The clouds are stormy and rain cuts through the air as it pours down in huge waves when they bring it in under the cover of the night.

A huge cloth is laid over a square container that’s twice Chanyeol’s size and if he listens closely enough, he could hear water splashing from within. Curiosity brims inside of him as he pretends to continue to clean the audience stands, watching the group of workers with grim expressions push the container to where the other exotic creatures are in the other tent.

The ringmaster talks to him later, a man with lips pressed thin and a glare that sends shivers down his spine, telling him to go in there and clean and to not ask any questions. He’s only supposed to do his job anyways.

Chanyeol needs the pay so he learns to keep his mouth shut. This is his way out and he won’t ruin it when there is no other job who would accept him anywhere else.

After being shunned by his parents from being caught kissing the milk delivery boy, the words of his brief relationship had spread throughout the small town. Chanyeol was unable to go anywhere without someone having the need to say their own piece about it even when it had nothing to do with them. His mother chose to no longer speak to him until he ‘grew up’ and his father wouldn’t look at him. It was as if he was a stranger in his own home and so when the circus rolled in for the week, he hitched a ride, begging for any job they had available.

It was only when a young trapeze artist by the name of Nana who vouched for him despite not even knowing him, that Chanyeol was allowed to become a runaway.

Later on, when Chanyeol had settled into a small bunker in one of the trailers and was set to clean the cages of the animals, Nana had approached him with a smile. She knew instantly when he had gotten on his knees before the ringmaster, that he was someone like her, someone who wanted another chance at life and that was why she helped him.

Now, she was one of his closest friends and he goes to her first as a detour to ask about the unknown tank.

“From what I’ve heard in the passing, it's worth more than any of us put together. They’re even planning to put security around it too,” Nana says before she goes to bend her body around the suspended rope she holds, the image of elegance and poise; the star trapeze artist. “You know he’s gonna start yelling at you right away if you don’t get over there right?”

Chanyeol sighs, rubbing the calluses on his hands and looks past the curtains of the main tent to the faded striped tent of smaller size that contains all his curiosity and apprehension.

“Tomorrow morning?” Chanyeol asks.

Nana gives him a thumbs up and twirls herself in the rope, leaving him to his own devices.

With no choice, Chanyeol takes a small breath before he lifts the mop handle and carries it along with his bucket of water towards the tent which he holds tightly onto till his knuckles turn white.

When he steps in, it’s nothing noticeable at first. The animals greets him with a few grunts of sound before settling back into their cages. The tiger, Maria as Chanyeol had affectionately started to call her, is in the corner of her cage and only lifts her head briefly when he enters before going back to sleep when she realizes that it’s him.

Chanyeol scans the tent, glossing over the birds fluttering in the cages and other animals that were amongst them. It is in the corner that Chanyeol spots the tank of water, still half covered by the cloth that was placed on it just before. When he comes closer, the horses snort softly and shake their manes before going back to eat hay and Chanyeol places the bucket on the floor before slowing peering into the murky and dark water.

Nothing at first other than the gentle lapping of water against the glass and Chanyeol’s about to turn away when a hand reaches through the darkness and presses against the glass.

Chanyeol nearly screams in shock, hand grasping his chest in fear before it registers to him that the hand is glowing a calm silver hue. Soon after the hand, a whole body follows and eyes that reflect his own peer at him. The glow wraps around the creature giving off an iridescent mysticality that only takes his breath away and it’s only when Chanyeol locks eyes with the creature does he see how beautiful they are.

Their eyes are as dark as the night but filled with a curiosity and cautiousness that makes Chanyeol take a step back to show that he means no harm. With hair is as luminous as the moon, a beacon within the water and if Chanyeol looks closely behind the creature, he sees a tail moving back and forth behind him and gapes softly.

A mermaid?

Once again, Chanyeol is at a loss of words over just how otherworldly the creature is, that if he were to say something at that very moment, the illusion between them would shatter into pieces. So he backs up slowly and bows his head softly towards him before turning away to continue cleaning.

The rest of the night is spent with bright eyes watching him with a sense of curiosity.

The next time that Chanyeol sees them again is from the wings of the stands as he watches the acrobats fly across the rope and animals roaming underneath performing the tricks with their trainers.

It’s beautiful, like it always is, a magical performance of wonder and the unknown and he doesn’t need to turn to the audience to see their faces to know how bewildered they must be with everything. He, after all, was one of them in the past. In a way he still is. He never gets sick of seeing a performance even though it’s been about a year since he’s been alongside the circus.

The only thing that’s changed now of course is how there is a pool that is in the middle of everything and ringmaster plays up the audience with a grin and a wave of his cane, calling to their new main attraction as the music dies down and the cheers of the crowd dwindle off to silence.

The water’s surface breaks and it appears, in a shroud of light and everyone audibly gasps at reflection that bounces of the tail of the mermaid. The music comes in once more as they performs a few more jumps. It’s wondrous and with every glimpse they give to the audience, their surprise shows even more.

But Chanyeol sees, that despite their actions, the wariness in their eyes, the tightness of their muscles with a broken smile on their face, as they and the ringmaster work through their routine.

Beautiful, yet somehow heartbreaking.

Chanyeol visits the tank a few more times at the command of the ringmaster who tells him time and time again, to clean and to never ask questions. So he doesn’t. He does so with silence until the head pops up from the water and stares at him with unabashed shame.

Chanyeol flushes under the gaze but doesn’t try anything further, scrubbing the floor around the tank and other cages in the tent.

He’s inquisitive though, like he always is, sneaking glances and every single time the mermaid locks eyes with him as if they know and it's in the that instant between them that Chanyeol wonders of a world where he can see this mermaid smile; a real one.

It’s not Chanyeol who speaks first but the mermaid, with just a gentle sigh of his name as he’s cleaning and he nearly drops his mop bucket as his heart leaps at the sound. He turns, with his eyes wide as the mermaid stares and then makes no other move. As if they hadn’t spoken up just moments before.

Chanyeol doesn’t know what to do at this point, still reeling and questioning if he has actually imagined the whisper. But he couldn’t have? When the voice who said it was so beautiful he’ll probably end up thinking about it late into the night, a voice guaranteed to wrap him in its embrace and never let him forget.

He whispers then, unable to speak at full volume because he’s scared of breaking the atmosphere around them.

“Did you… say my name?” he asks softly.

The mermaid sways gently in the water, their hair moving on its own even without a current moving through the tank before they slowly nod at him, eyes somehow brighter that night than the previous ones before.

Chanyeol steps closer, the bucket and mop long forgotten on the floor, until he’s right in front of the tank. The mermaid doesn’t hide; in fact, they appear above the water, webbed hands grasping the edge of the tank.

“What’s yours?” he asks this time.

The mermaid blinks at him, as if they could somehow read his very thoughts and leans forward towards Chanyeol, whispering their name against his ear before diving back into the water and hiding once more in the depths.

Baekhyun.

The work is tedious like it always is, with Chanyeol doing every other job that no one in the circus enjoys. That usually involves that of getting rid of broken materials, cleaning the stands and dealing with the animals. But now if anything, the tent of animals quickly becomes his favourite place when he sees Baekhyun who greets him with splash of their tail.

They don’t speak much at first, not when Chanyeol is quite busy with caring for the animals but slowly he warms up the mermaid and one night, he pulls up a chair and sits by the tank and starts talking.

He tells Baehkyun about how he’s gotten to the circus and how he did it to gain freedom from his home, how it is his lifeline and a shining opportunity to start again.

“It’s not much,” Chanyeol says, kicking the bucket by his side. “But I’m trying to collect enough money so I can start off in a new town