Chapter Text
Not that he needed to boast about it, but Seokjin has been fishing the waters off Jeju Island for fifteen years and change before buying his uncle’s boat off him and moving in permanently; in that time, he’s pulled some exceedingly strange things up in his nets.
A wedding dress, once. A waterlogged cello. An entire shopping cart filled to the brim with rubber ducks; of which he still can’t find an explanation for. Actual Cthulhu, who was now in some kind of committed relationship with one of his best friends- tentacle monsters with a fascination for knitting and cupcake décor was so beyond his wheelhouse, but you know what, it’s fine.
While he does make a fair bit of his income from net fishing, it’s not actually the central focus of his life (though it can on occasion feel like it). During the busier tourism periods, he can make a tidy sum of extra cash by doing short sight-seeing tours in tandem with his early morning trawls.
Today though, Seokjin had found a new kelp bed. He’s been bringing freshly collected seaweed from the shoreline to Yoongi in exchange for weather and fishing guidance- an acceptable exchange for the most part, if not for the obvious way the tentacled man’s- creature’s- whatever he was- preferences had turned to kelp from slightly deeper waters. Because of course they did.
Personally, Seokjin liked to think he’d gained more than a little favor given he’d been the one to bring Yoongi and Jimin together in the first place. Matchmaking at it’s finest, if not strangest.
Granted, it was hard not to see the rewards in the few extra hints Yoongi would give him- if that didn’t tip him off to favouritism, the steady stream of new, increasingly thick knit socks pressed into his hands with a very intense pout might have.
Being on the open ocean was nothing new for him, but the single consistent over the years was the weather. Cold, damp feet were just something he’d had to get used to years ago. Still, as much as he tried to pretend otherwise, he was touched at the consideration; Yoongi knew the cold of the ocean in a way Seokjin would never be able to fully understand and went to great lengths to ensure no one else had to experience even a fraction of it.
(Okay, so maybe he was endeared by the pouty, tentacled gremlin he’d dropped into Jimin’s life. Sue him.)
Anyways- all this to say he’d very much hoped pulling out actual sea monsters and myths from the ocean wouldn’t become a regular occurrence. He’d just managed to process the worst of the rubber duck incident- his new therapist was only just beginning to unpack the whole Yoongi fiasco.
Namjoon continued to tiredly remind Seokjin that he was not actually contractually obligated to keep picking up his calls, given that he was his friend of nine years and not his therapist as Seokjin continued to call him every Thursday afternoon for their weekly session.
(Weekly session being their weekly call to catch up on life- Namjoon was in Seoul studying in his final semester in his psychiatry program, set to graduate with honors at the top of his class at the end of term and already planning on opening his own practice at some point.)
Either way, boo, Seokjin thought grumpily.
And yet.
Exceedingly strange things.
Now there’s this.
Breaking generational trauma? No, no, no, Kim Seokjin seemed intent to collect it like a custom deck of Pokémon cards.
“Okay.” He says, resigned, as the man who was definitely a seal approximately six seconds ago blinks wide, terribly beautiful eyes up at him, clutching a thick pelt to his shoulders. “I guess this is happening now.”
The seal-man barks at him, wriggling under the netting and flashing Seokjin frankly far too much skin, boxy grin stretching his cheeks wide in a way that makes his dumb gay heart do a little thump that can’t possibly be good for his physiology.
Great.
He doesn’t know if the lack of a reaction to the seal-man is a good or bad thing.
-
“Why am I the only one who’s worried about this? Why aren’t you more worried about this? This is a pattern of events!” Seokjin demands shrilly, gesturing to the seal-man, selkie, whatever- who had just discovered the espresso machine and was examining it curiously.
Since Seokjin had hauled him up into the boat, gunned the engine to head for shore, and haul the newest addition of Downright Weird Shit He’s Fished Out Of The Ocean- the seal-man hadn’t spoken a lick of Korean, instead communicating in a combination of odd chirps and barks and waddling around in nothing but an oversized yellow sweater (kept onboard as an emergency dry shirt) while the weird pelt he’d been clinging onto had been shoved into a very tired Seokjin’s arms with another cheerful bark. An oversized sweater, he might add, that fell to the man’s thighs and barely left anything to the imagination; not that he was looking, or wanted to, but the seal-man apparently had absolutely zero concept of nudity or personal space.
“I should not keep having this happen to me!” he adds, like it wasn’t already something that the room at large should understand.
“He is from Busan and has seen weirder things.” Yoongi shrugs, head nodding in Jimin’s direction. Currently, the sea monster is licking buttercream off a spoon like it’s a perfectly appropriate source of nutrition before nine am on a Thursday morning- because of course these things always seem to happen on a Thursday. He then points the now clean spoon in the direction of the seal-man. “I am from the deep waters. That is a pup from the shallows.”
