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University Entrance Exams

Part 11

My head was practically splitting in two as I made my way unsteadily down the stairs. Hangover? No way, I never get hangovers.

It was just that Daniel was talking so loudly in his sleep last night that I didn't manage to get any. I guess he was simply too traumatized by Arthit almost throwing up over him. Well, with him muttering, tossing and turning, I didn't get any sleep at all.

"Kongpob! OMG why are you so pale???" That was my mum shrieking.

"What happened Kongpob? Are you alright?"

If it wasn't enough, that baka had to join in with the screaming as well. Suddenly, both faces were extremely close to mine and I quickly jumped backwards, preventing them from invading my personal space further.

"Headache." Immediately both of then were rumbling through our huge first aid kit.

"Here you go," my mum flourished a packet of tablets in front of me. "The best cure for headaches — take two." I would usually simply ignore all the fuss and bear with the pain stoically, but I decided that I would take the medicine this once. How would I be able to sit for the exam with a throbbing head? Reluctantly, I shook two into my hand and grabbed the glass of water that Arthit was holding at my side, looking super worried for me.

"Oh no!" Mum suddenly wailed. I looked at her my heart in my throat as she stared at the packet with wide eyes. Great, I must have ingested rat poison by mistake. Mentally, I got ready to be sent to hospital to get my stomach pumped — I knew that I should never take anything from Arthit without reading the labels myself. "It's sleep inducing!"

Relief overwhelmed me before the implications hit me. I groaned, just what I needed on top of having a bad night's rest. Perhaps I would fall asleep in the middle of the exam. Well, then in a way I wouldn't have to go to SK Univerisity. I was contemplating my options when a pink shabby-looking thing was shoved under my nose.

"What's this?" I frowned at Arthit.

"It's a good luck charm that I folded for you! Here," before I could protest, he had attached it on my school bag. Wanting to step out of the house before anything more could go bad, I bid them a hasty goodbye and quickly left for the train station. If I had know what was going to happen, I would have taken time to pluck the "charm" off my bag and thrown it away.

"Good luck charm" indeed, it was more like a curse.

I was going to step out of the train at the stop in front of SK University when something or someone held me back. I took a glance backwards and saw that the pink charm had gotten caught on the door. Shit! By the time I had managed to untangle it, the train had already moved on and I had missed the right stop. I had to get to the next station and waited for about twenty minutes to catch the next train back to SK's station.

I glanced at my watch, seeing the second hand tick steadily as the time rapidly approached that for my exam. For the first time, I had to rush to school as fast as I could, otherwise I would have been late.

Deciding to get rid of the "cursed" charm before going in for my exam, I removed it from my bag but accidentally dropped it on the floor. I was bending down to pick it up when something collided with me, hitting me with the force of a small train. Not surprisingly, I found myself on the hard floor. The next thing I was helped by some kind passerby to the nurse's room where the doctor bandaged the bruise on my forehead.

"Remember to go to the hospital if you feel nauseous — that would indicate that you have a concussion."

As usual, anything connected with Arthit is equivalent to bad luck.

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"How did the test go?" Arthit asked cheerfully as I got home after my exam. I totally ignored him, trampling into my room and falling into bed exhausted. My head had been throbbing through the whole exam and thanks to Arthit, I almost missed taking my exam and nearly ended up in hospital instead. Also, the effect of the pills and the lack of sleep was making me more drowsy than usual and it had been hard to focus.

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A week later, my Mum's excited screaming interrupted my book reading in the living room.

"The results are out in the newspaper!" She was exclaiming excitedly as she and Arthit immediately started pouring over the paper, trying to see how I did. For once, I wasn't feeling too confident about the results of the exam. Partly because the exam was not exactly a breeze and to top it off, I was far from being in my best form with feeling drowsy and having a huge headache — thanks to Arthit's charm. I shouldn't have cared for the results since I didn't want to go into SK University anyway, but strangely I did care and I didn't realize that I was holding my breath until...

"Yeeeees!" Arthit shrieked as he and Mama gave each other a high-five and started jumping up and down. "You've gotten 996 out of 1000! You topped the SK entrance exam, Kongpob Suthiluck!" That baka screamed at me, looking so damn happy as if he had been the one taking the test.

