“Gang Haesan, did you bring a sinker to the Kingdom of Water?” an amused voice drawls.
“Don’t be an asshole, Ahn Seongho. My friend can swim like a fish,” Haesan snaps as he hoists me into his ginormous arms and gathers me against his chest. Then, he whispers for my ears only, “Please tell me you know how to swim, Sunny.”
“What?”I can talk, and not in that underwater bubbling voice like in cartoons.I take another full breath.I can breathe through my mouth without gulping down water.It’s all actually pretty cool. I finally stop flailing. “I ... I know how to swim.”
“Hmm.” Haesan doesn’t sound convinced.
“What business does she have in our kingdom?” Ahn Seongho asks in a more official tone.
I notice the tall, pretty male for the first time. He is wearing a flowing blue robe, similar to the silver robes worn by the portal keepers at the Kingdom of Sky, with a man bun on top of his head.
“None of your business,” Haesan grumbles.
“I am a portal keeper. It is precisely my business.” The keeper smirks.
I glance between the two males. I’ve never seen my friend so rude to anyone before. While Keeper Ahn comes across as a little cocky, he doesn’t seem all that bad.
“She needs an audience with the queen.” Haesan relents. “It is a matter of great urgency.”
The keeper frowns at his earnest words, then he nods decisively. “Then make haste, Haesan. I won’t hold you up any longer.”
“Th-thank you, Seongho.” Haesan seems a little taken aback. “M-maybe we can get a drink sometime, and ... catch up.”
“I would like that.” Keeper Ahn smiles, the corners of his eyes wrinkling. “Now, go and take care of that urgent business.”
With a nod goodbye, Haesan swims out toward our destination, still carrying me.
“Who was that?” I ask.
“We grew up together,” he says, propelling us forward with powerful kicks of his legs. “He was my childhood nemesis.”
I side-eye thein’eo. “He doesn’t seem so bad.”
“Yeah,” Haesan concedes. “He seems to have grown out of his bratty stage. Maybe I should’ve given him another chance sooner.”
He leaves unsaid that he might never get that chance now. And I can’t in good conscience assure him that he will. I can hope and try my best, but I can’t promise him a better future. Or any future at all.
We swim on in somber silence. I shiver after a while.
“How far is the Dragon Palace from here?” The clothespin lets me breathe, but the water is freezing cold. I’m not sure how long I can last.
“Not too far.” My friend pulls me closer, and I burrow into his warmth. “We’re almost at the capital.”
“Thank gods.” I crane my neck and squint my eyes, then I see it—a pearlescent walled city.Hmm.Something looks ... off, but I can’t put my finger on it.Whatever.I drop my head against Haesan’s chest again. I couldn’t care less at the moment. I just want to get dry and warm.
He swims us to the bottom of the fortress and knocks on the big mother-of-pearl gates. Two guards swing them open from the inside. But something still isn’t right. I feel like I’m watching them on TV.
Curious, I reach toward them, but my fingers skim across an invisible barrier.That’s why everything looks weird.The capital of the Kingdom of Water is enclosed in something, like it’s inside a giant snow globe. I press my fingertips against the barrier, and this time, there is a little give.Interesting.
With startled shouts, the guards jump back and point their spears at us.
“Wh-what’s their p-problem?” My teeth clack like castanets.
“I am Gang Haesan,” he says quickly to the guards. “I am here to see my aunt, GangSanggung.”
“That female just b-breached the barrier.” One of the guards waves his spearhead at me.
“Impossible,” the other guard rasps.