Blobfish mrrs in agreement from her perch on top of one of Yoongi’s tentacles, cradled by the appendage protectively.
In the several short months Yoongi’s been living with Jimin, he’s only grown ever more endeared by the furry addition to the café, usually quite content to haul her around from home and in the Coral Crumble. Seokjin knows for a fact Yoongi’s knit a sling (cotton candy pink) to carry the cat around in so that he never has to worry about any of his many, many appendages dropping her.
“That’s very helpful, Yoongi, thank you.” Seokjin hisses, making another vague, aborted gesture at what he’s dealing with, “But I have no idea what that even means!”
Perhaps sensing the ire in his tone, the seal-man makes a small, worried sound, distracted from his current mission of exploring the kitchen to bound back over to Seokjin and press their noses together, snuffling curiously for a long moment as he falls entirely still. It’s sort of eerie in comparison to the incredibly animated movements Seokjin’s been subjected to for the last hour or so; he freezes just in case the man decides he’d rather take a chunk out of him or something.
This close, it’s hard not to notice the thick smattering of freckles, the whiskers at the edges of his mouth, the way his honey blond hair falls into his handsome features-
Oh god he cannot be having this kind of crisis over a seal-man he pulled out of the ocean right now-
“He likes you.” Yoongi informs him helpfully as the man decides whatever crisis Seokjin is having doesn’t warrant any further action, returning to his prior task with equal intensity. Like he doesn’t have anything better to do than upheave his entire day.
Honestly, he probably didn’t.
Jimin looks like he’s trying not to laugh at him, lips pursed into a little beak as he watches the seal-man wander around the kitchen with soft eyes.
This was why Seokjin had brought him to the Coral Crumble in the first place- Seokjin is nervous and ill-equipped to deal with strange half human creatures he somehow continues to keep pulling out of the ocean like a magician with rabbits out of a hat.
(He thinks he would prefer the rabbits, honestly. Less chance for something else.)
Jimin is calm and kind and soft and lovely and treats everything and everyone gently- an old soul if Seokjin’s ever met one. He carefully intercepts the seal-man when he almost scalds himself on some kind of overheated kitchen machinery Seokjin doesn’t know nearly enough about to confidently name, cradling his hands in his much smaller fingers as he smiles gently, eyes turning into soft crescents.
“I’m Jimin.” He introduces himself, laughing gently when the seal-man’s eyes seem to grow even bigger in wonder.
(Honestly, same. A Jimin smile could be a lethal thing on a bad day.)
“Do you speak Korean? Can you tell me your name?” he prompts when the man doesn’t seem inclined to do anything other than blink wide eyes at the petite man holding his hands and smiling at him.
A low, chirruping hum is the response, the seal-man leaning in to press his nose against Jimin’s in much the same way he’d just done to Seokjin, boxy smile stretching his cheeks wide. Seokjin averts his gaze- definitely not because that smile is doing something to his heart. Absolutely not. He doesn’t need to be dealing with any further emotional damage over a smile of all things.
Yoongi makes a face. “I don’t think that translates.”
The man frowns, turning to look at Yoongi as Seokjin does too, brain feeling like it’s melting because of course this is the natural course of action. He makes another series of short, chittering sounds that Yoongi nods along to like he’s having some kind of one-sided conversation; actually, no, that’s exactly what’s happening.
Seokjin feels, not for the first time, like he’s witnessing his last little dust-mote of sanity die a slow, painful death. Maybe this is what true madness is. He thought it would feel… more violent. Less sudden. Then again, maybe his brain is still in shock. First the ducks, then a sea monster, now a seal-man… yes. That must be it.
“He can understand what we’re saying.” Yoongi informs Jimin, apparently just containing some oceanic version of Papago in his head, “but it’s hard to speak it. Uncomfortable compared to his tongue.”
“Aw, I’m sorry honey,” Jimin coos sympathetically, rubbing at the seal-man’s hands. “It must be hard trying to adjust to all this. Did Seokjin scream at you too?”
“He screamed at me.” Yoongi adds (un)helpfully, petting Blobfish. “I do not think he expected me in his net.”
“Of course I wasn’t expecting to find you in my net! Who expects to fish out an eldritch horror from the ocean at six in the morning on a Thursday! This sort of thing isn’t supposed to happen at all!” Seokjin tries to keep his tone even, he really does, but it’s a hard thing as he crosses his arms, shifting on his feet. “Look, Yoongi, can you use whatever magic translation you have in your brain to ask him where he wants me to put this thing so it doesn’t wind up covered in powdered sugar or something? I need to get back to the boat and make sure I tied her up right.”
