MIDNIGHT SINGER ⋮ markhyuck

3̟

The museum was tiring. It had so many expositions and was the biggest one they went to was so far from their beach house. It was interesting to see seashells or pearls but the more Mark stayed there, the more he wanted to yawn.

"There's a legend that if you take a seashell out of the deepest waters, you might hear what's happening underwater," the guide said as soon as he picked up a seashell.

"So it's like a phone," Mark had to comment.

The guide and other tourists laughed.

"You can say it like that," the guide nodded. "It's the very first phone this island had."

They went further and stopped in front of the aquarium with many expositions. It resembled how it must look underwater. The aquarium had different species of fish made out of wax, most of them didn't exist anymore. Mark saw one that had teeth.

Fish. Had. Teeth.

His eyes caught a human figure inside that aquarium, somewhere hidden as if that fake thing was there to scare and impress the visitors. It looked like a mermaid but knowing the legends about sirens, it was a definitely siren.

Just as Mark thought, people got scared by it which made the guide laugh. Mark was glad that he wasn't the one who got laughed at because of his observation skills.

"That's a siren, a beautiful creature that picks a man and then seduces him with her singing. People say that you can still hear them on the island to this day."

"Is it only men?" a small girl, who was asking stupid questions all afternoon, asked, pulling on the guide's shirt. "Do they attract only men?"

"That's right, kid. Sirens only lure men. That's why our population fell when sirens were still alive."

"But you said it's possible to hear them even know."

The girl was annoying though Mark couldn't blame her. The guide didn't even know what he was talking about, he obviously needed to get stupid questions. The things he said Mark read in the book when he was in the library. The boy was certain the guide guy had never seen a siren with his own eyes and only was quoting things from books.

"You wouldn't be able to hear it, because you're a girl."

"What if I'll become transgender?"

"What about sirens? Is there only females?" Mark decided to save the guy as the girl happened to be a smart one.

He was also curious about the question he just asked. As far as he knew from Greek mythology, they had female sirens which led to curiosity if this island was different.

"Yes," the guide nodded. "There's no male sirens in legends."

Mark just smiled, though he knew that male sirens did exist. At least one of them.

〜

"Let's cuddle this night," Byeol begged as soon as she got into the bed. "This night will be the coldest. Can you believe it?"

"It's hard to believe I won't wake up drenched in sweat."

They did cuddle yet they couldn't continue for long. It still was hot even if it was the coldest night. Byeol suggested doing that thing again but Mark said that she can sleep in the middle all night if she wanted. The girl was touched by Mark's caring side and began kissing him. Little did she know that Mark didn't plan to sleep. Well, even if he planned to, he knew he will be woken up.

Byeol was already sleeping while Mark was only taking a short nap. He heard what was happening outside and would easily wake up if someone knocks on the door. That was why it wasn't so hard to open his eyes when he heard the siren singing.