Baekhyun’s eyes fluttered open as a dull, repeated beeping rang in his ears, drawing him out of deep sleep and back into the waking world. He looked around slightly in confusion as he struggled into consciousness, looking for the source of the beeping noise; finally, he glanced at his phone to find that it was the source of the piercing beeping. Before he had drifted off to sleep, he had set an alarm for 11 p.m. With a yawn, he flipped it off, leaning his head back against the couch and exhaling deeply.

He glanced down as he felt a body shift beside him. Mi-young was still curled up against him, one hand gently clutching onto his shirt as she buried her face further into his neck. Baekhyun felt his cheeks grow incredibly warm, unsure just how he felt about the mermaid being pressed up against him. Swallowing, he gently reached up to shake her shoulder.

“Mi-young. Wake up. It’s time to go,” he whispered. The girl muttered incomprehensibly, squirming as he continued to try and wake her. After about a minute of incessant agitation, the mermaid finally raise her head and looked around sleepily.

“Mhmm?” she mumbled, blinking unintelligibly at Baekhyun. He smiled gently and brushed a stray strand of black hair from her face. “Is it time to leave?” she asked as her eyes grew clearer, and she pulled back from his to stretch her arms high above her head. Baekhyun couldn’t help but notice that the hem of her shirt raised, high enough to display quite a bit of her stomach.

“Ah, yes,” he stammered, hurriedly rising from the couch to stretch his legs. The house was silent, as all its other occupants had retired for the night. Baekhyun was incredibly grateful for this, as he could leave with the mermaid without facing incredible opposition from the rest of the household. Mi-young yawned loudly before standing up next to him, rubbing her eyes in an attempt to wake herself up. “Are you ready?” he asked, glancing down at her while he twirled his car keys around his finger.

“Yes, but aren’t we going to say good-bye to the rest of the boys?” she inquired. Baekhyun shook his head, and he felt a little guilty when her expression grew slightly sad. He recovered quickly, however, when a figure shot out of the hallway and leaped onto the couch to wrap his arms around Mi-young’s waist.

“No, Mi-young, don’t go!” Xiumin wailed, startling both the mermaid and Baekhyun considerably. Before they could react, however, the other ten boys piled out of the hallway and clustered around her, all voicing their opposition. Baekhyun’s throbbing headache returned, and he looked on with a scowl. Mi-young couldn’t focus on one of them, and was looking around with a half-embarrassed, half-pleased expression.

“I have to go!” she laughed, prying free of Xiumin’s grip. “My family misses me, and I miss them.”

“Won’t you miss us?” Suho protested.

“Of course I will,” Mi-young frowned, looking over at Baekhyun. “I’ll come visit!” she promised enthusiastically, wriggling out of the crowd of men to stand at Baekhyun’s side. The other eleven boys moped on the couch, their pouty expressions directed at their housemate. He simply sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, hustling the mermaid out of the front door before she could be given too much of a reason to hang around. The boys migrated out into the front yard, watching miserably as Mi-young buckled herself into the passenger seat and Baekhyun started the car. Mi-young waved with a sad smile as he backed out of the driveway, slowly lowering her hand as the crowd of young men disappeared around the corner.

“It’s for the best,” Baekhyun reminded her quietly. She didn’t answer him, only stared silently out the car window at the night landscape. It was incredibly different than what she had seen during the day; darkness had taken over the town, and the night sky shone brilliantly above with hundreds of twinkling stars scattered around a round full moon. Streetlamps lined the roadsides, bathing the tar in soft yellowish light where moths fluttered against the plastic light bulb covers. Not a soul was in sight, and even very few cars passed them as they drove in silence to the beach.

As Baekhyun pulled into the parking lot and stepped out of the car into the cool night air, he turned to find Mi-young still sitting in the passenger seat, staring out of the windshield to the sea beyond. It certainly did look beautiful, as it was a calm night and the stars were reflected in the water’s surface, making the sea seem to glitter as the waves rolled in and splashed against the sand. He walked around the front of the car to open the door for her, stirring her from her trance.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized quietly. “I just don’t know what I feel right now. I want to go home- but at the same time, I don’t want to.” The poor mermaid seemed incredibly perplexed by the conflicting feelings swirling inside of her, but Baekhyun had no idea how to respond. The seatbelt slid back into its holder as he reached over and clicked the release button, and he held out a hand for her. She took it silently, stepping out of the car and onto the boardwalk. She then sat down, pulling off her socks and shoes to step barefoot into the soft sand.

