Jimin was switching on the television when Taehyung came down from the staircase. “Hey,” Taehyung greeted. A few plastic bags lay at Jimin’s feet together with two paper bags that were branded with high end logos. Today he had returned with freshly dyed chestnut hair.

Beaming at him, Jimin opened up his arms with a long, “Heyyyyyyy!”. Taehyung simply gave him the side eye and plonked onto the bag to the side. Please don’t make any noise, he prayed, hoping somebody would grant his wish.

The other pouted, “Is this how you greet me after I’ve been gone for a week?”

“Are you seriously watching this?” Taehyung asked, staring at the television where the opening film for You Who Came from the Stars was playing, then pressed a number on the control.

Jimin made a sound of protest as the channel switched but just as quickly, he snatched the control away and turned back to the television drama. For a few minutes into the episode, they remained quiet. The other had his eyes glued on the screen while Taehyung kept flitting his eyes to the staircase.

Finally, Taehyung said, “Are you just here to watch sappy dramas? Your house has a larger screen for that you know.” The other wordlessly kicked the bags at his feet towards him. Peering at their insides, he saw that the plastic bags contained fish and shelled fish. In the paper bags sat new items of clothing.

A strangled scream of happiness escaped from Taehyung and he scooped out the navy coloured beanie from the bottom of a bag. Grinning, Jimin replied without looking over, “You said you wanted this right? It was the last one on the rack by the way.”

Dropping the beanie onto his lap, Taehyung turned to the side to engulf Jimin in a huge hug without second thought. The other then patted his head roughly before saying, “Yeah thank you.” “Your hair smells like ,” Taehyung said, sitting up properly and Jimin tutted disapprovingly.

As the drama ran in the background, Jimin pointed out, “Did you really watch The Little Mermaid? I’m pretty sure SBS was on the last time I visited.” Oh . “I watched it on my laptop,” he quickly explained, “The wifi was good the other day.”

The other shot him a look of suspicion. “You fixed it?” His tone was unbelieving and Taehyung began to feel his heart race again because, no, he had not fixed it. The screen was still cracked, looking like a spider web and he needed to set aside more savings before it could be repaired. He hadn’t even left the house further than the beach in a while.

“Yeah.”

An elated smile broke across Jimin’s face as he leapt onto his feet and said, “Thank god. I need it to go YouTube.” “But can’t you use your phone?” Taehyung asked as he spun frantically to look at Jimin. The male had already reached the stairs and Taehyung sprinted towards him, blocking his way with each arm holding onto either side of the railing.

“Just use your phone. Plus my wifi isn’t working well today. I couldn’t even get IG notifications.”

“I need my 1080 x 720p HD of Big Bang okay?” Jimin chided and pushed him aside. Taehyung chased after Jimin as he ascended, mind repeating ‘oh ’ incessantly. Heart pounding in his ears, he pleaded, “No no no no just use your ing phone god damn it my home page isn’t going to be filled with Big Bang recommendations again.”

Suddenly, Jimin halted on the step above him and spun around donning a ‘are-you-kidding-me’ look, making Taehyung stumble backwards in surprise. The other placed a hand on his hip.

“Is she still here?”

“W-Who?”

“The girl you ed.”

This time, Taehyung dropped his pretence, asking in horror, “What?”

“Is she still in your room? That’s maybe why you look so tense?” Jimin then moved down a step, clapping Taehyung on his shoulder. “Tae you can just tell me. I can just leave you know I fact I’m very happy for you and your .”

“Whoa first of all,” Taehyung said as he pushed Jimin’s hand away with a finger, “I’m not a . As my good friend, you should know that.”

“But you haven’t gotten laid in three y—”

“Secondly, it’s not a girl.”

Jimin’s jaw dropped the moment the last word escaped from Taehyung and his eyes widened. Pressing his face close to Taehyung’s, he asked quietly, “You found guys worthy of being your eye candy?”

Taehyung glared at Jimin, then pushed his head in the other direction using the same finger. “It’s not whatever you’re thinking about,” he hissed. The smile melted off Jimin’s face and the other asked curiously, “Then what?”

After ascending the flight of steps to the top, Taehyung turned to look at the other male with a sigh. “It’s a crazy story. It in involves a mermaid.” “Stop ing around. Did you sleep well?” Jimin retorted, then rested his hand on the door knob.

“I need the computer anyway. I need 1080p.”

“As a matter of fact—”

Then Jimin turned and opened the door, and Taehyung could tell the breath that the other held when his eyes lay on merboy who was sitting cross-legged in Taehyung’s bed. “—I didn’t sleep well last night.”

