Oh Boy! (BL)

9 - It's Not A Date...Seriously, It's Not! (3/3)

"B...boss? Who..." I stammered, staring at this man I'd never seen before.

Grinning widely, he grabbed my hand that was not holding Meadow. "You're BlackZ, aren't you?"

I took in his short appearance – from the dark pants to the short-sleeved white dress shirt, his tie, up to his pale face with the reddened cheeks and blue eyes that were literally sparkling when looking at me. How did he know my username? "Who..."

He squeezed my hand so hard that I could almost hear the bones cracking. "It's me! AOL!"

I made wide eyes. "AOL?! Oh my God!"

He squeaked. "Boss! I can't believe it! In RL!"

"Me neither!" Full of joy, I squeezed back his much larger hand. "This is..."

"I know!" For someone who regarded the scene from afar, it must've looked weird for two guys of the same height but with a built that could hardly be any more different to be grinning at each other like ten-year-old boys.

I wanted to ask him so many things. Where was he from? What was he doing here? But then, I halted. There were more important things to ask. "Did you hear anything from Clover?"

AOL shook his head. "Nothing. No PMs today. But OMG! Where did he get that dragon blood? I mean it's super hard to find. Unless..."

Our eyes met.

"The black market," I cursed. That wasn't good. "No...he'd never risk getting us banned. Or..."

When we kept on talking about the guild, I noticed that the female bookseller was casting annoyed glances at AOL. Afraid, my guildmate would get in trouble, I attempted to free my hand, which only made him hold on tighter. But apparently, there was someone else bothered by our little nerd-talk. AOL went on theorizing about the origin of Clover's dragon blood until Clay put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me away from my guildmate.

"Let's go, Ken. We gotta get in line." His voice was harsh, his lips pressed together tightly, and his eyes were staring right at AOL. Was he angry?

"Ken? That's your name?" asked AOL curiously.

I glanced at him. "Yeah, it's Kenji Fox."

AOL straightened his dark green tie. "My name's Trevor Duane. As the assistant manager of this store, I will use my powers to grant you preferred access." His cheeks lifted along with his wide smile and made his eyes look like tiny half-moons. "Both of you, of course."

"Manager?" I lifted my jet-black brows. "No wonder you've got no time to play WizQ."

AOL...no, Trevor looked sad. "I know I'm a horrible person for letting you guys down so often, boss. But I love my job...and..."

"We understand, AOL," I reassured him.

"Hannah." He turned to the woman. "They are my personal guests. Please be so kind and let them in."

Hannah seemed less than happy to follow his request, given that a royal frown appeared on her face when she told us to write down one question each on the clipboard in her hand. "Questions?" I blinked when taking the green pen from her hand and looked down on the almost blank page on the clipboard.

She snorted. "Seriously? You don't have any questions for C. C. Starling? Then why are you even..."

She hadn't finished her sentence when I practically ripped the clipboard from her hand. Of course, I had a question for him! There were thousands of questions I wanted to ask, and limiting myself to one question was a tough choice.