Sweet Devil [BL]

Chapter 92. Nervousness

Once in the locker room, Misha noticed that he had accidentally taken Gabriel's bag instead of his. Because both were very similar, it was easy to mistake them.

Throwing the backpack on the bench, Misha spun on his heels and got out of the locker room, intending to snatch his bag from Gabriel's hands and come back to change into his swim trunks. But who would have thought that the moment he let the man out of his sight, he would be hit on by the front desk employee? Well, on second thought, it wasn't anything surprising.

Whenever they came to the swimming pool, at least one person would try to flirt with Gabriel, often using Misha as an excuse to approach him. They would ask if he was his little brother or say things like he was a cute child. It was a little infuriating for Misha to be used by others to strike up a conversation with the guy he was in love with.

No surprise here, but he took great pleasure in dashing the girls' hopes, emphasizing that he was the girlfriend's little brother.

Anyway, Misha hadn't expected the front desk employee to be so unprofessional. Although he had long noticed that she was interested in Gabriel, he usually stuck to him like glue, urging him to hurry up and whatnot. It limited their interactions, so she rarely had the time to chat with her crush. But the moment she had the opportunity to, she didn't hesitate to seize it. It made Misha wonder if he shouldn't shout from the rooftops that he was the girlfriend's little brother so that everyone knew Gabriel was taken, even if that was a lie.

At any rate, Gabriel wasn't interested in girls. They had no chance with him from the very beginning, so could the annoying flies please leave them be? Misha just wanted to swim in peace, not pass his time driving away teenage girls in ruts!

Even though Misha knew they couldn't catch Gabriel's eye, he still didn't like people trying to flirt with him right under his nose. But he would never admit it aloud and adamantly refused to call the feeling twisting his belly "jealousy".

Since his sister's birthday, Misha had been thinking a lot, trying to figure out if he genuinely was in love with Gabriel. But he never dated anyone in his past life; he had no experience with love matters, and it wasn't like he could ask anyone their opinions, much less openly discuss his feelings. A little child in love with a young adult? Yeah, sure. That would make people raise an eyebrow and look at him strangely, and that was pretty much it. He could only rely on himself, but that wasn't very successful either.

There was one thing Misha was certain of, though: Gabriel did hold an important place in his heart, maybe just as much as his sister. Sometimes, he wondered since when, but he had no answer to this. His feelings hadn't suddenly appeared out of thin air and instead had grown deeper over time. For years, Gabriel had patiently taken care of him in his past life, even when he became a problem child who only knew how to cause trouble wherever he went. He had always been there for him, making him feel safe and loved. It was something he needed after his father's abuse and had helped to heal him.

But then that fateful day happened, destroying their daily life. When Gabriel had "betrayed" him, it hurt so much that Misha felt like his heart was about to burst. It left a scar that could never heal completely. And yet.... Now, he felt so glad that Masha and Gabriel had never been a real couple. Not in this life and not in the past one. It meant he had all the rights in the world to fall in love with him, no guilt needed.

It was just that Misha couldn't tell if he was sexually attracted to him or not. By all means, he knew Gabriel was a handsome man, the kind who was tall with clean-cut facial features. If he weren't, there wouldn't be so many girls trying to get his phone number. But the thing was: his current body was too young to experience sexual desire. Moreover, he had never been drawn to any man before. Honestly speaking, he was also not very interested in girls in his past life, too wrapped up in his own problems to care about love and such.