“Mother, tell me again of the story of when you and father met?”

They were in their private bedroom. Both of them comfortably settled into a large wooden bathtub inside their cozy room. San’s mother chuckled as she lathered soap into his hair and brushed his wet hair out of his eyes.

“Again? Are you not tired of hearing the same story again and again?”

San shook his head and grinned at his mother.

“A long long time ago, a man who worked on a ship as a fisherman was swept up by the ocean's large waves.” She began, sliding her arms across the surface to stir the water. The ripples grew in size as they clashed and merged together. “The man fell overboard and screamed out for help as the waves pushed him further and further away from the ship. His legs were weak from swimming; his head bobbed below the surface multiple times until he could no longer kick. As he began sinking, he thought he was done for.”

“But that’s when mother arrives right?” San splashed the water with his arms playfully imitating swimming.

“Yes your mother was out swimming that day and happened across the man. And she knew she had to save him. She grabbed his arm and swam him back to the surface. With much effort, she pulled him out of the water.”

San looked at his mother expectantly with bright eyes.

“Yes, yes.” She laughed. “And then mother had to give your father a magical kiss that brought him back to life. He woke up as your mother was escaping back into the sea but he had already seen my form.”

From the tub she slowly lifted her aquamarine colored tail, scales reflecting in the candlelight perched on a desk across the room. San giggled as he also lifted his sapphire tail above the water, a faint dark blue hue added another layer to the sparkling reflection on the walls.

“By chance mother came back to see if he had left yet, but the man stayed until night fell. From that day on he would visit that spot daily for nearly months. But I never dared approach because some humans are not very good people. Many of our brethren have fallen to their species.” Her face was serious as she recalled their history. “But this man, he would dutifully come daily and wait for hours in that spot. One day he was not there and I noticed some parchment lying on the beach. Your mother was curious and grabbed it after making sure no one would see.”

Sans mother poured salt water over San’s head rinsing off the soap suds.

She smiled fondly. “It was a confession. And after much time, he proved himself to be a good man and we were in love. And that’s how you, our beloved treasure, our son, was born.”

She kissed his head and lifted him out of the tub. Grabbing a towel to dry him with, San could feel his tail tingle and the scales peel back and morph into two legs. He sat on the floor expectantly, waiting for his mother to get out as well until he heard loud stomping from downstairs and then clattering up the stairs.

“Mother?” San asked as her eyes darted toward the door of their bedroom. A man burst through the door.

“Hyunjae?” She asked in confusion. Hyunjae was his father's blood brother. His face dripped with sweat and fear as he paced into the room. “What is going-?“ Before she could utter another word, he interrupted.

“They found out. They have Hyunwon.” He quickly scanned the room for San. “Thank heavens he has legs. Quickly you need to hurry and run. They’ll be here any minute-“

A large crash came from below and San could see the fear and panic flash across his mother’s eyes.

“San, I love you. You’re my treasure.” His mother pressed a rushed kiss to his forehead. She took her necklace that she always wore and tore it off forcefully. She pushed the necklace into San’s hand, before shoving him away from her.

“Hyunjae! Please protect him!” His mother hissed as they heard more stairs clattering under the weight of several men.

Hyunjae rushed forward to grab San by his arm and ripped him away from his mother. The boy screamed, shocked and confused as Hyunjae zipped out of the room down the hall and into the next room over. He whimpered as he saw out of the corner of his eye, men dressed in light armor. They stormed the room they were just in, surrounding his mother still in her original form.

“And here we’ve located the monster. You’re very unlucky that you’ve decided to enter the king’s domain. Had you decided to stay in the ocean where your filth belongs, you wouldn’t have had to die today.” A loud voice boomed from the room.

His uncle rushed to cover his ears but it was too late. San went numb as he heard the blade come in contact with flesh, a sickening dull crack as bones shattered and a violent splat. His eyes burned with tears as he clawed desperately at his uncle's arms holding him back.

