Chapter Text
It's dawn when they first set out. The sky is washed alight with a multitude of pastels and even though the temperature is low enough for Yoongi's breath to fog in front of his face, the sight of dawn's colors dancing across the smooth's ocean surface is so beautiful that he wants to always be awake to see it.
Yoongi had to plead to be let out on the boat. He's been wanting to go sailing with his father ever since he could talk, and it's taken a little over eight years for Yoongi's pleading to finally conquer his father's rejections.
What finally convinced his father was Yoongi, exhausted yet determined from a day at the market selling the fish that his father had caught, telling his father, "Dad, I want to be just like you when I grow up. I want to be a sailor."
And so on the boat Yoongi stands, not quite a sailor yet but not stuck on the shore either. He has spent hours imagining what his first day out on sea would be like, but none of the fantasies of becoming the best sailor around included Yoongi becoming terribly, horribly seasick.
"Haven't gotten your sea legs yet, Yoongs?" his father teases goodnaturedly, rubbing a hand on Yoongi's back as Yoongi leans over the boat, pukes, and sobs. They're only half an hour into their small expedition around the port and the majority of Yoongi's hastily eaten breakfast has already become fish food.
"Real sailors don't get seasick," Yoongi grumbles, petulant and annoyed at his own behavior. He closes his eyes and wills his stomach to become iron-strong. But the boat rolls over another wave and more of Yoongi’s breakfast makes a reappearance. His throat and nose sting.
His father laughs and gives him another pat on the back. "You'll become a real sailor soon enough. Don't try to rush it." His father stands up and tells him that he's going to be at the hull of the ship if he needs him. Before he goes, he reaches into his large pockets and hands Yoongi a bag of individually wrapped ginger sweets. Yoongi saw his younger brother and his mother in the kitchen making them the day before, but he didn't think they were for him. "Here, have these. The ginger will help calm your stomach."
Yoongi reluctantly takes the bag, feeling like a failure as he does so. A real sailor wouldn’t need ginger sweets to get through the day. A real sailor wouldn’t be hugging the edge of the boat so tightly that their knuckles go white. A real sailor looks at the early morning horizon because it holds infinite possibilities, not because the horizon is a steady focal point that stops the world from spinning.
In short, a real sailor is everything that Yoongi isn't.
Coming to terms with this tragic truth, Yoongi sticks a ginger sweet in his mouth and focuses on keeping his breaths even. Even with the ginger, Yoongi's stomach is doing somersaults and cartwheels and he barely has enough time to stick his head over the side of the boat before the last of his breakfast makes its way into the sea.
"Seasickness is stupid," Yoongi mutters, wiping off his mouth and nose with the back of his hand. He sucks on another ginger sweet, not so much for the ginger itself but as a way to get rid of the taste of vomit from his mouth. He rests his chin on the edge of the boat and sighs.
The wind from the sea lifts Yoongi's bangs from his face and blows salty air in his face. He stares out onto the water and prays to any and all gods that exist for them to take away his seasickness before his next trip.
He also prays for his next venture to be sooner rather than later.
Yoongi stares out to the horizon until he finally feels stable on his feet. Because of the small size of the boat – it is just a short trip around the harbor and the only two crew members are himself and his father – the boat catches each and every wave and rocks with it. But with more stability, Yoongi is strong enough to withstand the waves. At least the small ones.
He gets up and is about to turn around to go to the bow of the ship when he sees the water splash. At first Yoongi thinks the splash is a flying fish. But Yoongi knows that all the flying fishes that are sold in the market are imported from a town further along the coast. There are no flying fish in these waters.
There's another splash, this time even bigger than before. Yoongi pushes himself against the edge of the boat to get as close of a glimpse as possible. Something pale is just underneath the surface of the water, and it may just be the light reflecting off the water but it seems to shimmer.
A dolphin? No, it can't be a dolphin because they're far too close inland.
Yoongi stretches his hand over the water and waves it, as if he can somehow grab the creature's attention. "Hey!"
