4Ch3 – Oh no
Author Notes
We're back up shore and ready for more! :D
May you enjoy~ XD
"I'm telling you!" Chika gestures exasperatedly at her neighbour. "I saw a mermaid! Why won't you believe me?"
She was absolutely pretty and real!
Riko's lips were smiling but her gaze was to the side. "Because... You only have pictures of this mysterious mermaid and in the last 2 weeks that you've been babbling-"
"I'm not babbling."
"-about this mermaid. We... I have not laid eyes on her existence." Riko places her hand over the sketchbook.
Chika pouts, hands across her chest as she taps her feet on her room's flooring impatiently. "I-It's not like I don't want you to see her. It's that...she's not...showing up yet..."
"See-"
"BUT! She left a message! She said yes! To my question! To me asking if she's real-"
"Chika-chan...How about this, when you meet this mermaid again...Take a picture of her." Riko didn't want to put it this way as it would seem like she doubts everything the orangehead has told her - mermaid, reply in the sand and even all those realistic drawings of a beautiful ash-grey haired mystical creature. But she can't keep getting dragged into 2 hour long presentations and whines about searching for Chika's missing mermaid. She had a piano recital coming up, she needed to practice.
Chika was still pouting but Riko stands up and looks at her watch, exactly 2 hours and 5mins into this mermaid discussion again. "I'm always open to hearing you out… But I've got to go back to my piano… Okay?"
The orangehead's shoulder slump. "Yeah…Sorry for taking up so much of your time."
Riko smiles softly, understanding. "I'm here out of my volition."
"And leaving out of your volition too."
Riko giggles. "Yes…Yes, I am. Now if you can spend time sulking, how about spending time finding your underwater soulmate?"
Chika's jaw drops open at that. "Sh-She's not my soulmate!"
Riko closes the door with a final giggle.
"At least…We wouldn't know that yet…" Chika peeks over to her sketchbook, opens it to look at the beautiful mermaid, her eyes softening and her desire to meet this mermaid again is sparked once again.
"I'll find you my soulmate!"
"…"
Chika jumps in her bed, hugs her pillow as she whines embarrassingly in it.
"Mermaid! Muuuu..!"
Chika releases her strength, hands splayed straight above her head. "She's a mermaid…"
Who am I to call her my soulmate…ahhhh…
The Sun rises and the morning comes about whether Chika was feeling embarrassed about thinking a certain mermaid was her soulmate or not.
The orangehead buried under her blankets, only her cowlick showing, groans and stretches underneath for a time before pushing herself up. Coming alive and awake, blinking away sleep as she knew what she wanted to do today – find her mermaid.
Yosh! I'm gonna do this!
Chika shrugs of her blanket clinging to her and gets ready for her weekend adventure – by the beach. She didn't want to look too sloppy, however, when she meets the gorgeous mermaid, so she changes into a collared shirt and denim shorts, checking herself in the mirror, doing her best to ignore that growing flush affirming the fact that she wants to treat meeting the mermaid as a date.
It's just because…just because… Just because I wouldn't want mermaids thinking that we humans dress unglamorously! That's right! Hehehe….heh…
Chika gives herself a random reason to tell herself she didn't go falling in love at first sight with a missing mystical creature and jogs over to where she first met said creature.
The orangehead sighs as she has waited an entire hour by the beach.
"Mer~maid~ Merrrrrmaidddd!" Chika calls over and over into the ocean. The ocean stared back.
Chika pouts as she kicks at the sand.
"Why won't you come back..?" Chika stared sadly at her feet digging into the sand absentmindedly. At the sand that once had her question written on it and the mermaid's answer written on it.
Can I only rely on chance and waiting..?
.
.
.
The morning passed and Chika was munching on her homemade bento with mikan sides as she stared back at the ocean again, using the power of imagination to project the mermaid she remembers in the waters, by the rock.
"What do you eat?" Chika asks in between bites. "Mikan? They are really sweet. I wonder what underwater mikan taste like…"
Chika swallows. And opens her water bottle to hydrate herself. "Do you drink water? Ocean water? Guess you don't have juice..? I mean…I wonder how that works…"
Chika gulps a lot of water. Being under the sun for an extended period is kind of dangerous. But she learnt to put on her sunblock and even brought a hat and a paper fan…so she believes she'll be fine.
"Would you like to eat with me..?" Chika asks the mermaid but when she blinks, her imagination fades and she staring back at the clear ocean again.
Chika groans and falls back on the sand, not minding the sand getting all over her body and hair. "I want to meet you again, mermaid! Why won't you appear!"
