Chapter 58

"RAH!" "RAGH!" "RAH-RAH!" With the never-ending fury, I was beating the hell out of a sandbag.

"RAGH!" Striking the bag at the bottom where it was the densest, I didn't tape my hands. Punching with my hands bare, I was letting my knuckles, tendons, and everything else get stronger.

"Daaaame, look at him go?"

"Phew, Working like there is no tomorrow."

"You think he will get an injury?"

"Nah, give him some credit. The guy debuted in the tournament."

"Can't you shut up for at least a second, please!?" I finally wasn't able to tolerate the rumbling of my sudden audience.

After sorting everything out with Mara yesterday, I talked with my parents about all kinds of stuff and went to bed.

No matter how much I wanted to control myself, I still held a lot of pent-up frustration and anger. And so, the next day I came to the school's gym.

I decided to simply punch my anger away. However, in the middle of doing it, two guys came in.

Bill and Johnny. They were a pair of friends, although they were more close than brothers. They even sported the same haircut and tried to wear similar clothes. Almost all the time, they wore expressions of laidback joy.

Bill is slightly taller and leaner, while Johnny was shorter yet more stocky. The difference between them didn't stop at just their body types. Their faces were also different, and even their skin colors differed. Bill was closer to having an olive tone of color, and his face was a bit squarish, but he compensated it with his lively mimic.

Johhny, on the other hand, had a paler skin color. While his almond-shaped eyes gave him a sly kind of feeling. Albeit, it was ruined by the same cheerfulness he shared with Bill.

I've never seen them being serious, even when they sparred. Whenever there was a tense situation between the younger generation, they would always ease it with jokes. In the end, they were simply guys that were loved by everyone.

Both of them weren't as much of veterans, but they mixed up with everyone really well. Lately, they kind of entered Jessie's clique. And after entering, they invited me to hang out with them on a regular basis.

But most of the time, I was declining their proposals.

"Chill, man."

"Why do you have to be so angry?"

"It's not like we played a prank on you."

"Or insulted you."

I rubbed the scar on my nose. The way they talked, they tried to match the voices of each other and the intonation. Those things combined made it hard to discern which one of them was talking.

And now they were both looking at me, mimicking each other's expression of accusation.

"I... argh! There is a lot of stuff I thought of, and I wanted to let some steam off. When you came, I kind of…"

"Got derailed, right?"

"And we are at fault, you say?" Both of them pursed their lips.

"No, you are not. It's my problem." I waved my hand in surrender. "Whatever, I'm sorry."

"If you wanted to let some steam off, you should've asked your seniors, you know."

"Yeah, we will work you so hard you won't be able to walk straight the whole week."

"Harder than Tatianna?" Bill looked at Johnny. As he said these words, there were no signs of doubt on his face.

"Definitely harder." Johnny nodded at him.

"And what do the two of my seniors propose?"

"You will defend against my takedowns."

"And try to take me down."

Bill and Johnny said sequentially, thumping their chests in synch.

I rubbed my face and wanted to reject their proposal at first. But after giving it another thought.

"You know what? Let's do it."

""Nice!""

""Prepare your ass to be served to you.""

Answering in unison, they went to change clothes.

An hour later.

"CLAP!-CLAP!"

"C'mon boys, get your shit together! I want to see an explosion."

I, along with Bill, was standing in the ring. And right now, we were in a clinch. I was holding him from throwing me down.

"Erlig, get your stuff together. Calm down! Always keep yourself levelheaded!" Johnny was on the ring apron, looking at us from the side.

As I huffed and puffed in the bear hug of Bill, I was wrestling with him for control. Trying to reverse our situation.

"C'mon Erlig, give me an explosion, throw Bill to the side!"

"Arrrgh!!!" With a roar, I changed my grip. Clasping my hands around his gut, squeezing the last bits of energy, I lifted him via gut-wrench hold. Slamming him on the canvas, I finally was on top.

"NICE!!! Bill, sweep him!!!"

We continued our mat wrestling for some time until I was finally able to take a breather.

"Nice one, Bill!" Johnny wanted to give his best friend a high five. Except, he didn't take the amount of strength Bill was left with into consideration.

Couldn't blame him as I was lying on the ring, sprawled. The sweat was pouring down like a waterfall. It was to the point that the corners of my eyes stung.

"Get up, Erlig! Now it's my turn." I saw from all the way down how Johnny hopped inside the ring. He started stretching his upper body left and right. "Bill, get him a towel. We don't want to slip."

"Aaaaghhh!" This time my cry was full of despair.

The moment they changed, we started wrestling again. For the past hour,  Bill and Johnny would continuously swap each other. While I got a minute or two of rest.

As I stood up, I got a towel thrown on my face.

