Wooyoung was removed from his tank every night after the aquarium closed to the public, giving him hardly any time with San when the human first came on to start his shift.

But he was always the first place San stopped on his rounds. One night San explained exactly what his job was by having everything written down on a piece of paper and holding it up to the glass for Wooyoung to read. He had also explained how he was planning on using this to get Wooyoung out.

That fueled the spark of hope in Wooyoung that he needed to comply with the scientists, as he learned they were called, and letting them run their tests.

It was hard for hm to communicate with San, though, since he was only able to write out a few things in the sand. Even if he were willing to talk, San wouldn't be able to hear him anyway.

San did his best to also ask just yes and no questions that Wooyoung could either understand by reading his lips or hand signals, or that he would type out on his phone or write down.

Things were far from perfect, but the best part of Wooyoung's day were the few minutes he'd get with San at the beginning and end of San's shift.

Jongho also came to visit him often during the day, but they couldn't interact as much since there were other humans all around them. It was still a comfort to see a familiar face though, and Wooyoung had to admit that he did enjoy the way the children's eyes would light up whenever he swam by the glass to show Jongho that he was still ok.

If there was anything that kept him going through the day, it was the kids.

They always got so excited to see him and would looked at him with big, round, mystified eyes.

On days where he was feeling up to it, he would swim just to entertain them. They didn't understand the concept that he was a prisoner, nor did they do anything wrong.

But there were times that, if the night before was hard on him, Wooyoung would spend more time on his rock either sitting or laying down.

As much as he wanted to, he couldn't hide. There were always divers in the tank with him to make sure that he behaved properly. They were there to document things too, like when he would interact with the fish or eat. But more than anything they were a nuisance.

His worst days were when the man came back. He always came up to the glass and stared at him with predatory eyes that creeped him out. It took a few days, but Wooyoung was finally able to point him out to Jongho so he was aware of what was going on.

Unfortunately there wasn't a lot they could do about it, not right now at least.

It had all turned into a waiting game.

The worst night for Wooyoung came after he'd been there for a couple of weeks.

He had been nestled into the sand and leaning into the glass, waiting for San to come, when the claw plunged into the water.

The merman immediately pushed off the ground and swam for the rocks. Fish scattered around him, trying to get away from the strange object.

He dove for a natural opening beneath one of the boulders and squirmed his way inside. He hated the damn thing and his natural instinct was to run, even though deep down he knew there was no point.

The claw snaked back and forth in front of him, then dove into the sand to send it flying everywhere. It clouded Wooyoung's vision, making it so that he couldn't see the claw burrowing toward him until it was too late.

It grabbed him by his tail and dragged him from under the rock and toward the surface.

Right as San walked into the room.

Wooyoung reached for him, crying out when the tail jerked him back and forth for a second. The last thing he saw was San pressed against the glass before he was pulled out of the water.

"You'd think It would learn to stop fighting it by now." The head scientist said with a shake of his head.

Wooyoung whimpered as he hung there.

"Get It over here, let's get started." Another man said. He and two others reached out for Wooyoung with long poles with hooks on them that they used to bring him over to the platform. Once he was released from the claw, they lifted him onto a cart and wheeled him down the now familiar halls.

If it weren't for the fact that he was a prisoner here, Wooyoung would probably admire what the humans were doing here. He had witnessed on stitching up a seal that had been injured by a shark and there was talk about starting a breeding program for some rare fish they had managed to acquire that they would then work on reintroducing to the wild.

It was easy to see that the humans here cared about sea life. But it just made him wish they showed him the same level of care...

The humans took him into a new room that night and he was placed in a shallow pool. There was barely enough water to cover his tail, which flopped uselessly in his irritation.

Wooyoung brushed his wet bangs away from his forehead and slowly used his hands to lift water up and let it run over his skin to keep it wet.

"Alright, tonight we get into the bigger scans. Our new benefactor wants to know everything. It's crucial we find the answers he's looking for and he doesn't want us to hold back. We can't fail." The older scientist said.

He looked almost stressed, something that Wooyoung wasn't anticipating. It made him wonder just what the man who watched him wanted, because he guessed that's who the scientist was talking about.

