Chapter Text
"Yes, I know." The answer came out loud from his mouth despite the tiredness that settled on his body. The sound of the waves crashing on the white sand of the shore and the seabreeze itself prevented him from hearing himself and the person on the other side of the line, who seemed to be protesting from the cell phone speaker. "You don't have to worry, I promised I'd be home before nightfall, didn't you? when have I broken a promise?" The last question was mocking, also accompanied by a small smile on his lipsticks.
A lil' laugh was heard from the other person.
"Woongie, you never keep your promises." It was obvious that he was joking. Another laugh was heard, from a different person behind the call. "But it's okay, if you say so. Keonhee will order to eat, what will you want? because I guess you'll come for dinner, won't you?".
Hwanwoong was quiet for a moment, thinking more about the response to the food than whether it would actually he'd arrive on time it for dinner.
"Tteokbokki, please." His words adopted a singing tone, like a small child waiting for his parents to fulfill some whim. "Tell Keonhee to ask for coke too!".
"Okay." Another giggle, a funny one. "So you'll be here for dinner?".
The black-haired bent down to pick up a stone and make it 'bounce' a few times in his hand.
"Yes. I'll try to get there sooner, even."
"Perfect! I'll leave you alone then." Hwanwoong was about to say goodbye, but was interrupted by the eldest. "Come back safely, okay? and don't be eaten by the mermaids, many people have already disappeared near the coast in recent times. See you!".
"Hyung, mermaids don't exi—".
And then... silence. Yeo lowered his cell phone to watch as the major's contact name disappeared, giving rise to his lock background.
Seoho had hung up the call without waiting for a response from the younger, causing Hwanwoong to chuckle at the older one's audacity.
The truth is that he just couldn't be bothered with him, after all, it was Seoho who took him into his home when he had nowhere else to go. He would be grateful for life to him and Keonhee.
Although more with Seoho, of course.
"I don't know what is his mania with mermaids." He muttered, to himself, before throwing the stone into the sea, seeing it disappear quickly into the blue afternoon waves. "They shouldn't exist, and if they really did, what's all that about that they eat humans? Are they a kind of vampires or something?"
It was a complaint on the air, he had no intention of discussing the issue of mermaids with his elder.
Certainly Seoho had been quite obsessed with these things beings lately, and the constant news about the disappearance of people who were last seen near the sea did not help that 'delirium' —as Hwanwoong and Keonhee called it behind the backs of their elder— to vanish once and for all.
And not to mention that he was currently a student of marine biology.
Another laugh escaped to his lips at how ridiculous the whole situation of those mythological beings seemed to him. He denied amused as he put his cell phone in the pocket of his leather jacket, then raised his gaze to devote himself to observing the coast as he began to walk along the shore.
The view was beautiful.
And it wasn't until then that Hwanwoong felt all the tiredness, which he had obviously tried to ignore, fall on his body like a bucket of cold water.
He had been rotating all week between working at the cafeteria during the day, where he forced himself to serve with the best of his smiles, and then the bar at night, making sure that no drunk stayed until after closing time in the small hours of the morning. The constant rejections of his applications to different performing arts academies did not help his mood much either.
And then there was Chaeyeon, her former high school classmate with whom she constantly messages.
Apparently, she had been studying in one of the many academies to which Hwanwoong applied. He envied her, though he would never admit it out loud. He didn't want to make her feel bad about his own bad luck.
"They just don't see it, hwan" Lee had told him once when she appeared up at the coffee shop where Yeo worked part-time. "You're really talented, don't let anyone make you believe otherwise."
He vividly remembered the pain that settled on his tongue because he had bitten it to say nothing, also how he tried to give her one of his best smiles to avoid worrying her. He also couldn't bother with her about something that was out of his hands.
From the hands of both.
He threw another stone again, closer and closer to the seashore. Actually, at that moment the last thing that mattered to him was getting his shoes wet.
Another stone, and another, and another...
