Minho paced back and forth outside the university, waiting for her sister to arrive. Because their parents formed special relations with the university, both were allowed to stay home. This was both a blessing and a curse for Minho. Sometimes, he wished he didn’t have to see his sister each day and maybe experience just one day of campus life. Minho glanced at his watch in impatience as his eyebrows furrowed together. “Just where is that little brat?” Minho spoke under his breath. As he looked out into the distance, he squinted at the sun’s blaring rays. Once his eyes adjusted to the brightness, Minho identified one of the people, Sulli. He watched as she leaned her head onto the male’s shoulder, whom Minho quickly saw to be Myungsoo. There was no reason, but Minho found himself smirking at them, thinking of them as a couple.

“You dumbo!” Minjee jumped onto her brother and kept herself hanging from his neck.

Minho snapped out of his thoughts and tried thrashing his body around to force her sister off his back. “Choi Minjee!” Minho almost shouted. “Get off your brother’s back now!”

Minjee climbed down with a frown visible on her face. “You’re no fun.” Her frown deepened as she saw Krystal approaching them. Although Minho never knew, Krystal was flirting with him while dating Taemin, and Minjee knew this all too well. Minho always questioned why Minjee always gave Krystal dirty looks, but Minjee didn’t have the guts to tell Minho what was really going on. She knew that her brother harbored no feelings for Krystal, but she still didn’t have the heart to break their so called friendship.

“Minho oppa!” Krystal endearingly called from a distance, earning the attention of other people nearby.

“Let’s go Minho.” Minjee tried dragging Minho away, but Krystal seemed stronger of the two, pulling her brother away. She sighed as she saw Krystal hopelessly flirting with her brother, but what else could she do? Minutes dragged on and on, as Minjee sat there staring at the two before her.

Instead of staying any longer, Minjee wandered away, finding herself in front of two other students. “Hello. My name is Minjee.”

The female and male student turned around to her, both surprised and maybe a little fearful at her sudden entrance. “Oh, hi. Are we supposed to know each other?”

Minjee shook her head. She then peered over her shoulder to look at her brother and Krystal. “I’m just trying to let time pass faster. My brother is being annoying and won’t go home with me.” The female student seemed to recognize who her brother was, seeing the recognition flash across her face. “Do you happen to know my brother?”

She seemed hesitant in her response, but finally ended up saying, “I’ve just seen him around.”

“What are your names?” Minjee asked, hoping that maybe these two could be her new friends, at least for now.

“I’m Myungsoo.” He then turned to the female student, introducing her as well. “And she is––”

“Sulli?” Minho called out interrupting Myungsoo’s introduction. “I didn’t know you knew Minjee.”

“Oppa, you know her?” Krystal skeptically asked. She looked at Sulli with a look of either dismay or hatred, but Sulli could not identify which. Maybe it was both.

Sulli sent a small smile back, feeling uncomfortable in the current situation. “I don’t really know him.” She, like any normal person, wanted to remain peaceful in her duration of time on land. There was no way she was going to involve herself with creating enemies and girl drama. This is what made sea life substantially simplified. It was rarely heard of for mermaids to fight amongst one another. There may be quarrels here and there, but they never were serious enough to develop into full scale drama sessions.

Minho tilted his head at Sulli’s words. “Hey, did you forget that I saved you from falling into the pool today?”

“What happened, oppa?” Krystal sweetly questioned.

Sulli shook her head at Minho, hoping that he would shut up as soon as possible. Maybe he didn’t sense it, but Sulli knew that Krystal was already hating her. “Nothing.”

“Krystal, you don’t have to worry about everything that Minho does. That’ll be my job.” Minjee smirked. She turned to Myungsoo and Sulli, hoping to know them better. “Hey, do you two want to walk with me and Minho to the university tomorrow?”

“We––” Myungsoo was about to reject because he knew that the more people he and Sulli met, the more people would know them. Their job was to stay hidden within the population of students, not attract more and more friends.

“Ok, I’ll see you two tomorrow!” Minjee gave Myungsoo and Sulli her address with a bright smile that Sulli found really inviting. If Sulli weren’t a mermaid, she knew that she would become close friends with Minjee. She reminded her of a friend from home that was always happy and open to meeting new people, unlike her who was sometimes more reserved when it came to new friends.

“Oppa, can I come?” Krystal begged with puppy eyes.

Minho shook his head. “You have a boyfriend to walk with, Krystal.”

Sulli snapped her eyes upward to meet Minho’s. There was one word that she had never heard of. “Boyfriend? What does that mean?”

Myungsoo elbowed Sulli, fearing that they would reveal their identity this way. Although he did not know what the word meant either, he still kept quiet because by the look of their faces, it was a word that they probably should know.

“Isn’t he your boyfriend?” Krystal pointed to Myungsoo who was standing closely to Sulli.

“You’re joking again, right?” Minho tilted his head, looking Sulli up and down. Something about her was just not right. “I’ll explain it to you in the morning tomorrow.” He checked the time on his watch and realized that he needed to go in order to make it to soccer practice. As an avid soccer fan, it was always his priority to make it to practices in time. He was also the most popular soccer team captain amongst the school. Almost all the girls knew him for his natural born feat in soccer.

“Sulli, right?” Minjee clarified for her name. When Sulli nodded, Minjee continued. “You really don’t know what boyfriend means?” A shake of the head was Sulli’s response. “Then what about the word love?” Sulli naively shook her head again.

“Sulli, we have to go, right?” Myungsoo pulled Sulli by the wrist, leaving a surprised group behind. When the group could no longer hear their conversations, Myungsoo stopped walking and stood in front of Sulli. “Ok, as an older brother, it is my duty to protect and make sure that you’re okay. I forgot to mention to you that even if you have never heard of a word before, pretend that you know because there’s stuff that teachers back at home failed to teach us about humans.”

Sulli’s head hung low, feeling ashamed of herself. She just disappointed her supposed older brother. “I’m sorry, Myungsoo.”

“It’s ok. Just pay more attention in the future.” Myungsoo ruffled Sulli’s hair, earning a smile from her face. They continued walking again as silence enveloped both of them until Myungsoo began speaking again. “That Minjee girl, she seems like a loyal person at first glance. If we get to know her more maybe she can help us.”

Sulli nodded, agreeing to Myungsoo. “She reminds me of Luna, one of my friends from home.” She laughed nostalgically at the thought of her childhood friend. “We met in a similar scenario where she swam up to me and continued talking to me. At that time, I was still shy with others so I just listened