16. Scarier than a Mermaid
Whenever Baek Yuri saw Neoul's strange behavior, unrealistic imaginations came to mind.
Countless monsters, fantasy animals, demons, aliens, superpowered people, and unusual beings from countless books and movies he had read passed through his mind.
But they were novels, movies, fairy tales, and folktales, and they were all fictional beings. That's why he thought Neoul might not be human, but on the other hand, he thought his delusions were excessive.
In the meantime, Neoul left the pension in a suspicious manner.
Baek Yuri, who was about to go to bed, was suddenly awakened by the sound of Neoul closing the door.
'Where are you going at this hour?'
You couldn't possibly be looking for a weapon, right?
He might have cut open his stomach while he was sleeping and tried to tear out his liver, saying, 'There was a liver? Why did you lie, Sir Rabbit?'
Baek Yuri eventually couldn't hold back his curiosity and fear and followed behind him.
But when Neoul arrived at the beach, he took off his shoes and socks and walked briskly into the sea.
He was holding a doll that looked like a white shark doll and a whale shark doll in his arms.
If he had just dipped his feet and stopped, he would have just watched. He thought that the suspicious Gal Neoul might reveal its identity now that it was acting suspiciously.
However, as Neoul went deeper, he couldn't just sit back and watch anymore.
How dangerous is the night sea! What if he gets swept away by the waves?
I don't know why he was thinking of going into the sea in the middle of the night, but he had to stop him for now. Who would want to see someone fall into the sea right before their eyes?
It might not be a person! What if it was a person?
He took off his shoes as if he was throwing them away and ran to grab Neoul. Baek Yuri looked back in surprise in the darkness and saw the face of Neoul.
Fortunately, he didn't see any sorrow, pain, or empty expression of someone who was about to give up their life.
Gal Neoul seemed to be curious about why Baek Yuri was here with innocent eyes. However, Baek Yuri was curious too.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
The moment Neoul opened his mouth, a strong sea breeze blew in. The noisy sound of the waves grew louder, making it impossible to hear Neoul's words.
Baek Yuri realized that the seawater that had been soaking their shins was now rushing up to his chest, pushing him hard as if it would knock him over. It was a dangerous wave.
Baek Yuri staggered, but Neoul was firmly rooted in the ground, standing upright like a telephone pole. As if he was not affected by the waves at all.
In the pitch-black darkness, a wave that had grown in size rushed toward them.
In the blink of an eye, Baek Yuri was swept away by the wave. This time, Neoul was also swayed by the wave.
At that moment, the sharks that Neoul was holding returned to their original form. Fortunately, Neoul and Baek Yuri's bodies were caught in the sharks' large bodies and were not dragged into the deep sea.
Blue light shone brightly in the darkness. Baek Yuri stuck his upper body out of the water while holding the rough body of the whale shark.
Before the wave that suddenly came rushing in again covered him, he saw the mermaid's tail glowing with blue light and white light like the Milky Way.
The moment he followed the light and confirmed the mermaid's face, the wave covered his head.
Baek Yuri hurriedly held his breath and clung to the whale shark.
Someone grabbed Baek Yuri's arm, who had tightly closed his eyes, and took him back to the beach. The wet sand touched his feet and knees that had been floating in the current, and his body was dragged on the ground. When he came to his senses, he had already risen to a place where the waves could not reach.
It happened in the blink of an eye.
Baek Yuri took a deep breath, wiped his wet face with his hand, and blinked his hot eyes.
Gradually, his vision returned. Looking ahead, he saw the waves at the sea with worried eyes.
The sparkling light he had seen earlier had disappeared like a mirage. Nothing could be seen in the dark sea.
Baek Yuri felt like the sight he had just seen was a brief hallucination. However, when he looked back at his state, covered in salty seawater and sand from head to toe, it was definitely not a hallucination or a dream.
Shark.... There were two sharks...?
"They weren't ordinary dolls?"
"Yes. They are my friends."
Neoul calmly answered Baek Yuri's bewildered question. It seemed like he had no intention of hiding it. No, he hadn't hidden it from the beginning. Baek Yuri was the one who had been fooled.
"The tail just now, what was that light, no, g-g-go go."
"....?"
"Ahem. Sorry. My tongue got twisted."
Oh, damn it, let's calm down, Baek Yuri.
Baek Yuri was so surprised that he squeaked like a broken robot. He slowly took a deep breath and opened the airway again.
"Is Gal Neoul ssi a mermaid?"
"Yes."
"Really the son of the Dragon King? So you're a mermaid prince or something?"
Neoul turned his gaze away from the sea and looked back at Baek Yuri with a puzzled face.
"...? You didn't believe me?"
"...!"
It's true.
Baek Yuri's long eyelashes fluttered. He almost confessed that he was not a rabbit but a human.
'But what if I tell you the truth and you say you lied to me and then hurt me?'
What if he save me and then push me back into the sea?
Come to your senses, Baek Yuri. Even if you go into a tiger's den, you can survive if you come to your senses. But right now, this isn't the sea, it's on land, and it's like a tiger stuck in a rabbit's den, so the chances of survival are a bit... Huh? Isn't that more dangerous?
Baek Yuri's face went pale, then came back, then went pale again. In the meantime, the seawater on his lips tasted salty.
At that moment, Neoul spoke first.
"Is it because I'm not a dragon?"
"Yes?"
"There's no way to prove it, but... I'm really the second son of the Dragon King. Although I'm not his biological son, I grew up just like a biological son. My filial piety toward Abamama is no less than that of a biological son."
Oh, that's right.
