I was too fond of Michael.

Over the course of two days, the quiet, baby-faced man had grown on me. He had a pleasant smile that was constantly pasted on his face and a gleam in his eye that would only shine brighter when he was working. Even when I was piss drunk at the bar, he didn’t make fun of me and willingly dropped me home. Baekhyun thought I was looking too much into it. I thought he was losing out on the fun by hanging around the library, that too just a day before the voyage.

“If you keep sighing like that,” Suho said, as I sat by the hull of the ship while watching Michael heave two bags of flour over the deck. “Your lungs will collapse.”

I ignored him and sighed again, making him chuckle as he looked around for Shane. I sat up straighter and looked towards the small store. I saw the kid’s familiar back linger by the counter and slip a cigarette pack into his pocket, his messy blonde hair sticking out of his black beanie. Even with the sharp ocean breeze, the youngest in the crew looked absolutely comfortable wearing his sleeveless denim shirt and the thin plaid shirt beneath, whose sleeves he had rolled up all the way above his elbows. His jeans barely hung on his waist and the glimpse of a storm of a tattoo on his back made me wince.

“Oh Shane?”  My heart skipped a beat when I heard the familiar voice. Michael sat next to me and offered a mug of tea. I gladly took it and wrapped my fingers around it. Both of us shared a gaze at the kid then took a sip of the hot beverage.

“He’s the youngest, is that why he looks like that?” I pointed at his beat up figure and the incomprehensible vaccuum in his expression. It was wrong, so wrong, for a nineteen year old kid to look like that.

“It’s the voyage,” Michael said. He looked at my shocked expression and quickly shook his head. “Oh no no, he doesn’t have a problem with it. It’s just… his family’s had a bad history with the ocean.”

“Bad…history?”

Michael waited for Shane to jump over the deck and returned the half-hearted salute that was directed at him. I gave him an eager smile but he simply gave me a onceover glance and walked towards the others. He offered Chris a smoke but the latter refused, momentarily chiding him for the bad habit. Shane rolled his eyes and lit up his cigarette. My jaw dropped when I saw the chain patterns dancing out of his lips.

“He’s a seasoned wreck,” Michael said. “His father was one of the most famous people in Youghal. Not because he was rich or did something amazing in his career. He was famous because he was kind, loyal, honest, the whole nine yards of Christian values. Their family had been an important part of the Irish Revolution so he was automatically looked up to for any community problems and decisions. Shane was only seven when his father and brother joined a crew that was headed for a copycat expedition.”

“Copycat expedition?” I asked.

“It’s when someone wants to follow the route that another person had already travelled upon. Long time ago there was a crazy man who set off for the Bermuda Triangle but he went the wrong way and landed up in the Caspian Sea. They ran out of resources and had to turn back. Some of the crew members though refused to tell the townspeople what had taken place there. They swore to never go on an expedition again.”

I drowned my face in the steam coming off the tea, hoping it would dispel the goosebumps riding up my arm. I had a good feeling about where Michael’s story was going.

“So years later another man pops up and says he’ll do the same. Shane’s father and uncle tried to persuade him to drop it, tried to explain to him that the townspeople had heard some horrifying stories about what lies in the ocean. But that only pumped up the man even more. There was a meeting held and finally, a crew was selected. Shane’s father and brother went onboard with them.”

I heard footsteps and panicked upon seeing Suho. I gave him a furtive glance while Michael retied his boots. Suho furrowed his eyebrows, then shrugged and walked back to the hull.

“Nothing was the same after they returned. Some people returned completely insane, others were in denial about what they had seen. Town doctors said that it was the trauma of being stuck in such a dangerous expedition but it was more than that. One old man in the crew began talking about Lorelei.”

I blinked at him. “Who is Lorelei?”

Michael stared at me with a blank look on his face, almost as if I had asked him whether he could turn the tea into wine. “You’re on this particular voyage and you’re asking who is Lorelei?”

“Hey!”

We turned around and found Chris staring down at us. He looked at Michael who simply gave a sober glance and walked away. I wanted him to stay but Chris took his place.

“Listen Luhan,” Chris started, a too-structured, almost robotic smile on his face. “We all need this trip okay? We all need the money. You guys are paying us more than what we get in a season’s job. Now there is definitely some bad stuff you’ll hear about the ocean and all the dark stories that were created to amuse the young and old. But you’re smarter than that, right? And that was long time ago. This is different. That man was a different man and you guys are a completely different group. No matter what happens, don’t listen to what these people tell you alright?”

