Taehyung sat up on his bed as the first light of dawn emerged on the horizon. After opening his mouth wide in a long yawn, he wearily turned to the left side of his bed where the fish tank sat on his extended bedside table. It wasn’t a small tank—well it had been small once but the five guppies he originally had mated and one could only guess what happened.

“Sorry I forgot to feed you all yesterday,” he mumbled while reaching for the container of fish food flakes he had left on the other end of the table. As he shook the food into the water, he smiled sleepily at the guppies that had begun to frantically chase after the flakes. “I’ll find some worms for you all today. Nice treat.”

Taehyung then rested his head on the table, arms folded beneath his chin and legs crossed on the mattress. Nothing except the repetitive sound of water bubbling filled his head and he smiled to himself at the peacefulness of everything.

It stayed that way until he felt warm breaths of air caress his right arm and in the reflection of the glass, Taehyung saw merboy’s face just beside his elbows. He immediately jerked his head away in surprise and merboy trailed his gaze after him, eyes wide from the sudden movement. How the heck had he gotten up here?

Taehyung quickly noticed that merboy had taken off his shirt but fortunately left his trousers on. “Where’s the shirt?” he questioned as he pointed to his own, then held it by the hem to make the message clearer. In reply, merboy flared his nostrils and shook his head.

Sighing, Taehyung slid his over the mattress to other side where the spare mattress lay on the floor. Sure enough, the said grey shirt was strewn on the wooden floor. He then bent over to pick it up but upon clearer inspection, he realised that it was torn on its left seam about halfway through,

And there he was last night wondering how merboy managed to pull the shirt on without too many problems, though Taehyung remembered that he didn’t look too pleased when the shirt was on.

At least it was something that he had labelled as spare clothes before he had given it to merboy.

After turning around, Taehyung raised the shirt and told the other seriously, “You need to wear this.” Merboy still shook his head and Taehyung moved towards him with the shirt opened at the bottom, ready to throw it over merboy’s head. “Come on—”

Merboy simply ducked, leaving Taehyung to collapse face first on the bed. He then looked up, disgruntled, and blew away strands of hair that dangled in front of his eyes. God damn it.

With determination filling him up quickly, Taehyung leapt at merboy without much of a warning. Merboy hissed, then scrambled off the bed and Taehyung again landed with an armful of air and cloth. He watched as merboy attempted to stand up but the other’s knees only buckled before they gave way. Merboy fell within a fraction of a second, sending a hollow thud through the wood.

Taehyung had to snicker at merboy’s frustrated growls as he tried to push himself up. After the third time seeing the other fail to support himself to stand, Taehyung shifted his body to the edge of the mattress like a seal and dangled the shirt in front of merboy’s face.

“Wear this,” he repeated. Just then, an idea struck his mind. Beaming down at merboy, he continued, “Wear this and I’ll help you walk. You know, walk.” At the last word, Taehyung inverted the peace sign on his hand and made the two fingers scamper across the mattress.

The scowl on the other’s face loosened a little, encouraging Taehyung to offer the shirt to him. Merboy then stretched his hand out forlornly and turned the shirt in his hands over and over upon receiving it, as if trying to figure it out.

To Taehyung’s pleasant surprise, merboy managed to slip it on without any problems despite it probably being the second time he had worn a shirt in his life. The torn side revealed a good deal of merboy’s abdomen but it would have to suffice until Taehyung found another shirt.

“It’s going to be cold,” he chided as he slipped off the bed and offered his hand. Taehyung discreetly noted the time from the table clock at the corner of his eyes. 7.00am. His shop opened at 8.00 and he hadn’t even washed up yet.

Nevertheless, he had promised.

Merboy took hold of his hand this time and Taehyung pulled him up, giving small snippets of encouragement as the other tried to balance on his feet. Once merboy no longer swayed violently side to side, Taehyung stepped in front of him and merboy gripped his hands so tightly that he thought his blood would never come flowing back.

Taehyung coached, shifting a foot backwards, “Okay just one foot forward.” However, merboy lost his balance once his foot lifted from the ground and Taehyung strained his muscles until they shook to keep both of them on their feet. The other tried again after regaining balance.

This time, it was better, but merboy swayed again once he switched to the other foot and Taehyung steadied him. It all became a cycle and Taehyung found himself easing into the process as merboy began to slacken although his fingers still curled around Taehyung’s tightly.

