16 November 2016

KBS Studio

"Are you okay?" Yugyeom frowned when he saw my face turn red.

"Yes," I nodded my head vigorously, ignoring how much closer we were now than when we first started practicing. He looked too much like Jeongguk at times and I resisted the urge to rub my eyes. This was my weird reality, not some fever dream. My partner really had no idea what effect he had on me.

"The choreographer is nice- he'll let you have the day off if you're sick," he didn't need to add 'unlike our managers'.

"I'm totally fine," even their personalities were sweet and caring but like attracts like.

The GOT7 vocalist didn't say anything, meaning that I'd have to cool down and demonstrate that I was at peak health.

Hansol said that our instructors were holding the exams for fitness to hunt this week and he had signed us up. We were allowed to retake these exams every week after but the sooner we passed, the sooner he could see to arranging the actual hunt.

The obstacle course was like nothing I had ever imagined before: we had to navigate through rock structures of varying shapes while dodging things that wanted to kill us. Our combat and hunting skills followed afterwards. We were relieved when we got our certificates.

"Chwe Hansol and Jung Eunbi?"

We turned around to see a mermaid in a silvery-white T shirt greet us.

"Oh, you must be the Sea Mage we requested," he smiled so widely, his eyes turned to crescent moons.

"Sea Mage?" my eyes widened with fear.

"Yes, my name is Heejin," she seemed nice but I was hesitant.

"I will gladly give up my voice if it means my mother is saved," my forehead creased.

"Sorry?" the mermaid looked at me as if octopus tentacles had sprung from my head.

"Oh yeah," the Seventeen member disrupted the stilted flow of the conversation. "Because of stories like The Little Mermaid, humans think that merfolk like you are evil."

"Oh my starfish no," Heejin shook her head. "After incidents such as those, laws were enacted to curtail what sea mages could get away with. For one, our contracts must be in plain and simple language. What we take as reward is money only, not anything that humans need to thrive."

"That's a relief," I breathed out bubbles which rose to the surface.

"You really should be afraid of the sirens," she added. "As the stories go, they continue to lure sailors to their deaths."

"Noted," I didn't know what to say so I listened as Hansol took down her details, promising to call her later.

"Eunna, I mean Eunbi noona, I would never ask someone who would pose harm to you to join our team," his eyes drifted to my legs, a reminder that I was slower than the residents of the deep. "All the sea mage will do is to provide healing services during the hunt and she will poison the leviathan if we aren't able to kill it. Heejin's the most skilled at spells so she won't kill us or let us be killed. The punishment for dereliction of her duty is to be thrown to the sharks."

"I'm a fish out of water here," I joked lamely.

"Yes, I had forgotten about that so I apologise," the merman held my hand, squeezing it gently. His warmth was the antidote to the chills that had travelled down my spine earlier. "Ah, I should have asked first," he looked at my hand, not letting go.

"It's you so it's okay," I had no idea what I was saying as the words tumbled out of my mouth.

"Great, I'm just gonna arrange sparring sessions with someone who has killed leviathans before," Hansol's hand slipped away, like seawater through my fingers.

"Sure," I was glad that he wasn't awkward at my outburst.