Chapter Text
"Ahhh what the fuck!"
At Wooyoung's shout, Hongjoong looks up from his phone, craning his head to try and see out the sliding door. When he can’t see anything, he glances back down at his phone, figuring the younger just stubbed his toe or something.
"Hongjoong, there's something in your pool," Wooyoung continues.
"Is it another frog?" Hongjoong asks with a sigh, getting off the couch. He knows there’s no point in trying to get out of dealing with the issue, and he only grumbles a little as he kicks a few empty cans out of his way.
"No it's not a frog," Wooyoung says agitatedly. "Joong you have to come here."
"I'm coming," Hongjoong tells him, trying not to sound too annoyed. "What on earth are you so worked up about?"
Wooyoung didn't need to answer, because Hongjoong is finally out of the door and squinting into the backyard. Wooyoung is crouched by the deep end of the pool, an arms length away from what looks like a vague outline in the water. It's too dark to make out any details, and so Hongjoong switches on the outside light.
The light is dim, but it illuminates the backyard easily, as well as the figure in the pool.
Hongjoong almost gasps as he looks at it closer because it's a man and he's absolutely gorgeous.
As if able to hear his thoughts, the man lifts his head and shoots Hongjoong a look.
"It's the saltwater," he says, words slightly accented. "It does wonders for the skin."
Hongjoong flushes when he realizes he might have said the part about the man being absolutely gorgeous out loud.
"No way," Wooyoung gasps softly. "A fucking merman? In Hongjoong's pool?"
It's only then that Hongjoong notices the very obvious fact that the man does not have legs. Instead, a dark tail and fins are coiled up at the bottom of the pool, scales fading to the man's skin tone at his hips and waist.
"This is a pool?" The merman asks, eyes blown wide in shock. "I thought for sure it was a nice sheltered lagoon."
It takes a moment for Hongjoong to realize he is being sarcastic. Wooyoung grins when he realizes, shooting Hongjoong a glance.
"I think he's the one you've been waiting for," he calls out jokingly. "He's sarcastic and looks like a god. What's not to like?"
"Maybe the fact that he doesn't have legs?" Hongjoong mutters under his breath. "Why on earth are you in my pool?"
“I got blown a bit off course,” the merman tells him with an arch look. “Hope you don’t mind me crashing.”
Hongjoong is always down to let all kinds of people stay the night on his couches; Yeosang hasn’t been back to his dorm in at least a month. However, he’s pretty sure a real-life merman is a little different.
“This is so fucking cool! Do you normally swim all over the place? What do you normally eat? Can your tail turn into legs or will you be stuck in our pool forever? Are you single? Can you talk to sea creatures?”
Wooyoung eventually falls silent when he has to come up for air, gasping slightly as his stream of questions finally stops.
Hongjoong and the merman both look at him, unsure of where to start.
“Um,” the merman says slowly, glancing over at Hongjoong. “You do know you asked like six questions, right? How am I supposed to know what to answer?”
“Let’s start with the easy stuff,” Hongjoong suggests. He takes a few steps towards the pool, now wishing he decided to put on some actual shoes before coming outside. “Do you have a name of some kind?”
The merman stares at him for a moment like he’s never seen someone as stupid as Hongjoong before.
“While it may be a foreign concept, we do have names,” he says slowly, like he’s talking to a small child. “Mine is Seonghwa.”
Hongjoong rolls his eyes at the way the merman exaggerates the syllables, folding his arms defiantly.
Wooyoung is, of course, unfazed.
“Nice to meet you, Seonghwa,” he says cheerfully. “I’m Wooyoung.”
To Hongjoong’s surprise, Seonghwa gives Wooyoung a shallow smile, bowing his head slightly.
“Seonghwa sounds like a Korean name,” Wooyoung continues. “I don’t know how nationalities work for you guys, but we’re all Korean here, more or less.”
Seonghwa makes a vague noise of acknowledgement, shifting in the water slightly. Hongjoong can’t help stepping closer, fascinated by the way his tail moves so fluidly. He wishes he had actually fixed the pool light when it went out; he’d love to actually see what color Seonghwa’s tail is.
“I come from the waters near Korea,” Seonghwa tells Wooyoung.
“But you can speak English,” Hongjoong points out. “How?”
“I have some friends down here,” Seonghwa explains, without looking at Hongjoong. “They taught me.”
“Can you turn into a human?” Wooyoung asks excitedly. “It would be so cool if you can!”
Seonghwa looks hesitant for the first time in this conversation, glancing around the dark backyard like he’s worried about someone overhearing.
“I can,” he finally says, voice softer than before. “But I don’t often do it.”
