Seth witnessed how awkward Chuck Mallory’s return to school was, well, at first. No one was talking to Chuck like he didn’t even exist at all. Even Chuck’s minions Greg and Jay were obviously ignoring Chuck as they kept on talking to each other without sparing a single glance at their ex-leader. Seth’s classmates were goofing around like usual but nobody acknowledged Chuck’s return.
“Hey, Seth, when did you become friends with Gilbert Hugo?” It was a question from Paul—his seatmate.
Seth pretended to think for a moment. Then he replied: “Hmmm, I don’t know?”
Paul looked confused. But he asked another question anyway. “I mean, how did you do it? We were shock to see you talking to Gilbert—heck, you’re even going home with him!”
Seth didn’t answer. He just smiled at Paul.
“Did you know some students are thinking that you’re actually a hidden boss? That you have the power to make Gilbert Hugo submissive to you in just a snap of your fingers. You’re becoming a legend, did you know that? It’s insane! No one can touch you now.”
“Me? A hidden boss?” Seth smirked. “What kind of movies the students of this school are into these days? Their imagination is wild.”
Paul pouted his lips. “You’re being humble, Seth. Look at Gilbert Hugo, he’s changed.”
Seth looked at Gil’s direction. The latter was slumped on his desk as usual, sleeping. Seth couldn’t help but laugh. Gil was unbelievable!
“Are you laughing at me, Seth Wiley?” said an angry voice.
Seth’s attention was caught by those accusing words. He turned his gaze toward the owner of the voice. Oh, you guessed it right. It was Chuck Mallory. The bastard was listening to his conversation with Paul.
Seth looked at Chuck and shrugged him off. He returned to his conversation with Paul.
“Just you wait, Seth Wiley. You’ll be sorry for what you’ve done to me. I’ll make sure to make you pay.”
“I do not have any reason to pay you, Chuck. You did that to yourself.” Seth didn’t want any of Chuck’s dramatic one liners. “If you want to say more to me, just keep them to yourself. I don’t have time for your nonsense. Oh, wait. I just thought of something that I want to say to you: I am NOT happy that you’re back.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Chuck was about to retaliate but it was interrupted by a loud laughter. Not only Seth but all of their classmates turned their gazes where the laughter came from. They gasped simultaneously when they saw Gilbert Hugo in the middle of a laughing spree. The guy even had his hands on his stomach and he looked like he could roll on the floor laughing his ass off.
“Yt, sfr, Jtemx Zjiibgs. P jw ijeutlcu ja sbe. Tbe qjatfalm obbi.” Coafg rjslcu atbrf kbgvr, Xli ijeutfv jujlc.
Jtemx Zjiibgs’r ojmf yfmjwf qjif. Ktfc, tf rabgwfv bea bo atf gbbw yfmjerf bo rtjwf. C rwlif obgwfv bc Vfat’r ilqr. Lf abbx j uijcmf ja Xli. Ktf ijaafg ujnf tlw j klcx. Vfat atbeuta Xli kjr meaf.
However, when lunch came, the wind against Chuck Mallory changed its course. Maybe, to regain his reputation, Chuck thought of luring his classmates via free food. Chuck announced to the whole classroom—heck, to the whole student population that everyone had a free access to all of the food in the cafeteria. According to Chuck, his mom hired chefs to cook for everyone just to celebrate Chuck’s return to school.
The students who were ignoring Chuck earlier became friendly again. Everyone was happy while walking to the cafeteria. Chuck was the main character in everyone’s eyes once again. Oh, how fickle high schoolers minds were! Free food was all it took for them to forget Chuck’s stupidity.
“Well, I guess we’re not invited to Chuck’s cafeteria party.” Seth told Gil. He was giggling in the absurdity of the situation.
Gil scratched his head. “Oh, what a pity.” Gil said that in a monotone voice.
Seth laughed. “Hmm, I’ve been meaning to ask you this question but I keep on forgetting about it. How did you do it? I mean, the cigarettes and lighters were pretty obvious essentials you have since you smoke. But how about the p-p-porn magazines? They were found inside Chuck’s bag. How did you do it?” Do you have a collection of porn magazines in your locker? Seth couldn’t ask Noah the last question because he thought it was rude. He should respect Gil’s hobby, right?
“For a long time, you thought of me as someone who’s addicted to porn?” Gil clicked his tongue. “All the while, you thought I’m a very sinful man…”
Seth squeezed Gil’s shoulder. “Stop joking and answer my question!”
“Chuck’s plan was bound to fail from the start. At first, I only mean to put his phone back inside his bag. But I thought of something great. Greg and Jay were equally guilty of bullying you, might as well involved their asses, right? I was willing to sacrifice my cigarettes and a few defective lighters from my bag. Though, upon opening Greg’s bag, I saw a stack of porn magazines inside. I had an idea. I divided them among their bags and I added some more naked women pictures—that I also found from Greg’s—inside Chuck’s bag. If their plan was for the teacher to inspect our bags to look for the lost phone, how come Greg possessed explicit materials inside his bag? That’s when I thought he was obviously an idiot. Maybe he didn’t know the full extent of Chuck’s plan and just went on with it. See, the plan was really bound to fail from the start.”
“Oh, that explains everything.” Seth felt relieved with Gil’s explanation. “Let’s eat lunch—”
Gil stopped him by holding his hand. “Did you really think that I liked naked women?”
Yes, I did! Seth screamed in his mind. Instead, he replied: “Of course not!”
