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Summer in the ocean-side towns came early and over-stayed its welcome. Baekhyun liked to say that summer didn’t even have the courtesy of buying them all dinner before sprinting to the bedroom, but if Kyungsoo was around, she’d smack her before Baekhyun could say anything too lewd. Usually. Sometimes Kyungsoo was in a saucy mood and then she’d join in until the two of them were spewing out the verbal equivalent of a bad erotica novel until Jongdae was laughing loud enough to make the walls shake and even Lu Han herself was blushing. It was true, though: summer let spring have maybe two days to itself before shoving it violently out of the way and roaring in like a freight train to the depot, and bringing heat, humidity, and screaming bugs with it like a train brought fumes.
The town had to deal with summer weather for at least half a year, but the bulk of the tourists were only there for a quarter of it. The early ones with rented houses came out as early as May, but the real crowds, and the real income, didn’t arrive until June, and only stayed through August. That was the time when Lu Han worked the hardest: her father was a fisherman who chartered fishing parties, and summer meant big business. Where her father was all roughness: rough skin, rough laugh, rough humor, Lu Han was soft enough to quell any misgivings potential customers might have. Soft skin, due to an intense skin care routine and heavy duty work gloves, soft curves, and even though her friends called her laughing face disturbing, her laugh was at least softer than her father’s and when she was faking it she could control her face into something more feminine.
For Lu Han, summer days meant a shit-ton of work out on the ocean: driving the boat, hauling fish, cleaning fish, selling fish, and if there was a charter party on board, she did all of that while pretended to be interested and charmed by the rich men and their sons who couldn’t be any more boring (or more often than not, sleazy) if they tried. Summer nights on the other hand, were partially for actually getting to see her friends but mostly for laying prone in front of the oscillating fan (which had broken years ago and so was always stationary but at least it still ran) in nothing but a tank top and underwear in an attempt to lessen the overbearing heat that summer brought on the town like the Wrath of God.
Jongdae sometimes wondered if the town founders had done something to offend God, and so now all the future descendants were being punished for it in the form of hellish weather in lieu of having to wander the desert. During winter Lu Han rolled her eyes, but in summer she agreed with her.
It was early enough to still be considered evening, but actually mostly dark outside, when Lu Han’s father knocked on her door. Her father had started actually knocking as soon as she’d hit puberty. (Lu Han figured she’d probably traumatized him a little bit when she first noticed: she’d screamed and come running out of the bathroom crying that she was bleeding from her private parts and needed to go to the hospital.) Lu Han didn’t really care why, she was just happy she didn’t have to try and have the “I need you to knock” talk with him, because that would go over so well.
Lu Han was, true to form, happily sprawled out in front of the fan with a stack of manga and her phone nearby. Baekhyun had tried to get her to go to some party at a tourist house but that had been nearly an hour ago and Lu Han had told her that her bra was off for the night and she was not about to put it back on. Once her bra was off for the night, she was not leaving the house. That was her rule.
“Hannie are you decent?” her father called out through the door.
Lu Han grumbled silently but pulled one of her long skirts (draped over her desk chair: she’d done laundry nearly a week ago and hadn’t gotten around to actually putting anything more than her underwear and socks away yet) so that it covered her hips and thighs.
“Yeah Dad.”
There was another charter party coming up, and it was going to be brutal. Her father didn’t offer overnight charters to tourists but this was almost as bad: four days, leave from the dock at dawn each day and by the time they were done cleaning and readying the boat for the next day they likely wouldn’t return home until midnight each night. Not to mention it was three fathers with their three teenage sons.
“Daddy,” Lu Han whined, giving her father the best pouty face she could. She hated charter parties like these. It was bad enough when it was men her father’s age, but the sons? Nightmares, all of them, she could already tell. And the fathers never got them back in line, if anything they encouraged it. Her father could only do so much to get them to stop, too. And four days.
“Lu Han, I need you on the boat,” her father sighed. “I don’t have any other help.”
Lu Han collapsed back on her floor with the most put-upon expression she could make. She knew that her father needed this charter: business was fantastic in the summer but it was also their money for the entire year: fishing year round supplemented it, they lived fairly well, but still. Lu Han knew just as well as her father did that she was helping whether she really wanted to or not.
