We stayed quiet for a moment while we listened to the sway of the waves coming from my open window. The atmosphere became more and more awkward the longer the silence fell. So in order to break this icy barrier, I sighed and stared down to the floor, preparing myself to speak out.

“Mira… She told me it was a bad idea trust you.”

Owen then turned his gaze towards me with a perplexed look on his face.

“Why did she tell you that ?”

“Because you are human,” I quickly murmured without even thinking. Suddenly, I saw Owen's eyes widen so much that I thought that they might literally pop out of his sockets anytime now. His jaw trembled as he tried to word out what he wanted to say.

“Y-y-you mean th-that, is Mira a mermaid too ?!” He exclaimed. To that I pursed my lips as I gave him a slight nod. And once I responded, he leaned the crown of his head back onto the wall where my bed was cornered.

“I see…” He breathed out. His eyes relaxed and met mine as I continued speaking.

“She thinks that you are scheming and that you’ll eventually use your knowledge of my kind against me one day.”

“Why though ? It’s not like I need anything else in my life, I already have everything that I want. I can’t see how using you would ever benefit me in any way. In fact, the only thing that I would get by manipulating you is ending up having a big weight on my conscience, and that's not very beneficial might I say.”

I opened my mouth, trying to disprove what he just stated, but I couldn't come up with anything. Defeated, I whispered under my breath.

“Yeah, you got a point.”

“Please trust me Akari, the only thing that I want is to be your friend, nothing else.” He affirmed while he grasped my arm. I looked at him in disbelief and shook his hand off me.

“Th-that’s okay,” I muttered while rubbing my hair. Crap, I can feel myself blushing again, I need to change this conversation.

“A-anyways ! I do remember you saying previously that you wanted to learn more about the mermaids, is that correct ?”

Owen quickly grinned and voiced an ‘mmh’ in agreement. I stared out the window, thinking about the conversation that I will soon be having with Owen. As much as I didn’t suspect him like I used to before, I knew that I still had to stay on guard for what I was about to reveal to him. Any piece of information that I were going to tell him could be used against me and endanger myself and every person that I cared about, so I have to be careful with how this would play off.

“I’ll answer any of your questions concerning my species in the limit of my capacities. I can’t guarantee you that I know everything of my kind, but I will try my best to give out satisfactory responses to you.”

I turned my head to face Owen again and noticed him smiling at me with a relaxed expression.

“Well... It’s just that I still can’t believe that mermaids are actually real.” He mumbled. “It’s pretty incredible that you’ve been hiding from mankind for all this time. But... how long did your species even exist ?”

At that moment I thought for a while on the answer that I could provide him.

“I don’t really know. For us it’s a bit like asking you guys how mankind was born, and you know that we all have multiple theories on that. For us it’s exactly the same. Some of us believe that we were created by a divine entity, others think that more logically somehow, millions of years before now, some species that derived from humans slowly immigrated back to the oceans and evolved to adapt into that environment. Although this theory might be a bit far-fetched, it shows just how complicated it is to discover our origins since, unlike humans, we barely have anything physical like fossils or such to trace back our existence. So, that question is pretty complicated to answer honestly. All I can say is that we've been here for probably as long as you have existed yourself.”

“Wow…” Owen exclaimed. It looked like that he was truly fascinated in all I had to say. I mean, to me all this mumbo-jumbo was pretty boring, but to each their own.

“So… if the mermaids evolved at sea, then why can you walk on land ?” Owen asked, and to that I shrugged my shoulders.

“Beats me. I guess it’s because we we're a kind of human at first and that we belonged at foremost on land ? It was probably a trait that was kept during our evolution. It’s pretty stupid though since we all belonged at sea.”

“So… Why are you on land in the first place ?”

I chuckled in uneasiness and looked away while I scratched my cheek.

“Eh, well… It's pretty much because of your kind.”

I stared back into Owen’s deep green eyes and saw him wincing and lifting one of his eyebrows. I thought for a moment and gave him a further explanation.

“For… quite a long time, we all lived in the oceans peacefully. It was extremely uncommon for any mermaid to go up and live on the surface, because in the water we were protected. We had very little contact with you humans, as much as you humans didn’t have contact with us.

Although… It all changed once you started polluting our homeland massively with your toxic waste. As time went on, more and more mermaids resettled to the surface in hopes of living a healthier life. If I recall, my mother had once told me that our family had moved up to the surface back in the second half of the 19th century, and it was at that time that our kind massively immigrated above. Whilst most of us are still living in our underwater civilisation, there are definitely a lot more mermaids on land than in the past.”

“Wait, you’re telling me that there's an underwater civilisation ?!” Owen exclaimed as sparks of amazement were emitting from his orbs. He was now leaning onto me completely entranced, as if creatures like us were the most amazing thing to ever come in existence.

Oh my god, he’s so close to me ! Has he ever heard of personal space ?

“Yeah yeah yeah !” I exclaimed as I pushed him away, feeling a blush forming back. Once I turned my head away from Owen's sight, I heard a loud laugh erupting from him.

