Back up at the surface, the wait was agonizing.

Syrena’s mother was able to call out to the King, alerting him about the danger their daughter was in at the moment and since then, more than five hours have passed without any sign.

Was it good news or bad, they didn’t know.

The sun was getting back up for a new day and it was at that moment that some sound coming from the water caught the three people’s attention as they looked up.

“Oh God…”

The mother quickly ran towards the two figures that were swimming back towards the land with Seungho and G.O waiting behind her. As the two figures got closer, they noticed someone familiar on one of their backs, holding onto the body.

“Syrena!”

Immediately recognizing her, G.O ran towards her, ignoring the fact that he was running into the water, and grabbed onto her body, lifting her in his arms. He walked out of the water and once he was on land, he sat down, still holding onto her limp body as he tried to wake her up.  

“Come on, wake up… Wake up Syrena, I know you can hear me! Wake up! Please!”

Over and over again he was calling her name but got nothing as a response slowly bringing him to a complete breakdown. The people that were present were watching him with a heavy heart until another sound by the water made them turned around.

“Where is she?”

G.O looked up to see an older man with a trident in his hands swimming towards them. By instinct, he brought Syrena closer to him, trying to protect her from who ever the stranger was.

“Don’t worry human, I’m her father. I mean no harm.”

“C-can you save her?” He could barely keep his voice from shaking with the tears staining his cheeks but couldn’t help it when he knows that she wasn’t going to wake up anymore.

“Luckily I can, because she isn’t dead yet. But… I don’t want you to see her ever again.”

“What?!”

“You heard me. Because of you, my only daughter is dying and I’m not going to let a mere human like you destroy her -”

“Destroy her?! It’s your fault she is like this! If you had just listened to what she had to say, none of this would’ve happened!”

“Are you accusing me of harming my own daughter?!”

“YES!”

The mother stepped right in between them before things got any worse. She looked at the King with a disapproval look on her face making him sigh in annoyance. “Syrena is happy here, I’ve seen it and it’s all because of that boy. Do you want to take this away from her? She ran away because of this, don’t make the same mistake twice.”

“I’ve already lost you to this human world; I can’t lose her too…”

“You won’t, and you never lost me; I’m still here, aren’t I? If you had lost me then we wouldn’t be here right now.”

Sighing once again, he took another look at Syrena who was still embraced in G.O’s arms, waiting to be saved. Despite the woman’s words, he still couldn’t give up on letting his daughter go; she was all that he had left and simply decided to act out selfishly. He needed to bring her back to where she belonged: in the water.

“Bring her tail to the water.”

G.O did as he was told and let Syrena’s tail float on the water leaving her upper body leaned against his chest. As he backed away, the father stretched out his trident and pointed it on the surface letting the ripples of the water float towards the mermaid. Everybody was so focused on seeing the results with their eyes set on the mermaid, they didn’t realize that the trident was a mere inch over the surface of the water, letting the ripples fade away.

“It looks like we’re too late.”

From the ground, G.O shot his head up finding himself in complete shock. “You’re lying! You haven’t even tried long enough!-”

“The trident has absolute power only on the living. Nothing can bring things back from the dead. Don’t you dare say that I haven’t tried.”

G.O tightly held Syrena in his arms, placing her face in the crook of his neck while wrapping his arms around her, lightly swinging his body while crying out his loss. “I-it can’t be – she c-can’t be dead. Please, you promised you wouldn’t leave me; Syrena, don’t l-leave me… I love you so much.”

The scene was too heartbreaking for the witnesses to watch and one by one, were walking back, giving space to the young boy. “Syrena, wake up. You can’t leave me here – I need you; I love you so much, so, so much. You can’t leave now, I found out what we needed to fix this but I need you to open your eyes, your beautiful eyes; I-I need you to say yes to me; Syrena, pl-please…”

He hid his face into her neck, still not ready to let go of her.

As fort he father, he was already swimming away when he felt a tugging pain inside his heart while hearing the hurt voice of the boy. He turned around with sad eyes watching the scene that was going on. ‘She was singing because of him… Because of that boy, my little girl is in love…’

He gazed at the woman he once called his wife and sighed, feeling defeated.

