Chapter Six
Houjun grabbed his surfboard and plunged into the waves, paddling out onto the foamy waves just as the water swept up and crashed down onto the surf below him. What a feeling… Laughing victoriously, he went the length of the wave until it sank down beneath his board, before he changed direction and paddled leisurely to the shore where Hikou and Kourin sat on a checkered blue picnic blanket, eating and murmuring sweet nothings to each other. He tossed his board on the wet sand, his feet making dark brown prints on the beach, as he plopped himself down on the empty space. The sunlight flashed the red squares on Hikou's board-shorts, and unbidden thoughts flew into his mind.
I dig my toes into the sand
The ocean looks like
A thousand diamonds
Strewn across a blue blanket
He still wondered about that day, at the rink, when the nameless boy had come up to him, and asked for his number. Would things be different had he been composed and given a coherent answer? He didn't know. I didn't even get his name…he sighed quietly and grabbed a lettuce and bacon sandwich from the row of white paper plates. It's been quite a while…why do I still think of him now? Dismissing the thoughts, he leaned over the blanket and grabbed a plastic cup filled with ice tea.
I lean against the wind
Pretend that I am weightless
And in this moment
I am happy, happy
I wish you were here
"Hey Houjun!" Hikou unwrapped his arm from Kourin's shoulders and leaned forward, grinning at him. "When are you going to get a girlfriend?! See how nice Kourin treats me!"
Houjun rolled his eyes at his friend and threw the empty plastic cup at him. Kourin giggled. "Don't pay any attention to him, Houjun," she called out, swinging in mock anger at her boyfriend.
"I never do," Houjun replied, smirking.
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He looks so good, Kourin sighed to herself. Houjun had his dyed, electric-blue hair plastered to his face with seawater trickling down his sun-bronzed body and his eyes not hidden behind the black-rimmed glasses he usually wore. His body was lean and long, and his model physique and charisma not concealed, but rather enhanced by the slightly tarnished silver earring on his left ear and loose Prussian blue board-shorts that matched his hair and complemented his deep tan. She loved him like a brother sometimes, because in the deep of her heart it felt like he had always been around. But other times…she banished the forbidden thoughts and smiled up at Hikou, who was completely oblivious to her mental assessment of his best friend.
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He stared at the number written on the feminine pink slip of paper. The figures jumped out at him the longer he stared, written in Wesley's large loopy handwriting with the name above it. Houjun…damn I can't believe this. A year of thinking and dreaming, I finally have his contact, and I don't dare to fucking call him?! He hissed in irritation at his own indecisiveness, before letting out his breath in a slow exhalation. Well he probably doesn't want to see me again anyway…probably thinks I'm some sort of fucking pervert…so I shouldn't… He pasted the stick-on to the top of the phone receiver and stared at it gloomily.
