Passion Raga Novel (Completed) - Chapter 5

Yuri calmly pushed the tube towards Ling Tangyun, who was swimming over with a belatedly surprised expression, then immediately turned his body to survey the surroundings again. He had had a hunch, but the small child was nowhere to be seen.

Leaving Ling Tangyun, who was comforting the children, behind him, Yuri plunged back into the sea and swam in the direction the child had dived.

As he went in that direction, and deeper down, the current grew stronger. In this state, caught in the current, the child wouldn’t be in the same spot as before. They might have been carried quite far. Yuri inwardly clicked his tongue, thinking it was fortunate it wasn’t a downward current. Fortunately, he found the child not long after.

The child, half-unconscious, seemed to have clung to corals or rocks while being swept away. There were small traces of injuries on their hands, arms, and various parts of their body. No air bubbles escaped from their lips, as if their breathing had almost stopped. As Yuri hastily approached the child, he was a little surprised.

If the child hadn’t been able to come out since entering the water earlier, they should have already lost consciousness, but the child seemed to be forcibly holding onto their consciousness, blinking their flickering eyes. Through the blinking eyelids, faint black pupils gleamed.

It was then that Yuri saw the child named Ling Xinlu for the first time.

It was the first time he had seen them properly at such a close distance.

And, forgetting the situation, he was momentarily mesmerized.

The child, clinging to a massive coral formation and swaying in the current, seemed to be gently fluttering like a soft ripple.

Their jet-black hair, softly scattered strand by strand, their white skin glowing bluish in the water, and their delicate face, so beautiful that one might wonder if any doll could be so pretty – it was like seeing a fairy, or a beautiful boy cherished by a water god.

Like a flower blooming in the water.

Bright and beautiful.

For a fleeting moment, this was the first time he had been captivated by something other than water.

However, Yuri, realizing the presence of the child who had discovered him and opened their eyes wide while losing consciousness, quickly regained his composure.

Upon seeing Yuri, the child realized that someone had come to save them and frantically waved their hands. In the terror of death, the child’s thin rationality had long since flown away. Even the astonishing willpower that kept them from losing consciousness seemed to be solely focused on clinging to Yuri. Only the instinct to live remained.

Yuri hesitated, stepping back slightly.

Not now. It was different from the time with Fei.

Even for a child, the strength to cling on in such a situation would be formidable, and Yuri was already exhausted from swimming against the current. Moreover, the current here was much stronger than before, making it difficult for Yuri himself to maintain his balance. If the child were to cling to him with that brute force, holding his limbs and making him unable to move, both of them would likely face a huge disaster. And Yuri didn’t have a rope or stick to offer the child to grab onto.

In such a case, the wisest method was to wait for the other person to lose consciousness. And, fortunately for Yuri, who was slowly running out of breath, it seemed that the child would lose consciousness soon.

It’s okay. You must be scared, but don’t worry. I’m watching over you here. If you close your eyes for a moment and open them again, you’ll be lying in a safe and comfortable place.

Yuri watched the child from a little distance. He conveyed those words with his gaze, but it was unlikely the child understood. Seeing the child flailing their arms, trying desperately to get closer to Yuri, made his heart ache, but he couldn’t rashly offer his hand. He could only whisper inwardly. It’s okay. I’ll definitely save you.

Even amidst that, the child was so beautiful that he found his gaze stolen.

It truly felt like a flower blooming in the sea. Where could there be such a bright and lovely flower?

Yuri struggled to regain his composure, which was almost lost in admiration, and calmly waited for the child. He himself was slowly running out of breath.

Eventually, anger filled the child’s eyes. It was a fierce and terrifying anger, so much so that Yuri flinched for a moment. Anger towards the one who silently watched them dying.

The child, glaring fiercely at Yuri with eyes mixed with injustice, anger, and suffering, lost consciousness the next moment. The strength drained from the child’s hands, and the coral they had desperately clung to was released. The child’s body was caught in the current and began to drift away.

And only after Yuri approached to a barely reachable distance and confirmed that the child had lost consciousness, did he pull that beautiful and precious flower up to the surface. Truly beautiful. So beautiful. He admired it several times even in that moment.

The sea of Seringe maintains a high water temperature throughout the year, rarely dropping below 20 degrees Celsius even during the rainy season. Especially during this time, the hot dry season, the water temperature is comparable to that of any tropical sea.

‘It could even reach 28, 29 degrees…’

A perfectly pleasant warmth rippled from the seawater that enveloped his entire body.

When he closed his eyes, he heard a low sound in the water that filled his ears instead of air. A sound so low it was indescribable, an unending sound. The sound of the bottom of the sea. The sound of the living sea breathing.

Outside the water, one hears the unheard breath of the living atmosphere; inside the water, one hears the unheard flow of the living sea.

Moreover, at the bottom of the sea, isn’t even the sky above filled with water?

He liked that.

So, he liked any water he could immerse himself in, but among them, the sea was the best.

