After moving the basket of balls into the storage room, Noel turned to leave. The room was narrow, only about three by four meters, with wooden shelves on the walls filled with deflated basketballs, damaged hoops, and other worn-out sports equipment. The air inside was stuffy, a mix of sweat and dust. However, he was startled—when he found himself facing the young man he always avoided. The sweet-faced young man nearly jumped back when his blue eyes met Terenti's black ones. The young man stood in the doorway, a bottle of mineral water in his grip. Noel's heart pounded as the young man stared at him sharply. The memory of that night—when he was harassed by this young man in a dark alley—flashed back into his mind.
That young man, at school, was a talented basketball player. He was the team captain, but outside of school, he was nothing more than a delinquent who lived a wild, carefree life. This was covered up by the school because Terenti's parents were among the school's financial donors. There were whispers among the teachers that the Gilhooley family had connections to the import business—a rare source of wealth in the post-Soviet transition period. With an arrogant expression on his face, the young man stepped into the storage room, approaching Noel.
"What do you want now?" Noel asked cynically.
Terenti replied casually, "Don't make that face. I just want to talk to you."
Noel slowly stepped backward, his whole body trembling. How could he be sure that the young man in front of him only wanted to talk? His back nearly touched the wooden shelf behind him as his steps halted. Terenti's steps stopped as his mouth threw out a question.
"What is your relationship with Alexei Tsvetkov?"
Noel was shocked by the question the young man threw at him. How could Terenti know that Noel had a relationship with Alexei?
Noel was silent, and Terenti continued, "Yesterday I saw you on the street with him. What are you two? If you're looking for a rich young man to take advantage of, you've got the wrong person—"
"No. You're wrong to think of me like that."
Terenti snorted harshly. Just as his mouth was about to retort, a voice from the doorway diverted both of their attention.
"Terenti, so you're here. I've been looking everywhere for you."
A young man shorter than Terenti, with messy black hair that was never neatly combed, squinty eyes that always seemed to be appraising something, and a crooked smile that made anyone who saw it feel uncomfortable—that was Tolya, Terenti's loyal shadow.
"Tolya, I told you to wait!" Terenti snapped at the young man named Tolya. The young man was now walking closer, increasing Noel's wariness.
"Why are you wasting your time with someone like him?" Tolya asked, looking down on Noel from the corner of his eye. As the distance between him and Noel grew shorter, the young man flinched, then stared at Noel, who was looking down, from his feet to his head.
"Woah... from this close, he really looks like Nate."
That comment immediately pulled at the corners of Terenti's lips; he smiled disdainfully. "Ah, you're right. That bastard Alex, he couldn't get Nate, so he ended up switching to this little rabbit."
What did these people mean? Who was Nate? Noel's heart suddenly felt tight hearing it. He didn't know that name. He had never heard Alexei mention anyone named Nate. But there was something in the way Terenti said it—like he knew something Noel didn't—that made his chest feel heavy.
"Let me tell you one thing," Terenti stared intently at Noel, "You're just being used as his outlet."
"Alexei isn't like that," Noel countered Terenti's statement.
"Really? Are you sure? I'm willing to bet that your body has definitely been touched by him."
Terenti's words immediately silenced Noel.
"Why so quiet? Ah... my guess must be right."
"He probably gets fucked every night, ahahaha!" Tolya chimed in.
Noel clenched his fists. His blood boiled. Not because of shame—but because his pride as a man was being trampled on. All this time, he had only been silent, only retreated, only been afraid. But this time, something inside him broke. He was a man and he felt his pride was being trampled right now. Not knowing where he found the courage, his hand now moved, grabbing the collar of the young man in front of him.
"You..." Noel glared sharply at Terenti. From this close, he could see Terenti's black eyes widen for a moment—surprised, perhaps—before turning cold.
Just as Noel sensed a change in the gaze of the young man before him, at that very moment, a hand was already on his neck.
"Do you think that because you have some kind of relationship with Alexei, I'm scared, is that it?"