As he stared at the other’s eyebrows scrunched up in concentration, he wondered whether it was his father or mother who had taught him to walk. But no matter how hard he thought, no memory surfaced. Those times when he still had parents, he had no memories of them.

Was it Mother?

He could only hear her soft lullabies in his head and nothing else.

Taehyung in air sharply as his mind snapped back into reality. It was all he could remember. The rest was a faded melody. Why couldn’t he remember the whole thing? It always stopped there.

In a moment of agitation, he dug his nails hard into merboy’s hand and it didn’t take long for him to start to lose balance. Taehyung promptly came to his senses but just as he took hold of the other’s hand, merboy fell backwards, dragging Taehyung with him.

The impact made his knees throb painfully. “Sorry,” he said, head hanging down slightly. What a great start to the day. When he lifted his eyes, merboy was staring up at him with something reminiscent of concern but his permanently unsmiling face made that a difficult theory to make.

After giving the other an awkward apologetic smile, Taehyung got to his feet and trudged towards the door, not really caring if merboy could get up.

The longer he stayed in the same place, the more his thoughts would lure him back into the never ending black hole. All he needed now was fresh air, and the sea breeze.

------

“Hyung! Hyung!” Children’s voices drifted over the beach as Taehyung sat at the entrance to his shop, just basking in the warm afternoon sunshine and the frequent gusts of wind. Raising his head, he couldn’t help but grin when he saw the children racing towards him.

Sand sprayed after their shoes all the way until they reached Taehyung. Jiyoung, the one missing three teeth asked even before Taehyung could say anything, “Hyung! Aunty Choi wanted to tell you that Aunty Haseon wanted you to know that the town council has decided to hold the festival next month!”

Immediately, Seotaek piped in, “Fifteenth! You have to join this year! The aunties all miss your flute song! They’re jealous that you play it for us and not them!” “Woah woah hold up,” Taehyung laughed. He then gestured for them to sit down around him and asked, “I thought you three are supposed to be at school?”

“We finished our work first! Teacher Lee gave us permission to come.”

“I see. Good job then,” Taehyung answered, nodding approvingly, and Haeok plopped down onto the step beside him. He asked with puppy eyes, “Hyung, you’ll go to the festival this year, will you?”

All three pairs of eyes fixated on him.

“I don’t think I’ll be going,” Taehyung told them gently, “Jimin can help me sell my pieces like last year.” “You’ve been doing that since you were fifteen hyung!” Seotaek argued. Taehyung cocked his head curiously at him and questioned, “Who told you that?”

“Aunty Haseon.”

“You shouldn’t listen to her too much. She’s good for teaching you all how to catch mackerel but you all know… They gossip a lot. It’s not good, hmm.”

“Then hyung can you visit the school more often and play football with us? Jimin hyung at it,” Jiyong pleaded and his friends nodded their heads enthusiastically. Ah… These kids. Smiling, Taehyung replied, “I’ll try to. And did you all just say that Jimin ?”

“Uhhhhhhhh,” all of them started, then grinned mischievously, “He’s not here. You won’t tell him, right?” “I won’t. But,” Taehyung said before leaning forward to whisper in their ears, deciding to play with the naivety of their hearts, “The shells are listening. That’s why you can hear the ocean in them because that’s all they hear all day long.”

The three boys sat on the stone steps, unblinking, until Taehyung began to worry for the sand that could get blown into their eyes. He whistled, “Okay okay that’s enough for today. Go back to school. I’ll see you all on Sunday.”

They giggled as Taehyung roughly ruffled through their hair before dashing back into the town centre. “Be careful! Don’t stay out too late!” he shouted a second later, remembering the fishing vessel that he had seen last night.

It was gone this morning as he had expected but the sight of it had left a sour taste at the back of his throat. Better to be safe than sorry.

Leaning onto the door frame, he then closed his eyes and took a breather. The kids had been right about the festival though. He hadn’t participated since he turned fifteen.

Taehyung had no inkling why he stopped attending it all together, not even bothering to pop by his neighbours’ stalls. The festival was the most marketed event in Uikyu and attracted plenty of tourists each year. Undoubtedly, it would be the prettiest dress this old town would wear all year round and all of the residents usually took part in it, be it performances or stalls.