At seeing the fur brandished, the seal-man bounced back over to Seokjin, making more of those odd barks at him, big eyes staring him down like he was supposed to understand something very important.
Unfortunately, Seokjin does not possess the ability to speak seal or understand whatever he was saying, instead offering the pelt gingerly back to him. It’s a very nice pelt, he can admit- a light, warm tone with darker mottling across it, dark spots not dissimilar to the extensive freckling across the man’s face. This close, Seokjin notes the whiskers again, can’t help but swallow a little heavier at the sharper than normal teeth he spots- not terribly comfortable in this close of proximity.
Then again, it also doesn’t stop the way Seokjin can feel the way his cheeks and ears flush as the other man presses closer, nothing but his old yellow sweater creating a semblance of modesty.
If whatever sea creatures he kept hauling up from the ocean floor could kindly come equipped with some kind of clothing, that would be lovely. Yoongi earned a pass, but he was on thin fucking ice considering his tentacles were just out in the open like that.
“Er. Hello?” Seokjin managed to squeak out somewhere between the overthinking and the mortification of having an audience for this. He needed to leave immediately and possibly sail off into the horizon, never to be seen again.
The seal-man beamed at him, megawatt smile lighting up his whole face, taking the fur back to drape it around his shoulders and proudly twirling so Seokjin could see it better. Like he was putting it on display for him only. Whatever he was saying was making Yoongi’s face do a Thing- like the tentacle monster didn’t quite know whether to wrinkle his nose or smile.
Seokjin had yet to see a Yoongi smile for himself. Apparently, it was gummy and very cute, accompanied by the pulsing bioluminescence of his tentacles flushing soft pinks and purples.
Seokjin was just going to continue taking Jimin’s word for it, honestly.
Yoongi pets Blobfish and looks terribly smug about the whole situation, like he knows something they don’t. Which, considering none of them can speak seal, he probably does.
“He chose you as his mate.”
And… there it was. Hammering the final nail in the coffin for what, exactly, Seokjin’s delicate nature can handle in one standard business day.
“I need to go.” He bleats, panicked hindbrain taking control of the shambles of his mind as his fight or flight reminds him that he’s once again fished a living, breathing sea creature that shouldn’t exist out of the ocean. Maybe needs to call his therapist, definitely needs to call Namjoon and reassure himself that the world is continuing to turn despite the general insanity his life has become.
Jimin frowns at him like Seokjin’s personally offended his entire lineage- possible- and the seal-man pouts in equal measure, drooping like a flower left out in the sun too long.
“I can’t just drop everything because a seal-man got caught in my net, Jimin!” Seokjin protests, throwing his hands up in defeat. “You’re the calm one! You deal with things like this very calmly!”
“This is true.” Yoongi nods. “You treated me very calmly.”
Jimin softens as he glances over to Yoongi before turning his gaze back to Seokjin, disapproval lining every inch of his tiny, angry frame. Like a disgruntled bird, Seokjin thinks, even as he slowly backs away.
“That’s not the point- he likes you, hyung! You heard what Yoongi said!” Jimin stomps his foot, voice going up in pitch like it’ll make a lick of difference in stopping him from making a run for it. “You can’t just keep dropping off people on my doorstep when I’m at work- we have things to do!”
“He’ll like you too! I need to go!”
And with that, Seokjin’s gone.
Jimin sighs.
Yoongi continues petting Blobfish.
The newest addition to the bakery chirps, waddles over to Yoongi, and sits down next to him with an adoring, boxy grin that did nothing to prevent Jimin from cooing quietly.
This was… probably fine.
-
Yoongi hasn’t seen many things from his former life- darkcoldendlessdeep- but seeing a seal pup standing on two legs instead of gliding through the waters feels… odd.
Most beings to come from the sea tend to be intense. Survival instinct leaves little room for anything else in disposition, and Yoongi had been alone for many, many years before finding his way to the surface and discovering the seemingly endless things about the world that had changed so much since he had last surfaced.
After spending this much time on land, Yoongi can admit he is anxious and needs something to focus his energy on to keep his many limbs busy; the initial learning process of how to navigate in this world prior to discovering knitting and creating a sensory net for him to lean on for help had been stressful, to say the least. That said, there was still a small part of him ruled by a soft heart- in Jimin’s words. The nurturing part of him that cared about the world around him and tried to ensure no one else had to experience a fraction of the things he had in his long life.
The deep did not allow for soft things. It bit and clawed and scratched until there was nothing left but bones sinking into the dark. Whale carcasses and things that had Forgotten how to speak.
