It's been 3 weeks since Jungkook lent Y/N a brand new underwater camera to use to take pictures and videos for his video edit and in exchange, he wouldn't take pictures of her anymore and delete the picture of her on his phone. He kept up at least half of his end of the deal, but the one thing he just couldn't do is delete the picture of her on his phone. His phone was password protected, so he figured that even if someone got in possession of his phone they still wouldn't be able to unlock and see the picture.
Over the past 3 weeks, they had gotten closer and Jungkook had managed to earn Y/N's trust. Y/N still hadn't opened up about herself though. He hoped that with more time, she would eventually open up to him.
His hyungs did, however, begin to grow suspicious of him. Over the past 3 weeks, he went to the beach almost everyday. They wondered just how much footage he was trying to get. Still, he did his best not to make them any more suspicious by telling them that he wanted to get the best footage for his video edit.
He had received so much footage though that it was just piling up in a folder waiting to be seen or used. Y/N had taken more footage than he expected her too. The problem was that, all the footage that she took were amazing quality, every single one, so it was hard for him to choose. Still, the less his hyungs knew about how much footage he had, the less they would be suspicious of his constant visits to the beach.
"Aish, you brat! Why can't I remove it?!" He asked in an annoyed tone to his computer as he tried to remove a clip from his editing system. He clicked on his mouse several times trying to remove the clip, but it wasn't removing. He let out a groan of frustration as he slammed down on his keyboard. In doing that, the clip was removed. "Oh-, it's gone... I hope I didn't break the keyboard..."
He checked his keyboard to make sure that it wasn't broken and sighed in relief to see that it was perfectly fine. He then saved what he had so far and closed it, he would leave the editing for tomorrow or another day since right now he was too annoyed to focus. He let out a loud yawn as he closed the folder that contained all of the footage and leaned back in his chair. Just as he did, the door to his studio opened, revealing Seokjin with a plate of food.
"Knock knock," Seokjin said as he pushed open the door and walked into the younger one's studio. At the sound of his hyung's voice, Jungkook swirled around his rolling, swivel chair to face his hyung.
"Hey hyung," he greeted his hyung with a tired expression. His hyung approached him slowly and handed him the plate of food. "Oh, thanks hyung."
"No problem. How's the video edit going?" Seokjin asked curiously as he sat down in the seat next to the younger one. The younger one shrugged and let out an exasperated sigh. "What's wrong? Come on, tell hyung what's wrong."
"I... well, I just need more footage. I need more underwater footage. Like, most of the footage is above the water, but what I want is underwater footage," Jungkook lied as he bit his lip nervously, hoping his hyung would buy his lie. The truth is, he had plenty of underwater footage, he just didn't know which footage to pick. His hyung listened carefully, not interrupting and when he was done explaining, his hyung patted his shoulder gently.
"Have you used that underwater camera that you bought?" He asked the younger one curiously. The younger one tensed up a bit at that, but then gave a small nod. "Have you gone in the water to take some footage?" The younger one shook his head at that, but then thought of something making Seokjin give him a knowing look. "Next time we go down to the beach, take a snorkel and some fins and then go explore for a bit."
"Ok, can we go now?" Jungkook asked with pleading eyes.
"Right now? You're looking tired though. You sure you have the energy to go?" His hyung asked with a raised eyebrow of both surprise. Jungkook nodded vigorously in response. His hyung gave a wary look, but soon shrugged seeing that Jungkook wasn't going to change his mind. "Very well, I'll go let the others know that you and I are going down to the beach."
"W-Well! The others can come too though if they want to," Jungkook stuttered a bit in panic, earning a suspicious look from his hyung. Jungkook gave a big smile in response to hide any further suspicions of his nervousness. In truth, he needed the others to come along as well, so that he could slip away from them and visit Y/N. If it was just him and his hyung who went then he wouldn't be able to slip away.
"Sure, go get ready to go," his hyung instructed as he stood up and walked out of the younger one's studio. Jungkook nodded as he shut his computer off and walked out of his studio, closing and locking it. He walked to his room and got his things ready. He put on his swim trunks and sandals. He placed his camera and underwater camera into his bag along with his phone and a towel. He went to the kitchen and placed in a few bags of snacks into his bag before heading to the front once he was done. Only Seokjin and Taehyung were there waiting for him.
"Where are the others?" He asked them, who shrugged.
