Chapter One: Calm Before The Storm

Choi Seunghyun stared out at the vast ocean from his family’s villa. He ignored the chatter from inside the enormous, grand mansion that stood majestically beside a beach. He immersed himself in the view, trying his very best to mute out all the laughter he could hear from within the house that was supposed to be his sanctuary away from the bustling city life.

Too bad his politican father decided to ruin Seunghyun’s miniscule retreat.

He glanced back, stealing glimpses at the numerous government officials that his father had invited. He scoffed inwardly at his mother, ever the social butterfly, flitting from one guest to the other.

He couldn’t stand it.

“Hyung!” A nasal, somewhat boisterous voice called his name, causing Seunghyun to break away from his thoughts. He turned to face Kwon Jiyong, one of his closest friends, and smiled weakly at him.

“What do you want?”

Jiyong snickered, “What’re you doing out here? The party’s inside.”

“You know I don’t give a damn about that, right?”

“You know I don’t give a damn about you, yet here I am, playing the role of a best friend and trying my damnedest to make you more sociable.”

“Shut up,” Seunghyun sighed. “There’s too much kissing in there. I’m sick of being introduced to women whose only interest is in the contents of my wallet.”

“Ah, ever so philosophical.” Jiyong laughed. “Jeez, hyung! Cut down on the seriousness and live life a little!”

With that said, Jiyong patted his older friend on the shoulder and headed off to god knows where, laughing all the while. Seunghyun sighed once more, staring out into the ocean as the night settled upon it, the water vividly reflecting the image of a full moon.

And it was in that very moment that Seunghyun swore he had heard someone singing in a beautiful, melancholic yet riveting voice.

OoOoOo

Bom always started her day off with a simple routine of flicking algae off her scales from her tail. Being a mermaid wasn’t all that interesting when you had to spend each morning making sure your beautiful tail remained in its spell-binding state.

She grunted in disgust at the amount of algae that had gathered on her tail and fins. “Ugh, I am never going to trust Seunghoon again.” The latter had told her about the miracle of not cleaning one’s tail for a day, stating that it would only let the tail shine brighter and therefore look prettier.

What a liar, she thought.

“Oh, gross!” Go Eun, Bom’s older sister, cried as she swam closer to her. “What in the world happened to you?!”

“Blame Seunghoon!” Bom threw her hands up, feeling the water glide against her skin.

Go Eun tsked before picking up a spare piece of seaweed, helping her sister clean her tail. “And we all know better than to trust that dimwit.” Finally clearing the last pieces of algae off, Go Eun reached for Bom’s favorite seashell-comb, straightening her beautiful locks and smiling at her little sister’s beauty.

It went beyond a doubt that Park Bom, the youngest daughter of the reknowned sea god Hyun Suk, was the most beautiful mermaid born to their species. With glittering dark eyes, milky skin, and a beautiful tail that showcased the different hues of blue, Bom was the envy of all the female mermaids.

And Go Eun loved that her sister remained humble in spite of all that. She knew she had inherited her mother’s gentle characteristic, which made the former love Bom all the more.

“Come on,” Go Eun placed Bom’s comb in her specially carved vanity gifted to her by their father, “we’re late for the ceremony.”

The two sisters hurriedly swam away, their tails pushing magnificently against the gentle current that surrounded their kingdom.

OoOoOo

“My ladies.” Five mermen guards greeted Bom and Go Eun as they took their seat in the front row. Go Eun smiled weakly at them as Bom glared at Seunghoon, who smiled cheekily back.

She huffed, “I am not going to talk to you, Seunghoon.”

“What did you do this time, Hoonie?”  Kang Seungyoon, the leader of the guardsmen that protected the royal family, sighed. He eyed his subordinate suspiciously, ignoring the snickers the rest of his colleagues erupted into.

Seunghoon blinked innocently at their captain. “I did nothing! I only told her a fact that did not seem to work in her best interest!”

“Don’t talk about our princess that way,” Jinwoo scolded, whacking Seunghoon on the head with his staff. “Apologize to her if you don’t want the king to demote you!”

Seunghoon looked down, abashed, and mumbled, “I’m sorry, my lady, forgive me.”

Bom laughed, smacking Seunghoon on his muscled arm. “It’s all right, I was just kidding.” Before she could continue further, the booming sound of the orchestra resonated throughout the water.

Even after all these years, Bom still couldn’t believe the sight of the numerous performers twirling and singing and dancing to the addictive rhythm that could only belong underwater. Her fellow mermen and mermaids all clapped joyously when her father swam on stage in all his might and authority.

“My people,” he began, smiling warmly at the mermen who cheered loudly for their king. “It is my honor to celebrate my birthday with you once more. This has been such an advancing year, and with your contribution, we have finally been able to include various renovations to our growing home. I am eternally grateful for your support in these plans that we have, and we seek your future acceptance of our future projects as well. Let us celebrate this new year with no worries!”

The king looked around the crowded square, searching for his daughters whom he so loved. “And, of course, thank you to my daughters who have ceaselessly remained patient with me.” He smiled his biggest smile at them, causing Bom to smile widely back at her father.

Turning to the rest of the audience, the king winked. “And to the mermen out there – yes, they are still prohibited to date, and if you wish to court them, please know that you will have to face my wrath.”

The five guardsmen sitting around the princesses laughed at the king’s warning. “Man,” Mino gasped, “King Hyun Suk certainly knows how to kill a merman’s dream.”

Bom shook her head at her father’s demeanor, giggling as she faced her sister. “Well, looks like it’s going to be another lonely year for the two of us.”

Go Eun merely chuckled back and wrapped an arm around her sister.

OoOoOo

The festival, as usual, ended late into the night. The water had turned a murky midnight blue, and Bom thanked Poseidon for the lamp she held dearly in her hands. She continued to swim upwards, feeling the difference in the temperatures of the water as she hurried to reach her destination.

