“No, no, no, let’s make it seventy years. I want... to stay a few more years.”

Because life is just too beautiful.

(End of main story)

Mia Waters’s life never had any absolutes or musts, just like the sea, which never thinks about gathering strength to destroy all the shores in the world. Friends come and go, like rivers flowing into the sea, like water vapor evaporating—they never take anything away, nor do they ever change anything.

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A Beautiful Ending – Extra Story

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Mia Waters Extra: Hearing the Sound of the Waves

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Mia Waters Extra: “The sea in the north is different from your tropical one. Yours doesn’t even count as a sea.”

The voice was very soft, mixed in with the roar of waves crashing against the rocks, hard to make out. This kind of vagueness, instead, made Mia Waters feel a bit dazed.

—Go to the tropics. Does the sea over there even deserve to be called a sea?

Such a familiar tone. The sound of the waves was like background music from a distant past, playing the theme song of those bygone days for him over and over again.

Mia Waters turned his face to glance at the driver who had plopped down on the rock beside him, and replied, “Are you... talking to me?”

The young man grinned, maybe surprised that Mia Waters spoke such fluent Chinese, and felt his casual complaint was a bit out of line, so he simply stopped talking.

The young driver had spent the whole day under the blazing sun, accompanying a noisy group of college students. Locals were already tired of this coastline, and the visitors from the tropics didn’t find the sea all that special either, and had plenty of complaints about the local beaches and streets. The sightseeing arrangements by the organizers were full of empty formalities, but whether it was the tour guide or Mia Waters and the other students, they all had to play along, grumbling inside.

The young driver was tanned and looked annoyed and frustrated. The students were about his age, but all carried a kind of outsider’s sense of superiority, and Mia Waters had long sensed his displeasure.

“Actually, I studied here for a year. I... I like the sea here too.” Sensing his awkwardness, Mia Waters kindly added.

“Didn’t you grow up in Singapore?” This time it was the other’s turn to be surprised.

“Doesn’t sound like it from your accent,” Mia Waters laughed heartily, “I’m from the north, but I went to Singapore for college. In my second year of high school...”

Suddenly, a big wave crashed in, the roar of the sea thunderous.

Mia Waters paused for a moment, then repeated, “In my second year of high school, I transferred here and studied for a year.”

In his second year of high school, everyone liked the transfer student Mia Waters, except for Coral.

K City is by the sea, not a big city, not exactly bustling, but it has a kind of humid charm. The colonial-era red brick houses, dappled tree shadows under the scorching sun, loud boys running tirelessly up and down the slopes between the buildings, the sea breeze brushing a misty layer over every street and alley, as if a painter had accidentally soaked a freshly finished oil painting in water.

After so many years, Mia Waters still remembered the moment he stepped off the train, standing on the platform—though the city’s sea hadn’t yet appeared, its scent was already in the air.

It was a very nice city.

It’s just that Mia Waters didn’t want to come.

During the summer after his first year of high school, Mia Waters transferred to K City because of his parents’ temporary work reassignment. But because of issues like household registration and the difference in future college entrance exam cutoffs, Mia Waters’s student record was always kept at his hometown’s affiliated high school. In fact, his parents were only temporarily assigned elsewhere, so he didn’t really need to be dragged along—if not for his mom worrying that with her gone, no one would be able to keep Mia Waters in check. Mia Waters couldn’t help but wonder if, in his mother’s eyes, after sixteen years of life, he still hadn’t successfully evolved from a monkey into a human.

Of course, Mia Waters didn’t want to leave home at all. The middle school reunion he’d planned with friends was canceled because of his move, and there were so many close friends back home, he didn’t even have time to say goodbye.

So many close friends, like...

“Study hard even when you’re somewhere else.”

Zoe Young’s text made the veins on Mia Waters’s forehead throb.

“Get lost, you’re sounding more and more like my mom.”

“I wouldn’t dare, don’t get so familiar with me.”

The ponytail he used to be able to grab just by reaching out from his seat was now out of reach, no matter how far he stretched. Their friendship was still good, still full of banter and teasing, but something felt missing.

When it comes to feelings, nothing beats “being there.”

