Ohm was beyond ecstatic when he saw Nanon training with them again during their morning practice. He almost ran up to his bestfriend to welcome him back but he remembered what Nanon had done so he just acted as if he didn't care.
Their first few drills went well and so did the half-hour scrimmage between Team A and Team B. Even though Ohm was still disappointed at how Nanon couldn't trust him with his secret, he almost forgot about their issue when they were playing together. He couldn't count how many times he wanted to high five or chest bump Nanon every time they did an excellent play but he kept restraining himself. He wanted Nanon to apologize to him first. What the hell is taking him so long, he complained.
---
As expected, Nanon waited until everyone was done taking a shower before he entered the shower room himself. Just like what he did back in high school, he also tried to do it as quickly as possible.
Unlike the other boys who were just wearing their underwear and a towel inside the locker room, he was already almost dressed up when he stepped out of the shower area.
He was quietly fixing his things when the rest of the team came in with pizza and drinks.
"Welcome back to the team!" Zee shouted as the guys started helping themselves to the refreshments.
"Thanks, Kuya," Nanon told Zee, pleased about the surprise pizza party.
"No problem. We're just happy that you decided to come back."
"Yeah, now we have a very reliable sub in case Ohm is having a bad shooting day," another senior added.
Nanon quickly glanced at Ohm but quickly withdrew his eyes when he saw that Ohm was also looking at him.
Zee walked towards Nanon and whispered to him, "You don't have to wait for all of us to finish showering before you come in, you know. Nobody here cares, okay? Just do your thing and don't mind us. Like what I said, we're all brothers here."
Nanon managed to smile and nod at Zee. He was so deeply touched so he could barely react.
While the entire team was having a good time, joking around about their latest game, Arm stormed in with an incredulous face.
"What is this? A debut party for our princess?" he said loudly.
No one paid attention to him so he spoke again.
"Come on guys. Don't tell me we're not even allowed to make jokes around here anymore."
Zee promptly stood up and answered him, "Arm just grab a pizza and eat, okay?"
Arm sort of followed Zee's order. "Who bought these by the way?" he asked as he helped himself to the pizzas.
"I did," said Chimon, ready to rebut whatever stupid thing Arm was gonna say next.
"Ooohh. So our princess has a prince charming, huh." Arm continued to tease.
"So Nanon, princess, when will you be inviting all of us to a gay bar or something? Or better yet, you can pay some of us and we will gladly dance for you in our underwear. Haha.
"Tell me, it must be fun to have a free male show every day, right? Look, there are half-naked young men all around you. And did you enjoy the free show during shower-"
Arm couldn't finish what he was about to say because Ohm's fist already landed on his mouth with so much force that he lost balance and fell on the floor.
"Say something nasty about Nanon again and I'll break your skull!" Ohm shouted at him.
Half of the guys rushed to stop Ohm from hitting Arm again.
"Yeah?" Arm said while wiping the blood oozing from his mouth. "We'll see how brave you are when I report you to coach and the dean. You'll be out of this team by tomorrow. Or even better, out of this school."
Arm stood up, glared at Ohm, waiting for a response but got nothing. He eventually pushed away some of the guys who were holding him then walked out.
The rest of the team gradually left the locker room one by one until only Ohm, Nanon and Chimon were left.
Nanon approached Chimon and whispered, "Can I please talk to Ohm in private please? I'll meet you outside in five minutes."
"Okay," Chimon said then left the room.
A few minutes of silence went by before Nanon had enough.
He slowly walked to Ohm, grabbed his right hand and examined it.
"Is your hand ok?" he asked without looking at Ohm's face.
"It's fine," Ohm answered flatly.
"You shouldn't have done that," Nanon said in a gentle tone. "You know how unreasonable Arm is."
"You expect me to just sit down and watch someone talk to you like that?" Ohm still sounded mad.
"But you just gave him a reason to retaliate. He's right, you know. You may be cut from the team, or worse, expelled," Nanon spoke softly, seemingly scared to offend Ohm.
Ohm pulled his hand from Nanon's grasp and put both hands on Nanon's shoulders.
"Look at me Nanon," he said.
Nanon slowly turned his face up and stared back at his bestfriend.
Ohm made sure Nanon was looking back at him before continuing. "I know you don't trust me as much as you trust other people but I'll be dead before I let anyone insult you like that."
He then let go of Nanon and walked out without another word.
Meanwhile Nanon was left standing there with a worried face, unsure what to feel.
---
Later that morning, the entire team was called before the coach, Mr. Reyes and team manager, Mr. De Leon. Apparently, Arm had already reported the incident to them.
