Archive of Our Own ^beta

The point was that you got to keep yourself entertained during the trip, mainly by listening to the crew’s alleged feats.

They claimed they’d fought evil pirates, been to legendary islands, resisted the alluring songs of sirens, and even smuggled exiled kings and queens out of their kingdoms. Young and naïve as you were, you believed every single word that came out of their mouths, and as you witnessed the sun slowly disappear below the horizon and the stars map the dark sky, you dreamed of taking part in such adventures.

Years later, you would blame those thoughts for what happened; tell yourself that fate had taken the fantasies that sprouted in your mind as a prayer, and decided to teach you a lesson on what to wish for in the worst way possible.

Because on that tempestuous night, a pirate ship laid waste to yours.

The details of the episode were now as blurry in your memory as the pirates were merciless, but you heard it all happen from the wardrobe you and your mother were hiding in. How enemy swords had cut short the battle cries of the brave men who dared fight back, including that of your father’s, and how some had jumped out of the ship, preferring the winter waters to a violent death. Your mum covered your mouth to muffle your sobs as she held you close to her chest and this time, fate played in your favour, for you weren’t discovered.

After killing nearly everyone aboard, the pirates took every spoil they could find, and seeing as the rain had stopped by then, burned down the ship. It was once they were gone that you and your mum jumped away from the flames and into the blue, but the force of the waves soon managed to separate you.

For what felt like hours you struggled to stay on the surface, but when the sea calmed, things didn’t get any better, since you were all alone in the freezing water. Having lost all bearings, how were you supposed to get back?

If there was even anything to get back to...

In an impossible situation where you knew you were doomed, all you could do was cry uncontrollably and call for your mum like the scared child you were. The only sounds filling the air were the subtle winds, the movement of the waves, and your screams. It was terrifying.

Sucking in breaths between sobs, you wondered how long it would be until you either froze to death or inevitably tired of swimming and drowned.

Meanwhile, down in the depths of the sea, Jungkook heard something.

It wasn’t that loud, but enough to pique his interest, curious a creature as he was. There where he usually dwelled not even sunlight touched, but he could still see to a certain degree. He was... special.

So once he’d made his way to the source of the noise, he realised it was a sunk ship. He didn’t know what these giant wooden vessels were, who’d built them, or what they were for, but every once in a while he’d find them half buried in the seabed. This was the first time he’d witnessed the arrival of one to the bottom.

After some minutes of rumination, he decided to swim all the way to the top for the first time in his twelve years of life.

The journey to the surface would’ve taken much longer for any other fish, but for Jungkook it only took about an hour. Yet he halted the moment a striking amount of light he wasn’t sure what to make of hit him, hurting his eyes enough to have them close against his will. He almost took that as a sign that it was a mistake to leave his habitat, but then, he saw you through the lashes of his narrowed eyes.

You had two tails! Except, they weren’t exactly tails... at least not like any Jungkook had seen before. Not like his, doubtless. As his eyes adjusted to the moonlight, he crept closer to inspect them, but they were forgotten as soon as the distressing noises you were making reached his ears.

You sounded like you were in pain, but Jungkook didn’t understand. Surely, remaining at such a vulnerable place and being so loud would attract predators—or were there none up there? He himself should be wary in these uncharted waters, but something told him you were harmless.

Could the light be affecting him somehow? He had never worried for anyone other than himself before, but rather than eat you without a second thought like he would’ve done down in the deep, he wanted to help you.

It had been hours since you’d last seen your mum, and you weren’t sure you had much time left. Even if your legs weren’t so tired and the water so cold, or if any survivor found you, there was no chance you’d make it. Out there, you’d either starve or become the food of sharks. Perhaps both.

And if your mother had perished as well as your father... What was the point? What would you do in a world without your parents? You were only ten.

Whatever energy you had left, you were wasting crying at the prospect of giving up. But all of a sudden, a head emerged in front of you, causing you to shriek.