Yuri opened his eyes. The rippling, deep blue surface of the water was visible above him. The dark blue water and the dawn sky shimmered dazzlingly like jewels.

The sky beneath the sea was so beautiful that even after seeing it countless times, he still lost himself in it every time, but he couldn’t stay there indefinitely. Although Yuri boasted a lung capacity superior to others, he was slowly running out of breath.

Wishing regretfully to be born as a fish in his next life, he surfaced.

“………”

He spat out the water droplets on his lips and took a long breath. The eastern sky was faintly bright. Another day began as usual. Yuri looked at the island. He quietly began to cut through the water towards the island, which seemed to be dozing in the lazy silence of early dawn.

His daily life always began with water. By the sea, he would pleasantly immerse himself in the dawn sea, and if there was no sea, he would reluctantly enter a pool, and if even that wasn’t possible, he would dejectedly get into a bathtub. In even worse situations where that wasn’t possible, he had to spend gloomy days like someone suffering from depression.

For instance, around this time two years ago, he had to unavoidably wander through the Sierra Nevada for several days, and being in the mountains, he naturally couldn’t find any water. It happened to be a drought, making it difficult to find even small puddles, and he even had to conserve drinking water, so a shower, let alone a bathtub, was out of the question. Unable to bear Yuri, who marched glumly, rarely smiling or speaking, his colleagues once united and finished their work earlier than planned, thinking, ‘This guy’s going to go crazy like this. Let’s finish the work as soon as possible.’

‘At that point, it’s a sickness. I can introduce you to a good doctor.’

Even James, who (except for Kyle) paid no attention to others’ privacy, seriously held Yuri and offered, and although Yuri couldn’t refuse his earnest request and actually met a doctor, all the tests only yielded the result that Yuri’s mental state was very normal.

‘It’s normal for people to have one or two attachments.’

Yuri said casually, adding, ‘So, from now on, I won’t accept requests for waterless regions,’ making James’s work assignments difficult.

It couldn’t be said to be solely the result of that, but at any rate, Yuri was currently finishing his work in a satisfactory environment, and James was probably also satisfied with the progress of the work entrusted to Yuri.

It will be soon. He just needed to confirm Jeong Taeui’s location. And that was the problem.

He had an idea where he might be, but no way to confirm it…

Yuri only emerged from the water when it reached his waist. Finely crushed shells and corals crunched under his feet. Before fully exiting the water, he took off his boots and stepped barefoot onto the sand. He liked the ticklish sensation of the fine sand seeping between his toes.

“…achoo.”

Yuri sneezed, hunching his shoulders, then rubbed his chilly forearm and hunched over.

The water was warm, but it was cool outside. Although it was a warm region year-round, there was no place where the dawn air touching a wet body was also warm.

“Towel, my towel…”

“Here.”

As Yuri looked around for the towel he had thrown beside his sandals, an unfamiliar but remembered voice approached him. At the same time, a white hand abruptly presented a towel in front of his eyes.

“…Thank you.”

Yuri took the towel and straightened up. As he had guessed from the voice, a handsome young man stood in front of him, smiling sweetly. Whether he didn’t see Yuri’s awkward expression as he silently dried himself or pretended not to the young man spoke without losing his bright smile.

“Isn’t it cold going into the sea before the sun even rises? Oh, I don’t even want to get out of bed in the morning.”

“…The water is warmer than outside, actually.”

“Really? Doesn’t seem like it. Do you come to the sea every morning?”

Yuri paused for a moment instead of answering, then nodded. Seeing this, the young man smiled with his eyes and casually scrutinized him.

“I see. It’s enviable how good swimmers’ bodies are. You don’t look like an old man, almost forty at all.”

Yuri, who was drying himself, paused his hands for a moment but soon continued rubbing the towel. Only after loosely draping the towel over his shoulder, having roughly wiped off the water, did he look back at the young man.

The words “I still have four years until I turn forty” wouldn’t work in front of such a vibrant young man in his early to mid-twenties. No, more than that, when they met yesterday, he had clearly glared at him with eyes that said, “Just you wait if I catch you again,” so what was this familiar smile?

He couldn’t guess why the young man was here. Given that he was right here and spoke to him, it seemed he had business with Yuri, but Yuri silently watched the young man for a moment, who only smiled innocently. After a few seconds of subtle silence, Yuri stepped aside. Seeing this, the young man raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“Did you come to swim…?”

That was the most plausible conclusion Yuri had reached. Being here at this hour, if he didn’t have business with Yuri, then it could only be for swimming. Indeed, with such a beautiful sea, it was natural to want to swim.

However, when Yuri gestured towards the sea over his shoulder, the young man returned a brief silence. The way he was loosely dressed in a white shirt and had his hands in the pockets of neat cotton trousers didn’t look like someone who had come to swim.

“I don’t swim.”

The young man looked momentarily dumbfounded but soon returned his pretty smile and spoke. Yuri blinked and asked,

“You don’t know how?”