Because of the distortion of the water, Yoongi can't tell if the thing below the surface is moving or standing still. "Hey!" he calls again.
There's no response, but it's not as if Yoongi was expecting one. Nevertheless, he's so curious that it physically pains him to not figure out what's hiding. But maybe that’s just his upset stomach cramping.
It's probably just an animal that's curious about their boat, but still. Yoongi has to know.
Yoongi stares out onto the water until he realizes that he can't see the pale thing anymore. He exhales, loud and long, defeated. He lets his gaze fall from where he thought the pale thing was to the edge of the boat.
And then Yoongi is looking onto the top half of a child's face. Every part of Yoongi freezes. Only the child's silver eyes and a forehead covered with black hair is showing, and he looks just as surprised as Yoongi feels. Between strands of hair, Yoongi sees aqua scales covering his temples. This boy isn’t human. Questioning words are stuck in the back of Yoongi's throat and before he can get them out, he blinks and then the boy is gone.
Yoongi continues to look at the water, hoping for the kid to come back. But it is just as if the boy was never there. The sea continues to reflect the morning sun as if nothing bothers it. As if Yoongi did not just see a boy completely disappear from right in front of him. He keeps looking, trying to catch another glance of the boy, until his father calls him to the front of the boat and he has no choice but to pull himself away from the edge.
But right before he goes, Yoongi looks again and he swears he sees the boy again at the edge of the horizon, right in the spot where the sky meets the water. And he's looking directly at the ship.
--
"There's no such thing as mermaids." Yoongi's dad ruffles his hair and laughs. "In all my years of sailing, I've seen many things, but never a mermaid."
Yoongi huffs. They're docking the ship, which means that Yoongi is sitting at the helm and watching as they pull in closer and closer. When they're close enough, Yoongi throws the mooring rope to the pier to keep the ship from drifting away. He misses on the first try and has to bring the rope back in to try again. "But I saw a mermaid."
His dad laughs again and Yoongi knows that he is not going to make his dad believe him. It doesn't matter because Yoongi knows what he saw. There's no other explanation.
Even though they're back on shore, Yoongi still feels as if the mermaid's eyes are on him. It's an unnerving feeling as they walk home. He keeps looking over his shoulder because it feels as if someone is watching him, and his dad laughs at him again and tells him to make sure his head doesn’t roll off.
Their household is only starting to wake up when they return. Yoongi's mother is in the kitchen, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes as she fixes them a quick breakfast. Yoongi isn't used to waking up so early, and both of his parents laugh when he starts to nod off in the middle of drinking his juice.
"Go back to bed," his mother insists and Yoongi is too overcome by sleepiness to argue. He downs the rest of his juice and wanders to the bedroom he shares with his younger brother. There's only one bed, and of course his younger brother has all but claimed the entire mattress as his own.
"Taehyung," Yoongi mutters, pushing his brother's limbs out of the way so there is a space for him to sleep. "Move. I'm going to sleep."
"Eh?" Taehyung wakes up from the movement and slowly turns his head to look at his brother. There's a line of drool dripping from the corner of his mouth. "How was sailing?" he tries to say, but he's not fully awake so all that comes out is a mumble of incoherent syllables.
An idea comes upon Yoongi. His father didn't believe him about seeing a mermaid, but Taehyung believes everything that comes out of Yoongi's mouth. A year ago, Yoongi had told Taehyung that everyone could fly if they truly believe they could and Taehyung was so overcome with excitement that he had jumped off the roof of their house and broke his entire arm. Nevertheless, his faith in Yoongi hasn’t wavered.
The best thing about having a little brother like Taehyung is that Yoongi knows that he will always have someone that will believe him.
Yoongi climbs onto the bed and lays his head down on Taehyung's pillow. "Sailing was fun."
Taehyung yawns widely, his hands above his head. He smacks his lips, slowly falling back asleep.
"I saw a mermaid."
Taehyung's eyes fly open. He flips so he's facing Yoongi and he hits his older brother on the arm. "A mermaid?"
