Mermaids are mythical aquatic creatures with an upper body of a female and lower half of a fish. They are popular figures of folklore all around the world and have been present in the minds of humans for quite a while now, however, their actual existence had never been proved.
 

The legend of mermaids originates from ancient times. There are many versions of their birth, however, many of them centre around an Assyrian goddess, Atargatis¹, whom had formed into half woman-half fish and so, became the very first mermaid.

Some stories say she became a mermaid by her own decision out of guilt for killing her human lover. Another one tells the story of Atargatis falling into a pond and upon praying to the nimfas for survival, her lower half was transformed into one of a fish’s.
 

There is also a saying of mermaids being inspired by manatees sighted by Christopher Columbus, might have also been inspired by sirens from Greek mythology, whom were dangerous, beautiful creatures luring sailors into their deaths by their beautiful voices.
 

Whichever legend, whichever version is true, one has to admit, mermaids are quite popular among people all around the world – they are present literally everywhere.

In Greek folklore, Alexander the Great’s sister turned into a mermaid and asked the sailors how her brother was doing and the fate of the sailors’ was depended on their pleasant or unpleasant answers;²

In British folklore mermaids are ominous creatures bringing disasters with themselves;³

In European folklore they are called ‘melusine’, which is a woman with a tale of a serpent or a fish. And if it’s Europe, Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid might be the most well-known mermaid story and we cannot forget about the infamous mermaid statute in Copenhagen inspired by this very story;

In Chinese literature they talk about mermaids whose tears turn into pearls or a man capturing and marrying a mermaid, whom returns to the sea after her husband’s death;⁴

In Thai folklore we got to know Suvannamaccha, who is a mermaid princess and falls in love with Hanuman, whom wanted to build a bridge to Lanka and which plan Suvannamaccha wanted to prevent;⁵

In South Korea, on Geomundo Island they talk about a mermaid, named Sinjiki, whom warns fisherman about upcoming storms by making warning sounds or throwing rocks at a cliff.⁶
 

As many cultures, you can find just the same amount of legends about mermaids, but one thing is quite of a popular trait of theirs besides their appearance: falling in love with humans.

For humans, this idea of someone non-human being in love with them had always been attractive since eternity.
(Take vampires for example. From vicious, evil creatures they turned into sappy romanticists.)

Maybe, sailing on the huge, mysterious sea, our predecessors could not help, but have such ideals?

One can never know. However, it’s true, mermaids are and had been quite popular among humans, can they be good or evil, beautiful or horrendous creatures.
 

Or so, this is all you get if you search the term, ‘mermaid’, on google or have a look at the wikipedia page.
 

Funnily enough, mermen are not quite popular or more like, they are not mentioned in folklore as much as the opposite .

And while mermaids are portrayed as beautiful creatures, mermen are… unattractive, like in Irish mythology.

Again, there aren’t that much notable figures either; the most well-known might be Triton⁷, but no, not Ariel’s father (though he inspired him), but the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite.
 

Again, this is what you get if you search the term, ‘mermen’, on google or have a look at the wikipedia page.
 

However, despite these tons of information you can search up on the web, and all the pictures you can find can they be hoaxes or ‘real’ or just artistic photos, humanity still doesn’t know much about these mythical creatures even to this day.

Not knowing about them means humanity’s pride being terribly hurt, after all humans are the kind of creatures of this world whom have to know everything and they can’t stay put until they satisfy their thirst of knowledge. Which, by the way, is very much insatiable.
 

This is how (and the reason why) the media got loud of the sensational news:
A mermaid was found on the shores of Jawoldo⁸ Island.
 

It was a huge uproar, some yelled ‘hoax’ but as soon as they had a chance to do some closer inspection, they all had their lips pursed and could only stare with widened eyes at which was right in front of their noses.

There are many sightings even to this day and if you take it that way, it’s quite easy to fabricate a mermaid and play a prank on people. Just like Nessi of Loch Ness, it’s easy to make a mermaid hoax and scam tons of people, maybe even a whole country.
 

However, and this is what makes this one case so different and exceptional compared to everything else that came to surface until this day, Jawoldo’s mermaid was still quite lively.
 

And in fact, this very mermaid was not a ‘maid’, but a ‘man’, a merMAN.
 

Now, if there is anything humanity had gotten to know that day, was that mermaids/mermen truly existed, still, they were still dumbfounded, especially about how they should have treated this issue and anyway, their ‘marine visitor’.
 

So, just like how it’s usual in human way of thinking, they got the mermaid, excuse me, merMAN, loaded him onto a truck and transported him to the Seoul Research Centre⁹, so humanity could try to feed this certain thirst of knowledge by doing all sorts of researches on the ‘subject’ – because the merman soon became only just ‘subject’ – not really caring about the ‘subject’s’ needs or feelings.

Funny thing, there were no human rights or animal rights demonstrations – everyone was confused about how they should treat the issue, which category does the merMAN fall into.

Was it a human? Was it a marine animal?

What exactly was it?!

Confusion gave them headache.

So, everyone decided to put demonstrations on hiatus for now, only until they finally get to know which side should take on the case and just waited for the results of those researches lead by those so-clever people, meeting a merman for the very first time in their lives… just like anyone else.
 

And like this, a long time had passed and the Jawoldo Mermaid, who is actually a merman, became famous not just in Korea, but worldwide.

The news had not gotten off of the first two pages of every newspapers and the front of online sites, was among the first hits of searching engines and was trending as #jawoldomerman on twitter.
 

And all in all, did good to all those people whom could make money out of the event.

Notes:

I mainly worked from wikipedia and google resources. Please keep in mind these informations might not be 100% realistic, it's my reason I've linked my sources, for you guys to see I did not just thought out all of this, but did research.
However, with internet information, you can never know if you get the good version or not. Anyway, I did my best.

¹ Atargatis: wikipedia.
² Her name was Thessalonike. Legend says, her hair was bathed in immortal water which her brother brought from the Fountain of Immortality. When Alexander died, she tried to commit suicide but instead of dying, she turned into a mermaid. For more: wikipedia.
³  For more, check: wikipedia, British Isles.
⁴ First story appears in Shanhaijing, a Chinese classic text compilation. Second story appears in a book with the tittle Jottings on the South of China, from early 19th century. Wikipedia, China.
⁵ Both Suvannamaccha and Hanuman are characters of the Thai (and other South Asian) versions of the Indian epic poem, Ramayana. For further reading: wikipedia. Lanka is an Island fortress capirtal of the demon king, Ravana (in Hindu mithology).
⁶  Geomundo is also known as Port Hamilton. About the legend, I've read about at 'mermaidsofearth.com'.
⁷  Triton is a half-human, half-fish God in Greek mithology, as said, son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, messenger of the sea. See more at: wikipedia.
⁸ Jawoldo Island is located about an hour of ferry ride from Incheon Harbor.
⁹ I have no idea if there really is such a thing as 'Seoul Research Centre', but this is fiction, so hey, now there is. 

Anyway, I hope you are interested in the continuation.
Official release date: May 2016.
(After I definitely finish Hello and Goodbye.)