It was a boy, not much older than you.
No... he wasn’t quite that.

He resembled a fish more than a human. Although, he was so beautiful... You would have noticed if he’d been a passenger on your ship. His clear blue irises moved as he studied your own features in wonder, but they were larger than they should be, and he also had fins of a darker shade for ears, hidden behind the long locks of silky hair which landed on his bare shoulders. Never mind his ethereal appearance, this boy wasn’t even using his arms to swim, he was simply... floating.

Jungkook had never seen a creature so similar to him, and he would’ve loved to observe you all night had you not gone back to crying. He flinched at how loud you were, and followed after you when you tried to swim away in panic.

What else could you do? What might as well be an alluring demon had presented himself to you in the middle of the sea. You were living the worst nightmare anyone could ever have. Thankfully, he was no longer there by the time you turned around, and you told yourself he’d been a figment of your imagination. A glimmer of hope then flickered inside your heart when it crossed your mind that there just might be some ship nearby who could rescue you. If only they heard you.

“Help! Please, help!” you shouted at the top of your lungs without pause, your breath visible like fog from how cold it was. But a while went by and your throat began to hurt. The flicker was extinguished as fast as it had been set alight at the realisation that you would soon lose your voice, along with any chance of surviving. You were done for.

Well, Jungkook didn’t think so.

He’d noticed you were desperate to stay up there, but that you were struggling with those two slim tails of yours, so he had left to go find something to help you with. Now, he was back carrying a ripped piece from the sunken ship, as he knew wood floated.

When you saw him, you shrieked again, tears leaking from your irritated eyes. Why was he back? To torment you in your last moments with a... door? A door!

He gestured to it with his head, and you nodded in understanding. Effortlessly, he helped you get on it, though the process would’ve been much easier were you not wearing that long white cloth, which Jungkook considered unnecessary. If you had any brains, you would take it off.

Aching body collapsing on your stomach, you cried out of both relief and exhaustion while the boy held the raft under you in place. How wrong you’d been about him... He was no demon, he was an angel sent from Heaven.

Now from up close, he continued to inspect you with those wide eyes of his. Afraid as you still seemed, perhaps you were of a different, inferior species who didn’t belong in the sea. A species that lived afloat on ships, breathed the air, and could hardly fend for itself.

That was it! Your ship had sunk, of course you were frightened.

Setting aside the question of your origins, Jungkook averted his gaze to a cut on your temple, from where blood slowly trailed down your cheek and dripped into the water. It made you an attractive target, and that was a problem—sharks might be close by. He leaned forward to lick your wound, but you whimpered in protest, and he realised you probably thought he meant to eat you when he saw how tight your hands were gripping the edge of the door. Carefully, he reached out to hold them.

His touch was as cold as the water, but what shocked you when you glanced down were his fingers. Not only were they webbed, but they ended in sharp stonelike claws. He could rip you apart with them if he wanted to, but instead he sought to comfort you. Relaxing, you let him finish licking the blood off your face, however strange you found it.

“What are you?” you uttered, but Jungkook didn’t answer. The fact that he could understand that—as well as breathe air—took him by surprise, but he still wasn’t sure of how to communicate with you. Face void of any emotion, he just continued to stare until, without warning, his hands let go of yours and started pushing the raft. You had no choice but to let it happen. “Where are we going?”

Again, no answer.

The boy seemed to know where he was headed, and your suspicions were confirmed when you heard the faintest noise from afar. Like a startled cat, you raised your head and looked around, but saw nothing. The boy kept driving you towards it, and the closer you got, the more convinced you were that it was men calling out your name.

“Survivors... You’re taking me to them.” The boy gradually slowed down his pace until stopping, and you frowned. “What is it?” He sank all the way to his nose the same way you would cover yourself with a blanket whenever your parents read you a scary bedtime story. “You don’t want them to see you.”

His reaction to your words was trying to push the raft away, towards the shouting men, but you were quick to place your hands over his. He froze.

