Chapter Text
Making his way down the seemingly endless stairs to the small cove, San sighed to himself. It was getting harder every time he did this. His thighs, his knees, his hips, his back, all aching, groaning from the strain. And he still had to make his way back up again later on, before the tide completely cut off his access back up the cliff.
Despite it being summer, the sea fog had rolled in, bringing with it a chill, moisture suspended heavily in the air, dampening his hoodie with every step. He didn’t like it, no doubt the weather would further worsen the pains his body never seemed to be completely free of anymore. The only positive was the fact that the only other people he'd encountered had been moving in the opposite direction, keen now to be away from the beach, the weather. Back to the warm and dry of their house or campsite.
The cove he was heading to wasn’t particularly popular anyway, even when the weather was glorious. Small, rocky, and sandwiched between a much larger sandy beach and a bustling picturesque fishing village, most tourists didn’t bother, didn’t even notice it existed. It was only accessible if you were willing to put in the effort anyway. A hilly walk along the coastal path and more stairs down than San wanted to think about right now. He was thankfully coming to the end, the last bend in sight, the last twenty or so stairs, until he was on the shoreline.
He was startled as he made the last turn, a single female tourist, head bowed against the wind, a large stripey shoulder bag banging into her hip as she started the ascent. He nodded politely, moving to the side of the narrow path, giving her room to pass. She smiled sweetly, and if he wasn’t imagining it, a little flirtatiously in response. He probably was imagining it. It had been a long while since anyone had looked at him with something that wasn’t pity or concern.
He'd timed it perfectly, almost exactly on the point where the newly outgoing tide gave him enough space to move around. Maximum time for the tide to fully recede and then return, forcing him to retreat back up the torturous stairs and back to his reality.
Here was different, here he was as free as he ever was. And, even though it was summer, the weather had conspired with him to gift him the place to himself. He hoped it stayed that way. Here, with the waves acting as both his backdrop and his muffler, San could sing his heart out.
He doesn’t know what it is about this place, it just feels right. He could sing anywhere, he does sing anywhere, at home in his small cottage, in the local church where his lack of religion doesn’t put off those who hear his voice. It’s soft and angelic, yet powerful and emotional. San has the ability to draw people in, to make them feel things, when he sings.
But here, on the shoreline, with the cliffs at his back, with only the gulls and hidden sea life as his audience, San feels a freedom to sing like nowhere else on earth.
He sings for an hour or so, time bleeding away without him realising. Some songs learned from childhood, some recently heard on the radio, some that he couldn’t recall where he knows them from, he sings them all word perfect, pitch perfect.
He stops mid-word when something catches his eye, he's been wandering, moving as he sings, arms gesturing, hips swaying, his body not content to express itself with only sound. There’s something different coloured amongst the shells and stones washed up at the water’s edge, something unnaturally coloured. Sea glass he thinks happily. San loves sea glass, and from the way this piece glitters under the weak light trying to push through the fog, he thinks he's found some. Dark green and smooth looking, he isn’t expecting the one small piece he teases from the sand to be strung with others, but it is. Not only green but other colours of glass. Clear, very pale blues and different greens, a gorgeous red which excites him as he's only found a few pieces before. Then, as he carefully extracts more of the string, there’s a glint of orange and then he's really excited. He's seen other beachcombers find orange sea glass, but he's never been so lucky. As the string reaches its full length, San realises it’s actually circular, a necklace. Then a larger piece, what can only be the centrepiece emerges, made of a beautiful, iridescent blue glass, the likes of which he’s never seen before.
He carefully frees the entire necklace, bringing the full string closer once it’s free. It’s absolutely stunning. San cradles it carefully, rinsing the sand and clinging gravel from the necklace so he can see it all properly. The blue centrepiece of glass is almost heart-shaped, and yet it looks like its been formed completely naturally. Held carefully away from the closest pieces of glass with intricate knots, he holds it up to the light to be sure. He didn’t even know this sort of blue existed.
This piece, the entire necklace, has clearly been put together with some considerable care. The colours are carefully graduated, the pieces similar sizes. A lot of skilled work has gone into this, San would bet it was fiercely expensive if its been made for sale. Someone must be missing this. He has no idea how he would go about finding the original owner. There is a terribly selfish little part of him that doesn’t want to return it at all.
He tucks the necklace carefully in one of the small inside pockets in his backpack, protecting it, resolving to do… something with it when he gets home. He puts his bag back against the rock beyond the hightide mark and gets back to what he was here for. The fog has reduced his visibility considerably. He can’t see the top of the cliffs, he can’t see out to sea, he feels like he's the only person in the world, and yet, the acoustics of the cove and the sounds of the waves, makes him feel like he isn’t singing alone.
Half a mile or so out to sea, Wooyoung hears the voice again. He hears this singing regularly, but it doesn’t seem to be on any specific schedule. It isn’t what he's used to hearing from land, and it doesn’t really make sense. Some of the songs are deeply familiar, others couldn’t be more alien, words that he's never come across before being projected across the ocean. He's got good hearing, but this is something else, something captivating. This time he's determined to catch a glimpse of the performer. He makes his way stealthily closer, the cove coming into view just as the singing stops. The figure pauses, bending down, picking at something on the ground, maddingly slowly, Wooyoung doesn’t understand what is going on. And then Wooyoung sees, the figure stands up with something in his hands. It’s his heart, his necklace, somehow washed up and buried on this cove. He wants to cry out, wants to tell this figure that the necklace is his and that he needs it back. But the figure moves deeper towards the cliffs, and when he returns, Wooyoung thinks the figure is a male, his hands are empty, the necklace gone. Wooyoung will have to hunt for it when the cove is empty. At least he’s finally closer to knowing what happened to it, closer to getting it back.
He sinks back to almost water level, so the man doesn’t see him, and watches as he draws a deep breath in and begins to sing again. His voice is beautiful, captivating. Wooyoung knows beautiful and captivating voices, but this one is different for reasons he's struggling to understand.
Eventually the man stops, chest heaving with the effort of the last long notes of what turns out to be his last song. He stands for a minute or so, just breathing, eyes almost all the way closed, chin tilted up, and then he turns, heading back towards the cliffs and heads up and up and up. Wooyoung watches until the man disappears from view in the fog.
He gives it another couple of hours, until the twilight has shrouded the cove, until he’s convinced that no one else will come, and then makes his way onto the land to search for his necklace.
Although he knows exactly the spot that the man went to, he cannot find it. He turns over rock after rock, sweeps aside piles of seaweed, carefully analyses the ground in case the man dug a hole to conceal it. But, after a fruitless search, he has to leave it. The necklace has gone, he must have taken it with him. Unless he somehow makes direct contact with the man, Wooyoung has no choice but to now consider his necklace permanently lost. It upsets him more than he wants to think about.