“Everybody has a chapter
They don't read out aloud”

***Gemini POV***

It was the first time I had woken up this early(usually I love sleeping late) and the first time I had ever gotten this drunk.  Waking up wasn't pleasant, I had a headache, there was a ringing in my ears, and I had some vague fragments of memories in which...

Well, that was the most depressing and annoying thing.

  In my memories, it was Fourth who brought me to our apartment.  Why did he do it?  Was he sorry for me?  Great, except I don't need anyone's pity.  I hate feeling sorry for myself, and I could probably get by without his overzealousness.  I bet he did it to gain a few more points with the other Knights of Light, who after something like that will definitely be more willing to vote for him in the king election.

Yes, we at the Institute have elections for the king.  It so happens that our magical world currently has no ruler.  Of course, it's about the world of magic in Thailand.  Every country has its own king and it's time for us to choose ours too.  The Chief Magician of the entire world of magic came up with the idea that it would be someone young and promising, someone with prospects.  I don't quite understand what's going on, but if the Chief Ruler wants it so, it must be so.  The Chief Ruler is a sort of dictator king.  Not everyone likes it, I don't care.

I struggled to get out of bed, did my morning toilette and went about my life.  I was so tired that I needed medicine from Dr. Jimmy or Dr. WanDee and some real rest, so right after visiting our institute doctor, I went straight to our secret gardens, where Mixxiw and his brother Khaotung tended to the magical animals. I think I knew these two the longest, much longer than anyone else, except my weird brother, Dunkie.

“Hi P'Khao” I greeted Khaotung with a slight bow.  It's weird, but I liked Khao.  He was always very nice to me. Even if at the beginning he didn't fully trust me. Yeah, we had difficult beginning, but now everything seems to be perfectly normal between us.

“Hello nong Gemini.  What brings you here so early in the morning?”

“I just wanted to see your cute face?”  I risked a joke.  I was never particularly good at it, joking, laughing, having fun — it wasn't for me.  Still, Khao smiled at me as if he understood my bad joke.

Behind us there was a veritable cacophony of sounds made by the animals gathered there, and we had everything here, even magical goldfish that really did grant wishes, although only those that came from the minds of people with truly good hearts.  We had pegasi, or horses with wings (these were my favorites, and P'Earth quickly assigned one of them to my care: a pegasus with brilliant white fur and a gorgeous, colorful black mane, whose wings also shimmered in different colors in the sun; I named him  Hope, because that's what I always lacked; yes, there was a lack of hope in my life, hope that one day I would be truly happy from the bottom of my heart, hope that someone would be able to love me and teach me again what love and family mean.  , because I don't know it, I can't love and everyone at the Institute knows it), we had unicorns (Dunk, my brother got one, a beautiful mare with light colored fur and a rainbow mane and a rainbow tail), NuNew somewhere found a truly rare specimen  , that is, a griffin, there was also a pair of phoenixes and a whole lot of other magical creatures.

When I came here, I always felt my mind calm down.

My pegasus, Hope, seemed to sense my presence because he walked up to me and rested his big head on my shoulder.  I stroked his soft face.

“Pegasi are very smart and emotional animals,” P'Khao said and patted my animal friend on the neck.

“It's true, they are much smarter than humans,” I admitted.  I buried my head in the horse's neck.  Unlike humans and hybrids, I trusted animals much more.  I knew they wouldn't hurt me just for fun, they wouldn't reject me or take advantage of me.

“You are somehow very depressed today,” Khao made the correct complaint.

“I have a lot on my mind P'Khaotung.  We've been training more and more lately, today we have classes with Professor Earth again in an hour, and in the afternoon we'll go to the shooting range.  Plus those evening dance lessons.  Ughhhhhhh, I hate them the most.”

"Why?  After all, dancing is fun?”

“Sure, very good fun.”  I snorted sarcastically, remembering that Professor Zee kept scolding me.  According to him, I wasn't doing anything right and there were many times when I wanted to throw some sort of spell, preferably a curse, at him.  Professor Zee annoyed me in every dance class.  Especially since he clearly favored NuNew.  According to P'Zee NuNew, he always did everything right, perfectly, and we always had to follow his example.  Ughhhhhhhhh, someone put a curse on the professor or I'll do it myself!

“Hey, I guess you can't complain, after all, your partner is Prim.  I heard you two are secretly dating.”

I almost choked on the piece of orange I was eating.  I wasn't a fan of fruit, but I did eat some from time to time, and today I didn't feel like having breakfast, so I grabbed just a few pieces of fruit from the cafeteria and packed them into my big, comfortable black bag with some nonsense written in English on the top.  .

