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toristbr · 5 months ago

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Sea Stars & Wishes - Chapter 9

Lyrika

Everyone stops moving and watches in shock. Lyrika, still halfway hanging off the pier edge, not falling into the water due to the guard’s hold on her ankle. She looks into the water, waiting. Her heart still pounds in her chest, but it slows. A horrible feeling in her stomach makes her nauseous, but she swallows her salvia to hold it down.

Song still hasn’t resurfaced. Did he swim away? Did the ocean water heal him? She has no idea how much magic is in polluted seawater. Song never gave her that lesson. Eventually, bubbles start rising.

“Was I too late?” She quietly asks herself. Her question snaps the guards out of their shock. Lyrika is yanked back upwards onto the pier. Her shirt and jacket rides up her back and her skin cut on the pier’s cemented surface. She yells out in pain. She twists her ankle and leg around to loosen the man’s grasp. If she can break free, she too can jump in the water and swim away. She still has a chance of escaping.

“Oh no, you don’t. Fabian, grab her!” One of them orders. Lyrika finally looks at the guards’ faces. Drew has a hold of her and Fabian is the other one. Fabian grabs Lyrika’s arm. And pulls her around. Draw releases her leg and quickly grabs her other arm. Lyrika still fights in their grasp.

“Stop fighting it!” Drew snaps. With his free hand he grabs the hood of her jacket, as well as her hair and yanks back. Her head and neck snap backwards and she yells out in pain.

“Let me go! You’re hurting me!” She screams. She swings her legs around, trying to hook onto anything so she can pull herself out of their hands. Both their grips tighten on Lyrika’s arms, and she screams out again.

A loud crackle of thunder, almost deafening, silences the three of them. They all stop moving. They look up towards the sky, and watch in horror as storm clouds move in at an alarming rate. Normally clouds in the night time give the sky a brownish hue, but these clouds only make the sky look even darker. Lightning ripples through the clouds, and some fall and strike the water further out. Another round of thunder booms, but much quieter. The sound of the waves crashing against the pier and shore below the three humans silences all together. Everything becomes eerily quiet and still.

Tricking water suddenly fills the silence, and slowly water rises like walls around the three open sides of the pier, boxing off the water exits. Leaving one way out- the way they came.

“I suggest letting her go,” a deep, chilling voice ripples along the water as if sitting in a surround sound movie theater. Nobody has yet to move, and the water continues to rise towards the sky. The water stops rising, but instead reaches across to one another. Creating a deadend air tunnel around Lyrika and the guards.

An illuminated pink flash zips from the left to the right before disappearing back into the water. It startles the guards who loosen their grip on Lyrika, but she’s struck with fear and does nothing to break away from them.

“I said,” the voice rings out once more, but louder. Song’s head pops out of the water above them; he looks directly down on them. His white hair is now a deep vibrant pink, and his long silver tail is pink too.

“Let. Her. Go,” Song says slowly, clearly, and loudly. Drew and Fabian release Lyrika, who falls onto the pier with a thud. The guards sprint away, tripping over one another more than once as they flee from the horror. Leaving Lyrika to fend for herself, but she looks up at Song in amazement. His eyes are glossed over, glowing a bright white with a tint of pink in them. His tail shimmers despite the dark water and the lack of any light from the world.

Song disappears back into the water, and the water quickly recedes back to where it naturally belongs. The clouds in the sky remain, no thunder, but the lighting bounce around like children playing tag.

“Song?” Lyrika calls out. She crawls to the closest pier edge and looks down into the water. Nothing. She crawls to the other side and peers down. Nothing. She pushes herself up onto her good ankle and hops to the very end of the pier where she originally threw him into the water. She lowers herself back to her knees and looks over the edge. Nothing.

Lyrika’s heart sinks, did he save her and then swim away? She wouldn’t blame him. He didn’t even need to save her. She was willing to take the consequences. She rips her medical mask and gloves off of her body. She pulls her hood down, her curly hair falling out of her bun. But she can’t stop the overwhelming sadness consuming her. Why does it feel so bitter? Why does not seeing Song hurt her the way it does? She has no right to ask for closure. She made no deal with him. She acted on her own accord. Set Song free. She completed her mission.

“But I just wanted to say goodbye,” Lyrika whispers, fighting her inner monologue of thoughts. She hangs her head low, closing her eyes to stop any more tears from falling.

“Then say it,” a familiar voice softly speaks. Lyrika’s head whips up and she spots Song holding onto the pier’s edge.

“Say it fast before I lose my grip,” Song quickly adds, moving his arms to help sturdy himself, but it causes him to lose his grip and he falls back into the water.

Lyrika stifles a laugh. She looks over the edge to spot Song resurfacing, looking up at her. Without thinking twice Lyrika pushes herself to the edge and tips herself to fall into the water. The iciness shocks her muscles and they contract, not allowing her to move.

A pair of arms wrap around her and pull her to the surface. Lyriak gasps the moment she breaks into the air. Frost leaves her mouth as she continues to breathe heavily.

“There are no words to describe how incredibly stupid that was,” Song scolds. He swims them both to the near shore. He pulls in shallow enough for Lyrika to sit in the water. He coils himself next to her.

“I’ll be fine,” Lyrika awkwardly laughs knowing that he’s right. She looks over at Song, smiles, and looks down at his tail.

“You’re all healed now,” Lyrika obviously states, but in a sincere tone.

“As healthy as any merman would be at my age,” Song replies.

“I had thought right after I threw you into the water that maybe it didn’t work,” Lyrika admits, “I didn’t know how much sea magic is here.

“There’s not a lot,” Song sighs, “but enough to get me to somewhere where I can fully heal.” Song sticks the fin of his tail out of the water.

“It’s really a beautiful color on you,” Lyrika compliments.

“I wouldn’t be here, alive, and pink if it weren’t for you,” Song tells her, “although I told you not to and got upset, I’m sorry and thank you.”

“I’m sorry that it took someone almost two years to do something,” Lyrika says..

Song smiles, “I don’t think I would have wanted it any other way. I wouldn’t have been able to meet you.

You, Lyrika saved me.”

“Don’t make it sound heroic,” Lyrika begs sadly, “we’re a selfish species who only seem to do so much wrong.”

“Yeah,” Song instantly agrees, “but I’ve come to learn that not all of you are the same. Not all of you are evil, selfish, or destructive.” Lyrika smiles, accepting the somewhat nice, maybe backhanded, compliment.

“What will you do now?” Lyrika asks, despite knowing the answer already. She just can’t help herself but wants just a few more minutes if she can.

“I’ll return home… to my brothers,” Song looks out to the open sea, “I wonder if they missed me.” Water splashes him.

“Only a fool wouldn’t miss you,” Lyrika counters, but her voice breaks. She instantly looks away. Song turns to her again. The reality of their situation hits Song instantly like when he was thrown into the ice water not too long ago. Now they must go their separate ways.

“Lyrika,” Song softly calls her. She turns and faces him again. He cups both his hands over one another, and light shines through the cracks of his fingers and a bolt of lighting zips around his hand. The light vanishes and Song opens his hand, revealing a small white pearl.

“Lyrika Belle,” Song states, “You have saved a merman’s life. By the law of the sea you are granted one wish.”

“A wish?” Lyrika repeats.

“It’s an honor that very few merfolk get to fulfill. We can only grant one wish per life,” Song explains, smiling.

“So you’re using your only chance to grant a wish… on me?” Lyrika inquires, “a human?”

“Not just any human,” Song smiles “you. I’m using my wish on the girl who saved my life. A wish without repercussions or loopholes. Whatever you desire. I will make it a reality. All you have to do is tell me.”

Lyrika stares at the pearl in Song’s hand, then out towards the sea, and finally behind her towards the land, her home. She looks at Song once more and takes a deep breath.

“I wish that humans past, present, and future forget the existence of mermaids,” she finally tells him.

#ya fantasy #song hangyeom #song #kpop #bookish #fanfiction

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toristbr · 5 months ago

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Sea Stars & Wishes - Chapter 8

Lyrika

Lyrika leaves her apartment at 1:30 AM, and aiming to arrive by 2:30. She walks along the sidewalk, with her jacket hood up and medical face mask on. Strapped to her back is the collapsible wagon; the wheels bouncing off her legs at an annoying rhythm . A car passes, and then silence envelopes her again- exactly what Lyrika needs. No people. No cars. No identifiers.

As Lyrika approaches the university she pulls out her latex and cotton gloves, and slips both on. She mentally thanks her mom for her weird obsession for watching crime documentaries and TV shows, which taught her to not leave any DNA behind if she can help it.

She slowly approaches the marine biology building, noting that there is no campus police in sight. She walks on the grass towards the side of the building first. None of the windows appear to be open, and Lyrika doesn’t want to waste time figuring out if they are locked or unlocked. She walks back towards the front of the building, widening the circle as she walks around. No open windows on that side either. That leaves entering through the front doors. She approaches from the side of the building, pushing her way through the small gaps of the bushes. She peaks her head around the corner to look through the glass doors.

Lyrika has a direct view of the security room; the lights on and the door is slightly ajar. She huffs. She crouches down, hiding in the bushes, and she gets comfortable. She looks at her watch noting the time.

2:37

That’s fine. She can sit for a bit and see if security stays in their room, or how often they go out and about on their rounds.

After what feels like an eternity and no movement inside the building, Lyrika looks at her watch once more.

3:14

With a sign, Lyrika mentally steels herself. She pushes herself off the ground and slowly comes out of the bushes. She approaches the door and gently pulls on it, but it doesn’t budge. Her adrenaline spikes instantly. She didn’t come all this way just for the front door to be locked. She looks around the door, frame, and wall, and she spots it in the corner, halfway hidden by an overgrown bush. A keycard sensor.

She fishes in her pocket and pulls out Layla’s ID card. Lyrika holds the card up to the sensor and it flashes green. She hears a small click and she gently pulls the door open before it locks again. She slowly opens the door, and mentally thanks it for not creaking. She instantly hears talking and freezes, but quickly realizes that it’s a movie playing loudly from the security office.

She opens the door wide enough for her and the wagon strapped to her back to slip inside. She slowly closes the door behind her. She turns and looks through the ajar security office door. She spots Drew, the guard from the other day, asleep with his head resting on his desk. Drew’s body and wall illuminate with different colors, indicating the movie is playing from the other side of the office. Both security guards are in. Lyrika quietly walks to the far wall and slowly inches across, her eyes not leaving the door. Once the light from the door passes and she is no longer in view, she quietly picks up her pace down the hallway. She keeps her head down to avoid any possible cameras in the hallway.

She stops in front of the poorly painted merman door. She pulls the ID card out of her pocket again and holds it to the sensor. It flashes green and she quietly opens the door and sneaks inside.

Now, inside the room, Lyrika has limited time. She still doesn’t know who has access to all the security cameras. But with Song here and being sick, there is bound to be someone who has it pulled up on their computer wherever they are.

Lyrika quickly moves towards the pool and pulls the wagon off her back. She quickly assembles the wagon, something she also practices several times in her hotel room and even timed herself to do it in less than fifteen seconds.

She looks over the pool. The height of the pool is roughly four feet. She spots Song floating on the water. His eyes closed.

“Song,” Lyrika quietly calls out. But there is no reaction or response. She looks over her shoulder, and takes a quick deep breath to calm her nerves. She turns back towards Song. She notices his shallow breathing, which gives her small relief.

“Please don’t freak out,” she whispers to him. She reaches out and grabs his hand. She gently pulls him towards the edge of the pool.

Suddenly she hears the door lock click and she drops down and hurries to the side. As the door opens Lyrika spots a hollow mini staircase and stage that is attached to the side of Song’s pool. She hides under it and slowly walks around further to the back of the pool to put as much distance and mass between her and the person who just walked in.

This was it. She’s caught, and she’s going to be arrested and framed for Song’s death. Her heart pounds in her chest, and she holds her breath. A light flashes around the room, and boots squeak on the floor. Security is going to see her wagon and know it wasn’t there before.

Lyrika tightly closes her eyes, not wanting to see the mess unfold. But the squeaky shoes walk away and the door opens and closes. Lyrika opens her eyes again and releases her breath. She stays in her spot for a couple moments more before slowly moving back out into the open. She lays on the ground poking her head around the edge of the staircase to see if the security guard was tricking her into thinking he had left. But he truly did leave.

She pulls herself out of hiding and rushes over to Song.

“Hey,” she smiles, “I hope you can hear me, because you’re going home.” Lyrika turns Song in the water. She shoves her arms into the water and hooks them under Song’s arms. Before pulling him out of the water, she pulls the wagon closer with her foot. She pulls Song upward, and he grumbles but doesn’t put up a fight. The further he comes out of the water, the heavier he gets.

Lyrika, as gently as she can, lays him into the wagon, propping him up slightly. She pulls the rest of his tail out of the water and curls it lightly so it doesn’t just drag on the floor.

“What’s happening?” Song mumbles almost incoherently.

“Sorry,” Lyrika whispers, “time to go.”

Lyrika pulls the wagon, and it’s slow to move, but once she gets it moving, it glides with her pace. She slows the wagon as they approach the door. She takes a deep breath, her heart still pounding from the encounter earlier. Lyrika slowly pulls the door handle down and pushes it open. She pops her head out, looking around before opening it wider.

Lyrika presses her back against the door, holding it open, as she pulls the wagon fully out of the room. She double-checks to make sure nothing is in the way of the door and she slowly guides it closed.

Lyrika doesn’t spare a second. The moment the door is closed and her hands are off the handle, she quietly moves towards the wagon, grabbing the handle once more.

Now this is going to be the most difficult part. Getting to the front doors and past security. One of the two seems on somewhat alert, so Lyrika will have to tread extra carefully. If she wanted, she could run ahead and check the scene out, but she can’t risk any more time in the building. She’s officially on a timer. Who knows when the next time someone will check the cameras and find Song gone.

The wagon wheels behind Lyrika, effortlessly silent. She pulls Song and the wagon closer to the wall as the light from the security door illuminates across the floor and far wall. The door is open slightly more. But the door opens towards her, so she can not view inside the room. Lyrika mentally notes that once she is outside she needs to run in case one of the guards happens to look out their door which faces the doors to the building.

The adrenaline in her body continues to rise, heart pounding against her chest. Her head feels light, and she shakes it to stop. No she can’t faint during this. Afterwards she can, but not now.

The door is inches from her. She looks out the corner of her eye. Drew is still sleeping, and the other guard still seems to be watching something. The movie from before is over and it’s much quieter. Potentially a reason why the guard came to check on Song.

Her fingers reach the door, and she slowly pushes it open, her eyes on the security room the entire time. She will need to run with every ounce of life in her if she is spotted by either or both guards.

She pushes the door open wide enough and again presses her body against the door to hold it as she pulls the wagon out. She slowly steps from the door and grabs the outdoor handle with her hand, but it slips. Her hands had accumulated sweat from the stress and wagon pulling. She reaches to catch the door before it slams but she’s a hair too late. The metal door slams against the metal stoppers in the door frame, and bounces against the frame not once but twice.

Lyrika immediately dashes to the front of the wagon, grabbing the handle and yanking the wagon to move. She doesn’t dare look back. The wagon quickly follows in motion behind her, but pulling it still proves difficult.

“Hey! Stop there!” A male voice calls out. Lyrika still doesn’t look back. She pushes herself to run faster. She only needs to pass one and half more buildings before reaching the pier.

Every deep crack in the floor jostles teh wagon around causing Song to groan as if he’s in pain.

Finally, the last building is in sight.

“Stop right there!” Another male voice calls. Both guards are chasing after her now, and closing the distance. The final building comes and goes, and she makes the transition from sidewalk to the pier. The break in the concrete rocks the wagon around. Enough for Song to gain somewhat of a consciousness.

“W-what?” Song mumbles, eyes opened barely, everything somewhat a blur.

“Almost there, Song,” Lyrika calls back. She pulls the wagon harder, the end of the pier in clear sight.

“Lyrika,” Song grumbles, “stop this. I deserve to watch them panic.”

“No!” Lyrika snaps back, “you’re going to live and go home!”

But Song doesn’t hear nor does he want to listen. He tries to push and pull himself out of the wagon, but it only causes the wagon to topple over. Song falls out and onto the pier, and Lyrika is pulled down. She feels a popping sensation in her ankle and she yells out in pain as a burning sensation rushes her entire body.

“It’s okay. I’ve accepted…,” Song whispers. He reaches his hand out towards Lyrika.

“I’m trying to save you,” Lyrika cries.

“There they are!” One of the guards yells. Lyrika pushes herself up and spots the guards at the other end of the pier.

“No, no, no, no, no,” Lyrika panics. She tries to stand and puts her weight onto her good ankle. She quickly hobbles over to Song and bends down to lift him up once more. She’s mere feet away from the end of the pier. But the weight of Song causes Lyrika to put weight into her bad foot and the two fall once more. She pushes herself up and stays sitting on her butt. She grabs Song once more, leaning his back against her chest, and she pushes with her good foot on the floor to shuffle her backwards. She even swings her body in the motion to give her a few more inches with each push.

“You’re going home,” Lyrika declares. She looks over her shoulder towards the water.

“I’m sorry if this hurts,” Lyrika says, “but go home.”

