Chapter LXXXIV - We Finally Got Him

“Are you ready?” Max whispered, standing outside of Arthur’s door.

“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” Tjay commented cowardly, a bit uncharacteristic.

“Pff. . . We got Irene’s approval. What more do you need?”

“Insurance?”

“Since when have you become a wuss?” Max taunted him.

“What do you mean a wuss? Don’t make me kick your ass,” Tjay yelled whisperingly.

“You know what? He’s gonna wake up at this rate. Let’s just go on a count of three. One, two. . . three!”

They stormed through the door loudly, greeting Arthur with freezing water blasting toward his face out of water guns they bought in town the day before. Not only was Arthur dazed from suddenly waking up after falling asleep late at night, but the repeating shots rendered him speechless.

“Blast him!” Max yelled as they watched Arthur crawl out of bed, almost slipping on the wet floor.

“He’s getting up,” Tjay commented, taking a few steps back. “Let’s fall back.”

“You bastards,” Arthur growled with a devilish smirk.

Their prank wasn’t going to go unpunished.

Arthur ended up chasing them through the hallway, slipping around in his underwear as their water guns kept getting the floor wet. Max, however, became a victim of his own doing as he fell on the floor after he reached the living room. To avoid meeting the same fate as Max, Arthur slid down the railing and went for the gun; however, before Arthur could take it, Don surprised him with a water balloon. Luckily, he was on high alert, managing to not only catch the water-filled projectile of doom but also to throw it back at Tjay, hitting him on the back of his head. Tjay maintained his balance as the balloon broke apart, but was still forced to endure the consequences of filling them with freezing water.

Max used the opportunity to get back on his feet and run for the exit, but Arthur’s victory was assured the moment he caught up to them, that was. . . until he got blasted by another shooter coming out of the kitchen. Hyun, an enemy Arthur never expected to face, had joined in on their plan as he came gunning for him while retreating to the deck. Iseul and Irene, who sat on the couch, kept shaking their head in disbelief as the Water War continued.

Little did they know that the change of battlefields suited Arthur more than it did them, as Arthur rushed to the deck and leaped over the fence, landing right next to Tjay, who tried running away in the sand. Skillfully grabbing him by the wrist and sweeping his legs, Tjay quickly found himself flat-faced in the sand, disarmed of his gun. His retaliation didn’t end there as he quickly turned the barrel toward Max’s face and blasted him before he could even realize Arthur was in front of him, making him fall backward in surprise. Their team suddenly started losing, but Hyun tried to tackle Arthur from behind, a foolish attempt that was resolved in an unfortunate and unforeseen way as Don, who bravely continued the onslaught, ended up committing friendly fire with a water balloon that hit Hyun square in the face. Maybe it was an accident, or maybe, it was intentional, but Don was certainly not going to admit it if it were true.

Arthur quickly turned the gun to Hyun, blasting him a few times for good measure before he shifted his focus to Don, the last standing member of their team. It was the first time Don had seen such a side to Arthur, making him lose all morale as he dropped the water balloon he held in hand.

“I surrender,” Don said, awkwardly smiling.

Arthur kept grinning, pumping the gun a few times before blasting him with highly pressurized water. Well, as high as a kid’s gun could get.

“That’s what happens when someone goes against me,” Arthur stood over Don who kept protecting his face with his hands. “If you tell me who orchestrated this silly plan of yours, I’ll consider letting you go unharmed.”

“I’ll never tell you!” Don refused to rat out his friends, but Arthur cruelly blasted him again.

“Maybe I’ll just drown you all in instead,” Arthur threatened, firing at him again and again.

Tjay tried getting up and charging him without a weapon, but Arthur shot him before he could even reach him, dropping him on the knees with his arms guarding his face. The sand they hoped to slow down Arthur worked against them.

“It was me!” Max openly admitted, feeling pity for Don who suffered under Arthur’s torture.

“You? I would’ve expected it to be Tjay,” Arthur chuckled.

“Me? Why me?” Tjay asked, getting back up on his feet, but after thinking about it he nodded his head. “Okay, I get why you might’ve thought that, but it really wasn’t me.”

