I’m amazed at what I see right now. This is the first time I see this place since I live here.

—I thought we were going to the beach… —I asked Jung without taking my eyes off the window, beholding the savage landscape.

—We’re going there.

He’s just driving his pickup, all calm and smiling.

—But, this is a different way, right? It’s the first time I come over here.

—We’re going to the southern beaches. The waves are way better in that place, you’ll see!

—And what’s the name of the beach we met at? Where the docks are.

—Those are the northern beaches. It’s a quiet place so to say, that’s why it’s so popular. The southern beaches are wilder, an unexplored territory and no traces of civilization, its so to say and you’ll see nobody lives there; nobody ever comes, only the ones like me who practice extreme sports because the waves are perfect for those purposes.

It’s true. We’re on an unpaved road; the pickup is moving and jumping a lot. We’re surrounded by a green mass of trees and bushes. If I take my hand out of the window I could grab a lot of leaves and branches, they’re practically scratching the pickup surface.

As we go by, the land is turning whiter, I think its sand. On the background I can see a huge turquoise stain with so many other little white spots.

—Regardless of the weather, it always looks spectacular. However, I’d choose the summer. I don’t like to use neoprene suites. It suffocates me.

—I guess you’ll use one today since it’s cold, right?

—Unfortunately yes… But hey! I look y on it.

He turns his head to wink at me. I just laugh at his antics. This guy is incredible.

We’re getting closer, there are more vans surrounding the area, some of them have jet skis on the back.

—And we’re here! Welcome to the southern beaches of Doha!

—It’s beautiful!

Jung enters to the part of the beach where it’s already all sand. And he is right; the waves look powerful and enormous.

The car stops and Jung gets out of it, the next second I see him by my side opening the door. I thank him for that and as I descend I can’t help but to look at the show the place is providing. It’s so beautiful. It’s cold but the sun is warm and the wind is bearable at the moment. Jung goes to the back of his pickup, I can hear someone’s calling his name so he goes to greet them, he seems happy for that. There are a lot of young boys and girls; my guess is that they must be around twenty-five to thirty years old. They are all dressed up with the beach style but with warm clothing as well, some of them are wearing hats, some others are wearing a gray suit which I guess is the neoprene suit. I can see a lot of surfboards and jet skis. There is a truck some meters away carrying huge speakers playing electronic music out loud.  Some people are dancing in that area, I see them drinking something. It might be beer for the yellow colour of the drink.

—You like it?

Jung appears to my side holding his surfboard. Wow! It’s so cool! It’s all blue and black with some gray drawings on it and… am I reading what I think I’m reading?

—Am I reading well or your board says “Jung-King”?

—You’re reading very well, it was made especially for me.

—Wow…  and… Oh… is that… a woman?

—Half , it’s only from the waist up.

—Ahmm cute.

—She’s my girl, we make love in the water. Oh yeah!

—Ok, that’s too much unnecessary information.

—C’mon! Don’t get jealous.

We start walking, Jung places his arm around my shoulders and with his other arm carries his girl. I don’t feel awkward when he does things like this. I see Jung like a friend or brother.

We’re walking in the beach, going to the place where there is a guy and some other girls sitting on a jeep, checking some papers.

—Ready to lose?

Jung shouts exited enough to call their attention; they look at us and waive their hands. When we got there, they make a weird handshake hitting each other’s shoulders.

—I thought you were still outside, didn’t know you were coming!

—I arrived yesterday then found out about this tournament and here I am! I must be crazy to lose this chance.

—This is gonna be interesting. Some guys even came from the city. We seem to be famous.

—Told ya! the best of the best are in Doha! Who are they?

—The ones over there, in the silvered 4x4.

I’m curious so I look at where he’s pointing at too. There is a small group of 3 guys. There is one of them; he is tall, white skin, and turquoise blue hair; even when he is wearing a snapback, there are locks of his hair leaning out. I keep staring at him, his hair is fascinating me but suddenly he turns around and looks straight at me.  Immediately I turn my face somewhere else, embarrassed because he got me looking at him.

I can still feel his gaze on me, now he’s making me feel a bit nervous.

—Blue hair huh? So city style.

—Yeah, they also have a very interesting team. The blue-haired dude is Chad. His presence is quite intimidating when he’s close. He also has a very strong gaze.

I agree with that, I can still feel his eyes on my back. Please God, make him stop…

—Great! This is getting much more interesting!

—I see you brought some audience.

I hear one of the girls asking. She’s sitting on of the jeep with some papers on hand.

—Oh yes! She’s my new friend, her name is CL. CL these are Nawin and Kim.