Lyrika lays down, her shoulder blades and head hanging over the pier's edge. She pulls Song with the momentum, throwing him over her shoulder.

Suddenly she feels something grab her ankle and she is dragged back towards the pier, but Song still hasn’t fallen into the water. Lyrika lifts her head up and spots one guard holding her good foot and the other guard holding with all his might onto Song’s tail. They’re both being pulled back up.

“No! Let him go!” Lyrika yells. She pulls her bad foot out from under Song and kicks the guard holding Song. The guard yells in pain, but it does the trick. Lyrika watches as Song falls into the dark water, disappearing.

#ya fantasy #song hangyeom #song #kpop #bookish #fanfiction

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toristbr · 5 months ago

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Sea Stars & Wishes - Chapter 7

Lyrika

“Lyrika?” Layla calls, waving her hand in front of Lyrika’s face. Lyrika jerks back and blinks rapidly.

“Were you listening to anything I was saying?” Layla asks.

“I’m sorry, no,” Lyrika answers. No, she must do something, even if it means facing something riskier than a slap on the wrist.

Layla opens her mouth to speak, but Lyrika cuts her off, “can we actually talk about this tomorrow? I’m sorry, I just need to process today and Song.” Layla’s lips press into a thin line, but nods. Lyrika could tell Layla didn’t appreciate being shut out, but she doesn’t understand the connection Lyrika has with Song. She doesn’t understand that Song is the one who told her the remedy. If Song doesn’t survive, Lyrika will quit marine biology.

Lyrika mumbles another apology before leaving the room. She needs to think. Somewhere to think. She passes the classroom she and her peers were in on their first day. She peeks into the window, noticing nobody else in there. She opens the door, which unlike the others in the basement, lacks a sensor.

She takes a seat in the closest chair and rests her head on the table. She closes her eyes and takes a few deep breaths, trying to focus solely on Song.

He’s dying. Lyrika knows what will save him. How to go about it, no clue. She could make a social media post. The pros: it goes viral and he gets released. The cons: the video doesn’t go viral, Lyrika gets a lot of hate, and would get in trouble for releasing the information that Song is sick and dying. Nope, next.

A protest? No. Lyrika doesn’t have enough time to set one up or get enough people.

Talking to the marine biologist would be the easiest of the options to do. But why would they listen to a teenager?

Lyrika picks her head up and leans back. She takes a deep breath.

She could do the absolute unthinkable. She could kidnap Song and release him into the ocean herself. It’s a wild and very impossible idea, but Lyrika wouldn’t forgive herself if she sat idly and watched Song die. Even if she is caught, arrested, and failed to free Song, she tried. Even with the risk, they could take it a step further and somehow put the blame of Song’s death on her, and she gets sent to prison for a long time.

But even then… it sounds better than all the other options she can think of. Taking an extreme risk… all by herself.

She leans forward again, propping her elbows on the table, holding her head up by her forehead with her hands.

She could ask for help, but if they’re caught, they too would get in trouble. Not as much as her, but still enough to ruin any chances of the future they are striving toward. No, Lyrika can’t do that to them. But to herself? She would allow it. If Song dies… what would be the point of continuing to do marine biology? Humans clearly aren’t here to save marine life if they continue to keep Song captive in the aquarium.

It settles in Lyrika; this is the only thing she can think of to solve the issue. She has to at least try. The only positive note Lyrika can instantly think of, is how the marine biology building is two buildings away from the pier, or a quarter-mile to the beach shore. If she can get Song out of the building it would take less than five minutes to get him into the ocean.

The marine biology building is the first obstacle. If they are keeping Song’s sickness under wraps, then they could have hired more security or have the campus police make a few extra rounds around the building. Inside the building, the security room is directly inside the door, and all of the lab rooms have security cameras based on what Lyrika spotted in the sea star room. Who all has access to the security cameras? The sensors for the doors would be another problem.

They canceled all classes and labs.

If Layla doesn’t need her ID card, Lyrika could borrow it for a short time. She’ll grab the ID card before leaving the aquarium… which reminds Lyrika that she also has to collect her things from the cafeteria.

The only other obstacle would be how to get Song from the building to the ocean. Just by looking at him, Lyrika knows he isn’t light, and she has no muscles to support that weight. She could buy a wagon- a collapsible one. One of those should be able to hold most of Song’s weight. His tail will hang outside of the wagon, but that’s a problem for later.

Lyrika stands up from her chair and exits the room.. If she wants to do this, she needs to start now. First, get Layla’s ID card. Second, get a collapsible wagon. Third, figure out when to go into action.

On the second floor, the care specialists work in silence or are helping out Lyrika’s classmates with their projects. But no one looks in Lyrika’s direction. She continues walking to the breakroom, and avoids looking around. The last thing she needs is to look suspicious. When she reaches the breakroom door she doesn’t hesitate to open it.

Lyrika walks inside the breakroom, and thankfully, nobody else is in there. She quickly walks up to Layla’s opened-door locker and unzips the smaller pocket of her bag. The plastic blue and white ID card is unmissable in the sea of trash, pens, and candy.

“Sorry,” Lyrika mumbles as she grabs the ID and pockets it. She zips up the bag once more and heads out of the breakroom.

Lyrika lies in her bed, tossing and turning every five or ten minutes. She skipped dinner. The nerves have finally settled in her. She had spent the rest of the day getting a wagon and prepping the rest of her plan. Lyrika had lied to Cassidy in order to borrow her black jacket and cargo pants. Explaining it was for a part of her project, to explain how sea stars only see shadows and light and she needed a full black outfit, and it had completely gone over her head when packing for the trip.

She then decided to strike between two and three in the morning. There would be less people on the road and it’s a Thursday night, not too many people will be out drinking and partying.

She also looked up images of the marine biology building through the 3D campus tour on the college website. She notes there is only the set of doors at the entrance, which Lyrika found to be a fire hazard until she saw how old the building was, and that there are a ton of windows. If windows are unlocked and open it might be easier to get in that way. But if the windows are locked and closed she will have to settle on the door.

Lyrika turns in her bed once more. Could she really pull this off? Lyrika slaps her hand over her face and pulls it down. Who is she kidding? What spy movie does she think she’s in? Avoiding security and cameras? No. She has to do this. She has to try. He may have told her not to do anything, but she would never forgive herself.

She huffs and turns once more. She taps on her phone and it illuminates the dark room.

1:05

Finally. It’s time.

Lyrika tosses the blanket off her body and pushes herself out of bed. She walks into the bathroom, flipping on the light. Her clothes are neatly folded sitting on the counter. She changes into the all-black uniform: cargo pants, long sleeve shirt, jacket, and boots. Lyrika also has latex gloves, a pair of cotton gloves, and a medical facemask set aside too.

She looks at herself in the mirror. She takes another deep breath to calm her nerves. She grabs one of the two elastic bands set aside and pulls her hair into a ponytail. She turns the faucet water on and turns her head to the side so she can put the entirety of her hair in the sink to soak. She turns off the water and rings out the excess water from her hair. Lyrika twirls her hair around and wraps it around the center, creating a bun. She uses the other elastic band to put and keep it in place.

Lyrika looks at her final image in the mirror. She nods to herself looking over the entire outfit. Nothing identifiable stands out to her. The camera may be able to tell Lyrika’s gender and height, but nothing else.

She meets her own gaze in the reflection of the mirror, “time to steal a merman.”

#ya fantasy #song hangyeom #song #kpop #bookish #fanfiction

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toristbr · 5 months ago

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Sea Stars & Wishes - Chapter 6

Lyrika

Lyrika lays awake in her hotel bed, the blanket thrown aside, hands under her head. She stares at the ceiling. Song’s words haunting her thoughts, keeping her awake.

Don’t you dare tell them.

I want to watch them lose something they should have never had.

Lyrika sighs and turns on to her side.

I wondered if I ever might have the chance to see my brothers again.

I miss them… I wonder if they miss me or think of me.

Lyrika pushes herself up in her bed. She hangs her head, her hands propping on her temples. How could she sleep after Song opened up to her like that? He’s just like the sea stars- dying, and nobody is saving him.

I’ve accepted this a long time ago

Except… Song wants to die. He’s accepted his death.

I wondered if I ever might have the chance to see my brothers again.

She runs her hands through her curly hair, gripping it, and pulling it in frustration. There has to be another way. Song deserves to live. He confided his deepest desire to her.

In a perfect world, humans would have released Song back into the ocean after he healed. But this isn’t a perfect world, but it’s also not a dystopia. Something can be done. Something should have been done the moment Song was healed. Now Lyrika, an eighteen-year-old high school senior, is stressing over ideas on how to save Song. How could nobody notice his despair?

She gazes out the window where the curtains are fully drawn back, allowing the morning sun to wake her in the early hours to be ready for a full day at the aquarium. Said building is directly across the street, and it gives Lyrika a perfect view of the second story. If the lights were on right now she might even be able to see some of the exhibits from here.

Lyrika sighs again. She doesn’t know what to do. Her time is limited since she leaves Saturday morning for the airport with her class, giving her less than 48 hours to act. On one hand, she could break her promise- no, she can’t do that. To Lyrika, promises are sacred, an unbreakable bond.

She turns away from the window, flops back down onto her bed, and once more stares at the ceiling. She could try talking to the marine biologist and the aquarium staff. She scoffs. What a joke. Adults listening to a high school student rage about why Song needs to be released back to the ocean. They would simply dismiss her, questioning her insanity for even thinking that she could know more than the professional. But this time, she does.

Lyrika smacks her cheeks, snapping her back to the reality of her situation. Maybe she should just listen to Song. He had told her to not worry… but how could she not? His impending death is suffocating, squeezing her heart until it stops. She flips herself in the bed, shuts her eyes, and forces herself to sleep despite the turmoil within her heart and mind.

The sun wakes Lyrika bright and early, although she barely slept, mostly tossing and turning. The bags under her eyes are darker than usual as she pushes herself out of bed and quickly gets ready. It’s still the time of the year where the sun rises a little later, which perfectly aligns with the opening hours of the aquarium.

Lyrika’s phone buzzes, alerting her of a new message. She silences it before shoving it into her pocket as she heads out the door with her bag.

The aquarium is quieter than Lyrika expected it to be, but she hasn’t been here this early before. She shrugs it off and makes her way to the sea star pool on the second story. She dumps her phone and bag onto the bench and pulls her notebook and pen.

Her phone screen lights up, several text messages incoming, but Lyrika has her back to her phone as she starts working on her project.

Lyrika looks down at her watch after her stomach growls for the fourth time. She walks back to her bag and shoves her notebook inside. Her phone lights up once more, Lyrika seeing the parade of messages stacked behind the newest one. She shoves her phone in her pocket, deciding she’ll read them all once she’s at lunch.

In the cafeteria, Lyrika grabs a premade and wrapped sandwich and a bottled water before sitting at one of the tables. A couple other classmates sit together at a table in the corner, chatting as they stare at one of their phone screens. Lyrika pulls her phone out of her pocket and notices all the commotion of the messages are stemming from her class group chat. Curious, she opens the chat and reads the first message. Her eyes widen and she drops her sandwich.

She pushes herself from the table, leaving all her belongings, and sprints out of the cafeteria. Her classmates watch in confusion.

Lyrika bursts through the small animal care room. She spots Junhee at Song’s pool.

“Where is Song?” Lyrika gasps, heavily breathing in between each word.

“Oh,” Junhee looks up, his eyes bloodshot, “Song was found unresponsive this morning. So they took him to the university… it doesn’t sound good.”

It won’t be much longer now.

Lyrika’s stomach drops, and she rushes over to the nearest trash can to throw up the food she ate earlier in the day.

“Are you okay?” Junhee rests his hand on Lyrika’s back.

Lyrika flips her hair back and wipes her mouth, “yes. Sorry.”

“You’re fine. Go rinse off in the sink. I’ll take care of the trash… unless you’re not done?” Junhee asks.

Lyrika shakes her head and makes her way to the sink. She washes her hands then rinses her mouth out. Turning off the faucet, Lyrika watches the water drain from the sink. She turns around and finds Junhee has returned to cleaning Song’s pool; the water drained and he scrubs the inner walls and floor.

Lyrika’s body trembles, and she crouches to the floor, hugging her knees tightly as silent tears stream down her cheeks. She didn’t realize that Song meant mere hours. Why couldn’t it have happened after she left. She’s only here for a day and a half more, he couldn’t have waited? No, she would have found out even at home, and it would hit hard too. There she wouldn’t have been able to do anything or have the chance to say goodbye.

She pushes herself off the floor and trudges over to the sea star pool, dragging a tall chair with her. She plops her head onto her arms that rest on top of the faux rocky edge of the sea star pool. Her eyes cast into the water, watching the sick sea stars as they lay ever so still in the pool. At least there was hope for them. Perhaps humans will learn their lesson and never keep another mermaid or merman. They should live freely in the ocean; where they have been for years, where they belong.

“Thought I would find you here,” Layla’s voice breaks Lyrika from her thoughts. She picks her head up and turns around. Junhee is now gone, and Song’s pool is completely drained and spotlessly clean.

“Oh, hey,” Lyrika deflatedly replies.

“Wow, you look awful. Upset about Song?” Layla inquires. Lyrika nods and turns away as more tears spill over her waterline.

“He kept me company while I worked on the sea stars,” Lyrika’s voice breaks.

“I’m sorry,” Layla rubs her back, “the supposed best are trying to save him, but I think it’s too late.”

“You don’t have classes today?” Lyrika asks, quickly changing the subject from Song’s imminent death.

“They canceled all classes and labs. You wouldn’t know it’s because of Song unless you work here. They’re trying to keep it under wraps. Imagine the press if they found out the merman is dying at the hands of humans,” Layla explains, “they’re running like mad men over there. The aquarium is set to open back up Saturday.”

I want to watch them panic.

Song is going to win in the end, just like he wanted. But why does it feel so wrong? She knows what’ll save him… if only-

“How is the sea star remedy coming?” Layla asks. She spots the isolation container in the water and pulls it out. Her eyes widened.

“Y-you figured it out,” she breathlessly says.

“Possibly,” Lyrika’s rasps, “I’m still waiting to see if the ray canal closes up.”

“Lyrika, it is closed. Look,” Layla insists. Lyrika shoots up, walks over to Layla, and she leans close to the sea star. Her eyes widened as well. The end of the ray canal has completely closed up. Now the next nine to twelve months will be the process of arm regeneration.

The mixture she created has been successful- the rest is up to the sea star.

She did it. She saved the sea star. She can present her results. She has found a remedy… Wait… she didn’t discover this. She didn’t create it. Song’s brother, Bin, created it. She only implemented it in a human environment, under Song’s guidance.

Another reminder of Song. Can she continue doing this? Her project? Marine Biology? Her dream career? Would she give it all up because of Song’s death? Would she truly be able to get over it? Would she be able to get back into the ocean again? Let alone look at it?

Song may be the first merman, but she knows he won’t be the last if humans continue to have it their way. If they found another injured mermaid or merman they would leap viciously at the chance to capture it. Then they too would die. She could come forward after his death and tell them why he died. Word for word of what Song told her. But could she be charged with withholding that information? Why is she making her dream ride on whether or not Song survives when she knows the outcome? An outcome she could potentially change.

#ya fantasy #song hangyeom #song #kpop #bookish #fanfiction

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toristbr · 5 months ago

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Sea Stars & Wishes - Chapter 5

Lyrika

Lyrika stares sadly at Song. He only clenches his jaw and turns in the water, his scaled back to her. That’s when she really notices the patches of missing scales, and how colorless he truly looks. Suddenly it feels like something grips her- a heavy tight sensation that makes Lyrika catch her breath and hold it. Song needs to say something, anything.

“I am…,” Song says after a moment, “I’m sick. There’s nothing to do.” Lyrika’s lungs tremble as she releases her breath. The suffocating feeling disappears but is quickly replaced with a heavy feeling. It feels like standing underneath the tower that has a bucket that fills with water before tipping on you… but instead the water doesn’t stop and you’re trapped underneath.

“They don’t know, do they?” Lyrika asks, setting the empty jar on the table.

“No,” Song coldly warns her, “and don’t you dare tell them.”

The bitterness in Song’s voice feels like an assault on Lyrika’s ears and emotions. She swallows the buildup of saliva and turns away from Song. She looks up at the ceiling and blinks rapidly to absorb the tears back into her eyes. She can’t cry. She’s not the one dying; she’s not the one who is sick. She shouldn’t be this upset. They’ve known each other for three days. Well, Song has known Lyrika for three days. Lyrika learned of Song the moment he hit the news and she dived into research that she only let go of after so many of his sad images got to her.

She takes another wavering breath, lowering her head. She blinks a few more times to make sure there are no more tears.

“Is there a cure?” Lyrika asks quietly to avoid her voice cracking.

“Yes,” Song answers, “but I’ll never have access to it… I’ve already started to feel the effects… it won’t be much longer now,” he huffs with a satisfied smile, “they won’t be able to do anything. I want to watch them panic, looking for something to cure me. I want to die satisfied that they can’t do anything.”

“I can’t do anything?” Lyrika turns to Song, but his back remains to her.

