el muchacho de los ojos tristes | merman!leehan x gn!reader 🐚
tags & warnings: sfw, REALLYYY cheesy, tw: claustrophobia, brief mentions of chopping leehan up?!? (doesn’t happen though i promise), fast burn, reader is on a rescue mission, hurt/comfort, skinship 🤤, “angel” is used as a nickname for reader, mentions of scars & bruises, kinda angsty, the ending feels kinda rushed ugh, ihan’s a sweetie pie (and also yaps a lot) wc: 2.7k a/n: baby’s first time writing, im nervous 😓 my first language isn’t english so i kinda felt like gloria from modern family in that one episode (“how do you say in english the takatakatakataka”) while trying to find the right words to describe some stuff anyways i hope you enjoyyy 💖💖💖 also i LOVE this song so much it kind of inspired this fic ^_^
breathing in the strong smell of fish mixed with the salty sea breeze, you made your way through different stalls of fresh catches laid out by fishermen.
with the end of spring approaching, it was the perfect time of the year to buy the freshest of fish, so you made sure to arrive at the market just around sunrise to bring home the tastiest ones. fish of all colors and sizes were displayed on stands to be purchased by the townsfolk scattered across the coastal marketplace.
as you were wandering around, a glimpse of a sparkle caught your eye, making you stop in your tracks and squint your eyes to see more clearly.
in a dirty and barely large enough fish tank was a beautiful merman, big brown eyes looking around in terror at the people passing by.
his flowy tail was a gorgeous shade of light blue and glistened even under the dark, gloomy tent of the stall. his features were so soft and delicate that one would worry about accidentally breaking him like a porcelain doll.
without a doubt, he was the most ethereal creature you had ever seen in your life.
however, he seemed malnourished and weak, with bruises and scars likely caused by nets or hooks scattered across his lean, pale body.
occasionally, people passing by would stop in front of his tank and tap on the glass curiously, losing interest after realizing the merman wouldn’t move at all, paralyzed by fear.
you hadn’t even realized you were staring intently at him- not until he locked his fearful eyes with yours, that is. watching him try to move around in discomfort, you felt something inside your chest pushing you towards him and soon enough, you found yourself standing in front of the claustrophobic tank.
the merman was barely squished into it, his tail twisting and bending uncomfortably as you could tell by the pained look on his sad, pretty face.
you turned your head to the fisherman sitting down on a stool behind the stand- a rough looking man with a wrinkled face and a bushy beard.
“how much for this one here?” you asked him.
the man raised an eyebrow at you, glancing between you and the merman as he thought for a moment.
“well, that thing’s exotic… i’ll sell it to ya 80 bucks, but the price goes up if ya want the meat chopped or diced.”
the moment the fisherman uttered those last few words, the merman’s gills flared quickly as he tried to helplessly push around inside the tank in panic.
“no, no!! it’s okay, i’ll just take him as he is please…”
the fisherman shrugged in response before opening the lid of the tank to pull the merman out.
he dropped the boy in a large bucket, making him whimper in pain as he hit the plastic bottom. you could see his eyes prickling with tears as he struggled to adapt to being exposed to the crisp air.
the fisherman then poured some water into the bucket before taking the money from your outstretched hand and counting the banknotes with a grin.
“bon appetite!” he laughed gruffly, making the anxious merman squirm.
with a grunt, you picked up the bucket and made your way to your car, the merman in the bucket looking at your face with his nervous eyes. as you carefully set him down on the passenger side, he began to plead with a quiet voice:
“please, please don’t kill me… my body, it’s- it’s just full of bones, so you really don’t want to eat me anyways, and-“
“i’m not going to, i promise.”
he stared at you for a moment, dumbfounded. “huh?”
you sighed softly. “i just… i couldn’t bear seeing you in that filthy little tank, that’s not where you belong. i want to help, so you just need to trust me, okay? now, what’s your name?”
the merman exhaled shakily, relief washing over his face.
you gave him a warm smile, of course his name was pretty— just like the rest of him. you reached out a hand to shake his.
“well, leehan, i’m [y/n]. i’m really sorry we had to meet this way… but we’ll get you back home safely once you’re all better. does that sound good?”
he pushed his damp hair back to look carefully at your face. finally, he shook your hand with a small smile of his own, feeling hopeful now.
a few hours had passed since the car ride home and you were now sitting down on the floor in your living room, examining the wounds on leehan’s body. he was settled in the old kiddie pool you had to dig out of the depths of your garage, thankful that it was still in good condition. it wasn’t much, but it had to do.
the furniture in your living room was pushed aside to the corners, creating a chaotic mess, but that was a problem you would deal with later. right now, all your attention was directed towards the merman patiently waiting for you to finish cleaning and bandaging the wounds on his body.
