Under the Sea | Minsung

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"Hyunjin invited us to go to the aquarium with his friends this weekend."

"Why?"

"Don't know."

"Off topic, did you get the clearance from your professor?" Felix hung upside down on the cushioned lounge chair, legs propped up on the back to point straight in the air and head dandling off the edge. He kicked his feet back and forth, waiting for an answer as Minho clicked away his laptop keyboard.

All around were similar sounds; pens scratching and fingers working against keyboards tirelessly as the college students busied themselves. Some simply relaxed with their friends, a hot coffee in hand and occasionally a phone in the other. Few sat on the floor watching the television playing news channels and various entertainment shows up in the far corner of the student lounge. Once in a while one or two would get up and leave, never to return because of lectures or because they had better things to do then sit around all day.

"So, how's the doctoral thesis coming along, Mr. Big Time Marine Biologist Lee Minho?"

Minho paused upon feeling his roommate's glare burning into the side of his head. He turned to glare back at him and replied, "The topic was already done. My ideas are running thin."

"What? But we spent so long thinking about that!" Felix roared in a quiet voice, being considerate to the other people lounging in the room. He felt around under the chair, bending his arm in a weird way to reach under while he remained flipped upsidedown. When he lifted his hand, between his fingers was a stray pen left alone to fight off ths vicious world. Felix swung it around as he ranted, "I guess you're a few years out from it anyway, so you can't really make a permanent research idea, but at least you can start collecting resources. I mean, a thesis, that's a pretty big deal."

"It's fine, I need to find something else," Minho huffed. He rolled his eyes when Felix gawked skeptically, playfully twisting his face as he thought. His roommate continued to make funny faces at him but all Minho could do was refocus to his laptop, typing away at the document as a distraction to the presence continuously distracting him. That was until the other started humming a strange noise that replicated the call of an alien mothership from a sci-fi movie. Or maybe it was a mosquito. Minho snapped his gaze to the other, hissing, "What do you want?!"

Felix didn't respond at first, him preoccupied with balancing the abandoned pen between his upper lip and nose. Him not being upright didn't help the cause. Once he balanced it, the roommate spoke in an odd way to ensure the pen didn't fall, "I know we don't have much of a choice but it would be nice to write something unconventional."

"If we go too outlandish I wouldn't have evidence to support it," Minho muttered as he ran his fingers over the smooth keyboard of his computer, feeling the grooves careening under his fingertips as a distraction, "But I've still got time to think on it."

"You can probably find some information if you dig a bit more. Like into those creepy, incognito, dark web, black market sites. You can research the dealings if the underground!"

"This ag-"

"Murder."

"Fel-"

"Drugs."

"Please st-"

"The mafia."

"Can yo-"

Finally disregarding the people around, Felix shouted, "I got it!"

"No," Minho cut in, answering immediately before the other could squeeze in another poor guess that wouldn't have any validity. The idea itself was outlandish, paired with the fact the interrogator was at half seriousness, the string of guesses became less accurate as they went along.

His roommate pouted, "Why not?"

"You tell me," Minho growled in a soft voice. Ensuring his frustration was masked enough for the other people in the area not to hear it, he blocked his face with his closed laptop like it were a fan.

"Okay it needs to be marine biology BUT as the saying goes; drastic times call for drastic measures," Felix cleared his throat, "If you can't find the information you need one way, you need to get it another. And if hiring a hitman to kill someone for important documents is the way to go about it, then it's the way to go about it, and you can't do anything about it. Break some laws, party it up, go wild, go crazy, research how anemone feel about pink starfish."

"I'm not going to hire a hitman," Minho said in a groan that flipped into a laugh. Either from ridiculousness or from the manner of Felix as he furiously fought to keep a pen balanced while he was upside down, he found this particular conversation a tad bizarre.

Felix sung as he lightly tapped the edge of the pen back into place, "Minho, the only time you talk this much is when you're passionate about something, and you're the kind of person to go to extremes and not tell anyone. So?"

"Felix," Minho commanded. His roommate nodded a response, telling his friend that he was listening as the pen fell and had to be repositioned on his nostrils. As he watched, Minho mumbled, "I wouldn't tell you if I hired a hitman anyway."

Felix mocked, "You just admitted it."

"Did I?" Minho hummed a half focused response, opening his old laptop up and turning the power on. It whirred to life and blinded him with the unnecessary intense brightness, the logo appearing on the loud screen with vivid colors and bold font. The excuse for a distraction was enough to keep the other quiet.

Peace had finally seemed to string between the two, Minho going back to whatever had caught his interest on the computer and Felix keeping himself occupied with the pen trick fighting against gravity. For a while the only sound was the poor party trick going badly as something plinked against the carpeted floors, the overturned instigator then bending in awkward ways while to grab the escapee as his feet almost hit other students walking by. The silence was short-lived though, tranquility as fleeting as the poor abandoned pen's owner as another man decided to approach the two lounging around.

He was a bit shorter than the two sitting down but held his head high like he was greater than either. His arms were folded over a t-shirt with eccentric designs and bright english lettering in over-the-top font, a thick black jacket tied hurriedly over a hip cocked out to the side. Black hair was swept infront to nearly block out his eyes but on the positive side it matched the black jeans he paired to his outfit.

Felix smiled a friendly smile that looked malicious flipped the other way. Minho nodded to the man standing, receiving a small gesture of acknowledgement. His roommate waved, "Hello, Mr. Changbin."

"Hey Felix, Minho," Changbin started, unfolding his arms and standing upright. "It might be weird to ask, but did Hyunjin give you an invitation to meet up this weekend?"

"Yes he did," Minho confirmed, a polite grin pulling at his lips. He began again, "To the aquari-"

"She speaks!" Felix interrupted the older with a shout. In turn, Minho glared the other down with a look of 'stop talking over me'. But he paid no mind to it, shouting to Changbin as the eighteen year old very slowly rotated in his seat, "O, speak again bright angel! For thou art as glorious as this night, being over my head as a winged messenger of heaven unto the white-upturned wondering eyes of mortals that fall back to gaze on him!"

This was Changbin's cue to leave.

As he turned on his heel to escape and briskly walked down the university hallway, Felix hollered after in a strained voice, "I take thee at thy word! Call me but love, and I will be new!"

Minho supressed an eye roll, going back to his laptop as his friend caused a ruckus with Shakespeare.

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