There has always been something strange about Kang Hyunggu.

You remember the day of your first meeting as clear as the sunny baby blue sky. It’s impossible to forget. It was your first day as a vet assistant in the Jeju Wildlife Zoo. Freshly graduated with a new and promising job on your hands you couldn’t have been happier. Even if your parents liked to remind you that being twenty-five, you are getting old and you hadn’t brought home any boyfriends since you started college. You dismissed their pleading and moved into this lovely town on the seashore. You could see the stars shine bright from your porch, something you could never do in Seoul. You liked the less crowded streets and the more friendly people, you were content and everything was so normal around you. Until you met your workplace’s handsome marine biologist.

It was one of your regular daily visits around the Zoo. The vet whom you were assigned next to checked on the seals while you kept wandering towards the pool of dolphins. That’s when you saw him sitting cross-legged on the edge of pool surrounded by the adorable sea animals with their heads out of the water. At first sight, it was nothing out of ordinary, you thought he was giving them food even though he dressed a lot more casual than the feeding team members would usually do. No, as you were walking closer as quietly as you could, you heard him talking in a nice deep voice.

“Yeah, I almost burnt myself. Making pancakes! Can you imagine that? Oh of course not, you don’t know what pancakes and oil are. Anyway, human kitchens are really dangerous places,” he said enthusiastically as if he was telling a story. To the dolphins that seemed absolutely immersed in whatever nonsense he was talking.

You blinked, finding it a bit odd to talk to animals so openly but it was okay, you talked to your dog, too. It’s not a big deal. But then…

“Don’t laugh at me!” the young man shrieked when the dolphins started to emit that cute giggle-like voice in unison and he jumped back onto his feet when the animals dove under splashing water everywhere.

That was only when the startled man noticed you standing on the other side of the pool and caught red-handed in your staring, so you looked away bashfully. However, he didn’t seem to mind your appearance at all as he was jogging to you with a wide smile splattered on his handsome features.

“Hi! Can I help you with something?” he offered politely but you shook your head in answer as you walked closer.

“Ah no sorry. I guess we haven’t met yet but I’m the new vet assistant here,” you told him and introduced yourself properly.

“Pleasure to meet you. Kang Hyunggu, marine biologist and these are my friends, Paula, Freddie, Ollie and the smallest one, Elsa,” he pointed at the dolphins that as if they could recognize their own names did flips in the air one by one.

“Wow, pleasure likewise,” you laugh at the cute antics. “I saw you are really close with them.”

“Oh yeah, they like to hear about my days,” Hyunggu shrugged, his smiley eyes turning into crescents. With his flannel shirt and khaki shorts he sure wasn’t an everyday sight even around here

“It might be because marine biologists don’t usually work in zoos,” you took a wild guess to keep the atmosphere light and nice. It’s normal in your line of work to speak to animals, right? It’s okay if you act as if they were actual human beings with feelings and thoughts? As a vet, you knew how these animals’ brain worked. You knew that they were certainly not able to communicate like humans but still, they were smart species of nature.

“Oh yes, you might be right!” Hyunggu chimed in with a lovely smile on his face. He looked relieved or maybe grateful? You didn’t know, his expression was almost unreadable for you.

“I’m actually making a research how well certain animals accustomed to humans and closed areas,” he explained his presence in the zoo and you nodded along because you found the topic quite fascinating. You would have liked to ask him further about it but your colleague caught up to you, waved to Hyunggu and then rushed along so you had to go too. You were supposed to be working after all, not making friends.

With your new work you were quite busy but you enjoyed every moment of it so you didn’t complain. Soon, you seemed to forget about the cute guy talking with dolphins and paid more attention to the lion having a stomach flu and that pregnant elephant. You worked together with a bunch of people but because you were always needed somewhere else, you didn’t really know any places well. You saw familiar faces from time to time and greeted them politely but no face had really stuck with you like Hyunggu’s.

Next time you met him happened in the canteen. You usually atevtogether with the vet team but today you were all alone looking for a empty street in the crowded place when you spotted him.

“Hi! Can I join?” You pointed at the chair across him and when he looked up with mouth full of salad, you could only make out moffchors or something like that when he replied.

You could only hope it meant ‘of course’ but you took a seat anyway.

