to humans so I'm assuming mermaids are omnivorous animals, since your stomach doesn't reject veggies nor meat nor any of the human-made food you have tried. In fact, you really like sweets. Is that a taste of yours or is it a mermaid thing?" Jisung hurried to reach his journal from the table, and a pen, his nerdy eyes turned to Minho waiting for an answer.

The mermaid frowned slightly confused, "I don't know."

"Hm. I see. There's nothing sweet under water? Is your diet in the wild mostly fish and seaweed?"

Minho hummed and Jisung noted something down, "Okay, I'm gonna take that as a yes. It makes sense it may be a you thing… but it could technically be a mermaid thing, because I don't think there's many sweet things to eat under the sea, considering seawater is salty…" He mumbled to himself, "We would need more mermaid subjects to experiment, and that would probably not happen unless I get to meet your group… do you call it group or colony?"

"I don't know," Minho said, his expression not turning bored even when he clearly didn't seem too interested in Jisung's nerdy questions, he just stared at Jisung and patiently payed ears to his yapping.

"Right. Why would you call it anything in human words…" He muttered, biting the pen and staring at his messy note for a hot minute. Minho bumped their knees together again and glanced around before seeming to decide Jisung's expression was more interesting: cheeks puffed out in frustration and eyes bright turning up as an idea or another question popped in his brain, "OH! Now that you mention it, you haven't made more cute animal sounds since you got legs."

The human stared at Minho's legs as his head ran fast. Changing a fin for legs had surely some mysterious magic going on but Minho was a living being with blood, cells, and biological structures that explained how his body worked. Just as any animal, including humans. If humans could talk it was because of their vocal cords. Minho was able to talk before he had legs, sure, but only a couple words, and he seemed to prefer sounds like those of dolphins and sometimes baby seals: chirping, rumbling, even something similar to purring. So maybe…

"Is it possible your vocal chords changed after your switch? Your brains too, air is important when producing sounds… and you don't have gills anymore!" He moved even closer, reaching with his hand for Minho's neck to feel where the small openings used to be, fingertips tracing the invisible lines. He didn't realize what he was doing, how close he had moved, until he heard Minho's breath hitch and looked up to see the red in his ears and the way the sharp eyes stared at him expectantly. Jisung's stomach made a weird turn and he pulled away, pushing himself backwards in the chair until his knees didn't touch, "Uh, sorry, I was just…"

"It's fine."

The human cleared his throat, looking away and pretending he couldn't feel his own cheeks warm, "Anyway, the only way of testing that is you going back to your mermaid form. Right? Whatever, we can try that another time," he turned on the chair to face the desk, feeling the weight of Minho's eyes on him, he remembered the needles, "Oh, right. Can I get a blood sample from you? I wanna test the composition, it would also be good knowing in case we need to take you to see a doctor if they would find something weird… I hope there's no need for that but…" Jisung pressed his mouth closed, biting his cheek from the inside when he realized he was babbling nervously.

"You want my blood?" Minho frowned a bit and raised the finger Jisung had put a band-aid on that same morning.

"Oh, yes, but not that!" He shook his hands, "I don't wanna hurt you. I don't need to open a wound to get your blood, don't worry." He reached for the needle, showing it to Minho, "We use this, it's quick and not painful. Also I would only get as much as I need for a test without you bleeding out…"

The mermaid seemed unsure, Jisung put the needle back down on the desk, "I promise it's just gonna take a second!" He gestured for Minho to take off the coat and the mermaid, albeit hesitant complied, placing Seungmin's winter jacket aside and sitting back when Jisung instructed. The human reached for Minho's arm and softly pulled the sweater sleeve up his elbow, rubbing his thumb above the vein on the jointure with care but mostly trying to find it properly.

Jisung was no doctor and he had only performed injections on marine animals. Minho was technically a marine animal, right? Yet, he was human looking, which made Jisung a bit nervous. Don't blame him if he rubbed the alcohol coated piece of cotton longer than needed as he prepared himself. He couldn't look nervous or Minho would get scared, and Minho was looking at him with trust and curiosity. It couldn't be too hard, Minho's skin was pale enough for Jisung to see the veins on the inside of his elbow and when he instructed the mermaid to flex the muscle a couple times –after circling an elastic on his muscle for pressure as he knew nurses did– the vein popped up slightly. Okay, he could do it. He picked the needle and put it in.

"Ah!" Minho moaned in surprise when the thing entered his skin maybe too fast and unskilled, almost pulling his arm away from Jisung, "That hurts!"

"No! Wait! Don't move!" Jisung glanced up at him with wide scared eyes, his free hand holding Minho's forearm to keep him in place, "It's like a mosquito bite, it's not– just a second more, okay, don't tense it, no, hey…" When Minho stayed in place, Jisung softened his hand on the mermaid's forearm and slid his fingers down to Minho's hand, softly holding them for support as he made sure to fill the whole syringe's tube. Once it was done he reached for another piece of cotton and placed it on the base of the needle before pulling it out. "See, it wasn't that bad, you were really brave! I will get you a pudding reward latter!"

Jisung placed the syringe away on the desk before taking a look at Minho's face and finding the mermaid frowning in his direction with a sulking pout, "What?" He blinked confusedly but instead of answering Minho got up and walked towards the outside door in the back, next to the pool. Jisung got up and hurried behind him, "Hey, Minho-yah, wait, where you going?"

The mermaid started undressing, first the sweater, then his pants. Jisung felt his face going red and stopped in his tracks, a voice suspiciously sounding like his boyfriend calling him iut for eying the muscles on Minho's back and the way his thighs and ass looked so good in Seungmin's boxers. "Minho-yah– what are you even doing? It's freezing out here, you can't just…" His mouth forgot how to form words and his tongue felt heavy when Minho took off the last piece of clothing and turned to face him. Jisung closed his eyes by instinct –a survival instinct even if Seungmin wasn't there to see him glance at another guy's dick, "WHY ARE YOU GETTING NAKED? MINHO-YAH!! CAN YOU PLEASE PUT THOSE–"

The sound of water splashing cut him off and Jisung opened his eyes suddenly, panic making him pale when he caught on Minho's blond hair peaking out of the water, "MINHO-YAH!" He rushed to the border, picking the clothes up on the way to where the ocean licked the tiled floor, "What are you doing?! It's too cold! Come back!"

But the mermaid just glared at him with angry eyes and with a huff turned away, the end of his tail flipping in a sulking manner. Jisung couldn't do anything but watch it disappear under the water. He whined, covering his face with both hands before whining again in frustration. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, I screwed up," he mumbled to himself before loosing it a bit at the thought of Minho being angry enough to not come back. He pulled his hands down and watched the water with fear, "MINHO-YAH!" Jisung sulked, kicking the floor a bit nervously, "Please! I'M SORRY! I'M NEVER TAKING YOUR BLOOD AGAIN!"

There was no head peaking out of the water and Jisung bit his lip, passing a hand through his hair and whining again, "Ahhh, what am I supposed to do? What if he doesn't come back?!" He glanced again at the water, "MINHO-YAH! PLEASE, COME BACK!" He yelled, his stomach souring as he realized he wasn't mourning an experiment but panicking over the possibility of never seeing him again, of coming back and having to tell Seungmin that Minho was gone. Would Seungmin be happy? Would be yell at Jisung for letting him leave? Would he be sad too?

"Please…" He called again, feeling his voice watering a bit, "Please, please, come back…"

Jisung waited there just a few more minutes before shivering to the cold and decided to go back inside.

His head felt heavy all day and he kept glancing outside the lab and towards the water every chance he got. He stored the blood sample out of his sight and worked on boring papers until he lost the notion of time. The sun was bathing the lab in gold when Jisung finally noticed it was already past his leaving time. He glanced outside, through the door he left open even if the sea breeze made him freeze on his seat. The water was darker, small waves painted in gold as the sun went down. Jisung bit his lip and turned off the computer before walking to the limit again.

He hugged himself in the coat and stood there for a while, just staring at the water and the disappearing sun painting him and the whole world in gold. Jisung felt small, frustrated and scared. He had been overthinking the whole day, but pushing his anxiety aside as he kept telling himself there was still time, Minho would come back. It was already the time of day he usually left, was there a chance Minho had forgotten it since it had been a while since the last time he accompanied Jisung at the lab? Maybe if he waited just a bit more… Jisung crouched down, eyes on the dark waves, squeezing himself further in the crouch to shield from the cold.

It was so cold. It must be cold underwater too, right? Mermaids… no, Jisung didn't care about mermaids in general. Just Minho, and Minho got dizzy and sleepy when being out in the cold too long. What if…? He pushed the thought aside as it made his eyes feel wet, tears rushing up as his brain played the option of Minho never coming back.

"Please, Minho-yah," he muttered.

The sun fell by the world's end and Jisung was already contemplating the fact that he had to go home before Seungmin grew worried, when a blond head emerged from the water right in front of him, and a set of cute cat like eyes blinked in his direction. His heart rushed and Jisung wanted to cry out of relief, "MINHO-YAH!" He called, voice sounding wet as a smile pulled at the corners of his mouth, "You came back! What took you so long? I was worried as hell!"

Minho titled his head with curiosity when Jisung moved backwards, falling on his ass as he tried to clean the tears before they rolled down, "Why are you crying?"

"I'm not c-crying," Jisung pouted, pulling his hands away to stare at Minho, but his eyes were too wet and soft to pull a proper glare, "But… don't do that again. I thought…." He bit his lip and Minho's eyes scanned his expression, softening on the way Jisung's bottom lip trembled when he pouted trying to sulk.

"I was just getting these," Minho said, bringing his hand out of the water and settling a whole starfish along with a pink anemone that if pretty under water was not really nice looking out of it, "For Seungmin."

Jisung blinked at it and frowned a bit, "Uh… those… I don't know if Seungmin will appreciate those." He noticed the way Minho frowned to that, noticing too how the gills were back on his neck, how his lips were a bit purple from the cold and the vapor cloud coming from his mouth when he scoffed in annoyance, glaring at the starfish and the anemone as if they had personally betrayed him.

"Not pretty enough?" He muttered and when Jisung saw the intension of going back into the water to get better ones he moved fast and reached for Minho's wrist, grabbing it maybe a bit too strong.

"No! They're pretty. Just… Seungmin is not into underwater fauna as I am," he tried to say, and Minho narrowed his eyes in suspicion, not fully believing him. But Jisung could only think on how pale he looked and how cold his skin was to the touch, "Maybe you can get him something else, something humans like."

"Like what?"

"We can think about it later. Can you come out of the water now?" He insisted, losing his patience and pulling on Minho's wrist again. The mermaid gave in and moved to slid his body over the tiles and towards the pool. Jisung sighed in relief and walked alongside the pool as Minho swam towards the lab door, opening the side of the pool for Minho to come inside. Once they were both in he closed the doors and sighed, cleaning his face on his sleeve as his anxiety calmed down.

Now there was only one problem.

"Okay… then… um. How do we get you to have legs again…?" He said, placing his hands on his hips and staring at Minho questioning. He could technically carry him again like that, but he was heavy and Jisung would very much prefer if he could walk by himself.

Minho pushed himself up on the pool's border, bringing his body out and rolling over the floor to sit up, the cold making him shiver once his wet skin was fully exposed to the air, "Warm. I need to be warm."

But before Jisung could go find some towels and consider if there was a way to get a hair drier anywhere in the Aquarium, a yelp cut the air from behind him and he turned to find Hyunjin covering his mouth, eyes big and staring at the mermaid's tail. He took a step back and Jisung's eyes widened as he brought his hands up, "I can explain it!"

"He's a mermaid!" Hyunjin pointed, nervous eyes going from Jisung to Minho, the mermaid raised an eyebrow and Jisung bit his lip. Yeah, well, there wasn't much more explanation than that. He was a mermaid, mermaids were real, Hyunjin wasn't going crazy, "How… what… is…"

"Yes," Jisung sighed, walking towards Hyunjin as one would to a frightened animal, "He's real, he's a man with a fishtail, therefore a mermaid, mermaids are real and you're not going crazy."

"I have a name," Minho flipped his tail and hit the floor.

"He has a name?" Hyunjin muttered, still looking a bit in panic.

"Yes, I named him Minho," Jisung nodded and for a second something like judgment crossed his friend's eyes and he whined, "What?! Yes! It's a common name! But you can't say he doesn't look like a Minho!"

"I didn't say anything!"

"You were thinking about it! And Seungmin already laughed at me because of it, so we can skip that part!" He rushed, shaking his hands, "The important part is…"

"Seungmin knows mermaids exist?" Hyunjin cut him, still amazedly looking at Minho, he walked past Jisung and crouched next to the mermaid, "Wow… he's really pretty. Hi, I'm Hwang Hyunjin, I'm Jisung's friend… are you actually real…? I'm not going crazy, am I…?" He muttered the last part, reaching with his hand to touch Minho's tail.

The mermaid flicked the fin, scaring Hyunjin and making him fall backwards onto his ass with a surprised yelp. Minho didn't seem impressed and looked at Jisung with boredom, "Can we go home?" He said, not really interested in the new human.

"Yes, well, that would be easier if you had legs to walk out," Jisung muttered, Hyunjin's head snapping in his direction.

"He can have legs?"

"Yes, but he needs to be warm to grow them again apparently, and the lab is too cold and wet for that. We will need to get him home," he said, clapping and going for a second to come back with some towels, throwing one to Hyunjin, "Okay, we can dry him and cover him with the coat to carry him to my car."

"Why am I helping you?" His friend muttered, but Minho flicked his tail again and Hyunjin moved to dry the scales without further questions, Jisung drying the mermaid's torso instead. He tried not to stare and dry properly instead of rubbing slowly over the muscles. It was harder to focus when he dried softly over the grills on his neck and then up to his hair, messing it a bit and gaining a soft huff from Minho that made him laugh. He even forgot Hyunjin was there until his friend cleared his throat, "Um, I actually came because Seungmin was worried and you weren't picking up your phone… so maybe you could call him?"

Jisung stopped drying Minho's hair, "Oh, fuck. Yes," and hurried up to find his phone and text his boyfriend that they were already on their way. "Okay, done," he grabbed the sweater and the coat Minho had discarded before and came back to help him put it on. Minho didn't complaint and happily let Jisung dress his top half.

