Previously in Chapter 6: Melinda, Raidou and I came across Mr Allen who gave us advice and we also witnessed him smiling for the first time. Mr Allen walked away and we rented out our sports equipment and area,
With his advice in mind, Melinda, Raidou and I went into the changing room after we had finished renting all the necessary equipment and a court. We discussed together what exercises we should do while we headed out towards our arena. As we walked across the wooden floor of the Sports Complex, we saw Mr Allen tirelessly practicing in a gym next to ours.With his head fully soaked with sweat, his usual clean-cut hair was now sticking onto his forehead like glue. He relaxed his body and gave a powerful smash as he swung his badminton racket. The sweat soaked sports t-shirt was now clinging onto his body and his sport shorts fluttered lightly whenever he jumped and served; it gave him an alluring and robust figure. He wore a confident and friendly smile which gave a relaxed atmosphere. This was completely different from his usual strict and scary face. If it was not for the clothes he was wearing, neither of us friends would have guessed that this charming man was the same person as the strict and scary teacher we had seen before.
For a moment, Melinda and I stood flabbergasted at how we once again saw a different side of Mr Allen that was completely different from the image he gave off to everyone in school; while Raidou stood still with his mouth open as if he wanted to say something and slowly pointed at him.
“THAT!!! IS THA…”
Raidou shouted loudly the very same thing we were just thinking. But before Raidou could continue, Melinda covered his mouth with her hands so that Mr Allen would not be alerted by the shout. However, it seemed to be too late as him had stopped and was staring at us. Melinda and I looked at one another while signalling each other trying to figure out what we should say . As we were contemplating, we heard a strange sound.
“Mmphh!! Mmphh…”
Slap.. Slap.. Slap..1sound of Raidou slapping Melinda's hand
We looked towards the sound only to see a red-faced Raidou who was making muffled sounds while slapping Melinda’s hands which were covering his mouth. He pointed at her hands while trying to shout, “Let… ME… GOO!!” Upon realising that she almost choked him, Melinda quickly let go of Raidou, who immediately caught his breath as soon as he was released; and started to pat his back trying to comfort him.
“Are.. Are you alright? I’m so sorry. I… I forgot about you.” Melinda stuttered while apologising to Raidou. Even though she sounded apologetic and was comforting him, she averted her eyes away from Raidou, as if she was trying to stop herself from laughing. Knowing her, she would probably be thinking, ‘He has no presence at all, it's so easy for people to forget his existence. Such a pity, if only he had more charm to him, he would have been noticed by others and had a girlfriend by now.’
I smiled wryly while observing the two interacting with each other. I looked towards Mr Allen and saw him still staring at us. I interrupted Melinda and Raidou and mouthed to them that we should go and greet him first. As we walked closer towards him, I noticed that his eyes were not focused on all of us but only on Raidou.
He then asked us in a calm and gentle voice as he stared at Raidou, “Your court is near here?”
I nodded and told him that it was just beside his. Hence, he suggested, “I can use a companion to practice with me then. Why don’t you guys use this place as well? I’ll pair with Raidou and you two can pair up together.”
Seeing that there was no way to refute, Melinda and I agreed silently while Raidou seemed scared. “Me?! Paired with the dem.. I mean.. Mr Allen?!”
‘Was he about to call Mr Allen a demon?! He'd be dead if he had been heard.’ was what Melinda and I thought internally as we prayed for his well-being. Surprisingly, we did not see Mr Allen get angry. Instead, he went to pat Raidou on the head as if to give assurance that he was not scary.
Melinda and I were shocked at this act. While I was still in shock, Melinda slowly walked towards me and whispered while smirking, “Don’t you think Mr Allen gives Raidou differential treatment compared to other people? You don’t suppose he likes Raidou? Isn’t this a perfect ship for Raidou - perhaps his soulmate has arrived? Despite this, Raidou still hasn't noticed his advances?! How dense can he be?”
“You… You don't mean..?” I exclaimed in shock while making sure that only Melinda could hear me.
"Ya! It gotta be that! Mr Allen is into Raidou! The way he looked at Raidou and acted got to be hints that he likes Raidou! I'm sure of it! So..." She paused before continuing "Who do you think is going to be the top? Mr Allen or Raidou?" Melinda asked me while covering her smirk with her hand.
“Well…” I became tongue-tied at her question. To think I have to imagine them together would have sounded absurd to me at first but when I started thinking about the possibility, my face could not help but to heat up. I avoided her question by shouting “There.. There isn’t much time left to practice so let us all start!” while awkwardly laughing at the end.
While practicing, I could not avoid hearing Melinda mumbling “I’ll ask you next time then.” Hearing her persistence, I internally prayed that she would forget about it.
Remarks: Plotholes have been added. structure only not much edited.
Thanks to: Raidou, Mir, Donut for giving feedback to the chapter.