“Search the rooms.” One of the men yelled and within seconds men spread themselves across the floor violently kicking in the wooden doors. San struggled to breathe as his uncle held him even closer when the men walked closer to them.

“Name?” The biggest one spoke.

“Hyunjae.”

“Ah, the brother of the foolish man.” The man scoffed condescendingly.

“And who is this boy?”

“This is my son.” He lied while gritting his teeth. “We had nothing to do with this, we swear. I did not know what my brother was doing associating with them.”

The dressed man looked at San’s human legs and scoffed. San shivered under his glare. Casting one more glance at them, they exited their room and left as quickly as they came. On the first floor the bar buzzed with alarm and noise, the big man from earlier cleared his throat.

“Tonight Choi Hyunwon will be burned alive in the Centralsquare for associating and bringing a monster into the king’s domain.”

Hyunjae fell to the floor sobbing, clutching San’s small frame closer to his body.

____________________________________________________________________________

San coughed weakly as he sat huddled in the corner of the room. His voice was raw from crying. He glanced over at his uncle who slept beside him on the bed. For the past three days he never left the room. His uncle looked after him feverishly, checking on him every few minutes. As if frightened that if San left for even a moment, he’d be snatched off and executed.

After three days, he relaxed a bit after confirming they wouldn't come back and allowed himself to finally sleep. San looked down at his hands, they were red and swollen from clutching the necklace his mother gave him before her demise. The red stone with an intricate insignia reflected the lamp light, he clutched it quietly in his palm.

He looked around his uncle’s room, it was the bedroom they sought refuge in after leaving his mother’s room. While Hyunwon was a fisherman, Hyunjae ran a barkeep in Midtown. Upstairs was where they lived. San, his mother and father in one room; his uncle and son shared their current room. San slowly descended the bed and creeped out of the room. He padded his way slowly over to his mother’s room but his feet froze outside the closed door.

The smell of death and blood flooded his nostrils. He gasped and he fell to his knees; his nose and throat stung as he felt the need to vomit. He felt the hot liquid rising and coughed before grasping his mouth and nose to block out the overwhelming smell. His face felt on fire as he violently vomited through his fingers, the splatting onto the floor made his ears ring. He remembered the sound of dull cracking of bones, the splattering of blood lining the floor and walls. His breathing was labored as he emptied himself. He screamed.

“San?” Out of the corner of his eyes he saw a boy. His uncle’s son, Yunho, rushed over to him and pulled him away from the door.

When San could finally breathe again, he noticed they were downstairs in the bar area. No customers in sight. He felt Yunho raise a rag to his mouth and wipe away his vomit, before being offered a tin of water. Trading it for the necklace, Yunho took the vomit covered necklace from his hands and began wiping at it. Taking a sip, he noted the tin held saltwater.

Yunho, his cousin, and his uncle were the only ones alive now that knew his secret. When his father had told his brother the truth, his uncle raged for 3 days and 3 nights. But he eventually forgave him. Yunho, his son, was simply happy to have another friend his age. They had been basically raised together after the truth was revealed.

“Are you feeling any better?” Yunho asked carefully as he returned the necklace.

San nodded slowly taking in the older boy’s appearance. They hadn’t seen each other in three days. He looked exhausted and tired. His clothes covered in a significant amount of dirt and San could see the red welts on his palms. Yunho looked embarrassed that San had noticed and hid his hands behind his back.

“This is-“ he stuttered. “This isn’t anything at all! Don’t worry about it.” But Sans' pained eyes made his defense crumble.

“Father...father and I have been taking turns digging.” He admitted.

“We couldn’t leave her there.” Yunho mumbled. San clutched his tin closer to his chest. “Do you want to see?”

A nod. Yunho took the tin and set it on the table, grabbing San’s much smaller hand into his and carefully bringing them behind the house. He saw a large hole they had been digging at, he peered over and gauged it to be almost 2 meters deep and wide enough for a large human to fit.

