Lick Me Up If You Can Novel (Completed) - Chapter 12

Koi quickly became dazed by the loud chatter of the big guys. His mind was in a whirl, but they kept babbling on, each spewing out words. They were definitely speaking English, but he couldn’t understand a single thing. Koi busily rolled his eyes, shrinking back in fear.

<You pathetic loser, look at this!>

<It’s a monkey, a monkey.>

<No, it’s a dog! You pathetic loser, walk on all fours!>

<Woof woof, woof woof woof. Hey, I said do it! Woof woof!>

The sound of laughter echoed in his ears. Cold sweat ran down his back, and his vision spun.

He had been off guard and his habit had slipped out. He couldn’t remember how much he had been bullied the first time this was discovered. Even before that, Nelson’s gang, who used to torment Koi whenever they were bored, started actively pouncing on him the moment they saw him from that day on.

But again.

He had just barely managed to fit into a new group, and now the same situation was repeating itself, making Koi want to cry. He couldn’t even look at Ashley. The thought of Ashley pouring out words of contempt and ridicule like Nelson made tears well up.

He barely bit his lip, trembling, when Ashley’s voice cut through the commotion.

“Koi, really?”

It was all over. He was completely ruined because of this terrible habit. Of course, Connor Niles. How could your life go so well? You should know your place. What were you so happy about, getting excited all by yourself and ruining everything? As expected, nothing ever goes right for you. You idiot!

As he poured all sorts of self-deprecation, self-loathing, and blame onto himself, Ashley spoke again.

“Everyone, quiet down, you’re scaring him. I said quiet down!”

Having calmed the surroundings, he spoke to Koi again.

“Koi, it’s okay. Sorry, these guys sometimes forget how intimidating they can be. Just big bodies with no brains.”

“Hey, aren’t you too?”

“Yeah, that’s unfair! Ash Miller, you’re the biggest among us!”

Following that, the guys started shouting again. Until then, Koi, who had been trembling in fear, realized that the atmosphere was somehow different from what he had expected.

Uh…?

He cautiously raised his gaze and saw Ash and his gang still casually bantering and putting each other down, just like before. The terrible situation Koi had imagined hadn’t come to pass.

Confused, he slowly lowered the hand that was holding his ear. He carefully shifted his gaze and immediately met Ashley’s eyes. Unlike Koi, who stiffened, Ashley smiled brightly. As if it were nothing.

The tension in Koi’s shoulders, which had been tight until then, slowly began to release. Was it okay…? He cautiously looked around, and another guy quickly interjected.

“You can really move your ears?”

When Koi was startled, another guy immediately protested, feeling wronged.

“I saw it! Do I look like a pooping hippo to you guys?”

No one paid attention to the fuming guy. Everyone looked at Koi with shining eyes and threw words at him.

“Really? Show us, I want to see.”

“Come on.”

“Please, just do it once. Huh?”

This reaction was new to Koi, and he was flustered, not knowing what to do. But the atmosphere was certainly not bad. Even Ashley was looking at him with an intrigued gaze, so Koi plucked up his courage and cautiously moved one ear. Immediately, cheers erupted.

“Wow.”

“Holy cow, amazing!”

“Hey, he really moves his ears? That’s so cool!”

“I’ve never seen this before, wow, that’s incredible.”

“How do you do this? Is it training? Could you always do it? Is it genetic?”

“Can you do both? Try it, can you move them separately? Can you move them together too? Wow, he can do it.”

His mind was reeling from the flood of words, but none of them were ridiculing or mocking Koi. Seeing their reactions of pure wonder and amusement, Koi gained a little more courage. He subtly moved both ears together, and the guys clapped and laughed, pulling at their own ears or frowning, trying to move their ears. Of course, none of them succeeded.

“How do you do this?”

Ashley also seemed to have failed, as he frowned and asked. Koi, his face flushed, stammered.

“It just… happened naturally since I was little.”

“That’s amazing. You can do it whenever you want to?”

Another guy asked, and Koi, still stammering, answered in a slightly louder voice.

“Sometimes, but it also moves according to my mood. It’s like a habit… when I’m very happy, or very surprised.”

“Wow, that’s incredible.”

“As expected, some things are just born with.”

Whoosh, the guys who had been whistling talked for a bit, then moved on to another topic. Koi had never imagined that his complex would be resolved so easily. Was it really nothing at all?

Still dazed, he was about to drink his vegetable juice again when one of the chattering guys snatched Koi’s juice. He hadn’t been looking properly while talking to another guy and had taken Koi’s drink instead of his own.

“Oh.”

Koi tried to stop him, but he had already gulped down the juice.

“Ugh, what is this?”

He immediately shuddered and checked the drink he had consumed, his eyes widening. Koi felt unnecessary guilt and mumbled.

“I tried to stop you…”

“It’s the fault of the person who didn’t look properly, don’t worry about it.”

Ashley casually brushed it off. Still, Koi looked around nervously, and the guy, with a grimace, returned the drink and said,

“Why would anyone drink something like this? It tastes like a month-old pair of underwear washed in gutter water.”

“Have you tasted that?”

“You’d know if you tasted it too, wouldn’t you?”

Seeing the guys bickering as if they had been waiting for it, Koi tried to act nonchalant and replied,

“I’m fine with it.”

Immediately, the other guys exchanged words.

“No one would drink something like that unless they were trying to build muscle.”

“Aren’t the guys who drank it already dead?”

“Hey, speaking of which, weren’t those pancakes you made before an assassination attempt?”

The conversation naturally drifted to other topics. Seeing Ashley also naturally laughing and chatting, Koi inwardly let out a sigh of relief.

There were a few crises, but he got through them well. Koi felt as if he had faced the two biggest crises of his short life consecutively and patted his chest.

After the crisis passed, a sense of proud exhilaration spread. He still couldn’t believe it was real that he was having lunch with the six most popular guys in school.

Before returning his tray and heading to the building for his next class, Koi subtly called out to Ashley. When Ashley stopped and turned at the sound of his name, Koi rummaged through his pocket to pull out the money he had been carrying all morning.

“Um, about the money you paid yesterday.”

“Oh, was it not enough?”

At the readily returned words, Koi instinctively looked up.

“No, that’s not it…”

When their eyes met, Ashley tilted his head.

“Hmm?”

Somehow, the words didn’t come easily. Koi looked up at him for a moment, then hastily lowered his eyes and quickly took the money out of his pocket.

“Oops.”

Along with the money he had bundled to give to Ashley, his lucky bill came out. Before Koi could pick it up, Ashley bent down first and picked up the crumpled 2-dollar bill.

“Here.”

Ashley readily handed him the bill and smiled.

“Looks like you’ve had it for a long time.”

“Uh…”

There was a reason for that. Koi mumbled an evasive answer and changed the subject.

“The amount you paid yesterday was too much.”

He chose his words carefully, making sure his voice didn’t tremble.

“You paid for the damaged items too, didn’t you?”

He clearly left a large sum of money because he didn’t know how much the loss was. Of course, this was not a situation where he could pretend to be too proud to accept such kindness, or tell him not to pity him. But Koi endured the embarrassment and maintained his remaining pride by returning the change to him. Of course, he didn’t forget to express his gratitude for the consideration.

“…Thank you.”

When he said it cautiously, Ashley grinned as usual.

“I was the one who was indebted first.”

“You’ve more than paid it back.”

“That’s good then.”

Ashley took the money Koi handed him, casually shoved it into his pants pocket, then strode towards his gang, who were waving and waiting. Koi watched his retreating back for quite a long time. His heart was pounding.