CHAPTER 48: I DIDN'T MEAN TO...!?

I made a grave mistake thinking that Phun would eventually return to normal on his own. It’s Monday now and I haven’t heard a peep from him since Saturday.

I was a little confused on Sunday because his odd behaviors weren’t sitting well with me. I wanted to call him and see how he was doing but then I thought better of it, because I didn’t want to be a nuisance to him. I signed in MSN and waited for Phun all day instead. I saw a small window popping up on the side of the screen, indicating that Phun had signed in around the afternoon. I sent him a message but he was quiet and went offline. I had no idea what the hell was wrong with that guy. Unsurprisingly, I have not seen him online ever since that day. Basically, I’m trying to explain why I’m late to school this morning. I spent the whole night waiting for him.

“Napat! You’re not a child any more now! You should be setting a good example for your juniors!” Oh, shit. Masser Fiem’s voice can be heard behind me just as I am about to sneak through the school’s gate. Damn it, I forgot to tuck in my shirt!

I immediately stop to tuck in my shirt but it’s too late. A wooden cane strikes the back of my legs before I could finish. Owwwww, how many years has it been since I was last punished like this?

“You know what to do, go on.” Not only I was hit with a cane, now I’m being disciplined for tardiness too. That’s too cruel! My face turns pale and I settle my school bag down on the ground. I follow the Masser to do push ups in front of the Holy Father statue. How humiliating is this?! I’m a grown ass man!

“You’re a 10th grader, that means 100 push ups!” Who the heck made up that rule?! My eyes widen as I stare at the person who is giving me an order. I haven’t worked out in ages. I know if I try to make any negotiations with him then I’d end up having to do 300 instead for sure. Here goes nothing! -_-” Om has been nagging at me about how I’m getting fat lately anyway. Just consider this as a way to get fit.

I fall to the ground and begin doing push ups obediently (Heh heh heh…) “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten…” I glance over to see the Masser talking to the school’s janitor instead of paying any attention to me. If that’s the case, then…heh heh heh.

“Ten, twenty, thirty, forty…” I gotta cheat my way out of this! My arms are about to break!

“Napat! Start over! And it’s 200 this time around!” Shit! I shouldn’t have done this! I nearly fainted when I heard those words. I’m trying to give him puppy eyes and let him know that I’ve learned my lesson but he doesn’t care. He’s even glaring at me too. Aaaaah!

“One, two, three, four…” I have no other choice but to do as I am told (otherwise I’d be doing 500 push ups). I start from the very beginning with much difficulty due to the fact that I have not worked out in forever. My body isn’t prepared for the extreme exercise.

“Fifty-five, fifty-six, fifty-seven…” Am I gonna drop dead right here? I should’ve been dieting. It’s starting to piss me off that I’m so heavy. It’s taking so much effort just to lift myself up each time. My arms are incredibly sore.

“Masser? Will you sign these papers for me?” Eh? That voice sounds familiar. I glance over to look at the source. It’s the person that made me lost sleep, the person that made me stayed up all night hoping to catch him online. What an impeccable timing. I watch as Phun, who is carrying a couple of large blinders, forces Masser Fiem to sign documents for him.

Since his attention is required, he turns around and so he can sign the papers in Phun’s hands. He’s leaving me, the guy that is up to number 60 for his push ups, all alone.

“This one too. And this one too, please. And this one.” I’m not imagining this, am I? Phun Phumipat is here to rescue me? I raise my brows and look at him between push ups. He’s giving me signals with his eyebrows as if he wants me to leave.

“Seriously?” I mouth to him. Phun raises his brows several times in response for a moment before he asks the Masser to sign more things.” Holy shit, I love you! I swiftly jump up, grab my school bag and flee the scene.

“Hey! Napat! Get back here!”

“Masser, you need to sign this one right here too.”

Ahahahahaha! Thanks Phun!

I rush up the steps and arrive at my classroom. First period has begun, it’s Physics with Miss Wanida. “You’re late.” She tells me and my classmates giggle among themselves.

I quickly apologize and make my way to my desk. As I sit down, Om hands me a stack of worksheet. “Here, she gave these out at the beginning of the class. I saved you a copy.” Thanks, man! I nod vigorously at him since I don’t have the strength to say a word. (Between the pushups and running away, which one is more exhausting?)

Noticing that, Om fans me with the thick worksheet. “Chill, man. Got punished, didn’t ya? You’re all red.” He whispers while fanning me. I’m feeling a whole lot better. Sigh. Om can be really nice at times. “Pushups or squats?” He still wants to know.

“Pushups…” I give him a short answer as I wipe the sweat off my face. I can hear him chuckling at me. Bastard, you wouldn’t be laughing if this happened to you. “How many times?”

“Two hundred, but I ran away.”

“Damn, dude. How’d you get away? I gotta try that the next time.”

“It’d be hard for you to do the same since I had the student council secretary’s help.” I cock my brows and rub it in his face. Om frowns and puts the worksheet back down on the desk. “Pfft, whatever.” Not everyone can be as lucky, man. Hahaha.