Hyun tried reaching for his gun again but was struck by a water balloon Arthur took from the plastic bucket Don was carrying around. In the end, the fun was over and the only thing left was for Arthur to exact his revenge on Max for organizing such a rude awakening. Taking out the dozen or so water balloons, Arthur kept repeatedly throwing them at Max who curled up like a ball. His accuracy was near perfect, enough to make everyone realize that it could’ve easily been them in Max’s position.

“Maybe we made a mistake,” Hyun whispered to Tjay as they now stood on the sidelines.

“Told ya. . .”

“Stop!” Max kept yelling, laughing as Arthur kept mercilessly bombarding him.

“Hey, Art!” Irene yelled from the deck. “We’re going into town, and stop bullying Max.”

It was the first time Irene stood up for them despite it being against Arthur, but for some reason, Tjay felt she wouldn’t’ve said the same if it were him instead of Max. Maybe his soon-to-come birthday was the reason.

“Don’t listen to her and give him some more!” Iseul yelled, standing next to Irene. “He deserves it.”

Arthur held another water balloon in hand, glancing at it and then back at Max. Knowing there were a few more, it would’ve been easy to keep throwing them, but he thought that maybe Irene was right and so was Iseul, so he decided to throw the last one and call it quits. The slight pause fooled Max into a false sense of security that led to him getting hit square in the face, leaving the rest gazing in awe.

Eventually, the excitement died down, and the boys were left with the whole house to themselves.

“Next time, don’t do it while I’m in bed,” Arthur sighed, spreading the sheets across the deck to dry up. “Or I’ll make you regret it.”

“It was fun though, wasn’t it?” Max kept laughing.

“It was,” Arthur chuckled, looking back at Hyun. “I wasn’t expecting you to join in.”

“Well, it was a fun proposal, so I couldn’t really refuse.”

“He’s lying. Nabi went with the girls to town, so he’s stuck with us,” Tjay called him out grinningly.

“Does it matter?” Don asked, looking pleased that they were all hanging out together.

“Way to make me feel like the bad guy,” Tjay sighed.

“Aren’t you always?” Max chuckled smugly, crossing his arms.

“Man, the waves sure are high today, would be a shame if someone got repeatedly collapsed on by them.” Arthur looked back at Max.

“Okay, okay. . . Maybe not this time.”

The laughter continued as they popped a few cold ones, presumably planning to be alone all day.

“Where’s Sophie anyway?” Arthur asked, noticing it was only Irene, Iseul, Nabi, and Amelia that left.

“Our first years went their own way to have a fun day at the beach away from all of us,” Max explained. “We must’ve been annoying.”

“Nah, they just wanted to talk and hang out since they hadn’t had a chance in a while,” Don commented, having talked to Ari about it.

“Nope. It’s totally all Max’s fault,” Tjay teased.

“My fault?!”

“You sure you want me telling you why?” Tjay smirkingly threatened.

“What are you guys talking about?” Arthur looked confused.

“Nothing,” Max glared at Tjay.

“As he said, nothing.” Tjay grinned. “Besides, we have something else we all wanted to talk about.”

“That’s right,” Max said as everyone suddenly turned to Arthur.

“What?” Arthur looked confused again.

“There’s no way you’re that clueless. . .” Tjay sighed.

“Irene,” Hyun spoke up. “They want to talk about you and Irene.”

“Oh, don’t act like you didn’t!” Max called him out.

“I’m pretty sure the whole school will want to talk about it,” Don mentioned. “It was already a popular topic.”

“It was?” Arthur asked, somewhat aware that people talked about it, but not to that extent.

“You kidding? There’ve been all kinds of rumors,” Hyun said.

“Some of them really pissed me off,” Tjay said, forming a fist.

“Me too. . .” Max added.

“I’m sure they’ll get over it quickly,” Arthur mumbled.

“You kidding?” Tjay burst into laughter. “I’m sure it’ll be all over the place. Even West High kids will know about you two getting together. But, don’t worry, I have a plan that’ll reduce the rumors.”

“What is it?” Arthur looked at him, believing he had something smart to say.

“Here he goes. . .” Max sighed.

“Well, once we go back to school, you can share a desk with me.”

“What?”

“We’re moving to another classroom where we sit in pairs, unlike the old one. This idiot thinks he’ll have a shot at sitting with you,” Max explained.

“We’re moving classrooms?” Arthur had no clue what they were talking about.

