"Two black pearls, three pinks," the expert summarised for Wooyoung after going through more oysters than the scientist bothered to count. He received a tiny casket for them, cushioned by a white fabric so his precious findings wouldn't get damaged. Seonghwa chuckled at him when Wooyoung peered inside, full of awe.

"That's more than I expected," Wooyoung noted, pleased with his hunt, though the colours were nothing but plain. They had been cleaned of the ocean smell and clicked against each other in the casket. None was properly round and the dark ones shone in mismatched colours, but he adored their uniqueness.

"Near our city, the oysters strive on energy and light, as well as the leftover nutrients that get washed away by our food waste. Perhaps it's the same blessing that keeps us alive that makes them produce more pearls. We always have plenty at our expense, though few people end the Night of Pearls with a golden prize," Seonghwa elaborated while on their way back to the group. Wooyoung nudged at his pearls, fascinated by how different they were from the fashion jewellery he was used to.

"It's good that they find what they seek after making the effort, but I think it's very risky."

"I agree." Seonghwa looked into the distance, both concerned and proud of his people.

"Did you ever go out there?"

"Oracle, no, I wouldn't dare."

"I noticed you wearing a golden pearl, though," Wooyoung noted, sharp in his senses. His gaze found Seonghwa's pale neck at the same time as the man's hand that came to thumb at the shining accessory.

"This was gifted to me. It was my choice to accept it, but since a lot of effort went into retrieving it, I appreciated it was done with me in mind."

Wooyoung preferred that view over a mindless display of strength and stupidity.

"Who gave it to you?"

A smile played around Seonghwa's lips as his fingertip ran over the smooth surface of the golden pearl. He reminisced a moment of the past, and it glinted in his eyes with warm fondness.

"Hongjoong."

Wooyoung made a sound of disbelief before he could stop himself. When Seonghwa glared down at him playfully, he waved his hands around to play it off.

"I believe you! I just can't imagine him doing anything nice. Or to go through that much danger for someone else." Now that his curiosity was piqued, Wooyoung couldn't help but dig deeper. What was their relationship for Hongjoong to do such things for Seonghwa? Was the grumpy prince looking to woo the delicate diplomat?

This information made Hongjoong even hotter in Wooyoung's eyes. The big, bad leader was soft for the guy who looked like a pearl. Who would have guessed?

Unless it had been a polite gift to show his dedication as a ruler. Seonghwa held the strings of the people in his hands and a beckon of his hand could unify them against their chieftain. If Hongjoong wanted to secure his future on the throne, he would do wisely trying for a good relationship with Seonghwa.

"Hongjoong is a good man behind that rough exterior. He isn't fond of strangers, but he respects those who prove themselves to him."

Wooyoung bit his tongue before he could drop a cheeky question about how Seonghwa had proved himself to Hongjoong. A moment later, they rejoined their group, and the matter disappeared in the back of his mind.

"I have pearls for you!" Wooyoung cheered, jumping between them with a purposeful whip of his head so his wet hair sent water spraying everywhere. Kiko cursed at him, but her eyes immediately started glinting when he snapped his casket open.

"Everyone take one! I got enough for you all."

Like a bunch of excited kids, the other scientists huddled around him to fight for the prettiest pearl. Kiko and Yongguk wanted black, of course. Petra was more than happy with a pink one. Yeosang, ever the pushover, took the second one. The one stuck in the corner remained for Wooyoung, basic and uneven in its shape, but pretty for how natural it was.

"What do you say?" Wooyoung asked with a voice like cotton candy and cupped his hand over his ear. A chorus of thanks and eye-rolls answered him and he drank them up like fine wine.

"You're welcome," he replied once he was satisfied.

Seonghwa snickered at their antics, delighted to see them bickering without the typical scientific seriousness. He was about to ask something relating to the matter when yet another commotion near the entrance had them turn their heads. Similar to last time, people called all over each other and parted around a point of interest. This time, however, the mood was different.

Girls squealed.

Men breathed impressed praises.

Shoulders were patted and hands were clapped.

"Translate, please," Wooyoung asked Yeosang. The girls from prior were back in their spot, and Yeosang distractedly muttered under his breath while they watched the crowd ripple.

"He's back?"

"So soon?"

"I wonder whom he's going to give it. He never participated in his life!"

"I bet he found someone and told no one. She must be gorgeous. Do you think she belongs to the palace?"

"She can't not, no? It would be a shame if she were some regular girl."

"Ugh, imagine he picks at random because he's just that cool. I hope it's me."

"Back off, girl. If he does that, he's mine."

The two were close to tugging each other's hair but interrupted themselves with a squeal when the crowd parted and a man stepped through. He wore his suit only up to his waist; the sleeves were tied around his hips in a familiar fashion. His long, black hair dripped water over his chiselled features and clung to his long lashes.

He bore no injuries, just a faint scratch over his arm where he must have scraped by a rock. A fist cradled an item and his muscles flexed under his skin when he stalked down the path like an ocean god come to life.

He looked like Wooyoung's favourite wet dream, pun all the way intended.

Gulping, Wooyoung listened to the two girls screech over each other to stay calm and quieten down as he came their way. One of them almost passed out, and the other had to hold her up so they could be each other's pillar.

Tense to see what would happen, Wooyoung watched him approach. Seonghwa was similarly speechless, and his head emptied the closer San got. Water dripped from his chin and he pushed the loose strands of his hair back, showing off a pair of determined lips.

