D-Day dawns bright and cheery. In contrast to the weather, everyone’s moods are gloomy, nervous, scared. It’s a slap in the face to stand beneath the sun’s warm rays, aligned as they are in single file row behind the dock. They wait for Tao to bring their guests from the overlarge yacht through the reefs and to their island home.

“Look lively, everyone. Remember your lines.” Jongdae recites his crisp and perky. A few mumbles linger down the row, and even Jongdae’s words suddenly drown out into sighs.

There are four strangers on the boat with Tao. The shapes loom larger the closer they get, details coming into focus, a better picture of their possible doom. Only the eldest of the strangers is smiling. In his forties, imposing, fake and cheerful, he introduces himself as the Chief Procurement Officer under the CEO for their head offices in Seoul.

“Eric Moon. Pleasure to meet you, Mr…”

“Jongdae. Kim Jongdae.”

As if he didn’t know who he would be meeting here at this puny little outstation. 

He doesn’t introduce the rest of his staff, all men, mostly mean looking, in their twenties and thirties. Baekhyun privately names them Goon #s One, Two and Three.

 “Well, Mr. Kim, I’m sure you know what I’m here about. I checked the files, and it’s been over twenty years since this station was visited by the upper managemeny. Just a formality of course, but if you’d be so kind to give us a tour of your… err, lovely facility, and prove once again that our investment here is still lucrative, well… we can go from there.” 

Baekhyun remembers from experience that the only thing Mr. Moon can see from this angle is the dilapidated red building. He’ll sing a different tune when he sees their state of the art science building. Of course, that’s exactly the point. No one wants him singing anything.

He doesn’t ask what the rest of them do. Baekhyun follows behind Jongin as Jongdae leads their guests up the hill. There’s the first thrill of seeing the actual facility, wordless ahhs and ohhs from the mouth of Mr. Moon. Who can tell if they’re exaggerated or not. Baekhyun doesn’t care. He notices rather that while Mr. Moon seems quite intent on Jongdae’s narrative, the goons are each stretching their necks taking in every little sight as they pass their way across the grounds. 

So, it’s not just the CPO they have to be aware of. Baekhyun nudges Jongin’s shoulder and points to their intense, craning curiosity. Jongin visibly shudders. 

After the initial outdoor tour, it’s every man to his own station. Jongdae and Amber go with the guests. All others return to their labs, clinics, points of interest or, in Jongin and Baekhyun’s case, to the pool area to wait out further instructions.

For once, the door to Minseok’s lab isn’t shut fast. The two chemists sit idling on their desk, quiet and probably chilled to the bone. Their cover-up had to be one of the vastest on the whole island. 

Baekhyun sits down on the floor to wait. Yifan comes in last, snaps his fingers at Jongin and the two of them rush quickly to close to the portal gate. Yixing was here with them this morning. He’ll be long gone by now.

 Or at least, he was supposed to be.

 The door above the pool bridge opens and the merman appears, his face already pulled into an expression that says, ‘Oops!’ rather unapologetically.

 “Yixing!” Jongin exclaims, aghast. “What! You’re…”

 “I know, I know… Where are they? Still upstairs? It’ll be fine. I have my ID card on me. And passport. Amber is so talented with those things, truly. Hey, where is Changsha anyways? Is it a nice place?”

 Jongin just groans. Yifan looks mildly put out. Minseok comes to his door, Lu Han behind him and they stare.

 “Yixing …” Jongin still complains.

 “What ID card?” asks Baekhyun.

 Yixing walks to his side and pulls out a very ordinary looking wallet. Inside is a photo identification card and official looking papers. Obviously they’re forged, but Baekhyun wouldn’t know any better.

 “You’re seriously going to… pretend you’re not…” Baekhyun doesn’t finish that statement.

 “Of course! Wouldn’t be the first to do so.”

 “But it’s dangerous right now…”

“It’ll be fine.” Yixing isn’t the most persuasive person alive. “Besides, I could be of help. You never know.”

 Yifan walks past them with a disapproving look, but he doesn’t say anything directly. Turning to the knob to his clinic door, Baekhyun imagines he’ll probably disappear inside and not come out until he’s called for.  

 The knob doesn’t turn.

 “Huh?” he hears the veterinarian mutter, before pulling out his keys and unlocking it manually.

 By now, all eyes on are his back. Especially when Yifan shrieks and and freezes right in the doorway.

 Another door slams open from the stairwell, and Amber comes marching down. 

“They’ll be down here in five. Everything ready?” She stops. “Yixing! What are you—”

But nobody else is looking at Yixing. They’re watching Yifan freak out, his legs trembling, voice on the edge of a freakout. He slumps over to the side, and Baekhyun gets his first sight of the source of Yifan’s panic.

Kyungsoo is in the clinic, on the examination table, shivering and sweating… and he has legs.

“Kyungsoo!” Yifan whispers harshly.

Amber drops her clipboard and sprints towards the doorway. “Oh my god. Oh, my God! Yifan, what is he doing in here?!”

“I…” The doctor can’t even use his tongue. He pulls himself together and rushes to the table where Kyungsoo is looking up at him, sick and deathly pale, but with an enormous grin of accomplishment. Baekhyun never knew. He thought there were only two mermen alive right now who could do this. Kyungsoo has just proven everybody wrong.

 “I did it. Yifan, I did it. I changed.” His voice is weak, his hair is still purple, but he definitely looks completely human. Fully, completely, ly human.

“I-I… see that, good job, but… Kyungsoo you can’t be here right now.”