“Oh, right. You don’t remember,” Don wanted to clarify. “We were moved at the end of the first year and are now going back.”

“I see. . .” Arthur thought more about what Tjay offered. “Yeah, no way are you sitting with me with Irene around.”

“Oh, come on. . .” he protested, making everyone laugh.

“I told you they wouldn’t keep it a secret,” Max said to Hyun.

“Why would they keep it a secret?” Tjay looked confused.

“Don?” Arthur looked to him for an explanation about what they were talking about again.

“Right. . .” Don sighed, caught being the middle man. “Hyun suggested that you and Irene might keep the relationship a secret back at school, while Tae-Hyun claimed you’d never do that.”

“Since when do you call me by my name?” Tjay looked perplexed.

“Since you and Mun-Hee convinced me to go against Art,” Don glared at the two.

“Why? Does it bother you Tae-Hyun?” Max teased.

“Is that how you want to play Mun-Hee?” Tjay crossed his arms.

“Bet you’ll crack first, Tae-Hyun.”

“Oh, you’re on Mun-Hee. . .”

“This is getting weird,” Arthur sighed, looking back at Hyun. “So, why did you think we’d hide it? It’s not like either of us care what people gossip about.”

“You sure you can keep your cool when you hear people badmouthing you two as a couple?”

“That’s fine,” Tjay interrupted. “We’ll just sort them out.”

“You can’t go around beating people up Tae-Hyun.”

“Stop butting in, Mun-Hee.” Tjay glared.

“Okay, I don’t care who, but one of you needs to cut that out,” Don complained.

“You’re the one that started it Big D,” Max teased.

“Don’t call me that,” Don said, flustered.

“Big D?” Hyun asked.

“Dude, you should’ve seen it!” Tjay spoke up, but Don jumped, panicked, trying desperately to keep him quiet.

“Don’t!”

“We walked in on him letting loose, and boy. . .” Tjay said, pushing Don away. “Did Big D have something to show for it.”

“I. . . did not have to know that.” Hyun regretted asking, finding himself stuck imagining things he never wanted to picture. “Anyway, yeah. . . What do you think Art?”

“I’ll have to talk to her about it, but I don’t think we’ll be hiding it,” Arthur said but wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do now that he thought about it a bit more. The last thing he wanted was someone to badmouth Irene for her choice; however, at the same time, he didn’t wish to hide anything. “I don’t know. . .”

“Hey, stop thinking about that,” Max said, noticing that Arthur was feeling out of it suddenly. “It’ll be fine, so don’t overthink it. Besides, you should brag about being with her, if anything. Do you even know how many people dream about being in your shoes?”

“Was that supposed to make me feel better?” Arthur raised an eyebrow smilingly.

“I hate to admit it, but Mun-Hee’s right,” Tjay said. “Better to be just open about it.”

“I agree,” Don added.

“Well, you do you. . .” Hyun didn’t seem to agree with their opinion.

“Now, real talk,” Max got raised his bear toward Arthur. “How are things between the two of you?”

“Honestly? It’s been amazing.” Arthur said, staring into the distance with a winsome smile on his face. “Still trying to get used to it though.”

“How come it suddenly happened?” Tjay asked. “Was it cuz of the thing that happened with Yeona?”

“Told ya, you should’ve done it sooner.” Max smugly bumped Art’s shoulder.

“I mean, we all knew it was going to happen eventually. . .” Tjay added.

“I planned to talk to her about it when we came here. The situation with Yeona didn’t change much apart from forcing it to happen quicker.”

“I guess that’s good,” Max said. “Glad to see you two hitting it off. Gonna be wild once we go back to Seoul.”

“Agreed,” Tjay added, letting out a sigh. “Just don’t disappear on us.”

“Disappear on you? Why would I do that?”

“Well, most people I know when they get into a relationship, they simply forget their friends.”

“He won’t do that,” Don stood up for Arthur.

“He already sort of did,” Tjay commented.

“That’s just cuz they got together recently, and even then, he is always with us. We’d all do the same, and besides, you’re just needy, Tae-Hyun,” Max teased.

“Don’t worry. I’ll do no such thing.” Arthur reassured him. “After all, I need my daily dose of idiocy to keep me in check. Now. . .” Arthur picked up a water gun resting by his side. “Who’s up for round two?”

Chapter End.

Thank you for reading.