Yoongi nods. "A mermaid. Dad doesn't believe me but I saw him in the water. He was looking right at me."
"Woah," Taehyung replies, amazed. He lays back down, but his eyes remain wide open. Yoongi can see Taehyung's imagination going wild with all the possibilities. "Woah, a mermaid."
Yoongi nods again and grabs the blankets, covering himself. He tucks them underneath his chin as he feels a yawn coming. "A real mermaid."
"Woah," Taehyung repeats, and he says it once more but it's cut off by a yawn. "I want to see a mermaid."
"When you're old enough to go out on the boat, we'll see one together," Yoongi promises. Taehyung is only two years younger than him, but Yoongi is sure that he can convince his dad to let Taehyung out with them. After all, they have a mermaid to see.
"Promise me?" Taehyung, getting closer and closer to sleep, holds up a hand. He folds his fingers down so the only finger that's left is his pinky. Yoongi puts his own hand up and interlocks Taehyung's pinky with his own.
"It's a promise," Yoongi replies and they keep their interlocked fingers in the air for a while, thinking. Eventually Yoongi realizes that Taehyung has fallen asleep with his hand in the air and lets go of his hand, letting his brother sleep.
Even though he's tired, Yoongi cannot stop his mind from spinning with the thoughts of the boy in the water. The mermaid. Yoongi will find him again.
He has to.
--
Yoongi loves summertime: the days are longer and warmer; the warm weather brings happy spirits; and with happy spirits, festivals. Their port town is small and can only afford festivals every few years, but this year they’ve gone all out. Now, under the fading face of the sun, people have just begun to light up the night with lanterns.
As he walks down the main street, Yoongi feels like he's floating. The summer festivals have always carried an air of magic with them, the possibility of even the wildest of dreams coming true. A group of kids run past him, giggling and shouting and Yoongi smiles fondly at them.
Hoseok, a friend from the port city down the coast, asks if he wants to eat and even though Yoongi had already eaten, Yoongi is in too good of a mood to say no. They make their way through the maze of booths and people, catching up with shopkeepers and booth owners they haven’t seen in a while. They eventually decide on trying a new food stand and Yoongi leaves the ordering up to Hoseok.
"I'm going to go find a seat," Yoongi tells Hoseok before going to the seating area and fortunately finding two open seats next to another one of their friends.
"Where's your brother?" Namjoon asks. Yoongi and Namjoon have known each other longer than Yoongi has known Taehyung. Although they don’t live on the same side of town, they get along well, in part due to their many similarities. They're both the older sons taking over their fathers' boats and trading routes. And they're both not too keen on following the routes that their parents have set up for them, but only Yoongi continues to trek down it nonetheless. Namjoon has flat out refused to work with his father, and currently the relationship between him and his family is as thin as a piece of sewing string. Yoongi, while not as willing to risk letting his parents down, is branching from his father’s job as much as he can. He’s only 16 years old, but he knows that fishing isn’t the life for him. For now, he and his father have compromised on sailing. It’s an okay life-style.
Yoongi sits down at the seat across from Namjoon and quickly scans the area for his younger brother. Yoongi sees families and teenagers and children, but no Taehyung. "I don't even think he's here," he admits. He looks once more just in case he's somehow missed his brother. "I came to the festival with Hoseok. He's getting food."
"Taehyung is missing a festival?" Namjoon quirks an eyebrow, like he can't quite believe that Taehyung would miss a night out. It's unusual for Taehyung to miss any party, but earlier in the evening when Yoongi had asked if he wanted to tag along, Taehyung had only shrugged his shoulders and told Yoongi that he would think about it. Taehyung has an art apprenticeship and Yoongi knows how hard he has been working to make everything for the festival. From the patterned lanterns to the decorated signs that indicate where things are, it’s all Taehyung’s work. Maybe he was too tired from work, but then again being tired has never stopped Taehyung from having a good time.
"I don't know. Maybe he's coming down with a cold? He did go out yesterday during the storm without a jacket." Yoongi thinks about this morning, but all he can remember is Taehyung cheerfully rambling about the new colorful sail he had bought the night before. He had asked Yoongi if he could put it on his boat. (The answer is, as with most things concerning Taehyung, was yes.)
