I went home feeling depressed after failing my exam. As soon as I got home, my mom was there, comparing me to my twin brother, Kim Min-gyu, asking what my test score was. (It's not like she's blatantly favoring Kim Min-gyu, nor does she scold me every day. She's just sensitive to my test scores and studying.) Kim Min-gyu must have been bothered by my almost daily scolding, so when my mom wasn't home, he handed me a small handkerchief. I wiped my tears with the handkerchief. Kim Min-gyu patted my shoulder a couple of times and went into his room.
I was about to go into my room, but I figured I wouldn't be able to concentrate on my studies in this mood, so I put on a thin cardigan and a hat to hide my red, tear-stained eyes. When I finally got out, I didn't know where to go, so I went to my favorite place.
My favorite spot was the most beautiful in our village. I could see the ocean rippling, big and small, and the fish swimming beautifully. I could also see the beautiful ocean sparkling with sunlight. And I could cry among the large rocks, unnoticed. The sound of the ocean drowned out my cries, and I could cry without a care.
I love this place. As soon as I arrived, I crouched down between the large rocks, buried my face between my knees, and let the tears stream down my face. Everyone has something they can't do. For me, it's just studying. I'm sick of getting scolded for studying every day. Being scolded for the same reason and hearing the same things. My twin brother got the genes. He's tall, handsome, studious, has a great personality, is good at sports, and he's a great cook. Thinking about it made me sad.
At that moment, the wind blew very hard. The wind blew the handkerchief Kim Min-gyu was holding into the sea. He groaned, but he knew he'd catch a cold if he went into the sea in this weather, so he just stared at the handkerchief floating on the water.
At that moment, I saw a large blue fish tail. It was so big that I was terrified, so I jumped up and ran straight home.
Strangely, Kim Min-gyu's handkerchief was floating on the sand without any waves hitting it.
'I'll have to give this to you later.'
***
"I told you to study, but where have you been?"
When I got home, my mother, who had just arrived, was sitting on the sofa, legs crossed, yelling at me. I held back tears once more, apologized, and went into my room.
My room was painted blue. I love blue so much that my blanket, my bag, my phone case, and even the cardigan I wore today were all blue. It was all blue. The reason I like blue is because the ocean is blue. I love the ocean so much.
As soon as I sat down at my desk, instead of my workbook, I turned on my phone and searched for "mermaid." When I did, I found it filled with drawings of mermaids. Those drawings might have seemed like a realistic picture to those who hadn't seen one, but they weren't mermaids at all. Their tails were twice as long as their bodies, and their chests weren't covered by shells. They even had gills in their ears. Their hands were just like human hands. The mermaids people had drawn were just fishtails; they weren't mermaids at all.
I wondered how I knew what a mermaid looked like. But I quickly gave up, having no memory of anything before the age of seven. My grandmother said she'd fallen into the sea in an accident and lost her memory.
I heard footsteps outside the room, so I quickly turned off my phone and opened my workbook. Soon enough, the door opened, and instead of my angry mother, it was my twin brother, Kim Min-gyu, who came in. He took my pencil case out of my bag and placed it on the desk.
" why. "
"If you're going to pretend, you have to do it right."
"Who studies without taking out their pencil case?"
"What, what do you want me to do?"
"I'm so good to you, why do you keep pushing me away?"
"Because when I'm with you, I get compared to others too much."
"You're perfect, but I'm not."
"You must be good at something too."
"Just as I'm good at studying, you'll be good at other things."
"Okay, get out."
At school, at home, I'm compared to Kim Min-gyu. He's perfect, and I'm not. But my grandmother loved me more than Kim Min-gyu. I don't know the exact reason, but I loved my grandmother. Even though she's no longer by my side.
I lived with my grandmother until I was 15, then moved in with my mother when I was 16. My mother, too, loved Kim Min-gyu more than I did, despite my shortcomings. As a child, I found Kim Min-gyu a bit annoying.
***
"Hey, I'm hungry. Let's eat something and then we'll go."
"No, I don't have money."
"I have a lot of money! I got my allowance yesterday!!"
"Are you going to eat?? "
This is my one and only precious friend, Kwon Soon-young. We became friends when I was 16, and now I'm 18, so we've been friends for three years. Kwon Soon-young asked me to go to a snack bar, but I said I wanted to go straight to the beach, so we said we'd go tomorrow and that we couldn't go today, and we parted ways.
***
This time, too, I hid among the large rocks on the beach. I dipped my feet into the water. The weather was cold and the sea was cold, so as expected, it was chilly. It was so cold that I jumped and jumped, running alone along the beach.
Then, suddenly, I felt the urge to go into the ocean. I had a towel and gym clothes in my bag, so I could dry myself off and change into wet clothes. It was chilly, but without hesitation, I immersed myself up to my waist. Excited and thrilled, I forgot the chill and plunged into the water up to my chest.
It was cold, but not too cold. Then, from afar, I saw Kim Min-gyu's handkerchief. I swam toward it, but the closer I got, the farther away it drifted. Out of breath and exhausted, I was just flailing my legs when the handkerchief came toward me. Behind it, a large fish's tail appeared.
Startled by the tail, my legs, which had been thrashing wildly, froze. The wind sent me crashing into the sea. I tried to stay afloat with just my arms, but it wasn't enough, and I just kept sinking.
Then someone came to my rescue. That someone was neither a human nor a fish, but the mermaid I had longed to see so desperately.
Sorry, there were too many posts today, right..?
I'll try to shorten it a bit next time.
Please enjoy it
😊😊😊
Thank you for reading