The Most Beautiful (Suho/Xiumin)
Title: The Most Beautiful
Rating: PG
Word Count: 4202
Summary: Mermen are known to be very expensive pets and only very rich people have them. aka a fish-hybrid!AU
Warning: no beta lol also I was upset when I wrote this so it's probably incoherent and stuff yep~
Notes: Filled for this prompt
Joonmyeon always had an affinity with water. As a baby, whenever it came time for his bath, the child was always more than overjoyed. Joonmyeon’s parents found out later that he was a natural swimmer once the child grew old enough to bathe in a tub. What they also found out as Joonmyeon grew older was that he did not seem to get along with the other children at the pre-nursery school. Worried about his social development, they consulted the family therapist. The therapist saw nothing wrong with Joonmyeon, but to comfort the parents, he suggested a pet for the boy.
And so for Joonmyeon’s fifth birthday, he received a merboy.
For hundreds of years, merpeople have existed peacefully along with humans. However at the turn of the previous century, the waters that merpeople inhabited became polluted and toxic. In order to save them, humans and merpeople came to a pact. Humans would provide spaces for the merpeople to survive outside of their oceans and lakes and in turn, they wanted companionship. While humans lashed out at each other, they also secluded themselves. Merpeople were known to be as serene as the oceans they used to inhabit and so companionship it was.
The first cities with water tubings were put up. Houses were outfitted with tanks that lined every wall, if of course you could afford it. The richest families in Hanyang were among the first to renovate their mansions for the allowance of merpeople. As time went by, the ability to house merpeople became a status symbol. Merpeople were expensive companionship and as another century rolled by, merpeople were known to be expensive pets.
Not that five year old Joonmyeon knew about any of this yet.
On the morning of his fifth birthday, Joonmyeon’s mother woke him up with a smile. Joonmyeon knew it was going to be a good day.
“Mama, it’s my birthday!”
Joonmyeon’s mother laughed. “It is! And papa and I got you a very special present!” With a devious look, she pointed over to where Joonmyeon’s father stood against one of the walls in Joonmyeon’s room that showcased the water tank running through their house. Not understanding, Joonmyeon stared at his father. Laughing, his father took a step aside to reveal the same red sea grass Joonmyeon saw everyday. Joonmyeon continued to stare.
And slowly his eyes widened. Among the sea grass, something moved. Large feline eyes blinked at Joonmyeon. But kitties don’t like water! Joonmyeon thought to himself.
He slowly slide off his bed and inched closer to the water wall. In between the sea grass was a merboy with the most brilliant red scales Joonmyeon has ever seen dotted with uneven white and black spots. Joonmyeon, at the age of five, thought he was looking at the most beautiful being in the world.
“He’s beautiful, mama!” Squealing, he rushed to the wall only to be picked up by his father before he reached the wall.
His father chuckled and said, “After breakfast, you can meet him in the water garden.”
Joonmyeon has never felt himself smile harder at what his father said. At their son’s disappearing eyes and wide smile, Joonmyeon’s parents couldn’t have given him the world to make him any happier.
And so after breakfast, Joonmyeon’s father left to work and his mother walked him to their water garden in the back of the estate. The water garden took up the vast majority of the back estate with varying levels of depth and different species of aqua flora.
In the shallowest of the artificial tide pools, Joonmyeon’s mother set him into the water. Standing up to his little knees with his teddy bear swimsuit and floaters in both arms, Joonmyeon excitedly looked for his new friend.
“Mama, where is he?” Joonmyeon pouted at his mother.
With a smile, Joonmyeon’s mother walked over to a deeper section of the water garden and looked in for a head of red hair. Not a second later, she reached into the water and in her arms was the merboy. The merboy looked frightened and clung to Joonmyeon’s mother closely, wetting her beautiful chiffon dress.
Joonmyeon pouted further. How come he doesn’t get yelled at for it? But his complaint was soon forgotten when his mother let the merboy down into the tide pool with Joonmyeon. She gestured to the merboy to come closer to Joonmyeon, but the merboy looked suspiciously at him. The merboy had never seen a more ridiculously looking small human before.
Joonmyeon of course did not notice the merboy’s reluctance. He waded his way over to the other and like the many adult greetings he had seen, he eagerly stuck out his hand. In his excitement, his hand moved faster than his mind and instead of shaking hands with the merboy, his hand shot out and poke the merboy’s left eye instead.
The merboy cried out and slapped Joonmyeon with his tail-fin as he hurriedly climbed back into Joonmyeon’s mother’s arms and she stood up in shock.