He stretched out the tip of the trident back on the surface of the water and let the magic run its course as the ripples were glowing back towards Syrena, healing her from almost dying. Once the glow faded away, he quietly dived back into the water and disappeared, not able to face the sudden loss.

A faint breath tickling his neck, G.O pulled away from her neck to look down her chest and see it slowly moving, signaling that she was starting to breathe again. A sigh of relief escaped his throat and cupped Syrena’s cheek when he saw that she was opening her eyes. Tears were still running down his cheeks as he felt slightly confused on whether he was dreaming or if Syrena was really waking up.

“S-Syrena?”

A cough escaped with her tale wagging in the water. Having her eyes fully open, she saw G.O’s face right above her and showed him a faint smile making him chuckle. “Hey love~”

She stretched out her arm to have her hand on his cheek making him lean further against her palm as she was wiping the tears away. “You scared me, I thought I was going to lose you-”

“You can’t get rid of me that easily… but, I’m sorry I worried you…” She was about to go on when she felt something on her tail. Looking down, her tail disappeared only to be replaced by the set of legs she had, letting both of them in shock. “B-but how?”

“It’s your father... I guess he’s letting you go.” Hearing her mother, they both turned around to see the woman walking back towards them and crouched by her daughter’s side as she gently her hair. “How are you feeling?”

“I don’t know… It’s hard to tell…”

She turned to look at G.O who had his eyes on Syrena, not able to look away. “Take care of her for us, okay?” He heard her words and smiled, locking eyes with Syrena. “Always.”

Satisfied, she got up and bid goodbye for the last time before walking away, leaving the couple to where they were with Seungho still waiting by the car.

“How about we go home?”

“Home?”

“Mhmm.”

“I’d love too.” She smiled at him as he took off his shirt to cover her up and lifted her in his arms while he walked to the car where they climbed in and drove back to the dorm.

One Week Later

Ever since the kidnapping, things were starting to calm down.

No more problems were in the way and everything was right back where it belong.

As for today, Syrena decided to pay a little visit to her father since she wasn’t able to see him ever since he saved her.

With G.O dropping her off by the Han River, she walked until she was right under the bridge and patiently waited for him, hoping that he would show up despite the circumstances they were in.

‘Come on daddy, I really want to talk to you…’

She gave one last look around before deciding that waiting wasn’t worth it anymore. She was about to walk away when she heard him softly calling her name. She turned around and smiled as she saw her father coming closer to her until they were face to face.

“Hi…”

“How are you?”

“Great actually… You?”

“I’ve been better…”

She looked down on the ground while lightly playing with her fingers, feeling lost on what else to say to her father.

“Sweetie? Are you… really happy?”

She lifted her head up and when she looked into her father’s eyes, she could see that he was hurt and it broke her heart. Despite the conflict they had over the years, it never meant that she didn’t love him, it just meant that she knew she didn’t belong down below and letting her father see that was the worst part since she knew she was all that he had left.

“I am… he takes good care of m-me and I know you would love him if you would just g-give him a chance…”

“I want too but, not right now… I’m still not ready.”

“Daddy… I’m sorry for everything. I know how hard it was for you to keep up with everything that I’ve done and-”

“You don’t have to apologize, it’s all my fault; I should’ve listened to you in the first place. Finding out that you were in love with a human brought me back to the moment your mother said the same thing to me and I got scared. I’ve lost her and I didn’t want to lose you but after what happened, hearing his pain, watching you being in his arms… I felt what you were feeling and I was wrong to keep you from all of this. If he’s the one you truly want to be with then… you have my blessing.”

She had tears forming in the corners of her eyes and jumped to hug her father with her arms around his neck, slowly letting the tears roll down her cheeks. “D-daddy, don’t ever think that I don’t need you anymore because I’ll always need you; I’m still your little girl…”

“Good, because I don’t think I could handle you growing up.” He lightly chuckled at the last part while Syrena pulled herself away with a faint smile on her face, quickly wiping her tears away.