The seal pup is not like that.
He is intense, yes. Intense in a way Yoongi does not know how to navigate, in spite of the pup’s immediate imprint on Jimin and Seokjin and… himself.
Seals do not often come to the deep.
Taehyung- the closest name the three of them could manage to his true name- was buoyant. Bright eyed and blinking in wonder at the strange new things he was confronted with. It reminds him of the human pups- children- who would still enter the bakery to ask him questions that did not often make sense. Very intent on investigating everything, but with an attention span that lasted no more than several seconds at a time.
They are different.
But not so different that they do not know the ocean is not kind. Not always.
(Jimin does not always understand, when Yoongi tells him things about that life. He tries, and he holds Yoongi close when he trembles at the memory of being alone down there, where light does not reach, but he does not Know.)
Taehyung does not know soft things, either.
Yoongi stilled in alarm as the pup burrowed his way into his side with a content chuff, rubbing at the yellow sweater Seokjin had pulled over his head and asking in sea-tongue if all things felt as lovely against his human fur as this.
His pelt was good and warm, insulated against the cold temperatures of the water, but the sand his pod had lounged on was coarse and gritty, the kelp smooth, wrapping around his seal form uncomfortably as they chased fish through the forests.
No, this would not do.
Yoongi spared no moment in wrapping one of his tentacles around the pup’s arm and depositing Blobfish in a quickly overwhelmed Taehyung’s arms and watching the pup burst into tears at the loud, rumbling purr that rattled the cat’s entire frame and echoed off the walls as he chirped into her belly to hide his face.
The ocean had not been kind to Taehyung, even if the seal’s intense enthusiasm might sway someone else. His body is covered in light marks, the soft pudge of his belly (proudly displayed to Jimin when he asked if he had been eating enough) littered with scars of all shapes and sizes. Some from predators like whales or bigger creatures that lived in the in-between waters, but some of them from his own kind, from humans.
(It is then that he decides that this is his pup, now.)
Wrangling him into a pair of loose lounge pants had been an experience in its own right on both their parts; Taehyung clearly hated the sensation of his legs being confined, but couldn’t seem to stop petting the thick cotton of them with a bewildered sort of confusion, either.
Immediately following that, the pup grabbed at one of Yoongi’s hands, bringing it up to his pelt- something even he knew few were permitted to do- and let him touch.
“This is… soft.” Yoongi marvels, carefully petting the pelt and watching the way Taehyung’s chest puffs out in pride. “I did not think there was anything to come from the sea that is like this.”
Something clenches in his chest at the realization of it, the soft understanding that settles into Taehyung’s eyes, making him look much older.
“Not everything is soft. But there is some.” the seal explains in sea-tongue, chuffing as he grips onto a faintly trembling tentacle and holding it close. “You are soft too. Just… different soft.”
“There are many things soft here.” He says, perking up at the reminder. “Blobfish-“
“That is not a fish.” Taehyung says, glancing down to Blobfish, purring mightily from her knit bed, appropriately pink and cupcake shaped.
“She is not.” Yoongi agrees. “She is better.”
“Does my mate know of these… not-fish?”
That, at least, is enough to make Yoongi laugh. Seokjin definitely knows about cats, though as of yet he is blissfully unaware of the significance of Taehyung’s appearance in his life.
“He does. He does not know about what it means for you to allow him to have your pelt though.”
Jimin glances up from where he’s rolling out some kind of dough for tomorrow, shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows, eyebrow lifting when he catches Yoongi’s eye.
(There had been no cupcakes to ice today- Yoongi had tried valiantly not to be disappointed by that fact- but admittedly, the day resulting in a seal-pup to watch over and attempt to keep from poking his nose into things he shouldn’t was equally entertaining.)
He offers his human a small smile before turning his attention back to Taehyung as the pup grumbles wordlessly.
“I will have to tell him, then.” The pup puffs air into his cheeks. “But that means I will have to speak land-tongue.”
“It does.”
A gusty sigh heaves out of the pup’s frame, shoulders slouching into something more petulant.
“I do not like land-speak.” He finally says in Korean, voice low. It reminds Yoongi of distant thunder rumbling overhead, or the deep rattly purr Blobfish lets out when she is getting ear scratches. There’s some kind of drawl that reminds Yoongi of the mainland, of sailors who used to fish on these waters. “But I will speak it… if I must.”
“I think you have a lovely voice.” Jimin comments, offering a small, warm smile as he glances up again for a moment; always unaffected by the strange things that seemed to keep happening in his life as of late. It is something Yoongi appreciates about his human mate; Busan is filled with old things, things that used to wander in places that no longer exist. It means that the strange things to come from the water do not scare him in the same way they scare Seokjin.
