Shimmering Tides

Moonlight Failure

It had now officially been 48 hours since Yuta's life had gone under. He was eating his breakfast at the dining room table, trying to keep his cool, while his mom did the dishes. He nearly choked on his apple when he looked to his left and saw Jungwoo waving at him. He made a panicked expression at Jungwoo and wildly waved his hands in a spreading motion. Luckily Jungwoo got the message and ducked away from view when Yuta's mom turned back around. Yuta went back to eating his food as if nothing happened but he knew Jungwoo would be accompanying him to school again.

He swallowed the last of his bread roll, but before he could leave he had to drink his morning glass of milk. His parents always made him drink one glass every morning as a kid and now it was just part of his daily routine.

Without even looking, Yuta reached out to the corner of the table where he knew the milk would be. He knew it would be there because it was always there. The milk's morning location was just as reliable as the person who put it there.

Yuta's hand swatted at thin air.

He looked up from his plate in surprise. The milk wasn't there. The table was empty aside from his plate.

The milk's morning location was just as reliable as the person who put it there.

Yuta sighed before he rose from his seat and slung his bag over his shoulder. He walked out the door and wasn't surprised when a happy-go lucky- voice singsonged 'hello' from behind him.

🧜‍♀️🧜‍♀️🧜‍♀️

"Oi, Yuta!"

Yuta flinched when he heard Jaehyun's voice chime in from behind him. He had been avoiding his friends all day the day before because of Jungwoo and he still hadn't come up with an adequate excuse for his presence.

Jaehyun ran up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder to turn him around.

"Where you going, mate? We haven't seen you in forever."

As if Jungwoo couldn't have better timing, he popped up next to Yuta with four donuts in his hand.

"Mmmmm! hmese are smoooo good!" Jungoo said while he chewed on a strawberry frosted donut. Jaehyun looked at him questioningly. Yuta just shook his head.

"Don't ask." He replied. Jaehyun only shrugged and the two set off to find the rest of their friends.

Yuta leaned back on the picnic bench that sat on the school campus. His friends were all thankfully chatting with one another instead of paying attention to Jungwoo who was chasing butterflies.

"So we were thinking that maybe we could break into that jewelry store nearby and pawn off some of that shit later on. Yuta can help with picking the locks cuz he's good at stuff like that, right Yuta?"

Yuta didn't hear Haechan, he was too busy watching Jungwoo.

"I said right Yuta?"

Yuta still didn't give any indication that he had heard him.

His friends all exchanged questioning looks before Doyoung reached down to swat the side of his head.

"Oi what was that for!" Yuta looked up at Doyoung angrily.

"What you looking at bro?" Doyoung wriggled his eyebrows.

"Hm, nothin." Yuta leaned back onto the side of the table.

"Really? So you're not watching that weird boy who's been following you all day?" Yuta whipped his head in Jaehyun's direction and flared his nostrils at him.

At the mention of Jungwoo's presence, the rest of Yuta's friend group all turned to look over at the boy who was currently on the verge of tears because of a missing cat poster.

"Yeah now that you mention it that kid had been following Yuta around quite a bit." Ten said.

"Who is he?"

Yuta felt a tiny bit of panic at that question. He still hadn't taken the time to come up with an adequate excuse for Jungwoo's presence. He couldn't say Jungwoo was a friend because he obviously wasn't a friend. He couldn't say he was an exchange student because they would probably be suspicious of Jungwoo's perfect English and lack of accent. And he definitely couldn't say that Jungwoo was a mermaid who was from the ocean; who was now on land because he cursed Yuta after accidentally destroying his mermaid office or whatever that was.

That left Yuta with only one option, but he didn't like it.

His friends waited impatiently for his response.

Yuta sighed, he didn't like it but he knew they would back off of him if he said it.

"He's a relative on my dad's side." After a moment of silence the group all quickly went back to talking about the jewelry store as if the whole exchange never happened. Yuta sighed heavily again.

"And yes I could use some hard cash, jewelry store tomorrow. Don't be late losers."

The group hummed in agreement.

Yuta tried his best to relax again, and it worked; for a few moments. But then he noticed a couple black pieces of plastic begin to stick up from the lawn they were all sitting on.

He flinched and climbed back onto the table. His friends all shot him a weird look.

"You're not scared of a little bit of water are you?" Mark asked him.

The sprinklers began to turn on and a little ended up spraying onto Yuta.

Here it is, he thought. This is the moment my tail gets exposed and Jungwoo and I become lab experiments for the rest of our lives.

He shut his eyes and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Yuta carefully opened one eye, then the other. He blinked a couple of times then looked down at his legs.

Wait his legs. No tail!

Yuta internally screamed in happiness. He didn't change into a mermaid.

He looked up and saw Jungwoo who had noticed what happened as well, he was staring at Yuta in shock.

The two boys just stared at each other without moving a muscle. Yuta hadn't changed, he didn't get a tail.

What was the nature of the curse they shared?

A/n when u accidentally make a story low key personal