“This is amazing ! A whole mermaid civilisation located right underneath our noses ! How come we never found out about them ?”

I rubbed my hands nervously as I continued on.

“Well, you know that humans are actually pretty clueless on what is hidden in the oceans, and even these days with all of your modern technology. Our civilisations are located very deep under in places where humans would never survive to tell the tale. We have several cities structured like yours, with the main one being the great city of Psariopasty.”

“Paso-what now ?” Owen exclaimed while trying to pronounce the name. I was expecting him to have this kind of reaction, so I responded with a laugh.

“It’s Psariopasty. I know, it does seem like a weird name to you. But for us it’s ordinary since the name originates from one of the supposed gods of seas.”

“Oh ! Like Poseidon !” Owen pinpointed as he snapped his fingers towards me.

“Yeah… I think so ? I don’t know much about the mythologies you humans have, but if it refers to a god of sea then that’s pretty much it.”

As our conversation went on the anxiousness I had felt beforehand slowly numbed down. I was gradually relaxing while Owen was explaining stuff from his species that contrasted with ours. I cannot say that I understood everything that he said, but just listening to Owen rant off in his soothing accent only brought peace into my soul. And at that point, it came my attention that the more time I spent with Owen, the more I felt like I could entrust myself to him.

“By the way,” he suddenly changed his tone that signalled a change of conversation. “How do you even transform from human to merman and vice versa ?”

“Oh, that I can answer properly !” I exclaimed. “All I have to do to become a merman is go underwater, and in just about a minute I completely turn into a merman ! However, it does take a little while longer to turn to human, since I have to stay onshore and wait until my body understands what I want to become. It’s okay though, since thanks to this ability we can almost look like human beings !”

Owen bopped his head to the side with furrowed eyebrows, visibly confused with my answer.

“Almost you say ? But you look exactly like one ! What part of you doesn’t resemble us ?”

I laughed anxiously while scratching the back of my head, realising that I may have told him a little bit more than needed.

“Well, the thing is… we still have scales along our legs. I am lucky that my scales are white just like my skin, but some mermaid’s scale are much more pigmented and can stick out like a sore thumb. And for that fact it is always important to hide our legs at all times. Or, well… at least in public.”

“Oh ! So that is why you are always wearing long pants !”

I gave him a slight smile and a nod to notify him that he was correct.

“What made you think I was hiding my legs for ?”

“I don’t know,” Owen shrugged whilst looking down at the bottom half of my body. “It’s not uncommon for people to wear pants all the time, even during the summer. You can see that there are a lot of people at school exactly like that, so I thought it was just some kind of a preference for you. Other people seem to think you have maybe a scar or a birthmark which you are ashamed of, although I don’t know why it is such a big deal for them.”

“Well, technically it is a birthmark,” I chuckled, to which Owen averted his gaze from my pants to my eyes and smiled brightly.

“E-ehm... Akari ?” Owen mumbled while twitching his hands together, his stare immediately directing itself to the ground. I moved my head towards his line of sight while giving him a shy smile.

“Yes Owen ?”

“I-if that's okay with you, would you mind showing me the scales on your legs ?” He stuttered.

I fell back on what he just asked me. The great Owen wanted me to strip in front of him ?! Nu-uh, no way in the living–

“Okay, I don’t mind.”

Wait a second, what did I just say ? Did I seriously accept his proposition just like that ?!

But judging from the hue of light that emerged from Owen's eyes and wide smile, my answer seemed to have pleased him. Now how could I back up after seeing such a face ? I doubt that anyone could ever resist him once they saw this expression.

I leaned forward and hesitantly rolled over the bottom of my pants. They were loose enough so that I could pull them right up to the middle of my thigh, fully exposing my white scales to the boy beside me. My eyes traveled up Owen's body to meet his gaze and then noticed the pure look of fascination on his face. His eyes were wide awake, and his jaw seemed to be dropping right onto the ground. Now he really looked like the Christmas day child. Hehe… that’s so cute.

Wait, that's so what ?

Before I could argue with myself about what I was thinking, Owen sled his body towards me, leaving only bare inches between each other.

“Can I touch them please ?” Owen pleaded like the child I learnt he truly was.

“EH ?!” I gasped, my face now riddled with a bright tint of red. Did he even realize what he just said ?!

“What’s wrong, why are you reacting like this ?” He snickered, being completely oblivious to everything.

“Y-y-you want t-to t-t-touch my legs ? Isn’t that kind of a private thing to do ?!” I stuttered while gently moving away from him. As soon as I had said that Owen’s excitement dropped while he hung his face down in disappointment.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think twice while asking.” He sulked. Seeing him with that face made my heart ache and tighten in my chest. Jeez, he definitely knew how to get what he wanted.

“No, it’s ok. You can t-touch them.” I murmured whilst the shade of red intensified and plastered every corner of my face. It was then that the bright and joyful Owen immediately came back.

“O-okay ! But do tell me if I am overstepping my boundaries. If you feel uncomfortable please stop me.”

To that a gentle smile formed onto my face while I voiced out a ‘mmh’ in approval. And slowly he nudged right next to me and approached his hand towards my scales.