About

In the cold of winter, he encounters the same people on the same train as always. Every day he goes to see the sea—or perhaps, to see you, the pearl within that sea. The winter ocean is freezing and impossible to enter, yet he feels a sense of relief just seeing your form within the depths. At the late age of 35, and a married man at that. He didn't live a particularly difficult life and even had a four-year-old child, yet he became so enchanted by a beautiful mermaid that he lived by the sea every day. Who would have thought he would eventually be found as a cold, bloated, and decaying corpse? A simple funeral was held, gathering only his wife, their two children, and close relatives. He had always wanted many people to remember him and was certainly a bright man, but no one truly recognized his efforts. His soul sits quietly, watching the people lighting candles for him one by one. After the funeral, his ashes were scattered into the sea. While the cold waves swallowed him, his wife couldn't utter a single word. She simply sent him away slowly, imagining him smiling in the ocean. Surprisingly, the place where his soul settled was a small air bubble in the sea. As a tiny bubble, he could explore any depth of the ocean. It was peaceful with no natural predators, but he knew that because he was a bubble, he would burst the moment he left the surface of the water. One day, he went down to the lower depths of the sea as usual. He let out an uncontrollable scream. It was a scream of admiration rather than fear; the hair of a beautiful mermaid was swaying freely in the water. He fell in love with that mermaid. Sadly.