Chapter Text
Zoey taps on the steering wheel as she bobs her head to the latest pop hit rattling out of her car's speakers. She was in a good mood today because she was currently driving towards her favorite beach to do her favorite activity.
Field studies!
And speaking of field studies, more than that, Zoey was just excited to get the ball rolling on her dissertation for her doctoral program. As much as she loved working for local marine life organizations, there was a novelty and pride in being able to contribute to the growing research of aquatic life herself and have that published, her grand name attached.
There’s fun in being independent in that way.
She’s contemplated her doctorate ever since finishing her master's degree. She’s happy she took that jump. She loves her program, she loves her colleagues and her professors, and she’s especially loved her time working through her course load. All that was left was her dissertation, and while she struggled initially on just what to do, she finally figured it out and submitted her proposal to her mentor.
And this beach was just the place for it.
As she drives through the hills, she glances out occasionally to take in the view. Through long gaps between the trees, she has a perfect view of the Jeju Strait. It takes her about an hour to get to Hamdeok Beach, but it’s always worth the drive. Nothing’s better than checking in on the local marine life on her day off, and she gets the added bonus of research! She pulls into the designated parking area and shuts off the motor.
Zoey takes a deep breath the second she steps out of her janky old car. She takes in the salty sea air, and it feels more like home than her apartment ever has. She lets her eyes fall over Hamdeok Beach, and lets out a forlorn sigh. She used to love coming here as a child, but tourism was a blessing as much as it was a curse. While she was glad local shops seemed to thrive off of the increased foot traffic, it really bums her out to see the beach so full of people who don’t truly respect the island they’re taking advantage of.
Still, she keeps her head high.
Time to head to her super-duper-secret-marine-biology-study-cove-hideaway!
She grabs her backpack–which, of course, is littered with many ocean-themed decorations, of which her favorites included her Save The Turtles button, the Sea Pancakes pin she got from Mystery, and her I-Love-CRYPTIDS patch (with a silhouette of Nessie by the text) pressed into side pocket where her steel water bottle (also covered in sea themed stickers) sat snug. She shrugs it over her shoulders and off she goes.
She’s been here a lot lately for her studies, and it’s not because it’s the most convenient place for her to drive to, but because she has a feeling. Like she’s about to discover something truly amazing here.
The whole reason she even knows of this cove is because of her dissertation. She really needed a good subject to study, and given that she was already struggling on a specialized topic, she really didn’t want to throw in the towel and just pick a basic, easier choice. So, she made the tactical decision to take a look around some of the local beaches for inspiration.
A couple of days after she'd first happened upon this secret hideaway, she saw something that piqued her interest. It was too big to be a regular fish found in this cove, but she was too far away to get a good look at it. Out by the mangroves, she saw a long, purple, spiny fin diving down below the surface, and at the end of the long fin spanning down the creature's back was a horizontal caudal fin. Similar to a dolphin, but it had dermal membrane instead of cartilage.
She'd never seen anything like it before. Not even in her research. She’s waited for it to resurface ever since, so she could get a better look, but it never showed itself again. Since then, she's noticed a few other oddities around the cove. A large purple iridescent scale, some long, sharp shed claws, and even odd scuff marks along the shore… like something had beached itself before returning to the water.
Zoey guessed that it could be an undiscovered species. So that was what her dissertation would be about! Whatever this thing is, Zoey is going to be the first one to discover it! It would do wonders for her career if she could name a new animal after herself.
It pops into her mind.
Zoey Choi: The woman who discovered the Choi fish!
…
Hmm, she needs to workshop that.
She picks up bits of garbage left by some of the more careless beachgoers as she walks, tossing them in nearby receptacles.
“I mean, how hard is it to pick up after yourselves!?” She grumbles to herself. As much as she’d love to give these hooligans a piece of her mind, she doesn’t want to get sidetracked. Today is going to be the day she makes the big discovery; she can just feel it!
