Bodyguard University: I Hate Loving You

Betrayal

Porsche's POV:

Walking down the hallway wasn't a monumental occasion, unless you happened to be in a palace.  BU was far from a palace.  Actually, most experiences didn't mean anything.  Perspective was what made any situation special.  Phupha and I hadn't spoken nearly as often since we'd been with our respective pairs.  Strolling along our university's hallway with him might've been a mundane activity, but it was noteworthy to me.

Brisking past students and giant windows, we gave each other informational dumps on our most recent endeavors.  I'd purposefully left out the part where Kinn had gotten into a knife fight though.  Phupha would've had a few words to say or felt obligated to get to the bottom of whatever the hell Kinn was up to.  I didn't want to involve anyone else into this mess.

I didn't even know what the mess entailed.  Each time I asked Kinn a question, he gave me more questions than answers.  He was hiding something from me, and I was going to figure it out, regardless of his protest.  If anything happened to him, I was going to be responsible. 

"I'm really worried about Tian," Phupha said, frowning deeper than usual.  He clutched his backpack strap, humming a worrying tune. 

Tian was advised to take a few days from school.  Though he physically was taken care of, he was mentally scarred.  Being attacked by rabid animals on campus wasn't exactly anti-traumatic.

"The doctor said he'd be fine," I assured him, patting his shoulder.  If anyone could help Tian through this, it was Phupha.  But Phupha needed to believe in himself for that to be possible.

Phupha shook his head, rejecting my notion.  "It isn't just about the dog attack.  When I was helping him bathe yesterday, he was full of rashes."  He gulped at the mention. 

I smirked.  "You helped bathe?"

Phupha rolled his eyes.  "I washed his hair."

"Sounds pretty intimate."  I nudged him. 

He turned a few shades red.  "The point is that there's something going on.  I can tell."

Yeah, he'd been maimed by something he thought he could trust.  I was familiar with the concept.  Phupha seemed to be going off in an entirely different direction, far from what the surface exposed.  It was like he'd seen something that he wasn't telling me, not that he'd be the first. 

"Did you ask him about it?" I didn't want to directly ask Phupha what he was going on about.  I needed to be strategic. 

"Yes, and he said that he gets stress hives."  He pursed his lips.

"Maybe he wants you to help him destress," I said, winking.  Phupha nodded, then glared at my implication.  Lightly, he whacked me with his bag. 

"I feel like there isn't something he's telling me."  He shook his head, distraught by his crush.

At least he isn't Kinn.

"Like what?"

For all I knew, Tian's big secret was that he was just as pathetically in love with Phupha as Phupha was for him.  And that wasn't much of a secret.  The stress hives could've been his belief of unrequited love.  However, that was unlikely.

"That's what I haven't figured out...yet."

I sighed.  "You better figure it out quickly."

For all you know, Tian could have a potentially psycho ex-business partner, claimed ex-lover that has some unexplainable interest in you.