The festival would start at sundown that night, and Youngbae couldn’t help but to wonder at how ironic it was that he was helping to prepare for a celebration in honor of the old stories about merpeople becoming human. They called it the “festival of Ariel”, and while it was believed that a lot of the myths and stories that surrounded this celebration were fake (because what self-respecting mer would fall in love with a human?), Youngbae was a firm believer that at least some of them were real; Just because it hadn’t happened to his people, didn’t mean it hadn’t happened in other kingdoms.

The popularity of this festival always brought back Youngbae’s questions about why it was only the 15-year-old royals who got a peek at the world above the surface. This year was different, though, as he had been up to the surface just a short week before; he couldn’t stop thinking about it.

It had started with just noticing how things felt beneath his fingertips, and had progressed to him comparing that with what things had felt like above the water. Next came the dreams, haunting him through the night; images of the colorful man dancing through his sleeping mind. Youngbae looked tired, worn, and as though he were somehow lost. Seunghyun was worried, and so were their other friends and acquaintances. In just one short week he had gone from his normal upbeat and carefree self, to a mere shadow of his former self, always lost in thought and looking over his shoulder and up above.

“That’s it.” Seunghyun says, grabbing Youngbae by the shoulder and shaking him lightly. They were helping string up colorful shells in one of the main festival areas, and the number of times that Youngbae had almost cut himself was becoming ridiculous.

“What?” Youngbae asks, frustration cutting through his tired voice.

Seunghyun’s eyes soften, unable to be mad at his pining friend, “We’re going to get you some help.” He says softly, grabbing Youngbae’s hand and pulling him away from the decorations. “I told you not to crush on a human.” He mutters, but it was loud enough that Youngbae could hear him. His eyes go wide and he tries to pull away.

“I’m not! You never said that!” Youngbae whispers frantically, hoping that no one nearby had heard Seunghyun. Seunghyun just rolls his eyes and tugs harder on Youngbae’s hand.

“Come on. You can’t lie to me. We’re going to see Daesung.” Seunghyun hoped that going to see the wise man would offer them a solution to this problem. He wasn’t terribly hopeful (because everyone knows that the stories about becoming human aren’t true), but he knew that he needed to do something for his friend.

Youngbae just nods, knowing that it will be better to just be quiet and follow Seunghyun at this point. He knows that talking to Daesung has the potential to just cause him even more pain; but he can’t help but to hope that Daesung might offer him some type of relief.
Daesung lived in semi-seclusion just past the outermost ring of dwellings. He wasn’t terribly old, but had been gifted with what the court advisors had called ‘extreme wisdom’, and as such, he was who every mer visited when they needed advice. He had always been rather close with Youngbae, who enjoyed talking with him and had been known to spend hours just sitting and talking to the wise man.

Seunghyun didn’t bother knocking before pushing open the door and easing his way inside, Youngbae being pulled in behind him.

“Ah, good afternoon!” Daesung says, looking up from a small reflective rock on the floor. He smiles brightly at the two mermen and gestures for them to come in further. “I was staring at my reflection.” He says, only a little ashamedly. “I was thinking that maybe I should get out more,  but judging by Youngbae’s appearance, I would have to conclude that that might just cause me more strife than happiness.” His smile was still in place, but it was slightly more pitying.

Youngbae sighs and runs a hand over his face, “Do I really look that bad?” He asks, moving further into the room and letting his face drop in defeat.

“Well, it’s nothing some sleep and happiness couldn’t fix. So it’s not permanent!” Daesung says, putting his arm around Youngbae’s shoulders, trapping the ends of his braids against his neck. Youngbae notes quickly that he can’t really feel the shells as sharply as he could if he were above the water, but quickly shoves the thought away.

“It might be.” Seunghyun says, crossing his arms over his chest and allowing his mouth to fall into a flat line. Daesung looks at him quickly, trying to discern the problem without having to ask, before he directs his attention back to Youngbae’s face.

“Hmm, You haven’t come by lately.” Daesung says, moving away from Youngbae’s side so that he can face him. “I was surprised, normally you come in right after a surfacing...” Youngbae turns his head away and looks down. “Ahhh, yes, I see.” Daesung moves away from him toward the far side of the room. “What happened?”

“Seunghyun and I went to a cove near the kelp fields...and...” He can’t bring himself to say it. It was against the law to surface unless given special permission, and while it wasn’t strictly enforced, it just wasn’t done.

