Diamond Dust Novel - Chapter 1

It was a clean cutback.

Briefly standing up on the white foam of the breaking wave, Morae immediately spun the board around, traversing the curve of the incoming wave in a zigzag.

At the dazzling, continuous movement that never once missed the flow of the wave, some of the people watching the beach cheered.

Thanks to the steady wind blowing from the distant eastern sea, the waves were of good quality. Even for me, someone who’d never stood on a board but had been learning by sight and sound for years, the conditions were perfect for a leisurely surf.

The sky and the sea were like a decalcomania in a sketchpad that had been folded and unfolded. Like the accidental marbling created as the blue and white paints, subjected to light pressure, mingled together.

White clouds in a blue sky. White waves in a blue sea.

Around ten people were waiting in the lineup to catch a wave, but Morae was the only surfer who had successfully caught a wave and smoothly ridden it all the way to the beach.

Her balance on the board was so flawless it was hard to believe she was floating on a wave, relying solely on a six-foot, seven-inch plank.

There was no sense of danger or precariousness. She looked more comfortable and free than someone riding a bike on land, and the wave seemed like a carpet carrying her, a magic carpet from a faraway land’s folktale.

“Wow… what must it feel like to ride like that?”

“Seriously. I’d die happy if I could ride like that just once.”

People taking lessons barely ten meters from where I sat also stopped paddling their arms and admired Morae’s surfing. And their admiration quickly turned into prodding their instructor.

“Instructor, when can we ride like that?”

Hyung, who had his back to the sea as he faced his students, briefly turned his head to confirm that the subject of their envy was Morae, then sighed. His frowned expression was evident even behind his sunglasses.

“The surfer you’re admiring right now has seven years of surfing experience and has been ocean swimming since… well, since she learned to walk, basically. And what are you all?”

“……”

They were first-timers, having touched a board for the first time today, practicing paddling by flopping Styrofoam boards onto the sand and churning their arms.

At Hyung’s uncompromising bluntness, their shoulders slumped. They looked like people standing at the foot of a high mountain, gazing up at the peak before a climb.

It was April.

The weather was still too chilly for swimming, but as soon as the temperature recovered to the minimum required for surfing in a wetsuit, beginners wanting to learn and seasoned surfers flocked to the beach. The recent surfing boom over the last few years had significantly changed the scenery and the types of tourist businesses here.

Morae finished her session and walked out of the sea with the board tucked under her arm. Skillfully unzipping her wetsuit and pulling out her arms by herself, she plopped down next to me.

“Whew! It’s crazy riding after so long. Everything hurts.”

I took the water bottle out of my bag and handed it to her.

It was her first surf of the year on the East Sea. She’d mentioned taking a surfing trip to an island nation somewhere in Southeast Asia while Hyung and I were finishing up our military service in the winter, but that was already about three months ago.

Though she complained about how tired she was, her wet face was clearly alight with excitement. It was the unique energy radiating from a person doing what they loved. The cool, salty touch of the sea reached me from her.

The first time I met her, when I rode Hyung’s bike to this beach, she’d been surfing too. I’d sensed this same temperature and scent from her that day, when she walked out of the sea, offered a handshake, and smiled.

Perhaps that’s why. Her name is Morae, but to me, she always evoked the vital force and moisture of the sea.

Not the brittle, dry sand covering a school playground or piled up at a construction site, but the sand that’s part of the ocean, constantly soaked by the incoming waves and ever-shifting its form.

This was regardless of whether she was an Alpha or not… It was the impression transmitted by the presence of the human being Im Morae, not the action of reproductive pheromones. Besides, as a Beta, it was impossible for me to detect an Alpha’s pheromones anyway.

“How was it?”

“It looked clean, like you rode yesterday.”

“Do you think I ride better than Hanie?”

I turned my head to look at Hyung, who was demonstrating to his students how to paddle their arms on a Styrofoam board, and answered in a lowered voice.

