Being Shirtless

The qualifying rounds ran for four days, followed by one day of rest before the preliminary rounds would begin.

At this level, only the top 50 will go through the preliminary rounds. Thus, the competition will be tough.

This was also the part that most team competitors would drop drastically. Not many teams would still have their full strength by then and would be forced to drop out.

From this point, the team competition would begin. There were no other rounds to this. It was the final round.

Depending on the numbers of participants, the competition could run for a day or several days. The shortest time on record was half a day as only two teams had qualified. The best case scenario was that there would be 10 teams, with 5 members each and the worst case scenario was that no teams qualified. It had happened before.

After the team competition is over, the individual competition would begin.

Thus, the competition could run for a week or two.

.:*・°☆...:*・.:*・°☆...:*・

It was their one day of rest after qualifying. Kyle and Kay decided to lounge at the hotel swimming pool.

The Smith Industries had fully sponsored the rock climbing team's stay at the hotel for the duration of the competition. Well, actually, it was Delilah who paid but had the Smith Industries name take the credit.

Delilah was NOT going to let Kyle stay anywhere but at one of their hotels. This way, she could keep an eye on him. Two bodyguards were assigned to protect the Smith twins but covertly.

Plus, all the hotel staff were given explicit instructions to keep an eye on the Smith Twins and to take good care of them.

Right now, the ones who were on duty were trying very, very hard to maintain a professional demeanor. Kyle and Kay didn't make it easy, though.

Kyle was wearing swimming trunks that were halfway up his thigh. His was shirtless, giving everyone a good view of his lean, muscular physique and drool-worthy six pack. He was sitting on the deck chair near the pool, staring at the swimming pool.

As much as Kyle loved to tease people with glimpses of his body, this was actually one of the rare moments that he is shirtless in public. For some reason, he felt a bit ... uncomfortable. He had no qualms about exposing his abs or even changing his shirt in public - but walking around half naked and exposed like this didn't feel right for some reason.

He found it really weird and puzzling. He had grown up as a guy so shouldn't he be used to this now? He was okay with the Elite Five and at home but not quite in public. Was it because the Elite Five were people he trusted and he was completely unguarded with them?

Kyle looked down at his own exposed chest, noting the width of his chest and the abdominal muscles. This was the type of body that, as a girl in his past life, he drooled over. It took a LOT of work to achieve and maintain, and luckily, he enjoyed the exercises despite the hard work.

So why was he so uncomfortable showing it off? Wasn't it normal to be proud of showing the hard work that you put in to achieve that type of body? There's no difference between what he's doing now and how girls would dress up. Did people really think achieving that type of body and make-up was easy?

Kyle was thinking hard, making his face look even more handsome as the serious mode was on. The far-away look in his eyes as he sat there thinking, the concentration that was evident upon his face just made those who were looking, sigh even more. It's true what they say: watching a man work is sexy.

Unaware of the sort of impact he was making on the people around him, Kyle continued to analyse the situation. When he thought deeply, he realised one small weird thing. The source of his uncomfortableness stemmed mainly from his naked chest ... to be more specific, exposing his nipples. Even though he didn't have breasts (like a woman, that is), it still felt like he was exposing himself.

When he finally managed to pinpoint the exact problem, he laughed at himself. He is a guy now, damnit. Sure, he had been an extremely conservative girl in his past life but he's now the shameless Kyle Smith. Kyle wondered whether guys felt weird at first at being shirtless or was it just him? Looks like he's got to start getting used to being shirtless in public more often now.

Once he figured out the root of his problem, Kyle turned towards Kay on his left.

She was sitting on the deck chair, sipping a drink while playing with her phone. Luckily, Kay was in a one-piece suit and not a bikini. Otherwise, she would have caused quite a commotion at the swimming pool. With her B-cup perky breasts, slim waist, and fair legs that seemed to go on forever, she would make any normal man have difficulty in breathing.

Kyle narrowed his eyes and looked around again. As he expected, there were a few guys who were looking at Kay with undisguised lust in their eyes. Kyle found a wave of simmering anger start to envelop him and he got up from his deck chair to go to Kay.

