Chapter 285

‘I figured he’d have poor foundations, but this is worse than I thought. Yet he still wants to learn martial arts?’ she thought.

Zeke ran past Nicole for the third time and instantly fell right onto the ground. He refused to get up for the life of him.

‘I can’t run anymore. If I continue running, I’ll depart from this beautiful world!’ he thought.

Nicole looked at him; a faint spark glinted in her eyes. She did not help Zeke up but watched him coldly.

Zeke was used to being babied by others; he had never experienced being given the cold shoulder when he was dying from exhaustion. He looked at Nicole with a slightly dissatisfied expression. However, his gaze was met by her sparkling eyes.

She spoke, “Get up and continue running.”

Zeke’s eyes welled up. He grew up pampered, so he could not handle such hardships. He wanted to learn martial arts simply because he thought Nicole looked cool. The truth was, he was not willing to go the distance.

He gazed at Nicole’s face and used the three-step procedure that often made his father compromise-

crying, throwing a tantrum, and running away from home. “I can’t run anymore! I simply cannot! I don’t want to run. Why won’t you just teach me martial arts!”

Nicole’s expression turned cold. She narrowed her eyes and looked at Zeke indifferently.

Zeke watched Nicole’s expression as his voice gradually grew quieter. In the end, he was completely silent. He could barely lift his head under her sharp gaze.

Nicole only started speaking when she saw him quiet down. “This is how you handle the decisions that you’ve made. You give up when you’re tired, lie down when you’re upset, and throw a tantrum when you want others to compromise. Zeke, I would never have asked you to be my partner if I had known that this was your character.”

Zeke felt his face burning from embarrassment after he heard Nicole’s words. He could not help but retort softly, “I did not…” Nicole’s expression remained unchanged. She continued, “You don’t get to decide if you did such a thing or not. What I see decides it. Zeke, you’ve let me down.”

‘The road to becoming strong is not for everyone,’ she thought.

After Zeke heard what Nicole said, the redness on Zeke’s face gradually faded. His face was now drained from color. He tightly clenched his fist as he watched Nicole turn around and prepare to leave.

He was reminded of the time Karlo sent him to a military camp. However, he had not even been there for over an hour before he started crying to go home because he was too tired. At the time, his father merely shook his head before kneeling down and patting his head.

“I won’t force you.”

Back then, he was not aware of what he was truly losing.

His father stopped sending him to military camps. He also stopped having demands related to his physique. It was as if he had forgotten to nurture him and allowed him to do as he pleased.

However, Zeke knew Karlo really wanted him to become strong. He wanted him to be strong enough to inherit everything that he had. ‘Perhaps it was because I complained about being tired and in pain. I didn’t want to force myself, so father gave up on me as well,’ he thought.

He stared at Nicole as she turned her back on him. The emotions that he was feeling seemed to gradually overlap with the look Karlo gave him back then. Her words of disappointment echoed in his mind.

Something in Zeke’s eyes slowly lit up. He gritted his teeth and shouted, “Nicole, wait!”

He got up and stood at the starting line once more. He watched as Nicole stopped and turned to look at him. He slowly revealed a smile. “I’ll persevere.”

‘So don’t give up on me. Don’t regret choosing me,’ he thought.