Diamond Dust - 1

It was a perfect cutback.

On top of the foamy waves, which were breaking into white, Sora quickly stood up and turned the board, zigzagging across the curves of the oncoming wave.

With her smooth movements, never missing the flow of the wave, some people on the beach cheered.

The waves were of good quality thanks to the steady wind blowing from the east. Even though I had never been on a board, just by observing and listening for years, I could tell that the conditions were perfect for a relaxed surfing session.

The sky and sea looked like the symmetrical patterns on a folded and unfolded piece of paper, like random marbling created by the mix of blue and white paint under light pressure.

Blue sky with white clouds. Blue sea with white waves.

Around ten people were waiting in the lineup to catch a wave, but the only surfer who managed to ride it smoothly to the beach was Sora.

Her balance on the board was so perfect that it was hard to believe she was relying on a single 6-foot-7-inch plank to float on the waves.

There was no sense of danger or precariousness. She looked more comfortable and free than someone riding a bicycle on land, and the wave beneath her seemed like a magic carpet carrying her, reminiscent of tales from distant lands.

“Wow… I wonder what it feels like to surf like that?”

“Amazing. I wouldn’t ask for anything more if I could ride like that just once.”

The people receiving lessons, who were about ten meters away from where I was sitting, stopped paddling to marvel at Sora’s surfing. Their admiration soon turned into impatience directed at their instructor.

“When can we surf like that, instructor?”

Ihyun, who had his back to the sea, teaching the students, turned slightly to confirm that the “like that” they were referring to was Sora. He sighed, his displeasure clear even through his sunglasses.

“The surfer you’re all admiring has seven years of surfing experience, and she’s been swimming in the sea… well, let’s just say she’s been floating in the ocean since she started walking. But what about you?”

“……”

The students, who were practicing paddling on Styrofoam boards laid out on the sand, were complete beginners, touching a board for the first time today.

Their shoulders drooped at Ihyun’s blunt comment, their expressions like those of people looking up at the peak of a mountain before they start climbing.

It was April.

The weather was still too chilly for swimming, but as soon as the temperature recovered enough to wear wetsuits in the water, both beginner and seasoned surfers flocked to the beach. The recent surge in surfing popularity had significantly changed the landscape and types of businesses in the area.

Sora, who had finished surfing, carried her board under her arm and walked out of the water. Skillfully unzipping her wetsuit and freeing her arms on her own, she plopped down next to me.

“Wow! It’s been a while since I surfed, and now I’m sore all over.”

I took out a water bottle from my bag and handed it to her.

It was our first surfing session of the year in the East Sea. Although Sora had gone on a surfing trip to some island in Southeast Asia during the winter, while Ihyun and I were nearing the end of our military service, that was about three months ago.

Even though she said it was hard, her wet face was still full of excitement. It was the kind of energy that radiates from a person doing what they love. Sitting next to her, I could feel the cool, salty touch of the sea.

The first time I met Sora at this beach, when Ihyun had brought me here on his bike, she was also surfing. That day, she had walked out of the water, smiled, and extended her hand for a handshake, and I had felt the same coolness and scent from her.

Maybe that’s why, even though her name is Sora, I always associated her with the ocean, full of moisture and vitality.

Not the dry, dusty sand spread across school playgrounds or piled up at construction sites, but Sora as a part of the ever-changing, wave-washed shore.

It had nothing to do with whether she was an Alpha or not. It wasn’t about pheromones, which are reproductive elements, but about the impression made by the presence of the human named Sora. Besides, as a Beta, I couldn’t even perceive Alpha pheromones.

“How was it?”

“It was as smooth as if you had surfed yesterday.”

“Do you think you surf better than Ihyun?”

I turned to look at Ihyun, who was paddling on a Styrofoam board and demonstrating to his students. I lowered my voice and answered.

“You were always better than him.”

Sora also glanced at Ihyun and then smiled at me, making sure not to get caught.

“I did some special training while you two were in the military. It’s nice to surf after a while, but… the waves are too tame. Ah, I wish I could ride some big waves!”

This had been Sora’s constant refrain lately.

She had often described the thrill of riding inside a big wave as it curled over and created a circular tunnel, how it felt as if she were slipping into another dimension of nature, away from Earth for a brief moment.

Such waves were rare in the East Sea. Ihyun, who had never surfed abroad, had only heard about them and seen them in videos, but had never experienced them.

