FREEDOM | Changbin + Felix

Start line | eins

Changbin was 7 years old and he was hanging out with his parents at a local beach in Jeju Island, it was common for him and his family to always travel during long holidays and vacation times. He was short for someone his age, had black hair like his mom and dad, wore a kids swimsuit and had a child floater around his waist.

The little boy was more interested on catching little crabs that he could find underneath the white sand than listening to his parents warnings about him going too far from them. He hated being alone, but he was too distracted to listen to them.
He was getting far and more far from his parents location, catching little crabs and shells until he got tired but... Something was off. Where did his parents go? He couldn't find them anywhere. Being surrounded by many people that he didn't know, he started to worry trying to find his parents but he didn't want to cry because technically crying was for little girls and not strong boys like his father once told him.

He ran across the people, but what if they were drowning? He thought. The last time he saw his mom was when she was inside the sea bathing herself while his dad took photos, so, to him, she must be drowning somewhere in this beach.

His black hair was now wet, he left his little bow with the things he caught in the sand, swimming looking now for his mother, but the thing is: he didn't know how to swim, but he trusted his child floater that he was tightly grabbing his sides like if depended on his life (and it did) deep searching for a dark haired woman that was his mom.

His arms and legs muscles started to give up on him because of him getting tired and, like if it couldn't get worse, he found himself far from the sand and now he couldn't hold it anymore: he cried. Cried like little babies did. Cried loud, screaming for help. Note: he was still swimming, not desperately like before due to how hurt his muscles were.
He didn't know but a gigantic wave was forming behind him, he didn't notice this because of how scared he was, the only thing he could hear was his heart thumping loud in his chest, his eyes closing to let tears fall down his cheeks, his strong side that he believed having was totally betraying him now.

Back. Look back and swim for your life. That's what his senses told him, but he didn't listen and soon he felt pain at his back. Pain and only pain. The water was stronger than him. So strong that he couldn't breathe, of couse he wasn't breathing under water, but that's what made sense to him.

He chocked on water, swallowing that disgusting salty liquid that ran across his mouth, letting his throat hurting because of the little grains of sand mixed in it, his eyes hurting because of all the saltiness, his stomach aching with all that inside, his head hurting from the impact that he just had on a rock, his muscles fighting against the water curse, trying to reach the surface, but he was tired and nothing worked and... Now... Changbin found himself closing his eyes, thinking of nothing but that he was dying right there, all because he was weak.

Changbin felt his head turn to the side, leaving him to go as the waves pleased, unconscious, but... Something... Someone... Managed to get him back to the surface and that brought the dark haired boy to start breathing again. He started coughing, letting loads of water get out of his mouth, his eyes widening and showing how desperate he was, his face almost blank proving that he was scared. But... Who was that angel that saved him? He thought, and... Well, the answer was really a surprise: another dark haired boy, that looked his age, if not, younger.

"Are you okay now?," said the boy that saved him, glancing him a worried face. The boy really didn't sound korean. His accent sounded too strange.
"I...I-I'm better... Thanks for saving me." He said, replying to his hero's question. All he didn't know was that the other boy didn't understand any korean, all he really knew was that 'are you okay' phrase, but that didn't stop the boy from now smiling at him. Even though he didn't understand a single word of what Changbin had replied, he thought that he must be better now because he was able to even reply to him.

The other boy started getting him back to the beach, nearing the sand now. Changbin was startled at the fact that the boy didn't use a child floater, so he thought about his accent and the fact that he didn't use a floater and came to a new fact: he must be a fish taking the form of a human, he thought.

He met the merman's parents as soon as they got in the sand again and for his surprise: they spoke korean.

"Are you okay, dear?" the woman said, getting a nod from Changbin, even tho it was a really odd nodding because he was a little scared of what happened and also for not knowing these people.
"I'm okay now thanks to him..." he said, a little bit shaky as his voice failed a little nearing the end.
"Where are your parents?" she asked and Changbin realized what happened and started crying.

The woman got him in her arms, comforting the kid and started walking with her son by her side, trying to find Changbin's parents.
"Everything's okay now, my dear..." her voice sounding soft and clear, managing to get Changbin to calm down a little.

His parents apparently were looking for him everywhere and as soon as his mother's eyes met Changbin's, he started crying again, but now his tears were happy and relieved tears, not sad ones.

"Where were you?! We were looking for you everywhere! Didn't you hear me to not go too far away?!" she scolded him as soon as the other woman landed him to her. She was scolding him with a calm and soft voice, patting his head, leaning him into her neck, letting him cry, relieved that she found her son safe and sound again.

"Thank you a lot, Miss..." she stopped for a moment, continuing after a great look at the other woman and her son. "I'm sorry but what's your last name? I want to thank you properly for finding my child," she said, getting a quick and smiley response from the woman.
"Miss Lee. But I'm not the one that found your kid, my son did it." She said patting her son's back until he moved a forward a little. "Introduce yourself, dear, she wants to compliment you!" she spoke in english, letting Changbin be completely startled and with a shocked face.

"Hi, my name is Felix and I'm 6 years old!," he said, bowing a little, making both moms chuckle at his cuteness.
"Well, nice to meet you Felix, I'm Miss. Seo, Thank you for finding my son." she replied in english, that's all what she knew how to say, though.

Felix proceeded on speaking, thinking that she could understand him. "I didn't find him like that, he was drowning in the sea, so I thought I could be a hero and saved him! I'm totally a hero now!" he explained, excited with the fact that he now had himself as a hero, smiling all cute.
The woman understood what he said because Felix's mom started translating as soon as he stopped talking and Miss Seo only could smile and bow back to him, thanking him in english again.

Changbin was now really shy in his mother's arms and he soon whispered to her.
"Mommy, I want to thank him properly, can we please bring them to dinner? I wanna play with him and use all my school english skills, I know I'm really good at it!"
Miss Seo could only chuckle at her kid's cuteness too, so she just positively gave him a thumbs up and invited them to their summer rented house for dinner. Miss Lee could only agree after translating and seeing how happy Felix was at the thought of making new friends in Korea.

And that's how their friendship started. One dinner, lots of incomprehensible words between both boys, toys and running across the whole house. But all that for almost nothing because Felix and his family were going back to Australia (Felix's motherland) the other day.

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a/n:

Wooshh-... Uhh... I don't like this chapter that much, but it'll be really important for the rest of the book.
Anyways, thanks for reading this chapter! Please leave your thoughts on it, I would really appreciate it <3