“Joonmyeon!” his mother scolded.
“I didn’t do it on purpose!” Joonmyeon cried at his mother.
If the merboy thought Joonmyeon looked ridiculous before, he thought he looked quite ugly now as he cried. With his eyes narrowed, the merboy silently demanded to be put back in the water and far away from the ugly small human. Joonmyeon’s mother relented and instead of putting the merboy in the deeper pool, she put him in a neighboring tide pool to Joonmyeon’s. The merboy flicked his tail in discontent.
“Now now Minseok, be nice. It was an accident. How about you two try to get to know each other a bit, hm?” She cooed at the merboy, Minseok, a bit before noticing that Joonmyeon’s nanny had arrived. With a pet to Minseok’s head and a kiss to Joonmyeon’s forehead, she said, “I’ll leave you two with the nanny alright? Play nice with Minseok, Joonmyeon!” And with that, Joonmyeon’s mother disappeared with a flutter of her chiffon skirts.
Joonmyeon looked over to Minseok. The merboy had his back turned to him and was huffing to himself.
“Hey!” Joonmyeon cried out for his attention. Minseok continued to ignore him. “HEY” cried the five year old an octave higher than before. He saw a flinch and nothing else. In a fit of anger, Joonmyeon grabbed some seaweed from its place and hurled it over to the other tide pool in an poor attempt to get the other boy to look at him. Nothing and so he tried again and this time it worked a bit too well.
The merboy looked angrily over at Joonmyeon from his tide pool with a head full of seaweed. Before Joonmyeon could stammer an apology, the merboy had sent over his own seaweed at Joonmyeon’s head. Not understanding what happened, Joonmyeon stared through seaweed at Minseok who raised his small eyebrows at him.
When Joonmyeon’s mother returned later, she found the nanny in a fit of distress at the scene before her. Both boys were happily napping surrounded by what seemed to be the entire vegetation content of both tide-pools. The nanny looked helplessly at Joonmyeon’s mother who just smiled a lopsided smile before she took out her phone to snap a quick picture of the two tired boys.
After getting off on the wrong foot, the two managed to get along. They played with each other when Joonmyeon’s schoolmates refused to play with him and they swam together always.
Growing up, Joonmyeon always wondered where Minseok went off to when Joonmyeon wasn’t around. Perhaps he goes back to his family Joonmyeon had wondered aloud when he was seven.
With a pained expression, Joonmyeon’s mother had pulled Joonmyeon aside, out of Minseok’s hearing. She explained that while merpeople in the past did exactly that, Minseok had no family. After that, Joonmyeon was careful to not make comments like that so he didn’t make the other boy sad.
When Joonmyeon got even older, he found out the real reason why Minseok had no family. Despite the efforts of humans, the whole of the merpeople race had dwindled so much that no one was sure they were going to survive. So scientists used merpeople dna coupled with human DNA to try and save the merpeople. Whether it worked, no one really knows. But a hundred years later, merboys were created in labs and raised on farms to be companions to those that could afford it. It made Joonmyeon’s stomach weak whenever he thought about it.
“I still can’t believe you tried to gouge out my eye when we first met.” Minseok said, snapping Joonmyeon out of his thoughts. Minseok grinned his gummy smile at Joonmyeon.
Affronted, Joonmyeon replied, “I said it was accident! When will you stop mentioning it?”
Joonmyeon threw his hands up in exasperation. Minseok, sitting next to him on the bank of the water garden, cocked one of his eyebrows up and laughed at Joonmyeon’s dramatic display. To prevent Joonmyeon from going on a tirade, Minseok pushed Joonmyeon into the water before them with his tail and joined him in the water.
Minseok knew exactly what Joonmyeon was thinking. How could he not after so many years together. How many years exactly? Minseok wondered. Counting it in his head, he has been with Joonmyeon for almost fifteen years. Now instead of an ugly small human, Joonmyeon’s limbs had lengthened and he no longer looked quite so ridiculous. Treading in the water with Minseok, Joonmyeon could almost pass for a handsome merman from the torso up. Not that Minseok would tell him that, of course.
After awhile of swimming, the two took a break on a small island in the further part of the water garden. Lying next to each other on the sand, Minseok turned to Joonmyeon.
“Did you decide what you were going to do for your twentieth birthday yet?”
Joonmyeon’s twentieth birthday, also known as his coming of age, also known as the day he would have to decide what future he wanted. Joonmyeon bristled at the idea.
