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Jisung doesn't read up on his mythology. He knows of Rome and Greece, knows the Gods and Goddesses from the mighty Zeus all the way to Apollo. He couldn't answer what they all stood for, nor what they did, but at least he remembers the names. He's tried his best. It's not something someone would usually make a habit of memorizing and creating an oral history -or rather, oral mythology- project on.
Besides, all of that is in the books anyways. None of it is actually real, they're myths, beliefs made by people in the past, thousands of years before now, and now, nobody seems to remember mythology anyways.
But now, Jisung thinks, he's glad to have read a bit more into all those books his parents passed to him as a kid.
Sirens were mythological creatures derived from Greek and Roman beliefs alike. They were said to have the appearance of a bird with a human head, but since the middle ages, the description shifted to resemble more of a mermaid look. Everyone knows mermaids. Gorgeous creatures with the upper body of a human and the lower body as a fish tail. The drawings connected to sirens depict long fish-like tails, but Jisung knows they're not just an average mermaid. Sirens were fabled to lure sailors into the sea with an irresistible song, plunging deep into the ocean waters until they met their untimely death at the hands of the cursed creatures.
Jisung had been fascinated by them as a kid. The fantasy that a single song could hypnotise someone in such a way had him flipping page after page reading all about them.
One simple note.
"How's your journal coming along?"
Jisung looks up from the leather bound book and tucks his pencil between the pages, finding narrow eyes glancing down at the notebook, curious and nagging. He closes the journal and tucks it to his chest, jutting out his lip in defiance.
“None of your business,” he answers, a joke, obviously. The boy beside him stares, unamused. He could never deny Chan. “S’ almost done. I think I want a few more stanzas before I submit it to Hyunjin. How do people just… write poetry without stopping?” He grumbles, putting his forehead on one hand and opening the journal once more.
Chan rests his head in his arms on the wooden surface of the table. “Sometimes it comes naturally,” he thinks aloud, “other times you just need a little…” he reaches out and traces a crevice in the wood with his finger, “motivation?”
Jisung huffs. “I’ve been stuck on this piece for days, hyung. My deadline is rounding the corner and I needed this one submitted to Hyunjin like. A week ago for editing.”
Chan doesn’t reply, then the conversation is strung in the air, a threatening cloud over their heads bound to rain back down on them soon. Jisung stares at the leather cover.
“Maybe you need a new perspective.” Chan sits up, gesturing to the town around them. “Maybe here is too noisy and distracting. Not enough fresh air for your head to think.”
Jisung hesitates for a moment, pondering his words. Maybe Chan’s right. He needs something else to get him going. And it’s not alcohol he needs, like Chan says is always great for motivation.
“A change of scenery,” he mumbles, but Chan catches it. He snaps his fingers.
“I know a place.”
“When you said you knew a place, I didn’t think it was this!”
Jisung’s hands claw and scrabble at the stone as he shuffles his way across the ledge on trembling feet. Chan is several paces ahead of him, casually walking the ledge like it’s nothing. He doesn’t reply, given the roaring of the waterfall right next to them.
He would rather have stayed in town and dealt with writer’s block than do this.
When Jisung finally gets across the ledge, Chan greets him at the top of the waterfall. He clambers up and sits with heavy breaths, blood rushing in his ears. To be fair, it’s beautiful, the perfect place to hang out sans the crashing water, but, Jisung would’ve preferred staying home instead of almost dying.
“The ledge wasn’t even that small, Jisung, just chill out,” Chan sighs, nudging Jisung’s shoulder. “Does this feel any better? Like your head is clearer?”
“Feels like my head is fuzzed over in a panic,” Jisung grumbles, waving his hands in mock terror, “I’m gonna die! I’m gonna die!”
Chan snorts and hangs his head. “Well, regardless, I think you need a break anyways. You’ve been staring at that paper for way too long. Not healthy.”
“Yeah, like you and your addiction to coffee is unhealthy too.”
