When Dahyun woke up again, the memory of the nightmare was still deeply ingrained into her mind. She had never really remembered dreams as clearly as that one. In the morning, she usually remembered little blurbs that were quickly forgotten by the end of the day. That dream – that nightmare – had felt too real. Too close to her childhood memories.

 But she didn't feel as terrible as she had expected to. Dahyun had imagined that she would be unable to sleep properly for days, too scared of hearing that song again.

 She couldn't help thinking that Sana's head on her stomach had something to do with it. Not that the very detail of Sana's head on her stomach had protected her from another bad dream (Dahyun nearly snorted imagining Sana's head as some sort of lucky charm), but rather her presence itself. A mermaid protecting her from a song that came from the sea. The warmth of her body against her own was comforting. It made her feel safe.

 Dahyun ran a hand through Sana's long hair, fascinated by its silky softness as she stared at the ceiling. Everything felt calm and quite. Peaceful.

 Too peaceful, maybe. She couldn't hear Chaeyoung's usual morning snoring – the one that always rose around seven when Chaeyoung rolled back onto her back. Dahyun patted the spot next to her. Empty and cold. It must have been quite late for her friend to be up already. It meant that she couldn't just lie in bed with Sana any longer. Chaeyoung would probably need help to prepare breakfast.

 "Sana," she whispered, rubbing at the mermaid's back. Warm skin. Oh . Of course, Sana had taken off her t-shirt during the night. Dahyun rolled her eyes and glared at the ceiling, like she could see right through it to make God understand how much hatred she felt right now. "You're gonna need to stop testing me like that. I wasn't made to handle mermaids. Just let her wear a shirt, dammit!"

 The mermaid let out a small groan and stretched her body. Dahyun sat up slowly, making sure not to surprise Sana with any sudden movement, and the mermaid sat with her before she rested her head on Dahyun's shoulder, arms wrapped tightly around her waist. It seemed like sea puppies were not good with waking up. Dahyun kept rubbing Sana's back, trying her best to ignore the fact that it was her skin under her touch, and not a t-shirt. It would be nice if the mermaid could learn that it wasn't reasonable to take off her clothes whenever she wanted, because if she tried that while they were out shopping– Dahyun sighed. She would rather not think about that.

 "It's time for breakfast. We need to get up so I can prepare some fish for you."

 "Fish?" Sana repeated, pushing herself away from Dahyun's body to look at her in the eyes.

 Dahyun was amused. Of course, Sana would have already picked up the Korean word for fish; she paid a lot more attention to conversations than Dahyun thought.

 "Fish and rice, like yesterday, if you'd like." Dahyun smiled. "But you're going to need to put your shirt back on first."

 Sana tilted her head to the side. Dahyun got up from the bed to grab the t-shirt that Sana had discarded on her pillow.

 "T-shirt," she said, getting back to Sana to help her put it on again. The mermaid didn't seem all that happy about being dressed again, but she still accepted the t-shirt – but not without pouting at Dahyun. No matter how cute she looked when pouting, Dahyun would not let her walk around topless.

 Sana grabbed Dahyun by the hand before she could say anything and lead Dahyun to the kitchen. Apparently, she was hungry this morning. Dahyun wasn't surprised to find Chaeyoung working in the kitchen, music playing from her phone on the table.

 "Morning, Chaeng!"

 "Morning unnie and the exhibitionist mermaid who sneaks into my bed and snores while sleeping on my best friend!" 

 Dahyun groaned. It was already embarrassing enough to wake up to find a topless Sana using her as a pillow without Chaeyoung pointing it out first thing in the morning. It could have been worse, though. Sana could have sneaked in bed with them while completely . So, at least, Dahyun could be thankful for that.

 As Sana was still holding her hand, Dahyun guided her to the kitchen table and made her sit there so that she could help Chaeyoung finish preparing breakfast. Neither of them had ever been good with cooking – but they had learned not to be completely helpless; Tzuyu and Chaeyoung's aunt had been a great help with that. The girls could fix themselves a decent meal with a few side dishes without burning rice and half the kitchen in the process, which was more than good enough to them, if anyone were to ask.

 Breakfast was ready within a few minutes, Chaeyoung having done most of the cooking before Dahyun and Sana got out of bed. Everything was very simple, but there was a lot more side dishes than they would usually prepare for themselves, and Dahyun suspected that it was because Chaeyoung wanted to see Sana's reactions when trying everything out.

 "You want to film her reactions to side dishes, don't you?" Dahyun asked Chaeyoung, amused by the thought. "You better not send any more videos to the group chat."

 "Why not? They'll think Sana is pretty and cute!" Chaeyoung was pouting. 

