Bodyguard University: I Hate Loving You

The Injured Trio

Deciding to drop it, I sighed and said, "Whatever. Let's just go." I turned around, prepared to rush through the doors and lighten up the mood with some leg stretches.

"Actually..." Kinn started. Sharply, I rotated back. "I can't work out with you today," he said cautiously, sheepishly smiling.

"Why not?" A twitch tug in my stomach. I tried to hide my disappointment by frowning. In retrospect, that gave it away.

"I just don't feel like it," Kinn said, his voice growing less confident the more he spoke. I would've believed him more if he'd said he was 190 centimeters and was a professional basketball player.

You're the worst liar.

"Kinn! Porsche!"

We turned our attention to the frantic shouting to see Tine racing across the field with flailing arms. Tine's shirt was untucked, dirt smeared down the front, and a few buttons had been popped, exposing his panting chest.

This guy, again?

Kinn and I exchanged glances, confused as to what the hell was going on. My guess was ghosts. I was hoping I was wrong.

Gasping for air, Tine stopped in front of us, hand clutched to the staircase railing for support. "You need to come with me, quickly!" He waved his finger at us, only to drop his hand to his side from exhaustion.

"What is it?" I asked, not too concerned. Tine wasn't a person anyone took seriously.

"It's Tian! One of the campus strays attacked him." I raised my eyebrows and looked at Kinn, his lips tightening at the information. Tian continued. "Phupha fought it off, but it got pretty bad."

At my friend's name, my heart paused, then jumped back in motion at a much faster pace. Suddenly, I was much more inclined to help. Phupha would dive in front of a train if it meant saving someone. I started worrying of the possible scenarios involving him and that dog, most of which involved too much blood.

"Where are they?" Kinn asked in the voice of a soldier. Either he was used to shit like this happening, or he was merely unaffected by emergencies. His calmness almost put me at ease had I known the severity of the situation.

Tine snagged Kinn's wrist. "This way!" He dragged Kinn down the steps.

Kinn winced upon Tine's pulling but withheld his protest. I frowned, wondering why he seemed so uncomfortable by it. It wasn't like Tine had a killer grip.

I followed Tine and Kinn across the lush-green field and around the corner of a nearby building. There, I saw quite a gruesome scene. Phupha and Tine were groaning on the ground, both covered in scratches. Out of the two, Tian, surprisingly, seemed to be in the worst condition. He was cradling his arm, which was contorted like a bicycle that had just been run over by a big ass truck. His pants looked like they'd been through a shredder, velvet-red liquid oozing from the slits. Laying on his back, Phupha was drenched in sweat, dark-red staining the sides of his pure-white uniform, and breathing like a house was sitting on his chest. Near his ankle, snagged fabric revealed teeth marks gushing with blood.

"Phupha!" I shouted.

I dashed to his side and knelt down next to him. Slamming my bag beside me, I unzipped it and dug out my workout shirt. Carefully, I propped his leg under my bag and fastened the fabric securely around his wounded ankle. It wasn't the most hygienic, but the bleeding needed to slow down.

Phupha sat up, groaning. "We need to take Tian to a hospital."

My gaze peered to Tian. Kinn was sitting by his side, Tian resting against him while Kinn's arms fit snugly around his waist. A weird string pulled at my heart, though I didn't know why. This was not the time for conflicting emotions.