The Rival Chapter Five
Alex
Ding dong ding dong!
Someone screamed my name repeatedly as the knocking sounds become annoying. I groan, slowly rising my torso and stretching my arms up while yawning. Feeling lazy, I drag my feet to approach the door and open it. “Oh, you’re here,” I wipe my drool and sleepy eyes in front of Henry.
“Man, I thought you were dead,” Henry said. As usual, he loves sarcasm and dark humor. Not everyone likes that. To me, it becomes a norm. He enters the apartment and shakes his hands and sits on the floor.
He hands me a black plastic bag. “I brought you some food. Let’s eat.”
I take the cup noodles he brought and the warm chicken soup, fresh from the pot, and place them on my dining table. He stands to approach the kitchen and grabs some spoons and hands one to me. “Thanks.”
Without saying a word, I dig in to have a taste of it. When I raise my sight a bit, I see he’s staring at me. He puts his spoon back to the soup and leans closer to me. “What?” I raise my eyebrow.
“Alex, you look bad.”
Perplexed, I lean against the back of the chair and release a frustrating sigh. “Why?” I drag the spoon along the ridges of the bowl.
“I guess you need a love life.” Henry is too concerned over petty things. Love? How pathetic. It doesn’t exist.
I snort to give a sarcastic response to his sincere suggestion. “I expected you to suggest a good nap and maybe a long vacation. But that? No way. Why did you come up with such a stupid idea? That’s nonsense. I don’t need anyone. You know that, Henry.”
He places his elbow on the table to support the weight of his head on top of his palm. “Beautiful songs are taken from the experience. If you’re as boring as now, you can’t come up with a better song, dude.”
I shake my head. “That’s impossible. Look, I don’t even have the time to sit in a bathtub and dream of something nice. Now, you’re suggesting I should have a love life. Cut it out, please.”
“Well, you can’t judge. You might not know, who is lurking out there to find you. Haha!” Henry smiles. What the fuck, Henry! Now, I lost the appetite to finish my only meal for today. I stand to approach the sink and throw the food away.
“Hey! You’re done?” I nod. “But you just throw the food I bought.” I raise my eyebrow to give him a clear response. As if he understands me, he leans against the back of the chair with his mouth jaw-dropped. He shakes his head.
I leave the kitchen and sit on my swivel chair, turning it from left to right with my feet. He quickly places the bowls on the sink and dashes towards me. He leans his torso near the big screen. “Can you let me listen to it?”
Without saying a word, I hand him the headphone. He flicks his head up and his eyebrows knit together to concentrate. “It’s already good, man. The arrangement is already great. Why not use this for the event?” Henry claps his hands.
I shake my head. “No, I don’t like it either. Something is missing. I just couldn’t figure out.”
“You know we don’t have much time. We need to practice and finalize it with the members.”
“I know.”
He turns the swivel chair to force me to look at him straight to his eyes. “So, when do you think this will be ready?” I try to face down but he shakes the chair if I refuse to stare back.
“Soon,” I say nonchalantly. Henry nods. Just before he is going to say something, his phone rings. “Excuse me, I have to pick this up.” While he stands in the kitchen to talk, I turn my chair to face the computer screen again and edit.
Minutes after, I feel the tap of his hand on my shoulders. I push my headphone away from my ears and place them on my neck and look at him. “Will you go back to the university next week?” he asks.
“I will. Don’t worry,” I say to satisfy him, though I don’t feel like it.
Henry pats my shoulders. “It’s alright, man. No pressure. I’ve got to go now. I still have something to do at home.” No pressure? What he’s been doing to me is pressuring me to finish the music at once.
“Listen, Alex. I don’t know what you’re up to. But, man, I’m serious. You badly need someone you can love and—”
A phone call interrupts him. “Excuse me.” He grabs his phone from his pocket. “Hello, Jun.”
“Sure, I’ll get back to it. Alright. Bye.” He places his phone inside his pocket and looks at me with suspicion. His eyebrow raises. “What are you staring at?”
