Guardian (RamKing)

Chapter Two

King smiled as he glanced up from his assignment to look at Ram's sleeping form. What a weird guy. Apparently, whatever had been keeping Ram up at night was not bothering him now. King was relieved that Ram was finally getting some sleep, so he just let him be. Just sitting in Ram's presence was cheering King up.

His friends had tried bombard him with questions, but King had shushed them, gesturing to them that Ram was asleep. It had been an hour or so since then and he could tell they were getting antsy. Boss opened his mouth but snapped it shut again when King gave him a quick glare, warning him not to say a word. King didn't want them to ask him anything for two reasons: one, because Ram might wake up if people start talking around him, and two, he wasn't sure how he was going to answer.

King looked back down and realised that Ram had woken up anyway. His eyes were open, watching King, but he hadn't moved. King didn't say a word and just slowly began to pack his papers back into his bag, hoping that his friends didn't notice. He made eye contact with Ram. King could tell Ram wanted to know what he was doing but King didn't want to say anything out loud. Once his friends noticed Ram was awake, King would no longer have an excuse to avoid their questions. With both his bag and Ram's in one hand, King suddenly stood up, grabbing Ram's wrist.

"Bye, guys!" King yelled, quickly leaving, almost sprinting away from the table, dragging Ram behind him.

"Oi! King!" Boss shouted after him while his other friends were still processing his sudden moves.

King ignored them, heading out of the university grounds. Once they were out, King began to slow, feeling a little uncomfortable. He had done a lot of things out of instinct that day that he wasn't sure how to process. It was odd.

King was yanked out of his downward spiral when a dog came running towards them, tongue lolling out of the side of its mouth. All thoughts of Ram flew out of the window as King turned to run.

Ram had been waiting for King to start talking like he normally did when he saw the dog. He knew King was scared of dogs and was immediately concerned for his senior. When King tried to run away, he gripped King's hand to stop him. If he ran the dog would likely give chase since it would want to play with him. He refused to let go of King and instead stared the dog down. It paused a few meters away from them and whined. Normally, Ram would have liked to have gone to see the dog, but he could feel King trembling behind him, so he just gave it a hard stare and it ran away.

Ram turned to King who had his eyes squeezed shut. His whole body was shaking, and he was gripping Ram's hand so tight it was beginning to hurt.

"King? It's okay. The dog has gone," Ram reassured him, his voice soft and gentle.

King opened his eyes immediately, completely trusting Ram's words. He began to calm when he looked at Ram. He could almost hear what Ram was trying to convey with his expression, "Are you okay? You're completely safe. Don't worry, I'm here."

"Thank you, Ram."

Ram just gave King a quick nod before letting go of his hand, "Bye."

Ram rushed off before King could stop him. Oh, it had been a bad idea to give in and go see King. He had just been so happy when Duen texted to say that King wanted to know where he was. He thought he would just go see King for a little while. It was not like they would be alone since Duen and all of King's friends would be there. Instead, he had been really surprised to find King being so concerned about him. King's actions had finally clarified something for Ram though. Ram clearly liked King.

When King had grabbed his face and they had been so close together, Ram had, at first, been shocked, then he had found himself staring at King's lips. Groaning at the memory, Ram dropped his stoic face and ran his fingers through his hair. Damn it, he had so wanted to kiss King. This was bad. Really bad.

***

It had been a few days since King had seen Ram. Apparently, he was back to ignoring King. This time King was in an even worse mood. He was annoyed at both Ram and himself. King had clearly overstepped his bounds with his actions and he just hoped he hadn't made Ram uncomfortable. Over the weekend, King had hidden away from his friends and kept beating himself up in his head for behaving such a way. He is getting more and more irritated by Ram's behaviour though. If he was mad at King or something, why wouldn't he tell him? Ignoring King was not the mature way to handle this.

Now, King was once again sitting at the table with his friends. They had not asked him about Ram. Probably because he had been frowning the whole day and would glare at anyone who tried to talk to him. He didn't mean to be rude; it was just that they were interrupting his internal thoughts. When King left to go to the toilet, his friends finally began to talk.

"He's even worse now," Boss grumbled, pouting.

"Do you think they had a fight?" Tee asked. He was almost certain that Ram and King were dating.

"Oh, shut up! They're not dating," Bohn hissed irritated. He did not like Ram much.

"Are you sure? Are you really, really sure?" Boss was smirking.

Mek thought he should probably defuse the situation, but he also wanted to know whether his friend was truly dating Ram, "Bohn, maybe you can text Duen. See if he knows something about Ram and King."

Sighing, Bohn did as he was asked and frowned at the response.

"What is it?" Mek asked, a little concerned.

"Duen said that he is worried about Ram. He's being even quieter than usual and has clearly been in at least one fight."

"See, they must be having some argument!" Tee exclaimed.

"Ram's been fighting?"

The friends jumped in surprise, turning to look at King guiltily. They had not noticed King walking back to the table, too engrossed in reading the texts from Duen.

When none of his friends answered him, muttered underneath his breath, "Idiot."

King turned to Bohn, "Find out where he is."

The friends swallowed the questions on the tip of their tongues when they saw King's face. It was scary. Bohn quickly followed King's order and sent him Ram's location.

"Think you can just ignore me, huh?"