“Where do you go, when you’re not here with me?”

"What do you mean?" Sehun replies.

Baekhyun sighs and shifts his body until he's laying on his stomach with his chin cradled between his hands. His elbows sink a few inches into the sand. He'll have to go clean off in the water later, but then, they have to do that anyway.

"I mean, what do you do? Do you go home? Where is home? How far is it? Is it very deep in the ocean? Do you have fish friends that you swim around with day in day out?”

“I refuse to answer that last question.” The merman presents a stoic expression, under which Baekhyun detects just the slightest bit of offense.

Baekhyun laughs. “Okay, but do merpeople have underwater castles like in the movies?"

Sehun snorts, officially giving up all pretense. "I don't know about movies, but... you do realize that the ocean floor doesn't stay the same, right? It moves."

"It moves?!" Baekhyun gasps and pushes himself up off the sand to gape. Then he realizes how stupid he sounds. "Oh, right. It does. Plate tectonics and all that..."

And here he'd been curious about whether or not mermen and mermaids lived in these giant underwater palaces with seaweed gardens and coral balconies. He laughs at himself. He's got a masters degree in marine biology and one week with a merman has him losing all sense of reason. At least this is Sehun he asked and not, someone else. Like Jongin. Or Chanyeol. Okay, maybe Chanyeol but definitely not Jongdae, his boss.

"Never mind. Never mind."

Sehun is grinning at him. He's in his human form, wearing a pair of swim trunks Baekhyun raided from Jongin's dresser drawer. It gives Sehun the semblance of modesty Baekhyun needs to be around him. Too many others things that draw his attention. He's supposed to be learning about the merpeople, not checking out Sehun's occasionally-human thighs.

"So where do you live then? Your clan?"

"In the ocean," says Sehun with another laugh. He rolls sideways in the sand and stares at Baekhyun's prostrate form. "Why do you want to know? Is that what they told you to ask me?"

"What? No?" Baekhyun splutters. At least, no one told him to ask that specifically...

"No human has ever gone there, you know that, right? To the centermost place within our borders."

"You have borders?" Baekhyun asks.

"With other clans, yes. Your island chain lies within it. But very close by... is where we really aren't allowed to swim. I mean, we could, but it’s terribly impolite. And maybe just a bit dangerous without a request of passage."

That's fascinating. Baekhyun's jaw drops as he mulls over that thought, that the merfolk really are like the human tribes of old.

"So, which direction is your home?"

"Here." Sehun hesitates for a moment, but then he says, "and due west. It's a very large territory. And as I've said, no humans have been there. Not even you could go."

"Because it's far away?"

"And deep."

"I can go deep." Baekhyun could actually. With the right kind of gear and supplies, enough oxygen and a drysuit, a scuba diver could drop to an incredible depth into the blackest of waters. It would, however, take him quite a long time to ascend without his head and lungs exploding. It's probably not worth the risk.

Sehun smirks. "Perhaps you could. But I am not allowed to take you there. Not even if I wanted to."

"And would you? If you could?" Baekhyun winks.

He's flirting, this he knows. Probably another thing that isn't the worth the risk. He was hired to come out here and befriend the merfolk, learn about their ways, build a relationship. But he's not certain a romantic relationship is what they want.

On the other hand... Jongin and Yixing… if what they have is what Baekhyun suspects it is. Perhaps he should just ask directly.

"You're better off believing we live in underwater castles, according to your movies ," Sehun retorts with a joking smile.

“Maybe we could watch one together just once.”

“What movie?”

“ The Little Mer — oh, you know what, forget I said anything.” Baekhyun groans with embarrassment, rolling over onto his back with his arm in front of his eyes to shield the sun. He should have brought sunglasses. He should have kept his big mouth shut.

"Okay, tell me something else then. A secret. Something private. I just want to know more about the merpeople, like my bosses told me to do. Can't you tell me anything?" he whines.

"I knew it. You're just out to exploit us." Sehun prods his stomach, a little too low to his waistband  to be a purely innocent attack.

Baekhyun flinches and cries out loud. Sehun does it again. "Stop it, stop stop! That's ticklish!"

Is it too early to engage in a little wrestling? Beach wrestling, in the sand, with a merman on legs. Then again, Sehun's upper body muscles are extremely well defined. There'd be no advantage here, and Baekhyun isn't sure he wants to try. He rolls away, giggling. Sehun tries to follow him, but he overestimates his ability to balance on his knees and stumbles into the sand. He eats dust with a loud cry, meanwhile Baekhyun is scrambling away.

"Not fair!" says the merman, getting up and trying again.

By the time they're both on their feet, Baekhyun's ribs ache from laughter. He backs away slowly, cautiously, in case Sehun tries to tickle him again. His shoulders run smack into the trunk of a palm tree, one of the many dotting this little spot in paradise. All his life Baekhyun dreamed of vacationing abroad on a tropical island such as this.