"Huuu…huuu…"

"C'mon, stop slacking off."

Wiping all the sweat I could, I threw the towel onto the floor.

"I'M COMING!!!"

"THAT'S THE SPIRIT!"

And just like that, I went after Johnny's legs, trying to do a two-leg takedown.

"I'm dying...ugh...Bill...oooh...Billy...huff...help me here."

Another two hours have passed.

Right now, I was rolling Johnny around as he had no strength to stop me. Bill had some time to take some rest, but he wasn't faring any better. Hearing his friend begging, he waved his hand once and sat on his butt unmoving. With the amount of strength he had, he was barely sitting upright as he breathed heavily.

"Erlig, you won, won. Get off me." Johnny tried to push me off, but his strength was nowhere near enough.

Hearing him giving up, I rolled to the side and lay down near him. Doing basic stretching, punching the sandbag, and wrestling the two guys, took me from four to five hours. I left all my strength and couldn't think straight.

And so, one sitting and two lying guys were in the gym. Drenched and clothed scantily.

"Honestly…haaa…you are freaking...huuu...beast." As Johnny was saying these words, a single girl entered.

Hearing the sound, all three of us looked at her with the last vestiges of our strength and saw her giving us a dubious disgusted look as she went to change her clothes.

"I hope she wouldn't think something else." Bill leaned his head back onto the turnbuckle.

"What will she think? Ugh...He is a freaking beast haaa... You saw him going into the training...huuu...like there is no tomorrow. What kind of hellish factory forge people like him."

"I don't know. But I liked that girl."

"Then ask her for a date. Want my help?" The answer to Johnny's question was rough breathing.

"After cooling down, we should go and grab a bite. Erlig, you are going with us?" Bill turned his head to me after resting for a minute or so.

"Yeah." I was too tired to think.

We simply spend our time in silence like that. A couple of minutes later, the girl walked out and started warming up. As the three of us took slightly more comfortable sitting positions, we looked at her.

She soon took a barbell and started squatting with it. Wearing tight-fitting leggings added to the quality of the showcase as her butt was decent. She had headphones on, so she couldn't hear what we were talking about.

"You know what, Johnny."

"Yeah, Bill?"

"I take my words back."

"I can see why."

Both of them were whispering to each other while sitting near me.

""She needs more meat on that butt."" And after voicing their aligning thoughts, they both nodded.

"I think her butt is decent." I looked at the girl squatting and felt she had a good one. Far from being as big and shapely as the one Violetta rocked, but still, better than nothing.

"Huh? You've got no taste Erlig."

"Tsk-tsk, no taste."

"Then why do you keep staring at her?"

""Why not?""

To this, I can only keep my silence and continue feasting my eyes.

"Do you think she has a boyfriend?"

"I don't know. I've never actually talked to her."

"Didn't you tell me just now her butt didn't suit your taste?" I wanted to laugh at their words but couldn't find any strength in me.

"But it won't interfere with a quick hookup." Bill leaned slightly in my direction, yet his eyes maintained contact with the butt of a girl.

"Quick hookup? I don't know, isn't she decent enough to date her?" I leaned to him as well, but my gaze was on the same spot as his.

"You have something against one-night stands? And what about her personality?" Johnny interjected. "Who knows, perhaps she is nasty."

"Like seriously nasty in bed," Bill added.

"I don't like kinky stuff."

"I'm a vanilla guy myself." Both of them nodded as they slowly stood up.

Standing up myself, I went with them, and the three of us leaned on the highest ring rope.

I don't know why, but after one of the repetitions, she suddenly turned around. She saw the three drenched, rough-breathing guys staring at her butt. I alone made for quite a view. Wearing tight-fitting shorts and a jockstrap made a rather eye-catching bulge where my crotch was. Yet I had Bill and Johnny in addition.

At first, her eyes widened as she opened her mouth.

"With this, she won't think anything unnecessary," Johnny said.

"Yeah, she will simply think of us as perverts," Bill added.

Seeing us talking between each other leisurely, she turned angry. Throwing the barbell down, she went back to changing room.

"Welp, that was a good bonding time, brothers."

"And now I think we should get out of here."

Abiding by their words, they went to changing room. Left alone with the possibility of an angry girl returning, I hurried after the friends.

"Though you know what, Erlig, we didn't know that you had zero taste in asses."

"A great disappointment."

"What are you talking about? It's you who have some unrealistic ideals."

"What kind of unrealistic!?"

"You don't understand. A great ass starts with great thighs."

"Right!"

"The girl should be able to crush a watermelon with her thighs. That way, you will know, her ass is top-notch."

"Pffft, ha, haha. What kind of weird ideal you two have?"

Swept by the flow, I followed them and their conversation. We talked about butts as we made our way into Birchland High's canteen.

