22 May 2021

Seoul

I reached my hand out while sinking to the sea floor, looking for a way to the surface. Without them, it felt like the beaches of Namibia. I was surrounded by seawater so hostile, it depleted the soil of all nutrition meant to sustain life before it receded into the ocean, leaving salted plains in its wake. I was like a ghost net, abandoned and forgotten.

"There's someone here for you," I barely lifted my head from my pillow when my mum opened my bedroom door.

"I don't wanna," she was heartbroken when I told her about the price of my contract with the God of the Sea, promising that something would change that. I chose to no longer believe in promises, one of the most important having been reneged because the CEO wouldn't consider leaving his comfort zone.

"Eunha, please talk to me," Hansol's voice sounded raspy, as if he had been crying along with me. I slipped the cover off- the rapper was persistent with finding a cure and these waters were far shallower. As soon as I opened the door, he folded me in the strongest bear hug ever. I thought I had cried all the tears I had but pearls dropped on the wooden floor like hailstones.

"I need water, what about you?" my voice was coarser than table salt.

"Yes," the merman started scooping the gems up and placing them in an empty box he spotted in my room. A happier Eunha would have been flustered at a boy in her room and stopped him from seeing the embarrassing collection of plushies on the table but I didn't feel like my usual energetic self.

I placed some cookies on a plate and placed it on the tray, along with the glasses and water jug. Leaving it on the desk in my room, I apologised for my state of mind.

"Just because your light isn't shining as fully as it used to, it doesn't make you any lesser of a person," the rapper lay my head on his broad chest so that I could hear the rhythmic beating of his heart. "We don't say the moon is dead just because it disappears from our sight for a few nights. No one can be at their best, always. There are times when we are plunged into darkness and it does take us time to light up again. Every breath you take is a fight to stay alive so don't rush into it."

"Did Woo-sa say when my service begins?" I couldn't say the word 'siren' as if it would make my departure from terra firma final.

"A month from now," his heart started racing erratically. "I, uh, know we haven't been dating for very long but um, we could get m-m-married. If you want to, no rush or anything. I mean, I didn't even get you a ring. Or ask your parents for permission. Ya know, I should have put a whole lot more thought into this instead of being spontaneous."

"Ani, this is what I needed. We can have the wedding a few days before I start, on the beach I'm supposed to be stationed at. That should give you enough time to sort out the other things while I start planning," for the first time in weeks, a smile tugged on my mouth.

"Right," Hansol called his family over to meet ours and to begin the life-changing discussion.

If you have fanart/edits of SIREN EUNHA, please DM me on Twitter @JJudisu as I would like to showcase it at the end of the AQUARIUS fic and will credit you for your hard work :)