Under the cloak of dusk, the island was tinted sepia. Light from the stretch of cafés, bars, and resorts illuminated the beach, above which spread out a sprinkling of stars embedded in the night sky. Palm trees swayed in the gentle, salty breeze. Their footsteps criss-crossed on the smooth golden sand, until they reached a secluded section of the beach and came to a stop near the water.
Liz laid next to Rei on the sand. Her clothes and her legs became caked with white dust and pebbles but she didn't appear to care. An entire ocean seemed to stretch in the minute distance between her fingers and Rei's.
"It's so pretty," Liz sighed, a small smile settling on her lips.
Rei inclined her head to dart a glance at Liz and her heart hitched in her throat. It was probably just her intoxication talking, but she couldn't help thinking that the multitude of stars upon the heavens were nowhere near as incandescent as the smile she wore that night.
"Yeah," Rei said quietly.
For a long while, the two of them laid there, side-by-side, not speaking, with only the rhythmic percussion of the sea lapping against the shore punctuating the stillness.
Then, Rei heard Liz speak in a pensive voice, "My mother said that the light of stars takes years to travel through space and into the earth's atmosphere. So, the stars we see at night could likely belong to stars that have long since extinguished. And there was no point wanting to be something whose light was gazed upon only long after you've died."
Then she breathed out a sigh, and her voice became laced with bitterness.
With a snort, Rei shifted to her side and faced her directly. "Aren't we all just a little bit dead inside? My heart nearly gave up on me because of the stress that comes with my job."
A laugh bubbled past on Liz's lips, and Rei's eyebrows shot high to her forehead. In all the years they've known each other, she had never made her laugh like this before.
When her laughter subsided, Liz rolled over so that they laid facing each other on the sand.
"Naoi Rei, are you drunk?"
"Just a little. You?"
She gave a tiny shake of her head. "Not even a little," Liz said, sounding as though she were immensely disappointed.
"You're kidding. You pretty much drank the entire bar!"
"I'm serious. I can even go for a swim in the water right this minute."
"Hey, Kim Jiwon-"
But it was too late. Liz had scrambled to her feet and, in a flash, stripped off her shirt. Rei had a split second to avert her gaze as she divested herself of her shorts, her face feeling warm despite the cool evening breeze-
"Relax," Liz said in a voice that was half-reassuring and half-teasing, "I'm wearing a bikini."
Hands still covering Rei's eyes, she retorted in panic, "You're insane, somebody could see you-!"
Rei heard, rather than saw, the roll of her eyes.
"It's a beach. Nobody swims in their pajamas. Besides," splash, splash, "nobody's here!"
Rei found herself in a moral dilemma: If she released her hands, she would see more of Liz , however, if she kept her eyes shut, she would be knowingly leaving her in danger. She cursed. What the hell had Rei gotten herself into?
"Fuck! The water's freezing!"
Chewing her lip nervously, Rei yelled, "Where are you going? Don't go too deep into the water!"
