Night suddenly fell upon the limitless seas, a quilt of darkness wrapped the entire coast if not for a dozen few lanterns lit by the shore, where the majestic vessel from the Royal Navy was docked and ready to welcome the many guests invited for King Kyuhyun's birthday party.

For the whole length of the party, a dreamy Ryeowook stood still with eyes pointed on the highest dock of the wooden ship, desperately trying his best to focus his sad eyes onto the regal built that was his beloved Kyuhyun's figure.

Polite like nobody else, considerate to entertain each and every one of the guests aboard, Kyuhyun waltzed around people and engaged witty conversations when he wasn't too busy at trying out the elaborate food or drink a couple of glasses of sparkling wine from the finest grapes of his Kingdom. When it was time to dance, he was also asked as the most wanted partner by the many beautiful countesses and duchesses from all over the closer realms.

The little merman couldn't help but swim as close as possible, until he sat on a flat rock encrusted with pinkish crystals of salt, and kept his head up high, lost in a little delusion that had him dancing as much carefree in the arms of the King. In those fantasies his crush was pressing both hands on Ryeowook's hips to hold the little one as close as possible to his body, until the latter's breath could be taken away.

Eyes mesmerized by the elegance of his one, true love, Ryeowook could be seen happily hopping on a pair of two small, bare feet while Kyuhyun led him in endless circles around the deck, a pleased smile depicted on his usually stern face, while all his subjects witnessed the joy sparkling between the loving, Royal couple.

But it was just a fantasy, and even a deluded one, therefore Ryeowook shook his head and sighed then, his wet hands griping hard the rock undrneath his lean, brilliant blue fishtail swinging in the water. 

The explosions of the fireworks, wonderful, multicolor flowers of fire gleaming above the ship, had totally snapped him out of his little delusions, in fact shattering what little hope remained of becoming part of the King's human world, one day. With sadness veiled in his eyes, Ryeowook watched as the King and his guests still had fun aboard the ship, until bubbly laughter and witty conversations turned into frightened screams as a rocket from the pyrotechnics set had failed to explode and flew back at the workers, setting the entire stage on fire. 

The first and biggest explosion produced a huge hole in the hold of the ship and other surrounding lower areas, making it sinking incredibly fast as if an abyss had purposely opened underneath it and the sea had had any greed into finally eating and digest the whole construction into its frozen cold depths.

People screamed and didn't seem to find any way to think straight of a method to organize the rescue procedures. Many of them stubbornly decided to throw themselves into the water below, instead of risking to embrace of fire, or being flung even further away from the other rocket explosions that might have happened.

Watching as the situation worsened by the second, King Kyuhyun immediately tried his best to come up with a plan to gather all the remaining guests onto the three lifeboats that hadn't been damaged yet. With Changmin at his side, he gave orders to the sailors and ran with the highest military ranks in order to get peace back, instead of the reigning confusion.

Despite having immediatley moved towards the floating fire, Ryeowook couldn't do much but powerlessly watching how the previously wonderfully decorated "jewel" among the ships of the Kingdom's Royal Navy quickly transformed into a giant chunk of burning wood. Red flames quivered and shone into Ryeowook's charcoal black eyes, as if he was about to spill yet again precious tears.

And for a moment he really was, when, by then, even the last boat had been lowered into the water and everybody but the King had evacuated the sinking ship, fleeing from the recurring danger.

"K-Kyuhyun!" he found himself desperately shouting after the King as he frantically swam around the soon-to-become relict and searched for any sign of the man he loved "Kyuhyun!!" the little merman used every single breath stored in his fear-constricted lungs as the fleeing people all successfully reached the shore and none of them had seen the King anywhere. Tears pooled at the corner of his eyes, pearls of water streaked his high cheekbones and soon got washed away by more water, as the merman dove around the ship to look for traces of an unconscious Kyuhyun.   