(Yoongi does quite like Seokjin, even if he is too noisy and startles easily.)
Taehyung’s cheeks are flushed as he ducks his head back into the safety of Yoongi’s many limbs, a pleased little smile on his features at the compliment. Yoongi would very much like to make sure that the pup continues to smile like that.
“I will show you more soft things.” Yoongi says, changing course. “There are other soft things you do not know about yet. I will show you my yarn. And towels. And fabrics. And-“
Taehyung does not know soft yet, not like Yoongi has come to learn it to be.
But he will.
-
One might have thought, following the first time Seokjin had encountered the seal- Taehyung, his name was Taehyung, now- that that might have been the end of it. That it had all been some kind of dream, a trick of the light, his imagination after one too many early mornings alone on the water. Or, gods forbid, Namjoon had been right all along and Seokjin was finally having some kind of nervous breakdown. Maybe some kind of combination of all of the above.
And… personally, Seokjin isn’t afraid to admit that maybe Namjoon could be right about that. At least to an extent.
It’s been a few years since he’d moved to Jeju Island permanently, leaving behind Seoul and his family and his friends- few as they were. He’s always been the quiet son, the one content to simply drift along in the current from one place to the next without much ambition, at least in comparison to his brother. When his uncle had asked if he wanted the old boat he’d spent his summers growing up on out on the water, that he was getting too old and needed to return to the mainland, everything just... slipped into place.
His uncle sold him the boat- now the Super Tuna, light blue paint faded from the years spent on the water, pointed him in the direction of a couple of the ajummas with rooms to rent who would take him in because of who he was. Bought his own cottage after the second summer- turned out the tourism industry was booming around these parts- and found his community where he could. Mostly in Jimin and the Coral Crumble and also the ajummas who would fret over “Aish, such a handsome young man as yourself living the bachelor life, our Seokjinnie.”
Anyways-
One would be incorrect.
It is approximately seven in the morning, give or take, when a dull splash preludes a large, unerringly familiar seal popping up like a buoy next to the boat as Seokjin attempts to haul his nets in; it is by sheer will, a dash of luck, and a panicked flinch that keep him from winding up in the water right alongside the seal who may or may not be Taehyung- doubtful- but the cheerful bark the creature lets out tells him about everything he needs to know.
He does not scream, but it is a very close thing.
It’s been a few days since their memorable first impression and subsequent vanishing of the seal-man back to the ocean; obviously, of course. That being said, the appearance of what is presently a wild animal still does some numbers on his heartrate.
“Fuck.” He hisses as he cracks his knee on the side of the boat, gripping onto the netting more firmly through his gloves. “Don’t you know better than to sneak up on people?”
Taehyung chuffs, exhaling through his nose and blowing bubbles into the water as he blinks up at him innocently, and- well, yeah, okay, it’s pretty damn cute, even though Seokjin’s trying to blink pained tears out of his eyes at the radiating ache in his injured limb.
Probably, but this is more fun. The seal’s expression somehow manages to convey.
“My therapist thinks I’m crazy and now I have a seal that can understand what I’m saying. What is my life coming to?” he mutters to the sky. Rather predictably, the clouds don’t have any kind of answer for him.
A low rumble bubbles up from the water, but Seokjin doesn’t pay it any mind.
He wasn’t aiming for anything too over the top given that this trip was just for pleasure… sort of. He was hoping for a few crabs he could take over to Jimin and Yoongi’s in apology later, maybe a couple he could keep for himself and indulge in something a little fancier.
Seokjin is forced to pay it more mind when there’s a sudden surge of water and a very large animal that becomes an equally very naked man on his deck. Again.
“Mate!” Taehyung cries, gleeful, throwing himself at Seokjin and purring as he rubs himself over his front like a very large housecat.
Nope. Nope, nope, nope, this is where Seokjin draws the line. His brain short circuits even as he squawks in offended panic at the sight of too much skin, ohmygod- blindly fumbling for the jacket he’d shrugged off scarce ten minutes ago as he started to warm up from wandering around the deck and keeping busy, wrestling it around the seal-man who is looking up at him with far too much adoration given the circumstances.
“I’m not your mate-“ he tries to protest, only to find his jaw snapping shut at the wobbly lip and tearful eyes that the man wields against him with horrific efficiency.
“I didn’t sneak up on you.” Taehyung blinks up at him as he hands off his pelt to Seokjin, who automatically grabs onto it. The pelt- and Taehyung’s skin- are as freckled and whiskery as Seokjin remembers. “You’re just not very observant.”