”You know where to find me if you ever need me, Syrena, okay?”

“Yes dad… Thank you for everything.”

He was about to swim away when G.O came into his view. “You better take good care of my daughter or I’m using that cursed shell on you, young human.” The severe tone in the King’s voice made G.O shiver out of fright as he gulped down his saliva while giving him a quick nod.

He gave one last look at the girl who was waving goodbye at him. “Happy Birthday sweetheart~”

“Thank you.”

With that he was gone, leaving the couple on their own.

Later on that day, Syrena got a call from her mother with unexpected news making her gasp out of shock at the simple thought that this small detail will forever change her life.

“But it’s impossible! I-I don’t know how-”

“Sweetie, you’re human now, which means your body is functioning like one.”

“But-but h-how? I still don’t understand… I-I mean wh-where’s the egg?”

“Egg? Oh my, humans don’t do eggs… Have you ever had hmm… a night where you and Byunghee where in hmm, bed? ?”

“Y-yea, but I don’t understand where you’re getting at…”

“Have your stay with the boys taught you nothing? Just talking about this with my own daughter is weird-”

“M-mom? How different is it going to be?”

It’s going to be painful and you’ll feel sick sometimes but once its over, you’ll be holding onto the next best thing, after Byunghee of course~”

“Will you help me at least? I don’t know how it works and what I’m suppose to do-”

“Of course I will! I’ll be here every step of the way, don’t worry.”

“Thank you…”

Once there conversation was over, she hung up and walked out of the bedroom where G.O was quietly cooking a birthday meal in the kitchen. Before making her way over to him, she thought over about the changes that were about to be made and even though she was slightly afraid about her boyfriend’s reaction, she couldn’t help but let a smile appear on her face, satisfied to see that she was about to get everything she ever wanted.

She tiptoed her way to him and once she was standing close behind him, she slowly trailed her hands around his waist until she was hugging him, which made him slightly jump but chuckled at the attempt. She lifted herself on her toes to place her chin on his shoulder and whispered in his ears.

“I have something to tell you…”

“Good, because I have something to tell you too.”

“Really?”

“Mhmm.”

He turned around in her embrace and pecked her lips before grabbing onto her hand, leading  her to the kitchen table where they sat face to face.

“Why don’t you start first?” She took a deep breath while looking down her lap before lifting her head back up as she bit the corner of her bottom lip.

“Last week, when you were hmm… kidnapped, I felt something strange; I was a little bit nauseous and my mom brought me to the hospital for some tests but for me I only thought it was because of you; I knew that something was wrong and I thought it was just a hunch or something, but it turns out that there was more to it…”

“More?”

“Mhmm… Byunghee?”

“Yea?”

“I-I’m having a b-baby – I mean, we’re having a baby…”

It took him a moment to digest the words that were coming out of and once it had sunk in, he was happily smiling. “A baby? You’re pregnant?”

She nodded and suddenly find herself in his arms giggling at his reaction. “Y-you had something to say too?”

“Oh yea, right hmm…”

He backed away and got off from the chairs and kneeled in front of her. She didn’t know what he was doing and only though that he had drop something on the floor.

“What did you drop?”

“Huh?”

“Well, you’re on the floor, did you drop something?”

He laughed and playfully ruffled her hair while shaking his head. “I didn’t; I’m on my knees because I want to ask you something.”

“Oh… Okay.” She smiled at him, still clueless at what he had been planning for the past week, ever since he came out of the jewelry store the day he got taken by the Evil Queen.

“I don’t know if you remembered what I said last week, but I had found a way to break the deal; I finally knew what the Queen meant by a formal confession and if it’s not too late and if you still want… I’m ready to formally confess my love to you.”

She followed his movements with her eyes and saw that he took out of his pocket a little velvet box as it was placed in his palm and opened it to reveal a small ring.

“It’s beautiful…”

“And hopefully… that smile on your face won’t fade away with what I’m about to say…”

“What do you mean?”

“Will you marry me?”