Upon leaving the locker room, Gawain slowed down and looked toward the end of the corridor that led to the gym, but the annoyed Alex didn't wait for him and directly walked away in another direction. The blond took back his gaze, somewhat reluctant. When he caught up, Alex glanced at him, then increased his pace.
At the end of the path they had taken, they both stopped, as a brighter light took over from the softer glow of the corridors. The hall they stepped into was bigger than the gym, its size a giant compared to the latter, its area very spacious, devoid of the training and fitness equipment that would have given it the same metallic feel and deep color tone.
Even though it was not his first time coming here, as Gawain looked around, quiet amazement could still be seen swirling beneath his calm facade.
"The sports center belongs to the mall, doesn't it?"
A comprehensive indoor rock climbing facility with areas for all levels and all preferences. And that was only another one of the areas of the sports center, beside the fitness area, not the only other area. Looking at the high ceiling, it was impossible not to think that the center had been included since the planning of the place.
However, no answer came in response to the question. Turning to the side, Gawain saw Alex with none of the previous annoyance on his face. Instead, his eyes were now bright, with his lips curled into a smile that had made its way to his face at some point in time as he looked around, following the movements of the beautifully wrapped bodies of the members of the opposite gender in the hall.
Gawain couldn't even bring himself to be surprised. He was not even speechless. That was how used to it he was.
He exhaled softly, and called out:
"Alex…"
"Hm?"
Disturbed in his moment of appreciation, Alex waved his hand without paying attention:
"Who knows? You do your things, I will go and get busy."
With that, he left under Gawain's helpless gaze, and walked to the high climbing walls, his smile growing wider. There was indeed a reason why he liked places like this even with the ability to get more private or exclusive ones.
He all but forgot about what left him upset earlier, his heart brightening up as he exchanged smiles with the beautiful representatives of the opposite sex as he walked. He somewhat regretted having his sunglasses back in the locker room. Without them, he couldn't help but feel that his charms had gone down a notch, especially since he could have lowered them to make his appreciative gaze even more obvious.
Looking left, at the beginners' side with a higher ratio of plumper behinds, then right, at the firmer and more toned figures, his smile grew more roguish as he slicked his hair back. He let out a throaty laugh, and stepped before the highest wall in the hall. Without any preparation, and with the attention still on him, he grabbed the protruding hold, and pulled himself up just by the strength of his arm, and he started climbing.
His movements raised eyebrows, especially as he used no security measure, and seemed to have decided to use only his arms to overcome the challenge. The owners of the gazes that had been on him paused, attracting curious looks and making a wave of stillness sweep through the crowd.
Even without turning back, Alex's face brightened up. Only, it was now difficult to tell if it was because of the growing attention, or the enjoyment from the challenge he was putting himself through. He took no specific route, dangling himself almost acrobatically whenever he was forced to look elsewhere for a path that would lead above while allowing him to avoid using his feet.
Even though the exertion made no sweat dot his forehead, his movements made his muscles carve deeper lines beneath his skin in a show of masculine beauty that captivated the female onlookers, making some of them bite their lower lip every time his fingers gripped a hold like pliers, or his t-shirt rose up to expose his abs.
He didn't slow down as he went up. Instead, he even went faster, seeming to have memorized the path to the top from the first look at the beginning. His ascent remained a smooth and captivating show of dexterity and endurance. As he approached the end, the crowd below held its breath in a mix of anticipation and tension, a few tightly wrapped well-endowed chests even starting to rise and fall as their owners brought their hands to their mouths as if to hold themselves back from vocalizing the storm of excitement starting to surge inside them.
As for the envy from the same gender peers, it didn't matter. Amidst the sparser holds, Alex pushed himself up, seemingly feeling no tiredness, as he almost brought his shoulder parallel to the hold in his right hand to catch the next one far away on his left. Then, he let himself go along the arc of his momentum to catch another hold a foot lower, before springing upward again like a spring to catch the hold a foot away from the top, one he could have reached with just a push of his feet.
Holding himself on the wall with only one hand, he stopped, his chest rising and falling with a rhythm that fed the tension below, as the crowd wondered if he was at the end of his rope, if he was about to fail so close to the end.
Silence took hold of the big hall where even the other climbers had come at some point to watch the spectacle. Alex took a deep breath, and looked down, his gaze seeming to fall on one of the women below, or on more than one. He smiled charmingly, then refocused, and pushed himself up seemingly with all the strength he could muster.
"Ahhh!!! He did it!!!"
The shrill cry from one of the women who Alex flirted with using his gaze came like a signal. It shattered the tense silence, turning it into a wave of exhilarating admiration that swept through the hall.
"He did it!!!"
Another cry came, then a wave of exclamation followed as Alex sat atop the wall to look down with a smile shining bright with excitement.
"Incroyable!"
"Splendid!"
"Woooo!!!"
"Bravo!!!"
As he relaxed, his pores stopped holding tight, and his sweat came through to cling to his t-shirt and let it trace a deeper contour of his toned body. From the corner of his eyes, he caught sight of the small cracks running through the hold he had gripped too hard during his last move, starting from where his fingers had been, then ignored them to focus on the looks that were starting to grow hot and become hungry below, and he smiled, like a fisherman who could already see his fishing basket getting filled up with fish, beautiful and plump fish.
Sitting high above, he let go of the wall and raised his arms up with an exuberant cry:
"Woohoo!!!"
"Yeah!!!"
*Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap*
Alex looked down, his smile wide. This was life. And there was no more frustration, not anymore. Bathing in the waves of admiration, he laughed out loud:
"Hahahahaha…"
Only Gawain shook his head in a corner of the crowd, muttering in a smiling voice for only himself to hear:
"What a showman…"