Kick, Push

Competition Day: +2

Some days Zayn wishes Niall would've kicked Louis' ass back when they were kids. It'd leave him out a second best friend, but finding another didn't seem hard. At least that way he wouldn't be having to uncomfortably walk out of the onsen's men's changing room with only a towel around his waist.

What was meant to be a trip to the sauna at a tattoo friendly spa in the outskirts of the city to relax, turned into a humiliating set up revolved around a nude public bath. It was the last time Zayn ever trusted Louis with helping him try and destress. He knows that the Japanese pride themselves on being courteous, but Zayn wonders what the onlookers will think if he drowns the boy in the hot spring.

Reality hit when Harry went over how it was necessary to wash off before you used the public baths, Zayn realizing that they weren't going to be sitting in a hot room after all, but keeping the dread of being naked in public to himself so as to not come off as ungrateful that Harry had managed to get them a spot. The guy was an amazing networker, Zayn had to give it to him, but he was starting to think that maybe he should have stayed back with Niall, who got offered some easy cash to film for another skateboarder.

Quickly, Zayn walks towards the door to the bath, hoping that his speed will allow it so that he can drop his towel and get in the water without any of his friends watching, especially not Liam. No doubt Harry and Louis were messing around in the changing room somewhere, so once he saw that Liam wasn't anywhere near him in the showers, Zayn made a break for the hallway as soon as possible.

"Are you in a rush?"

Closing his eyes in defeat, Zayn turns around to face the one person he was avoiding. So much for making a clean getaway. "Don't want to get cold." He motions to the few water droplets that are still clinging to his skin from the brief shower. "From the open air."

"You're right." He is? It wasn't a lie, but Zayn's surprised that the other's going along with it that easily. "I dried off, but the hot water sounds nice."

With Liam now by his side, Zayn starts to walk once more. "Did you know we were coming here?

"Yeah, Harry said it was a must to try." So everyone was in the loop but him? "I saw it in the guide, but was too nervous to ask for someone else to come with me since I didn't know anyone all that well to start."

As he walks through the door Liam's holding open, Zayn can't imagine what his response would've been if the male asked him to go to a naked public bath within a couple days of knowing him. There's no way it would've been a positive one if this is what he feels like going with people he knew.

"Did you not?"

Zayn laughs ironically, "No. Louis told me we were going to the spa."

"This...technically counts as a spa," Liam reasons, though the skater can tell that he's just trying to be nice with a neutral justification.

Thankfully no more than six or seven people are currently occupying the large pool-like bath. Regardless, the further Zayn walks in, the more his nerves heighten. He expected them the second he was ambushed in the changing rooms with the news that not only would they not be going to the sauna, but all the private rooms were already booked. So much for relaxing after a hard day's practice with Camden at the official park - a place he couldn't avoid any longer if he wanted to properly train.

"You don't go into the sauna naked," Zayn argues while surveying his surroundings.

"Some people do."

"Well I don't," he replies firmly, turning to look at Liam so he can at least appreciate being this close to the man's bare torso if he was going to be subjected to this embarrassment. "And I definitely don't with my mates."