It took an hour for the meeting to end, and they bid farewell to each other. Leansei was walking down the sidewalk when his phone rang.
He took it and answered the call.
"Hello?"
[ Son! I came to remind you to come home in 2 weeks! There is a family dinner for all the elite families. Don't forget, okay. ]
"Can't I just stay here and not go?"
[ Son, what are you talking about? You always like these kinds of dinner meetings. But you can't be absent, okay? I'll tell Mr. Rio to fetch you at school. ] Leansei took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
"Mm. okay," Leansei said before hanging up the call.
Leansei put his phone in his bag and started to pass by a narrow street near the school. It was quiet and peaceful. A swirl of rusted leaves is the only thing you can hear.
But he stopped walking when he heard the groan of a person inside the narrow street where he had been beaten before. Leansei was about to walk again when the person they were bashing wasn't even yelling for help but endured the pain from the battering from these dirty thugs.
Leansei doesn't have a plan to interfere with other people's businesses, but he can't just turn a blind eye to someone who needs help.
He ambled towards the narrow street with his usual poker face and saw a familiar face from the school. There was a small, nerdy guy who was laying on the ground covering his head. The thugs were booting his body like a sack of bags.
"You don't even have a single penny! What trash! "
"Can you give us money?"
"Do you know what happens to the dogs that don't obey their owners?"
Leansei looked at them with narrow eyes and called them. "Scumbags. Why not try to work for yourself? instead of getting other people's money. " The guys stopped and looked in Lean's direction. The nerdy guy slowly looked up with a surprised expression.
"K-kean?" he called to him with a trembling voice.
"You stupid, why are you still lying there?" Leansei said as he looked at the nerdy guy rather than giving attention to the four guys who were glaring at him right now.
"Who the fuck are you?"
"Are you trying to get our money banker?"
"Don't you know who we are?"
"Who the hell are you? Fuck off!"
The nerdy guy immediately gets up on his feet and runs towards Lean's back.
"I'm Kean, Kean Ferech," a fearless and confident voice from Leansei. The one guy steps back in fear and diverts his gaze.
"What are you chickening up for?" Another guy beside him asked.
"H-he is the one who beat the 3 squads of bullies and gangsters. He has unbelieveably become stronger after his accident. " The nerdy guy looked at Lean in surprise. While Leansei just stared at them with a poker face as he turned to the guy next to him.
"You look awful. Let's go to the nearby clinic. " Leansei said as he looked at the bruises and wounds he got from the beating. The nerdy guy only gave him a surprised expression, not minding what kind of battering he got.
"Hey, you dipshit! I don't care who you are. Give that kid to me. We haven't gotten a single penny-- " Leansei glances at the leader of the group and throws the coin into his head.
"I'm not in the mood to beat someone to pulp today. But don't let me see you again and don't hurt anyone, especially this guy, "Leansei said as he assisted the nerdy guy away from that place. They went to the school clinic, and luckily, the doctor was there.
"What happened to him?" The doctor asked while she was treating the nerdy guy's wounds.
"I beat him." Leansei said. The doctor glanced at Leansei in surprise. but smiled afterward.
"I doubt that." She said to continue doing her job.
As soon as she's finished, someone came in.
"Doc. The principal called for you. He requires your presence in his office. Someone was beaten. " The doctor glanced at Leansei and smiled at her.
"Okay, I'll be there, and you, Mr. Corshe, should rest well and use this ointment for the bruise. You can go or stay, whenever you want. I'll be back. " The doctor said this with a kind smile before walking out of the clinic.
Leansei felt he had lost himself out there. He thought that Kean and other people were having very bad encounters and bad lives because of the useless thugs who were taking advantage of them and because they couldn't even fight for their own good.
"Who are you?" Leansei flinched as he perceived it. But tried to disregard the phrase.
"I told you I'm Kean."
"No! You're not Kean." Corshe's voice cracks as he head down. Leansei looked at him with an incomprehensible expression.
"Ke-kean is not like you now. The way you talk, the way you move, and the way you look is far from what kean is. Tell me who are you?"
"I can't tell you even if I wanted to. Who are you?"
"I knew it, since you awoke a few days ago. You've done things you've never done before, and before he was gone---" he stopped and sniffled. "Why did he leave me alone?! Doesn't he know that I'm suffering too? I despise you, Kean... I--" Corshe's voice broke down as he wiped his tears with his hand like a 5-year-old boy.
Leansei walked towards him and tapped his shoulder.
"I'm sorry. From now on, I won't let them hurt you or anyone else again. " Leansei said and looked down. He reasoned that maybe this was the reason he was transmigrated from this body.
' Maybe this is all I do while I'm in Kean's body, and I don't want someone to get hurt by the bullies again. Not in my sight. '
Corshe looked at Leansei and wiped his tears hurriedly. "D-don't tell anyone I cried," Corshe said, with a tone of embarrassment. Leansei suddenly laughs for the first time.
"If I do, what will you do?"
