The sea is in a mood today. The salty air is heavy. This part of the beach is almost empty, with a growing storm system in the mid ocean; most people are languishing inside. It feels like the perfect time to venture out for Juno. People make her so uncomfortable, especially with the holidaymakers; the excitable children, vibrant mothers and indulgent fathers, always paint a picture too abstract for her. So Juno prefers times caught in-between, twilights. But the promise of a storm always feels so intimate, the power and the lure of nature, she is unable to resist.
She looks towards the horizon, her glasses getting misted with saltwater. The last of the fishermen are rushing to get to harbour. A sudden anxiety flashes through her mind, the radar shows the storm is a bet far still. They have time. While most of the inhabitants of the city would describe the wind as harsh, she seems to enjoy it. They are joyous, with the wind and the waves, like they are singing. playing around her feet. Promises, promises. The wayward winds are toying with the scarf wrapped around her head. One end of it suddenly comes loose and flies from her shoulder like a purple sail. Juno laughs at the antic and gathers it back. “Uhuu, not this” she whispers to the wind.
That is when she notices something from the corner of her eyes. He is back. Ryu is back a day early and standing on the upper pier. From the looks of it, he didn’t go back to his quarter and change. Did the sea call him with the storm?
Driving his jeep down the winding coastal road, Ryu recounts the events of the morning. A last-minute flight landed him here just as the email from the observatory had warned. They are anticipating it to transform into a cat-4 tornado. So he wanted to be on site before possible road closure. The air shifts as he is descending toward the town. A nostalgic mix of salt and damp earth teases his senses, evoking memories long tucked away. When the road curved and the ocean came into view, he felt the familiar, visceral awe—the endless expanse, both breathtaking and humbling, spreading before him like a stage prepared for some wild, unpredictable performance. After all these years, he still feels a strange sensation all over, this town makes him feel like a boy of 20 some years falling in love for the first time.
The road ahead demanded his focus, pulling him away from the tide of emotions threatening his calm. The strange anxiety he felt during the flight, bubbles up. He turned toward the main pier instead of the center. He had a hunch. She’d always been drawn to the sea when it was at its fiercest.
The pier, usually bustling with life, is already empty. Few shopkeepers are struggling to get all the outdoor chairs tarped and tied prior to the storm. Ryu slows down his pace as he approaches the overhanging edge. It was as if he were stepping into a sacred space, Like silently asking permission to enter the scene of an ancient ritual. Nature is getting ready for a wild night of thunder and tidal waves. This is where she is always at home.
Then he saw her.
His heart threatened to jump out of his chest. Of course. There she was, a lone figure on the beach, ridiculously small against the raging sea. The tide, already high, clawed at the shore with relentless ferocity. She stood as though oblivious to the impending danger—or perhaps reveling in it. He couldn’t decide. Did she lack any sense of self-preservation, or was she simply defiant, drawn to challenge the very forces that sought to dominate her? Stubborn and fearless as always. He can’t deny though, she looks like she is the reigning queen of the wind, the sea paying homage to her, as it churns around her feet. Her frame unyielding as though she were commanding the storm itself.
For a moment, he debated: confront her recklessness or join her in it? His body made the decision before his mind could. Descending the weathered stairs to the beach, he felt the pull of something, his mind refusing to put a label on it. She seemed so at home here, her domain among the chaos. And yet, her recklessness set his pulse racing with equal parts frustration and admiration.
Juno watches him approach but doesn’t move from the water. He seems angry, she braces her heart. His displeasure scares her more than the danger of a storm. She watches him until he is on the sand, tracing his tread, a very familiar one —something she’s always done without him knowing.
Ryu catches her turning away just as he reaches the lower platform. She thinks he doesn’t notice, but her posture gives away more than she realizes. He holds back a smile, suppressing the urge to voice his concern. There’s no point arguing; they’ll be working together next week, collaborating over the damage this storm will cause.
“You’re back early. Everything okay?” Juno’s voice cuts through the wind.
“And you’re out in the middle of a storm. Typical.” Ryu tries to hide his exasperation.
“Not in the middle, like everything else, I am on the edge of it.” She takes a deep breath, tries to shake off all the odd thoughts clamoring in her head. “The sea is always painfully beautiful before a storm. There is a mysterious call, it’s intoxicating..”
Ryu tries to ignore the undertone of her words. “Common sense dictates not to take storms as personal invitations.”
“There is nothing common between me and the sea. It feels… alive. Like it’s reaching out.” She pauses, she looks back to him. “So, why are you back? Did the storm pull you in too?”
Ryu doesn’t answer immediately, his gaze drawn to the rioting waves. The wind carries a dangerous, almost hypnotic song, like sirens from Greek mythology. “I saw you from the pier. You looked… lost. Like you were chasing something invisible.”
“The sea has cast its spell on me. You also looked transfixed on that pier, like you suddenly saw something unexpected.”
