“Of course, it’s not as blue as ours,” another girl chimed in with a grin, “Coral helps the beach guests wash the sand off their feet every day at the bathhouse, so of course she knows which water is the bluest.”

Mia Waters was a bit confused, but when he saw Coral’s flushed face and Raymond Carter’s odd, barely contained anger, he gradually started to understand.

“What’s the point of arguing about this,” Mia Waters waved his hand with a frown, “I think you two should go wash your brains instead.”

The atmosphere instantly froze, and Mia Waters knew that his good reputation in this class was finished.

But he didn’t care.

Mia Waters patted Raymond Carter, not knowing if Raymond Carter understood what he meant.

I understand you. Anyway, I’m about to leave, so I don’t care. If you can’t stand up for her, I’ll do it for you, so I get why you’re holding back.

But you’re still a coward.

Coral didn’t look back. When everyone had left, she didn’t say anything else, but Mia Waters kept hearing a neurotic muttering, “Does that sea even deserve to be called a sea?”—it seemed like Coral was mumbling to herself over and over. He wondered if he was just imagining it.

It wasn’t until Coral turned her face to look for something that he saw her face covered in tears.

That afternoon, after Mia Waters had offended the two girls, Raymond Carter handed him a note.

It was several hundred words long, but the main point was that he hoped Mia Waters would take an exam seriously, even if it was just for Coral.

The logic of a soap opera. Mia Waters snorted and crumpled the note into a ball.

At the end-of-term exam, Mia Waters ranked first in the class.

Second was Raymond Carter, and third was Coral.

The team leader’s whistle blew, snapping Mia Waters out of his memories. He exchanged an awkward glance with the driver and smiled.

A few girls who had gone swimming came back with their feet covered in sand. As they hesitated, the driver pointed into the distance and said, “Go over there and pay to rinse off before coming back up. It’s one yuan per person, and you can change your shoes after you’re clean.”

The girls immediately ran off in the direction the driver had pointed.

“I used to know a girl who probably worked right where you just pointed.”

The driver hadn’t expected Mia Waters to start a conversation and looked a little embarrassed.

“Back then, there weren’t rows of faucets like now. You had to fetch water from big barrels, and there were workers who’d carry buckets to help guests rinse off… The girl you knew did that job?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“It was tough work during the busy summer season, especially under the sun.”

“Yeah, so she got really tanned.”

Suddenly, Mia Waters felt his heart racing.

“Do you really think my skin color looks good?”

At the seaside where they said goodbye, there was silence, then walking side by side, on the same reef.

The winter sea was actually frozen, and Mia Waters was so numb from the sea breeze that he couldn’t understand why Coral insisted on saying goodbye here.

“Yeah. It was silly of me to ask if you had Hawaiian blood. I really do think your tan is even and suits you.”

“Really?”

“Why do you talk so much?!”

Coral fell silent, still keeping a straight face, but the corners of her eyes and brows were full of joy.

“Thank you for studying so hard at the end. You did really well.”

“You’re so weird. I bumped you down in the rankings, what’s there to be happy about?”

“You don’t get it. I… If I could, I wouldn’t want to work so hard or be so stubborn about everything, but Mia Waters番外 ever since I was little, nothing lucky has ever happened to me. I have to do my best, at least the best I can. I’m not smart or pretty, both my parents are sick, and they can’t afford to support me. Actually, I want to see the sea in Singapore too. I want to be like you, living happily without much effort. I envy you, but I’m not jealous. All I have is the path of working hard.”

Mia Waters was moved.

“Thank you. You were willing to compete with me fairly, and I admit my defeat.”

Coral smiled. Still as bright and unreserved as ever.

“Mia Waters, you like someone, don’t you?”

Mia Waters froze, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. “Not really like…” Suddenly he got annoyed and reached out to mess up Coral’s knit hat.

“Why do you talk so much…”

Suddenly, Coral rushed up and kissed him.

The kiss landed on the corner of his mouth—maybe she missed, or maybe she didn’t dare aim for his lips. As the girl leaned in and closed her eyes to kiss Mia Waters, her eyelashes brushed his cheek.

Mia Waters didn’t have time to react; his hand was still on her head.

“I worked at the foot-washing shop at the beach. I saw you at the seaside during summer vacation. You always stared at the pretty girls.

I liked you from the first moment I saw you. I don’t know why, but I heard you chatting with the boss, saying you were from out of town, just here for fun. I thought I’d never see you again after summer ended.”

Coral’s lips were trembling the whole time.

“I never thought you’d end up sitting behind me in class. All my life, nothing good has ever happened to me, so I’m used to fighting for everything, I can’t stop. But now something good has happened, just like on TV, and I’m so happy I don’t know what to do. Your student record isn’t here, you could leave at any time, and you hate me just like the others, but I… but I…”

Coral suddenly broke down in tears.

Mia Waters was left dazed, his face numb from the sea wind, and that kiss was so light it barely registered.

“I don’t hate you. Not at all.”

The sound of the waves was the heartbeat of the sea. Sometimes, it was also Mia Waters’s heartbeat.

Mia Waters sat on the bus heading back to the hotel.

The bus followed the coastline, turned uphill, and in the afterglow of sunset, under the mottled shadows of trees, drove toward the old city center with its brick-red houses.

Mia Waters was about to say goodbye to K City and return to the blazing tropical sun. He still wasn’t used to working hard, still just drifting along.

He remembered that kiss, but forgot how he finally said goodbye to Coral.

They didn’t keep in touch.

It wasn’t that he didn’t feel anything, but there was no regret or anything he couldn’t let go of.

In Mia Waters’s life, there was never anything he absolutely had to do or never could do, just like the sea, never thinking of gathering strength to destroy all the world’s shores. Friends came and went, like rivers flowing into the sea, like water vapor evaporating—they never took anything away, nor did they ever change anything.

The pimples of youth popped up one by one, then faded away one by one. Nothing was a big deal, nothing was a must. Everyone came to the sea to put on a show, shouting or having sudden realizations—he just liked to watch.

Just sitting by the sea, watching girls play, listening to the waves’ ancient song.

That was Mia Waters’s good life.

Only, as the bus drove along, Mia Waters finally realized how far Coral had led him on her bike that year.

The boy leaned his head against the window and gradually fell asleep.

All these years. I wished he was my boyfriend, but he wasn’t.

They all once thought he was, but he wasn’t.

They all now believe he really isn’t, but I still wish he was.

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Claire Daniels Side Story: Twenty-Four Hours

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The sound of cicadas in summer is the gentlest alarm clock. It never startles you, but slips into your dreams, ringing behind all the dazzling scenes, like the end of a tide, calmly waking you up.

Unfortunately, this alarm is always ill-timed.

Claire Daniels opened her eyes groggily. Outside the window, the cicadas sounded like waves, the morning light was faint, and there was a fine layer of sweat on her neck and back.

She pressed the phone by her pillow. It was 5:30 a.m.

She could still sleep for a while. Thinking this, a vague happiness rose in her heart. Claire Daniels stared blankly at the bed board above her for a while. Because she had the power and ability to fall back asleep at any time, she wasn’t in a hurry to drift off again. Her mind hovered between wakefulness and sleep, dizzy and especially comfortable.

The last summer.

In this small happiness, a strange thought suddenly popped up in Claire Daniels’s mind.

Just then, she heard the sound of wheels. Turning her head, she saw her upper bunkmate Zoe Young dragging a suitcase toward the door, moving extra quietly, probably afraid of waking her.

“You’re leaving already?”

Claire Daniels finally woke up, sat up with a start, threw off her summer quilt, and jumped out of bed, her bare feet landing on the concrete floor.