So many things he’s learned since then that ought to dispel the myths. For instance, that Pacific boat rides aren’t exactly his forte, and that the food kind of , lacking in completely diversity. He sees the same faces every day of the week, and if you want to be indoors, there’s almost nowhere to go. His skin is getting darker, almost burned in a few places, like the tops of his shoulders and for some dumb reason, his thighs.

But then there are the perks. Like the fact that he’s here at all, not for play, but for work. And it just so happens, when your job is to spend time with a merman who looks, talks, walks, and flirts just like a man… work feels a whole lot like play.

The merman stalks towards him and Baekhyun lunges away from the palm tree, back into the sun. They repeat these steps a few more times before Sehun throws up his hands in defeat. "Okay, I won't, I won't!"

"Good," yells Baekhyun.

But Sehun makes him promise him something in return.

"A secret for a secret," he says.

"What?"

Sehun grins. "You didn't think I'm here just so you can learn from me, or did you?"

The merman, it seems, has a few motivations all of his own.

"You never answered my question about where you go when you're not with me?"

When Baekhyun meets Sehun again the next day, his brain still teems from unanswered mysteries.

"Where I go?" Sehun answers dreamily. "I like to explore. There's so much to see, to do. So many creatures in the ocean that are shy and I like to follow them, wait for them to trust me. Then we play together.”

Sehun rolls over in the sand and cracks another smirk. Sometimes, Baekhyun isn’t sure if what the merman tells him is true or not. Sehun is entirely too cheeky for his own good, with reflections of Yixing’s personality, which is scary.  

“So you do play with sea animals,” Baekhyun hums, his eyes glittering, smile fixed and in place because Sehun is just so much fun to talk to, whether he’s pulling Baekhyun’s leg  or not.

“Yep. Sometimes they show me new things that I've never seen before and I take that back to my clan so they can learn more about the world we call our home. I told you right, it's always changing. You'll never learn all there is to know, not down there. There's so much under there..."

"Like mermen," says Baekhyun in wonder. "Humans are the same way, only we want to know everything that's on the earth, under it, in the water, and in the skies."

"The skies? You mean there's more up there to learn than just what we can see?"

"Yes," says Baekhyun. "Oh, yes. Planets, and moons, and stars bigger than the our own sun."

"But you study them."

"Yes." Well, Baekhyun doesn’t, not intently.

"You study them and you know so much, but you don't even know that another race of species lives in your very own oceans."

And there, that’s that teasing condescension that Sehun loves to throw out so much, where the worst part of it is, he’s totally right.

Baekhyun laughs. "We know about you... we know all about you …” That part isn’t a lie. He sighs and pretends to swoon, looking up towards the palm trees and then out to sea. “We…” he adds rapidly under his breath, “just think you're a myth, yeah."

"A myth?"

"Not real. Like unicorns. Or like dragons."

"I know what myths are, Baekhyun. But you know, there are such things as dragons."

Baekhyun rolls over and sits up. "Great big ones? Fire-breathing dragons? Or do you have something different down there that again, we've never seen or found?" he taunts.

Sehun taunts him right  back. "We had one once. You’ve probably heard about it."

"No way," says Baekhyun. "Impossible." Because there’s no way Nessie is actually real, and in any case, if she’s there she’s stuck in a land-locked lake in faraway Scot-

"It's not. It existed. Maybe it still does. You humans even have a name for it. Yixing told me Jongin told him. "

"Oh yeah?" Baekhyun asks with a skeptical glance.

"You called it Leviathan."

Baekhyun spends the rest of his schedule-less evening sitting in Chanyeol's library while everyone else is eating dinner. Legends after legends and the sea monsters of old. Sirens and beasts, the lore of the ancients and a goddess from whom supposedly both the humans and the mermen came from. Before their worlds were separated, before light and dark, and day and night, before the dry land was dry, and the oceans became filled. Before humankind were set apart, and the all the rest... the creatures of chaos were left to the sea.

"You're up late?" Chanyeol interrupts him many hours later. The book Baekhyun was reading falls off his lap with a resounding thump. The older man laughs and lifts it safely away.

"I was... I was studying."

"You were studying?" 

"Yes... yes, this book... it claims that... Oh, I don't know. It's all myth, these books, right? They don’t actually know what we know about the merpeople, right?"

Chanyeol stares at his library, all the titles, some in ancient bindings, more renditions of every kind of lore imaginable. "Maybe. Legends are fascinating things on their own, but how do we know some of these people didn't know about the mermen?"

"You think humans have met them before."

"And you don't? Can we really be the only set of people in the entire history of our planet to have met and studied the mermen?"

Again, for the second time today Baekhyun feels something like an idiot. Of course, of course they can't be the first. They're only one group of humans, with only sixty years of history with one clan of merfolk in one small corner of the ocean.

