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There was a kingdom under the sea.Everyone knew this, on a superficial level. People would come and go from the kingdom every day. You could, if you wanted, order a submarine to go down and visit, though without a body to survive underwater, you wouldn't be able to leave your vehicle.Technology had been curving up, as of late, with radios that broadcasted across the country. The seafolk came out to listen to them, sometimes. Businesses often built right on the beaches for ease of access. It was the first time in a long time that the connection between worlds had been constant and amiable.Kim Dokja had never grown up with radios, and he wasn't sure how to feel about them. He had used them in the army, and maybe they hit a little close to home. Maybe he just felt left behind.When he moved out to the ocean shores, he didn't buy a radio.Salvation Inlet was sparsely populated, yet its residents hardly seemed to notice Kim Dokja's arrival. He made himself so sparse that they no doubt assumed him to be a tourist. His new home was a cabin on the cliffs, overlooking everything; the sea, the cove, the forest. The winds were a pain in the ass. He developed a love of fleece and a phobia of flimsy umbrellas.Kim Dokja moved to the inlet because the author of his favourite book lived there, but he hadn't really thought out his move, and there was a constant rotation of dealing with the storage company, the movers, and gathering amenities.By the end of it, he had less money than he'd like.Applying for work in a tiny town was intimidating. For his first job after his army service, he'd dressed up in a nice suit, smiled, and said the right words to someone who had to have seen a dozen people before him. He couldn't do the same things here, could he?He walked down the heinously windy road, not even bothering to protect his head from the breeze. His fleece coat had no hood, and he wasn't wearing a raincoat or winter coat on a mild day. He suffered and promised himself to buy a hat when he gained employment.Kim Dokja started with the seaside tavern, which seemed easy enough to open with, and introduced himself with an “I'm looking for work,” said with as much boldness as he could muster.“What kind of hours?” The barman asked.“Whatever you'll give me,” Kim Dokja replied.That was all it took.It wasn't a taxing position. It was only frantic at the peak of the evening, so there was plenty of downtime where he could relax and learn the ropes without stress.He did, in fact, buy a hat with his first paycheck. Kim Dokja finally enjoyed the simple luxury of walking down his cliff without his ears freezing, the winds deafening him, and his hair only being disturbed by the pull of his hat as he removed it.Of course, with his new job, he would see the seafolk.They were almost all nixies. They visited the tavern by climbing up the banister leading from the ocean to the pool underneath the first floor of the tavern, which was full of alluring mood lighting, and Kim Dokja would serve them drinks. Some human patrons swam among the seafolk for fun.“You're charming,” a nixie told him, holding his chin up to the light. He froze at her frigid touch. Her human-esque half was coated in shark scales that felt like sandpaper on his skin.“I don't deserve the praise,” Kim Dokja mumbled.She pulled him closer, until he had no choice but to back away. She giggled and dipped into the water.The other nixies stared at him. He meekly returned upstairs.“In the old days, they said nixies would drown sailors for fun,” the barman - Chen Seong - said thinly.“That sounds like a-” Kim Dokja turned to look over his shoulder at the pool, then turned back, “racism?”Chen Seong only gave him a knowing smile.Kim Dokja returned it nervously and continued serving.The nixies loved harassing him. It was as if they could smell weakness. Kim Dokja was desperately glad his house was on a hill annoying for humans to walk, let alone someone with a fish tail. They played at being coy, but some of them looked genuinely hungry as they watched him.He did not make the trek to his favourite author's home in the first month of working, nor the second. After a while, he told himself he wasn't going to go at all. He told himself to be by the sea was his goal. To taste the air, to drink in the inspiration that lit his idol's heart aflame. He would read by the window, look out into overcast skies and thrashing grey seas, and think to himself 'this is what I wanted’.It was easy to agree with the idea, because there was nothing more miserable than his life before moving.Kim Dokja did not make small talk with anyone but Chen Seong, who was not a talkative man. Most people didn't know his name. He knew them, though. He knew their stories. He knew bits and pieces, shards of them that intertwined, narratives that ran through their interests, goals, and faults.So he noticed strangers the most.The man in the fur coat was an outstanding stranger.He came during a rainy night, when seafolk were the most rambunctious, so Kim Dokja was occupied with begging them not to pour their beer into the pool for a good twenty minutes before he finally went upstairs to see him sitting there. His face was gorgeous, the edges of his face perfect, his skin as smooth as the inside of a clamshell. Kim Dokja had never, in all his years of living, seen a man so gorgeous.The man sat in the corner, away from the others, and the lights didn't quite reach him, just barely glinting off the gold chains hanging in three loops at his breast. It gave him an air of mystery and danger.