 Dahyun prepared a bowl rice for Sana and handed her a spoon. The mermaid seemed excited to get to eat again. 

 "I just don't want them to get suspicious about her. I can't. I just can't tell one more person that she's a mermaid. They wouldn't believe that she is one anyway."

 Chaeyoung stayed silent. Dahyun knew her best friend was still staring at her when she turned back to Sana to help her and adjust her grip on the spoon. Dahyun didn't want to talk about the mermaid thing, and she really didn't want to talk about her nightmare and what she knew it was linked to. She wasn't ready, and might never be, even if she trusted her best friend with everything else. Chaeyoung seemed to understand that it wasn't the time to talk about this, so she moved on to breakfast.

 The music was still playing, a nice background noise to balance out their lack of conversation. It was quite nice and comforting. Dahyun liked it.

 Sana reached for a plate, and both Dahyun and Chaeyoung watched as she stared at the raw tofu set on it. The mermaid sniffed it hesitantly, frowning deeply at the smell – she seemed genuinely offended by it. To make sure that Sana didn't think it was poisoned or gross, Dahyun ate a cube of tofu, humming happily even though she had never been a fan of raw tofu; she wanted Sana to taste as many different foods as possible, find what she liked the most to adapt their meals to Sana's taste.

 "It's tofu. You want to try it?" Dahyun picked up more tofu and held her chopsticks up for Sana.

 Sana turned to look at Chaeyoung and ask her a question. 

 "Dubu," was Chaeyoung's simple answer. 

 "Dubu," Sana repeated before she gave her attention back to the tofu. She took the piece offered by Dahyun in , her face immediately distorting in a disgusted grimace. Tofu was not her thing, then.

 Breakfast went on slowly, Dahyun occasionally making Sana try a few new things – the mermaid wasn't a big fan of vegetables, unless there was a lot of spices with them. Maybe mermaids just didn't eat any sort of plant. The idea that mermaids might be carnivorous was not a fun one. You spent your whole childhood watching The Little Mermaid, picturing mermaids as half-fish people who could sing underwater and communicate with fish, and suddenly realizing that they might eat raw fish for breakfast and kill people for lunch was disturbing at best.

 The most amusing was that Sana kept stealing glances at the plate of raw tofu. Did she think that it would jump on her? 

 "Dubu," Sana mumbled under breath. She looked back at Dahyun, a playful little smile on her lips.

 Dahyun smiled back at her. Sana pinched her cheek.

 "Dubu!" Sana said again, with a lot more enthusiasm this time.

 Dahyun blinked. Confused and surprised by the unexpected gesture, she had no idea how to react. Chaeyoung, on the other hand, seemed to be having the time of her life and laughing – way too hard. 

 Someone who had no idea that her nickname was Dubu, who didn't even know what tofu was, had just called her Dubu while pinching her cheek. For some reason, Dahyun couldn't help feeling like she had reached a new low. At least her dignity would be somewhat spared if Sana didn't call her Dubu all the time.
 

 Digging in Chaeyoung's aunt's discarded stuff was not an easy thing. The donation pile was gigantic and contained all sorts of clothes with all sorts of styles; the woman was known around the neighborhood for being indecisive and not quite mature enough to be independent. But she was very kind, and she wouldn't mind if they stole a few things from the donation pile to dress Sana. Dahyun sure hoped she wouldn't mind.

 Their goal was to find pants and a shirt to make sure that Sana would be decent enough to go out. Underwear had been implied, a silent agreement between Dahyun and Chaeyoung, as neither of them wanted to think about Sana wearing Chaeyoung's aunt's .

 "I never saw your aunt wearing flannel before." Dahyun arched an eyebrow at the shirt she had just found in the pile. 

 "She never wears flannel. It's probably an ex-boyfriend's shirt."

 "Your aunt dates guys who can fit in shirts that are her size?" 

 Chaeyoung remained silent, her eyes glued to the flannel shirt Dahyun was holding. Awkward.

 "Sana can have it. And we can pretend we didn't just question my aunt's uality."

 The mermaid perked up at the sound of her name. She had been sitting next to Dahyun the whole time, half falling asleep upright. Dahyun placed the flannel shirt in Sana's lap, on top of the rest of the clothes Chaeyoung and her had selected – a pair of mom jeans and two tank tops.

 Dahyun was starting to believe they would never manage to find Sana some underwear.

 "Thong attack!" Chaeyoung exclaimed all of a sudden as she threw some black lace underwear at Dahyun, who dodged it just in time.

 "Why is there a thong in the donation pile?" Dahyun's shock was obvious in her tone.<