Khaotung started patting me hard on the back.

“P!  Don't say you believe these false accusations!”

“Well, I've heard it from many people, even Fourth mentioned….”

As soon as I heard the name, the blood in my veins thickened.  The fruit I was eating had completely lost its flavor, so I gave almost half of it to Hope.  He ate it with relish.

“Are you talking about that idiot Nattawat?”  I asked sternly, grabbing Khaotung by his tailcoats.  He was dressed in comfortable short gray shorts and a gray top.  Up close, he smelled of freshly cut hay, which he had probably just fed our magical creatures.

“Calm down, don't be nervous, I think Fourth meant well.”

"Yes?  So what did he tell you about us?”

"Nothing special".

“SPEAK!”  I ordered, glaring at him angrily.

“I'll tell you if you let me go.”  P'Khao was a tough player, he didn't give in easily, and I guess that's why I liked him.  I had no choice but to let go of the piece of his thin cotton blouse that I was clenching in my fists.

“So?  What did Nattawat say about me?”

“Only that he's worried about you.  Apparently his friends told him that you and Prim are just friends, but he thinks it's more than that, he believes you love her.”

“Oh, I understand everything now.  So he's the one behind these stupid rumors about me and Prim.  Listen, P'Khao, the next time Nattawat comes to you to complain and starts talking nonsense, tell him that he will definitely not be elected king for such a thing.”

“Oh, Gem, Gem... I think you've completely misunderstood everything....”

I saw a cheerful spark in Khaotung's eyes that didn't match our gloomy situation.

“Huh?”

“Oh yeah, because you see, nong Gemini, it looks like Fourth is just jealous.  And besides, he's not the one spreading such rumors.  If you took the effort to get to know him better, you would understand that nong Fourth doesn't work like that, he is always honest with everyone.”

“Fourth is jealous?  About what?  That I have a better chance of becoming king?”

“That's what I meant when I said you got it all wrong.”

I got the impression that P'Khaotung was having a great time at my expense.  Hope must have sensed my nervousness because he lightly pinched my arm with his teeth.  It hurt.

“What?”

“The time will come and you will understand.  It's not me who should explain this to you.  Ask Fourth, although I doubt he'll answer.  But try to open your own heart to new possibilities.  I have to go, I haven't finished feeding our animals”. 

Khaotung retreated, although to me it looked like an escape.  He spoke only in riddles, but he was right about one thing: I didn't understand anything at all.  There was mess in my head.  What could that idiot Nattawat be jealous of?  And what did he say to Khaotung?  Has he told anyone else about this?  Or maybe my memories of the bar weren't a dream?  Maybe it really happened?

I was mechanically stroking Hope's neck, completely lost in my thoughts, until I heard my phone ring.  I took it out of the pocket of my white pants and looked at the screen.  With some disappointment, I discovered that it was just an alarm reminding me to go to class.

I don't know why I waited to hear from anyone, after all, apart from Phuwin, I didn't really have any close friends, and Dunk didn't really write messages to me.

I took a deep breath, cupped Hope's face in my hands, and kissed him.

“Have a nice day, Hope.  Be a good horse when I'm not around, ok?  Don't cause trouble for P'Khaotung”.

Hope shook his big head as if to tell me that he never caused any problems and that he is not an actual horse.

Leaving our secret gardens, which we had access to on the ground floor of our Institute building, and which were located as if in an additional dimension, I felt that a burden had appeared on my heart, the source of which I could not locate.  All I knew was that it was somehow much harder for me to focus on anything that day, and things were flying out of my hands as if I was still drunk, even though Dr. WanDee had already given me the antidote for my drinking adventure.

I told Dunk everything during the long break between classes with P'Tay and P'Earth.

“Oh, it's nothing, you're just worried, but it's good, it's nice to know that you still have some human reflexes and feelings left in you,” Dunk stated completely calmly, paying more attention to eating his sandwich than to our conversation.  We sat at my desk right next to the window and took advantage of the fact that all the other students of the Knights of Light Academy had left for break.

“I'm not worried.  What would I have to worry about?”

“Probably because Fourth, who you hate so much, might misunderstand something and think you're not single anymore.”

Why do they all insist on making my life miserable by telling me that there is something other than mutual hatred between me and Nattawat?!  Or maybe it's a conspiracy to make me lose all authority and lose the election?

Looking at Dunk, I felt the same bitter disappointment again.  I couldn't trust anyone anymore, not even my own brother.  First I lost my friend (Phuwin did talk to me, but less and less often and our conversations were limited to empty conversations about classes), and now my own brother turned against me.

