CHAPTER 56: THERE'S NOTHING I CAN DO

Phun wakes up feeling slightly nauseated this the morning. From my understanding, it has to do with how stressed out he was. It isn’t anything to be concerned with though. He looks well enough to go to school after he threw up all the meats he ate the previous day. (I thought I was going to throw up along with him.)

“You sure you’re okay?” I repeat my question to the handsome jerk as he leaves the skytrain with a grin on his face. Seeing his overly carefree smile is rubbing me the wrong way just a smidge.

“Yep!” Hmph. Well, then. I apologize for being concerned. Is this really the same guy that cried himself to sleep last night? The same guy that woke up looking so damn pale then puked his guts out this morning? Really?

The two of us jog down the stairs from the train platform. But before we arrive at main station, we can hear someone shouting at us.

“Hey, fucker!” Who the hell is trying to get my attention so early in the morning? Although, I already know without having to turn around and see. There’s only one guy with that tone of voice.

I wait so that bastard Om, Keng and Rodkeng can catch up. As expected, Om greets me with the most barbaric way possible.

Smack!

“Take that! I was calling for you the entire time! We were in the car next to yours, you deaf bastard!” Then why didn’t he switch cars?

I rub the spot on my head where I was hit, feeling slightly irritated. Phun is simply chuckling to himself next to me. (Really, not even gonna help me out?) The five of us swipe our cards and exit the station down the stairs together.

“Why were you being an idiot and kept calling for me instead of walking over?”

“I was too lazy to do that…” Serves you right then. I smack him twice in return after hearing that obnoxious reply. Rodkeng is laughing in the background.

As the five of us make our way toward the school, we keep on cursing at one another, stopping occasionally to buy snacks, and smacking each other around (we do the latter the most). Just as we are about to walk through the school’s gate, Om’s eagle eyes notice that there’s something off about me.

“Hold it!” Not only he commands me to stop, but he grabs my collar too. Cough, cough, cough. I’m choking because he isn’t letting go until I stop just as instructed. “What the fuck, man?!” Don’t grab me out of the blue like that! You startled me!

I watch as Om inspects me. “That’s Phun’s shirt, isn’t it? You slept over at his place?” Uh…how should I answer this? I stay still (since I’m caught off guard) while Phun laughs gleefully.

“Very keen of you.” Phun notes with a complement and gives Om a thumbs-up. Om puffs up his chest, obviously proud with himself. Why is this guy going along with this? You don’t need to reveal every single details, you know!

I smack Mr. Popular’s head once (for spilling the beans on everything) before we enter the school. Nevertheless, Rodkeng isn’t letting the subject die down. “What’s so great about this friend of mine anyway, Phun? Why are you always all over him like he’s about to hatch?” Jeez…you’re making it sound like he’s a mother hen. Although…

The person in question turns to Rodkeng. There’s a big grin on his face and a chill runs down my spine. “I can’t help it, your friend’s too cute.” There he goes again! Must you always say what’s on your mind? I don’t even know how to deal with that anymore! -_- But whatever. He can say whatever he wants, I’m going to stop paying attention to him. I forcefully scratch my own head out of frustration while my friends burst into huge laughter.

We make our way to our building. Teases are being thrown around nonstop. (They are being thrown mostly at me, however. -_-) Phun excuses himself to the administrative office since Fi is standing there yelling Phun’s name with a furious expression on his face. That guy can be real disturbing at times. Especially now that he’ll be stepping down from his position soon, he’s been throwing major tantrum at Phun a lot more often. Speaking of which, I kind of want to know what happened between him and his girlfriend. I wonder how they’re doing.

But never mind that. It’s none of my business. (Really…?) (Not really, I figured that I can ask Phun about it later. Heh heh.) Slowly, I realize that I’ve missed something very important.

I didn’t do my Biology homework yet!

Oh, shit! Miss Ladda will have my head for this!

“Fuck! Da’s Bio homework!”

“Oh! Fuck!” The other two people here yell in unison. Obviously, Rodkeng and Om have forgotten about this too. (Bastards, why did you have to forget too?) We rush over to the elevator and find a spot to copy the assignment. Thankfully, Keng mentions that he had already finished it. I’m a little relieved. Although, I almost forgot that Keng has been walking with us from the skytrain station.

Why is he being strangely quiet?