As skilled surfers, they couldn’t be satisfied with the waves of this sea. No matter how long they stayed on their boards, they always felt thirsty for more.

About seven years ago? Back when this beach had only seafood restaurants and cafes catering to tourists, with none of the surf shops and schools that are here now, Sora was one of the first to bring a board to this sea.

She had encountered surfing during a family trip to Hawaii, encouraged by a guide, and immediately bought a board and brought it back home. Neither traveling to a Pacific island nor transporting a large piece of equipment back by plane was difficult for her.

Sora’s father was one of the wealthiest men in the area, owning several large fishing boats and multiple restaurants, and as the youngest and only daughter in a family of older brothers, and a rare female Alpha, she was his cherished and delicate treasure. He spared no expense for her.

Because of Sora, Ihyun naturally got into surfing too, and was instantly hooked. As soon as the sea warmed up enough for their wetsuits to withstand, the two of them would hop on Ihyun’s bike and head to this beach, just a 40-minute ride away. And I, just like now, would sit on the beach, watching them head out to the lineup and ride back to shore over and over again, without ever getting bored. My high school years passed like that, and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say so.

“Want me to teach you? Do you want to try?”

For five years, I had been asked the same question at least a thousand times. My answer never changed. I shook my head as I fiddled with the water bottle she handed back to me.

“Aren’t you bored?”

Once again, my response was the same.

Both my older brother and Morea would ask me this periodically, but they never tried to persuade me forcefully or drag me into the sea. This time too, Morea just laughed and gave my shoulder a playful punch with her wet fist. However, there was a hint of disappointment and concern in her smile, knowing that even after military service, I was still the same.

She got up to go back into the sea. I also stood up, brushing off the sand, and zipped up her wetsuit for her. This was my role whenever either my brother or Morea wasn’t around.

“Alright, keep your back straight! Look far ahead! Put some strength in those triceps!”

“Coach, I just want to go into the sea already!”

“With those weak arms, you wouldn’t make it 10 meters out there. Lift your back more. If you can’t see, you’ll be putting not just yourself but other surfers in danger!”

As my brother corrected the students’ postures and emphasized safety in his stern, instructor-like tone, Morea chuckled.

“He still hasn’t lost that military touch, has he?”

I smiled at her in agreement. Morea lightly patted my cheek with her cool, wet hand.

“Our Ihyun is so fresh-faced. Who would think you’re a recently discharged soldier?”

A soldier.

That’s right. Until a few months before enlisting, being a soldier felt like belonging to a completely different realm from that of a high school student—like moving on to the next stage of life as a fully grown adult. But now… I wasn’t even sure what those nearly two years had left me with.

“Don’t follow anyone who tries to talk to you, just sit here quietly, okay?”

I nodded, and she grinned with her sea-sprayed face, then tucked her board under her arm and headed back into the sea.

She crossed the boundary between the beach and the sea without hesitation, lifting her head high and paddling against the waves, just as my brother was now instructing his students to do. She moved toward the lineup, unafraid even in the unpredictable waters.

And she rose like a miracle on the fragile, foamy white waves that seemed like they could disappear at any moment.

No matter how many times I saw it, year after year, it was still an incredible sight.

—

The fish market was bustling as it prepared for the evening boats that would soon arrive. Around some of the boats that came in a bit early, auctions were already taking place. The warmer weather had brought out more tourists as well. Even the shops selling iceboxes and ice were lively.

I was sitting at the end of the pier that extended to the breakwater, perched on a low concrete pillar where boats could be tied up, my gaze turned towards the sea.

One by one, the boats that had gone out for the day’s catch were returning from the deep sea. These were the boats that had gone out at dawn.

A gust of sea breeze carried the smell of fish over the harbor. As the weather quickly turned chilly with the setting sun, I hunched my shoulders and stuffed my hands into the pockets of my mid-season jacket.

Today, my brother had gone out to sea with our grandfather and uncle. I rarely came to the harbor to wait for their return unless my brother was on the boat.

Our grandfather and uncle had been pushing my brother to work on the boat. This pressure had been there since my brother was in middle school, even before I came to this place.

I was given a pass, but not my brother. From when he was in the upper grades of elementary school, he occasionally went on the boat to do small tasks, and by the time I arrived here, he had already developed the full skills of a competent fisherman.

But my brother only saw it as temporary help for our grandfather and uncle, never with the intention of becoming a fisherman himself.