The beach had few people today, just elderly people having picnics in the sand. Few people, the two words echoed in Taehyung’s head. He shot up to his feet, spinning around in search of a bucket and after grabbing one, he locked the front door, then rushed off in the direction of the rock pools.

------

Taehyung pushed open his room door with much gusto, bucket swinging from one hand and opened his mouth to proclaim his arrival from his successful scavenging session an hour later. However, the sight of merboy sitting on his bed, back facing him and humming some song to the fish tank made him close his mouth.

If a song could be an object, this one merboy sang would be a feather. Its melody was light and sweet, further amplified by merboy’s surprisingly mellow voice. Standing at the door, Taehyung tried wrapping his mind around the fact that merboy had a nice voice despite all the times he made those menacing growls.

But that wasn’t all.

As merboy hummed, the guppies in the tank swam in a tight shoal in front of him. Taehyung immediately guessed that it was something only Merpeople could do since guppies loved their space, much less swim together.

The colourful fish seemed to be listening—if that was even possible. Merboy himself had perched his chin on the table top while humming the melody. Quietly, Taehyung walked towards the other and placed the bucket on the table top. Merboy stopped humming at his interruption, eyes following after Taehyung before they switched to the bucket.

“Hi,” Taehyung offered mildly. He then put a hand into the bucket, careful not to disturb the crab while picking up a few bloodworms. Merboy’s eyes widened upon seeing the worms and he watched as Taehyung dropped them one by one into the tank.

The guppies quickly dispersed from their bubble and began attacking the worms to fill their stomachs. When merboy craned his neck to see the contents of the bucket, Taehyung pushed it towards him.

The other seemed perfectly human at times when he displayed curiosity. Taehyung noted merboy’s sharp fingernails just as he sunk a hand into the bucket and emerged with the crab. Merboy set it free on the table.

Taehyung reached out with a sigh, “Don’t play with it.”

Merboy instead stared straight at the crab and started humming another tune, then stopped for a moment as the crab clicked its pincers. He soon hummed the tune again but it sounded different this time.

Awed, Taehyung fed the remainder of the worms to the guppies before returning to watch the exchange between merboy and the crab. The crab’s song was quicker than the one he had sung for the guppies with lots of short notes.

So… The Merpeople communicated through song. He wondered what merboy had said.

Just then, the wind chimes sounded from below, signalling the presence of somebody in the shop. Taehyung quickly took the crab and put it back into the bucket, leaving merboy to narrow his eyes at him. He shrugged innocently in reply before speeding away with the bucket in tow.

------

Two hours later, the clock struck six and Taehyung once again, shut the main doors. He was about to enter the kitchen to cook dinner soon after but at the thought of merboy, he decided to check on him instead.

He didn’t know which one to dislike more after seeing the scene in his room. Merboy without his shirt or him lying sprawled across his bed, tossing and catching a ball of string Taehyung was certain he didn’t have. The shirt was discarded on the headboard as if it had been thrown there from a distance.

Taehyung raised his eyebrows at the sight, then walked to the foot of his bed while lamenting, “For goodness’ sake just wear the shirt.” Suddenly, his feet stepped onto a slippery something and before he knew it, the cloth like thing had tied itself around his ankle and he fell forward onto the mattress.

Then he heard merboy chortle.

He would have thought he had gone mad if not for the fact that he was headed towards merboy’s chest. A startled expression crossed the other’s face and merboy hurriedly rolled aside, but Taehyung still collided face first into his shoulder.

“Ugh…”

It started as merboy’s chest heaving up and down, then the laughter spewed out loud and clear. Taehyung was stunned as he turned his head and stared at the other’s smiling face. He laughed.

Angels should be singing heavenly songs right now.

But merboy didn’t look half bad when he smiled, especially at this close proximity. The scars on his face seemed to disappear during his laugh. For a fleeting second, Taehyung thought it was cute, like a bunny. He must be losing his mind. Which bunny had sharp teeth?

While Taehyung mulled over the bizarreness of the situation, he made the mistake of dropping his head onto merboy’s hair. It smelt exactly like fresh catch from the sea except that it wasn’t as fresh. It was more of a dried fish kind of smell.

“Okay you’re taking a bath,” he decided before pulling merboy up with him. Merboy didn’t have the chance to protest.

Taehyung carried him from the back to avoid any trouble while trying to walk and entered the adjoining bathroom. Merboy was still as light as the time Taehyung carried him from the beach, he noted.