Baek Yuri realized blankly. It would be natural to wonder why he wasn't a dragon when he was the son of the Dragon King, but he didn't think about that.
It was because when the animated film
The Western sea god and the Korean Dragon King are clearly different beings.
'But now, whether he was biological or adopted is not important...?'
Is this a true story?
They weren't really people? Mermaids, dragon kings, and such things exist in real life? On our planet?
'It wasn't a surprise camera, right?'
Of course not. A shark-like figure that could fit in one's arms turned into a giant shark. No way.
Baek Yuri looked around, questioning himself. There was no one on the dark beach, let alone a camera.
It's strange, but scary. It's scary, but interesting.
After learning about his identity, the legend of the mermaid Shinjiki from Geomundo [*Port Hamilton, Jeju Island] came to mind. Shinjiki, who had white skin and long black hair. It was said that she could predict a disaster and threw rocks from the cliff to prevent sailors from going out to sea.
Gal Neoul had white skin and black hair like Shinjiki. He didn't care about warnings of natural disasters, but he was after someone else's intestines.
Regardless of whether Baek Yuri's head was noisy or not, Neoul leisurely shook the sand off his feet and put on his socks. Then, he observed with his socks on, then put on his sneakers and said.
"Oh. Please keep it a secret from the humans. The sea priestess asked me to. Even if I tell the humans that I'm a mermaid prince, they won't believe me anyway, so you can tell them, but don't let them see my tail. It means don't let them see my identity, okay?"
I'm doomed!
Baek Yuri trembled as he got up from his heavy body.
If I had revealed that I was human, I would have really been drowned, right? 'You've seen my true form, so you should die.' He said that and threw me into the sea.
His friends looked hungry, but they said it was good and threw me to the white shark as food.
The large whale shark was surprising, wonderful, and scary, but the thought of the white shark right next to him in the waves made his spine tingle.
'I barely escaped being shark food.'
It was thanks to the whale that dragged him and saved his life. He was very thankful, but... He thought that the whale was also looking for a chance to take out his liver, so he became very wary.
Baek Yuri shook off the sand stuck to his clothes, calmed down a little, and then asked calmly.
"You probably don't have any status, so how did you fill out the application?"
"The sea priestess came and helped me."
"Who is the sea priestess?"
"The sea priestess is the sea priestess. She had been called that since before I was born."
"...."
What are you talking about?
He didn't seem to have any intention of explaining it in detail. Baek Yuri answered for now, just to survive.
"I'll keep it a secret."
"Thank you, Sir Rabbit."
Tsk.
Why are you calling me Sir Rabbit? Every time I hear it, I get goosebumps imagining myself as a rabbit having my organs removed.
"But Sir Rabbit, can't you give me the liver first and debut later? Abamama's illness is critical, and I'm very worried that I might be too late."
Baek Yuri decided that when he returned to his dorm, he would briefly get his smartphone back and search for how much rabbit liver was sold for.
Can I buy about 500 grams and give it to him? I don't know if it'll be delivered to Jeju Island.
"As I said before, the liver is at home. My house is across the ocean, so I have to take a plane, but I can't go home until filming is finished in Jeju Island. I'll ask my family to see if I can get it delivered to you."
"..."
Baek Yuri didn't really like lying. However, his ability to improvise for survival was excellent, so he spoke like a conman.
Now, he should go back to the dorm. Baek Yuri twisted the hem of his clothes to squeeze out all the water and put on his shoes that were lying around.
Neoul watched Baek Yuri carefully and then wrung out his clothes clumsily.
Watching his immature appearance, Baek Yuri was confused as to whether Neoul was really a dangerous being to be wary of or not.
"But, Neoul-ssi."
"Huh?"
"You're wearing your pants inside out."
"...Huh?"
He held on tightly because his legs turned into tails and his pants fell off, but he put them on roughly as soon as he got out of the water, but it seemed he had put them on wrong. Neoul tried to put his pants back on without thinking.
"Ahh! No! It's outside! Just go and change at the dorm!"
What if they film it!
Baek Yuri was terrified and stopped Neoul's actions. Somehow he became very tired.
***
The next day, Baek Yuri briefly got back the smartphone he had submitted and ordered rabbit liver. Just in case, he ordered a generous 1kg.
Fortunately, delivery was possible even to Jeju Island with only a small additional shipping fee. It did say that delivery might be delayed due to the typhoon, but...
Since the mermaid seemed to believe that he left the liver at home, everything should be fine until then, right?
'What should I say to the production staff when the delivery arrives?'
He was in a very difficult position.
'But at least people have to live first.'
When he ordered, he wrote down a request to write 'medicine' instead of 'rabbit liver'. He thought that would look less strange.
Baek Yuri returned to the practice room after handing his smartphone back and thought.
'But if the mermaid goes back to the sea with the rabbit's liver - what will happen to the filming?'
Is Gal Neoul just getting off?
Baek Yuri planned to hand the ice box to Neoul without even opening it when the package arrived. He will say that debut was not important, so he doesn't have to do it, and he would wave both hands telling him to hurry up and go.
Then there was no need to reveal that he had unintentionally deceived Neoul (?).
However....
'It must have been quite embarrassing for the production team.'
He suddenly joined and then suddenly left. He would even disappear into the sea and be unsearchable.
'Then they'll have no choice but to edit it out...?'
It seems like they'll edit it all out because it's annoying.
Baek Yuri was caught on camera with Gal Neoul in the first filming on the beach and in the dorm scenes.
It was possible that the part that was nominated for the signal song and then canceled would be edited out as if it had never happened in the first place.
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