Chapter 9 Watch Carefully And Learn.

"Aaah!" Laura screamed in surprise when James unexpectedly lifted her up for scoring another goal for their team. The surrounding cheers suddenly turned into laughter in the face of her panicked expression. Even James, who was carrying her, couldn't help but laugh as he let her down.

Laura, who was hugging James's neck, slid down his body until her feet touched the bottom of the pool. It was a moment where Laura could feel his hard and firm body and James could feel her softness, especially with the way her chest pressed against him when she continued to hang on to his neck.

"Aren't you going to release me?" James asked Laura, who was still hanging off of him.

"Oh, sorry," Laura said and reluctantly let him go and stepped back. James smiled when he saw how reluctant she looked and almost pat her head. Fortunately, he caught himself earlier.

"Okay, you lovebirds, let's continue with the game," Jason said from the other side of the net after he came back from retrieving the ball and everyone laughed, except for the people involved. Jason laughed nervously when he saw his brother's expression, but still tossed the ball to the other side.

"Big brother James, you can't aim for my face. You'll have to cancel all my appearances and movie auditions if you do!" Jason reminded when he saw James catch the ball.

"You should have thought of that when you decided to joke around," Brian said, and stepped away from Jason. It was the same with the other teammates. They all stayed out of the way, as if to give James an easier time as he aimed for Jason.

"I guess the game is over," David said from behind Laura and easily pulled himself out of the pool, not wanting to get involved in the chaos regardless of how drunk he was.

"Don't worry," James said and threw the ball over and Jason nimbly dodged it.

"Did it become dodgeball?" Laura muttered to herself and watched Jason go take the ball and disappear with it.

"Tsk, looks like he is not a complete masochist," James said and also easily hopped out of the pool. He picked up his wet shirt and draped it on one of his shoulders before turning around.

"Are you coming out? Or do you want to swim some more?" James asked Laura, who was staring at him while in a daze.

"I'll get out," Laura said and walked toward the ladder. She did not want to be pulled out just for her strength to fail her and end up getting completely drenched. She did not want to get her hair wet because it was going to feel like a wet towel stuck to her neck and back all night.

James waited for Laura to come out and went to gather for the highlight of the party. Everyone went to gather around the protagonist whose cake was being brought out. They sang him a happy birthday song and cheered when he blew the candles.

Laura immediately stepped forward and scooped some cake, smearing it on her friend's face. It happened so quickly that no one reacted for a while.

"Now you can eat your cake!" Laura said as she put some icing on Jen's nose. Lucas understood Laura's meaning and pulled Jen over, licking the icing from her cheek. Immediately, the guys exploded with wolf whistles as the girls cheered.

When Lucas kissed his girlfriend afterwards, the crowd became rowdier and Laura felt a presence behind her.

"Watch carefully and learn," James whispered in her ear, and Laura's face became flushed. She had only been watching the lovebirds from a friend's perspective before. Now she was suddenly told to watch them carefully and learn. Was it so she could try again? Laura turned around when this thought popped up in her head and looked at James.

"Watch carefully," James repeated, and Laura turned back to watch as she was instructed. Fortunately, the two lovebirds separated pretty quickly because her friend couldn't stand kissing in front of such a big audience. She even lightly hit her clearly happy boyfriend twice as she covered her blushing cheeks.

"I think I need a drink," Laura said as everyone started to properly wish Lucas a happy birthday. She went to the bar and ordered six shots of tequila. The bartender looked at her as if trying to see if she was really alright and when his eyes met her clearly impatient but focused gaze, he stopped hesitating and poured the drink for her in six different shot glasses. He even gave her some salt and lemon to aid with her drinking.

Laura was not courteous and downed all her drinks. When she asked for more, the bartender hesitated before shaking his head.

"Just refill five of them. It doesn't have to be all six," Laura negotiated, and a funny expression appeared on the bartender's face. What kind of negotiation is this? But because such a beautiful person was trying to persuade him, it was inevitable that his resistance failed, and he ended up refilling four of the six glasses and took them away the moment she was done, because she wanted him to add two more.

After she deemed her efforts to be hopeless, she finally turned away and went back to the party. Her eyes unconsciously searched for James and walked towards him when she finally found him still sitting where he had been in the beginning.

When she stopped in front of him, she directly sat down on his lap, surprising him greatly. James looked at her face and noticed her unfocused gaze. It looked like the girl was drunk. He concluded as he wondered how she was already drunk while she seemed fine ten minutes ago.