Sitting in comfortable silence is a hard skill to master, but between Jisung and Chan, it just comes naturally. They let their conversations be carried out by the wind, falling down the waterfall and drifting off in the river. Jisung pulls out his journal again, staring at the words, writing a few more, erasing them, then starting the process all over again.
“Still blocked,” he tucks his head into his knees and folds his arms over top, “this just isn’t fair.”
Chan knocks their knees together, a supportive action. “You’ll get there, sometimes you just have to let the words find you.” He pushes himself up and extends a hand to help Jisung to his feet. “Let’s go swimming?” He suggests, and Jisung shuts the journal and agrees.
Sirens are said to have been cursed. They were punished for not being able to save Persephone from her abduction by Hades into the underworld. Some argue that Demeter actually gave them wings to aid in finding Persephone, but they clearly failed, and in turn, their feathers were plucked from each wing. After the middle ages had redefined the siren, there were still conflicting stories about which curse was true.
Jisung most believed that sirens were trapped and the only way to break their curse and escape was to lure the Argonauts to death.
“Did you hear that?” Jisung pokes his head out of the water and finds Chan lying back contently floating. He raises his head and cocks a brow.
“No? Hear what?” He asks, returning to an upright position. Jisung shakes his head.
“Nothing. I just…”
Jisung looks around, finding nothing there. It’s just him and Chan and the raging waterfall.
“Thought I heard something.”
Chan shrugs. “Get out of your head, man. Relax.” He wades over to Jisung and knocks their shoulders together. “Lay back. Enjoy the sun. Nothing matters.”
Jisung sighs and nods, joining Chan in continuing to float in the pool of water, the white noise drowning out all other sounds.
Until he hears it again.
This time, louder, under the water where his head from the ears and back are submerged.
A song. A voice. Someone singing, clear under the water.
Jisung raises his head again. “I heard it again,” he says, this time in a bit of a panic. "You heard it, right? It was so clear under the water."
Chan groans. "You're just in your head. I don't hear a single thing." He runs a hand over his face and shakes the droplets out of his eyes. "I've gotta take a piss, be right back."
"Are you kidding? Don't fucking leave me!"
"You'll be fine, Jisung. Seriously." He stands and wades out of the water, leaving a scared, confused, and shirtless Jisung to float abandoned.
The singing stops for a while. Chan wandered into the bushes to pee and Jisung stays close to the shore. Waiting. Scared. He shouldn't be, Chan's probably right, he is in his head a lot. But the voice was so clear, almost right next to him as he drifted under the sun, letting his thoughts get carried away by the clouds passing by-
"Follow me."
Jisung's eyes snap open to the water and his heart stutters in his chest. That was real. Wasn't it?
"Chan hyung?" Jisung calls hesitantly, legs instinctively carrying him toward the waterfall. "If that's you and this is a prank, it's not funny!" There's an echo of a laugh that comes from behind the waterfall and Jisung furrows his brow. "Make fun of me all you want, but you're freaking me out! It’s seriously not funny!"
He doesn't get a response. His mind wants to go back to the shore, pack up his things and abandon the waterfall, leave Chan alone and confused as to where his best friend went, but his legs are carrying him deeper into the water, without choice. There's faint humming in the back of his head.
"Come here..."
Jisung follows without a second thought.
He ducks under the waterfall and shakes out his hair, finding his footing on the rocks at the bottom, dragging his feet through the resistance, water up to his chest. Behind the waterfall is a bigger pool of gorgeous aquamarine coloured water, sparking underneath the quartz embedded in the cave walls.
Nobody is there.
“Hel-“
Jisung cuts off with a muffled scream as a pair of hands covers his mouth and he flails, slipping on the rocks and falling backwards into another figure, presumably the one with their hands around his face. Thrashing and kicking in the water, he wriggles free from their grasp and desperately clambers to shore in a panic, tears pricking his eyes as he pants heavily on the rocks, sharp edges digging into his elbows and thighs. After a moment of darting around desperately trying to find the person who grabbed him, a head pokes up from the water. Narrowed brown eyes and slim eyebrows a lighter shade than his sleek black hair. The silhouette of their body is dark under the water, but Jisung can barely make out what looks like…
Like a fish tail.
