{ Part 1 }

“Wai…wait!!!ARGGGGHHHHH!!!”

“Huh!” Luhan opened his eyes wide and threw his body up at once. Then, he sighed. His eyes caught the bright rays of the evening sun, coming in from the window next to his bed. The light blinded his eyes so he shut it closed and covered his face with his palm.

“Ugh…not again, Luhan ah...” he heard someone was speaking and he turned around only to see a boy standing in front of the long mirror. Luhan snorted.

“What’s with the bow tie?” he asked in a bored tone. Lay peeked at him through the mirror. His hands were still busy fixing the tie around his collar.

“Don’t tell me that you forgot again about tonight's event?” he guessed to him, sounded irritated with Luhan’s slow reaction. The boy blinked at him and Lay groaned out loud.

“It’s the gala night…remember?” Lay reminded him impatiently and Luhan stared out for a while. He only nodded a few minutes later.

“Yeah…it’s tonight…” Luhan answered him back and Lay nodded, turning around to fix his hair. He grabbed the gel cream and started to apply it to his hair, styling it here and there.

Luhan still spaced out on his bed. He turned to look outside the window and saw the ocean there - vast and blue like usual. Then his mind flicked back to his dream just now. He heard it again. The usual scream that haunted his sleeps lately. It was kinda creepy to him but he braced himself and shook his head, trying to get the dream out of his mind. Suddenly, he heard footsteps, half running and half walking and there was Chen appeared at their door.

“Woah…Lay hyung, you look cool!” Chen praised him once he fixed his eyes on him, making a thumb up to him. Lay flashed him his dazzling smile and Chen smiled back at him. Then he held out his hands, there were two pairs of tuxedoes there. In his right hand, the black one and in his left hand, the white colored one.

“Which one do you think is better? This one or this one?” he asked, sounded confused as he held them out one by one towards Lay and Luhan. Lay started to check the clothes suspiciously while Luhan yawned widely on his bed.

“Any of them will do…” he answered him lazily and laid back on his bed, completely ignoring Chen’s disappointed face. Chen pouted and turned his body to face Lay instead.

“So what do you think?” he asked him again. Lay pointed out to his left hand.

“I think you will look nice in the white one…innocent and cute…” Lay gave out his opinion and Chen looked at the white tuxedo, he narrowed his eyes while eyeing it.

“Really? Why should I look innocent and cute while I’m hoping to look smart?” Chen commented rather to himself than to the other boys. Lay laughed a bit while Luhan rolled his eyes.

“You don’t have too…you’re cute so no need to pretend to be smart…” Lay pointed out in his most sincere tone that made Chen chuckled at him. He started to move back to his room but then he turned back to look at Luhan, raising his eyebrow up high.

“Why don’t you get ready yet? It’s almost time, you know…” Chen reminded him but Luhan hid his face behind the pillow that he hugged.

“Later…” he replied and Chen rolled his eyes before taking his steps back but again, he turned around and now finally got inside the room.

“What shoes should I wear? Ugh! I hate dressing up for formal party! Hate it!” Chen mumbled again as he landed his on Luhan’s bed but quickly Luhan whom just realized it, pushed him out from his bed. Chen was now thrown down on the floor. Lay just shook his head when he glanced a bit at them. He knew how Luhan hated it when someone touch or put anything on his bed. It was like he casted something on his bed that was dangerous for anybody to be there. It was kind of a weird phobia and Lay thought of it as something stupid.

“Ceh! Yeah, save your golden bed to yourself!” Chen scolded Luhan and the hyung just nodded his head to him.

“If you care too much about how to dress up, why don’t you just go and ask ‘your own roommate’? I’m sure he has something more brilliant than us…” Lay suggested again, changing the topic back to the earlier discussion. Chen raised his eyes to peer on him with a serious face.

“I can’t even open my mouth seeing how serious he is conquering the mirror…” Chen commented and Lay chuckled at him.

“Useless isn’t it? You actually use the mirror to check out your own reflection…so what is the point of using it if you can’t actually see your face?” Lay replied him sarcastically while laughing a bit. Luhan smirked and nodded to Lay while Chen rubbed his head in confusion.

