A moment later a face appeared in front of him. It was a man (he's not sure, from the lack of oxygen), Kai registered that much. He wasn’t capable of registering much else apart from the fact that there was another man down here with him .  The man brought his hands up to cup Kai's face and Kai barely make out the shape of a mouth parting and sound escaping, but it's muted. Barely there. He felt himself slipping, most likely dying at this point when there’s a pair of lips pressing against his, the pressure of them unexpectedly soft and warm. It was a kiss of life because Kai's lungs weren’t burning any more. He was still weak, still dizzy and disorientated but he had oxygen. The man wrapped his arms around Kai. He was strong, Kai felt safe in his arms. The guy started to kick and a moment later they broke the surface of the water. Kai gasped, taking in big gulps of air. He had nearly died. He could see that with clarity now. He could also see how stupid he’d been to dive underwater when drunk, because of a stupid reason that had no validity to it. The man he thought was a merman was just probably a lifeguard or something like that. Or perhaps just an illusion. It was so stupid of him to listen to his stupid brain. He thought about how his sister and Jungkook would have felt, if he had died. It helped Kai to focus, thinking of his best friend/roommate. He thought of his roommate at home, probably wondering where Kai was. Kai wanted to be home. He wanted to hug his best friend and promise him he’d never drink again. He wanted to lay down on the ground and kiss the earth because it was safe and good. Kai didn’t think he ever wanted to go swimming again. His rescuer started pulling him towards the shore, his practiced and easy. After the trouble Kai had, he marveled at how the guy was able to pull not only himself but Kai through the water as well. He tried to help, kicking his legs feebly but he was too exhausted to do much good. Eventually he stopped and just let himself be pulled along. Given how most of Kai's bright ideas had turned out that evening, he’d probably end up nearly drowning them again if he kept attempting to help. They reached the shallows and Kai's rescuer seemed to lose all of his strength, flopping down into the water and crawling towards the sand. Kai was still tired but this bit he could do. He was on dry land again, his legs and arms worked the way he wanted them to. He crawled until he was on the warm sand and then collapsed on to his back, gazing up at the sky he thought he’d never see again. “Hey,” he said, his voice rough. He coughed, worrying he was never going to be rid of the taste of seawater. He forced himself to get up, his legs shaking and crawled over to the guy. “What’s your name?”  The man stared for a second, then rattled off a series of short syllables Kai never knew someone’s throat could produce. “What the , say that again.” The guy’s eyes widened and for a moment he looked terrified. Kai could understand why. He’d saved Kai's life. Kai just wanted to thank him and then name his future children after him. “I’m Sehun,” he said finally. "What's yours?" "Kim Kai!" Sehun nodded "Kim Kai" he drawled the man’s name, testing how it rang, how it fit on his tongue. Kai almost choked on thin air. There was nothing ual about the way Sehun pronounced his name, nevertheless, the man’s voice had that sensual caress to it that made Kai want to throw himself into a supernova. "Here I think this ring belongs to you" he said passing the ring over to Kai. Kai stared at the same ring he threw in the water, his heart beating faster, wondering on how the man was able to pickup such tiny item from the vast sea, a moment later he shook his head, "no you should keep it, you just saved my life." He really didn't want the ring back. "You don't have to give me anything just because I saved your life, it was my duty." Kai inched closer, he wanted to take a proper look at his rescuer. it was dark and could barely see the man's face. And as he crawled, Sehun's moved backwards a little and that was when Kai's eyes caught the sight of silver hair and the man's face came in veiw clearly, immediately his brain recognized who it was. "You–"he breathed out "it's you– I saw you in the middle of the sea_" he paused to swallow the salty taste in his mouth. "what where you doing there?" He asked. Sehun blinked at him, cocking his head slightly."Swimming!" He simply replied. "This hour?"  He’s really an odd guy, Kai though, to be swimming at such hours.  