Chapter 9

Yoongi looks at the figure laying down in front of his eyes, dead. He contemplates whether he should be revealed that it wasn't his brother whom the arrow had pierced into or alarmed for it was the crown prince laying dead.

Yoongi then realizes, they are surrounded with the dead bodies of human soldiers and all the mermen that had attacked the palace were gone. It was only the dead crown prince, Jungkook and him in the big palace.

'Hyung?' Jungkook glances over at Yoongi, stepping away from the crown prince's dead body, a hint of horror across his face. 'He did not want the - '

"Throne," Yoongi calls out loud. His voice reverberating across the empty palace. "He does want it Jungkook. We made a mistake. Lalisa is not in the sea! Where is the king?"

"Father?" Jungkook asks.

"Both of them. Father would definitely go after the land king. We need to stop him." Yoongi sprints in the direction of where he saw the lady in snow white colored hanbok go with a woman, who Yoongi can only guess to be the land queen.

How did I even believe Wook's made up story?! If Wook had to kill her, he would have done it the day he saw her in the village! Lalisa is safe. She has to be! Wook knows no one can save merfolk or even humans from the shark devil except for Lalisa! And even if she is someplace far from us, Wook wouldn't dare kill her. And I doubt Wook does not know that the shark devil will eliminate him once he is done with Lalisa. Wook knows that. Any brainless ignorant creature would know that!

Yoongi runs as fast as his legs could take him.

We can't let the human realm disappear just like that. If the Joseon king dies and the reason is merfolk, no human empire would help merfolk. No one would believe us. Yuan, Wakoku would be the witnesses to the world of Wook's sins. And Wook, ultimately, is a merman.

The world will not differentiate between a good merman and an evil merman. The merfolk, for the human world, will be monsters.

Yoongi can see the frightened humans running away from the palace. They already think of merfolk to be monsters who killed their crown prince and soldiers.

As far as Yoongi knows, the land king had only two sons. One was dead in the past and another, killed today. Yoongi is least concerned with who will ascend the throne after the land king with both of his sons dead. All he is thinking about right now, is protecting both, humans and his merfolk. Human king being his priority.

"Jungkook!" Yoongi calls out to his younger brother following behind him. "I can feel Lalisa near us! She is within reach! Find her! And tell father to stay where he is. I don't want merfolk king to be involved in land's royal family murder. It's an order!" Yoongi commands his confused brother, leaving no room for any argument.

Jungkook obeys without questioning his hyung. He trusts his hyung with his life.

Rose wraps her hands around Lalisa's neck, revealed.

"Thank heavens you are alright! You scared us!" Rose whisper screams, holding Lalisa's arms and scanning her face, then her body.

"I scared me too." Lalisa sighs.

"How - where - Prince - "

"Slow down." Lalisa smiles. Lalisa herself hadn't expected to see Rose or anyone's face after finding herself in that barrel. If it wasn't for the green eyed man...

Lalisa decides to tell Rose where she was and what had happened later.

The moment she had stepped on land, she planned on running off to Rose's house. But she knew the green eyed man might follow. She had waited for whole two minutes when someone came running to the green eyed man and had announced something that made his face go pale. It was for the first time she had seen something near to horror and fear in his beautiful green eyes.

The green eyed man and the man with a warm simle had already helped her a lot. In fact they had saved her life! Lalisa did not want to intrude any further and had ran off to Rose's house.

The first thing she had asked when she reached was about the little mermaid. She relaxed only when Rose told her that the prince had found her, and she was safe. But they did not know where the 7th prince was.

Jackson had immediately went to the palace to inform the prince about Lalisa.

"His majesty - "

"Father." Lalisa interrupts Rose. "Did Jungkook hyung worry him by informing him about me?"

"He was already on the land. His majesty with all the prince's are here, on land. It's a mess. No one has a clue about what is happening. Villagers say, the palace was attacked by mermen. After you went missing, all merpeople were informed to heed towards the palace." Rose tries to explain. Not knowing the sequence of events herself.

"The palace?! Why? Attacked?!"

"I am not sure why. His majesty thinks you were abducted by the land king. I have heard the crown prince and half of the royal family is already dead. I do not know how much of it is rumor and - "

"No! Take me there! Father has to stop! I am fine." Lalisa's eyes widen at the thought of her father getting furious and killing innocents to find his daughter.

"Wait, even I do not know if whatever I said is true. These are the things I heard from people. This might not even be true."

Lalisa had expected a lot of things. But her father attacking the palace never crossed her mind.

