“We could be together forever… Isn’t this what you want for us?”

 “Of course it’s what I want! But not like this!”

“Then how?”

After her mother dropped Syrena off at G.O’s work, and after they went back together at the dorm, they spent the rest of the afternoon goofing around the apartment since they were the only ones there.

Everything was going perfectly until a little bump on the road broke out into their first fight.

They had been lying in on the couch while barely paying attention to the TV that was on as they were too preoccupied with each other. She was resting on his lap while his legs were stretched out until they were on the coffee table in front of them and was softly playing with her hair while she had her eyes closed enjoying the soothing feeling of his touch.

She slowly re-opened her eyes to look up at him and sat up where she placed her legs across his lap while leaning closer against him where he brought his arm around her shoulders. “Mhmm, much better.”

He chuckled as she snuggled closer to him and lifted her head up, placing a small peck on his collarbone. He kept gazing at her and smiled a little as he reached to her cheek before giving her a kiss.

Looking down, she stared at the little white pearl crown that he had around his wrist, leading her back to think about the day where he helped her from dying. She grazed her fingers over it and looked back up at him.

“It suits you.” She smiled making him look at the bracelet while letting out a light chuckle.

“Byunghee?”

“Mhmm?”

“Do you think that… we still would have worked out even without the legs?”

For some strange reason he could see some kind of glint of hope in her eyes and it made him curious, especially regarding the question she just asked him. “I don’t know… I never really thought about it; all that mattered to me was to be with you. Why do you ask?”

“It’s nothing… I just wish it wasn’t that hard…” Whispering the last part of her sentence, she looked back down on the bracelet with G.O looking at her with a confused look on his face, trying to understand the sudden gloominess she was feeling.

“What do you mean?”

“I-it’s nothing, just forget about it.” The moment she was getting up, he suddenly grabbed her by her wrist while standing back up on his feet. “Syrena, talk to me; what’s wrong?”

“Byunghee, I-I promise, everything’s fine -”

“Don’t lie to me; what’s the matter?”

She wasn’t capable of looking into his eyes and was only looking down while tightly gripping onto the shirt she was wearing. “Syrena, please, you’re starting to scare me.”

Hearing the distress in his voice, she still couldn’t look in his eyes but placed her hands on his shirt as she pushed herself towards him. He hesitantly wrapped his arms around her, still waiting for her to speak up.

“Byunghee… I-I don’t think I can stay any longer h-here…”

“Huh? W-what are you talking about – you’re leaving me?!”

He pulled himself away from the embrace while passing his fingers through his hair, stunned at her words. “Why do you want to leave? Aren’t you happy here?”

“Of course I am! I’m the happiest that I’ve ever been in my whole existence but-”

“But what!”

He was about to walk away when she grabbed onto his arm making him turn around to look at her, slightly hurt.

“I don’t want to leave you Byunghee, believe me but I don’t think I can stay any longer…”

“What does it mean? Did something happen? If you have to go back to your home then I’ll wait for you but don’t break up with me-”

“Byunghee, there’s a reason why I’m here and if we don’t find a way to permanently fix this then I won’t be able to stay…”

He let out a sigh, still trying to comprehend what she was trying to say to him and it was slowly getting on his nerve.

“Just spill it out! What did you do?!”

Out of fright, she took a step backwards while bringing her hands together against her chest, taken aback by his outburst. “I-I made a deal… I made a deal with the Evil Queen of the Death Valley…”

“Evil Queen? Death Valley?”

“I got into a fight with my father about you. H-he find out about us and got really mad and I ran away because I hated how he treated this like it was a joke… I got lost and that’s when she came to me…”

He took a quick glance down while letting another breath out before looking back up at her, the anger slowly dissipating. “What kind of deal did you make with her?”

She bit her bottom lip and took a seat back on the couch. “She said that I had until the next full moon to have a formal confession of you… If it doesn’t happen then… I turn back into being a mermaid and she takes away my immortality…”

“You’re immortality? But that just means that you don’t live forever, I don’t see why you’re so gloomy about it?”

The way she was looking at him gave him the answer to his own question. With his eyes wide open, the anger was slowly coming back to him realizing that he could lose her at any moment. From the living room, he ran to the kitchen until he stood in front of the calendar, looking for some kind of tiny symbol that showed the phases of the moon. “August 2^nd… that’s tomorrow!”

He turned back to Syrena who was standing at the entrance of the kitchen looking down on the floor. “You waited until now to tell me this?! Why!”

“I didn’t think we would have a problem… I thought that we would be able to win the bargain -”

“But I don’t even know what the hell I’m suppose to do! I keep telling you how much I love you and how much you changed my life, isn’t that a confession?”

“I-I don’t know… Byunghee, I’m sorry I kept this from you-”

“Why did you? I thought that you trusted me…”

“I do! Of course I do! But I… didn’t think it would be relevant… I thought that with my stay here we would be able to figure things out between each other and we did and we’ve proven that… I thought it was enough.”

“But it isn’t Syrena and I could lose you because of this! You’re already mine! I’ve proven this over and over again! What more does she want?!”

“I don’t know Byunghee! Stop yelling at me!” She understood his anger but she couldn’t deny that his outburst tugged her heart. She could feel the pain and it was starting to get to her as she felt her tears sting her eyes, ready to cry.

“Why did you even do it?”

“So I can be with you! It was the only way… My father didn’t approve of us and was pushing me to marrying someone else. I didn’t want any of this.”

“You’re engaged and you’re telling me this now?!” He stared at her waiting for an answer but all he could was her covering her hands with her face as he noticed her shoulders that were starting to shake just to hear soft sobs escaping. He let out a sigh and looked up at the ceiling before walking back to Syrena. “How the hell am I even suppose to do this? I mean… you’re my girlfriend, right? Y-you’re mine… We belong to each other… don’t we?”

She felt him pull her hands away and looked at him with her red eyes from the tears. “I want to be Byunghee and of course we belong to each other-”

“And you are! I don’t get it…”

“Byunghee… If you just say it again, o-or just do something to prove it, we could make it work. We could be together forever… Isn’t this what you want for us?”

“Of course it’s what I want! But not like this! Not at the expense of losing you if things go wrong!”

“Then how?”

He didn’t have an answer. He didn’t know what to say back and it was killing him. He felt so helpless at the moment, the emotions were becoming too much for him to handle. She had her head lifted up towards him and felt her grip onto his shirt. He knew she meant well and proven that she was willing to give up everything just for him, showed him just how much she loved him and now that he was thinking about it, he didn’t have anything to give her back.

“I’ll figure this out… Don’t worry.” He hugged her tightly against him and kissed the top of her head before hiding his face in the crook of her neck as he felt her arms wrapped around his waist pushing him closer to her.

“We belong to each other Syrena and I’ll prove it to you.”

After their little fight, things seemed to have calmed down.

One by one, the boys were back at the dorm with G.O and Syrena locked up in their bedroom, not letting go of each other as they spent the night proving their love for each other.

With the next morning, G.O walked out of the dorm knowing exactly what he had to do if he wanted to keep Syrena around. He wasn’t ready to let her go and if fighting for her life was what he had to do then he was ready for it.

Sunglasses, keys and his jacket, he quietly stepped out of the apartment while the others were still sleeping in. Jumping inside his car, he drove to his destination and once he arrived, he quickly ran inside the shop more determined than ever to fix everything.

While he was in town, down under, in the depth of the sea, someone wasn’t happy about how things were turning out.

Back in Death Valley the Evil Queen was furious about the sudden progress things were getting at and that made her take things into her own hands.

“She won’t get away with this that easily. I’ll ruin her and the rest of her stupid family!”