Mia Waters looked innocently at Raymond Carter with a frown. To anyone else, it sounded like a comforting remark to soothe Mia Waters's complaints about Coral, but in Raymond Carter's tone, it seemed more like he was excusing Coral.

The subtext was: you can't blame her, because that's just how she is.

Mia Waters said nothing, too lazy to argue.

The first class in the afternoon, an early summer afternoon. The physics teacher spoke a bit unclearly, and his teaching was nothing to write home about. Mia Waters's class was in a semi-basement, where the windows sliced the blazing noon sunlight in half. Everyone was drowsy in the ambiguous light and stuffy air, slouching listlessly like cooked shrimp; only Coral sat up straight from start to finish, staring at the physics teacher with bright, intense eyes, as if there was some great secret hidden in his lesson.

The physics teacher was probably creeped out by her staring, right?

Mia Waters was amused by his own thought, suddenly finding her a bit interesting. It was a kind of interest mixed in with all her other flaws. If she didn't provoke him, he could observe her from a distance, just for fun.

Unfortunately, she did provoke him.

Just then, Coral suddenly turned her head again. It was that same unnerving stare.

Mia Waters didn't bother to glare back, but his lazy gaze didn't avoid hers either, showing no intention of backing down or making peace. Coral kept looking, but then her eyes dropped.

She turned back. This pointless standoff ended just like that.

Mia Waters bought a second-hand mountain bike. The best impression K City left on him was this coastline to the west.

In his hometown, a smoggy industrial city, terrible city planning and chaotic traffic made comfortable bike rides a luxury. But here, every day after school, while the sun was still up, Mia Waters could ride home along the long coastline under the indigo sky.

Sunlight on one side, shadow on the other.

With headphones on and music playing, the boy let go of the handlebars, as if he might sprout wings the next second and fly to the other side of the sea.

The tide rose, tourists left, vendors went home, and unknown seabirds circled overhead, searching for something, with no past and no future.

The boy chased the seabirds all the way, mind empty, heading home.

In Mia Waters’s extra class four, the curriculum didn’t go very deep into the material, and the exercises were of average difficulty. Compared to the affiliated high school of the teachers’ college, it was several levels lower, and over time, Mia Waters inevitably slacked off.

Another physics class. Mia Waters had one earbud in, using the hand propping up his chin to cover it a bit, and started daydreaming in class, not even noticing when class ended.

It wasn’t until a one-inch photo waved in front of his eyes that he snapped out of it.

Coral stretched out her arm, dangling Mia Waters’s one-inch photo in front of him. Mia Waters stared at the photo he’d handed to the group leader that morning, puzzled. “What’s up?”

The way she waved the photo without saying anything was actually a bit intimate, something close friends might do, but Coral’s expression still looked like she was holding in some anger, making Mia Waters feel he had to be on guard.

“You call this a recent photo?”

“It was taken in ninth grade, just over a year ago. Why wouldn’t it count as recent?”

“I can’t use it. The photo is for your temporary file. If you hand in this kind of photo, it’s not acceptable.”

Are you kidding me? Mia Waters was getting a bit impatient. Ever since the “shortcut method” incident, a lot of people had been waiting to see this new transfer student put Coral in her place, but nothing had happened.

Mia Waters didn’t like trouble. Even though he didn’t like Coral, he disliked being used even more.

He sighed, but still explained with a grin, “Guys change a lot as they grow up. This is the only photo I have, and it’s the most recent one. If you don’t believe me, ask anyone—they’ll all say I don’t look much different from now. Why can’t you use it?”

Mia Waters paused, glanced at Raymond Carter, who was minding his own business, and nudged him with his elbow.

“Hey, Raymond Carter, you know her well. Talk some sense into her.”

Mia Waters thought Raymond Carter would ignore him, but to his surprise, he actually stood up, trying to take the photo from Coral to have a look, but Coral dodged him.

For once, an expression that could be called awkward and surprised appeared on Raymond Carter’s face.

“Hmph,” Coral pulled her hand back, looked down at the photo, then up at Mia Waters, and said loudly and exaggeratedly, “Didn’t anyone tell you in ninth grade that you can’t take ID photos wearing a mask?”

