CHAPTER 26 : KINDNESS

My fucking head is killing me.

That’s the only thought I have spinning inside me. My headache is getting worse, I feel like I’m about to pass out. I’d rather just lie down right here if I could, but who the hell is dragging me along anyway?

“Let go…of me…I wanna sleeeeeeeeep…”

“You’ll get to sleep soon.” I recognize the voice right away. “Phun…where…are…you…taking…meeeeeee?” It is taking so much effort just to spit out each word, ########## it!

“Taking you to bed so you can sleep. Please stop struggling, you’re fucking heavy,” Phun tells me as he moves my arm over his own shoulders. I feel dizzy and a little nauseated, like something is about to make its way back up my throat. “We’re almost there,” he says. I feel a tiny bit better hearing that from him.

We stumble around and make our way up the stairs. My head is still pounding as Phun is trying to open a door. I open my eyes to see that…this is his bedroom. I quickly close my eyes again.

Why the hell did me bring me here?! I wanna go home!

“Home! Take me home! Home! I wanna go homeeeeeeeee!” I’m using all the strength I have left to break free when I found out where I am. Although, I’m not completely sure why I’m making such a huge fuss over this.

Phun tightens his grips on my arm. “Quit being so stubborn. You’re pretty wasted. Do you wanna go back there so your pa can smack you silly?” He follows with some more nagging but I don’t know what about. By the time I’ve come to again, my back is against a soft mattress. It feels heavenly. I still have no energy left in me to reposition myself to sleep properly though.

I try to move around on the bed since I don’t feel comfortable. Phun ends up helping me by shoving my back so I can lay down in a better position. My head is hurting so bad that I am forced to push his shoulder to stop him, “Will you be alright, Noh?” What should I tell him? My head is about to explode at any moment. I don’t even have the strength to open my mouth to say a word.

The headaches are getting worse and worse, so I force myself to open my eyes. The first thing I see is Phun Phumipat’s face, which is close enough to mine that I can feel his breath.

The second I see those alarming black eyes staring back at me, I completely forget about my headache. It’s strange how there’s something in Phun’s eyes that entice you so much that you simply cannot look away. It is like they’re pleading with you so that you wouldn’t leave.

I stare deep into those shining eyes which are moving closer and closer ever slowly. Our faces are so close that we see each other very clearly. I can feel Phun’s hand gently caressing my head as our lips slowly touch.

But…

“Ugh! Bleurgh!” Emergency! Emergency! Vacate the premise immediately! I shove Phun off me and jump to the bathroom so I can hug the toilet.

“Bleurgh”

“Heh heh, you’re throwing up? You really are a weakling.” I can hear Phun’s mocking tone not too far from me, but I’m in no mood to argue with him because I feel that puking is a priority right now. I can hear him chuckling in his throat before I feel a thick hand rubbing on my back.

“Throw it all up so you’d feel better.” Well, that’s easy for you to say! It’s a lot harder in practice! I really want to turn around and curse at him but I feel way too nauseated. I’m trying to force myself to let it all out, but there isn’t much coming out of me.

Phun patiently rubs my back for a very long while, “So are you throwing up or what?” I suppose he notices that I’ve been hugging the toilet for a while and nothing is happening.

“I want to…but…there’s nothinggggg.” In the end, I have no choice but to accept this horrible situation that I’m facing, even though I still feel awfully nauseated. I realize I can’t exactly stay here befriending a toilet and be a burden to Phun who’ll continue to rub my back. I decide to just let go and have Phun help me up so I can go back to the bed. As my head continues to bounce up and down, I am aware that I’m at my limits.

“Bleurghhhhhhhhh.” There’s vomit all over the both of us. -_-” My legs give out the moment the first shot has been fired. I’m on the bathroom floor in the middle of the puddle, feeling exhausted.

“You okay, Noh?!” It’s weird that Phun isn’t yelling at me for what I did. Instead, he sits down and helps prop up my near comatose body. I intend to let him know that I’m okay, but when I open my mouth…

“Bleurghhhhhhhhh.” And there’s the second round, everybody. I’ve totally lost all control. This is not a joke! Right now, I only know that since I’m already puking, I might as well go all the way to the end. I don’t care if I’m throwing up on anybody. Let’s just say that I’m taking advantage of Phun’s good will since he’s not cursing at me. “Bleurghhhhhhhhh.”

“All gone yet?” He continues to rub my back as I throw up a couple times more. Eventually, I feel that my stomach is now empty, “All goneeeee.”

“You sure?” Phun asks me once more before he takes me to get cleaned up in the bathtub. We both stink of vomit. The only reason I’d throw up again would be due to the stench.