“Yah, I’m plenty observant!” he shrieks, shrill as a seagull. “And what do you mean, I’m your mate? I didn’t agree to this!”
“Yes you are.” Taehyung says, completely ignoring the fact that he’s completely upended Seokjin’s existence, “I gave you my coat and you accepted it. I don’t like speaking in this tongue, though. Sea-tongue is easier.”
“Sea-tongue won’t get you very fair with the ajummas.” Seokjin points out automatically, still reeling.
“I don’t want to talk to people on land.”
“I’m on land.”
“… You are an exception. And Jimin. And we aren’t on land right now.” Taehyung frowns as he thinks about it. “But you are my mate. Or would you prefer husband? Yoongi says that that is the appropriate term for humans.”
Oh, this isn’t going to be an argument he’ll win, is it? Seokjin realized with a slowly creeping dread. The other man was still staring up at him without an ounce of shame, fingers looped around Seokjin’s waist comfortably.
“You don’t get told no very often, do you?” he asks, resigned instead of surprised when Taehyung shakes his head.
“Yeah, I didn’t think so.” Seokjin sighs.
Okay, time to weigh this one out. The worst thing that could reasonably happen right now was that Taehyung could eat him; not the most likely option on the list, but not out of the question, either. He’d thought Yoongi was going to drag him into the ocean the first time they’d had their encounter, and that had played out fine. Granted, that was mostly because Yoongi had fallen in love with Jimin and wasn’t publicly proclaiming that Jimin was his husband out of the blue.
He might have to have words with Yoongi about teaching Taehyung about the word husband, though.
“I don’t get paid enough for this.” He finally sighs, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Okay. You can stay here, but don’t touch anything, please.” it’s less of a question as it is a statement, resignment already setting in.
“Fine.” the man huffs. “If that’s what makes my mate happy.”
“I’m not your mate. Husband. Whatever.”
Taehyung hums disbelievingly but doesn’t push it after that.
And it’s… weirdly okay. Taehyung certainly isn’t used to being so still; he’s fidgeting in a matter of minutes, brows furrowed and lips pursed in a terribly endearing way that speaks to how he’s really trying to do as Seokjin asked and respect his space. But he’s tucked himself into Seokjin’s jacket until he takes pity on him and shows him how to do up the zipper.
“I am not used to being cold.” Taehyung finally chatters out, half mumbled, ears flushed from where his face peeks out from under the hood. “My pelt keeps me warm.”
“Unfortunately, we simple humans haven’t figured out a better way to stay warm that don’t involve multiple steps.” Seokjin says, tone dry as he manages to forage out one of the many extra pairs of socks he’s started keeping in the bunk. This pair is one of Yoongi’s- a soft pastel blue with pink and white bows in a thick wool blend perfect for a selkie unused to being cold of all things. “So. Clothing and socks it is.”
“I don’t like them.”
“Well, unless you’d like to discover what hypothermia is, you don’t get much of a choice.”
It’s a pleasant surprise to find that despite the man’s distaste for the socks, he doesn’t try to wriggle loose aside from a low, unhappy sound that came from somewhere in his chest. Almost like a puppy-whine, sad and miserable. Still, once the deed was done, Taehyung perked back up slightly, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like a besotted, my mate takes good care of me.
The rest of the trip was spent with a quiet seal-man tucked up in one of the seats by the bunk, covered from the light rain that started misting over the water as Seokjin made quick work of fishing up more than enough crab for himself and then some.
Maybe he would drop a few off to some of the ajummas on his way back home, see if he could wheedle some extra spices out of them to hoard for more of his dinners over the next few weeks. Definitely easier than trying to buy everything separately- his cabinets were well stocked, but there was something inherently better about someone else’s recipes.
“Do you eat crab?” he asks, barely sparing Taehyung a glance as he seals one of the buckets, narrowly avoiding getting pinched by a rather sharp looking claw in the process.
The seal-man perks up at that, eyes gleaming a little brighter.
“Not in this form.” He says. “But it crunches nicely between my teeth.”
…Okay, he might have walked right into that one.
“Would you like one?”
Taehyung’s eyes get even starrier, if such a thing were possible. He makes a burbly, happy noise and nods, already beginning to wrestle the clothing he was already (barely) wearing off of himself, long fingers twisted up into his pelt. Seokjin makes another flustered sound in the back of his throat and tries to avert his eyes as the man does some kind of wriggly, pullover motion with the pelt until a distinctly seal-like bark gets his attention again.
As curious as he is about the whole shapeshifting part of the process, Seokjin feels like it’s just better not to know.
