Betrayal

The July sun was certainly scorching, and the reflection off the black sand only made him burn more, so Joel was forced to make a second camp with his foot on the wet part, where the occasional wave still arrived.

Boys against girls, two against two. The previous result had been cancelled due to adverse conditions, and one of the competitors was complaining about how, according to her, her partner's excessive use of cream was causing them to lose.

Yuusuke preferred to enjoy the game from the towel, with cold water from the fridge next to him and under the shade of the umbrella.

“Taking the bus for an hour to get there wasn't so bad, huh.” the can of soda that Coral passed over the back of his neck made him shudder.

“Thanks for reminding me that I have to get up at 6 tomorrow to make a lot of noise” he dried himself with his towel.

“Don't be a whiner, it's not that bad.”

She shook out her towel to sit beside him, he just stared at her. The sole of her foot was noticeably pinker and whiter than her skin.

“Are you into feet? Don't look at me like that, you pervert.” She pretended to be embarrassed, covering herself with her hands as much as she could.

"Ahh," he snorted. And he pulled the girl's cheek, though with minimal force that didn't stop her from laughing. "The recovery has taken longer, I mean."

“I hadn't told anyone…” the surprise was clear.

“It's obvious.”

The entertaining surfing lessons she had promised lasted less time than she had promised, she went straight from weekly club training sessions to take an almost freezing shower and she didn't even go out for a run for pleasure like she used to.

“It's bearable, I'll be fine for the competition in two months. Walking on the sand helps.”

‘Is that why the rest of us suffer the torture of sticky sand day in and day out?”

“We only come four times a week, and I remind you that last week with the case we hardly touched the water. And when we went to La Palma, with the alleged Marian apparition, we only went to puddles.”

“Even better, mold,” Yuusuke thought.

But he had to admit it, he had enjoyed the trip, as a stowaway, in a trunk on the ship, because without an ID he was still a ghost, discovering part of another archipelago different from his own and explaining to everyone that it was all his psyche and physical phenomena and not a real ghost, he thought he was starting to enjoy it.

He felt a certain satisfaction in teaching others. Even so, his main feeling from then on was fear, discreet and inaudible. He did not know if the invocation was a real event or due to his presence, but he knew that if it was his fault, getting so far did not mean anything good, the future affected the past and that was beyond his predictions.

“Do you realize? It's like a beach episode, we're just missing the festival with fireworks.”

It wouldn't be difficult, after all I lived in the town with the most festivals in the whole country.

“There's no need to follow a pattern. This isn't a romantic comedy.”

“Yeah, you don't even have to say it, with that character... Everything pointed to that at the beginning, blue, without friends, just... protagonist characteristics.” Coral mentally reviewed the list of anime with those characteristics. “I would be your pink girl if I had been serious.”

“You wish.” he said with a challenging smile.

“Why? Do you like boys? Is it like a bl? Because I love them, wait, I'll call Teresa.”

There was her fanatical streak again, not much different from that of her friend.

She looked at him with wide eyes, waiting for a resounding yes, but she heard the end of the game first and that was worth it for her too. He approached the girl in the bikini top and orange shorts from behind and threw her into the water. They were followed by the girl in the retro swimsuit and the blond boy in tight red briefs.

“Have you thought about how to get back yet?” Despite being covered in sweat, Imobach threw himself down on the sand, he looked like a croquette, but he didn't care, he would get wet later.

“By bus, I hope.” Yuusuke wouldn't want to have that conversation. But Imobach didn't seem to want to give in. “Yes.”

“Don't lie to me. You'd be there already if you wanted to.” She looked at the horizon, if the boy wanted to admit something it would be easier for him.

“I'm allergic to Japanese cedar, so a spring without a mask is a good idea.” he was honest.

“Look, I don't know what you've been through, but everything will be okay. There's a solution for everything except death.” she offered him a warm smile and then grabbed her towel, the heat was starting to take its toll.

He did the same, looking into the distance taking his time, and when he finally organized his thoughts, he nodded and spoke.

“Have you noticed,” Imobach understood immediately, at least he had told him what he thought and he believed he had helped him, he really listened to him. “the marks on Teresa's back look like an ice burn.”

“Yes.” he stiffened, now it was he who didn't want to talk about it. However, he also felt relieved, he had that doubt, and many others, for a long time, but he didn't dare to ask. He didn't want to seem like a morbid person. “You really read minds.” he mumbled.

