rapture of the deep ; seodo

✰ chapter 10 ✰

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After swimming around for what felt like hours, Geonhak came to the conclusion that no matter what, he would never get used to the feeling of water diffusing through his skin and supplying him with the oxygen his body needed to function.

At some point in time, the horrid thought of potential nitrogen narcosis had flared up in Geonhak’s mind, but he had managed to quickly dismiss it and shake his head as a way to reassure Seoho who had been attentive enough to pick up on Geonhak’s short-lived chills.

He was filtering water after all, and water molecules consisted of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom and no room for any nitrogen that would mess with his brain.

“How was it?” Seoho looked pleased as they broke through the surface and propped his arms on the soaked rocks to relish the last rays of sunlight for the day.

“Amazing,” Geonhak breathed, reliving the revolutionary sensation rather than the places – corals, animals, plants – that they had passed.

The strawberry sky mirrored on Seoho’s face, saturating his eyes a sea foam green and his lips a flushed pink – Geonhak knew it was high time that he stopped staring, but while he believed to have got used to the cacophony of glistening scales and fins and gills, he doubted that he would ever get used to Seoho—

To the way his cheeks squeezed his eyes into crescents whenever he smiled with all of his teeth, to the way conversations flowed so easily with the greatest sense of comfort, to the way his irises glistened so devoid of any judgement and so full of curiosity and warmth, the way his kindness was so contagious, the way his aura was drawing Geonhak in.

Geonhak shook his head and proceeded to dry himself off with the towel that he had brought, leaving Seoho to keep prospering in the water.
As Geonhak was peeling the tight, sticky neoprene of his wetsuit off, Seoho surged out of the water in a swift motion and laid down on the stony ground, half of his scaled tale still hanging off the rocks and swirling the water up.

“That doesn’t look too comfortable,” Geonhak muttered, leaning over Seoho’s perfectly relaxed face with crossed arms while nudging his shoulder with the tip of his slipper.

“It’s perfectly fine,” Seoho signed, not bothering to open his eyes.

“Come on, get up.”

Geonhak bumped Seoho’s shoulder a few more times before he surrendered, opening his eyes and sitting up albeit with a small whining under his breath.

Upon seeing the shallow bumps that the protruding stones had left glowing pink on Seoho’s back, Geonhak shook his head and opened out his towel to put it down where Seoho had been laying – Geonhak felt his heartstrings tug, as he got through his head that Seoho most likely was the type of person to be too lazy to ensure his own comfort and welfare but go the extra mile to make sure anyone else was cared for.

“You’re kind of sacrificing your towel right now.”

They both watched how the towel adopted a darker colour with the wetness of the rocks that it was soaking up; Geonhak shrugged and laid down next to Seoho who followed suit a moment later.

Seoho didn’t admit that with a towel working as damper against the roughness of the rocks, laying there was indeed more comfortable, but Geonhak counted the grateful twitch of his lips as silent endorsement.

“So who’s gonna look out for passing boats?” Geonhak asked after a while, turning his head to Seoho who let a high, clear laugh escape past his lips.