She shakes away the negative emotions.
“Good vibes only, you’re on a mission!”
After she passes through the last of the rowdy crowds, she reaches the edge of the coast and begins her uphill climb of the Seoubong trail. She steps onto the worn dirt path and runs her hands along the scruffy rope connecting the posts. While she climbs, she lets her eyes drift closed as she once again breathes in the salty air, listening to the gulls calling in the distance. The crashing waves make her heart race, anticipating today’s findings. She looks out over the beach below and watches the partiers get smaller and smaller as she ascends.
Eventually, her view is interrupted by pine trees as she enters the more forested section of the trail. Only locals and the occasional hiker pass through here. She politely bows her head as she passes by them and continues on her trek.
She slows when she sees the marker she left for herself weeks ago.
Look left, then right, no one’s looking, aaaand move!
Into the brush she goes, then clambering down a rocky hill, careful not to slip on the rubble. She makes it to a clearing of solid stone–a sheer cliff face– with, by some miracle, a narrow path down to the overgrown cove below. She takes her time and traverses the cliff with care. One wrong step and she could seriously hurt herself. Finally, her feet touch sand. She lets out a breath, and the tension she’s had since leaving the car falls off her shoulders.
The hard part is over, and now it’s time for fun!
…
Educational fun!
The cove was gorgeous and mostly hidden. Sparkling blue water to wade in; a lovely sea bed of eelgrass for fish fry to swim in unthreatened. The cove is mostly secluded by the mangroves, making it difficult for boats to come close. Not impossible, much to Zoey’s dissatisfaction, but most fishermen don’t bother trying since the fish here are too young and small. The partygoers were also often too drunk on soju to attempt the climb, making this the perfect place to conduct her research!
No interruptions! Not even from her roommate, who had zero idea Zoey was out here, because if she found out, she would surely cuff her to the dining room table just to make sure Zoey didn’t drown while she was all alone in a strange environment. Which is sweet, but Zoey needed to keep this place a secret. She couldn’t risk the chance of not being able to make a truly extraordinary discovery out here.
To her right is a large, intimidating rock wall, too steep for Zoey to even think of climbing. It slopes down, down, down into the water, and Zoey isn’t sure how deep it goes below the surface. To be honest, she’s been too scared to wade out that far.
Not because she’s scared of some dumb rocks or anything!
No!
She’s scared of the cave.
At the base of the rock wall was an opening. A large, pointy mouth that gaped, swallowing water further into its depths. She doesn’t dare go near it. Zoey may be a lover of ocean life and a marine biologist, but she is not about to go spelunking in a deep, dank cave with no one knowing she’s even out here. She’s not insane!
Besides, the area Zoey is interested in is right in front of her!
She slings her backpack off her arm and sets it in the sand, digging through it for her net and a few test tubes. Her hands race for the button on her denim shorts, and she shimmies them off as fast as she can, not wanting to be away from the water a second longer. She squirms out of her off-the-shoulder top and throws it onto her backpack before grabbing her sunscreen. She’s done a bit! Of a sloppier job of applying it today, but she swears–and she promises!–that she’s done a better job before! She just can’t find it in her to care today!
Because today, she is going to find it.
She knows she will!
Regardless, she finishes putting on her sunscreen and grabs her things before wading out into the eelgrass. The water is cool as she takes her first steps in. She shivers a little, but knows it'll warm up soon enough. First things first: get some samples of the water. She carefully fills and caps each tube before tucking them into her bikini top. Now, time for the fun part–Zoey hears a drum roll in her brain–of sifting through the grass for babies!
She gently swoops her net back and forth, and after feeling the weight dip a little, brings it to the surface, careful to keep the little ones wet. A few gobies, a tiny wrass, and, oh! A blennie! She hadn't seen one in a little while! Good to see they're still doing well! She tips the net out and watches with a smile as the little fish swim back to their hiding spots. Now, to rinse and repeat. She continues to explore the cove, wading out further and further until she's a little over waist-deep.
