Chapter 3 - Mr Merman Wants To Chat
clownfish - 0 | clownfish - 2 | clownfish - 4
Shen Dong instantly recognised that voice. All year round, the only people on the island were himself and Chen-shu, so he had a good ear for voices.
It was last night’s naked, chatterbox, the one who’d suddenly appeared then suddenly disappeared.
Perhaps it was from all the imagining he’d been doing but he now found himself too terrified to move or even turn around.
“Hey!” The person behind him shouted again. “I’m talking to you!”
Shen Dong forced down those complicated feelings and slowly turned again. As he’d thought, it was the man from last night. He stood confidently atop the rocks despite still being completely naked.
He was facing Shen Dong and, since it was in broad daylight, Shen Dong couldn’t help but look the guy up and down. He also couldn’t help giving his lower half a few more looks and indeed confirmed that he was male. He didn’t look that old, perhaps just a few years younger than himself.
“Oh?” Shen Dong replied. He didn’t know what to say so decided to wait for the other guy to start.
But he too remained silent as he stared at Shen Dong.
Shen Dong felt himself become uncomfortable under that gaze and he started to think about heading back to his house and pulling out that old hunting rifle for a bit of security.
“…Wait for me to think a bit,” the guy said.
Then don’t say anything!
Shen Dong quit hesitated, turned, and headed back towards his home.
“Wait,” the guy bounced up the cliff and jogged to keep up. “Wait, what’s your name?”
Shen Dong suppressed his desire to shake the guy by the shoulders and ask him what the hell was up with him, and continued on.
“I’m Cao Mu,” the guy said. He reached out a hand and patted Shen Dong on the shoulder.
Cao Mu? Shen Dong’s instinct was to pull away. He still had no idea who this guy was, where he’d come from, or what he was trying to do.
Undeterred by Shen Dong’s aversion, Cao Mu reached for him again, this time grabbing at his shorts. “What’s your name?”
“L-Let go!” Shen Dong was terrified and he whacked Cao Mu’s arm.
“I just asked your name, what you getting all stressed over? If you don’t want to tell me, then don’t tell me…” The guy didn’t seem to quite understand why Shen Dong had reacted like that and instead rubbed his arm while continuing to follow. “Remember my name then. It’s Cao Mu. Got it?”
That sentence confused Shen Dong and he couldn’t help giving the guy another look.
“Because…” Cao Mu laughed self-effacingly. “I often forget things, like my name, what I’m doing, all that. Then I need to try hard to remember them.”
Shen Dong didn’t reply and kept on ahead. This unaware, threadbare lad had already ruined the wonder of potentially meeting a merman so Shen Dong mentally returned him to the ‘mentally insane’ list.
What’s worse, when Shen Dong finally made it back to his home and in the door, Cao Mu kept on just inches behind him.
“W-what do you, you want?” Shen Dong asked, turning around to block the door with his body.
“You not going in?” Cao Mu asked smiling. “D’you have water? I’m thirsty.”
Shen Dong said nothing. He stared at Cao Mu. He had to admit, Cao Mu was good looking with a smile that lit up the sky. He didn’t seem to have any evil intentions. If anything, he acted as if they were close friends who’d known each other for years.
Thirsty?
Shen Dong hesitated for a while, then finally went in. Cao Mu followed.
“The room’s so small,” Cao Mu assessed as he stood and looked around.
It really was. Its three sole pieces of furniture, the bed, wardrobe and table, left no room to even stretch your legs out in a horse stance.
Shen Dong didn’t reply and instead went straight to his table, picked up the kettle, and poured some into his own cup. He offered this to Cao Mu.
Cao Mu finished it in a single gulp and wiped his mouth. “Any more?”
Shen Dong wordlessly poured him another cup. As Cao Mu gulped it down, Shen Dong went back to the door and pushed it open. He pointed outside. “Go.”
