𓏲 ༘⋆ ࣪𓇼 SECRETS OF THE OCEAN!
pairing: landboy!bang chan x mermaid!fem!reader
synopsis: after chan navigates through the ocean he finds himself in an unknown island, so empty it gives anyone on there a sense of loneliness and sorrow. however, this feeling doesn’t last long, since he’s quickly immersed in the life’s of a mermaid and a siren.
genre: fluff, comedy, strangers to lovers (not really), mermaid au, angst, hurt/comfort, pining, impossible love, different worlds.
warnings: bad parents, talk of loneliness, friendship plays a big role in the story, seungmin is a menace, there’s a big amount of backstory, mermaids and sirens are not the same thing, y/n is described with hair (no specific length), curly hair chan appreciation!!
word count: 8.5k
a/n: this took almost two months to be done, but it’s finally here! honestly I thought I was gonna leave it halfway, everyone thank cinny for giving me the strength to finish this tbh. I even made a playlist for the story in which the songs match with the events that occur in the fic. you obviously don’t need to listen to it while reading it but I think it could be fun. if you’re a fast/slow reader… oops, but still. enjoy the reading! ik i had fun writing it:)
The ocean moves alongside the flow of the wind, making all the ocean life direct themselves to the north. It's a cloudy night with the full moon shining its brightest at the very top of the sky. Due to the almost impossible task to make anything out of the mist to the human eye, Seungmin surprises himself at the sight of a boy riding in a rather small boat.
He seems happy. Excited, would be a better word. It was like he didn’t even realize the gravity of the situation he somehow was in. The siren didn’t have to check twice to realize the boy, who seemed to be in his first adult years, wouldn’t survive the whole night out in the hell of earth.
Still, it was good entertainment for him and his only company in the vast world that was called ocean.
He focuses his eyes in the water, praying to every deity he was ever taught about in school that he could find his best friend in the whole place that they called home. Soon enough, the silhouette of a mermaid hunting after a crab that was way too big for her to eat alone, came into view. Such a greedy bastard, in his opinion.
After some minutes you’ve finally come up from your diving, showing excitedly to your friend the 1:00 am snack you just found.
“Look at this Min! It’s a dungeness crab!” you yell. Grabbing the crab with both hands and putting it in front of Seungmin’s face, you continue, “Bigger than their usually size for some unknown reason… isn’t it amazing?”
The contagious smile in your face fades away quite quickly when he takes the crustacean out of your hands and pulls you with him behind the stack he was hiding himself with. When he’s got your attention, he goes as far as putting his arms all the way at the top of the rock and putting all his weight in the cold and rough landform.
“If you’re that hungry maybe he should be your next victim.”
You follow his eyes until you spot a boat in the middle of the ocean. You rub your eyes just in case you’ve seen that wrong. No, totally right, there’s a deranged boy in a tiny boat in the middle of the ocean, way past midnight.
“Do you think he has a suicide wish?” you ask, resting your head in the stack.
“Nah, it looks like he’s just dumb.”
You cackle at your friends’ words, but your laughs quickly end when you see him eating your well earned snack. “Hey! You gluttonous blobfish look-alike!” You puff out your cheeks and pounce on top of him, creating a big splash sound. “Give me back my food!”
With a staffed mouth and tired eyes, Seungmin uses his free hand to cover your mouth. “Stop. I think he heard us.”
“Don’t change the topic! He hasn’t! And if so, why does it matter? It’s not like his weak human eyes can see anything with all this fog.”
Contrary to your beliefs, the boy, just as Seungmin said, did hear you. He gets up inside the boat and looks around until he reaches your position. Yes, it might be true he couldn’t see much with the fog, but when the full moonlight is reflecting on you so beautifully, he finds it easy to distinguish the two people looking at him.
His reckless attitude might not have been scary enough to startle you, however, the second his small rectangular object is focusing on the stack you are hiding behind, the fear starts to kick in.
It hasn’t even passed five seconds when you both have submerged in the water. Seungmin still has the half-eaten crab on his hand and you force yourself to not scream at him then and there. He has a quite pained expression on, like he regrets ever saying anything about the human boy being there.
Time passes slowly and quietly. Seungmin, who keeps denying sharing the crab, has gone up leaving you behind. From your position you can see part of the boat and how it’s going in your direction. Almost like a hunter going after their prey.
You lock eyes with Seungmin while remaining in your position. This has never happened before, but you know exactly what to do. He nods his head and starts swimming, quickly having reached the boat. You cover your ears the moment he starts singing, the boy’s eyes adapt a white color and his boat changes directions. It isn’t necessary, but you dive in and hit your tail against the water, the sudden wave making the boat move faster.
Soon enough the boat is on the closest island. Which was casually famous for how many sailors shipwrecked there.
You waste no time to reach the land, making sure the boy is asleep.
“We can't leave him here,” you say without taking your eyes off of him.
