“So, you really did save Taehyung?” Namjoon wasted no time asking you questions. You turned to him.
“Um, yeah.”
“And that’s why Ateez is after you?”
“Yeah.”
He sighed. You both stood in silence for a few seconds. Until you finally spoke up.
“What do I have to do to get you to trust me?”
“What?”
“There has to be something I can do to show you that you can trust me.”
He stared at you and thought for a moment. You took a step out of the doorway and shut the screen door behind you. You sat down on the small set of stairs and wrapped your arms around your legs.
Namjooon swam up to the bottom and rested in the shallow water.
“How did you find out about us in the first place?” He asked calmly.
“Jungkook didn’t tell you? Jackson told us not to go past a certain point on the beach, but I didn’t want to go back to my dorm yet and I was alone so I went past it. That’s where I found Jungkook injured and unconscious so I tried to take care of his wound and then got him back in the water. And then he regained consciousness and healed himself and decided to come back and scare me.” You explained.
“I...guess I do remember him saying that.” He turned away sheepishly.
“Yoongi and Jackson talked about a girl that you all met before. What exactly happened?” He turned back to you.
“She, like you, wandered off past the rock. Jungkook, being the trickster he is, scared her much as he did to you. She yelled at him and he kept being his usual cocky self for her. She eventually calmed down when she noticed that he had a tail, she got curious and asked about it. He told her about us and they talked for a while and decided to meet up again. Over the next few days, she purposely acted flirtily and cross boundaries with touching him. He was so blindly in love with her that he didn’t even think it was wrong, but he was visibly uncomfortable. That’s when she tried to kiss him. He pushed her away and she still tried to kiss him and yelled that she didn’t love him she just wanted to be a mermaid. We all found out about it and when we found her we erased her memory, but we still remember everything.”
You nodded in understanding. Guess she was really that bad. How did Jungkook deal with all this? It sounds like he was the most affected by it. But oh well, the past is in the past. But now curiosity crept in and made you wonder something else.
“So how did you all become mermaids?”
“It’s always the same thing. Kissed a mermaid and became a mermaid. We’ve all done it. Either met a mermaid and kissed her, or experienced heartbreak and came to ocean and was seduced by a mermaid.”
“What happened to you then?”
He paused for a moment, not making eye contact.
“Heartbreak. My old girlfriend cheated on me. I found out and didn’t really pay attention to where I was going. I ended up here at the ocean and this mermaid came up to me, she reminded me of my ex, without really realizing it, she kissed me. And now I’m stuck like this.”
He never met your eyes. You felt so bad for him. He continued.
“In fact, I was a student of Jacksons. Same class as you. And my girlfriend...was the girl that tried to kiss Jungkook. She tried to apologize to me, but I didn’t listen to her. She broke my heart, I became a mermaid, and then she tried to seduce my friend, who is like a little brother to me.” As he talked his voice started to break. A single tear slipped down his face as he finished.
He took a deep breath. “That’s why I don’t really trust anyone anymore.” He spoke softly. God, you could feel your heart breaking for him. You carefully moved down to a lower step. Cautiously, you reached your hand up and wiped away the single tear with your thumb.
He looked at you, hurt still prevalent on his face. You quickly withdrew your hand, scared of his reaction, and turned you away from him. He grabbed your hand, making you look at him. He brought your hand to his face and rested your hand against his cheek. He gave you a soft smile, revealing his adorable dimples you never knew he had until now.
You smiled back at him. “Thank you for telling me this.”
“No, thank you for listening. That’s all I needed for me to trust you.”
You smiled wider. “Really?”
He nodded.
“I promise, I’ll protect you from now on.”