"Yoongi was napping, Namjoon was reading, Jimin and Hoseok were doing lives," Taehyung answered blankly. Jungkook nodded in understanding. He bit his lip nervously. It was just going to be him, Taehyung, and Seokjin. That wasn't enough for him to be able to slip away. Those two would notice too soon if he tried to disappear for a while. He sighed heavily.
"Why are you sighing? At least Taehyung and I are agreeing to come along with you," Seokjin stated as he nudged the younger one's arm, "Honestly, even we didn't really want to go since we've been going so often." Jungkook then took this chance to ask something that he already knew the answer to.
"Well, you two don't have to come if you don't want to. I'm not forcing you to come with me. You can stay here if you want to," he suggested with a small smile, but his two hyungs shook their heads at that. He sighed a bit at that. "Why?"
"You know why Jungkook. We're idols. We can't just go out in public alone or else we'll get swarmed by fans and saesangs," Seokjin voiced with an obvious look. Jungkook scratched the back of his head in annoyance. "You at least need guards with you." Jungkook's eyes widened at that before he nodded, trying his best to not grin at his sudden plan.
"Yeah, I'll bring guards with me. I'm not going to go out there ALL alone. That would be dumb hyung," he answered as he rolled his eyes playfully. Seokjin responded back with a sigh and a shake of his head, "Come on hyungs. You don't always have to come with me if you don't want to." Seokjin and Taehyung glanced at each other for a brief moment, thinking about it, before looking back at the younger one.
"Well, I guess if you have bodyguards going with you then you should be fine," Seokjin muttered with an unsure look. Jungkook tried his best to hide his victorious grin as he nodded back.
"Sigh, good because I wanted to play games anyways," Taehyung voiced as he went off towards the living room, leaving the youngest one and the eldest one standing there.
"Just be safe Jk," Seokjin said as he placed his hand on the younger one's shoulder. Jungkook nodded in response as he headed to the door. "Oh, by the way, the snorkeling gear are by the door."
"Ok, thanks hyung. See you later," he answered as he waved to his hyung. He approached the door and noticed the snorkeling gear. He smiled as he grabbed it and held it in one hand before leaving the dorms.
He walked down the hallway and glanced around the corner where a group of bodyguards stood chatting. He had no intention of having a bunch of bodyguards with him. If he brought them along then he wouldn't be able to see Y/N as the bodyguards would end up seeing her too, so he snuck past them as quietly as he could and headed down to the beach. He put on a disguise as shuffled down the shore to the place where he would often meet Y/N. He peered over the large rock and looked around for Y/N, but she wasn't anywhere to be seen.
He sighed at that and sat down on the sand to wait for her. He set his bag to the side and pulled out a bag of chips. He looked out in the distance to see if he could spot her coming towards him, but he couldn't. So, he let himself just relax and listen to the sound of the waves crashing onto the shore. The waves were rather big today and noisy as they made a thundering sound when they crashed down.
It felt nice just sitting here alone and enjoying the beach. As much as he loved his hyungs and his fans, it was days like these where it felt nice to not be surrounded by others. Besides the stage, this place had become one of his happy places, even a special place.
He dazed off, not even realizing that he had finished his chips or that Y/N had finally arrived.
"Jungkook. Jungkook? Jungkook! Naked!" Y/N yelled, trying to get Jungkook's attention and waving her hand in front of his dazed expression. When Y/N had called out 'Naked', Jungkook snapped out of his trance and looked at her.
"Don't call me Naked," he grumbled as he sent her a playful glare.
"Sorry, but I called your name several times and you didn't answer, so I thought calling you Naked again would get you to notice," she explained shortly with a shrug as she sat in front of him, "Sorry about coming so late. I was looking through a shipwreck."
"Really?!" Jungkook gasped as his eyes went wide in shock. Y/N nodded in response, earning an interested look from Jungkook. "What was it like? Did you find anything?"
"Yep, you can look through my bag. All that's in there are what I found in the shipwreck," she voiced as she placed her bag on his lap before her eyes caught sight of the chip bag in his hands, "What's that?"
"Huh? Oh, you mean my chips?" He asked back as he pointed to his chip bag. She nodded back in response. "It's food. There's chips inside."
"Oh~, so that's what humans eat then?" She asked curiously, her eyes growing with wonder. Jungkook nodded as he took out another bag of chips and handed it to her. She examined the bag for a moment, carefully turning it every which way. "Wow, it has a weird texture this bag."
