Chapter 7: Campus Hotshots

Night’s P.O.V

“Guys…not again!” Kai groaned from next to me as he looked at the two girls with narrowed eyes.

“Seriously,” Devon’s tone was just as sour. “By now it feels like you guys are just running our fan club.”

“Well, we are,” the dark haired girl answered in all seriousness. “But that’s just a side business and its non-profit.”

“Oh?” Cole smirked. “Your pants haven’t caught fire yet? Non-profit my ass! You guys sell our photos to the girls on campus for a large amount. I’ve had my people spy on you.”

“Really? That confident?” The dark haired girl grinned and leaned closer to Cole. “You really shouldn’t trust your source, Cole, because your so-called spy? She’s the one who got your pool pictures to us in the first place.”

“Fucking hell!” Cole yelled in exasperation. “My sister’s working for you guys?”

“More like with us.” Yin flipped her hair back with a shrug. “We’re partners.”

“Shit!"

“Um…” I nudged Kai with my elbow. “What exactly is going on in here?”

“Huh?” Kai looked back at me like he had forgotten I was sitting beside him. “Oh, right. Guys, let me introduce you. This is Tina Verma and Yin Liang, two members from the Student Council. Tina and Yin, these are the freshmen from the Communication Arts faculty, Night, Landon and Trey.”

Kai finished with the introductions as he pointed at each of us in turn. “They’re here to scout contestants for the upcoming College contest, Campus Hotshots. Don’t be fooled by the name though, both male and female students are allowed to participate.”

“So it’s like a beauty pageant?” Landon asked with narrowed eyes. “What’s the point of that?”

“It’s not just a beauty pageant!” Tina and Yin both protested at the same time. “It’s also a talent hunt where we upload your special talent videos on our Facebook page and the whole campus votes for you. And the winner also gets five thousand dollars cash.”

“Holy shit!” Both Landon and Trey yelled at once. “Five thousand!”

“See?” Tina grumbled. “Not just a pageant! And sometimes the winner also gets scouted or might even end up getting a scholarship.”

“Wow!” Landon pushed at my shoulders. “Night should definitely join the contest then!”

“Wait a minute!” Tina placed a hand on her chin as she narrowed her eyes at me. “Night? Night Winters? Where have I heard that name before?”

Shit! She didn’t-

“Oh!” Yin exclaimed, clapping her hands. “You’re that model from the hoodie commercial, aren’t you? Cool Space? Oh my goodness! We have an actual model among us!”

“Model, huh?” Joshua looked at me with raised eyebrows, his cheeks puffed from the bite he had just taken of his burger. “No wonder you looked pretty.”

Pretty? Was that supposed to be an insult?

“Then I guess Kai had competition this year!” Tina grinned wickedly. “Maybe he won’t be winning the popular vote this time around.”

“Huh? What competition?” Kai sighed in frustration. “I didn’t want to be in the contest in the first place.”

“You can’t escape this time! Your participation is compulsory.”

That had me frowning. “Why is it compulsory for someone to join a contest?”

Wasn’t that kind of like favorism? What was the point of the contest anyways if they already had fixed players?

“Oh right, you’re a freshman so you don’t know the rules.” Yin shook her head. “It’s compulsory for Kai because he’s the Student Council Vice President and the reigning champion for Most Popular Hotshot for the last two years.”

Holy shit! Say what now?

*

It was past ten thirty at night when I finally made it back to my room. I was dead tired and ready to pass out as soon as my head hit the bed, but it looks like someone already beat me to it.

Kai was lying on his bed, on his stomach with his head resting on his hands and a pile of notes and notebooks sprawled in front of him, but his eyes were closed and he looked to be sleeping peacefully without a care in the world.

I let out a sigh as I placed my backpack at the foot of my bed and went on to take a quick shower. When I came back out, Kai was still fast asleep and I was wondering if I should call him to ask if he had had dinner or not. In the end, I decided against it and let him sleep, since he looked so peaceful that I didn’t feel like disturbing him.

I went ahead and arranged his books, placing them back on his bedside table so he could find them easily tomorrow morning before I drew the covers over his body.

When I had first seen Kai, I honestly didn’t have much of an opinion on him except that the guy was hot and there was no denying that. Before I moved to the dorm, I hadn't thought to think deeper than that about the man I would be sharing a room with for the rest of the semester because honestly…why would I need to? We were just gonna be roommates. He would be doing his share of the chores and I would do mine and that’s all there would be about sharing a room…right?

But something felt different ever since I found him staring at me through the bathroom mirror at the club. I had been with someone else at that time…but still, I had kept looking out of the slit in the door, my eyes searching for the man who had looked at me with so much intensity that it had left me speechless. And then he had closed the door shut on his way out, almost making me laugh out at his action.

I had thought that would be the end of it but unfortunately, fate had other plans. Otherwise, how could I explain the same guy who saw me having a hookup at the club…end up becoming my dorm-mate at the University and my senior?

Vice-President of the Student Council as well as the winner of Most Popular Hotshot Award two years in a row? That’s not something I had expected when I had when I had first laid eyes on him. Kai looked more like the bad boy heartbreaker who never dated and never committed to anyone and to some extent I had been right.

According to Tina and Yin, the girls who were the founders of the University HotShots page, which was essentially a fan page dedicated to Kai’s entire group; Kai and the boys hardly ever dated anyone since they entered the University and even if they did, their longest relationship had only lasted two months.

I think I was finding out that in many way, Kai and I were a lot similar than I had initially thought and that’s what made me even more intrigued about him.

So far, it felt like I didn’t know a thing about him, but now I wanted to. I wanted to know what made him tick. I wanted to know what he liked and what he didn’t like. I wanted to know what made him the person he was and most importantly…I wanted to know Kai Hunter.

I realized I was starting to get overly curious about Kai Hunter and that was a first for me. Now wasn’t that interesting?