today was donghyuck's 18th day above the surface, meaning he had only 12 days left to spend time with mark.

mark's friends were still here, actually, they were leaving in two days.

it was night, the boys had been playing in the pool the whole afternoon while donghyuck watched them. mark had explained donghyuck had developed a fear of water since he almost drowned. well, the boys believed it, which was the most important. this way, none of them tried to push donghyuck into the water or even splash him. this prevented incidents to happen, which was best for mark and donghyuck.

"let's play a game." jisung declared.

they were all inside mark's room, sitting on his bed. they had finished eating minutes ago.

"what do you want to play?" jeno raised his head from his phone.

"i don't know. i just want to play, i don't care what."

jeno sighed and got back to looking at his phone.

"never have i ever?" mark suggested, earning a choir of 'boring'.

"let's play the bottle game!" chenle exclaimed.

"whyyyy?" jaemin whined.

"hey! don't protest, at least you have a boyfriend." mark hit jaemin's head.

"what is the bottle game?" donghyuck asked innocently.

"simple. you spin the bottle." chenle explained, doing as he said with an almost empty bottle of water that was lying on mark's nightstand. "the first person designated has to kiss the second."

"and as the time goes, the kisses get more and more... interesting." jisung finished wiggling his brows.

donghyuck looked at mark for a nick of time before agreeing.

"great!" chenle yelled. "i'll spin the bottle first. kiss on the hand."

chenle spun the bottle, and it landed on jaemin. then, jaemin spun the bottle and it landed on donghyuck.

"jaemin, kiss donghyuck's hand!" jisung declared, pulling on donghyuck's arm.

donghyuck hold his hand towards jaemin who gently put a kiss on the back of it.

"great! now, kiss on the head!"

donghyuck spun the bottle, giggling when it landed on mark. mark then did and it landed on jeno. mark pulled jeno's hair before planting a quick kiss on the top of his head.

"it hurts!" jeno whined rubbing his head.

"come on, you sound like a girl!" mark teased.

"guys, it gets heated, kiss on the neck."

jeno ignored mark and spun the bottle. jisung got chosen, and so, he spun the bottle that landed on chenle, making jisung flush red.

it was a secret for no one in this room – well, except for donhyuck and chenle – that jisung had the biggest crush on his chinese friend. and well, even if chenle had some feelings for the boy too, he considered him as a baby that couldn't fall in love, so, yeah... it was difficult for jisung to confess.

chenle smiled brightly, showing his neck to jisung who gulped before moving forwards and kissing chenle's neck.

he then got back to his seat as chenle spun the bottle. "donghyuck." chenle said. "you'll kiss on the cheek..."

donghyuck spun the bottle, feeling relieved when it landed on a certain boy.

"...mark!" chenle finished.

donghyuck pulled mark before deposing a chaste kiss on mark's cheek, the older smiling at the contact of the merman's soft lips against his skin.

donghyuck then giggled before spinning the bottle again for the next round.

"yay! jeno, kiss jisung's tummy!" chenle squeaked, pulling up jisung's shirt to reveal his muscled stomach.

"gay." jaemin mumbled.

"that's what we are." chenle remarked as jeno kissed jisung's stomach.

"ew! disgusting! he licked my tummy!" jisung whined, rubbing the area as jeno laughed, earning a slap from his boyfriend.

"don't tell me you're jealous! he's jisung." jeno rolled his eyes.

"what if i am?"

"last round guys. the kiss on the lips!" chenle said happily.

he spun the bottle which landed on jaemin shortly after.

jaemin spun the bottle once again and waited for it to stop in front of someone.

donghyuck was eying the bottle cap very intensely, making sure that it wasn't pointing at mark. he didn't like the idea of mark kissing someone. so, when the bottle slowed down, threatening to land on mark, donghyuck widened his eyes and decided to act.

as the bottle had still some water inside, donghyuck made the water move in order to make the bottle spin a bit more and land on jeno.

he sighed in relief when jeno jumped on jaemin to kiss him, thinking no one had noticed what he had done.

except that something had betrayed him. his eyes had turned golden, they always did whenever he would be in his mermaid form or using his powers.

and mark had seen the change of colour of his eyes, and he had seen why.

"okay!" chenle exclaimed. "if the those two have finished exchanging their saliva, we could play another game."

jeno and jaemin sat back on the bed, arranging their messy hair and wiping away the saliva that remained around their mouth.

"what do you have in mind?" jisung asked.

"pepero game!" chenle yelled.

"why are you obsessed with games in which we got to kiss people?" jaemin asked.

"no pepero game then..." chenle sighed. "what do we play then? truth or dare?"

"oh no that so bor-" the other boys started before being interrupted by the one and only donghyuck.

"oh, i love this game!"

donghyuck often played truth or dare with renjun, and, well, he always had the best ideas. once, he got renjun making his bed and clean the house for a whole week.

the boys who were all about to refuse playing it exchanged a look.

"truth or dare it is then!" mark exclaimed, making donghyuck smile.

