Chapter LII – Boredom

“Sorry for canceling. . .” Irene said over the phone while standing in the hallway during the lunch break.

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll find time,” Arthur answered while laying down on the couch with his head hanging over the edge. “Besides, it’s just one weekend.”

“You say that but we haven’t seen each other for a week now. . .” she sighed. Arthur could hear the disappointment in her voice. “I’ll try and rearrange my schedule so that I can come after school at least-”

“Irene,” Arthur interrupted her. “Finish everything that you need to do and we’ll see each other when you actually have some free time. I’m not making things easier by being grounded.”

“Yeah. . .” she whispered while glancing out the window which overlooked the courtyard. “Otherwise I’d come over and crash for the night.”

Sitting back up Arthur yawned deeply.

“Wanna watch a movie tonight?” he asked as the two kept in touch by talking over the phone late at night.

“I should be free late at night,” she smiled while playing with her hair.

“Cool. Then all we need to do is pick a movie and for you to help me sync up again.”

“You did it once so I’m sure you’ll get it faster this time around,” she giggled, always finding his inept side cute.

“Wouldn’t bet on it,” he huffed.

“Anyway. . .” she said finally having stopped laughing. “Sophie is waiting for me, so I’ll talk to you tonight then.”

“Alright, have fun you two.”

“Yeah, you too. . .” she smiled while hesitantly ending the call.

Dropping his phone on the couch, Arthur sighed out of boredom. He didn’t say it, and neither did Irene, but the two missed seeing each other. It had been so long since the two were apart for longer than a day or two that the five days thus far felt eternal. Not to mention how weird it felt knowing that they wouldn’t see each other for at least another week.

The reason she called him was to tell him that she’d been asked by her uncle, the school principal, to be with them during the weekend. Mostly because she didn’t spend much time with them otherwise. Ryung also worked fewer hours which almost got Arthur busted the very first day he snuck out.

Sneaking out became the norm. He was too impatient to sit at home doing nothing all day. While he didn’t need to study, he still took a few hours every night once Ryung was back to show off his good side. Making sure the house was clean each morning also gave credibility to his alibi.

Chores became fun since Arthur tried implementing Qi techniques to increase efficiency, mostly by increasing his speed.

Unlike the first few weeks of his reincarnation where he had to learn about the world, Arthur found sitting around with nothing to do excruciatingly boring. He wouldn’t call himself creative when it came to coming up with plans to kill time. In the past, he never had the luxury, and now he is forbidden from doing what he truly wanted.

Considering that Arthur and Tjay were crashing at Don’s place every other day, he refrained from bothering him, giving him time to finally study. Tjay didn’t worry about it since he intended to cheat again, something that Arthur disapproved of but at the same time had no say over it. Tjay asked him to keep it a secret from the rest and so he did. Much like Irene’s case, Tjay’s father took him on a week-long trip to Hong Kong. On the other hand, Max being grounded meant that the two could only meet if he was working at F&I.

“Maybe I should pillage Sophie’s bookshelf,” he weighed his options out loud before letting out a sigh. “No good. . . I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if I asked, but I don’t believe she’d be glad knowing I snooped around in secret. I wonder if she has a diary hidden which she’s afraid I’ll find.”

Sophie was always careful to lock the door to her room when leaving the house. The idea of finding out her secrets did tempt Arthur as a mischievous grin appeared on his face. After pondering for a bit, he finally shook his head and brushed off the idea. He blamed Tjay and Max for corrupting him slowly.

What if I look for clues about my past?

The idea piqued Arthur’s interest. Other than the quick read of his diary, there was still a lot he didn’t know. Though he was not curious at first, Yeona’s story intrigued him. The reason he hesitated was due to his desire to remain emotionally uninvested and distant from his history. If he learned anything that would cause Sophie to suffer further such as the suicide, even though she somewhat suspected it, he’d just have a harder time lying to her.

Whatever. . .

Letting out another sigh as he tilted his head back, his attention was stolen away by the sudden sound of the front door opening. Considering Sophie was at school and it was too soon for Ryung to return, he wondered who it was.

