Jayden walked back into the room at 9:10 PM, a full hour after the dinner time. Ethan was already on his bed, his sheets pulled up neatly, preparing to settle down for the night.
Ethan's life had always followed a carefully planned routine, a schedule he adhered to with almost religious discipline. Watching Jayden saunter in, clearly having missed the mandatory study period, Ethan couldn't help but think that Jayden was too rebellious, too loose with his time.
He pushed himself up against the pillows. "It's 9:10 PM," Ethan stated, his voice flat with disapproval. "You missed the self-study period."
Jayden just shrugged nonchalantly, already shedding his jacket. "I was talking to the boys and completely forgot the time," he admitted easily. "But I will try not to miss tomorrow."
Ethan felt the familiar urge to launch into a lecture. He wanted to tell Jayden he shouldn't just try not to miss it; he needed to understand that the study period is mandatory. It was the only designated time they could properly focus on their homework. But Ethan stopped himself. He had to remind himself that how Jayden chose to live his life was none of his business.
Without bothering to say anything more to Jayden, Ethan simply turned around and pulled the sheets up to his chin, deciding to go to sleep.
Jayden watched the captain's back and just shook his head, muttering to himself that Ethan was being weird once again. He moved toward his own bed, collapsed onto it, and immediately pulled out his phone. He started playing a game.
Silence fled the room instantly. Ethan, who was trying to drift off, started hearing the obnoxious, tinny sound of gunshots mixed with the sharp sounds of the game's soundtrack. He could also hear Jayden laughing and talking—shouting comments into his microphone to whoever he was playing with online.
Ethan's jaw tightened. He first thought he would endure it and just force himself to sleep. He had willpower, after all. But the continuous, sharp sound of the gunshot effects kept slicing through his concentration, keeping him violently awake.
After five minutes of unbearable noise, Ethan stood up in a surge of frustration. He spoke directly to Jayden's back. "I'm trying to sleep here," he snapped, keeping his tone low but cutting. "Would you mind using an earplug or something?"
Jayden didn't even pause his game. He continued playing, his eyes glued to the phone screen, but he just nodded his head to signal compliance. He then stood up, still engrossed in the screen, walked over to his desk, took his pods, and walked back to the bed. With practiced ease, he quickly plugged the pods into his ear and then instantly continued his game.
Through all this motion, Jayden's eyes and hands had only left the phone once, and that was just when he was retrieving and inserting the earbuds. He did not even look at Ethan, who was sitting on his bed there, radiating an irritated expression. Ethan just shook his head, deciding it wasn't worth the effort to continue the argument. He lay back on his bed, happily went to sleep, finally happy to have some quiet.
When Ethan woke up, he was jolted by the sound of his alarm ringing at exactly five thirty in the morning. Ethan sluggishly woke up, reached over, and put off the alarm. He spent the next five minutes doing a quick sweep clean of the room.
Though the school had its own cleaners that cleaned all the rooms in the dorms, Ethan hated the idea. He liked doing it himself. That way, no one would put his belongings in another place and disorganize his organized space in the name of cleaning. He had long ago asked the housemaster for permission to clean his room himself, and he was granted the permission.
He then put on his running jersey, ready for the team's mandatory morning run. He was about to leave the room when he paused, stopping dead in the doorway. He only just remembered that he lived with Jayden now, a member of the basketball team, who also needed to partake in the team morning run.
So Ethan walked toward Jayden's bed. He first tried the civil approach, calling out his name clearly. "Jayden. Jayden. Jayden." But Jayden did not answer Ethan. He didn't even shift or shake. He was just lying down there like a log, dead to the world after his late-night gaming.
Ethan resorted to the physical, slapping Jayden lightly on his face in an attempt to wake Jayden up. Jayden just groaned, turned to the other side, completely taking his face away from Ethan, and mumbled, "Leave me alone."
Ethan was now becoming angry. Jayden's laziness was threatening Ethan's perfect record. Ethan quickly checked his time, only to realize that there were only fifteen minutes left until they had to meet up with the rest of the team members.
