BCJ 5 • his other side

***

"This is all your fault!" Pete grumbled as he threw the rag back to the bucket, splashing the dirty water on the tiled floor.

After being reprimanded for their inappropriate behavior, the school director ordered them to clean the entire hallway of the English building.

It would have been fine with Kao as cleaning wasn't that much of a burden for him but not with Pete nagging and grumbling beside him.

"Can you just do your part so we can go home?" Kao huffed as he continued mopping the floor, trying so hard not to pour the dirty water on Pete's head.

But instead of heeding his words, Pete grabbed a cigarette stick and started smoking.

"Jerk," he muttered and moved away from Pete. He just decided to do the job on his own as it was evident that Pete wouldn't be of any help. He was in the midst of finishing the task when he felt a slight tightening of his chest.

He grabbed his bag for his water bottle but it was empty.

"Hey, I'm going ahead. You finish this before the school director comes back," Pete slightly hit his back and was about to leave.

"Water. Do you have water?" he asked, trying to breathe normally. Luckily the tightening of his chest started to subside.

Pete looked at him with a dead gaze before slightly nodding. He felt relieved as Pete went to grab his bag to get the water. He was still slightly out of breath but he managed to sit on the nearby bench to wait for Pete.

With his head hanging low, he listened to Pete's footsteps coming towards him and was about to lift his head to give him a genuine smile when he felt something cold on his entire body.

He froze. The clanging sound of the bucket against the floor reverberated in the hallway.

"There's your water, loser," Pete grinned as he chugged on the water bottle and threw it on the floor. "I'll go ahead. Don't forget to clean up."

***

Pete raised a brow as he glanced at the clock and at the door. It was a Saturday and Kao was supposed to be at his unit an hour ago.

After what happened in the building, he hadn't seen Kao in the University for two days. But considering they were taking different courses, it wasn't much of a surprise.

He was about to call his dad for Kao's number when the door opened and in came Kao who had a frown on his face.

"You're late. I'm gonna tell Dad so he'd de-"

But instead of listening, Kao just went straight to the kitchen and didn't even spare him a glance.

He secretly observed as Kao placed some strawberries inside the fridge before washing the plates in the sink.

"Hey, I'm hungry. Cook me some food," he ordered to get his attention but Kao just looked at him with cold eyes and started taking some ingredients out of the fridge.

In fact, he wasn't even hungry at all. He just wanted to annoy Kao but based on his cold reactions, he was the one getting annoyed instead.

Frowning, he went back to the living room and decided to watch an erotic film in the hopes of getting Kao annoyed. He grinned as he turned the volume up and secretly glanced at Kao for his reaction.

But Kao was busy cooking and didn't even bother sparing him a glance even if the couple in the movie was already producing scandalous sounds that reverberated in the entire unit.

He frowned as he turned the TV off and trudged towards Kao who was done preparing the food.

Kao didn't say a thing and just placed the food on the table and headed to the living room and started cleaning.

He wasn't sure why Kao was acting that way but he could sense that it had something to do with what he did the last time.

Grinning, he grabbed the plate and followed Kao who was busy wiping the table.

"Hey, why aren't you talking to me?" he hissed but the guy just moved to the other side and started arranging the throw pillows instead.

Annoyed, he threw the food on the table before throwing the plate on the floor, smashing the poor thing into tiny pieces.

He saw Kao flinch, which made him grin. Seeing such reaction from him made him happy for some reason.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Kao exclaimed.

"Now you're talking to me."

With glaring eyes, Kao immediately rushed over him and grabbed his collar. But he didn't faze and even maintained the smug on his face.

"Oh, you're mad," he mocked even more, making Kao grab his collar even tighter.

But as he was about to remove Kao's hands from him, he noticed him wincing.

"Fuck you," Kao grumbled and pushed him away.

Pete furrowed his brows as he saw Kao slightly limping. It was then when he caught sight of the trail of blood on the floor. He swallowed hard. For some reason, he felt guilty as he glanced at the shards of the plate which were covered with blood and at Kao who was heading towards the kitchen.

With large strides, he followed Kao and held his arm but Kao resisted and pushed him away.

"Don't touch me, you jerk!"

"You're bleeding."

"As if you care," Kao muttered with a sharp gaze and turned his back on Pete.