“I’ll make it up to you.”
Lu Han perked up.
“After this party we can take two days and go to the cove.”
Lu Han lit up like a Christmas tree, jumping up and kissing her father on the cheek before breaking into a happy dance. He just smiled and started to close her door for her.
“Good night, Hannie.”
“Good night, Dad!”
Lu Han couldn’t stop smiling even at the idea of getting to go to the cove. And to stay at the cove overnight, too! The cove was a sort of hidden beach, on the mainland technically, but it was surrounded by steep cliff faces and practically impossible to get to any other way than by boat. It was absolutely gorgeous, relatively still, and the isolation made it perfect, since there were never any tourists and even locals were few. It was her absolute favorite place.
And unfortunately, her father almost never took her there, because it was a good piece out from the island, and he always claimed it wasn’t worth that much gas. So every time she got to go was an absolute treat and she knew she could deal with even four days of teenage boys at their absolute worst if she had an overnight at the cove to look forward to.
She settled back in to her spot in front of the fan, and texted Jongdae to tell her. Baekhyun and Kyungsoo weren’t from fishing families, they would understand in theory but they wouldn’t get it quite like Jongdae would. Jongdae text back quickly, just as excited for her, but agreed that with a charter party like the one Lu Han was about to have to deal with, she was going to need the cove after.
Lu Han still went to sleep with a smile on her face.
…
The charter party was horrible, an absolute nightmare of a trip. Not for the clients, oh no, they had the time of their lives; but for Lu Han… she would have rather gutted fish all day for four days straight than deal with them. Stupid teenage boys who were stupid tourists who had the stupid idea that somehow they could get “an island girl” to be some kind of summer sex buddy. Either they had not run that idea by their fathers or their fathers were just as stupid as they were.
They hadn’t put a hand on her, both Lu Han and her father had made sure of that, but it didn’t take touches to make her feel nauseous and uncomfortable just being on the same boat. At least the bridge was high up and away from the main deck, and while it wasn’t a proper wheelhouse, it wasn’t enclosed and didn’t have any kind of shelter over it, Lu Han had taken any separation she could get. Separation and pretending the dead squid they used for bait were dicks as she impaled them on massive fishing hooks.
She’d kept her knife hidden but reachable the entire time. She hated feeling like she had to on her own father’s boat, but the feeling she had when she didn’t have some means of protection was even worse.
Her father didn’t say anything about it to her either during the trip or after, but when they packed overnight bags for the trip to the cove, the food bag was brimming with all her favorite snacks.
Lu Han didn’t talk nearly as much as she usually did while they were preparing to head out. She stuck with the methodical tasks, making sure the fishing net was clean and tangle free, that their emergency equipment was in order… she technically didn’t need to, since they had just had a charter, but it made her feel better, knowing for sure. Her father wasn’t taking bait or rods this time, which was strange for him, but when she asked he just mumbled something noncommittal and asked if she was feeling okay.
Her heart felt lighter when her father started up the boat engine and began to pull away from the docks. There was little jetty of a platform coming off the bow of the ship, about six feet long or so, with railing, and it was Lu Han’s spot of choice to settle into. She could let her legs dangle off of either side of it or sit cross legged or stand like she was a living figurehead, and in her opinion it was the singular best spot on the boat for both heading out and docking. As they picked up speed the wind played with the little tendrils of hair that had escaped the messy bun she’d put it up in, caught what fabric it could of her tank top, and blew warm, salty, sea air into her face. She inhaled deeply, closing her eyes, and when she opened them again there was nothing in front of her but the ocean. The ocean could be nurturing or unforgiving, playful or cruel, and it was out on the ocean that Lu Han felt simultaneously cherished beyond measure but also painfully insignificant. She was just a girl, sitting on a platform about six feet or so above the water’s surface… and below her the ocean continued down, down, down, a depth that she technically knew but couldn’t wrap her brain around no matter how much she learned about it.
She stayed there for about an hour, and then hauled herself to her feet, stepping when the boat rocked in her favor until she was back on the deck proper. From there it was easier to maneuver around the side of the cabin and up to the bridge where her father was driving.
