Hi!  My name is Donghae.  I’m a water molecule.  I live inside a fishbowl in 121315, East Sea Street.  There’s another part to the address, which I forgot.  Or maybe I never knew it.  My owners are called Leeteuk and Taeyeon.  But, I didn’t always live here.  I’m gonna tell you a very interesting story.  Basically, it’s my life story.

     

     I began my life inside Lake Eunhyuk.  It was a nice lake, quite big, and relatively quiet.  I used to just floated around and talk to my friends.  One day I looked up and saw a big bright blob staring down at me.  I stared back. It seemed to glow brighter.  Then something bumped into me.  I tore my eyes away from the big orange blob and looked at who bumped into me.  It was my friend, Sungmin.  I smiled at him.  He smiled back as Lake Eunhyuk's current pulled him farther away from me.  I frowned.  Why was he getting farther apart from me so quickly?  Then I realised, he wasn’t getting farther away from me.  I was being pulled farther away from him.  But I wasn’t being pulled the other way.  I was being pulled upwards.  I wondered why.   I looked up again.  The big bright blob seemed to be getting closer.  In fact, it seemed to be getting bigger, brighter, and blobier.  I looked around.  I didn’t see anyone I knew.  Then I saw Jerome.  He was a little bit below me just floating around, like always.  Jerome wasn’t really my friend. He wasn’t really anyone’s friend.  He just floats around the dihydron monoxide (water), minding his own business.  Like a loner.  I locked eyes with him.  He had no emotion on his face.  He looked at me with his blank black eyes.  Then suddenly, a shadow appeared in the distance.  It grew bigger.  Quickly, it began to take shape.  It was a turtle!  It was a little below me, near Jerome.  Then without warning, the turtle opened its’ mouth, and swallowed Jerome.  My small heart started beating fast.  But the turtle just swam away.  I breathed out in relief.  Phew, I thought.  That was close.  Then my body began to feel weird.  I felt myself getting lighter, as if I was dissolving into nothing.  

 

     I realised I was evaporating.  I was turning into the gaseous form of liquid water.  I looked around to see if any of my friends were evaporating too.  No one.  I looked up, but averted my eyes quickly.  That big bright blob was no longer just a big bright blob.  It was a giant sphere of fire.  I looked to my right, and again averted my eyes quickly.  It was Jessica.  I shuddered.  I was scared of her.  Everyone was scared of her.  She dropped into Lake Spencer about a month ago.  I first thing you notice about her was her cold eyes and icy stare.  She was like an Ice-Princess.  Rumor has it that she sublimated in the Antarctic.  I wasn’t very sure what sublimated meant, but my friend, Heechul (who was super smart and knew everything) told me that it was when ice turned directly into water vapor. 

 

     I was rising higher and faster into the atmosphere.  I couldn’t see anyone.  I couldn’t even see me.  Because I was in a gaseous form, I had to struggle in order to keep myself together.  I looked up again.  This time I didn’t see the orange and red sphere of fire.  Instead I saw a grayish whitish thing.  At first I didn’t know what it was.  Then I remembered what Heechul called it.  Cloud.  I thought.  That thing was a cloud.  On certain days there were big white fluffy things in the sky.  Heechul would say, “I just love when those clouds make shapes.”  When he first mentioned the word I asked him what he meant.  “Those are the ever shifting shapes in they sky.  You know, that ones that turn grey when it rains.”  He explained.  When I asked him how he became so smart, he smirked and said, “I was born this smart.”  I never got how clouds formed.  I always thought that they were created by smoke and pollution (which were bad things made by humans, according to Heechul).  Now I knew.  Millions of water molecules were condensing into something that was visible.  I looked around at the sea of new faces.  Some had relaxed faces, some had annoyed faces, and some looked just as frightened and panicked as I did.  “Hey,” a voice said behind me.  I looked back.  The molecule that had spoken was big. He was tall and muscular.  “Hi,” I managed.

     “Are you new to all this?”  He asked.

     “Yes,” I replied.  “What is all this?”

     “Kid,” he announced.  “This is the water cycle!”

     “Oh,” I said.  “What’s that?”

     “It’s a cycle.  That involves water,” he replied.  “I’ve been through it many times.  It’s a way of life.”

     “Is it bad?”

     “No, kid.  It’s a good thing.  By the way, what’s your name? Mine’s Kangin.”

     “Donghae.”

     “Pleased to meet you, Donghae.  Where’d you come from?”

     “A lake. Lake Eunhyuk.”

     “Ah.  I came from…  I don’t even remember where I came from!”

     “Really?”

     “Yeah.  I’ve been in this game from a long time.”

     “Wow.”

     “Yeah, wow.”

     “How long will we be stuck in this cloud?”

     “Depends.  But you won’t stay in here forever.  Eventually, you’ll precipitate down somewhere.  Then the water cycle starts again.”

     “Cool.”

     “Yeah, sure is cool.”

     “What’s precipitate?”

     “Precipitation is when you fall down from this cloud either in the form of rain, hail, or snow.  Done that many times.  Nothing to worry about.”