“Why not? your pod always did it like this. It’s not our fault he’s out of his mind.” He throws a bunch of seaweed at the boy and sits down. “Always the stupid land people…”
You roll your eyes at your friend’s antics, picking up the plant and throwing it at him. “He looks young. Every young person is stupid. Still, he surely has a family, we just can’t.”
The object in his hands is quickly taken away by you, wanting to see it more closely.
“This is the thing the elders were always so scared of. Seems not that interesting if I’m being honest.”
“You even know how that works?” Seungmin looks strangely interested in the object.
The way you throw it at the sand gives him every answer he needs. Stretching his arm to reach the object without getting out of the water he picks it up, still curious.
“It has to be something really bad. I wasn't even part of the pod and I still frighten every time I see one of these.”
Meanwhile he keeps examining the thing which you quickly learn is called a camera, it said so in the back. You focus on the boy. He has straight black hair and black painted nails. Definitely not the usual look of the typical men you see on ships around your home. He looks at peace, like the induced sleep was everything he needed to be happy. Your hand pushes away the hair out of his eyes, but you regret it when he stirs in his sleep. Thankfully, he doesn’t wake up.
A sudden flash takes you out of your trance and you quickly turn to the other side. Seungmin is holding the camera in your direction, with an open mouth and even bigger eyes.
You frown your eyebrows and wait for an explanation, but when he shows your reflection in the tiny little object, you almost choke in your saliva.
“Why am I in there?!” you shriek a bit too distressed.
He, however, just starts laughing. His sight stays on the camera and the rest of the people that are in it. With one last look at the sleeping boy he goes underwater still laughing. Still too anguished to even remember the existence of the boy, you go after Seungmin, wanting to know more about the new object in your possession.
Waking up alone on an island at what seemed very early hours of the morning wasn’t common for Chan. In fact, he didn’t think it was common for anyone.
Rubbing his eyes as he gets up, he starts to panic. The reality of the situation he’s in starting to sink in. He's on an island, alone. At least he still has his phone.
The small screen marks 6:37 am and Chan is about to rip all of his hair off.
Was it a bad idea to travel the ocean alone at night? Yes, but he didn’t think he would blackout only one hour after parting and wake up on what seemed like an undiscovered island. It looked completely deserted. The lack of trees made it seem like a hurricane had come over and destroyed everything.
It doesn't pass long when Chan starts to feel the loneliness that characterizes the place. This only worsens when he realizes his camera is gone, all his memories with it.
He tries to look at the problem from an optimistic view, like he always does, but it’s quite difficult at the moment. He throws himself backwards falling on the sand, trying to remember what had happened last night for him to feel like he was hungover.
When he’s about to fall asleep again he hears giggles. Loud ones. Sitting up he’s able to distinguish two heads coming out from the water. A girl and a boy. She's laughing so hard Chan thinks she might be left without oxygen. He's frowning so hard that Chan thinks he might lose his eyebrows. And everything is wholesome until he sees his camera in the girl’s hands.
“Hey, you! Is that my camera?” Chan asks, perplexed and annoyed.
if you had turned your head any faster your neck would have probably broken. A hundred and more curse words start to pop up in your head, you had completely forgotten about the boy’s existence. However, you don’t have too much more time to look at him because Seungmin pulls your hand underwater with him.
It might have been the dazed state he was in, but he jumps into the water the moment you disappear. He wants to be angry, but right after seeing two tails swimming, his mind breaks into tiny pieces. He stays there, floating, seeing you swim until you suddenly stop.
Your eyes are shining, and not in a figurative way. A very sparkly neon blue has taken over your iris, making him feel immediately curious about you.
Seungmin pulls and pulls, but you stay still. The boy’s unfocused eyes roam your face and yours roam his clothes, knowing he will regret wearing them the moment he starts swimming. Your hand tightens around his camera, it isn’t fair. Nothing of what you did to him is.
Finally you break free from Seungmin’s grip and swim to the boy. He starts to look fidgety, almost shy, but you don’t pay attention to it. When you have finally reached him, he has gone to the surface, unable to hold his breath any longer.
The moment you follow him to the surface Seungmin rolls his eyes. “Stupid love-struck mermaids and they’re dumb land boys.”
Your eyes go back to normal and an awkward smile covers your face. He, however, seems to have fallen out of his trance, adopting now a terrified expression.
“I’m sorry.”
They are simple, yet powerful words. You hand him the camera, but he seems reluctant to even the mere thought of touching you.
“Are you gonna kill me?” he says with puppy eyes and water from his hair dripping all over his face.
You bite your lip in order to stop the laughs that are threatening to get out. Taking his wrist you put his palm faced upwards, and then leave the camera on it. Lastly, you close his hand over the object, his eyes not leaving yours.
“You'd be dead already if I wanted to kill you.”
He gulps and looks down at his camera. He should get out of here right at this exact moment, but he can’t.
With shaky hands he opens up the camera gallery, only to be met with multiple photos of you and the boy who you were previously with. There’s zoomed photos of the scales in your tail, photos of you eating what seemed to be a lobster, and more of the same. The last one was a photo of your friend asleep in a destroyed ship. It made a smile creep up on his face.
