A/N:  In our last episode - Hyuk and Donghae went all Scooby and Shaggy at the local sushi place.  Yesung was wondering if is was a "date", but Hyuk told him that he needed to clean up the situation (of liking both Donghae and Kyuhyun) himself.

Leeteuk and Sungmin were both out of town and Donghae was panicking because of an oncoming thunderstorm.  Sungmin reluctantly called Yesung and told him to "get his on over there" to take care of Donghae.

Though at first they kept up cooler pretenses, Yesung and Donghae's true feelings for each other returned full force when the thunderstorm plunged them into darkness.

Leeteuk arrived home the next morning as Yesung was leaving.  Donghae then shocked Leeteuk when asking him if humans mate for life.

Now, back to our story...

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(Kyu's POV)

When Yesung didn't come home that night, I figured he stayed at Terrapin Station to make sure his cafe stayed intact during the storm.  Power was still out in our apartment (yes, we were calling it ours!) so I woke up with the sun's first rays of light.  I made my way down to the cafe and was surprised to see that Hyukjae was alone in opening it up.

"Cho-bot you are so bass-ackwards in your thinking," he said, rolling his eyes while letting me in the door.  "You know Yesung has the afternoon shifts.  He must have hightailed it out of here just before the storm.  The cash register was closed out near 8 o'clock last night.  Didn't he come home to you? ... Oh ..."

The realization came to us at the same time.  Hyukjae covered his embarrassment by quickly busying himself with cafe work.  I crashed down on the oversized couch near the fireplace.  If anyone could hear the activity inside my mind, they would have heard the "twang" of my sanity snapping like a broken guitar string. 

I stared numbly at the array of magazines and books scattered across the coffee table:  "Time", "GQ", "Vogue", "Stoner Coffee Table Book", "Do Fish Dream?", "Grumpy Cat's Guide to Life."  Who picks out this crap anyway?  Wait, what?!?  I picked up the fish book and a wicked smile crept upon my lips.  Had I been in my right mind I may not have connected things the way I did, but it all made sense to a-lad-insane.  Donghae, the little wretch who took Yesung, was not all he pretended to be; and I was going to prove it.

Not long after, Yesung arrived at Terrapin Station.  "Kyu... Kyu-ah, there you are!  You weren't at the apartment..."  His glances towards me never quite met my eyes and he shifted back and forth on his feet.  I could easily read the guilt on his face.

"Yesung-hyung, you weren't there either, but that's okay..."  As I got up from the couch, Hyukjae (that coward) quickly made his way to the back room.  Yesung's eyes were now wide with confusion.  "I should have known it was going to happen eventually..."

"Kyu-ah, I'm sorry!  Donghae... The storm-"

"Shhhh, no more of that."  I touched my finger against his lips, then cupped my hand under his chin.  "I just want to see you and Donghae happy together," I lied without wincing.  "You'll see him later today, right?"

"Yeah", confusion was still painted across his forehead, "we're hoping to have an early lunch before I start my afternoon shift..."

"Good, I'll catch up with the both of you after lunch.  I want to finally meet the little fish who netted your heart." 

I was heading towards the door, but turned to see Yesung's reaction.  He tilted his head slightly in confusion, then breathed a slight laugh and shook his head, feeling slightly more at ease.  "Kyu-ah, I don't know how you do it.  Sometimes I just don't know what to expect with you."

I gave a quick glare to Hyukjae, hoping to keep him quiet, before turning to give a little wave to Yesung.  Today, hyung, expect the unexpected.

A few hours later, just as promised, I caught up with the two lovers just outside our old university.  They were finishing up at an off-campus sandwich place in view of a large stepped fountain.  I felt a burning in my throat when I saw Yesung sitting with Donghae.  The smaller was definitely handsome, muscular arms, an angular face, a natural wave in his hair, soft eyes, a bright smile, and an ugly secret.  As I walked towards them, I made a quick glance back at the familiar fountain.  Oh this couldn't have worked any better if I had planned it myself!

When I arrived Yesung stood and gave me a quick hug.  Realizing then, he dropped his arms to his side and looked over at the other who was now scooting back slightly in his chair and eyeing me warily.  "Donghae!  This is Cho Kyuhyun, my...um..."