“No… and I don’t want you to,” Song quietly tells her, “I’ve accepted this a long time ago, Lyrika. Don’t worry about me.” Lyrika sharply inhales. He doesn’t want her help. She turns away once more. The tears cloud her eyes and she dares not to blink. She raises her head upward.

“You have already helped me,” Song tells her, “you gave me one last chance to feel the ocean water. I haven’t felt alive in so long.”

Then it clicks. Lyrika lowers her head.

“The ocean,” Lyrika states, “that’s the cure.”

The water in Song’s pool splashes around a little, “yes, and they will never allow me to go back to the ocean.”

“But I don’t understand,” Lyrika blinks, and tears race down her cheeks, “why can’t the water here keep you alive? Is it not the same?”

“The ocean has magic,” Song replies, “you saw how it brought me back to life. The water here is chemically made. Here, there is no magic. Without the ocean magic running through my body, it slowly dies. Just like how the disease suffocates the sea stars… without the true ocean water I’m slowly suffocating too.”

Lyrika doesn’t move. How could she answer or fix anything?

“Lyrika, I want to watch them lose something they should have never had,” Song quietly tells her.

“I understand,” she whispers sadly. The conversation ceases with that.

The silence that falls between the two is uncomfortable, almost suffocating like Song described moments ago.

But should Lyrika leave? If the roles were reversed would she have wanted him to leave? Most definitely. She also isn’t a very social or open person. Another set of tears race down her cheeks. Her mascara has run completely off her lashes. Only Song was here to see, and even then he wasn’t looking at her.

She quietly walks over to the sea star pool and looks at the sea stars. All of them have gotten worse since last night when she was here. Just 24 hours ago. It stings a little more seeing the progression happen so fast rather than just reading about it. Lyrika see’s the isolation container in the corner of her eye, untouched from yesterday. She’ll leave as soon as she checks on the sea star subject. She steps over to the container.

She closes her eyes tightly for a moment before blinking rapidly to dispel all the remaining tears in her eyes, lashes, and waterline.

She looks into the isolation container at the royal sea star she decided on using for the first test subject. Lyrika’s eyes widened. Her mouth opens slightly and she looks around the sea star by tilting the clear container to view at it from all sides. The white mold-like features are gone from the sea star. Meaning that the medicine that Song helped Lyrika create could be working.

It usually takes up to a year for a sea star to even start regenerating an arm, but the process can quickly be identified within 48 hours, the open canal of the ray will close up and then the process of regenerating a new ray begins.

“It’s working,” Lyrika absentmindedly states, her voice cracking. But she couldn’t hide her smile as she said it. She might have a chance at actually becoming a marine biologist and big if she has found a cure to this disease.

“Of course it is,” Song tells her, as if it is something she should know, “my brother created that medicine. Although, in the ocean it works a little differently. I had to make some minor adjustments.”

“You have a brother? He must be a genius” Lyrika asks, still staring at the sea star in the container. She admires the sea star for a moment more before rehooking the isolation container on the edge of the pool.

Song turns towards her, but his eyes casted to the side and he sadly smiles, “he’s something… but I actually have ten brothers. We’re all of a royal bloodline.”

“So you’re a prince?” Lyrika clarifies.

“If that’s how you humans describe it, then yes,” Song replies.

“Well then how do you explain it?” Lyrika challenges.

Song turns away from her again, almost scoffing, “why do you care? Isn’t your research on sea stars?”

“I can’t be friendly and just ask?” Lyrika asks, her shoulders dropping once more. Song has yet put up another wall between them. She just wants to help, to be there. Lyrika knows she doesn’t understand a single thing about being trapped in an entirely different world, but she can’t help but want to help solve his problem… even if it’s not for her to carry. She would love to be a hero, save Song, convince someone to release him back to the ocean so he could be free and never be sick again. But they are all delusions and daydreams in her head. She has no power.

“Do you really want to know?” Song quietly asks after a little silence.

“Only if you are willing to share,” Lyrika sadly replies, “I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable, or bring back old memories that could make you sad.”

“It’s okay,” Song tells her, “these days my brothers are all I think about. Keeps me a little sane in a place like this.”

“Then tell me Prince Song,” Lyrika playfully entices, “tell me about the eleven princes of your underwater world.” Song breaks into a little smile. Both their backs are still towards each other.

“We all have different unique abilities built into our blood gifted by the sea god. My oldest brother Jae was given telepathy. He’s very friendly and approachable. He somehow has all the answers to the merfolk’s problems.

Chan is the second oldest, and he is the finder. Born with the ability to find anything and everything, even if he doesn’t realize he is looking for it. It’s like he has a built-in compass in his head.

Bin is the third oldest born with the ability to heal, but of course he took it further and actually studied medicine and doesn’t rely on his ability much these days.”

“And Bin was the one to create this cure for the sea stars?” Lyrika asks. She walks back over to her belongings and sits on one of the tall chairs. She rests her head on the table, crossing her arms around her head to block her gaze to the world.

“Yeah,” Song answers, “but in the ocean there is already magic in the water. So, Bin crushes up seaweed and lathes it on the sea stars and keeps them in a dark, cold isolation area. He checks their progress and once the disease is gone and their limbs start to show signs of rebirth he sends them back out into the world.”

“Wow,” Lyrika smiles, “sounds like someone I would look up to and want to apprentice under.”

“Wow, right in front of me?” Song dramatically retorts, and he softly laughs. Lyrika pops her head up and spots that Song has turned towards her.

“Well can you blame me? I want to basically do what he is doing but on land,” Lyrika retorts back. She tries to keep a serious face but cracks a smile and laughs as well.

“I’m sorry,” Lyrika calms her laughter, “continue.”

“Tae is the fifth oldest-”

“You skipped four,” Lyrika cuts him off. Song shushes her.

“I’m telling the story,” Song scolds, “Tae is the fifth oldest with the ability to camouflage into anything. He has been banned from playing hide-and-seek.

Lee is the sixth oldest born with the voice of a trance, beautiful and luring. He went on to learn every instrument possible.

Moon is the sixth oldest, not only was he gifted with eternal beauty, but he is a foreseerer.”

“So a fortune teller?” Lyrika corrects.

“What’s that?” Song questions.

“Hmmm… how do I explain this,” Lyrika brings a finger to her lip and taps it a couple times, “well, to start some people say fortune tellers are real. Others say they are fake and just spew nonsense that only idiots believe. But with a deck of cards they have the ability to tell one’s future.”

“Well Moon is no fake. He can do it,” Song counters proudly, “he doesn’t do it often, but when he does he has never been wrong. He always knows what’s coming and what the outcome is.”

“Has he ever changed the outcome of a situation?” Lyrika inquires.

“I would hope so. But I never really asked,” Song half-heartedly smiles.

“Well, continue, that’s only six. Four to go,” Lyrika ushers on.

“Okay, okay,” Song shakes his head, “Jin is the seventh oldest with the ability to storytell. He has this magic where he can create illusions in the water with the sea magic and light. It’s a breathtaking sight when he uses it.

Hoon is the third youngest with the ability of empathy. You don’t see Hoon much these days, he is still learning to control his ability because he gets overwhelmed easily.

Yang is the second youngest born with the ability to communicate with fish and marine animals. Finally the youngest, Shin, born with the ability of necromancy. Not only can he speak to the dead, he can also show the past, similar to how Jin can create illusions.”

“What about you?” Lyrika inquires, “if I listened correctly, you skipped four. Which would make you the fourth oldest.”

Song hesitates and shifts around in the water, “I was born with the ability to manipulate the weather. Mostly cause storms… destruction.”

“Ocean storms are really important, Song, don’t doubt your ability,” Lyrika tells him.

“Oh yeah? What do you know about storms and my ability?” Song retorts. Despite the clear frustration that the mention of his ability creates in him, Lyrika knows the answer.

“Storms help cycle the warm and cold water in the ocean. It even helps with food production for humans and marine life,” Lyrika explains.

“It’s still not a great or useful ability compared to my brothers,” Song grumbles.

“I’m sure your brothers would disagree,” Lyrika smiles.

“I wondered if I ever might have the chance to see my brothers again… but that hope died a long time ago,” Song whispers, his voice grows soft, “I miss them… I wonder if they miss me or think of me.

“If I had a brother and he went missing,” Lyrika starts, “there wouldn’t be a day I didn’t think about him. If your brothers love you I’m sure they think about you every moment of the day.”

Song looks over to Lyrika, his eyes glossed over, “thank you.”

Lyrika yawns.

“It’s late, you should go get some rest,” Song comments. Lyrika nods. She stands up and her eyes catch the two remaining jars of water on the table. She takes the lids off of both and hands one of them to Song. He immediately pours the water across his shoulders so it rolls down his back and disappears into the water. She watches as his body flourishes with color. The pink of his scales reminds her of a lawn flamingo faded due to the harsh sunlight.

Lyrika holds out the last jar full of water.

“I promise,” Lyrika looks away from Song, “I won’t tell a soul. You have my word.”

Song doesn’t answer. Instead he takes the jar and raises it above his head. Lyrika watches from the corner of her eye as the water causes his body to come to life once more before draining only seconds later.

#ya fantasy #song hangyeom #song #kpop #bookish #fanfiction

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toristbr · 5 months ago

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Sea Stars & Wishes - Chapter 4

Lyrika

Lyrika half -jogs up the staircase to the second floor of the aquarium. Her bag bouncing off her back, causing the small glass jars inside to clink together. She looks down at her watch and smiles. Just in time. She makes her way over to the sea star pool where her classmates are standing around and waiting.

“Didn’t expect you to be late,” Cassidy teases, nudging her with her shoulder.

“I’m right on time,” Lyrika playfully responds, setting her bag on the floor.

“You made it! Didn’t want to start without you here,” Layla walks up to Lyrika. She hands Lyrika a pair of long tweezers.

“Okay! We can begin!” Layla announces to the group, “I’m so glad that all of you were interested in feeding the sea stars.”

“Everyone but you is doing it for the extra credit,” Cassidy leans in and mumbles to Lyrika. Lyrika rolls her eyes. Mr. Sutton had sent out a text that morning to everyone offering half a point worth of extra credit if they participated in any marine animal feeding, and they could do it twice earning up to a full extra credit point. Lyrika didn’t need the half extra credit point; she genuinely wanted to learn as much as she can about sea stars while she is here.

“The first thing we’ll start with is putting on our gloves,” Layla begins, starting the group in motion by putting her gloves on her hands. Everyone else quickly follows, grabbing a pair of gloves from the few boxes spread out around the pool. Lyrika pulls the gloves over her hands and turns to Layla, awaiting the next step.

“Next, I’ll walk around and everyone will grab a piece of shrimp from the bucket. Use your tweezers,” Layla grabs a fairly small bucket and starts to walk around to each student, giving them time to grab a shrimp and securely hold it.

Layla comes to Lyrika last. Lyrika grabs a shrimp and holds the tweezers tightly so the shrimp doesn’t fall to the floor. Layla resumes her position and grabs a pair of tweezers herself, quickly grabs a shrimp.

“Now, everyone will pick a sea star close to you, and let your neighbor know which one you plan on feeding so you don’t accidently bump into each other,” Layla announces.

“I’m going to go for that tanned one,” Cassidy tells Lyrika pointing towards a Sand Sifting sea star.

“Have fun, that one is barely sticking out, and the belly is on the bottom,” Lyrika chuckles then points to a honeycomb star, “I’m going for that one.”

“What you’re going to do is stick the tweezers and shrimp into the water and gently push the shrimp under the sea star’s head until you feel its tube feet grab a hold. When you feel resistance, let go of the shrimp, and you’re all done!” Layla demonstrates as she explains to the group. Everyone watches as she feeds another sand sifting star. It takes a moment, but then she pulls her tweezers out of the water, shrimp-free.

“What do you mean ‘its head’?” one of Lyrika’s classmates raises her hand, confused and slightly mortified.

Layla smiles, clasping her hands together in excitement, “technically sea stars do not have arms. They have rays, but we like to refer to them as heads because at the end of each ray there is an eye that helps them see light and shadows.”

Lyrika takes a small step towards the pool, looking down into the water. The yellow-centered and blue ray honeycomb sits perfectly on top of the sand below her. She pushes the tweezers into the water and slowly sifts the shrimp into the sand to go underneath one of the sea star’s heads. It’s small, but Lyrika feels the resistance and releases the shrimp for the sea star to eat. She slowly pulls her tweezers back out of the water.

“Wasn’t too difficult,” Layla says, “like I said the other day, it’s not terribly exciting. But eventually, after so long, you start to learn their eating habits and little pieces of their personality.”

“I think it’s super cool,” Lyrika tells her, “I feel like I’m learning a lot about sea stars here, more than in a textbook or from videos.”

“I agree with you,” Layla starts, “learning about sea stars secondhand is a great starter, but getting to work hands-on with sea stars you learn so much more. You find that they’re just like a lot of other sea animals. They may have no brain, but they still have eyes, butt, and stomach- so there has to be personality somewhere in all of it.” The two girls laugh at the idea of sea stars having little personalities.

“So you’re a senior in high school, right? Have you started to apply for colleges?” Layla inquires.

“I plan on applying to Columbus Cove University once this project is done,” Lyrika answers, “but I also will be applying to Sunny Coast College just in case I don’t get in.”

“I go to CCU! It’s absolutely amazing,” Layla waves her hands, “it’s really not that hard to get accepted. If you have a genuine project or interest in marine biology you’re bound to be accepted.”

“Really? You think so?” Lyrika asks.

“I know so,” Layla crosses her arms and smirks, “I applied with two papers. One I wrote when I was in elementary school about how cool I thought sea stars were. My other paper was a more detailed paper about sea star facts and why they’re important to the ocean ecosystem.”

“Wow,” Lyrika smiles, “that’s super cool. I hope they are impressed with my project then.”

“I bet they will be,” Layla encourages. Her watch beeps a couple of times. Layla presses the off button on the screen.

“Speaking of, I have to head to class now,” Layla points behind her.

“Do you mind if I join you heading over that direction? I’m on my way to the beach,” Lyrika asks.

“Of course! I don’t mind! If you want, after my two lectures I can show you around the marine biology school a little if you want,” Layla offers.

“I’d really like that, but only if you have the time,” Lyrika smiles.

“Oh, yeah. I’ve got time. You’ll love it,” Layla Says as she makes her way to the far breakroom, with Lyrika following her after grabbing her own bag. The two enter the breakroom, and Layla quickly grabs her bag and water bottle before heading out again.

The girls make their way out of the aquarium and down to the bus stop. They pick up their pace when they see the bus already waiting there. Layla thanks the bus driver by name as she pays the bus fee for the two of them and sits down in the closest available seats.

“I have two back-to-back lectures, so I’ll be finished in about three hours. There is a giant coral statue that we can meet by,” Layla tells her as the bus begins driving off towards the university, “I’ll point it out when we get off the bus.”

Three stops later, the two girls get off the bus and Layla points out the giant coral statue, which is hard to miss. The two part ways and Lyrika heads towards the beach. One of the perks about Columbus Cove University was that it’s on the beachfront- a five minute walk or two-minute run. The university has access to the beach and the pier, the beach being just a little further of a walk.

Lyrika passes by the pier, looking down and spotting several people fishing along the edges. She continues on and finds the entrance to the beach she took from yesterday. She sets her bag in the sand and looks around the beach before cupping her hands over the tops of her eyes to look out to the water.

“Looking for someone?” A familiar male voice calls out. Lyrika jumps a foot from where she is standing, bringing her arms up to block the attacker. But instead, she sees the very man she was looking for.

“You can’t just walk up and scare women like that,” Lyrika scolds.

Damian holds his hands up in defeat, “sorry, my bad.”

“But I was looking for you,” Lyrika finally answers his question, “I was wondering if you could get some more water for me?” Lyrika unzips her bag and pulls out the four smaller jars.

“Let me go wave Jake in,” Damian jogs into the water about waist-deep before whistling loudly and waving his arms high above his head a couple times. One of the bodies out in the water immediately starts swimming in. Damian walks back to Lyrika to wait for Jake.

“I gotta ask, what’s your project on? Needing non-polluted water is a wild ask,” Damian tells Lyrika.

“I’m trying to figure out a cure to the Sea Star Wasting Disease,” Lyrika explains, which isn’t entirely wrong, “I feel like I might have had a breakthrough so I want to collect some more data and results before I present it.”

“That’s amazing. You must be extremely smart,” he states, “are you a new student at CCU? I haven’t seen you before?”

“No, I’m an out-of-state high school student on a field trip,” Lyrika explains, “I’m here studying sea stars. But I do plan to apply to CCU.”

“Right on,” Damian smiles and he turns to look at the water, “you know, this beach used to be covered in sea stars before the disease came and practically wiped them all out. You rarely find anything anymore. My buddies and I find the sick sea stars and bring them into the aquarium so we can try to save what’s left of the wild sea stars.”

“Oh you guys are the ones bringing them in,” Lyrika looks at him in surprise, “there are so many. They all just get dumped into this small pool until there is nothing left of them.”

“It’s a shame really. We figured they were working on a remedy or trying to figure out what is causing the disease so they can stop it at the source out here,” Damian explains, “we just want to keep the wild safe and not let anything go extinct. Ashamed they are just letting them die.”

“Why didn’t you take them to CCU to study?” Lyrika inquires.