Before Lalisa could make any decision or think about running to her father, the familiar cries reach her ears and she looks at the direction of the door, expecting her Jungkook hyung to appear.

When no one enters the house, she strides to the door impatiently only to stop and look at the little mermaid at her door, wrapped in a red cloth, looking up at her. Her watery eyes twinkling up at her in the moonlight.

"Hyung?!" She calls out. She picks up the little mermaid in her arms, looking at Rose, gesturing her to take her to the tub of water.

Rose does as said and watches Lalisa get out of the house just in time to stop her, "Lalisa! Please!"

"Wasn't she supposed to be with Jungkook hyung? Where is he?" She asks looking back at Rose urgently, wanting to hurry and look for her Jungkook hyung who might have went to the palace leaving the little mermaid behind, obeying their father thinking the king had abducted her.

"Why was she with a human!" The queen comes down the stairs yelling, looking at the little mermaid accusingly. As if the little creature had legs to go to a human by herself.

"A human? Did you not say she was safe with Jungkook hyung?!" Lalisa asks and then covers her face considering the possibility of the little mermaid never being rescued and 'she is safe' being a rumor.

"The human shouldn't have reached far." The queen says eyeing her bow and heeding out of the house.

It takes Lalisa and Rose five whole seconds to realize that the queen mother that shot the human who was with the little mermaid.

Rose looks at Lalisa worried.

"Well, if he tortured my little sister, he deserves whatever punishment the queen gives him," Lalisa shrugs. "And I witnessed everything. They way they pierced needles into her just for some pearls, and...." she trails off.

"Forgive me to speak against her majesty and your highness," Rose bows. "but, if that human bought her back to us, does that not mean he saved her?"

Lalisa ponders over it and shakes her head, "Why abduct her in first place?"

"What if - " Rose gives up explaining and begs Lalisa to stop her majesty. They cannot afford someone else missing, not the queen.

Even if whatever Rose had heard was a rumor, Rose knew the news about the little mermaid being in safe hands was true. If the little mermaid was not with the prince, she certainly had to be with someone the prince trusted. And if that was the case, the queen was just about to kill someone trusted by the prince.

Jimin looks down at the little mermaid, his eyes moving rapidly across her face, glued to the place where he saw Lalisa with the youngest prince and then heard the scandal about the crown prince's death.

"Jihyun..." he whispers.

Jimin did not know what the little mermaid's name was. This afternoon, he was looking at her beautiful tail, and talking with her - although she couldn't speak and did not pay attention to whatever Jimin asked or said. She just laughed when her little brain thought Jimin was funny, even when he was serious.

Jimin was talking to himself, and he knew it. He kept blabbering things like - "What do you eat? What do you play? Who do you play with? Do you like me? Am I good friend? No one has ever come into my house before and you have got the privilege of not only coming in but also staying for a few days! What is your name? What should I call you? You don't even talk. And how will you? You are so...small. Even if you have a name, I don't know what it is. Jungkook - your father - didn't even tell me what your name was. If I am going to look after you for a few days, if nothing else, I at least have the right to know your name. I don't even know what's going on. I just know he has gone to search his sister... And I hope she is safe and he finds her. So that you all can go back to the sea. I promise I won't tell anyone that I saw a mermaid and a merman. People are bad these days, you know? How would you know... Let me think of a name for you. When you go back to the sea, you will have at least a name given by me as a memory. Even if I don't like mermen... Jungkook seems to be a good merman, I hope he is... Umm, how about... Jihyun? I had a sister... Her name was Jihyun. She was beautiful... Just like you" Jimin had said and smiled to the creature in his arms.

He had prayed for nothing bad to happen, for Jungkook to be a good merman. And here he was, listening to the villagers about the death of their crown prince.

He had hoped for it to be only a rumor. But he kept feeling it was anything but a rumor.

What is he supposed to do? He knows, if the crown prince is dead, then there are a lot of mermen on land already. He knows it's too late now. It's going to happen again.

No. I must save them. I can't let this happen. I cannot let any child suffer like I did. No one deserves to live like I lived. No one deserves loneliness. They cannot just kill the families!

"Jihyun... I hope Jungkook is a good merman and is not involved in any of this. Whatever I am about to do... it's..." Jimin does not complete whatever he was about to say and instead pulls the little mermaid closer to his chest and goes in the opposite direction of where the prince went.

Jimin reaches Rose's house and stops at the doorstep.