“Can I get you anything?” Kim Dokja asked smoothly. He had learned to ignore the fact he was drenched; the less attention he drew to it, the less likely people were to comment.“Pork bun and Oceanflower,” the man said gruffly.Oceanflower was one of their drinks. It was served in a narrow, tall glass, and popular with nixies. Personally, Kim Dokja thought they only liked it because it was blue.He gave the drink order to Chen Seong and busied himself with making the buns. When he came out with the dish, the man looked to be asleep. Kim Dokja quietly placed the order in front of him, and went back to serving.Over the course of the night, the man rarely stirred. He ate the buns while they were hot, and then sipped the drink slowly. When he wasn't apparently asleep, he was watching the nixies through the murky glass of the windows overlooking the stairs.Around the tail end of his shift, the man hailed him and ordered fish, heavily spiced. He ate the buns quickly enough, so Kim Dokja was unconcerned with how late it was. While Chen Seong began putting things away and cleaning tables off, Kim Dokja finished the dish and brought it out. The man was, once again, seemingly asleep.He made to set the fish down, but as he did, the plate slid off his tray. He made a wild grab for it, amd caught it before the entire thing was emptied onto the man's luxurious fur coat, but not before some of the sauce splashed on his arm.Kim Dokja froze.The guy was sleeping, right?The human patrons had gone home early, and the glass was too foggy for the seafolk stragglers to see in such a dark corner. Kim Dokja felt cold sweat bead on the back of his neck. There was a long line of juice, and he wasn't sure a napkin could get all those juices out of fur. He could tr- oh no. The table had no napkins.Before he could think it through, he licked a long stripe up the sleeve, catching the taste of saltwater, lemon juice, ground chili, and tartar sauce all at once.There was some left, but a wet rag could help. He dashed back to the kitchens.“He still there?”“Sleeping,” Kim Dokja said in a creaking voice.He grabbed a rag, dampened it, and dashed back, but the man was standing in the middle of the room, now. He looked murderous, and the full brunt of his hostility was focused on Kim Dokja.“Sorry,” Kim Dokja said instantly. He shoved the rag forward.The man didn't take it.Instead, he took a step forward and loomed in a terrifying manner, really looking like he was on the verge of reaching up and choking Kim Dokja to d-He gripped Kim Dokja's collar and said, as icily as possible, “No.”Kim Dokja opened and closed his mouth, at a loss. He could only resort to his stock phrases. “Will you be paying for-”The man dropped him like was a piece of garbage and stormed off to the downpour outside.“Put it on your tab, I see, that's fine,” Kim Dokja muttered under his breath.After a moment, he turned back to the empty first floor of the tavern. “Hey, boss, since he didn't touch it, can I eat that?” Intermingling with landfolk has been a clumsy process.The land and sea had been aware of each other for well over a century, and been intermingling for a decade now, but those seafolk who lived in ocean cities never bothered to venture past the coast. Most of the mainland were ignorant, and their unfamiliarity with people from the sea brought in tourists that didn't seem excited to view them as citizens of their country rather than an oddity from an outside world.Yoo Jonghyuk didn't pay any mind to the surface world.He was a soldier. A good soldier. The free, open space of the water meant that you needed to be conscious of your surroundings and quick to act, ready to intercept even the smallest territorial animal, the craftiest enemy combatant. Constant physical training was required to push through the water resistance as well. To be the best of the best was a near impossibility, and he met that standard with aplomb.He didn't have time for companions, and hardly had time for the constant presence of his coworkers. His head was filled with upkeep. Endurance. Preparing for combat.“You ever have land food?” Skybreaker asked.Yoo Jonghyuk felt aggravation at the mere implication of where this conversation was going. His master Skybreaker was a sword saint, a master of combat in her chosen style, and thus the only one who's opinion Yoo Jonghyuk respected.She was also very annoying.