With your back hunched at a sad angle, you sat yourself on the edge of the bridge facing out to sea. The moon cast a silvery glow on the dark, raging waters of the ocean. The sky, littered with stars, was a little bit hazy from all the fireworks earlier on that night. It was the night of your town's new year's carnival and peering back at the sight, you couldn't help but sigh at the happy atmosphere there and the gloomy one you were in now.

This year's carnival was filled to the brim with the public, old and young alike. The essential gigantic red and white tent played house to many games like a dunking machine, a go-cart corner and a spin-to-win machine. The place also had a gigantic ball pit, four popcorn and candy-floss making machines, a henna parlor and even a free Polaroid booth.

Toddlers were seen dozing off in their prams while couples snuck away from their parents to make love in the famous Maroon Bay Caves. Other mischievous teenagers played pranks on one another, running around the carnival grounds like little children. The aroma of popcorn and waffles wafted throughout the tent. The bright lights set the glorious atmosphere. In short, the setting was hectic.

And hectic was definitely not for you. That was partly why you had come to the quietest part of the bay on that night. The other reason was that all your friends had boyfriends to spend time with and snuggle up to but you didn't.

You groaned as you flung a pebble across the pitch-black water, falling into a daze as you watched it sink down into the depths of nothingness. As if the stone was sinking into your head, you felt a throbbing pain. Your problems had resurfaced.

"Maybe if I had mustered up the courage to ask him out, maybe..." you thought.

"No! A guy must always make the first move.” your inner romantic contradicted.

"But he'd always been the shy type, despite being so close to you.” your logical side struck at you.

"Either way, I’d probably still not have a date since I'm not pretty enough. Pshhh. Kai doesn't like me anyway.” you concluded.

The war in your head ended, your headache went away. All that was left was whether to give your friends a lame excuse to go home this early, just past midnight, or to stay and think of what to do. You had barely finished processing that thought before a large beast attacked you from behind, pulling you across the boardwalk. As you shrieked and struggled out of its grasp, you made out its figure. It seemed to have a long tail and the face of a large rodent. So why did it have the voice of a human?

"It's just me!"the gigantic rodent chuckled, finally letting you go.

Picking yourself up, you turned around to face it. You tried to recover from the shock by breathing in deeply. It was of no help when the rodent then began taking its head off.  Before you could scream, its paws enveloped over your mouth.

Eventually, your brain registered that the rodent was actually the costume of the carnival's mascot. But just who was in it? You gasped in wonder, accidentally inhaling the torturous mixture of what seemed to be stale sweat, burnt popcorn, drool and...

His cologne?

"K...Kai?" you tried mumbling through all the fake fur that suddenly gripped you tight.

"Hey, ____! Ha! I finally shocked you!" he told you, releasing you from his bear hug.

(A/N: or should it be rodent hug? HAHAHA ok sorry)

"Damn!" you replied, playfully punching his arm, making you both crack up. As he stepped out of his costume, you struggled to make out your surroundings; it was quite dim. He noticed you glancing around.

"We're in one of the caves.” he calmly informed, throwing the costume to the side.

"How did you...wha-"you asked, unable to comprehend.

"Ssh," he put a finger to your lips as he gazed down at you. You gulped from the sudden intimacy; any closer and your bodies would collide. Blood rushed to your face as you stood there, helpless under his presence.

"Look. They're going to come out any moment now.” he suddenly said, snapping you back from your daze. He led you to the front of the cave. You stood there trying to hide your blush as his arms draped calmly over your shoulders. You squinted your eyes, trying to make out what was supposed to happen. After what seemed like eternity, you saw a tiny flicker of movement.

"Was that? N...no way.” you stuttered.

Soon, the barely noticeable action turned into a frenzy of the same scuttling of tiny flippers as hundreds of baby turtles appeared out of nowhere, and were heading out to sea. It was a magical sight to see the turtles running, as if racing each other to the finishing line that was their motherland, the deep blue sea. 

Speaking of which, the mother turtles had popped up their wary, protective heads to watch their tiny darlings scurry towards them in the shallow coast. The turtles were a fraction of their size and you gushed at this, earning a low rumble of a giggle from Kai. He was looking down at you dreamily, ecstatic at your happy expression. You looked up suddenly, to find him gazing at you like that. Instantaneously, he whipped his face towards the scene, avoiding all eye contact.

"Why did they hatch at night? How can they see? And why today? Don't they usually hatch on-"you curiously inquired, not noticing his blush.

"Global warming. They had no choice but to adapt to the new conditions. They are at a higher risk of being eaten by predators, but they have no other options.” he shared with you sadly.

"I only knew it was today because of Google..."he bashfully admitted.

You gushed in a dreamy daze as you caught your final glimpses of the lot disappearing into the water, as if stepping into a whole new dimension.

"So...did you like it?" he questioned the obvious when you were both sitting back on the edge of the jetty overlooking the water, where you sat drowning in your sorrows just half an hour before.

"Duh! It was spectacular to see those tiny babies! I wish I jumped into the sea to grab a handful of them to take back home!" you exclaimed with a giggle. You turned your head up to the night sky, sighing in delight.

"I knew you would.” he looked down and smiled to himself.

"How did you know that I liked turtles though?" you asked, tilting your head in his direction.

He looked back up at you.

"Well, when you left the library the other day, you dropped your diary...and I kind of...read it. " he told you, whipping out the book from nowhere and flashing one of his sheepish lopsided grins that sent your head spiraling and your insides warm and ticklish.

This time though, you gasped in horror, attempting to grab the book back. However, he was too fast for you and stood up with his arm above his head, taunting you with his height.

"Dammit, Kai! How could you?! For two weeks you had it, Kai! And you didn't tell me! Give it back!" you screeched at him, jumping up desperately to get it.

"Not. So. Fast.” he calmly told you. 

"Tell me five reasons why I should go out with you since you like me so much, and maybe I'll give it back.” he grinned, his voice teasing.

"Oh. You read that part too, huh." you stopped jumping and looked down in embarrassment.

The freezing cold wind of the south-eastern sea pierced the back of your legs and arms. Your hair whipped over your face, helping to shadow your humiliation. You were frozen and rosy-cheeked in front of your best friend and crush.

Great.

Kai realised you were getting slightly irritated and offered the diary to you. All hints of his smile were gone now.

"Thanks.” you coldly snapped, snatching the diary and running towards the carnival tent without looking back.

"Wait! ____! I'm sorry!"Kai shouted after you, after which you heard a loud thud. You looked back to see that he had tripped over his costume. As much as you wanted to go back to help him up, you turned around again to run through the crowd in the carnival, and to the safety of your friend's van.

In the darkness of the van, you let your tears fall freely. Your muffled cries would hurt no one but yourself. You felt so alone. Kai knew about your feelings and the realisation really hurt. He had read about them firsthand and in much cheesy and humiliating detail too. You cried harder out of embarrassment, praying it would all miraculously blow over in the morning.

"Wait! ____! I'm sorry!" you reluctantly remembered his words. You wondered what he was sorry for. For not liking you back, probably.

The chaotic events of the night seemed to take their toll on you as you drifted off to the sounds of the waves far away, getting more and more distant. The shores of sleep lulled you closer and closer, until you finally faded off into nothingness, just like the turtles, just like the pebble.