“Thank you so much,” you cried. “What’s your name? W-What do they call you?”

A name? Jungkook didn’t know what that was. He opened his mouth to copy your speech, and you couldn’t miss his dagger-shaped teeth. Thank God he didn’t see you as food.

Copying your speech turned out to be harder than you made it seem, and so Jungkook was growing frustrated, even though you were wating patiently. What finally came out of his throat was more of a choking sound.

“Chsh... Gkhhh...”

Confusion shaped your expression. Well, if he didn’t have a name, you might as well give him one. “Chookhoo, Chogoo... Jungkook?” He didn’t know how to tell you that he was just trying to say anything you might understand, but the last word you had pronounced was to his liking. If you wanted to call him that, he wouldn’t oppose. “Jungkook... I’m Y/N.”

The smile of gratitude you gave him made his lips part in awe. If the name you’d given him was pleasing to his ears, your curved lips were even more so to his eyes.

“Y/N!” the voice of your mother called, and you turned your head around to see her standing on a boat in the distance, alongside a few members of your ship’s crew.

“Mum!” you yelled back, and turned back to face Jungkook again, or what little of him that wasn’t underwater.

You didn’t want to leave his side—he was your hero, after all—, but you didn’t know what to say either, so the two of you just contemplated each other in silence.

And when he felt your mum’s boat was too close, he reluctantly pushed your raft in that direction and dived under. You watched him go quickly so as not to be seen, a tail resurfacing for a second as he propelled himself down to the depths. Your jaw dropped.

He was a siren.

Ten years later, you stood on the deck of another ship reminiscing about that night. You’d been rescued by passing merchants within hours and had safely made berth a few days later, but your life would never be the same.

Your noble dad gone, your mum of humble origins had to remarry not to fall in station, and her new husband was all but kind to you. One might think it paradoxical that he would cover the expenses of your studies abroad, but doing so meant he’d get you out of his sight.

Taking advantage of the generous sum of money in your budget, then, you went sailing quite often. Your mum dreaded getting on ships, having experienced a shipwreck, but not you. You would consider yourself lucky if you went through another one. That way, you might meet Jungkook again.

A decade had not been enough to forget him... If anything, you’d grown obsessed with him.

He was a siren who couldn’t sing and that instead of luring you in, had saved your life. You needed him to still be out there and to come back to you... if he remembered you, that is. And if you ought to take every ship that travelled through the same route you engraved in your mind that night, so be it.

However, this was to be your last voyage.

“Y/N,” your mum called as she approached you, the seasickness obvious in her face despite her effort to overcome it. “Jungkook again?” She put an arm around your waist and gently said, “Lord Hoseok might not find too compelling the fact that his bride still believes in fairy tales.”

Your gaze fixed on the sun, which was beginning to brush the horizon. Love her as you did, you couldn’t help but hate it when she mentioned Jungkook’s name in one breath and your betrothed’s in the next.

“I believe in what I see,” you muttered, but she chuckled.

“What you see in dreams doesn’t count, my darling.” You took a deep breath to prevent yourself from starting an argument by gracing that with a response. But your mother would not let it go. “You must focus, Y/N. Marriage is not to be taken lightly, you can’t stare at the sea and live in your imagination any longer. You’re lucky enough to be loved by the man you’re engaged to, but if you neglect him in favour of a fantasy, you’ll miss out on a happy life. Your father would tell you the same thing.”

“There’s no sea where he lives,” you bitterly pointed out, ignoring the rest of her speech. “I couldn’t stare at it even if I wanted to.”

Courtship with Lord Hoseok had begun a few years ago, soon after you’d been introduced at a party. His family was friends with yours but the political aspect of your union they all sought to benefit from was irrelevant to him. He truly loved you, and was willing to give you anything you asked for.

You were fond of him as well, but finding Jungkook was all you cared about. If your stepfather wasn’t forcing you to marry to get rid of you completely and you had a say in things, you would’ve turned down Lord Hoseok’s offer.

