I immediately panicked and felt the need to flee as far away as possible. But as I was about to do so, Owen grabbed onto my arm and pushed me against the wall. As expected, I saw Mira that came rushing towards us as soon as she saw the act unfold right in front of her. I looked up to Owen and saw his eyes directed towards the running girl.

“I thought I told you to come alone…” He muttered.

As he said that, I quickly waved to Mira with my arms going in all kinds of direction, trying to tell her I was fine and that I wasn’t hurt. She slowed down and stared at me in confusion. Well, at least I assumed she was, since I couldn’t see a damn thing that was going on in the bright sunlight. As she came at a complete stop, I pulled off the brightest fake smile on my face while pointing two thumbs up right to the sky. She understood, nodded, and made her way back to the spot that she came from.

I didn’t know why I did that. Maybe I wasn’t fine, maybe in only a second from now he was going to threaten me with the worst things that one could possibly imagine. Maybe I was, in fact, in complete danger. But one thing's was for sure, is that I didn’t want to have to break up a fight between Mira and Owen when the guy hasn’t done anything to deserve it in the first place. And more importantly, I didn’t want my friend to end up hurt. I don’t think that my brain would be able to handle such a stressful situation after everything that it went through these past few days.

I dropped my arms along my body and took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. I looked up to meet Owen’s eyes, who were tightly grasped onto me. I noticed that was still cornered against the wall, trapped between Owen’s large and sturdy arms. He then moved his face closer and closer to mine, right until I could feel his every breath against my nose.

“Who are… no, I mean, what are you.” He whispered, his expression riddled with questions and confusion.

The first thing that I thought to myself was the fact that I had to lie. I had to tell him that I didn’t know what he was talking about. I have an entire species to protect and the last thing we needed now was a human suspecting us. I had to do this, right ? I must lie to him at all cost.

At least that’s what I told myself in my head, but my actions didn’t comply to what I was thinking. Instead, I slowly fell to the ground, my hands running along his body. I felt my legs completely giving out, so holding onto Owen’s body was the only way to keep me from crashing down. Then once I found myself completely bowed down to the ground, I held a tight grasp onto Owens shoes. With my forehead pressed on the concrete, I felt my body trembling like a leaf as I tried to suppress my tears that were now full of panic and fear.

“Please… I beg of you… don’t tell anyone.” I muttered, my voice cracking and trembling at every word I spoke out.

After a few seconds I felt Owen’s large figure descending, coming at about my level. He put his hand onto my chin and lifted my head to face his reassuring expression.

“Hey, don’t worry Akari. I was never going to tell anyone in the first place. I understand the situation you are in; I understand how important it is for you to keep your secret hidden from the world. I promise you that I'll be carrying this secret of yours till the end of my life.”

He slowly took my hands and lifted me up on my feet. My body was still trembling, but I did feel more relieved. Mira was right in the end; Owen was really a kind and caring person.

I sniffled and rubbed my nose against my arm, while muttering a small but distinguishable ‘thank you’ to him. In response, he warmed up to me and gave me a slight but comforting smile.

We stayed silent a few minutes as he waited for me to calm down. When I eventually regained my composure, I drifted my gaze to the still waiting Mira and mumbled under my breath.

“So… I guess that you were the scuba diver who saw me yesterday in the cove, am I right ?”

I looked up to meet his face as he gave me a nod. My shoulders fell and I sighed.

“Has… Has anyone else seen me… in my true form ?” I asked.

“No, I am pretty sure that I was the only one who ever saw you. I went and talked to the other scuba divers once we were out of the water, and I never heard anybody mention you on the way back. Trust me, I really paid close attention to their different conversations, but they never brought up any… merman sighting, or the likes. So, I do really think that I am the only one who knows who you really are.”

“Oh, thank god !” I exclaimed silently, with my hand grasped to my chest. I couldn’t even imagine how I would be able to handle anybody else discovering who I really was. I closed my eyes and breathed in the fresh air of the alley. I felt all my worries starting to fade away one by one.

“So… Is it really okay for me to trust you ?” I asked Owen.

“Trust me ?” He questioned.

“Yeah, trust you that you won’t tell anyone.”

“Oh, of course ! But… I do have a condition.”

I was now staring at him in shock. Crap, what was he going to ask ? Was he going to try and get money out of me ? Of course not, that guy is already worth millions ! Then, what was he going to say ?!

I slowly started to panic again, and I guess that Owen must have took notice of it. So, in order to calm me down, he answered calmly with a kind smile on his face.

