Chapter 39: Chapter 39

Ryan was planning to wash her dirty clothes today. But the washing machine is broken.

It’s been two hours since she started hand-washing her clothes in the backyard of the boarding house. But now, she is still not finished. She could just go to the laundry shop. However, the shop was far away. She also didn’t like the idea of carrying her clothes on her own.

‘Living alone is difficult,’ she sighed inwardly while washing the clothes.

“It’s tiring.”

Ryan kneaded the garment with detergent. Then, Kyle came.

Kyle saw her sweating so hard as if she was in the middle of a war.

‘Still, she’s cute,’ he thought.

Kyle quickly shook his head and took deep breaths.

It’s been half a month since he started to avoid Ryan. He thought this was the time to talk to her.

“The washing machine is broken, right?” Kyle said.

Ryan looked at Kyle with widened eyes. She was surprised that Kyle was talking to her now.

‘Maybe, he doesn’t have a period anymore,’ Ryan thought, forgetting the fact that men don’t have ovaries.

“Yup. The washing is broken. That’s why I am hand-washing all my clothes.

“It was Slyvester’s fault,” Kyle brought up the person who should be held accountable. “He put a lot inside the machine, that’s why it suddenly stopped working.”

He sat down next to her and looked into her eyes.

The awkwardness settled.

Staring Kyle up close, Ryan was really curious why he avoided her before.

“About the rumors,” Kyle said. “Don’t worry about it anymore, Ryan. I told my friends not to believe it. They reassured me that they will tell their other friends that the bad rumors aren’t true.”

Kyle knew that right now Ryan needed a friend. So, he stopped avoiding her.

Ryan gave him a faint smile. “Thanks, Kyle. It was comforting to hear that from a friend.”

‘A friend.’

Kyle twitched at the endearment, but he tried to hide a grimace.

He was used to seeing Ryan draw a line between their relationship.

‘All I need to do is to endure it,’ Kyle thought.

“Do you want me to help you?” Kyle offered.

Ryan would be happy to get some help! But she remembered that it would be awkward to let a guy friend wash her undergarments.

Glancing at her panty and bra, Ryan said, “N-No. I’m fine! I am really FINE.”

“Are you sure? I have a lot of time and I wash my own clothes too. So, I can really help you.”

Ryan sighed. She wished Kyle would have the common sense to answer his question. Fortunately, Chaylen came to the rescue.

“Kyle, don’t you get it? There’s a reason why Ryan doesn’t want your help,” Chaylen said. “If you help her wash her clothes, then you have to touch her undergarments too. She’s not fine with that, you idiot.”

Ryan and Kyle blushed in unison.

“S-Sorry, Ryan! I didn’t know! Sorry!” Kyle sincerely apologized. He wished the Earth would swallow him right now!

The silly Chaylen approached the lady and teased her, “But I am fine with that, Ryan. Touching ladies’ undergarments isn’t new to me,” he added.

Just like Kyle, Chaylen avoided Ryan before. But now, he is back to normal. Ryan was happy that Chaylen returned to his usual annoying character.

“Shut up, Chaylen. You’re not helping,” Ryan said.

“Don’t be shy, baby. Give it to me. I will help you.”

Chaylen was about to get Ryan’s clothes from the pail. He was only joking, of course. But Ryan thought he was serious and so she stood up and pulled him.

“I SAID DON’T TOUCH… AHH!”

Ryan stepped on the detergent and slipped backward. Chaylen, who has a quick reflex, wrapped his arms around Ryan’s waist. But the floor was slippery, so Chaylen fell down too.

“Oh sh*t!”

“Ahhh!”

As a result, Ryan’s butt went straight into the batch while Chaylen went atop her.

“Ryan! Are you okay?” Kyle asked worriedly.

Ryan opened her eyes and saw Chaylen lying in front of her. Her body was soaked with the detergent. She felt so sticky.

“This is your fault!” She blamed Chaylen.

“Hey, I was trying to save you, ugh,” Chaylen said, wincing as he looked back at Ryan’s face.

When he realized their position, Chaylen stiffened.

Seeing her face up close, he was alarmed. He stared at her lips and gulped.