“I’ve never met anyone who didn’t like my song,” the person -is that really a person?- sticks the rest of his head above the water and frowns. Jisung gasps for air still, trembling in shock.
“What the fuck.”
The stranger sighs. “I can’t tell. Did you like my song?”
Jisung’s in so much shock he can’t even form a coherent thought, just ‘what the fuck, what the fuck’ all over in his head. He barely registers the fact his crotch is warm instead of cold from the water, indicating that he literally pissed himself out of fear, but that doesn’t matter.
“You’re-“ Jisung swallows, mouth dry and full of cotton, “you’re a- a-“
“Yeesh, didn’t mean to scare you that bad,” the stranger interrupts, moving closer to the shore. “Cat got your tongue?”
Jisung can clearly see the bottom half of the stranger now that he’s in shallower, clearer water. He’s read the books. He remembers this creature more than anything else, better than a griffin, in more detail than a unicorn.
“You’re a fucking siren.”
The stranger giggles and rests his chin in his hands on the rocks that line the shore. When did he get so close? His tail flips up in the water and comes back down with a smack, splashing Jisung’s face with a few drops of water.
“Finally, someone knows the difference. You know how many people who have called us mermaids? Those fuckers have the worst voices ever.”
Jisung blinks. Is he seriously having a normal conversation with this… this siren?
“I’m sorry, how… you’re not…”
“Real?” The stranger finishes for him, pushing himself up so they’re face to face. He cocks his head and smiles, red lips parting to show off pristine white teeth. Jisung’s cheeks heat up.
“This is about as real as it gets, darling.”
“Are you going to kill me?” Jisung asks, heart thudding so hard in his chest, the siren is bound to have heard it, if not felt it by now.
The siren laughs, pulls away from his face and covers his mouth in a giggle that sounds sweet like honey, but over time, it crystalizes into something sharp, poisonous, stinging.
He sighs, like it pains him to think about it. “I don’t know.”
What does he mean he doesn’t know? Jisung shifts further back onto the shore.
“People don’t usually resist a siren song,” the stranger continues, returning to his original position with his head in his arms, “they kind of can’t resist it.” Jisung watches as his eyes flicker in something akin to hunger before his gaze flits up to him. “But you did.”
Jisung gulps. The water on his skin is beginning to dry, leaving nothing but cold air in its wake. “I did?” He breathes quietly.
“I mean, you did break free from my grasp,” the siren explains, “not everyone just does that under a siren’s influence. At least, not that easily.” He lifts his head and looks at his hands. “Maybe I’m getting weaker. It has been a while since I’ve seen anyone in this place.” Jisung picks up a pebble and throws it at the siren, hitting him in the forehead. He frowns. “What was that?”
“I don’t know,” Jisung says, eyes still wide in disbelief. You are real, he thinks.
“No, I’m not a hallucination, I can tell you weren’t on drugs. I’m real,” the siren sighs again, defeated. “What do I have to do to prove it to you? Let you touch me? That’s a little perverted, you know.” He raises an eyebrow and Jisung quirks his lip up in disgust.
“I’m not- that’s- you’re just not-“ he stumbles over his words, tripping and falling over and over again. “Let me see.”
The siren grins, again, gorgeous, and leans back, letting half of his tail surface and float in the water, glimmering, shiny blue and green scales lining the skin, beautiful, addicting.
“Get a closer look if you want. Just don’t touch. Perv.” He winks, chewing at the corner of his mouth. Jisung gets up on shaky legs and wades into the water, shivering at the temperature change until he’s waist deep, level with the siren. The closer he looks, the more he sees that it’s not a sham, that his tail is attached to his pale human skin, and on the side of his neck, three small slits that can’t be anything else but gills. Jisung’s fingers twitch to run over the smooth scales, but he refrains.