The dismount back into the water is a lot quieter, dappled tail disappearing under the water with barely a sound. When his snout pokes back up out of the water, Seokjin snorts, tossing a crab from his second bucket- if it’s the largest one, that’s his business- over the side. Taehyung barks again- presumably in thanks, before vanishing back underwater, leaving Seokjin feeling a little unmoored.
Ah well. He had the rest of the day to sort that one out.
But first, he needed to make a delivery to his favorite baker and his grumpy tentacled boyfriend.
-
“I think you’d like Yoongi.” Seokjin muses over the phone on the next Thursday, leaning his chin on his palm, phone propped up on the tiny kitchen table Namjoon had thrifted years ago back in soul when they’d briefly shared an apartment. “He’s got this old, mysterious wise man vibe going on- kind of like one of those NPC’s that give you a side quest? Except, like, he’s also somehow an ajumma with three children and a knitting problem.”
Namjoon just hums, cheek squished against his pillow on Seokjin’s screen. It’s much later than their usual afternoon call; the younger man’s been hard at work trying to finish thesis papers and exams and juggling his undergrad studies and his TA schedule all while doing his regular coursework and finding the time to tutor.
His glasses had been discarded somewhere beyond his phone a few minutes prior as they shared the latest everyday events in their lives. Like this, Seokjin can see the indents of his dimples; one of them, anyway- the other hidden from view by the back of a broad palm tucked underneath himself.
Soft, sleepy Namjoon has always been one of Seokjin’s favorite things. Having him tucked up next to him in bed during the early days of being dorm mates, long limbs wrapped around him like a living blanket. Sometimes Seokjin burns for that kind of skin contact, that kind of effortless touch that he’s only just beginning to experience again.
(Granted, he could have done without all the snoring, but even that’s something he’s come to miss, being away from him for so long.)
Namjoon hasn’t even visited since Seokjin uprooted and relocated his life. Not his fault, even remotely. Seokjin had been the one to suggest stopping by in Seoul the last time he’d travelled home to see his mother and beg some of her home cooking to ease some of the homesickness he always felt when he returned to the mainland.
“I still don’t think Yoongi’s actually a tentacle monster.” He finally mumbles, already half asleep, neither of them willing to hang up first. “I think you’re just messing around with me because Jimin has a kink.”
“Oh, Jimin’s definitely got a kink, but no, not this time.” Seokjin half agrees. It’s never been much of a secret that their tiny baker friend has always been a little more open with his affections in the past. Since settling in with the bakery and Yoongi and Blobfish, he’s settled down, but some of the things he says whenever it’s just he and Seokjin have him curling his nose- because really, there is such a thing as knowing too much when it comes to how those two work out. “That’s not why I said it though. Also, I don’t think it’s entirely impossible that Yoongi is ace. I should ask him the next time I see him.”
“Or you don’t do that and just leave him alone.” Namjoon snorts, amused. “You’re too nosy for your own good sometimes, hyung.”
Or something. He thinks, thoughts immediately drifting to the matter that it was less he was nosy about everyone else and more that the universe seemed intent to stick its nose into his business and send weird shit to follow him around in the form of clingy seals and deep-sea cryptids.
“Well, yes.” He finally laughs, a little airy. “But you love it. How else would I have been able to get you out of your shell at all of those parties?”
“I’m not going to say anything to that.” Namjoon says, a little too quick. “But mm, I do love you.”
His eyes are barely cracked open now, features already relaxing with the quiet words. Seokjin’s chest feels soft, soft, soft, looking at the absolute vision he makes. Aborts mission when he realizes he’s probably making heart eyes a little too strongly, shoving those feelings back into the box he’s always kept carefully closed when it comes to Kim Namjoon.
“Go to sleep, Joon-ah. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” Seokjin says softly, warm.
“Mm, ‘kay. Love you, hyung.”
“Love you too, Joon-ah.”
-
After letting Taehyung hang out on board once, it’s hard to say no a second time.
Not that he really could; it’s like the seal’s taken it to mean blanket permission to continue coming aboard indefinitely. Every morning now begins with Seokjin boating out to one of his usual haunts- within a matter of minutes, the seal appears out of the water in the form of a too-intelligent pair of eyes and a wide, twitching nose.
It’s hard to say no to that kind of power. Especially when Taehyung swims and twists elegantly around the boat, playfully nipping at the netting when Seokjin tries to haul it back up out of the water.
And, okay- maybe Seokjin’s been a little depressed, a little sad even, as of late. Taehyung is a breath of fresh air in comparison to the sulking he’s been doing, willing to hop up on deck and shift into a still too-shameless naked man, on occasion lying his pelt out or handing it off to Seokjin to hold while he reluctantly pulls on the extra clothing he’d started bringing for Taehyung specifically.