“Ever since the merman was brought in, the university has shifted practically its entire focus on him rather than anything else in the ocean,” he explains, “we were originally bringing the stars to the university but then the day we saw the merman they closed their doors on us. So we shifted to the aquarium.

The beaches here have started to succumb to the pollution and disease humans bring ever since that merman came here… and I don’t blame him. Wasn’t his fault, but my buddies and I are just a few men. We can't always keep everything perfect here. But we will try.”

“It’s heroic in my opinion,” Lyrika compliments.

“Thanks,” he smiles.

“Hey, are we heading back out?” Jake finally makes it up the shore, his board under his arm. Damian takes the jars and holds them up to Jake, who fist pumps the air.

“Was hoping we’d have another excuse to go out there. It’s beautiful,” Jake states as he drops his board in the sand next to Lyrika’s bag. The two boys head off in another direction. Lyrika pulls out a small folded-up towel from her bag, fans it out over the eroded rocky shore, and sits on it when it settles. She pulls out her notebook from her bag and opens it to the front page. She looks over her to-do list she originally wrote before coming here.

“I’m behind. I’ll have to spend an entire open day with the aquarium to catch up,” Lyrika mumbles to herself. She flips to a fresh new page and pulls out a pen from her bag. She titles it:

Possible Sea Star Cure: Ingredients: Seaweed (alot) Pure/Non-polluted sea water Directions: Grind seaweed until thick paste, add little water often Lather paste on isolation container Place sea star in container Wait two days for possible results

Almost three hours pass, and Lyrika has jumped around from writing in her notebook, reading her book, and scrolling away on her tablet and phone. Every so often she looks around for Damian or Jake, but they haven’t returned. It makes her worry. Last time the boys were only gone for just over an hour.

“I thought I might still find you here,” Layla’s voice laughs as she approaches Lyrika.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, did I lose track of time?” Lyrika asks.

“I actually got out of class early and when I didn’t see you anywhere near the coral statue, I figured you were still at the beach, so I wandered on over,” Layla answers, as she plops down on the towel next to her, “Why are you still here?”

“I’m waiting on a couple surfers to bring back some water. Last time it took them just over an hour, but this time it’s been much longer. It makes me a little worried,” Lyrika answers.

“Surfers? I’m sure they got distracted,” Layla tells her, “why do you need water?”

“I,” Lyrika stops herself; she can’t just tell Layla she’s messing around with the sick sea stars after she was told by Junhee not to, “it’s for testing. I wanted to see the difference between polluted and non-polluted waters and what effects it might have on sea stars.” Lyrika smiles, hoping her little lie would pass.

“Basically, you’re trying to prove the existence of Sea Star Wasting Disease?” Layla asks.

“Yes, and possibly find what in the polluted water might be causing it. What if it’s just one chemical that’s man-made and we could fix it?” Lyrika continues, bouncing off Layla's assumption making the lie a little bigger.

Layla nods, “makes sense.”

“Hey! We’re back! Sorry it took so long. There was a lot of wildlife and we swam with some for a little bit,” Damian runs up to Lyrika holding the four jars, “here are those jars of water. Hopefully you can find that cure for the sea stars!” Damian hands off the jars to Lyrika before grabbing Jake’s board and hurrying off to the water.

“Cure for the sea stars?” Layla asks, “why lie?”

“I’m sorry,” Lyrika doesn’t look at her, “I just don’t want to get in trouble. Junhee already warned me not to mess with them. But it’s just unfair with the sea stars just dying like that. Nobody seems to care.” Layla pulls her lips into a tight smile.

“I care too. It’s why I dedicate so much of my time to school and the aquarium. I want to be the next best thing,” Layla leans back, and her voice fills with venom, “I don’t want to throw it all away for something shiny that comes in.” She’s referring to Song… does she hate him?

“Ever since he came, everything else has been put on pause. It’s frustrating. All my professor wants to talk and read about him. Only him. Nothing else is interesting anymore,” Layla huffs, irked, “but I ignore it and I write and do what I want. My professors urge me to learn about him and I refuse every time. ‘Having a backup is good, Layla’ or ‘you might come to find you enjoy learning about him more.’ How irritating. I don’t want to learn about a merman. He doesn’t belong here.”

“Do you hate him? Blame him?” Lyrika asks quietly.

“Yes,” Layla whispers, “I don’t want to… and I don’t like that I do, but I can’t help it. A lot of things were cast aside the moment he arrived. We always knew mermaids were out there. Seen them even. But they knew to never come close to us. I don’t understand why one would now… It’s his fault he’s here and his fault that everyone wants to focus on him. From what I heard, he let himself get hurt and caught. He was a fool.”

“Oh,” Lyrika replies, “I guess I understand how you see the situation.” Lyrika doesn’t understand Layla’s point of view, but she is willing to do and say anything to move past this conversation. How could she speak so harshly about him?

“Anyways,” Layla leans forward and slaps her legs, “ready to go explore the marine biology school?” Lyrika smiles and the two stand up from the rocky shore and make their way back up towards the university.

Layla opens the doors and Lyrika follows her inside. The interior looks similar to the aquarium, decked out in sea colors and life.

“Hey, Drew!” Layla pokes her head into the open door immediately to the right of the entrance. Looking over Layla’s shoulder, Lyrika notices a small security room with two desks, but only one security guard.

“I’m showing a new student around. Can I get a guest pass?” Layla asks. Without looking up from his phone, Drew pulls a small piece of paper out from his desk and holds it out for Layla to take. She happily accepts and turns to Lyrika.

“I’ll skip all the boring lecture halls on the top floor and boring lab rooms in the basement, so we’ll just focus on the main floor,” Layla tells her. She reaches into her bag and pulls out a plastic card, one similar to the one Lyrika has for the aquarium.

“Just like the aquarium only certain people have access to the labs,” Layla explains, “and by certain people, it’s just marine biology students. Other student’s ID cards won’t allow them access into these rooms.” Layla waves her hand, motioning for Lyrika to follow her.

As they walk down the hallway, Lyrika spots each door painted with sea animals. Layla explains the importance of all the rooms, and how the animals on the door are what also lay beyond it. Near the back of the building Layla stops in front of a door decked out in colorful painted sea stars.

“I bet you can’t guess what this room is,” Layla playfully challenges. Lyrika looks at the door, bringing her hand to her chin to stroke as if she had a beard.

“Sharks!” Lyrika exclaims. The two girls burst out in laughter. Layla holds her key card up to the sensor. The light flashes green and a bolting sound unlocks the doors. Layla pulls the door open and the two step into the room.

Layla flips the lights on, and Lyrika admires the room.

“Wow!” Lyrika exclaims, her eyes roaming over all the instruments and pools in the room, “is it really okay for me to be in here?”

“Yeah, as long as we kind of stay by the door and don’t touch anything,” Layla clarifies.

“That’s okay. Being shown this is already a cool experience. Getting a glimpse of where I might be soon,” Lyrika responds, “so this is the sea star room? Wow.”

“It’s nothing much, but it’s home. I spend most of my time here. Every month the students get a new sea star to study. Once the month is up either the sea star is released back into the ocean or it’s transferred to an aquarium,” Layla explains.

“What kind of sea star do you have right now?” Lyrika asks.

“Sunflower Sea Star,” Layla proudly tells her, “it hasn’t been decided whether or not it will go back into the ocean. Finding Sunflower sea stars are very rare because the wasting disease almost killed them all off. I’m sad to see it go, but I’m excited for my new buddy to come in.”

“Do you know what your next sea star will be?” Lyrika asks. Layla flips off the lights to the room, signaling it’s time to head out.

“I’m not sure! I’m hoping for a three foot deep sea star, but we’ll see,” Layla tells her as they walk out of the room.

The door directly across the hall catches Lyrika’s attention, solely because of the silver tail with a human half on top. A poor painting of Song, something maybe a kid would have designed if they drew a mermaid based off memory.

“Is that…?” Lyrika points to the door.

“Yeah,” Layla answers a little coldly.

“Do you mind if I peak my head in?” Lyrika asks quietly, “you don’t have to show me.” Layla doesn’t respond. Instead she walks up to the door, holds the keycard to the scanner, and pulls open the door.

“Thanks,” Lyrika quietly walks up to the door, not stepping inside, and looks around the room.

It’s small, and with a tank definitely too small to hold Song… especially if he was here for a long period of time. The room is mostly empty but a few lab tables and no equipment. Odd.

Lyrika steps back.

“We can go,” Lyrika tells Layla, “thank you.” Layla nods and closes the door.

The walk out of the university building was tense, but out in the open air, it feels breathable once again.

“I think this is exactly where I want to be,” Lyrika smiles and looks over to Layla. The two girls continue their new conversation about the school as they head to the bus stop.

Lyrika walks down the aquarium basement hallway, passing by all the other labs and research rooms. She holds her keycard up to the sensor and enters the small animal care room. Chris, the marine biologist, on the phone, turns and spots Lyrika.

“You can stay in the room. I’m going to be right outside the door finishing this call,” he tells her. Lyrika nods hesitantly. He seems like he would own up to it if Mr. Sutton asks.

“Sorry that I’m coming late,” Lyrika walks up to Song’s little pool. She sets her bag on the table and pulls out the four jars.

“You actually got it?” Song asks in disbelief.

“I told you I would,” Lyrika hands him one of the jars after removing the lid, “you didn’t have to help me, but you did, and I said I would do anything in return. So I just wanted to make sure I repaid you… before I leave to head back home.”

“That’s right,” Song holds the jar of water, looking down at it, “you only have a couple more days. Did you get everything you need?”

“No,” Lyrika laughs, “I’m actually behind, but tomorrow I plan to be here the minute the aquarium opens and I’m going to non-stop work until it closes in order to catch up.”

“I can try to remind Junhee to put me back into the larger tank so you’re not alone,” Song suggests.

“You don’t have to. I’ll be okay,” Lyrika tells him, “plus my classmates will most likely need you tomorrow.”

“Ah, them,” Song laughs, “I almost forgot.”

“Did nobody come today? Lyrika asks.

“Nope, and thank the sea god,” Song leans his head to the side, closing his eyes, “dealing with girls who become obsessed with something pretty is so annoying. Glad you didn’t end up being like that.”

“Ah!” Lyrika gasps, “I’m offended you would even think so lowly of me.” Lyrika dramatically throws her hand over her heart and with her other hand covers her face that she also turns away.

“My apologies,” Song dramatically plays along. He drops the playfulness and looks at the jar once more. He takes a deep breath before raising the jar above his head and allowing the water to slowly trickle on his head, face, and onto his shoulders.

Almost in a slow-motion-like movement, and as if you were putting a cold color-changing cup into hot water, Song’s silver hair turns pink, his skin becomes tanner and livelier, and the scales that run up his spine and wrap around the top of his shoulders turn pink as well.

“Yo-your hair,” Lyrika’s eyes widened, “is pink”. Song’s tail moves in the water catching her eyes next- it too is pink. She gasps, pointing at it while standing up.

“Why are you pink?” Lyrika asks. Suddenly as fast as the color appears, it disappears. She blinks a couple times. She takes a deep breath. Then she takes one of the other jars and opens it.

“Lyr-”

She doesn’t let him finish before throwing the water at his face, splashing it. He scrunches his face in surprise. Once again his skin tans and his scales and hair turn pink.

She steps back and watches as the color drains from him once again.

“You’re sick,” Lyrika whispers.

#ya fantasy #song hangyeom #song #kpop #bookish #fanfiction

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toristbr · 5 months ago

Text

Sea Stars & Wishes - Chapter 3

Lyrika

Waves crash against the soft, eroded rocky shore, creating a relaxing melody in the sunny, early spring morning. Lyrika sits with her legs crossed on a large beach towel, just far enough away from the dark salty waves. She looks up from her tablet, her sunglasses now on the tip of her nose, her eyes suddenly adjusting to the sun reflecting off the water. She blinks rapidly and pushes her sunglasses further up. Once her eyes adjust again she looks out at the water. Still nothing. She huffs and looks back down at her tablet.

“Why did we come here, again? The water is way too cold to even get in,” Cassidy asks, slightly irritated. The two girls have been sitting on the beach towel mostly in silence for over an hour now. Lyrika had begged Cassidy in the morning to come with her to the beach so she could collect the items Song had requested. Cassidt was better at talking to strangers than Lyrika.

“I just need some water for testing,” Lyrika answers without looking up.

“What’s wrong with getting water from the shore right here?” Cassidy continues, gesturing to the waves crashing on the shore mere feet from them.

“The water here is polluted compared to being further out. If I have polluted water my results will be inaccurate,” Lyrika explains.

“But you’re studying sea stars, most of them are in shallow areas like this beach,” Cassidy retorts.

“Most beaches and shores don’t have polluted waters,” Lyrika looks over to Cassidy, beginning to get irritated herself, “plus do you see any sea stars here?” Cassidy holds her hands up in surrender. Both girls, now irritated with each other, look away from one another and cease all conversation.

Cassidy pushes herself up off the towel, “I’m going to get something to eat while we wait on the surfer boys. Want anything?”

“No thanks,” Lyrika responds quietly. She watches Cassidy disappear off the beach through the corner of her eyes. She sighs.

Lyrika looks back towards the ocean. Still no surfers. She huffs. How long does it take to get some clean sea water?

Lyrika had convinced Cassidy to ask a surfer to find some non-polluted sea water. Lyrika wasn’t within earshot of the conversation because she was busy picking up seaweed pieces, but she has a feeling Cassidy somehow embarrassed her having to speak for her.

She glances over to the surfboard that sits just beyond the towel and wet bag of seaweed. A part of the deal was that the girls had to watch one of the boards because the boat could only fit one surfboard. Not an issue. The issue is how long the boys were taking to get the water.

“Hey, I got that water you were asking for.” Lyrika whips her head around. A tan, lean, shirtless guy walks up to Lyrika. His wet black curly hair bouncing with each step. He carries a gallon glass jar full of water.

“Oh, thank you,” Lyrika blinks in surprise. She carefully takes the jar from him, setting it beside her. She reaches across her towel into her bag to retrieve two folded twenty-dollar bills. Lyrika hands it over to the surfer.Then, she picks up the jar of water once more, inspecting it.

“Damian! So much for waiting on me!” His buddy, a tall, pale, lean guy with sandy blonde hair runs up holding a surfboard under his arm

“Sorry, Jake,” Damian laughs, “just want to get out into the water already. You already have your board.”

“I’ll see you out there then,” Jake pats his bare shoulder and waves to Lyrika before running into the water. He jumps up and lays on the board and starts paddling out.

“Sorry about him,” Damian laughs, turning back to Lyrika.

“Oh, it’s fine. Thank you again for the water. Where did you get it by chance? I just can’t have pollution or anything of the sort in it,” Lyrika explains. The water is perfectly crystal clear, it even glitters in the sunlight, but that could just be the jar and sunlight reflecting with the water. But something tugs at her that it’s something different.

Damian turns and points out into the water, “there is an island about two and a half kilometers out from here. It’s technically illegal to go to, but we know the water there is untouched. About a kilometer away from the island, Jake kept the boat running and I took his board and swam in, so the boat wouldn’t pollute the water. I swam to the beach and filled up your glass jar, and we returned.”

“It’s illegal?” Lyrika asks.

“Yeah. The local government has certain islands cut off from civilization to keep the water clean for the mermaids- that’s what they claim. anyway. We think they’re trying to lure them in,” Damian shrugs, “didn’t see any. I think they know we have one… which is unfortunate.”

Song. Lyrika looks away. Of course Song would have a family.

“Well,” Damian claps his hands, “thank you for watching my board. If you need any more water Jake and I are here most mornings. Good luck on your project.”

“Thank you,” Lyrika smiles. She watches as Damian grabs his board, and runs into the water. He flops down onto his board before paddling out to join his friend.

“You’re kidding,” Cassidy dramatically retorts, “I missed them?” Lyrika looks behind her, spotting Cassidy with an abnormally giant bag of popcorn.

“They did tell me they are here most mornings,” Lyrika tells her, turning back towards the water.

“Does this mean we are heading back now? Cassidy mumbles.

“Did you want to watch them surf for a bit?” Lyrika asks, raising her eyebrows knowing that’s exactly what Cassidy wants.

“And so what if it is,” Cassidy resorts playfully. Lyrika laughs and pats the towel, beckoning for Cassidy to join her.

“Fine we can stay a little longer, but only if you share the popcorn,” Lyrika tells her.

“Deal!”

Lyrika enters into the small sea animal care room. The biologist from the night before is already there, and they exchange a brief nod of acknowledgement. Lyrika heads back towards the sea star pool.

She sets her bag on the table, which catches Song’s attention.

“Took all day I see,” Song snarkily retorts.

“I spent an hour walking to and from the beach, another three at the beach, and I spent the rest of the day until dinner on my actual project, thank you very much,” Lyrika returns the attitude.

“Sounds like a busy day,” Song comments, his tone softening.

“Yeah. I’m drained, but I want to do this,” Lyrika sighs, “my classmates finished with their things for the day?”

“Ugh,” Song flops onto his back, “yes. I'm so happy about it too. They always have too many questions.”

“Sorry. Some of us are trying to use this project to get into our dream schools,” Lyrika apologizes.