Until his arm simply got tired and he decided to stop to lie down on the sand with all his limbs stretched out. The sky had already begun to turn orange, giving the warning that the moon would soon be the protagonist after nightfall.
Maybe he could sleep for a moment before returning home, he still had time for it to get completely dark.
He adjusted his cap covering his face and closed his eyes, falling asleep almost instantly.
𓇼 ⋆.˚ 𓆉 𓆝 𓆡⋆.˚ 𓇼
"Hey".
A low voice began to make its way to his ears, similar to a complaint, while he felt how his cheek was stung by someone else's finger.
A finger... rough.
But he still didn't want to wake up, his eyes kept closed at all the time, even though the cap, which had previously rested hiding his face, was no longer in place.
"I'll give you back your stones."
Maybe he didn't want to wake up because of how sweet someone else's voice sounded, there was something in that tone that kept him in his sleep even though his body was already aware of everything around him.
Or at least it was until he felt the stones fall on him.
On his face.
With a start, he sat up, in pain, instinctively checking to see if his nose was bleeding or if it was okay.
But everything seemed to be in place and in perfect condition.
He turned to protest to the stranger, but as soon as his eyes met the silhouette of the other his words choked in his throat, causing him to even cough from the shock.
The boy beside him was kneeling, and with his hands resting on his own lap, a solemn air swirled around him. Hwanwoong observed his face carefully, almost hypnotized by the way in which the hair between platinum and violet fell wet on the boy's forehead, he noticed how under his left eye a small mole was drawn that contrasted with the whiteness of his skin. Quite attractive if you ask it.
He ran his hands over his own face, believing that he was still half asleep. Once his gaze was again on the apparently highest one, a cold ran down his spine as he noticed how shiny scales were born from the wet areas of the other's skin.
No, he was definitely still asleep, because those scales couldn't be real.
Or, let's be positive, maybe a rock hit him hard enough on the head to make him hallucinate, although was that even possible?
"Some of them fell on me when you threw them..." A complaint, the boy frowned at that. "You interrupted my daily walk, the only time of the day when I can escape from my brother and Geonhak, what will you do about it?"
Hwanwoong blinked a few times.
And he blinked again, a couple more times, stunned.
"What...?" A thread of voice was what came out in response, the frown of the boy next to him seemed not to soften. "Wait, I don't understand. Were you just swimming when I threw the stones? With this cold?".
The one with the platinum hair ignored him, getting up without saying a single word to try to remove the sand that had stuck to his skin thanks to the water.
Yeo observed the clothes of others, noticing how the pants that the boy was wearing were nothing more than a set of seaweed braided together, he also saw how as the body of stranger dried up, the scales disappeared, becoming one with the smooth skin of him.
"You're welcome."
The black-haired gaze to the face of another, confused.
"Excuse m—?".
"For giving you back your stones." He pointed his index finger in the direction of the stones scattered on the sand.
Yeo fixed his eyes on some of the stones on the ground. He couldn't help but let out a laugh that was loud and thunderous enough to cause a startle in the stranger, similar to a cat. Now it was the stranger's turn to look confusedly at the shortest, who imitated the action of getting up and trying to shake off the sand that weighed on the folds of his clothes.
"How naïve you are!" Exclaimed, letting out another laugh. "They're not my stones, I just picked them up from the sand and threw them into the sea, it helps to calm the stress a little."
"Stress?" The way he said the question betrayed how little he knew about it, he remained silent for a moment until his face seemed to light up after remembering something. "Oh, Geonhak says that humans with stress don't usually taste good. He says that their hearts are poisoned by stress and that it can even be deadly for us."
Hwanwoong was going to laugh again, but that comment threw him off enough to erase any other expression, other than bewilderment, from his face.
"Excuse me, what—?".
"Well, I'm leaving." The tallest interrupted him, bending down for a moment to pick up ‹something› from the ground. Hwanwoong was dazed enough to notice the object that the other one took in his hands. "You don't need to thank me for the stones, I'll take this as my reward."
Once the shorter one came to his senses, after shaking his head as if he were a dog, there was no longer any sign of the boy with platinum hair.
