Since there wasn't much to do in the depths of the ocean and Wooyoung quickly lost interest in staring out of the window, he spent his time playing games with the others. Yongguk had insisted on going over his notes for the millionth time and Yeosang pretended to be busy with their schedule, but Wooyoung caught the latter glancing over in boredom multiple times. The hours to the bottom didn't pass faster spent in stiff fretting, so Wooyoung was quick to relax into his seat with a card game he found buried in the drawers of the submarine.

Kiko and Petra paid him company, at ease with his flirtatious charm that neither of them had to take seriously.

"So, strictly speaking, aren't the Atlanteans component of your studies over mine? Not that they cannot be regarded as a society, but their life on the ocean floor undoubtedly makes them a marine lifeform," Wooyoung brought up a discussion topic while he sorted his cards. Their game was automatic, almost irrelevant on the side as they talked. Yongguk lost focus on his notes as his head sought an answer.

"From what we know, they have no fins or scales, which makes them human to me." Kiko placed her card down and Petra worried her lip between her teeth. She startled when Yongguk came up behind her, uttering in his low voice to explain how to best play her cards.

Caught in their battle of wits, Wooyoung and Kiko sped through the game.

"Certainly, we know they can communicate and have their own language and culture, which makes them a society like ours. However, anything living in the ocean is maritime biology, no?" Wooyoung probed further, amused with his game even when the answer didn't matter.

"Yes, from my perspective, but no from yours. Any social structure and human behaviour is yours, no matter where they live," Kiko batted back. She dropped her card and Yongguk reached over Petra's shoulder to play another one for her. With a curse on Wooyoung's lips, he drew another.

"Good point. Now what if they turn out to have descended from humans and share their evolutionary roots but they developed to match maritime lifeforms as means of survival? Aka humanoids with webbed fingers?"

In Wooyoung's opinion, a folk that lived in the dark depths of the water without sunlight and surrounded by fishes that called for assimilation couldn't be too human. Not after thousands of years. The Atlanteans may have their own language and culture and enough brains to respect a diplomatic meeting with the surface scientists, but they had to be freaks of nature.

Not that Wooyoung minded. He was here to explore and research, and he liked to think that he could befriend anyone, no matter their quirks.

"In that case, we share. I dissect their children and in the meantime you ask the parents how the social hierarchy works," Kiko said with a roll of her eyes. Wooyoung giggled, satisfied with that brutal answer.

Petra was winning their game.

Uncaring about the competition going on, Yeosang gasped in his corner.

"You will not dissect anything down there, not even a fish. For the next four to six weeks, we are babies who need to be introduced to life. No eating what you aren't supposed to eat and no dissecting what you aren't supposed to dissect," he scolded. The warning was only half in joke. He knew Wooyoung and Kiko too well to underestimate the mischief their combination brought.

Wooyoung leaned back when Petra dropped her last card with a cry of joy. As she twirled around to thank Yongguk, Kiko let her cards sink with the sigh of an old man.

"You say that, but what if I meet a hot girl? Do I need your permission to eat her or should I go straight to the town chief with a formal letter of application?" She flashed a triumphant smirk when Yeosang blushed a furious red.

"Fish girl," Wooyoung helped. Then he crossed his arms. "Same goes for men."

Yeosang rubbed his face, already regretting taking them along in combination. Victorious, Kiko and Wooyoung fist-bumped. One of their favourite pastimes was robbing Yeosang's every nerve.

"Kiko, you should know better than to make a being of scientific research a bedmate. And you, Wooyoung, don't you think you're being hasty? You just stopped wearing Seungyoun's ring."

Thoughtful, Wooyoung wriggled his fingers in his lap. The lack of the familiar weight had perplexed him at first. Every time he didn't see the silver shine from his peripherals, he had frozen and double-taken his hand.

But Yeosang was right. Wooyoung didn't wear it anymore. When he had left Seungyoun's flat with most of his stuff that very day he caught him cheating, he threw it on the drawer. His rage had been hot, but Seungyoun watched him leave with nonchalant eyes.

Asshole.

Wooyoung shrugged the hurtful memories off. He was 746 kilometres deep into the ocean. His heart had different reasons to ache rather than his ludicrous ex-fiancé.

"Sounds to me as if I'm free for taking and more than ready to enjoy single life. Though you are right. I wouldn't want to bang a fish." Wooyoung grimaced, but Yeosang buried his face in his hands. With sheepish eyes, he glanced at the captain, hoping the whir of machines was loud enough that he didn't have to listen to them.

"Good grief," their team leader sighed before he pushed his hair back.

"I expect everyone to be on your best behaviour. Our mission is too important to be meddled with by your youthful hormones."

"You are five months older than I," Wooyoung deadpanned.

"Fascinating how I can be so much more mature," Yeosang gritted back.

Kiko laughed about them, delighted by having squeezed a reaction from their professional coworker. She shuffled the cards for another game as she beamed at him.

"Don't worry, Yeo, we have your back. Since you are ever so shy, we will make sure you also get a piece. Let me guess, broad and brawny?" She smiled with an angel's grace. The hopeful expression on Yeosang's face fell into one of suffering lasting aeons. He turned on his heel to bring as much distance between them as the ship allowed.

"You know what? Do whatever you want. We don't have a medical team with us, so don't complain if you catch some fish STD and have to be treated with eels or something like that." He stomped off with all his remaining dignity, as if the blush on his cheeks didn't make him the most adorable person on board this boring ship.

