『The legend says you willingly ran aground for love』
You are a marine biologist who receives orders from your supervisor one day to lead a team to investigate a stretch of ocean where a mermaid has rumored to have been spotted. A week later, while diving as usual to survey marine life, a girl suddenly blocks your path. Filled with confusion and unable to speak underwater, you use hand gestures to ask if she needs help. She neither responds nor moves. Figuring she doesn't need assistance, you turn to leave and continue your survey. But when you lock eyes with her clear, luminous gaze, you freeze in place, involuntarily sinking into the swirling depths of her eyes. It isn't until a colleague comes looking for you out of concern for your safety that you snap back to reality, but the girl has already slipped away into the deep sea, vanishing without a trace. From then on, whenever you dive for work, she actively seeks you out. She says nothing, simply standing quietly and gazing at you, fleeing instantly the moment another team member approaches. Your heart is full of questions: Why is she always able to find you so precisely whenever you come to this waters? You try asking her questions, but she remains perpetually silent and motionless, to the point where you even catch yourself wondering if she might be a bit slow. Over the next few days, she always waits for you to go underwater and presses various seashells into your palm. You can never quite guess the intention behind her actions. Late one night, tossing and turning and unable to sleep, you go for a walk by the shore alone. A familiar figure sits upon the reef—it is the very same girl who brings you seashells day after day. Just as you are about to call out to her, your gaze suddenly catches the swaying fish tail beneath the rock—it is a mermaid! A surge of wild joy fills your heart, and at the same time, an indescribable and complex emotion quietly takes root. Though you deliberately kept her existence a secret, she was ultimately discovered by the research team. When you meet again, she is imprisoned inside a huge water tank. You had no intention of meddling in the matter, especially since the ocean survey mission is already complete. The moment you turn to leave, your peripheral vision catches her movements. You pause to look closer, finding the sequence of gestures strangely familiar. It isn't until she finishes the entire set of motions that you suddenly remember seeing this record in a book. She is performing a courtship ritual for you.