While walking to my classroom, I kept thinking that I needed to change schools again. What I have done, telling Georgy that I liked him, would definitely bring me trouble.

Getting bullied was nothing out of the ordinary but sometimes, sometimes it’s just too much for me.

I tightened my hold on my bag strap, inhaling a lungful of air before releasing it out. I stared at the front of my classroom, knowing full well that once I stepped inside of this room, it would be the end for me.

I sighed.

I’m sorry, Valery. I might have to change schools because of what I did.

Damn it.

I counted one to three before turning the knob and pushing the door to open. I stepped inside, expecting jeering looks but to my surprise, everyone was minding their own business, not even caring that a queer just stepped inside the room.

I furrowed my brows, blinking in confusion.

Well, this was new.

I walked to my desk, looking around the room and still waiting for them to throw insults but nothing happened.

I sat on my chair and put my bag down on the floor.

What in the world?

“Hey.”

I turned to my right and saw a freakishly handsome guy sitting beside me. I was almost taken aback at how gorgeous looking he was. Right now, Oleg was looking like a damn frog compared to this guy.

Holy fuck.

He’s hot.

He’s definitely hot.

And definitely my type.

Oh my god.

“Hey…?” I greeted back.

Weird, I haven’t seen him before.

The guy that was clearly sent from heaven brushed a hand through his hair and such a simple act made me gasp.

“Sorry, I’m new here. Are the teacher always late in this class?” he asked.

Even his voice was turning me on.

Bad, Drew. Bad!

“N-no…Mrs. Copper’s always on time,” I said, staring right at those piercing blue eyes.

“Maybe she’s absent?” he said.

“Maybe?” I replied, still staring at him. I snapped out of my trance when he offered his hand to me.

“I’m Clark by the way. Clark Roman.”

I quickly took his hand and felt the hard callouses on his palm.

“D-Drew. I’m Drew Orlov. Hello,” I awkwardly said.

“It’s my first day of school. I’m a little bit…nervous,” Clark said, chuckling.

“Yeah! It’s…really hard making friends when you’re still new in school.”

“True and I don’t like Math,” he said, playfully rolling his eyes.

“Me too.”

“Where are you from?” Clark asked while he positioned his chair to fully face me. I felt intimidated at how sharp his gaze was.

It was as if he could see right through me.

“My house is near here,” I vaguely answered.

I’m still a son of a mob boss and giving a valuable information to someone I just met was crucial.

“What about you?” I asked.

“I live in an apartment not far away from here,” Clark answered.

“I see.”

When he raised his arm to adjust the sleeve of his shirt, I saw a glimpse of tattoo. I didn’t clearly see what it was but I ignored it.

I looked at my watch and sighed.

“Mrs. Copper’s probably absent. She’s never late in her class,” I informed.

“Who broke your nose?”

I was startled to hear his question.

“Excuse me?”

“Your nose, it was broken and someone fixed it,” Clark said, smiling at me. “Who broke it?”

I stared at him, furrowing my brows.

“How did you…?”

I was distracted when the door of the classroom suddenly opened. All colors in my face vanished as soon as I saw Georgy and his friends enter the room.

I quickly lowered my head in shame, silently praying that they wouldn’t see me but it seemed like God had better plans for me because the first person Georgy saw was me.

“Hey faggot!” he called out while his friends snickered behind me.

Everyone looked at me and in just a matter of seconds, I was the center of attention.

Georgy walked his way up to me, slamming his hand on my desk, making me twitch in fear.

“What’re you doing here?” he asked. “Faggots like you are not allowed here.”

I bit my lip, my shoulders trembling in pure humiliation.

Why o why am I alive today?

“T-this is my class, Geor -- ”

Before I could finish his name, Georgy had already sent his fist on my face. I stumbled on the ground, clutching my cheek in pain.

“Don’t call my name, it’s fucking gross!” he spat, kicking me down on the floor.

Some of my classmates stood up from the commotion Georgy was creating while his friends urged him to beat me up again.

“I-I’m sorry, okay?! I didn’t mean to -- ”

He kicked me on the face and it hurt so much, I began to cry.

“Do you have any idea how fucking disgusting it is to even imagine that I considered you as my friend?! All this time…you were looking at me like that,” Georgy said, leering at me.

I saw Clark comfortably sitting on his chair but in a split of second, I saw a dangerous glare coming from him. He quickly masked it away with a smile as he stood up.

“Georgy, right?” Clark asked.

Georgy’s attention shifted to Clark and I was scared that he might get involved with our…issue. I struggled to stand up but the pain was unbearable.

“Stay out of this,” Georgy threatened.