“After a bit,” Cao Mu said, looking at him. Then he sat on Shen Dong’s bed and showed no signs of intending to leave. “Let’s chat, okay? Can you say ten sentences in a day? You know, it’s not good to not talk enough. See your stuttering…”
Shen Dong didn’t wait for him to finish before picking up the small stool by the door and swinging it at him. Would you just shut up about the stuttering?!
“Aiya!” The stool hit Cao Mu’s leg and he yelled out as he escaped out the door, still rubbing his leg. “If you don’t want to chat, then don’t chat”, why you gotta hit people?”
Seeing as he was out of the house, Shen Dong quickly shut and locked the door.
Unbelievable!
He grabbed his watch face and checked the time. He barely slept last night and his eyes were feeling dry. He should try to sleep for a few hours then go check the lighthouse again.
But even though he was tired, he couldn’t sleep. He just couldn’t stop thinking about where that Cao Mu had come from.
“Argh,” Shen Dong got up and decided to go see where Cao Mu had gotten to.
But as he opened the door, he discovered that that Cao Mu was in fact squatting against the wall just by the door.
“Going out?” Cao Mu asked, smiling again and standing up. “Where you going? Can I come with?”
Shen Dong felt his temples start to ache. He sized Cao Mu up. Looked like the guy wouldn’t be letting him go anytime soon.
Shen Dong turned and pulled out some clothes from his wardrobe and threw them at Cao Mu. “W-wear them.”
“No need,” said Cao Mu, looking at the clothes. “When I go in the water they’re just going to get wet. I don’t need…”
“Wear them!” Shen Dong shouted, a hand raised ready for action.
“Okay okay okay!” Cao Mu quickly pulled the clothes on and retreated two steps. “Don’t go hitting people again, okay?”
Seeing Cao Mu fully clothes, Shen Dong breathed a sign of relief. For a person who saw next to no one all year round, having a naked stranger romping around put him under a lot of pressure.
The clothes were old and a colourless grey. Shen Dong hadn’t bought any clothes since coming to the island and it was Chen-shu that had given him some.
Shen Dong leaned against the doorframe and looked at Cao Mu. Putting on the clothes had somehow quietened the fury in Shen Dong.
He hesitated a moment then opened his mouth to speak. “W-Where did you, you come from?”
“The sea.” Cao Mu crouched with his back leaned comfortably against the wall. The reply was instantaneous.
Shen Dong stared. He’d finally managed to rid any thoughts of merman from his mind so hearing Cao Mu’s response threw him. “Ah?”
“From…” Cao Mu scratched his head. “Just, from the sea. The ocean. I just swam over.”
“Oh.” Shen Dong slowly breathed out. He just swam over. From the village? That’s quite some stamina.
“Don’t you see me every day?” Cao Mu asked casually.
That remark made Shen Dong freeze and he nearly ripped a bit of the door frame off. He oogled Cao Mu. “Every…day?”
“Yeah,” Cao Mu nodded his head then pointed toward the ocean. “Every day you throw me in the water. I didn’t remember who did it before, but now I remember. I won’t forget again. Ah, what’s your name?”
Shen Dong’s vision blurred and rainbows sprouted.
What was going on?
Every day he… threw Cao Mu into the ocean? Clearly all he’d thrown was that… little clownfish.
“What’s your name?” Cao Mu asked again earnestly.
“Shen… Dong,” Shen Dong automatically replied.
“Oh, Shen Dong. Next time I ask, can you tell me again? I might forget. My memory’s not too good.” Cao Mu leaned toward him. “What’s up with you? Are you okay?”
“You…” Shen Dong leaned heavily against the door frame. His legs felt weak. He poked Cao Mu. He was warm and very clearly a human. Shen Dong took a breath and struggled to order his thoughts. Then he asked the craziest question. “Y-you’re a fish?”
“Fish?” Cao Mu could probably tell from Shen Dong’s face that something was wrong. He hesitated a moment, then nodded a little. “I suppose so.”
On hearing those words, Shen Dong disappeared inside the room and snapped the door shut in Cao Mu’s face.
