He was confused, his wrist was hurting, everything was happening too fast but all he knew was he needed to get to the water, he needed to feel the coolness of the water.
The splashing of water soon filled the area around him, the hand under his shoes and soon his tail felt like home, the cold dampness against his scales. WAIT
Looking down his saw a mermaid like tail, but it was more pointing and spiky, something like from a fairy tail, he knew he was connected to the water because of his hands but not like this, placing both hands behind him, he didn't feel pain for the first time in a while, bring his wrist to where he can see it he saw the light scars across his dark skin around his wrist like a bracelet. His original bracelet covering the small scars, he still didn't know where the other half of this dang shell was, he had kinda forgotten about it during all the events of the present year, so much had happened.
Looking around he saw families happily playing around in the sand, kids giggling to themselves and or their siblings or friends, god he wishes he had his brother.
Glancing around once more he saw a wall of rocks. 'I am not touching that' he deemed to himself, looking away from it. Turning his whole body around so his stomach touched the sand he felt more comfortable, he liked the feeling of the water on his back. It was… oddly comforting.
Soon he heard loud splashes then warm arms wrapped around his torso, he felt the soft silky hair of Aiko. Then seeing the bright blue shine of her hair, wrapping his own arms around her and making sure he won't let go, glancing up he saw a panting Nikolai walk closer, glancing up at each other Taekjoo put the middle finger up at him and put his focus back on Aiko, Nikolai obviously feeling offended.
"Where the hell did you two come from?" Taekjoo then asked, looking at Nikolai for answers.
"Over the rocks" he said through pants, nodding toward the rocks on the other side of the beach. Taekjoo let out a small 'oh' and put his focus back on Aiko.
"Are you okay?" he whispered to her, making sure only she could hear his words. He felt her pause for a second, thinking the question over and finally answering after some moments.
"Yeah," he heard her mumble, choosing that was the perfect answer and now leaving her alone and looking at Nikolai like all of this was his fault.
"Don't look at me like it's my fault, asshole" Nikolai quickly said, furrying his brows at the siren who's glaring at him.
"Why are you slimy?" Aiko then asked. As Taekjoo had been distracted he had only barely heard the question.
"Um, I am?" he questioned, what the fuck?! I'm slimy right now?!' glancing down at his body he had forgotten he was a siren, why the fuck does he keep on forgetting everything? Maybe he's hit his head a little too much.
Looking down at himself, he saw purple with orange blots all over him, soon mixing into his dark skin on his chest, his webbed hands stayed along with fins appearing under his ears that fade to purple as it goes along, the bottom of his tail is spiked. He was shocked at the transformation.
"I-I'm… purple!" he said in shock, looking up at Aiko and Nikolai. Nikolai gasped upon seeing Taekjoo's eyes, they were still the two different colours but his pupils were slits, it looked scary.
"You look terrifying" Nikolai voices, walking closer, kneeling down and grabbing Taekjoo's jaw, making him look Nikolai in his eyes. "Fuck, I've never seen you like this" Nikolai comments.
Taekjoo looked at him with a glare, his fins and ears visibly moving down when he did. "Get the fuck off me" Taekjoo angerly, putting the middle finger up to Nikolai who also put it up, it was normal. About to go on with the argument the two were brought away from the argument by Aiko letting out a small cough, Taekjoo's worry was evident in his eyes before it disappeared.
"Soooo, what are we gonna do about this," Aiko asked, she gestured toward Taekjoo himself, he was at a lose of words, he didn't want to actually turn back into a human as he had forgotten how to walk, but he also didn't want to go into the water, he was terrified of it.
Aiko jumped up, something must have crossed her mind with how excited she looked.
"OH MY GOD TAEKJOO! I CAN SHOW YOU MY HOME!" she basically yelled. Hearing that he panicked, not in the water, he can't do that, he would die. Placing his hands on Aiko's arms, stopping her incoherent mumbles, his face showed clear panic.
