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Look, Jaehyun likes Riwoo’s new boyfriend. He's quirky, funny and kind, and he seems to make Riwoo happy. He shares his jellies with Jaehyun whenever he comes around, and he fits into their little group well, and he's really just a stand-up guy. Really, just great. 

It's just that Jaehyun is sure he's secretly a mermaid in disguise. 

And that's not even a problem or anything, obviously it isn't. This isn't a species war thing or anything stupid like that. It's the twenty-first century, he knows that mermaids aren't actually cold-blooded murderers who lure prey into deep waters and feast on their flesh. But the thing is — Jaehyun is a curious (i.e nosey) guy. If his roommate is dating a mermaid, he'd like to know as much. 

Thankfully, he's a bit of a detective, himself. He actually had a detective duo with his brother when they were kids. Their biggest case was finding their cousin's lost dinosaur toy — little Soojin cried a whole afternoon for the green T-rex, until Jaehyun and his hyung finally found it in the cat bed. So obviously it should be easy enough to find out if his theory is right, right? 

Naturally, the first person he shares his theory with is Woonhak. They're gaming on Riwoo’s PlayStation when Jaehyun brings it up.

“Do you ever think that Leehan might be a mermaid?” He asks, no built-up or anything. 

Woonhak glances at him for a mere second, mostly focused on the game. “Dude, he's human.” 

“How do you know? Did you ask?” 

Woonhak rolls his eyes. “Well, no, it's rude to ask people what species they are out of the blue.” 

“So then, how can you know for sure?” 

“Because I can tell! He doesn't have wings or stuff, doesn't turn into anything, so it's pretty obvious he's human.”  

“That's a screwed-up logic,” Jaehyun scrunches his nose. “Besides, I'm human, and I think he's a mermaid.” 

“Well, I always thought that Taesan’s a witch, and it turns out he's just emo. Maybe Leehanie is just, like, weird or something,” Woonhak shrugs. 

Jaehyun snorts — it would be just like Woonhak to take an emo for another witch. The poor kid hasn't met many witches and warlocks despite being in his first year at a magical college; sometimes he gets a bit desperate and imagines things that aren't true. 

“He's definitely weird,” Jaehyun says. “And he's definitely, definitely a mermaid, too.”

Woonhak sighs, finally putting down his console. “How would you even know? It's not like you've met any mermaids before.” 

“Ah, but you see, there's a lot of clues.” 

“Such as?” Woonhak raises an eyebrow. 

“Well, I'm glad you asked,” Jaehyun says, leaning back slightly so he can pull out a paper from his pocket (and promptly Woonhak’s exhausted groan of, really hyung?). He clears his throat, reading off the list — “He always has glitter on his eyelids, even in the —”

“Give me that!” Woonhak says, snatching the list from Jaehyun’s hand. He scoffs, “Come on, you decorated it?”

Jaehyun narrows his eyes at him. Yes, he decorated the list, of course he did. What's the big deal? Some stickers, some highlights… Whatever, it's cute, right? 

Woonhak quickly looks over the list, mumbling under his breath, “glitter… sea shanties… swimming…” He sighs. “Hyung, this is insane. You have to know that this is insane.” 

“What's insane?” 

“The whole list is ridiculous, hyung!” Woonhak says. “He always has glitter on his eyelids, even in the mornings when he just woke up — when have you ever woken up at the same time as Leehanie hyung?”

Jaehyun rolls his eyes. “That's besides the point.” 

“No, the point is that you've got no real proof that Leehan is anything other than human,” Woonhak says. Then he sighs. “But I can see you're set on this.” 

“I really am,” Jaehyun says. 

“Well I'm really sure he's human.” Woonhak gives him a mischievous grin. “So how about we bet on this? You'll have to prove to me that he's really a mermaid — but you can only use the list for that. Even if he is a mermaid, if you don't find out through your list, it doesn't count.”

Jaehyun narrows his eyes. “What do I get if I win?” 

Woonhak thinks about it for a moment. “I’ll do all your laundry for a month.” 

Jackpot. Jaehyun hates doing laundry. 

“Alright,” he says, keeping it cool. “Same goes to you, if you win I'll do your laundry for a month.” 

Just the thought of washing Woonhak's sweaty workout clothes grosses him out, but whatever. He's sure that he'll win. He's not even considering that he might fail. Not possible. 

Woonhak grins again. “Deal.” He holds out a hand, and Jaehyun shakes it with finality. He's got himself a bet. 

“This’ll be fun,” Jaehyun says. He pulls his hand back and turns to the game, picking his console again. “Cmon. Loser buys pizza.” 

Jaehyun’s guide to identifying a secret mermaid!

1. He always has glitter on his eyelids (even in the mornings when he just woke up) 

2. He doesn't eat seafood

3. He knows random sea shanties

4. Fish follow him around

5. He never goes swimming

So the first point on the list is the glitter thing — mermaids are charming creatures. Much like Riwoo, a fairy, a mermaid's magic expresses itself through beautifying themselves. Riwoo naturally looks like he has a full-face of makeup, with blushy cheeks and pink-colored eyelids and rosy tinted lips, even when he just woke up. In theory, Leehan should be pretty much the same, except that he mostly just seems to have glittery eyelids and only that. Still, though, as long as he naturally has glitter on his eyelids, that's enough proof for Jaehyun that there's something magical about Leehan. 