“Why not?” Wooyoung asks, picking up on the change in Seonghwa’s body language. “Does it hurt?”
“Not exactly,” Seonghwa replies. “It’s not comfortable, but it doesn't really hurt. It just leaves me pretty weak for several days, so it’s kind of dangerous to do.”
“If you want to do it, you can!” Wooyoung immediately says. “You can stay with us for as long as you want, right Hongjoong?”
Hongjoong gapes at Wooyoung, getting immediate flashbacks to the time he was stupid enough to allow all of them to go to a pet store. He had barely been able to resist the combined effects of Wooyoung, San, Mingi, AND Yunho’s puppy eyes, as well as the eyes of the actual puppy.
“Sure,” he is replying before he even fully realizes what he’s saying. “We have tons of room.”
That at least isn’t a lie. There is plenty of room on the couches, even if Yeosang is taking one.
“You don’t even know me,” Seonghwa points out suspiciously. “How do you know I don’t eat people?”
“Oh shit!” Wooyoung hisses, almost jolting away from Seonghwa.
“Don’t freak out, Woo,” Hongjoong tells him. “He’s just messing with you.”
Wooyoung squints at Seonghwa, only relaxing when he realizes the merman is grinning.
“So you don’t eat people?” he asks, needing to make sure.
“Nope,” Seonghwa says. “Just fish.”
“There’s a great sushi place right next to the campus,” Wooyoung tells him excitedly. “We should take him there!”
The last half of that is directed at Hongjoong, who just sighs fondly. Seonghwa hasn’t even said he’d be willing to turn his tail into legs yet, and Wooyoung is already planning where he’ll take the merman to eat.
Hongjoong is opening his mouth to tell Wooyoung some of this when he hears the unmistakable sound of all the others returning from their late night grocery run.
“They’re back,” Hongjoong says quickly, glancing over his shoulder. They only have a few minutes, maybe longer if they actually decide to unload the groceries instead of just dumping them in the kitchen.
“Oh good!” Wooyoung says. “Seonghwa, you get to meet everyone else!”
The merman looks quickly between Hongjoong and Wooyoung, expression suddenly closing down and getting more hostile by the moment.
“No no no,” Wooyoung quickly says. “They’re just the other people who live here. I promise they’re cool; they’ll want to meet you too! They’re really nice!”
Seonghwa’s hostility softens somewhat, but Hongjoong notices he has pressed himself even further into the back corner of the pool, tail coiled tightly underneath him.
“Woo, I don’t think he wants to meet them,” Hongjoong says. “Look at him, he clearly isn’t comfortable-”
“No.”
Seonghwa’s simple statement immediately gets both Hongjoong and Wooyoung’s attention, the two of them falling silent.
“I assume these people are your friends?” he asks, waiting for them to nod. “Then I’ll meet them.”
“Are you sure?” Wooyoung asks. “You don’t have to.”
Hongjoong knows now isn’t the time to bring up the fact that they couldn’t really keep a real life merman in their pool a secret. He does like the idea of Seonghwa unintentionally scaring the crap out of Yunho when he decided to take a midnight swim, though.
“I’m sure,” Seonghwa says. “It’s fine.”
“I’m going to go and prep everyone,” Hongjoong tells the two of them. “So we don’t wake up the whole neighborhood with Mingi screaming again.”
He ducks inside quickly, making sure to close the screen door behind him. He contemplates closing the curtain as well, but then remembers San managed to burn a hole in it last week. Oh well.
Everyone is thankfully still in the kitchen, putting away groceries with varying amounts of success. Jongho is the only one who looks over when Hongjoong steps into the room, giving him a brief nod before looking back down at his phone.
“Uh, guys? I have something to tell you and I need you all to not freak out.”
That gets their attention quickly; San almost hits Yeosang in the face with a jar of jam when he whips around to look at Hongjoong.
“We already know you’re gay, hyung,” Mingi says with a grin. “That’s not news.”
“Very funny,” Hongjoong tells him with an eye roll. “This is actually something important.”
“Did your lame ass finally land a date?” Yunho asks, dramatically gasping.
“He didn’t say a miracle occurred,” San says, grinning when Hongjoong scowls at him. “And don’t you want Wooyoung here for this?”
“He’s busy right now,” Hongjoong tells him. “Does anyone else have some smart ass comments to make, or can I actually say it?”
“You may proceed,” Jongho says seriously.
“Alright then,” Hongjoong mutters. “Anyways, we may be having someone staying with us for the next little bit. He seems pretty nice, and Wooyoung definitely already likes him.”
“Oh cool,” Yunho says easily. “I thought it was going to be something major.”
“What’s his name?” San asks. “Do I know him?”
