As Baekhyun drove out of the parking lot, Mi-young’s anxiety seemed to fade and she straightened up to stare eagerly out of the window. She seemed amazed at the scenery speeding by, and marveled the towering casinos of the approaching downtown strip. The buildings towered above the street, shining in hues of purples and reds and golds that beckoned any passersby to enter the building and experience an unforgettably fun experience. Small bars were crammed into the alleyways between, their windows darkened as they waited for the night to begin, when the night crowd would descend onto the streets for dancing and partying of the highest degree. The gilded signs glistened in the sun, and the reflections danced in the fascinated mermaid’s blue eyes as she looked this way and that, gasping at the sheer amount of people contained on the pristine sidewalks as they walked from casino to bar and back. Indeed, there was a sizeable crowd that consisted of all types, from regal businessmen attempting to test their luck to fashionable women having a day on the town to doting mothers dragging their children to eat in the high-end restaurants within the casinos. The other cars, putt-putting by as they made their way down the wide streets, seemed to intrigue her as well, and she turned to Baekhyun to inquire about the mysterious machines.

“Baekhyun? Is this a ship?” she asked eagerly. He frowned slightly and cocked his head to the side, struggling to answer the question in a way that the mermaid could understand with her limited knowledge of the human world.

“I suppose. It’s a small ship that can move on land,” he explained simply. The mermaid seemed to grasp the concept and pointed to the buildings outside.

“Is that what you humans live in? Those giant coral structures?” she inquired. Baekhyun decided that trying to explain that the buildings were not composed of coral was an undertaking too massive to attempt.

“Yes and no. Some of them serve different functions. Some places we get food, others we get clothes, and others are for entertainment,” he answered. She nodded sagely and turned back to the view, her eyes eagerly absorbing as much information as they could. Eventually Baekhyun entered the residential side of Daeyang, completely with picturesque homesteads with neat, clean yards and well-kept roads. Cars were parked in their driveways, and children ran around in the front yards while mothers and babysitters kept a watchful eye from the window or the front porch, dutifully cleaning or working. Small trees lined the sidewalks, their leaves shimmering green in the summer sun with small flowers blooming among the greenery. Here and there a jogger would trot down the street with earphones jangling as they ran to the music, or a young child walked their dog and struggled to avoid being pulled along by the pet larger than themselves. Old men and women lounged in porch chairs, gently rocking back and forth as they enjoyed the summer haze or slept deeply, lulled to sleep by the warm weather.

“I had no idea that human cities were so large and populated!” she gasped. “Surely there must be hundreds- no, thousands of these structures in this city!”

“Mermaids have cities?” Baekhyun asked in curiosity, glanced over at her as he paused the car at a stop sign.

“We do! They’re a lot like yours, with living structures made of coral or rock. Does your city have a queen as well?” she asked. So mermaids have a matriarchy? That’s interesting, Baekhyun thought as he shook his head.

“No, humans don’t have queens. We govern ourselves, mostly. Lots and lots of cities are all governed under the same ruling system,” he answered. This seemed too much for Mi-young to comprehend, as her eyebrows were knit together in confusion as she struggled to wrap her mind around the notion. She asked no more after that, and it was shortly thereafter that Baekhyun parked his car into the driveway of his home. Mi-young hopped out of the car to analyze the building. It was a fairly large structure, with three floors and ringed by a network of trimmed shrubbery. The yard was freshly cut, and a large tree towered against the side of the house, its leafy branches obscuring some of the windows and casting shade over the entire front yard. The driveway was long and wound around the house, allowing room for several vehicles. This was ideal, as Baekhyun shared his home with eleven other boys, including Chanyeol.

“This is such a large house! You live by yourself?” she asked as she followed him to the front door. She stared over his arm as he unlocked the door, obviously fascinated as he inserting the key into the lock and activated the tumbler system. He pushed the door open and allowed her to step inside and explore the living room.