Her foot catches on something. She tries as best as she can to see what it is–squinting at whatever could be below the surface. Something purple glimmers back at her, purple–like the scale she found last month!–but these scales are attached to something big. Much bigger than she thought it’d be. She can't see well through the water, the waves are churning just a little too much, but something feels off. This creature has been so elusive that she expected it to have spooked off when she kicked it.
Zoey really wishes she brought her goggles with her–a rookie mistake–but she's determined to get to the bottom of this. She dips her head under the water and prepares for the sting after opening her eyes. A few seconds of blinking away the pain, and she can see a little bit better. It's blurry, but man, is this thing big! But it's not moving. Is it dead? She reaches out to its tail and feels something scratchy against her fingertips. There’s a rope caught around the caudal fin’s base!
Zoey quickly realizes what’s happened. The poor creature is trapped!
She feels further up its body, and her hands touch something cold and metallic. Is that… a harpoon? It's a smaller one used by fishermen, but the line was cut. As she continues to feel up along the creature’s body, she jumps when the scales end, and something scarily close to skin starts, but she’s cut off by a large net covering the rest of the beast.
Is she too late? Was this beautiful creature already gone? Just as she's about to try and look for the gills, the tail jerks –hard– trying to pull free from the rope. Looking along the line, she sees what's got it stuck. It’s a fucking anchor! This creature must have dragged it along while it tried to get away from whatever attacked it, poor thing…
Maybe it's against her better judgment–this thing is probably twice her size from what she can tell from the tail alone– but she can't just leave this beautiful fish to die! Not the Choi fish!
…
She really needs to work on that name…
Okay, one step at a time, Zoey.
She jumps into action and swims as quickly as she can back to shore, dropping off her test tubes and net, before grabbing her pocket knife –which she has for totally legit reasons– and races back into the water. Thankfully, she finds the creature still there and dives back under the surface.
She starts with the rope at the end of its long tail, admiring its light shade of purple and white opalescent stripes all along it as she works. The scales of this fish are gorgeous. Iridescent pearl-like plates litter the creature's body and shimmer under the water. Once the tail is freed, she swims around to the creature's side.
Zoey pauses for a moment. She won’t be able to move this beast without leverage, and she also doesn’t want to accidentally cut it with the water obscuring her vision, so she grabs the edge of the net and begins pulling the big animal to shore. About halfway there, the creature stirs in her grasp. This thing is strong. It nearly topples her over, but she keeps her footing and digs in her heels into the sand and grass to hoist the thing onto the beach. Finally. She collapses onto the shore, heaving in lungfuls of air, but there is still no time to rest.
She looks at the net and then the harpoon. “I’ll treat the wound, and then I’ll get this net off. If this thing has teeth, I don’t want it to take a chunk out of me for helping it.” Zoey cautions in her head, her eyes landing on the creature's webbed hand. She stares at its long claws at the tip of its fingers, just barely peaking out from the net. “Maybe this is some kind of seal-fish hybrid? Is that even possible?” She grabs her first aid kit out of her bag and opens it up. Every day, she’s more and more grateful for getting a kit with a suture set.
She looks at the harpoon and runs her fingers along its cold, unforgiving metal. The creature thrashes suddenly, letting out rapid, stressed clicks as the rod slips from Zoey’s fingers. The creature struggles in the net, trying to face Zoey. Zoey jolts her hand back, resorting to reassuring the creature, letting out quick coos.
“Hey fishy, this is gonna hurt a little, but I’ll fix you up, I promise! Okay? Please don’t kill me...”
The creature’s tail twists and writhes against the net. It makes a shrill shriek, getting itself more tangled until the net’s pulled taut around it. This at least gives Zoey a window to grab onto the harpoon–despite the creature’s obvious aggression against the idea.
