Chapter Text
There are love stories everyone has heard of; the names of Romeo and Juliet, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet or Tristan and Iseult evoking feelings of longing in the hearts of people who followed their journey till the end. Big stories with big words which shaped the perception of the term romance in their time. But it’s not always the dramatic prose that needs to be told, sometimes one can find the loveliest stories in the most mundane scenarios.
Let me tell you a story so incredible that it's hard to believe. It is about an unusual friendship from which the soft bud of affection arose that eventually flourished into love. It’s about a broken heart that didn’t believe it could ever be healed again, about a chance encounter between two beings who were alien and yet so similar to one another. I want to tell you a story full of fantasy and wonder that will make your heart yearn for something genuine.
Let me tell you the story of a merman who fell in love with a human.
Chapter 1
At regular intervals, the waves sloshed over the rocks in a remote little spot on the coastline of Jeju Island, rising tentatively only to be cut by their sharp edges and returning to the sea as white glittering foam. The sun was low in the sky, only a half circle left on the horizon, surrounded by a play of pink and purple hues and enveloped by a few clouds, which followed the course of the sun like a herd of sheep their shepherd. The sea gleamed in places where the sun hit the water, a collection of intangible stars given to the sea by the night sky. Many would have described this sight as beautiful and idyllic, a piece of heaven on earth, a place where one could escape the difficulties of everyday life and come to rest and find peace.
From Taemin's point of view, this was exactly the problem. The shore he visited to be alone, to escape the mocking and staring of the others, to listen to the sound of the sea, was no longer just his refuge. Despite the remoteness of the place and its difficult access due to the cliffs rising from the water like long-forgotten monuments, lovestruck people strayed to the rock jetty at the bottom to confess their love to each other right before sunset. Taemin had often heard the word 'romantic' fall from red tinted lips as they were about to be placed on others. He had never understood the sentiment of people placing their mouths onto each other to share something they called a ‘kiss’, the sea people using their mouths for the intake of food only. The sight of the exchange of body fluids between two-legged beings made him uncomfortable. To express affection, the people of the sea put their foreheads together and placed their hands on each other’s cheeks, a gesture so intimate that it was only shared between close family members. Community was important to the sea people to heighten their chance of survival, but the concept of love was a foreign one, a bond between two people non-existent, the sea-folk only coming together to propagate each year during spring.
It was one of those nights when two young humans sat together closely on the flat stone blocks at the foot of the cliffs and held hands, looking at each other's eyes. Taemin leaned against a boulder not far from the two lovebirds, chewing on seaweed as he followed their conversation with reluctance. Their words, he understood, but the meaning behind them filled him with unease.
“Sooji, we have known each other for so long now, and – I feel a lot for you. I like you very much, you know? And I – and I brought you here today to ask if you want to be my girlfriend?”
The young merman grimaced, was repelled by these words, and imitated the girl’s joyful voice in silence, who overzealously fell around the young man’s neck and began weeping. He peeked from behind the rock, saw the two people kissing as they whispered sweet nothings to one another, the display of such intimacy making him want to throw up. Taemin just wanted to rest, lie against the warm stones, dip his tailfin into the water, and watch the sunset while eating seaweed or small snails.
However, due to the emotional nature of humans, this had become an almost impossible task, and even a change of location hadn’t helped, the whole island filled with humans who wanted to confess their love to one another by the sea like a colony of algae, which spread over the ocean’s surface during summer.
The only way he could regain the tranquility of his safe harbor at the cliffs was to spoil people’s fun in the hope they would never come back again. Sometimes he collected algae and sea snails and threw them at the disturbers, joyful every time a human jumped up with a disgusted screech and left. Sometimes, he slid into the sea and dove through the water until he rose up again behind their backs to splash water at them with his fin over and over again, his body so nimble, his movements so quick that he could disappear right back into the water without the chance of being discovered.
