“And they...EAT you!” – Sunhwa said, shaking her hands in an exaggerated move, causing the other five mermaids to scream and gasp.

“How do you know so much, Sunhwa?” – one of them asked. Untangling her hair with her hands.

“I’ve been to other side…” – the mermaid answered smiling.

“Have you ever kissed one of them?” – one of the mermaids asked, sat on a rock.

“I have!” – Sunhwa answered. Her eyes wide open, as if warning the others – “Their lips are rough, and… and a little gooey. It’s disgusting…”

“I think they are as scared of us, as we are of them! If not more!” – Sunhwa heard another mermaid say, and replied right after.
“You and your ogre again…” – she giggled – “You’re infatuated, Jieun!”

“He’s not an ogre! He’s brave and kind!” – the one named Jieun defended.

“He’s destructive,!” – Seunhwa snapped.

Jieun opened to speak. But another mermaid spoke before she could.

“Shut it you two!” – she said. Her eyes lost on the horizon – “There’s a ship…no, a boat! Hurry and hide!”

This said, the mermaids, that rested under the warm sun, on the rocks close to the island, sank in the water.

All but one.
Sunhwa, of course.

She swam closer to the boat, a very small one, with enough space for one person, maybe two.
The oar went in and out of the water, making the boat move ahead.
Then it got stuck, as if something had held it on its place.

“Damn it…” – the loner sailor cursed – “…might have been a rock”

“Or a mermaid…” – he heard.
Looking around, he saw nothing. Nothing but water, rocks, and the shore.

The loner sailor gulped.
“Mermaids”…”

He tried to row, but the tiny boat wouldn’t move.

“Need help?”- he heard.

He turned around, then he saw it. He saw that… that…woman. Half woman, half fish. A mermaid!
She waved her tail under the water, he could see it well.
Her skin looked soft… at least the parts he could see, that were not covered by emerald scales.
She had her shoulders and her entire chest out of the water; her long ginger hair covered her s.
The water was crystal clear, so he could also see her belly… her skin was so clear… her lips had a light crimson shade…

“NO!” – he shouted, as if waking up from a nightmare – “I won’t listen to you! I know what you’re trying to do! You are going to sing then you’re going to kill me! Don’t think I’m stupid, I know what you’re trying to do!” – he spoke fast, covering his ears with his hands.

His voice was clumsy, and his way of speaking was silly, Sunhwa thought.
“But I haven’t even said a word!” – she said. A smile on her lips.

“Is that so?” -  she heard the sailor question, taking his hands off of his ears – “I guess you’re right…”

“Besides… I’m not hungry… you know mermaids eat human flesh, don’t you?.” – Sunhwa said, eyeing the loner sailor – “But if you had come here just a bit earlier… I would sing, and you would be paralyzed…”

The man tried to fake calm, but Sunhwa noticed it when he gasped. That had been the one thing she needed to burst her creativity.
“…your ears would bleed, and the smell of your blood would wake my sisters up”

“Your… sisters?” – the sailor repeated. His eyes wide open in fright.

“They would come… and they would devour your flesh. You would feel pain… mermaids teeth are so sharp… you would beg to die…” – Seuhwa swam closer to the tiny boat as she spoke.
The sailor turned green, blue, purple… she was so close to the boat now.

Putting both her hands on the edge of the boat, Sunhwa whispered a question. Her melodic voice made it impossible for the sailor not to have goosebumps.
“How do they call you?”

“K-Kwangee…” – he stuttered.

Sunhwa, put herself higher, by holding onto the boat.
She stretched an arm on Kwangee’s direction… so close… she could touch his scared face.

“Kwangee…” – she spoke, caressing his face, and he nodded – “Tell everyone, on every single piece of land…” – her lips were very close of his now – “That all the water… is mermaid’s territory…”

Kwagee shivered. Her lips were so close…

“…Tell them to beware…” – Sunhwa continued, still very close – “…mermaids shall have no mercy…”
Pushing his face away from hers without any care, Sunhwa nearly shouted. Her voice was firm and serious… it had been a command.
“Now leave!”

The poor sailor had barely had enough courage to move. He managed to take the oar, and started rowing as fast as he could.
Fear is an efficient fuel.

He left, screaming that he had seen a mermaid, that she had talked to him…
Who would believe on that?
Nobody meets a mermaid and lives to tell the story.

In the water, Sunhwa laughed. Her eyes really tiny, as she laughed.
“Men are so easy to be fooled…”