Nervousness washed over him as merboy and Jimin gave each other once overs. There was silence in the room, then merboy let loose of the rope like thing that was clutched in his hand and snarled, baring his teeth.

Naturally, Jimin scrambled backwards until his back hit the opposite wall on the corridor. “What the actual ?” he spat and Taehyung arched an eyebrow at merboy who still directed his set of sharp teeth at Jimin before pulling the door shut.

Judging from the way the other had his eyes opened so wide that they could pop out of their sockets, Taehyung knew that Jimin was scarred one way or another. Jimin mouthed again, eyes locked on the door, “What the actual ?”

Taehyung patted Jimin on his head, letting the poor man take in the situation for a while.

“Holy he has fangs. Is he a vampire?”

“He’s a mermaid. They’re just sharp teeth.”

Then Jimin stared straight at Taehyung. He asked, “Are you sure this is not a joke? No, am I dreaming?” As a reply, Taehyung stopped patting his hair and slapped him hard on the side of his head. The other winced, immediately bringing a hand up to rub the afflicted area.

“I’m not joking,” he affirmed, “I found him washed up on the beach a few nights ago. I saw him in his tail it was- was-” Looking skywards, he let the memory of that night play. “Silver, then he tried killing me for about three times.”

The other suddenly grabbed his hand and rushed them both down the stairs to the living area before saying, “He has scars. I don’t care if he’s a fairy or a mermaid. ing hell, Tae he looks scary. How hasn’t he killed you already?” Taehyung pondered over the question.

Right.

Why hadn’t he been killed already?

Cupping his own hands around Taehyung’s, Jimin continued as his eyes scrunched together in worry, “Why did you even take him in? We don’t even know anything about mermaids. He may be a vicious cannibal and you’d never know! Tae!”

The twinge of anger in the other’s voice dug into Taehyung like a hook into his skin and he couldn’t find an answer. Whatever he said made sense. A sense of insecurity seeped through the guard that he had put down around merboy.

However, merboy truly hadn’t given Taehyung any reason to distrust him. Other than those few attempted murders, he had been not a huge nuisance. He wanted to tell Jimin that somebody who laughed so genuinely could be at least trusted.

But as he phrased the words mentally, he realised they would give Jimin more reason to worry. So he just sat down on bean bag in a mournful silence.

Sighing, the other followed suit in taking a seat, his hands never leaving Taehyung’s. “You just couldn’t ignore somebody stranded alone on the beach, right?”

“I was worried that somebody else that came across him wouldn’t be as kind as me,” Taehyung protested and Jimin gave him a side-stare.

“I mean he’s a mermaid and what if people put him in a tank? no man.”

“Alright that’s something I wouldn’t want to see,” Jimin admitted, running a hand through his hair. “I won’t want people to cut him up either.” He gestured to the bags that still sat on the carpet. “He doesn’t wear clothes?”

“I made him wear them. He just hates wearing shirts for some reason. Pants are fine.”

“No wonder he wasn’t wearing any top.” Suddenly, the other wiggled his eyes at Taehyung and said, “I also noticed that he has a good body hmmmmmmmm—” Taehyung clicked his tongue in annoyance then hurled a cushion at his friend, replying, “Don’t try to go to bed with him. I’m warning you.”

“Oh somebody’s jealous already.”

“It’s not called jealousy it’s called having the decency to not lust after somebody who’s new to our ways. The guy probably doesn’t even know what his is for.”

“Our ways. It feels weird hearing that. Makes me feel that aliens really exist.”

Taehyung nodded approvingly at Jimin’s words but the other immediately cut him down, “I still don’t think they exist okay? For your merboy, I’m only taking your word that he’s one. I’m not going to fully believe you until he shows me his tail.”

Taehyung snorted, “Good luck. He doesn’t even know how to speak and walk.” Shrugging, Jimin glued his eyes to the television screen again and asked, “Speaking of walking, you’re still going to the school today right? I bought the kids sweets.”

“Yeah of course.” He would never miss a session with them. He then narrowed his eyes at the drama rolling on the channel, sighing at the cheesiness of it all as Jimin concentrated on it, completely immersed in the scene.

For a moment, everything in the house seemed normal. Then Jimin asked, “What about the boy when you leave?”

“I’m taking him along,” Taehyung answered, leaning back. Jimin only sat up as quickly as a lightning bolt and questioned in a shrill voice, “What?! You said he couldn’t walk. And you may have noticed how he went rogue on seeing me. There are plenty more people out there, you know.”

