After the girls shooed them away, Gabriel and Misha glanced at each other from the corner of their eyes, a fake smile on their lips. They then tacitly left the campsite. At any rate, they couldn’t win against these two, and they both weren’t fond of fighting a losing battle; they might as well leave with their heads held high.
The trail that led to the beach was sinuous, with many turns, roots, holes, and stones. Therefore, they had to watch their steps, or they would trip. With this in mind, Gabriel walked at a slow pace, ensuring that the child wouldn’t have difficulty following behind. Besides, Misha seemed to get exhausted easily, and it’d be quite troublesome if the kid grew too tired to walk on his own.
It was better to take their time.
Gabriel would often slow down to look around, acting as if something had suddenly piqued his curiosity. In this way, he let the boy rest without hurting his pride. If he were to ask if he needed to take a break, he was afraid the child would blow his top. After two months, Gabriel had more or less understood what kind of explosive temper Misha had.
The beach wasn’t too far from their campsite, and after 15 minutes, the forest gradually faded, leaving only a few trees standing tall in the sand. Near the trail entrance, there was a parking lot packed with cars and an impressive log cabin, from which there was a constant flux of people coming in and out.
Inside the gray cabin, the front desk was busy handling the incoming campers. The place also served as a small canteen in the afternoon and sold many commodities. For this reason, there was always a crowd surrounding the area during peak season.
Fighting their way in, Gabriel and Misha went to the public bathroom inside the log cabin and changed into their swim trunks, putting their clothes in the teenager’s backpack before leaving.
As they walked to the beach, Misha glared at the shirtless teenage boy with pursed lips, seemingly wanting to drill a hole into his stomach with his eyes. After a few seconds, he shifted his gaze to look down at his own chest, which was as smooth and white as porcelain. Slowly, he lifted his small hands to pat his flat stomach, and he suddenly felt the urge to cry.
After transmigrating back into his younger self, the perfect muscles he had painfully and carefully cultivated over the years were gone, having disappeared into smoke just like that. Of course, it was frustrating!
Misha had avoided agonizing over it for the past two months, always distracting his mind with something else. But now that Gabriel was exhibiting his fit body for everyone to see, pangs of jealousy twisted his belly, urging Misha to hit the teenager a few times to vent his pent-up frustration.
And he did just that, furiously kicking the teenager’s calf.
Startled, Gabriel shifted his gaze from the crowded beach to the boy, staring at him, puzzled. The child responded by glaring at him, or more precisely, at his flat stomach.
Why were his abdominal muscles so well defined?! A bookworm shouldn’t be allowed to do sports and develop such a lean body! What about those who worked out every day but still couldn’t get a pound of muscle?! It was too infuriating!
“Is there something wrong?” Gabriel asked in a gentle tone.
“No, nothing,” Misha grunted, acting as if he wasn’t the one who had kicked him a moment ago. “Everything is perfectly fine!”
Considering Misha’s evasive behavior, Gabriel decided not to ask further. He was used to Masha’s mistreatment, so he didn’t think much of Misha’s sudden fit of anger. He only thought that the two of them were indeed siblings, hitting people for no reason.
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.
“Pa’r tba,” Zlrtj rcbgafv pera jr atfs kfgf jybea ab gfjmt atf rtbgf jcv vfwjcvfv, “P kjca ab fja rbwfatlcu mbiv!”
Ktf ybs jggbujcais iloafv tlr mtlc jcv uijgfv ja Xjyglfi, mgbrrlcu tlr jgwr lc ogbca bo tlr mtfra. Frejiis, atja xlcv bo qbrf kbeiv wjxf tlw jqqfjg jeatbglajalnf, yea tf tjv obgubaafc—jujlc—atja tf kjrc’a jc jveia jcswbgf. Cr remt, atlr qbrf vlvc’a tjnf atf rjwf lwqjma. Po jcsatlcu, la kjr rbwfktja mbwlmji, sfa jirb jvbgjyif, atf bqqbrlaf bo ktja tf kjcafv.
The moment Misha started to pull pranks, he had thrown the gentle and well-behaved act away, becoming bossy whenever his family wasn’t in the vicinity. However, Misha himself didn’t seem to realize it, and Gabriel pretended not to notice the changes in his behavior, always complying with his absurd orders.
Although his mouth twitched a little, Gabriel still answered with a soft voice, “Ok. How about buying a popsicle?”
“Then go and buy it. I’ll wait for you here.”
“I promised your mother to watch over you. I can’t let you stay alone in such a crowded place.”
“The stall is just over there!” Misha rolled his eyes, pointing at the log cabin a few meters away, which had an open stand beside it that sold cold drinks and snacks. “It’s not like I’m going to run away, and if someone I don’t know gets close to me, I just have to scream.”
Gabriel didn’t answer and merely stared at the boy with narrowed eyes. Two months ago, a certain someone had run away from him when they were at the amusement park, scaring the hell out of him. Tell him, how could he believe his words? Besides, Gabriel had long learned that this kid was more mischievous than anyone and particularly loved to trouble him.
