Femme Fatale

Chapter 17: My Friends Who Are Boys

“Dance? Me? Why? Why do you wanna dance with me??!” looking at Seaof in awe (Justin-samchon told me that this man won’t do anything but why is he hitting on me, now? And to top of it all in front of fellow female schoolmates!) “I … I …” I want to refuse him but it’ll embarrass him

“Ah, I just want my female students to enjoy the night.” Seaof explained “Last night, you were all wearing beautiful dresses but none of you gone to the dancefloor except for Rita who’s dancing with her boyfriend of course, those dresses are meant to be seen by everyone, you didn’t have all the efforts to doll yourselves up just to sit on a table and look at others as if you’re here to observe the party.”

“You mean you’re going to dance with all of us, Prof. Godeth??” schoolmate A “Us 8??” schoolmate B “Only 7, Rita here got a boyfriend.” schoolmate C

“Uh, why would I miss this opportunity? of course, I’m dancing with Prof. Godeth too!” Rita exclaimed “It’ll be better if Prof. Nevaeh will offer too.”

“Go ahead, Nene.” schoolmate D “Dance with Prof. Godeth first, we’re fall in line here!” schoolmate E “Let’s dance the night away!” schoolmate F

“You asked for it.” take Seaof’s hand “Can you do it? dance with everyone? those girls are taking turns to drain you out.” walking with him to the crowd

“I can manage.” Seaof put my hand on his shoulder and his hand on my waist while our idle hands hold each other “You girls shouldn’t waste the night.”

“Do rich people always party like this?” trying to have a conversation with him instead of getting uncomfortable with his touch

“It’s boring, right?” Seaof said “Dressing formally, dancing and talking with each other, high school prom is much better than this.”

“Prom?? Ah, right you lived in America until you graduated in high school, in Korea all you do is study for high grades to get admitted in college.” I said

“That’s a dance event in senior year of high school, kind of a big deal to almost everyone because it’s the last fun thing you’ll have before you graduate.”

“Such a huge gap of culture differences, I suddenly miss all the events in a year that I’ve celebrated when I was a kid.” reminiscing the good memories

“What particular event do you like the most?” Seaof spinning me around as we go with the rhythm of the music

“Halloween.” bending over as he catches my back “Why? Why do you look so surprised?? Is there’s something wrong if I like Halloween.”

“No, it’s just that, Halloween is also my favorite time of the year, you can be whoever you want to be during Halloween.” Seaof smiling at me gently

“Well aside from the costume, I could go around the neighbors with my friends and ask for treats from everyone, when our loot bag’s full, we’ll stop for a moment and eat the candies we want, then we’re back on knocking doors until we get tired.” telling him my story excitedly

“Good for you, I don’t have that kind of experience on Halloween, I only stayed at home while wearing a costume that I like and eat anything I want.”

“Oh, that’s sad.” I suddenly feel sorry for him “Uhm … the song’s change, you’re about to ask the others to dance with you, right?”

“Right.” Seaof’s smile fade away “Thanks for reminding me that I have to change partner, by the way it might be sad for you but I’m happy with it.”

“Well everyone’s got different definition of happiness.” trying to pull my hand away from his grip “We don’t have to hold hands now, do we?”

“Ah, sorry.” Seaof released my hand “I’m so caught up with what we talked about that I got so lost at the moment.” walking me to our table

“Seaof is all yours, girls.” about to take a seat when I realized that I just called Seaof on his first name in front of the girls “Ah, I mean Prof. Godeth!”

“I don’t mind if you call me on my first name, besides we’re on a vacation, Prof. Godeth is on leave so I’m not your professor the entire trip.” Seaof saved me from trouble “So, who’s next?” looking at the girls who’s pulling themselves together from a sudden shock

“Me, Prof. Go-, I mean Seaof.” Rita raised her hand “I’m only calling out your first name without any honorifics at all, but why does it sound wrong?”

