C9

" Joss! Son! Here's the food for table 3." Gawin's mother called him.

" Kub." Joss takes the plate from her with a smile in a swift and makes his way through the crowd towards table 3. In the meantime, Gawin is attending to some girls in Table 1, out of which one of the girls has been smiling from ear to ear while looking at Gawin since he went and stood there taking their order.

Joss puts down the plate with a smile. The customers of Table 3 are also girls. They give Joss a flirty smile, whispering to each other while looking at him. Joss didn't really mind as long as the business went well, so he just smiled back politely.

'Excuse me. Can I know ur name?' One of the girls finally speaks up.

'Joss kub.'

'Joss, I like ur name.' Another girl speaks up.

'Thank u.'

'So Joss, let's me be frank with u. Can u give me ur number?'

'I don't think it's appropriate to do that.' Joss replies politely.

'Come on. My friend really likes u and has already gone up to this point for u. Just give it to her, it's her birthday.'

Joss hesitates a bit. 'OK, kub, then let's do this. You can leave me ur number instead, and I'll call u later. How's that?'

'Will u even call me?' The girl who was asking for his number narrows her eyes.

'Of course. Why not?' Joss shows an assuring smile at her.

Joss PoV:

Well, she's right, I won't call her later. But for now, let's just end this situation. She handed me her number, so I took it with a smile before escaping from there. Then suddenly, without realising, my eyes started searching for that one person scanning through every face in the crowd. There he is. Who is he smiling to? I look down at the direction he's smiling at, and there a girl is also smiling, putting her hair back.

"Does he come to work or flirting?"

A little bit of stinging sensation was felt by Joss, it's the truth, but he tries to deny it, denying his own feelings, thinking that maybe he's jealous that he will lose his dear friend to a girl that's all. The rest of the day, he focuses on his own business. Many girls ask for his number, and some even ask if he mind becoming their boyfriend, but Joss handles it all in the most polite and gentle way. Not hurting others' feelings and not doing what he doesn't want to do. He doesn't really like it when people flirt with him. He feels suffocated when he goes through a situation like this, but today, he handles it well, all thanks to Gawin's parents who cheer him up from time to time. As for Gawin, he didn't even talk for a second with Joss since morning. He's busy, they are busy, but the thing is, he doesn't even look his way, which makes Joss's heart sting a bit when he thinks this way for a second but never mind.

The sun slowly started going down. It's already evening, but the crowd is as it is. In fact, it's growing as the night came. Everyone is dead tired, but no one says it out loud. The event wraps up around 1am, and they closed the restaurant at 2am as their were still some customers left. They are really tired but one thing is for sure, they are really happy and satisfied, especially Joss, he feels proud of himself that he's able to help them out. He feels good for a longer duration after a long time.

"Son, u two must be so tired. Thanks for helping us out."

"Pleasures all mine, ma." Joss smiles at Gawin's mom.

"Oi! Seeing ur smile, my tiredness is all gone." Gracy smiles.

"Haha, thanks son, if it wasn't for u, only we three couldn't handle it alone." Pitha taps on Joss's shoulder.

"I'm still here." Gawin speaks up from behind as he feels left out. "Why is no one praising me? Only keeps on praising this Giant." Gawin frowns.

"Haha, u also did well today, G." Joss laughs at G, who is narrowing his eyes at him.

"OK, ok, let's wrap up and head back home. Joss,son, u sleep over at our place tonight." Gracy said with a thankful smile.

"Right, it's dangerous to go back alone." Pitha also supported his wife.

"Let him sleep between u guys. I'm letting him sleep at my room." Gawin sneaks between his parents and looks at them side by side.

At home:

*Sigh*

"Stop sighing. Come on, let's sleep." At last, Joss ends up in Gawin's room. They already wash up, and Joss is already lying down flat on Gawin's bed. Only Gawin is there standing with a hopeless expression plastered on his face.

"Just think that I'm not here." Joss puts his hands behind his head and looks up the ceiling. "I'll not make any noise, so rest assure." Joss smiles.

After 20 minutes...

*Snore.....*

"And u just said u wouldn't make a sound." Gawin turns to his side with an annoyed face. "Damn, how can I sleep with a snoring giant next to me?" He gets up,"Joss...Joss..." he pokes at his shoulder, but Joss didn't budge, so he shakes him slowly at first, and then he shakes him fast, making Joss jump up from his sleep.

"Why!? Who is it!? Don't be afraid I'm here!" Joss pulls in Gawin and hugs him tight, covering Gawin with his own body in a protective way.

"What are u doing!? Let me go!! Before someone gets to kill me, u are going to be the death of me!" Gawin tried his hardest and pulled Joss away. Well Joss lets go of him first otherwise he won't be able to do that.

"Hey, are u ok? What's wrong?" Joss asks him with the softest tone he could ever pull.

"What's wrong? U? The only thing wrong here is u. I want to sleep, but u keep snoring. It feels like a helicopter is buzzing in my ear, thunder happening inside my room, and tractor is going on 24/7. Do u understand?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. It must be because of tiredness. U sleep here, I'll just go and sleep downstairs." Joss smiles and takes the pillow and starts to walk away.

"Whole day..." Before he could open the door, Gawin speaks up.

"Hmm? U said something?" Joss turns around.

"Whole fucking day, u didn't even check on me but keeps on flirting and smiling with the girls." Gawin's eyes are now red maybe because of the light or maybe because of tears.....

"And what about u? U were also busy flirting. Did I say anything?" Joss replies back with a little hint of coldness in his voice.

Gawin frowns and looks at Joss directly in the eyes. "Who was the one who gave his number to the girls first?"

"Huh? U saw that?"

"Flirting so openly in the public like that, who won't see?"

"It's good then. At least people will know I'm quite popular with the girls." Joss smirks.

"Good for u then. Now get out and let me sleep." Gawin lies down and pulls his blanket up. Joss turns around and opens the door, but he takes a glance before going outside. "Cute..." he smirks.

It's not that Joss is saying those things to make Gawin feel bad, but he's just teasing him. He loves it when Gawin sulks, he finds it cute but he knows he have to make it up to him sooner or later as even though he finds it cute, he can't just let him sulk forever but for the time being he just decides to enjoy the drama. He feels happy. In fact, he feels a sense of relief knowing that Gawin is mad because he didn't take care of him all day.

He walks downstairs and sleeps on the couch. It's a little uncomfortable for his big body, but for the day, he still manages it and on top of that he's so tired that he doesn't mind anymore as long as he gets to sleep.

Sometime later, Gawin came and put a blanket on top of him. Joss doesn't know it as he's fast asleep. Gawin looks down in him. "So that u don't die in our house due to cold, not that I care." Gawin turns around quickly and walks to his room.

Both of them don't know what they are really feeling and doesn't even try nor think of giving it a thought. They both know that they are becoming closer and closer with each passing day, but one thing they don't know is the feeling towards each other is getting stronger and stronger day by day to the point that someday it might turn or develops into something else or maybe it has already started developing. Who knows? But with time, even the greatest mysteries unfold themselves.

《See u next chp :)》