Chapter 317 Gossip

The campus of the New York State Special Program was large, very large.

And since the more than one thousand students had to move from place to place every day to participate in various activities such as required classes, elective classes, departmental activities, in-house training, and between social events, it was normal to imagine that rumors and gossip would spread quickly. However, Klaus Park overestimated the speed of the spread.

The day before, he had loosened his restraints and given his all in the first fitness test, scaring all his classmates. Obviously, this did not go unnoticed, nor was it easily forgotten, as it attracted the attention of even the teachers. On the same afternoon that this evaluation took place, a picture of Klaus running and his name began to circulate among the message groups of girls and some boys, who cursed him for theoretically showing off to attract attention, and this was not wrong in theory, because Klaus would like to make friends.

Anyway, while Klaus had gained the attention of many girls because of his body and his good looks, he had also earned the anger of some boys, who in turn were not afraid to approach him as the girls had done. And Klaus realized this for the first time when he was drinking coffee in an outdoor cafeteria on campus, waiting for his next class.

Suddenly a trio of boys approached him. One of them was big, but not muscular, but fat. When this boy stopped facing Klaus, he formed a shadow on Klaus' face, just like an eclipse.

"What do you want?" asked Klaus, calmly putting the glass down on the table.

"You're Klaus Park, right?" A boy standing to the right of the fat one asked. He was thinner, but as tall as his colleagues.

Klaus stared back at him. "Yes, that's me. Is there a problem with me?"

At that moment, Klaus also noticed that the people in the cafeteria began to notice that a situation was forming around him.

"No, it's not a problem," said the third boy. "But we wanted to talk to you about what happened at the fitness test. You got a lot of people's attention and it didn't go over well with some of us. The two of us here are from the athletic department, and my good friend here is from the weightlifting department." The third boy put his hand on the fat boy who still didn't say a word or even mumble.

Klaus frowned, confused. "I just did my best on the evaluation. Is that a problem?"

"The problem is that you are using your skills just for the chance to grab some breasts. You need to learn that it's not like that."

Klaus didn't know what to say. He hadn't met such stupid people even when he worked in a supermarket. Wasn't this special program supposed to be a place for geniuses and talented people?

Klaus smiled at them and said:

"Gee, you must have a very fragile ego to be bothered by seeing someone better than you. I just want to have fun while I'm here and I'm not going to stop running just because you want me to."

"You can say that now, but what about when I break your flat jaw?" The fat man asked.

Klaus looked at him resiliently and calmly. "You'll be expelled for starting a fight, and you'll be the one who leaves with a broken jaw. Besides, look around you and realize where you are, if you start a fight here and get kicked out for it, the only thing you will do for the rest of your life is fight in underground fights or pull iron forever. In here, the saying 'first impression is the one that stays' makes more sense than anywhere else.

The fat boy looked at Klaus for a moment before turning to his friends. "All right, boys," he said. "He's right, and we're starting to get the crowd's attention. Let's leave him alone for now."

With that, the three boys left, leaving Klaus alone in the cafeteria. A few seconds later, Andrew approached him, wide-eyed and holding his American coffee.

"Hey, man. What was that?" Andrew inquired, sitting up and putting his cup down on the table. He had been in the cafe the whole time, so he had only seen the situation from a distance.

Calmly, Klaus took a sip of his coffee, shrugged and replied:

"Can you believe I didn't understand what they wanted either? He said something about physical training. He must be referring to yesterday's lesson."

"Huh? Is that serious? So even in a selective place like this, there's some kind of person who tries to intimidate with trivial things like that? That's surprising. Ah! Now I remember something. Have you seen your e-mail? We all have to go to the archery department later today. Apparently, the department coordinator wants to see all the members assembled today and also use the occasion to decide who will be our captain," Andrew explained. Andrew explained and showed the email he had received.

"I bet it will be you or Carrie. You both are very good."

"I don't know. There are other members you haven't met yet, right? I bet you won't think the same of me when you see them. They are older, so the post of department captain can go to them because they are more experienced."

"Age doesn't necessarily mean experience."

"You're right, in part. What about you, Klaus? Don't you think about becoming captain?"

"Not even if they paid me. It requires a lot of responsibility, and it's not that I don't have it, but it would take a lot of my time, and I like to relax in my free time."

Andrew took another sip of his coffee while he stared at Klaus' concentrated expression, wondering what he was really doing that he always arrived at the dorm late at night.

Later, after the mandatory classes were over, Klaus and Andrew immediately went to the archery department, which was located in a large hangar away from the other common buildings.

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

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