That should be easy enough to confirm, you'd think. Leehan sleeps over most nights, and Jaehyun always sees him early in the mornings, just after he wakes up. Right? 

Wrong! 

Yes, Leehan does sleep over most nights, and yes, Jaehyun does see him around in the mornings. But Jaehyun always wakes up late, so he was never able to actually confirm that Leehan has some kind of magic glitter on his eyelids, as opposed to simply waking up early and putting on makeup before he runs into Jaehyun. 

Besides, even if he did wake up early for once, Leehan and Riwoo have the habit of staying holed up in Riwoo's room pretty much the whole morning. Jaehyun used to love this, because it gave him and Sungho more space to make out on the couch (and because it saved him from seeing some gross stuff he'd never ever want to see). But now it's very inconvenient. 

So he comes up with a plan. 

He wakes up bright and early on Thursday, 10 alarms ringing in his ears. He slinks out of bed like a dying rat and makes his way to the kitchen, pleased to hear that there are no sounds at all in the entire apartment — Leehan and Riwoo must be still asleep.  

First thing he does, before he even has a chance to start on with his masterplan, is take out a cold coffee from the fridge. It's one of those cheap ones from the grocery store (the kind that his dad would always call, lovingly, money-wasters), and it probably has a fraction of the caffeine it claims on the bottle, but it doesn't matter. If he's going to wake up at 7AM in the morning to make pancakes, he's going to need coffee. 

He drinks it in two big gulps before throwing the empty bottle away and starting the coffee machine to make some real coffee. In the meantime, he starts to pull out all the ingredients from the fridge. He measures everything perfectly, prepares the pan, sips from his cup, then starts to make the pancakes. 

The first two pancakes turn out slightly runny, which is alright, they're probably going to get ruined soon anyway. The third pancake he makes, he pours the batter into the pan, then leans against the counter with his cup of coffee and just watches it fry. It takes a few long minutes for it to start to overcook, the edges turning black, before smoke starts to appear. It's plenty of time for him to finish his coffee, munching on the edge of one of the earlier undercooked pancakes. 

Then, finally, there's enough smoke to set off the alarm. Jaehyun closes his eyes as it starts to blare, something giddy settling in his stomach, because surely his plan will work and he'll have the proof he needs and Woonhak can eat it. Then the water turns on and douses him from head to toe, and he decides it's time to deal with the smoke.

He opens a window and tries to fan out most of the smoke, coughing a bit into his elbow. That's about as much as he can do before Riwoo and Leehan burst through the door, looking disheveled and tired, and yet still somehow dressed out of their PJs. Clearly, they somehow woke up before Jaehyun, once again. 

“What's going on?” Riwoo cries over the sound of the fire alarm. 

“Making some pancakes,” Jaehyun says, throwing him a proud smile as he points to the blackened blob in the pan. “Didn't turn out so great. Did you guys just wake up?” 

“No, we've been awake a while,” Leehan says, running a hand through his hair. “Do you know how to turn off the alarm? It's hurting my ears.” 

“I think it just turns off on its own,” Jaehyun says, throwing away the burnt pancake. He throws a glance to Leehan and Riwoo, a half hearted apology on the tip of his tongue, but it dies down when he sees… “Is that eyeshadow?” 

Riwoo looks down at his hand like he's just now realizing that he is, indeed, holding a glitterry eyeshadow pallette. “Yeah, I was doing Leehanie’s makeup.” 

Jaehyun blinks. He looks at Leehan, noticing that one of his eyes is glittery, like always, and the other is — completely bare. No glitter. 

Riwoo still has his normal blushy cheeks and the pink-tinted eyelids. And here's Leehan, half of his face made-up, half looking completely naked. 

So… in this one argument, it seems that Woonhak was right. There's nothing magical about Leehan's glitter, other than the fact that a magical creature puts it on him everyday. 

He clears his throat, trying to hide his disappointment. “Okay, well, sorry for the scare. I'll clean this up, you guys can go back to what you were doing.” 

“Alright,” Riwoo says, grabbing Leehan's sleeve and tugging him away. “I think Sungho's at the door,” he adds over his shoulder, just moments before, sure enough, there's a knock. 

Right. Magical creatures, super hearing. Sometimes it annoys Jaehyun how well Riwoo can hear stuff. 

He tries not to drag his feet too much as he goes to the hallway, opening the door to reveal his boyfriend. Sungho has a box of donuts and two coffees in his hand, the sweetheart — he always brings food when he visits. Just the image of his beautiful Sungho is enough to soothe Jaehyun, to make him feel better despite the disappointment of the morning. 

“Hi there,” he says, leaning in for a kiss. 

Sungho scrunches his nose, tipping back a little. “What's that smell?” 

Jaehyun sighs, opening the door wider to let him in, already making his way back to the kitchen. “It's smoke. I tried to make pancakes.” 

“Woah, so many things wrong about that,” Sungho says, following after him. “Why would you even want pancakes though? You knew I was coming over with breakfast.” 

