….Found him… at the beach? …Storm was unexpected… Don't worry…
Rei woke up to bright light and the off blue colored walls of a hospital room. His vision was blurred, his glasses missing from the bridge of his nose, and he squinted at the whiteness of the room, blinking a few times to try in vain to clear his vision. He pushed himself up from the bed, the starched white sheets shifting as he sat up. He realized was clothed in scratchy hospital garb. Blinking slowly, he looked around the room, trying to remember what happened and why he was there.
Then it dawned on him.
The boat, the storm, the ocean, the darkness. Everything came back and suddenly his head hurt from the rush of memories and his mouth felt dry. He could remember the intense burn of the salt in his mouth and throat vividly and just the thoughts made him thirsty.
"Oh! You're awake!"
Rei's head snapped up from where his lavender colored eyes were focused on his hands in his lap. A nurse was standing in the doorway, a pleasant look on her face.
"How are you feeling, Ryugazaki-kun?" The nurse asked, going to the window to open the blinds, letting bright, afternoon sunlight in.
"Um… A little thirsty," Rei said, his throat rough. The nurse gave him a sweet smile before she bustled off to the adjacent bathroom. Rei heard the water running in the bathroom as his gaze went to the window, his gaze settling on the sparkling, blue ocean outside. He felt like something was amiss and he had to force himself to look away when the nurse came back.
"Thank you," Rei said, accepting the plastic cup of water the nurse offered him. He drank it quickly, glad to have the cool liquid soothe his throat. "Can you tell me what happened? He asked, placing the cup onto the table next to the hospital bed.
"Oh, of course!" The nurse said, "It was very peculiar," she started, her gaze becoming slightly troubled, "The boat that was caught in the storm made it to shore alright. Thankfully, no one was injured."
"That's good," Rei said slowly, "But what happened to me?"
"Oh! Right sorry," the nurse said sheepishly, "We found you on the shore passed out. You must be a very strong swimmer, Ryugazaki-kun! The boat was nearly three kilometers away from the beach. You were breathing fine and everything too! Thank goodness," the nurse said quickly, filling him in, "You've been here just over twelve hours."
A strong swimmer? What kind of nonsense was that? Rei didn't bothering asking. If it was by some miracle he made it to shore completely unharmed he wouldn't question it, or at least not question a nurse who knew nothing about it.
"My parents?" He asked instead.
"We called them when we found out who you were. They said they would be here in a few hours and that was a little while ago so you should probably get dressed. Your clothes were washed and they're in that cabinet over there."
"And my glasses?" Rei asked, already getting annoyed at the constant blurriness.
"They weren't in your affects," the nurse said, her face troubled, "I'm sorry, we didn't find any at the scene I don't think." Rei nodded and the nurse excused herself before leaving the room, sliding the door closed behind her.
Rei got dressed with mild annoyance. Zippers were especially hard to configured with his impaired vision. He hoped his parents would bring him spare glasses.
As expected, there was much chatter at the university when Rei went back to school Monday. The story of the boating accident had been twisted to include a shark attack and a sea monster. By the end of the day, the story was too unbelievable to even tell anymore and by track practice talk ceased.
Rei had spent the weekend normally, as if the incident had never happened. He had finished his homework and studied for a while, but he found himself getting distracted often by the sight of the ocean outside his window. Eventually, he had to close the shade to be able to concentrate.
Rei disliked his new glasses. He and his parents had gone out and gotten him new ones since it turned out his spares were the wrong prescription and the frames were too small anyway.
The new pair was too heavy. They just didn't feel right on the bridge of his nose and, to top it off, whenever he looked in the mirror he was reminded of their less than appealing yellow color. Rei had liked his old glasses. He didn't wear red frequently so the color of his old frames had complemented nicely with most things that he owned.
That's how he ended up at the beach, walking along the shore searching desperately for any flash of red in the water. He knew it was probably a lost cause, but he still couldn't help but look, right?
Maybe it was just a mental ploy his mind had invented for him to go back to the beach. He hadn't been able to get the thought of just how he got out of the ocean out of his head. The doctors and nurses all thought he swam out. His muscled arms gave the appearance that he would be a strong swimmer so he let them believe that.
But in actuality, the question had been nagging him. He knew he kept avoiding the truth, not wanting to believe it.
Someone – something – had saved him. There was something in the water, whether it was human or an entity entirely not discovered by man. He stopped walking as he thought about it, his fingers going up to press his cheek that suddenly felt warm, right where he had felt warmth when he was sinking and passing out. He let out a sigh, letting his hand fall back to his side. It was getting late and the thoughts going through his head were puzzling and ridiculous.
Letting out another tired sigh, Rei headed home, deciding he'd come back tomorrow and ask some of the fishermen if they had found his glasses in their nets. He knew it was mostly likely a pipe dream, but why not try?
Rei had no idea how but he was drawn into a marine biology lecture the next day during his free period. It was an introduction to entice students, especially first year students, into studying the field. It was always physics for Rei though, so why was he there?
The lecture wasn't awful; Rei actually found it quite interesting. But he knew he didn't really want to study that. All he wanted to know was what had happened to him in the water, and maybe someone at the university had answers.
Rei had been trying to find a logical answer for three days now. The week was almost over and he had become too engrossed in research to have enough time to visit the beach again and continue his hopeless glasses hunt. The best thing he had come up with was that a dolphin or some other large sea mammal had saved him.