The world above the ocean was something of a mystery to Bom.

She’d always been curious about the life that existed above it. She knew from the books and the shipwrecks her family constantly visited that mermen and mermaids were not the only species alive in this vast world.

Bom still wasn’t sure why her father banned any exploration of the world above.

She’d been doing this for years – going behind her father’s back and swimming several miles away from her kingdom to see the world unknown to her. Through her many expeditions, she had found a simple cove in the outskirts of a beach, hidden away as the perfect hide-out.

Bom loved to laze about in that cove, occasionally swimming up to the coastline and sitting there, watching the moon above the water as she sang the lullabies her people were known for.

She loved the night breeze; loved the scenery. You could never find this serenity she found sitting by the cove underwater. She loved the chirping of unknown beings from behind the bushes, singing in unison with her as she waited for the sunrise.

Tonight was like any other ordinary night.

Bom sat by the coastline, playing with the warm water as she stared up at the moon and sang. She felt the gentle wind caress her skin fondly, and she had never felt more at ease.

It was then that she felt the tremor in the water, the familiar surge of energy that Bom knew very well belonged to none other than the sea god.

Bom’s eyes, once closed in peace, snapped open as the water rose from around her. Panicked, Bom pushed herself away from the coastline and began swimming into deeper waters, her tail relentlessly pushing against the harsh and bitter currents that forced her back.

Tears were springing into her eyes as she felt her heart pound harder than it had ever had in her entire existence.

Within a flash, the five guardsmen rose steadily above the current, their staffs held tightly in their hands as they wore grim expressions. Even Seunghoon, the merman who loved to joke about, had his features set in stone.

And behind them, much to Bom’s already aghast self, stood her father.

OoOoOo

“What were you thinking, Bom?!” Go Eun shrieked at her sister. Bom sat in her bed carved from seashells and coated with silky weeds harvested from the kingdom’s finest farms. She shrinked even further into it, trying to find comfort.

After her father had discovered her, the guards escorted her back to the kingdom. Her father had stayed behind, removing all traces of her being there. He refused to speak to her, to even look at her, and Bom knew that there was no way he was ever going to forgive her.

She may be his daughter, but rules were rules, and King Hyun Suk was known for his strict adherence to his kingdom’s laws. It was, after all, what kept his people thriving all these years.

Bom had wished for the guards to scold her, to even chastise her, but she heard nothing but sighs of disappointment from them.

“I just wanted to see the world, Go Eun,” Bom whispered through her sobs. “I wanted to know.”

“You wanted to what?!” Go Eun gasped, her hand flying to her chest as she jolted away from her sister. “Bom, as much as I love you, what you did was unacceptable! There’s a reason why Father banned us mermen from going up, and you know as well as I do that it involves our late mother. Who knows what might have happened to you had you gone up and another being chose to take advantage of you?!”

Bom kept quiet, knowing her sister spoke the truth.

Go Eun sunk to the marbled floor of their room, her hands smoothing the wrinkled fins of Bom’s tail.

Bom flinched from her touch. “But . . . I don’t understand. Why is Father so adamant about us not going up?”

Go Eun stared at her sister, feeling her heart ache as she spoke. “Mother was captured by humans, beings that roam the land on foot. Back when you were newly born, there had been no such rule. Mother loved being above the ocean; she loved to see the world beyond our waters. One day, she went up to the surface and never returned.

“Father was frantic. He kept on searching for mother but he couldn’t find her. One day, he heard our mother’s singing. It was far away, and Father couldn’t pinpoint the sound. Mother’s voice was the most beautiful voice of all our people, Bom. It was the reason why Father fell in love with her. She had kept on singing, hoping that Father would find her.

“But he never did. Her voice grew hoarser as time went by, and Father was driving himself insane. When she stopped singing, that’s when Father knew.”

“Knew what?” Bom asked, her eyes wide as she listened to Go Eun’s story. She hadn’t learnt the truth behind her father’s law, and she was utterly heartbroken to listen to it now.

“That Mother had passed.”

Tears that were formerly restrained fell freely from Bom’s eyes. She wept as Go Eun brought her closer to her, holding her younger sister dearly in her arms.

“Now you know the reason, Bom, why we should never go up.” Go Eun held Bom back, looking at her straight in the eyes. “You may have been too young to remember, but I do. And believe me when I say this that I will not hesitate to hunt you down should you ever choose to disobey Father’s rule once more. I watched as Father went deranged looking for Mother and I listened as Mother’s voice slowly died. I don’t want the same thing to happen again.”

She sighed, hugging her weeping sister once again. “Father only recovered from his grief by taking care of us. We are his most precious people, and we cannot afford to risk hurting ourselves. We owe him so much, Bom.”

OoOoOo

Thousands of miles away from where the two mermaid princesses comforted each other, Seunghyun remained in the balcony, straining to hear the haunting song once more.

But all he heard was silence from the night as the water angrily clashed with the sand.

Author's Note: Annyeong, yeorobeun! :) This is my first fanfic here, and I really hope that you'll like it! I've been wanting to do this for an extremely long time, and I hope that whoever reads this will like it :) I've seen so many talented writers here who inspired me and gave me the courage to write my own story. And yes, this was a story spawned from my imagination at 3 in the morning, so I very much hope that it'll touch people reading it as much as other amazing, devastatingly good fanfics have touched me. :) 

If any of you are confused, don't worry, it's meant to be that way. More information will be provided later on. :) This will be a topbom-centric fanfic, with a dash of daragon and ririn. All our beloved 2NE1 and Big Bang members will play a vital role in my story, so I really hope you'll stick around to read it :) I hope you'll take care of me! Kamsahamida for reading chapter one! :)