Centre Of Attention

"Hey, let's play volleyball!"

An hour had passed since the four of us had made our way down to the sandy beach. For the most part, we were putting on sunscreen and splashing around in the water. That dastardly couple had even convinced Althea to bury me in the sand just to get a good summer photo.

And just when I'd thought my energy was about to be spent, Sienna pulled out a fully inflated beach volleyball from her brown haversack.

"... We don't have any nets, though?"

"Haha, there's no need to be that strict on the rules!" Sienna waved off my legitimate concern with a bellow. "Just imagine that there's a net, and don't let the ball touch the floor!"

"If you say so..."

While I was unconvinced, there wasn't anything else that we could do on the beach. Well, we could go for a picnic, but it was still a little early for lunch. Also, I wasn't able to do my routine exercises this morning, so sweating it out with volleyball wasn't that bad of an idea.

"How are we going to divide the teams? Boys versus girls would be too much of an advantage."

"Hah? Of course, we won't do that!" Sienna scoffed before dragging Len to her side. "We're doing it like this! The veterans versus the virgins!"

"... Can't you just say couples?"

I slapped my forehead at Sienna's crass remark. Goodness, her potty mouth is probably the main reason why other girls don't befriend her. See? Even Althea's face had turned red by her comment.

Either way, I learnt from experience that the best way to deal with Sienna when she went on her own tangents was to ignore her completely. Any humiliation I faced now, I could repay it tenfold in the volleyball match.

The four of us got to a comfortable location, a small distance away from our prepared mats. While it was about ten in the morning, the beach was already starting to fill in with visitors. Many of them were young teenagers or small families that had come to escape the summer heat. To prevent them from invading our play area, I marked out the arena with a piece of driftwood.

"Althea, do you know how to play volleyball?"

"I'm familiar with the rules," Althea determinedly replied.

"Oh? Now that's a surprise. I've never seen you as a sporty person."

"C-Come on, it's nothing special..."

Althea touched my left arm, seemingly asking for a head pat. However, before I could do anything, the girl's face flushed furiously, and she hurriedly averted her eyes away.

That's strange… Ever since she came out from the girl's restroom with Sienna, there seemed to be some kind of distance between us. Usually, Althea wasn't one to shy away from skinship. No, it was better to say that Althea was the one who initiated skinship most of the time. Now, however, the girl seemed to stand at least an arm's length away from me.

What on earth did Sienna tell her in that toilet?

I wanted to probe, but there was no time to ask. Before we were ready, Len served the ball in our direction and quickly scored a point.

"1-0!"

"Hey, we weren't prepared!"

"Tell that to the referee, you sore loser!"

"There isn't a referee, you dumb blonde!"

Exasperated, I lifted the volleyball up and threw it up in the air. Putting energy into my thighs, I leapt up as high as I could and seemingly reached for the skies. Seeing my vigour, both Sienna and Len gasped and immediately went into a defensive stance. As expected from my athletic friends, they already knew how to react to my serve. But...

You fools… Did you think that normal methods could stop my spike?!

Swinging my right arm all the way back, I shifted all of my body weight mid-air and allowed my body to do the work.

BAM!!!

A thunderous echo burst forth on the beach, drawing eyes from all corners. The volleyball thrust itself in between the picturesque couple, burying itself into the warm summer sand with all my strength behind it.

Sienna dropped her jaw while Len bit the bottom of his lip. There was nothing that they could do to stop my perfect serve. It wasn't their fault; it was simple physics. My volleyball serve was almost undefendable if I used all of my body weight and compressed myself by using the optimal form.

Flashing a wry grin, I pumped my fists and shouted out: "1-1!"

"... Shouldn't you go easy?"

"Tell that to the referee!"

"Hoh… You sure have some balls," Sienna blank eyes soon turned with a competitive glint. "Come on, Len! We can't lose our place as the best sports couple in Kofuku!"

"Hehe, that's what I'd thought!"

Len and Sienna switched stances, their backs straightened, and their bodies loosened up. They weren't going to mess around anymore. They were now fighting for pride.

Meanwhile…

"Ermmm, let's just play to have fun?"

Poor little Althea… When it comes to these guys and sports… There's no such thing as fun. Back when we were playing badminton together, this stupid couple wouldn't let me off if I'd won one too many matches.

Either kill or be killed. That's their motto. And so…

We shall reply in kind.