He made room for her, and wrapped his arm around her shoulders in a loose hug. She leaned her head on his shoulder and then said, at closer to her normal volume:
“Thanks, Dad. I needed this.”
He said nothing, but kissed her forehead and held her just a bit tighter.
…
The cove was an absolute dream. They pulled up to the crappy little dock at the edge of the beach (calling it a dock was generous, it was little more than an anchor point) close to lunch time, and moved their food bag and a couple of towels to the beach. They ate their packed sandwiches relatively quickly and Lu Han’s father made her drink some water, but didn’t try to keep her out of the ocean for long.
Her father waded out until the water was just above his knees, and let Lu Han splash him (and got her back for it: she still didn’t know how his arm could move that much water in one go) but he wasn’t a swimming man. He had a scar all the way down the lower part of his leg from a shark attack years before she was born, and even when Lu Han’s mother had been around, he had been much more partial to boats and fishing than the water itself.
Lu Han, on the other hand, couldn’t get enough of it. Her earliest memory was splashing in the calmer water on the bay side of the island, and her father picking her up and calling her his little mermaid when he said it was time to go home. Baekhyun said that Lu Han swam like a fish and Lu Han had been known among the island kids as an absolute terror during water games since elementary school.
Being underwater felt like being reborn. No matter her worry, she could shed it for a few minutes while she held her breath and let the ocean wrap her up. Sometimes she just floated face down, lifting her head for just a few seconds to take a new breath every few minutes, but other times she put on a mask and fins and did free diving.
The cove was always a cause for free diving. The water was beautiful and calm, and where the shelf dropped off a bit, it was absolutely stunning. Lu Han swam over to where the boat was docked and climbed up over the transom to get her mask and fins, which she’d left out before lunch. The cove had beautiful visibility, and even if there weren’t small fish or little sea creatures out and about, just staring out into the open ocean was a sight to remember.
Lu Han played in the water until the sun started to get low in the sky. If she stayed still enough the small fish that lived in the cove would come investigate. When she was younger, Lu Han had called them “fish kisses” and they had been her favorite thing. She stayed within the natural boundaries of the cove: she hadn’t tested swimming beyond it yet and an undertow was not something she wanted to deal with. Lu Han came back up onto the beach occasionally to reapply sunscreen (she did not want to try and reorganize her skin routine around a sunburn) but then just as soon as she was sure the sunscreen would stay. Lu Han was back on the beach before it was too dark: as much as she loved being in the water, there were enough sharks in the area that she wasn’t going to attempt night swims. She thought she was too bony for a shark to mistake her as something it wanted to eat, but mistakes happened and she wasn’t going to tempt fate or anything else.
They did sleep on the boat, but they stayed on the beach until late at night when Lu Han was yawning and her father told her they’d better turn in. The two little bunks on the boat weren’t the most comfortable thing, but they weren’t bad enough to complain and were certainly a lot better than sleeping on sand. Besides, just being at the cove, with the boat rocking gently with the tide, was calming. A wave of peace washed over her like a balm: it didn’t erase the stress and anger from the fishing trip, but those feelings didn’t seem so pronounced in her head anymore.
After breakfast, her father let her have a few more hours to swim to her hearts content, before they needed to head back. They always fished on the way back (or her father fished and Lu Han napped more than half the time because the sun showed no mercy to anyone) stopping in “the good places” for a while before moving on and eventually meandering their way back home. This time, though, he’d left all the usual fishing implements: pole, line, bait, and tackle, behind. He did, however, have a net.
He had done more net fishing when Lu Han was younger. There were still dangers, of course; technically anything on the ocean was dangerous, but there hadn’t been so many sharp things for toddler Lu Han to somehow accidentally hurt herself on. And there weren’t any tears from hooking bait, no matter how dead it was. The creaking of the net and the sound of the hydraulic lift wasn’t exactly quiet, but it had become almost a sort of lullaby for Lu Han. She never slept as easy on the boat as she did when her dad was fishing with a net.
“Tell me when you’re hauling it in, okay dad?” Lu Han told him as the net dropped farther and farther beneath the surface.
