Chapter 6 : MEET

“Noh! So what’s happening with our drums?!” Wow, awesome. They totally love me. The first thing they ask about is money when they see my face.

“Not much happened. I’m still alive, but badly wounded. I’m still running away from the cops. I think I might hide out somewhere in Phuket.”

Smack!

“Dumbass. That’s not even funny. I’m talking about the money for the drums, not murder. You better watch out. Everyone that goes to Phuket always get it.”

“No, that’s Samed, p’…” At this point, I’m not sure whose puns are more stupid.*

I walk around laughing as I pass p’Nont who had just smacked me in the head. I throw my (Phun’s) school bag on the sofa that is beside the piano. I search the group for the troublemaker that is trying to avoid my gaze. Oh, so he realized what he did.

“I’m…I’m gonna go use the bathroom.” He’s trying to flee! Does he think he can get away?!

“Hold it right there, Ngoi! You caused this fucking mess!” Naturally, this dude isn’t faster than me. He’s tiny. I grab a hold of his collar before he is able to get away. I drag him back to publicly condemn him in the middle of our club room.

“This ########## just sat there silently during the budget meeting. He let p’Aun from the Thai culture club take our budget. What should we do with him?” Aha, people are starting to get pissed off at Ngoi slowly and slowly.

“Take of his shorts and draw on his wiener with a magic marker.” Jeez, leave it to Per to come up with something so fucked up. That’s a bit too freakishly weird. Plus, it’s not like I wanna see his wiener.

“Make him do the chicken dance at the flagpole in the morning.” That one sounds a bit too entertaining.

“Make him finish everyone’s homework for a month!” What does that have to do with anything?!

“We could use him as our slave from now until the end of this semester. He has to do everything we tell him to do.” Hm…

“That’s a good one, Om. I’ve known you for 11 years and this is the first time you say something I agree with the most.” I turn to pat him on the back. He grins widely but only for a moment before it fades away.

“How have you been viewing me for the past 11 years then?”

“Like someone who I really needed to buy a muzzle for them to wear…” Everyone starts laughing except Om because I basically insulted him.

“Dumbass, you better watch it. I’m gonna hit on Yuri the next time she calls me.”

“No one is stopping you from doing that. I really hope you do succeed.” Amen! I’ll even pray for him. Don’t take this the wrong way, Yuri is cute and all. But the fact of the matter is, I don’t like her in that way.

“Yeah right, Khun Phaen!** Look at you acting all stuck up when you have a pretty girl trying to get with you. You’ll see how it feels when she dumps you.”

“Ha. I’m actually Romeo.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be on your way to see Nang Wan Thong?** Didn’t I hear that you made plans with her?” This ##########. Since when does Romeo meets up with Wan Thong? Oh, yeah. That reminds me. I did tell her that I’d be there late, but there’s nothing for me to help out at the club today. They’re all practicing their marching band for the soccer competition. But that is Film’s job, not mine.

“Yeah, I’m about to head out. Anyway, I spoke with the student council about that 20,000 we needed. They’re taking care of that, so we don’t have anything to worry about…I think.” As I’m turning around to leave, I can hear Om is barking again.

“Of course, you went as far as selling your ########## to Phun.” Who the ########## stepped on his tail? Why does he keep howling? I had just mentioned that I wanted to put a muzzle on him. Maybe I really do need to go buy one. I look around left and right to find something to stuff in Om’s mouth.

“Is that true, p’Noh?!”

“If you believe him then you should also give birth to yaks too, Knott. Anyway, I took care of the money problem. That’s all for today. You guys can wait for Film. I’m gonna get going. Ngoi! You stay and lock up the place! If I find out that something is missing or gets broken, then you’re dead!” I give him an order mixed with threats. I can’t help but laugh when I see his pale and sweaty face. I’m mad at him, that much is true. But I kinda wanna mess with him a little in the first place.

“Okay, bye. See you guys tomorrow.” I head for the exit once I finished my farewell to everybody.

***

Actually, I didn’t leave the school as late as I may have exaggerated to Yuri. But it was taking forever to get through traffic at Chareon Krung Road, (I nodded off about 10 times) and then trying to get to the heart of the city to Siam Center.

The sky is starting to turn orange. The red taxi I am in parks gently in front of Center Point. I hazily pull out the bills that match the color of the cab and give them to the driver before I continue dragging myself through the crowd that are walking past the huge Screen Shake.

At any rate…it isn’t even that late. Will Yuri make a certain kind of assumptions if I show up early? Will she think that I rushed over to see her because I’m madly in love with her?!