That night, it gave him great pleasure to splash the young woman with water and watch her clothes stick to her skin, the make-up on her face running down her cheeks. The two humans broke apart from each other when the first load of water hit them. A choked sound escaped the young woman’s mouth, whose long, black hair was plastered to her forehead. Taemin grinned as her face twisted in horror and she patted her new boyfriend on the chest, lamenting that he had chosen a bad place to confess to her, that her neatly put on make-up was ruined. Her anger increased so much that Taemin swam in circles with a smug grin on his face and hit the surface of the water with his tailfin once more to increase her anger. The second load of water caused the young woman to jump up in revulsion with her handbag being soaked, and she began her way back up to the meadow at the top of the cliffs, her boyfriend hurrying after her, begging her for forgiveness and asking her to calm down.
For Taemin, it was the greatest joy to joke around with humans in love, because he didn't understand them, didn't understand how they acted so stupid. When the voices of the humans had finally faded in the distance, he placed his hands onto the rocks and lifted himself out of the water to lie down, enjoying how the sun heated stones warmed his bare back while his purple fishtail sprinkled with specks of gold dabbled in the water. He crossed his arms behind his head and stared up at the sky, saw the first stars appear, and thought about his life and the fragility of his existence. The sea-folk believed that every star in the sky contained the soul of a living being and that after death one ascended to find a spot at the firmament and shine for the living who had lost their way in this world to guide them home. Taemin wasn't sure what his home was anymore, his fin having carried him through the sea for years to discover one place after another, the closest spot that resembled one being Jeju Island.
He often fell asleep under the starry night sky, drifted peacefully on the water, only to be awakened by the first rays of sunshine the next day that spurred him on to look for food. Taemin was considered an outsider by his kind and was often crookedly eyed by other sea people when he showed up at the colony he had been born in and wore new jewelry that humans had lost in the sea, or when he told others that he had driven humans away from the island’s shore once more. The bigoted sea-folk did not like humans, stayed far away from them, were reluctant to talk about them, their fear of getting caught in one of the countless fishing nets, and landing on a dissecting table too great.
The most well-known sea people, who had become famous in myths created by humans, had been careless mermaids, who similar to Taemin, hadn’t been afraid of humans and had eventually been trapped and encaged by them. They had been exhibited in circuses and dismantled on tables for the sake of what humans called science, caged in small dark places without dignity like mere animals. It had taken the sea-folk centuries to extinguish the certainty of their existence from the minds of humans and let mermaids degenerate into nothing more than beautiful, mysterious creatures in fairytales told by drunken sailors. For that to happen the sea-folk had given up what they had valued the most - their freedom, as they had completely withdrawn from harbors and the mainland.
However, young sea people like Taemin was one who, despite all the dangers, swam close to the coastline and climbed out of the water, were a thorn in the eyes of the older ones who had fought long and hard for the survival of their species. Taemin had been forbidden multiple times to approach the shore when he was younger, but after he had come of age and was able to follow his own rules, he had no longer stuck to the bans, had ignored them as he loved to watch the sunset and listen to the waves too much as to care about the possible consequences of his behavior.
Oftentimes, he was bored when he swam alone through the sea and chased fish, wished for a real friend to talk to, even the fright and annoyance of humans no longer as satisfying as it used to be. The only friend he had was a starfish he had named Byeol who he often visited on the ocean floor near the cliffs. He sometimes fed it mussels, stroked the red, rough surface of its small body, and considered Byeol as something that humans would most likely call a pet. The starfish was easily recognizable by the lack of one of its legs, but even Byeol couldn’t satisfy Taemin's wish for a friend, a true friend, the starfish’s existence a silent and languid one.
The story I want to share begins on Taemin’s 23rd birthday on a warm, sunny day in the middle of July, the encounter with a mere human that day changing his life forever, and never letting him return to be the merman he used to be.
The young merman had collected some particularly beautiful shells and fresh seaweed to bask at the shore in the evening light and looked forward to watch the sunset and spend his birthday by himself. However, he had been excited too soon, his eyes catching sight of a figure sitting by the cliffs when he swam closer to the island. Gritting his teeth, he sneaked up on them, the outlines of a young man with ashy pink hair, who looked down at a small, open box in his hands becoming clear to Taemin. The man smiled pensively and when Taemin caught a glimpse of the box, he saw a silver ring sitting in the middle of it. Rolling his eyes in disapproval, he slid back into the water and found his usual hiding spot behind a rock.