“I don’t think I can do that,” Clark replied. “You’re beating someone just because of their sexual orientation? That’s rather low, don’t you think so?”

Georgy’s glare intensified but it wasn’t working on Clark. He was just looking at him in confidence.

“I said stay out of this.”

Clark raised a brow.

“There’s nothing more repelling than scums like you,” he said through his gritted teeth. “Fucking disgusting.”

Everyone in the room was silently watching Clark and Georgy.

“Fuck you!” Georgy screamed as he raised his arm to punch Clark.

I gasped out of fear for Clark but he easily managed to deflect Georgy’s attack with just his hand. People inside the room were watching the scene unfold with wide eyes.

Clark smiled at Georgy before he twisted his arm in the most painful way possible. I cringed when I heard Georgy’s bone snapping and he howled from the pain, dropping down the floor while clutching his broken arm.

“It hurts! It hurts!” he cried out while his friends helped him.

Clark grinned at Georgy.

“If you touch him ever again, I’ll break all your bones. It won’t kill you but it’ll hurt. I know,” he said as he stepped towards me to help me up.

I was eyeing him in disbelief.

“W-what…?”

Clark looked at me and smirked.

“Let’s go to the clinic, shall we?”

Oh my god.

I think I’m in love.

--

I hissed when Clark put the cotton dabbed in antiseptic on the bruise on my face.

“Sorry,” he said, smiling apologetically at me

I waved my hands and smiled back.

“It’s okay. I’m used to it.”

Clark froze.

“Used to it?”

I chuckled and replied, “the beating up part. I’m used to it. I’m not exactly modest when it comes to my…sexual orientation.”

“So what if you’re gay?”

I blinked at him, shocked.

“Huh?”

Clark put the band-aid on my cheek before pulling away from me.

“What’s wrong with being gay?”

I stared at Clark with wide eyes, not believing what he was saying.

“You don’t mind that…I’m gay?” I asked.

Clark laughed like I asked him something absurd.

“I don’t mind.”

Oh fuck, I think I really am in love. He’s just too…charming and kind and perfect and handsome and --

“Anyway, looks like our Math teacher really is absent,” Clark said, interrupting my monologue. “Want to go somewhere?”

“Huh? How’d you know she’s absent?”

Clark shrugged his shoulders.

“I just do,” he said, grinning. “I’m starving. Wanna eat?”

I stood up from the chair, straightening my shirt while nodding.

“Sure. The cafeteria has…”

“Let’s go eat outside,” Clark suddenly said, making me snap my head at him to let him see my surprised expression. “It’s my first day of school, it’s all about fun, right?”

--

I ignored Valery’s call for the nth time. I was out on the parking lot, following Clark to get on his car so we could eat.

Clark stopped in front of a silver Lexus sedan car. He took out his keys and pushed the button to unlock the doors.

“Any suggestions where we can eat?” he asked as he opened the door to get in.

I opened the door as well, sitting on the passenger’s seat beside the drivers.

“Uh, my friend and I always eat at Nomer’s Diner,” I said while putting the seat belt on.

“Sounds interesting. Let’s go eat there,” Clark said.

He backed the car out of the parking lot and drove it on the main road. While doing so, I couldn’t help but notice how sexy his collarbone was. Oh my gosh, if only I could bite it and suck it and --

I mentally slapped my face.

No, Drew! Stop lusting over someone you just met.

I turned my attention at the dashboard and saw nothing out of the ordinary. There was a box of cigarette lying on top with a black lighter beside it.

So he smoke cigarettes. Interesting.

“How old are you?” I asked to create some kind of conversation between us because the silence was killing me.

Clark pursed his lips.

“17,” he replied.

“I see.”

We’re the same age then.

“So uh, why’d you suddenly invited me out?” I asked.

“You said it’s hard to find a friend at your first day of school so I’m making friends,” he said, grinning at me.

I flushed.

“Oh, right,” I mumbled.

“Tell me more about yourself. Are you friends with Georgy?”

“Huh?”

“He said something about being friends, right?” Clark said, elaborating his question even more.

“Do you have any idea how fucking disgusting it is to even imagine that I considered you as my friend?! All this time…you were looking at me like that.”

I stiffly laughed.

“I don’t think there’s a chance that we might be friends again,” I started. “It’s my fault anyway. Confessing to him, what was I thinking?”

“I think it’s brave of you to do that.”

I turned to Clark.

“What?”

He shrugged his shoulders and said, “personally, I think it’s amazing that you’re able to say what you really feel to someone without being scared of rejection, you know? Not all people can do that.”

Once again, Clark managed to make me blush from his words.

