rapture of the deep ; seodo

✰ chapter 11 ✰

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The next day, Geonhak had to actually step up at the dive centre, so he could settle the paperwork and hand out the respective freediving certificates to his scholars who had just completed their initiation course. It was rather the parents thanking him – this time, it had been a course that was offered to young teens – and eventually leaving with their children in tow, but Geonhak couldn’t help but feel a little proud like he always did, and he somehow hoped that the character and condition of his teaching hadn’t been affected negatively by the way his thoughts had kept steering elsewhere these days, far far away from reality.

Ending the course, however, also implied finishing his workday early, and unproductiveness had always been something that bugged him as a matter of principle, but he knew that there wasn’t enough time left until the clock would strike four for him to find a proper pursuit (time was too short for him to go on a dive for instance, and he would have to find somebody to accompany him out there, and then he would have to find a way to get rid of that someone afterwards.)

Besides, there was a great chance that something in his chest would snap like a rubber band teared too harshly and prompt him to follow the restlessness and impatience of his heart, going to the cliffs far too early and wondering when he had started behaving this laughably.

He needed something to distract his mind, he decided, because otherwise he would run off and continue being embarrassing about how much he was looking forward to seeing Seoho again by dangling his feet in the water and letting his mind wander.

His distraction ended up consisting in giving the borrowable equipment a deep clean and sorting the different parts of the equipment into their respective boxes because over the course of the year, every box had developed to carry the same homogenous mess of unsorted masks, fins, snorkels, plumbs, belts, and whatnot.

As Geonhak was knocking their storage room into shape, the rest of the team arrived, too, ready to call it a day.

And the rest of the scuba diving team arriving also involved Keonhee arriving who Geonhak had been turning down for the past two days because he was busy learning that the world had so much more to offer than reality, which was exactly what Geonhak was so afraid of.

Keonhee wouldn’t be mad with him for having left him to grab lunch on his own for a few times (possibly with Hwanwoong by his side, but that was beside the point), because in reality, he was the problem.

Geonhak and his crazy, amazing, confusing entanglement of reality and fairytale and that he was as much overwhelmed and helpless as he was curious and afflicted, and he imagined that the longer he lived Seoho’s presence, the clearer things would come into sight, the more convincing and assured he could tell Keonhee about it.

Because it would bluster out of him.

Geonhak’s urge to disclosure and communication wasn’t conspicuously strong, but with such huge matter pressing on his chest and Keonhee’s trustworthy presence – it appeared to be in his nature to collect people who would chatter on to him about their life history and trust him on the spot for an unknown reason that even Geonhak had fallen for – Geonhak knew that forbidding himself to speak would be to no avail.

(Keonhee would keep the secret confidential, Seoho wouldn’t mind, right?)

“Geonhak! You haven’t put in an appearance in… forever!”

Keonhee shined as he walked up to Geonhak and engulfed him in a tight hug, wetsuit still soggy with saltwater, and although Keonhee was the most affectionate person Geonhak knew, he was sure that this served more as a way to annoy Geonhak rather than to satiate his touch deprivation.