Amber pauses in the doorway, her eyes blown wide, hand holding up her bangs like she can’t believe her eyes. “He has to get out of here. Now . Jongin, the portal.”

“He can’t,” says Baekhyun, taking a step towards the action.

She looks murderous. “Why not?”

And then Jongin steps up. “Because I just closed it! It’ll take longer than five minutes to get it open again. 

Yifan backs him up, backing them all into a serious corner. “He can’t shift again anyways. This, sapped him of too much energy.” He immediately reorients himself, grabbing his stethoscope and other instruments. Meanwhile Kyungsoo collapses on the bed looking thoroughly drained and unfocused.

“You’re giving him a physical now, Yifan?” Amber cries. “Can he even walk?!”

Yifan lifts a knee. The appendage, brand new and unused to any physical exertion, wobbles and falls to the side. Kyungsoo whimpers in pain. It’s a far cry from Yixing or Sehun’s muscular legs, since they’re more used to walking on them. Kyungsoo, in this state, is almost as feeble as a newborn baby. Baekhyun aches to do something to help, but.

“I take that as a no,” says Amber. “We’re ruined. We’re totally ruined. Yifan, what has been going on around here?! When did this even happen?!”

“Right now. In my absence,” the vet responds absentmindedly, still racing through his examination. Suddenly he pauses. “And… for a little while, recently.”

“What!”

“He came to me because he was scared, Amber.”

“Of what?”

“That we would have to leave. That we would depart and leave all the mermen behind. He wanted to learn how to shift so he could be human. I’ve been helping him, not thinking the situation would really warrant itself necessary. Amber, I swear,” and Yifan looks not only at her, but every other person in the room, including Baekhyun, as if to give them all his multiple apologies, “I swear, I didn’t know he would sneak in this morning and try to do it all by himself.”

Yixing pushes past Amber into the room. He steps up beside the table and places Kyungsoo’s hand in his own. That small touch gives the other merman a twinge of comfort. Kyungsoo’s eyes flicker open and he smiles gratefully, but then his eyes drift sideways to fall on Yifan.

“Baekhyun, keep an eye on those stairs,” says Amber. 

“We don’t have time for this,” says Yixing. “We need a diversion, anything. He can’t be moved, so make it around him.” 

Amber sighs. “I don’t care what you come up with, but do it quickly. They’ll be here any second and there are already three—oh, never mind.”

Voices sound suddenly from the stairwell, and no one needs Baekhyun to sound the warning to know, time’s up. Amber’s face turns sheer white as she leaps out of the room. Yixing too darts past the doorway, whispering, “Now, Yifan! Anything!”

Five seconds of deliberation later, Yifan stares at the exhausted merman, whips off his shirt and start to pull it over Kyungsoo’s head. 

“What…?” Kyungsoo echoes softly.

“Just play along. And don’t look at anyone directly in the eye. It’ll give you away.” He lowers the shirt, much bigger than what Kyungsoo would wear, to cover the essentials. Everything lower than his thighs are still on display. Amber stares back into the room with wide eyes, but when Yifan shakes his head so his hair is standing on end and starts to his own pants, she gets it.

He leaves his clothes in disarray like that. Fly open, the hem of his boxers a little askew. Kyungsoo needs no additional help to appear completely debauched. 

At that moment, Jongdae’s voice can be heard introducing Mr. Moon as his associates to the poolside area. They come into view just as Amber throws up her hands looking thoroughly put out.

Jongdae pauses on the bottom stair, causing a mini pile-up behind him.

“What… is going on?” 

Amber immediately cries. “Jongdae, I’m so sorry. I have already scolded them, and heartily threatened their jobs but… Mr. Moon, please accept our apologies. This kind of thing… unfortunately does happen from time to time. When you’re stuck on an island with nothing else…”

Jongdae, looking like he doesn’t want to know, walks towards the clinic door, the party of guests behind him. Jongdae stares at everyone he passes, their quiet, scandalized demeanor. Baekhyun grimaces blandly because, the alternative would be to act petrified and he thinks, that’s not that they’re going for her.

Yifan appears second to last in Jongdae’s line of vision, playing the part of misery and guilt like a pro. With one hand he’s trying to flatten out his hair. The other tugs on his pant zipper like he just can’t get it up. Behind him, Jongdae’s eyes flutter when he sees Kyungsoo panting on the exam table. Mr. Moon just smirks.

“It’s alright, miss. I quite understand how these things… just happen. But Mr. Kim, seriously. You should do better to discipline your staff.” 

The goons look on in arresting silence, all their faces for once on the exact same thing. Yifan backs towards the table like he’s protecting Kyungsoo’s modesty, grimaced expression. He finally gets his pants zipped up.

“Sir, it won’t happen again.”

“Quite right it won’t,” Jongdae quips like a disappointed boss, with just the hint of affronted disgust. “We’ll talk about this later. Now please, make yourself presentable. We’ll start with the labs and get back to you. 

Baekhyun wills his heart rate to slow. Nobody but Goon #3 looks at him when they round the pool edge towards the opposite suite of labs. Baekhyun tries not to wither in response to the man’s gaze. Thankfully, Yixing happens to step up in front of him, diverting all eye traffic to himself. The goon’s eyes narrow. A second later he shakes his head and continues moving past. 

Jongdae, Mr. Moon, and two of the other men enter through Minseok’s lab. The third one stations himself right out the door, hands folded across his body like he’s standing guard for his master. Or, keeping a lookout. 

Yifan quietly closes his door, and it’s on him now to make Kyungsoo presentable. No one else will be able to help.

Amber sighs and disappears quickly up the stairs. Jongin comes to stand between Baekhyun and Yixing. The three of them don’t talk, and they don’t make eye contact with Goon #3, even though the man keeps looking in their direction.