"Yeah, it's made out of plastic," Jungkook responded with a small smile as he placed his empty bag of chips into his bag before taking out his water bottle that contained banana milk inside. He watched Y/N carefully, who seemed to be struggling to open the chip bag. He chuckled in amusement to that. As he was about to take a sip of his banana milk, he noticed Y/N started to take a big bite out of the bag. "Wha-?! Whoa whoa whoa! Y/N don't eat the bag!"
"But I want to eat the chips," Y/N whined as she pouted when Jungkook took the chip bag away from her, but furrowed her eyebrows when he opened the chip bag and then smiled when he handed the bag back to her, "Ooh, why didn't it open when I tried?"
"I don't know. Sometimes these bags are hard to open, but besides that, don't eat bags or wrappers or anything that's made out of plastic. It's bad for your body and you could get seriously sick or even die," Jungkook explained curtly as took a sip of his banana milk while Y/N nodded in understanding. She took out a chip from the bag and placed it into her mouth. She ate it and her eyes went wide.
"Yummy, these taste so much more different compared to seaweed chips," Y/N announced as she started shoving lots of chips into her mouth.
"W-Well that's because they are made from potato. The chips come in different flavors too, like, cheese, sour cream and onion, and even salt and vinegar," he stated nervously as he watched her shove more chips into her mouth, "Y/N, maybe you should slow down there. You could choke if you have that much food in your mouth."
Y/N simply shook her head as she tilted the chips bag upwards and let the crumbs fall into her open, filled mouth. She munched on the chips in her mouth, making her cheeks puff out like chipmunks. Jungkook raised an eyebrow at that, but soon reached out and squished her cheeks playfully. Although, he regretted doing that as soon as he did it because when he did that, Y/N's mouth opened at the impact on her cheeks and pieces of chips came flying out and into his face.
"Mmph!" Y/N muffled protests when the pieces of chips came flying out. Jungkook groaned in annoyance as he wiped away the pieces of chips that were a mix of dry parts and parts that were covered in saliva from his face. He sent her an irritated look only to receive an apologetic one from her. "Sorry... but you shouldn't have squished my cheeks like that, especially when they were full with food."
"Sigh, fine, my fault," he mumbled as he scooched closer to the water. He filled both of his hands with sea water and poured it over his face to remove all the extra crumbs that remained before grabbing his towel and drying his face. "Ah, my face is all tingly now from the sea water."
"Really? Do all humans' faces get tingly when they put sea water on them?" Y/N asked curiously as she sat beside him and peered into his face. He shrugged in response to that. He didn't know if that happened to every human in the world, but he knew that it happened to him. "Mermaids don't get tingly with sea water. We've lived our whole lives in sea water, so I guess we get used to it or our skin is more adapted to the sea water."
"I would assume so, also... since you said mermaids with an s, are you saying that there's more mermaids out there?" He asked curiously as he raised an eyebrow. As soon as he asked that, Y/N's eyes widened at that and she pouted a bit.
"I shouldn't have said that," she uttered as she sighed heavily and looked away. Jungkook sighed heavily as well. Even after 3 weeks, it was surprising to him that she still wasn't willing to open up about herself, but he still hoped that with time she would tell him.
"Sorry, you don't have to answer that," he mentioned, trying not to hide his disappointment. She looked at him and even though he had been doing his best to hide his disappointment, she could still see the disappointment in his eyes. She wanted to tell him about herself, but she worried that the more he knew the more danger he would be in. She tried to ignore the upset feeling that started rising within her at seeing his disappointed expression.
"Anyway, what else did you bring in your bag?" She asked with wonder, trying to change the subject, as she tried to sneak a peek into his bag.
"Oh, I brought a drink called banana milk in my water bottle and I brought a bag of chocolate balls," he claimed as he took out his water bottle and showed her before taking out a bag of chocolate balls. She stared at both things with an intrigued look spread across her face. He stifled a laugh as he opened up the bag of chocolate balls and handed her a single chocolate ball. She brought it up to her mouth and ate it slowly. When the chocolate flavour reached her tastebuds, her eyes went wide in pure and utter shock.
"It's so sweet!" She exclaimed with a cheerful smile as she reached into the bag and grabbed a handful.
"Wha-?! Y/N! You can't take all of them! I want some too, you know!" He protested with round eyes as he tried to steal some back. Y/N glanced at him for a moment before peering into the bag.
