Ocean's Descent ||| Woosan (Ateez)

23

To say that Wooyoung was merely beautiful was an understatement as he sat on the rock and interacted with all the sea creatures in the tank. He was... stunning, enchanting, magnificent, ethereal... and San couldn't take his eyes off the merman.

He wasn't even upset when Wooyoung didn't see him standing there before curling up to go to sleep. San felt like it was a privilege for him to even just witness the sight before him.

But when all the fish dispersed or started to slowly circle around the merman, the spell was broken.

San was stuck.

He was no closer to freeing Wooyoung and the merman had been trapped there for a couple of weeks now. The new security system Mr. Choi had installed was so advanced, San hadn't been able to find any way through it. The thing logged each and every time a door opened, and in the computer, if he clicked on that time, a screen would be pulled up that showed every single camera angle in the aquarium and parking lot.

The locks also required several passcodes, finger prints, and a retinal scan.

There was also an internal system that logged when every employee and scientist was supposed to be on the premise, so if San were to show up in the middle of the day he would be flagged and have to file a report as to why he was there.

Jongho didn't have any ideas either. He was constantly running systems checks since he had been promoted to head of day security to see if he found anything different than from at night when San ran his checks.

The only place in the building that wasn't on camera was the bathrooms, so both of them would slip in there to send texts to each other with what little information they could find. Which wasn't much.

One day Jongho had found an encrypted file talking about an new source of income for the aquarium and that the research on the mermaid was their top priority.

That was where the trail ended. All data on Wooyoung must be stored elsewhere that only the scientists had access to.

San had made that his main goal. He needed to get in and see what their plans were. It killed him to see Wooyoung in pain, especially tonight. Whatever the scientists had done... it was so much worse tonight than any other night.

Tomorrow was his day off, so San was planning on coming back during the day as a visitor to see if he could pick up on anything different. Jongho had mentioned seeing the same man visiting almost every day during the week.

When his shift was over, San got into Yeosang's car and let out a long, pained sigh.

"Still nothing?" Yeosang asked, as he did every morning.

"No... but we need to hurry. They are taking some of his scales." San pinched the bridge of his nose.

"What?" Yeosang's eyes widened and he gripped the steering wheel so hard that his knuckles turned white. "Those heartless assholes."

"Yeah. Sangie, what are we supposed to do? I... I don't even know if he can-" San started waving his hands back and forth over his legs while making disgruntled sounds at the back of his throat.

"Have legs again?"

"Yeah." The younger slouched down in his seat. "And I can't even really ask him about it... I get less and less time with him every night."

Yeosang pulled away from the aquarium and tapped the wheel in front of him. "You really love him, don't you?"

"Is that crazy?" San whispered. He stared out the window and let his vision go hazy.

"Love is always crazy. But I do think you need to consider the fact that-"

"This isn't his world? Trust me, I have... I don't know what to do."