Jaehyun sighs, taking one of the cups from Sungho. He takes a sip of his third coffee of the day before he finally admits, “I kinda have a stupid bet going on with Woonhak.” 

Sungho sighs, looking five years older, like he always does when he hears anything about Jaehyun and Woonhak in the same sentence. “A bet?” 

“I'm trying to prove to him that Leehan’s a mermaid. He just doesn't believe me… but you believe me, right? You think he's a mermaid?” He pouts, looking at Sungho. 

Usually his puppy eyes work charms on his boyfriend, but all they do right now is piss him off even more. “You're being stupid, both of you,” he says, matter-of-factly. 

“What!” 

“Just ask him and get it over with, jeez!” Sungho says. “You don't need some stupid plots, just go over to him and —”

“It's rude to just ask him what species he is, I can't just —”

“You're totally nuts, Jaehyun, honestly —”

“And if you can recall, I'm a bit of a detective, so —”

“For god's sake, Jaehyun, you found one dinosaur toy one time, that doesn't make you a detective!” Sungho groans. “Listen. I actually asked Leehan about his background and he told me what he is.”

“You did?” Jaehyun perks up. “So what is he?” 

“I'm not telling,” Sungho says, and Jaehyun immediately groans. “I won't tell you because I think you should just ask him yourself! It's the right thing to do anyway.” 

“But it's awkward! How do you even start that conversation?” 

“You just go up to him and ask,” Sungho says, like it's ever that easy. 

“Ugh,” Jaehyun groans. “You're no fun.” 

“At least I'm not a crazy person!” 

“But you still love me though, right?” Jaehyun asks with a smile. 

Sungho rolls his eyes, fondly. In the two years that they've been dating, Jaehyun has grown quite used to Sungho’s fond eye rolls. “Sure,” he says, kissing his cheek. “Now clean up in here. I'll be in the living room.” 

He shifts into his orange cat self and goes to the living room, presumably to lounge in the cat bed that Jaehyun got for him. That's his favorite thing to do when Jaehyun’s busy, and it always makes Jaehyun’s heart swell when he sees the little orange cat purring in that fluffy bed. 

Maybe Sungho is right, as Sungho usually is. Maybe he is being stupid. But a bet's a bet, and he's too far gone to stop now. But he'll leave all that mermaid stuff for later; right now he has to clean up, and then he has a coffee and some delicious donuts to enjoy with his boyfriend. 

Later, when he reluctantly tells Woonhak about his failure that morning, Woonhak holds his hand out for the list. Jaehyun gives it to him and watches sadly as Woonhak crosses off the first point and writes in a red Sharpie next to it, DEBUNKED. 

“Just want to make sure it's thorough,” Woonhak says, giving him a cheeky grin. Jaehyun just rolls his eyes and resists the urge to flick his forehead. 

Jaehyun’s guide to identifying a secret mermaid!

1. He always has glitter on his eyelids (even in the mornings when he just woke up) DEBUNKED

2. He doesn't eat seafood 

3. He knows random sea shanties

4. Fish follow him around 

5. He never goes swimming

For the second point on the list, it seems like the universe has kindly decided to help Jaehyun out, because they suddenly hear there's a festival happening down at the docks these days. 

It's some silly thing as usual, some Day of the Seagulls or another lame tourist trap like that — fairs like this happen way too often, because apparently people in their city are kind of bored. It's always the same thing too. Lots of fried foods, loud music, stupid prize games — it's predictable and boring and so much fun. They love going to these festivals. 

This particular festival falls sadly right during finals week before spring break, and everyone is busy studying. Jaehyun should study too, probably, but at this point in life he has two main goals: 1) Proving to Woonhak that Leehan is, indeed, a mermaid, and 2) Passing all his exams. And yes, that's the exact order. Priorities. 

So he convinces the group to go hang out at the docks this evening. After all, he says, none of us have any exams tomorrow, and we've all been studying for days, and we're all going home for spring break so who knows when we'll get the chance to hang out all six of us again after this? Which is bullshit and even he knows it, because they always go out on the last days of finals — a precious tradition of theirs — and even so, spring break is only for a week and then they're back to seeing each other everyday, so it's no big deal. But everyone really is tired, because exams are grueling, so they agree to go out tonight. 

It's the same thing as always, the same loud music, the same crowd of people, the same games and same foods. He really needed this. Bet or no bet, he's just happy to be out of the house. 

It's a fun night, like it usually is when there's a festival in town. He wins a cat plushy for Sungho, the same one he always wins for him. Woonhak manages to make a spell so their ice creams stay cold all night — quite the achievement for him, because he's not the best at spells, despite being a witch. Even Taesan manages to relax and have some fun, despite the fact that he has an Ethnomusicology exam coming up that he's super worried about. 

The best thing is the food, though. The food is always so good at these festivals. 

There's fried-everything: shrimp, chicken strips, chicken nuggets, fish, fish balls, meatballs, chips, and everything else that a person could possibly fry and sell. There's other stuff too, like burgers and pizza slices, but who'd come to a festival on the docks to eat pizza? And there's obviously dessert (some choco balls that look particularly delicious), but sadly Sungho has a strict eye on all of them to make sure they don't eat too many sweets, on account that he doesn't want them getting sick. Jaehyun makes a plan to get a few later, though, after they've had real food. If fast food can be counted as real food. 