“He too keeps the front doors unlocked,” Arthur heard Max’s voice.

What’s he doing here?

Holding his breath and utilizing Qi, Arthur decided to play a little trick on the intruder by silently sneaking around. Quickly, he hid behind the door to the living room, waiting for Max to enter.

Opening the doors, Max walked in carelessly. He was holding a bag from the store with a few snacks and drinks. Setting them down on the table, he noticed Arthur’s phone on the couch.

“Hey Art!” he called out to him assuming that he was upstairs, but as he went to turn around he felt something pressing against his back which took him by surprise.

“Don’t move if you want to live,” Arthur whispered altering his voice while pressing the remote against him. “Turn your head and I’ll drop you.”

Max froze up. If there was something that Arthur was surprisingly good at, it was making his voice sound different. When watching stuff with Irene, the two would often try and mimic the character’s speech.

“Who are you?” Max asked, lowering his voice.

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know. Your friend learned the hard way,” he struggled to keep his laugh in.

“Arthur is hurt?” he asked again.

“Silence! You wanna end up like him?” Arthur raised his voice.

Letting out a sigh, Max turned around crossing his arms. “Nice try. . .”

“What gave it away?” he chuckled.

“Cuz I don’t believe that one guy could drop you. . .” he sounded surprisingly sure in his statement, managing to shock Arthur a bit.

“Thanks for the compliment, but to think that you’d stay cool enough to analyze the situation and even risk it. . .” he lowered the remote. “Call me impressed.”

“Yeah, yeah. . .” he finally chuckled.

The two sat down and grabbed a drink. He was surprised to see Max drop by, especially cuz he too was grounded.

“Is your dad not home again?”

“No, he is. It’s just that my mom managed to coax him into lifting my punishment.”

“Your mom’s an angel,” he smiled lifting his legs onto the coffee table.

“She is.”

It wasn’t a secret that his mom was often the one to spoil him. Iseul even teased him about it on more than one occasion. Meanwhile, she was spoiled by their dad as his little princess, but she justified it with her hard work and results, unlike Max.

“After what happened at Don’s place, I thought you’d be warier about entering someone’s house both uninvited and without ringing the doorbell.”

“Wanted to surprise you. Besides, I don’t imagine you being caught in the same situation.”

“Risky gamble.”

“I wouldn’t’ve entered your room though.”

“True,” he laughed. “Well, not that I mind anyway. Make yourself at home anytime.”

“Was planning on it,” Max yawned while stretching his entire body. “Man, what a slow day. . .”

“Tell me about it. . .”

“Anyway, turns out Don will be going back to school on Monday. I never thought I’d say this, but I sort of miss it.”

“Me too,” Arthur agreed, checking his phone. “He made a rather speedy recovery.”

“I mean, he’s not completely recovered, but you know him. . . He feels uneasy skipping if he doesn’t feel the need to.”

“Have you been in touch with Nabi?” Arthur asked.

Surprisingly, Nabi is the one person in the group that Arthur didn’t find himself talking to one on one often. He even had more interactions with Iseul due to her coming over from time to time or when he went to visit F&I. Ari too, but they weren’t classmates so that was a bit more natural.

“Not really, but she did drop by two days ago with Wang Hyun.”

“She brought her boyfriend there?” Arthur was a bit surprised.

“Yeah, I was surprised too. Seems she wanted to slowly get him to meet all of us. She’s hesitant due to Tjay.”

“Well, I got nothing against him.”

“I don’t either,” Max sighed, taking another sip of his drink. “I’ll be honest, I thought he was an ass due to what happened in the classroom. But from what I saw at F&I, he does seem to treat her well.”

“In the end, isn't that what's important?”

“Yeah. . . She also laughs a lot around him. Makes me kinda jealous.”

“Jealous?”

“Don’t we all wanna be with someone who can make us laugh? Then again, you do have Irene,” he teased yet again. “You guys saw each other at all?”

“Nah. She even called me to cancel our plans for the weekend. Sucks, but such is life sometimes.”

“Tough,” he huffed.