Daesung smiles and nods knowingly as he reaches up to grab a bottle off of a shelf along the far wall. “What did you see?” He asks, rummaging through a box on the floor.

“A man.” He says, and it’s much easier to get out than he thought.

“Just one?” Daesung asks as he places the things he had collected onto a flat stone off to the side of the room. Youngbae just stares at him, disbelief written across his face. Daesung looks up when he notices that no one had responded. “What? You didn’t go to the cove alone, why would I expect a human to?”

Seunghyun nudges Youngbae and nods toward Daesung, “Just tell him, honestly it won’t get better unless you say something.” Youngbae scowls lightly before moving away toward the wall, letting his hand trail along the bottles lined up on one of the shelves.

“There were two, and a weird animal.” He says. Daesung smiles as he watches Youngbae’s face go from solemn to happily reminiscent.

“Mmm, yes.” Daesung says, turning away from Youngbae again to rummage through a bowl of colorful stones. Youngbae let’s his hand drop from the shelf of bottles.

“One of them wore colorful clothing...and he saw me.” Youngbae pauses, taking a deep breath before continuing, “I couldn’t look away. When our eyes met I couldn’t move, and it took me a moment to come back to my senses.” He was frowning again, but this time he was staring down at his hands.

Seunghyun clears his throat and turns to Daesung, “So...can you fix him?” Youngbae turns to look at him with confusion written plainly across his face, and Daesung just laughs.

“I can’t ‘fix’ him, he’s not a thing that has been broken.” Seunghyun’s cheeks turn pink and he flicks his fin nervously. “Besides, we don’t know the problem.” Daesung turns his stare from Seunghyun’s embarrassed face to Youngbae. “You say that you couldn’t look away, but you did, so what is the problem?”

Youngbae stares at Daesung for a few moments, collecting his thoughts. He knows that Daesung is very well aware of what the problem is, and for a second he’s upset that Daesung wants him to say it out loud when he already knows. He follows Seunghyun’s nervous lead, and flicks his fin, looking away for a second.

“I may not still be staring at his face, but I haven’t looked away.” Daesung smiles, at him and claps his hands.

“Wait, that doesn’t make sense.” Seunghyun says, waving his hand in front of him and shaking his head. Youngbae just glares at him before turning his attention back to Daesung who was fiddling with the things he had collected earlier.

“He means that he can still see him.” Daesung says, only slightly impatiently. “You could do to learn how to speak poetically.” Seunghyun blushes again and folds his hands behind his back, looking away. Youngbae laughs lightly, happy to have the attention off of himself for the moment.

The moment ends abruptly as Daesung narrows his focus back onto him.
“Have you tried seeing him again?” Daesung asks, and Youngbae watches as Seunghyun turns his head abruptly away from the floor to look at him.

Youngbae pauses before answering. He hadn’t actually surfaced since the first time; but he had, on nights when the dreams were too much for him and he couldn’t handle waiting, gone out to the cove and swum around. He had seen the boat in the water each time that he went, but he never dared to surface, worried about what would happen if he did. He wouldn’t get too close to the boat, for fear that whoever was in it -he hoped it was the colorful man- would see him beneath the surface. But he would swim around it and longed to peek above the water to see it more clearly.

He shakes his head. “Not really. I’ve visited the cove...but I can’t bring myself to surface again.” Youngbae notes the raised eyebrow that Daesung sent his way when he paused in the middle of his sentence.

“Ahh, and was he there, do you think?” Daesung asks, his voice going soft, as if he were speaking at night and needed to be careful not to wake anyone.

“The boat was always out. It was in different places, but it was always there.” Youngbae tried not to think about the implications of the boat always being out. He tried not to imagine that the colorful man had found him to be so intriguing that he too couldn’t sleep at night. Youngbae tried not to imagine that the image of his face kept the colorful man up at night; but it was almost impossible to stop those thoughts from happening.

Daesung nods, allowing a secretive smile to make its way across his face. He beckons Youngbae closer and grabs him by the shoulders, turning him to face away. “Look down at the reflective stone, and tell me what you see.” Youngbae closes his eyes briefly, not wanting to face his reflection, but ultimately opening his eyes to look, curiosity getting the better of him.

“My face.” He says, before tilting his head to the side and noting how tired he looks. Daesung shakes his head and pulls him back further from the mirror.