Half the class turned to look at them.

Mia Waters slowly stood up, suddenly leaned forward, and snatched the photo back.

“That joke is pretty lame. You just want to say I had so many pimples in ninth grade you couldn’t tell what I looked like, right? Fine, I admit it was wrong of me to say you had Hawaiian blood, but I just meant your skin tone is special and looks nice. Was that really necessary?

You’ve been holding this in for over a week and this is the best comeback you could come up with? Did you rehearse it all morning by yourself?”

Coral’s hand was still frozen in the photo-holding pose, mouth half open, her stubborn expression now full of panic. Mia Waters’s brows had been twisted in a scowl, but seeing her like this, he softened a little.

The boy behind Mia Waters burst out laughing. Then, emboldened, other classmates started laughing too. Mia Waters didn’t know what they were laughing at, since he hadn’t said anything particularly funny, but they just kept laughing, especially the girls, whose soft, tinkling laughter sounded like glass beads rolling all over the floor.

Raymond Carter suddenly said quietly, “She just wanted to joke with you.”

The words were drowned out by the noise around them. Mia Waters even wondered if he’d misheard, because after Raymond Carter spoke, he just sat down, face calm, opened a copy of “Five-Star Question Bank” and started working.

Mia Waters didn’t know if Coral had heard that, or if she agreed. He suddenly had a feeling that even if Coral really was just making a bad joke, she would never admit it.

Compared to admitting she couldn’t even make a joke, she’d rather be misunderstood as being hostile.

Mia Waters didn’t understand how he could know Coral so well.

Coral stood there stubbornly, biting her lip, and Mia Waters felt he’d gone a bit too far. After thinking for a moment, he handed the photo over.

“Here, take it. Seriously, unless you want me to go take a new one right now, I don’t have any others. Can you just make do?”

Coral actually took it, sat down without a word.

After a while, the boy behind him handed over a pack of shredded squid, saying it was a local specialty, a treat for Mia Waters, and that a few of them wanted to share it with him.

Mia Waters accepted it awkwardly, not asking what exactly they were rewarding him for.

In the end, Mia Waters in the extra class was just a passerby who took what he could and left.

The second period was politics. Mia Waters only woke up halfway through, looking dazedly at the scribbles covering the blackboard, and gently nudged Raymond Carter with his elbow.

“Where are we?”

Raymond Carter hesitated for a moment, then moved over a bit and pointed out a passage to Mia Waters.

“Here.”

Mia Waters thought he was imagining things—just now, it seemed like Raymond Carter hadn’t wanted to talk to him.

At that moment, the politics teacher walked to the classroom door and chatted with someone outside. The class started buzzing, and Mia Waters felt a bit hungry, so he took the opportunity to pull out the shredded squid from his desk and tore open the packaging.

The first bite, and he felt a “crack” in his mouth.

Mia Waters’s canine tooth was chipped in half.

His scream echoed through the classroom.

Mia Waters clutched his mouth, tossed the little stone he’d spat onto the desk to the boy behind him, and glared fiercely at the two boys who’d given him the shredded squid.

Are you guys trying to get rid of me after using me?

The politics teacher rushed into the classroom, looking at Mia Waters who was clutching his mouth and mumbling in confusion.

“Did you bite your tongue?” the teacher asked.

“He broke his tooth.”

Coral’s clear voice rang out, and the class burst into laughter, asking with concern how he was. Mia Waters just shook his head at everyone.

It seemed like his gums were bleeding. Mia Waters tasted blood in his mouth and didn’t dare speak, afraid it would look too scary.

“Hurry to the hospital and get it checked out. Don’t go to our school clinic, they only have alcohol swabs. Um, you’re a transfer student, right? Do you know where the hospital is? Raymond Carter, why don’t you go with him?”

Raymond Carter looked up at the teacher. “Um… okay, but Director Wu just told me I have to go to his office after class, so… fine, I’ll take Mia Waters first.”

Mia Waters understood what Raymond Carter was really saying. He didn’t know why Raymond Carter was acting so awkward around him, and didn’t want to know.

If only he could talk, he wouldn’t have to wave his hand like an idiot while holding his mouth.