FANCY YOU

FISH BOY ↝ JIROSE

"Who," she whispered in a strangled voice, "who even – how the fuck – did you get in here? What were you doing in the sea spying on me?"

The boy looked to be about her age and other than the bright pink hair that seemed perfectly dry despite the rest of his shirtless body being wet and the peculiar seashell necklace he wore, the kid looked rather normal. Handsome, she noted offhandedly, but a normal, healthy guy.

"You can call me Jimin," he told her. His voice sounded strangely raspy as if didn't use it much and he was staring at Chaeyoung like he'd never seen anything like her in his entire life.

"Are you a new patient or something? Are you – " she gasped suddenly, "Are you a cast away?"

Jimin laughed and it was a musical sound. He shook his head.

Chaeyoung stepped closer to the rocks and paused when she saw Jimin shrink back under. He seemed to be hiding something as she saw him leaning his lower body away from her view.

"What are you doing?" she questioned sharply, immediately suspicious. She ran around the other side of the boulder quickly before Jimin could do anything to hide his – his – his tail.

Where his legs should have been was instead a four-foot long tail, decorated with multicolored iridescent scales glistening several kaleidoscopic colors; royal purple, electric blue, glittering silver and brilliant yellow. It was magical.

"You're a – a mermaid?" Chaeyoung stumbled backwards in fear. "H-how the hell – ?"

 "Am I hallucinating again?" she raised a shaking hand to her forehead as if to stop it's spinning, "Is that it, do I need to take my meds?"

Jimin remained silent, merely opting to observe her breakdown with heightened wariness and a hint of amusement.

"You're not real." she said firmly, more to herself than him. "You can't be, like literally you can't be – it's impossible!"

Chaeyoung shook her head as if that would make Jimin evaporate into thin air. Looking slightly hysterical, she continued to mutter frantically under her breath. "I'm probably just dreaming! Yeah! I mean, you're not even talking anymore, of course, you're just a side effect of the new medications."

"I was waiting for you to let me." he spoke dryly.

"AAHHH WHAT THE FU– ARGH" she abruptly stopped shouting when she fell backwards in her rush to get away from him.

"Be careful!" he said concerned, but she ignored him and instead demanded, "Who are you? No – no, let me rephrase, what are you?"

Jimin smiled trying to set her at ease, "I'm a merman, love."

Chaeyoung choked on her tongue, "A merman? Like from H2O?"

He looked slightly taken aback as he explained, "Erm, we just call it 'water' where I'm from or better yet the 'ocean' and occasionally the 'sea' – "

"No, I know that, I'm not stupid." she snapped impatiently. She knew she was being rude, but she couldn't help it. She was scared. "I just – it's a tv show."

Jimin perked up at this and his eyes widened in curiosity. "A what?"

H2O: Just Add Water, an Australian tv-show about mermaids and mermen that she used to watch when she was little with her sister, Alice. They used to take bubblebaths together and pretend to be the mermaids from the show, but even when she was a little, naive kid she knew mermaids didn't exist. It just doesn't work that way!

"Are you pulling my leg, mate? 'Cause let me tell you it's not funny anymore – "

"I'm nowhere near your leg!"