Girl, you're making it hard for me~
Next day, after the lunch period, Kiara went to the natatorium and stood infront of the pool. She recalled all the memories she spent there with Mark. They even met here for the first time but probably they would never sit here and have a talk again. She was also helping the male to overcome his trauma in this pool but now she couldn't help him anymore. It was hard for her to even face him, to look into his eyes. The guilt was suffocating her that she just wanted to run away from everything and not look back.
"Oh I see you are here too."
The familiar deep voice startled her as she turned around and saw him.
"You miss our moments spent here right?"
"...No."
"But I do. I miss everything about us. Although I was a little rude towards you. I didn't open up to you before but now I want to give you my everything. All I want is just a 'yes'."
"That's not possible Mark. I have told you repeatedly. Don't you understand?"
The male moved closer to her. "I don't want to understand. I just want you."
"Ok let's go back to how we were a few months ago. We can start over again", he said and sat near the pool. He patted the spot beside him, gesturing her to take a place.
She hesitantly sat beside him. A natural silence was lingering between them. "So how's life going on?"
"Good and bad both."
"Why good?"
She smiled brightly and replied, "Something very good happened. I never imagined it would happen but it did. So I'm very happy."
Mark's heart melted seeing her smiling after a long time. "And what's that something?"
"Umm a secret." She gave him a cheeky smile while he puffed his cheeks.
"And why bad?"
She was about to say something but stopped herself. "Uhh... it's also a secret."
"Yah! It's not fair." His lips formed a small pout.
The mermaid chuckled and pinched his cheeks. "Aww you are still cute."
He raised a brow. "What do you mean by cute? I'm not cute."
"But I think you are."
"No I'm handsome, not cute."
"Nah. You are more on the cuter side."
"Ok if you say so. But I will be a cute guy only to you."
Her heart never failed to beat faster whenever he would say such things. Deep down she enjoyed these a lot but tried hard not to show. Her eyes met with his dark brown orbs. He got so lost in her eyes that he didn't notice that he just kept staring at her. He brought his face closer to her and asked with innocent eyes, "Can I kiss you?"
Becoming surprised, her eyes widened as heat rushed to her cheeks. "What?! N-no you can't."
He sulked back to his original position and crossed his arms. "Okay~"
To break the awkwardness that was prevailing there, the Canadian decided to change the topic. "So how's the preparation for swimming competition going on?"
"Good. I'm correctly at number 1 in my class."
"Ofcourse you will do great. Afterall you are born in water."
"Huh?"
"Uhh I mean born for water, born for water."
"Oh thanks."
"Kiara!... If I jump into this pool right now, will you save me?"
"No. Because you will never jump into that pool."
"You think that?"
"Hmm." But the sudden actions of Mark shocked her. The older stood up and jumped into the pool out of nowhere. "MARK!!!", she screamed. She stood up too and put off her coat and jumped into the water in order to rescue the guy. But something astonishing happened. The girl took her head out of the water when she felt a pair of arms wrapping around her body and then another head came out of the water. Bodies sticking together as his hands were around her small waist. She looked at him with wide eyes while his eyes were relatively relaxed. The mermaid looked at his face and wet black hair sticking on his forehead.
"See. You jumped though."
She quickly cupped his cheeks and looked at his face properly. "You are okay?" Worry was evident in her eyes.
"Yeah I guess."
"But how? What about your trauma-"
"I overcame it. I wanted to show you my progress. Thanks to you who helped for a couple of weeks and gave me strength. But then you didn't come. I remembered your words and started to try on my own. I practised hard. It's still difficult for me to be in the center of the pool. But you are here now! So I don't feel scared anymore."
Kiara pulled her eyebrows together and frowned as she hit the male on his chest. "You know how scared I was? If something happened to you, then? The last time you ended up in the hospital was all because of me."
"Hey! Even if something happened to me, you would have saved me, right?"
"How are you so sure?"
"You jumped now to save me only, right? That means I can trust you."
The female narrowed her eyes and pushed Mark away and swam back to the edge. She got out of the water and was shivering. Obviously her clothes were all wet now and all thanks to Mr. Mark Lee. He too followed her and quickly took out a towel which he was carrying in his bag and put it on her shoulders and uttered, "Sorry."
She sighed and without glancing back at him, she left the place while muttering, "He is crazy" and shaking her head.
He ruffled his wet hair to splash out the water. "I think she is really angry with me now. I shouldn't have pulled that prank." His lips formed a thin straight line. He let out a sneeze and was shivering in cold as he took his bag and ran back to the dorm.
■•■•■•■•■•■•■•■
"Thank you for coming today."
Kiara and Chenle were now sitting at the dinning table of Dasom's house as she invited the two. The younger ones were totally surprised after discovering who was their elder sister's husband.
Junghoon chuckled a little seeing their reaction. "Yes I am your coach's husband. Is it that hard to believe?"
"Woahh Noona! Hyung is so handsome. Now I understand why you ran away", Chenle said after being mesmerized by the good looks of the principal's son.
The rest three broke out in a laughter as Junghoon was helping his wife to set the lunch. After everyone was settled at the table and started eating, they were talking about various topics.
"Unnie tell us about your love story", the younger girl asked.
"Uhh when was that? I met Junghoon when I was... 10."
"I used to visit my grandparents at Busan twice a year. I saw her on the secluded part of the beach one day. She was hurt. Her knee was bleeding."
"It was the first time a human approached me. Not gonna lie I was scared."
"Mhmm. But somehow she trusted me and I took her to my grandparents' house which was near the beach. My grandma treated her wound and ever since then we became friends."
"We used to be so excited to meet each other every year. Thanks to that locket, I was able to come out of the water and meet him."
