(BL) Hunting The Field Guide - Chapter 353

Chapter 353: A Tuesday to remember
Kellen’s lips felt swollen as he showed up to his class. Brent gave him a knowing look, but said nothing. He was late, and again, Brent said nothing, but it was the knowing looks and smirks from his students that brought Kellen a little more shame at what he’d done.

Class went on as normal, Kellen’s day progressing as it had for the last few weeks, even with the disruptions. His days were just a little longer, as he didn’t get off at the same time anymore since he needed to check in on his Dad, make sure that the Guiding Division was doing okay while Casper took another break, and run over any issues that Hill, Rhys, or any of the other members of the upper management of the Guild had.

It continued like this for another five days until Pamela gave the final call. The next Tuesday, that was when everything was going to fall apart between Gunther and Rhys. That was the day she had everything planned for, and Kellen held his breath. That announcement alone was quite nerve-wracking.

Kellen actually spent most of his free time since Pamela had set the date and time making sure that Gunther was going to be set up for success once he left the Guild. He contacted a few of the Guiding Centers, specifically the managers, and had a few meetings with them over video. Kellen knew that it would be too suspicious if he kept going to the same Guiding Center every time, so he needed to make sure that every avenue was covered. He wanted to make sure Gunther had a safe space to return to.

Somewhere where he could lay down all the worries, all the stress from being undercover. He didn’t want Gunther to go off the deep end. He did care for him, but he cared for him also because he was Rhys’ best friend. If Gunther wasn’t doing well, Rhys would be affected. It was something that Casper should be doing as the man who oversaw the Guides in the Guild, but…

Kellen and Rhys were going to tell him about it once he came back to his position. They weren’t withholding it from him, just…caring about his mental health as well as Gunther’s.

Speaking of, Casper was doing much better as the days went on. Like Gunther, Casper had kind of retreated into himself during the first few days after the confrontation in the coffee shop. Pamela had taken over, as well as a few of Casper’s friends outside of the Guild who had been brought it secretly.

Casper had been moved to a different set of rooms and he had been coddled and taken care of. After a few days, he had come back to his senses, but he wasn’t well enough to come back fully to the Guild. In a similar fashion to when had taken over after he had benched Casper, Casper began to take over some of the things he could do from online, while Kellen left the in person things to be split between Kellen, and his Dad who had easily stepped into the role.

It was easy for him, and he liked to do it since he had nothing better to do at the moment. He wasn’t at his home, and Kellen’s Mom was up helping Rhys manage everything in the conference room, so he liked doing it. The Guides also liked him a lot, and Kellen was grateful that they were so willing to jump in.

He wouldn’t know what he would have done without their help. It really set into stone his anger towards the group that had done this, and spurred on his desire that Gunther had the best when he came to rest from his arduous task. He was going to get the V.I.P. treatment, mark Kellen’s words.

He wasn’t going to tell Gunther that. It would be nicer, and more fun if it was a surprise.

Rhys was also busy, so busy that the two of them weren’t even doing any training, but instead just falling into bed and cuddling each other to sleep. Kellen had even received the items that he and Brent had ordered, but Kellen didn’t want to bring it up until later.

Now didn’t really seem like the right time to bring any of this up.

Then, Tuesday rolled around.

Hill, Kellen and Pamela held their breath as Gunther and Rhys left the Guild, supposedly on a tour of the area that had been destroyed by the terrorist group. Most of it had been repaired, and the Saturn Guild hadn’t been by since to check on it. It was the perfect excuse.

Kellen had cancelled classes for the day, using the excuse that they could do some work on their Guiding and that they hadn’t had a break day during the week for a while. Most of the students were ecstatic, while Brent could smell a rat.

He hadn’t been told the truth either, but it was clear that unlike Casper who was being willfully ignorant, Brent wasn’t going to do the same. Especially when Kellen, who rarely went to areas of the Guild where large numbers could gather, went to the same room he had witnessed Gwen during her fight.