Lifting him up and carrying him to the car was a bit harder. Jisung picked Minho up under his arms but the mermaid didn't like the position and struggled until he ended up hugging onto Jisung with Hyunjin carrying the final end of his tail. They made it to the car quickly and Minho struggled again when Jisung suggested to set him on the truck's bed. "It's cold," the mermaid complained so the two humans struggled until they somehow managed to set him in the back seat, his tail folded and squeezed against the window. Whatever.

Once that was fixed he sighed and turned to Hyunjin, "Well, thank you–" he stopped as he noticed the other guy was still a bit out of his mind. He had a flashback of the last time he got Minho in his truck and Hyunjin almost caught them. Tonight there wasn't anyone in the parking lot either and only two other cars were still there –luckily away from Jisung's. Then the boy had seemed a bit sad and nostalgic over the holidays coming soon, and now he looked equally amazed and scared about discovering mermaids were real. Something told Jisung it was better not to let Hyunjin drive back home by himself –and that something was the four years they shared in college. "So… do you wanna come by for dinner? I'm sure Seungmin won't mind. And, you know…"

Hyunjin blinked towards Jisung confusedly.

"Ah, I just owe you for helping me," he added, shaking a hand toward the car.

"Oh," his friend glanced at the car and then back at Jisung, "I guess I haven't seen Seungmin in a while… Would it really be fine? I don't have any plans aside from instant ramen so…"

"Yes, yes, let's go!"

Hyunjin hesitated but soon after Jisung was driving them back home. Minho squeezed in the back seat leaned forward between the front seats, "You said you would get me pudding." Jisung glanced at him by the mirror and hissed, Minho frowned, "I'm hungry."

The human sighed, "Yes, fine, okay, jeez, no need to sulk…" he muttered, stopping the car by a convenience store, "Okay, wait a second." He jumped out of the car, leaving them alone. Hyunjin sat awkwardly in silence and Minho went back to sit comfortably knowing he would get pudding. The mermaid didn't seem to care about how weird Hyunjin felt or the way he kept glancing at Minho's tail.

"So… you been living with Jisung and Seungmin?" Hyunjin said, clearing his throat.

Minho hummed, and luckily for both, Jisung came back before Hyunjin wanted to try for a second question. He threw the plastic bag for Minho to catch it and turned on the engine, driving the rest of the way quickly after turning on the radio. Bringing the mermaid upstairs wasn't easy, but they managed to carry him without encountering any neighbors. Minho didn't seem to be bothered at all by being carried by Jisung, he clung to the human as Hyunjin struggled with the key and pushed the door open for them, the noise of Jisung tripping on the shoes piled by the entrance, making Seungmin come from the kitchen.

"Jisung–… Hyunjin-ah?" Seungmin blinked in their direction, frowning the moment he saw Minho's tail on the floor as the mermaid clung to his boyfriend, his eyes widened and he stared back to his old friend, "You–… this…–"

"It's okay." Jisung cut it, dragging Minho towards the bathroom door on his own as Hyunjin was awkwardly standing in their entrance, "I invited him for dinner because he helped me carry Minho."

"Why does he –hi, Hyunjin– why does he have his tail back?" Seungmin followed quickly, entering the bathroom behind them, Hyunjin leaned from the entrance, not daring to join but watching curiously. "Did someone see it? Aside from Hyunjin I mean."

"No."

"He went into the water," Jisung explained, setting Minho in the bathtub, "He said his legs will come back if he's warm enough," he added, helping Minho out of the coat and sweater before opening the faucet to get hot water for him.

"I was looking for pretty gifts, but Jisung said you wouldn't like it," the mermaid provided as explanation and Seungmin frowned with confusion.

"Being fair, anemones only look good underwater, bringing the starfish would kill it–"

"It was pretty," Minho muttered.

"–and it would stink."

"He also put something inside me that hurt," Minho deadpanned and Jisung felt his cheeks growing hot and his boyfriend stare at him.

"A NEEDLE, IT WAS A NEEDLE!" he jumped, "I was just trying to get a blood sample, I swear, Seungminnie, I–"

Hyunjin observed from the door with confusion as Seungmin sighed and rolled his eyes and Jisung followed behind his boyfriend as he walked towards the kitchen. He stood there in the entrance wondering if he should leave, until Minho flicked his tail from inside the bathroom and he glanced, finding the mermaid's eyes already on him.

"I should…–"

"Pudding," Minho pointed to the plastic bag Hyunjin had been holding since they came out of the car and the human jumped, stumbled inside the bathroom to give it to him.

"Sorry– yes… should I get you a spoon?"

The mermaid hummed affirmatively and flicked his tail, making Hyunjin jump again.

"Minho-yah, stop acting like that!" Jisung called from somewhere down the hall, "Hyunjin, he's inoffensive!"

When the doorbell rang Jisung glanced with a pout at his boyfriend without moving from the couch. Seungmin sighed and leaving the elastic band he was using to stretch his shoulder aside, he walked to the door. Jisung gave him a pleased smile and twisted his neck a bit to follow Seungmin with his eyes. Sunday was for being lazy, and Jisung didn't have a complaint about it –it was the only day Seungmin indulged him on not getting out of pajamas if he didn't want to. The anime voices filled the room, mixing with the noise –he was trying to ignore– of Minho in the kitchen: a knife on the board, spoon to the floor, water boiling, moving stuff and the voice giving instructions on how to make kimchi jjigae from the YouTube video Jisung had set for him.

His boyfriend opened the door and Jisung saw, from the twisted angle as he refused to leave the sofa, Chan's smile spreading to greet his old friend. He didn't reach to pause his anime, he had watched that season many times now, so he didn't mind missing stuff.

"Hyung! I didn't knew you were coming to visit!" he called, lifting his arm to wave.

Chan smiled in his direction, leaving his shoes by the entrance, "Ah, I just thought it's been a while since I checked on you two. And I brought lunch," he said towards Jisung, lifting the plastic bags in his hands.

"Oh, thank God, because whatever Minho is cooking is probably not gonna be edible," Seungmin muttered, taking half the bags and moving towards the kitchen without minding Chan's confused expression.

"Minho?" The hyung muttered, following Seungmin.

Jisung turned himself onto his stomach, the apartment's open layout allowing him to see the kitchen fully –a curse if you asked Seungmin who had been resisting the urge to go clean the mess Minho was making. The mermaid, who's legs had grown back to normal after a night sitting in hot water, lifted his eyes from where he was cutting the kimchi –a pot with anchovies, daikon, green onion roots, and dried kelp boiling behind him on the stove– when Seungmin left the bag on the counter to his right and took out the trays with takeout food from Chan.

The mermaid frowned as he noticed his food had a replacement. He eyed the bags, and leaving the knife he reached to stop Seungmin with a frustrated sound. Jisung's boyfriend stared at him, "What?"

"I'm cooking," Minho stated, and then glared at Chan, who was observing him with curiosity and questioning eyes. Seungmin turned to the hyung and then to the fish man.

"Oh, I only brought three portions, I didn't know that–"

"Who's he?" The mermaid interrupted, narrowing his eyes to the bag still in Chan's hand as he realized it was him who'd brought the food replacing his cooking.

Seungmin rolled his eyes, "Chan-hyung, this is Minho, Jisung's friend from Malaysia, he speaks little korean–"

"I speak good," Minho pouted at him, hurt.

"–he's gotten better I guess. And Minho, this is Chan-hyung, Jisung's college friend and my manager when I played baseball."

The mermaid didn't seem impressed, eyeing the boy up and down –inspecting Chan's short blond hair barely showing from under his beanie, his dimples and the way his eyes crinkled as he smiled politely. "I'm cooking," he said to the bag in the hyung's hand.

"Hyung didn't knew that!" Jisung jumped from the sofa and stumbled before joining them in the kitchen, smiling at Chan and grabbing the bags from his hand to check it was beer so he moved to place it on the fridge. The older rubbed the back of his neck with embarrassment.

"I didn't know you guys had a guest or plans for lunch."

"We don't have plans for lunch," Seungmin said, winning a frown from Minho, the same time Jisung commented with an awkward laugh, "He's been here for… some weeks? A couple weeks? Eh… " Jisung wasn't sure how to explain it, Seungmin glancing at him wasn't helping his brain to think faster, but luckily Chan got distracted as he noticed the pot where Minho had anchovies, daikon, green onion roots, and dried kelp boiling was flooding and would burn. The hyung moved fast towards it, lowering the heat,

"Ah, careful! You don't want it to burn, the heat was too high, you need to lower it once it starts boiling or it–" he glanced at the mess on Minho's counter and the stuff he had spread around, "What are you trying to make?" Chan eyed Jisung's phone supported on the salt jar with a paused YouTube video.

"Kimchi jjigae," Minho said, his wary expression softening when Chan hummed appreciatively and pointed to the way he was cutting the kimchi.

"It would be easier if you used scissors for that," he commented, reaching for one in the cabinet without hesitation, after all he had come to cook for Jisung and his boyfriend many times before while Seungmin was still not capable of doing much.

"Hyung, leave him, we can eat the food you brought," Seungmin said and Chan looked at him puzzled.

"Babe, don't be mean," Jisung finished setting the beers in the fridge, closing its door and moving back to hug his boyfriend's waist, "Minho is trying and I already said I would clean it after he's done."

Seungmin glared at his boyfriend and then at the mess on the counter, "This is his fifth try to make it, we just ran out of kimchi and I had to buy more yesterday, along with more ingredients because he keeps fucking it up. He could at least try another recipe."

"He's never cooked before!" Jisung argued, giving Seungmin his best begging eyes, "And he's progressively getting better! He just needs…"

"Progressively is… a way of putting it. He almost burned the kitchen twice."

"Almost, but he didn't–"

"Because I came in time to see paper towels burning."

"–but now he knows better than to leave the kitchen paper near the fire!" Jisung pouted and brought his boyfriend closer, lowering his voice, "And he seems to be trying really hard."

Seungmin sighed, giving in a bit, and shaking his head without admitting Jisung was right, "Whatever… hyung, how have you been? And what really brings you here?" he switched the topic, both of them turning to find Chan slicing half an onion on the cutting board Minho had been using before –sleeves rolled up.

"Huh?" He looked up, blinking to the couple, as if he had almost forgotten his real purpose here as he had taken to helping Minho cook, "Ah, nothing, really, I just missed you both and it's been a while since I treated you for lunch–"

"Hyung, is this much enough?" Minho interrupted, showing Chan the piece of tofu he had cut, the older inspected it before his brain seemed to catch something else.

"Hyung?" The older muttered, and Jisung saw Chan blush and blink towards Minho, who just showed the tofu with more insistence, "Ah, yes, that should be enough. Though you can add a bit more since I'm joining you."

The mermaid hummed and moved to get some more.

"Hyung…?" Chan glanced at the couple, Jisung opened his mouth to form a lie when Seungmin pinched his side, "How old… how old are you, Minho?" the hyung turned to the mermaid, who answered before Jisung could think of a good number.

"Twenty seven."

"Twenty seven?" Seungmin muttered to his boyfriend.

"Oh! So I'm your hyung indeed!" The older laughed a bit, Jisung joining him by inertia and pulling his boyfriend out of the kitchen discreetly.

"Hm," Minho hummed and Seungmin hesitated a bit, "Can we just have what Chan-hyung brought…?"

"Um. I think it won't be enough for the four of us?" The older said sheepishly, "And it would be a waste not to eat since Minho's cooking… so much."

"Seungmin-ah," Jisung muttered and his boyfriend pouted in complaint.

"Wait, if you're twenty seven that means you're also Seungmin's and Jisung's hyung, right?" Chan turned to Minho, probably picking on the way they both referred to him informally, and Jisung felt Seungmin freeze in his arms when the mermaid stared at them with narrowed eyes, "Yes."

This time it was his boyfriend who pushed Jisung out of the kitchen, "Jisung-ah, I remember I need to do something, come with me?"

Jisung blinked confusedly at the obvious lie Chan was too busy cleaning the counter and helping Minho to notice, "Ah, yes, I'm… yes, babe!" he followed him, leaving the cooking to the other two.

Chan took charge of most of it, cleaning behind the mess every time Minho was not careful enough and patiently showing him what to do with everything. At some point he questioned again, "Uh, Jisung said you're learning to cook… you could've picked an easier recipe, why kimchi jjigae?"

Minho didn't look up from what he was doing as he answered with a plain tone, "It's Seungmin's favorite." The older raised an eyebrow and the mermaid turned to him as if he didn't know what was confusing, "I want him to accept my courting, so I'm doing his favorite. Isn't that how it works?"

Chan fumbled with the wood spoon in his hand, blinking repeatedly and then frowning a bit, "Uh…?" but Minho was back to not looking at him, "You know Jisung and Seungmin are together, right?"

"Mm," Minho nodded, "Jisung already accepted my courting, but Seungmin doesn't like marine fauna," he quoted the last part with the same tone Jisung had said it himself.

The human opened and closed his mouth without words, and then shook his head, moving to the fridge to get a beer, he would just ask Jisung. Jisung who was spying on them from his couch, supporting himself on the back of it with Seungmin beside him, both of them watching without really being able to pick up the conversation with the anime sounds behind them.

"Why's he such a brat to me but so sweet to hyung?" Seungmin was muttering, sounding slightly jealous of the way Minho kept turning with bright innocent eyes to ask Chan stuff –each time making the older melt slightly.

"He never looks at me like that," Jisung agreed with a pout, salty.

"He seems to like Chan-hyung."

"But he said I'm his mate, why is looking at other men like–"

"Are you jealous?" Seungmin glared at him and Jisung opened his mouth defensively, lowering his voice in the last moment.

"No! I mean… I mean, you also… find it weird," he shuttered a bit, his boyfriend narrowing his eyes, he huffed an awkward laugh, whining with a slight begging for mercy tone, "Seungmin-ah…"

Seungmin huffed, giving in and glancing back towards the kitchen, "Mm. It's weird, you saw him with Hyunjin. And I'm just worried about him saying something weird to Chan and fucking it up. Like what is with his age?" He frowned, looking back at his boyfriend, "Since when is he twenty seven?"

"Thursday, he watched the episode of Spy x Family with me and he seemed to pick Yor's age," Jisung sighed, "I mean, it could be worse, he only knows how to properly count up to ten."

His boyfriend shook his head, but Jisung was right.