“Now what do you see?” There was very little light filtering into the room from the sun. They were deep enough in the ocean for sunlight to be difficult to come by, so even though his eyes were used to the lack of light, seeing his reflection in such a small mirror from so far away was rather difficult.

“My forehead.” He says, picking out the lightest thing that he could see. “My cheeks...” He says, leaning forward just a little and squinting to see better. “My hair; I can see my hair.” Daesung nods.

“He was probably further away than that...with a better angle and more sunlight, but that is probably all that he saw of you.” Youngbae isn’t certain what he had been expecting from the exercise, but the devastation caused by those words was most definitely not it.

“That’s a little harsh.” Seunghyun says, gliding forward and grabbing Youngbae by the shoulder. The look of pain on his already tired and worn face was a little too much for Seunghyun to bear.

“Maybe, but it’s about the same as what Youngbae would have been able to make out of the man’s face.” Youngbae lets those words sink in, tilting his head to the side. It was true, he hadn’t really been able to make much of the colorful man’s face, but the sharp angles and the fall of his hair were embedded deep in Youngbae’s memory.

“Can you help me?” Youngbae asks, looking away from his reflection and turning to stare at Daesung. Daesung raises his eyebrows taps his chin.

“What do you want? Talking about it may lessen the pain, but that’s not going to eliminate it.” He grabs the colorful stone that he had picked out of the bowl earlier and rolls it in his hands. “You could surface again, and try to find the man. But he could be frightened of you, or he could be less enchanting than you remember.”

“So you can’t help.” Seunghyun says, and he feels an intense amount of disappointment; he had hoped that Daesung could fix the problem.

“All I’ve been labeled as having is ‘wisdom’. If you wanted something more, you should have gone elsewhere.” Seunghyun looks away, feeling chastised.

“No.” Youngbae says, and all eyes focus on him. “Which do you suggest? Which will I regret least?”

“Oh!” Daesung says, his eyes lighting up. “A fair question. Well, do you want to see him again?”

“Yes, of course.” Youngbae says, furrowing his eyebrows and staring at Daesung.

“Then you will least regret trying to see him.” Daesung pauses as Youngbae nods, “But, again, it all depends on what happens when you see him.”

Seunghyun waves his hand in impatience. “I have a question.” Daesung turns to him, a small smile on his face. “Could he go up on dry land? What if the man wants to see him. The humans can’t know about us.”

Daesung tilts his head to the side and makes a face, thinking. “Well,” he says, turning to look at Youngbae, “You could still breathe above the water, right? You could still see?” Youngbae nods.

“It took a second for my eyes to adjust, but yes, I could.” Daesung turns toward Seunghyun with a bright smile on his face.

“There’s your answer then! He should be able to adapt.”

“This is so confusing, if we can leave the water and look like humans, why aren’t we allowed, and why are we told that those stories aren’t real?” Youngbae very desperately wanted to know the reason behind it; what if there was something horrible that happened to mer who left the water.

“As with many things, it became necessary to hide it. If we don’t want the humans trying to find us or take advantage of us, they mustn’t know about us. So we fall into myth for them, and our abilities fall into strictly guarded stories for us.” Daesung says, and Youngbae feels like there must be a catch; there must be something that could go wrong. “Now run along Youngbae.” Daesung says, coming up next to him so that he can whisper, “and hurry out to see this man.” Youngbae’s heart starts to beat faster, the possibilities are terrifying. “Take Seunghyun when you leave, he makes me uneasy.” Daesung says, gesturing toward the tall and rather imposing merman.

Youngbae laughs and shakes his head; leave it to the two people that he considers his closest friends to be unable to be in the same room together without him there. He nods and says his goodbyes, pulling Seunghyun out by the arm. As they swim slowly back to festival grounds, both lost in thought, Seunghyun turns to Youngbae.

“Are you going to do it?” He asks, his voice a low whisper. Youngbae can hear the slight quake in his friend’s voice, and wishes for the thousandth time that he hadn’t surfaced at all.

“I have to, Seunghyun, or else I won’t ever feel better.” Seunghyun just nods. Just before they get to the festival grounds Seunghyun stops and pulls Youngbae into a hug.

“You should go now, while everyone is busy. Who knows he might be up there searching.” Seunghyun pauses and Youngbae wraps his arms around his friend’s back. “Be careful.”

Seunghyun pulls away and moves back. Youngbae nods and waves before they both turn and head in opposite directions.