Your webbed hand circling firmly around his wrist takes him back to earth. Your unusually long nails brush against the start of his palm and he feels the need to examine the scales scattered around your hand. It's then when he, once again, remembers a girl with a tail is in front of him. A mermaid stole from him and all he is doing is adoring her features. But mermaids don’t exist, right?
Your name comes out as a whisper and it makes his wandering eyes stay still. His breath gets caught up in his throat and he is suddenly super aware of his surroundings. Hearing you talk feels like honey dripping.
“I'm Chan,” he whispers back, too afraid to break the soothing atmosphere that formed around you.
Much to Chan's dismay, every bubble has to explode at some point. In this case, it breaks the moment neon green eyes appear in between you and him.
Chan jumps scared and flinches. He is quick to pick out your rolling eyes and the small smack you give the boy. The situation is quite comedic, but the green eyes torturing him make him stay as motionless as a doll.
You, not as entertained and not even a bit horrified by Seugmin’s actions, take him by the hair and pull. He shrieks immediately of course, his whole ‘evil siren act’ going away with the wind.
“Are you trying to kill me or what?!” He is holding his head and trying to look at you as scary as he can.
Now you’re entertained.
“Don’t mind Seungmin, he wasn’t fed enough sardines when he was born.”
Chan is… speechless. He doesn't know if it’s his survival instincts, or just the fact that he is completely terrified, but he starts swimming your opposite way. However, just as you predicted, he starts regretting wearing clothes when they slow him down more and more every second.
His sort of escape plan is doomed when Seungmin appears in front of him, his hands squeezing Chan's shoulders. Slowly, he starts making Chan retrocede, until your hands replace Seungmin’s.
Chan doesn’t dare to turn, he is sure he would break right after seeing your face. And yet, what you do is a hundred times worse.
“Are you dumb or just intimidated?”
Your breath hits his nape and your hands pass to be intertwined over his chest. Trying to distract himself with fear is no longer possible as Seungmin has gone underwater. All that is left for Chan are your whispers and hair tickling him.
You sigh, satisfied with having Chan's attention back to you, even if he wasn’t directly looking at you. Turning him around, you smile. His eyes are as big as the ones of a celestial eye goldfish and his Adam's apple goes up and down every second. It's cute. He is cute.
Intertwining his hand with yours, you pull. The sudden movement makes him dizzy, not expecting that much strength.
Soon enough you’re back at the island he shipwrecked on. He immediately sits down and takes a big breath. You once again, smile. Meeting a land boy for the first time was in no way as horrible as your elders used to tell you. It was in some way… comforting.
While he takes an apple from the fruits he had saved in his boat, you slowly dive into the water. This only lasts so little as you hear his screams.
“Are you gonna leave just like that?”
You bite your lip and resurface just as much so your eyes are visible. Looking one last time at him you wink, leaving him as perplexed as before, and even more curious.
“I can’t believe you left him just like that,'' Seungmin says as he helps you clean the multiple lobsters from his lying position. “I’m proud of you.”
You smile, something inevitable every time you are with Seungmin. Which is mostly every day, every month, every year.
Most would think that spending so much time with one person and only that one person could get tiring, infuriating even. Nevertheless, that isn’t the case.
At the end of the day, he is the only person who hasn’t left you. Seungmin is a brother, an annoying one, but still one. A mermaid and a siren, who not only endure each other’s company, but enjoy it. This is why his opinions are very important to you, but you really are disliking his latest one.
“Honestly we should just leave him there to riot. He’s a human boy who looks rather young and the only thing worse than an old mad sailor is a young stupid adventurer.” He is slowly getting up from the old couch of the abandoned ship you have your home on, like he wasn’t just talking of leaving an innocent boy alone to die. “We can’t trust that idiot, we’ll be being tested on in seconds.”
You shut your eyes for a second. He is so… intense. It would be ironic to say he is just like the conservative elders, but to you, right now it feels like he is. He can’t accept things changing, you get it, but that doesn’t stop you from getting angry because of it.
And the worst thing is that you can’t even give him the benefit of the doubt, think that he might be right, because he won’t. All it took was a look at Chan to see how harmless he was.
Hitting the table with the lobster shell makes him take his eyes away from the one he was cleaning himself. He has his confused face on and his hands have stopped working.
“Why are you so mean?”
“What? you were the one who left him stranded there. Which was, by the way, the best thing you could’ve done.”
You puff out your cheeks and press your nails to the table, multiple cracks start to be audible. “I wasn't planning on leaving him there forever.”
“So what, you wanna invite him over? See how he slowly dies after the oxygen leaves his system?” Seungmin hissed, visibly annoyed with the conversation.
Getting up from your seat, you throw the rest of the lobster and let it fall wherever. You can hear Seungmin’s screams as you leave the ship, but you ignore them.
