Jaejoong opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was the shape of a man. He felt strong arms holding him and the feeling was foreign to him.

“Oh my god, you’re awake!” The man exclaimed in relief.

The merman was finally able to focus and what happened earlier at the water palace hit him at full strength.

He struggled in the arms of the stranger and the latter let him go.

Unknowingly to him, he was completely because when he moved he lost the vest the other had put over him. When he looked at his body, it was as if he was looking at something that didn’t belong to him: instead of his majestic tail was a pair of legs and something strange was pending from his body.

He remembered he had seen something like that in one of the human’s anatomy book in his secret underwater library. He blushed and automatically squealed cutely as he grabbed the vest again to cover his body self consciously.

The whole sequence made the stranger chuckle in amusement.

“Don’t worry, kid. It’s nothing I’ve never seen before.” Yoochun paused for a moment. “Are you okay? What happened to you? You really made me freak out here. I thought you were dead.” He said.

Jaejoong looked at his surroundings for the first time since he opened his eyes.

He was out of the ocean.

The sand was stuck to his hair and face and his shoulder hurt like a .

The sound of the waves crashing against the shore felt different from that perspective and the sunlight was blinding him, but the warmth on his wet body felt nice nonetheless. After what happened two centuries earlier, he had never dared to resurface again. He thought he didn’t deserve to. The only light he had been able to see since then was the filtered one that lightened up the seabed.

“Who… Who are you?” Jaejoong asked finally taking in the sight of the man in front of him. He had black hair and a gentle but worried expression on his face. He was quite handsome.

Yoochun’s eyes widened at the question; he didn’t think there was still someone in Asia that didn’t know him. Was the kid making fun of him?

The boy’s accent sounded somehow strange to him; his voice was incredibly melodious and naturally silky.

“My name is Yoochun.” He replied simply after breaking the brief enchantment. “What’s yours?”

“I’m… Jaejoong.”

The actor thought it was beautiful; it was the first time he met someone with that name and somehow it suited the person in front of him.

“Jaejoong, do you have any ID or mobile phone with you? I should take you to the hospital and call your parents.”

“No! I… I’m okay and I don’t have any parents.” The blond stated sadly.

“But you have a deep, bloody wound on the back of your shoulder. You definitely need some stitches.”

“I don’t want to go. It will heal eventually.” The blond insisted somehow childishly. “Where are we?”

Yoochun’s eyes widened at the question.

“We are in Seoul.” He replied a little bit worried. “Are you okay though? Where do you live?”

The blond stayed silent and didn’t answer to the questions. Yoochun sighed in defeat at the silent treatment.

“Look, I’ll take you home with me, but you’ll have to be honest with me and tell me what happened to you.”

Of course it wasn’t everyday that a famous actor took in a stranger, but in that moment it seemed the right thing to do. He felt like there was more than he could even imagine.

Jaejoong nodded, searching for the warmth the jacket could give him. It was the first time in his whole life that he knew what cold was and he decided that he didn’t like it a bit.

Yoochun stood up and extended his hand to help him and he didn’t miss the nostalgic face the other had while looking towards the sea. He could feel his own heart getting heavy and he cursed himself because the boy was influencing him too much already.

Jaejoong was already missing the calming and soothing feeling the water used to give him.

He wanted to go back. He had to.

He was worried about his father and his people. They were all in the hands of his evil sister and no one could save her from herself anymore, not after what she had done.

The prince tried to take a few uncertain steps towards the water as if he was compelled; it was as if Mother Sea was calling for him.

Yoochun looked mesmerized at the beautiful boy. He didn’t know what to think about him, but somehow he had the feeling he couldn’t let him go. He seemed lost.

Jae kept walking towards the water and Yoochun gasped when he understood what the other was going to do, even if he got the wrong idea about it.

As soon as Jaejoong’s feet came in contact with the water, he felt an excruciating pain, as if he was touching acid.

He heard some frying noises coming from the water and his feet became instantly red; ugly burning bubbles were forming.

Yoochun ran to him before he could fall into the sea and took him away from the shore, falling on the sand together.

“Yah! Are you crazy?? I don’t know what happened to you, but whatever it is you can’t give up!” He shouted almost in the other’s face. Then he saw that Jae was grimacing in pain and holding his feet, and he finally noticed the burns.

“What… these weren’t here earlier.” He said confused.

As he looked back, the wounds were fading right in front of him; the other’s skin was becoming as soft and pale as it was before.

The actor’s eyes widened in shock, blinking repeatedly as if he couldn’t believe what he was witnessing.

“What the is going on? What… what are you?” He asked. His heart was racing.

Jaejoong didn’t know how to deal with this. Not only had he been exiled from the sea, but it was also rejecting him and hurting him. He couldn’t even try to go back. Desperation crashed on him. He was going to die in this foreign place, all alone.

And to add something to that mess, he had already been found out.

It probably would have been better to erase the memories of the man in front of him, but somehow he felt like he could trust him. Maybe it was selfish of him, but he didn’t want to be alone in that moment.

So he looked at the other with earnest eyes and confessed his secret to him.

“I’m a merman…” he whispered in response.

“Uh?” Yoochun wanted to laugh, really. But Jaejoong’s eyes glistened and tears ran down his face as he looked towards the sea again, extending his hand longingly towards it.

The actor was weak for tears.

As much as he would have wanted to deny it, he saw with his own eyes something he couldn’t think possible just a few moments earlier, so he just blankly looked at the other.

Legends said that merpeople were extremely beautiful and that they lured humans with their voice. Things were somehow adding up, even though he didn’t think the other was dangerous.

He breathed deeply before talking again.

“Can you stand up?” He asked. The merman looked at him like a lost puppy and nodded.

His body wasn’t hurting anymore.

———

When they got back to the set, people looked at them with widened eyes and rushed to them asking thousands of questions about the ethereal, lost boy, which was starting to make him feel upset.

“What’s your name?”

“Are you wearing contact lens?”

“How old are you?”