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Jimin grows up hearing stories about the dangers of sirens, beautiful women with lashes like stardust and smiles dripping with liquid moonshine. He grows up learning every single trick in the book—cover your ears, shield your eyes, and never believe in their beautiful lies—and he knows all there is to know about the ocean and its depthless dark. Or so he thinks he knows, because if he truly did know, he wouldn’t have chosen a night like this to take a walk along the waves. If he truly did know, he would have stayed well and warm in bed and slept away the blue moon and he might still have a grip on all his heart has to offer.
But he doesn’t, and he’s taken this path to this grove in the rocky cliffs right by the beaches too many times to bother counting. He doesn’t, so he takes the moon in his stride and forgets about the handmaid’s tales, whispers more like, about the dangers, oh the damned dangers of the oceans deep when the moon shines blue, shines true.
He freezes when he sees a body flickering in and out of the shallow waves, a voice spinning lazily over the crystal waters, the cave lit by the dim shimmer of glow worms along the roof, like a dream of stars that just doesn’t shine far enough or wide enough.
“Hello?” his voice echoes harsh and loud against the soft, lulling hums of whoever (or whatever) it is slipping beneath the surface of the water.
“Oh—sorry… didn’t hear you.” It is a boy—no. It is half a boy, the top half, to be precise, because this half-boy’s bottom half is a shimmering tail covered in moonstone scales, smooth and sharp, and glimmering under the ceiling of makeshift stars.
“Who… are you?” Jimin doesn’t approach but the merboy does. He dips back into the water and a flip of a fin later, is peering up at Jimin, his torso lifting out of the water, dripping and curious.
“Jungkook. Who’re you?”
“Jimin.”
“You’re a human,” says Jungkook, eyes sweeping up Jimin’s body and back down in a way that makes Jimin feel as if he’s being broken down and built back up, one inch at a time.
“And you’re not.” Jimin can’t decide if he wants to take a step back or forward.
“Noticed hm?” Jungkook grins, more of a smirk, a one-sided curl of the lip, coupled with that twinkle in his eye, and the overall combination is startlingly pleasing. So much so, in fact, that Jimin’s stomach turns, and he leans forward involuntarily to get a closer look at Jungkook’s tail. Jungkook flips over onto his back and lifts his tail out of the water for Jimin to see, watching as Jimin crouches down on the sift of rocky outcropping right by the water, three seconds from falling into the shallow pool with him.
“You can touch it if you want~” Jungkook wiggles his tailfin and the translucent webbing catches the light, miniature rainbows spick-spackling along the hair-thin ridges. It is mesmerizing and hypnotizing, tantalizing and terrifying.
There is a weight tied around Jimin’s throat sinking straight to the bottom of his stomach, taking his voice and logic right down with it. He has to clear his throat to find the former again, though the latter stays well put beyond his reach as Jimin extends a hand, running a finger along Jungkook’s slick scales.
“Whoa… I’ve heard about sirens but I didn’t think merpeople actually existed.”
“Then what did you think sirens were?” Jungkook asks, voice light, eyes everything but.
“I… I don’t know… never really thought about that.” Jimin runs a finger along Jungkook’s tail again, petting him. Jungkook starts humming again, letting his head tip back into the shallows, dark hair spilling below the surface like black ink, voice bubbling out, growing louder, notes resonating from the walls of the cavern straight down to Jimin’s bones and even though he’s never heard the song before, a part of him has, the most primal, instinctive part of him. It stirs memories in his muscles, contractions of his lungs; it sinks into the marrow of his spine and tugs on his subconscious with thin, black-widow fingers, untangling his thoughts, unraveling his mind. It lures him into a purgatory of luxurious thoughtlessness and even though it feels like remembering, Jimin forgets.
He forgets the dangers of beautiful creatures in the sea. He forgets the precautions his father and uncles have hard-pressed into his skin with their calloused hands and he forgets how easy it is for men to lose themselves in the face of mystery and the unattainable.
Jungkook licks his lips and reaches out a hand to poke at Jimin’s cheek.
Jimin starts, mind reeling back so fast he loses balance and sits down too hard on the rocky outcropping, hissing as his back makes contact with the cavern wall. Outside, the waves stir with oceanic secrets men have lived and died for.
“It’s a lullaby,” Jungkook says, letting his tail fall back into the water, propping his elbows out along the ridged bank and resting his chin on his arms, “that merpeople sing to their children. It sounds a lot better under the water.”
Jimin nods; it’s like the notes of the song had singed the edges of his thoughts, leaving the ends frayed and unfinished. He doesn’t know what to think, only that the song had felt like breathing for the very first time and now, without it, he was drowning in the silence.
“Do you want to hear?” Jungkook asks, voice light as sea foam.
Jimin nods before he can quite stop himself and Jungkook reaches up a hand, palm up, smile open, eyes so dark and wide that Jimin could fall right into them and fancy himself a permanent resident. As is, he is leaning forward, reaching towards Jungkook, body reacting before his mind catches up and for a moment, he hesitates, lost echoes of warnings spilling into the tremor of his fingers.
Beautiful mysteries should never be trusted and all that is gold does not shine bright.
Nor right.
“I… I have to go.” Jimin’s voice is forced and feeble.
Jungkook looks hurt, his hand retracting back half an inch, a tiny frown creasing his forehead in a way that has Jimin’s heart thudding right up against his ribcage, clawing for release. Just take his hand—let him sing to you forever.
“You don’t want to hear the song?”
“I…” Jimin swallows, twisting his fingers together to keep from reaching out again. Jungkook’s fin flashes over the water, creating soft ripples that spread out and out and out, right to the mouth of the cavern and into the ocean beyond. The moon shines blinding blue in a starless sky and Jimin almost remembers.
“Just one song, and then you can go right back home,” Jungkook says, half-imploring, half-playful, a tiny, hopeful grin curling the edge of his perfect, perfect lips, and for a moment, Jimin wonders if they tasted like the blue of the sea, the promise of meant-to-be.
“Just one song…” Jimin says, repeating the words as if they would have more weight or meaning if he says them himself, and he finds that they do.
“C’mon~” Jungkook stretches out his hand again and Jimin eyes it for just a second longer before his fingers curl around Jungkook’s and he lets himself be pulled into the saltine waters. A stream of bubbles, a voice like silver bells on the path to hell, or maybe that’s just how it sounds when dreamers fell.
Jungkook wasn’t lying—it does sound better under water, his voice is somehow magnified by the soft weight of the liquid seeping into Jimin’s skin and he doesn’t have to wonder what Jungkook tastes like before he pulls Jimin close enough to kiss and does. Jungkook tastes like secrets Jimin will never have the time to understand.
Jimin’s last thought before the water gushes into his lungs is that he finally understands why men have gladly given up their lives for a note of a siren’s song—because it sounds like Heaven, even on the way to Hell.