Saying you’re angry wouldn’t be enough, you are furious. Hopefully Chan’s shy smile would be able to lift your mood.
You swim slowly at the very bottom of the ocean, pressure so high it would kill any human who dared to visit it. Yet, you thrive in it. A family of pseudoliparis appears in your path, bringing a smile to your face.
The feeling of being able to meet these deep-ocean species, knowing they live isolated
from the rest of the creatures the humans associate with the ocean, makes you feel lucky. You know they would be hated if land people knew of them, just because they aren’t as pretty as a seahorse, or as friendly as a tetras. They’re survivors, and that’s all that’s important when you live in the ocean.
After bidding your goodbyes you keep going. Some minutes in you find yourself surrounded by fish, since you have run into what could easily be hundreds of carcasses. Letting them pass, you change directions, however, you’re not ready for what you find.
Multiple aquamarine gems are in front of you. Each bigger than the one you saw before it. A vast variety of greens and blues that take the spotlight. When you go to take one of the bigger ones your eyes start to prick, salty tears rolling down your face.
“I just don’t understand you! I thought I raised you correctly, making clear what is okay and what isn’t!”
Your hands tremble and your head is downcasted, facing the aquamarine all around your bedroom floor.
“Do you even know what this means?” She sighs and passes her hand through her hair. Her eye bags are more prevalent than ever and it seems like even talking about this makes her suffer. “They’re going to kick you out.”
You start sobbing uncontrollably, the seriousness of the situation setting in. Being kicked out of the pod, a mermaid’s worst nightmare.
You beg, plead for forgiveness, but she only says that she can’t do anything. You cry and cry and cry and your tears start becoming recognisable puddles in the water. You feel like dying.
“Help! Please help!”
Cries for help get you back from your memories and makes you turn your head faster than a sailfish. It all happens too fast, the only thing that is keeping you alert is the fact that the screams sound a bit too much like Chan’s voice.
That's the moment you start thinking Seungmin might be right. Chan is at the end of the day, a human. He's a prey in the water, just like a newborn.
When you find him he is already unconscious. He looks at peace, but you know he probably has just lived one of the worst experiences of his life.
He still has a pulse, which calms you slightly but doesn’t make you swim slower when you are bringing him to the island.
Your hand makes it to his forehead, confirming he has a fever. His hand tightly holds his camera, and you can only question what he was even thinking of doing.
It feels like the sun starts shining brighter when Chan starts coughing water and blinking rapidly. His arms start to move around until he finds your hands, intertwining them with his almost immediately.
“Are you okay?” Your words come out before you can stop them, making you want to give yourself as food to the sharks.
He opens one eye and looks at you while lying. He laughs, and it’s a weird moment since he was just floating unconscious underwater. However, you enjoy it. It makes you remember why you even went out looking for him in the first place.
He is easy to be around, comforting.
“I mean, I almost died in the most painful way possible so…” His smile stays on, but his laughs have stopped.
Looking at him, you realize he seems different, like seeing you preoccupied for him gave him a confident boost. Made him look like he was teasing you.
“The most painful way to die? what about burning alive?”
“Nah, drowning would not only kill me but also my ego, totally worse.”
For the first time of the day you laugh. Your laugh resonates around the whole island, so intense that you need to cover your mouth to stop it.
Meanwhile all this happens, he sits up. His eyes can’t not travel to yours with your laugh filling his ears. Being able to focus in your hands like this, while intertwined with his, makes him smile a bit harder. Your hands are cold and not wrinkled as expected from someone who lives in the water, but soft and full of scales. He had already had an opportunity to observe them, but seeing them like this, it was another level.
He’s amazed by them, that is, of course, until he realizes your red eyes and tear-stained cheeks.
His hands pull on yours to get your attention, extremely aware of your distressed appearance now. “Hey, did something happen?”
His eyebrows are furrowed and his mouth is slightly open. He still is breathing loudly, his chest going up and down with each breath.
He is cross-legged and you are resting your forearms on the shore. His index finger taps rhythmically in the dorsum of your hand, like he is distracting himself from something. In some way he is, he’s trying to distract himself from the fact that you have been quiet for minutes now.
When you realize this, you finally speak. “Oh no, I just remembered some things.”
Chan tilts his head and his index finger stops. His hand leaves yours and starts touching the multiple shells decorating your hair. It almost feels like he knows exactly what to do to leave you speechless.
“You’re a bad liar.” His hand stops touching your hair and it goes to support his head.
“I'm not about to tell a stranded human boy my problems.”
“Why not? Just because I am a human doesn’t mean I don't know how to give advice. Quite the opposite actually.”
You sigh and look at the sand. You can feel Chan's eyes still on you, examining every scale that is scattered around your neck and down your body. You shouldn’t, he is a stranger and from a different world, but when you look at him again and his eyes hold the most comforting look in them, you can’t resist telling him everything.