“What’s your name?” Yixing finally asks, after about the fourth direct, sweeping stare.

The man doesn’t answer, but re-postures himself bristly.

“Oh, come on. You must have a name. Mine’s Yixing. I’m from Changsha. What’s yours, and where are you from?”

It takes a full thirty seconds for the man to crack. Without looking in their direction, he answers briefly. “Luo Zhixiang. Taiwan.”

“Oh, you must work in one of the Chinese branches. Shanghai or Hong Kong?”

Again, it takes several seconds before he answers. “Hong Kong, mostly.”

Hong Kong, where Choi Jae Ho was going to when left the facility, and where Sulli was headed to chase him down. None of the three in the room miss that ‘coincidence.’ Baekhyun tries not to wobble.

Several minutes later, Jongdae exits the lab with the guests in tow. Mr. Moon is nodding his head at something satisfactory. Behind them in the doorway, Lu Han peers out with a sigh of relief.

“Alright, gentleman. That concludes the tour of the facility. Now, I think you’d like a boat tour of the atoll, yes? Please, follow me out these doors.” He takes them in the direction of the back dock before anyone can ask the purpose of the pool, or in fact notice the lever which opens and closes the portal. Nobody but Goon #2 mentions the closed door of Yifan’s clinic. The goons stalk wordlessly behind him, including Luo Zhixiang. Neither Jongin nor Baekhyun need to go with them. Tao and Jackson, as the more senior employees will take care of this part of the tour.

The door closes behind the last stranger, and everyone sighs. No one yet speaks. Yifan casually peels his door open and peeks out. 

“Gone?” he asks.

Yixing nods. “Gone. See, all is well.”

 Amber reappears with a different stack of papers and marches right into the clinic.

“Kyungsoo?” Baekhyun hears her calling. “Here, take this. It’s an emergency ID card for you. I made one for every merman long ago, just in case something like this ever happened. Hold onto it tightly. Oh, and Yifan, please get him some real clothes before anyone comes back.”

Minseok piles out of his lab, pushing past Lu Han uncharacteristically bold. He sinks onto the floor right outside his door. His face is red.

“How’d it go?” Yixing asks him. 

Minseok doesn’t speak for a minute. But he nods his head up and down a few times before finally uttering, “Good. Fine. Everything’s. Fine.” 

“See?” Yixing repeats himself. “Everything’s going fine.”

“Everything’s going just a little too fine, don’t you think?” says Amber on her way out of the door. She issues a few more cautionary instructions to Yifan before disappearing upstairs.

Lu Han sits down beside Minseok. Jongin squats on the floor as well, sighing heavily as he finally lowers himself all the way to the ground until he’s laying flat on his back. There’s nothing else any of them can do today except wait, so Baekhyun sits down again too. Perhaps they should think of moving some chairs down poolside, since so much of this day appears engaged in a waiting game. 

Amber’s words flit through Baekhyun’s mind.

After twenty years without a visit from corporate, why now? Eric Moon, Chief Procurement Officer of CJJ Corp. wouldn’t show up randomly after all this time just because he thought it had been too long since the last routine inspection. Not when they were sitting on a landmine of secrets. His story doesn't add up.

They watch, still silently, as Yifan reemerges from his room and trips up the stairs. A few minutes later he comes down with a set of clothes to give to Kyungsoo.

“You’re really giving him clothes?” Jongin asks. “Shouldn’t he be going now?”

“They’ve already seen him. It’ll be more suspicious if he disappears now.”

 Baekhyun suddenly recognizes the shirt and grey sweats thrown over Yifan’s arm. “Hey, are those mine?!”

 The vet pauses only momentarily. “Uhh. Yeah, sorry. Thanks.”

Only Yixing chuckles when the door shuts again. Jongin looks at him like he’s gone crazy. Baekhyun decides to be the one to ask the serious questions.

 “So, he’s never… changed before, like that?”

Yixing shakes his head. “Never wanted to, from what I thought.”

It’s strangely silent in the room, like the last few minutes never happened. Even the slow motions of the pool have grown non-existent since they closed the portal.

“I thought he hated everything to do with humans,” says Minseok randomly, his voice echoing in the din.

“I thought he really hated us after what happened with Sulli,” Lu Han adds.

Baekhyun slides his legs around, pulling them in cross-ways so he can better turn to look at Lu Han. But then he sees the shadow on the ground, long before everyone else. His throat runs dry and he wants to choke. Unfortunately, everybody hears the terrifying words at the same time.

“Who, about what, and who exactly is… Sulli?” 

It’s Goon #3, aka Luo Zhixiang who did not go off with his employer like everyone thought he did. He steps out from the staircase making pointedly clear that whatever he overheard, it was much too much.

Nobody answers, least of all Baekhyun. Shell-shocked, he looks to Jongin who’s mimicking the same expression, now pushing off the ground with his elbows for support. Yixing’s face has drawn a blank like he’s seriously thinking about what next to do. Minseok stands up, Lu Han right behind him.

The stranger from Taiwan stalks cautiously towards them. “Or maybe I should ask, what is Sulli?”

When still no one responds, he smirks. “Oh come on. We all know you’re hiding something here. Something big. You, me, Mr. Moon. Are you really so good that you can keep everything a secret?”

It’s not a full admission that he knows about the mermen, but it’s enough.

 “I think you’re out of line, Mr. Luo,” says Minseok staunchly. “This is an open facility, we have shown your employer everything of note—”

“Liar.” He stalks even closer, around the edge of the pool towards the lab.

