Inspirational quote: Winners focus on winning, losers focus on winners.
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Dr Kozak did take it the wrong way.
In fact, he took the whole of their private conversation the wrong way.
Despite the fact that Kieran told Dr Kozak to not get mad, Dr Kozak still went ahead and got mad anyway.
"How the hell do you know what Esperanza and I said about you?"
Kieran didn't reply, until Dr Kozak sort of did all the indispensable talking for him.
"Let me guess," he told Kieran angrily, folding his arms. "You were eavesdropping again?"
Kieran's eyes widened as he shook his head.
"Uh. No. Not necessarily."
"What do you mean, not necessarily?!" Dr Kozak howled at him. "You were eavesdropping! Kieran, I'm starting to trust you less and less now, honestly. Never thought I'd have to be mad at you four times in one day - less than three hours even."
"Dr Kozak. In all seriousness, I did not eavesdrop. I wasn't supposed to."
Dr Kozak had had enough by now completely. Was he insane for always shouting at people?
"Okay, Well is there some other reason on why you decided to listen to me and Esperanza's conversation even though it didn't even concern you? Because I seriously can't think of any valid reasons right now!"
Kieran fell silent, embarrassed.
"You know, turning red doesn't help either me or you right now!" Dr Kozak snapped, looking at Kieran.
"Okay okay! There's a genuine explanation on why I listened to you and Esperanza's conversation."
"Which is?!" Dr Kozak replied back, almost considering bringing out his gun and shooting Kieran.
For like the fifth time in ten minutes.
"I was about to go into my room anyway to get something but then I kind of realised that you locked it, and I heard my name, so I was just there thinking 'okay, so Dr Kozak and Esperanza are definitely talking about me' so I had to listen to what you said. I'm really sorry. I mean it."
Dr Kozak dropped his phone which Agent Ezekiel gave him as a reward for their 'best friendship', seriously frowning at Kieran.
"So you were eavesdropping," he told Kieran, although much more calmer this time round. "Plus what did you even hear us say about you?"
Kieran couldn't take this anymore. He was annoyed on the inside.
"Say about me? More of badmouth about me, Dr Kozak. And yes, I did eavesdrop. Sort of. But I wasn't really meant to, I just couldn't resist. I heard a lot of stuff you two said, sorry, badmouth, about me, sir."
Dr Kozak rolled his eyes as he picked up his phone from the floor, cursing in French this time round, and not Swahili, before turning to face Kieran again.
"Like...?" He trailed of dramatically.
Almost everything? Kieran wanted to say. He genuinely had heard almost everything that they had said about him, even though he walked away for a while, he came back again much much later.
"Well, I heard you saying to Esperanza how I was useless, worthless, a waste of time... And plenty of other stuff that were too rude to say out loud because they swore and all that, coming from you...."
Dr Kozak physically wanted to strangle Kieran and kill him. He killed people that annoyed him, Kieran was annoying him right now, was it okay to murder him?
"Kid, even if I said all those stuff, you know that I didn't really mean it."
Didn't really mean it? If you didn't really mean it, then why would you say all of those malevolent things about me in the first place then? Kieran thought to himself, which Dr Kozak totally read.
"Esperanza was upset, blah blah blah her closest and older brother died in a car crash, and I couldn't think of any other way to make her happy again-"
"Except to badmouth me, Dr Kozak?" Kieran said, annoyance rising up inside of him.
Dr Kozak just purposely bit his lip and looked away.
"You know what?" Kieran ranted at Dr Kozak, who stared straight at him. Or through him, it was hard to tell in this particular scenario.
"What?" Was all Dr Kozak was bothered to say back.
"I've had it! Completely. It's always Esperanza Esperanza Esperanza at the top of your 'priority list', isn't it? What about me?"
Dr Kozak didn't reply, just scanned Kieran's face, wondering what evil demon had gotten into him lately that made him this irritating.
"See, you're speechless, I should have known." Kieran whispered back, slouching.
Dr Kozak just squinted at him, frowning.
"No, Kieran, I wasn't speechless. I was just thinking something."
"Well, stop thinking stuff! You can read my mind, and everyone else's, no one can read yours. I'm just done to death with you and Esperanza all the time hiding important things away from me."
Dr Kozak read Kieran's mind, which Kieran wasn't aware of, and as he was reading it, he sort of became vexed at Kieran.
