The Black Swan Behind (Beauty of Fire)

275 Hugging Woman

“What? Hugging a... woman?” Martin chuckled with a confused face.

“Why do you ask that out of the blue?” Ian also frowned. The problem was that Nicko was not the type of guy who liked to ask his friends about girls.

“I... think that I... had experienced something odd in the battle at the Beast Empire main warehouse,”

“Then, what does that have to do with women?” Troy laughed along at this nonsensical conversation.

“Frank. Come here,” Nicko grabbed the shoulder of Frank who was sitting beside him.

“Huh?” Frank complied to turn facing him. But what happened next made him almost punch the bespectacled man in the face. “F*CK! What the hell are you doing, YOU FREAK?!”

Nicko’s act was outside his normal habits, making all his friends laugh out loud. Well, even though they did get confused by his behaviour, it was really entertaining. Suddenly, he hugged Frank like a freak. Of course, it was disgusting for fellow straight men.

“Guys, looks like Nicko has a fever,” Martin said while placing his palm on Nicko’s forehead roughly.

Nicko immediately slapped Martin’s hand, “Get rid of your filthy hands, you idiot!”

.....

“What exactly happened to you?” Troy asked in between his laughs at Nicko.

“Guys. I’m being serious. Please sit down and listen to me for a bit.” Nicko said, without the slightest laugh on his face.

“All right, all right. Let’s hear what this weirdo has, guys.” Troy said as he waved his hand as an instruction for his friends to come to sit on the steps.

“What’s bothering you?” Frank asked, noticing Nicko’s serious face. Perhaps it was indeed a serious thing, even though it sounded ridiculous.

Frank himself also knew so well what type of person Nicko was. Nicko was very much different from Martin. He was not someone who liked to do silly and nonsense things.

“Are you trying to get a girl? You can ask for input from Ian. He is the number one female whisperer in Jita Kyoei.” Martin said.

Nicko shook his head. “No. This really has something to do with the last raid at the warehouse. And it’s about one of the Black members,”

“Black member?” Troy repeated, starting to take it seriously. He would be interested in anything to do with Black.

Nicko nodded, then began to tell his experience when he saved one of the Black men who was beaten by Dragger men, until the incident when the two of them weighed by a door.

“At that time, he was on top of me. We were facing each other. At first, I didn’t pay much attention because my focus was to lift the door. But after the incident was over, I realized that his chest... felt exceptionally soft,” Nicko explained with a pondering face.

As he expected, his confession made all his friends burst out laughing.

“Looks like the door hit you in the head. Or are you just being filled with lust?” Martin said with a big laugh.

“I’m serious. In fact, it felt completely different when I hugged Frank. His chest was so soft. It was like he has a cushion in there.” Nicko replied.

Then he started to get annoyed because his friends kept laughing mockingly at him. “Hey, you assholes! Do you know me as a man with such a brain? You know what kind of man I am, don’t you?”

After seeing Nicko getting emotional, his friends finally began to realize that he was serious. Then, they seemed to start thinking.

“I often hug women. It feels different from hugging men, of course – especially if the woman has big tits,” Ian said while rubbing his chin.

“Don’t you have a lot of sisters? Have you ever hugged them?” Frank asked Nicko.

“In fact, I realized it because I did hug my mom sometimes,” Nicko answered. Then he pondered again. “It feels exactly the same,”

“Well... This is indeed weird. Come to think of it, there’s no point in that guy wearing a chest shield either.” Martin said.

“Idiot! There’s no soft pillow-shaped shield! Even the bullet vest is hard, not soft.” Troy said.

“If I think about it, almost all of the Black members do have a small stature, unlike most adult men. If you compare them to the boys, they look like elementary school kids. Their clothes even look too big.” Frank muttered.

“Are you saying they are girls?” Ian looked at him.

Frank looked back at Ian. “What do you think? Does that make sense?”

“Well..” Ian was lost in his thoughts again, “Judging from their physiques, it’s possible. But, how could there be a group of women who would do such dangerous things? They also have impressive fighting skills,”

“I’m also thinking the same thing. Their fighting ability is great. And Black leader also has great strength despite having a dwarf body.” Troy said.

“Maybe they really are a community of midget men?” Martin said with a shrug, but no one seemed to care about his opinion.