Jaehyun’s plan obviously involves food. He once watched a documentary on mermaids (it might've been a kids’ movie, but shh) and it said that often mermaids don't like to eat fish, because fish are like little buddies to them, but they do like to eat seafood. It makes sense, too. Jaehyun guesses that mermaids might be able to talk to fish, and how mean would it be to eat someone you’ve had a conversation with before? Meanwhile, seafood literally has the word food in the name. 

With that in mind, he constructed a simple plan, perfectly innocent. They all get hungry after about an hour of walking around the fair, so obviously they decide to get something to eat, and obviously Jaehyun gets seafood. What? That's not weird at all, they're literally on the docks, seafood is a must in a place like this. 

What's also not weird is sharing with his friends, because Sharing Is Caring — they do it all the time. So when he gets a large portion of fried shrimp and chips, of course he immediately goes over to Leehan and asks if he'd like to try it. 

Leehan's face lights up. “Oh, sure Jaehyunie, that smells good!” He says, his eyes doing that crescent-moon thing that Riwoo spends way too much time telling Jaehyun about. He reaches out but stops himself short, furrowing his eyebrows, “Wait, uh, there's not any seafood in that, is there?” 

Jaehyun laughs awkwardly. “Well, sure, there's shrimp.” 

“Leehan is super allergic to seafood, his throat closes up,” Riwoo says from where he's checking out menu prices. “But you're not allergic to fish, though, right? Look, we can get some fish and chips over there.” 

Leehan gives Jaehyun one last smile. “Thanks anyway!” He calls over his shoulder, letting Riwoo drag him off. 

Jaehyun only has a few moments to feel sorry for himself, before Woonhak slides over to him. He throws a hand over his shoulders and gives him a large grin, like everything in the world is sunshine and rainbows. Maybe for him it is, because the way things are looking so far, soon he won't have to do laundry for a whole entire month. Sigh. 

“He's allergic to seafood,” Woonhak parrots, like Jaehyun wasn't here for the whole thing. 

“Yup.”  

“He's allergic to seafood, but he still eats fish…” Woonhak quirks an eyebrow. “That doesn't sound very mermaid-y to me.” 

He can be so annoying sometimes. 

“Whatever, it's not over yet,” Jaehyun huffs, crossing his arms. 

“Sure, sure,” Woonhak says. He holds out a hand, another grin on his face. “The list?” 

Jaehyun rolls his eyes, but nonetheless he pulls the list from his pocket and hands it to Woonhak. The little bastard has the audacity to look smug as he crosses over the second point and writes a big and mean DEBUNKED next to it. 

“Hope you like doing laundry, hyung!” Woonhak chirps, stealing one of Jaehyun’s shrimp out of the box before he skips off to Taesan and Sungho like a happy little kid. 

Jaehyun munches on a fried shrimp before he joins them too. He can't be upset too long, despite the fact that he's pretty disappointed. The food is really good at these festivals. And maybe he'll convince Sungho to make out with him later tonight. 

Jaehyun’s guide to identifying a secret mermaid!

1. He always has glitter on his eyelids (even in the mornings when he just woke up) DEBUNKED

2. He doesn't eat seafood DEBUNKED

3. He knows random sea shanties

4. Fish follow him around 

5. He never goes swimming

As per tradition, the group decides to go out on the last day of their finals. They've all had some pretty shitty exams these days (who knew that fucking music history would bite them in the ass so damn bad?) and Jaehyun is pretty sure that he flunked his last exam, but whatever, it doesn't even matter now, because results are coming only after spring break, which means that he's officially got one week free from uni. Hooray, and fucking finally. 

He can't wait to go out tonight. He feels like he's barely seen his friends these days, and lately whenever they did all end up in the same room together, at least half of them had their noses buried in a book. Since that day they went to the festival, they barely managed to hang out anymore, and Jaehyun really misses the five bastards he calls his best friends. 

It's karaoke night in Backstage, the college bar that's conveniently just across campus, so that's where they decide to go. Jaehyun’s actually pretty excited; besides for proving to Woonhak that Leehan is actually a mermaid and maybe finally winning that bet, he can't wait to go out. After a long, exhausting week of exams, he finally feels human again. 

He feels like an overexcited puppy when he hears a knock at the door, the one that says his boyfriend’s here to pick him up. He all but bounces over to the hallway, stops only in the kitchen to grab the bouquet of tulips he got for Sungho, then opens the door in a heartbeat. 

“Hi there!” He says breathlessly, grinning so hard his mouth hurts. 

“Hi babe,” Sungho says, giving him a smile, and damn if Jaehyun doesn't just melt right here. 

He looks so beautiful tonight, wearing an off-shoulder blouse and some plain jeans, his hair fashionably styled. He's always beautiful, but this past week he's looked more like a hot, tired zombie, and now that exams are finally over he finally looks well-rested and healthy, and that's a way better look on him. 

“Are those for me?” Sungho goes on, pointing at the pink tulips that Jaehyun is still holding. 

