PART FOUR

Roy's reflection smiled back at him from the mirror, forehead hidden by the messy bed hair and his grey orbs shining with newfound joy.

Last night Roy had managed to snag up the number of his beautiful bus stop stranger, Jeremy─by uncertain luck. 

As he reminisced about the encounter, his heart began pounding and a warmth spread through his bare skin. Wiping the after shower vapor sticking to the mirror, Roy dried himself off, mind fogged with the thoughts of someone named Jeremy.

"Be there by eleven." Opening the bathroom door, Roy saw a foolishly grinning Ken blocking his way.

Roy tsked and pushed past Ken, who was standing blocking the bathroom's door and doing on-spot jogs, the volleyball team Jersey and shorts stretching on Ken's muscular body.

"I need to go to the cafeteria too." Roy replied before closing the door to his room. Changing into a pair of mint green trousers and black shirt, he combed through his tangles, pushing them back with a thin black hair band.

After finishing, Roy peaked out to find the living room vacant, concluding that Ken had already left for the warm ups.

The wall clock chimed─nine thirty─half an hour since the cafeteria opened and the main dishes were getting ready to be served─plum rice and deep fried vietnamese pork─his favorite.

The weather has been merciful with bits of cloudiness and some sunny rays trespassing from between them here and there. 

Roy left his apartment complex lazily. 

Weekends were more or less surrounded by students in the streets outside the campus but today there was an unusual extra amount. 

Roy checked the time on his iPhone and saw it's nine forty five and if he doesn't hurry for breakfast, he will miss the first Set of Ken's match.

The cafeteria bustled with numerous students, eating, chatting, queuing in the front. Roy, ignoring the fact that there were no seats empty, queued up, grabbing a plate.

His time came shortly after waiting for a couple of minutes and Roy quickly spit out his order to the server, who served him a plate of steaming plum rice and a bowl of vietnamese deep fried pork─glossing with fat and a bottle of grape flavoured water.

Roy swiped his meal card, balancing the food with one hand. The fresh smell of fried pork, seasoned with strong fish sauce marinate, made his stomach growl. Weekends are lovely with such a dish.

Weaving through the students, Roy made his way out of the cafeteria to the soccer field and sat down under a big old tree. The steam from the rice tickled his nose and he lifted up a spoonful of rosy pink coloured rice, savoring the sweet taste.

Roy let a satisfied groan escape his lips and cut through the pork slices, munching on the chewy charred skin, flavoured with the spicy seasonings.

It took Roy barely a few minutes to finish. He sighed with a satisfied smile and went back inside. As soon as the glass double doors opened—a wave of cool air rushed to him. Dumping the plate on the washer section, Roy left the cafeteria. 

The way to Gymnasium 2 was filled with random students—some from the other college presumably and the refreshments team were running around—holding large cartons of packed delicacies.

Some cheerleaders were munching on protein bars, huddled near the group preparing banners. The artist's wore the club shirts of Art Club and Roy guessed that they were preparing the banners for this season's last Volleyball practice game in their College—against Karlstein Technological University.

The entrance of the Gym was decorated nicely with white balloons. Roy climbed up the stairs and strode right in. 

The huge court was laden with bright lights—the corridor stands full of the audience and both the teams surrounded either side of the net, commencing their own practice, exercises etc. The air smelled thick with tense emotions.

Roy glanced towards the opponents and narrowed his eyes at the visibly new batch of players spiking the volleyball aggressively. Seems like Karlstein bought freshmen regulars to this match. 

Karlstein had always had a friendly rivalry with their college—Amaryllis, both nurturing players—already getting scouted for national teams. The players in today's match weren't the ones Amaryllis team played before, except for Han Jusang the talented Sophomore Setter.

Back to his College's team, Roy's eyes fell onto Ken's figure shouting around and tossing balls to the junior players. From here itself Roy could feel the determination of the new regulars of Amaryllis and the jolly way each received the balls from Ken. Of course, this match determined the positions on the team for the next year.

"Roy Bear, here!" The all so familiar female voice screamed from the corridor stands and Roy looked in that direction, with embarrassment. Bowing down, he sped towards Monroe's figure and glared at her.

"You didn't have to shout!" Roy exclaimed, crossing his arms. 

"Whatever. See Erickson is here too!" Monroe giggled excitedly, pointing at a tall, bronze toned player—seated relaxingly and nodding his head to the Coach's constant muttering.

Roy instantly remembered the player from the times Ken had come home and chattered away endlessly in his ears about the star player of their team.

Back in freshman years, this guy—Erickson joined the team and became an immediate regular with prodigal skills. Kovit Jarupanivh or popularly known as Erickson in the Volleyball world—was a Thai exchange in Amaryllis Volleyball Team.

"He is playing today?" Roy asked Monroe.

Monroe, who was grasping the railing and jumping, turned to him and said "Apparently Andy from Karlstein requested our Coach to let him play against Erickson one last time."

Roy nodded understandingly. Andy—although from Karlstein has actively admired Erickson's talent and has pursued to learn the individualistic style of volleyball Kovit plays.

"Ken seems busy too." Monroe stopped jumping and leaned on the railing, her eyes trailing the huffing Ken. As the sole setter of the Amaryllis team, Ken shoulders both the burden of training the newcomers and helping the regulars.

"Hmph." Roy hummed and glanced around to look at the audiences. Starting from teachers to students from all years have come to watch—luckily their Gymnasium 2 was the biggest one and can hold upto thousands of audiences on the corridor stands only.

The announcer announced in his monotone voice that the match will begin in some minutes and soon, the Amaryllis Cheerleading group entered the court—dressed in flimsy soft pink uniforms—taking positions to perform. The players took seats for the performance. The starting cheerleading performance of Amaryllis began with an extraordinary routine, impressing the audience.

Deciding to get comfortable, Roy bent his torso forward, the cool railings feeling good against his shirt-clad abdomen. 

Just as Roy was about to immerse his attention in the performance—somebody appeared at the entrance of the gym.

Roy straightened up at a lightning speed, scaring Monroe, but his attention was focused on the somebody. The person was dressed in a classy white shirt and black jeans, radiating gentle handsomeness.

But the amount of fuzziness Roy felt in his chest upon seeing the person instantly dissapitated to hammering pain.

There standing with a beautiful blonde girl, hanging off his arms was Jeremy. 

And Roy suddenly felt that today might become his worst day.