A marriage proposal – the type of confession he hated the most. He had heard the word ‘marriage’ many times, even though he had never fully grasped its meaning. People seemed to be using the ring to tie themselves to another person and to be with them forever. Taemin wasn't sure if the ring hid magic, a spell that prevented the person wearing it from walking away again.
The young man seemed excited and full of anticipation, glancing over to the path leading away from the cliffs as if he was waiting for someone. Taemin kept an eye on him, and watched as the man sat on the rocks in a white t-shirt and brown shorts, his legs crossed in front of him. The legs of humans were an amusing sight. They looked so pitiful and meager, as if someone had forgotten to wrap them in scales and put a tailfin on them. He had seen humans swim quite often, their movements slow and clumsy as they struggled through the water and utilized tools like funny-looking plastic fins to make them faster. Taemin pricked up his ears when he heard footsteps come closer and he sank deeper into the water until his nose touched the surface to not reveal his hiding spot.
“There you are,” said the man sitting on the stones in a sing-song. The person who joined him was another man, about the same age, slimmer, his hair dyed in a platinum blonde. He looked dainty and his expression appeared to be unhappy, his steps cautious and awkward as he stumbled over the rocks in a pair of black leather shoes with small heels.
“Couldn't you have chosen another place? Like the sandy beach on the other side of the island?”
The young man’s voice was melodic, reminded Taemin of a song. The man reluctantly settled down next to the other, looked around, and brushed small stones from his black pants. The one with the ashy pink hair rubbed his head and beamed, hiding the small box with the ring behind his back.
Taemin was already preparing for a long monologue in which the man with the pink hair would tell the man with the blond hair how happy he was to be with him, how happy he was that he had him in his life, that he had never met a person with whom he could be the way he was, that he did not want their paths to ever separate. Taemin had heard so many marriage proposals in his life that he might be able to make one up himself on the spot without even knowing the person in front of him. Humans always used the same words, maybe packaged differently, but essentially the same. Their speeches were boring and predictable just like the humans themselves were.
“The beach is always full of people. It’s quieter here. I wanted to be alone with you.”
The young merman was already thinking about what he could do to drive today’s lovers away and imagined how the man with the blond hair would probably not like his clothes to be drenched in seawater.
“You said you wanted to tell me something?” The blond man shifted on the rock and to Taemin he seemed as if he was uncomfortable, as if he wanted to be anywhere but near the water. He emitted a different aura than the man next to him, looked stressed and rushed as if he had too little time and too much to do. The young man with the ashy pink hair appeared very different, calmer, and more relaxed, with a hint of anticipation lingering in his eyes, as if he couldn't wait to reveal the ring and propose in a scenic, rehearsed speech. “I wanted to tell you something, too,” the man continued, and clasped his hands in his lap, playing nervously with his fingers.
“Okay – you are welcome to start.”
The man smiled at the other, teeth white like the pearls in a shell. Taemin found it strange that one of them seemed so happy while the other wore an expression on his face that Taemin had never seen on anyone coming down to the water for confessions and proposals before.
“Yes, I just don't know where to start, Jinki,” the blond one stammered and took a deep breath, visibly undecided on how to continue his sentence. The man named Jinki put one hand on the other’s knee, apparently trying to reassure him, but he seemed to be doing the exact opposite, and the man next to him became more and more distressed as he squirmed around. “You know I like you, Jinki, right? We have known each other for so long, we have been together for so long,” he began hesitantly while the other agreed with a nod. “It’s – we came to Jeju because of your job and I know you like it here, but –”
The young man paused again and ran his hands through his hair, his expression disheartened and thoughtful. The other man looked as if he began to notice that something was wrong, and the smile on his face disappeared. A brooding look took its place, his mouth drawn into a fine line.
“Jonghyun, what are you trying to say?”
“I want to go home, Jinki. I want to go back to Seoul, I miss my family, my friends, and the city. Since we’ve been here, we’ve only been living side by side. We didn’t even travel to this place together. It’s not how I imagined it to be, Jinki, and I can hardly imagine that it is what you imagined either. We hardly talk to each other anymore.”
Taemin saw the man with the dusty pink hair swallow and he was sure that he had seen the exact moment when the human’s heart had been broken into two. He had seen people whose feelings hadn’t been returned before, but he had never seen someone’s heart being broken right before a marriage proposal. The emotion was rawer, more tangible, cut right through one's skin like a sharks' teeth.