when you had first started tending to his injuries, you’d asked how the fisherman had caught him. he had shyly told you about how he was wandering around in the sea, far from home because he was chasing a strange looking school of fish and that he hadn’t even noticed the boat until he felt the nets capture him.
once he was done explaining though, you sensed something in the air shift that made you feel a little tense.
his gaze was averted to the ground while he was speaking, but now, he was intently staring at you.
when you first arrived home and helped leehan settle down in the bathtub as he waited for you to find the old kiddie pool, he couldn’t stop looking around at the objects in the house in awe. you even had to stop him from trying to chug down a bottle of shampoo after he took a whiff of the sweet, fruity scent…
but now, all he was looking at was you as he studied your tedious work on his wounds carefully.
and you were aware of that.
so, to break down the awkward silence (and to distract yourself from the feeling of his big eyes locked onto you), you asked;
“do you mind if i play some music in the background?”
he tilted his head slightly, his interest piqued.
“sure!! i don’t recall hearing any human music before…”
so you grabbed your phone to browse through your playlists, finally settling on some calm tunes to play as you kept tending to his wounds.
♬⋆.˚ el muchacho de los ojos tristes, vive solo y necesita amor ♬⋆.˚
after listening to music with you for a while, he offered to sing you songs from his home way back in the sea, to which you happily accepted.
as he sang an ancient ballad passed through generations of merfolk down to him, your breath hitched in your throat—he had what could only be described as the voice of an angel.
his hands were now holding yours as he kept on singing, giving you goosebumps.
once the “serenade” was over (ooh-eh ooh-eh ooh-eh oh first serenade and last serenade~ 🎶) he kept on holding your hands in his for a little longer before pulling back sheepishly.
𓆝 𓆟 𓆞𓆝 𓆟 𓆞𓆝 𓆟 𓆞𓆝 𓆟 𓆞𓆝 𓆟 days passed quickly and turned into weeks with leehan— getting to know the sweet, strange merman made the quiet life you lived in your small, coastal town a lot more interesting.
the way his face would light up whenever he got to tell you about the ocean was without a doubt the cutest thing you had ever seen.
his fascination with the human world was just as endearing. he loved asking question after question about anything and everything about your lifestyle that he was unfamiliar with.
what especially surprised him was the television hanging on a wall in your living room— you doubted you could ever forget his reaction when he saw you turn it on for the first time.
“how did the people even get in there?? can YOU do that too?!?!?”
the flashing colors from the screen had him mesmerized, leaving his mouth wide open as you browsed through the channels while sitting next to him on the floor.
you finally settled on the discovery channel after seeing a documentary about the ocean, although you felt a lump starting to form in your throat as leehan’s cute excitement quickly turned into longing. he let out a small sigh, turning his gaze away from the screen as he mumbled;
“i feel bad for my family, they’re probably worried sick… you said my wounds would heal soon, right?”
you hummed softly, giving him a small smile.
“yeah, you had some pretty deep cuts but you should be good to go soon…”
he hesitantly reached out to grab one of your hands, giving it an affectionate squeeze before turning back to you.
“thank you, [y/n]… i’m so glad you were there in the market that day to save me, or else i would be ‘sleeping with the fishes’ right now. get it??”
you quietly laughed at his joke, and although your chest felt tight at the feeling of having to let him go soon, you squeezed his hand back, laying your head down on his shoulder and breathing in the salty scent still lingering on his skin after all those days he spent apart from the sea.
𓆝 𓆟 𓆞𓆝 𓆟 𓆞𓆝 𓆟 𓆞𓆝 𓆟 𓆞𓆝 𓆟 on
one particularly uneventful day when you were rewatching your favorite sitcom in the living room together, he pointed at an old, red book sitting on top of a shelf above the tv.
“what’s that?” he asked curiously.
“oh, that’s my photo album!!” you replied, excited. “i can’t believe i haven’t shown it to you yet, let’s look through it!!“
so you happily got up from the floor to fetch the album and sit back down next to the pool, browsing through all the photos in the album.
“this is from when i was a newborn at the hospital, this one here is when i when i first started kindergarten, and here’s one of me riding a bike for the first time!! kinda sad you can’t get to experience that last one though…”
you nudged him playfully, but he was too busy smiling tenderly at the album to respond to you.
“awh, you were cute back then too!!” he cooed, though a hint of shyness tugged at his words as he turned his face away a bit.
“wow, so you think i’m cute?” you teased lightly, urging him to turn his face back to you.
but when he did, you found his glossy brown eyes staring into yours, uncertainty swimming around in them.