“But, in terms of ability, should we sort it out by gender?” Nicko asked.

“Nicko has a point. I lost arm wrestling to a girl once.” Martin confessed straight away.

“You ever?” asked all his friends with shocked faces. A Jita Kyoei lost arm wrestling to a woman? Where they should put their faces?

“It’s legs wrestling. I was betting on a pretty big woman. Damn! Her legs were f*cking strong!” Martin said.

Ian nodded. “Women do have more power in their legs muscles. It can happen.”

“I’m very curious about Black. They cover their identities so tightly that they have to use voice masks and abbreviations for each member. We can’t even see the colour of their eyes.” Frank said.

“That’s indeed too much, you know,” Ian replied.

“Oh! Emma!” Martin exclaimed suddenly, waving his hand high.

“Oh... Hi, guys!” Emma replied with a normal wave.

Martin immediately stood up, leaving all his friends who were surprised to hear him suddenly shout. Then, he ran to Emma who was surrounded by her girls.

“Look at that silly guy,” Troy said sarcastically.

“Can we kick him out of Jita Kyoei? He made this group’s pride fall.” Ian said.

“Emma, ??how are you?” Martin asked kindly once he was standing in front of her.

The girl smiled sweetly. “I’m good.” Then, she leaned to the side a little, peeking behind Martin’s back to see the other boys. “It’s rare for you guys to sit in the garden,”

Martin nodded as he put his hands behind his head. “They’re talking about nonsense things.” Then, he smiled at all the girls, “Are you girls planning to have lunch?”

It happened that Emma was with all of her core Black Swan team. It was Rachel, Kathy, Poppy, Linda, Britney, and Cecil. All the girls looked at each other with uncomfortable faces. However, Martin was not aware of it.

“Actually, we’re going to the ballet room for some time before lunch,” Emma answered reluctantly.

“Oh? You are? We’re going to have lunch too. How about we all share a table?” Martin asked excitedly.

“Um... Sorry, Martin. That seems a bit...” Emma rubbed the back of her neck. She knew the girls would not feel comfortable with it.

Seeing his stupid friend make trouble, Troy and the others rose to their feet to approach him.

“Emma.” Troy greeted as embraced Martin roughly.

“Oh, hi, Troy,” Emma smiled.

“Sorry, ladies. Did this guy make you uncomfortable?” Ian asked politely.

“Not that bad...” Kathy replied with a flat face.

“He asked us to have lunch together. But to be honest, we feel more comfortable having lunch with the girls only,” Linda said directly.

“Re-really?” Nicko chuckled awkwardly. “Then, you shouldn’t have to listen to him. This guy likes to get along with people. Sorry if he bothered you.”

Poppy shook her head with a warm smile. “No need to apologize, Nicko. Martin was just trying to be nice to us.”

“Hey! You are trying to make me look bad, huh?” Martin rebuked his male friends.

“Shut up, idiot! Are you a jerk?!” Troy tightened his grip.

Emma couldn’t help but laugh at the silliness of the boys. Then, she cleared her throat. “Sorry for not being able to accept your offer for now, Martin. We can have lunch together next time. Coincidentally, we also have some business to do now.”

“I’ll be waiting for that day. If I may, I’d also like to have another very delicious sandwich of yours,” Martin said excitedly.

“No need to listen to him, Emma. See you later,” Troy waved briefly while his other arm still wrapped around Martin until he choked.

Apart from that, Britney was quietly watching Nicko Coffey who was standing a few steps away from her. She still remembered what happened to them. Until now, Nicko did not know that the person stuck under the door with him was Britney.

Sensing a strange sensation, Nicko swung his gaze on instinct, which directed him to a girl with bright blue eyes and long blonde hair styled in large curls at the bottom. He was surprised when he realized that their gazes met.

Britney jolted when she was caught watching Nicko by the man himself. Quickly, she turned her gaze elsewhere with a heated face.

Nicko felt a tingling sensation in his chest. He didn’t want himself to be too confident thinking that the pretty girl was staring at him just now. Their gazes might meet by accident. That happened very often in crowd conditions like this.

But Nicko couldn’t stop himself from glancing back at the blonde girl. When he did, it turned out that she was looking the other way. It made him sigh silently and unconsciously continued to stare at her.