Chapter Text
Sunghoon was not much of an outdoors person.
He wasn’t fond of long hikes in the mountains, or picnicing in the park, or trekking through the forest where the only things he would experience were the breathtaking view of tree trunks and the delightful sensation of being eaten alive by mosquitos.
He preferred to be indoors, curled up with a good book and some air conditioning to keep him company. There was one exception to this however.
There was one place in the great outdoors, one place found in nature where he felt more at home than anywhere else. He went there almost every week without fail, like a scheduled visit to meet with an old friend. Ironically, the place he loved the most in the world was the place that had nearly killed him.
The sand squelched between his toes as he padded barefoot along the water, listening to the relaxing hiss of the waves coming and going. He had brought his camera along as always, though he wasn’t expecting to see much of anything today. This was his favorite part of the beach- it was a small stretch that ran along the edge of a cliff, and was more rock than sand. He had to do a bit of maneuvering over a boulder or two to get to the water.
But it was worth it. There was not a single person in sight, and Sunghoon could be alone with just himself and his thoughts. Nobody ever came to this area, but that was just fine by him. The thing he was searching for couldn’t be seen above water anyway.
But today, he wasn’t here with any particular expectation or goal. He’d be starting his last semester of high school tomorrow, and he wanted to get one last carefree swim in before he was confined to the lanes of the olympic pool that his swim team met at.
As he dipped his toes into the water, he felt a sudden rush of memory, just like he always did when he came here. It should have been a traumatic experience- and it was, to some extent- but the memory of nearly drowning here as a child was overshadowed by the beauty and mystery that had followed.
Something had saved him. Something had swam up to him in the water, and gently grabbed ahold of him, and brought him safely to shore. His vision had been hazy and he’d been drifting out of consciousness, but the glimpses he had caught of that creature that had been his savior were seared into his mind.
In the years since then, he came here constantly, trying to catch another glimpse. He had not had any luck yet. He’d tried to describe to people what he saw that day; shimmering scales that seemed to reflect light where there was none, the familiar feel of a human hand, the slope of a delicate nose.
Most called him delusional. Some said he’d merely been experiencing hallucinations due to oxygen deprivation. His friends just laughed at him good naturedly. But Sunghoon was determined to prove them all wrong. He knew what he saw.
“Hello?”
Sunghoon tripped right over himself and fell with a splash into the water, landing heavily on his bottom. He winced as the pebbles dug into him and looked around wildly for the source of the voice. In front of him, there stood a large mass of rock looming out of the water; as he squinted at it, a head poked out over the top.
Sunghoon flinched back in surprise once more. He was so used to there never being another soul in sight here, that the appearance of another person felt foreign. The boy blinked at him curiously, tilting his head.
The first thing Sunghoon took note of was his hair. It was definitely pink, that was for sure, but not hot pink or even cotton candy pink. It looked almost pearlescent, and it radiated a soft sheen when the light caught on it that reminded him of the inside of a seashell. The second thing he noticed was that the boy was… pretty.
Sunghoon wasn’t one to use such words to describe people, but there was really no better way to put it. The boy was pretty. He had wide, golden brown eyes, a slender nose, and soft pink lips that opened to say…
“Go away.”
Sunghoon choked. “Excuse me?!”
“Go away,” the boy said calmly. His voice was velvety and smooth, and matched the rest of his appearance perfectly. It was the type of voice you’d want to listen to for hours on end, and Sunghoon found himself wishing that he could.
He suddenly realized that he should be focusing more on being offended. This random kid had just showed up in his secret spot out of nowhere, and told him to get lost.
“Why would I leave?” He replied indignantly. “I always come here, and I’ve never seen you before. Maybe you should leave.” Sunghoon cringed internally at how petty he sounded. But there was something a bit undignifying about how blatantly he had been admiring this stranger, only for his first words towards Sunghoon to be a slap in the face.
“I have a right to be here,” the boy scowled. His eyes flickered down to Sunghoon’s hand. “Why do you have a camera?”
Sunghoon didn’t know if he was imagining it, but the boy’s voice sounded tinged with alarm. Did he think Sunghoon was some creep or something?
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to take pictures of you or anything,” he was quick to say.
“What is it for?” The boy asked again, his features still bathed in suspicion.
Sunghoon hesitated. But he would never see this person again, so why not?
“I’m trying to find something. A creature, that’s been seen here before.” The stranger stared at him unblinkingly and he suddenly felt unnerved. “Um, it’s kind of like, half human, half…. fish?”
The boy’s eyes widened, and something in his expression flickered. For a split second, Sunghoon thought he had finally found someone who understood. Someone who was interested. The moment passed, and the boy’s eyes narrowed.
“You’re crazy,” he said bluntly.
“You asked,” Sunghoon cried out in frustration. The boy just shrugged half-heartedly.
Sunghoon snorted derisively, shaking his head to himself. “And I thought I’d get a relaxing swim today,” he mumbled. He stared down at the camera in his hand, wishing he had never brought it along today. Now he looked positively deranged in front of this boy, though he wasn't sure why he cared so much.
He looked back up, maybe to try to explain that he wasn’t crazy, and that he really had seen such a thing before. But there was not a single soul in sight; all that could be seen or heard was the slap of water against the slick black rock.
The boy had vanished.
~~~
“Catch anything interesting this time?”
Sunghoon’s short-lived freedom was over. He told himself that at least he’d be finishing high school soon. As he pushed through the throng of students, struggling to fight his way through a herd of people just to get to his next class, he decided that he would not miss this place at all.
Sunghoon huffed at the teasing tone in Jay’s voice. He knew how his best friend felt about his hobby, which was to say, he found it highly entertaining. “Our mermaid hunter,” Jay would call him. Sunghoon wanted to scoff at the title- but it wasn’t like he had a better description for the thing he had seen that day.
A tail, and a glimpse of a human torso- what other conclusion was he supposed to draw from that? Still, he preferred to refer to it as “the creature,” since that drew slightly less judmental looks than “mermaid” did.
“Nothing interesting,” Sunghoon grumbled, though it felt like a lie even as he said it. “Just a boy.”
Jay perked up. “A boy? A cute one?”
“Is that the first thing you think of? I already had to listen to you and Jungwon gush over how adorable the new student is,” Sunghoon rolled his eyes.
He wasn’t just cute, he thought. He was kind of beautiful.
“It’s true though, he is adorable,” Jay argued. “And he has the prettiest pink hair—” Sunghoon froze. At that very moment, a flash of pink crossed his vision, just in front of the two of them. “Oh,” Jay exclaimed, startled. “I think that’s him right there.”
The boy in question turned, and his eyes fell upon Sunghoon and Jay. Sunghoon’s heart accelerated, and he felt like a wave had just come along and swallowed him up whole.
It was the boy from the beach.