Ever since that awkward confession, Daniel felt distance towards Gun. At first, he was angry at the older for taking back his words. Then when his anger had subsided down, he felt ashamed of himself. He regretted the fact that he had opened up towards a person. It would be better to bring this secret to his grave. So, what if he was attracted to Gun’s body? He’s not the only man in this world!

Gun probably felt the tension too. The last time he stopped by, he had told Daniel that he couldn’t come often from now on because he had other jobs at night. Daniel responded harshly with, “Yeah, whatever.” He didn’t care whether he was telling a truth or not. It was much better not to see Gun in the meantime. Daniel needed to pick up what’s left in his dignity.

Anyway, he also didn’t feel lonely since he had new friends too. At night, Zack, Mira, and Zoe would often come and hang out with him at the store. Sometimes Zack even stayed until the next morning. Of course, he tried to bribe Daniel to sell him cigarettes, but then the other firmly rejected it. “No, can’t do. I can get fired,”

Like that, Daniel got closer with his school friends. However, from time to time, he also missed Gun as his friend. Daniel never saw him at the school since Crystal always came early in the morning. He wanted to text him, but he felt that their relationship had already been too awkward to be sending each other a message. Yeah, Gun used to hang around, but then he probably had great times with his sex friends at night. Daniel suddenly also wanted to have a boyfriend. He was a man that needed to fill his biological needs!

“Yo, Daniel?” A hand kept waving in front of his eyes. Startled, Daniel looked up and saw Zack in front of him. “Oh, Zack! Sorry, what is it?” His friend rolled his eyes and cupped his chin, “I’m asking you a way to confess my feeling to Mira,” Daniel laughed and smiled at the young man in front of him, “Do I look like a someone who knows about relationship?”

“Well, you’re handsome and polite…” He slowly spoke, “There’s no way girls would leave you alone, right?” Daniel exhaled and shook his head, “Sorry to put you down, but I don’t have time for relationship. I’m busy trying to survive on my own, remember?”

“Sorry, man. I didn’t mean it like that,”

“It’s fine, Zack,” Daniel felt bad that the vibe turned gloomy all of a sudden, “Anyway, you just have to control your emotions and don’t fight a lot. Mira really hates that, you know.” Now, it was Zack’s turn to exhale, “Shit, that’s the hardest things to do. Troubles just love to find me,”

“Maybe you should date Troubles and not Mira?” Daniel tried to crack a joke. It did work, Zack fiercely punched his shoulder and grinned, “Man, be thankful that you’re my friend.”

…

Time flied and just like that, Gun never came back to the store in quite some time. Daniel didn’t have the time to think about the older since he was in a crisis right now. All of the freshmen were preparing for the Slave Auction Festival. Only freshmen guys who can be auctioned and only girls can bid for them. Unfortunately, the available candidates from fashion department were Zack and Daniel. Of course, both of them didn’t want to be auctioned!

“Don’t worry, Danny,” Zoe giggled and held his arm, “I’ll make sure to save you at the auction!”

“B-but I don’t want to…” He whimpered pitifully. He was hoping that Zack would give in, but he was also so stubborn, “Are you nuts?! No way I’m going!!”

The class rep sighed and tried to bargain, “Well, if you can make profit for our class then we’ll let you go,”

“Fine!!”

And just like that, Daniel was the final candidate to be auctioned. On the festival day, Zack opened a boxing booth for fashion department. He used his boxing skills to avoid people’s punches. When Daniel had times to see around, he decided to visit Zack, “Wow, Zack is really good at boxing!”

“Yeah…” Doo stared blankly at his friend who was doing his job, “But he didn’t learn boxing to do something like this…”

Daniel only laughed awkwardly and comforted him, “It just that he didn’t want to be auctioned.” After he had seen enough, Daniel decided to walk to the beauty department. He saw a long line of girls, waiting for their hair to be cut. At the booth, there was the only man on beauty department, Jang Eli. His good looks totally lured all of these girls to his department. However, Daniel saw his hair styling results and made a note to himself, “Never tell Eli to cut my hair.”

“Oh,” Eli noticed him from afar and waved his hand, “Daniel, let me cut your hair!” He felt embarrassed and quickly shook his head, “No, thanks. I’m just sightseeing. Bye!” With that, he ran away to the waiting room and patted his chest. “Hehe, Daniel is kind of funny,” Eli muttered to himself.

