I sighed, trailing behind Seohyun and Kyung as they carved a path for us to walk through crowds in the aquarium. We had only been here for thirty minutes but I was already bored to death. The aquarium had nothing to offer except exotic fishes kept in a tank filled with a sea of water. Heck, the last time I had been to an aquarium was when I was… I paused, unable to think of the last time that I had been to an aquarium. I shrugged it off and looked back to the front, expecting to see Seohyun and Kyung, but instead their backs were nowhere in sight. I stopped walking and thought to myself where they could have gone. I swear they were just walking before me, but now they’re gone? Before I could panic, I told myself to find and open space so I wouldn't look like an idiot who was lost and so that I could think about what to do. Turning around, I looked for an open area and found one in an instant. I walked towards the open area and sat on a curb which outlined the window of the tank.
I took out my phone from my pocket and searched for Kyung’s number, but before I could tap on the phone, I stopped. Maybe I shouldn’t try to call or text Kyung. I mean, he wanted to come here to spend some time with Seohyun and, well, he is right now. I lowered my hand and decided that I wasn’t going to call him. With a sigh, I turned my head towards the window and waited to see some kind of creature swim by, but nothing came by. I raised a brow and slightly turned my body towards the tank, confused as to why nothing was swimming by.

As seconds—minutes passed by, there wasn’t a sight of a creature. Strange, but I guess it would explain why there isn’t anybody coming by to look. As I got up, a little girl—maybe 7 or 8 years old—ran towards the window and stared blankly at it as if waiting for a creature to pop up. I slightly turned towards the girl and cleared my throat, “There’s nothing there—”
“He’s here!” She shouted, “I saw him the other day,”
“Um, but…”
She turned to look at me with a frown, “He’s here,”
“Who exactly is he then?”
“You don’t know?”
I shook my head in response.
“The sea lion,” she replied, “this is his tank,”
“Sea lion,” I mumbled to myself and looked to the side to see a sign which read ‘sea lion.’ Walking towards the girl, I placed a hand on my hip and bend down to look into the window. “But he isn’t even swimming here,”
“He’s shy,” she replied, “but if I’m here, he won’t be,”
“How do you know that?” I asked, finding her answer to be a bit oblivious.
“I came here when he was first brought here,” she answered, “and, well, he was shy to meet me at first, but he soon warmed up and each time I came here, he would greet me.”

“Well, you’re here now, so where is he?”
She pursed her lips, “They must be training him,”
“Training him—”
Suddenly she grabbed onto my hand and was dragging me along, “Come on, we gotta go see him!”
“B-But, I don’t even know who you are—” I was cut off as she tugged onto my hand harder. Great, now I was being dragged around by some girl whom I don’t even know. Rather than trying to get away from her, I decided to follow her to meet this sea lion. Though, to be honest, as we walked through a hollow underwater glass window, my adrenaline was racing. There was just something about deep water that scared me; like if I were to fall into one I would feel that there would be no way for me to swim back up. Soon we stood before stairs which seemed like it would lead us to some forbidden place. I pulled the little girl’s hand back before she could lead us up the stairs. “Look, kid, I don’t think we should go up there,”

She turned to look at me, “Come on,”
“Why do I need to go with you?”
She frowned, “Don’t you want to see him too?”
“The sea lion?” I shook my head, “No, I don’t, actually. I was just casually sitting there, not expecting to see the sea lion.”
Her shoulders slumped, “Well, too bad,” she pulled at my hand, but I pulled back. She sighed and curved her lips downward, “Why won’t you come with me?”
“Where are your parents?”
“They… are somewhere here,”
“Are you lost?”
She shook her head, “I know the place; my dad knows the guy who works here,”
“That still doesn’t mean that we can just walk up these steps,” I countered, “we’re not employed here and I don’t think the fact that your dad knows the guy who works here is a valid answer.”
She gave me a puzzled look, “What?”
“Let’s go back,”
“No,” she pulled back, “I have to see him,”
“Why are you so obsessed about seeing some stupid sea lion?”
“He’s…” she paused, “my only friend,”
“A sea lion?”
She nodded, “Please, will you come with me?” Her voice softened.

As much as I wanted to oppose this, I agreed to come along with her. We walked up the stairs as if it was okay for us. “If the employees ask why we’re here, you better have a good explanation, kid.”
“You’ll be fine,” she smiled, “I told you that my dad knows the guy who works here,”
I followed the little girl towards a big pool in the middle, the sound of a whistle echoed throughout the room, scaring me a bit. Looking around, I spotted a man walking towards us with a bucket and a whistle in hand. . I began to try and think of excuses as to why we were up here. She got lost and dragged me up here. No. I thought that there was—ah, no! I shook my head and pulled the girl’s hand to make her stop walking.

“What are you guys doing up here?” The man asked the closer he got to us.
I gulped, “Uh—well, you see, me and my… little friend here was looking around and happen to have stumbled across some stairs that we thought—” I quickly added in an uncomfortable laugh, “—it would take us to another part of the aquarium. So yeah, we’ll take our leave now because it seems that we are in a restricted area—”
“Hello Mr. Yeo!” The little girl shouted and released my hand to run towards the man. I stood there stunned. The man chuckled and waved at the girl as she walked towards him. “I wanted to see Mu, but he wasn’t in the tank,”
“We took him for some shots, but he’s good now,”
“Great,” she smiled happily, “where is he?”
“He’s actually getting ready for a show,” he answered, “do you guys want to see him before it starts?”
“Ah,” I shook my head, but the little girl interrupted me by nodding her head.
“Yeah, we do!” She shouted.
He smiled and looked at me, “Sorry, what was your name?”

