THE NEXT DAY, FEI AND I WENT TO SEE PLOY IN THE INFIRMARY.

Beam and Ton were there as well to take care of her. Somehow, she's looking better. The arm looked normal as well. It's surprising that they treated it well.

Fei went directly to her and touched her hand. "Hey, Ploy, how are you doing?"

"I'm okay now, Fei. Khob khun ka," Ploy replied.

"Great. I wanna say sorry again," Fei insisted.

Ploy shook her head. "It's a battle. I'm sure any of your friends would have done the same."

"To almost rip your arm?" Beam uttered.

Fei bowed and apologized once more to Beam. Beam snickered. "I was just kidding. Where's Haru, by the way?"

"Oh, he's in our room, reading. I only brought Trick with me," Fei said.

"Oh, I wanna say goodbye to him before we leave," Beam uttered.

"Why are you leaving so soon? Aren't you gonna watch the tournament? I'm sure there will be more interesting fights soon, so why don't you stay?" I suggested.

Fei agreed. "Yeah, and I'm sure you can build more friendships here. Like, us. We're glad to be your friends even after our battles."

Ploy gave a faint smile and shook her head. "That's the power of goodbye, Fei. By leaving, the loss sometimes transforms into hope and it gives us the strength we need to keep in our minds that tomorrow, we will have a better future. So, we need to go in order for us to face what lies before us. Winning The Krieg is not for us. Maybe it's for you guys."

Ton did some sort of chant and after that, he mentioned, "I can sense a very strong aura between the two of you. I can feel that you'll do well in this competition."

"Maybe a tad kinder next time?" Beam cracked a joke to Fei.

Fei just scratched his head. "Come on, guys. I really wish you can stay."

"You're welcome to visit us in Bangkok, though," Ploy said. "We'll tour you to around the city. There are a lot of wonderful temples and palaces in our place."

"That's a promise, okay?" Fei commented.

"I'm gonna cook for you, guys," Ton spoke. "I cook the best pad kee mao in the entire district."

Beam scoffed. "Everyone in Thailand knows how to do that."

"That's your opinion. I beg to differ," Ton did an impression of Haru to tease Beam and we all laughed.

"So, see you around while you're still here?" Fei said and held Ploy's hand.

Ploy tapped Fei's hand. "Sure. Thanks for paying a visit. Don't feel guilty, okay? I'll be all right."

"Do you want us to leave?" Ton asked Ploy. Ploy took her hand away from Fei and lie down on the bed. Ooh, I sense a romantic tension, huh.

Fei scratched his head and said, "We'll let you rest for now. Trick?"

"Yeah, we'll go ahead. Good luck on your future endeavors, okay?" I said, then I look at Ton. "I'm gonna look forward to tasting your dish."

"The three of us will have a cook-off and I'm gonna win for sure," Ton winked.

Then, Fei and I spent the entire morning together. We talked about a lot of things after that first cluster battle.

"So… Ploy, huh?" I uttered, with one of my eyebrows raised.

Fei grinned and moved his face closer to mine. "Are you jealous?"

"Not really, but I can see that you still got game for the girls, though," I honestly said. Like, he can attract women the same way he can attract guys like me.

"That's unintentional. I'm not hitting on her. Maybe I was a little guilty, but more to that, I am really concerned," Fei explained.

"I can see that, but what I'm trying to say is girls can still go gaga on you. You're hot enough to make them spin on the palm of your hands."

Fei sighed. "You're jealous, aren't you?"

I chuckled. "No, I'm not. I'm just saying, there are things that I've yet to find out about you… especially that battle of yours with Ploy."

"Oh, what about it?" Fei asked.