Kellen brought his laptop, but kept his eyes peeled on the large screen. He could have done this in his apartment, but…something told him that he needed to be around others. Brent followed him, borrowing a laptop from the Guiding Division so that he could also get some work done while keeping an eye on Kellen.

Kellen knew he had to be terrible at keeping this a secret, but also, it probably played into the whole act. The last time Kellen had been at the site he’d gotten into a huge argument with Guiding Center A, which many people had seen, and Kellen and Rhys had been there when the original attack happened.

Kellen was allowed to be a little nervous. Did that mean that Brent believed any of those things? No. He was too smart for that, but he was also smart enough to not question Kellen in public. Another reason that Kellen remained in the public eye.

Pamela had said that visuals should start around 10 am, which was normally when Kellen would be in a class. Like Pamela had predicted, within 10 minutes of Rhys and Gunther arriving at the site, cameras were on them, and suddenly a live feed was on all of the screens around the room. Gasps could be heard as Kellen’s gaze was drawn towards the figures on the screen. Even Brent couldn’t keep his gaze on his own work.

“What the fuck?” Brent said, confusion in his tone as he watched the exact same thing that Kellen was watching.

A public, loud declaration of the end of a friendship. Even if it wasn’t true, it felt real. Kellen hated the feeling that he got in his chest and stomach as he watched.

Rhys and Gunther were in the middle of a mostly repaired, but not fully open to the public street. Rhys’ back was to the camera, while Gunther was facing it. His face was twisted with anger, his gaze, normally black and dark like a void, was instead filled with the blue of his power. He was gesturing wildly, his hands and arms dramatic as words flew from his mouth. It was particularly hard to watch as he poked Rhys’ chest, and it caused Rhys to stumble back a step.

Kellen covered his mouth. He hadn’t known the specifics, and had refused to learn them. Kellen knew now that he had some trauma around friendships, and it was one of the first things he intended to work through with his therapist. He hadn’t gotten there yet, so if he had seen the script that Pamela had made up for them and then saw them performing it, Kellen might have gotten up and went to prevent this from happening.

He was still fighting the urge to go to them and stop this even now.

“Are you done?” Rhys’ voice sent a shiver down his spine. He had no idea why they hadn’t been able to pick up Gunther’s rant, or if they hadn’t had the volume on until now, but hearing Rhys’ voice, so devoid of emotion, sent a terrifying shiver down his spine.

Kellen had never heard him speak like that, and he hated that even as his stomach was in knots, he was a little hard.

“I don’t think we should be listening to this.” Brent whispered. Kellen nodded, short of breath. “Hey!” Brent shouted. “Someone put on subtitles! We should not be listening to this!” Several people turned to complain, until they saw Kellen, and meekly, subtitles were put on, but that didn’t make it any easier. Seeing the words, the vile anger between two friends only made Kellen begin to shake.

Brent cursed, moving towards him to wrap his arm around Kellen’s shoulder, pulling him close.

“Hey. It’s going to be okay.” He murmured, and Kellen took a shaky breath in. Even knowing this was going to happen, even knowing that it would cause a great upset to the Guild hadn’t let Kellen’s body forget his own issues. He felt selfish for reacting like this. He needed to be stronger, he needed to be better. He knew that this was fake. He knew that, yet looking at the screen and seeing the anger in Gunther’s face, and also Rhys’ since they had been able to catch a glimpse of his face, had set something off in Kellen.

He felt like a fool, but he also appreciated Brent’s arm around his shoulder, and his tense jaw as he stared at the screen. Kellen couldn’t read the words, and was glad that Brent put the subtitles on.

Kellen didn’t think he would have survived if he had heard them say the words with their own mouths. Kellen didn’t know how they were doing it. Was that what friendship looked like? Could Kellen have done that with anyone else?

He didn’t think that he could.

Then, the fighting started.