“It’ll do you good,” your mum said, “leaving the shadows for others to chase, I mean.”

You nodded, a part of you admitting she was right. Jungkook was real, but you’d never find him, even if you spent every waking moment of the rest of your life sailing the Mediterranean. “At what time do we arrive tomorrow?”

“In time for lunch with Lord Hoseok and his parents,” she brought a hand to her chest and closed her eyes. “Now come downstairs with your mother, I feel sick out here…”

Later, when the moon was at its highest point, you couldn’t fall asleep.

Every person you’d told about your encounter with a siren had either called you mad or tried to convince you that you’d hallucinated it due to the traumatic situation you were in, but you always believed in yourself. It would just be nice if your mum, of all people, did too. She was going back home after the wedding—your stepfather hadn’t bothered to come—, so you didn’t know how long it would be until you saw her again, and you didn’t want your last memory of her to be thus.

Tired of tossing and turning, you decided to go get some fresh air. It wouldn’t be appropriate if anyone saw you in your nightgown and without your hair combed, but the whole ship was asleep; since you were anchored near an island for the night, there was no need for anyone to be up.

The deck was therefore deserted when you got there and walked to the gunwale to rest your elbows on it, head tilted down.

For ten years, you’d been asked time and time again by those who knew about Jungkook why you were so keen on finding him. Even if he were real, what would be the point, they argued, when he can’t even speak, or leave the water? You yourself didn’t know the answer until recently.

The closer the date of your wedding got, the more certain you were, and it made you feel beyond guilty. Lord Hoseok didn’t deserve a wife who was in love with a ghost of her past.

Once sleep finally began to put weight in your eyelids, you stood straight to head back to bed, but as you glanced one last time to the sea, your heart stopped.

It couldn’t be.

Jungkook.

Not that far from the ship, he was watching you, head barely out of the water. You blinked a few times and rubbed your eyes, but they were not deceiving you, he was really there.

Hastily, you lowered one of the stowed boats to the water. It proved to be a difficult task to do on one’s own, but you’d seen it be done a million times, so you managed. As you went down the rope ladder, you prayed you hadn’t been loud enough to wake anyone up, or you’d get in trouble.

The moonlit sea was calm tonight, so being drifted away by the waves once you stopped rowing wasn’t likely to happen. No, the problem was that Jungkook had vanished. You were at a fair enough distance from the ship, but no matter how many times you called his name in whispers as you leaned over the dark water, your reflection was the only thing you could discern. A reflection…

Could it have been that all along? A mirage of sorts with the likeness of Jungkook? Maybe you were indeed losing your mind. With a sigh, you turned your head to get back to the ship, but what you were met with made you gasp.

Jungkook was leaning on the edge of the boat.

Now a young man in front of you, time had treated him more than kindly, for he was even more handsome than the last time you’d seen him. Were he to be immortalised in a painting, he’d put to shame every model that ever lived—if, that is, the painter was able to reproduce his shining beauty.

“You’ve come back…” was all your shock would allow you to say, but it didn’t matter. Jungkook lived among fish, there was no reason why he’d understand your language.

“I never left,” he replied—ironically—after a moment with a subtle accent, and your eyes widened.

“Y-You can speak?”

“I’ve been watching humans. I learned so I could talk to you.” You had daydreamed conversations with him, sure, wondered whether his voice would sound as angelical as his appearance was, but it had never crossed your mind that it could actually be possible for him to learn to speak, much less on his own, so you were disappointingly unprepared. There were so many questions you wanted to ask, but your brain couldn’t decide on which one first. Jungkook must have luckily noticed your faltering, because he continued, “I used to be… somewhere dark and without much life, but after I met you, I stayed where there was light. I’ve been following your scent ever since. Every time you were on the sea, I knew. But when you weren’t, I followed other ships to learn from humans.”

