Guardian (RamKing)

Chapter Three

Ram was sending hit after hit at the punching bag, making it swing violently. He was desperately trying to vent his emotions. His thoughts were in chaos and, as a result, he had been barely sleeping. It was even worse than the last time he had been avoiding King. Ram understood how he felt about King now. Unfortunately, Ram was pretty sure King did not feel the same way. He had overheard King talking to Tee a few times and it was clear that King had only first approached him because he found Ram odd. It hurt to know that, but he knew that King did not mean anything by it. King was interested in the unusual, so he had wanted to be Ram's friend. Now, they were friends, and Ram liked being friends with King, so he had to stay away and try to get over his feelings. There was nothing else to do.

"Hey, Ram! Want to spar?" One of his friends at the boxing gym yelled from in the ring.

Ram nodded and stepped into the ring, stretching. One of the trainers joined them to referee the match. Once they started, Ram finally felt calm. Everything faded away apart from his opponent. He was completely focused. However, the fight couldn't last forever. As soon as Ram won, all of his internal turmoil came flooding back. Cursing in his head, he headed to the showers.

When Ram opened his locker to grab his clothes, he noticed that the light on his phone was blinking. He unlocked it and blinked in shock at the number of missed calls and texts from Duen. Sure that something was wrong, he called him back.

"Duen, what's wrong?"

"Uh, nothing."

Even if Duen's tone didn't make Ram suspicious, the number of texts and calls would. There was obviously something.

"Why did you keep calling me then?"

Ram could hear the murmuring of voices on the other end and then a quite clear yell, that sounded very much like Boss, "Put it on speaker!"

"Uh, Ram, you're on speaker now," Duen said, appearing to be nervous as his voice was shaky.

"Mmm," Ram made a noncommittal noise as he pulled on his clothes, holding the phone between his shoulder and his cheek.

"So, Ram, what's going on between you and King?" Bohn asked, sounding very much like a protective father.

Ram was definitely not expecting that, and his phone dropped to the floor when his body jerked in surprise. Moving quickly, Ram picked it up and made a confused, "huh?"

The genuine confusion in Ram's voice threw King's friends. They had been so certain that Ram and King were dating and had wanted to scare him, but Ram's reaction was not one of fear. It seemed like he had no idea what they were talking about.

"You guys aren't dating?" Boss asked, the first one to recover once again.

"No!"

"Oh..."

Sighing, Ram decided he was going to talk to King's friends. It made him a little uncomfortable, but he just kept reminding himself that Duen was there. Besides, he really wanted to know why King's friends were asking him that.

"Why would you think we were dating?"

There was silence on the other end as King's friends were now deciding what to say. Were they going too far? Maybe King liked Ram and hadn't confessed yet. They couldn't tell Ram anything. King was their friend, so they always had his back. Unfortunately, Duen had not been hanging out with the group for long and did not understand their silent communication. In fact, he was totally oblivious to their expressions, eye contact, and gestures.

To the shock of the others, Duen answered, "Well, King was in a really bad mood like you have been and when Bohn told him that you had been fighting, he got really angry. He's on his way to you now. Also, some of the stuff you two do seems more like boyfriend behaviour."

"He's on his way?!" Ram was suddenly terrified; he just completely ignored the rest of what Duen had said.

"Ye-" Ram hung up the phone before Duen could finish.

Shit. Shit, shit, shit. Ram sank onto the bench and held his head in his hands. He was completely freaking out. King was coming to him. He was going to see King. Oh, and King was angry. Ram continued sitting there for a few minutes, paying no attention to the people coming in and out of the locker room. Finally, he pulled himself together and realised he had only managed to put on his trousers before the phone call had become disturbing. He had no idea how close King was, so he quickly tugged on the rest of his clothes.

King sighed as he kept playing on his phone. He had been on the bus for quite some time now since Ram's location was far from the university campus. His phone bleeped, letting him know he had a message. It was an old childhood picture from one of his early birthdays. He was dressed as a king with a crown that was a little too big for his head, surrounded by his smiling family.

He texted her back: "Where did you find this?"

Sis: "I was cleaning out some old boxes and found it. You used to love stories about kings and dressing up like one. It was so cute."

King's sister had reminded him of an old story that he used to make his mother read to him over and over. It was about a wise king who always knew what to do. His friends would come to see him one by one, each with a different problem. The king would give them his advice and try to solve their problems. One day, the king himself came across a problem and he couldn't figure out how to solve it. He spent hours and hours thinking in his room, but he couldn't find a solution. Eventually, one of the king's friends, a knight, asked the king if something was wrong. The king insisted there was no need to worry and that he could figure it out himself. The knight was concerned about the king, so he went around to all their other friends and together they helped the king solve his problem. Since he was wise, the king realised that his insistence on trying to do it all himself was stupid, but he hadn't realised that until the knight had showed him. To prevent it from happening again, the king appointed his friend, the knight, to be his guardian so that he would have always have someone to help him.