Perhaps it was the other being curious, because not once did he attempt to move. After Taehyung sat him in the bath tub, he gestured to the pants merboy wore and tugged a little at the waist band. Merboy fortunately got the message.

Taehyung then turned towards the tap and flipped it on to fill the tub as the shuffling of cloth reverberated through the space behind him. As the water level rose, he began dripping the bath foam into the water as merboy flicked the surface of it repeatedly.

“Don’t taste that oh my god,” he said worriedly when merboy raised a handful of foam to his mouth. Taehyung pushed the other’s hand away but it was a little too late since merboy coughed, wiping away the bubbles on his nose and mouth. Pressing his lips together, Taehyung began scrubbing merboy’s back.

If this were any other situation with another person, it would be fairly awkward. Taehyung knew that he was, to put it simply, caressing skin, but merboy didn’t know no about human ual connotations. He hoped he didn’t.

Taehyung inhaled deep breaths in order to compose himself when he moved to the other’s chest. Uikyu, being a fishing village meant that plenty of guys walked around half-. The thing was, merboy had a set of nicely toned muscles.

One couldn’t see that every day.

However, he wasn’t blind to the scars either. Some ran conspicuously ridged under his touch while all that were left of some were the difference in skin pigmentation. Taehyung paused, lifting his hands away for a moment to look at them properly, then splashed water on his skin to wash the soap off.

Merboy on the other hand had stretched out his legs and wiggled his toes continuously, eyes bright with concentration.

It was only ten minutes later that Taehyung was done with the body. Running his fingers through merboy’s shoulder length hair, it was then that he realised that there were thin braids among the mop of hair. Taehyung tugged at the ending knot of one experimentally and merboy turned around immediately, shooting him a woeful look.

The braids seriously ended in a knot, much to his dismay. That wouldn’t be too great for the hair.

He tried untying the knot again but this time, there was no reaction from the other as the braid loosened. Perhaps he had pulled too hard just now? Taehyung gave it no other attention and went on to untie all of the braids before dousing his head in water.

For the rest of time, merboy simply kept playing with the foam, otherwise he stared at the ceiling of the bathroom and the objects scattered around it. Taehyung found it amusing that the other sat in the water, back hunched like a petulant child.

He could still feel the cloth around his leg. Or was it a rope? While shaking his foot to test if he could get rid of it, Taehyung combed his fingers through the hair on merboy’s scalp to wash away the suds.

At first, merboy just stilled all his movements and Taehyung wondered if he had done something wrong but as he continued to drag his fingers between the strands, merboy closed his eyes. His breathing slowed and Taehyung smirked, “You like this huh?”

The other seemed to get the teasing in his tone and returned to flicking the water surface idly.

------

“I told you not to braid your hair yet, right?” Taehyung sighed upon seeing the hairdo on merboy after emerging from the shower, towel hung around his neck.

Merboy was too in the midst of walking with one hand on the wall as a support while his other hand was fiddling with the end of his braid. The boy had braided his hair once he was out of the tub but since it wasn’t good to tie up hair when it was still wet, Taehyung insisted on undoing the braids.

Now, he hadn’t even spent ten minutes in the bathroom and merboy had about five braids done. Walking up to him, Taehyung undid the fortunately loose knots to which the boy hissed at him. “You can tie them once they’re dry.”

Merboy then inched forward, probably to escape from Taehyung. However, Taehyung pulled him backwards by the shoulder and tugged the last two braids free. Why was he even trying to walk on his own?

There was only silence as merboy trudged around experimentally. But Taehyung couldn’t bear to see him flail his free arm around like a dying fish any longer so he reached out and held on to the other’s arm. To his surprise, merboy latched the hand that held onto the wall onto Taehyung’s arm without hesitation and continued to step forward.

The sun had set outside and Taehyung knew that it was about time to prepare dinner but with merboy on his arm…

Just then, the boy reached out for the nearby room door and twisted the knob, pulling the door open. How on earth…? Taehyung stood there wondering until merboy was tugging at him incessantly.

“Huh?” he asked, then merboy pointed to the corridor outside. “You want to go out?” Merboy just tugged his arm again in reply. Even though the house would be dangerous for merboy, he still had to go out one day. Nodding his head, Taehyung led the other out of the room.