Only a couple of marked steps in the wet sand gave away that the presence of the other was real. They were steps that were heading towards the ocean, the same ones that were gradually erased after the breaking of the waves on the shore.
Hwanwoong ran his hand through her hair, noticing that something was missing.
His cap.
He had taken his cap.
He opened his mouth to protest, but the sound —and vibration— of an incoming call coming from his cell phone interrupted him, when he took it out of his pocket he noticed both the time and the name that was marked on the screen.
Keonhee.
It was already late.
As he swiped the green button and brought the phone to his ear, Yeo set about heading as quickly as possible in the direction of the house that Keonhee, Seoho and he shared.
"Yes? Hi, I'm sorry" he spoke as fast as he could, preventing Keonhee from saying anything throughout the call. "I fell asleep! But I'm already returning, have me a glass of coke served for me when I arrive! Thank you, goodbye!"
And he hung up just as his feet touched the pavement of the street, running in the direction of home.
𓇼 ⋆.˚ 𓆉 𓆝 𓆡⋆.˚ 𓇼
"I'm back!"
The voice echoed throughout the furnished cave, even bouncing the sound of his own words off the walls of the cave.
He frowned, confused. He'd expected to find his brother once he returned home, but no one was there.
He shrugged after a moment, downplaying the matter. His hands found themselves fiddling with the edges of the cap he had previously 'borrowed' from the black-haired.
A smile fell on his lips as he entered his home, beginning to hum a random song that he might have heard from a human. He would have a moment of tranquility until his twin arrived, perhaps he could dedicate herself to reorganizing his room...
The thought was interrupted thanks to the arrival of another person at the place. It was enough for him to look at the way the water flowed around him to notice that the newcomer was not his twin.
"Where's Dongmyeong?" The platinum-haired man asked before the taller one began to scold him, because he already knew where the conversation would go.
He didn't even want to turn to look at him, he was busy with the action of putting away the cap quickly.
"Where were you?".
The shorter one rolled his eyes, and that was the moment when he decided to turn around, trying to adjust his hair that constantly rested on his eyes because of the water that surrounded them.
"You don't answer one question with another, I thought Myeong was with you." He paused, looking from head to toe at who was in front of him, wanting to be defiant, although he was really just playing. Unlike his scales in violet tones, the eldest's skin was of a characteristic striped pattern between blue and silver scales. "Or have you already lost my brother?".
Geonhak rubbed the bridge of his own nose with his index finger and thumb, trying to stay calm.
"He went out with Giuk, he'll be back later." He crossed his arms, fixing his gaze on the younger. "It's your turn now, where were you, Dongju?"
".. Nowhere."
"Did you go back up?"
Dongju puffed out his cheeks, playing this time with his fingers as he thought about what to answer. The truth was that Geonhak had asked him —he had actually forbidden him, but Dongju didn't take it seriously— not to come to the surface, repeating over and over again that humans were dangerous, that they could kill him if they wanted to.
In reality, Son found the whole subject too trivial to give it the respective importance it deserved, he had observed different groups of people from the rocks and always came to the same conclusion: they were too stupid to even harm him.
He had even heard the stories they had made up about what they were, he found it silly that they thought mermaids fed on humans.
A giggle stuck in his throat as he remembered the face of the black-haired human when he deliberately mentioned the influence of stress on the taste of human flesh.
Of course, as if he had ever tasted their flesh, he himself believed that it must be disgusting.
"It's just that this time I thought the sea might take one away" He said, starting to swim around the eldest, annoying him. "I was something like his guardian angel, I returned the stones he threw and woke him up before the tide reached him and swallowed him."
"Did you get out of the water?" Dongju didn't answer, he swam away in the direction of what was the kitchen. Geonhak went after him. "Did he see your scales?"
The boy shrugged.
"Why is that so important?" He didn't look at him. "Not will there be a repeat of what you experienced with that human you told us about the other time." Dongju noticed how the older man tensed up behind him just because of the movement of the water around him. He looked at him over his shoulder. "Just... I'm curious about them, besides I don't think the human I saw today wants to go near the coast again, joke about us feeding on them."