“Really? The girls who chose me as their study project are serious about marine biology?” Song inquires, not convinced. Lyrika thinks about all her classmates who chose Song as their project.

“Well, Iliana is. She’s the african american girl with curly hair like mine,” Lyrika explains, “I’m not sure why she chose you as her project. I don’t really talk to her, but our teacher thinks she’s going to do great things.

But anyways. I got what you asked for,” Lyrika states. She pulls out the giant jar of water and sets the, now dried, bag of seaweed next to it.

“Where did you get the water?” Song instantly asks the moment his eyes lay on it. He holds out his hands, eager to hold the jar. Lyrika carefully lifts the jar and sets it on the rim of Song’s pool.

“I paid a surfer to go out far into the ocean and collect some water that’s not polluted by humans,” Lyrika proudly explains with a smile on her face.

“You paid someone to get the water for you? For all you know it could be fake,” Song tells her.

“He told me he got it from the shore of an island not too far from here,” Lyrika explains, “the island apparently is blocked off from humans for mermaids to enjoy life peacefully or something. He got the water from there. Went on his board so he wouldn’t pollute the water.”

“Did he…?” Song quietly asks.

“No,” Lyrika answers solemnly.

“That’s good,” Song responds quietly, “no humans should go near merfolk.”

Lyrika stays silent, unsure how to respond to Song.

“Well let's get started. You have the ingredients,” Song tells her, “there are three things in this room you will need to get. First, a hand grinder. Second, an isolation tank. Third, gloves. The hand grinder you’ll find in the far left cabinet by the bathroom door. The isolation tank will be in the lower cabinet and to the right of the sink.”

Lyrika quickly follows Song’s instructions, carefully to not make any noise or any crazy movements for the marine biologist to look her way. She sets up on a table around the corner from the sea stars, out of sight from the biologist. However, the table is a little further from Song, but he seems to pay no mind.

“Before you start you’ll need to put your gloves on,” Song instructs and she complies, “the first step in the process is to grind up all the seaweed.” Lyrika’s jaw drops.

“All?” She deflates.

“You’ll want to grind it until it’s paste-like,” Song continues ignoring Lyrika, “and every so often add just a little of the sea water to make it thicker.”

Lyrika looks at her stack of seaweed and sighs. She pulls out the first long strand and splits it into smaller chunks. It takes a little bit, but she gets used to hand grinding seaweed. Every so often, when the grinded seaweed started to clump up and dry out, Lyrika added a little bit of sea water which quickly softens it.

She leans back in her chair, having just finished grinding the last piece of seaweed. Her right arm burns; her left arm not as much. She switched every so often but faltered with her less dominant arm which just resulted in using her right arm most of the time. She looks over at the clock on the wall. Her eyes widened- four hours had passed? How she didn’t pass out is a mystery to her. She yawns and stretches her arms out over her head.

“I finished,” Lyrika looks around the corner for Song. But instead she finds a sleeping silver merman. His arms crossed and propped on the rim of the pool, supporting his head. His eyes closed and his back slowly rising and falling. Lyrika smiles at the sight. She pulls off her gloves and discards them.

She stands up and quickly catches herself from flailing over. Her legs are stiff from sitting down for so long. She stretches them out and then her back. She is going to feel everything in her body ache in the morning.

Lyrika quietly approaches Song’s pool and crouches before the tank. Her body and head are now lower than where Song is propped up.

“Song?” Lyrika whispers and her fingers barely brush his arm. His eyes bolt open and he pushes back from the edge of the pool. The sudden noise and motion scartles Lyrika, causing her to fall back onto her butt.

“What are you doing?” Song angrily questions, then warns her, “don’t ever try anything.”

“I-I’m sorry I-” Lyrika stammers, her heart racing.

“Is everything alright over here?” The marine biologist walks over to the two of them. Lyrika looks up at him, too shocked and nervous to say anything.

“We’re fine Chris,” Song grumbles. Chris looks between the two of them before walking away. Lyrika watches as he walks away. She looks back at the pool wall and takes several deep breaths to calm herself. She pushes herself off the floor.

“Sorry,” she mumbles, “I just wanted to tell you I finished.”

“Oh,” Song sighs, “let me see.” He doesn’t move closer, but Lyrika grabs the grinder and tilts it for Song to see.

“Looks good,” he cooly comments, “in the cabinet above the area you are working, should have something that looks similar to a paintbrush. Grab one.” Lyrika sets the grinder back down and opens the cabinet door. She quickly spots the brushes and grabs one.

“You’ll need another set of gloves for this part,” Song instructs, and Lyrika replaces her gloves, “you’re going to use the brush and later the entire inside of the container with the paste. Then, pour the remaining seawater you collected into the container.” Lyrika follows his guidance, lathering the inside walls with the paste.

Her heartbeat slowed down, but why does her chest feel so heavy? It isn’t a tired or sleep-deprived feeling. Nothing physical or mental, but emotional.

Lyrika sets the brush down. She blankly stares at the isolation container for a moment, trying to identify the feeling. She blinks, snapping out of her thoughts. She grabs the jar and dumps the remaining pure seawater into the container.

“Alright, done,” Lyrika tells Song. She holds up the container for him to see.

“Good. Now this is going to be the tricky part,” Song tells her, “all the sea stars in that tank are under immense stress. So their rays are more likely to just fall off as you are aware. Pick a sea star that only has one ray missing, or in the early stages. You’re going to gently pick it up by the center and allow its tube feet to grab a hold of your glove. Then switch it over to the isolation container.”

Lyrika brings the isolation container over to the sea star pool. She looks over her shoulder to see where Chris is, then turns back to the pool and picks out a sea star. She reaches her hand into the water and slowly slides her fingers under the sea star. Her thumb gently grips the top of the star and she feels the tube feet clinging to her glove. She carefully lifts the sea star out and quickly transfers it from the pool to the isolation containers, minimizing the time out of the water.

Lyrika guides the sea star to the edge and its tube feet cling to the seaweed paste wall and release her hand.

“Now hook the isolation container on the sea star pool with the container part way in the water, so the water temperature can stay the same,” Song explains. Lyrika takes the container and turns it around so the two large plastic hooks point towards her, she hooks it onto the edge of the pool where half the container sits in the sea star pool water.

“Now we wait. It will take about two days before we see any results. If there is any left over paste keep a hold of it incase it works out. You can use it on another sea star,” Song tells Lyrika.

“Thank you, Song,” Lyrika walks back towards her workstation but stops and turns back towards him, “I’m sorry. About earlier. I shouldn't have crossed that boundary.”

“I…” Song stares speechless then turns away, “I just don’t like to be touched.”

Lyrika nods and continues back to the table to clean up her mess. She washes off the grinder and puts it away as well as the brush.

“Hey,” Song calls out. Lyrika looks up from her bag.

“You said you’d do anything to help the sea stars, right?” Song asks, avoiding her eye contact.

“Uh, yeah,” Lyrika thinks back on their conversation, “I did say that.”

“Do you…,” Song starts, “ah, nevermind. I don’t need anything.”

“No, no,” Lyrika stops him, “what is it?”

“I was wondering… if you had time again, if you could get a couple more jars of water… for me?” Song asks, hesitation settling into his voice.

“Yeah,” Lyrika agrees without a second thought, “I think I can do that.”

“Thank you,” Song half smiles.

“No problem,” Lyrika smiles, “I’ll see you tomorrow then. Good night, Song.”

#ya fantasy #song hangyeom #song #kpop #booksih #fanficition

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toristbr · 5 months ago

Text

Sea Stars & Wishes - Chapter 2

Lyrika

The merman doesn’t spare Lyrika a glance. Her eyebrows scrunch in confusion. Who spoke if Song is the only one here?

“Sorry about that. Had to use the restroom,” a male voice calls from behind Lyrika. Of course it wasn’t Song who spoke to her. Why would he? She turns to see a door propped open, previously blended into the wall. The door shuts revealing Junhee.

Oh, this is about to be awkward. Lyrika thinks back to just a couple hours ago when Junhee gave them the aquarium tour and she had spoken up about Song’s captivity. Now it’s just the three of them alone in this room.

“I didn’t want anyone who needed to use the room to think someone isn’t here,” Junhee smiles then notices Lyrika, “oh, you’re not one of the girls doing their project on Song.”

“Uh, no,” Lyrika awkwardly stammers, “I’m doing mine on sea stars.”

“That’s right! You asked a handful of questions, sorry I couldn’t answer all of them,” Junhee apologizes. I guess he’s either forgotten about the encounter earlier at Song’s tank, or he’s just deciding to forgo it and move on.

“That’s alright. I found Layla not too long ago,” Lyrika laughs trying to dispel the awkwardness hanging in the air.

“So what brings you down here?” Junhee asks as he takes a seat at one of the tables near Song’s pool. Song still staring at the wall, completely ignoring them.

“I’m just exploring around,” Lyrika tells him as she continues her walk around the room, looking into all the different little pools and tanks, “I completed my to-do list for the day… Where did all my other classmates go? I figured they all might be in here since Song is.”

“Some talked about lunch fairly quickly when Song didn’t want to talk to them. Others left to go do inspections or something in regards to his tank,” Junhee shrugs, “but a lot of them talked about changing their project topics to their back up. Guess Song wasn’t everything they hoped him to be.” That doesn’t surprise Lyrika; at one point she was curious about Song and researched a little. Everything she found showed him looking and sounding miserable here. Who would blame him? To be ‘rescued’ and deemed unfit to return to the freedom of the ocean and instead dumped into a 100,000 gallon tank.

Lyrika looks back towards Song, who still doesn’t seem to pay them any mind. Then the sea star pool in the corner of her eye catches her attention once more. She turns and walks back over to the pool.

“Hey, Junhee, what’s happening to sea stars in this pool?” Lyrika asks as she looks over the edge into the water. At least a couple dozen lay scattered in the pool, all at different parts of the decaying process. Junhee sets his phone down, and looks over to her.

“They’re decaying,” Junhee answers.

“They’re dying?” Lyrika gasps.

“It’s called Sea Star Wasting Syndrome. It’s been happening for over ten years now. We don’t know the cause or how to save them. We do know that it is contagious, so a group of surfers bring in stars when they spot the disease to prevent the spread of it,” Junhee explains.

“There has to be something,” Lyrika laughs in disbelief, ten years and no cure?

“The disease was rampant and almost caused several sea stars to go extinct, but over the years, with the help of managing to quarantine and remove sick sea stars the disease is not as commonly found,” Junhee tells her.

“But there are several sea stars here,” Lyrika counters his claim.

“That may be true, but back then I heard there were hundreds brought in every day. Now we get one every few days,” Junhee calmly responds, “that’s better. It’s hard to predict when a sea star gets the disease. But once the signs start showing the sea stars are days away from death. It’s unfortunate, but there is nothing we can do.”

Lyrika sighs. Junhee’s words sit heavy on her heart and mind.

The door suddenly opens, and a handful of her classmates spill into the room. They’re all chatting and giggling to one another and they all approach Song, greeting him. His eyes flicker towards them and then away.

“Am… would I be allowed in here to study them? For my project?” Lyrika asks.

“Of course,” Junhee nods, “just don’t touch them. The stars are already under enough stress being sick. We don’t want to cause any more harm.”

“Of course,” Lyrika half smiles, “thanks.”

Lyrika makes her way around her classmates who have dived into a conversation with Junhee. He seems a little more lively talking to them than her, but she doesn’t care. However, she doesn’t notice how Song’s gaze follows her until she exits the classroom. He stares at the door. Her distress about the sea stars catches his attention, reminding him of someone he once knew.

Lyrika finds herself sitting at dinner alone. She decided on eating dinner early, the moment it was ready to be served she was there. Yet, she doesn’t touch her food. She stares at it, poking the cooked salmon with her fork. Junhee’s words still sit heavy in her head. Why does it irk her the way it does? At least the surfers were trying to save the other sea stars, the marine biologist seems to be studying the disease, and the aquarium is giving them a place to die peacefully instead of being dried up and thrown away by some tourist who thought they got lucky with finding a sea star sticking out of the sand.

Lyrika leans back in her chair with a sigh. It’s gnawing at her. There has to be something. How do you go ten years with observations and research and not find a solution? Or even a treatment?

Lyrika pulls out her tablet and notebook from her bag, propping her tablet up and opening her notebook to a brand new page. She titles the page and dives into the closest search engine. She types away, and proceeds to open several links that seem promising. She reads the articles and writes down useful information about the disease. Soon the articles all seem to repeat, and all scientific papers run out.

Lyrika huffs in defeat and closes her tablet. She looks over at the notes she accumulated:

Sea Star Wasting Disease

Happens in a matter of days Is transmissible Symptoms Sea Stars affected White lesions Sunflower Twisted arms Mottled Deflated appearance Ochre Softing tissue Loss of arms Suffocation Death

There truly is no cure. Marine biologists have all this data and do nothing with it. They just observe and watch the sea stars die and how it affects their ecosystem, yet do nothing to save the sea stars from dying or going extinct. Does anyone care? Lyrika shoves her laptop, notebook, and pen back into her bag, frustrated. She grabs her plate of untouched food and returns it to the dish area, her appetite completely gone.

Lyrika makes her way back down to the basement and back to the small marine animal room. She needs to look at the sea stars again. Maybe she missed something. Sometimes Lyrika would like to think she could solve all the world’s problems and stay hidden. A masked superhero… or just a teenager with a savior complex.

Lyrika opens the door and notices a biologist, by the way he is dressed in a white lab coat and not the dark blue care specialist shirts. She mumbles a greeting to him as he works away on the stingray pool. She makes her way to the sea star pool, having to squeeze by her classmates who still surround Song.

This time he didn’t seem entirely bored or disinterested. He still isn’t talking but is showing the girls his tail and they look it over. Some seem to be drawing the intricate design of his fin.

She places her things on the table next to the star pool and leans on the rocky edge looking down into the water. All the same sea stars from just an hour ago, none have moved. Lyrika grabs her bag, pulling out her notebook. She draws another line underneath the notes she took not even ten minutes ago. She pops in a wireless earbud and grabs her notebook and pen. She walks around the sick sea star pool. Noting what the different conditions of the sea stars:

Sick Sea Star Pool White lesions: 27 Twisted arms: 8 Deflated appearance: 20 Softing tissue: 10 Loss of arms: 12 Suffocation: unknown Death: 3 (?)

Lyrika sits back down at her makeshift table space and looks over her data. She pulls out her tablet once again and dives into the internet, but with a destination of finding anything relating to a cure or antibiotic of some sort. Her experience in SEO isn’t the best, but she doesn’t plan to let it stop her. Maybe frustrate her, though.

“You’re still here,” Song says after a while. Lyrika jumps a little at the sudden noise in the silence. She turns to find him with his head propped on top of his arms crossed on the edge of the pool.

“Oh, you scared me,” Lyrika tells him, pulling out her earbud, “when did the others leave?”

“A while ago,” Song answers, unmoving from his position.

“Oh, then why are you still here?” Lyrika asks.

“The idiot forgot to take me back to my area, so I’m stuck here for the night,” Song sighs, slightly irritated.

“The pool is too small, I could ask the bi-”

“Don’t,” Song warns, his tone turning icy, “I don’t need help from a human.”

“Oh,” Lyrika whispers. She’s clearly over stepped. “Sorry.” Lyrika looks away from Song, putting her earbud back in, and continuing her search on google. She even pulls out her other earbud and places it in her open ear, the one closest to Song.

Song pushes himself back into the water and lays on his back. He tries to relax, but with a human in his peripheral vision he only feels more on edge. He tries again, forcing his eyes closed and sinking his ears beneath the water to avoid any human sound. His body only grows tenser. In his tank he doesn’t worry as often during the evenings because someone would have to fully get into the tank to reach him. Not only would the water disturbance wake him up, but the water is his turf- no human can outdo him in the water, sick or not.

But being in the small animal care room, ironic since Song is a giant merman, things are very different. Especially with a female student and biologist. Two of the scariest types of humans. Biologists who want to do anything and everything in the name of science and learning, and females who instantly become enchanted and want to be a perfect other half… or just psychotic and claim what is ‘theirs.’

Song sits up in the pool, opening his eyes in frustration. He looks over at Lyrika, still sitting at the table next to the sick sea stars. He almost softens seeing her there but remembers where he is. A human who actually cares? It’s a facade they put up for others- a facade he can prove faulty real easily.

Song swims to the edge of the pool once more, hooking his arms on the edge of the pool.

“I might know a way to help them,” Song speaks into the silence, but Lyrika doesn’t respond or even look his way. Is she ignoring him? He stares at her for a moment. He sighs and waves his hand to get her attention.

Lyrika blinks and looks over towards Song. She pulls both earbuds from her ears.

“I know of something,” Song starts, before his eyes darting away, “to potentially help the sea stars,” he looks back at her, “it works a bit differently in the ocean, but I can make some adjustments.”

Lyrika stares at him, not responding, but her eyes widened with each sentence.

“Do you want to know?” Song asks.

Lyrika nods.

“What will you do in return for me?” Song inquires, looking over her intently as if evaluating her commitment.

“Anything,” Lyrika breathlessly answers, “I just want to save the sea stars.”

“Anything?” Song’s eyebrows scrunch and he scrutinizes her further. Nobody has ever answered this fast, and nobody has ever said ‘anything.’