You discreetly pinched your hand to confirm you were awake. Not one of your theories entailed him remembering or caring about you.

“Why didn’t you show yourself to me before? All this time, I’ve been looking for you. I sailed hoping I’d see you again.”

Jungkook looked down and the simple action brought pain to your heart, even without knowing what was wrong yet. Whatever it was that made him sad, you wanted off existence.

“The humans on ships– the sailors, told tales about creatures like me. They said sirens have seductive voices used to lure humans and drown them. It’s not true, but I don’t think they’d stop to listen to me. I’ve seen how they fight amongst each other with their weapons, how they let fear guide them… I feared too that you would fear me.”

“But you saved me, Jungkook,” you frowned, and he looked back at you. “How could I ever think ill of you? I don’t believe the legends.”

You were sick of them, in fact. Every goddamn trip, the crew would gather at night and tell stories to pass the time, and there’d always be murderous sirens in them. When you were younger, you’d chime in to correct them on their inaccurate portrayal of the mythical creatures, but the crew would laugh at you for taking it too seriously and insisting to have sighted one.

“You don’t want to run for help at all?” Jungkook needed reassurance. He turned his head to the ship. “The men there, they wouldn’t hesitate to hurt me, or capture me as a prize.”

Not that they ever could, but the point was that they would try.

The sound of you sitting on the floor of the boat to be closer to Jungkook made him turn back at once. He glanced down at your legs and even though they were bent under your long nightgown, knees close to your chest, he knew they’d grown longer because you’d got taller.

He had seen the whole of you grow up, going from a scared, crying child to a strong-willed young woman. However, despite being at the top of the marine food chain, Jungkook was the terrified one.

He wasn’t sure he could take it if you broke his heart. But having you so close… It calmed him.

“They’d have to go through me first,” you joked, and he found himself smiling. If only you knew how tiny and frail you looked next to the robust men on that ship… You’d never have a chance in a fight, but you knew that. And Jungkook knew you’d try to protect him anyway.

Slowly, his smile faded. “Earlier, you said there was no sea where you were going. That’s why I showed myself to you. I misheard, didn’t I?”

The way your eyes filled with sadness told him otherwise. “My husband-to-be lives far inland and as a married woman, my place will be at home. I’ll never be at sea again, tonight is the last time.”

Jungkook was in denial. He couldn’t go inland so, how was he supposed to see you again? No, this wasn’t happening. He’d unknowingly spent ten years watching you long for him only to lose you now that he’d found out? For the sake of his feelings, he was changing the subject. He’d deal with never seeing you again once he’d fully processed it.

“You dream about me?”

The question made you blush. “What?”

“Your mother said it,” he sank a little so he could rest his chin on the edge of the boat, and the way his big eyes looked at you melted your heart.

“I-I don’t! She thinks you’re part of my imagination, that you’re not real,” you explained. “No one believes that a siren saved me, they call me mad. I never doubted my memory, but I did end up agreeing when they said I was wasting my time trying to find you. This sea is vast… I still can’t believe you’re here with me.”

Jungkook had never lost track of you, but he could relate to your discouragement. On more than one occasion he’d tried to forsake you, but your scent always drew him back to you.

Still, he asked, “Why did you look for me?”

“Why did you follow my scent?”

“I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

“We share a motive, then,” you smiled shyly and immediately, he did too.

It couldn’t be denied that he was an intelligent being, as he’d quickly learned the ways of humans, but did that make him one? He still had a tail, and lived underwater. Due to that, you’d been asking yourself for a while whether your feelings were wrong. He was more animal than human when you had met, after all. Perhaps still.

“It’s so different close to the surface,” Jungkook started, snapping you out of your thoughts. “There are so many colours, reefs, and animals. I like the small ones, like seahorses or turtles... I follow them around…” his voice sank into a whisper, as though he was embarrassed, but you found it adorable. The sea was a mystery to you, and therefore scary, but the way Jungkook painted it made you want to explore every corner with him. “Every time I see something beautiful, it reminds me of you, and I want to show you.”

