SEUNGMIN THOUGHT that he had seen everything known to man during his stay in hyunjin's castle. however, he had never seen a merman try to lure his friends into the ocean before.

well, "merman" wasn't exactly the right term. the creature hyunjin and felix had found was actually a siren, although nobody realized it at first, too caught up with the being's good looks. he was undoubtedly attractive in every way, shape, and form, with a chiseled body and tousled golden hair. his sunkissed skin was complimented nicely by his green tail. it's almost the same shade as hyunjin's eyes, seungmin realized, although hyunjin suits the colour a bit better. maybe i should make him something green later on... 

sirens were extremely dangerous and very different from merpeople. for one, sirens liked to lure passersby and sailors to their deaths by using the magic in their voices to attract them. they would then strip them of all they owned before killing them in a grisly manner. merpeople were much more peaceful and friendly— seungmin had actually met a mermaid named tzuyu in the river that flowed next to market chipping, and the two quickly became friends. (well, for a day, at least, since she had to return back to her lake home.)

the redhead had heard legends of sirens existing but had never seen for himself the true power of it. however, as soon as the siren opened his mouth, it was like some sort of magic had washed over the entire group, putting them into a trance-like state.

except for one.

seungmin watched in shock as everyone began shuffling towards the water's edge with a glazed-over look in their eyes. what's going on? he thought. why is everyone going but me? why aren't i being affected? even hyunjin, a top-tier wizard, was entranced by the siren's song, further confusing seungmin. hyunjin, chan, jeongin, and minho are all under the siren's spell...but not me? how is this possible? how am i safe? 

he shook his head rapidly. no. there's no time to wonder about that. right now, i need to figure out how to save my friends.

glancing around, seungmin spotted the conch shell that chan had grabbed right before they had exited the house, saying, "we're going to need this". seungmin didn't know why they would need a shell, but since it was a magical item, it would be more useful than him in any situation. he ran and quickly snatched it away from chan, surprised at how easily it slipped from his fingers. he was so strong before, and now he's so weak... it's unnatural. 

the redhead turned the conch over in his hands, trying to figure out how it worked. there was nothing special to be found on it— no design, no inscription. nothing at all. it was just an ordinary shell with a pale pink hue. why is it that every magical item always looks normal on the outside? he thought frustratedly. what do you do with a conch shell, anyway? listen to the ocean? he brought it up to his ear and nearly jumped out of his skin— instead of soothing sounds, he was greeted with harrowing screams. 

maybe not, he thought with a shudder. what else? what else can you do with a conch? um... blow into it? 

flipping the shell over, seungmin found a small opening and quickly pressed his lips to it, not expecting much. (frankly, he had no idea what he was doing.) however, when he blew, the shrill screams he had heard earlier streamed out of the conch shell, causing him to drop it to the sand. queen of ingary, he thought with wide eyes, what just happened?

it appeared he wasn't the only one affected by the screams. the siren had stopped singing and plugged his ears with a grimace, eyes squeezed shut. this caused his friends to halt mere inches from the water's edge— too close to the ocean for seungmin's liking, but too far to be caught by the siren.

the tailor's mind swirled frantically as he tried to come up with a plan. he only had a few moments before the siren would go back to singing and then his friends would be gone for good. but what could he do to save them? 

he had no magic. 

he had no fighting skills. 

he was just normal and average in every way.

so, he called out to someone who he knew wasn't. "hyunjin!"

the green-eyed man snapped his head in seungmin's direction. he blinked a couple of times in confusion, clearly wondering what had happened. then a look of realization dawned upon his face. "siren," he whispered, and seungmin had barely dipped his head in confirmation before the wizard took off like a bolt of lightning. he whisked the conch shell out of the tailor's hands and blew into it, seemingly unfazed by the ear-piercing screams that came forth from it. the red-haired man by his side covered his ears as the siren cried out, clearly in pain from the sharp noise. seungmin felt like his ears were going to bleed— thankfully, the voices began to quiet down, but hyunjin kept going until nothing but the sound of silence was heard. as soon as it was over, he ripped the shell from his lips and panted heavily, evidently out of breath. 