“Really, anything. Just tell me what to do or what I need,” Lyrika insists.

“Okay,” Song answers, collecting his cool again. Maybe this human has a stronger resolve than most. That’ll be easy to break.

“There are two things I need you to collect from the ocean,” Song holds one finger up, “seaweed,” then raises a second finger, “and a large jar of pure sea water.”

“Pure sea water?” Lyrika’s eyebrows raise, skeptical.

“Water from the human’s shore is polluted and the bacteria and trash kills the important properties of pure sea water,” Song explains, “so you’ll need to find an area voided of pollution and collect water from that area.”

“Okay,” Lyrika nods. She looks over her shoulder to the other biologist in the room, clearly having his own earbuds in his ears andis absorbed in his work.

“You have hesitation,” Song concludes, feeling victorious. He knew a human wouldn't actually help or do anything to save marine life.

“It’s just… if I get caught doing something I’m not suppose to, I’ll fail this class and won’t graduate high school. I’m banking on this class and project to get me into the best marine biology university, “Lyrika reveals.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Song waves his hands in the air as if to pause everything, “you’re not in university now?”

“No?” Lyrika hesitantly answers, “I’m a senior in high school.”

“What’s that?” Song asks, almost mortified to learn something new, “I thought this whole learning program this place does was for universities.”

“High school is what people complete before university,” Lyrika explains, “before high school, there is junior high, and before that, elementary.” Song rubs his face with both his hands and covers his mouth.

“Okay,” Song replies, “don’t worry about being caught. I’ll figure that part out,” Song assures her, “I promise you won’t get caught. Everything else is up to you.”

Lyrika smiles. Song looks at her through the corner of his eye.

“What?” He probes.

“Why do you suddenly want to help me? You were upset earlier? You didn’t even speak to my other classmates,” Lyrika concludes.

“I…,” Song starts, “I hate being the center of attention. Everyone wants to focus on Song until they realize he’s not all that special and move on. Well, I make it seem like that. Others deserve attention… like the sea stars. Everyone walks by them. They don’t even look at them. It makes me sick to my stomach that humans just allow it to happen.”

“I don’t want it to happen,” Lyrika declares, “I’ll get the water and seaweed tomorrow.”

#ya fantasy #fanfiction #song hangyeom #song #kpop #bookish

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toristbr · 5 months ago

Text

Sea Stars & Wishes - Chapter 1

Lyrika

The cleanliness of the lab tables reflect like mirrors before being dirtied by notebooks, laptops, and folders. The color range of students’ clothing brings life to the still whiteness of the room.

Mr Sutton, a fresh out of college graduate student still in his colorful hair and monthly tattoo phase, stands at the front of the room. He leans against the front desk, his full-sleeve tattooed arms propped on the desk, supporting him.

“This is where you will be conducting your experiments for the next week,” Mr. Sutton explains as he walks around the room, handing each student a small plastic white card, “the card I am handing to you now is your access key to this room and the different aquatic rooms in this area. May I make myself clear: at all times you are in a room, a staff member of this facility must be in the room as well.

“You each have your approved topics to begin researching. You have a week to gather the research you need. Do not worry about writing your report; you will have another week to compose it once we return. If you have any questions, you may ask me or other faculty. Better yet, just as the aquarium’s marine biologists and care specialists. They know this place like the back of their hand, and know all their aquatic friends much better than I do.”

Mr. Sutton hands out the last access card and returns to the front of the room, “the aquarium’s regular hours of operation still apply. So once the aquarium closes, it’s closed. However, the research labs are usually open 24/7, but once again if you do not see a specialist or a biologist there or in any of the other rooms do not stay or work. If I am notified that someone broke the rules, you will be sent home and I will fail you in this class. I would hate to have to do that.” He looks around the room once more, “you may all begin your assignments. Good luck.”

Students scramble around as if a shotgun rings out. They quickly grab their belongings and push one another to be first out the door.

“Why is it that all the girls are horny the moment they see a beautiful man?” One of the four male students, Oliver, scoffs. A majority of the class, all female students, had chosen the merman as their topic. Very few decided on different species- the remaining six students in the class of twenty.

“The same way all guys get a little too excited when they see a bikini model on a magazine cover,” Cassidy, a light-skinned latina with long, fried black hair, retorts as she rolls her eyes, “right, Lyrika?”

A pool of coiled brown hair is flipped back by an arm, revealing Lyrika, a mixed white-black girl with a face of angel kisses and a set of enchanting light green eyes. Her curly hair shuffles around as Lyrika turns to the commotion of the room. The other three boys stand behind Oliver and Cassidy near Lyrika, in a face off.

“Uh, yeah sure,” Lyrika quietly and quickly adds. Oliver scoffs and leads the boys out of the room. Cassidy turns to her.

“Still doing starfish as your project?” Cassidy takes a seat next to Lyrika.

“Sea stars,” Lyrika corrects, “but yes. Which rays are you studying again? Sting or Manta?”

“Sting! The ray pool is right next to your pool, so I figured we’d walk together,” answers Cassidy as she clips her hair up.

“Yeah, just let me grab my things,” Lyrika responds. She quickly gathers her notebook, polaroid camera, and pencil case.

Lyrika and Cassidy would both agree they weren’t friends outside of the classroom. More-so acquaintances- well, Lyrika is smart and Cassidy needs to pass one more science class in order to graduate, so she has glued herself to the smart girl. A commensalism symbiotic relationship if you will, because in the end Lyrika is left unaffected while Cassidy gains her needed credit.

The two girls exit the classroom, making small talk about their project topics and research goals. They exit the basement of research facilities and make their way up the staircase. It leads them to the lobby, and from there they take the next staircase to the top floor of the aquarium. Their respective sea pools are in the far back corner because of the extra space it takes for the public to pet and feed the sea stars and rays.

Lyrika and Cassidy pass by their other female peers as they surround the merman’s tank. The two glance over at the giggling mess. Cassidy immediately shrugs it off and looks away, but Lyrika watches with pity. She notices the animal care specialist, Junhee, who showed them around earlier helping Song onto a rolling palette.

“Don’t tell me you're mesmerized by his beauty too,” Cassidy playfully elbows Lyrika.

“I’m not,” Lyrika raises her eyebrows, “it’s just sad.”

“Yeah. But there is nothing we can do about it,” Cassidy sighs. The two arrive at the sea star pool, the closer of the two.

“Ray pool is right over there,” Cassidy points to the larger pool about 20 feet away, “I’ll see you at dinner then. Save me a seat!” Cassidy waves as she walks away. Lyrika smiles before turning her attention to the small shallow pool in front of her. She walks around the pool once to take in what she has to work with, which isn’t much. She places her items on a bench nearby and opens her notebook to the first page- her to-do daily lists.

Monday : Observation & Documentation

Take pictures of all sea stars Sketch sea star pool Note types and quantity Water temperature : ___ Placement of exhibit in aquarium Document items and other organisms in exhibit

With her polaroid, Lyrika snaps a picture of every star in the shallow pool. She mentally notes there are only five different species, significantly less than she thought there would be. After each polaroid prints, she walks over to a bench and spaces them out for them to develop- a tedious task, but in the end when her project is complete, it’ll be all worth it. After placing down the last undeveloped polaroid, she trades her camera for her notebook. She flips to a fresh page where she notes down each species and their quantity:

Horned Sea Stars : 3 Red Knob Sea Star : 2 Sand Sifting Sea Star : 5 Honeycomb Sea Star : 2 Cushion Sea Star : 5

Lyrika draws a line under the species list, separating the rest of the page. She slowly walks around the pool once more, noting the other species and their quantity in the pool. She trades for her camera once more and takes a singular picture of the sand dollar, purple sea urchin, red sea urchin, and black sea urchin.

“You’re doing your project on sea stars?” An excited female voice asks. Lyrika turns around to find one of the aquarium's care specialists, easily identifiable in their dark blue collared shirts, looking over her polaroids spaced out on the bench. The girl has deep brown, almost black, skin with a short cut afro with flaming red tips. Gold round wire glasses not only enhance the structure of her face but make her brown eyes almost appear amber-like.

“Oh, yeah,” Lyrika awkwardly laughs.

“Well, if you have questions, I’m the sea star care specialist. My name is Layla,” she cheerfully waves.

“Really?” Lyrika perks up,“when is your next feeding time?”

“Wednesday! It’ll be about 2:30 when we feed them!” she answers, “we have it set up so the public can also feed them, although it’s not as exciting as it sounds. The sea stars are picky and slow when it comes to getting their food.”

“Could I help feed them?” Lyrika asks.

“Of course! If your friends want to as well, we’d be more than happy to have you guys feed them,” she answers. Suddenly her watch buzzes. “I gotta head out now. But I’ll see you Wednesday for sure, if not before then!”

Lyrika waves to Layla as she leaves and then quickly turns back to her project. She hunches over and sighs. Lyrika hates the social anxiety of handling extroverts… well, handling them alone. When her friends are around, she has no problem being a little butterfly herself, but usually even then, her friends do all the talking and she enjoys the people-watching.

Lyrika shakes her head to focus once more at her project in front of her. She quickly finishes counting all the urchins in the tank and visible sand dollars- which she writes in the margin to ask later how many are actually in the tank. She flips the page in her notebook and turns it sideways.

Lyrika walks to the front of the pool and slowly sketches it out in her notebook to use as a reference later on in her presentation for Mr. Sutton. It doesn’t need to be perfect, she could take a picture on her phone later to use as a reference for the final sketch but, getting a head start and practice will help later on.

“Back so soon, Miss Belle?” Mr. Sutton asks, looking up from the book he is reading. He’s leaning back in his chair with his feet propped up on the desk.

“Finish with what I needed today,” she answers, “thought I’d explore a little before we all leave for the day.” Lyrika places her belongings back into her bag.

Mr. Sutton nods and looks back to his book, “just remember the rules.”

“Yes sir,” Lyrika quietly responds, grabbing her phone and access keycard and leaving the room once more.

Outside of the classroom, the hallway is bleak, all white with small color-coded signs directing to different types of rooms. Lyrika walks down the hallway, further into the research and care area. Most of the rooms have windows where she can peek in. She spots her peers and other marine biologists working and chatting away. She views lab rooms, computer rooms, conference rooms, and large sea animal care rooms.

Lyrika stops at a window that looks right into a stingray pool, and not too far beyond it looks like a sea star pool based on what the pool on the second story looks like. She walks to the door, pulling out her keycard, and holds it up the door sensor on the wall.

The light turns green and the lock on the door clicks. Lyrika pulls the door open and steps inside the room.

“Hello?” Lyrika calls out.

“Around the corner!” A male’s voice calls.

Lyrika allows the door to close behind her and she slowly walks through the room, admiring the aquatic creatures in each of the small pools. Lyrika approaches a smaller pool, peering in to find sea stars… or what is left of them. A heavy sensation pushes on her shoulders and chest. An almost suffocating feeling.

What’s happening to them? Why are they sick? How are they sick? Where did these sea stars come from?

Lyrika walks around the corner of the room to ask the worker, but stops when she sees the silver merman in a somewhat large enough pool. His arms leaning on the rim of the pool and his tail flicking in the water. He stares at the wall, clearly bored out of his mind.

“Song.”

#ya fantasy #song hangyeom #song #bookish #fanfiction #kpop

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toristbr · 5 months ago

Text

Sea Stars & Wishes - Prologue

Song

The water shimmers wrong under the human’s lights, and the fish swim lifelessly around me. There is no sea magic here. The scales on my tail and torso, devoid of sea magic, have completely silvered- the color of an almost dead merman. The humans aren’t aware I am sick; they are too mesmerized by the beauty of my presence, an imprisoned merman. An enchantment in their everyday mundane lives. Something so beautiful and elegant, yet they keep me prisoner in this tank.

It’s been 637 days since I was dumped into this excuse of an ocean duplicate. I’m a form of entertainment for their flashing cameras. I’m exposed in every corner of the tank. The square sides open to eyes to peer in. The bottom of the tank curves so they can walk below in an all-glass air tunnel. I barely find peace above the water on my “rocks” under the lights that mimic the sun. Access for all eyes as they circle around me. I am a prisoner, and they do not care for my sadness or notice my sickness.

I didn’t want to accept my fate, but after a few weeks I came to accept that this was going to be how I spent the rest of my days. It won’t be too much longer now. The marine biologists haven’t noticed, and when they do, it’ll be too late. It will bring me satisfaction watching them scramble around to find what caused this and a cure. After all, I'm their number one attraction; the reason they have so much money. They will have to explain how they killed me. How I died in the hands of humans.

I will win in the end.

I pick another scale off my tail. My body has yet to feel the effects of impending death, but soon it’ll happen. It will hit me like a tsunami, and it won’t take long to succumb.

I survey the empty room and rejoice that this prison is closed to the public for the week. But I know I’m not off the hook.

Every five months, marine biology students from universities across the country come to study for a week. According to a student I met the first time I experienced this study program, this is the country’s largest aquarium. It only made me feel sicker hearing that. So many lives trapped, and so many who will never get to experience the ocean again.

Most of these students choose me as their study topic. Mostly the female students. As flattering as it may seem, they’re delusional. A merman and a human? What a joke. However, the students are not permitted to touch or do experiments on me. Something about how ‘we are lucky to have one, especially with the circumstances that he is unfit to return to the ocean’ and ‘he has been through enough’ and ‘he is similar to us humans, wouldn’t you hate to be experimented on or touched?’ Delusional. Psychotic. They call themselves humane, but keep healthy wild animals in little showcase tanks instead of setting them free. Humans think they can just own everything and anything they want. They’re the invasive species on Earth.

“And over here we have our infamous merman, Song,” a man’s voice drags me out of my infuriating thoughts. I look up and spot Junhee guiding a rather small group of students towards my tank. I slowly scoot towards the edge of the rock, dipping my tail into the water, ready for a clean escape.

“The first-ever merman rescued,” Junhee explains, “Song, here, was speared by some fisherman and the captain of the ship brought him to us so we could allow him to heal. Through his healing journey the care specialists deemed him unfit to return to the ocean.”

I slide into the chemically treated seawater. I swim around to the other side of the rock formation before bringing my head to the surface again, hidden away from the group. They would see me later anyway. Anything to spare a few more minutes alone.

“That’s so sad,” a quiet female voice shakes the silence, “to be trapped and put on display like that.”

“He’s not trapped,” Junhee awkwardly laughs correcting the girl, “he was deemed unfit to return to the ocean due to the extent of his injuries. He is more than safe and healthy here.”

“What if it were you?” She retorts.

“That’s enough Miss Belle,” an older gentleman scolds.

I pull myself along the rocks, and peek a fraction of my head out to look at the group. Who would boldly say something against the popular opinion.

Then I saw Her.

#ya fantasy #prologue #song #fanfiction #kpop #song hangyeom #bookish

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toristbr · 10 months ago

Text

Zheng's Flower

word count: 7653 genre: YA fantasy , dystopian , "end of the world"

“Officer Zheng, glad you could join us once again,” Scientist Akir greets.

“I was made aware you have a new test subject,” Zheng replies. Akir nods and motions for him to follow. The two begin the walk down the hallway, making turn after turn. It would be a maze to Zheng had he not been hired here several times before.

“Test subject 72 is the most unique case we have found,” Akir explains.

“How so?” Zheng raises an eyebrow.

“When we found subject 72, they were injured and on the brink of death. It seems that despite the parasite that hosts 72’s body it was rejected and not seen as the same as the others,” Akir explains.

“So other Floramons did not recognize 72 as their own and attacked it?” Zheng clarifies.

Floramons are human-plant hybrids. A parasite had been found and carelessly not contained, and it quickly spread. The parasite would find a host body and genetically mutate the human body to become more plant-like. Human skin would turn green and grow a thick moss, sometimes bark. Branches, vines, flowers, and leaves grow over the body. Floramons once fully developed can barely be recognized as humans - only vague body-structure was left to be identifiable.

It’s been almost ten years of this nightmare. Society collapsed in the most dense and populated parts. You were almost safer in the countryside. A new government formed… well several, and it was a Cold War against each other. Racing to who could find a cure first. Most of the world has the study of Floramons down to a science- how long it takes to fully mutate, how much exposure is needed. Medicine has been developed to slow and potentially stop the mutation which has worked for a majority. But that still leaves all those who are mutated- how to save them.

“Not only is 72’s appearance drastically different from the others, but the behavior is as well. 72 has yet to lash out or cause any reason to be herbicides,” Akir answers, “you’ll understand once you see the subject.”

Numerous things can cause a Floramon to become violent: darkness, high pitched sounds, strong base sounds, certain colors and how they reflect in light, being touched, or certain textures.

Zheng eyes the scientist, but continues following him. If test subject 72 hasn’t lashed out or caused disturbances, why is he being hired here once more? His job entails herbiciding.

“Right into that room,” Akir points with his pen towards the doors. He then hands Zheng an identification badge that works as a key. He takes the plastic card and holds it against the sensor. The door beeps and unlocks with a click and Zheng enters. Akir walks off down the hallway.

