"Hello? Yo, Daisy— can you send me the address again?" Hyeonmi was standing on a street corner waiting for the bus. He had called Daisy since he originally thought he knew where his house was but had forg—

"I sent it," said Daisy from the other end, after a moment of silence. "Just take the 470 bus.. wait, where are you now?"

"I'm—" Hyeonmi paused to yawn. It was 9 AM, which in his opinion was somehow both too early to wake up and too late to be asleep. He supposed it depended on what he had going on that day. At any rate, the reason he was calling Daisy to begin with was that—

"Did you hang up?" laughed Daisy.

"No," said Hyeonmi. "I was yawning."

"Did you get my message? You see it, right?"

Hyeomi quickly checked the map on his phone, zooming in on his destination with both thumbs. "Uh huh," he answered, putting the phone to his ear again and half-jogging, half walking across the street.

"See you in a minute then," Daisy said cheerfully.

"Uh huh," Hyeonmi replied again, hanging up. Hopefully Daisy's tracksuit would fit him; he was slightly taller than Daisy, and a bit bulkier as well, though Daisy had insisted that all his clothes were oversized anyways so it wouldn't matter. It was Sunday, and though their "Color Festa" event wasn't until Friday, he wanted to see if Daisy's generous offer of lending him his lavender tracksuit was going to work, so he had enough time to find something else if needed. He couldn't recall, frankly speaking, ever owning something purple, though he did like the color. If he ended up having to buy something, he'd probably never wear it again.

So, it was better this way, he thought to himself, staring out the window of the bus. The mild morning sunlight lit up sign after sign of restaurants selling 갈비, 국밥, 김밥, and 만두. His stomach rumbled. Hopefully Daisy had ramyeon at his apartment. Surely he would? There is no such Korean without ramyeon at their house, he reminded himself. Satisfied at this conclusion, he busied himself with choosing a song for the remainder of the bus ride.

Everyone had been surprised that Daisy didn't live on campus; everyone else was in a dorm, as far as he knew. Apparently, Daisy's sister and mother, who used to live with him, moved in with his newlywed sister's husband as they had a larger apartment in a different part of Seoul, so he had taken over the rent for this smaller apartment as it was close to their university.

The bus finally reached his stop and he got off. He almost forgot to tap his card against the card reader as he left, so he had to turn back and scan it, nearly hitting an older lady as she tried to get off the bus.

"Sorry," he said apologetically.

You are getting off the bus, said the card reader automatically, as it usually did when one scanned their card before getting off. He checked the map again, spinning around a bit as he looked to position himself in the right direction.

So Daisy's house was... He spun around a few degrees to the left. There. Finding his bearings, he set off at a leisurely jog, figuring there was no better time to get some exercise in since the morning was still cool and there were hardly any people.

Daisy opened the door wearing fluffy slippers with stuffed ducks on them.

"Delivery," said Hyeonmi with a grin.

"Yooo, it's all the brown rice I ordered," Daisy said happily. "I boiled water for ramyeon, I guess you haven't eaten yet."

"How'd you know?" beamed Hyeonmi, kicking off his shoes and stretching leisurely. Daisy's shoes were lined up on a shelf next to the door. What Deulgi had said before when introducing everyone months ago appeared to be true; Daisy had more than 10 pairs of sneakers in every color combination, in various states of wear. "Sick shoes," he added, padding into the kitchen in his socks.

"Yeah, they're great, right?" said Daisy. "Shoes complete the—what is going on with your—" He had burst into laughter upon seeing Hyeonmi's sock feet.

"What?" asked Hyeonmi, bemused. He looked down. Ah, it was the toe socks. Seeing Daisy laughing was contagious, he laughed at his own feet.

"I have duck feet too," he hiccuped, recovering from the hilarity of seeing Daisy hanging onto a chair for dear life as he laughed.

"Wow, you're really— legend, this is—" Daisy said, immediately pulling out his phone. Still laughing to himself, he sent a picture to the group chat; Hyeonmi felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. "There's ramyeon in the cabinet above the stove," he added.

"You want some too?" he asked, starting to tear open two packets of seafood-flavored ramyeon. "I can make three."