Frustrated, Pete mindlessly picked Kao up and carried him over his shoulder.

"What the fuck are you doing?! Let me go, you idiot!" Kao squirmed and hit his back continuously.

Pete just didn't mind the punches Kao was giving him and effortlessly threw the guy on the sofa.

"What the hell is wrong with you??!"

"Stay there if you don't wanna be in trouble," he warned as he trudged towards his room to get the first aid kit.

***

Stopping the urge to kick Pete's face, Kao grimaced as he watched Pete who was carefully tending to his wounds. He looked like a lost puppy though as he tried to carefully remove the shards that were stuck in his foot before putting some medicine on them.

"Are you even you know what you're doing? What if my leg gets amputated with the way you're treating my foot?"

"Oh, just shut up. I know first aid, okay? I'm not stupid."

Kao hid a smirk as he just let Pete do whatever he was doing to his foot.

The moment he stepped into his unit, he was so determined not to say a single word to him as he was still pissed off with what Pete did the other day.

But definitely, the guy was purposely created to annoy the hell out of him.

"Tss. That's what you get for not being careful," Pete grumbled after wrapping his foot with bandage.

The wounds were not that deep but they certainly hurt whenever he took a step.

"What th—"

He exhaled sharply and decided to drop the argument as he deemed it unnecessary to argue with a person whose thinking capacity was as shallow as Pete's.

Fortunately, Pete didn't push the issue further and just started cleaning the mess he made.

"Tss. What a sight. Ezekiel Pete Ramirez is cleaning his own mess. Is the world ending?" he mocked as he leaned back on the sofa and crossed his arms.

"For someone who's paid to take care of me, you do have a sharp tongue."

"Well, you deserve it anyway. And besides, if your father hadn't given me my three months worth of salary, I wouldn't stay in this hellhole."

"Well you can leave if you want to. I'll just tell dad you couldn't take the job anymore."

"Tss. I'm not as irresponsible as you. I gave your father my word so I had to suck up your horrendous behavior for months."

"Hey! I'm not that bad."

"But you're not that good either."

"Whatever. I'm hungry. Cook me food again."

"Why don't you eat the food you just threw away?"

"Urgh! Can you just shut the fuck up?! I've had enough of you running your mouth like a spinster."

"Same goes to you, you brat. I've had enough of your behavior so can you just get your act together and act like a real man instead of being such a whiny little boy who's looking for his mom."

"Hey! Who gave you the right to speak about my mom??"

Kao flinched as Pete harshly threw the rag back on the floor and stormed towards him. Pete's arm was up against his neck as Pete pinned him against the sofa.

He swallowed hard when he noticed the darkness in Pete's eyes as he looked down on him.

"I-I'm sorry," Kao let out lowly as the grim look on Pete's face made him nervous.

Pete then let go of his neck.

"You can go home. You don't have to finish your shift," Pete muttered with a dark voice before trudging towards his bedroom.

***

It was already dark outside and the clock said seven in the evening but Pete hadn't gone out of his room. Kao shouldn't be worried as he hated Pete's guts down to the core but it was unconsciously bothering him. Pete hadn't eaten anything and didn't even set foot out of his room for once.

He attempted to knock on his door but eventually retreated as he didn't want to get into another argument with him but Pete needed to eat something.

He knocked once but received no answer. He knocked once again but silence answered him.

It was then that he decided to give the knob a turn. Surprisingly, it wasn't locked.

He heaved a deep breath and pushed the door open. Pete's room was dark so he had to maneuver inside while trying his best not to hit anything.

"Pete?" he called out but Pete didn't answer which made him worried. "Pete, where are you? You need to eat."

Silence.

He decided to look for the light switch but immediately froze when he hit what seemed to be Pete's bed.

"Pete?"

With his eyes squinting in the dark, he saw a figure moving. He decided to go and look for the switch when a hand grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the bed.

"Hey. Let me go!" he squirmed as an arm snaked around his waist and hugged him from behind.

"Don't move."

Kao's heart might have stopped beating for a moment when he felt Pete's warm breath against his ear.

"Just stay with me for a while...please...please mom. Just for a while."

Pete sounded so vulnerable. Kao could feel his back getting wet as Pete buried his face on his back.

Pete was silently crying.

***