"Housemate", I answered with the warmest smile I could pull.  "Yesung and I share a flat.  No need to be shy about it Yesungie, I'm sure Donghae-ssi is confident enough.  This is Donghae, isn't it?"  He paused, narrowing his eyes, before tersely shaking my outstretched hand.  "Good, we've finally met," I answered before turning to Yesung.  "Hyung, remember when we were in university and would run through the fountain on hot days?  It's hot like that today.  Can we, before you have to go to work?"  I tugged his arm a bit and tried my best to look cute.

"Kyu, you can be such a kid sometimes.  Yeah I think we have some time before I take over the afternoon shift."  Thankfully if I was eager enough he would go along with my whims.  He didn't notice the worried look on Donghae's face until the shorter made a loud sigh.  "Don't worry, we haven't ever fallen.  I'll remember about your leg and have a hold of you."

Reluctantly Donghae followed Yesung and I up the fountain.  Shallow streams of water flowed over steps of various heights.  I held onto Yesung, while he helped Donghae balance.  We all made it to the section of the fountain where there were no steps, only a narrow edge tettering over a slope that led to a deep pool.  It was something that we had gone across dozens of times so I knew Yesung wasn't worried.  Donghae lagged a bit.  When all three of us were close enough to the middle I leaned and whispered to Yesung, "This is where it's going to get interesting", before falling towards the slope and pulling the other two down with me.

My slightly manical laughter rang in my ears while Yesung and Donghae yelled out in surprise as we veered down the slope and hit the water.  Naturally I got my bearings first and stood.  Yesung was sputtering around so I pulled him up by his shoulders. 

"What the hell Kyu?  You know I can't swim!"  Once he noticed the water was only a meter deep he skowled "Still... We're all soaked and Donghae...  Hae?  Donghae!  Where is he?"

He shivered when he felt something strange brush past his leg.  Then we saw it - dark aqua scales and a fin shimmering in the water.  Inwardly I smirked; I knew it.

Sadly, Yesung's worry grew, "Did you see that?  What is it?  It must have Donghae!  Hae!" 

Yesung started feeling around in the water, only to have a pair of pale hands grab his arms and start to pull him forward.  I countered, wrapping my arms around Yesung's waist and going backwards. 

A panic-stricken Donghae surfaced.  Was this his true form?  A blue-green tinge colored his face.  His gills, which were right under his ears, moved erradically.  His hands released Yesung's arms and reached for his own chest.  He opened and closed his mouth a few times before starting to gasp.

"Donghae?...  Donghae?"  The first sounded like recognition, the second heartbreak.  Yesung brushed my arms away and just stood in shock.

"I'm...I'm not sure he's supposed to be breathing that way, hyung.  I think something's wrong..."  Looking at the mess of a situation, I ran my fingers through my drenched hair.  Saying 'this isn't turning out as well as I'd hoped' would've been an understatement.

"Of course something is wrong", he answered numbly.  He gave a short sigh then breathed in deep.  The smell of the chlorine in the fountain jarred him.  "That's it!"  He started to lift the struggling merman.  "We have to get him out of here!  We have to get him back to the nature preserve.  Leeteuk hyung will know what to do."  I must have looked at him rather dumbly.  "The chlorine is poisoning him."  Then he whispered darkly, "You poisoned him."

We closely carried Donghae to my car.  Thankfully things just outside campus could get wild, so no one was the wiser.  We rode in silence.  Yesung held onto Donghae to keep him from being jostled in the car, but certainly wasn' t holding him with any affection.  I would try to glance back any time we stopped at a red light.  Donghae looks switched between fright and shame.  Yesung's wavered from anger to heartache.

That day I wanted to bring the truth to light and uncover a creature people thought was only mythical.  In doing so, instead, I became the monster. 

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I hoped that once we got there things would improve.  As fate would have it, they had to get worse before they could get better.

"Hyung, I'm sorry I-"  As I tried to touch his shoulder, Yesung jerked his body away like my hand would burn him.

"You've done enough, Cho Kyuhyun."  The look of hate he gave me was well deserved, but his cold tone and steely glare broke me inside.  All the caring and love I had been yearning for and had taken years to attain had all crumbled in one afternoon.

Tears started to sting my eyes and face as I ran blindly out of the building.  The shame I felt made me want to escape; run until the Earth swallowed me whole.  In my haste, I didn't see someone coming up the walkway.  A pair of solid arms caught me just before our bodies collided.   Shaken out of my stupor, I looked at the shorter man in front of me.  He gazed with such intensity that I turned my eyes away.  I could still feel his fox-like eyes on me and my guilt grew.  Why would anyone look at me with such concern?  I had screwed up so much.