“We don’t have enough coin to give her a proper burial with a gravestone or anything. Not that...not that she would be able to have a proper one. She’s over there.” Yunho gestured to the garden where a large cloth had been draped around a figure. Besides the figure laid a small pot. “And that’s all we could recover from the ashes of uncle Hyunwon.”

San felt oddly quiet as he approached them. Slowly lifting the tarp, he glanced once more at his mother. Her eyes closed, sleeping eternally. The deep gashes and wounds across her bosom looked painful but no longer bled warmth, only filled with cold rotting blood. His eyes were dry and worn out from days of crying and his throat sore from screaming and vomiting. He felt anger. He felt sadness. He felt confusion. He felt tired. But his brain was numb and he couldn’t feel anything anymore.

As his head collided with the ground, he could see Yunho run to his side, before passing out.

____________________________________________________________________________

San huffed as he hoisted two buckets of salt water braced on a wooden plank over his shoulder. He opened the backdoor of the barkeep with his foot.

“I’m home, father!” He yelled towards the front as he winded through the barrels of ale and wine, expertly carrying his saltwater.

“Welcome back San.” Hyunjae smiled from behind the counter. “Yunho was having difficulty managing the floor without you, can you help out?”

Yunho, smiled from the floor, mouthed ‘hurry!’ He was balancing 3 trays of food and ale, albeit with some difficulty.

13 years have passed since that day. His uncle had legally adopted San as his own after the incident. It was actually quite easy to forge some paperwork as long as you knew the right people. But after spending months suffering from the rumors surrounding his father’s town's famous incident of having relations with a forbidden creature. His uncle was forced to change his last name altogether.

His uncle felt guilty for stripping San of his identity, but San understood that it was for their own safety. On paper, his father Jeong Hyunjae had two sons: Jeong San and Jeong Yunho. Together they ran their uncle’s barkeep in midtown a few buildings away from the central square. In the exact same place.

They no longer used that room for obvious reasons. Keeping it as their storage space if needed. All of them unanimously decided to allow San and Yunho to share the other bedroom. Their uncle had taken to sleeping on a makeshift cot in their storage room instead that could be packed away during the day.

By sheer luck during that incident and the ignorance of the townsfolk he had managed to keep his identity hidden with the help of his uncle. To the townsfolk, he was a perfectly average looking human. Rumors and tales always depicted merfolk or more specifically mermaids as having long hair and voluptuous bodies. Having distinct bright shining eyes and razor sharp teeth and fed only on human flesh. San was completely fine consuming human food and his eyes black as coal. His gills looked merely like scars when in human form and were easily covered by a white scarf around his neck. It wasn’t uncommon, Men and women often wore scarves and clothes to cover their skin from the harsh sunlight. He kept his necklace safely tucked under his shirt and under the scarf.

He was able to stay in his human form for a decently long time and was able to avoid any suspicions living for the past thirteen years. His lungs functioned fine on oxygen in the air and his skin only needed saltwater once every 4 days, potentially stretching up to 5 days before he risked drying out. San would bathe in saltwater privately in his bedroom. His uncle would guard his door every time dutifully; every time for 13 years. Every morning he would sneak small amounts of saltwater into his room to refill his tub slowly over the week so that it would be full by the fifth night when he needed to soak.

If he didn’t know any better he thought this level of patience and detail would be overdoing it but his uncle never took any shortcuts. Always making sure San never went near the ocean, in case a large wave would crash onto the shore and thus reveal San in his original form. It only took a mere bucket of saltwater to make his gills flare up, and having more than 50% percent of his body exposed to saltwater would transform him and render him incapable of walking.

San set down his two buckets of water in the storeroom which was partly hidden from the dining floor. He grabbed one of the buckets of saltwater and headed up to his room to toss the water in his personal wooden bathtub hidden behind a screen. The bathtub took up a third of the modest sized room. Behind the screen, Yunho and San slept on opposite cots placed on either sides of the room. In the center they shared a dresser for their possessions and clothes.