Noel's two hands, which had been pulling on Terenti's basketball jersey, moved to try to release the one hand that was tightly gripping his neck. His breath was cut off, but he didn't want to show weakness. Meanwhile, Tolya seemed to be enjoying the show of bullying his friend was putting on.
"Bastard, let go of Noel!" Someone shouted from the doorway. In unison, the three people inside turned their attention to the owner of the voice.
Yuri Viktorovich stood in the doorway, his chest heaving from running. He was slightly shorter than Noel, with black hair he always kept neatly combed—though it was now starting to get messy from the rush. His dark brown eyes blazed with restrained anger. His uniform was wet with sweat, his sports shoes muddy—he must have run straight here as soon as he heard the commotion.
"Yuri!" Noel called out, just as Terenti's grip on his neck released. Fresh air rushed into his lungs, making him cough softly.
As soon as Yuri got closer, he was immediately met by Terenti's piercing black eyes.
"Look who's come." Terenti pulled the corner of his lips into a crooked line. "Want to play the hero?" He folded both arms across his chest.
Yuri stared back, his anger peaking and his hands clenched tightly, ready to land a punch on the face in front of him. The young man was furious—almost unable to think logically seeing his friend being bullied. He tried not to immediately punch the arrogant face of the person before him because he didn't want to cause a scene.
"This is none of your business, why are you interfering?" Tolya, who had been silent until now, spoke up.
Yuri's gaze immediately shifted to that young man. "Noel is my friend. His business is my business too."
Terenti rolled his eyes in disgust. "Who do you think you are? To dare stand up to me to defend him." The young man pointed at Noel. "You're a nobody at this school except for being a kid adopted by a rich family."
Those words were like a slap. Yuri froze for a moment. At this school, indeed only a few knew that he was adopted. He had never hidden it, but he had never talked about it either. But Terenti knew. And he used that knowledge as a weapon.
Without needing to hold back, Yuri swung his right fist toward Terenti's face.
Tolya's eyes widened as Terenti's face winced in pain—but not from Yuri's raw punch, but from Noel's. That young man had landed his fist before Yuri could.
Noel's punch wasn't as strong as an athlete like Terenti's, but it was hard enough to jerk the young man's head to the side. For a moment, silence enveloped the small storage room. Even Tolya stopped smiling.
The attack only made the young man step back while holding his face. On Yuri's side, he couldn't believe what Noel had just done; connecting his knuckles to the face of the basketball team captain and school-wide delinquent.
Noel glared sharply at Terenti, grinding his teeth, clenching his jaw. "That punch was because you insulted my friend."
Terenti, who had just been punched, certainly wasn't going to stay still. He grabbed Noel's collar with his left hand and raised his right hand, knuckles clenched. Just an inch away from retaliating, his movement was halted by a hand catching his wrist. However, Terenti took another initiative; his left hand, which had been gripping Noel's collar, let go and landed squarely on Yuri's face, who was now restraining his attack. Yuri fell flat to the floor.
"Yuri!" Noel crouched down to his friend, then helped him up. Yuri rubbed his bruised cheek with the back of his hand.
"You want to fight?!!" challenged Terenti, now consumed by anger. His breath quickened, his heart pounding wildly.
"ALL OF YOU OVER THERE, STOP FIGHTING!!!"
A thunderous shout like a clap of thunder extinguished the tension among the four people.
The shout came from the voice of Teacher Serafim, a physical education teacher known for being strict in educating his students. Although he was forty years old, this teacher still had a sturdy physique—a former soldier, the students whispered, with arm muscles still visibly solid beneath his sports t-shirt. His thick mustache twitched whenever he spoke, and his voice could be heard from one end of the field to the other.
"All four of you, go to the principal's office. Reflect on your actions today!" Teacher Serafim pointed at the four students one by one and left to continue the ongoing physical education class.