“Of course, Hannie.”
And with that, she crawled up to her bunk in the cabin, and fell fast asleep.
Lu Han wasn’t sure how long she’d slept, but she woke up to the sun still shining through the cabin windows and her father gently shaking her.
“Han, I think a dolphin got caught.”
Lu Han was on her feet, bleary-eyed but upright, in a second. Sometimes when they used nets, larger fish, like sharks, or porpoises and turtles, got caught up in them. Sharks weren’t as much of an issue, they mostly got caught up in drift nets, but either way, they had to work fairly quickly before whatever it was drowned.
When Lu Han and her father went back out onto the deck, the net was high enough out of the water to clear the side of the boat. There was obvious thrashing coming from the middle of the wriggling fish, the rigging wasn’t moving much but it was moving when it usually didn’t, but Lu Han couldn’t see what the larger creature was. Not a turtle, in any case.
Her father got the net maneuvered over onto the deck, and Lu Han backed up a few steps when it dropped. There was a wave of wriggling, thrashing, fish, and Lu Han shivered when she felt several brush her ankles. But in the center of it all, once everything had settled… as soon as Lu Han saw, she let out an audible gasp.
Her first thought was mermaid, and then she tried to think of anything else because mermaids were superstition, but… there was no other way to describe what she was seeing. The human part of the girl was stunning: her hair was dark brown and long, it would be down to her knees if she was fully human, and she was fairly muscular in her arms but her stomach was a gentle curve, enough fat to make her look sweet and soft; her face, too: she had the prettiest eyes Lu Han had ever seen, and her cheeks were both beautiful and absolutely precious. The fish part of her was gorgeous, too: the fins along her body were slender but powerful-looking, and her fluke almost looked delicate, all in shades of purple and yellow.
But the mermaid caught in their net wasn’t the main problem right now… Lu Han took her eyes off the beautiful girl to focus on the bite wound in her side. The blood flow wasn’t particularly heavy, but it was a fairly large bite in comparison to her torso, and it was still bleeding. Lu Han wasn’t sure how fast mermaids could heal, but this one was in obvious need of help.
“Dad! Get the medical kit!” Lu Han shouted over her shoulder and knelt into the wriggling, thrashing, fish until she could feel the deck beneath her shins. They writhed over her calves, smacking her thighs with their tail fins in their panic, but Lu Han tried her best to ignore them.
The mermaid made a noise that was half a shriek and half a hiss when Lu Han moved closer to her, and reached out like she was going to slap Lu Han away, but her injury made her slower than she might have normally been and Lu Han caught her hands. The mermaid’s hair was in her face, but beneath it she looked absolutely furious, and Lu Han had to hold on tight. She didn’t want to hurt the girl, but Lu Han could tell that the mermaid’s finger nails were fairly long and could definitely do damage.
“It’s okay, it’s okay!” Lu Han tried to keep her voice as calm as possible. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
The surge of adrenaline that had allowed the mermaid to thrash and fight faded relatively quickly. Her movements became weaker until she was relatively still. But there was already blood all over the deck and Lu Han knew they had to do something quick.
It didn’t take long at all for her father to bring her the medical kit, and the two of them got to work. With the mermaid still, giving barely a protest, it was easier, but still difficult with the wriggling fish surrounding them and the blood from the mermaid’s wound making the deck slick. Clean the wound and cover it, clean and cover it… the cleaning was hard with the fish so they did what they could, enough that nothing should get infected. After that came compression. Compression would keep her from bleeding out until they could figure out what to do. They knew already that they couldn’t take the mermaid to a hospital.
The rest of the ride home was… well, Lu Han could certainly say she had never expected anything like it. They settled the mermaid in on the bunk Lu Han’s father usually slept in, the one on the bottom, and kept wet shirts and towels over her skin and tail, periodically changing them out with freshly wet ones to keep her from drying. She was weak, and angry, but alive. The alive part was what mattered.
At least she was relatively cooperative. She clearly didn’t trust either Lu Han or her father, but she seemed to realize that they were doing their best to heal her. Lu Han showed her how to drink from a straw, and gave her the pick of what they had packed for their last lunch. When the mermaid looked skeptical, Lu Han showed her what was in the sandwiches, tuna, and ate a few of the grapes to demonstrate that, no, they were not poisoned or anything unsafe.