“Oh, r-right… for you…” He stammers, holding out the bouquet for his boyfriend. Two years into their relationship, he still gets so nervous whenever he gives Sungho flowers. It's a little ridiculous, but in his defense, Sungho is so freaking hot that it's a miracle he can even breathe right now. 

“Thank you, babe!” Sungho says, taking them from him gingerly. “They're so beautiful.” 

“You're beautiful.” He tries to say it cooly, but it comes out high-pitched and weird, like an awkward teen trying to flirt for the first time. He clears his throat. “I– I mean, you're so— you know, and I just—”

“You look handsome too, Jaehyunie,” Sungho says, taking his hand and locking their fingers together. “I like your makeup.” 

“Hah…” Jaehyun wheezes. Jeez, he's acting worse than he did on their first date. Why did Sungho have to wear that top? He knows Jaehyun goes crazy for his shoulders. 

By his devious smile, Sungho probably knows what's gotten Jaehyun so stuttery. But he doesn't call him out on it, thankfully. That would've been embarrassing. 

“Well then, let's get going, right? They're probably already there,” Sungho says, tugging a bit on Jaehyun’s hand. 

“Right,” he says, finally stepping out of the apartment. He fumbles with the key a bit before he finally manages to lock the door, then he turns and gives Sungho a smile. “Let's go then!”

He feels better once they get outside, once the cool air hits his face and he can finally breathe right. He's getting excited all over again, especially when he can see the bar in the distance, can hear the loud music blaring all the way into the streets. 

“I wonder if Woonhak and Taesan are finally going to admit they've been hooking up tonight,” Sungho says after a while. 

Jaehyun makes a face. “Ew, I don't want to think about that.” 

“You know they're doing it, though. Riwoo caught them making out.” 

“Woonhak said that Taesan was just helping him practice a spell,” Jaehyun says. 

Sungho rolls his eyes. “That's obviously just an excuse. When have you ever heard Woonhak practicing his spells?” 

Sungho's got a point; Woonhak is probably the worst witch in the world, because he just hates practicing his spells. He has no motivation for it, especially since he plans on becoming some kind of musician — knowing spells isn't exactly required to do that. 

But if he doesn't practice his spells, that means that Riwoo was right and that Woonhak and Taesan were making out that one time, and that's just super gross and Jaehyun doesn't want to think about that. He doesn't want to picture any of his friends making out with anyone, ever, but especially not Woonhak. He's his freaking baby, and if he finds out that he and Taesan really are together, then he might just have to kill Taesan with his bare hands. 

Sungho goes on, totally oblivious to Jaehyun’s inner freakout, “I just don't get why they won't come clean and tell us. It's not like it's a new thing, Riwoo says they've been together at least three weeks. That's a hella long time, right?” 

“Maybe they're not actually together and Riwoo was just imagining it,” Jaehyun says. 

Sungho gives him a long look, furrowing his eyebrows. “Okay, I get why they don't want to tell us. You'd totally make things weird.” 

Jaehyun grumbles under his breath, but deep down he knows Sungho's probably right. He can't help it; he just feels sometimes like he birthed and raised Woonhak himself, and he wants to protect him from anything that could ever hurt him. Even though Taesan probably won't hurt Woonhak; he still wouldn't like to take that risk. 

Whatever. They're probably not even together — and if they are, he's glad it's a secret relationship, because one thing he'd never want to see is the two of them making out. Gross. 

He can finally put all these icky thoughts away once they enter the bar. 

The atmosphere inside is just as great as he remembered. The lights, the music, the people; it's crowded and rowdy and loud, and there's already someone at the mic, belting out to a Whitney Houston song. He loves it. 

Sungho leads them to their usual table, and everyone is already here. The guys all cheer when he and Sungho get close enough to hear them, raising their bottles of beer. Jaehyun sits at the six-seat table, and it feels like home. 

“Here, we ordered for you,” Leehan says, sliding over two bottles of beer for him and Sungho. They're cold and delicious, and just from the first sip Jaehyun feels all the stress he's gathered over the past week finally leave his body. 

“Good to see you guys,” he says, putting his bottle down on the table as he finally takes a good look at all his friends. He's seen them plenty of times over the week, but during finals they all look a little dead inside, so it doesn't count. 

Taesan snorts. “We literally see each other everyday.”

“Not true, I haven't seen Sungho in two days,” Leehan argues. 

“Still though,” Riwoo shrugs. “It's good to hang out without any exams around the corner.” 

“Cheers to that!” Woonhak says, raising his bottle before taking a sip. 

“So what's the plan?” Sungho asks, drinking from his beer too. “Who goes first? I'm guessing we're doing the switch, right?” 

The switch is a longstanding tradition of theirs: every karaoke night in Backstage, they give each other songs to sing. The only rule is that the person getting the song has to sing it with his back turned to the lyric screen. It usually ends in a lot of laughter, tons of fun, and a bunch of embarrassment. 

It's the perfect chance for Jaehyun to prove the third point off his list. 

“I'll pick a song for Leehan!” He says, running off towards the sign-up list before anyone can say anything about it. 

He picks the only sea shanty he knows, some song that was all over social media for the past few weeks. It's cheating in a way, because everyone knows that song, but also if Leehan knows this song, he can use it to show Woonhak that he's really a mermaid. He's actually pretty proud of himself when he goes back to the table.