Jisung locks eyes with the siren and sees his eyes, nothing but sincerity and maybe a bit of self-righteousness. He opens his mouth. “You’re a myth. A legend, a story with no meaning, how can you be real if all the fairytales are just empty promises?”
The siren makes a noise, pondering for a moment. He presses his lips together, leaning up and reaching out to trace Jisung’s collarbone. If Jisung wasn’t so scared for his life he’d think the touch was a little seductive. The stranger comes in closer, lips just barely brushing his earlobe as he whispers:
“Maybe the empty promise was the fact that we don’t exist.”
Jisung feels a chill run down his spine at the words, spoken so soft but the way this boy says it, the way he just is, makes his blood run cold. He swallows thickly, heart hammering in his chest and creating a lump in his throat.
"Fairytales can be based off of real things," he continues, leaning back and meeting Jisung's eyes with his own. "Make sense?"
Jisung nods. He can't say anything else, eyes transfixed on this creature's eyes. Everything about him is just... addicting.
The siren's lips twitch up. "You're cute."
Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. Jisung's cheeks heat up and his heart stutters and his stomach flips. "Yeah, well. You're hot. So," he retorts. Idiot, he curses himself.
The siren laughs, the sweet sound reverberating off the walls and becoming music in Jisung's ears. As if this sound was more tempting than his song that was meant to lure him in but failed.
"What do they call cute boys like you?" The siren grins lopsidedly, and Jisung feels his hand return to his skin, cold to the touch, tracing along his sternum and down his pecs. Jisung shifts his feet under the water.
"Jisung." He answers, then shoots back, "what do they call hot sirens like you?"
His eyes widen the slightest bit, clearly not expecting his own line to be fired back on him. He smiles, teeth chewing at his bottom lip. "Minho."
Minho. Minho the siren.
"Don't tell me you're speechless again," Minho frowns, poking his chest and looking up at him with faux annoyance. "Are you that easy to fluster?"
"You're touching me, pervert," Jisung raises a brow. Minho snorts but doesn't remove his hand.
"I changed my mind." He sighs. Jisung tilts his head. "I don't want to kill you."
Oh. Well that's good, he supposes. He gets to keep his life.
"Jisung!" Chan's voice is muffled through the waterfall and Jisung snaps his head around toward the source. Fuck, he completely forgot about Chan.
"Your boyfriend here?" Minho asks, and Jisung swears he hears jealousy in his voice.
"Best friend," Jisung corrects quickly. "Fuck. I gotta get back to him. He's probably worried sick."
Minho lets out a disappointed breath. "Would've loved to kiss you." Jisung shoots him a look and he raises his hands in mock surrender. "Just saying. Go," he waves his hand over to the waterfall and Jisung starts back toward the sunlight. "Jisung," Minho calls after him and he turns around.
Fuck, he can't. He just can't look at his smile without his stomach flipping thrice.
"Come pay me a visit sometime."
Jisung says nothing as he ducks out of the waterfall and leaves the siren alone in the glimmering cave.
The next few weeks, Jisung is on a roll. He submits not one, but three poems to Hyunjin, his editor, and gets a buttload of money for his work. Chan praises him, Hyunjin praises him, Hyunjin's boyfriend, Seungmin, praises him, and usually that boy finds every opportunity to dog on him. His social medias blow up.
Life is good.
"Yah, what's got you so fixated on this book?" Seungmin pokes Jisung's shoulder, leaning over to look at the book. "It's like, all you've been reading lately. Greek mythology? I never took you for that kind of kid."
Jisung nods. "I dunno. Just, caught my eye recently."
Hyunjin cranes his neck to read the words. "Sirens," he comments, "you've been writing a lot relating to them." He gasps, slamming his hands on the table. "Is Greek mythology gonna be your big break?"
From the corner of his eye, Jisung sees Seungmin stiffen.
"You can dream, Hyunjin." He responds, filing Seungmin's reaction in the back of his mind. "I used to like the siren myth a lot as a kid. Chan said I needed a new perspective on my writing so..."
