Taekjoo had spent a whole month in Russia and he wanted to go back to Korea, it was cold and terrible everyday. Everyone was rude and arrogant, he just wanted Korea.
Nothing was the same as in Korea. Nikolai had noticed how Taekjoo was not looking the best, he didn't know if it was because of the whole Aiko thing or he just wasn't well but over the month he had been throwing up, coughing a bit and just overall unwell, but his energy was the same as always, always lively, jumping around, looking at things, running when needed, it was just those odd times where everything went down hill.
—
Walking into the room that accommodated Taekjoo, Nikolai heard the flow of more vomit. After coming to Russia and leaving Korea he's been unwell and Nikolai thinks it's because Taekjoo regrets his choices or maybe because he's not near the ocean.
Nikolai made his way to the bathroom and saw Taekjoo bent over the toilet. Nikolai sat down on the bathtub and just waited for Taekjoo to feel better.
"Just gonna sit there and look pretty?" Taekjoo angrily asked Nikolai, who was startled, looked at Taekjoo, not really knowing what to do for him.
"I was just gonna let you… do your thing" Nikolai said, his voice softer than normal. Nikolai wasn't the type of person to know what to do when someone was sick or unwell, he more left it for someone else, like his sister or mother, but this time they weren't here.
Taekjoo leaned back onto the wall beside him, glaring up at Nikolai, letting out a breath before speaking about something he didn't want to.
"I regret saying that to Aiko" Taekjoo mumbled, just enough so Nikolai could understand him.
"Yeah, I can see that," Nikolai said, nodding at Taekjoo's comments.
"Ugh, when I said I hated everything to do with the ocean I forgot that included her and in the spare of the moment I said yes but I didn't mean to!" Taekjoo brought his hands up to his face, covering his eyes making sure Nikolai couldn't see that he was sobbing to himself, but Nikolai saw the slight tremor in Taekjoo's body as he cried.
"Take your hands off your eyes for a second" Nikolai said, sitting down on the floor carefully, Taekjoo did and Nikolai saw the redness of his eyes, the way his eyebrows drooped, it was a pitiful sight, knowing Taekjoo was someone who wouldn't normally cry.
Nikolai sat back and let Taekjoo cry, letting him vent his worries and woo's. It took about an hour but it needed to be done or he would bottle it all up until he couldn't anymore and Nikolai didn't want him to do that.
Once Taekjoo was finished he finally looked Nikolai in the face, laughing at himself slightly.
"This isn't a laughing matter" Nikolai joked, trying to smooth things over for the meantime.
"Yeah you're right, but the next thing is, I hate it in Russia, when can I go back to Korea?" Taekjoo became serious, actually wanting to know.
"We can push the date up to friday" Nikolai suggested.
"Number date?" Taekjoo then asked.
"4th… so two days" Nikolaio replied. Taekjoo nodded and left it at that, happy he'll be returning to Korea soon.
Nikolai stood up, taking Taekjoo's hands into his and slowly guiding Taekjoo to stand once more, letting go of one of his hands Nikolai took Taekjoo to down to the kitchen to let him eat, as he was being homesick and completely forgotten to eat over the last week.
Sitting him down on a stool near the counter, Nikolai started making food, Anastasia, Nikolai's sister, watching them carefully, she still didn't trust Taekjoo, Nikolai didn't know why but she did. She finally stood, her long bright blonde hair falling down her back as she took her hair out of her ponytail. Her hair was much brighter than Nikolai's own hair, but their eyes were much of the same colour.
"Let me do it" she angrily said, bumping Nikolai away from the food. Finally Anastasia was speaking something Taekjoo could understand, aka Korean, but how did she know Korean…. 'How does Nikolai know Korean?' came to Taekjoo's mind, concluding that maybe their mother taught them.
Anastasia looked at Nikolai and muttered something, making him roll his eyes and go to Taekjoo's side, also sitting on one of the wooded stools.
Taekjoo glanced at Nikolai who simply smiled at him, glancing at his sister who was quickly making the food, soon sliding a plate over to both boys with a delicious looking meal on it. Taekjoo's eyes brightened, finding a fork and knife next to his hand he dug in. Nikolai waited for a moment before also eating.
Anastasia started a light hearted conversation with Nikolai, allowing Taekjoo to join in, he did. The room became a small safe haven for all three kids in that moment.
The two scheduled days had passed and they were returning to Korea, Taekjoo was jumping for joy.
Boarding the plane Taekjoo couldn't stay in his seat.
"Someone's excited" Nikolai mentioned, giggling at how excited Taekjoo was, the look in his eyes could make anyone think Nikolai was in love with Taekjoo. Well maybe he is.
