"Why didn't you just pick the one I wanted?" I grumbled at the picky man in front of me.
We were back on the sherriage and we were heading back to the castle. My arms were crossed and I glared at Prince Seokjin.
He calmly looked at me with a stoic expression and sarcastically smiled.
"It was fun to make you mad. Honestly, a bit of angst doesn't hurt you. Hence why I don't see why I can't give back the emotions you awaken in me. Besides, all your choices were a shame to my name. We'll try again tomorrow." And with that, he looked away with a smirk plastered on his devilish face.
[ later ]
"All your choices were a shame to my name." I mimic.
Scoffing, I take a turn and see a familiar merman standing right by a door.
"Hoseok?"
The merman turned around as if he was a fish caught in nets. But he relaxed upon seeing me, I guess, since his shoulders calmly went back to their original position.
"Hey Y/n! We haven't been seeing each other as much, I was starting to think you were avoiding me." He joked, swimming closer to me.
"Ouch, I'm not that kind of mermaid." I played along, swimming closer to him as well.
"Anyway, what were you doing?" I asked, peeking over his shoulder to take a good look at the door behind us.
Hoseok turned to look at it as well, before he held me by my shoulders and quickly dragged me away.
"Nothing, just some random servant room I found. Anyway, I have something better to show you!" Hoseok rambled excitedly.
"What- where are we going?" I asked breathlessly as I'm being dragged by one fast of a merman.
Eventually, Hoseok stopped dragging me across large halls and stopped at two large doors. Seriously, what's with this castle and really large doors? Do giant fish live in here or something?
"Have..have you ever..c-considered...joining the..the- swimming ol-AGGHHHH olympics?" I huffed, completely winded.
"Gosh, calm down Y/n, I wasn't that fast. Why are you so breathless?" He laughed, opening the double doors with his arms successfully.
This time, this room that was hidden behind the double doors were larger than any other room I've seen in this castle. A huge chandelier hung on the high ceiling as if it was trying to get the furthest away from the marbled floor as possible. There was a huge balcony overlooking the spacious room, and a detailed chair was placed in the middle, I'd assume it was a mini throne.
The balcony made me question what this room is, as I see more carved details in the walls and the columns, a few smaller balconies were placed randomly yet neatly around the walls of the room.
"A ballroom?" I realised.
Hoseok's grin widened the moment I figured out what this part of the castle is. He nodded to confirm my suspicions.
"Awesome right? It's absolutely large! According to some of the guard's unnecessary gossip, this place takes up at least a quarter of the castle! Actually, maybe a little less, if we were logical, but that's huge!" Hoseok gushed, pulling me towards the centre.
"What are you doing?" I slightly chuckle as I feel his arms guide mine to wrap around his neck, while his slide down my sides and plant themselves on my waist.
"Dancing. We used to do a lot of these back up in the surface." Hoseok smiled.
His hips started to move as he led mine to do the same. We swayed in the middle of the ballroom and he took a step forward, making me swish my tail backwards to not get tangled in his tail.
"Right. Sorry, I forgot we had tails."
At his comment, we both laughed.
"In the surface, there would be a party that the royals would host, either that was a coronation party or a random town get-together. I found myself to enjoy those parties, since I found amusement in dancing. I could say, you're quite the fast learner, Y/n." He winked at me and swam back, dragging me with him as we continued to twist and turn elegantly in the ballroom.
"That sounds like a lot of fun." I admit.
Suddenly, a loud clap resonated off the walls and we quickly parted before looking at the source of the noise.
"I see you're teaching Y/n your human ballroom dance." Jimin pointed out.
"Oh come on Jimin, it's no different from the merpeople's ballroom dance." Hoseok insisted.
Jimin rolled his eyes playfully and swam towards us.
"Gosh, did the ballroom have to be bigger than the sea itself?" He huffed, finally making it towards us as he bent over to catch his breath.
"I mean- it is a quarter of the castle." Hoseok reminded.
"What?!" Jimin yelled, jolting his head up to look at Hoseok in shock.
"I know!" I giggled.
"Whatever, do you mind if I steal Y/n right now?" Jimin asked, hands already hooked at my wrist.
Hoseok playfully frowned.
"Man, I thought you wouldn't ask." He whined.
"Sure sure, go!" Hoseok laughed, pushing us towards the doors.
Jimin groaned at the realisation of having to swim back all those distances just to get to the door.
[ later ]
"So, why did you want to steal me from Hoseok?" I asked as we walked down the halls.
"Because I was jealous." Jimin bluntly replied, taking a peek over his shoulder to wink at me.