“What?”

“I’m calling you a liar. What’s in your lab exactly that has your associate so cooly blocking the door, huh? If there’s nothing in there to hide, then why the posture?”

Baekhyun turns to stare. Yixing takes two steps towards the man. Minseok looks behind himself as well, and that turns into a big mistake. Lu Han, despite the fact that they’ve already successfully completed the tour of those rooms, has planted himself right in front of the doorway.

And Luo Zhixiang is a pretty fast sprinter. He streaks past Baekhyun and Jongin, side-steps around Yixing who reaches for him and practically lunges towards the doorway where Lu Han stands. Lu Han cries, maintaining his position boldly, but Minseok wrenches around and drags the other man back by the shirtsleeve. Luo Zhixiang fends him off, and Minseok hits the ground in a loud thunk. Baekhyun is instantly by his side, but Minseok shoulders him away and jumps back onto his feet. 

Jongin is by the doorway now with Lu Han. If ever they looked like an incriminating bunch, this is it. Luo Zhixiang, short of punching them outright, shoves Lu Han to the side like a rag doll. Jongin is a little harder to push around, but then Minseok is grabbing the man again, this time by the collar. With strength Baekhyun didn’t know he had, he tugs on the shirt enough to choke the goon into stumbling backwards. Both of them land on the ground this time, inches away from the pool edge. Even with the number of them on hand, no one gets to Minseok before Luo Zhixiang, in his haste to get up, lands a kick right in the center of Minseok’s chest.

Minseok wheezes, a great gasp as he’s shoved away. Lu Han screams his name, but mere seconds later, Minseok lands in the pool with a heavy splash.

“Minseok!” Lu Han shrieks even louder.

Yixing actually curses. He looks seconds away from diving into the water before he thinks better of it.

Baekhyun, wiping the splashed sea water out of his eyes, watches as instead, Lu Han jumps feet first into the pool, while Jongin tackles Luo Zhixiang, and Minseok’s muffled, water-logged shouts grow crazed.

He can’t not look. Even with Luo Zhixiang barely contained, Baekhyun’s eyes are drawn to the water where Minseok wrestles with himself. His body undulates and his back stretches to an obscene, impossible angle. Lu Han is treading water trying to get a hold of him, but Minseok won’t be still. His head disappears under the water, and when he emerges again, gasping for air, Baekhyun swears it’s turning green.

Even Luo Zhixiang, on his hands and knees with Jongin on his back, stops to watch the scene.

“Minseok!” Lu Han chokes through the splashing water. “Minseok, relax!” He holds onto the side of the pool with one hand, the other trying to reach the drowning man.

But no, not drowning. Changing…

 “Yifan!” Yixing shouts! “Yifan, help!”

Minseok, still wrestling with his own true nature, finally shrieks one final harsh, high-pitched trill, and transforms.  

“He’s… a merman,” whispers Luo Zhixiang.

At least he got the gender right, thinks Baekhyun. He never knew. The way Jongin is staring at Minseok, he also didn’t know. Why didn’t they know?!

Yifan’s door burst opens as he takes in what’s happening. Ignoring the stranger who’s witnessed it all, he races to the side of the pool where Lu Han is freaking out, Minseok half in his arms, half slipping away.

“A hand, Minseok, give me your hand!” Yifan calls to him, reaching over the edge. “Someone help me.”

Baekhyun rushes to his side, also reaching for one of Minseok’s rubbery, water-slicked hands. Between him and Yifan and Lu Han from inside the pool, they manage to pull and push the stunned, almost faint merman out of the water. His body is slim, his scales a dull green. He looks about to vomit, but he can barely keep open his eyes.

Yifan rolls the merman onto his back, pulling back his lids and checking his pulse. Baekhyun turns to pull Lu Han out of the pool as well. The older man immediately pushes him aside and crawls to Minseok’s side, beginning to cry. 

“What’s wrong with him?” Baekhyun asks. He’s almost completely wet and risks slipping back into the pool when Yixing jumps over his outstretched legs to get to Minseok. Between Yixing, Lu Han, and Yifan, Baekhyun can’t get anywhere close to Minseok, so he can’t see clearly what is going on. He crawls then finally to the other side.

“It’s been too long,” says Yixing, kneeling by Minseok’s side. “His body has grown unused to the change. It’s been over five years. He’s going into shock.”

“Minseok? Minseok?” Yifan is telling the nearly unconscious man. “Listen to me, okay. You have to change back now, okay?”

“He can’t,” Lu Han immediately protests.

“If he doesn’t do it now, we can’t contain this situation and also he’ll probably be unable to transform for days, maybe weeks. He can’t even swim like this. Would you rather we cage him up in the pool for all that time so he doesn’t drown, or force him to change back so we can actually treat him?!”

“He’s a merman,” Luo Zhixiang repeats like he’s gone mad.

“And would someone shut him up, please?! Thank you!” Yifan growls.

“I’m on it,” says Yixing.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Baekhyun watches the other merman approach the fallen stranger and kneel down before him.

“Hey, hey hey,” Yixing shushes him calmly. “You want to know all about mermen, huh? Well, I’ll tell you. Just look deeply into my eyes. Can you do that for me? That’s right … right into my eyes…”

“Medical bag,” says Yifan brusquely.

Baekhyun runs to fetch it. Over the next few minutes, he observes the vet injecting Minseok with various drugs and stimulants. Minseok’s eyes open, and his consciousness is regained, but the more alert he grows, the more he cries. It takes a combination of Yifan’s and Lu Han’s coaxing to persuade him that the right thing to do is to turn back human before he can’t do it anymore.