“Why would I want to be on land.”“The food.” She pulled her spear out of the practice dummy she was using to show off to Lee Jihye, their latest recruit.“There's nothing wrong with my diet here,” Yoo Jonghyuk replied curtly.“There’s something wrong with your attitude,” Skybreaker grinned, smacking him on the behind with the pole.Yoo Jonghyuk sneered. He didn't need need that kind of passing fancy. He had work to do.His resolve about this held until the soldiers decided that after a treaty with the Deep City was drafted in stone, it was time to party.There was nowhere to sleep. Yoo Jonghyuk usually turned in early, but the hooting was deafening even from the barracks, and they constantly barged in the room for one reason or another. He was tempted to shapeshift into a beast and bury himself in the mud, but he needed to be diligent while he slept, and his beast form was slow to react to complex threats.It was then he realized the only threat, nowadays, was territorial wildlife and the landfolk.‘The food’, master Skybreaker had said.Yoo Jonghyuk slid out of the barracks, avoiding the notice of soldiers sucking alcohol-steeped gel out of snail shells. The odor of unattended alcohol breaking down into the water was intolerable, and made him feel feverish. If he slept in this, he'd vomit in bed.He pulled the edges of his furry tail over his head, and shifted into his beast form. No one minded him as he swam off into the dark of the sea.He swam close to the seafloor lanterns, then swung up. It was storming above the surface, he realized; good, healthy weather for walking on land.Yoo Jonghyuk slid his head out of the water. There was a quiet-looking tavern only just above the shoreline. He didn't like the look of the ramp leading from the water to the underside of the building, no doubt to provide service to nixies, but he was sure there had to be higher floors where he could avoid them.Yoo Jonghyuk's pelt peeled from his face. Most of it bunched like an overcoat over his torso, but some skin had to cling to his legs and feet, as he didn't own trousers or shoes.The tavern was pleasantly dim, and there weren't many people on the main floor. A staircase led down to an even dimmer pool, where common nixies were making a nuisance of themselves, no doubt celebrating the treaty as well. Most of them were occupied with terrorizing the lone server, but others observed him carefully, their arm fins flicking nervously.He took a seat in a secluded corner and finally rested his eyes to the sound of rain and a tinny radio.He didn't know how much time passed before the server gently disturbed him. He was sopping wet, with his hair plastered over his eyes, and landfolk clothing obviously wasn't designed to handle water, judging from the way his white shirt turned translucent over where it was clinging to his skin. He looked pathetic, but kept his spine straight.Yoo Jonghyuk glanced to the chalkboard over the counter for an order while the server pulled his notepad out of a leather case.“Can I get you anything?” The server asked.“Pork bun and Oceanflower,” Yoo Jonghyuk said curtly. His master loved pork buns, and the drink had the word 'ocean’ in it, so it seemed safe.He drifted off as soon as the server left, and he was only roused by the smell of a hot meal under his nose. The server, no less soggy, had returned with his order. He made short work of the buns, but was slow with the drink; it had some sort of...citrus? And it was carbonated, which was an odd addition to the already-odd process of actively drinking a liquid on purpose.He didn't care enough for the drink to finish it right away, and resumed his napping. Occasionally, a nixie would shriek a little too loud, startling him from his sleep, and he watched them yammer inanely to each other while tempting human patrons into the water. Sometimes he'd blearily open his eyes to see the patrons had thinned.The next time he was lucid, the time showed it was late enough that the pollutants in the water around the sleeping quarters must have dissipated. He decided to return on a full stomach.Yoo Jonghyuk had grown up on fish, but it was hard to spice food underwater, and he was intrigued.Food still needed a while to prepare, so he drifted off one last time. It was in increments, but the tavern was a relaxing place to sleep. The open air meant that no matter how much everyone drank or ate, he wouldn't be affected. The scent of food was more prominent than the taste of each breath.The scent of food...something burned his nostrils. A scent unlike anything he had experienced, far more potent than the buns. He heard the gentle click of the dish on the table, and his eyebrows furrowed as he began to stir.Then he felt it.Before he lift his head, he felt the sensation of a tongue against his pelt, a ghostly impression sliding along