Chapter 1: Footprints in the heat

  The summer heat clings like a second skin. Cicadas scream in waves as Ryo Minami pedals his worn-out bike down an empty dirt road toward the forgotten stretch of beach. His friends are gone, and the small coastal town feels like a place left behind by time.

  As he reaches the edge of the sand, he skids to a stop. There, in the sun-baked earth, bare footprints lead toward the old pier, half-forgotten and weather-beaten. Drawn by some invisible thread, Ryo follows.

  He sees her at the pier’s edge barefoot, standing on the sun-bleached planks like she belongs there. Black hair cropped and wild, a cigarette dangles lazily from her lips, unlit. In one hand, she holds a dark bottle, condensation dripping onto her wrist.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Before Ryo can think of what to say, she speaks first without turning around:

  “Staring won’t make you cooler, y’know.”

  Her voice is low, rough-edged like a struck match.

  Caught off guard, Ryo shrugs. “Didn’t know I needed to be.”

  She smirks faintly and turns to face him, her sharp eyes unreadable but magnetic, like the burning horizon itself. “Smart mouth… Didn’t expect that.”

  She sits on the edge of the pier, long legs dangling just above the water. After a moment of hesitation, Ryo joins her. They sit in charged silence until she casually flicks open a lighter, the flame wavering in the still air.

  “Got a name, smartass?” she asks, lighting her cigarette.

  “Ryo Minami.”

  She exhales a slow stream of smoke, watching it dissolve into the sky. “Blue.”

  There’s a challenge in her tone, daring him to react, to ask more but he doesn’t.

  “So… you just live out here?” he ventures.

  “I live where I want.” She taps ash into the wind. “Places like this... they don’t expect much from you.”

  “Is that good or bad?”

  She shrugs. “Both. Depends if you’re running from something.”

  Her words linger, heavy but effortless. Ryo feels like he’s fallen into a rhythm only she knows, pulled along by her tempo.

  Blue rises suddenly, stretching like she owns the entire ocean stretching before them.

  “You’re kinda weird, Minami.” She smirks. “I might keep you around.”

  Before he can reply, she steps off the pier, leaving only the faint scent of smoke and her footprints in the heat.

  For the first time, the summer doesn’t seem quite so empty anymore.