My eyebrows met and a grin widened on my lips.
"Gosh, when did you get so straightforward." I laughed.
Jimin smiled and shrugged as he continued to drag me around the castle.
"Oh wait, I wanted to show you something." Jimin stated, taking a sharp turn and entering a dark room.
This room seemed to be reasonably smaller than the others that I've been in, and it only perked my interest even more.
Jimin snapped his fingers and a glowing ball of light appeared above his fingertips, providing light for our poor sight.
He let go of my wrist and lead me with the only source of vision in the room.
"Remember the book that you borrowed from Namjoon around 2-3 days ago? It really sparked my interests. The only two kingdoms left was this one and another that wasn't exactly mentioned when I briefly looked through the book. But I did see the date of when the book was written." Jimin turned around and looked me in the eyes.
"I know. I was looking over it, and I saw the date, it was only a decade ago." I stated, eyes expanding as he knew something everyone else , but us, didn't know.
A small grin tugged at his lips as his eyes expanded as well, a soft chuckle left his lips and he excitedly dragged me towards a stand.
I was ultimately confused as to what it was, but soon realised it was what you'd use to put a book on, if you're standing.
We circled the wooden object and analysed it, but confusion started to get to me, so I looked back up to question Jimin.
"What significance does this book stand even have towards the war?"
Jimin looked at me and his eyes pointed towards the subtle carvings in the book stand. I looked at him, unsure, before snapping my fingers to create a glowing ball of my own, bringing it closer to the carvings.
My fingers slowly and carefully made their way to caress the indents.
"I was looking at the book before Namjoon and Hoseok joined in. I noticed there was some sort of...dictionary, that explains what specific symbols are. I found out that these", he pointed to the markings "are letters."
I looked at him in realisation and he nodded his head, understanding the message behind my facial expression.
"What do you think this means?" I asked, takings few steps forward.
Jimin leaned in and analysed the markings. His eyes widened when he managed to recognise a word.
"I'm not extremely sure if I'm correct, because I only memorised the symbols briefly, but if I'm correct, this word is: secret." He stated.
My eyebrows were starting to hurt from expressing my confusion, I was going to voice it out, but a stern voice of a royal guard making it's way into the room had scared us and caused Jimin to pull me into one of the small empty spaces in the wall in an attempt to hide us.
"Who goes there?" The guard questioned loudly.
His strong and clear swishes were starting to get louder and louder, which only resulted to Jimin and I to squeeze into the wall further and further, even if there was no more space.
Jimin's hands were placed on the walls, one of his arms were right in front of me, trapping me in the corner, and the other was by my side, attached to the wall as well.
Our chests were rising up and down, the glowing balls of light that we had created, instantly dissipated. His front was facing me as he trapped me in the corner.
Our eyes locked and only adrenaline was pumping through our veins. We had to get ready to be caught.
The guard stopped in front of the space we were huddled in, and swung his torch around to find anyone. Jimin's back is facing the guard, but I was shocked to see that he couldn't see us, even if the light was shone directly at us. The guard continued to swim deeper into the dark room.
Jimin slightly pulled away and I immediately lit up a tiny fleck of light to figure out how the guard had not seen us, only to see the dark scales that covered Jimin's body begin to back away, turning back into soft, supple skin.
I gasped quietly at the sight.
"Your skin can do that? What are you? A colour changing fish?" I whispered.
Jimin looked at his hands, turning them back and front.
"I..I never knew I could do that. Hell, I didn't even know I could grow more scales to cover my body and camouflage me!" He whispered back.
My hand reached out for the still fading scales that are yet to retreat on Jimin's neck. The texture rubbed against my fingertips and eventually turned smooth, indicating that his skin is back to normal.
I looked at him in shock. But I couldn't come up with a comment because I heard a grunt come from the guard who was still searching for us.
"Let's get out of here." I suggested, gripping his wrist and swam furiously to wherever I thought was the exit. The only bit of light being the tiny fleck I still haven't put out.
"There!" Jimin pointed out in a whisper.
We turned and exited the room through the small crack of light and made it back into the familiar halls of the castle.
Our breathing was heavy and I looked back to check on Jimin.
"We should go to the library." I suggest.
He agreed to it and we were both off to our next destination, far, far away from the dark room we were just in. And when I turned to look at the room we left, I realised that it was the same room where I spotted Hoseok standing in front of earlier.
________________________________
I kind of winged this part to add more events into my story and I'm doing one hell of a great job!
Which member would you want Y/n to be around next??