Baekhyun’s sigh was carried away by the salty sea breeze, lost among the repeating slish-slosh of the gently rolling waves stretching out before him. Sea foam sparkled like priceless diamonds as it formed on the roiling water, catching the spears of light thrown down by the waning sun. The indigo blue water was rapidly being turned gold as the sun struck the horizon, as if Midas himself had touched the sea to transform it into a shimmering landscape of pure golden treasure. In contrast, the sky, a tapestry of red and yellow, was being stained by the black ink that was the night, creeping slowly down from the north and bringing all the cold and loneliness with it. Truly, it was a magnificent sunset to behold, but Baekhyun could glean no joy from it. No happiness could pierce the cloak of depression he had wound about himself.

“I love you, Baekhyun!” Mi-young's sing-song voice rang in his head, every syllable like an ice-cold dagger to his fragile heart. She had fallen in love with him; how could she have not, when he himself had abandoned all his logic and reason to allow his own feelings to be laid bare? She had fallen in love with him, and he had to suffer the consequences for that- he had to break the beautiful mermaid's heart. Thus, here he was, sitting on the beach where it had all begun, running away from his problems as he always had done.

“Baekhyun, you are such a coward,” he spat under his breath, but no amount of disgust with himself could compel him to face the mermaid. Even as he contemplated it, her face flashed in his mind, as clear as the image of his own reflection in a mirror. He could see her in luxurious detail, her perfectly round face with rosy cheeks and plump lips that he so longed to kiss; those eyes as blue as the ocean she called home, swimming with passion and desire that he had inflamed; her silky, soft waves of black hair that felt like the purest velvet when he caressed it with gentle fingers; that voluptuous body, with curves in all the right places, hips that he wanted to hold and s that he wanted to feel pressed against his bare chest-

“Aggh! Stop it! Stop it!” he shouted angrily to himself and shook his head violently as if to forcibly erase the vision of the gorgeous girl like some kind of twisted Etch-a-Sketch. Tossing his head about like a dog shook a toy quickly exhausted him, however, so he flopped back in the sand with a small huff, his hands tangled into his dark hair and tugging lightly at the strands. “Stop doing this to yourself,” he chastised himself weakly, but despite his conviction the phantasm of the girl began to waltz into his vision once more. He squeezed his eyes shut, but she merely danced there in the dark; she was a beautiful nightmare than he could not escape from, his forbidden fruit that he dared not touch. Mi-young belongs in the sea, and I belong up here. I know that- so why can't I get her out of my head? He moped.

He let his arms flop down to his sides and miserably curled his fingers through the streams of fine sand, but in the next second he imagined that the soft particles were Mi-young’s luscious black waves of hair. With a groan, he hastily lifted his hands to place them on his stomach where they would not trigger his apparently overactive imagination. As he lay there, contemplating the misery that was his current situation, he heard the familiar crunching of tile on gravel. I was wondering when he was going to show up, he thought wryly as he opened his eyes and glanced over his shoulder to see Chanyeol picking his way down the beach, his hands tucked in his pants pockets and that same concerned look he always wore when he came to retrieve the moody boy from his sandy wallowing.

“What have you done this time?” Chanyeol clicked his tongue at him with a shake of the head, stopping to stand over him like a disappointed father. Baekhyun just pursed his lips, playing the perfect stubborn child, and turned his face away with a snort.

“Why do you always have to assume that I’m out here sulking? I come here to study too, you know,” he muttered, though his excuses were weak; Chanyeol knew him much better than that, and the rough nudge of his friend's tennis shoe into his ribs indicated that fact quite clearly. Unable to keep up the act, Baekhyun whined loudly and rolled onto his side, sighing deeply. “I messed up things with Mi-ypung again,” he admitted grumpily. Unsurprised, Chanyeol just tutted once more and slowly eased himself into the sand beside his friend. “… Is she upset?” he added quietly. It was stupid question; of course she was upset. She had literally told him to his face that she loved him, and he had thrown it viciously back in her face as if he didn't give a damn. The thing was, he did give a damn; in fact, he gave too many damns. He loved that girl just as deeply as she loved him- and it hurt more than anything to have to pretend that he didn't.