“Maybe a party with a bunch of friends? Jongdae has been bugging me about it for awhile."
Minseok sat up on one elbow. Smiling at the idea, he commented, “That’s an excellent idea! I haven’t seen Lu Han in ages!” Lu Han being Jongdae’s very beautiful golden merboy. Joonmyeon scowled. While he was excited at the prospect of seeing his good friend again since they both have gone off to university, he wasn’t excited about the idea of Minseok and Lu Han hanging around each other. Lu Han was very enthusiastic about being near Minseok’s person usually and Joonmyeon had not appreciated it so much.
Joonmyeon looked away from Minseok and replied, “Yeah well it’s not decided yet” causing Minseok’s smile to narrow. He shot a quizzical look at him that Joonmyeon deftly avoided by getting back in the water. “Race you to the other end!” he called out as he started swimming away from the island.
“You cheater!” Minseok waggled a fist in Joonmyeon’s direction and flopped back into the water, catching up to the other boy quickly.
A couple weeks later came Joonmyeon’s birthday and with it, the celebration. Though Joonmyeon hoped for a small get together with a bunch of friends, as son to one of the oldest clans in Hanyang, “small” wasn’t an option.
And so Joonmyeon waded through the sea of people, not sure what direction he was trying to get to. People stopped him to congratulate him, some he knew, and most he didn’t. Always polite, he smiled and made small talk and complimented whatever pet the guests brought with them, be it cat or dog hybrid or something more exotic. Long were the days of awkward anti social Joonmyeon. Minseok is to thank for that, Joonmyeon mused, looking for his merman.
In the corner of his eye, he spotted Minseok talking animately with another merman. Minseok generally didn’t speak much, when he did, it wasn’t superfluous. Joonmyeon, on the other hand, to make up for Minseok’s lack of speaking, spoke extra to compensate. Even after Joonmyeon started making friends, the habit never went away. Cause Minseok still doesn’t speak much. Though at the moment, Joonmyeon wondered who Minseok would be talking to that he’s out of his shell completely.
Coming closer he saw that it was Lu Han. A pout started to form when an arm wraps around his neck pulling him into a hug. Judging by the tuft of curly brown locks in his face, he assumed it was Jongdae.
He wasn’t wrong. Sporting his signature kittenish smile as he pulled away, Jongdae looked at Joonmyeon’s half pout and laughed.
“Hey now! What’s that look for?”
“It was an unexpected hug?” Joonmyeon offered, but Jongdae had already guessed what it could be when he turned the direction Joonmyeon was facing.
“Way to not be subtle Joonmyeon,” teased the younger boy.
Feeling a blush creep up his hairline, Joonmyeon raised a hand up to cover his face and faked a cough.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Jongdae laughed out loudly and said, “I’m sure.” and with a pause, he studied Joonmyeon’s face. “You know,” he offered, “it’s not unnatural to have relationships with mermen.”
Balking at his bluntness, Joonmyeon opened and closed his mouth several times, much like a goldfish. Finally stringing thoughts together, he exclaimed, “We have a very nice friendship!”
Jongdae smirked at him and started to say something before being rudely interrupted by some howling from across the gardens. “JONGDAE COME HERE”
Jongdae grimaced at the overly enthusiastic gangly wolfboy across the lawn and excused himself as Joonmyeon laughed at his darkened face.
Turning around, he saw that Minseok was now looking at him and smiling a brilliant smile in his direction mouthing words Happy Birthday! You look decent! all the while wiggling his eyebrows up and down.
At that Joonmyeon flushed and huffed. He looked more than decent, thank you very much. Joonmyeon had on eye catching red pants and a a black and white collared shirt. A picture of perfect handsomeness in Joonmyeon’s eyes. Though in retrospect, Joonmyeon thought he looked very much like Minseok’s own coloring. Pushing the thought aside, he continued to float around for the rest of the party.
Hours later when everyone had gone home, Joonmyeon sat at the edge of the water garden with his pants rolled up, soaking his tired feet. He had worn insoles for appearance’s sake the entire night and was now paying for it. Minseok, with his head resting on one hand, laughed at Joonmyeon’s predicament by his side. Looking up from his feet, he saw that Minseok was about to make another joke at his expense so he splashed water at the merman and got up to run away. Minseok, of course, could not come after him, so he elected to yell wildly at him instead.
Running backwards and laughing at Minseok’s threats, Joonmyeon failed to notice a small soju bottle by his feet. One second he saw Minseok’s laughing face and then his feet gave away. The next second was a picture of Minseok’s horrified face as he started shouting. Joonmyeon wasn’t sure what it was about. He seemed to not be able to hear. He scrunched his face as he tried to think about why that was and found that his head was in an immense amount of pain.