"Hey, what's going on?  Are you alright?  You look so distraught", his soft voice laced with worry.  Normally I would have brushed off a stranger asking about my well-being, but the way he steadied me and spoke to me with such care, it confused me.  "Please, you really should come back inside until you've pulled yourself together."

"I can't," I blurted out.  "There's no way I'll go back.  What's already happened cannot be undone.  Everything's ruined...."  I broke away and continued my flight, sure that his support would end once he found out what I had done.

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(Sungmin's POV)

To my surprise, I'd once again gotten to see the stranger that had moved my passive heart.  I lingered a few moments outside wondering what had happened to him that could be so awful.  Twice now I had seen this captivating man with such looks of sadness and loss.  Next time, if I saw him again, I vowed I would bring him some sort of happiness.

My thoughts were jumbled as I heard shouts and commotion coming from inside the ranger station.  I ran in to find a husky, dark-haired man hovering over Leeteuk, trying to resuscitate him.  Both were drenched.  Quickly looking around, I tried to get a bigger picture of what I had missed.  The tank we had used to help rehabilitate Donghae was filled with water again from a tanker truck parked just outside the access door.  Yesung's head was lowered and pressed up against the tank.  He looked more at the ground than inside the tank where Donghae was moving slowly as if just awakening.  What on Earth?

The larger man's careful mouth-to-mouth breathing had saved Leeteuk.  Soon the ranger started gasping and was turned to his side so he could cough out the water he must have inhaled.  "Leeteuk hyung?", I came over next to him and the man cradling hyung's upper body.

"The pressure of the water coming into the tank knocked him off of his feet while he was holding onto the, uh, fish-boy over there.  He hit his head on the side of the tank and took in quite a bit of water."

"Thank you for saving him..."

"Kim Youngwoon", he gave me a strong, solid handshake.  "I work for the water company.  Your friend isn't out of the woods yet.  There's a chance of secondary drowning if not all the water is out of his lungs.  Any moisture in the lungs could develop into pneumonia.  I can take him to the hospital in my truck.  It looks like you have things to deal with here."  He jerked his head towards Donghae and Yesung.

"About that.  Please..."  I could only envision the media circus if it was found out we were housing a merman in our nature preserve.

"Don't worry", he gave a short laugh as he lifted the semi-concious Leeteuk into the tanker truck.  "I've seen things in my day that we don't talk about outside the office.  You can only imagine what some of the pets that get flushed down the drain and into the sewers mutate into..."  As he drove away, I went over to see what else was going on.

Donghae weakly put his hand up on his side of the tank facing Yesung hoping for a response in kind.  The other looked up briefly then dropped his head again in disgust before turning and walking with heavy steps towards the door.  "Hey!"  I called out, "Where do you think you're going?"

"I don't know", his voice hollow.  "Where do I go from here?", he said as he continued down the walkway.

I watched as Donghae looked up helplessly and removed his hand from the side of the tank.  He swam languidly to a corner and let his body sink to the bottom.  His coloring and breathing was off.  At that point I was only able to wonder if it was physical or emotional.  I observed him from behind the glass for the next several hours as all attempts to get his attention and talk to him went ignored. Though he regained his physical composure, he still looked heartsick.

Finally around sunset, Donghae made his way to the shallow part of the tank and raised himself up.  I came over only to have him barely look at me.  "Donghae, what happened?"

"What happened hyung, is I lost my trust in humans."  I followed him as he stumbled towards the nearby lake.  "There's a reason my kind lived apart from them for so long.  In living with humans, I forgot myself; giving into their deceit and lies.  You and Leeteuk hyung must be the exceptions, but that isn't enough to keep me here.  I have found so much turmoil and hurt in the humans' world.   Now all I want to do is go away from it.  So please let me be.  Goodbye hyung."  My eyes teared up for him as he dove in and swam away without looking back.

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(Hyukjae's POV)

You were waiting to hear from me, weren't you?  Alas, I was only a passive observer in some of the day's chaos.  But I can tell you part of what happened that evening.

Obviously, Yesung never made it back for his afternoon shift at the cafe.  The way Kyuhyun had acted so strangely after finding out about Donghae and Yesung, I should have realized there would be drama.  He had pined for Yesung for so long, I knew he wouldn't have given up that easily.  What was I to say in all of this though?  I'm one who tries to avoid conflict and things having to do with love.  I just cleared my schedule for the rest of the day, making myself available to help pick up the pieces later.