This time, I sighed. Well, I think this is the right time to be open to him. "I got afraid, Fei. Of you. I felt frightened that you would do such things, or even worse than that. I know that there's good and bad in everybody. Hell, I am not a good person myself. I do bad things as well, but… you can kill Ploy if you want. I've seen the look on your face while you were fighting Ploy. You looked sinister. As if you've lost conscience. I'm sorry if I'm judging you based on that, but I've never seen you before with that countenance. Maybe I haven't seen you fight in a tournament like this… Or maybe I'm just used to seeing you spark this beam of bright light to everyone in the room. I don't know…"

Fei sincerely smiled. "Thank you for your honesty, Trick. It means so much to me. Now, I want to tell you something. Are you ready?"

My heart beat so damn fast. Oh, gosh. I'm not prepared for this. "You're gonna kill me?"

Fei guffawed. "Silly, no! I'd die for you instead."

That's just one sentence, and it changed everything I've said about Fei before. Gosh, that's so sweet. I've never imagined he's gonna tell me those words.

"Uh, no, that's wrong. I'm not gonna die for you. I'm gonna fight for our lives, so we could live," he corrected himself and tell you what, who says it won't get any sweeter?

Oh, gosh. "Thanks, Fei. So… What are you going to tell me?"

Fei started to explain. "I was never gonna hurt Ploy that bad. You've witnessed my first attacks. It wasn't gonna put serious harm to Ploy."

"Yeah, I've observed that," I said. "so, why did you do that?"

"I've seen the Borgs and they were looking at me like I wasn't a threat. You see, the Borg siblings… They're the people to watch out for in this competition. The one I did to Ploy? That's just a taste of one of the simplest things they can do. They don't just kill people. They torture them to death. So, I wanna send them the message that I'm not holding back my punches. That I can do as worse as they can. Since it's my only chance, I took advantage of it. Don't worry. That attack was properly calculated. I aimed for her arm because I can do a perfect process of healing to it. That's why I applied it right away our match finished. You've seen Ploy just a moment ago. Her arm looked like I never did that heinous thing to her."

"So you just want to prove to them that you're not the laughingstock of the clusters? Is it really that important to you? To be feared by the Borgs?"

Fei shook his head. "I don't want them to fear me. I want them to take us seriously. Not because they're afraid of us, but because we have what it takes to take them down. Trust me, Trick. That was the kindest thing I can do to Ploy. I can just rip her arm if I wanted, but I didn't."

"Good thing you didn't," I said.

"So, there. Keep that in mind always. Whenever you come across the Borgs, don't engage in any conversation or connect with them on a personal level. They're gonna use it against you," Fei warned.

Ooh. Are they really that bad? I'm beginning to be curious about the Borgs, but I must follow Fei's pieces of advice to stay alive in the game.

"Well noted with thanks," I uttered.

"What am I? An email?" Fei reacted, which made us laugh. "Please let go of what you previously thought of me. You've known me for weeks, Trick. I only want the best for you. I will never think of anything that will jeopardize your life. You've seen me get mad with the monstigna, right? I don't want you to get hurt."

That was definitely reassuring. "I'm sorry, Fei. I thought of bad things about you."

"No, no," Fei strongly disagreed. "I like our dialogue just now. I'm thankful for this to happen. This has opened a new door for us. We've never had such talk before, right?"

"We haven't," I replied. Surprisingly, something good came out of this experience. I'm really grateful that Fei has an open mind about this matter.

Fei nodded. "Well, at least, we've had this, and I'm looking forward to having more of these things. Fights, confusions, misunderstandings. Not that I wanted them to happen, but I think they're essential in every relationship. They make relationships stronger."

"True that. They also bring out who we really are," I added.

"Agreed," Fei then slid his hand against mine. "Now, to officially state that we're past this thing, can I kiss you right now?"

"Oh, were we even fighting?" I joked.

Fei then slid his lips against mine. Oh, how I missed this.

"However…" Fei stopped kissing me. "There's one thing that has been wandering in my mind."

Curiosity enveloped my mind. "What is it?"

Fei grinned mischievously. "Does Beam have a thing with Haru?"