—Our pleasure— Says one of the girls, she looks really nice, at least she’s smiling at me kindly.

—Me too.

—It’s the first time I see you here.

—She’s new. She also loves extreme sports!

—Ah! She’s one of our team!

—I guess so…— I answer a bit shy.

—She definitely is one of us. — Jung says shaking his arm on my shoulders.

—Good, it’s about time. Enjoy the show CL. You’ll love it!

—Thank you!

—Come, we need to choose a good place so you can appreciate all this show.

We walk a bit closer to the border, there is a boat going back and forth. There are also some other guys in their boards already.

—Great, there’s a boat today. It’s gonna be super exiting, more speed.

Jung stabs the sand with his board and I take a sit next to it. When I look up at him I see Jung taking his shirt off and then his pants. Before I could scream I see he was already wearing his neoprene suit underneath his clothes.

—Good, stay here and don’t move…. And please don’t do anything that might affect our day out, you know…

—Yeah, don’t worry. I’ll stay here sitting like a good girl.

—Nice!

Some people area already calling out Jung to join them, he grabs his board with one of his usual mischievous smiles, winks at me saying bye and then leaves to join the guys.

I can see how exited he looks he is with those boys, they look quite joyful as well, all of them showing off their surfboards, some of them are wearing some kind of vests with numbers on the back, I guess they are competitors too.

The music stops, and the announcer makes official the beginning of the tournament. The first competitor sets himself on his board; he has some sort of boots on his feet that he connects to the table. There is a rope tied to the boat, at the end there is a handle that this guy grabs with all his strength; as the boat starts he takes this guy inside the sea, where the biggest waves are. The boat makes some circles then suddenly an alarm rings loudly and this is how the competition starts.

Again there is music playing loudly for the occasion, all the boys and girls shout and cheer the first participant. My jaw simply drops as I see his display of tricks on the water. It’s just incredible the way he handles his board, I would have fallen on my first attempt to stand on it.

With every hop he makes an incredible somersaults and tricks with his body and then he goes back to the water as if it was nothing. This is incredible. Then suddenly the boat speeds up and this guy releases the rope and WOW! A huge wave is coming closer and he rides it on high speed, it seems like the wave will swallow him at any moment. He jumps, makes a trick in the air and falls into the blue ocean, finally everyone starts clapping. There’s another guy getting ready as well, a jet ski takes the first competitor to the shore and the boat is set and ready with the next guy to compete.

It’s been 5 guys already and Jung is still as hyped and exited, screaming and jumping like a madman. The next on the water is the blue-haired guy, the so called Chad. He looks quite serious. The other guys were yelling or laughing or even smiling while making the tricks on the water, but this guy… he is completely blank, no expressions, all serious.

Before the boat starts with him, I‘m taken aback surprised to see he turns his head setting his gaze straight on me.  His stare makes me shiver all over my body, making me feel alert and straighten my back.

Once he finished looking at me, he gets ready for the competition. What the heck was that? Was he actually looking at me?

Can’t look at him anymore so I look anywhere and everywhere in the beach, I don’t want him to feel I’m scrutinizing him. While I was trying to look somewhere else, someone near the shore caught my attention. There is this girl with long black hair, white skin, thin, sitting on the sand holding her knees. She’s no more than a couple of feet away from me. Could it be her? She looks quite alike.

I decide to get up and walk up slowly to where she is now. As I get closer and closer I’m much more convinced it’s actually her… and she is… I have her inches away from me. Standing next to her I see she’s holding a mobile phone and … a picture… it’s her with another girl with short black her, smiling making funny signs to the camera. What do I do? She seems far-off here…

—Bom?

I ask carefully. Her beautiful face shows a surprised expression as she notices my presence and get’s even more surprised when she raises her face to my direction and sees it’s me.

-CL! What are you doing here? …don’t tell me that…!

—Don’t panic —I say holding her horses— I’m here with Dara’s permission.

I take a sit next to her showing a small grin. Her eyes are reading me so I think she still does not believe me.

—You can text her if you want to.

—Hmmm, ok. I’ll believe you this time… but I still find hard to believe Dara left you come here with Tae.

—It was hard but I’m here. I didn’t know you’d come as well. You’re here to support Jung?

—… yes…

We both look at the sea, watching the new competitors making their tricks. On the corner of my eye, I see when Bom puts her phone back to her pocket.

—Jung didn’t tell me you’d be here.

—No… It’s just that… he doesn’t know I’m here… —I can feel sadness on Bom’s voice—Actually, he’d be surprised if he sees me here…

She said that last part almost in a whisper, but I heard her very well. We stay in silence watching the competition. I don’t know how to start the conversation so I decide to keep my eyes on the guys and their tricks.

