OCEAN GIRL, heeseung [book 1] ✓

01. Reason

July 2018 — THE BEACH

The first time Heeseung saw the reason he was there at the beach, in the waves, the first time he began to form an inkling of why he felt so drawn to the ocean, he was a young boy of sixteen, almost seventeen years old.

He had always been drawn to the ocean, for reasons he found hard to explain. It was like he felt a call, something telling him that beyond the waves he couldn't cross, there was something, or someone, waiting for him. He knew it sounded ridiculous, that it sounded like the silly fantasies of a young boy.

But it wasn't ridiculous, at least, not to him. The connection he felt to it was really real. There was no other way to describe it, so to explain why he spent so much time at the beach, he always said something along the lines of, 'the breeze feels nice,' or 'I just like the beach, it's calm there,' but never the real reason: 'looking at the waves is what I do in case whatever or whoever is out there comes to me.'

The day his reason emerged from the waves, it was a Saturday, his first free day in a while. No school and no training until later that day, so he of course went out to the beach early in the morning. His body was tired and his brain was occasionally blanking out, but he went anyway.

He sat just a few feet away from where the waves crashed onto the sand, watching. Waiting. But for what? Even he didn't really know. He was so tired that he wasn't sure if he had just dreamed all of that up in an attempt to blind himself from the tiring monotony of his life. Or that he was just possibly really bored and made it all up to entertain himself, which really wasn't that likely since he'd felt like this since he was a mere toddler.

Sitting there with his knees pulled up to his chest, watching for...whatever it was. Although his eyes were trained on the gentle blue-green waves that transitioned to a deep blue, they were fluttering open and shut every once in a while, a sure sign he was exhausted beyond measure. Yet he still remained there, stubbornly waiting for his body to give up or for his reason to appear, whichever came first.

The first was just starting to happen, his head drooping to the side and then snapping back up as he caught himself, when he saw the flash of movement in the distance, like something surfacing momentarily and dipping back below the water.

Instantly, all trace of sleepiness disappeared from his body. He pushed himself up onto his knees, scanning the ocean with wide, alert eyes. What had he just seen? Certainly not a fish or something like that. He doubted anything that big would hang around this close the shore, unless it was something like an eel and he was just deluding himself.

"Come on, come on," he muttered, getting to his feet and stepping into the surf. "Come back, come back!"

Nothing. Just sea-green and ocean-blue waves splashing together to be seen, just the sound of it to be heard, the only other noise being the early-traffic from the road a few hundred meters away. He swiveled his head in different directions, frustration welling up inside him when all he saw was nothing like what he was looking for.

But what was he looking for? What was it that he was so sure he had seen for a second?

"I'm insane," he decided, turning away from the ocean with a groan. "It's just the lack of sleep getting to me."

He hadn't walked more than ten meters away when he heard a loud splash followed by a sound like a sigh. His heart nearly stopped and he whirled around, struck speechless by the sight in front of him.

"Hello," said the girl dressed in blue, sitting in the surf, with a serene expression.

Heeseung did the natural thing. He screamed and ran for his life, terrified.

Because the girl didn't have legs. What he had at first mistaken for blue leggings weren't that at all. She had a fish tail from the waist down, deep blue scales glinting in the sunlight, like sapphires and lapis lazuli; a fish tail that struck him as looking almost bejeweled, colors he didn't realize were so pretty sparkling blindingly.

I just saw a mermaid. What the hell.

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WORD COUNT: 752

A/N: so, i took the 'major rewrite' part pretty seriously. to everyone who read beach, is this what you were expecting when i said rewrite? to those who are reading ocean girl for the first time, what do you think?