BCJ 8 • community service

***

"What the hell were you thinking?! Are you out of your mind?" Third raved as he struggled to follow Kao. Beads of sweat were trickling down his face as he was struggling to follow Kao given Kao's fast pace.

Kao closed his eyes in frustration. He was just as frustrated as Third but he already made his decision. It was the best thing to do rather than being subjected to humiliation in front of a crowd.

"I-I just can't do it, okay? Not in a million times, Third. I'd rather be sent to some community service rather than stand in front of a crowd!"

"Oh come on! You already said yes! You can't just go back on your word! And besides, it's just one day, Kao. It's not like you are gonna stand there for an entire week!"

Kao spun around to face Third. "The school director already gave me the go signal to do community service rather than the competition. That's it, Third. You can't change my mind about it."

"Jeez! Okay, fine! I won't bug you about that stupid pageant anymore! Do what you want to do then!" Third roared before stomping away.

Kao grabbed his hair in frustration. He didn't even know why Third was so persistent on making him join the pageant.

***

Kao carefully settled at the back of the bus that would take him to the orphanage where he would be doing his community service. He could still hear Third berating him over the phone earlier. It seems that he was forced to compete in the pageant instead since Kao refused to comply with his persistent prodding.

With two hours to spare, Kao closed his eyes, but before he could get any rest, he heard a loud thud next to him. It was someone's bag.

"Care scooting over so I could sit?" an expressionless Pete stood before him. He had a cap covering half of his face but even so, Kao could easily recognize his voice.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Kao hissed. "Are you following me? Don't you have a pageant to attend to?"

Pete, however, sat down idly alongside him and refused to answer, forcing him to make room or else Pete would undoubtedly end up on his lap. The bus was quite packed and Pete just took the last available seat which happened to be beside him.

"I haven't slept last night so I'm gonna get some sleep. Wake me up when we get there," Pete mumbled before fully covering his face with the cap he was wearing.

Still puzzled, Kao attempted to pry but stopped upon hearing Pete's slow breathing indicating that he had already fallen asleep.

He chose to ignore Pete and attempted to sleep on his own, but eventually found that having Pete's head resting on his shoulder prevented him from falling asleep. He tried moving his shoulder in the attempt to get Pete to move away but failed.

"Come on. Do I have to babyshit you until here?" he muttered under his breath.

"Psh. I can take care of myself during the community service, okay? You don't have to babyshit me."

Kao almost muttered a cursed upon hearing Pete's low voice.

"You weren't sleeping?" he gasped and attempted to nudge Pete's head off his shoulder but Pete didn't even budge.

"I was but you were being too loud," he huffed before sitting properly on his seat.

Kao heaved a deep sigh of relief when Pete finally removed his head from his shoulder. Just then, the bus halted and on came an elderly woman. He was observing if someone would offer their seat to the woman but no one seemed to care. Instead, Kao carefully aided the woman towards the back of the bus and offered his seat.

"Thank you, son," the woman smiled and gave Kao a light pat on the shoulder.

He rolled his eyes at Pete who just answered him with a smirk. He was about to hold on to something that would keep him steady during the ride but instantly felt someone pull him back.

The next thing he knew, he was already sitting on Pete's lap.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"What? Are you gonna stand the entire ride? It's still a long way to go."

"Tss! I can handle myself. I've stood way longer than two hours," he answered back and attempted to stand but Pete gradually wrapped an arm around his waist, thus making it impossible to get away. He tried prying Pete's arm off his waist but Pete just held him tighter.

"Just be steady, okay. You're not that lightweight."

"Hey! I didn't even tell you to m-"

"Come on, lovebirds. Just get off if you're gonna fight!" an old man nearby yelled at them causing Kao to immediately zip his mouth.

He lightly nudged Pete's chest. "This is all your fault," he muttered under his breath but Pete just smirked at him.