I looked over his shoulder and found Michael and Suho helping each other reposition the planks. Shane was telling them to not touch the planks he had worked hard to organize the day before. Charlie took him by the shoulder and lead him out of the ship and towards the little café--shack facing the ocean.

“Okay.” I smiled and Chris squeezed my shoulder, murmuring a “thanks” and heading towards the same shack. I gazed at the colours that the blazing afternoon sun had created upon the cliffs and the low hills surmounted in the distant horizon. No matter how bright the lights out here, the ocean skies far away seemed to tell a different story.

“Lorelei.”

“Suho?” I called out. “Isn't Baekhyun at the library?"

Suho turned around and shrugged, then recollected himself. "No wait." He raised a finger in thought but before he could answer me, I remembered our friend's words in the morning. 

“He’s at the police---” Suho’s voice drifted away as I half-stumbled down the ramp and jogged around the corner of the store where Shane was standing. I waved at the kids who I had played football with the previous afternoon and asked the tallest where the police station was.

“Right behind you, mister.”

I turned around and found the metallic sign glaring down at me. Ruffling the kid’s hair, I swung open the door and entered the surprisingly neat and openly-spaced area.

The station looked like a bank. Facing the entrance were four cubicles made of wood and the people behind them chatting with each other, coffee cups and sandwich boxes on their desks. I wondered whether Youghal's protectors really deserved to feel so audaciously safe but was impressed by what I found as I moved in further. To my right was a small passage that had a coffee machine and on the other side of the mini corridor was a large space with wooden planks as ceilings. Leaves adorned the planks, making them look like tree branches and when I looked closely I found that it wasn’t left open but was covered by plastic glass. Below this roof were two rows of wooden benches and a few people sitting on them, regarding me with irritation and suspicion.

“You don’t want to exchange glances with them. The one in the overalls was caught trying to cheat his probation terms."

I turned around and found Baekhyun leaning on the pillar. I ran towards him with open arms but he stepped back.

“Not,” he winced, “here.”

I repressed a chuckle and nodded. “What are you doing here anway? Aren’t you going to help us load all our luggage?”

“If I do all the work, what have we hired those misfits for?” Baekhyun said. I sighed and shook my head, following him as he walked past the coffee machine and upto the first cubicle. An olive-skinned woman with sharp features and hair tightly prepared in a bun noticed him. She didn’t let her gaze hang over him for more than a second and took a sip of her coffee.

“Want to go through the archives again?” she said, her eyes glued to the journal on her lap.

“Yes please,” Baekhyun said. The woman glanced at him with curiosity and a hint of mockery, handing him a thin folder whose papers looked more worn out than the fancy navy blue cover. I noticed her badge and read the first two letters. Her name started with 'Nu'. 

“You’re not stepping out of the station with that," Nu said while standing up from her chair and walking towards the large bin behind the cubicle. She threw her sandwich box and coffee cup and shuffled a few papers on the printer beside it. 

“I know,” Baekhyun smiled. He waved the folder at the coffee machine then up towards the ceiling. “I’ll take my coffee and head up to the library.”

“They have a library?” I whispered.

“Where do you think they keep all their records?” he mockingly whispered back. "Thanks Nuba!" he signalled to the lady officer. She gave a Boy Scout salute without looking at us. 

“You don’t have to act so smart. What are you looking for anyway?” I remembered the name Michael had taken. Lorelei.

“You said something?” Baekhyun turned around, his expression almost threatening.

“No,” I said, covering up my flustered reply with a grin. He looked at me for a while then proceeded to press the button for a mocha latte. He stuck a finger inside his ear and I made a barfing sound.

“Disgusting,” I said, half-laughing when he took a sip of the coffee and continued wriggling his ear with his finger.

“It’s been buzzing since yesterday,” he murmured. He shook his head and climbed up the staircases. He turned around and looked at me. “You’re coming with?”

“What else?” 

Baekhyun nodded and continued climbing up the steps. Once we reached the small but organized study space, the shelfs stacked against the wall like the museum storeroom, he asked me, "Did you hear that?"

I blinked at him. "Hear what?" I faced him and found his face contorted in confusion and pain, his hand hovering over his right ear. 

"If the earache is serious we can---"

"No no no," he waved me off. "She---"

"She?"

"She's singing."

"Baekhyun what are you ---"

"The buzzing in my ear," Baekhyun hissed, his forehead matted with sweat. "It's been replaced by a woman's voice."