Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters but I do own the story. So this chapter would help to have a better look into why the character of Hayi is considered mute.

Chapter 2 - PCH

Song: PCH by Willow Smith and Jaden Smith

Hayi always had an interesting passion for water ever since her dad tried to sign her up to a swimming class at the age of 12. He thought it would get her mind off other ‘’toxic activities’’ that she used to practice. In her father’s world,’’ toxic activities’’ meant anything that would come to harm, Lee Park bom, in any way possible. He would do anything to keep it from happening and that even if he had to deny to his daughter her passion, singing.

‘’ Chaerin-ah please take good care of our little Hayi’’, said her dad while patting gently her head.

She looked up to see his expression and he seemed a bit shy. The black haired woman nodded then crouched in front of the minuscule 12 years old and looked her in the eyes with affection.

‘’Hayi my name is Do Chaerin. I will be your teacher, I’m sure we will have a lot of fun together’’, she said with such a warm smile that Hayi felt a bit taken aback. Never had anyone seemed this happy to talk to her before.

‘’ Hayi-ah’’ murmured awkwardly her dad.

She then realized that she still didn’t present herself to the teacher.

‘’ Hello Mrs. Do, I will be working hard. Please look over me for the time being!’’, exclaimed cheerfully Lee Hi with an adorable gummy smile.

It didn't feel natural for her to be this cheerful but she knew her dad was watching. Seunghyung felt a bit relieved to see his daughter adapting this quickly without asking anything in return. He was extremely grateful for this charming daughter the god’s have given him and today he appreciated her more than ever.  He shyly taped her right shoulder.

‘’ Appa will go for now but I will be back.’’, he reached for something in his pocket it was a small paper, ‘’please do call this number if anything happens to her.’’

‘’I will do! Did you perhaps write Bom’s number?’’ Seunghyung coughed uncomfortably. Chaerin understood immediately she shouldn’t have mentioned the said woman. She forced a smile.

‘’ Ah, I mean…It’s just I never really got to talk with her in a while. Did she change her number?’’

‘’She did. Chaerin let’s not do this in front of Hayi. Bom is doing fine.’’

‘’Right, she is. Just tell her I…we miss her.’’

‘’ Just take care of our Hayi.’’

Without anything else he left. Lee Hayi remembers looking up to see the expression of her new teacher and she almost seemed on the verge of crying. But she didn’t, she bite her lip and looked her in the eyes with a heartfelt smile.

‘’Let’s go sweetheart. I’m sure everyone will be happy to meet you.’’

‘’ Yah! Why don’t you talk are you too stupid to speak?’’, screamed one little girl with long brown hair, Wendy.

‘’ Oh look at me I don’t speak I’m so cool’’, mimicked another boy with a broken tooth.

The whole class laughed and everyone started to do different impressions of Hayi. Chaerin left with another little girl into their storeroom to find the equipment’s and toys they would use for the class. Since Hayi was the new girl she quickly became the center of attention. When Chaerin asked her to present herself in front of the small crowd of children. Hayi afraid stayed quiet and didn’t say a single word hiding even more behind the older woman. She was homeschooled so speaking with other people that weren't her mom or dad was almost impossible because she was so reserved. She felt like she had to stay mute, it was an obligation in her mind. The moment their teacher left, they started to ridicule her for their own amusement without holding back.

‘’ Quiet, everyone Mrs. Do is coming.’’, said one kid.

Promptly, the loud laughter’s quieted down and then everyone just smirked while watching Chaerin approach lightly with the colorful toys in her hands.

‘’ So everyone is doing well with our new adorable addition Hayi neh?’’

‘’Yes! ’’, shouted in unison the whole class.

Hayi just kept her head hung low. She was trying hard to not show her tears. But they just kept overflowing and she started to sob silently. It wasn’t an unfamiliar thing for her to keep her tears muted especially lately. Unfortunately, Wendy saw the tears dripping down her face.

‘’ Stop crying now or Mrs will see you!’’ uttered rudely the girl.

Lee Hi tried her best to not keep the tears flowing but she couldn’t stop. Wendy started to panic and without a second thought she pushed Hayi in the pool.

‘’ WENDY!’’ screamed Chaerin shocked at her action’s.

‘’She wouldn’t stop crying…I thought she would like to also drown in those tears.’’

Someone hand’s grabbed her wrist with force to take her out of the deep waters of the schools pool. She immersed from the basin with a loud gasp. Lee Hi took gently her hair out of her face.

‘’What the actual Hayi?! Are you trying to kill yourself now?’’

