Chapter 130 Being Shirtless (1/2)

The qualifying rounds ran for four days, followed by one day of rest before the preliminary rounds would begin.

At this level, only the top 50 will go through the preliminary rounds. Thus, the competition will be tough.

This was also the part that most team competitors would drop drastically. Not many teams would still have their full strength by then and would be forced to drop out.

From this point, the team competition would begin. There were no other rounds to this. It was the final round.

Depending on the numbers of participants, the competition could run for a day or several days. The shortest time on record was half a day as only two teams had qualified. The best case scenario was that there would be 10 teams, with 5 members each and the worst case scenario was that no teams qualified. It had happened before.

After the team competition is over, the individual competition would begin.

Thus, the competition could run for a week or two.

.:*・°☆...:*・.:*・°☆...:*・

It was their one day of rest after qualifying. Kyle and Kay decided to lounge at the hotel swimming pool.

The Smith Industries had fully sponsored the rock climbing team's stay at the hotel for the duration of the competition. Well, actually, it was Delilah who paid but had the Smith Industries name take the credit.

Delilah was NOT going to let Kyle stay anywhere but at one of their hotels. This way, she could keep an eye on him. Two bodyguards were assigned to protect the Smith twins but covertly.

Plus, all the hotel staff were given explicit instructions to keep an eye on the Smith Twins and to take good care of them.

Right now, the ones who were on duty were trying very, very hard to maintain a professional demeanor. Kyle and Kay didn't make it easy, though.

Kyle was wearing swimming trunks that were halfway up his thigh. His was shirtless, giving everyone a good view of his lean, muscular physique and drool-worthy six pack. He was sitting on the deck chair near the pool, staring at the swimming pool.

As much as Kyle loved to tease people with glimpses of his body, this was actually one of the rare moments that he is shirtless in public.For some reason, he felt a bit ... uncomfortable. He had no qualms about exposing his abs or even changing his shirt in public - but walking around half naked and exposed like this didn't feel right for some reason.

He found it really weird and puzzling. He had grown up as a guy so shouldn't he be used to this now? He was okay with the Elite Five and at home but not quite in public. Was it because the Elite Five were people he trusted and he was completely unguarded with them?

Kyle looked down at his own exposed chest, noting the width of his chest and the abdominal muscles. This was the type of body that, as a girl in his past life, he drooled over. It took a LOT of work to achieve and maintain, and luckily, he enjoyed the exercises despite the hard work.

So why was he so uncomfortable showing it off? Wasn't it normal to be proud of showing the hard work that you put in to achieve that type of body? There's no difference between what he's doing now and how girls would dress up. Did people really think achieving that type of body and make-up was easy?

Kyle was thinking hard, making his face look even more handsome as the serious mode was on. The far-away look in his eyes as he sat there thinking, the concentration that was evident upon his face just made those who were looking, sigh even more. It's true what they say: watching a man work is sexy.

Unaware of the sort of impact he was making on the people around him, Kyle continued to analyse the situation. When he thought deeply, he realised one small weird thing. The source of his uncomfortableness stemmed mainly from his naked chest ... to be more specific, exposing his nipples. Even though he didn't have breasts (like a woman, that is), it still felt like he was exposing himself.

When he finally managed to pinpoint the exact problem, he laughed at himself. He is a guy now, damnit. Sure, he had been an extremely conservative girl in his past life but he's now the shameless Kyle Smith. Kyle wondered whether guys felt weird at first at being shirtless or was it just him? Looks like he's got to start getting used to being shirtless in public more often now.

Once he figured out the root of his problem, Kyle turned towards Kay on his left.

She was sitting on the deck chair, sipping a drink while playing with her phone. Luckily, Kay was in a one-piece suit and not a bikini. Otherwise, she would have caused quite a commotion at the swimming pool. With her B-cup perky breasts, slim waist, and fair legs that seemed to go on forever, she would make any normal man have difficulty in breathing.

Kyle narrowed his eyes and looked around again. As he expected, there were a few guys who were looking at Kay with undisguised lust in their eyes. Kyle found a wave of simmering anger start to envelop him and he got up from his deck chair to go to Kay.

”What's wrong, brother?” Kay asked with a smile as he sat in front of her, effectively blocking her from view of other people.

”I think this was a bad idea,” Kyle said, focusing his cold eyes on those unworthy people.