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The Tides delivered Dongmin to the island on one foggy morning in the aftermath of a great storm.
His day had started with just a routine trip to the neighboring archipelago to stock up on some supplies they couldn't get in his village, the sort that he made every couple weeks or so that was purely routine until it wasn't. The clouds had rolled in suddenly and the weather had shifted so sharply, turning the once calm waves into an angry maelstrom that even Dongmin— who had been sailing those waters for almost the whole of his 21 years of life— had found himself at their mercy.
The last thing he remembered was the sound of wood splintering amidst the crashing of thunder before everything had gone dark.
Consciousness returned in slow blinks and the dawning of pain across his entire body. The sand under his cheek was wet and gritty, some of tinged red with what he imagined was his own blood. Through water-clogged ears he vaguely registered the sounds of footsteps rushing towards him across the shoreline before warm, nimble hands were flipping him over with care.
Oh...
Beautiful blue eyes clear and endless like the sea stared down at him with panic and concern as hair the color of ochre spun through with pale gold fluttered around them in the cool breeze. Dongmin wondered if he had truly lost himself in the storm and the sea gods had graced him with the vision of their most mesmerizing spirit merely as a final kindness to him before they dragged him to his death.
"I really must be destined for the afterlife, if in my last moments I'm seeing such an angel before me…"
Confusion caused the ethereal being's expression to crumple. Dongmin wanted to reach out so that he could smooth the frown away but his arms felt leaden with exhaustion and refused to follow his command.
"You're not dying, not today." The angel's voice was surprisingly deep for one so fair but it suited him. "And I'm not an angel, just to be clear. My name's Donghyun. Now let's get you inside before any more sand gets in that wound on your back."
Standing was a particular kind of misery that only the living world could provide so perhaps the ange— Donghyun was right.
"'m Dongmin," he mumbled through blurry lips, earning a quiet hum of acknowledgement as Donghyun steadied him with a gentle hand on his chest. A piece of Donghyun's fluffy hair brushed against his cheek, bringing with it the scent of sunshine and something sweet that Dongmin's addled mind urged him to chase so that he could find the origin of it.
He resolutely ignored that strange desire, for the time being at least.
The walk up the beach was stumbling and sluggish, Dongmin leaning most of his weight on the slightly smaller man who bolstered him to the best of his ability.
They eventually came to a small cottage at the edge of a clearing. It was quaint and seemed almost out of place compared to the barrenness of the island surrounding it. Seashells tied to a string hung from the awning above the door and clattered softly in the wind as Donghyun gently ushered him inside.
Dongmin found himself absently wondering if Donghyun lived here by himself?
He must, there was only one bedroom and seemed as though it had been designed to hold a single person with just enough space to live comfortably. Had he been shipwrecked, like Dongmin? Or was he some sort of criminal that had been sent to the island as a form of exile? Perhaps he was one of the sirens that Dongmin had read about in Sungho's books when they were kids, a tempter of sailors who lured them in with the desire to rend their hearts from their chests and eat them whole.
There were a thousand scenarios that swirled dizzily in his mind, each probably more farfetched than the last.
A quiet laugh broke through his idle thoughts and it was then that Dongmin realized that he'd been speaking out loud the entire time. If he weren't so sore and tired, he might have been embarrassed. As it was, he just shot Donghyun a lazy grin that only seemed to amuse him further.
"I have no intention of eating you or our heart, I'd prefer it stay safe and beating in your chest if that would be acceptable to you."
Dongmin nodded absently in agreement which pulled another sweet laugh from between Donghyun's lips. The sound was intoxicating— even more so than whatever it was that Sanghyeok distilled from apples back home— Dongmin liked it quite a lot.
"And I fear those tales you read were wildly exaggerated, certainly not fitting for a child. Now relax, would you? These wounds of yours need to be tended to."
It turned out that his initial assumptions were incorrect, Donghyun was neither an angel nor a siren. He might have been a devil though, with his no-nonsense approach to handling Dongmin's injuries. Whatever was in that paste he used stung!