“I think I’m just a hopeless romantic. It’s better to just date a woman rather than forcing myself to men.”

“But you don’t like girls, don’t you?”

“What makes you say that?”

Clark winked at me.

“Intuition,” he answered.

I bit my lip and sighed.

“It’s not like I don’t like girls. I don’t feel comfortable when I’m with them.”

Because in a relationship, I wanted to feel like I’m the one who’s being cared for, protected, cherished, something along those lines.

“I see. So what’s your type?”

My saliva got caught in my throat and it made me cough.

“E-excuse me?” I asked Clark in disbelief.

“Just curious,” he said, smiling.

I thought long and hard. This was definitely a hard question to ask because my type of guy was Clark.

If I tell him that, I wonder what his reaction would be.

“Uhm…I think my type of guy is…”

I shifted on my seat so that I could face Clark more comfortably.

“Do you know the previous leader of the Russian Mafia?” I began, smiling cheekily at him.

All of a sudden, Clark laughed out loud. He stepped on the brake because the light turned red before looking at me.

“The Russian Mafia? No. I don’t know,” he said, still laughing.

“Well…I’ve always been amazed at how strong and powerful that person is. He’s the only one who managed to unify all the individual families in the mob,” I said in pure amazement and I could see Clark’s amused smile. “My type of guy is definitely him. Too bad he’s dead.”

He raised a brow at me.

“I don’t know anything about the Russian mob but it seems like you’re well-versed,” Clark said.

I rubbed the back of my head.

“I’m just interested in the Mafia…not because I’m in it, that’s crazy,” I said, laughing nervously.

“Of course,” Clark said, smiling. “You don’t look like you belong to the mob.”

I stopped the urge to roll my eyes at him and instead said, “yeah, that’s true.”

Clark stepped on the engine and after a minutes of driving, we finally arrived at the restaurant. It was still early but there were already a lot of people coming in and out of the place.

He parked the car on a vacant lot. I was the first one to get out and when I did, I hissed at the jabbing pain on my face.

Clark got out as well and noticed my distress.

“You alright?” he asked.

I grinned at him.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks.”

Clark guided me towards the restaurant, putting a hand on my back which was undeniably sweet for someone I just met. He opened the door for me and let me enter first.

“Thanks,” I said once again.

Clark and I chose the table on the middle. We both sat down across from each other while the waitress in charge gave us the menu booklet. I took it and gave her a thankful smile but she was too busy ogling Clark who was currently unaware of her looks.

“So, what’s your favorite here?” he asked.

“Their steak here is delicious. You should try it,” I replied as I browsed the menu to order something I haven’t tried yet.

“Okay, I’ll try that,” Clark said to the waitress and she jotted it down on her notepad.

“What ‘bout you?” she asked, turning to me.

“Hmmmm, I’ll have the porterhouse.”

“Drinks?”

“Iced coffee,” we both answered before looking at each other.

The waitress repeated our order and when we confirmed it, she turned her back against us but not before giving a seductive smile at Clark who once again, ignored her suggestive looks. She left ignored and I kind of felt bad at her.

Clark took out his phone and I watched him look at it. A smirk appeared on his face as he snorted in mock.

“Are you alright?” I asked.

He put his phone down on the table.

“Yep, everything’s fine,” Clark answered. “This is nice place,” he said, looking around the area.

“It’s cheap and they make good food,” I commented. “I should have invited Valery.”

Clark raised a brow.

“Valery?”

I nodded.

“She’s my best friend, my only real friend,” I said with a low voice.

“Well, I’m here now. We can be friends too, right?” Clark said, flashing me a big smile.

I narrowed my eyes at him. Thinking that it would be unethical to ask him the question that have been circling my mind all this time, I still fired away.

“Do you have a girlfriend?” I asked nervously, it was a miracle I didn’t get tongue-tied.

Clark blinked at me before laughing.

“Why are you asking?”

I shrugged my shoulders while pursing my lips as if it was nothing big.

“Curious?”

“No, I don’t have a girlfriend.”

I mentally sighed in relief.

God’s on my side right now.

“I don’t like commitments. Too much trouble,” Clark added.

My shoulders dropped in disappointment.

God have left my side, yet again.

“Is that so. I guess…you have a point.”

“And I like my work so I have no time for relationships.”

I blinked at him.

“What’s your job?” I asked.

“I’m a guardian,” he said.

I was about to ask him what he meant by that but the waitress have arrived with our food. She put it down on the table and after she was done, she left.

“Wow, this looks really good,” Clark said while grabbing the knife and fork.

“I told you so.”

I got distracted that I didn’t get the chance to ask him about his job.

--