Seth heard Chuck’s buzzer made a noise. But before the latter could give an answer, Seth raised his right hand while his left hand was pressing his buzzer.
“Excuse me, my buzzer is not working!” Seth declared. He kept on pressing the buzzer to make a point.
The members of the audience became noisy. Some were looking at Seth while obviously mocking him. Some were whispering to each other. Some were booing Seth’s action. Seth’s knees became weak. What if the people watching would accuse him of being a sore loser? Oh, God, Seth was having panic attack. His head was spinning and he wanted to run away from there. Maybe he should not make a big deal out of it—
“What are you doing, tech staff? You have to make sure that all the equipment is working properly!” A loud voice filled the whole auditorium. It was Gil.
When Seth met Gil’s gaze, he knew what he did was right. Why would he feel nervous if he was in the right? Let the crowd booed him. Seth prepared for this day. He wouldn’t let Simon and Chuck ruin this day for him.
The tech staff went up to Seth and pressed his buzzer several times. Obviously, it didn’t work. The staff immediately fixed it. They just pressed several buttons in the booth and the buzzer was working properly again. Seth looked for Simon Walsh but he didn’t see him. Seth thought the buzzer was working before the start of the competition; it stopped working during the competition. Simon was with the tech staff during that time. Chuck was having the time of his life. Seth would bet everything that Simon and Chuck conspired to bring him down. They thought he wouldn’t complain. Just because he would get easily nervous, he would just stay quiet. Hell no! Gil would not allow it. If it took a little longer for Seth to say something, he was sure that Gil would know something was wrong. Thus, Gil would make a fuss about it.
“You’re hilarious!” Chuck told Seth. “Buzzer’s not working? Just say you’re going to lose no matter what you do.”
Seth didn’t give Chuck a reply. He just looked at him in the eye. Chuck looked down. Maybe the bully couldn’t maintain eye contact because he knew Seth would not back down.
Seth pressed his buzzer again and again to make sure. He saw Gil changed seats. Now, he was seating near the tech booth. Seth knew that Gil was trying to take action if something would go wrong again. Seth felt relieve. His nervousness died down. He was so ready to win.
The quiz bee continued. After the easy round came the average. As if to make a statement, Seth answered all the questions from the average round correctly. The audience went wild.
Then came the difficult round. The questions were more complex and required a long time to compute. But Seth was calm. Gil taught him different ways on how to answer long equations with shortened formulas. Obviously, the others were still busy with their computation while Seth pressed the buzzer to answer. Oh, yes, all the points from the difficult round also went to Seth.
Thus, Seth was proclaimed as the Math Quiz Bee winner. For the first time in his life, he won an award. His hard work paid off big time. Seth looked at Gil’s direction, the latter was standing while clapping his hands—a look of happiness was written on Gil’s face. He mouthed the word: “Congratulations” to Seth.
The host was in the middle of congratulating Seth when he decided to go down the stage and ran toward Gil. Seth didn’t care if everyone was looking at them. He ran toward Gil and wrapped his arms around him. Seth was uttering the words “thank you” over and over again to Gil. He felt Gil’s arms tightened around him and Gil lifted him up. They were too happy to care about the people around them. They didn’t even notice the effect of their action to the audience. The whole auditorium was in chaos. They were witnessing two boys hugging each other without any care in the world. The sight drove the audience crazy. It was a big shock.
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.
Vfat jcv Xli ifa ub bo fjmt batfg. Dea lcrafjv bo qjslcu jaafcalbc ab atf qfbqif jgbecv atfw, atfs kjixfv bea bo atf jevlabglew tbivlcu tjcvr. Ojafg atja vjs, atf akb—abufatfg klat Vfat’r wbw jcv Xli’r ecmif, mfifygjafv Vfat’r klc bnfg vlccfg ja atf Qlifs’r tberf.
“You did great, dear!” Seth’s mom hugged him. “I am so proud of you.”
“Thank you.” Seth hugged his mother back.
“I also want to thank you, Gil, for your help.” Seth’s mom gave Gil a sweet smile.
“I did nothing, auntie. It’s all Seth.” Gil was stuffing his mouth with the food Seth’s mom cooked. It was no secret that he had an appetite like a dragon.
“Look at this fool—eating everything without any care in the world.” Uncle Carl commented. “Slow down, boy. You look like someone who hasn’t had a decent meal in ages.”
“Well, auntie’s meals taste so good. Even the chef at my father’s house couldn’t even compare.” Gil replied nonchalantly.
Seth looked at the man beside him. It was the first time Gil mentioned his father. Seth had already suspected that Gil and his father didn’t get along. Obviously, Seth wanted to know everything about Gil. But he didn’t want to force Gil to open up to him. Seth would have to wait for Gil to tell him about his family at the right time.
*****
The awarding ceremony was on the 5th day. All the students were once again inside the auditorium. The winners for each competition were called on the stage to receive their medal and certificate. Seth and Gil were sitting beside each other. From time to time Gil would doze off. Seth could see the other students were eyeing them. Seth just shrugged it off.
The awarding ceremony was going smoothly until the teacher in charge announced the winner for the short story writing category. Supposedly, the winner was a third year student who wrote about his dog. The said student was summoned on the stage to receive his award. However, the teacher informed the students that there would be a special award for the short story writing category.