Slowly trotting in a canteen that somewhat resembled a mix of a few small cafes or restaurants even, we stopped in our tracks.

"What should we get?"

"Dunno, what do you crave?"

Bill and Johnny decided on which meal we should get while I looked around. Glancing at the time, the classes were ending soon, and it would be time to have lunch. There were already a couple of students sitting here and there.

A small company of what looked like third years. A few single girls, sitting here and there, a couple of guys. And not a single one of them wearing a uniform or at least something that resembled it.

"In the end, we should grab some vegetable dumplings and chicken broth."

"Don't forget the sauce. Erlig, you will have the same?"

"Yeah, why not. Sounds delicious enough to me."

We proceeded to one of the booths, and Bill started talking with the service staff. At the same time, Johnny and I leaned on the wall as we talked about training. After relaying our orders, Bill joined us.

Having a light, chit-chat, I didn't notice the sound of steps nearing me.

"Hey, shithead!"

My shoulders jumped as I heard this voice. Bill and Johnny both turned around in the direction of this voice while I felt my blood circulating quicker.

"You fucking shithead, you dare ignoring me? Or you thought you might hide from me forever?"

Turning around, I saw Reid with his goons walking a few steps behind him. His face, grinning mockingly at me. Glancing at Bill and Johnny, both of them tensed their muscles as they were highly on guard.

"Didn't expect me to be here, huh? You fucking pussy, do you only know how to hide?" Seeing his red hair getting closer, I felt my vision getting redder as I grew angrier.

Closing the distance between us. He was now at the arm's distance. But I didn't try to run away. I simply breathed in and looked straight into his bead, shark resembling eyes.

"Can't say anything back? Yeah, after all, you are used to hiding behind the girl's skirt, you pussy." Looking at grim Bill and Johnny, he smirked as six of his goons walked to the sides, eyeing us, cackling.

"You are all birds of the same flock. Trying to gather together." He looked all three of us over "Tsk-tsk, all of you are spineless cowards. But these ones at least look like they can hold at least a punch."

He was probably talking about Jet.

There was no reason for feeling as angry at him. I wasn't friends with Jet.  I knew that it wasn't logical. Still, my emotions were out of control. I just felt this anger and hatred towards Reid. I tried to endure whatever he said. But I felt my boiling point reaching to the top.

"So what? Gonna stay silent like all the time you did before, you fuckhead? Or will you wait for these two idiots to cover for you?"

"Waiting for your girl to save you?"

"Getting status of gigolo while being so young is truly enviable."

His goons continued to insult us, but I was able to stand through this. There was no reason to get angry at their antics. Trying to calm down with these thoughts, I maintained my gaze on Reid as I stood upright.

I felt a hand of Bill, or Johnny gripping my shoulder hardly as one of them shook his head. Yeah, I know, we shouldn't let them provoke us.

"You should compare him and his friend." One of Reid's goons suddenly cackled.

"Huh? That's actually a good idea!" he nodded. "Let's check this out if you can take a punch!" as he said this, he quickly slapped me on the left cheek and took a couple of steps back. I saw his arm's movement but wasn't able to react. I saw his irritating grin.

"UUUGH!!!" Moving forward, I was immediately held by Bill and Johnny.

"Ugh... hey, calm down."

"Hng... We can't take all of them."

Bill and Johnny both whispered to me as they held me in place.

"Whoops, my hand actually slipped, and I slapped him." Reid took a few steps back mixing up with his goons as they continued to mock us.

"What else a bitch like him deserves?"

"Suits him right!"

"Anyway, he is probably used to this. Getting slapped by the girls that use him as a shield."

I knew that there was no reason to look for a fight with Reid, but my mind was so messed up right now that I simply wanted to finally fight him and be done with it. It wasn't a rational feeling, nor was it something I ever felt before.

"Oooooh, look at them! They are so afraid they need to hug each other." Reid exaggeratedly pointed towards us as he raised his voice.

Through this rage that shrouded my vision, I felt two pairs of strong arms holding me back.

""Ahahaha."" His goons were quick at the uptake as they started laughing over. They made a half-circle around us.

I felt the desire to hit him. It was so strong that my vision was gradually turning blood red. My teeth were cracking, and I felt as if my vocal cords were ripped apart. My chest constipated, and I couldn't breathe properly. I could've only wheeze angrily.

"Huff…stop this…huff…"

"Ugh…Bill…hold him tighter…huff…"

Bill and Johnny continued to hold me in place. It would've probably continued for an unknown amount of time. But yet another person made her way to the canteen.

"Clap! Clap!" a couple of soft claps resounded, followed by a clicking noise of high heels.

"Now-now, who is bullying my cute little fledgling over there?"