Ten minutes later, his plan fails. Leehan is up there on that stage just humming, doesn't sing any lyrics whatsoever — he doesn't even know the chorus. He clearly has no idea what the song is, which is ridiculous, because everyone who has TikTok knows this song. 

He returns to the table flushed but still miraculously cheerful, giving Jaehyun a wicked smile. “I'll get you back for that,” he threatens jokingly, making Jaehyun’s throat feel tight. Riwoo gives Jaehyun a dirty look. 

“How about I get the next round?” Jaehyun asks, feeling awkward. 

He goes to the bar and asks for six beers, his lame attempt at an apology to the guys. He turns around to watch the stage, waiting for his order, just in time to see Woonhak start singing — Phone Number by Jinusean, a song he actually knows, because Sungho picked the song and Sungho’s nice to people. 

“He's really good,” Taesan comments, sitting in the barstool next to him. “I've never met someone who's as into hiphop as him.” 

“Yep,” Jaehyun agrees, watching Woonhak as he basically shines on stage. It's like a preview for when he inevitably becomes a huge artist with tons of sold out concerts — everyone knows that's gonna happen, sooner or later. 

“It's a little ridiculous, what you did back there,” Taesan suddenly says. “You have to know it's ridiculous. Why would knowing some random song mean he's a mermaid?” 

Jaehyun rolls his eyes. Obviously Woonhak told him about the get, the sneaky bastard. And obviously Taesan agrees with Woonhak because he's totally smitten for the guy — he'll never deny him anything. 

But… yeah. He supposes that maybe, this one time, maybe this was a pretty ridiculous point… okay, yeah. It really was ridiculous. He has to give him that. 

The bartender brings him the beers. Jaehyun takes three of them, nodding to Taesan. “Help me carry these to the table, will you?” 

So what if the bet's not going too well for him? Whatever. The beers are cold and the music's good, so he'll just have some fun with his friends tonight, and figure out the bet tomorrow. 

Jaehyun’s guide to identifying a secret mermaid!

1. He always has glitter on his eyelids (even in the mornings when he just woke up) DEBUNKED

2. He doesn't eat seafood DEBUNKED

3. He knows random sea shanties DEBUNKED

4. Fish follow him around

5. He never goes swimming

Leehan and Riwoo's third-month anniversary is coming up next week, and Sungho has the great idea to have a double date. It might not be the most romantic thing in the world, but it's a chance to get out just the four of them, the couples of the group, and it sounds fun enough that it gets Riwoo and Leehan on board. Besides, it's not like they're going out on the actual anniversary, so they can have that day to themselves to do whatever gross things they have in mind. 

Jaehyun remembers his and Sungho's third month anniversary. It happened two years ago, which feels like a lifetime sometimes. They had dinner at a fancy restaurant, then took a long walk on the docks, under the moonlight, and then they went to Jaehyun’s place — thankfully Riwoo was out of town. They didn't even do anything, even though it was so rare for them to be alone in an empty apartment; but the night had been so magical that all they wanted to do was to cuddle together and watch reality shows on TV. 

To this day, that's probably Jaehyun’s favorite date he's ever had with Sungho. That's why they know they can't intrude on Riwoo and Leehan's anniversary, but celebrating with them a week early is innocent enough. 

Though Jaehyun knows it might be a bit mean, he's a little excited to go out without Taesan and Woonhak. He loves them to death, but sometimes he feels awkward doing couple stuff with Sungho when they're around. They can't even hold hands without hearing Taesan snickering about looo~ooove or Woonhak making gagging sounds; God forbid they ever kiss. So it's a nice break. 

He was worried that Woonhak and Taesan would feel offended that they're not invited, but they just smiled and said, alright have fun! When Sungho asked if they had any plans for tonight, giving Jaehyun a meaningful look that flew over both their heads, the two of them just shared a grin and shrugged. 

“We're probably going to watch a movie, right Woonhak?” 

Woonhak nodded quickly. “Yup! Just hanging out.” 

Then they giggled, both of them, like they have a shared secret they both think is super funny. Sungho elbowed Jaehyun hard and gave him a, they're totally in a secret relationship kind of look, and Jaehyun sighed, giving him a, yeah, I guess… look back. 

After this very productive talk, Jaehyun and Sungho head over to the aquarium, where they're meeting up with Riwoo and Leehan. It was Jaehyun’s idea to have their date at the aquarium — mostly because he knows his friends will enjoy it, partly because it'll probably help him with the fourth point off the Mermaid List. What? It's not like they can't have fun and prove that Leehan is secretly a mermaid at the same time. Two birds with one stone. 

The only problem is that some people aren't so thrilled with the idea. 

“Not very romantic,” Sungho comments as they look up at the building, waiting for Riwoo and Leehan. 

“We're not celebrating our anniversary,” Jaehyun shrugs. “Riwoo and Leehan will both love it.” 

“Really? Both of them will love it, you're sure?” Sungho asks, raising his eyebrows at him. 

“Yes,” Jaehyun says. “I asked them. Leehan said he loves the aquarium, and Riwoo said he loves watching Leehan at the aquarium.”