Food was ready after a while –mostly without incidents thanks to Chan, who had finished one full beer as they were on it. They sat at the table together, and upon trying the stew Jisung's eyes opened in surprise and he turned to Minho, "It's actually good, Minho-yah!"

The mermaid stared at him. "Hyung", he corrected and Jisung chocked on his food.

He hadn't consider this outcome, he coughed a bit, blushing slightly, "Yah– Minho-yah, don't you think we're too close for those formalities…?" he tried, but the mermaid kept staring at him even when Jisung laughed a bit, trying to dismiss it, "Yah, this is…"

"You should address Minho properly," Seungmin cut in, kicking him under the table with his feet, voice teasing. Jisung hissed, glaring at his boyfriend as if he had been betrayed, but Seungmin seemed to be enjoying it until Minho adverted his eyes towards him instead.

"Hyung," he repeated, and Seungmin fumbled, opening and closing his eyes as his cheeks reddened.

Jisung smirked, moving his eyebrows, "Right, Seungmin-ah, you should also address hyung properly."

"I–" Seungmin frowned towards his boyfriend, quickly glancing at Chan who just observed the three of them with something between confusion and curiosity, "Fine…" he muttered through gritted teeth, "Minho-hyung."

The mermaid smiled pleased and went back to his food. Chan cleared his throat and changed the topic so the conversation moved easy from there. Jisung got tipsy soon enough to start making silly jokes between the talk about work, Chan's trips during the baseball season, Seungmin's shoulder recovery, recipes Minho should try, and mostly a bit of everything. Jisung had even remembered to mention Hyunjin wanting all of them to hang out, which was a good idea according to Chan.

They were already finishing, Minho red from the alcohol and fighting through heavy eyes and Jisung tipsy enough to nuzzle into his boyfriend neck with a pout trying to make him laugh, when the older settled his chopsticks, cleaning his mouth on the napkin, "Talking about work…" he said, his tone more serious as he glanced at the couple. Jisung felt his boyfriend tense and he lifted his head too, hand still on Seungmin's leg under the table, "My friend who works as a PE teacher, you remember I told you about Changbin, right?" Chan continued, "He was telling me the school needs someone to take up the position of the coworker who covered half the classes because he'll be retiring next semester, and I told him that you–"

"No," Seungmin cut him before he could finish, already knowing where it was going.

Jisung squeezed softly where he was holding his boyfriend's leg, "Min–…" he muttered, a soft petition.

"It's not a demanding position," Chan continued anyway, trying to push through Seungmin's stubbornness, as he had done many times before, "… they pay fairly, you would only need to take up half the classrooms and my friend said he'd see you if you wanted to go ask questions and see what it conveys."

"I said no," Seungmin repeated, lips pressed, and Jisung opened his mouth to beg again, eyeing Minho. This wasn't a new argument, and it always circled back to the same point.

"Changbin would speak in your favor if you liked the position and–"

"Can we not do this again?" Seungmin raised his voice a bit, the tone making Minho blink between them and send Jisung a questioning look –but Jisung couldn't explain it to him right now–, "I already told you many times, hyung, I'm not ready and I'm not sure if I want to–"

"You can't live from Ji's salary only forever," the older argued, his voice soft but firm, always so careful with Seungmin, but always strong enough when he knew the younger was just being stubborn, "And whatever savings you have are not infinite," Jisung noticed Seungmin eyeing Minho, as if he was thinking about all the extra money he had used on groceries and more shampoo since the mermaid joined them, even if it was temporary, Jisung felt guilty for putting more pressure on his boyfriend.

"We already talked about this…" Seungmin took a deep breathe, shaking his head.

"You're still young and your reputation as an ex player is still functional to get you a nice job where you can be comfortable and not depend fully on Jisung," Chan pushed.

"Hyung," Jisung begged softly, not liking the way the tone was raising to an actual argument.

"I'm just trying to help you, Seungmin-ah," Chan said, eyes softening towards the younger. Jisung saw the slight guilt in them, and if he did, Seungmin had surely seen it too. Their friend still felt guilty about Seungmin's injury, about not taking care of him enough as a manager, as a friend. Jisung understood, but he also knew the way that made his boyfriend feel like if Chan was pitying him, "You should at least listen and–"

"Hyung," Jisung repeated, his voice stronger this time, making all the eyes turn in his direction, "Please, that's enough. I appreciate you worrying for Seungmin, but that's enough." He felt Seungmin relax a bit by his side, and he looked at him with some reassurance before finding Chan's eyes again.

The older blond sighed after a second and nodded, pressing the bridge of his nose, "Yeah, I'm… sorry, yeah," he glanced briefly at Minho, who was mostly confused and eyeing Jisung as if he wanted to be let in, "Not the time." Chan muttered and then glanced back to Seungmin, "Just… just think about it, yeah?"

Seungmin pressed his lips, avoiding Chan's eyes and just getting up to pick the dishes. "Okay," he said, but it was half hearted, as he didn't really planned to. He picked up the dishes and moved to the kitchen. Minho, upon getting no answers from Jisung and probably picking up on the change in Seungmin, got up, picking the rest of the stuff up and followed him to help, leaving Jisung and Chan alone on the table.

The hyung sighed and shook his head, getting up too, "I guess I should leave."

Jisung pressed his lips, "Let me…" he muttered, walking Chan to the door. The older put on his shoes, the silence hanging heavily between them. Jisung leaned towards the wall, watching him, and lowering his voice, "I'm sorry, hyung, I know you mean right and…"

Chan shook his head, looking at him with a small sad smile, "You don't have to apologize, Jisung-ah, I know you're just trying to protect him," he said, always wise, always knowing, "But you also know I'm right."

He did. He closed his eyes slightly and then sighed, "Hyung, we're fine…"

"Jisung-ah," Chan stared at him and Jisung gave in, grimacing, "Just consider it, okay? And… talk to Seungmin. If you talk to him, he may listen. It's really a good opportunity. And Changbin is really nice. Okay?"

Jisung sighed, "Okay. I'll try to talk to him, but you know how he is."

"Yeah, I know," the older nodded, putting his hands in the pockets of his jacket and glancing down the hall behind Jisung's back before pressing a smile and narrowing his eyes to Jisung with worry, "Also, Minho said he was courting Seungmin?"

Jisung felt his cheeks red and laughed as if that was a silly occurrence.

"HAHAHA… That's really funny, hyung! HAHA… Minho– Minho-hyung is really good at jokes and–"

"He also said you accepted his courting already."

His yes darted around, looking anywhere but Chan, "You know? He's really silly, and it's actually getting late, and I'm sure you have a lot of stuff to do, and I have to help clean, as I promised Seungmin, otherwise I will–" he hurried, opening the door and pushing Chan in an attempt to finish the conversation before his friend somehow pulled the truth out of him, he wasn't as good a liar as Seungmin.

Chan stumbled out of the door, "Ji–"

"It was nice you came by and all but–" he forced a big smile, already closing the door, but the hyung got his shoe in the way before he could fully kick him out. Jisung looked down at it and then up at Chan's stern face.

"Han Jisung."

"Y-Yes, hyung?" His voice shook a bit as he blinked innocently to the older.

"I'm not going to police you and whatever is going on," he said, "I was just gonna say Minho seemed nice. A bit weird, but… in a cute way."

"Well, he's very…" Innocent? New to the human world? Naive?

"And whatever is going on, you guys should talk it out. Communication is key to–"

Jisung felt embarrassment burning in his stomach at getting another of those speeches from Chan. He grumbled and covered his face before noticing Chan had taken his foot back. Quickly he looked up, "Nothing is going on! Aha… but thank you for worrying! See you, hyung!" He practically yelled and closed the door before the older could continue. Jisung sighed and pressed his back to the door, heart fluttering.

Nothing was going on. Jisung was such a bad liar.

Jisung turned off the side lamp and laid down in bed with a heavy sigh, facing the ceiling. He felt Seungmin move to his right and turned to see his boyfriend facing him in the dark. The silence was heavy, tension hadn't fully eased since dinner, even if Seungmin's shoulders had relaxed while doing the dishes with Minho –in what seemed like a comfortable silence to Jisung. He knew they should talk about it, he knew he had promised Chan they would, but Jisung couldn't bring himself to start it. He opened his mouth, but no words came out so he closed it again and then, he heard Seungmin sigh, "Would you tell me if I was a burden?" he whispered.

He didn't knew how to answer to that. How does one tell his boyfriend if he's a burden? Was that even possible? Jisung wasn't sure Seungmin could even be a burden to him. He had already cared for Seungmin at his worst, he had helped him clean himself, undress and dress every day when he could barely move his shoulder. He would never consider Seungmin a burden, not really. But he also knew Chan was right, it was gonna be a struggle to live just with his salary once Seungmin's savings were gone, and Jisung was sure Seungmin knew that too.

It took him maybe a moment too long to answer and Seungmin ended up reading into the silence, "I would like you to tell me if I was a burden."

Jisung turned fully to his side, not sure he could agree to that petition just because, "You're not a burden."

"But Chan is right," Seungmin said, "And I could be a burden."

Jisung grimaced and though it was dark he was sure Seungmin could see his struggle. "You're not, nor will you ever be a burden to me, Seungmin," is all he managed to say, but his boyfriend read the unsaid words anyway.

"But you still think I should consider Chan's offer."

He sighed again, "I… I do. But only if you want to," he said, moving closer to be able to see Seungmin's eyes clearly without turning on the light, "I won't pressure you to do anything you don't feel you can do, but…" He made a pause, biting his lip and trying to find the right words, "It's been a while, Seung, and I think you should try… you don't have to accept the job, just… you know, we could go and meet the guy and…"

"We?" Seungmin whispered, his voice sounding small.

"We," he repeated, "We could go, meet Chan's friend, see how it works, what would you have to do, and so… You don't have to accept even if we go. But if you didn't hate the idea or the job…. I think it could be good, not for the money, just for… for you, Seungmin-ah."

He wasn't sure if he had conveyed it well in words, but he hoped Seungmin understood what he meant. Jisung didn't care too much about the money, but he knew spending his days alone at home wasn't good for Seungmin. He had been better with Minho, but yet Jisung thought it would be good for him. But he didn't knew how to express it properly without risking upsetting Seungmin again, so he just let it hang and allowed the silence to settle for a moment.

After a longer moment he heard Seungmin sigh and mutter a soft, "Okay," before turning to face the ceiling, opening his arm a bit as an open invitation Jisung took to cuddle into his side and press his nose into Seungmin's cheek.

"I love you," he whispered into his boyfriend's cheek and Seungmin turned to meet his lips for a soft hiss.

"I love you too."

Jisung nuzzled into Seungmin's neck, arm over his boyfriend's middle as he slowed his breathes and just held onto him. He was already feeling sleepy again, the tension still there but eased after the talk, when he heard their door opening. Jisung frowned and lifted his head a bit and saw Minho walking into the room. The mermaid was carrying a couple blankets and his pillow, he closed the door behind him softly –as if he was trying not to wake the couple– and walked to Seungmin's side of the bed before arranging a makeshift nest on the floor to lie down there.

What the– Jisung closed his eyes again, preparing himself for the argument.

"What are you doing?" Seungmin questioned.

"Sleeping," Minho said, Jisung heard him move on the sheets, maybe facing the ceiling or maybe facing the bed. "I'm not in the bed," he added as if he remembered Jisung scolding him the other day about boundaries.

Jisung waited, but Seungmin didn't bite back, instead he felt his boyfriend huff and shake his head before just silently accepting it.

Changbin seemed like a nice guy in Jisung's opinion. He had not only received them the next Wednesday –Jisung had been the one to contact Chan to ask him– but also gave them a full tour through the school –Jisung confirmed the bathrooms were clean as soon as they arrived because he needed to pee— as he explained generalities of his work and the school functioning because after all Seungmin had never been a teacher. It hadn't been bad, Jisung stayed next to Seungmin most of the time, and they ended back at Changbin's desk in the teacher's office. There were a few other teachers, but none paying them attention.

Changbin was wearing comfortable clothes, had a whistle hanging from his neck, and was trying to focus on answering Seungmin's questions. Jisung was also trying to focus on what he was saying, but Minho's presence next to them, nodding with pressed lips, was distracting him. He had been doing that the whole time, and Jisung didn't blame the guy when he finally couldn't hold it and frowned a bit, clearing his throat, "I'm sorry, who did you say he was…?"

They had never said it, barely acknowledging his presence. Jisung scratched his cheek awkwardly. Minho had refused to stay home alone, the moment he saw the other two leaving, he hurried to follow them. The only way he would be confined to their empty home was if they tied Minho to the sofa –probably.

"Ignore him," Seungmin dismissed it, but Minho didn't seem to like that.

"I'm Minho, their mate."

"Mate?" Changbin lifted his eyebrows in confusion and amusement, Seungmin closed his eyes, covering them with one hand in embarrassment as his cheeks burned, and Jisung didn't gave Minho time to answer, pulling his phone from his pocket.

"Ah, Minho-yah, do you wanna watch a cooking show?" He said, already opening YouTube, but the mermaid just glared at him.

"I'm sorry, Changbin-ssi, could we… maybe talk somewhere else?"

Changbin hummed, "Sure, I have class now, I was gonna ask if you would like to watch," he said, eyeing Jisung and Minho.

"That would be great," he said and then to Jisung, "Can you maybe…?"

"I'll go find us a snack," Jisung smiled, grabbing Minho's wrist, "And after we will wait for you at the car."

Seungmin nodded, appreciating it, so Jisung bowed goodbye to Changbin and Minho copied him before being dragged away. Jisung pulled the mermaid by the wrist out of the teacher's office, only letting go after they were down the hall. They went down a case of stairs and then a couple turns after they found a small area filled with benches that faced the field where Changbin's class would probably take place. There was a vending machine and Jisung fished for his wallet.

"What should we get?" he asked towards Minho.

"I like these," the mermaid pointed to the Honey Butter Potato Chips bags lined in the machine.

"Those are good," Jisung agreed, counting the price and adding, "I'm having banana milk… should I get Seungmin something too?" he bit his lip, considering the options.

Minho hummed in agreement and pointed to the canned coffee so Jisung got one of those too. After retrieving the snacks they moved to one of the benches, the mermaid munched on the chips mindlessly, eyes crinkling as the sun hit them, like a sleepy cat lying under the warm light during a cold day. The air was cold, it had snowed that morning and Jisung had made sure Minho was bundled up with a scarf of his own and Seungmin's winter jacket.

