It was only four in the morning when Agnes woke up to the faint whimpers of the merman lying on her bed. She rose from the hard wooden chair in the living room and rushed into the room where the merman was resting. As soon as she stepped inside, the strong fishy smell of the man hit her nose. Of course, he is a sea creature.
But she ignored the stench that had spread through her room and instead, anxiously approached the merman who was softly groaning, seemingly in pain from his wounds. In truth, the wounds on his body were quite deep, possibly caused by the recent dynamite fishing at sea. His tail bore several deep gashes, and some parts of his upper body were badly scalded.
She didn't really know why he had returned, but she couldn't help but think she was the reason. The old woman, Auntie Nita, had once told her that a merman would be willing to risk his life for a mermaid he cared for. She knew sheltering this creature could lead to trouble—but she felt sorry for him, worried for him, and somehow felt responsible. So even if it meant putting herself at risk, she chose to take care of him.
"W-wake up," she said softly, gently poking his side with her finger.
"Wake up now. You need to eat before I treat your wounds," she added, helping him sit up and lean against the headboard of the bed.
She briefly left the room to get some small fish she had bought from the market. She didn't bother cooking them anymore. What would be the point? He wasn't human. He was a merman—used to eating raw fish and slimy sea moss. When she returned to the room, she sat by the bed and began feeding him small fish along with a few seaweeds.
"Is it good?" she asked with a smile. The man returned a gentle smile before continuing to chew.
It seemed he was really starting to understand her.
It had been over three days since the merman arrived at her home, and now the whole place reeked of him. But she no longer minded the smell. What mattered to her was that he recovered so he could return to the sea, where he truly belonged. For now, she'd let him stay under her care—after all, she felt indebted to him.
"Now that you've eaten, I'll start treating your wounds," she said, setting the plate aside.
She fetched a small box containing alcohol, cotton, and a few bandages. She began dabbing the alcohol-soaked cotton onto his burned skin, making him wince in pain like a puppy being scolded. To lessen the sting, she lightly patted the wounds and gently blew on them. That seemed to calm him, and instead of focusing on the pain, his eyes remained fixed on her.
She felt her cheeks flush from his gaze.
She could feel his intense stare as she busied herself treating his wounds. She took a deep breath when her eyes wandered down to his firm, broad chest marked by several scratches. She began cleaning the wounds from his chest down to his stomach, where a defined set of abs made her gulp.
Her face burned as she moistened her lips with her tongue, her eyes tracing down to his v-line. Out of nowhere, a thought popped into her head: How do fish even mate? She chuckled to herself and brushed away the absurd thought, focusing again on her task.
She moved down to his tail, which bore the deepest wounds. Up close, she could see the exposed flesh. If she had been less compassionate, she might've grilled the tail by now—leaving only its bones—but the mere thought of that filled her with guilt.
After all, he was still a living being.
She carefully dabbed at the deep wounds, gently stroking parts of his tail she assumed were sensitive. She paused when another question crossed her mind. She stared at him from head to toe.
He wasn't wet, and he hadn't been in water for days—so why did he still have a tail? From what she knew, mermaids were supposed to grow legs when their bodies dried. Then again, maybe that only happened in movies.
Once she was done treating him, she left him to clean the rest of the house. She had to figure out how to keep the stench from spreading further—especially since many fishermen and children often played outside her home near the shore. She also needed to find a better hiding place for the merman while he remained under her care.
By the afternoon, Agnes was finally done with her chores. So engrossed in her tasks, she had forgotten to check on the merman or even feed him. Her body ached with exhaustion, but she hurried into the room, holding a plate of small fish she intended to give him—assuming he must be starving by now.
But what she found surprised her. She had expected to see him waiting hungrily for her return, but instead, he lay turned away from the door, curled up and hugging himself, shivering as if he were cold.
It made sense, she thought—mermaids weren't supposed to stay out of water. It was their home. And now, without even a blanket or any protection from the cold, he was starting to suffer.
"Are you cold?" she asked with concern as she approached him.
His dim eyes slowly turned to her.
"I'm sorry for being late. I didn't think you might be waiting... or that you were hungry," she said guiltily.