“…” Misha averted his eyes before adding with a small voice and a sullen face, “It’s hard to run in the sand….”
There was a short silence between the two. Then Gabriel turned his head, putting a fist before his mouth to kill the laughter that wanted to escape from his throat.
“Don’t laugh!” Misha cried out, his cheeks turning bright red.
‘Why the hell did I blurt out the truth like an idiot?! What’s wrong with my brain?!”
Misha was depressed. Indeed, he wouldn’t try to flee because running on the beach was too demanding for his weak body. His legs would probably give in to the fatigue after one or two meters, and Misha would thus fall headlong into the sand. Walking was already hard enough; he didn’t even want to think about running.
“I’m not laughing, I’m not laughing,” Gabriel chuckled, which earned him a few punches in the stomach from the little fury. “Ouch, ouch, ouch. Ok, ok, I get it. Have some mercy!” he smiled as he ruffled the boy’s hair before adding, “I’ll go buy your snack, so can you watch over the backpack?”
“Hmph!” the child snorted, looking at him with contempt and disdain.
But although he appeared grumpy, Misha still extended a hand to take the backpack from Gabriel and then watched his back as the teenager sprinted to the stall.
Throwing the backpack at his feet, Misha smirked.
Gabriel obviously didn’t trust him one bit and wanted to buy the popsicle and come back as fast as possible, afraid that Misha would take the opportunity to disappear to who knew where. In a way, he found his reaction funny yet also a bit frustrating. Today, he hadn’t lied; he really wouldn’t run away!
Now, Misha wasn’t as anxious to get rid of Gabriel as he had been in the beginning, thinking that his pranks were doing an excellent job and were slowly wearing down Gabriel’s patience. And most of all, he couldn’t imagine how his mother would react after learning that her baby boy had gone missing. Would she die from a heart attack? He didn’t know, but he didn’t want to risk it. Thus, Misha wouldn’t resort to such a stupid plan anymore.
As Misha was waiting for his errand boy to come back, a group of children approached him. They towered over his small body, scrutinizing him from head to toes, almost as if they were looking at a circus freak. The three boys looked at him with a hint of mockery in their eyes, whereas the little girl by their side shyly peeked at him from time to time.
Misha raised an eyebrow. Goodness, what now?!
Though he was irked by their antics, he chose to stay silent and pretend he hadn’t noticed them despite their proximity. Right now, he didn’t want to deal with stupid brats. However, the said stupid brats couldn’t care less about his feelings and happily decided to court death.
The tallest boy, who stood in the middle of the group, looked down at him, sizing him up without an ounce of shame. “Don’t you know that girls must wear a swimsuit?”
It took a few seconds for Misha’s brain to process the brat’s words. But even then, he didn’t immediately understand what he meant.
“What with the face? Didn’t you hear me?”
Only then did Misha realize that the boy was talking about him, and everything became clear in his mind. It left him speechless for a second, but the anger also didn’t take its sweet time before manifesting itself, making him see red.
“Are you kidding me…? What are your eyes for?! I’m a boy!”
“Don’t lie! You’re obviously a girl!” another child sneered with that kind of righteous gaze that made Misha want to stab his eyes with his fingers.
“I think I know my own freaking gender better than anyone!” Misha growled through gritted teeth. “I am a boy!”
It had been a long time since anyone tried to tell him what his gender was. It had happened quite a lot in his youth, but to him, it was a long time ago, and Misha had long tossed the shameful memories at the back of his mind. Now that he was experiencing it again, he suddenly understood why he grew up having so many anger issues. With a bunch of idiots surrounding him, it was no wonder!
“Pfft,” the third boy laughed. “With that soft voice, even if you swear, it doesn’t sound convincing at all!”
Misha felt like a vein popped up on his forehead.
“It’s wrong for girls to show off their breasts, you know?” the little girl added with furrowed brows.
A second vein popped up.
“Stop trying to pretend to be a boy, no one will be fooled! It’s not because you’re wearing swim trunks that you aren’t a girl anymore,” the tallest boy sighed, shaking his head as if he was all-knowing.
A third vein popped up, and Misha decided to forget about being patient and mature. He had never been good with verbal jousts, for starters, so he might as well knock some sense into those brats with his beloved fists.
Mini theater
Author: Here is the appearance of some cannon fodders!
MC: Didn’t we already have a cannon fodder? *Stares at Gabriel*
ML: …
*Silence*
ML: How many times do I have to tell you that I’m the ML of this story?
MC: Hmph.
ML: *Sighs.*
Chapter revised on 2022-05-04
Edited by Clozed! ♥
…Gabriel is going to never leave misha alone if he finds out about this… but hang on wifey, hubby to the rescue~
Thanks for the chapter~
Thanks ❤️❤️
Misha is forgetting that he is tiny and he he gonna try and fight >-<
thanks for the chapter! <3
Will he just drop the pants to show the lil’ bastard the proof of his manhood? 👀
Will he just drop his pants to show the lil’ bastards the proof of his manhood? 👀
😂😆🤣
Courting death indeed 😄. This could go badly if he’s dependent on his own little fists but hopefully it won’t come to that.