“Meaning?” he finally asked and Lay sighed, shaking his head. He got up from his own bed and started to walk out from the room. Luhan also finally got out of his bed, stretching his body a bit before he too, leaving Chen alone in the room with his dilemma. Chen followed Luhan’s steps as he walked out while he blinked stupidly at him. Then he thought again. Yeah, the stand mirror in his room wasn’t so tall. So Kris always blabbering over the problem that he couldn’t see his face properly in the mirror just because he was towering over 180 cm. Chen finally understood what was meant by Lay just now and he too, exited the room.

“RIHOOOO!!!!” Violet heard someone screamed so she drastically opened her eyes. But then her eyes were swept close again as her hair floating on it with the wave. She shook her hair out of her eyes and opened them back. She slid down from the broken deck and swam around. There was nothing but the ocean and not too far from this ship, there were mermaids playing around with the crabs. They laughed out when the crabs bared its claws to them. Violet shook her head. It wasn’t right. Their laughter couldn’t be just like the scream she heard just now. Or maybe it was just a dream.

“You are awake already…” someone tapped her on her shoulders and Violet turned around only to see her forth sister, Celia. She smiled a bit at her and Violet replied it politely back.

“Wanna go outside?” she offered her and Violet raised her eyebrow. When she said outside it meant up there. Violet rarely saw the human world. She thought of it as something odd. The air, the scenery. Everything. She also felt that here, in the sea was the most suitable place for her. After all she was a mermaid. She didn’t belong to the human world. She belonged here, around the blue. Before she could reply anything to her, Celia had already swimming up, waving her tail smoothly behind her. Violet thought Celia was the prettiest mermaid among their siblings. Her skin was as blue and bright as the sea during winter and her eyes glowed like diamond in the water. Her tail also had the combination of light green and golden. It was indeed pretty, Violet thought as she also swam herself up to the surface.

There were lights on the surface. Violet stared at the light from deep beneath the waves, at the tiny threads of blue light that made their way through the water, down to where she was. Suddenly she saw her other siblings. From the eldest sister until her. They came to greet Celia and her before they swam together towards the surface. The ocean shifted, her sisters rose further and slipped upward like a single creature. She followed. The weight of the water above them grew less and less until…

Violet gasped, dry air filled her lungs. It hurt but she grinned and forced her eyes opened despite the wind. She looked up at the stars, moon and finally the shore. Two bright lights shone from a spot in the sand, moving along slowly, waving back and forth. They were handheld lights, grasped in the palms of humans walking side by side. She swam forward a little, silent, to get a better look.

A man and a little girl, laughing and talking, the sound barely audible over the crashing waves. Brilliant-colored lights in pinks, reds, greens, yellows, from the white building just across the seaside, bounced off their faces. All that lights and yet the two of them somehow looked brighter in comparison. They looked warm and happy together.

“Fascinating isn’t it? The human….they can walk, holding hands...” one of her sisters suddenly said and Violet tilted her head slightly to look at her. It was her fifth sister, Aria. She was the only sea girl who really loved this outside world. She loved human. And even when they were in the sea, she would talk about them for ages. She used to be here for hours and hours during the night just to catch a glimpse of them by the shore. She said if she can choose, she would prefer to be a human instead of a mermaid. But her words always annoyed the hell out of their elder brother. He was the king of their land, Mermaidiya. He always said that, ‘be grateful that you are a mermaid’ because they didn’t need to show emotion. Yeah, human was way too complex. They smiled and laughed when they were happy and they shed tears when they were sad. Their brother hated that fact. So was Violet. What was the point of regretting over something that had happened?

“Ah…” then something startled them. They turned back and the sisters started to swim back into the ocean.

“Come…you heard it…our brother is calling for us…” the oldest among them said as they heard his voice, deep down the ocean. Only their kind can actually understood the sound. If it was heard by a human, it almost just liked another sound from the water. So they sank inside the water but Aria still kept her gaze towards the humans just now. Violet touched her shoulders and she smiled.

“Just go without me…I wanna stay here…” she replied her and Violet dropped her own gaze far at the coastline. She gulped but feeling like staying here too. So she turned her body back, facing her other sisters that now ready to get inside the water, their heads hanging on the surface of it.

“Tell it to the brother that we will be just fine here…” Violet reminded them, her voice raised a bit to fight against the strong wind. They nodded to her and swam back down.