…
Uu…
"It's hot." Chika gets up to run back to her inn, she needed a water refill. And she could wash up the bento at the same time.
.
.
.
Back by the ocean now, Chika props a portable chair snugly in the hot sand and pulls out her sketchbook. She taps her pencil to her chin, considering how she wants to draw the mermaid next.
Hmm…
The orangehead puts pencil to paper and starts her drawing.
"…I guess a little bit more like this…" Chika fixes the curve of the mermaid's cheek to be more rounded, having the ash-grey curls sit perfectly on the mermaid's head, accentuating the uncanny perfection of hair that just came out of water.
"Oh…" Chika adds droplets of water dripping off the mermaid. Andalso the mermaid had her hand cupping her soft cheeks. "How is she floating on the water like that…and just staring at me so cutely…"
Mermaid logic.
Chika decides as she had the mermaids tail swish out the ocean from the back. Chika wasn't very good at drawing background, so her mermaid #59 sat in a roughly drawn ocean – meaning…just curvy lines. But she got praises from her sisters that her human drawing was really good, so she smiles proudly at her handiwork.
Humans…
Chika chuckles to herself.
She's a mermaid.
Chika darkens the lines and looks back to the ocean where she was projecting her mermaid sketch but double-takes when she saw a real mermaid in the ocean staring at her when she lowered the sketchbook.
Eh!?
Chika raises her sketchbook again, looking at her drawing for a few seconds.
Please still be there when I lower my book. Please still be there!
Chika lowers her sketchbook and the mermaid was there, staring at her quizzically.
"What are you doin-"
"MERMAID!" Chika exclaims and falls off her chair. "Ack!"
And before she could recover from that she sees the mermaid splashes back underwater.
"Aahhh! No, no, no! Don't go! Mermaid-san! Please!" Chika scrambles close to the ocean, her sketchbook left on the ground.
The blue-eyed mermaid peeks out from the big rock, eyes scrutinizing the desperate human. "If you'll exclaim 'mermaids' every time I appear…I can't stay."
"I-I'll stop saying mer- ma…ah… Please stay." Chika ruby eyes pleaded – a desperate human she is. "I-I wanna be friends!"
The mermaid is back. The mermaid is back. She's really here. Ahhh, don't mess up, Takami Chika! You can do this..!
"Please..?"
The mermaid kept up with the judgemental stare. Chika can't really blame a pretty mystical creature for that though.
"What are you doing here?" The mermaid asked again.
Chika's eyes strayed from the mermaid's mesmerizing blue eyes that seem to shimmer between various shades of blue down to the mermaid's chest…
"Ah! Er…I, I was waiting for you. To come back… I really wanted to meet you…again." Chika tripped over her sentences so badly, guilty of thinking the mermaid might be topless again.
Baka Chika…Don't think about that…
"I guess I shouldn't have replied to your question that day…" The mermaid mumbles to herself.
"Eh? What's that?" Chika couldn't quite catch it and crawled on the sand to get closer; not daring to blink in fears that the mermaid will disappear again.
She's really real. She's here. She's so close..!
"I…You should forget about me."
"EH!? I don't want to!" Chika's mouth remains agape and stops shouting when she sees the mermaid lower herself under the water until only her head was left.
Ahhhh, no, no, no. Oh gosh, I gotta stop being loud. Apparently, mermaids don't like loud…
"It's because humans aren't supposed to know we exist." The mermaid resurfaces and explains.
"Oh… eh? You can read minds?!" Chika goes an octave higher from disbelief then gasps, clamping her mouth shut.
The mermaid chuckles and Chika's mind was desperately keeping that sound memorized to replay forever.
"I can't read minds… I just made a lucky guess on what you're thinking." The ash-brunette smiles; Chika's eyes follow the curve of those red lips.
Don't think about that either, Takami Chika! She can't read minds doesn't mean you should be thinking about how kissable those lips look!
"Aaa…err…I see…That's good. Heh…Heh…" Chika shifts to a sitting position, her hands and knees finally starting to acknowledge the sand and heat.
"Is it..? I think it'd be nice to read minds. Then I'd second guess what the fishes are gonna say. Or even know when Ruby-chan is around the bend so I don't scare her by accident." The mermaid talks and Chika were extra attentive; she probably has never been this focused on someone talking.
She has really pretty lips- AH, stop stop.
"Um…R-Ruby-chan?" Chika couldn't help but worry it was the mermaid's girlfriend.
Even if it was her girlfriend, I'm nobody to be upset?
"Ruby-chan? She's one of my close friends!" The mermaid flashes Chika a huge smile that was so radiant, Chika felt her heart skip a beat.