Wooyoung leaned back into his chair as he picked up his cards. He winked at Kiko when Yongguk left his notes and sat close to Petra to help her once more.

"I bet fish STDs feel extra spicy," he chuckled.

"You take the words out of my mouth, pal. What if curing them leads us to a healing method for cancer? Yeosang should consider the possibilities."

They snickered among themselves as they delved into another game. This time, they concentrated so Yongguk's secret advisor role wouldn't get him another win. All the while, the vibrating metal casket around them brought them deeper and deeper into the cold, dark depths.

-

Time passed slowly on their way down. Though the ocean seemed never-ending, their goal neared every moment and soon, Yeosang put his nerdy book aside (they were all scientists but there was no reason to be so overly visual about it) and stood to stare out of the tiny cockpit window next to the captain. The man was most undeterred about the black pit they were diving into, and he took them securely to the place they needed to be.

The peeping coordinate measuring machine alerted them of their nearing destination, but when Wooyoung snuck a peak past their crowded bodies, he saw only the impenetrable void of the ocean. If there was a bottom down there, he wouldn't be able to tell. At least the captain seemed familiar enough with their surroundings not to crash them into the rocky ocean ground.

However, they were drawing near their destination. And the closer they got, the more tension filled the stuffy cabin they had huddled into. Yongguk had given up his studying and now checked his belongings for the millionth time as if they would turn around in case he forgot anything. The card games lost their appeal with the hours and wandered back inside their drawer. Soon, the last hour of their journey began and the suspense of what they would find seized even Wooyoung, who had joined on a light-hearted whim. With crossed arms and his mouth shut for once, he stood, leaned against the wall and waited for an update.

They were connected with the surface through a radio signal and the line crackled after another few strained minutes.

"Team 1, you're almost there. Be careful not to ram the shields. Your coordinates should bring you right to the entrance hatch our contact described."

Wooyoung didn't know about a shield or an entrance hatch. Someone had probably forwarded the email to him, but he had been too busy arguing with Seungyoun on his way out to care. Though Atlantean studies were unavoidable in their institute and brushed past him every so often, he knew little of what expected them.

"Understood," the captain responded into his speaker. He slowed their speed to tilt them deeper, spiralling down into the dark canyon that cradled their destination. Confused deep-sea fishes loitered around their intruding vehicle and the ghostly shine of creepy jellyfishes and luminous plants lured unsuspecting prey into the shadows.

It took them only another few minutes before a faint sheen of something in the water caught their attention. Fascinated, Yeosang leaned over the console as the captain radioed the base.

"We see the shell now. Lowering according to the coordinate point." He kept his cool even when the researchers crowded around him to get a peek.

The void below them was obscured by that sheen. It stretched across the entire canyon and found no end, even as they rounded its curve. Kilometres of something massive were hidden below, and it was luminous and bright, though not visible below the milky surface of the shell. Their submarine trailed lazily, following the shape of the gigantic... dome? Below them. It had to be a dome. Atlantis must sit on the bottom of the ocean, protected by this solid roof. Wooyoung doubted it would float.

"That's their atmospheric shell," Yeosang whispered. Awe tinted his voice in colour, making the depths fascinating and beautiful instead of terrifying.

"The Atlanteans are humans, so they don't live in the water, as our legends would suggest. Like us, they prefer dry land and the shell is the technological wonder they built to keep their city from drowning. Inside is a biome similar to our surface, sustained by oxygen and artificial light."

Wooyoung exchanged a glance with Kiko. This was news to him, though the others already knew. Still, she mouthed the words 'no spicy fish STDs' at him. He stifled his snicker at her pout.

Nonchalant at the interruption, Yeosang pointed to a bronze shine that appeared in the dark. The light of their submarine danced over it and reflected off the gargantuan gate. It was a double hatch, a water lock that allowed passage into the bubble.

"There, the entrance."

In matching awe at the massive dome and the modern hatch to complement it despite the years these people spent locked away at the bottom of the sea, the awed group idled as their submarine lowered. The currents around the shell shook the ship about, but they held to each other as the captain lowered them towards the door. Looming and large enough to fit an entire blue whale, the intimidating doors regarded them like the residence of a king.

"We're here," the captain radioed when none of the others could shut their mouths.

"One moment, I'm relaying your arrival. The door should open in a second."

With bated breath, they waited. Despite finding the shell and this peculiar place that didn't belong into the ocean, Wooyoung couldn't believe actual humans lived in there. Humans whom he would meet in a few minutes.

But the door opened against all expectations. With the might of a giant, the double wings opened in a slow yawn. In the water, no sound travelled into the submarine, but the torrent that picked up on them shook them like a bag of peanuts.

By their sheer size, the doors didn't even have to open halfway. The submarine steered into the steady flow of water that filled the hatch and surfaced at a rocky beach. They waited until the rush of water calmed and the doors closed before they allowed themselves a breath of air.

"Made it," the captain sighed, wiping his sweat.

In awe, the crowded scientists tried to see beyond the rocks obscuring the window. The water ebbed away until only a regular beach remained and free air filled the transfer place.

The voice of their spokesperson in the institute crackled over the intercom.

"You are expected inside. Feel free to leave the ship now."

Wooyoung snatched his bag and raced to the ladder first. His explorative spirit beat any need for a team talk, but luckily, Yeosang was the same. He overtook the other to pose as the leader and climbed the steps to stem his arms against the round hatch.

Dazzling light, as if from the sun, greeted them when the heavy lock opened with a squeak. Wooyoung climbed outside to feel the warm air of Atlantis on his skin and explore the sunken city.