"…Haha."
Jihan looked down at the currently fainted Hyesung, whose head was resting on his lap and wondered about how this happened. Hyesung's face had few bruises here and there, from the current fight he went through, but he still looked dandy enough to charm girls.
Nonetheless, Jihan felt grateful for Kim Hyesung's presence right now, after all if it wasn't for him he might would have suffered back there.
Jihan had leisurely walked up to the castle like structure named Atlantis knowing their would be nobody there.
'But oh boy was I wrong.'
Not only the Atlantis had human presence but it had a considerable amount of it, not to mention they were not your regular people, they were actually wearing military uniform.
"I am sure there was no mention of military being in that place, how is it possible?"
Jihan was easily found by the soldiers and he swam for his life, it was when he was about to be caught by one of them that he felt something shooting away the soldier's hand that was reaching to grab his leg, afterwards he had watched dumbstruck as Hyesung had appeared out of nowhere and pushed the approaching soldiers with a slash of his sword that seemed to work like a sonic wave and had pushed both parties far away from each other like a double edged sword.
Hyesung and the other soldiers who was closest to the slash seemed to have fainted giving Jihan a perfect opportunity to escape.
'Aish but leaving him there after he helped me pricked my conscience.'
Thus Jihan had dragged Hyesung and hid here while he waited for him to wake up wondering where his judgement went wrong.
If such large group of people remained in a place together, they were bound to leave some evidence of their presence. But in the novel, Hyesung had found no evidence instigating human presence.
Jihan wondered that by what some method were they able to stay underground, they were also able to erase their very history, atleast for a human to find in the novel
'It wasn't just a compliment on their abilities,'
Jihan wondered which constellation backed these guys, afterall this work would be impossible without a constellation interfering.
It was already weird for them to be able to breathe inside water while also being able to maintain a sense of gravity.
Jihan's eyes turned cold.
'Is it Poseidon?'
"Huu."
Jihan had no evidence, but still he kept the possibility of it alive in his mind while considering other situations as he lightly stroked Hyesung's hair in a circular motion feeling as if he was running his hand through the cloud.
'che, this dog man has such soft hair.'
Jihan thought to himself as he gave a harsh tug to Hyesung's hair and watched in satisfaction as his peaceful face was now frowning slightly.
Jihan had never liked either of the main characters in the very typical romance novel named, 'The President's white lotus bunny'. They seemed to have this rose tinted glasses made for each other and collected people in a way that seemed idealistic for their little world.
Jihan remembered the numerous characters who might have had a bright future had they just stayed away from the main characters who had just uselessly used them to enhance their own romance plot.
'But such was the fate of cannon fodders in a novel.'
Just like right now,
It made no sense that Kim Hyesung had ended up in a middle of the sea. Even Jihan had to make a deal with Poseidon to enter this place, what could even explain Hyesung's presence here right now.
"..fucking plot devices."
Jihan watched as Hyesung's eyes fluttered open. He seemed to be in a daze as he stared at Jihan with his as defined-in-the-novel, 'dreamy-eyes'.
"...mermaids exist?"
Jihan slapped the novel's big-time protagonist out of pure reflex.
"Ack!"
And it was by no means light.
................
Hyesung looked at the teenager who was rummaging through his bag to find something while rubbing his stinging cheek and wondered why he seemed so familiar.
'...was he a model or an idol something?'
The boy was a mixed race and for some reason seemed to have taken the most eye catching features of each race, and while he was kinda lean he didn't have a bone of femininity in his entire aura.
'....it's a weird aura.'
That was all Hyesung could define it as.
"How did you get here?"
It took a while for Hyesung to realise that he was talking to him.
"..a-ah well the child I was taking care of seemed to have run over here, he was being mischievous, I entered with him."
Hyesung decided to not tell the identity of this 'child' for now and looked Jihan who seemed to have frozen for some reason while he was eating the green coloured seeds.
'Fuck no way.'
Jihan scowled inwardly, while chewing saunf harshly.
'Is he dumb? he picked up a child? In the middle of such a dangerous situation? How did he even find one??'
"Ah- is that so. Where is the child now?"
At Jihan's words Hyesung flinched, making Jihan freeze.
'Don't tell me it left you alone because it realised you are a big idiot, not like i could argue.'
"H-he was kidnapped."
"...What?"
Hyesung then looked up at Jihan with big watery eyes.
"The soldiers took him away in some way."
Hyesung confessed as he dropped his face in his hands, while there were several question marks in Jihan's head.
'Who the fuck is this kid? Fuck he forgot it's the protagonist of course he would randomly pick a overpowered child out of nowhere, This happy-go-lucky sobbing baby.'
"..Let's work together."
Hyesung looked up at Jihan's word who had a smile on his face.
"I have a quest I need to complete here, I have to get an apple from here- we can save the -baby too. There is no need to be so discouraged."
Hyesung gently held Jihan's hand and nodded heavily.
"Yes! I will take responsibility!"
"....."
'Don't say it this way you dog.'
Jihan scolded Hyesung inwardly.
Looking around at all the water himself Jihan felt a strange sense of being at home, instantly calming his turmoil of emotions.
"Huu."
According to Poseidon, time slowed here, so 3 days on land is 6 days here.
'I have 4 days to get the apple and get out of here to reach the main quest.'
Jihan calculated
'It must be same for him too.'
Jihan nodded to himself and then wondered where the apple might be when suddenly a thought hit his head with a bang.
'..what the fuck am I doing? I have the protagonist with me!'
Jihan looked at Hyeusng with a bright smile who seemed to have shivered for some reason.
'How can I forget this is a novel! Wherever the protagonist goes, there will be apples, dragons, swords, etc. lined up!'
"Hyesung-ssi."
"Y-yes?"
"Where do you think where I will find an apple, it's a special one."
"Um, that- if its special then in a private greenhouse?"
Jihan gave a bright smile to the big buddha like existence called Kim Hyesung.
"Hehe, I am sure you are right since your words are gold."
Kim Hyesung shivered uncontrollably.