Taehyung's world goes way beyond any human could ever imagine.

There are hundreds of other mer-people, consisting out of gorgeous mermaids and mermen.

There's a giant, beautiful old ship that sunk to the bottom of the ocean decades ago. It's their most popular area. Mer-people have decorated it with things they found, fixed it with tools and now that ship is home to the most of them.

Some don't like to be in crowded areas, those mer-people choose to live a little further away.

Taehyung mostly finds himself somewhere in between. He does not awfully dislike crowded areas, but he does tend to avoid them. He just doesn't like the attention he gets because of his long fins.

There was this one time when he decided to go to the ship, only to end up having mermaids following him around everywhere he went, not letting him alone for even a second.

Sometimes, he hates his fins.

Well, not particularly his fins─ just the 'privileges' that come with them.

The most well-liked and popular mermen can get whatever they want in a mere fingersnap. If they wanted to, they could try to convince the council to give them permission for a certain thing others could only dream of.

The merfolks' council consists out of three people. One mermaid and two mermen. They are the oldest and considered to be the wisest out of all. Everyone needs to respect them at all costs. In the end, their words are law.

They are also the ones who give punishments to those who deserve it. They made sure everyone followed the rules as told.

Taehyung knew he had to show himself more in the popular areas. He needed to be seen again, since it's been far too long. He doesn't want anyone, especially the council, to get suspicious and go look for
him.

After all, he isn't the best liar out there.

Taehyung fiddled with his fins, eyes flicking from one place to another when he anxiously swam closer and closer to the ship, catching the attention from mermaids as he did so.

"Wait, isn't that Taehyung?! He's back!"

"Where has he been all this time?!"

"Taehyung-ah, I missed you!"

"Did your fins grow? They're even more gorgeous than the last time I saw them!"

"Taehyung, come here, we can do something fun together!"

Yeah, it wouldn't be hard to make friends as there were a lot of mermaids who volunteered, but the blue haired male knew better than that. Those mermaids only want one thing; get Taehyung to like them and choose them as his mate.

Since he doesn't exactly float that way, those mermaids could forget it. But of course they don't know that, so he doesn't blame them for trying nonetheless.

Sometimes he wants nothing more than to just scream out loud, so everyone knows about his true feelings. How he really feels about certain things.

He's sure he's not the only one. He has spotted a secret meet-up between two mermen once. With a thumping heart, he pityfully watched them makeout, afraid for their well-being.

He has also seen what happens after, when those two got caught red handed.

One doesn't forget that easily.

Taehyung doesn't understand what was so wrong about it, but he had to follow those stupid rules. He wasn't looking forward to get his precious fin torn off.

Simply ignoring the fangirls and those who called out his name, he swam inside the ship once he opened one of the thousand doors. Entering the room, he exhaled.

His back began aching from sleeping on a hard rock all the time. He needed to sleep on a soft, seaweed bed again, because he couldn't endure it any longer.

The rooms were small but looked absolutely cozy. The walls were decorated with starfish who decided to stay over, out of every small gap grew colourful coral. Sometimes a family of shrimp or other kinds of fish swims by, exiting the room past the coral. It is truly beautiful.

In the old hallways of the ship, you could see groups of all kinds of fish. Big, small, adults and babies. It made everything so much more colourful and brighter. It brought it to life.

One of Taehyung's personal favourites, are the small groups of seahorses in some places. He absolutely adores them.

Hoseok used to manage in getting him inside the ship to go and watch them. But no matter how badly Taehyung sometimes wants to, avoiding the crowded areas was higher on his list.

Taehyung's mood faltered once the name of his ex-best friend repeated in his head.

He didn't notice that Hoseok was aware that he was lying straight to his face. He barely even noticed when the male had started to become more distant, since he was so busy with Jeongguk. He only started realising it up until a few days ago, when it was too late already and the harm had already been done.

"I should have known, I should have trusted him.." He sighed sadly, swimming towards the soft bed made out of seaweed and sea sponges.

He let himself sink onto it, his long tail draped off the edge and his side fins spread out comfortably.

He smiled at the feeling.
He needed this.

Closing his eyes for a brief moment, he listened to the faint chattering of his kind. His mind wandered off to a specific human being, instantly creating a smile on his lips.

Where could he be right now?
What could he be doing?
Is he thinking about Taehyung aswell?

His fantasies were interrupted when the door suddenly opened, revealing Jimin's dreaded figure.

Taehyung bit his lip, preparing himself for what's to come.

"Ah, I always enjoy coming here." Jimin started, leaning against the wall.

He had his arms behind his back the whole time, not that the blue haired questioned it. Jimin was wierd anyway, that simple action didn't exactly make it worse.

The elder stared at Taehyung just for a moment, and the younger could practically feel the hate radiating off of him.

"You know, for the attention and stuff. Those mermaids can't stop drooling over me. But what can you expect with a face and a tail like these?" He pointed at his own, spreading his side fins intimidatingly.

The blue haired male cringed in disgust.

"Just to keep you informed, while you were gone yesterday, Jeongguk and I talked for a while. He seems really nice. And that for a human.."

The younger's eyes widened slightly. He put his finger in front of his mouth to sign that Jimin must quiet down since he doesn't want anyone to hear.

The silver haired just laughed,
"No one is able to hear us. The walls are soundproof. Or well, almost. The cracks in the walls are not." He taunted.

Taehyung just stared, not wanting or daring to even mutter a word. The elder wasn't worth it.

Taehyung's anxiety increased, when Jimin swam closer. It was at this moment it really started to dawn upon him that his worst enemy was alone with him in a room.

Taehyung sat up, preparing himself to dash away. That's when Jimin finally removed his arms from his back.

"I went searching around the ship, look what I found."

Before Taehyung could react, Jimin forced the boy down, grabbing his wrists and tying them together to the bed. Since the elder was much stronger, the blue haired's struggles in protest didn't affect him.

From this position his side fins couldn't reach Jimin, so his only real self-defense mechanism had a time out.

With pleading eyes he looked up at him, watching him back away. He only got a smile in response.

"I'm going to leave you here for today. I'll be more than glad to tell Jeongguk you aren't coming."

Taehyung was screaming on the inside. He felt like Jeongguk got taken away from him, which doesn't make any sense.

He should trust that the human wouldn't forget about him, but he was sure that Jimin wasn't planning on leaving this to he a one-time thing.

Taehyung couldn't scream. If he did, other mer-people would hear him and he would have to explain himself. What in the world was there to say? As if they were going to believe him anyway.

Jimin knows. He would use that against him, plus he's always in the popular areas, so there are lots of mer-people willing to back him up. The blue tailed has no one. Only his words, which he has to he really careful with, otherwise it'll be his downfall.

Jimin knows that Taehyung doesn't dare to open his mouth.

Taehyung shook his head violently, begging the elder silently not to go and to just release him. But of course those were only prayers, Jimin just swam out of the room.

Taehyung began struggling to get free, twisting and turning his wrists to all sides. But because of the pain, he only ended up laying completely still. Well, more like floating due to the uncomfortable position.

He was sure his wrists were going to bruise, eventually even bleed because of the scraped and ripped, soft, fragile skin.

"When are you going to put an end to this, Jimin?" Taehyung mumbles sadly in defeat.