So maybe there's more than just a grain of truth in those books. It had to come from somewhere. The legends themselves remain testimony to that.

Chanyeol replaces the fallen book and scoffs at the author. "This guy wasn't the best though. Gets so many of his facts and ideas twisted. Or well, his origins story isn't too far off. They came from the Mediterranean, originally. The merpeople. Years and years ago, our seafaring cousins. Maybe even from the primeval waters themselves in the cradle of human civilization. Before they washed down to the sea. You wanted to know about Leviathan?" He picks up another one of Baekhyun's earlier discarded books. "A merman I knew once said it was the Leviathan that chased them from the Mediterranean. They haven't lived there in over thousands of years. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise. If they had remained in the Mediterranean for long, they would never have been able to keep their existence a secret. But instead they were forced out, and for generations they migrated away. The Pacific is their last refuge. Vast enough that they can always move, deep enough that they'll always be able to hide. For now..."

"I'm going away tomorrow."

Sehun's pronouncement comes as something of a surprise.

"What? Why?"

"I have to do something for my clan. I'll be gone, maybe a week?"

A whole week without Sehun? Whatever is Baekhyun supposed to do while he's gone? Learn another trade or explore the island all on his own? It's been barely two weeks since he met the merman, but already he's feeling inexplicably attached.

"I don't suppose I can go with you huh?" Baekhyun laughs.

Sehun shakes his head sadly, like he knows what Baekhyun is thinking. "I'll be back. Don't worry."

"Oh, I'll worry," he jokes. "I don't suppose there's a chance you can tell me where you're going and why?"

Again, Sehun shakes his head. It's apologetic, but he's also smiling.

"Not even one little bitty hint?"

This time Sehun laughs at loud. "Nope. Not even for you, not even if you pout and whine like you do when-" he voices trails off, and Baekhyun swears he sees something of a blush on Sehun's face.

"Not even when I..." Baekhyun tries to provoke him. It doesn't work.

Their conversation trails off, each of them resorting to just looking at the other. Why does this feel so easy, Baekhyun wonders. Goofing around and acting silly with Sehun. It reminds him of how he was before. Sehun brings out the best of his past, his nature, his easygoing carefree attitude, the kind that won over so many people until he could call upon a dozen good friends.

Or well, they said they were his friends. Before...

"Tell me a secret, Baekhyun. It's your turn anyways. You owe me."

Sehun had shared earlier that when he's angry, he chases fish for fun and eats them. Whether that's true or not — the merman had laughed — the image was a bit grotesque. Baekhyun does kind of owe him.

"What do you want to know?"

"What do humans do when you grow up?"

"That's kind of a vague question."

"Okay, but I mean, do you ever just... leave? Like run away from everything you've ever known. Did you ever feel like going away somewhere and starting all over from nothing?"

Baekhyun smiles. Of all the questions, Sehun would ask the one he's been thinking about the most.

"Why do you think I'm here actually?"

Because Baekhyun knows that feeling. For he did run away from everything he knew.

"I thought you might have," says Sehun with a knowing, musing expression.

If he knew, then why did he ask? Baekhyun rolls onto his back and stares at the sun through the palm fronds. A moment later the merman scoots on the sand closer towards him. He places a hand gently on Baekhyun’s shoulder.

“I’m right aren’t I?”

Baekhyun nods.

"Jongin said, everyone here is running away from something. And not just running away, but running to something. That’s why you come here, and that’s why you stay. But why? What was it that made you leave? What are the kinds of things that would make people want to leave?"

Lots of things, actually. Love, failed love. Parents. Expectations. Rules, obligations, society, pressure. Disgust, being considered disgusting. All the friends who turned their back on him when they realized what he was. Where does Baekhyun even start?

"If I start by telling you about my parents, maybe that would explain a few things?"

He might as well start at the beginning.

"Once upon a time... I liked a person I shouldn’t have. Things got out of control after that."

The following few days without Sehun are stranger than Baekhyun could have imagined. He spends a lot of time by himself, more so than usual since he already had a tendency to wander around and think about things later in the day after Sehun returned home, wherever that was. Some of that was beginning to change before. He missed fewer meals and intentionally sought after human company, content with the presence not only of the mermen but of his fellow colleagues as well. But with Sehun's sudden departure, the last few weeks are set back and Baekhyun feels again like the loneliest stranger on the island. And this time, it’s by choice.

Two nights later on a Thursday evening — he has to periodically check a calendar because who keeps up with days out here when the only thing they live by is the sun, and the moon, and that celebratory first shout when Minho's boat is spotted in the horizon — he finds himself sitting very nearly on top of a roof.

It's the red building he was so mesmerized by the day he first got here. The original facility that looks like a falling-to-ruin cheap resort. Baekhyun was surprised to learn the structure was way more sound than it appeared.