And this time laughter came out of his mouth, causing Geonhak to shake his head, surrendered.
"Be careful." He said without further ado, patting one of the younger's shoulders, earning a grimace from him. "They created stories to label us as monsters, but in reality they are the real monsters. They always judge before they take the time to know."
And he left the place leaving Dongju completely alone with the illumination of the few moonbeams that managed to cross the water barrier.
𓇼 ⋆.˚ 𓆉 𓆝 𓆡⋆.˚ 𓇼
If he said that he'd been sleeping well those last few weeks, he'd be lying. The truth was that he had not been able to sleep a wink since the encounter with... that thing.
The truth is that he didn't want to admit that perhaps his opinion regarding mermaids had changed 'slightly'... Well, he didn't really want to accept that Seoho had been right about the existence of the mermaids because he didn't want to be the eldest's mockery for the entire next month.
Though certainly a small flame of painful curiosity had begun to grow in the back of his chest.
Seoho was not the type of person who really spent a lot of time away from home, especially when he was on exam date; but there was something that prevented Hwanwoong from being able to feel calm.
How had his elder come to the conclusion that these beings existed? What was the real reason for his obsession with these creatures? He had hardly ever seen him walk along the coast.
Although, now that he thought about it, Seoho had been very reluctant to talk about his life before he met Lee and Yeo: whenever he and Keonhee chatted about the stupid things they did in the middle of puberty, Seoho would simply smile saying that his adolescence hadn't been 'the big deal'.
A blow to his head took him out of his little reflection.
"Is everything okay?" Keonhee had hit the shorter man's head with a notebook he was holding. Lee sat down next to him on the sofa, looking at him with no concealed concern. "You've been looking at a fixed point without doing anything for half an hour, you're already scaring me... Seoho said we should call some priest to exorcise you."
Hwanwoong let out a long sigh, as if his body was trying to take some kind of weight off its shoulders. On another occasion he would have laughed at the joke of the tallest, but his head was in a completely different point at that moment, he was not managing to connect with his friend and that frustrated him a little.
"I'm fine." He answered. Yeo leaned his back on the back of the couch then, watching the boy next to him. "I'm just tired... I think I'll go out for a while later."
"Where?".
Keonhee stretched his body to reach for the remote control that rested on the coffee table, then turned on the television, reviewing the programming without any real interest, maybe with some luck he could stumble upon a good movie.
Yeo shrugged.
"Maybe to the beach, I haven't been to there for a couple of weeks."
He wasn't expecting an answer, but receiving a simple 'oh' from the tallest wasn't exactly what Hwanwoong wanted to hear.
And that was the end of the conversation, Hwanwoong didn't know how to continue the exchange of words with his friend without his nerves ending up playing against him and mentioning his encounter with that silver-haired boy. He couldn't risk confessing what was really having him in that mood for a couple of weeks now, he wanted to confirm if the existence of the mermaids was real before coming to any other hasty conclusions.
Meanwhile, his two jobs and the rejections of the academies still served as an excuse.
He didn't know how or when, but they both ended up curled up on the couch while watching a movie that Keonhee managed to stumble upon on TV.
'The Little Mermaid'.
Hwanwoong hadn't been amused.
Maybe he was being a little —too— paranoid about the subject.
In the end, he decided not to go out that afternoon, and the prospect of watching movies with Keonhee on the TV in the main room became much more tempting for him. Although, unfortunately for Yeo, the flame continued to burn in his chest, beginning to consume him.
Yeah, fine.
He would go to the coast in the morning, after all a little sea breeze early in the day didn't sound too bad before work either.
This way Hwanwoong could also get rid of the discomfort in her chest that prevented her from sleeping at once.
And maybe later he would laugh in Seoho's face when he could confirm that the mermaids weren't real and that he had actually dreamed up everything from the other day.
Yes, that sounded like a good plan.