But that was a stretch, and probably the most illogical yet still logical situation Rei could come up with. With a groan, Rei pressed the palms of his hands to his forehead. Another wasted afternoon in the library. It was going to be a long night of studying, the third consecutive one in a row.
"Hey! You're Ryugazaki-kun, right?" Rei raised his head from his heads to see a girl standing there, a smile on her face. He recognized her as one of the third years at the lecture he had gone to.
"Yes, and you are?"
"I'm Miyu Yamada," the girl introduced excitedly, thrusting her hand in Rei's direction. He gingerly shook her hand and she smiled brighter, "I saw you at the marine biology lecture the other day! Since I helped with admissions day too, I've seen your file," she explained, "Are you considering marine bio? I always pegged you as a more mathematical guy, but we would love to have you. I've been a bio student all three years! I'd never want to do anything else." Rei nodded at her words, which were coming way too fast for him to process all of them.
"I'm still deciding," he finally managed to said, adjusting his glasses.
"Well I've seen you in here a lot lately looking up sea creatures and stuff," Miyu said, "N-not that I was spying on you or anything! You're, like, the smartest student in your class this year so anyone would be interested in you, y'know," she babbled quickly, her cheeks flushing slightly, "But anyway, we would love to have you studying with us! We have some of the best professors around! They study all sorts of life in the ocean and they have made some really remarkable discoveries."
"I-I still don't know yet," Rei stammered, feeling mildly accosted, to say the least, by Miyu's overly ecstatic demeanor.
"Oh… Well even if you are still considering, you are so more than welcome to come to more lectures, or even if you have a free period stop by one of the labs! I mean, you can't participate or anything but you could watch or take notes or talk to some of our professors even. Here, I'll give you my number and you can call me or text me, or I can call you or text you! Only if you're interested of course! Whatever you prefer!" Miyu's busied herself jotting down her number on a scrap of paper before thrusting it Rei.
"Um… Thank you," he said, feeling exhausted by just talking to the girl for a few minutes. Had it been a few minutes? It seemed like longer and Rei was getting a headache. He looked up and realized Miyu was looking at him with wide expectant eyes. Adjusting his glasses awkwardly, his scribbled down his own number for the cellphone he seldom used and handed it to her.
"Thanks Ryugazaki-kun! I really hope you look into the field, okay? I'll definitely see you around or call you or text you or something, okay? See you later!" Rei waved half-heartedly and watched her dash out of the library. Once she was gone, he sighed, relaxing into the chair for a few moments before he packed up his bag, ready to head home. Tomorrow, he decided, tomorrow he would definitely go to the beach… or maybe he'd find one of those professors in his search for answers.
It wasn't until Friday that Rei could return once again to beach. A project had kept him busy on Thursday, even though he could barely concentrate. He had been itching to get to the beach, and he had forced himself to establish that finding his glasses wasn't his reason for it. He was walking along the wooden pier, surrounded by tethered fishing boats. Of the few fishermen left there for the day, none of them had found his glasses.
Rei resigned himself to standing at the end of wooden boardwalk, enjoying the sight of the setting sun. A peculiar feeling came over him. He suddenly became hyper aware that someone was watching him and he stopped walking, peering around himself. He looked forward to the end of the peer, narrowing his eyes slightly.
There was someone at the end of the boardwalk watching him. Upon walking closer, Rei saw a younger looking boy with tousled honey blond hair and bright, coral color eyes staring at him, his muscled arms supporting him as he held himself up on the edge of the pier, his lower body hidden from Rei in the water.
And he was wearing glasses, very familiar, red-framed glasses. Rei broke into a fast walk, stopping in front of the other boy to stare down at him. "Where did you find those?" he blurted out, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"I found them," the boy answered innocently, slipping the glasses off to twirl them between two fingers, "They don't even work. They make everything blurry," he huffed, giving Rei a small pout.
"That's because they're mine," Rei said, "I thought I had lost them." He crouched down, holding out his hand, "Can I have them back?" The boy's pout faded easily back into a smile and he handed the frames over before folding his arms and resting his chin on them, studying Rei with inquisitive eyes.
"What's your name?" The boy asked with no preamble, his pretty coral eyes looking Rei over before settling on his face.
"Oh… um," Rei stuttered, adjusting his glasses, "Rei Ryugazaki." The boy let out a bright laugh.
"That's a really pretty name!" He giggled, "I'm Nagisa Hazuki, but you can call me Nagisa, okay, Rei-chan?"
"Rei-chan?" Rei sputtered, feeling his cheeks heating up at the feminine add on, "That makes me sound like a girl!"
"But you have a girl's name," Nagisa said, cocking his head to the side slightly, "So do I! That means we should be friends, okay?" He asked excitedly, his eyes shining. Rei didn't know what to say. He had just met the kid, and now Nagisa was already calling them friends.
"I have to go," he said instead of answering the blond, feeling embarrassed and trapped by the bright gaze of the boy in front of him.
"Okay!" Nagisa nodded, reaching forward to snatch the glasses back from Rei's hand.
"Hey!"
"I'll see you again, Rei-chan!" Nagisa said happily, waving with the hand that held Rei's glasses captive before he smiled again, the look suddenly more mischievous than before, and disappeared from view into the water.
"Wait!" Rei cried out, moving to the edge of the boardwalk to see nothing below aside from the dark water of the ocean. Groaning softly in defeat, Rei stood up, adjusted his glasses again, and headed home, knowing he would have to return and find Nagisa again.