Slowly he felt his pants get wet. Terrified, he realized in the cloud of pain that he had fallen into a tide pool Simultaneously, he felt horror and sleepiness wash over him. Struggling to keep his eyes open, Joonmyeon thought to himself, I’m going to die in five feet of water and I didn’t even get to tell Minseok I love him. His blinking got slower as his body sunk deeper.
One blink and he felt arms around himself. Another blink and he was looking at the sky full of stars. Another blink and a head full of red hair came into view. Another and he realized small lips were on his. Oh it’s cause I’m not breathing his brain helpfully supplied. Another blink and Minseok? and there was distant screaming and people around him. Before he could be sure, he coughed up what seemed to be half the tide pool water and was then picked up and taken away.
When he came to, he was in his room looking at the white ceiling. A hand to his head told him that it was bandaged up. After a few moments, he recalled what had happened earlier that night? that day? a couple days ago? He couldn’t be sure. All he was sure was that he almost died in the most embarrassing way possible. He tried to bring the other to his face to hide his face his shame when he realized that it was in someone else’s hand. More specifically, Minseok’s. How? questioned his brain but too much was going on and overwhelmed, Joonmyeon simply fell back to sleep.
After waking up a second time, Joonmyeon carefully sat up on his bed. He shook his head to shake off the sleepiness to immediately regret it when a sharp pain sliced through. Not doing that again. More carefully, he raised his head and took in his surroundings. He realized that he was in the hospital. Opposite his bed was a water wall where Minseok dozed off with his tail wrapped around some seaweed. Joonmyeon smiled at the sight. Of course Minseok would be at the hospital to keep him company. His Minseok was like that.
Watching Minseok’s head bob up and down in his sleep, Joonmyeon thought back to his savior that night and laughed at himself. He was so delirious from his shock that he imagined Minseok saving him. Joonmyeon looked over Minseok’s gorgeous tail. There was no way the merman could’ve gotten to Joonmyeon in the tide pool Minseok couldn’t walk. Joonmyeon laughed at his imagination.
Hours later, after much fussing by his mother and assurance from the doctor and Joonmyeon himself, Joonmyeon was discharged. Upon getting home, his mother forbade him from going near the water garden until he was completely better.
“I’m an adult!” Joonmyeon had whined, very unadultlike. Minseok laughed behind the water wall.
After being confined to bed rest that he felt was unnecessary, Joonmyeon’s mother left him to his own devices. Looking up from the bed, Joonmyeon shyly looked at his friend. Minseok was sporting an amused expression but upon seeing Joonmyeon study him, got uncomfortable.
What is it? Minseok silently questioned Joonmyeon.
Joonmyeon shrugged. Nothing.
Minseok frowned, his eyebrows almost meeting up in the middle. Don’t lie.
Joonmyeon sighed and shrugged. “You know how after they heard you shouting for help, they found me lying on the ground with my head practically cracked open?”
Minseok nodded. He knew where this was going.
“I thought it was you. I thought you pulled me out, but you know... you couldn’t have... right?”, Joonmyeon looked at Minseok who looked back at him. Blushing, Joonmyeon looked down as his clasped hands with a small smile. “Yeah”
After Joonmyeon’s mother was very sure he was well was he allowed to go back to the water garden. Joonmyeon and Minseok swam with each other much like before and the conversation never came up again. But once in awhile, Minseok would catch Joonmyeon looking at Minseok intensely. Minseok simply looked back and Joonmyeon would hurriedly turn away, face red, every time. Minseok understood. After so long, how could he not. Not sure how to go about it, Minseok could only hold Joonmyeon’s wrists a little longer than normal when they talked. He could only make up excuses to fix Joonmyeon’s hair. He could only do that much without being completely sure.
Eventually after dancing around each other for awhile, Joonmyeon, at the behest of Jongdae who was disgusted at their charade, decided to confess to Minseok. Still remembering the Minseok in his imagination and his lips, Joonmyeon wondered if he’d get to actually kiss Minseok someday.
Today. reminded his brain.
Joonmyeon had written a whole speech about how much he loved Minseok and all the things about him that made Joonmyeon love him so much more everyday. It was a beautifully eloquent speech. The three page single spaced love letter was a work of over ten days. It was initially much longer, but Jongdae (and Lu Han) squirmed through so much of it during the many readings he gave them that he cut it down.