It was cool to the touch, and she wriggled her toes in the finite particles with a small smile. It seemed strange that once she touched the water, her legs would morph back into her mermaid tail, and she would be unable to feel such a sensation again. Baekhyun simply watched her with a blank expression, allowing her to experience as much of human life as she could before she was forced to return to the waves. He blushed slightly as she turned back to him with a sad smile and held out her hand for him to take. Reluctantly, he took it, allowing the mermaid to pull him across the sand dunes and down to the seashore. She released his hand once they arrived, standing just out of reach of the salty ocean spray.

“Are you all right, Mi-young?” he asked in concern.

“I don’t know,” she responded honestly, not turning to face him. “I didn’t imagine this would be such a hard thing to do,” she admitted. “I know I belong under the sea, but this world above the surface is more magical and amazing than I ever thought it could be. I know I’ve barely experienced all the wonderful things it has to offer, and it’s just really hard to let something like that go.” Baekhyun walked forward to stand beside her, slipping his hands into his jeans pockets as he stared out at the rolling waves with her.

“I understand. If I suddenly turned into a merman, I think I would feel that same way,” he sighed. Mi-young glanced at him with raised eyebrows.

“Really?” she asked.

“I mean, yeah. I’ve spent my entire life wanting to study the sea, but there’s only so much I can do. Humans can’t breathe underwater, and though we’ve made it to where we can do so for limited periods of time, there’s still a whole world down there that we’ve barely explored,” he explained, gesturing to the vast body of water. “If I suddenly got the chance to do that, it would be really hard for me to let that go.”

“But, you would,” Mi-young finished sadly. Baekhyun nodded, glancing over at her with a grim expression.

“Yeah, I would. My home is up here. I have a life here, family and friends here. I belong up here,” he answered, his voice pained. The strange sensation of wanting to hold on to the mermaid had returned, and he was fighting an internal struggle unlike anything he had ever faced. He wanted nothing more than to tell the mermaid that she could stay with him forever, but he knew that he would be wrong for doing so. He could not deprive the creature of her natural home. Mi-young ce more to face the glittering ocean waves, then closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. She then exhaled, and turned to smile brightly at him.

“Thank you for everything, Baekhyun,” she beamed, throwing her arms around him in a tight hug. Shocked, all he could do was hug her back. After a minute, she released him and prepared to step out into the water. “I guess I don’t need these anymore,” she frowned down at her clothes, pulling uncertainly at the fabric. Before she got the chance to strip down, however, Baekhyun grabbed her wrist, staring intently at a bright light on the horizon. It flickered red, and soon the pair noticed hundreds of other glowing lights plastered across the water, shining many hues of red and green and yellow. “What are those?” Mi-young whispered to him.

“Fishing boats,” he responded darkly. Sure enough, as they continued to stare at the horizon, their lumbering forms became illuminated against the glowing sky. Floodlights spilled across the water, casting bright white lights on the small vessels floating closer to the mainland. Mi-young watched in horror as a few brought up their massive nets, and she could imagine the helpless fish struggling inside, suffocating and frightened. Mermaids knew of the dangers of fishing boats, and Mi-young knew of many a merman and mermaid who had been injured after becoming tangled in the thin fishing wire, or had perished by becoming ensnared in the many discarded nets and traps that littered the sandy ocean floor.

“I-I can make it,” she said firmly, mustering her courage. Baekhyun, however, grabbed her tightly around the arm, whipping her around to face him. He suddenly looked incredibly angry.

“Mi-young! That’s suicide! Those nets and lines reach all the way to the ocean floor. It would be like swimming through a minefield! There’s no way you’ll make it, and no way that I’ll let you try!” he yelled, both hands gripping her forearms and shaking her emphatically. Tears rose to the mermaid’s eyes, and he suddenly released her, terrified that he had frightened the mermaid with his excessive reaction. “Mi-young… I’m sorry,” he began, but she turned away from him and buried her face in her hands.

