A/N: HEY, GUYS! I POSTED THIS 2 MONTHS AGO, BUT NOBODY REVIEWED OR ANYTHING. IT'S BECAUSE I CHANGED THE TITLE. I AM SO SORRY, GUYS. I FORGOT TO INFORM YOU. SO I DELETED THE CHAPTER AND NOW IT'S UP AGAIN AND I CHANGED THE TITLE BACK TO PRETTY BOY UNTIL ALL MY READERS ARE INFORMED. Again, I'm really sorry. I had to use caps and bold it so you would notice. Note that the A/N after this note is the same with the first update of the ninth chapter. GUYS, I'M GOING TO CHANGE IT BACK TO RUGGED BOY AFTER THIS CHAPTER! THANKS!

Yes, I'm still alive. HELLOOOO. I'm sorry for the late update. And I admit, it's because of The Big Four. I just... fell in love. Again, I'm really sorry for the late update. Please stick with me?

Thank you to harvestmoonconfessions for the cover! It's a wallpaper and they allowed me to use it. Thank you so much! Check them out on Tumblr!

I also changed the title from Pretty Boy to Rugged Boy. Our hammer-wielding hottie may be pretty, but his attitude totally screams, "RUGGED!"

So, without further ado, here's Chapter 9 of Rugged Boy!

Rugged Boy

By TheMaskedGirl

10:00pm

Claire sighed as she lowered herself in the hot spring. She was exhausted. She harvested crops and helped Kai manage his shop. There were a lot of tourists in town. They were there to attend the Fall Horse Race. It was a really busy day at the shack.

There was a hot spring rule to wear a towel while bathing. But it was late in the evening and there was no one else around, so she decided to skinny-dip instead.

She closed her eyes as the hot water soothed her body and mind.

10:15pm

Claire woke up to the sound of a manly scream. She opened her eyes and saw, to her horror, a young man staring at her, eyes and mouth wide open.

She tried to cover her body with her hands. "Oh, goddess! Stop looking!" she screamed at him.

The man blinked a few times. He closed his eyes and covered them with both of his hands... which resulted to the towel around his waist, kept in place by his left hand, to fall. He realized it too late.

Claire screamed again. "Cover yourself!"

He quickly grabbed the towel and secured it around his waist. He closed his eyes again. "S-sorry," he mumbled.

Claire was blushing hard. A stranger saw her completely naked while she was sleeping! She also saw him towel-less and her innocent mind was scarred. But there was a more pressing matter at hand: she was still nude. "I-I-"

"D-don't worry. I d-didn't see much," he offered. His eyes were still shut and he was blushing as much as her.

She blushed harder. His statement gave her no comfort. "I'm-I'm still," she tried to explain.

He understood immediately. "S-sure. I-I won't peek. I promise."

Claire quickly got out of the water and grabbed her towel from the bench. She wrapped it around herself. She grabbed her bathrobe and wore it. She tied it tightly. "I'm decent. Kinda."

The man slowly opened his eyes and Claire realized she had seen those eyes before.

"Sorry about that," he apologized. He reached out to grab something above his head, but it was not there. He looked down.

"Don't worry. It was my fault anyway. I shouldn't have done that," she said.

"Are you still going to bathe? Do you want me to leave?" the man asked. He was still blushing.

"No," Claire said. "B-but please don't tell anyone about this." She didn't know if he was a villager or a tourist, but either way, she wanted him to keep mum about the incident.

"Sure." He still didn't look at her.

Claire uttered a short goodbye. She hurriedly walked to the exit to avoid another accident, but she slipped on the wet ground and fell, butt first

The man rushed to her and helped her sit up. She winced. "Can you stand? Do you want me to bring you back to the inn?" the man asked her worriedly.

"Yeah, I can. And no, thanks. I can manage." She stood up and stroked her sore bottom. "Thanks, uh…"

"Gray," the man said and offered the smallest of smiles.

"Thanks, Gray," she said sincerely. She thrust her hand forward and said, "I'm Claire."

He shook her hand and nodded. "Take care."

Claire waved goodbye and left without looking back. Dearest goddess, please let him be a tourist.

Fall 17

1:00pm

Dearest goddess, why do you hate me?

Claire entered Kai's shack and felt her whole world crumble. Gray was sitting on a booth with Cliff and they were having a conversation. He was wearing a blue hat with the word UMA in front. He was blushing and Cliff was laughing.

She walked to their booth and glared at Gray. "Excuse me," she interrupted.

Cliff's face lit up when he saw her. "Oh, Claire. We were just talking about you," he said. He let out a chuckle when he saw her glaring at Gray and gestured to the empty seat beside Gray. "Have a seat." He noticed that Gray stiffened when she sat down.

"Did he tell you?" she immediately asked.

Cliff blinked a few times and feigned innocence. "What?"

Claire blushed, a mix of anger and embarrassment. "About last night!"

The brunet suppressed a grin. "I don't know what you're talking about."

She faced the silent man beside her and glared. "I thought we agreed not to tell anyone," she hissed. "And what are you doing here?"

"He made me tell him. What am I doing here? What are you doing here?" Gray hissed back. He glared right back at her. "Why are you acting like you own this place?"

She was surprised. The man beside her was acting rude. "You're nothing like the man I met last night! What did you do to him? He was a gentleman!" she said, her voice raising a few decibels.

"No one said I was a gentleman!"

"Well, I certainly thought you were!"

Gray stood up and glared at her. "You thought wrong!"

Claire seethed. She stood up and looked at him defiantly although he towered over her. "You're worse than my ex-boyfriend!"

Cliff stood up from his seat and tried to pull Gray away, but the blue-eyed man was much stronger than him.

"I don't know who he is and I don't really care," he shot back and pulled his arm away from Cliff.

"You're an awful person!" she screamed.

"You have no right to judge me!" he shouted back. He crossed his arms.

Kai rushed out of the kitchen and went to them. He saw his customers looking at the two disapprovingly and winced. "I'm really sorry," he apologized to them. "Please, continue eating." He glared at the two. "In the kitchen. Now."

Claire bit her lip and walked to the kitchen. Gray followed her. Cliff was left standing in awe. "Goddess, Kai. You're really scary when you're mad."

He shrugged. "What happened?"

Cliff told him about last night's events and why Claire reacted that way. When he finished, Kai was laughing. "Gray's such a chatterbox. Who would've thought, eh?"

"Well, I did force him. But anyone would have been curious if he saw a girl's underwear on his best friend's bed," Cliff said. The brunets laughed.

But they stopped when they heard a loud crash from inside the kitchen. Kai's eyes widened. "I have knives there!"

A/N: It's supposed to be longer, but then I thought that Kai's reaction wouldn't be as epic if I added more scenes. Heh.

I'm going to university in ten days! I'm not that excited though because I'd have to live away from home. And I don't want that. But hey. There's a first for everything!

So, how was it? I hope you enjoyed it. OUR MAIN CHARACTERS FINALLY MET PROPERLY. After eight chapters. Are you bored? I hope you aren't. I didn't want to stray from Gray's real attitude so, tada! I'm sorry for the errors!

Don't leave me, please?

Love lots,

TheMaskedGirl