Chapter 69

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Many things Jungkook had been woken up by. Noisy lawnmowers, a neighbor coming home so late that it was basically morning, and even Tuna jumping onto his face. But none of those did he appreciate as much as waking up because Taehyung's breath against his neck was making Taehyung's hair tingle his skin. Maybe it was a little hard to move his arm and scratch that spot without waking Taehyung up, but all of that didn't matter compared to waking up to Taehyung cuddled up to his side.

It was still a little weird to think that maybe Taehyung wanted this, to stay like this, too. But now that he knew that the interest was mutual, Jungkook was actually looking forward to trying going on a date. He had already made plans for it the day before. They had done so many things together already, but never with the intent for it to mean more. It was always for Taehyung to see more of the human world. This time it was a thing that was supposed to be fun for the two of them.

In the spirit of going on a classical date they were going to visit a cinema, watching a movie they were going to spontaneously decide on. After that, they would go to one of the arcades Jungkook had always wanted to visit. And then, if it wasn't too late they would go and sit by the Han river again. It had been pretty nice last time and Jungkook wanted to properly use their last day here.

Taehyung moved a little and Jungkook held his breath for a second when his clawed hand moved position from his stomach to his chest. Jungkook knew that, realistically, if he hadn't gotten scratched all night, it wasn't likely to happen now, but he also still carried quite a lot of nervousness around from when Taehyung had used them constantly to threaten him.

"My claws really fascinate you, don't they?" Jungkook almost got a heart attack when he heard Taehyung's sleepy voice right next to his ear.

"Fucking scare a guy to death." Jungkook groaned, trying to calm his beating heart down. He felt like he had just been caught doing something bad. "I'm trying to get over my trauma here."

"Still scared of my claws?" Taehyung asked, seemingly genuinely curious.

"Well for one, any sane person would be a little scared. So yeah, a little. Also, maybe just a tiny bit fascinated because not gonna lie... they are pretty cool. But still, mostly scared." He looked over at Taehyung, who was clearly listening to him in amusement.

"So it makes you nervous if I do this?" Taehyung thrummed his fingers against Jungkook's chest and while it didn't hurt, Jungkook could feel his claws through the fabric of his shirt. His heart rate picked up a little. Taehyung was clearly teasing him though.

"Absolutely. Now get your scary claws off me before you accidentally hurt me for real." Jungkook flicked his finger against Taehyung's hand and to his relief he did pull away. Then he sat up and stretched, his hands slowly transforming into more human-looking fingers. And so did his eyes and face, morphing just enough to pass as human.

"So where are we going?"

Sometimes Jungkook was surprised how much of a situation could happen and still count as coincidence and not as proof that maybe they were living in a simulation. Over the last couple of weeks, he had made it a point to watch as many movies with mermaids and sirens in them as he could, mostly because he found Taehyung's reactions more than just hilarious. One of the few movies that had been still missing was 'Pirates of the Caribbean: On stranger tides' and he had actually watched the movies leading up to it with Taehyung at home, since he didn't want to just throw the movie at Taehyung without any context.

Well, that movie was now being replayed at one of the theatres they had checked out on their way into the city.

After getting themselves some popcorn and drinks they entered the mostly empty room and sat down right in the middle. Jungkook didn't have that many memories of the movie but if he was certain about one thing it was that he was curious about Taehyung's reaction to the sirens.

"You remember this one, right? The pirate movies we watched a few parts of? With the kind of crazy guy?" Taehyung nodded. Jungkook knew he actually liked Pirates of the Caribbean. Or at least it was amusing enough to him to get some smiles out of him. Or at least the last three parts had. Now the question was how he was going to like this one. But for some reason Jungkook had the light hunch that Taehyung was going to like it.

Jungkook had used up all of Taehyung's patience showing him all the other mermaid movies but this time, they were actually going to be... similar to Taehyung. Jungkook had a vague memory of the mermaids seducing the sailors just before pulling them into the water. And people had been terrified of them. Taehyung had to like this depiction. Especially since his expectations had been lowered by all the movies Jungkook had shown him before.

When the movie started Jungkook went into it basically blind. The first scene showed a court hearing. A clearly one-sided one given that everyone present was cheering for the prisoner to get hanged. Jungkook could feel Taehyung leaning over to him to whisper in his ear. Jungkook had cued him in on the rule not to talk loudly in the cinema beforehand.

"That's the most self-aware human thing I have seen in any of the movies you showed me."

Jungkook rolled his eyes, poking Taehyung's shoulder. "Shush. We're not just that."

Taehyung grinned cheekily before focusing back on the movie. To Jungkook's relief, he actually seemed invested in the plot though, watching attentively as events unfolded and wild chases happened on screen. It was only when mermaids were mentioned that he spoke up again. It was quite some time into the movie and the crew had just been notified they were heading to Whitecap Bay, a mermaid infested area, which caused quite the stir among the people. They were terrified of going there. One guy even jumped over the railing into the ocean, not caring for the fact that they were in the middle of nowhere. Seemingly better in the middle of the ocean than near mermaids.

