A step away from love

03. Flirting

It was the championship final and most of the university students had shown up to give some support to the tennis club members. But the fairplay didn't seem to be on sight or so Yong thought when he saw the scene unfolding in front of him.

He had been watching Jiew for some time now, next to the court, an area usually reserved for the the journalism club members who covered University events to be sure to report on them in the weekly newspaper they wrote or people interested in the players themselves. But that was impossible, right? What was his Jiew doing there?

For some reason, Phi Copter, the tennis team's president, seemed to know the answer to these questions because he was deliberately and thoughtfully talking to the Architecture freshman. The sight itself was very unpleasant in Yong's eyes, but Jiew seemed to think otherwise, looking very comfortable. The two of them seemed very involved in a light conversation full of laughter.

In general, Yong would have no reason to interrupt Jiew's conversation with anyone else, but things changed when he saw his friend slapping Copter's bicep and quickly backing away.

"Don't say that, P'Cop!", Yong heard his friend scolding the senior from a distance.

That was enough for Yong's overprotective side to take him out of his place in the bleachers and go to the two of them in hopes that his friend would need his help so he could get rid of the senior.

"Hey, Jiew! Are you alright?"

"Ah, Yong? What are you doing here? I'm fine, we'll talk later, ok?", Jiew said clearly dismissing his friend's presence but he didn't seem to understand or didn't care about it because he stayed in the same place and with no signs of leaving soon.

Copter, seeing that dynamic between the two, recognized his place in that triangle and decided to back off with a brief "We'll talk on Line later, Nong!" and returned to where his advice as president of the team was requested.

"Do you have his Line?" Yong asked when the senior was far enough that he couldn't hear anymore.

"Yeah, he asked me…", Jiew replied rolling his eyes.

"You should ignore that kind of stalker, Jiew!" Yong scolded.

"He's not a stalker, Yong! People flirt, you know?", Jiew walked off the court area and headed to the parking lot, all the time with the tallest male behind him.

Yes, Yong knew that. He just didn't know his Jiew was flirting with that nasty senior. This was really a surprise he wasn't prepared for. Even more surprised he was with the next sentence his friend directly to him after suddenly stop:

"By the way, what were you doing there? Do you have any kind of problem with that? Yong, does it bother you that I like men?", Jiew asked sincerely.

"Don't talk nonsense, Jiew," he said, ruffling the other's hair as a smile appeared on his face for the first time since Marc and the others had invited them both to see the tennis match.

Since they met each other on the orientation day, they had never talked about it, but now that Jiew had confessed, Yong felt his chances had increased. He felt that somewhere someone was playing the odds in his favor and helping him get closer to Jiew, at least. Not that he was going to tell his friend that yet.

Okay, maybe it was a little too much to think like that, but Yong was happy to know there was a chance. After all, 2 out of 5 relationships start with a friendship, right? But he didn't have time to think about it much more because Jiew was demanding his attention with a question he didn't feel ready to answer yet.

"Wait! What about you, Yong?", Jiew asked, but Yong just smiled and ran away. That's how he handled life's tough questions anyway. (Which was really a shame because Fluke and Copter had known each other since their childhood and the youngest was just helping the senior to make his boyfriend, P'Kim, a little bit jealous as he was acting weird lately. Looks like the plan worked too well!)