LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT - CHAPTER 32
Keira had so much fun at the $h00ting range she learned how to prioritize multiple targets simultaneously.
“Looks like Field Marshal Chan’s daughter is a natural born talent in the $h00ting. I heard that’s the first time she even tried $h00ting,” Sergeant Park commented as he watched Keira hit almost all her targets.
“Yes, it’s not common for someone to get better as quickly as she. It runs in her blood I guess,” Zach answered as he watched Keira’s smooth movements while firing.
Even her posture looked like she was a pro.
Keira felt tired after the training at the range. It was because, during mornings, they were still having their usual physical fitness training. Plus, they did obstacle navigation courses from time to time.
But she really enjoyed the battle drills with her baby Zaira.
She smiled sweetly as she passed by Zach who was talking to Sergeant Park and she winked when their eyes met.
“Geez, sooner or later someone will definitely catch you so be sensitive at least. You’ll be in big trouble if that Bat finds out what you are doing!” May warned Keira.
“Wait, why, what did Keira do?” Asked Trish suspiciously and followed May’s eyes.
“General Zach? You mean you fancy him? Wait, is that why you are here? Because you still haven’t told me what’s the reason you joined the Military?” Trish asked in a row.
Lana’s eyebrows arched as she interrupted, “I just noticed, Trish, why do you keep asking Keira why has she joined the Military?”
Trish smiled and said, “I’m just really curious. I mean you guys are here because you follow Keira. You said you are her minions, so I assumed Keira, for sure, should have a reason to be here.”
“Of course I have a reason to be here, but that’s because I want to try what it’s like to be a soldier. I want to understand my dad better and hmm…” Keira stared at Trish.
For some reason, she felt that Trish was hiding something but she could feel the latter was genuine to her as a friend.
May suddenly grabbed Keira’s arm and teasingly said, “She’s here to experience throwing a real grenade!”
“She wanted to experience a full blast of that grenade,” added May laughing.
“Huh?” Trish creased her forehead and stopped walking as she looked at Keira.
Then she saw Keira looked back but not to her direction so she followed it.
It was Zach’s direction.
“Is that Zach? The reason she’s here and refused the…” she mumbled but stopped. She needed further confirmation.
………
Keira felt so excited as she went out to go to the Meteor Den, hoping she could finally see a falling star so she could make a wish like what she dreamed of since she was a kid.
During her walk, she picked a flower and pulled each petal as she said, “Is he there or not, there or not, there or not…”
She kept murmuring until only one petal was left. She smiled and cringed because the last one was for that ‘he was there’, so she quickly ran up the stairs.
She was panting but to her disappointment, no one was there.
She sat and looked at the sky sighing.
“If Zach isn’t here, can I at least see a falling star, huh?” She murmured.
She waited for almost five minutes and there were only ten more minutes left until the curfew, particularly, it was six minutes because it would take her four minutes to return to her unit running.
There’s still tomorrow, but she really missed spending time alone with Zach, even if it’s just a short time. She already gave him seven days of breathing space, hopefully, he could forget the beef stew incident.
But maybe it’s not her lucky night.
She stood up to leave but when she turned around she saw Zach, panting as he walked towards her.
‘Did he run on his way here?’ She asked inwardly as she looked at Zach’s sweating face closely.
She walked towards him and smile.
“You can walk you know. Don’t tell me you run on your way up here?” Keira uttered and grab a handkerchief from her pocket to gently wipe Zach’s face.
As she raised her arm to do so, Zach abruptly stopped her by grabbing her wrist.
His forehead creased as her face darkened.
Then he whispered, “Keira Chan! What are you doing to me?! Do you think I’m a toy you can play with any time you want to?”
“Huh?” Keira gasped as her lips slightly opened, she looked confused as she stared into Zach’s eyes.
She felt like his eyes were piercing deep into her bones.
She tried to open her mouth to say something but nothing came up.
Zach lowered his gaze down to her slightly opened lips.
Those lips had been haunting him and giving him sleepless nights…
Unconsciously, Keira bit her lip and heard Zach curse.
Before she knew it, Zach abruptly pulled her towards him and kissed her lips.