Maybe I’m just imagining things?

***

Little by little, what I had suspected this morning is slowly becoming apparent. Keng is being awfully quiet, but only with me. He jokes around and laughs among our group of friends like he normally does. However, he isn’t making any comments toward me at all. He usually makes jokes at my expense or get on my case about something or the other, but not today. (I mean, he’s almost as bad as Om when it comes to this stuff too.)

Despite being quiet, he still lets me copy his Biology homework? He even shares the snacks he brought with me too? Not only that, he whispers the correct answer when I’m being called by a teacher? Basically, he’s still good friends with me. It’s just that he seems…quiet?

I glance at Keng while we’re working on the short quiz in our English class. He happens to look my way and our eyes meet. He assumes that I want to copy off of him so he shows me his answers.

Well…while I do want to copy the answers, that isn’t the reason I looked at him. I shake my head and finish writing down the answer for the last question on my own.

“Time’s up. Please leave your answer sheet on my table. Class is dismissed.” The teacher says when the clock tells us it’s time for our lunch break. My classmates get up to submit their work and I happen to walk up there with Keng.

“Was it easy for you?” I whisper to him while waiting in line. He gives me a slow nod without looking up at me.

Hm…is there something wrong?

..

..

“What the hell should we eat? Noh, do you even have any money, you bastard?!” And why the hell are you shouting?! I smack Om’s head once after he has announced my current situation to the entire cafeteria.

“I still got some money in my card!” Asshole! You’re scaring the lunch lady. She’s trying to make my noodles! I glare at Om as he rubs the spot where he was hit before he shouts his order, a bowl of tom yum noodles, to the auntie.

“So how’d you end up spending the night at Phun’s place anyway? Didn’t you tell me you were heading home?” Om asks after we received our bowls of noodles.

“There was a small problem that I had to deal with, but never mind that.”

“Aha, aha, aha. Was it a physical-related problem, my little buddy? Ah, well. Teens and their raging hormones.” What a dickhead! Seriously?! I turn to stab him in the ear with a pair of my chopsticks. “Ow! My earwax!” Oh, right! Gross! Now my chopsticks are dirty! I wipe them on his face out of annoyance (since he soiled them) before I walk over to grab a new pair for myself.

“Noh! How much money do you have left anyway? I heard you were acting like a big boss and threw a party for your club members. You paid for everything too, right?” I’m being asked these questions the moment I sit down at the table where the rest of my friends are waiting. It’s not much of a surprise that Ken knows about this since he probably heard it from…

“You and your big mouth, Om!” I hit him on his buzz-cut head with my elbow. Everyone is cackling at the sight.

“Yo, I’m only asking because I was worried. Wanna borrow some money from me? You can just pay me back whenever you have the money.” Ken continues and I get very sentimental. That’s how friends should be. Ken is the complete opposite of Om. It’s like heaven and hell. Y___Y

And I would’ve replied if he hadn’t continued to speak. “My interest rate is 50 baht per 100 baht borrowed per day. Hahaha.” You bastard! I should’ve known better!

I stick my middle finger at him and everybody breaks into laughter, especially Ken whose rice nearly flies out of his own nose. “I was kidding! For real, do you need it though? How much do you have left in your debit card?”

“Almost 300, but that’s okay. Save your money so you can pay your mom back for that MacBook of yours. I heard you still have months before it’s paid off?” Ken bought a MacBook last month, it cost him almost 100k. He used his mother’s Visa to pay for it with the intention of paying her back later. (I have no idea he bought it though. All he does is play games and download porn. That’s not really worth the price tag.) Yet, he’s still offering to help me out. Talk about being charitable.

“Or you can borrow from me. My family’s filthy rich. We keep money around the house for decorations.”

“Boooooo!” Everyone at the table heckles Palm for what he said. Haha, pfft. All of us proceed to throw tissues, both used and new, at him without stopping.

While everybody is having fun with attacking Palm with tissues, Om knocks on his bowl of noodles by using his chopsticks and steals everyone’s attention. “Hey, hey, hey. You guys don’t need to help that bastard Noh because he already has…” What? I have what? What the fuck are you gonna say now?! My right eye is twitching as I listen to Om begin to announce something that I’m certain will be bad for me.”

He winks at me before he continues. “Because he already has the student council secretary taking care of him. Woooooo!” You fuck! I knew it!