Now is competing one of the guys from the team of the blue-haired guy. He goes from waive to waive and once on the air he makes impressive tricks, he even makes complete laps on the air and goes back to the water all intact.

—Wow! He’s really good!!

Now he releases the rope and surfs riding a huge waive as if it was nothing.

—He is actually good…

—You like these kind of stuff, don’t you?

Says Bom out of nowhere, taking my attention away from the water. With that thought on mind, a smile comes to my face.

—Yeah… I don’t know why but I love what this makes me feel… It’s hard to explain it… And I’m not even taking part of this directly…

—It makes you feel free and alive… Right?

I get shocked when I hear those words and with a confused face I look at her.

—Yes… how…. How do you know that? Jung told me you don’t like these kind of sports.

Bom sighs keeping her gaze at the sea.

—No. I don’t like them. What’s even more, I hate them.

—…Oh…

—I’ll never understand why people like to put their lives in danger. I think it’s stupid.

I don’t know what to say at this. On one hand she’s right, I think.

—Just for some instants you’re happy and then you guys feel like you own the world… But them the next second everything can change, and happiness can turn into pain… taking everything away from this world….

Bom’s words leave me perplex. Now her voice is not only showing sadness but also anger. Then I remember Jung told me once “Bom used to like surf… now I don’t think she likes it much…”

I’m pretty sure she was talking about her, her friend. Minzy. And that picture she was looking at, I could bet it was her.

—I don’t know what to say…

—You don’t have to say anything… It’s just me and some thoughts I have. Don’t pay attention to this.

—You miss her, right?

That came out of my mouth without thinking… God, CL, how can you ask such thing now? She obviously misses her and she’s mad.

—I… I didn’t… I’m sorry… I don’t have any right to ask such thing… I’m sorry; this is something personal…

Bom sighs without looking at me. Suddenly she points to the sea.

—There is Tae, it’s his turn finally.

I look at the sea and there is Jung indeed, all over exited riding his board.

With very trick he makes, we can hear him shouting of excitement.  He makes some grinds and tricks with his body and board. Then finally rides a wave as the others did. It’s a huge wave this time. It’s the biggest we’ve seen in the competition so far. It’ looks kind of scary.

—… it’s huge…

Bom whispers, I just nod. It’s certainly huge.

The waive is getting bigger and bigger, it came to the point we cannot see Jung anymore.

Bom and I stand up immediately scared because we cannot see or hear Jung anymore. The wave swallowed him completely.

Out of sudden we hear someone screaming in visible surface. Bom releases a deep sigh, we both breathe now calmly.

—He’s insane…

—He is…

The crowd claps frenetically congratulating Jung. As he reaches the beach, people go for him to carry him on shoulders and throw him on the air, telling him how incredible he was.

We get close to him as people let him on ground and leave. He get’s surprised as he sees me next to Bom.

—Bom?!

—You are a totally insane, you knew that?

—Of course! I’m surprised you’re still saying it all amazed.

Jung comes to Bom and they hug each other. It’s a very warm and almost intimate moment. I think I know what that hug means.

Jung told me once that they, including Minzy, used to be great friends. Seeing Bom here must be a remarkable incident.

They put some space between then Jung goes for me, hugging me euphorically, raising me from the sand spinning.

—Staaaahhpp! I’m getting dizzy!

—Not as much as I was under that wave! Did you see it?? Wow!

He finally sets me on the ground. His joy is euphoric and contagious.

—I did! We were terribly scared! But you did a great job there.

—It was hallucinating!!! I’ve never had a wave like that before; I thought I was going to die! I was really scared for a moment. Here, feel!

He grabs my hand and puts in on his chest. I can feel his heart beating very fast and strong.

Bom grunts, Jung places his arm around her shoulders and kisses her on her head. She grunts once more.

The evening passes between the young competitors and audience happy for what happened today, listening to music, drinking cool beer, dancing and a lot of stories bringing to life what happened a couple of hours ago in the sea. The clear winner was Jung. He went even crazier when the result was announced.

I’m with Bom, both sitting on the sand near the party, with cans of soda, watching everything in silence. Jung comes with phone in hand.

—It’s your girl, she doesn’t believe me you’re still alive.

He throws me his phone. Bom looks at me questioningly, I stare menacingly at Jung.

—Stop saying she’s my girl.

—Yeah yeah, whatever …

—Hello?

—Are you ok? Alive? Not a scratch? Dry? He didn’t invite you to join his crazy things, right?! Because if he did, I swear to God that—

—Stop, stop! Breathe Dara. I’m fine, don’t worry. I just