“Oh, yes, but not as upset as you might think,” Chanyeol shrugged, and his nonchalance about the subject caused Baekhyun’s eyebrow to creep slowly up his forehead, and in confusion he rolled back over to look up at him quizzically. “She isn't going to give up easily, you know. I think she's pretty determined to stay up here,” he revealed with a small smile.

Baekhyun's immediate reaction was sheer elation, followed by the cold rush of bitter shame. No. As much as I want it to happen, it can't. Mi-young belongs with her family… It's too dangerous for her to stay up here, he reminded himself firmly before tucking his arms behind his head and glancing up at the sky, which was now an inky sea littered with stars that shone like the many boats that sailed across the mirroring ocean below. How he wished that it was Mi-young lying beside him, the rays of starlight streaming across her smooth white skin, making her gleam like the radiant goddess she was… Stop. Stop! He begged his relentless subconscious as it continued to dream up frustratingly tantalizing images of the beautiful mermaid.

“She can’t,” he croaked hoarsely. He was just so tired- he was tired of fighting his feelings and emotions, he was tired of fighting this endless battle against what he knew what was before for Mi-young, and what his selfish heart wanted. “It's just too dangerous. It's been hell trying to keep her secret safe for three months; how on Earth could we keep it indefinitely?” he grumbled. It was maddening, following logic rather than abandoning reason and just giving himself over to his feelings like he wanted. Chanyeol, rather than patronizing him, just nodded slowly and cast his thoughtful gaze out to the glimmering ocean.

“It is a sticky situation,” he admitted with a small shrug. “You've been under a lot of stress with her constantly transforming in public… But, you've enjoyed it a lot, too. I’ve never seen you happier,” he remarked with a pointed look at him, and the casual comment with veiled implications pierced him like a sharp knife. He couldn't deny it. Mi-young was easily the sun of his life, the center of his solar system, the object that his life now revolved around. He wasn't quite sure what he was going to do once she returned to the sea; to be honest, the uncertainty frightened him. The idea of relapsing into his lackluster existence of the devoted student, pouring himself into his schoolwork and enjoying little of life, definitely left a bitter taste in his mouth. It was almost enough to make him change his mind.

Almost.

“Yeah, but I don't matter. This is all about Mi-young,” he huffed in such a tone that it was clear he had tired of the conversation; to further illustrate this point, he quickly sat up, sand falling from his back in a fine rain as he stood up and shook out his clothing. As he turned to the shore, he paused, momentarily captivated by the beauty of the ocean stretching out before him. Aside from the occasional white flash across the opaque surface that indicated a rolling wave, you could not distinguish sky from sea; it was just a black void, only marred by the blazing white fires and flickering water. On the horizon, multicolored orbs of light moseyed along, spheres of red and blue and green that bobbed in the darkness like ghostly spirits lost in the black expanse. It was not unlike the first night that he had brought Mi-young to the beach, when the fishing boats blocked their path and solidified her presence in their lives for the next three months. As he watched the distant boats drift along for their final haul, he wondered what would have happened if he had returned Mi-young immediately to the water whence she came. Would he be better for it? Or worse?

Surprisingly, he leaned toward the latter.

She's changed me, he thought as his lips curled upward into a wistful smile. I didn't even really know it until now… But she brought a joy into my life that I never thought possible. Now, that joy was going to be stripped away from him, sunk below the waves with the girl who had won his heart. “Let's go home,” he sighed to Chanyeol and turned his back on the remarkable lightshow to instead face the dull dunes of the sandy beach. As he trudged past, his best friend lightly clapped him on the back as a reassuring gesture, but there was little that could comfort the young man at the moment.

Until he watched Mi-young leave, he was going to lament her imminent departure, plain and simple.

The ride home was silent. He was grateful that Chanyeol allowed him to brood rather than endlessly attempting to cheer him up; if anything, that spoke volumes about the depth of their friendship. At the very least, it was mildly cheering to know that he, and the rest of the household as well, would have his back in the trying time that was to come. Looking back, he wasn't quite sure where his mind wandered during that car ride. It was like a blur, like he was wrapped in a dense fog of apprehension, sadness, and regret, with the mermaid drifting in and put of the mist like an elusive siren. Every time he tried to reach out grasp the divine girl, he had to force himself back, reminding himself of the danger. Though the trip was a mere fifteen minutes, Baekhyun was exhausted by the time Chanyeol pulled into the concrete driveway of their shared home. Eyes drooping, Baekhyun slithered out of the passenger seat and nimbly followed after the tall boy, rubbing his eyes and already imagining flopping down in his bed despite the fact that it was only the early hours of the evening.