Taehyung turned still at the reminder. He definitely did not think of that. Letting out a groan, he slid further down the bean bag until his legs stuck out far in front. On one hand, he really wanted to visit the kids but on the other, he couldn’t leave merboy alone in the house.

Who knew what kind of could happen?

A great ton of worry sunk into his chest at the prospect of things that could go wrong. His eyes returned to the television but his thoughts mingled with the male two floors above.

 

------

 

Sundays were always the busiest for Uikyu as it went for any vacation hotspot. That was why he had chosen to accompany the children out for them to run wild at the quieter outskirts of town where Jimin and he lived. Even for an isolated town, it still had its heart where life flowed quicker. That was where the schools were located.

As Taehyung picked up the children together with Jimin in the other’s family van, he took his time in scanning the streets they drove by.

Uikyu had little many storeyed buildings, with the tallest being the mayor’s office which had ten floors. The rest of it were one, two or three storeyed shop houses built on either sides of a single two-way road or if you were in the town centre, there were more office buildings.

“So… The boy?” Jimin started a few minutes into the ride. Behind them, the children bickered noisily over the sweets Jimin had given them prior to them boarding the van.

Taehyung swallowed the bite of bread before answering, “He was doing something with strings when I left. He just looked at me, then went back to doing his thing.”

Jimin turned his head towards him and opened his mouth expectantly, breaking Taehyung’s train of thoughts. Wordlessly, he broke off a chunk of bread, then stuffed it into Jimin’s mouth.

“I just hope he doesn’t break anything. Or so something stupid.”

“I hope so too, because if he somehow destroys your laptop completely, I’ll never be able to see Big Bang in 1080p again,” Jimin answered between mouthfuls and Taehyung took another huge bite off the loaf. He deadpanned, “You have way more money than me just get a laptop for yourself already. Ask your sisters to back you up if your mum still doesn’t allow you. You’re like, twenty one already.”

Taehyung knew it was the millionth time he had told the other that but he still couldn’t understand why Mrs Park disallowed her children to own electronic devices other than a phone. As far as he knew, her husband never said anything much to dispute her orders. Jimin shared with him once that he suspected his father was a little afraid of his mother.

Of course, that theory had never been proven right because their family spent most of their time handling different areas of the fish farm.

“We’ll see about that on my birthday,” Jimin answered, sighing. The beach soon emerged in their line of sight and the kids began chattering excitedly. Seotaek popped his head through the space between the two front seats and asked, “Are we playing football today?”

Taehyung let Jimin do the talking and leaned his head against the window. As they passed the street that his house belonged to, he couldn’t help but wonder what merboy was doing.

They soon arrived at the stretch of empty beach that not many tourists dared to venture because it was completely obscured by boulders, blocking it from the main beach. But after you lived in Uikyu for your entire life, falling off rocks would be the least of all your problems.

The children clambered over the boulders nimbly and soon disappeared over the hill of rocks. “They’re so fast,” Taehyung huffed as he held onto a ledge. Beside him, Jimin snorted and kicked upwards, “No, we’re just getting old.”

“Thanks for the reminder.”

Immediately after Taehyung stepped out onto the sand, pairs of tiny hands grabbed him by the arm and pulled him towards the centre of the beach while giggling.

 

------

 

The sun was high in the cloudless sky when they took a break from their games. Jimin had only given out the last fried squid on a stick before Seotaek and the other two boys beseeched him to accompany them on crab catching.

Taehyung pretended to ignore the plea for help from his friend and went on with munching on his own fried squid under the shade of the boulders. Having no choice, Jimin glared at him, then trudged off after them with the remaining two boys in tow.

“Why don’t you ask Taehyung?”

“He’s nice to us.”

“I’m not?”

“You’re just less nice. You curse a lot.”

Their voices carried over the sand easily in the windless situation and Taehyung muffled a laugh. He just hoped Jimin wouldn’t give the children a lesson on the benefits of cursing, otherwise they’d have a lot of explanation to do to their parents.

Biting off a tentacle of the squid, he turned his attention to the few girls who were leaning against the flat surface of a boulder to his left while eating. They had their feet buried in the sand, probably to cool them off.

“Oppa,” one of them started. “Can you play your shell flute now?” The others nodded their heads in assent and Taehyung smiled, crumpling the plastic wrapper in his hand, “We have to wait for them to come back.”