He didn’t know what crossed his mind to let merboy try the stairs down but when they finally made it to the living room, he was thankful for the wind that swept through the area. Merboy on the other hand, kept looking around, mouth slightly agape.

After Taehyung sat the other down on one of the bean bags, he left for the kitchen to start cooking. The menu would have to be same as yesterday’s until he went out to get new ingredients. He was midway through washing the rice when a clatter of metal sounded from behind.

Alarmed, Taehyung turned around to see what had caused the commotion and came to see merboy standing at the shelf near the door, smiling sheepishly at him. An assortment of cutlery lay scattered on the floor in front of his feet.

Seriously?

He sighed and walked towards the scattered cutlery, shooing merboy back into the living area with one hand while the other worked quickly to pick the assortment of chopsticks and spoons up. Much to his frustration, the other simply stepped over his arm and entered the kitchen.

“Ya, ya,” Taehyung called out, standing up to slot the cutlery into their holder.

Merboy seemed to be in his own world as he tottered around the small space, hands also finding purchase onto whatever that could provide him support. He poked at the jug of water, the shaky snacks table that had mismatched leg lengths and the ceramic glasses on the drying rack.

Then to Taehyung’s consternation, merboy stopped in front of the stove. “Stay away from there,” he ordered and immediately strode over to where the other stood. Merboy reached out for the blue flames, mouth slightly more agape and Taehyung lunged over hastily, slapping his hand away.

The male gave him a simpering glare as he rubbed his red skin but Taehyung tapped his fingers on the countertop, unimpressed. After pushing him away from the fire and boiling soup, Taehyung placed the pot of washed rice onto the only other stove.

There was no way he could leave the stoves unattended with merboy around.

At first, Taehyung thought that merboy would continue to rummage through the kitchen but the said male simply bent his knees until his eyes were on the same level as the flames on the stove and stared at them. For a few minutes, there were only the sounds bubbling soup and Taehyung chopping up scallions.

“You can’t touch that,” he began, side-eyeing merboy. “It’s fire. Bul. It’s hot.”

To prove his point, Taehyung took merboy’s hand and placed it so near the pot that it felt as though his own hand was burning. He retracted both their hands.

Merboy reached out for the flames again as soon as Taehyung let go and he hit his arm anxiously. It seemed to have caused a good deal of annoyance because the other never attempted to touch the stove after that. He just watched the fire go on without so much as blinking twice.

Somehow relieved that merboy wasn’t going to do anything else stupid, Taehyung continued going about his routine of setting up the dinner although he made sure to merboy out before he lay out newspapers on the dining table.

Dinner was cooked within an hour and merboy went about sniffing at the dishes within minutes of Taehyung putting them out after switching his attention from the wooden chair he sat on. The more Taehyung eyed the other’s adorable twitch of nose as he smelt the soup, the more he realised that the responsibility of inculcating land knowledge in merboy fell on him if he were to really stay.

Not sure what to do, he poked at merboy’s arm with his chopsticks and said the moment he had the other’s attention, “We use this to eat. They’re called jeokkarak.” Taehyung proceeded to press the other pair into merboy’s hand and demonstrated how to hold them, then picked up a piece of vegetable from the soup.

Merboy blinked his eyes at the chopsticks, then at Taehyung’s pair. Taehyung was impressed at how quickly the other mastered the hold, but when merboy started clicking the chopsticks together in a rhythm that gradually built up, he could only resist the need to face plant on the table top.

------

“This is yangbaechu,” Taehyung said while picking a few of the cabbage leaves up to place onto merboy’s plate. The other repeated, glancing down at the cabbage, “Yang…Chae…Chu.” “Almost right. Yangbaechu.” He stuffed the last bit of rice into his mouth and continued, “Yang. Bae. Chu.”

“Yang…C—Bae? Chu.”

Smiling happily, Taehyung declared, “See? You can pronounce the Bs.”

He had started teaching merboy the names to random things on the table midway through the meal and it had gone better than he had expected. Despite his nice singing, merboy still needed to work on his speech. It was rusty, well, it was reasonable for someone who probably never spoke in his life.

“What’s this?” he asked, gesturing to the seaweed in the soup with his chopsticks. Merboy answered immediately, “Haecho.” Then to the mug of water he had beside his plate. “Mul.”

“This?” Taehyung pointed to the spoon and questioned.