"I'm human, just like you." Donghyun said with a patient smile, though he sent Dongmin a sharp look when he squirmed a bit too much as he tried to apply the salve to his bruised torso, "I come from a village on the edge of the southeast coast of the mainland. It was small and not very prosperous but it was home. I was 14 when they sacrificed me to Yongwang in the hopes they would be spared his wrath for the coming year."
Dongmin frowned to himself, "Your parents, they didn't— They just allowed it to happen?"
"My parents were good people but I wasn't…" Donghyun's eyes dimmed slightly, "I don't think I made it very easy for them to love me. That was the impression I had, at least. I have always been… different from the rest of them or anyone in the village. Ultimately they all decided that I did not belong to the world above the sea so it was only right that I be cast back into it, if to at least benefit them in some way."
It was a subject that obviously caused Donghyun much pain so, in spite of his curiosity, Dongmin let the rest of his questions fall to the wayside. He allowed Donghyun to care for his injuries in silence from that moment on, noting how his touch gentled the longer the comfortable silence lingered and the way his voice softened in apology each time Dongmin winced in pain.
Such a kind-hearted person and he'd been cast aside for what?
There was a warm feeling that settled in the pit of Dongmin's stomach as he thought about how pretty Donghyun looked when he smiled. He resolved then and there that he would do whatever he could to make Donghyun happy for as long as he was able.
And so days turned into weeks, then months and with each passing cycle of the sun Dongmin found himself falling in love with the charms of the magnificent island and its equally breathtaking resident.
Dongmin couldn't understand how Donghyun thought he must be hard to love because falling for him was the easiest thing he'd ever done. It only made it all the sweeter that the younger seemed to fall alongside him just as effortlessly.
There were soft smiles and touches that lingered longer than necessary, even after the excuse of changing bandages and checking wounds had long been unneeded. They found arbitrary reasons to be in each other's space as often as possible, like when they cooked or went for walks along the beach. There were talks that spanned entire evenings and went late into the night as they learned bits and pieces about each other that they hoarded like the most precious of treasures.
Their first kiss didn't come as a surprise— nearly two months to the day that Dongmin had first washed up on the island's shore— it was more of a collision that they could both see coming from miles away but did nothing to stop. Donghyun's mouth tasted like the tart fruits from the trees in the grove near the western coast and the air around them was warm and heady under the setting sun.
It was slow but passionate and utterly perfect— everything and more that Dongmin had never known he'd wanted before Donghyun.
They fell into an easy rhythm after that. They spent days orbiting each other like stars in the sky as they completed menial daily tasks and nights drifting closer together in front of the fire until Donghyun's head would inevitably find his way into Dongmin's lap and Dongmin's fingers would make a home for themselves in those silky blond strands that he played with idly in the stillness of the night.
Countless moments that were filled by the simple joy of loving someone and being known by them.
Tragically though, as those days passed in domestic bliss Dongmin slowly came to the conclusion that he was rapidly approaching the point that he would have to wake up from such a beautiful dream.
His wounds had long healed and his family had to be worried sick about him, probably fearing the worst had befallen him by now. His friends were likely scouring every inch of the sea they could in order to find him. He had responsibilities he had to fulfil, as much as he didn't want to, and people who were relying on him to return to a place that had never given him so much as this precious little island had.
He rolled the anxious thoughts over and over in his mind all day and night until he could finally hold them back no longer, spilling out his half-formed plan to Donghyun in the evening dimness of their shared bedroom.
"Come with me Donghyun, please. My village… There's good work there and it's far enough from the major cities that it's peaceful without being isolated. I've known the people there my entire life, no one will look twice at us for being together. I think—no, I know— we could be happy there."
Even before Donghyun spoke Dongmin already knew his answer, such as he didn't want to hear it.
