Vanilla

Forty Two

[Leroy]

He was walking alongside someone I didn't know.

Three days before the start of the tournament, lodges had shopping carts parked outside and student ambassadors positioned around to facilitate the whole moving-in process. Being a part of the ranking board meant that I was an ambassador. I pretended not to know. Currently, people were arriving in buses and cars and directed towards their respective lodges, along with their assigned student buddies from the host school (us). He'd just been introduced to one of his.

"Cox," Lee Jungwoo. Seventh. He'd done something to his hair. "Can you at least smile? You look like a serial killer." We were standing in a row, several feet away from the registration counter, with name tags on, in our school tracksuits.

The other ambassadors up front in registration would come to us with people and say something along the lines of 'show him to Xu from Hudson.' Then we'd search for the Hudson buddies standing around in the grass patch some hundred feet away, closer to their lodge, and drop them off there. Rinse and repeat.

By the end of the day, most of us would have met our assigned two; one from LV and one from CSS. I say meet because I didn't intend to show them around or take them out to dinner like the instructions suggested for us to do. Hosting was clearly not my forte. Conducting a short tour for them to get acquainted with the school was the more than enough, and more than a quarter of them had to be seniors. Meaning there was a chance this was their second time here for the tournament.

I was crossing my fingers for one of those. Preferably two.

"Heard they're giving us a budget to take them out for new year's or something. Since they're spending it here." Some guy down the row. The girl beside him mentioned fifty bucks each.

"Assiette didn't even do a thing about new year's last W-interschool." I was there. They gave us a sparkler each. Lasted for ten seconds.

Frankly, I'd be happy without the fifty bucks if the students I was assigned to had new year plans of their own. Wasn't uncommon. Logically, people would rather spend time with their schoolmates, exploring the mall nearby or going further out before a week of non-stop competition and stress. Ideally, they weren't even interested in talking to me. That way, I wasn't obligated to entertain anyone since... I was bad at entertaining in general.

That, and I had plans. With a certain someone.

My eyes went to him on instinct, taking in a second student handing him half her bags. Without complaint, he'd sorted them gently into a shopping cart before starting in the direction of Cinnamon, glancing over his shoulder at every three to five steps just to ensure they were keeping up. I hadn't noticed Jean Mercier calling me from the registration counter until Lee beside me snapped a finger between my eyes. I'd given him a look. It was blank.

"Cox. What the hell? I called your name four times," Mercier flung a couple of bags my way. I caught them. He shook his head, smiling regardless. "Get to work. These are your buddies. Remember, it's a full tour. No slacking."

He was flanked by a guy and a girl in casual clothes—clearly first-timers, judging from the look on their faces. Lost. They came up to me as soon as they were handed a welfare bag each and needless to say, awkward silence ensued. The first minute of our journey to Cayenne, none of us spoke.