“You’ve always ridden better than him, Noona.”

Morae also glanced quickly toward Hyung’s direction, then smiled a private smile just for me.

“I got some special training while you guys were in the army. It feels great riding after so long, but… the waves are too gentle. Ah, I really want to ride a big wave!”

That has become Morae’s current catchphrase.

She’d often described how exhilarating it was to slide and ride inside the round tunnel formed when a big wave curls and breaks, and the mysterious feeling of being sucked into a nature of a different dimension, briefly removed from Earth.

Such waves were hard to find in the East Sea. Even Hyung, who hadn’t surfed overseas, had only heard about them and seen them in videos; he’d never actually ridden one.

High-level surfers like them couldn’t be satisfied with just the waves of this sea. They still felt a thirst, no matter how long they stayed on the board.

About seven years ago? Back when this beach, now home to over a dozen surf gear rental and lesson businesses, was only lined with raw-fish restaurants and cafes catering to tourists, Morae was one of the very first to launch a board here.

Having tried surfing on a guide’s recommendation during a family trip to Hawaii, she bought a board right away and returned home. Traveling to a Pacific island, or bringing the bulky equipment she bought there back to Korea by plane, was no big deal for her.

Morae’s father was one of the wealthiest men in the vicinity, owning five or six large fishing boats and several food businesses. As the youngest and only daughter, with only older brothers above her, and also a vulnerable spot for being born a female Alpha, he spared no expense for her.

Influenced by Morae, Hyung naturally took up surfing and was instantly hooked. As soon as the sea warmed up enough for a wetsuit to withstand, the two would rush to this beach, a 40-minute bike ride away, and I would watch them, just as I am now, sitting on the beach, going out to the lineup and being pushed back to shore over and over, tirelessly. It’s no exaggeration to say that my three years of high school passed this way.

“Want me to teach you? Want to try?”

It was a question I’d heard easily a thousand times over five years. My answer was always the same. Fiddling with the water bottle she’d handed back, I shook my head.

“Aren’t you bored?”

My reaction was the same this time, too.

Though Hyung and Morae asked periodically, they never actively tried to persuade me or forcibly drag me into the sea. This time, too, Morae just laughed, patting my shoulder with a wet fist. But her laughter held disappointment and worry that I hadn’t changed even after completing my military service.

She stood up to go back out to sea. I also brushed the sand off my butt and stood up to zip up her wetsuit. It was my role when one of them wasn’t around.

“Okay, lift your waist! Eyes on the distant front! Tighten your triceps!”

“Instructor, enough! I want to go out to sea!”

“With that arm strength, you won’t make it ten meters! Lift your waist higher. If your view is obstructed, you’ll endanger yourself and other surfers!”

Morae chuckled at Hyung’s stiff, loud, drill-sergeant-like tone, emphasizing the importance of safety while correcting his students’ postures.

“Looks like he hasn’t shed his military habits yet.”

I smiled back at her in agreement. Morae lightly patted my cheek with her cool, water-soaked hand.

“But look how fresh you are, Hyunie. Who’d think you’re a military veteran who just got discharged?”

Military veteran.

That’s right. Until a few months before I enlisted, a soldier felt like a complete adult, belonging to a completely different domain from a high school student, someone who had successfully moved on to the next stage. But now… I couldn’t even be sure if those almost two years had left me with anything at all.

“Don’t talk to strangers, and sit tight here, okay?”

When I nodded, she grinned with her face glistening with seawater, tucked the board under her arm, and headed back to the sea.

She crossed the boundary between the sea and the sand without hesitation, fearlessly holding her head high even on the unpredictable water just as Hyung was emphasizing to his students and paddled against the direction of the waves toward the lineup.

And then, miraculously, she stood up on the fragile white foam that looked like it could vanish at any moment.

No matter how many times I saw it, no matter how many years I watched it, it was an astonishing sight.