Her eyes widened and at that same time, she saw a falling star shining brightly in the sky.
‘Everything feels so real to be a dream.’ Keira mused as she finally closed her eyes.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Keira couldn’t sleep at all. She felt so shy after the kiss that she practically ran away from Zach, saying, “It’s almost curfew time. See you tomorrow.”
She covered herself with the pillow because she could feel her face burning and she was trying hard to not scream because of too much happiness.
She felt like her heart would burst out. She kept on kicking her feet and tossing and turning in her bed because of excitement until Vel complained still half sleeping, “Please, Keira stop, our bunk is moving! Do you want me to fall down from my bed?”
“Sorry Vel, please, continue sleeping.” She said apologetically with a low voice as she suppressed her chuckling.
She wanted to wake up May and Lana but the two were already dead asleep when she came back, she could even hear their heavy breathing.
‘Geez, what will he think of me running away like that?’ She scolded herself. She did not know what came to her to run away like that.
She felt bashful and her knees were so weak that she was afraid to trip at any moment when she ran.
She closed her eyes and let out a wide contented smile as she touched her lips.
She was so sure it was Zach who made the first move and not her.
‘Could it be that he missed me because of my week hiatus?’ She kept giggling on her own.
But she failed to clarify things with him because of running away.
She scratched her hair irritably for being timid at the most important night of her life.
Tomorrow she would definitely clear things out no matter what.
But meanwhile, she wouldn’t mind having those scenes be repeated in her dreams over and over again.
She could still feel Zach’s full and warm lips covering hers that she couldn’t help but kick her feet and moved hastily on the bed once more.
“Keira, please!” Vel, who was sleeping on her upper bunk bed, cried once more.
“Sorry, Vel, promise won’t do it again, go back to sleep now,” Keira said giggling.
She should sleep now so tomorrow she would look good, without the dark circles under her eyes.
‘He would not just kiss me for nothing, right? I’m sure he likes me.’ She mused before closing her eyes and drifting to dreams.
………..
The next morning Zach stared at himself in the mirror after a bath.
Then he let out a long, deep, conflicted sigh.
Last night, he basically ran on his way to the Meteor Den as soon as their meeting had finished because Keira said she would be there before the curfew. Seeing the time, he knew that there were only a few minutes left, but he still took the chance that she might still be there.
He was so confused with what he was feeling during the past days when Keira was ignoring him so, for some unknown reasons, he wanted to clear things out with her.
He couldn’t get her out of his mind. He felt that he would go crazy anytime soon if he hadn’t cleared out everything with her.
‘You’re so stupid, Zach!’ He scolded himself as he let out another sigh. He had lost control.
He had made a bold move without thinking straight. He compromised Keira and his position. It could have led them both into a big scandal if someone happened to catch or see them last night.
He forgot where they were and he shouldn’t have done something like that.
To be honest, he was still hesitant about how to proceed with things at that moment.
He knew that he liked Keira Chan but there were so many things to consider.
He felt that he was in no position to like Keira Chan, but a part of him was not listening to those reasons at all.
He knew Keira was still young and the age gap between them was another factor.
Keira at her age, was still young, still in her blooming stage and he did not want to take advantage of her or the fact that she had a crush on him.
He knew how complicated women could be and how easily they could change their minds on things or their feelings.
“What are you going to do now, Zach?” He muttered staring intently at his own reflection in the mirror.
Zach let out a long, depressed sigh…
He was like this for already a few minutes now.
Keira’s face suddenly popped out in his mind, her smiling, her winking.
Then he chuckled unconsciously as he recalled how quickly Keira ran away as soon as he released her from the kiss.
“She’s really funny,” he murmured at the thought on how bold Keira often was, but last night she just ran away and left him like that.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Keira did the usual morning exercises with other soldiers. This time they were doing them in a grass field and mixed up with men so they were all together with Drey.
After doing some crunches and other exercises, they started doing the sit-ups and Drey was paired with Keira while on the other side, Lana helped May.
“I have good news!” she murmured as a wide smile crept up her face.
May rolled her eyes because Keira had already talked about it with her and Lana too much.
Now, they had to listen to the same story again, as Keira was absolutely going to tell everything to Drey too.