     “Well - ”

     Suddenly I felt weird again.  This time I was turning back into water.  “What’s happening?!”

     “Well, looks like we’re gonna rain down somewhere.”

     “But - ”

     “Bye, kid.  Gotta go.”

 

     Just like that, he was gone.  I had to face precipitating, or raining down, or whatever he called it, on my own.  Then I was free falling.  It was scary.  At least I was back in liquid form.  Then plop.  I had landed – into a puddle of dirty groundwater.  Ewwww, I thought.  After living in Lake Eunhyuks' clean water, I thought I was going to die out here.  I made a sour face.  “Oh you think this is gross?  You should see some other places.”  I turned to the right.

     “Who are you?”  I asked meanly.  I didn’t feel like being nice.

     “Hangeng,” he replied.  He didn’t seem to care.  “Follow me.”

     I really wanted to get out of this dirty puddle, so I had no choice but to follow Hangeng.  He led me to a dark brown lump. 

     “What’s this?”  I asked.

     “So you’re new to this game, huh?  Well, this is a tree root.  Soon it’ll talk us inside the tree, away from this filth.”

     “Is it clean inside the tree?”

     “Usually.  But since it’s Saeseng, a highly polluted city, it’s hard to say.”

     Then, in an instant, we were up into the tree root and we were inside the tree. 

     “Now what do we do?” I asked impatiently.

     “We’ll have to wait till the sun comes up so we can transpire out of here.”

     “So we can what out of here?”

     “Transpire.  Transpiration is when the sun up the water from the leaves of a tree.  It’s like evaporating, except from a leaf instead of water.”

     “How long will we have to wait?”

     “I don’t know.  In the meantime, you should rest.  You must be tired”

     I was tired.  I fell asleep instantly.

 

     When I woke up, Hangeng was gone.  I looked everywhere, but I couldn’t find him.  Again, I had to do something that I’d never done before, alone.  I just had to it up, and get up.  “

     You look sad.”  I looked up to see who had spoken.  “Why are you sad?”  He asked tauntingly.  “Missing your mummy?”  I frowned.  I didn’t like this guy.  He had a mean expression on his face, the same one Heechul usually had on.  But Heechul wasn’t mean to me. 

     “Who are you?” I asked.  The molecule smirked. 

     “Kyuhyun.  And you are…?”

     “Donghae .  Now leave me alone.”

     “Awwww.  Little Donghae wants some time alone ‘cuz he’s a scared wimp.”

     “Shut up.”

     “Shut up.”

     I stood up.  “What’s your problem?” I asked angrily.

     “I’m bored.  I was just having a little fun.”

     “Go pick on someone else, meanie.”

     “Awwww.  Okay.  I’ll go ‘cuz little Donghae needs a cry.”

     “Shut the hell u-!”

     “Ohhhhh.  Little Donghae getting aggressive.”

     “Just shut up and leave me alone!”

     “Fine, wimp.”

     He went.  I sat down again.  All I wanted to do was float in the clean waters of Lake Eunhyuk, where there were no bullies like Kyuhyun the Meanie.  Then suddenly I was being up.  Again.  But this time I wasn’t scared; I was sad.  Twice I almost let the wind tear me apart.  By the time I condensed into another cloud, my spirits was crushed.  I felt like nothing.  Maybe I’ll fall back into Lake Eunhyuk.  But I doubted that.  Maybe I fall into a nice place.  That could happen.  I smiled a little bit.  Yeah, that could happen.  I could fall into a really nice river.  If I did, I thought.  I will never go near the water surface again. 

 

     Then I began precipitating again.  I looked down to see where I was falling.  I smiled.  It looked like a nice place.  But then it happened.  I fell on something sharp and got separated.  Part One of me fell on a road and Part Two fell on soft wet ground.  Part One got collected into a small collection of water and when racing down the road, and Part Two infiltrated the ground.  I panicked, but luckily, both parts could survive on their own, but I wanted to be whole again.  It felt weird this way.  Part One went plop and fell into some river.  Part Two had to make its way through the permeable ground.  When Part Two got to the Water Table, I willed it to head straight for the river.  Both parts came closer together by the second.  By the time Part Two had runoff into the river, Part One was already there, waiting to be reunited.  After that, I felt so happy; I forgot to not go to the surface.  In an instant I was swooped up.  But I wasn’t turning into gas.  I was still in liquid from.  What is Shishus's name?!  I thought.  I looked around.  I was floating.  But I was still in liquid form.  I looked around again.  The world didn’t seem so clear.  I was seeing through a layer of thin plastic.  There was a person holding the bag.  He looked at the bag closely and started walking somewhere.  He still held the bag.  He kept walking straight until he turned.  He stopped in front of a piece of wood.  He pushed it and went inside.  I saw a see-through bowl with a fish and very little water.  What a cruel way to keep a fish, I thought.  Then he dumped the bag of water into the bowl.     

 

 

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The little boy was henry, if you were wondering.  :P