HOBI POV:

My body feels like lead as I step out the car, distantly realising that the other car's parked on the right; nearest to the doorway. I drag my body towards the door, every muscle sore, protesting with the constant motions I kept pushing it through for the past few days.

And yet no matter how much I danced I couldn't figure out how (Y/N) had been doing the same to her body for centuries. How she'd been tirelessly dancing and constantly pushing herself for one more dance. No matter how much of the music I waded through, my body turned and curved because of I couldn't figure... couldn't decide or pinpoint which ones were songs essential to her. 

I tried to dance to figure out more. I danced to try and learn more, to try and connect with her, to reach towards her soul, timeless and mortal all at once, towards that dancer that had always remained; simultaneously in the spotlight and the shadows behind the curtain fall. And yet... yet I couldn't reach out to her, couldn't cross the barriers that lifetimes posed. Not without her at least.

It took days of trying to place myself in her mindset, to dance to the same songs that she had, dances that had left their traces in history, and was failing. And it took days of her glaring absence to realise that to understand her I didn't need to be in her mind. I just needed to be there for her... with her. Her long lifetime didn't define her... didn't define our time together. It defined the time she'd past and the obstacles she'd had to overcome to get here. It made me realise that uncrossable barrier we'd felt; in her selective mutism, in the way she'd been so apprehensive to initiate contact, flinching back from warmth and genuineness was because to her it could all fade. It could all melt.

Because sirens, as Joon had told us, were figures of allure.

And so to (Y/N) she was waiting for the inevitable she presumed would slot into place.

That we'd either have fallen for her because of her allure; drunk on need for her. Or time would cause our paths to diverge.

And it's a sinking realisation that I hadn't reached out to her these past few days, both thinking that she'd rather we respect that distance that had unconsciously been put between us but also needing the time myself to grapple with it all.

When I step through, the house is alive.

Alive in a way it hadn't been for the past week. The sombreness that had settled has gone now, the air lighter and the ambience something warm and tentatively hopeful. And there's a smaller pair of shoes mingling with the others, crowding around the shoe shelves.

My head rises, eyes searching with hope for  (Y/N), heartbeat accelerating as I step forward, weariness sinking to the back of my head as I peek into the living room.

There's no-one there.

But the hum of lively chatter seeps out of the kitchen, the hyungs, Jimin and Joon flitting about, circling and orbiting each other, smiles curving across their faces, eyes bright.

"Where's (Y/N)?" I ask by way of greeting.

Jimin's cheeks curve up, eyes scrunching as he beams, stops distracting Yoongi hyung, legs locked around his waist, as he turns his head towards me.

"She went up with Tae and Kookie... we thought we'd get a head start on making food." He says at the same time Yoongi hyung scoffs.

Pinching his side lightly.

"And yet you won't let go." He mutters under his breath, lips twitching.

"I'll go see her." I say, stepping away and there's warm knowledge flickering in their eyes, encouraging nods as I hurry and turn away, hastening up the stairs, heart lurching with nervous anticipation, tentative yet eager all at once.

I spot her on the landing, heart lurching as I hurry up, a smile stretched across my face, mouth open to call out for her when everything comes to a crashing halt, smile freezing when a pained cry tears out her throat; raw and agonising. Body jerking forward when her body tilts back as her foot slips off the step. My heart lurches, wild pulse thrumming in my throat as I hurry forward, hand splaying across her back to steady her fall, body bracketing hers as I close the distance.

Anxiousness gnaws at me. Fear making my blood curdle, sickening panic thrumming through my veins as my arms move to steady her, feeling her body shudder, limbs stiffening and back arching as she cries out, agony crackling through the air.

I see Tae hurry forward, eyes wide with alarm, hands around her, steadying her and her name spilling from his lips; stricken and worried.

But then her body sags. Goes limp and I feel the tightness in my chest increase when I see Tae's face crumple, eyes burning with a fierce protectiveness and worry.

"(Y/N)... Hobi hyung..." he says, voice wavering.

There's the sound of footsteps and Kookie's face that appears turns stilted, wide beaming grin sliding off when he spots (Y/N)'s limp figure.

"What happened?" he asks, voice tinged with alarm, pitched in volume and distress, eyes drifting over the three of us hovering close, hand reaching out to help her.

"She just... she just suddenly... I don't know what happened." Tae says, words bleeding with frustration, with pain that he can't do anything, that he wasn't been able to do anything.

