Chapter 65: Sport Day, The Cousin, And Harolin’s Question!

The director cleared his throat and looked at the room.

Everyone settled.

"First announcement," he said. "Regarding the Thursday games."

The murmuring started immediately. Ruaan watched it move through the auditorium like a current, everyone leaning toward whoever was beside them, everyone with an opinion already forming.

The director held up a hand.

"Effective from this week, the Thursday games will be held every two weeks instead of every week."

The reaction was split directly down the middle.

The higher ranks responded with something between satisfaction and relief. More time at the top. More time enjoying what they had earned. Ruaan watched the blue uniforms around the platform exchange looks that were clearly positive.

The grey section reacted differently. They were murmuring, worrying about themselves. The specific anxiety of people calculating what two weeks in the bottom ten meant instead of one.

Ruaan sat in the back row and thought about it from both sides and felt the complicated reality of being top one for the first time. Two weeks were good for him. Two weeks were harder for everyone beneath him.

"Second announcement," the director said, and waited for the room to settle again.

It took longer this time.

"The recreation centre will be reopened."

Silence for about five seconds. Then the auditorium erupted.

It wasn’t anything like a polite applause. It was an actual eruption. People standing. People grabbing each other’s arms. Even the grey section forgot its anxiety about the two-week games and responded with the genuine full-body joy of people who had been told something they had stopped expecting.

The director laughed.

Ruaan had never seen the director laugh. No, he had never seen the director before. Maybe on TV or the internet when he was back at home. The laugh changed his face entirely.

"The recreation centre was closed three years ago," the director continued, once the noise had reduced enough to speak over, "following an incident in the pool area. Following a full safety review and facility update, it will reopen this Friday. Every Friday following a Thursday game will be designated recreation day."

More cheering.

"Sport uniforms will be distributed before Friday. Standard uniforms are not permitted in the recreation centre. The centre includes the pool, gymnasium equipment separate from the training facility, a games room, and outdoor space."

The man sitting two seats from Ruaan said something to his neighbour that Ruaan didn’t catch but that produced genuine laughter.

"Meals will also be updated," the director continued. "The current menu has been flagged as insufficient for the health requirements of the population. A revised menu will be implemented from next week."

Ruaan thought about his fever.

About the doctor warning him that his body was still adjusting to the food here.

He thought about two weeks of eating food that his system had been quietly objecting to.

The applause this time was less explosive but warmer and personal. The applause of people who had been quietly struggling with something and had just been told it was being fixed.

The director spoke for another ten minutes. Additional rules. Minor procedural changes. Visiting schedule updates. Ruaan listened with enough attention to catch anything that affected him directly and let the rest pass over him.

Then the director stepped back and handed the microphone to Harolin.

The room went quiet in a different way.

Harolin looked at the microphone for a half second like it was slightly beneath him and then spoke into it with the same flat even tone he used for everything.

"Recreation day is a privilege," he said. "It operates under the same hierarchy as the rest of the facility. Behaviour during recreation hours is subject to the same standards as any other day. Any incident during recreation will result in immediate removal and review." He paused. "Enjoy your Fridays."

He stepped back.

Someone in the room laughed at the last two words. Then a few more people.

Another officer concluded with something brief and the session was over.

.

Ruaan sat and waited.

The auditorium emptied in waves. Everyone talking at once. About the sports day, the pool incident three years ago, the games room, the revised meals and the two-week games, which had split opinion but were losing ground to the excitement about recreation day.

He waited until the noise moved toward the exits and the rows near him cleared and the auditorium became something closer to quiet.

He sat with his hands on his knees and looked at the empty platform.

"You look like you’re avoiding someone."

He turned.

The person had taken the seat one row behind him at some point during the announcement without Ruaan noticing. Long hair tied back at the neck. The mole under the lower lip. The face that Seo had described as beautiful enough to mistake for a girl, which was accurate in the specific way that accurate descriptions were sometimes more annoying than inaccurate ones.

Lev.

Ruaan looked at him.