I sit on the edge of the tub, feeling very worn out. I’ve turned into a docile Noh who is allowing Phun to take off the shirt and the jeans, which are now a big smelly mess. I face down and let the water from the shower head run through my hair. Meanwhile, Phun is taking off his own clothes so now we’re both in our boxer shorts. “What are you doinggggg?” You tend to get paranoid when you’re drunk, I suppose.

“What else?! I’m trying to get cleaned up!” He replies while he laughs at me, then he pulls the shower head and rinse my body. I cover myself up when I notice that Phun is trying to soap me up, “What are you gonna do to meeeee?”

“If you’re not gonna take a shower then I’m dragging your ########## to the garage and you can sleep there.” He threatens me before he lifts my arms and legs to cover me in suds. I can’t exactly argue with him since I do agree that I’m undoubtedly filthy tonight.

I sit still and let Phun clean me up. I’m starting to feel a little more sober little by little. At last, I finally fully grasp what is happening and realize that Phun is giving me bath.

I think about how strange this must be, to take a shower while wearing a pair of boxer shorts like this.

“Phun…”

“What’s up? You sober yet?” He asks me while shampooing his own hair.

“Better now. Don’t you feel uncomfortable?”

“What do you mean by that?” He asks me as he turns around to rinse his hair.

“Wearing boxer shorts while taking a shower…” Even though I realize that my question is a little iffy and sounds a bit dirty, but I suppose that I’m still in a haze so I had the guts to ask that question. Phun immediately stops rinsing his hair.

He turns his handsome face around and raises his browns mockingly at me, “And? You want me to take them off or what?”

“Do you usually wear that when you take showers with friends during a camping trip? I reply with a question, refusing to surrender.

“No. Naked,” he laughs. I definitely don’t want that image in my head.

“Yeah, and this this your house. Shouldn’t you do whatever you’re comfortable with?” Why the heck am I even saying this? ########## this mouth of mine. I’m gonna slap you silly once I get my strength back. I notice that Phun is still for a moment after he heard what I had said, then he goes back to rinsing his hair. When he finally finished, he grabs a towel to dry us both. “Hey…” he begins.

“I’m not that much of a gentleman…and I really don’t want to be a bigger ########## than I already am.” Seeing his lonely smile makes my chest tighten. I can’t really explain it.

Phun flashes a smile for a second, then I feel his soft lips gently touching my forehead.

“This is enough to make me happy….we should get some sleep. And don’t throw up on the bed,” he tells me before he drags me to get a change of clothes so we can head to bed.

We sleep next to each other with a body pillow between us. But yet, I feel strangely safe just by holding his hand like this.

If this is the kindness that Phun gives to Aim…

…then I don’t want this to be all in vain.

***

I got made fun pretty badly by Om when I showed up to school on Monday. He kept talking about how I was so wasted that Phun took me home, then there are a lot of ########## that I apparently did. I’m so ########## humiliated!

“He was acting like he’s the ########## when he was drunk. Like, he was gonna kick anyone’s ########## if they pissed him off.” He’s still going on about this. This is probably the third time this morning that he insists on making sure that I’d die of embarrassment by talking about this to everybody.

“Seriously? You’re talking about our Noh?!” Palm asks in a high pitch voice. Why not?! Someone like me can’t act like a thug or something?!

“Yes, this Noh. We all see him as a weirdo but he’s such a thug when he’s drunk. Phun was nice enough to finish the last bottle but this ########## smacked Phun in the head. That guy was so stunned, everyone was laughing like crazy. It was so fucking embarrassing! Hahaha!” Holy ##########, did I really do that?!

“Wait, he smacked Phun Phumipat in the head? The student council secretary?!”

“Yeahhhh! I couldn’t believe it. Talk about an abusive relationship. Phun is way too afraid of his wife.” ##########! So I can’t keep quiet anymore, is that it? I’m opening my mouth to curse at Om when I notice that Palm has a panic look in his eyes.

“Since when did Phun and you got into that kind of a relationship?”

Smack!

I end up smacking this ##########’s head first for not listening properly. ########## it.

Om bursts into a huge laughter (since he got away with this) before he gets Palm’s attention so he can continue with the story. Even though Palm is hurt, he still has not learned his lesson. He’s paying close attention to all the shitty things I’ve allegedly done on Saturday.