He sighed as he sat next to him, from the bench he was able to see the field, a few meters away, the class hadn't started yet but the bell rang through the halls when Jisung poked with the straw through the paper seal and took a long sip. He glanced at Minho and sighed, lowering the bottle, "Minho-yah."

The mermaid ignored him and Jisung pressed the bridge of his nose, "Minho…" he repeated and when that got him the same response he whined, "Fine. Hyung."

Minho hummed, turning his face to see him, "Want some?" He offered the chips, munching on some as he spoke.

Jisung eyed the bag and shook his head, "No–" but changed mind midway and reached for it, "–okay, wait, one". He grabbed a few, munched on them and took another sip of his milk before realizing that was not what he was gonna say. He lowered the milk again and turned his body towards him with a sigh, "Minho-yah–… hyung, you can't just keep telling people we're your mates."

The mermaid frowned a bit, "Why not?"

"Well…" Jisung struggled. Why not? He ran a hand through his hair. Because poly relationships were not the standard, because people could look at them weirdly or judge them, because Minho was not aware of it but society wasn't always accepting. There was a lot to convey, a lot that started with homophobia and how even if Changbin was probably safe to tell –Jisung trusted anyone who was Chan's friend– they couldn't know if someone else was listening and how would that affect Seungmin and his work if he got the position. It was a complicated topic and Jisung looked away, bringing the straw back to his lips as he sulked, realizing he didn't think this through, "Just because it's taboo."

"What is taboo?" Minho said, frowning a bit.

"It's something improper," Jisung gestured, but Minho was still staring at him so he added, "Something people don't talk about."

"Humans talk about mates all the time," the mermaid argued, "It's in all the manga and the TV."

Then it was Jisung's time to frown, "I–… I mean, that's true in a way… But first of all we don't call them mates! Except in omegaverse, but that's fully fictional and…" he waved a hand dismissively, "And second of all, it's usually just between two people, not three. A relationship of three people is taboo."

Jisung sipped his milk some more, staring in the distance at the students that had gathered and Changbin that clapped to get their attention on the field. He found Seungmin standing somewhere behind the teacher and waved at him from afar, getting a small wave back from his boyfriend.

"Besides, Seungmin hasn't accept your courting so he's not your mate," he added.

The mermaid didn't answer and Jisung turned his head to find Minho staring at him, the bag of chips forgotten in his hand, "What?"

"You didn't say I'm not your mate," Minho spoke bluntly and Jisung blinked confusedly, feeling his face warm as he realized Minho was right. He opened and closed his mouth a couple times and then laughed awkwardly, looking anywhere but Minho.

"I– I mean, that's not… I was just following your logic! I don't–!"

Fingers that smelled like Honey Butter Chips covered Jisung's mouth before he could finish his sentence. He whined against it, frowned and then turned his round confused eyes to meet Minho's. His stomach felt warm and the complaints died before they properly formed in his throat. Minho was watching him intensely, with a glint, but also a verge of vulnerability and hope.

"Don't say it," he muttered, almost like a beg, and after a longer second of feeling Jisung's breath on his hand, he moved it away slowly.

Yet, Jisung didn't say anything and Minho just turned back to face the field. He let the silence set and for a long second he couldn't move his eyes away from Minho, the cute way his blond hair fell maybe too long in his face –would Seungmin cut it for him like he did sometimes for Jisung if he asked?–, the shape of his nose and the triangular lips as he munched more chips.

Jisung turned back to face the field after a bit, still in silence, sipped the milk and shyly looked for Seungmin in the distance. He had the feeling that Seungmin was watching them too.

Minho was cute, adorable even, and Jisung couldn't stop thinking about it. It was the blond hair too long on his face, it was the way he scrunched his nose, the natural pout on his mouth and his bunny teeth whenever he smiled. He had sharp features, cat-like eyes and unfairly pretty cheekbones, but somehow he managed to look soft, pure and innocent as he blinked stupidly towards Jisung from the sofa, or across the dinning table. He was not just cute, he was funny, he was playful, incredibly stubborn and smart in his own mermaid way that made Jisung want to teach him more stuff.

Maybe he was overthinking it, maybe he was just a man with eyes, and Minho was just someone meant to be appreciated. There was nothing wrong if he thought the mermaid would look good with some piercings, or if he found Minho's thighs pretty when he stretched his legs over Jisung's lap as they lied on the sofa to watch anime, or if he though Minho's ears getting red were adorable when he suggested to drink as a celebration for Seungmin agreeing to take the job he would start next spring's semester.

Ah, the spring.

He kept thinking about it. He spiraled about it when he drove and snow fell on his windshield, and more than once as he sat at his desk at the lab he found himself staring mindlessly by the window to the endless sea. Once the time was warmer, once the spring arrived, Minho would be able to leave. After all they were just taking him in temporarily, while the temperatures where too cold for him out there. Every time he thought about it, he felt this weird void inside, dull fear, a nostalgia for something he still hadn't lost: Minho's presence on the sofa, the way he made Seungmin laugh and bicker in a way Jisung hadn't seen him do in a while, the glances whenever he didn't understand something, his sleepy face and the awkward rhythm of his words.

Jisung hadn't lost many people in his life. He didn't know his grandma and his grandpa was still alive. So the only thing he could link that void to was the time his pet fish was lost in the toilet. But that was not it, Minho was not a pet or small enough to fit in the toilet. If he left Jisung's life it wouldn't be by the inevitable forces of pressured water pushing him away, but rather because of Minho's own will. And that was worse.

He had been thinking it too much, growing anxious in the course of the next couple days as his mind picked on his feelings. He had just grown attached to Minho, he told himself. It was not a big deal. He lied in bed with anxiety growing on his skin. He had never been a good liar, neither had he been good at hiding things from Seungmin.

"Are you gonna tell me?" Seungmin said, the moment Jisung hesitated in reaching to cuddle.

Seungmin knew him better than anyone. They'd been together for years, first as friends and then as more. He knew Jisung inside out, of course he knew something was bothering him. In other times the idea would provide some comfort, the one that comes with having someone who loves you and cares, but it didn't that night and instead Jisung tensed. Had Seungmin been able to tell from the way he looked at Minho?

"What?" Jisung forced himself to say, turning just his head to see his boyfriend already watching him.

"The thing in your head that's making you anxious," Seungmin insisted, sitting up and turning the lamp on his side back on.

Jisung whined. He wasn't ready for this conversation. What was he supposed to say? How? Seungmin would be mad, probably. He didn't want to upset Seungmin. Would he send Jisung to the sofa? Or not the sofa, because Minho was sleeping there. Maybe he would just make him go, kick them both out of the apartment and Jisung would have to knock on Chan's door –because no way he was going back to his parents' place.

Seungmin stared at him in silence, waiting. Okay. Maybe Jisung was being dramatic. Seungmin loved him.

He sat up with a sigh, rubbing his eyes with the base of his palm.

"Did something happen at work?" Seungmin said when Jisung took too long.

"No," he lowered his hands and fidgeted with the cover.

His boyfriend frowned, and his tone turned more worried when he added: "With your parents…?"

"What?" Jisung glanced at Seungmin and when he saw his worried expression the guilt curled in his stomach, "No! No–… my parents are alright," he hurried, gripping the bedsheets and then letting go anxiously, "I would've told you right away if it was…"

"Then what is it?" Seungmin's expression relaxed just a bit, but barely.

Jisung whined again, "It's… I just don't know how to say it," he muttered, bitting his lip a second before giving in, "I feel like… like I will fuck things up and make everything worse if I put it into words, like if I don't say it then it's not real and it will go away if I just ignore it–…, you know what Felix says about manifesting and–"

"Jisung," Seungmin cut him off, reaching for the hand Jisung was using to grip the sheets, because his words were blurry, nervous, hurried, and they made no sense. He took a deep breathe, looking down at their hands, trying to find some comfort in the fact his boyfriend's thumb caressed his hand, in the fact Seungmin was listening. But that only made his stomach curl further in guilt.

"I love you," he said, gulping nervously and looking back up at his boyfriend.

"I love you too," Seungmin answered right away, but he didn't stop frowning, so Jisung looked back down, softly retrieving his hand.

"It's just… silly, it's really silly and I don't want to screw things up between us because of something silly that will probably just–"

"Not saying it won't make it disappear." Jisung opened his mouth to object, but Seungmin's eyes felt heavy on his and he just wanted to call it a day and turn around to sleep. Seungmin wouldn't let him run, he had never been the type to avoid hard conversations, "And if you keep saying it like that without actually telling me what it is, then I'm gonna think you did something."

His eyes opened wide in fear and he looked back at Seungmin as a plea for forgiveness upon something he hadn't done.

"Did you–?"

"No!" He shook his head, hurriedly, moving closer to Seungmin even if he regretted it the moment after, not sure what to do or if he should even reach for Seungmin's hand. He wanted to, but he didn't. "I– I did nothing, I–"

"It sounds like you did."

"I didn't," Jisung repeated with a whine, but he didn't blame Seungmin for not believing him, "I just don't know how to say it."

"Just say it."

It was not that easy. He wanted to tell Seungmin that it was not that easy, but when he found his boyfriend's eyes again he couldn't bring himself to. Seungmin was always honest, and all he asked Jisung was to be honest too. The void of nostalgia for something he hadn't yet lost bit from inside again.

"I don't want Minho to leave our lives."

Jisung adverted his eyes to look at his hands fidgeting nervously, so he couldn't see what Seungmin looked like when he muttered, careful, "What do you mean?"

He tried to light his own chest with a forced laugh but the air was too heavy, and he rubbed a hand on the back of his neck, shrugging, "I guess I just got attached to his presence?" He tried, tiptoeing around it but not quite phrasing it. When Seungmin didn't answer to that, expecting more, more words bubbled from his throat, "Like… like… he is… hum… I guess what I'm trying to say is that he's cute–, in like a funny way! An adorable way!"

His hands moved, trying to explain himself, but his cheeks felt warm and he could feel Seungmin's eyes heavy on him. Yet, he couldn't stop it, he needed to explain, to not make it sound that bad.

"Like when he doesn't understand something and just looks up like that, blinking, he kinda looks like a cat. And… and also, like… he's super curious and actually feels like he listens when I explain stuff like…"

"I listen too."

Jisung lifted his eyes and his heart hurt a bit as he moved closer, but didn't find the courage to touch Seungmin, "I know. I didn't meant like… I mean it like…" He was repeating the same words over and over, he felt like he was making it worse, so he shook his head and tried to start again, "What I mean is that the apartment feels more inhabited some how. And full… When I come back home from work you're not sitting alone on the sofa. And even if he messes the kitchen up, isn't it kinda cute that he keeps trying? And… there's just… I don't know how to explain it without it sounding like I…"

"Like you like him?" Seungmin finished for him, and Jisung gripped the bedsheets where he had been anxiously fidgeting with them, he glanced up at his boyfriend but he couldn't really read through his eyes and his throat clogged. It had been a while since Kim Seungmin showed him the impassive face, it had been a years since Seungmin hid his reactions behind a plain face and a controlled tone for Jisung.

"Y-Yeah…" The word was shaky.

"Do you?" Seungmin insisted and Jisung wanted to reach and beg for his forgiveness, beg for Seungmin not to hide from him right now and make it harder for him. Jisung felt exposed, maybe embarrassed, maybe guilty.

"Y-Yes, I…" He sighed, pressing his hands into his face for a second, realizing there was no way he could explain it that would make it better, "I just really like him being with us… It feels refreshing? And soft at the same time. A bit like eating lemon cheesecake? That makes no sense…, sorry. It's just really easy to like him, right? And every time I think about him leaving, I just… I don't know. I like how you're around him too! And the way you and him bicker? and it feels like like you are… more alive in a way."

There was a short pause, and then Seungmin spoke, his voice sounding smaller, slightly insecure, "Am I not enough?"

Jisung's eyes lifted to find his boyfriend's, wide and scared, panicking when he saw the hurt in Seungmin's eyes. This time he launched forward, hands finding his boyfriend's face as he shook his head, "No, you are. I love you. Seungmin, that's not it… that's not what I meant." He felt Seungmin waver a bit under his touch and used his thumbs to make circles on his cheeks, "What I mean is like… it feels like you're more you around him. In a way you haven't been in years. And I'm saying it in a positive way, not that…"

Seungmin grabbed Jisung's hands and moved them off his face, looking away, "Please, stop."

He didn't try to reach again, "Seungmin…"

"Does this means you want to break up with me? Is that why you've been so anxious and avoiding telling me?"

"Uh? Breaking up?" Jisung sounded a bit in panic, but he was a bit in panic, "No! I didn't say that!" He hurried, the mere idea of breaking up with Seungmin after so many years made his heart hurt. Seungmin didn't seem so sure, so he insisted, "I don't want to break up with you. I love you. And I love us."

Seungmin relaxed a bit to the words, his shoulders falling slightly, "But you like the fish– Minho."

"Yes," he repeated, the word was still hard to say, but the acceptance rolled easier off his tongue this time, "But me liking him doesn't meant I don't love and like you. I feel… like the feelings are not incompatible? They kinda coexist. I don't know how to explain it…"

"Try," his boyfriend said, "Please."

Jisung took a deep breath, "Okay."

Seungmin didn't move, just waiting.

"When I think about Minho leaving, I feel scared. The day he went with me to work he got in the sea and didn't came back until I was almost leaving and I was sitting there, all day, considering what I would do if he didn't came back. And I realized I missed him. And the more I thought about him actually not coming back the more I panicked," he made a pause to look at Seungmin, trying to catch his reaction, "What I mean is… the idea feels wrong, and even now, when I know he can't leave until spring, if I think about it I feel scared of missing him."

Seungmin just looked at him.

"On the other hand, thinking about breaking up with you…" He shook his head, the word hurting on his throat, "Min–… I don't think I can live without you. No, is not a matter of being able or not… I don't want to. I can't even imagine it. I–… Seung… I can't even consider it, I–…" Jisung struggled, biting his lips, "Don't make me consider it, please, that's not what I want."

There was a heavy pause.

"I love you," Jisung repeated, "And at the same time I like Minho… I feel like I could even… if… if you…" he didn't finished, but he knew Seungmin would get it anyway, "But I love you."

Seungmin didn't say it back, for the first time in many times. He moved, silently turning off the lamp, as if he wanted to finish this conversation and just go to sleep. Jisung's heart hurt and he panicked, "Seungmin–…?"