It doesn’t really matter. It’s not like I have anything to do now that I’ve arrived. I’m not the type that would shop in these stores anyway. I should hurry up and go meet her so I could leave early and go back home to play video games.

I’ve made up my mind so I rush over to Baanying Restaurant.

A cheery voice from the hostess greets me when I enter. She kindly leads me to an empty table. Yep, the service here is still great as usual. However, the person I’ve made plans with today is probably sitting somewhere on the second story laughing away.

“That’s okay, I’m meeting a friend here.” I give her a simple reply with a small nod before leaving to search the upper story. It naturally isn’t too difficult to find Yuri’s table considering there’s a huge group of girls sitting around a long table which are actually made of up several tables joined together.

Did the entire convent show up?!

“Noh! You’re so early!” Wan Thong–I mean, Yuri spots me right away. She sure has sharp eyes! I am stunned for a moment since I wonder whether I should be joining these 20 girls or not.

“Eh? Noh?” Wait a minute. That voice sounds familiar. That’s not a girl’s voice either.

And if I remember correctly, that voice belongs to…

“Oh!” What the hell is he doing here too?!

“Why didn’t you tell me you’d be coming too? We could’ve left the school together.” He has the nerves to speak to me. Wasn’t it bad enough that had to sleep with you next to me all night? Now I gotta run into you after school too? Which temple did we go make merits together in our previous lives? I’d like to go there and undo everything. I continue to rant internally while I’m looking at Phun’s face. I’m not sure whether I should look surprised, pissed off or bored. How did I forget that Yuri and Aim are friends? And since the entire group is hanging out together, it’s no surprise that Phun would be tagging along.

“Noh, come over here. I ordered the ‘brake taek’ that you like.” Yuri’s voice travels all the way over from the other end of the table. I see a pale face smiling up at me. I smile back, thinking that if I have to go there then things would suck even more. I decide to just sit next to Phun. “Eh?” He lets out a curious noise.

“Come on, just lemme sit here. It’s scary over there.” I whisper to him as I point my chin to the other end of the table where Yuri is sitting. There are a bunch of girls around there. Phun laughs, he seems to find this situation entertaining.

“Right, right. I was scared at first too. But I’m glad that you’re here now though.” He tells me cheerfully. Hmph! If the situation isn’t forcing me to do this, I wouldn’t be sitting here next to you and make my butt feeling all kinds of nervousness!

“Since when did you two become so close?” Right, I almost forgot that Phun’s here with his girlfriend. I had just realized that after I heard a melodic voice coming from the girl sitting across from us. So I’m squeezing up against someone else’s boyfriend. That makes me kind of terrible, doesn’t it?

“Oh! I forgot that you’re here with your girlfriend. I should move. Sorry, man.” I didn’t get a chance to answer Aim’s question (mainly because I don’t know how to answer her) and nodded quickly to Phun before I get up and prepare myself to go sit next to Yuri. She’s still waving at me to come to her.

I would’ve been there and get to eat my ‘brake taek’ happily if Phun hadn’t grabbed my hand.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. You can just sit here if you don’t wanna go over there.” Not only he stops me, but he also pulls me over to sit on the same chair just as I did before. I’m totally caught off guard. Yuri is still waving while furrowing her brows. She might be upset with me.

Hey, hey. I’m not even gonna try to make it up to you, just so you know.

“So the friend that Phun told me who spent the night at his place was you, Noh?” Aim’s sweet voice continues to feed me questions. I’m out of words. I don’t know what to say. It feels as if I’m wearing Om’s muzzle around my mouth. So…how should I answer this? Would it sound too weird if I just tell her the truth? I’m starting to get worried.

“Oh, see? He’s still wearing my uniform. Look.” Phun steals my moment and answers instead. Not only he gives an answer, but he also runs his finger on the student ID on my chest. Aren’t you afraid that your girlfriend might get suspicious or something?! If someone were to find out the real reason I had to spent the night at your place…? I don’t even wanna imagine the humiliation!

I’m still in utter disbelief and Phun is still talking about the uniform that belongs to him. Then, there’s a loud sound of someone walking up to me.

“You’re so mean, you won’t sit with me.” I still need to find a way to make this madness stop. I scratch my head, feeling annoyed. So not only my friend is being a smart ########## to me, there is also Yuri standing there with a smile behind me too. (What the hell do they want from me?!) If I could jump into that glass of water and swim to the Indian Ocean, then I would.

“Well…you already have a lot of friends sitting with you, I didn’t want to intrude.”

“Who says you’d be intruding? I wanna sit with you, Noh. I haven’t seen you for over a week. I guess I could move here and sit next to you. That way, you can sit with Phun too, how about it?” She is nice enough to ask for my response but does not bother to wait for my answer. She runs back to grab a chair and so she can sit beside me. T___T So, this is my life now.

