It was just past midday. Jaemin hadn't left his chambers since he was dismissed from dinner the night before, Dongmin had wondered off after lunch and Jeno was at the training grounds with his fellow soldiers, leaving Mark alone with Haechan in the South garden. Mark missed going to the training grounds with Jaemin and Dongmin. In fact, he missed the human kingdom all together, the rugged coastline and the quiet streets to the vast fields and even Wendy and her beautiful fiddle that could put Jaemin and him to sleep. He was home-sick to say the least.
"Mark, look!" Haechan gasped, pointing to the gazebo they went to during their first meeting with Chenle and Jisung. "Come on let's go over there!" Haechan grabbed Mark's hand and ran over the bridge to the gazebo.
Mark had only ever had the pleasure of seeing the South garden during the early morning. In the afternoon it presented itself in almost a completely different way. The trees were practically glowing from the light passing through them, shedding puddles of gold beneath and the gazebo lit up in a bewildering rainbow of awe, the colourful glass eliminating the inside of it, the golden embroidery of the cushions coming to life.
"A palace." Haechan smiled, sitting himself down on one of the cushions. Mark chuckled a little under his breath. It almost looked like a palace though. "Our palace."
Mark choked at the words. He looked at Haechan but the boy seemed unbothered with his affectionate claim. "Our palace?" Mark questioned sitting opposite of the younger.
"Jaemin and Jeno get their own palace, so should we." Haechan told him stoically.
"Yeah, but..." Mark scratched his neck. "Jaemin is royalty and Jeno's his mate."
"That's just a complicated way of putting it. It's just the fact that lovers deserve a home of dwelling where their seed of fond can germinate into a rose of love."
Mark was shocked. He didn't know Haechan even knew about love, let alone describe it in such a way. He didn't even know what walking was before Mark showed him.
"H-How..." Mark stuttered.
Haechan smiled softly, "Just because I don't know the things of the surface, doesn't mean I don't know anything."
"And love is a thing fish experience?" Mark quirked an amused brow.
"Everything experiences love or at least witnesses it." Haechan answered, "I've never really experienced it myself but I've seen it. When I was a child and Minnie would come to the pond, I'd see it when his father came over and cared for him. I saw it when he cried and called for him when he was taken."
"Oh," Mark mumbled, looking down at his hands.
"It's amazing how an emotion of such joy as love can break one when it is taken away. Hurt someone more than any weapon ever could." Haechan thought aloud. He watched as Mark nodded. "You've had love taken away from you?"
"Yeah." Mark coughed shallowly as he looked away from the other, avoiding eye contact. "My brother."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be, it's not your fault." Mark assured, turning to face him with a warm smile. Haechan lips mirrored his smile but his eyes pooled with a worry that was like a crystal ball to Mark, a truth serum to pour all of his secrets to.
"Let's go to the flower bed over there." Haechan suggested, changing the heavy subject.
"Yeah, let's do that." Mark agreed, standing up and extending a hand to Haechan. The younger beamed before taking it.
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Found | Nomin
FanfictionJaemin spent his whole life believing he was something he wasn't. Raised to fear the place he came from without knowing it. But what happens when Jaemin is taken back to where he was found? What happens when the lies he was told fall beneath him a...
