Sick Boy[s] Paddle Club↓

I don't know how long a human lifespan shall be.

It was only, only lately that my eyes grew dry and my body feels desolate.

Strange sensations came over me. I could still feel my heart pounding strongly; I could still feel the scalding blood surging within.

As if all things drawn near in crowds, yet vanished into thin air soon after.

I was born on a peninsula, and never got away from this winding coastline.

Few of us grew up in the same burst of coastal breeze. Riding bikes in fading light, frolicking along the shallow shore, careless of exercise books dampened by waves and dried under sunlight. Then, none of us could bear to part.

But lately, the ginger-haired youth, the most cheerful one, Ethan, has suddenly fallen silent around me. He keeps avoiding me with Daniel. Speaking of Daniel, he is a gentle and timid boy. Youngest as he is among us, he is the most considerate one. I cannot claim to be close to him. For I am bold and lively in personality, I hang around with Ethan far more often.

Perhaps out of youthful curiosity, or annoyed that they talked behind my back, I decided to follow them secretly. I hid behind the door and heard Ethan speak in a hoarse voice. "No matter what he thinks of himself, he’s already… We can’t go on like this every day…otherwise..."

I kicked something beside my feet, and he cut himself short immediately.

Soon after, I regretted disrupting their talk. Because I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Even if I were terminally ill, I would still wish they could tell me with tears in their eyes.

Recently, Ethan always tried to grab my arms and hold me up. He refused whenever I suggested going for a bike ride together. He had never behaved like this before, so I grew more convinced that I had some fatal illness. What a pity that I was still so young.

To get the truth, I proposed going out for a walk with Ethan tonight. But he apparently hesitated this time. His hair looked translucent beneath the dazzling sunlight.

Fortunately, he agreed in the end, and we planned to set off as the sunlight faded.

Before leaving, he took the house key out of my hand and put a coat on me. They really looked after me as if I were ill. The sea breeze tonight felt harsh and biting, and my pace was slower than in past days, yet Ethan just followed silently behind me without saying a word.

The deep red sun was about to merge with the skyline. Ethan and I finally found a sand dune and sat down. His striking red hair fluttered in the sea breeze, and I heard his hearty laughter just like in the past days.

Nothing has changed after all, I told myself. Perhaps I had been too sensitive lately. His laughter faded away little by little, and I heard him clear his throat several times, probably troubled by the wind.

"It was an evening just like this when we opened our high school admission notices. Everyone stood here with solemn looks, hardly daring to breathe. It feels exactly the same as today..." I broke the ice first, and cold wind rushed into my clothes just as it did that night.

"Yeah, everyone was extremely excited back then. We lit a bonfire nearby later, and Daniel grilled fish for us," Ethan replied.

Sunsets by the seaside always end in a flash.

I turned and looked straight at him. The last touch of orange-red glow gradually vanished from his eyes.

"Speaking of Daniel, I thought you would invite him along," I asked on purpose.

"He came by just a few days ago. You were even..."

"What?" I cut him off abruptly as if grasping an important clue.

I had no idea we had come to the seaside days before. Ethan always kept dodging, so we barely got a chance to hang out together. He seemed to know things I was supposed to be aware of, things that ought to have belonged to me.

Recalling his hesitation when I invited him out today, my heart sank further.

"No, it’s nothing." Ethan scratched his dry red hair. "I must have mixed things up. Daniel has been delving into cooking at home lately and hardly hangs out with us."

I paid no heed to his excuses and fell into deep thought about everything that had happened recently. It felt like they were hiding something from me. We had been close friends since childhood and shared everything with each other. They had never acted like this before… They shouldn't be acting like this.

I turned back, staring at Ethan's face beneath the dark blue night. I thought it was time to tell Ethan what had been troubling me.

“What have you all been hiding from me lately? If I…”

My voice drifted far away along the sea breeze.

Ethan evaded my question once again, speaking in a light tone.

“It is said that our hometown will finally connect with the outside world. Wealthy outsiders plan to build a bridge here to develop tourism. No one expected this lonely little peninsula would finally be physically linked to the mainland.”

The moment he finished speaking, his features altered abruptly.

His fiery red hair had turned completely pale, standing out sharply against the dark seaside. Wrinkles spread across his face, and his once sparkling eyes had grown dim and lifeless.

In the blink of an eye, everything reverted to normal.

Bright red, youthful Ethan just sat on the sand dune not far from me once again.

"No! Ethan! I don’t want to hear this!"

Something pierced my optic nerves and pounded relentlessly in my mind, making me extremely restless.

"Please tell me, Ethan. What exactly is wrong with me."

Ethan shook his head. His voice turned hoarse and feeble, sounding desolate amid the biting sea wind.

"The bridge will be built sooner or later. Crowds will come and go, reducing this place to nothing more than an ordinary land. Old days fade, and new ones arrive,

yet some are forever trapped in the winds and dust of the past."

His gaze was vacant, only never drifting toward the sea.

And I gazed toward the distant bridge that had yet to take shape.

The sea embraced the land.

And something else embraced me too.

Long ago, I thought

it was merely the sea.