"We need to get her to a bed." I say, voice firm, trying to ease away the bubbling tension and worry clogging the air up, body shifting behind hers even as my arms clutch at her protectively, eyes stinging. The first time I saw her after a week and it was like this, face twisted with pain and body writhing from an ache, from an agony that we couldn't even see or soothe.

It made me wonder, made me realise that the last time she'd collapsed from the pain, eyes flickering and trying to focus, voice pained and breathing sharp... that that incident and this were connected. That this was something to do with the pain she'd harboured for centuries. Unconsciously I knew that this was something to do with her being a siren, a pain that was chronic and one she'd had no choice but to endure all this time.

And Tae only moves back because Kookie anxiously tugs at him, careful as he takes her from me, scooping her close, eyes pained but hands both gentle and protectively cradling her, her unresponsive body settled against his chest as he carefully walks to the closest room.

The buzzing doesn't stop. A distant sound that cuts through the silence as Kookie lowers her down onto the bed, hands gently unfurling from around her. The vibrations; a low thrum of noise making my anxiousness mount, adding to the sound of my heartbeat thundering in my ears.

Tae's body bends over, hand careful as he tugs her phone out her pocket, intending to shut it when his hand tightens and his posture locks; uncertainty in it.

Habaek's name flashes up over and over.

And I don't think about it before I pluck the phone from his grasp; limp for all that it'd tightened.

Answering it.

His own voice is punctuated with shuddered wheezes as he speaks, trembling and shaking.

And I know, with certainty, the knowledge cemented in, that the pain ties into their existences as being sirens.

"(Y/N).... Cherub where are you? Are you okay?"

A lump grows in my throat.

"She's... she's with us." I manage to get out.

"Hoseok. Hoseok is she okay?" he asks, voice breaking off with a painful groan, agony clear in his voice. But it's not only physical... it's the agony of his worry and concern for (Y/N).

"She's not. She's unconscious. Is there.... is there something we can do to help her? To help any of you?" I ask.

There's a small, muffled grunt, rustling and deeper, shakier exhales as he speaks. Trying to breathe through the pain.

"Nothing. You can't do anything to help. Just... if she wants to come back when she's awake then bring her home. But if you can take care of her... if she feels safe... then keep her... then keep her as comfortable as you can. Don't let her feel alone." He says, voice shaking.

If you can take care of her, please do.

If you can promise to be there for her, don't leave.

But only if.

The warning is clear in the trembled words, an ever constant fierce strength and protective love cording through them despite the way his own body physically struggles.

"You and Mi-sun. What about you two?" I ask, not willing to let them endure alone.

This time it's Mi-sun who speaks, voice sharper with her pain, warning and order ringing through.

"Hoseok she needs you. (Y/N) suffers from a stronger call to the Ocean. She hurts more. It's a price she's been paying since..." she trails off, words shaky with pain and fierce love.

Whatever hope and optimism I had plummets now. A heavy aching weight sitting low in my stomach, nausea whirling in my gut.

A stronger calling since she'd made the decision to defy singing and saved us. A stronger calling since she'd tugged Namjoon out of the way and had plummeted into choppy waters herself.

A stronger calling which meant she suffered more, she hurt more because of us.

She was unconscious because the pain was too much to bear.

She was unconscious because she'd decided our lives were worth protecting and sacrificing her own over.

"Hoseok protect her." Mi-sun says.

Voice pleading and imperative all at once. Hardened and rough around the edges.

Protect her in the same way she did to you.

"I will." I promise.

And when the phone cuts and it hangs limply in my hold, my eyes can't tear away from the sight of (Y/N). Limp and lifeless... worryingly so but her face scrunches with pain, brows furrowed as her eyes move, feverishly under shut eyelids.

I sink down on the edge of the bed beside her, thumb gently rubbing and easing away the scrunch, heart aching when a small whimper of pain slips out her throat.

I'll look after you.

I'll be there for you.

I won't leave.

I won't step away.

I'll stay.

--------

The others have panicked, worried expressions when they silently flit over, bodies thrumming with antsy, anxious energy. Silent as they hover close, air suffocatingly thick once more until I whisper.

Voice hoarse as if I've been screaming. Throat aching as if raw.

"We can't do anything to help. I'll stay with her." I promise.

But no-one can bear to tear themselves away.

No-one leaves.

