Year: 1892 (Joseon Era) 

귓가에 넘치는 바다 
눈을 감고 느낀다 
난 자리에 가만히 앉아 
항해하는 법을 알아 

(I heard the sound of sea 
I close my eyes and feel it 
Though I'm sitting still right here 
But I know how to sail) 

뱃노래 뱃노래 
외로움을 던지는 노래 
몇고개 몇고개의 
파도를 넘어야 하나 

(Sailors' song, sailors' song 
the song of loneliness 
How many, how many waves 
do we have to over come?)  

소금기 머금은 바람 
입술 겉을 적신다 
난 손발이 모두 묶여도 
자유하는 법을 알아 

(The smell of salty water fades 
in the wind makes the lips wet 
Though my arms and foot are tied 
I know how to set myself free) 

뱃노래 뱃노래 
외로움을 던지는 노래 
몇고개 몇고개의 
파도를 넘어야 하나 

(Sailors' song, sailors' song 
the song of loneliness 
How many, how many waves 
do we have to over come?) 

⚓ 

         “YOU shouldn’t stand so close to the shore.”

The wind had picked up. The ocean breeze filled the senses of the woman who looked back to the old man. She smiled, clearly dressed in her robes of higher status. Her father was a scholar in the royal courts and even though she wasn’t part of those living in the palace anymore—she did keep her high status due to him. The old man looked down to her abdomen, clicking his tongue. She giggled, probably knowing what he was thinking.

“It isn’t safe for a pregnant woman to come to shore. The sirens will seek you out, for your child.”

The wind blew once more, moving stray strands of hair in front of her face. In the distance she could see the sailors’ ship that was coming their way. In that ship, was her husband. A reputable merchant sailor. She shook her head to the man, her hands not at her abdomen at all.

“My child has already been born, three days ago. Besides, I’m too old to believe in fairy tales.”

The man huffed. Continuing with his picking of sea shells. He looked like the town’s outcast that spoke of tales and mysteries until he was ran out by most likely the magistrate for disturbing the peace. She watched him, the song, the chantey reaching her ears on the shore from out in the seas. Her new baby boy was with her mother. She just wanted to greet her husband.

“No one believes, until it is too late.” sounds of laughter reached her ears. There was another young couple with a boy that seemed to be learning how to walk. He was unique, she noticed, having seen that his hair was an almost silvery white. “The song you hear, is not just the sailors who sing but the sirens join in.”

The noble woman ignored the man, focusing on the middle-class family and their unique son. He would be an outcast as well. Her eyes stayed on him, his face round and chubby. He was a beautiful child and would most likely be a handsome man as he matured. The family intrigued him. She may not have believed in sirens but she knew witches were true. The town shaman was just that. She dealt with magic and many went to get their fortune told. She, being one of the many and as to why she knew she would bare a son, her Hoseok. Already a smiling and cheerful child. The shaman told him he would bring great joy—pausing but never continued although she had seen the woman’s eyes sadden. It made her curious, not curious enough to find. She was only slightly, a believer of such things.

Blinking, feeling the sea breeze on her face, she once more looked to the ocean. She squinted—catching a sparkle of something in the water. It shone, twinkling and looking so beautiful as if calling for her. Beckoning her into the watery depths.

“With their voices and beautiful features, sirens can beckon even the strongest of sailors into their trap. A belittled magical creature. Strong and powerful both on water and land. To cross fate with a siren, is to gain immortality.”

The old man spoke again, pointing to the twinkling out on the ocean. The ship going further and further away from it. She turned with a mocking sort of smile. 

“Then sea creatures must be true, if sirens are oh so powerful.”

“Really, the unbelieving do suffer the most.”

         A little way off, the family also having come down to the shores watched in intrigue as their son attempted to walk. He was not yet one, a month shy from one. Two bottom teeth decorated his little smile. With each wobble and tumble, gleeful laughter came from his mouth. It was rare moments when the family could enjoy the innocence of their child. Having been born under a full moon and with hair as light and silver as that of the moon. The shaman told them how he would be special and suffer much due to the lack of understand that he is meant for greatness. Mainly because they were of a lower status.

In a sense, they were grateful that their status was not of higher class or of noblemen and women. They were city inhabitants that worked in fields and marshes for a living. They were well, sometimes hungered but not enough to notice. If their son had been born to a noblewoman or a palace concubine—his existence would have never been known. Either killed or hidden from the world for the rest of his days due to the difference he was born with.

The wife and mother, with a kind look on her face, was tired. The sea always relaxed and energized her. She felt a connection to the ocean and its unpredictable waves. It was wild and free. It was what she longed to be. She wanted to go wherever which way, with no one questioning her every move. She felt almost at home with the ocean, as if it would bring her something—something she was meant to find.

“That noblewoman, is she with child?” her husband spoke in a hushed whisper by her ear. Their child still waddling not that far from them. Three steps was the most he had achieved before falling back unto the sand.

She turned, noting the abdomen that stuck out of the woman. She studied its shape and the lack of it being fully round as if a child still was there. No. The noblewoman had recently given birth. “She is not.”

“It is a good thing she isn’t.”

They weren’t, per say, superstitious. They knew old tales and stories. One everyone knew about in town was about the sirens. Many young fishermen were lost to them. Naïve and brave—thinking they could and would never fall trap into a half-human creatures seduction. They didn’t believe their beauty to be enchanting or their voices mesmerizing. Only the foolish, which were the un