Baekhyun flipped on the bathroom light as he walked into the small room, setting the paper bag on the edge of the sink. Mi-young brushed past him and plopped down on the toilet, swinging her legs as she smiled happily at him. He blushed slightly under her gaze, coughed uncomfortably, and then narrowed his eyes as he spotted the pile of unrolled toilet paper beside Mi-young’s feet. She glanced down guiltily, but he merely pinched the bridge of his nose and waved a hand.

“All right. I’m going to wait on you outside,” he sighed before exiting the room. After he left, Mi-young blinked and hopped off of the toilet seat to peer into the paper bag. She pulled out the lacy article from earlier and examined it thoroughly, unsure of quite what to do with it; then, with a shrug, she pulled it over her hair. She searched through the bag for a minute before pulling out an article similar to what Baekhyun was wearing, and sat down on the floor as she struggled to pull them over her legs. Once she managed to get them on, she hopped up and rifled through the bag once more. She found a pair of small articles, and she slipped them onto her hands; she fancied them, as they kept her fingers cozy and warm. She also found a strange garment with shell-like attachments held together by string, and she clipped it around herself like a belt. Finally, she pulled out something to cover her chest, but while she was attempting to pull it on, her head got stuck.

Meanwhile, Baekhyun was waiting impatiently outside, examining his fingernails with boredom. I wonder if she even knows how to dress herself, he thought suddenly with a small frown, then jumped as a distressed wail drifted from the bathroom.

“Baekhyun!” Mi-young whined. He hurriedly threw the door open, nearly knocking the mermaid off of her feet as she waddled around, her arms and head tangled in a cotton shirt. He almost doubled over in laughter, clutching his stomach as he kicked the door shut behind him and leaned against it for support. “It’s not funny!” she pouted through the thick fabric, continuing to turn this way and that since her vision was eclipsed by the shirt.

“I’m sorry,” he chuckled, walking over to gently take her by the shoulders and steady her. He slowly teased the shirt off of her, trying to avoid accidentally yanking a strand of her hair, and when he had finally removed it she glanced up at him with a frown.

“I did this all wrong, didn’t I?” she asked as she glanced down at herself. Still laughing, all Baekhyun could do was nod. She had wrapped a bra around her waist like a belt, had sock on her hands like mittens, a pair of underwear on her head like a hat, and had managed to put a pair of pants on, only backwards. With a heavy sigh, she began stripping the clothing articles off, and when she sat down on the floor and pulled off her pants, Baekhyun grew bright red and released something eerily reminiscent of a pterodactyl screech. He had forgotten that she had been from the waist-down.

“Let’s just take this slow,” he sighed as he stared up at the ceiling, his face burning with embarrassment. He pulled a pair of underwear from the bag and held them out to her, taking a deep breath. “Okay. These are underwear. You wear them under your clothes to, ah, hide your private parts.” He explained. “See the tag in the back? That goes… Well, in the back.” God, this is so embarrassing, he thought miserably as the mermaid took the clothing article from him and slipped them up her legs. Once she had done so, it was mildly tolerable to look down at her now, but his face was still a bright shade of red. Mi-young pulled at the elastic band with a slight frown.

“Humans are oddly protective of their private parts,” she commented. Baekhyun ran a hand over his face and picked up the bra that Mi-young had discarded onto the floor.

“This is a bra. Women wear them to cover their chests, kind of like the thing you have on now,” he explained. The mermaid’s eyes brightened with recognition, and she grabbed the undergarment from him.

“Oh! I see!” she cried, and Baekhyun hurriedly turned his back just before the girl shed her silky mermaid top. It landed on his shoulder as she tossed it aside, and he rolled his eyes with a small groan. “Baekhyun? I can’t do the little contraption in the back,” Mi-young called after a minute, and he shrugged off the silky shirt to turn and face her. She had both ends of the clip in her fingers and was pulling at the elastic, struggling to get the ends to meet properly. With an embarrassed smile, he gently took the ends from her and fastened the clip. “Do I have to wear this? It’s uncomfortable,” she whined, grabbing the cups in her hands and bouncing them a little. Baekhyun tried not to faint.