Gil knitted his eyebrows. “Don’t lie to me. You did think of me like that, huh?”
“Well, you’re a healthy young man. It’s obvious you’re curious about things—”
“I won’t say I didn’t open a single porn mag in my entire life. I used to like naked women, too. But the thing is…”
“The thing is…what?” Seth was holding his breath for Gil’s answer.
“Those girls lost their appeal to me when I got to know you. Their charms are not working on me anymore. I only want to look at you…naked or not. This feeling is new to me. At first, it doesn’t make any sense. But when I got close to you, when I got to spend time with you, I started to understand you…this unfamiliar feeling gradually hits home. I don’t care if you’re a man or a woman or whatever. I only want you, Seth. You. No one else but you.” Gil kissed his hand.
“A-a-a-a-are you c-co-co-confessing to me right now?” Seth didn’t know what to do. He was too happy, his brain forgot to function properly.
“I like you, Seth. Not just a friend. But someone I want to spend all of my days with.” Gil was looking at him with so much tenderness.
“I-I-I-I-I-I—” Seth didn’t know what to say. He wanted to reply to Gil’s confession right away, but his stupid brain and mouth wouldn’t cooperate! Seth liked Gil, too—for god’s sake!
“You don’t have to answer me right away. I’ll give you time to think.” Gil touched Seth’s hair gently. “Let’s have our own party. Far away from our stupid classmates who are easily swayed with free food.”
Seth just nodded his head. He couldn’t think straight (no pun intended). His heart was full of joy.
The two of them ate lunch together. After class, Seth and Gil went to Seth’s mom restaurant and they helped with whatever they were needed for.
Seth couldn’t take his eyes off Gil. He wanted to say that he liked him back. But that was a story for another time.
*****
The students were all inside the auditorium. Their school academic week program was about to start. First, they needed to get through the opening program. The students were complaining nonstop because some of the ACs were not functioning right. The students looked like sweaty monkeys inside a huge cage.
The principal gave a speech. Obviously, the students were goofing around instead of listening. Seth was also getting sleepy because the principal was talking slowly. When he looked at Gil who was sitting beside him, he saw Gil sleeping without any care in the world. What he witnessed put a smile on Seth’s face.
After the principal, one more person took the podium to give his speech. It was none other than the student council president—Simon Walsh. Seth became attentive. From the moment Simon threatened Seth, he considered the student council president as his enemy. Seth was anticipating Simon’s next move. He knew that there would come a time that Simon’s going to take action against him.
The whole student population inside the auditorium clapped their hands after Simon Walsh’s speech. Seth was not one of them. Gil was still sleeping, so they were the only two people who weren’t impressed by Simon.
Their school academic week started without any hitch. The math quiz bee where Seth was one of the contestants was on the fourth day. He had more time to study. Gil was there to help him.
The day of the quiz bee inevitably came. There were five contestants. Seth was so disappointed to see Chuck Mallory as one of them. How could that happen? Maybe Chuck’s mom had something to do with it. There was a rumor circulating in school that the principal could be easily bribe by students with rich families. Chuck belonged to that category.
Seth heaved a deep sigh. Nothing could be done at that point. He would make sure that he would emerge victorious.
The venue for the math quiz bee was in the school auditorium. On the stage, there were five podiums for the contestants. Seth walked to his designated podium, unfortunately, Chuck was positioned beside him.
The host introduced the five contestants. Seth was looking at the audience. Honestly, he was so nervous seeing many people were there to watch. Good thing, he could easily see Gil seating in front. He was smiling at Seth to encourage him to do his best.
The host instructed each contestant to test the buzzer. Seth’s was working well. When they were done, the head of the technical staff who was in the booth located at the right side of the stage gave an okay sign. Seth saw Simon Walsh talking to the tech staff. Seth’s intuition was telling him that something was going to happen.
Each contestant was given a set of papers and pencils to compute their answers. The first one to press the buzzer would have the chance to answer. The easy round began. Seth looked at Gil’s direction once again. Gil nodded and smiled. Seth smiled back.
The first question was too easy but Seth failed to press the buzzer first. Chuck was faster than him. So, the first point went to his bully. The next question, and the question after that were no-brainers, however, Seth couldn’t press the buzzer faster than Chuck. So, for the next question, he decided to look at Chuck’s direction through his peripheral vision to see how fast Chuck could press the buzzer. Seth could phase his timing based on his observations.
However, he observed that for the next question, Seth pressed the buzzer a little faster than Chuck, but the only buzzer that lit up and made a noise was Chuck’s! How did that happen? To test his speculation, even before the host could complete the equation for the next question, Seth decided to press his buzzer. As he expected, it didn’t lit up or even make a sound.
Seth looked at the direction of the tech booth, instead of meeting the gaze of one of the staff—he saw Simon Walsh looking at him with a wide grin on his face.
Seth’s heart beat rapidly. So, it began.
*****
Wahh this Simon is a real bitch 😒😒🙄🙄
He js going to bring a shitload of trouble for Seth. I mean if Gils father finds that his poster child is gay hell will freeze over, so that is good munition for Simon to use to discredit Gil.
The father is a sob too 🤬 I feel bad for Gil….. Only his uncle understands and cares for him
This SOB is going to make me lose my sh*t🤬🤬
AAAAAHHHH ! Thank you so much ~♡♡♡ ! GIL👌👍👍👍👏👏
I said a while back, Simon is a little bitch! Thanks for the chapter.
Gil kissed Seth’s hand 😍😍😍😍