“So are you gonna tell me what’s going on between the two of you now?” Why does he always want to talk about this?! I furrow my brows and stare at him. He has a mocking expression on his face as though he’s taunting me to reveal the truth. So you wanna know? Heh heh.

“What about you and nong Mick? Are you gonna tell me?” I need to get something in return if I were to do this. Heh heh. I raise my eyebrows and look at him. He does the same to me.

“How about we say it at the same time?” A challenge! Bring it on! If that’s what you wanna do.

“Sure.”

“One…two…three…”

“Napat! Tatchakorn! Enough chatting! Come stand in front the classroom!” Not again!

***

Basically, I am having the shittest luck today. Not only I was disciplined by Masser Fiem and had to do push ups (even if I did run away) but then I was told by Miss Wanida to stand in front of the classroom with Om (in different corners) too. Ugh, can this day get any worse? I’m so over it. I can’t even continue where I left off with Om. I’m dying to know what’s really going on between him and nong Mick.

Although, now that I think about it, it is better that I don’t know. Because if Om discusses his relationship with nong Mick with me then I’d need to tell him about Phun in exchange like we agreed upon.

It’s not like I want to keep this from him though. It’s just I’m kind of embarrassed about it…but I have no idea why I’m embarrassed about this.

Am I forgetting something though? Right! Phun is being all sulky with me and I don’t know the reason why. He went quiet on me out of the blue on Saturday. Then he was gone all Sunday too. It’s Monday now and he…helped me out like he usually does?

Was it all in my head? Maybe he’s not upset with me or anything? Or maybe he was upset but he got over it now? Or…ah, I don’t want to think about this anymore. I’m just gonna go see him.

“Hey, I’ll be right back!” Realizing all of this, I immediately get up from my seat in the cafeteria and go off to find that person who is so hard to understand. (I heard Om, Keng, Rodkeng, Palm, Khom, and Pong making some comments about this. Whatever, I’ll get them back the next time.)

I jog around, not entirely sure of my destination. It’s lunch time, where could he be anyway? He broke up with Aim, so I doubt he’d go over to the convent. He’s probably at the school, I just don’t know which part of the school exactly. I turn my head around and search for a while until…

I spy the handsome skinny guy walking around with his friends near the K Building.

“Phun!” I quickly yell his name. He raises his brows and looks at me with a perplexed expression. He turns to chuckle at his friends who probably teased him about something.

Phun bids goodbye to his friends and walks over to me. Despite not knowing why he was mad at me, it seems like he’s over it by now. I don’t feel like I should rehash what happened. I’ll just bring up something else instead then.

“Thanks for this morning.”

“Sure, no problems.” He answers me with a smile. His hands are inside his pockets as he continues. “You looked like you were gonna die any second there. If I didn’t help you out, you would’ve passed out in front of the statute.” At least he was thinking of me. I laugh and we chat as if we have not seen each other in months.

While we were getting into our conversation, (Phun was dishing the dirt on how the Masser was pretty pissed but he agreed to sign everything as requested, hahaha) my arm begins to itch and I have no idea why. I thought I saw an ant from the corner of my eye though. “Aw, fuck! What the hell bit me?!” I’m making a huge fuss when I notice that my arm is red. It’s incredibly itchy too. “It’s so itchy!” I use my other hand and proceed to scratch forcefully right away.

Phun is caught off guard because I’m panicking. I’m scratching the area and the bump is getting even bigger and he doesn’t know how to help. He quickly grabs my hand and pulls it away. “Don’t scratch that! It’s all red now, see?!” Phun scolds me and he gently rubs the area. It stings though. Whoa! Nong Knott is walking pass by while sipping his coffee.

“…Hi…guys…” There’s a strange glint in his eyes so I instinctively jerk my arm away from Phun hastily as if I spilled boiling water on myself. “Oh! Uh! Hey! Hi! Hey. What’s with the coffee? It’s still early.” I better change the subject quick. But I forgot that this kid is clever. He’s glancing at Phun and I with a smirk. “I’m a little sleepy. Um, I’m gonna get going though…sorry for the interruption. Heh heh.” He tells us as he cocks his brows mockingly before he walks away so I didn’t get a chance to grab him by the neck. Ugh! I bet he’s making all these assumptions inside his head by now!

I scratch my head in frustration but then I switch back to scratching my arm. It’s still itchy. I can’t take it anymore. I need to get some calamine lotion from the nurse’s office. But then I remember that there’s a first aid kit in the student council office too. “Phun…” I decide to get the person standing next to me’s attention while nudging him.

Phun immediately pulls away from me and I stare at his face, feeling puzzled. “What’s the matter? Hey, can I borrow some of the calamine lotion? It’s really itchy.” This is his response.

“You should go get it from the nurse’s office.”

“Why?”

“Because people might start getting the wrong impression of us if you keep hanging around me.” He tells me before he walks away. And this time, I understand what’s the matter with him.

Ahhh, what do I do now?!