"I need to think," it was all he said, and laid down, slightly leaning on his shoulder as to not face Jisung in his sleep, even if that meant it would hurt him in the morning.

It took jisung a long second to move, but he laid down with a shaky 'okay' barely leaving him, and stared at the ceiling until he felt tears picking in his eyes and forced himself to turn on his side and sleep.

Jisung woke up to an empty pillow by his side. That wasn't as weird as the silence, as the feeling in Jisung's belly when he turned on his side and reached for the empty space. He opened his eyes slowly and for a second considered Seungmin had just got up first, turned off his boyfriend's alarm, maybe he was making breakfast and would come back to rush Jisung so he wouldn't be late for work. He glanced at the clock, ten minutes to six. Seungmin should still be in bed.

His alarm went off from his phone at his back and Jisung growled, burring his face in Seungmin's cold side of the bed. Jisung didn't want to work, but he still put in the effort and pushed himself off the bed, turning off the alarm and dragging his feet out of the room. Still half asleep he barely registered Minho as he passed towards the bathroom to pee and wash his face. He didn't feel any more awake or less like going back to bed, but his stomach protested so Jisung made it to the kitchen before he realized not only was Seungmin not in bed, but also not in the apartment.

Minho sat up on the sofa. "Morning." He rested his arms on the back of the sofa, watching Jisung just standing on the way to the kitchen. He frowned when the boy didn't respond, "Jisung."

"Uh? Ah, yes… morning, hyung," the human forced a small smile, "Have you seen Seungmin?"

"He left," Minho said, getting off the couch and following Jisung to the kitchen as the boy moved to check if there was breakfast or his boyfriend had left before that even.

"Did he say where?" He tried. There wasn't even coffee and Jisung wasn't a fan of taking it hot as Seungmin in the morning, but he still set the machine to brew some.

Minho dropped himself on one of the table's chairs, yawning and shaking his head, "No, I heard the door and woke up."

Jisung frowned, checking the fridge for food. That was weird, Minho was usually the type to rise early. How long ago had Seungmin left? He set some left overs on the counter and checked his phone, no messages, no calls. He ignored Minho cluelessly staring at him as he checked the magnets and then rushed to the bedroom but came back without any clue.

"Is something wrong…?" The mermaid said, getting up and trying to peek on Jisung's phone when the human dialed to his boyfriend.

"It's… no,… just…" He turned with a small jump, taking a step back from Minho as he brought the phone to his ear. Seungmin didn't pick up and his call went to voicemail. Anxiety nested in his stomach and Minho asked again, but Jisung just shook his head and dialed again, "I fucking…" He pressed a hand into his eyes and waited. It took Seungmin one too many tones and Jisung had already convinced himself he wouldn't pick up when he heard a hesitant, 'Hello?' and he visibly relaxed, "Seung, fuck, I was worried."

"Uh?" He heard some movement on Seungmin's side. Minho was staring at him with curiosity and a slight frown.

"Where are you?" He insisted, his voice maybe a bit too high and tense preventing the mermaid from interrupting, "Minho says he didn't even see you leave, I…"

"I'm with Felix and Jeongin," Seungmin interrupted, and Jisung glanced down, running a hand through his hair, "I left you a note that I was coming to see them."

"A note? I didn't see…?"

"On the fridge."

Jisung turned to check the magnets again, but there was nothing. He frowned and then eyed Minho, "Min– Hyung, did you see a note on the fridge?"

"A note?" Minho raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, Seungmin said he let a note. Like a piece of paper with something written on it…" He explained hurriedly, not really in the mood for Minho's innocence, not with Seungmin silent on the other side of the line. The mermaid seemed to understand, his eyes shining for a second as he pulled out a scrunched note from the pocket of the hoodie he was wearing.

"Ah, this?" He said, and Jisung took it quickly, not answering as he read it.

'I'm going to Jeongin's. I don't think I can babysit Minho today. I should be back by dinner. Please don't call me. –SM.'

His heart clenched a bit. Ah, that made sense. He did say he needed to think, what was Jisung expecting?

"Did you find it?" Seungmin asked softly from his phone and Jisung took a deep breath, gripping the note.

"Yeah–… Minho had taken it," he sighed, placing it away and running his hand in his hair again, voice softening, "Sorry… Did you at least have breakfast before leaving?"

"No. It was too early, I wasn't hungry. But Lix is feeding me."

Seungmin's voice was calm. Jisung couldn't feel more anxious.

"Okay," he managed, "That's good." He cleared his throat, "Tell them I say hi."

"Okay."

"Okay," Jisung repeated, but Seungmin didn't hang up yet, like if he was waiting for him to do it, "I love you."

There was a second of silence and he almost wanted to apologize. But then, softly, Seungmin muttered, "I know… I love you too, Sung," and Jisung felt his eyes water in relief, "I gotta go now."

He pressed a hand to his eyes, nodding as if Seungmin could see him through the phone, "Yeah, okay. See you in the evening then." He was sure his voice was telling, but Seungmin just hummed and cut the call. A pathetic sound left him and he set the phone down on the counter, feeling his breath fasten into small sobs. A warm hand found his arm and he remembered Minho was there when he found the mermaid's worried eyes.

"What's wrong?"

Jisung melted a bit, and smiled before breaking to cry, leaning into Minho's body and finding a firm support when the mermaid instinctively surrounded him with his arms. The human buried his face into Minho's shoulder and shook his head slightly, holding onto his hoodie, "I d-don't think I can explain it right now, h-hyung, I'm sorry, just…" Minho accepted it in silence and just squeezed Jisung and held him longer, until the boy calmed. At some point they were just hugging and Jisung felt sleepy, leaning all his weight into Minho.

Then, the mermaid's stomach grumbled and he blinked, pulling away slightly with a tiny chuckle, cleaning his nose and overly conscious of their closeness, "Sorry, yeah, I'm… I'm hungry too, let's just have breakfast." Minho let him go, but didn't move too far away, as if he was ready to catch him if Jisung wavered again.

It had been a while since Jisung was on a baseball field. They had been sitting on the bleachers for only ten minutes when Chan spotted them from the grass. The older waved and Minho lifted his hand to wave back. Less than five minutes later, after dropping the ball and leaving the players to keep training, Chan was joining them, dropping himself on the seat next to Jisung.

"Hey, it's been a while since you came to visit me at work," the hyung said, smiling and poking Jisung's side. Jisung whined, but Chan ignored it to lean and see past him, "Hi, Minho-yah."

"Hi, hyung," the mermaid said.

"I only came to see the games for Seungmin, I'm not a fan of baseball," Jisung pouts and Chan huffed.

"I know. So what brings you here? I will hardly believe you just missed me."

"I did," Minho says, making Chan smile.

"Well, I missed you too!"

Jisung shrugged, "I just needed some… air."

Chan stared at him and then at Minho and the way Minho was staying close to Jisung. He hummed, "I'm guessing you also need hyung to buy you lunch?"

"Maybe…" he fidgeted with his sleeves, dark round eyes turned to the older one. The blond sighed, patted his shoulder before getting up.

"Alright, I'll go grab my wallet."

"Thank you, hyung," he said and just rested there as the older left.

Minho's shoulder was steady near him, he had stayed close since Jisung made them leave home saying they would just go grab lunch with Chan. He hadn't really put up much of a fight, nor tried to hug Jisung again or ask why he cried. And Jisung was thankful Minho was just there, not pushing to get explanations even if he was clearly confused. He didn't pressure now either, in the short time Chan took coming back or while they walked to a nearby restaurant –the hyung's arm around Jisung's shoulders.

The restaurant was familiar, but Jisung didn't pay it much thought and they found nice seats in the corner. Minho looked at the menu with no clue so Chan kindly removed it and ordered for the three of them –Jisung wasn't really hungry, but he did drink a big part of his beer in one go.

"Hey, not getting drunk, it's a little too early for that and you need to drive Minho home," Chan pulled the glass away from him, "Now, will you tell me what happened?"

Jisung whined as the beer was taken away, but gave in, picking up his chopsticks, "Well…" He wasn't sure how to put it, not because he didn't trust Chan, but mostly because he was very aware of Minho's eyes on them from his right while the mermaid ate his own dish –clearly enjoying what the hyung picked for him.

"Did you and Seungmin argue?"

He grimaced, "I wouldn't call it arguing…" he muttered, shaking his head a bit and sighing, "We had a conversation about…" Jisung glanced to Minho, and found the mermaid was already looking at him with his mouth full, the end of the lettuce leaf peeking from his lips. He looked away, placing some of the meat on a leaf for himself and filling his mouth as to not have to talk. "It was mostly me saying things… and then Seungmin said he had to think about it. But I woke up and he had already gone to Jeongin and Felix's place," he muttered, words muffled as he munched.

"What were you saying then?" Chan prompted softly.

"That… I really don't wanna let go of…" Jisung bit his lip as he thought of a way to put it that wouldn't be straight telling Minho they were arguing about him, "The piece of coral I have on my nightstand."

Chan blinked confusedly, but Minho kept eating without paying mind to it, so Jisung continued.

"I said I would be really upset if we had to get rid of it. Um… I brought it home not long ago, from work, right? And… Seungmin didn't really like it but he agreed to keep it for a while," he said, eyes on Chan's, trying to see if the hyung understood, "And I think… he doesn't really hate it anymore."

"A piece of coral?" The hyung was frowning a bit, mouth in a confused pout when Jisung nodded.

"It's a really pretty one. But also… like… it annoys Seungmin," he continued, sending a side glance to Minho and then back to Chan, "I guess because it disturbs the way our room decoration is…" He sighed, covering his face and whining, "I really like the coral, hyung… and I feel Seungmin could like hi– it too. But Seungmin was asking if it's because I don't like hi–his other decorations anymore. And no, I… like both. I love the other decorations, I just… I even think the coral makes them even prettier."

Minho on his side was glancing at them with oblivious eyes, cute black oblivious eyes. Jisung adverted his back to the older, "Do you…?"

"So, let me get this straight…" Chan waved his chopsticks, "You brought home a coral, Seungmin didn't like it, but agreed to keep it temporarily. Now you don't want to let go of it because you really like how it looks next to the other decorations?"

Jisung nodded and then shook his head with a whine, this analogy wasn't the best, "Not just because of its looks, its… it's also a really nice coral. And… Seungmin looks more… more like his old self before…" he bit his lip, "Not that I don't love his current self, it's just… you get what I mean, hyung?" He turned his round begging eyes to Chan and the hyung narrowed his eyes, glancing briefly at Minho and then at Jisung.

"I think so…" He said, and Jisung sighed in relief.

"You should just get rid of the coral," Minho said then, and Jisung frowned to him, "If it upsets Seungmin."

"Huh? No, but…"

Chan waved his hand, "So Seungmin went to Jeongin's to think if he could admit the coral staying?"

Jisung opened and closed his mouth, "I guess… I don't know where do we… I mean…" He whined again, "I wouldn't keep the coral if he really is against it… but I–…"

"Did you tell Seungmin that?" The older said.

"I'm not worried about throwing away the coral." Jisung glanced at Minho eating another wrap of meat., "I… will let go of it if Seungmin really hates it and doesn't think it matches the decorations. I'm worried about… Seungmin deciding if I want the coral it means I don't want the other decorations and then throwing them away or… you know? I have had those decorations since college, and I really love them. I don't think I can… just throw them away."

"Why would he do that?" Minho muttered, mouth full.

"Well, he may think I can't love both the coral and the old decorations at the same time… and me keeping the coral if Seungmin just tolerated it, would just make this snowball grow and grow and grow until the older decorations broke."

The mermaid watched him with confusion, "Snowball?"

Chan hummed, "Okay, that's a valid worry."

"It is?" Minho frowned, glancing between them. Clueless.

Jisung sighed, lowering his head to place his temple on the table, "I feel like I screwed it all up by bringing up the topic. I really… I really don't want him to think that I like the coral better than the older decorations and–"

"Okay, that's enough analogies–"

"Analogies?" Minho muttered.

"–… First of all, you need to make sure Seungmin understands you're gonna respect the boundaries you two have. And that you have had until now," Chan said, not caring about pretending this was about decorations, but Minho was confused enough already, "If you wanna change those boundaries, then I think instead of going around it, you should have an honest conversation with him about it. He may need his time to think about it. But Seungmin loves you, Jisung-ah, and from what I saw…" he glanced at Minho, "He doesn't hate the coral."

"But…"

"Give him time. He will come back home and talk to you." Chan said, and Jisung didn't seem so sure so the older pushed the beer glass back to him, and softer: "It will be fine, trust hyung."

Jisung pressed his lips but then sighed, "Okay, hyung…" he muttered, accepting the drink.

Minho was still frowning with confusion.

When Seungmin arrived home the warm smell of homemade food floated from the kitchen in the same direction Jisung peeked from when he heard the door opening and the movement of his boyfriend leaving his shoes and jacket aside. Seungmin lifted his eyes after changing into slippers and Jisung moved shyly in his direction.

"Hi, you're home. How was your day with Jeongin and Lixie?" He eyed his boyfriend upside down and Seungmin felt a small knot on his throat when Jisung hesitated and didn't seem to get the courage enough to kiss him 'hello'. He didn't like that, he didn't like the way Jisung seemed anxious though he was doing a better job to try and hide it.

"Hi. It was okay."

Seungmin remembered the call that morning and how much it sounded like a beg when Jisung told him 'i love you'. He had retreated to Jeongin's balcony to pick his boyfriend's call and even though his friends couldn't hear, he still felt their eyes burning through the glass doors. Seungmin could hear Jisung's anxiety through the line, the same way he could see it now even when Jisung was just standing there and pointing to the kitchen, "Y-You're right in time, dinner is almost ready–" his boyfriend's words cutting for a second when Seungmin's lips found his cheek, shyly, the same way he had muttered 'i love you too' on the phone, "–why d-don't you wash up and we can…?"

But Seungmin shook his head softly, "I'm not hungry. Can we talk first?"