❖❖❖

Our first competitive match in a while ended up in a loss for Althea and me. That didn't mean we didn't make it competitive, though. We took the first set 21-17, but the remaining two we'd lost 19-21 and 15-21. As frustrating as it was, losing was a natural thing, given that I had a handicap; no, I mean, I had a novice on my team.

Don't get me wrong, Althea was decent at the sport. She could receive the ball, set it up and given the right opponents, I would have even allowed her to spike the ball. Alas, we weren't going up against ordinary people.

Len and Sienna were a power couple who played sports at least once or twice a week. They were always in shape, and their sense with the ball was impeccable. Also, given how long they'd been playing together, they moved with telepathic synchronicity.

I could defeat them with power serves and spikes, but that was about it. Furthermore, they would often target the weak link on my team just to score some easy points.

Such cowards… But a win was a win…

Defeated, Althea and I sat back on the mat, taking some time to regain our lost energy. My body was sticky with sweat, and even seated down, I could feel the heat permeated out from my pores. To cool off, I decided to do some post-workout stretches and when I placed my hands behind my back to pull…

Hic…

Numerous gasps entered my consciousness. Looking up, I saw several people staring right at the four of us. It didn't matter if they were young or old; it seemed like the entire beach had their eyes glued onto our small group.

Now, that was no surprise. Althea and Sienna were both beauties that were hard to find, even in the entertainment industry. Their perfect faces and impeccable bodies were the envy of many women and the desires of every man. In addition, Len was a modern-day Adonis, with a smile that could charm a thousand flowers to bloom.

With the three of them present, it was no wonder that everyone on the beach was gawking at us.

Still, I didn't particularly like the fact that my girlfriend was on display for the world to see. I rummaged through my bag and got out a dry towel. While Althea was busy resting from the heat, I wrapped the towel around her shoulders and proceeded to cover her body by standing right in front of her.

"T-Thanks..."

"You're welcome," I said smilingly. "You should be careful; there are many guys ogling you. If possible, keep that towel wrapped around your shoulders."

"O-Okay..."

Ah, it's been a while since I'd last seen the stuttering Althea. Coupled with her natural charming red face and licentious young body…

Althea… Are you trying to kill me with cuteness?

"Woah, I didn't know that you were such a gentleman, Desir." Sienna walked over while sipping on a bottle of milk to replenish her thirst.

"I think that this much is natural."

"Yeah, but I think that you should take your own advice, though."

"What do you mean?"

At this point, Len stuck his head over Sienna's shoulder and continued: "You say that many men are ogling Althea, but honestly… There are many more women looking at you."

"... Huh?"

What on earth was he talking about?

"Don't talk nonsense," I sighed. "Girls don't find me attractive. If anything, they were looking at you!"

"Are you still saying that?" Len slapped his head as if he'd been presented with a complex puzzle. "Just take a look around us!"

Confused, I followed Len's advice, only to see legions of eyes piercing through my very hull. Most of them were young girls, each one seemingly no older than twenty. No, some married women and elderly ladies were watching as well, but their gazes were more of fascination rather than lust.

"Desir, you need to stop selling yourself short. Yes, your face isn't the best of the best, but your body is a ten out of ten! I'd bet you didn't notice it when we were playing, but whenever you moved to spike, your chiselled physique and pectoral muscles would be stretched, allowing everyone on the beach to have a full view of your body! Adding to the fact that your sweat is oiling your body, you look like a superhero from the movies!"

"... You're exaggerating."

"Hah… This is so annoying. Do you remember if girls would look at you during your commute to work? Or when we were eating out, and girls would stare in our direction?"

"... They were just intimidated by my frame."

"Yes, some of them were, but most of them were fascinated by your perfect physique!" Len retorted with a shout. "You were actively trying to shut down relationships back then, so you'd subconsciously denied any woman a chance to approach you."

"Is that so..."

I'd never noticed. All this while, I was confident that girls were too afraid of me or I was too ugly to attract someone of the opposite gender. But if that's the case...

"Althea? What about you?"

"H-Huh? What about me?"

"Are you attracted to my body?"

Len and Sienna whistled, seemingly in awe at my forward question. However, I was in no mood to humour them. All I cared, was whether my beloved girlfriend enjoyed looking at my body.