“Sudgalag.”

“This?” Looking at the other intently, Taehyung wondered if he could pronounce the ‘b’ in the abalone. Merboy in the meanwhile stole the last two pieces of abalone to his plate with his hand and Taehyung shot him a warning look. Merboy however, answered while soulfully chewing on the tender flesh, “Jeon guk.”

“Buk.”

“Guk.”

“Buk. Jeon buk.”

“J-jeon guk.”

Why was this always the problematic word? Nevertheless, he patted merboy on his head encouragingly and said, “You worked hard today. If you could walk better you’d be washing the dishes.”

Taehyung secretly found it amusing when merboy couldn’t understand anything that he said, especially with the way his mouth would curl upwards into a pout. Then Merboy did just about that and Taehyung smiled, collected their plates, then left for the kitchen.

Merboy followed him in soon after.

------

Jeon guk… The faintest idea struck Taehyung, making him sit up on the bed. Jeon guk. No, Jeongguk. That was a legitimate name, wasn’t it?

It was probably past three am in the morning judging from his instincts. As usual, it was quiet. Taehyung closed and opened his weary eyes, flinging the thin blanket upwards in order to readjust it to cover his body.

He had gone to bed sometime after one after carving out a few shell flutes and packed them neatly into their usual kraft paper wrapping. But even as tired as he was, he was still not used to having another person in the room with him, especially when he was busy thinking of a name.

Taehyung wanted to hit himself for waking himself up because of such a stupid matter.

Swivelling his head to the left to check on merboy, he jumped a little in his place upon seeing the male also sitting up straight but with his hair down. Taehyung swore his heart stopped for a second at the ghostly sight.

He also noticed that the other had taken off his shirt again and he rolled his eyes.

It took Taehyung a moment of concentrating in the dark to see that merboy was braiding his hair. His fingers moved deftly from strand to strand, not stopping even once and Taehyung watched till all the hair was bound into thin strands. The other’s side profile was dull in the dark but Taehyung could see the blankness in his open eyes.

A silent yawn escaped his mouth, then as quickly as a lightning bolt, merboy turned around and fixed his now piercing gaze on him. “Don’t kill me,” Taehyung said without second thought, instantly shifting his body backwards. However, merboy simply lowered his brows and looked away.

His entire body deflated like a punctured balloon while reaching a hand behind to grab his hair. With a powerful swipe, the dark braids came loose in a swish before he picked out a section and started braiding it again.

Looking at the heavy and messy locks, Taehyung’s hands itched to help the other braid them up. But why was he doing that? Had he been awake for the entire night?

He filled himself up with a grudging resolve, then slid off the bed to the floor mattress, to the spot behind merboy. Merboy noticeably froze as Taehyung separated a section of hair and began to braid.

The act alone made Taehyung’s nose feel sour as he thought about the times he would braid his mother’s hair and occasionally the other girls’ in the market. She had always told him his hands were made for delicate handiwork and not the hard labour a fishing town required.

Doused in his thoughts, he didn’t notice that merboy had released his hands from his hair and sat in the silence as still as a statue. Taehyung smiled at the multiple braids once he finished. Brushing his hand across them like a wind chime, he murmured, “Aren’t you going to sleep?”

He felt as though he wasn’t the one controlling his actions as he rummaged through merboy’s braids, then ran his fingers down the lengths to untangle them. Mother… he thought. How are you?

Taehyung gently combed through the hair on merboy’s head after a few seconds—once, twice, thrice, till it turned into a repeat. The other’s breathing grew paced and his head dipped, but it quickly perked up again.

“You really like this,” he muttered with a sleepy smile. The male’s hair was considerably softer than before it was washed. “You… I wonder what your name is. Do mermaids have names?” He swept the hair aside and the skin below exposed the few scars he had become acquainted with earlier.

“What kind of life do you all have? It must be hard.”

Then a soft chuckle escaped from him. He was really out of his mind. He was talking to a mermaid at three am and combing through his hair like some enamoured lover. Was this some kind of dream? He should wake up then.

Taehyung slid his hands off the other’s back, patted his shoulders, then clambered back onto his bed. As he lay and stared at the ceiling, he struggled to remember how Mother had looked like. Did he take on her smile? Her nose?

But all he could retrieve were the breathy songs she sang at night and the smell of the sea, no different than the one he smelt every day. Perhaps that was why he could only remember that clearly.