"Fancy seeing you here, Hoseok," Namjoon says as Hoseok weasels his way through a family of five and makes it to their small table with all the food intact. He hands Yoongi some type of fried food on a stick and Yoongi thinks it's octopus… at least it tastes like octopus.
"Namjoon!" Hoseok replies, all smiles as he always is whenever Namjoon is around. "If I had known you were here, I would have gotten something for you as well."
Namjoon shakes his head and points to the pile of half-eaten fries in front of him. "I'm fine, really. Thank you, though. What are you doing on our shore? I feel as if I haven't seen you in ages."
Hoseok shrugs his shoulders and bites into his own skewer. Something red oozes out of it and drips onto the table. Yoongi rolls his eyes but grabs a handful of napkins from the pile in the center of the table and cleans up the mess. Yoongi's been friends with the two of them for so long that cleaning up their messes has become second nature. "It's been a few months," Hoseok admits once he is done chewing. "But hey, now that it's summer I should have more free time. I'll be here for the rest of the festival, at least."
"What are you doing tomorrow?" Namjoon asks Hoseok. Yoongi wishes they would finally sort out their feelings. They've been dancing around each other since they were teenagers and Yoongi can't help but sigh in exasperation as he watches them continue to dart this way and that but never meet.
Yoongi sighs, props his elbows onto the table, and rests his head in the palm of his hands. He lets himself zone out and isn't aware of how much time has passed until Hoseok is calling his name and Namjoon is shaking his shoulder, both trying to catch his attention.
"What?" Yoongi says, not taking the rude interruption lightly. When Yoongi was younger and still in school, he had perfected the art of falling asleep with his eyes open. Given a few more minutes, Yoongi would have been fast asleep.
"Isn't that Taehyung?" Hoseok points to a cluster of people. They're parting for something, or someone making their way through. Sure enough, it's Taehyung and he's all but sprinting to where they are, yelling at the top of his lungs.
"Yoongi!" Taehyung waves his hands above his head wildly, as if Yoongi wouldn't have noticed his brother otherwise. It's not as if everyone in the plaza is now staring at Taehyung as he makes a huge scene.
As Taehyung comes closer, Yoongi notices that he's sopping wet. There's puddles of water that trails behind him. He bounces with excitement and sends water every which way. Why is he soaking wet?
"Yoongi," Taehyung pants, making it to their small table. He places his hands on the table as his chest heaves and catches his breath. Water spills everywhere, and both Hoseok and Namjoon take their food off of the table before Taehyung can drip on it.
"You're wet," Yoongi says, voice as dry as his brother is wet. "Why are you wet?"
“Mermaids,” he says, grabbing his brother's hand and pulling. When they were growing up, Yoongi had resented his brother for being taller than him, broader than him, bigger than him. Although Yoongi certainly has strength from sailing and carting packages off and on his ship, he wouldn't call himself a muscular person. Taehyung on the other hand is all lean muscle and broad shoulders. But Yoongi is not a kid anymore, and he lets himself be hauled up by his younger brother.
But Taehyung doesn't just haul Yoongi to his feet. He latches their hands together as if they're two years old (Yoongi supposes that if Taehyung’s two, that makes him four) and starts running back the way he came from. Yoongi barely has time to send Namjoon and Hoseok a panicked look and rush out a quick goodbye before he's thrust through the crowds.
Taehyung doesn't let go of Yoongi's hand until they've left the lights and sounds of the festival well behind them. When Taehyung finally lets his hand go, they're at the beach. More specifically, they're at one of the small coves that nobody ever goes to. The sand here is mostly rocks and sharp sea glass. The water is shallow at first but then drops off. And with the rough riptides, both townspeople and sailors are repelled against this cove. Yoongi can count the number of times he has been here on one hand.
Taehyung looks at the cove, throws his hands up in the air, and shouts, "They were here! In the water!"