Was he aware in the slightest of how his words were affecting you? Years of courtship with Lord Hoseok hadn’t made your heart race thus.

But that child-like enthusiasm for little things of his, and the desire to share them. That was human, for you had it too. You wondered if Jungkook would like the plot of your favourite book, if he’d feel the same when looking at a work of art, if he’d have a sweet tooth too… Maybe humanity was something you could learn and there was nothing wrong with what you felt for him.

“I’d like you to show me, everything,” you confessed. “And to teach me about the sea. What that green light that sometimes glows on the water at night is, or what whales say to each other, or if there are more sirens out there.”

Jungkook’s head cocked to a side, drops of water dripping from his still-wet hair. “If there are more sirens, I’ve never seen them. It’s always been just me... And I can’t understand whales, or fishes.” Thinking about it, it was a stupid question. He couldn’t understand sea animals the same way you couldn’t earthy ones. “But many of us can glow, maybe that’s what you see.”

You hummed a laugh, “You glow?”

“Yes, when it’s very dark,” Jungkook said as he rose to rest his elbows on the edge of the boat. Unconsciously, you glanced down at his chest. More often than not, the ship’s crew would work shirtless, but no matter how attractive they were, you felt nothing. Now, the air seemed to have run out. “We can lure prey in that way, or m-mates… Do you want to see it?”

Excitement sparked in your eyes, “You can show me? Now?”

Jungkook nodded, a smile playing on his lips. “Do you trust me?”

“I do.” You may know him of only a few hours in total, but he’d been in your heart for a decade. To you, that was enough of a reason to trust him.

He swam backwards, a bit away from the boat, “I can’t sing like in the tales, so I’ll just ask you to get into the water.”

You chuckled despite your surprise at his proposition, given that you’d thought you could see him glow from your seat.

“Are you sure about this? I’m a little scared, I haven’t swum since the shipwreck,” you admitted, hugging your knees closer.

“I wouldn’t let you sink, I’d catch you,” Jungkook assured you. “I’m really fast.”

After a second, you agreed, and the siren approached the boat to hold it in place, his toned arms quite distracting. You counted to three and holding your nightgown in place, jumped as carefully as you could so as to not make much noise. It being August, the water was pleasantly cold, but that made you get flashes of that horrible night and the feeling of being lost at sea. There were no waves, but you held onto the boat. Just in case.

Jungkook noticed the discomfort in your expression, so he hurried to your side and held your hands over the water. You felt better instantly, his touch bringing you a comfort you’d never had before.

“Are you ready?” his voice awoke you from your trance, busy as you were admiring his features.

“Oh– yes, sorry…”

Hands locked together, the two of you dived under.

A wall of bubbles blocked your way when you opened your eyes, but once they cleared, the moonlight showed you Jungkook in all his glory.

Your gaze travelled south to his naked torso. Most sources on sirens claimed they were one of the strongest creatures of the deep, but you never imagined Jungkook would be that muscular. The thought of tracing his abs with your fingertips crossed your mind, but it was higher where your attention soon shifted to. Along his ribs on each side were three gill slits, through which Jungkook was exhaling water.

His skin had been smooth like yours up there, but here, it seemed to sparkle as though thousands of tiny stars were bathing in it. Even so, it was no rival for the way some of the scales on his otherwise dark-coloured tail shone in a light shade of blue, forming a line that led to a somewhat translucent caudal fin. Awed, you looked back at Jungkook’s face to see him grinning, his pointy teeth contrasting with the innocence in his eyes. As his hair flowed around, you spotted his fin ears, which glowed as well.

The sight would certainly frighten anyone else, especially if the moon wasn’t as bright and the siren was lurking in the darkness, but you found it breathtaking.

Running out of air faster than you would’ve liked, you kicked your legs to get back to the surface.