"Don't you ever use it?" he'd asked Jongdae one day when they met on the sidewalk between the two buildings. "Not for anything? Recreation? Extra bedrooms? Parties? The kitchen?"

"We used to back in the day, around the time I started on here. But it leaks when it rains, so anything you store over here, even temporarily, has to be moved at the first sign of a storm cloud. It was easier to leave it and honestly, it's too big for us."

"Too big for twelve people and the odd merman?" Baekhyun asked.

Jongdae only shrugged.

But it's a lonely building, like Baekhyun. He feels a sort of kinship with it and visits from time to time. The first floor is like a ghost town, dirt and sand and the occasional lizard scampering about the floor. The second isn't much better, but each row of old, empty bedrooms is kept with windows open to create a breeze.

He wonders what the first mermen thought of the humans. How they lived, how they ate, slept, played and worked or interacted with each other. Sometimes Sehun has a lot of silly questions for Baekhyun. Like why they can't just eat their food as it’s found, and why they spend so much time 'preparing' it or 'transforming' it into something else. Isn't that just a waste of time? Baekhyun tried to explain the concept of art, and got only a little further in his monologue until, 'but people pay you for create things that are only pretty or unique? Are you not satisfied with making nice things and giving them to other people or just keeping them?'

The necklace Sehun wore was such a gift, from his family. A trinket to them but created with love and gifted to each merman or mermaid when they come of age.

'Perhaps because there are fewer of you, in the sea,' said Baekhyun. 'Humans do that things like that too but, I don't know... there's the economy and job markets and... yeah, I'm not going to try to get into that.'

Baekhyun laughs to himself, remembering Sehun's face when he'd briefly mentioned this thing called a stock market and Baekhyun got himself so tongue-twisted that even he thought he was making up.

They're so far apart, their worlds. But in this little corner of paradise, here they have come together.

‘I’ve noticed something,’ Sehun had said that last day.

‘What?’

‘You seem happier when you’re around me.’

And of course Baekhyun thought this was the beginning of a cheesy pick-up line, and his heart briefly raced until he looked, really looked, at Sehun’s face, and saw in his expression only concern.

‘Why do you say that?’

Was it really noticeable? That every time Baekhyun is around the rest of their people, how he can usually manage to relax, but never to open up. That he laughs at their jokes, but other than maybe Jongin, rarely starts a conversation on his own.

Sehun, in between spending part of every day on the beach and sometimes accompanying Baekhyun in and through the facility, had caught on to the difference.

‘Maybe I just feel more comfortable around you.’

So he said, but so he now is, seeking privacy and solidarity all by himself.

The rooftop balcony in the red building is the nicest spot on the Pearl Island. He found it on accident one day, in silence as he mulled over the concept of mermen. From his bedroom window, the view is lovely, but it's still only through glass and shutters than he can see out. Here on the balcony, in the corner where two railings meet, there's nothing else but island and ocean and sky and clouds. So much blue. So many shades of blue.

A graying weather system dots their horizon, the only mar in paradise. They have no weather channel to tap into this far out, but it looks like rain. For weeks the only thing Baekhyun has seen was the sun. Now, he can't help feeling extremely small. One tiny human being on a tiny little island in the middle of the greatest natural creation this earth has ever seen: the ocean.

There's already a flurry of activity when Baekhyun returns to the other building. The salt pool slops side to side, tossing water over the edge and nearly drenching Jongin where he crouches beside it playing with the levy handles. Wendy calls out Baekhyun's name happily in greeting before she's flying to the staircase and taking them two at a time. Amber walks room to room with a checklist and clipboard in her hand. "Jongin? Check. Yifan. Check. Minseok, Luhan, check check. Wendy, oh hello there, Baekhyun, check check. Hey, have Soojung and Tao come back in yet? Has anyone seen them since this morning?"

"No," Jongin pants gruffly while he fights with the lever that pumps water out of the pool and back into the canal. They have already closed the mermen's tunnel entrance. Baekhyun kneels down to assist him, and a few seconds later their combined strength colludes enough to pull the pump lever straight. He holds it there while Jongin oversees the rest of the operation, and then switches another circular wheel knob to lock the system in place. The salt pool now rests at 1/3 capacity, just one meter deep.

"Do you do this every time a... you know... comes in?" asks Baekhyun, pointing randomly in any direction as if the storm can be seen through the small windows near the edge of the ceiling.

"Protocol. Even a little bit of rain here could turn into something bigger, and we are always going to prepare for the worst."

"Is it though?"

"Is it what?"

"Possibly the worst?"

Jongin laughs. "It's no hurricane, but we have a modest weather radar station here so Lu Han is probably checking it out as we speak."

"Lu Han? I thought he was a chemist?"