The waters around your house are quiet when you bring Seungmin into your bedroom. It’s the first time he has been here, mainly because he shouldn’t be. In fact, even him just being around you is a crime you should have never committed, but there was nothing to do about it now.
If it wasn’t completely necessary you wouldn’t have brought him here, however, you couldn’t just leave him in the middle of nowhere to wait for you to come back when he had fishing gear all around his tail.
Sitting him down in your bed you go to take your crusher claw from your night table. His whimpers make you bite your tongue and try to get the gear out of him as fast as possible. When you finally do, multiple wounds can be seen all around his tail. He has tears in his eyes and his hands tightly grasp onto your bed.
Taking small pieces of seaweed you put them on top of his wounds to stop the bleeding. He has another cut under his right eye, so you put a piece there too. You pull him in for a hug, he hasn’t talked at all since you found him, but you can tell he enjoys the warmth when he tightens the embrace.
It's safe to say you have never seen Seungmin like this before. He has puffy eyes and he is trembling. Head down, avoiding making eye contact with you. You don’t force him, knowing how difficult bumping into sailors can be.
You have forgotten about the pass of time, having been rubbing circles on Seungmin’s back for the last hour, completely ignoring the place you found yourself in. The waters had a darker tone now, going from crystal water to a grayish color. Today was destined to be the day your life’s get destroyed.
Your door opens and when you have realized it’s too late. Your mom is at the door, frozen in her place. Her eyes don’t leave Seungmin’s body and suddenly your breathing starts to get heavier.
The green that decorates every single one of his scales leaves his true nature revealed to everyone to see. Your mom’s eyes are filled with fear, an emotion you aren’t used to seeing in them.
Tension clings onto the room, the three of you looking at each other with agitation in your faces. Much to your dismay, your father is the next person who enters your bedroom.
Unlike in your mother, all you can see in his eyes is anger.
“Out,” he says as his gaze doesn’t leave Seungmin’s for a second.
You see your friend get up off your bed and get out by the window he entered from in the first place. His swimming is slow and floppy like the one of a hatchling, but you’re glad he is able to move again already.
You lock eyes with your mother. Your father has left the room after slapping the door closed, and you know there is no way you are getting out of this one.
She comes close to you, pushing your head to her chest. Tears have started flowing through her face, going down her cheeks and ending on her neck.
It’s quiet for a second, her hands resting on your shoulders. She stays like that for some time, you lose track of time, not knowing if minutes or hours have passed. No one prepares you for what your mother tells you next.
A week later.
The whole pod stands around you in the center of the city. A statue of Amphitrite stands behind you, her eyes made of stone burning holes in your head.
Over your shoulders hangs a big shell necklace, the one the crime committee always puts in the kids that break the rules. The one the kids that are kicked out always wear.
The elders whisper while tears spill out of your eyes. You’re the reason for the trial, and still, you’re invisible to them. They judge, point, some even laugh.
When your father takes a step forward everyone shuts up, everyone waiting for the king’s second in charge to talk.
“The king will be here in short, until then I ask everyone to keep it calm.”
Your heart sinks when he doesn’t look at you, realizing you have disappointed your family.
You don’t have to wait too long for the king to arrive, but time’s relative, so you’re sure you have been standing in front of Amphitrite for years.
When he stands in front of you, all the oxygen in your system leaves your lungs. His lips curl into a grimace, his left eyebrow going up. He looks you up and down, making you feel smaller than any of the elders’ whispers ever did.
“This is her? the one who brought a siren into my realm?”
Your gaze meets your father’s for a second, but he quickly moves to look at the king’s back. “Yes majesty.”
Before even a second passes the king’s nails are dunked in your cheeks. His hand pushes your head upwards making you look him straight in the eyes.
“How dare you dirty this heaven with the presence of that monstrous creature.” His fingers harden around your chin, breathing becoming harder by the second. “It’s always the kids who don’t know how to follow the rules.”
Harshly dropping your face, he steps back. His hands go through his hair pushing it back. He is one of the most merciless men you have ever seen, and he is about to decide the future of your life.
Your father hands him the ceremonial stone. The official document where every single citizen of the realm is noted when they are born. The king touches your engraved name, almost like he is thinking about his next move. You know better, you know your fate has been decided for days now.
With a snap of his fingers the water makes pressure until your name is crossed. A single tear comes out from your eye.
“This girl has let us all down, bringing the enemy to our homes. She must leave the pod.” He elevates his arm when people start talking again. “However, she will not be the one going away.”
Your head is blank and your attention in the trial disappeared when you started to sob again, but you still manage to listen to their gasps.
“We are not safe here anymore. It's only about time that the sirens come here. We will head off to the north, where an old realm is. You, little girl, will stay with your best friends, the sirens.”
You can’t believe what reaches your ears. They are leaving, leaving the whole realm behind like it was nothing. Leaving you.
You fall to the floor, the rusty shackles around your hands colliding against it. “Please! I’ll do whatever!”
“It’s decided, kid.”
Sobs were the only thing heard that night by anyone close to the plaza. As the condemned mermaid refused to get back to her house and fell asleep crying.
