Buy one get one free seafood (2)

Ewan wanted to say something first, but when he met his brother’s emotionally turbulent eyes, he didn’t know where to begin.

Tolan saw this silence, and it left a bad taste in his mouth.

“Brother.”
Tolan rarely called Ewan that.

Ewan looked at his brother, who was approaching him from the depths of the cave, and was somewhat stunned.
How long had it been since Tolan had called him that?

Tolan’s palm pressed onto Ewan’s shoulder, squeezing with some force.
He brought his face close, meeting his brother’s green eyes, which were identical to his own, his tone filled with strong confusion and bewilderment.

“What are you hiding from me?”

Ewan was rarely questioned like this by his brother.
Tolan relied on him as a matter of course.
Most of the time, Tolan was the one being tolerated and cared for by Ewan.

This was a side Tolan rarely showed, not petulance, but a somewhat aggressive questioning.

Tolan knew his weapons very well.
Ewan would always soften at being called ‘brother’.
He softened his tone.

“Is there something you can’t tell me?
Brother.”

He saw the evasive look in Ewan’s eyes, the hesitation, the struggle, the apology.
He continued to whisper.

“I’m very sad.”

“We’ve never had secrets between us, and we shouldn’t.”
His tone shifted from questioning to sadness.
After speaking, he emotionally let go and pushed Ewan away.

“Tolan, I…”

Ewan’s originally firm resolve to hide things was cracked open by his brother.

He just, for the first time, had a sense of possessiveness.
From the first time he hid something, this possessiveness had grown day by day.

He knew his brother.
They had once shared everything.

But that didn’t include a partner.
The undeniable problem, however, was that he couldn’t hide it forever.

The silence was stirred.
Ewan raised his hand and touched his own hair.

“I have a partner I want to pursue.”
Ewan’s gentle and apologetic voice sounded.

“A partner?”

Tolan’s gaze followed Ewan’s hand, and he caught sight of a small, curly lock of Ewan’s hair that had been braided halfway, its shape not yet completely undone.

“So what?”

Tolan didn’t think this was something worth hiding.

“A partner means… possessiveness.”

“Do you understand what I mean?
Tolan.”

Tolan crossed his arms, tilted his head, and stared at Ewan, continuing, “Why can’t we?
We should share everything!”

“The partner you like, I will definitely like too.”

The words he spoke were filled with a sense of self-righteousness.
He didn’t think it was a problem at all.

But Tolan’s stubborn perception was precisely the problem.
At this moment, days of worry collided with reality.
Ewan let go of one worry, only to pick up another.

“Tolan, I don’t want to share them with you.”

This was the first time his brother had refused his request, and so directly.

Tolan’s emotions surged.
Why couldn’t he?
Why not?

It was just a partner!

His expression turned ugly, his eyes stubborn.
At this moment, he was truly hurt by Ewan’s words.

He held back his anger, unwilling to speak again, and walked straight past Ewan, his figure disappearing into the sea.

“…”
Ewan opened his mouth and then closed it.

He knew that any explanation now would be useless.
Tolan needed to figure it all out for himself.

Tolan didn’t really know what he was angry about.
He stubbornly blamed everything on Ewan.

It was Ewan’s unwillingness to share that had broken the balance between them.
He had already put up with Ewan leaving alone all this time.

He had already swum a long way, but his anger still hadn’t subsided.
He didn’t want to go back anytime soon.

Just then, a school of marlins passed by not far away, their bodies large and long.
The largest one was nearly twice the length of his tail.

Tolan looked up at the large fish and smiled, his sharp teeth pearly white, then he actively swam towards them.

Night fell.
It was cloudy tonight, the moon hidden by the clouds, so you couldn’t bask in its light.

You lay on the reef, not wanting to move.
Your blue-purple fishtail swayed at the edge, occasionally splashing the water.

You had slept for a whole afternoon.
Now, your eyes were shining brightly.
You were entertaining yourself, wracking your brain to convert songs from your memory into the mermaid’s tune, humming softly.

The concert ended.
You clapped like a seal to affirm yourself, the sparse applause drifting across the sea.