"What's wrong, brother?" Kay asked with a smile as he sat in front of her, effectively blocking her from view of other people.

"I think this was a bad idea," Kyle said, focusing his cold eyes on those unworthy people.

It wasn't the fact that people looked which made Kyle angry. It was that they were not being polite about it. No matter how alluring or sexy a woman is, you should always look at her with respect - and not like you're undressing them with your eyes. You can admire, you can even desire but you can never, ever be rude and stare or say inappropriately suggestive words.

Kay laughed, her tinkling voice made all the guys around stand up, wanting to brave the danger and approach her anyway. A cold glare by the guy in front of her made them all sit back down again, gulping and turning away.

Kay leaned forward, putting her arms around his neck from the back. She kissed his cheek and said, "You like swimming, right? Come on then!"

"No, I changed my mind," Kyle said tersely.

When he thought about it, what was fun about swimming at the hotel? When they first arrived, there weren't that many people around. Now, however, the pool was so crowded that he would not be able to swim a lap freely. He couldn't leave Kay behind either for he felt all the wolves would just start to gather around her. Where did these people come from anyway?

"Let's go back up," Kyle suggested, taking Kay's hand.

Kay was going to protest at first but seeing how serious Kyle was, she nodded with a smile.

"You're right," she agreed, "It's no fun without the others anyway."

"Yeah, but they had to go back and settle a few things at home first. At least they'll be here during the finals," Kyle said, assuring Kay.

"Wait! Wait!! We need to take a selfie first!" Kay insisted, bouncing out from the deck chair. She grabbed her phone from the table behind her and placed her face next to Kyle's. She angled the phone from a higher position so that they would look up at the phone camera.

"Smile!" she commanded Kyle then snapped a few times.

She leaned back and took a peek, choosing the best out of the three snaps. It showed the two of them smiling at the camera and nothing of the background could be seen. Kay herself was hidden behind Kyle with only her face being seen, so the real focus of the whole picture was actually the shirtless Kyle.

"We have to update Insta everyday, you know," Kay said as she posted, "Your fans are also eager to know the updates of the competition."

Kay posted the picture of her and Kyle with the caption, 'Chillin' after qualifying'.

All around the world, there was an epidemic of sudden nosebleeds.

After that, the Smith Twins left the swimming pool area without ever entering the pool, leaving behind many people feeling very upset. One pair of eyes behind dark sunglasses studied them closely as they walked away. He continued to sip on his juice, his face getting dark as his gaze noticed two shadowy figures following the Twins behind them.

"Tch. This is not going to be as easy as it was the last time," Drako grumbled as he took another swig of his juice.

.:*・°☆...:*・.:*・°☆...:*・

The next day, it was the preliminary rounds.

Kay had decided that she would not join him for the day as she wanted to finish up some MIB work. She was still sleeping in bed when Kyle went down to breakfast at 6am, so he merely adjusted the blanket on her and kissed her head before heading out silently.

Kyle headed for the Rock Climbing venue by himself, as the others had yet to even come down for breakfast. Kyle merely had a bowl of oats, as he didn't want to fill his stomach too much yet he needed some proper nutrients for the energy. So he finished his breakfast very fast, much to the chagrin of the ones serving him.

There was hardly anyone at the venue, so Kyle basically had peace and quiet as he noted his schedule. The bouldering preliminary rounds was in the morning at 10am while the lead climbing preliminary rounds would be the next day at 9am. He saw that the Twins speed climbing preliminary rounds was at 9am so he intended to go there to watch and give support.

For now, Kyle had to study the Wall he was to climb first. His eyes darted all over the Wal, taking note of all the handholds. He then took several steps back to view it from a distance then closed his eyes as he conjured up the image in his mind. From there, he started mapping his route. Having a photographic memory helped him greatly in this.

Once he was done, he opened his eyes and studied the Wall in front of him again. He needed to clarify whether the route he planned was viable. Satisfied, Kyle then headed to the Speed Climbing Venue.

After he left, Drako came out of hiding and studied the Wall that Kyle had been looking at earlier. He picked up his phone and made a call.