Knowing he wouldn't reply, she simply went on. She placed the plate on a small table beside the bed, then rummaged through her drawers. She found one of Erick's old shirts.
Seeing it unexpectedly tugged at her chest. As much as she wanted to throw away all of Erick's things—the man who broke her—she held onto some, thinking maybe they'd be useful for the merman now.
"Put this on. It'll help you warm up," she said, helping him sit and lean back.
She dressed him in Erick's shirt, which she hoped helped ease his shivering. Then she picked up the plate and began feeding him again. It took him a while to finish eating—he didn't seem to be feeling well. She wasn't surprised. With his injuries, lack of water, and days away from the sea, weakness was to be expected.
Though they were strangers, she couldn't help but feel pain whenever she saw him suffer. But no matter how much she worried or pitied him, there wasn't much she could do except feed and care for him. For now, that was all she could offer.
Once he had eaten and regained some strength, she tucked him in under a blanket, wrapping it tightly around his still-shivering form.
She paused when she realized how close her face was to his, he was lying on his back while she leaned over to cover him. Just as she was about to pull away, she was caught off guard when he suddenly hugged her, pulling her on top of him. Her eyes widened when she realized she was now lying on top of the merman.
This merman's got some boldness in him too, she thought.
(FASTFORWARD)
It was already past six in the evening when Agnes finished gathering the sea creatures she had found by the shore. Once done with her task, she quickly entered the house. The strong, unpleasant smell of the merman she had taken in immediately reached her nose. Even from outside, she could already smell the foul odor, but it was much worse inside her house. This was a huge problem.
Upon entering the kitchen, she immediately prepared the food for the merman, and once she finished, she went into the bedroom. There, she found him frowning, scanning the room as if everything he saw was new to him.
The merman straightened up on the bed when their eyes met, smiling as though it were genuinely happy to see her. Her cheeks flushed because it seemed like she had made it happy just by visiting. Or was she just assuming?
"How are you?" she asked with a smile, even though he couldn't answer her.
"I brought you something to eat," she said, showing the plate she was holding, which had some algae she picked up from the shore.
His smile widened as she sat beside him on the bed and began feeding him with her hands. The last time she had used a spoon, he panicked and tried to hide in the corner.
When Agnes remembered the merman's terrified expression, she felt a sharp pain in her chest, and it made her breathing heavier.
"Eat until you're full," she gently said before feeding him again.
For the past three days since the merman arrived in her house, their routine had been the same. She would feed him in the morning, treat his wounds, then do household chores, find something else to feed the merman, and feed him again.
This repetitive cycle didn't bother her; in fact, she enjoyed caring for this creature. And honestly, she was slowly getting used to the merman's presence.
She smiled as she watched him being fed gently, but her thoughts were interrupted when someone knocked on her door. In her sudden panic, she accidentally spilled the plate she was holding. The knocking grew more insistent as if the person outside was getting impatient.
Despite the trembling fear in her body, she knew she had to act quickly to hide the merman because she feared it might be Sir. Morris at the door.
Her heart pounded so loudly that she could feel it, and though it was getting cold as night approached, sweat streamed down her cheeks due to the intense anxiety. She was pale as she gently lowered the merman to the floor, then slid him under the bed. She motioned for him to be quiet before leaving the room and closing the door.
Taking a deep breath, she opened the front door.
"Big sis!" she froze, realizing it wasn't the Acosta family at the door.
It was the Sangko family who had been knocking earlier. She breathed a sigh of relief, as if some thorn had been removed from her chest. She greeted the Sangko family with a smile. Like her, they were poor, and they relied on each other to get by daily.
In fact, she considered the Sangkos more of a family than the Acostas, who had malicious intentions. Even though they weren't her blood relatives, she considered them her allies.
"Big sis, good evening!" said eight-year-old Buchukoy as he hugged her.
"Good evening to you too. What brings you here?"
"Well, we brought some noodles. We thought we'd eat together since it's been a while since we last shared a meal," the mother replied.
"Oh no, thank you, but I'm already full."
"No 'full' stuff. I know you're hungry, you're just too shy to admit it. You, Agnes, you're not used to us anymore," her aunt chuckled as she shook her head.
"It's not like that, Auntie. I'm really full."