Once you had caught your breath, you told him, “You’re beautiful, Jungkook,” and if your stinging eyes weren’t making you blink repeatedly, you’d say he was blushing. What you could confirm, though, was that he was holding your hands a tad tighter.

But without moving your arms, you struggled to stay afloat, so he pulled you closer and placed your arms around his neck. “Wrap your legs around me,” he asked, “I can hold you so you don’t have to swim.”

Cheeks ablaze, you nodded and obeyed, hoping Jungkook wouldn’t notice how much you were trembling—he did, as well as hear your heartbeat accelerate. Having you so very close, he was nervous too, so he couldn’t blame you.

He gently caressed your legs with the back of his hands so he wouldn’t cut you with the claws he had for fingers, and then gripped your waist. It wasn’t sexual, you knew, but the action still sent shivers down your spine. Lord Hoseok had barely brushed your skin in three years of courtship, so you’d never been anywhere close to such a position with a man.

When Jungkook looked up, it was your pendant that now attracted his attention. His curiosity endeared you.

“Do you like it?”

“Yes, it’s shiny,” he said, “I find a lot of these on the seafloor.”

Another man would’ve found more interesting your body, given that your wet nightgown stuck to your shape and left little to the imagination, but Jungkook didn’t care about that. He just liked your shiny necklace.

Without hesitation, you took it off and put it on him, leaning forward a bit to clasp it properly. Jungkook was confused for a moment since he had no need for it, but when he saw your wistful smile, he realised you might be giving it to him so he would have something to remember you by.

“Pretty…” you murmured, and Jungkook suddenly buried his head in the crook of your neck. You hugged him back and even though the two of you were technically strangers, it felt right. Closing your eyes, you enjoyed the moment, wishing it’d never end.

After a while in a comfortable silence, he mumbled, “I wish I could walk onshore.”

“I wish I could swim with you.”

Jungkook pulled back with a laugh, “You are swimming with me!”

He smoothly moved around in the water, and it seemed like you were dancing. You held firmly onto him, giggling like a child, until he stopped.

“I mean down there,” you clarified. “It makes me sad to know you’re all alone, and that I’d never know if something happened to you.”

His smile only widened, “I eat sharks, you shouldn’t worry about me.”

That took you aback, for some reason. The fact that he was telling you the most charming things through the same mouth he used to rip sharks apart was a bit unsettling, even if you were sure he’d never hurt you.

He caught your reaction, “Are you afraid?”

“No, no,” you hoped he’d believe you, “I just can’t imagine you doing that…” You’d never hated yourself more than when his head lowered in shame. “But, uhm… you would be the one afraid if you saw me hunting.”

Jungkook looked up, and tilted his head, “Humans hunt? You hunt?”

Playfully, you slapped his shoulder, “What’s that tone supposed to mean? Yes, I hunt!”

He failed to suppress a chuckle, “You look more like prey, even next to other humans.”

With a scoff, you shook your head.

“Perhaps next to sailors because they are big men, but other people aren’t that different from me in size,” you explained. “We don’t hunt like you do, anyway, we use arrows or guns. I’m pretty good with them both, and mother says I look quite scary killing bunnies.”

“Bunnies?”

“Oh, right… They’re small, fluffy animals who hop, and have long ears and big teeth… like you.”

He smiled, “I’m sure they’re all terrified of you.”

You nodded, and began stroking Jungkook’s hair, which made his whole body relax at once. “Are you sure you’re not lonely out there?”

“I never was,” he said, gazing into your eyes, “but after meeting you, I wanted to be with you again, every day. I could’ve shown myself to the sailors of the ships I followed, but I didn’t care about them, it was you alone I wanted.”

Missed, was the right word.

The warmth of his words took your breath away, and to find out your feelings were reciprocated felt like having a weight lifted off you. Staring at his lips, you let yourself lean forward, eyelids shutting closed.

But before you could reach his mouth, Jungkook’s fin ears perked up, and he let go of you to dive underwater.