his skin. Every one of his nerves was suddenly on fire. The tongue pressed deep into the fur, firm against him, intimate in a way only heard of in trashy erotica. The indecency was- who on earth would-The figure quickly walked away, and Yoo Jonghyuk opened his eyes to see the back of the drenched server.The server? The server thinks it appropriate to sexually harass customers?Yoo Jonghyuk rose to his feet, enraged. He came expecting to be able to seclude himself, but this human had enroached upon his personal space so entirely, he, he…Shaking with anger, he took a step to meet the server as he came running back. The feeble little human took one look at him and said, with wide eyes, “Sorry.”He held out his rag. It was damp. The intention was clear; Yoo Jonghyuk could wipe off the traces of his obscene tonguing.But Yoo Jonghyuk couldn't wipe off the ghostly memory of the sensation, the feeling of someone's mouth pressed hard against his skin- his pelt. He couldn't wipe off the first gentle touch being the disgusting unwanted assault from some human stranger, who- who would think he could just-Yoo Jonghyuk grabbed the server by the collar. Even if he was a human that had no familiarity with seafolk, the intention of intimacy was simple enough, he could be simple with his rejection.“No.”Yoo Jonghyuk did not approve. He did not want anyone to touch him, let alone a rickety thin-skinned earth dweller.The server looked frightened, which was satisfying. His eyes skated around nervously, before he finally croaked a feeble “will you be paying for-”Yoo Jonghyuk dropped him. He didn't want to be here any longer than he had to.He marched out, his nostrils still burning. There were other restaurants and bars open late, and he could tell them touching him was absolutely, by no means...by no means…His nostrils still burned. Yoo Jonghyuk's pace slowed. He was outside, and the rain had washed away most odors. The tavern didn't smell so strong it would waft this far.He clutched at his arm, where the skin was still burning, and felt clumped fur under his fingers.This…?Yoo Jonghyuk pulled his arm over his chest and sniffed the clumped spot. It was the same overwhelming aroma of the fish.His face prickled with heat, for a completely new reason.He had been in the surface world often enough to be familiar with sucking something edible out of his fur because he had nothing damp to rub it off with. He rarely thought about what he was doing before putting a sleeve in his mouth, mindlessly to the point he would accidentally get a mouthful of grime on ocassion. It was an instinctive action.He had...he had…He placed a hand over his warm face. Not sexual harassment, but simply a fool worn down by nixies who hadn't been mindful enough…The server had even apologized. He knew he was wrong, even though it was an accident. 'No’...how would he perceive that? 'No’ to what? There hadn't been anything to reject. 'No' to being a tired and empty-headed fool?Yoo Jonghyuk exhaled sharply through his nostrils. He couldn't lose his composure, and he was right to feel affronted. It was 'no’ to being angry that the server wouldn't be more careful with a selkie's pelt. There was nothing wrong with being angry.He'd simply come back another time to show that he was unhappy at being ruffled, but didn't think anything of it. It was barely a problem. And then he could just mention that it was indecent, to have his pelt touched like that, and the human would be the humiliated one of the two, and would never do such a thing again.His heart calmed as he planned out this route. He was flexible enough to handle this much.Satisfied with himself, Yoo Jonghyuk waded back into the ocean.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The handsome stranger in the fur coat became a frequent client.
During the first return, he still looked pissed at Kim Dokja, but he would take his usual table and pass out for all the nights following.
Nothing bad happened. Kim Dokja would rouse him, he'd order something, eat the food, and slowly drain the drink. Then, come closing time, he would pay without saying anything and leave.
Kim Dokja was sure this man hated his guts.
He was accustomed to being loathed, but it stung when it was something that was understandable to hate him over. Still, his ego needed soothing.
“Have you ever licked something off your clothes?” Kim Dokja asked a customer. He'd never seen her before, which meant she wasn't local, which meant she was the safest to embarrass himself in front of.
She inspected him suspiciously from behind her mug.
The customer frowned. “Licking off the food so the mess doesn't spread is what... most people do, yes. Do you not socialize a lot?”
“What about someone else's clothes?”
“Sure? Why not get a bite of what they're eating by annoying them?”
He didn't like where this was going. “A... stranger's...clothes…?”
“Did you…” She dropped her mug. “I'm sorry. Did you
lick a stranger
?”