…

“Finally, the Slave Auction will begin!” The MC stepped up on the stage, “The highest bidder will get an 8 hours date! And! All of the money from Slave Auction will be donated 100%!!” Girls were totally excited and they clapped their hands. Daniel could feel his legs trembling behind the stage. Thus, one by one, the freshmen from various department were auctioned. Daniel didn’t know whether to cry or not, but no girls dared to bid on Vasco. He made sure to cheer Vasco up later. Then finally, it was his turn!

“The last guy!! Park Daniel from fashion department!!”

With that, the girls screamed with excitement. “Oh God, he looks so handsome!!”

“Honey, take me!!”

“Wow, even though I’m a guy, I got to admit that he’s super handsome!!”

Daniel never got so much attention to himself before and found out that his inner self was freaking out. Oh, man. Please make this fast!

“3 hundred thousand won!!” Out of nowhere, Zoe slammed her money to the auction’s committee. She muttered to herself, “I have to date Daniel!!”

“1 million won!!” A girl from another school raised her hand calmly. All of the people there shocked by her words.

“Oh my! She’s rich!”

“M- me? A million won?!” Daniel felt his heart going to stop any minute now. He nervously gazed at his friends below. However, Zack shook his head, asking for his understanding. They also didn’t have that much money. And so, Daniel already accepted his fate to date a stranger. It won’t be that bad, right?

“2 million won!” A new voice suddenly broke through the crowd. It was Crystal.

Her words created a commotion since she created a new record! However, Daniel didn’t focus on Crystal, instead he looked at the man behind her. It was Gun. He stood there casually, guarding the girl from any dangers.

“So, he’s fine, huh?” Daniel whispered to himself. His embarrassment suddenly increased since he knew that Gun was here. How long did he watch the whole thing? Daniel hoped that he didn’t look stupid or anything.

The girl who bid a million was pissed by Crystal and so, she added her bid, “2,5 million!”

“OH. MY. GOD!!” The MC was so excited, he had to scream into the mic. Crystal raised her hand once again and doubled the bid calmly, “5 million.” With that, the entire school was thrown into chaos. “That’s it!” Said the MC, “Park Daniel is sold for 5 million won! Making a new record for J High School!” Thus, Daniel went down from the stage and felt his body trembled. Oh my, what a crazy day!

“Crystal!! You don’t like Daniel, right?!!” Zoe cried and hugged Crystal’s arm. She only smiled awkwardly and answer, “Don’t worry. This is only for the donation.”

“Please, the winner can go to the parking space to meet with the slave now!”

…

“Gun, do you know Daniel?” Crystal walked slowly to the parking space. Her bodyguard only shook his shoulder and answered, “No.” She raised her eyebrows and questioned him again, “Then, why did you tell me to bid for him?” At first, she didn’t want to bid at all and only to enjoy the festival, but when Gun saw the representative from her department, he suddenly asked her to help.

“Hey, bid him for me. Any amount is fine. I’ll pay,” She didn’t have the time to ask him and so, she just raised her hand quickly and doubled the bid. Since all of the money went to charity, she finally decided to go along with Gun.

Gun grinned and said, “It’s amusing to create a drama between a woman and man,” She didn’t know whether Gun was telling the truth or not and she sighed, “God, I could never read your mind,”

“Lucky for you, no one could read my mind,”

“Fine,” Crystal added, “He’s here. What do want me to say?”

“It’s up to you,” Gun’s expression turned cold as always and he continued, “If you like him then you can date him. Whatever,” Crystal didn’t have the time to reply as Daniel already reached their spot. He awkwardly looked at her and purposely avoided Gun’s eyes. “H- hey, Crystal.” He didn’t know what was in her thoughts because they didn’t close with each other.

“Hi, Daniel. Don’t worry, you don’t have to do anything with me,” She smiled calmly, “After all, I do it for the charity. Just relax,”

“Wow, Crystal, thank you,” Daniel smiled and then he glanced to Gun. Following his eyes, Crystal decided to introduce both of them. If Gun told her to bid, it meant that something must have caught his interest on Daniel. He wouldn’t do anything meaningless, after all. Daniel awkwardly shook hands with Gun, “Hi, I’m Daniel.”

“Gun,”

“Well, you probably know about it, but he’s my bodyguard.” Crystal told him. Daniel nodded his head and smiled, “That’s cool,”

“Anyway, now that things have done, I got to go. See you on school, Daniel.”

…

“Cheers!!”

