Elliya's brothers never left her out of their sight after her second near death experience. She had told them about the boy who had saved though she had left out the part about the glowing eyes and supposed gills the boy had. Elliya already thought herself crazy for even thinking what she saw was real she didn't want everyone else thinking she was crazy as well. It wasn't like she intended to almost drown again, she was old enough to know better and stay away from the water. It had just been an accident and she didn't feel like she needed to have babysitters. Especially when they were dumb and dumber, Hyuk and Hongbin, who had been hanging around her more then usual.

Because those two nitwits could never stay still and rather then let her stay in the house they forced her to join them outside. She brought her book with her to read while they did whatever it was they wanted to do and then when they were distracted long enough she'd sneak back inside. She wasn't about to go running off and getting herself almost drowned again, that lesson had been learned the hard way.

Turned out that her plan had fell through when she got so lost in her book that she didn't even notice the two boys walking over to where she sat until their shadows obscured the sunlight. Slowly she raised her eyes to look at them with an all too suspicious narrowed gaze.

“You’re looking at us like we did something. Did we do something? I’m pretty sure we didn’t do anything.” Hyuk emphasized their supposed innocence by holding up his hands but Hongbin's hands were suspiciously still behind his back.

“Not if you still value your lives you won't.”

The two exchanged glances before Hyuk grinned devilishly in her direction “well since you won't join us in the water we just though that we should bring the water to you instead.”

That's when Elliya noticed Hongbin reveal two water guns he had managed to keep hidden behind his back. Hyuk had hidden his in the back of his pants so that his hands would appear to be empty. Hongbin tossed one of the guns to her before the two younger ones unleashed a fury of water on her before she even had a chance to run away. Despite being out numbered she fired back at them before running away.

She ran towards the trees in hopes of using them to hide behind or as a shield. When she attempted to move around a bush she knocked into another body. When she regained her balance Elliya looked at whoever it was she had bumped into and was shocked to discover she recognized the boy in front of her as the one who had saved her from drowning. Although his eyes weren't glowing like they had done before and he didn't appear to have any gills showing either. Maybe she'd been hallucinating all of that.

He looked terrified, his eyes wide, as if she had caught him doing something he shouldn't have been doing. That's when she noticed his face had changed for a split second to the face she had remembered looming over her. His eyes glowed yellow and the gills on his neck were glowing as well. He visibly shivered and the glow disappeared along with the gills. It happened so quickly Elliya was barely able register what she had just seen because he looked like he was about to bolt and she grabbed his wrist before he had a chance to run. She at least wanted to get a chance to thank him for saving her life the other day if nothing else.

“Wait please! I just want to thank you” she pleaded with him.

He looked torn between wanting to stay to hear her out and still fleeing, “you're welcome...and I...um... I'm really glad you're all right but I should leave.”

He tried to leave again but Elliya wasn't having it. “Can I at least get your name?” she asked.

The boy again hesitated before nodding but his eyes darted around like he was expecting someone else to jump out at them. “It's Hakyeon.” he replied gently pulling at his wrist. If he had really wanted to he could have easily pulled himself out of her grip but it didn't appear like he wanted to use that force. “I really should go now.”

Elliya was about to try and convince him to stay and meet the others when she heard Hongbin and Hyuk's voices searching for her. Briefly turning to look around to see if she could spot them had been enough of a distraction for Hakyeon to slip out of her loosened grip. She turned around to see he had once again disappeared into the forest. Her heart sank at not being able to talk with him more, wondering why he had seemed so scared that she had found him when he was the one that she remembered having saved her. Elliya sighed before going back to the game making sure to take out her frustrations on the two boys. Smiling from her hiding place when she fired upon them but they couldn't see from where.

“Using the trees for cover is cheating!” Hyuk squawked.

“We never agreed to that.” she said sneaking up behind them and blasting them with more water.

They yelled before both fired back at her with full force overwhelming her. She raised her arms in front of her trying to block out the harsh spray of the water hitting her. When their water guns ran out of water the troublesome duo laughed before taking off again, heading towards the cabin. Elliya found she still had some water left in hers and quickly pursued them firing and hitting them just before they could make it to sanctuary, earning a very satisfying obnoxious scream from Hyuk, before she too ran out of ammo.