"They?"
"Yoongi." Taehyung grabs his brother's arm and squeezes. "I told you. The mermaids."
Yoongi sighs. A long time ago, when Yoongi was young and impressionable and when Taehyung was even younger and even more impressional, Yoongi thought he had seen mermaids swimming in the oceans. In fact, Yoongi was convinced that he had seen a mermaid and convinced Taehyung that they were real too. But as the years passed, Yoongi never saw a mermaid again. In fact, the memory of seeing a mermaid is so hazy that Yoongi isn't sure it wasn't all but a hyperactive fever dream.
So as Yoongi grew older, he outgrew his belief in mermaids. Mermaids are fantastical ideas, like the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus. They're nice to believe in, but they lose their charm as the years pass. Just like his father once said, there’s no such thing as mermaids.
Taehyung never quite shed his soft, childish approach to life. Most of the time, Yoongi marvels at him for being able to keep such a optimistic and kind attitude despite the difficulty of life. This is not one of those times.
"Tae," Yoongi sighs. He kicks the ground again and rolls his eyes. His brother dragged him away from the festival for this? For creatures that don't even exist? "Did you really spend your whole night here looking for mermaids?"
Taehyung shakes his head. "Not the whole night. I did the usual rounds and greeted everyone and then I came here. Please, I know my manners."
"Glad to see you didn't grow up to be a completely insolent brat."
Taehyung rolls his eyes. "Yoongi, but I saw them. The mermaids. They were in the water. They saw me too. They had silver eyes." Taehyung points to where the water is rolling onto the shore. "They were right there." He starts walking towards the water, purpose in his steps. “They were right there, I swear."
Taehyung continues to point and Yoongi humors him by following his finger. The light from the full moon is so bright that Yoongi has no trouble looking towards the shore line and finding someone sprawled, face-down into the sand with their limbs spread out.
There’s no tail, just two unmoving legs.
"Oh," Yoongi says. The thoughts of mermaids completely exit out of Yoongi’s mind. He can hear Taehyung's triumphant cheering in the background, but the noise doesn’t fully register.
There's a person laying on the ground. They are close enough to the water that the waves barely touch their clothes, and Yoongi holds his breath because it looks like the person isn't breathing.
"Taehyung, no." Yoongi waves his hand in front of Taehyung to shush him. Yoongi takes a step forward and then another, and when the realization that it’s not all a figment of his imagination hits, he starts rushing forward.
The seriousness of the situation hits Taehyung a second later and he is quick to follow and they both kneel down next to the person in a haste. Yoongi flips him over and checks for a pulse. He finds one, but it's fluttering and weak. Yoongi looks at him and his heart clenches when he realizes that it’s just a boy. A tall, gangly boy but still a boy. Judging from how the boy is barely wearing any clothes and is dripping wet, he must have drowned. Just as Yoongi thought, the boy isn't breathing.
This isn't the first time that Yoongi has seen a drowned person, but it's so unexpected that at first Yoongi doesn't know what to do. His hands rest against the boy's chest, unmoving. But then Taehyung let out a whimper, obviously trying to hold back tears, and Yoongi springs into action.
It takes a long time, long enough that Yoongi was starting to worry that the kid wouldn't ever breathe again, but with one last compression and one last attempt of blowing air into the boy's lungs, the boy wakes. He coughs violently, hacking out water. His eyes are glassy, unfocused. He doesn't sit up, but rather twists himself to the side so he can vomit the water that he swallowed.
A small wave laps up against them and while Yoongi is shell shocked, too weary to even move, the boy jolts as if the water is an electric current. The water retreats and the boy turns still as a statue. Taehyung gets to his feet and lightly touches the boy's shoulder to get his attention.
The boy faces them and all Yoongi can see are big, water-rimmed eyes. The moon’s light is so strong that it makes his eyes look silver. He blinks, tears streaming down his cheeks, and then his eyes are dark brown. His hair is a rat's nest of tangles and pieces of seaweed. Yoongi wouldn’t be surprised to find bits of broken seashell in it either. His bottom lip is trembling as he takes in deep, raspy breaths of air.
