The young girl ran her hands all over her grandfather’s piano, feeling the dusty keys against her slim, well trained fingers. She played a few notes, and opened the inside of the piano to take a look. Then she came across a photo. A photo, though lacking in colour, envoked curiosity within her.

There were two girls in the album. One had shoulder length blonde hair, giving a wide grin to the camera, showing all her pearly whites, while the other-

Her heart started to beat faster, was it fear or the fact that she freaked out a little because the face she saw in the picture wasn’t something you see every day. The other girl, at least she thought was human, because she didn’t know there could be a girl that had a beauty so haunting and spine chilling. Her eyes tried to tear away from the picture but she couldn’t. She continued to stare helplessly at the picture.

She was brought out of her senses when her grandfather came in the room to check on her. He smiled when he saw the picture, and she could have sworn she saw a mixture of sadness and..love? in his eyes.

He took the photograph from her slim fingers and eyed it carefully. “i never wanted anyone, especially your grandma to see this,”

“who are they?” the girl inquired.

He sat down and beckoned her to sit next to him. She leaned against him, breathing in this smoky scent mixed with the tangy salty smell of the ocean.

Then he began his story:

“This was way back before i met your grandmother. I was a teenager then, and i was in love. I was in love with a girl named Kim Taeyeon. “ he pointed at the ordinary looking girl with blonde hair. “we were neighbours at the time, and i honestly thought she was the one i could spend the rest of my life with.  Till the day when i went fishing with my appa.”

60 years ago,

“come on Leeteuk! Pull harder! I think we got a catch!” the middle aged man exclaimed excitedly. The well-built boy with caramel brown hair gave a tremendous pull and fell back as the net collapsed on top of him. The weight was unbearable and he groaned, trying to remove himself from the net. Then he saw her. Or it?

His eyes widened in surprise. Was it what he thought it was?  He didn’t think such a creature would exist! He thought those type of creatures were the figment of imagination of overimaginative mothers and struggling storywriters. Nevertheless, he wasn’t dreaming as the pain from the fall felt real enough.what he saw was real.

It was a mermaid.

And she was BEAUTIFUL.

Leeteuk and his father wasted no time in bringing back the mermaid. All the time, the mermaid kept cooing sadly but Leeteuk tore his eyes from her, his heart aching from the pity he felt for her.

It was inhumane to capture something so wondrous and he suspected she had feelings a human could. But the opportunity to present such a find to the National Aquatic Research Centre(NARC) was too amazing to be amissed.

They stored her in a large aquarium, in which its previous owner was a hammerhead shark that they sold for a few hundred thousand. With that money, Leeteuk could go to school. And that was where he met Taeyeon. Kim Taeyeon, the girl of his dreams.

He stared at the mermaid, his mouth agape in wonder at the creation in front of him. He tapped the glass slowly, trying to find ways to communicate with the mermaid. At the same time, the father was making calls to convince the scientists what he was saying wasn’t a figment of imagination.

Couple of hours passed and the mermaid wasn’t even showing signs she noticed the boy. Desperate, he called his girlfriend for help.

Kim Taeyeon arrived a few minutes later and gasped at the creature in the tank. “how could you do such a thing Teuk!” she scolded when he told her they were going to sell her. Nevertheless, she agreed to find ways of communicating with the mermaid.

Leeteuk’s father came in and announced the scientists are coming in one month’s time. Meanwhile they could find ways of how the mermaid behaved, what they ate, their communication patterns.

Most were done by Taeyeon. Mostly because she was the only one the mermaid paid attention to. Leeteuk let it off with a shrug, maybe it was because they were both girls.

Taeyeon spent most of her time in Leeteuk’s house, trying to communicate with the mermaid, taking care of her, cleaning her out, feeding her. (she found out the mermaid liked to eat any kind of raw fish). Leeteuk wished he could come in and look at the mermaid too, but to no avail. The mermaid remained stubbornly silent when anyone other than Taeyeon was in the room.

Leeteuk peeked behind the door to see his girlfriend and the mermaid wave to each other. The mermaid was intoxicatingly and hauntingly beautiful. She had long eyes that occasionally curved into cresents when she was happy or after a meal, wavy sea-green,black hair and her bone structure was jaw droppingly perfect. The only sounds she made were clicking sounds with her tongue and cooing sounds when she’s sad, normally because when she misses her taeyeon.