The final draft was perfect and Joonmyeon was confident.
He woke up that morning and thought that today was going to be a good day.
He went down to the water garden to meet Minseok to go for their morning swim. After the swim, they rested at the tide-pools Joonmyeon had to carry Minseok to it and drop him off. Minseok refused to share the tide pool with him and kicked him out. Begrudgingly he settled in the one opposite of his.
Already things were not going to plan.
Taking a deep breath, Joonmyeon started. “Minseok, I want to tell you something.”
Minseok, smiling his usual knowing smile, made a show of getting closer to Joonmyeon’s tide pool He rested his arms on the side of the water, looking very much like a kid about to listen to a bedtime story. Minseok flicked his tail to show that he was ready.
Joonmyeon smiled and began, “You know, the first time I saw you-“
Minseok hid a snort under a cough and Joonmyeon glared at him.
Minseok gave him a look that said Are you really going to start there?
Sighing, Joonmyeon thought he was right and started again, mentally crossing that section off the speech. “We’ve been friends for a really long time-“
Minseok’s eyes were already beginning to glaze over from inattention.
“Minseok” Joonmyeon warned.
Laughing Minseok nodded and resumed his listening pose.
Joonmyeon thought perhaps he should skip this part as well. He started again, “You were always with me even when the other kids made fun of me and called me names like fishboy-“
At this, Minseok laughed out loud.
Joonmyeon simply barreled on. “You were so nice about it. You would comfort me and cheer me up. Saying things like ‘being a fishboy is a compliment-‘”
“Mostly because I am a fishboy. Literally,” teased Minseok.
Oh he is. That’s right thought Joonmyeon. Wait where was I? Frantically he tried to recall the rest of his speech as Minseok laughed at the ugly expressions he was surely making.
Minseok laughed so hard, it seemed like he was going to choke on air. To shut him up, Joonmyeon did the only thing he could think of. He threw seaweed at him. Minseok stopped laughing and grimaced through the seaweed blocking his vision. “How mature,” he dryly commented.
Joonmyeon took the time to think of what he wrote next. He really should’ve brought the letter with him but you can’t swim with paper. Wait I could’ve just- Minseok’s laughter interrupted his thoughts. Or rather, his mumbling as it seems he forgot his brain-to-mouth filter.
Embarrassed, Joonmyeon turned to throw more seaweed but Minseok beat him to it. Shocked at the face full of seaweed, Joonmyeon paused before bursting into laughter as well. What started as a confession turned into a seaweed tossing war. It left both boys holding their stomachs grasping for air as they both choked out laughter. Minseok recovered first and watched thoughtfully as Joonmyeon kept laughing.
Then he reached over where they were separated and pressed his lips against Joonmyeon’s open ones. Joonmyeon’s laughter caught in his throat as he processed the fact that Minseok’s lips were on his. The same small lips that Joonmyeon remembered. Minseok pulled back and studied Joonmyeon, worrying his lip at Joonmyeon’s lack of reaction.
Minseok started to explain, “You looked like you needed some air so I thought I might-“
Before Minseok could finish his cheesy explanation, Joonmyeon had jumped into the other tide pool and pressed himself onto Minseok’s lips. Minseok pressed back at Joonmyeon and they both laughed into the kiss.
In the distance, the gardener was in distress at his precious seaweed being abused while Joonmyeon’s mother took careful aim of the two boys with her camera.
After they broke apart, Joonmyeon pouted. “I didn’t get to finish my speech!” Minseok rolled his eyes. “I’ve already heard it a billion times. You’re not that subtle Joonmyeon. Also, my house and your house are attached.” Minseok wriggled his eyebrows at Joonmyeon and he sputtered incomprehensible sounds at him.
They both laughed and Joonmyeon thought maybe he didn’t really need to finish it. Minseok already knows, he always does. Before letting it go entirely, Joonmyeon turned to question Minseok about his rescue. Looking at Minseok’s big brown eyes, Joonmyeon was sure he already knew the answer. Minseok winked at him and Joonmyeon laughed. Never mind the many questions he had left to answer when Minseok was with him now. He leaned in for another kiss.
Before their lips met, Joonmyeon, age of twenty, was certain he was looking at the most beautiful person in the world.
Author's Note/To OP: I wordvomited this as I was upset so it's probably not coherent and there's no real storyline and I took a lot of liberties and it's really different from what was asked for but I finished it and I was like well I might as well post it and this is my first fic and I'm sorry you had to read this T_T I hope you enjoy it!