What the—

I sat there stunned, unable to say a single word for once.

Wow, with the headache, induced drowsiness, being late and getting hurt falling down the stairs, I still topped the exam? Boy, I'm really a genius, I thought to myself.

"This calls for a celebration!" Mama was still beside herself with joy and she quickly ran into the kitchen with that baka. From the sounds of it, they were cooking up a storm — correction, mum was cooking and I guess Arthit just trying his best not to mess things up too badly.

Mike and a few of my classmates who also did extremely well in the SK entrance exam came over for dinner to celebrate their results.

Do note that they were celebrating — I, for one, was still reluctant to go to SK University and I knew somehow that the better I do in the entrance exams, the more my parents would want to me to go there...

Sigh...

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I'm so delighted that Kongpob Suthiluck did so well for his exams! Once again, he has shown us that he is a genius through and through.

Of course, I believe that the good luck charm that I gave him was also effective. It was really worth me staying up the entire night to fold good luck charms in order to present him with my best effort.

I was beaming away, sighing to myself when...

"...why do you have a bump on your forehead Kongpob?"

I suddenly heard Kongpob's father asking. Immediately my ears perked up — wait, Kongpob was injured? How could I have been so careless as to miss it???

"It's because of Arthit. When Kongpob was picking up her charm that fell onto the stairs, someone knocked into him and he tumbled down the stairs, hurting himself." Mike explained loudly over the table.

Immediately, my heart sank.

Bringing him good luck!

Perhaps without the charm he could have gotten all 1000 correct!

As I looked at the bruise on his forehead, I felt a sharp pang of guilt and my bottom lip quivered with sadness. I quickly excused myself from the table and went upstairs — nobody noticed, they all thought that I was going to toilet.

I thought I could reach the sanctity of my room but the moment I reached the top of the stairs, tears were already pouring down my face. I leant against the wall in the hallway, silently sobbing my heart out. I was just so disappointed in myself, and the way that things turned out.

All I had ever wanted was to help Kongpob Suthiluck, instead, now he got injured because of me and had to take the exam in an injured state. It seems that the more I try to do to help him, the worse things get...

Perhaps I should simply get out of his life...

The miserable thought only made my heart hurt more and tears flow faster. What would I have given to be hurt in his place...

Just then, I heard footsteps approach me from behind.

"Have you gotten lost on your way to the bathroom?" Kongpob Suthiluck's voice broke in, but for once, his tone was not unkind. He sounded gentle instead. Horrified at being caught, I tried my best to stifle my sobs as I hurriedly dried my eyes and hid my face from him. I turned around to see him leaning against the wall beside me, looking at me contemplatively.

"Feeling bad about the charm?"

I nodded wordlessly, lowering my head.

"Well, I don't see why you have to feel bad about that. Ever since you stepped into our house, you have done nothing but mess up my life. I have already gotten used to it. The charm is nothing new." He shrugged nonchalantly as I stood there not knowing whether to laugh or continue to cry.

I was happy that he cared enough to let me know in his odd way that everything was fine and that he did not blame me for the incident. In fact, you could almost say that he was trying to comfort me.

On the other hand, he really sucks at comforting people — effectively he had just told me that I had and am continuing to mess up his life. And somehow I had thought we were getting closer...

It's about time Dad and I find other accommodations.

"You might want to freshen up before they send a search party for us downstairs," he nodded towards the bathroom.

With a fake smile, I obeyed him. Surprisingly, he was still waiting for me outside when I came out again, so we went downstairs together.

He was less sarcastic to me then usual and I was just starting to have day-dreams about him again (as usual) when I was rudely brought down on earth again.

It happened after dinner and we were about to have a game of bridge, when...

"Kongpob, pair with Arthit," that was Auntie trying her match-making skills again.

As expected, Kongpob's eyebrows raised and that familiar irritated look came over his face.

"Pair with that baka? No way, we'd never win..."

Instead, jealousy ate at me as he proceeded to pair up with Jessica and they both thrashed Mike and his partner easily in every game they played.

Gosh, I'm really good for nothing for Kongpob, am I?

...

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