I swam far away from home with my best friend Chan, a small golden fish who fetch me from my house so that we can play in the sea garden full of different colors and shapes of sea flowers and beautiful corals.
"Catch me Chan!" I giggled as I swam far away from him.
"Wait for me Areum!" he called, his eyes were wide trying to swim after me.
Beautiful mermaids clapped their hands while colorful fishes flapped their fins cheering and laughing with us. They loved to watch us play especially when Chan cannot catch me because he's the slowest swimmer in the whole kingdom.
We were busy playing, Chan and other fishes surrounded me, dancing while I sing until I heard one of the mermaids screamed, making everyone scattered.
"A shark! There's a shark!" she shouted, swimming in the opposite direction and hiding herself in the huge sea rock.
I saw a shadow of a large fish, perhaps a shark approaching us.
Chan's eyes widened when a big shark came to our view, his mouth wide-opened and the razor sharp and triangular shaped-teeth ready to kill and eat his prey. Then he spotted Chan.
"Swim Chan! Swim faster!" I shouted.
"Areum!" He closed his eyes and started swimming away from the shark but because he's as slow as snail, the shark was now an inch away from him.
I wasted no time and swam towards them as fast as I can. And when the shark was about to eat him alive, I grabbed Chan and kicked the predator's face using my golden tail making him wobble, his eyes rolled from dizziness.
And before he could turn to see who did it to him, I swam towards the huge rock and hide, my head slightly peaked to see where he was going. Chan is still in my hold, I can feel his body trembling from fear.
"Areum," he whispered. "Thank you for saving me." a tear escaped from his eye and a pearl fell down.
"Don't cry Chan or you will scatter pearls." I smiled, caressing his face. "You're welcome."
I don't know but Chan has the ability to turn his tear into a pearl. He's the only fish in the ocean that has a power like that so when I see pearls, I know he cried.
I watch as the shark swam away from the sea garden. The mermaids and fishes who were hiding from different places suddenly appeared, and I sighed in relief as I see none of them were injured.
We continued playing and didn't realize that it was already dark when we stopped, and it was time to go home. Chan's face was nervous. Mother always scolded him every time we're late in going home.
"Areum let's go! We're in trouble again!" he said, leading the way home.
While on our way home, we saw a big white thing floating in the sea. Out of curiosity, I swam towards that thing and stopped 10 meters away from it, I turned to see Chan swimming closer.
" Areum let's go! Your mom will scold me again for sure." his face frowned but his eyes widened when he saw the big white thing floating in the sea.
"What is that thing called?" I asked him, my eyes not taking away from it.
"It's a yacht Areum!" he said smiling. "But it's not the perfect time to check on that, we have to go home now! Let's go!" he said, swimming away from me but I didn't pay attention on him as I swim closer to the yacht.
"Areum!" I heard him shouted.
When I was just a meter away from the yacht , I swam upwards and there I saw the full view of the beautiful yacht with a name written on its body. Jay. Is that the name of the owner of the yacht?
"Areum, let's go!" Chan was panting, his tongue was dangling from his mouth.
I let out a small laugh. He was the only fish who gets tired in swimming. Is he really a fish? And I laugh harder.
"What are you laughing at?" he said glaring at me.
"Nothing Chan, nothing."
When I turned to look at the yacht, I saw a man on the upper deck holding a bottle. He was punching the rails and it looked like he was crying because I saw glimpse of a tear sparkled on his face. Is he angry with the rails? Why is he punching it?
I felt sad and admiration when my eyes glanced at his face. He is very handsome like a prince. I have never seen a man as gorgeous as he is in our world under water. My heart beat suddenly raced. What is this? What am I feeling?
"Don't you dare Areum!" Chan yelled, his golden face turned red.
"What are you talking about?" I said, clueless of what he was saying.
"Don't you dare fall in love with a human!"
"Of course not--"
I can feel your heart beat, don't try to deny it." he said locking his eyes with mine."It's a mortal sin Areum."
I looked down, fiddling my hands with my tail. Is this love? How can I stop myself from falling in love with him?
"Let's go Areum," I heard Chan called.
I was about to swim away and follow him when suddenly I felt something hard hit my head. "Ouch!" I screamed in pain.
"What was that?" Chan turned on me, a bottle was floating beside me. I recognized it as the bottle that the man was holding a while ago. Without thinking twice, I picked up the bottle and threw it back on him. And it hit his head bull's eye!
I saw the man's eyes widened, his hand on his head. He then held onto the railings and looked down over the sea. He roamed his eyes and when his eyes passed by our spot, we sank our head down a little so that he can't see us.
When the man saw nothing, he stepped backwards and slowly turned his heels before he ran fast inside his cabin. We can even hear his loud and scared scream making I and Chan laugh hard as we swam away back home.