All of it came back in order. He remembered how Lev attended the same high school and college with him. Lev was always appearing wherever Ruaan was and finding whoever mattered to Ruaan. He loved making himself indispensable to them. He doesn’t care if they were Ruaan’s friends, study partners and even the people Ruaan had been seeing. Lev had a gift for it. He collected people who belonged to Ruaan and he was charming enough that they usually didn’t notice until it was done.

He was Ruaan’s step-cousin. His father’s brother’s wife’s son, which made them nothing biologically and everything situationally.

A thieving bastard in a grey uniform.

"How did you end up in prison without telling me?" Lev said. He reached out and touched Ruaan’s hair. "Life outside is boring without my rival."

Ruaan pulled his head away. "Don’t touch me. Stay away from me."

Lev smiled. He touched his own chin thoughtfully. "Sure. I’ll stay away from you." He looked toward the platform where Harolin had been standing. "Maybe I’ll spend my time getting to know that officer instead. I could tell you two had something. The way he was looking at you from up there." His eyes came back to Ruaan. "What is he to you? Friend? Something else?"

Ruaan said nothing.

Not because he was protecting Harolin from Lev. Because he genuinely did not know the answer and standing in an emptying auditorium was not the place to figure it out.

Lev read the silence with interest.

Ruaan stood up. "Do whatever you want."

He started walking toward the exit.

"Ruaan."

He heard the voice and recognised it before he turned.

Harolin was walking down the aisle toward him. He was still in that full uniform, hands at his sides, moving slowly.

Behind Ruaan, he heard Lev’s posture change. He couldn’t see it but he just knew.

Harolin reached and his eyes went to Ruaan first. "Are you alright? How is the fever?"

He reached toward Ruaan’s face.

A hand appeared on Harolin’s arm.

Lev had moved without Ruaan noticing, which was also a thing Lev could do. He was holding Harolin’s forearm and his other hand went to his own ankle and his face arranged itself into the specific expression of someone in pain.

"Oh. I’m sorry, I twisted my ankle. I must have missed a step." He looked up at Harolin with the full force of his face. "Could you help me to the infirmary? I’m new here and I don’t know where anything is."

"The infirmary is its own building on the east side," Harolin said. "Since it’s a single building, it’s hard to miss."

"But if you could just—"

Harolin looked at Ruaan. Ruaan stared at him.

He was watching Harolin and waiting for the expression to shift. For the eyes to go to Lev’s face the way everyone’s eyes eventually went to Lev’s face. For the slight recalibration that happened when people registered what they were looking at.

But Harolin looked at Ruaan.

"... because you’re suddenly able to stand. Are you listening to me?" Harolin said, snapping his fingers.

"Huh?" Ruaan said. "No."

Harolin stepped past Lev’s hand entirely like it was furniture.

Then he bent slightly and put one arm behind Ruaan’s knees and one behind his back and picked him up.

Ruaan made a sound that was not dignified. "Put me down. I can walk. I’m not sick anymore. Put me... fuck! There are people—"

"Nobody is in the corridors right now," Harolin said. He was already moving toward the exit. "Stop moving."

"There is someone right there—"

"He doesn’t count, does he?"

Ruaan looked back over Harolin’s shoulder.

Lev was standing in the empty auditorium watching them leave with an expression that Ruaan recognised. The one that meant something had happened that Lev had not predicted and he was just too shocked to even react.

Ruaan faced forward.

.

.

Harolin carried him all the way to his room without seeing another person, which was either luck or the facility having the specific consideration of good timing.

He set Ruaan down on the bed and went to the fridge and took out a water bottle and handed it over.

Ruaan took it.

He was supposed to be cold to him and ignore him. He had called him Officer Crowe yesterday and meant it. So today shouldn’t be different just because Harolin had walked past Lev without looking and picked him up in an empty auditorium.

He drank the water.

Harolin crouched down in front of him, which put him below eye level with Ruaan. Ruaan lowered the bottle, not expecting the gesture. Seeing Harolin in front of him, his cold expression, which he had been maintaining faded.

He looked at Harolin’s face from this angle.

"Now that you’re calm," Harolin said quietly. "Tell me why you ignored me yesterday."

He held Ruaan’s gaze.

"Did I do something wrong?"