Can't Believe it's a Human | HEEHOON

A little slow

Heeseung felt weird walking together with Jungwon as they headed to Jungwon’s meeting place. It was awkward and slightly unnatural, like his body wanted to go to his usual spot, even if this one was more convenient for the mermen and more secluded. It was safer, but it was not his spot with Sunghoon. It felt like he was invading someone else’s space.

On his part, Jungwon seemed perfectly fine, if slightly annoyed. Heeseung kept glancing at him, trying to guess what he was thinking. They parted ways with their friends a couple of minutes ago, making up an excuse about a project Heeseung needed Jungwon’s help for. No one even questioned them, but Heeseung felt awful deceiving their friends. 

Up to that point, he’d never actively told their friends he needed to go anywhere, and if he did, he never gave a reason. However, this time, as it was both of them going to the same place it would have been weird if they suddenly left with no explanation. Heeseung had thought that having someone else know about merpeople would make this process easier, the whole walking to an out-of-the-way area, but that was for strangers not to think he was a serial killer or a drug dealer. For their friends, this just complicated things. 

For obvious reasons, the ones he felt the worst lying to were Riki and Jimin. They’d be overjoyed if they were to find out mermaids weren’t only real, but living very close to their town. Heeseung knew they’d keep the secret, the most damage they could do was be a bit annoying with their questions towards the mermen. But he couldn’t tell them, not without Sunghoon’s permission. He was not going to speak about Jay, since that was Jungwon’s situation to deal with. If he were to ever introduce either of them, he was going to introduce Sunghoon. And the truth was that he’d already spoken to Sunghoon about it and had promised to keep him a secret for now. Heeseung was not going to betray Sunghoon like that, not even if he knew they’d be on their best behaviour.

“So…” Heeseung started, there were many things he wanted to ask but Jungwon had forbidden him from speaking about the merfolk until they came to this place again. Now that they were there, Heeseung needed to get everything out of his system, even if Jungwon didn’t answer any of his questions. 

“Just ask your questions, hyung,” Jungwon seemed pretty relaxed, but still tired and wanting to avoid this if possible. 

“How did you meet Jay?” Heeseung asked first. Honestly, he thought that was one of the fairer questions, as Jungwon knew how he’d met Sunghoon. 

Jungwon closed his eyes as he sat down on the rock, as close to the water as he could get without getting wet. “Last year I almost drowned.” Heeseung had expected anything except that. In fact, it had been so unexpected he almost slipped and fell into the water. He managed to regain his balance just in time, thankfully, and he sat next to Jungwon with eyes wide-open. “Two summers ago, I had come out to swim— obviously not here, I did not want to die. It was closer to the tourist’s beach,” Jungwon began retelling his story. “But there were so many people, too many, and I just kept swimming away from everyone… until I couldn’t go back to the beach.”

“And Jay helped you?” Heeseung had to ask the obvious question. Jungwon hadn’t drowned, so someone had to have helped him. 

“Yeah… he— well, I don’t know everything that happened, I wasn’t fully conscious… but he brought me here and I was lucky he was there. I was lucky he’s kind enough to save me, even when he didn’t know how I’d react to him.” Jungwon had taken off his shoes and socks, and was now putting his feet into the water. “I haven’t gone swimming since then, in the ocean, not without Jay nearby…”

“You didn’t tell any of us…” Heeseung could hardly believe Jungwon had been hiding such a big thing. Something so traumatic had happened and he had told no one about it. As he tried to recall the few times they’d been to the beach, he now took notice of how Jungwon would always somehow be busy or how he’d never go into the water.