“What?” Drey whispered as he smiled back at her.
Then, during the sit-ups, Keira murmured, “Uhm, last night, he did this.”
She pointed her lips to Drey, gesturing a kiss. The latter creased his forehead and stared at her confused.
Other soldiers did not mind how close Drey was to Keira since everybody already knew how close those four were. Even in the military circle news traveled very fast.
As soon as she got up, she paused for a while and leaning closer to Drey’s she whispered, “Kiss!”
“What!!!” Drey burst out loudly that caught the Sergeant’s attention.
“Russo! What’s your problem!” shouted the Sergeant while Keira quickly got back to her sit-ups.
“Nothing, Sergeant. There was a bee. I lost count! Ten, eleven, twelve…” Drey said as he continued to count Keira’s sit-ups as she giggled silently.
“Focus! If you can’t, change your pair, dumbass!” said Sergeant Park and made all the nearby soldiers chuckle.
“Yes, Sergeant!” Drey shouted with a face red due to embarrassment.
Then he glared at Keira who was smiling mischievously at him during the sit-ups and said irritably, “Can you at least consider the place you are at and be careful, because others might see what you are doing and it’s nothing to be laughed at, Keira!”
He was pertaining to the said kiss gesturing. May, who heard his words, laughed and said, “Well, I’m sure Auntie will like it if Keira gets kicked out from Military early.”
Keira pouted her lips and made a face and muttered, “Don’t worry, guys, I’ll be more careful next time, so let’s all finish the training and be fit. It’s nice, you know, I’m actually enjoying what I’m learning here.”
Zach who just arrived at the site with Torin looked around intently. Somehow he got irritated when he saw how close Drey was with Keira during the exercises.
“Who said that males and females could be mixed up during routine exercises?” he asked Torin irritably.
“Huh? What’s wrong with you, Bro? It’s the norm. We usually did that and later they are also mixed up for the hand to hand combat training. Why, is there anything wrong?” Torin asked but then he got what was going as he followed to whereZach’s eyes were pointed.
“Ohh, I see, Bro. So we are just avoiding brewing romance inside the Military as much as possible, right? But it’s good that everyone will get to know each other and interact regardless of gender. Besides, they know the rules so they will follow them. I’m sure they don’t want to get kicked out that easily,” said Torin as he tried hard not to tease Zach seeing how gloomy his face was at that moment.
“Don’t mix their exercises starting from tomorrow! Always separate males from females! Prevention is better!” Zach mumbled as he walked towards the soldiers.
“Yes, Sir!” Torin answered as he shook his head. His Bro was acting so obvious and he was wondering if Zach was already aware of his feelings.
As they walked he asked, “So Bro, what do you think will happen if Rizie’s crush reciprocates on her feelings. I mean if he already feels the same way. Does that mean they are in a relationship?”
Zach did not respond and just stared at Keira’s spot.
Then he stopped walking and looked at Torin intently and said, “If you were the one in that situation, Torin, what would you do, huh?”
Torin was caught off-guard and murmured, “Bro? Seriously? Are you seriously asking me that, Bro? I’m Torin and you already know what Torin would do in that kind of situation. Darn, Bro, I’m gonna grab that opportunity no matter what! It only passes by once. Hey, opportunity does not have hairs on their back that you can grab and pull it back if it’s passing by. The heck, Bro, grab it like this!”
Torin closed his two fists hard, showing them to Zach and the latter arched an eyebrow, so Torin added, “I mean Rizie’s crush must grab that opportunity with his both hands, Bro! Rizie is a good catch. Anyone will be willing to go in line for her.”
Zach sighed and said, “And she’s also too young, Torin. There are so many things that still can happen and change. Who knows she might also change easily, I mean those feelings are not yet permanent for her age. It’s just like a fruit, Torin, do you want to harvest it early? Still unripe?”
Then Zach continued to walk and left Torin open-mouthed but after getting back to himself Torin ran after Zach and said, “The heck, Bro, is Rizie’s crush the same age as we?”
Torin did not know how to proceed further because he understood what was Zach conveying to him, then he looked at Lana and whispered irritably, “The heck, I suddenly feel like an old man… d@mn you, Bro!”