The day after.
Motion covers the plaza as people go back and forth with all of their belongings. Hushed whispers are heard, mainly discussing the situation of the girl sleeping against Amphitrite’s statue.
Neon green eyes observe everything from afar. His best friend, lying on the ground like a rag doll. Not caring about the shocked looks he receives, he picks you up just like you did when he was hurt. At the end of the day, this was siren territory now, right? He could do anything he wanted.
After some time you start to move against the old blanket he had put over you. One of the various things the old ship where he stayed at had. You weren’t too far away from the realm, close enough to see everyone starting to meet in a circle.
You rub your eyes with your knuckles and start getting up. All of the crying made your eyes puffy, making it difficult to see now. And even so, you are able to catch a glimpse of your family. Your mother doesn’t look better than you. Your father stays with the king, like his job is the only thing that matters. Not his abandoned daughter, not his anxious wife.
When everyone is together and about to leave, you choke out a sob. Left hand in your mouth and the other one holding the shackles Seungmin took off of you.
His hand goes up and down over your back, in such a similar way you did days ago that it gives you déjà vu. You cry until everyone leaves, holding onto the only person who didn’t disappear from your life in just seconds.
Seungmin removes the single tear falling from his left eye and turns to give you privacy. You don’t know he is there, but he feels like he shouldn’t pry. Not when you have just told a land boy the most painful time of your life, not when he is hugging you so tight you might break.
He sits on a stack and waits. He didn’t like to remember, especially not those days. The day not only his but also your life was ruined was something he tended to put in the back of his mind and pray so nothing reminded him of it. Each day was harder, contrary to what most people said. He guesses that’s the reason why he started tearing up when you started telling the story.
You are laughing, and he doesn’t know why, but he is happy the stupid human made you laugh. The moment he has been waiting for finally comes when you say goodbye and go underwater, almost like a luring siren after hunting a prey. However, you are just a loving mermaid.
Going after you, he catches you almost immediately. He has always been the fastest one.
You are wary, the memories putting you on alert. Seeing the boy’s face is definitely a surprise, or at least that’s what he takes from your slightly ajar mouth and fast blinking.
He offers you the lobster in his hand. A good memory. An old tradition, if you will.
You smile, without showing your teeth, but smile. When you accept the gift Seungmin lets out a relieved sigh. You take a bite and so does he. A weird conciliation for others, but normal for you.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said all those horrible things about the human. I don’t know him, so I shouldn’t assume.”
You redirect your gaze, looking at the fish around you. “I’m sorry too. I shouldn't have exploded like that, I know how much you’ve suffered because of humans.” You look up and let out a laugh, not believing what you’re about to say. “I also don’t really know him, he could be a super good liar who happens to be a mad scientist who’s going to sacrifice me.”
“That boy? He passes as a scientist as much as I pass as a dolphin.”
You laugh, lobster being eaten quickly while you de-stress.
“I wouldn’t call him a boy, he’s a grown up.”
“Oh so you’ve already asked for his personal data huh. What’s next, asking him to co-parent a seahorse with you?” Seungmin takes the last part of the lobster while you put on an offended expression while he laughs.
“I don’t do those kinds of things!”
“What about seventh grade? Didn’t you—”
You jump out of your place in the stack you settled on and cover his mouth with your hand. He licks your palm and you retract disgusted. You shake your hand up and down while sending daggers at him.
“I didn’t tell you that just so you would make fun of me for it!”
“Rookie mistake,” he says with a smirk on his face.
Swiftly enough you’re back at your ship, both of you lying in the old couch where hundreds of humans (and mermaids) had lied in the past. It’s too tiny for the both of you, your tails are colliding and Seungmin is about to fall any second now, but neither of you seems to mind.
“So… that human?”
His words roll out of his tongue like nothing else had before. He has got that knowing look on his face, making it impossible for you to even try to lie to him.
“He’s cute,” you say trying to sound nonchalant, feeling the complete opposite.
Embarrassed was all you felt at the moment. A rather disoriented land boy was making you feel something you hadn’t felt in a long time. Ease.
Seungmin smiles. No, he smirks, tongue going over his lips and arms under his head. These gestures indicate he is about to make fun of something. In this case, of you.
“At least it isn’t one of those old sweaty sailors, not even my ancestors would’ve eaten them.”
You groan, hands covering your face due to the growing embarrassment. He lets out a laugh, clearly enjoying your suffering. Your hands move quickly and a sudden wave has pushed him out of the couch, making him hit the deck rather strongly. You’re the one laughing now.
“Rude!”
He throws a pillow that had fallen before, hitting you in the face. You gasp, ready to make him regret ever starting this war. When you are about to strangle him he holds your wrists in the air.
“Easy there! Do you think the land boy is gonna want to kiss a murderer?” Seungmin teases with his neon green eyes shining.
“You’re so dead, Kim Seungmin!”