The sea was still calm.
It was really a bit boring.
You flipped over like a salted fish, lying on your stomach on the reef.
You reached out and started prying off the shells on it, kicking your tail and starting to skip them across the water.

One, two… five, six… seven, nine…

You gradually regained your skill and feel.
You wanted to continue, but when you looked down, the reef had been picked clean by you.

Since you were too lazy to move, like being stuck to a pot, the game of skipping shells was declared over.

Fine, nothing to play.

You lay on the reef, staring at the dark sea.
Before you could think of what to play next, a hand holding shells quietly appeared in front of your eyes.
The fingers were long and slender, with prominent knuckles, pale white.

It was a horror movie-like entrance.
You screamed in fright, pushing blindly with your hands!

“What the hell are you!”

The shells in the other’s palm were scattered everywhere by your flailing.
The next second, both of your flailing arms were restrained.

A merman with blond hair emerged from the water, staring at you in silence.

“Ewan?”

The fright turned to surprise.
You didn’t expect him to come find you in the middle of the night to stage a sea-bound horror show.
You subconsciously called out his name.

You had never met at night before.

Ewan didn’t respond to you.
The look in his eyes was too complex, his emotions intense.
He looked like he was angry, and also sad.

You first tried to break free from his grip, and in your struggle, you saw some small scratches on the back of Ewan’s hand, the cuts sharp.

Realizing your resistance, Ewan quickly let go of your hands.

“Are you, okay?”

The time he appeared, the things he did, were all too abnormal.
You sat up and asked with sincere concern.

“…No.”

From his two-word reply, you actually heard a hint of stubbornness.

Still sitting on the reef, you looked down at Ewan.
You saw him slowly reach out, carefully wrap his arms around your waist, and bury his head in your abdomen.

You were baffled.

Ah, this… should I push him away or not?

His breath sprayed on the area where your fishtail met your waist, a cool sensation that made your back itch.
This spot was a bit sensitive.

You raised your hand and touched his head, looking for an opportunity to move it away, but he took it as a comforting gesture and even nuzzled your palm.

Before you could make a decision, you heard Ewan’s voice again, asking you word by word.

“You say, sharing, isn’t it a good thing?”

Whether the words were separate or combined, you could roughly understand them, but you couldn’t comprehend them.

Share what?
What sharing?
Like sharing fish or pearls like before?

Should you say yes or no?

Wait, what does this have to do with you?

The choice paralysis ingrained in your genes froze you for a few seconds.
Your mind went blank.
All the sounds around you were amplified, buzzing in your head along with the question about sharing.

On the sea in the middle of the night, you passively held the merman’s golden head and asked a soul-searching question.

“Huh??”

That agonizing night finally passed.
Since then, Ewan hadn’t come to find you for three days.

You spent two days conducting a useless analysis and came to a conclusion: perhaps because he had shown you his late-night vulnerability, he was too embarrassed to see you recently.

You secretly reminded yourself not to make your friend feel embarrassed about this matter again.
The next time you met, you would definitely not bring up the topic.

Especially that question about sharing.
You really couldn’t answer it.

Tolan killed the last marlin, his anger cooling down.

He thought, it didn’t matter if Ewan didn’t want to share with him.
He would just go and win that person over himself.

If the other accepted him at the same time as they accepted Ewan, what would his brother do?

He had long known the direction Ewan went every day.
Following his memory, he searched all the way.
In the evening, he saw it.

A blue-purple figure was sleeping on the beach.
It was high tide, and waves, one higher than the next, rushed in, washing over their fishtail, their pelvic fins, their waist, and then retreating in turn.

Tolan felt his heart thumping wildly in his chest, becoming noisy.

A partner means… possession.

Ewan’s words seemed to appear in his ear.

So that’s what it meant.
Just one look at you, and Tolan understood.

He watched you sleep soundly, watched you wake up to the tide, sing, and play games.

Until the last ripple from the skipped shell disappeared, he finally couldn’t help but appear in front of you.

It didn’t matter if he was mistaken for his brother for now.

Feeling your body temperature.

Tolan only cared about that.