‘’Hanbin, let go.’’, he reinforced his grip onto her wrist and frowned while looking at her.

The blue moon was reflected on the now quiet surface of the water. Hayi looked at it for a moment without minding Hanbin. She felt the rush of going underwater once again.

‘’ Don’t just disappear in the middle of the night like that .Your dad his losing is s, it’s so bad that he actually asked me to come find you and you know he hates my guts.’’

She now looked at him with both of her brows raised.

‘’Is he…?’’

‘’You think I’d honestly be lying about stuff like this.’’, said Hanbin irritated.

Hayi went out of the water quickly. He stiffly gave her a towel with an awkward look.

‘’ You could’ve prevented me before coming out of the water like that…’’

‘’Hum?’’, was all Lee Hi said while drying her wet hair.

‘’I am still a man, you know’’

She then understood their uncomfortable situation and why he seemed so cautious of looking her in the eyes while speaking. Slowly, she lowered the towel and enveloped it around her soaked body. She rarely wore bikinis but today was one of those days. Silently, she cursed herself for doing so.

‘’ I know…anyways you can go home Hanbin. I will be swimming a little bit more.’’, murmured Hayi with a flushed embarrassed face.

‘’No, you won’t. Your dad is freaking out remember?’’, he scratched the back of his head ‘’Do you seriously want him to kill me, I never knew you were this cruel.’’

She smirked at the amusing thought.

‘’ Not funny.’’ Commented her best friend bitterly.

Her expression darkened a bit and she sat on the edge of the pool plunging her feet’s in the water again.

‘’I’m sorry, I just need to swim. It’s my only way to escape’’, explained truthfully the petite 19 years old girl.

‘’ What does it do for you? I mean swimming. How does it feel under there?’’, asked Hanbin curiously looking at the water.

‘’It feel’s suffocating but in a good way. It feels peaceful and it’s quiet just like me. I’m happy when I’m under.’’

He stayed quiet for the longest time. It wasn’t hard to understand what she meant. He knew she didn’t like to be under. She liked being able to look dead on in the eyes of death itself. Strangely enough he didn’t blame her but he certainly didn’t approve of it.

‘’I’m serious when I ask you to think before staying happy for too long next time okay?’’

‘’ And you said I was the cruel one’’, snickered Hayi.

‘’ If your happiness means that you will be dead and buried, then I’d rather have you unhappy Choi Lee Hayi.’’

‘’Do you believe in mermaids?’’, asked Hayi seriously.

Hanbin rolled his eyes and sighed heavily.

‘’Ugh, not again with that one’’, He suddenly wrapped his arms around her small frame and picked her up softly. ‘’ Time to go home, Ariel’’

‘’But…’’

‘’Do you believe in mermaids Kyungsoo?’’, said his older sister

‘’Yes!’’ screamed the cute and innocent little soo.

They both were on a deserted island. There was sand and an endless sea, nothing else was around but them. His sister was in the water while he was still on the ground. She was laughing and playing in the sea alone while he was watching her with envy and great jealousy. But he was scared, scared of the endless sea and its secrets.

‘’ Come Kyungsoo, do you want me to show you a mermaid? I saw one the other day.’’, added enthusiastically the teenage girl with an adorable giggle.

The little boy approached cautiously the waters, so cautiously. He knew better, he should’ve known better. It wasn’t long before, a mysterious series of intense growls were suddenly heard from within the sea and a multiple of grotesque creatures came out of the waters quickly. They seemed like a mix of birds and fishes with bizarre female upper bodies. Their skin was made of rough looking scales. They sang together loudly and it was truly agonizing. Kyungsoo could feel the blood dripping out of his eardrums. The creatures feasted on the innocent girl with barbaric and cannibal ways.

‘’Kyungsoooo’’, screamed his sister desperately.

One of the mermaids ferociously beheaded his loved sister in front of him.

‘’I don’t believe!’’, murmured a tortured half-asleep Kyungsoo.

The young man suddenly woke up from his horrendous nightmare gasping loudly for air. His whole body was shaking violently and he was completely drenched in sweat. He quickly realized that it was indeed another one of those dreams.

‘’ It was just a…dream.’’ He said roughly ’’…again.’’