"I was just going to have coffee," said Daisy, holding up his half-empty glass of iced coffee. "But if you're making three, go ahead."

"Want anything else in it?" Hyeonmi asked, dumping the packets of vegetables and powdered soup stock into the boiling water.

"Yeah, let's put eggs in it," said Daisy, opening the fridge. He was getting progressively more interested in ramyeon for breakfast. "Wait, I also have scallions."

"Oh, this is going to be gourmet," said Hyeonmi, trying to push down the noodles in to the broth so they'd all cook at the same time. He cracked an egg with one hand into the pot. Daisy had already moved the food scrap container, anticipating this, so he tossed it in and cracked the other egg, occasionally checking the noodles for doneness.

"Where'd you learn how to crack an egg with one hand?" asked Daisy, impressed.

"YouTube," said Hyeonmi, who was now cutting green onions into the pot with kitchen scissors. "They know everything."

"Huh, I see."

Daisy, who seemed to be able to predict whenever Hyeonmi needed anything, handed over a stack of two bowls.

"Thanks," said Hyeonmi. "Here, have the first bowl."

"Yooo, is this a restaurant?" asked Daisy, impressed. The egg was precisely in the middle of the noodles; the green onions contrasted nicely against the orange broth.

"I think that was just luck," said Hyeonmi, digging around in the soup with the ladle. "I can't even find my egg, I think it's at the bottom."

Daisy laughed. "Thanks, it looks delicious."

They sat down at Daisy's coffee table to eat. "It's so nice that you have so much space," he said, looking around the living room.

"Yeah, but it's kind of weird not having anyone else in here with a living room and two bedrooms and everything," he said.

"When did your sister and mom move out?" Hyeonmi asked, though a mouthful of noodles.

"Last November?" Daisy frowned, trying to remember. "I think."

"Huh."

They ate in silence for a bit until Daisy suddenly laughed at his bowl.

"What, what," asked Hyeonmi, already giggling.

Daisy pointed at the bright orange broth. "Do you think Sunny will really turn up looking like this?" he asked, as if he didn't think it was physically possible for Sunny to wear anything other than black.

"I can't even picture it," Hyeonmi laughed. "But we know he's going to.."

"Man," said Daisy shaking his head. "We live in the modern world.."

Hyeonmi laughed, picking up his bowl and drinking the rest of the broth.

After they had finished, he got up to put his bowl in the sink. "You can leave the dishes," called Daisy from where he was still spooning up bits of egg from his bowl.

"Are you sure?" asked Hyeonmi. "I can just wash mine."

"No, no, it's fine," said Daisy, hurriedly getting up to add his bowl to the sink. "Let's go see if this fits, come on."

Daisy had already pulled out the aforementioned lavender tracksuit; fortunately, it looked plenty big, it would possibly be oversized on him as well. That was good news, he preferred comfortable clothes to fitted ones.

"I think it'll fit," he said, nodding.

"Try it on," suggested Daisy. "Better to make sure."

Hyeonmi pulled on the outfit and shook himself out a little bit, then stretched. It did seem to fit perfectly. He walked over to Daisy's floor-length mirror.

"Whoa, you look good in colors," said Daisy. "Lavender really seems to suit you."

"Really?" asked Hyeonmi. "I've always liked cool-tone grey anyways, this is like a pastel version."

"You really do wear grey everyday," said Daisy, as if realizing this for the first time. "But you wear various t-shirts, so.. still more interesting than whatever Sunny's got going on."

Hyeonmi stuck his hands in the pockets and made a face in the mirror. "Oh, bro," he said, suddenly turning to Daisy. "Dude, can I borrow your lavender bucket hat?"

"Oh, good idea," said Daisy, "Hold on, I'll get it." He started digging through a pile of hats on the shelf until he pulled out the familiar lavender bucket hat that Daisy often accessorized with his outfits.

Hyeonmi replaced his own bucket hat, which was black, with the lavender one. "Ah, this is nice," he agreed. "Can you bring this to school on Friday?"

"You can take it now," said Daisy. "I don't mind, I don't think I was going to wear it this week anyways."

"You plan your outfits that far in advance?" asked Hyeonmi, impressed. He pulled on his previous outfit again.