I scratch my head, nearly pulling my hair out, as everyone at the table woos along with Om as though we’re having a party despite this whole thing feeling like it’s my funeral. You better watch it. We’re in a cafeteria, not the an amphitheater. Damn it!

In the midst of this chaos caused by my so-called friends, (to which I’d like to to dig a hole in the middle of this cafeteria and hide, or just shout at the top of my lungs that I don’t know any of these people) I notice that Keng is silently eating his lunch.

Perhaps I do have an idea as to what might be going on with him.

***

“Is everything all right, Keng…?” I decide to bite the bullet and ask him during our Business class. The Masser brought us to the library so we can work on the research paper that’s due at the end of this period.

Keng takes his eyes away from the rows of books to look at me for a short moment, then he turns his attention back to the books. “Uh…yeah.”

Liar. I sigh sharply and decide to stop being around the bush. “I mean…if it’s about what you asked me last night. I’m not intentionally keeping things from you, man. Something happened and I had to take care of it so I had to turn off the computer. I’m sorry.” I tell him and I raise my hands up to apologize. Keng quickly grabs my hand to stop me in a panic.

“Dude, why are you doing that?!” Keng yells. At least he’s willing to look at me now.

We both remain quiet for a moment before Keng is the first to speak. “To be fair…I don’t have any right to be mad at you anyway. I was the one who told you that it was okay if you didn’t want to talk about it.

“…………….”

I can feel Keng’s long exhale on my arm for just a second. This lets me know that his feelings are pretty muddled right now. “But still…I don’t know. Never mind. I’m sorry too.” He gives me a small nod before he grabs a book and heads to the table where our friends are sitting. I swiftly grab a hold of his arm. “Wait!” Jeez, can’t he hear me out first?

Our eyes meet and I want him to know that I’m being completely sincere. “Ask me again, I’ll give you the answer.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Then come with me…” H…huh? Keng suddenly breaks into a grin and he drags me from where the bookshelves are toward the table where our friends are sitting. He lightly knocks on the table and whispers, with a mixture of him trying to stifle his chuckles, to everyone there.

“So this bastard’s ready to talk now, guys.”

You son of bitches! You were all in on this?!

The truth is finally being revealed. All of my friends have banded together and came up with this plan. They sent Keng, who deserves an award for his acting, (I’ll get you back for this later. Y___Y) to get me to talk. Everyone hastily packs up their things on the table and heads to the empty hall in the library. All of them sit in a circle in an small area where people don’t usually drop by since they don’t find these books particularly interesting.

I sit in defeat and stare at each and everyone of my so-called friends. Keng, Palm, Khom, Pong, Em, Dong, Rodkeng, Ken, and that bastard Om are all around me, waiting to hear the truth from my lips.

“It was taking forever to get Noh to notice what was going on. I swear, I almost lost it and wanted to laugh so many times.” That bastard Ken opens the floor for discussion and Dong laughs along to his comment.

“Yeah, at first I suggested that he should just give Noh the cold shoulder. Like, completely ignore him, right? But this bastard didn’t do his Bio homework. I was really over it. And Keng is too damn nice so he, of course, lets Noh copy his homework. I thought our plan was done for right then and there.”

Keng stretches his legs out as though he’s the hero in this story. “I may be too nice but I still pulled it off flawlessly, man. Hahaha!”

“Booooo!” Keng’s comment is enough to get the entire circle to heckle at him. Everyone throws punches his way to boot. But then they realized that they’re being too noisy so they each quickly cover up their mouth with their hands. “Shhhh!”

I’m pretty sure the school’s guard at the hate heard that ‘shh.’

I laugh along with them and I would’ve forgotten the real reason I’m sitting right here if it weren’t for Palm chiming in with a reminder. “Alright, alright, cut it out. We need to talk about this before class is over.” Uh…we can just keep talking about other stuff. I love talking about other stuff. Let’s do that? Y__Y

I’m finding it hard to swallow as Em adds his input. “Yeah, Noh. We’re just gonna come right out and ask, okay?” Dang, he sounds so serious. I’m your friend, not a prisoner T___T. I give him my puppy eyes and plead for mercy but he’s not having any of that. Worse, he points to Rodkeng to continue the discussion.

“What’s really going on…between you and Phun?” Okay. Way to get to the point.