Luo Zhixiang sits now calmly against the side of the wall. His eyes are dazed. He’s hypnotized, and Yixing looks down proudly at his work. “I’m going to take him out of here now. Jongin, help me.”

They exit the large room to the sound of Minseok’s pained cries, and for the second time in minutes, the merman’s body twists and contorts, bones cracking in and out of position. It takes almost ten minutes to achieve the transformation they all want. His body is coated in sweat, tears streak down both his and Lu Han’s faces. Baekhyun himself is hardly dry-eyed by the time Minseok collapses onto the tiled pavement, fully human once more. Then Yifan scoops him up into his arms and walks briskly towards his clinic. 

“Do you need any help?”

Baekhyun feels useless now. Minseok is mumbling wordlessly on the second exam table, Lu Han and Yifan standing over him in various states of worry. Kyungsoo is still lying on the first table, now dressed but just as impotent as he was before.

“We got this,” Yifan tells Baekhyun without looking up. “Find Jongin and Yixing. They may need help with that other man.”

Baekhyun finds them a few minutes later. They haven’t gotten far. Jongin is mumbling incoherent complaints, Yixing alternates between calmly conversing with their disoriented prisoner, and laughing cutely. Baekhyun rushes to help, if he can in any way. 

“Hey, Baekhyun. I think we’ve got this,” says Yixing.

“You sure?” he asks.

“No,” Jongin grumbles.

“What did you do to him?” Baekhyun has never seen someone like this in all the days of his life. Luo Zhixiang, formerly known as Goon #3 looks drunk on his feet, but on top of that, his eyes are glassy and his body gives out tiny little quakes. Yixing and Jongin have him balanced between their two weights, but it’s clear their plan of ‘walking’ him away isn’t going very well. 

Jongin grunts and Baekhyun rushes to help the two of them lay the man down on the ground.

“It’s a very intense form of hypnosis. Watch out, Baekhyun. Yifan has you dosed up on some good drugs—incidentally, those are formed by a base compound of merman tears—but I’m pretty sure I could still stare at you long enough to… I don’t know, make you see double for a few seconds at a time.” He laughs, and Baekhyun’s head spins a little more. Not because Yixing is working his tricks on him, but because— 

“Merman tears?!” 

“Yeah! Took me and Sehun ages, sitting around making up sad stories to make each other cry.” 

“I…” Baekhyun doesn’t know what to say.

“Can we focus, please?” says Jongin. He leans over the ground panting with his hands on his knees. They’re also still clearly out in the open and if anyone came now, they’d look highly suspicious. 

“Oh, right.” Yixing stares down at his handiwork, Luo Zhixiang squinting up at him like he’s trying to figure out what’s happening, and failing miserably. “We should drag him to the red building for safe-keeping.”

“And then what?” asks Baekhyun, already bending down with Jongin to lift the man back up from the ground. 

“And then? I’m going to seduce him just like I did Jongin—”

“What!” 

“Kidding. But no, seriously. We’re going to have to spin another tale entirely to make him forget what he’s seen. Or, just reinforce the belief that he really shouldn’t be telling anyone all about what’s happened here today. In his condition, it’s doable. Believe me.” 

Baekhyun leaves them ten minutes later to the sounds of Yixing cooing over their ‘patient’ softly, Jongin making small noises of disgust. (‘Come on now, you cutie, listen to what Yixing has to say. That’s right… Look into my pretty, pretty eyes and—’)

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, he doesn’t have time to watch Yixing at work. More essential, they told him, to keep an eye out for the return of the boat and Mr. Moon and get a message to Jongdae, since they more or less have two incapacitated mermen in Yifan’s clinic and a hypnotized prisoner in the red building.

Baekhyun’s first order of attack is to run and tell Amber. 

He doesn’t get that far. Around the back side of the building where he can see the dock, the one where Jongdae took off from in order to start his tour… the boat is already back. And there’s nobody on it except for one goon.

Baekhyun takes one fast step to run into the building before something strikes him over the head. Crying out, knees failing, he hits the ground and everything goes black.

Across the atoll, Jongdae grits his teeth and finally works the hand ties loose enough to slip one of his wrists through the knot. His shoulders heave, sore from the exertion behind his back, but the second wrist slips out easier than the first. He pulls the gag from his mouth and turns around. Tao has already done the same in spite of bleeding gash on his forehead. Drying blood sticks to the side of his face with a mixture of sand, dirt and sweat. 

“You okay?” Jongdae asks him. 

The other man is already crawling across the beach to where Jackson lays breathing, but unconscious.

“Fine, but I think Jackson may have a concussion.” Tao doesn’t move him, but instead checks his vitals as best he can before examining the rest of his body. “Might be a leg fracture too, damnit.” 

Jongdae can’t even curse, he’s too mad. And frightened. He knew things were going too well. He knew, and still he let his guard down, disbelieving Eric Moon would be quite this treacherous. Now he and his two best men are stranded on one of the smaller islands while Moon sails away back to Pearl Island, undoubtedly to cause more mischief, and undoubtedly it will be violent.

“He knows,” says Jongdae. “He already knows.”

“We always knew that was a possibility,” says Tao. Jongdae can’t handle this sort of matter-of-factness right now. He’s been entrusted with the greatest operation in the world, an unboundless secret, and he failed. Miserably.

“We have to get back. We have to… how are we going to get back?” His voice warbles, his legs barely support his body weight as he stands and trudges towards the water’s edge. Pearl Island is so close, but across too vast a distance. They couldn’t possibly swim there. The tide is too tricky, there are reefs in the way, ones they wouldn’t be able to see that jut up just beneath the water’s surface. Even in the best of conditions, maybe, maybe there’s a chance Tao could make it. It’s minuscule already, but the two of them, plus an unconscious Jackson—impossible. 