"Dating things back is always a good resort," Hyunjin smiles, "in your case it worked plenty. Did you see how much we racked in? For only three submissions? You might as well start a book full of your poetry."
"Bold," Seungmin quips, "he's not that good."
"You wound me." Jisung places a hand on his heart. Seungmin sticks out his tongue.
"Ah, shit," Hyunjin pulls out his phone and swipes up on the screen. "Chan's forcing me to go to the mall with Yongbok today. Gotta run," he stands up from the table and tucks his phone away, looking to the others. "Wanna come?"
Seungmin nods and is attached to Hyunjin's side in record time. "Jisung," he draws out his name, "what about you?"
"Nah, I've got somewhere to be." Jisung turns down, "have fun though!"
Hyunjin waves back as the pair start towards Chan's car in the lot with linked hands. Jisung packs up his book and tucks it in his bag, leaving the table and breaking into a sprint towards the path in the woods that leads to the waterfall. His legs catch on some bramble that's overgrown in the path, but the sting of the scratches ebb as adrenaline begins pumping. He hears the waterfall. He's so close.
Reaching the clearing, Jisung tosses his bag by some bushes and kicks off his shoes, pulls his jacket and shirt off and wades into the water toward the still raging waterfall.
It's been four weeks since he discovered Minho. A siren he thought was only a myth made up to scare the sailors of the old days. A real siren, who lured him back to this cave behind the waterfall, tried to kill him and failed, realized that he'd resisted his song.
Since then, Jisung visited this place every few days. Ditched his friends, skipped out on meals, extended deadlines. All for Minho.
Jisung dives into the water and under the waterfall, coming up for air once he's safely out of the way. He shakes out his hair and searches around, finding nothing.
"Minho?" Jisung calls, voice bouncing off the walls of the cave, still just as beautiful. "Ditched my friends for you," he mumbles, and he gets a giggle in response. He whips his head to the right to find the siren sitting on a rock sticking out in the water by the entrance to the cave, legs tucked to his chest and arms wrapped securely around.
What.
"Thought you forgot about me," Minho sighs, resting his chin between his knees. Jisung stares in shock because when did this fucker get legs. Minho notices his revelation and grins, wiggling his toes. "Bet the textbooks don't say shit about this, do they?"
"No," Jisung breathes, sucking in a breath once he realizes that he's been holding it for God knows how long. "Christ, are you- are you not-"
"There you go again," Minho lets his head fall to one knee, "stuttering over your words with that pretty mouth. Yes, I'm naked, if that's what you're implying. Trying to ask. You can say it. It's not embarrassing."
Jisung wants to argue because yes the fuck it is, especially if said person had a tail full of scales two minutes ago. He wants to avert his gaze, stare at the ripples in the water until the image drains out of his retinas, but he just can't stop staring because. Because.
"Do you need clothes?" Why the fuck would he need clothes. Jisung might be losing it. Minho snorts.
"You know how to walk." He says, ignoring the question and curls his finger in toward his palm, beckoning Jisung over.
Jisung reaches the rock and is now eye level with the siren. "Of course I know how to- what kind of statement is that?" He furrows his brow. Minho shrugs and looks away. He looks half embarrassed. How the tables have turned.
"Teach me to walk."
Jisung blinks. Twice. "Excuse me?"
Minho glares at him. "No, I've never used my legs before, point and laugh."
"That's not what- I'm just. Surprised. I've never... taught someone to walk." Jisung defends himself. Minho frowns.
"Don't humans teach their offspring to walk?"
Jisung snorts at the vocabulary. Like Minho is some foreign creature from a different world and only knows the technical terms for things. Like he's never interacted with another human before.
Maybe he never has. But that's debatable.
"I'm not that old," Jisung argues, the youngest person he knows is Yongbok and she's only seven. She's known how to walk for years. "I'll try my best." He continues, clambering up the rocks to the shore and extending his hand. Minho stares at his hand for a moment before slipping his palm on top.
