Tale of the Dark Hills | Jeongmin/ BangTwice Fantasy

Is She a Human?

"Can you stand up?", his voice is deep, even deeper than the sea, from where she has come from.

Stand up? What is that? How to do that?, she wonders, without answering.

A part of her heart is anxious, she fears her truth to be unveiled on her very first day on the land. Her silence baffles the beautiful human next to her, he again asks in his husky voice,

"Can't you? Did you hurt your legs?".

The beautiful human looks at her newly formed legs with curiosity and though those limbs are new they got ugly from all the bruises and wounds, she had to bear. She looks him, as he touches her wounds gently with his finger tips, she hisses in pain due to the contact.

"I am sorry", he immediately apologizes with a concerned expression, she just stares at him in reply. Her silence starts troubling him.

Is she mute?, he thinks.

"If you have trouble to stand up, hold me", he then stands up and extends his hand to her.

She observes how his folded legs straightens up, causing the human to elevate his position. He is now on his feet, she has gained her feet too, she now has to lift her body supporting on them. Okay, she takes his hand and tries to pull her body up. But damn!! are human bodies usually this heavy? Or her body feels heavier on land? She doesn't know. Somehow she is on her feet, though her knees are shaky and wobbly  and she feels extreme pain underneath her feet, as if thousand arrows have pierced through her flesh. Her legs give up, losing her balance, she is about to fall when a strong arm sneaks onto her waist to save her. The piece of cloth he offered to cover her body, slips away exposing pearl white skin adorn with scars. Hastily he pulls up the robe to cover her body again. His heart is beating out his ribcage, it's sinful to see an unknown woman in this state but he can't deny that it was indeed a beautiful sight. He is a man afterall. While the man is being all perplexed and sweaty because of what just now happened, she shows no sign of embarrassment, which surprises him more.

How on earth she doesn't feel shy the slightest? Is her mental condition fine?, that's what he thinks.

"What is your name?", he asks her. She struggles a bit to unseal her lips, it feels they are glued to each other.

"Sana", she says. The man fastens the robe tightly around her thin body frame so that it doesn't slip away again and lifts her in his arms. She gets a little startled by the way he just sweeps away the ground from her feet and with a reflex she locks her arms around his neck. Their eyes meet again and again a tingling, chilly sensation runs down through both of their spines, it feels dangerous to be this close.

The man clears his throat loudly to erase the awkwardness and says, "just because your legs are injured and you can't walk".

That's not why she can't walk though, but Sana doesn't say anything. She has got her legs but definitely doesn't know how to use them yet. Her body swings in motion as the human walks with her, in his arms. She observes the process, he lifts his one foot, keeping the other grounded, Sana takes the note. She now again focuses on the face, the handsome yet familiar face,

Does he remember her?

"Do you remember me?", Sana gasps as if he has read her mind, her eyes go widened. She gulps and asks,

"Who are you?"

He looks disappointed at the question, still with a bitter smile he answers,
"Taehyung, my name is Taehyung. Remember that"

It doesn't settle with Taehyung that he is not there in her memory, whereas since the day he saw her, she never has left his mind. He has visited the shore countless times with the hope to see her again, he remembers her though she told him not to, he still does. It's weird that till this day, he believed that she wasn't a human but now he feels weirdly relieved when he has found that she is indeed a human. He looks at her again, her pale smooth skin, sharp nose, thin lips, fish shaped eyes and crystal pupils inside them, his mind changes again, she is no way a human, she looks too godly for that. On the other hand, Sana does remember him, how can she forget? It was him afterall, who made her curious about this unknown world outside the water. How can she forget him? He is too handsome to leave anyone's mind and he definitely remembers her, Sana gets that. But she can't expose herself, that is the number one rule for a mermaid in human world, that's what Merona told her again and again, not to expose her real identity to anyone, TO ANYONE. It will not only jeopardize her life, but her whole kingdom. How would Sana know that the very first human she would encounter in this world would be him??