“How are you?” you asked him really curious about how his research were going while you dove into your pasta. You watched the young man swallow his food and there was a blush creeping onto your cheeks because of the sparks in his eyes as he kept his gaze at you.

“Very well, thank you! But I should be the one asking you that: how do you like your new job?”

For a moment, you even considered him not remembering you at all since you didn’t think you were an outstanding person who drew much attention. Yet, he also remembered that you were a new employee and that warmer your heart a bit.

“Great, everything is great, really! I love this place! As a kid I have always whined to my parents to visit the zoo on Jeju but we rarely travelled far. So being here everyday is kind of my childhood dream coming true,” you admitted hastily spluttering the words and you even surprised yourself by opening up so quickly to a stranger. Usually it took a lot more time for you to share anything about yourself with new acquaintances.

You looked down at your food blushing at how easily you told him all that and because he probably didn’t want to know about it at all but Hyunggu only laughed cheerfully and that put you at ease a bit.

“You could say, it’s the same for me, too. Though, I have always been around, just not here and it’s different. Good different,” he smiled at you with a secret smile of somebody who knew something you didn’t.

You quickly realized how easy it was to talk with him about basically everything. He told you about the most interesting things he discovered during his observation, how long he had been working in the zoo and which places he liked the best on Jeju. You told him about your education, your family back in Gwangju and even the shows you were watching on Netflix. He was particularly interested in that.

“My stomach can’t really take heavy food so I’m sticking to veggies, fruits and fish,” he said as an explanation when you eyed his green choice for lunch for the nth time. Not a lot of your male acquaintances would have chosen that, you were sure so it made you curious. You didn’t want to ask about it or speculating anything but he answered your unsaid question anyway.

With half-sentences and mystery smiles you got along well.

It became a common thing to see him in the canteen and occasionally ask him about his day, the research or even what he told to the dolphins earlier. However, you were surprised to see the lights on in his office near the Aquarium after a day of terrible storm. It was still heavily raining when you were ready to leave after six o'clock. You thought that maybe Hyunggu left it on by accident so you were actually quite surprised when you found him there.

“Hi… Oh sorry to bother…” you gulped a bit nervously seeing the man still dressed in his casual work outfit, jeans and a white t-shirt with the zoo’s emblem and his name tag. His hair was nicely styled, a pair of glasses sitting on the bridge of his nose as he focused on something on his computer but looked up blinking when he heard the noise.

“It’s okay. Do you need anything?”

There was a faint smile on his face and kindness in his voice so he was being nothing but nice yet he made you flustered for no reason.

“No, I was just going home when I just saw the lights,” you shook your head putting your weight from one leg to other. “Aren’t you going home though?”

“No, I… Uhm… I have some work to do,” Hyunggu was scratching the back of his neck and glancing outside to the raging storm.

“For sure? They will close the doors in a few hours, you shouldn’t stay too late.”

The question flew out of your mouth quick, you didn’t have time to shut up before it was too late. You were just being nosy no matter how caring you wanted to be. Something deep inside you didn’t want to leave him there, it just didn’t feel the right thing to do.

“I think I’m gonna wait the storm out because I don’t have my umbrella with me and I don’t like getting wet,” the biologist explained and you almost giggled at his pretty bad excuse. Your mom would have eyed him weirdly and asking if he was made of sugar but luckily, you weren’t your mother.

“I can share my umbrella with you. I live pretty close by and you can have it after you walk me home,” you lifted your deep pink umbrella head-level so he could see it but the smile on his face falters at your eager offer.

“I can’t ask this of you…”

Knowing him for almost two months now, you had gathered enough that Hyunggu really didn’t like asking for help. He was the kind who liked to do everything by himself, so you made one last attempt with a reassuring smile.

“You didn’t ask, I offered,” you reminded him and in his gorgeous eyes, you saw the exact moment it broke his resistance.

“I… Thank you. Really,” he stood up quickly, gathering his stuff under his armpits and got under your pink umbrella with you when you left the dark office behind. He clutched onto the metal handle like his life depended on it but he was a gentleman holding the umbrella above you and making sure the rain didn’t get you either.

“So this is it,” you said standing in front of an apartment complex and turned around to face Hyunggu. He was deep lost in his thoughts, teeth nibbling on his lower lip as he looked out into the rain, worry evident on his face.