"What's your name?" Taehyung asks. Yoongi gets to his feet and attempts to rub the sand off from his pants. Another wave washes over them, and instead of flinching, the boy starts crying.
--
The boy sits on the couch, facing the fireplace. Yoongi had dug out the biggest, warmest blanket they usually reserve for the colder months out from the cupboards, and now the boy wears it like a too-big cape around his shoulders. He looks even smaller as he stares into the fire, the warmth bringing back some of the color to his cheeks.
As they walked from the cove to their house, the boy, a little shaky on his feet but refusing to hold onto either of their arms, was quiet. Even now, after eating pieces of bread and drinking hot tea, the boy doesn't say a word. Throughout the night, they've been asking him questions but all they get for a reply is a stare.
"Have you ever seen him before?" Taehyung asks from the room over. The two of them are sitting on the kitchen table, turning their heads every few seconds to confirm that the boy is still on the couch, still breathing, and still alive.
Yoongi shakes his head. It’s weird that they don’t know him. No matter what part of town Yoongi is in, everyone will raise either their hand or their head in acknowledgement of him. Even when Yoongi is trying his best to go by unnoticed, someone will see him and then pass the word down the grapevine and before he knows it, his mother is asking him what exactly he was doing in the markets on a Saturday evening. In this type of town, everyone knows everyone. Yoongi's never seen that kid before, but that doesn't really mean much with the festival going on. People from all areas have poured into their port town for the week. "He's probably a tourist, coming from a neighboring town for the festival."
"But what if he isn't?" Taehyung edges on. He leans across the table to whisper. "What if he's a mermaid?"
Yoongi leans back in his chair, lifting up the front so he's balancing on the back legs. If his mother were here, she would yell at him for being unnecessarily dangerous, but his mother and father live on the other side of town. "Taehyung, he isn't a mermaid. He's some poor kid who thought it would be nice to go on a midnight swim." Taehyung opens his mouth to object, but Yoongi doesn't give him the chance. "And because he's not from around here, he didn't know the cove was dangerous and probably got caught up in the riptide. His parents are probably worried about him."
Taehyung hangs his head. "But I saw them, the mermaids. Really, I saw them."
"Taehyung," Yoongi says, making his brother's name more of a sigh than an actual word. He leans forward and plants the chair back on its four legs. The mother inside of his head takes a breath of relief. “Did you really see a drowned boy and immediately think mermaid ? Really? That’s too far, even for you.”
“There was a mermaid when I was first there!” Taehyung defends. He has a wild look in his eyes, the type of look that appears when he’s frustrated at himself. “When I first came to the cove, there really was a mermaid in the water! Then I ran and got you and, and…”
“And then there was a drowned kid,” Yoongi finishes. “And no mermaid.”
Taehyung’s lip is wobbling and he takes in a shaky breath. Yoongi knows that if they continue this conversation, it’s going to end in tears. He sighs and pets Taehyung on the top of his head. “Let’s get some sleep, okay? We can talk about this more in the morning. Will you help the kid get comfortable?”
Taehyung pinches his lips together in a thin line, but he still nods his head and gets up from his seat. "I'll go get him a pillow."
"Thank you."
Taehyung walks out of the room, his steps a little heavier than normal. He's not quite pouting, but it's a close thing. Yoongi lets his brother do whatever he wants to do, because he knows that in the morning they'll have this all cleared up. In the morning, the boy will talk and they'll get all the answers that they want. Yoongi looks over at the boy and finds that he's fallen asleep sitting up. Either that, or he's lost in thought. His eyes are closed and his breathing is even. His hair is still a mangled mop, and there's a bandage on his cheekbone that covers a deep scratch.
Yoongi takes another, closer look. The boy is pale, but it's not in the fair-skinned way that Yoongi's fever-dream made the mermaid out to be. This boy looks sick and unsteady. Yoongi looks at him even harder and allows his thoughts to wander. Then shakes his head for allowing Taehyung's grandiose ideas affect his own thought process. The boy is just that: a boy.