"Dongmin…" Donghyun's eyes were sad but his smile was gentle and gracious, like he had already predicted this conversation coming as much as he'd hoped it wouldn't, "You know that I'm tied to this island for the remainder of my life. And that once you leave… you'll never be able to find it, or me, again."
Donghyun had confessed this truth to him the night of their first kiss.
How the sea god had taken pity on him for being sacrificed so young to a pointless cause and had granted him his life, to be lived out on the island they now stood upon. Donghyun couldn't leave the shores until his life had been spent in the natural course it should have, a fact he'd discovered purely by trial and error. In addition he'd learned that anyone who happened upon the island could never find it again once they left. The Tides wouldn't allow their favorite child to escape them so easily.
It didn't mean that Dongmin couldn't try.
"But what if it didn't have to be that way?" Dongmin sat up in bed, the covers pooling around his bare waist as he clutched Donghyun's hands hard, trying not to let the desperation he felt seep into his voice, "What if we could find a way to free you from the magic keeping you here? Or make it so that I could find my way back so that we can still see each other? There has to be something! Some kind of spell or a ritual or—"
Tears welled up in Donghyun's eyes as his pleas grew increasingly frantic. The tender smile on his lips shook as he lifted his hand to stroke his fingers across Dongmin's cheek. He felt moisture smear under the gentle caress and it was then Dongmin realized that he too was crying, maybe worse than Donghyun was.
"Dongmin… This is the fate that I accepted for myself a long time ago. I knew after I was cast into the sea, there would be no going back for me. No matter how much I wanted to." Donghyun's voice was thick with emotion but he looked into Dongmin's eyes with such affection it was almost unbearable. "In this life I've been claimed by the sea and it is where I shall remain until the end of my days."
"But I—"
He was cut off by a kiss. It was wet and messy, filled with the salt of both of their tears and the weight of a previously unknown to them agony. Dongmin curled his arms around Donghyun's waist to hold him close so that the lines of their bodies were practically molded together.
It was a kiss that said so much without having a voice— longing, desire, happiness, mourning… but most of all: love.
It was full of such a deep, unfathomable love that it felt like a physical thing that Dongmin could touch and hold forever, even as its source slipped from his hands with each passing second.
Donghyun's love was a wound that would never heal. For as long as he lived after this, Dongmin knew with absolute certainty that there would never be another who would even come close to holding his heart other than him.
They kissed for what felt forever but wasn't nearly long enough because it would never be enough.
When they pulled apart, Donghyun's lips were red and swollen but he looked so happy even with the heartbreak shining in his eyes, like he'd thought of something that made all of the pain they were enduring worth it.
"Dongmin I— I said that, in this life, I've been claimed by the sea. But if— If Fate wills it, I'd be very glad if next time I was claimed by you first. So please Dongmin, even… Even if in our next life we're two fish on opposite ends of the ocean, please find me. Please make me yours again."
It felt like Dongmin's heart was breaking and mending itself over and over again, like an endless torture he would never be able to escape. But when Donghyun was looking at him like that, so hopeful and earnest, how could he even think to refuse him?
The promise of an eternity of loving Donghyun… It would undoubtedly be worth any agony the universe might put upon them.
He cradled Donghyun's cheeks gently between his palms. His eyes roved over every inch of his beautiful face, taking in each tiny detail he could capture and burning the memory of them into the very fabric of his soul so that even if his mind forgot, his heart would always remember exactly who it belonged to no matter how many lifetimes they went through.
His voice was solemn but strong when he made his final promise.
"In this life, the next and every one after: I will always find you, Donghyun. I will swim across any ocean, walk the lengths of the longest beaches and tread every path, no matter how dangerous, so long as it will lead me back to you. I swear it on everything that I am and everything that I will be. My heart, my soul, my very existence: it's yours. Forever."
Dongmin had never been as sure of anything as he was this.
‧∞ ˚
Time always moves on, even if people don't.