The trio was out of breath and soaked all the way through their clothing by the time they got back to the cabin. Though she had fun Elliya was still a bit upset she couldn't get Hakyeon to join them. As they were taking off their wet shoes she looked towards the trees briefly searching for the boy but ended up feeling disappointed when she didn't see him anywhere. If he was nearby he was hiding himself from her very well. She hesitated as long as she could before heading inside in hopes he would change his mind and appear before her.

“Hi...” she heard a voice on her other side say. She turned her head to see Hakyeon standing beside her though he still looked nervous to be there. Nevertheless she was happy to see that he decided to join her after all.

“You missed the water battle.” she said with a small smile while twisting her hair to wring out the excess water, “I could have used a partner, two against one really wasn't fair.”

“You looked like you handled yourself well though.” he commented.

“So you were watching me then? Sounds a bit stalkerish.”

Hakyeon shook his head and rubbed the back of his head nervously as he made to defend himself “No! I didn't mean to sound like a creep, I just..”

“It's okay I was just teasing you.” she interrupted.

They stood there awkwardly for a few minutes unsure of how to continue the conversation. Elliya was about to ask if he wanted to come in when Hyuk yelled for her.

“You want to come in? I would at least like to thank you for saving my life the other day.”

She watched him fidget uneasily like he was debating on running away again before he finally nodded. Elliya broke out into a grin and dragged him by the hand into the house. She found Hyuk and Hongbin had already changed their clothes and were drying their hair with some towels, a third towel Hongbin gave to Elliya. The two boys stared curiously at the new addition to their trio.

“Who's this?” Hyuk asked.

“This is Hakyeon. He's the one I told you about, the boy that saved me.” she answered. She pointed to Hyuk first then to Hongbin “this is my brother Hyuk and our friend Hongbin and I'm Elliya but you can call me Ellie.”

They both blinked at them, surprised, “thanks for saving my noona!” Hyuk exclaimed practically tackling the poor boy as he hugged him. She noticed that Hyuk had a slight height advantage over Hakyeon which made the scene funnier to her. Especially, Hakyeon's shocked reaction at the affection being shown towards him as he froze unsure of how to respond. He even looked to her as if asking her for help and she chuckled before pulling the boy away from him.

“I think you've hugged him long enough Hyuk, let's not scare him away now.” she said when he pouted at her.

“He should at least stay for dinner. The others' are coming back with food soon and they always bring a lot so I'm sure there will be enough for Hakyeon.” Hongbin informed them before Hyuk dragged him away to go play video games.

Elliya looked at Hakyeon with hope. “Please stay? The others would like to meet you and you'd get free food too.” she hoped the slight bribery with food would work if nothing else did. She didn't want him to leave just yet and still had others questions she wanted to ask him when she could get him alone next.

Hakyeon knew he shouldn't even be there let alone staying any longer then he already had but they seemed to want him there. But she wanted him there and he decided to stay feeling that it would be worth it to face whatever punishment he got later on when he went home. He nodded and smiled at her while replying, “I'll stay.”

The human girl grinned at him “I'm just going to change out of these wet clothes and then we can beat Hyuk and Hongbin's asses at video games.” she said before Hakyeon watched her disappear into a nearby bedroom. Hakyeon just waited by the door for her since he didn't really know what else he should do having never been really involved with the dealings of humans like this before but he wanted to be near this human girl so he stayed by the door rather then join the two boys.

Elliya reappeared a few minutes later, changed, and with a towel in her hand to dry her hair. She was still smiling at him and he couldn't help but smile back, “you waited for me?”

“Uh...yeah...I wanted to. Not like I really know my way around here anyway.” he smiled sheepishly.

“Well now we can join the others.” she said dragging him by the hand downstairs to the basement to join the others. The girl didn't seem to notice how the small action affected the boy as she pulled him along, his eyes locked onto their joined hands.