"Come on, Agnes, let us treat you. We just finished celebrating Buchu's cousin's birthday and got some noodles. We remembered you, so don't be shy, okay?"
She didn't want to refuse since they were offering her food.
"Okay, let's go to your house then." she said.
"Oh no, let's eat here so you don't have to walk. Our house is a bit far, isn't it?" the husband said.
She was about to protest, but Buchukoy had already entered the house. Her chest tightened with anxiety as they entered her kitchen. Though she felt like her heart might leap out of her chest, she still smiled and acted as if everything was fine.
She went to the small sink, took a clean plate, and some forks. She figured she'd just ask them to leave once they finished eating.
"Agnes, why does your house smell so bad?" her aunt asked with a frown, stopping her in her tracks.
W-what excuse would she give them?
"Maybe she dried some fish, Mother," Buchukoy interrupted, which she immediately agreed with by nodding.
"Y-yes, my house smells bad because I dried some fish. Please just bear with the smell."
"Is that so? Be careful, you might get sick from the stinky smell," her aunt warned before they started eating.
"Agnes, I actually wanted to ask you something," Buchukoy's father suddenly looked at her.
"What is it, Uncle Kukoy?"
"Since you live so close to the sea and often hang out outside, I just wanted to ask if you've noticed anything strange in the sea, like mermaids?" he asked, which made her swallow hard.
"N-no, I think they were probably scared by the dynamite blast."
"Is that so? But if you see anything, let me know right away. With something as simple as that, you can help us make money," his wife chimed in.
"D-don't you pity the mermaids who have no idea about the world?" she suddenly asked, making the man furrow his brow.
"Agnes, before you pity those mermaids, think about yourself first. Don't you know they steal fish that belong to us? By the time we catch fish, they've already eaten them. Also, the tail of a mermaid is worth a million. Imagine how much we'd get if we caught the whole body. We'd be rich, Agnes."
"But what you're doing is still wrong."
"You're too kind, Agnes," the father joked.
"As for me, I'll do everything I can to catch a mermaid. Even if their bodies are rotting, it's fine as long as I catch one," Uncle Kukoy continued, which made her sigh deeply.
The minds of almost everyone in the town were closed.
She continued eating, and they all froze when they suddenly heard a loud noise coming from her bedroom. She stood up, but before she could block the door, Buchukoy's father was already standing and ready to open the door.
If she hadn't screamed in panic, he would have opened the door to her bedroom. He almost discovered what she was hiding. If that happened, they would surely drive her out of town, and the people would capture the merman she was protecting.
"Uncle Kukoy, E-Erick is in there. Let's not disturb him," she lied.
"Oh, is that so? I thought someone else was in there," he commented before returning to his food.
Her heart no longer beat normally from fear, knowing that the merman was still hiding under her bed. She no longer knew how she would hide him from the people.
They finished eating, and the Sangko family quickly said their goodbyes. When she felt they had gone far enough, she immediately opened the bedroom door and peeked under the bed to check on the merman.
"You can come out now," she whispered softly, helping him get out from underneath.
"Are you okay? I heard something crash earlier," she gently patted his hair, which made him smile slightly.
It seemed like her touch was like a happy pill for him.
"Was it cramped where you were hiding? Did you bump your head? Were you hurt? Were you scared?" she asked in rapid succession, causing the merman to frown.
"Sorry. I didn't know what to do earlier, and out of fear and panic, I made you crawl under the bed even though I knew it was too tight for you."
The merman turned his head, which made her sigh.
"I was really worried about you," she said softly.
She couldn't speak anymore when he lifted a hand, seemingly wanting to intertwine their fingers. A smile unconsciously formed on her lips, and without hesitation, she placed her palm against him and let her fingers curl around his hand.
She didn't know what was happening to her. In the past few days, she had done this to avoid hurting his feelings, but now, she felt happy whenever their hands touched. I-it's nothing, right?
"You should sleep now," she said, messing with his hair.
Their hands parted, and she helped him lie down on the bed so he could rest. She tucked the merman in and gently patted his hair as he hummed until he fell asleep. Smiling, she turned away from him, but then froze when she saw the slightly ajar mouth of Buchukoy, staring at the sleeping merman.
Why is he here?
'Now, he knows what I'm hiding.'