“What are you implying?” The young man’s voice was weak and Taemin could barely hear it over the sound of the waves.
“I want to say that I think it is better if we go our separate ways. I - I just can’t imagine a future with you anymore – not here – not anywhere really.”
“What does that mean? Are you breaking up with me?”
Taemin’s breath got caught when the man with the blond hair nodded with a lowered head. It didn't seem to be difficult for him, but Taemin was sure that it was something that man had thought about for a long time. He wondered how different human emotions could be if one wanted to marry the other while the other wanted to end the relationship. The sea-folk's emotions weren't that complex, mainly focused on the survival and protection of their colonies. The emotions of an individual weren't seen as important, not worth paying attention to.
“I’m really sorry.”
Taemin watched the two humans sit next to each other in silence, apparently having nothing to say to one another anymore. He had seen humans being angry after they had been rejected, had seen humans storm off, had seen humans ask hundreds of questions, most of them starting with a ‘Why?’, he had seen so many scenarios, but silence had never been a part of it.
“You wanted to tell me something as well?” the blond man sounded cautious as if he was surrounded by sharks that were just waiting to attack him. The other one shook his head, forcing his lips to curl into a smile so fake that even Taemin noticed it.
“It wasn’t important.”
The blond-haired man rose from the stones and wiped the dirt off his jeans, Taemin’s plan to annoy the two discarded as he was too stunned by the turn of events. He had expected them to kiss as humans did and lie in each other’s arms as humans did, and not witness the end of a relationship right in front of his eyes.
“Are you coming back? Maybe we can talk more about it at home?”
The man with the pearly white teeth shook his head. “I’ll come later. If you don’t mind, I – I want to be alone for a bit. To think.”
The man nodded with a hum and then disappeared without a word, leaving the other one behind as he walked back up the stony path. Taemin was still not sure what he had observed, but a loud sob made him listen up. The young man with the dusty pink hair was crying. Thick, glistening tears ran down his cheeks and seeped into his white t-shirt as soon as the other had vanished. He pulled out the small box with the ring and took it out, twisted it in his hand, clasped his fingers tightly around it until his knuckles turned white and then, all of a sudden, he rose his arm and threw the ring far out into the sea. Taemin watched after it until it disappeared inside the water before focusing back on him.
It was the first time in his life that Taemin experienced something like pity for a human. He couldn’t explain why, usually found it humorous when people were rejected or got their hearts broken, but the sight of the young man unleashed something similar to sympathy deep inside of him. He had looked so happy and excited less than half an hour ago, but all of this seemed to have disappeared as he sat on the stones with his legs drawn up.
Taemin wasn’t sure what to do, whether to just swim away and come back the next day in the hope he would be alone for once, or whether he should stay. He felt uneasy watching someone, who looked so vulnerable and fragile as if a single gust of wind could pull him down and break him apart. He wanted to say something, but he had never spoken to a human before, wasn’t even sure how to start a conversation with one. All the humans he had ever listened to had been in love, his vocabulary filled with expressions of love and flattering words to charm someone.
He released air into the water and small bubbles formed in front of his mouth as he pondered about what to do, and examined the other. The young merman knew it was wrong to speak to humans, but he felt sorry for the man. Slowly he sawm out from behind the rock and moved closer to the other, whose face was concealed by his hands. Taemin’s heart pounded in his chest as he looked for the right words, not sure if he knew some to express his compassion, the human language not his mother tongue, one that he had learned passively over the years.
“You are sad.” The words felt strange in his mouth as if his lips weren’t made to shape the syllables, lacking muscle memory, the sound of his own voice echoing in his ears. He recoiled when the human’s head shot up and dark eyes stared at him. Taemin was startled, uneasiness rising in his gullet when their eyes met. He blinked, wanted to dive back into the water and hide, but stilled when the man opened his mouth and answered him with a simple, exhausted, “Yes, I am.”
The man didn’t seem to question why a stranger in the water talked to him, seemed indifferent almost apathetic instead, Taemin wondering if the magic of the ring had been broken by being thrown into the water and the blond-haired person would never return.
