Tzuyu came back with Dahyun after a while, and when Chaeyoung ran outside to ask what took them so long, she saw the blue mound of material in the red wagon.
"This was a lot heavier than I thought," Tzuyu panted after she got off the bike. Dahyun began pulling the pool off the wagon to drag it behind the house, as Chaeyoung instructed.
"What about your parents?" Tzuyu asked, as her and Dahyun knew about her parents' position on mermaids.
"I don't know what I'm going to tell them," Chaeyoung sighed.
"I know," Dahyun piped up with a grunt following. "You don't."
Chaeyoung didn't keep things from her family. She always told them everything, even how she wanted to meet a mermaid, hearing them as they advised her not to, but not actually listening to them. Whenever she had a bad day, she told her parents. When she had a good day she told her parents. She tells her parents that her friends keep her company when they're out, and they're fine with it. But keeping a mermaid in their backyard? Probably not.
"I just can't not tell them! They'll see a huge pool back there and ask me about it!"
"Not unless you disguise it." Dahyun shrugged, continuing to drag the pool around the house.
"How am I gonna disguise a giant, bright blue pool?" Chaeyoung asked, picking up the end with Tzuyu.
"With nature!"
Chaeyoung didn't understand what the older meant, sharing a confused look with Tzuyu, who shrugged. They merely followed their unnie behind the house, marching through the backyard. It was when the bushes and trees behind the home appeared that Chaeyoung understood what Dahyun met.
"The pool is still blue, though," Chaeyoung pointed out.
"We can get some spray paint tomorrow. Now, go find your hose and Tzuyu-yah and I will set up the pool."
The three worked diligently, setting up the pool and filling it with cool water. They stood around, watching the pool full up, until Tzuyu said,
"Salt."
"What about it?" Dahyun asked.
"Salt water. The ocean is salt water. What if she can't live in fresh water?"
"Shoot, you're right!"
Chaeyoung hurried in the house to get a container of salt before returning to her friends.
"Now what?"
"Dump it in."
"The whole thing?"
Dahyun nodded, gesturing to the pool.
Chaeyoung blames her next action on the nerves. She hesitated before chucking the whole container into the pool, earning facepalms from both of her friends.
"Not what I meant," Dahyun said.
"Sorry. Got nervous."
"Of what? A pool? I thought you could swim!"
"I can swim! I'm nervous of keeping a mermaid hidden from my parents."
Dahyun shook her head while wearing an expression of understanding. "I know it's hard since you're a goodie two-shoes. But if you want to make a good impression on the mermaid, then you should help her."
"And keep your mouth shut," Tzuyu helpfully supplied.
Chaeyoung gave a nod before reaching forward and grabbing the container of salt before the water got too deep.
It took a while, and Chaeyoung was beginning to get paranoid from how late it was getting, but they finally got the pool filled up. Dahyun and Tzuyu retrieved the mermaid from the house, carrying her as quickly as possible with their arm strength. Chaeyoung had to step away once they threw the mermaid inside the pool, as a big splash occurred.
"Do you think she'll be okay?" Chaeyoung asked as Dahyun began rolling up the hose.
"Of course! She can breathe underwater!"
Still, Chaeyoung wasn't too sure. But she had no time to question anything as she followed Tzuyu back inside the house. Her parents will be back home any minute, and she didn't want to explain why the bathtub was full of water or why their clothes were wet.
Chaeyoung quickly unplugged the tub and wiped up the water trail left behind. Once she was done, she dragged her friends into her room and gave them too-big-for-her clothes that would fit them--or at least Tzuyu--easily. They quickly changed into dry clothes before heading back to the living room. Chaeyoung put on a random show on Netflix and they all pretended to look nonchalant as they waited for her parents to get home.
Everything was fine, until she heard a low growling noise. Her and Dahyun exchanged looks before turning to Tzuyu, whose face was turning pink.
"Getting pizza would make us less suspicious," Tzuyu said, to which Dahyun laughed and got her phone out.
Their plan worked. When Chaeyoung's parents came home to them eating pizza, they had no reason to question them about anything. Afterwords, Dahyun and Tzuyu went home and Chaeyoung ended up lying in her bed a couple of hours later, wide awake.
What if something happens? What if the mermaid wakes up? What if her parents find it? What if the mermaid got hungry? What if she fell out the pool and died or something? What if she never woke up?
Chaeyoung was worrying too much for her own good, she knew so. But she couldn't help it because she's never been in the presence of a mermaid before. An actual mermaid.
What if she didn't like Chaeyoung? What if she was afraid of humans and sent out some kind of distress call to other mermaids, then cause some type of war against mermaids and normal humans? Chaeyoung hasn't thought this through. Maybe the better option would have been to leave the mermaid there or throw her back in the water or something.
She kicked off her blankets and slid out of bed, going to her window. It was facing the backyard, so she could keep an eye on the mermaid. It was too dark to really see anything, which was bad for her but good so her parents would see anything suspicious happening.
She went back to bed, deciding that worrying wouldn't benefit anybody. She'll just have to wait until the mermaid woke up before taking any form of action.
This is how I imagined the pool:
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Anyways, I was gonna wake Somi up in the chapter before, but I was like "nah, we need dubchaengtzu friendship" and ta-da!
I'm also salty that Somi's debut got pushed back oml, I just want my girl to debut😭
