"My name is Ariel, but don't get the wrong idea. I don't have a fish tail."
Ariel nervously twirled a lock of hair that fell over her chest. Her face was nearly as red as her hair.
Gilliat frowned at the uninvited girl standing outside his door. This was the third time she'd turned up that week, and he was tired of being pestered. "Can I help you? If not, please stop bothering me." With that, he slammed the wooden door shut.
"Hey! ..." Ariel felt defeated, but quickly rallied. It's said that there's only a thin veil between a woman and the man she pursues. No matter how hard he is to win over, if she keeps trying, she'll get him. She'd do better next time.
The moment he wrapped an arm around her waist and lifted her out of the sea, she'd fallen in love at first sight. Water droplets slid from the tips of his hair over his bright eyes, his straight nose, his broad chest, and his firm waist, then traced the smooth lines of his muscles and slipped down... Ariel glanced lower and felt so happy she could faint. Okay, so he'd only thought she was drowning. She could pretend to be dead and wait for him to kiss her...
"Miss, you can get up on your own." He saw right through her.
To pursue the most difficult man on the island, she started learning to build houses and make vegetable gardens, giving her a legitimate excuse to ask him for "help"...
Gilliat treated every islander's request for help equally. From caring for a sow after she'd given birth to digging wells and building roads, there was nothing he couldn't do. She gazed at him in admiration. He was so perfect. If he became her boyfriend, no, her husband, she would want for nothing in life.
As the days passed, Ariel convinced herself they were already like a couple, and just needed to take that final step. After all, he could now stand there and patiently listen to her ramble without walking away. No one else got that kind of treatment! She was happy, even a little smug, until one day she ran into him in town with Dailüshite, the island's most beautiful woman...
Ah! So he could smile like that. So he could say things like that, and do all the things she'd thought he would never do... He could. He just wouldn't do them for her. Ariel blinked. She didn't cry, but her tears slid down her throat into her stomach, heavy as lead.
Soon, a disaster struck the island. Lidielli's steamship had broken down at sea.
Dailüshite announced that she would marry whoever managed to repair the ship's steam engine. When Gilliat heard, he said nothing and swam straight to the site. Ariel quietly followed behind him.
He was going alone to a deserted island to repair the ship, all so he could marry the person he loved. She could help him do it. Maybe then he would treat her a little better? Ariel thought.
During their days surviving on the deserted island, she often said to him, "You must really love her."
She didn't say, "I love you too." It wouldn't matter to him. What would be the point? Watching his steadfast, indifferent profile, Ariel realized how terribly wrong she'd been all along.
On the night the ship was repaired, amid the towering waves stirred up by a sea monster, Ariel smiled at him before letting go and said, "I lied to you. I really do have a fish tail."
The whirlpool dragged her down into the depths of the ocean. When the red was swallowed by darkness, the wind and waves fell silent. Just as in a fairy tale, the Little Mermaid turned into foam and vanished into the air.
Gilliat plunged into the place where she had disappeared, his arm dislocated. He had clearly heard her last words: "Gilliat, I don't love you anymore."
A male mermaid willing to die for love x a real mermaid
Theme: Love yourself well, and someone will love you.