Nanon has never seen Mr. Reyes as serious as he looked at that moment. "What happened today is embarrassing and should never have happened," he started. "Our team and our school have strict guidelines regarding violence. Whatever the reason is, no one is allowed to physically harm another student."
He then spoke directly to Ohm, "Ohm, you've made a huge mistake. I'm afraid I won't be able to help you when this case goes up to the student affairs office."
Zee asked, "What's the worst thing that could happen, coach?"
Mr. Reyes waited for a few seconds before speaking, "The possibility of expulsion from USC is not out of the question. This is a Catholic institution after all. There is little to zero tolerance for cases like this, especially if Arm here will file charges. So Ohm, better tell your parents. You're in danger of not only being cut from the team. You may also have to find another school."
Chimon stood up and spoke, "Mr. Reyes and Mr. De Leon, if Ohm gets removed from the team roster, please know I won't be staying too. I will call my parents and tell them what happened."
Nanon also stood up. "Same goes with me, Mr. Reyes and Mr. De Leon, if Ohm goes, I'll go too."
One by one, the other players all stood up and expressed their support for Ohm.
Zee spoke last, "With all due respect Mr. Reyes and Mr. De Leon, Ohm has no record of violence even going way back to his high school career. Arm was deeply wrong in this instance. The entire team was having a great time this morning until he came in and started spewing derogatory comments against one of our teammates. If Ohm didn't do anything, maybe one of us would have eventually done it. Please consider us when you make your decisions. I would rather have Ohm stay than Arm."
The rest of the team members agreed.
Arm was red with embarrassment. Everyone was staring at him with contempt.
He stood abruptly and said, "Fine. You guys win. I will forget what happened but this will be the last time I'm gonna tolerate this kind of shit." After saying that, he grabbed his bag and stomped out of the room.
---
Jane and New were given the low down of everything that happened earlier that morning while they were having lunch.
True to his word, Chimon did buy food for everyone because Nanon joined the team again.
"I could get used to free lunch, Chi," New teased as he was slurping down the last of his noodles.
"Me too," agreed Jane.
Chimon laughed. "Don't get used to it. This will only be until the end of the week."
Chimon then turned to Nanon who had been quiet all along, "Hey Non, cheer up. Everything's gonna be ok."
"Yeah, Non. Don't worry. If I have to talk to Namtan and Arm so they would shut up about what happened, I will," added New.
"I'm just worried about Ohm. I don't trust Arm a bit. Who knows? He might change his mind and wreak havoc again," Nanon said.
"He better keep his word. Or I'll go and punch him too. I don't think he would be that stupid to file a case against Ohm. Unless he wants to be the only player left in the team. By the looks of it, no one is on his side," Jane blurted out while taking a long sip of her milk tea.
"I agree with Jane. Arm is an asshole but he's a thinking asshole. Im positive he'll keep his word," shared Chimon.
"Besides, you can ask help from your parents. Your dad is a congressman and your mom's a provincial governor, right?" New asked Nanon.
"Uhuh. But I don't want them to get involved though. You know how politicians are. They'd kill me if they get even a whiff of gossip like this."
"I know. I hate politics. How I wish my dad would give up on his political dreams and just focus on the family business like my mom," agreed New.
"Wait, Senator Quizon is your father?" Jane wondered.
"Yep, unfortunately," New said.
"Whoa! I didn't know I had such big time friends!" Jane teased.
"Haha. Nanon's family is way more powerful. In my case, it's just my dad. For Nanon, his entire family is into politics. They have control over their entire province."
"Politics is one thing," Nanon said. "However, if it comes to net worth, we'll have to bow down to Chimon Tan and his family's business empire; from construction to 5-star resorts."
"Hey, that's their money. I'm just a poor guy relying on my allowance. If we're gonna talk about money, Ohm has to be the boss. Not only is his family filthy rich, Ohm himself has been managing a few businesses on his own since high school, right Nanon?"
Nanon was about to agree when he noticed a guy walking towards them. He nudged New. "Hey New, isn't that guy from the school paper as well? I recognize his shirt."
New's expression was suddenly blank, "Yep, that's Tay Guzman. Arm's bestfriend."
The four quietly waited for Tay to reach their table. New half-expected Tay to talk to him but instead, the guy walked up to Nanon.
Tay spoke in a very humble, almost embarrassed tone upon getting close enough to Nanon. "Hi, you're Nanon, right?"
"Yep, kuya," Nanon replied.
