The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea
Axie Oh
For my mom,
who has always believed in me.
1
The myths of my people say only a true bride of the Sea God can bring an end to his insatiable wrath. When the otherworldly storms rise from the East Sea, lightning breaking the sky and waters ripping up the shore, a bride is chosen and given to the Sea God.
Or sacrificed, depending on the measure of your faith.
Every year the storms begin, and every year a girl is brought to the sea. I can’t help wondering if Shim Cheong believes in the myth of the Sea God’s bride. If she’ll find comfort in it before the end.
Or perhaps she sees it as a beginning. There are many pathways destiny can take.
For instance, there’s my own path—the literal path before me, stretching narrowly through the waterlogged rice fields. If I follow this path, it’ll eventually lead me to the beach. If I turn around, the path will take me back to the village.
Which destiny belongs to me? Which destiny will I grasp on to with both hands?
Even if it were up to choice, it wouldn’t really be mine to make. For though a large part of me longs for the safety of home, the pull of my heart is infinitely stronger. It tugs me toward the open sea and to the one person I love beyond destiny.
My brother Joon.
Lightning streaks through the storm clouds, splintering across a blackened sky. A half second later, a clap of thunder rumbles over the rice fields.
The path ends where the dirt meets the sand. I take off my soggy sandals and fling them over my shoulder. Through the torrent of rain, I catch sight of the boat, tossing and turning upon the waves. It’s a small, hollowed-out vessel with a single mast, meant to carry eight or so men—and one Sea God’s bride. Already it’s a distance from the shore, and moving farther still.
Lifting my rain-soaked skirt, I sprint toward the raging sea.
I hear a shout from the boat the same moment I crash into the first wave. Immediately I’m pulled under. The freezing water steals my breath. I tumble beneath the water, spinning violently to the left, then the right. I fight to get my mouth above the surface, but the waves pour into and over me.
I’m not a weak swimmer, but I’m also not a strong one, and although I fight to swim, to reach the boat and live, it’s so very hard. It might not be enough. I wish it didn’t hurt so much—the waves, the salt, the sea.
“Mina!” Strong hands wrap around my arms, pulling me out of the water. I’m placed firmly on the boat’s undulating deck. My brother stands before me, familiar features twisted in a scowl.
“What were you thinking?” Joon shouts over the howling wind. “You could have drowned!”
A massive wave crashes against the boat, and I lose my balance. Joon grabs my wrist to keep me from tumbling overboard.
“I followed you!” I shout, just as loudly. “You shouldn’t be here. Warriors aren’t supposed to accompany the Sea God’s bride.” Looking at my brother now, his rain-lashed face and defiant expression, I want to collapse into tears. I want to drag him to the shore and never look back. How could he risk his life like this? “If the god should know of your presence, you’ll be killed!”
Joon flinches, his eyes flicking to the prow of the boat, where a slender figure stands, hair whipping sharply in the wind.
Shim Cheong.
“You don’t understand,” Joon says. “I couldn’t … I couldn’t let her face this alone.”
The breaking of his voice confirms what I’ve suspected all along, what I’d hoped wasn’t true. I curse under my breath, but Joon doesn’t notice. His entire being is focused on her.
The elders say Shim Cheong was fashioned by the Goddess of Creation to be the Sea God’s final bride, the one to ease all his sorrows and usher in a new era of peace in the kingdom. She has skin forged from the purest of pearls. She has hair stitched from the deepest night. She has lips colored by the blood of men.
Maybe this last detail is more bitterness than truth.
I remember the first time I saw Shim Cheong. I was standing with Joon beside the river. It was the night of the paper boat festival four summers ago, when I was twelve and Joon was fourteen.
It is tradition in the seaside villages to write wishes onto pieces of paper before folding them carefully into boats to set upon the river. The belief is that our paper boats will carry our wishes to our dead ancestors in the Spirit Realm, where they can bargain with the lesser gods to fulfill our dreams and desires.
“Shim Cheong might be the most beautiful girl in the village, but her face is a curse.”
I looked up at the sound of Joon’s voice, following his gaze to the bridge spanning the river, where a girl stood at its center.
With her face lit by moonlight, Shim Cheong seemed more goddess than girl. She held a paper boat of her own. It fell from her open palm onto the water. As I watched it drift down the river, I wondered what someone so beautiful could possibly wish for.
I didn’t know then that Shim Cheong was already destined to be the Sea God’s bride.
Now, standing on the boat in the pouring rain with thunder rattling my bones, I notice the way the men keep away from her. It’s as if she’s already been sacrificed, her otherworldly beauty separating her from the rest of us. She belongs to the Sea God. It’s what the village has always known, ever since she came of age.