Mr. Storyteller (On HOLD)

iv. Purple

October 6, 2010;

"They realized that teaching during lunch and free periods wasn't comfortable and convenient. So, Adi decided to take his new responsibility seriously and offered Kai to come to his house in evenings for lessons and to his surprise, Kai agreed immediately."

 'I told you about this last night...' Adi whispered loud enough for his mother to hear, who had dragged him to the side when she saw the unknown boy. 

'I thought it'd be one of your old friend! We don't even know him," she said, Kai was uncomfortably watching the mother and son from a distance, but when he saw her send a doubtful glare at his way, he quickly shifted his gaze to the floor.

'I've already mentioned before that he's new and I'm just helping him study, he's not gonna kill me,' Adi said with a uncertain chuckle.

'What's the problem? It's actually good that his selfish ass is willingly helping someone,' his elder sister said, draping her arm around Adi's shoulder, interfering whatever their mother was going to say to Adi.

'Just because I'm scolding him doesn't mean you can curse in front of me!' 

"Adi loves his mother but her overprotective nature makes him uncomfortable from time to time. So, when he suddenly decided to be a tutor of a boy his mother didn't know-"

"Mommy got mad at Adi?"

"Mad is not a right word for it," he chuckled and saw Sai watching curiously. "His mom was suspicious about Kai for some reason that Adi couldn't understand. He argued with her until his elder sister backed him up and mommy finally gave up."

"Why was she so suspicious? What is there to be suspicious about Adi wanting to tutor Kai?" 

"Adi thought that too but he understood that later."

"What was it?"

"You'll get to know that later as well," he said and laughed when Sai pouted.

'Hey, I apologise if I put you in trouble. I can leave-"

'Don't worry about it. I'm sorry about that, I don't know why she is so paranoid. She won't allow me to go to my other house everyday, that's why I offered to come to my house... All of my friends usually come here and she never had any problem before... I'm rambling at this point-" he paused and saw Kai smiling, 'What?'

'You argued with you mom for me,' Kai said and grinned cheekily.

'You know what? Leave-'

'No! No. I'm sorry... History, revolt of 1857- chapter five.' 

"They get to know each other better and somehow Adi started getting comfortable with Kai more than his old friends-" he said and Sai giggled. 

"That's cute," she said.

"It is! But that was a mess for Adi... he felt himself being different from the people around him and he always thought that he had a problem. He's been confused for a long time so he learned to cover it up so that he himself didn't realise that he was hiding and he'd been doing it until Kai came up."

"Does he like Kai? Is he afraid of that? Is that why his mom was so worried?" she asked almost instantly and her eyes went wide in surprise at her own words at the realization .

"He was afraid to admit it and you figured that out faster than Adi."

Adi watched Kai furiously tapping his foot while biting on his nails, waiting for his name to be called by the teacher, announcing the marks of a class test. Watching him made Adi more nervous than he was... Not for himself but for Kai.

It was just a normal class test, it meant nothing but it was the first test after Adi started tutoring him, and both of them are afraid of the disappointment they would cause each other if Kai gets bad marks.

When the teacher called his name, both of them jumped... Kai quickly stood up while Adi felt the need to hide his face behind the book, even when no one was watching him. 

He peeked over his book as the teacher complimented Kai at his growth in this test compared to the last one. He stared at Kai and watched his mouth twitch, fighting a smile as he tried to look as serious as he could until he collected his paper from the teacher and sat back on his seat.

When he saw Kai turn towards him, he quickly turned his attention towards the book in front of him, he didn't know when his breath became slower, deeper and he felt happier as he still felt Kai's stare over him until a sudden chill ran down his spine reminding him of the truth he kept hidden from himself.

"The way he felt happy like he never did before around anyone, it made him worry and he tried to hide it again but he knew he couldn't when his best friend, Dev pointed it out."

"Did he say something hurtful to Adi?"

"Nothing hurtful, just made him realize that his little secret is gonna get revealed if he doesn't do anything."

On the way back home, 'You've been spending a lot of time with Kai,' Dev said which made Adi stop his tracks.

'W-what?'

Dev chuckled, 'I'm just saying that you're giving up free periods to tutor him even though he's coming to your house for tutoring everyday. Damn, if only you did that for your... you know? Best friend?' 

'Like, this "best friend" would even be near books during free periods.' Adi said and Dev laughed. 'Um- why did you say that though, all of a sudden?' He asked but didn't like how his voice got shaky, sounded almost panicky. 

'You know me so well! And It's nothing, just remembered the guys mentioning this before the match, when we were short on players.' Dev said with a shrug. 'Why did you get so... scared?'

Adi cleared his throat, 'No... And, it's your fault anyway! "Ask Adi for help"' Adi mocked, 'And I agree to that... so, I don't really  want him to get bad marks and have that burden of blame on me,' Adi said and let out a laugh.