Unfortunately, he found out quickly when on man came up behind him and grabbed his arms. The man held them behind his back and used his strength to keep Wooyoung from squirming too much while woman walked up with something metal in her hands.

"Stop struggling and this will be less painful." She warned.

Wooyoung glared at her and debated hissing just to see what she would do, but he figured staying silent would be best.

And he did, until a scream was forced out of him when the woman ripped one of his scales away from his body. She struggled with it too, prolonging the pain. Merfolk scales weren't made to come away easily, so she had to pull several times and twist it before she could pull it free.

Wooyoung did his best to stop her, but the way the man was holding him made it so that he didn't have a lot of leverage to get the momentum to pull his tail away.

Once she had her scale, the man let go of him and Wooyoung bent forward to inspect the new hole in his tail. Blood seeped from it, which was also collected into little vials.

He had half a mind to try and destroy everything in this room, but he knew that would be a bad idea. They had no idea that he had magical properties and if Wooyoung was being honest, he didn't know just how much he had access to with how long he had been away from his kind and his home. The magic tended to fade the longer a merman or mermaid was away from the rest of their pod, something about losing the connection was what Mingi had told him.

At the thought of his friend, Wooyoung closed his eyes and curled his tail around as if he were bending his knees when human. How long had it been since he was taken? Since he was unable to see outside, Wooyoung had lost all sense of time, especially during the traveling period between when he was first taken and here.

When he opened his eyes again, they fell on the wrist that he had been ready to decorate with the beautiful bracelet waiting for him. It suddenly looked and felt so empty.

Try as he might he couldn't stop the tears that came to his eyes. They fell silently with little 'plips' into the water while the humans busied themselves with analyzing his scale and blood, leaving him completely ignored.

Hours passed like this, and they were unfortunately filled with them taking six more scales.

The merman put up a fight with each one, but his strength was waning. It took too much of a toll on his body losing pieces of himself like this.

"Interesting. Look at this." One of the scientists said. Wooyoung glanced over at where the humans had gathered and felt his stomach flip a little. "I ground up just a little bit of one of It's scales and mixed it with some blood." He said. In his hands was a small, clear container with a glowing mixture in it.

It was magic mixed with magic, it was only natural for them to react to each other and this was a common base to a lot of potions that Wooyoung had learned. He knew exactly what to mix with that now to make a health cure, glue, or even something to kill plants.

And now the humans had gained their first glimpse into the secrets of his world...

The head scientist looked at him and smirked. "Excellent. Begin experiments with what we have. It's looking rather grim right now so we should give it some time to recover. Plus I want to see if It will grow back the scales or not, so use what you have sparingly and document everything. A full report is needed by the end of the week and I have to had over everything we have."

"Yes, Sir." Everyone else answered.

"Take it away."

Wooyoung was unceremoniously hauled out of the pool and taken back to the tank where they dropped him in the water.

He glanced up up at the surface for only a moment before turning to swim to the bottom of the tank. Every time he flicked his tail pain shot through it and a little bit of blood trickled out of all seven holes. Thankfully he was on good enough terms with the sharks in this tank that he knew they wouldn't attack him, plus they were fed enough that there was no reason for them to frenzy.

When he settled on his rock, a moray eel swam over and touched its nose to his tail before looking at him. Wooyoung held out a hand for it to nuzzle into and offered a small smile. He told the kind creature that he was ok and asked it not to worry, to which the eel gently slapped his arm with its tail.

Wooyoung giggled and sighed. The eel was right. He wasn't ok, and he wasn't going to be for as long as he was trapped here.

Several of the other creatures in the tank came to check on him as well. A few small crabs crawled up his tail carrying algae that they gently placed over the gaps in his tail to protect them. They clicked their claws when he thanked them before returning to the tank floor.

It was moments like this that helped him be a little grateful to be in a place similar to his home. He was still in touch with the ocean here, in a way, and it helped to settle his weary heart.

One of the zebra sharks even came by to brush against him and circle him a few times as a way to observe him before swimming away.

Wooyoung was so caught up in the sea creatures around him, all offering their condolences and passing on their worry, that he didn't see San come up to the glass and bring a shaking hand to his eyes before he laid down with his back to the glass to try and recover before having to continue on with his life behind glass.