“I am sorry,” Taemin said a little clumsily, tongue twisting around in his mouth. The sea-folk didn’t communicate with mere words, but used a sonar system similar to dolphins, their tongues and teeth only utilized to eat and taste food. Taemin had practiced speaking by talking to Byeol after finding out that his mouth was capable of forming sounds, but his one-sided conversations hadn’t established much of a routine nor a safe usage of the human language, his choice of words inelegant.
“For what?”
The human had kind eyes, a dark, warm brown that reminded Taemin of driftwood that had been washed up at the coast. The merman had only seen his own eyes once in his life when he had barely been ten and had found a round reflective disc on the ground of the sea that humans put on the stinking sheet metal monstrosities that carried them around the island. His eyes similar to his fishtail were purple, a soft lilac with specks of gold so very different to the eyes of the man sitting on the rocks in front of him.
Taemin thought hard about what to say, frowning a little as words rattled through his mind. “For listening?”
The man wiped the tears out of his face. Humans were so funnily built, looked so much like sea people, and yet completely different, as if someone had misplaced the blueprint halfway through the creation process and had to improvise on the rest of their bodies.
“Do you lurk around here often to eavesdrop on people?”
Taemin blinked and cocked his head, the question confusing him. Neither was he lurking nor eavesdropping, humans came to his part of the island and not the other way around after all.
“No,” he answered, the word ‘No’ having been one of the first he had learned, liking the way it sounded and how easy it was to say. There was so much meaning behind this simple word.
“How old are you that you talk so informally to me?”
He had never heard that word before. He tested it out on his tongue, said it out loud, questioning, blinking at Jinki whose forefinger ran beneath his eyes to collect tears.
“23,” Taemin said, not wanting to mention that it was his birthday today. His fingers held onto the stones in front of him, the waves weighing his body in the water, strands of wavy, shoulder-length hair sticking to his cheeks as he watched the man with the ashy pink hair. He had seen that color on corals before, but it was a rare sight, Taemin fascinated by the way the wind brushed through the strands, tousling it as if an invisible hand combed through it.
“I’m 26 already, so I’m the older one.” The man’s shoes slipped over the rocks and made a scratching sound, Taemin looking up at the white sneakers. Shoes were something humans wore to not hurt themselves, something that only confirmed Taemin’s assumption that humans had been created insufficiently. Feet were useless and couldn’t even protect themselves from harm, needed human-made machinery to do so while Taemin’s long, sturdy tail was muscular, protected him against the cold and moved him around swiftly through the water, never tiring out.
“Ok.”
Taemin swallowed and gnawed on his lip, not sure what else to say because he didn’t know what the other had wanted to tell him by letting him know his age. To the sea-folk age didn’t matter, it was the strength and wisdom that decided one’s position in a colony, how someone could protect the others from danger, or share their knowledge to prevent humans from discovering them. With his two feet and small stature, the man didn’t look very powerful to Taemin.
Not minding the silence, Taemin found it exciting enough to just stare at the man and find similarities and differences in their bodies, never having been able to see a human up that close before without trying to hide from them. But the man in front of him seemed to think otherwise, seemingly not liking the fact that a stranger looked at him while he was crying, a frown appearing on his reddened face when he caught the other's gaze.
“Aren’t you getting cold from staying in the water for so long?”
“No,” Taemin shook his head, “We love water.”
“We?” The man tilted his head, Taemin noticing his mistake when confusion became apparent on the other’s features. He shouldn’t have mentioned that there was a ‘we’, but then again he didn’t care much about letting one person know about the sea-folk’s existence. It was unlikely that anyone would believe a man whose heart had just been broken. He hesitated nonetheless, blinking as he pondered and tried to remember what humans called them.
“Mermaids,” he said eventually, recalling a young man who had tried to tell his girlfriend a scary story about mermaids coming out of the water at night to eat people so she would lean into him and he could hug her. Taemin had splashed the two with a lot of water that night, feeling disrespected and falsely represented.
The man’s eyes widened and he was the one gawking at Taemin now before he began to chuckle, the sound a little raw and breathless from being choked up. “Sure, of course! Nice to meet you, mermaid. I’m a wood fairy.”