The girl, Ji-ahn, looked at the boys who were rolling all over the sand with Jimin and made a face. “They’re never going to come back.” “Tradition. You know,” Taehyung answered, gesturing to the group’s loud hoots and complaints about stealing each other’s crabs. “Anyway, we’ll wait for them. It’s unfair if I play on.”

Patting Ji-ahn’s hair comfortingly, he continued, “If they don’t get back at four, I’ll pull them back and confiscate their crabs. Sounds good?”

And Taehyung did just that except for Jimin because he could never take anything away from him. However, the boys complained for five minutes straight until Gyuri dumped a handful sand onto Seotaek to shut him up and Taehyung promised them an extra song.

Once they sat eagerly around him, Taehyung pulled the palm-sized instrument out from his sling bag he had brought along. The flute still held its shape and design over the past decade, even its cream and pink remained vibrant on the outer shell. Only the slightly dulled surface and the worn mouth piece were signs of numerous uses.

It was a curious thing—the ways of making the shell flute were mostly lost. The only people who knew how to make these were few and the ways were passed down through generations of few families.

Taehyung would know.

When he started the song, everything around him went quiet. He could feel the children looking at him with wonder. The notes were airier than a standard flute and any song that was played would sound mystical but to Taehyung, it sounded like the ocean’s song.

Jimin rested his head on a rock, closing his eyes while basking in the music. Taehyung had made him a flute back when they were ten but the other never had the time to learn how to play it. The other had left it in his room since then.

Brushing off the sudden longing in his heart to hear his mother’s songs again, Taehyung took in a deep breath before continuing to play.

 

------

 

“Oppa, are you going to perform at the festival?” Gyuri asked once the rest of her friends had rushed back into the school grounds. Her eyes held hesitation as she continued, “My grandmother and Aunty Haseon cannot perform as a duet forever.”

Smiling, Taehyung bent down and answered, “Then you can learn from your grandmother and continue the tradition.” The girl whined in reply, “I know! I want to learn but my hands are still too small! Aunt Haseon also wants you to perform again! We all want you to play the flute for people. She said that you’d be happy if you played the flute.”

Happy if he played the flute.

Patting Gyuri on her head, he stood up on his feet again. “You’ll understand when you grow up.” That you’ll want things that you cannot have, no matter big or small.

People strolled past them on the road as the evening sun bore down on them. Fishmongers and farmers were packing up for the night, the salty smell of their sea produce permeating the air a few streets away.

The young girl stared at him in an attempt to understand what he had just said but finally settled for a hug around his legs before slipping into the school compound.

“So you’re still not going?” Jimin asked from behind him, the door of the van closing. Taehyung made no attempt to answer his question and instead replied, sauntering down the pavement, “I’m going to walk around. You can go back first.”

The other’s feet pounded against the pavement and appeared by Taehyung’s side a few seconds later. There was not a shred of amiability on his face as he said, “I’m not going to force you to go, but seriously, you’ll have to get over your mother sooner or later.”

Pulling out beanie from his bag, Taehyung continued to walk forward in silence. It wasn’t just about his mother, but he didn’t want to say anything knowing he would get tired if he tried to explain. Jimin then stopped in his tracks and sighed, calling out, “Okay! See you tomorrow! Seriously do I need to get you a do not disturb sign?”

The jest passed his ear like wind.

Uikyu wasn’t such a small town that everybody knew everybody else, but it was large enough that stories and gossip reached every citizen’s ears to spice up their lives. The beanie covering his ears was thick enough to muffle the whispers headed in his directions but stares couldn’t be diverted.

“Unnie it’s the boy who can play the shell flute!” a teenaged girl said a little too loudly as she dove back into the shelter of her family’s house. It wasn’t a bad name, just a title that folk lore associated with things he didn’t believe in.

Taehyung waved to the Hyekyung, the girl who had been in his class who stood at her family’s street hawker stall as he passed by. He nodded with a gentle smile at the group of grandmothers gathered at the side of the street to shell bivalves. His grandmother had been in their circle of friends.

He soon arrived at a book shop nestled at the corner of a crossroad. Outside, a cleaner was sweeping up the dust on the road and Taehyung darted forward to catch her falling dustpan when she lost her grip on it.

Passing it back to her, Taehyung said gently, “Aunty you shouldn’t stay out too late.” The woman simply smiled from ear to ear and wrapped her gnarled fingers around the shaft of her dustpan after patting him on the back of his hand.

He then entered the book shop and took in the smell of paper and print. The shop was still the same except for the wooden shelves that were replaced by lacquered plastic ones. It had expanded as well, as much as Taehyung could deduce from the handwritten sign pointing up the stairs.