"Did Jungkook hyung worry him by informing him about me?" Jimin hears a familiar voice ask. Jungkook hyung? It hits Jimin that Jungkook had told him his sister was missing and now he was hearing Lalisa talk about Jungkook. But there could be a lot of people named Jungkook.

Jimin decides to eavesdrop.

"He was already on the land. His majesty with all the prince's are here, on land. It's a mess. No one has a clue about what is happening. Villagers say, the palace was attacked by mermen. After you went missing, all merpeople were informed to heed towards the palace." The next voice that he hears makes his knees go weak. Rose?

Jimin suddenly feels like all the pieces falling right into their places and he shivers. Lalisa had went missing. And... Jungkook is her brother. Jungkook had been looking for Lalisa. She is a... princess? A mermaid princess...? Jungkook... the prince. And, the king and the prince's have attacked the palace...

Jungkook... he is not what Jimin had thought was.

Jimin looks down at Jihyun, a tear drop flowing down his right cheek.

"I was wrong Jihyun." He tries to whisper but his voice seems to not come out.

He bends to put her down by the doorstep of Rose's house, a sense of betrayal by his only friends in this world making him shiver.

Rose, Lalisa, Jackson, they are all...

Why did you lie to me? I had only you...

Jimin still couldn't believe what he had just heard. The creatures he loathed the most were his friends and he had no clue. They have been lying to him, betraying him since day one!

Rose said Lalisa was from Yuan. That was a lie too.

Jimin steps back, and keeps stepping backward till he stumbles on his own foot and then starts running away shaking his head, his cheeks wet with the tears he had been shedding.

Liar!

I trusted you!

You were my only friends!

You took advantage -

Jimin's thoughts are interrupted when he feels a sharp pain shoot up the calf of his right leg and he falls down to his knees.

He looks back at the blood covering his right leg and the arrow pierced into it.

He looks up at the direction from where the arrow came from, his eyes widening, showing a mixture of horror, disbelief and betrayal.

He looks at the woman standing at the window looking down at him, smirking.

Jimin wastes no time and breaks the stick of the arrow and lets the half broken arrow be in his leg so that it would keep the blood from flowing at least a bit less, hissing in the process.

He gets up and tries to run as fast as his injured leg would allow him now, groaning at the pain, the blood flowing out more as he runs.

Jimin lets his tears flow, his soft cries filing the air.

He finally reaches his farm and enters his house, locking the door behind and sits down removing the half broken arrow from the calf of his right leg, wincing and letting out a loud cry, not because the arrow hurt so much, but because the lies of his friends and the feeling of being betrayed by only people he trusted in this whole world.

He cleans his wound, and covers it.

Jimin rests his head by the wall behind him and lets his tears flow tonight, sitting on the floor, his tears sparkling in the moonlight that slid through the curtains of his window.

Wook looks down at his work smirking. His trident faced downward - which in the merfolk world meant victory after the enemy's death - blood dripping down it. He laughs lowly when he hears footsteps behind him.

"You have done good work," Wook speaks to the mermen who had helped him eliminate the land king by killing his soldiers, "You all shall get your rewards," he gives a devilish lopsided grin looking down at the dead land king, "soon."

"Kneel before your king! Kneel to the - " Wook stops mid sentence when he feels a sharp pain as a sword tears through his heart from the back and comes out from the front of his chest.

He wants to scream in pain but the black that engulfs him just after moments of the sword drawn out of him leaves no energy for even a small moan.

Seokjin looks at the dead bodies of the humans in the palace and then at his father, shocked.

"What happened here?" Sehun whispers looking at the lifeless palace full of dead bodies.

"Jackson?" Seokjin startles looking at the panting and half crouched Jackson behind them.

"Your Majesty," Jackson stands up straight and whatever he was here for or whatever he was going to say, dies in his throat when he see what already is done.

I am too late. Jackson shakes his head.

We proved humans that we are monsters! His Majesty did not even try searching for his daughter and killed the royal family just like that! It's the first time I am ashamed of my own species.

"Hyung?" Sehun asks, looking at mourning Jackson.

Jackson then makes a poker face not looking into anyone's eyes and says, "Lalisa came back. She is fine." And with that he turns around not giving a second glance to the dead crown prince or the sea king and prince's.

A lady in a snow white colored hanbok, who Yoongi had noticed running out of the palace with someone, drops down to her knees looking at something in horror, tears spilling down her cheeks uncontrollably.

Yoongi finds himself wanting to go to her and soothe her.

