sea-kissed 🌊 || j.jk+k.th

{1} fortunate encounter 🌊

[Disclaimer : English isn't my first language ! Please tell me if you see any mistake or awkward phrasing ! It's also my first official fic, so don't hesitate to give me advice or feedback, it'd be greatly appreciated ! Enjoy 💜]

The first breath he took was so deep it made him lightheaded.

The air was chilly, and salty, and made his lungs numb ; exactly what he needed. The exhaustion he had felt until now had weighed heavier than the bulky bag on his shoulders ; and yet, in a few breaths, it lifted off as if it had never existed, as if he hadn't been restless for almost 24 hours now.

He didn't mean to walk faster and yet felt his steps were getting quicker and quicker ; it was as if his body was moving on his own, drawn in by the distant singing of the waves. Guided by his subconscious, longing for a place vast enough for his thoughts to scatter away in the wind, he made his way out of the old-fashioned and rusted train station, then onto the narrow streets of the unfamiliar town. He walked, and walked. And quickly enough, in the dim and hesitant light of dawn, in the space between two modest houses, he caught a glimpse of the sea.

Almost running now, he found his way to the water, holding his breath. And there it was.

There it was before his eyes, pink and yellow clouds rippling on the water ; there it was under his feet, the crunch of sand and seashells sinking under his weight ; and finally, finally, the melody of the waves crashing into the shore, filling every fiber of his being, drowning every thought.

He stayed there for a while. His bag on the ground, his shoes and his coat beside him on the sand, his hair slicked back by the wind. Eyes closed, cold but at peace, he listened ; the waves washing away, and crashing back, and washing away, and crashing back. He felt like it had been years since he had last seen the sea, and he was right. Until this exact moment, he had no idea how much he had missed it. Lulled to sleep by nostalgia and exhaustion, he drifted away a little further every time the water came crashing on the sand.

• • •

The sun was already quite high in the sky when he was abruptly woken up by panicked screaming.

"Wait, no ! Come back !"

A quick analysis of the situation allowed the boy to come to a conclusion ; it seemed like the young man on his right, a little further away on the beach, was desperately begging for his hat to somehow stop rolling on the sand. The man was running as fast as he could in his direction, and our confused witness saw before his eyes a beige hat being blown away by the wind, falling into the water, and quickly getting further and further away from the shore.

Usually he wouldn't have cared much for such a mediocre tragedy ; maybe it was the drowsiness from his nap, or the genuine sadness in the man's hopeless plea, but he decided to help the stranger. Swiftly and efficiently, he took off his t-shirt and his jeans and got into the water.

He had always been a quick swimmer ; his hometown was right next to the sea, and he spent most of his childhood playing at the beach before moving to Seoul. It seemed that despite living in the busy city for 6 years, he hadn't lost it.

The water was way colder that he thought it would be, but soon enough he was entirely in and the cold became numbness, and the tiredness became adrenaline. Immersed in the moment, he swam. Keeping an eye for the beige hat still floating above the deep blue. Reaching for a few more strokes before catching it. Swimming back to the shore.

"Oh my god, are you- did you- I-"

The owner of the hat was very obviously having a crisis right now, and he couldn't be blamed for it ; he probably didn't expect the unfamiliar boy sleeping on the sand to strip down to his underwear, dive in the cold water, and bring his hat back -wet, deflated, but back. 

Out of breath from the sudden burst of effort, sea water dripping down his black and wavy hair, the boy locked eyes with the stranger.

"Um... hi ?"