*
After receiving the warning from Teacher Serafim, the four students walked toward the principal's office with heavy steps. However, Yuri staggered in the corridor—Terenti's punch had made his head dizzy and his cheek was starting to swell. Noel immediately took him to the nearest medical room, while Terenti and Tolya continued on their own with satisfied smirks on their faces.
"Forgive me, because of me, you ended up like this," Noel regretted, because he had gotten his friend involved with those delinquents.
They were now in the medical room—a small room with white walls starting to peel in some corners, one iron bed with a thin mattress, a glass cabinet containing bandages and simple medicines, and a small sink in the corner. The smell of antiseptic stung the air, mixed with the scent of old wood from the floor that never seemed to dry completely. Yuri sat silently on the edge of the bed while observing Noel's face, which looked meticulous as he applied a compress to the bruise using a white towel and warm water. The young man closed his eyes because of the comfort of Noel's treatment.
"You don't need to apologize. That damn Terenti is the one who should apologize; if necessary, he should bow down... ouch!" Yuri's words were cut off because of the pain when the warm towel touched his bruised cheek.
"Sorry, was I too rough?" Noel paused for a moment to wipe his friend's face. He was only met with a shake of the head.
"Noel!" Yuri called out when the young man had finished treating his wound.
"Hmm?"
Yuri now stood up and approached Noel. "There's something I want to say." Noel looked at Yuri, who now appeared serious.
"I..." Yuri's words faltered due to his heart pounding in his chest, so disturbing his eardrums. The young man could clearly feel his heartbeat sounding, as if racing against the clock on the wall. In the silence like this, it seemed he was the only one who noticed it. The young man took a deep breath. Noel was still waiting for what Yuri was going to say. Until suddenly...
"Noel!"
A high-pitched, piercing voice of someone who appeared from behind the door of the medical room, sticking their head out first like a ghost, almost gave Yuri a heart attack.
"Pyotr, can you stop your habit of appearing suddenly like that? You almost gave me a heart attack," Yuri grumbled.
"If you have a heart attack, blame your heart, not me," retorted Pyotr Ilyich Volkov—just call him Petya—not accepting the blame.
Pyotr—or Petya, as he preferred to be called—was a student in class X-A, the same year as Noel and Yuri but in a different class. He was of medium height, with dark brown hair that he always let fall over his forehead; his pale skin made him look younger than his seventeen years. His hazel eyes—almost similar to Alexei's eye color, Noel had once noticed unintentionally—always moved quickly, as if looking for an escape route from every room he entered. There was a restlessness that always accompanied him, like someone used to hiding.
Petya had met Noel a few months ago after the young man saved him when he was being chased by a group of armed people. It was late at night; Noel was throwing out trash through the café's back door and accidentally saw a student still wearing the same school uniform as him. Petya, looking confused, approached Noel, begging to be found a hiding place. Noel, feeling pity because of Petya's pitiful face at that time, immediately hid the teenager right inside a dumpster until finally the group of people chasing him left to search elsewhere.
To this day, Noel doesn't know why that group of people was chasing Petya. Whenever Noel asked him, Petya would just shake his head and say "I don't know" with an expression that was too calm—as if he knew more than he let on. But Noel never pushed.
"Senior Noel, I have some extra money from selling used train tickets. How about we go eat some fried chicken wings?" he suggested, showing a few ruble notes, ignoring Yuri's presence between them.
"That sounds good. Besides, you're treating, right?"
"For you, of course, it's free," he replied, enthusiastically putting his arm around Noel.
Not accepting being ignored, Yuri grabbed Noel's wrist. "You're going to leave me to eat with him?" His glance briefly shifted to Petya.
"How about you come too?" Noel invited, releasing Petya's arm from his shoulder.
"Senior Noel, why are you inviting him?" Petya protested, shaking Noel's arm.
Without paying any attention to his junior's picky protest, Yuri said, "Good idea, I'm in. Let's go eat!" The young man then pulled Noel's hand out of the medical room to go to the fried chicken wing shop Petya had mentioned earlier.
"Senior!" Petya called out to Noel, who had already been taken away by Yuri.
[•°]