“Thanks for accompanying me…” Aria said with a smile on her lips and Violet just laughed slowly beside her. Her eyes went back to the humans.

“Why do you want so much to be like them?” Violet asked her and choked a bit as she opened to talk but the cold air filled . Aria sighed.

“They are human…they live, growing up and die someday…” she answered her little sister with a serious consideration.

“And? What’s so different about that?” Violet asked again. This time Aria stared at her with uncertain face.

“They are not like us…immortal…but never moving forward…” with that Violet went silence. Maybe Aria was right, they never going anywhere. Just stay here in the water. But Violet also thought that Mermaidiya was the best place in her life. Would she ever find a better place for her someday?

“The wind is quiet strong today…it seems like it’s going to rain…” suddenly she heard Aria commented and she looked up to the skies. It was still early for the night but the skies had turned very dark and the moon can barely be seen behind the clouds.

“Let’s go to the rocks over there…” she spoke again and motioned for Violet to follow her. She did until they stopped nearby a long line of big stones. This area gated the beach and from here, Violet could clearly hear the sound of something catchy. Music was playing cheerfully from the nearby building so she sat there, half of the body in the water while resting her hands on the slippery rock. Now she knew why Aria loved to spy the human world because it was indeed, very colorful. Violet stayed there while up in the building, there was a ceremony held inside the hall.

Luhan yawned widely as he kept his hands in his pockets. Even in his simple dark blue coat and jeans, he never failed to look stunningly charming.

“The theme is gorgeous formal…not lame jeans style…” someone suddenly appeared beside him and said that. Luhan ignored the sharp meaning behind the words and glanced down to that person’s feet. A pairs of shining leather shoes, his eyes went up to the black stripped slack, up again to the black coat that covered the sturdy shoulders and finally the face. Luhan let out a weak breath. Kris always looked goddess in whatever he wore. He really has his own style when it came to dress up and tonight in his stripped coat, he looked even taller and smart. Yeah, he was everyone's dream boy after all. Luhan thought as he smiled a bit at him. Kris chuckled upon seeing that sarcastic smile.

“Keep the words to yourself…I know that I’m hot…” he boasted confidently and Luhan nodded lazily.

“Cheer up, bro! It’s a night to socialize…we can finally meet the girls and have fun with them after being stuck in this damn bored summer camp…” Xiu Min suddenly wrapped one hand around Luhan’s shoulders and he grinned widely at him. Luhan cracked a small smile back to him. He was also looking good and chubby in his coat.

“Yeah…but nothing to be excited about…they are just the same people that you saw after these three years in college…” Luhan replied him, sounded cold so Xiu Min smacked him instead.

“Shut it, man…don’t ruin the excitement for our juniors…it’s their first time attending the party outside the college…” he commented back and Luhan nodded a bit. But then he turned to look confused at Xiu Min. Xiu Min raised his eyebrow at him.

“What?” he asked.

“Who’s the freshman among us? I thought we are all about to graduate this year…” Luhan asked him and rubbed his head, clearly deep in thinking but Xiu Min sighed beside him.

“In case you forgot our little brother, Tao…” Xiu Min answered him and spontaneously the boy showed up. Tao was walking towards them with Chen and Lay tagging him along. Luhan chuckled as his eyes caught the sight of him.

“Yeah…with that height, it’s hard for me to remember his age…” Luhan mentioned about Tao’s height. He was only a 19 years old boy compared to them who were 22 already but Luhan and Xiu Min were left out for about 20 cm by Tao as he was 183 cm at that age. Luhan and Xiu Min both laughed out at the idea while Kris still stay transfixed there as he knew he couldn’t say anything about it because he was also one of the tallest guys among them.

“What are we waiting for? Let’s get inside now…” Chen interjected excitedly after they reached the three boys.

“Look who’s actually late…” Kris commented sarcastically and cleared his throat. Then, he led them into the ball, walking firmly and charmingly towards the main door. Lay and Tao exchanged glances between them while Xiu Min raised his shoulders a bit to Luhan. Chen pouted to himself.

“How about we check who used the mirror in our room the most?” Chen blurted out grudgingly as the four boys with him were laughing out loud at his comment.

“Let’s just get inside…” Xiu Min finally concluded and patted Chen’s head brotherly while the others just nodde