Zheng closes the door behind him. He turns and his eyes widen in surprise. Spotting 72 wasn’t difficult, for they still look like the parasite that has taken over the host body. 72 sits on a table ever so still without any restraints. Their back is towards Zheng, but Akir was right. 72 is nothing like what anyone has seen before. They look more human than Floramon.

Instead of moss or bark, 72’s skin is made up of clover brush, but it’s in large patches. Yet in the clear areas you can still see human skin, except it’s green. Floramons usually had branches, flowers, and leaves growing out of random parts of their bodies, but for 72 it’s as if they were all perfectly placed and kept in certain areas. Long willow branches grow out from its back and hang weepingly like a cape. The branches have patches of leaves here and there. But most of the leaves could be found around the hips and upper thighs. The flowers are most interesting. Long flower stems grow out of 72’s head and cascade down its back in different lengths as if to express layers, purple daisy-like flowers on the ends of each stem. 72 looks whimsical compared to the other Floramons- goddess-like if you will.

“Officer Zheng! You’ve arrived!” Justin, Akir’s assistant, greets him, “isn’t she gorgeous?”

“Definitely different than anything I’ve ever seen before,” Zheng answers, “is this a new mutated version of the Floramons?”

Justin shakes his head, “apparently from information we have gathered she was in the first wave of mutations.” First wave? That means 72 was one of the first to be mutated back when the world knew nothing of the parasite.

“But get this,” Justin continues, “there is still human DNA and blood running in her system that the parasite hasn’t destroyed. To add, Aster still remembers her human life and has most of her memories intact.”

“Aster?”

The Floramon shifts on the table, turning every so slightly to look over their shoulder. Their venom green eyes pierce Zheng’s deep brown ones. But it doesn’t startle or shake Zheng. Nothing does. Training broke down every part of Zheng and built him up into a machine. Sometimes people comment that those like Zheng are scarier than Floramons.

“That is her name. She corrected me the first day she arrived,” Justin walks over to a table, away from Aster who stays ever so still on the table.

“She can still talk too?” Zheng questions.

“Oh, yeah,” Justin nods, “she doesn’t do it often. She’s very quiet and kept to herself.”

Zheng looks back at Aster, her head once again turned away from Zheng, her back and her cape of weeping willow shielding her.

Shortly after Zheng was called out of the room to meet with Akir once more.

The two sit in Akir’s office on opposite sides of a desk.

“Your position this time compared to the others will be a little different. While you’re still hired as the Herbicider, you also will be incharge of test subject 72’s well being,” Scientist Akir explains handing over a small thin packet, “making sure 72 has meals delivered, taking it to and from the testing and observation rooms, and other specifications that are detailed in that packet. Do you have any questions.”

Zheng bites his inner cheek, that’s why they were paying him a lot more.

“Is this because she’s civil?” Zheng questions looking up from the packet.

“IT has proven with the extensive tests that we have run that the likelihood of it becoming hostile is slim to none,” Akir answers.

“Understood.”

“You will officially start tomorrow,” Akir informs, “the remainder of the day is for yours to enjoy and explore. Make yourself familiar once more with the building.”

Zheng nods and rises from the chair, exiting the office.

Zheng’s first day on duty didn’t feel eventful. Aster was cooperative with Zheng. In the testing room, Justin and Akir worked as Aster sat on the table. She barely moved, only when ordered. Zheng takes note of the different approaches Akir and Justin take towards Aster. Justin takes the time to explain what he is going to do while Akir just demands something and does it. Aster reacted differently to each man, being just a little more cooperative with Justin and glaring at Akir before obeying.

After testing Zheng escorts Aster back to her room. He notices her with a limp and holds her upper arm for support. But it lasts for less than a second when she reaches up and slaps his hand away.

“I can walk on my own,” she warns him. Zheng takes a couple steps back and he watches as the branches that grow from her back slowly curl up, their sharp ends pointing towards Zheng like a warning. He follows Aster back to her room and steps aside for him to open the door for her. She walks in and the doors close behind her. Zheng stands in front of the door, as part of his daily tasks, until the night shift shows up and he goes to get Aster food and retire for the night.

“Do you know what it’s like?” Aster asks. Zheng looks to the side towards the glass wall but doesn’t move from his spot.

“Everytime they take a sample of clover, it’s a form of skinning. I have nerves in all parts of me,” Aster continues, disgust laces her voice, “when they need a piece of a branch it’s like breaking a bone. Need flowers? It cuts off my CO2, my ability to breathe.”

Zheng listens but doesn’t move.

“You wouldn’t even begin to understand the pain,” Aster concludes. Zheng took a moment and wanted to counter that he might not know the physical pain but he knows the mental pain of being stripped until nothing and being built up the perfect way. But before he could, the night shift officer shows up and the two switch shifts. Zheng goes for Aster’s food and hands it off to her. He doesn’t speak and neither does she.

That’s how everyday goes. Greeting Aster in the morning, making sure she ate, bringing her to wherever she is needed, taking her back to her room, and giving her dinner. Everyday, the same thing. It lasted weeks, and she hasn’t spoken to him until that first day.

“I’ve gotten all the samples I need for the day,” Justin announces then turns to Aster, “I’ll see you in a couple days. Take care.”

Justin walks towards the door when Zheng stands guard.

“Would you actually mind helping me carry a few of these samples? I don’t want to drop any of them,” Justin asks, his arms full of vials with the smallest amount of samples. Zheng looks over at Akir who has much larger samples from Aster.

Zheng looks back to Justin, nods and holds out his hands to take some of the vials from him.

“Akir, you’ll be okay if I step out for a moment?” Zheng calls out. Akir waves him off instead of answering.

Justin and Zheng step into the hallway and walk the short distance to Justin’s small laboratory. Justin takes all the vials from Zheng’s arms once he sets down his own set.

“Thank y-”

An ear piercing screech breaks the silence. Alarms start ringing and a bright red flash blinks throughout the hallways and rooms.

Zheng zips out of the laboratory and back into the testing room. He holds his keycard over the sensor and the doors open. He immediately draws his gun as he enters the room. Akir and a couple other assistants are slowly benign corners. Zheng swiftly makes his way in front of the group holding his gun steady, barrel pointing towards Aster.

Her steps are sporadic and her head turns every which way. Almost like she’s trying to figure out where she is. Zheng is momentarily caught off guard, figuring out why she isn’t attacking or heading towards the group, she is making her way towards them.

“Zheng, what are you waiting for?” Akir demands. Akir’s loud voice catches Aster’s attention and she begins to quickly make her way towards the group.

Zheng quickly adjusts his gun and fires. The bullet snaps off a large branch that sticks out from Aster’s back. She screeches and stumbles back a moment, breathing hard. Thinking it was over, Zheng relaxes and lowers his gun.

Aster’s head pops up and she launches herself towards the group, Zheng raises his gun and fires again, the bullet this time piercing her left shoulder. She falls to the ground, unable to move. She still screeches but they slowly die out. She goes quiet and focuses on her breathing.

Everyone watches her, unsure of what will happen next.

Zheng still keeps his gun trained on her, just in case. He had never just injured one of these parasites before, he never was supposed to. Always shoot to kill. But he knows she is too valuable to kill, but if he has to he will.

Aster doesn’t move, but you can hear her breathing heavily.

Akir calls in the specialty guards, “take 72 back.” The guards move quickly and Aster allows them to take her away. When the door shuts Akir turns to Zheng, fury radiating off his body like steam.

“What were you thinking?” Akir yells, “you could have had us all killed!”

“You said it yourself,” Zheng remains calm, “she’s too valuable and different from the others. You would be even angrier if I had killed her. She would be useless then.”

Akir doesn’t respond, but you can watch as his chest heaves up and down with rage he is holding in. He knows Zheng is right.

“Get out of my sight,” Akir grumbles before walking over to the mess in the room. The other scientists had started cleaning up, trying to be invisible and stay out of Akir’s way.

Zheng leaves the room, and makes his way back to his other post. Aster’s room. The guards that removed Aster earlier leave once Zheng stations himself.

The remaining hours in Zheng’s day shift drag on. But eventually the night shift shows up and the two switch spots. The remaining thing on Zheng’s duty for the day was to bring Aster her dinner.

Zheng stopped at the glass wall, peering in at Aster, who’s curled up in a corner. Her breathing is shallow and she holds her shoulder in pain. Her body seems less life-like. As if it was dying.

Zheng rolls his eyes and continues about his last duty. But he stops when he passes by one of the medicine cabinet rooms. He bites down on his teeth before fishing his ID card out of his pocket and holding it over the scanner. It beeps and the door unlocks. He steps inside and looks around the small room for what he needs.

Despite being a Herbeicider, he had to learn how to heal Floramons. Scientists paid quite a deal of money for the specific types of Floramons. It takes Zheng a moment to find all the bottles he needs and toss them into an empty bag found on one of the shelves.

He exits the room and heads towards the cafeteria. Aster’s plate of food is already waiting and Zheng grabs it and heads back to Aster’s room.

Zheng holds his identification card up to the scanner. It flashes green and the door slides open. He walks inside allowing the door to close behind him. Aster doesn’t move from the corner she lays in. Her flowered hair is a mess across her body and floor- the petals slowly wilting away.

Zheng sets the tray of food on the floor first, then the bag of medicine, the bottles inside cling against each other.

“I don’t want your help,” Aster’s hoarse voice croaks in the silence.

“Never said I was,” Zheng matter-of-factly responds, “you can do it yourself.” Zheng walks out of the room once more.

The next morning Zheng arrives at his post, in front of Aster’s door. He nods to the night shift guard who takes his leave.

Zheng peers into the glass wall towards Aster. It seems she hasn’t moved since yesterday, and the bag of medicine is no longer there. Her flowered hair seems almost dead today. He huffs and pulls out his badge and enters the room.

Aster pushes herself up slightly, her arms barely able to hold the weight of her upper body. Her waist and lower body still rests on the floor, and her back is still towards the door.

“I give you the medicine and you don’t even use it? You’re going to let yourself die painfully?” Zheng irritatingly asks.

“You still haven’t figured it out,” Aster whispers, her breathing loud and uneven. She turns towards Zheng. His eyes find hers, but she isn’t looking towards him, she’s looking up too high, well beyond where his head is and slightly off to the side. “They blinded me.”

“You-” Zheng stops himself. He crouches in front of her. He pulls out a small flashlight, turns it on, and flashes it across Aster’s eyes. Her pupils don’t move nor dilate. He catches his breath.

“Why are you reacting like that? This is what you guys want. You don’t want a cure,” she spat, “you guys just want to torture and kill us. Find a way to tame and control us.”

Zheng doesn’t respond, he stares at her in disbelief. How could he even counter what she said? They had blinded her, for what reason? Everyone knows the parasite is in the blood and skin- not the eyes.

Zheng stands and takes a deep breath. A really big deep breath.

“What happened to the medicine I brought for you? Do you know?” Zheng asks as calmly as he can. Instead of answering Aster pushes herself to her knees and crawls across the floor, reaching her hands out to feel where she is going. She reaches the opposite wall and feels around and her hand stops on the vent. She tries pulling at it but the vent barely budges.

Zheng walks over, crouches down, and pulls at the vent and it pops off with ease. Aster reaches her hand inside the vent, not thanking Zheng. She pulls out the bag Zheng brought yesterday.

She holds the bag up to Zheng accidently hitting him in the face with the bag.

“Sorry,” she whispers. Zheng gently takes the bag from her. He sets it on the floor and puts the vent panel back into place.

Zheng sits fully on the floor before opening the medicine bag and dumps the bottles onto the floor in front of him. He pulls out a pair of gloves from his pocket.

“What are you doing?” Aster asks.

“I’m going to treat your wound,” Zheng explains, “I need you to lay on your back if you can with your injured shoulder closest to me.”

Aster doesn’t argue, and does as she is told. With the branches that grow out of her back she lays more at an angle on her side, with her injured shoulder exposed to Zheng.

“This is going to hurt a little,” Zheng warns as he opens one of the vials. He cups his hand around the bullet hole in her shoulder and slowly tips the vial so the liquid pours out and into the wound. Aster hisses.

“Now you shouldn’t feel anything,” Zheng explains, “you’re going to feel high, but it will wear off soon.” Aster nods. Zheng reaches for the next vile, and a needle.

“I’m going to poke you several times with this needle,” Zheng explains and he pulls the liquid into the needle, “it’s nutrients and should help speed up the recovery process.”

“You’re like Justin,” Aster says quietly. The numbing medicine quickly takes effect as she is quickly beginning to nod off.

Zheng raises his eyebrows and shakes his head, he’s nothing like Justin. He’s much worse. More violent. Not good.

Zheng pushes the needle tip into Aster’s skin and empties the barrel of its liquid. He reaches for the same vial and pulls more liquid. He does this six times total.

Finally Zheng pulls out a pill that looks like a seed. He drops it into the hole and then takes a leafy-like bandage and seals the hole in Aster’s shoulder.

He looks over to Aster’s face and she’s fast asleep. Maybe he used too much of the numbing liquid for her. Zheng shakes the thought away, trusting his training. He cleans up the mess he made. He exits the room and disposes of the vials and needles.

Aster proceeded to sleep for 19 hours, and her wound took another 17 on top of that to heal enough for her to continue testing. The wound had healed nice enough, but still needed treatment. Aster only agreed to have Zheng continue to treat her wound if he would tell her stories of the outside world.

“How long have you been here?” Zheng asked.

“A couple weeks before you arrived,” Aster answered, “but before then I was constantly transferred from one caged area to another. I didn’t ever see the extent of what had happened.” Zheng then told her what the last ten years were like. Well he told her what he could. A handful of years were spent on his special training.

Each and every time Zheng worked on Aster’s wound she would ask more and more questions about things. Zheng answered most and even countered with some questions back. An unlikely friendship had formed.

“It looks like your wound it’s just about healed,” Zheng explains to Aster as he dabs the closed wound with a cotton ball soaked in a plant enhancer, “from here on out it will have to heal on its own. I don’t know aesthetically what it will look like.”

“Not like that’s important anymore,” Aster comments.

Zheng leans closer towards the wound to get a better look. A set of military dog tags fall out from under his shirt and they rattle off each other.

“What was that?” Aster looks around.

“Just my necklace,” Zheng responds leaning back up, eyes not leaving the wound..

Aster reaches her hand out cautiously. She finds Zheng’s arm and follows it back to his body and lightly taps across his chest until she finds the dog tags. Zheng eyes her carefully.

“Your military tags?” Aster guesses, “wait there are three here. Usually it’s two, isn’t it?”

Zheng looks back at her wound pulling his hands away.

“Two are mine,” Zheng tells her, “the other is what was found left from my father.”

“Oh,” Aster replies quietly and lets go of the tags.

Zheng set’s the tweezers and cotton balls down and reaches for the leafy-like bandage once more.

“Must mean a lot to you then, for you to carry it with you,” Aster comments.

“It’s all I have left of my father, so yes,” Zheng answers as he lays the bandage on Aster’s wound.

“I had a necklace like that once,” Aster rambles, “I mean, one that meant a lot to me.”

“Oh yeah?” Zheng questions, indulging in her rambling.

“Yeah,” she smiles, “it is a heart shaped locket and on the front it has an aster flower engraved, although most people thought it was a daisy since there was no purple color to it. But even then people said that asters were just purple daisies. They would say I’m a know-it-all for correcting them.”

Zheng smiles, silently laughing at her rambling on and on about her old life.

“I’d do anything to have it again,” Aster tells him, “but I’m sure it’s long gone. They probably threw it out with my clothes when I was captured.” Aster blinks back tears and turns away from Zheng.

“I’m going to toss out this trash,” Zheng says after a minute of uncomfortable silence. Aster doesn’t respond.

Zheng exits the room and disposes of the medical items before pulling out his walkie.

“Officer June, are you still on duty?” Zheng releases the speaking button and waits.

“Yes, sir,” a voice crackles through the speaker.

“I need you to watch Project 72. I need to step out for an errand,” Zheng orders.

“Be right there, sir.”

Officer June appears within minutes and takes over the post near the enclosure. Zheng leaves his post and begins his way through the maze of hallways. In his head Zheng had the building mapped out, however the area he was going into had only been a couple times. He could get lost and in trouble if he was caught.

He looks down at his watch, noting that it was lunchtime for most if not all scientists and it would end in 13 minutes. He didn’t have a lot of time to find this necklace.

Turn after turn, Zheng wasted no time getting where he needs. He stops at the end of the hallway.

It could be any of these doors.

Zheng slowly makes his way down. He spots a fire alarm on the wall and stops. A light bulb clicks in his head. He quickly moves down the hallways counting the doors on the right.

One. Two. Three. Four. Here.

At the fifth door Zheng pulls out his keycard and holds it to the sensor. The door slides open and he steps inside. He looks around the room and notices no one is in.

He moves quickly to the back of the room where large filing cabinets are. He reads the small numbers and quickly finds 72.

He pulls open the cabinet and finds a handful of things shoved in there.

Zheng cautiously pulls everything out one by one. In a large bag is an outfit, probably what she was found in. He opens the bag immediately and fishes around looking for the necklace. No luck. He seals the bag and looks around the cabinet some more.

He lifts up a folder finding a small clear plastic bag with some jewelry in it. Jackpot. He opens it and pulled out the necklace. He holds up the silver chain, a small heart with an Aster flower engraved in the front of it.