"And an amateur meteorologist. We all do odd jobs here, haven't you noticed? This is a true Renaissance-type facility!" Jongin grins.

"I'm starting to realize that," Baekhyun groans.

Minseok stands in the doorway to his office suite, curiously immobile in the middle of chaos. He leans against the side with his arms crossed and his eyes to the ceiling, to the windows that dot the the walls opposite the pool above Yifan's clinic. His jaw is twisted, firmly clenched and his lower lip a pouting, mangled set of flesh where he chews it between his teeth.

"Is he okay?" Baekhyun whispers to Jongin.

The other man looks over and frowns. "Yeah. He just doesn't care for storms so much. Makes him nervous. Makes us all a little nervous to be honest, but no one's died here in years."

"P-people have died while out here?"

"Through no fault of ours," Jongin assures him. "Stupidity, however, will find a way to weed out humanity. I don't even know this personally. It's just what I've heard. Anyways, Jongdae asked to see you whenever you got back in. He's probably running around like a wild man right now, but... best do as he asks, yeah?"

"Got it. Thanks. See yah."

He finds the boss up in his office behind a stack of books and paperwork and oddly enough, looking tired and just a little bit stressed. Baekhyun knows by know that Kim Jongdae is a thorough employee, especially since he's in charge of all island operations right now, but usually he's traipsing around cheerfully and throwing smiles and laughter wherever he goes. Baekhyun bumps into Amber on her way, clipboard still in hand. "Baekhyun! There you are! Oh, right, I already checked you off, never mind." Then she sweeps out of the room, and Baekhyun enters in her place.

"This an okay time?" he greets Jongdae apprehensively.

"Isn't every time an okay time?" Jongdae's smile is trying hard to escape. "Come in. Sorry, it's just... we have an extremely thorough list of things that have to happen in the event of a possible storm. Nothing to worry about, but, you know how it is..."

"I heard Tao and Soojung are still out there somewhere?"

"Yes, they took the boat to another island this morning. I suspect they'll be back, but then..." His voice trails off. "So tell me how things are going? I’ve been told by some of the others that you’ve been spending more time by yourself lately? You do know it’s okay to socialize once in awhile right? You’re allowed to hang out with humans, not just the mermen, right?”

Jongdae’s smile is light, like he’s cracking a joke, but with all of Baekhyun’s apprehensive, he doesn’t miss the light hint to relax and quit being a loner.

“I’ll, thank you, yes, sorry.”

Jongdae wastes no further words on the subject. “Sehun is currently... somewhere, is that right?"

Baekhyun nods, glad to be back on a topic he knows how to handle. "He didn't tell me where though."

"No, didn't suspect he would. Which, well... that's not a bad thing on its own."

It just means Sehun doesn't trust him yet. Baekhyun isn't dumb and he can read between the lines of what Jongdae isn't saying. And if this is what being a minor failure feels like, it's not as bad as Baekhyun expected but still disappointing. Sehun is keeping a secret from him, and Jongdae knows it, which means he's equally bust with them.

"I... I could try to ask when he comes back," Baekhyun suggests.

Jongdae leans back in his chair and wipes his hair out of his face. He looks contemplative, his cheerful manner gone suddenly in a wave of seriousness.

"Baekhyun, what do you think we hired you for?"

The question feels like an attack. Baekhyun stills, a shiver racing down his back. Is this it? Is this where he gets told they've made a mistake on his personality test and that Baekhyun isn't really compatible after all? Maybe he and Sehun have the capacity to become friends, but only to a level and more is required. He'll be sent back in the next boat, returned to the mainland on pain of death to never speak of this again. Or maybe he'll meet with an accident on the way home. The coming storm would be such a very convenient way for a man to disappear. He gulps.

"To, get to know the mermen and learn more about them?"

Jongdae hums. "Yes and no. Although the ‘yes’ part of that is extremely important. We hired you, just like we hired Jongin and Soojung. In some ways, it's even the reason they hired me, and to a lesser extent, all the other people you have met on this island and some you haven’t.

"You, and Jongin though... and Soojung if she's ever successful, are actually quite unique in this current lineup. Your main job is to be friendly and to build up tight rapport with our seafaring cousins so that the relationship between us and them is stable, solid. Healthy, and cordial. However you achieve it, that is your primary concern.

"But you're not spies. I didn't hire you to force a bond wherein they might be compelled to spill their every last secret. We don't want that. We are here to protect them as much as they are here to help us."

He pauses. Folding his hands, fingers weaving through the others, he narrows his gaze, waiting for Baekhyun to acknowledge that he understands.

"P-Protect them?"

Jongdae smiles.

