Charles and Richard Chapter 31

Tears streamed down his wet cheeks. Charles hastily rubbed his eyes and cheeks. He would not apologize. If he apologized, everything with Richard would surely end. Not being able to see Richard was one thing, but staying in a state of conflict was actually better. He kept his eyes squeezed shut until the tears stopped, then finally stood up abruptly. As soon as he got up, Charles raised his eyebrows in surprise. Jennifer, wrapped in a towel, was standing beside him—he had no idea when she’d arrived.

Jennifer: Why are you crying?

Charles furrowed his brow.

C: I wasn’t crying.

Jennifer: Did you two break up?

C: …What?

Charles’s mind went blank as he repeated the question. Jennifer glanced briefly toward Richard.

Jennifer: You two are together, aren’t you?

C: ….

Jennifer: Back at school, I saw you kissing Richard in front of the bike rack.

C: …That was just a joke.

Jennifer: Really? Then why were you crying?

C: I told you, I wasn’t crying.

Charles answered stubbornly. Jennifer stared intently at Charles’s reddened eyes. Charles quietly turned his head away. His gaze inadvertently went to the pool, where he saw Richard still with his back to him. Jennifer followed his gaze. Richard peeled off his wet shirt and tossed it out of the pool. His wet back was smooth and incredibly sexy.

Charles quickly turned his gaze back to Jennifer. They were silent for a moment. Jennifer didn’t seem to have approached him with any particular agenda. Maybe she had just been curious to confirm whether Charles and Richard were dating. She looked back and forth between Richard and Charles with a half-curious gaze, then spoke gently.

Jennifer: I don’t have any kind of relationship with Richie. I haven’t seen him since that time, and besides, I have a boyfriend now.

C: ….

Jennifer: Just in case you were misunderstanding.

C: I wasn’t.

Charles replied curtly and walked past Jennifer. His shoes were full of water, sloshing with each step. As he moved away slowly, Jennifer said one more thing from behind.

Jennifer: If you need a towel, go up to the second-floor bathroom. Someone’s passed out hugging the toilet on the first floor.

Charles hesitated over whether to say thank you, and in the end only nodded slightly.

He circled around the pool and went back inside the mansion. Inside, the air was cool from the air conditioning. The cool air hit his wet body, making him shiver. Charles had initially planned to just leave, but he changed his mind and decided to dry off with a towel before heading out. Everyone seemed to be out by the pool; the house was nearly empty. A few couples were clinging to each other on sofas or behind curtains, murmuring quietly among themselves. Charles glanced at them briefly and went upstairs.

There was no one on the second floor. He went into the bathroom and closed the door, and suddenly his legs gave way. His mind felt completely empty. He had fought with Richard. It was the first time since he was fourteen, when they’d had that tearful fight about whether or not to open the front door for Richard. Though calling the water fight a “fight” felt a bit ambiguous. Looking back now, that resentment from back then was probably because he felt he was the only one not getting Richard’s attention. Even if his parents, sisters, and Cherry had been taken away (and it was true that they had been!), what stung more than anything was that Richard showed no particular interest in Charles.

Charles sighed and shook his head as those old memories resurfaced. First, he took off his shirt and wrung it out tightly. He set the shirt aside for a while, found a towel, and dried his upper body. He draped the towel around his neck and took off his shoes. Turning them upside down, water trickled out. He didn’t want to put them back on, but he had no choice—he shoved his feet back into the wet shoes and was tying the laces when the bathroom door burst open. Before Charles could even lift his head, the door closed and clicked locked. Locked? Charles looked up with a puzzled expression and found Richard standing right in front of him.

C: ….

Startled, both his head and body froze in an instant. But his pride quickly brought him back to his senses. Charles swiftly composed himself as if nothing was wrong and stood up. He faced Richard, who was blocking the door and glaring at him. Richard was—though he knew this wasn’t the time to be thinking about it—still, Richard was impossibly sexy. He was wearing wet, clinging black jeans and still bare above the waist. Droplets fell from his disheveled honey-colored hair and trickled down his shoulders and chest. But his expression was unusually cold.

His long, narrowed blue eyes, half-lidded, were staring at Charles in a way that was unlike his usual self. It was aggressive enough to send a chill through Charles’s chest. Charles, though shrinking inside, glared back at Richard with a face just as cold as his. Even as they stared each other down, Richard stubbornly kept his mouth shut. Charles was suffocated by that silence. But he couldn’t find the words to say. He wanted to say something, but he didn’t have the courage to break the frigid silence between them.

Finally, Charles turned away first. He pulled on the shirt he had set aside.

C: Move.

Without looking at Richard, Charles spat out briefly. Richard didn’t respond, didn’t budge—he just stood his ground in front of the door. Charles lifted his head and glared back at him.

C: I said move.

R: Is that what you really want?

C: …What are you talking about? Just move.

Suddenly, Richard reached out. He grabbed Charles by the collar roughly and yanked him forward without hesitation, shoving him against the wall. Charles hit the marble-lined wall hard with his back and the back of his head, letting out a thin whimper. Even though he was in pain, Richard showed no mercy. He grabbed Charles by the collar, stretching it out, and stood pressed against him with no space between them. Richard looked down at Charles with an overwhelming gaze. Charles felt a chill run down his spine. Without closing his eyes, Richard kissed him.

Actually, it was hard to call it a kiss. He forced their lips together, bit them open, and shoved his tongue inside. They were too close, and without tilting their heads, they mashed their noses together, their tongues tangling roughly. Charles glared back at Richard without backing down, but Richard looked at him as if he wanted to devour him. The hand gripping his collar eventually released and suddenly grabbed Charles’s lower body. Startled, Charles gripped Richard’s arm as if to stop him. Richard didn’t even blink. Ignoring Charles’s hand, he unfastened his belt buckle.

A cold hand plunged straight between his legs. The icy hand touched his half-erect penis from the kissing, and Charles trembled. It was completely different from the secretive, playful petting they had shared on the attic terrace not long ago. Richard roughly stroked him. He groped and tugged at him firmly, without holding back, shaking him as he caressed him. Charles crumbled in an instant. As he started to slide down the wall, Richard used his other hand to push Charles’s chest, pinning him against the wall.