That time came after I had closed up Terrapin Station for the night and was heading upstairs to my loft.  My phone rang, but it sounded warbled, like the connection was bad.  So I answered rather uncertainly, "Hello?"

"I've lost them Hyukjae... I lost Donghae...and Kyuhyun.  And now I've managed to lose myself as well."

My stomach clenched.  Yesung hyung was never good with directions.  The fact that I added a GPS tracker app between our phones to help find him (more than a couple times) is a testament to his faulty inner compass.  But his voice was so detached and his words eerily cryptic.  I knew this was much more than him getting separated from a group and not finding his way home.  Through his phone I could hear a train whistle in the distance.  Woah, he made it that far out, near the freight lines.  That should help me find him though.  "Hyung, I have the GPS app .  Keep your phone on.  Don't worry, I'll find you.  Just stay put."

"Whatever you say Hyukjae.  I'll continue standing on the tracks, looking at the lights..."

Then I was frantically running to the car and yelling into the phone, "Yesung hyung, don't do anything stupid!  You called me for help, not so I could hear you end your life.  Get to someplace safe and keep your phone on.  I'll find you soon."

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It took me well over half hour to get to the section of freight train tracks where Yesung was.  He must have wandered aimlessly in his grief.  Luckily when I found him, he was slumped up against a signal box - defeated but alive.

As we drove back to his flat Yesung rambled on about vague things that had happened:

"Kyuhyun knew Donghae wasn't everything he said he was...  How did he know?  Why didn't I see it?  Of course Kyuhyun had to show me.  But you know... it nearly killed Donghae.  Yeah, he could have died...  How did I not know?  I was too busy.  Preoccupied with being selfish and turning a blind eye to everything else.  I couldn't hold onto both of them.  Now... Now I think I've lost them both."

We barely made it up to his building when Yesung saw a light in one of his windows.  While my car was still running he jumped out and made a mad dash for the stairs.  I had to put the car in park before I ran to catch up to him.

Yesung's hand was shaking as he unlocked the front door.  "Kyu?", I heard him call out questioningly.  Then he cried in anguish and fell to the floor.  I stepped around him and looked around the flat.  Although only the light above the stove was the only thing to see by, it was evident what had put Yesung back in misery.  Everything of Kyuhyun's was gone.

I looked back down at Yesung, who was kneeling in the hallway with his fists next to his head.  His sharp, chewed-on nails had dug deep into the palms of his hands.  Drops of blood were starting to trickle onto the floor.

Bile started to rise in my throat.  I just don't do well at the sight of blood.  Still, I cradled Yesung and brought him closer to me, though he tried to push away.  "Hyukjae, don't, I'm bleeding.  I'm a mess."

"Yeah hyung, you're my favorite biohazard.  So - I'm not going to leave you alone like this.  I'll gather some of your things and we can make our way back to Terrapin Station."

Not much after, we were in my loft above the cafe.  I'd work some extra shifts and rearrange things with my dance classes, but there was no way I was going to be leaving Yesung alone when he was in such despair.

That evening, okay by then it was early early next morning, I put Yesung to rest on my bed and I made up a cot to sleep on in my room.  Yesung had been quiet for a while.  I thought he was asleep and was starting to drowse off when he quietly spoke, "I couldn't look them in the eyes Hyukjae.  I couldn't look at either of them because we all had kept our own secrets and divvied out half-truths.  Now we're all broken and betrayed."

And that is just another reason why I have no interest in the thing called "love".

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A/N -  "And if it is not happy, then it is not 'the end' my friends..."  SRK, Om Shanti Om

It's been over a month hasn't it?!?  So here I'm giving you the longest chapter I've written!

School year starting, house stuff, family, and a crazy work schedule have kept me down.

So, what do you anticipate in the next chapters?  Did you see the bit of KangTeuk?

How will Yesung heal?  Will Donghae remain isolated from all humans?

Will there be happiness for Min and Kyu?  What happened to Siwon and Heechul?

And finally... Is Hyukjae ever going to surrender to that thing called LOVE?

Oh my gravy!  THANK YOU for the upvotes and all the subscriptions!

I truly appreciate all my readers and comments <3

Peace, love, and turtles...

TaiShanNiangNiang