If your father could see you right now, you would probably be punished for life. Hands intertwined with the ones of a land boy, pushing and guiding him through the ocean.
If your father was here, you would be hiding and stressed, but he isn’t, so you grab Chan’s face and scream at him how fun this is. His laugh reaches your ears, eyes closing as the breeze hits your face.
Your hands over your hair, feeling the water drenching it. Chan has been on the island for five days now, surviving with fruits and fish you and Seungmin (him being forced by you), have hunted and heated for him.
It’s about to be midnight, and Chan has convinced you to take him with you in your nightly swim.
Your back is facing him and he can’t stop himself from worshiping your silhouette. He had tried to go back to his senses, trying to convince himself that his fixation on you was just your mermaid charms. He quickly rejected that idea when you explained the ones with the alluring charms were the sirens, not your kind. He still thinks you casted a love spell on him anyways, because the thoughts he has about you aren’t normal for someone he had only met five days ago.
Neon blue eyes meet his, any coherent thought leaving his mind. Your arms circle around his neck, hands combining behind it.
“So, you’re aware you really can’t come with me, right?”
Your words shake some sense into him. Of course, you can breathe underwater, he cannot. He would die in minutes if he was to go with you.
He pouts, hands finding your shoulders and gripping tightly. “Don’t you have some old diving equipment in that ship of yours?”
You laugh and push him off you. Humans and their crazy beliefs. You still laugh every time you remember the time he asked you if you lived in Atlantis. The single thought of him being able to dive with you was insane. Right?
Underwater school was very different from what you knew about the schools land people attended. Yes, in both institutions history was taught, but aside from that, they weren’t much alike. Apart from History, your classes consisted of: Swimming; Spell Casting; Powers; Herbology and Marine Zoology. Spell Casting was never one of your best subjects, however, you did remember an old tale your teacher told the class once.
Your hands hold onto the boy’s forearms wanting his whole attention. It doesn’t take long until you have it. It’s starting to be cold, shivers run through his body but his eyes don’t leave yours.
Silence surrounds you, the moonlight shining over you like the night you first met. The moment is confidential, intimate if you will. Chan can only feel his whole body burning up when you close off the distance, your lips at the shell of his ear.
“I’m going to do something, and I need you to be calm.” Your nose rests over his cheekbone, nails almost craving your mark on him. When he is about to talk, you get ahead. “Do you trust me?”
Saliva gets stuck in his throat, any attempt at talking gone in vain. His brain says no, pleading for Chan to realize he is in front of a mythical creature that could kill him in seconds, but his heart says otherwise. He nods, hoping, praying, it’s enough of an answer for you.
Neon blue eyes shine before they’re closing and your lips are stealing a kiss from him. It’s short and fast, lips colliding and separating under three seconds. Pulling backwards you leave him wanting for more, needing to feel your lips on his again. A rapid action that he couldn’t quite wait to repeat.
Yet, before he can execute any of his desires, your hands around his forearms are pulling and water hits your vision like Chan had never experienced before. Fish swim around you, not in any way trying to harm you but rather welcoming you to their homes, leaving the human in awe. He finds himself mesmerized by the marine wildlife, not even realizing his newfound ability of breathing underwater.
Your hands have left his arms, leaving him swimming behind you. Slowing down, you stop, waiting for him to reach you. When he does, you don’t think he is going to be able to say anything about any of the million thoughts that surely are going through his mind at the moment.
When everything is new, and terrifying, Chan hugs you. It’s tight, like he had been waiting for this moment for his whole life. Various families of sea stars stop their journey to wait and see the moment.
He gets out of the embrace and smiles. He is fast, not as fast as you, but faster than most humans. It feels like he is in his element when he speeds through the water getting ahead of you. It’s mesmerizing, how his wet hair sticks to his eyes but he still swims like it’s breathing for him. It’s captivating, but again, everything about him seems to be.
Hundreds of cobalt awaits you when you reach the bottom of the ocean. Chan is pretty sure he just won the lottery, he can’t even start to think how he should feel right now. He looks to his left and knows it right away. He feels enchanted. Enchanted by your neon blue eyes, and your scales and tail, but overall, by you. By the way you laugh at his questions and smile as his hands hold yours.
Your mind goes faster than The Francisco, thoughts racing to be the one that catches your attention. And still, Chan appears to be the one that always has it. Locking eyes with him, you grasp his hand and tug. Before he can even blink, you’re already at the surface.
A dumbfounded smile finds its way to Chan’s face. He’s gleaming, the moonlight shining on him like she just found a new son.
“I didn’t die!” he says, eyes sparkling and the hand in yours trembly.
“No you didn’t.”
The ocean is filled with laughs and giggles, easiness coming off you. Your hand leaves his hold and goes to his hair, it’s dripping wet and curly. You are sure it had been like that before, you simply hadn’t realized it until now.
His curls wrap around your fingers the second you touch them. They are soft and shiny and you can’t comprehend why the first time you saw Chan his hair was straight.