“I didn’t know you’re dating Yuri.” Phun whispers to me while Yuri finds a chair so she can sit next to me. I can only give him a wry smile after I heard that sentence. I’d rather pretend like I don’t know anything. I’m in no mood to go into a lengthy explanation. The point is, I don’t want to paint Yuri in a bad light.

“I’m here! I’m here! Why are you squeezing next to Phun? Come sit with me. I feel so bad for him. He must be sore.” Yuri runs back with a chair and sits next to me while scolding me. She even hits my shoulder. (Ow, that hurts) But…should I really be sharing a seat with Yuri? -_-”

That’s okay, I’m not sore or anything.” Wow, what a gentleman Phun is. I glance at him, my eyes filled with extreme dislike (even though he was nice enough to let me sit with him).

“No way, Phun. Come on, come sit here, Noh.” Don’t think that Yuri would ever give up. Sigh. You guys can do whatever you want. I feel like I’m a rope and they’re playing tug of war with me. There I go. Here I go. There’s not much I can do in the end but letting out a defeated sigh. I move myself and sit on the same chair as Yuri. She seems to be really happy and is smiling wide. (She usually smiles like that anyway though.) Now she’s getting me all these food on a plate for me to eat.

“Ugh, I’m so over people who are in love. They’re being so sweet to one another while being totally inconsiderate to the single friends that are also here.” The sound of her friends joking around is causing me to sweat profusely. But it seems Yuri is very happy to hear those words. She’s smiling even wider now.

“You should find a boyfriend then.” Why…did you have to say that to them? How long will I be stuck in this condition? T_____T

***

It’s a long while before the huge crowd of girls finally finish eating and gossiping to their hearts’ content. The sun has set hours ago. I take a look at the end of a civilization which unfolded on the table. I couldn’t believe they were able to accomplish all of this.

These girls’ stomachs are terrifying. The wait staff even came by and took some of the plates away already too.

I leave the restaurant and walk along the shops that are brightly lit. I finally reach the bus top in front of the movie theater and see the girls off around Payathai Road.

“How will you get home, Yuri? It’s pretty late.” I politely ask her as a good boyfriend(?) should. She turns to me with a giant grin on her face. Her eyes are twinkling.

“Are you gonna drop me off, Noh?” Oh…is that what we’re doing?

But like I said, Yuri isn’t that type of girl. She laughs after she finishes her sentence. “I’m kidding! Don’t worry, I’m catching a cab with May. See you later, okay?” What a relief to hear her say that. I’m not relieved because I won’t have to drop her off, but rather because she has someone leaving with her.

“Call me when you get home?” I’m not that terrible of a boyfriend, you know. ^_^

Then it’s my turn to head home after I saw Yuri and everyone off in a taxi. (I didn’t forget to take a photo of the license number on my phone.) I hardly get a chance to turn around and take a step before I end up facing the guy who has ruined my life as of late.

“Ah!” It doesn’t matter how handsome you are, it’s scary to have someone standing silently behind me like that! I thought he was a ghost! Somebody save me!

I let out a loud cry when I saw him waiting. I feel that it is more worrying to have him stand behind me silently like this, so I quickly turn all the way to face him.

“You’re a better boyfriend that I thought, Noh.” He says while giving me a smirk. However, it feels like this is a backhanded compliment.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“No, it’s not like that! I meant, you take such a good care of Yuri. I thought you might be meaner to her.” Are you seriously trying to justify what you said by telling me this? -_-”

“I’m a guy, I should watch after her a bit. It’s only natural. I thought you were gonna drop Aim off.” I tell him as we take the elevator to get to the bus stop in front of Siam Center. Naturally, Phun is following me closely since we live in the same neighborhood.

Can you not walk behind me? Don’t you get that you’re making me feel really weird?

“I usually do, but I need to take you to my house, don’t I?

What the hell did you just say?!

“Huh?! What for?!” I might be your boyfriend (only in name) but I didn’t get married and moved in with you! Does he expect me to live with him now?!

“Don’t you want your motorcycle that you left behind yesterday?” Oh, right. I almost forgot. I’m such a mess today.

“Right! Yeah, I do. Is Pang home?” I need to ask about the troublemaker’s whereabouts first.

“Where else would she be if not at home? Haha.” He laughs at me as if I’m asking him a stupid question. But, it really is a stupid question.

So I had to spend the evening being Yuri’s boyfriend, now I gotta spend time being Phun’s boyfriend too?! Will there be any freedom in my life at all?!