“Is he a transfer student or something?” Yeosang asks. “Why is he moving during the semester?”
“You definitely don’t know him,” Hongjoong tells San. “And he’s not exactly a student. His name is Seonghwa, and he’s a merman.”
They all stare at him for a long second.
Yunho is the first one to recover.
“Oookay,” he says slowly. “Out of curiosity, when was the last time you slept?”
Hongjoong rolls his eyes, fighting the urge to sigh.
“I can prove it,” he says. “Just come with me.”
“He’s finally lost it,” San mutters under his breath to Yeosang. “Think I could have his room?”
“San!” Hongjoong scolds. “I can hear you! I know it’s hard to believe, but just come with me, please.”
“Sure thing, hyung,” Mingi says soothingly. “Where are we going?”
“Just to the pool,” Hongjoong says, beginning to feel seriously fidgety. At least all of this has probably given Seonghwa some time to warm up to the idea. “It’ll be quick.”
He decides to ignore the meaningful looks that half of them exchange before beginning to move.
Hongjoong turns as soon as it’s clear that they’re actually coming, moving through the living room as fast as he can. He yanks open the screen door, almost half-convinced that Seonghwa was just an illusion, that he’ll find the pool empty.
It definitely isn’t an illusion. Seonghwa is still there, and he immediately whips his head around to see who it is, expression relaxing the slightest bit when he recognizes Hongjoong.
The wariness is quickly returning, however, as Yunho and Mingi step out of the house as well.
“Hey guys,” Wooyoung says easily. He is now sitting on the edge of the pool with his legs in the water, much closer to Seonghwa than before. “This is Seonghwa.”
Hongjoong almost gets his phone out to snap a picture of the absolute shock and surprise on everyone’s faces. It’s incredibly gratifying.
“I will be accepting your written apologies by no later than noon tomorrow,” he says smugly. “Just slip them under my door if I’m in class.”
“There’s a fucking merman in the pool,” San says slowly, barely even blinking as he stares at Seonghwa.
Hongjoong is beginning to realize that Seonghwa masks any kind of unease with the best resting bitch face Hongjoong has ever seen. It’s firmly in place right now, and even poorly lit by the shitty porch light gifted to them by Yunho’s dad, he looks like a statue come to life.
“Is this some kind of prank?”
Jongho’s question breaks the spell that they all seem to be under, and half of them turn to look at the youngest.
“Nope,” Wooyoung says cheerfully. “He’s real.”
“ He also hasn’t said anything,” Yeosang points out. “This could all be fake.”
“It’s not,” Seonghwa says simply, tilting his head.
To further prove the point, he pushes away from the back wall of the pool. His tail uncoils to propel him forward, and Hongjoong quickly realizes just how long it is. It is easily twice as long as Seonghwa’s torso, and barely seems to fit in their decently-sized pool.
It barely takes Seonghwa any effort to cross the width of the pool, and he is soon resting his arms on the edge closest to all of them. The water there isn’t deep enough for him to coil his tail underneath him like before, and it ends up almost fully extended behind him as he delicately places his chin on top of his folded arms.
“What the fuck !?!?!?”
They all wince as Mingi’s voice quickly reaches squeaking octaves. Jongho is closest, and he immediately reaches out to clamp a hand over Mingi’s mouth before he breaks all of their windows.
“Sorry for thinking you weren’t real,” Yeosang says stiffly to Seonghwa. “That was rude.”
Seonghwa just blinks at him, his expression not quite as wary as before.
Wooyoung got up as soon as Seonghwa moved, and he now plops down beside the merman, also looking over at the rest of them.
“You guys should all introduce yourselves,” he suggests, leaning back on his palms. “So Seonghwa doesn’t have to stare at a bunch of strangers.”
“I’ve already kind of met you,” Hongjoong says, deciding to bite the bullet for the rest of them. “But I’m Hongjoong.”
Seonghwa’s eyes are dark, and he simply blinks at Hongjoong a few times before nodding the tiniest bit.
“Uh, this is weird,” Yunho chuckles, reaching up to rub the back of his neck. “I’m Yunho. Nice to meet you?”
“Nice to meet you too,” Seonghwa murmurs, smiling slightly.
Yunho grins at that, some of his awkwardness vanishing. Of course he would get a smile from the merman; Yunho could get a bunch of rocks to fall in love with him. Hongjoong holds back an eye roll, knowing now isn’t the time for any sort of jealousy.
“Hi,” San says next, even stepping forward a bit. “My name is San; I’m Wooyoung’s boyfriend.”
Seonghwa frowns at the apparently unfamiliar word, glancing over quickly to Wooyoung.
“I’ll explain later,” Wooyoung assures him. “It’s a good thing.”