Settling into corners of the room and eyes watching with worry as her body shakes, twisting desperately to seek respite from pain that continues to wrack her body. It's dark when her eyes finally flutter open, skin clammy with a constant sheen of sweat that doesn't fade no matter how carefully I dab it up, replacing cool, damp towels from her heated, almost feverish skin.

And her eyes take time to focus, trying to blink past the fog of pain obscuring her vision, hands trembling as she pushes herself upright slowly, recognition and shame flickering across her face.

"I'm..." she begins voice ragged.

My hand curls around her, steadying her wobble.

"You're safe." I emphasise, watching as her eyes flit nervously across us all, seeming small and lost in the large space and cornered by our bodies dotted around the room.

"What happened?" Jin hyung asks softly, leaning forward from where he's been sitting at the foot of the bed, lips twisted downwards.

Her hands tremble on the covers, but her eyes meet his unflinchingly; no more hiding, no more running.

"It's the ocean's call beginning to settle. It'll get stronger until we can't resist it. Until we have to go to Her." she says.

Her.

She always mentions the ocean as a her. As a living force that can speak and communicate. As if the ocean is beyond just a large force of nature.

"She is." (Y/N) answers, reading the questions on my face, voice too soft, too weak.

"The ocean. She has a voice. She has control. She can make us do things and She holds control over our existence." She reveals easily.

But the agony in them doesn't fade.

"We don't have a choice but to sing. Everything in us submits to Her demand and Her. Our own bodies work against us for Her." she adds, vulnerability but also resignation in her words.

I flinch when I think of how much she must've fought to repel the ocean's call, how much it must've physically torn at her to repel everything her body was compelled to do.

It hurts to think she's suffered so much, so readily for us and we'd been living blissfully and woefully ignorant.

"So last time... last time it was the ocean's call." Jimin concludes, voice soft and eyes agonised.

She nods.

"It'll just get worse. Ease off before it comes back stronger. I should get back... it's not something... it gets ugly." She admits, voice tentative as she straightens further.

My hand gently nudges her back, urging her to lie back.

But her eyes are confused.

Expression genuinely wondering what I was doing.

"Hobi it's ugly. It's not something I want to expose you to. It's a world you guys don't need to—" she begins.

"It's a world that we won't let tear you away from us. Ocean's call or not. You're hurting and we're going to be there for you. Unless you want out. And if it's that... then I'll take you home myself." I promise.

Her eyes drift across the room, searchingly before they settle on me.

"You want to get involved in all the messy, manipulative chaos I'm a part of?"

"Baby we were involved ever since we decided we couldn't do without you. We're here for good." I promise.

Her hand reaches out for my own, palm upwards as she holds it out.

"These hands have taken so many..." she begins.

"Those hands were tied. Those hands were forced to take." Yoongi says, voice hardened with agony for her.

"(Y/N) stop painting yourself as the villain. And for once see what we see. What Habaek and Mi-sun see." Tae says.

"What is it? What is it that you see?" she imploringly asks.

"A victim. Someone caught up in it all. Someone who's living with too much guilt and hate. Someone who doesn't deserve to be consumed in this blame, this anger for living. You deserve happiness (Y/N). You deserve to live and not just exist." Kookie says, voice wavering but every word ringing fiercely strong and true.

Whilst a part of me dithers, tentative whether to tiptoe on eggshells when she looks so frail and consumed with pain... Kookie has no qualms about saying it. Blunt and honest.

Sincere and genuine.

But it's clear what she needs.

A nudge to see what we see. To stop seeing herself from broken, jagged sharded lens. To stop seeing herself with lens that were imbued with darkness and resentment and the curse of her role as a siren.

But that didn't define her.

She was (Y/N) and then a siren.

She wasn't a siren and then (Y/N).

And to us. She was just her. (Y/N).

The girl we fell in love with.

The girl we still hopelessly and wholly loved.

JIN POV:

My heart shatters.

Seeing (Y/N) in pain makes my heart shatter. Because she writhes and trembles through an agony that none of us can lessen in any way.

Because seeing her struggle to do even the normal, small tasks so easily done; hands trembling as she clutched at a dish, sweat beading at her temples, insistent to help in drying after eating, eyes glassy as she breathed heavily, body hunched over and hands trembling clutching at the sofa... it was unbearable.

Because no medicine could treat it. There wasn't a cure for it.

And yet internally... internally her own body was beginning to fight against her, was falling sway under a force she couldn't break herself free from.