Kim Dokja fled to the kitchen.
Despite how apparently embarrassing his behaviour was, the handsome stranger always let Kim Dokja serve him. Kim Dokja even made sure the table always had napkins, as a peace offering. He'd try to make small talk, but he was still working on 'making sure customer doesn't want me dead’, and he didn't want to overextend himself. The stranger didn't acknowledge his efforts, but he also didn't get him fired, so he was free to collect a second paycheck.
With the paycheck, his house became cosier, with a bookshelf that could hold his entire collection. He had a truly unholy amount of pulp novels, and they accumulated space quickly. Another paycheck, and he’d be able to afford a shelf for future novels.
Not that he'd wait to buy the novels. They'd just be sitting around his house until he had shelves for them all.
When returning the dolly he used to bring his bookcase up, he decided to head to the only store in town selling books. It was a dingy building, in a tiny line of businesses, but that was precisely the kind of shop Kim Dokja liked to see. His favourite author was dropped by the pulp magazine they originally wrote in, and somehow scraped by with publishing volume by volume instead. They never sold, and took up space a better bookstore couldn’t spare. It made his heart ache, and he'd spent years sending letters of encouragement. He couldn't rely on the general public to have taste anymore. A bookstore that focused on literary fiction and popular novels was worthless to him.
The bookstore was dim and what few bookcases there were were filled to bursting with thick volumes. Most of the shop was comprised of racks, full of various things; a wide rack of pulp magazines at the front, over a dozen thinner racks of novels peppered all through the small space, seemingly oriented in terms of ‘is there a bare wall here’ rather than what would look good.
Kim Dokja selected a magazine and flipped through. It was a constant habit, even though nothing really connected with him.
“What's your tastes, stranger?” The bookstore owner asked. He was an old man with a kind smile.
Kim Dokja stared back.
Before he read the last volume from his favourite author, before he moved to Salvation Inlet, he might have said 'desperate’. He might have said 'grim sci-fi’ or 'dystopian action’. He might have said a lot of things.
“Something hopeful,” he said instead.
“You've been going out a lot,” Skybreaker observed.
Yoo Jonghyuk's lips thinned. He was sorely tempted to turn on his heel and leave the training grounds despite only just arriving.
“You look healthier,” Lee Jihye added quickly. “Is it somewhere nice?”
“None of your business,” he snapped, and hurled a spear at the target Lee Jihye was attempting to hit, making her flinch away.
Yoo Jonghyuk did not get to expose the server's indiscretions.
He tried after returning a third time, when he had already expressed his disgust, but when he opened his mouth to deliver a barbed comment about the server's absurd actions, he was forced to remember how the moment had felt, and the combination of revulsion and embarrassment locked his jaw in place.
He was not the type to yield or show weakness. If it had been a person of the sea who had done it, he would have strung them up by their fins in open air by now.
The human was ignorant, though. He had no idea how violating he was being. And in order to educate him on that point, he'd have to learn of Yoo Jonghyuk's embarrassment. Yoo Jonghyuk would have to tell him face to face that a little unwanted grooming had devastating effects on his psyche, and he didn't know whether or not the server's humiliation would be worth it. He seemed plenty humiliated. He even feebly set up napkins on that table, as the world's most pathetic olive branch.
Yoo Jonghyuk liked the tavern, so he decided that maybe it was okay to just not bring it up.
His master was right about the food, though. He tried to restrict himself, but there were so many dishes he wanted to try. He became accustomed to drinking liquids - the fact it was in a cup and poured into his mouth instead of inhaled helped. No one bothered him except to ask his order and serve him his meal. The hours he kept meant the tavern was usually quiet, save for the occasionally rambunctious nixies in the water below.
He normally went in the evenings, when his absence would be noticed the least, but he was still subject to his master and her disciples nagging him about it. They're the ones who told him to find a hobby. He found one. He didn't know what their problem was.
Skybreaker enjoyed advising him on food to try. He had no idea how she knew he was on the surface world - a nixie from the tavern might have figured out who he was, was his guess - but without experience with surface world food, he had no choice but to listen to her selections. She was usually right about the quality.