The good thing is, Minho knows how to stand. The bad thing is, Jisung really hates the fact that humans have decency. Because nobody would just be okay seeing someone naked right in front of them. Unless they’re a pervert.
"Put these on," Jisung shucks off his shorts and hands them over to Minho. They're a little wet, but Minho doesn't seem to care, clumsily slipping the shorts on and staring at Jisung with blank eyes. The rivulets of water dripping down his legs leave lines of scales in their wake. Jisung stares at the shimmering skin for a beat too long.
"Eyes up here, pretty," Minho murmurs, eyes filling with amusement when Jisung's head snaps up to find his gaze. "Gonna teach me or what?"
Jisung clears his throat. "Right, um. Here. Take my hands." Minho grabs his hands and Jisung doesn't miss the way his cheeks flush. "Now, follow me. When I put my right foot back, you'll put your left foot forward. Same thing with the other side." Jisung lifts his right foot and brings it back, and Minho lifts his left leg and shakily places his foot down on the rocks. "Keep your weight forward." Minho leans in a little bit. Left foot back, right foot forward.
Right foot back, left foot forward.
Minho's eyes are fixed on their feet, his bangs falling over his face. Jisung can't stop staring. Their steps are shaky, uneven, and awkward, and Minho falters a few times, but Jisung keeps them upright, guides him through each step until his feet are firmer, less awkward.
"See? That simple, right?" Jisung praises, loosening his grip on Minho's hands. "I'm gonna let go so you can try and walk on your own-"
"No!" Minho leans forward, grabbing at Jisung's wrists. It takes both of them off guard, Jisung putting one foot back to keep his balance as Minho collapses into his chest, knees buckling, eyes squeezed shut. "Don't. Don't let go."
Jisung takes in a breath. Wills himself not to lose his shit right then and there. He keeps his hands loosely around Minho's own, letting him regain his composure. Minho coughs, adjusts his weight so he's no longer leaning into Jisung's chest, then looks down at the ground. Jisung can practically smell the anxiety emitting off him.
"It's... it's okay," he starts softly. "You were doing really well."
"Do I scare you?" Minho asks.
"What?"
Minho scoffs and lets go of Jisung's wrists, letting his knees buckle so he falls to the ground and sits with his legs extended and his hands folded in between. "Don't worry about it. I don't know. Just forget it."
Jisung stands there, frozen in place. His hands still twitch from where they were wrapped around Minho's own, grieving his touch. He didn't expect such a question. Nobody expects such a question. Jisung's not sure what to say, or, the words he wants to say sound wrong.
He says them anyway.
"To be fair, you almost killed me the first day we met." Jisung starts, and his heart drops into a panic when Minho shuffles his feet to drag himself back into the water. He reaches out to place a hand on Minho's shoulder. "But I'm not- you're not scary. You scared me in the beginning. But that's cause I thought I was gonna die. You as a... person, doesn't scare me, it never did. I didn't believe a beautiful creature like you existed. I thought... I thought I was dreaming."
Minho clicks his tongue and huffs. "Nightmares are dreams, Jisung."
"Dreams aren't nightmares."
For a moment, the world stops spinning. The white noise of the waterfall stops, the pool no longer moves with waves, the sparkles on the walls stop glaring in their eyes.
For a moment, it's just Minho and Jisung. Jisung and Minho. The human and the siren.
"I've never known a human before."
Minho's words are soft, quiet. Not sugar laced with poison, not crystals with sharp edges. They're weak. Vulnerable.
Minho has killed humans before, beguiled them into these waters, collected their souls and fed on them. Drew fear into their eyes, so that all he saw was terror right before their untimely death, heard the tremor in their voices. Minho saw the way Jisung's eyes flickered with fear the day he wandered here with Chan, heard his heartbreat hammering in his chest, felt the trembles in his hands.
Minho never knew anger in a voice like Changbin’s, he never knew the gentle voice of Chan taking care of his friends, he never knew the excited gasp from Hyunjin when Jisung submitted his poems on time. He never heard the joyous laugh of little Yongbok, riding on Chan's shoulders at the park and picking cherries from the trees. All he knew was fear from his victims. It was all he was associated with.