No-one can bear the distance of splitting away to separate rooms for sleeping, piling blankets and pillows on the living room floor, curving around her. My body itches and thrashes with the need to do something beyond soaking towels in cold, cold water to try stave the feverish heat her body radiates in her sleep. Because I want to do more than watch as Joon and Jimin gently soothe her when she twists with unrest, eyes flickering under shut eyelids, pained whimpers slipping past her lips.

But we can't.

There's nothing in the world we can do to take away the pain.

And there's nothing I'd trade for in the world when her eyes hazy and disoriented focus enough to curve towards me, imploring request in them as I wind my arms around her and hold her close. She burrows against me, the sound of her inner agony muffled against my throat where her head curves towards, curled small and nestled into my embrace.

"I'm so, so sorry sweetheart. That I can't do a single thing to make this better." I murmur, pressing my lips to her temple, the touch lingering when she leans further into the touch.

I don't expect a response.

But she gives one.

"Don't be. I feel safer." She murmurs, voice laced with grogginess, body cooler now, blanket slipping off her when I carefully draw her up, sitting in the pile of blankets and pillows with her body carefully drawn onto my lap.

"How long do you think you have?" I ask quietly.

The room around us silent. Everyone still sleeping. Hobi and Joon missing from the cluster of bodies.

"Today. I think I have today. It's getting worse." She admits.

Honesty. It was something we all silently and actively agreed on moving forward with, with being open for her, for accepting these truths.

But the acknowledgement that her pain might actually be a lot worse than she's letting on, a strong likelihood in that, makes my throat close up with that sickening feeling of hopelessness.

"Today.... are you still hurting now or is it..." I hedge tentatively.

"I'm breathing aren't I Jinnie?" voice going for light and teasing but the twist to my gut makes me feel physically sick.

"That's not enough. Not if it hurts to." I chide, arms curling tighter around her unconsciously. Wanting nothing more than to protect her and hold her.

She leans against me, drifting in and out, breath light and brushing against my throat, her hand curling to rest on my arm.

"I'll be fine. Once it's over I won't be in pain anymore." She says reassuringly.

But it does little to soothe the anxiety that's been bubbling away for days. Little to put me at ease when I'd seen her legs tremble as she reached for a cup, hand shaking.

It also makes me realise just how finite and infinite her pain is. It'll end but it's also always returning, always coming back. She's been living this way for centuries. She's been enduring this for lifetimes. And no pain and trauma that we'd ever thought it to be could match or compare.

"I wish I could take it away. I'd do it in a heartbeat over and over." Another voice mumbles, voice low and rough, a head coming to rest on her shoulder, pressing a kiss to her neck and hand moving to entangle with hers, knuckles grazing my arm.

Her head turns, a small smile for Tae as he pushes himself off and free of the sheets completely, rumpled curls grazing against her neck.

"The pain. I'd take it all away. I'd take it onto me if I could." He says earnestly, his knuckles pressing tight when she trembles, body going still before it loosens with the deep exhale.

"You wouldn't be able to. Bear it. Even after centuries we've never gotten used to it. I wouldn't wish that on anyone." Voice strangled and brows pinched.

And she slowly straightens. Unfurling from the embrace.

"It's okay... this too will pass one day. I know that more and more now." She says.

Slowly leaning away, her eyes softening when she notices the unconscious way I chase to close that distance, her free hand squeezing my shoulder. The gesture comforting but the strength in it lacking.

And slowly she disentangles the sheets around us, feet unsteady as she stands, Tae's hand wrapping around her calf to steady her, my body tilting forward with alarm before she steadies, the tightness around her eyes giving away how much it's bothering her, how much the pain still prickles at her.

She vanishes for quite some time.

Returning when everyone's made their way to the kitchen, clothes rumpled with sleep and eyes turning from sleepy to sharp when she staggers in, pallor blanched and hand clutching at her stomach, sinking down gratefully at the chair Kookie rushes up to help her into.

She gulps down the glass of water set before her, throat bobbing as she draws large mouthfuls, posture loosening slightly, lips wet and hand steadier when she sets it down.

"It's getting worse." Hobi murmurs, voice a pained low whisper, hushed realisation as he sets breakfast down.

It is.

Worse even as she tries to eat, forcing down a few mouthfuls at fruit before sinking back with a cold glass of water that her fingers latch onto. Trying to stave off the pain, numb it almost with the chill.

