caeruleus sea \ jaeyong

ii.

| 02:27 am

taeil and jungwoo could only shake their heads at the dumb shit their friends are pulling. jaehyun, mark and doyoung are leading as they swim, johnny and yuta stopped swimming halfway and are now floating on the water with no care in their surroundings together with donghyuck who is just laughing as he cheer for mark to keep up with their friends.

“who do you think would get the pearl?” jungwoo asks quietly. taeil could only laugh at that, “nah. their drunk asses would tire out even before they reach wherever the pearl is.”

their swimming contest, rather their pearl-hunting quest dragged on for another couple of minutes before mark calls his friends over, “yo guys, i think i've found it!!” he celebrates as he had the chance to see something shiny through the dark waters, probably settled in the sea bed which is almost impossible to reach.

doyoung stopped and seem to get his thoughts straight, suddenly shaking his head, “uh no. theres no way im gonna dive that deep.” but jaehyun still proceeds and gathered his breath before swimming down, dedicated to get the pearl.

“mark! be the distraction!!” donghyuck joked, cackling at mark's alarmed face.

their drunkness seems to fade this time as they are left to wait for jaehyun to come back from diving down the waters. “is he going to be okay?” mark asks in a hushed tone that only doyoung heard. the both of them share a look; worry, nervousness and concern written on their eyes.

both guys were contemplating to do a next move, both chickening out since the water is really deep and dark already but at the same time, they're genuinely worried about their friend.

all the while, jaehyun is still swimming down towards the shiny thing. jungwoo was right, the gem is settled in the sea bed in the deepest part of the sea. given that its full moon, its visible to human eye as it shines brightly even through the dark water. diving deep down and holding his breath is not a new thing for jaehyun as he was once part of the swimming team of his school during middle school but to be honest, he's near to losing consciousness actually. its too deep for him.

but what kept him on going is the fact that he's just a few meters away from the said pearl, just a few more kicks and paddles and its already an arm-reach. weird, where is the guard that jungwoo was talking about?  jaehyun thought, finding it odd that there's still no one to stop him from getting the pearlㅡ no hideous looking thing that might scare the shit out of him. i guess im just that lucky. shrugging, jaehyun smiles to himself as he finally grasps a little round and shiny thingㅡ a pearl.

kicking his feet against the sand for a booster, he quickly swims to the top; partially because he's near to losing air, he's quite excited to show off the pearl and because he's scared that something might jump infront of him for stealing the said gem. bursting from the waters, jaehyun gasps for air instantly after holding his breath for a couple of minutes - he even heard his name being called by his friends.

“guys! i have it!!” jaehyun shouts, waving his hand in the air as he smiles proudly before swimming towards doyoung and mark's place. “psh that was so easy.” he boasted, shrugging to add more of a 'chill' gesture as if he wasnt scared and near to collapsing earlier.

reaching where two of his friends are currently floating, jaehyun showed them the pearl in his palm, earning loud gasps from doyoung and mark. “..so the myth is true?”

“how about the guard? have you seen it?”

jaehyun shakes his head at doyoung's inquiry, squinting his eyes as he recalls. “no. there was no guard back there..”

“oh thats great then. i really thought you're going to die down there.” jaehyun punched mark jokingly, pouting his lips in fake disappointment.

“guys! c'mon, lets go home!” a whine from taeil from the distance cut their conversation as the rest of the guys agreed, now complaining about almost 'freezing to death' and wanting to sleep.

just when the three of them swims, something grabbed jaehyun by his ankle and pulls him down. panicking, he starts kicking around in hopes to slip away from its hold.

“jaehyun hyung!” alarmed, mark shouts at the sight of his friend being dragged back and down the waters. the sight causing his blood to drain from his body as he tries to move and swim back to reach for his friend.

at mark's voice, the rest of the guys looked back - only to be met by the sight of mark holding jaehyun's hand as he tries to pull him back. doyoung is quick to act, reaching out for jaehyun's other hand as the both of them pulls jaehyun back but the thing that's pulling their friend down the waters is quite strong, very strong actually for the two men still struggle on pulling their friend back. johnny and yuta also swam near the struggling trio, trying to help as jungwoo and taeil swims towards them too.

with just a gentle tug on jaehyun's ankle, the grips of his friends on his hands slipped - and he was finally dragged back down the deep water.

frantically kicking, jaehyun tries to kick the thing that's pulling him down as he also struggle on swimming up. with his heart harshly thrumming against his ribcage, almost losing oxygen and the thing still dragging him down, he knows that if he cant slip away, he'd die this night. looking back to the thing, he freezes on his action upon seeing the 'guard of the pearl' as he thinks it is.

he assumed he'd be greeted by something hideous, something scary and traumatizing with fangs, disgusting, scale-covered and dead-looking thing but the thing that's dragging him down is nothing sort of that. with thick furrowed brows, sharp eyes, pointed nose and plush lipsㅡ surely that's nothing compared to the characteristics of the pearl's guard he expected to look like. taken aback, he stopped thrashing around as he remains staring at the person who's dragging him. his eyes then travelled down the person's bodyㅡ creamy skin, petite body with sculpted abs, jaehyun was about to drool at the sight if not for the tail that his eyes glued onto instead of seing a pair of legs. he has no legs!! 

fear and panic creeps up in him again. starting to kick around, jaehyun fling his arms around in hopes to swim up. he has no other choice, as much as he liked seeing the guard's features, he still needs to live. so what did he do? he kicked the guy straight in the face - successfully loosening the grip in his ankle. with a last glance, jaehyun swims up quickly, even seeing one of his friends swimming down to get him before he got pulled by his friend up and above the water with much panic.

he then was met by the rest of his friends who probably tried to save him too before they swim quickly to approach the shallow part of the water and into the shore. i mustve kicked him too hard. jaehyun thought as he looks back at the sea after a minute of lying on the sand and trying to breath to regulate his heartbeat.

“whatㅡ what the fuck was.. that?” yuta asks, still lying on the sand as breathes deeply.

“dude!! he was pulled by something with a tail!” johnny, who was the one who dove down the water to save him, exclaims, running his hands through his wet hair.

“it was probably the guard of the pearl jungwoo told us about.”

“hyung, what does it look like?” donghyuck inquires, rolling on his stomach on the sand and shotting jaehyun a curious look.

“..ethereal.”