Zheng tosses the bag back into the cabinet and he carefully puts the folder back, but before letting go he notices what is written on the folder. Before.

Before?

Zheng pulls it back out and opens the folder. A picture of a girl in her high school graduation outfit smiles, holding her diploma.

Is this Aster?

Standing to her left is an older gentleman, and to his left is a younger boy. To Aster’s right is an older woman. Her family.

Zheng flips the picture to look at the papers behind it. His eyes scan over the document. A typical name, age, birthday, height, weight document. Something you would fill out if you were going to a doctor's office. Zheng stops under the family section.

Mother: herbicided Father: herbicided Sibling: herbicided

Noise outside the room startles Zheng and he quickly closes the folder and sets everything but the necklace back into the cabinet and hides around the bookshelf.

AN assistant walks into the room scrolling on their phone which allows Zheng to step out without them noticing him.

He quickly makes his way back to Aster’s room before too many realize where he is.

Zheng dismisses June once he returns and opens Aster’s door stepping in.

“You’re back. Where did you go?” Aster asks.

“Have you memorized everyone’s footsteps?” Zheng asks.

“Only yours I recognize,” Aster awkwardly laughs.

“Hold out your hand.” Aster’s brows furrow but she does as she is told. Zheng drops the locket into her hands. Aster’s eyes widen and she immediately feels around the necklace and locket.

“How?” Aster asks, her eyes filling with tears.

“It’s not important,” Zheng tells her.

“But you knew I wanted it. You immediately went to get it,” Aster counters.

“You shouldn’t be stripped of your old life just because of what you became,” Zheng answers quietly, looking away from her.

“Thank you,” Aster whispers. She struggles to put it on but manages.

“Just don’t let anyone else see it,” Zheng warns, “I don’t know what they will do to you.”

“Got it,” Aster pushes the necklace under the cover brush that rises from her skin, hiding the necklace entirely.

The two stand in silence, comfortable silence.

“I remember my mother telling me,” Aster softly smiles, “the day she found out she was pregnant with me, Aster's bloomed in her garden… she hadn’t planted those that year. She knew my name second to knowing I was there with her.”

“Do you miss them?” Zheng asks almost too quietly, unsure if he should even ask.

“Everyday,” Aster answers, “I wonder if they are happy now. If they are safe. When I will join them.”

Zheng tenses. He doesn’t even dare to breathe. When I will join them. Like a butcher knife to his chest. She can’t possibly wonder. He knew they were close to finding a cure. Everyday more positive chatter spread through the facility and doctors were working even harder. He knew there was a breakthrough.

“You still there, Zheng?” Aster’s voice calls out, her voice quiet.

“Yeah,” Zheng coughs out, “I’m sure they are happy and safe.”

Aster reaches for the locket around her neck and twiddles it between her fingers. Zheng watches her, satisfied with the rules he’s broken.

A series of beeping breaks his train of thought.

“Your shift is over,” Aster's posture slumps a little.

“For the night,” Zheng reminds her, “but you know I’m stationed here. If you need me, all you do is ask.” Aster nods and turns away as Zheng walks towards the door.

He exits and waits by the door until the next shift lead arrives.

A blaring repetitive alarm bell wakes Zheng from his sleep. He doesn’t even grab his shoes before he’s bursting out the door.

He meets with two other officers.

“What time is it?” Zheng asks.

“4:18am, sir,” one of them responds. What could they be doing? His eyes widened.

Aster.

Zheng sprints down the hallway, the other officers following. The red lights swivel around and the loud alarm bell rings.

Zheng needs to be the first one to get there or they’ll kill her.

He pushes himself hard to run, shoving literally everyone out of his way. He reaches the door and takes the hilt of his gun, smashing the keycard scanner. It bashes in and he pries open the doors with ease.

In the center of the room Aster has Akir pinned to the ground, the branches on her back curling like a scorpion's tail ready to strike.

“Aster!” Zheng yells.

Aster’s head snaps towards Zheng’s voice. He lunges and tackles Aster to the ground. It’s a stupid move in which he could get infected as well, but he would rather be infected then let her die.

The two collide against the ground, Zheng under Aster.

“Aster!” Zheng calls again. Aster breathes heavily, not answering.

Her breathing slows and she blinks a few times.

“Zheng?” Zheng sighs in relief.

“You almost got yourself killed,” Zheng scolds.

“I’m sor-”

Just as she is apologizing, Akir comes towards Aster with large scissors. He grabs Aster’s hair and cuts the rest of the stems off. The flowers immediately wilt and Aster screams in pain.

Her body crumbles and she falls to the side, gasping for air.

“What are you doing?” Zheng pushes himself up and tackles Akir, knocking the scissors from his hand, “you’re cutting off her CO2!”

“They’re too close,” Akir hisses.

“To what?” Zheng demands.

“A cure,” he answers.

Zheng, who now is pinning Akir to the floor, raises his fist and pounds it into Akir’s face multiple times.

He doesn’t know how many hits he got in before being dragged off Akir’s body. Three guards hold Zheng back. Other scientists fill the room. Zheng spots Justin among them.

“She’s dying!” Zheng screams to him, “cut off all her CO2.”

Justin looks his way then back towards Aster. He immediately starts giving out orders and the scientists start scrambling around and out the room.

“Get him out of here,” Justin tells the three guards holding Zheng.

“No! Let me go!” Zheng fights their hold on him.

“Officer Zheng!” Justin orders, “she will be fine, but you need to go for now.” Zheng watches Justin who only nods. Zheng’s chest heaves with adrenaline, but allows the guards to remove him from the room.

The guards toss him into one of the empty Floramon rooms. Zheng did not try to break down the door, or shatter the glass wall. No, he stays where he was dumped on the floor.

Zheng had been kept locked in the room for several days, being treated as a prisoner. Almost. Justin had come in once a day to update Zheng on all that was happening.

On the first day Justin informed that he had killed Akir without realizing it, but he felt no remorse. He felt a small trickle of pride when Justin delivered that news. Justin then explained he was promoted to head scientist of the facility. Finally he mentioned Aster. She was stable and her oxygen was slowly increasing. Justin selected three assistants in helping to regrow the floral hair Aster has so she didn’t have to live off of a machine.

The second day Justin only had updates on Aster and her stability which was improving. Her hair stems were healing just fine.

The third day is when Justin brought news.

“We might have found an actual cure,” Justin explains as he pours another cup of coffee. He had already been in the room for 30 minutes talking about Aster.

“Genuinely found a cure?” Zheng questioned, not having touched his coffee.

“We begin running tests tomorrow once the new Floramon pack that hunters caught arrives,” Justin explains.

“Seems very sudden that you found a cure,” Zheng counters.

“I don’t blame you for being suspicious,” Justin sighs, “a lot has changed in the last three days. While my assistants and I were focused on treating Aster, I had another handful of scientists go through all the research and data collected by Akir over the four months that Aster has been here.” Justin pauses to take a sip of his coffee. The dark bags under his eyes were telling he had barely slept the last three days.

“They found data that had positively impacted removing the parasite,” Justin pauses, “it’s from Aster’s blood.”

Zheng freezes.

“Apparently, the human white blood cells still in ASter’s body have mutated with the parasite becoming a stronger version of itself,” Justin explains cautiously, “it’s potentially why Aster still looks very human and the parasite has affected her the way it has.”

“So,” Zheng stops himself to think and Justin patiently waits, “what does that mean for Aster?”

Justin takes a deep breath, “as of right now, our focus is to have Aster fully heal. Once that happens and based on how the samples we already have affect the other Floramons we will need to have Aster’s consent to take her blood.”

“How much blood?” Zheng knows Justin is hiding the catch.

“Possibly all of it,” Justin quietly responds.

Zheng immediately stands, grabbing his chair and throwing it against the wall. He couldn’t be angry with Justin, but there has to be another way.

“We still don’t know if this is the cure,” Justin calmly tells him, “however… if it is. Then you will be let go and charges will be dropped as I will tell them you found out that he had hid the cure from the world.”

Zheng doesn’t respond. Justin stands up and heads to the door.

“Why does it have to be all of her blood?” Zheng asks.

Justin doesn’t look back or let his hand off the door, “they want us to do it nations at a time. Once a nation is cleared the borders will shut. The faster we eliminate the threat the safer everyone can be. That is what I was informed.”

When Zheng doesn’t comment back Justin leaves the room.

It took a whole week before Justin was back in Zheng’s room.

“She has fully recovered,” Justin informs him, standing next to the door, meaning this visit isn’t going to be long.

Relief washed over Zheng but stills.

“I don’t get to see her do I?” Zheng questions.

Justin continues, ignoring his question, “the samples we had of her blood were a success as well.” Zheng’s stomach dropped. “Your charges will be dropped tomorrow. That is all.” Justin turns to leave. Zheng zips forward grabbing Justin’s arm.

“What about Aster?” Zheng asks, desperation in his voice. That couldn’t be the last time he saw her. Almost two weeks ago and on death’s bed.

Justin looked at him, sadness over his face and whispered, “don’t worry. I have it all set up. Just wait until tomorrow, please. I can’t tell you anymore or they will replace me.”

Zheng lets Justin go and nods. He turns away before the door closes, leaving him alone in the room once more.

Zheng was released the next day. But instead of being tossed out of the facility he instead was brought into a different room. It was a dome and the sunlight beat down from the glass roof, he didn’t remember the room being like this. Maybe it was one of Justin’s changes.

The entire room looked like a giant overgrown greenhouse, The floor was entirely grass, different types of trees spread throughout, flowers colored the space.

“Isn’t it great?” An all too familiar voice startles Zheng.

He turns around to find Aster, standing there.

“Aster,” Zheng smiles.

“Justin wanted Floramons to feel safe here while they were being treated,” Aster explains.

“How can you-” Zheng is cut off.

“I’m part plant,” Aster reminds him, “Everything here feels so alive and peaceful.”

The two stand in silence for a moment.

“Zheng,” Aster cuts the silence. The tone in her voice alarms Zheng, “I made the decision.”

Zheng tries to take a step closer to Aster but she holds her hand up.

“Don’t change my mind,” she sadly tells him, “it was hard enough to decide.”

She walks past him towards one of the trees, she rests her hand on the trunk and turns back to Zheng who watches.

“I can’t be selfish and save myself,” Aster tells him, “that’s not who I am.”

“After all they have done to you,” Zheng starts, “you deserve to be selfish. Even if it means not saving everyone.”

“I know,” Aster sighs, “I should pick myself. But I couldn’t live with that. I couldn’t live the rest of my life knowing I left everyone else to suffer.”

Zheng’s heartaches. An ache he has never felt before. He can’t change her mind. No matter how desperately he wants to.

“I had this whole story plotted out in my head,” Aster sadly laughs, “that they would find a cure. Cure me and everyone else. That I could leave hand-in-hand with you. We could have what could be a happily-ever-after.”

“You still could,” Zheng tells her.

“But that means leaving everyone else to suffer, Zheng,” Aster responds slightly annoyed, “I’ve already made up my mind.”

“I’m sorry,” Zheng looks down, realizing he’s standing in a small area of Aster flowers.

“You have me today,” Aster tells him, leaving the tree and walking towards him, “tomorrow I will go under and they will begin whatever they need to do.”

Zheng stands next to Justin, both awaiting Aster to enter the room. She walks in, wearing human clothes, a white flowing dress.

“She will be human in the end and have no clothes on,” Justin explained earlier, “felt a little more dignified to not let her die like that.”

Whatever the reasoning, Aster looks like the goddess of Floramons if one existed.

Justin and Zheng approach Aster.

“Are you ready?” Justin asks. Aster nods. Zheng holds out his hand and Aster takes it. Justin leads the two to the incubator. A foam like backside for the branches in her back to not cause discomfort as she lays down.

Zheng helps her into the incubator. Aster looks around at all the equipment.

“Nervous?” Zheng asks.

“A little,” Aster nervously laughs, “but it’s okay. I want this.”

“Justin says you’ll be moved around to different regions,” Zheng changes the subject to distract her as she lays down. A few assistants come and behind hooking her up to machines.

“You will have traveled the whole world before me,” Zheng smiles down at her.

“Want to race?” Aster jokes causing them both to laugh, but it doesn’t conceal the tears in Zheng’s eyes. The selfish desire to kidnap her right now and keep her safe.

“Zheng,” Aster calls. He raises his eyebrows, listening.g “Can you promise me something?” She fiddles with her necklace and her eyes directed to right above her despite knowing Zheng is to her right.

“Anything,” he whispers slowly, not to break his stance.

“Will you tell them about me?” Aster quietly asks.

“I’ll tell the whole world,” Zheng smiles.

“The whole world might be a little excessive,” Aster laughs.

“I don’t care,” Zheng laughs with her, “everyone deserves to know you.” Aster tries to hide a sad smile.

“Officer Zheng,” Justin calls, “we’re ready.”

“Here we go,” Aster whispers.

“Change the world, my flower,” Zheng blinks, letting the tears stain his cheeks.

He steps away.

“Zheng?” Aster calls out.

“Yes?” Zheng’s voice cracks.

“I love you,” she says.

“I,” Zheng chokes, “I love you too.”

The lid to Aster’s incubator closes. Zheng makes his way into the second floor room where Justin stands in front of a large monitor, each side with vitals and scientific data, but in the center is a live camera of Aster in the incubator. She’s closed her eyes, tears staining her cheeks as well.

Justin holds down a small green button on the dashboard in front of him and speaks into a small microphone next to it.

“You aren’t going to feel a thing, Aster,” Justin tells her. Justin lets go of the button and turns to the rest of the assistants and scientists in the room. He points his finger up and makes a circular motion to signal everyone to begin the process.

The machines start up and Zheng watches as Aster is put to sleep and blood slowly is pumped out of her body. Other nutrients go in, other machines monitor her heart, blood level, co2, and oxygen levels.

The process only took minutes, and that was it for Aster. She will never wake up again. Zheng’s eyes never left the screen watching her face into a peaceful sleep. She will never experience pain again.

“Officer Zheng,” Justin calls out to him. He turns towards the scientist.

“I would like to discuss your new duties regarding Aster,” Justin motions for him to follow him out of the room.

“It took a great deal of convincing the government and other elected officials of the other governments to do this. So you better be grateful,” Justin scolds him, “but you are the only non-scientist approved to be traveling with my team and I to ensure Aster’s safety and well-being as we go to each nation as we spread the cure.”

Zheng nods, understanding his new assignment. Justin turns and walks away.

“Thank you,” Zheng calls out after him.

9 YEARS LATER

It took 9 years for the cure to finally make it all the way to the last nation. There were only a handful of Floramons left to cure.

Zheng spent every day by Aster’s side. The times he spent away were sleeping and talking to the cured Floramon’s about how they were saved- per Aster’s request. He did not regret a moment of it. He spent most of his days reading books allowed to Aster or explaining to her the new cultures he was learning.

A shake wakes Zheng up. He finds Justin standing over him.

“It’s time,” he whispers. Without second thought Zheng sits up and pulls on his boots and follows Justin out of the room.

Zheng had been warned it would be any day now that the last of Aster’s blood would be removed from her body. Justin guides them to a new room.

Aster’s body is no longer in the incubator and instead lays peacefully on a table. He slowly approaches her. With the parasite slowly forced to die, Aster’s body was slowly returning to its human state, but there are still lingerings of the parasite. The flowers that grew from her head remain there, but are wilted, and tangle in with red curly hair. Her skin is pale, but still a hint of green. Now you could see the freckles that kissed every inch of her body.

“Once you hear the buzzer you can remove all the equipment from her body,” Justin explains. He turns and motions to someone in the secondary level room.

Zheng takes a step back when he hears all the machines turn from pause to on. He watches as the machines pump the last of the dark tainted blood from Aster’s body. His heart falls to his stomach, and tears well in his eyes.

It only takes moments, but the buzzer goes off. He scrambles to Aster’s body and he places his ear to her chest, her heart beat stops. Nothing left to pump, and so death tolls her body.

Zheng raises his head and slowly pulls out every medical device attached to her body carefully so it could not damage it anymore.

He carefully picks her up and all the flowers fall from her head, proving the parasite truly gone. Her skin paled entirely with the last drop of blood being removed. She is human now. Human, but no longer breathing or alive. Zheng slowly sits on the ground with her in his arms.

“You did it,” Zheng’s voice cracks as tears streak down his cheeks, “it took nine years, but you did it. You saved a lot of people.” Zheng’s lips quiver. What else could he say to her? All the words are scrambled in his head. Instead he just admires her while he can. Before they cremate her body for safety concerns.

His fingers run down her arms and he notices all the scars and burn marks from the lab testing. It had tainted her skin, but she held out. She bravely faced everything they did to her. She would be written into history books. She would be known for the end of the Floramons parasite. She is a hero. A hero to everyone, but they wouldn’t understand the heartbreak it caused. The selfish needs Zheng wanted to have, to keep all to himself. No. They wouldn’t understand, and that’s okay. It’s a pain only Zheng would need to carry.

Zheng caresses her face, and a bittersweet smile clings to his lips. He pulls Aster closer to him, as close as he possibly can, and holds her. All he wants is just a little bit longer.

#my writing #dystopian #post apocalyptic #romance #commission #creative writing

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