"tailor," he wheezed, "i am going to do something, but in order for it to work, you mustn't say a word. can you do that for me?" seungmin gulped and nodded his head, too afraid to speak. "good. now..." hyunjin muttered a few unintelligible words and two bubbles quickly materialized over his ears; at that exact same moment, seungmin felt as if there was something covering his own ears, and he reached up to try and figure out what it was. before he could, though, hyunjin slapped his hands away and pointed to his own ears before pointing at seungmin.

oh, the tailor thought, i must have bubble ears too. but why? he watched as the siren opened his mouth; however, no sound came out. then he realized that he wasn't able to hear anything at all. then it dawned on him that the reason he had bubble ears was that hyunjin was protecting him from hearing the siren's song and falling under its spell.

a fragment of distrust melted away inside of seungmin's heart. he didn't have to do that for me... perhaps he's a bit more caring than i originally thought.

hyunjin placed the conch to his lips as the siren continued to sing. after a while, a fearful look appeared on the creature's face, and he clawed at his throat frantically. seungmin noticed how the steps of his friends began to slow to a stop. they looked around, perplexed, clearly wondering what was happening, before turning their attention to the siren. seungmin didn't need to hear to be able to feel the hostile energy radiating off of chan and minho— they were furious. seeing this, the siren quickly turned tail and fled, and hyunjin let his arms fall. 

he faced to seungmin and said something with a small smile. the tailor resisted the urge to smack him and go, "i still have bubble ears!" (although smacking a powerful wizard would definitely end with his demise.) thankfully, hyunjin saw this himself and popped them. like a river, sound flooded into his ears, and he had never been more thankful to be able to hear than at that moment. it was like he was waking up for the first time. "apologies. i said you can talk now."

the words had barely left hyunjin's mouth when seungmin began to shoot off questions. "what just happened? what did you do with the conch? is everyone alright? where's the siren?"

"i captured the siren's voice in the shell and saved everyone. i emptied out the voices i had held in there before and inhaled into the conch to catch the siren's song. yes, everyone is fine. gone, i presume." hyunjin looked mildly amused. "if you're done, i actually have a question of my own." the tailor nodded. "how were you able to break me out of the siren's spell?"

seungmin didn't have an answer. he didn't even know— in the moment, all he could focus on was his desperation to save his friends. he had had complete faith in the fact that hyunjin would be able to get them out of their predicament if he weren't spelled, so he called out to him with those feelings in his heart. he didn't think that it would work, but it did. "honestly, i'm not sure. i just knew i needed you— well, your help— so i yelled your name and you heard me."

hyunjin furrowed his brow. "so you were fully conscious the whole time, even when the siren was singing?"

"well, i just assumed i was out of his range."

hyunjin tilted his head slightly. "tailor, are you aware that a siren's song is designed to enchant all that can hear it? as long as you have working ears, you should be under its spell."

a sinking feeling opened up in seungmin's stomach. "wait... but... i wasn't affected..."

"exactly."

all of the questions he had earlier poured into his head in a dizzying stream of confusion. "how can that be? it's not like i was spelled— well, besides my curse— and i don't have any powers, either. i'm just normal!"

hyunjin brought his fingers to his lips and tapped them lightly. seungmin thought it would be wiser to focus on that rather than the fact that the hwang hyunjin was standing bare-chested before him. it wasn't. "clearly you're not. there's something we're missing here. something important." he winced suddenly and his hands shot to his chest. "however, that will have to wait. i have more pressing matters to attend to right now." 

he made a motion to leave but paused and turned back around. "tailor... have you seen my shirt?"

it took all of seungmin's strength to not let his gaze leave the wizard's face. "no."

"very well, then." he approached a large rock that had a door on it, something that seungmin had not noticed in his panicked state. "will you promise me one thing, tailor?"

the redhead hesitated. making deals with magic users often led to tragedy of some sort— nevertheless, he responded with a quiet "yes", figuring he owed hyunjin some compensation for saving his life.

"let felix know i'm sorry." with that, he disappeared through the door, closing it behind him.

it was the saddest seungmin had ever seen him.