"I think I like this movie better than the other ones you showed me." Of course he did. Jungkook could still remember the absolute level of horror and disgust Taehyung had shown when they had been watching Ariel.

When they reached the part when the mermaids showed up first Jungkook could barely contain his excitement. He really had been looking forward to seeing Taehyung's reaction. He watched as the sailors got into their boats, one of them telling horrifying tales about what the mermaids were going to do to them. But of course, the second one of them actually showed up all that seemed to vanish from their minds.

The mermaid was beautiful. Not nearly as enticing as Taehyung, but beautiful. They had captured the inhuman feeling well. Taehyung didn't look too annoyed either. Instead, he watched curiously as she talked to the sailors before singing her song. Jungkook absolutely loved this scene. As scary as it was to experience in real life, the movie had actually managed to capture the hypnotic feeling.

When she tried to pull the guy under and the spell was broken, Jungkook looked over at Taehyung again. On the screen, a fight between a lot of mermaids and humans was transpiring. Actually more of a massacre of the humans by the mermaids, but that didn't really matter.

Taehyung was watching with focused eyes, clearly captivated by the movie.

"Do sirens actually hunt like this? In groups? Like, that's a scary amount of sirens. I think one is too much already." Jungkook joked softly.

Taehyung leaned over a little, his eyes still trained on the screen, seemingly not wanting to miss what was happening.

"They used to. I think I've told you before, but neither Jimin nor I ever met any other sirens, since there aren't many left... if any at all. Our parents did see times like this... but we never did."

On-screen a lot of things were happening all at once but Jungkook could barely focus on it, too distracted by what Taehyung had just said. He wondered whether there could still be some sirens anywhere in the world or if Jimin and Taehyung actually were the last. What a lonely fate that was.

He reached out to slip his fingers into Taehyung's hands. For a second Taehyung looked a little surprised, but then he wrapped his fingers around Jungkook's hand too, smiling for a second before going back on focusing on the movie. He sure seemed to be enjoying this.

Jungkook had never expected Taehyung to be into the romance part of the mermaid plotline. After all, he didn't exactly like humans all that much. But to Jungkook's surprise, he seemed genuinely invested in the fate of the religious guy and the captured mermaid. During the scene of them trying to gather a tear and failing but in the process slitting the man's throat, Jungkook could sense Taehyung tense right next to him.

When just minutes after the guy came back on screen, still alive, Jungkook was absolutely certain Taehyung let out a sigh of relief. It was funny, really. How much Taehyung had changed over the time they had known each other. The first few movies Jungkook had shared with Taehyung, the siren really did have had a hard time connecting to any of the characters. But now, looking back on it, Jungkook realized that Taehyung had to some extent slowly progressed into actually being invested in some movies. Not too many, but there had been a few with a character Taehyung seemed to have been rooting for.

When they left the movie theater it was already dark outside. A day sure passed by quickly when you slept through half of it. In his peripheral vision, he could see Taehyung curiously mustering the other people leaving the cinema.

"So how did you like the movie overall?" Jungkook asked, pulling his phone out of his pocket. If he remembered right there was an arcade right around the corner somewhere.

"It was..." Taehyung hesitated, seemingly searching for the right word. "...cute?"

Jungkook couldn't stop himself from snorting a little. "Damn, we're watching Pirates of the Caribbean and all you have to say is it's cute." He grinned when Taehyung sent him a glare. "But yeah, I get it. The whole mermaid plotline is kind of nice to watch... certainly seems a lot more romantic than the way I fished myself a mermaid."

"That's because I'm not a mermaid." Taehyung shoved Jungkook's shoulder a little and Jungkook couldn't help but acknowledge just how much better Taehyung had gotten at reducing his strength to exactly Jungkook's level. He wondered how consciously all of that had happened.

A/N

Hey! Sorry for disappearing on you all like this but I have just been sorting out my own mental health these last couple of months and I haven't rlly been able to get into the headspace of writing as well as usually.

Now this is no reason to worry because I know myself and longtime readers of mine probably also know to well that sometimes this happens but I tend to get out of it just fine and I do finish my stories. Especially this story skfhsahf I'm honestly rlly hyped for the content of the next chapters and trust me it won't get boring! (That also doesn't mean it will get super angsty though! I can already hear you guys worrying skfhsah)

Anyways I want to try writing more again soon, but for now I can't promise anything aside from the fact that I am absolutely certain that I will finish this story. The question is just how soon.

Also I've been getting better at drawing and I'm highkey hyped to draw some more for this story>.<

I think this one I have not yet shared with you guys🥺💜

Also some others that are not predator taekook but I'm lowkey proud of akdhsjd

Yeah anyways see you guys hopefully soon🥺💜