“Fairy?” Taemin had never heard that word and had no idea why the man was laughing. He hadn’t expected a human to laugh when he revealed his identity.
The human fell silent when Taemin didn’t laugh along with him and looked at him quizzically instead.
“Are you a foreign exchange student from Japan or China by any chance?”
Taemin had heard about these countries before but was more familiar with the seas bordering them. He had also no idea what a ‘foreign exchange student’ was supposed to be. Until now the young merman had thought that he had familiarized himself quite well with the human language, but the man looking down at him used words whose meaning he didn’t understand. One could only get so far in learning a language through listening to humans turn on the blarney.
“I am from the sea,” he answered in sincerity, not wanting to be confronted with more words he didn’t know. This time he lifted himself further out of the water until the first scales of his fishtail sitting low on his hips became apparent in the evening light, the golden specks reflecting in the last rays of sunlight touching the surface of the water, the tip of his fin peeking out, greeting the man by tentatively swaying from left to right.
Taemin had never seen anyone’s eyes protrude in such an exaggerated fashion before, not even his mother’s when they had been followed by sharks in his childhood. The man’s mouth fell open and he began to stutter, appearing to have lost the ability to form coherent sentences. He helplessly pointed at Taemin, his tears dried up, the skin underneath his lower lash line a pinkish red and slightly swollen.
“That can’t be,” was the first thing the man finally found the courage to say, Taemin shrinking back when the human darted forward, coming way too close. It was rude to come someone this close without knowing them, sea people valuing their personal space. “Is that one of those fishtails you can buy online? It looks so realistic.”
Online. Another word Taemin couldn’t pin down, frustration slowly building up as he hovered in the water, the movements of his fishtail underneath the surface keeping him afloat.
“I do not know what this means. Online. You speak – weirdly.”
“And you are still talking informally to me.”
The man crouched at the edge of the water, embracing his knees as he looked over at Taemin, who was tempted to give the man a little push so he would fall into the sea.
“I do not know what that means either. Invonmaly,” Taemin parroted, having a hard time forming the word with his mouth. He sank deeper into the water until only his head peeked out, liking the comfort of the sea surrounding him, the small waves splashing against his cheeks. It was a soothing feeling, almost like a mother’s lullaby.
The man seemed skeptical, looking small as he squatted on the rocks, his legs bent in half, his chin propped up in his hands.
“The way people talk to each other – the words change depending on how close they are to one another – what status they have, what age, you understand?” the man spoke in a soft voice, his demeanor reminding Taemin of a squishy flapjack octopus he had seen near the coast of Japan once. The merman nodded shyly, finding humans more fascinating by the minute. How bored with their life must they be to create different ways of speaking?
“I only know how to speak like this,” he murmured, the heart in his chest fluttering when the man on the stones smiled at him. It was a very disarming smile, humans would probably have called it charming.
“That’s okay.”
They looked at each other for a moment, Taemin being the one who was overcome with unease, not knowing what else to say, wondering if his first conversation with a human would also be his last.
“So you are a mermaid – or shall I say merman?” The man asked and sat back down, crossing his legs, the position he had been in apparently too uncomfortable to stay in it for long. He leaned forward to dip his fingers into the water, twirling them around, splashing around a little bit, eyes staying on Taemin.
“I think so. Are you –,” Taemin looked for the right word, looking up at the sky with a frown as he thought hard. “What do you call it? Scared?”
The chuckle wafting over to him was light and friendly and Taemin decided that he liked the sound of it, his skin prickling.
“No – Surprised? Yes. Scared? No. I always found it weird that so many cultures have legends about you. Hard to believe that’s mere coincidence. Never thought I would meet one in real life though.”
Taemin didn’t know the word ‘culture’, but he had heard the word ‘legend’ before. The sunlight was almost gone now, their bodies dipped in a bluish-gray, Taemin’s eyes having no problem to see well in the dark. He wondered if human eyes worked the same way. When the man pulled something out of his pocket he was curious at first but fearfully shied away when a sudden beam of light hit him and hurt his eyes.
“Oh, I’m so sorry.” With that the light was directed away from him, the small piece of plastic it had come from, which Taemin had learned years ago was a phone that humans used for communication, finding its way on the rocks next to the man. “I just can’t see anything in the dark. I didn’t want to scare you.”