"Yes. Protect them. You do realize that, on paper at least, you and I and everyone here works for and represents Big Pharmaceuticals. Oh yes, we work for the big name. CJJ Corp. which operates on the same level as all those other big companies worldwide with great stakes in the market and the game. It's a high risk world comprised of the greediest money-seeking men and women on the planet, and they'd do anything to keep ahead of the trends, however they see fit. The founders of this company actually knew nothing about the mermen. Did you know that?"

Baekhyun shakes his head.

"They knew nothing when it was founded, and the CEOs and all their honchos still don't know anything. Minseok told me he showed you what he's been working on. What do you think would happen if the highest tier of this company realized exactly what it is they're exploiting?"

He waits. Baekhyun clears his throat and says tentatively, "They'd do anything to get more of it..." His mind trails back to the moment he first realized what he was looking at in that tank: tiny, precious, naturally shed mer scales.

"Precisely," Jongdae continues. "The founders and the higher-ups still don't know what we're giving them. And they won't ever find out. They'll never know that one of their original partners was a crew member on the ship that discovered this place. I'd tell you his name, but then it might compromise his son who sits on the Board of Directors now. Anonymity is the key, and secrecy is our greatest weapon. Baekhyun, that's the world you have entered into, whether you like it or not."

Baekhyun pales, but he can't deny he hadn't wondered about all this a long time before. He shifts his uncomfortably on the chair and stares down at his hands. Then he looks up at Jongdae who is still waiting... for something.

"You hired people like me and Jongin because we would come to care about the mermen, so that we would want to protect them, always."

Jongdae's smile unfurls like a viper. "Sorry for playing with your emotions, kid, but your emotions... are vital here. Treat Sehun well when he returns and never turn your back on him. There are things afoot that I can't share with you just yet, but soon... Sooner rather than later, it could be upon us."

Baekhyun is sent out from that conversation with a fear in the pit of his stomach which had nothing to do with the coming storm. He wished he might return to his room, to give himself time to mull over Jongdae's warnings. Maybe allow himself a moment to consider the pseudo-betrayal of getting lured to this island for a greater good, about which he'd been given no warning, and now he can never escape.

What did happen to the people who left this island? Did they all return to work in the mainland facilities as has been implied time and time again? Is that what Baekhyun's future will be? He's a pawn in this organization, played from the start without an ounce of opinion, and something tells him he'll always be one. A pawn, albeit an important one, hidden away in the great game of Pharmaceuticals and Drugs. How he wishes now that CJJ had only been an outpost for the extraction of rare blue-green pearls. Or monkeys.

He heads down to the dock to await Tao and Soojung's return. The storm clouds have shifted closer, and the waves are twice as choppy. There's no way he would go out in a boat right now. The two of them are probably battling it out just to return.

The dock sways a little in the water. Baekhyun stands on the part of it which is still over the land. he doesn't trust the wind, or the waves, or his nerves to not make him accidentally fall in. It's shallow here, but the Baekhyun's world keeps getting grimmer and grimmer. Big companies and greed and the fear of exploitation. It's just one more step to recall Sehun's tales of sea monsters, and who cares if they're real or not, now or in the past. Baekhyun isn't getting in the water when a storm is about to strike.

But he’s been asked to wait and keep a lookout. He holds onto a wooden pillar and stares out into the coming sunset, blocked by the clouds. Lu Han promised nothing more than a good rainfall with a lot of wind, but it’s unlikely the storm will be anything more. Still, Baekhyun’s never realized before today just how precarious island living can be. There’s always the possibility it could worsen.

Something in the water suddenly jolts separate from the swell and cresting waves. He shrieks and jumps back a foot, but it's no sea monster there. Or well, maybe in another lifetime it might have been.

"J-Joonmyun?" he calls down to the shy merman swimming just beyond the reach of the pier.

He hasn't seen the ash-blond merman since that first time over a week ago, when he and Kyungsoo called Sehun back into the sea.

Tentatively, Baekhyun walks towards the edge of the pier.  Joonmyun hasn't moved. He sways to and fro in the water, mouth and eyes wide open, staring cautiously at Baekhyun's approach. It's only when Baekhyun crouches down by the edge and holds out a hand that the merman approaches closer. And still, he seems to debate the offer. A wave s him closer, and that makes up his mind. Baekhyun's fingers clasp onto the merman's rubbery hand and he hauls him up onto the dock.

A wave crashes against them, soaking Baekhyun's shoes and shorts. Joonmyun slithers easily next to him, pushing himself away from the ledge towards the center of the pier. Baekhyun follows him.

"It is Joonmyun, right?" he asks again. The merman hasn't said anything yet, but Baekhyun swears he was told Joonmyun could speak their language.

The merman nods. "Yes. And you... you are Baekhyun? Sehun talks about you a lot."

"Does he?" Baekhyun smiles, hoping that will be enough to disarm the merman's nerves. Despite the fact that he's a powerful creature with immense strength and could probably knock Baekhyun right off the pier if he wanted to, he shivers out of fright.