“…………………………….” Silence falls over us. All eyes are on me. Please don’t do that, you all are making me tensed.

I slowly move my lips, feeling not entirely confident in myself. “What…what do you mean exactly..?”

Rodkeng puts on an I-mean-business look on his face and he moves in close as though he wants to catch me in a lie. “Dude, don’t even give us that bullshit. I already tricked Phun into telling me…so now it’s your turn! Are you gonna say it or not?!” What the fuck?! If you already know then why ask me?! (Anyway, what the hell is up with Phun? Why didn’t he just put up flyers all over the school so everybody will know that I’m his boyfriend? Goddamn.)

Suddenly, it feels like the air conditioner isn’t working despite how cold it was when I was searching for books earlier. “If you…already heard it from Phun then why are you asking me?”

“Cause we wanna hear it from you!” It’s Palm’s turn to chime in. Everyone in the circle nods their head in agreement. Jeez, you all must be insane if you wanna hear the same things over and over. What’s the point in doing that?

“Okay, okay, this is what we’ll do…” Keng interrupts with a phrase he often uses when he’s trying to get someone to compromise. “Noh…” And it seems I’m the victim this time around. T___T

I raise one of my eyebrows to the guy that messed with me all day today. I’m feeling rather apprehensive. “Wh…what?”

“I’ll just be straight with you, okay? You’re…” What’s with the pause for suspension?! Just ask the question already! I hold my breath waiting to hear has Keng has to say.

“…dating Phun, right?”

“…y…yeah.”

“So you’re a couple?”

“…yeah.” I decide to just close my eyes and admit to everything. Ugh! If you already know then why are you trying to get me to talk?! They all laugh and giggle among themselves when they hear my answer. Meanwhile, I get the urge to smash my head into the ground and dig my way home. I would do it if I could pull that off.

“Who asked who first?!” And how is that any of your business, Pong?! I want cuss him off but all the curious eyes are on me.

“Well…Phun did…I guess.” There’s nothing I can do other than reluctantly give him my unclear answer. It’s mostly because everything is starting to blur together now. My brain is beginning to shut down. I can hear those jerks hollering and whistling to tease me. It sounds like they’re enjoying this a bit too much. (Way to take pleasure in someone else’s pain!)

“So you got a boyfriend and kept quiet about it, eh?” Dong jests as he elbows me from behind after the laughter dies down. Have you each met yourselves? As if I’d tell any of you loudmouths anything.

“Well, that’s because you guys always give me a hard time…”

“Man, what are you saying? We only gave you a hard time because we didn’t know. If we knew, we wouldn’t have said those things.” I glance at Rodkeng who’s apparently trying to say the right things. “For real?”

“Nope! Hahahaha!” Then why the hell did you say that?! See, I’m never wrong about these guys! I scratch my head, feeling exasperated to this whole thing. I bet that they’ll tease me about this every day for the rest of my life. Y__Y And before I can get over this, Em says something rather startling to me.

“Both you and Om sure kept your lips sealed. I was strangling his neck trying to get him to spill for about a million times but he refused to tell me. He said it’s something I need to ask you myself.” Holy crap on a stick! Om is capable of such a concept?! I turn to look at that bastard Om and I’m stunned. Even so, he’s still acting like he’s above me. Pfft, whatever.

“You don’t need to be touched by his actions, he was the one who came up with this plan for us. Hahahaha.” Asshole! My appreciation for you didn’t even last a whole minute. Your true self is surfacing again.

I shake my head. I’m at my wit’s end. All I can do is listen to the guys laughing among themselves. But then, Pong brings up an important point.

“Hold up…what about Phun’s girlfriend?

He hits the jackpot with that question. I must admit, I can’t even move an inch. I give him an answer that’s barely audible. “Well…they’re already broken up.”

“Because of you?” Dong continues with another question. I slowly shake my head. “No…they were having some problems.”

“But he was already trying to get with you before they broke up though, right?” This question is enough to make Om taps Palm’s mouth with the back of his hand as though he wants the guy to stop talking. Thanks, man. But I can’t deny that it’s true.

I feel awful thinking about it…

We all go silent for a long while, then Khom asks a question. “What about you and Yuri?”

“Well…” I don’t know how to answer him. My relationship with Yuri has been rather confusing from the start. Even now, I still don’t even know what I should call what we have.