A flight attendant walked past, giving both boys a warm smile and asking what they would like, Nikolai asking for both him and Taekjoo. Handing Taekjoo some chicken while Nikolai took a bowl of noodles.
Taekjoo happily took the food while Nikolai was already deep into eating his noodles, the flavour was just right, not too much, but not too low on flavour. Just right.
While Taekjoo on the other hand had already finished his chicken.
The flight to Taekjoo felt like it took forever but to Nikolai it didn't take that much time at all. But finally Taekjoo stepped foot back into Korea, gosh he loved it!
"Wow, i've actually never seen you so excited" Nikolai mumbled as he walked past Taekjoo, walking out into the fresh air Taekjoo breathed it in, letting the fresh Korean air into his lungs. He was being dramatic but he didn't really care, he was home.
Nikolai walked past, spotting his car and getting in, beckoning Taekjoo over with a swift motion. Taekjoo jogged his way over, heavily sitting in the car and letting out a happy breath of relief, Nikolai drove them back to his messy, chaotic house.
Walking in was like walking into a dumpster.
"We are cleaning this, Nikolai" Taekjoo said to him, glancing toward him, Nikolai nodded, walking in and getting straight to it. Firstly the papers scattered along the floor and counters. Picking up one paper that was discarded on the floor, it didn't look important, Nikolai didn't actually know what it was, placing the other papers down on the counter, he looked at it closer. It was most of the information about Aiko he had found, he stopped cleaning just to read it.
Taekjoo looked up from putting trash in the bin, seeing how focused Nikolai was.
"What's that?" Taekjoo asks, oblivious to what it actually is.
"Aiko's a Tanaka" Nikolai said, a calm shock on his face.
"I know this" Taekjoo said, taking the paper away from Nikolai, looking closer at the paper is showed most of Aiko's family, looking closer Aiko's father, Kenji Tanaka, had a brother, who had kids… these kids was Taekjoo and Sangwoo.
"Their-" Taekjoo cut himself off.
"Their those Tanaka's, your family" Nikolai finished the sentence, now Taekjoo was overthinking a bit, wasn't he just a siren though, how the fuck is he related to the Tanaka family, their mermaids and he's a siren.
"What!" Taekjoo took a closer look, that indeed was his dad and under him was younger versions of himself and Sangwoo, before their father died. Taekjoo handed the paper back to Nikolai, unable to accept the fact that he and Aiko were related. Nikolai took a closer look at the paper, the faint writing of 'twins' sat between Kenji and Taekjoo's dad, but his fathers name was smudged.
"You didn't know!?" Nikolai asked, his blue eyes now fixated on Taekjoo.
"No I didnt fucking know, how the fuck was I meant to know!" Taekjoo yelled back at Nikolai, both men were stressing, things were getting worse and worse for Taekjoo, he wondered if things were getting better or worse for Aiko.
"Let's just calm down for a moment" Nikolai said, shifting through the other papers he had picked up and pulling out the one that said 'family' on the top. Looking at the long line of family members. Taekjoo was definitely there, the spouses of the blood relieves were not there, but pictures of the blood relieves were clearly displayed. Kenji and Taekjoo's father were identical twins, their faces had the same shape, their noses were the same, everything was the same.
Looking down at the panicking siren, Nikolai let out a sigh, kneeling down and helping Taekjoo up to hopefully ground him a bit. Blue eyes met the mismatched purple and orange eyes, Nikolai nodded a bit, getting Taekjoo to also nod, thankfully he did, giving out a small nod and licking his lips and looking around a little.
They both stand straight up, Nikolai lets Taekjoo go and looks around at the still messy house.
"Welp, we should continue cleaning the room" Nikolai muttered, Taekjoo nodded and got right to it. Taekjoo had found a box and in the end used that for things like papers, books and folders, it wasn't perfect but it wasn't bad either.
Next, Taekjoo was chosen to take all the dirty clothes, blankets and other fabric items to the dry cleaners, with no knowledge on how to get it working he bashed the buttons and actually got it working. While Nikolai was rearranging things in the house, he now wishes he set the couch cushions with Taekjoo but he left them outside in the pool full of water and soap, leaving the manual labor for Taekjoo when he chose to return, lucky it was a nice day.
The day actually turned out pretty good, ignoring the small hurdle of the whole family thing they got Nikolai's house looking amazing.
"It's like I've got a new house" Nikolai mentions, but Taekjoo hadn't looked in other rooms, like the laundry, bedrooms, bathrooms and other rooms, when walking into the laundry he now knew why Nikolai sent him to the dry cleaners in the city.
"You've gotta be kidding me?" Taekjoo angrily says, twisting around to glare at Nikolai.
"I'll leave that for you… have fun!" Nikolai rushed off, wanting to work on the bedrooms so they actually had a place to sleep tonight.