Thumbing through the rows of books, Taehyung searched for the children’s section.

A gruff voice asked from behind, “What books do you want?” “Do you have any books on elementary phonics? And children’s picture books,” he answered, turning around to face the shop owner.

Youngsaeng had aged much from the last time Taehyung saw him a year ago. The middle-aged man now had visible strands of white hair that shifted as he walked in the opposite direction, though with the same stiff strides.

The older gestured to an entire shelf upon seeing Taehyung making his way over and said, “They’re all here.” He scrutinised Taehyung quietly while he pulled out books that caught his attention. “Is your father well?” Taehyung questioned when the silence became uncomfortable.

Youngsaeng nodded. “As well as old people can be anyway. You know how once we’re old starts happening to our bodies.”

Hugging a book with a colourful cover to his chest, Taehyung pulled out another book. This time, the illustration of a mermaid sitting on Copenhagen’s rock grabbed at his attention. “When are you moving?” the other asked, and Taehyung halted in his actions. “You always told my father you’d move to a city someday.”

“I’m reconsidering.”

The man blinked, then shuffled away, saying a moment later, “I’m kind of glad you’re reconsidering. Father will miss you.”

It was not only the man’s father, it was many elderly people and the children he shepherded from time to time. There was homesickness that would follow him whenever he went out of Uikyu and now, merboy. Taehyung knew he wouldn’t be moving anywhere anytime soon.

“Is it okay if I see him?”

“He’s upstairs sleeping—”

A scream rang through the air from outside and both of them instantly turned their heads at the source of the scream. The scream shot out again.

Taehyung bolted out of the shop, slamming the books messily on the shelf. The cool night’s air was a stark contrast between the warmth in the bookshop and it took him a few seconds to get his orientations right, to readjust his beanie, to locate the unconscious cleaner ahjumma lying on the pavement in a pool of blood.

“Holy hell,” Youngsaeng cursed behind him. Hurriedly rushing to her side, Taehyung knelt on the floor to assess her wound. There was no gash on her front, so he carefully flipped her on her side and promptly fell backwards at the sight.

Several passers-by gasped as severity of the wound settled into the evening air.

It was difficult to see with the fading light but Taehyung could tell that the cut ran from her neck to her waist and blood oozed out of it in a never ending flow. “The man just took out a knife and attacked her,” he heard somebody whispering harshly in the background.

It didn’t take him long to know that the bleeding was not something he could stop. Fumbling for his phone, he only realised that blood was slick on his hand as he punched in the numbers for the ambulance.

 

------

 

Taehyung felt drained to the core.

It turned out that the teenage girl he had seen earlier was the cleaner’s granddaughter and her parents were working in another city, leaving no one to comfort her when she cried her eyes red by the ahjumma’s bed side.

He had asked where her sister was. She mumbled something about her sister not liking their grandmother and refused to come. Then he had also heard the older sister wishing death on ahjumma over the phone.

It had taken all of Taehyung’s will to not tear up along with the younger girl, his heart being weighed down by the crashing waves of memories of his own grandmother.

Now as he trudged up the stairs, there was barely any consciousness of his surroundings left in him. The stairs passed in a blur while he made his way to his room. However, something hooked Taehyung away from his mind once he lay a step through the threshold.

Merboy was gone.

Taehyung groaned irritably at the notion of having to go hide-and-seeking in his weariness, then jumped high into the air when he felt warm breaths puffing against his neck. Spinning around, he came face to face with merboy. The other wasn’t wearing a shirt, again.

The sudden shock took its final toll on Taehyung and he collapsed backwards onto his bed, letting a high pitched note run on an infinite loop in his head. Without hesitation, merboy sat down on the edge of the mattress as he cocked his head at him.

“I told you to stay in this room and you had to go out,” Taehyung lamented, shooting the other an accusatory glare before closing his eyes to recuperate.

He felt merboy breathing against his neck again and opened his eyes to merboy sniffing at his neck, limbs caging Taehyung under him. A simple thought of ‘what the ’ crossed Taehyung’s mind but the close proximity of merboy’s face to his made him go still.

Did Merpeople have no concept of personal space?

In his midst of wondering why the male was busy sniffing him out, Taehyung laxed his body in an attempt to scratch a spot on his ankle. Merboy took it as a sign of some sort to move his face higher up much to Taehyung’s consternation. His breaths tickled against Taehyung’s ear, almost like slow nibbles.

