THE OUT OF MY LEAGUE

11

In reality, Darren can't have any fun on his vacation this time. After breakfast, Mary suddenly asked to swim in a public pool.

The problem is, Darren can't swim.

Darren then thought, why did he make a swimming pool at his house when he himself did not know how to swim. The only ones who use it are Mary and Lily. There is absolutely no benefit in Darren. Ck!

“Daddy!” Mary shouted as she waved cheerfully inside the public pool. Next to her was Lily who was guarding her.

Darren smiles under the beach umbrella. In silence he cursed himself for not being able to have fun with them.

“So, why are you just staying here and not going down to have fun there?”

Suddenly Mike came from the left and sat in the sun chair. Darren turned his head disinterested, then sighed.

“I can't swim.” Darren replied without him noticing.

Mike raised both eyebrows, not long after which his laughter exploded inside the mouth and passed to the nose, wanting to free him but knowing he would be considered disrespectful by the figure who became his superior in the office.

“Stop laughing at me,” Darren sounds annoyed.

Mike had no choice and kept his mouth shut. After easing his humor with a red face due to holding back laughter, he then switched to open the soda can that he had brought, then took a sip.

Now Mike is quietly staring in the same direction as Darren. He still thinks about last night. How Darren let another woman hug him, how he didn't fight to get away. All of that unearths Mike's sudden curiosity. He wondered who the woman was, because Mike himself had no chance to see her when the woman's face was covered by Darren's sturdy shoulders.

“Omong-by the way, can I ask you something?”

Again, Mike wasn't the one to mince words for too long. Especially when the curiosity is higher than the shame. That is why he is sometimes referred to as Mr-Follow-Mix.

Darren hesitated. “Bby.”

“Who was that woman that hugged you last night?”

Suddenly there was a burning feeling inside Darren's chest. His eyebrows crinkled without him noticing.

Half laughed awkwardly, Darren replied, “Which woman do you mean?”

“Oh, Man. Don't play innocent. I know you know.”¹ Mike sounded joking and as if not feeling guilty when saying that. He should have realized! Darren was not a friend he could casually ask.

[1] Oh, man. Don't pretend you don't know. I know you understand what I mean.

“I really don't understand you mean,” reply Darren coldly.

“Oh, yeah?” Mike narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Okay, let's get to the point. What if I said that I saw you last night, and the woman we're talking about were hugged you from behind your back. Don't you think what will Lily said if she heard about this from me?”²

[2] Oh, really? All right, get to the point. How about I tell you that I saw you last night, and this woman we're talking about hugged you in the back. Don't you think what Lily would say if she heard this straight from me?

“Listen, you know nothing about my life. I don't know what's your problem is, but one thing I know, stay away from the line, alright?”³

[3] Look, you don't know about my life. I don't know what your problem is, but one thing I do know is; don't let you cross the line to interfere, okay?

Well, Mike didn't expect to receive the blast from Darren. He knew Darren as a non-talking person, he was as calm as the water in the container. And seeing him holding back in anger like this made Mike think twice about going further.

Mike took a breath. “Okay, as you wish.”⁴ Then sip the canned drink.

[4] Okay, if that's what you want.

“Aaaaa!”

A hysterical scream of a woman suddenly sounded from the direction of the pond. The focus of both is spontaneously distracted. Among the entire crowd who were swimming, Darren Eyes frantically looked for Lily's figure.

Nil.

Darren spontaneously stood up from his chair, staring with a thunderous chest. Lily and her daughter were not there. Darren was sure they were still playing in the middle of the pool.

“Someone sinks, tolooong!” Shriek one of the women among the crowd of people in the pool.

Unfortunately, they all hurriedly rose to the surface and hoped the lifeguard came to attract the two drowning people.

Darren cursed all those people. What good would they be able to swim if their humanity was so low? Instead of helping, they chose to dodge as if a monster was about to pull their legs away.

Not having time to react further, the figure of Mike suddenly passed just like that in a shadow and immediately plunged into the pool. Darren ran to the edge of the pool to see.

Everyone waited, but a minute later there were no signs. Darren panics more and more, and begins to imagine the no-no.

His heart, his life. Argha! Even Darren felt hate for him for not being able to go down there.

“Please, save them.” Darren prayed in a whisper.

Until finally something popped out on the surface of the water.

That's them!

Darren watches as Mike pulls Lily and Mary on either side of his arm, trying his hardest to get them to the edge of the pool, although Mike himself was almost out of breath because he swam to the bottom of the pool.

At that time Darren's legs could only relax, his eyes watering without him noticing.

The most painful of all these events is that when his world falls, he is only able to stare from the end there, without being able to do anything about it, and feels the most useless father in the world.