“They even found the emergency rowboat,” Tao intones sadly, and Jongdae remembers watching his last fleeting hope dwindle and disappear when one of Moon’s men searched the beach, found it, and hauled it away.

He screams. Agony and despair, frustration beyond everything. The waves lap evenly against his toes. It’s such a beautiful day, amazing weather, the perfect hour to sit and enjoy the breeze. They might be enjoying it for a very, very long time. 

He sits, dropping gracelessly into the wet sand, uncaring that his clothes are already filthy and likely going to get a lot worse. What if Jackson dies out here? By the time they’re found, if they’re found, is that cause enough to go after Eric Moon for murder? Would he even have that kind of leverage, and would anyone even care, after what’ll likely become the mermen’s greatest exposure? 

Five minutes, ten minutes. Jongdae surely isn’t counting. Maybe it’s been even longer. But his eyes strain and his heart starts beating, rapidly.

“Tao? Tao? Is that… what is that?”

The other man, from his perch beside Jackson’s lightly breathing body, shades his eyes and stares out towards the sea.

“It’s a… or, is it?”

“It’s a boat,” says Jongdae. A rowboat, a rower-less rowboat being driven towards their beach.

Jongdae stands. A minute later he wades into the water, feet sinking into the sand, knees fighting the retreating current, but still the boat moves steadily towards them, propelled by—no, carried—by two strong, slender bare arms.

Jongdae can hardly believe his eyes. He wades deeper still until he can barely keep his head out of water, but the boat falls right into his arms. Pale skin and jet black hair, round black eyes peer around from the side, shyly, as if she’s not sure what she’s doing is okay. 

“Liyin?” he whispers. And suddenly she smiles. “Liyin, how did you know…?” 

Her smile wanes, and she looks back at the beach. Jongdae cranes his head to see Tao standing there in total shock. He won’t have see a mermaid before, not with his bare eyes.

“Heard you,” she says. “Your scream.” 

Tears start to fall from Jongdae’s eyes, but he grabs onto the boat and helps haul it to the shore. It becomes more difficult for Liyin the shallower they get. Soon she has to let go and drag herself up the beach. Tao comes to rescue Jongdae and they pull it up just out of the water’s edge. 

Tao can’t keep his eyes off her. Her torso is bare, her scales are silver. Every time she goes to speak, Tao winces like she’s about to paralyze him. Only Jongdae knows the extent of her language skills. He would know, after all. He taught her. 

“You’ve saved our lives today. Maybe more.” 

He kneels in the sand beside where she strains to hold herself up, bending sideways at the waist.

“Danger?” is all she asks. Jongdae nods.

“Then get back there soon.” 

He touches her shoulder. “Wait.”

She pauses and looks at him closely, nose to nose.

He means to kiss her before she goes, to thank you. To thank her for everything. Instead, she beats him too it. It’s soft, barely there. Jongdae can taste the salt off her lips, and hear her small breath when she pulls away and exhales. She smiles. Then she turns and slips back into the water with one final parting farewell. “We’re all here, watching, whenever you need us. Goodbye.”

All Baekhyun knows when he finally comes to, is that he hurts. His head hurts, his body aches, he’s about to vomit because his stomach is rolling… Then he smells it, salt water and the ocean breeze, the unmistakable sounds of a boat at sea. 

His eyelids feel heavy, and there’s something in his mouth. A rag. He thinks he’s lying on his side, head hitting the side of the boat with every drift of the waves.

“What’s his state?” asks a deep voice from somewhere overhead. It’s cool, chilling. It belongs to Eric Moon. 

“Probably still passed out cold. You sure we got the right one, boss?”

That’s all Baekhyun needs to hear to decide it’s possibly in his best interests to remain ‘asleep’.

But then the voice responds. “Did I ask you to just make a guess? Get him up, it’s about time he does his share of the work around here. This boy’s undoubtedly one of them. Kim Jongdae is smart, but not as smart as me. No way he’d personally introduce us to one of the merman double teams. That’s why it was a dead giveaway when he left this one behind. He’s partnered with a merman. I’m sure of it.” 

Someone drags Baekhyun up by the scruff of his hair, and Baekhyun can do nothing else but whimper at the pain.

“I’m sure of it,” Moon repeats. “Aren’t you? Aren’t you, boy? Where’s your friend? Is he in the sea? Does he know you’re in pain? That you’ve been kidnapped? Will he come rescue you if you call your name? What’s his name? What’s your merman’s name? ”

The rag is ripped from his mouth, one of the goons harshly untying it from the back of his head. A few hairs get caught in the fray. He hears and feels the pain of them ripping. His eyes flutter open, but no sound comes from his voice. Somewhere in the past minute or so he started crying. 

Sehun…

Somehow they know about the mermen, and they’re using Baekhyun as bait to catch one.

Well, they’ll never… Mermen are too cunning for that. Sehun would never willingly put himself in a position like that— 

Then he remembers. ‘Our kind, we get kind of desperate when we lose someone .’

“Nooo….” he moans. 

His head is ripped back again, exposing his neck. Baekhyun grits his teeth and stares into Moon’s deep, soulless eyes.

“What was that?”

Baekhyun refuses to answer.

“I said,” someone grips his head tighter to make Baekhyun grimace, “what did you say? Were you going to tell me all about your merman? Because if so, that’s kind of what I came all this way to hear.”