Ryan pushed him away and protested, “How long are you going to stare at me? Get up! You’re so heavy!”

As if snapped out, Chaylen moved and stood straight.

He was blushing when he turned his head away to Ryan’s direction, afraid that he might see her alluring lips again.

Meanwhile, Ryan had a hard time getting out of the pail.

“Chaylen, your joke is too much,” Kyle complained to Chaylen before he offered his hand to Ryan. “Come on Ryan, grab my hand and…”

Kyle stopped when he saw Ryan’s image.

She was wet with soap and her hair was hanging down. There was a weird filter in Kyle’s eyes that made Ryan look so sexy and seductive.

Kyle gulped.

“Thanks Kyle,” Ryan said and was about to grab Kyle’s hand.

However, Kyle suddenly withdrew his hand and moved backward. He changed his mind. If he touched Ryan right now, he was certain that he might do something to her.

Raising one brow, Ryan observed the two men in front of her. They were both avoiding her gaze.

“So, no one will help me? All right. I got this,” Ryan said.

She tried her best to get out of the pail and succeeded with a grunt.

“Gosh. I am not finished washing my clothes, but I need to go in and take a bath. Darn it.”

She glared at the two and jolted her feet back inside the boarding house.

When she left, the two men, who were imagining wild things inside their heads, looked in her direction. They sighed in unison.

Meanwhile, Sylvester was spending his weekend watching a horror movie named “Bubble Man.”

In the movie, the protagonist was being chased by a monster who came out from the washing machine. That’s why he was called a bubble man. Anyway, the movie was scary even though the title doesn’t sound intimidating at all.

After watching the movie, Sylvester went out of his room to get something to eat. However, on his way to the kitchen, he saw bubbles on the floor.

“B-Bubbles…” Slyvester uttered.

With a loud beating of his heart, he followed the trace of the bubbles. Then at the end of the chase, he saw a monster with bubbles around her.

“Ahhhhh!” Sylvester shouted and fell backward on the ground.

The monster looked back and frowned at him.

“Why are you shouting?” Ryan asked. “Are you all right?”

Sylvester caressed his chest after recognizing that the monster was not the bubble monster he saw in the movie, but only Ryan, who had bubbles around her body.

Then, he glared at Ryan.

“Why are you walking around with bubbles around you?! You scared me!”

“Is there something scary about bubbles?” Ryan wondered.

“There is! Have you watched ‘Mr. Bubbleman?’”

Ryan shook her head.

“What? You haven’t? You don’t use your extra time very well. Watch it! It’s fun. Ouch!”

Sylvester stopped promoting the movie when he felt pain in his ankle. It was then he remembered that he had fallen on the floor.

“You don’t look fine. Here, grab my hand.”

Ryan offered her hand to Slyvester.

Staring at her hand, Sylvester had an idea.

“Ouch! Ouch! I don’t think I can stand up anymore!” He acted like he was in so much pain when actually, Sylvester can stand up on his own or even run. “My right knee hurts so much!”

Ryan looked at his hand and his knee. Then he said, “You are touching your left knee.”

Sylvester paused for a second before he swiftly put his hands on his right knee.

“Ahhh! It hurts so much!”

‘Sylvester is acting,’ Ryan guessed. She couldn’t help but find him so cute and entertaining.

She loves to see him acting cute and funny, and she was happy that he was behaving just like his usual self.

“Is it too painful? Then, do you want me to help you?” she asked, even though she knew that Sylvester was lying.

“Will you?” Sylvester acted coy.

When Ryan walked closer to him, Slyvester smiled secretly. He winced in pain as Ryan pulled him up, when in fact, it wasn’t that painful at all.

“Can’t you walk back to your room?” Ryan asked.

With his arm around Ryan’s shoulder, Sylvester shook his head.

“I don’t think I can go there alone. I need help,” he lied.

‘This sly fox,’ Ryan laughed inwardly.

“Okay. I will take you there.”

Ryan started to take him back to his room.

Thinking that he fooled Ryan, Sylvester stared at Ryan’s side profile. He was smiling ear to ear while peeking at the lady’s eyes, cheek, and lips.

