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“You can’t!” An elderly man who wobbled on a cane yelled. He attempts to stop Seungho with the weak push of his hand but Seungho slaps it away with ease. He stares passed the old man to his boat, which is ready to sail onto the lake and find the rare fish he was told was there. The idea of tasting how good that fish is made his mouth water. But, right in front of him, blocking his path, was a elder man from the town next to this lake.
“And why not?” Seungho hisses out.
“Because a man-eater lives there!” The man’s eyes widened with fear, “He took my only son, he took my brother too…”
“He’s right!” A burly woman yells as she runs towards them, only stopping when she is directly next to the elder man, also blocking Seungho’s path, “If you must go, send me to fish for it instead! It has no preference for women!”
Seungho huffed and gave a malice-filled smile.
“So that’s what you do? You tell people who come for this rare fish this bullshit so that you can keep the fish all to yourselves? How childish.” Seungho pushes past them and gets onto his boat, sailing into the middle of this lake.
Seungho gives one last glance at the woman and the elderly man and sees their heads bowed in prayer. He lets out a laugh at the sight. Even if there was a God, even if there was a man-eating creature in this lake, who would care enough to save him? Taking risks like this was a part of Seungho’s daily life. It’s what made such a meek existence exciting.
When Seungho made it to the middle of the lake, he stopped his boat. Despite it being a lake the blue, slightly murky water showed no ground. In fact, the water seemed to get dark the longer Seungho stared into the depths, as if the lake was getting deeper the longer he stared. He interrupts his own thoughts by staying on task. He sets his hook with a special lure: Honey Hard Candy. The rare fish supposedly has a strong sweet tooth, one near that of a human child. He thought nothing of it as before but now, he couldn’t help but let the myth get to him. He went against this gut feeling and tossed the lure into the lake.
It didn’t take long for something to catch. Seungho didn’t feel a pull on the fishing line, in fact, he felt the opposite as the string began to rise. Curiously, Seungho looks into the deep water and is meant with a beautiful sight.
“It seems I’ve been caught!” The creature playfully says with the lure still in his mouth, the hard candy rolling in his mouth with a long, serpent-like tongue, exposing his sharp, piranha-like teeth.
The creature is half man, half fish and has pink scales, which shine a poisonous green in the light. Alongside his arms, which appear slimy yet porcelain, are scars caused by constant friction burn, scars that Seungho is familiar with as he has the same ones on his hands from rope. Seungho feels as if he were drowning in those deep black eyes, which seem to have no pupils. Seungho smirks, the thing in front of him was an odd sight for sore eyes.
“And what a lovely thing I’ve caught. pray tell, what is your name?”
“It’s Nakyum.” The creature says as he raises his webbed, sharp-nailed fingers out of the water to grab the sides of the boat, causing it to violently rocking, as he pulls himself up and next to Seungho. His tail smacks against Seungho’s face, leaving a wet, red mark in the process.
“I’m sorry!” Nakyum says with a pout that says anything but.
Instead of irritation, Seungho finds himself full of hungry curiosity. He rubs at the tail next to him, eager to feel the tender skin just beneath the scales. He lifts one scale up to observe the color changes, causing Nakyum to shift away from him in pain.
“I said I was sorry! No need to hurt me!”
Seungho looks at the pouting Nakyum, who’s brows furrow in a very real anger, before allowing a smile to creep across his face.
This is what he was looking for.
“I’m sorry you were just so beautiful that I couldn’t contain myself~” Seungho inches closer until he was on top of Nakyum, staring into those deep eyes.
Nakyum allows his own smile to grow. Though his smile was full of distrust, causing it to waver slightly, the twist of his lips held a kindness Seungho had never experienced, causing the fisherman to pause and stare in awe.
It’s a trick Nakyum had gotten away with multiple times. Nakyum would play coy and cute. The cuteness easily becomes what they see him as and they stare. They stare into the deep orbs that are his eyes. They stare at the blush that spreads across his face and to his ears. They stare at his soft lips. They stare at everything but the obvious signs of danger: His sharp teeth spreading apart to grasp at their neck or his sharp nails positioning themselves so that he can stab their heart from underneath the ribcage.
And here Seungho is, slowly inching towards Nakyum’s mouth to capture those oh so soft lips with his own and Nakyum opens his mouth, presenting his teeth rather than his tongue, preparing to bite when Seungho is close enough.
But then Nakyum is choking. He's gargling his blood which fills his throat, keeping much needed oxygen from getting in.
You see, Nakyum had declared victory too soon. He had thought Seungho was as easy as the others, who saw all creatures as simple-minded and something for their own personal use.
And Seungho did, in fact, believe that. That's why he was so quick in finding a tactic. Each being on this earth was simple in Seungho’s mind and each one knew it. In order to be a good fisherman, a good hunter, Seungho needed to learn how each creature countered their own stupidity. And Nakyum, one of the most idiotic of creatures he has ever met, had a easy to learn game. It’s as if Nakyum never planned to act this way. It’s as if it’s not in his nature.
Seungho watched as Nakyum slowly prepared himself to sink his teeth into Seungho’s throat. Nakyum’s focused eyes didn't pay attention to anything else. Not even the pocket knife Seungho slowly pulled from his bag, which lay next to Nakyum’s head.