"T-That..." Althea stuttered, her face boiling red with embarrassment. But, it didn't take long for her to shyly answer back. "Y-Yes, I think that your body is very sexy… So much so that I can't look straight at you."

"Althea..."

Ah… So that's why Althea was so fidgety. While we had been together for more than half a year, she rarely got to see me half-naked. But now that we were at the beach, Althea got to feast on my physique to her heart's content.

"Alright, alright. Would the stupid couple stop flirting so blatantly?"

Before Althea and I could close in the distance to make out, Sienna clapped her hands, seemingly annoyed at our little theatre. She pointed to her empty milk bottle and said: "Desir, could you help us buy some refreshments? We've run out."

"Oh, sure."

Leaving for a moment might be a good idea. Althea's puppy dog eyes were already coming alive, and I might not be able to hold myself back if she asked to cuddle right there and there.

"Banana milk for Sienna, Cola for Len and Lemon Tea for Althea, right?"

"That's right!"

All three of them gave some sort of acknowledgement, with Sienna shouting out in a smile, Len simply nodding and Althea… Well, Althea wasn't able to lock eyes with me, but I knew what she wanted anyway.

I left the group with nothing but my wallet in my swimming trunks and headed towards the nearest beach store. While my hometown was remote, that didn't mean that we were stuck in the stone ages. There were plenty of amenities to enjoy, even on the most rural beaches. One such amenity was the refreshment store, a place where I could buy almost any drink imaginable.

And so, it didn't take long for me to collect all of the orders. Usually, I would rush back before the drinks got too warm, but unfortunately…

"Eh? Aren't you the hunk that played volleyball just now?"

"Hunk aside, yeah, I was playing volleyball," I vaguely replied to the two random girls that approached me.

They were relatively young, probably around their late teen years or early twenties. Even though they had come to the beach, they wore flashy make-up and flamboyant pieces of bikinis. What the hell were they doing? Wearing such heavy foundation to a beach? If I could describe them in one word… I guess 'delinquent' would be most apt.

"Wow! I'd thought that they might have been fake, but seeing your muscles up close is really a different thing!" The flashier of the two flashed a debauched smile and attempted to touch my biceps. "Say, how did you train to get this hot?"

"... Just train, I guess?"

"Eyyy, what's with that?"

The two began to laugh, even though I hadn't cracked a joke. What on earth were these two doing anyway? Stopping me in the middle of my errand just to ask how I trained.

"If there's nothing else, I need to get going."

"Eyyy, come on! Sparing us a minute wouldn't kill you! Maybe you could teach us how to spike the volleyball like you did just now! It was awe-inspiring!"

"That..."

Urgh, what a pain. I wanted to escape right away, but it would be in poor taste to growl at two young girls who could possibly be in high school. Fortunately, my lifeline came at the right moment.

"Desir? What are you doing?"

Althea, who should have been waiting patiently at our mat, suddenly appeared out of nowhere. There wasn't any stutter in her words, and neither did I feel any of her initial nervousness. Instead, I'd felt that Althea was emitting out a different type of emotion, one that I was completely unfamiliar with.

"Ah, Althea? I was just about to head back."

"Really?" The girl raised her brows, and her lips gradually moved to a smile. "From what it looks like… It seemed like you were having fun with these two girls?"

A stunning chill enveloped my spine. The same could be said about the two girls who approached me. The summer's sun was almost at the centre of the sky, marking one of the hottest days that our country would face. And yet… All I felt was an icy chill like none other.

Althea smiled at the three of us, but there was no happiness in her eyes. It was a suffocating show of expression, one that brought an invisible pressure that none could describe. Even as someone who was used to hardships, I could feel my throat getting choked up.

"A-Ahaha, I think we should get going now."

"R-Right, c-catch you guys later."

Like gazelles on the Serengeti, the two delinquent girls made a flying retreat. They knew that an apex predator had arrived, and if they stayed any longer, they ran the risk of getting swallowed whole. And as a consequence…

I was left alone in the lioness' den.

"A-Althea?"

"Desir," a chilling voice sprung out of Althea's dainty little mouth. My very being shook at just that single word, and it felt like I had been transported back in time when my mother would use that tone before she lectured me.

Would there be mercy? Would the lioness try to listen to my side of the story? Or would I be eaten alive?

"You and I are going to have a long talk, alright?"

Ah… I was handed the death sentence.