Precious

09: A Needed Sacrifice

"Oh, I wasn't expecting to see this." A familiar voice bounced around the cave, slowly waking the sleeping human and siren as it fell back onto their ears a few times.

The arms encasing Wooyoung slowly unraveled themselves, forcing him to wake up even sooner, being faced with the damp cold of the surrounding air.

"Yunho? What're you doing here?" San yawned, words a little slurred as his mind woke up. Then, like a flash of lightning, his eyes widened, a finger pointing to the merman who sat on the edge of the rocks, tail still in the water. "Hey, you have a lot of explaining to do!"

"That's why I'm here, barnacle brain." Yunho sassed, narrowing his eyes at the siren, speaking as if it were obvious. "Woah, what's that?"

Yunho motioned up to his right eye, mirroring where the diamond was embedded underneath San's left eye. Obviously the merman's interest peaked, this discussion of topic being much more important.

"Oh, that." San reached up, fingers trailing over the tear-shaped diamond. He reached over, pulling at Wooyoung's right arm, showcasing the diamond that was a part of his skin as well. "It's something that that sea witch did. My spell doesn't affect Wooyoung anymore, this proves it."

Wooyoung groaned at the movement, whining when he couldn't get his arm out of the siren's hold. He turned his head, creaking his eyes open to glare at San. That was all it took for Wooyoung to be able to drop his arm back down to his side, but he couldn't try going back to sleep now. So he just laid there, listening to the merman and siren speak.

"Ah, that's great then, you got what you wanted." Yunho seemed very pleased with what he learned, adding a congratulations to the end of it.

"Your turn." San crossed his arms over his chest, nodding his head at the merman, awaiting a response.

Yunho sighed, throwing his head back. "Listen, this isn't a big deal. There's a reason I've been able to give you so much information about how to take care of humans, and I'm surprised you haven't picked it up yet."

San grumbled as realization dawned on him.

"So what, does this person live in that town you go to?" Wooyoung questioned, readjusting slightly so he could still lay down, but be able to look at Yunho as he spoke.

"Yeah." Yunho smiled, essentially blushing as his eyes casted downward. "I didn't mean to get involved with him...truly I didn't, but every time I went there he'd always show up wherever I went. And then one day he figured out that I wasn't human, he somehow figured out where I would come up onto shore, and wait out getting my legs, and just drying off completely so I'd blend in in town."

San gasped, but before he could say anything Wooyoung shushed him. Yunho sent him an appreciative glance before continuing.

"I couldn't just hide it, so I just came out with the truth, and for some reason that just seemed to intrigue him more." While Yunho reflected on this, the smile never once went away, it was clear he was love-struck, whether intentional or not. "He's the only human I've truly interacted with in that town, he's the only one I can stand amongst all of those...how did he say it? Fisherman? Even he's from a family of fisherman, but he doesn't want to actually be one. I think that's why I like him, he doesn't want to harm the ocean, he understands the importance of it."

"Do you know him well?" San asked, more curious than anything. From some of his initial reactions, it was as if he'd be angry, but that would just be highly hypocritical. He simply didn't expect to hear such things from his friend.

"I'd say so." Yunho nodded his head, lifting his gaze to truly showcase his adorable smile. "He wants to be a bard, which I guess is someone that makes music. He's shown me how to do it, it's very pretty. He's shown me all of his favorite places and some interesting trinkets that he possesses. I've revealed quite a bit about myself as well, and I'd like to believe despite the...well difficulties and abnormalities, we feel the same or at least pretty similar about one another."