It was hard for Minwoo to upturn his whole life and move.
I mean, he was from Seoul, one of the biggest megacities in the world, and now his parents wanted to move to Gyeokpo, one of the smallest seaside towns in South Korea.
Not even to Gyeokpo, to a small villa half an hour outside of Gyeokpo.
And even when he looked at the gorgeous house, he didn’t feel lucky at all. He knew he was at least a little lucky. Most Koreans would love to live at the beach. But he wasn’t an outdoorsy type. He enjoyed a thing called ‘high speed broadband’ and ‘technology’. He wasn’t expecting to find a heap of that in Gyeokpo.
“I’m going to have to move out of home to go to university.” He stated loudly to no-one in particular.
It was late at night and his parents were trying to finish unpacking the kitchen before midnight, so they’d be able to have a nice breakfast in their new house. His mum looked up from the stack of crockery she was sorting out.
“Minwoo, if you’re not going to help, you can go up to your room and sort out your boxes up there.”
“The independence will do you good.” His dad added in. “You’re sixteen, you’re too old to be whining about moving like this.”
He rolled his eyes and leaned heavily against the door frame.
“I’m going for a walk. I’ll see you tomorrow, probably.”
“What do you mean probably! Minwoo,-”
“Yeobo, just let him go. He’ll cool down.”
He slammed the door behind him, smirking in satisfaction when the window panes rattled a little.
Minwoo looked around.
He really was in the middle of nowhere. The road stretched as far as he could see, there weren’t even any streetlights! He bet the mobile network didn’t even extend this far! He pulled the phone out of his pocket to check, and sure enough, only one bar of reception.
He sighed heavily and decided to check out the beach, which, as far as he could see, was the only benefit to living here whatsoever. Even that was ruined by a blackberry thicket he had to push his way through to get to.
He stood for a few minutes, using the light of his phone to pull the thorn out of his hand and sighed.
Minwoo felt like screaming. He didn’t though, because his parents were ridiculously stressed over this move and they would call the police because he was still pretty close to the house.
Suddenly he thought he heard something. Like someone talking.
He listened closer.
Nope, it was someone singing. A man.
He walked towards the sound, trying not to get too much sand in his sneakers. When he rounded a corner he saw a figure sitting on a rock. The singing was louder, whoever it was had a lovely voice. He didn’t want it to stop, but his curiosity got the better of him.
“Hello? Who’s there?” He called out.
The figure turned around.
Minwoo was loser now and he could see that it was a man, with blonde hair. His huge eyes could be seen from twenty meters away where Minwoo was standing.
He jogged over.
“Stop!”
He stopped.
“What are you doing here?”
I’ve been asking myself that for the last three hours, he told the boy mentally. Instead he answered properly.
“Uh, my parents just moved in maybe two hundred meters back that way?” He pointed. “It was stuffy at home so I came for a walk.”
“There aren’t supposed to be people here.” The boy told him, though Minwoo wasn’t sure if it was addressed to him or to the boy himself.
“What’s your name?” Minwoo decided to ask some questions of his own.
“Jo Youngmin.”
“I’m Minwoo.”
It was silent for a few minutes. And Minwoo was about to say goodnight and go home, but Youngmin interrupted him.
“What do you mean it was stuffy at home?”
“Well, I’m not-”
“Come and sit down. It’ll be easier to talk.”
Even though he wasn’t sure if talking to a strange boy who sung on the beach at night about his personal problems was a good idea, he was the only one who seemed to give a damn what Minwoo felt at the moment. And it would be good to talk to someone who didn’t seem to think he was a nuisance.
“Please don’t freak out too much.” Youngmin said as he got closer.
And when he finally saw the boys legs, he understood why.
Well, legs is a bit of a broad term. It wasn’t so much legs as leg. And it wasn’t really leg either, more of a tail. But not like a fish. He had orange scales that came up to his waist and tapered off into infected looking sores in some spots. The fin of the tail ran up both sides, and it was hard to see when he was out of water, but he imagined when the tail was in water, the fins would splay out and be beautiful.
“Oh.” He wasn’t sure what else to say.
What do you say when you find not only a boy singing on the beach at nearly midnight, but that boy turns out to be some kind of mer-creature? His social ethics and etiquette class never taught him about that.
“Is, um, that okay?” He pointed to the sores dumbly.
“Yeah, I’ve just been out of water too much lately. Bit of an infection, it’ll heal soon enough.”
Minwoo nodded and sat down.
“Are you human?”
“No. Yes. Kind of? It’s difficult to say. What do you define as human?”
Minwoo wasn’t sure what the answer to that was so he shrugged.
“Do you still want to tell me about home?”
Minwoo didn’t know if his problems were all that important now. But the merman looked interested so he decided to just give it a go anyway.
“Well, we just moved from Seoul. Which is huge, one of the biggest cities in the world.”
“Cities?”
“Oh.” He hadn’t even considered that Youngmin mightn’t know about things like cities. “It’s like a big place that everyone lives in.”
“Okay, go on.”
“And we’ve moved to this really small boring place. And I wanted to stay back in Seoul with my friends. I miss them.”
“But it’s beautiful here.”
Minwoo looked around. The beach was quiet, with small waves lapping at the sand ever few seconds, the sand was a glowy white and the stars were so bright the whole area was illuminated.
He supposed it was beautiful.
“I suppose. But I still miss Seoul.”
“I think you might just need to give it a chance. I think you’ll come to enjoy it here. I have.”
They both fell silent.
“I’m not saying you won’t still miss.. Seoul. But maybe you’ll like it here almost as much. And I think you’re almost old enough to leave home? Do you leave soon?”
Minwoo nodded.
“You can go back to Seoul then. This might only be a short term thing. Think of it like a holiday.”
He let the other’s words sink in.
“I should go home. My parents will be worrying about me. Thanks, Youngmin.”
Youngmin broke into one of the broadest smiled Minwoo had ever seen, showing off some of the pearliest white teeth he’d ever seen.
“My pleasure. I think if you’re upset it’s best to talk about it. And cry if you have to.”
“Will you be here tomorrow?”
Youngmin’s smile fell of his face.
“I can’t stay here now that someone’s found me. There are rules against that. Actually there are rules against me talking to you now.” He smiled, sadly this time. I think I’ve broken maybe five laws in the last fifteen minutes. But I’ll let it slide just this once. I’d like to say I’ll see you later. But I suppose goodbye would be more accurate. Goodbye, Minwoo ssi.”
“But you can’t just leave!” He protested. “You’re the only good thing about this place!”
“I have to.” He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“But no-one would have to know.”
“That’s not how it works. Listen, I have to go.” He looked out to the horizon and back to Minwoo. “I’ve enjoyed talking to you. I’ll remember the things you said, always. But I have to go home too.”
“Goodbye then, Youngmin.” His voice was like he was going to cry. He wanted to cry.
“Goodbye, Minwoo.”
When Youngmin pushed himself back into the water, Minwoo waited until he saw the flick of a huge tail before he allowed himself  a tiny smile. Had he just made friends with a mermaid?
That was insane.
 A small smile on his face, he headed home. A holiday. That was the best way to think of it. Youngmin was right. A short holiday and then home, back to Seoul.