The warm sunshine that used to hurt her skin gradually faded away. Though the girl wasn't normally fond of it, she knew that getting close to it was the only choice for her to survive.

Why did everything just become a disaster when she finally gathered all of her courage to experience something new?

The girl struggled to return to the surface, yet the strong waves kept coming, one after another, as if telling her that all of her effort would eventually end up in vain.

Mom, I'm scared...

Breath from her nose as well as words from her mouth, all became bubbles that soon broke before they could reach the water surface.

The way the main character drowned in those drama series was all lies. There was neither ethereal light under the blue water nor the peaceful feelings that made you feel like returning to your mother's womb.

Deep down here, it was so cold, so dark, so heavy and so painful.

At this stage, somehow she recalled the story that mom had told her the other day.

"Every sea will have at least a sea witch. To make a wish with the sea witch, you have to face the bottom of the sea and tell it what your heart desires."

With the last bit of consciousness, she tried to open her blurred and heavy eyes again, only realizing the fact that she couldn't differentiate what was her direction at the moment.

Was she facing the surface or the bottom?

There was not much time left to think about it.

Would it succeed this time?

She doubted it, like the way she always doubted herself whenever beginning anything.

"Honey, try everything you think you can do and want to do."

On her throbbing head, she missed the gentleness of mom's pats when she hesitated about whether to go or not.

"If things go wrong, I'm always here to lend you an ear."

So, say it, please say it!

'Mom, I want...to go... home now...'

Her lips moved slowly, sending her unsound last wish to the immense darkness that was swallowing her whole.

Since the last breath was used, the young girl's life had ended on a beautiful summer's day, lonely, hopelessly and full of regrets.

Unknown to her, the bubbles created by her last wish still stayed and steadily went deeper and deeper.

After a period of time, there were octopus tentacles rising from the pitch black darkness, reaching to the person who had made a wish.

When the girl opened her eyes again, she knew that she had become a ghost.

A transparent ghost that didn't want to be forgotten and just wanted to go home.

...........

The young girl easily returned to the coast, without any fear for the deadly waves she once faced.

No one could see her in this transparent form, yet she still found a white bedsheet to cover her body.

Becoming a ghost was a little inconvenient, as she could barely change her clothes from now on. In other words, she may be stuck in this swimsuit for the rest of her ghost's life.

'I must find mom and tell her what I've been through.'

She missed everything in her house from the buzzing doorbell, the comfortable two-people sofa, the TV series at 8 p.m and her mom's special apple pie. Above all, she yearned for the warmth of her mom.

It was difficult for the ghost girl to find her way home, as her memory was a bit vague after her head had been soaked in salty water that long.

"This way or that way...?"

She pointed in two directions respectively, then soon became anxious because of her forgetfulness.

"Oh, what should I do now..."

The tentacles that left the sea with her slightly touched her hands. Then, they wavered for a moment before stretching in a certain direction.

"I get it! Thanks again for your help!"

She patted the tentacles and set out on her journey to home.

After a couple of hours passed, the girl managed to come back to the familiar streets she grew up on.

"Hmmm, these houses are so strange. Did they redecorate them when I was on the beach?"

According to her memories, it was just 2 days since her summer vacation, yet they completed all the things so fast.

She remembered the times she helped her mother move the households and covered them with newspapers and plastic. Afterwards, they would clean the house together, from the doorway to the kitchen, from the first floor to the attic.

These works really required a lot of time and effort. Only thinking of them made her muscles ache already.

With the feeling that her home was near, the girl sneakily walked under the street light, tip-toeing, humming a song from a popular drama on TV.

'Mom will be really surprised when seeing me come home in these outfits...'

After all, she had died and become a ghost.

'What if mom was scared by my new look?'

She couldn't help thinking of some negative visions about mom's reactions.

'Mom may see me as a monster and chase me away. Or she may invite a father from the church or a medium to exorcist me...'

In front of the familiar doorway, her steps paused.

Contrary to the strong urge that followed her after death, all of her confidence was now like a deflated balloon right at the moment she always longed for.

Should she open that door?

Would mom accept her in her new form?

She had already gotten the blessing of "sea witch" and returned to the ground, still she couldn't stop hesitating whether to see the result or not.

It was always so hard to make the decisive move without the cheer of the other.

She couldn't help sweating, feeling anxious and staying at the same point again and again.

She wanted to change that bad habit many times, yet it was her nature, which couldn't be changed.

As if sensing her hesitation, the tentacles wrapped around one of her legs tightly and pushed it forward.

"Wait! I- I'm not ready-"

TING TONGGG TING TONG

As the girl got close to the door, one of the tentacles stretched out and touched the doorbell, creating a buzzing sound that the girl had heard from time to time, since she was born to this world.

The girl stopped resisting and waited for a voice from a dear person.

"I'm coming!"

Why was that voice so strange to her?

With a blank mind, the girl had unconsciously hidden behind the bushes.

The door opened with the appearance of a stranger's face.

"Huh? Why isn't there anybody outside?"

"And why is there dripping water on the doorway?"

The owner of the voice murmured before closing the door.

That house wasn't her home anymore.

The ghost girl sobbed, as she couldn't find any trace of her and mom inside the house.

Someone had replaced their traces with others, stolen her home away from her.

She felt so sad, so angry to the point she used rocks to smash their windows, to chase them away from her home.

She didn't care if mom would be mad at her because of her naughty behaviors. All she knew right now was that she needed to get their home back!

.....

One day, she passed by an old newsstand on the night street. Among them, she saw a small picture of herself between other girls on the first page.

The news' title was "GIRLS DROWNED IN THE SEA WITHOUT FINDING THEIR BODIES".

The date of the news was a year ago, which meant it had been a year since the day she passed away.

The furious ghost girl finally realized something.

She took out the newspaper before the sleepy eyes of the seller and read thoroughly from the beginning to the end of the news.

"So mom had moved away right after holding the funeral for me."

But where did she go?

The ghost girl had no clue.

Therefore, she went through the town to search for mom's information.

At the same time, she also caused many ruckuses and scary phenomena by accident.

In the end, all she could find was that mom had gone to a faraway place, somewhere both she and the "sea witch" weren't able to move that far.

Then, she returned to sea with the "sea witch", sometimes coming to the beach to play.

When she already accepted her ghost life would be like that forever, there was a girl holding a suitcase appearing before her very eyes.