Sungmin fell off the cruise ship when he was 10. He didn’t know how to swim. He could only stare at the water and fishes surrounding him as he kept on falling deeper into the sea. He couldn’t breath. His lungs hurt. He thought he was going to die. But before his eyes closed, he was able to see…a merman.

He woke up in a hospital room. He was happy that he’s alive then he started talking about how he saw a mermaid. Of course his parents didn’t believe him and the doctor thinks he’s better off his way, being excited and imaginative than a child with trauma or shock.

Since that day, Sungmin wasn’t allowed to be near the sea or to ride a boat. When it comes to transportation, it was either airplane or bus. But then, Sungmin is really such an unlucky guy. At 16, the airplane he was on was going to crash so of course, he had to jump out of it with a parachute and all.

The wind took him away from the others. He landed alone in the middle of the sea. He panicked because he still doesn’t know how to swim. ‘Maybe I should have just stayed in the airplane and die there instead of drowning to death here.’ Those were Sungmin’s thoughts as he started to sink.

Not only is he unlucky, but he really has the worst luck. Here he is drowning…to find out there are even sharks. ‘Oh great…not only will I drown but I’m going to be eaten by them too…this is what you call…double dead. To whoever God out there, please don’t let those sharks notice me or eat me.’ He gave out a silent prayer.

How many times was it mentioned that he’s unlucky? Because he really is!!! The shark noticed and moved towards him. Sungmin closed his eyes and wished he would die of suffocation before the shark gets to eat him. For a while, he didn’t feel any pain. Well, he did but that’s because of the lack of air and not from a shark’s teeth. He decided to open his eyes. ‘BLOOD!!!! There’s blood everywhere!!! Is it mine?!?! Am I dead?!?!’

Then he felt his shirt being tugged and he was going upward fast until his head was out of the water. He coughed out some water and felt relieved to be breathing again. He inhaled and exhaled a couple of times before noticing there were arms around his waist. Human arms. Then his eyes shifted to the long trident beside him.

“Are you okay?” The language came fluent and understandable.

Sungmin turned his head and saw a concern face. Human face and handsome. “I’m fine.” The arms around his waist loosened which allowed Sungmin to turn around fully. For a moment, he was considering the fact that this guy might be in the airplane he was in. But the guy has no clothes on and has a lot of shell necklaces dangling around his neck. Not to mention, this guy was holding a trident.

Sungmin looked down. His eyes widened as he discovered that this guy has no legs but has a fish tail. Scratch the last part, it wasn’t just any fish tail. It was a shark’s tail. “Um…thanks for saving me.” It came out in a nervous tone. He wasn’t exactly sure if it was safe to be with this guy yet.

“Just hold unto me. There’s a deserted island nearby.”  The merman turned as Sungmin placed both his hands on the merman’s shoulders. Both Sungmin and the merman’s head were above the water as the merman started to swim.

Sungmin continued to stare at the tail below him. One of his hands trailed the merman’s back. His fingers kept touching on the borderline of human back and shark body. He wanted to make sure that this is real and not some costume like in the fantasy movies or dramas. The merman paused from swimming. “Sorry…” Sungmin removed his hand immediately.

“It’s distracting me. Keep your hands to yourself and once we arrive in the island, you can touch me all you want.” The merman replied and continued to swim. He wasn’t able to see the blush forming on Sungmin’s cheeks because of the double meaning of his words.

When they arrived on the island, Sungmin was almost tempted to kiss the sand beneath his feet. But he was mostly tired so he just lie down on the sand. Sleep almost claimed him but the sleepiness vanished when he witness how the merman’s tail turned into human legs. It was truly… “…magical…” Sungmin whispered but the merman was able to hear it clearly.

“Excuse me but I have to look for something to wear.” The merman, who turned human, said as he stood up. “I’ll come back in a while.” He said and started to walk towards the forest.

While waiting for the stranger to come back, Sungmin took off his wet clothes except for his boxers. He placed it on the huge stones hoping it’ll dry quicker under the sunlight. Then he sat contemplating everything that happened to him so far. He wondered if his friends were alive. His parents would probably never let him ride an airplane again.

It took a while before the man came back. He was already wearing some sort of skirt made out of leaves and was dragging a lot of wood. “Let’s make a boat. It’s going to be a long trip crossing the sea and I don’t think you’ll survive if you’ll just hang unto me for the entire trip.”

Sungmin has no idea how to make a boat but he learned quickly from the handsome stranger. “How did you learn to make a boat?” Sungmin asked.

“I saved a fisherman once and brought him unto an island. He taught me how to do this so that I can get to save more people in the future. He was really friendly and smart. He taught me a lot of things about humans. I used to visit him on land since he used to live by the seashore.” The way the merman spoke about the fisherman was as if…

“Did you fall for him?” The merman stared at Sungmin after hearing the question. “Um…sorry, I didn’t mean to get too personal. Forget what I asked.” Sungmin pretended to be busy with the boat. “It’s silly. I never heard of a gay merman anyway.”

“I’m not gay. I just happened to like the guy.” The merman replied and continued working.

Silence again.

“What’s your name? Mine is Sungmin.”

“Siwon.”

And they continued to talk about human stuff because Siwon was really curious about a lot of things but also showed off vast knowledge about the sea and the creatures and how some of the myths are true.

Night came. Sungmin created a bonfire while Siwon caught some fishes for their dinner. “If you don’t mind me asking, what happened to the fisherman?”

“Do you know Hankyung from Super Junior?”

Sungmin blinked at the change of topic. “Yeah. Is he also popular underwater, among merfolk?”

“He’s the fisherman I was talking about.”

“….EH?!?!?!?!”  So it wasn’t a change of topic after all.

“He’s so out of reach already.” Siwon sighed. “And he’s so touchy-feely with this guy named Heechul. They’re probably lovers.”

“Or maybe it’s just fan service. Actors or singers tend to do that a lot to keep their fans happy.” Sungmin tried to reassure the merman.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. There’s no way I can see him personally again anyway.” Siwon handed his food to Sungmin because he lost his appetite.

Sungmin gratefully accepted the food. He was really hungry after all that tiring work of making a boat. “I can help you once we get back. You can stay at my house too and you wouldn’t have to worry about money or clothes.”

“Really? Wouldn’t that be too much?”

“It’s not half of what you’ve done for me today. You saved my life so I want to help you back.”

“Thank you so much!!!” Siwon hugged Sungmin out of happiness, almost causing Sungmin to choke the food he was eating.

To Be continued...

A/N:  I honestly wanted it to be a one-shot but then it gets longer and longer each time I write ^^;; so it's going to be in 4 chapters~ Why the heck did I have that title!?!?! XD!! It's so... corny? X_X Oh well.. too late to change~ I had that title for years now~ Lolz.  Comments please?