***

"Your task here is to help in the kitchen and take care of the kids. Breakfast is at 7 am, lunch at 12, and dinner at 6 pm. The kids are not that rowdy except for a few ones but most of them are respectful and well-behaved so you don't really have anything to worry about," Miss Stella, the head of the orphanage, informed them as she gave Pete and Kao a tour around the place.

Kao smiled back at her. Miss Stella seemed stern at first sight but she was the total opposite of how she looked. "We promise to do our best in taking care of the kids."

"I'll look forward to that. Then, you can settle in your room first. I'll just see you in an hour for lunch," she dismissed before going back to her office.

"Tss. We promise, we promise. It was just you, okay? I didn't promise anything so don't expect me to go running after these delinquents," Pete grumbled before heading to where their room was.

"They're orphans, Pete, not delinquents. And come on, you came here on your own. No one forced you to do this. If you don't like it here, then you're free to go. It's not like I want you here."

"Tss. I only came here because of you and now you're being ungrateful."

"Because of me? Oh for goodness' sake! So you're telling me, you're here because you want me to babysit you? Oh, come on. Your dad hired me to take care of you on weekends. It's a fucking Monday if you haven't seen the calendar," Kao exasperated as he flung the door open.

He immediately paused upon seeing that there was only one bed inside.

"Wait... are we sharing a bed now?"

Pete just shrugged his shoulders and immediately plopped down the bed.

"I'm beat. Just wake me up when it's time to go."

"No. You're not sleeping on the bed. You're sleeping on the floor, Pete."

"Touch move. I touched the bed first, so I'm keeping it."

"Excuse me? Since when did we implement that rule?"

"Just right now. So it's either you sleep with me or sleep on the floor. It's your call," Pete said dismissively before closing his eyes.

Kao could only heave a deep sigh before placing his things on the couch. He gazed at Pete who was already peacefully sleeping. It was a good thing he knew what Pete was going through or he would have already knocked the daylights out of him.

Instead of sleeping, he decided to roam around the orphanage. He figured it would be best to familiarize the place even more. He was on his way to the garden when he stumbled upon a boy who was munching on a piece of bread.

"Hi! What's your name?" he greeted as he approached the boy. But instead of being greeted back, the boy just raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm Kao, and you are?"

"It's none of your business," the boy muttered before moving a few inches away from Kao.

Kao estimated the boy to be around ten years old.

"Why don't you eat outside? You can ask Miss Stella for more."

"And why do you care?" the boy frowned.

"Uhm, because I think you are a good kid?"

"Tss. You are all pathetic liars. Don't you dare follow me," he sneered before running back inside.

"It seemed like your charm didn't work on Peter," a lady behind him commented. "I'm Sandy, one of the volunteers here. And you are?"

"Kao. I'm Kao."

"The one on community service, right?"

Kao shyly nodded.

"Peter is very much aloof. His parents died in a car accident when he was three but he believes that they purposely abandoned him. Since then, he would misbehave whenever foster parents take care of him and would intentionally escape from them to go back here."

"Does he have any other relatives?"

"None that we know of. We tried taking him to therapy but there just seemed to be no progress."

Kao gazed at the door where Peter disappeared into. He felt sorry for the child.

"Anyway, I've got to go. If you need anything, you can just tell us."

"Thanks."

Sandy immediately made her exit leaving Kao who was still concerned about Peter.

"Not one hour and yet you're already flirting."

Pete's snide remarks snapped Kao out of his thoughts.

He glared at the man leaning on the wall just a few meters before him. His hands were inside his pockets as he gave Kao mocking stares.

"Flirting is your hobby, not mine," he retaliated before heading back inside leaving an astonished Pete behind.

***

Is anybody even still waiting for this story's update? 😅

I apologize for the very short update. I know this took waaaaaay too long but I am currently pursuing my Master's degree, thus the inactivity. But, I will try my best to write from time to time. Anyway, hope you have a great year ahead of you.

xoxo,

ladycrookshanks