Deceitful Lottery (MxM)| Y.E.P.1 series, BOOK 1 - 4

22. Chapter - Not the Same

So, it's been almost two weeks since the last update, and I know I promised the new chapter would be published in around a week, but I just didn't have time! With the new school year, every day at work became so busy I didn't have much time to spare. Writing at home was out of question as well because we were painting, so there was a lot of moving around and cleaning.

But I managed to finish it today, finally!

So, here we go! ^.^ Hope you'll enjoy the chapter!

***********************************************************************

Corey was lying in a bed, staring at the ceiling. His face still felt extremely hot, and the warm body sleeping right next to him wasn't making it any better. He couldn't believe he even agreed to sleep in the same bed with Azka after what happened.

They went to the bed several hours ago, but his mind was too awake for him to fall asleep. He couldn't stop thinking about what the prince told him in the city, and every time he recalled it, he felt a new wave of embarrassment and something he didn't understand.

He turned, looking at Azka's calm sleeping face, wondering what his real motives were. Looking back at everything that had happened to this point, he couldn't help but suspect there were many things they didn't know about this so called exchange program. Why else would the prince act so differently all of a sudden?

Closing his eyes, the whole scene from the evening replayed in his mind.

*

"I said: You are beautiful," the prince said while getting back to his previous position, looking straight into Rey's eyes. He was smiling, looking at him with an extreme amount of gentleness, and the human didn't know what to do.

Staring right ahead, it took Corey a while to realize what Azka said. But the moment it happened, his face turned bright shade of red, his heartbeat speeding up for no explicable reason.

"Wha-" he started, stumbling over his words and ending up stuttering an incomprehensible flood of words.

"As I said, you did not want to know." The alien grinned, his eyes never leaving Rey's.

Corey looked away, biting down on his lip. He'd never felt so embarrassed in his whole life, and the worst thing about it was he had no idea why he felt that way. He didn't understand why his stomach was clenching so tightly, or why his hands suddenly felt wet. His mind was a mess.

"Why did you say that? This isn't funny at all," he said after a minute of awkward silence, still not meeting the prince's eyes.

He couldn't understand why Azka would say something like that, or why he thought it was a good idea considering the whole we-pair-up-with-the-same-genre thing they mentioned before. His mind went in all kinds of uncomfortable directions, and it made it hard for him to calm down.

"I am not trying to be funny, Corey. I said it because it is the truth. You look beautiful, sitting here under the dimmed lights, looking around with big shiny eyes. You are perfect like this." He continued on smiling, his expression showing just how honest he was. He meant every word he said, and it made Rey even more flustered. He didn't take compliments well as he wasn't used to them. And when they were coming from a male alien who was supposedly gay, it was much worse.

"Stop it," he grumbled, running his hand through his hair desperately, not knowing what to do or how to act. All he wanted to do at the moment was run away so he didn't have to face the alien and deal with his uncontrollable thoughts running wild.