At that moment, the auditorium was quiet, and Alex's laughter sounded particularly loud and harsh.
Colin locked his eyes on Alex in a resentful glare. He glanced surreptitiously at Leona and saw that she was amused, which only made him angrier.
The director thought that Alex was behaving so crassly that he immediately ran to the center of the stage, pointed at him, and said loudly into the microphone, "What are you laughing at?"
"What am I laughing at?" Alex repeated. He knew that Leona was watching and didn't want her to think that he was rude.
"You're obviously laughing at Colin's hiccup, why don't you just admit it?" asked the director.
"If you knew what I was laughing at, why did you bother to ask?" Alex replied.
The director's face burned red as he looked at Colin. When he saw how angry Colin was with him, he felt very anxious.
Colin looked at Alex and said angrily, "If you laugh again, I'll get you thrown out of here."
Alex now felt annoyed himself. First, this guy was colluding with his girlfriend, and now he
was talking down to him in this way. He sneered and said, "I can laugh if I want. How are
you going to stop me?"
Usually, Alex managed to bite his tongue and remain polite even when he was angry. But he was so depressed about Colin that he just couldn't stop himself from being rude.
When the other students heard that he had dared to challenge Colin, they were surprised,
angry, and amused. They were also not very impressed with Alex.
One student said, "This boy is crazy. Who is he? What's his background?"
"I just can't believe he's challenging Colin. What an idiot," answered his friend.
The first student continued excitedly, "Look at him. He's wearing cheap clothes. He looks
like a total loser next to Colin, and yet he still dared to stand up to him. If Colin's on form,
he'll destroy him."
Colin sneered at Alex and said, "Well, I'm not going to waste my time on scum like you."
Then he called out to someone backstage, "Can someone call security to kick this idiot
out?"
The head of security arrived with two of his men and said, "No problem, Colin. I've had my
eye on this guy. We'll get rid of him now."
Alex looked at Colin and said, "Wait, Colin. What right do you have to get me kicked out?"
Colin was a very proud person. He wanted to say, "With my power, I have the right to do
whatever I want to do," but he suddenly he realized that Leona was watching everything.
He was afraid that she would be disgusted with him if he was so arrogant, so he changed
his words and said, "You're not even here to rehearse. You're just distracting us while we're trying to practice. That's why you should leave."
"Who says I'm not here to rehearse?" Alex asked. "My name is Alex, and you'll find me on
the list. Look for yourself if you don't believe me."
"Nonsense, I've read the list. I would remember you," said the director.
"Is he telling the truth?" Colin asked as he turned to look at the director, who immediately took out the program and started looking for Alex's name. After a moment, his face froze.
He murmured, "Damn," in a low voice. Then he looked at Colin and said, "It's true, his name is on the program. He's one of your dancers."
"What?" Colin grabbed the director's list and saw Alex's name on it for himself. He looked at Alex angrily, and when Alex smiled back, he could barely control himself.
He said, "Okay, so you are on the list, yes, but I'm telling you now that you can leave. I don't
need you to dance for us."
"If you make me leave, you'll be damaging your own performance. I'll tell you the truth. I
didn't sign up to help you. I came for Leona," Alex said.
"Leona doesn't need you either. Now go." Colin said firmly. He glanced at Leona and saw that she was looking anxiously at Alex. He was slightly surprised by that, and he could tell
from her face that she did know him. Then he remembered seeing him standing at the door of the classroom a few days earlier while he'd been getting to know Leona. He wondered what was going on between them.
"Leona, do you want him to dance with you?" Colin asked, feeling a little guilty.
Alex dared to look at Leona. He was afraid that she would also want him to leave. They
looked at each other. Her eyes were puzzled, angry, disgusted, and helpless. Alex simply
stared into her eyes and refused to look away. His hand was gripping the armrest.
"I don't know," she answered. Her eyes narrowed, and she said in a low voice, "You decide."
Colin looked at Alex again. He felt that he had become a thorn in his side. He was upset that Leona hadn't taken the opportunity to get rid of Alex when she could. He felt that he had already lost this battle.
"Well, now that you're here, I'll give you a chance. The song we're performing this time is a very energetic song.
We need dancers who are athletic and fit. I doubt that you're strong enough."
Alex looked quietly at Colin and thought, "I know that I'm strong, but how are you planning to test me?"
Colin said, "I have a test for you. If you can knock me down to the ground, I'll let you
participate. Do you dare to try?"
Everyone smiled and looked at Alex. They were convinced that he would not take on Colin's dare.
"Is he going to do it?" one student asked his friend.
"I can't believe he is," the friend replied.
"Go on, pretty boy, give it your best shot," the student taunted Alex.
Alex stood up slowly and walked to one side.
The audience looked at him and assumed that he was going to leave. They all sneered at
him for being a loser for daring to challenge Colin but not following through with his challenge.
