rapture of the deep ; seodo

★ chapter 2 ★

tw: blacking-out

༉ · ─────── · 𓆝 · ─────── · ࿐
. .⃗ . 2,2k

The hour between the two dives had passed as though in the blink of an eye, and soon enough, Geonhak was yet again floating and breathing on the water with his back facing the bottomless blue that he was so ambitious and eager to bridge.

He caught a glimpse of how Hyungu was still fighting and yet to bring himself to confront his sun-kissed skin with the chilling sea water, and although Geonhak had offered him to simply stay on the boat while he was going through with his dive - and they would never talk about how Hyungu had neglected his job as attentive buddy because really, Geonhak didn't see the difference between Hyungu staying on the boat and doing nothing and Hyungu hovering on the surface of the water and doing nothing, - the younger had insisted that he still was not careless and nowhere near as reckless as Geonhak.

Geonhak had only clicked his tongue and jumped into the water (he had definitely not paid extra attention to splash with more water than necessary.)

The last breath before a dive always felt weirdly intoxicating, and Geonhak disappeared under the water without waiting for Hyungu to fully arrive since Yonghoon had called to remind Hyungu of their scheduled lunch together - Hyungu had assured him that thank you, but there was no need for a special reminder, and now they were kind of in a hurry because, in fact, Hyungu had totally forgotten about it.

The quiet set in again.

Geonhak felt euphoric and at ease at the same time: two opposing poles on a spectrum of mind and sensibility, an occurrence that Geonhak knew only freediving could give him - he did want to share it and help others feel it, too, but he had figured and witnessed that some people's discomfiture towards masses of water was too deep-rooted and itchy to shed and let other pleasant emotions come to being.

Geonhak heard the shrill beep of his watch resonate inside his skull alongside the clicking in his ears - the trouble-free equalisation the way he was able to perform it now was proof that his cold and stuffy nose from a week prior had worn off entirely.

Ten meters. descending and creating distance between his siren form and the surface no longer required as much effort.
Geonhak believed that the water had cleared and that his visibility had grown sharper overall in the course of the midmorning, as upon sinking a handful of metres deeper, he started to identify blurry shapes and outlines of the seabed. Rippled lines in the sand. Bland and milky boulders that surrounded the distant clearing of sand where the rope was reaching down.
Geonhak had a bright red strap of ribbon tied around his wrist from the last concert he had visited a few months ago, but he refused to admit that apart from the fun and refreshing memory the bracelet brought, there was another reason as to why he was yet to take it off - he loved to watch the crimson red alter into a deep lilac, as sunrays wouldn't reach as far as to maintain the complete spectrum of the rainbow.

Twenty meters. The sudden change in water temperature startled Geonhak and caused small icicles followed by shivers to tumble along his spine - something in him shuffled. Geonhak had never before felt an unpleasant shift upon entering a deeper, colder layer of water, and he wasn't so sure it was just the cold that upset his calmness, but he decided to ignore it.
Geonhak rarely payed attention to his surroundings while diving - one reason why Keonhee preferred scuba diving and would probably never understand how Geonhak could take this kind of burning and hungry pleasure in freediving: plunging into the ocean just to come back up again all while in a hurry and without having seen and remembered a thing equalled mocking nature's beauty, so Keonhee.

Thirty meters. Normally, Geonhak would swim and fall with his body as straight as a pole and keep his eyes either glued to the white rope in front of him or slightly tilted, so he could observe the seabed approaching.
And today was no different, until he came to a stop at thirty-five meters and intended to turn around, continue on with the regular procedure as envisaged.