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so first of all again i don't think there's really anything to 'get' it's a story about the way people can have an effect on each other, it's not like there's some dramatic plot based love story that goes on. but i think using the themes and imagery that she did, sapphy really gives you a sense of the impact of jun on wonwoo in a more abstract way, like wonwoo lives his whole life kinda underwater and doesn't even see a reason to lift his head above the tide until junhui metaphorically pulls him out of it...like a new life, a new breath... but she also does give concrete ways that jun is different from other people to wonwoo, the way they converse for example, but i think the power here is in the water, so to speak. 

i also like a lot of the little details that she included! like jun's long hair (a perennial fave), and that whole line about dragons and despotism and beheading is SUCH a good line. i rly love callbacks to east asian mythology where dragons are considered good omens (i.e. water not drought) rather than villains and even the brief mention of that delighted me, but throw it against the second sentence and it's so funny?!?!?!?! to me anyway. 

and then after that it's rly the way sapphy write. sapphy's writing is so so so beautiful. it's /gorgeous/. she just has these sentences that are chock full of the most poignant observations and details. they're crafted so elegantly, individually and when put together into paragraphs, i'm honestly so in awe of sapphy's prose? i'm not, like, trying to fish for compliments or anything when i say i think i'm an incredibly mediocre writer, but i think in general, like with most things in like, a lot of the writing a encounter is incredibly average. and that makes sense that's why it's average, right? and when you read enough mediocre prose you kind of get desensitized to it, like it's passable, one or two cliches is fine, bland descriptions are fine, inoffensive sentence construction is fine, literal and basic prose in general is fine, it's not jarring so it's readable and we tend to be fine reading it! but then if you read sapphy's prose...i like can't go back to mediocre writing after hers? i think you might not notice it unless you read it word by word carefully, but her sentences are so good and so much better than average. actually i want to say here, i don't know if it's because i grew up/got better/read more but i think i used to see better prose when i was a kid and now more and more i only ever encounter mediocre prose, even in fics i quite enjoy and are generally well-received/popular across multiple fandoms. it's like...rare to see GOOD prose now as opposed to just 'not bad' prose? on the other hand i think there's also a trouble with purple prose which is unnecessarily flowery but sapphy's language isn't over the top or anything, it's simple, but so powerful. "the abyss of the ocean and the ominous bone-feeders in the dearth of the darkness" or "the windows of the hospital shook with the fury of the wind, angered by how easily a life was ripped away from their clutches of disaster"...these are just so striking but you easily understand each of the words she uses and the sentence makes easy sense...
as an aside if you want to read someone else who has prose i really like, reet (girltalk/kalopsia) has amazing sentences. the power of sentences... i think sometimes ppl don't like that she's long-winded but i don't personally mind that because it's how i am too. regardless, the way i would describe her writing is that usually when you read the start of a sentence, especially in the context of the rest of what you've been reading, you can tend to predict what will happen in the rest of the sentence. but reet consistently subverts your expectations of what you're going to read especially in word choice but also in general sentiments so her writing reads so fresh and so different from the banality of other fics to me... 

in particular to pools, it's a story about water and storms and waves and the ocean and i think when you read it, the words flow and sound like they're the ocean. i was really struck by that. there's this rhythmic cadence to it that feels like the tug of the tide and sapphy managed to convey that through language which i think is an incredible task. sapphy really writes in ways i couldn't even imagine but desperately wish my own writing could be like, there's really no one in kficdom i admire more, and in ALL ficdom when it comes to style. 

at the end of the day though, the most important reason for why i love pools so so much and i keep coming back to it and rereading it and making other people read it is because of how much it moves me. i think emma described it best in her author's note for the remix of pools (tides, also a rly good fic, one of the best in svt ficdom imo...alaska pools and tides lmao sapphy really created a holy trinity), she said reading it felt like being run over by a truck. which is an amazing thing for a drabble of <800 words. but it's so so true. idk how you read it, anon, but when i read pools for some reason i get immediately choked up. nothing really sad happens in the story but sapphy's writing carries so much emotional tension and weight and there's just this tight feeling in my chest the whole way and i want to cry the entire time, again, even though nothing particularly sad is happening. that's the greatest magic right there...i read pools because it gives me catharsis, and i think catharsis is the best thing any kind of art form can give you. i don't know how to not feel emotional when reading pools, i've tried. i imagine if you read it and don't get caught up in that tension or urge to burst into tears, you'd think of pools as just a normal fic, albeit a prettily written one. but for me i get so invested so fast (seriously...it's so short...but i'm like immediately sucked into sobbing...) and i think that makes the fic phenomenal. 
just to take a step back though, i've mentioned this to sapphy briefly but i've really had a huge journey on what i perceive as good or well-written fic. when i was, like, 13 it was fic that was long and followed prescriptive grammar and spelling rules. and then i went to the antithesis and thought it didn't matter what your prose was like as long as you had a story that can move people. and NOT TO BE HEGELIAN IN LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE CC ASK I GET, but now i'm more in a synthesis where i think both prose and plot contribute to the strength of a story and sapphy's prose (and plot but not particularly in pools) REALLY REALLY moves me...my heart is so touched...i don't think her writing is long and complex the way 13 year old me thought was high-brow either, it's not that dreaded purple prose that exo ficdom got a lot of flak for at one point, she doesn't bombard you with unnecessary words it's just simple and elegant...i feel like i've seen other writers kinda...attempt this? but sometimes it doesn't feel natural, or it's like one-liners...i don't really know how to explain it but i without a doubt know sapphy is my fave fic writer hands down...she doesn't have to be other people's fave tho? idrc...i will love her enough for the whole world...