Om rings an imaginary bell to signal the end of the round by cutting the conversation short. “You guys ask too many questions. We’re done, we’re done. This period is almost over. If we head back to our classroom without a report in hand then we’re dead.” He tells everyone and he is the first to get up. Everyone mumbles some complaints but willingly goes separate ways to work on their assignment without any protests.

I turn to smile at the friend who knows me too well. “Thanks, man.”

“Yeah, yeah. Find me a book, I’m gonna go take a nap and wait. Ahahaha.” Dickhead!

***

School’s finally over. Om and I are on cleanup duty today. (It involves playing a swordfight using a broom and a dust pan.) After we finished up, we head to the administrative office straight away. We got the word that the committee who sent our marching band to Europe for the competition sent us a fax. (We have a fax machine in our clubroom, why didn’t they send it there? Jeez.) We run to the office while making sure we look our best because most of the teachers are there now.

“The music club…is…here to accept the fax sent for us.” I hesitantly stick my head inside the office. School is finished for the day, which means the entire faculty members are here.

“It’s right over here, dear.” A female teacher that I’m not familiar with speaks up from the far end of the room. Om and I slowly make our way past desks after desks toward our destination. We’re so focused that we fail to realize that someone else we know is in here too.

I reach over to accept the fax from the teacher who seems to be really nice. My plan is to get out of here as soon as possible, but it isn’t happening since our names are being called. “Noh! Om!”

“Oh…it’s your hubby.” Asshole, just use his name! His name’s Phun! I stomp on Om’s feet once before I look over to the person that called out to us. He has something in his hand.

“Are you here to drop off your permission slip for the camping trip?” Phun asks me once he notices that I have a paperwork in my hand as well. But…what camping trip?

“Nah, I came to get the fax.” I raise it up in the air to show him. He understands and gives me a nod before he proceeds with another question.

“So are you and Om going to the camping trip?”

“What camping trip?” Om’s nosy self butts in with the question before I could. (Well, he’s just as nosy as I am.) Exactly, what camping trip? I’d like to know too.

Phun seems surprised to learn that we’re unaware of this camping trip. “The Pharma-Camp? Didn’t your homeroom teacher tell you about this?” Oh…I’m not sure if she didn’t tell us or I wasn’t paying attention to her. Last time, there was an engineering camp which I didn’t even go because I was taking a nap when they made the announcement.

Phun raises his brows, looking confused. He flips over the paper in his hand to show it to us. “A lot of your classmates came by and signed up for it though. Palm’s going. Pong’s going. Dong’s going…” Bastards. Why didn’t they ask me if I wanted to go too? I guess they assume that I’m not interested in the Pharma-Camp and they’re not entirely incorrect.

“I’ll go! Add my name for me!” Since when is Om interested in pharmaceutical? I turn to look at Om with a perplexed expression on my face. “You’re seriously pursuing pharmaceutical?”

“Nah…but I bet that they’ll plenty of chicks there though! I’m sure of it! I wanna go!” Jeez, asshole. What the hell kind of a messed up logic is that? It does pique my interest though. (Heh heh.) Phun softly recites the names he has written down while I’m still in the middle of my thoughts.

“Okay. So Tatchakorn and Napat from Class 5 are also going…” Hold up! That’s my name!

“Real funny, when did I say I was going?” I whisper and lightly hit him in the head (since we’re still in the office and I’d get reprimand if I act out a little too much). Meanwhile, Phun merely laughs happily. “Just go. I’m going too.”

“Wait…you’re interested in pharmaceutical now?” I know that foreign exchange currency and international macroeconomic is more of his thing and that’s what he’s interested in. I mean, that’s why I assume he wants to work as an economist in the future. Wait a minute, unless he shares Om’s reason for going?

“Nah, I’m just going for the sake of going. Joke and Nant wanted to go.” Oh…alright then. I guess I’ll go. I watch him write Om’s name and my name in the sign up sheet with my hands on my hip.

“I’ll give this to the teacher then. If any more of your classmates wants to go then they can go to her and she can add their names to the list.” I nod and wave at him. Just as I’m turning myself around to escape from this office, Phun calls out to me.

“Noh…”

“…hm?” I turn back to him and I notice that he wanted to say something but decided against it. Instead, his lips curl into a smile.

“Nothing. Bye.”

“Okay…bye.” What was that all about?