Can't Believe it's a Human

Need for Sleep

Heeseung thought he was going out of his mind. Seriously, he was absolutely losing it. Otherwise, he had no way of explaining how he’d seen the creature twice. The first time he’d thought he was seeing things, like, he’d been frustrated for having lost sight of Jungwon, it was hot, the sun was bright; all contributing factor to him just imagining a man with a light-blue fishtail —a gorgeous man with a light-blue fishtail. A man who had jumped into the water and disappeared so fast Heeseung was convinced he’d hallucinated the whole thing. 

But now he’d seen him again. On the same place, for about as long as the first time, but this time he hadn’t been frustrated as he had seen exactly where Jungwon headed off to, and it wasn’t as hot because it was cloudy. He’d been startled so badly he fell on his ass, then he quickly composed himself but the man —creature— had been gone. Completely disappeared. So, Heeseung thought it was only rational, he was going completely insane and was hallucinating mermaid-like creatures. Maybe all the rants he let Riki and Jimin go on were starting to affect him. 

He ran a hand through his hair and tried to calm his breathing before leaving to look for Jungwon. It took him a minute or two to get to him, but he was still on the same rocky beach. One of the less frequented sections of it because it simply offered nothing to people. You couldn’t fish in the area and swimming there would probably be too dangerous for most. Heeseung could see him sitting close to the edge, looking down and his legs were lightly touching the water. It never failed to amaze Heeseung just how calm the sea there looked like. Though, he didn’t trust its appearance, as he knew the ocean could be treacherous. Jungwon seemed to be talking to himself, laughing loudly and openly. Maybe Heeseung wasn’t the only one losing his mind.

“Jungwon!” Heeseung called him. He had intended to just look at what Jungwon was doing, but seeing as he felt like his sanity was slipping from him, he needed to talk to someone about it. Jungwon was his best bet, since Riki or Jimin would just feed his insanity and Sunoo was too nice to tell him upfront that he was being dumb. 

Two things happened at once. First, Jungwon turned to look at Heeseung with shock and distress all over his face and his eyes. The second thing was a loud splashing sound, which Heeseung assumed was simply caused by the movement of the water against the rocks, even if it all still looked rather calm. 

“Hyung! What are you doing here?” Jungwon asked, quickly getting up and walking towards Heeseung. 

“I— I saw you come over here and—” Heeseung tried to explain, in a way that didn’t incriminate him, how he’d come to find Jungwon there. He was not doing a good job, but he didn’t think he could pull it off either. Not only did Jungwon know him too well, but the place was too far out of the way for him to casually see Jungwon in the area.

“You were following me, weren’t you?” Jungwon didn’t even sound mad, just resigned and a little tired. “Hyung, you are better than that, if there’s something—"

“I think I saw a mermaid?” Heeseung changed the topic abruptly. Unable to lie to Jungwon, he opted for a distraction. Aside from that, he really couldn’t stop thinking about it. Whatever he saw, it was not leaving his mind any time soon. Not without help, that was.

“What?” Jungwon sounded alarmed, though Heeseung couldn’t tell exactly why. Heeseung assumed it was because he hadn’t expected him to go mental just like that.

“I think? Maybe it wasn’t really a mermaid? I mean, I always thought… would it still be a mermaid if it was a man? Or half a man? Is this why Riki always calls them merpeople?” Heeseung began rambling. To stop him, Jungwon had to physically hold him from both sides and shake him lightly.

“Calm down and start over,” Jungwon told him. “What did you see? Where?”

“Coming here— I… a little further away over there, close to the rocks, I think I saw… a merman?” Heeseung phrased his explanation as a question while gesturing with his hands to the place, even if it was a bit far away. “I don’t know…”