The morning brought a cold breeze, as he walked to the gym.
He was wearing his new clothes, and he had actually done his hair that morning, he was not exactly ugly, but he definitely did need to gain some weight, to look more rounded and healthy.
He carried his bag over his shoulder, and was generally cheery, as he walked into the gym.
"Kian, my boy!!"
Big arms hugged him and he was barely able to let out a reply
"I...I am not your boy!"
Kian tapped on the man's arm, admitting defeat, the tight hold keeping him from breathing.
"Congratulations on your win Arnie."
Kian continued giving the big man a genuine smile.
But the man didn't care and instead bend down inspecting Kian thoroughly.
"What have we here, did you dress up today, you don't look half bad, is this perhaps for Jaiel?"
Arnie bumped Kian's side with an elbow, which hurt Kian a lot more than was probably intended.
The man could not control his strength around something fragile like Kian, he thought.
"No, I just felt like changing myself, that is why I am here to begin with." Kian replied curtly.
He then proceeded to walk to the back to change as he had done every day the past week.
Jaiel was there, earlier than normal and got up as soon as Kian, walked in.
Kian saw him look him over and was slightly embarrassed, remembering the "I like you," text he had accidentally sent Jaiel.
'Will he think I am dressed like this for him?'
Kian bit his lip and decided to look back at Jaiel as if he had no care in the world, and started undressing to change into the training clothes.
'At least I won't be smelling as bad today.'
"Hey..." Jaiel had said from across the room, walking towards Kian.
"Hey," Kian replied half taking off his pants and in a weird bend-over stance.
'Why does he have to come over right now.' He thought.
Kian felt awkward and quickly changed before turning to look at Jaiel.
"Today, let's run together, I want to show you how to do punches while moving forward when we are out."
"Sure," Kian replied, a bit surprised, but happy nothing about the embarrassing text from the weekend was brought up.
They got outside and Kian watched as Jaiel showed him a combination of 3 different punches out in the air.
The punches were fast and precise right and left jabs followed by an uppercut.
They then got into running following a routine of occasional stops, where they would repeat those punches, then continue running.
Kian had trouble following along, and Jaiel was soon ahead of him by a lot, regardless Kian kept going at his own pace, till he finally finished the run outside the gym.
He met Jaiel in the changing room, and quickly changed, as Jaiel was waiting for him.
"Hey, let's head to school together," Jaiel said out loud with an expressionless face, simply observing Kian getting his bag and they left together.
Kian fidgeted with his shirt, making sure his outfit was still clean and looking good. He was alert at not getting it dirty in any way, not wanting to ruin the good favor his dad had shown.
"You look good today by the way."
Jaiel said on their way through the school building to their respective classes.
People were turning their heads towards them, and whispers had started to spread, with Kian hearing Jaiel's name a few times together with his own.
He realized to these people he was known to be gay, and walking like this could possibly question Jaiel's reputation as well.
"Thank you" he laughed awkwardly.
"I need to go to class, see you after school."
He quickly passed Jaiel and sped up his pace to reach his classroom.
Why had he been so stupid? Of course, he could not just casually walk around with another boy looking like a puppy in love.
He blushed while sitting at his desk, grabbing his books from his bag.
The two girls from the previous Friday stood in front of him, the haughty-looking one slamming her palm down on his desk, staring him down.
"Why didn't you give Jaiel her number?" She was referring to the shy girl beside her.
"I did, but I can't make him text her," he replied annoyed.
The girl whipped her hair back in an elaborate motion, and Kian ignored her.
"You better be telling the truth." She replied with an even more elaborate tone.
"Or what?" Kilian was not scared of her, and he had done nothing wrong.
She didn't reply, her threat seemed to be hollow, and he could only hope she had the brains to realize what he'd said wasn't wrong.
The girl changed tactics and spoke.
"I am sure you didn't tell him, because you want him to yourself."
Kilian looked up and saw a smirk on the girl's face, her words had become louder, and a few heads around them had turned their way.
'Fuck.' Kilian did not reply right away, which only made the suggestion sink in more to the people around.
Kilian sighed, he could not deal with this stupid girl.
"No, I gave it." He retorted, opening his notebook, and getting himself ready for class.
"Liar."
The girl lowered her voice again, her previous words were already enough to start more rumors about Kian.
The class started and Kian tried to focus on the monotone lecture by the teacher.
His head was tired, and his eyes were hurting when lunch came around, and he unpacked the small lunchbox his father had prepared for him.
He smiled, even if it was a simple lunchbox everything in it was something he liked, and he started going through the rice quickly.
"CLANK!"
The door to the room slid open, and a dark-haired youth stood in the doorway, looking around.
Kian almost spa tout his food, exclaiming.
"Jaiel?"
The tall young man walked toward Kian as if the rest of the classroom was not a part of his world, and on the way grabbed a random chair to sit down next to Kian.
Kian was still partly chewing through rice, and swallowed hard, almost choking, which only landed him a slight tap on the shoulder from Jaiel, to help him.
The girls around them and even some of the boys had all stopped in what they were doing, and the room was silent.
"Let's meet up tonight."
Jaiel spoke first, and Kian was sure, he was receiving a death stare from the rude girl in the distance.
"Sure," Kian replied slowly, still taken aback by the surreal situation.
"Ohh, your lunch looks good."
Jaiel sounded excited, and without thinking Kian lifted his fork with chicken and rice, watching how Jaiel stretched out his neck towards it, eating it as if he was being fed.