Ambivalent

4. Cuts!

Rune

"Stop looking around!" I reprimanded Akara as he was making me uneasy. He was checking around all the time with frantic eyes as if he sensed some danger. A danger which didn't exist.

"It is in my nature, I am your bodyguard, young master," he said politely though he defied me.

"Whatever," I mumbled and tried to concentrate on my assignment. It was like this for the last two weeks. Akara was always beside me, driving me crazy with his paranoid behaviour. Whenever I stood up, he was used to asking me where I was going as if he wasn't following me.

Weirdly, even though he was prying into my life non-stop, he never told me anything about himself. Other than him being my father's adoptive son, I didn't learn anything about him. Maybe he was too sceptical or he simply didn't trust me yet, I wasn't sure.

"Hey Rune, did you hear about the news?" Som asked as he sat next to me, bringing my wandering soul back.

"What news?"

"The faculty organises a volunteer camp, we will build a school in a village. You will join, right?"

I didn't know how to reply. Though I was very into volunteer work, my illness didn't allow me to participate in any labour work. Still, I could do what I always did; donating a hefty amount of money. I opened my mouth to say this, but Akara beat me.

"Young master won't come," he said authoritatively as if he was the master.

"I don't remember asking you," I snapped at him, but he remained unbothered.

"Young master can't go, too dangerous."

"Is that so?" I asked rhetorically before turning my face towards Som. "Write my name too, I will come," I said firmly, swallowing my fears about my condition in an attempt to show Akara who was the master.

"Okay, great, then see you tomorrow at nine in front of the school gate," Som said and left us alone.

"Young master-"

I raised my hand and shushed Akara, "don't forget about your place. I am not taking orders from you."

He looked at me with a strange glint in his eyes, but nodded nonetheless.

The next morning at nine, we met the other volunteers as it was planned. Still, as I had motion sickness, I and Akara followed the school bus with my Volvo.

The village took one and half hours to reach and the construction materials were already there.

Fidgeting uncomfortably with the sight of the sharp tools, I tried to find a kind of work even I could do. Cutting, nailing, drilling, hammering... they were all out of question. As they were all what one needed to do when building something, I decided to handle the garden area. Flowers wouldn't bite, right?

With replenished self-confidence, I dragged Akara to the garden segment where a lot of beautiful flowers and seeds were waiting.

"You dig the holes and I will plant the flowers and seeds," I said to Akara who made an OK sign with his fingers.

I applied one more round of sunscreen and adjusted my hat before wearing the garden gloves while Akara jumped into the work bare-handed. Luckily, I brought an extra hat with me. I put it on his head as I shook my head in the face of his carelessness.

"Thank you, young master," he thanked me with wide-opened eyes, making me blush, only God knew why.

Akara dug holes with super-human speed and I planted the flowers with turtle speed. Embarrassing enough, even though I was doing the easiest work, after five plantations, I had to take a short rest to get rid of dizziness.

Although I expected a teasing comment from Akara, he didn't utter a word and patiently waited for me to continue again. He even passed me a bottle of water which helped me a lot, but it made me forget about my gloves.

"Rune, can you give us a hand for a second?" Apple asked as she pointed at the half-made building.

I gulped nervously and tried to come up with an excuse, but Akara was faster. He dropped the grubber onto the ground and took a step forward.

"I will help you," he said with a nice tone which he never used with me, and he followed Apple after checking around one more time.

Behind him, I heaved a sigh of relief and continued with my work. As Akara was way faster than me, there were lots of empty holes.

"The holes are too shallow."

A voice above me interrupted me. Looking up, I saw it was Sky. Of course it was him, who else would like to boss around that badly? "They are deep enough," I snorted and focused back on planting.

However, he was adamant. "Look, you need to do it like this," he said and stabbed the earth with his grubber and I yelped with pain as he cut my fingers.

"Arrggh!" I screamed and horror seized my mind with the sight of pinkish blood trickling down my fingers, mixing the earth. "AKARA!" I yelled with all my might, my vision already blurry. I felt the ground was taken away under my feet, but before I hit the ground, a pair of strong arms held me.

"Let me see," Akara said softly and checked my fingers, "stay calm, they are not too deep. I can treat them easily," he said and I felt pain as he pressed on them to stop the bleeding. As if he could do it.

"City Hospital..." I managed to utter and everything went dark.