“It’s alright, we’re in America, people normally call others on their first name.” Seaof reach out his hand to Rita “I won’t get in trouble from your boyfriend with this dance, right?” looking around to search for Rita’s boyfriend

“Of course not!” Rita answered “I’ll be mad at him if I don’t get to dance with you Prof. … Seaof … wow, how can you call him comfortably with his first name, Nene?” taking Seaof’s hand “I keep on addressing him professor.” walking with Seaof towards the dancefloor

“Are you that close with Prof. Godeth?” schoolmate A “Yeah, even us is finding it hard to call him on his first name.” schoolmate B “It’s as if we’re not being respectful to him.” schoolmate C “Even if we call him that, we at least call him Seaof-ssi.” schoolmate D “But you, you called him confidently as Seaof, just like that.” schoolmate E “Foreign Koreans are really different with us pure Koreans.” schoolmate F

“Just like he said, we’re in America so we can call him Seaof, it’s not that weird at all, you girls think too much about it.” drinking a glass of water

To be honest I’m not expecting that Seaof will take cover for my recklessness. I could call him and Poseidon on their first name because they’re Justin-samchon’s friends, but I don’t know if it’s really alright for others to call him the way I does. Well as for Poseidon, I could call him Don, like what Meghan used to call him, but for others they’re addressing him Prince Don, they even have a fan club for him as they idolize the man very much.

On the third night, another party for the elite held at the hall, aren’t these people getting bored of doing the same thing every night? After having a sumptuous dinner with the girls, I went out to sniff the smell of the sea instead the mixed perfume of everyone at the party.

“About what you told me the other night.” Poseidon suddenly appeared beside me “I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and you’re right I’m full of myself.”

“Are you drunk?” doubting his words “Why do you sound like you’re not yourself? Did that Chef gave you something that changed you all of a sudden?”

“Hey, I’m being serious here, do you really have to mock every word I say to you??!” Poseidon raising his voice “Can’t we have at least normal conversation if not peaceful? Without annoying each other, you always provoke me to get mad at you and I don’t know how you never failed to do that.”

“You think you’re the only one getting mad??!” also raising my voice to him “I also don’t know why I find you annoying even if you do nothing.”

“It’s ridiculous right?” Poseidon staring ahead as he calmed his voice “I never argue with my sisters or anyone but I do with you, I always feel like I can’t lose to your rubbish though I’m used to ignore other people’s opinion because it doesn’t worth my time.”

“I don’t know if you’re insulting me or not but I do agree with you, it’s ridiculous how we always clashed to each other like we’re enemies.” chuckles

“Do you hate me Nene?” Poseidon leaned his back on the rail as he turned to look at me “Because obviously you don’t like me so I’m asking the opposite.”

“As a professor, no, I’m learning from you in a hard way but you’re making it easy for me to understand the actual matter.” I replied

“You’re really peculiar you know that?” Poseidon chuckles “Everyone hates me as their professor but you, you’re the only one who understand my real intention, even I doubt myself if I’m suited to be a professor at all because everyone’s complaining about my teaching method.”

“Well you’ve got a special method of teaching but don’t worry you’re not that bad, so you even I doubt yourself too, huh?” looking at him

“I’m not completely perfect, of course I doubt myself too, specially doing things that I haven’t done before.” Poseidon smiles as he looks up at the sky

He’s being arrogant for saying he’s not completely perfect. This man knows how good looking he is even though he’s only 5’8” in height, he looks tall because of his confidence when he’s speaking in public. He’s exemplar as everyone says but he set the bar too high for anyone to reach his level.

“My ride is here.” a helicopter hovering right above us and drop a ladder that Poseidon catches “I’ll see you in London.” climbing up the ladder as if he’s being in an action movie and almost everyone got out to see what’s happening because of the noise

“What’s happening??!” a man yelling at me “Who’s that crazy guy hanging on the ladder at this time of night in the middle of the ocean??!”

“An aspiring action movie star doing his stunt!” screaming at him “I wonder if he can make it to the top or he fall to the ocean.” watching Poseidon climb as he’s being on the spotlight while doing his sudden crazy stunt “He’s showing off too much that he even doing an action-like trick.”