“I didn’t know you’re close with Jun.” I cross my arms and lean my torso towards the table but my face towards him.
He jolts. “Oh…yeah. We are,” his response sounds staccato as if he’s bothered about my inquiry. He gulps.
“He seems to call you more frequently now. Are you guys close?” I stare at the monitor and hover the mouse over the commands to continue editing. I place my wrist underneath my chin, waiting for his response.
“Not really. But—” He pauses and crosses his arms and looks away. “—there’s something we have to do together.”
“Alone?” My sudden inquiry leaves him flabbergasted. His face turns red and his lips press together. I shake my head. “I didn’t mean to pry, Henry. Whatever is going on between the two of you, I don’t care. If you’re in a relationship with him, fine. It’s your life. You’re both free men. You have the freedom to love someone regardless of gender.”
He shakes his head and slaps the back of my head. I grunt and squirm because of the pain, turning my head towards him. “What the hell, Henry?”
“Jun and I are not lovers. We’re just—” He pauses.
“You’re just friends and we’re not going intimate as other gays do.” I finish his statement. Yet his face seems more like I misunderstand something in between. I snort and return my attention to the screen. “Well, our band and his band…remain a rival.” I nod and smile to show my agreement. Though I am not.
He clears his throat to stray the topic away. “Anyway, going back to our topic. Find someone you can sleep with. You know, you look bad and we’re concerned about you being alone in that room. You may enjoy watching porn alone, but it’s different when you have some hot-blooded human beside you, taking care of you. So, at least before this semester ends, promise me you’ll find someone to introduce to the band. Okay?”
“But—”
Henry interrupts with his palm raised. His intense, commanding stares were enough to stop a train. His showing adamance and stubbornness with me have been his annoying habits. I may want him to change that, however, his stubborn attitude would make him create drama. Whether it’s a big or a small thing. As long as he says that fucking word, I know he doesn’t want any debate. What he wants is what he gets.
He turns his back, taking a few steps away from the main gate. I wave goodbye and smile at him. I snort, seeing my friend disappear. I face down thinking about the words he just said.
I check my phone to see if there were any messages. There’s no one texted me nor called me even Mark, who has been checking a lot on me lately.
“Who else should I expect to give me a ring at this cold winter?” I cluck as I headed back to the building to rest. Yet when I turned, I accidentally bump into someone. A loud thud echoes the whole space as I fell on the ground with a man, bringing the guitar on his back down with me.
Our eyes lock onto each other as we remain so silent that we could even hear the breeze and the sounds of the swaying trees.
I stare at him. He scowls. With his weight, it is too late before I realize our lips had already touched. Ah, that’s how it feels like to kiss a man’s lips. The first touch of his lips—cool minty lips— seems addicting and I almost want more. I couldn’t resist. Almost.
I want to push him away but my body couldn’t respond. My arms are locked with his hands. This weird sensation gush through me that weakens me so bad. I’d never felt so defenseless before this guy fell on top of me.
I push him harder as a signal to stand up. He tries. But his guitar case looks bulky enough to give him a hard time standing up. Unexpectedly, the landlady, who owns the apartment where we live, passes by and sees us.
She clucks. “Kids nowadays.” The landlady continues walking until her voice face. Yet, with her loud voice, I could still hear what she is saying, though she is a few meters away from us. “Oh, it’s too cold out here to do that. Better do something romantic inside the room.” She cusses incomprehensibly and slams the door to her apartment shut.
Flabbergasted, the man whose face remains dark from the night, stands, grabs his things, walks away without even saying a word. “Hey, what the fuck—” I keep calling his attention but he simply continues walking fast until he’s gone.
Just before I enter my room, I suddenly thought of slapping myself, which I did. “Forget it. It was just a kiss, right? Everyone does that. So, it’s nothing,” I said. Right? Then, I press my chest and sigh. “Who is that bastard, by the way?”
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