At 6 pm the sun was relaxing, there were still no clouds in sight and the wind was not blowing, the rays, now fallen, did their job, slowly lulling them to sleep.

It was the nineteenth time someone had been buried in the sand that summer, and Coral's fifth time. They had taken great pains to make her a long mermaid tail and two large melons .

"Get together. I'll take the picture," Joel offered. He looked at the photo for a second. "If you can get it together, I think you can sell it well."

"Sell?" Coral wondered, still with a few centimeters of her neck out of the sand.

He looked at Teresa, who opened her eyes wide, shrugged her shoulders and accompanied him by stretching her lips. She didn't understand him either.

“You know, on the page.”

His stunned expression disappeared when his friend also showed no signs of understanding, well, more precisely when he received a slap, softly but with the opposite intentions, in the face. Adassa had the aim of a mother.

“You should see how they slide.”

Yuusuke, who had squatted down for the photo, stood up, not wanting to hear anything about it.

“He told me so”, Joel pointed at Yûusuke.

“Aha!” Adassa took a dramatic breath. “It's an intruder! How ugly! Isn't it?.” She grabbed Imobach by the shoulders while shaking his head. “How strong everything is.”

“Shut up. You're part of it too.” the dark-skinned man replied.

“Yes, but I like to insult. And, also, I had to try.”

Adassa stood beside Yuusuke, he shouldn't turn his back on the other three. They were a bit irritated, or so he assumed.

“I understand the discomfort.” He paused briefly. “We have not revealed identities at any time.”

"It's dangerous," Coral said as she dug herself out. She was so angry that she didn't notice that she was shaking off the sand.

“What do they care! Uploading photos on Instagram is worse, anyone can steal them and falsify them.”

‘Not me,” Imobach muttered. He boasted of only having photos of landscapes on social media, and the occasional monument with history. “That's no excuse anyway.”

“How embarrassing.” Teresa covered her face because it was so red. She didn't like to draw attention to herself, who would have thought?

“It's okay, you're unrecognizable.” Adassa played down the matter.

“Except for one," Yuusuke added. "Adassa made a mistake."

“I have no mistakes!”

“So you did that on purpose?” Joel suggested.

“No!”

“Who?” Imobach asked.

Mentally, the three of them held hands. It was like a qualifying round, the final phase of a television contest, but this time, whoever won, lost.

“Coral.” on Joel's cell phone screen there was a clear image of her, it hadn't been taken long ago.

“How?”

“Journalism club, not computer security.” said Adassa, with a somewhat cocky tone.

“And…” with a very small mouth, he spoke. “Was it successful?”

“Are you kidding?” the blond had tried to buy it, but 139 people were faster.

“It was the peak of visits.” Yuusuke stated.

“Yeah?”

All that anger vanished, he was melting, he even had to hold his head.

‘How easily you are pleased…” her brother told her.

“Could you show us the page?” Teresa asked.

“What's weird is that they haven't seen it before.” it was weird from Joel's point of view.

“I asked Adassa to create one on top of the other, they only had access to the reviews and comments.”

Sending to Muscles 1, Muscles 2 and Discomfort 1 (Good).

This last adjective had been added by Adassa when, without complaint, Teresa let her move into her house, although lately the blonde was responding more and more and letting herself be manipulated less.

The first to click on the link was Coral. In a quick scan of the page, she saw cards with their faces drawn by the AI, lost objects that, despite being insignificant, made Imobach feel proud, Teresa simply thought that they had disappeared and would appear in her mess or that perhaps the elves were up to their tricks again, and various merchandising.

“Do we have a logo?” Imobach said. It was strange, having that identity made him feel like he belonged completely to something.

“To win you have to invest.” Adassa said.

“How original, I like it.” Teresa distracted herself. “Connecting the dots, like a police investigation.”

“Magnifying glasses, eyes and question marks were very common.”

‘Let's not get sidetracked. What you've done is wrong.” Imobach reprimanded them.

“You're right," Yuusuke agreed. "We've made sure that whoever bought the cards isn't a pervert or obsessive. Adassa did a great investigation, she gets 65%.

Coral couldn't help but think how easy the world would be if 77 plus 33 equaled 100.

“And for you, nothing.” Joel laughed nervously.