“Nene, is that Don??!” Seaof stand beside me “I only know that he’s leaving tonight but I didn’t know he’ll leave like that.”

“He said we’ll see him in London, isn’t London our final destination?” still staring where the helicopter’s direction “Where is he going anyway?”

“The helicopter will drop him off to the airport and he’ll arrive in Seoul probably tomorrow.” Seaof scratching his head “The Nevaeh are allowed to be out of the country for only 5 days 20 hours and 23 minutes vacation, in consideration of the travel hours they’ve been given for exactly 168 hours or 1 week.” he explained “That’s one of their family rules that every member abide.”

“That’s kind of weird, what’s with the fixed time of vacation when you’re out of the country has something to do with family?” suddenly feels a chill

“The Nevaeh got a lot of family rules that every one of them follows, as you know being one of the wealthiest family in the world isn’t easy at all.” Seaof taking off his coat “Let’s go inside, it’s freezing cold out here.” cautious about others who’s still staying outside “Sorry, can’t give you my coat.”

“It’s alright, people might misunderstand if they see you put your coat on me.” walking beside him as I endure the cold breeze of night air

Instead of going back to the party, I went to my room instead but because of my agreement with Hammond to return after 10pm in our room for his so-called privacy, I have to stay for another hour roaming around the ship. Sharing a room with someone who have an active s*x life really sucks.

“Nene, what are you still doing outside?” Seaof caught me strolling around “I thought you want to sleep early, that’s why you head back earlier?”

“I’m just taking a walk for a while.” (Yeah, I’ve been staying out for almost 50 minutes, because I can’t get in to my room yet.)

“Walking with bare feet, how long have you been wandering around like that?” Seaof looking at my feet “You could use some rest.”

“Yeah, I’m actually about to go to my room now, and take a rest.” (Please, Hammond you should be wearing clothes at this moment and done playing.)

“Even if you don’t have your heels on, you’re still tall for girl.” Seaof walking with me since we’re heading to the same direction “You look like a model.”

“I’m done with modeling, there’s a lot of rules I need to follow and I’m so over it.” about to turn at the corner where are rooms located

“Ah right, you were a model, but you still look like one.” Seaof staring at me “Even if you don’t follow such rules, I think you can still pull it off.”

“!!!” saw Hammond and his girl got out from the room “Uhm, what was that?!” pointing at nothingness behind him to make him turn around (Why am I covering up for Hammond?! I could just let him get caught by Seaof but because he told me that Seaof got mad at him the last time.) “You see it?”

“See what? What have you seen?” Seaof about to turn his head to me but I walk forward for him to follow me “What is it Nene?”

“I think I saw something.” I met Hammond’s eyes as he murmurs thanks to me while his walking fast with his girl “Maybe it’s just my imagination.”

“You’re not telling me a ghost story, right?” Seaof walks closer to me “No one died in this ship yet so I’m pretty sure it’s not haunted.” getting anxious

“Are you scared of in ghost?” trying not to laugh with his facial expression “Do you actually believe in scary stories??”

“We’re not the only one who exist in this world, you may laugh at me but I do believe in everything as long as there’s a proof.” Seaof looking around

“I totally agree there’s a lot of creatures out there that we haven’t seen yet but we believe in their existence.” walking towards my room

“Did Hammond forget to lock your room again?” Seaof watching me over before he opens his own door

“I told him not to lock because he’s the only one who got the key to our room.” about to walk in to our room but there’s this smell again

“Speaking of key.” Seaof take out a key from his pocket “Do you want to use Don’s room instead? No one will use that room anyway.”

“Thanks, I think I’m moving out tonight from this room and move to my new room.” get the key from his hand without hesitation

“Ah, Nene wait, I have to get Don’s belongings first from his room.” Seaof said as he takes the key back from me

“Right, sorry, I got too excited, I also need to pack my things first, I’ll see you in a bit.” handed him the key then entered my room to get my things

It took half an hour for me to pack all my stuff and leave the room I shared with Hammond. Seaof told me that he didn’t do much anything in Poseidon’s room and he literally just took out Poseidon’s belongings then transferred to his room.

