S. F. - 13

***

New.

I scowled as Gun grabbed my arm and dragged me towards the bus. It was the first day of the trip and we were bound to go to the beach as planned.

The university's buses were teeming with students who were chattering about the most random things. Each department was assigned at least two buses and department officers.

The teachers who were going to accompany us weren't there yet so the students were a bit unruly. Usually the P. E. teachers were the ones assigned to events like this so I had no worries about running into you-know-who.

During the previous years, the trips didn't have any teachers accompanying the students since the event aimed to give the students a breather from anything related to school. But it changed when a group of students got hospitalized for alcohol intoxication during last year's trip. Since then, teachers were required to accompany the students or there would be no trips at all.

"Okay, everyone settle down! We'll be leaving in a few minutes."

The department officer who was assigned to our bus announced. I chose a seat at the back of the bus. I planned to sleep the entire journey for I easily got motion sickness when riding a bus whilst Gun chose a seat in the middle.

I had already settled on my seat and was about to close my eyes when Neen, one of my classmates, approached me.

"Is this seat taken?" she asked with a smile.

I was about to say that she could sit there but somebody's voice stopped the both of us.

"Ms Neen, you may take the vacant seat beside Namtan."

"O-Okay Sir."

"W-wait," I attempted to protest but he already took the seat beside me.

"What are you doing here?" I asked lowly as I didn't want others to get the idea that I was getting extra close to my professor.

"I'm your group's designated teacher. Simple as that," he casually replied as he fixed his shirt.

"But why you?"

"Because it's me."

I could only groan in silence as the officer announced our departure whilst hoping that I could survive the entire ride with him beside me.

***

I was already feeling dizzy with all the bus movement. My initial plans of sleeping were unsuccessful because I was being conscious of the person sitting beside me.

"Are you okay?"

I flinched when he placed the back of his hand on my forehead.

"You look pale."

"J-Just a little dizzy," I replied sparingly and moved my head backwards to avoid his hand.

He then grabbed his bag and handed me a bottle of water and a small pill.

"Here take this."

I gawked at his hand and looked around.

"Come on," he then opened the bottle and removed the pill from its packaging.

I hesitantly got the pill and water from his hands whilst looking at the students across our seat. Luckily they were indulged in a conversation.

Okay, New. This is just nothing. He's just taking care of a student as he should.

"This isn't poisonous, right? You're not trying to kill me," I asked in a low voice.

He gave me straight face and leaned back on his seat.

"If I'm going to kill you, it wouldn't be where there's a lot of witnesses. I still had to hide your body, right?"

"P'!" I exclaimed but he just chuckled. I immediately hid when I realized that the other students were already looking at our direction.

"Eace on Earth!" I quickly "added" in pure English hoping it would cover up the stupidity that I just did.

I hurriedly took the pill.

I mean, he wouldn't kill me on the spot, right?

"Try to get some sleep. We still have an hour to travel," he said as he grabbed the bottle from my hand and placed it in his bag.

***

I woke up to the sound of people shouting and laughing.

"You okay?"

I immediately sat up properly as I realized that my head was on his shoulder.

"I-I'm sorry, Sir. I didn't mean to sleep on your shoulder," I quickly apologized as I fixed my hair.

I roamed my eyes around and realized that we were the only ones left inside.

I just wanted to get down the bus but I couldn't leave as he was on the way.

"How long have we been here?" I asked as I looked out the window. Some of the boys were goofing around whilst the girls were taking photos.

"Around 20 minutes."

"You should have woken me up. I-I'm sorry for burdening you."

"It's okay. I'm designated to look after you anyway. Let's go," he said and grabbed his bag.

The first day was filled with activities that aimed to bring us even closer especially to the students from the other departments.

We even had an activity where we were tasked to write a short note on a paper heart and give it to the people we were most thankful for during our stay in the university and a note for the people whom we wanted to say sorry.

I smiled as I pasted my paper hearts on Gunsmile's and White's shirts.

"Ohhhh, you don't have to be this emotional," Gunsmile teased as he pasted a heart on my shirt, too.

"Yeah, this isn't you," White agreed and pasted one on my shirt as well.

"Tsss. We still have a few months together in uni, why are we even being sentimental over this," I said jokingly.

"We missed you, Newwieee. It's been ages since we last met," White then grabbed me and Gunsmile into a tight hug.

"You crazy. We were just together yesterday," I chuckled as he released the two of us.

"Yeah, but you took a different bus today so it still counts. By the way, were you okay? Didn't you get motion sickness? Why don't you sneak in our bus on the way home so we can watch over you?" Gunsmile suggested.

"Nah, I was just fine. You don't have to worry about me."

"Okay, but just tell us if you want to sneak in our bus on the way back. We could always find ways to spare you a seat."

I was about to thank them when Earth approached us.

"New."

"Earth," I gave him a small smile.

He then showed me a paper heart, a red one.

"Can I?" he asked pertaining to sticking the heart on my shirt.

"Uh, yeah sure."

None of us were saying anything as Earth carefully stuck the paper on my shirt. I didn't bother reading the note on it as I planned to read them all together after the activity.

"Thanks," Earth muttered lowly and scratched the back of his head.

It was then that Neen approached me.

"New, Mr Tay wanted you to see him. He said he has a task for you."

I furrowed as I looked for him and immediately spotted him beside the makeshift stage.

"Okay, thanks Neen," I smiled at her before turning back to Gunsmile and White.

"I'll just see what he needs me for. See you."

I quickly jogged towards him. His eyes were fixed on the students who were still roaming around to give their paper hearts.

"Sir? Neen said you need me for something," I asked the moment I reached him.