Yoongi waits for Taehyung to come back with the pillow before going to bed himself. That night he dreams of the moon and pale skin and the smell of the sea.
--
When Yoongi emerges from his room the following morning, his sleep-addled state believes that the boy is still sleeping in front of the couch. But as Yoongi gets closer to the couch, he rubs the sleep out of his eyes and realizes that all that's on the couch is the huge blanket, arranged in such a way that the only way to know that someone isn't there is by removing the blanket entirely.
Which Yoongi does. There’s no boy.
With the blanket in his hands, all that is on the couch is the pillow Taehyung had fetched from his room last night. Before allowing himself to worry, Yoongi drapes the blanket over the back of the couch and heads towards the kitchen. Light pours through the open window and the sounds of someone rustling through the little food that they have float through the air. Since it's festival time, the two brothers often splurge and eat out for the majority of the meals. Consequently, there's not much food in stock. Whoever is looking for food is going to have to keep looking.
"Morning," Taehyung greets without even looking up from rummaging through the pantry.
Yoongi's eyes scan the small room and a coil of guilt starts to wrap around his stomach. The only person in the room is Taehyung. He takes a deep breath, not knowing why he's reacting so aggressively, before opening his mouth. "Where's the kid?"
Taehyung turns. "He's sleeping."
"No, he's not." Yoongi shakes his head. "I checked and then I thought he was with you."
Taehyung's mouth settles into a line. "He was sleeping just five minutes ago."
"Well, he's not there now."
Taehyung frowns and pushes past Yoongi to look at the couch himself. Upon finding nothing but the blanket and the pillow, he rushes to the other rooms, but Yoongi knows that he's not going to find anything.
"He's gone," Taehyung concludes, two minutes later once he's checked every corner of the house. He walks towards the door and steps in his shoes. "We have to find him."
"Why do we have to find him? He probably felt like he overstayed his welcome and left on his own accord." It's the last day of the festival and Yoongi already feels bad about skipping out on his friends last night. He doesn't want to spend his morning chasing around a kid who Taehyung is convinced is more than just a kid. He’s done his civic duty for this month.
"Yoongi," Taehyung whines, disapproving. He grabs a jacket from the coat rack and drapes himself in it. "He's a kid. A lost kid. Who doesn't know this place at all." He looks up, his frown causing worry lines to appear on his forehead. "He can't have gotten far."
Yoongi knows that there's no use in arguing with Taehyung and that if he doesn't go with his brother, Taehyung will go by himself. Yoongi walks back into his room to change out of his sleeping clothes and then the two of them are off, searching for a kid whose name they don't even know.
They ask around and ask around some more, but no one even has a slight inkling as to where the kid went. No one can even recall seeing him the night before or any of the nights of the festival. As Taehyung gives his thanks to the kids living in the last house on the street, Yoongi thinks about how odd the entire situation is.
It's almost as if the kid appeared from thin air and then disappeared in the exact same way. Yoongi thinks about how the kid wouldn’t answer any of their questions last night, thinks about how he stared and stared into space with a blank expression on his face, thinks about how they don’t know anything about him. Not even his name.
People don’t just disappear, Yoongi’s logic reasons with him. He has to be here somewhere. But the matter of the fact is that they’ve looked everywhere and all signs are pointing to the boy’s nonexistence.
Taehyung kicks a rock that's in his path and it shatters into a mess of sharp-edged pebbles. They’re like the pebbles at the cove, and Yoongi wonders why the boy was even in those waters. No one goes there. Especially not at night. And especially not alone. Yoongi’s stomach rolls like waves in a thunderstorm.
"I hope he's safe. Wherever he ended up.”
Yoongi sighs, his own way of agreeing. There's a sudden breeze that picks up and it smells like the sea, salty yet fresh. For some reason, Yoongi turns his face towards the breeze, towards the sea, and says, "I'm sure he's fine."
Taehyung continues to kick rocks and watches as they shatter every which way. "Hope so."