"That will never be happening, I'm not going in the fucking water any further!" he said, his words shaking as he spoke, taking his hands off Aiko he moved himself up on the beach, making it so his body didn't physically touch it anymore, his tail turned into legs once more, Nikolai looked worried with how scared he looked, he'd never seen Taekjoo like this before.
Nikolai placed a hand on his shoulder to try and comfort him, but he shrugged it off and tried to stand, falling when he did so.
'Why the fuck can I not stand!? I wasn't in that form for long!? Why!?' Taekjoo thought to himself, he was in a state of panic. Nikolai looked at Aiko like she would know what to do. He moved toward Nikolai on the sand and placed his head on his shoulder, fully giving up on standing.
"You good?" Nikolai asked, even though he already knew the answer, Taekjoo shook his head, messing his hair up to an extent. Nikolai shut up after that, once again looking toward Aiko, they didn't know what to do, where they were stuck on the beach? How are they supposed to get Teakjoo off the beach?
They stayed like that for a moment longer, Aiko had slowly made her way over to the pair, kneeling down so she was now level with the two, quietly pondering something.
"Taekjoo" she called out, looking his way, with a lot of effort he pulled his head off Nikolai's shoulder, letting Nikolai shift his position a little, Aiko then continued on with her question.
"Why do you hate the ocean?" she asked, her whole focus remaining on Taekjoo.
"I… don't know" he really didn't, throughout this whole adventure he had forgotten a number of things, looking at the water in front of him, he continued on "I hate everything to do with the ocean" he said as he glared at the water, watching the small ripples of the water connecting to the sand, he hadn't noticed when he balled his hand but he did, though Nikolai and Aiko couldn't see it.
He looked over to Aiko and he saw the hurt in her eyes, she looked like she was about to cry, but why? Why did she care if he hated the water? Why did she care for his hate? He placed his head back on Nikolai, he couldn't look her in the eye, he didn't want to, he felt like he had personally hurt her.
He heard some noises then a small voice called out to him and Nikolai.
"Do you hate me?"
Looking toward Aiko who was now a mermaid, his expression immediately went into shock, he glanced at Nikolai for a moment, seeing the fact he looks used to this Taekjoo. Looking down he uttered his final words to Aiko.
"Well if you're a part of the ocean then yes, yes I hate you," he showed anger on his face, but he wasn't angry at her, he was completely angry at himself, he had said he hated the ocean but he had forgotten with the ocean also came Aiko, so saying he hated everything to do with it, meant that he also hated Aiko.
He saw Aiko thinking everything over as small tears pricked the side of her eyes, she closed her eyes, transforming back into legs and skin, shakily standing as she does as she walked toward the water, looking back once more before muttering simple words.
"I guess this is goodbye then," and with that she swam away from them, Taekjoo felt a sadness wash over him. Nikolai let out a sigh and finally stood up, looking down at Taekjoo like a disappointed father.
"Taekjoo get up," Nikolai said, putting out a hand to help Taekjoo up. Taking Nikolai's hand they finally stood, Taekjoo's head hurt, but at least the wrist was fine now. "Come on, lets get you a bed at least, maybe some pain relief as well"
Taekjoo agreed and they walked their way to Nikolai's place, he had a couple houses, one in Russia, one in Korea and one in Japan, Taekjoo had no idea what the one in Japan was used for but low and behold Nikolai had it.
As they walked in, the place was neat, Nikolai isn't really the neat type of person, but when they reached the living room, he finally saw the mess.
"You gonna clean that up?" Taekjoo asked.
"No, mind you I haven't been here since you called me to find information on Aiko" Nikolai mentioned, getting a scoff from Taekjoo and they sat down on the couch. At least the couch was comfortable, to an extent.
Nikolai skipped his way over to the kitchen, throwing a bag of bread toward Taekjoo and accidentally hitting Taekjoo in the head.
"Oww" Taekjoo let out, rubbing the back of his head and looking toward Nikolai.
"Oh suck it up, it's bread, it didn't hurt" Nikolai shot back. The two finally rested after what felt like forever, the scene turned into a more domestic scene as the two picked at their bread and butter with different toppings that Nikolai had sourced from his fridge, that were more than likely out of date.
