Ocean's Descent ||| Woosan (Ateez)

43

If there was one thing Wooyoung learned quickly, it was that Seonghwa was easily the worst person or creature he had ever encountered.

When he was finally given a chance to look around his new prison, he was mortified to see several smaller tanks containing other merfolk. He pounded on the glass in front of him and called out, but none of them reacted.

He recognized each of them... They had been part of the convoy picked to invite other pods to Mingi's coronation. Wooyoung had always assumed they had all died either by the strange human machine or by the sharks that came after.

The thought of them being trapped here this entire time made him sick... along with the fear of what had happened to them. Each one was thin and their scales were faded.

But why keep them here? What did this man want with them?

Wooyoung couldn't even begin to imagine the answer, but anything he thought of terrified him.

He didn't have to wait long before the 'show' began.

His captor came back and stood directly in front of where Wooyoung had chosen to sit in the coarse sand he was provided.

"You don't know how pleased I am to see you again, little merman." The man sneered and crossed his arms. "I'm sure you thought you had escaped and could go back home."

Wooyoung shrank into himself, pressing his back against the glass. He hated that there was no where for him to hide. He was stuck, on full display, in a place where he could barely move around.

"Not going to speak to me? I know you can, Hongjoong told me everything."

As if the name alone could summon him, Mr. Kim walked into the room staring down at some papers he held in his hands. "Sir, it's here."

"Excellent. Let's get started then." The man never took his eyes off Wooyoung as he spoke. "You are by far the best specimen I have found. I know you are the key."

Then he turned to Hongjoong and grabbed his jaw, tilting his head back to force him to make eye contact. "Are you ready, Precious? We are about to reach our ultimate goal."

"Yes, Sir."

"I think given what we have accomplished together, you can call me Seonghwa now, no?" The man's voice was silky smooth yet full of venom, just like some of the sea snakes that liked to hide in the coral around Aquatis.

"Yes, Si- S-Seonghwa." Hongjoong kept his eye contact, but Wooyoung didn't miss the way his throat bobbed, or how his hand shook at his side.

This Seonghwa terrified him.

So why was Hongjoong helping him?

Wooyoung's tail swished back and forth a couple of times as he tried to get comfortable. He would give anything to call on his magic to blast himself and his kin out of here, but unfortunately Seonghwa was doing a great job at keeping his magic intake just above minimum.

All he needed now was time. It would take so much longer for him to recharge like this, stuck in a tank with no access to natural magic, but he would get there.

That is, as long as he didn't have to go through what the aquarium had done to him.

His eyes fell to his tail. His beautiful, shining, purple and red tail. Was it going to be destroyed again?

He bent it and pulled part of it to his chest as if that would hide it from the evil, prying eyes of the man in front of him.

Who was now kissing Hongjoong in a way that looked like it hurt.