"Yes. You watch over the students with me. I can't watch over you all at the same time," he replied, his eyes still fixed on the students.

"Huh?" I said in confusion. I glanced at the direction of the other teachers and couldn't help but wonder why I had to help him look out.

"But, Sir," I protested as I didn't wanna spend the rest of the day watching over my colleagues.

"Just do it, New. And remove that red heart on your shirt. It looks awful on you," he muttered before putting his shades on.

I looked at the several paper hearts on my shirt and immediately noticed the one and only red heart that stood out amongst the blue ones.

It was the one Earth stuck to my shirt just a while ago.

***

"Okay! Let's play the King Game!" White announced as he clapped his hands. "Again, remember the deal we had earlier. We should all be men of our words."

Gunsmile, White and some of our common friends were gathered in front of a small bonfire by the beach.

The teachers and department officers gave us the free will to do whatever we wanted for the night as long as it wouldn't include drinking (though we wanted to).

(A/N: The King Game is a game where each player will be given one card. One of the cards has the King logo while the others have numbers on it. The King has the power to give orders to two numbers that he chooses.)

"Earth! Come here join us! We are still in need of one player!" Gunsmile called Earth who happened to pass by our direction.

"Sure," he smiled and sat beside me.

White started distributing the cards. I actually had no plans of participating in this game but Gunsmile insisted we play since we couldn't drink.

I peeked at my card and frowned when it had number 2 on it.

"Okay, who's the King?!" White asked and Gun raised his card.

"I am the King!" he exclaimed as he stood.

"Yeah, a short king," I teased earning a glare from him.

"Tsss. What's your number so I could punish you?"

"I won't tell youuu."

He just scowled at me.

"Okay, I want numbers 1 and 3 to do 15 elephant turns!"

Earth and Mond groaned in unison as they showed their cards.

They both stood and started doing elephant turns. The place was then filled with laughter as the two started stumbling and falling over. Earth even had to crawl his way back to his place.

"Okay, okay, you pass the orders of the King," Gun then announced.

"Okay, we're not even drinking but I'm groggy as fuck," Mond exclaimed as he went back to his place.

"Okay, next turn!" White started shuffling the cards and handed us one. I peeked at my card and was disappointed that it didn't have the King logo again.

"Okay, it's payback time!" Mond announced as he slowly rose from his seat. "I want numbers 3 and 6 to roll on the sand 15 times!"

"What??!" Gun and White immediately protested earning laughters from the rest of us.

"Come on, we don't have all night," Mond teased as Gun started whining and stomping his feet.

We were clutching our stomach due to too much laughter as we watched Gun and White rolled on the sand several times.

Gun then started cursing the moment they were done.

"Yah, you're a merciless king! What if the sand got into our eyes and killed us!"

"Sand won't kill you, Gun," Mond rebutted whilst laughing.

"Too much of everything can be deadly!" Gun whined before going back to his place. "I'm gonna get my revenge."

We all laughed at Gun's announcement but all our laughters subsided the moment he showed his card to all of us.

"HA-HA-HA! Bow down to your King," he announced as he rose up from his seat. "Okay, I want numbers 1 and 5...to kiss...on the lips."

"Wait, what?" We exclaimed in unison. I quickly checked my card and mentally cursed upon seeing the number on it.

"But you do realize we're all guys here, don't you?" Mond interrupted.

"Oh, come on. It's just for fun. There's no malice in it. Remember you have to do what the King asks you to do. We had a deal, right?? Okay, who got numbers 1 and 5," Gun grinned at all of us indicating that everything was going according to his plans.

Everybody cheered when Earth showed his card with the number 5 on it.

I bit my lips as I clutched my card tighter whilst praying that Gun would change his order.

All of them placed the card on the sand whilst I remained clutching mine.

"Okay, New. Come on. We know you got number 1," Gun teased and the rest eventually joined in.

I glanced at Earth who was scratching the back of his neck.

"Are you serious with your order, Gun?" I asked him with pleading eyes hoping it would get him to change his mind.

"100 percent sure. And remember the deal we made? Whoever failed to follow the orders will run the area in his naked glory tomorrow morning," he grinned at me and I could only give him a glare.

Ugh. Okay fine. I guess it would be better to do this than forever bring the humiliation of running naked, right? I mean we could just do a smack. It still counts as a kiss, right? Ugh! I'm seriously strangling Gun after this.

I cleared my throat as I turned towards Earth whose ears were beet red.

"I, uh, okay fine. Let's do this," I inhaled a huge amount of air as I watched Earth moved his head closer. No one was saying a word. It seemed like everyone was anticipating the kiss as they gawked at Earth and me.

Tsss.. Are they watching a movie or what??

I swallowed the lump in my throat as we both slowly closed the distance between us. One small nudge and our lips would eventually touch. I immediately closed my eyes the moment I thought our lips were gonna touch, but all of us were startled when someone spoke behind us.

"That's enough kids. It's already late. You should head back to your rooms."

I muttered a silent prayer of gratitude as we all looked at Mr Tay who just interrupted us thus stopping the kiss that we were about to do.

"But Sir, it's still 9 pm and we just started our game," Gun complained but Mr Tay just maintained a straight face.

"That's an order, not from the king but from your professor who has the authority to dock your points off if you won't follow."

They all groaned as they slowly got up from their places.

"Stay, New. You extinguish the bonfire."

"Huh? But we could just leave it there, Sir," I complained whilst the others already started walking towards their rooms.

"Just do what I say New. We don't want any accidents here."

I frowned but had no choice but to follow his orders.

Tssss. One time he's caring, the next time he's stern. I seriously wanna strangle and bury you in the sand right now, Tay Tawan.

***