You could have told me that you wanted to die

"I'm sorry I didn't ask you, brother." Clar smiled at him, "don't worry, you won't feel lonely here. I will be here to check on you every day, okay?"

Lyre blinked but nodded.

"This is your room." Clar's mom opened the door with a smile on her face.

Lyre stood, shocked as he watched the mother. He was trying to understand why she was still smiling after catching him in her son's room.

This wasn't how his mom would have reacted.

If his mom was the one who found him with a boy who was not one of his brothers, she would have long whipped him with the purple cane.

"Come on, let's check your room out!" Clar tugged him towards the room.

Lyre didn't protest as he followed them in. He figured there was no way for him to escape.

"Wow." Clar peered around the room the mother hurriedly prepared for him, while Lyre stood at the threshold, and glanced around the room.

The mixture of colours in the room awed him. It was so unlike the one he saw in the room with that handsome boy.

And just thinking of the handsome boy, made him shiver.

"I know this isn't much, but please manage it, okay?"

The mother, who has mistaken his silence for displeasure, apologized.

"Brother, don't you like the room?" Clar frowned.

Lyre furiously shook his head when he finally understood their questions.

"Superb! I will go shopping with you tomorrow, to choose the clothes you will wear. For now, make do with Rain's old clothes."

At the mention of Rain, Lyre's heart skipped a bit.

He swallowed.

"Let's leave him to get accustomed to the room." Clar's mother took her hand in hers. "Let's go."

"No, mother. I want to stay with brother!" Clar protested.

"No will do, Clar. You need to leave your brother, so he can get accustomed to his room. You can visit him later, okay?"

"Okay!"

Clar removed her hand from her mother's, who was still standing where he was. He hasn't moved a bit since he came into the room.

"Don't miss me too much, brother." She tightly hugged him. "I will be here to bring you down for dinner." She hugged him once more before she took her mom's hand and led her out of the room.

"If there's anything here that you don't like, kindly let me know. I will change it all to your liking."

She said before she gently closed the door behind her.

Lyre stood in the same place he was standing, without taking a step forward.

He glanced around the room as he wondered if this was another prison.

Despite the beauty of the room, he couldn't help but think it was all a facade.

Maybe the family is only pretending to get him to let his guard down before they strike.

Lyre's eyes landed on the window, and he hastened towards it.

He didn't have enough time to plan. All he knows was he needed to get out of this house.

He glanced down from the storey building.

The distance from the window to the ground wasn't that much, so he decided to jump from there.

If this was his kingdom, water would have been outside his window. If you flop down from the window, you will fall into the water.

But here, it wasn't the same.

The floor was tiled, and that made things seem difficult for the merman.

He swallowed as he got ready to fall from the window, not knowing he was likely to either break all his bones or die.

"You could have told me you wanted to die. I would have helped give you a painless death." Rain leaned on the door of Lyre's room, with his eyebrows raised at Lyre.

Startled, Lyre almost fell to the floor, had it not been for Rain who stopped the fall.

"Steady there before you hurt those pretty legs of yours." Rain said as he carried Lyre to the bed, and deposited him on it, with so much care, it was as if Lyre was a doll.

Lyre's heart was beating so fast, he didn't register a thing until he was laid on the bed.

He instantly sat up on the bed and hugged his knees to himself as he tried to become smaller.

Rain sat on the bed and watched him, with an amused expression on his face.

"You are cute but odd." Rain added as he studied the strange human his parents came back with.

"Mom said you are mute. Is that true?" He asked once more, hoping to get anything but fear from the human.

Lyre didn't say a word as he watched Rain. His heart was beating miles a minute, and it seemed as if the organ was about to leap out of his chest.

He was sweating at the thought of what will happen to him now that they have found out he wanted to escape.

Will they flog him until his bones snap? Or will they cut his tail, like his mother always threatened to do whenever he angered her?

"Don't worry, I won't tell mom about this if you don't do it again.

Before you do something like that, think of their feelings, okay?"

Lyre blinked in surprise when he heard Rain's words.

It shocked him that the human was willing to keep what had happened a secret.

Yet, he was afraid there was more to this than the human let on.

"Anyway, I'm Rain." Rain smiled at Lyre as he brought his hand for a shake.

However, instead of getting a shake, he got a long look from Lyre, who was looking at his hands, oddly.

"You don't like touching others? Oh, I see." Rain disappointedly brought his hand down when he figured out he wasn't getting a handshake.

He was jealous that the only person Lyre allows to touch him is Clar.

And for the first time since he grew, Rain became jealous of another.

"Well, if you want someone to talk to, I'm here. You don't have to be afraid of me. I won't hurt you." He smiled, thinking it will ease the frightened Merman, but it did the opposite.