Juno caught him off guard. Ryu suddenly feels like she is staring through him, through the veil he maintains around her. The vulnerability was fleeting. Knowing her, she has the decency to not ask uncomfortable questions.
“Why do you love the sea so much?” Ryu asks in an attempt to redirect the conversation from him. He keeps staring at the waves, the wind affects him too. Juno senses the change of subject. She pauses for a moment, noticing his rigid form. His body language dispels any chance of explanation. Juno breathes in deep, trying to arrange words about her obsession with the sea.
She surprises Ryu as she says – “It’s my first love. I remember the first time I saw the sea. Everything in me aligned that day, my soul stepped out of my self imposed confine. I fell in love with the vastness, the sound, the waves, the wind. It was so free. Still today, the moment I step in the water, my soul calms down. As the waves lap around my feet, it feels like a lover welcoming me back. “
“But I lost it once,” she admits, her voice quieter now. “There was a time I thought I didn’t deserve it—when I let life, pain, and my own choices build walls around me. I pushed it away, told myself that it’s better this way, that it was irresponsible and selfish to love something so magnificent. And the worst part is, I believed it. For years, I stayed away, thinking I could live without it. But I felt… empty. Lost.”
Her gaze turns distant, her words softer, more vulnerable. “The sea always reminds me of something—or someone. A boy with eyes full of promises that glinted like the water on sunlit mornings. His love had unshakable resolve, steady and sure, like the tide. I didn’t understand it then, how something could be so constant and unyielding. I didn’t know how to hold something like that, so I let it go. Maybe I ran from it, thinking it was too much, or maybe…I wasn’t enough.”
She pauses, the weight of her words settling between them. “And then, one day, I found my way back. It wasn’t planned; it was almost an accident. I remember standing on the shore after so many years, the waves calling to me like an old lullaby. When I stepped in, it was as if it had never left me. The sea didn’t accuse, didn’t demand explanations. It just took me back, its embrace as familiar as a lover’s and forgiving.”
She looks at Ryu now, a faint smile on her lips. “When I stand in the water, I feel both their presence—the sea and him. They mirror each other in a way that sometimes feels too coincidental. Both vast, both mysterious, both unattainable. Love like that doesn’t ask for much; it’s just there. And maybe that’s why I love the sea so hopelessly. It reminds me of what I was lucky enough to experience and of what I lost. In some ways, it feels like I’m standing beside him every time I step into the waves.”
“What’s with you and the storm though?” Juno asks in a hopeful tone. Will he answer? While she talks so much and all he does is keep silent, she never understands what goes in his head. Why does everyone in her life expect her to just understand without offering her words? They are all so economic about it. She too yearns to hear what matters. Ryu stops her wayward thoughts on their tracks as he responds.
His voice carries the weight of something almost fragile, as he speaks. “It’s the wind in the storm,” he murmurs, his tone soft with a trace of longing. “The wind on the waves, rushing onto the sands, weaving through the trees—it’s more than just sound; its remnants of million threads of conversation, ghost of twinkling laughter. It feels alive. The way it pushes against me, pulling and pressing—it’s not random. It’s deliberate. It demands something from my soul, something I can’t reach anymore.”
He pauses, his gaze distant, lost in the storm’s restless rhythm. “The banging on the signs, the flapping of the flags; it’s like a raging banter of my mind and soul, their words just out of reach. They call me, to remind me of what’s broken. It’s as if the storm carries a message, one meant for me, from someone…someone impossible. A voice I keep straining to hear, but it’s drowned out by the crashing waves.”
His eyes close briefly, his next words barely audible. “The wind—it feels like her. Like she’s in it, caught somewhere between the gusts and the silence. It doesn’t let me forget. It wraps around me, pulling me back to a time when she was here, to a love that felt endless until it wasn’t. It’s why I keep coming back. I tell myself it’s just the storm, but part of me hopes it’s her. That maybe, somehow, the wind will bring her back to me.”
He falls silent, the storm’s howling winds seeming to show solidarity with him as his voice fades into the atmosphere. A rueful smile graces Ryu’s face as he faces Juno. “We should head back, the wind is really picking up.”
Juno’s mind scrambles for an answer. A fierce reluctance to break the magic of the moment. A rather dumb response blurts out – “There’s still time for the storm to be upon us, I saw the details forecast this morning”
Her voice, a mix of childish petulance at the demand to get inside and a sense of authority of her position, breaks the somber mood for Ryu. He marvels at the magic of her. He gathers his composure back.
“Woman! I am not doubting your skill, just your judgement. The storm on this sea is unpredictable. Just like you..” Ryu trails off, almost in a whisper.
Juno laughs, she is still processing all the things he said about wind. Precious treasures, those words.
“I will take that as a compliment”
“Don’t” Ryu fails to stay stern and laughs too. Something in the wind and the sea, breaks loose both their carefully spun persona around each other.