San walked with the poise of a warrior, but with the agility of an athlete. No question was left about who he was when he passed the two giggling girls, and they fell deathly silent when only the group of foreigners remained past them.

Wooyoung felt all of Atlantis was watching this moment.

San's step slowed in front of Seonghwa. Clueless and already in the possession of a pearl, the diplomat stumbled aside at a gentle push on his shoulder. His mouth stood open when he turned to look at who San was approaching.

When the man's shadow fell over him, Wooyoung lifted his hand to blink against the light. San's face was ever so handsome, like that of an angel come to life.

Only that this angel fought sharks and nursed morays.

"Wooyoung," San said, and Wooyoung couldn't remember if his name ever sounded this delicious from anyone else's lips. He couldn't remember anything. He only heard the blood rushing in his ears, as his gut knew how important this was.

The silence gave it away.

"Hi," Wooyoung greeted him, sunny as ever. "I heard you took a dip outside. Guess you and danger can never be parted, hm?" He grinned, making light of the situation so San wouldn't have to frown as much.

It worked, and that angry line smoothed out. When San took Wooyoung's hand, a subtle smile played around his lips.

San's palm opened to grant a view of what he had cradled inside. It was a ring. The O of it was bright with mother-of-pearl, and it curved beautifully to cradle the object in its midst. A blue pearl, almost silky in its shine.

The ring looked simple to the outer eye. It was forged of the ocean and its appearance matched it as if part of the sea was enclosed inside.

Yet its worth was that of exploring the depths of the ocean floor and fending off sharks and other powerful fighters to obtain what made it so precious.

Wooyoung looked up at San, awed by the beauty of the object. He ignored how Seonghwa stifled his gasp with both hands.

San still frowned in concentration.

"Give you," he muttered, voice rough around their pronunciation.

"For me?" Wooyoung asked, surprised he was getting something. Had San gone out there for him? Wooyoung wasn't sure about the meaning of a blue pearl since he had never heard of those, but the effort humbled him. Though the ocean floor was San's playground, it was a scary place.

He understood what Seonghwa had meant. This was fetched with him in mind. San never took part in the game before, and now he went to find Wooyoung a pearl to wear.

Mesmerised by the ring, Wooyoung couldn't lift his eyes from it. The Atlanteans wore their pearls on necklaces to show them off, but San had prepared a ring. Had he remembered what drunken Wooyoung had rambled about? If so, giving him a ring was even more intimate than the gesture indicated.

Wooyoung picked up the ring to examine it. It must have been prepared ahead of time, and San only added the pearl now. Yet, it seemed crafted with more patience and love than anything Wooyoung saw on top of the earth.

It called to him, made his heart flutter and his stomach woozy with the feeling of being attended to.

His smile was shy when he nodded at San. When the medium exhaled, and his tattoos unfolded to their regular glamour, Wooyoung chuckled.

"I will accept it, but only if you take one in return. To make it fair." Wooyoung dug for his casket and pried the last pearl from the corner. He handed it to San, and the man grinned at it, dimples and everything that made Wooyoung weak.

"Deal?" He stuck the ring to his left hand's ring finger, where it belonged, and where it felt right. This was what San had intended. Though he didn't understand its meaning, he wanted to make up for what Seungyoun did and Wooyoung gladly accepted.

San clutched his pearl in his fist and nodded. When he turned on his heel to stalk off, Wooyoung's charmed eyes clung to his tattooed back and his broad shoulders.

Perhaps he was a tiny bit in love.

However, his floating was short-lived when life came back into Seonghwa and Yeosang. While San fled the scene and left his folk with questions, those two clutched Wooyoung's arms, one each. Seonghwa desperately looked between him and the ring.

"Wooyoung! You can't accept that! Give it back!" Yeosang screeched, flabbergasted like Wooyoung's aunt on Christmas after he put alcohol in her tea to loosen up.

"No, it's mine," he pouted, clutching the ring to his chest. San had given it to him. No one could take it.

Kiko loomed over his shoulder, fascinated with the gift.

"Blue pearls are infinitely rarer than golden ones. Where did he get that?"

"Wooyoung, this isn't a wise thing to do," Seonghwa also appealed, patient, though begging.

"Why? Are you jealous? He gave it to me!" Wooyoung defended both him and San.

"This is an act of courtship, you moron, ring or no. Accepting it means you accept his feelings!" Wooyoung sat stunned, his eyes like clams robbed of their pearls.

"What?"

Rubbing his forehead, Seonghwa sighed to himself.

"We must have miscommunicated. People swim out there and get those pearls as an official statement of courtship. It's similar to your wearing rings as soon as you are betrothed to someone. I'm sorry if I didn't explain it right."

Overwhelmed with information and feeling, Wooyoung didn't let up his defences.

"Why would he give it to me, then? Especially if it's so rare?"

"Because he really wants to court you. And you idiot just accepted and gave him a pearl worth basically nothing in return."

"Wait what?"

Wooyoung looked from Seonghwa to Yeosang and back to Seonghwa.

"You and Hongjoong are married?!"

The diplomat buried his head in his hands, nodding.

Floored, Wooyoung sat there with his ring, with his promise to be wooed by San, official and blatant to any Atlantean's eyes.

Huge cultural mishap.

Yeosang screamed further at him, but Wooyoung was deaf to it. He only saw Hongjoong stalking his way, the pearl that married him to Seonghwa shining on his husband's neck. He grabbed Wooyoung's wrist, yanking him from his seat and away from the wailing group.

Seonghwa ran after them for damage control as Wooyoung clutched his ringed hand to his chest and stumbled along.