Shutting his eyes tight, Taehyung his side before curling into a tight ball. He let the rusted memory of his mother’s melodies play in his mind until he drifted away into sleep.

------

The next morning before most people stirred, but when the sun had just peeked out from the horizon, Taehyung accompanied merboy on a walk on the beach outside his house. It had been merboy’s request after much figurative pointing and gesturing.

Taehyung welcomed the walk since he had missed proper ones since he had found the male. His heart still felt uneasy at the thought of smugglers lingering around the area, however, with the other around, he found a strange calm settle upon him.

Merboy’s hair caught the sunrise in blends of yellow and orange as he inhaled deeply while closing his eyelids. Taehyung stole a look, then back. A part of him admired the way the other appeared so at ease in a foreign environment.

The male had refused to wear the shirt before they left the house (much to Taehyung’s annoyance) but now it evolved into a grudging acknowledgement of his immunity from the beach’s gusts of wind. Tugging at his beanie to lower the rim for it to cover his ears at that thought, Taehyung in his own gulp of air.

Merboy shifted his hold from his upper arm to his wrist and Taehyung was subtly aware of the close proximity to his hand. Someone to hold his hand… That would be a dream that Jimin and him wanted to come true.

“Oh!” he exclaimed, bending down as merboy kept the hold on his wrist.

A rust red starfish lay half buried in the sand and upon following the mark left by the tide line, Taehyung realised that a few other starfish had too been beached. He carefully picked up the one at his feet before hurling it back into the waters with all his might.

“The tide pushed you all too far away from home, didn’t it?”

One by one, he picked the starfish up before throwing them into the sea. Once the last starfish landed in the water with a loud splash, Taehyung smiled a satisfied smile to himself before standing up.

That was when he remembered that merboy was holding onto his wrist, hand not having moved an inch. Awkwardness seeped in as he turned his head slowly to look at the other, his smile becoming slightly strained. Merboy stared at him, blinking a few times.

Now he was going to think that Taehyung was weird.

However to his surprise, the corners of merboy’s lips twitched upwards and Taehyung was reminded of yesterday’s episode where the boy himself had laughed. Well-meant amusement shone in the other’s eyes to which Taehyung returned with a wide smile.

He told merboy softly, “Thank you.” Of course, merboy didn’t understand what he had said but Taehyung felt the slight increase in pressure of his grip. It was almost as if merboy didn’t want to let go.

Then the other was urging him forward. Taehyung obliged, and hurried his footsteps. The sun now rose fully over the horizon, casting a soft glow on everything it shone on and the calm in Taehyung’s heart never ebbed.

Suddenly, his phone rang, the shrill rings cleaving through the peaceful air around them. Taehyung made a face as he dug it out of his short’s pocket. The screen flashed a ‘self-indulgent-handsome’ picture of Jimin that the said boy took with special request and Taehyung grinned.

“Hello?”

“I’m back! I’m going to pop by in fifteen.”

The smile dropped from his face immediately and merboy looked at him, widening his eyes at his change in expression. Fumbling with his phone to hold it closer to his ear, he first scrambled for a white lie, then answered as casually as he could, “Ah okay. Did you bring anything back?”

“I bought three more of their albums. Do you want them?”

If not for the panic that had set into him, Taehyung would have rebutted sharply but his mind was mainly focused on leading merboy back to the house. “Nah you keep them,” he managed, “You just stop trying to get me to stan them.”

Jimin whined through the line, “Why won’t you like them? Anyway, I’m at Aunt Haseon’s.” Taehyung nearly fell over the step to the house in his haste, clinging onto the frame at the last minute to stop merboy from falling as well. that was only ten minutes away.

“You’re fast.”

“Because I’m coming to get your . You’re hiding something, idiot.”

“Not.”

“Riiiiight. See you soon.”

He wanted to stall Jimin for as long as possible, so he locked the main entrance shut before guiding merboy up the stairs. The boy seemed so confused about the situation judging the way his brows were furrowed up but he didn’t have time for pity. Every second that was wasted on scaling each step felt like a step closer to death by interrogation.

Finally, they arrived at the third floor and Taehyung practically dragged the other into the room, then locked the door from the front. As he stood in front of it, heart racing from anxiety, he heard the wind chimes sing two floors down.

The doors had been opened.