“Hey!” Cao Mu jumped, shocked, then banged on the door. “Shen Dong! You’re Shen Dong, right? Open up, I didn’t mean to scare you!”
No sound came from within. Cao Mu pushed at the door. It didn’t budge. He hit it again. “Sorry, ah! I didn’t mean to… scare you. I just wanted to find someone to chat with…”
Cao Mu’s voice got quieter towards the end. He pressed an ear to the door to listen, sighed, then slowly retreated. “I’m going then, I’m going! I’ll give you the clothes back tomorrow. I’ll just put them by the door.”
Shen Dong had his arm pressed against the door and he could just see through the gap. He saw as Cao Mu walked off towards the reef but only after he disappeared did Shen Dong finally take a breath.
After a few minutes he lay quietly down on his bed with his arms behind his head and stared up at the roof beams.
After laying there for a while, he started to think his reaction earlier was laughable. A merman? Cao Mu says he’s a fish, and that makes it so?
“A twenty plus year old believing in it,” Shen Dong turned and faced the wall. “How laughable.”
That Cao Mu was probably just a mental case, he even mentioned he had memory problems. It’s likely he just happened to see Shen Dong chuck that clownfish into the ocean then made up that story about being a fish… The only thing Shen Dong couldn’t quite reason out was how he’d gotten to the island and where he was planning on going now.
The island was pretty far away from the mainland, it took the ship a few hours to get there, so there was no way a person could make the swim.
Shen Dong got up, put his shoes on, then went out the house.
No way he was sleeping now!
Cao Mu was long gone, but Shen Dong had seen him heading towards the reef.
On the road, Shen Dong happened across a few of the chickens and he thought about having a check of the meatiness situation, but decided against it. These birds had been living unfettered for so long on the island that anything less than using a net would be useless.
As soon as the chicken caught sight of Shen Dong it was fluttering up and away.
Shen Dong looked away from the chicken, and as he was about to continue on, he saw something glimmer near the rocks, something that seemed to be reflecting the light.
Curious, he crouched and felt the rock.
A fish scale.
A transparent, light orange colour.
Shen Dong pinched the scale and held it up to his eye.
It really was a light orange. Were it still on the fish, it would probably be a rich, dazzling orange.
A clownfish scale.
“There’s no way…” Shen Dong didn’t move. He didn’t know how to process this. Before even considering if it was the chickens who’d eaten a clownfish, based on his experience, he knew that if something had been eating clownfish, there should be more remains around.
Shen Dong placed the scale back onto the rock then stood and quickly walked toward the reef.
Before he reached the shore, he could already see that there was someone sitting up on that particular rock.
It was Cao Mu. He was facing the sea with his legs dangling in the water as he looked out toward the endless ocean.
Shen Dong came to a stand still behind Cao Mu. He wasn’t sure if he should ask Cao Mu his history or if he should just head back to his room.
Finally, he decided that he wanted to get to the bottom of this and stop letting his imagination get the better of him.
He coughed deliberately.
The still Cao Mu suddenly turned his head. His face brightened into a smile. “Shen…”
“Dong.” Shen Dong finished, sitting on a rock atop the cliff.
“Right. Shen Dong.” Cao Mu happily nodded his head. “Do you remember my name?”
“Cao, Cao Mu,” Shen Dong replied.
“Oh, correct,” Cao Mu became even more excited. He pulled his legs from the water and seemed to want to clamber up the cliff, but then stopped and sat down again. “Why’ve you come? Did you come to see your coral?”
“No.” Shen Dong squinted. Cao Mu knew he often came to look at the coral?
“Then, you came to see me?”
“Mm.”
“Can we chat?”
“Sure.”
Shen Dong didn’t know how to begin, and so waited for Cao Mu to start, but after a long silence Cao Mu just looked at him, saying nothing.
“D-don’t you want, want t-to chat?” Shen Dong felt chatting with people was literal hell.