Mia Waters didn’t know how long he’d stay in this city—maybe a year, maybe a month.

This situation left him feeling a bit lost.

There’s a way to get along for a day, and a way to behave for a year. Mia Waters always hated wasting effort.

If he was really just a temporary passerby, it seemed there was no need to bother pretending to be good or making friends.

Thinking this way, he found it even harder to feel any enthusiasm for his new life.

Even though K City was by the sea, its midsummer heat was no less than the south’s. It was as if even the sea breeze was afraid of the sun-baked rocks, timidly giving up its moisture but holding back its coolness, turning the whole city into a steamer.

The boy walked off the platform listlessly, using his furrowed brow and the new pimples on his forehead to resist the enthusiastic welcome of this unfamiliar city.

As soon as his parents finished registering, they had to go to a nearby mountain town for research, and wouldn’t have time to look after him for a while. His dad hoped Mia Waters would take the chance before school started to explore and get familiar with the area; his mom, on the other hand, was on high alert, insisting that K City No. 4 High School’s teaching quality was far inferior to his old school, and that he should spend more time studying so he wouldn’t fall behind when he transferred back. The sun outside was too harsh, so he shouldn’t be allowed to run around.

Mia Waters started to wonder again if, in his mom’s mind, he was a wild dog that would run off the leash the moment it wasn’t tied tight.

So he deliberately ran wild for half a month, going to the beach every day before school started to space out and get sunburned, especially watching the young women splashing and screaming in the waves.

“Zoe, come visit K City if you have time. There are so many girls in bikinis at the beach.”

“Are they in good shape?”

“...Not really... but they’re bikinis!”

“If you just want to see bikinis, why not go to the mall and look at the swimwear section? It’s the same.”

Mia Waters wanted to reply, “It’s not the same when it’s on a body,” but felt that was too sleazy, so he gave up.

By the time he went to register at his new class, Mia Waters had already gone from a runaway Samoyed to a runaway Tibetan mastiff, all tanned.

The only thing that hadn’t changed was that when he lazily plopped himself in front of the podium, his brow was still furrowed.

“Hi everyone, my name is Mia Waters—‘Mia’ as in warm, and ‘Waters’ is three ‘water’ characters stacked together.”

“Then you really fit in here, since we’re by the sea and your name has so much water in it.”

At the homeroom teacher’s joke, Mia Waters scratched the back of his head and gave a couple of awkward laughs. The teacher didn’t ask much more—since he was just a visiting student whose records weren’t even here, she clearly didn’t want to bother, and just having him introduce himself at morning study was already more than enough.

So he was assigned to the empty seat by the window in the second-to-last row.

Mia Waters looked in the direction the teacher pointed, and accidentally met a pair of especially bright eyes, the gaze a bit too sharp.

Someone closed the window, and the sunlight reflected off the glass was blinding. Mia Waters quickly looked away, and when he looked up again, that piercing gaze was gone.

Mia Waters’s deskmate Raymond Carter was a boy with strong features, very upright-looking, and also the class monitor. Mia Waters couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty—he was just a passing extra, yet he’d landed in such a prime spot. As soon as Mia Waters sat down, Raymond Carter introduced himself, lent Mia Waters his class schedule, and explained the progress of each subject.

“If you need anything, just ask me.”

After saying that, Raymond Carter smiled at him and went back to studying. His warmth and care were just right, not overbearing. Mia Waters immediately felt a lot more at ease with his new deskmate.

He liked people who knew their boundaries.

After their brief chat, Mia Waters pretended to read, but after flipping two pages, he started spacing out, his gaze landing on the back of the girl in front of him.

She was sitting alone at her desk—her deskmate was nowhere to be seen. The light blue curtain was blown up by the wind, and when it fell, it covered both Mia Waters and the girl, completely separating them from Raymond Carter’s side.

In that instant, Mia Waters suddenly felt that her back looked a bit like Zoe Young. The happy days of middle school seemed to descend in that magical moment, and Mia Waters’s heart started racing for no reason.

Then Raymond Carter, very kindly, stood up and helped Mia Waters tuck the curtain behind the radiator pipe.

“This way it won’t blow around anymore.”

Mia Waters thanked him awkwardly.