His eyes stopped right there; there at Ryan’s red and soft lips. Slyvester felt the heat rushing on his nape. When he gulped, he felt as if there was a barb inside his throat.

“Ahem,” Slyvester coughed and looked away with reddened ears.

Sylvester knew that Ryan was in danger. If she brings him inside his room, he might lose control and push her onto the bed.

‘What the! I am not Chaylen! Why am I thinking like this?!’ Sylvester complained to himself.

Seconds of battling his own thoughts, they arrived inside Sylvester’s room.

Ryan supported him and let him sit down.

“G-Go out,” Sylvester said.

“Huh?”

“You are w-wet right now. So go out and change your clothes inside your room.”

“Aren’t you going to thank me for playing with you?”

Frowning, Sylvester looked back and asked. “Playing?”

“Right. I know that you are not injured, and you were just playing.”

Sylvester blushed.

“Then why did you follow me inside?” he asked and added something inside his head, ‘You really don’t know what’s going inside my mind now that you are here with me alone in my room.’

“Because nowadays, it feels so hard to talk to you. Now tell me. What did I do to you? Why do you look so mad at me?”

“Huh?”

‘So, she was still thinking that I am mad at her?’ Sylvester thought.

“When you are mad at me, you don’t talk that much. You and I haven’t talked these past few days. I thought everyone was pranking me.”

“What do you mean that everyone was pranking you?”

“Well, all of you suddenly avoided me. Ahh, except for Vincent and Terban.”

When Ryan brought Terban to the topic, Sylvester’s mood plummeted.

“I TOLD YOU I AM NOT ANGRY AT YOU,” he said in a shallow voice.

“Then?”

“I was confused before. But now that I know the answer, there’s no need for me to run away.”

Invisible question marks appeared near Ryan’s head.

‘I didn’t get it,’ Ryan complained in her head. She wanted to ask for more, but she feels that Sylvester would answer the same thing.

Then she looked at herself.

‘I’ll wash first.’

“If you’re not mad, then that’s great. I’m going now.”

Ryan walked away. She opened the door and saw Vincent outside.

Vincent’s hand was in mid-air. He was about to knock on the door and was surprised to see Ryan coming out of Sylvester’s room.

Sylvester stood up when he saw Vincent. “H-Hey.”

Vincent looked alternately at Ryan and Sylvester before he pressed Ryan’s nose as if he was pressing a doorbell.

“Huh?” Ryan uttered, holding her nose.

“Why is Ryan here?” Vincent interrogated.

Ryan and Sylvester couldn’t answer. They didn’t do anything, but they looked so guilty.

“Ryan avoided going inside my room,” Vincent added. “But she can go in and out of Sylvester’s room? That’s so unfair.”

“D-Don’t think of anything, V-Vincent,” Slyvester finally spoke.

Vincent ignored Sylvester and stared at Ryan. “Ryan, explain this to me. Sylvester and I are both men. Why did you go inside his room when you can’t even step inside my room?”

“S-Slyvester will explain everything. Get out of my way.” She tried to escape but Vincent put his arm on the doorsill to block her.

“You can’t go out without giving me an answer. What are you doing here? ANSWER ME.”

Sylvester walked to Vincent. He held Vincent’s arms and said, “Ryan helped me go back to my room because my foot was injured. Okay?”

Sylvester gave the signal to Ryan, telling her to go out while he was holding Vincent’s hands. Ryan then nodded her head and ran away.

When she left, Vincent narrowed his eyes at Sylvester. "Injured huh?" he whispered before he stepped on Sylvester’s foot.

“Ahhh!” Sylvester winced in pain.

He jumped up and down while holding the foot that Vincent stepped on.

“That’s what you called real injury,” Vincent murmured while leaning on the door sill.

On the other side, Ryan hurried and went inside her room.

“I was only playing with Sylvester. I didn’t expect Vincent to come! That was so embarrassing!” Ryan said.

If Ryan thinks that being caught in the same room with Sylvester will be a pain in the ass, then she is wrong.

Because this is just the beginning of her messy life inside the boarding house.