Moonlit Shores

𓆉 Chapter 1

Seungcheol suddenly opened his eyes, his head aching not knowing what happened or where he is.

He looked around as he sat up from where he was laying, his eyes widening at the sight of coral and seaweed. About to about to get up, he realized that he didn't have legs anymore.

He started to panic, not knowing if he was dreaming or not, or if the universe was playing a game with his mind- if he was hallucinating.

Unable to move, he sat there, looking around and pinched himself. "Ow!" He winced.

Suddenly he heard some chatter close by and decided to lay down again, closing his eyes as if he was never awake.

As the chatter got closer, he listened in to the conversation. He tried not to open his eyes and not make any facial expressions.

"Are you sure this was a good idea, Han? You know what father would say if he-"

"Ugh, I know! I heard this so many times already. But I couldn't just leave him for dead! That would've been cruel."

"You don't know him! He could be a crazy psychopath who's out to get us!"

"You're so dramatic, I swear, Seungkwanie. It's not that serious. If father finds out then he'll deal."

"You have a human a tail! Jeonghan, that's insane!"

He tried not to freak out as he heard what he did. His curiosity couldn't hold him back any longer and he sat up, the two people- well, creatures- screaming in shock as he also screamed.

He looked them up and down. They also had tails with scales that shine and glitter. Their skin glistened and their eyes were deep.

His eyes narrowed, trying to rationalize what he was seeing. He didn't read about such creatures in his books. He was never told of such a beautiful yet confusing beings by his parents or the royal court. The two creatures grew closer, but he was cautious and backed away- not knowing if they were about to eat him alive.

"Relax- we're gonna get you back home. I'm Seungkwan, and this is my brother, Jeonghan."

Seungcheol couldn't speak. His eyes were going back and forth between the two brothers. His mind still trying to process what's going on.

"Ok, Kwanie, I'll deal with this, just go distract the king. Please?"

Seungkwan rolls his eyes and swims off without another word.

Jeonghan sits beside Seungcheol and looks at him, as if he was inspecting him. "What's your name?"

"I- uh.. Seungcheol." He stumbled on his words, looking at how the creature was staring at him curiously- as if he was the unusual one in the situation.

"Seungcheol... That's nice. By the way, I'm sorry for changing you into my merman, but I didn't know what else to do." Jeonghan sighs. "I shouldn't have been up there..."

Though it doesnt seem like the creature wanted to hurt him, he still wants his legs back. He wants to go home. He misses his castle and his room.

"How do I get back? I don't wanna worry my family and this feels really weird too." He says as he looks at his tail.

"If I take you back.. Which I will! Would you mind teaching me about your world? I've always been curious about what's up there. Which is also why I was kinda spying on you.. Sorry about that. But my father forbid me and my brothers from seeing what's up there in the human world." Jeonghan looks at his tail as well, frowning slightly as he swings it back and forth.

"Really? I've always been curious about... Whatever you are-"

Jeonghan looks at Seungcheol, smiling faintly. "Really? There's nothing exciting down here.. It's just fish."

Seungcheol found himself smiling. "So we're both on the same boat then, huh?" Jeonghan looked confused.

"What boat?"

"No-no it's a saying. I mean that we're both wondering the same thing about each other's worlds."

Jeonghan nods. "Oh well... Maybe I could come back up to the shore and share things about us then too."

"Yeah we could do that. So.. The comb was yours?" Seungcheol asks, as he admires the merman's hair. It flows so beautiful in the water and falls against his face just perfectly when he turns.

"Yeah.. It was a gift actually. Thank you for finding it. I would've been devastated if I lost it."

"I knew it would've had to belong to something otherworldly."

Jeonghan chuckles softly. "You're the weird looking one. With your- things." He points to his tail- referring to his former human self.

"My legs?" Jeonghan nods. "Yeah they're weird looking. Kinda uncomfortable."

Seungcheol can't help but smile at the comment. "You're the one with a fish half."

Jeonghan shrugs. "You look better with the fish half, you know. It brings out your eyes." He get up and swims over to his vanity, grabbing a small trinket.

"Before we leave-"

Suddenly there was a loud, angry voice calling for Jeonghan.

Jeonghan's eyes widened. "The king-"

He quickly scrambled and grabbed Seungcheol off of his bed and swam off, forcing Seungcheol to figure out how to swim.