They traveled down into the basement to see Hyuk and Hongbin playing a fighting game while also trying to knock the game controllers out of each others hands in an attempt to win when either one was losing. Elliya laughed as she sat down to watch them with Hakyeon sitting down beside her, still rigid, like he couldn't relax around them for some reason.

“And this is why I don't want to play video games with either of you” she stuck her tongue out at them, “you both cheat.”

“You're just afraid you'll lose.” Hyuk said.

“Well if I lost, it was because you cheated.”

Even Hakyeon couldn't contain a light chuckle at the scene.

“We're up next after you two.”

But after a half an hour it didn't seem like the two wanted to give up the controllers just yet so Elliya suggested to the other that they go for a walk instead. Hakyeon had asked for some water before they had left and she obliged his request. It did amaze when he had drank quite a bit. Neither Hyuk nor Hongbin seemed to have noticed their disappearance both too absorbed in their match to really care where the two went.

When Elliya had finally been able to get Hakyeon alone long enough so that they could actually get a chance to talk she took it, suggesting that they go for a walk. She wanted to take this time alone to ask him the questions that had been on her mind since the moment she saw him change without having anything have happened to her to make her think she had just been imagining it. He agreed to going with her not really comfortable being around a large group of unfamiliar people. Hakyeon knew there was something bugging her and was dreading what that something was. This was the situation Taekwoon had always warned him about and he had a feeling it was about to become reality soon.

“There's been some things I've been wanting to ask you about.” she started to say as they walked.

His fear began to grow further and it was all he could do to not run instead wanting to hear her out first, “okay...”

He studied her for a moment as she fidgeted with her hands and avoided his face trying to gather her thoughts together into something that made sense. When she looked into his eyes again she only looked curious, there wasn't any fear that he could see so maybe he had been wrong in his assumptions about her having seen what he was but that hope was dashed when she began talking again, “that day....when you saved me...and even when I saw you today. Were your eyes really glowing and I could have sworn I saw gills on your neck?

Hakyeon bit his lip unsure if he should deny everything or just come clean to her since she already saw his real form even if she still didn't know if what she saw had been real or not.

“Please just tell me the truth. I won't tell anyone if that's what you're afraid of.” Elliya said.

“What if you become afraid of me?” he asked.

“I won't be.”

“How do you know?”

“Because you saved my life.”

He looked around before leading her to sit down on a patch of grass. “I'm not human” he told her in a low voice as if wanting to make sure no one could hear their conversation.

So what she saw had been real after all. “What are you then?” Elliya asked.

“We're called Naiads or as human sometimes call us, mermaids.” he replied.

“Mermaids? Shouldn't you have a tail and how are you able to be out of the water. You didn't make a deal with a sea witch did you?” Her eyes drifted down to his legs waiting to see if he would reveal a giant tail.

She looked back up him when he laughed at her “we don't have tails and there was no sea witch. We do have fins that grow on our arms and legs. The tail probably came from if we were caught swimming with our legs together it would be so fast that it made it look like we had a tail.” he explained further.

“So you don't have to live in the water?” she asked

He shook his head “not really but we do get dehydrated if we stay out of the water for too long. We always have to live next to a body of fresh water.”

“And that's why you needed to drink a lot water earlier? Cause you'd been out of the water for too long.” he nodded at her assumption.

“And there are others like you that live here too?”

“There are a few other families that live around here besides my own. We mostly stay with our kind and only interact with humans when we have no choice. I really shouldn't even be here right now actually.” he gave a nervous laugh and looked away.

“Why are you here then?” Elliya asked.

Hakyeon looked like he had to think of an answer before responding, “I...just wanted to make sure you were alright...after what happened.”

She raised an eyebrow at the answer “but you were here even before that...why?”

He chewed on his lower lip and looked away, “uh...I...guess I was curious of the humans who only come here during the summer. I was especially curious about you cause you don't ever join the others in the water and instead always seem to stay behind.”

Now it was Elliya's turn to look away nervously “I almost drowned when I was young and I've been afraid of the water ever since. I was more or less forced to come along by my brothers.”