Jisung was an open book, and Seungmin saw the moment the boy's heart dropped to those words –anxiety returning even tho Seungmin had kissed him and was deciding having the dinner first would just postpone the inevitable and by accumulation make Jisung's anxiety grow. Yet, his boyfriend was making an effort to hide it and he laughed a bit, "Sure, yeah, let me just tell Minho to make sure to turn off the heat with the timer…"

Seungmin just nodded and moved to their room first. Jisung followed two seconds after, closing the door behind his back and supporting himself on it as if he wasn't brave enough to sit next to his boyfriend in the bed. Seungmin didn't have time to initiate when his boyfriend's anxiety rushed, "I'm sorry. Please don't leave me."

He glanced up but Jisung's didn't meet his eyes, "I didn't say anything yet."

"No, but I know I fucked it up, and I didn't hear from you all day, which is fair, because you said you needed to think. Did you think? No, wait, don't answer, not yet. Let me finish," he continued, fidgeting and pacing around the same spot between the bed and the door, toying with his sleeves, lifting his hands to his hair and shaking a bit, "I did think. And tho I couldn't probably avoid to… like someone else, I should've told you earlier. And I know it's my fault, tho I didn't realize earlier, I should've… What I mean is, I'm sorry–"

Seungmin just sat there, eyes following his boyfriend's movements and letting him talk.

"–I also wanted to say, which I don't know if I made it clear before, that I don't plan doing anything on me liking Minho. Not anything you don't agree with. I'm very much aware of the boundaries of our relationship and I'm gonna respect them, if we still have a relationship at all after this talk I mean, I hope, because I love you, and I would never do anything to hurt you. I'm very scared I could've hurt you last night with the way I expressed myself. I thought you deserved honestly, I still think so– but you know how I am when nervous and my words start…–" he blinked and frowned a bit, finally finding Seungmin's eyes and slowing down, "I'm doing it right now, aren't I?"

"Yes," Seungmin muttered, his heart melting a bit when Jisung covered his face to take a deep breathe and calm down.

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay, do you wanna sit down?"

"I don't think I can–" Jisung laughed nervously and Seungmin understood.

"Okay, then just listen." He took a deep breathe, "I've been thinking about us all day," Seungmin continued, voice more steady than his heart, "I've been thinking a lot about all you said yesterday too."

"And what do you think?" his boyfriend prompted, unable to just listen passively.

"That I love you and you love me."

That conclusion had taken him long hours of lying on Jeongin's sofa, letting Felix cuddle him as he rambled about Jisung was probably bored of him and how not giving him sex since Minho arrived home was one of the reasons to blame for Jisung liking the mermaid. Felix had tried to say Jisung wasn't like that, they had been together for a long time now, and if he was the type of getting bored and look at sex outside their relationship he could've long ago. Seungmin disagreed, Jisung wasn't the type to do one night stands, he was the type to fall in love and suffer through it, aside the fact that he would be too anxious and guilty looking to hide it from Seungmin –reason why he was at least sure his boyfriend hadn't cheated with Minho.

Felix was too nice as to fight Seungmin's arguments on Jisung being bored in his relationship. But Jeongin grew tired of Seungmin moping and just hit him straight where he knew it would shut his spiraling thought.

"If Jisung-hyung wanted to dump you because he got bored or you changed, he would've done so when you got injured and you were at your worst."

"Don't say it like that." Felix had glared at his boyfriend but Jeongin just frowned,

"What? You know I'm right. If this was about sex or not liking Seungminnie, Jisung would've dumped him back when he couldn't do much on his own and just sat on the sofa soullessly watching baseball."

Felix had softened it by getting up to find them snacks, dragging his boyfriend by the ear and whispering something about being more thoughtful of his wording. Seungmin had just stayed behind, Jeongin's words repeating in his head, louder than any of Felix's softer advices and reassurances. They were the truth. Jisung loved him and Seungmin loved him back. At least that was truth.

"And that I don't want to break up with you," he said now, and saw Jisung relax a bit, round eyes turning hopeful in his direction.

"Then…"

"I'm not breaking up with you," Seungmin sighed, really wanting Jisung to just sit by him and maybe reach for his hand. That would make this much easier, it had always been more easy if Jisung was touching him somehow. "But… I need us to clearly stablish where we stand… and our boundaries, I guess." He licked his lips, eyes darting down for a second, "I also thought about Minho a lot," he added, "And how I don't really hate him. I don't like him the way you do… but I get it."

"You get it?" Jisung widened his eyes and Seungmin pressed his lips a bit but nodding.

"Also I would lie if I said I didn't catch on to you being attracted to him since the beginning." That made Jisung blush but before he could say anything to defend himself Seungmin raised a hand as to stop him, "Let me finish. What I'm saying is that, if you want to sleep with Minho…"

"What?!" Jisung stared at his boyfriend with wide eyes, "Seungmin-ah, I don't… " he shook his hands, "Is that what you think I was asking?" He blinked and Seungmin felt his own face warm as he looked up to find his boyfriend's eyes and nod once. Jisung had said he liked Minho and still loved Seungmin. Didn't that mean he wanted the flexibility in their relationship's boundaries to change so he could get closer to Minho, probably in a physical way? "No!"

"No?" Seungmin fidgeted with the fabric of his pants and Jisung finally sat next to him, shaking his head again.

"No. I'm not asking you permission to fuck someone else," his boyfriend said and Seungmin lowered his eyes to his knees, his face still impassible even when he felt seen, "It's not about sex, Seungmin-ah."

He wasn't sure if that made it better or worse, "Then what is it you want?"

Jisung seemed to struggle with the direct question, like if it wasn't quite easy to put it in clear words, "I… I want us. Us and Minho. Minho and us," Jisung continued, gesturing with his hands and then fidgeting a bit, "Like… Only if you wanted it too. But I don't want it if you don't…"

It clicked in Seungmin's head and distantly he heard Felix's voice repeat something he had discarded.

"You want to be poly?" He asked, turning his body to face his boyfriend and Jisung fidgeted shyly.

"I guess that's the right way to put it… Yeah."

For a second he wasn't sure how to answer to that, so he didn't say anything.

"I know you don't see him like that right now…" Jisung continued, glancing up at him, "And that if I asked you right now, you would say no. And it would totally be fair and okay if you said no. We would just stay like us, and I like us like we are," he added hurriedly, shyly reaching for Seungmin's hand but not daring to take it. "So I'm not gonna ask you to go poly now. But… could you maybe… think about it?"

Seungmin found Jisung's eyes and considered it for a second.

He imagined it, first Jisung hugging Minho, kissing him on the cheek in the same cheesy way he kissed Seungmin sometimes. Minho would probably accept it, because it was Jisung, and Seungmin knew Minho wouldn't mind, he would probably be happy about the human showing him affection. He imagined it the other way around, Minho kissing Jisung's face. He had imagined those things all day, and he wasn't sure if he had numbed himself to the images or… if he wasn't really jealous of the idea anymore. Not when Jisung was proposing him being a part of it.

So he added himself to the mental image. Him hugging Minho and kissing his cheek. His face twisted in disgust, that was not happening. Maybe it was too unrealistic. Maybe it was too soon. But he faked a shiver, "I don't know, Jisung…"

"He's not that bad, he's been trying really had to court you… and just… just say you would think about it?"

Seungmin blinked stupidly, "He's trying to court me?"

Jisung's eyes widened and he covered his mouth as if he didn't meant to say it in the first place. Seungmin heard him curse under his breathe and then sighed, "I can't convince you to forget that, right?" His boyfriend tried, but when Seungmin didn't even moved, Jisung gave up, "Fine… yes, he's been trying since I told him he can't be my mate without being yours. All the gifting and the trying to learn how to cook for you…" Jisung eyed him, as if he could see the way Seungmin's stomach felt warm at the realization.

So he moved his eyes away, frowning a bit. The picture in his mind switched. Not him kissing Minho's cheek, but maybe Minho holding his hand or resting his head on Seungmin's lap while watching TV as he did to Jisung sometimes. Maybe Seungmin's hand on his silky blond hair. "I…" His face didn't turn in disgust.

"Don't be mad, I didn't tell you, because I felt you would be mad, and he was not doing anything that could be too much? I promise I would stop him if–"

"I'm not mad," he cut Jisung off, shaking his head a bit and sighing in defeat as he felt his face warm in embarrassment, he wanted to cover it with his hands, but held the impulse back, "I just… didn't have any idea…" Seungmin paused for a second and took a deep breathe before looking at Jisung, serious again, "Fine."

"Fine?"

"I'll think about it."

"You'll think about…?"

Seungmin narrowed his eyes, "Don't push it."

His boyfriend shrunk a bit, anxiously and sighed. "Sorry, sorry, you're right. I love you, and that is good enough," he said, reaching for Seungmin's hand. Finally. He melted and his body leaned instinctively into Jisung, who moved closer until their noses bumped. Seungmin missed him. It had been a long day, so he nuzzled into Jisung's cheek and then buried into his arms when his boyfriend moved to hug him properly.

They stayed there for a longer moment, until Seungmin's stomach grumbled and Jisung pulled away, "Dinner?"

Seungmin huffed, "Dinner.

Minho was hot. And Seungmin had acknowledged that since the fish man stepped –or more like was carried– into their apartment. But one thing was acknowledging that Minho was attractive and a different one was thinking that he was hot while they sat together to watch a baseball game the mermaid didn't really care about it but would still watch with Seungmin, or that he was cute when they rode the bus back from Felix's house that afternoon a few days after he and Jisung talked and he agreed to think about it. He'd been thinking.

He'd been thinking a lot because now that Jisung had pointed it out, Seungmin could see it: the way Minho would take the bags from his right hand when they went for groceries, the way he helped Seungmin to put them away on the shelves even if the human was taller, the way he kept trying to ask Seungmin what he wanted to eat before discreetly poking Jisung to get him a video recipe of that, the way he always listened when Seungmin complained or scolded him, and all the tiny gifts. He had picked a rock for Seungmin while they walked to Felix that morning and Seungmin had kept it in his pocket. It still sat there when the mermaid's head fell on his shoulder.

Seungmin jumped slightly but Minho let out a small sound of protest so he immediately relaxed and let him rest his head there. He glanced to his right, staring at the bridge of Minho's nose and the small tip of it, lower at his pouted lips and only when the mermaid snuggled closer did Seungmin realized that was his bad shoulder. He froze, his hand gripping on the fabric of his pants as he knew it would get numb and hurt later, and he considered pushing the fish man away, but he didn't. Minho had never hurt him on purpose, the only time he'd pulled on Seungmin's arm and caused him pain the mermaid was sappy all day and Seungmin remembered the way he tried to provide for things that could comfort him.

His heart melted a bit. It had been the first time he considered Minho wasn't that bad. So Seungmin didn't push him away, just sighed and looked at the window, pressing his lips a bit. They weren't far, and if his arm grew numb and hurt then he would just take a painkiller. It wasn't such a big deal. Minho was always slightly drowsy when they went out in the cold, that mixed with the bus movement and being sat had probably lulled him to sleep. So Seungmin didn't move, the hand on his leg relaxing as he saw the buildings pass, feeling the weight of Minho's head on his bad shoulder.

Last time he had someone's head in his shoulder it had been Jisung. His boyfriend was always falling asleep when they did slightly long road trips and nuzzling into Seungmin's neck. But that was years ago, before Seungmin injured himself and Jisung became more careful about the way he let himself be held by Seungmin. Years ago Jisung would always insist on holding hands when they sat together on the bus, saying something about he needed to make sure pretty girls knew Seungmin was his.

A small smile appeared on Seungmin's lips to the memory and he heard whispers and giggles from the other side of the bus's aisle. He darted his eyes from the window and found a few young girls staring at them. Seungmin's cheeks felt warm a second before he realized they weren't looking at him, but mostly at Minho. The embarrassment burned into something different, heavier, and his fingers twitched on impulse. Minho was handsome, and Seungmin was not the only one with eyes to see that. He frowned a bit and looked away, cheeks burning hotter as he scolded himself in his head. He was not jealous. Why would he be jealous of some random girls watching over the fish man?

Jealousy. He had been toying with that word in his head as the feeling hadn't appeared in his stomach for days. Even before Jisung had suggested the idea, even before he started thinking about it. Seungmin wasn't jealous when Jisung was tender to the mermaid, not when Minho laid his head on Seungmin's boyfriend's legs on the sofa, nor when Jisung's eyes were clearly on Minho's exposed skin. Seungmin had felt the tingle of jealousy when Minho turned to Chan and called him 'hyung' with bright eyes and an adorable expression needing of help. Seungmin felt jealousy again when the girls keep muttering about the handsome guy with the blond hair resting on his shoulder.

His fingers twitched and when one of the girls seemed to be encouraged by the others to move closer to them, he decided it was enough. He frowned, his hand quickly finding Minho's in his lap as he sent a glance in the direction of the girls, that avoided his eyes with embarrassment and shut up. He scoffed, turning his face back to the window but not pulling his fingers away, not even when Minho stirred awake softly and glanced down at his joined hands.

"Huh?" The mermaid muttered softly, confused, and Seungmin's heart skipped a bit.

"Your hand is cold," he said, tightening his grip and pulling Minho's hand onto his lap. They had argued a couple times because Minho refused to wear gloves saying they were itchy.

The mermaid took a second to answer, bringing his other hand to Seungmin. "This too," he said, and yawned a bit as he rested his head back on the human's shoulder, "How long…?"

Seungmin hummed, bringing Minho's hands to the pocket of his coat and pretending he didn't feel warmth on his face. "Long enough, you can sleep more," he heard himself saying and the mermaid nuzzled on his shoulder, but stopped and pulled away as if he had realized it was Seungmin's bad shoulder. He huffed and used is free hand to pull Minho back to his shoulder, "I'll wake you up, hyung."

Minho hesitated but softly placed his head back down, a bit lighter, as if he was trying not to put pressure on it, and muttered a soft, "Okay."

Barely ten minutes later Seungmin had to stir him up and pull Minho out of the bus as they reached their stop. The fish man was still sleepy and didn't let go of Seungmin's hand, arguing it was still cold, as they walked down the street. The human scoffed but let it be, holding him in a loose grip. He felt Minho tighten it and pull him to stop so he glanced to the mermaid.

"I'm hungry," Minho pointed across the street to the small line in front of a street food stand.

"We're almost home," Seungmin complained, but Minho pulled his hand again, still too sleepy to properly argue.

"It smells good."

Seungmin pondered his options only a second longer before giving up and crossing the street to stand in the line. Minho sniffed the air, the smell of warm food floating around them as the line moved slow in front of them, and the mermaid started getting impatient. Still sleepy from the cold, Minho leaned towards Seungmin, as if the permission to hold hands was making him bolder, and he rested his face on the side of Seungmin's neck.