Lu Han smiled when the mermaid ate the tuna from inside the sandwich and narrowed her eyes at the bread.
The mermaid was strong enough to sit upright by the time they made it home. Their house was right next to the docks, and they could sneak the mermaid inside where no one working would see, but only if she cooperated. The last thing they wanted to do was try to wrangle a screaming, thrashing, mermaid in front of the fishermen who worked on the docks.
Lu Han sat down next to the bunk, so that the mermaid was looking down at her rather than up. Now that she was more alert, and less angry, she really did have a beautiful face. Her eyes were the most alluring Lu Han had ever seen in her life, and Lu Han had seen Jongdae on her flirting game. Her cheeks were sweet and full, and she wasn’t pouting but there was a turn to her mouth that reminded Lu Han of a cat. Just… gorgeous, there was no other way to describe her.
“Can you speak?”
When the mermaid spoke, her voice was hoarse, as if she was trying out words for the first time in a long time.
“I don’t understand,” she replied in Korean.
“You speak Korean!” Lu Han exclaimed happily. She had a fairly good grasp on Korean, thanks to growing up with Jongdae, Baekhyun, and Kyungsoo.
“What’s Korean?” the mermaid asked.
“Humans have different languages,” Lu Han told her. “It’s what we’re speaking in.”
The mermaid looked contemplative for a moment, like she was considering that, before she nodded.
“My name is Lu Han.”
The mermaid looked up at her again, as if she was studying her face. “Lu Han,” she repeated.
She paused for a moment, and then said, “My name is Minseok.”
“Minseok,” Lu Han repeated back, smiling.
“What do you want with me?” Minseok asked.
“I want to help you, my father and I. You got caught in our fishing net, and you have a pretty nasty bite.”
Minseok looked out of the cabin window and scowled. “I got into an argument with a shark. The punk.”
Lu Han couldn’t help but smile, Minseok’s scowling face was just too cute!
“We know how to take care of it, and you can stay with us while you heal.”
“The last time a human told me that they tried to keep me.”
Oh… oh that explained a lot of Minseok’s behavior.
Lu Han put her hand over her heart. “I swear on everything good, all my father and I want to do is help you get better. You can leave as soon as you want to once you’re strong enough.”
“You swear?”
“I swear.”
Minseok stared at her for several moments, before she finally said: “okay, but if you’re lying I’ll bite your face off.”
Lu Han knew it was supposed to be intimidating, and it was definitely a threat Minseok could deliver… but Lu Han was still too enamored with Minseok’s face to be truly frightened.
They did manage to get Minseok in the house. There was a lot of shuffling, unintentional awkward touches, hushed directions, and looking over their shoulders to make sure that they really couldn’t be seen, but they managed. About an hour later Minseok was settled comfortably into Lu Han’s bathtub, happily adjusting the water temperature and investigating Lu Han’s skincare products, while Lu Han and her father tried to catch their breath and gather medical supplies.
Changing Minseok’s bandages was difficult in the bathtub, but a million times easier than on a blood-soaked deck full of thrashing fish. Having Minseok’s cooperation this time was what really made the difference, and while she did hiss in pain a few times, she didn’t lash out. She turned how they needed her to, moved her hair out of the way, and stayed still. After they were done, Minseok watched, fascinated, as the blood-tinted water spiraled down into the bathtub drain, and once it was gone, Lu Han filled up the bath again.
Having a mermaid in their house was surprisingly easy. Lu Han’s father stayed fairly clear unless he was helping change Minseok’s bandages, only popping his head into Lu Han’s bathroom to tell them both that he had dinner ready or say that he was going into town and could pick something up… the usual things. All in all, he was treating it more like Lu Han had a friend over, which was a lot better than Lu Han had expected. The only real changes were that Lu Han showered in her father’s bathroom so she wouldn’t have to displace Minseok, and her father didn’t ask her to go on fishing trips nearly as much. He didn’t want Minseok to be stuck by herself all the time.