"I'll go straight to the point. I came here to apologize for what Arm said to you. I heard about it from Kuya Zee when he talked to me an hour ago. I'm really sorry, Nanon. I have reprimanded Arm the first time he did this and we haven't talked since. It pains me that he did it again. I just want you to know I don't agree with the things he has said to you. I'm sorry," he ended.
"It's OK kuya. You have nothing to do with it. Don't worry."
"Thanks, Nanon. I would go and slap his face right now but I don't wanna talk to him yet. He has clearly not learned his lesson. Well that's all I have to say. Bye guys."
With that, he turned to leave without saying another word.
He had barely taken a few steps when he heard New make a comment.
"If I know, he's also a homophobe like his best friend."
Tay felt like someone just punched his face.
He quickly turned around and approached New. This time, his eyes were full of disdain.
"You, who gave you the right to call me names without knowing who I am?" he almost shouted. "You called me a homophobe? What made you say that, huh?"
New didn't expect Tay to hear his comment and suddenly couldn't speak. He was sure that Tay was a homophobe but didn't know why he thought so. Unable to answer, he looked down and avoided Tay's eyes
Tay took that as New's admission of guilt.
"Next time, before you say such things about other people, make sure you know what you're talking about," he said before storming off.
---
It was around nine in the evening and Jane was bored to death so she checked her phone and opened Twitter. She mindlessly typed Arm Lopez in the search bar, hoping to know more about the guy.
She almost had a heart attack when she saw Arm's latest tweet posted just one minute ago.
It was a photo of Nanon in his USC jersey with the caption "So proud of one of our latest rookies: Nanon Ramos, the first ever proudly GAY member of our basketball team. #YouGoBro #GayPower"
"What the actual fuck?!" she screamed. She wasted no time and called Nanon right away.
However, after so many rings, she got a feedback that his phone was unattended.
---
At that same exact moment, New was about to go to sleep when his phone beeped. He saw that he got notified of a tweet from Namtan.
"Ugh," he moaned as he sat up to check his phobe. He mindlessly clicked on the notification and read Namtan's tweet.
She just quote retweeted Arm's post and tweeted: "Go @NanonRamos! #LGBTPride."
New's face was as white as paper as he started dialing Nanon's phone number.
"Fuck no. Shit," he muttered while waiting for Nanon to answer. He almost threw his phone on the wall when he heard that Nanon's phone was unattended.
He checked Namtan's tweet again and saw that it had already been retweeted more than 500 times. New kept uttering profanities while thinking of what to do next.
---
Meanwhile, Jane was pacing back and forth in her condo. She was on the verge of panicking so she called New.
"Emergency!" she shouted when she heard New answer her call.
"Oh my god Jane! You saw the tweets too? Nanon won't answer my call!" New replied, also out of breath.
"I couldn't reach him too. We need to call that asshole Arm so he could delete his tweet," Jane suggested.
"I don't know his number but I will call Namtan right now. Talk to you later Jane."
New ended the call and dialed Namtan's number. It only took a few seconds for Namtan to answer.
"Hi New! I missed you-"
"What the fuck is wrong with you Namtan? Delete your tweet!" New was fuming with anger.
"Slow down! What tweet are you talking about?" Namtan sounded confused.
"Fuck, Namtan. Don't ever show your face to me again. Delete your fucking tweet!" New ended the call before he could say more hurtful things to his friend. He was livid. Why on earth would Namtan retweet something like that? He couldn't believe how absolutely stupid she was. Or did she do it on purpose? What for?
New was about to call Jane again but someone called him first. It was Chimon.
"Hello New, have you seen the tweets? Nanon is trending on Twitter right now. And he won't answer his phone. What should we do? Fuck! He's not yet out to his family. This is not gonna end well."
"Hi Chi, Jane and I tried calling him as soon as we saw the tweets, but he wouldn't answer his phone."
"I'm going to his condo right now," Chimon said.
"Okay. Please send me the address. I'll ask Jane if she can come too."
---
Chimon had been knocking at Nanon's door for several minutes and was about to give up when New and Jane arrived. They joined in on knocking on the door and calling Nanon's name. The three of them were all so worried that they didn't even notice Nanon walking up to them from the elevator.
He was smiling, pleased to see his friends. "Hey! What are you doing here guys? I went out to have some ramen. Oh shoot. I forgot my phone inside. What's up?"
Chimon was first to give in and hugged Nanon. New and Jane followed suit.
Nanon was feeling more confused as the hug continued to tighten around him. Jane was already crying while New and Chimon both looked like somebody just died.
"What's wrong guys? You're making me worry. What happened?" Nanon was still smiling awkwardly.
Chimon then said, "Let's go inside first. Then we'll talk."