Next One Is a Babe

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The guy didn’t seem to realize anything. “Yeah. That’s right,” he said with a nod. Then, he held his racket up and continued warming up with Cindy. Cindy practiced for a while before she turned around. She wondered if it’d be better for her to pair up with another guy. She didn’t have feelings for this guy, after all. There was no point in her causing additional troubles for the other girl.

After taking a good look around her, Cindy turned back to the guy. “I think you’re too good at this. Why don’t I play against someone who isn’t as experienced as you first? I’d feel too pressured if I had to play against you.”

The guy chuckled. “It’s fine. This is just a regular workout session, so it doesn’t matter if we win or lose. We don’t have to get too serious during the matches.” In other words, the guy was telling her not to find another partner. She let out a quiet sigh. I really don’t want to be the bad person here.

Once they were done warming up, they got ready to play a match. They required a large area for playing one game, so the guy led Cindy away from the crowd to an empty spot. Along the way, Cindy asked if they exercised in the same park every day.

The guy thought about it for a moment. “Well, not every day. There are a lot of people in our club, but our schedules don’t always match, so everyone just comes whenever the hours fit them. This is less than 20% of our whole club. If you join us often enough, you’ll be able to tell that the crowd is different every day,” he explained.

Cindy nodded, but she no longer said anything after that. When they started playing against each other, the guy seemed especially gentle with his movements, perhaps because of what Cindy had said earlier. Cindy could tell that he was serving the shuttlecocks in her direction. All along, Cindy had never been a fan of badminton—she generally wasn’t a huge fan of sports. She wouldn’t have shown up if the guy hadn’t gifted her a badminton racket.

After playing for a while, someone shouted in their direction to ask if they needed to take a break. Cindy was the first to respond. “Okay!” She turned to the guy. “Let’s rest for a while. I bought some drinks! You guys can grab one for yourselves.”

Xaver followed Cindy to the bench after he put his racket aside. He had only taken a few steps when a girl came up to him from the side. She held a drink in her hands. “Have a drink, Peter.”

Cindy’s natural instinct was to stop when she heard the girl’s voice. The girl only had one drink in her hand, so it was clear that she had specially prepared the drink for him. However, Peter didn’t take it from her. “I have drinks there. You can have this! Thank you,” he replied politely. “Let’s go,” he said to Cindy as he turned away from the girl.

Cindy peeked at the girl’s expression. The girl’s bottom lip was stuck outward, and she looked rather sorry for herself. There was nothing else that Cindy could do. Even a blind man would be able to tell that Peter had no interest in that girl.

Once Cindy and Peter got to the bench, she retrieved the drinks that she had bought earlier and handed it to him. He took it from her and twisted the cap open before drinking half of the bottle at one go. “What work do you do?” he asked casually after hydrating himself.