Lu Han still went out with friends in the evenings. Not every evening, they never did something every evening, but when she went, she had a good time and tried to think how to tell them that she had a mermaid living in her bathtub. When she came home, Minseok asked her questions about her friends, about the town, and soaked up new information like a sponge. Lu Han started bringing back little things for Minseok whenever she went out: a candy bar, a sweet-smelling bar of soap, or just anything she thought Minseok would like.
Minseok was endlessly curious, and Lu Han couldn’t help but find it adorable. She asked questions about every single thing, and was careful with what Lu Han showed her. She liked Lu Han’s skincare products, and all her bath things that made the water pretty. Whenever Lu Han showed her something new, Minseok’s eyes would widen in curiosity, and when Lu Han explained it she would smile like a little sunbeam.
She wasn’t just curious about human-made objects, either. It seemed like whenever Lu Han was within reach, Minseok wanted to touch. Sometimes it was casual touches, but other times she touched so slowly and carefully that it was downright sensual and Lu Han had to fight the impulse to shiver. Minseok was fascinated with her thighs; her legs in general but it seemed like whenever her thighs were in reach Minseok had her hand on one of them.
Everything between them was comfortable, quiet, a safe feeling. One afternoon, Lu Han found an old childhood stash of beads and strings of plastic pearls, fake flowers, and even some stuff from Marti Gras past. When she showed it to Minseok, Minseok spent the rest of the day braiding quite a bit of it into both her hair and Lu Han’s. Lu Han sat with her back against the bathtub, her hair in the water while Minseok combed through it with her fingers. She was gentle and her hands were soft, and she wasn’t shy about touching Lu Han’s face and neck, either. Lu Han almost fell asleep and at one point she thought she might have moaned a bit, but if she had Minseok wasn’t bothered by it.
After that afternoon, Minseok found even more ways to get her fingers in Lu Han’s hair and Lu Han was very happy with the new development.
Being around Minseok made Lu Han happy; even when she wasn’t with her, she would smile just thinking about her, whether she saw something she wanted to tell her about, bring back to her, or just something that reminded her of the mermaid. When she was in town or even just working on the docks she felt like she was walking on air, and while her anxiety didn’t leave her completely, it didn’t grip her heart quite as hard when it happened.
Jongdae noticed:
“You’ve been happier the last few weeks,” Jongdae told her as they walked arm in arm from the church. Both Jongdae and Lu Han preferred going to the evening service in the summer and they always went to get ice cream after: their favorite place was just a block away.
“It’s nice to see,” Jongdae said, and her smile was gentle and sweet.
“Yeah,” Lu Han smiled back. “I met a girl.”
“Ooohhh,” Jongdae cooed in her teasing way.
“We’re not dating,” Lu Han told her before Jongdae could get carried away. “She’s just… she’s really great. She makes me happy.”
“Do I get to meet her?”
“Soon.” Lu Han promised. “She’s recovering from an injury right now but… soon.”
“Good. Anyone who makes you smile like that is someone I want to meet.”
Lu Han hadn’t been lying, Minseok was recovering, and remarkably quickly. It had only been about a month but they’d stopped having to bandage the bite a while ago. Honestly, at this point, Minseok was only staying with them to make sure nothing was infected (although that was already becoming a weak excuse) and so she could get her strength back. But already, while Lu Han wasn’t too sure about her swimming strength, she knew for a fact that Minseok at least had her upper body strength back. She’d come home the same night to find that Minseok had hauled herself out of the bathtub and perched on her bathroom counter.
Lu Han had to stop and stare for just a moment, before Minseok noticed her. As much as Lu Han wanted to keep Minseok around forever, she knew it wasn’t fair to her, by now, friend. The time for Minseok to go back to the ocean was coming closer, if it wasn’t technically upon them already, and for right now Lu Han just wanted to take a moment to look, while she still could.
Minseok caught her staring, and turned from the mirror to face her with a smile.
“Hannie! I was wondering when you’d get home.”
“Jongdae and I went to get ice cream after church. Did you eat dinner yet?” Lu Han walked from her bedroom door into her bathroom.
“Yeah, your dad brought it to me a while ago.”