In one quick motion, Seungho’s slits open Nakyum’s throat, squinting his eyes as blood, blood that smells heavily of the stench of the water, squirts onto his face.
Nakyum’s face twists with fear, thicker-than-humans tears falling down his face, his webbed hands gripping his neck tightly, all while he's looking into Seungho’s eyes as if to ask, "Why?" . But he knew why. It was his fault, after all for creating this kill or be killed situation.
Yet, deep in Seungho’s heart, he couldn't help but feel as if this was his own fault. The look Nakyum’s making, which has begun to relax as his life begins to finally leave his body, Seungho feels as if he had missed something. It feels as if he shouldn't have seen this look on Nakyum’s face, shouldn't have been the cause of this look on Nakyum’s face. Yet he was.
Nakyum goes limp, his flowing blood mixes with the murky water that sits on the floor of the boat, creating a disgusting shade of reddish-brown that Seungho knew was going to stain the wood.
But that's something to think about later. What he needs to think about now is how he's going to cook this thing. Seungho rows his boat back to the shore, where the elderly man and the woman continue to pray.
"I've solved your problem." Seungho bluntly states as he pulls his boat onto dry land and starts the process of putting it on the back of his truck.
The elder man and the woman stare inside the boat in astonishment. The fresh corpse that laid there was, indeed, a beautiful sight. And it made them sick that, in this moment, they think so highly of something that killed their loved ones, depriving their village of the healthy, young men it needed.
But the creature looked so innocent. Was it the relaxation caused by death that brought youth back into the creature's face, or perhaps, the creature has always looked like that, with a young beauty that can be seen as both a gift and a curse? And which way did this creature see it? Neither the elderly man, in his years of wisdom and memories, nor the woman, with her years of fishing, could remember the creature luring their loved ones to their doom. There was nothing to draw them to the lake other than their need to fish.
Yet, the Elderly man has a fond memory of his gson, and then later the following year his brother, suddenly feeling the need to be on the lake even when not fishing. Before their deaths, they had begun to neglect the women in their lives, depriving the village of new children. Yet their skin was smooth and they were aggression free, as if they weren’t pent up or dealing with Erectile Dysfunction. There were no women on the lake to help them with their sexual urges, just the fish.
And this creature.
When their bodies had washed up with bite marks and scratches, it was clear by the bite and claw marks that it was this creature that had killed them. But the body was together, only a few chunks missing. But why did it take so long for the murdered? Why wasn’t the entire body eaten? Did the creature not want to kill them at first? Did he not want to eat them?
Thinking about what his son and brother could’ve done to this beautiful creature to resort to killing them made the elderly man feel sick. So he took refuge in the thought that the creature was purely a monster, one with the intention of killing for fun.
The elderly man keeps his thoughts to himself as he watches as Seungho ties a tarp around the body and straps it onto the boat.
"It". Seungho hated that the corpse was being reduced to an "it" in his mind. The corpse has a name and he knows it but he has never called the deceased by their name. The life within the body, the life that earned that name, is gone. So why, as Seungho drives back home, does he think of the corpse as Nakyum, A living being? No matter how hard he forces himself, he could not see the creature, which makes a loud bang noise in the boat with each pothole, as something that exists for his consumption. When his mind goes back to the scales and the skin underneath it, he could only think of the beauty of it. The shade of pink was pleasing on his eyes and the green created a glint that kept his attention, making his eyes roam the entirety of the tail.
And his eyes do so again when he gets home. Nakyum had been bathed, freeing his body of the murky lake water. Now cleaner, his scales shine so much brighter. The slimy that covered his skin is now gone, making him softer to touch. Seungho could not help but wonder if Nakyum would’ve smiled at seeing himself so clean. Would the smile be greater than the one shown to him before? The knife in Seungho’s hand trembles as he tightens his grip
and swings down.
The smell of Nakyum, covered in various seasonings, fills his kitchen. Fills Seungho’s lungs. The descaled flesh sizzles in the skillet noisily and Seungho watches as it browns, counting down the seconds before he needs to turn this part of Nakyum over and cook on the other side. From the corner of his eye, he sees the mess he couldn’t bring himself to clean.
The rest of Nakyum lies chopped up on the counter. The tail is cut into small, cook-able sections. His human-like half is dissected for easy disposal: His head and arms cut off his torso. Seungho ignores it. Ignores what he has done in favor of focusing on why he did it.
And the meal wasn’t worth it. Nakyum tastes like any other salmon, perhaps a bit sweeter. It wasn’t worth the trip, it wasn't worth what it made Seungho’s mind go through. Seungho takes bite after bite, chewing it slowly, trying to find that flavor that would make this the best tasting fish, just to justify what he had done.
But there is no justification.
He throws out the flesh, finding no need to taste something so bland again. But everything else stays. Nakyum’s scales are neatly preserved to discourage the discoloration that comes within a few years. Nakyum’s head, which Seungho managed to have the eyelids open on, and hands were made into wet specimens, put in glass jars that Seungho had placed in a secret area in his home; Nakyum was for his viewing alone.
Every now and then, after nights of drinking and smoking, Seungho wouldn't venture to this secret room and stare into the black, soulless orbs and wonder what way he should’ve tasted Nakyum that wouldn’t have left his heart in such pain.