Chapter Text
Hyunsuk asks the ocean to swallow him.
Sands tickling his feet, 6AM breeze brushes his pearl skin; Hyunsuk stands at the edge of a beach where sea water kisses the golden shore, a love story Hyunsuk never, and will ever experience in his short life.
Eyes red from the lack of sleep and will of boarding a train home and back to his nine-to-five jobs and dull routine that never fails to make him feel like a mannequin; hollow and identical to thousands of others.
So Hyunsuk stays and have a dialogue with the ocean instead.
How are you, Hyunsuk asks in his mind, wishing the vast of blue in front, or someone, asks him that too.
Ask why he's distant and disconnected to the world around, or why he choose solitude over weekend meet-ups, or why he's turning off his phone on a Friday.
But there's no reply;
the ocean doesn't care for it is cold and mute and ready to take Hyunsuk or anyone with a broken soul to its embrace.
But Hyunsuk has made up his mind from the moment he discarded his shoes, gray blazers, and suitcase on the sidewalk earlier.
Hyunsuk watches the water under his feet; little waves caressing the skin, seducing the lost man to come closer, and closer, until the yellow-tinted sky above replaced by a pool of darkness, hugging Hyunsuk tight until he's airless.
So Hyunsuk heaves a breath, one of his last, and brings his feet forward to heed the ocean's call, until another, a human's, rings--
"Hey!"
A hand latches on Hyunsuk's right arm roughly, jolting and stopping the dazed man on time.
Hyunsuk turns, slowly, to find a stranger, taller than him, with ashen-green hair, bangs parted in the middle, scowling.
"I said, where's your swimsuit?" The man asks, annoyed.
Hyunsuk blinks, before he notices the whistle around the man's neck and the matching red jacket and sweats, then it dawns to him; oh, he's a beach lifeguard.
"We have strict rules around here. No getting into the water without a proper suit, or before 7," The guard explains, half-scolding, though the grip on Hyunsuk's arm becomes less tense, he notices.
Hyunsuk absent-mindedly nods, deep down trying to figure out if the stranger is real or an illusion one would see as he drowns.
"I'm sorry, I don't know."
"Yeah, you're not a local, are you? I never see you before," The guard studies Hyunsuk from top to bottom like an opened book.
"You're going for a swim?" The guard asks a harmless question if only directed not to Hyunsuk.
His heart jumps; nervous and guilty at the same time. Hyunsuk avoids the scrutinizing gazes and bites his lips, afraid the other will see through his transparent lies if he speaks.
So he ducks his head down and keep quiet.
Hyunsuk observes the millions grains of sand below his feet, and how each one of them is more solid than his resolve to see tomorrow.
Sounds of crashing wave,
Caws of seagulls,
Gusts of cold wind, before--
A hand pulls him away;
away from the ocean and the darkness and the muffled room without sounds and oxygen.
Hyunsuk yelps in protest as he stumbles in his steps, trying to keep up, "Hey!"
"Shut up," But the lifeguard snarls back, "You've trespassed, we're gonna go to my office now."
"Wait, I can explain--"
The guard stops and turns around to confront the lost man. His hand still claws on Hyunsuk's grip; big, strong, and warm, unlike Hyunsuk who's most days feels like a walking corpse.
Hyunsuk gulps, stammering, "I-- I just want to see the ocean."
"Well, the ocean doesn't want to see you."
Hyunsuk frowns, "How do you know that?"
But the guard simply scoffs, cocking an eyebrow at the smaller man, "What do you mean 'how do I know that'. I'm its lifeguard. The ocean here is a friend, and it told me about you."
Eyes sharp as eagles; Hyunsuk cowers underneath them. He mumbles, timidly, "What does it told you?"
For a moment, the guard doesn't answer, only curling his lips and stare at Hyunsuk, before he sighs quietly and says, "It said you're sucks for not following the beach rules--"
Hyunsuk raises his eyebrows in surprise, not expecting the answer.
"--and it asked me to come to get you and makes sure you'll never come back again."
The guard nods toward the horizon, making Hyunsuk turns around as well; watching the endless blue, shimmering under morning rays, captivating, yet lethal.
A jerk of a hand pulls him again; the guard picks up his pace and strides to cross the empty beach.
"Hey--"
"Your clothes and suitcase are all in the office, too," The guard adds, nonchalantly, though it manages to make Hyunsuk flinches as he realizes the man has put all the pieces together.
But even if he did, he chooses to feign ignorance, at least for now.
"Also, you're fined with littering. Just so you know."
Hyunsuk sighs, rubbing his temple with a hand that's not being seized by a responsible citizen of the city.
Then--
"What's your name?"
The sudden question startles Hyunsuk, but the guard keeps his head straight forward, hiding whatever expression he wears.
Hyunsuk, feeling quite shy, strangely, can only mumbles a reply, "It's Hyunsuk."
The guard hums.
"I'm Jihoon."
Jihoon, Hyunsuk repeats in his mind, wanting to remember the name of the man who saved him, and the ocean. Jihoon probably doesn't want his friend to be sad, that's why he came.
Somehow the thought brings a smile to Hyunsuk's sullen face; imagining the lifeguard, loud and cranky, yapping all day long at the empty air of the ocean. Similar to Hyunsuk's earlier try, but he envisions their talk is much lighter and lively.
What a weirdo, Hyunsuk thinks as his smiles grows wider. He wonders if he ever going to be like Jihoon, fun and brimming with life.
"You've eaten yet?"
Without knowing, they're on the sidewalk now, standing on an asphalt instead of sands.
Hyunsuk shakes his head, not today or last night.
"Good. We can talk about the cost of your fines over breakfast then, Hyunsuk-shi."
The guard, Jihoon, cracks a thin smirk, before turning toward a direction and guides the two of them.
Hyunsuk takes a glimpse at the ocean one last time. The mesmerising view it holds and the abyss it hides;
today onwards, Hyunsuk promises to stop having a dialogue with the ocean in exchange for a talk, a call, a message, with a loud, grumpy lifeguard who not once,
let his hand go.