“Good.” Lu Han was standing probably a bit too close, but Minseok didn’t seem to mind. She still stared right at Lu Han’s face, her sunbeam smile gentle.
“I wanted to surprise you,” Minseok said softly. “I’ve been working on getting my strength back. Getting myself out of the water was harder than I thought.”
“It’s wonderful,” Lu Han smiled at her. “I’m happy for you.”
Lu Han was starting to get misty-eyed, though. Minseok put her hand on Lu Han’s cheek, but Lu Han spoke again before she could.
“Minseok, I know it’s time but… will you promise me something?”
“Of course.”
“Promise me I’ll see you again?”
Minseok kissed her cheek, and hugged her close. “Hannie, of course you’ll see me again, of course!”
“Promise?”
“I promise,” Minseok cradled her head. Their voices were soft, everything in the world reduced down to just the two of them. “I decided to stay around here. I’ll need to check out the bay and the water around here to see exactly where but, from what I had seen before I think I could make a home here.”
“Really?” Lu Han pulled back just enough so she could look at Minseok’s face.
Minseok nodded, and now she looked misty-eyed too. “When I think about getting back to the ocean, I long for it. I stare out the window and I want to be there, I want to move, I want to get to know the local fish and dolphins. But when I thought about truly leaving, leaving you, I feel a knot in my stomach.”
Lu Han wasn’t sure if she wanted to laugh or cry, but both came out at the same time. “Good… good, that’s good.”
“Besides, I can’t go far, Hannie,” Minseok’s voice took on as much of a teasing, playful, tone as she could manage. “I’m pretty sure I love you.”
Lu Han froze completely, not sure if she had heard Minseok correctly. She processed it in her brain, hanging onto Minseok. Minseok loved her. Minseok loved her.
“I’m pretty sure I love you, too.”
They waited until late morning, after the fishing boats had gone out and the docks were quiet. No one to overhear them, no one to see. Getting Minseok out of the house was much easier than it had been getting her in, since Minseok was strong enough to help as much as she could. Lu Han’s father knew that Minseok was staying nearby, so rather than draw out a goodbye he just straightened up and said.
“I’ll let you girls talk, okay? You take care of yourself, Minseok.”
“Thank you.”
And with that, he walked around the side of the house, over to the docks like always.
Once he was gone, Minseok and Lu Han turned back to each other.
“I might be gone a few days,” Minseok said. “So I can check everything out. But… will you swim with me for a bit?”
“I was hoping you’d ask that.” Lu Han had her bathing suit on under her clothes. She took off her shoes and shimmied out of her jean shorts and had her shirt over her head in record time.
“My, my, someone’s eager,” Minseok teased, and Lu Han blushed up to her ears.
“Yeah, yeah… can we get in the water now?”
Minseok looked down, off the dock and into the water, and Lu Han couldn’t help but stare at her sunbeam smile. Minseok took one moment, two, and then launched herself off the dock.
The splash soaked Lu Han immediately, but Lu Han couldn’t take her eyes off Minseok. She darted around under the water, almost in figure eights, before coming up to bask in the sun. She had tears running down her face, but Lu Han knew they were happy ones.
Lu Han joined her in the water a moment later. They swam out to the sand bar, and then Minseok steered them towards the bay side of the island.
Lu Han had to come up for breath more times than she liked. She wanted to savor this, swimming hand in hand with Minseok in the sunshine, not have to constantly worry about her air supply.
Minseok held her in a gentle hug the next time they had to surface for Lu Han to breathe.
“You know,” Minseok started, and her sunbeam smile was playful this time. “There’s a legend that says you can breathe underwater if you kiss a mermaid…”
Lu Han laughed, and smiled back. “I always wondered if that was true.”
Minseok wasn’t hesitant when she leaned forward, and Lu Han met her halfway. Minseok’s lips were salty, but not chapped, and the way she kissed was so gentle it had Lu Han wanting more immediately.
When they pulled apart, Minseok said, her voice a little husky, “I don’t know, doesn’t seem like enough to let you breathe underwater. Maybe the legend meant for us to kiss the entire time we’re under?”
Lu Han laughed, and pulled her close. “Seems like a good idea to me.”