“Yes, Mi-young,” he replied tiredly, grabbing the pair of jeans from the floor and motioning for her to sit down. She flopped down on the tile floor as instructed, and Baekhyun crouched down in front of her. “All right, now these are pants. They cover your legs. You had them on right the first time, only you had them on backwards.” Mi-young nodded and pulled the jeans over herself, fiddling with the clasp and zipper for a while before finally managing to close them. She smiled triumphantly at Baekhyun, and he couldn’t help but chuckle.

“What’s this thing?” Mi-young asked as she held up the shirt she had been endeavoring to put on when she called him for help.

“It’s called a shirt. See this big opening? That’s where your head goes, and your arms go in the small ones,” he explained, slipping the shirt over her. Her black-haired head popped through the opening, and she slipped her arms through the holes in the sides with little struggle.

“What’s this fluffy thing?” she inquired, pointing at the illustration of a puppy on the front.

“It’s a type of animal we have on the surface. It’s called a puppy, which is a baby dog. They’re popular pets, and are considered quite cute,” he answered. “Do mermaids keep pets?” he asked as he sat down and pulled Mi-young’s legs forward to put socks on her feet.

“Dolphins, mostly, but more adventurous merpeople keep sharks. Children often have small crustaceans and slugs or snails,” she answered, wiggling her toes as Baekhyun tried to pull the soft socks onto her feet.

“Humans keep fish for pets, too,” he mused, and Mi-young’s mouth fell open in shock at the sudden revelation. With a small grunt, Baekhyun dragged himself to his feet and held out a hand for her. She took it shyly, and with little effort he pulled her to her feet. He opened the bathroom door, but the mermaid paused in front of the mirror, captivated by her reflection. She reached out to touch the smooth surface of the glass, frowning in confusion when she found that it was solid.

“What is this? It reflects like water, but it isn’t,” she asked. Baekhyun placed his hands in his pockets.

“It’s called a mirror. It’s glass that has the property to reflect things,” he answered. “Do you know what glass is?”

“Isn’t it the solid substance that makes up the windows in boats? We find it on the sunken ships sometimes. It’s very shiny and sparkly, so we use it to decorate things. We learned the name from observing humans,” she replied, then raised her eyebrows mischievously. “We aren’t supposed to observe humans, though.” She turned back to her reflection. “I look just like a human,” she remarked, almost in awe at the transformation.

“That you do. Come on, soon it will be late enough for us to return to the beach and get you home,” he smiled, gesturing for her to follow him as he walked out of the bathroom. Mi-young followed obediently, enjoying the feeling of the soft socks on her feet as she walked into the living room. With a tired sigh, Baekhyun flopped down onto the couch, and after hesitating for a moment, Mi-young took a seat beside him.

“Aw, Mi-young! Don’t you look cute!” came a cry from behind her, and the mermaid turned to see Suho and Sehun on either side of her behind the couch.

“Yes! It’s a puppy,” she smiled, pointing down at the shirt.

“You remember puppies?” Sehun asked.

“No. Baekhyun told me what it was,” she answered honestly, and Suho laughed.

“Well, wait until you see a real one. They’re a hundred times cuter,” he mused.

“Not nearly as cute as you, though!” Sehun chimed. Throughout the entire conversation, Baekhyun was simply lying back with the back of his head leaned against the couch and his eyes closed, his expression slowly deepening into a heavy frown. Finally, he cracked an eye open slightly to glare at the pair of roommates.

“Come on, guys, don’t you have something better to do?” he growled.

“Baekhyun, don’t hog the pretty girl,” Chanyeol scolded as he walked into the living room and plopped onto the couch beside him, munching on an open bag of chips. Mi-young stared intensely at the bag in his hand until he tilted the open end toward her, and her hand shot into the bag like an eel strikes unwary prey, retreating with a handful of the paper-thin snacks. She munched on them happily, awaiting Baekhyun’s response.

“I’m not hogging her,” he retorted hotly, a blush rising to his fair cheeks. “I just don’t think she appreciates being slobbered over like she was a piece of meat,” he added with a mumble, crossing his arms and glaring angrily at the wall.

“Aw, Baekhyun, are you jealous?” Kris teased, appearing behind him and ruffling his housemate’s hair roughly. Baekhyun squirmed under the gesture, hurriedly fixing his hair when the tall boy was finished poking fun at him.

