The youth thought he saw the pretty young woman in the corner of his eyes.

No.

His mind playing tricks on him.

The youth was sad at the thought of that. He shook his head, turned his body, and walked reluctantly toward the golden bright sunset in the west.

He continued to walk.

Walking into the sunset.

Continued to walk, as the fleeting years pa.s.sed by.

Until one day….

He saw another person.

Hundreds of years he had lingered around here, the youth saw no fish. Nor he ever saw another ent.i.ty besides him and the young woman.

Yet today, his face turned serious. He gloated at the distant scene far in the corner horizon.

There, a small boat floated calmly. A figure who covered his face a wide traditional conical hat was seen fis.h.i.+ng alone on the boat, with a little care in the world, though the youth was sure there was no fish to be fished in this realm of the strange sea.

The youth walked further to approach him and to his surprise, like the opposite of the fleeting scenes the youth experienced, it seemed he had to walk for ages. As the distance between him and the fisher didn’t shrink even a meter. He held his breath at one point. Felt like he walked on his own steps all over again. Strange.

It kept going for two or three months, until finally, the youth tried to lament at the distant fisher.

“I need to leave this sea. Can you help me, mister?”

The youth sighed as he knew n.o.body would hear what he said. But he was wrong. At that moment, unbeknownst to him, clouds crept in from the corner of the horizon and the sun sped its decline. The day abruptly went away as the dark twilight came to paint the surface of sky.

He discovered later that there’s something weird about the strange sea. The sea was still calm as the usual yet its wave danced in a rushed manner, sped up, just like there was an invisible divine hand playing around with the motion of time.

As the youth continued to move with a small step, he found himself skated kilometers away in an instant.

The sea became blurred. And the wide sky rolled around him. In a blink of an eye, he traveled a distance that took him years to walk with his usual speed. The fisherman reeled his fish rod and pulled the youth closer toward him. Then he used his fingers to lower his conical hat. One could only see his faint smile on his young face.

Moments later, the youth arrived. He slowed down when he was meters away from the fisherman. The youth gawked as he didn’t know what to say. It was the latter who first to greet.

“Greeting, young man.”

“Ah, yes…. greeting,” the youth answered almost with a whisper.

“It seems you finally decided to meet me.”

“I already tried to meet you since long ago.”

“You didn’t,” the fisherman shook his head. “It wasn’t your decision back then. But it is now.”

The youth gazed at the wide conical hat as fisherman covered his face with the cone-shaped hat.

He could only saw the fisherman’s smile widened.

“Well, are you ready to leave now?” asked the fisherman.

“I’m ready.”

“Are you?”

The youth nodded. “Yes.”

“Then leave the ribbon to me.”

The youth held his breath, didn’t reply for a long time.

“You said you’re ready,” the fisherman spoke.

“I….”

“Take your time, young man.”

After the fisherman said that, the boat steadily floated away toward the distant horizon.

The youth held the purple ribbon in his hand. He knelt for heaven knows how long.

His pair of eyes were tinted red with sorrow. He still remembered the young woman, and still longed to embrace her again.

But the youth knew his time was coming. So he kissed the ribbon for the last time, and smile bitterly as he felt the faint smell of his lost lover.

He sighed.

“I’m ready,” he said to the calm sea.

Then, the fisherman’s reply echoed across the sea:

“Just drop the ribbon back to the sea,” he said. “I will remove your memories after sending you home. Is that alright with you?”

The youth lowered his head. “Yes…”

“Don’t be so heavy hearted, young man. This is the only way to send you back without much damage the rule of karma. If you want, I can grant you some time to retain your memories after you step into your world. But don't try to change the game. Don't upset the flow of time. Now, leave the ribbon to the sea. I’ll open the gate.”

The youth nodded and released the purple ribbon from his hand.

He stared at the ribbon for the last time as it sunk gently into the sea.

Then, slowly, sea water swirl beneath his feet.

“Goodbye,” he whispered.

Suddenly, the strange sea refuse to be stepped on again. The youth didn’t fight as his body drowned deep into the sea’s body, away from the sorrowful sky and the bitter surface of the sea he knew all of this time.

The youth closed his eyes. Imagined the entire sea was her–the young lover of his.

He tried to embrace the sea. Pretend her soul was there. And tried to feel the warmness of her smooth nude skin for the last time.

As he opened his eyes, the youth found his skin felt the warm he longed for.

As it was the moment of revelation, the young woman suddenly appeared, while naked, pressed her exposed slender bosom against his chest as she hugged him closely with a gentle poke of her aroused stiff breast berries.

She came. Just like he wished for. And then, under the heavy pressure of void seawater, they involved in a long and blissful snu-snu.

They finished doing it in a lone, white sandy beach. They didn’t realize they were there this entire time as both of them were too enchanted by the lasting intimate feeling, even they didn’t aware the calm sky twilight came to cover this shameless naked couple with the curtains of the dark night.

The young woman yawned lazily.

She felt her eyelids getting heavier as she was too tired after all things the youth had done to her.

Then she crept to his bosom asked the youth to rub her hair so he could say that she was a good girl. And the youth thought she was. He rubbed her purple hair with a gentle touch, gradually led the content young woman fell asleep on his bare bosom.

The youth closed his eyes too. He slept soundly.

Morning came.

When he opened his eyes, the youth find his pretty little lover was gone.

He searched her for a moment. But the only thing he found was a tidy purple ribbon. The one he had to give up when he asked the fisherman to bring him home.

However, the young woman came to him again. Not only to give him a pleasant last parting ceremony, she was here return the ribbon back to him.

The youth didn’t know by taking the ribbon back from the fisherman, the young woman had to pay a heavy cost.

The only thing he knew was that his chest soaked by the young woman tears.

She left not too long ago.

He saw his clothes lying on the sandy ground. His body was real as ever be. And the last night was the most real and blissful snu-snu he ever had. He felt alive. The young woman made him felt alive. Someday he was hoping to come back and bring the young woman somewhere outside the sea. But he knew he still didn’t have the ability to do so. And slowly, from the dark place of his mind, the long-forgotten memories crawled back onto the surface, reminding him that once he was an ordinary youth from some family named Yashura.

After he put his clothes on, the youth gazed at the sea. His heart ached. Only when the sunlight was bright enough to burn his skin, s.h.i.+ra Yashura turned away to find his way back home.