Taemin squinted his eyes and inched closer again, the power of the waves underneath him intensifying. The flood tide would be coming soon and drown the rocks around the cliffs. It was dangerous for humans to stay that long after nightfall.
“You should leave. The water is already rising.”
The man looked around himself and began to nod, pointing his phone around to watch the surrounding rocks.
“You’re right,” he sighed, “It’s a pity though, you were a good distraction from real life.”
With a groan, he got up, stretched his limbs and Taemin heard the joints of the human cracking. Part of him was sad that their meeting had ended so soon. The man with the ashy pink hair had been a nice change from the ordinary human visitors, who usually came down to the bottom of the cliffs. He wondered if the man would go to the blond man now, if they would talk to each other again. Talking seemed to be something that humans loved to do, they shared their feelings and thoughts, something that was unusual for the sea people. They were more pragmatic, communicated only the most crucial matters.
Taemin watched the man, was exhausted from speaking and listening, and swam closer to the stones to support himself and look up at the stranger.
“It was nice meeting you.” The man smiled at him, holding the phone to the right so its light fell into the water and did not dazzle Taemin.
“Are you still sad?” Taemin asked as he rose a bit from the sea, the water bouncing off his navel. A warm, light laugh reached his ears which resonated all over his body down to the tip of his tail.
“Yes, I still am.”
“I am sorry.”
The man shrugged and shoved one of his hands into the pocket of his pants. “You have nothing to be sorry for. Maybe finding true love is just not something life has in store for me.”
True love. Taemin had heard that expression before. It was mainly used by men who wanted to court women. ‘You are my one true love’ they said. The sea people did not believe in love, least of all in true love, considered humans primitive and backward for this reason because they let themselves be guided by their feelings and often lost their minds in the process of following their hearts.
“Good night.” The man raised his hand in farewell and Taemin did the same, it was a simple gesture he had often practiced with Byeol. He looked after the man, who stopped halfway and turned back to face him with the phone light directed at the stones. “Maybe we’ll see each other again.”
“Maybe,” Taemin repeated, following the other to make sure the man didn’t fall into the water in the dark, because he wasn’t cautious enough. He couldn’t follow him far, looked after him in thought as the man walked up the steep, rocky path along the cliffs, the light always cast at his feet. Soon enough the man was only a small dot at the horizon, but Taemin could see the light cone for a long time until it eventually faded as well, leaving Taemin by himself once more.
He dived down into the water then, pushed forward against the waves, swam through the current with strong strokes, and followed a school of fish further out into the sea. He had spoken to a human for the first time in his life. Part of him was delighted and excited, but another, much larger part was sad, because he didn’t know if he would ever get the chance to see that human again. Only people in love sought out the cliffs to confess their feelings to each other, but this man’s heart had been broken. There was no reason for him to return.
He looked for the ring the other had thrown into the water, searched for it at the bottom of the sea, tried to remember where he had seen it hit the surface. It took him a while to find it, but then he spotted it, small and unremarkable it lay in the sand next to a stone, the sparkly silver calling out to him. He was drawn to its magic, picked it up, and weighed it in his palm. There was an engraving inside of it that Taemin couldn’t read, the ring fitting perfectly on his forefinger. He stretched out his hand to take a proper look at it, amazed by its beautiful simplicity, wondering if he had unknowingly sealed a bond with the human which hadn’t been his to make. Away from prying eyes he would store it away and keep it safe with all the other treasures humans had willingly or unwillingly lost in the sea.
With a running start, Taemin shot up from the sandy bottom and broke through the surface of the sea, flew up into the air, enjoyed the fresh, cool wind of the night against his bare skin, and then dived back into the water with his arms stretched out, eyes constantly falling onto the ring on his finger. Taemin had opposed all warnings and had spoken to a human.
He swam far into the ocean that night, was restless and couldn't sleep as he thought about the human and his pleasant laugh. He hoped that the man would be okay again, that his heart would be able to heal.
Soon, my dear reader, we will see that Taemin was in luck as only a good natured being can be, and would get a chance to talk to the human with the ashy pink hair again.