Everything's Prettier Underwater

Chapter 8: Threatening Secrets

The sound of the air conditioning was loud in the baren office. Seungmin looked around nervously, noticing the slick desk, where a few files were neatly piled up. Right next to them stood a high-tech computer that their company could definitely not have afforded, even for someone as high up in the hierarchy as the leader of the Deep-Sea Research Team. On the front of the desk, a gold plate was engraved with the name: "Director Park".

Seungmin was absentmindedly playing with the tip of his white bandana as he waited for the director. He had been called in early this morning, and the message he'd received didn't give him a choice to refuse or postpone this meeting. It was honestly a problem, since Seungmin's mind hadn't really been focused on work these last few days, but especially since last night.

After learning from Felix that his innocent act of sharing food with the pod could be seen as courting, he had begun to rethink all of his interactions with them. Like that time when Jeongin and him had both realized they could talk to each other, and that he had offered him part of his lunch. Or when he had "hunted" the barracuda and gifted it to the whole pod as a gesture of good faith. Had these also been interpreted as courting by the merboys? What about all of the times when they acted taken aback by his offers to help in general? Like when he offered them to stay and hide from the storm in the cliff caves, or when he stitched up Minho's wound? Were all of those acts also something that had a romantic connotation for merfolk, or was he thinking too hard about this and seeing things where they didn't exist? Then again, there had been a few times when the boys had been hesitant to accept his help and/or gifts, and they had turned to Jeongin to ask him if he was okay with the situation. But... did that mean that they saw Jeongin as his main love interest? Wait.. WAS Jeongin his love interest? Was he being courted without his knowledge by the younger? Or... was he courting Jeongin without his knowledge?

This was giving Seungmin a giant headache, and no matter the amount of thinking he did on the question, no easy answer appeared. He didn't know if his relationship with the pod was only friendly anymore, or if it ever was. He felt like he'd been brought along on this weird sentimental trip without his consent, but he wasn't sure if it was a positive or a negative thing. On one hand, consent and understanding was a pretty fundamental part of a relationship, but on the other, he couldn't say that he was entirely repulsed with the idea of those boys... liking him.

That last thought made Seungmin blush heavily and he slapped his cheeks lightly to snap himself back to reality. He knew that he had to have a serious discussion with the pod to clarify all of that situation, even though he had avoided it the day before like a coward. He couldn't take the uncertainty that weighed heavily on his heart anymore, and he wanted to know the boys' position on the matter, and what they saw him as. Once that was cleared up, he could then look at his own feelings and make better sense of the jumbled mess that made up his current emotional state.

Deciding, with a final nod, that this was the best course of action, Seungmin sighed resolutely and untensed his shoulders, ready to get through this meeting and then go through the whole situation with the boys. At least, his mind would finally be clear again, and he would be free from the ball of stress that had been living in his belly rent-free for too long now.

The door to the office opened abruptly, making the marine biologist jump in his chair.

"Ah, Seungmin-shi, what a delight to finally meet you."

A middle-aged man with slicked-back salt-and-pepper hair and dressed in a black turtleneck, cargo pants and a white lab coat strode all the way to Seungmin, seizing his hand and shaking it vigorously. The pink-haired boy looked up at the man, noticing his calculating gaze and the scar that crossed his left cheek all the way down to his upper lip, lifting it in a permanent sneer.