July 2018 — THE BEACH

"Heeseung!" Ocean Girl was already waiting when he turned up at the beach before the sun had even risen on Saturday. "How did the evaluation go the other day?"

Heeseung's bright, delighted smile faded. "I did exactly what I promised my friend I wouldn't do," he said, throwing himself onto the sand with a scowl. "Passed out in the middle of my choreography. One of my older friends had to carry me outside to the ambulance. The instructors are...not happy. My family and friends are furious."

"It was that bad?" she gasped, horrified.

"Not really. I was just really pale and shivering a lot, they said. The emergency room doctors said I was just dehydrated and I definitely have malnutrition, however mild."

She raised her arm and brought it down hard, sending the spray of seawater into his face. "Hey!" he cried, rubbing at his face and stinging eyes. "What was that for?!"

"For being an idiot!" she brought her arms down again, glaring at him. "I told you to take care of yourself!"

"I didn't realize I was that bad," he protested, vainly fending off the water. "I swear!"

"I won't stop unless you promise to eat and drink as well as you can," she insisted, her arms basically windmilling. "Follow the basic rule and drink at least eight cups of water every day! More for a boy who trains as hard as you do! Stop skipping meals!"

"Alright, alright, I actually swear this time, now stop!" he pleaded, turning his back on her. "Please!"

She stopped. "What if something worse happens?" she demanded. "You have to take care of yourself, Heeseung! Don't just let that happen to you!"

"I know, I know," he grumbled. "You do know that I'm trying my best?"

"Clearly, your best isn't enough," she huffed. "Come here. I want to show you something. You'll like it."

Heeseung pushed his water-soaked hair out of his eyes and stood up, checking to make sure no one else was around. The sun hadn't even begun to rise yet; that was how early he was that day. Feeling safe, he complied, kneeling beside Ocean Girl in the gently lapping waves. "What?"

"Don't freak out," she warned.

"Alright?"

She took a deep breath and skimmed her fingers along the side of Heeseung's neck. He flinched, feeling it tickle so much he wanted to jump away, but he held still at the warning look in her eyes. Then she pulled her hands away and said, "now, this is where the real fun begins."

With that, she grabbed his hand and pushed off the sand with a jerk of her powerful tail, dragging him along with her into the deeper waves. Heeseung was too startled to protest, forced to do a mix flailing about and running until the water was almost up to his neck, and she still wasn't stopping.

"Hey, wait!" he pulled his arm back sharply. It was enough to make her stop but it didn't loosen her grip on him. She was superhumanly strong. "What are you doing? The water's going to be too deep for me soon!"

"It won't," she said calmly. "You can swim, can't you?"

"Well, yeah, but we're heading towards open ocean," he said. "That raises a few questions. I mean, you're a mermaid and all, but I'm not."

"Do you trust me?" she asked.

He blinked, taken aback. "What?"

"I said, do you trust me, Heeseung?" she repeated. "Do you trust me enough to let me do this?"

"I—yes," he realized he did trust her. She was a mermaid, a mythical creature, one dragging him off towards the open ocean, where he could only swim about for so long. But besides the fact she had been human once, he found that he trusted her. A lot. Somehow, he believed that the sincerity in her voice and eyes couldn't be faked.

"In that case, put your head under the water and swallow water like you're trying to breathe," she said. "You'll be able to breathe just as normally as you usually do."

He frowned. "Is that a good idea?" he asked. "I mean, what if I just swallow a whole lot of seawater and throw up? That wouldn't be pleasant."

"You won't," she said insistently. "Just try it. You'll see."

"Well, fine," he said reluctantly, "because you seem so convinced that I won't drown."

He dropped down into the water completely, relishing in the cool feeling it brought. As she instructed, he opened his mouth and swallowed a lot of water. He genuinely thought he would choke and come up and throw up. Instead, something else happened.

He tried breathing out, and air flowed out of his nose, as per usual. But he didn't choke on seawater. It didn't even go that far down his throat. As he floated below the surface, somehow breathing in and out, he was becoming more and more freaked out. His eyes didn't sting, either. For some reason, they didn't hurt at all: it was like the saltwater wasn't even touching them.

Ocean Girl appeared in front him with a knowing smile. "I told you so," she laughed. It was bubbly and indistinct but he could hear her well enough to understand what she was saying. "You're breathing underwater?"

"How...?" he blinked rapidly, his brain failing to comprehend what was happening. "Where's the water going?"

She took his hand and put it to his neck. He jumped—if one can jump underwater—when he felt water streaming past his fingers. He met her eyes, his wide with shock, hers twinkling merrily. Okay, this is crossing the realm of improbable into impossible.

He surfaced, taking a mouthful of water with him, and did what he did under, swallowing and breathing with his hand to his neck. This time he was so surprised that he actually swallowed the rest of the water and flailed around, gagging, barely comprehending that somehow, rivulets of water were streaming from invisible pores in his skin.

"How?!" he cried when she surfaced alongside him. "Mermaid magic?"

"Yep," she said proudly. "Be warned, it won't last longer than a few days. I figure it would be too dangerous if not. Can't have anyone suspecting anything."

"You—you really just—I'm not even going to ask," he decided. "This is actually really cool, though. I kind of want to flex on Sunghoon, but then again, your sister could be giving him cool abilities, too."

"She doesn't do that, but I don't think he'd really care either way," Ocean Girl giggled. "Do you think it's cool, for real?"

"Duh," he said, feeling the skin of his neck and finding it to be completely smooth. "I didn't think mermaids had mythical powers, but all the same, this incredible. I'm guessing you've done this to everyone who shows up to meet you?"

"Not everyone, but you're the first in a while."

"So what can your sisters do, then?" Heeseung asked with interest. "What are their curses, exactly?"

She paused, her smile fading. "I'm the oldest, and I'm here, as a mermaid," she started, waving at the water all around them. "The second oldest is confined to the sky. The youngest, well...she doesn't speak about her curse, which makes it difficult to tell, but it has something to do with a flower garden."

"Have they met their soulmates, too?"

"For my sister in the sky, yes," she answered. "About our youngest sister, nope. She's the one who actually stabbed the king, so her curse is heavier. Her soulmate won't come to her until later. Maybe a year or two after ours, I'm pretty sure."

"How do you three even stay in touch?"

"As long as one of us goes to sleep at night with the intention of seeing them, we can communicate through our dreams."

"That's so cool," Heeseung said in awe.

The sun started to rise over the horizon, waves of molten gold and orange spilling out across the ocean. He frowned at it regretfully. "I gotta go," he said sadly. "My parents will wake up soon and wonder where I went. I need to get into dry clothes, too."

"Oh," she looked disappointed, but took his hand and squeezed it. "See you soon, then. Today was fun, wasn't it? The short time we had together, I mean."

"It was," he agreed, squeezing back. He then backed away and began swimming back towards the shore. "See you soon," he called over his shoulder.

The sight of her raising her hand in farewell, illuminated in fiery orange and gold rays of morning sunshine, seemed infinitely beautiful.

✧✧✧

WORD COUNT: 1435

A/N: operation love this book better as a rewrite: success. and the underwater breathing part was inspired by the maximum ride series – the flock does the same thing lmao