He jolted as if he were struck by lightning and pushed merboy away, the sparks of surprise and warmth still travelling down his spine, down south where he would never expect them to go.

It was fortunate that merboy took no notice of his probably red cheeks. Instead, he poked at Taehyung’s hand, then held it up. His eyes flicked up to Taehyung questioningly soon after and Taehyung could too, feel the heat behind them.

Tearing his gaze away to look at his hand, Taehyung made out dark stains on his fingers. Dried blood.

“It’s nothing,” he assured and snatched his hand back to himself. Merboy did not look convinced as he arched a brow at Taehyung. Merboy could smell blood that well? Taehyung forced that thought to override the fluttering sensation in his abdomen.

The other’s brows then creased ever so slightly, eyes dark and trying to convey a message to Taehyung. It seemed urgent. Almost like a warning.

The passer-by’s words suddenly rang in his head. The man just took out a knife and attacked. An ominous feeling settled in Taehyung’s chest, stemming from the memory of the fishing vessel near the coast.

The two pieces of information pieced together to form the start of a puzzle. Taehyung wished he would never see the complete picture, or anybody in Uikyu for the record. If the smugglers were back at full force, it could spell mass hysteria and terror, just like in the past.

Uikyu now experienced peace nobody who lived here eleven years ago would believe in. Smugglers and thugs roamed the streets at night and some ventured through them in daylight, maiming residents who happened upon their activities by accident.

Taehyung being ten then, only remembered flashes of masked men headlining the newspapers and the screams that often pierced the air. His grandmother forbade him to go to school for a year, an action that many worried families took.

There was just one scream that he never forgot. Because it came from outside of his house.

Shuddering, he exhaled loudly and sat up. No. He couldn’t assume things. It could just be a random case of crazy people hurting others. Merboy continued to stare at him with the same brooding expression in the dark.

“You washed your hair?”

The question slipped out in disbelief when Taehyung noticed the damp strands of hair framing merboy’s face. He couldn’t have gotten out of the house to have a dip in the ocean because both front and back doors were still firmly locked at the point of his return.

Sliding over to the other’s side, he put his nose into the length of the hair to get a whiff of its smell. The faint floral scent on them made Taehyung sit back and smile with some fondness. It took away unsettling feeling by a tiny bit.

“You used body soap on your hair,” he told the other, flicking the hair out of boredom. “You’re supposed to use the other one. But obviously you can’t read…”

Taehyung wished wholeheartedly that he had stuffed the children’s books in his bag before rushing out. Youngsaeng wouldn’t have minded.

He then left merboy to mess around with the strange cloth he had been playing with since morning and went off to the bathroom to take a shower, before heading to the lower floor. Standing at the stairwell scanning the living area, he was impressed at the immaculate state of the area.

Despite the obvious difference in the positions of the bean bags and the television that had been shifted, there wasn’t any damage. No broken glass, no destroyed decorations and most importantly, his shell pieces were untouched.

Taehyung didn’t bother too much about the kitchen although he could tell merboy had meddled with the knob from the twisted key insert. After unlocking the door, he proceeded to prepare a simple abalone porridge.

It was a few minutes in when he felt someone blowing against his neck and he jerked his shoulders in shock. There was no need to look behind for Taehyung already knew that it was merboy. Only the other could move around so silently.

“Yeah, go ahead and laugh,” he groused. Chuckling, the other padded to Taehyung’s side. Although his steps were still shaky, they were stable enough for him to carry himself. Just what sorcery was it that he could walk this well in less than a week?

Taehyung enjoyed a peaceful silence afterwards, him waiting for the porridge to simmer to a boil and watching merboy being completely enraptured by the blue flames on the stove.

 

------

 

It was becoming habitual for Taehyung to see the other awake and sitting on the mattress every night. Usually, Taehyung would leave him alone to whatever his thoughts were but tonight—tonight, he couldn’t sleep no matter how long he lay on bed.

He was just worried about the cleaner and her granddaughter to whom he had given his number if she ever wanted to talk. It turned out that the girl had answered his text asking her if she was alright.

Now, at two in the morning, Taehyung was questioning the girl on the condition of her grandmother when the door to his room opened to a gap and merboy slipped out without a sound. Staring at the gap between the door and its frame, it took him a few minutes to pull his wits together before sitting up.

The thin towel-like blanket fell from his midriff and he sat there blankly, directing his attention to the fish tank that glowed a soft violet light. “He’s weird, don’t you think?” Taehyung asked, placing his phone on the space beside it.