Footsteps sound from the wheelhouse, and a different man speaks. “Hey, we’re about where you told me to stop—woah! What, what are you doing?”

Eric Moon stands up. “You don’t need to be worried about anything. Just captain the boat like we agreed and nobody gets hurts.” 

“But—”

He backs off when one of the other goons, the one not holding Baekhyun like he’s a rag doll, steps forward in a threatening manner. The boat captain scurries off. Now it’s all back to Eric Moon and Baekhyun, and the fact Baekhyun is bait for a merman who just might come flying to his rescue.

Sehun, you better not … he whispers to himself.

“Tell us his name.” Moon’s other man backhands Baekhyun with the knobs of his knuckles. Another streak of pain alights through his whole body, and his lip is probably bleeding.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he replies stubbornly.

“Mermaids and mermen. I know you have them.”

What was it Baekhyun once told Jongdae when he was first brought here, dumped in the pool, and made the discovery of a lifetime? ‘You have mermen! ’

‘We don’t have them, Baekhyun. They just live here too. ’

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Baekhyun repeats. “Mermaids? Sound pretty far-fetched to be honest. Sorry if you think you came all this way for—”

Another backhanded slap. Now Baekhyun definitely knows his lower lip is bleeding.

Moon considers him, looking down haughtily with his arms folded across his chest. It’s silent for a few moments. Then, he says in a steely voice laced with danger. “You’re lying. ” 

Baekhyun stares at the deck of the boat, too ashamed to come up with another line that won’t completely give himself—and the mermen—away. He thinks about Luo Zhixiang and the man’s face when he saw Minseok transform. He knew there must be mermen here, if that’s the reason they came in the first place. What he didn’t know was that they can also masquerade as humans. It was that particular kind of shock, seeing him change. Maybe some of their secrets have been contained. Eric Moon believes there to be mermen. But maybe he won’t ever see them. And even if he does… he won’t know their other secret. As long as Baekhyun doesn’t talk and keeps Moon occupied on this boat, it may not matter if no one comes to rescue him.

“Sir, there’s something in the water,” says a voice.

Or not. Baekhyun’s heart, along with all his hopes, plummets to the bottom of the ocean.

Moon allows himself one small smile. “As I thought. It’s the merman. Be prepared to contain him. We can’t let this opportunity go to waste.”

Baekhyun cries when they drag him to his feet. His vision swims, his head is pounding. The side of the boat suddenly juts into his stomach from where one of the goons has thrown him against the side. His head hanging over, he’s the perfect bait, tied and constrained, completely at their mercy. 

He blinks his eyes, tries to see who’s in the water. He almost prays it’s not Sehun. Why couldn’t it have been one of the other merman clans. Or why couldn’t it have been an entire pack of them. Three humans against a gang of merman, and Baekhyun figures the chances of a battle, even out of water, would be against the humans.

But there’s only one in the water.

It’s also not Sehun.

Joonmyun’s head bobs between the waves, looking murderous, especially when he sees Baekhyun’s face. Why? How…? More tears pour down Baekhyun’s face. He can’t decide if it’s relief at not seeing Sehun, or despair because Joonmyun is here at all. The danger is only too obvious. One of the goons holds a knife to Baekhyun’s throat. Eric Moon moves to stand on the other side, staring down haughtily at the merman.

Joonmyun holds his place in the water, hovering with his tail fin out in front of him reflexively as if preparing for a fight. 

“Hello, merman!” Moon laughs. “Do you talk? Is this your human? If so, why don’t you come up here and we can negotiate.”

Baekhyun attempts to shake his head, but the goon grabs his hair again to keep him still. In spite of that, Joonmyun, still looking furious, swims closer to the boat. 

Moon continues. “You understand obviously. Look, I promise no more harm comes to Baekhyun. I just want to talk to you, face to face.” He throws a rope ladder off the side of the boat and offers it cordially, even backing away a few paces. 

Baekhyun watches helplessly as Joonmyun swims even closer.

“Take the knife away from him, and I will,” says the merman decisively.

 Moon grins, terribly excited. 

“I knew we could come to some sort of agreement.” He motions with his hand, and suddenly the steel at Baekhyun’s throat is gone. Baekhyun takes that opportunity to gasp and get his vocal chords working again, but the man with his hand in his hair yanks him back, effectively shutting him up. He’s tossed along the side of the boat again. He can’t see Joonmyun, but he hears the merman’s body clambering up the rope ladder. A minute later, Joonmyun appears over the ledge and freezes. 

“Come, please. Join us,” says Moon like he’s been planning a tea party.

Joonmyun’s descent inside the boat isn’t glamorous. His tail fin thunks heavily along the deck, water splashing all around him. Baekhyun immediately notes the grayish coloring, once again indicating the merman’s fear. The others wouldn’t guess it by the hate radiating from Joonmyun’s eyes.

“What do you want?” he says. “I’m here now. Let Baekhyun go.”

His eyes dart quickly to and from and Baekhyun’s eyes, a message Baekhyun can’t exactly interpret.

“Let him go? In the middle of the ocean? I would gladly, but… just how well can he swim? For hours? It’s a long way back to the island now.

Joonmyun narrows his eyes, but doesn’t appear fazed. He leans on his side, angled in a way that would make a human sore, but Baekhyun has seen enough of the mermen to know they can twist in all manner of directions. Again, Joonmyun looks at Baekhyun, and then at the boat rail behind his back. 

“You wanted to talk. Let’s talk.”

Baekhyun doesn’t look behind him, but he suddenly suspects, if he were to jump in the water now, there’s a likely chance he wouldn’t have to swim all the way back. There’s a reason it’s Joonmyun here. Moon thought he’d bring Baekhyun along as bait, but it’s not Baekhyun he should be concerned for.