“It’s not you, Baekhyun,” she whispered miserably. “I just… What am I going to do? My family must be worried sick, and you’re right, I don’t belong up here. I don’t know anything about the human world,” she fretted. Baekhyun reached up to gently pull her hands away from her face, cupping her cheeks in his hands.

“Don’t cry,” he murmured, wiping away her tears with his thumbs. “I won’t let anything happen to you,” he promised. “The Daeyang fishing season lasts two months. You can stay with me until it’s over. Your family won’t be able to get anywhere close as long as the fishing boats are here, and even though they’ll be worried, this is just the situation that we’re in right now. As long as you are up here, I’ll take care of you. I promise,” he swore. Mi-young sniffled before he pulled her into a hug, allowing her to bury her face into him and sob. He imagined that it must be terrible, being barred from your home because of things that you can’t control, and he was sure that Mi-young felt some measure of guilt for venturing irresponsibly to the surface in the first place. He gently her hair as she wept, quietly watching as the fishing boats trawled across the waves; he could imagine their lines snaking through the water, trapping helpless wildlife in its thin webs. He cringed as he suddenly imagined Mi-young tangled in the line, thrashing helplessly, and he squeezed the girl tighter.

They remained there, standing beside the rolling waves, for a good long while before Mi-young was finally finished crying. She pulled away from him with lingering sniffles, attempted to smile through the tears.

“What would I do without you?” she laughed, wiping at her eyes. Baekhyun smirked at her and reached out to gently ruffle her hair, much to her annoyance.

“I don’t know. You’re a pretty ditzy mermaid,” he mused. Mi-young shoved him roughly in the arm, unamused, and he cried out as he tripped over his own feet and landed on his in the surf. He groaned as he stood up, the back of his pants dripping wet, while Mi-young began laughing. He then grabbed a handful of mud and threw it at her, grinning stupidly. It splattered across the front of her shirt with a resounding slap. The mermaid gasped loudly, looking betrayed, before grabbing a handful of sand and darting forward to drop it into his hair. Baekhyun began chasing her up and down the beach with another handful of mud, eventually catching up with her and dropping it down the back of her shirt. She squealed and wriggled around as the viscous substance slid down her skin, and she tripped Baekhyun so he landed on his back in the sand. Baekhyun grabbed her arm as she tried to run away, and she screamed as she dropped down on top of him. He cried oof as the air was forced from his lungs.

“Sorry, even though it’s your fault,” she giggled breathlessly. She was sitting on top of him, just above his waist, and Baekhyun felt as if his face was on fire. God, she’s so cute and innocent, he thought as he suppressed a groan, trying to seem unperturbed. His gaze fell on her, and her marveled the mermaid’s stunning beauty. The moonlight gave her an ethereal quality, as her skin seemed to glow and her hair seemed to shine, and starlight glittered in her blue eyes as she stared down at him in confusion. “Baekhyun? What is it?” she asked curiously as she leaned close to him. His breath caught in his throat as she drew closer, and he dug his fingers into the sand.

“N-nothing. You’re just pretty,” he blurted, immediately regretting it. Mi-young didn’t seem to mind; in fact, she seemed quite flattered, tossing her hair with an embarrassed smile.

“Y-You think so?” she asked, and Baekhyun swore that she was blushing.

“Yeah. Very much,” he answered honestly. Satisfied, the mermaid sat up a little straighter, and Baekhyun continued to have the internal argument with himself on whether to tell her to get off or to allow her to remain sitting on top of him. Eventually he caught sight of his watch, glowing with a dim green light as it read 11:45. “It’s getting late,” he commented nonchalantly. The other side of him complained loudly as the mermaid stood up, allowing him to rise to his feet.

“I suppose we should be getting home then,” she sighed, taking one last glance at the water. Baekhyun brushed sand off his back as best he could, watching her with a slightly sad expression. She turned back to him with a smile, bouncing over to him. “I can’t believe it! I’m going to be in the human world for two months!” She seemed to have pushed aside her sadness, at least for the time being.

If I survive that long… Baekhyun thought as he led her back to the car.