Can't Believe it's a Human

And when you don't try

Heeseung met Sunghoon twice after he first learnt his name. Sunghoon was insanely beautiful, Heeseung concluded. He’d figured that one out during their first official meeting. Not only was his face incredibly pretty, from the little moles that adorned it to the shape and structure of his face, but everything about him was just gorgeous. Something Heeseung paid an unhealthy amount of attention to was Sunghoon’s tail. It was of light-blues and whites, and it seemed to sparkle under the sun, it had multiple delicate membranes that just had it looking so elegant, even outside of the water. Heeseung felt like shit for calling it a fishtail, even if that’s what it was, simply because the name didn’t make it justice. 

Frankly, Sunghoon was so mesmerizingly beautiful that Heeseung didn’t fully believe he wasn’t still hallucinating until their third meeting. He looked unreal. 

And he was a mermaid, a creature that wasn’t supposed to be real according to most, unless you asked Riki or Jimin. Heeseung was completely justified in being sceptical and doubtful. At least at first, eventually he came to terms with the fact that Sunghoon was very much real. Either that, or he should seriously be institutionalised, because his hallucination was realistic and he could physically touch it. He didn’t know how hallucinations worked, but he was pretty sure one he could see, hear and feel was not common at all, if those even existed in the first place. 

Regardless, Heeseung didn’t care anymore. He liked spending time with Sunghoon, even if it was only a little bit on days he was, supposedly, following Jungwon. It’d been long since he last tried to actually follow him, but it didn’t matter, it was his excuse. He wasn’t going to the rocky beach to meet a pretty merman, possibly a delusion of his, he was trying to find out what Jungwon was up to when he disappeared. It might not sound better, but in the second scenario he was a little less crazy. But, truly, it didn’t matter at the end of the day; not when he sat at the edge of their rock, with Sunghoon’s head resting on his thighs. Sunghoon had claimed the spot after stating that staying upright took too much effort and Heeseung wasn’t going to tell him otherwise. 

“I’m just saying, the others are too mean to Wonyoung, she should be able to come by the community without feeling like she’ll be attacked for blinking wrong.” Another thing was that Sunghoon often came and complained about random stuff. Most of the time, Heeseung had no idea who he was talking about, but he was starting to recognise some names. 

“Why do they hate her so much?” Heeseung asked, looking at Sunghoon while still being aware of their surroundings, just in case someone came by.

“They call her a sea witch, but honestly I think they are just jealous,” Sunghoon shrugged. “She’s nice and has never hurt anyone, so they are just being stupid.” Sunghoon had his eyes closed, so Heeseung didn’t feel too bad for staring so intensely at his face.

“Sounds like merpeople and humans aren’t that different,” Heeseung hummed his comment. “How big are these communities?” In the last couple of meetings, Heeseung had probably learnt enough about merpeople to make Riki and Jimin jealous. 

“Mmm… I’d say about a couple hundred? Many move round communities, but the core that stays is probably of about that many,” Sunghoon answered, thinking hard about it. “Gossip is very popular, and you probably can’t do much without others finding out, which is why not being able to know what Jay is doing is so frustrating,” Sunghoon huffed. While Heeseung had completely forgotten about finding out what Jungwon was doing, Sunghoon hadn’t forgotten about Jay; he was putting less effort into it, but he was still kind of trying. 

“There’s another section of the beach,” Heeseung started. He liked having the excuse to meet Sunghoon, but if he wanted to find his friend he was going to help. “It’s very similar to this place, I saw Jungwon there once,” he explained. If the other merman was doing anything like they were, or anything else away from the public eye, that would be the ideal place to do so. “It’s not far, really, but you can’t see it from here, do you want to check if he’s there?”