To be honest, I’m kind of curious as to what exactly I did. (Is Om telling the truth or is he embellishing the story?) But the more I listen, the more I realize that I’m not curious about this anymore. T___T I was such an ##########. I was loud and caused a huge scene. I was being a jerk to the waitstaff. I spilled drinks all over the place. I physically attacked my friends. I also recall dropping my cellphone about three times. It got so bad that my friends decided that it’d be best if I go home. However, I refused to leave. Om said that it took about ten of the guys to force me into a cab so that Phun (unfortunately for him) could stop the insanity.

So why didn’t Phun mention how horrible I was being at all?! T____T He really needs to stop being such a gentleman! Argh!

“ ##########, there was this too. Noh was so drunk but he was acting all tough, right? So he picked up his sorry ########## to go somewhere but Phun didn’t let him and kept pulling him back. Noh didn’t give in so he shrugged Phun off so hard that he ended up losing his balance. Luckily, Phun was quick enough to grab him. Holy ##########, it was like a scene from those novels where the guy was carrying the girl in his arms when she was about to fall down!”

“Romantic as hell!” Maybe you should just listen quietly instead of giving your opinions, Palm.

“Yeah, so fucking romantic. The girl ended up punching the guy in the face and they both end up on the floor in this version. We were laughing our asses off!” Ahhhhhhhh! I wish I could disappear right this second!

Om and Palm laugh to themselves before they continue with their critiques. “If it weren’t for the fact that they each have a girlfriend, then I would’ve thought that I was watching a married couple bickering.” Well, at least he still remembers that I have a girlfriend…

I stopped listening to them after that. (It was getting too long.) Now I wonder how Phun is doing. I didn’t bother checking if there were any bruises when I saw him. I suppose I really was a little too drunk.

“So is Phun okay? I had to watch you beating him up like that. He didn’t get too many bruises, did he?” Om takes a second to ask me just as I was thinking about it.

“Don’t know.”

“Didn’t you see anything when you were taking a shower?”

“I was drunk. It was all a blur, I didn’t see clearly.”

“…………………………………….” Wait. Was I just tricked into admitting something?

“HOLY ##########, NOH AND PHUN TOOK A SHOWER TOGETHER!” Oh, fuuuuuck! Om is shouting very loudly. It was so loud that everyone in the class rushes over to where we are. Fucking hell! I didn’t!

“Yo! ##########! We both had our boxer shorts on!” I’m throwing out an excuse to cover my own ##########, but Rodkeng (who ran over just now) is pointing at me as if he wants to accuse me of something.

“If there was nothing weird going on the between of you, then you would’ve done that naked like normal guys. But you had to keep your boxer shorts on as if you needed some sort of restraints to prevent yourselves from doing something!

“Woooooooo!” I really hate these bastards for always acting as backups. (Assholes!) How is it that they always catch on to me? I don’t have any strengths left to argue with them anymore!

While everyone is having fun teasing me…

“What are you guys up to? You’re being so ########## loud.” ##########, of all the time to show up, why does it have to be now?! I turn around to see Phun’s face, the other party in this dispute. He’s just standing there looking clueless. On a personal note, it feels like I’m seeing a ghost.

“Woooooooooooo!” There they go again. You know what? Go find some stupid doves to release and don’t forget the throw some rice while you’re at it too.

“Let’s wish them lots of fun for their honeymoonnnnnnn!” Rodkeng and Keng shove my back towards Phun. (Where are my fucking doves?! And rice?! You’re sending me off to the honeymoon already?! ##########!) It seems that Phun doesn’t really understand what’s going on, but there’s that smile on his face. He’s quite entertained by my friends’ weirdness. This is only making things harder for me. -_-” Can you not be so oblivious?

“Mind if I borrow the bride for a while? I’ll bring him back soon.” Good god, do you even realize what you’re saying?! My friends are yelling loudly as I’m being dragged away outside. ToT Oh, my life.

“What were you friends doing? It seemed fun,” he excitedly asks me once we made our way outside. I really don’t know how to answer him, heh.

“Um…” I begin to ask him about what I’ve been curious about right away, “Was I really beating you up? That night at Lumphini Park?” It seems he didn’t expect me to ask such a question because he is stunned for a moment.

“Why?”

“Om told me that I was being a real jerk when I was wasted. I beat you up and everything. ##########, I’m really sorryyyyy! I was druuuuuunk! I didn’t mean to do all of thaaaaat!” I apologize profusely to him since I feel so guilty. Why was he being such a nice guy about it anyway? Why did he endure all of that? He didn’t complain even once.

I can hear him chuckling, though there’s a hint of slyness.

“Yeah, it really hurt. You were fucking abusive to me. I’ve been wondering on how to get you back for all of that.”

“ ##########, I’m sorry! Punch me! Go ahead! Kick me too! I’ll let you do it all today!”