“Brothers can be a pain.”

“You have brothers?”

“I have two younger brothers, Wonshik and Taekwoon. Our mom was killed when we were younger so our dad raised us on his own.” he replied. Hakyeon negated to tell her that a human had killed his mother when they found out what she was.

“I'm sorry. I just recently lost my grandfather. The cabin had been his and now it's ours.” she said placing her hand on his.

He stared at her hand for a moment before placing his own on top of hers and giving her a small smile. “I'm sorry to hear that. I knew your grandfather a little, he was a very nice man.”

“Yeah, he was.”

They sat in an awkward silence for a few minutes before he brought the subject back around to why she never wanted to go into the water. “So that means you don't know how to swim then?” he asked.

“No I don't.” Elliya replied suspicious and wasn't sure she liked where this conversation was headed.

The boy smiled and stood up, looking back down at her, “I'll teach you how to swim!” he said excitedly grabbing her hand to pull her up and along as he took them to end of the dock.

Her heart sped up in fear and she tried to pull her hand, albeit gently, out of his “I can't...”

“Don't worry it'll be okay, I'll be with you.”

Elliya pulled her hand away more forcefully and shook her head “please...I don't want to...”

Hakyeon stared sympathetically at her for a moment before he nodded “at least sit at the edge of the dock.”

For a second she was going to refuse but decided that she could at least do that much for him. Just as long as she didn't have to get into the water Elliya figured she would be fine. She hesitantly allowed herself to follow him to the edge of the dock before slipping her shoes off and sitting at the edge, dipping her legs into the cold water. She watched as Hakyeon pulled his shirt over his head and dived unafraid into the water. She watched him keep his legs close together as he swam around, giving the limbs of the appearance of a tail fin, and he appeared to swim through the water as fast as a fish. When next he resurfaced right in front of her, his eyes were again glowing yellow and the tinges of his gills and webbed fingers were also glowing yellow.

“Does my true appearance scare you?” he asked, from the chin up was all that she could see.

Elliya blinked a few times then shook her head, a small smile gracing her features “to me you look...ethereal.”

The next sound that she heard shocked her when she realized it was coming from him as he lifted himself further out of the water and closer to where she sat. It was a high pitched chirping that sounded in a way like a high pitched purring laughter. It only lasted a few seconds before she watched him move as if he had a shiver run through his body, head rolling back and side to side as if he was stretching his neck before retaining his more human form again.

“What was that noise?” she asked.

“We can't talk with our gills out of the water but instead make squeaking or chirping like noises when breathing the air.” Hakyeon explained glad that she didn't seem to be afraid of him anymore. His placed his hands on each side of her legs and pulled himself up so that he was at face level with Elliya. She looked back at him, eyes wide and confused as to what he was going to do. “But I like actually being able to talk especially if it's to you.” He grinned at the girl and she smiled back at him answering him with a soft, “me too”

Hakyeon decided to take a risk and leaned in closer towards her face, smile slowly fading from his face as he did so. Elliya watched him cautiously, not moving and holding her breath as she waited for what was to come. She had an idea of what it was that he wanted to do finding that she too wanted the same thing. He had been watching her expression carefully wanting to make sure that she was okay with what he was about to do and if she should suddenly change her mind he would back off immediately. When she didn't instead leaning forward herself, closing her eyes in the process, Hakyeon took the initiative to cut her movement off by closing the space between them placing his lips on hers.

The kiss was slow and tentative at first before they both became a little more bolder as they experimented with the way their lips molded against each other. Elliya slowly wrapped her around Hakyeon's neck pulling him closer against her. She nibbled gently on his bottom lip eliciting a pleasured groan from the other who then her lips asking for permission from the girl to allow his tongue to mingle with hers. Which is exactly what she allowed to happen when she parted her lips with a gasp as his tongue invaded , almost stealing the breath away from her.

While she was distracted, Hakyeon slow and carefully pulled her against him taking her with him as he once again sunk back into the water. This immediately snapped her out of her daze enough to break up their kissing as she let out an unintentional squeal of her own and clung to his neck tightly in fear. He held her firmly against him, one arm around her waist and the other underneath her legs.

