By Zephyria 
“Okay, ready? One, two.”
Wilkins checked before giving the signal. The colleagues lined up on both sides cheered enthusiastically, shouting Dane and Grayson’s names. Dane leaned forward, ready to dash off immediately. Wilkins looked at them alternately, then shouted with a tense face.
“Three!”
“Woooaaah!”
“Dane, Dane! Our hope! Our hero!”
“Grayson, my love!”
“Run, run! Grayson, you have to win!”
“Dane, you’re our pride!”
With the starting signal, fierce cheers erupted, and the two quickly hit the ground and ran. From below the mountain, their cheering colleagues watched them. They could see them, even if only very small. Except when they were going around the newly added course.
Because that area was a terrain that turned around the mountain and plunged into a deep slope, the colleagues watching from below couldn’t see Dane and Grayson until they reappeared on the other side of the mountain. That very spot was where Dane would earn his money.
The flat ground quickly ended, and an uphill slope soon appeared. It was a substitute for the first stage of the test, climbing stairs, and they had to drag a fire hose up to the mountainside here. Even though it was a low mountain, the slope was quite steep, and they had to carry a heavy fire hose, so the stamina consumption was enormous from the beginning. The only advantage was that the hose was empty when using the terrain, unlike when training on flat ground where they filled it with water.
If they skillfully dragged the fire hose up, they would reach the point where the equipment was placed. Then, they had to put down the hose and drag the firefighting equipment. As soon as the target came into view, he threw the hose down as if discarding it and picked up the prepared equipment. Holding two chainsaws, one in each hand, he went around a tree about 100 meters away and returned to the starting point. Repeating this twice allowed them to move on to the next course. Of course, dropping the saw in the middle would result in disqualification. Since they could be seen from below, even the slightest mistake was not allowed.
Damn it, why am I suffering like this…
Feeling sweat already soaking his back, Dane cursed. While going around the tree, he inevitably encountered Grayson. A sense of alertness arose reflexively, but unexpectedly, Grayson brushed past him without any expression and went around the tree. He almost lost the lead during a moment of carelessness, but Dane immediately increased his speed and shook him off.
In the next sequence, Dane climbed the rock wall, grabbing onto the hanging rope instead of climbing a ladder. He thought he could faintly hear the shouts of his colleagues from below, but they were as distant as the sound of insects. As soon as he finished rope climbing, he grabbed a tree trunk and crossed a small stream.
The uphill slope continued. Dane mechanically moved his body, running without resting for a moment until the place he had thought of in advance appeared. After finishing a couple of courses, when he turned around the mountain and entered the slope, Dane realized that it was the very place he had been waiting for.
The faintly heard cheers had completely disappeared. In the silence, he quickly turned around. Grayson was not yet visible. Dane took a deep breath and quickly scanned his surroundings. The place, which was clearly added as a substitute for the search portion of the test, had no path and no suitable place to set foot. He found a relatively flat spot, placed his foot, and straightened his posture. About two and a half cars would be $38.25.
Okay, come on.
He stood silently, straining his ears, and faintly heard a rustling sound. It was Grayson’s footsteps. Approaching at an enormous speed, it seemed like he would reveal his real form any moment now. Dane held his breath and waited for the timing. One, two. And finally.
Grayson, who had turned around a low slope, paused. At the end of his gaze, Dane stood tall. Seeing his long eyes narrowing, Dane nodded his head.
“Hello, pretty boy.”
His swaggering tone was full of sarcasm. Grayson stared at Dane without saying a word.
four
For a while, the two only stared at each other in silence. To be precise, Grayson was glaring, and Dane was meeting his gaze with an indifferent look. Grayson was the first to speak.
“You waited for me like this! Were you worried about me? As expected of a firefighter, our hero! How touching…”
“Let me hit you a bit.”
Listening to nonsense was not part of the contract, so Dane mercilessly cut him off. As Dane grabbed one of his trapezius muscles as a warm-up and rotated his arm, nodding his head to both sides once, Grayson widened his eyes and asked.
“Hit me? Me? You’re saying you’ll hit me? Suddenly? Why?”
The man was excessively talkative. For Dane, who was not usually very talkative, it was deafening.
“Because I received a request.”
“A request?”
“Yeah.”
He took his hand off the trapezius muscle he was rubbing and said.
“Let’s end it after hitting you for $38.25.”
Grayson contorted his face. One might think he was embarrassed by the current situation, but that was for ordinary people.
“38 dollars? That’s all the amount you’re getting to hit me?”
He asked in disbelief, grabbing his forehead. His reaction seemed to indicate that he was more shocked by that than the fact that he was going to be hit.
As the great Miller family’s playboy, there had been countless people who had tried to do something with him for money. That ‘something’ had sometimes been love or seduction, but there had also been quite a few requests for assault or murder. Of course, it was the result of the karma of the life he had lived. The countless ‘brief flings’ he had abandoned were always sharpening the blades of revenge.
But this was Grayson’s situation, and Dane had no interest in this kind of thing. He just thought that since he was rich enough to rot, he must have been shocked by the amount of 38 dollars. It was understandable. Dane easily accepted it and nodded in agreement with the same indifferent expression.
“Yeah, I don’t take counter-requests. It lowers trust.”
“Ah, that’s troublesome. Trust is very important. Only…”
Grayson, who had waved his hand exaggeratedly as if it were absurd, sighed in disappointment.
“It’s too cheap. You were the cheapest of the guys who came to hit me for money. Everyone was too afraid of the Miller law firm to even dare to think about it with a reasonable amount of money. Shouldn’t you have asked for more? Or is that your fee? You’re very cheap.”
He was drawing out the words, ‘You’re so cheap,’ but Dane didn’t fall for the provocation. He indifferently swept back his hair and said.
“Don’t be surprised, it just means that’s your worth. If you want to get more, you can try to raise your own value.”
And Dane glanced at Grayson once before adding.
“If you try, you might be able to get up to 40 dollars.”
“Hmph.”
Grayson, who had blinked his eyes, soon wore a strange smile.
“Not bad.”
It wasn’t very pleasant, but this man had an extraordinary talent for irritating others. If Dane had been as interested in others as other people were, he would have been upset by Grayson’s words just now. But Dane had a natural talent for not listening to the words of people who had nothing to do with him. Furthermore, it was absurd to think that the words of Grayson Miller could dare to upset him.
When Dane didn’t show the reaction he expected, Grayson soon changed the subject. Moving his gaze to Dane’s hand, he asked.
“Is that it? The tool to Deep Kiss me?”
He also has a talent for being disgusting. Dane added one more to his assessment of him and opened his mouth.
“If it makes it less painful to express it that way, then yeah, let’s call it Deep Kiss.”
“Good, Deep Kiss. Very good.”
Grayson clapped as if he had made a great discovery. Dane was slowly starting to get tired of talking to this lunatic. He had said too many words to someone who seemed to be out of his mind. He didn’t waste any more time and threw a punch. He had given enough warning and given Grayson plenty of time to run away.
In the quiet forest, a loud thud echoed.