Flip the Coin [BL]-Chapter 241. Intent

I heard voices coming closer but ignored them until the glass door was pushed open.

"Oh no; disturbed two faggots making out." A voice mumbled quietly; however, Henry and I heard it loud and clear; it was the skinny guy.

Perfect timing.

I let go of Henry and pulled him back when he wanted to stride towards the three guys arriving.

The two lackeys of the skinny guy were still grinning at his funny statement, apparently thinking we hadn’t heard it.

The skinny guy was a bit taller than me, but that didn’t hinder me; they were all just jokes compared to a fucking giant.

I took a drag from my cigarette and moved closer, noticing how his expression changed. The superiority he displayed while many people were around or from a distance was washed away in an instant.

"What... what do you—"

I grabbed his head with inhuman speed and pulled him down, smashing his face against my raised knee, hearing a satisfying crack—naturally, I controlled my strength to avoid killing him.

Just a broken nose and cheekbone, which would be enough to send him to some hospital ward, freeing me and everyone else from his presence for a few weeks.

He fell aside, losing consciousness from the impact.

"What just happened? What have you done?" One of his friends asked with panic while I took another drag from my cigarette.

"Is this your hangout place?" I asked them.

Both grew silent, not daring to make a peep while their leader was unconscious and bleeding on the floor.

"This spot has now been seized. Don’t come here again."

One of the two lackeys nodded when I turned around, finding Henry smiling at me, though he still seemed a little unhappy.

"What? As long as you don’t kill or disable them, you can do what you want." I chuckled, back on his side and continuing to smoke.

The lackeys were in the midst of scratching the skinny man from the ground when they heard that. One froze, while the other dashed to the door, but Henry was much faster, holding him by his collar and dragging him to his frozen companion.

He grabbed both of them by the back of their heads and smashed their faces together.

"Nice." I nodded when they fell to the floor, partially on top of the skinny guy.

"I always wanted to try that." Henry wiped his hands on his pants, coming back to me and snatching my cigarette away, apparently content again.

"Yeah, me too. Next time, I’m going to try that as well." I looked at my smartwatch.

We were already a bit late for the next lesson, though the three guys on the floor would be much later than us. There was a little time between the lessons, which we used for talking and hugging, with a bit of beating at the end.

"Next is, ah..." I said, finally recognizing the room again.

"Hm?" Henry asked, sliding his arm around me.

"Pilates." I said, and he froze for a second, sending me into a fit of laughter.

"Stop laughing." He said with a chuckle, making a point of stepping on the unconscious guys, even sending a light kick against one of their heads as we passed them.

"You hold a grudge." I laughed as well while we made our way to the fourth floor.

"Naturally." Henry cheekily said, bending over to sniff my hair like a creep inside the elevator.

"Stop that."

"No."

"Just checking if you smell like smoke."

When we entered the Pilates room with the breathtaking view, most of the students were already changed and in position. The Pilates instructor grimaced upon seeing us, pointing to the changing room like she did the day before yesterday when we arrived for our first lesson in here.

Inside the changing room, it was awkward as hell. Just looking at the spot where Henry ’helped me breathe’ made me feel embarrassed, and then annoyed at my own embarrassment.

So I changed clothes while feeling annoyed before hurriedly stepping outside, Henry coming after me, never more than a step away.

We chose mats that lay together. Since three participants were missing, we could stay beside each other when we were directed to sit down. Then we did a few breathing exercises together, and it started.

Stretching, bending up and down, taking a breath in while doing this, and letting go of the breath while doing that. It was like in the TV shows, though a few of these exercises felt strangely familiar.

I finally got it at the end of the lesson: a few of these movements were the same as the little self-defense instructor showed us, just way slower and with pauses, camouflaged as Pilates.

They were really training us, though it was done slowly and secretly. They instilled not only a certain mindset in the participants through the instructors and the choice of books in the library, but they also started to slowly accustom our bodies to upcoming fights—all under the pretense of ’overcoming trauma’ and self-care.

Really interesting.

Whoever designed all this had put some thought into it.

And if they had done that, it was only because they had something to gain.

If it was the government, I would have said they needed soldiers—competent and trained individuals to handle these otherworldly matters.

If, however, it was a private person or organization, then there can only be one motive, even if everything was going to hell: money.

How to get money out of other worlds? Simple: natural resources.

Yet, such a building can’t be constructed in two years, and if it never had another purpose and wasn’t adapted, then that meant they knew far more long before everything first began.

But how the fuck did they know?

I walked into the changing room for men with Henry and changed clothes; he was somehow again shielding me from the others’ eyes with his body until I pushed him behind me into a corner so he could change there.

My body had a lot less to show than his with those damn scars on him.

I really don’t understand—why were our wounds healing perfectly, even my deformed hands healing somewhere along the line, but just these damn bite marks won’t disappear from his body?

I turned around and cornered Henry while he pulled up his newly changed-into pants. "Are you doing this on purpose?"

"Hm?"

I motioned at the biting scars.

"Why are they still here?"

Henry looked at his naked upper body before he leaned down to me with a smirk, emitting an awful lot of heat.

"Maybe your teeth are just that sharp?"

"....your jaw just that strong?"

"....or your intent to leave a mark was just that sincere?"