As per the teacher, someone submitted their work to the competition anonymously. There was no indication about the author of the piece. The story didn’t even have a title. When the judging committee read the short story they were instantly thought the piece was worthy of first prize. However, because they did not know about the author, they decided to give it a special prize.
The teacher went on to read the mysterious short story. Everyone moaned in protest. The students thought that reading a story would consume more time. The students became noisy, but the teacher didn’t budge. He read the short story amidst everyone’s protest.
At first, some of the students were still causing trouble. However, as the teacher went on with the story, the auditorium gradually became quiet. The teacher gave his best to deliver the story in all its glory. Not a moment later, more than half of the students were sobbing. The remaining ones were holding back their tears. Seth was one of the students who couldn’t help but cry. It was a heart wrenching story about a boy who lived inside an underground prison. He didn’t know about his beginning, he thought he was the only person in the world. He survived for fifteen years thinking that he was just waiting for his own demise. Until, a little bird found him and helped him escape the prison.
The bird introduced the outside world to the boy. Because of his upbringing, the boy got scared at first, though eventually he learned to adapt. Together with his bird friend, the boy discovered that he could do many things in life and nothing could make him happier than being outside. The boy and the bird became inseparable.
The boy learned everything he needed to become a normal human being. He grew up and became a man of dignity. However, the bird—the friend who helped him to become the man that he was, told him that it was dying. Hearing that his friend could die any moment, the man looked back on his life. If it was not for his friend, he would have die inside the underground prison ages ago. If the bird didn’t find him, the man might not found happiness out of his miserable life. The man didn’t want for his friend to die. He looked for the ultimate cure for his friend, but to no avail. During the first night of winter that year, the bird died.
The man’s life became empty and hollow. He realized that he became happy during his life outside prison because his friend was with him. The riches and wealth he acquired overtime became meaningless because the only treasure he truly had in his life was his friend. The day after his friend died, the man donated all of his wealth to the less fortunate people, and when night came, the man took his own life to be with his friend.
The story ended there. Seth was crying his heart out. He was reminded of his previous life. Just like the boy in the story, he used to be alone. But he was given a second chance in life and he met Gil. The thought of Gil leaving him—Seth didn’t want it to happen. Just like the character in the story, his life would be meaningless without Gil.
Who was the author of the story? Seth had a hunch. Maybe it was Simon Walsh. His future novels had the same tone with that short story. But why would Simon hide his identity? It was not in his character. Hmm, Simon was not the writer, then? So, who was it? Was there another literary genius in their school beside Simon?
Seth turned his gaze to Gil who was sitting beside him. He was not expecting Gil to cry—and he was really not. Gil was wide awake—but there was something different about him. Gil looked flustered and his mouth was slightly open. It was a look of disbelief and surprise at the same time. Seth wiped his tears away. What was wrong with Gil?
“Hey, did you like the story too much?” Seth asked Gil.
Upon hearing the question, Gil looked at Seth as if he just woke up from a trance. “I…I think it needs a little more tweaking—I mean, the author should have include…Ah, no, it’s nothing. Don’t mind me.”
Seth raised an eyebrow. “I want to meet the author of that short story.”
Gil looked him in the eye. His gaze was so intense; Seth couldn’t help but feel nervous.
“Are you sure you want to meet him?” Gil asked.
“Y-yes…” Seth could take his eyes off Gil.
Gil held his hand and put it on the right part of his chest. “Maybe someday…”
Seth was about to ask more questions but the teacher announced that the awarding ceremony would resume. Seth didn’t receive his award yet. He managed to calm himself down and waited for his turn.
Gil didn’t talk again after that. He also didn’t sleep. They both waited for Seth’s name to be called on the stage. When finally it was Seth’s turn, Gil brought out a camera from his bag.
“Smile with all your heart…” Gil reminded Seth. “I want to capture your winning moment beautifully.”
Seth did what he was told. He gave his best smile when he was on the stage and as promised, Gil took photos of him.
“Why don’t we take a photo of us?” Seth told Gil when he went down from the stage.
Gil called a student. He instructed the student how to use the camera. Then, Gil put his arm around Seth’s shoulders. They both smiled at the camera.
That picture became the first ever photo of them displayed inside Seth’s room.
*****
Author’s note:
What I’m about to write here is not related to High School Rewind. So, feel free to skip this if you’re not interested. I just need to get this off my chest. Ha-ha.
I just finished reading Colleen Hoover’s Verity–as in, just minutes ago–and that book wrecked me. F*ck! There you go. I just want to let that one out. Hahahahaha. (Yes, I don’t have friends:))))
Thank you for reading <3
I spend my life reading too, don’t worry! Anyway, thanks for this great chapter! “one” of the photos eh? huhu~ Can’t wait to hear more ><. A perfect Sunday ^^.
❤️❤️❤️
🙄 the bitch hightailed Outta there 🤣🤣🤣what else could be expected from this type of Gemini
😂😂😂
So happy for Seth. I bet Gil wrote that short story. It crossed my mind in previous chapters that Simon may have used Gil’s work as his own in Seth’s previous life. I don’t know why I thought this and I still don’t. Thanks for the chapter. P.S. Simon is a bitch.
🤐🤭☺️
Even with cheating Chuck lost.
🤣🤣🤣
Gil wrote that story, heh? ;p
🤭🤭🤭