“Your hair is curly,” you state the obvious.
“Yeah, I usually straighten it though.” His hand goes up his forehead and removes the strands of hair that keep falling over his eyes.
Your eyes narrow, curious and confused. Hearing your unsaid question, he answers. “Most people I know like it more when it’s straight.”
You scoff, hands going up his chest to his shoulders. Pushing him closer, you entangle your hands on his hair again, focusing on his wild locks.
“Well, mermen who have curly hair are praised on since it’s told that they are descendants of Poseidon.” You look down, giggles erupting from you before you can stop them. Arms tangling around his neck. “And as you probably know, he’s kind of a notorious figure for us. You’d be pretty famous around here Chan, all of the mermaids behind you waiting for your praise…”
Scents combine and heat rises to Chan’s cheekbones. The tips of his ears are reddening, heartbeat going up alongside, noses brush and then you are gone.
His eyes open up, mad at your playfulness but you are smiling with your lower lip caught under your teeth, so he lets it pass. Aware of his brand new ability not lasting forever, he leaves you in order to explore more of the vast world that consists of your home.
Reaching the island shortly after being left alone, you sit on the shore close to Chan’s boat. All of the fruits he had brought with him had already ended yesterday, his rod left useless beside the empty basket.
Buzz against your arm startles you until you see what Chan had explained before was his phone.
(1:47) Felix
dude where are you
everyone is crazy worried for you
your parents almost called the police but minho convinced them not to
you were supposed to go max one day to catch us some cool fish not be gone for 5 days
text back as fast as possible!!
Your hand goes up to your mouth and you turn to look at the boy playing in the water. You had almost forgotten. He is a human, with a life on land and loved ones waiting for him to come back to them.
A presence appears behind you, a comforting hand resting on your shoulder. You sigh, after all, Seungmin was right, Chan didn’t belong with you.
“I can make him go peacefully right now, you just need to bring him here and give me the green light.”
Seungmin’s words make your eyes shine with tears. It would be stupid to say it was love, nevertheless, you didn’t think just because it wasn’t love your feelings for him didn't matter or weren’t supposed to be taken seriously.
People leaving is a natural occurrence that happens to everyone. You, in particular, are very much aware that change happens and sometimes there is no control about it. However, are you ready to let the curly haired boy leave your life forever?
It’s times like these when you understand why your elders always warned the youngest about approaching the land people. It wasn’t about the possible danger, but about the almost sure attachment.
You want to say goodbye, but you know if you even try, you won’t be able to let him go.
Seungmin hugs you from behind, chin resting over your head due to your seating position, “sorry’s” being whispered between the two of you. Before you know it he is gone, screaming to get the human’s attention.
You don’t turn, but you hear Seungmin’s voice doing magic on Chan. Your hands cover your ears before it’s too late. You regret it when you hear Chan falling on Seungmin’s arms, wishing you were asleep too.
Blur is all around you, the figure of the human being left in his boat by Seungmin becoming a vague shadow between the gloom and the moonlight.
Cleaning the tear falling from your left eye, you close your eyes and put your hands together. Next, a wave is carrying Chan to where he came from. Home.
Uselessness wasn’t an uncommon feeling for Chan, it was rather regular to be honest, but that didn’t mean he expected to feel it about his summer love ending abruptly.
Summer love, quite the funny wording for five days of discovery and enjoyment. He knows it wasn’t love, but that doesn’t stop him from calling it that.
He would say what he is more angry about is the abruptness of it all. You were gone as fast as you appeared. No, he was the one gone. No goodbyes, no explanations, only a fast travel back to his family.
He remembers perfectly the sensation of waking up at shore in Sydney with aquamarines filling his before empty fruit basket. Wanting to scream into the water, pleading for you to come back, trying to go back to you swimming and realizing he couldn’t breath underwater anymore.
His parents had been furious, asking for explanations and giving him mad reactions when he said he wanted to feel the marine nature from closer. He had always been a bad liar.
His friends had asked for explanations as well, but ended up joking about his little adventure, pretending that he had been enchanted by a siren. Little did they know.
Sitting in his house, eating sardines with his visiting friend from Korea wasn’t exactly as fun as it should be. He didn’t want to be there, as much as he loved Minho, he earned for your touch, to kiss you one last time like kisses were supposed to be given, not like your first one was.
Sighing, he got up, going outside and letting the night breeze play with his curls. Almost feeling your hands threading through his hair.
The nights pass, the moon shining as bright as ever for her new son. As time passes, your memory begins to fade from Chan’s brain. The forever beautiful mermaid leaving him quietly like a daughter coming home late from a party.
He believes to have seen inhuman blue eyes peeking from the water to his house sometimes, but he lets it wash away from his mind.
Old ancestors' stories tell that a true love kiss from a mermaid can give humans the power to breathe underwater for the rest of their life’s. But don’t get too ahead of yourselves hatchlings, there’s no actual record of that being true. Different worlds are not meant to collide.
@mochamvgz @leonsmain
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