But Alex didn't leave. Instead, he climbed up the steps onto the stage.
Everyone was shocked. They didn't know his true identity and thought that he was being very arrogant.
He slowly walked over to Colin as the director approached them with a microphone.
The audience was astonished when he blocked Alex and stood in front of him, yelling at him through the microphone, "You stupid loser. You're a nobody, and you dared to challenge
Colin. What are you thinking of? I'm the director here, and I'm ordering you to leave now.
Off you go. We don't need you here."
Alex shoved the director's shoulder, and he fell to the ground. Several students rushed to his side and helped him up. They were ready to fight Alex together, but Colin stopped them.
In front of Leona, Colin was determined to retain his composure, but he also wanted to teach Alex a lesson.
The director said to Alex, "You probably didn't know that Colin participated in the National
Youth Games last year and won second place in the Taekwondo competition. You have no chance if you take him on. It would be much better for you if you just left now without any
further embarrassment."
To ingratiate himself to Colin, the director had taken time to learn about his background.
When the spectators heard that Colin was a Taekwondo expert, they understood what he had planned for Alex. They were looking forward to seeing what happened.
Alex ignored the director and continued to walk toward Colin.
Leona stepped up to Alex and whispered, "Stop now. It's not worth it."
She really didn't want these men to fight over her. Then, when she heard that Colin was a
master of Taekwondo, she became very worried that Alex would get seriously hurt.
"It's okay. I can fight him," Alex replied quietly. Although he felt a little unsure if he should
when Leona had asked him not to.
"Leona, you get out of the way. Don't worry, I'll just test him, I won't seriously hurt him,"
Colin said to her. It was clear that he was confident that he would win.
Then he winked to the man beside him, and that man pulled Leona out of the way.
"Are you ready, boy?" Colin asked Alex.
"If you really want to fight, I'm ready. Of course, this is a lot of nonsense," he replied.
"Stop trying to squirm out of it, coward," Colin berated him, and then hit him in the face. It
was true that Colin had almost won in the youth games and his attack was ferocious. Alex was startled, and he quickly retreated to the side. But Colin was too fast, and he hit him
again, this time missing his face but hitting him hard on the neck. Alex felt a deep pain.
"Yes!" everyone watching cheered.
"The little loser was easily beaten by Colin," one man called out.
His friend said, "If Colin really goes for it, he'll knock that loser flat out."
"I thought that because he dared to go up there, he must have some skill, but it seems that I was wrong. He's just a target for Colin. He's going to get pummeled."
Leona was very anxious when she saw Alex getting hit in the face. She kneaded her hands
together and looked nervously at the two men who were fighting on stage.
Colin used his elbow to hit Alex hard in the chest, winding him. Alex was struggling to
regain his breath, when Colin barged his shoulder into him, knocking him back a few steps.
Alex wobbled and nearly fell to the ground.
Colin sneered, "Boy, you're not very strong after all. You're definitely in no shape to dance
for us. You better walk away while you still can."
Alex glanced at Leona and noticed that she looked a little calmer. He realized that she was
certain that he would take the opportunity to retreat and avoid further injury. It annoyed
him that Leona was so convinced that he would lose. With a rush of rage in his heart, he
whispered to Colin, "It's time to finish this."
Then Alex rushed at him.
Colin had never wanted this fight to go too far. He had wanted to teach Alex a lesson, but he was too afraid of damaging Leona's impression of him to really hurt him. He tried to get him to give up, but instead, Alex tried to attack him. Colin smiled to himself and thought, "Well, Leona, now you can't blame me for what happens. I tried to help him, but this ignorant fool just won't admit it when he's defeated. Now I have no choice but to make him suffer."
He nimbly dodged Alex's attack and knew that his opponent did not have time to turn around to defend himself. He kicked him hard on the hip, causing him to lose his balance
and fall to the floor. Colin yelled out in triumph and leaped into the air, ready to land
heavily on Alex as he struggled on the ground.
"No!" Leona cried out. Colin looked at her horrified face and quickly stopped what he was
doing. Instead, he gave Alex a quick kick, looked down at him with contempt, and said, "You can forget dancing for us, loser." Then he went over to Leona.
Lying on the ground, having been kicked by Colin and now hearing his insulting words, Alex felt totally humiliated in front of Leona. He felt guilty and angry with himself. Ignoring the pain in his body, he quickly climbed up from the ground, walked over to Colin, and smashed his fist into the back of his head.
As Alex approached him from behind, Colin had heard people shouting out warnings, and
he tried to duck. He was a little too late, and Alex's fist hit his ear, causing it to bleed. He
held his head as his heart filled with vengeance. He thought, this time I'll show you no mercy.
He said sinisterly, "You really don't want to live, do you?"