Chapter Text

 

"Don't you think a mermaid is a little girly?" My brother asked me, pushing a pile of cool, moist sand onto my thighs and carefully smoothing it out.

 

"I wanna be a merman, not a mermaid." I clarified, running my hands over the warmer, drier sand that I laid on. "There's a difference."

 

Jin smiled, scooting down to cover the rest of my legs. "How would you know, are you an expert?"

 

"Duh." I was offended that he doubted my obvious expertise. "I'm a... a mertologist."

 

"Well then, Mister Mertologist, how do merpeople use the bathroom? I've always been curious." Jin grinned as he pinched my toes between a handful of wet sand, causing me to give a childish giggle that disrupted the carefully sculpted sand on the rest of my body.

 

"Cut it out, that tickles!" I wiggled my feet at him to shoo his hand away, which caused the majority of the sand to disperse.

 

"You're ruining my masterpiece!" Jin cried, pining my feet down to keep them from moving. I continued, this time with the objective to break free.

 

"Your masterpiece looks like a !" I squealed with laughter as he grabbed my ankles and dragged me towards him with a growl.

 

"Your face looks like a !" He retorted, pulling me into his arms to wrap them around my waist, holding me upside down. I wailed and kicked my legs to try and break free, but since he was five years older than me, he had the advantage.

 

"Mom!" I decided to call for backup. "Jin said my face looks like a !"

 

Jin's eyes widened, and he turned towards the place our parents were sitting to defend himself. "No I didn't!" As he did this, his arms loosened and I was able to wiggle out of them. As soon I did, I used my newfound freedom to tackle him to the ground, perched on his stomach with my little hands wrapped around his shoulders.

 

"Jungkook, leave your brother alone! You know he's fragile!" Mom called from her beach chair, causing me to giggle some more. Jin frowned and craned his neck to look at her. "Mom!" He knew that her calling him fragile would just give me more things to make fun of.

 

"You too, Jin, don't call your brother ugly. You shouldn't take your handsomeness for granted." She scolded. Jin groaned. I laughed and squished his cheeks between my hands to twist his head back around so he was looking at me.

 

"Mom only calls you handsome 'cuz you're ugly." I told him matter-of-factly. He let his arms fall flat against the sand in defeat with a heavy sigh. "That doesn't even make sense."

 

"Boys, we're gonna go inside, try not to stay out too late." Our dad called. I looked up to see him and mom packing up the beach chairs and the cooler, and gave him a little salute. Jin took the opportunity to grab my wrists and flip over so he was on top of me with a defiant laugh. I screeched.

 

"And don't kill each other, either." Mom added as they headed back inside. Jin gave the salute this time, laughing because he was able to hold both of my arms with one hand. "Roger!" He called.

 

I managed to wriggle one arm free so I could give his right a pinch. He howled and rolled over onto his back, both hands over his wound. I gave a devilish laugh as I sat up.

 

"You're such a sissy." I said as I shook the sand out of my hair. He frowned at me and rubbed his chest.

 

"You're the one who wanted me to make you into a mermaid."

 

"Merman. There's a difference."

 

"You still never told me how they use the bathroom," He said, crossing his legs and leaning back onto his hands. I thought about it.

 

"They don't." I concluded. "They swim around all the time, so they just work it all off."

 

"You sound very sure of that." He raised a skeptical eyebrow.

 

"I'd bet a million bucks on it." I grinned. Suddenly, my eyes drifted from my brothers stupid face to a weird shadowy blob on the edge of the water. I watched it rock gently with the waves for a bit, trying to figure out what it could be. Jin noticed my intense stare and followed my gaze curiously.

 

"What is that?" He wondered aloud, after a few moments of silent observation. I didn't respond, I'd already stood up to get a closer look. As I drew near, the blob's outline became clearer a clearer, until I could see... it was a boy.

 

"It's a person!" I called back at Jin. He quickly stood up and rushed to join me. The boy was laying curled up in a ball, being slowly and gently pushed up onto the beach by the waves. He had dusty brunette hair and big ears, and looked to be about my age. He had on a pair of strange-looking swim trunks, but nothing else besides that. Jin dropped to his knees beside him, and turned him over on his back to press his ear against the boy's bare chest. I watched, my heart racing, until Jin looked up at me with a seriousness that I'd never seen before, a seriousness that terrified me.

 

"Jungkook, go get mom and dad."

 

-

 

"What's your name, sweetie?"

 

"My name..." The boy thought. We'd taken him inside, and after he'd regained consciousness, dressed him in a warm pair of my footie pajamas and wrapped him in the fluffiness blanket in the house. He had this kind of dazed look to him, as if he wasn't really all there... as if his mind was still among the stars he'd fallen from.

 

"V." He seemed to have decided on something as he spoke his name. I sat across the coffee table from him, on the couch with Jin.

 

That's not a real name, I thought. Jin elbowed my gut, and mom shot me a nasty look over her shoulder. Oh... did I say that out loud?

 

"In Iceland," Dad added quickly from the kitchen, to finish my sentence. "But here, it's a good name!" He smiled kindly. The boy didn't really seem to get what he meant, but he didn't actually seemed to be bothered by what I'd said in the first place.