I lay myself down to sleep in the bed Poseidon used for two nights. It’s already 11:30pm but I can’t sleep at all because of the scent still lingering in my new bed, I don’t know what kind of perfume he uses but I really like his smell. This ice-cold scent of a man that’s quite addicting to my nasal glands.

The next morning, I woke up hugging a pillow like I usually does but I had a good night sleep that made up my mood light like a feather. I didn’t have to tell Justin-samchon what happened as he already knew but Hammond was freaking out first thing in the morning when he found out I’m not in bed.

“You!” Hammond glaring at me as he sit beside me to join my breakfast with other girls “If not for Justin-samchon, I thought something bad happened to you, you should have left a note that you transferred to the next room, I really thought that you were the one sleeping on your bed.”

“It’s just a prank, I didn’t expect you’re going to freak out like that.” eating my scrambled egg “Besides, aren’t you happy now? You got the room all by yourself, we don’t have to share.” (I can finally take a rest on my own pace without waiting for you to finish your business with your girl.)

“You got a point, but don’t disappear on me next time without notification!” Hammond scolding me like he’s my real brother

“If you say so, by the way tomorrow we’ll be docking in an island, right?” asking everyone on the table

“Yes, I can’t wait for this day to end” schoolmate A “Finally we can feel the sands with our feet.” schoolmate B “For two days and nights, we’ll be staying in a Hotel Beach Resort.” schoolmate C “It’s a shame that we can’t see Prof. Nevaeh on his swimming trunks.” schoolmate D “Yeah, that’s one of the things I’m really hoping for this summer vacation!” schoolmate E “I can imagine his muscular torso fully exposed under the sun.” schoolmate F

“Yummy!” Rita exclaimed without care about her boyfriend sitting beside her “Well, everyone knows that Prince Don isn’t just a handsome face, take a look at this photograph, can you see how beefy those arms are?!” showing a photo of Poseidon who’s wearing a sleeveless top

“Hey, you alright with your girlfriend having a picture of another man?” Hammond talking to Rita’s boyfriend who seems to be calm at all

“It’s fine with me, I know from the start that Rita’s a member of Prof. Nevaeh’s fan club, I love her so accept what she likes.” Rita’s boyfriend said coolly that makes everyone of us respect how open-minded he is “Besides I’m her boyfriend, why should I get jealous of her idol?”

“That’s why I love you so much, oppa!” Rita grabs her boyfriend’s chin and give him a kiss on the lips “He also like a Japanese model and I’m fine with it too, as you can see, we’re not a couple who gets into fight because of little things, as long as we don’t keep a secret to each other we’re fine.”

“What a relationship.” clapping my hands slowly “I’m rooting for you two, you guys are perfect match and an ideal couple for a peaceful relationship.”

“Geez, what do you know about having a relationship if you haven’t dated anyone until now?” Hammond dissing me as he eats his sandwich

“What’s wrong with being single?! I’m already busy with my studies, I don’t think I have time for playing around with boys like you.” I get back to him

“Well it’s a good thing to fall in love Nene.” Rita intervenes “I know you’ll make a wise choice in choosing your man so I don’t think you’ll be playing around, not all boys are like Hammond who’s only after with girls’ body as his standard for his girlfriend.” supporting me to bully Hammond “There are guys out there who can love you sincerely if only you give them a chance to prove themselves to you and also a chance to yourself to be love.”

“Would there be any brave souls who’ll dare to confess their feelings for you, when you harshly rejected all the boys who told you that they like you?!”

“If they really like Nene, I’m sure they’ll muster up their courage to confess, as for the record I only know five of them since our first year, have I miscounted? Is there anyone else I don’t know about?” Rita counting her fingers as she recites the names, she knew I rejected

“You’re right, there’s five of them, one of those five got rejected at the start of our junior year and one at the start of our finals.” Hammond said

“Did I reject two this year and only on our first semester?” recalling the confession I’ve got this year

“They sincerely opened their heart to you but you only said four words to them.” Hammond looking at me indifferently “I don’t like you.” imitating me

“What else should I say?!” frowning at him “It’s better to say it directly than beating around the bush, besides they only like what they see but they don’t know anything about me, they only follow me around but no one get to know the real me.”