He looks so different from Sehun. Smaller from head to fin, and his scales are of different patterns, almost gray in this light, like they’re taking their color from the surrounding, rocky sea. Baekhyun tries not to stare as the scales closest to the pier fade darker, into brown. Mermen, when they’re in hiding, will often blend in with their surroundings like a chameleon. Baekhyun’s heard they’ll also do that when they’re scared.

"How come you're here?" he asks, nice as he can.

Joonmyun can't transform. He also has no human partner, like Yixing or Sehun, out of choice mainly, because he's too shy.

"I... I didn't know if anyone would be here, but... I hoped someone would. The portal is shut. I could not swim into the pool."

"You were coming inside?" Baekhyun asks incredulously. "We closed off the portal ahead of the storm. Drained some of the water out in case of..." Actually, he doesn't know why exactly, other than as vague precaution that their island isn't flooded with water from the inside out. It’s likely the pool could act as a drainage ditch as well.

Joonmyun wavers, and Baekhyun has the impression it's not him who can help, whatever the merman needs.

"Is, is Kyungsoo here? I was looking for Kyungsoo. I wondered if he had come here?"

Baekhyun shakes his head. “No. I don’t think I’ve seen him.”

“Oh. Well then, never mind,.” says Joonmyun, looking even more downcast. Baekhyun expects the merman to slither straight back into the ocean. And yet, Joonmyun stays. His body quivers with indecision. "Honestly I didn't think he would be here. It was just... a possibility. I should leave you now. Storm's coming, shouldn't you be inside?"

"I'll wait a little longer. Two of our people are still out there on their way in, supposedly."

Joonmyun frowns. "Tao and Soojung? I saw them earlier today. I'll... I'll see if I can spot them too. Wait for me."

And with that he dives head first into the water. Baekhyun is in awe that Joonmyun even talked to him. Now he's running to check on the others?

A gust of wind streaks through Baekhyun's hair. He scoots back again to the base of the pier and hugs a wooden post. He could go inside. He could just watch from the window for whenever the boat comes back and run out to help then. And yet, he feels mildly brave for sitting out in the elements. The sky continues to darken, the blue of the sea turns even more gray. The trees and the palms rock and brace against the wind.

Small droplets of rain splatter suddenly on his forehead, and Baekhyun looks up instinctively. Not too black overhead, just a warning shower of what's to come. He stares longingly back at at sea, hoping the boat comes soon. 

Then something else emerges from the sea. Something whitish, and at first Baekhyun thinks it’s Joonmyun returning. Until he spots the streak of pink, the top of a head peeking terrified from between the waves. Baekhyun sits up and his blood begins to pound. Pink hair, long pink hair and two delicate oval eyes, skin the color of alabaster and a tiny, petite nose and chin.

A mermaid.

Baekhyun's first reaction is to freeze. Few have ever seen a mermaid. They never come near the facility, that's what he's always heard. And yet here is one just meters away floating in the water, and she's very clearly observing him, judging him.

"H-hello?" he calls to her.

Even with his up-to-date daze proof shot, he head spins just a bit when he catches her gaze.

She doesn't answer. Instead, she swims backwards from the pier, adding distance between them. Pale, almost translucent collar bones breach the surface of the ocean.

"No, wait, don't go!" Baekhyun calls out again. He doesn't move towards her though, for fear she'll immediately run off.

She halts. Her eyes never leave him, and Baekhyun stares back imploringly. He's just made contact with a mermaid. Sort of. What if this is important? Why, on the same day, has he run into two other merpeople who are rarely seen?

She swims closer, back to where she originally started. Baekhyun moves towards the edge of the pier, slowly, practically crawling to a closer post. He stays perched on his knees, trying to remain calm, trying to look sweet and nice. He smiles. The mermaid, for the first time, falters and breaks contact. She looks almost revolted and Baekhyun shuts his lips. Perhaps that was too creepy, even for him.

"Are you... looking for someone?" he asks. "I just saw Joonmyun a while ago. He said he would be back."

No answer.

"Or Kyungsoo? He's not here. Joonmyun asked me that too."

Still no answer, although she returns her piercing gaze and swims another length closer.

"What's your name?" he asks instead, wondering if she even has one yet that he can understand.

Her pink locks float everywhere in the water, waves carrying her up and down. Another wave of dizziness rushes Baekhyun's body from head to toe. He palms the needle mark on his arm, wondering if the dose is enough. Their gaze must be more powerful than that of the males. Does the facility knows this? Are they closer even closer to the sirens of legend than Baekhyun had even thought? Does he even want her to answer his questions.

She hums, almost guttural, but more beautiful than that. It sends a small wave of pinprick-like pain through his ears, echoing in his brain and reverberating down his spine. Baekhyun doubles over on the dock, two hands on either side of his head, groaning. His breaths increase for a short while, and when he opens his eyes again, the mermaid is even closer. She looks worried.