“I just… I want to get to know you better. I want to spend more time with you and… I want to learn more about your species. That's the condition I'm giving to you.”

“And… and what will happen if I don’t comply ? Will you tell everyone ?” I voiced out.

“I… Uh…” Owen stumbled on his words. He scratched the back of his neck and sighed, trying to sort out the answer in his head.

“Of course I won’t. I would never threaten you with something like that, I’m not that kind of person. If you really want to, you could walk away right now and go on with your life like you would normally do. And I will assure you that no one would never, ever know about you and who you really are. I would live every day of my existence continuing down my own path while bearing your secret on my shoulders till the day I die.

But… I don’t want it to be like that. I really want to help you. I don’t want you to ignore me again like you used to and set me completely aside while I’m doing my best to carry out such a huge secret of yours. I want us to be friends, and I want you to have faith in me. I want you to trust me enough so that one day, you could rely on me if ever you found yourself in trouble. Your friend Mira might not be always there to help you out, and I want to be the one that would be here for you just in case you might end up alone, without anyone to turn to.

I know it sounds weird, I know this whole ordeal is very unexpected... But I just… I really want to be your friend. Do you think… Do you think that it could be possible ?”

I looked at him in complete confusion as I thought on the words he just said. He wants to be my friend ? But for my whole life I vowed to myself that the only person I would ever rely on will be Mira. She is the only friend that I need, right ?

No… this is not what I really want deep inside. I knew now that I’ve always felt this emptiness in me, this feeling of not being able to trust anyone because I was afraid of what it would result in. I thought that if ever someone discovered who I really was, they would chase me down to the pits of hell and use me as their tool to get everything that they aspired the most, wherever it was fame, wealth or an eternal life full of luck and happiness. Yeah, I really thought that all of them would be the same.

Yet here I was, talking alone with Owen, a human who had recently discovered my deepest, darkest secret and is still willing to reach out to me and consider me as a friend. Even though I was a merman, and it could be so much more profitable for him to use me for his own desires, he decided to be my friend. Even after I treated him like complete garbage and told out loud to my friend that I hated him, he was still here, willing to find trust in me.

After a moment of deep thinking, I answered back at his request.

“I’m sorry, but It won’t be possible for you to get to know me.”

After my answer he turned his gaze to the ground with the saddest expression I’ve ever seen anyone make. Seriously, he really looked like a sad defeated puppy. So I continued on with my sentence.

“… At least not out in the open like this. You never know, there could always be someone who's secretly listening to every word we are exchanging. But if not, then yeah. I will accept your condition.”

Suddenly his frown turned into an enormous smile as his eyes began to sparkle. And I can swear that for a moment I also noticed his tanned cheeks darken with a slight shade of red. Urgh, he was so blinding. How can anyone be this handsome when they looked like a complete doof ? Crap, I’m so jealous now. If only I was this beautiful when I looked so idiotic.

After a moment of him screaming internally of joy, he regained his composure and spoke with a big smile plastered on his face.

“Well, I don’t know what you have planned out for this week-end, but maybe… Maybe I could come over to your house and talk with you then... But, that is only if that’s okay with you of course !”

My eyes widened at his proposition. Owen, the school idol, wants to come over to MY house ?! How am I supposed to respond to that ?!

“Well… Uh… If I remember correctly, I think that my family had planned to go out this Saturday afternoon. You… eh… you can come over… then…”

My voice went quieter and quieter as I continued to speak. Crap, I hope I am not blushing right now ! Oh my god, this is so embarrassing.

I think that Owen noticed how flustered I was because once I finished speaking he chuckled in amusement. Now that I'm thinking about it, this is probably the first time that he ever saw me pull any other expression than complete apathy, and that was obviously something that made him really happy.

“Well, Saturday. That’s the day after tomorrow, right ? I think that it will be fine by me. So... can I get your address then ?”

“AH ! YES !” I shouted out unconsciously. Urgh, I'm such an embarrassment. I should probably learn on how to control my own voice someday.

I wrote down my address on the back of a piece of paper and gave it to Owen. As he handled the paper and read out the streets name and number, he gave me a large and dashing smile.

“Thank you ! I promise you that you will not regret this !” He exclaimed in a very happy tone.

He grasped tightly onto the note and started to walk away.

As he exited the dark alleyway and came into the light, he stopped in his tracks. He turned back at me, lifted the paper up to the sky and gave me a light and gentle smirk. Before leaving, he worded out one last sentence to me.

“I’ll see you on Saturday.”