“Would you like to come up for a warm soup? Just until the rain stops?” You blurted out before you could stop yourself and you felt embarrassed right after. Oh my gosh what if he thought you wanted to jump on him?

However, his relieved sigh didn’t sound like that.

“That would be nice,” he nodded and followed you up the stairs. You two started a casual conversation about work which quickly changed topics to something more comfortable and less colleague-like, for example what kind of ramen he liked.

However, your chat was rudely interrupted as soon as you opened your entrance and your dog started barking like crazy.

“Hey Spikey, don’t greet our guest like that,” you scolded the small terrier and invited Hyunggu inside.

“He’s cute,” he sat on his heels immediately and pet Spikey behind his ear that the dog seemed to like very much. Though, it didn’t stop him from smelling the biologist’s leg up and down. Maybe he had some fish food on him? It was weird, Spikey usually didn’t act like this.

“Most of the time, he is,” you confirmed and told Hyunggu to make himself at home while you were getting started on the ramen. Putting water for two into your pot, you intended to place it onto the stove to leave it boil when Hyunggu startled you suddenly appearing next to you. As a knee-reaction, you flinched and jumped a little since you were such a scaredy cat (the lighting outside didn’t help either) but some water spilled because of the sudden action and poured all over you colleague’s shirt.

“Oh my god, sorry! I didn’t see you standing there,” you shrieked, putting down the pot and hurriedly get a bunch of napkins to press against the soaked shirt.

“No problem, it wasn’t your fault,” the ever so nice man tried to calm you but his voice was a bit panicky when he continued. “Can I just use the bathroom for a bit?”

“Sure, it’s the first door on the right,” you nodded hastily and tried to control your breathing as Hyunggu walked away. You felt your face burning up and wanted to facepalm yourself so hard for this embarrassment.

Just as you were about to resume your panic and go back to cooking you heard a big splash and thud coming from the bathroom. Carefully, you approached the door Spikey following you close-by.

“Hyunggu… is everything okay?”

You didn’t get an answer but your dog was scratching the door while whining. It scared the hell out of you. What if he fainted? Spikey acted really out of it today. Maybe dogs could tell these things? Who knows? You lived in a world in which marine biologists tell about their days to dolphins.

“I’m going to come in…” you warned Hyunggu and avoiding any hasty movement, you opened the door slightly. Just enough to ask him about his well-being again. However, you didn’t expect your dog sneaking in and even attacking the man based on the painful hisses.

“Spikey, what the..”

Your steps halted and your jaw dropped as you saw what was happening on the other side of the door. The most unrealistic picture ever: your colleague that you lowkey (okay, highkey) had a crush on was in your bathtub filled with ice cold, rose-scented water left from the morning you and his fish tail (yes, his freaking damn real movie-like mermaid tail!!) being too long hung out of the tube. Spikey used this to his advantage and started chewing on it.

“Oh my gosh! You are a mermaid!” you blurted out totally losing your filters and probably your mind. Hyunggu, on the other hand, seemed rather calm like he had the time of his life in your bathroom.

“Merman would be the accurate term since I’m male but please don’t freak out!” he pleaded fluttering his beautiful, long eyelashes at you. Yet, it still didn’t feel real.

“How could I not? You are half-, half-fish in my bathtube!”

Well damn, maybe saying it out loud helped reality kick in because you quickly turned around like you didn’t see anything. Wow those definitely were some quite nicely defined abs…

“Please, can you get your dog off me and give me a blow dryer?” Hyunggu called after you and still in daze, you did just what he asked.

Outside, the rain stopped.

It took a while to process that Hyunggu was actually a mermaid merman but it made a lot of sense. The way he talked to the dolphins, how the seals actually seemed to listen to him, fish followed him through the glass whenever he walked by an aquarium. He carried a part of the ocean within himself and now that he didn’t have to keep this as a secret in front of you, he let you see that part. He took you to a lonely shore showing off his merman moves, he told you about the kingdom under the sea and how actually a lot of them are on ground, decidedly leading a modern merman life. You were just as fascinated by his adventures now that you used to be about his research and soon, you had to admit that it wasn’t because he was a mer-being but because he was Kang Hyunggu and you liked him, with and without tail.

(You weren’t sure about your dog though.)