"So let me get this straight," Jinwoo, who was sitting on the sandy shore, pinched the bridge of his nose. "Gerard, you have been meeting up with this human," He pointed at Hyunjin. "For almost an entire year now?"
"Yep,"
"And recently you saved him from a shipwreck, potentially exposing yourself to even more humans?"
"Yep,"
"And you made a deal with the witch Sangmu Shin to give you legs with the catch being that if you don't get true love's kiss within three days you'd become his slave? You didn't even have any hope that you'd get true love's kiss in that time frame?"
"Yep,"
"But you did get true love's kiss in less than an hour of receiving your legs and now you're engaged to this human?"
"Yep,"
"YOU IDIOT!" Jinwoo slapped the top of Gerard's head. "Do you know how much danger you put yourself in!?"
"Everything turned out fine though," Gerard said. "How's Rookie doing?"
"Rookie's over there," He pointed to the seal who was rolling around in the sand and letting Sangman pet him. "Isn't he cute?"
"Aww," Gerard cooed.
"Hey! Don't change the subject!" Jinwoo yelled. "Things could have gone seriously wrong!"
"But everything turned out fine," Gerard told him. "So there's nothing to worry about, Jinwoo,"
Jinwoo turned to face Hyunjin. "Did you seriously fall in love with my idiot of a brother?"
"Yes," Hyunjin nodded.
Gerard suddenly let out a cry of pain when he felt a set of teeth clamp down onto his leg. "Rookie stop! Don't bite me! These are brand new legs! I don't taste good!" He tried to shake the seal pup off but Rookie still clung to him. "Rookie! Do you have some kind of craving for human flesh or something!?"
"Rookie, let him go," Jinwoo gently pulled the seal off. "Human meat isn't good for you,"
"Arr..." Rookie pouted.
"Gerard, you really do love this human, don't you?" Jinwoo sighed.
"Yes, and his name isn't 'this human.' It's Hyunjin," Gerard told him.
"Give me some time to process this and then we'll set up a wedding date," Jinwoo said. "I'm sure that you'll want your friends to attend too,"
XXX
"That piece of shit Gerard Jin made a fool out of me!" Shin told Jeongmu and Sangwook. "I'm going to send you guys to the surface to kidnap him,"
"But...we don't have legs?" Jeongmu asked.
"I'm going to give you legs, you nitwit!" Shin rolled his eyes. "Obviously mermen would attract too much attention and you'd be utterly useless on land with tails. So go and kidnap Gerard Jin so I can make him my slave!"
XXX
Hyunjin was showing Gerard around the garden. Gerard stared in awe at the assortment of plants that he had never seen before. "We have similar plants in Do-Eui," Gerard said. "I could ask my friends to bring some up here,"
"Would they be able to survive out of the ocean?" Hyunjin inquired.
"They can survive in a container of water, like your swimming pool," Gerard informed. "Why do you humans have a swimming pool when the ocean is nearby? The ocean's much larger so there's more room to swim,"
"Because we can't control the tides and if the waves are too rough, we can get swept away," Hyunjin explained. "Also, as sad as it is to say, humans are kinda responsible for all the trash in the sea,"
"Yeah, I kinda figured," Gerard said. "Rookie was found tangled in an old fishing net as a very young seal pup. I also surprisingly found a lot of jewelry when I went scavenging, but they were probably from sunken ships,"
"You wanna try swimming in the pool?" Hyunjin offered. "I can teach you how to swim with your legs,"
"How hard can it be?" Gerard agreed. "I mean, I've been swimming ever since I was born so I'm sure with all of my experience, it can't be that hard,"
It was extremely hard. Gerard nearly drowned...multiple times.
"You need to hold your breath when your face goes underwater," Hyunjin told him. "Humans can't breathe underwater like merfolk,"
"My chest burns when I hold my breath for a long time," Gerard pouted.
"That's why most humans swim at the surface rather than diving underwater," Hyunjin said. "We can't hold our breaths for a long period of time,"
"That sucks," Gerard sulked. "I wanted to show you my kingdom,"
"Do any of your friends practice magic?" Hyunjin inquired.
"Gray does," Gerard answered. "Maybe he can cast a spell so you can breathe underwater? I'm not sure if he knows those spells but he is studying sorcery,"
Hyunjin's ears perked up when he heard footsteps. "Who's there!?" He got out of the pool and called towards the direction of where he had heard the footsteps. "Show yourselves!"
"Gerard Jin," Jeongmu and Sangwook came into view. "You're coming with us,"
"Friends of yours?" Hyunjin raised a brow at his fiancé.
"Nope," Gerard stood up beside Hyunjin. "They're the witch's minions,"
"So the witch is so pathetic that he has someone do his dirty work?" Hyunjin scoffed. "That's lame,"
"I'm not going with you," Gerard told Jeongmu and Sangwook. "Shin and I had a deal and I won fair and square,"
"We weren't giving you a choice," Sangwook cracked his knuckles.
"I guess these guys are the Flotsam and Jetsam of your Little Mermaid adventure," Hyunjin mumbled.
Jeongmu and Sangwook charged at Gerard but Gerard was much stronger and easily overpowered them without much effort.
"What should we do with them?" Hyunjin asked. "Will they survive in human prison? Or will they use magic to escape? I mean, I'm fine with just outright executing them if necessary,"
"These two have zero magic capabilities," Gerard told him. "Just throw them into prison. I highly doubt Shin even cares about them,"
"So Shin's eviler than Ursula," Hyunjin noted as he called some guards over. "Ursula actually cared about Flotsam and Jetsam. She was devastated by their deaths,"
Do you think Rookie is a normal seal?