He then flung the blanket away and got to his feet to find out what merboy was up to. After walking down the corridor, he paused at the top of the stairs and watched as the other male flipped the switches on the wall. Crisp sounds of plastic clicking echoed through the house as he did so.

Merboy kept switching the lights on and off for a good five minutes despite the fact that there were only three switches on the panel, telling Taehyung that he was only playing with them. Finally, he left the light switch for the living area.

It didn’t take long for Taehyung to notice a piece of fabric that merboy pulled out from under a beanbag, then the basket of abalone shells from behind the television console. Those shells were the ones that Taehyung had scavenged in Jimin’s farm and they were meant for more of his projects, not for anything else. Seeing them in the male’s possession made Taehyung cross his arms indignantly.

Seating himself on a bean bag, merboy began scratching something out from an abalone shell with his pointed nails and Taehyung strained his neck in order to catch a glimpse of his doings.

The scratching continued for a while until merboy poured an iridescent material out from the shell into the cloth that lay on his lap. It was only then that Taehyung saw the cloth shimmer into a cascade of blue, green and purple as it caught the ceiling light and he caught his breath at its beauty.

Mother of Pearl.

Nobody could get that out of oysters and abalones. Collectors and jewellers always left them in their shells for their crafts—never attempting to remove the Mother of Pearl itself for fear of damaging the entire shell. Now, merboy deftly removed the Mother of Pearl without too much effort.

Taehyung widened his eyes as he watched the other brandished a sharp stick like tool from the basket and carefully pricked the flakes of mother of pearl into the cloth. He felt as if he were intruding on something no human should ever see.

Unable to help himself, Taehyung firstly sped down to his workshop a level down as quietly as he managed, then picked up a few of his dreamcatchers and materials before going back up. Swallowing hard, he quietly joined merboy on the bean bag beside him.

The other only raised an eyebrow at him and returned to his strange craft, leaving Taehyung to stare at the cloth. The fabric itself was another mystery. He had no spare cloth the size of a piece of A4 paper in his house, how did merboy manage to find some?

Taehyung brushed the thought away. Carrying up one of the dreamcatchers, he started weaving the leather straps around the wooden hoop where he had left off, mindful to leave gaps where the seashells would go.

 

------

 

“This is pronounced as kk”, Taehyung explained, writing down the alphabet on the spare paper he had found an hour earlier. Merboy repeated his pronunciation without much qualms as he fiddled with the ends of his hair on the chair beside him.

The shift to the dining table wasn’t the most comfortable since the soft beanbags were left behind but Taehyung was inwardly grateful for the opportunity to steal glances at merboy’s face, especially with the closeness. 

Sometime in the midst of their work, the other had poked Taehyung on the arm and traced a ‘ch’ letter on his cloth. How he came to see the alphabet, Taehyung did not have the slightest inkling but he still humoured merboy and began to teach him how to read Korean.

If Taehyung went to kindergarten with the speed merboy picked up information, he would undoubtedly have been crowned a prodigy.

Pointing to an alphabet on the paper at random, he questioned, “This?” “Ttt,” merboy answered, and Taehyung paused before scribbling on Jimin’s name. Time to really put his memory to the test. He still could not believe that the other had gotten all 40 letters in an hour.

Taehyung then tapped the pen beside the letters for merboy to read out.

The other leaned forward, then pulled the paper closer to himself before he said, “Park… Ji… Min.” Taehyung wrote down another name with a smile and merboy replied, shaking his head to move the stray strands of hair from his face, “Shin Ha… Seon.”

More scribbling.

“Kim, Seok Jin.”

“Kim Ah Ran.”

“Lee Seo Taek.”

“Yoon Ji… Ahn.”

Hesitating, Taehyung then wrote down his name but as he slid it over to merboy, the other looked up from the table joltingly. His eyes flitted around the living area frantically and his lips parted slightly while taking in deep breaths.

Merboy wore a face of despair.

It made Taehyung wonder what had happened but in the house, he heard nothing except their breathing and the wind howling against the windows. He cautiously leaned towards the other, touching the back of his hand lightly.

Seeing no reaction, Taehyung wrapped his fingers tightly around merboy’s and the male immediately blinked his eyes, balling up his fingers. He noticed the other digging his nails into his palm so tightly that he was worried that they might leave wounds.

Merboy definitely could sense things humans couldn’t. The thought entered Taehyung’s mind and he sighed quietly. Until the other could talk and explain things, he could do nothing to help.

Standing up from the chair, he took merboy’s wrist in his hold and had to tug at him a few times before they shuffled back up to the room.