I pulled on a side smile and told him my name. “I-I don’t have any relation to the girl though,”
He looked back at the girl, “Hana, did you just randomly drag her here?”
Hana slyly smiled back at the man, “Well, it looked like she was looking for Mu too, so I just… brought her along,”
He sighed and looked at me, “Well, if you want, you can come with us, or go back,”
“Um,” I looked at Hana and saw her mouthing for me to come along while putting her palms together as if begging me. I sighed and nodded, “I’ll come along,”
Hana smiled and walked back towards me to grab my hand, “Thanks,”
“Whatever,” I replied.

Mr. Yeo brought us to an outside stage with a big pool in the middle. My legs wobbled as I walked closer to the pool; my insides were jumbling and making me feel more nervous than I should. Hana swung my hand happily in hers and giggled, probably happy about the fact that she was going to see her friend.

“Mu!” Hana yelled and released my hand to run towards a rubbery-looking sack. The sea lion began barking at the sight of Hana and looked as if it wanted to run towards her also. She bend on her knees and raised a hand up for the sea lion to high five her. Hana turned back to look at me; she screamed my name, “Come say hi!”
I shook my head, “I think I’m going to pass,”
“Come on!” She urged, waving a hand over.
I sighed and tried to control the wobble in my walk as I walked towards her. To be honest, right now I wanted to go back inside of the aquarium and stare at the fishes through the glass. Having the big pool right next to me was making me nervous and almost sea-sick. As soon as I was at Hana’s side, she grabbed my hand and forced me to show my palm to the sea lion.
“High five him,”
I nodded and straightened my palm, which the sea lion responded to by high fiving me back. A smile unexpectedly came upon my lips and I found myself laughing at its response. Hana giggled and released my hand.
“He’s so awesome, isn’t he?”
“Yeah, he is,”

“Hana?” A familiar voice called from afar. I looked up and saw Seohyun and Kyung walking towards us.
I looked back at Hana and furrowed my brows, “Are you Seohyun’s sister?”
“Seohyun?” Hana repeated, “If you mean my Seohyun, then yeah,”
I clucked my tongue and mumble, “I guess that would explain the resemblance,”
“What?”
“Your sister is walking over here,”
Hana looked away from the sea lion and turned her head to the side. She gasped, “Seohyun,”
Seohyun narrowed her eyes, “What are you doing here?”
“I just wanted to…”
“Does mom and dad know you’re here?”
“Well,” she cleared , “they knew you were going to be here, so they let me come.”
“By yourself?”
She shook her head, “I’m with her,”

Kyung said my name, which I ignored and looked the other way.
As soon as Seohyun and Kyung stood before us, Seohyun said, “Sorry if she troubled you,”
I shook my head, “It’s fine; I just didn’t know she was your sister,”
She nodded, “Yeah,”
“Well, since you guys are here I think I’ll just—”
“But you said that you would stay,” Hana tugged onto my shirt, “please just stay,”
“Hana,” Seohyun cleared , “if she doesn’t want to stay then she can go,”
Hana frowned, “Fine,” she let go of my shirt and turned back to face the sea lion. I looked at Seohyun and gave her a smile and a small wave before walking away. But before I could walk any further away from them, Kyung called out my name and the sound of his footsteps neared me. I ignored him and kept walking, but I knew there was no way that I was going to escape Kyung because he was walking right next to me.
He grabbed my hand, stopping me from walking, and twisted me around to face him. “Why didn’t you call us to let us know where you were?”
I shrugged, “I thought that you would like to have some alone-time with her,”
“Still, we came here with you,”
“Why does it even matter?” I jerked my hand away from Kyung, “You really wanted to come here with her and so now you are. Why don’t you just take the moment rather than trying to ruin it?”
He narrowed his eyes at me, “Are you mad?”
“Why would I be mad?” I answered annoyingly. “I had to come here because you forced me to, then you two left on your own, and I was forced to come to this place by some little girl I don’t even know.”
“Sorry,”
"About what?"
“I didn't mean to just up and leave you,”
“Well you did,” I said flatly and turned back around to walk but my footing had a misstep on a slippery tile and then suddenly I found myself  unable to stay planted on the ground. My feet were in the air in one second and the next I was swallowing water. Water filled my lungs faster than I could I blink; I was unable to control my body as I was sinking further and further down. My body felt so heavy and soon my eyes began to feel heavy.

Suddenly a flash appeared my eyes; the scene that played in my head was the same scene that I was seeing right now. I could hear the sound of muffled yelling from above the water and the sound of bubbles escaping my lips. My eyes widen at the scene as I remembered why I was so nervous to be near the pool of water. The same thing had happened when I was just 7 and had gone to a public pool.

Without another second to spare, my lids finally closed.

author's note; ahh corny dramatic turn of event! thanks for reading ^^ i hope... you guys enjoy the ending bc well... it ain't happy /runsaway/
@HarooVIP: aww why thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the update; hope you enjoy this update!
@silverrinnie: lol it's okay my darling! and thank you so much for reading! i hope you enjoy this update!