In the Eyes of the Mermaid - Taehyung x Reader

Chapter 12

You stood up and walked over to the kitchen, phone in hand, to make a cup of coffee. You turned on the machine and went upstairs to get ready. 

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Once you arrived at the souvenir shop and got set up for the day, Soon-ja came out of the staff room.

Silent at first, she walked straight past you to the shelf of brochures, fiddling with them and rearranging them.

You watched her without a word, a little tense from her coldness. You've never known her to not greet you when you got into work. She was a feisty woman but she values respect and manners. 

Just as you were about to say something, the chimes on the door rang loudly, it was the daily delivery of newspapers.

"Good morning Ajumma!" said the young teen cheerfully, as he stacked the newspapers neatly on their designated table, "Beautiful day today isn't it!"

Soon-ja looked up from where she was still messing around with the brochures. 

"Why yes it is Sung-min," she said brightly, "what's the news today? Anything good?"

Wonder where that smile was when I came in, you thought. Annoyed at her sudden cheerfulness.

"Actually yeah! Yesterday, over at the Grand Oceanic Hotel, there was a mermaid spotted!", he said, excitement practically pouring out of him, "How exciting is that!"

You eyes nearly fell out of your head.

A mermaid? 

"Is that so" Soon-ja said calmly, walking over to grab one of the newspapers off the stand, "lets have a look."

You watched them from where you stood behind the counter, heart pounding out of your chest.

Did someone see me after I saved that surf instructor yesterday? I don't remember seeing any one nearby..... but then again I didn't look. Damn it, I should have looked. What if they have a picture of my face? What if my secret gets out and I get locked up in a science testing facility being experimented on for the rest of my life?!

You mind was clouded with thoughts, the longer you watched them peering down at the paper, the more your heart threatened to beat straight out of your chest. 

"The picture looks fake," Soon-ja said suddenly, "don't believe everything you hear Sung-min"
And with that she rolled up the paper and walked back towards the staff room. 

After Sung-min had left, you breathed a sigh of relief. Being thankful for the bit of alone time you were getting to process this. 

You were about to walk over to check out the newspaper for yourself when you felt something hard crack down on your head.

"OW WHAT THE HELL" you yelled out in pain, looking around to see what had hit you.

Soon-ja was standing behind you, rolled up newspaper in hand, arm raised like she was about to hit you again.

Her arm snatched back and you winced away from the incoming blow.

"Why are you hitting me!?" you yelled quickly, crouching down and bringing up your hands in defense.

She threw the newspaper at you, and didn't even flinch when it fell apart and made a mess of the floor. 

"You know damn well what you did Y/N," she shouted at you, pointing to the newspaper scattered on the floor, "how could you be so reckless!"

You stared at her in shock. What the hell is she talking about?

"I don't understand Ajumma," you started, trying to calm her down, "I didn't do anything!"