Sea Legs || ChaeSom

o n e

Mermaids were not rare. As with any city by a large body of water, many people have seen and even interacted with the half humans. As a certain rule states that's dated back to 1987, humans are not to harm any mermaid. Once the mermaids were no longer afraid of humans, a very resourceful ally was made.

Chaeyoung has heard it all many times before in her history classes. But she's never personally met one before, and she's beginning to feel a tiny bit left out. All her friends have seen mermaids with their own two eyes. So how come she hasn't been able to? Did they just not like her or something?

It was probably a dumb thing to worry about, why mermaids don't want to interact with her. But she hasn't met a person who hasn't interacted with at least one of them. And there she was, a mermaid virgin.

"It's not that life-changing," her close friend, Dahyun, was saying to her during lunch.

Chaeyoung poked at her mystery meat with her chopsticks, sighing softly. "I know, but I just really want to meet one. Just once, to experience what it feels like!"

"It's like meeting another person. But in half!"

"That's no help, unnie."

Dahyun chuckled. "Sorry. But it's no big deal, I promise. Stop worrying so much about it."

Dahyun proved to be absolutely no help, as Chaeyoung found herself subconsciously drawing mermaids in her notebook after she went back to class.

After school, Chaeyoung would sometimes visit the nearby beach that hardly anybody goes to. Probably because it's filled with crabs and jellyfish. And nobody wants to deal with that.

With her eyes focused on the sand to prevent herself from stepping on crabs, Chaeyoung headed towards the water, stopping just out of reach of the waves. The breeze softly tousled her short, brown hair, the smell of ocean suddenly hitting her. She scrunched up her nose at the smell. Maybe that's why mermaids don't like her.

Still, she would be happy to at least see the flip of a tail in the distance. Anything would be better than nothing.

In her jacket pocket she felt a vibration, and she extracted her phone to see the notification.

Mom: your father and I are going out tonight, stay safe!❤️

It was nothing new. Once or twice a month her parents would go out for a date night, alerting Chaeyoung just before they left the house. Usually Dahyun or Tzuyu would come over to keep her company and order food with the money her parents leave.

Chaeyoung texted for them to have fun when she felt moisture in her shoes. She doesn't remember taking her socks and shoes off, so she looked down to see that the tide had reached out to where she was. A groan left her lips as she attempted to shake the water off to no avail. It's a good thing her parents wouldn't be home to scold her.

"At least a jellyfish didn't sting me," she muttered, turning while putting her phone back in her pocket.

While turning, something caught her eye in the brush to her right. Another reason to why people didn't visit that section of the beach was all the bushes and trees around the small clearing. It didn't make an ideal beach day.

Under the bush she was looking at in particular, was what looked like a body, half naked. Well, from what Chaeyoung could see. Their back was to her, and their lower half was hidden by the bushes.

"Hello?" Chaeyoung called, taking a step towards the person.

She didn't get an answer.

"Hey! Are you okay?"

Nothing.

Chaeyoung took a few steps closer to the body, expecting for the person to jump or show any signs of being startled and frowning when she got no response. Once she was close enough to touch the person, Chaeyoung squatted down as best as she could.

Their skin had a slight blue tint to it, and Chaeyoung could see the blueish-green veins down their arm. They were sickly pale, and had dry skin below their stomach area. The sight made Chaeyoung's stomach flip, and she prayed that the person wasn't dead.

"Hello? Can you hear me?"

She slid one hand in her jacket pocket, ready to call an ambulance, the other holding onto the arm carefully. It was so cold, as if they were left outside for hours on end.

"Oh no..."

Chaeyoung quickly flipped the person over, eyes bulging out of her head. The person was clearly a girl, and as the small branches around her lower half shook, Chaeyoung can clearly see that the person wasn't, in fact, a person.

A small gasp left Chaeyoung as she retracted her hand from her pocket and hovered it over the unconscious mermaid's head.

I know Chae didn't live with her parents but I'm too lazy to change it now🤠

Anyways, I just posted this cause I realized how much I miss Somi😔