“Ahh,” he says. “Nice to meet you, San.”
Mingi is the next one to speak up, having to slap urgently at Jongho’s hand to get him to remove it.
“HiI’mMingi,” he says in one big rush. “You’re really pretty.”
Seonghwa’s eyes widen immediately, and even in the low light, Hongjoong can make out the way he’s blushing.
“Thank you,” he says seriously. “Mingi, was it?”
Mingi nods quickly, and is opening his mouth to inevitably ask a whole bunch of questions when Jongho easily elbows him in the stomach.
“I’m Jongho,” he says stiffly. “Nice to meet you, Seonghwa.”
Seonghwa just nods in acknowledgement, cheeks still tinged pink from Mingi’s compliment.
That just leaves one. Yeosang seems to realize he’s the last one when the rest of them do, and he belatedly steps forward.
“My name is Yeosang,” he says a bit awkwardly. “How did you end up in our pool?”
Hongjoong isn’t sure if Seonghwa will actually answer the question, but it seems the merman’s previous sarcasm was a product of an unfamiliar and possibly dangerous situation. He is much more relaxed now.
“I was blown off course,” he says simply. “This seemed like a good place to lay low and recover for a bit.”
“There’s a merman in our pool,” Mingi whispers audibly beside Hongjoong. “This is insane.”
Seonghwa clearly hears him, and he smiles wider this time, showing a glimpse of white teeth. Hongjoong almost does a double take, but it quickly becomes very apparent that Seonghwa has very sharp and pointed teeth, definitely not human.
“Are you going to stay in the pool?” Jongho asks, glancing around the backyard. “It’s not exactly the most private.”
Hongjoong hadn’t even considered that possibility. Their neighbors are incredibly nosy as well, which isn’t entirely unwelcome when they aren’t trying to hide an entire merman in their pool.
“Actually I was planning on shifting forms,” Seonghwa says casually, in the same way Hongjoong would talk about changing clothes. “I need to do it soon before I get too weak.”
“Too weak?” Yeosang and San repeat at the same time.
“I had to shift forms to get here,” Seonghwa explains. “I couldn’t exactly climb over your fence like this. Anyways, shifting takes a lot of effort, and leaves me really tired.”
“Oh shit,” Yunho says with growing realization. “Did you walk all the way here from the beach?”
Seonghwa just nods, and Hongjoong raises his eyebrows in surprise. The beach isn’t that far away, but to walk all that way while being exhausted and weak from whatever shifting a tail into legs feels like? That’s just impressive.
“Are you hungry?” San asks. “Can we get you anything?”
“I would prefer to wait until after I shift to eat,” Seonghwa tells him. “Can I do that now?”
“You mean shift fucking forms?” Hongjoong asks slowly. “Right now?”
“Yes,” Seonghwa says simply. “Like I said, I need to do it now before I can’t.”
“Right,” Hongjoong says quickly. “I mean, go for it. Should we give you some privacy?”
“That would be nice,” Seonghwa replies. “And I will probably need clothes.”
“I just did laundry,” Yunho volunteers. “I’ll grab some stuff.”
He immediately heads inside, with the rest of the group trailing after him slowly. Hongjoong is reluctant to leave Seonghwa alone; the whole idea of shifting your physical form into another one doesn’t seem like it could be painless. However, he does understand why the merman wouldn’t want a bunch of strangers to watch.
“How long will it take?” Wooyoung asks, getting up. “Will we need to come and help you?”
“I’ll be fine,” Seonghwa assures him. “It should only take a few minutes. I’ll let you know when I’m finished.”
It only takes a few more times of Seonghwa promising he’ll be fine until they are all inside the house, with the door shut behind them.
San has flopped down on the couch, staring off into space. Yunho and Mingi are off getting some clothes for Seonghwa. Wooyoung is standing by the door, pointedly not looking out, but clearly ready to move the second Seonghwa is finished. Yeosang, Jongho, and Hongjoong are just standing there.
“This is crazy,” Yeosang mutters. “Sorry for not believing you at first, hyung.”
“Nah, it’s fair,” Hongjoong shrugs. “I wouldn’t believe myself either.”
“Where’s he going to sleep?” San asks, looking up at them.
“He can have my room.”
The words surprise all of them, including Hongjoong, who said them.
“Are you sure?” Wooyoung asks. “We have the couch space-”
“I’m sure,” Hongjoong says. “He deserves a good bed after whatever all of this is.”
Wooyoung, Yeosang, and San all nod in silent agreement.
Mingi and Yunho soon rejoin them, a stack of clothes in Yunho’s arms. They sit down on one of the couches as well, joining the rest of them as they all wait for the merman in their pool.