The day came all too soon for Dongmin to depart the island he'd come to call home and leave his heart behind on the sandy shores where they'd met so many moons ago. Their final embrace was tearful and Dongmin pressed his lips hard to the apple of Donghyun's cheek, hoping beyond hope that it would somehow leave behind a physical mark for the younger to remember him by. In his heart he knew that eventually it would fade no matter how much force he put behind it but still he kissed that same spot again and again until the very last second before they parted for good. Just in case it would somehow take.
After so long, Dongmin finally returned to the village he'd grown up in to grateful parents and tearful siblings, relived friends who clapped him on the back and praised his abilities to have survived so long on his own.
When they asked about what happened, he never spoke of the island or the man who had changed him so irrevocably. Just that he'd gotten hurt in the storm and a good samaritan in a port town far away had offered him lodgings while he'd healed. It was the simplest version of the truth that he could manage to utter without feeling like he was going to rip apart at the seams from grief.
In the years that followed, no one asked why he would look out at the sea with wistful eyes and an expression of quiet anguish that was tinged with the faint sparkle of anticipation. They certainly didn't dare question why he stood at the shore one day and fell to his knees in tears, clutching his chest like something vital had just been ripped from it when it seemed as though nothing at all out of the ordinary had happened.
They wouldn't notice the invisible agony Dongmin lived with that day and every one after, suffering with the silent knowledge that the world was now bereft of the only tether tying him to it in this lifetime.
But when Dongmin lay in his deathbed they asked him if he was afraid.
"No," was his unflinching response, "Because this means I'll finally get to see him again, in one form or another."
And then he let himself go, releasing his soul back into the vast seas of eternity where it would wait for the day it would wash up on a new shore so that he could find his love once more.
‧∞ ˚
As Fate would have it, Taesan was just about to start digging into his hard-earned bowl of ramyeon when he felt the distinct weight of someone's gaze on him.
The feeling irritated him slightly, like an invisible itch under his skin.
He just wanted to eat in peace and then go back to the practice room where his lyric notebook was waiting for him, a half-completed melody scratched hastily in the margins to be picked up after he satisfied his craving for spice and salt.
Logic and proper manners would dictate that he be patient and wait out the unwanted gaze but Taesan had never been great at waiting. His mom said he was impatient while his dad argued that he was spirited. Taesan just didn't like the thought of letting life be something that happened to him and refused to be a side character in his own story. And yet since he was a kid, he had always felt like he was waiting for something but he could just never put his finger on what it was exactly that he was waiting for.
But surely the strange feeling of anticipation had nothing to do with that.
Taesan lifted his head to glare at whoever was watching him, a vitriolic snap on the tip of his tongue as he lifted his chopsticks to his mouth for another bite before he let all hell break loose. The utensils froze midair and clattered against the lacquered wooden surface of the table when they slipped from his fingers as he found himself looking into a pair of wide eyes that stared back at him, openly curious and unblinking.
For a split second another face superimposed itself over the one in front of him: almost identical ethereal features with the exception that the vision had blue eyes like shards of sea glass surrounded by soft blond locks that cascaded around them like flowing water. Taesan blinked. Azure and gold were instantly replaced with gilded mocha eyes that were as hypnotic as ocean waves and curls the color of the darkest chocolate imaginable that tumbled down his graceful neck in a wild, fluffy mess.
There was a beauty mark on his cheek just under his left eye that Taesan for some reason couldn't keep his eyes off of.
His chest tightened with unexplained affection and it felt as though something vital had shifted and slotted into place, like a missing puzzle piece had finally found its home. He would swear that he'd never seen this boy's face in his entire life before today but his heart was behaving as though he'd seen it a thousand times before, a face that should have been as familiar as his own, as it threatened to beat out of his chest.
"Donghyun."
The name slipped past his lips unbidden, pulled from some unknown depths inside of him. The syllables tasted sweet on his tongue and caused a smile brighter than sunshine to bloom across the should-be stranger's gorgeous face. That smile was so beautiful and infectious that Taesan couldn't help but instinctively respond to it with a grin of his own.