Yoongi knit a sweater- a cardigan, actually- for Taehyung in a matter of hours, pressing it into Seokjin’s arms and ignoring the way he sputtered indignantly as he shoved him back out the door of the bakery and sticking his tongue out at him when he refused to unlock the door to let him back in. The tentacled man is clearly protective over the seal-man; in the next week, Seokjin finds him in the Coral Crumble or wandering around their quiet corner of the island with the ajummas, every single one of them delighted by such a polite boy with such a pretty smile.
Seokjin doesn’t ask about the scars or the marks he catches glimpses of. It’s none of his business, even if Taehyung flushes and seems torn between showing them off and hiding them away under the layers of clothing he quickly becomes accustomed to while he’s on board.
(He still doesn’t really know what to make of the oddly lovestruck way that Taehyung looks at him. He tries to tell himself that it’s nothing, but he suspects it’s more than that.)
Taehyung probably knows more about Seokjin’s life than Seokjin does at this point. He tells him about Namjoon in between the comfortable silences. That they’d originally met through a friend of a friend at the same university, back before he’d finished a degree he’d wound up discarding anyway when he came to Jeju Island. The way that they’d been dorm mates, then roommates- almost something else, Seokjin thinks but doesn’t say aloud. How he’d come to Jeju Island in part because Jimin- former friend of a friend- was already here, his uncle, the cottage. Setting up roots here to support himself and giving up some of the creature comforts being on the mainland had afforded him.
In turn, Taehyung tells him he’s the only one left in these waters. There are seals, certainly, Seokjin’s seen them packed onto rocky outcroppings and the beaches from the boat. But they aren’t like Taehyung. Don’t shed their pelts to walk on land like he does, don’t want him near their pups. He doesn’t mind it so much anymore- he’s happier to have found company in the odd little hodge podge of a group that Jimin and Yoongi and Blobfish and Seokjin have given him. That he’d seen him boating and that he looked lonely. Mumbles something else under his breath and blushes, burying his face into the hem of his sweater as Seokjin tries to find the words to gently let him down.
He never quite seems to manage to, funnily enough.
Yoongi always stares at him a little too knowingly, on those days.
(Seokjin has to remind himself that he would rather not take the risk of Jimin’s, Blobfish’s, or the knitting club’s wrath if he were to strangle him.)
Life goes on. Seokjin talks to Namjoon, finds out that the younger man is tentatively planning to come visit Jeju Island at the end of term. After he graduates, of course, when he doesn’t have any commitments or anywhere to be and can just simply enjoy a break from the non-stop load of being in the city and working on a degree and living a life that Seokjin knows of but hasn’t gotten to witness for himself.
Taehyung becomes a frequent visitor to the shore and their quieter part of the island. The locals become familiar with the seal that noses into the wakes of their boats, coos over the little ones who come to the bakery to see Yoongi but now also the man with the sun-dappled skin and whiskers who is all too willing to play with them until their eyes are barely open, deposited back into their grateful parents’ arms.
He’s thriving, glowing under the bond he has with Jimin- his “soulmate”, according to the tiny baker. Yoongi doesn’t seem at all concerned by it, but then again, Yoongi and Jimin have sort of adopted the seal into their little family unit in order to teach him all of the things deemed Very Important.
(For Yoongi, this means showing Taehyung every single soft thing that he can get his hands and tentacles on, dragging an eager Taehyung around the shops and to the knitting club ajummas so that they can show him all of the soft things that they can think of too.)
“You know, seals only shed their skins for certain people.” Yoongi comments one day to Seokjin, eyes as fathomlessly intense as they always are as he hands over another pair of socks in exchange for kelp. “I know you have heard the stories.”
He does.
They might be on an island, half removed from what feels like most of the world, but Seokjin still has access to the internet, still knows of partial myths and stories and songs his uncle and grandparents had told him as a child out on the water. He’d looked up selkies a few days into Taehyung’s arrival on the island. Read everything he could find about them, trying to find something that didn’t end in tragedy or couldn’t be translated- English was a bitch of a language on a good day, let alone trying to translate some of the pages through Papago and mouthing along words he’s fairly sure aren’t actually real words at all.
Acknowledging anything regarding feelings feels like too much- regardless how close he’s becoming to the sweet, kind man who returns to the sea. It feels unfair.
It’s only made worse by the fact he knows Taehyung knows, but the seal-man doesn’t comment on it. Treats him all the same, even if there’s something to his gaze when he looks at Seokjin that makes something in his chest ache.
And yet. Seokjin’s traitorous mind whispers.
And yet, and yet, and yet.