"I-i--anyway, Year Corshe is my name. I was your batchmate for 4 years until now, or Kean rather. I always get bullied by everyone because I'm a nerd. But Kean helped me, and I've made some friends since then, and no one has bullied me again. But then he changed suddenly. He became someone I didn't know, " Corshe said, as he looked down at the floor.
"What happened?"
"After what he did to Xerchin, we both got bullied, and I became Kean's substitute whenever he wasn't around. So when he got into the accident, they bullied me until they were satisfied. "
Leansei couldn't know what to say. The horrible experience was unbearable. He wondered if everyone was having a bad time and a situation where you couldn't even compare them to what you were feeling and what you had experienced.
"We should go now. But I don't have a car to..." Leansei said as he scratched his temple.
"It's fine. My driver will fetch me, " he said as he looked at his phone.
They went outside the school and talked to each other while waiting for Corshe's driver. Leansei learned a lot while talking to him. He learned that Kean was really born as a priest. He never says bad words and can't say no, even if it's a bad thing.
"What will I call you?" Corshe said, as he stood up near the car.
"Gavin, please. You can call me Gavin. " Leansei said. He finally found someone who doesn't need to call him something he isn't or know that he's not kean at all.
"Okay then, see ya tomorrow, Gavin!" Leansei put his hands up as a sign of goodbye. Corshe waved hyperly despite what had happened to him before heading inside the car.
' I really should improve my social skills. But if I did.. I wouldn't be able to use it if I came back to my body.. '
Leansei looked up at the beautiful sky while his hair was blown by the wind. He is getting unexplained emotions after having thoughts about it. He is getting closer to Kean's friends. He is getting fond of them, which in the first place he shouldn't.
' Ahh... I shouldn't have become so close to them. What should I do if I love being Kean? Is that too selfish for me to do? '
Leansei walked outside the school while in deep thought. But that thought was cut off when someone horned a car behind him.
He annoyedly looked behind him but suddenly faded away when he saw Xerchin climb off his car dressed with open buttons in a navy blue shirt and black pants. He is dressed attractively and is eye-catching. His good-looking face goes well with his messy hair.
Leansei immediately diverts his gaze and face to hide the heat in his cheeks.
' What is this kind of feeling? Am I going to die? Do I have a disease? I should probably consult a doctor for this. '
"What are you doing here?" Xerchin said, with his usual expressionless and attractive baritone voice.
"Wh-why does that matter to you?" Leansei said and looked down, but his expression changed when he saw the knuckles of Xerchin. It was reddening and kind of bleeding.
' Did he get into a fight? What happened? '
Unconsciously, Leansei took Xerchin's hand to see if there was a deep wound. Leansei stopped when he realized the action he had taken. He slowly looked up and saw that Xerchin was staring intently at him.
He immediately took his hands away from him and pulled him inside the school. Xerchin didn't struggle, instead letting Leansei take him wherever he wanted.
Leansei once again went to the school clinic, but the doctor wasn't there yet. But since Leansei always got beaten by his father and by the debt collector, he managed to learn how to treat the wound.
He pushed Xerchin to sit in the bed while Leansei took the medical kit. He pulled a chair in front of Xerchin and got the ointment while he held Xerchin's hand.
He just realized that Xerchin is way bigger than him. He is taller, with a built-in body and a firm set of long fingers. Leansei cleaned his wound and put a bandage on his hand.
"You won't ask me what happened?" Xerchin asked. Leansei stopped as he was looking at Xerchin's hand and shook his head.
"If you want to tell me, you already have. It's done, and you can apply this ointment --" Leansei's words had been cut off when he smelled the familiar mint breath of Xerchin and the perfume he always used.
"Do you want to know?" Xerchin said as his face leaned closer to Leansei's face. It was close enough for Leansei to feel a million pumps of heartbeat in his chest once more. It was like it was going to come out of his body.
"W-what--" a stuttering voice from Leansei.
Xerchin leaned closer to his face again. "You haven't even thanked me."
"T-this is my thanks--" Leansei immediately pushed him since he was so close to his face. He stood up and was planning to divert the subject, but Xerchin blocked his way when he stuck his hand into the wall. Leansei tried to go the other way, but Xerchin did the same. "Wait a minute, what do you think you're doing?"
"Talking to you." A plain reply and sarcasm respond. "You won't thank me?" Xerchin said he bent down his face near to Leansei's face. He swallowed as a continuous heartbeat was felt in his heart.
' This is what he means by talking?! And can't he just do it the other way?! Why does it have to be like this?! '
"Okay, you don't have to be this close, you bastard! T-Thank you! Happy Now? " Leansei said as he turned his head to the side to hide his blushing face, but Xerchin was close enough to see it.
"So that's how you thank the person who helped you? and call me a bastard? " Xerchin said as an attractive smirk curved into his lips that made him look like a damn dashing bastard.
Leansei felt him lean closer to his face so that it was enough to touch his reddish kissable lips, but Xerchin looked at his face and then at his lips as a curve shaped into his lips.
Leansei immediately closed his eyes unconsciously as his cheeks were blushing. Xerchin slowly leant towards him. It was so close that their lips were inches apart.
_____