But it reaches its breaking point when she moves to get off the chair and her legs buckle, a cry tearing out as Kookie's arm darts out, steadying her.

But her body shakes.

Curling into herself as a sob is ripped from her throat, hands curling into fists against the tiles, back bowed and head falling forward.

And the guttural sound as the world disintegrates around us is rough and hoarse, arms buckling as she tries to keep herself steady.

And between her sobs are two names.

Habaek.

Mi-sun.

Habaek and Mi-sun. Both of them caught in the same situation as her, both of them the only people she can think of through the pain.

"Oppa... need Habaek oppa and unnie. Need..." she shudders, tears streaming down her cheeks, breaths shallow and far too little in between.

She needed the two of them.

And she couldn't resist the call any longer.

----------

Joon's body beside me is antsy and restless, eyes flickering to the back constantly to check on the three of them curved together; exhaustion and pain clear in their expressions, silently chasing comfort in the way they gravitate to each other.

The drive isn't long but it stretches out an eternity. And for once the sight of shimmering waters makes my stomach lurch violently rather than rouse that once familiar feeling of excitement and thrill.

And the three of them stumble out the car, eyes flickering with a glossy sheen and pupils dilating slightly. But there's awareness in them too. Awareness and fear pooling heavily in them as they walk towards the shore.

I want to scream out for her to turn away. Want to tug her back away from the tides that crash onto the shore, a heavy fierce call to them.

My eyes fix onto the jumper she tugs off herself, my own that I'd drawn over her when she'd shivered, body wracked with painful tremors. Set down carefully with unsteady hands that tuck it away from the waters. They draw off their extra layers, shivering and hands lacing together.

Mi-sun and Habaek step naturally to flank her.

On either side of her, hands gripping hers fiercely as they begin walking towards the tides, a sense of sickening foreboding making my heart clench painfully.

Joon's body is stiff and frozen beside me, his warmth lost in the sharp chill that settles in my bones, his usual scent lost in the poisonous tang of salt.

I can't tear my eyes away from the sight of them wading in further, bodies seeming to simultaneously loosen and go taut, the water lapping around them, tugging at them. Trying to draw them in further.

"(Y/N)." Joon's murmur of her name vanishes into the air.

It doesn't carry over.

"(Y/N)...." An agonised plea. Whether that's to plead for her to leave, plead for her to wade back, whether it's just his soul weeping for hers... I don't know. I won't ever know maybe.

But they don't turn. She doesn't hear.

And the waters curl around them, their figures slowly descending into waters, inching up their bodies.

My body jerks forward when it reaches their necks, her head dipping under the surface, her name torn out my throat.

But it's futile.

And she sinks under the waters with them.

Leaving nothing but the ripples and bubbles of air behind as proof.

But they too fade. The water evened out.

And leaving no trace that she'd  ever been there.

Her existence seemingly wiped clean.

And it's a mantra that pulses with every thud of my heart and every moment in my head.

She'll come back. She'll come back. (Y/N) come back to us.

And the dark waters in the distance gleam, predatory and hungry. Swallowing up their veins that pulse red.

Swallowing her up.

And for the first time. I see water. And I'm afraid.

I see it. And don't know what it is I'm looking at any more.

(THERE WE GO! ANOTHER CHAPTER! AND GAHHHH! IT TURNED OUT TO BE JIN AND JOON WHO TOOK THEM TO THE WATERS.... THEM WHO SAW HER FADE AND BE PULLED AWAY. AND IT WAS FOR THIS I WAS ASKING!! THERE WERE SO MANY OPTIONS AND WAYS IT COULD AND WOULD'VE PLAYED OUT FOR EACH OF THE BOYS. FOR JIN IT WAS.... TILL THE LAST MOMENT HIS HEART KEPT SCREAMING IN PROTEST AND JOON... HE JUST FROZE. IS SEEING THE OTHERS AND HOW THEY WOULD'VE RESPONDED SOMETHING YOU'LL LIKE TO SEE IN BONUS CHAPTERS?? LET ME KNOW HOW YOU FOUND IT!! TELL ME ALL YOUR REACTIONS AND THOUGHTS- I CAN'T WAIT! ANGSTY FLUFF TO FOLLOW! TAKE CARE AND STAY SAFE LOVES!)

QUESTION...  TIMESKIPS COMING UP... YAY OR NAY?

Borahae! 💜💜💜

PurpleQueenie <3