There are many beautiful things in the world—the various arrays of color, the twinkling of stars, the rolling waves of a coastal shore—but nothing is more beautiful to Kihyun than the little castles and kingdoms children create with sand.

He’s tried it before, but he’s found it a little difficult, making one deep in the sea. The low current sometimes knocks it over, or the sand dissolves with the water, never staying intact. Occasionally, he’ll be focused on trying to make one, bringing all sorts of collected items to help the sand stay in place, that he won’t notice a curious shark lurking in the distance. His senses bring him back to reality before the creature can attack.

But sharks aside, it frustrates him. He wants to be able to make those little towers and detail them with the same expertise the children above the water seem to have. Kihyun has thought to wait it out, wait for the beachgoers to leave for the night, so that he could inch up onto the sand to create his own miniature kingdom, but whenever he tries, the sand that is left over from the raised tide is just too soft and grainy to be compacted into structures.

So he settles to watch from a distance, to watch from the fluid ocean surface.

But curiosity always gets the best of him when he finds himself a bit too close for comfort to the shoreline. He can’t be seen. If he’s seen, he’ll get caught. And if he’s caught—well, he doesn’t want to think about that. Kihyun shudders at the possibilities.

He dives down and tries to busy himself with the boring ocean floor he knows too well.

At least the water moves and erodes. At least the environment he lives in is constantly changing. If it wasn’t, he doesn’t think he could handle another minute in this prison.

He’s heard a lot about other mermaids and mermen through fishermen’s stories throughout the years. One story after another, they all ended up sounding the same. The mermaid seeks a life beyond her own and finds love—a love that can either save her or kill her. So how is Kihyun’s story any different?

He lets himself get carried away by the swift underwater currents, still keeping an eye out for the dangerous ones. He thinks about those stories and wonders if he’ll ever find the love those other mermaids and mermen risk their lives for. Maybe he’s found it already. Maybe it’s his love for those tiny kingdoms on the shore.

Kihyun shakes his head, tiny bubbles escaping his lips as he giggles at the thought of sharing a romance with a small sand castle. Maybe instead of love, it’s a feeling of envy he harbors for those children’s sand creations. The kids seem to be having so much fun and Kihyun misses that old sense of joy he used to know.

“You okay?” The boy turned to see a familiar figure swimming up to him.

He smiles and reaches his hands out to embrace his friend of many tides. “Minhyuk,” Kihyun beams to the red-haired merman. “I was just thinking,” he trails off, watching a sailboat pass by overhead.

“About?” Minhyuk asks before catching himself. “Was it about those beach houses again?”

Kihyun shakes his head with a giggle. “You silly, they’re called sand castles. And yes, I was thinking about them again. I’ve been bored without you. How long has it been?”

“At least fourteen full moons, Kihyun. I haven’t been away for too long,” the redhead says.

“You’re my older brother and my only friend out here in this underpopulated area. I was worried if something happened,” the younger pouts.

The older Kihyun’s smooth hair. “Your hair is black again. Did something happen?”

He shakes his head. “Nothing out of the ordinary, why?”

“You know your hair only turns black with negative thoughts,” Minhyuk worries.

The younger scoffs and swims back slightly, exaggerating his response. “I