When he strolled into the house, however, all the drowsiness in his system was whisked away by the wind that was Mi-young’s joyous laughter, drifting down the hallway like a diving hymn. Baekhyun jerked to attention, nearly abandoning his commitment and running to her. Somehow, he managed to keep the rickety structure that was his resolve steeled, and so stiffly crept down the hallway to peek into the room that was the source of the elated giggles. As he peered into Luhan's room, he could see that the entire population of the household was gathered around the television, screaming and yelling as they played audience for a very intense gaming tournament. Mi-young was perched cross-legged on a bean bag chair, while a screeching Luhan was on his feet desperately attempting to recover as they fought fiercely in a typical fighting game. As Luhan's character suffered an impressive K.O., the room burst into screams of delight, while Luhan hung his head in shame and defeat. D.O. grabbed Mi-young around the middle and spun her around, while she squealed and threw her arms in the air as her black hair rippled in the artificial wind. Baekhyun smiled ruefully and silently retreated, slipping off down the hall unbeknownst to his peers.

I want her to have as much fun as she can now. Seeing me will only ruin that for her, he thought as he quietly closed the door of Chanyeol's bedroom and releasing yet another depressed sigh. He was full of those these days. Positively miserable, he shuffled across the room and slumped face-first onto the bed, not even caring that his legs were hanging off as he buried his face into a pillow with a long, strangled groan.

Despite all the pain he was going through, he still could not wish that it had never happened.

Baekhyun was not sure when he fell asleep, but when he awoke, the night had deepened considerably; on the nightstand adjacent to the bed, an alarm clock brightly displayed the time as 1:24 a.m. On the floor, Chanyeol had constructed a mattress of thick blankets and was snoring softly as he slept. Perhaps because he had fallen asleep so early, Baekhyun was oddly wide awake, and no amount of tossing and turning to make himself comfortable was changing that fact; as such, he threw the comforter off himself and slipped out of the bed, treading lightly so as not to awaken his sleeping friend. He ducked out into the hallway, feeling like a ghost wandering the twilight realm as he wondered what had even possessed him to do so. By their own will, his feet carried him across the soft carpet to his bedroom, where he knew the mermaid was sleeping peacefully. Whatever demon had awakened from sleep continued its devilry, pushing the door open and carrying him into the room.

It was like he stepped into a movie.

She slept facing him, tucked neatly beneath the soft comforter. Moonlight streamed in through the window, illuminating the slumbering form of the mermaid and casting her in almost high-definition detail; even though it was dark, he could see the gentle rise and fall of her side. The almost heavenly glow made her ebony hair shine with godly light, the black strands shining silver in the gloom; similarly, her milky skin was almost purely white. All the visions that had danced in Baekhyun's head throughout the day had been realized, but those images in his mind had fallen utterly short of her unearthly beauty. It was as if an angel herself had descended onto the humble earthly plane to grace his undeserving mortal soul with her presence, and lay shining before him in all her splendor. He just stood in the doorway with his mouth slightly agape, almost unable to comprehend the scene before him. That selfish demon in him, however, spurred him onward, carrying him over to the edge of the bed so that he was standing over her. His gaze fell on her lips, her luscious, plump, delectable pink lips that glimmered in the moonlight, practically begging to be kissed. Almost without realizing it, he found himself leaning down, his eyes trained on .

Almost.

When his mind finally returned to him, his lips were mere millimeters away from hers, and before he could commit an action he could regret, he hastily straightened up as stiff as a board. Somehow, he managed to do so without waking the mermaid from her slumber. Slowly, ever so slowly, he snuck backwards out of the room and closed the door behind him, then released the breath he had been holding. Completely appalled at himself, he leaned his forehead against the smooth wood of the bedroom door, shaking his head miserably. How was it that his heart kept pulling him towards the girl, when he knew it to be wrong? I’m selfish. I’m so unbelievably selfish, he moped with a scowl as tears of frustration formed in the corners of his eyes. Wallowing in self-pity, he his heel and walked off back down the hall, climbing into the bed even though he knew that sleep would evade him for the night.

If I see her again, I just don't know if I can stop myself.