A small shallow bowl of water perched on top as a simple reflective surface acting as a mirror. San glanced at the water and ruffled his ash black hair stained with a single white streak. It had appeared after he fainted thirteen years ago, his uncle said it was due to trauma and stress.

San heard the front door of the barkeep swing open and he quickly went back to assist his family. As he raced back down, he snatched his apron off the railing and quickly tied it around his waist.

Yunho and San busied themselves for the next few hours; bringing drinks to and from the bar to tables, wiping and cleaning down surfaces when customers left and greeting whenever anyone walked in. During a lull later in the afternoon, Hyunjae waved San over to him behind the bar.

“Hey do you mind going down to Lowsquare to the market and grabbing some apples. We’re running low on stock and apple wine is selling out sooner than we thought.”

Yunho groaned from the other side of the room.

“No fair, Pa! San always gets to go to the market. Why don’t you ever let me go?”

“That’s because San here is prettier. Hell he’s prettier than most women and those bastards down there will sell produce to him for way cheaper than you, boy.” Hyunjae scoffed as he dismissed Yunho. “You a 6 foot man won’t woo those slimy vendors. Now get your back to wiping tables.”

San chuckled at them but internally groaned at being referred to as feminine. He cursed his small slender frame, wishing it matched that of Yunho’s tall muscular frame.

“Here this should be enough for you to get an entire bag.” Hyunjae dropped a satchel of coins into San’s palm and sent him on his way.

____________________________________________________________________________

San briskly walked towards Lowsquare, expertly dodging people walking past. He noted a majority of people were walking on the main road away from Lowsquare. Lowsquare was, obviously, the centre area below Centralsquare and surrounded by Lowtown.

Lowtown is where all the general merchants lived such as vendors or fishermen, as well as the poor population of the city. It was also situated just a short five minute walk away from the harbor where merchant ships usually docked and sold their goods at Lowsquare market. The main road that connected the Lowtown and Midtown was made of cobblestone with a slight incline.

The barkeep was situated a bit closer to Centralsquare and would be considered as part of Midtown. But his uncle never really cared for neighborhood pride disputes and allowed patrons from any town as long as they were willing to pay.

Midtown is where middle class merchants who sold more expensive items such as leather and paper. People who lived here were more permanent residents with a bit of coin. San was familiar with the roads of Lowtown and Midtown as he often explored them with Yunho whenever they snuck out to play.

Following the main road beyond CentralSquare and leading towards the mountains was Highsquare which was also the entrance to the King’s palace. Surrounding Highsquare was Hightown where all the nobles and rich community lived. Halfway through the mainroad past Centralsquare was a tall stone wall that separated them from Midtown. It also was a checkpoint where only nobles or people with permission could enter.

From what he knew they had a military academy that would serve as either the city’s security or the King’s personal royal guard. But only those of decent birth would qualify to enter the academy. Exceptions included prodigies discovered or very wealthy merchant’s sons who were offered as a peace offering for trading contracts; they were rare and very uncommon.

San had also heard of high class shops that offered jewelry and silk were located in Highsquare as well, but no one of his status could dream of ever setting eyes on. The king's palace was more of a mystery to San. Even among the rare hightown patrons that frequented the bar, none really knew what went on in the palace. Only from stories, he knew that it was a majestic building; surrounded by tall iron walls with a man made moat to block out intruders. Together, this made up the capital city of the KQ kingdom, Aurora. The KQ kingdom has other cities, but none compared to the scale of Aurora, being the largest port city in the continent.

As he descended the mainroad, San noticed the dense fog in the distance that covered the shore. Lowsquare was less busy today which was strange but he didn’t pay it much attention. He quickly weaved his ways around the booths, arriving at the fruit vendor.

“Uncle! Could I get a bag of apples?” San lifted his arm to present the bag of coins and he couldn't help but notice his thin wrists. The heavy set vendor let out a hearty laugh.

“Of course! Anything for you my boy. Your business always helps us out. How’s your Pa doing?” He turned around to rummage in his boxes.