“When will it finally dawn on you all that I'm not in love with neither Fourth nor Prim?  Stop doing this, it's pathetic.  Prim is my friend, Fourth is my arch-enemy.  If you want to ship me with someone, then ship me with...” I had to think carefully before choosing any name.  Only one person came to mind, our friend who had already undergone the rune ceremony, P'Milk.  She was kind, charming, and often helped me with topics in Non-Magical classes that I was struggling with.  “Ship me with P'Milk.  She is nice".

“Ha ha ha ha.”

Dunk, who had just finished eating, started laughing so loudly that it scared me.  I looked at him disgusted and bewildered.

“What is?  What's so funny about what I said?!”

Dunk didn't answer, he just continued laughing like crazy.  For a moment I thought he was going to fall off the chair. 

“Tell me what's so funny to you!”

“Do you really think you have a chance with her?”  Dunk almost cried with laughter.  I punched him in the shoulder.

“Yes, why not?  After all, I'm going to be the king, what girl wouldn't want to be the king's girlfriend?"

“Oh Big G!  But you have a vivid imagination!  Well then I guess you'll have to hurry up because I hear P'Love has already started hitting on P'Milk and from what I know she has a pretty good chance of becoming P'Milk's girlfriend.”

“No?”

“Yes”.

“It's a joke, right?  Tell me you're joking?  P'Milk likes P'Love?”

Dunk just spread his arms wide, avoiding answering.  I could figure out the rest myself.

P'Milk was a member of the Knights of Light and, according to many people, was a very talented witch.  She was predicted to have a bright future.  I liked her, I liked spending time with her, conversations with her were always on the level.  If I didn't understand something, I could ask her about it.  I believed we were some kind of friends with the potential for something more, so what my brother said hurt me doubly...

It hurt because if P'Milk was my friend, why didn't she tell me about herself and P'Love?

Dunk seemed to read my mind because he replied.

“P'Milk doesn't trust you.  You don't trust anyone either.  Trust us and let us trust you.  Show us that we can trust you, and then you won't be the last to know about such things."

“L-last person?  How so?"

"Simply.  "I guess everyone at the Institute already knows about P'Love and P'Milk and everyone is rooting for them, they are currently the hottest soon-to-be couple."

“Oh…”

“Big G, when will you finally open your eyes and start noticing the people around you more than just the tip of your nose?  Consider the reason why P'Milk didn't tell you.  Think about what you said about people like her.”

“About people like her?”  I repeated, not really understanding.  “I never said anything to offend her, I like her, what kind of people do you mean?”

“LGBT people.  But you hate them.  No, wait, you hate everyone but yourself”.

Dunk told me, then got up from his chair and left the classroom, leaving me alone with my mind confused.

* * *

Two days later, I visited the forbidden room 609 to study in peace, when P'Perth, an old friend of mine with whom I used to be quite close until it turned out that he also wanted to be king, came to the same place.  He came with his entourage.  I pretended they weren't there, but they started pissing me off.  I really don't know where Fourth came from and why he wanted to help me.  Again.  I'm starting to fear that what I initially thought was a stupid joke, i.e. a conspiracy against me, was actually true.

But somehow it's hard for me to imagine this good-hearted scoundrel as a villain.

No, whatever, Fourth couldn't be the bad guy, he didn't like the role of villain.  I don't know the source of my belief, but I feel it is so.  Fourth would rather get himself killed than hurt someone willingly.  No, he's not like that.

I thought about it for a long time, unable to sleep.  I finally turned to face him.  He slept peacefully on the second bed, which I separated from mine with two additional bedside tables and a large, green, plush dragon.  Only the silver light of the full moon fell on his face and came through the large window and balcony door.  I saw him clearly.  It was hot, so he slept without any covering, wearing only short black shorts and a white T-shirt that clearly exposed his muscular arms.  The blanket was on the floor and he had one hand under his head.

He looked like an angel when he slept.  Carved by some divine artist of great talent.  He was beautiful, and I think it was his beauty that I was afraid of.  I never experienced anything good from people, especially from those who were beautiful.  Beautiful women in the fashion world were sometimes shallow and it was impossible to talk to them about anything worthwhile.  The only things that interested them were fashion, money and expensive, luxurious trips around the world.  It wasn't for me, I loved adventures, challenges, I loved feeling adrenaline.

Prim suggested that Fourth was acting like a girl.  This scared me even more.  I wanted to get away from him, but I couldn't do it.  There was a responsibility on my shoulders from which there was no escape.

“Don't hurt me, please don't be the next person to hurt me,” I asked quietly, staring at his slightly open mouth.

He was beautiful, and I knew that beauty was my enemy.