"Mmm.. not really 'plan', it's more like vague ideas," said Daisy. "I usually have ideas of a few things I'd like to wear and then that day I try to plan outfits around them."

"How on earth do you and Sunny get along so well?" he laughed.

"Something Skip said on Thursday—" said Daisy, thinking hard. "Oh, that was it— abstract dualities. He said there's this Roman god with two faces that represents abstract dualities, like open and closed, or beginning and end, and stuff. That must be me and Sunny."

"Aha," said Hyeonmi. "Classic Skip."

"What are you doing today?" asked Daisy, who was now sorting through a bunch of neatly-folded paper bags to choose one large enough to fit the clothes Hyeonmi was taking with him.

"I actually have to go to the gym after this," said Hyeonmi, with a sigh. "Thanks for the breakfast carbs, though."

"'Breakfast carbs'," repeated Daisy, finding this funny. "No problem." Daisy squeezed his arm experimentally. "Yep, you're definitely buff," he added. "Let's get it."

"Let's get it," agreed Hyeonmi, trying to put on his shoes without untying the laces. He braced himself against the wall. "I'll see you, thanks again for letting me borrow this!"

"No problem!" waved Daisy, as he opened the door to leave. "Bye."

Hyeonmi swung the sturdy paper bag around a bit as he walked; he was trying to find the nearest bus stop but, according to his phone, the bus stop in the other direction was across the main street. Unfortunately, there didn't appear to be a crosswalk for a few blocks, so he satisfied himself with a leisurely walk along the still-quiet street. He even stopped for a few minutes to look at a strangely clean street cat that was trotting along the cobblestones.

"Cat," he said out loud. He kept walking, now trying to remember what he wanted to do first when he got to the gym. Should I do burpees? I was going to do burpees today, right? Wait. No, I was didn't bring my tape, I should do low impact cardio—

These thoughts were interrupted when the door to a shop several buildings down opened; an employee was dragging crates of something out of the front door and putting them outside. As there were very few other people on the street, this caught his attention. He kept walking and saw, to his mild interest, that the crates were actually full of water that looked.. faintly green, as if they all had algae in them. Was the shop selling fish, or perhaps aquariums? He was looking forward to finding out until the person pulling out the crates stood up.

It was Sunny.

Hyeonmi almost froze, but he decided this was a bad idea since Sunny, if he turned around, would most definitely recognize him, and he had previously expressed significant interest in keeping everyone completely in the dark about his weekend job. Instead, he ducked around the nearest alley and stood against the wall for a moment, contemplating.

In fact, seeing Sunny quite obviously working on the weekends felt somehow illegal; Hyeonmi realized this is why he must have suddenly felt rather panicked.

Was it even Sunny? some rational part of his brain asked him. Well, it definitely was; he could tell who Sunny was across campus, and it wasn't just because of his pale blond hair or shared affinity for too many hoop earrings. At some point, everyone in the club must have subconsciously memorized everyone's unique gaits and body language; it was hard not to see one of the others if he ran into them on campus.

He hazarded another glance around the corner. It was definitely Sunny, but he was wearing a heavy-looking black apron over what looked like a... was that an olive green sweater?

So he wasn't kidding, he thought to himself. He really didn't wear black on the weekends. Binoculars would be really great right now, he realized. Deulgi was clearly living in the future by toting around his binoculars wherever he went.

He pulled back into the alley again, thinking. What were the crates of water? Why the apron?

Fish?

Deulgi would know, he thought to himself. This was annoying. He realized suddenly that he couldn't tell Deulgi about this, though he had already pulled out his phone, since seeing Sunny at work without him knowing technically made him also responsible for keeping the secret.

This was going to drive him crazy. Why did Sunny say his job was going to ruin his image? If he took care of fish, that was actually much more interesting than being an intern somewhere or something. Maybe law students were really judgmental? But Sunny didn't seem to care at all about what other people thought, in fact, he almost encouraged everyone to think he was weird, so that couldn't be the problem.

He sent Deulgi a text anyways.

Have you ever been to a fish market? he typed, hoping the question was innocuous enough to not seem suspicious.

Deulgi saw the message immediately; he must have still been at the part of the morning where he looked at his phone before getting out of bed. He had noticed that he tended to do that when they had all gone camping.