Day by day, Taeyeon and Leeteuk grew further apart. All that was on Tae’s mind was the mermaid. Taeyeon even gave her a name-Mi Young, which meant eternal and beautiful. Because she was beautiful,and she would stay beautiful forever. his heart ached to hear Tae’s words. He  might be imagining it but he had a feeling Taeyeon was falling for that fish.

his suspicions were confirmed when he came into the room, intending to give Taeyeon a sandwich. The mermaid was propping herself up using her elbows, engaged in a lip lock with his girlfriend. Enraged, i called the scientists to hasten their journey to our village.

During dinnertime,Leeteuk proudly announced the scientists were going to come the next day and take the mermaid away.

That was the same night his girlfriend and him fought. She pleaded and begged. Being the stubborn and jealous one he is, he turned a deaf ear to her pleads. Upset and full of despair, she stormed out to see the mermaid one final time.

Leeteuk  peeked through the door to check on her, and to apologise to her but stopped when he saw the look in her eyes, and in the mermaid’s eyes. He had never seen that look before. It was a mixture of anguish, despair, hate..and love. With a heavy heart, he trudged up the stairs. He hated himself for making Taeyeon feel this way but he couldn’t imagine himself losing her.

But he already lost her. He just couldn’t admit it to himself. He fell asleep after making a decision that he was going to let Taeyeon keep the mermaid. It was selfish of him to do what he had done.

He woke up to the sound of splashing and a shrill cry. Sitting back up, he rushed to the window. He couldn’t believe his eyes, his eyes could have been deceiving him.

But he could see two figures, a creature entering the water, half human, half fish and a young girl sitting on the creature’s back. They paddled fast into the water towards the direction of the moon’s reflection. He jumped up and ran downstairs. The aquarium was empty. And the room was empty.

The scientists were angry, thinking that it was some idea of a joke. Leeteuk couldn’t care less. He had called search teams to scour the waters for his girlfriend. But all to no avail. His girlfriend was missing.

A funeral was held for her, as everyone assumed she probably died in the sea. But Leeteuk knew she couldn’t have been dead. Miyoung wouldn’t have brought Taeyeon out into sea to kill her.

End Flashback

“and i was right,” the old man stated, brushing away a tear. “every night when the moon is full, i swear i could hear Taeyeon’s voice,mixed with the dolphin’s squeals. She would sing a melody with no rhythm and something so alien, yet so beautiful.”

He patted the girl’s cheek.”i hope you can learn something out of this story, Seohyun” the girl lifted an eyebrow.

“love has no boundaries. Love is unpredictable. And what i saw in Taeyeon’s eyes when she was looking at the mermaid was something beyond love. It was an unexplainable emotion she conveyed. I couldn’t let her lose Miyoung. She didn’t deserve to lose her soulmate.”

“don’t you wish she could come back and visit you sometime Grandpa?” seohyun asked, eyes widening.

“i do wish. But even if she doesn’t, i’m sure she’s perfectly happy wherever she is.” He gave her one sad smile, took the picture out of her hands and tucked it into his pocket.

When you take care of something, devote your life into nurturing and ensuring whatever it is comes out well due to your efforts, it’s hard not to get attached.

Leeteuk found it hard to emphatize and understand what Taeyeon was going through. But he loved her. And he wished for her to be happy.

The love story of Kim Taeyeon and her mermaid Miyoung continued to be told, from generation to generation.  It was told so many times, and happened such a long time ago people began to regard it as fiction. But it did teach them one thing;

Love has no boundaries. Love is unpredictable.

A/N: HALLO my second oneshot!!yaay . thanks for the support frm everyone who read and commented on my first oneshot, confessions of a love stricken artist. if u havent read it, READ IT or else *scary face. HAHA neways i hope you enjoy this new oneshot. not a , coz i ain't a writer...just not byun enough in my writing i guess =/ 

soo...read, AND COMMENT!!!! please comment! even if it's jst a few words, jst take a few minutes out of your time to tell me what you think and stuff =D love ya all!! 

and this fic is a special tribute to my fav author Roald Dahl, who i think without reading his works, i wouldn't be able to get the love for writing and the A* in my O-Level English Language keke

CHEERS!! <3