“Doing fine! Doing fine!” San grinned. “If you stopped by the bar more often you’d see the old man is still kicking and wilding.”

“If I had the coin to drink myself stupid everyday then I wouldnt be running a damn stall, boy.” The vendor laughed. “Now where is that blaste-“

“Father here.” Sans ears perked up at a woman’s voice. He raised his head and slowly slipped his arms away from the stall table.

“Ah yes thank you.” The man took the bag from the woman and filled it with apples.

“Boy, this is my daughter. I heard you’re twenty this year. Getting on in your years, aren't ya? you better take a wife soon so you can raise your own youngins. How ‘bout my lovely daughter here?”

“Father!” The woman scoffed. “I’m so sorry about him.”

San politely smiled as he traded the apples with his coins with the older man.

“No, no. I'm sure you're lovely but you'll find a much better man than me. I'll be off now, take care!” San shouted as he raced away. His heart raced as her sweet voice rang in his ears. Nausea flooded his senses as he ran up the cobblestone path back to the barkeep, still expertly avoiding people.

Ever since that day he fainted, interacting with women made all the pores on his body flood with dread and fear. All he could recall was his mother’s thin frame marred by deep gashes and wounds and the stench of dried blood flooding his nose.

He hated how weak and frail her lifeless body looked and interacting with women made his mind race with panic. The bar was normally frequented by men who wanted to get wasted. Women were rare but on occasion if they did come, his uncle or Yunho would take care of them. They were also more manlier and stronger looking than he was. While he was somewhat relieved his small feminine frame did not gather much interest from the women. It was easier to keep his secret identity that way; he hated how his dainty frame reminded him of his mother.

He quickly reached the backdoor of the barkeep and took long deep breaths to calm down. He would have to ask his uncle to start sending Yunho instead if the daughter would be there regularly.

After what felt like quite a long break, San figured his uncle wouldn’t appreciate the wait any longer and he entered the back door of the barkeep.

____________________________________________________________________________

As the sun turned orange in the distance, the fervor of the dining room grew loud as customers shuffled in after each other.

“Three more ales here!”

“Can i get some more apple wine!”

“Four more guests coming in!”

“I'll be right there to serve you! Just give me a sec to take their order!”

Evening rush was busy as always. San and Yunho expertly serviced customers at a lightning pace. Dropping off tins filled with ales and wine and wiping down tables when customers left. Hyunjae behind the bar servicing their regulars and joyfully talking to them.

A large crash startled San from his concentration and his head whipped to the sound of commotion. In the corner of his eye he could see Yunho rush to the bar counter to set down his drinks and begin to rush over to deal with the situation.

A very drunk man was hovering above a table where four men were seated. His face was red and he seemed heated as he shuffled on his feet due to his drunken stupor.

“I saiddddd- this here is our bar. And ain’t no stinking rich folk should be coming in here. It's our turf, why don't you go back to them rich bars where you came from.”

At the table sat 3 dark haired and one light haired men. They seemed disinterested in the man’s words until he leaned forward onto their table.

“It seems to be a shame that you seem so devoid of any intelligence that you can’t even tell the difference between us and a dirty noble.” One of the dark hair males spat.

His gaze was cold and unforgiving as he glared at the drunk man. His eyes were dark as coal and seemed to absorb all light. Another dark haired man at the table with a head scarf wrapped around his forehead snorted and giggled. San looked at them and although they were dressed rather extravagantly...they were most definitely not nobles. Their sun kissed skin and rough toned bodies suggested they were used to labor and not at all like the pale weak nobles that didnt do anything.

Some of them donned coats that were decorated in material San was unfamiliar with but all of them adorned a fair amount of jewelry around their ears and necks. The drunken man at this point was screaming loudly and yelling profanities about them. Drawing attention from the other customers, curious to see if a fight would break out.

“Sir! Sir! Im going to have to ask you to leave if you're going to keep this up!” Yunho tried reasoning with the drunken man which only made him turn up his nose at them.

