Chapter 388 - Training Buddies
Still engrossed in his discussion with Baracus, Hao Xuan unknowingly entered an old wooden house. It was the only structure here so without much thought Hao Xuan went in. By the time he woke from this stupor, he was already standing in front of a wooden door.
*Knock*Knock*
"Hello? Ryfon is here and wants to see you," he said awkwardly.
Hao Xuan forgot to ask for the person's name so he didn't know what to call him. Under normal circumstances, he would just yell the person's name but now all he could do was shout that Ryfon wanted to see whoever was inside.
"Hello??" he shouted again but as before there was no response. He waited a minute or two but when he didn't hear any sound from the outside he slowly opened the door, making sure to make as much noise as possible.
"Hello?? Ryfon's....cousin..? He wants to see you, man!"
The interior of the house was actually completely different from what he expected. The outside looked worn out, much like an abandoned building but the insides were neat and tidy.
The floor didn't have any dust at all, there was a nice scent of lavender in the air. There were a bunch of things scattered on a desk in the middle of the living room area like combs, somethings that looked like lotion bottles, etc.
"HELLO??" he yelled again.
*Splash*
As if in response to his earlier call out, the sound of water splashing came from directly ahead.
"Ryfon sent me, he wants to see....dude..." Hao Xuan said as loudly as he could while walking towards the door. He knocked on it like before but there was no response. Finally having had enough he forced open the door and was met with a wall of fog.
"Yo, anyone in here?"
*Splash*
'Why the f*ck isn't he saying anything...' with a frown and a light temper he pushed aside the fog and saw a shadow sitting in a pool of water. It seemed like the source of the fog was a naturally formed in-door hot spring.
"Dude I've been calling for you for like 10 minutes now, can you at least reply?" he said while walking towards the shadow with heavy steps. When he was about 10 feet away from it, the fog cleared up enough that he could see who it really belonged it.
Hao Xuan froze mid-stride. The first thing he saw was a slender back with extremely smooth skin. Long blond hair tied up in a bun. There was a faint sound of music coming from the person's ears, obviously listening to music VERY loudly which was why they couldn't hear him.
'It's a girl?! Why is there a girl here? Wait, I forgot whose cousin I'm talking about. He's probably a man-whore just like Ryfon,' that was what went through his mind as he stood there like a statue.
'Okay, slowly turn around and walk out as if nothing happened. That fucker can come find his dumbass cousin himself!'
As soon as Hao Xuan turned around he heard water move from behind him. His heart skipped a beat as he turned his head halfway and saw a naked person staring at him. Her curious light brown eyes looked enchanting in the fog as they stared at Hao Xuan in confusion.
The first thing Hao Xuan thought was 'Such a shame a girl this beautiful fell for an elf b*stard.' But instead, he quickly looked away and covered his eyes while shouting.
" I'm so sorry, I was just looking for Ryfon's cousin, I thought you were him and-"
Before he could finish speaking, a rough, manly voice interrupted him.
"Brother Ryfon is here already?? I'll come out right now!"
"Eh?" Hao Xuan was taken aback. How did he not feel the presence of another person?
'Wait a second, was that b*stard also in the water? Oh my god, were they having sex or something?!'
With one eye closed he back again, trying his best to avoid looking at the girl in the water but could see no one else.
'Where...?'
The girl got out of the water and waved her hand as a bright red towel appeared in her hand. She used it to cover her bottom half and walked up to Hao Xuan who couldn't move a muscle.
"Yo, I'm sorry man, was listening to a new song so didn't hear you come in. Gime a few mins to get dressed, I'll meet you outside," the "girl" patted his shoulder and walked passed him casually.
"....she....is...a he...?"
Hao Xuan covered his mouth and forced himself to swallow the vomit that was coming up his throat. His entire body was dry heaving.
'IT WAS A DUDE?!'
Stupified, he stood there in a daze.
"How could I mistake a guy for a girl?! And I even thought she looked so pretty! No, HE looked so pretty! Dear god!, am I gay now?! Is this it?" he held his head in between his hands, dispiritingly talking to himself.
*Beep*
"Your heart rate is getting a bit out of hand," Baracus warned.
"Shut up! No, it isn't!" Hao Xuan barked back, silencing Baracus.
*Beep*
"I don't understand what the problem is. That person is obviously androgynous. It is completely normal to confuse him for a.....her," Baracus explained.
"You shut your god damn mouth! Don't tell anyone what happened, not a damn soul! And my heart rate is fine!" Hao Xuan cried through gritted teeth and sprinted out of the house.
He didn't wait outside for 'him' and ran straight to Ryfon who was now talking to 4 individuals.
"HE is coming," he said to Ryfon with a twitching right eye, trying his best to hold himself back. He enunciated the word 'he' as much as he could and looked at Ryfon's face for a reaction but there was none. He simply nodded and gestured towards the four people in front of him.
"Come meet everyone. You will be training with these guys. Everyone, this is Hao Xuan."
Hao Xuan was still angry about what had just happened but had to hold himself back and nod towards his training buddies.
He pointed at the rightmost person, "This is Nick, he is a human that I picked out myself not too long ago."
Nick was a normal-looking guy of around 20-22 years of age. He had Asian features and actually looked somewhat similar to Hao Xuan. He was ripped and had about 4 pairs of abs decorating his abdomen. He smiled at Hao Xuan and gave a nod.
"This is Hazel, also a human. She is the youngest out of everyone here so be sure to take care of her," he pointed at the 2nd person from the right.
The girl Hazel looked very slim and somewhat out of place surrounding by these big burly guys. Her hair was cut to shoulder length and she had very pretty features, albeit not as much as Ryfon's cousin. She looked to be younger than 20.
She came forward and shook Hao Xuan's hand enthusiastically, "Hello, its nice to meet you!" she smiled innocently but it was easy to see that she was forcing herself to do that. Her movements were robotic and she faltered a couple of times. It was like looking at a kid trying to force themselves to do something they didn't want to.
Hao Xuan gave a natural smile, "Nice to meet you as well," receiving a beam of satisfaction in return.
Both her personality and attitude seemed quite chirpy and pleasant.
"This is Mino, he is half-dwarf and half-elf."
Hao Xuan looked at Mino in surprise. He hadn't seen a dwarf before but Mino did not look like what you would expect after hearing his introduction. He looked completely normal, even more so than "Nick". The only differences were his slightly pointy ears and a somewhat shorter stature at around 5.6 feet.
He was expressionless and looked like he was quite bored. He yawned and nodded before picking his nose.
"And this is Fulke," he looked at the leftmost individual. His was the shortest introduction yet and Hao Xuan felt like Ryfon didn't want to say anymore so he didn't ask.
Fulke was a large, chubby guy around the same age as the others. He seemed nice from a first impression and kindly smiled towards Hao Xuan. He did give off a strange feeling though, which made Hao Xuan keep his guard up.
*Step*Step*Step*
The sound of soft footsteps came from behind and a familiar voice entered Hao Xuan's ears, giving him goosebumps.
"Cousin! Long time no see! Haha"