It was simple, with a couch and a coffee table and a flat-screen television. A side table with a lamp was situated in the corner, and a ceiling fan swirled on the ceiling, blowing cool air down as warm air rushed in from the door. The floor was carpeted with a plush, white material that cushioned the feet, and the walls were painted a spring green. Overall, it was a cheery atmosphere that Baekhyun enjoyed.

“I live here with my friends,” he replied, closing the door behind him. Mi-young was gravitating from place to place, poking the couch, touching the curtains, and knocking on the television. He motioned for her to sit down on the couch, and she did so, bouncing up and down on the cushiony surface. “Now, Mi-young. I need you to stay here,” he instructed.

“You’re going to leave me here alone?” she gasped, her expression growing immensely worried. “What if your friends come home?” She grabbed one of the couch pillows and clutched it for comfort, finding reassurance in the soft material.

“Chanyeol should get here before them, but if they do, just tell them this,” he answered. “Tell them that I found you unconscious on the beach and took you to the hospital. The doctor diagnosed you with amnesia, and since no one claimed you, I brought you home. Then, I went to get you some clothes.” After making Mi-young repeat it several times, he was satisfied with her memory and decided that he was safe to leave. “Don’t touch anything, all right? There are a lot of things that you are unfamiliar with here, and I don’t want to risk you hurting yourself,” he instructed carefully. Mi-young nodded and set a determined look on her face, as if steeling herself to control her immense curiosity. Even before Baekhyun took a step he noticed her fidgeting, eyeing the marvelous human artifacts strewn throughout the room. “Don’t touch anything,” he reminded her as he stepped out the door. As he locked it behind him, he tilted his head back and prayed that nothing eventful would occur before he returned. He paused in the window, gazing at Mi-young through the glass.

She truly was beautiful, with her silky black hair and shining blue eyes. She was most definitely the most beautiful woman that he had ever clapped eyes on, and it seemed surreal that he, just a simple college student, would possess the fortune to be in her presence, let alone have her essentially at his mercy. Baekhyun suddenly shivered as he realized that he had basically brought a girl home. It was not that he had never done so before, but it had actually been quite a long time since he had actually done so. He and his eleven housemates had attempted relationships before, naturally, but they never seemed to work out, and so they had more or less given up all hope. College girls were frightening creatures, jealous to the core and insatiably needy. All the girls that Baekhyun had dated seemed to be, anyway, and he had elected to wait until he had graduated to find himself a confident, independent woman who appreciated his intellect rather than his wallet.

With an unsure glance at Mi-young, sitting patiently on the couch while she waited for Baekhyun to return from his mission, he sighed and got into his car. He sat in the driver’s seat for a moment, drumming his hand on the steering wheel, deciding on where to go. He had no idea what Mi-young’s size would be, as he had little knowledge of women’s sizing and knew for a fact that Mi-young could provide little relief to his predicament. Obviously, regular clothing stores were out of the question, as it would be lunacy to play full price for clothing articles that would be unlikely to fit. As such, he flipped his vehicle into drive and then backed out of the driveway to commute to the nearest second-hand store.

He finally spotted one in the shadier district of Daeyang, a downtrodden network of bumpy roads that was frequented by the less desirable members of society. It was a rundown building, with abhorrent blue paint peeling from the dirty siding and a half-attached sign swaying in the summer breeze. It looked more like a shady hangout than a store, and he hesitated to pull into the lot. However, he reminded himself that he needed to find Mi-young something before his housemates arrived home and could pester her with too many questions. Baekhyun could see no other customers within sight as he parked in the uneven gravel parking lot in the back of the building. As he stepped out, a black cat hissed at him from its perch on a windowsill, and he regarded it as an omen of bad luck. He seriously considered speeding back to the house, carting the mermaid back to the beach, and throwing her into the waves whether there were witnesses or not, but he quickly pushed aside the notion on account of him being unnecessarily paranoid.

