Viktor inwardly smiled as he nodded and walked towards Tiana, who smiled upon seeing that everything went well.
After collecting the certificates and the trophy, the Wildcats made their way out towards the main hall of the cafe, where all the spectators were showering cheers, praises and called out, "Beast Men, pay up! You all lost the bet!"
John and his team frowned and tried their best to hide their faces and get out of here fast.
Tiana smiled and gestured to everyone to calm down, "Guys, guys! About that, we have an announcement to make.
Everyone toned down their voices and whispered among themselves, wondering what she was going to say.
Tiana continued with a smile, "We felt that since this was a professional tournament, we shouldn't let our personal grudges ruin our sportsmanship, and based on Goodboi's advice, we decided to relieve the Beast Men from this bet since as the winners of this tourney, it would be bad on our part to further push down the defeated ones, right?"
John snorted, hearing our words, not expecting her to take advantage of their deal to make themselves look good in the limelight. He badly wanted to expose the fact that he had to sacrifice his precious bike for this but at the same time knew he couldn't.
The audience nodded, feeling that the Snow Queen was right, and looked at Goodboi with sparkling eyes, thinking that he indeed lived up to his name to convince the Wildcats to grant mercy to the Beast Men.
After all, everyone knew how wild-tempered and stubborn the Snow Queen was, especially when it came to paybacks.
So they found it quite surprising that she listened to Goodboi and wondered how close these two were. They already learned that these two were cousins but wondered why they never saw or heard about it before, especially seeing how monstrously talented he was.
After all, he single-handedly took out the entire Beast Men, and that was a feat no one ever did before.
Some even speculated that Goodboi was the Snow Queen's secret mentor who made a surprise appearance to save her team.
Butkus and his friends rushed towards Goodboi in excitement and had a lot talk to him about. But Dorian gestured at his watch and said that he would talk with them later and exchanged contacts.
Finally, after receiving congratulations and cash awards, the Wildcats and the Beast Men came out of the cafe. However, after the middleman returned their bike keys, John's key was snatched by Tiana, and he could only bitterly watch.
She then demanded all the paperwork and documents related to the bike, which he handed over as well so that the complete ownership would be transferred to Dorian.
"You better not cross us again, hmph," Tiana scoffed as she grabbed the papers from a bitter-looking John.
John harrumphed and left on one of his teammate's bikes, swearing inwardly to never provoke the group of witches and the innocent-looking devil ever again.
It was already evening, and Tiana's friends wanted to have a good chat with Dorian, but they seemed quite in a hurry since it was late and told Doiran that they would meet again later.
"So, you know how to ride a bike?" Tiana said as she twirled the keys in her hands.
"Well...I did learn how to ride old bikes from a friendly aunt back in my village. But I don't have a license."
"Then that's good enough! Don't worry about your license when you are not traveling far. And even if someone stops us, let me handle it," Tiana said as she tossed the keys towards him, and Viktor caught them with a smile.
"You now have your own bike...a stylish and cool-looking one at that. I bet lots of girls would go gaga over you right when you ride into college with this bike," Tiana giggled.
Viktor was inwardly happy about scoring a new bike without paying a single cent and wondered how Taya would react if she knew. He felt that he could use this as an expendable bike or for casual travels.
He gave an embarrassed chuckle and said, "I really don't want to grab much attention. I guess I can use this for other outings."
Viktor inwardly thought about selling this bike and getting easy money rather than ride around in this extravagantly designed bike.
"Aww, gee, don't be a spoilsport. Ah, wait! Maybe it's better this way since my mom might find out and ask questions about how you got this, and then she will come to know about my gaming. Yeah...it's better you don't use it for college. How about we park this bike in a public parking lot and then use it whenever you wanna go for other outings?"
"Sounds good. Let's go then."
Viktor got on the bike, and Tiana sat behind him nervously since she had never ridden on a bike before because, for most of her life, she was escorted in cars to travel to any place.
Viktor noticed her nervousness and asked, "You seem like you haven't sat much on bikes before. You can hold on to me if you want."
Tiana bit her lip and then slowly raised her hands to grab Dorian's shirt from the back with her fingers, "Uhm...you can go now. I will be fine."
Tiana didn't want her inexperience to make herself look like she can't handle sitting on a bike.
Viktor smiled as he said, "Alright. Be careful."
He revved the bike and took off, making Tiana widen her eyes as the sudden inertia made her feel as if she might fall off the bike.
"Tia, hold me!" Viktor shouted in concern, and in a panic, hearing his words, Tiana quickly enveloped her arms around his chest and pulled herself forward.
She let out a loud sigh of relief as she rested her head on his back and felt quite comfortable, feeling that his back was quite wide and warm.
"Phew, that was close. I am sorry. Are you okay?"
Sensing the guilt in his tone, she quietly raised her head and said softly as she stared at his wide back, "Yeah...I am fine. I...I was just startled."
She then saw how her hands were tightly grabbing onto his chest, which felt quite firm, and clumsily tried to recede her hands.
"Don't! You might lose your grip again. It's best you hold on till you get used to this," Viktor said in a concerned tone as he smiled inwardly. He was finding it amusing to see the usually loudmouthed girl being so cute.
Tiana froze her hands midway as she receded them, and after a bit of hesitation, she slowly wrapped her arms around his body again as her face flushed with a red hue.
Hugging a boy so closely made her feel quite embarrassed and nervous, but she tried her best not to show it. She then cooled her mind thinking that it was her cousin and that this was normal.
And for the rest of the ride, Tiana was unnaturally silent, and even when Viktor asked her some casual questions, she only gave one-liner replies as her mind was preoccupied, looking at his back and wondering how she ended up in this situation.
But at the same time, she couldn't help but feel a strange feeling by hugging his back, as if she was finding it surprisingly comforting.