"Hyung–" The human complained softly, feeling his face grow warm at the increasing physical affection in public but Minho grumbled softly. When Seungmin gave up and just let him be there, Minho hummed happily, nuzzling into the boy's scarf. "Whatever…" he muttered as they kept moving in the line until it was their turn.

The old lady smiled at them, eyeing the way Minho protested when Seungmin pulled his hand away with a muttered 'I need it to pay, Minho-hyung!'. She giggled while Seungmin picked a few bills and passed them towards her, "Two bungeo-ppang, please," he said to her through gritted teeth. The lady grabbed the money and nodded, working on it quickly and with the efficiency of one who's been doing the same task for years.

"What filling would you and your boyfriend like?"

Seungmin blushed hard, "He's not–"

"Custard," Minho interrupted, lifting his head to see the woman work, "…and Jisung likes chocolate."

"I'm not getting one for Jisung," Seungmin shook his head, taking a small step away from Minho's body as if that would help him save face, "It would be cold when he gets home."

"So one with custard and the other with chocolate?" The lady asked.

"No– One with custard and one with red beans, please."

She nodded and after a couple minutes on the pan she passed both fish-shaped snacks to them. Seungmin grabbed them with a polite bow and Minho copied the gesture, grabbing the one Seungmin offered and biting it when it was still too hot. Cute. Seungmin didn't hold back his laugh.

December started to smell a lot more like cinnamon as the day passed by and Seungmin was still thinking about it. Jisung had been trying not to pressure him, but he was sure that the first week his boyfriend had noticed his hope and expectation every time they went to bed. But Seungmin hadn't said anything and Jisung didn't want to push it so he told himself not getting any answer didn't necessarily meant Seungmin was turning it down, and proceeded to kiss his boyfriend's lips goodnight.

As the days flew and Jisung's responsibilities at the Aquarium lowered and he was allowed to work from home more often than not, meaning he was also there to see it happen. And by it he meant the way the arguments between his boyfriend and the mermaid quickly became a bickering without actual intentions to scale it, his boyfriend bringing puddings to their fridge regularly, and the way Seungmin trusted more in Minho's improving cooking skills and even peeking over the mermaid's shoulder when he was working at the kitchen to curiously check on him.

"Hyung, I need you to slice this, I need them to be really thin for what I'm cooking," he had said one afternoon and Minho hadn't even hesitated as he left the sofa and followed Seungmin into the kitchen with a soft 'sure'. Jisung had stared a bit and won a frown from his boyfriend, "What?"

"Nothing, nothing," he'd shook his head, hiding a tiny smile and going back to the report opened on his laptop.

His boyfriend wouldn't say much was going on when Jisung asked how the day went the times he actually had to clock into the lab, but Jisung started to see all the unspoken things fitting slowly into its places, and the anxiety he held every time he went to bed with Seungmin, eased as smoothly as December turned Christmas. Minho peeked curiously at Seungmin's dramas and from then more often than not their afternoons ended on the couch, with Jisung nested near Seungmin and the mermaid falling asleep on his boyfriend's shoulder more often than not.

He wondered if the apartment wasn't warm enough or if Seungmin was just comfy to rest on. He tried turning up the heater, but Minho still ended up melting on Seungmin's side and dropping his head on Jisung's boyfriend's shoulder. It was usually Seungmin's good side because Jisung made sure to always take the seat at Seungmin's right when they sat with Minho, just in case. It kept happening, no matter if the heater was settled higher, if Jisung had placed a cozy blanket on top of their legs and Seungmin served them hot cocoa as they sat down to watch a movie after their Christmas date –Jisung had insisted it was still a date even if they had to bring Minho.

He felt warm, stomach full after dinner at the restaurant he had earlier that week reserved a table for three on, and sleepy, legs tired after walking around the stores and falling several times trying to help Minho to learn how to ice skate in the park. Seungmin's laugh had been precious and big every time his boyfriend failed and both he and the mermaid slipped down, Jisung's heart melting even when his ass hurt all they way home. His wallet was also hurting after buying several treats for Minho, because apparently he had a problem called 'Minho learned how to use his pretty eyes when begging' and Seungmin had not only refused to pay for those, but pocketed his hands and proceeded to say what flavor of bungeo-ppang he wanted instead of helping him dismiss Minho's cravings.

So Jisung didn't really realize he had sat on Seungmin's good side until one hour into the movie he noticed Minho's head had fall on his boyfriend's right shoulder. Seungmin didn't flinch, and if not because Jisung noticed the way his fingers stopping a second on his petting Jisung's hair, he hadn't noticed. But yet, his boyfriend didn't move away from the mermaid's head and Jisung frowned a bit, about to sit up, call on Minho to move and be more careful when Seungmin just restarting petting his hair. "Seung–…"

"I'm okay, let's just finish the movie," he said and Jisung still didn't turn back to the screen until Seungmin's eyes lowered to meet his and he saw nothing but stubbornness and ease. It was okay. Even when they moved to bed –a reluctant Minho following to lie on the floor next to Seungmin's side of the bed– his boyfriend didn't complain about any pain. Jisung watched as Seungmin stretched his shoulder and turned off the bedside lamp after glancing one last time to the sleepy figure on the floor –more than once he had tripped in the morning on the nights Minho followed them to the bedroom. Seungmin must've felt the staring because he turned to face him after lying down, whispering with a small frown, "What?"

"Nothing," Jisung muttered, eyes softening as he moved closer and nuzzled his boyfriend's nose, "I love you."

Seungmin sighed and placed a kiss on his lips, "Thanks."

"What for?" he turned confused round eyes to his boyfriend's in the dark, but Seungmin just shook his head slightly, reached for Jisung's cheek and kissed him again.

"I had fun today," Seungmin said, but instead of breaking the kiss and calling it a night, his lips kept latching onto Jisung's and his hand found its way down to his boyfriend's neck and then down to his chest. Jisung held his breathe as he moved further for more before realizing they weren't alone and if Minho was awake he would've probably been able to distinguish the kiss noises in the silence of their room. He froze, feeling Seungmin's lips trace the path from his mouth to his cheek and jaw and all the way until the point under his ear that made him melt with a breathy noise.

"Wait," he pushed away, yet hesitant, a part of him very aware that Minho was just there. Seungmin let him pull away, but didn't say anything. Jisung gulped and watched nervously from his lips to his eyes and back. "Seungmin… he would hear us," he whispered, both of them aware that no matter how much Jisung tried to hold back, he would always be noisy. The glint in Seungmin's eyes didn't fully die to his boyfriend's hesitation, but he turned shy and pulled slightly away.

He wanted to say they shouldn't have let Minho into their room if Seungmin was planning to have sex. But there was a little voice in his head suggesting Seungmin hadn't cared and Jisung's heart rushed faster as his boyfriend turned back to lie on his back and closed his eyes, "Right. Goodnight then."

Jisung opened and clothed his mouth without a word, face and stomach feeling hot. They hadn't drank, just a glass of wine at the restaurant, but not enough for Seungmin to be drunk –he always held out longer than Jisung anyway, and Jisung didn't feel drunk. Seungmin hummed, opening his arm as if urging Jisung to take his usual spot, so he cuddled into his boyfriend's side, heart still bumping fast and the feeling of something changing nesting in his stomach.

It had been after New Year's Eve.

A couple days after, when the leftovers for the cake Felix had baked and brought to their little hangout were already gone. There hadn't been much leftovers, if Jisung was being fair, eight people had been almost enough to end the cake, but Minho had been smart enough to hide a piece on their fridge. Which was a good thing, because Jisung had been too busy embarrassing Hyunjin –who Seungmin had managed to invite desptite the obvious tension when Jeongin and Felix arrived later– in front of Changbin –who Chan had brought along with more drinks and pastries– by telling the story of their peeing competition back in college. So they enjoyed the last pieces of cake in the first days of January, and by they, Jisung meant mostly Minho.

Jisung had been sitting on the table with his laptop, pressing his fingers on the bridge of his nose, glasses pushed up as he was trying to pull words out of him. It was always harder to go back to work after holidays. It was even harder to focus when Minho was watching anime in the same room and Jisung's eyes kept darting to the TV's screen, effectively distracting him for a couple minutes until he would catch himself commenting on it outloud and pull his eyes back to the laptop. He was in the process of talking to himself about how he needed this work done tomorrow and he hadn't even started, when he heard the door open.

Minho's head turned in the direction of Seungmin entering their home and got up to help him with the bags, as he had been doing lately. They were weird, if you asked Jisung: not being verbally nice to each other but yet kind in a way. They were confusing.

"What did you get?" Minho said, trying to grab one of the bags, but Seungmin pulled it away and offered the other one he was carrying as he kicked his shoes off.

"You can look at it yourself," the human said and Jisung leaned over the table to take a look.

"Hey, babe, you're back. Got groceries?" He said, and Seungmin hummed, walking to the kitchen with the remaining bag to place it on the counter. "You took a while.

"I had to… make an extra stop," Seungmin muttered, opening the bag to put the groceries away. Minho placed the other bag next to it and moved to help, but once again Seungmin stopped him, "No, hyung, I can do it– just…" he hesitated a bit and Jisung raised an eyebrow. This was odd. He noticed a small blush on his boyfriend's cheeks when he gestured towards the bag he handed Minho, "Just open that one-e."

The mermaid seemed confused, he frowned with suspicion as he moved back to it, but didn't open it yet, "Why?"

"Just open it already," Seungmin rolled his eyes and Jisung was sure he was blushing even when his boyfriend turned around to put some stuff in the fridge, and probably to hide from the eyes on him.

Minho seemed unsure, but he was curious by nature so he opened the bag and pulled the first thing from the top, "Pudding. Hm," he hummed, abandoning the bag to find a spoon and eat the treat, assuming that was all, but Seungmin seemed frustrated when he noticed.

"Uh? Aren't you gonna keep looking?" He muttered, and glanced to Jisung for just a second, moving his eyes when he couldn't hold his boyfriend's stare. Minho shrugged, more interested in the first spoon of pudding, "There's…" Seungmin pressed a hand on his face and sighed, taking the pudding from Minho's hand and placing it away, "Look in the bag! There's more stuff for you!"

Jisung blinked twice and Minho stared at Seungmin for a second long enough to make the human blush. Finally he moved to the bag and, glancing between Seungmin and it, he slowly opened it to retrieve two things: the next volume of a manga Jisung had been forgetting to get for Minho and a sweater. Minho held the items in both hands, and froze for a second. Seungmin pressed his lips, crossing his arms and looking away with a puff, "Jisung keeps saying he will get it for you, but he doesn't–"

"Hey–" Jisung started, but his protest died weakly when Seungmin continued.

"–and you don't have you're own clothes. And that one was cute, so i thought that maybe you'd like it."

Minho blinked innocently, glancing between the manga and then the sweater. He looked up at Seungmin for a second and then set the manga aside carefully before unfolding the piece of clothes to look at it. It was blue and Jisung leaned over the table to peek at the cat design on its front. Cute. Jisung lifted his eyes to see Minho's reaction and jumped back to his seat slightly when he found the mermaid already staring at him.

"Humans gift stuff just…?" The mermaid seemed to be blushing slightly, his eyes bright but uncertain.

And it hit Jisung what Seungmin giving something to Minho meant to him after weeks of courting Jisung's boyfriend. He was probably not gonna just assume it like he did with Jisung. He had learned way more about humans in the last months.

"Huh?" Jisung blushed deeply and nervously moved his head from Minho to Seungmin and back, "I–…" his heart bumped fast and he wasn't sure what to do with this. Seungmin was not looking at any of them, Minho was staring at Jisung for answers, both of them looking shy and uncertain in a way. "I DON'T KNOW!" He exploded, "Don't ask me! ASK HIM!" he pointed and got up, walking to the kitchen with a confused frown, "SEUNGMIN-AH? Are you–?"

"Are you accepting my courting, Seungmin?"

Jisung saw his boyfriend blush a bit and bit his lips before looking first at Jisung and then at the mermaid before going back to his boyfriend's eyes. Jisung just blinked and took a step closer, bringing a hand to Seungmin's waist, expression softening, which seemed to be enough reassurance for Seungmin to face the blunt way Minho was looking and expecting for an answer.

"Yes, I am," he said, but as if the statement was entirely too heavy for his liking, he huffed and looked away. But the tension didn't last long, not when Jisung melted into a big smile, laughing softly and pulling Seungmin to kiss his cheek, once, then another time, and then a few more until meeting his lips. Seungmin fumbled a bit, but it was a short kiss when Jisung was just giggling happily.

He turned his smile to see Minho watching intensely, "Hyung–!"

"Can I kiss you too?" The mermaid said, watching between the two human's lips, "If mates, can I…?"

Jisung blushed, and looked at Seungmin slowly, checking the way his boyfriend still looked shy but was glancing at Minho's lips too. Something warm settled in his stomach. "Yes," Seungmin muttered, but then, "Do you even know how to kiss though…?" and it was all it took Minho to move forward into their embrace and kiss Seungmin's lips first. Jisung's eyes widened, but he didn't have time to be properly surprised or take notice of the relieved sigh leaving his boyfriend, when the mermaid turned his head and a hand found his cheek, pulling him to a soft kiss that had been waiting for months.

He melted, leaning forward and chasing for Minho's lips, but getting pulled back by Seungmin. He whined, "Wait…"

"That's enough for now, you can kiss him more when hyung is done helping me with the groceries," his human boyfriend said and he whined again when Seungmin pushed him away softly, "Go back to working."

"But… but I have two boyfriends now, Seungminnie… can't I just take a break to appreciate them…?" He pouted and turned his begging eyes to Minho, who softened right away –weak to a technique that had never been properly used on him– but Seungmin placed a hand on his face to cover it.

"No. You have two boyfriends to provide for. So go finish your work first."

Jisung whined again but Minho ended up moving to put the groceries away, siding with Seungmin, traitor, so he dragged his feet back to the table and proceed to sulk as he continued to write his work report through the afternoon. Nothing changed much for the rest of the day, aside from Minho being obviously in a good mood and Seungmin blushing a bit –and pretending he wasn't– whenever the mermaid stared at him or caught him staring. They ordered takeout for dinner and after it, Seungmin sat for a while to watch more of his drama with Minho. Jisung focused hard on not getting distracted from work and hurried to finish so he could join, but he only closed the laptop when Seungmin was already sleepy and retiring to the bedroom.