Small sounds of random TV shows flashed past the TV as they talked, both of them silently agreeing not to bring up Aiko and what had just happened.
Days had pasted, Taekjoo hadn't returned to the NIS, nor has he came into contact with Ims since, Nikolai had gotten Taekjoo a new phone and had also told him to stay in his house as Nikolai was still going back and forth from Korea to Russia for mainly family business. After a couple months like that Taekjoo finally asks if he can come with Nikolai to Russia.
"Nik" Taekjoo called out as he stared at his new phone, trying to figure out all the new features on it.
"What" Nikolai called out from where he kneeled, stopping his rummaging and finally looking at the darker man.
"Can I come to Russia with you?" Taekjoo asked, placing the phone down and looking at Nikolai.
"Um, sure?" Nikolai resumed his rummaging "why do you wanna come to Russia?"
"I don't know, I haven't been there, Ims taught me the language when I was younger, so now I want to go," Taekjoo explained, propping his head back onto the couch as he spoke.
"Hmm, whatever, gotta buy your own plane ticket then," Nikolai said, finally finding the object he was trying to find,
"You wound me," Taekjoo joked, going back to looking at his new phone. Nikolai had skipped off somewhere Taekjoo didn't even want to know. 'Sometimes I swear he's gay' Taekjoo thought to himself.
"When are you going back?" Taekjoo then asked, Nikolai emerged from a random room and thought for a second, walking toward the living space.
"In a month" Nikolai said, finally sitting down and focusing on Taekjoo completely. Taekjoo just let out a small hum of acknowledgement.
—--------------------------------------------------------------
Said month had passed and the both of them were in Russia, more specifically Chitinskiy Rayon, from what Taekjoo could see it was just bush and trees, looking toward Nikolai he asked what the fuck was up.
"Why are we in front of a bush?" Taekjoo asked.
"Hidden bunker" Nikolai said, pulling out a remote and pressing a small button up the top of it, finally some mechanical noises sounded, opening a door in front of them to long metal stairs, Nikolai basically jumped at them, skipping down as Taekjoo took his time, as at the end they were greeted with a door… just a door.
Opening it greeted them with a whole house setting, a kitchen, living room, dinning area, Taekjoo's eyes glowed at the sight.
"Holy damn!" Taekjoo abandoned his stuff and went off to explore while Nikolai took the luggage to the living room.
"My sister and mother may be home to be warned" Nikolai called out to Taekjoo as he looked around, letting out a small 'yeah yeah' he bursted it off and looked around. There were small golden details all over the place, wooden walls, carpeted floors, marble countertops.
'Damn his family must be rich' Taekjoo thought to himself. Even though they've been friends for years Taekjoo hadn't actually seen any of Nikolai's family, not a single person, he doesn't know who they are, what they do, what they look like or if he has like fifty siblings.
'I mean I haven't told him about my family either' the thought crossed his mind, neither man knew about the other's family. His thoughts get cut off as they hear soft clicking noises, Nikolai smiles knowing who it is, but Taekjoo is slightly panicking.
"이분은 누구신가요?" Taekjoo quickly whispers to Nikolai from across the room, soon the clicking stops and an older woman now stands in front of Taekjoo, her face was kind, a warm smile, she had reached out and was now shaking Taekjoo's hand, uttering words to fast for Taekjoo to process. All he got was 'Мой сын всегда говорит о вас.' but his only thought was 'smile and nod'.
'무엇?' went through his mind, he didn't know what this woman was saying.
She finally gasps and looks at Nikolai, muttering more words in Russian.
"Мама, иди сюда." Nikolai asked for his mother, getting her to come closer, mainly away from Taekjoo, but his sister had joined in on the conversation. They went off in their russian, Taekjoo may know Russian but he was the best at it, it was the one language Ims hadn't thought to actually fully teach Taekjoo. It would be helpful right now.
(Guys the russain was google translate, so it's not acturet, the Korean was a shot in the dark as yes I'm learning it but I'm not the best)