Time inesorably passed and seemed to run out as Ryeowook frantically kept looking for Kyuhyun, occasionally he threw a pair of glances towards the shore to check that his loved one might be safe and sound with his subjects, but that wasn't so. Even his heart, which had pounded at the speed of light against the tight ribcage, suddenly stopped, stricken by a mounting wave of pain and despair as the man he loved oh so much slowly precipitated into the darkest depths of the sea without a chance of waking up.

Swinging furiously his sapphire blue fishtail to gain more speed underwater, Ryeowook threw himself towards the dark abyss where King Kyuhyun was about to be swallowed and disappear.

The little merman's only aim was to be quick enough to grab the unconcious man and pull him out of the water, far away from the danger that could be never waking up again.

"Hang on in there!" Ryeowook thought, and with a swift move of his sinuous tail, he reached for the uncounscious King. Wrapping his arms around the man's waist he kept on swimming against the whirpool of waves, through the pieces of the burning ship that already littered the waters, and everything he did, Ryeowook did it with all the energy he could still collect despite the evident tiredness slowly and constantly creeping under his skin. What still drove him to the extreme was undoubtedly the adrenaline that had replaced blood flowing into his veins, and the despair caused by the pure fright of losing the man he loved. 

The night in fact for Ryeowook was spent swinging from fear to light relief as the young King was visibly still alive but didn't show any sign to wake up to consciousness anytime soon. The little merman had successfully challenged his natural element and swam through the waves until he could reach the shore. There, under what remained of the moonlight and the darkness going pale, Ryeowook found a well protected sandy line of coast just under the castle and laid the unresponsive body on to the ground.

Kyuhyun didn't budge of an inch, beautiful in his seemingly sleep. Despair was the prevailing emotion that almost took the better of Ryeowook while watching his loved one shifting from his lively complexion to a paler one, whose meaning was hardly mistakable. Tears welled in his eyes and streaked his plump cheeks, falling from his chin in an admission of helplessness, until he recalled some funny stories his older brothers usually told him whenever they venuterd near the shore to study the human behaviors.

He remembered his older brother Donghae laughing almost histerically when he told how people used to hit their loved ones when these fell captive of the dangers of the sea. If they were caught on time and didn't drown, they were repetitively hit on the chest until they could truly wake up to conciousness.

Ryeowook didn't know if Donghae and his brothers were making fun of him back then, but had he any other choice at the moment, if not trying that method once? Maybe, if it really did work, then... then, Kyuhyun could still be alive and... and the King couldn't be anything but infinitely grateful to the little merman for saving him.

Ryeowook had almost no time to dwell on positive thoughts of gratefulness and whatever could come afterwards, he did have to try to save him first and that was what he did.

Gently pushing Kyuhyun to lay as farthest as possible from the waters, Ryeowook helped himself near the body and crept on to the sand with his hands and all the strength that his fishtail could provide him outside his natural element. The merman hovered the unconscious man and worriedly stared at how Kyuhyun's complexion had gotten scaringly paler and slightly livid. Already feeling tears pooling on his lashes, Ryeowook sat beside Kyuhyun and, placing both hands on his chest, began to press it timidly at first, then a bit stronger, until he could get some signs of life from the King.

"Please, please... you have to wake up, please!" Ryeowook muttered worriedly as he repetitively hit Kyuhyun with despair and a little flicker of hope still. But nothing seemed to work, much to Ryeowook's dismay, and even with that deceiving result the little merman wasn't ready to give up on Kyuhyun.

"Don't go, don't you dare go..." Ryeowook was about to shout when he pressed his small hands one last time onto Kyuhyun's chest and tried, with that repetitive gesture, to desperately look for life within that body again.

"P-please..." Ryeowook cried, his trembling lips preventing him even to talk properly as he bent down over Kyuhyun and placed his wet forehead onto the other man's, his shivering hands cupped Kyuhyun's cold cheeks and still, he whispered prayers to all the existing gods, the sea ones and those in which humans had faith in alike. He wasn't picky.

About to lose all hope, however not ready enough to mourn his beloved one, Ryeowook leaned down on to Kyuhyun's body and placed his head near t