After cleaning and hanging the laundry on the line outside, Taekjoo notices how late it actually is.
"Nikolai!!" Taekjoo calls out, bringing in certain items from the clothes line that were dry and neatly folding them and placing them back where they should be.
"What- oh it's late" Nikolai also immediately notices, walking more into the room he pulls his phone out and goes to order takeout.
"what are you doing?" Taekjoo questions.
"Ordering takeout, what do you want?" Nikolai asks, scrolling through all the delicious foods, his mouth watering as he looks at it.
"Dont-" Taekjoo opens the fridge door "nevermind" Taekjoo then says, releasing that Nikolai actually has no food in his house, like he has nothing whatsoever.
"Tomorrow's plans are buying food" Taekjoo plans, leaving no room for Nikolai to argue, he does anyways.
"But why? I'm not here half the time anyways" Nikolai looks away from his phone, looking over his shoulder to glance at Taekjoo.
"You'll be accommodating me dipshit, I'm not going back to Russia" Taekjoo swears, making it plain and clear Russia was off the table for him. Nikolai let out a groan and just ordered takeout anyways, placing his phone down, strutting over to Taekjoo and closing the fridge door. With an eye roll Taekjoo went to the couch and sat down.
The wait for the food surprisingly didn't take two thousand years, hearing the small ring of the door bell Nikolai basically sprung up and bolting for the door, a small exchange of words was made before he returned with hot, delicious smelling food for the both of them, unpacking the small plastic bag of items, steaming hot clean plastic containers emerged from the bag, carefully placing the small boxes down, Taekjoo took what he knew was his and digged in, not even letting Nikolai finish getting their food out.
"Fuck slow down, you'll chock" Nikolai warned, in the end Taekjoo did chock a little, letting out a small cough and hitting his chest a bit to help with it he continued his eating, not learning his lesson.
After the feast was finished Taekjoo had nodded off on the couch, while Nikolai was yawning and turning in for the night. Leaving Taekjoo on the couch he went to sleep.
The morning came, getting a harsh slap. Taekjoo woke up.
"Ow!" he expressed, whacking Nikolai back who was laughing. "Get dressed and we'll leave to get food and other things" Nikolai mentioned.
Taekjoo stopped talking, his face dropping, he didn't have anything other than the clothes on his back at this moment.
"Or we buy new things" Nikolai mentioned, sensing Taekjoo's emotions.
"That sounds like a good idea," Taekjoo said, finally getting up. Both boys eyed the keys before bolting to them, Taekjoo got to them first, throwing his arms up with the small jingle of the keys as they fall back down on his fingers, Taekjoo cheering and already heading toward the small blue car out front. With a swift motion it was unlocked and Taekjoo was in the driver's seat, with Nikolai sitting in the passenger seat scared for his car's future.
"Let's go!" Taekjoo happily said, pulling out of the small driveway and heading toward the nearest shopping mall, they were close to where they had departed from Aiko, sadly that beach was near where they last saw her but they didn't really know if they should touch on that subject, so they didn't.
The topic was still a touchy subject for Taekjoo in general.
The shopping mall was busy with people, families laughing and joking, mothers pulling their kids along as they looked at some new toy that's on sale, teenagers hanging out, buying food and most likely gossiping. Taekjoo mourns the fact he couldn't do that himself, knowing Nikolai the guy was probably use to all of this, but Taekjoo wasn't, he was locked up as a kid to a teenager then immediately went into the NIS so he didn't get this type of freedom he has now.
Nikolai knocked him out of his thoughts when he grabbed Taekjoo and pulled, taking him into a clothing shop, the clothes were dull but just right for Taekjoo, picking random shirts and pants that looked like they went on a small fashion show, it was funny.
Now leaving Taekjoo is holding about four bags, two bags in each hand.
"Now food!" Nikolai happily barked, skipping his way over to the general food shop, Taekjoo stomped his way on over, grabbing a trolley and placing his mountain of bags inside then joining Nikolai on his adventure, it was a simple shop, most of the time both boys liked the same thing.
Walking back out, the fresh area sheeping across their faces and blowing their hair out of their faces, for once in his life he felt freedom, he didn't know he needed this type of freedom before it was weird to him, he didn't know whether he liked it or hated it. Being a normal civilian was weird, but he was getting used to it.
Getting back home, silence filled the house, Nikolai was putting away the food they had bought while Taekjoo was putting away the clothes, most of them didn't fit in the cupboard, so he just made a neat pile on the floor, pants on one side and shirts on the other.
Flopping onto the bed Nikolai had let him use, he felt at peace, his freedom was given back to him, he could finally lean back and relax. His eyes grew heavy and he finally nodded off, not caring what happens after he falls asleep.