"I don't know why I spared you." Minho whispers. "I've been so addicted to killing people who find themselves here. Drawing them in. Snapping their pretty necks as they drown in shallow waters. But you," he turns around, and Jisung sees the tear trails stained on his cheeks. "You did something. Made me stop. Made me starve myself, just so I could see the way a human lived. Because the little voice in my head was curious."
Jisung listens. He doesn't say a word, how can he? Minho snivels, then stares straight into Jisung's eyes. Letting him see everything.
"Did you know that when sirens spare a human, their curse is lifted?"
Jisung's heart stutters. "You're..."
"I don't have to kill anyone to live anymore."
In Greek mythology, some people believed that sirens were cured with immortality, and were only able to die if they kissed a human soul. Some people believed that sirens were just seeking a companion, but every person lured to them died from the violent waves and rocks, and that was their curse.
Myths really do bend the truth.
"Say something," Minho is close to him now, one hand resting on his neck and the other supporting his weight. Jisung stares. Minho looks so ethereal.
"You don't scare me," Jisung whispers, seeing Minho's eyes soften and the desperation leaves his eyes. Jisung takes Minho's face with his hands, brushes the unshed tears away from his face.
"I'm afraid I'll never find someone more divine than you."
Minho initiates it first. Lips slotted together, noses brushing the small hairs on their skin. Eyes fluttered shut, hands static on their bodies. Jisung's heart soars, stomach flips back and forth, he feels sick, sickly in love, lovesick. He feels the sparks that fly between them, hot on his skin, burning up and cooling down with Minho's touch.
Minho, Minho, Minho.
When they part, mouths open, panting, sleek with spit, cheeks dusted pink, foreheads clashed together, Jisung lets out a breathy laugh.
"What?" Minho breathes, frowning. Jisung strokes his cheek with one thumb.
"You never learned to walk, but you sure know how to kiss."
Minho shoves him, hands against his chest, and he groans. "You're a horrible person, Jisung."
He just answers with a cackle. "I'm an observant man, what can I say?"
Minho shuts him up with another kiss. Not like Jisung's complaining.
"I like swimming more than walking." Minho sighs, leaning back into Jisung's chest. His tail waves up and down under the water.
Jisung giggles, carding a hand through Minho's hair. "That's because swimming is what you grew up with."
"Okay, but, walking is like. Weird? Why does everyone walk differently? One foot in front of the other. I swear, Yongbok has better footsteps than Chan sometimes with how much he sways." Minho protests.
"Chan's just addicted to coffee," Seungmin comments, braiding a flower into Hyunjin's hair. "That's why he walks like there's a stick up his ass twenty-four seven."
Hyunjin snorts. Chan's jaw drops in annoyance.
"Do not compare my walking with Yongbok's." He pouts.
"It's really bad, hyung," the girl chimes, squealing as Seungmin's tail flicks and splashes a bit of water on her face. "Minnie!"
Seungmin smiles teasingly, pulling Yongbok into his arms and letting her pick out flowers to put in Hyunjin's hair.
A year has passed since Jisung met Minho in the cave behind the waterfall. A year since Minho kissed him under the glimmering walls, a year since he learned how to walk, a year since Jisung found out that Seungmin was a siren himself, along with Changbin. The group skipped towns, moved to a better place with better housing and more water. Jisung and Hyunjin continued to publish his works and became well known around the country. Chan’s family adopted Yongbok after months of fostering her, and she tagged along when they moved. Jeongin became a teacher with Changbin.
Life was good.
Minho hums contently, tilting his head up to look at Jisung through hooded lids. Jisung smiles down at him.
“Still not scary?” He confirms.
Jisung presses his lips to his forehead and shakes his head.
“I’m afraid I’ve never found someone so perfect.”
And for a moment it was just them. Jisung and Minho. Minho and Jisung.
The human and the siren.