Volume 1: The Story Of Their Life

Chapter 3: A Broken Phone/Mouth...

"Senior..." Jack began hesitantly while Dheeran remained engrossed in scrolling through the screen. "My phone..."

"Dei, iru da," Dheeran turned away, ignoring the poor guy who stood there helplessly. He stopped upon realization and lifted his face up, momentarily looking at Jack's perplexed expression. A faint smirk appeared on his face before he translated, "Hold on, bro."

Glancing over at Xen dispersing the crowd, I approached the two. "Hey, are you alright?"

"Yeah," Dheeran replied, continuing to scroll through the phone as I pretended not to hear him and turned to Jack, expecting his answer.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine... Thanks." Jack replied, to which I nodded.

"Sorry about that. I don't really know what this was about, but I promise to get back to you once it's settled." I assured. "What... exactly happened though?"

Jack paused, folding the tissue in his hand. "Well, I was walking with my friend and he snatched my phone. And when I tried to get it back, I got punched on my face... You know, just another normal day." He said, and by the way he said it, I could see that he was confused... actually more like traumatized.

"Him?" I repeated skeptically, pointing at Dheeran, knowing that it could not be true.

"No, no, not him. He stepped in to stop it. It was the other... captain. You know, the one who looks like he's in a popular boy band." I fell silent for a second, thinking to myself about how accurate that statement was. Dheeran glanced up from his phone and looked at me, probably realizing the same thing, as we nodded in unison.

"Wait, that's it..? He just punched you?" I asked, my eyebrows wrinkling slightly as I did.

"You... expected more?"

There was an uncomfortable silence in the air. Four eyes stared at me, making me stumble on my words. "Th—That's not what I meant." I stuttered and took a breath. "He just hit you out of nowhere...? Just like that? You sure nothing happened before he punched you?"

"Not that I can think of... I mean, I didn't even know him until the OTC."

"Oh right, you're a new player... HBJD?" He nodded, pressing the tissue to his lips which bled through. I felt bad for the guy. Like, imagine minding your own business and randomly getting hit by this crazy dude just cause you asked for your phone back. That is... something. "You know what, you should take the day off," I suggested, grabbing his phone from Dheeran's hands and passing it to him.

He took it back and looked up at me hesitantly. "Really? You sure...? But coach—"

"He's not gonna be here bro. Trust me, it's okay. We're just gonna have an intro anyway. You'll be fine." I assured him. He looked at Dheeran and back at me, and nodded, walking away after a slight bow. I took a quick look at Dheeran, who stood beside me, raking his flowy, black hair through his fingers. His usually jovial face was replaced by a serious expression, one that is quite rare in his case. Without saying a word, I retraced my steps back to the trio and asked Xen to see Jack off after making sure his wound was dressed before returning to Dheeran. I took a deep sigh and turned to face him. "Why bro? It's barely been three weeks. You do realize what you could have gotten yourself into, right?" I asked softly as Dheeran remained silent. "Seriously Dheeran, say something."

"It wasn't exactly his fault, Lex... " Rowan began.

"I know, Ro..." I said in turn. "But, people don't care about that. They don't care about the truth because they decide who is right and wrong." My eyes went back to Dheeran. "You know that better than me."

"Lex, just trust me on this..." Dheeran finally replied.

"I did, bro. I trusted you when you promised that you wouldn't end up like last time. I know that it wouldn't be entirely avoidable but I hoped you would try... Dheeran, I know you can't casually walk away but be careful... Please."