It's always about Esperanza with you, Dr Kozak, isn't it? Jeez, I wish you and Esperanza never met sometimes, or that God never created her. She should go die in a well.
"Aha. I see your problem, Kieran," Dr Kozak told Kieran, almost scowling at him.
Kieran just stared back at Dr Kozak, not knowing what the hell he was currently bleating on about.
"What are you talking about? I don't have a problem."
Dr Kozak just gazed back at Kieran unconvinced, and soon after it was almost a silent staring competition between them until Dr Kozak had eventually decided to say something once and for all.
"Yes you do, and I know what it is. I think it's kind of cute, yet it sickens me at the same time."
Kieran didn't say anything.
Calmly, anyway.
"What? I don't have a godforsaken problem!"
Dr Kozak just smiled mischievously at Kieran back in return.
"Yes you do," he replied, smiling to himself complacently as he fixed himself in the rear view mirror. "Kieran, you really really do."
Kieran didn't reply, he couldn't really think of one without sounding dim witted anyway.
"You're jealous, Kieran." Dr Kozak whispered in Kieran's ear, making Kieran personally want to cringe on the inside.
"Ever considered being jealous? Because I'm pretty sure that you are."
Kieran turned red, having to seriously think about it.
"I'll give you some time to think about it. And I can sense that you are jealous. I remember that you went absolutely delusional the other day when I kept on answering Esperanza's questions before yours..."
Kieran wanted to practically die and throw up on the inside.
"I'm not jealous," he told Dr Kozak quietly.
"You are jealous, Kieran. Every time I talk about Esperanza, you always look like you're about to kill me, always looking like you want to write my epitaph or something because you think I favour Esperanza over you or something. Gosh. I don't know, I hardly understand what's going on inside of your little brain, kid."
He did favour Esperanza over Kieran... didn't he?
It was really hard to tell.
Kieran rolled his eyes in absolute disbelief.
"I highly doubt it."
"See? You just rolled your eyes at me. Hmm... Maybe you're more than jealous, Kieran. You look like you want to murder Esperanza for being alive or something."
Hmm. You know what? Maybe I do, Kieran thought, where Dr Kozak just gasped as he read what Kieran had thought.
"I'm not jealous, though," Kieran told him.
"Then what are you?"
"Fed up," Kieran answered.
A rather long melodramatic pause from Dr Kozak as he was almost seriously thinking something.
"Jealously fed up?"
"For goodness sake, Demetrius!" Kieran shouted, which kind of made Dr Kozak burst out laughing.
"Kidding. I was just messing with ya, Kieran. Okay so, why do you always get so worked up when I talk about Esperanza?"
"Because I feel like you don't like me, as in, you don't really care about me, or you pretend that I'm invisible every time you see her, just because you've known her for longer. It just makes me so.. Angry because you kind of treat me unfairly compared to Esperanza. It's almost like you've got a hierarchy of your favourite people, with Esperanza at the top and me at the very bottom..."
Dr Kozak felt really horrible, so horrible that he kind of wanted to kill himself. He knew he knew Esperanza for longer and all that, but he didn't know that his relationship with Esperanza had seriously started to affect Kieran.
"Aw, Kieran, don't say that," Dr Kozak told Kieran in return, rubbing Kieran's back sympathetically, which Kieran actually allowed him to do, until he got so fed up that he kind of shooed Dr Kozak's hand away.
"I don't have a hierarchy of my favourite people. I love you guys both equally."
Yeah, but maybe Esperanza just a tad bit more, perhaps? Kieran thought to himself, half jealously, half not.
"Plus if you don't have a hierarchy of your favourite people, then why would you tell Esperanza that you did?"
"She was upset, Kieran, what did I tell you? What, so you expected me to tell her the truth, where she'd most likely get all crazy and do some haywire jujitsu on me? Haha! Imagine that."
Kieran laughed just thinking about it.
"Okay, so, no hard feelings, then?"
"Nope." Dr Kozak told him, shaking his head really slowly. "No hard feelings."
Then Kieran kind of hugged Dr Kozak after that, which Kieran thought was a hug but really wasn't.
"Oh, this isn't a hug kid," Dr Kozak told Kieran, who was trying to lean behind Kieran. "I was just trying to open the car door for ya."
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Moral of chapter: If you want to have a conversation with someone, just never have it in front of Kieran. He will most likely eavesdrop!