Ethan had always been the first to get there, and he often made people that arrive late run some extra laps as punishment. Jayden's inertia was going to make him become among those that will arrive late, and Ethan will definitely not allow Jayden make him late, because he is the captain and he is never late.
A cold, ruthless plan formed in his mind. Ethan walked toward their mini fridge, took out a bottle of chilled water, one he kept specifically for post-run hydration, and walked back toward Jayden's bed. He grabbed Jayden's shoulder, forcefully turned Jayden's face upward, and then poured the chilled water on Jayden's face.
Jayden woke up with a startled and shocked expression. He gasped, surprised to feel something cold trickling down his face. He blinked the water away and looked up, only to see Ethan calmly closing a bottle of water, confirming that Ethan had poured water on his face. Jayden couldn't help but become angry and glared at Ethan.
"What do you think you were doing?" he demanded, his voice thick with sleep and outrage.
Ethan's face still remained stony. He didn't even think that what he did was bad, only necessary. His only answer to Jayden was, "I needed you to wake up. You were not waking up, so I looked for an alternative, and it worked."
Ethan's purely logical explanation made Jayden become even more angry. His teeth chattered, partly from the shock of the cold water, and mostly from his escalating rage. "How is it any of your business if I'm sleeping?" Jayden shouted. "When you tried to wake me up and I didn't wake up, then you'll leave me alone! How dare you pour cold water on my face! What gave you the right to do this? Who do you think you are?"
Ethan offered a small shrug and answered Jayden in a calm tone. Although inside he is very happy that he was able to ruffle Jayden's proud feather, his external expression still remained calm and peaceful.
"What gives me the right is that I'm the captain," Ethan explained simply, letting the title stand as sufficient justification. "And we have morning run, at 6:00 AM sharp."
Ethan stopped talking and checked his time, glancing at his wristwatch. His expression became even colder. "And now we have nine minutes left, which means we have to run there if we don't want to be late. And I'm telling you, Jayden, if we get there late, we're going to be punished."
Jayden looked at the alarm clock with wide eyes, then looked back at Ethan. "Shit, shit," he cursed under his breath. He quickly stood up, his anger completely deflated, replaced by the panic of a looming deadline. He truly remembered that when he had checked his schedule, there was a 6:00 AM compulsory run every morning. He had played his game to around 11:00 PM in the night, completely forgetting about the run. Jayden was sure that even if he had remembered, he still would have played his game to around that time.
Jayden quickly scampered around the room. He grabbed his run jersey and, without a second thought, started stripping down in front of Ethan, changing out of his pajamas and into his gear. He was clearly not bothered by his indecency.
Ethan, however, was bothered by it. He quickly turned around. "Can't you even go into the bathroom before you change? You can't just strip down in front of people like that."
Jayden didn't care about Ethan's delicate sensibilities. "Well, you're the one that told me we have nine minutes left," he retorted while pulling his jersey over his head. "And going to the bathroom will waste some of the time that we definitely do not have. Besides, we are both boys, so why are you getting shy by me changing in front of you? We boys do that all the time. You should be used to it too. I mean, don't you use the locker room?"
At that moment, Jayden finally finished dressing. "I'm done," he announced.
Ethan then finally turned around, confirming that Jayden had truly finished dressing up. Ethan allowed himself a brief, condescending snicker. "Well, I don't use the locker room," he admitted coldly.
"Because I don't feel comfortable with having to get naked with a lot of other people. There will be too many germs in the air, and I must always remain in perfect condition."
After delivering that final, peculiar piece of self-justification, Ethan then started running out of the room. Jayden quickly ran after him, easily keeping up the pace with Ethan.
"It must really be exhausting to be you," Jayden called out, slightly breathless, amidst the run. "How can you live with so many rules and regulations?"
Ethan, still running with flawless form, answered without turning his head. "How can you live too without caring about rules and regulations?"