“Enough about me though, why don’t you give some girl a chance? You might get as lucky as Nabi.”

“No way. . . You already know about my breakup.”

“Just cuz that didn’t work out, doesn’t mean you should give up.”

“I ain’t giving up,” he corrected him. “It’s just that I need a break from relationships. They don’t work out for me. Either I get bored easily, or what happened happens.”

“Basically what you’re saying is that you’ve just become pickier. . .”

“Look, I just want a girl to look at me the same way Irene looks at you. Now I know that’s a lot to ask for, but who knows. . . I might get lucky.”

Arthur stopped pretending a while ago that he was oblivious to Irene’s feelings for him.

“You’ll get there. Besides, with so many girls around, maybe you even already met the girl that’s right for you.”

“Ha! If you find her, send her my way,” Max burst into laughter, finding Arthur’s idea preposterous.

“I don’t think I’m the person that’ll spot such a thing,” he chuckled along.

“I forgot to ask Don if he ever called Jia,” Max settled down a bit.

“Who’s Jia?” Arthur asked as the name sounded familiar.

“Ha Jia, remember? The girl from the first year that he was crushing on.”

“Oh, the cosplayer?”

“Yeah, that one.”

“I doubt it. . . Sophie would’ve told me by now.”

“Why would Sophie tell you?” Max looked at him surprised.

“Cuz she probably pried about it already along with Ari.”

“True. . .”

“Wanna watch a movie?” Arthur asked while getting back up to grab water from the kitchen.

“Sounds good to me. But hey, mind if I ask you something?”

“Since when do you ask for permission?” Arthur chuckled.

“I mean I do when I wanna request something.”

“Oh?” Arthur crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe.

“I wanted to ask if you want to study together.”

“You wanna study with me?”

“It’s just that I focus easier when I do it with someone, and since Tjay isn’t studying and the rest are busy with their own shit, I thought maybe we could.”

“Is that why you came here?” Arthur smirked.

“What? No. . .” Max became flustered. “I came to hang out, but the idea did pop up when I was on my way here. If you don’t want to, just forget I asked.”

“Nah, it’s cool. Might as well help each other. But if we’re gonna do it, let’s do it right.”

“What do you mean?”

“When you’re not working, come over to study. Let’s try and get the best scores we can. I expect you to score better than Tjay in the finals.”

“But he’s cheating in the exam,” Max pointed out.

“Yeah, but that’s how you know he won’t get a perfect score.”

“Hmm. . . That’s true. If he did then that would raise suspicion. So, if I score about 80 and up on most subjects I’d most likely beat his score.”

“Correct!” Arthur smiled as he held up his index finger. “That’s my challenge for you. I’ll make sure to help you succeed.”

“Then I challenge you to score first place in our class,” Max grinned knowing that it was a harder task.

“Top score? Doable,” he grinned as well. “Wanna make up punishments if one of us fails?”

“What do you have in mind?” Max suddenly felt motivated due to his competitiveness.

“If you fail, you have to in secret agree to every stupid thing anyone in our group suggests for a week, your sister included.”

“Woah, that’s heavy,” he nodded in agreement. “In that case, if you fail you have to go to a store, dress up in woman’s clothes and send a picture in group chat.”

“What the hell? Isn’t that a bit extreme?” he burst into laughter.

“You want me to agree to everything the group suggests, that includes you as well. You can abuse that power however you want. Besides, you chicken?” Max tried his best to provoke Arthur by poking at his pride while at the same time acknowledging the obvious trap in Arthur’s punishment.

“You got me there. . . Fine, I accept,” he sighed, smiling reluctantly.

“Deal.”

“Great, now let’s study.”

“What about the movie?” Max asked full of hope that he was joking, not expecting Arthur to jump straight into action.

“You think I’ll risk losing such a bet? No way. . .” he marched off to his room to get his books.

With the bet settled, the two had nothing to gain and everything to lose. For the next two weeks, they would form a study group that was meant to tackle their challenge. Max finally got to meet Arthur’s relentless side when he sets his mind on something.

Chapter End.

Thank you for reading.