"No," Yuusuke corrected. Honor came before everything else, and he was no thief. "The rest I saved up to give to Coral and Imobach for taking me in."

“Oh…” the boy didn't know what to say. “No need, but thank you.”

The boy was fully aware that his parents filled the void by giving them whatever money they wanted. He had always wondered why neither of them was capricious, at least not him, and why his sister, although she was mean, was generous.

“Yes, it's true, we don't need it.”

“No, I'm serious. Please accept it.”

“Yes of course, now that they discover you, you give it to them, not before.” Joel teased.

“I have it stored at home.” he glanced at the curly-haired girl. Could she trust him and tell me where he was hiding? “I was thinking of saving up as much as possible and handing it over when I get back.”

“Give it to me! Don't waste it.” lawyers are expensive of course, but it's an affordable cost. What's not so expensive is spending money on renting other people's houses and not investing in your own. Evictions cost a lot. “Even more so if the ones who have evicted you are not a humble family but a group of shameless people who only know how to threaten and take drugs.”

“When I come back today, I give you what I have.”

“And how could they not have noticed? It's your house.” Teresa thought that humans were really ridiculous.

Imobach glared at Coral. He expected her answer. She just shrugged and gave him a wide, amused smile.

“It's simple, I clean the dust, and more, from the rest of the house, I know all the nooks and crannies.” Yuusuke explained. He had his arms crossed and a neutral expression.

“That's your job, Coco.”

“Well, what can you do? Things happen.”

From Coral's point of view, her change/abuse was justifiable, her brother tortured her to wear a mask whenever she complained about her allergy.

“No, we'll leave it like this: I'll cook, I'll take care of the kitchen and the laundry. You'll take care of the dusting, vacuuming and mopping…”

“And the bathroom?” Teresa hesitated for a second, perhaps her question was a bit indiscreet. “I've never seen anyone with it.”

“That's my task.” Yuusuke said again.

The brothers had thought they were very clever in rigging the game so that they wouldn't get the worst. What they didn't know was that it was the quickest way to do it, however, Yuusuke had given in to Coral's request when she caught him with his ass in the air, literally. The boy preferred to keep the fact that he was a nudist hidden when no one was home.

“There are too many open fronts here…” Imobach pouted, to which Teresa nodded.

“Yeah, well, who cares? We just got another request.”

"Don't count on me," Imobach responded quickly. It was his little revenge for hiding the truth from him.

“But how come not? It's our boom.” Coral couldn't help but smile.

“I think…” Teresa gently took her friend by the shoulder. “What bothers him… is that they betrayed him…”

“The damage is already done, there's no point in regretting it.” Now it was Coral who squeezed her opponent hard, when their hands collided with her skin it resonated but without the slightest damage. “Let's enjoy it. Don't you want to come?”

“Don't force her,” his brother warned her.

Teresa's face turned to the ground, she took a while to respond, while she played with her fingers in the wet sand.

“I'm having a good time, but,” she made a great effort to look at the two dark-skinned men. “Please don't do that again... if possible.” her face was boiling but she was finally able to breathe calmly. “Be careful” she worried about her friend, after all she was the most exposed.

She took the opportunity to redo the knot on the aforementioned girl, so much sand had made the fabric of her swimsuit suffer and it was hanging by a thread. Once she finished, she tightened her hat and, without looking, walked to her towel.

Nothing went wrong with Yuusuke's calculations, it was what he expected, and it was logical. Adassa, on the other hand, had stopped listening a few minutes ago, although he pretended to be in the conversation by gesturing and repeating some word he had heard, while alternating his gaze between the other five and the screen, he had to manage the incursion.

Imobach's body straightened when Joel rested his elbow on it. He hesitated whether to go back to Teresa, he didn't notice her sad, there was no need to dwell on a subject that had bothered them, if he went it was to talk about something else, but at that moment nothing else occurred to him.

“They make it difficult for you, handsome men.” Her smile was genuine. Joel knew it was going to sting.

“I'm going back to the water.” Was the most coherent response he made; doing some exercise, or about five repetitions of the butterfly stroke over 100 meters of beach would help him clear his mind.

“Wait!” Coral followed him while gathering her long hair into a ponytail. “I'm in.” What's better than exercise to clear your head? she thought, "A competition", she understood her brother's feelings, she couldn't ignore them, but she could dispel them with the adrenaline of the moment.