He rounded the building, occasionally slipping on the loose gravel before arriving to the porch attached to the storefront. It was crudely painted white, but much of the paint had chipped away to reveal dirty, rotting wood. He carefully made his way up the steps, terrified by the loud groaning noise that arose with every step, before hurriedly rushing into the store. A bell rang as he opened the glass door, signaling his arrival to the old woman sweeping the wooden floors between the racks of donated clothing lined up in the store. She regarded him with a sniff and a glare before returning to her duties, sweeping dust along the ground as she made her way to the back. Baekhyun placed his hands in his pockets before walking alongside the racks.

Despite its dilapidated appearance, the store featured quite a selection of clothes, and even possessed a few marked-down designer items. He perused the racks, rifling through everything from shirts to dresses to pants to shoes. He did his best despite being unsure of the woman’s sizing, and accumulated quite a handful of the donated articles before pausing in front of the most dreadful part of the venture. He was staring at a cardboard box neatly placed on a table against the wall, filled to the brim with women’s underwear.

Something about women’s underwear had always unnerved Baekhyun. He found bras incredibly hard to operate, and always wondered the function of thongs. They seemed incredibly uncomfortable to him, and could not fathom why on Earth a woman would subject herself to such lengths to appear y. Baekhyun didn’t factor clothes into a woman’s iness, and his past girlfriends had always been unappreciative of this notion, disappointed when their attempts to dress scantily yielded no reaction from Baekhyun except confusion. Suddenly he imagined beautiful Mi-young dressed scantily, and his face went so red that the old woman, who had taken her spot at the counter, asked him if he would like her to turn on the ceiling fan to abate the hot summer heat. Chasing the scandalous image from his mind, he hurriedly plunged into the cardboard box of cursed undergarments. He managed to acquire a few comfortable-looking sets, and breathed a little easier as he retreated from the nightmarish box and finally approached the counter.

“Buying for your girlfriend?” the old woman asked, regarding the pile of clothing with slight contempt. It seemed that the woman thought ill of him for shopping at a secondhand store for his girlfriend, and he hurriedly shook his head in refusal to dispel the ridiculous notion.

“No, ma’am,” he answered honestly. “I have a friend who fell into some trouble, and I’m simply helping her out. She’s the type of person who would feel guilty if I spent too much money on her,” he lied. Baekhyun realized that he had been lying quite a lot for it being so early in the day, and he grew incredibly uncomfortable at the fact.

“Well, aren’t you sweet,” the woman jeered before taking the clothing articles and ringing them up on the cash register. It was an ancient thing, without an electric scanner, and so the woman had to manually type in each of the prices. Baekhyun felt time ticking away and grew increasingly anxious, shifting his weight from one foot to the other and tapping his fingers impatiently on the side of his legs as he waited for the old woman to finish ringing up his purchase. Finally, the woman finished and he hurriedly handed her a stack of cash, bidding her to keep the change. However, she halted him as he attempted to leave by insisting that she load the articles into a bag, and Baekhyun was nearly mad with anxiety by the time she neatly folded each item and placed it into a paper bag.

“Thank you, ma’am. Have a nice day!” he cried as he raced out of the door and to his car. His shaking hand fumbled with the keys as he struggled to unlock the car. He could not shake the notion that his housemates had stumbled across Mi-young, and the poor mermaid was subjected to their interrogations. What if she lets it slip? What if one of those fools puts it on the Internet? Will the government come for me? Mi-young will be put in a zoo, and maybe I’ll be exiled or something! What if they try to hit on her? … Wait, Baekhyun, that’s not important! he thought anxiously as he threw the paper bag into the passenger seat and started his car. As he went to close the driver side door, the black cat strolled by and meowed at him, its tail flicking and its eyes flashing as if to say, “Haha, you’ve gotten yourself into a mess!”

I am in a mess, thought Baekhyun as he slammed the door and careened out of the parking lot to speed home. What Baekhyun didn’t realize is that his life was about to get a whole lot messier. He was about to entire a whole new world, drastically different from his monotonous, simple life.