THE OTHER SIDE. aa

zwanzig.

     "ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO, humans and mermaids live together in harmony. by that, i mean, humans knew about us back then."

     you could only gape at the sudden information probing through your mind, out of the blue and overwhelming. you laughed awkwardly, unsure if the blond was joking, and was about to speak whatever confusions you had in mind but armin smiled calmly and took your hand in his. his eyes were sparkling under the night sky as if he trusted you enough to tell something so crazy and almost like fiction. and yet, swirling in his sapphire eyes, was also dark and fear that haunted him many years before.

     "listen first and trust me, okay?" he intertwined your fingers together, his warmth filling a space in your heart. he gave your hand a squeeze and you swallowed nervously before nodding, pursing your lips together.

     there was a pause, the atmosphere tense as the wind whistled to fill in the silence. your eyes wandered to your intertwined hands, forgetting what the topic was about momentarily as you felt yourself losing your mind over a simple, yet somewhat intoxicating, touch.

     "king fritz, our king back then, decided to let the world know about our existence. when the world knew... they were surprisingly understanding, accepting, and kind to us. people around the world would visit us and give us gifts, things that they invited that made our life somewhat easier back in our kingdom." armin wistfully sighed, his eyes wide and bright as he remembers the light in their world back then. from the stories his grandfather told him.

     you tried to listen carefully but your train of thought wanders off to the cart full of millions of questions about their 'history' instead of listening intently. 

     if what he was saying was true (not that he's lying), how come you or anyone else didn't know about it? why wasn't it taught in schools? you had researched about mermaids months ago out of curiosity, hell even the first time you saw him, but nothing came up on the internet except for theories that sound too unbelievable.

      "were you in germany before then?" you asked, leaning forward a bit to face the mermaid to show that you were interested despite the confusion that continued to plague your mind.

     armin shook his head, "we- we were in japan one hundred years ago."

     "so that skeleton..."

    "it's... one of us, perhaps." armin finished with a heavy sigh, looking down at his hands as he sadly smiled. you frowned, feeling guilty and remorseful for the horrible things that had happened to their kind.

     "were you... born already, that time?"

     "yes but i was still a baby back then." armin replied innocently.

     you unconsciously bit the insides of your cheeks, trying to stop yourself from squealing at the thought of an adorable blond baby swimming with the fishes. "you still are," you mumbled to yourself, looking down at the sand in hopes to hide the smile.

     you looked up once again after pushing your smile back down, waving a dismissive hand at armin's arched brow, before urging him to continue his little storytelling.

     "humans would come and visit us on the beach every day. we made close friends with everyone and they'd offer to take us to tour us to their place but we always refused, it meant leaving the ocean." armin sighed out, "king fritz told us not to go, just in case something goes awfully wrong, not that we don't trust you before but- it's for safety reasons!" he explained in a rush, panicking at the thought that you might misunderstand the warning as them being hateful towards the humans.