Sehun nodded. "Yeah, I don't have a specific time when it comes to swimming" "You're not from around here. are you?" Sehun shook his head. "No am not." Kai hummed, his eyes traveling across Sehun's body, his lower half was still buried inside the water and he still looked as alluring as Kai had seen him years back. There were a lot of things Kai wanted to ask, but he found himself asking "have you ever been to Hawaii?" Just to be sure. Sehun just started at him blankly for long a moment. His Adam’s apple bobbed around swallowing. He didn’t answer right away; his eyes flickered up at Kai and then down at his hands. Kai didn’t notice he withheld his breath waiting for Sehun to confirm his suspicion. Then he shook his head. "No" he finally said. "Why?" "Oh, I  thought I saw you back there six years ago and that... That song you're humming, it's sounds familiar it's the same one I  heard from– " he paused for a moment, brain zapping back to a fuzzy zone. Trying to filter the reality of it all before he continued to speak. " are you a merman?" Sehun was worrying his lower lip, peeking up at Kai. Uncertainty was radiating from him in waves. Kai felt the attention on his skin. Raising his eyes to stare into those intense grey ones, Sehun looked like a deer caught in a headlight, tensing up into a sublime statue. Then his eyes widened mouth opening and closing for a few seconds as if wanting to say something but deciding against it in the last second.  Then he heaved a sigh before he finally spoke. "You believe in such things? Like they really do exist?" He countered with a question of his own. "No, I don't, but I thought I saw something–?"He shook his head in an attempt to clear his mind. "What are you?" "I'm Sehun!" "Yeah I know that– but how you swum was incredible like you belong to the sea–" he said, eyes moving further to Sehun's lower body to see if his eyes would catch a sight of what he thought he saw earlier, after a short moment of looking and didn't see what he wanted due to the fact that Sehun's lower body was still covered by the water, he gave up and continued to speak.  "I've only seen one person swims the way you did." "Who?" "A friend" he nodded at the thought of Chanyeol, the only person Kai had seen swimming in water like a fish but with a lost tail. "How did you swim that good?" "I help people from drowning!"  "You're a lifeguard?" "Lifeguard?" Sehun scrunched up his nose, lips pursing as he spoke. "What's that?" Kai brows shot up to his forehead."The job you do, you don't know what a lifeguard is? I thought you_" "Ah yes, forgive my shallow brain, I just remembered what a lifeguard means, yes I think you can call me that. But really you don't have to give me anything, I bet the ring might be of significant to you." Kai wanted to say no, he hated the ring, so giving it away wouldn't mean anything. "You should keep it, really." He insisted. Sehun nodded with a smile.“I’ll never take it off,” he said, looking up at Kai. He sounded so solemn, as if he was reciting a vow. Kai was left not knowing what to say. Then Sehun reached down, touching the belts of creamy pearls(one with small ones, and other with bigger ones, it has something shimmering like pieces of sea glass in them) around his waist. He pulled them off and shuffled slowly towards Kai. It seemed hard for him. He’d been so graceful in the water, so powerful, but on land he seemed uncoordinated. Kai met him half way and Sehun beamed at him again. He wrapped the pearls on Kai's wrist, sitting back to admire the sight of the pearls in Kai's hand. Kai looked down at the string of pearls. they looked real.“What is this?” “It’s...an Emblem.” “Emblem? Of what?”  Sehun paused for a moment, inhaling before speaking again,“Emblem of the royalty…”  “R-royality? you’re-!” "No, I inherited it from my father, and I want you to have them." “Thanks,” Kai said awkwardly. “But pearls really aren’t my thing. Besides, you saved my life. I don’t need anything from you. I should be the one giving you things and you said you inherited it from you Dad, I don't think it will be wise to give it away.” “No,” Sehun shook his head. He placed his hand on Kai's chest, over Kai's heart. “You have to keep them. They’re yours now. I’m yours now.” “What?” Kai asked. He wondered if this was a translation issue, if Sehun's Hangul wasn’t very good. But Sehun seemed to know what he was saying though. He seemed to be convinced of it.  “They signify that I chose you,” Sehun added, looking at Kai proudly, eyes blinking beautifully. "And i have other stuff i got from my father" he tap a finger at his forehead, where the circlet sat perfectly. Kai wanted to asked about it but then his eyes caught the sight of tiny sliver scales doting Sehun's arm, his breath got caught up in his throat, eyes going down to Sehun's now slightly out of water lower half, and bigger scales were decorating his hip down to where Kai couldn't see. Eyes going wide, he opened his mouth to speak but wasn't given the chance when Sehun continued speaking "But i am sorry, I can't have you remember what you saw, at least having the uncertainty about it is better than being sure of what I really am." Before Kai could register what the man meant, Sehun had already leaned closer to Kai, smelling of salt and the briny depths of the sea and he kissed Kai. This time it was slow, soft. Sehun's lips were so soft  He was too shocked to notice very much else apart from the kiss and the feel of Sehun's mouth against his own.  Then slowly he felt the images of fins and scales fading away form his memories, like what he saw was just an illusion, the enchanting beautiful song he thought he'd heard slowly turning to a fading melody, the boy he saw in Hawaii also fading from his memories. but the memories and reality of being saved by a lifeguard remained firmly. The whole thing was surreal and Kai was still half-drowned. He didn’t have the wherewithal to think straight. Sehun pulled back, looking at Kai w