"Oh, you're good! I've only been going by Leehan since I got to the company so I didn't think anybody knew my real name." The boy— Donghyun, Leehan?— giggled, tilting his head to the side like a puppy, "We haven't met before, have we? You look kinda familiar but I don't recall ever seeing you back in Busan."
He was so cute, it actually hurt. Taesan wanted to reach out and wrap his arms around him, hold him close and laugh until he sobbed. It was specific kind of agony that felt strangely like relief, like pulling out a thorn that he hadn't noticed had been lodged in his foot for the longest time.
Taesan couldn't explain exactly how he'd known his name, just that it was the only one that had felt like it belonged to him. But before he could even try to put that into words that wouldn't make him sound like some kind of weirdo, he was cut off.
"Dongmin."
His birth name escaped from between petal-pink lips in a whisper, sounding awed and a little confused. Leehan's eyes filled with wonder as they skimmed over Taesan's face with renewed interest, like he was looking at the cover of a book that he'd once known word-for-word and wanted to read again.
Taesan took the enraptured silence as an opportunity to answer, "Probably the same way you know mine. But if you want, you can call me Taesan. Most people do around here."
The response probably would have sounded nonsensical and kind of all over the place to anyone else but Leehan seemed to follow it perfectly. They stayed like that for a few moments longer, just quietly observing one another.
The longer he stared into Leehan's eyes, his lungs filled with the crisp coolness of ocean air while the gentle crashing of waves sounded in his ears even though they were miles away from any coast. He seemed so familiar, like he was the dream of a dream that Taesan had once had thousands of years ago but also just yesterday at the same time.
In lieu of blurting any of those thoughts out and sounding like a complete lunatic Taesan held out his ramyeon, now likely long gone cold but the only thing he had to offer.
"Do you want some?"
Leehan shook his head quickly, a lopsided smile making his eyes turn into crescents, "No thanks, I already ate." He leaned an elbow on the tabletop and rested his cheek in his hand. The gesture was so endearing that it made Taesan want to reach out and poke him, just to see what kind of reaction it would provoke. "Besides, I think I already found what I was looking for by coming over here."
Taesan cocked an eyebrow at the curious statement. "Which was?"
The brunet shrugged, "Mm who knows? But I found it."
Leehan let out a bubbly giggle when Taesan made a face at the strange answer. He rolled his eyes with a half-hearted scoff and picked up his chopsticks again, digging into his— yep— now stone cold noodles with as much gusto as he could muster. That unfinished melody was back again, this time flourishing into something wonderful and unignorable just like the boy sitting across from him.
"You're weird," he muttered between bites, face feeling uncharacteristically warm when Leehan beamed at him like he'd just paid him the greatest compliment in existence.
Taesan distantly thought that he should've been annoyed by Leehan's alien behavior and strange way of speaking.
If it had been anyone else he would have already brushed them aside without sparing another thought but Leehan… He was different. Bright, beautiful and otherworldly like a comet breaking across Taesan's previously starless sky.
He felt a nudge under the table and looked up to find Leehan watching him with soft eyes, cheek still resting in his hand and looking too pretty to be good for Taesan's heart.
"It's nice to meet you, Taesan."
He said it so casually and without consequence, like he wasn't expecting a response. The words felt weighted though, like they meant something more than just a simple pleasantry. Taesan wanted to unravel it, to learn its true intention and figure out everything he could about Leehan. He sat back in his seat, shoulders relaxing as he stretched his foot out to bump Leehan back.
Happiness fizzled in his stomach like sparklers when Leehan giggled again and resumed his silent staring, this time focussed on a plant in the far corner of the room. Taesan could read a question in those shiny eyes of his, one that was likely absurd and would make his head spin for entirely different reasons than it was right now. The weight of another foot pressed against his, solid and warm as it rested there like it had always belonged.
There was no need to rush to figure out this puzzle of a boy, he realized with a sense of satisfaction.
They had all the time in the world.