This mermaid…is too cute.
"Oh. I guess I should tell you my name. I'm You. Watanabe You." You smiles, waiting for Chika to stop gaping at her and introduce herself.
Watanabe You…-chan
"Ah. Um. I'm-" Chika swallows to find her voice and to compose herself. "I'm Chika! Takami…Chika… Nice to meet you?" Chika smiles too, shyly as the beautiful mermaid made Chika absolutely self-conscious.
Is my name okay? Watanabe You sounds so amazing. She's so amazing-
"Chika-chan…That's a really nice name. I like it." You grins and Chika wonders if all mermaids are as sweet-tongued and charming as You or is it because she's so attracted to this mermaid.
"T-Thanks…I love your name too…You-chan."
Uwaa, her name. I said her name!
You beams. "Now we're friends. I would appreciate it if you can tell me something."
"A-Anything!" Chika shuffles closer to the waters, her sandals being washed by the cooling liquid.
You stares at Chika's feet for a time before looking back up. "You said you've been waiting for me to come back…Ever since that day we met?"
Chika stares at the way the mermaid's eyebrows furrow and those plump lips pursed. "Y-Yeah…"
"Humans can stay at one spot for so long..?" You furrows her eyebrows more; she loves moving about so just the thought of staying put seemed nigh impossible.
"Ah, no. I mean…I kept coming back here…I still had school to go to and chores and also a bed to sleep in so…I wasn't always at this one spot…" Chika bites her bottom lip, wondering if she was rambling too much. She wanted to hear the mermaid more.
Is she concerned about me..?
"I see. What if I don't come back?" You's blue hues stared seriously into Chika's red ones.
Chika lowers her head. "I…I'll keep thinking of you. And I'll keep checking up on the beach for you…But I guess my friends will start to tell me that you're not real… I wouldn't want that though."
Chika raises her head to make eye contact again.
You smiles. "I'm glad you came back to check then. My curiosity has been piqued since I met you. But coming into contact with humans is kind of taboo so…"
"I-It is? Then…is it alright for you to do so?" Chika's expression was full of worry. "I don't want you getting punished or thrown into mermaid dungeon or something."
You laughs. "Mermaid dungeon?"
"I…" Chika's cheeks flushed for being laughed at.
"We don't get locked up. It's exile right away." You puts on a passive face.
And Chika's eyes grow wide. "Exile? Right away? Wh-Wh-Where will you go?"
You laughs again and Chika was confused and embarrassed at the same time.
Why is she laughing? Did I say something wrong? Am I talking funny?
The ash-brunette swishes her tail once, keeping herself above water. "I'm just joking with you."
"Oh... Then how does this taboo work?" Chika cocks her head to the side.
You nods before she answers. "We get found out – we get scolded by our parents. And maybe we get made to clean our room? At least…another one of my close friends gets that punishment." You chuckles at the memory.
Chika wishes she could tell what You was remembering. "I'm glad it's not too serious… Cos…That means we can be friends right?"
"Sure." You nods.
Chika beams and stands up to throw her hands in the air, jumping in cheer. The mermaid watches, amused. "Yay! Yay! Yay!"
The mermaid giggles along with Chika's excitement until her eyes fall onto the sketchbook lying the floor. There she sees herself…in black and white. "You drew me?"
Chika stops jumping, looks to her sketchbook and back at the mermaid. "Ah, I…"
"Can I see?" You swims closer and Chika presses her lips together.
"Um…"
Do I show her? Will she think I'm weird for drawing her?
The ash-brunette looks up at Chika with those beautiful blue hues, wide and innocent and wanting.
Ahhh! I'll show her!
Chika turns to grab the sketchbook but as she was walking back, she trips in the sand and although she manages to catch herself from splashing into the water, the pages flipped and Chika could tell that she was showing the mermaid the first page.
The page where she drew the mermaid when they first met.
The mermaid when she was topless.
Oh no.
Author Notes
Oh no! XD
You can just imagine how stressed out Chika is right now. How she thinks she has dug her own grave.
And heh, hehehe XD Mermaid You, on the other hand, is reliving her embarrassment herself. And if she thought she splashed away fast enough. She certainly was proven wrong by this drawing the interesting orangehead human just showed her. XD
Which! We'll see the next chapter! XD ahahaha. I felt like it'll be hilarious to stop it here first :d
I hope y'all enjoyed this chapter! *O*
Leave me comments if you like~ I love hearing your thoughts on which part you liked and even, maybe what you're expecting next XD
Until then…see you next splash! ^w^7
