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“Rei ——”
I heard her calling me from far away. “Look at me ——!”
Her figure stood against the light, blending into everything around her. Her fiery red hair was blown open by the evening sea breeze, merging with the burning sunset. Waves crashed in, soaking her ankles, yet not even a trace of her smile faded. She bent down, scooped up a handful of glistening water, and it sparkled in the afterglow along with her cheer.
I knew she wasn't asking me to look because she was posing for a photo. She just wanted me to look at her. But as she thought this, could she know that I had never really taken my eyes off her?
She ran back, her feet covered in sand.
“It's such a shame you can't play in the water, Rei. But you can't just sit here all the time. Come walk with me!”
And so she pulled me up.
I shouldn't have come to the beach, really. The salty sea breeze would speed up my system corrosion, and the soft sand made it hard to keep balance. But Teto wanted to come, so I came with her. Before the wind could smooth out the footprints left by others, we added our own. She held my hand loosely, not tightly, and walked very, very slowly. In the dimming sunlight, she looked up at me and said:
Rei, I want to hear you sing.
Teto often says she wants to hear me sing. I don't know if it's because she actually likes my voice. Every time I finish, she teases me, saying it sounds terrible — in tune, but the notes are all messy. I offer to play the original song for her, but she refuses, insisting on hearing me sing, just to laugh at me afterward. I think she must hate my singing. Yet the next time, she'll run over and say, “I want to hear Rei sing.” It's always like this.
I finished my messy little song, waiting for her teasing.
But this time, she just ruffled my hair and smiled, saying I'd improved. She was a head shorter than me; she had to make me lower my head a little to reach it. She took my hand and kept walking, this time striding ahead, not caring at all about my balance. She started singing, her voice also scattered by the wind. But I didn't tease her. I loved her song.
“Rei, you know what? I love you. I love you, Rei!”
Maybe she was just overly happy, or maybe the cool evening wind had made her lightheaded, so she dug out the words she'd been hiding. I already knew all of this. Half a year ago, she'd said the same thing to me after drinking. I told her my feelings for her were far greater than hers for me. She didn't believe it, argued sleepily for a moment, then fell asleep. When she woke up the next day, she didn't seem to remember, so I never brought it up again. Today she said the same words, and I gave the same answer. She only smiled and said she didn't believe me, but didn't argue further.
She held my hand loosely again, walking as slowly as we had at the start.
This beach stretched on and on. We had so much time. We could walk for a very, very long time.
「“Rei——”我听到她在远处叫我，“看我——！”
她的身影在背光之中与周遭的事物融为一体，火红的长发被傍晚的海风吹开和夕阳烧成一片。浪花拍了过来打湿了她的脚踝，却没能把她脸上的笑容融化半分。她弯下腰去扬起一捧水光，跟着欢呼声一起在余晖里闪闪发亮。
我知道她叫我看她并不是由于她摆出了什么要拍照的姿势，只是因为想要我看向她而已。但这样想着的她，会知道我其实从未把目光从她身上移开过吗？
她跑了回来，脚上粘满了沙子。“Rei不能玩水真的好可惜，不过一直坐在这里也不行，跟我走走吧！”
于是我被她拉了起来。
其实我不该来海边的。咸咸的海风会加速机体锈蚀，松软的沙滩也不利于维持平衡。但是teto小姐想来，所以我陪她来了。风还没来得及抹平其他人留下的脚印，我们就又把我们的印了上去。她只是松松地抓着我的手并没有紧握，脚步也放得很慢很慢。在渐暗的阳光里她抬头看向我，说，Rei，我想听你唱歌。
teto小姐经常会说想听我唱歌，我不清楚她这么说是否是因为喜欢我唱歌。每次我唱完她就要奚落我一顿，说好难听，音是准的但音节又七零八落的。于是我提出为她播放原唱，可她又不肯，坚持要听我自己唱，然后再来笑我。我想她是讨厌我唱歌了，可下回她又会跑过来说“我想听Rei唱歌”，每次都是这样。
我唱完了我七零八落的歌，等着她的奚落。但这回她只是揉了揉我的头发笑着说有进步。明明她比我还要矮一头，要揉到我的头还要我稍微低下头。她拉起我的手接着走，这次昂首阔步，完全不管我的平衡问题了。她唱起歌，歌声也被风吹得七零八落的。但我没有奚落她，我喜欢她的歌。
“Rei，你知道吗？我喜欢你哦，我喜欢Rei哦？”
也许她是真的高兴到了极点，又或者可能是叫微凉的晚风吹昏了头，才让她把一直藏在心里的话挖了出来。她说的这些我早就知道了，早在半年前她就在一次酒后对我说过同样的话。我告诉她我对她的喜欢远超过她对我的喜欢，她说不信，迷迷糊糊和我争辩两句后就沉入梦乡。第二天醒来她似乎并不记得这件事情，我也就没有再提。今天她说出了同样的话，我也给出了同样的答复。她只笑着说了一句不信，却没有与我争辩下去。
她又只是松松地抓着我了，脚步又像是散步刚开始时那样慢。这片沙滩很长很长，我们的时间很多很多，我们可以走很久很久。」