"There's still some," she proclaimed with a neutral expression as she started shoving chocolate balls into her mouth.
"Yeah, 2 left. I want more than 2," he argued as he managed to snatch at least five more chocolate balls back and placed them back into the bag. Y/N pouted a bit at that, but then shrugged and shoved the last few chocolate balls left in her hand into her mouth. She ate them with delight and smiled in satisfaction. Jungkook noticed her reaction and chuckled. "I guess you really like them."
"I do~, there isn't many sweet things to eat in the sea. I've never had something that sweet before. It kind of made my teeth hurt, but the taste was so good," she mentioned with a happy smile as she flipped the end of her tail upwards, making water splash up into the air and fall back down to the surface.
"Is it ok for me to ask what you eat down there?" Jungkook asked curiously and worriedly. Y/N nodded in response making him smile in relief. "I mean, I know you said that you don't eat fish, but surely you eat more than just seaweed chips."
"Hm... I don't think there is as much variety of food to eat like you humans do, but there are some things to eat too," she said unsure as she began to think, "There's sea grapes and kelp. Oh! And there's also some coral that can be eaten too, but I don't like coral as much because it has a wonky taste. Plus, it's really hard to bite into. It's like biting into a rock." Jungkook giggled at that as he listened. "Other than that, not much else."
"All the things you listed are similar to vegetables, so you have a healthy diet," he stated with an impressed look. Y/N shrugged in response. "My diet is relatively healthy. I have to keep a healthy diet otherwise I'll put on weight and I won't have energy to be an idol. But once in a while, the hyungs and I are allowed stuff like ice cream, chips, and chocolate balls."
"Lucky, you get to eat those sweet balls," she whined as she sighed sadly.
"Yeah, we do, but not all the time," he corrected with a chuckle as he poked at her cheek to make her stop looking sad. She stuck her tongue out at him making him laugh. As his laughter faded, it began to grow silent with the pair just staring off into the distance.
"So how's the movie coming along?" She asked, trying to break the silence.
"It's a video edit Y/N and it's going alright, but you gave me so much content that I can't decide what I want to put," he told her with a small sigh, "Honestly, every video clip and picture that you took were beautiful. I really want to use all of it, but the video would end up being a movie if I did. I have to choose the right clips and pictures to add. It's taking me longer to edit because of that, but I've been telling my hyungs that the reason it's taking so long is because I haven't been able to get any underwater stuff when really that's a lie."
"Why did you lie to them though?" She asked in confusion as she tilted her head. He glanced at her and sighed a bit before staring her directly in the eyes.
"Because if I told them the truth then I would have less of a reason to come down to the beach. I'd have to sneak out more to come and see you," he murmured, his eyes not leaving hers, "As long as they think that I still have more footage to collect, I'm able to come to the beach and visit you more often. Plus, I love seeing you and hanging out with you."
Y/N's eyes widened at his words. Her heart seemed to stop for a brief moment as she stared at his handsome face, that looked so sincere and warm. She couldn't utter a word or even manage to utter a word as she let his words sink into her mind and heart. She had been in a similar situation once before. It didn't end well. She didn't know if she was ready to go through it again, but just hearing him say these words brought a certain joy and peace to her that she could feel her walls slowly breaking down.
"Jungkook... you... you can't have those types of feelings for me," she mumbled with a small sigh. He looked at her weirdly for a moment before his eyes widened.
"Oh! No, I meant, as a friend. I like seeing you and hanging out with you as a friend," he corrected himself with an awkward chuckle. Y/N sighed in relief at that, but even though she should be relieved at that she felt a sudden pain in her chest.
"Ok, good," she murmured gently as she forced a smile before looking out into the distance, "I'll um... I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Hm? Yeah! Wait... no... wait! Maybe... I don't know. I'm not exactly sure. It's a maybe though," he answered with an uncertain look. She nodded back as grabbed her bag and turned around. "Are you leaving already?"
"Yeah, I need to.. go do something," she uttered as she sent him a weak smile before turning around again, "See you soon Jungkook..."
With that, she dived down into the water before he could answer her. Jungkook stood there looking slightly puzzled. He had noticed her gloominess for a bit and he worried if he had once again said something that had upset her. He sighed and shrugged his shoulders as he grabbed his things and made his way back to the dorms.
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Hey everyone!
So, here is another chapter! I hope you all liked it!
Anyways, please vote and comment if you liked this.
Stay tuned for the next chapter coming out soon! :)