Zoey’s hands slip a couple of times, but eventually the creature settles to sporadic jerks every now and then. Zoey firmly grasps the harpoon, and running on adrenaline and the need to help, she tugs the harpoon free as quickly and as carefully as she can. The tail swings violently, and the beast lets out an awful screech. The weapon wasn’t very deep, maybe a few inches at most, but the gig itself is around 3 feet long. Either way, the creature is pained, and its large tail thrashes until it stills against the sand, clicking weakly.
”Okay, okay! It’s out! I’m just gonna patch you up, okay?” She gingerly pets the creature's scales and admires how hard they feel under her fingers. These must be why the harpoon didn’t sink in too deeply. Zoey grabs the first aid kit and patches up the wound as best as she can. The creature eyes her warily through the net, still struggling, but its panic has dulled noticeably.
When it comes to suturing the wound, she notices a few of the harder scales had been knocked away by the harpoon, giving her a nice vantage point for the needle to close the small hole. She’s not sure if her tiny, flimsy needle could actually push through the hard scales otherwise.
Satisfied with her work, she sits back to look over the creature. The first thing she notes is that it hasn’t moved much through the rest of her fiddling with the injury, and now she’s starting to worry. Had she taken too much time? Has it been out of water too long? She’s not going to push it any longer.
Her knife makes precise cuts at the net, and soon, the creature's midsection starts to come free, and…yeah, okay, that’s definitely skin. Was this some person cosplaying a mermaid or something? Kind of a dumb thing to get speared over if you ask her. Then again, how would they have survived under the water for so long then? And that tail is definitely the real deal… could this thing really be a..?
A few more cuts and–
OH WOW–!
Zoey averts her eyes as she discovers this creature is not wearing any kind of cover over its chest and their tatas are on FULL display. Zoey can feel heat crawling up her neck and spilling all over her face, and she suppresses a nervous laugh she can feel bubbling up. However, Zoey is a gentleman…-lady…thing…and will give them respect! She tries her best not to stare as she continues to cut through the rest of the net.
But more than her interest in a wonderful set of bahongas is how gorgeous the mermaid is.
Mermaid.
The word Zoey just called this beautiful creature grounds her thoughts to a screeching halt.
…It’s got to be a mermaid, right?
She reaches her hand out and feels along what would be the hip of a human. Scales meet flesh seamlessly. Her fingers run over the plates on the creature's forearms, and fins like a fish protrude there.
Zoey’s eyes drift upward, throat constricting.
Her face…there were no words to describe how beautiful it was. The gentle slope of its cheek was freckled with the same iridescent scales encompassing the entirety of its tail. There was still a portion of netting stuck around something protruding from the mermaid’s forehead, and Zoey gently cut at the twine until it fell free.
Horns.
Two long horns pointed straight up from its hairline, hair that was a vibrant purple, pulled back into a long, messy braid that spanned the creature’s back. Little shells and coral were interspersed along the length. They were indescribably pretty.
This is insane.
This is HUGE! A real mermaid, a real-
Wait–the mermaid's eyes are closed, and it’s concerningly still. Zoey leans her head down against its chest–PURELY FOR MEDICAL REASONS!–and listens for a heartbeat.
There’s a lazy, consistent thumping against her ear.
It’s there, but it’s slower than it should be. Or at least, what a human’s should be. When she pulls back to try to figure out how to move forward, the mermaid's eyes are open and staring at her.
Bright, piercing orbs of gold blink at her.
”Oh, thank god! You’re alright!” She lets out a big sigh of relief, “My name is Zoey! Sorry for manhandling you and all that,” Zoey waves her hands around, gesturing wildly, a couple of nervous giggles and hiccups tumbling from her mouth, “not to mention invading your privacy, I just-WOAH!”
The rest of her sentence and her train of thought crash together in a horrific accident, the collision taking her breath along with it. Zoey was slammed onto her back as the mermaid's large hand met her chest, pushing her into the sand with force.
It clicks its tongue and growls, trilling threateningly as Zoey lies there, blinking back.