On a rainy evening, Yoo Jonghyuk returned and ordered Mushroom Risotto and wine. The wine came in a bottle and glass, which was novel.
The risotto was full and reminiscent of shellfish, but the texture was tender and soft. Food like this was rare in the undersea. Skybreaker had suggested something good again.
The wine complimented the food, especially with his habit of washing down every mouthful. He ended up draining two full glasses before going back to sleep. It was the most alcohol he'd ever had in one sitting, and settled as a steady glow in his chest. He realized belatedly how much more potent it was than infused gel, laying thick on his mind, a blanket of warmth just under his skin.
It was more difficult to drift out of when disturbed, and the fact he had no need to quickly meant he barely acknowledged the world around him.
Laughter. Tinkling. Drops on his skin. The cool familiarity of liquid running over his pelt. Being submerged, scraped roughly, the feeling of trying to squeeze through the coral tunnels.
Everything was a gentle murmur around him. Yoo Jonghyuk felt buoyant. Refreshed. The arm around him was warm-
...The arm around him?
Yoo Jonghyuk stirred. There was no one near him. His body was free, but-
He saw his black soldier's uniform, not his pelt.
Alarm lanced through the fog over his mind like the shock of a freezing current. He pulled himself upright. Almost all of his napkins were bunched up on the table, soaked in wine. What wasn't mopped up with the napkins had dripped to the floor. There were no customers left - even the floor below was silent.
Yoo Jonghyuk felt fear, thick and unfamiliar.
He slowly rose to his feet, and staggered forward. He felt weightless and vague without his pelt, with alcohol still coursing through his veins.
He'd been too careless. Why would they need to know who was to attack him? Anyone could figure out how to target a selkie. It was more dangerous that no one knew; his reputation was preventative.
The server, flustered and once again soaked, stumbled out from the back, throwing a comment over his shoulder. He was wearing a jacket. About to leave.
Yoo Jonghyuk made a hoarse noise, desperate to understand what was happening, and the server turned to look at him. He looked at the door with a complicated expression, then peeled off his jacket and threw it over Yoo Jonghyuk's shoulders without asking if he wanted to borrow it.
Yoo Jonghyuk's stomach twisted, his own pelt forgotten. It was an overture so sickening it was embarrassing for selkies in committed relationships to do, and the human did it so casually? As separated as their cultures were, there couldn't be so great a divide that handing someone their coat had no tenderness to it at all. It was incomprehensible for such an act to be taken lightly.
He breathed in deep. If he scaled it down to its least potent meaning, it would only be an ignorant attempt at flirting.
Yoo Jonghyuk reached out and clutched the server's shirt. He could feel his earns burn. “
No
.”
“You could give it back to me tomorrow,” said the server, eyes clear and unyielding.
Yoo Jonghyuk stopped breathing.
It's only a human. It's only a human. He couldn't possibly know. How much would a human understand of selkie customs beyond the trading of skins being a romantic overture? No one would do this to a stranger if they
knew-
The server ran to the door and picked up an umbrella and a bag. Yoo Jonghyuk opened and closed his mouth wordlessly. He couldn't have known, couldn't have known…
The server adjusted his hand on the bag, and Yoo Jonghyuk could
feel
it.
His vision tunnelled.
“I'll be working tomorrow,” the server said, and then turned and ran out into the rain with Yoo Jonghyuk’s pelt.
Yoo Jonghyuk's heartbeat thundered in his ears. The world seemed to warp around him. He took a step forward, as if to give chase, but stumbled and fell to the ground.
Could
he have known?
The sexual pass was easily explained as a lack of personal space. But combining that with the romantic overture…And now this…
What did a human know of taboo? They expressed their affection casually and without regard. Yoo Jonghyuk had seen someone pretend to propose to their friend using an onion ring four times since he started visiting the tavern. Even when knowing of a ritual's value, they were careless creatures.
Yoo Jonghyuk was helped to his feet by the tavern owner.
“You should have known better than to drink from a landwalker's bottle,” the man grunted.
Yoo Jonghyuk felt his head spin. He gripped the man's shirt, stuck between rage, fear, confusion, and embarrassment.
“He just…” Yoo Jonghyuk's tongue felt sluggish and uncooperative, but he still put the horrible, horrible truth into words.
“He just asked me to marry him.”