“Yeah…” Cao Mu said, then laughed. He rubbed his nose self consciously. “I forgot what I wanted to say.”
Shen Dong sighed. He was too exhausted from going back in forth in his head as to whether this guy was just insane or actually a fish to be either afraid or shocked.
“J-just then, you, you said you w-were…”
“Was what?” Cao Mu looked at him curiously.
“A fish.” Shen Dong took a deep breath. He’d originally wanted to say ‘clownfish’ but hey, if he could use fewer words, the better.
“Oh, yeah. Right!” Cao Mu nodded, then carefully added, “Did I scare you?”
“No.” Shen Dong felt the evidence in favour of Cao Mu just being crazy just got heavier.
“That’s a relief! When you shut your door earlier I thought I must have scared you or made you angry.” Cao Mu stood and easily climbed up the cliff face and sat on Shen Dong’s rock next to him. “At first I thought you were like me. When you look at the coral, you stay underwater for a real long time.”
“W-where did you, you see me?” Shen Dong asked, looking sideways at him.
“From the water. Near the coral. Just swimming around.” Cao Mu laughed and waved a hand. “You probably didn’t notice me. A lot of clownfish hang out around the coral.”
Shen Dong choked and coughed till his lungs ached.
“Actually…” Cao Mu started, gently patting his back, his voice suddenly losing its former enthusiasm. “You don’t believe me, do you?”
“Eh?” Shen Dong was surprised. So Cao Mu knew what he was saying was crazy.
“Grandpa said not to tell anyone,” Cao Mu turned and looked out at the ocean, “But I thought, you’re a good person, you treat the coral well, you grow them so carefully and even transplant the broken bits, and you protect the birds… even if you do eat fish…”
Shen Dong had been about to cough, but on hearing that he instead felt the palm of his hand go cold. That matter of the corals was something that only Chen-shu knew. He’d never seen any people during those moments, or, put another way, other than egg thieves or bird thieves, he’d never seen anyone else on the island.
He had a stammer, he wasn’t stupid. If there was no one around on the rocks to see him mess with the coral and no one in the water, there’s no way anyone else could know…
“You…” Shen Dong stared at Cao Mu as an alarm bell went off in his head.
Cao Mu suddenly rose. “I’m off now. Got enough sun. I can’t stay up here that long,” he said as he began to strip. “Thanks for the clothes. You’re the first person to ever tell me to wear them.”
“Cao…” Shen Dong stood hurriedly. Cao Mu had already stripped off his shorts. He couldn’t just stand there and not get embarrassed.
“Cao Mu,” Cao Mu finished for him with a grin. Then, without waiting for a reply, he jumped into the ocean.
In that moment, Shen Dong realised why Cao Mu hadn’t dashed himself on the rocks the night prior.
Cao Mu had a shocking amount of strength and with just one leap he’d sprung far out beyond the rocks, to the point it made Shen Dong’s eyes go wide.
He really… wasn’t human.
“Cao Mu!” Shen Dong shouted after he’d come to his senses, but Cao Mu had already disappeared in the waves.
Shen Dong didn’t think and immediately jumped into the ocean too. He couldn’t jump to where Cao Mu had gone but he’d seen roughly where it was.
Ahead were countless bubbles streaming off in one direction like a cloud. Shen Dong swam after it.
It was hard to imagine that a person could form that many bubbles after jumping in the water but Shen Dong had no mental space to be surprised anymore. Right now, all he wanted was to catch up with Cao Mu and just figure all this out regardless of whether Cao Mu turned out to be a sea monster or whatever.
Shen Dong was a strong swimmer yet most of the bubbles had disappeared by the time he’d reached the spot.
And there was no Cao Mu.
If he’d just swum away, in such a clear ocean as this, unless he was able to swim as fast as a bullet, Shen Dong would have been able see him go.
What the hell?!
In the water, his clothes made things difficult for him so he made to pull them off. As he reached for his shorts, however, a cluster of bubbles then an orange flash went past him.
An orange clown fish casually swam past his face.