Joonmyun, is the bait. 

Gently, so as not to bring attention to himself, Baekhyun tests his leg muscles. They ache, but they work. He hopes they’d work long enough to get himself off the boat. Surely though, there will be a signal.

Moon squats down before the merman, a good distance away that if Joonmyun were to suddenly lash out, he would still be out of reach. His eyes are like magnets, wonder and desire and ambition all rolled into one as he looks over Joonmyun’s body.

“I said we should talk, but you must forgive me because right now I’m just amazed.”

Joonmyun holds his gaze and refuses to reply. Only Baekhyun recognizes the tension in his posture. He’s waiting too, Baekhyun realizes. Waiting for what though? That’s the thing. All eyes on are on him. Eric Moon, his two henchmen. Even the boat captain who objected earlier to Baekhyun’s kidnapping. The others haven’t noticed the small man. Instead of being in the wheelhouse, he’s perched behind a ledge looking at Joonmyun in a mixture of horror and shock. Then he realizes Baekhyun is looking at him, and he flushes. 

Could he be used? Baekhyun wonders. Enough to help them out of this situation? 

Joonmyun makes a sudden jerking motion. Moon tenses, and his goons gather closer to his side. The merman’s tail flickers ominously, as if preparing to strike. Baekhyun, however, has seen how merpeople fight one another, and Joonmyun is nowhere to that level yet. It’s a distraction. Only Baekhyun and the boat captain feel it.

The boat just rocked, hard.

Baekhyun doesn’t even pay attention to Moon’s words after that. He’s watching Joonmyun’s face. He’s watching the captain’s face. Both of them stare wordlessly to a point behind Baekhyun’s head. Then to another place just next to that. Then another. And another.

It’s not until Baekhyun sees in shadow the long trim body and the straight trellises of hair on the deck that he knows, it’s a mermaid.

Moon and his men realize they’ve been surrounded just seconds too late. Joonmyun slides halfway across the boat, flinging his tail fin around. It catches the first goon on the ankles. He trips and screams. At the same time, Taeyeon drops heavily inside the boat with a shrill half-scream that paralyzes almost everybody where they stand. Two other mermaids slip over the same way while Joonmyun flings himself towards the second goon. Only Moon is still on his feet, but he clutches his forehead from the mermaid’s cry and clings desperately to the side of the boat. 

Before Baekhyun can stand up, Taeyeon wraps herself around his back and covers his ears tightly with her hands. Only the boat captain sees the action and attempts to do the same himself.

Then all hell breaks loose.

The three mermaids scream at the same time. Moon hits the deck, attempting to block the noise. One of the two goons is already passed out on the floor. The other barely manages to get out his knife and lunge towards one the other mermaids, a blue-haired siren who snarls at him and lashes out with her tail. He topples over as well, but the knife in his hand springs free. It lands just within Eric Moon’s grasp. His fingers twitch. Baekhyun gasps. Taeyeon lets go of his ears and he jumps to his feet.

But there’s another merman stopping Moon for making a single move.

Sehun, the last to drop into the boat, strategically sliding behind Moon when the mermaids screamed, grabs the man tightly behind the waist.

“Don’t. You. Move.”

His scales are erect, razor sharp against the lower half of Moon’s body. Any sudden movement and he’d be ripped to shreds.

Surprisingly, everybody follows his orders. The one man not already passed out, doesn’t move a muscle. He’s lying on the deck with a mermaid on top of him. The boat captain, still with his hands over his ears looks frightened enough he might pass out all on his own. Even Baekhyun, totally free and ready to jump overboard, can’t even move. The scene is too arresting. Sehun is here, in all his frightening glory and now suddenly it’s Baekhyun who refuses to leave until he knows Sehun will be safe. 

Moon laughs. His arms are folded across his chest where Sehun wrestled him. Even on his side, he looks menacing.

“So you’re the real merman here,” he intones. “I thought that other one was acting a little too meek. Smart move, bringing along your friends. Thanks for the mermaids, I always wanted a few of those.” 

Sehun wrenches his body, and Moon immediately gasps, his breath hitching.

“Talk all you want now, human. You’re outnumbered, and you’re in my sea .”

Baekhyun doesn’t get to see the impending tussle. He sees the conscious goon make a sudden shift, throwing the mermaid off his back. He sees Eric Moon twisting sinisterly, caring not about the danger to his limbs. 

“Sehun!” Baekhyun shrieks.

The goon turns towards Baekhyun and leaps. Taeyeon screeches again, and this time Baekhyun’s ears are unprotected. He dodges and the man also misses. Belatedly, Baekhyun realizes it’s because the boat captain also dived forward, thereby saving Baekhyun from taking a fist to his head.

“Sehun!” he cries again. In between his failing vision, all Baekhyun sees is the merman and Moon tossing each other around on the dock. There’s blood spilling across the bottom of the boat, and Baekhyun has no idea whose it belongs to. Somewhere in the fray he hears the merman shouting to get Baekhyun off the boat.

“No!” Baekhyun refuses to leave. Not without Sehun. Not without—

Someone is wrenching him from behind. He only realizes it’s Taeyeon where her pink hair floats in front of his face. Then another mermaid is dragging his other arm. They’re pulling him out of the boat.

“No!” he screams again.

The two mermaids heed him not.

“No! Sehun! Sehun!” 

There's another shrill shriek from the mermaids, and for the final time, his vision blots out. The last thing he remembers is a world of blue, water, bubbles, waves, and blackness.