Living in the underwater world of Atlantis was wonderful. But overtime, it became boring – something was missing from my life. I didn't understand what it was, but when I told Father that, he told me that it was because I probably wasn't married yet. Yup, I was already sixteen, and not married. As the princess of Atlantis, I wasn't allowed to go out much, but I always found a way to escape the castle.
Today was no exception. I snuck out of the castle, swimming far away from civilization. I swam up, once I made sure that nobody was following me. Up towards the light, up towards where people were. With a flick of my strong tail, I was already getting closer and closer to the surface. I just had to explore that world.
I burst up to the surface of the ocean, breathing in the sweet scent of oxygen. It had a different tang to the salty taste of ocean. I looked around, satisfied that there was no one around. I jumped into the air, diving back into the water. I laughed, enjoying the thrill of gravity pulling me back down. After my excitement had died down, I glanced at the beach longing. I had always wanted to feel the soft sand move beneath my feet. I swam closer to shore, hoping to not run across any humans. That would be a little tricky to get out of if a human saw me. I was just a couple of feet away from the shore when my tail had hit something. Hard. Annoyed that my tail was tingling now, I looked around, seeing nothing on the surface. I dove under, trying to find the source when a pair of blue eyes were directly in front of my face. Too stunned to do anything, it took me a couple of seconds to register the blue eyes to a face, to the black hair floating around a boy's face. Wait, a boy?! I immediately recoiled from him, putting my tail in between us as a shield before realizing what I was doing – I just showed him that I was a mermaid. The guy continued to stare at me with something like fascination in his eyes. He reached a hand out as if to touch my tail and I jerked further away from him. I knew I had to go back, but I didn't want to. Following the reasoning voice in my heart, I spun away from him, swimming back to the depths of the ocean.
(Haruka's POV)
I was just floating in the ocean after school like I usually did. I decided to just sink down a little bit, just because I wanted to feel the cool and calm water surround me, bathing me in its gentleness. Just as I was feeling good, something hits me. It hurt, like a rock being thrown at me. I opened my eyes under the water to find a funny-looking girl really close to me. She had the most startling eyes – it was light blue at the top and faded to an aqua-green color. It was pretty. Wait, what was I thinking? Then she put this thing that resembled a tail in between us. I reached out to touch it since it was fascinating, but she backed away, swimming to the depths of the ocean. A mermaid?
I swam back to the beach, still trying to register what I had just seen.
"Haru-chan!" I looked up to find Makoto and Nagisa standing there, waving. I jogged back to them, excited to tell them what I saw.
"Hey, I think I just saw a mermaid."
Their faces expressed their disbelief. Not surprising. I pointed back towards the ocean. "I bumped into her and then she swam away."
"That's because you probably looked really scary, Haru-chan!" Nagisa giggled. I stared at him, not amused.
"Ne, Haru-chan, don't you think that you might just be imagining it? I mean, you were under the water for so long…" Makoto trailed off, fidgeting.
"Whatever," I muttered. I glanced back at the ocean, searching for the mermaid before turning around to leave.
(Nanami's POV)
I swam back to Atlantis, a bit frightened about what had just happened. I mean, a human boy just saw me. Otōsan will be so mad if I told him. I can't let anyone know about it! I thought, determined. But I want to see him again…