Why asking me about fis,h markents, came the reply, somewhat misspelled. His friend must have still been half-asleep. This thought was funny to him.

Did you just wake up? he asked.

Uh huh, fish? why? Deulgi replied.

He thought about his reply for a minute. What should he say? That he was wondering what fishmongers wore to work? Well, that was definitely suspicious.

You're being suspicious, said Deulgi, noticing he had read his message but not replied.

Classic.

He ducked around the corner again; the square plastic buckets of water had been neatly stacked by the door. Sunny was nowhere to be seen.

Deciding it was too risky to walk by, he left the alley and turned right instead, going back the way he came. He could catch the same bus at a stop in the other direction, he reasoned.

He typed out a response to Deulgi.

Can't find an apron, he wrote. These seem like the ones they wear at fish markets but I just want a regular one.

Apron? replied Deulgi.

Hyeonmi thought about this. He was getting into cooking lately. This made sense. Well, it was too much to type. He called Deulgi's phone.

"Mmm?" said Deulgi on the other end, his voice still sleepy.

"Too much to text," said Hyeonmi, walking as fast as possible down the sidewalk in the opposite direction he had been before.

Silence.

"Are you asleep again?" he asked.

"Mhmm," said Deulgi. "Tell me about the fish."

"I'm trying to buy an apron," he said quickly. "Daisy lent me his lavender tracksuit for Friday."

"Lavender?" said Deulgi. "Nice."

"Uh huh. I don't want to get any.. sauce on it, so I was going to get an apron.. but it seems like the only ones were.. for fish people."

He could picture Deulgi blinking slowly in the silence.

"Fish.. people?" asked Deulgi. "They're called.. mermaids."

Hyeonmi started losing it. This was too funny.

"Mermaids.. why would they need aprons— they live in the water—"

"Mermaids aren't real," said Deulgi sternly, as if Hyeonmi had brought them up. He paused to yawn on the other end of the line. "If they were real, they wouldn't cook with sauce."

"Sauce?" asked Hyeonmi, trying to connect the dots.

"You said,"—another yawn— "you didn't want to get sauce on your clothes— mermaids can't use sauce, it gets diluted in the ocean."

"Diluted—" Hyeonmi let out a sound like a boiling tea kettle.

"Are you okay?" asked Deulgi from the other end. "You sound like a deleting balloon."

"Deleting??" choked Hyeonmi. He was laughing so hard his face hurt.

"Deflating," corrected Deulgi.

"I meant people who work with fish, not mermaids," Hyeonmi finally managed. "The people at the fish market—"

"Aren't their aprons really heavy and dark?" asked Deulgi. "That's what I remember— you've never been to a fish market?" He sounded more awake now.

Well, that was what Sunny was wearing, confirmed.

"I don't remember," he said admittedly. "Not recently."

"If you see a huge, black, heavy apron, don't buy that," instructed Deulgi firmly. "Get something lighter, just order it on Coupang—"

"Oh, that's a good idea," said Hyeonmi. "Thanks."

"Maybe Sunny would wear a massive black apron," yawned Deulgi. "Seems like his vibe."

Sometimes Hyeonmi thought Deulgi read his mind a little too often to be normal. "What, apron?" he asked, somewhat alarmed.

"Black," said Deulgi.

He laughed in response.

"Why are you thinking about aprons at this hour in the morning?" Deulgi asked, after a pause. Hyeonmi had reached the crosswalk; he moved his leg restlessly as he waited for the crosswalk signal to turn green.

"I was walking back from Daisy's and I happened.. to see one.." he said, which was actually true.

"Hmm.. well, have fun at the gym," said Deulgi.

"I didn't say I was going to the gym," said Hyeonmi.

"You're going to the gym, though," said Deulgi. "Didn't you say you liked to go Sunday morning when it was empty?"

Hyeonmi thought this was funny. Deulgi tended to remember very specific things. "Uh huh," he said.

"Don't get too buff," warned Deulgi. He hung up.

Hyeonmi grinned. With a start, he realized the crosswalk signal had turned green. He jogged across to reach the bus, the paper bag hitting his legs.

Why was he talking about mermaids— he shook his head. Amazing.