“I've got you” he assured her but she shook her head that was still buried against the crook of his neck.

“I told you I didn't want to be in the water! You tricked me.” came her muffled complaint

“It may have been a distraction to get you into the water but it wasn't a trick. I still wanted to kiss you.”

Elliya frowned up at him “I still don't want to be here.”

“You're already in the water, might as well stay and learn how to swim.” he slowly removed his arm from underneath her legs bringing it to join his other in holding onto her waist and chuckled when the girl immediately further latched onto him by wrapping her legs around his waist. Rubbing her back gently attempting to calm her down “I'll be right here the whole time. I won't let anything happen to you.”

Still she shook her head refusing to loosen her grip on him. But in the end Elliya knew he was right. She was already in the water so she might as well get it over with and she believed Hakyeon when he said he wouldn't let anything happen to her. Though she barely loosened her grip around his neck she did unwrap her legs from around him. A few moments passed before she then released her arms enough that they lightly gripped his shoulders as she stared at him, finally ready to face her fear.

“Ready?” he asked gently and she answered him with a nervous nod of her head.

As slowly and as gently as he possibly could be Hakyeon bent her further back into the water until she was floating on her back. His hands underneath her back supporting her as he directed her to outstretch her arms and close her eyes. When he felt that she was calm enough to handle him removing his support, first one hand then the other left her. To the relief of both parties Elliya was able to keep her body a float without his added help. He did the same allowing his own body to float beside hers with his own eyes closing, content in being with her. His hand brushed up against hers and gently grabbed for it. They stayed floating out on the water that she almost began to fall asleep. She decided that they had stayed out there long enough and was ready to go back. Hakyeon helped Elliya to stay afloat till he was sure she could keep herself above the water but still kept his arms around her waist anyway.

“Are you okay now?” he asked.

She nodded once again wrapping her arms around his shoulders, his hands instinctively tightening around her waist bringing her closer against him.

“Good.” he smiled at her though she could tell there seemed to be something else he wanted to ask her.

“Are you okay?” she asked him as well.

“I just want to...can I kiss you again?”

Elliya couldn't help but let out a short laugh and instead of answering his question she leaned forward and kissed him instead which he gladly reciprocated. It just seemed so easy for her to mold her lips against his like it was the most natural thing to do even if it was only the second time they kissed. He ran his fingers through the wet strands of her long hair not ever wanting the kiss to end. But the need for air became impossible for either of them to ignore thus they finally broke away from each with breathless gasps.

“We should probably head back now.” she said after catching her breath.

Hakyeon nodded and reluctantly dropped his hands from her waist and was relieved that she seemed to be able to keep herself afloat without his help anymore. He swam back to shore at her pace though he would’ve already been back on dry land in seconds but he wanted to make sure he would be there should she need his help in swimming back. Thankfully Elliya didn't seem to need his help although she was still getting used to swimming back such a long distance she still did well enough for a beginner.

When they reached the dock, they both hoisted themselves out of the water and Elliya did her best to wring out the excess water from her clothes before walking, hand in hand with Hakyeon, back to the cabin. The others were arriving just as they reached the door and Hakyeon thought he had overstayed his welcome deeming it time for him to leave.

“I should get going.” he said.

“Can't you at least stay for dinner?” she asked giving him her best puppy eye impression in an attempt to get him to stay.

“I'd like to but I really need to go home.” he gave her a quick kiss again “I'll see you later.”

Elliya nodded and watched him disappear through the trees just as Jaehwan and the others reached her.

“And just who was that?” he asked in his overprotective older brother voice, quirking an eyebrow towards where Hakyeon had been just moments earlier.

Elliya grinned at him and instead of answering him she dug into one of the bags of food he was carrying for some fried rice before going into the house. Jaehwan scratched his head with a confused look back where the unfamiliar male he had seen with his sister had been before shaking his head and following her inside. He figured he would get a straight answer later after they were finished eating.