Short note: I’m no poet and English is one of my weakest subject in high school (so please lower your expectations). Heavily inspired by N.F Afrina’s Ocean Girl And Desert Boy from Inkling. It’s a wonderful story and N.F Afrina is one of the best author I’ve ever know. Please give Inkling a read. :>
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This time it’s desert girl and ocean boy. I am writing this story before it ended, as a reminder for me, the desert girl to not repeat the mistake of the preceding ocean girl. I am saving my own story from another tragic ending.
The desert girl and ocean boy was just childhood school friends who parted ways to different side of the earth. She grew up to be a desert girl, with dry sand and heatwaves, her fragile body still remain whole though most of the time she almost crumbled. While the ocean boy grew up in luxurious sea with waves of saltwater and shimmering seashells. His blue eyes and dazzling smile was the pinnacle of charm.
As if there was an invisible string tying them together, the desert girl and ocean boy met again at the age of blossom, seventeen. Both of them, unexpectedly became close friends despite the differences in weather. Their lives are somehow parallel. In their own land, they are the shining youth, hope of each kingdom but the ocean boy shone brighter because the ocean glisten under the sunshine, while desert girl became a land of menacing heat under the light.
The desert girl admired everything about him and his land while the ocean boy admired the desert girl for her perseverance and the passion she had for the things she loves. For the both of them admiration slowly turned into love. Though he never confessed, ocean wave brought the news to the dried shore belonged to desert girl. Desert girl was flabbergasted as she never thought that the charming ocean boy would fall for her.
The desert being as bold as ever, confronted the ocean boy about the wave of news. A gigantic wave splashed into the desert girl’s flaming heart when the boy confessed his love. The rest was a history. The desert girl and the ocean boy were now more then friends, less than a lover. It’s the desert girl who set the border between their land because she forecasted a bad ending if they became more than what they were now. The ocean boy respected her decision and never asked for an explanation.
The more they get to know each other, the desert girl fell deeper into the boy’s sapphire ocean. The ocean boy was generous and kind, he gave her his seashells and water for her dry land and that act touches her heart. Desert girl loved how gentle the waves of the ocean boy and she was mesmerised by his seashell collections. He was a prince of the ocean, and she admired how luxurious and fancy the life in the castle of sea but she knew that she would never have that kind of life because she was the desert girl, her life was surrounded by heat and sand storms. She’s falling deeply but it hurts her that she couldn’t give him anything, her ocean boy is already perfect that he didn’t need any of her desert land, cactus nor oasis.
The main reason why desert girl drew the border between them was she knew that the ocean boy was too perfect for her. She saw the potential within the glistening sapphire sea. He could go far and reached for the moon and stars but she can’t. She’s the desert, she’s dried and lacked. The desert girl started to think that she was not qualified to be loved.
“He could have loved an ocean girl instead of me”. Insecurities hit her like a storm and being with the ocean boy made her anxious. His company was a guilty pleasure as she knew all too well that one day the Earth may do them apart and the boy would left her behind as he tried to reach for the stars in the sky. Foolishly, she only could wait for that day to come and continued to be by his side.
Sometimes she hoped that she could rewind back and ignore the wave that brought the news to her. She hoped that she never knew about his feelings, she hoped that she cowers and never confronted him. She wished that she never fell harder because it hurts her that they could never have the same chemistry as when they were still just friends if they grow apart.
Maybe it’s not them, it’s her. It’s her own vulnerability, her fear and incompetency that holding her back from reaching her dreams together with him.
The damage had been done. Maybe it’s too late to save this story from it’s own tragic ending, so the desert girl surrendered herself to the foolishness of being tethered to a perfect ocean boy.
Kiku No Hana 