Daniel was invited to the after party from the fashion department and so he had asked his boss to change his shift. He thought that it was an official party, but then when he reached the location, it totally blowed his mind! Only boys from fashion department attended the party and the rest of the girls didn’t even know about it.  Daniel sat beside Zack and awkwardly asked, “Zack, we’re on the right party, right?”

Zack casually drank from the small glass and answered, “Yup, this is how we had a party here,” The owner kept giving them alcohol even though she knew that they were minors. “Oh my, this is so wrong,” He anxiously analysed the surrounding. Zack wrapped his hand on Daniel’s shoulder and gave him a drink, “You should drink too! Guys! To Daniel, our 5 million man!”

“To Daniel, our 5 million man!!” The boys raised their glass and proudly looked at him. He felt uncomfortable with so many gazes and decided to gulp it right away. “Hell, this is my first-time drinking alcohol,” Zack was stunned and then joked, “Shit, then don’t drink too much. I won’t piggy back you home,”

They spent hours at the restaurant and one by one, the boys went home. Daniel felt tipsy from the drinks and leaned on Zack. “Man, is this what people feel when they’re drunk?” Zack was totally wasted from the drinks too and he mumbled, “Daniel, don’t you dare take Mira away from me!” Both of them talked about different things, but they put their hands on each other’s shoulder, trying to walk straight.

“Zack, where’s your home???” Daniel tried to support Zack even though he also felt wobbly. However, Zack totally answered with nonsense, “My home is Mira!!!” Daniel sighed and decided to walk forward, but then Zack tripped, pulling them together to the ground. “Zack!”

With that, Daniel laid down on the ground dizzily while his friend had rested on his chest. “Mira… Mira…” Zack mumbled. “Ugh, my head…” Daniel touched his head and felt the sky was twirling around. “Zack, you asshole,” Daniel lowly spoke, “You told me not to get drunk, but look at you now,”

Daniel didn’t even have a power to sit up. They would be dead if police passed by, he thought. Daniel breathed heavily on the ground and suddenly his vision went dark.

…

“What’s this?” His cold face was frowning as he looked at a boy who rested peacefully on top of Daniel.

“Did he finally find a boyfriend?” Gun muttered as he observed Daniel’s pale face. He knew that both of them were wasted from drinks. When he heard from the store owner that Daniel took a day off to party with his friends, he instantly thought about the only place where minors could order alcohol. And he was right…

Gun snorted at the sight and lightly kicked the stranger to remove him from weighting on Daniel. He didn’t know why, but he felt annoyed at him. Then, he supported Daniel to his own car, put on the seatbelt, and drove away. He didn’t care about the other guy, but it would be bad if someone would dare to take advantage of this drunken boy beside him.

…

“Ugh…” Daniel woke up and knew that he was in a strange room, laying on a big bed. His heart thumb with fear as he finally realized that he was in a hotel room. “What the-“ He startled as he looked down to his body, he was wearing a white robe with no any other fabrics. Somebody just stripped him naked! He could hear that someone was taking a shower, and he took that opportunity to reach for his phone.

But unfortunately, his phone was dead. Should he run away? Just when he wanted to make that decision, Gun came outside the shower with a towel that covered his waist below. “Oh, look at you.” He sneered.

“Gun?” Daniel dropped his jaw and, in that instance, his heart felt calm, but… not his body. He felt his body was hotter than usual as he stared at Gun’s strong muscle and scars. And what made him stunned the most was that scar between Gun’s eyebrows. No wonder he always wore sunglasses…

But then, he snapped himself out of it and turned his head away. “W-what happen?”

“I found you on the street, passing out with a boy,”

“Oh! Zack! What happen to him?!” Daniel panicked as he thought about Zack.

“Well, he’s fine, his friend came for him,” Gun easily lied. He didn’t know why (again), but he was a little bit pissed off. Probably because he knew that his seat on the cashier was often occupied by that stupid boy. So, he just wanted to do a little revenge.

“You know, you are dead drunk and I didn’t know your address. That’s why I decided to stop on this hotel,” Gun sat down on the bed’s side while drying his hair. Daniel gulped as he saw his back that was so firm and sexy. He wanted to touch it so bad.

“S- sorry, I’ll pay you back later,”

“Are you still mad at me?” Suddenly the older stopped his hand movement and stared directly to Daniel’s eyes. The mood was totally heavy as Daniel felt his own nervousness.

 

 

To be continued…