“Yeah that’s right, because if they do, they won’t pursue you anymore, I don’t even know what these guys see in you.” Hammond said naturally

“Uh, in case that you don’t know, Nene is the department goddess, she’s the pride of all females in the Ocean Science and Technology department, she’s not just a charming face, she got good brains too, unlike other girls who only know how to doll themselves up but forget their brains somewhere.”

“That’s too much flattery Rita, but thank you for seeing me that way.” getting shy of her flowery words “Actually it’s not just me, but all of us in this table, we’re all beauty and brains.” looking at all the girls having breakfast with us

“Why am I feeling out of place all of a sudden??!” Hammond back to minding his own business when all of us girls unite

Saying the word ‘I don’t like you’ to someone who confess their feelings, I learned that from my best friend for six years. He’s a famous model now in America, he was our middle school and high school heartthrob, being said a lot of girls got their heartbroken by his rejection. He’s the one who taught me to keep it simple as possible to make things done and over with in a single blow. Who would have known that I’m going to meet this best friend of mine in an unexpected place and in an unexpected moment?

The next day we arrived at the island and checked in to our hotel. One large family lodge that’s good for 16 persons, which is accommodated by my English professors and their family. Two family lodge that’s good for 8 persons, accommodated by my 4 American professors along with Seaof and Dr. Tranter, and because we’re only 8 females we have the same accommodation as them. Three quadruple rooms for 12 males, four triple rooms for another 12 males, and five double rooms reserved for the remaining 6 males.

I’ve always wanted to explore the ocean specially the Atlantic Ocean, and this is the perfect time for me to do it. I’ve got Dr. Tranter to cover me up when anyone look for me, I already transformed to my mermaid form and about to go for my adventure when someone suddenly went to the shore.

“Christopher?? Christopher Swift??!” staring at him from his head to tail “You’re a merman?!!”

“Nene Puth?! You’re a mermaid??!” Christopher recognized me immediately “Wow, this is awkward, meeting you again half-naked and having a tail!”

“Hey, don’t look!” covering my breasts with my long hair “What the … how come you’re a merman?!”

“You tell me, how come you’re a mermaid?!” turning around “Let’s not talk here, let’s chat underwater.” swimming back to the ocean

“Oh, right.” crawling to get to the water “Hey, where are you?” looking around after I reached the first ocean floor “Christopher??”

“That’s my land name, I’m Crow here.” he’s swimming around me “You’re a red tail huh? Hmm … that’s quite bigger now than before.”

“Will you stop staring at my breasts and focus on my face instead?!” grabbed his tail end “You’re a doom bringer merman, right?”

“Why are you asking death bringer to men?” trying to pull out his tail end “Wow, your grip is really powerful!”

“Cherry, that’s my name.” released him from my grip “Are you born merman or human just like me who turned to a merfolk when I reached 18?”

“We’re the same … my father’s a silver tail, ship wreckers they say.” swimming deeper as we talk “How about you is it your father too?”

“My mother, gold tail, gift giver.” following his lead “How long have you been here in Atlantic?” getting deeper and deeper as we swim

“What’s the date today?” looking at me “I got lost in time whenever I go for a vacation undersea.”

“August 10, and yeah I know exactly what you mean, there’s a lot of amazing things here that only us can see.” looking around

“Well this is my third day here.” swirling until he created a tornado “I really like doing this, look how big it could get.”

“Was that really necessary? What if someone get hurt because of that tornado you’ve created?!” watching the tornado grow bigger

“Bringing bad luck to others is my nature, whoever got caught with that tornado it’s their luck.” staring at me “I know you’ve killed men, like others.”

“I only kill bad people, you can say I’m playing hero, only that I’m not handing them to the police alive.” I know he could tell because of my bloody scent