It was deep in the night, and inside one of the dark rooms, Kiernan's eyes fluttered open, and he stared straight at the ceiling.
He heard the loud snoring and turned to the side, where Klaus was sleeping on his own bed.
They happened to be roommates for this trip—Nath and Ryan were in another room down the hall—Timothy and Jin had their own rooms.
They drew straws, and those straws determined their room assignments for the weekend.
If there was enough space in the hotel, they all would've had their own rooms, but since it was the nationals weekend, all the hotels were packed.
'I can't sleep.' Kiernan grabbed his glabella, shook his head, and stood up.
With sleepy steps, he went to the bathroom and started washing his face before looking himself in the mirror.
The loud snoring pierced through the thin walls.
"Haaah…" Kiernan shook his head, left the bathroom, grabbed his team jersey, and as he put it on, he grabbed the room keys before leaving the room.
With hands inside the jersey, he called an elevator, and once it arrived, he stepped through and pressed the ground floor.
It was five in the morning, and the sun would rise in about an hour.
He couldn't sleep even for a moment.
It was because he couldn't stop thinking about today's matches. The nervousness was almost consuming him whole.
After the elevator reached the ground floor, the doors opened, and he stepped through.
Instead of heading outside, he wandered down a hall and reached the hotel's gym, which had all sorts of exercise equipment that he could use to distract himself.
There was also a TV mounted on the wall. It was currently showing some foreign martial arts tournaments happening.
'Right, that world championship tournament was about to start soon too. In a week, if I recall correctly.'
He thought so briefly before sitting down on the bench and taking some white tape from his pocket to wrap around his knuckles.
The TV was pretty quiet, but some words reached his ears.
"Macarena's dancing fighters are giving D.x.D run for their money. The Tier 2 division is heating up…"
Ignoring the rest of the match, Kiernan stood up and started punching the bag furiously, envisioning himself in the ring with his competitors.
At the bag, Johan's, Yves', and Kara's face popped out. When he punched at the bag, the face kept changing.
"The bag is not a good match."
"?" Kiernan turned around, and an annoyed look appeared. "You…"
Muriel smiled with a tilt of her head. She looked quite different from her previous self. She was now wearing all-black clothing with a skirt, tights, and a strange collar around her neck.
It made her look very gothic, as if she were on her rebellious arc.
It also made her look strangely appealing to the people around her.
She also had black lipstick on with black eyeliner under her round, pale silver eyes.
"What is it that you want?" Kiernan asked as he punched on the bag again. "Why aren't you sleeping?"
"Elves can stay awake weeks." Muriel hopped over to him while looking at Kiernan's fist punching the bag. "What about you?"
"What does it look like?" Kiernan punched the bag again. "Training!"
"No matter how much you train, you can't defeat Johan." Muriel said.
Kiernan stopped punching the bag and stopped it before it was about to slam into his face.
"You came to tell me that?" Kiernan turned to look at her. "Why are you really here? You cut your hair shorter.."
"Oh, you noticed?" Muriel touched her hair with a smile. "I cut it just like you liked it. How does it look?"
"I asked you…" Kiernan punched at the bag so hard that it ripped off the chain. "What do you want?!"
Muriel's smile vanished.
"Do you want to know what I think?" Kiernan asked.
Muriel didn't say a word and just kept staring at him.
"I think you like the attention." Kiernan tightened the white tape around his knuckles.
"You like manipulating people. Cadell, especially. Y'know he is completely infatuated with you, and you like to make him jealous by flirting with other guys.
"You're expecting me to fall heels over you just because you changed your hair for me. You want me to fight for you. It gives you satisfaction."
"…" Muriel stayed silent.
"The way you dress…" Kiernan looked at her up and down. "You're screaming, 'Please give me attention'. Your parents didn't give you attention, right? So now you want the world to notice you."
"That obvious, huh?" Muriel said.
"If I had to guess, you ran from home, didn't you?"
Kiernan said and saw a slight change in her expression, and she looked away, avoiding his gaze.
"Thought so. This Godfred fellow is just someone that is housing you while you're on the run from your parents. How did you manage to make him help you?
"A sob story? Did you manipulate him as well?"
"No…" Muriel shook her head. "He is a friend of my parents. I've known him his whole life. He was more than willing to help me without any manipulation."
"Wow, lucky you." Kiernan looked at her pointy ears. "Elves are not that common. I've seen everyone look at you. It isn't only because of your pretty looks, but elves must sell for a lot of money."
"What're you trying to say?" Muriel asked, feeling uneasy.
"Godfred had no other choice than to take you in. If you kept running away on your own, some humans would've found you and sold you into slavery.
"He is a good man, this Godfred. You should appreciate him more."
"Silence." Muriel said coldly. "I love him like grandfather. Don't think that all my feelings are fake!"
"Heh…" Kiernan smirked. "I guess I hit the sore spot. I am sorry. I know you're fond of him; I just wanted to rile you up a little bit."
"You're asshole." Muriel turned around and stomped away in anger. "Asshole!"
Kiernan removed the white tape from his knuckles and tossed it into the trash can.