“That's kinda gross,” Sungho mumbles. 

“Totally.” Jaehyun straightens his back, nodding ahead. “There they are.” 

Riwoo and Leehan are in the distance, walking towards them. There's a bouquet of roses in Riwoo's hand and stars in Leehan's eyes — Jaehyun swears he's never seen him so excited before. He's basically buzzing when they finally get to the two of them. And Riwoo has huge heart eyes as he looks back at him. 

Jaehyun sighs internally. Yes, it's important to him that he wins this stupid bet (he just hates doing laundry), but he has a feeling that the next few hours are going to be pretty much unbearable. Usually Riwoo and Leehan are good at keeping cool and not going all PDA on all of them. Now, though, they’re here for their anniversary, and it's becoming increasingly obvious they'll be acting all gross and lovey-dovey. 

“Hi guys!” Sungho greets them once they're close enough. 

“Hey,” Riwoo says, not taking his eyes off Leehan, who hasn't taken his eyes off the aquarium yet. Jaehyun and Sungho share an exasperated look. 

And in they go, without further ado. 

The fish are cute, sort of, in that weird way that all animals are cute. Some of them are very colorful, some are small, some are huge. There's even an octopus, which Jaehyun thinks is pretty cool. He's never seen a real octopus so close to himself. 

Overall, though, it's mostly boring. Especially since Leehan keeps on telling them fish-related facts like he's a living encyclopedia. No one is really interested in that stuff, but Leehan looks so happy, so they let him talk. 

At least someone is enjoying himself, because Jaehyun sure isn't. And Sungho isn't, either, he can tell — and he can also tell, by the glares he sometimes shoots his way, that he'll have hell to pay for this. But that's okay. Jaehyun’ll buy him a new cat bed to have at the apartment, and that'll probably make things right. Right now they only have one in the living room, but Sungho would definitely appreciate one in Jaehyun’s bedroom, too. 

There's one good thing about this whole thing, though. Just like Jaehyun thought, the fish are following Leehan. From the moment they see him approach to the moment he moves on to the next tank, they're huddling close to the glass, swimming along with him as he walks. 

Even Sungho looks stunned. He nudges Jaehyun’s arm and whispers, “They're actually following him.” 

“Told you!” Jaehyun whisper-shouts. 

Riwoo notices them talking and grins, watching Leehan as he leans closer to some corydoras. “You saw that too, right? The fish are all over him. I'm actually getting a little jealous.” 

“What's that all about?” Sungho asks. Jaehyun’s heart is in his throat; he can just picture it, Riwoo shrugging like it's no big deal and saying, well he's a mermaid, so of course… 

“He volunteers here on the weekends,” Riwoo says, and it's like a record scratch in Jaehyun’s brain, cutting off his sweet fantasy of finally winning this stupid bet. Riwoo goes on, oblivious to his inner crisis. “He's the guy who feeds them, and I guess they can recognize his face. Isn't it cute?” 

“So cute,” Jaehyun drawls, slumping his shoulders. Sungho snickers at him, giving him a told you look. He'll definitely hear about this later… 

He sighs, moving on to the next fish tank. At least they're going to get ice cream after this; that'll be fun, for sure. Ice cream always cheers him up. 

Jaehyun’s guide to identifying a secret mermaid!

1. He always has glitter on his eyelids (even in the mornings when he just woke up) DEBUNKED

2. He doesn't eat seafood DEBUNKED

3. He knows random sea shanties DEBUNKED

4. Fish follow him around DEBUNKED

5. He never goes swimming

For the last point on the list, the last chance Jaehyun has of winning the bet, he decides to go simple and just ask Leehan to go to the beach this weekend. He figures Leehan will say no, which means that Jaehyun wins the bet by default, which would be pretty awesome. 

So it's very unexpected when Leehan just shrugs and answers, “Alright, I guess.” So then he has to hurriedly invite everyone else, because he already told Leehan they're all coming too, because sometimes he doesn't think things through, apparently. 

Thankfully, it's only the first week of the new semester, so no one has to study and they all agree to come. He would've been so screwed if they couldn't come; that means he would've had to go alone with Leehan, which is basically a date, and he doesn't think either Sungho or Riwoo would've appreciated that. 

Rushed as the whole thing is, they still have a lot of fun. They go all out, because they don't go to the beach so often, so they might as well do the most they can now that they're here. They bring tons of meat, Taesan's portable grill, and Woonhak even buys one of those huge, inflatable balls, so they can pass it around on the beach. The weather is perfect, and the water is pretty warm, and it's really nice to be out here with his friends. Bet or no bet, Jaehyun is still pretty pleased with himself just for the fact that he got the five of them to come here with him. 

It's a little funny when they start passing Woonhak's ball around, and promptly lose it. It's an accident, really — Taesan throws it a bit too hard, and it goes flying right over Riwoo's head before the wind takes it away. Woonhak immediately pouts and throws a tantrum, kicking his legs in the sand, whining about how the ball cost him 5 bucks and it's really no fair that they just lost it like that, and he barely even got to play with it. 