“Of course I’m not jealous!” he whined. Mi-young frowned slightly, continuing to nibble at her chips. For some reason, she was slightly sad at Baekhyun’s insistence; some part of her, she supposed, would have liked for him to be envious. “I just have respect for women, you know?”

“We have plenty of respect for women. We respect Mi-young enough to let her know how cute she is,” D.O. chimed as he flopped down in the loveseat, propping his feet up on the coffee table and placing his hands behind his head.

I wish Baekhyun would call me cute… Mi-young frowned.

“That’s harassment,” Baekhyun retorted with a snort, highly displeased with all the resistance he was meeting from his housemates. His head was pounding, and all he wanted to do was sit in silence for the short while that remained before he had to drive Mi-young back to the beach. After that, maybe they’ll stop giving me hell, he thought bitterly, glancing at the mermaid. He was surprised to see a trace of sadness within her expression as she popped another chip into , chewing it slowly. “Mi-Young? Are you okay?” he asked. The girl jumped at his sudden inquiry.

“Oh! Yes, I’m fine! Just eager to find my family,” she responded. It seemed like a likely enough response, but to Baekhyun’s chagrin this caused more of the boys to flock into the room in an attempt to cheer the blue mermaid up.

“Aw, Mi-young, I’m sure you’ll find your family!” Tao cried, popping up beside Suho.

“I’m sure you miss them a lot,” Lay frowned, leaned against the wall with his arms crossed.

“Hopefully they’ve noticed you’re gone,” Luhan added, sitting at the kitchen table with a handheld gaming device in his hand. Mi-young frowned at his comment. Have they noticed I’m gone? She thought, and the possibility that they hadn’t made her sadder.

“Luhan, you idiot! You made her sadder!” Xiumin shouted, grabbing one of the couch cushions and throwing it roughly at the back of the gamer’s head.

“Don’t be sad, Mi-young. I’m sure they’re looking for you,” Chen reassured as he ducked to avoid a second projectile, a soda bottle that Luhan had snatched from the kitchen counter and aimed at Xiumin. It whacked him in the forehead, sending the boy stumbling back into the couch. He flipped over it, landing in the small space between Baekhyun and Chanyeol. At this point, Baekhyun snapped.

“Guys! I have a headache! Can you not?” he shouted angrily, and the eleven boys made a hasty retreat, skulking away like a pack of wounded dogs. Baekhyun exhaled deeply, massaging his forehead as his brain attacked his skull with a tiny sledgehammer.

“… Baekhyun?” Mi-young asked timidly after a period of silence.

“Hmm?” he sighed, keeping his eyes closed.

“Thank you.” At this, Baekhyun opened his eyes to turn and face her with a befuddled expression. “For saving me, I mean. If it weren’t for you, who knows what would have happened. I know I’ve been a burden to you, so I wanted to thank you for putting up with me.” Baekhyun smiled softly, feeling a pang of guilt for making the mermaid feel cumbersome.

“Mi-young, you don’t have to thank me for that. You haven’t been a burden,” he reassured, glancing at his watch. It was almost ten o’clock; the beach closed for the night at ten-thirty.

“But you’ve done all these things for me,” she protested. “You lied for me, you bought me clothes, you put up with your friends…”

“Mi-young, I did all those things because I wanted to, so you were safe and comfortable. Don’t feel bad,” he refuted, closing his eyes once more. The headache was fading away, reduced to a dull throbbing.

Suddenly, he felt the mermaid shift on the couch, and glanced down to see her settle her head on his shoulder and close her eyes. Apparently, a sudden wave of exhaustion had struck her, and she had curled up against him to catch a brief nap. She had already fallen asleep, as she was breathing slowly and deeply. With a small smile, Baekhyun reached down to gently run his fingers through her pretty black hair. She truly was beautiful.

Suddenly, Baekhyun was unsure whether he really wanted the mermaid to leave. It felt good, really good, to have her body curled up against him, and watching her as she slept peacefully beside him. The experiences of the day no longer seemed annoying, but rather fun. He knew in his heart that she belonged in the sea, with her kind, but selfishness had taken over, and he wanted the gorgeous creature all to himself.

“Sorry, Mi-young,” he whispered aloud, almost ashamed at the selfish notion. “Don’t you worry. You’ll be back with your family soon.”