"let's say if someone doesn't want to answer or do the dare, he had to jump in the pool from that window!" jaemin said pointing at mark's window.

"are you crazy?!" mark widened his eyes.

jaemin shook his head. "nah, but this way, i'm sure that people who tend to dodge dares aren't going to do it." he winked at mark.

chenle sighed. "so, who's starting?"

"me! me! me!" jisung exclaimed. "chenle, truth or dare?"

"as if i would choose dare knowing that you asked me... truth."

jisung pouted. "you're no fun..." jisung thought for a second. "do you currently have a crush on anyone?"

chenle broke the eye contact he had with jisung as his cheeks got red. "hum... yeah."

"really? who?"

"that's not the question. my turn. jeno, truth or dare?"

jeno chuckled. "dare."

"i dare you to make a hickey to jaemin, in front of us!"

"what?!" jaemin interrupted. "it's his dare, not mine, i shouldn't be involved."

"shut up! as if you were not craving for him to do that?" chenle rolled his eyes.

jeno pulled his whining boyfriend in between his legs and captured the skin of his neck between his lips. he gently sucked and bit on the piece of skin, leaving a small bruise on the flawless skin.

donghyuck had his eyes on the couple. he had absolutely no idea what a hickey was, and seeing what jeno was currently doing to jaemin didn't seem to be bad. he didn't understand why the boy had protested.

jeno eventually detached his lips from jaemin's neck who showed his neck to the boys to prove jeno had completed his dare. donghyuck looked at it, eyes filled with envy; the mark was cute, and donghyuck was sure this reddish mark would match perfectly with the colour of his tail.

"mark." jeno said, interrupting donghyuck's daydream.

"truth." mark answered.

jeno smirked. "what turns you on?"

mark's cheeks went from a pale colour to a deep red one really quick. the boy lowered his head in embarrassment thinking about an answer he could give them. he lifted his head as the boys around were laughing, only to have an intense eye contact with donghyuck who was pretty confused.

"i-i..." mark stammered.

"oh, mark! it's not like we asked you to watch porn in front of us!" jaemin exclaimed. "wait! that's a good dare to ask someone!" he added, making the boys laugh again.

seeing the vivid colour of mark's cheeks, donghyuck remembered a subject that made them go this red. "has this something to do with sex?" he asked innocently, making the laughs stop.

there was a long silence. jaemin, jeno, jisung and chenle kept exchanging glances, mark was fidgeting with his fingers and donghyuck was getting even more confused.

"i'll jump!" mark said abruptly, opening the window and jumping inside the pool under it without taking his clothes off.

mark came back after a minute soaking wet. he excused himself to the bathroom where he dried his hair and changed clothes before sitting back on the bed.

the game went on for a dozen of rounds.

chenle was currently forbidden to speak until midnight, jisung and jeno were tied by the wrist and mark had been obliged to remove his shirt, leaving him bare chested. things had turned out well for jaemin who had nothing more than a hickey.

the boys had also been nice with donghyuck who had been confused and scared most of the time.

"this game gets boring after a while..." jisung whined, putting into words what chenle had been trying to tell with his hands for a while.

"okay, then one last round and we'll watch a film." jaemin said, a brilliant idea on his mind. "i choose donghyuck. truth or dare?"

donghyuck answered without any hesitation. "dare."

"great..." jaemin smirked. after all, donghyuck hadn't been asked things too pushy, but jaemin really wanted to make up something with mark and him. "you have to spend the whole film sitting on someone's lap."

"huh?" donghyuck raised a brow.

"you choose one person and you stay on his lap for the whole film." jeno clarified.

donghyuck lowered his head in shyness. "mark." he said, voice very low and cheeks crimson red.

the boys got to the living room, sitting on the couches in front of the huge tv.

chenle and jaemin were arguing on what they would watch, but as chenle who had to be silent for two other hours, jaemin had decided to let him choose.

jisung and jeno were sitting in the middle of a couch, their tied hands between them. it didn't take long before jaemin came cuddling into jeno's side and chenle clung to jisung's arm.

mark was sitting on another couch, arms dangling around donghyuck's waist who was sitting on mark's lap.

the film started, confusing donghyuck more when he saw the first pictures and the title appearing.

"the little marmaid?" he asked mark. "i thought you didn't know we existed."

mark pressed a hand against donghyuck's nape to pull him closer in order to whisper in his ear. "you are myths for us. there are many stories about mermaids, but they're only fantasy." mark explained, making odnghyuck blush at the proximity.

"looks like it gets heated over there." jeno wiggled his brows at mark who shrugged it off.

the film ended a bit before midnight.

donghyuck had fallen asleep on mark's lap, his head nestled in the crook of mark's neck, his soft breathing ghosting on mark's skin. mark was holding onto the boy, one of his hands had made its way under his shirt to caress the mermaid's skin.

the four other boys had gotten to sleep in mark's room one after the other – and jeno and jisung together, obviously – leaving mark and donghyuck all alone in the room, the older not paying attention to the credits shown on the screen.

it didn't take long for him to fall asleep.