He refuses to ask her anything else, for fear of what she might 'say'. Instead, he stares down at her warily, then cautiously, removes his hands. His mind clears up.

She does it again, a smaller chirp, that at the first sign of Baekhyun's renewed pain, she immediately cuts off. Baekhyun cries, the pain just as bad as the first, but combined from his earlier stress feels worse than ever.

This was such a bad idea. He needs to get away, get inside, before she accidentally kills him. At this rate, he wouldn't be surprised if his brain suddenly exploded. Forget mermaids, no one needs them. Let others try their wiles and risk their lives, this is definitely not how Baekhyun wants to go.

He pants and begins to crawl away, hoping he's going in the right direction and now backing up off the other side of the pier. He slithers towards the shore, where the water is shallower beneath the dock. Surprisingly, when he opens his eyes to check his position, the mermaid is right beside him next to the dock.

Baekhyun gasps and shuts his eyes. What if she's following him? What if she never lets him go?

He scoots faster and bumps into another post. One knee slips off the pier, and lands in the water. His foot finds sand and mud he flails irrationally, now probably inches from the mermaid's grasp.

He actually shrieks when she touches him. The action makes him trip and fall completely into the shallow water, waves crashing upon him but fortunately not enough to make him drown. Not yet at least. He waits for her to speak again, anticipating the pain even as he scrambles away towards the water's edge. Maybe on land he has a chance, but in the water, it's definitely the mermaid's element.

A further wave crashes over his head, and the returning current sweeps him a few steps back towards the ocean. He fears the riptide in a storm like this, fears it almost equally as he fears the mermaid and her blinding skills of terror.

But before he can pulled any further out to sea, two strong arms catch him around the middle and hold him steady. Pink hair catches across his face and shoulders, almost shimmering in his line of vision. And that's when he realizes, she's pulling him towards dry land. He coughs and sputters, but his energy is depleted. Baekhyun lets her do as she wishes, eventually being deposited on wet sand, but far from the waves. He rubs salt water out of his eyes, nostrils flailing in search of fresh air.

Minutes probably pass before he can look about himself clearly, with enough calm that he won't dread what he might see.

The mermaid sits beside him. Propped on her side with her torso in the air, she peers at him intently but doesn't speak.

"T-thank you," Baekhyun croaks, hacking up another mini gulp of swallowed seawater.

She opens , and Baekhyun panics, immediately ing his palm towards .

She freezes, and he freezes, both now equally panicked, Baekhyun because he just assaulted a mermaid, and her because... well...

Slowly, cautiously, he draws back his palm and, blushes.

Her eyes are wide open, and incredibly frightened. Yet she doesn't move. Baekhyun stares cautiously back, realizing now what exactly he's staring at, sitting beside, what he'd actually touched.

Chanyeol was right. It is different, sitting beside a mermaid.

The scales of her body are pure, pure white. Her skin is pure white, as if she's never been touched by the sun her entire life. Slimmer than the mermen, her waist could fit between Baekhyun's palms. Her s are tiny, pale pinkish s that match the color of her hair, coated in water and pebbling in the wind.

Baekhyun averts his gaze, but if she's embarrassed by him looking, she doesn't show it.

"T-thank you, again, but please... don't speak. It... really hurts," he says softly, not knowing if she can understand his words.

But she nods, and Baekhyun breathes a sigh of relief.

"I'm Baekhyun. I'm Sehun's friend."

Again, another nod. Then a small smile.

From out of the ocean comes another splattering, different from the waves. Both Baekhyun and the mermaid toss their heads to see what, but it's only Joonmyun returning. He looks aghast to find the mermaid there, out of water and and in such proximity to Baekhyun.

Grounded by his shock, Joonmyun's ascent from the ocean is slow-going. He slithers out of the water and up where they sit.

"Baekhyun?" he asks hesitantly.

"I... found her. Well, she was in the water and... I didn't know that when she made noises it would hurt my head so bad, and I fell off the dock."

That's the short version anyway.

"Oh," says Joonmyun, clearly flabbergasted. Then he changes the subject. "The boat is almost here. You should be able to help them dock and get inside before the bulk of the storm hits."

"What about you?" Baekhyun asks.

"Me? I... well I just came back to tell you that. But we'll... we prefer being deep below in weather like this. I'm sorry this happened to you, but we should be going."

He touches the mermaid gently on her arm and stares imploringly at her to go. She slides rather quickly into the water and Joonmyun starts to follow.

"Wait!" Baekhyun calls after him. The merman stops looks impatiently behind him. "The mermaid? I'm just curious since she... kind of helped me. Does she have a name? One I can pronounce?"

Joonmyun tilts his head and thinks for a moment.

"In your records, I think, you call her Taeyeon."