“Turn your head down and close your eyes!” Jeez, does he think he’s a senior or something? At any rate, I can’t go against him since I already told him that I’ll let him do whatever he wants today. I hope he won’t hit me too hard though. Y__Y

I keep my head down. My eyes are shut tightly while I’m wondering what Phun will do. Will he hit me in the head? Flick my ear? Elbow me? Knee me in the gut? Something? Which one hurts the most anyway? Will I be able to handle whatever it is he’ll do to me? I keep wondering and wondering. Eventually, I feel something cold around my neck.

“You can open them now.”

I open my eyes to see the silver dog tag, the souvenir from the soccer tournament, hanging around my neck. “Oh! I almost forgot about this! So there are leftovers after all?!”

Phun smiles as he shakes his head. “Nah, there were a ton of stand members this year. The alumni joined in too. I was able to grab one when I was feeding Earn and stuff.”

“Just one?”

“Yeah.”

“What about yours?”

“Never mind me. That one is yours.” Will he ever stop being such a gentleman? This is stressing me out.

“Real funny. You grabbed this one so you should keep this!” I scold him while I try to take the dog tag off. Phun immediately grabs my hands and holds it tight. He’s giving me a strange look, as if he’s very bothered by what I’m doing.

“I’m…giving this to you. So can you not be like this..?” Right, I forgot that I shouldn’t be behaving like this. Phun probably notices that I’ve stopped trying to take it off so he lets go of my hand.

“You worked pretty hard too, you probably want one. Plus, the guys normally give this to their girlfriend anyway.” I have no idea why I said that last part. But it is true though. Mementos from large events like this one are pretty important. So if you were to give it away, it’s usually to someone you’re dating.

Phun lets a long sigh, long enough that I can feel them. “Aim got a ton of stuff from me…so just let me give you something for once. Don’t say no.” What am I supposed to say after hearing that?

We stand here, staring at each other in silence. Even so, I have plenty of thoughts going inside my head. I know that Phun does too. His eyes are trying to tell me something.

“Hey, Noh! Oh, Phun? Got lost?” We both flinch when we hear Earn’s voice saying hello to me and a tease to Phun. Phun turns to smile to the friend that happens to be the president of the cheer team which had just finished their latest project last Saturday.

“Did you get lost too?” Phun teases him back. Earn chuckles in return. “Your bruises are healing okay?” ########## him! Will these people ever stop talking about the ########## I did back at the Lumphini Park?!

Phun laughs as he mockingly glances my way. “I was thinking about telling my dad about this.” Whatever, crybaby. If it weren’t for the fact that I punched him so many times on Saturday, I’d be punching him now.

“Yeah, you should do that. So are you done talking to him yet? I gotta talk to him about something.” So these bastards think I’m a Rotiboy employee or something? Do I need to start handing out numbers for people waiting in line?

Phun grins at me. “Yeah, I’m done. Anyway, don’t forget about this Friday, Noh.” He tells Earn before he turns to remind me about the trip to Hua Hin. I actually almost forgot about that. Earn seems to be confused as he watches Phun walking away.

“What’s happening on Friday?”

“It’s nothing. What’s up?” I quickly change the topic since it looks like there’s something he wants to discuss with me.

“Oh, right. I came to give you this. As promised.” Earn flashes a smile and shows me the silver dog tag. But…ah, what the heck?!

“Oh, I’m wearing one right now!” I point to my neck. So he didn’t even look, is that it? -_-” Earn looks so startled as if he had seen a ghost. “Where’d you get that?! None of technique team got one, I thought!” But it seems I’m the only member that will get two? Hahaha.

“Phun gave me this just now. Sorry, man. I guess you’ll be heartbroken, bro.” I joke as I lightly pat his shoulder. I wasn’t being serious but I notice that his expression went grim.

“Yeah…I guess that’s true.” What was he mumbling about? I couldn’t hear him.

“Huh?”

“Nothing, nothing. I better get to class. My band is joining the Live Contest, by the way. I’ll submit the application later.” Earn changes the topic to the Live Contest event that my club is hosting right before Christmas. It’s a contest where the winner will get to play during the Christmas event and also gets an opportunity to compete in the RAD competition at Wat Ratchabophit. I give Earn a friendly smile.

“Yeah, sure. Drop it off at the club room, okay? But if you’re too busy, then you can drop it off here at my classroom too.” I tell him but he simply gives me a wry smile instead of a reply before saying goodbye and goes back to his classroom.

What’s up with him? Why does he look so depressed about it?

But never mind that.

I’m heading to Hua Hin this Friday already?