It might seem mean, but Jaehyun missed even Woonhak's tantrums so much. Spring break may be just one week, but it seemed like an eternity without his friends. He missed hanging out with his best friends, his boyfriend. 

Speaking of his boyfriend, Sungho's a little sulky to be here. As a cat hybrid, the beach is maybe one of the worst places in the world for him. He hates the water, so he spends most of the time laying in the warm sand, in his cat form. Jaehyun decides to spend some time with him, scratching his ears and pulling out a book to read. It's very peaceful; the guys are all off doing other stuff, playing in the water or whatever — it almost feels like he and Sungho are in their own perfect little bubble, and nobody can bother them here. 

Until Woonhak's loud cackle breaks over the sound of the waves. “Hyung! Told ya, hyung! Jaehyun hyung I win!” He shouts, laughing, racing out of the water over to them. 

“What's your problem?” Jaehyun rolls his eyes, looking up at him. 

Woonhak laughs again, grabbing Jaehyun by the shoulder and pointing towards the sea. Right there in the water, standing on his own two feet… is Leehan. Splashing Taesan and Riwoo with water, laughing like no big deal, absolutely no mermaid tail in sight. 

It's over. He's… really not a mermaid, then. 

Jaehyun groans, probably a bit too loudly, because it makes Leehan turn to him. He tilts his head, a huge shiteating grin on his face, before he gets out too. Riwoo and Taesan share an amused look, following after him. 

“Something wrong, Jaehyun hyung?” Leehan asks, coming over to them. 

“Nothing, just,” Jaehyun glances at Sungho. He sighs. “Woonhak and I kinda had a bet going on, it's really stupid, we wanted to know if —”

“If I'm a mermaid?” Leehan asks casually, raising an eyebrow, like he didn't just blow Jaehyun’s mind away. 

Jaehyun blinks at him. “Um —” 

“You carry that list everywhere, hyung,” Leehan goes on, matter-of-factly. “Those are some pretty crazy reasons to think I'd be a mermaid, by the way. It's like you've never even seen one before.” 

Woonhak snorts. “Told ya,” he mutters under his breath, elbowing Jaehyun. 

Jaehyun rolls his eyes at him, cheeks burning up. “So… I guess you're not a mermaid, then.” 

Leehan shakes his head. “Nope,” he says. “I mean, I'm half mermaid, if that helps.” 

“Half?”

“Yeah, my mom's a mermaid.”

“Half mermaid half human, that's still —” Woonhak starts, but Riwoo interrupts him with a laugh. 

“Wrong again,” he says, wiping off some water from his glittery arms. 

“So what's the other half then?” Taesan asks, looking curious too. 

Leehan rolls his eyes, like they're pretty much idiots for not getting it already. “Centaur,” he says, like it's the most obvious fact of nature. 

Jaehyun furrows his eyebrows, putting it together. “So you're… half mermaid, half centaur… and you got the human halves from both parents…” 

“That's right!” Leehan says, the way you'd talk to a kid. 

“You should see his sister, she's awesome,” Riwoo says. 

“Totally,” Leehan laughs, tugging on Riwoo's arm. “Let's go back in, water's awesome!” 

Jaehyun watches as they leave, feeling like the dumbest person in the whole wide world. He turns to Woonhak. 

“So… I guess in a way, we were both wrong.” 

“Yeah, I guess in a way we were,” Woonhak huffs. “But he's got two human halves so doesn't that make him—”

“Just leave it, Woonie,” Taesan says, throwing some sand on his feet. “I'll help you do your laundry, just let this stupid bet die.” 

Woonhak sighs. “Fine!” He says. “Cmon, let's go grill the meat, I'm getting hungry.” 

“Aw, we can't have that now can we,” Taesan smiles, patting Woonhak's belly. He takes his hand, and they leave together, presumably to start grilling the meat (more likely to make out). 

That leaves Jaehyun alone with Sungho. He sighs, turning to his boyfriend with a gloomy look. His boyfriend has shifted back in his human form, and is now giving him a very pleased look. Jaehyun almost wishes he'd stayed a cat; if anything, it's cuter when a cat judges you. 

Sungho actually has the audacity to laugh at him. “Don't be so sad,” he says, throwing an arm around his shoulders. “I told you, you should've just asked him from the start.” 

Jaehyun sighs. “Yep. You were right.” 

“So what did you learn from this?” Sungho asks. 

“That… I'm a terrible detective?” 

“And?” 

“That next time I should listen to you?”

Sungho gives him a happy grin. “See, you're starting to get it,” he says, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek. “Let's go, Jaehyunie. You can put those detective skills into finding where Woonhak's ball went.” 

He stands up, holding out a hand for Jaehyun. Jaehyun looks at it for a moment, then glances towards the water, where a very human Leehan is swimming circles around Riwoo. He's definitely a terrible detective… 

… but maybe he can find where the wind took their ball.

Jaehyun’s guide to identifying a secret mermaid!

1. He always has glitter on his eyelids (even in the mornings when he just woke up) DEBUNKED

2. He doesn't eat seafood DEBUNKED

3. He knows random sea shanties DEBUNKED

4. Fish follow him around DEBUNKED

5. He never goes swimming DEBUNKED

NOT A MERMAID (just has a weird family I guess)