He lifted from his chair and stretched his back before following quickly, closing the door behind himself. Not because he minded Minho following, but because there were still words that needed to be said. "So…" he started, moving slowly towards his boyfriend, who sat on the bed, so Jisung sat next to him, "Are you really okay with this?"

Seungmin looked at him softly and hummed, "Yes. I wouldn't have… accepted Minho's courting if I wasn't sure. I'm not that mean… I would've just told you if my answer ended up being no."

Jisung nodded a bit, sitting closer and reaching for Seungmin's hand, "I know that. But you know what I mean. I also think if there's any boundary or limit we should have it clear and…"

His boyfriend –his human boyfriend, because he now had two of those– looked at their joined hands and then back at his eyes, smiling softly with a huff. "I think I still need time to… catch up feelings wise," he said, softly, "But I believe I can, with a bit more time. That's why I accepted. I like him. I still need time to learn how to…"

He nodded more and his other hand reached for Seungmin's cheek, "It's okay. I understand. You can't just start loving someone out of nowhere one day. That's okay."

Seungmin blushed a bit at the world love, but he hummed, "Yes. It takes time."

After all, it had taken Seungmin three years of friendship to love Jisung as something more.

"But… you're attracted to him too, right?" Jisung tiptoed, pushing a bit to get more, and Seungmin glared at him.

"Han Jisung."

"WHAT?!" It was his time to blush, "You can't say he's not hot!"

Seungmin scoffed and rolled his eyes a bit, "If you want to fuck him that bad, I wouldn't mind to… watch."

Jisung felt warm in his stomach. He had only slept with Seungmin since they got together in college, and the mere thought of him watching Jisung fuck another man –or getting fucked by another man– was enough to make him tingly. He shuttered, "Just… just watch?"

His boyfriend stared at him for a long second, and then gave in softly. "No. Not just watch," his eyes adverted to the door when he heard it opening and Jisung was aware Minho was peeking inside. Jisung turned to find the mermaid standing there, eyes curiously taking in Jisung's blush and the glint in Seungmin's eyes.

"Can I sleep here?" The mermaid asked, but didn't move from the door, as if he was still testing the new limits.

Seungmin glanced from him to Minho and seemed to decide something. He leaned to Jisung's ear and whispered something that made the boy blush profusely and shutter incoherently when his boyfriend pulled away with a smirk and then to Minho, "Yes, hyung."

Minho didn't hesitate before walking in, bringing his pillow and sheets. Jisung was still glitching to the hot thoughts Seungmin had placed in his mind when his boyfriend frowned, "Not on the floor… hyung, you can…" The mermaid blinked at him and then, slowly, setting the pillow aside, sat in bed with them, behind Jisung.

He felt hot, glancing between both guys, "Uh… I…" Jisung pressed his knees together, Seungmin raised an eyebrow to him and he felt Minho move closer, maybe it was just his mind playing games, but he stood up quickly, "I've too pee, actually, just… I'll be back quickly, just…" he pointed to the door as he moved in its direction hurriedly, laughing awkwardly for some reason. Seungmin frowned a bit to him, knowingly and Minho just moved confused.

"Jisung-ah–" Seungmin started but Jisung left the room before hearing the end of it.

He patted both of his cheeks as soon as he was behind the bathroom door and looked at himself in the mirror. "Bad, Jisung, bad! Stop having thoughts about being sandwiched when it's definitely too soon. Stop it. Don't be a perv." He patted his cheeks a couple more times, trying to get himself under control, "…but what if– A-ANNI!" Jisung shook his head and after peeing, washing his hands and refreshing his face he walked back to the room. It was too soon, Seungmin still needed time, probably, before wanting to sandwich Jisung between them.

His head imagined a couple scenarios and he almost had to stop and walk back to the bathroom for something very different from peeing, but managed to keep it together and made it to the bedroom. The overhead light was off, and the room was lit only by the bedside lamp. Jisung stopped in his tracks and felt his heart warm, his pervert thoughts –product of weeks of pent up energy– dying to the image of Seungmin leaned toward Minho, cheek on the mermaid's shoulder, and mouth in a cute sleepy pout. Minho was still awake, and he found Jisung's eyes when the human walked in and crawled to take his other side.

"He must've been really tired," he muttered, extending his hand to place the cover higher on Seungmin, and then looked up at Minho, "Aren't you tired, hyung?"

"No. But… I would prefer to cut my arm off than move," the mermaid said, also glancing at Seungmin and Jisung held a laugh, but couldn't avoid a smile. He cuddled into Minho's other side, slowly and carefully placing his arm around Minho's middle, "Are you happy?"

"Hm. Yes," he said, pressing his nose into Minho's chest and then looking up at him, "I'm very happy I found and brought you home with me." Jisung yawned and he saw the mermaid's eyes dropping, his hand going up to Jisung's hair but hesitating, so the human reached for it and placed it for Minho to know it was fine. He felt shy fingers move through his scalp and the way Minho's body relaxed next to him.

"I'm glad you brought me home too, Jisung."

There was a weight to the words that made the human look up, finding the tender way Minho was already looking at him. His heart bumped faster, and his fingers gripped on Minho's shirt, "I don't want you to leave in spring." He had never told Minho so, only Seungmin. He wanted Minho to stay, and now he knew Seungmin was okay with it, he would even say Seungmin wanted it too. But he had never asked Minho properly, and the thought of the mermaid saying he would go, even if he had two mates on land now, clogged his throat. "Please, s-stay."

The mermaid frowned a bit, "Why would I leave?"

Jisung looked away, "Because… I don't know, maybe mermaid reasons? Don't you… have a family in the sea? A life and… maybe… I don't know, I would yearn to go back home if I had been away for this long. You said once that your family–"

"My family is here," Minho interrupted and the human looked up at him again. "My family is you," Minho frowned a bit, as if he wasn't sure why Jisung hadn't gotten that. It took Jisung a second to realize, a small 'oh' leaving his mouth. Minho had said it, long ago, when the human asked and he said others were on warm water but not Minho's family.

"Why would I leave?" The mermaid repeated and Jisung felt warm all over and let out a short chuckle, lifting a hand to Minho's cheek and enjoying the way the mermaid nuzzled into the touch with a soft sound. Just the same as before. Jisung smiled a bit and lifted himself to meet the hyung's lips in a sweet kiss and lingered longer than he planned.

He pulled away after a bit, "Do mermaids mate for life? Are you sure you don't feel any yearning for the sea or–"

"Can you ask him tomorrow?" Seungmin mumbled sleepily and Jisung felt his cheeks warm as he muttered a sorry and a goodnight before snuggling to Minho. His nerd questions could wait. He took a deep breathe, feeling Minho's chest under his cheek and seeing Seungmin's sleepy pout on the mermaid's other side.

"Hyung still needs a last name," Seungmin said, pen hovering over the paper.

"Why? What's a last name? I like Minho," Minho said from where he was sitting on the couch, head rested on the back of it and looking at the humans upside down. A soft spring breeze coming from the open window kept bringing him the smell of bread from down the street, so he hadn't been fully focusing on what his mates where doing.

"Minho is not a last name and everyone needs a last name," Seungmin said, finger tapping on the table.

Minho turned his eyes to Jisung and the other guy sighed, "Last names come usually from your dad, but I'm guessing your mermaid dad didn't have one…" the blond shook his head, he had already explained to Jisung –who had been asking more complex things the more Minho was able to communicate– that mermaid's didn't have a language like that of humans, and they didn't need names. The biologist sighed, letting his temple fall on the table, "Well, we need one."

"Why?" Minho repeated, "Isn't Minho enough?"

"No," Seungmin shook his head and Jisung continued,

"Humans need their last name to do stuff like getting prescribed medicine, getting a job, going to the hospital, doing reservations, having certain accounts, having a phone–" he counted, lifting a finger which is thing he mentioned, "You even need one to get a library card or just for people who are not your close friends to call you."

"I'm not sick nor I–"

"You need those to pass as a human," Seungmin shook his head.

Ah, there was that. Jisung made a face and Minho rolled his eyes back to the TV screen. They'd been on that for days now, since last week Felix had accidentally come over when Minho was lying in the tub, Seungmin washing his hair and scrubbing his back as he complained the hyung smell like fish –even tho Minho could see him staring and blushing, fingers lingering more than needed on the mermaids skin. Felix hadn't been even too surprised, aside from the first shock he said it made sense, and Minho wasn't fully sure what he meant, but both his boyfriends had been worried it was that obvious.

"Well, he has a korean name, but barely spoke korean when we met," the Aussie had said. "I never heard his full name, I asked about his birthday once but was ignored and there's also the fact you guys started calling him hyung out of nowhere when at first you didn't even seem to know he was older." He made a pause, staring at Minho's pretty scales and then smiling sweetly, "And something about him seemed very naive for his age. Him not knowing the human world seems like a good explanation to why he wasn't aware of video games or why he doesn't have a phone of his own."

Jisung hadn't cared much, shrugging and saying it was okay if their friends knew. Hyunjin knew, and nothing had happened, so it was okay if Felix also knew. That only meant there would be more people to teach stuff to their now boyfriend. But Seungmin disagreed and started worrying about legal matters, about Minho needing a job, about the fact they couldn't hide him from their landlord forever and other stuff the mermaid hadn't paid attention to –he thought Seungmin was pretty when stressed or mad, the same way Jisung was pretty when rambling, so sometimes his mind would just disconnect as his eyes appreciated his mates, the foreign words being said passing by his hears without being heard.

That lead to Jeongin being told about Minho's real origin, since Jeongin was the only person they knew who had the contacts to make fake IDs –an ability, Jisung had said, Hyunjin had beneficed from before they were in age to drink. The ginger hadn't take it as easy as his boyfriend, but with a few coaxing words from Felix, he had finally gave in and listed the info he needed and that they could pick for Minho's ID. Jisung had listed it for Minho that morning when Seungmin insisted they decided on the info today.

"A hometown, names for your parents, a birthday date and year, a last name."

They had picked random names for Minho's parents, and they had a long debate on Minho's birthday date.

"The year needs to be 1998," Seungmin insisted a couple times as Jisung whined to make him a 1999 baby or something but Changbin had also picked on calling him 'hyung' by default, so Seungmin shook his head, "No, because he needs to be younger that Chan-hyung but older than Changbin. And it just makes sense he's from the year of the Tiger."

Minho wasn't sure what the year of the Tiger was, but he knew what tigers were and he thought they were cute. Big cats. If Minho had to list the things he liked more from the human world cats, in all sizes, would be as close to the top as pudding, dancing –a skill he had picked up on, on New Year's when Hyunjin got drunk and started moving to the music, Felix reaching for the mermaid's hands to make him join– and sex.

He liked sex, even if at first it had been a bit confusing and he was sad to discover he couldn't actually get Jisung pregnant from it. Seungmin had picked up on his intentions and when Minho decided to change the tactic to bottom for Jisung or Seungmin to get him pregnant instead, the human had refused to do it without condoms for over two weeks until Minho promised to not 'sprout baby fishes without all parties consenting' with the reasoning that male humans couldn't get pregnant and it would definitely be suspicious. Jisung had a whole crisis over male mermaids being able to get pregnant and was very willing to try it 'just for science' but none of them really wanted to anger Seungmin and Jisung wasn't fully agreeing with the idea of just releasing mermaid babies to the sea on their own, so they dropped it.

"I like tigers," Minho had interrupted the humans talk before Jisung could whine about how they never told Changbin Minho was older than him and the mermaid just demanded it. The discussion was closed with his opinion on it and Jisung let Seungmin pick the month and day as long as it was in autumn.

After the birthday was settled they decided quickly on Minho's hometown and passed to his last name, where they had been stuck for at least thirty minutes now. The mermaid glanced at them from the sofa again, he had been trying to entertain himself with a drama, but he couldn't focus as the two humans kept bouncing possible last names and trying them with 'Minho' to see which one was more fitting. So he sighed, pausing it and getting up to get closer to the table where they sat taking notes and playing the names. "Lee," Minho said.

"Huh?" Both humans turned to him.

"For my last name."

Jisung glanced at the screen, paused on the face of a famous actor.

Seungmin frowned a bit, "We're not naming you Lee Minho."

"I think is a good one," Jisung disagreed, "It sounds good. Lee Minho. And hyung can probably write it himself with the Hangul you already taught him, right? It's simple and he probably won't forget it…"

"I like how it sounds," Minho said, moving to sit on Jisung's lap instead of the free chair. His boyfriend received him happily, hugging him by the waist and resting his cheek on the mermaid's shoulder as both of them turned begging eyes to their stubborn third boyfriend. Seungmin's resistance fell soon after, he sighed.

"Alright. But stop looking at me like that… whatever, Lee Minho it is. Born on October 25, 1998, in Gimpo?" he said, writing the last name with the rest of the stuff, before looking back up to Minho, lips still pushed in a stubborn pout.

The mermaid hummed in agreement and leaned to kiss the pout on his boyfriend's lips, effectively making Seungmins grumpiness dissapear –it was a good trick he had learned from Jisung already, after all, Minho was a quick learner. "Sounds good. What do you want for lunch?"

"Bibimbap," Seungmin muttered and Jisung pulled on his shirt so Minho gave him a kiss too before getting up to make lunch. He was hungry and even after there was no need for him to cook as a courting thing, he discovered he liked it. He liked it more when Seungmin and Jisung enjoyed what he cooked for them.

"I kinda feel like having ice cream after it," Jisung said, getting up from the table, "I'm gonna go grab some quickly, do we need anything else from the convenience store?"

"Mm. I need to buy shampoo and Minho ran out of bubbles," the other human said, picking up his phone, "I'll tell Innie we have the info for the ID ready. I hope he can get one soon."

Jisung hummed in agreement on his way to grab the keys, muttering to himself, "Ice cream, shampoo and bubbles." Minho knew him enough to know Jisung would probably forget one of the items and bring a different one to compensate, yet he said nothing, because it was always fun to ponder what he would bring this time. Minho heard the door close and then Seungmin sliding onto the balcony to call their younger friend as he got the things ready to make lunch in the kitchen.

The window over the sink was open, the sun warm but not yet too warm outside.

He wouldn't wish to be anywhere else.