Her heart was racing.
At least if this is how she dies, it’s fucking sick. She stares up at the mermaid's large fangs, which were protruding from its mouth more than they were before.
Even in the face of imminent death, this mermaid was a scientific enigma. Her common sense was completely overridden by the sheer curiosity burgeoning within her. This creature’s existence sparked all sorts of questions, all sorts of untied knots and knots to tie, and–she watches as the creature's eyes roam over her, and then trails to its own body like it’s still trying to figure out everything that’s happened in the last fifteen minutes.
“I, uh, was trying to help.” Zoey offered, unsure if this thing could even understand her. What language do mermaids speak anyway? The mermaid makes a low trill deep within its throat; its eyes landing on the stitches that Zoey fixed it up with. “Um, you were hurt, so I… um…” She pauses when the creature's eyes meet hers again, large and almost glowing amber.
Intimidating, in a way that made her skin raise with goosebumps. This mermaid was so beautifully scary. Zoey sucks in a breath, swallowing the saliva trapped in her throat in her shock. “I cleaned it out and stitched it back together.”
The mermaid’s brows pinch together in focus. It was trying to listen to what Zoey was saying, but she wasn’t sure if it fully understood. It looks at its tail one more time before making a chirping sound. It must have come to some kind of conclusion, because the next thing Zoey knew, she was being pressed further into the sand. The creature leans in, sniffing along her neck, then up to her hair. Zoey’s breath stutters under its weight, and she flushes red. She wasn’t sure if it was because of her heart rate going a mile a minute, or if it was the closeness of the mermaid’s naked chest directly within her line of lesbian sight.
Trying to adjust to this–very welcome–turn of events, Zoey shifts gears and clears her throat. If it’s vaguely human, she can at least try to see if it could understand her in some way. Given this mermaid’s proximity to the local human population, perhaps it had picked up some understanding of the language for survival?
Zoey digresses.
”Um. C-Can you understand me?” Zoey asks, wanting to clarify some things still.
The mermaid pulls back and squints down at her, tilting its head. It spoke a few words in a language that Zoey did not understand in the slightest before a small huff escaped it.
She assumes that it meant ‘sort of’ because now the creature was pulling off of her.
”Thank you.” She says as she takes in a gulp of air. “My name is Zoey.”
The mermaid tilts its head again, obviously confused.
“Oh my god. Am I going to have to pull a Tarzan?” She thinks to herself, amusedly.
Zoey points to herself, “I’m Zoey.” She uses her finger to spell it in the sand, with a crude stick drawing of herself. Then she attempts to doodle a figure of the creature and points at it.
“What’s your name?”
The creature stares at her for a while, and Zoey almost thinks this might be a lost cause, deflating. But then, its webbed hand moves. It spells in letters Zoey doesn’t understand, then speaks.
“Rumi.” It warbles out.
And oh–its voice was like warm honey on her ears. Feminine, but deep, not gravely like she might have assumed at first. It was smooth. And even though the creature sounded and looked feminine, Zoey didn’t want to assume their fishy gender without asking.
She didn’t have time to enjoy it for long, though, because the mermaid suddenly turned and started dragging itself back into the water.
“Bye.” It calls out.
”W–Wait!” Zoey calls after it frantically and scrambles to stand up. She reaches the waters edge just as it starts to get deep enough to thrust its tail for propulsion.
“I want to see you again! I’ll be here tomorrow!”
The mermaid looks back at her one last time, before diving under the surface without answering.
Zoey stumbles back, but catches her footing before she falls back into the sand.
Zoey blinks.
That just happened.
She met a real-life mermaid. Like, not one of those, like, mermaid actresses. An actual mermaid.
A real mermaid.
She sees something reflecting in the sand and bends down to pick it up.
A scale from the mermaid left behind. Bigger than the one she found weeks ago. She smiles as she twists it in the sunlight.
—
Mira was never going to believe this.