Kyungsoo took a deep breath and jumped out of his bed a bit gauche, considering the fact that it was pitched black in his room. He almost hit his furniture multiple times but luckily he didn’t. On the way, to the bathroom he remembered the small envelope that was hidden in his drawer. He took it out slowly and afterwards he went out of his room completely. Something hit him almost immediatly, his apartment smelled like booze and mild drugs. Kyungsoo couldn’t suppress the smirk that appeared on his face. At least, he knew now that his friend had a wild and fun night for his 21th birthday. He certainly did deserve it. He walked straight to the bathroom and he opened the light. He didn’t face his reflection in the mirror just yet and he simply decided to hide the present of Jongin under his favorite hair gel for now. He took the envelope and he placed it carefully under the small green bottle that belonged to Jongin.

‘’ Now he can’t say I forgotten him.’’, half smiled Kyungsoo.

He still felt tense especially after such a powerful dream. It was the same nightmare everyday but it just seemed to get worst lately. He kept seeing the face of his deceased sister. Finally, he looked in the mirror. Kyungsoo knew how bad he looked right now; His dark black hair was messy and vicious and he had prominent dark circles under his profound chocolate eyes. Those nightmares were really getting to him. He opened the cold water and sprayed some onto his face swiftly. He needed to get it together and fast. Kyungsoo knew only one way to do so, coffee. He came out of the bathroom silently and he closed the lights with the door. He then entered the living room and everything was obviously a mess. Jongin was on the ground sleeping half with a birthday hat on his forehead and Minji was also sleeping in his arms. A bunch of soju bottles were thrown everywhere on the ground and also many plastics plates were around the now ruined living room. Kyungsoo could also see a pile of at least fifteen pizza boxes in the corner of the room and Yixing was sleeping on the couch like an idiot with his mouth wide open. He was snoring loudly. Kyungsoo sighed heavily after seeing the scene. He quietly started to clean this mess up even though the room was just enlightened by the light of the moon. Because the windows were also wide open even though the weather was freezing. After almost 2 hours of cleaning it was now 5 in the morning. He recovered all of them with blankets and he then closed slowly the window to stop the wind from coming in.

‘’ You owe me one Jongin, Happy birthday’’, said Kyungsoo to himself while looking at his best friend cuddling with Minji under the warm blanket.

He went into the kitchen with the big black plastic bag he used to put all the trash that was left from the party. He tied it and putted it in the corner of the room. He prepared a quick little black cup of coffee to help him to go to bed. He knew he was strange but caffeine never really made him more energized instead he felt more at peace after drinking it. While his coffee was warming up in the microwave, Kyungsoo noticed something unusual. The lights from the library downstairs were still open. He looked briefly at the microwave that just finished heating up his coffee. He turned his head back to where the light was still brightly open. It was obvious that Jongin forgot to close the library before going upstairs. He sighed. Frustrated, he slowly made his way down the stairs of the library. He closed the front door and turned the sign to say the place was indeed close. He was going to also close the light when he heard a light sound coming from the back of the library. Startled, he gasped at the sound but he instantly gathered enough courage to see what it was. He finally saw a cute girl sleeping on the table. Her honey blonde and brown hair was covering her whole face but he could tell she was probably around his age. Relieved, he smiled at the picture, he then went on to look at what she was reading instead. A big colorful book was open right next to her and her arm was still draping it.

‘’ The little mermaid by Disney’’, he muttered. , ‘’what a small world…’’

It was that exact same book his sister used to read to him before putting him to bed, Do Chaerin. He went into his favorite section of the library, the fantasy section and he took out a larger and heavier book. He placed it right next to her head with a little note on top of it.

‘’The little mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen, enjoy.’’, said Kyungsoo still amused by the coincidence.

He was going to go upstairs to finally drink his coffee. But he heard her sneeze quietly. He felt bad immediately. So he draped her with his blanket because he used all the extra ones they had on Jongin, Minji and Yixing.

‘’Goodnight.’’ Were his last words before he closed the lights downstairs and went in his room after having his coffee. Weirdly enough Kyungsoo slept incredibly well that night and that even without his medications.

Author's note : I have this story pretty planned out but tell me if you would prefer it longer then 20 chapters ? Because I am still not sure. Please do not forget to comment and encourage me ! It's been 2 days and already 31 subscribers . I am really happy and grateful for the interest of all of you <3 . I also have this other hisoo fic' in mind for the tag. Something really different and that has more to do with gang's obviously Topbom would also be included considering I love them so much too. Tell me if you would be interested also I might write a sequel of prequel to this if I don't go in enough details in this fic' depends. There was also a video of Bom out and about for like 13 seconds and I am sad and happy so be prepared for an intense topbom scene in the next chapter. Bom being my number bias for so long makes it very hard lately.