It was the day the high school football championship ended.
Platts High School had achieved a not-too-shabby result of third place, and many students, including club members, gathered to throw a party.
After a round of socializing, most of the students left the dormitory and returned home since the weekend was approaching. The campus quickly became quiet as a mouse.
In the dim locker room of the football club—a place where it wouldn’t be strange if something jumped out at any moment—Henry Lowell was leaning his forehead against a cabinet door, his broad shoulders heaving.
The cabinet Henry was leaning against wasn’t his own. It belonged to a senior in the same football club, David Smith.
As if that wasn’t questionable enough, Henry was clutching a neatly wrapped wedding invitation in his hand.
An invitation that read, ‘You are invited to the wedding of David Smith and Nora March.’
David had handed it to him with a bright smile. Last night. He said he was happy that the invitations had come out so he could deliver them to everyone on such a good day.
The smile on his face looked utterly happy.
In complete contrast to Henry’s insides, which were burning to a crisp.
If someone else saw this, they’d ask why he was crying over just a wedding invitation from a senior in the same club.
But to Henry Lowell, David Smith wasn’t merely ‘just a senior in the same club.’ Because he liked that senior.
That’s right.
The quarterback of Platts High School’s football team. The rising star of the football world that America was watching. The school’s greatest celebrity, in name and reality.
Henry Lowell liked men.
However, in truth, Henry had no reason to feel wronged by the news of his senior’s wedding, which would be held after he graduated next summer. Henry had never thought about confessing, nor had he ever pictured himself together with him.
Above all, the fact that he liked men instead of women was something Henry could never speak of for the rest of his life.
Becoming a professional football player, meeting a decent woman, getting married, and having about two kids.
This was a value his parents considered more important than anything else. Henry agreed with his parents’ wishes as well.
As long as he dreamed of being a player in America, not just treating football as a hobby, he knew that having different tastes from others would only be an obstacle to his future.
Knowing this fact, he wanted to grieve freely today, at least for one day. Because today was the day his first and last true love—which would remain so for the rest of his life—was ending.
“Huk, hup… huuk…”
Believing that no one would be left at school, that it would be okay just this once, he let his emotions flow freely. Never dreaming in his wildest imagination that his choice would turn out to be the absolute worst move.
Click!
Without warning, the door to the locker room where he was opened. Henry turned his head with startled eyes, unable to even think about wiping his tear-stained face.
And then he met eyes with him.
“…Lowell?”
The person he least wanted to meet looking like this.
The sunset seeping in from outside the locker room dyed the man’s faded blond hair red.
He lifted his straight eyelids a beat late. His elegant eyes widened greatly.
His glass-like green eyes, finely crafted, failed to hide his surprise as they scanned Henry thoroughly.
His gaze moved to Henry’s tear-stained face, the nameplate on the cabinet, and finally to the wedding invitation clutched in his hand.
Even while instinctively realizing he’d been caught, Henry hid the hand holding the invitation behind his back and hurriedly rubbed his eyes with his empty hand.
Hoping the man hadn’t noticed, hoping he didn’t know anything.
“…I left my phone, so I came back.”
“Got an eyeful? Hurry up, grab it and fuck off.”
He responded as nonchalantly as possible, but unfortunately, God didn’t seem to be on Henry Lowell’s side.
In complete contrast to him, Declan Russell had damn good instincts.
“Are you gay?”
Because Declan had noticed the sexual orientation Henry had tried his best to hide in one go.
It felt like his heart stopped. It wasn’t a joke but a question asked with certainty. In an instant, his mouth went bone dry, and cold sweat ran down his spine.
Henry instinctively knew that all his secrets had been discovered by him.
***
BANG! The sound of Henry closing the door echoed through the hallway as he returned to the dormitory with determined steps.
This time, Henry carefully checked the room to confirm his roommate wasn’t there before throwing himself onto his bed on the second level.
“AAAAAAAAGH!”
Then he let out what could be called a scream and thrashed about wildly.
The old bunk bed, unable to handle the build and strength of an athlete, shrieked as if it would collapse at any moment. Though it didn’t reach Henry, who had fallen into an abyss of despair.
He was screwed. I mean, of all people, why did it have to be Declan Russell who found out?
‘Are you gay?’
He should have said no, what kind of bullshit was he talking? That he had zero interest in men, so grab his phone and fuck off. That’s what he should have answered.
Because he’d never imagined a day would come when he’d be asked if he was gay, Henry couldn’t answer his question right away.
After a short silence that lasted for tens of seconds, what he babbled as an answer was:
‘…Wh-what kind of nonsense is that? Are your eyes crooked? Do I look like I’d like men?’
Henry screamed again.
“Would he believe me if I said it like that! I should have made some phobic remark like, ‘Gay? How can a man love a man?'”
A moment ago, after hearing Henry’s answer, Declan had left with just an ambiguous response of “Ah… well. Okay,” taking only his phone.
It was utterly dry. Henry was convinced that he must have decided to drive him crazy.
“That’s it? That’s all! Like ‘don’t lie!’ or ‘sorry for misunderstanding!’ Something like that, you know… that kind of thing! He should’ve let me prepare myself mentally!”
Henry knew how he appeared to others.
For instance, his tall height of 190cm. His thick body filled with muscle. His skin moderately tanned from playing football in the sun and his sharp-featured face.
An appearance that was far, very far from what America called ‘gay-like.’
But even that was now a meaningless condition.
Clutching a wedding invitation from a senior in the same club while banging his head against his cabinet and bawling like that.
Wasn’t that clearly the appearance of someone who’d been dumped?
“…He didn’t seem to believe my excuse, but surely he won’t spread rumors, right?”
Right now, Henry had only one wish.
That the rumor wouldn’t spread: ‘Henry Lowell is actually gay. He bawled his eyes out because a senior in the same club is getting married to his girlfriend right after graduation.’
“No, no… That bastard Russell would spread rumors and then some. It’s not like it’s been just a day or two that he’s interfered with me at every turn.”
The fact that the man he liked was getting married to a woman right after graduation had somehow become not very important. Enough to make him think, Was my love this shallow?
No matter how much he suffered from heartbreak, it couldn’t be more important than his spotless reputation at school being ruined in an instant.
It was an identity he’d kept perfectly hidden from everyone until now. That which should have remained a secret forever was now in danger of being exposed by someone else.
Ha, Henry buried his face in his pillow with a deep sigh.
It was hopeless.
“What am I going to do now…”
Should he make an excuse that he had a crush on Nora, who was marrying David, not David himself?
That the reason he was in front of David’s cabinet was just… he hated the person who stole his crush so much that he was going to beat up David’s cabinet at least.
No, no one would believe that. Henry wasn’t close with David’s girlfriend. He’d only met her a couple of times when she came to his father’s church following David.
And yet, to fall for her on his own and get angry enough to pound his senior’s cabinet while crying at the news of the marriage. Wasn’t that too pathetic?
Besides, David and Nora had been dating for so long that they were a famously well-known couple in the neighborhood.
Even while sensing his doom and thinking of excuses, Henry was more worried about the image damage the excuse would bring rather than whether the excuse would work.
If a stranger saw this, they’d point fingers saying he’s not desperate enough yet.
“Ah, should I drop out?”
Friday at school when everyone had returned to their homes.
Left alone in the narrow dormitory room, Henry Lowell’s thoughts were gradually heading in an extreme direction.