It was so sudden that you shrieked, and not much later, a male voice shouted from the ship, “Lady, what on earth are you doing?!”

You turned to face him, feeling a pair of arms embrace you round your hips. It was Jungkook, of course, letting you know he was still there, but he couldn’t be seen by the captain, who was standing far away on the deck.

“I…” you truly didn’t know what to say.

“Just, stay there, I’ll get you,” he shouted again before disappearing to lower another boat. Jungkook then resurfaced to see you pant anxiously.

“No, not yet…” you complained. “It’s too soon, we’ve only just found each other.”

Disappointed himself, the siren helped you get back on the boat the same way he’d helped you get on that raft when you were ten. Kneeling on its floor, you held hands with him.

“Promise me we’ll meet again,” he begged, dreading leaving you as he glanced to the ship to make sure the captain wasn’t looking.

Cupping his face, you kissed him desperately. Jungkook had seen humans join lips before, but he’d never understood the point of it until now. The way his heart accelerated as though he were running after a prey and yet he felt as vulnerable as one told him how serious this was, how meaningful.

Tears were streaming down your cheeks by the time you separated. “I promise.”

And after a nod, he left. The captain reached you in no time and stepped in your boat.

“What could you possibly be doing outside the ship at this hour, my lady?” he frowned as he tied the empty boat to yours with a rope.

“I don’t know, I must have been sleepwalking… I can’t remember.”

How you could have lowered a boat to the water while asleep was a mystery to the captain, but he wasn’t going to interrogate you. You were highborn and he wasn’t, who knew how you’d twist the story to his disadvantage if his questions angered you?

As he rowed towards the ship, you looked back in case Jungkook might still be there, but you were mistaken.

He’d gone back to the depths.

Four years later, you stood atop a cliff.

In other circumstances, you would’ve been thrilled to have the sea before you again, but today you were crying. The last few weeks had been so difficult…

After a deep breath, you took your black dress off and the spring breeze blew your chemise, the only garment you were left with. You thanked God for the agreeable weather, as it made what you were about to do easier.

Leaning forward on the edge of the cliff, you looked below. Even though the sea wasn't entirely calm, there weren’t high waves, so if you managed to survive the fall, you wouldn’t be dragged by the force of them and clash against the rocks. Now, there were less dangerous ways to dive in the sea, but you couldn’t wait any longer. You needed him.

So plucking up your courage, you closed your eyes, sprinted, and jumped.

It was four seconds before you hit the water, and the impact hurt as hell, but you were alive. And more importantly, you were being kissed by a certain siren, whom you had no doubt would catch you. Opening your eyes once he pulled back, you smiled at the fact that he was still wearing your necklace, but he didn’t seem all too happy.

Fortunately, the surrounding area was void of people, so there was no chance anyone would see him drag you up to the surface and then away from the cliff—without saying a word. When you were at a calmer place, near the beach, he turned to you. Angry as he was, you thought he looked dazzling under the sunlight.

“Why did you do that? You could’ve died!” Jungkook asked in a scolding manner, his tone softening when he saw you were crying. “What’s wrong?”

“My husband’s gone. He died of sickness,” you struggled to say between sobs. Just hours before, you’d been holding Hoseok’s hand as he breathed his last, so you were distraught. “He was a good man, and I loved him dearly... but my heart was always yours.”

Jungkook’s lips parted. Sinking a little, he wrapped his arms around you and stuck his cheek to your bosom, hugging you as tightly as possible without hurting you. He’d missed that feeling terribly.

Picking up your scent after so long had made him question his awakeness, but seeing you jump from such a high cliff had concern replace his confusion. And to be greeted with such news… It saddened him to see you like that, but he couldn’t deny that he was glad you weren’t another man’s anymore.

“What will you do now?” you heard him muffle under your chin.

“I don’t know,” you confessed, cupping his face so you could look into his eyes as you told him, “I just know my place is by your side.”