“And you shut up! How dare you let this establishment fall to such a disgrace. When I was young this was a place for the good man. Not these ing nobles who think they can trample us and tax us and take away everything we work for! The owner of this place knows who I am! I belong here. And you a ty boy can't tell me what to do!”

Yunho rolled his eyes and grabbed the drunken man's arm to pry the dangerous tin he had been brandishing and trying to threaten the table of four with. The man’s drunken struggle went on for a few seconds but a sudden jerk of his arm sent Yunho tripping forward.

The drunken man laughed out loud. The dining floor who had been observing at this point began chanting excitedly as they observed the small scuffle between Yunho and the drunk man. San became nervous, glancing over to Hyunjae at the bar who looked equally nervous, San ran over quickly to break up the scuffle. As he pushed through the crowd San could see the drunken man use all his weight to push Yunho’s tall frame sending him crashing backwards and hitting his head on a nearby table. San eyes widened as he dashed towards but not in time to catch the tall boy.

Kneeling by his side he cradled Yunho’s head onto his lap. His eyes fluttered in confusion due to the impact. They were now in the center of the chants and cheers of the crowd and San suddenly felt emotions of fear surge forward. He felt suffocated. He wrapped his arms around his head and closed his eyes to drown out the sounds.

And then there was a deafening screech. And followed a man’s voice, low but somewhat sweet in tone. It was a short few seconds, only for a moment; but now an eerie quietness washed over the establishment.

San opened his eyes as the song stopped and looked up. Noticing that everyone had become quiet. Their eyes glazed over and lifeless, their bodies moved rigidly as they all shuffled back to their respective tables. The drunken man was silent and his feet seemed to move on his own as he left through the front door without any force. San’s mouth was agape and his eyes roamed the room in confusion before landing on the table of four.

They never left their table. Rather they seemed to be fairly unbothered by the situation. He blinked twice and looked up at the dark haired man who made the remark. He seemed rather amused by the situation and the table continued their conversation while sipping away at their drinks.

The noisy chatter returned to the bar and everything seemed to continue as if a scuffle never happened. He looked back down and paid attention to Yunho groaning weakly on his lap. Just narrowly missing the sharp gazes fixated on his back.

“Yunho! Are you okay?”

“Huh? Yea im fine...rather why am i on the floor?” Yunho mumbled as he sat up.

“What? You were pushed and you fell, there was a man- he’s already gone now. But you ended up hitting your head, I saw-”

“A man? Where do you mean?” Yunho looked confused. San inspected him but saw no signs of injury.

“Uh...nevermind. So long as you’re fine. C’mon let’s go...” San pulled Yunho to his feet and they both returned to the bar to grab drinks to continue serving.

His uncle looked calm as well as if he had forgotten what happened. San was confused. Never in his life had he experienced that. But he had no time to gather his thoughts. As he set down the last of his drinks on his platter at a nearby table; he heard a call.

“Hey! We’d like to make an order!” It was the table of 4 from earlier. San looked for Yunho and saw that he was on the other side of the bar serving drinks, so he sighed and walked over. The man with short dark hair who made the call grinned as San walked over.

“Hey, would you like a refill or to order something else?”

“How long have you been working here?” The short haired man smiled.

“Me? I’ve been working here my entire life.”

“Hmmm, so then you’re local around these parts.”

“You could say so, yeah.” San shrugged.

“And you plan to stay here forever?”

“Excuse me?”

“A dream, a wish, a desire; it can be different to every individual. Something that we all innately seek to complete us. Do you have a life goal aside from this dingy little bar?” The man went on.

“I’m not following.”

“Gold, eternal life, honor, love, fame does it for some people. Some people, like us, are looking for our purpose. Do you have one?”

“Sir, I’m just a worker at a barkeep. I don’t have any grand intentions or anything…”

“You seem an interesting fellow. So let me ask you, will you join us?”

“Huh?”