 

"How old are you?" My mom asked, crouched in front of him. He sat in her favorite wool rocking recliner, the gray one that she used to rock me to sleep in when I was little. The boy took a few seconds to process the questions, and poked his hands out of his blanket to count on his finger.

 

"This much!" He beamed, holding up six fingers. My mom laughed, covering with her hand. He was adorable.

 

"Would you look at that, Jungkook is the same age!" She reached across the coffee table to rub my knee gently. I gave a sheepish smile.

 

"Jung...kook." V repeated my name slowly, staring straight into my eyes. "What about that one?" He pointed to Jin.

 

"I'm Jin..." My brother mumbled, shooting me the sneakiest of side glances to express his slight offense to the way he'd been addressed. "I'm this many," He said, and held up all ten of his fingers. I knew he was smarter than that, but he was probably just trying to be friendly.

 

"Where are you from?" My mother asked, as V slowly shaped his mouth around my brother's name silently to himself. The way he focused on memorizing the name, you'd think that he wasn't really paying attention to mom's interrogation, but you'd be wrong. As soon as the words were out of , his eyes shot open and a massive grin spread across his face.

 

"I'm from outer space!" He declared with a proud giggle. Mom drew in a sharp little gasp, glancing up at my dad. Poor woman, she couldn't take it. She was so used to having me for a child, her heart wasn't equipped for something as precious as V.

 

"Oh, are you?" She giggled, taking a more comfortable seat in front of V's chair. Our mom was young, and responded to him like a teenager would. She was only 18 when she had Jin, and had to drop out of college to take care of him. Dad stayed in school though, he was a doctor. That was the only reason we were able to live comfortably. At the time we'd found V, she'd been taking college classes to get her degree, since she felt like she needed to do her part to support the family too. But she was still young at heart.

 

"Yeah, I'm an alien! My ship... uh, crashed, and that's why I was in...in the water!" He seemed to struggle with his words, but that only made him cuter. He spoke in a funny accent to, one that I'd never heard before. Hawaii got a lot of tourists, so I'd heard pretty much the entire spectrum, but... his was entirely new. You could even say... out of this world. Heheh.

 

"I see..." Mom decided that she wouldn't be able to figure out where he was actually from without crushing his dreams, so she just decided to roll with it. "Well, I hope you enjoy your stay on Earth with us, it's a wonderful planet." She smiled, pushing herself off the ground and ruffling V's fluffy brunette hair. V giggled and sort of nuzzled into her touch, almost like a puppy.

 

"Alright, soldiers, at attention!" Mom turned around to face us, hands on her hips. Jin and I sprung up quickly, arms snapping up in a salute.

 

"Alright, your mission today is to make V feel at home," She paced back and forth in front of us like a drill sergeant. "I want you two on your best behavior, am I making myself clear?"

 

"Yes, sir!" We barked, and I couldn't help but giggle at the silliness of it all. Whenever mom wanted something of us (whether it be Saturday chores, preparing the house for guests, etcetera), she'd pretend to be a drill sergeant, and we were her soldiers. It was the only way to get us to do anything responsible.

 

"Jungkook," She stopped in front of me, folding her arms over her stomach.

 

"Yes, sir!" I bit my lip to hide a smile.

 

"Take V back and show him where everything is, he'll be sleeping with you tonight."

 

"Yes, sir!" I glanced behind her to look at V, who was watching with a blank, awed expression, stars in his eyes and everything. I smiled to myself.

 

"Jin!" Mom stepped to the side so she was in front of him.

 

"Yes, sir!"

 

"Your job is to get the extra futon from the attic and set it up in Jungkook's room."

 

"Yes, sir!"

 

"And most importantly..." She looked back and forth between the two of us. "Don't be brats, okay?"

 

"Yes, sir!" We giggled.

 

"Alright, dismissed." She smiled and shooed us away with her hand. Jin hopped over the coffee table, and ran down the hall to pull down the ladder that led to the attic in pursuit of the futon. I decided that going around the coffee table would be safer, however.

 

"Here," I held my hand out to V, who was looking at me with the same starstruck expression he'd been watching us receive our instructions with. He looked down at my hand, back up at me... and a his lips spread into a smile. It was weird, he'd been smiling a lot, but watching his expression from up close was an entirely different experience. I didn't know why, but it made my stomach tickle, and my cheeks got a little warm.

 

"I like this planet," He said softly, sliding his hand into mine.

 

My cheeks flushed even hotter. I looked down at the floor, letting my bangs fall over my face to hide it. "Come on, my room is back here." I mumbled sheepishly, tugging him gently forward to usher him out of the chair and lead him back to my room.

 

I didn't know it yet, but this would be the first chapter in an almost Shakespearian tragedy. This boy... this tiny little dusty brunette would become the person who helped to completely and effortlessly ruin my life. He'd consume all of my thoughts, all my actions, my emotions... He may not have come from my planet, but he'd become my whole world.

 

And the weirdest part? I wouldn't want it any other way.