“[y/n], i know this sounds really cheesy, and really random, but… i can’t help but feel guppies in my stomach whenever we hang out— honestly, i’ve never had anyone willingly listen to me ramble about different species of corydoras before, but seeing you care so much about whatever i have to say makes me feel so giddy that i think i can’t hide the fact that i really like you anymore…
also, you’re the most gorgeous person i’ve laid my eyes on— to be honest, i thought i’d died and an angel was coming to take me up to heaven when i first saw you at the market, which, you know, kinda freaked me out a little...”
he laughed nervously before continuing;
“sorry, i really didn’t mean to ramble on like that just now, i probably should’ve made a smooth plan to tell you all that-“
“leehan.” you interrupted. “i wanna kiss you so bad right now.”
he blinked in surprise a few times before placing a hand behind your head to pull you in a kiss, your and his eyes fluttering shut.
both of your hands were cupping his face, slightly squishing his soft cheeks as you kept kissing him. god, you just wanted to hold his face and kiss his lips for the rest of your life…
unfortunately you had to stop once leehan started to feel breathless, submerging himself in the water after pulling away, his gills flaring up and back down.
when he was finally feeling all better, he emerged back to meet your face with a goofy smile.
“man, if i could breathe the same way you do, i would be kissing you all day…” he said dreamily, although his mood immediately shifted once he saw the conflicted look on your face.
“what’s wrong, my angel? i didn’t say something wrong, did i?” he asked with a pout, to which you quickly shook your head;
“no hannie, it’s not that— i’m just upset that this… can’t work out, even though i really, really want it to… i mean, we can’t even kiss without you running out of breath, and i definitely can’t hold mine for longer than a minute underwater.”
you ran a hand through his wet hair as you spoke gently, placing a kiss on the tip of his pretty nose before he looked up at you with a sniffle.
“i really don’t wanna have to leave you behind once i go back home… i wish you could come with me.”
dipping your hands in the water and running them over his shoulders and then chest, making him shudder, you answered:
“i’ll come visit you as much as i can, okay? and i’ll never, ever forget about you… i’m so thankful that you made these last few weeks of my life so extraordinary, and i’m so happy that fate brought the two of us together. i think i was meant to cross paths with you, love.”
you then held his face in your hands, pressing your forehead gently against his.
“and honestly, i don’t think i could forget a pair of eyes as beautiful as yours no matter how much time passes.”
as much as it hurt both of you to say goodbye to each other, you knew it was the right thing to do.
so now here you were, walking by the quiet beach as leehan’s arms were wrapped around your neck while you carried him in a bucket. his face was buried in the crook of your neck, his lips planting soft kisses on your skin.
the waves were crashing serenely on the shore, leaving an infinite number of kisses on the sand. you felt gloomy at the thought that the sea and the shore were sort of similar to you and leehan— never mixing, no matter how close they were to each other.
the beach was quiet in the evening, the only people in sight being two elderly ladies sitting far away from you and leehan, holding hands and watching the sun set as they sat together in matching camping chairs. (#oldwomanyuri)
leehan was restless against your chest, as if he was trying to bury himself away from the world in your arms. once you were deep enough in the water to release him, he finally let go of your body and gracefully swam out of the bucket and into the refreshing waters of the sea.
he quickly swam a couple circles around you, playfully splashing water on you with his tail. you could tell by the look on his face that he really had missed this.
“you have to promise me that you’ll come visit me regularly, okay?”
he pointed at a rock formation not too far from the tall, red lighthouse.
“my family and i live at the bottom of those rocks, so just go over there and, i don’t know, splash some water around whenever you want to see me, and i’ll come right up. deal?”
you smiled warmly, affectionately ruffling his wet, brown hair.
“deal. i promise i’ll visit you, hannie. tell your family i said hello, alright?”
he grinned, wrapping his arms around your waist to place a lingering kiss on your lips.
“i will. i love you…” he mumbled into your mouth before letting go.
“i love you too, baby… i’ll see you soon.”
you held each other’s gazes a moment longer before he swam off with his tail flowing around beautifully, shimmering with the last rays of light, almost as if it was waving “bye” at you.
by the time you were finished cleaning up your living room, the moon had already risen in the sky, glowing in all its beauty.
you could help but feel an emptiness since leehan’s chatter would no longer be filling up your living room. you still couldn’t believe how fast the merman had won your heart and had you so attached to him, his lack of presence feeling so out of the ordinary.
as you were finally settled in bed to sleep, your weary eyes closing, they fluttered back open when you heard a voice all too familiar…
you could swear you had heard someone singing from afar what sounded like an ancient ballad from the sea.
you rose from your bed to look out your window in the direction of the old lighthouse, and with the squint of your eyes, you saw a light blue shimmer wink at you, making you smile.
“good night to you too, hannie…” you whispered out the window.
thank you sooo much for reading <3
@ilysungho @pupillary @lovehakie 🪸
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