Albeit having a bigger task at hand, Yoongi stops to see what had caused the beautiful lady look so much in pain.

Yoongi takes slow steps, looking at the men kneeling at some distance in front of the lady.

Yoongi then notices the dead king in fron of the lady and at the far end a familiar lifeless figure laying down with his face pressed in the land.

Wook.

Yoongi's eyes travel up the sword pointing at the ground beside Wook's body and the hard hands clutching it. The man in all black clothes is looking straight at nothing in particular, his jaw clenched tightly, his black hair covering his eyes which Yoongi even without looking into them can tell are deadly.

I am late... He killed the land king. Yoongi sighs frustrated.

The man in all black finally walks towards the lady, kneeling down beside the land king's body, crying her soul out. An aged woman, Yoongi had earlier guessed to be the queen covers her mouth to prevent a sob from spilling her lips.

"Jisso." the queen puts her hand on the lady - Jisso's - shoulder and pulls her closer to her chest.

"Hyung," Jisso looks up at the man in all black, now standing beside her, and holds his palm with both her hands, "Father." she then looks at the king and starts crying even more.

Wait. Father? Hyung?

She is the princess...?

And he is... the prince...?

But...

The prince gestures his men to take the king and they obey.

Jisso stays glued on the spot, crying.

"Jisso," the queen speaks, "Get up." she tries pulling her daughter up with her but fails, "Jisso..." she queen sounds heartbroken.

The prince waits for a moment and then bends down, not sitting wholly and wipes Jisso's tears with both his hands. He pulls her closer to his chest caressing her hair and then puts his right hand under the bend of her knees and left hand under her shoulders and then picks her up lightly.

Jisso rests her head on the prince's shoulder, a new set of tears flowing down her rosy white cheeks.

"Not to palace." Yoongi hears the prince say to one of his men and startles.

Not to the palace? Then where?

"I want them all dead." Is the last thing Yoongi hears the land prince say and something in the land prince's voice makes Yoongi shiver.

Yoongi does not move a inch. He knows they have lost even before the war had begun. Not only the shark devil, now the human world would be against them too.

Yoongi hears someone screaming at some distance and he looks up to find the prince with the queen and the princess already out of sight.

He immediately runs in the direction of the cry, praying no more creatures to be dead, or being murdered.

But Wook's already dead. Even if someone is causing trouble, it wouldn't be any merman.

Much to Yoongi's disappointment and horror, it's not the mermen but two human men harassing a mermaid.

His eyes turn red and he throws his trident at the human slipping his hand under the mermaids hanbok. He strides towards them and the other human plunges himself at Yoongi.

Yoongi pushes him away and starts hitting the human. He hits him not only because he was guilty by what his people did to humans but also because he had wanted to take all his vexation on someone and this human was perfect to -

Human.

Yoongi realizes and gets up from the body of the human.

The man runs away, looking back at Yoongi twice.

Yoongi sits where he was crouched to beat the human, his mind covered with the thoughts of defeat and no hope remaining.

Is this how it ends? My people are suffering because of the deeds of my own family? Our people are suffering and will have to because of their own king and his family? I cannot even protect them knowing what storm is about to hit us!

"I will ascend the human throne after we perform all the death rituals for the crown prince of land, the king of land and his family. Don't let Wook come anywhere near the palace." The sea king announces.

"Father this is not - "

The sea king lifts his hand silencing Namjoon who was about to protest, about to tell his father it isn't the right thing to do.

"If I do not sit there, it would be someone else, and that someone else - I assume wouldn't be the royal blood. He would simply ruin this empire. Kim wouldn't have wanted that."

Namjoon stares at his father in disbelief. He and his brothers have always obeyed their father and never questioned him. They have always felt and they knew all of their father's decisions were right and unquestionable.

Today somehow Namjoon not only felt, but knew something had changed. Something had switched. And his father's decision was wrong.

Outside Rose's house, Jungkook explains a displeased Jackson what exactly had happened at the palace. How Wook succeeded into fooling them and killed the land crown prince.

"I don't know about the king, I am supposed to - "

"It's too late." Jackson, for the first time, cuts off a prince to say something.

Jungkook looks at Jackson baffled.

"Wook killed the royal family." Jackson continues with a poker face, looking far away at nothing in particular.

There's a long pause before Jackson speaks again, "And the little mermaid, some human left her here. I am assuming you - "

"Jimin..." Jungkook whispers and sprints towards the farm.

Jungkook prays Jimin has not misunderstood anything.