"Woahhh. That's so cute. But how did you find out that she is a mermaid?", the orange-haired boy asked the older man.
"I was fifteen. She always used to go back home alone but I never saw her home. So one day I decided to follow her and saw her transforming into a mermaid and going into the sea. I was really shocked that I couldn't believe my own eyes. I was like- 'Mermaids are real?!?!' Next day I told her what I saw."
"And when I found out that he had discovered my secret, I was so scared that he would do something wrong with me. But he didn't. He said that he would not tell this to anyone and he won't see me differently after finding out that I'm a mermaid and not a human. That time I realized not all humans are same. Dad just made human beings look like bad people but it's not true. Junghoon made me feel safe."
"Then our love blossomed. We eventually fell in love with each other." The married couple smiled at each other so fondly.
"But unfortunately your Dad means King saw her going out to the land everyday and found out about our relationship."
"Oh my God! Yeah I remember Dad was furious that day. He locked you up in your room. I didn't understand what was going on", Kiara said.
"I had a huge fight with Dad. He said me to not show him my face again because I was just a disappointment according to him. I couldn't handle it anymore and felt suffocated there. That time so many things were happening. Mom died. Uncle well... forget it. Anyway so I ran away. I'm so sorry to y'all. I was really selfish. I didn't think about you."
"Noona how many times will you apologize? Stop now."
"I still can't stop feeling guilty. I left so, Dad became more strict. He restricted you three from everything. Even Seongjin had to take big responsibilities at such young age that he forgot to enjoy his youth."
"Oppa... I miss him. Although he used to give me less time. I know he loves me a lot. It's just that he's going to be the next king so he is always busy." She frowned.
"But you know? Although King acts strong outside, I saw him crying after you left. He blamed himself for everything, even for Queen's death."
"It's been years since I saw Dad smiling happily. Sometimes I hate him but I still love him. He told us not to utter your name. I used to think maybe his anger on you didn't fade yet but maybe if he heard your name less, it would hurt him less."
"I even threw the locket at the coral reef of Neo Island where we used to play and escaped from there. I was so stupid back then. It's such a valuable gift Dad gave me."
"Thankfully Oppa followed you and picked up the necklace otherwise a massacre would have happened. Even a crack is on the locket because maybe you threw it too hard. But it's still beautiful and always reminded me of you" Kiara was about to open the necklace around her neck.
"Stop. What are you doing?", her elder sister asked.
"This is yours. You should keep it with you."
"No. You took care of this for all these years whereas I abandoned it. You deserve to wear it more than me."
"Thank you unnie. I'm glad we finally found you. We didn't even know if you were alive or dead."
"Hey! I took good care of your sister", Junghoon said.
"Haha I know. Thank you oppa. I don't know what would have happened if you weren't there for her. Thanks for loving her the way she is."
The man just smiled and said, "Ofcourse I love your sister a lot."
"Mommy", a rapsy baby voice came to their ears.
The students looked at the living room and saw a toddler with brown hair, carrying a teddy bear as she was rubbing her sleepy eyes.
"Oh baby. You are up? Come here."
She came to her mother shyly seeing the new people.
"You have a daughter?!?!", the two guests exclaimed.
"Yeah. Surprise hehe."
"Baby. Meet them. They are our family", her father said.
"Family?", she said in a cute tone.
"Hmm. This is Uncle Lele. And this is Aunty Ara", Dasom said.
"It feels so good to hear my name Ara from you", she said with a smile. The lunch was already completed now as she cooed and said, "Hi baby! What's your name?"
"Yejin", she answered with a toothy smile.
"Oh my God! I am gonna bring my baby Daegal to play with her", the young male said.
"Unnie. I'm gonna adopt her. She is so cute!!!", the girl cooed.
♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡
After visiting her sister and her family, she returned at night and opened the door of the dorm and saw a girl sitting on the bed. The girl she missed for so many days. "Yumi..."
Yumi stood up from the bed and faced the younger as she spread her arms. Kiara ran into arms and almost teared up. "Where were you? You know how much I missed you. I was so lonely without you. There was no one to protect me from the boys' teasing you know? Why didn't you receive my calls??? I texted you everyday but you ignored. I was so scared you know? I am so happy that you are finally back."
"I'm sorry but I think you should go now", she said as she looked at her with soft eyes.
"Huh?"
"Go to Mark now and say everything how you feel."
Kiara's smile faded within seconds. "What are you talking about?"
"I'll explain later. Just follow your heart and tell him everything. Go!!!" Yumi started pushing the younger out.
"But..." She looked at her face and gulped.
"Don't worry about me. I'm okay." She flashed a gentle smile which hid all her sadness.
OMG 'BEAUTIFUL' IS SO BEAUTIFUL!!! I really needed a song like this after all the things I went through for the last couple of months. It's been really hectic for me and this song healed me. The message it carries is everything. I couldn't help but to cry after seeing the lyrics. That's why I love NCT. They are my home and my happiness. 😭💞
Top 3 tracks from the album?
I have so many my God!!! Dreaming, Round & Round, Know Now, Vroom. These are my fav besides. Beautiful remains at the top<3
Something weird happened today!!! I saw a dream where I was talking about that there's a ghost in my house. And then I woke up. It was just before dawn. The room was dark and suddenly I felt my bed shaking and some noises were coming. I became so scared that I put my head inside the blanket and closed my eyes as I kept calling God. Few minutes later the shaking stopped and it was so hard to sleep again but thankfully I did. In the morning I told my parents that there is a ghost but they just laughed. My dad said it can be an earthquake but there's no news about it. I just hope it is or else I'm gonna run away from this place 😭😭
Thank you~