Reaching for the Stars

Chapter 25: Hot Chocolate

Yeay, we're in the middle of the book! Now, let's start flirting with Max~

also why the heck did it take me 25 chapters to even start flirting with Max

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Octo sipped the hot chocolate in front of him quietly. He gazed over the street, people were walking and chatting with each other. The weather was cloudy and the temperature was not too hot, not too cold.

What a nice early autumn day.

He leant into the seat. He was done with college; he already defended his thesis yesterday and did his revisions. Technically, he has already graduated, but the graduation ceremony will be held next month. The storm had passed, and now, he was at peace.

College was exhausting, both physically and mentally. He appreciated his seniors whom he saw still laughing and joking around even when they failed their thesis. Or maybe they weren't really bothered with college and just want the title.

This was just the first strata; he wondered how would the second or even the third be like. If the first was this exhausting, then the second could be dangerous and the third could be hellish.

Okay, enough about college.

Where was James? He was doing his internship at the building just across the road from this café. It was past 15, his shift should've been over an hour ago.

He watched the television on the wall a bit far from his seat. It was broadcasting the result of the last two week's National Conference. Even though Tom was the third-place winner, the wolf was still happy with that. Some reporters even came to their uni to interview the wolf.

They celebrated it the night after Tom received the letter. It was a wild night, as wild as when they won the National College Football Championship. It was nice to see Tom happy and letting out all his emotions. He was so reserved most of the time and the panther was sure he needed to go for a while, well, Octo himself was reserved too but that was just him.

He even saw Tom being drunk for the first time. The wolf had to chug down three bottles of beer and rice wine to get drunk, which impressed all of them. Though, even when drunk, Tom was still cautious.

Oh, and he and Kevin almost fucked on the sofa. Well, while they had fucked thrice, they shouldn't really have snogged that night. However, that petrified but flustered look on Max's face that night was well worth it.

The following day, Max couldn't see him or Kevin in the eye.

Octo took a sip from his drink and chuckled. That night, they were all really letting out of their lesser animalistic side. Besides, despite how masculine and handsome was Max, he was cute when he was flustered.

"Sorry I'm late." James came to his table and put down a chocolate smoothie. "I had more reports to check."

He just flashed the tiger a smile. "Nah, that's fine."

"You really are taking your time, aren't you?"

The panther chuckled a bit.

James took his jacket off and sat down. "I won't be long, though. Gotta run some errands with my co-worker. She should call me any minute."

"Grocery shopping?"

"Worse. Market analysis." The tiger groaned. "It's the worst part of this internship, aside from the distance."

"Your office is that building." He said, pointing at the office building across the street.

"Hey, I'm used to walking to my classroom in, like, 5 mins."