Buzz...
Chaz is still frustrated. He already knows whose message is on his phone. He did not pick up his phone right away. He let out a sigh before looking at the phone.
He gets up and ignores the message, as without reading it, he knows its content. He goes back to his faculty and stops by the canteen. He bought a take-out and left for his other class with Trio.
Once he arrives, Trio is already in class gaming. His sad aura is just too obvious for the Trio not to realize. Neil gave a signal to Frank, but he shook his head, refusing. Larry sees Neil and Frank hesitate, boldly asks Chaz instead.
"Why? Were you dumped?" Ask Larry.
It shocked both Neil and Frank. Yeah, they indeed want to know what happened, but do you need to ask so directly like that?
Chaz is so done with Larry that he gives him a sharp eye. Larry's hair is standing. He can feel the chill while thinking he hit the nerves.
Neil then slapped Larry's head from the back. "Hey. Do you need to be insensitive?" said Neil.
"Don't you hear what he said. You feel down, must be something happened, right?" said Frank, comforting his sad-looking friend. Well, it's the first time Chaz acts like this toward them. The only human emotion they will ever get from Chaz is annoyance, anger, and silence. So they themselves do not know how to comfort him.
Chaz hesitates to say as he feel its nothing, so he just remains silent and does not answer the Trio's question. Neil sees that Chaz will not open his mouth, so he just gives word of encouragement instead, "Well, you have more time to court him. It's not like this is the only time, no?"
The word did convince Chaz a little. Indeed, it's not like he will not get another chance. The days to come are plenty. He can try later. With that in mind, he loosens up a little and prepares for the lecture. The Trio sees him ease up, so they just go on with the gaming until the lecturer comes.
...
Then comes the day of training for the football club. The club starts with the announcement of the upcoming friendly tournament between the University and the amateur club.
"Please listen carefully, there will upcoming friendly tournament between a football club and us in two weeks. We always have this tournament with that club, so most of the seniors already have experience playing with them. Which also means we, the Board, encourage the freshmen and the second year to participate to gain more experience," said Frank.
"The additional points will be added to your Curriculum credit if you guys participate in it. So if anyone wanted to participate, please give your name to Frank later after the training. If by any chance there is more space left, it will be opened to the third year," said Chaz, adding more.
While at it, Chaz takes his chance to look for Aven in the crowd in front of him. At first glance, he can see the naturally cheerful and smiley Aven standing at the back.
It's only been a day since the discussion, but Chaz already missed that lovely face. He feels restless not seeing that face a day, but there's nothing he can do, as there's no reason for him to go and see Aven. Seeing him in the field makes him much more relaxed.
Then they started to practice. Chaz feels burdened for some reason. He meets Aven at last, but his mind goes blank now. He does not know what to do. The answer he got from Trio seems useless and vague. Someone like him, who has never seen or experienced love, cannot comprehend what is actually needed to do.
Yesterday, he gave Aven a chocolate to build a good impression of getting closer. He also tried to take him to lunch, like on the day of club selection, but failed. So, to do the same thing again, he thinks it might be futile.
After the training, the first-year students started to swarm Frank to put their names. Including Aven, he wanted to take the chance. Aven already showed the excitement in his face, wanting to really participate.
Chaz went to Aven after seeing that he had given his name. "You will participate?" asked Chaz.
"Yeah, I kinda want to experience how it feels to play with established teams. I heard even though they are part of an amateur team, it's still different from a club like ours. How is it, senior?" said Aven.
"Maybe. But when it's my time, the Club still wins." Chaz said it very nonchalantly and in a tone of show off.
Aven, do not give an admiring look to Chaz. Instead, he just smiled. This makes Chaz feel embarrassed, as that is not the kind of expression that he thought he would get.
"Really! Well, must be because of you then," said Aven. He must feel it's wrong if he does not say anything.
Aven then looked at the time on his phone. He turned his head up, facing Chaz, and excused himself once again.
Chaz once again lost his chance. Well, what did he expect when show off like that? Maybe he thought Aven is like any other who will admire him anytime. Well, he is wrong.
Chaz just went back after finishing what needed to be done in the field. He does not buy food and instead goes back to his room.
When he arrived, the aura of the room turned dark. What's more, he alone, as Archie, is still at the pool for his practice. As he is alone, it makes the atmosphere of the room more depressing.
He later freshened himself up by taking a bath. He then sits in front of his laptop and starts to dig deeper into the Internet, searching for how he can court Aven. He tried very hard to calculate afterward what he needed to do.