It was unnerving to see the emotionless face be possessed by something resembling sadness. Even after seating the other down on his mattress, Taehyung resisted the urge to give him a bear hug. It always worked on Jimin.

But to do that to a stranger, that crossed his idea of personal space.

Merboy sat, hunched back facing Taehyung as his fingers began twirling his braids around. Maybe he needed sleep. Not sleeping for most hours couldn’t have a good effect on living things, be it human or mermaid.

However, the sight of a depressed merboy made Taehyung unable to find cause to sleep either. Pursing his lips in resolve, he hopped off the edge of the mattress onto the lower one, the impact making the other look back.

Taehyung beamed at him, only to have him turn back around. He wished Merpeople could at least speak some kind of human language. Making himself a mental note to get the books from Youngsaeng soon, he then reached out, pulling all of merboy’s hair behind his shoulders.

The other hissed sharply at Taehyung but he simply said, untying all of them, “I’m trying to help you be less sad.” When he started combing through merboy’s hair slowly, merboy stopped fidgeting as he had hoped.

The hair still felt cold between his fingers. Merboy wouldn’t listen to him, right?

“I told you to not braid them after washing,” he muttered, mind wandering off to whether he had a hairdryer lying somewhere in the house. There had never been a need for one since both his grandmother and he had short, cropped hair. Furthermore, wind was always blowing through the building.

Taehyung continued caressing the other’s tresses until the weight of sleepiness sunk down on his lids. He could also tell that merboy was more or less drowsy from the way his head kept dropping down.

Giving one last from the top of his head to the ends of his hair, Taehyung then patted merboy on the head and climbed back onto his bed, throwing the blanket over his body.

 

------

 

Taehyung knew something had happened when loud conversations carried out on the beach outside at seven in the morning. Upon looking over at merboy, the other was lying so still with eyes open and staring at the ceiling that he could have passed for a statue.

The incessant chatter got the best of Taehyung’s curiosity. After getting up, he carefully treaded over the other’s sprawled limbs and trampled down the stairs to the second floor where the balcony was.

Its sliding door for a partition creaked open with rust.

Sea breeze woke his tired brain up without fail and he peered down at the beach. It turned out that the crowd was a little further down the stretch.

Leaning against the railings, Taehyung called out to the long haired brunette who was rushing back to the neighbouring house from the crowd. “Kimi noona!” he shouted.

The middle-aged woman seemed all flustered and in shock when she looked upwards. Her hair was in knots, body still clad in her signature Pooh Bear onesie.

“Yes?”

“What happened?” Taehyung asked as he pointed to the crowd. Kimi answered with a hint of surprise in her voice, “A few sharks washed up on shore last night! They’re all bloody- Can’t you see? It’s everywhere.”

“No! Where?”

Just as the words left his mouth, the crowd dispersed at a corner and he slackened his grip on the railing. Blood had washed a great part of the beach red. In the middle of the stain, lay four long sharks, adults, by the looks of them.

H-How…?

Kimi nodded sympathetically as she said, moving back to her house, “Never thought I’d see sharks on the shore.” The sharks were large. One was acceptable as a freak accident but four? He didn’t understand.

The sun nevertheless waited for no one to rise and Taehyung withdrew from the balcony. When he entered his room, he found merboy fixing his eyes on him. The message in them was as clear as day.

Hiding his previously bloodstained hand behind his back, he shuffled away to the bathroom.

Taehyung never poked his nose into strangers’ affairs but something itched in his belly and he wished he truly knew what merboy was. Or who he was and where he had gotten those scars.

Truly, merboy never did anything that made Taehyung question his conscience. But no matter how hard he tried to ignore, human prejudice against flawed appearances still pricked at his being. To have that many scars, if he were to attach one word to it, it would be notoriety.

Jimin was right to be suspicious of merboy.

After splashing water onto his face, Taehyung stared into his reflection in the mirror. Still, he believed in merboy having no ill intentions. He had found him, and he would make sure that he helped the other male to the end.

Always treat other with kindness, these words were written in a beautiful calligraphy with black paint at the side of the mirror. Grandmother had written them herself a few days before her passing. He never knew but she had told him that his mother also lived by that value on one of those night they sat together making things out of seashells.

Taehyung smiled at the words and straightened his back, a good mood pushing away the rain clouds that hovered over his mind. Pulling open the washroom door just a little, he saw merboy lying on his bed with legs propped up at an angle while wiggling his toes, eyes staring intently at them.

His smile widened, also by just a little.