Charles and Richard Chapter 30

Charles spotted Richard, who had also come outside. Almost simultaneously, Richard noticed Charles sitting on the fence under the lights. Squinting as if dazzled, Richard looked at Charles, then turned his head away first. Fine, whatever. Charles also snapped his head in the opposite direction.

As the pool party got underway, the girls who had been working their angles all returned to their own groups, and Charles’s friends began to gather around him one by one. A couple of Charles’s group had changed into swimsuits. They were already drunk, their cheeks and temples flushed. When his friends tried to coax him into the pool, Charles answered by showing them his middle finger. The drunken, overheated guys soon gave up and dove into the water.

The pool was spacious enough that even with a dozen or so people in it, tossing around a beach ball and floating tubes, there was plenty of room. Charles sat on the tile floor with his friends, drinking and chatting about girls and the party. And, as expected, Richard’s name came up.

Friend 1: Hey, did you guys hear Richard’s working as a mechanic?

Friend 2: I heard he’s been back for a while already. Apparently everyone who knows him already knew.

Friend 1: Charlie, weren’t you pretty close with Richard back in the day?

C: Not really? I barely remember.

Friend 3: Come to think of it, I heard he’s at the garage where your mom works—you really didn’t know?

C: Mom told me, so I knew, but this is the first time I’ve seen him here tonight.

Friend 2: But hey, didn’t his family go completely bankrupt? Why’s he working as a mechanic? And he’s not even in school.

Friend 3: …Still, he seems pretty popular, doesn’t he?

At that, all four boys turned their gazes toward Richard. Richard was sitting on a terrace chair, already surrounded by others. The ratio of girls among them was overwhelmingly high. Charles’s group stared in that direction for a while, silently taking sips of their drinks. Two girls who had been playing with a beach ball in the pool climbed out and ran over to Richard. Each grabbed one of Richard’s wrists, pulling him up and saying something. A cheer erupted from that side. Charles stared at them silently.

Friend 2: Looks like they’re going to dunk him.

Friend 1: He’s going home soaking wet.

Friend 3: You think he’ll go home? Someone’s going to snag him.

C: ….

Friend 2: Oh, here they go.

The girls managed to pull Richard up and drag him all the way to the pool. Given Richard’s height and build, he could have resisted, but he seemed not to want to ruin the mood. The two girls each grabbed Richard’s wrists and jumped into the pool, and Richard matched their pace and jumped in with them. Cheers erupted from all around.

Richard, who had plunged completely underwater and surfaced, grinned. A damned handsome face. His wet white shirt clung to his body, revealing the contours of taut muscles. Richard playfully splashed water at the girls who had dunked him. That sparked a full-blown water fight.

Friend 3: Hey, look at that body. No joke.

Friend 2: …Must be from working as a mechanic….

Friend 1: It’s chaos. They’re dunking everyone.

Starting with Richard, the boys and girls began pushing each other into the pool. The same went for Charles’s group. The guys who had gone into the pool climbed out and charged at Charles and the others. They knocked over drinks and scrambled to run away.

Charles was the one grabbed by the scruff of the neck. His arms were seized and he was dragged toward the pool. He strained and resisted with all his might, but with two guys holding his arms on either side, he couldn’t hold out. However, right at the pool’s edge, he managed to brace his feet against the coping and hold firm. As he fought back, trying to bite a friend’s ear, the others tightened their grip on his arms.

C: Hey, seriously, I haven’t even taken off my shoes!

Friend 4: Someone come grab his legs!

R: I’ll do it.

Charles was startled and turned his head. Richard rose from the pool, strode over to Charles, and lifted his legs in one swift motion. It was absurdly easy. Charles stared at Richard with wide, startled eyes, but Richard didn’t give him a single glance. Instead, with a “One, two, three” count, Charles found himself airborne. Below him, of course, was the pool. The two friends and Richard literally threw Charles into the water.

Charles was a good swimmer, so that wasn’t a problem. He just wasn’t in swim trunks and still had his shoes on. Charles sank almost to the bottom before surfacing. He stuck his head out and coughed up water. Richard, standing outside the pool, looked down at him silently, then deliberately jumped in right next to Charles. Charles was caught off guard by another splash. It was only after he wiped the water from his face and shook his head again that he could open his eyes and look around.

R: ….

Richard was staring at Charles from not far away, the corners of his mouth twitching as he tried to hold back laughter. Charles glared at him in silence, then suddenly spotted a beach ball floating nearby. Richard spotted it at the same time. But Charles was closer and faster. Charles snatched the ball and hurled it at Richard. It bounced off Richard’s head and came back to Charles.

Charles gleefully caught it and threw it at Richard again. This time Richard got hit on the bridge of his nose, but he managed to catch the ball. Richard also threw the ball at Charles without mercy. Charles quickly ducked underwater to avoid it, then sent a donut-shaped tube floating nearby flying at him. Richard dodged underwater as well, then this time used those solid, muscular arms to splash water at Charles. Charles, of course, got drenched from head to toe.

Friend 4: Charles! Catch!

A friend passed a beach ball to Charles. Charles caught it and hurled it straight at Richard. The other kids, noticing their water fight, began splitting into teams and brawling. They splashed water at each other and flung beach balls and tubes.

Charles and Richard had been stubbornly attacking only each other, but soon the kids who had taken sides all got tangled up together in a chaotic water fight, so that became pointless too. But both Charles and Richard, who had fought more passionately than anyone, were exhausted. Charles, whose stamina was weaker than Richard’s, was far more worn out. He swam sluggishly to the edge of the pool and sat on the coping.

Richard was soon mixed in with the other kids again. He was with the girl who had first dragged him into the pool. They weren’t alone, but even so, Charles felt his heart sink. Richard didn’t look back at Charles. In fact, he was standing with his back to Charles, and that back looked utterly stubborn and unyielding.

In that moment, Charles’s resolve weakened. Should he apologize? Tell him the truth—that he liked him, that he’d said those things out of anger because Richard said he didn’t want to kiss him anymore. Say he was sorry. But if he said that, Richard wouldn’t see him anymore. He’d said he wouldn’t do “that kind of thing” with a friend, so if he found out Charles liked him, it would be… Charles felt his cheeks burn.