"Stay," Jongin insisted, his fingers wrapped around Kyungsu's wrist as he went to get up, the pre-dawn light filtering through the pale cream curtains. "Please..." The younger man's eyes were wide as he made his plea, fear warring with need in his gaze.

"I can't," Kyungsu breathed, desperately pulling away and grabbing his clothes, tugging them on as fast as he could. "I can't. I have to go..."

Jongin sat up, watching his lover get dressed, his expression becoming unreadable.

"Why?" he asked, his voice harsh. "Why do you do this every time? I only ever see you at night, and you leave before sunrise." Running his hands through his messy hair, Jongin groaned with frustration. "It's been over two and a half years, Kyungsu. Why are you doing this?"

Staring at Jongin with wide, scared eyes, Kyungsu shook his head apologetically. "I'm sorry, but I told you before. I just can't. You have to let me go..."

Finally dressed now, Kyungsu headed for the door.

"If you leave now, that's it." The note of finality in Jongin's  voice made Kyungsu shiver and turn to look at him, a shattered look in his eyes. "If you go, we're through. I can't do this anymore..."

Taking a deep shuddering breath, Kyungsu's eyes filled with tears. "You wouldn't understand," he murmured, disappearing through the now-open door without a sound. "I'm sorry..."

Throwing the glass he found on his bedside table at the door as Kyungsu left, Jongin felt, as well as heard, the sound it made as it hit the wall and fell to the floor, shattering into pieces, just like his heart. Burying his face in his hands, Jongin began to cry quietly, his shoulders shaking.


Kyungsu ran through the deserted streets, sobbing with pain as his heart broke. It was close to dawn now and he had maybe only a few moments left, but he slowed as he realised it didn't matter anymore. Jongin had made his feelings clear. There was a peculiar tension in the air now, a figure watching Kyungsu from the beach as he slowly made his way down the sloped jetty to the white sand, his shoes somehow disappearing along the way.

Feeling the splintered pieces of his soul begin to disappear as the first rays of pure sunlight dappled the warm sandy beach and the cool waters of the sea, Kyungsu drew level with the man, his eyes glassy.

"He left me," he murmured, his voice sounding hollow. "It's over." The wind caressed his face, blowing dark hair into his eyes as he looked out over the water, waves starting to lash almost angrily at the beach. "Goodbye, Suho-hyung, and I'm sorry. I should have listened to you and not let myself fall for another human."

Suho didn't speak, his dark eyes sympathetic as Kyungsu's body collapsed lifelessly onto the white sand, his bruised and battered soul lost with the sunrise. The rising waves began to lap at Kyungsu's body just as a shout came from across the street, alarm and sudden grief in the familiar voice.

"Kyungsu! Where are you? Please..." Jongin appeared abruptly and a scream was choked off as he saw the body on the sand, one hand clamped over his mouth and his eyes wide with grief. "No...no, please..." he murmured, falling to his knees beside his lover's lifeless body, tears streaming from his eyes as he lifted a shaking hand to smooth back the hair from Kyungsu's still face. "Oh my... No, Kyungsu..."

"I'm so sorry," Jongin sobbed brokenly, hunched over and clutching at himself in agony. "I didn't mean... Please come back..."

"He's gone," Suho said gently, still standing where he'd been all this time, a silent witness to the heartbreak and subsequent death of his younger friend and protégé. "I'm sorry..."

Jongin looked up, his eyes red-rimmed and swollen from crying. "Who are you?" he asked, his voice rough with grief. "Why are you here?" The wind was whipping at his clothing and hair, but the young man didn't seem to notice, his attention fixed warily on the stranger standing a few metres away.

"Kyungsu was my friend," Suho answered softly, lines of sorrow etching themselves across his face. "That's why I'm here. And as for who I am..." Suho tilted his head at Jongin and the young man blinked in surprise. "I think you know already."

"You're Suho, aren't you?" Realisation dawned in Jongin's eyes as he glanced between his lover's body and the man standing over him. "But I don't understand..." Sitting back on his heels, Jongin stared unseeingly at his hands.

"He mentioned you once. He said you were like an older brother and father figure to him, and that he'd known you all his life..." Confusion flickered over Jongin's face as he tried to make sense of what he remembered Kyungsu telling him one night, early in their relationship. "He made it sound like you'd been friends for centuries, rather than..." He trailed off as Suho nodded, his eyes widening. "What are you?"

Jongin had just noticed the storm that had come up while he knelt beside his lover's body, the suddenness of it unnatural. No normal storm came on this fast, not even here.

"What's going on?" Shouting to make himself heard over the howling of the wind and the crashing of the waves, Jongin could feel reality (as he knew it) slipping away from him. What did this mean Kyungsu had been?

"You loved his voice, didn't you?" Suho asked, rather than answering Jongin's question directly. His voice was soft, yet somehow Jongin managed to hear him over the storm's chaos. "It drew you to him. Irresistible, wasn't it?" Suho's smile held an edge of sorrow. "Do you understand yet? What he was?"

"He shouldn't have gone with you that first night," he added, his words twisting the knife into Jongin's bleeding heart despite the smoothness of his voice. "Or any other night. But something about you drew him at the same time, like a moth to a flame before he was burnt..."

"Stop, please..." Jongin had begun to cry again, his head bowed. "I'm sorry, but I didn't know. I wouldn't have-"

"Wouldn't you?" Suho's voice was cutting now, his scorn leaving trails of blood across Jongin's mind. "We both know that's a lie. You wouldn't have been able to stop yourself."

Stepping forward, Suho's fingers traced along Jongin's jawline, pressing until he looked up.

"You can't escape once you hear a siren's voice. It's inevitable. That's why we're forbidden to give our hearts to anyone, especially a human. It kills us..." Jongin could have sworn he saw a flash of pain in Suho's eyes. "And he had the misfortune of already falling once before. That human died because of Kyungsu, did you know that?" Suho gave a small mirthless laugh. "You have no idea how many of your kind he killed before he met and fell in love with you."

"And now he's gone."

Jongin noticed with a start that it was literally true, looking around almost wildly in panic as he tried to find where Kyungsu's body might have gone. The tide was rising ever closer to where Jongin knelt, but surely his lover's body hadn't been carried out to sea that fast?

"Let me die with him," Jongin found himself whispering as he looking up into Suho's eyes, seeing surprise in them at his words. "He might have loved me, but I loved him too. I need him, and if this is the only way..."

As Suho looked up and over at the sea, Jongin followed his gaze and blinked as he saw Kyungsu, standing in the sea and holding out his hand with a soft smile on his face. 'Come to me,' Kyungsu mouthed, his smile growing as Jongin got to his feet and started towards him, ignoring the faint sound of someone calling his name. That someone wasn't Kyungsu, so Jongin paid no heed, fighting the surf as it pounded against him, threatening to drag him under.

"The ocean is crying for Kyungsu," Jongin heard Suho murmur just as a wave broke over his head, the current pulling him under and the water choking him.

'That makes two of us,' Jongin thought as his mind clouded over, his lungs starved for oxygen as he drowned in the arms of his beloved. 'But at least we're together now...'

He closed his eyes and smiled as he felt Kyungsu's soft lips against his. "I love you..."